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New Day Saturday

Hostage Luke Somers Dead In Rescue Bid In Yemen; Chokehold Protests Paralyze Cities; Major Doubts About Rolling Stone UVA Story; Philippines Bracing For Typhoon Hagupit; Chokehold Protests Paralyze Cities; Getting Closer to Government Shutdown; Winston Plays in ACC Title Game Tonight; Six Armies Involved in Kobani Fight

Aired December 06, 2014 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: An effort to rescue an American hostage overseas does not go as planned, the photo journalist killed by militants. What we're learning about that raid.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Protests grip cities from coast to coast. People just lay down in the middle of the street. Furious over the New York choke hold case. At this hour, we're looking at what police can do to rebuild trust.

PAUL: A typhoon is bearing down on a country still trying to recover from the last big storm. We are live in the Philippines for you.

I want to wish you good morning and say we're grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 8:00 here on the east coast. Right now, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is speaking in Afghanistan alongside the Afghan president. The news conference is not in English, but we are monitoring it and we'll bring you the crux of the conversation here as soon as we get them.

We're also following breaking news this morning, learning of the stunning and dramatic details about the mission by U.S. forces overnight to try to rescue American hostage, Luke Somers, in Yemen.

PAUL: Somers and another hostage, a South African man are both dead. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says Somer's captors, the group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula killed him. Now just moments ago in Kabul, Secretary Hagel called the rescue mission dangerous and complicated.

Our Barbara Starr has learned a fire fight broke out during this rescue mission. Navy SEALs were able to put both Somers and the other hostage on a U.S. military chopper and fly them to a nearby ship.

BLACKWELL: All right, we're covering this from all angles. We have Sunlen Serfaty there at the White House for us and the CNN military analyst, Retired Major General James "Spider" Marks in Washington.

Let's start with Sunlen. What are we hearing from the administration? SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, one U.S. official tells us that one of those hostages died while they were on the helicopter en route to the U.S. ship. The other hostage we're not sure which one, died when they were on the U.S. ship.

This was a risky and a dangerous and complicated mission, including drones and fighter jets overhead patrolling and the president this morning, he reacted emotionally I should say, it's clear that he really felt the weight of this failed mission very personal.

He noted it's his personal responsibility to protect U.S. citizens when they are in danger. This is what he said in a statement. "The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of Luke Somers at the hands of al Qaeda terrorists during a rescue operation conducted by U.S. forces in Yemen in partnership with the Yemeni government.

"On behalf of the American people I offer my deepest condolences to Luke's family and his loved ones." Keep in mind, this was a direct call made by the president himself here at the White House yesterday.

And he said this morning that he made that call based on three things. One, the intelligence, the operational plan, and the fact that Luke Somers life he says was in imminent danger.

And the White House really is already on the defense, some saying and criticizing them they may have waited too long to give approval in this mission and that hesitation may have led to this ultimate outcome.

But the president, he pushed back on that criticism this morning and he said he did everything he could within his powers to save these hostages.

PAUL: All right, General Spider Marks now to you, we know that this was the second attempt to get to Somers and to rescue him. And they were so deliberate in their verbiage when they said he was murdered.

Do you get because of that verbiage the sense that he was murdered by al Qaeda, maybe as troops were -- the Navy SEALs were going in? And this wasn't some random fire fight and he was a casualty?

MAJ. GENERAL JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Christie, that would be the assumption on my part. Clearly I don't have the details and we'll know more details the farther we go along. There will be an after action review and at least some of this information will be released.

But it would appear to me that the al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was caught completely off-guard, at least in a tactical sense. The United States has tried to conduct a raid previously, so at least strategically their guard was up a little bit more.

But tactically I think they were surprised, and upon entry into the room obviously a fight immediately took place. And the hostages were murdered or at least were shot at that moment. And the AQAP knew they were going to lose this fight and they were going to lose the hostages. So I think that's exactly what happened. I don't think this was friendly fire type of incident.

BLACKWELL: So Secretary Hagel is in Afghanistan right now as we said speaking alongside the Afghan president, is that a coincidence or was that coordinated?

