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New Day

National Protests Continue Over Eric Garner Case; Obama: Progress Has Been Made on Racism; U.S. to Continue Racial Profiling in Border Policy; Hostages Killed During Failed U.S. Raid

Aired December 08, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, vandalism and looting on the streets of California, hundreds of anti-police demonstrators taking to the streets. Protesters criticize police for using tear gas, but is it warranted?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And a covert operation to rescue an American hostage from al Qaeda goes terribly wrong. This morning, Luke Somers' family is angry about that failed mission and new details release.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Blame game. "Rolling Stone" says they're to blame, not the alleged victim for the article that set off the sexual assault scandal that rocked the University of Virginia. What the university and police may have known weeks before the explosive report came out.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Monday, December 8th, just before 6:00 in the east. Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here. And overnight outrage out of control. The grand jury decisions in New York and Ferguson have brought violence to the streets of California.

Protesters looting and vandalizing businesses in Berkeley. The situation still reportedly active. Demonstrators caught between tear gas and anarchists, outsiders, throwing objects at officers in Oakland.

CAMEROTA: Now in New York City, people got creative not violent during a fifth night of protests expressing their feelings about the Eric Garner case in song with what they called Justice Carols.

In a few hours from now, the U.S. capital will be the scene of a so- called die-in. That's where protesters play dead to protests police killings of unarmed civilians.

CNN's Alexandra Field joins us with all of the latest. Good morning, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

A lot of these protesters have continued to say that they want to see these protests remain peaceful. But certainly, some very tense moments over the weekend, especially Northern California, the crowd there saying they don't like some of the police tactics. Officers saying they need to control the crowds. Overnight in Oakland, eight arrests made, five patrol cars damaged. And police say two of their offers [SIC] -- officers were injured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): Violence erupting for a second night in Northern California after 500 protesters swarm an Oakland freeway. A standoff with police officers who eventually deploy tear gas and arrest a small number of people.

In Berkeley, demonstrators looting multiple businesses. A peaceful protester trying to stop a looter was hit in the face with a hammer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A guy with a crowbar comes in and starts stealing stuff, like as much as they can get.

FIELD: This after a grand jury decided last week not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Eric Garner's chokehold death.

GWEN CARR, ERIC GARNER'S MOTHER: Peace is the message. We don't want any violence, but keep on keeping on.

FIELD: Just the night before, a group of agitators in Berkeley, California, broke windows and threw what they could at the hundreds of local police in full riot gear. Some demonstrators saying on social media police were firing rubber bullets. Police have yet to comment.

In New York City over the weekend, a few hundred people clashed with police, staging die-ins at Grand Central Station, Apple's flagship store, and Macy's in Herald Square.

The national outcry even hitting the field.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gets away, but he goes down.

FIELD: Washington Redskins defensive lineman Chris Baker making the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture after a play Sunday, and several NFL and an NBA player wearing "I can't breathe" T-shirts.

ERIC GARNER, KILLED BY POLICE: I can't breathe.

FIELD: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tells ABC News this week his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, fundamentally misunderstands the reality.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: You cannot look at an incident in Missouri, another incident in Cleveland, Ohio, and another incident in New York City, all happening in the space of weeks, and act like there's not a problem.

FIELD: Giuliani blasted de Blasio on FOX News last week, saying it's, quote, "racist" to not acknowledge block on black crime after de Blasio said he tells his biracial son to take special care around police. RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: You should spend 90

percent of your time talking about the way they're actually probably going to get killed, which is by another black.

FIELD: Garner's widow told NBC's "Meet the Press" she fears for her children.

ESAW GARNER, WIDOW OF ERIC GARNER: I'm so afraid of what could happen to them in the street by the police. I'm afraid of the police.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: Another demonstration is scheduled for later today in the Capitol, a so-called die-in being staged there.

Some powerful images that we've seen employed by protestors and demonstrators. In this case, we've seen these die-ins happen around the country.

But what we've also got to keep our eye on is what's happening between the protestors, because you do have this group that clearly wants this to remain peaceful, and you do have a group that is feeling that they are ready to and need to clash with police, when they think the tactics are too excessive.

CAMEROTA: Alexandra Field, thanks so much for that update.

Joining us now by phone is Jennifer Coats. She's the public information officer for the Berkeley, California, Police Department.

