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New Day

President to Meet with Congressional Leaders; U.S. Airstrikes Kill Terror Bomb Maker; Threats From the GOP to Repeal Obamacare

Aired November 07, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: He's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening today -- the big meeting between the president and congressional leaders, we have what they are saying on the way in. The question is, what will they do on the way out?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Taken out, officials believe they've eliminated a top al Qaeda bomb-make anywhere Syria. The Frenchman apparently tried to concoct a bomb that could be smuggled on U.S.- bound airplanes. We're breaking it down.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Vicious attack, a patient on a rampage attacks staffers at a Minnesota hospital armed with a metal bar that he ripped from the side of a bed, four nurses were injured. That attacker dead after he was brought down by a tazer. We have the dramatic story.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning, and welcome to the best kind of NEW DAY, a Friday. It is November 7, almost just a couple of ticks from 6 a.m. in the East. There it is. Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here with news of this much-hyped meeting at the White House. This will be the first real chance to see if anybody down there is serious about putting you first.

CAMEROTA: Well, one top Republican is already warning the president will, quote, "get burned" by going it alone on immigration, and renewed threats from the GOP to repeal Obamacare, so not promising developments yet.

Democrats also are not very pleased with the president, because they're still licking their wounds from that epic thrashing in the midterm elections.

CUOMO: All right. So let's get to what's being said and what we can expect when this actually happens. We have senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta and Dana Bash, our chief congressional correspondent.

Dana, let me come right to you. You had a conversation with Jim Boehner that really -- John Boehner that really may set the tone for the reality of where the Republicans' heads are going into this. Let's just play this exchange really quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you expect the president to trust that you really want to work together? When out of the gate you say that you want to repeal his signature law that you know has no chance of getting a veto-proof majority. How do you expect him to trust you -- trust you?

BOEHNER: Listen, my job is to listen to the American people. The American people have made it clear, they're not for Obamacare. You ask all those Democrats who lost their elections Tuesday night. A lot of them voted for Obamacare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Dana, here's the weird thing about this, is that when you look at the data that we have about Obamacare, that doesn't really hold up the proposition you just put in there. Not only were governors put in place who were looking to embrace Medicaid expansion for Obamacare, but the numbers on Obamacare are pretty good now. It's the Democrats they don't like. What was the play here?

BASH: No, you're exactly right. I think it's about 57 percent in our last poll that shows that Americans either favor or want it to go further.

So look, but John Boehner has a different kind of member in his ranks. I mean, because of redistricting, most of his members are from places where people are maybe 90 percent against Obamacare, because they're such conservative districts.

But the big picture, Chris, the issue here is that it just illustrates the difficulty that we're still going to see, even with a Republican- controlled Congress that says that they want to work together. John Boehner still has a lot of people in his caucus and maybe more importantly, outside conservative groups who are pressuring him to keep the fight up on big issues against the president, especially Obamacare,, even though it's a losing fight.

CAMEROTA: So Jim, about this meeting happening at the White House at about noon today, more than a dozen congressional leaders, the top guys going to the White House, is this just for show and lip service? Or will they really get something done today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, I have to tell you from this vantage point of Pennsylvania Avenue, when they look down Pennsylvania Avenue here at the White House, they see that scaffolding up on Capitol Hill, but they see the same Congress.

And I talked to a top White House official about this. And they are very concerned that, in their minds, that the Republicans will be back to their old tricks. Threatening to shut down the government, threatening default. Threatening to repeal Obamacare if they don't get what they want. And so that is -- that is their mindset coming into all of this.

The president is determined to take executive action. They say despite what John Boehner said, that is the plan, that is what's going to happen before the end of the year. And "The New York Times" editorial this morning says, "Do it, Mr. President, make it big." So he's getting a push from behind, from "The New York Times."

You know, it is not just for show in one respect, Alisyn. They do believe that there is a chance for some compromises on areas like trade. If the president can get expanded trade negotiating authority for this big Pacific trade deal that he's going to be working on when he goes to Asia next week, they feel like that will be a big success for the last quarter, as they call it, of this administration.

But no question about it, they've got a lot to fight about, and they will be fighting about it.

CAMEROTA: OK. So we will be watching that closely at noon. And we'll be checking back in with you both. Dana and Jim, thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

ACOSTA: You bet.

CAMEROTA: Let's continue the conversation on the day ahead for the White House with John Avlon. He's our CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast"; and Kevin Madden, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist. Gentlemen, thanks so much. Great to see you.

