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New Day

Takata Defies Demands for Nationwide Recall; Iraq Says Detained Woman Not ISIS Leader's Wife; CNN Goes Inside Besieged City of Kobani; Budget Showdown Looming in Washington; Michael Brown's Stepdad Being Investigated

Aired December 03, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Here's a look at the headlines:

A showdown is brewing today on Capitol Hill, as embattled airbag supplier Takata faces off with U.S. regulators. That company defied government demands for a nationwide recall of airbags that may contain a fatal flaw. Takata says it will instead implement a four-point plan to handle this issue.

Our Rene Marsh is live in Washington with more.

What's part (ph) of this four-point plan?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, I should tell you just in a few hours from now a second round of grilling will be going on on Capitol Hill for the Japanese manufacturer of the airbags that explode and shoot metal shrapnel causing injury and in some cases death.

But the headline this morning, Takata, the maker of the faulty airbags is digging in its heels, it will not issue a nationwide recall of certain driver's side airbags. Now, U.S. safety regulators, they are urging a nationwide recall and they say the company's inaction is disappointing and it puts drivers at risk.

One car safety group estimates that this impacts some 20 million to 25 million vehicles on the road right now. The situation was that Takata was faced with a midnight deadline to comply to agree to fix tens of millions of additional cars. Instead, the company says it will leave it up to the automakers to decide whether to expand the recall.

If you remember, this recall has been limited to high humidity areas. Takata believes that humidity is what actually triggers the defect.

Back to you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Rene Marsh, thank you so much for that.

Multiple law enforcement agencies have now Michael Brown's step father in their crosshairs. They are investigating whether Louis Head tried to incite a riot in Ferguson with this explosive result and his comments after Darren Wilson was a cleared by a grand jury. Head's lawyer claims this was an emotional reaction with no intent of inciting anything.

The National Guard has now started pulling back its presence in Ferguson.

An American teacher, American school teacher has been stabbed to death in Abu Dhabi. She was killed Monday in a public rest room at a mall. We're told her attacker remains at large. A statement from the Abu Dhabi interior ministry said the woman was a 37-year-old American with twin 11-year-olds. They're now in the custody of police until their father arrives from abroad. We're told the embassy is aware of that situation.

All right. Here's President Obama perhaps like you've never seen him before. The first-ever 3-D printed presidential portrait. You can see the president smiling surrounded by 50 custom-built LED lights and a team with digital cameras in order to get that image. Then a 3D printer carved out the likeness of the president. It will be on display at the Smithsonian.

What do you think?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wow, those 3D printers are crazy what they can do.

PEREIRA: The texture of his hair. Look at him. Inspecting it. What do you think?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Very cool. Very cool. The technology of it is very cool.

Rendering? That's up to the president, if he likes it, that's up to him. Those are very personal things.

All right. So, big question this morning on the international front. Is a woman detained in Lebanon really the ISIS leader's wife? Reports of this big get may not be true after all. We have the latest on that and why she matters, coming up.

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CAMEROTA: Is it a case of mistaken identity or confusion? Officials in Iraq now disputing claims made by Lebanon that they captured the wife and son of the leader of ISIS.

Also this morning, we're getting our first look inside the raging battle for Kobani. CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh traveled inside the Syrian town where coalition forces have been battling ISIS for months. And he's going to tell us what it looks like.

So, Nick joins this morning from near the Turkey/Syria border.

Also joining us with more questions and answers about al Baghdadi's wife is senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Nic Robertson, let me start with you. Talk about the confusion about al Baghdadi's wife, was she captured or not?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: My sources, the sources we're using that are very close to the operation in Lebanon continue to say yes they have Baghdadi's wife and the son -- 4-year-old son. They also say that Baghdadi has called himself to try to get his son released.

What both our sources in the region are telling us is that this was a long in the planning operation. That it was at the conjunction of efforts by the Iraqis, the Syrians and the Lebanese intelligence service, this woman was a high-value target in her own right. That she is a significant player inside ISIS.

No surprise that we should hear a day later from Iraqi authorities saying that no, this is the not Baghdadi's wife.

