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Obama's Legacy; Bill Cosby Breaks His Silence; Pope Francis Calls for Peace in 2016; Clemson and Alabama Set for College Football Title Game. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 01, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Expected before the January 12th State of the Union and aimed at the gun show loophole, which allows some firearm sellers to avoid conducting background checks on their customers.

ACOSTA (on camera): And so the beginning of this year?

ERIC SCHULTZ, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: I think that'd be fair, yes.

ACOSTA (voice-over): The White House argues the president's actions will be within his executive authority and in line with polls that show broad support for tightening background checks.

SCHULTZ: Unfortunately, Congress hasn't shown the courage to do so. So that's why the president asked his team to look at what we can do administratively.

ACOSTA: Vowing to fight the move, the nation's biggest gun lobby, the NRA, says the president is doing what he always does when he doesn't get it way, defying the will of the people and using executive action.

Another controversial proposal coming in the new year, the president will ask Congress to shut down the terror detention center at Guantanamo, a facility Mr. Obama may close on his own if lawmakers balk at the White House plan.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It will be an uphill battle.

ACOSTA: The president also hopes to travel to Cuba and perhaps more than a dozen other countries in what's shaping up to be a global farewell tour. But the president's agenda could be up ended by setbacks in the war on ISIS. A foreign policy crisis that could complicate White House plans to have the president campaign heavily with the 2016 Democratic nominee, a prospect that may well put him and Hillary Clinton on the trail together again.

OBAMA: I think we will have a strong Democratic nominee. I think that Democratic nominee will win. I think I will have a Democratic successor.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ACOSTA: But first the president will lay out his plans for his final year in office at the fast approaching State of the Union Address, which is less than two weeks away. White House officials say don't expect a long laundry list of proposals, in part because the president is almost out of time.

Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Jim Acosta, thank you so much.

So the president already getting a head start on his 2016 agenda by urging Congress to pass laws that would help reduce gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And all across America, survivors of gun violence and those who lost a child or a parent or a spouse to gun violence are forced to mark such awful anniversaries every single day. And yet Congress still hasn't done anything to prevent what happened to them from happening to other families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So the president's new executive action on guns due out next week is expected to expand background checks on gun sales and include more government funding to help better enforce gun laws already on the books.

So with me now to talk more about all of this, CNN presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

Good to see you. Happy New Year.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Happy New Year to you.

WHITFIELD: So we know President Obama is focusing on unfinished business in the new year, his last year. Gun control topping the list now. So the last State of the Union he vowed to use more executive privileges. So what do you expect in his final State of the Union?

BRINKLEY: Well, he's definitely going to want to try to address the gun issue, as you just mentioned. This is something that's a pet peeve of the president. He's angered by the fact that much of his presidencies had to deal with those shootings and mass killings. So he's trying to find, if Congress won't help him, some executive tools, legal tools, that will help him get gun control be a major part of his legacy in his last year.

Also, climate change. This president has put a lot of skin in that game. He got a result out of Paris recently and now he has to come home and sell climate change to the American public. And I expect those will be the two main thrust of his State of the Union, along with how to defeat ISIL.

WHITFIELD: OK. And, you know, when you look at recent polling and 50 percent say that they have an unfavorable view of the president. Will it be important to the president to try to turn those numbers around in 2016? How much of his legacy is shaped by that kind of sentiment?

BRINKLEY: Well, it's a good question. I mean Ronald Reagan used to say, you don't want to have a box office that goes below 50 percent. If he could hover at 50, he probably would be satisfied with that. But I'm afraid that with -- unless things get better given the war on terror, any time there's a strike anywhere, anytime we have a situation like Paris or San Bernardino, people in some ways blame the president for some kind of security breech or the fact that he didn't -- wasn't working close enough with our allies on the war on terror. And so it's going to be hard to keep his 50 going.

But do not think Barack Obama's -- his presidency, is over, that he's a complete lame duck. The very fact is, Hillary Clinton's going to need him on the Democratic Party. I mean Barack Obama had about a 90 percent or more -- 95 percent approval rating with African-Americans. He needs to generate that vote. And he has (INAUDIBLE) within the Democrat Party. There are Obama Democrats. So can he start bringing out the vote for Hillary Clinton, particularly in urban settings, places like Cincinnati, or Tampa, Miami? It will be very interesting to see as the year turns into the fall.

