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President Speaks about Iraq; Republicans Select New House Majority Leader; Crisis in Iraq

Aired June 19, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we continue on, top of the hour. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

The president today promised no boots on the ground, but we just heard him say it. The president is prepared to send these 300 military advisers into Iraq. The distinction he is making here, again, adviser, not troops, not playing a combat role, but he did leave the door open to -- quote -- "targeted and precise military action if and when it is necessary."

Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First, we are working to secure our embassy and personnel operating inside of Iraq.

As president, I have no greater priority than the safety of our men and women serving overseas. So I've taken some steps to relocate some of our embassy personnel, and we've sent reinforcements to better secure our facilities.

Second, at my direction, we have significantly increased our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets so that we've got a better picture of what's taking place inside of Iraq, and this will give us a greater understanding of what ISIL is doing, where it's located and how we might support efforts to counter this threat.

Third, the United States will continue to increase our support to Iraqi security forces. We're prepared to create joint operation centers in Baghdad and Northern Iraq, to share intelligence and coordinate planning to confront the terrorist threat of ISIL.

And through our new Counterterrorism Partnership Fund, we're prepared to work with Congress to provide additional equipment. We have had advisers in Iraq through our embassy, and we're prepared to send a small number of additional American military advisers -- up to 300 -- to assess how we can best train, advise and support Iraqi security forces going forward.

American forces will not be returning to combat in Iraq, but we will help Iraqis as they take the fight to terrorists who threaten the Iraqi people, the region and American interests as well.

Fourth, in recent days we've positioned additional U.S. military assets in the region. Because of our increased intelligence resources, we're developing more information about potential targets associated with ISIL, and going forward, we will be prepared to take targeted and precise military action if and when we determine that the situation on the ground requires it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The backdrop to the president speaking there today is this deadly surge, as we have been reporting here on CNN, by these ISIS militants, Sunni jihadists still honing in on the capital city of Baghdad, as we get reports that thousands of civilians are now homeless, forced into these makeshift refugee camps.

Joining me now, CNN's Jim Acosta, our senior White House correspondent.

And, Jim, we will get to your questioning of the president in just a moment. But just to be crystal clear, we are not talking troops, we are not talking combat troops, specifically. We are talking up to 300 military adviser, the president said advising Iraqis.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

BALDWIN: How exactly?

ACOSTA: Well, it just so happens, Brooke, that, right now, the administration officials are holding a background conference call with reporters where they are lay thing out.

So, I can give you some brand-new information on this.

BALDWIN: Great.

ACOSTA: These officials on this conference call are saying that, at first, they are going to be sending in several small teams of advisers, about a dozen each, to establish what they are calling these joint operation centers with Iraqi forces.

You heard the president mention these joint operation centers during his remarks in the Briefing Room. And, at this stage, what they are going in to do is really advising and consulting with the Iraqis. So, this is not a combat role. This is sort of, you know, getting a lay of the land, surveying the landscape militarily as to what the Iraqis are up against with respect to those ISIS forces.

So, it sounds like we are very much at the preliminary stage of all this. But one other very interesting point that came up on the conference call, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ACOSTA: And that is, you heard the president talk about the possibility of military strikes. You mentioned that just a few moments ago.

These senior administration officials said that airstrikes -- quote -- "discreet and targeted" are still a possibility once had have the information, but these officials said that they are not at the stage right now where they are preparing for those airstrikes.

So it does not sound like any kind of airstrike is imminent at this point. It sounds like they want on go in right now, send these advisers in, get that lay of the land and then proceed from there. The other thing that's not been done, the U.S. has not decided to have teams on the ground in Iraq to call in airstrikes.

And so that's something that has also been talked about. Well, could these advisers go in and sort of pick out targets, help pick targets for warplanes flying over to do airstrikes?

BALDWIN: Right.

ACOSTA: They are saying that that's not a decision that has been made at this point.

