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Can Obama and Congress Get Anything Done?; Major Charge Dropped Against AC/DC Drummer; Former Navy SEAL: 'I Killed Bin Laden'

Aired November 7, 2014 - 07:00   ET

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


CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, Jim -- Jim Acosta, let's try to look at this like regular people for a second, because the politics never makes any sense.

If you and I were in a dispute, OK, and we knew what the sticking point was, we wouldn't want to start with the sticking point, right? We would want to find the common ground first, how does the White House explain coming out of the box saying, by the way, the president will go it alone on immigration? Why scratch the scab right out of the box?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, you know, it is sounding a little less like a bourbon summit and more like high noon over here at the White House, Chris, Alisyn and Dana. But I think the reason why is -- and I've talked to White House officials about this, top White House officials about this over the last several days. They feel like they gave John Boehner a chance to pass immigration reform. And they like to say repeatedly that this got out of the Senate with bipartisan support. Marco Rubio was backing this bill in the Senate. It went over to the House, and it died.

And the president has been saying -- and I covered his campaign, and Dana covered the campaign back in 2008. The president has been promising immigration reform for six years. And they feel like this is his time to do it. They feel like the Congress had a chance to pass it; it didn't get done. And so the president wants to take executive action by the end of the year,

And by the way, it could be big. "The New York Times" has an editorial this morning, saying, "Go for it, Mr. President. Make it big."

They're talking about it in the immigration reform community. Millions and millions of undocumented families, the families of these docket kids, these DREAMer kids that got deferred deportation, they're talking about extending it to their families. And that will go over huge in the Latino community.

So there's a lot that they want to get done. You know, there's the authorization for the use of military force for the war against ISIS. That's also a big topic over here today, guys.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Go ahead, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the finger-poking in the eye is going both ways.

ACOSTA: Yes.

BASH: Because you know, yes, Republicans are not happy with the fact that the president out of the gate is going to do this executive order on immigration. But what was one of the first things that Republicans did in their list of things that they wanted to get done? Repeal Obamacare. Which they know is never going to happen.

ACOSTA: That's right.

BASH: Because they don't have a veto-proof margin and they're just kind of throwing a bone to their base, because they know that their base wants to do that.

And so it goes both ways. If you say you're going to repeal the president's signature law, even though you know that it has no chance of doing it, sort of waste time in Congress, then how do you expect the White House to look at you and say, "OK, we trust that you really want to get, roll your sleeves up and get into deal-making."

ACOSTA: And the -- and the other thing, guys, is the way they read the political tea leaves over here at the White House. That's a really strong feeling over here that what happened on Tuesday was the result of the president's Democratic supporters not showing up at the polls. So the president called a congenital defect before the mid- terms. And so they don't see this as a repudiation of his policies. They see it as a repudiation of all of Washington, what happened on Tuesday. Which is sort of not in touch with reality. There was a repudiation of the president to some extent.

But the White House is not operating that way. And so that's why they're at battle stations once again.

CAMEROTA: All right. It's going to be an interesting lunch over there.

ACOSTA: It should be.

CAMEROTA: You've laid it out perfectly for us and set the table. So we will wait to see what happens. Thanks so much for the preview, guys.

CUOMO: You have to shake your head. We see this going on in our houses all the time. The kids have each other by the neck. And they are saying, "Let go."

"No, you let go."

"No, you let go. You have my neck."

"You have mine. Let go. Let go, you're hurting me."

CAMEROTA: But there's a parent to intervene.

CUOMO: That's right. The leader must come in and say, "Let's count to three, both let go at the same time." Who's going to do that this afternoon?

All right. So let's play it out. We have somebody with us now, Congressman Steve King. He is a newly re-elected Republican from Iowa. He serves on the House Judiciary Committee. He has a strong sense of the pulse of his party. And he will have to be a player in any change that is to come.

It is good to have you, as always. I am going to play the role of your constituent, who is concerned that you are not putting me first. So let's play this out. How can you make me feel that you're going to do something for me this time? Not just for you.

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Well, the first thing I would say to my constituents is that government has been doing too much for people who aren't doing enough. We have 104 million Americans of working age who are not in the workforce. More of them need to come into the workforce and help carry the load. And so I challenge people to do that. Step up as individuals. Let's increase the average per capita GDP of our people. We do that, everybody prospers. We have our responsibilities.

And by the way, I'm going to work to restore the rule of law, and that will give people safer streets and more jobs for Americans and legal workers.

