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NEW DAY

Violent Clash at Soccer Match Between Italy and Croatia; Winter Blast Grips Half the Country; President Promises Action on Immigration; Bill Cosby's Silence Heard Around the World

Aired November 17, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Let's give you a look at your headlines at 32 minutes past the hour.

A former U.S. soldier and humanitarian aid worker Peter Kassig has been murdered by ISIS. In a new video, a masked man stands over a severed head, announcing that it belongs to the 26-year-old from Indianapolis. His parents say they are heartbroken but truly proud of their son's work. Kassig was captured in Syria last October.

Long wait times apparently still a big problem at VA hospitals and clinics. "USA Today" reports more than 600,000 veterans are still waiting a month or more for appointments. That amounts to 10 percent of all Veterans Affairs patients. But the VA has reportedly made some progress, substantially cutting down on worst case scenarios, which involved veterans who waited more than four months for an appointment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin making a speedy exit from the G20 summit after getting a chilly reception. He left after lunch, well before the final communique outlining the summit's achievements. He was essentially a verbal punching bag for many world leaders who are critical of Russia's reported movement of new troops and weapons into independent Ukraine.

Soccer officials investigating a violent clash between fans and riot police during a soccer match between Italy and Croatia. Fans threw flares and fireworks onto the pitch during the European championship qualifier in Milan. CNN's Christina Macfarlane has more.

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things got a little heated at the San Siro last night during Italy's 2016 European qualifier against Croatia after away fans came and threw fireworks onto the pitch twice during the game. In fact, things were so bad in the second half that play had to be abandoned after 75 minutes. And as the players were led off the pitch, the emergency services were called to extinguish the flames and riot police were brought in to try and control the Croatian supporters.

Despite the drama, the game ended in a 1-1 draw. But governing body UEFA are expected to launch a full investigation into the incident. Back to you Michaela. PEREIRA: And after all that, Christina, it's a draw. I was thinking

of all the games that are played in America at any given time, basketball, soccer, football. So glad things don't end like this here.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, that is a relief.

PEREIRA: Crazy.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so more than half the country is in the grip of a winter blast and this isn't just about severe weather. Storms are already being blamed for six deaths and hundreds of accidents, including the one you're looking at there right now in Oklahoma City.

So let's get right to meteorologist Indra Petersons, tracking it for us. What's going on?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And it's still fall, right? Am I checking that right?

PEREIRA: Supposedly!

PETERSONS: I mean, what is going on? We're talking about so much snow expected to fall over the next several days, again right around the Great Lakes. The lake effect snow, we're going to be measuring this in feet, guys.

Here we go; it is not ending anytime soon. as system after system continues to make its way through. In fact, 30 million people today do have that threat for winter weather. So from New England back into about the Mississippi Valley. But that's only one side of the equation, again we're going to be talking about rain showers. And not just a little bit. We actually have the threat for severe weather down into the southeast today. So already seeing tornado watches out there. In fact, we've already seen several reports of tornadoes just in the last several hours here. So definitely a lot of severe weather out there. About 20 million additional of you will be talking about that threat for even isolated tornadoes to continue as we go throughout the day today.

So a lot is going on. Easy to see the set up for that reason there. Looking at temperatures into the 70s and 80s down to the southeast, but look at that contrast again. We're talking about highs today in Chicago, below freezing, 23 degrees. This chill is just one round of cold weather after the next. You may be saying maybe the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast, hey, it's not so bad. You're actually rebounding for only one day though; the second pool of cold air, watch what happens by tomorrow. New York City today, remember, 57 is your high. Tomorrow down to below freezing. Your high goes to only 31 degrees. So many of you will be seeing temperatures 20 if not 30 degrees below average for, yes, even this time of year. And watch out, those are your highs, those lows, you're going to be waking up into some single digits in places like Chicago, only about 11. Kansas, some 9s. No, thank you.

PEREIRA: Brr.

PETERSONS: I don't know where fall went; it looks we're just straight into winter.

CAMEROTA: Oh, god, I hate when that happens.

PETERSONS: I hate when that happens too.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Indra.

All right. There's threat of another government shutdown. Really? Can Republicans and the president somehow compromise on immigration reform before the end of the year? We'll debate what could happen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The president is back from Asia and preparing to face a firestorm over immigration, specifically his pledge to use executive action to extend what some would call amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants. Republicans warn the president not to do that, even suggesting that it could lead to a government shutdown.

