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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Obama Readies to ISIS Strategy; Obama to Delay Executive Action on Immigration; Parents Worried Over New Enterovirus

Aired September 8, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Taking aim at ISIS terrorists, President Obama gets set to outline his strategy. We're going to take a look at what you can expect.

Then hundreds of children sick, 10 states asking the CDC for help in dealing with a sudden viral outbreak. What you need to know to protect your family.

And how about this? Another little bundle of joy for the royal couple, Buckingham Palace makes it official. The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting again.

Those stories and so much more ahead @THISHOUR. Hi there, I'm Michaela. Good morning to all of you watching this morning. John Berman is off today.

We want to get straight to the strategy in the battle against is. Americans want to know if the U.S. is going to go to war against that terrorist organization. President Obama two weeks ago had said he did not have a strategy to defeat ISIS. Now he does.

The plan involves three stages. First, the air strike campaign that's already under way against ISIS targets in Iraq. Then would come a ground offensive focusing on training and arming Iraqi and Kurdish forces, perhaps even Sunni militias. The third phase is more of a tricky one going after ISIS, the ISIS network inside Syria.

We got some details from President Obama on "Meet the Press."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I want people to understand, though, is that over the course of months we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL, we are going systematically degrade their capabilities, we're going to shrink the territory that they control, and ultimately, we're going to defeat them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Listen to those words, "blunt," "systematically," interesting.

Joining us from Washington, Douglas Ollivant, he is joining us. Here we go. Obviously we have two guests with us. I've got both of you on either side here. Let me make sure I introduce you properly -- senior vice president at Mantid International.

William McCants also joins us. He's a fellow at the Center for Middle East Policy and director of the Brookings Project on U.S. relations with the Islamic world. Good to have you both with us -- with me, I suppose.

So let's start with you, Douglas. We know the president has ruled out boots on the ground. Some are going to wonder, is that feasible and it is a winning strategy?

DOUGLAS OLLIVANT, NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION: Well, it's certainly feasible and, more importantly, it's politically necessary, both, obviously, in the United States, but also in Iraq. There's just no political appetite, even now, for U.S. boots on the ground.

So this is the right strategy. We're going to see something moving forward, more or less on the Libya model, with local forces providing the ground forces and the United States providing its strengths -- air power, planning, intelligence, reconnaissance synchronization from the back office, so to speak, in Baghdad and at their MOD in embassy Baghdad.

PEREIRA: So he says no political appetite. William, we know the president is set to speak Wednesday night, happens to be the day before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It will be fresh in many people's minds.

What are you hoping to hear from him?

WILLIAM MCCANTS, FOUNDER, JIHADICA.COM: Well, I would like to hear a strategy that goes beyond Iraq. Iraq, even though it's going to be quite complicated, believe it or not, is the easy part of this operation.

The difficult part is going to be the game plan in Syria. The U.S. administration has been working for years to try and corral its allies in the region to prosecute a war in Syria.

The president has been disinterested at times, engaged at times, and now has to come up with a real strategy for empowering the Sunni rebels on the ground in their fight against ISIS.

And he'll have to determine if he wants to empower them enough to overthrow the Assad regime.

PEREIRA: Talk about that, Doug, a little bit, because we know that there has been reluctance on the part of some potential supporters internationally, a part of a coalition of international players.

There's reluctance on their part to embark on some sort of ground offensive or any sort of air strike attack in Syria. It sounds as though it's the most difficult task.

How dangerous would bit for the U.S. to launch a bombing campaign inside Syria?

OLLIVANT: Well, I think a bombing campaign is both necessary and can be done carefully, but Will is absolutely right. The politics inside Syria are so much more complex.

The force we would really hope we would use to engage ISIS, that of the Syrian regime, is simply politically impossible for us to use, and our preferred partner, the Free Syrian Army, just doesn't have the military capacity to take the fight to ISIS.

It can defend itself, and that's not nothing. They are a partner in defending their enclaves against ISIS, but in terms of pushing into -- against ISIS in a real way and taking the offense, that's not going to happen.

PEREIRA: We talk about the Arab players and the Arab nations and the need for them to come to this fight and come to the aid here.

What is your assessment, Will, of why there's been such reluctance on the part of various Arab nations to step in and join?