And one other thing we want to point out, because this question has been asked a lot. Our Wolf Blitzer has asked this question. Do these advisers coming in have the legal protection? Because that is -- that goes back to that agreement that the president said he couldn't get from Maliki at the end of 2011. That's why he did not leave a residual force behind, he has said, because Maliki would not give that legal protection to U.S. forces staying on the ground in Iraq.

These senior administration officials were saying that these advisers going in, they are confident, have the legal protection from the Iraqi government, because, after all, they have been invited in by the Iraqi...

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Exactly.

BALDWIN: They have been asking for that help.

ACOSTA: That's right, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Exactly.

And so let's get to your question and really the follow-up to your question, Jim Acosta, specifically to the president about, listen, we pulled out and in 2011, and you basically asked him if he regrets not leaving any U.S. military presence on the ground. What was his response?

ACOSTA: Well, you know, I think what he did was really lay this out at the feet of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, really squarely at the feet, saying that it was Maliki who said he who would not give the legal protection to U.S. forces that would be necessary in the minds of this White House, this president to have forces stay beyond 2011.

Here is what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Do you wish you had left a residual force in Iraq? Any regrets about that decision in 2011?

OBAMA: Well, keep in mind that wasn't a decision made by me. That was a decision made by the Iraqi government.

We offered a modest residual force to help continue to train and advise Iraqi security forces. We had a core requirement, which we were require in any situation where we have U.S. troops overseas, and that is -- is that they are provided immunity at the -- since they are being invited by the sovereign government there, so that if, for example, they end up acting in self-defense if they are attacked and find themselves in a tough situation, that they're not somehow hauled before a foreign court. That's a core requirement that we have for U.S. troop presence anywhere.

The Iraqi government and Prime Minister Maliki declined to provide us that immunity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But we can report, Brooke, that, at this stage, according to senior administration officials, they feel like they now have that legal protection to send in these special advisers, these military advisers, that are going in. And, so, you know, how that plays out from here, we're going to be all be watching that, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jim Acosta, thank you so much and for all that new detail from that conference call under way. We really appreciate you at the White House this afternoon.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: You bet.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: We now have a guest who can help us understand what these U.S. advisers, up to possibly 300 of them, could find themselves facing in Iraq.

Adam Banotai was a Marine squad leader who fought in the furious battle for Fallujah. He is now a firefighter in Philadelphia.

So, Adam, thank you so much for coming on.

SGT. ADAM BANOTAI (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thank you very much for having me, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let me go back to the point we were making earlier. This is -- the distinction is key between calling these 300 Americans going into Iraq troops vs. advisers, because, bottom line, these are the -- it's the U.S. military, correct?

BANOTAI: Correct. In my opinion, it is political semantics.

BALDWIN: Huh.

BANOTAI: We are calling them advisers now, instead of combat troops or boots on the ground, however you want to word it. We are talking about the United States Navy SEALs and United States Army Rangers. They are the most elite fighters we have.

So if they aren't going to be combat troops, then I'm not quite sure who the president is going to refer to as combat troops.

BALDWIN: OK.

And these troops, advisers, what dangers, Adam, might they face?

BANOTAI: Oh, they are going to face all the dangers that we faced when we were in Iraq the first time.

They are going to face the same dangers that our advisers faced in Vietnam when they first went in there to -- to advise before the war escalated there. And another issue I have is that we are -- we appear to be doing this, sending these advisers in to show that we are doing something, without really doing much at all.

I don't know what the president thought we were doing for the last eight years when we were in Iraq. I personally had Iraqi security forces attached to me and spent day after day with them leading them, working side by side with them and teaching them everything I knew about patrolling, about room clearing and combat operations and how to kill the enemy. And they were receptive to that.

BALDWIN: They were receptive?

(CROSSTALK)

BANOTAI: So, what are we going to do now today that we didn't do then?

BALDWIN: I was worrying about your confidence level. We are talking so much about the advisers. How about the advisees, these Iraqis? Your confidence in them?

BANOTAI: My confidence in them, I would say, is split.

I personally was very fortunate to have an excellent group of Iraqi security forces with me. They fought very bravely and on more than one occasion, they almost tried to take the ball out of our court and into their own and said, look, this is our country. This is our responsibility. This is our fight. We need to be the ones that handle this.

