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Erin Burnett Outfront

President Obama Talks To CNN About Iraq; "We've Seen A Breakdown Of Trust"; ISIS Urges English Speakers To Join Cause; America's History of Targeting Deserters; The Pope versus Pot; Paul Ryan's Outrage Over IRS Lost E-Mails; CNN Crew Attacked During Hamas Protest; Singing Tycoon Gives Away Millions

Aired June 20, 2014 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Next, breaking news, the president gives a warning to Iraqi leaders. His interview with CNN moments away.

Plus a showdown on Capitol Hill, Paul Ryan tells the head of the IRS that, quote, "nobody believes you."

And is the pope wrong when it comes to pot? He speaks out. Let's go OUTFRONT.

Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight breaking news, President Obama speaking to our Kate Bolduan just moments ago about the escalating chaos and violence in Iraq. The president delivered this warning to the leaders of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If they're not able to use this moment where there has been an election that has been certified to form a government that is unified and focused on not maximizing any one group's power, but rather keeping the country together in dealing with a crisis, then there's no amount of American fire power that's going to be able to hold the country together and I made that very clear to Mr. Maliki and all the other leadership inside of Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: No amount of American fire power, but still, fire power perhaps going in. The first 300 U.S. military advisers set to arrive in Iraq in just hours. Even as the Iraqi military continues to strike at ISIS, the terror group is making gains, casualties are rising and today this new propaganda video from ISIS.

It's high definition. You can just -- I mean, see how crisp it is. This isn't the blurry video that you expect to see. It's high- definition and highly produced. They have multiple cameras, edited, cut together and it's in English, calling on Western Muslims to join the fight.

That's obviously a crucial development when you think about recruiting in the United States and Europe. So how involved will the Obama administration get? Kate Bolduan as you saw just sat down with President Obama and she joins me now from Washington. Kate, what else did the president tell you?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": We are following up on his warning to Iraqi leaders. I asked him a simple question that by going into the country and supporting the Iraqi government, supporting Iraqi forces, isn't there a real threat that he's going to be seen supporting one side, the side of the Shia that could further inflame the tensions there and essentially do exactly what the ISIS terrorists want. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The terms in which we are willing to go in as advisers initially is to do an assessment of do they still have a functioning chain of command and is their military still capable particularly in the western and north western regions of the country, but what we've also say is that is in a joint operations center that we might set up in any advising that we may do, if we don't see Sunni, Shia and Kurd representation in the military command structure and Sunni, Shia and Kurd political support for what we're doing then we won't do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Erin, I finally asked him to give me his gut if he thinks that this change can actually come to Iraq. He said I think we'll know soon enough, but he also did not seemed optimistic. He really seemed skeptical at best. I guess, that's what history has proven all along that political reconciliation has been so elusive for that country. That's only part of our conversation. We have more on Iraq, of course.

We also talked very interesting conversation you'll find interesting, Erin, about issues facing families that they struggle with, the balance between work, life, family life, it's all ahead of a summit that they are holding for working families on Monday. He gives some very personal insights and some advice to first-time parents like me.

BURNETT: All right, well, that sounds fascinating and I'm looking forward to seeing that. That of course will be Monday with Kate on "NEW DAY." But on this issue of Iraq what happens next? The president said no amount of American forces can solve the problem. What is he going to do? Jim Sciutto reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With U.S. troops soon on the way, Iraq is a country at war. Today, ISIS militants gained ground, attacking an air base at Tel Afar near Mosul while Iraqi security forces regained control of a crucial oil refinery at Baiji. Officials inside and outside Iraq agreed Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malaki, Shia dominated government has furthered a deep sectarian divide among Shiites in the south, Sunni-Muslims in the west and Kurds in the north, threating to tear the country apart.

SENATOR CARL LEVIN, (D), CHAIRMAN, SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We cannot defend Iraqis from themselves. Only if Iraq's leaders begin to show evidence of unity can we help them.

SCIUTTO: Though few see Maliki as an architect of such unity, U.S. officials have been careful not to explicitly call for his ouster. Not so for Iraq's most revered Shia leader, Ayatollah Sistani who may have sounded the death nail for Al-Malaki when he called for an inclusive government without mentioning the prime minister's name.