CUOMO: What does that mean, increase the per capita GDP? I don't understand any of that. What are you saying? You want to raise the minimum wage? What are you going to do? How are you going to do that?

KING: Put more people back to work. When we have -- think of a family and there's, in this house, we raised three brothers. You were talking about families a little bit ago. If one of those brothers said, "I'm not going to clean my room. I want my brothers to do it, but I want my allowance anyway," that's the equivalent of a third of our population not in the workforce.

So we need to take that hammock that used to be a safety net, ratchet it back down gradually until it becomes a safety net again and get more people to work in that fashion. And we need to enforce the rule of law. That opens up more jobs for Americans and American workers.

CUOMO: So you're saying...

KING: American citizens and green card holders.

CUOMO: All right, hold on. So let me get you straight, what you're saying. I got you. The first thing you're say something is you want to cut entitlements, right? That's what you're saying, the hammock into the safety net. You're saying cut entitlements. And then you're saying if you're not legal, you shouldn't be working. That's what you're saying?

KING: That's correct. There are 80 different means-tested federal welfare programs. Let's put it all under one committee, consolidate those so that they're rational. And then we can take a look at how it moves people in the right direction. And, yes, open up these jobs for American workers and for legal workers, green card holders.

CUOMO: When you look at the leadership, they come out, they write the op-ed saying, "We will overturn Obamacare." Not a good starting point. Not achievable right now, right, because you're not going to get a veto-proof majority. Why start that way? That's not nice. That's not a nice way to start this new environment of working together, is it?

KING: Every Republican that I know of ran on the full repeal of Obamacare. There were more ads run on the full repeal of Obamacare than anything else. The voters have spoken. The Republicans are going to listen to the people that voted. And the president seems to be listening to what he thinks the people said who were not voting. That's not the American way.

But here's the strategy is this, that we need to look at Obamacare itself as a giant jigsaw puzzle that's framed. And if we send the repeal of that to the president's desk -- and we can do that -- yes, he will veto it. Then he has to return it to the house of origin with his objections. That's a constitutional requirement, if he abides by it. Then we take the pieces of that jigsaw puzzle apart, and we send the repeal of them a piece at a time to the president's desk, such as the medical device tax would be one. The 30-hour work week would be another. We can go on with this until we at least get Obamacare shrunk down to where we can tolerate it and set the stage for full repeal.

ACOSTA: Right. But you know what the objection are going to be. You know -- Congressman, you know, our audience knows you're a little bit, but they know you're quite the tactician. You know what the objections are going to be. Why start at a position of conflict, instead of compromise? Come with a bill and say, "We want to get rid of these parts of Obamacare" instead of saying, "We're going to kick out the whole thing"? Why not do it that way?

KING: We're pledged and committed to kick out the whole thing. We need to just put the marker down from the beginning. That's what we've all said we want to do. That's what the people say they want to have happen.

If the president vetoes it, let's see how these votes are. There is that chance that Obamacare is so unpopular that the Senate Democrats who are up for re-election in 2016 may decide you know what it's time to give this thing up and move on and put together a healthcare system that actually does the things that we all want it to do. We want people to be able to keep their doctors. We don't want their premiums to go up. We don't want them to lose their policy. We want to take care of people that have preexisting conditions with a better program.

I want to be able to buy and sell insurance across state lines. I want everybody to have full deductibility of all of their health insurance premiums, not just some people. Everybody. The list goes on.

And Chris, if I could say my favorite bill, if we could get to this point and get it done, I would like to take health savings accounts and expand them into life management accounts, so that people could then build up in their HSA enough that they could arrive at retirement with enough money to purchase a Medicare replacement policy, paid up for life and keep the change tax-free as a pension program.

We can do that if we can repeal all of Obamacare.

CUOMO: All right. I can't let you go without giving you the opportunity to talk about something that is certainly high on your list priorities. This news that the president or somehow, someone in the U.S. government reached out through Iraq or directly to Iran, and started talking about how they can work together in the war against ISIS. How do you feel about that, Congressman?

KING: It makes me very, very uneasy. When I hear you say it, I can just feel myself knot up, thinking about the president's comment to Medvedev here a while back, "After the election I'll have more flexibility." This and then we saw Ukraine annexed or parts of Ukraine annexed.

Here we have a situation where the most dangerous enemy we have is Iran. And we've watched as North Korea has moved continuously towards a nuclear capability. But they seem to be a bit of a rational regime. And that's hard to actually say. But I'm comparing them to Iran.

