Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

President Speaks about Working on Immigration Reform; Interview with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest; Ebola Survivor Amber Vinson Speaks Out

Aired November 06, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Admitting defeat. President Obama addresses how his party was thrashed in the midterms and vows to work with the new Republican Congress. But immigration reform is on the table and both sides seem to be pointing sabers instead of reaching out a hand. What's going to happen for the next few years?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Deadly attacks. Palestinian drivers slamming into crowds of Israelis, the terrifying moments caught on video. One suspect is dead, another in custody. We have a live report ahead.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Amber Vinson, the Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola and sparked outrage by flying on a plane after she was infected, she's speaking out and sharing her ordeal in an interview with CNN. She explains why she got on that flight and how she fought and beat Ebola.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY continues right now.

Good morning, welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Thursday, November 6th, just about, bingo, 8:00 in the east. Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here with news of what the new reality in Washington will be. Both sides are saying they want to work together, right, but now a mixed message from the president.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And Democrats say he is saying all the right things publicly. He's insisting he is ready to work with the GOP for the next two years while assuring millions of angry voters "I hear you." But he's also showing a bit of a stubborn streak by stirring the pot on immigration reform, saying he's willing to act alone. Let's bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta to make sense of all of this. Hi, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. That's right, you hear a lot of talk of compromise this morning, but the battle lines are also being drawn, especially on the issue of immigration reform as you mentioned. The president's aides say he will take executive action on immigration by the end of the year. That could mean relaxing deportations for millions of undocumented immigrants. Here's the president and the incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell drawing swords over this issue yesterday during their dueling news conferences. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am eager to see what they have to offer. But what I'm not going to do is just wait. My executive actions not only do not prevent them from passing a law that supersedes those actions but should be a spur for them to actually try to get something done.

MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say you guys don't do what I want, I'm going to do it on my own. And the president's done that on Obamacare, he's done it on immigration, and threatening to do it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And speaking of that flashpoint of Obamacare, the incomein Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell there and the House Speaker, John Boehner, they have an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" this morning that says they are coming after Obamacare. We'll put this up on screen. They're talking about how they heard the words of the voters yesterday, and that means according to both of these leaders, "renewing our commitment," in their words, "to repeal Obamacare," which they say is hurting the job market along with Americans' health care, there it is on screen right there. The president saying during his news conference yesterday that is not happening. He will not sign a repeal into law.

But they'll have plenty of time to talk about all this tomorrow when 16 Democratic and Republican congressional leaders come to the White House to meet with the president. As the president said yesterday he's willing to have a drink with Mitch McConnell, even some Kentucky bourbon, but no word yet whether any bourbon will be served, although after this week, we could all use a drink. Alisyn and Chris?

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: All right, we will talk about that bourbon summit and whether it's going to happen. Thanks so much, Jim.

Joining us now is Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. Good morning, Josh.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good morning, Alisyn. How are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm doing well, how are you feeling?

EARNEST: I'm doing great, thank you.

CAMEROTA: So as you know, the new catch words in Washington, D.C., today are "compromise," "bipartisan action," "collaboration." How willing do you think the president really is to do some of the things that Republicans want?

EARNEST: Well, I think, Alisyn, the more important question is how willing is the president to do things that will benefit middle class families. The president is very willing to work with Republicans to do things that benefit middle class families. I think, at least our early indications from some Republicans are, they may be interested in doing some things with the president cooperatively to advance the cause -- to advance middle class families and to expand and enhance their economic opportunities.

CAMEROTA: OK.

EARNEST: The thing that we have seen, Alisyn, over the last six years is we've seen Republicans consider it to be in their own political interests to actually oppose every single thing that the president tried to support and everything the president tried to advance.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

EARNEST: So the question is, has the deck been reshuffled in such a way that Republicans are now in a position to say, you know what, there are a couple of things that we agree on that would benefit middle class families. Let's take action on them. That really I think is the open question both for the remainder of this year but also over the course of the next two years.

