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CNN NEWSROOM

ISIS Threat Looms; Ken Feinberg to Announce GM Death Toll; Ray Rice to Appeal Indefinite Suspension; Fans Show Support for Rice and Peterson; Apple Users Ticked at Free U2 Album

Aired September 15, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: America's top diplomat is in Paris. Secretary of State John Kerry comes together with other world leaders today to tackle the threat posed by ISIS. They convened an international conference after the terror group posted video over the weekend showing them beheading British aid worker David Haines. He's the third westerner executed by ISIS in just weeks.

So let's talk about what to do about ISIS. Joining me now, Ron Christie, former specialist assistance to President George W. Bush, and John Avlon, CNN political analyst and editor in chief at "The Daily Beast."

Welcome to both of you.

RON CHRISTIE, FORMER SPECIAL ASST., PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning and thank you for being here.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, John, Senator Lindsey Graham leveling sharp criticism at the White House over its strategy on ISIS. Here's some of what Senator Graham had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is a war we're fighting. It is not a counterterrorism operation. This is not Somalia. This is not Yemen. This is a turning point in the war on terror. Our strategy will fail yet again. This president needs to rise to the occasion before we all get killed back here at home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So that's kind of scary, John. Was -- is Senator Graham overreacting? Is he right?

AVLON: Well, all getting killed is perhaps an exaggeration. But keep in mind that President Obama's getting criticized by some folks, particularly on the left, for getting back into Iraq in the first place. Look, Lindsey Graham is a consistent hawk in the war on terror, along with John McCain. ISIS is a different kind of threat than we have faced, attempting (ph) to establishing a caliphate state. And we've learned during the past 13 years that it's a good idea to take terrorists at their word. It's a version (ph) of an old lesson. They've said, I'll see you in New York. They've said they want to take the fight to us. But I think, you know, the idea that they can annihilate the United States magically from the caliphate in the short order probably isn't accurate.

COSTELLO: And, Ron, the "The Washington Post" also took -- had a different take on this. They reported that U.S. officials are uncertain about the threat of ISIS here at home. Something CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen addressed this weekend. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So I think we need to kind of create -- have some perspective here about the level of threat, particularly in the United States, which I think is relatively low. The threat to countries like France and Britain and Belgium, that's certainly higher.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Ron, ISIS is a threat to Americans overseas, but maybe not so directly here at home. So why this rhetoric from Senator Graham?

CHRISTIE: Well, I think we do have a very serious threat here at home, Carol. When you have Americans who are traveling abroad on U.S. passports, when you have EU member nation citizens who are traveling over there and then they're returning to Europe, they're returning to America, you say to yourself, it could be anybody. It's not just that they're over there. It could be anybody.

But for me being a lawyer, here's my perspective on this. We need to figure out what we're getting into and how we're going to get out, similar to what General Petraeus said 10 years ago. What exactly is our strategy? What is the president's vision? And how does he intend to win and how do we intend to get out of this?

COSTELLO: But, see, I totally, completely agree with that. But with rhetoric like, oh they're coming to kill us right now it's -- and the American people growing increasingly afraid of that, isn't it difficult, John, to sit back and have a, you know, a dispassionate conversation about what exactly we should do?

AVLON: Well, that's our responsibility. You're going to have (INAUDIBLE) on either side in the worst possible situation. Remember, terrorism is always one bad day away from being the number one issue in America. And this is a continuous threat we've seen now taking new shape. But I do think we need to view it with a sense of perspective to realize it's danger. Remember, the administration initially dismissed ISIS as saying, you know, just because you wear -- put on a Lakers jersey doesn't mean you're Kobe Bryant. Now the president takes this threat very seriously and attention has been gotten with the beheading of two American journalists and now one British aid workers. So this threat should be taken seriously. But it doesn't help when you blow it out of proportion because then it looks like it's no threat at all and they're just a bunch of fear mongers out to riel up and push their own agenda. This is a real threat but I think you actually do a disservice to the cause of confronting it by exaggerating it.

COSTELLO: Ron, you're nodding.

CHRISTIE: I am nodding. And they're at war with us, Carol. I mean whether or not the president and the folks in his administration want to call this a war, they're at war with us. And one other thing I'd point out is, remember the War Power Resolution. The president notified Congress on August 8th of his intentions. He has until October 7th to either go to Congress and have a formal declaration of war or he has 30 days to withdraw troops. What's he going to do? We still haven't heard him say war even though he's evoked the War Powers Resolution.

COSTELLO: We'll keep listening.

CHRISTIE: We'll keep listening. (INAUDIBLE).

