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White House Concedes Mistake on Paris March; Romney Makes Moves to Reassemble Campaign Team; Four Jews Killed in Paris To Be Buried; Ohio State Wins National Championship

Aired January 13, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The White House in full damage control Monday, responding to a barrage of criticism over the president's decision not to attend the peace march in Paris on Sunday. Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitting that the decision not to send a high- profile representative was a mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think we should have sent someone with a high profile to be there. That said, there is no doubt that the American people and this administration stand four- square behind our allies in France as they face down this threat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: There you go. Took a day, but that's what you need to say.

CAMEROTA: A rare admission.

CUOMO: There it is.

So, let's discuss. Is this enough? Is it too much? Is it not enough?

CNN political analyst, editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", Mr. John Avlon. Also, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, Mr. Kevin Madden.

John, I start with you. You tell me why this is enough, we're good, time to move on.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Because they apologized, they made an unforced error and when people do that in politics and in life, you move on. You can't you don't get a redo on the funerals. You screw up, Eric Holder was in Paris, he should have been there at the very, very least. But they realized they screwed up. They apologized, you move on.

CAMEROTA: Not so fast, John, here comes Kevin. Because they admitted they screwed up, that's fine and the French said, no big deal, we feel your support either way. But doesn't this show a level of tone-deafness?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It does, and I think that's something that you'll see some criticism of the White House from. That, that they didn't take this as seriously as they should and that's what made it such a glaring admission. But I think they made the admission is really what the White House does.

Usually what the White House tries to do is chalk it up to some partisan criticism. But the criticism came from so many different sides, and I think that's when they really had nowhere else to go, but to apologize.

But I think John is right this is something now that they've made an apology, I think people will quickly move on.

CUOMO: What I want to know -- I can't move on. I think this resolves the political aspect of it. There's no question about that.

But it was such an obvious thing to go, that it makes me wonder why didn't they do it? Did they have a legit security concern?

The schedules don't seem to be onerous impressive. Certainly not Secretary Kerry, with all due respect to commerce with India, John Avlon. That's what I don't get.

Someone said we're not going to send POTUS, we're not going to send the vice president, we're not going to do it.

AVLON: Well, first of all, I mean, I think there were legitimate security issues about sending the president in that. That was one of the issues that Hollande expressed to Netanyahu. Netanyahu, of course, went anyway.

CUOMO: With Abbas.

AVLON: Yes, that in a big condition to the French government apparently.

But John Kerry rarely loses an opportunity to go to Paris, he did not prioritize this.

CAMEROTA: Right.

AVLON: And again, Eric Holder was in Paris.

To be fair, and you were there, the size, scope of the rally took a lot of people by surprise. They weren't necessarily expecting 3 million people.

But this is part of the burden of being the leader of the free world, and taking the term and the symbol seriously is that the U.S. needs to be there. If it's not going to be the president, then it's going to be at least a senior cabinet member official who stands for justice. And Eric Holder was in the city.

CAMEROTA: Kevin Madden, let's move on to president politics. Back here at home, is Mitt Romney really going to run again in 2016?

MADDEN: It's like Groundhog Day again, right?

Look, I think he's very seriously considering it. Remember, Mitt Romney ran in 2008, he ran in 2012.

In order to run for presidency, you have to have a very deep-seated belief that you're the right person for the job, that you have the right skill set to take on some of the challenges that the country is facing.

And I don't think that those -- that deep-seated belief goes away with just two years' time and I think that you couple that with a lot of folks that are very close to Mitt Romney that are telling him he should and can run again, and then you couple that again with a lot of donors who are saying if you decide to run and we think you should, we'll be there to help you build the infrastructure that you need to win. You put all of that together and you have the Governor Romney very seriously considering doing it again.

CUOMO: Kevin said the right word, he used the "D" word, donors. Everybody knows that Mitt Romney, yes, he has his own money, but politics is never about your own money, unless you're Bloomberg.

He has a good hold on a huge base of donors within that party. You could say they're former Bushies, you know? But they're his now, he controls them. He's maintained those relationships, uncharacteristically with a lot of enthusiasm since the race.

AVLON: I don't know that he controls them and you're right to point out that Romney supporters, many of them were Bush supporters before. He clearly sees an opportunity in this race, that there's a vacuum of leadership, in part because you've got a field of warring pygmies out there and Mitt Romney is coming in saying, look, I actually emerged from the last race with my reputation enhanced. He was a player and a party leader or the closest thing to it in 2014 and he has some of the credibility of Jeb Bush without the baggage of the Bush name.

So, I think that there's an opportunity that he sees here. He's also very much a stick to it guy. As Kevin Madden pointed out, if you believe you're the best man to be the president, does that get erased immediately? Well, perhaps not in the absence of a humiliating defeat. This is only semi-humiliating.

I think you talk to people inside the Romney orbit, this is a serious reassessment. And if he got into the race, he would be the tallest midget in the room.

CAMEROTA: You were Mitt Romney's press secretary in 2008. You know him well. Have you talked to him about this?

