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New Day

NBA Action on Christmas Day; Politics Year-In-Review; 2014's International Hot Spots

Aired December 25, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY PERFORMING "JINGLE BELLS")

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: They sound good.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Right. Good morning.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Fantastic.

CUOMO: Welcome back to a special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

You were just listening to the Young People's Chorus of New York City, and they were singing "Jingle Bells" like nobody else can.

We have a lot to get to this half hour, including some of the biggest political moments of 2014.

CAMEROTA: And that's just ahead.

But, first, let's get a check of your headlines at the news desk and look at today's games with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks. Good morning and merry Christmas. I'm Alison Kosik.

Here are your headlines:

Hundreds of protesters staged a die-in at an Ohio mall where John Crawford III was shot dead by police in August. The 22-year-old Crawford was shot as he was holding an air rifle he picked up from a store shelf. A grand jury ultimately decided not to indict the officers involved. This comes amid frictions following months of protests over the police-involved deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and others.

An Ebola scare at the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC says one of its lab workers in Atlanta may have been exposed to Ebola, after samples used in experiments were sent to the wrong lab. The exposed technician has no symptoms and will be monitored for 21 days. The CDC says there's no chance of public exposure.

Meantime, a staffer at the United Nations mission in Liberia has tested positive for the deadly virus. A statement from the mission says it's the fourth case there two staffers died of Ebola three months ago, another recovered.

Time for this morning's "Bleacher Report." A lot of basketball on tap today. Here's Brian McFayden.

BRIAN MCFAYDEN, BLEACHER REPORT: All five Christmas games will be televised in 215 countries, 48 languages. That's how huge the NBA brand around the world.

The game with the biggest buzz has to be LeBron James visiting South Beach for the first time since he left the Heat. LeBron won two championships with Miami in four years before heading back home to Cleveland.

How will James be received by the heat faithful? Will he be booed? Cheered? Maybe a little of both? We're going to see a little bit later today. The Heat are planning a little goodwill, too. They'll honor King James with a video tribute during the game. LeBron has played in his share of Christmas games during his career. And he was asked his thoughts in playing in yet another one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, CLEVELAND CAVALIERS: Biggest day for the NBA. You know, I decide to come back here I knew I was going to be probably playing against Miami. But as far as my family come down or not coming down, we're taking it on the fly right now. Go down, play the game, play the schedule and move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCFAYDEN: That's a game you definitely not want to miss.

Cavs and Heat start at 5:00 Eastern. You can catch the primetime games on our sister station, TNT.

Kobe Bryant is going to be playing in a record 16th Christmas game. His Lakers take on the Bulls at 8:00. And in the late game, Warriors-Clippers at 10:30 Eastern.

KOSIK: Thank, Brian.

And one more sports story this morning. An athlete spreading some holiday cheer. Washington Nationals pitcher Doug Pitcher offering up a round of Starbucks, first come first serve, to his 24,000 Twitter followers. Pitcher tweeted out a bar code for people to show to the barista. The account ran dry by the afternoon, but good for Pitcher, showing some love to the fans for the holidays.

And those are news headlines. We're going to have more in about 30 minutes. Your special holiday edition of NEW DAY continues right now. Merry Christmas.

CUOMO: Welcome back. Merry Christmas, this is our special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

We're celebrating the holy days and looking forward to all the things that the New Year will bring. So, before we can look forward, we have to stop and reflect, right? The year is winding down, 2014, big, big year in politics for a lot of reasons.

So, let's take a look at what were some of the biggest headlines, who's going to join us to do that?

MARGARET: Joining us for this trip down memory lane is CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", John Avlon, and CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Margaret Hoover.

Merry Christmas to both of you.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Merry Christmas!

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: They look so nice in the middle of the decorations there, don't they?

HOOVER: Our very own fireplace.

CUOMO: But I hope it's not so hot.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Beautiful.

Let's talk about your favorite political stories of 2014. I'm going to start, Margaret, to you. With the GOP midterm sweep. I bet that was your favorite.

HOOVER: Top of the list, number one. Republicans actually had a really good year. I'm the kind of Republican that likes to see a big tent. I like to see a party that can appeal beyond its base, we had a couple of good wins on the board for that not just the sweep in November. But we also passed immigration reform. You saw a toning down on some of -- in the Senate. Plus, a toning down on some of the social issues that can be divisive like LGBT freedom.