John, somebody has to give first, that's how compromise works. Somebody has to say, you win the point first, how is this going to happen?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: John, somebody has to give first. That's how compromise works. Somebody, when you're at a stalemate, somebody has to say, "OK, you win the point" first. How's this going to happen?

AVLON: Look, I mean, I think what's important to remember is how much political reality is crafted by personal relationships. And this is an opportunity for a reset. But it's got to be genuine.

If either side comes in feeling like the other side has got to capitulate first and compromise remains a dirty word in Washington, nothing is going to get done. If it really is a spirit of "it is in both our interests and the country's interests to get something done together," then we've got a real promise for the road ahead. But they should begin small, work big, and don't listen to either of their bases, which are demanding all or nothing, because that's how we got in this mess in the first place.

CUOMO: Kevin, here's what we need to know. What did this "win," in quotes, mean to your party? What do you think your leadership now believes they have received mandate to do?

MADDEN: Well, look, if you look at how many, if you look at all the individual candidates across the country, they didn't run on going to Washington and just stopping the president. I mean, I think they ran to provide a counter-point to this president on policy.

But many of them ran, and they told their constituents they wanted to go to Washington to get things done. That they wanted to get Washington working again.

So I think, if you look at the context of what Mitch McConnell said in his press conference the day after the election and what John Boehner said yesterday, they are carrying that very same message, that they want to at least show the American people, an American public that's very frustrated with dysfunction, very frustrated with a Congress that wasn't working, they want to show that they can get the Congress working again.

So I think they're going to focus on areas where they can -- where they can find agreement and where they can send bills to the president, to either sign or veto. That part of the conversation has been missing over the last few years in Washington.

CAMEROTA: See, John, here's where it gets complicated. Because "get things done" means different things to different parties. For instance, John Boehner says that they want to repeal...

AVLON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... I mean, in the op-ed that they put out with Mitch McConnell -- they want to repeal Obamacare. But that's not getting things done to Democrats.

AVLON: Yea, and that's not going to happen. I mean, look, let's get real. That's bit of kabuki that's going to go into all of this.

CUOMO: Ah, kabuki. Kabuki.

AVLON: Kabuki, Chris's favorite kind of after-school snack.

No, but I think the underlying issue here is that both parties got to deal with their base. And you're going to see a lot of Democrats now say it's time for Harry Reid to embrace obstruction. And you're certainly already hearing folks in the talk radio crowd saying, "You know what? All these folks were elected to stop Obama. That's number 1."

I think the reality is really closer to what was just said, which is that, you know -- which Kevin said, which is that actually people want to see Washington work again. Which is why it's going to be important for both sides to lay out specific areas they think they can responsibly compromise. And they're going to have to have the courage to follow through.

CAMEROTA: Such as? Give me two.

AVLON: Look, I mean, people have talked about early childhood education. Certainly tax reform. Maybe corporate tax reform, trade agreement, an easy early win that both sides want. So those are some low-hanging fruit, than getting bogged down in immigration or healthcare conversation, which is a nonstarter at this moment.

CUOMO: The lowest fruit, which is not just ripe but it is overripe and starting to rot, Kevin Madden, is that there is a war ongoing that no one in Congress has debated or given the constitutional mandate for, and it's their responsibility. And it is a metaphor now, because if you want to complain about the president going alone on immigration, no president has ever gone it alone more offensively to the Constitution when it comes to war.

Why aren't we hearing this new leadership down there saying, "Hey, let's take care of what matters most"? Because this war is only getting worse.

MADDEN: Well, look, I think in the lame duck you are going to see Congress re-authorize or provide again a reauthorization of the funding for the president's -- the president's actions in Iraq and Syria against ISIS.

So I think that is one area where very quickly you're going to see agreement.

Now there's a lot of people who say we should have a debate about this. The new Congress should actually have, you know, a much broader conversation about it. But like in the short-term, I do believe that you're going to see Congress pretty act quickly to authorize what the president is currently engaged in.

CAMEROTA: OK, a few seconds, John. Is that a good starting point?

AVLON: It's a fine starting point, but it really is about authorizing something that's already ongoing. It's necessary, but it's not remotely sufficient. They need to get new policies on the ground. They want to use the lame duck, fine. But this meeting today in Washington has got to be the first of a large number of bourbon summits -- regular lunches, regular meetings -- to build those relationships.

