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New Day

Obama Taking Executive Action on Gun Control; Bill Clinton Stumps for Hillary; GOP Candidates Swarm Iowa, New Hampshire; Trump Special Counsel Speaks Out; Kuwait Pulls Ambassador to Iran. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Entirely consistent with the Second Amendment.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On my first day behind that desk, those orders are gone.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will unsign that so fast.

We don't need four more years of Obama. And that's what you're getting with Hillary. And I believe it might be even worse.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to let him live in his alternative reality, and I'm not going to respond.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Showmanship is fun, but it's not the kind of leadership that will truly change America.

JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: Even the best of friends don't always agree on everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Iran is promising vengeance after the Saudi government beheaded this cleric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether we like it or not, the events in the Middle East are going to be spilling over.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: There you go. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

In a matter of hours, President Obama unveils his plan to combat gun violence. He's bypassing Congress, taking executive action to call for expanded background checks on many firearms sales. But he will need lawmakers to approve funding for new mental health programs and beefed up enforcement.

CUOMO: Critics are already calling the measures an assault on the Second Amendment. The president planning to explain his plan in detail when he joins Anderson Cooper for a live town hall on CNN this Thursday night.

Let's get some more on the president's executive actions. CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. What are the headlines?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The president can act alone. We've all seen him do that before. But he has to act within existing laws.

So as much as you see the administration now trying to make changes wherever they can, you also immediately see the limits that they're up against.

I mean, these changes are presented as proposals, guidance, encouragement. Even the whole background check issue is basically just a clarification of who can still be considered a private seller and who is in the business, technically, of selling guns. Plus, there are big questions about how all of this can be enforced.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OBAMA: It will potentially save lives in this country.

KOSINSKI (voice-over): President Obama teeing up to announce a major overhaul on gun control this morning, giving Congress a hard pass.

OBAMA: These are recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch.

KOSINSKI: The president set to lay out a series of executive orders, including clarifying that anyone in the business of selling guns must acquire a license and ensure background checks, no matter the volume of guns sold or where.

The White House also urging more state reporting of background check records that could disqualify buyers with mental illness or a history of domestic violence.

Proposing beefing up the background check system itself. Hiring more staff to operate it around the clock.

And the president will ask for much more funding for mental health treatment.

The Democratic campaign trail buzzing with excitement.

H. CLINTON: I am so proud of what the president announced today.

The next president on the very first day could wipe it away. No. I won't wipe it away.

KOSINSKI: Oh, the next president could very well wipe it away. And that's exactly what the GOP 2016 hopefuls plan to do.

RUBIO: Don't worry, when I'm elected president on my first day behind that desk, those orders are gone.

TRUMP: I will veto that. I will unsign that so fast. So fast.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: New House Speaker Paul Ryan put out a statement calling the president dismissive of the Second Amendment, saying he's subverting Congress and that no president should be able to reverse what Congress has already rejected, even incrementally -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Michelle, thank you so much for that. We'll be watching today.

Hillary Clinton aggressively campaigning in Iowa and trying to close in on Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire. Clinton's also tapping her husband, former president Bill Clinton to hit the campaign trail on her behalf. The Iowa caucuses just 27 days away. Meanwhile, the New Hampshire primary just days after that.

Let's turn to Washington -- senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny. I downgraded you there, Jeff, a little bit. He's live in Des Moines, Iowa, this morning for us. Hey, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela, good morning.

You can call it the full Clinton. Bill Clinton is in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton here in Iowa. They're both talking to Democratic voters, trying to impress the urgency of this presidential campaign.

They're also not taking the bait from Donald Trump. That's an intentional strategy to not sort of respond to all the critiques that he's been laying out. But that is not to say that either one of these two are not paying attention to what is happening on the Republican side of this campaign. Listen to what Bill Clinton said yesterday in New Hampshire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's kind of scary this year. But believe it or not, most everybody actually tries to do what they say they're going to do when they're running. They're telling you what they believe. And so you've got to take them seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:12] ZELENY: So Bill Clinton there is telling voters that they should pay attention to what all of these Republican candidates are saying out there on the campaign trail.

