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White House Slams GOP for Iran Letter; Racist Fraternity Chant Video Fallout; Protesters Pack State Capitol Building

Aired March 10, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forty seven Republican senators have written the open letter to Iran.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Vice President Joe Biden lashing out.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it is ironic. It's unusual coalition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is particular fraternity is off the campus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The racism is alive and well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The chant, it exists in 2015 is sad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm happy to see the people of Iraq rise up.

BERMAN: The bloody struggle for control of Tikrit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They expect to take Tikrit within days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could hear the brakes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Within seconds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A very loud impact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The engine and trailer in the air.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, March 10th, just before 6:00 in the east. We have all out political war between the president and Congress. Forty seven Republican Senators releasing a controversial open letter to Iran.

It sets up a constitutional primmer. The letter is designed to undercut any potential nuclear deal. It may be the first of its kind and it warns Iran's leaders that any deal made with President Obama would be a mere executive agreement. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, President Obama accusing the GOP lawmakers of siding with America's enemies. Vice President Biden blasts the letter calling it an effort to, quote, "Undercut our president." We have complete coverage on this from Washington to Tehran.

Let's begin with Sanlin Serfaty. She is live at the White House where they are not happy about this, this morning, Sanlin.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this was an unprecedented and unusual move. This letter from Senate Republicans sent directly to the leaders of a country who is still on the state sponsor of terrorism list. And I have to say, it really highlights how the political battles being waged on Capitol Hill are now aggressively spilling into foreign policy.

Now the White House calls this reckless. And in a statement released overnight Vice President Biden says, quote, "In 36 years in the U.S. Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which senators wrote directly to advise another country, much less a longtime foreign adversary, that the president does not have the constitutional authority to reach a meaningful understanding with them. The decision to undercut our president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of principle."

And that exactly there is what set off the White House so fiercely. This attempted and perceived notion that it undermines the president's authority, something I should say the White House is especially sensitive to coming off the heels of that controversy over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the United States last week.

Now Tom Cotton, the freshman Republican from Arkansas, he did get 46 other Republican senators to sign onto this letter, including most notably, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and he fiercely defended the letter, saying that he believes that there are nothing but Iranian hard-liners in Iran that won't agree to any deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM COTTON (R), ARKANSAS: The president already said that a deal could have as little as a ten-year sunset on it. His national security advisor has said that Iran could have uranium enrichment capabilities, the critical component of developing a nuclear bomb. Whatever else the terms of the future deal might be, those terms make the deal unacceptable to the United States and to the world, because they pave the way for Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: There is some real worry on Capitol Hill from Republicans, but I should also note members of the president's own party, that the president wants this deal so badly, Alisyn, that he will sign onto any deal, even if it's a bad one -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sunlen, thanks so much for all that background. Well, Iran's foreign minister mincing no words in his response to this

unprecedented letter. He calls it a propaganda ploy. Nuclear talks are set to resume on Sunday. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live in Tehran with more -- Fred.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn, from a very snowy Tehran this morning.

And most Iranians received this letter as being quite condescending, especially the part that said that maybe the Iranians aren't familiar with the U.S.'s constitutional process. Certainly, the Iranian foreign minister saying that he is very much aware of the constitutional process. And again, as you said, he is calling this letter a propaganda ploy and also using these Republican senators of themselves being afraid of any sort of nuclear deal.

I want to read you part of the statement that he actually sent here to CNN Tehran. He said, "In our view, this letter has no legal value and is mostly a propaganda ploy. The world is not the United States, and the conduct of interstate relations is governed..."

CUOMO: All right. We just lost Fred Pleitgen. So you're seeing there with the responses from Iran, they're saying this is a political ploy. The question is, what good can come from this letter?

Here to weigh in, CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast," Mr. John Avlon; and CNN political commentator, Republican consultant and Sirius XM host, Margaret Hoover.

So Margaret, answer my question: what good comes from this move?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This letter is an essentially uniform reminder to everyone around that a bad deal is being negotiated by the executive branch of this country; and Congress, many, many senators, aside from the 47 who signed that, Democrats and Republicans alike, want to weigh in on the deal.

CAMEROTA: But sending it to our adversary? I mean, that's the president's point.

HOOVER: This is an open letter. Many, many people are -- and by the way, the president has been corresponding directly and privately with the ayatollah. So it's not so unprecedented that another branch of our government would send an open letter, just reminding -- reminding them of our constitutional process.