AHMED AL-SAFI, REPRESENTATIVE OF GRAND AYATOLLAH SISTANI (through translator): It is also important that open a dialogue to help form a government largely acceptable to all in order to surmount past mistakes.

SCIUTTO: In addition to several northern cities, ISIS militants now control this aging chemical weapons site though U.S. officials say it is not a threat. The American troop presence in Iraq will build up very quickly the first to come from forces already stationed at the U.S. Embassy there. Others to follow very soon from inside the region. Their mission to deploy to Iraqi battalion headquarters to help coordinate Iraq's military response.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not been present inside Iraq in any mass since 2011. So there is a lot to learn, a lot to gain here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The first group of advisers in will conduct an assessment of Iraqi troop capabilities and also on what may be needed for a larger group of U.S. advisers on the ground including additional security measures to keep those troops safe where they are deployed. The Pentagon has identified two preliminary locations in Baghdad and Northern Iraq for these proposed join U.S.-Iraqi operations centers. But they are not saying exactly where they are. It's the early start of a long process here.

BURNETT: Long process, of course, it makes people think back to what was a very long war. Jim Sciutto, thank you. And joining me now, General Michael Hayden, former director of the CIA, former director of the NSA.

General, let me start with this issue as Jim and I were talking about. You've got up to 300 military advisers some on the ground any moment. Obviously there this whole issue whether that's boots on the ground or not. Is it a distinction without a difference? But the question is this, you've got ISIS is taking over huge swaths of the entire country. How are 300 people going to stop it?

GENERAL MICHAEL HAYDEN (RETIRED), U.S. AIR FORCE: They're not. The first thing they have to do and the president is spot on, I think. You need an assessment of the situation not just an assessment of the enemy and ISIS. It's an assessment of the Iraqi government and the Iraqi armed forces. Are they going to live up to the description that the president laid down in unified, national government? And frankly there were times when I was in government, we thought the Iraqis were 0 for 3 on those attributes and frankly, I think they still are.

BURNETT: And if they still are then what will this president have to do? He has said that dealing with this ISIL, as he called it, is in the essential national interests of the United States. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We also have an interest in making sure we don't have a safe haven that continues to grow for ISIL and other extremist Jihadist groups who could use that as a base of operations for planning and targeting ourselves, our personnel overseas and eventually the homeland.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: So if he's right and Iraqi troops could be 0 for 3 on what they need to fight, how then does the U.S. void a larger entanglement in Iraq?

HAYDEN: Right, well, look, the best way to prevent a terrorist safe haven is to have a healthy Iraqi government. And frankly your reporter, Jim said that the president is kind of skeptical about that. And frankly, I am too. This is not my wish, Erin. It's certainly not the plan. But I can see Iraq permanently fracturing into three parts, Kurdistan, what I'll call a Sunnistan and the remnants of the current Iraq, which is essentially a Shiastan. That's not good, but we're kind of our way there.

BURNETT: But General, here's what a lot of people watching may say, look, at this point, why does America need to care? Why does America need to put lives at risk to prevent Iraq breaking up into three, which is something that people have been writing about for 15 or 20 years?

HAYDEN: Because one of the three parts, Erin, is going to be a safe haven for the most violent terrorist movement alive today and it will be only a matter of time before that Sunnistan, which is the territory of both countries now, before that Sunnistan represents the kind of threat to the west and to the United States that we saw in Afghanistan pre-9/11.

BURNETT: So does the president in your view then if troops are needed, boots on the ground, we're not putting them in, but we kind of are, if that is necessary, he should do it?

HAYDEN: No, I think what he is doing right now is spot on, as I said, we're assessing the situation. Look, we cannot reunify Iraq. That can't be done. It has to be done by the Iraqis and as I suggested it's not a high probability shot. If that fails, Erin, then we have to consult our own interests. How do we deal with that Sunni fanatic state that's going to exist in Western Iraq and Eastern Syria? And there, there we might have to act on our own. Let me be slightly overdramatic here, Erin. We may have to treat that Sunnistan the way we have been forced to treat Wezeristan over the past 10 years or so.

BURNETT: With drone attacks and essentially the war on terror there. Let me ask you this, though, General, because what is happening here and obviously ISIS or ISIL is described as a splinter group of al Qaeda. They agree on things but a different command structure. And in 2008, you wrote in the "Washington Post" about the fight against al Qaeda.

