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Obama & Putin Talk; Susan Rice on Bergdahl Issue; Assault on Georgia Courthouse; May Jobs Report

Aired June 06, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar, filling in for Brooke Baldwin.

Huge developments in a crisis that many thought could become an all- out war. After weeks of deadly exchanges between Ukraine and Russian troops, could a cease fire be in the works? The French president seems to think so, reporting that President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's president-elect have just agreed to discuss a cease fire in the coming days. And Putin's seemingly peaceful turnaround doesn't end there. We are hearing from the White House that President Obama and Vladimir Putin also came face to face today. A quick, informal chat, still several minutes, happening on the sidelines of a lunch in France at the D-Day commemoration ceremonies. It was an unexpected meeting considering Obama's recent condemnation of Putin and the fact that other members of the group of seven nations all threatened new sanctions on Russia if Putin does not agree to back off Ukraine.

Here they are, all together, as you can see. This is the class picture of the world leaders. And take a listen to how Susan Rice responded to CNN when asked if President Obama was letting Putin off the hook too easily.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Absolutely not. The international community, led by the United States, has been absolutely clear that Russia's behavior has been contrary to international law as the president said repeatedly, including just yesterday.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) and these questions about his foreign policy, he described it as, well, sometimes you hit singles and doubles and you may occasionally get a home run. A lot of critics on the left and the right describe that as uninspiring. Does the president want to have an inspiring foreign policy?

RICE: Jim, did you listen to his speech today? Did you listen to his speech in Warsaw? This is about American leadership and President Obama is deeply, deeply committed to America playing its unique role of leadership in the world. A role that no other country can match.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, joining me now from France, Michelle Kosinski, White House correspondent. And the question, I think, of course, we want to know, if there (ph) was a fly on the wall, which I know there wasn't, but do we have any idea, Michelle, of what was said in this meeting - this informal meeting between Putin and Obama?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. We're just starting to get the readout now from either side. First, the White House commented that, yes, this meeting did take place. It lasted about 10 or 15 minutes. And earlier in the day, it didn't really seem that possible. I mean it seemed like the two leaders were almost actively ignoring each other as they were meeting and greeting everyone else. And, remember, yesterday, they each too time out to have formal discussions with other leaders but not with each other.

So what the White House is saying is exactly what Obama said he was going to convey when he was asked about this subject yesterday. He says that he told Putin that he basically needs to do something to deescalate this continuing situation. That he needs to recognize the new Ukrainian government. And shortly after the meeting, the Obama administration said, well, it seems like Putin is sort of playing lip service to that but not fully recognizing them and that he needs to work with the new government.

Also, President Obama told him that he needs to stop supporting these armed militias that are still operating in Ukraine. He needs to stop arming these armed militias that are still operating in Ukraine. But that Obama said, if he does that, if he does take these steps, then the opportunity is still there for some resolution to this situation. Now, that sounds a lot like what we've been hearing for months. So is there any movement here? It's hard to tell at this point. I think the most promising development comes from the government of France saying that sort of through them President Putin and President-elect Poroshenko of Ukraine have agreed to talk about a cease fire.

Again, in the past couple of months, Russia has agreed to talk about a lot of things, coming to really nothing. So, again, you have to kind of put a big question mark on all of this. And what Russia is saying about these meetings, not only with Obama but other world leaders, is that there were discussions about finding ways to settle the crisis. Now, there wasn't much comment at all about this brief meeting with Obama, but in terms of the other leaders that Putin met with yesterday, he said, in particular, meeting with David Cameron of the U.K., a great deal of attention was given to searching for ways to settle the crisis in Ukraine.

So, it's interesting to hear that coming from Russia. I mean they always kind of put the onus on the other side, saying that they look forward to helping Ukraine or working with Ukraine to solve the crisis. You know, kind of making it seem that it's the fault of Ukraine, what's been going on there. Now, they didn't really get into those details in their description of the meetings today, but it seems like the most promise comes from just the dialogue itself is going on if you can call a ten or a 15 minute conversation dialogue. And that there is at least talk at this point about a possible cease fire.

Brianna. KEILAR: Well, and, Michelle, I wonder, because it sort of reminds me, going back to September, at the G-20 in Russia, Obama and Putin had a sort of pull aside there. They spoke for only 20 minutes. And I remember at the time it seemed like - and the president characterized it as such, as just kind of talking past each other. What we realized days later, or at least we were told by the Kremlin and then by some U.S. officials, was that it was there that they actually discussed the solution in a way at the time for Syria, which was having Russia sort of govern the takeover of chemical weapons.