MADDEN: I have. He call immediate to let me know he was considering this he made it clear that he would do, were he to decide to run again, that he would -- he would run a different type of campaign. That he would have different people involved.

CAMEROTA: Like what? How would it look different?

MADDEN: Well, I don't know, I mean, that's -- to tell you the truth, that's the unknown right now. We know he's considering it. We know he said he'd do it differently.

CUOMO: We know (INAUDIBLE) Paul Ryan.

MADDEN: Right. But the other thing, he's got to assure not only diehard Republican activists, not only donors, but the viewing public on this. That he would do things very differently. He has a different message, one that would be ultimately a winning one. That I think we have to see over the next three or four weeks.

AVLON: The clear shift obviously, Kevin, this time it's going to be a winning message. But I do think something significant has occurred in the intervening years, and it's not just the role he played in 2014. I do think the documentary "Mitt" that came out which showed a deeper side of the man, and, you know, Romney was so tightly controlling, there was never the risk of intimacy to show people who he really was.

So, there was a lot of credibility criticism that he didn't seem authentic. He seemed to say whatever you need to do to make him president, but the documentary showed his family life, his personal life and people walked away saying this is a decent and good man. I think that's one of the reasons he's in the consideration set again, and that's a lesson he could take if he wanted to run again.

MADDEN: I agree with some of what you said. Think one of the problems the last time was that you can't have a campaign where you have different warring factions inside the campaign pushing and tugging against what the overall strategy and message should be.

And that Governor Romney I think has to give a lot of these folks that are looking at him for a second time. He has to give them a sense that he has a very clear vision of what he wants to do for the country. He has a very clear vision of how he wants to run the campaign and then go and tell the consultants, go and tell the donors, the activists, this is what I -- this is the reason I want to be president, these are the reasons I want to be president and make it very clear.

A lot of times that got muddled during the last campaign.

CUOMO: If I'm Jeb Bush, if I'm Chris Christie, I want to run against Mitt Romney. I want to run against who didn't get it done.

AVLON: Interesting. Even though he's got more experience than all of them put together.

CUOMO: It didn't help him though.

CAMEROTA: All right. John, thanks. Kevin Madden, thanks so much.

MADDEN: Great to be with you.

CUOMO: Who cares what these good-looking men think and me, what do you think? Do you think Romney could win? Do you think he's going to get in the race? Tweet us @newday, or go to Facebook.com/NewDay. Let us know what you think.

CAMEROTA: I like that you included yourself in the good-looking --

CUOMO: I said "or me." I didn't include myself.

CAMEROTA: Got it.

CUOMO: It's politics --

CAMEROTA: All right. One of our top stories, they died together and are now being laid to rest together, a heartbreaking farewell to the four Jewish victims killed in the Paris grocery store. We will take you live to Jerusalem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

Don't leave the house ill-prepared, let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers, keeping track of the latest forecast for us.

Ice storm, are those words really being put together again?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You bet. Raleigh and Charlotte tomorrow morning will wake up to unbelievable glaze on the roadways, a quarter-inch of ice in Raleigh for tomorrow morning, it's already cold enough.

You know it hasn't been above freezing in Chicago in nine days, it hasn't been above freezing in Minneapolis in 10 days, not even in the warmest part of the day. And right now Minneapolis, you're ten below with a wind chill factor of 22 below. We're going to add it with a storm system that runs up the East Coast, that will put down rain, and it's going to be 28 degrees in Raleigh and Charlotte tomorrow morning.

Could even be some snow into Richmond, sleet, too and a little bit of snow into D.C. and everybody in D.C. freaks out with a quarter inch of that. So wake up a couple of minutes early and see if it happens.

Another thing that's happening today, a big area here of fog across parts of the United States. Atlanta, there you go, that's what it looks like right now, 686 planes, Chris, delayed yesterday from delta because of the fog in Atlanta, another day like that today -- Chris.

CUOMO: Safety first, Chad, thank you for giving us the latest. Appreciate it, though.

A lot of news this morning, right to Ms. Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning, once again.

Here are your headlines, everyone.

A tearful good-bye for the four men gunned down by an Islamist terrorist at a grocery store in Paris. Joint funeral being held in Jerusalem this morning, attended by Benjamin Netanyahu among others.

Let's turn to Atika Shubert who is there -- Atika.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The funeral has ended and the families are now walking to the site where those victims will be buried. It was a state funeral, very unusual for civilians to be given a state funeral.

But it was as requested and granted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He spoke at funeral saying that Israel would welcome the Jewish community in France with open arms if they choose to live here. And he also warned against a rising tide, he said of Islamist extremism. And he said the world had to wake up, that it was a threat to not only Jews in Europe or to Jews anywhere, but to the world at large.

It was a very emotional ceremony. We heard not only from dignitaries but also from the family members. They lit a candle for each victim and we learned a little about some of the victims that Philippe Brahman, bought a home here in Israel, but hadn't a chance to move in and live and that others wanted to move here as well. Unfortunately, it now seems they were only able to move here in death.

PEREIRA: Other funerals will be held in Paris for the other victims.

Atika, thank you for that.

