Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Ohio Man Allegedly Planning Attack on Nation's Capital; Paris Terrorists in Madrid Before Carrying Out Attacks; Interview with Valerie Jarrett; Interview with Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers

Aired January 15, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The country of France coming together.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here you have Boko Haram in Nigeria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard four, possibly five large explosions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This new video as you ran into parliament.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a man in northern Paris who saw these two alleged suspects.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A crew believed to have strapped explosives to the chest of a 10-year-old girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Terror threat on Capitol Hill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: L A 20-year-old Ohio man apparently inspired by ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Planned to set off a series of bombs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe he was coerced in a lot of ways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you say to him if you saw him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to give him a big hug and bring him home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chilling surveillance images from inside the kosher market in Paris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frightened hostages gather in a small group to wait and to worry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was more improvised. I think this person was trained.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They'll be up bright and early in Hollywood to hear the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards. Among the expected best picture nominee, "Boyhood."

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It is your NEW DAY, Thursday, January 15th, 8:00 in the east. And a 20-year-old Ohio man has been captured just as he was allegedly about to bomb the nation's capital in an ISIS inspired plot. Authorities say he planned to kill lawmakers that he considered enemies.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The suspect got the FBI's attention after posts on social media promoting violent jihad. Officials say he was heavily armed and ready to pull off these deadly attack. Let's get right to Alexandra Field live in Cincinnati tracking the latest developments for us. Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, authorities had been watching him for months but they finally arrested Christopher Cornell just two miles away from his house outside of this gun shop. This is where they say he bought two weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the final piece of evidence in their investigation which led them to believe he was serious about planning an attack. But his parents say this is a kid who didn't have the capability or the resources to pull off an attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): An Ohio man now in custody for allegedly plotting an ISIS inspired attack at the U.S. capitol. Officials say Christopher Lee Cornell was planning to detonate pipe bombs around the building and then shoot people as they fled. The 20-year-old came to the FBI's attention several months ago for alarming social media posts talking about violent jihad. In an undercover operation the FBI says Cornell told an informant he had contacts overseas, that he had aligned himself with ISIS and believed lawmakers were his enemy.

A criminal complaint says Cornell did not think he would receive authorization to conduct a terrorist attack in the United States but wanted to wage jihad on his own, writing, "I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic state here and plan operations ourselves."

He had researched the targeted government buildings and the construction of pipe bombs. Wednesday Cornell purchased two M-15s and 600 rounds of ammunition from this gun store in Cincinnati before FBI agents arrested him in the parking lot. WKRC obtained this image of his arrest from a customer inside a nearby store. The gun store owner who had been cooperating with authorities described Cornell's demeanor.

JOHN DEEN, POINT BLANK GUN STORE OWNER: There wasn't really anything about him that would have suggested he was involved in something like this.

FIELD: His parents were devastated and in shock. ANGELA CARMEN, MOTHER OF CHRISTOPHER LEE CORNELL: I'm just

heartbroken. I just want to give him a big hug and bring him home because he ain't out to hurt nobody.

JOHN CORNELL, FATHER OF CHRISTOPHER LEE CORNELL: He may have lost his way somewhere in there, but I believe he was really vulnerable and I believe he was coerced in a lot of ways.

FIELD: John Cornell says that his son recently took up an interest in Islam but had never mentioned ISIS.

CORNELL: He explained the peaceful side of Islam to me and he never showed any, any signs of any -- any kind of violence or anything. I mean, quiet, shy, good kid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (on camera): Attempted killing of a U.S. officer, that is one of the charges Cornell faces. He will be in court for the first time tomorrow. What is really key in this case here in identifying the suspect was the help the informant gave the authorities. That's why they were able to watch this suspect for months and that's why law enforcement sources now tell CNN that lawmakers were never in fact in any imminent danger. Chris?

CUOMO: Alexandra Field, thank you for the reporting.

