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White House Response; Baseball Hall of Fame

Aired January 08, 2014 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So let's move on now, now that Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, stopped answering questions about this explosive new book by the former defense secretary, Robert Gates. Some pretty explosive charges against the president, especially against the vice president. So we heard the official White House response in response to these reporters' questions.

Gloria Borger is here and let's do a little analysis of what we just heard. Strong defense from the White House for the vice president. And it was really tough, the accusation that Bob Gates made of Joe Biden, that in four decades he accuses Biden of making a mistake, being on the wrong side of nearly every foreign policy and national security issue that has come up.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And what Jay Carney was saying is that the president encourages people who disagree with him to participate in discussions. And we know, Wolf, that over the years, Joe Biden has disagreed with the president on a bunch of decisions, including getting Osama bin Laden, which he has said himself was a mistake and he also disagreed about the surge in Afghanistan. But the point that Carney makes is that he believes, and the president - he's obviously speaking for the president here, they call Joe Biden one of the leading statesmen of his time. So he said, we completely disagree with that assessment.

On other things, he went out of his way not to criticize Secretary Gates or his service, but he did say that the president wanted different kinds of opinion, particularly when it came to national security. And when he was asked about whether in fact the president didn't believe in his own mission, that is the surge in Afghanistan, Carney said that it is well-known that the president had been committed to the mission while winding down the war. So, you know, he went out the his way to say that.

BLITZER: Because the impression -

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: The insinuation of the Gates charge is that -

BORGER: Sure.

BLITZER: The president sent U.S. men and women into harm's way on a mission he himself really didn't believe in.

BORGER: It was that he himself was ambivalent about to a certain degree. And when you look at the history of President Obama and you look at his anti-war history, and can certainly - and you look at his skepticism, as Gates points out in his book, about the judgments of the military and how long this Afghanistan review went on in 2009, you understand what Gates is saying, that the president was clearly torn, and that's no surprise, about what to do with these wars, particularly Afghanistan, and the surge. And that when he did come out for a surge, and, remember, he had called Afghanistan during the campaign the war of necessity, not Iraq.

BLITZER: Yes.

BORGER: And when he did come out for that - for that surge, there is some understanding that there would be ambivalence about it and Gates said, you know what, there was. Carney today clearly disputed that.

BLITZER: Yes. And some, you know, finely tuned reaction from the White House we just heard.

BORGER: Very finely tuned. Yes.

BLITZER: We're going to have a lot more on this later in "The Situation Room." I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Let's turn over our CNN NEWSROOM coverage right now to CNN's Brooke Baldwin.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer, thank you very much.

Great to be with you all. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Stay with me because, coming up, taking on SeaWorld right now. Months after CNN aired the film "Blackfish," one of the most vocal critics here is a 12-year-old. She was even arrested over this. She joins me live with her mom, next.

Plus, are banks like JP Morgan too big to jail? Wait until you hear this new CNN reporting on what banks are getting away with.

And Dennis Rodman, not only bows to a dictator, but he serenades. You heard me, serenades North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BALDWIN: We have another story into us at CNN. Hall of Fame vote, baseball. I cannot believe it's been a year now. Remember the last time baseball writers refused to vote a single person in at all. Remember the top nominees hailed from the so-called "steroid era." Well now the hall will be opening its doors once again to these three superstars. You have pitchers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, Braves fans anyone, more than 600 wins between them, and then you have the big hurt (ph), slugger Frank Thomas. This is just breaking into us. So joining me live from Los Angeles is "Bleacher Report's" Gabe Zaldivar.

And, Gabe, the folks at baseball headquarters, they have to love this because again, a year ago, the black eye on this sport went zero. No one got in.

GABE ZALDIVAR, BLEACHER REPORT: Nobody got in. There's still a log jam of people that need to get in. Craig Bigio (ph) fell short of just two votes and this is a guy who did everything. Jeff Kent (ph) suffers because they say he could field (ph). And he doesn't get in. But Craig Bigio did everything and he falls short of two votes. So there's celebration but there's still some guys out there that just definitely need to be voted for. But we can celebrate Frank Thomas, definitely Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, one of the best left handers in all of baseball history.

BALDWIN: Listen, I was born and raised in Atlanta. I was at the series when the Braves won in '95, Glavine and Maddux. So they, of course, did their best, best work for Atlanta. Some observers actually thought Maddux could get in to be elected unanimously, which has never happened before. But then you had this one writer who said, no, because he played - just because he played during the tainted steroid era, got -- he didn't use steroids, but because he played. Is that fair?

ZALDIVAR: It's fair because he had to vote. This is America, so you can have crazy different ideas if you want to have them.

BALDWIN: I guess.

ZALDIVAR: Greg Maddux is a no brainer and it's an L.A. beat writer and he's well within his right to have his opinion.

I went to the Hall of Fame. It's a great place. It's an amazing place to be. But the one thing I didn't do when I got there was (INAUDIBLE). I don't understand where we've all become sanctimonious all of a sudden because the PEDs . We have the color barrier is a big one. And then you have the greenies, the cocaine era. Steve Howe (ph) had a revolving door for so many years and all of a sudden, with PEDs, this is the stand we're going to make all of a sudden. I just don't - I just don't understand it.

BALDWIN: You may not have been (INAUDIBLE), but this is, you know, America's sport and you talk about the log jam. Hopefully some of the good guys, the good guys will get in, in the following years.

Gabe Zaldivar, thank you so much for joining me. Appreciate you.

And coming up, you've heard of the phrase too big to fail, but what about too big to jail? It's what the people prosecuting some of the largest financial organizations in this country said about the big bank after the economic crisis. Others say, uh-uh, not so fast. Plus, protesters taking on SeaWorld right now, months after CNN aired the film "Blackfish." One of the most vocal critics, she is 12 years old. She was arrested over this. She is standing by live, along with her mother. We'll talk to the two of them, next.

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