Once intelligence agencies are involved in these sorts of things, it is normal for there to be a level of dissembling, a level of obfuscation, a level of confusion. Why? We don't know. I mean, this is the bottom line and perhaps we will never know.

CAMEROTA: Iraqi officials deny they had her. Wouldn't this be a big get?

ROBERTSON: It is a big get. This is what we understand. It's difficult to say at the moment, going to the sources we're talking to, why the Iraqis are taking a different position to the position that the Lebanese are taking, at the moment. Again, we may never find out those reasons.

It would be a big get, because potentially if she's still actually lives physically day by day with Baghdadi, then she would have potentially useful information, how many people around him. How many guards, how many different houses does he use -- all those sorts, all those sorts of vital details that can help any operation to capture or kill him. So, it would be huge.

But we're very unlikely to hear anything about what she actually says. She's been held now for over a week and we're only just finding out about it.

CAMEROTA: OK. Nick Paton Walsh, you have just returned from a very dangerous assignment inside Kobani, Syria. Tell us what you saw.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is remarkable to get a first-hand look, Alisyn, at a conflict we've only been seeing in the past few months from the hills inside Turkey that overlook it. It is devastated. It's hard to open your eyes to any part of it without seeing the sheer brutality that ISIS bombardments and coalition air strikes have wrecked on that particular town there are civilians trying to live there in some numbers. But we went to one key eastern front line. In fact, in the company of female Kurdish fighters, the commander of that unit was a young 22- year-old girl called Media. They brought us to the fronts, and we could see where coalition bombs had devastated huge numbers of buildings there, ISIS dead still left where they fell, a smell of decay frankly in that area hard to stomach at times.

But these Kurdish women still holding the fight there and trying to keep ISIS back. But I have to say, from returning from inside there, more of that city is in is control than I had been led to believe by Kurdish statements from the outside. It's sort of I think most people say about 40 percent-50 percent in ISIS hands. It's very hard to tell because the frontlines do move, but it's remarkable really to hear the intensity of the fighting inside there, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Nick, it looks like there's been an apocalypse there. We know you'll be showing more of your incredible reporting there. Really the first Western look of what is going on inside Kobani on CNN throughout today and the days ahead.

Thank you for your great reporting.

Nick Paton Walsh, Nic Robertson, great to talk to you both.

Let's go back to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. In related news, President Obama is set to tap his replacement for Chuck Hagel. But Ashton Carter never served a day in uniform. Does that matter? Is he qualified? Will he get confirmed? More importantly that goes to the politics of it. We discuss.

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CUOMO: The House is preparing to vote on a budget bill that would fund most of the government through next fall. But it would not fund the Department of Homeland Security. That agency of course would be carrying out President Obama's executive orders on immigration.

Let's discuss. We have CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast," Mr. John Avlon, and CNN political commentator and Republican consultant Margaret Hoover.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Here we are. Here we are.

CUOMO: It's good to see you.

So, Ms. Margaret, might I ask you -- why is this an acceptable tactic, to not fund things that will invariably hurt that which you supposedly care about?

HOOVER: Unfortunately, against the backdrop of the alternative, which is not funding any of the government --

CUOMO: That should not be the alternative. HOOVER: You know, you're absolutely -- you know, if I were in the

House of Representatives, I wouldn't be voting to shut down the government. But I'm not.

It turns out you still have this element of 50 Republicans in the House of Representatives that are, called crazy caucus by my beloved. That actually need, they have a lot of frustration about the president's executive action on immigration. And they need to vent it somehow. This seems to be the center path that Boehner has been able to strike.

CUOMO: Isn't that what therapy is for? They're shooting down the government the way you vent?

HOOVER: They're not shooting down the government.

CUOMO: Shutting down the government.

HOOVER: They're not. But let's be very clear, it's a continuing resolution to fund one portion of the government, the Homeland Security Department through March. I don't think it's a good tactic. I don't think it's healthy budgeting policy. But it seems the only way they've managed to strike a deal in order to move forward and not impede what they have as pretty goodwill going into the next session.

All right. Please go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Listen, I mean, first of all, what could possibly go wrong? Not funding DHS. I mean, politically and practically, this is about the dumbest idea you could possibly pursue.

