Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

White House Summit Draws 60 Nations; Jurors Hear Videotaped Confession of Kyle Killer; Teen Killed in Shootout, Parents Found Dead

Aired February 17, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Today the White House leads a new effort to address violent extremism and the role social media plays in recruitment. Some 60 nations are sending high-level representatives to a three-day summit.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is at the White House with more. Good morning -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi -- Carol.

Right. You mentioned the social media component. That's really a big part of it because so many people who are trying to work against extremism in communities don't necessarily understand social media as well as ISIS does. We all know how good they've been at getting messages out and recruiting people even in the west. So that's one thing they want to tackle.

Also really, it's a community based effort. They're going to be looking at pilot programs that have already been established in certain cities in America -- in Minneapolis, L.A., and Boston. They want to see what works and what doesn't.

They also want to add an international component. Remember, you mentioned more than 60 countries participating even at the ministerial level. So there are going to be some foreign ministers here, ministers of interiors from other countries including the Middle East. So they want to get their input on countering extremism in other countries too.

And it's about sharing information. That said, there's already been some criticism of this. I mean then again, it is just a summit. It's going to be talking about trying to counter extremism. And it was something that was planned for a couple months ago and then was delayed. Again, some of the points people are making are what are you really going to accomplish in a practical sense from this?

The White House though insists they want it to be useful and practical. They want to highlight what action is already being done out there and then use this as a catalyst for more. Also we are hearing from some activists in Minneapolis, for example. Some in the Muslim community are saying well, some parts of these

programs are actually singling out certain communities and stigmatizing them and they're also saying it's not effective. So that's part of what's going to be hashed out over these three days, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michelle Kosinski, reporting live from the White House this morning -- thank you.

That White House summit comes as new CNN polls show a majority of Americans, some 78 percent want Congress to give President Obama the authority to use force against is. That same poll also showing a growing number of Americans supporting sending U.S. ground troops to fight ISIS. 47 percent now compared to 43 percent back in November.

So let's talk about this. CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for the "National Journal" Ron Brownstein is here; and Josh Rogin, CNN political analyst and columnist for Bloomberg View. Welcome to both of you.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Ron, I would suppose you wouldn't find these poll results so surprising, right?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well no, I think the surprising number, I mean as you go through the poll, the disapproval of the President handling of this not surprising given the kind of horrific atrocities that we see. That clearly is a galvanizing force in public opinion.

What is surprising is that number that says they are willing to consider ground troops. I mean that is higher than we have seen, higher than I would have expected. Whether it is real, whether it would actually endure and be stable with the actual introduction of ground troops is something else but it does show the level of concern that the ISIS depredations have created.

COSTELLO: And you can understand the level of concern, right, Josh? But I think many Americans maybe don't understand that, you know, military might isn't always the answer.

ROGIN: Well yes. What we're seeing here in this poll is a reflection of the fact that Americans across the country are becoming increasingly aware of the problem of ISIS and concerned about how it might affect them in their daily lives.

Let's remember the last poll was done in September just as the U.S. campaign of air strikes against ISIS was beginning. Now we've had six months to see the results. And to be fair to the administration, the results have been mixed. ISIS has been pushed back in some places but has expanded in other places and has been involved in some way in attacks in Australia, in Canada, in France.

The American people are alarmed and they're worried and this is reflected in the congressional authorization because their congressmen are alarmed and worried and they don't necessarily believe 100 percent the administration's assertion that the war is going well and that it's on the right path.

So the whole country is going through this process of examining the war, examining the problem, examining the response and coming to that conclusion that we're not doing enough. The next step is to figure out what else we can do. And I think the White House summit that you covered just now is a big part of that.

COSTELLO: Well, Congress is supposed to be doing that too but they're on break. Why Ron, aren't they debating this issue giving the President war powers because Republicans aren't satisfied with President Obama's strategy either.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. No, look, I think there's going to be a big debate in Congress. You have elements of the Democratic Party that are uneasy with it and certainly elements of the Republican Party that are uneasy with it. I think in the end it will be hard to deny him what he's seeking given the magnitude of the threat.

And I think the other thing that you are seeing in public opinion is kind of the awareness I think deepening that this really is a generational struggle.

I mean we went through, you know, really 15 -- 20 years where al Qaeda was the principal focus. Bin Laden is killed and here we are a few years later with a threat that seems in many ways even more ominous and difficult to get our arms around. And I think what people are coming to understand is that this is something we're going to be dealing with in different manifestations for a very long time, not entirely unlike the Cold War but perhaps more immediate in the sense of danger that could be projected into the U.S. itself.

COSTELLO: So, is it safe to say Josh, it will take a complicated strategy to defeat ISIS and if it does, how do you explain that adequately to a fearful American public?