CAMEROTA: Your point is well-taken that the devil is in the details as always. Let's get specific. Let's talk about a couple of things that maybe they could compromise on that at least Republicans say would benefit middle class families. For instance, the Keystone pipeline, Republicans say that would increase jobs. Is the president ready to authorize that?

EARNEST: Well, I know the Republicans say that a lot. That's not really what economists say, though. What the president has said and this is what we're going to do here, we're actually going to allow the State Department to conduct their regular process of evaluating whether or not the construction of the Keystone pipeline would actually be in the national interests of the United States of America. So that is a process up and running.

CAMEROTA: Haven't environmentalists figured that out? Thus far most studies have suggested that we could figure out a way to do it without harming the soil or the air. It seems as though that question has been answered. What are we still waiting for?

EARNEST: Well, we're waiting on a couple of things. The first is, I do think it continues to be an open question about what impact the construction of the pipeline would have on those causes of climate change, and I think that is a concern that the president has articulated a couple of times now, first in the speech that he delivered about a year and a half ago.

The second thing we're waiting on is that there have been some disputes in Nebraska about the proper route of the pipeline. There have been concerns that pipeline right now is slated to run over some sensitive area in Nebraska, and a Nebraska judge right now is considering some various proposals for where that pipeline would be constructed. Once some of those things are resolved then the State Department can do their work of evaluating whether or not a pipeline like this is actually in the national interest of the United States of America. That's the way this process has worked in the previous administrations and it's the process that we're going to run here, too.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's talk about immigration reform. That's something that everyone seems to be talking about today. The president is interested in a path toward citizenship, and Republicans are, some, have refused to move forward on that or say they're not comfortable with it. Will the president use executive action to get his vision for immigration reform?

EARNEST: Alisyn, you're right, there you some Republicans who have come together with Democrats on the Capitol Hill, in the United States Senate, I might add, to pass legislation, bipartisan legislation that would address so many of the problems that are plaguing our broken immigration system right now. They would address these problems in a way that would actually create jobs, that would reduce the deficit, that would expand economic opportunity, that would strengthen the border and strengthen our homeland security. This is a common sense piece of legislation that represents a compromise, as the president acknowledged yesterday. It's not a piece of legislation that he would have written himself, but it is certainly something that reflects the principles that he's laid out. There's bipartisan ground around this.

And frankly, what we'd still like to see, Alisyn, is the House of Representatives take up this piece of legislation. If they do, we know it will pass. There's enough bipartisan support for it in the House. The only reason it hasn't gotten a vote is we've seen House Republicans block it, and not really for a very good reason, I might add.

CAMEROTA: If they block it, or if somehow it doesn't come up for a vote, is the president willing to use executive action on this? And the reason that I ask is because we have spoken to some Republicans as early as an hour ago, as recently, I should say, as an hour ago who said that that would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. If the president were still firmly saying I'm going to use my pen and my phone and executive action, that that doesn't sound like the new spirit of bipartisanship.

EARNEST: Well, Alisyn, what it does reflect though is it reflects the president's commitment to getting things done on behalf of middle class families across the country, and making progress to solve so many of the problems that we all acknowledge exist with our broken immigration system would actually be the kind of action that voters voted for in the last election.

So much of what has consumed Washington in the last two years are partisan debates that haven't yielded a lot of results. And what the president is basically saying is, look, I want to work with Republicans to get results. But if I have the capacity using the authority that I have that's vested in the constitution of the United States to get results from the American people, then I'm going to act to do it. And I think it's strange, frankly, in my mind that anybody would be critical of the idea that if the president can take action to benefit middle class families that for some political reason he shouldn't.

CAMEROTA: One of the things that Republicans have said is that they're sure that the president's heart or spirit is in the right place, but that his tone, his style, I should say, hasn't always worked for them. They've called him aloof. They've called him removed. They've called him distant. I think it was Mitch McConnell who said he's only had a one-on-one with the president maybe once in the past six years. Is the president going to do something different in terms of his style of embracing Republicans moving forward?