We also have new information about the terrorists who murdered four people inside a kosher grocery store in Paris last Friday. The terror cell, it seems, is expanding. Let's get right to John Berman in Paris with more. John, what do we know?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Yes, a new development, a new development that turns our eyes towards Spain, specifically Madrid. CNN has confirmed from Spanish security officials that Amedy Coulibaly, the man who killed four people in the kosher market, was in Madrid about a week before the attack. He drove there with his girlfriend or partner, Hayat Boumediene. They arrived in Madrid on December 31st. They left on January 2nd. He, Coulibaly came back to Paris. She, Hayat Boumediene, she went on to Istanbul. From there she is believed to have headed to Syria.

Now, there was a third person with them in Madrid say these Spanish officials. What is unclear is if that person is a person seen in the video in the Istanbul airport with Hayat Boumediene or whether it could be a third person who traveled back here to France with Amedy Coulibaly, a key question they're asking.

Another key question according to someone close to the security situation here in Paris told me is, why Madrid? Is it possible they just wanted one last trip to a nice city before he was heading to his almost certain death in some kind of terror attack, or was it to connect with perhaps more people involved in a terrorist cell in that city? Madrid like so many cities across Europe, Chris, does have people who have returned from the battles in Syria and the Middle East. There could be people there whom they met with. There have been several people, according to this one guy I talked to, who said that many people have returned from the Middle East very recently to Madrid. So the possibility of meetings there something they are looking into very closely right now.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John. Again, it's not about the size of this connection, what was done. It's how many it took to get this done. That's what obviously is occupying the authorities. Thank you for staying on top of it, my friend. We'll be back to you later in the show. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Chris, here to weigh in on the terror investigation and to speak about what the president will be focused on today is senior adviser to President Obama Valerie Jarrett. Good morning, Ms. Jarrett.

VALERIE JARRETT, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, Alisyn. How are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm well. Thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

Let's talk about all of the troubling breaking news that we've been hearing this morning and in the days prior. First, let's start with this foiled plot against the U.S. capitol. This 20-year-old Ohio man has been arrested as he tried to buy guns. He said he wanted to attack the capitol and to kill congressmen and women. And when you couple that with everything that's been happening in Paris and the massacres there, I can imagine it must be an anxious time inside the White House. Tell us the conversations you're having.

JARRETT: Well, of course it is. First of all, I want to compliment the FBI and all the local law enforcement teams that worked so vigilantly to capture this person. And so, yes, we have to be on high alert. We have to cooperate. We have to involve the public. People have to be aware of what's going on around you. And fortunately this issue resolved itself very well thanks to great efforts of law enforcement.

CAMEROTA: Of course, the investigation into what happened in Paris and the massacres there continues. We know Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Paris. He says he wants to share a big hug with the French people. Do you and President Obama regret not sending someone to Paris sooner?

JARRETT: Well, I think as we said, certainly we would have liked to have participated in the parade. I remind you that Attorney General Holder was in Paris for a very important meeting together with his colleagues from around Europe and around the world to take a look at what we can do to make sure that we're cooperating fully. And so I think we certainly got the substance right, but it would have been great to participate in the parade, and we're delighted Secretary Kerry is there now.

CAMEROTA: And was there consideration to have Eric Holder participate in the unity march?

JARRETT: I'm not aware of that. I know that he had pressing issues to get back. And he dropped everything to fly over there at the invitation of the French to participate in the meeting. But I don't know the facts about whether or not he was asked to stay.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the big domestic issues. One big thing on the front of everyone's plate now is immigration.

JARRETT: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And just yesterday House Speaker John Boehner came out and basically called out the president for what he considered overreach with executive action. Let me play for you what John Boehner said about the president yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: To think that the president of the United States actually studied constitutional law is one thing. He doesn't just teach or learn constitutional law, he taught it as well. But now his actions suggest that he's forgotten what these words even mean. Enough is enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: John Boehner says enough is enough with executive action. What's your response?