ROGIN: Yes, I think the criticism most people in Congress and people around America who don't like the President's policy will level is that they set the limits of what we're going to do first and then see how it can achieve the objectives. In other words, the President says well, we're not going to do ground troops. Well, we're not going to do this, we're not going to do that.

And what a lot of people in congress and a lot of people around the country are saying and I think it's reflected in this poll, ok first, let's figure out how we solve this problem and then let's figure out what we need to do. Nobody wants to go back to the days of Iraq where we had huge invasion forces and nation building around the country but there's something in between.

We have 3,000 ground forces on the ground right now. There might need to be more. People want the President and the administration and congress to take a look at the problem and say, ok, what do we really need to do to solve this whether it's militarily, diplomatically, in communities, and then let's come up with a whole strategy and let's do whatever is necessary to defeat this group because that has to be the priority. Not adhering to some sort of a philosophy of we won't do this or we won't do that.

COSTELLO: Let's hope our leaders can accomplish that. It's a tall order.

ROGIN: Yes.

COSTELLO: Josh Rogin, Ron Brownstein -- thanks so much. I appreciate it.

ROGIN: Any time.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a teenager dies in a shootout with police. But that was just the beginning. The horrible scene police found at his home next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Prosecutors are expected to rest their case today in the trial of the former marine charged with killing American sniper Chris Kyle and another man. A Texas jury heard Eddie Ray Routh confess to the murders during a nearly 90-minute long videotape interrogation from the night of his 2013 arrest.

Now, we can't play audio from that tape but CNN's Ed Lavandera who is covering the trial tells us some of what Routh said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The detective asked "who did you shoot first?" And Routh says the one I could clearly identify. He's talking about Chris Kyle here. "I knew if I didn't take out his soul, he was coming to take mine next."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The defense is trying to make the case that Routh was insane when he committed those murders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM MOORE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: He was in the grip of a psychosis. A psychosis so severe at that point in time that he did not know what he was doing was wrong.

ALAN NASH, PROSECUTOR: Mental illnesses, even the one that this defendant may or may not have, don't deprive people of the ability to be good citizens, to know right from wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Former army doctor and PTSD expert, Dr. Harry Croft joins me now live from San Antonio. Welcome, sir.

DR. HARRY CROFT, FORMER ARMY DOCTOR: Thank you for having me. COSTELLO: Thank you for being here because I think many of us are

struggling to understand PTSD and what symptoms and what the symptoms are associated with that condition.

First of all, tell us, what symptoms are there? What symptoms do PTSD victims show?

CROFT: PTSD is an emotional, a physical, and psychological after math of a life threatening situation. And it results in four groups of symptoms. The first is called unwanted recall where people have thoughts of the trauma, nightmares, flashbacks, psychological response to triggering events.

The second is called avoidance where people actually go out of their way to avoid thinking of the event.

The third is called negative thoughts and emotions and the most common are feeling detached and distant from things going on around them not wanting to socialize.

And the fourth group of symptoms is called increased arousal and that's what we usually we think of as PTSD like being easily startled and jumpy. Being hypervigilant and maybe even suspicious. Being irritable and upset more easily and having difficulty with sleep and concentration.

Now, you notice what I didn't say, Carol, and that is violence and murder. Those are not typical symptoms of PTSD.

COSTELLO: So when you heard Eddie Ray Routh's rambling 90-minute confession and he says I can only term it "crazy stuff", would you as a doctor listen to that confession and say, yes, this man suffers from PTSD?

CROFT: What I would say is this is not PTSD. This man might have had a psychosis, that is, might have been out of touch with reality. Maybe he was using drugs. Maybe he was drinking too much. Maybe something else was going on. But these are not the symptoms of PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder.

COSTELLO: So Chris Kyle thought this man was suffering from PTSD which is why he brought him to this gun range so they could bond in some way. That's probably -- and I don't know how to say this and I say this very sympathetically -- that probably was the wrong thing to do.

CROFT: You know, Chris Kyle found the information out from this guy's mother, and we don't know whether that diagnosis is correct. I don't know whether he had PTSD or didn't have it. All I know is that these are not the symptoms of PTSD that are being described in court.

COSTELLO: I was just curious -- can bringing someone with PTSD to a gun range really help them?

CROFT: Well, the general answer would be no. But remember, this was an American hero. A Navy SEAL, a fellow military member. And maybe Chris Kyle had found out over the years that this sort of thing helped those people suffering from true PTSD. In general, putting people with PTSD next to guns is probably not a good idea.

COSTELLO: So you wouldn't suggest that for your patients?

CROFT: No. But remember what Chris Kyle was trying to do is engage someone whose mother had said he has PTSD and as a result he was trying to help. Let me add one other thing. My passion is I've evaluated over 7,000 vets with PTSD and I have become very passionate about helping them get jobs.