Good morning, Officer Coats.

JENNIFER COATS, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, POLICE DEPARTMENT (via phone): Good morning, thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: OK. What happened there last night?

COATS: So we had another demonstration march that, at the height, the group was, you know, approximately 600 people. This time the group marched through some of the major business areas here in Berkeley and caused a significant amount of damage to several businesses, breaking out windows and looting the stores.

CAMEROTA: And why is Berkeley, of all places, do you think, having these violent clashes when bigger cities like Philadelphia and New York seem to be more peaceful?

COATS: You know, at this point it's hard to stay specifically why, you know, in this case somebody would take it to the extreme. Berkeley has been known for its, you know, protests and abilities to freely express yourself, but to do it in this manner, it is kind of shocking.

CAMEROTA: How many arrests were made last night?

COATS: So I'm not sure. You know, as you know, the protests started in Berkeley but also went into different jurisdictions. I'm not sure how many arrests may have been made in Oakland. But tonight we've made five arrests in relation to the protests.

CAMEROTA: You know, we've also heard that police there have used rubber bullets and tear gas. Is that right?

COATS: We didn't use any specifically this evening. Yesterday, we did deploy, you know, tear gas and smoke in relation to the violence that was occurring towards the officers at the time. As you know -- as you know, several of our officers were struck with bricks and metal pipes, and you know -- and we had several officers injured, both yesterday and then we had two officers also injured today.

CAMEROTA: So I guess the question is, why not arrest more people?

COATS: Well, it's just hard to, you know, with crowds this size, you know, and to maintain the safety of the community and the peaceful protesters, you know, it's hard to specifically go in and make, you know, the large mass arrests. You know, we do try to pick out the people that are, you know, specifically causing damage to property and are looting so that we can try and make sure that those specific people that seem intent on, you know, committing crimes are arrested for the actions that they're taking.

CAMEROTA: All right. Officer Jennifer Coats for the Berkeley P.D., thanks so much for keeping us up to date. Let us know what happens today and tonight in Berkeley. Thank you.

COATS: Thank you, have a good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Let's get the police perspective on this. We have Cedric Alexander, the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, and Jeffrey Blackwell. He's the police chief of Cincinnati, which you'll remember went through its own riot problems back in 2001.

Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us. Chief, let me start with you. You understand why people are protesting. But let me ask you, do you think it's warranted?

JEFFREY BLACKWELL, CINCINNATI POLICE CHIEF: Well, I think the country is speaking to us very loud and clear. I won't answer whether it's warranted. But we are listening. Police chiefs, police agencies across this country hear the public loud and clear, and we have to have a recommitment to being better at what we do.

CUOMO: Mr. Alexander -- Dr. Alexander, when I say "warranted," I don't mean an opinion on the grand juries. I'm saying that the issues that have come out of the, about imbalanced treatment and the methods of enforcement that are used in poor and minority communities, do you think that the people who are protesting and others have a legitimate beef?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT, NOBLE: No, sir, not when it comes to violence. To be able to execute your First Amendment right, we all agree with that, and that's exactly what I think my friend there and colleague, Chief Blackwell, is saying.

But to be violent, such as what we saw last night and the night before, is totally unacceptable. And what I would say to that community out there in Berkeley is that there's a whole country that's acknowledging the pain of what's going on and something that is not right. But to get your message across, this is not the way to do it.

What I would say to that community, Chris, is that they need to stop and desist immediately any further violence. If you want to march, you want to protest, that's fine. But to put police officers at risk to do what you're doing, to damage those buildings, those businesses, your local economy, is just not acceptable.

CUOMO: Chief, the conflict is, obviously, nobody wants to tolerate breaking the law in the name of having better law enforcement. Right? It doesn't make sense, but it often happens in these situations. You saw it in 2001.

The conflict is, you're telling people to stop doing what they're doing. But they don't see any change addressing their grievances yet. So how do you strike the balance?

BLACKWELL: Well, we have to start. The rioting is distracting. As long as this is going on, there can be no dialogue. We cannot get to the heavy lifting of some agencies recalibrating or retooling; other agencies that have systemic issues may need to rebuild and start over with their enforcement platforms and everything, their training platforms, everything that they do strategically to try to police their communities.

