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Obama to Meet with Congressional Leaders; Army in Hot Water Over Use of Word 'Negro' in Regulations; Ferguson Prepares for Grand Jury Decision

Aired November 6, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A dejected President Obama, grimly admitting defeat to Republicans.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, Republicans had a good night.

ACOSTA: There was no glossing over the bitter reality for Democrats.

OBAMA: They want to us get the job done. As president, I have a unique responsibility to try to make this town work.

ACOSTA: His party stung and in the minority. The president said he he's ready to compromise with Republicans on road repairs, reforming the tax code and brokering new trade deals. But just as quickly he says he's still going it alone on immigration reform.

OBAMA: I'm eager to see what they have to offer. But what I'm not going to do is just wait. My executive actions, not only do not prevent them from passing a law that supersedes those actions. But should be a spur for them to actually try to get something done.

ACOSTA: The vow to act is already pitting him against the new Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: It's like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, "If you guys don't do what I want, I'm going to do it on my own."

ACOSTA: Aides to Mr. Obama say the president is bullish about his final quarter in the White House, devising new ways to go around Congress to build up his legacy. And he's not letting the countdown clock stall his agenda.

(on camera): What do you make of the notion that you're now a lame duck?

OBAMA: I'm going to squeeze every last little bit of opportunity to help make this a world a better place over these last two years.

ACOSTA (voice-over): With a Republican-controlled Congress, making moves on those wishes won't be easy. Some critics say the president should get to know his rivals better over dinner or golf. With few allies left in power, he may be warming to the idea.

OBAMA: I would enjoy having some Kentucky bourbon with Mitch McConnell.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And the president will be meeting with 16 Democratic and Republican congressional leaders over here at the White House tomorrow. They'll have a big agenda on their hands. The president is calling on Congress for authorization for his war against ISIS and Ebola funding.

But get this, guy. Speaking of gridlock, already in "the Wall Street Journal" this morning, an op-ed from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- the incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner calling for repeal of Obamacare. That was something yesterday, Chris, that the president said he will not sign. That is not happening according to this president -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Early tactics, a little bit harsh on both sides. Jim Acosta, thank you very much.

All right. So what is the real chance that they can get along down there and do anything differently, despite what you just told them at the polls? Let's bring in one of the two independent senators, Senator Angus King of Maine.

Senator, always a pleasure to have you on NEW DAY. It is not an auspicious start to this new era of cooperation down there, the president saying, "I'll go it alone." That is waving a red flag in front of the Republicans, as you well know. Then they come back with an op-ed about Obama care being repealed. You know, that's a nonstarter also.

So give me some hope for optimism, Senator King. What is the best reason to believe things could be different?

SEN. ANGUS KING (I), MAINE: Well, I think you've got to always play the hand that's dealt you. And right now the hand that's dealt the president is a Republican Congress, and he's going to have to work through that.

And frankly, Chris, I think some of the big issues we're not going to be able to do, but I think there will be smaller things. And I don't know whether you consider this smaller, but I think there's a bipartisan group building to have some kind of congressional authorization of what the president is doing in the Middle East. I think that's important. I think that's our responsibility. And I think both sides think that's something that ought to happen. The president alluded to it yesterday.

Now I got to tell you, I agree with the Republicans on this executive action on immigration. I strongly support immigration reform. I voted for the bill. I worked on it. I think it's important for the country. But I don't think that the executive should try to do it by themselves when Congress can't act. I think it would set the cause back. I think you would end up with the -- with the Republicans reacting in some way, and ultimately, this is going to have to happen in the Congress.

If LBJ and Jack Kennedy had tried to do the Civil Rights Act unilaterally, I think it would have taken five or ten more years in the Congress to get it through. So I -- I'm one that believes that it would be a mistake for the president. I think Mitch McConnell was right. It would be waving a red flag in front of a bull. And I don't think, I think it would inflame the country and actually set the cause back. So I think that would be a big mistake.

On the other hand the Affordable Care Act is not going to be repealed. Everybody knows that. President still has the veto power. So if the Republicans spend a lot of time doing that, that kind of wastes everybody's time and effort, too.

So, you know, let's lay the things aside that we can't do and try to agree on the 50, 60, 70 or 80 percent of the things that we can do.

