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'NYT': Clinton Got 'Top Secret' Emails on Personal Account; Congress Returns to Debate Iran Nuclear Deal; Huckabee to Visit Kim Davis, Lead Rally; Hundreds of Migrants Storm Past Hungarian Police; Dentist Who Killed Cecil the Lion Goes Back to Work; Lawyers for Kim Davis File Appeal. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 08, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

ZELENY (voice-over): "The New York Times" reporting a special intelligence review of two emails Clinton received in 2009 and 2011 found two were top-secret, one relating to North Korea's nuclear program. This review by two intelligence agencies reinforces a similar conclusion made in July.

[07:00:20] But the Clinton campaign disputes this, saying, "She did not send or receive anything marked classified, facts confirmed by the State Department and the inspector general."

Secretary Clinton also told the Associated Press why she won't apologize for using a private e-mail server, saying, "What I did was allowed by the State Department."

Clinton made the comments over Labor Day weekend while visiting Iowa and vowing to take on Republicans.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am a true Democrat. I believe that our values are the right ones for America, and I'm going to fight for them.

ZELENY: But a recent poll shows Clinton support slipping as Bernie Sanders surges in early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Sanders suddenly sharing a stage with the frontrunner.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're feeling really good, not only about the poll but about the support we're getting here today.

ZELENY: And then there's the wild card of Vice President Joe Biden, who still is officially on the fence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hope you run, man, I hope you run.

JOE BIDEN (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hey, guys.

ZELENY: But his Labor Day visit to Pittsburgh had the look and feel of a campaign event...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run, Joe, run! Run, Joe, run!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run, Joe, run! Run, Joe, run! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Run, Joe, run! Run, Joe, run!

ZELENY: ... with residents urging Biden to jump in. Biden striking a passionate, populist tone while addressing union members in a fiery speech.

BIDEN: I'm mad. I'm angry. When the middle class does well, the wealthy do very well; and the poor have a way up. So organize, organize, organize.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, Joe Biden was clearly enjoying that moment in the spotlight as he inches closer to making a decision. But until then, this race is in something of a holding pattern, as Clinton is signaling yet another campaign reset. She's trying to put this e-mail controversy behind her by talking about it and answering more questions about it.

Aides now acknowledge they were too slow in addressing all of this. So after months of no interviews, she's suddenly opening up. We're told we'll see a lot more of her starting with an appearance this week on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and other interviews -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Should be interesting, Jeff. Thanks so much for that.

So Congress is back from summer recess. And their first order of business will be a vote on the Iran nuclear deal.

Let's bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. What do we expect, Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, after a long August recess, Congress is back in town, finding the White House, ready to do battle this month. Start with the Iran nuclear deal. The debate starts this week. And President Obama has all the votes he needs in the Senate to sustain a veto of any Republican attempts to block the agreement.

But that doesn't mean it won't get messy at times. Democrats, they need 41 votes to keep the Senate from holding off any GOP attempts to kill the deal.

But Iran is far from the only flashpoint here in Washington. The government runs out of money at the end of the month, in just over three weeks. And Republicans are threatening to shut down the government unless the White House cuts off funding for Planned Parenthood, something the White House said will not happen.

And in Boston yesterday, the president compared the GOP to Boston Red Sox player Bill Buckner, who was blamed for a World Series defeat nearly 30 years ago. Here's what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It would be an unforced error, a fumble on the goal line. It would be like a ground ball slipping through somebody's legs. All right. You guys have won a couple since that time. So I can make that joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Some loud groans there in the audience.

Now, as for the Iran deal, the debate heats up later on this morning with speeches here in Washington from former vice president, Dick Cheney, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. And Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, they will lead a rally against the deal here in Washington tomorrow. Chris, all I can say is here we go.

CUOMO: Here we go indeed. Jim, thank you very much.

All right. Let's bring in Bob Kerrey, former U.S. senator, former governor of Nebraska, also a presidential candidate in 1992 and knows a lot about foreign policy.

Very good to have you, sir.

BOB KERREY, FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you for being with us.

I want to play you some sound from Dick Cheney, because he is becoming the face of the resistance of the Iran deal as Congress gets into it in earnest now.

Oh, we don't have it. All right. Because we're silencing Dick Cheney.

KERREY: All right.

