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New Day

Russia Moves Anti-Aircraft System into Syria; Protests Continue in Chicago; Stores Open Early for Black Friday; Protesters Plan to March on Chicago's Michigan Avenue. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 27, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is a massive weapon. It can reach out and shoot down planes all the way into the Turkish air space and across a good deal of Syria. So if the Russians turn this system on, if they make it operational, they control the air space. And that puts U.S. pilots in the position of having to make some decisions. U.S. military sources tell me they are looking at all of this and trying to figure out what recommendations, what the next U.S. military steps may have to be, if they are still going to be able to fly missions, if they are still going to be able to go on their attacks against ISIS in Syria. If this missile system is up and running and poses an air threat, there may be some changes. The U.S. warplanes may have to fly with electronic jamming aircraft to try and in spite of the system. A lot of military details to be worked out even as those political statements are made, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Barbara, there is a really interesting development this morning. I want you to follow the bouncing ball. Turkey shoots down a Russian warplane over Syria. But who rescues one of the co-pilots?

STARR: Well, according to Russian and Iranian media, a very famous Iranian general, the head of the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, General Qassem Suleimani, someone the U.S. watches his whereabouts pretty closely when they can, he apparently according to state media ran the mission to rescue the Russian pilot. There were other fighters on the ground, but Suleimani basically was in charge of that rescue mission.

Now, the U.S. knows he has gone in and out of Syria in recent months. Whether it was known he was on the ground and whether he really did this from inside Syria, still we do not know. But it's a pretty interesting statement. It puts another player in the mix. It shows Iran's influence in this very complicated picture.

BERMAN: So complicated. So many countries now involved. Barbara Starr. Thanks so much.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get some context and some analysis by turning to CNN military analyst and former Joint Chief of Staff Deputy Director Cedric Leighton. Good to have you with us once again on the after Thanksgiving morning. So try and help us understand all of this. We know Hollande of France met with Putin. Putin says he's ready for this coalition. He's ready to join. Yet we know his motivations with respect to Assad differ directly with Obama and Hollande. How is that going to work? There's not consensus on how Assad should be dealt with?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, that is exactly right, Michaela. And you know when you look at this, this is probably one of the most complex international relations issues that we've dealt with in a long time. And when you see what President Hollande of France is trying to do, he was trying to force this coalition of hopefully like- minded countries, both of which had been attacked by ISIS, in the case of the Russians the airplane over the Sinai and in the case of the French of course the attacks on Paris.

And you have a situation where on the surface it would be the perfect coalition of the willing. But the problem you run into is that the Russians are maintaining their desire to protect Assad, to protect the Syrian regime, to hold on to that, even the last vestige of power of that regime, and to make sure that they can do so with all of the means at their disposal. And that is why you see that air defense system coming into Syria right now.

PEREIRA: So in terms of Putin, what is he actually after? What is he -- can he be counted on not to go rogue and to sort of go off on a separate mission here?

LEIGHTON: No I don't think so. I think he is going to absolutely do what he wants to do. If his goals even temporarily coincide with U.S. goals then everything will be fine. The problem that you have is that temporary coincide is not going to be very long lasting. And when you have a situation like this, Michaela, you are going the very quickly find that the Russians are going to be at cross-purposes to our coalition efforts against ISIS in Syria and even possibly in Iraq.

So what you are seeing is Putin is going to expand his power base in Syria and in Iraq. And when you have that, you are going to run into a situation where U.S. efforts are going to be stymied. And it is going to really complicate the issue not only of what happens with ISIS but also what happens with Syria's future. So Russia is basically putting itself into the catbird seat, and they want to stay there.

PEREIRA: Meanwhile Turkey in all this largely being viewed as having overreacted in shooting down that Russia jet fighter, essentially shooting themselves in the foot. We know that Russia holds a lot of the purse strings for Turkey. What is this going to mean in terms of potential sanctions and in terms of economic repercussions that could potentially befall them?

[08:05:03] LEIGHTON: Well, it could be very significant. Russian tourists have been told not to go to Turkey. That is a significant source of foreign exchange and economic vibrancy really for the Turkish economy. So that's one thing. Turkey imports 60 percent of its natural gas from Russia, and they also are involved in a whole bunch of pipeline projects with the Russians. And one of them is a major one. And with all of that possibly being stopped, plus the other thing is Turkish investment in Russia is also being in essence put in the icebox. And there is a lot of construction work that Turkish firms do in Russia. And with all of that being put on hold, the Turks really are in the process of losing a significant source of revenue. And they may very well find themselves, you know, in economic dire straits because their connection to Russia is basically being cut right after this incident.