Let's debate all of this with Ruben Navarette; he's a CNN contributor and a "Daily Beast" columnist, and Ben Ferguson. He's a CNN political commetnator and host of "The Ben Ferguson Show". Gentlemen, great to see you this morning.

RUBEN NAVARETTE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Morning. Great to see you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Ruben, let me start with you. A fight over immigration. It's deju vu all over again. Is it time for the president to break this cycle that he's been trapped in for the past six years, he would say, and to use executive action? Or is that the wrong move with this new Congress?

NAVARETTE: I think it's the right move but it's a move that should have taken place some time ago. This really on the left is being sold as something grand and bold. It isn't. And it's sold on the right as something sort of the coming of the apocalypse. This is a horrible thing that he's overreaching. It really isn't an executive amnesty, as they're saying on the right. It really is an attempt to take some groups of people and normalize their status for a temporary time period. It doesn't resemble amnesty at all, and we're subject to a lot of misinformation about that.

CAMEROTA: Ben, your reaction.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you got a lot of trust issues here. I mean, President Barack Obama could have done anything he wanted when he first got elected but they chose to play politics with it and not get something done. He had control of the House and the Senate. And then, moving forward, he decided not to enforce the laws that are currently on the books and kept this going and going.

And so now to say I'm not going to act before the election, even though I promised you I was because it may hurt politics, it may hurt some of the people in my party. To then say, well, I'm not going to deal with Congress. The American people don't want this. They understand how important Congress is. They sent new people there. And so for the president to do this, I think it's a very dangerous precedent, most importantly. I also think it's not exactly what the American people want and they don't trust the president on immigration reform right now and it's pretty obvious from the election.

CAMEROTA: Ruben, you know, even the president himself has had an about face on immigration. Three years ago, when he was challenged on Univision, "Why aren't you going to do something?" He said something to the effect of, well, certainly I can't act without Congress. Listen to the president back in 2011.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system, that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So how does he now suddenly act without Congress?

NAVARETTE: Right. It's a complete flip-flop. He has done this twice before. This is just one time when they said you should do comprehensive immigration reform; he says, "I can't. I'm not a king." You should stop deportations, two years later. "I can't; I'm not a king."

There's no question -- Barack Obama failed immigration policy. What he's done now is give Republicans an opportunity to join him in this failure. As I say in my column today for CNN.com, he set a trap for Republicans. They're going to charge right into it. If they threaten a shutdown or impeachment, they're going to solidify this image they have of being anti-reform and anti-Hispanic, frankly.

CAMEROTA: And yet on the flip side then, this has been a nettlesome problem for presidents for decades. Even President Reagan, when confronted with the idea that families were going to be split up and parents and children were going to be in different countries, he acted outside of Congress in order to make that not to happen. So why is so it controversial today when, in 1987 when President Reagan did it, it wasn't?

FERGUSON: Well, I think the difference was we thought, when we did that in '87 under Reagan, that there was going to be a secure border and that would be the, quote, unquote, "last time" we would ever have to do this.

And so we have learned from our mistakes that you can't just keep giving out amnesty if you don't fix core issue, and that is securing our border. We don't have a secure border. I mean, look at this immigration. They literally take illegal immigrants and dump them off at bus stops around the country. They purposely say we're not going to enforce the laws of the land when it comes to deportations, and here's a summons to show up at court that we know you're never going to show up.

So I think conservatives are saying, look, we don't want to split up families and we're willing to have a compromise. But it's meaningless. And I think we see this from what we happened with Reagan. If you don't secure the border, you're not fixing a problem. You may act like you're fixing it, you may think you're fixing it, but we now know from history it just doesn't wok. So you have to enforce the laws of the land. And this president has got to do that and that's why he doesn't have trust. It's like he has a bipolar mentality when it comes to immigration reform.

CAMEROTA: President Obama says he has more border guards on the border than previous presidents and he's deported more people than previous presidents, he says.

NAVARETTE: Right.

CAMEROTA: True or false? That's different than what Ben says.

NAVARETTE: No, Ben's wrong about that. It sounds like the conservative views.

FERGUSON: I don't think so.

NAVARETTE: Yes, really, Ben. You don't understand this issue, OK?

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Ruben.

FERGUSON: I understand it very well.

NAVARETTE: No --

CAMEROTA: Hold on, what are the facts, Ruben?

NAVARETTE: The facts are Barack Obama's deported 200 million people in five years. We spend $60 billion on homeland security, $14 billion on the border. You can't do better than that. Conservatives, if they want to get tough, they should get tough on employers.