But here in Iowa, Hillary Clinton is -- she has somewhat of a serious challenge from Bernie Sanders. Yes, she is leading nationally in huge ways. But in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states that start this process off, Bernie Sanders is on her heels. And she did not talk about him at all yesterday and was asked about Donald Trump by one voter. Let's listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

H. CLINTON: I've adopted a New Year's resolution. I'm going to let him live in his alternative reality, and I'm not going to respond.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ZELENY: So we'll see if she keeps that New Year's resolution as she continues the campaigning. Because the reality is she gets a lot of energy and fires up a lot of crowds she speaks to simply by talking about the Republicans. She says that she is the last line of defense from keeping a Republican out of the White House.

But of course, as I said, she has that Democratic primary to worry about as well. She'll be campaigning throughout the day here in Iowa -- guys.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeff. Thanks so much for that.

Republican candidates also hitting the trail hard in Iowa and New Hampshire. The GOP rivals taking aim at each other. CNN's Athena Jones live in New Hampshire with more.

Tell us what's going on on the trail, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, that's right. The Republican candidates are out in force, making their case to voters and also attacking each other.

Marco Rubio warning against isolationism in foreign policy here yesterday. That's a critique aimed at Ted Cruz.

Cruz, meanwhile, hitting Rubio on immigration in Iowa yesterday, saying that Rubio supported a massive amnesty. And despite spending a lot of time over the past several days talking about former President Bill Clinton's past indiscretions, Trump kept the focus on Hillary Clinton on the stump last night, saying electing her would mean four more years of Obama or worse.

Meanwhile, Chris Christie, who has been rising in polls here in New Hampshire, hit Clinton, Trump and some of his other rivals. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTIE: I wonder if the people in Egypt think, now that they live under martial law, that their lives are better because Hillary Clinton called for the ouster of Hosni Mubarak.

Show time is over, everybody. We are not electing an entertainer in chief. We don't need a president who's going to sit behind the desk the first day, spin around in the chair and say, "Gee-whiz, isn't it amazing I'm president?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And that "gee-whiz" line was aimed at the first-term senators running for the White House. Chris Christie argues that they're just not, ready because they haven't run anything. So we can expect more of these sharper attacks in the coming days as the candidates try to distinguish themselves with voters -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Athena. Thank you very much.

Let's bring in team Trump, Michael Cohen, executive vice president for the Trump organization and special council to Donald Trump.

Counselor, happy new year to you.

MICHAEL COHEN, EVP FOR TRUMP ORGANIZATION: To you, as well.

CUOMO: Good to see you on the show. All right. Let's start with the headline here, what's going on with Donald Trump and the Clintons. I was perceived as the latest salvo from Team Trump: he's going after Bill Clinton. He's making his past relevant. What's the strategy here?

COHEN: OK. I'm not so sure that there's a strategy at all. As we know, if you attack Donald Trump, he's going to come back at you. And that's exactly what's going on here.

Hillary Clinton throughout her campaign has called him things like a sexist. He doesn't care for women; he's a misogynist. Well, maybe she's deflecting a little bit here.

And what I always -- what I found interesting, and you showed the clip a few moments ago, is that Hillary talks about her New Year's resolution. I always remember you don't talk about your New Year's resolution, right? If I say, "I'm not going to talk about Donald Trump," then why would you tell everybody? Because she knows that she thinks she's going to get an increase in her numbers based upon talking about him.

And the truth of the matter is, he's not sexist. He's not a misogynist. He doesn't care whether it's male or female. He treats everyone exactly the same.

CUOMO: Two things: one is people would argue that that's exactly what Trump is doing, that he's using Bill to try and expand his tent, reminding people about Bill Clinton's weaker moments.

COHEN: Does anybody have to remind the country? Maybe some of the millennials don't recall. But, you know, I recall him standing up and basically lying under oath. Right? Honestly, right? And so, you know, that's the bottom line.

