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No Agreement in Iran Nuclear Negotiations; Interview with Sen. Bob Menendez; Killer Whale Safety; One World Trade Center Tallest US Building; How Rob Ford Was Elected Toronto Mayor
Aired November 12, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Capitol Hill tomorrow. He'll testify in negotiations to try to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions. The latest round of talks, ended Saturday, failed to produce an agreement. Kerry says he's still hopeful an agreement can be reached.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: This is not a race to complete just any agreement. No deal is better than a bad deal, I have said many times, as has President Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Negotiations will resume in Geneva on November 20th.
Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey is joining us now. He's the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Senator, thanks very much for coming in.
BOB MENENDEZ, (R-N.J.), CHAIRMAN, SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Good to be with you, Wolf.
BLITZER: You have a tough article in the "USA Today," an op-ed. Among other things, you say, "A so-called Iranian charm offensive is simultaneously matched by an actual offensive to cross the nuclear weapons threshold." Unlike the Obama administration, you want to see the United States and other allies tighten, toughen sanctions against Iran right now. Right?
MENENDEZ: Well, look, I'm all for a diplomatic pursuit and avenue. And I have been supportive of their effort to try to achieve it. But in the interim, if Iran is going to continue top enrich uranium, if it's going to continue to produce domestically centrifuges and perfect them, if it's going to continue to construct a heavy water reactor for plutonium in Iraq, then ultimately I don't see why we should stop our efforts to try to ensure that the Iranians know there are consequences for that march towards nuclear weapons.
BLITZER: So do you want Congress to increase the sanctions against Iran even as these negotiations right now in Geneva are underway? MENENDEZ: Well, I'll look forward to the secretary's briefing tomorrow. But if the published reports that I've read about these negotiations are in essence what the essence of the negotiations are, I am seriously concerned that we are doing very little in the interim to affect Iran's nuclear infrastructure but giving it significant sanctions relief. Any sanctions, perfecting sanctions that we would propose, would not be effective for anywhere between six months and a year. I've authored several of these. They always take time to kick into effect. So it would be an insurance policy for the United States and the West if Iran doesn't ultimately strike a deal. It would also be an incentive to the Iranians to understand that we are serious of purpose if they don't strike a deal. So I hope they can strike a deal.
But this insistence that Iran has that it has a right towards nuclear enrichment is nonexistent. It is not a U.N. existing -- it is not an International Atomic Energy Agency existing fact. And we have neighbors, Wolf, right here in the northern hemisphere, with Canadian and Mexico, they have civilian nuclear programs. But they don't enrich domestically. So Iran can have a civilian nuclear program for peaceful if purposes but they don't have to enrich in order to acquire that.
BLITZER: The Iranians apparently rejected, if you believe Secretary Kerry -- and I do -- they rejected the latest proposal put forward by the U.S. and the other allies in Geneva. But if they would have accepted that proposal, let's say for six months, there would have been a so-called freeze in the Iranian nuclear program, during those six months, the international community would have eased the sanctions against Iran. Would you have been OK with that?
MENENDEZ: Well, not on the basis of public reports. Now, we'll see tomorrow if the public reports are wrong. But if all we're doing is saying to Iran, OK, reduce your 20 percent of enriched uranium to a much lower percentage, but we allow them to keep their centrifuges that exist, we don't stop the production of new, more sophisticated centrifuges and we don't halt the construction of the plutonium- producing nuclear plant, then I don't think we have accomplished very much of anything. This is the equivalent of having a football game where you continue to march up towards the goal line, you get pushed back maybe for 10 or 15 yards, but you've got everything in play to continue to try to, you know, make a touch down. That's where the Iranians are.
And if past is prologue, Wolf, we have to be skeptical of President Rouhani who, when he was Iran's nuclear negotiator years ago, said, I was able to convince the West not to sanction us and, at the same time, we were allowed to continue our nuclear program. What that's brought us today is that we have such an advanced nuclear program in Iran that there are those suggesting we're going to have to accept some level of enrichment in Iran. If we continue to allow that process to go, the next thing is that they will have crossed the ability to ultimately achieve nuclear weapons and then we're in a very difficult circumstance, not only for our national security but we will have, in one of the most incredibly tinder boxes place in the world, a rush toward nuclear weapons with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others. BLITZER: Sounds like you're very skeptical what's going to happen in Geneva. But as you say, you'll hear from the secretary tomorrow. You'll see what happens in Geneva starting November 20th.
Senator, thanks very much for coming in.
MENENDEZ: Thank you.
BLITZER: So what is a reasonable risk? That's the question being asked by SeaWorld, fighting a federal ruling that has changed the popular killer whale shows. We'll take a closer look at the issues and the debate coming up.
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BLITZER: An important hearing on workplace safety wrapped up just a little while ago. The workplace they're discussing is SeaWorld, and the issue is killer whales and their trainers.
Let's bring in Martin Savidge. He's been following the story for us.
Set the scene for us. What is the issue?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very nice to see you in person, by the way.