It shows how much John Boehner and the Republican leadership still is enthralled that crazy caucus, they got to go through this kabuki. They know they can't shut down the government. They need a symbolic vote. But the DHS exemption could have a real, unintended impact that will have real --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: I mean, in terms of legislation, we are having in our 8:00 hour, Congressman Ted Yoho who sponsors this bill about reversing somehow the president's executive action. I understand that it's symbolic. But they can vent their frustration that way.

AVLON: Exactly, is this therapy or is this government? This is so incredibly stupid. I want to -- that congressman deserves to be pressured, because if he admits that this is just symbolic therapy, he should cry into a pillow. He should be in a different --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: In the House, he could get the votes in the House.

AVLON: To what end? I mean seriously, why the hell do we go through these exercises? Is it governing or is it grandstanding? Is he going to admit it's just a giant therapy exercise? Great. But call him on it.

CAMEROTA: I'm going to take that note.

AVLON: Sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

HOOVER: The shame is that there are a lot of issues the American people want to see a new Republican Senate and House addressed together -- energy, education, the economy, and this has the runs the real risk of slowing down that momentum as you go into January.

CUOMO: It sends a message to the people who put you in there that your promise of, we're going to get things done --

HOOVER: Making the government working again.

CUOMO: It is not exactly doing it, right?

So, here's another thing that you don't want to shut down right now given the fact of all the unfriendlies we have in the world, which is defense secretary. Do you think they will stonewall on putting in Hagel's successor?

HOOVER: I predict that John McCain who will lead the armed services committee will have a very colorful hearing that will not at all make Ash Carter's nomination to defense secretary troubled.

CUOMO: Do you think they'll put up a vote for it? Do you think they'll move forward?

HOOVER: They will absolutely vote for him. I think they will support him. In fact, some hawks actually see him as an ally in the Defense Department. He supported beefing up the nuclear arsenal. In 2006, he wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post" saying we should have preemptive strikes against North Korea when they were testing nuclear weapons. He's seen as an ally in the Defense Department by somebody who has tried to protect against the sequestration, against the across-the-board hits in the Defense Department. So, this is actually an individual who I think John McCain is likely to see as a real ally.

The issue in the hearings is going to be more about how the president has made decisions in the Defense Department. How he has made decisions in his wars, whether he is actually going to listen to the defense secretary at all or just to his insular set of officials in the White House. I mean, that's the real criticism with this president and I think McCain will use the hearings to examine how the president has made decisions on national security.

CAMEROTA: John, why do so few people want the job of defense secretary?

AVLON: I mean, it's kind of stunning for the leader, most complex powerful organizations in the world. You had you three leading contenders say thanks but no thanks, Michele Flournoy, Jeh Johnson, et cetera.

So -- but this is sort of a classic second-term appointment. This is along the lines of William Perry in Clinton's, the guy behind the scenes has been getting it done. The number two to Panetta and Hagel is now ascending, he is likely to get an easy vote through the Senate. There will be tons of grandstanding and slamming on the president for his fourth secretary of defense, which is a fairly number historically. You got to go back to Truman I think to get a similar number.

CUOMO: Who wants to be in charge of fighting in a country that doesn't want to fight and there will are more and more bad situations all around the world?

AVLON: This is a challenge of public service. But again, it's not optional.

HOOVER: That's actually not the issue. I mean, the criticism of the president is that nobody wanted the job because they didn't think they'd actually have real authority to influence foreign policy policy-making because the president is making those decisions at the White House --

CUOMO: The president is the commander-in-chief.

HOOVER: Not just that he's commander-in-chief, but those decisions are being made between his NSA adviser and between a close cadre of inner circle advisers at the White House and cabinet-level secretaries, Defense Department included have been cut out of the decision-making.

CAMEROTA: Wasn't that Leon Panetta's complaint?

AVLON: Absolutely was. That's a very consistent criticism.

CUOMO: Isn't an unusual complaint?