CUOMO: But then...

COHEN: I mean, I think we all remember. And look...

CUOMO: No need to re-introduce it then. Right?

COHEN: ... the truth of the matter is that this is not really about Bill Clinton. This is really about Hillary Clinton. And in law, as you know, we would call her an accessory after the fact. She was involved in basically keeping many of these women silent after the fact.

[07:10:03] CUOMO: She would be an accessory after the fact if there had been a case and these charges were made, which never happened.

COHEN: Well, let's also forget -- not forget that he lost his law license. Let's also forget [SIC] that, you know, there were, I believe, fines that were...

CUOMO: I thought it was about Hillary Clinton, not Bill Clinton.

COHEN: Well, that's true. But the point is we're talking about accessory after the fact.

CUOMO: My point is this: Let's say everything you say about Bill Clinton is true. Everything Donald Trump says. Let's just give you that assumption. How does that change what Donald Trump has said about women and what he has done?

COHEN: I don't think Donald Trump has said anything negative about women that he wouldn't say if it was a male.

CUOMO: The allegations against him...

COHEN: He's equal.

CUOMO: The allegations against him have nothing to do with the Clintons. He on his own, with what he said, said a lot of things that made women and other people upset. What he said about Carly Fiorina's face, what he said about women being fat.

COHEN: He said many things -- he would have said this about males, as well, Chris.

CUOMO: I know. And different sensitivities.

COHEN: He's equal opportunity when it comes to hitting back.

And the truth of the matter is, if you were in, let's say, the trench, who would you rather be next to, the guy who's a natural dealmaker? I mean, the guy's the greatest dealmaker in the history of this country. He's a natural dealmaker.

You want to be shoulder to shoulder with a guy that's going to get you out of the trenches, not part of the establishment that's gotten us into the trenches.

We are really in a bad place nationally, internationally. Our finances are out of control: 18, $19 trillion deficit. We can talk about all of this. The only person on the stage, whether it's Republican or Democrat, that's actually accomplished anything ever is Donald Trump.

CUOMO: That's a broad statement.

COHEN: And it's a true statement.

CUOMO: But what you're saying is that he's an aggressive guy; he's an attacker, and that's what the country needs right now?

COHEN: He's a guy that builds. He's a guy that does things. If he says he's going to do it, he's going to do it. He's changed the skyline across this country. He's involved nationally, internationally with everybody. They talk about...

CUOMO: Different tactics are required. Different tactics are required/

COHEN: Because we're in different times right now.

CUOMO: You are -- you know, you're a guy, you stick to your guns. I've known you a long time.

COHEN: I do.

CUOMO: The idea of...

COHEN: Are we now going to be talking about the Second Amendment?

CUOMO: No.

COHEN: A gun segue?

CUOMO: Maybe I should. What I was going to say is that, him saying when he was friends with the Clintons, and it was OK, he went, "Monica Lewinsky is not an issue; don't talk about his sex life. This is a waste. The impeachment is silly." As much as six months ago he said he was the best recent president.

And now that he's running against Hillary, he starts taking shots at Bill. It shows that, as motivations change, his sense of morality can change. Is that good leadership?

COHEN: I don't know if I -- no. I don't think it has anything to do with morality. It's not an issue of morality. The bottom line is: if you did something wrong and I am your friend, I would turn around and I would try to defend my friends. That's what Donald Trump does. He's a loyal guy. It didn't matter to him what the issue was with Monica Lewinsky.

CUOMO: But now?

COHEN: Of course it does. He's running for the presidency of the United States of America.

CUOMO: So we're not friends anymore?

COHEN: Well, not when you turn around and you call him a misogynist or you...

CUOMO: So you can't be better than somebody who insults you?

COHEN: I don't understand that.

CUOMO: Be better. I insult you, you don't have to insult me back. What do you teach your kids?

COHEN: No, what he's teaching is that don't throw the punch unless you're prepared to get hit back.

