Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Republican Senators Send Letter to Iran; Oklahoma University Fraternity's Racist Chant Strongly Criticized; Protesters Pack Wisconsin Capitol Building; Interview with the President of the University of Oklahoma, David Boren

Aired March 10, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I support a good deal that stops Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The racism is alive and well on the American college campus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a message for those that misuse their free speech. You're a disgrace.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of people walk toward the state capitol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want the conversation to be about Tony Robinson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to do better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A life-changing accident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They had to do an above-the-elbow amputation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our perception of risk does not match the reality/

(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 10, just before 8:00 in the East.

And President Obama is understandably infuriated over a letter signed by 47 Republican senators warning Iran's leaders that any nuclear deal they make would only be a mere executive agreement.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The president accusing the Republicans of siding with America's enemies and Vice President Biden calling the effort by GOP lawmakers, quote, "beneath their dignity."

We have complete coverage starting with CNN's Sunlen Serfati live at the White House. What is the White House saying, Sunlen?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this was such an unprecedented and unusual move, this letter by Republicans sent directly to the leaders of a country that we should note is still on the state sponsors of terrorism list.

Now this really just demonstrates how the Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House are really locked in these fierce partisan battles, and that's spilling out over into foreign policy. The White House calls this reckless. And Vice President Biden released a scathing statement overnight reading in part, quote, "In 36 years in the United States Senate I cannot recall another instance in which senators wrote directly to advise another country, much less a long- time 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 this specifically is where the White House was so set off by this decision by Republicans, that determination by the White House that it seems to undermine the president's authority. And it comes on the heels when they're especially sensitive to this after Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister's visit to Washington last week. Now here's how the president responded in the Oval Office directly to the Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran. It's an unusual coalition. I think what we're going to focus on right now is actually seeing whether we can get a deal or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Tom Cotton, the freshman senator from Arkansas who spearheaded this letter, he was able to get 46 other Republican senators to sign on to this deal, most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and he defended the decision to move forward with the letter. He said he believes there's nothing but hardliners in Iran who have already and always opposed getting any sort of deal.

Now, Chris, there is some real worry on Capitol Hill, both from Republicans but also from the president's own party, Democrats, that the president wants this deal so badly that he's willing to accept any deal even if it's a bad one. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, so the question becomes what will the impact of this letter be? Here's an early indication. Iran reacting to the GOP letter on nuclear negotiations, and it's not good. The country's foreign minister calls it, quote, "propaganda ploy." But what's the feeling on the street? Let's go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen. He is in Iran in Tehran. Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Chris, the feeling here on the Iranian street is that most people here really want the deal. But one of the interesting things when you ask people here is they also here have this discrepancy between the government that wants a deal and on the other hand you also have hardliners who oppose the deal. There are even some here in Iran that say Iran is thriving under international sanctions. They call this a resistance economy.

But again, most people here on the ground, they want one of these deals. And certainly if you talk to the Iranian government and specifically the Iranian foreign minister, he says that the letter by the GOP senators is a humiliation to President Obama. I want to read you a quote from a note that he sent to us here at 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 by international law and not by U.S. domestic law."

So that's the point there from the Iranian foreign minister. He also noted that he believes that the GOP senators are afraid of a nuclear deal. And one of the things that the Iranians took offense to, in the GOP letter you'll recall, they said perhaps the Iranians are not aware of the U.S. constitutional process. The foreign minister saying that they certainly are very aware of the constitutional process and they believe that any agreement made by the Obama administration would be binding for the United States, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's analyze all of this. Fred, thanks so much. We want to bring in Van Jones. He's our CNN political commentator. Good morning, Van.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: OK, so Republicans say they needed to write this letter before the deal is done and the ink is dry. They want to have their input. In fact, we had Senator Tom Cotton, he's the author of the letter on for us. Let me play for you what he says the motivation was for writing this letter. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TOM COTTON, (R) ARKANSAS: This letter is about stopping Iran from getting a nuclear deal. Iran's leaders need to understand that under our constitution Congress plays a critical role in approving international agreements. If Congress does not approve an agreement, the agreement will not necessarily have lasting effect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so then he says he feels the Congress has been circumvented.

JONES: Well, first of all, this is shocking. This is an unprecedented move. Let me just lay out a few facts before we even get into this. First of all, conservatives supposedly honor Americans' traditions. Our tradition is that we let the head of state engage in foreign relations. We used to say politics stops at the water's edge.

Can you imagine if at the height of the Cold War while Reagan was trying to get a deal with the Soviet Union Democratic senators sent a letter to our enemy and said, guess what, our president doesn't have the authority to do anything? Can you imagine what that would have done to Reagan's ability to bring that conflict to a successful close? That's what we are dealing with. We're dealing with something unprecedented in American history. It's never been done before. It's incredibly dangerous because Iran is the most dangerous enemy that we have right now on the world stage.