So, you really see I think a shift in the Republican Party, and the win, of course, caps off this ability Republicans now have coming into 2015 and 2016 to set the table for the New Year and some really good candidates in 2014 as well. You have the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate. For example, you didn't see the trip- ups of previous cycles, because we had better candidates this year. You didn't have this he's egregious foibles of the tongue.

Let's just not remember them.

CUOMO: Avlon, let's pretend your wife can't hear us for a second. Has she been nipping at the eggnog? What is this big tent rationale that she's got --

JOHN AVLON, THE DAILY BEAST: This is a Christmas hopeful wish list.

CUOMO: The elf on the shelf kind of stuff?

AVLON: Look, I think, Margaret makes a good point. The Republican win was so big. They picked up seats in congressional districts, for example, that Obama won. So, it is a big Republican tent by that measure. And it was a big win. But, again, let's put it in context.

HOOVER: Feeling generous because it's Christmas.

AVLON: I know. See how I do that?

But lowest turn-out since World War II.

CUOMO: A lot of coal out there.

AVLON: So, you know, this was not I think this big GOP win can be misinterpreted. But no question in terms of the pick-ups in the Senate and House, big, big year for the Republicans and let's hope Margaret is right about the bigger tent.

CAMEROTA: I saw your eyes bug out during immigration reform.

AVLON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Because you don't believe 2014 was a success story for immigration reform.

AVLON: Just by the simple fact that it wasn't. I mean, look, yes, eight Republicans in the Senate joined with Democrats to pass immigration reform in the Senate. That died in the House, because any hope the House had of passing it died when Eric Cantor got kicked off the stage unexpectedly in June.

So, for Republicans to take any credit, they deserve credit for Lindsey Graham having the courage to back it. But it didn't get and it didn't get done because Republicans didn't have the courage to stand up to their base on it.

CAMEROTA: I'm curious for both of you. And I know it's going to be very different on each end of the spectrum. Hoovalon, which is new to me. Hoovalon is very good.

President Obama reflecting obviously on the past year. What do you think that he's looking at in terms of regrets, Margaret? And what do you think, John, he's looking at and saying, OK, we made some headway there.

HOOVER: Look, I think the president had a tough year. The economy in some ways has gotten better. But most people aren't feeling it, right? The Janet Yellen, the head of the Federal Reserve, says middle class Americans are feeling wage stagnation.

So even though some of the data shows it's better, people aren't feeling better. And then there was real confusion I think in his leadership when it comes to some of the true polemics we face abroad, with ISIS, there was a lot of confusion around the Ebola crisis as well, that happened right around the election and that did end up affecting some of the elections, particularly the governorship in Maine. We can talk about that later.

So, I think --

CUOMO: Nothing gets you going on Christmas like the governor's race in Maine.

HOOVER: Just to answer your question quickly. Robert Gibbs actually, you know, referred to his first year off the election as the lost year. And I think, you know, this was a little bit more of that. I mean, there isn't a lot that the president can look back on and say, wow, we really got this and achieved something.

AVLON: I think Republicans really can't wait to get this president off the stage. And so, there's always the narrative that the last quarter of the presidency is lame duck. And we in the media immediately fast-forward to the next presidential race. But you're still dealing with one quarter of the presidency as, you know, leader of the free world. And this president feels to some extent liberated by not having to go to an election again.

Now, we'll see if he really starts aiming big. But just to -- the economy, the economy is actually one of the great stories of this year. Look, you've had 57 straight months of job growth. You've got the stock market that if this president wasn't labeled a socialist anti-big business guy from the far right would be greeted with open arms because we've got 11,000 point increase in the stock market. Margaret is right, there's a major gap between Main Street and Wall Street --

CUOMO: You got that just from a single look --

AVLON: There's a big gap in that. But, you know, look, if Mitt Romney had won the 2012 election, Republicans would be dancing in the aisle talking about the Romney economic miracle. It's the same data and he deserves credit for it.

HOOVER: Yes, I --

CUOMO: Come on.