There's also this other element here, right, that we don't always necessarily know everything that's going on. And so much of this is conducted in secret. Can we really know exactly if they're moving in a real direction toward anything?

KOSINSKI: Sure. It is a lot of talk. I think the Obama administration has reiterated time and time again their skepticism over what Russia says versus what it does. And I mean, remember, they had that meeting in Geneva, I don't even remember any more if it was April or May, where Russia agreed to take these concrete steps to deescalate the situation, meeting with the United States and other western nations. They came to the table. They agreed to do this. Well, you know, through last week, the administration was saying, no, Russia has not really done anything substantial in that direction.

And today, after this meeting happened, we did hear from a deputy security advisor to President Obama saying that, well, Russia really needs to step up. This conversation, yes, it happened and that's a positive thing in and of itself that they are talking, but there needs to be some indication that this is going to lead to action. It's not as if, you know, Russia just having a 10 minute conversation is going to be looked at as some breakthrough. Certainly not. And the skepticism comes from a long string of saying things and then that contracting starkly with events on the ground. I mean there is violence in Ukraine probably as we speak, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, Michelle Kosinski, thank you so much.

And the White House today not backing away from comments that Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl served in Afghanistan with, quote, "honor and distinction." Those exact words were used by National Security Adviser Susan Rice as word of Bergdahl's release spread, before the controversy erupted over whether Bergdahl may be a deserter. Now, today, Rice defended her words in an exclusive interview with CNN's Jim Acosta and she warned against trying Bergdahl in public.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: This was a young man who volunteered to serve his country in uniform at a time of war. That is itself a very honorable thing. And --

ACOSTA: But honor and distinction?

RICE: Jim, really, I mean, this is a young man whose circumstances we are still going to learn about. He is, as all Americans, innocent until proven guilty. He's now being tried in the court of public opinion after having gone through an enormously traumatic five years of captivity. His parents, the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now I want to bring in Richard Barrett now. He's a former counter terrorism director for the British intelligence agency MI6, and senior vice president with the Strategic security intelligence services firm, The Soufan Group.

What's your reaction to this, to Susan Rice saying that Bowe Bergdahl is being tried in public?

RICHARD BARRETT, FORMER COUNTER-TERRORISM DIRECTOR, BRITISH INTELLIGENCE: Well certainly he's being tried in public here in the United States. I mean there's a tremendous amount of discussion about whether he led to the death of other members of his platoon and so on. And these are very serious allegations, of course. But from the evidence that one can see so far, it seems that he went off base really because he just didn't believe in what was happening around him and thought there were better ways to help the Afghan people. Well, that may be mistaken, but it doesn't sound to me like a desertion.

KEILAR: Well, and there's a new development today where a U.S. official is telling CNN that Bergdahl actually tried to escape from captivity two times. If he did try to escape, how does that affect anything? How does that affect this public debate that's going on?

BARRETT: Yes. Well, I certainly have heard before - quick a long time before indeed -- that he did try and escape once and was recaptured. It was news to me that he'd tried to escape a second time, but not really surprising. And I think that shows that he wasn't somebody who just wanted to go over to the other side. He was somebody who, for whatever reason, was captured by the other side and then used by them to exploit his leaving, if you like, his capture, to put forward the propaganda position of the other side. And I think the Taliban have been very successful in making propaganda hay out of this.

KEILAR: Now, there's an interesting suggestion from a U.S. senator, from Tom Coburn. Let's listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You saw the proof of life video?

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Yes.

BASH: What'd you think of it?

COBURN: He'd been drugged, either with an anti-psychotic or a hypnotic drug.

BASH: Why - what makes you say that?

COBURN: Because you can tell. It's easy. His speech was slurred. He was having trouble reading and he had what's called mastagmus (ph). I mean he'd been obviously drugged.

BASH: And you're - you're not just speaking as a senator, you're speaking as a physician.

COBURN: I'm speaking as a doctor. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: (INAUDIBLE) and - I mean Senator Coburn is a medical doctor. That's his assessment. Does this drugging of a prisoner sound consistent with what you know about the Taliban?