I mean, the truth is, we have no idea how Iran's government works. We, on the other hand, have an open and transparent government. We have no idea who calls the shots here. But here the president calls the shots and the Senate calls the shots, and this is a reminder that Congress wants to weigh in.

And by the way, 71 percent of Americans, according to a new "Wall Street Journal" and NBC poll, do not trust the president to -- that this deal will prevent Iran from nuclearizing. JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That is an admirable spin from my

bride, who I love very much but disagree with deeply on this. Hold on. We have 200 years of precedent in this country, all right, at stake here. This is a dumb letter on, like, five different levels, one of which, especially if you oppose what seems to be the deal that is being negotiated in real time. This letter is a Ted Cruz-esque move that overreaches and makes it more difficult to cobble together a bipartisan coalition to override or oppose the president, which is one of the reasons...

CAMEROTA: Meaning there will be backlash against the GOP senators in the future.

AVLON: That's one of the reasons Bob -- absolutely. That's one of the reasons Bob Corker, one of the statesmen of the Senate, did not sign onto this letter.

CUOMO: The head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

AVLON: Absolutely. So this is about positioning. This is about scoring political points. It's unprecedented to the extent that it undercuts a sitting negotiation, and it probably makes it more it difficult to ultimately achieve the aim they're going for.

HOOVER: That's ridiculous.

AVLON: It's not ridiculous. It's absolutely accurate. And so this is a really dumb partisan move that further polarizes the debate and also undercuts a sitting president of the United States during mid negotiations which is unprecedented.

HOOVER: It does not undercut.

CUOMO: How does it -- how does it not undercut him?

HOOVER: This is a congressional letter. They are having their own sort of interactions. You know what? If they were smart, they would use this as leverage. They would say, "Sorry, I can't give you that deal. You know why? Because I have to go back to my Congress."

CUOMO: Why don't they send it to him?

HOOVER: Why don't they use this as leverage?

CUOMO: If they'd send it to Obama, if they send it to the president...

HOOVER: Why are they pretending like the Congress of the United States instead of acting like they are negotiating from a position of strength.

CUOMO: Margaret -- Margaret...

HOOVER: That's the problem with this president. Nobody trusts that he can negotiate successfully. CUOMO: Margaret, you know what? If that's true, let's assume

everything you just said is true, your polls, your perception, all of it.

HOOVER: Do you think I just make all this up?

CUOMO: No.

HOOVER: I mean, it's like all overly excited, Chris. It's not like I'm just inventing things.

CUOMO: Because polls -- polls are -- as we all know all too well, they're only as good as the paper they're written on most of the time.

But let's say they're truth, they're vox deus in this, OK, the voice of God, you send this to the president. You don't send it to your enemy. This by definition is designed to undermine the process.

HOOVER: No, here's what the problem is.

CUOMO: Own it. That's what they want. And I'll bet you what, I'll bet you Senator Cotton will go down that road of saying, "Of course we want to influence the process. Of course we want to change the dynamic of this negotiation. Of course that's why we're reading this and writing this." He should say the same.

HOOVER: You know what the problem is? The problem is that we're talking about domestic politics, and we're not talking about the fact that this is a really bad deal.

CUOMO: You don't know what the deal is.

HOOVER: This is leaving centrifuges -- this is leaving centrifuges spinning, which Susan Rice has already said. They said initially, they said there will be no centrifuges spinning. Now we know there will be maybe around 6,000. We know that there's going to be a ten- year sunset deal. That's a ridiculous number.

CUOMO: So what's Plan B?

HOOVER: Why aren't he we talking about the substance of this incredibly bad deal...

CUOMO: Because it's not done yet.

HOOVER: The fact that this is going to make the world a less safe place.

CAMEROTA: But to Margaret's point, John...

AVLON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... to Margaret's point, after it's done, it's done. It's a done deal. So these senators are saying, "We want input while the negotiating is still happening." AVLON: So A, you don't break historical precedent; B, you don't

undercut your own government when you're negotiating. You actually can take a bipartisan stand against this, which would make it more difficult for the president to actually ratify. Remember, he said many times, we'll walk away from a bad deal.

CUOMO: And you know you've got people on both sides. You had Senator Angus Hines (ph) here yesterday, sitting right where you are, John...

CAMEROTA: Senator King, but...

CUOMO: ... yesterday, saying, "Hey, I was with Mitch McConnell about we have to really weigh in here. We should have a role." And then, you know, obviously, things got politically out of line. This is not going down the right road.

AVLON: Exactly right. And it also undercuts the aim of people who would want to caution and be skeptical of this deal.