These words, of course, will be very familiar to you. You wrote them, "On balance, we are doing pretty well, near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq significant setbacks for al Qaeda globally and here I'm going use that world ideologically as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam." Obviously then things changed dramatically. What went so wrong?

HAYDEN: Well, what went wrong and it's tied to the Arab awakening or Arab spring that unleashed some forces in the Arab Islamic world. But fundamentally in Iraq, we took the training wheels off too early with the Maliki government. When we were contemplating the surge we knew that Nuri Al-Maliki was thin read on which to base a policy and politics of inclusion in Iraq.

That's why we paid so much attention to it. That's why President Bush had video conferences with Maliki about every two weeks, doing a lot of coaching and mentoring. We stopped that in about '09 and cut Maliki loose and the Maliki cut us loose in 2011 and frankly what's happened probably wasn't inevitable, Erin, but it was certainly predictable.

BURNETT: So in the run up to the Iraq war a question of what we know right now with intelligence gathering, obviously at that time, you're head of the NSA. You saw the intelligence, you supported that war. We all know that intelligence when it came to WMD was dead wrong. How do we trust the U.S. intelligence now on ISIS and what risk they pose when we are considering again putting American lives at risk there?

HAYDEN: Sure, and I understand the question. We give it our best shot then and we got it wrong. And frankly, Erin, I don't regret so much getting it wrong. I certainly regret that. I regret that we didn't communicate our ambiguity to policymakers. They came away with a higher confidence level in our judgments than frankly was warranted.

So this intelligence policy dialogue is something that happens every day. Intelligence gives the policymaker its best estimate, but it needs also to communicate to the policymaker any shades of doubt that intelligence still has. And frankly, I think that's going on now.

BURNETT: All right, General, thank you very much. Good to see you as always.

HAYDEN: Good seeing you.

BURNETT: OUTFRONT next, new ISIS recruitment video that is targeted at English speakers. We'll show it to you and talk about why.

Plus new information about Bowe Bergdahl's release. Could he have been freed without anyone leaving Guantanamo Bay?

And this eccentric tycoon wants to buy lunch for a thousand Americans.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have brothers from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Australia, U.K.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That is the new recruiting video from ISIS. That's the militant group terrorizing Iraq, threatening its existence and the president says one that could threaten the American homeland. Michael Holmes is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While ISIS fighters continue their military offensive in Iraq. Supporters of the Jihadist group also launched a public relations offensive online. Blitzing sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube with their extremist message. Their latest salvo, a slickly produced recruitment video shot in high- definition with camerawork and editing to rival a professional production.

The 13-minute video purports to shows a group of ISIS fighters, five young men who claimed to be from Britain and Australia speaking English and urging Western Muslims to join their cause.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All my brothers living in the west, I know how I used to feel when I lived there. You feel depressed. The cure for the depression is (inaudible).

HOLMES: The footage which CNN cannot independently verify appears to have been shot recently in Syria as the circle of men talk about waging war in Iraq. There are other videos of support too, some in different languages like this French speaking militant who calls on Muslims in France to join the Jihad. Experts say while ISIS isn't the first extremist group to build support online they may be the most savvy to date as social media is an important tool for extremist groups.

SETH JONES, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND DEFENSE POLICY CENTER: Over 95 percent of terrorist groups today use Facebook, use things like Twitter, so this is a huge, huge way for groups to collect information. It's a huge way for them to finance and get people to provide assistance to recruit members. Social media is where it's at for these groups.

HOLMES: That leaves many users asking, how can social media sites let this happen? Biz Stone is one of Twitter's founders. While he is no longer with the site, he believes that Twitter must remain neutral.

BIZ STONE, CO-FOUNDER, TWITTER: If you want to create a platform that allows for the freedom of expression for hundreds of millions of people around the world, you really have to take the good with the bad.

HOLMES: On Friday, ISIS supporters aimed to get 1 billion Muslims posting on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, to support the Islamic state. While there were thousands of posts, many supporters tweeting photos of themselves holding up signs of solidarity at landmarks in Spain, France, and the U.K., they did fall dramatically short of their goal of a billion. And many other Muslims took to sites like Twitter to voice their opposition with the #notoISIS. Michael Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: The propaganda offensive by this Jihadist group, is it a dangerous recruitment tool? Joining me now is CNN military analyst, retired Army Major General James "Spider" Marks. General Marks, this is what's amazing, I guess, they are using the internet to recruit. That makes sense, right? It's easy to do it and post it. But the question is, how effective is it?