CUOMO: If the executive orders on immigration becomes a reality, and it does look like that very well could be, will you caucus with the Republicans?

KING: I don't think -- no, it wouldn't change caucusing. Listen caucusing is who you have lunch with on Tuesdays. Caucusing isn't joining the Republicans or joining the Democrats. You don't sign an oath or anything else. I decided yesterday it was best for Maine for me to caucus with the Democrats. It puts -- we have one senator in the Republican, one in the Democratic caucus; one in the Republican Party, one in the caucus that represents the president. I think that's good for Maine. I don't think -- that's really not the issue.

But I'm going to do what I've done all along, which is call them as I see them on an issue-by-issue basis. But I've got to tell you, and I've communicated this to the White House last summer, and it wasn't about the elections. It wasn't postpone doing something until after the elections. My position is, you know, the Constitution doesn't say if the Congress fails to act, then the president can do x, y and z. It just doesn't say that.

CUOMO: I'll tell you what, though, Senator. You're absolutely right...

KING: Power is vested in the Congress, and if the Congress doesn't do it, it's the president's job to figure out how to move them in that direction.

CUOMO: You're absolutely right. But what's interesting to me is why aren't you down in the Senate -- and I know you're not to blame for this. But you are a member of the Senate, so you've got to take the heat. You're not applying that same logic to the war debate. You know, you talk about executive orders on immigration.

KING: Oh, yes, I am.

CUOMO: No, you are. Senator, I'm not saying you're the problem. KING: I...

CUOMO: I'm not saying you're the problem. I'm saying why isn't that at the top of the agenda? There's a war going on. They let the president do whatever he wanted to there, when it's specifically in the Constitution that they declare war. That should be top of the agenda, no?

KING: Well, of course, you know there's -- there's a little selective memory here, or selective choice of issues on some. Ebola is a good example where, you know, the Republicans are saying, the president shouldn't act unilaterally on immigration, and too many executive orders. And then they're saying, "But wait a minute, we want the government to come in and start locking people up and quarantining them." You know it's a kind of -- there's a kind of a mixed message there.

And you're absolutely right. The -- the war is a place where Congress has a specific constitutional responsibility that we've been ducking, frankly, for something like 50 years, and it's time to reassert that. I think, you know, it's the old sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander argument.

CUOMO: Everybody is saying who knows what they're talking about, this is going to get worse in that region of the world. What's going on. That the coalition doesn't seem to have a good strategy, that what it means for the United States seems much more negative than we're being told here at home.

And I really wonder if you think that this Republican majority now will take on this issue, or are they afraid to be on the record with the American people, doing anything like endorsing what could go wrong in war?

KING: Well, you know, I think that's -- that's always a problem. And it's been a problem when the Democrats were in the majority, too. See Congress, Chris, you know what Congress does best?

CUOMO: Nothing.

KING: Second guess and criticize. That's not in the Constitution, but boy, that's something we're really good at.

But I think you're going to see people like John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who are -- who are agreeing that there has to be some further authorization or a clearer authorization. Now whether that will go to the whole caucus, I don't know what Mitch McConnell's position is on this.

But I do think it's something that we -- we need to undertake and we need to take some responsibility.

To the larger question of strategy, you know, that's -- that's the real -- that's the real puzzle. I've been working on these issues on intelligence and armed services for a couple of years. They're terribly complex. But the bottom line is, we're not going to be able to kill our way out of this problem. We've got to figure out what it is that's motivating young people in Britain and America and France, and certainly throughout the Middle East to go and give up their lives to become suicide bombers in this -- in this cause. This is an underlying worldwide problem that we've got to figure out strategically beyond simply drones and air strikes.

CUOMO: Dropping bombs is the easy part of the solution. There's no question about that.

And to be clear for the record, Senator King, I do not think that you're part of the problem here. But I do believe you could be part of the solution when it comes to getting the meaningful debate and vote that we need on what's going on already with the war in that part of the world. Not even just on ISIS, because it's bigger than that.

But Senator King, thank you for joining us. I'll follow up with you on this issue. Let us know how to motivate this debate, because the country needs to have it. Thank you, sir.

KING: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris. Well, here's a confounding story. The U.S. Army is scrambling to explain how it approved the use of the word "Negro" to categorize African-American service members. The word appears in the latest Army regulations and it is causing controversy. Let's bring in Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Barbara, what do we know?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Not a whole lot, Alisyn. Other than I can tell you my phone rang early this morning with a top U.S. Army general telling me this is going to get fixed, and it's going to get fixed this week.