The bottom line, we don't know what a final deal is until it's done. That's what's so unprecedented here, is that this is an ongoing negotiation. And every action that's taken needs to be also put aside against what's the alternative? What's the practical alternative? What are we really talking about here, folks?

And this letter, which is largely political theater, actually undercuts goals that might be bipartisan.

HOOVER: I actually think it helps it. Honestly, you think those hard-liners in Iran who see the president at the table making concession after concession after concession knows that he has to go back to his Congress, and he knows that he has an untenable Congress who isn't going to support what the president is negotiating. I actually think he's in a stronger position.

CAMEROTA: You're saying he could use it -- the president is going to use it.

HOOVER: It could embolden and strengthen our hand at the negotiating table.

AVLON: That is the best...

HOOVER: I know you disagree because for whatever reason you think this is going to be a good deal with Iran.

AVLON: I don't -- hold on. We don't know what the deal is.

CUOMO: You think they're going to use the letter? I like what you just said. Because that would be great. Because what do he we want? We want them to not have a nuclear weapon for, like, a million reasons.

AVLON: Correct.

CUOMO: Do you think the Republicans would have done this if they thought the president could use it as leverage to get a better deal?

AVLON: Nope.

CUOMO: Nope? I can't hear you. Would they have done this if they thought it would get the president more leverage and a better deal?

HOOVER: You know, here's the problem, Chris, and John and all of you, you guys are all caught up in the domestic who's up, who's down of domestic political partisan politics.

AVLON: No. Oh, my gosh.

CUOMO: ... undermining the negotiating process with a dangerous foreign power.

HOOVER: If he were smart he would use it to his strength.

CAMEROTA: But John, you keep saying the deal is not done yet. But what they know of the deal, what's leaked out, they don't like. So what are they supposed to do? They don't like the elements that have leaked out.

AVLON: I'm sorry. They're not at the negotiation -- I'm awfully sorry they're not at the negotiation table, but that's the point. It's an ongoing negotiation, which is why this is unprecedented.

Look, there used to be an idea in the Senate that partisan stopped at the water's edge. This, among other things, blows up that concept, which is awfully critical, to I think, national unity.

The other thing that I think's essential for us to really keep an eye on is that this is not done to strengthen the president's negotiating hand. Of course not. It's clearly done to undercut any negotiation. And it takes a political debate and projects it and a very large international debate. So look, they're...

HOOVER: To suggest that they are doing this to undermine the president...

AVLON: They are. They are. They are.

HOOVER: It is to strengthen the United States of America not to undermine the president.

CAMEROTA: On that note, John, Margaret, thanks for the debate.

CUOMO: All right, guys.

CAMEROTA: Better than caffeine.

CUOMO: I don't know if Margaret is right (ph). And Angus King, obviously, is the senator who was here yesterday, and he is an independent who's saying he wants to work with Republicans and Democrats and get more leverage.

HOOVER: And he also says he wants to weigh in on this. CUOMO: God bless Angus King.

CAMEROTA: And we'll be talking to Tom Cotton later on.

CUOMO: We will. And we'll see what the Republican senator, Tom Cotton, who drafted this letter is the first name on it. Obviously, he had a he coalition of 47. Why didn't he have all of them? We're going to ask him the questions, put this letter to the test.

CAMEROTA: Also this morning, there's growing fallout over that racist chant caught on video. Members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity ordered to vacate their house on the University of Oklahoma campus by midnight tonight. The school's president saying he hopes those students leave the school altogether, calling them a disgrace.

For more on the fallout, Nick Valencia joins us from the O.U. campus. What's going on there this morning?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.

Students and faculty both speaking out at the University of Oklahoma after it was rocked by a racism scandal involving one of its fraternities. Sigma Alpha Epsilon has until midnight tonight to remove all of their belongings from the chapter house as university president says they are severing ties with the fraternity.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can hang them from a tree, but they'll never sign with me. There will never be a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) at SAE.

VALENCIA: That highly offensive racist chant belted out by fraternity members of Sigma Alpha Epsilon is sending shivers through the University of Oklahoma, prompting the Oklahoma football team, the Sooners, to march in solidarity. The moment taking precedence over practice.

But outrage over the viral video elicited a more guttural response from the team's linebacker, Eric Striker, lashing out in this emotional rebuttal on social media.

ERIC STRIKER, LINEBACKER, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA FOOTBALL TEAM: The same (EXPLETIVE DELETED) talking about racism don't exist be the same (EXPLETIVE DELETED) shaking our hand, giving us hugs, telling them how you really love us.