BARRETT: Well, the Taliban don't treat their prisoners particularly well, it has to be said, and that many in the past have been kept in darkened rooms and not really allowed the freedom that Bergdahl seems to have had because of several videos of him outside and so on. But clearly they saw Bergdahl as somebody they wanted to keep alive, so he's sufficiently healthy, obviously, to be -- remain a bargaining chip. And since the negotiations began about prisoner exchange some years ago now, clearly his death or his illness would have been severely hindering the progress for the Taliban.

KEILAR: And, Richard, we're hearing from "Time" magazine, they talked to a Taliban commander who suggested that this trading of top Taliban leaders, that it's going to inspire the Taliban to target other Americans. Do you think that's going to happen? What's your reaction?

BARRETT: Well, I think even the slowest moving Taliban commander would realize that it was a good idea to try and capture American soldiers. I mean that is hardly a surprising thing. I mean clearly they largely want to kill them, but to capture them would be a very good second best.

And I think the Taliban, again, are using this to say, to remind everybody, look what we achieved. And there are two reasons for that. First of all, for the propaganda value of saying, look, the Americans dealt with us as an organization. It shows we're still important. It shows we're still legitimate. But also, as a way to tell their own troops that what they did was a good thing to have done for the movement, because there are many people in Taliban who would have disagreed with this prisoner exchange.

KEILAR: Oh, that's pretty fascinating. All right, Richard Barrett, thank you for joining us and explaining all of that.

BARRETT: Thank you.

KEILAR: Now just ahead, developing right now, he was prepared for war. A man who drives up to a courthouse throwing out spike trips, gas grenades and firing shots. Police now say that his home may be bobby trapped. We have that story next.

Plus, Hillary Clinton revealing where she and President Obama disagreed when she was secretary of state. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: A man with homemade explosives strapped to his body launched a full frontal assault on a Georgia courthouse. Authorities say that he tossed gas grenades and smoke grenades and tried to run over a sheriff's deputy. Here's the suspect, Dennis Marx. Apparently he planned to take hostages and he was armed with assault rifles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF DUANE PIPER, FORSYTH COUNTY, GEORGIA: The only way I can describe it is a full frontal assault. He came up, threw spike strips out to hold off any response from law enforcement or anybody else. He was shooting through the front of his vehicle when he came up. He had weapons, assault rifles, lots of ammunition. He had - there's more smoke grenades and other grenades inside the car, inside the vehicle right now. He had plastic flex ties. He had water. He had a lot of ammunition. We don't have a count on the ammunition yet, but he came there for the purpose of occupying the courthouse, it appears. He's not been living in his house for about 10 days. So we're fairly certain at this point that there's probably booby traps at the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, check this out, a sheriff's deputy distracted the suspect and took a bullet in the leg. After a long gunfight, authorities killed the suspect. And I want to bring in correspondent David Mattingly in Atlanta to tell us more about this.

Tell us a little bit more about what the sheriff's deputy did here, David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's been given a whole lot of credit here by the sheriff as preventing a loss of a lot of lives here and preventing this man from carrying out this assault that he apparently planned on the courthouse. The way it was described to us by the sheriff was that this deputy encountered this gunman, who was in his vehicle as he was approaching the doors of the courthouse. This lone deputy then started exchanging gunfire with him, was shot in the leg in the process and was able to delay this man just long enough for other deputies in the area to swarm the area and to take this man down.

Now, just into CNN, just coming in just a few moments ago, some very dramatic audio from the police scanner traffic. Let's listen to that right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Radio, I don't have any visual. We have pepper gas going off at the entrance, the front entrance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've got pepper gas going off at the front entrance.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired. Clear gases (ph). (INAUDIBLE). Take cover (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) he's down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, you can hear all of it just as it's playing out in the audio. But, Brianna, I have to tell you, this man is believed to have been planning this for days, but he apparently didn't plan on that one deputy being there at the courthouse door and slowing him down. He also didn't prepare for the quick response of the deputies who were in the courthouse, the deputies who were in the jail who then also joined in the firefight and then the county SWAT team was also nearby. They were able to respond in about 30 seconds. So that one deputy delayed him just long enough. The rest of the deputies made sure that man did not carry out his plan.

KEILAR: I mean 30 seconds, that's pretty amazing. So they said, David, that they think his house might -- may be booby trapped. Did that turn out to be true?