PEREIRA: One thing also being cut, Russia announcing it is suspending military links with Turkey. We know Russia also has antiaircraft missile system put on air defense combat duty in Syria. All of this, no communication what's going on in the air, military presence ramped up. How likely is another shoot down?

LEIGHTON: Very likely, and especially with the S400 system in Syria at this point. So not only is there a risk of another Turkish aircraft being shot down, but there's also the risk of a coalition aircraft being shot down. This is a very dangerous moment. And with that system being deployed it is a lot harder for U.S. forces, coalition forces to actually put in their defensive mechanisms and use their electronic countermeasures against these types of weapons systems. So it is a much more dangerous place all of a sudden because of the Turkish action.

PEREIRA: You said last hour the British prime minister, David Cameron, making the case for joining the air campaign is looking likely. What kind of difference is that going to make on the ground having them involved?

LEIGHTON: It is a good morale boost. And certainly the British forces provide extensive combat capabilities as well as extensive intelligence capabilities. They are excellent in those areas. So that can be a big help. But it may not be enough to really go around what the Russians are putting in place in Syria. The Russians are taking advantage of this and even really British help is not going to make a difference in that specific regard. It's great for us from a morale, but otherwise I don't think it will make that much difference against what the Russians are doing.

PEREIRA: Colonel Leighton, always a pleasure to have your expertise. Thanks for joining us today.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Michaela.

BERMAN: Two suspects under arrest in Mali in connection with the attack on a luxury hotel that left 20 dead. The men, both from Mali, were found through a cell phone that was left on the scene. These armed men launched a deadly raid at the Radisson Blue hotel in the capital last Friday. Hours later commandos stormed the hotel, killing two attackers, freeing well over 150 hostages. Three Islamic militant groups have now claimed responsibility.

PEREIRA: More breaking news, ISIS claiming responsibility for a deadly attack on a Shiite mosque in northern Bangladesh. At least one person was killed, some three others people were injured as several gunmen opened fire there. At least 20 people were inside that mosque when the incident unfolded. It is the second attack in a month on the country's Shia population.

BERMAN: Breaking news out of Chicago, an arrest in connection with the murder of a nine-year-old boy. This as protesters plan to march this Friday, this big shopping day in a popular shopping district, bringing attention to a video that shows a the white officer gunning down a black teenager. CNN's Ryan Young is live in Chicago with the very latest. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. The story about the nine-year-old TyShawn Lee is very tough story to cover, especially when you're in the neighborhood and you realize so many people were scared for other children in the neighborhood. To give you the details on this, we're told an arrest has been made, Chicago police working on this for about a month now to try to find the killer of this young man who was lured into an alley and shot several times. There is a gang war going on in Chicago and they believe he is the latest casualty in this. A lot of people in Chicago reacting to it because they were very upset that a nine-year-old could somehow find his way in the cross hairs of a killer. Now they have made an arrest.

All this going on as this rain is starting to fall and black Friday sales are going to take place. But we know at 11:00 there will be marching up the magnificent mile, going up Michigan Avenue to show their displeasure for what happened to Laquan McDonald. Of course the video shows Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer. A lot in this community are calling for a change, including religious leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FATHER MICHAEL PFLEGER, PRIEST AND ACTIVIST, CHICAGO: And sit down in the street and block the street on Michigan Avenue with civil disobedience peacefully, and say, you know what, business as usual can't go on while our children are dying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:10:12] YOUNG: Michigan Avenue is known around the world. In fact we saw tourists here early yesterday morning walking up and down this area. But people here in Chicago always say this is a tale of two cities. This is the nice side, and they have another side that is crying and hurting and they want attention. Those two sides may merge this afternoon while people walk up Michigan Avenue. Michaela?

PEREIRA: We often here that about Chicago and we very may see that play out today. Ryan, stay with us and we'll watch with you.

So some people protesting on this black Friday, others focusing on shopping. We understand crowds are gathering at stores and malls coast to coast, opening dark and early for shoppers in search of those big deals. Big box retailers looking for a strong opening weekend, hoping it will signal a solid holiday shopping season. Cristina Alesci is in the thick of it in New York's Herald Square. The frenzy is on.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The frenzy is on, Michaela. In fact, I just spoke to the CEO of Macy's. He said about 1,500 people were here last night when the store opened its doors and it was just a constant stream for at least an hour. And clearly this is a very good sign for retailers that have been faced with kind of weak consumer spending, especially when it comes to retail all year, so this is really a make or break time for them.

And right now things are a little bit orderly. Not as crazy as they were perhaps earlier in the day, but not the case in the rest of the country. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALESCI: Overnight an all-out battle at stores across the nation just hours into the brutal chase for bargains.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got this in case somebody tries to steal something from me.