MAJ. GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it's pretty effective. Absolutely. Not only is the packaging awfully compelling, certainly the message goes to lead generation. There is a huge population of individuals they're going after. So they've got some leads. They have a compelling narrative. Now they just have to close the deal and get them on board.

It's like any other recruiting operation that exists. So it's effective. But what I'm seeing when this is this is a message that's intended for us. It's a forum to give us pause and a form of intimidation. There is enough recruiting taking place organically.

BURNETT: They don't need the videos, right.

MARKS: I think there is enough of a compelling narrative to join the ranks. So I think we spend time talking about it.

BURNETT: Right. So it's not so much targeted as English speakers joining up although certainly I know there are some of those, at least with this extremist groups, but more at policymakers and lawmakers and media?

MARKS: Well, absolutely. And you look at the demographics. I mean, these are 18 to 26-years-old and in many cases they are disenfranchised and now they are mad as hell and they've got brothers and they've got a shared goals. It's an organization that coalesces.

BURNETT: We have been doing a lot of reporting on this. It's amazing what you can find. They are using Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp is now very popular in terms of raising money for Jihad, very openly. I mean, this stuff is not hard to find. What about these companies? Michael Holmes, obviously, you just heard the co-founder of Twitter said you have to take the good with the bad. Do these companies have a responsibility not to post these videos and recruitment things on YouTube?

MARKS: Erin, that good with the bad comment is total bs. I see big red lights going off. There are editorial boards that exist everywhere and stuff hits the floor all the time because it doesn't pass muster. It doesn't have the intellectual content or match the story line they provide. You've to be kidding me that the co-founder of Twitter thinks there is a good with the bad. He's got some moral dilemma. Are you kidding me?

He has to do his level best to cut that out and make it absolutely not available to be used. Clearly, it's not going to be a complete panacea. But they need to work at this. I just -- I don't get it. I don't get this editorial freedom that he is speaking about. Where else does that exist in media.

BURNETT: You have Google with do no evil and then you have YouTube which they are posting these videos. So these guys are on a tough spot. All right, well, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

MARKS: Thanks, Erin.

Tonight, new information emerging that the deal to swap five Taliban commanders for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl may not have been the only option that the White House was considering. The "Wall Street Journal" reporting the administration were other option include just paying a ransom.

Another proposal that was reportedly on the table was trading Bergdahl for an Afghan warlord who is currently serving a life sentence in the United States on drug charges. Now these developments coming in at the same time we are learning more about Bergdahl's recovery.

An official telling CNN Bergdahl is eating and sleeping on a normal schedule. There is security outside his door to protect him. He is interacting with a small staff we are told about fewer than 12 people and he is speaking to a group of professionals about his years in captivity. Key information could be used to determine if Bergdahl did in fact desert his platoon. And as our Ed Lavandera reports Bergdahl is not the only one who has got a hero's welcome after being held in captivity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On January 5, 1965, Charles Jenkins made what he would later call the biggest mistake of his life. That night the 24-year-old army sergeant chugged ten beers and then went on a security patrol along the Korean demilitarized zone looking right into North Korea.

JIM FREDERICK, AUTHOR: He wasn't thinking rationally, but he fuelled up on ten cans of beers and his plan was simply to walk across the DMZ and give himself up.

LAVANDERA: The Army was about to send Jenkins to the Vietnam War and he said he couldn't handle the pressure of leading soldiers into battle.

(on camera): So he deserted the U.S. Army and walked right into a cold war nightmare. As crazy as this might sound, Jenkins thought he could walk into North Korea, turn himself over to the Russians who would send him back to the United States so he could face a court- martial. Instead he spent 40 years as a prisoner in the North Korean regime.

FREDERICK: It doesn't make much sense, but that was his plan and it made sense to him.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Jim Frederick first met Charles Jenkins after he was release from North Korea. He later co-wrote a book with Jenkins called "The Reluctant Communist."

FREDERICK: It's out of a Bond movie. It's unbelievable but it happens to be true.

LAVANDERA: Jenkins was forced to read the writings of North Korean leaders for eight hours a day. He was also forced to teach North Korean spies English. During his captivity, Jenkins met and married a Japanese woman. The North Koreans abducted her off the streets of Japan to also teach spies. And in 2004, the North Koreans released the couple and their two daughters.

