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New Day

Russia Feeling Pressure from World Leaders; Shocking Secret Service Blunders Revealed; Surprising New Testimony in Ferguson Grand Jury Trial

Aired November 14, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely, Chris.

Also, another hot spot, what is Russia up to? NATO says Moscow is moving military equipment and personnel into Ukraine. Also, Russian bombers are supposedly getting close to U.S. waters. We have a live report from Ukraine for you, next.

And an epic fail on the part of Secret Service agents following the White House fence jumper who was able to get into the building. Details on the homeland security review reveals a series of embarrassing missteps.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: World leaders blasting Russia again, amid fresh reports that Russian soldiers are charging into Eastern Ukraine armed with weapons provided by the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin denying these allegations, despite reports from NATO showing evidence.

Let's get right to CNN's Phil Black. He's live from the ground in Ukraine.

Good morning, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

If it feels like we've been here before, it's because we have. As you say an emphatic denial from Russia that it has any military presence here in Russia. But from NATO, the Ukrainian government, European observers on the ground in Eastern Ukraine, they all say there has been an influx of soldiers.

Heavy weapons, anti-aircraft batteries, as well as tanks and other sophisticated weaponry, as well. And the Ukrainian government says it knows what happens next, based upon experience. Because over the last year, it has seen that whenever there's been an influx of these so- called little green men, professional, well-armed soldiers in big numbers, wearing uniforms with no markings, it has not worked out well for them.

So, their fear is that they are expecting an imminent military assault of some kind. They do not know, they say the scale or the intent. How big is it going to be? Whether it's going after key infrastructure like the airport at Donetsk, where there is still almost daily fighting or perhaps something even larger. The Ukrainian government says it is preparing for the worst case scenario -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Phil Black, thanks so much for the update live for us.

Let's get over to Michaela for a look at some other headlines breaking news.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, here we are. Good morning, once again, everybody.

President Obama is preparing to take executive action on immigration, perhaps as early as next week when he returns from his overseas trip. There are no final decision on the terms, but millions of immigrants could be spared deportation under a work permit program, mostly to avoid splitting up families.

Republicans are vowing to fight the president, some Democrats fear the GOP could force another government shutdown.

Two Navy civilian police officers were injured by gunfire at the front gate of a Connecticut submarine base. It all began Thursday night. Authorities say a belligerent man armed with a knife tried to get on the base. A civilian officer fired warning shots which ricocheted hitting two of his colleagues. They are expected to be OK. The suspect was not injured, but was taken into custody.

Pope Francis taking the old adage cleanliness is next to godliness, literally. The pontiff plans to build showers for the homeless in the heart of St. Peter's Square. Work on the facility starts Monday.

In the meantime, the Vatican has started the sainthood process for a Brazilian surfer. Guido Schaffer was hailed a hero for his work with the poor. He drowned in 2009, just weeks before he was due to be ordained as a priest.

And here's one for the dumb criminal file -- check this out, Florida, guy tries to steal, he tries to steal a chainsaw by putting it in his pants.

CAMEROTA: What could go wrong?

PEREIRA: Employees from the Port St. Lucie chased the crook down. We're told he ditched the tool in a wooded lot. Ballard told police he had a change of heart after stealing the chainsaw and wanted to return it, a little too late. He was arrested on theft and burglary charges and will be living on an infamy for trying to steal a chainsaw.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That was funny. Lucky it had the guard on it, otherwise he would have been at the top of the dumb criminal list.

PEREIRA: He tried to steal a chainsaw and put it in his pants.

CUOMO: I'm just saying. (INAUDIBLE)

PEREIRA: I have to say it a few times, because it doesn't sink in. CUOMO: I like the story she slipped in there about the pope putting

showers in there. Contrast about what's going on in Ft. Lauderdale, where they give you tickets if you feed the homeless where they don't want you to. He's put showers in St. Peter's Square.

All right. Topic change, CNN money time, your money.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I don't recommend stealing chainsaws, that's not in the money report.

