Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Interview with Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett; Is Bill Clinton's Campaign Help a Plus for Hillary?. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired January 05, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:33:45] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN: People on both sides of the gun control issue say, "Today is a big day." President Obama is expected to announce executive action on gun control and the President has expressed frustration many, many times over the course of his presidency about the inability of congress to pass comprehensive gun legislation. Does this get it done? And if not, what needs to happen?

Here to discuss is Senior Advisor to the President Obama, Valerie Jarrett. Miss Jarrett, happy New Year to you. I want to remind people of one of the moments that really encapsulates the President's frustration and desire to do more about this that happened after the Sandy Hook massacre. Let's remember, everybody, where we all were at that time is felt through the President.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The majority, those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of five and 10 years old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The pain real for the President, real for those families, real for the entire country as we all looked on. The question is, will what is happening today stop the next Sandy Hook and it seems to be that the answer is no but what is the case for these executive orders?

[17:35:07] VALERIE JARRETT, SENIOR ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, good morning, Chris. Yes, you took us back to the most painful day in the President's term in office. And what we're trying to do today is to take very important steps that will keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them.

So background checks, simple background checks making sure that it doesn't matter where you sell the gun. What happens is if you're here in the business of selling a gun then you should register and you should ensure that people have background checks.

We want to keep our communities safe. What we can -- What can we do to improve our system of data collection, of investigations, of enforcing the laws? What can we do to invest in mental health? The President is proposing $500 million to help with mental health services and ensuring that the social security administration is providing data to the folks to do the background checks for people who have mental illnesses and who are threat to themselves or the others.

Now what can we do to make our guns smarter? We have smart phones. You can, you know, touch with a fingerprint to make sure that they're in the right hands. We know that so many people are killed each year, 30,000 people are killed each year, two-thirds by suicide. Let's make sure that our guns are smart and only the people who are supposed to have them, have them. So many children have access to guns and are accidentally shooting others. So let's invest in new technology and ensure that our guns are smart too.

So there's a whole host of steps the President is going to take today. But ultimately, the best solution would be for congress to act. He called on congress to act after the Sandy Hook massacre. There has been a lot of pressure that's been put on them by 90 percent of the American people who support sensible steps to be taken. But the President is determined that he's going to do whatever is within his power to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

CUOMO: You could argue that taking these executive steps is going to make anything done with congress more difficult though, couldn't you miss, Jarrett, because executive orders frustrate the Republicans, feeds this narrative that the President goes alone, because he doesn't like to work with others. And then you get on to the practical realities of you don't stop these mass shootings all by dealing with gun shows. We never traced back any of these weapons to that. Yes, the mental health is a component but most of the problem is inner-city crime. Most of the problem is illegal handguns in the wrong hands.

So how do you balance these two? How to get it done politically with what the real problem is to begin with?

JARRETT: Well, first of all, we do know that a lot of deaths from gun violence have today because guns are in the wrong hands, I mean I'll give you good examples.

Look at the State of Connecticut. They passed important background checks and also required training. Their gun deaths went down by 40 percent, compare that to Missouri that got rid of their background checks and loosened up their regulations and their gun deaths went up by 50 percent above the national average. Those are two good examples of where background checks to make a very big difference and save lives.

CUOMO: So, the question becomes how do you get it done? And as you acknowledge just from, you know, point of law is that an executive order can only go with an existing legislation. You need to have more legislation or at least better executive, not executive but enforcement capabilities with these. So you need congress. Why can't the President get congress and work with them on something that everybody seems to agree needs to be done?

JARRETT: Well, obviously the President made a very strong effort to work with congress and 90 percent of the American people supported what he was doing. Ninety percent of the Democrats in congress supported it. We just had a hard time getting the Republicans to take what everybody believes are sensible steps. The fact of the matter is that the President has said, the American

people are going to -- are getting energized about this issue. It's becoming more passionate. We're seeing a lot of activity in cities and states across the country who were taking steps and ultimately that's going to put congress under pressure to do the right thing.

CUOMO: But why not go at it again? You know, I mean if it's matters that much to the President, why not make it an open process, approach them, have the meeting or play the game the way it's always been played in points of compromise? If it's that important, why not reapproach as opposed to circumventing and really just hardening their resistance with the President.