Jenkins turned himself into the U.S. Army to face criminal charges 40 years later. But the release made a minor splash in the U.S. when the cold war deserter returned to North Carolina for the first time.

Even the U.S. Army sympathized cutting a plea deal with Jenkins, he was dishonorably discharged and spent less than 30 days in jail.

FREDERICK: It wasn't a hero's welcome. He was never celebrated as a hero. But he was gone for 40 years and most people understood he suffered mightily and made this gigantic mistake.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you know I have made peace with the U.S. Army.

FREDERICK: They said time served. Forty years in North Korea is time serve except you have to do 30 days here in this jail and go live your life and have a good life.

LAVANDERA: Whether he is charged as a deserter or not, Bowe Bergdahl is coming home to a highly politicized atmosphere after years of captivity, will Bowe Bergdahl find the peace that Charles Jenkins found late in life. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Haley, Idaho.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: That's an incredibly story and I want to let you know that Charles Jenkins after his time in the U.S. jail now lives with his wife on an island off the coast of Japan.

Still to come, what the pope thinks about legalizing pot. He weighed in aggressively so.

And one of our own reporters is caught in the middle of this heated protest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight the Pope takes on pot. Pope Francis speaking out against the worldwide trend towards legalizing recreational drugs, calling it a very, very bad idea. At a drug enforcement conference in Rome he said -- I'll quote him -- "Drug addiction is an evil and with evil there can be no yielding or compromise." OUTFRONT tonight, CNN religion commentator Father Beck, senior editor

of "Reason" magazine Brian Doherty and former senior drug policy adviser to President Obama Kevin Sabet. He is the author of "Weed for Sanity: Seven Great Myths about Marijuana."

All right, great to have all of you with us.

Father Beck, let me start with you. This Pope is not afraid to break with convention and incredibly savvy in terms of his weighing in on issues that people are talking about right now. Drugs and marijuana particularly are one of them.

Why put his foot down here, though?

FATHER EDWARD BECK, CNN RELIGION COMMENTATOR: Well, he's a moral religious leader and he sees this as deleterious to society and individuals. Addictive behavior, he knows from being a pastor, is destructive. So he's going to speak against it because he's seen what it can do and he's going to say he doesn't want it to advance any more than it can.

We know that 4.7 million people in this country say that they are marijuana addicted or dependent. So that increases the health care costs. That increases all of the addictive behavior that we see and increases crimes, studies have shown, as you begin to legalize it in places like Amsterdam. So he looks at this and says, look, as pastor I can't say yes to this. This is injurious to people's health. Why would we legalize this?

BURNETT: Wow. And that's an interesting point.

I mean, Brian, you just heard the number Father Beck mentioned, the 4.7 million in the U.S. but it is still considered -- still an illegal drug, considered a schedule one controlled substance. The same as heroin and ecstasy. Does the Pope have a point?

BRIAN DOHERTY, SENIOR EDITOR, REASON MAGAZINE AND REASON.COM: No. The Pope is dead wrong on this. But fortunately for him I think we can say it's a sin of ignorance. If the Pope cares about the least among us, which is his job as pastor, he should understand that it's in fact drug laws that do enormous amount of damage to millions of the least among us like through arrest, through education that's derailed, through families that are destroyed.

A modern Pope should understand that sins should not always be crimes. And in the same way the Catholic Church have managed to make peace with the existence of alcohol as a substance that people use and even sometimes abuse, he should also be able to make peace with marijuana and certainly should not discourage ruining the lives of the least well off over this completely failed international crusade against drugs.

BURNETT: Kevin?

KEVIN SABET, SMART APPROACHES TO MARIJUANA: Yes, I don't think the Pope did that at all. I think he realizes this is a bad policy. I was actually struck by the Pope's comments beyond there's the evil quote that was shown about him talking about how this has not worked out well in places it's been tried. He talked about the negative effects more from a consequentialist point of view. Not just a moral point of view. Because I think he sees this as essentially the next big tobacco industry for our country and our world.

And, you know, he realizes that actually -- when talked about the least among us it's the massive corporations that are starting the multi-million dollar funding groups, the Wall Street groups that are putting these edibles, these cookies and candies on the market in Colorado that are copying major brand names to be able to look like cookies and candies that we all are familiar with.