Look, gas prices, guys, at a four-year low. This is what it translates to you, about $400 extra dollars in your family's pocket this year. Right now, the average price for gallon of regular, $2.92. I saw $2.75 in Jersey. It's 30 cents lower in the last month, 75 cents lower than the summer highs.

This is like an economic stimulus. Gas, heating oil, propane, natural gas, all of them getting a lot cheaper. Businesses think it's going to mean higher holiday spending. We're already seeing better sales of trucks and SUVs.

How soon we forget, right, guys? Farmers, truckers, delivery companies, even Walmart says it's seeing evidence that lower gas prices are helping everyone. Even the front page of the business section of "The New York Times," the barrel stimulus this morning. It is. It is like a stimulus.

More than Congress or what the Fed can do is what lower gas prices are doing for November and December.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Who isn't happy about this?

ROMANS: I know.

CUOMO: Even diesel, diesel is usually much higher than regular gas. For a long time they've been about the same was a commentary on the need for manufacturing. You know, for trucking. But even know it's staying fairly low.

ROMANS: I can tell you, they expect another 10 to 15 cents lower in gas prices in the coming weeks. Projections for next year, even the American government say they expect gas prices to stay below 3 bucks all next year.

CAMEROTA: You are the bearer of good news.

CUOMO: Barrel of good news.

CAMEROTA: And monkeys.

Thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you. Have a great weekend.

Well, a public embarrassment for the Secret Service, a report details some of the egregious errors that allowed the fence jumper to get inside the White House. We'll get the reaction from an investigative reporter on this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: A scathing new report out slamming the Secret Service response to the White House fence jumping in September. Omar Gonzales managed to run across the lawn into the White House, and as far as the East Room before being tackled. The report is from Homeland Security and it points to an array of shortcomings from communication to equipment failure and more.

Let's bring in Ronald Kessler. He's an investigative reporter and the author of "The First Family Detail" and "In the President's Secret Service".

Ronald, great to see you this morning.

RONALD KESSLER, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Hey. Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: OK. The report would be funny, if it weren't so disturbing. It outlines just a series of failures. There was confusion, it says. There was a lack of training by Secret Service agents. There were communication failures.

How did it get so bad?

KESSLER: Well, this is really the tip of the iceberg. For example in my book "The First Family Detail", I go into the fact that on a regular basis, the management of the Secret Service condones and even orders agents to let people into advance without magnetometer or metal detection screening.

CAMEROTA: Why? Why?

KESSLER: Why? It's a culture. It's a management culture and, of course, that filters down to the agents, which says we make do with less, we're the great Secret Service. We don't need to lock the door of the White House. We don't need to update our radios. We can take these chances that actually risk assassination.

CAMEROTA: Because we're so good? We're so good that we don't need to do all these other precautions?

KESSLER: Yes. It's impossible to understand just as with any scandal. But it's -- it's arrogance, it's the fact that it's been such a secret agency until I was able to break some of that secrecy in my book.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

KESSLER: And it filters down to the agents. And that's why you saw the agents hire prostitutes. They figured, hey, management cuts corners, why shouldn't we do whatever we want? In the case the latest situation, why shouldn't we make a personal call while we're watching the White House, and therefore, we don't release the dog?

CAMEROTA: I'm glad you're bringing that up. Because I did want to read that full screen graphic that we have for the viewers of an excerpt from this report about why the dogs were not released? That was the big question.

Here is the answer -- when Gonzales jumped the north fence, the canine officer was on a call on his personal cell phone on speaker, without his radio ear piece in. And he had left his second tactical radio in his locker.

Now, Ronald, is this just beyond the sort of environment -- the culture that you're talking about? Is this just a lack of training?

KESSLER: Well, that's part of it. The Secret Service literally has no annual training. No annual updates, where as the FBI does it every year and almost any police department does it every year.