MARKS: No. The fact that Secretary Hagel is in Afghanistan has a very precise focus at this point. It has to do with transition. I think it's a good place for the secretary of defense to be right now and that he is departing.

This is where we've committed ourselves for over a decade and I think this is the right place to be as he transitions out. The fact that the intelligence always is perishable has to be targetable. The operation has probably been rehearsed.

The forces were in theater. They were in place, there was cover for action. That needed to take place separate from the secretary's visit into Afghanistan.

PAUL: General Marks, real quickly, we've been talking in recent weeks about ISIS. Now we're talking about al Qaeda again. Help us understand the focus that the U.S. has to take with both of these enemies so to speak?

MARKS: Christi, this is a generational fight. This has a very, very long horizon. This is the metamorphosis of terrorism you will see al Qaeda-type affiliates, localized terrorist organizations that all have a similar inspirational motivational pull.

There will be national, international global type of recruiting that we've seen, localized metamorphosis that will take place. This has very specific implications in terms of how we organize, how we equip our forces and strategically how we have to be persistent to go after this threat for a very, very long term.

This is our new normal in terms of conflict, in terms of engagement and we're clearly prepared for this fight. We have to steal ourselves for this. We have to talk about it.

We have to be up front about it so that the American population understands this is not something that's going to go away immediately. We must address it over time.

PAUL: We have to assume that's something that Secretary Chuck Hagel is talking about now and again we are monitoring that. We'll bring you those comments and any news that comes out of that conference that he is in right now in Kabul. General Spider Marks, Sunlen Serfaty, we thank you both.

MARKS: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, now to another big story we're following. You heard the rallying cry, hands up, don't shoot, we're hearing it again from protesters, heard it last night as the demonstrators paralyzed in parts at least 17 cities.

We're talking the northeast. We are talking the mid-Atlantic, all the way to California. The protesters are angry over the controversial choke hold death of Eric Garner. They demand justice and law enforcement reforms.

Now some of the largest protests were here in Boston. Police say about 1,000 people marched through downtown. Let's take to you Miami, though, because there was a similar scene. Look at the traffic here, backed up for miles.

Protesters flooded the interstate and while the demonstrations remain peaceful, there is something different that's happening in New York, different than what we saw from the first couple of nights.

These protesters are now storming into popular stores to stage these die-ins. Let's bring in CNN's Cristina Alesci. She is in New York and I wonder what was the response -- we're at the height of the holiday shopping season. What was the response from these stores when these die-ins were staged?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the store's management didn't take action against the protesters, in part because they were there only for a few minutes, these protesters keep moving because they don't want to be arrested and if they congregate too long anywhere there is an increased likelihood that they will be arrested or some kind of action taken against them.

Even still, you know -- even though the protesters are very organized and not violent and they are only in one place for a few minutes, there are definitely some mixed reactions to their tactics around the country. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think there are better ways to get your point across and to impede shoppers is not the way to go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somehow I think this might be right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How come?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From what I see on television I think there should have been an indictment for that cop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't want to be destructive, but they are mad because there is no accountability in the system that we all love so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALESCI: Again, the protests here in New York are much different than the ones that we saw in Ferguson. They are very organized, there seem to be very professional groups behind them, advocates for civil rights, you know, one of my colleagues in the newsroom call them professional protesters. So and they are communicating via Twitter and there is a text message list that updates you on the various locations, I'm subscribed to it to see where the protesters head next.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Many of these protesters are very efficient at disseminating their message. Cristina Alesci, there in New York for us, Cristina, thank you so much.

PAUL: All right, check out this weather radar we're going to show you here. Major typhoon bearing down on the Philippines, we're checking the conditions on the ground coming up. This is an area that has been slammed already and still trying to recover.

BLACKWELL: And you know, another story we're following, the University of Virginia stunned, I mean, the allegations of brutal rape that people read in "Rolling Stone" magazine just really took a lot of people back and started pushback against the university. But now "Rolling Stone" says there are serious questions about that story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So glad to have you with us. Listen, "Rolling Stone" is backing down from that jaw dropping report about a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia.