COSTELLO: Ron Christie, John Avlon, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the death toll from a faulty GM ignition switch is expected to rise later this morning. Coming up next, we'll talk about what this means to GM and to the victims.

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COSTELLO: Later this morning, attorney Kenneth Feinberg will announce how many deaths and injuries he has linked so far to General Motors faulty ignition switches. Publicly, GM has linked 54 accidents and 13 deaths to the defect, but government regulators, they believe those figures were -- are much higher. So let's bring in CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Good morning, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So what will Mr. Feinberg say?

ROMANS: Well, he's likely going to tell us how many claims he's got -- it's been over 100 by now -- and how many he are says are deaths. We know GM has long said 13. It's expected -- widely expected that he's going to unveil even more cases that he thinks resulted in deaths of people who were driving GM cars.

COSTELLO: And so when you talk about what kind of compensation these families will get.

ROMANS: It's so interesting because Ken Feinberg has done with World Trade Center, with the Boston bombings, also with BP. So he has a long history in being able to sort of measure what a life is worth in this kind of a tragedy and what GM will have to pay. So what it looks like, it will be $1 million per victim, per fatality, plus $300,000 per spouse and child. And then there will be some sort of formula he'll use, which will be extra, for earnings potential. So $1 million baseline for what we expect will be more than 13 people who were killed in these cars.

COSTELLO: Of course the outstanding question is, how many families will accept this compensation package, right?

ROMANS: Absolutely. Because if you accept this compensation package, Carol, you are waiving your right to sue GM. And a judge is still -- a bankruptcy judge still has to determine what to do with the families who say they are not going to take this deal. They are outraged and they want to make sure that GM pays -- or at least has to pay in a court of law. Because, remember, in its bankruptcy, when the old GM became the new GM and the government helped turn this company around and it was bailed out, it left all of its liability back in that old shell company. So a bankruptcy judge is going to have to decide if that's going to stand.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, with all the controversy surrounding the NFL these days, some fans continue to stand by players even if they're accused of some pretty despicable acts. When is enough, enough? We'll take a look at that next.

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COSTELLO: Ray Rice is fighting back with an appeal. ESPN and profootball.com are reporting Rice with the help of the NFL Players Association, will appeal his indefinite suspension. They say his punishment amounts to double jeopardy, in other words, the NFL can't hand down one punishment only to rescind it and institute a harsher punishment.

In the meantime, Rice along with his wife Janay, and his little girl, and his mother, showed up at his old high school in New Rochelle, New York, to watch a football game, perhaps the first step to repair his image. Yes, there was plenty of love from fans. Many in attendance wore Rice jerseys.

For that matter, there were plenty of Adrian Peterson jerseys at the Minnesota game. Peterson, a star running back himself, turned himself into police for child abuse. Police say he used a tree branch or switch to beat his 4-year-old son. Authorities say the whipping caused the boy to bleed. Fans, like this woman, did not care. She carried a switch to the game and was pretending to beat people while tailgating.

But NFL Hall of Famer, Cris Carter, is fed up with the controversy and says the only way to get players to take this seriously is to take them off the field. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRIS CARTER: NFL HALL OF FAMER: You can't beat a kid to make them do what they want to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct. Thank you.

CARTER: Thousands of things we have learned since then. Now we're to the point, the only thing I'm proud about is the team that I played for, they did the right thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

CARTER: Take him off the field. I don't care. We're in a climate right now. I don't care what it is. Take them off the dang field. As a man, that's the only thing we really respect. We don't respect no women. We don't respect no kids. The only thing Roger and them do, take them off the field. They respect that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: As I said, many fans remain on Peterson's side. And it's hard to fathom for many fans. How can some fans be so devoted to a player that it doesn't matter what they're accused of? Even if the alleged crime is child abuse. Maybe we're too into football. Maybe we've just been brainwashed by the NFL.

So let's talk about that. With me now, psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere, and CNN's Nischelle Turner, welcome to both of you. Okay so, Dr. Jeff, I just want to start with this woman who brought a switch to the game and beat people during her tailgating celebration. What was up with her?

DR. JEFF GARDERE. HOST, VH1'S "DAD CAMP": Well I think two things are going on. One, there are people who feel their rights as parents are being infringed upon when someone is indicted or arrested for disciplining their children. This is more than disciplining in the Peterson case, this was child abuse, we know it. No ifs, ands or buts about that.

COSTELLO: Well, he hasn't gone through the court process yesterday so it's alleged.

GARDERE: Well, alleged. The other part of that, of course, is the hero worship. There's this thing that we call cognitive dissonance in psychology where our minds are on track with a person we may admire and it's difficult for us to live with the dual thoughts that this person, who we admire, who's this hero on the field, can actually be someone who can hurt a child or hurt a woman or do something so inappropriate and in this case so heinous.