EARNEST: Alisyn, I guess I have to admit that I would be surprised if Republicans were going to say they somehow were offended or didn't sort of feel that the president was affectionate enough and for that reason they were going to refuse to do their jobs. I don't think that that's the position that the vast majority of Republicans are going to take.

I think the vast majority of Republicans, like the president, are pretty pragmatic. And I take them at their word when they say that they're going to sit down with the president and try to find common ground and try to make progress on behalf of the American people. What the president I think was pretty clear about in the context of yesterday's news conference was that he's going to sit down with Republicans. In fact he's invited them here to the White House at the end of this week, tomorrow in fact, where he'll sit down with the 16 highest ranking members of the United States Congress, Democrats and Republicans, members of the House and members of the Senate, to plot out the way forward for the next two months and to start talking about what we can get done over the course of the next two years.

If in the context of those conversations the Republicans say look, Mr. President, we'd like to you do a couple things differently than you have been in the past, the president is certainly open to doing things differently if it's actually going to result in the kinds of changes that are going to benefit middle class families. That's the bottom line here. What does the president need to do to make progress for middle class families in Washington, D.C.? And if there are things the president needs to change in order to make progress he won't hesitate to make those changes.

CAMEROTA: OK, so, last question, will we see a bourbon summit between Mitch McConnell and President Obama?

(LAUGHTER)

EARNEST: Well, we'll have to see. I'm not sure what Senator McConnell's drink of choice is.

CAMEROTA: It's bourbon.

EARNEST: If so, I'm confident that the president will be looking eagerly for an opportunity to share a bourbon with the new majority leader.

The fact is I don't know if something like that is going to take place in public, but the president has a genuine desire to try to find common ground with Republicans and with their leaders. And he's not just looking for common ground for the sake of negotiating. He's looking for common ground for the sake of making progress for middle class families. That's the bottom line, can we get results? And if we can by having a glass of bourbon with the new majority leader from the commonwealth of Kentucky, then the president will do that as often as is necessary.

CAMEROTA: There you go. All right, Josh Earnest, thanks so much for taking time for us, great to talk to you.

EARNEST: Thank you, Alisyn, nice to talk to you, too.

CAMEROTA: Thanks. Let's get over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much Alisyn. Ten minutes past your hour now. Let's give you a look at those headlines.

A Palestinian man who claims he was the driver who plowed into three Israeli soldiers has turned himself in. This happened at the West Bank checkpoint near Bethlehem. Authorities are investigating this now, and also they're investigating a deadly car attack in Jerusalem. Both of them are being investigated as acts of terrorism. CNN's Erin McLaughlin is live for us in Jerusalem. Erin?

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, this morning I spoke to the wife of Ibrahim al Akari. He is the main suspect in what Israeli officials are calling a terrorist attack that happened on a Jerusalem light rail station yesterday that killed one border police officer and injured 13 others.

Now, his wife told me that she believed this was a revenge attack. She says that her husband in the morning was watching television. He saw clashes unfolding at the Al Aqsa mosque. And while she says she didn't know what he was going to do next, she believes, in her words, that the attack was justified.

Now, tensions have been mounting around the site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. There is growing suspensions among members of the Muslim community something could happen to what's called the status quo of the site, and that is that Jews are allowed to visit the site but they are not allowed to pray there.

And while Israeli government officials this morning reiterating this position that nothing is going to happen to that status quo, the increasing pace of visits from members of the Israeli far right coupled with restrictions placed on access to the mosque has Muslims concerned that that may not be the case, and yesterday Jordan recalled its ambassador to Israel and says that it is referring the matter to the U.N. security council. Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right, Erin, thanks for the update on that. We appreciate it.

The White House says President Obama is asking Congress for $6 billion to fight Ebola both in the United States and in West Africa. This as a field hospital to treat health workers, rather, who contract Ebola is preparing to open its doors in Liberia. This would be staffed by members of the United States public health service. It is hoped this facility will ease concerns that doctors and nurses have about going to fight the disease which has killed thousands now in West Africa.