CUOMO: Is it fair to push that unprecedented quality of this to also the fact that this is the first time maybe that we've had a president unilaterally negotiating with a terrorist organization incompetent stead of it being an open treaty process that would involve the Congress, and that that's what the president should have done here is brought Congress in on this?

JONES: Well, I have to disagree with you on this. As we know, the head of state earn gauges with all kinds of regimes, covertly, overtly and otherwise. We do have agreements with governments around the world. Some have been approved by treaty, some have not. My hope would of course be that when you're dealing with an enemy as dangerous as Iran that Congress would be brought in.

However, this is not the way to go about doing it. You do not -- I mean, the entire world is basically now laughing at us. Now this young senator, Senator Cotton, who I think up until now was a very promising rising star in the country -- he's a veteran. He's a young guy. He knocked off a sitting senator. But for him to now kind of become almost -- is becoming a playbook now for the young Republican senators to do the Ted Cruz move, now the Cotton move of trying to shock the world, trying to get your name in the newspaper, nobody who knows anything about diplomacy, who knows anything about world history, would tell you that a big sense of Congress going renegade and directly engaging with the enemy regime is a good strategy. It's never been done in world history. This is a shocking development to the United States at a very perilous time.

CAMEROTA: Let's bring CNN political commentator and host of "The Ben Ferguson Show," Ben Ferguson, see if he agrees.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Ben, you heard what the president and vice president say, that these GOP senators are undermining the diplomacy and they're siding with one of America's adversaries.

FERGUSON: I would say that's definitely not the case here. You have a president, unfortunately, that has not actually done a very good job at understanding people that he's dealing with. Look at how bad their foreign policy has been with Vladimir Putin in Russia. Look at how bad their foreign policy has been with Iran over the years. And also look at how bad their foreign policy has been with ISIS, calling them jayvee.

The reason why Congress is acting is because the president has chosen to deliberately leave Congress out of this issue. And on other foreign policy issues when they've allowed him to lead, he has not understood his adversary or the enemy. He didn't understand ISIS, and look where we are now in Iraq and Afghanistan. Look at also Syria and the issues there when he said there was a red line with chemical weapons. So I think they had no other choice but to do this.

CUOMO: They certainly had other choices. So let's talk about the one that they made, Ben. They say it's about teaching the constitution. They get the constitution wrong and they get it wrong in a way that really reveals the ploy here, which is we don't want the president to have the power to do this. We want to do this. So they're wrong about the constitution. And how are they not undermining the president in a way that leaves no alternative? If Iran walks away from the table right now, what's the better deal that Senator Cotton and others like you hope exists? What better deal? This is the deal.

FERGUSON: I think, look, even the president has said, look, no deal is better than a bad deal. And the point is, Republicans are fearful that the president will make a very bad deal, which is trusting Iran. Look at Iran and what the U.N. has said to them recently when they have violated international law, which they lectured us about yesterday I would say in a laughable letter. You have a country that consistently has not been able to be trusted and/or verify their actions. And now the president thinks that somehow because, you know, he is all the knowing that Iran's going to play by the rules. And I think what Congress was saying was not as much about the constitution as it was about this.

CUOMO: They said it was about the constitution, that's all I'm saying.

FERGUSON: Hold on. Let me finish this. He's saying this. He's saying look, you guys might be thinking you're getting the deal of the century. Let us remind you that a new president can undo this. That's the reminder here because they think this is a bad deal. And this president has deliberately left Congress out of this, which he should never have done.

CAMEROTA: Isn't it funny how Ben can say that much and not move his lips for part of that time. That was quite a trick, Ben. Van, last word.

JONES: Well, it's interesting, the one Republican who's probably the most important Republican who's on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the chair, Senator Corker, refused to have anything to do with this. In other words, the Republican leader that is closest to this refused to be a part of this and said this is a very bad thing. So when you say all Republicans think this, that's actually in fact not true. Republicans in the Senate are divided over this, and Senator Corker refused to go along. That tells you all you need to know about how reckless and the dangerous this is. If the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee won't sign on to a stunt about foreign policy, that lets you know right there, there is something desperately wrong in Washington, D.C. This is reckless, it is dangerous, it undermines the president, it undermines our safety. It pushes us closer to war. It takes off the table our ability to possibly resolve this thing. And I cannot believe that anybody that knows anything about foreign policy thinks this is anything other than a shocking stunt on the part of a young Congressperson.