CUOMO: All right. Guns. Donald Trump has said in the past, and I know you're a gun owner and a Democrat, odd combination, but the -- the -- Donald Trump's past is you should have...

COHEN: I'm sorry. Are you calling me odd?

CUOMO: Huh? No. Well, yes, I am. But there are a lot of reasons for that. We'll talk about it in the commercial.

COHEN: After the camera.

CUOMO: The idea of 72-hour background checks, he's talked about it before. Why is he so put off by the idea of extending that idea of a check everywhere? Every time you buy a gun, you get a check. Now he's saying it's an erosion of the Second Amendment. He said he likes checks.

COHEN: OK. I think what the problem here is not so much whether it's 24 hours, 48, 72. I don't think that's the issue. I think the issue, and it goes, again, back to Donald Trump being a dealmaker. He's a guy who would sit down with others at the table, inclusive of the NRA representatives and others, and have a conversation about what it is that would best be for America and for gun control rules. Something that everybody can live with.

This president doesn't do that. He's above that. He's not getting what he wants, so he's going to do what? Something he's done quite a bit, an executive order.

CUOMO: What if you feel, in full conviction, that I'm not dealing with you fairly; I just want to stop progress, and you fundamentally disagree with me? You wouldn't use your power?

COHEN: It's because for seven years he sat in his office with the door closed. He's never reached out to the other side of the aisle, something Donald Trump would do day one.

And that goes back to your earlier question. Oh, I was friends with the Clintons. He's friends with everybody. Everybody gets along with Trump, believe it or not.

CUOMO: Until he isn't.

COHEN: Until they do something wrong to him.

CUOMO: All right. Last thing. Mistake in hindsight to put video of Morocco depicting Mexico in terms of this mass migration across the border, the one that we have on the screen right now. It's Morocco; it's not Mexico. OK?

[07:15:08] COHEN: I don't know. I don't know who did it.

CUOMO: You did it.

COHEN: I didn't do it.

CUOMO: No, but I'm saying it's the team that did it.

COHEN: I didn't do it. I'm not on the campaign.

CUOMO: You're team Trump. You're special council. Own it. The idea of putting it in there, shouldn't they have said, "Well, this is Morocco"? You know, it's deceptive. Don't you think? You'd crush somebody if they did that.

COHEN: Look, again, I think the point is well taken that we have 2,000 miles of open border.

CUOMO: Yes.

COHEN: The southern border.

CUOMO: Show that.

COHEN: And -- well, whoever the person is, I'm sure I'll be sending them a letter very soon on behalf of Mr. Trump.

But the bottom line is, it's the same thing. So it's Morocco; it's Mexico. The people are pouring into this country. We don't know who they are. Donald Trump is about national security. He's about protecting you and me and everybody else out there. And that's why he's resonating with the people.

CUOMO: I'm just saying if you -- what's this thing, "I'm real. I don't fake what's going on"? That was a little departure. No?

COHEN: Why? Why does that change?

CUOMO: That's not Mexico.

COHEN: So what? What's the difference? But what's the difference? In all reality, right? The point is that they're coming through. Yes, I'm going to have a conversation with whoever made the mistake; there's no doubt about that. but the truth is people are pouring through our borders, which are open.

Donald Trump's the guy who brought that to the forefront. And now everybody is talking about it. And do you remember from the first debate how they attacked him, and they continued to attack him? "Oh, you can't do that. It's not -- it's not American."

No, no, it is American. That's our laws. And we are a land of laws.

CUOMO: It certainly made the debate in the forefront of this election, no question about that. The question is what will we do about it?

Michael Cohen, thank you very much, as always. And happy new year to you. COHEN: The same to you.

CUOMO: All right. Now, later this hour we're going to talk more about the president's plan with his senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett. What is her take on why this executive order is the right move? Stay with us.