Here's what we do know. This Army regulation was published just on October 22, an updated regulation. And perhaps the explanation, they say, is nobody saw this paragraph in this lengthy document.

I want to read to everybody exactly what it says. It's a portion of the document talking about how people are defined for demographic purposes. Something that the Army as a large organization does. It collects demographic data. So it's talking about when forms are filled out, and it says, quote, "A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa." That's the category. "Terms such as 'Haitian' or 'Negro' can be used in addition to 'Black' or 'African- American'."

Now, the Army, this general even says he doesn't know why the word "Haitian" is in there. They think all of this is old language that, when they republished the regulation, nobody saw, nobody saw it in time to take it out, nobody thought to take it out. This wording has been in there for some time now. I can tell that I don't go around reading Army regulations on a

regular basis. This story was brought to our attention by the African-American community. People in the military, in that community, have seen this wording in the last several days. And it's something that they're really disturbed about. They want to see it changed. And the Army says now, they will change it. They just can't explain why that word is in there -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Yes. It is confusing. Thanks for all that background, Barbara. Really interesting story. Great to see you.

All right. There are other stories making news. Let's get over to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, certainly there are. Let's get a look at your headlines now, 11 minutes past the hour.

Israeli police say a Palestinian man who claims he ran over three IDF soldiers turned himself in this morning. This attack, of course, was caught on this very disturbing video. Authorities are investigating now a second car attack. This video also very difficult to watch, we should caution you. A van plows into pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing one, injuring 13 other people. The Palestinian driver was shot dead by police. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blames Hamas for those attacks.

A top terror target has been taken out by a drone strike in Yemen. Al Qaeda leader Shawki al-Badani was among those killed. The State Department had named him an especially designated global terrorist after connecting him with plots to attack American embassies. One of those plots forced 19 diplomatic locations to close in the Middle East and Africa last summer.

A Philadelphia woman has been rescued after being violently abducted in this incident, all caught on video. Carlesha Freeland-Gaither is heading home now to be with her family after being released from a hospital in Maryland, where police nabbed her alleged abductor. Delvin Barnes was cornered in his car with Gaither in the back seat. Now we need to point out: This guy is also facing charges for the abduction of a 16-year-old girl in Virginia.

Got to end on this. Take a look at Drake University freshman Alex Tillinghast winning himself a brand new F-150 with a little magic on the basketball court. First-year student makes a lay-up, a free throw, a three-pointer and finally a half-court shot all in 30 seconds, sending people at Drake University's Bulldog Madness event into a frenzy.

As you notice, Chris -- you kind of cringing -- he needed three tries to make the lay-up, four tries to sink the three-pointer, but yet, he still got the job done with about a second to spare. I feel like my man is a hero on campus right now.

CUOMO: He's long and strong. Because to hit that half-court shot, is so hard.

PEREIRA: It's so impossible.

CUOMO: It was just nerves in the beginning.

PEREIRA: I spent many a year trying to do that. That was really cool.

CAMEROTA: I like your emotional commentary.

CUOMO: I always feel for those guys. And women when you see them at, like, the halftime of some game or something, and they go out there.

PEREIRA: Why?

CUOMO: Because they're there are all of these people watching.

PEREIRA: Watching them. You've got to deliver.

CUOMO: What an amazing moment to have. He'll have that for the rest of his life.

PEREIRA: Yes. Very cool.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

CUOMO: Nice year, too.

PEREIRA: Beautiful.

CAMEROTA: All right. An update for you from Ferguson, Missouri. They are bracing for the grand-jury decision about whether Officer Darren Wilson will be charged in Michael Brown's death. Our legal experts will weigh in on efforts to prevent a new outbreak of violence in that city.

CUOMO: All right. So what is the promise of these mid-term elections? That things will be different? That these two men will work together? You have the Senate majority leader there, the presumptive one, Mitch McConnell, and obviously the president. Will it really happen? What will be the first couple of steps we'll see? That will tell the story. John King is going to explore this tricky situation on "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY.