We need better training. We need more diversified forces, not only for the optics of how that looks, but for the internal perspective in roll call rooms. When you have diverse forces, they tend to treat people better and differently.

And so agencies need to get there. And then the bigger issue is they need to be collaborative with their communities, can't be top driven. It has to be organically grown from the ground up. The problems and the strategies in those cities to address those problems.

CUOMO: You know, Chief, I hear what you're saying. Dr. Alexander wrote an op-ed for CNN, outlining many of the same points, saying how to build a more sensitive officer.

And I have to tell you what I'm struck by is that -- and I'll give this to you, Doc. I can't believe that this isn't being done right now. Recruiting diverse forces, having them understand their community. If you can get them to live in their community, that's great. If you can get them to do things other than arrest people in their community, spend time with them, that's great. Shouldn't that all have been being done all along, right now?

BLACKWELL: Well, one thing we have to remember, Chris: there are a lot of departments across the country that are currently doing that and have been doing it for some time. They've been practicing great community-oriented policing.

But there are communities that still struggle with that concept. And you're absolutely right: in light of everything that's going on right now, every leadership, from elected officials, to appointed physicians, rather their chiefs, sheriffs, whatever the case may be, we all should be working very hard, very diligently right now, working with our communities.

And the community has a responsibility, as well, too, to work with their local law enforcement agencies towards these issues that we know are going to make a difference going forward.

CUOMO: And it does cloud the situation when you see the worst of police behavior, you see the worst of the protesters. It does make it very difficult to move forward. But you guys are laying out good ideas. Let's hope we get to the next phase, because we certainly know what the problem is. The question is, what will be the solutions?

Chief, thank you very much.

Dr. Alexander, always a pleasure.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, President Obama calling for patient and persistence in the wake of tensions and violent protests. He'll speak about the death of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and others at the hands of police in an interview airing later today on BET.

Sunlen Serfaty joins us now live from the White House with the latest. What's happening there, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this is something of a pep talk from President Obama. The White House says it's intended to reach out to a very specific group: Young African-Americans who may be discouraged by these grand jury decisions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Show me what democracy looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what democracy looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what democracy looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what democracy looks like.

SERFATY (voice-over): As protests continue across the country, including this die-in front of the White House, the president calls for persistence and patience, telling BET...

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When you're dealing with something as deeply rooted as racism or bias in any society, you've got to have vigilance, but you have to recognize that it's going to take some time and you just have to be steady. So that you don't give up when we don't get all the way there.

SERFATY: He says, despite the grand jury verdicts in Ferguson and New York, there's hope for progress.

OBAMA: As painful as these incidents are, we can't equate what is happening now to what was happening 50 years ago. And if you talk to your parents, grandparents, uncles, they'll tell you that, you know, things are better. Not good in some cases, but better.

SERFATY: This as the president is dealing with a health issue. He's had a sore throat for weeks, and the White House says an unexpected hospital visit this weekend revealed he has acid reflux. A White House official says a CT scan was done out of an abundance of caution. They say the results were normal. No biopsy was done or is planned, and he will be treated.

Sunday evening, the president appeared in good spirits...

OBAMA: Everybody looks so nice.

SERFATY: ... cracking jokes at a star-studded reception for Kennedy Center honorees, including actor Tom Hanks and musician Sting.

OBAMA: POTUS is a pretty good nickname. But let's face it, it's not as cool at Sting.

SERFATY: Keeping up the laughs later at the Kennedy Center.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And the president's voice there sounded -- showed, really, no hint of a sore throat. A White House official tells us that this sore throat has not had no impact on his routine or his schedule over the last few weeks -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Right. And it doesn't seem to have affected his voice quality, at least not detectible to all of us.

Sunlen, thanks so much for the update.

Let's get over to Michaela for some more headlines.

PEREIRA: We will talk to the good doctor Sanjay Gupta about that coming up on the program.

CAMEROTA: Let's do that.

PEREIRA: All right.

Let's take a look at your headlines right now.

Despite the national protests and deepening racial tensions, President Obama has decided to continue a controversial profiling practice. The White House says it will allow federal agents to racially profile airline passengers in an effort to enforce immigration laws.

CNN's Evan Perez in -- is in Washington with more. Good morning to you, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

The Justice Department later today is expanding the federal ban on profiling, the new rules for federal law enforcement have been in the works for about five years. But they're more relevant than ever, given the protests around the country about police conduct.