CUOMO: Good. You know, he said a couple of things very strong, in particular, this: "This deal gives Tehran means to launch a nuclear attack on the U.S. homeland. It took Nazi Germany seven years to kill six million Jews. It would take a nuclear-armed Iran one day."

Now, forget about the premise. In terms of this as a principal and this as a -- the right basis of criticism for the deal, agree, disagree, why?

KERREY: Well, I disagree. Look, when Dick Cheney left office, the threat was real. As a consequence, first, of the sanctions the Security Council imposed on Iran and now there's negotiation. That threat has been pushed back.

[07:05:00] It's not everything that I would have liked to have seen in the agreement, but Iran can't use plutonium any more. They agreed to give up plutonium, which is a significant concession.

So -- a minute. When Barack Obama took office in 2009, this threat was real. And it's been substantially reduced as a consequence of his actions. CUOMO: The frontline criticisms are you could have gotten a better

deal. If you kept the sanctions on, that's what brought them to the table, it would have brought them to their knees.

KERREY: Well, you can make that case. But to that I would say, "So what?" OK. So you were in charge, Donald Trump, you'd have gotten a better deal? Fine. We have a deal now. And it substantially reduces the threat of nuclear weapons by Iran. It gives us the opportunity to do things that we couldn't do before. And now, we have to do, OK, what are we going to do?

This is going to get approved. Unfortunately, it's going to get approved, likely with Congress passing a disapproval. The president is going to veto it, and the vote's not there to override. That's a foregone conclusion.

The question now is, what do we do? And I was actually encouraged by Donald Trump saying he thought he could improve it. He thought he could work with it. Whoever becomes president, they're going to have to work with this agreement. And it's not going to be easy. This was a lot more difficult before this agreement, but it's going to be difficult afterwards.

CUOMO: Did you ever think you would be repeatedly mentioning the name Donald Trump in terms of talking about what America will do with Iran?

KERREY: No.

CUOMO: And do you believe that that is going to be the face of the GOP?

KERREY: Well, I don't know. You know, I'm a Democrat.

CUOMO: Oh, you are?

KERREY: Yes, yes.

CUOMO: It's very important to know.

KERREY: Yes. And I think the Democratic Party made a big mistake -- I hope they reverse it -- by saying, "We're not really going to have debates. We've got a frontrunner. Hillary Clinton's going to get the nomination. We don't need to have any debates."

And the Republicans are having debates. And so their brand is getting known. Their message is getting known. Their numbers are going up as a consequence.

And Donald Trump represents the outsider. So does Ben Carson, by the way. Both of them are outsiders, and they're doing exceptionally well against the so-called inside -- inside candidates.

And I think the Democrats have made a terrible mistake -- and I hope they reverse it -- by coming to CNN and others and saying, "We want to have a full-throated debate. We have many candidates in the race and potentially one more." CUOMO: Your partisan allegiance aside...

KERREY: yes.

CUOMO: ... do you believe that Donald Trump or Ben Carson, because you mentioned them both, do you think that they have the qualifications to be president?

KERREY: I disagree with their positions. As for their qualifications, that's another matter. I'm not sure competency matters to the voters anymore. But it's certainly -- competency is judged at the electoral -- at the election. I just have strong disagreements with their positions on the issues.

CUOMO: Competency, you're not sure if it matters anymore. What does that mean?

KERREY: Well, Donald Trump demonstrates no capacity to govern the United States of America. He's got no background in experience. What he's got is the capacity, a very impressive capacity to get an awful lot of attention and get a lot of attention by insulting people.

Well, guess what? The most powerful office in the world is the presidency of the United States. And you pull off that insulting all the time, and guys like me are going to have to go to war. We're not going to go to military academy, like you did, and then claim that we were in the military. We're actually going to go to war as a consequences of these kinds of insults.

If you're going to get an agreement with somebody, if you're going to get somebody to actually do something that they may not like to do it, you typically don't get it done by beginning with an insult.

So I don't think there's any demonstration of any real capacity to be the president of the United States, but at the moment, it doesn't seem to really matter that much.

CUOMO: People know your history. They know your decorated service as a SEAL.

KERREY: Yes.

CUOMO: They know the injury that you sustained and the continued service to the country. But when you say, because it's playing so well right now, people are resonating with what Donald Trump says. They say, "He is the face of our discontent. We're angry."