BURNETT: Right.

SABET: That are actually preying among the least among us. And if you look at, you know, for example, minority neighborhoods in this country, if you want to talk about deleterious effects we should ask the question why there are, for example, eight times as many liquor stores in poor communities in this country than there are in upper class communities? It's because these are major industries that prey among the least among us. So I think the Pope is exactly right.

BURNETT: But, Father Beck, so people -- marijuana can help people who are very ill and to the point that Brian made there are a lot of people who end up in jail for these kinds of infractions who might otherwise might not end up in jail and be able to have productive lives.

BECK: Erin, medical marijuana is different from what the Pope is talking about. He is talking about legalizing it for recreational use. I had a mother die of lung cancer at 69 years old. Fifty of the carcinogens in marijuana smoke are the same as tobacco. You can have an increase of lung cancer. You're killing people more quickly by legalizing marijuana. So it comes from personal perspective, having dealt with addicts. It leads to harder drug use. I have seen it in my ministry. I think the Pope is right on target speaking against it.

BURNETT: Now there is some studies, Brian, that had been done about that in terms of leading to harder drug use. But I know that there's been a question of, are those people who would go in that direction anyway or more likely to be addicts, as opposed to whether one leads to the other, but there studies that do show that.

SABET: Yes. I mean, look, the issue is this is not a question. This does not have to be a choice between incarceration, which Brian is talking about, and I share so many of the same concerns. We don't want to incarcerate our way out of a health problem or legalization. Why does it have to be between those two extremes? Let's see what the medical compounds or components are valuable in marijuana, deliver them at a pharmacy with a well-known, you know, composition so we know what it is.

BURNETT: Right.

SABET: We don't need to incarcerate, though, or legalize in order to do -- have sensible policy.

BURNETT: You know, I want to play something for you, Brian. This is an interesting thing, you know, Chris Christie is dealing with this in the state of New Jersey as are governors across the country but he was talking about this issue between medical marijuana and whether it should be legalized or whether having medical marijuana was a slippery slope to full legalization of marijuana which is a big question. And here's what he said and what he said back in April. I want to compare the two.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: What there is a huge demand for is marijuana. Not medical marijuana, see, because when we run a medically based program you don't see the demand. See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado where there's, you know, head shops popping up in every corner. And people flying into your airports just to come and get high.

You know, I -- to me, it's just not the quality of life that we want to have here in the state of New Jersey and there's no tax revenue that's worth that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Brian?

DOHERTY: Yes. Well, while we have dozens of states now that have legalized medical we so far only have two that are have fully legalized. But I would say that if it is a slippery slope then ride on. And it actually should be because Colorado and Washington have both recognized that there is nothing to be gained by keeping these drugs illegal and there's a lot to lose for countries like Mexico that are in chaos over the violence that illegal drugs create for the millions of lives ruined by arrests for something this stupid.

I hope Christie is right and I hope the rest of this country and the world doesn't listen to the Pope, but listens to common sense and realized the war on drug doesn't work --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: But what about Christie's point? That there's no tax revenue that's worth a bunch of pot heads.

(CROSSTALK)

SABET: You know, Erin, for every dollar --

DOHERTY: What does that mean? That's absurd.

SABET: Well, what it means is this. That the tax revenue that you get is going to be way out pale by comparison to the cost. And for alcohol and tobacco today, Erin, for every dollar in those taxes that we get it costs us 10 in social costs. The lottery, other things are the same thing. So what they're saying in Colorado -- DOHERTY: How about the trillions we spent on the war on drugs in this

country?

SABET: Well, hold on --

(CROSSTALK)

SABET: You know, Brian, we can work on the worst parts of those. I think we need to have drug treatment course, we need to have hope probation, we need reentry program, we need increased treatment and prevention. But that doesn't mean -- you're giving us a false choice, Brian, between --

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: And what about --

SABET: Or legalization on the other hand.

BECK: But what about --

SABET: It's not between those two extremes.

BECK: What about what it says morally? I mean, what the Pope is saying is look, happiness and fulfillment is not going to be found here. You try to anesthetize yourself as a society. There are deeper issues that you have to get to. Recreational drug use is not going to solve your problems. That's the basic message here.