JARRETT: Well, first of all, yes, the president was a constitutional law scholar. And no, he hasn't forgotten a thing. And he is confident based on counsel that he's received from the Justice Department that what he did is well within his legal authority, very well within his legal authority.

I remind you that the Senate over two-and-a-half years ago passed a bill on comprehensive immigration reform and we waited and waited and waited for the House to take action. And so rather than trying to reverse what the president did, which will strengthen our immigration system, keep America safe, why not pass a bill, pass their own bill. If they're uncomfortable with the executive actions, then they should take action themselves. And we would love for them to do that, and more importantly the American people have been waiting for them to take action.

So the president believes let's not deport families and break up families. Let's focus on felons. Let's strengthen our border. Let's make sure we hold people accountable. Let's pass a bill that offers a path to citizenship to people who get right with the law, pay taxes, and want to be members of our society. We've always been a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants, and we can do that. And the Senate had demonstrated that it's possible to do that in a bipartisan basis. So let's encourage this new Congress to do the same. Let's get this settled on a comprehensive basis once and for all.

CAMEROTA: Ms. Jarrett, let's talk about what you and the president will be focused on specifically today, and that is how to extent sick leave for working families. JARRETT: It's interesting. I'll give you some statistics. All

parents work in 60 percent of families. That's a big change since 1965 when it was only 40 percent. And yet fewer than 60 percent of working adults had any sick leave, any paid leave whatsoever. And people get sick. People have babies. People want to spend time bonding with those babies, both men and women. We are finding increasingly people are responsible for their parents and elder care is important.

And so what the president wants to make sure is that for both workers and families we are providing the kind of benefits that recognize the fact that we don't just work. We have family responsibilities. We get ill. We have babies. We need to take care of ourselves. And so he's supporting the Healthy Families Act. It's a bill currently being considered in Congress which would provide seven sick days to every American.

Right now over 40 million Americans don't have a single day off with pay whether they're sick, their child's sick, their parents are sick. And we also want to encourage paid leave. So the federal government is contemplating now a policy, but let's not wait for them. So the president is encouraging states and cities across our country to pass laws that would provide both sick time paid as well as family leave paid.

And he's also signing a presidential memorandum that would provide federal employees with the ability to advance their sick time and take it for paid leave for six weeks, and calling on Congress to pass a paid leave policy for federal workers as well. And the reason why behind all of this is it's not just good for workers but it's good for the economy. Study after study shows that employers who provide these kinds of benefits to their employees are more productive and more profitable, whether it's a small business, a large business, it doesn't matter.

CAMEROTA: Do you anticipate any push back from Congress on the president's signing the presidential memorandum on this initiative?

JARRETT: Well, I think clearly it's well within his authority to sign the presidential memorandum. I think what we would really call on them is to recognize the fact that with these changing demographics in the workplace, if our U.S. employers want to be globally competitive, they are going to have to offer the kind of benefits that allow them to compete for, to attract and retain the best talent.

There's a range of issues that we've been focusing on that grew out of the Working Families Summit that the president hosted earlier in the summer. So it's workplace flexibility, equal pay, increasing the minimum wage, child care, and paid sick leave and paid sick time. These are all important benefits to have a productive workforce.

CAMEROTA: Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, thanks so much for taking time for NEW DAY.

JARRETT: You're welcome. Thank you. Have a great day.

CAMEROTA: You too.

Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, let's look at the headlines right now. A "Washington Post" journalist detained in Iran for months now has been indicted and will stand trial. It's still unclear what Jason Rezaian has been charged with. If Tehran moves ahead with prosecution it could complicate President Obama's efforts to force a nuclear agreement with Iran.

The Pope speaking out today about those terror attacks in France, telling journalists aboard a flight to Manila there are limitations to free speech. He said people should not provoke nor insult other people's faiths. The pontiff is on a five day tour of the Philippines.