And our biggest danger is Iran nuclear. In spite of ISIS, in spite of Syria, that's our biggest danger. We need to contain them. And these back-channel negotiations generally end up being signals of weakness that empower the enemy. While this conflict is going on in that region, it does provide cover for Iran to accelerate their nuclear efforts. They're not our partner. They're not our friends, and we don't need them to fight ISIS. I think that that's a flaw in the president's rationale.

I would go further, though, we should arm...

CUOMO: One more -- one more reason. Go ahead. Say it, sir. Make your point, Congressman.

KING: I should say we should arm the Kurds, give them the help weaponry they need, all the air power and our Special Forces on the ground for close air support. Let the Kurds carve out their area in that part of the world. That's our best start to defeating ISIS.

CUOMO: I'll tell you what. You know what you're calling for? A full debate and vote on how this war is being conducted. The Constitution says it's your job to declare it. Hopefully, you guys take that on early and often. We look forward to that.

Representative King, thank you very much for joining us on NEW DAY, as always.

KING: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: Mick, over to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's give you a look at your headlines. Ten minutes past the hour.

An investigation is under way this morning into a fatal military helicopter crash in Boise, Idaho. Two soldiers with the Idaho Army National Guard were killed. A spokesman says the crew was on a training mission last night when the Apache went down. It happened near the airport. Right now it's unclear what went wrong.

It was a shocking charge against the drummer for a legendary rock band. Phil Rudd of AC/DC was accused of trying to have two men killed. Now authorities in New Zealand have apparently decided the evidence just isn't there. CNN's Manisha Tank is in Hong Kong with more details on this bizarre story -- Manisha.

MANISHA TANK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. So there was a raid on Thursday, the police turned up and they charged him with allegedly hiring someone to kill two people between the 25th and the 26th of September, Michaela.

But later that police file then went to the crown solicitor's office in Tauranga, New Zealand. That's where Phil Rudd lives. And he looked at the file, and he said there was just insufficient evidence for this charge.

There are still remaining charges, though. There is one of threatening to kill. And that is actually quite a serious charge. It carries a maximum of seven years in prison. The other two charges are drug-related. They are possession charges.

So right now he remains out on bail. He's at his home. But he does have to reappear in court on the 27th of November.

PEREIRA: All right. Manisha Tank reporting for us from Hong Kong. A bizarre story there.

All right. We want to turn something now, a very, very special surprise in Jacksonville, Florida, for some deserving people. Six service members dealing with posttraumatic stress, they were given quite a tremendous gift: brand-new Harley-Davidson motorcycles from the Wounded Warriors Project. One 12-year Navy vet called the gift a dream come true.

Now each of these guys are motorcycle riders, but none of them owned a bike anymore. So obviously, they were especially overjoyed to receive these gifts.

A lot of people say that it's very therapeutic to get out on the open road and, you know, put your worries behind you and have the wind part of your hair under the helmet.

CAMEROTA: You seem like you know a lot about this.

PEREIRA: I just think it's a great -- I wish. But this is such a great thing. And it's a great gift.

CAMEROTA: It's wonderful. It's great.

CUOMO: I love it. Those motorcycles mean to those men that somebody cares.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: Everybody says they support the troops, but we do not do enough to prove it.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Great gift. Thanks, Michaela.

CUOMO: All right. Let's get over to meteorologist Indra Petersons, keeping track of the latest forecast. I'm hearing about there was a typhoon, and now it's going to come this way in the form of air. What does this mean?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. A lot of people know by now it's going to be freezing, literally, next week. But what they don't understand is how does this have anything to do with it?

This was Super Typhoon Nori. It was off the coast of Japan. It had winds of 180 miles per hour. So let's start one by one. Let's think about what you know about Superstorm Sandy. Right?

You had what was remnants of a hurricane, combined with another winter storm. That's exactly what we're going to be dealing with as we're going through this week. Already out there in the Bering sea, you have the remnants of that super typhoon combining with the polar Jet Stream. They're talking about 50-foot waves out here. All of this activity is going to heading to the Aleutian Islands. But it doesn't stop there.

Think about the Jet Stream., It's like a rope. If you go like this, you get that ripple effect. So what's going to happen is that Jet Stream will eventually curve way down. And all of this cold arctic air that's been hanging up towards Canada is all going to make its way down into the southeast.

So let's talk about the temperatures and what you're really talking about. Right now it's kind of mild. This is not the story. Everyone is acting like it is. Hardly the case. Yes, the cool air spreads into the northeast as we go through the weekend. Another front even kicks in behind it. Cooling off even more.