In the article, there was a woman named Jackie, that was not her real name, but she claimed that she was assaulted by a group of men during an attack at a fraternity party back in 2012. The magazine now says it has doubts about her story and has issued apology on its web site.

In the meantime, the fraternity in question disputes various details in the "Rolling Stone" story and says it is working with police.

We have Sara Ganim live in Charlottesville, Virginia right now. Sara, what do you -- you talked to the attorney for the fraternity. Do they dispute the rape itself as well as other details or just details?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, he told me, quote, "It's just not true." However, they are still cooperating with the police investigation. All of this unfolding -- you know, he did give me several details that were not included in the "Rolling Stone" statement.

But all of this unfolding as it appears that the "Rolling Stone" stone no longer stands by that report about a gang rape or the woman who was a center of the piece.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM (voice-over): After an article that prompted outrage at the University of Virginia, "Rolling Stone" magazine has apologized for discrepancies about an alleged gang rape on the Charlottesville campus.

"Rolling Stone" editors say they made the choice not to contact key figures in the alleged attack on Jackie, the woman who was the subject of the article for fear of retaliation against her.

The magazine said in the face of new information there now appeared to be discrepancies in Jackie's account. And we have come to the conclusion that our trust in her was misplaced.

The article also chronicled the school's failure to respond to that alleged assault, which in turn prompted a UVA suspension of all fraternity activities until January, and a zero tolerance policy toward sexual assault cases.

TERESA SULLIVAN, PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: We must find where it hides out and root it out.

GANIM: According to the magazine, Jackie claimed she was raped by seven men during a party at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. However, the fraternity says there was no party the night of the alleged attack in September 2012, and the chapter's lawyer says he has the records to prove it.

He also discredits other parts of the story. Meanwhile, "The Washington Post" is reporting that a group of Jackie's close friends believe something traumatic happened to her, but they also have come to doubt her account as details changed over time.

But "The Post" is also reporting that Jackie stands by her story. She told "The Post," I never asked for this, what bothers me is so many people act like it didn't happen.

Despite the latest developments in the story, students still turned out at a campus vigil last night determined to keep the focus on combatting sexual assault against women.

ANNE LEISTER, UVA STUDENT: It's terrible that they are going against her now and placing irresponsibility upon her as someone who is guilty or untrustworthy because I feel that they should have known from the beginning publishing that story.

That was something that they could never know exactly what happened. Again, that's not the single issue here. The issue is the wider problem of sexual assault on college campuses.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM: Christi, I just want to give you a couple more of those details that I got from the lawyer. One of them has to do with a staircase, a key detail in the "Rolling Stone" article. He says that staircase that Jackie says she was led up to the room where she was raped, that it doesn't exist.

He also said there are no pledges at that time of year. Now, that aside, though, Christi, whether or not that discredits the "Rolling Stone" article or Jackie's story, I think is important to remember that what hasn't been discredited here is the fact that the University of Virginia has never expelled a single student for sexual assault even when they admitted to it. So that reaction that the university has to sexual assault, that's not under dispute. You know, the fraternities here, some of them who have been vandalized in the last couple of weeks since this story came out, they issued a statement yesterday, saying look, this is where the focus needs to be on other victims of sexual assault and also on a nationwide problem of rape on campus.

Some of Jackie supporters, though, still came out in a rally, there's also a growing movement on Twitter, #istandwithjackie. I have been on campus several days this week. I've talked to other survivors of sexual assaults here.

And you know, they talk about a culture here that I really think should not be forgotten when we talk about the story should not be lost even if Jackie's story turns out not to be true -- Christie.

PAUL: All right, they are very good point to make, just because there may be questions about what she said and specific details doesn't mean it's not happening. Sara Ganim, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: People are running for safety as a typhoon gets closer and closer. And they are begging, begging for Mother Nature to just back off, not us again. Look at these pictures. We'll take you to this area, to the Philippines, in Tacloban, and show you what's happening right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is in Afghanistan right now. This is his last trip there as Pentagon chief. Hagel announced that an additional 1,000 U.S. troops will remain in Afghanistan next year.

This will help to meet a temporary shortfall in NATO forces. He also offered his thoughts and prayers for the friends and family of Luke Somers. Somers is the 33-year-old photo journalist who was killed by captors in Yemen and also another South African hostage was killed. The group al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, is responsible for their deaths.