Very high stakes here because, ever since an accident in 2010, SeaWorld has not been allowed to get trainers in the water with killer whales. They say that's vital t their product so they're arguing to have those sanctions lifted. But OSHA says they need to protect the trainers. So there is a lot at stake here. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The 2010 death of veteran SeaWorld trainer, Dawn Brancheau, brought an end to breathtaking performances like these.
(MUSIC)
SAVIDGE: Brancheau was mauled by the killer whale she was working with. She was the third death connected to the same killer whale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden, the whale latched on to her and took her under.
SAVIDGE: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ultimately fined SeaWorld $12,000, a drop in the whale pool for a company that pulls in a billion and a half dollars a year. But OSHA also prohibited SeaWorld trainers from getting into the water with its killer whales. That was a showstopper.
(MUSIC)
SAVIDGE: So SeaWorld's appealing. And the case centers on something called the General Duty Clause, which essentially says employers have to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards.
(on camera): A known hazard, I guess, is the key here.
BENJAMIN BRIGGS, LABOR & EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY: It is, yes.
SAVIDGE: Benjamin Briggs has offered appeals to OSHA rulings. And he believes SeaWorld will say interaction between humans and killer whales is essential to their business.
(MUSIC)
SAVIDGE (on camera): In other words, part of the magic.
(voice-over): Is that a legitimate argument?
BRIGGS: I think it is a legitimate argument. Again, they're taking the position that this isn't just the way we do work. It's what we're -- it's our product.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): SeaWorld says it's gone to great lengths to control risks to trainers but can't eliminate the danger completely and shouldn't have to. Saying OSHA has no more right to impede SeaWorld's business any more than they could demand speed limits for NASCAR.
(MUSIC)
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SAVIDGE: SeaWorld is essentially arguing that by taking the trainers out of the water, you're changing their product. And they say that OSHA doesn't have the authority to do that.
Two things showed you how high stakes things were. One, this was held in an auditorium to accommodate the crowd. Two, the attorney representing SeaWorld Eugene Scalia. That name seems familiar? Yes, he is the son of Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court justice.
BLITZER: When you will get the result, do you know, for the decision?
SAVIDGE: It's going to be weeks or even months.
BLITZER: I know you've been working the story for a while. Thanks very much. Welcome to Washington.
SAVIDGE: Thank you. Pleasure.
#; Chicago's Willis Tower and New York's new One World Trade Center, just this morning, they went head to head for the title of the tallest building in the United States. We're going to let you know which one has thing bragging rights right after the break.
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BLITZER: Brand new bragging rights for One World Trade Center. A couple of hours ago, the committee that certifies the official height of skyscrapers ruled that when it's completed, New York's World Trade Center tower will be the tallest building in the United States, indeed, in the entire western hemisphere, edging out the Willis Tower in Chicago. You may remember that as the former Sears Tower.
Poppy Harlow is joining us now. She's near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.
Poppy, what put One World Trade Center over the top?
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One word -- a spire. The big question here, Wolf, was, is that thing, all the way at the top, is that a spire or is that an antenna? The council that determines these things just said it is a spire, meaning it is part of the initial design, the construction, a fundamental part of the architecture of this symbolic building in New York City. And the height that it reaches, right at the top of that spire, is 1776 feet, such a symbolic number. The architects designed it to be that tall to symbolize the birth of our democracy and, indeed, it is.
I was just at the press conference where they announced this. I talked to the man who is the chairman of the council who made this determination. And we talked about the fact that, you know, is this really a competition between cities New York and Chicago? Or is this more than that? Listen to what he told me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL ON TALL BUILDINGS AND URBAN HABITAT: Well, I think the rivalry, it's good to keep that separate. And I think just you know, the fact that our country hasn't had the tallest building for many, many years and Asia and the Middle East do, I think this is great for the country, to have that healthy rivalry. And maybe Chicago can push the next time around. So I think that's healthy.
I think with respect to the events of 9/11 and what this building commemorates with 1776 and the democracy and freedom, I think that's not only a U.S. thing. I think it's a global thing. So I think, you know, we were very happy to find that the building fit our criteria to be 1776 feet tall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So what are New Yorkers saying about it? One just told me, this is a city of survival and this symbolizes it. Another told us it's not important how tall the building is, just that it's here.
Wolf, as you know, this has been years and years of hard, hard work for so many people and it's almost open -- Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, Poppy, thanks very much for that.
By the way, the tallest building in the world is in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The World Trade Center tower will rank third once it's complete. It was the Toronto mayor's first event since a profanity-lace rant. After the break, you'll hear how one heckler welcomed Rob Ford back to public life.
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BLITZER: Toronto's mayor not so warmly received at an event honoring Canada's veterans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MAYOR: I would like to invite to the podium, his worship, Mayor Rob Ford.
(APPLAUSE)
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: It was the latest fallout from Rob Ford's stunning admission that he smoked crack cocaine.
So, how did he manage to get elected leader of a cosmopolitan city like Toronto in the first place?
CNN's Bill Weir has this look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You know, it's hard to find politicians who are unintentionally funnier than the comedians that mock them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Ford, you're smoking crack right now.