JARRETT: Well, let's be specific. The President isn't circumventing congress. He is doing what is clearly within his authority to do. He would -- He is doing as well within the existing statute. He's trying to make sure that he does everything within his power to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Congress has the responsibility for acting. We welcome the opportunity to work with them to pass legislation. But they made it very clear that they don't intend to act. And so in their absence of action, we're going to do what we can do. But be clear, Chris, the door is always open for us to engage with them and work on what we can do to make America safer.

CUOMO: Now they say, and obviously you can't generalize, but we have many sources on the other side of the aisle who say that's not true. He wants to front load all these stuff with provisions that won't do anything, like magazine, size, and banning certain weapons and not others, and that they don't want to start there.

[07:40:00] But they do want to start with some of these more basic provisions about where checks are, money for enforcement, money for mental health, record sharing and that certainly goes to the mass shooting to deal with money to enable harsher sentences for those who used guns in commissions of a crime. As you know, many states say we don't have the money to keep people with these long sentences. Why not get that part done if they say they want to work them?

JARETT: Well, so -- Well, so for example, what the President is proposing today and what will be in his budget that he'll be proposing to congress is we do need to have additional resources for ATF to go after those who are selling guns who shouldn't be selling them without a license.

And so, we are -- we have in the budget additional 200 ATF agents so that we can beef up our enforcement. The President is increasing the number of people who are working in the background check area. We're improving the technology there. We're improving the data collection. The attorney general is calling on governors to make sure that we're getting the data from the states that we need to ensure that the background check information is as sufficient as it could be.

So there's a lot that we can do within the executive branch that we are doing. But again, Chris, we welcome that opportunity to work with congress on a whole host of issues. They've made mental health a big issue. And so, that's why the President is proposing his budget to half a billion dollars to totally improve our mental health services. So there is lots of room for working with congress. And we're -- they are important to the successful implementation of what the President is proposing today.

CUOMO: And we look forward to seeing how the President does make this approach of introducing these orders today. It'll be interesting to see if it's an invitation to more with congress.

Valerie Jarrett, thank you very much for coming on to argue the President's case.

JARETT: Thank you. Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Appreciate it. All right. So what do you think? You heard the basic line of why the President is doing this versus going the congressional route. What they think will make a difference in the number of crimes we have involving guns. What do you think? Tweet us @NewDay or post your comment on facebook.com/NewDay.

And, again, it is worth reminding you, this issue matters that's why CNN is taking it very seriously. The President has responded to an invitation from Anderson Cooper to do an exclusive Live Town Hall event on Guns In America. The President will make the case to you as to why executive action and specifically these are what he needed to do right now. He will take live questions from the studio audience and from around the country. So remember, Town Hall on Guns, moderated by our man, Anderson Cooper, this Thursday night, 8:00 p.m., only on CNN, of course.

Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Chris, former President Bill Clinton back on the campaign trail to support his wife. Hillary calls him her not-so secret weapon. Could his help actually backfire or will it help? We'll take a look.

(COMMECIAL BREAK)

[07:46:14] PEREIRA: Bill Clinton is making his first solo appearances on the trail this week, stumping for Hillary Clinton. The question is will he help? Will he hurt Hillary?

John Avalon is our CNN Political Analyst and the Editor in Chief at The Daily Beast. Pleased, good to have you here.

JOHN AVALON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

PEREIRA: So let's talk Bill Clinton. He overall -- There is no rule. He's good, he's bad. There's a bit of both. It's a mixed bag.

AVALON: He's a man in full. Good, bad and the ugly is what you get but Bubba is back on the trail. And the important thing to remember, there is no political talent quite like Bill Clinton. PERIERA: Now that's a very good way of saying that. Let's take a look back in terms of some of the weaknesses. We go back to 1998 just before he was impeached.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON: Well, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERIERA: It seems tough to start there. He was dogged to jury about this scandal during his presidency, accused for sexual harassment several times over the years. Mr. Trump in fact has said he is a great woman abuser, whatever that means, how badly does that affect the woman who would be the first president of the United States if her dreams come true?