Everywhere you look the place is crumbling and there's dishonesty. For example, they'll have scenarios for members of Congress at their training center to impress them. And in fact they're all secretly rehearsed beforehand. They take credit for police arrests, where actually the police did the work. They will ask agents to fill out their own test scores on physical fitness and firearms requalification.

So, it's really a corrupt culture. The only way to change it is to bring in as with any organization and trouble, an outside director or outside CEO in the case of a private company, who is not beholden to interests within the agency. Who is not part of the culture?

I personally think if you brought in a former FBI official you would solve the problems overnight, because the FBI does not tolerate cover- ups and this attitude of -- you know, we're the great Secret Service, we will not -- we don't have to lock the doors.

And you saw that with Bob Mueller when he became FBI director. As soon as someone high-ranking official started obfuscating a particular case and problems, he removed that person. And that sent a message right away that you will have honesty and you will not retaliate against people who report problems, which is another problem in the secret service.

CAMEROTA: Right. The whistleblower problem.

Well, let's see if they follow that advice, and if they do bring someone in from the outside now that this report is out and it shows what amateur hour it is.

Ronald Kessler, thanks so much.

KESSLER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you. Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn, there's brand new evidence being presented in the Michael Brown shooting. A famous pathologist says what was thought to be an exit wound is actually an entrance wound and that could mean that there was another shot to Michael Brown's chest. The question is, what could that mean to the grand jury? We will tell you, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: As an indication of how seriously authorities are taking the threat of violence, school districts will be ahead of the media on any grand jury decision. Why? Obviously, so the kids can get home safely. This comes as surprising new testimony was given to the grand jury that could indicate an additional shot to Michael Brown's chest. We're going to explain that.

Also, attorneys for Michael Brown's family are calling for transparency in the grand jury process. What does that mean? Because it's a secretive proceeding.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY: There's a great concern that because of this secret proceeding, that people will not be so accepting of whatever decision the grand jury makes. We need transparency. So, people can believe that the system works equally for everybody, even in communities like Ferguson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss this, CNN legal analyst Paul Callan, and attorney and radio host Mo Ivory.

Thanks to both of you for being here.

Mo, I start with you. Grand juries are supposed to be secretive. But this is also the better way to have conducted this phase of the investigation, right? Because the alternative was to just leave it up to the prosecutor.

Here, you have a representative body of the community hearing all the evidence and making a decision on whether or not to indict and go to trial. Isn't that good?

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY AND RADIO HOST: Well, sure. I mean if the grand jury process is what someone has chosen. It could have been better if the prosecutors decided to do the investigation on his own, which of course he could have and could have decided to charge Darren Wilson or not.

So, you know, the transparency argument started way back when, in August. It's not just a transparency argument that started now. Yes, a grand jury is a secret proceeding. Things don't have to be

brought to the public. But as we know, things have been leaking, you know, throughout the entire process.

CUOMO: Right. But I'm saying, Mo, the premise that if you're going to have just me do the investigation, I get while you may be concerned. It's just me, what's my agenda?

But this is a body of 12 people, nine of which have to agree and they come from your community. You know being -- this is what would you say to the people of Ferguson, they should like that better, shouldn't they?

IVORY: Well, I understand the idea that they should like that better. But I think this is a very unique case, and this is not a grand jury or a situation where we can use all of the sort of the same premises that we have chosen. That's why that normally happened.

So, I think that's why there's been so much, you know, sort of dismay about the transparency or the idea that a grand jury is supposed to be secret, because it hasn't been secret. And so, yes, the premise is that's what a grand jury does in a normal situation. But this is not a normal situation.

CUOMO: Leaks are also business as usual, around grand juries and big cases as we both know as well. Grand jurors talking is extraordinary.

But let's move on to another point here.

Paul, I had given high praise to the prosecutor for presenting Michael Baden's testimony about the medical exam he did, because he works for the family. But now, I hear that the grand jury asked for it, not the prosecutor. Does that change your analysis?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: No, not at all. And it's not at all unusual for grand jurors to intervene and say to the prosecutor, hey, we'd like another piece of evidence here.