Now the new rules will ban profiling based on religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity. That's in addition to the current ban on ethnic and racial profiling.

Now, what's still allowed, as you mentioned, however, is profiling at the border and airport screening checkpoints. The government says that's necessary to enforce immigration law and for national security reasons, but it's bringing -- that's bringing criticism from some civil rights groups that want a total ban on profiling.

Michaela, Attorney General Eric Holder is pushing for state and local law enforcement to adopt the federal rules, as well.

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

In other news, a lot of hand wringing and dire predictions of deaths overseas if a Senate report on CIA torture is released. The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee telling CNN that extremists will almost certainly use the report as a propaganda tool to incite anger and violence. The 480-page report summarizes the study on CIA interrogations from several years ago. It is expected to be released this week.

Israel has launched a series of airstrikes inside Syria. According to Syrian state media, Israeli warplanes bombed areas near Damascus Airport and a small town near the Lebanon border. No one was killed. We're told buildings were damaged, however.

It's believed the facilities may have been used to store weapons destined for Hezbollah. The Israelis are not commenting.

A massive fire to tell you about. It shut down parts of two major freeways in Los Angeles, the 101 and the 110. Hundreds of firefighters are on the scene in downtown L.A. right now, trying to battle this blaze at a residential and commercial building that was under construction. Officials do not believe anyone was living or working in that building when the fire broke out. They have no idea at this point what the cause is of that blaze or certainly, the extent of damage. But it is a massive fire, right in the core of downtown Los Angeles.

CUOMO: Looked like it was melting the street overpass.

CAMEROTA: Yes, the signs. And the crackling sounds were deafening.

All right. Thanks so much for that.

PEREIRA: My pleasure.

CUOMO: All right. Weather on your news map this morning. So let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers, keeping track of the entire world. But let's just start with the country, Chad. Happy Monday.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Let's just start with you. It is cold outside. Happy Monday to you. And it will get windier tomorrow. This is just the beginning. Wind chill right now 15. Nothing on your radar, great flying in and out of New York today. That may not be the same story tomorrow.

The blue area, that is a winter storm watch. The green area, those are flood watches for tomorrow. A nor'easter runs up the East Coast tomorrow. Now, this is another nor'easter that isn't cold enough to make a big snowstorm for the cities. That's great. The snow is going to be inland. But, you know, I'll tell you what: the Poconos, the Adirondacks, the Catskills, you're going to get some snow where the coastal areas get an awful lot of rain.

The story, I think -- yes, of course -- is going to be rain. It's going to be wind-driven rain. There may be some wind gusts tomorrow afternoon that may be 50 miles per hour through the city. If you get those wind gusts in Philadelphia, in D.C., in New York City, in Boston, the airplanes will be slow. Expect slow weather. Expect cancellations tomorrow at the airport if you are flying. Today is a better day to get out, if you can.

Guys, back to you.

CAMEROTA: All right. Good to know. Thanks so much, John.

So he have some new details for you about the failed U.S. rescue mission in Yemen that left two hostages dead, including an American journalist. Was there anything else the U.S. could do?

CUOMO: We're also following this "Rolling Stone" magazine fiasco. They wrote a story about a gang rape at the University of Virginia. Then they backed off, blaming their source. Now they're tweaking their apology. We have new information about that and about the real situation at the school. Stay with us.

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CAMEROTA: An attempt to rescue American hostage Luke Somers ended in tragedy when both Somers and South African hostage Pierre Korkie were killed. Their captors -- they were killed by their captors, I should say, just as Navy SEALs got close to getting them.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the raid, quote, "necessary," believing that Somers' life was in imminent danger. Was there any other strategy that could have worked?

Let's bring in Gregory Johnson. He's the author of "The Last Refuge: Yemen, al Qaeda and America's war in Arabia" and a contributor to Buzzfeed, as well. Gregory, great to see you this morning.

GREGORY JOHNSON, AUTHOR, "THE LAST REFUGE": Thanks so much for having me.

CAMEROTA: You are the perfect person for to us talk to this morning, because you had your own terrifying experience where you narrowly avoided being kidnapped in Yemen earlier this year. So what did you think when you heard about how this rescue attempt had gone so tragically wrong?