AVALON: Yes, it is a significant baggage. I mean that's the bad and the ugly of Bill Clinton and it's obviously a stain on the history of his presidency being the second president impeached. And it makes it difficult for Hillary to be the full feminist icon that she hopes to surf that wave of emotion and support into the presidency. So that is definitely the baggage that exists. The question is how much is that baked in the cake already? How much do people know it and how much does bringing it up make from the Republicans looks small and petty, and obsessed with the past as opposed to the future?

PERIERA: We'll take a look at the 2008 election. I had a little bit of trouble with outburst after some frustrating finishes, he started going negative on then Senator Barack Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Said in 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war. And you took that speech you're now running on off your website. Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERIERA: He also said that Obama's campaign came after Hillary with the race card. Does that impulsiveness post any risk?

AVALON: Look, part of being the kind of high-wire act that is Bill Clinton on the trail was it sometimes you cross over that line.

PERIERA: Yeah.

AVALON: He is fighting for his wife's campaign in a tough-fought campaign there. But that left really divisive marks inside the Democratic Party at that particular point.

PERIERA: OK. Let's take a look at how ever him describing Mitt Romney. This is May 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He had a good business career. There is no question that in terms of getting up and going to the office and you know, basically performing the essential functions of the office. A man who's been governor and had a sterling business career crosses the qualification threshold but they have dramatically different proposals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERIERA: Was that necessarily a bad thing?

AVALON: Well, so this one exactly against what the DNC was pushing against Mitt Romney at that time that they were sort of vulture capitalism. And here's Bill Clinton committing a classic Washington gaffe which is telling the truth. Say now look, you may disagree with them but you know Mitt Romney is qualified to be president and had a successful record in business. That caused a lot of agitation inside the DNC during the 2012 re-election.

PERIERA: Despite of these things, as the -- the outburst, et cetera, you cannot deny that the man is a terrific political speaker. Here he is at the Democratic National Convention in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: When President Barack Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. It had just shrunk nine full percent of GDP. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month. Are we doing better than that today? The answer is yes.

(ENDVIDEO CLIP)

PERIERA: And then on the heels of that, here's President Obama himself speaking about him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA: Romney e-mailed me after his speech. He said, you need to appoint him Secretary of Explaining Stuff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PERIERA: So will that serve them on the trail list? The secretary of explaining --

AVALON: The secretary of explaining stuff.

PERIERA: Thrown out there. You know what I mean? I don't know on the stump. That could be great.

AVALON: It is. And it's an important part. Bill Clinton is able to talk about economics, talked about data, talked about policy in a way that really resonates with Populous. And that's such an important talent and it's one that is not given out equally. And so Bill Clinton's strength as a secretary of explaining stuff, and by the way, the original e-mail didn't say stuff. PERIERA: Oh, OK.

[07:50:08] AVALON: That is a really important aspect of why he is such a powerful figure on the campaign trail that is campaigning for President Obama or his wife and obviously that popularity number.

PEREIRA: Oh, OK. Can we just talk about this right here?

AVALON: Yes, let's do that.

PEREIRA: Wow, just wow. When the fact is that the man who used to be President is getting better favorability numbers than the woman who is wanting to be President, wow, just wow.

AVALON: Wow, just wow. So the entire thing is sort of a surreal circumstance. We never had a former President running to be first laddie (ph), but this speaks to I think how popular Bill Clinton is. I mean this is a guy who left office with 60 percent approval rate.

After being impeached politically he knows something the rest of us don't. And the fact he's been able to maintain that as the next president, that's not always a given. That shows that while he may be polarizing the Republicans, and he is, he remains deeply popular with the American people in polls.

PEREIRA: First laddie, I don't know if that's going to stick though.

Great to have you. Thank you so much for walking through those, those were great.

Alisyn, over to you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: As though you two haven't given us enough entertainment, we have more. Which late night host had the best punch line about Donald Trump? We'll bring you the funny jabs from last night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:21] CAMEROTA: OK, time for CNN Money now. Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans is in our Money Center. How is it looking?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was the worst start to the year for the dollars since 2008. A China scare ricocheting around the world and, Alisyn, the fears still alive this morning, U.S. stock futures are down, markets in Asia finished next year and you know, European stocks started much higher but now, they're kind of fading.