HOOVER: Yes. I mean, it's really -- it's really difficult to say the same data that Romney would have done absolutely nothing for the economy in terms of economic policies. I mean, the truth is he would have probably implemented some more robust pro-growth economic policies, like some tax reform or some rolling back regulations that are stifling some of the energy reforms.

AVLON: But the middle class --

HOOVER: So, it's very difficult to say. I mean, I think what you've just done is posit something that's totally impossible.

CUOMO: We can't have you guys fighting too much on Christmas.

HOOVER: We're not.

AVLON: Have some more eggnog.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Talking about Romney, if if's and buts were cherries and nuts, we'd all have a beautiful Christmas.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Plenty of answers from political types about who is Santa and who is Scrooge, right? But who will be Rudolph? Who will lead the way in the New York when things are cloudy and tough, with a big red nose that is not alcohol-induced? We will have to see.

MARGARET: He's on the roll.

CUOMO: Let's go. I'll cut it right there. It's good enough.

CAMEROTA: John, Margaret --

HOOVER: Thanks, guys.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Merry Christmas.

HOOVER: Merry Christmas.

CUOMO: Much more ahead on this special holiday edition of NEW DAY, Christmas Day. CNN's Christiane Amanpour is going to walk us through some of the biggest news stories that happened across the globe in 2014.

HOOVER: But, first, let's listen to the Young People's Chorus of New York sing an original song called "I Wish".

(YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY PERFORMING "I WISH")

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Welcome back to a special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

This year has been a huge year in international news from the threat of ISIS to the prospect of a new Cold War. The United States and its allies have been responding to tensions around the globe.

Joining us now to talk about this year in global affairs is CNN chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour.

Hi, Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. Happy holidays!

CAMEROTA: You, too.

So, let's start in Iraq. This is the year that we thought that U.S. service members will be able to come home, that things were going to somehow quiet down in Iraq. That's not what happen certainly with ISIS.

AMANPOUR: Well, that's exactly right. You can you sort of divide it into three parts. This year started with ISIS rising with a vengeance and taking over key towns in Iraq, Fallujah and other such places, putting up its distinctive black flag.

But the U.S. was out of Iraq. The Iraqis weren't up to it. The political situation was totally dysfunctional. The Sunnis were disenfranchised. So, ISIS germinated and germinated and germinated until we got to the summer when ISIS again rose with a vengeance in Syria and beheaded publicly by slitting the throats of American and Western journalists and aid workers.

Then, that motivated the United States and its allies to come in with an air campaign. And so, for the last several months, as the year has ended, this has been the modus operandum. In Iraq and Syria, attack from the air against ISIS, which has somewhat halted its momentum. It won't end the ISIS threat.

And the year ends with most people saying ISIS and the whole situation will not go away unless Assad goes away, unless the Syrian Civil War is resolved. As long as Assad is still there, this horror will continue.

CAMEROTA: It has been such a horror this year. And such a troubling story to cover.

Let's talk about Russia and a term that we thought we had retired with the Cold War. But it felt as though it was back this year.

AMANPOUR: You're absolutely right. Who could have thought this, so many years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union and an attempt to liberalize and democratize that part of the world?

Well, many of the former east bloc countries are strong democracies, part of the E.U., some part of NATO. But Russia has risen again as trying to set itself up as the big sort of counterweight to what is the only superpower, and that is the United States right now. And so, when Russia started to destabilize, Ukraine, annexed Crimea, violating international law, and laws and rules that it had signed itself -- a treaty to respect Ukraine's border, then continued the year with destabilizing eastern Ukraine, sending its force, sending heavy materiel to destabilize what should be democratic Ukraine. That has brought Russia and the United States and the rest of the West to an unprecedented crisis.

And to be very frank, nobody quite knows where this is going to end. Because let's not forget, the West is a nuclear-armed NATO alliance. Russia is a nuclear-armed nation. Nobody is suggesting this is going to go to war. But nobody quite knows how President Putin is going to be convinced to step back and to stand down.

CAMEROTA: Another intractable problem, of course, has always been Israel and Gaza. What did we see happen there this year?

AMANPOUR: Well, the major issue there was an attempt by the United States and a huge amount of work by Secretary of State John Kerry, at the behest of President Obama, to try to resuscitate the basically dead peace process there. And they worked very, very hard, but the fact of the matter is, that it imploded, in the spring of this year. With no view to somehow being restarted.