One of the reasons why a grand jury is a good thing to use, is that it's an investigative body. They can subpoena evidence. If a prosecutor just wants to give a one-sided presentation, they can, you know, tell him they want more evidence.

The other thing is I think it's very disturbing in terms of the press coverage of this case, it has sort of been this suggestion that there's some sort of secret conspiracy going on behind closed doors here. And I have to disagree with Mo that there's something unique about this case. It's a tragic case, certainly. But there are shootings, police shootings that occur in cities across the country all the time. And grand jury investigations are done.

But the grand jury, you know, your beef would be with George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and James Madison, because they put it in the U.S. constitution for the federal system originally and the states copied that. It's a good system, because you can test statements under oath, which is another thing you don't hear about. We hear witnesses giving press conference statements about what they

saw, and how do we know whether they're trying to tell the truth or maybe be more entertaining to get on television? In the grand jury, under oath, cross-examination to see if you actually could see what you say you could see.

That's why I think the grand jury is a good choice of investigative body here.

CUOMO: I got to get out of this. Let me get one quick take from both of you on what would it mean, what could it mean if there's an additional shot to the chest?

CALLAN: This Baden's, you know, revised opinion in the case, I think certainly helps the case against the officer. Because it shows more force being used. However, in the end, his claim is that he had to fire all of those shots to stop a man who was trying to tackle him and take his gun away. So that's what I presume his defense was in front of the grand jury. So --

IVORY: Chris, I'm just happy that the grand jury did ask for Baden's testimony, and did ask him to come forward. It's suspect that McCulloch would not present this evidence and want to hear directly from Baden.

But I'm very glad that he had that opportunity. And also to present that there was even more excessive force than we originally thought. I'm hoping that that means that they will look more closely into you know, because we've been hearing lately that it seems like there would be no indictment. And this seems to take a little bit of a different turn and hopefully end up with an indictment.

CUOMO: Well, Mo Ivory, Paul Callan, no matter what your disposition is about what you want to see happen, the effort here is to clarify these things, because what we all know is true is there's been a rush to judgment. Whether you think it's in favor of the officer's actions or against them, there's been a rush to judgment here. And we don't even know what the grand jury is really hearing.

And as we learn it, we try to vet it. This is one of the stories we'll be following up until the news of the indictment or no indictment comes.

But there's other news, so let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The battle brewing over immigration reform.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is something that needs to be done. It's way overdue.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We're going to fight the president tooth and nail if he continues down this path.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: He has the government that he has. Not the one that he wishes he had.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bad day for the Secret Service.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rule number one is you don't take your ear piece out of your ear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the leader of ISIS out of hiding?

JEN PSAKI, STATE DEPARTMENT: We cannot confirm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We cannot confirm his status.

PSAKI: I don't have any new information.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Make no mistake: we will succeed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Alisyn Camerota, alongside Chris Cuomo.

President Obama appears to be on the verge of signing an executive order that would bypass Congress to enact immigration reform. This is expected to protect millions of immigrants from deportation. And it has other details in it that may surprise Republicans. It is guaranteed to cause anger among the GOP who are, of course, about to take power in Washington.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the president needs to work with Republicans on this issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCONNELL: The American people elected divided government. And we'd like for the president to recognize the reality that he has the government that he has, not the one he wishes he had, and work with us to try to find a way to improve our immigration system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The president appears to be out of patience with waiting for cooperation. The question is, how costly could the political showdown be for both sides? Most importantly, for you.

Let's bring in CNN's Jim Acosta covering all of that from Myanmar, which is where the president is, of course. What's the word from there?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Chris, at a news conference here in Myanmar, President Obama vowed once again he will take executive action by the end of the year on immigration.

White House officials are indicating the order could come within days and the president is expected to go big. He's already given deportation relief to undocumented children and teens known as DREAMers. And sources tell CNN the president is expected to extend the policy to the undocumented parents of those dreamers and to undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or green card holders.

The president has been under pressure from Latino groups for years to stop splitting up families through deportation.