CAMEROTA: OK, Commentator Van Jones, we have to leave it there and ventriloquist Ben Jones -- I'm sorry, Ben Ferguson.

CUOMO: Ben Jones is a ventriloquist. I love him.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Everybody's speaking for everybody here.

CUOMO: You picture was frozen on skype. That's what we're talking about. But your points came through loud and clear.

CAMEROTA: Ben Ferguson, thanks so much.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: A great conversation even in real time or not. All right, let's move on to this. Members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma, they have until midnight tonight to pack up and get out. It's the latest fallout of the repulsive racist chant that was caught on video. The school is severing ties with SAE president, calling each of the students involved "a disgrace." Nick Valencia joins us live this morning from Norman, Oklahoma, where it's all happening. Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. Students and faculty both at the University of Oklahoma speaking out. And here is the headline in today's campus newspaper. It says "Real Sooners are not racists." And it seems to mirror the sentiment here, the majority of students who as you mentioned are severing ties with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: That highly offensive racist chant belted out by fraternity members is 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: The same mother -- talking about racism don't exist be the same mother -- 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 fraternity's 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 very disturbing to me. I don't like it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real sooners are not bigots.

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

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: And more rallies are expected today, another big rally expected tonight here on campus to draw attention to this issue. Many students that we've spoken to calling for those in that video, that unspeakably bigoted video, to be expelled. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Nick, we're going to talk to the president of Oklahoma University to see what's going to happen next.

Also, an unarmed biracial teenager was shot dead by a white Wisconsin cop. Was it self-defense or is it excessive force? They are all too common questions these days, but the question now is, are the facts getting lost in the furor over how minorities are treated by police? Students from the state descending on the capital and asking for victims' families to come forward with demands of a thorough investigation.

Let's get to CNN's Ryan Young. He has the latest from Madison.

What's going on there on the ground?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, there's a conversation that a lot of people want to have.

We were here with those students as they walked through the state capitol. They were chanting very loudly, "black lives matter." They were also saying Tony Robinson's name. They want to make sure everyone doesn't for get the 19-year-old who was killed by a police officer.

Now, the police officer says he was responding to a call and heard a commotion inside a house, pushed his way in and then a struggle started. Shots were fired and, of course, that teen was killed.

Now, the family is calling for calm and peace in the community and they want to make sure that this does not become a black issue, they want the entire community to be involved in the march and they want to know exactly what happened to their loved one -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for that, Ryan.

Well, new this morning, ISIS terrorists blowing up a bridge east of Tikrit, as the battle for the key Iraqi city rages. Iraqi forces blocked from crossing the Tigris River into Tikrit as they launch what they call a decisive operation to retake it. The Iraqis say they are confident they can crush ISIS without help from the U.S.-led coalition.

PEREIRA: In the meantime, ISIS is believed to be holding nine foreign oil workers hostage in Libya. Officials say they were abducted by the terrorists 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 company was reportedly warned more than two weeks ago to leave the area because of concerns about security.

CUOMO: Some very interesting news for you. A group of Israeli cave explorers stumbled across an ancient treasure. Silver coins and jewelry estimated to be -- listen to this -- more than 2,000 years old. They say two silver coins were minted during the reign of Alexander the Great. Has his image on one side and an image of Zeus on the other.

Experts believe the valuables may have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled during a period of unrest -- 2,000 years old.

CAMEROTA: What a find.

PEREIRA: I find like old socks and shoes, do you know what I mean?

CAMEROTA: Right. Not as valuable.

PEREIRA: That's amazing. What a find.

CUOMO: Not as much.

CAMEROTA: All right. Back to one of our top stories. The University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter closing down. And members have to pack up and leave campus by midnight tonight. But will they be expelled from the school?

We will ask OU's president, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CUOMO: Members of the University of Oklahoma chapter of SAE, the fraternity, they have until midnight to vacate their fraternity house after they were disbanded by the national fraternity. But so far, no official disciplinary action has been taken by the university after that racist video was revealed. We're told the investigation was ongoing, action will be swift.

So, let's find out how swift and how severe. The man that will change all that, of course, the president of the University of Oklahoma, President David Boren.

Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us.

How does the investigation go?

DAVID BOREN, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA: Thank you.

CUOMO: What do you believe the timing is and the expected punishment?

BOREN: Well, it's hard to know what the investigation will turn out. We have to look at the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI, and see what we can do under the federal law. But if I'm allowed to, these students will face suspension or expulsion because we cannot put up with what they've done.

We took very swift action yesterday with literally within an hour this chapter was kicked off campus. We're moving them out. They have to get their belongings out tonight. The windows are being boarded up today. The Greek letters were taken off their house yesterday.