MCCANTS: Well, they've been engaged for a long time. They've been waiting for United States to get involved. But a lot of Arab countries and turkey are not on the same page in terms of strategy.

Turkey has been allowing Islamist militants to come across their borders into Syria. Saudi Arabia has been working to fund more nationalist-oriented groups. It's worried about blowback. Qatar had been funding Muslim Brotherhood groups or groups associated with the ultraconservative ideology of wahhabism.

None of them have been on the same page. and the real trick going forward from the Obama administration is to get them on the same page because you're not going to have an effective fighting force against the Islamic state unless you do.

PEREIRA: And that's a good point. And not to oversimplify it, Doug, but it's not as though you just the good guys versus bad guys. It's not that simple.

OLLIVANT: Not at all. We have lots of flavors of bad here, and what Will was pointing out is that it's not clear that our allies, still at this point, think that ISIS is a greater threat or a more real danger than the Assad regime.

And if forced to choose between empowering a force that attacks the Assad regime and empowering a force that attacks ISIS, it's not entirely clear ISIS is their first priority.

PEREIRA: Will, play -- pretend you've got a crystal ball. What do you see happening? Where do you sense we'll be six months to a year from now on this?

MCCANTS: I think United States will still be engaged in its fight against the Islamic state. This is not an entity that's going to die easily. It will die eventually because it has made enemies on all sides, but ultimately, the United States and its allies have to decide what they want the outcome to be in Syria, and that will shape a lot of their policy.

Do they want to arm the Sunni rebels just enough to defeat the Islamic state, or do they want them to defeat the Assad regime? Those are two, very different things.

PEREIRA: William McCants, Douglas Ollivant, really a pleasure to have you speak with me @THISHOUR. Thanks so much for joining me.

OLLIVANT: Thank you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Ahead @THISHOUR, the president acting on ISIS, but waiting on immigration, big issue in our country.

What happened to those strong words about executive action to deal with that border crisis? We'll have that conversation next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: I've learned one thing about this president, and that is he's very cautious, maybe in this instance too cautious.

I want to congratulate the president. He is now on the offense.

REPRESENTATIVE MIKE ROGERS (R), MICHIGAN: This is the toughest talk that we've heard from the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: @THISHOUR, a busy week is shaping up for the president and for Congress. You've got the president preparing to unveil his strategy against ISIS. Republican leaders expect to meet with White House officials to discuss, obviously, this important, pressing issue.

There is also likely to be some back-and-forth this week about immigration, the president announcing over the weekend that he won't take any executive action on the issue until after the midterm elections.

We've got a team here to discuss it all. Our political commentator Sally Kohn is next to me. Doug Heye is a former official with the RNC, also former House majority leader Eric Cantor's deputy chief of staff.

Hello and happy Monday, team. How are you doing?

DOUG HEYE, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF TO ERIC CANTOR: Happy Monday.

PEREIRA: Nice to see you both.

Here we go. Let's start with the ISIS plan. We'll run through a couple of topics. Doug, I'll start with you.

I want to know in your estimation what you think the president needs to say Wednesday. We know he's been criticized from both sides, not doing enough, not doing enough sooner.

What does he need to say to quiet those critics?

HEYE: He needs to be clear and consistent and specific. What is the plan of action in Syria? What is the plan of action in Iraq?

If we're going to rule out ground troops, which is something that it seems the president is going to do, what are the next steps to ensure that that then doesn't happen?

And, also, one of the things David Cameron has done specifically very well is address what happens if you're fighting for ISIS and you're from Britain. The president needs to say the same thing about American ISIS fighters and what's he's going to do with them.

And that's where you'll see bipartisan support, hopefully. Congress wants to work with the president on this issue

PEREIRA: Agreed or not? I can't imagine you agree. And then I want to ask you a separate question.

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, a lot of the critics we're hearing what the president has done are the people who won't be happy until there are boots on the ground and we are in another full- fledged war.

And let's be clear. He has taken action. We have military strikes. He is working to fix the broken Iraqi government. He's built a coalition that has imposed sanctions and other pressure that is causing Putin now to reluctantly but forcing him to back down.

So to say the president hadn't done anything is just to ignore the facts on the ground, and if we don't think he's serious about terrorism, go ask bin Laden how that worked out.

HEYE: By the way, I don't think anybody has said that about the president. You ran on the bottom of the screen earlier Mike Rogers said that he would support the president.