And on top of that, you still got the dysfunction in Gaza, with Hamas ruling there. The split between the Palestinians since the Western and Israeli-accepted Palestinian Authority is in the West Bank. And now, you have Israel in the New Year, about to go to new elections, which could, according to analysts, shift Israel ever towards the hard line and towards the right, and away from the peace process and that track. We'll wait to see who is the winner and who's the loser in Israel's upcoming elections.

CAMEROTA: And, Christiane, we were hoping to be able to end the year with a deal with Iran in terms of its nuclear weapons or nuclear potential at least. But then at the last minute, that was postponed.

AMANPOUR: Well, Alisyn, as you know, Iran does not have nuclear weapons. It is the nuclear program, though, that causes a huge amount of trouble for the United States, for Israel and for the West. So, again, an unprecedented chance and an incredible opportunity to try to resolve one of the most important, yet intractable relations in the world right now, between Iran and the West.

And a deal could be a game-changer on just about every level. What they've done is had very serious negotiations, that produced an interim agreement, that was then extended in the summer. And that is now been extended again.

So, the year ends with this interim accord, carrying on into 2015, with a pledge to come back again, in the summer of 2015 to see if finally they can knot this up. Tie up a deal.

But most people believe if Iran puts the brakes on its nuclear program, puts limits on its nuclear program in return for a lifting of the sanctions against it, that could really be a game-changer in the region and help on many, many other political and foreign policy affairs.

CAMEROTA: That's a bright spot on. Let's hope for that in the coming year.

Christiane Amanpour, great to see you.

AMANPOUR: Alisyn, thank you very much.

CUOMO: Always great to see her.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

CUOMO: Especially on this day.

All right. This family's Christmas wish is coming true this morning, thanks to some police officers with humungous hearts, none of this would have happened if a little girl hadn't called 911 by mistake. But she did and some seriously good stuff followed. That's coming up on your special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Merry Christmas to you. Welcome back to our special holiday edition of NEW DAY. Lots of good stuff to get to, right?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Hope a lot of it is in your home. But we want to stay a little focused on one story in particular.

PEREIRA: It's the Christmas good stuff?

CUOMO: Oh, it is. It is festive by any definition.

A 3-year-old girl in Boynton Beach, Florida, accidentally dials 911. That's not Christmas. She's playing with the phone. But it gets Christmassy-er.

Two officers respond. The girl's older sister tells them she was very sad, the little girl, why? The family wasn't going to be able to afford a Christmas tree this year. So, what do the officers do? Well, they have to follow the letter of the law and they arrest them.

No, they weren't going to stand for that. They leave. They come back a few days later with some Christmas cheer and obviously the tree you're looking at right now, along with lights, ornaments, everything the family needed to decorate it the right way.

You got to look at the face of the little girl.

CAMEROTA: I know.

CUOMO: You see the smile?

PEREIRA: She hugged the tree.

CUOMO: She hugged the tree, not in an enviro way. This was just about loving Christmas.

PEREIRA: What a beautiful thing. Well done.

CAMEROTA: That was worth it.

PEREIRA: She'll remember that for the rest of her life.

CUOMO: Right?

CAMEROTA: So great.

And Christmassy-er. You're doing a lot of things with adjectives during this show that I appreciate.

CUOMO: Yes. Really, it was just a problem with pronunciation. It went the right away.

PEREIRA: Pronunciation.

CUOMO: We're getting ready for the next hour of a special holiday edition of NEW DAY.

There's a lot of the news that seems negative these days, right? I mean it's just how it is. But actually, there is a lot to be thankful for and we're going to bring you that. So, here's something right now.

Let's listen again to the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

PEREIRA: Can we sing along?

CUOMO: Please? I can't.

(YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY PERFORMING)

CUOMO: Giving back -- you know you'll get something today that you'll want to take back tomorrow, right? What you need to know about gift returns.

CAMEROTA: And after the gifts are opened and the food is eaten, it's time for a movie. We're talking about the best ones out there, old and new.

PEREIRA: And holiday on display. Eat your heart out, Clark W. Griswold. We're showing off some of the most amazing holiday displays around.

CUOMO: Your special holiday edition of NEW DAY starts right now.

(YOUNG PEOPLE'S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY PERFORMING)