More protests were held in Ferguson, Missouri, overnight over the Michael Brown shooting. Well, the protest was mostly peaceful. The city is bracing now for potentially explosive demonstrations. Because you know, a grand jury could be days away from deciding whether or not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the death of Michael Brown.

A group called the Don't Shoot Coalition, they're hoping to prevent violence from breaking out after the decision is announced, asking law enforcement adhere to specific rules that they've come up with meant to, what they say, demilitarize police in Ferguson. Want to turn to our CNN legal analyst Paul Callan; and attorney and

radio host Mo Ivory. Good to have both of you with us. Right off the bat, I want to play a little sound from this coalition group from the co-chair, Michael McPherson. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL MCPHERSON, DON'T SHOOT COALITION: What we're trying to do is make sure that we move everything into a constructive way to create change. We want to deescalate violence, where we do not want to deescalate action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Paul, right off the bat, what's your reaction to this?

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's a very good idea, and it's been done in mass demonstrations in the past. Marches on Washington, D.C., for civil rights; protesting the Vietnam War. There's always been coordination between law enforcement authorities and demonstrators. We could have a debate about whether they're asking for too much here.

PEREIRA: Well, we might need to dig into that a little bit.

CALLAN: This is 19 points that they're going after the police on, including some really strange ones that I don't think will be granted. I mean, they want to regulate how the police dress. They want to regulate -- they want to say if somebody throws a bottle at a police officer, the police officer aren't supposed to arrest that person. Yes, it's a lot of things like that.

PEREIRA: It is asking -- it is asking a lot. But tonally, it's an interesting thing to have community leaders come to the table and say, "Look, we do not want this to escalate like the last time." Mo, is this a good step to you?

MO IVORY, ATTORNEY/RADIO HOST: Absolutely. Like I agree with Paul and I agree with -- the tone of it all says, "Listen, we don't want what happened the last time to happen again. Let's sit down at the table. Let's talk about what we can do better, how the police can act better." Because admittedly, the police did it wrong the first time. A judge ruled that the protesters' civil rights were violated by the police.

And I think that the list -- I looked over the list very carefully. I really don't see anything on there that is objectionable to me. Because...

PEREIRA: OK. Well, let's dig -- let's dig through them. I don't want to go through all 19, obviously. We don't have time for that. But there are a few that jump out. I mean, one of the things right off the bat, No. 3, police will give protesters 48-hour notice before a grand jury decision is announced. Is that a reasonable request, Paul?

IVORY: Yes.

CALLAN: It's a highly unusual request. I went back, and I was looking at some high-profile cases, obviously the Zimmerman case, that loud music, Dunne case in Florida. I can't find any cases where the judiciary, which runs the grand jury, gave advanced notice to street demonstrators about when an indictment was going to come down.

On the other hand, it's not illegal.

PEREIRA: OK.

CALLAN: It gets made public at some point in time. So theoretically, it could be done.

PEREIRA: You're OK with it, Mo?

IVORY: Yes. I mean, it's -- again, I think it's so proactive. I think what it says is, "Give us the time, once we have talked to you about these conditions, to know that the verdict, you know, I mean, that the grand jury is indicting or not. And then we can prepare better either way." And I just think it's smart, and it's all for the protection of people. Protesters as well as the police.

PEREIRA: Right, and another interesting thing, a lot was made of the attire and how the police presence was perceived, how they were dressed. One of the other suggestions in these 19 items, police will wear only attire minimally required for their safety. Specialized riot gear will be avoided except as a last resort.

Now we know that police have a right to protect themselves, as well. Is this a reasonable request to put on law enforcement, Paul?

CALLAN: No, I don't think it is. And the reason I don't think it is, is when you're out on the street and there's a huge street demonstration, which could go violent immediately, you have to be prepared for that. Now hopefully, it remains peaceful. But what are they going to do, go change so they have shields?

PEREIRA: But do you understand...

(CROSSTALK)

CALLAN: I understand that it's offensive. But I also understand that if you're a cop on the street, you got to protect yourself from things being thrown at you. And you might need shields, and that's a law enforcement decision.

PEREIRA: Bottle of water -- bottles of water were thrown at the officers. Mo, how do you respond to that?

IVORY: Yes. I do think on the uniforms, I do think that it's a reasonable request to avoid the malicious stake (ph). And what it looked like the last time they were geared all up, was like they were going into war. And that's exactly what made the protesters feel like they -- you know, that heightened the level because of the way the police were speaking to them. Now, the water bottles, I think is being blown out of proportion. I

don't think that they shouldn't protect themselves...