And one of the things I worry about with employers is that stories like this one where PTSD is mentioned as the cause just scare employers. And I'm worried that will keep vets, who are well qualified for jobs from getting those jobs and that just worsens their problems.

COSTELLO: Well, thank you so much for sharing your insight. I so appreciate it. Dr. Harry Croft -- thank you.

CROFT: Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: You can go inside the American sniper controversy and story's incredible real life twists and turns. "BLOCKBUSTER: THE STORY OF AMERICAN SNIPER" tomorrow night, 9:00 eastern here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A police chase turns deadly in Maryland after this teenager, 16-year-old Jason Hendricks refused to stop for a state trooper over the weekend. Hendricks, who opened fire on officers after being cornered at an intersection was shot and killed. But when Maryland detectives traced the teen's car back to his Kentucky home, officials there informed them of a gruesome scene.

CNN's Jason Carroll is covering the story. He has more for us this morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's really an incredible story. And those in his hometown of Corbin, Kentucky; those who knew him well, Jason Hendricks, are angry and they're also confused.

I spoke to his pastor this morning. And he told me that on Wednesday, the same day that he allegedly shot his parents and his sister, he actually showed up for bible study. And they talked about a number of things. He said nothing seemed out of the ordinary. You're seeing him there. That picture is a picture of him in his junior ROTC uniform.

He said that that particular day he was perfectly normal and talked about one thing in particular, talked about a movie called "God's Not Dead". It opened last year. This is a movie about the existence of god but it's also a movie about doing the right thing. He says that that particular day on Wednesday evening, he says that Jason talked about doing the right things in school, doing the right things at home. As for a motive for this, that's what's interesting about this particular case as well. Those who were there at the bible study say that Jason had talked about what had happened with his parents Monday night. He had got into an argument. And as a result of that argument, his parents took away his computer and use of his cell phone and apparently he was very angry about that.

Now, police in two states obviously now trying to put together a time line of what happened, trying to put together a motive. But obviously people who knew Jason back there in Corbin, Kentucky are angry and they're confused about what happened here.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. How old was his sister, I'm just curious?

CARROLL: You know, we don't have his sister's age here yet, but I can tell you that she was a young girl. That she was a local cheerleader and that, again, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Also, we're told that he found his guns -- his father's guns on Monday. And nothing seemed out of the ordinary when it came to that because again, he was a member of junior ROTC. Guns very common there in Kentucky; in Corbin, Kentucky where a lot of people hunt.

So that's why you can imagine people here again, they're angry, they're confused over this. Why something like this would happen. A motive over a computer seems silly. But again these are some of the things that police are looking at in terms of trying to put this time line together and trying to find a motive for what happened here.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Jokes that stand the test of time. "Saturday Night Live's" 40th reunion brought together some of our greatest comedians proving they still got it. Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "Saturday Night Live" may not be as old as King Tut.

If you were a young man back in the early days of "SNL," you're not anymore.

Isn't that the fun part about reunions like "SNL's" 40th, to see how people age?

People like Jane Curtin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jane, you ignorant slut.

MOOS: Now 67.

JANE CURTIN: I used to be the only pretty blond woman reading the fake news. Now there's a whole network devoted to that.

MOOS: It seems like just yesterday we were saying --

CHEVY CHASE, COMEDIAN: Hello.

MOOS: -- to Chevy Chase.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good night.

MOOS: Seventy-one, a lot of those tomorrows are yesterdays.

Remember Opera Man? Adam Sandler holding his own, still adding O's --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David Spade looks ok-oh.

MOOS: Also looking ok-oh, Eddie Murphy. Though he made no jokes and seemed caught in a technical snafu.

EDDIE MURPHY: I thought you were going to do the --

MOOS: Jim Carey never made it past his "SNL" audition as post-nuclear Elvis. But he made it as an "SNL" host and terrorized hosts on the reunion red carpet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you hiding Brian Williams?

MOOS: Betty White and Bradley Cooper bridged the generational gap with a kiss. Bill Murray, the lounge singer then, Bill Murray now.

There is no escape from the jaws of age.

What is this? This makes no sense. What?

Hey, what are you laughing at? Little do you know you'll end up looking like this some day.

OK, OK, whatever.

But some things resist the tug of time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tap your the bass, remove the hook and drop the bass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the whole bass.

MOOS: Dan Aykroyd may be almost four decades older, but the bass-o- matic hasn't aged a bit.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COSTELLO: That's so disgusting. It's still as disgusting today as it was way back when. Ok -- before we go, live look at New Orleans. It's one last chance to live it up before lent. Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday -- a day of overindulgence before 40 days of austerity in the lead up to Easter. Celebrations already under way in New Orleans, the city famous for its Mardi Gras parades kicked things off at 8:00 a.m. this morning. The parties will last all day and all afternoon and all night and into the next morning.

Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Carol Costello. Another hour of NEWSROOM ahead.