FORD: Where are you getting this?
WEIR: But then, Rob Ford is unlike any politician anywhere.
FORD: I was very, very inebriated.
WEIR: It's all the more vivid because this is Canada, a place so friendly one assumes that, up here, crack is just a sound made in hockey.
(on camera): Is Canadian crack maple flavored?
(LAUGHTER)
How is it different?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the wrong guy to ask.
(LAUGHTER) WEIR (voice-over): You see more proof walking into Toronto city hall. There are no metal detectors here, no security. You can stroll right in, go past the cute baby visiting city records and join the scandal strum. Oh, and just a few feet away, they are giving away free health care --
(on camera): Ah!
(voice-over): -- even to pesky Americans.
(on camera): Do I get a lollipop?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're from the states, right?
WEIR: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much would you pay if you went to your own doctor for a flu shot?
WEIR: $75.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 75 bucks.
WEIR (voice-over): While we're shocked by their mayor, this guy is shocked that we have to pay for flu shots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you got yours free in Canada.
WEIR: Canadians are far superior human beings. Have you heard that today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
So how did a guy like him get elected in a place like this? Well, in the late '90s, the bursting, bustling metropolis downtown absorbed the blue collar suburbs into city elections and, after almost a decade of liberal rule, Rob Ford ran as a good old Canuck, a fiscal hawk who would show those bicycle-loving, free-spending liberals downtown a thing or two.
FORD: Time to stop the gravy train.
WEIR: While he stayed on message, it was a messy campaign.
ADRIENNE BATRAS, FORMER FORD PRESS SECRETARY: Our candidate, Candidate Ford at the time, had been caught on tape having a conversation with a drug addict where he was prepared to go buy him Oxycontin.
WEIR: Adrienne Batras ran Ford's communication on that campaign, and eve she was stunned when, after every gaffe and scandal, his poll numbers went up.
BATRAS: People in the city were tired of the tax-and-spendable mayor. The suburbs wanted in and that was Rob Ford.
WEIR (on camera): And he's the guy you want to have a beer with?
BATRAS: Yeah. Well, or a few.
(LAUGHTER)
WEIR (voice-over): And while Mayor McCrack turned city hall into a global punch line, just imagine what it's like to be Rob Ford's runner-up.
GEORGE SMITHERMAN, FORMER MAYORAL CANDIDATE: That was at the highest moment of the tea party.
WEIR: His name is George Smitherman and, in 2010, everyone knew him as the very liberal, openly gay deputy premier, who presided over the botched roll out of e-health, a plan to modernize the national health care system. Sound familiar? Yeah. They even used the same contractors, CGI, that brought us healthcare.gov.
SMITHERMAN: The right wing would probably tell you that there's some conspiracy and a billion dollars went missing. None of that is true.
WEIR: Now, here's the ironic part. When Smitherman admitted an addiction to unspecified party drugs in the '90s, Ford supporters pounced.
SMITHERMAN: His supporters stood in line and asked me about my fitness for office. That's the most stinging bit of it for me on a personal level.
WEIR: But for some of the proud citizens of Ford nation these days, fitness for office is a relative term.
(on camera): Would you vote for him, again, if this all blew over?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.
WEIR (voice-over): He's done what he said he would do.
Though some wish to voice their support anonymously.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you rather have somebody taking your money? And lying to the people or just having somebody smoking crack?
WEIR: But back in the big city, flavors of Ford frustration run the gamut.
UNIDENTIFIED NEWS ANCHOR: You should say now good-bye, I'm sorry, and go home.
WEIR: There are so many calls for his exit on the top national newscasts and tears from the federal finance minister. JIM FLAHERTY, CANADIAN FINANCE MINISTER: He'll have to, the mayor will have, at the end of the day, he has to make his own decision.
(on camera): You'd say that he's only leaving office on a stretcher or in handcuffs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.
WEIR (voice-over): Toronto police could soon release more damning video or wiretaps related to his friend and driver, now accused of drug dealing. And then there are the men in that notorious crack- house photo, two shot in March, one killed, another about to go on trial.
(on camera): They were suspected members of a gang called the Dixon City Bloods that operates in and around these high-rise, low-income apartment towers, home to Somali and Pakistani immigrants.
(voice-over): And when you meet the kids that live here, the easy crack jokes stick in your throat.
(on camera): So he came campaigning here?
ABDI RKAR, TORONTO COMMUNITY ORGANIZER: Yes.
WEIR: Knocking on doors?
RKAR: Yes. He asked us -- everybody knows that.
WEIR (VO: This community organizer says Mayor Ford asked for his vote in the hours before the last election, but he didn't give it, because, he says, he has to scrounge for donated computers just to have somewhere to keep these kids away from gangs and the crack pipe.
RKAR: I never see good help. I never see him at all.
WEIR: Bill Weir, CNN, Toronto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: What a story that is. Thanks to Bill Weir for bringing it to us.
I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."
NEWSROOM continues right now. Guess what, Zoraida Sambolin and John Berman, they are standing by live.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Wolf.