You're saying there's a consequence to anger when it is put in a position of power. And that's something that maybe we're not paying enough attention to right now.

KERREY: It's not just a position; it is the most powerful office on earth, and words matter. They have an impact. They can create wars. They can create the difficulty of getting things done. We're not in this thing alone. Back to Iran. We got the sanctions as a consequence of persuading the

Security Council that sanctions ought to be in place. That's how it got one. If you're going to get peace in Syria, I don't personally think you're going to get peace in Syria as a consequence of more and more war. That's producing an awful lot of refugees.

But the question is, how do you get Iran to work with us? How do you get Russia to work with us? It's not likely you're going to get that thing done as a consequence of delivering insults that might produce a standing ovation, might make people feel good.

And by the way, his message, make America great again? It's already great. There's plenty of evidence that we're still the greatest country on earth. There's plenty of evidence, across the board, in my view. What is this, "make America great again"?

So I've got a central challenge to the idea that he can govern. I don't think he can. I've got -- he's been a terrific real-estate developer and very successful in that score and very successful in getting attention. But I think you have to do an awful lot more than that if you're going to be president of the United States.

CUOMO: Bob Kerrey, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY.

KERREY: My pleasure.

CUOMO: We'll have you back soon. Thank you very much. Let me know when Donald calls you, because he's going to.

[07:10:01] All right. So make sure you tune in on Wednesday, September 16, when CNN hosts the next Republican debate. That will be at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern -- Mick.

PEREIRA: Or at the very least, he'll get a tweet.

All right. In other news here, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis is spending another day in jail because of her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her attorneys filing an emergency appeal in federal court that they hope will result in her freedom.

In the meantime, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is set to visit Davis today. CNN's Martin Savidge is live outside the jail in Grayson, Kentucky, with a lot to talk about in regards to Kim Davis today.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is, indeed, Michaela. In fact, there's a lot going on, both with the rallies that are planned and also legally, behind the scenes. You know that there's an appeal that has now been filed to the U.S. federal court on behalf of trying to get her out.

But as Mike Huckabee, the presidential candidate, that is going to be drawing the big crowd, he intends to go inside and meet with Davis. And that, of course, is going to have a certain kind of resonance in the civil rights issue here that we're talking about. Because people can think back to other meetings inside of jails.

And really, those who support Kim Davis say that's what this is really all about. It's reignited the debate once again over same-sex marriage, the right to that and then, of course, whether there are limits on religious freedom. So there are a lot of people here who will be at this rally and believe that all of this is kind of an attack on Christianity, which is why the crowd is expected to be large.

Schools in the area have now been dismissed or they won't take place today, because they are concerned about traffic problems. And then there are the legal ramifications, as well.

So you know, Kim Davis is facing a lot today. Her attorney had a meeting with her yesterday, and he issued a statement and just said this is how she feels. "She exudes gentleness and is at peace. Her spirits remain high. She was brought to tears when she heard that so many outside the jail and around the country are praying for her."

There were also hundreds of people that rallied outside of this jail over the weekend. So it could be a very interesting day, Michaela.

PEREIRA: We'll be watching the scene with you, Martin. Thank you so much.

We should point out, we're going to talk with Kim Davis's attorney about that case in just a few minutes' time.

CAMEROTA: Well, overnight, migrants clashing with police in Hungary before forcing their way through the armed officers on the Serbian border. The migrants heading towards Budapest, trying to find a place of peace.

CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, is live on the Serbian/Hungary border. What's the situation there, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, and we're at this camp. Or rather, it's not meant to be a camp. It's meant to be a holding area where people are just supposed to be spending a few hours before they get on the buses to go to the transit camp. But it has a much more permanent feel.

And this extended family, in particular, they have been here since yesterday at 6 o'clock. And this is after having traveled for the last ten days without a shower.

They don't want to be filmed, not because they're concerned about family back home, per se, but because, like so many of the others that we have met here, they don't want their friends, their family, people who know them, to see them forced to live like this. Because even though, yes, everyone knows that this is a phenomenally difficult journey, no one expects to be this humiliated or this degraded when they get into Europe, especially when they reach a country that is supposed to be the gateway of the European Union, the gateway to everything that they dreamt Europe actually was, an area that respected human rights, an area where their dignity would be preserved.