Let's talk about this typhoon as well, Typhoon Hagupit, is close to making landfall in the Central Philippines.

PAUL: A lot of people who live in villages just feet from the ocean have evacuated to higher ground. The storm is expected to cause some pretty heavy storm surge, 15 to 20 feet, I believe.

CNN's Andrew Stevens joining us now via phone from Tacloban where he is being hit apparently by some heavy rains already. So Andrew, help us understand what it's like there right now.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Right now it's driving rain and strong, strong gusty winds (inaudible) the latest, sort of on the edge of the main storm. This as you say was the site a little more than a year ago. (Inaudible) that was mainly through a storm surge, a wall of water 18 feet high. What we are hearing is there is unlikely a storm surge this time around given where the eye of Hagupit is going to make landfall.

But that's not stopping the people of this city, traumatized people, memory fresh from that getting to high ground, to safe areas and they do appear to be much better prepared this time around than a year ago.

Local authorities have been evacuating people, there are voluntary evacuations. About 40,000 people in the most vulnerable areas have been moved. They are camping out in makeshift evacuation centers, in churches and schools, people opening up homes.

So a much, much better job of getting people out, warning them, and they do know just how devastating a storm of this sort can be. They have made preparations to get out. We drove through and quite a few on the coastline then around the low lying.

This time last year there would have been so many more people in those areas. They have moved. So Tacloban looks like avoid a repeat of last year and certainly, three hours from now, really riding out the storm -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All right, Andrew Stevens reporting from the Philippines. You and the crew stay safe there. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Well, the anger over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the anger, the frustration, and the dedication to changing something, it's spreading and it's raising a key question. How do police departments rebuild trust with their communities?

Up next, we'll have a woman who worked on doing that in Los Angeles, and she's going to give us her take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: 30 minutes past the hour on a Saturday morning. I hope it's treating you well. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning.

PAUL: Yes.

We'll let's talk about traffic jams and blocked bridges and stores filled with protesters. Look at the pictures we've been getting in overnight. That was the scene last night across the country really as demonstrators angry over the controversial chokehold death of Eric Garner hit the streets in at least 17 major cities. There is a protester clashing with police in the nation's capital is what you're watching right there.

And then take a look at this. That's Miami, traffic backed up for miles after protesters flooded the interstate which is something we haven't necessarily seen recently. Police say some of the largest protests, though, were in Boston where 1,000 people marched downtown and staged the so called die-in.

BLACKWELL: Some people have compared the recent protests to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. Very different -- there were dozens killed during those riots, though. Protests, however, erupted as we know in the 90s after a home video surfaced showing four L.A. police officers using a stun gun on King.

PAUL: And King, of course, was hit with police batons more than 50 times. This is still so hard to watch. The case was eventually declared a mistrial after three of the officers were acquitted by an all-white jury.

But we want to talk more about this with civil rights attorney Connie Rice. She has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department to try to build better relationships with the community.

BLACKWELL: All of these incidents fuel distrust of police. And we know after the decision came out from the grand jury, at least in New York, we saw a tweet from police officers there with the #wehearyou that they want to now rebuild trust. How do you begin to do that? How do you begin to build these better relationships between the community and police that in some cases they distrust?

CONNIE RICE, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Isn't that the million dollar question? Hi.

PAUL: Hi.

BLACKWELL: Hello. Let's start at the top with the big one.

RICE: Exactly. Excellent question. It's complex. It has taken us since 2002. Can you believe it? We've been at this since 2002. And we have another ten years to go. So, big constitutional and institutional change takes a lot of effort. There are at least 100 steps here.

And Chief Bratton and Jerry Challis and Chief Green and myself and a whole bunch of us, about 20 of us really, every day for the last 14 years. And so, we know how to do this, the good news is that we know how to do this. The bad news is that it takes a long time and it takes expertise and I think that Ferguson is going to need help. I think a lot of communities around this country are going to need a lot of help from people like us.

PAUL: Well, not only that, but this is not probably a one size fits all. When you've got different communities you probably have to use different tactics for each, yes?