Devin Nunes, who's a real all-star in the House Republican conference, possibly the next intel chairman, says he doesn't think the president needs any authorization to kill terrorists. Those are two Republicans supportive of the president.

KOHN: I'm not talking about the authorization piece. I'm talking about the general sort of characterization of the president not taking action, of the president being weak, of the president failing to lead.

And I'm saying that ignores the fact that he is doing things, he is taking action, he is getting results. Look at -- we have promising potential to do something about Iran's nuclear program because of the president's leadership. Again, I think the critics are just surprisingly going to criticize anything.

HEYE: But two of those critics are California Democrats, Dianne Feinstein and Jane Harmon, who are both pretty big experts on this issue.

KOHN: And who love themselves some war.

HEYE: I don't think anybody loves war, Sally, come on,

KOHN: Yeah, but come on. They are hawks, by any account of that definition.

And, look, the reality is that the American people have seen what happens when we rush into military conflict. We have seen it doesn't work, right? We've been there and done that under Republican leadership. It just made terrorism worse. It's cost American lives. It didn't make Iraq any safer either.

We want to see something different, and I think what we're seeing is the White House following the lead of the American people who are really questioning what role the United States should play in these global conflicts if it doesn't mean always rushing to war.

PEREIRA: OK, let's stop on this topic and move on to immigration because obvious they is something that is certainly making news.

The president saying no executive action on immigration until after the midterms, take a listen to what he had to say on "Meet the Press."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: What I'm saying is that I'm going to act because it's the right thing for the country, but it's going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we've done on unaccompanied children, and why it's necessary.

And, you know, the truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: So, Doug, the president just a few months ago had said he would take executive action because of the amount of children, the surge of children from Central America, overwhelming border facilities.

But yet now, waiting rather until after midterm elections, we're back to nothing new here, essentially status quo, no?

HEYE: I spent two and a half years in the House of Representatives as a staffer, listening to House Republicans being accused of delaying all immigration reform. But what we see is the President has a real pattern for delaying things. I read a great Politico probe and one of the real things that Congress, staffers, and members look at for resources that said a brief history of Obamacare delays. What we've seen from this President is a that if voters don't like it, the President's going to punt it until after the election, and if you're a vulnerable Democrat like Kay Hagan, or Mary Landrieu, or Mark Pryor this is a cynical election year gift for you.

PEREIRA: So wait, if the President --

KOHN: Wait, you actually just criticized the President for delaying doing something that Republicans don't want him to do? I just -- This is like a perfect encapsulation of the farce of Republican politics right now.

Let's be clear about one thing. We would have immigration reform right now in America, immigration reform that the vast majority of Americans, including Republicans, support if House Speaker Republican John Boehner had simply allowed a vote. There was enough votes, including among Republicans, to pass it. Also, by the way, sourced by Politico. So we wouldn't even be having this discussion if Republicans had shown leadership.

PEREIRA: But the fact is we are. So now it's being delayed until after the midterm election. He's not going to take executive orders, so he's suggesting what? He's going to work with Congress? That's a lesson in futility, is it not?

KOHN: This reflects this larger trend on the part of Democrats who are often sort of cowed into this timidity, right? To not just take bold action on the things that are popular with the American people.

And, look, on some level I'm sympathetic with the White House. Everything they do, even when it's popular with the American people, they are rooted to fail by this incredibly unprecedented vitriolic Republican party that just has never wanted to give this President a break. At the same time, look, we need to do something about this. The President is fully within his rights. He should be taking leadership and the Democrats have to stand for something for once for crying out loud.

PEREIRA: I will leave it at that. Because I think, Doug, you won't disagree that.

HEYE: No, I can't fault Republicans for Obama delaying things yet again.

PEREIRA: Sally Kohn, Doug Heye, good to have you with us. Thank you so much, appreciate you joining me @THISHOUR.

Ahead, for the second time this year, can you believe this is happening? An NBA owner in hot water for making racially charged comments, now a certain hall of famer is actually defending owner Bruce Levenson, saying the Hawks owner is not racist, rather he is a businessman. We'll discuss it all.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTFIED MALE: Our pediatric floor is full of patients with pretty severe respiratory distress.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: To go from a cold to, you know, being in probably minutes away from death is -- that's kind of scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Scary, indeed. A whole lot of concern in the Midwest and the southeast as hundreds of children are getting very sick very fast. Parents are really worried about the severe respiratory bug which is a strain of the Enterovirus.