Another victory for supporters of same-sex marriage. A judge in Missouri ruled the state's gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. This ruling immediately prompted St. Louis to begin issuing marriage licenses. The attorney general has appealed the ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court but had not asked for a stay allowing same-sex marriage ceremonies to proceed.

You don't need me to tell you that newscasters are serious people. You know we do like to have some fun and get down with a good foot. Exhibit A, Dan Thorn, anchorman WBNS in West Virginia. It turns out Dan likes to really get his dance on during the short commercial breaks. He's got the moves of a certain, I don't know, non-governing Cuomo. What do you think?

CAMEROTA: I agree!

PEREIRA: We understand this, Alisyn, completely unimpressed, which seems also vaguely familiar to what happens here during the commercial breaks. I have video, I'm just saying, I have video.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I know you do. She's ignoring him, like we have to.

PEREIRA: You have to.

CUOMO: I feel for Anchorman Thorn having to deal with his co-anchor who only cares about herself. So they can't reach out an embrace his own moment there.

CAMEROTA: Celebrate you for your dance moves. This is what I'm talking about. We're trying to make this straight. You need to understand.

CUOMO: Put me straight, I'm sideways. What am I levitating? What were you doing there? Were you having a convulsion, a seizure?

CAMEROTA: I was dancing along with you. I meant to ignore you.

CUOMO: That's dancing, right?

PEREIRA: You do a mean Charleston, by the way.

CUOMO: That is true. See, I can embrace the success of those around me, as rare as it is.

CAMEROTA: Once a year on Halloween, so look forward to that 360 whatever days from now.

CUOMO: Hmm, math.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: That's great. Michaela?

PEREIRA: Thank you. My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: All right. Amber Vinson, as you remember, contracted Ebola at a Dallas hospital, if that was not bad enough she came under heavy criticism for flying with the virus when she says she didn't know she was infected. What was her reaction to all of that public outrage? Our Don Lemon spoke with Amber Vinson. He'll be here with her reaction.

CUOMO: Also, huge relief for friends and family of a Pennsylvania woman, last time they saw her, it was on this surveillance -- she was abducted and shoved in a car, and we know how too many of the stories end.

But guess what? Not this one. She's been found alive. We'll tell you about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: So many of us are worried about controlling and contracting Ebola, fears fueled by horror stories of what it's like. Well, now, Ebola survivor Amber Vinson is telling us the reality. The Dallas nurse reveals the agony of the illness and something else that hurt, being questioned when she flew on a commercial jet after treating a Liberian man with Ebola.

Vinson sat down with Don Lemon and had quite a conversation. Take a look and a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER VINSON, FORMER EBOLA PATIENT: I'm a nurse. I care. I care for me. I would not put myself in danger first, I would not take Ebola to my family and my best girlfriends. I would not endanger families across the nation potentially exposing them to anything.

I had no symptoms. There was no way at that time I could not transmit it. So the science of it, no symptoms, you can't transmit it, so getting on that plane was just like whoever sat next to me getting on the plane. They had no symptoms either, you know? So I would not, it's never my goal or intention to bring harm to anyone.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That really affected you?

VINSON: Yes.

LEMON: Why?

VINSON: Because it's not me. All I do is care. All I want do is help. I would never try to hurt anyone.

LEMON: That hurt, it hurts when people say that?

VINSON: Yes, because it is so not me. So far beyond what, who I am, I'm always caring. I'm always, you know, I put others before myself always.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Don Lemon joins us now to talk more.

Hi, Don.

LEMON: Good morning. How are you guys?

CAMEROTA: Doing well. Tell us what your thoughts were?

LEMON: It hits really right here, actually right here for her, right, because the first thing I said was, you survived Ebola, right? How does that feel? And she talked about that.

But what she really talked about how she feels the CDC handled it, the public, and the media, that it really hurt her, because she put her life on the line every day as a health care worker and she said, you know, I thought about it. But that's what I signed up for. You know, I thought about it when he came in, and they told us about what he had and what he contracted. That's what I signed up for, and so I went and I get the call of duty and all of a sudden I'm getting blamed.