VALENCIA: He spoke with CNN's Don Lemon Monday night.

STRIKER: We shouldn't tolerate that type of behavior here. It was such a bad reflection on the people here.

VALENCIA: Overnight the national president issuing another apology via Facebook, writing, "To those that were hurt and offended by these actions, especially the African-American community and our many African-American brothers, I apologize on behalf of our now-closed chapter and its members who will be expelled." Backlash from the video already has a top high school recruit backing

out of his early commitment to play for the Oklahoma Sooners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was just very disturbing to he me. I don't like it.

DAVID BOREN, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA PRESIDENT: Real Sooners are not bigots.

VALENCIA: The university's president taking swift action, severing all ties with SAE, demanding all members remove their belongings from campus, saying students could be expelled.

BOREN: We have zero tolerance for racism. As I said, I have a message for those that misuse their free speech to use racial slurs. You're a disgrace to this university.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Several students I spoke to yesterday said that they were shocked SAE was the fraternity caught on camera, because there are other frats here at the University of Oklahoma they say that are much worse. They're calling for an entire investigation of the Greek system here on campus -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We'll keep watching, Nick. Thanks so much for that.

Meanwhile, thousands of students in Wisconsin taking the state capitol by storm, calling for change after an unarmed biracial teenager was gunned down by a white police officer. The victim's family and protesters are demanding justice, and they are demanding it fast.

CNN's Ryan Young has the very latest for us from Madison. Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

We were here as those thousands of students walked inside the state capitol. They were chanting very largely. In fact, they formed a circle inside that state capitol and you heard those familiar chants of "Black lives matter."

And I can also stress the fact that the family wants to make sure it's not just about black lives. They want the entire community to support the Tony Robinson family, because they believe is unarmed teen should not have been killed.

Now, there are reports that this teen was causing trouble in the streets. A 911 call response had an officer show up to the house and said he heard a ruckus inside, pushed his way in, and then all of a sudden, he reports that he was hit in the head. Shots were fired, and the teen was killed. Now this community and this family is asking for calm -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much for the reporting from there. Obviously, we've to stay on this story.

So also in the news this morning, Iraqi forces are closing in on Tikrit, and they are confident they can retake the city from ISIS in just days. They say they can do that without help from the U.S. The Shiite paramilitary force is getting help from Iran.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, ISIS believed to be holding nine foreign oil workers hostage in Libya. Officials say terrorists abducted the group in an attack last Friday when a Libyan oil field was set on fire. The kidnapped foreigners were working for an Austrian oil services company that is headquartered in Tripoli. The abductions come as some militias pledge allegiance to ISIS, and they are thriving in Libya.

PEREIRA: Developing overnight, two French Olympic athletes are among ten people that were killed in a midair helicopter crash in Argentina. Gold medal winning swimmer Camille Muffat and bronze medal winning Alexis Vastine were part of the cast of a survivalist reality show called "Dropped." A government spokesman says it appears the helicopters they were in collided and went down in flames while taping a scene for the show. Two Argentine pilots, six other nationals, French nationals, were also killed.

CAMEROTA: That's terrible. Just a terrible story.

PEREIRA: Horrifying.

CAMEROTA: Well, there's new video from the Boston Marathon bombing. Jurors seeing surveillance video of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev before and after the blasts. How will this impact the outcome of the case?

CUOMO: And it's hard to imagine something worse than this terrible video that we've been showing you from the major university there in Oklahoma, but we're learning that there's an atmosphere at that school that some people say make this video just the tip of the iceberg. Student leaders living a life there tell us what they say is really going on.

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CAMEROTA: The students of Sigma Alpha Epsilon have until midnight tonight to move out of the from certainty house on the University of Oklahoma campus as the president of the school says the university's affiliation with that frat is over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOREN: Will not be tolerated. That is why that house is immediately closed. That is why those young men will have to have their belongings out of the house by midnight tomorrow. And as they pack their bags, I hope they think long and hard about what they've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Let's talk more about this with Chelsea Davis and Megan Johnson. They are co-directors of a group called Unheard. That's an alliance of black students at the University of Oklahoma. Ladies, nice to see you this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, good morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Chelsea, let me start with you. You heard the president of your university. He says the frat brothers of SAE have until midnight tonight to move off campus. Does that go far enough for you?

CHELSEA DAVIS, CO-DIRECTOR, UNHEARD: It does not. I think all those parties involved need to be expelled, male or female, everyone on that bus should be expelled from the university. I don't believe that it's taking it far enough just to suspend the campus here on campus.

