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New Report Released on Secret Service Lapses; European Security Gaps Exploited by ISIS; Obama, Republican Showdown Coming Over Immigration; Obamacare Architect Causing Problems for Obama's Health Care Law; Former Mayor Charged in Disappearance of Mexican Students; Interview with Rep. Michael McCaul

Aired November 14, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto, reporting from Washington. Wolf Blitzer is off today.

One glaring error after another, a shocking report on the Secret Service response to a White House fence jumper is fueling calls for major urgent changes within the agency. Homeland Security Department found that it was a series of failures, both human and technical, that permitted intruder, Omar Gonzalez, to run past agents and burst into the first family's residence in September. Among the findings, an officer in charge of releasing dogs on intruders reacted 11 seconds late because he was in a van taking a personal call without his ear piece in. Another officer posted outside the White House doors heard what he said was unintelligible traffic over the radio. And the review says the officer did not shoot Gonzalez because he didn't see that the intruder was armed and figured the White House doors were not locked and he'd be corner. They weren't locked and, in fact, that intruder had a knife on him.

Joining me now from Capitol Hill, Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, of Texas, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Congressman, looking at this report, in addition to the details I just went through there, incredible stuff, and even going back, they mishandled the investigation of Gonzalez, someone who had been known to them because of past behavior, and even silly things, like one of the agents thought that Gonzalez could not get through the bushes so he didn't chase him in the bushes and, as it turns out, he went through the bushes. As you were reading this, you had to be alarmed.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL, (R-TX), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, this highlights a series of security lapses, failures. Mr. Gonzalez was on the radar screen as a person of interest against the White House. He had been arrested previously. He had a map of the White House, a sawed-off shotgun. He had a series of mental issues. And, yet, when he was seen outside the fence, the outside perimeter security noticed him and watched him but didn't radio to the security inside the fence about him and who he is. And then he jumps the fence. Remember, this fence was built in the 1960s, by the way. It's not really up to date. He jumps the fence and then the man in charge of the canines, as you pointed out, was on a personal phone call, did not have his earpiece in, didn't have his radio operator equipment available. The jumper runs right past him. He gets into the White House, the door is unlocked, another breach and then into the East Wing of the White House. And this is actually a road map to assassinate the president. I think this is unacceptable. I applaud the secretary and his investigation and his findings but we have a lot more work to do to fix this agency to make it the premier agency that we all used to know.

I've introduced a bill to provide an independent review of not only this incident and the White House but the entire agency and all the problems that we've seen, whether it be the prostitution, drunkenness in Amsterdam, where the agent could not find his room and was found drunk and passed out in the hallway.

SCIUTTO: What strikes me is I've always looked at the White House and imagined this is this sort of impregnable bubble. If you just stuck your toe across that fend, alarms would go off and secret weapons would be fired or something like that, but there is something important there because you pierce that sense of impregnability. How do you correct that quickly?

MCCAUL: This is the first time someone has jumped that fence. Usually, they are apprehended immediately. And in this case, he was not. We need to look at -- again, this fence was built in the 1960s. We need to update that fence. They asked for millions of dollars, every Congressman, you appropriate to them and, yet, we have a 1960s defense. The technology is inadequate. But, yeah, we also had human error and not interoperability with communications before. And a lot of, again, human failure which is how he got inside. This warrants a new leadership at Secret Service, which I know the secretary is -- we talked about this just yesterday -- is dedicated to doing. But, again, I think a top-to-bottom review of the agency is important to restore morale in the agency but, most of all, their mission is to protect the president of the United States and they are failing, which is not acceptable to Congress but also to the American people.

SCIUTTO: I want to turn to another threat, and this coming from overseas. You wrote an op-ed in "Time" magazine on ISIS's recruiting of the Westerners and in Europe and the U.S. In that op-ed, you said that, "Extremists have already managed to exploit Europe's security gaps and transform it into a jihadi super highway. The in-bound lane to Syria is clearly busy but the out-bound lane we should be especially worried about."

This outbound lane is, of course, the idea of what do these foreign fighters do when they return home to Europe and potentially to the U.S. There's been a lot of talk about countries in Europe taking steps, including Turkey. But you talk about how some of the steps have been inefficient. Why is that? Is it a matter of ability or is it a question of their commitment to really fight this?

MCCAUL: I think, first and foremost, we need to identify who these foreign fighters are and take them out in Syria and Iraq. But the problem is there's easy access through Turkey. It is a super highway for jihadists. I think getting the Turkish government to cooperate better with us when we identify these fighters, for them to be apprehended or stopped from travel and stop from getting on airplanes. From Turkey they go into Western Europe where -- it's a waiver visa country. They don't need a visa to fly from there to the United States. I think that's -- the intelligence community, Homeland Security officials are most concerned about them going through Turkey and into Western Europe and then getting on an airplane into the United States.