Plenty of people are nervously whispering this morning that all that each Wall Street as goes January, so goes the year.

So watch this space.

Volkswagen this morning faces some $18 billion of potential fine. The EPA and the Justice Department are suing the German automaker, the civil suit seeks fines for each of the 500 thousand diesel cars on the road that were cheating and violating environmental guidelines.

It has never been more expensive to buy an apartment in Manhattan, shuttering records here. The median sale price hit a record high of 1.15 million in the fourth quarter last year. That the (inaudible) for Miller Samuel that shatters the record hit in 2008 right before Lehman Brothers collapsed.

What's going on here, inventory is low, credited type and the competition is deep. People apparently have money to spend an apartment in Manhattan. I am not one of them.

CUOMO: Thank you for that. Cassandra is parallel between the highest previous point in Lehman's Brothers collapsing.

ROMANS: I'm just saying.

PEREIRA: Right.

CUOMO: Thanks for that. All right, let's get something funny.

Late Night host playing the Trump card again, Colbert, Fallon, and others, taking swipes with the brush billionaire and some of the last were huge. If you didn't stay up, check out the Late-Night Laughs right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, LATE NIGHT HOST: At a recent campaign stop, Hillary Clinton vowed if elected, she will investigate UFOs and alien abductions. In response, Donald Trump vowed to deport the aliens back to space Mexico.

SETH MEYERS, LATE NIGHT HOST: Donald Trump said yesterday that if he is elected, he would probably not talk as much. That's right, if Donald Trump is elected, even he will be speechless.

CONAN O'BRIEN, LATE NIGHT HOST: Donald Trump released his first T.V. ad, and if you saw it, yes. The (inaudible) air on the Big Four Networks during prime time, cable channels during the day, and on Univision, when hell freezes over apparently.

JIMMY FALLON: Going to a new poll, Donald Trump was the candidate Americans would least want to have as their neighbor. It makes sense because he'd build a massive wall between your yards and make you pay for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: He deprives us things, any press is good press so the fact that they are just talking about him, my name is in their mouth, that's a good thing?

CUOMO: Yeah. I mean, you know, I mean that's what...

CAMEROTA: Yeah?

CUOMO: That the only thing that changes the dynamic is the votes. But once you start having the primaries as far we're building up to Iowa and New Hampshire, the narrative changes once the votes start coming in.

PEREIRA: Yeah, days away.

CAMEROTA: What will the Late Night comedians do without Donald Trump? That he does seem to be their favorite. I mean obviously lots of politicians give them material but he does appear to be their favorite.

PEREIRA: That's kind of a banner here for them.

CAMEROTA: Yes, surely (ph).

CUOMO: There is plenty of news for you. What do you say? Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The devolving relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iran promising vengeance after the Saudi government beheaded his cleric.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even the best of friends don't always agree on him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In a matter of hours, President Obama unveils his plan to combat gun violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's trying to go after our rights to keep them bare on.

CARLY FIORINA: Lawless in his use of executive orders.

MARCO RUBIO: On my first day behind that desk, those orders are gun.

CHRIS CHRISTIE: Showtime is over, everybody. We are not electing an entertainer-in-chief.

DONALD TRUMP: We don't need four more years of Obama, and that's what you're getting with Hillary.

HILLARY CLINTON: I'm going to let him live in his alternative reality and I'm not going to respond.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only person on the state that's actually accomplished anything ever is Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is New Day, with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PEREIRA: Is it Tuesday already?

CUOMO: It is all day long.

CAMEROTA: Says no one ever.

CUOMO: Good morning and welcome to your New Day, it is Tuesday, January 5th, 8 o'clock in the East.

We begin with breaking news, another country taking a side in the deteriorating relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Now, Kuwait siding with the Saudis, recalling its ambassador from Iran just this morning, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan also, downgrading ties with Tehran.

CAMEROTA: Now, Iran's President Rouhani slamming Saudi Arabia, accusing it of using the rift to cover up the execution of that prominent Shia cleric. That acts led to an attack on Saudi Arabia's Embassy and Iran as retaliation.

[07:60:06] CNN's National Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson begins our covers live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. What is the latest there?