RICE: Christi, not only is that right, you absolutely nailed it on the head. Not only do you have to tailor make it to each community as you suggest but every day the needs can change. I'm telling you I can get up one morning at 5:00 and have to race out to a murder scene, in south L.A. for example, and meet the cops there and get the community organized and try to quell some of the less productive reactions to a very tragic situation. And every single crime scene can require a different strategy. It's really -- this is more art than science. And it takes a very cohesive group of experts who can finish each other's sentences.

I tell you I used to sue the police. Every day I would get up and find a new way to sue them. And I love suing cops. But then when chief -- sorry to say that -- when Chief Bratton came to L.A. he said Connie, don't sue me because I told him I said "Chief, it's nothing personal but I'll be suing you next week." He said no, don't sue me, come inside and help me change my cops.

Well, Christi and Victor, it takes an enormous amount of hands on work to get cops to think differently; to get them to feel differently about black children. You know, police are afraid of -- a lot of police are afraid of black people. They didn't grow up around black people. When they see black people they tense up.

And if you can get them in an honest conversation the way I have, Chief Bratton sent me in there and said find out what my cops are thinking. I don't know how I did it but they trusted me and they would say things like "Miss Rice, I'm scared of black people. Miss Rice, I've never known black people, I don't understand them. Miss Rice, I'm scared of black men."

So when I hear things like that I know I'm starting to get some place because now I can address the cops' fears. And I can address the angst and the pain of the community which is going through terrible throes of tragedy and mourning. I mean it's awful to watch black children be gunned down.

BLACKWELL: And you know -- I hate to interrupt but to that end and while you're on that point, what we heard from Darren Wilson was that Mike Brown was a big man. Well, they are both 6'4". So it's not that he was towering over him. We heard from people supporting the cops in New York that maybe they were afraid because Eric Garner was such a big man as if black -- large black men are inherently dangerous. There was no direct threat from Eric Garner lunging out there.

RICE: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: Connie Rice, I thank you for having this conversation with us. It's only when you get to a point where you can have those honest conversations and people admit things that they may not want to say openly in public, but will get to the root of some solution that anything can really be solved.

RICE: Exactly.

PAUL: And thank you so much for what you are doing. Thank you so much for what you're doing.

RICE: Thank you.

PAUL: Hope that that can translate to other communities and we can finally get through some of this. So we appreciate you, Connie. Thank you. RICE: You're welcome.

PAUL: All right. Moving on here.

In a few days we could be in the middle, yes, another government shutdown, people.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And we're not talking New Year's Eve or New Year's Day -- just a few days, less than a week. What lawmakers can do to avoid this one -- coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Again, again politicians are threatening to shut down the government; caught in the crosshairs this time, the President's action on immigration. Let's talk about this with CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican strategist and contributor to Real News on BlazeTV Tara Setmayer.

I want to start with you, Tara. Good morning to both of you. Let's start there

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning Victor.

TARA SETMAYER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: I want to start with you, Tara. Do you believe that this is the appropriate retaliation for the President's executive action and will Republicans work to shut down the government if this is not repealed or overturned?

SETMAYER: Well, let's get something straight here. Republicans cannot shut down the government. The Republicans do not control both Houses of Congress, they don't control the Senate, they don't control the White House so we need to be clear here that it's not Republicans shutting down anything.

What's happening is that the President of the United States has taken unconstitutional executive action to give amnesty to almost five million people in this country. Now, however you feel about that we can argue that all the way to the courts and back but what's happening in the next couple of weeks is we need to fund the government.

Now, the Republicans have bills coming up where they are happy to pass in the House, 11 of 12 spending bills, and they will go over to the Senate, the Senate has to vote on them. The one spending bill that they are not willing to do right now because they are in discussions is over the Department of Homeland Security which governs the immigration policy that the President is trying to shove down the throats of the American people and that needs to have a discussion.

Republicans are simply saying we're not going to fund these unilateral actions by the President of the United States and if he wants to do this, let's have a conversation and let it got through the proper process which is through the House of Representatives and the Senate and passed through the legislative branch. BLACKWELL: We're seeing Ted Cruz cross over to the House Republicans

and we're hearing from some House Republicans that Ted Cruz needs to stay in the Senate. Maria, what do you think? Shoved down the throats of the American people.