Your previous guest, Adam Schiff, talked about the Khorasan group, which we know now is attempting to make bombs to get through airports undetected. We had 24 airports who tightened screening. However, one of these guys gets through and blows up an airplane over, say, New York City and you can imagine the damage. We need to keep these jihadists outside of the United States. And the best way to do that is to have more restrictions on their watch list so these jihadists can't get on the airplanes, as I believe they are vulnerable to getting on them today.

SCIUTTO: The concern is that is America's first line of defense, and you need to stop them from getting here.

Thanks very much, Congressman Michael McCaul.

MCCAUL: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Just ahead, President Obama gets ready for a showdown with Republicans over immigration reform. Who stands to lose and who stands to gain? Our political panel weighs in.

And an architect of Obamacare makes insulting remarks repeatedly about voters. We'll tell you about the latest trouble for Obama's health care law.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: "It's going to happen," that's what President Obama said today about an executive order on immigration reform. He could issue that order as early as next week. Senior administration official outlined some possible provisions. One, allow the parents of children who are U.S. citizens to stay in the country legally. Also, protect illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. And also provide a clear deportation policy for convicted criminals.

I want to bring in Democratic strategist, Hilary Rosen; as well as Republican political commentator, S.E. Cupp.

Hilary, we are 10 days removed from a bruising Election Day defeat. There was talk about working across the aisle. Has the president blown that all away?

HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST & CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he hasn't done it yet. Look, I think it would be better if the president went to Congress and said, these are the four things I need in an immigration bill. Will you guys pass one? But the Republicans have shown time and time again that they are not interested in passing an immigration bill, particularly the House Republicans. While I think it would be better if he did that, maybe for optics alone, I don't think it would produce anything. And I think the country needs immigration reform.

SCIUTTO: S.E., do you agree?

S.E. CUPP, REPUBLICAN COMMENTATOR & CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: The president made tht same point this morning. Is it Congress?

CUPP: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: Particularly, House Republicans had their chance.

CUPP: It's fair to criticize Republicans for not acting on immigration reform. A lot of this political posturing I think is just absurd. He's complaining about the stalling of immigration reform when he himself has stalled on immigration reform more than once because his proposals have been politically unpopular and unworkable. So to suggest now that Republicans are standing in his way and Republicans need to stand by him on principle and on something that he himself would not stand by just two weeks ago seems a little tone deaf but we'll see. Hopefully, both sides could come together and do something meaningful.

The problem, let me point out, with the proposal that Obama has is it will not solve the broken immigration system. Even advocates of immigration reform say this is just a temporary fix. Both sides need to address this.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: When you look at some of the steps in there, it's not just that. It allows visa processing in the high-tech industry, which is something that high-tech companies have been issuing for a long time and it's been talked about for a hundred years --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: -- and if you can move through those things, does it --

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: It does add value. It's frustrating because if he had done this, we would have been there. There's no question legislation is need. There's a whole series of issues that are happening.

My hope is that Republicans see this and say, you know what, instead of blowing this up, we're going to say, no, you can't have that. Yes, you can have this.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: And have a legislative process?

ROSEN: A legislative process.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Is there some clever presidential politics here, with 2016? Do you put Republicans in a corner at all to say, with Latino voters, necessary probably for the Republicans to take the White House, to have them, you know, throw up obstacles --

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: I think that's probably part of the calculus. But I think that people in the immigration reform community are sick of the president's politics on this, even if they want to be with the president on this issue, they are sick of all of the stalling and want actual legislation.

SCIUTTO: You're aware the other controversy, comments by a key participant in Obamacare?

CUPP: No, I'm not. No.

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO: Have you not heard?

(LAUGHTER)

For our viewers who are not aware, I want to play some comments from Jonathan Gruber. He's one of the architects of the Obamacare law, speaking about American voters. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN GRUBER, ECONOMIST, MIT & OBAMACARE ARCHITECT: You get a like which said healthy people are going to pay in -- you made it explicit the healthy will pay in, the sick people get money, it would not have passed. Okay? Just like -- people -- transparent -- lack of transparency is a huge political advantage, and basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter, or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical to get the thing to pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: You can't say it's the only time he said it because there are three or four tapes in October of 2013. More than once, he talked about that. Now, there is truth, that there's not only transparency in American legislation. But how big of damage is this?

I'll give you both a chance.

Maybe we'll start with you, Hilary.

ROSEN: first of all, let's call him a self-proclaimed architect of Obamacare.