CAMEROTA: Megan, what have you heard about possible expulsion from O.U.?

MEGAN JOHNSON, CO-DIRECTOR, UNHEARD: Some things I've heard about expulsion are -- is that legally, from a legal standpoint, it's probably not plausible. But the university does have other avenues and ways to discipline those students.

CAMEROTA: Megan, we had you on NEW DAY yesterday, and some of what you said really stuck with us. Because you told us that you were not surprised when you saw the video of that racist chant, and you said, in fact, that on a daily basis you confront racism on campus. Can you give us some examples what your life is like?

JOHNSON: I wouldn't say that racism on campus is as blunt as that video, using the "N" word or specifically pointing and laughing at us, but I would say in smaller ways, as far as not being able -- not feeling as welcome in a class or not being able to give the same responses from your peers as others, and just not feeling as welcome on the campus as we should be.

CAMEROTA: And, Chelsea, because of those experiences that you both have had, in January of this year, you sent a letter to your campus president, as well as to other campus officials outlining what you wish the university would do. Let me read just a couple of bullet points from that letter.

You said, "The university has failed to provide an adequate amount of black faculty throughout campus to aid in the success of black students." You say, "The university has failed to provide adequate financial assistance to the black student body in order to make it feasible for black students to attend and stay at the university long enough to obtain a degree."

Chelsea, what was the response to that 11-page letter? Chelsea, can you hear me? Can you hear me, Megan?

JOHNSON: Yes, I can hear you. OK, Megan, I was just talking about the 11-page letter that you sent to the president of the university and officials. What response did you get from that letter? JOHNSON: We got an immediate response from President Boren. As far

as our request for a meeting, we met him with the following week to sit down and talk about our seven grievances. The university is working on those grievances. But we still want to see progress, and we still want to see active -- them actively doing things on our campus to affect our seven grievances that we submitted to the university.

CAMEROTA: So in other words, you immediately got a meeting, but did you see any change?

JOHNSON: No, we haven't seen any immediate change as far as student life and the Sooner experience, which is one of our specific grievances. We have seen immediate action as far as meetings to change the way homecoming works at O.U. and the way our Campus Activity Council works.

But we haven't seen immediate change as far as things that we know will take longer, as far as retaining African-American students, the lack of black faculty on our campus, equitable funding for black student organizations, and the other grievances which we know will take a longer time.

CAMEROTA: As far as the numbers, we believe there are 27,000 students on your campus, only 5 percent of which are black. Chelsea, can you hear me?

DAVIS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Chelsea, the president of your university said last night that he is now working with your group to try to change things. Have you now met with the president since this video came out to talk about what action is going to be taken?

DAVIS: We haven't met with President Boren since the events of this past weekend. However, we do have a follow-up meeting with him to the beginning of our movement later on this month, in which I suppose we will talk specifically about the events that happened as well as how to further better our movement along with our seven grievances.

CAMEROTA: Megan, you know, there was news that came out last night that a top high school football recruit named Jean Delance who was going to be coming to your university has now said he is not interested in coming to the University of Oklahoma because of all this. That's sad. That's a sad development.

What do you think of people who now, because of this, reject that campus?

JOHNSON: I think it's very sad that this video has to come to light and the way the university is being portrayed now. I agree with his decision. If you don't feel comfortable somewhere, you should never come to a place you aren't welcome or you don't feel welcome.

But I would like to say that the university is a great place and they have many opportunities for students of color and students in general. And everyone on campus is not a bad person. Everyone at the University of Oklahoma is not a racist. We stand here before you, because we love our university and we want to change it to be a more inclusive and more diverse place so people like us can feel more welcome. And so I agree with his decision. That was his personal decision.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

JOHNSON: But the University of Oklahoma is not a bad place.

CAMEROTA: Well, Megan Johnson, Chelsea Davis, thanks so much for coming on. We wish you the best of luck in affecting change that is desperately needed on your campus. Nice to see both of you.

And we want to let you also that later this morning we will talk to president of the University of the Oklahoma, David Boren, about what comes next there -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. To a big story now. We have never seen this surveillance video of the Boston bomber, planting a backpack bomb, running from the scene moments after it the bomb detonates. And that's not all that's making a big impact on the jury. You're get to see all the new video shown at trial ahead.

PEREIRA: Also, we're going to take to you the front lines of the battle for Tikrit. Iraqi forces trying to take back the birthplace of Saddam Hussein from ISIS. Now will it be the terrorists who are forced to turn and run this time?

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