PEREIRA: OK.

IVORY: ... from actual Molotov cocktails or things like that. But not empty water bottles that just happened to be flying in the air and then you arrest or you start putting pellets at people for empty water bottles.

PEREIRA: OK. We only have a minute left. So I want to get to this, because I think this is important. As you mentioned, this is one step. This is the community coming forward and saying, "This is what we'd like." And again, they can make the request; they don't have to be met.

But what do you want to see happen so that we can, Paul, now avoid a repeat of last time or even potentially worse?

CALLAN: Well, I think this list of 19 can be whittled down to areas of agreement.

PEREIRA: A start.

CALLAN: Yes. Where it's an orderly demonstration, where it's set up in such a way so that the police are respectful of the demonstrators, and the demonstrators, hopefully, are respectful of the police, regardless of the decision.

And I just, you know, and I just go with one statement. If they spent as much time, you know, registering people to vote as opposed to organizing the demonstration, you know what?

PEREIRA: That's a whole other conversation.

CALLAN: The demonstrators would control the police department and the grand jury.

IVORY: Let's not go there.

PEREIRA: That's a whole other conversation. We'll have to leave it there.

Mo Ivory, Paul Callan, always great to have you both with us. A lot of passion here, Chris.

IVORY: Thank you.

CUOMO: That's right.

That's why you've got to have the conversation.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: All right. So we have been covering the kidnapping of 200 Nigerian school girls. Remember, it made headlines all over the world with these pleas of "Bring back our girls." It is now seven months later. There's no trace of them. We're going to talk with our correspondent who just got back from Nigeria.

CAMEROTA: And President Obama facing a Republican Congress, his favorite new word may be compromise. But will he find resistance within his own party? We're going to go "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Almost half past the hour. Here's a look at your headlines.

The U.S. Army under fire for approving the use of the word "Negro" to categorize African-American service members. The word appears in the latest publication of the Army's regulations. Pentagon officials could not say when the word was added or who OK'd it. An Army spokesman says a portion of the regulations where this word "Negro" appears, well, that is now under review, and they say it will be updated shortly.

Texas Governor Rick Perry due back in court today for a pretrial hearing. He has been indicted on charges he abused his power by cutting funding from a local district attorney's office. It was allegedly in retaliation for the D.A.'s refusal to resign after driving drunk. Perry's attorneys say he was within the scope of his authority.

Federal prosecutors are investigating a member of Vladimir Putin's inner circle in connection with an international money laundering scheme. According to "The Wall Street Journal," a billionaire Russian gas trader allegedly transferred funds from crooked oil deals in Russia through the American financial system. U.S. attorney's office in New York is heading up the investigation with help from the Justice Department.

OK. This is crazy. We have the most stunning video you'll ever see from a news cameraman. It stems from a carjacking in Australia. The suspect -- watch this -- points a gun at the cameraman, then gets in the new vehicle -- in the news vehicle -- and speeds off, eventually slamming into a fuel tank at a gas station, causing a leak. That impact was captured by a camera in the stolen car.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get on the ground now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: After a tense standoff, the suspect was taken into custody. Crews managed to seal the leak before any major damage could occur, because that could have been a whole other disaster.

The whole situation apparently began when the cameraman, Peter Steer, was going to cover an attack on a woman. He was waved down by this bearded man, the eventual carjacker, who admitted he was the guy behind the attack that the cameraman was on his way to cover. This -- is crazy. CAMEROTA: What's happening here?

How -- how do we have the man now crying afterwards?

PEREIRA: It was...

CUOMO: Mental illness on full display.

PEREIRA: It was the craziest situation. He was on his way to a thing, this all happened, and there was a chase and then there was -- it was just the craziest thing.

CAMEROTA: You rarely see those videos play out start to finish in that dramatic fashion.

PEREIRA: This is the other thing.

CUOMO: Look, we talk about it all the time. One of the main struggles we have in this society is what we do with people who are mentally ill and access to guns is what it is and people who are unstable do unstable things. I liked how the cop followed him along with a weapon. How often do we see them taking that shot, most cops don't.

All right, so what is going to happen here? All right, we just had this big election, let's get "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with John King.