On the flip side, I had friends over there who had the exact opposite experience, where, you know, over 50 percent of the unit would desert at a given time, and the first firefight that would happen, they would drop their rifles and run. So, I'm skeptical at best right now. BALDWIN: Let's hope the advisees, the Iraqis who these advisers will

be working with, are of the ilk that you worked with.

Adam, from a personal standpoint, as we mentioned, you fought in the battle of Fallujah, this truly historic fight to retake the city from insurgents. What are you feeling as you see the enemy in charge of Fallujah today?

BANOTAI: I feel disgust really, not so much that they have control. I mean, that's absolutely terrible.

But what bothers me most is something that we fought so hard for, inch by inch, door by door, house by house, spilled so much blood to take, just kind of collapse and was given back to them so easily without any kind of real resistance. I mean, I didn't think it was going to become Main Street America and this Disney World-esque place. But I didn't think al Qaeda in Iraq or ISIS or whatever organization is currently operating was going to walk in there unopposed and just kind of raise their black flag and take things over unopposed.

BALDWIN: Disgust. You echo many people who spent so much time serving. And we thank you for your time serving this country. Adam Banotai, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate it.

BANOTAI: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Coming up, the main suspect in the Benghazi attacks on a ship back to the U.S., still, he is being questioned. But officials don't expect to have it easy -- some of the challenges they face here in this interrogation coming up next.

Also ahead, Donald Sterling's wife, have you heard? She has asked a judge to protect witnesses from possible intimidation by her husband. What kind of threatening behavior are we talking about? We will discuss that.

Also ahead, an injured man trapped for 12 days 3,000 feet below the earth's surface in a cave, how did he survive?

Stay right here. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BALDWIN: All right, breaking news. Let's take you straight to Capitol Hill.

I mean, the reverberations, the shock really within Congress as the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, lost that primary last week to an economics professor from Virginia.

Let's go straight to Dana Bash, as they have been voting on who it will be to take his place as House majority leader. Dana, who is it?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is Kevin McCarthy of California.

We just heard the results from the secret ballot that's going on behind closed doors. This was expected, but certainly not a done deal until we actually got the results. He was challenged by Raul Labrador, who is -- was kind of elected on the Tea Party wave back in 2010.

It wasn't a robust challenge. It was more of a challenge to sort of make clear to the Tea Party activists out there that they were at least trying to plant the flag a little bit. It was expected that McCarthy was going to win, but certainly noteworthy that he is a 49- year-old who has only been in Congress for eight years.

Ironically, Brooke, he won his really conservative district. He lives in Bakersfield, California -- it's a conservative district of obviously a pretty blue state -- in a year that Democrats tack over Congress back in 2006. He has until now, until his colleagues just elected him majority leader, been the number three, the House majority whip.

He had been the guy in charge of counting all the votes every time they brought a piece of legislation to the floor. Now he's moved up a spot and he's now taking his friend Eric Cantor's place as the number two Republican in the House. Kevin McCarthy is going to be the new House majority leader.

BALDWIN: OK. So, I hear all the activity in the buzz around you. There's more voting happening. Correct?

BASH: There is more voting, because now that Kevin McCarthy, who is the House majority whip, has moved up, there is a race taking place as we speak, another secret ballot for his job. This is really where the drama is.

And the reason is it is dramatic is not because maybe that the people running are household names. They are not. It is dramatic because when you look at the rub within the Republican Party, the fight for the heart and soul of the GOP, it is being played out for this House majority whip race.

You have Peter Roskam, who is a Republican from Illinois, who is sort of considered more of the establishment type, and another Republican, Steve Scalise, who is from Louisiana. And the reason why this is important is because he is from a red Southern state. And the whole push from a lot of the Tea Party-backed conservatives and other conservatives is they have been upset that there hasn't been a red state, even Southern conservative, at the leadership table.

So, there is one other -- just real quick, there's one other candidate, Marlin Stutzman. He is from Indiana. Because there are three of them, and you have to get above 50 percent to be win, it is entirely possible that there will be a second round and the third will drop out, likely Stutzman, and then we will see who takes it at the end of the day.