Just to get this far, many of them would have traveled for weeks, they would have walked. There's a man back there whose feet are bandaged completely and totally blistered and sore from the trek.

The children, it's so difficult for them, as well, because they're very ill-equipped with the eight to nine hours a day many people do end up walking.

A lot of criticism here of what Hungary has been doing to try to ease what these people have been going through. And this, if you can believe it or not, is actually an improvement on what we saw yesterday. Tents were brought in overnight, as well as blankets and other sorts of humanitarian assistance. That people who are here are growing really fed up and frustrated with how slow this entire process is. And many of them, of course, are fearful of them entering the Hungarian camps, because they've heard so much about how inhumane the conditions there are.

CUOMO: Arwa, thank you very much for detailing the situation. We'll check back with you. Let us know if there are any developments.

So we have news of a threatening 911 call that have police in Colorado on high alert. In the recording obtained by CNN affiliate KDVR, the caller targets officers in Aurora and Denver. Here's a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CALLER: We are about to start striking fear, shooting down all cops that we see by themselves. This will go for the sheriff's department. You guys are evicting innocent people. Let us catch you by yourself, and it's shots fired.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:15:11] CUOMO: The head of the Aurora Police Association says officers will now ride in pairs while officials are investigating. There was a shooting last night where police took fire, but it's unclear if that was related to the call.

PEREIRA: An aide to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is in critical condition this morning after he was struck in the head by a stray bullet before New York City's West Indian Day Parade. Police say 43- year-old Carey Gabay was possibly caught in gang crossfire. Investigators are questioning witnesses and examining surveillance video from the scene. So far, we're told no arrests have been made. We are going to speak live with Governor Cuomo coming up in our next hour.

CAMEROTA: Well, that Minnesota dentist who killed the beloved lion, Cecil, during an African safari and sparked anger worldwide is returning to work today. We have a live look at his office in Bloomington, Minnesota.

CNN's Boris Sanchez join us live with more. What are we expecting, Boris? BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, protests. Dr. Walter

Palmer heading back to work today after a month off the job following the revelation that he killed Cecil the lion. And he is not heading back to work alone.

CNN has learned that at least one animal rights group in Minnesota will be there to meet him in about an hour from now at 8:30 Eastern at his office. Considering the backlash we've seen online, again, following the revelation that he killed Cecil the lion, this crowd is expected to be animated and very passionate.

Despite some of the threats he received online, though, the police department in Bloomington, Minnesota, is not going to have a preventative presence on hand to try and deter protesters. Instead, they're going to be watching and waiting to see what happens. We're going to keep an eye on the situation and make sure to update you with any news and whether or not there's a confrontation between Dr. Walter Palmer and the protesters there.

CAMEROTA: Well, let's hope not. And then, you know? Let's hope that everything is calm there. Yes. For everyone.

CUOMO: What's the chance of that? These people are coming there. They're angry. They've made this guy a villain, rightly or wrongly. And I've got to say, the facts are suggesting more and more, wrongly. He hunted. If you hate that, then you can hate that. But if they're not bringing charges against the guy, and there's no proof that he knew he was in the wrong place or killing the wrong cat, then you know, let him live his life.

CAMEROTA: They're angry. So they're looking for an outlet.

CUOMO: Right. That's what I'm saying. You think they're going to just give him a nice hello there. They've already shot him down for a month.

CAMEROTA: Hopefully silence. Of course, we know that you'll be keeping an eye on that. And please come back when you have something.

CUOMO: So we're going to be talking about the clerk who has become a cause. The jailed Kentucky clerk will now be center of a rally led by Republican presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee. Is this about a war on faith or the law? Her attorney joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:38] CAMEROTA: Attorneys for Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, filing an emergency motion on Monday. They are appealing to the governor to accommodate her religious beliefs and to free her from jail.

This, as GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee plans to visit Davis in jail today.

Joining us now is one of Kim Davis's attorneys, Roger Gannam. Mr. Gannam,, thanks so much for being here on NEW DAY. Can you tell

us the status of your appeal to try to get Kim Davis out of jail?

ROGER GANNAM, ATTORNEY FOR KIM DAVIS: Thank you for having me.