FERGUSON: Ruben, this is the part where I laugh because I don't think that any of the Democrats are this incompetent. You know that the border has been flooded with people coming across. When you claim that you have deported all these people, then explain to me how we have so many illegals in this country that have not been deported?

NAVARETTE: Because --

FERGUSON: You have to look at the facts.

NAVARETTE: Because, Ben, you have people in the conservative wing, business owners and employers, who hire them. You don't hire them? They don't stay.

FERGUSON: People hire them all over the place! And if you don't enforce the laws of the land, which is going after those that hire them, you have an issue. It goes back to the core of what I'm saying here.

NAVARETTE: But we're not hearing conservatives say that, Ben.

FERGUSON: If you don't enforce the laws --

NAVARETTE: You don't hear conservatives and Republicans say that.

FERUGSON: -- it doesn't matter what you do.

NAVARETTE: You don't hear conservatives and Republicans say we have to go after employers.

FERGUSON: I'm saying it.

NAVARETTE: The '86 law calls for going after employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. You never hear that from Congress. They only pick on the weak and the powerless, the people who can't vote. Not the folks who can.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, Ben. is that the answer? To begin going after employers in a more strong fashion and not the immigrants themselves?

FERGUSON: Of course you should. But ask Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid if they're in favor of that and they'll tell you absolutely not. They'll say you're punishing the families and that you're being mean- spirited and evil and you hate illegal immigrants, which is not reality. You cannot fix this problem without having enforcement of the current laws. And I go back to what I said earlier. This administration openly said -- do not deport people. Drop them off at bus stops. Hand them papers to come to a court hearing they're never going to come to. And more and more illegals have come across the border.

So you can say, hey, we've deported 2 million. But if you're letting in 8 million at the same time, it's meaningless, and all it is is semantics from this immigration.

CAMEROTA: Ben Ferguson and Ruben Navarette, it is a complicated issue, obviously, or it would've been solved already. We'll see what happens in the next month. Thanks so much for the debate.

NAVARETTE: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: Just the beginning on that one, that's for sure.

So Bill Cosby back in the news with his silence heard around the world. The comedian has no legal responsibility to respond to the allegations, so we'll show you what happened when he was given the opportunity to answer rape allegations against him. In fact, we'll play you the tape next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PEREIRA: Good to have you back and with us here on NEW DAY.

An attorney for Bill Cosby says the comedian will not make comments about sexual allegations -- sexual assault allegations from several women. Over the weekend, Cosby was interviewed by Scott Simon on NPR about his African-American art collection. He was also gave a chance to respond to these claims. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SCOTT SIMON, NPR: This -- this question gives me no pleasure, Mr. Cosby, but there have been serious allegation raised about you in recent days. You're shaking your head no. I'm in the news business. I have to ask the question. Do you have any response to those charges?

Shaking your head no. There are people who love you who might like to hear from you about this. I want to give you the chance. All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: And despite some canceled appearances on talk shows scheduled for this week, Cosby was back at the mic last night before a sold out crowd in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Want to dig into all of this with CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. L.Z. Granderson also joins us, CNN commentator and a senior writer for ESPN. Gentlemen, L.Z,. I'll start with you. I'm curious, your reaction to how Cosby handled or didn't handle the questions from Scott Simon over the weekend.

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't know what his lawyer said to him prior to that interview so I don't know if it was advised that he respond in that way. But on the outside looking in, obviously, this does not look good. It looks as if -- if you don't say that you're not guilty, you are in de facto sort of admitting guilt in the eyes of the public. That isn't right, but that's the way it's being interpreted right now for sure.

PEREIRA: Why don't I play or at least let you see the statement that we got from his lawyer.

"Over the last several weeks, decades old discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment."

Brian, I got to tell you, it's even interesting to me at all that he would agree to an interview --

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDNET: Yes.

PEREIRA: -- at all.

STELTER: Some people have called that denial a non-denial denial because it's going around the issue, calling the allegations discredited and old, and then saying just because they're out there doesn't make them true but not addressing the heart of them.

I have a feeling what happened with NPR was it was set up way in advance. It was about his art collection and how he had donated art to a museum, wonderful thing to celebrate with an interview. And I think he probably wasn't expecting to be asked the question, or if he was, they thought that by being silent, NPR wouldn't be able to broadcast it.

PEREIRA: It does make you wonder what is going on in the offices of his representation. I mean, look at this tweet -- there's a series of tweets -- you both have seen these -- that have gotten away from them. Somebody from his social media team put out these images and said, hey, make a caption for these. And it went sideways, L.Z. I mean, people just went after Cosby.