DOHERTY: In the Pope's own words in Rio last year, the deeper issues are justice, the values that build up life and giving people hope for the future and arresting people for drug use destroys all those values. Like I said, I think it's a sin of ignorance for the Pope and I hope he learns better.

BURNETT: All right. We'll leave it there. Thank you very much.

Still OUTFRONT, a CNN reporter getting roughed up in the violent -- in the middle of a violent protest. We're going to show you exactly what happened.

And a shouting match on Capitol Hill. This one was pretty great to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: I don't -- I don't believe you. This is incredible.

JOHN KOSKINEN, IRS COMMISSIONER: I have a long career. That's the first time anybody has said they do not believe me.

PAUL: I don't believe you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tempers were flaring on Capitol Hill today. Lawmakers tearing into the new IRS commissioner over claims his agency lost thousands of subpoenaed e-mails because of a crashed hard drive. People asking the question, how that could be possible to lose e-mails these days when the NSA seems to be sitting on them for decades.

Congressman Paul Ryan led the charge, arguing the IRS has repeatedly misled Congress. He immediately stronger words than that. The IRS chief, though, was defiant and Dana Bash has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regular order, Mr. Levin.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the annals of white hot moments on Capitol Hill, this IRS hearing ranks high.

RYAN: This is a pattern of abuse, a pattern of behavior that is not giving us any confidence that this agency is being impartial. I don't -- I don't believe you. This is incredible.

KOSKINEN: I have a long career. That's the first time anybody has said they do not believe me. I'm actually --

RYAN: I don't believe you.

BASH: Former Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan is usually more policy wonk than attack dog but not here.

RYAN: You asked taxpayers to hand seven years of their personal tax information in case they're ever audited, and you can't keep six months worth of employee e-mails?

BASH: Republicans pushed John Koskinen on new IRS claims that two years of e-mails from IRS official Lois Lerner vanished because Lerner's hard drive crashed. E-mails from the same timeframe the IRS targeted Tea Party and other groups.

KOSKINEN: The actual hard drive after it was determined that it was dysfunctional and that with experts, no e-mails could be retrieved, was recycled and destroyed in the normal process.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So was it physically destroyed?

KOSKINEN: That's my understanding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So was it melted down? Do you know?

KOSKINEN: I have no idea what the recycler does with it. This was three years ago.

BASH: The IRS commissioner repeatedly said Lerner herself worked with IT, even an IRS criminal forensics lab to restore the e-mails but they couldn't. Beyond the question of what happened to Lerner's missing e- mails is whether the IRS purposely kept Congress in the dark, that e- mails were lost, fueling GOP accusations of cover-up which Koskinen flatly denied.

KOSKINEN: There's been no attempt to keep it a secret. My position has been that when we provide information, we should provide it completely. If we provide you incomplete information, people sometimes are tempted to leap to the wrong conclusion.

BASH: It was testy right out of the gate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I didn't hear in that was an apology to this committee.

KOSKINEN: I don't think an apology is owed.

BASH: The IRS commissioner tried to give as good as he got from Republicans, with backup from Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Could the witness answer the question?

BASH: They mocked Republicans for obsessing over conspiracy theories.

REP. RICHARD NEAL (D), MASSACHUSETTS: The only thing that's missing is Oliver Stone.

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D), TEXAS: How about Area 51 out in Roswell, New Mexico, where all those space aliens alleged came? Have you had any responsibility for that?

KOSKINEN: No.

DOGGETT: Have you ever had custody of the president's birth certificate?

KOSKINEN: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH : When this IRS scandal first broke, there was bipartisan outrage at the IRS but no more. Democrats now believe that this is just a partisan witch hunt, really aimed at getting out the conservative Republican base for November's elections because this is something that really energizes them -- Erin.

BURNETT: Amazing to watch all that.

OUTFRONT next, tensions running high on the streets of the West Bank. A CNN reporter caught in the middle of the violence. We want to show you this. Just incredible that this actually happened and is on tape.

Plus you'll meet the eccentric Chinese millionaire coming to the United States who plans on giving away a portion of his fortune.

And is this man too good looking for jail? Hundreds of woman say yes. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Outrage boiling over on the streets of the West Bank, hundreds gathered to demonstrate the arrests of more than 300 Palestinians after the kidnappings of three Israeli teens on June 12th.