BALDWIN: Right. They need the majority.

BASH: Exactly.

BALDWIN: I got it. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

So, here we have it, from whip to House majority leader. Kevin McCarthy is it. Dana, thank you from Capitol Hill.

Coming up, Donald Sterling's wife has asked a judge to protect witnesses from possible intimidation by her husband. What might that entail?

That's coming up here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, just a short time ago, the wife of L.A. Clippers co-owner Donald Sterling asked a California judge to protect witnesses from being intimidated by her husband.

And so CNN has just obtained audio, these voice-mails that were entered into court by Shelly Sterling's attorney.

Let me bring in Brian Todd in Washington, who can explain what exactly was entered, these voice-mails, Brian, if you will.

And tell me what has just happened in court.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, we do have a bit of breaking news from the court.

The judge has just denied Shelly Sterling's appeal, as the judge has just said that he will not issue an order protecting witnesses or keeping Donald Sterling or his attorneys from contacting witnesses, saying it does not rise to the level of great and irreparable injury to the parties involved, that ruling just coming out from Judge Michael Levanas in probate court in California.

This is in response to some pretty dramatic, menacing phone calls allegedly from Donald Sterling to his estranged wife's lawyer and doctors. We have audio of one of those alleged calls from Donald Sterling on June 9. I believe this is one to a neurologist who examined him and declared him mentally incompetent. Take a listen.

BALDWIN: OK.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

COMPUTER VOICE: Monday, June 9, at 3:12 p.m.

DONALD STERLING, OWNER, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS: (INAUDIBLE) this is Donald Sterling, attorney.

I would like you to have your attorney and your insurance company call me at (NUMBER DELETED). You released my medical records of my head to a law firm without my permission. And you came in and you purported to examine me and you never told me anything about it. You are nothing but a fraud and liar and a cheat. And I'm going to see that you lose your license. And I'm suing you.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

TODD: Sterling goes on to call the doctor, a lady, a -- quote -- "horrible woman" and says he is going to sue her.

There is another voice-mail that he left. We have a transcript of that, another doctor who examined him and declared him mentally incompetent. In the voice-mail, which they say was left for the doctor again on June 9, a man they say is Sterling says -- quote -- "I'm not incompetent. You are F'ing incompetent, you stupid F'ing doctor."

BALDWIN: Ooh.

TODD: Shelly Sterling's lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell, Brooke, says that, on the same day, Donald Sterling called him -- this is not in audiotape, no voice-mail here -- but, in court papers, O'Donnell says Sterling opened the call by calling him an expletive beginning with an A and -- quote -- "Mr. Sterling then shouted even louder and said in a menacing tone, 'I'm going to take you out, O'Donnell,' which I understood to mean that Mr. Sterling was going to kill me or have me killed" -- that according to Pierce O'Donnell.

Now, CNN spoke with Donald Sterling attorney Bobby Samini today. Samini did not deny that Sterling made those calls, didn't deny that the voice on the messages to the doctors was Donald Sterling's.

But Bobby Samini said, he was with Sterling when Sterling called his wife's lawyer, Pierce O'Donnell, and says that Sterling not threaten O'Donnell.

Now, all of this, Brooke, going to be brought out in a trial next month, where Shelly Sterling is going to try to get this judge to back her $2 billion of the sale -- the sale of the Clippers -- excuse me -- to Steve Ballmer. And a big part of that trial is going to be the question of Donald Sterling's mental competence, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. And that begins July 7.

Brian Todd, thank you very much.

TODD: Correct. Sure.

BALDWIN: Coming up, President Obama stressing today that the future of Iraq is in the hands of its own people. We will take you live to Baghdad next for reaction to what the president said. It's a special statement.

Also ahead, this terror group ISIS, as you know, wreaking havoc across Iraq, pushing its agenda through social media. There is someone who has been tweeting secrets of the terror group, a possible former member of ISIS. We will explain the significance here. What has been revealed?

Coming up.

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