GRANDERSON: Well, you know, first of all, Bill Cosby is not in the same light, if you will, in the African-American community as he was during "The Cosby Show". You know, maybe mainstream media may still think of him as loveable Cliff Huxtable, but blacks, really, a large chunk of us do not like him because of his respectability politics versus incorporating the fact that instituionalized racism has something to do with where blacks are today. That's a really, really sore subject for us right now.

So when Bill Cosby did that, in addition to the rape allegations, you also have people who despise him anyway. So whoever is in his social media office definitely --

PEREIRA: -- is clueless.

GRANDERSON: -- needs to be fired, because they haven't been paying attention.

PEREIRA: They haven't been paying attention.

So we look at what's happening. We don't know if it was him or his people or Queen Latifah's staff, but he didn't appear on her show. We also know that the producers of Letterman canceled him, or if he canceled his appearance.

STELTER: Right, right.

PEREIRA: What do things look like for him going forward? We saw him performing over the weekend in Pennsylvania.

STELTER: Right, he's still been out doing appearances, but he's been replaced on the Letterman show this week by Regis Philbin. Regis is the kind of guy you bring in last minute when a guest backs out so it makes sense that they backed out of Letterman. Maybe because the NPR interview went sideways, they decided to back out of Letterman.

PEREIRA: Do you think there's going to be boycotts and black listing going forward or do you think he's going to be Teflon (ph) again?

STELTER: No, I still think he's going to have a fan base out there but I do think he's going to have a trouble, for example, with NBC. NBC's been developing a new sitcom. He was going to be the center of it. The network hasn't commented on what's going to happen with that show, and apparently it's very early in development so it'd be pretty easy to walk away from it. But I think that's the project that's going to be hindered by the resurfacing of these allegations.

I still think he's going to fill arenas for his comedy.

PEREIRA: You think so.

STELTER: I do.

PEREIRA: L.Z., it's really interesting, I was reflecting on the statement from the lawyer talking about the fact that they are not going to dignify these allegations with any comment. That would be one thing if it was a single accusation out of left field, but these -- there were 13 allegations that we know of, women that have come public and come forward with these things over a number of years.

GRANDERSON: The problem with what's going on right now is that he is hoping to continue on with a public career. We've seen high powered or high noted people be accused of allegations before and still have been able to manage some sort of a career, mainly because they're working behind the scenes. I'm thinking of, for instance, Woody Allen's been able to continue to work despite the allegations; Roman Polanski was able to continue to work. The past summer, Brian Singer was accused of some horrible things, and he -- his movie, the X-Men final movie did extremely well this summer because he was behind the scenes. It's those who are in front of the camera that has to I think address these issues because they're constantly being reminded by their presence in front of the camera, in front of television. R. Kelly had to address it, for instance.

PEREIRA: Do you think things have changed? Do you think that we as a society are less tolerant of it? I mean, you've named off a number of things, L.Z. We think about the redemption that several stars have managed to get at least a measure of -- Paula Deen, for example, the "Duck Dynasty" fellows . They're back doing their thing. Are we evolving as a society and not willing to put up with this kind of behavior?

STELTER: Well, to L.Z.'s point, the last time I saw Woody Allen was at one of these A-list parties at the Four Seasons where someone was being celebrated. Woody Allen has been able to come back into the public spotlight. But he hasn't given interviews and maybe that's the difference.

For years, these allegations were out there, and whenever Cosby would be interviewed, he tended not to be asked about these allegations. Well, that's what's changed now, it seems like, because of the coverage in recent days and Barbara Bowman speaking out in recent days.

To me, though, I don't know if the culture has evolved. Look at the Twitter response to him in a very aggressive way him, maybe appropriate, maybe not. And throughout all of this, remember, Bill Cosby may be the victim. It's an awkward thing to say because there are a number of women have brought these allegations against him. But because there isn't proof, because there were never charges filed, it's one of those cases --

PEREIRA: Oh it's hard -- but it's hard to just because of those things, remember, these women were 17-years-old when this all happened. And there are going to be many that will believe where there is smoke, there is fire.

STELTER: For sure. And I tend to believe where there's smoke, there's fire. But I just imagine him sitting on the couch this morning, watching this segment, thinking to himself that he's the victim. Whether or not, you can imagine that feeling from him.

PEREIRA: Brian Stelter, L.Z. Granderson, always a pleasure to have you both. Thanks so much for a great conversation.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Mick, thank you very much.

That's one of the stories we are following, but there is a lot of news this morning. So let's get right to it.