[09:35:13] WHITFIELD: And many argue about whether polling is, you know, is that important. But when it does come to the satisfaction with the U.S. and how it's being governed, there is this polling that says only 24 percent say they are satisfied. How is the president to interpret this? You know, is it a reflection of how he is governing or how the White House and Congress are -- are or not working together?

BRINKLEY: I mean if you're President Barack Obama and if you do see polls you don't like, the way you make yourself feel better is to then go look at what the congressional polls are.

WHITFIELD: And that's in the toilet.

BRINKLEY: You will see Congress -- yes, exactly, they're just -- Congress is just abysmal polling record. So basically he'll say it's Congress' fault. The reason we haven't done something dramatic on guns, is Congress' fault. Why isn't Congress backing the war against ISIL. Presidents tend to blame Congress and the press for things they're unable to get done and I suspect President Obama is like all the others.

WHITFIELD: And, overall, what do you think will comprise of the president's legacy? What will be his lasting mark?

BRINKLEY: Well, the economy. I mean when he came in, we had the great recession. There was a feeling that our nation's financial systems were hemorrhaging. Here we are, several years later, and there's -- just looking at the Wall Street ticker tape or look at indexes for home prices and unemployment has gone way down. So I think he's going to want to say, I pulled us out of the great recession. He can't say that yet in true terms because he still has another year to go and, as we know, anything could happen. The economy bombed on George W. Bush in October of 2008, his last year. So first and foremost, the president has to keep this economy alive this year if he wants to be, you know, achieve one of these above average or outstanding legacies.

WHITFIELD: All right, Douglas Brinkley, happy New Year. Good to see you. Thanks so much.

BRINKLEY: Hey, happy New Year. Thanks for having me. Take care of yourself.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you.

All right, still to come, we're following the situation in Israeli. The search for a gunman who killed two people at a Tele Aviv bar. A live report at the top of the hour.

And Bill Cosby breaking his silence. His first comments since his arrest for sexual assault as a judge now forces his wife to be interviewed under oath.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:50] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

Bill Cosby breaking his silence on social media, tweeting this short message thanking his friends and fans for their support. But the reaction online wasn't so kind in return. Actress Lena Dunham tweeted, "if I believed in hell, Bill Cosby would be going there." Even music artist Kanye West took a dig at Cosby in his latest track "Facts" released last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KANYE WEST (singing): Yes, we made a million a minute, we made a million a minute, ah! Do anybody feel bad for Bill Cosby? Did he forget the names just like Steve Harvey? (Yo!)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy. To discuss we're joined by CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson.

So, Joey, Kanye aside, how will Cosby's tweet impact his upcoming case, especially since he has said so little about the mounting allegations?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He has said little indeed. Good afternoon -- or good morning to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes, and happy New Year.

JACKSON: And happy New Year.

Look, the reality is that ultimately the case will turn on what happens in a courtroom, not so much tweets. Of course if he testifies, than whatever he tweeted is fair game. Perhaps some things that he said in the past would be fair game. Whatever he put in that deposition that he swore to years ago back in 2005 will be fair game. And so how tweets or anything else will impact the case would depend upon whether he takes that stand in his own defense and what he has to say.

WHITFIELD: All right, and we're looking at a lot of pictures of Camille Cosby, his wife, because she's up next. She will have to testify against her husband next week. Considering how hard his legal team fought against that, what do you suppose some of the questions to her will be?

JACKSON: Oh, now this opens up a whole can of worms because, remember, the attorneys for her made a motion to quash. And what that means is they said, we're not going to honor the subpoena. Why should she have to testify in a deposition? There's a spousal privilege that applies to anything she might have said to her husband. It also represents an undue burden for her to testify because of the fact that she's not involved in this litigation. But the judge said, no, you're going to have to testify or give a deposition.

And in that deposition, remember, it's very broad, the questions that attorneys can ask. And as you might imagine, Fredricka, the attorneys are going to focus in on what she knew and when she knew it. What do you know about your husband's improprieties? Who has your husband been with? Do you know the individuals at any point what he was doing with them? Were you present at the time? If not, where were you? Do you know anything about his use of pills? Has he used pills with you? What type of pills? Were they Benadryl or were they Quaaludes? How did you use them? When did you use them? What do you know about that?

WHITFIELD: OK.