And guns is a big issue. We know it is part of our culture; it's part of our crime problem. So Thursday at 8 p.m., President Obama will join our Anderson Cooper for an exclusive live town-hall event on guns in America. The president is going to make the case to you. Why did he have to take this executive action? Why will it make it better? He's going to take your questions from a live studio audience, a town hall on guns in America. The president, our big man, Anderson Cooper, this Thursday night, 8 p.m., only on CNN -- Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. To breaking news, to the developing situation in the Mideast. Kuwait now siding with the Saudis and recalling its ambassador to Iran as Iran's president slams Saudi Arabia's decision to cut ties.

CNN's international diplomacy editor, Nic Robertson, live in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for us this morning -- or today -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMACY EDITOR: Yes, good morning, Michaela.

This latest statement from Kuwait really just upping the diplomatic standoff here in the region. Two of the most powerful countries in the region, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

And the Saudis are upping it as well: They've cut flights to Iran. They are cutting economic ties to Iran. They're saying that Iranian religious pilgrims can continue to come in their tens of thousands to their -- to Islam's holy site here in Saudi Arabia.

But what we're seeing at the moment is the king of Saudi Arabia playing tough. He's done something over the weekend, executing the Shia cleric the Saudi authorities say is instigating terrorism in this country, executing him, knowing that this would up tensions with Iran. He's looking around at the region to see which allies are going to stand up and back him.

So far we've got Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait now coming on board, as well, Bahrain, all pulling their ambassadors out of Iran, downscaling their diplomatic relations with the Iranians.

The Saudis right now feel as if -- and I've spoken to government officials this morning. They feel as if Iran is meddling in their internal affairs. They are pushing back. They're pushing back very strongly. Perhaps the last king, the previous king wouldn't have done this sort of thing a year or so ago. But this is what's happening now.

It's an indication that the tensions in the region of Syria, of Yemen, all these big issues here behind the scenes fomenting this current rise and escalation, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Nic. We're going to be talking to Mike Rogers about the U.S. role, what it should be, shortly. Thank you for that.

Meanwhile, police arresting one man following a deadly bus fire in northern China that killed 17 and injured 32 others early this morning. The bus erupting into flames near a shopping mall. Authorities are not releasing a possible motive for why someone would start that fire.

CUOMO: Tonya Couch, the so-called "affluenza teen's" mom, has a date in a Los Angeles courtroom today. Officials want to extradite her to her home state of Texas. Now, couch is accused of helping her teenage son flee to Mexico after failing to make an appointment with his probation officer. Ethan Couch, you'll remember, was spared jail time for a fatal drunk-driving crash. He killed multiple people in 2013. He's currently being held in a Mexican prison.

PEREIRA: Some scary moments to show you during a running of the bulls at a festival in Peru. We actually want to caution you that it's a little hard to watch. At least eight people were injured, some of them tossed into the air like rag dolls. A bull was released there, as you can see, into an open field. People running for cover as the bull charged them. This event is all part of a four-day religious festival.

[07:20:13] CUOMO: Religious festival because people are saying, "Oh, God, oh, God," when that bull is chasing them around.

PEREIRA: Yes. It's fun and games until somebody gets gored.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Second most dangerous animal to human beings. The first, the panda.

CAMEROTA: Polar bear.

PEREIRA: Come on.

CAMEROTA: You never miss an opportunity to bring in the vicious panda.

CUOMO: Eat your face.

PEREIRA: Won't happen.

CAMEROTA: All right. Moving on to one of our top stories...

CUOMO: East your face.

CAMEROTA: ... tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran spreading across the Middle East. Can the U.S. do anything to keep this from escalating? We take a look at that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're urging all sides to show some restraint and to not further inflame tensions that are on display in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's the latest message from the White House, urging Iran and Saudi Arabia to show restaurant. This as more countries side with Saudi Arabia in its spat with Iran. Kuwait now recalling its ambassador from Iran.

This stems from an attack on Saudi Arabia's embassy in Tehran in retaliation for Saudi Arabia's execution of a Shiite cleric.

[07:25:06] Joining us now is CNN national security commentator and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers.