Quite a changing of the guard at the Secret Service. Four high ranking officials are being reassigned in a management shakeup that follows a series of embarrassments and security lapses. The agency interim director says, quote, "change is necessary." A report last month by a special investigative panel described the Secret Service as, quote, "starved for leadership."

You know that game Hungry, Hungry Hippo?

CAMEROTA: Sure.

PEREIRA: Have you heard of the hungry angry hippo?

CUOMO: Yes.

PEREIRA: A tour guide in Zambia sped up his boat just in time because this unbelievably fast hippo charged towards it. Incredibly it surfaced near feet from the boat. We have to run the video again. It's going to come here. Wait for it. Oh, my goodness.

CAMEROTA: It was hiding under there.

PEREIRA: The guide says normally hippos are not aggressive unless they have babies and the babies are with them or they feel threatened. He says he has been chased on more than one occasion. I was thinking about how I like to be on the Hudson River. I'm glad there's no hippos.

CUOMO: I think there's a lot of data. They kill more people than any other animal.

PEREIRA: OK, you, and -- look.

CUOMO: Hippos, they get a false good rap. They have a nice smile.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PEREIRA: Don't get him started on pandas, too. He thinks that the --

CUOMO: You know what, jump in a cage with a panda and see what happens. That's all I'm saying.

CAMEROTA: Let us know what you think about the cute panda or dangerous.

Meanwhile, we keep hearing that the economy is booming. Why aren't wages climbing? Is what's good for Wall Street really good for you?

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers here to test the reality.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back.

In many ways, the economy starting to pick up. Job openings reached their highest level in nearly 14 years at the end of November, and in 2014, we saw employers create the most jobs since 1999.

And, yet, you are probably getting ready at 8:20 here in the East to leave for a job that probably you feel isn't paying you enough. Why isn't this robust economy resulting in higher wages?

Let's discuss with somebody who knows. Larry Summers, former treasury secretary under President Clinton and former director of the National Economic Council under President Obama.

Mr. Summers, Mr. Secretary, thank you for joining us.

You on a transatlantic board that you chair, along with the ex-checker in the British parliament, Ed Balls. It's called the Exclusive Prosperity Commission.

You have a new report coming out with recommendations of how to help reduce growing income inequality spurring middle class growth.

Let's put your suggestions, sir, into context with where we see the problems. For example, Valerie Jarrett was just on NEW DAY. We know her importance to the president. She cites the problem very well without right now offering from the administration a solution to that problem.

She says, all parents now work in 60 percent of families but they are not seeing their wages grow.

Larry, why is that?

LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS, FMR. U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: You know, Chris, these problems were not made in a month or a year or even in a decade, and they're not going to get solved overnight, but you look at some countries like Australia and Canada that have seen patterns of wage increases for middle income families who live in the same world of globalization and technology that we do.

So, there's no reason for fatalism. This is an issue that can and I believe will be addressed.

(CROSSTALK) CUOMO: So, give -- please. So give me the big fix because what are the impressive numbers we see? Unemployment's going down, but not under employment. People are working harder. They're taking temporary jobs. More hours, less pay.

How do you fix it?

SUMMERS: Chris, let's not forget that we are at a very different place than we were five years ago. We have a long way to go, but we are at a very different place than we were five years ago. What we need to do now is address the long standing structural issues.

Let me give you some examples.

CUOMO: Please?

SUMMERS: We live in a moment where we can borrow money as a country for 1.8 percent and where we've got a massive construction unemployment rate. There is no reason why that should not be the moment when we fix Kennedy Airport, when we fix tens of thousands of schools across the country where the paint is chipping off the walls. Our infrastructure investment rate has never been lower and the need has never been greater.

CUOMO: Why?

SUMMERS: Infrastructure investment puts people to work. It generates a further multiplier effect as the people who are put to work spend money. It makes our economy function more efficiently.

CUOMO: So why isn't it happening?