COSTELLO: Well I think maybe the NFL, Nischelle, has done a great job in making these players into heroes. They've brainwashed us into buying in --

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Brainwashed, well --

COSTELLO: Buying into the fact that a football player can be a hero is strange anyway if you really think about it.

TURNER: Well there is a lot to it. And by the way, with that woman, the word fan is derived from fanatic so there are those crazies out there. When I saw that picture I said really, lady? Just press pause for one second. But second of all, I think there is something to this hero worship mentality because the networks, all of them that have sports packages, do a great job of this because we have these people who are just like us, they're humans but can do these superhuman things. We see them leap across courts, we see them slam balls, we see them collide into one another. We see them get up, we see them throw balls 70 yards and to us that's, like, wow, kind of that fantasy thing that we see that we buy into. So, yes, there is the whole fan worshipping thing to it.

GARDERE: But it is a fantasy. It's a fantasy to think of a person as being a one trick pony. These are human beings. Chris Carter is absolutely correct. We need to take these players off the field. The missing part of that is we need to get them therapy, because these are complex individuals who have their own emotional issues, that in the case of Peterson, I believe, is being acting - allegedly -- acted out towards a child. This is a man whose son died because of child abuse. How can you do something like that with your own -- with another child of yours and we're talking about a four-year-old.

COSTELLO: We'll get into that in just a second because I posted this question, is the NFL brainwashing us into loving players too much and I got such great responses on Facebook and Twitter. From Steve, it's about winning. Who cares what they do off the field, as long as they perform on the field? Rob, brainwashing? I think it's called marketing. This from Anthony, we put these players on a pedestal. They're human and guess what, humans make mistakes.

GARDERE: Which is why they need therapy.

TURNER: I think there's another aspect to this and I believe it's the fantasy football aspect, too, because there's a bottom line to all of it. As fans we get into fantasy football, we make money off of what they do on the field. If they're not on the field, we get into these leagues. All we want to see, I heard guys yesterday say, I don't care anything about their personal life, I just care about what they do on the field. That's because we're invested in on the field for them in so many different ways.

COSTELLO: That's sick, though? Isn't it kind of sick?

GARDERE: Absolutely, but what we're not looking at as fans, or fanatics, as you've said in a very correct manner, by the way, is this whole idea, the complexity of the player. The NFL, the NBA. These organizations actually want their players to get involved in the community, to be mentors, and that's the other part that we have to look at and where the organization -- specifically in this case the NFL --

COSTELLO: They run promos during the game, the players going out to kids.

GARDERE: Absolutely. They need to be honest. So there needs to be, yes, you can make them heroes. That's great. It's wonderful for our children, wonderful for the fans but also keep it real. If they do something that's wrong, you have to sanction, you have to discipline and get them help because they are human beings and not just one- dimensional superheroes.

COSTELLO: Dr. Jeff, Nischelle Turner, thanks so much, I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Hey, it sounds good to me. But, Apple did more than surprise the world last week when they gave away the new U2 album to all iTunes users for free. Guess what? It really ticked off a lot of people. Seriously. It showed up on their play list without their permission.

CNN's Samuel Burke joins us now with more on this. So people were upset? It's U2!

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, no good deed goes unpunished, Carol. I was on the treadmill this week and suddenly I heard this song and I said who is this? I checked my playlist and U2 is on there. I knew they were giving it away for free. I didn't know they were forcing it on you for free, so I checking Google and Twitter to see what people were searching, and a lot of the searches were who is U2? Because so many young people didn't even know who U2 was. In fact, let me show you a tweet from one person. This guy on twitter wrote, who the heck is U2 and why are they in my music library? People just didn't know who they were. It's in there.

COSTELLO: Tell about your call to your mom and what she said to you.

BURKE: I told my mom just what I told you, she hung up on me and she texted me and said, you're not very respectful of middle-aged people. So there you see right there, if you type in who in Twitter, the first thing that pops up is who is U2?

COSTELLO: I'm with your mom, Samuel, sorry. So how can you get it off your phone?

BURKE: That's the other thing people have a problem with, is they don't know how to delete it just from their phone. So you have to go into Music, and swipe left to delete it. You just swipe left. But you have to do it song by song. And then it stays in the Cloud, so I think Apple has another case of the Cloud, because you remember what happened with the hacked photos, and people are saying it's popping up again, so there you go.

But one thing to note, Apple just talked about the sales of the first iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, 4 million phones in 24 hours preordered. Their stock is up; it looks good for iPhone 6 even if it doesn't look so great for Cloud.

COSTELLO: All is well in the end, at least for Apple. Samuel Burke, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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