MADDEN: To John's point, in the new Congress, you can probably expect that up on Capitol Hill.

CAMEROTA: A lot of bourbon flowing, all right. John Avlon, Kevin Madden, thanks so much for the conversation.

CUOMO: Remember what's now legal in Washington, D.C.

CAMEROTA: What?

CUOMO: That's right. CAMEROTA: Oh, ganja.

CUOMO: Just saying.

CAMEROTA: OK. Meanwhile, let's get over to Michaela. She has a lot more news for us. Good morning.

PEREIRA: Let's stick with the bourbon. I think that's probably a better conversation to be having.

Eight minutes past the hour. Good morning, everyone. Here's a look at your headlines.

A veteran U.S. diplomat had her home and office searched last month by the FBI as part of a counterterrorism investigation. Now it's unclear whether Robin Raphel, the State Department's Pakistan consultant, is suspected of spying. Raphel, the former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, had her security clearance at the State Department pulled last month.

An investigation is under way this morning into a fatal military helicopter crash in Boise, Idaho. Two soldiers with the Idaho Army National Guard were killed. A spokesman said the crew was on a training mission last night when the Apache went down near the airport. At this point it's unclear what went wrong.

Authorities in New Zealand have dropped the most serious charge again AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd, the charge that claimed he tried to have two men killed. Rudd's lawyer says there was not enough evidence to support that charge and that it should never have been filed. However, Rudd is still charged with threatening to kill and with drug possession.

This is crazy, some horrifying new video of a patient on a rampage, attacking nurses inside a suburban Minneapolis hospital, chasing them down and beating them with a metal bar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): In just seconds, the very people who help heal suddenly need help of their own inside this Minnesota hospital.

The disturbing incident caught on camera after a patient apparently removed a bar from the side of his hospital bed. Sixty-eight-year-old Charles Logan storms the St. John's Hospital nurses station around 2 a.m. Sunday, swinging wildly. Nurses running toward the exit. One woman here even tries to secure the doors, but Logan barrels through, the bar held high above his head, hurling it down right on one nurse's back. And then another, repeatedly striking two nurses that are left helpless.

Once the patient made his way outside, even the police had a hard time subduing him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The taser was ineffective. In other words, it did not connect to the man. PEREIRA: Officers finally tackling Logan to the ground, but not

before he injures four nurses, one reportedly suffering a collapsed lung.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That kind of thing can happen. Happens all the time.

PEREIRA: This brutal rampage highlights the dangers healthcare workers face every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've heard stories of primarily nurses who have been hit or spit on or punched.

PEREIRA: A survey from the International Healthcare Security and Safety Foundation says 60 percent of workplace assaults occur in healthcare facilities.

For these nurses, running this sanctuary for the sick has come at a cost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Logan died just moments after he was taken into police custody. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of his death. And at this point, it's really unclear what prompted this assault on the nurses.

Interesting, he did present at the hospital with some sort of confusion a few days earlier. There's also -- the local newspaper there is reporting, the "Minneapolis Star-Tribune" is reporting that there was some sort of dispute with his family. They don't know what it was.

But again, they're trying to figure out why he died and what caused him to go on this rampage.

And again, I'm so shocked by how much violence is happening in the E.R.s and the hospitals. Sixty percent, that's a shocking statistic.

CAMEROTA: And even when there's not violence, nurses are in precarious dangerous situations... PEREIRA: Sure they are.

CAMEROTA: ... as we've been hearing with Ebola. It is a -- I mean, they choose this as their calling. And it's more dangerous than we've realized until recently.

PEREIRA: Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: You also have to remember, the system for dealing with mental health is combined with physical health.

PEREIRA: Yes. Yes. Because they often present at the E.R.

CUOMO: That's right. So you don't know why he's there. They have so many people who are in there because they're mentally unstable, and these nurses usually don't have security.

PEREIRA: Right. Yes.

CUOMO: So it's a problem.

PEREIRA: A bigger conversation to be had.

CAMEROTA: We'll continue to follow that story for you all morning.

Well, the fight against terrorism is unfolding on multiple fronts this morning. U.S. airstrikes in Syria apparently killing a jihadist best known for his bomb-making skills. But will that stop or even slow down the terror threat from al Qaeda and its affiliate Khorasan?