But not until about the middle of next week are you talking about the very chilly arctic air making that blast that flows down in through the southeast.

What do we have to look forward to? Well, temperatures a good 20 degrees below normal for even this time of year. If you look at these days, you might have starting with next week, because that's when that blast is expected to make its way in. So temperatures cooling this weekend, eventually getting to the 40s. The lows we go down to the 20s, guys. Minneapolis will be seeing highs in the 20s and just 30s. Of course seeing lows well below freezing.

So what we have today looks a lot better now, right? We're talking about just some light showers in towards the Northeast. Maybe bringing about a half a foot of snow towards the northern portions of Maine and some light showers in towards the Northeast.

Again enjoy the weather we are talking about today. Yes. I have family visiting next week.

PEREIRA: Are you getting this? Did you hear what she told us?

CUOMO: I heard cold, and then I tuned it out.

PEREIRA: It's going to be cold!

CAMEROTA: I smell winter. Right. Hard choice (ph), except you better be prepared. We are. Thanks, Indra.

CUOMO: Typhoon, not coming here, but it's going to be cold. I got it.

CAMEROTA: OK. Well, a former Navy SEAL is speaking out. He's claiming that he is the man who shot Osama bin Laden. His story is making his fellow SEALs angry.

CUOMO: And all show, no go. We're going to give you the inside scoop on what leaders are planning heading into today's meeting at the White House. John King will take you inside the meeting, "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. One of the most famous acts of valor now creating controversy. Robert O'Neill is a former Navy SEAL, he tells the "Washington Post" that he's the one who took that shot to the forehead on Osama bin Laden that killed him.

Well, that's angered many members of the military, who say he violated the traditional code of secrecy. Let's ask Jonathan Gilliam. He's a former Navy SEAL.

Jonathan, great to see you.

JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL: Good to be here.

CAMEROTA: What do you think of this SEAL coming forward and talking about that night so openly?

GILLIAM: Well, I think first and foremost this is what I want the public to realize, that this is not a SEAL problem. This is an O'Neill problem. This is a Bissonnette problem, who wrote the other book, "Zero Dark 30," I believe it was.

CAMEROTA: "No Easy Day."

GILLIAM: "No Easy Day."

CAMEROTA: But two SEALs have come forward, and it does seem as though maybe they're craving some recognition.

GILLIAM: Right.

CAMEROTA: You know, maybe SEALs always go unsung. I mean, we know that they're so brave.

GILLIAM: Right.

CAMEROTA: But we don't know individuals, what they do. And maybe individuals are starting to crave some recognition.

GILLIAM: Well, that's the case. I mean, this generation is the me generation, and that's what's going to happen. However, the leadership, and that's why I penned this letter to the admiral. I agree with what the admiral had to say in his letter. But...

CAMEROTA: Let me read a portion of that letter, so you can respond to it. Because it is interesting. He talks about the code of Navy SEALs.

GILLIAM: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Let me just read it for our viewers. He says, "A critical tenet of our ethos is 'I do not advertise the nature of my work nor seek recognition for my actions.' Violators of our ethos are neither teammates in good standing or teammates who represent naval special warfare." What's your response?

GILLIAM: Well, I agree with everything that he says. I think the admiral is spot on there. But why did this come out in the public? Why did he send this out?

When I go online on LinkedIn or Facebook and I see the admiral on there, and then I see this letter come across in the news, what I'm seeing is the same problem that allowed this to happen. And that's a leadership that is not focused on force protection. And that goes all the way up the chain. When you have a vice president who gives out this information, the same information they're given three days after the op.

CAMEROTA: You mean for "Zero Dark 30" that you think that Vice President Biden cooperated with the filmmakers. That's on record.

GILLIAM: That's Leon Panetta.

Three days after the actual op, Joe Biden went to -- and gave a speech and outted SEAL Team 6 as being a part of this. So when you have individuals at the top that are not paying close attention to the actual details of the top-secret information; and then you have an admiral who is just kind of putting stuff out there instead of really cracking down on this, if you have a couple of bad eggs, it doesn't matter what unit is or where they're from, classified information has started to become a tool for power for politicians and money for people to line their pockets. You have to watch that closely.

CAMEROTA: Maybe this is just the new world of social media and things being -- reality shows and movies and things being out in the public, that things are not as private as they used to be. Maybe this is the new world order for Navy SEALs.

GILLIAM: But, well, that is the way it is for the world. But, see, we live in a world that is not the same. And these guys need to realize if they think they're going to get out and subscribe to the same rules as a politician, they're going to get burned.