CARDONA: No. Of course not. This is the President taking action when the House of Representatives has epically failed to do so when they have a bipartisan bill that would fix this immigration system which majority of Americans agree needs to be done. It's sitting in the House of Representatives now, and the House of Representatives and John Boehner has refused to take it to a vote so the President is taking action.

What is happening -- and let's be very clear here -- is that the Republicans are in a box. They have no idea how to respond to what the President has done, in fixing the immigration system in a sensible way. So you have the extreme voices, including speaker Cruz, I mean sorry, Senator Ted Cruz who would like to be speaker and act like speaker, who frankly, was the one who led the government shutdown last year.

So let's be very clear, the Republicans can shut down the government. They did shut down the government in 2013 and paid a huge political price for it and they are now twisting in the wind to try to avoid it at all costs.

BLACKWELL: Now let me --

SETMAYER: I'm not sure what huge political price.

BLACKWELL: Hold on.

SETMAYER: I'm sorry -- go ahead. I just want to say the huge political price -- we had a landslide victory in the midterm elections.

BLACKWELL: And that's where I was going to go.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: What was the huge political price?

Maria you say that the Republicans are in a box. Has the President not put himself in a box jeopardizing anything he wants to get done in the next couple years with this new Congress by signing this executive action? Isn't he the one in the box here?

CARDONA: No. Absolutely not because again, he moved forward to try to solve a problem that the majority of the American people knows they know needs to be solved and want their leaders to solve it. The House of Representatives has had a year and a half to bring up this bill, or frankly, to bring up their own bill if they didn't like the senate bill and they have failed to do so.

Moving forward it is absolutely up to the Republicans to figure out whether they want to essentially act like children, kindergartners, and take their toys home -- take their toys and go home or prove to the American people that they can actually govern. And what's been so interesting is polls right after the midterm elections and you see that the majority of the American people already believe that having Republicans control both Houses of Congress is bad for the country and the majority of them think that the only thing that we can expect is more gridlock.

BLACKWELL: Go ahead Tara.

SETMAYER: Well, first of all, the President of the United States does not get to rule by fiat because he is out of patience with what the legislative branch is doing. According to our constitution we have separation of powers and that the President cannot just go ahead decide because he's annoyed now with the Republicans that he's going to make law in this country. That's not how our system works.

I'm sorry if the President doesn't like that. I'm sorry if you don't like the way that our system works but that's what the constitution says. So the American people need to understand the way the process works. You don't rule because you'll just decide to make laws because you feel like it. That's not the way it works. That's number one.

Number two --

CARDONA: And that's not what the President is doing.

SETMAYER: That is exactly what he is doing. Number two, the American people are not exactly 100 percent on board with what the President has done. The Quinnipiac poll just came out that shows that the support for what the President has done has dropped 10 percent; it's under 50 percent. The American people are not in favor of doing it this way.

We can have a constructive debate, discussion, on how to approach fixing immigration, but this is not way to do it. That's why the American people overwhelmingly voted Republican --

CARDONA: So why have Republicans haven't had that constructive conversation the last year and a half Tara?

BLACKWELL: We've got to cut the conversation there.

CARDONA: They have failed.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Maria Cardona.

SETMAYER: Well guess what -- Republicans have taken over now --

BLACKWELL: Tara Setmayer -- I have never in my life. We've done this segment every week and it's never come to that. and I apologize for that. I tried to get in.

CARDONA: Thanks Victor.

SETMAYER: You're welcome.

Maria Cardona and Tara Setmayer, thank you so much. Clearly we don't schedule enough time for these segments. I wanted to get to the economy with 321,000 jobs out of November. Thank you both.

PAUL: And they still had smiles on their faces when it was all over too.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Because they know they'll be back tomorrow or next week.

PAUL: All right. College football star Jameis Winston in the spotlight again today. Not only is he about to lead his team in a conference championship game but he's facing an investigation that could get him kicked out of school.

We have a live report for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right, folks.