JOHNSON: Yes, I mean, this is something that obviously strikes home for me. Luke Somers was taken outside of a grocery store on Subari (ph) Street, which is the same street in which the attempt on me was made earlier this year. And what tends to happen in these situations is that you're kidnapped. You're thrown in car, smuggled outside of a city and then you're sold from one gang to another until you end up with al Qaeda. And obviously, there were other people held with Luke Somers, and so if this -- if the attempt on me had gone slightly differently, it's likely I would have been there, as well.

CAMEROTA: And Gregory, I understand that before you went to Yemen to do reporting, you had a plan. You knew that kidnapping was a possibility, and you had talked to your fiance about it. What was your plan, had you been taken?

JOHNSON: Right. So this is one of the things that you really struggle with when you go to a place like Yemen. The last time I had been there was in late 2012. I'd been going to Yemen for more than a decade, reporting and writing on the country. And in 2012, after the Arab Spring, that was the first time that I felt physically unsafe. I'd seen videos. There was an attempt on a German diplomat in which he escaped the kidnapping and then the would-be kidnappers chased him down in a supermarket and executed him on the tile floor. And that happened in Yemen.

And so I knew -- I knew some of the -- some of the dangers, and you talked to -- I talked to the woman who would become my wife. We talked about what to do, who to call, what to say in the situation that I was taken.

But one of the things that I could never really -- really come to grips with and -- is what to do when someone grabs your arm. In my case, they grabbed my arm as I was coming out of a restaurant and they tried to hustle me into a cab. It was sort of a weird, one-armed, about 35-second struggle where they're pulling on my arm and I'm pulling back. And then the kidnappers dropped my arm and the arm of my Yemeni friend to chamber a bullet. And that's when we -- that's when we took off running. And it was that moment, if you get in the car you're kidnapped and if you don't, they shoot. Thankfully, in my case they did not shoot.

In Luke Somers' case, they forced him into the car, and then obviously, it ended very, very tragically this weekend.

CUOMO: And of course, you know, there's this ongoing debate about what the U.S. should do when an American is taken hostage, and the policy has been that you don't negotiate with terrorists, and you certainly don't pay ransom for terrorists. But today, Luke Somers' family feels as though the American strategy was wrong.

Here's the statement that they put out after this botched capture attempt. They said, "We are sure Luke would have given support to the ongoing discussions to secure his release in Yemen, rather than the conflict approach. There had been threats before that have not been carried out. Michael, Luke's father, was quite angry, because if there had not been a rescue attempt, he would still be alive."

Of course, it's impossible to know that, but do you think the U.S. should rethink their strategy in terms of negotiating with captors?

JOHNSON: Well, certainly, your heart goes out to Luke Somers' family, who's dealing with the loss of a son and a brother. It's a situation that is difficult, I think, for any of us to contemplate.

The U.S. is in a difficult situation. Countries like the United States, South Africa, Britain, don't pay ransoms for their hostages, but other European countries do. And so what happens is that you tend to be divided up by your nationalities. We've seen this in Syria and Iraq. We're now seeing this in Yemen.

The question that I have is there were actually two raids to free Luke Somers, one on November 25, and then this last one over the weekend. I'm very -- I have a lot of questions about why the raid on November 25 took place. There had been nothing that had been heard from Luke Somers for more than 14 months. Obviously, I'm not privy to any back- channel negotiations. I'm not sure if anything had broken down. But it was only after that failed raid on November 25 that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula put out a video threatening to kill Luke. And in fact, that's what we -- that's what we saw, unfortunately, happen this weekend, is that AQAP murdered Luke as the U.S. forces were approaching the village.

CAMEROTA: Yes. And of course, we know the Pierre Korkie family say that they were close, they believe, to securing his release, because they had worked with civilian negotiators. And they say they were willing to pay $200,000 in order to get him out. But of course, he was killed in the rescue attempt, as well.

Gregory Johnson, great to talk to you. It's so great to get your personal experience and expertise.

And of course, we'd love to know what you think about all this. You can find us on Twitter. Me, @AlisynCamerota. Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So Rolling Stone, have you been following this story? We are. It's changing what they're saying about the situation again. The big issue was this alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia. They pulled back on the story. They blamed the source. Now they're saying something else. And we have information about what's going on, on campus, you're going to want to hear. Stay with us.

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