And Kim Davis, right now, has four orders up on appeal in the 6th Circuit. Numerous errors have been committed in this -- in the trial proceeding proceedings in the district court. And so we've taken steps to address each one of those in turn.

Most recently, yesterday we filed an emergency motion for an injunction pending one of those appeals, seeking what Governor Beshear of Kentucky should have granted to Kim a long time ago. And that's an accommodation of her religious conscience.

CAMEROTA: Well, here is what Governor Beshear says about this. Because as you know, there is one way to get her signature off the marriage licenses. That's what she's seeking. She doesn't want to be seen as endorsing the same-sex marriages, so she wants her name as clerk removed from the marriage licenses. That has to happen by the state legislature. And the Kentucky state legislature is not back in session for four months.

So here's what the governor has said about that request. "The General Assembly will convene in just four months and can make any statutory changes it deems necessary at the time. I see no need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers' money calling a special session of the General Assembly when 117 out of 120 county clerks are doing their jobs."

Is Kim Davis willing to wait until January 3 to get out of jail?

GANNAM: It's a travesty that Kim Davis has been in jail for six days now. It would be an unconscionable tragedy for her to be in jail until January.

You know, it takes some nerve for Governor Beshear to say that he can't do anything when he's already changed the marriage license form after the Obergefell decision was handed down.

And Kentucky law expressly provides him the power, by executive order, to reorganize any aspect of state government that needs to be reorganized in between sessions of the General Assembly. So Governor Beshear has always had the power to grant this accommodation. And under Kentucky law, specifically Kentucky's religious freedom restoration act, Governor Beshear has a duty to do it. So accommodation of Kim Davis's conscience is the law. She's not defying the law, and she certainly shouldn't be in jail for one day, let alone until January

CAMEROTA: We've heard from some of our legal experts that say that Kim Davis took an oath to uphold the law and uphold the Constitution, even if that law and Constitution changes, as it did on her watch. And that the very easy answer is for her, if she doesn't feel that she can perform her duties anymore, to resign. GANNAM: Well, that's not the right answer. Because, like I said,

accommodation of religious conscience is the law in Kentucky, including for elected officials. Kentucky's law is clear, that any person whose religious exercise is substantially burdened has a right not to act in accordance with their religious beliefs. It's the duty of the Kentucky government to accommodate that, and they very easily could do so. Governor Beshear is the one who should do his job or resign, to use his words.

[07:25:02] CAMEROTA: I mean, it sounds like the reason that you're at loggerheads is because, OK, she doesn't want to have to issue the marriage licenses. And it sounds as though the governor and everyone else is willing to let her step aside and not have to issue them.

But where we get into the problem is that she's not even willing to condone her clerks doing so. Even though some of them are willing to issue the marriage licenses.

GANNAM: Well, the bottom line is, Kim Davis cannot authorize a union of persons that she does not believe is marriage, according to her religious beliefs. That's all she's doing is withholding her authorization of that. Because her deputy clerks only have the authority to issue licenses under Kim Davis's authority, they can't do it either. But if they can issue licenses under someone else's authority, and in someone else's name, Kim Davis would not stand in the way of that.

CAMEROTA: Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is going to visit Kim Davis in jail today. What do you expect is going to happen?

GANNAM: Well, I think we're going to see an intensification of the national outcry here against this injust [SIC] imprisonment. The fact that presidential candidates are now taking time out of their schedules to come to Kim's aid, to rally support for her, shows you how big a story this is throughout the country. And I expect there will be thousands of people there. And I expect the movement against Kim Davis's imprisonment will only grow from here.

CAMEROTA: If your appeal is granted, when is the earliest Kim Davis could get out of jail?

GANNAM: Well, as soon as any order comes out of the 6th Circuit granting any of our appeals or any of our motions, her release should be immediate. Certainly, the district judge, Bunning, will have to play a role in that. But we can't see any reason for him to delay, if the 6th Circuit agrees with us in any of our filings.

CAMEROTA: Roger Gannam, it sounds like today will be a pivotal day. Thanks for being on NEW DAY. We'll obviously continue to watch this case.

Also, what's your take? Please tweet us, using the hashtag #NewDayCNN or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Vice President Joe Biden heard the cheers and chants, "Run, Joe, run" at a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh. But will he? We'll take a look, "Inside Politics," next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)