CUOMO: And even if they did get this one target, there are so many that remain, and the U.S. has spent millions of dollars on strikes. And the question is, what are you getting? Not that it's a value proposition, but it's about effectiveness. Are these airstrikes in Syria doing what they are needed to do? We'll go through it with someone who knows.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We have a developing story for you. The Pentagon believes airstrikes in Syria have taken out a dangerous al Qaeda operative. Frenchman David Drugeon was known as the top bomb-maker for the terror group. But even with his death, as our Pamela Brown reports, experts doubt that the threat he posed died with him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. officials tell CNN David Drugeon, considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world, may have been killed. After the U.S. dropped a second round of airstrikes in Syria against the elite group of al Qaeda members known as Khorasan.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: This does not remove the threat that Khorasan poses the United States. They're likely to have other bomb-makers in the group. This is al Qaeda's A-team.

BROWN: U.S. intelligence sources say that the 24-year-old French jihadist was trying to create a bomb like this, a non-metallic explosive similar to this printer cartridge bomb that could be disguised and hidden on U.S.-bound planes.

MATT BOUCHARD, FORMER ATF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR FIELD OPERATIONS: They can put them in disguised containers, something that looks innocent, so a screener won't notice it. They can bring a number of these innocent-looking containers on an airplane and assemble the device on the airplane, and no one would know it until it exploded.

BROWN: And CNN has learned Drugeon was working on a wide variety of explosive devices, some small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, in a device like a cell phone. Khorasan's efforts led to increased security at overseas airports this summer, including asking passengers to turn on electronic devices at checkpoints.

BOUCHARD: Even if they don't have intelligence a certain type of device would be used, like a cell phone, by merely changing up the tactics, it keeps them off step.

BROWN: U.S. officials say a well-placed bomb could puncture the skin of a plane, similar to this, creating a big enough hole to bring down an airplane.

BOUCHARD: It doesn't take a lot of explosives to take down an airplane, particularly if it's in the right place.

BROWN: Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. So let's talk about how significant this strike could have been and what these coalition efforts are actually doing. Even though we've been a little distracted by the election, the war has been going on, and it is getting thicker on -- not thinner in terms of how much it involves.

So let's bring in retired Lieutenant Colonel James Reese. He's a CNN global affairs analyst and a former Delta Force commander. Colonel, always a pleasure. Thank you very much.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good morning. How are you doing?

CUOMO: Now let's start with the big headline. We know who Drugeon is. We know what he does. We don't like the technological capabilities of -- because anybody can carry the bomb. It's who can make it. Do we know that we got him?

REESE: Not definitely. But because of all the indicators coming out of the intelligence community, there's a pretty high probability that he was hit.

CUOMO: All right. And they're feeling good about this, why?

REESE: Well, first and foremost, he is a guy in -- was trained by the Yemeni bomb maker for al Qaeda. He -- this is a high-value target. He's been tracked for months and years now, since he came out of Pakistan by the Department of Defense, by SoCom, by all these guys that are hunting high-value targets.

CUOMO: OK.

REESE: So if we take away this guy's ability to make bombs that could hit the homeland, that's a key factor.

CUOMO: So you have to get your head around the fact that it's just one person, but you don't look at it that way. Because finding people to carry bombs is cheap and easy. The money to finance these things, they're pretty cheap and easy. But the know-how is actually a very precious commodity. So one man represents a lot of value.

REESE: Absolutely.

CUOMO: All right. So now, when we look at the map, let's put up the blast zones, because there's now a legitimate question of whether airstrikes are enough. We're going to look at it two ways.

The first is this way. The little dots means we've done a little bit of bombing. The big ones are more, numerically, bombing.

REESE: Sure.

CUOMO: What do you see in this pattern of what we're getting as return on investment? Not in terms of dollars but in terms of energy.

REESE: Absolutely. So if you really look at and study the map, you know, Baghdad, center of gravity in Iraq, the Tigris Valley moves to the north. The Euphrates Valley moves to the west, comes up, straight up in this area here. Well, if you go back to biblical times, the Tigris and Euphrates Valley is the civilizations, begin of civilization. That's where ISIS is all controlled beyond these two, what the military calls lines of communication.

CUOMO: Right.

REESE: And along those is where the rivers are. It's where the people are. And so we've got to keep hitting them there. But they hide in plain sight around with everybody.

CUOMO: All right. So here's the concern. We seem to have a concentration of military assets where we need them. But now let's put up the graphic that shows ISIS's growth, their reach, their effectiveness and let's show that on the map. OK?