Mike, great to see you.

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: In your assessment, how bad is this escalation of tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran?

ROGERS: Well, it's bad and has the potential to get a lot worse. And what you're seeing with these countries, Alisyn -- Kuwait, Sudan, others -- these are primarily Sunni countries. And you're starting to see the fuel being poured on this Sunni-Shia problem that's developing across the Middle East.

That's why this is so dangerous and why I think the United States needs to play a critical role in trying to calm things down and at least get back to some regular order between the Iranian and Saudi Arabian relationships.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. What can the U.S. role be?

ROGERS: It has to do a couple things. And let's back up real quickly.

A lot of the talk was that they purposely killed this cleric, Saudi Arabia, to inflame Iran. I really disagree with that. They killed this -- executed this cleric. He was sentenced in 2014 with a whole bunch of al Qaeda fighters. And this was a domestic political issue for them. They had this problem; they just went through elections. That upset the Salafis, the very ultra conservative Shi'a -- Sunnis in Saudi Arabia.

So they were playing this car. I think they didn't anticipate how this would spill over. So that's how we got to where we are.

And what's happening is, Iran, now that they have this new cash from the Iranian deal, is engaged in proxy wars. They've upped their game in Yemen, and they're upped their game in Syria; and they've upped their game in Iraq. And that is this increased tension with Saudi Arabia.

So what the United States needs to do is be very aggressive at pushing back on Iran and their actions in the region. They can do that two ways. One, continue with sanctions on the missiles that they've tested, long-range missiles in violation of U.N. sanctions, happened within the last month. The administration has pulled back. That gives an uneasy feeling to our Arab League partners. They need to re- engage sanctions on that missile program. And I'd do it as soon as they can.

And then they need to live up to their commitment on conventional weapons sales to the Arab League partners, which by the way, is not the best way to do it, but this is the place I think the administration has kind of wedged us in on a whole bunch of really bad solutions. And that's one solution that can at least start to tamp down the tensions.

CAMEROTA: You mention the Iran nuclear deal. Obviously, that was controversial.

ROGERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So in your estimation, the cash that Iran now has access to is being used solely or primarily for war?

ROGERS: Well, we knew -- as a matter of fact, the president even admitted -- that some of the cash that would be freed up would go to supporting Quds Force and terrorist activities around the region by Iran. Even the president admitted that.

What the exponential factor is, is now markets are being opened. So it's not just the cash they have access to; it's all this new cash coming in with contracts for things that they couldn't have access to under the old sanctions regime. That cash isn't accounted for. They have a little bit better economy and they have that cash, whatever percentage we could agree on, is going to operations in Yemen against Sunni. It's going to operations in Iraq against Sunnis. It's going to operations in Syria.

And that's why you have this increased military tension between Saudi Arabia, these other Arab League partners and Iran.

CAMEROTA: As you know, Secretary of State John Kerry had invested a lot of time and energy trying to get all of these different Middle East countries to the table to figure out how to solve the problem and the crisis in Syria. The U.S. is very interested in that, because it is a base for ISIS. So what does what's going on this week do for the fight against ISIS?

ROGERS: It makes it incredibly difficult to come with a coalition, a meaningful coalition against ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq. It just makes a very hard and difficult issue even harder and more difficult. Because you're going to have these proxy fights going on all at the same time, which is at each other's throats.

So Iran is going to continue this proxy fight in Syria with the support of Russia. So every time the United States talks about cuddling up to Russia in the fight in Syria, now we have an Arab League partner problem in the region, including Saudi Arabia, who does -- is not very trustful of Russia.

So you have all of these dynamics all at the same time. And now you have this increased tension. It's going to make a meaningful coalition to put that together just nearly impossible.

CAMEROTA: Mike Rogers, thanks so much for helping us understand what's going on over there. Nice to see you.

Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn.

After waiting in vain for Congress to do something about gun violence, the president is about to take the lead. What is he expected to say? Well, we're going to ask advisor Valerie Jarrett about the president's executive action, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)