And we wanted to send a strong message and we hope people in the rest of the country will take it up when they have these kinds of situation, zero tolerance for racism and bigotry. That's not who we are and I think by setting this standard and showing that we have already moved to take this fraternity off campus, hopefully, we're going to get other people in the country to show zero tolerance, too.

CUOMO: Zero tolerance will obviously be focused on through the lens of what happens with these kids. What irony that the '64 Civil Rights Act may be what is protecting kids who said things that were indisputably racist and ugly. What is your concern legally?

BOREN: Well, legally, our concern is we have to demonstrate exactly how the educational experience of our students was threatened or disrupted by their actions, and it really has to focus also on the students on the bus. Did the other students have their educational experience disrupted?

So, our lawyers are piling through that now, just as our investigators piled through the evidence, looked at the video, see if we can identify those who are the ring leaders. I think that's who we have to concentrate on in this chant and leading the chant. But we're not going to tolerate it. We're not going to put up with it. We just simply can't.

If I have to take a risk to send those students home permanently or for a semester, the rest of the year, whatever it is, I can -- we're going to do it.

CUOMO: So, the question is, is this event casting a shadow on the experience at the university overall? Some numbers for you to explain. You have some 27,000 students there, 5 percent black, low. Your board of regents doesn't have any black members of it.

You know that in January you got the letters from the African-American students organization with their list of seven grievances. They keep saying on your campus, we are not surprised that this happened. We're just surprised that it got caught on camera.

How do you respond to that?

BOREN: Well, first of all, you have to commend the students because it was caught on camera and it was released because of students who were really offended by it. And I would say we have made incredible progress on this campus over the years. I have not used that -- I have not heard that racial epithet used in conversation on our campus in 15 years. I heard it 20 years ago when I first got here. So, we've made incredible progress.

We have had a diverse board of regents over a period of time and the students and I, the students who wrote the letter were very constructive in their suggestions and we've been working together on that as I'm sure they've told you for -- ever since they wrote their letter. We've had very good meetings. I've been at the dean's council. We're going to get more people. We've already had more people of color on all of our major committees, homecoming and so on, our Camp Crimson orientation program.

So, we've been moving on these things. They're not blatant. They're subtle forms of what I would call discrimination.

The important thing is we want to make every single student here feel they belong, and we've come a long way on that. We're going to go a long way further. And I think by demonstrating -- our students demonstrating they're not going to put up with it. That's -- you saw those students who were marching yesterday --

CUOMO: Right.

BOREN: -- who were walking yesterday, student athletes. Those are our students. That's who we really are.

And that's where the administration is, too. Solidly behind them, and we're going to keep on making efforts.

CUOMO: As you know, I don't have to tell you as governor of the state and a long-serving U.S. senator from the state, you know that actions are going to speak louder than the promises at the university. It is very important to note that the experience, the atmosphere down there right now isn't like Ferguson, Missouri. The kids who came on this show and talked, they say they love this school.

BOREN: No.

CUOMO: They say they believe in this school --

BOREN: Yes.

CUOMO: -- and they want the experience to be better for them.

I think that actually creates more pressure than open hostility for you to do the right thing with these kids. I know that there are going to be legal hurdles. But if you have kids that are allowed to drop the N-bomb and sing it in a celebratory manner on your campus and they don't get expelled, that's going to be a tough situation to overcome, don't you think?

BOREN: Well, I think we have to keep faith with the students. I'm really proud of the students. I think it demonstrates the real nature of the University of Oklahoma.

We're -- we don't have situations, as you said, like Ferguson. We do have young people who care, and they're not going to put up with this kind of thing and neither am I.

So, we're going to do whatever we can do under federal law, whatever we're allowed to do. We're going to take action. We've done it in the past. We have sent students packing, sent them home because they've engaged in activities. This has been almost 20 years ago.

So, I thought we've set this straight. And we kicked them off campus immediately. We're going to continue to do that.

So, I do think actions speak louder than words and our actions, I hope, have sent a message to the nation.

All across this country, we sit silent, don't we, in social conversations and everywhere elsewhere people make jokes, or they make comments. We've got to stop that. We've got to say zero tolerance and that's exactly what we're doing here. And that I hope is the message that comes out.

CUOMO: President Boren, thank you very much. We'll be following the situation very closely. Appreciate you coming on NEW DAY. We look forward to having you again when you announce what the actions are.

BOREN: Thanks very much. Thank you.

CUOMO: Mick?

PEREIRA: Good call to action for all of us, isn't it, Chris? All right. Thanks so much for that.

Hey, have you seen this ad challenging a proposal to ban certain bullets? Gun rights advocates say it's all part of a sly attempt at gun control. We'll have our experts weigh in, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)