JACKSON: And so I would suspect certainly that the attorneys are going to focus in on what she shows about his sexual history involving multiple other women. And, you know, discovery, remember, is very broad. So attorneys can ask broad based questions. And what ultimately she tells them can, in fact, prove damming to him as they move forward in the case.

WHITFIELD: Wow, broad-based questions. It could really be very agonizing for her.

So, meantime, Cosby's attorney, one of them, was on CNN last night and disputed that Cosby's contact with accuser Andrea Constand was illegal. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MONIQUE PRESSLEY, BILL COSBY'S ATTORNEY: The complainant in this case took it willingly after complaining of being inable to sleep and complaining of pain to the head. So the incident that you described, the actions that you described from the deposition, I know you know are not criminal. So the fact that someone took some medication that is legal and over the counter --

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Right, you -- I -- you're saying -- you're not -- you've said that I know that that is --

PRESSLEY: Right, consensual -- consensual sexual contact is not illegal. KEILAR: You -- but -- (INAUDIBLE) you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Huh. So what about this argument despite the, you know, I guess the outcome of the court settlement on Constand, you know, really, in the previous civil suit. Cosby's attorney is maintaining that their contact was consensual from start to finish.

[09:44:50] JACKSON: Well, this is where the battleground will be drawn, Fredricka, because, obviously, consensual contact is not illegal, but, of course, there's going to be a major argument made by the prosecution that this was not consensual at all. You knew what you were doing. The fact that you introduced pills into the equation rendered her incapable of consent. In fact, unconscious. And at that point you were able to have your way with her and do things that she

[09:45:02] JACKSON: You knew what you were doing. The fact you introduced pills into the equation rendered her incapable of consent, in fact unconscious, and at that point you were able to have your way with her and do things that she did not want you to do.

In the alternative, Cosby will argue that, you know what, she said that she was suffering from sleep deprivation. She was somewhat stressed. I gave her the pills upon her request that I give them to her to help her with her sleep. Anything that we did, may have done, or is alleged that we did, we did because there was a romantic relationship.

And so the whole issue of consent -- and in that clip where you saw her with Brianna Keilar, that is Monique Pressley, the attorney for Cosby making the argument -- that's going to be the argument may made to the jury. These occurred between Bill Cosby and Andrea Constand, but by all means and at all times, Andrea Constand was on board with what he was doing. That's going to be the defense's contention. And if the jury doesn't buy that, you know what, then of course there is a conviction.

So that's going to be something we're going to have to focus on and see -- credibility. Does the jury in fact concur that Andrea Constand, you know what, didn't want anything to do with Cosby of that variety? Or do they believe cosby's crew in saying, you know what, everything that happened was something that adults agreed to.

WHITFIELD: It will be interesting to see if any of the accusers would be taking to the stand, none of them pursuing any criminal charges.

JACKSON: That's huge, Fredricka, huge equation. I'm one that believes that the judge will keep out a lot of that because it's propensity evidence. If other accusers came forward and say in a criminal case that Bill Cosby did something to them, what's the jury going to be believing? That this is modus operandi. If he did something then, he did something now. And so the attorneys for Cosby are going to really limit the playing field and attempt to get the judge to focus on what happened with Andrea Constand, not with what happened with Accuser 1, 2, 3, 4 -- I can count all the way up to fifty. So it's going to be tough.

WHITFIELD: All right, Joey Jackson, good to see you. Thank you so much.

JACKSON: Thank you, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:37] WHITFIELD: All right, quintessential new sight there, 2016 entering with big celebrations around the world, including the big one here, New York City. More than a million people packing into Times Square to celebrate. Security however was tight. More than 6,000 NYPD officers were on hand after New York, Los Angeles, and Washington were targeted by terror threat.

And in London, intense security there, greeting the thousands who turned out for a spectacular fireworks display.

And Pope Francis rang in the new year this morning, welcoming 2016 with a message of mercy. The pontiff called on the world to end, quote, "the arrogance of the powerful", end quote, as he invoked the image of the millions of migrants and refuge refugees displaced around the world.