ALESCI: In Louisville, Kentucky, black Friday madness. Two men punching and tearing at each other's tee shirt inside a major city mall. Tempers flared at this Wal-Mart in El Paso. Holiday shoppers appear to fight over flat screen TVs, even taking on store security.

The yearly stampede spilling into the front doors, a welcome sight for retailers, hoping to cash in on the holiday frenzy. Sales expected to reach $80 billion dollars in the U.S., the average American spending close to $400 throughout holiday weekend, with some brick and mortar stores now handing out a select number of tickets to people in line for the hottest items.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're able to ticket numbers one through whatever number we have. That way it stops a lot of the chaos from happening.

ALESCI: Some shoppers camping out for days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been here since Tuesday night at 9:30.

ALESCI: All in effort to nab great deals like this 50 inch flat screen TV at Best Buy marked down nearly 75 percent off.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it is exciting. If it is something that you want and it's worth it. Why not go and get it?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Cristina Alesci for that.

It's 13 minutes after the hour. A newborn found abandoned in the manger of a nativity seen in Queens may not have to wait long now for a home. Several members of the Holy Child Jesus Church are offering to adopt this baby. Police have located the child's mother. She is protected by the city's safe haven law, will not face charges. Officers say she returned to the church the next morning to make sure the baby had been found.

PEREIRA: Don't forget about those safe haven laws. If there is a baby that is not wanted, take the baby to a, fire station, a hospital, a church, anywhere. Make sure they are safe.

OK, you probably saw this story on social media, and it has quite an ending, John Berman. Wal-Mart's across the country still out of singer Patti Labelle's sweet potato pies after this YouTube video of a man enjoying one of them went insanely viral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ooh it's so pretty. Look at that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On my own, why did it end this way?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: That is James Wright Chanel. He became an overnight sensation with that video. And thanks to its success, because there was a lot of fall out. People are saying her pies sold out because of this man. Not because of how good are the pies but because the endorsement this man gave them on social media. Guess what? James got to spend Thanksgiving with the one, the only Patti Labelle at her Philadelphia home. And he documented it all on Facebook.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Singing and dances with Patti. It was his birthday.

[08:15:00] Life could not have gotten much better for him.

BERMAN: Ironically they had no pie, because it was all sold out.

PEREIRA: I had one friend who was able to find one. But everybody I know has been trying to get their hands on a Patti Pie and they can't get them. So there you go, full circle.

BERMAN: That's fantastic. I'm so happy for all of them.

PEREIRA: And he wants pie.

BERMAN: And I want some pie.

All right. Quarter past the hour. Back to Chicago. The shocking video of a police officer shooting and killing a teenager. So many people talking about that this morning. Protests planned on this big shopping day. The protesters, they want to disrupt commerce to make a point. How will this play out?

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: In Chicago this morning, demonstrators planned a big protest over the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was a black teenager killed by a white police officer some 14 months ago. This comes at community leaders there call for a federal investigation into the Chicago police department. I want to discuss this with CNN political commenter Marc Lamont Hill

and former NYPD detective, Sergeant Joe Giacalone.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for being with us.

And, Marc, I want to start by talking about the protest today, because over the last few nights since the video came out we've seen small groups. No more than a hundred or two hundred any one time in Chicago. But community leaders in Chicago have called for a big protest today, and not just any day. This is to get in the way really of shopping, to get in the way of commerce.

[08:20:02] As Father Michael Pfleger said, how can you make money when people are dying?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That is exactly right. In order to stop this crisis -- and it is a crisis -- we need everyone involved. We need all stakeholders involved.

And, unfortunately, oftentimes, corporations like nation states many don't have feelings, they have interests. And the only way to get them to act is if we do something that converges our interest with their interest. And in this case, it's money making. Black Friday is a big money making.

So, what the goal is, is to redistribute the pain so it is not just black families and black teens who are feeling the pain. But businesses feel the pain of black death. And if that happens, perhaps we can get structural solutions and investment and policy changes.

BERMAN: Get everyone involved in finding solutions to what's going on right now.

One of the things people want in Chicago is a federal role. Looking into the police department, investigating. What direct role would that happen to have?

JOSEPH GIACALONE, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE SERGEANT: Well, yes, the feds are going to have to look at the policies and procedures and training about firearms use, about how you are supposed to approach suspects and all the aspects of what happened and what went wrong in this shooting, because there are a lot of things that went wrong.

BERMAN: What went wrong from the very beginning.

GIACALONE: From the very beginning, yes. I mean, the tactics by the officer were unfortunately deplorable. You know, they broke some cardinal rules, isolate and contain. Cover and concealment that gives you that extra second to react before you use your firearm.