I've been out of the military since 2002. I was in the FBI for a long time here in New York. And I'm here to tell you if anybody in the military thinks they're going to get out and just tell all, they're going to end up getting prosecuted for that.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. What do you think should happen to O'Neill? Will he face charges?

GILLIAM: I think both of these guys, Bissonnette and O'Neill, I think should be, now they've actually shown that they've probably committed a crime, they should be...

CAMEROTA: What is that crime?

GILLIAM: So to let the viewers understand this, if I was your attorney, and you came to me to -- you know, you had a new widget, and you wanted to get a patent for it; and I was -- you know, we have attorney-client privilege, and then I go out and tell everybody about that widget, now I've actually committed a crime.

So it's the same thing with classified information. If I'm given that and then I go out and tell people about it, that is a crime. It's classified for a reason, whether they want it to be or not.

So you know, I think these guys should be brought back into the military, because they can be recalled back into the military. Recalled back in, demoted in rank, prosecuted, and then eventually given dishonorable discharge. And, you know, yes, they're my brothers, but my brothers have to pay a penalty when they do something this bad that shines this bad of a light on the SEAL teams and the military in general.

CAMEROTA: Well, Jonathan Gilliam, thanks so much for sharing your perspective. And thanks for your service.

GILLIAM: Always good to be here.

CAMEROTA: We appreciate how brave you all are. Thank you so much.

GILLIAM: Thank you. Thank you.

CUOMO: Well, that really helped understand what is a very complex situation. Great conversation there.

All right. So we've been talking about politics and the aftermath of the election, right? There's no doubt that Democrats took a beating in the mid-terms. But now there's this theory that it may help the Democrats somehow, heading into 2016. Really? John King will examine Hillary Clinton's prospects and how they may be better now, in "Inside Politics." Plus, this vicious attack on a Minnesota hospital. A patient armed

with a metal bar goes on a rampage. How did this happen? And what happened to him? We have the dramatic story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Good to have you back with us here on NEW DAY on this Friday. Let's give you a look at your headlines. The man accused of snatching a woman from a Philadelphia street corner is now in Virginia to face additional charges in another vicious attack on a 16-year-old girl in Richmond, Virginia. This comes after Delvin Barnes allegedly admitted to police that he kidnapped Carlesha Freeland-Gaither from Philadelphia. For her part, Freeland-Gaither is now back in Philadelphia.

The massive security breach at Home Depot is widening, the company confirming now 53 million e-mail addresses were stolen, saying a third-party vendor's user name and password were used to enter the network. The company already had credit card data of 56 million customers hacked. The home improvement giant says the compromised e- mail files did not contain sensitive information, and affected customers are being notified.

Police are investigating a brazen million-dollar jewelry heist in Irvington, New Jersey. Check this out. Thieves drilled a hole through the wall of the furniture store next door the break-in. They made off with thousands of piece of gold and diamond jewelry. Police say the burglars clearly knew what they were doing, cutting phone lines, disabling alarm systems and somehow cutting through safes made of reinforced steel and concrete some four inches thick. My goodness.

All right, you two. You guys are smart people, right? Think you could name every organ in the human body -- calves not included in organs, Chris? This Texas toddler may just show you up. This is 2- year-old Elizabeth Christianson. She can name all of the human organs. And -- this is what's even better -- she can explain their function.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my goodness.

PEREIRA: Eighty million people have seen her show off her skills on YouTube. Mom says they spent a whole lot of time at a local library, and she credits that with Elizabeth's newfound knowledge. I think we have an internist...

CUOMO: Kid's a genius.

PEREIRA: ... in our future.

CUOMO: Not just going to the library. My kids spent time at the library.

PEREIRA: I think it's a combo, though.

CUOMO: Calls for mama half the time.

PEREIRA: Well...

CUOMO: It's not just being in the library.

PEREIRA: We've also seen your Halloween costumes here.

CAMEROTA: No, there is confusion at your house.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: We know that much.

CUOMO: A man's a man, no matter what he's wearing.

CAMEROTA: I like that she does it all while wearing her footsie pajamas.

PEREIRA: I know. I know. Let me tell you, this could be an internist. Sanjay Gupta. Call us.

CAMEROTA: Keep an eye on her.

CUOMO: All right, speaking of people who aren't necessarily geniuses, we're starting to figure out what's going on in Washington, D.C. At least they're meeting. And you know what, usually John, you know, say they're meeting, so what? That's progress down in Washington. As long as everybody who goes in alive comes out alive, this is going to be a net positive, right?