(CROSSTALK) SCIUTTO: There was records of him in these White House meetings and --

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: You heard the leaders of the Congress yesterday say they never saw him in a meeting. He didn't write their bill.

SCIUTTO: But there's record of him --

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: He might have helped the White House but he didn't write the legislation. So that's number one. And they had their transparency.

But I think number two is probably the most important thing, which is the president himself said the day after the election, if there are things -- like get over it, Republicans. Get over repealing Obamacare. It is the law of the land. It is now embedded in our health care system. If there are fixes, send them to me. Let's talk about them. There's no question it can be improved. The president said that himself. Republicans need to get over the politics of Obamacare and start focusing on the substance.

CUPP: How did we get on Republicans?

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO: If there's a fix, send it to me, but I'm going to take executive action on immigration.

ROSEN: Because they won't send them on immigration.

SCIUTTO: I understand. But this is now out in the public debate. Is it damaging? Does it change the calculus at all with the repeal efforts?

CUPP: Let's call a spade a spade. Jonathan Gruber is not a very smart man. He's not the first person to think this arrogantly about the American public. I can think of a number of people who probably feel the same way. But most smart people would not say this out loud.

SCIUTTO: Repeatedly.

CUPP: And repeat it five times. Not to mention, he's just wrong on how Obamacare got passed. The American public never voted on it. Obamacare got passed, in spite of the stupid American electorate, because Democrats controlled both houses. Republicans gave it not a single vote. And the White House was more interested in pushing it through rather than whether or not it would actually work or whether the American people would like it. He's taking this gleeful credit for sort of hoodwinking the American public when that's not at all what happened. In fact, the part of Obamacare that he thinks the administration hid so well has been debated and debated for years.

SCIUTTO: It's not a national secret. CUPP: Right.

ROSEN: I'm going to agree with S.E. on this. He's an idiot.

(LAUGHTER)

And I'll just say he's not in charge now. People who are in charge can fix problems if they see them.

CUPP: They have a lot of problems to fix, thanks to Jonathan Gruber and his arrogance.

(LAUGHTER)

SCIUTTO: I'm going to be tweeting that out in just a few minutes.

(LAUGHTER)

Thank you, Hilary Rosen and S.E. Cupp.

A former Mexico in mayor is charged with homicide in the disappearance of 43 students. The shocking motive behind the alleged plot. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Mexican authorities are charging a former mayor in the disappearance of 43 students and the deaths of six of them. The students vanished nearly two months ago now and protesters have been taking to the streets demanding that the government do more to find them.

Rafael Romo joins us on the phone from Mexico.

Rafael, explain these charges and what is really an alarming case.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN LATIN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's right, Jim. The judge had all kinds of different possibilities here because we're talking about the disappearance of 43 students. However, Mexican authorities decided to go with what they know right now, and what they know is that six people died and one is in a coma. So they have charged Iguala mayor, Jose Luis Abarca, with six counts of aggravated homicide, one count of attempted homicide. He was arrested a week ago exactly on November 7th. He's already been removed as mayor of the town. Also, his wife is still being detained by the Mexican attorney general's office and she may face charges in the future, but that's not clear yet. In the meantime, the mayor himself has been sent to a maximum security prison here in Mexico -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: What do authorities say the motive is?

ROMO: He was being named as a mastermind. So what they believe happened that night, on September 26th, was that his wife believed students were on the way to disrupt an event led by the town's first lady and that's the reason why they ordered police to stop the students, who were handed over to a criminal gang. The criminal gang also believed that these students were member of a rival gang and so they decided to not only take them away but execute them in the end.

The big question is still where the 43 students are. It's an answer for which Mexican authorities do not have anything to say so far.

SCIUTTO: So sad for dozens of families there.

Thanks very much, Rafael Romo, in Mexico.

Just ahead, Anthony Bourdain heads to Jamaica and we have a sneak peek. That's right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: On the season finale of "Parts Unknown," Anthony Bourdain has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: Let's accept this as close to paradise as it gets, right? Jamaica.

We like Jamaican music. We love it. We like Jamaican agricultural products a lot. We like Jamaican food a lot. Day one, first order of business, jerk chicken. Can you blame me? No, I think not.

But what do we actually know about Jamaica?

Here it's different. Here, if you can buy a house at the beach, if you're a hotel, you can make it a private beach and they can keep people out.

How much of this is left? Who will get to do this?

It's sad to say, I think it's unlikely that 50 years from now, anyone but the extraordinarily fortunate, extraordinarily connected and extraordinarily rich will be able to look even at a vista like this. That's my personal theory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Don't miss "Parts Unknown," Sunday night at 9:00 eastern here on CNN.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 eastern on "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.