So, these are the things that they're going to have to look at. And people, you know, maybe they don't know, but the superintendent was a high ranking member of the New York City police department. And he knew about the different roles we had here and the things in place and you have to ask, you know, did he look at what procedures they have in Chicago? BERMAN: What about the fact that there had been complaints about this

officer in question? What kind of red flag should that have raised going in?

GIACALONE: Well, apparently, they have an early warning detection system they just ignored. This guy -- the reports about 20 different complaints against this guy. Some of them involving, a couple of them racial epithets. Listen, one could be just an outlier, where somebody trying to get back at you. But two, three, four? That's a pattern.

BERMAN: Well, let me ask you, because you serve in the force for a long time, does every officer, every detective, every guy have complaints against him or her?

GIACALONE: If you are an active cop, you are going to get complaints. It's as simple as that. But not 20.

BERMAN: Twenty is a lot.

GIACALONE: Twenty is off the charts. I mean -- and the question is, what mechanism was in place to prevent this guy from actually going out in the street. Listen, this is a chief of internal affairs problem. This is a chief detect problem. There's a superintendent problem.

I mean, these are the guys in charge of making sure that officers like this guy shouldn't have been out on the street. If I was in charge, he'd be answering telephones. I mean, there is a problem.

Until you figure out what his major malfunction is, and what retraining he might need, or, you know, was there recruitment, selection training problem, or a (INAUDIBLE) problem, or even a supervision problem, what did they do to prevent this?

BERMAN: Marc, in Chicago now, every day that passes, there seems to be more questions about the timing here. Why did this take more than a year to press charges? Why did this take more than a year to release the video?

And some people are flat out saying, look, this video was suppressed. This investigation was delayed for political reasons. You know, Rahm Emanuel, the mayor there, was running for reelection. Maybe it was better for him to wait until after the election to release all this stuff.

HILL: Yes, if you are a police officer or a politician, you know, dead black people at the hands of law enforcement in a post-Ferguson moment is simply bad for business. You could reasonably ask, would Rahm Emanuel have been reelected had this video come out? Also, when we look at the fact that a settlement was made before the mother even file a lawsuit for $5 million. When you look at the Burger King allegations that the police deleted footage. All of these things suggest police were invested in covering this up.

Now, the question about why is fascinating, right? It could just be a culture of police concealment, a culture of dishonesty, a culture of conspiracy. Or it could be a more pointed reason that they will only find out if we have investigation. And again, that type of investigation has to come from the federal level because the police in Chicago have consistently demonstrated based on this case and others that they are unable to watch themselves and to police themselves.

And quite frankly, I think it is a naive and unrealistic expectation that any institution, but particularly a state institution, has the capacity to police or watch itself. It's unreasonable.

BERMAN: Joe, yes or no, investigation like this, we don't know all the details. But should it ever take a year?

GIACALONE: No. This was a bad shooting in the first five minutes when you looked at the dashcam video. I mean, anybody with experience would look at this and go, oh, my God, this is wrong. And the question comes out too, like they didn't think have video is ever going to come out, there's another problem.

BERMAN: All right. And, Marc brought up another point there, let's close on this -- can police investigate themselves?

GIACALONE: Well, in this case, we're going to say right now -- no. I mean, because, of all the things, the videotapes missing, the statements that don't correspondent to what they originally said. I mean, these are major problems, these are red flags.

BERMAN: All right. Marc Lamont Hill, Joe Giacalone, guys, I appreciate you coming in this day after Thanksgiving to be with us. A good discussion.

GIACALONE: Thanks for having me.

BERMAN: Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right. Not only is he refusing to apologize for allegedly mocking a reporter with a disability, Donald Trump is now denying it ever happened.

[08:25:06] And he's demanding an apology from the reporter and the reporter's paper. Whoo. How will this controversy affect his campaign or will it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: The Friday edition of the "5 things you need to know".

And number one, President Vladimir Putin announcing Russia will cooperate and share intelligence with the U.S. and its Western allies to defeat ISIS.

Two weeks after ISIS terrorists struck Paris, a somber and emotional national ceremony honoring those who died and those who survived. French president handle vowing to destroy what he called an army of fanatics.

An arrest has been made in the death of the nine-year-old Chicago boy shot in an alley. Protesters plan to use this Black Friday to bring attention to the video meanwhile of a white officer gunning down a black teenager.

The shopping frenzy of black Friday is upon us. The shoppers are hitting stores in search of the best holiday bargains, many of them major retailers, were open on Thanksgiving.

Another sign that holiday season is here. First Lady Michelle Obama welcoming the official White House Christmas tree later this morning.