SUMMERS: We're in a just in time economy. We need a transportation infrastructure that can move things efficiently, and it takes a burden off my children's generation because if we do the necessary things, like fixing Kennedy Airport now, that burden won't be placed on their generation when the time comes.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: So, what's the solution, Larry? Why isn't it happening? Is it because it's perceived as government spending? Why isn't it happening if it's such an obvious solution?

SUMMERS: I think it's -- I think there's a perception on some people's part that anything the government does is waste. I don't think the Hoover Dam was waste. I don't think the interstate highway system was waste. I don't think the basic research that led to the Internet was waste.

Of course, we need -- we've had important reforms that control earmarks, that stop "bridges to nowhere", that discipline the congressional process. Of course, we need to do what was done during the Recovery Act, which is put the progress of every project on the Internet so people can follow it every week or month.

Transparency is a huge antidote to incompetence and inefficiency.

CUOMO: Larry, how about this --

SUMMERS: Infrastructure is one piece.

CUOMO: OK.

SUMMERS: A second piece is we've got to empower work. We can't treat workers as just another commodity subject to market forces. The minimum wage is way lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president and there was nothing bad happening to employment because of the minimum wage when he was president.

We have allowed the ability of unions to organize workers to completely erode in this country. Valerie is right. In fact, if you give the right kinds of protections that let people take time offer when they have a pressing family --

CUOMO: Right.

SUMMERS: -- need, more people take jobs, more people enter the labor force, you get more workers and that ultimately increases --

CUOMO: Right.

SUMMERS: -- the scale of the economy.

CUOMO: But, Larry --

SUMMERS: Yes?

CUOMO: Here's the concern with that, OK, is that, one -- right now minimum wage is largely going to be tied with what the states want to do, right? That's going to be a hard thing to create one pattern with.

But you also have this fundamental pattern of what is allowed to be rewarded in your economy. You're saying value workers, but we've moved completely the opposite way. Look at the disparity between Wall Street and Main Street.

You have Jamie Dimon, OK, big shot banker, JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO, he's saying, even after current conditions, OK, after everything that's happened, no one went to jail, he still says banks are under assault. In the old days, you dealt with one regulator when you had an issue. Now, it's five or six.

This is coming at a time when they're not lending to anybody they don't want to. Every business gets reward for cutting its labor costs. How do you change this dynamic where the banks are complaining, businesses are always complaining and they get what they want which almost always means that the worker loses?

SUMMERS: There's no single step there. I'll give you an example of one thing that we recommend in the report. People get bonuses in the financial sector. That's probably OK, but

they shouldn't get the whole bonus this year. A bunch of it should be held aside and invested for them, and if it turns out they did something wrong or if it turns out that one of their investments goes very wrong, then that bonus should be clawed back. That would give them a stake in not just what happens this year but in the longer term health of their institutions.

That is the kind of thing that regulators need to push and pursue. Of course, we need to avoid duplication. Of course there's no reason to be punitive for the sake of being punitive. But, look, the country has been through the ringer on this financial crisis, and part of the reason it was through the ringer on this financial crisis was that there wasn't enough regulation in advance and that the regulators weren't using the authorities they had.

So, the pendulum is shifting towards more regulation and I think that's appropriate. That doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be monitored very carefully, but we do need to be prepared to hold people responsible. We do need to make sure that our corporate governance institutions are focused on the long term health --

CUOMO: Right.

SUMMERS: -- of companies and not just on share prices in the next day and the next month.

CUOMO: Well, Larry, it's great in theory. We're certainly not seeing it play out in practice, but that's why we need commissions like yours, the Inclusive Prosperity Commission. They have their new report out. We encourage people to look at it and judge for themselves.

Larry Summers, thank you very much.

SUMMERS: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Mick?

PEREIRA: And the nominees are -- in a matter of minutes we'll find out who was nominated for a 2015 Academy Award. We're going to go live to Los Angeles for the big announcement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)