Our senior correspondent Ben Wedeman was there. He was covering the Hamas affiliated protesters when all of a sudden, the crowd turned, then a news crew found themselves getting roughed up. He was OUTFRONT in Jerusalem.

And Ben, what happened?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Erin, we've gone to the southern West Bank city of Hebron, nearby where on the 12th of June those three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped. Now we went to cover a protest by Hamas members and sympathizers in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, some of whom have been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days.

Now as we were filming this protest, there was a large security presence by the Palestinian Authority, and at a certain point, I heard one of the plainclothes policemen on the scene saying to another in Arabic, grab that camera and grab that cameraman. Now I ran up to Joe Sheffer, our cameraman, and told him it's time to go then all pandemonium broke out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: No, no, no. He's going to take -- he's going to take your camera now, go, go, go, go.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: We eventually got our camera back after quite a struggle. The crew is fine, just a few bruises and scratches, however, the camera is in pieces and is not going to be seeing service again -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you. Those crowds can turn just so quickly.

And now to a much lighter story, Jeremy Meeks, apparently the hottest thing on the Web today if you look he's on the trending list. I'm looking right now. You don't know the name, you might have seen his face. This mug shot of Meeks says received more than 75,000 likes and 10,000 shares since it was posted online on Wednesday by the Stockton Police Department.

Meeks is currently in custody on felony weapons charges. So you know, we don't know how serious or significant that is, but it has not stopped thousands of adoring women and men from lusting after him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blue eyes, full lips and a strong jaw line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy's eyes lips and chiseled face were a hit with the ladies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, wow, come to mama, he's hot, all that stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Matt likes him? Which brings us to tonight's number, 87, that's the number of people who have donated money online to help spring Meeks from jail. Most of them anonymous. So there could be a Matt Lauer among them?

Well, yesterday his mother launched a fundraising page to help with his million-dollar bail, which is why there's the point that they're pretty (INAUDIBLE). It could be a pretty serious infringement here, but at the moment, his fans have kicked in only $1500.

Still to come, the singing tycoon who wants to give away millions in America.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: He sings and dances and gives away millions of dollars. Who is this eccentric Chinese tycoon who's doing this right here in New York?

Here's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's the wealthy Chinese philanthropist with a flair for the dramatic. There he is dressed in an environmentally friendly green giving away cars while holding a bicycle. I know, doesn't make much sense. Singing is Chen Guangbiao's shtick. This, a New York press conference

when he announced he wanted to buy "The New York Times." The "Times" said thanks but no thanks. Chen has now taken out a full page ad in the Gray Lady to announce that he's not only buying lunch for a thousand homeless people in Central Park's fabulous and fancy Boat House Restaurant, he's also giving them 300 bucks each.

Yes, there is a free lunch and it comes with a large tip.

(On camera): You are a friend of Chen Guangbiao?

ZHAG YUNLONG, FRIEND OF CHEN GUANGBIAO: Yes.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Zhan Yunlong is helping Chen organize the lunch. He says it will cost more than $8 million. He also says more than 2,000 people have already RSVP'd yes.

(On camera): Why does he want to buy lunch for 1,000 homeless people?

ZHAG: Yes, Mr. Chen, his philanthropy, that is his style.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): His style, unique, the recycling magnet worth over $800 million says he wants to encourage other wealthy Chinese to give to charity. He gave millions to earthquake efforts in Sichuan, China that killed more than 80,000 people, even carrying some victims on his back.

His business card made him even more famous when it made the rounds online, among other things it claims Chen is not only the most charismatic philanthropist of China, he is also the most well known and beloved Chinese role model.

He also made headlines when he handed out cans of fresh air, his face on every can in uber-smoggy Beijing.

"I'm making an exaggerated point," he says. "If we don't start protecting our air, our descendants will all have to wear gas masks."

No gas masks here in Central Park. Chen partnered with NYC Rescue Mission for the lunch where no donation is ignored.

CRAIG MAYES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NY RESCUE MISSION: Partly, it seemed like a crazy idea but I like crazy and we felt our philosophy really is we'll work with anyone for the right cause.

MARQUEZ: The cause most definitely right, but with the "New York Post" calling his idea fortune cookie, he's made a splash, now he has to swim. Miguel Marquez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: That's just a fantastic story. Thanks everyone for watching. Have a wonderful weekend. Anderson starts now.