MATTINGLY: We don't have word yet, but they're proceeding with a lot of caution here. There's a lot of red flags that they're dealing with. First of all, this man was heavily armed. He had a lot of ammunition on him. He was apparently preparing for this for several days. He hadn't been at the house, they know, for at least 10 days. So just add all of that up together and police are thinking he may have something prepared to take lives in that house as well, so they're proceeding with a lot of caution. We've been hearing from people at the scene, they're saying that deputies and police are going very carefully even through the grounds around that house, so they're proceeding with a lot of caution. But this man's plan apparently to take over this county courthouse here in Georgia did not play out and a lot of lives were saved today by the actions of that deputy and his fellow deputies as they all piled on.

KEILAR: And it's not over yet. We certainly wish those officers safety as they go through the house. David Mattingly, thanks for much for that.

Now, in Seattle, a student security guard is being called a hero after he courageously tackled a man who police say had shot and killed one person and injured four others at Seattle Pacific University. Police are convinced that if Jon Meis had not used pepper spray and knocked 26-year-old Aaron Ybarra down while he was reloading his shotgun, there would have been more bloodshed Thursday afternoon. Other students rushed in to help too. They jumped on the shooter and they held him down until police arrived. Police say Ybarra also had a knife on him when he confronted three people inside the science building at the Christian school and shot them. One student says she saw blood everywhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all got scared and we went up - everyone went up to the front of the classroom and sat on the floor. And then we started checking like our phones, social media, the news and stuff and that's how we found out what was going on. And then about 30 minutes later the cops - the police came and unlocked the door and let us out. And we met all in the lobby and that's where it was like tapped off. We saw blood on the carpet, bullet shells, blood splatters on the wall and then they kind of like checked our bags, pat us down, and then let us out two by two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A 19-year-old male died and a short time ago we got an update on how who other victims were doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN GREGG, HOSPITAL OFFICIAL, HARBORVIEW MEDICAL CENTER: We have our 24-year-old male who's here currently in satisfactory condition. I just talked to him. He is not doing interviews. You know, still coming to grips with what happened. Obviously a lot of trauma and shock with this whole incident. And then we have a 19-year-old female. She was in surgery yesterday, undergoing a five hour surgery, and she remains critical but stable in intensive care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now police say Ybarra was not a student at the school and they haven't said what the motive was. But according to a report by our affiliate KIRO, police sources tell them that Ybarra was obsessed with the Columbine High School shootings and had even traveled to the Colorado site.

Now, coming up, the monthly jobs report is out today and the job market hit a milestone, it finally regained the number of jobs lost during the great recession. But many Americans don't feel like the economy has recovered. Plus, Hillary Clinton's new book is about to hit shelves and we got a sneak peek. She admits her biggest mistake in the book. We'll talk about what that is in just a few minutes. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: For the fourth month in a row, the U.S. economy has added jobs, 217,000 people added to the payrolls in May. And the job market hit a milestone, it's finally regained the number of jobs lost during the great recession. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans takes us behind the numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're finally back to 2008 employment levels, 8.7 million jobs made back. It took 51 months. That's the longest recovery ever since we began keeping track of stuff like this. But the job market has turned a corner, broad- based gains across sectors.

And this is something that's really important in these numbers. Look at professional business services. You added 55,000 jobs there. When you look at construction, manufacturing, warehousing, jobs added in all of these, those are good signs for the economy.

Now, there were worries that April was a fluke, just a bump in hiring as people made up for the slow winter. But, in fact, you see broad- based hiring, and that is helping out here.

One thing we're really watching here are wages as well. Wages have been stagnant for so long. Average hourly earnings rose 5 cents. Wage growth has been barely rising faster than inflation. Now that could be key because right now Americans aren't feeling the recovery, right? We have this American dream poll at CNN Money this week, 61 percent of Americans think it's going to take another three years for the economy to recover. Sixteen percent of people think it's not going to recover fully at all. That could be because there's still a lot of warnings about the job market.

Long term unemployed, that is still a problem in the market. When you look at underemployment as well, 12.2 percent are underemployed. They'd like to be working full-time. They'd like to be working, not temporary. They'd like to have a full time job but they're not or they're unemployed.

2014 grads are going to have job data. That's really important. But, look, last year and the year before, you're still competing against each other in the job market.

Bottom line, the economy's moving in the right direction. It's good news. But we're not there yet. It will be a few more years to go before we get full employment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: Christine, thank you.

And just ahead, Hillary Clinton admits her biggest mistake and reveals where she and President Obama disagreed when she was secretary of state. My panel breaking that down.

Plus, American teams are standing by in Germany ready to bring Bowe Bergdahl home, but at one point will they know he's ready -- at what point, I should say. I'll be speaking to a PTSD psychologist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)