And here's why we want this, is that it seems to the uninitiated, right, that you're bombing a lot, but they're growing even more. And it makes it seem like are we playing catch-up here? Are we just fighting a game where this coalition can't do it with the airstrikes alone? What's the reality?

REESE: No, what you're really seeing, Chris, is you're seeing the enemy react to our hits. Which is good.

CUOMO: OK. OK.

REESE: And the -- General Austin, the CentCom commander, said the other day we can hear you. And the beauty is every time we hit these guys, either up the Tigris or Euphrates Valley, every time we hit them, the intelligence piece pops. We start listening, watching them. And what happens is they have to react.

CUOMO: ok.

REESE: They have to react, because if they sit there, they're going to get soaked.

CUOMO: You don't think we're playing catch-up, you think they're the ones who are reacting?

REESE: Absolutely.

CUOMO: All right. So then one little bit piece of business I want to talk about. Has nothing to do with the map. Off the map, just to the east of Iraq is a place called Iran. We now hear that there may have been communications by the U.S./coalition, either directly to or through Iraq to Iran. What message does that send to you?

REESE: For me personally is...

CUOMO: Yes.

REESE: ... this is not really our fight. We have got to figure out who all the players are. Iran is a major player in this. And we can't go back just 10, 15 years. This is 1,000-year war.

And you know, the lines on the map right here were drawn in the early 1900s by a British officer. What we really have to do is you get Iran, you get Saudi Arabia, you get these other Arab countries, the Persians involved. We've got to bring these people to the table like we have in past wars, and we have to have -- get them involved. And even though they're -- we call them our enemy, and Congress is telling the president, you know these are deals he has to look at.

What I do believe he has to do, though, is he's got to get the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Yemenis involved in this, and not just go unilaterally.

CUOMO: Everybody is going to shaking their head with an "amen" when they hear it's not the U.S.'s fight. But we're hearing more about hitting smaller groups, that may be moderates, maybe not. Now they're reaching out to the guys that are supposed to be bad guys. There's a real defined history of partnering with the wrong people and creating enemies down the road. So we're going to have to see what is actually going on here.

REESE: Absolutely.

CUOMO: But you're laying out the right questions for us. thank you very much, Colonel.

REESE: Thanks.

CUOMO: Appreciate it.

Alisyn, over to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Tensions are also on the rise between Jordan and Israel. Officials in Oman pulling their ambassador out of the Jewish state as clashes continue clashing with demonstrators on the Temple Mount. We are live on the ground with an update for you in Jerusalem.

And a very close call for passengers on an Air Canada flight, the pilot forced to make an emergency landing when one of the tires exploded after takeoff. We will show you the end of this flight when passengers say they did not expect to survive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: I'm going to say it again, happy Friday. Let's take a look at your Friday headlines.

We begin with this. Top congressional leaders will gather at the White House this afternoon to lunch with the president. The war on ISIS, the Ebola outbreak, those are all on the agenda, along with the thorny issue of immigration reform. The president is threatening to bypass Congress and take executive action on immigration legislation. House Speaker John Boehner, though, warning him that approach will, quote, get him burned.

Three people were taken to the hospital after an Air Canada flight made a rough emergency landing. The plane apparently blew a tire on takeoff from Calgary, Alberta. It could not turn around and land, though, because of strong winds, so instead it was diverted to Edmonton, which isn't that far away. It came down hard on that landing. It skidded along the runway, causing quite a scare for passengers inside. Those injuries that I mentioned, they are said to be minor. But their nerves, you can be sure were frayed.

The Supreme Court could be forced to take up another landmark same-sex marriage case, this after a federal appeals court in Cincinnati overturned lower-court rulings that tossed gay marriage bans in Ohio, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. Now, the ruling conflicts with other -- every other federal appeals court decision on the same-sex marriage across our nation.

Former employees are blowing the whistle on Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata. According to "The New York Times," two former workers claimed the company ordered secret testing on 50 air bags some ten years ago after reports emerged that one of those bags spewed metal pieces at a driver. The same thing allegedly happened in two of the secret tests, but instead of alerting regulators, Takata officials allegedly ordered staffers to destroy those test results. The flaw ultimately forced the recall of over 14 million vehicles.

Quite an emotional moment at last night's Bengals/Browns games in Cincinnati. This is 4-year-old daughter of Bengals defensive tackle Devon Still. Well, she was honored after the first quarter. Little Leah Still, oh, little one is battling stage IV cancer. The Bengals have donated $1.3 million to Cincinnati's children's hospital in little Leah's name.