Tonight the red-hot Florida State Seminoles hoping to extend their impressive win streak to 29. Not just win the ACC championship but possibly clinch a spot in the college football playoffs, of course.

BLACKWELL: Of course all eyes will be on the quarterback Jameis Winston who is facing possible penalties even expulsion from the university over allegations he sexually assaulted a female student on campus.

Andy Scholes is live in Charlotte with the latest. As big of a game as this is, Andy, are Winston's off-the-field issues even overshadowing the ACC championship?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Well, Christi and Victor, I wouldn't say it's overshadowing the game. But, you know, that's Winston's off-the- field issue. That's a big topic of discussion out here in Charlotte right now. You know, Winston, he spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday in a student code of conduct hearing and in that hearing Winston gave a graphic statement of what he said happened on the night of the alleged sexual assault two years ago.

Now, we're not expecting a decision from the hearing any time soon. It's probably not going to come until some time in January. You would think that hanging over Winston's head -- that distraction along with having to spend so much time in the hearing would have really hurt his preparation for today's ACC championship game but that's not the case.

Head coach Jimbo Fisher, he moved the team's practices to the evenings to accommodate Winston this week and he said Winston had a great week of practice. You know, off the field issues, they are nothing new for Florida State. They've been dealing with them for two years. In that time they built a nation best 28-game winning streak.

Yesterday I asked Coach Fisher why is his team so good at blocking out all of the off the field distractions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMBO FISHER, COACH, FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES: There are only so many things you can focus on. There's only so many things in life you can control. And I think this is a formula for life. This isn't just a formula for winning football games. Because there's going to be things in your life you can't control. How you deal with them and how you approach them and control what you can control to keep your mind focused on the next task at hand. And I think those are life lessons that we try to teach them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: So Winston and Florida State have to beat Georgia Tech today in the ACC championship if they want to make it into the inaugural four-team playoff.

Here's what it looks like right. Florida State in it right now at Number 4. Oregon beat Arizona last night in the PAC-12 championship so they pretty much guaranteed themselves a spot. But we could have chaos later today, guys. If Alabama were to lose to Missouri that means no SEC team would make it into the four-team playoff. Then, of course, you've got the whole Baylor/TCU debate. So that new playoff committee that they put together really is going to have their hands full come tomorrow to make these decisions especially if we see some upsets later on today.

PAUL: Good point. All right Andy Scholes, have fun today. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Quite simply a war zone if you especially ask the people who live there and what we're seeing on the ground now. Much of Kobani, Syria has been reduced to rubble. ISIS wants control but so does five other armies. We'll take you there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: We've been watching this tragic story of lives in rubble and a city in ruins for weeks now. Kobani, Syria -- it's been under siege by ISIS militants for months and now half a dozen armies are involved.

BLACKWELL: Nick Paton Walsh brings us a rare -- really rare look inside in this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Through this wreckage lies a riddle that has the Kurds defending Kobani terrified. On Saturday ISIS launched a surprise attack using suicide car bombs and dozens of fighters on this, the official crossing into Turkey.

They say the fighters shot at them from behind a grain silo that lies just inside Turkey which Turkey denies. The attack shown here was repelled but only just. (on camera): Behind me is the grain silo where the Kurds say ISIS were able to take up positions and shoot at them, launching an attack on this border crossing here. Interestingly now, there always was a Turkish flag flying above that grain silo. It's now conspicuously absent.

(voice over): They are preparing for a repeat hardening in animosity toward Turkey, this just reinforcing their belief that Turkey let ISIS jihadis cross into Syria in the first place months ago.

"This is our homeland", he says. "What is ISIS doing here? All that came from Turkey. Turkey is behind all of this. Their own people give them weapons. I saw it with my own eyes."

They also claim the huge car bomb behind this crater drove in from Turkey, which Turkey also denies. The caterpillar tracks lying around suggest it was in fact a tank car bomb -- unstoppable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Thank you so much to Nick Paton Walsh for the report there.

BLACKWELL: That's it for us. We'll see you back here at 10:00 a.m. Eastern in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PAUL: Yes. But don't go anywhere. "SMERCONISH" starts for you right now.