AVLON: But it's not. That's right. From the Georgia mafia under Carter, Sacramento mafia under Reagan, to Karl Rove and the political team having way too much influence over policy decision inside W's White House, this is a common complaint, but in this administration in particular, it's been one that the sec-defs really felt that the decisions are being made inside the White House --

CUOMO: Margaret --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Go ahead.

HOOVER: I just fundamentally disagree with that characterization, especially with the Bush administration. When you have a government and president that is at war, you listen to your defense secretary, you listen to your generals, you listen to the all people who knows what's going on. (INAUDIBLE) George Bush, to suggest that Karl Rove had any decision-

making over defense policy is fundamentally counter to what we know all the facts, what all of them had written about at the time, and frankly what we know about the reporting at the time. President Bush listened to Rumsfeld until he stopped and then Rumsfeld was fired. We know that there could not be light of day when you're a commander-in- chief running a war between the defense secretary and the president. And that is how Bush ran his White House, that is how Bush ran his Defense Department, and that is also how previous -- so none of this, I really just think that you're mischaracterizing how the Bush White House ran the war.

AVLON: I'm sorry, there's always tension in the cabinet secretaries in the White House in every administration, including the Bush administration.

HOOVER: Tension, yes. But the way the President Obama has run his wars is remarkably different from his predecessor.

AVLON: Fair enough.

CUOMO: I'm wrapping up this one. I say same car home today.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Take it as progress.

HOOVER: We're going on a family trip.

CUOMO: Even better.

CAMEROTA: Tension is fine in White Houses and regular houses.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: That's fine.

John Avlon and Margaret Hoover, great to have your perspective, guys.

AVLON: Thanks, guys.

CUOMO: We'll be following this throughout the morning as there are developments.

But there's a lot of news for you, so let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOUIS HEAD, MICHAEL BROWN'S STEPFATHER: Burn this mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down!

LESLEY MCSPADDEN, MICHAEL BROWN'S MOTHER: We all spoke out of anger before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the stepfather of Michael Brown intend to start a riot in Ferguson? MCSPADDEN: It's one thing to speak and it's a different thing to act.

He did not act.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Another grand jury weighs whether to indict another officer.

ERIC GARNER: I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NYC: People have a right to protest peacefully. And we will respect that right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Cosby is being sued in Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This takes it to a whole new level and not a positive one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bill Cosby has to come forward and say something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY. Alisyn Camerota here with Chris Cuomo.

This emotional outburst you're about to see caught on video could land Michael Brown's stepfather in legal hot water. He was yelling in the aftermath of the grand jury's decision not to indict Darren Wilson. Well, now, investigators are looking into whether Louis Head, that's his name, incited a riot and whether he could face criminal charges.

COUMO: People in Ferguson will be seeing less of the National Guard. That's good news. The governor scaling back their presence, because things are quieting down. Meantime, the FBI has arrested man who allegedly threatened to kill Darren Wilson.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Ferguson for us following everything.

Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, this stretch of road that we're on here in Ferguson was one of those areas that had been shut down by the National Guard. In a sign that things are starting to improve, the roads even here in the darkness are wide open.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HEAD: Burn this mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down! Burn this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) down!

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This explosive reaction to the non-indictment of former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson is now under investigation. Police want to know if Michael Brown's stepfather Louis Head possibly incited the crowd to riot with these words.

Michael Brown's mother explained the emotion behind the outburst in an interview with CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin.

MCSPADDEN: He just spoke out of anger, it's one thing to speak and it's a different thing to act. He did not act.

LAVANDERA: Investigators have not spoken to Head and no charges have been filed.

JEFF ROORDA (D), MISSOURI STATE HOUSE: Remember, there's people in the crowd that decided to burn down those buildings and I'm not so sure that they wouldn't have burned down those buildings without urging from Mr. Head or others.

LAVANDERA: The National Guard is scaling back its presence in Ferguson, since protests have gotten smaller. But businesses are still reeling from their losses.

(on camera): How angry are you?

MUMTAZ LALANI, BUSINESS OWNER: Well, it doesn't help, you know. I'm mostly disappointed by the authorities, because last, twice, two times, the governor said that we will take care of that and the third time, they said we'll really have a National Guard here. And there's nothing to worry about.