Senior Vatican analyst John Allen is live for us from Rome. So John, you were watching. What else did the Pope say?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Hi, Fredericka. Happy new year to you from a somewhat chilly Rome on a new year's day. It's been a very busy day for Pope Francis. This morning he celebrated a mass in honor of Mary as the mother of god. And then at noon, he delivered his traditional new year's day message, focusing very much on a call for peace. Let's listen to just a bit of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (via Translator): The enemy of peace is not only war, but also interference, which makes us think only of ourselves, creating barriers, suspicions, fears and closure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So, this was a brief and somewhat generalized appeal for peace from the Pope. Earlier, he delivered a longer message for what the Catholic Church observes on January 1st as the World Day of Peace, staking out a position on a host of policy issues from a call to a global abolition of the death penalty to stronger protections for migrants and refugees, more just economic policies, even prison reform, arguing for better treatment of prisoners, particularly those awaiting trial in detention.

Later today, Fredericka, the Pope will head across town to open a holy door for his special Jubilee Year of Mercy at St. Mary Major Basilica.

Now the holiday season in Rome has seen Francis in good spirits but the Vatican hasn't been untouched by the security fears that are so much in the air these days. Earlier in the week, Vatican officials released statistics, showing a 30 percent drop in turnout for papal events in the month of December largely because people were afraid of large, public gatherings. But on the other hand, this is a Pope who still is very much in keeping with the spirit of the season. Last night, for new year's eve, he spent part of his evening with a group of about 6,000 youth who were part of youth choirs from around the world, joking and singing with them, at one point telling them that he never sang himself as a youth because he was afraid he would sound like a donkey.

So that's the story here from Rome, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: He always has quite the sense of humor. I think people appreciate that about him, one of the many things they appreciate. John Allen, thank so very much. Happy new year. Stay bundled up there in a chilly Rome.

All right, stay with us, a major shakeup in Ben Carson's campaign. Three key staffers quit, including the campaign manager. Next hour I will be talking to Carson's new campaign manager, Ed Brookover.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:32] WHITFIELD: Hi, welcome back. College football world, only two teams left standing in the battle for college football's national championship, Clemson and Alabama, rolling over their opponents in the Orange and Cotton Bowls, setting up an epic showdown.

CNN's Coy Wire joins us live now from Ft. Lauderdale. Happy new year, Coy. So, definitely not tight games.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Awesome games. Happy new year to you, Fredericka.

Clemson, they entered this match-up as the nation's lone unbeaten team, No. 1 ranked team, but they were still underdogs to the Big 12 champion, Oklahoma. Now, Clemson, they're seeking their first national title since 1981, but they had to find a way to stop the Sooners' third-ranked scoring offense. And they did. This game was actually close until Clemson exploded in the second half, outscoring Oklahoma 21-0. They were led by the dynamic duo of Wayne Gallman on the ground, who scored twice, and Deshaun Watson, who is the game's offensive MVP with over 330 total yards and two touchdowns, including this one through the air. Now, Clemson, they stay perfect with a 37- 17 victory.

Head coach Dabo Sweeney's Clemson Tigers, guys, they have been on an incredible run. And he told me about it just shortly after the game. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DABO SWEENEY, CLEMSON HEAD COUCH: It's been an unbelievable year. You know, 2015, to be 14-0, and to earn a chance to play one more time in January of 2016, that's our 17th win in a row and we ain't played Wilson Junior High 17 times. We played some tough people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: No disrespect, Wilson Junior High, Dabo loves you.

Now, the other semifinal featured the only team from last season's playoffs to make back. Alabama taking on the Big Ten champs, Michigan State. Nick Saban entered this game with a perfect 8-0 against his former understudies, and Cyrus Jones helped improve that record. His 57-yard punt return for a touchdown was a huge spark, but quarterback Jake Coker played the game of his life, throwing two touchdowns in this Tide's 38-0 smackdown of the Spartans.

Now, Coker dedicated this to his brother, who's fighting overseas. And guys, watch the emotion, holding back tears, as he told our Andy Scholes after the game how much this meant to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE COKER, ALABAMA QUARTERBACK: I just love him, man. He -- do all this, you know, he's the reason for a lot of this, why I play so hard and try to do what I can do. He's an inspiration, man. I love him to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, in just ten days, Alabama and Clemson are going to play for that national championship in Arizona.

[10:00:00] We'll be there, take you with us. While the Tide are looking to win their fourth title under Nick Saban, Clemson and Dabo Sweeney, they have a chance to become the first team in college football history to finish the season a perfect 15-0.