CUOMO: Do you think she has a point though? Because the indecision by the CDC, the mix message --

LEMON: I think she does.

CUOMO: -- wound up making a target out of somebody who was doing the best thing possible.

LEMON: Not only a target, but she also talked about what the other nurses talked about, about the protocol, about being protected, about she said she never had a gap like the other nurses talked about, but she did see the other nurses.

She says I'm a hippie girl. I said 1960s? She said no, I have some hips.

She wore a bigger suit so she could be comfortable in her suit. We talked about. She said so I was covered.

CAMEROTA: How did she get it?

LEMON: She doesn't know how she got it. That's the thing.

I talked to her about how it felt as well and she talked a little bit about how she got it, let's look at what it was like to have Ebola.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What does it feel like?

VINSON: It takes so much out of you. It really does. It is very draining, and even now, walking a short distance, I get short of breath, but when I was going through my very rough couple of days, who was -- you got to force yourself to get up and forcing yourself takes a lot out of you, too. It's a struggle. You're fighting for your life.

LEMON: Did you ever think that you could lose your life, that you might not make it?

VINSON: I have such great faith and I was reading my Bible, reading Scriptures, and I didn't feel like it was my time yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wasn't her time. We talk about how she thinks she got it. Again she doesn't know for sure. She has maybe a little bit of an idea. But the interesting thing to me is, this whole Ebola stigma quite honestly and I told her that during the interview, we called around to a number of different places.

CUOMO: To do the interview?

LEMON: To do the interview and they said --

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh!

LEMON: They said no.

So, I was on the radio yesterday and people were asking me, you went to West Africa to trace your family roots, you had to take all the medication. How are you protecting yourself when you go to the interview? I said what do you mean? She doesn't have Ebola anymore, she can't spread Ebola.

PEREIRA: She doesn't have symptoms.

LEMON: And we went out to a couple places before we did the interview, I wanted the family to be comfortable and they were nice to us and when we called back to say we would like to do the interview there --

PEREIRA: No, thanks.

LEMON: No thank you.

CAMEROTA: That's really telling.

All right, Don, thanks so much.

LEMON: Tonight at 10:00.

CAMEROTA: Yes, great.

CUOMO: Information is power, and as don just said, please, tune in tonight. Everybody wants to hear Amber Vinson's story, 10:00 Eastern Time, you get the full prime time exclusive interview with Amber Vinson, one great reason to watch tonight, the other one is we'll be on.

CAMEROTA: Oh, yes, that's right.

CUOMO: You're not going to be there.

LEMON: No.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Don.

Wait until you see this story, a Philadelphia nurse whose violent abduction was caught on camera, she has been found alive, we're happy to report this morning. Her suspected captor now behind bars and we're live on the ground with how this all happened.

CUOMO: And you know him -- sharp humor, unique brand of comedy, John Cleese will talk about his new book and we'll ask him about the Jon Stewart voting, how does he see it? The knights of nee!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Update to a dramatic story for you -- a woman violently abducted off of streets of Philadelphia was rescued in Maryland and she's now headed back home. Carlesha Freeman-Gaither was found live in the back seat of her alleged kidnappers car. She's out of the hospital this morning after being examined overnight. The kidnapping was captured on this shocking surveillance video.

CNN's jean Casarez is following the latest developments for us from Maryland this morning.

Jean, what is the latest?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carlesha was released from the hospital behind me several hours ago, basically in the middle night and she went back home. She's now being reunited with her family. Her family tells me they are overjoyed. They say she is absolutely a hero in all of this and I'm also talking with the captain, James Crowley, out of Charles County, Virginia, to see how this came down.

In October of this year, which was just last month, there was an abduction of a young girl who was a minor. It was a found through DNA to be allegedly Delvin Barnes. And so, because of that, this captain in Virginia knew of him. He saw the surveillance photos and he realized that the car that he was driving had been equipped with a GPS monitoring system because of his credit history. So, he contacted the dealership yesterday, found out through the GPS monitoring.