Our Elizabeth Cohen tells us what this virus is and what it does.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For this teenager, it was a near death experience.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: White as ghost, blue lips, he just passed out. Had his eyes roll back in his head and I had to call 911.

COHEN: The culprit Enterovirus D-68. So far, ten states have asked the Centers for Disease Control for help. There are no official numbers nationwide but one hospital in metro Denver reported treating about 900 children for severe respiratory illness. 86 of them have been hospitalized.

And at this hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, more than 400 children have been admitted with the signs of the virus. Of those, 60 have been in intensive care.

All of this in less than one month. An official for the Centers for Disease Control said these cases might be just the tip of the iceberg.

Why is this type of enterovirus, which was first identified in the 1960s, gotten so out of hand this year?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Why one virus or another crops up is inexplicable. It's a mystery to me.

COHEN: But he does have some good news, enteroviruses usually aren't deadly.

SCHAFFNER: The fortunate thing is, they'll get better.

COHEN: The virus can start as just a cold; some children develop a rash and difficulty breathing.

SCHAFFNER: This can happen fairly rapidly, so don't dawdle. If you really think your child is sick, it's time to call.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: This is kind of frightening stuff. We want to find out more about this virus and the threat it poses with our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Thanks so much for joining me. I think so many parents with their kids going back to school, they hear this and the fact that children are ending up in the ICU, it's really concerning. So break it down with me. This Enterovirus, it's not rare but this strain of it is, correct?

COHEN (on camera): Right, Enteroviruses are everywhere, Michaela, you probably in your life had a summer cold at some point.

PEREIRA: Just last month.

COHEN: There you go. That was probably an Enterovirus. So usually it's not a big deal and people don't end up in the hospital, but this type, this D-68, it can cause major respiratory problems and that's why we're seeing, like this child here, children who need to be on bronco dilators to open up their lungs. Children who need to be on oxygen. Some of these children are ending up on ventilators to breathe for them. That's how bad it's getting. So it's this type of Enterovirus that's not really rare but it is pretty unusual. We haven't seen a lot of it. It's been around since the '60s but it's not very, very common.

PEREIRA: And this bug was sort of discovered, if you will, hit kind of late August. Now kids are going back to school, they're with their pals and their friends. Could this be why it's spreading so quickly? Because kids are back with their pal?

COHEN: Right. What's interesting is this hit mid-August in a part of the country where kids go back to school in mid-August. My children went back to school August 13th here in Atlanta. So I know that that is strange for other parts of the country but in large parts of the Midwest and southeast children go back to school in the middle of August, and so you are absolutely right. If the virus is kind of out there hanging around and then you put a lot of kids into a relatively confined area, yes, this is what happens. And to add to that, this is the Enterovirus season. We think of the flu season as being in the winter. Well the Enterovirus season is in the late summer and early fall, so we're smack in the middle of it.

PEREIRA: Everybody's going to wonder what do we do? We can't keep our kids home from school. What kind of common sense things are you telling people do?

COHEN: I'm going to use a very medical term here. What you can do here is use your mom and dad antenna, that's what you can do. I know that is highly technical. But if your child has a cold and it looks like it's not a big deal you don't need to go running to the hospital, but keep an eye on your child and if you're feeling like, wow, this doesn't look right, they're having trouble breathing, or I see a rash, which of course isn't typical with the cold, then as the doctor in our piece said, don't dawdle.

Now to prevent it, do what you're seeing on the screen here. So you want to wash your hands, clean and disinfect surfaces. If someone is stick stay away from them, and stay home if you are sick so you don't get other people sick. But I will tell you, there's no foolproof way to avoid these. They spread pretty easily person to person.

PEREIRA: So concerning when you see something like 900 kids in Denver getting sick. It is concerning, but we'll use common sense and do what we can to take care of one another and especially our little ones.

COHEN: That's right.

PEREIRA: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much for that. Appreciate it.

For the second time this year, an NBA owner is in hot water for making comments that are racially charged. We're going to tell you about some of the support he's receiving from maybe an unlikely source. We'll talk about it.

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