The Pentagon says no classified information was accessed when the Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Command were hacked apparently by ISIS sympathizers, who threatened American soldiers. The FBI and defense officials are trying to determine exactly who was behind that breach. Both sites were immediately shut down.

Pardon me.

South Dakota's ban on same-sex marriage is declared unconstitutional. A federal judge struck down the ban Monday, saying that gay couples have a, quote, "fundamental right to marry". The ruling allows, follows suit with several other states that have issued similar rulings in the last year. No marriage licenses will be issued, though, the judge's ruling is on hold pending an appeal by the state.

Quite a story here. A former NFL star sharing his remarkable story of survival at sea. Rob Konrad somehow managed to swim to shore after a big wave tossed him from his fishing boat last week. Konrad's 16-hour ordeal was at least nine mile, possibly as long as 27 because of currents he had to swim through.

Listen to the former Miami Dolphin fullback explain how he cheated death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB KONRAD, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I followed the sun, you know, during the day. And by the time night came I could see the lights on the shore and pick out certain landmarks, but I've got two beautiful daughters -- I was hitting that shore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: The 38-year-old Konrad said at one point he was stung by jellyfish and circled by a shark. His fishing boat has been recovered near Deadman's Reef in Grand Bahama Island, the auto pilot still on.

CAMEROTA: That's an incredible story.

PEREIRA: You sound skeptical.

CAMEROTA: Well, I don't know. I mean, you know, it's just an incredible story. And when only person lives to tell it, it's just fascinating.

PEREIRA: Well, he was reported missing. We know that.

CUOMO: There's nobody else on the boat.

PEREIRA: There's nobody else on the boat.

He was having a very difficult time walking back in.

CUOMO: You said only person survives.

CAMEROTA: When there's only person who is around to tell the story, it's just sounds fantastical on some level.

But I'm happy that he survived. It's great. Let us know what you think, if this is all possible --

PEREIRA: She's alone on her island over here.

CAMEROTA: I like the metaphor.

CUOMO: All right. Well, how about this one -- I'll try it on you, Ohio State wins the big game, hurray, let's go out and do stupid and dangerous stuff! Yup, Ohio state kids and others showing why they need more schooling. Police in riot gear, teargas. We're going to look at what happened in what should have been a celebration.

CAMEROTA: Plus, how the hostages inside the Paris grocery store survived the horrifying terror attack. We'll look at what they say and how they managed to stay alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The Ohio State Buckeyes capped off an improbable run last night, beating the Oregon Ducks.

PEREIRA: She's talking football.

CAMEROTA: I am. I'm reading it phonetically -- to win the first-ever college football playoffs.

Andy Scholes is at the game and has more in the morning's "Bleacher Report" from the North Texas.

Tell us everything, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey, good morning, guys.

It was such an electric atmosphere here last night. What a great game, what a great way to start off the college football playoffs. This is a newspaper they were handing out last night from the "Columbus Dispatch," saying an historic victory.

It certainly was for Ohio State. No one expected them to win. That's why the playoff is so great. They won it the first year as the fourth seed.

Now, Ohio native LeBron James was on hand to cheer on the Buckeyes on the sidelines. After they lost not one but two quarterbacks this season, no one gave Ohio state a chance at winning it all. But third- stringer Cardale Jones, he just continues to silence the doubters, he was great again last night, making big play after big play. He will now forever be a legend in the state of Ohio. As will running back Ezekiel Elliott, who ran for 246 yards and four touchdowns, he was your MVP, as the Buckeyes amazingly overcame four turnovers, to beat Oregon 42-20.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

CARDALE JONES, OSU QUARTERBACK: It's funny being the underdogs, because like you say, every time we're the underdogs, end up winning. But, I mean, we don't let that be the fuel to our fire. You know, we always play with a chip on our shoulder, and we want to go out and win, and whether underdogs or the favorite.

EZEKIEL ELLIOTT, NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP OFFENSIVE MVP: I don't think a lot of people believed in us, all that mattered was we believed in each other, and that's why we're where we're at, we believe in each other. We go out and play for each other every game, and we're not going to lay each other down.

URBAN MEYER, 3 NATIONAL TITLES AS HEAD COACH: This team wasn't supposed to do this, they fought through adversity, they got stronger and stronger and stronger. And this is a great team.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SCHOLES: With the win, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer is the second coach ever to lead two schools to a national title.

Now the only party as big as the one out here with the buckeyes fans, was the one going on this Columbus, Ohio, a bunch of dumpsters, coaches set on fire. Police had to use tear gas and a bunch of students stormed the horseshoe and took down one of the goal posts. No serious injuries were reported. So that's good.

Guys, the spring semester at Ohio State actually got going yesterday. So all of those students are expected in class this morning. I'm not sure how many are going to show up after a whole night of partying, though.

CAMEROTA: You make a good point, Andy. Thanks so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

CUOMO: It's not good that they marred such a beautiful occasion. But still --

CAMEROTA: That's just happened.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Too often, too often.

That's one story. A lot of news, though, this morning.

We want to turn back to Paris, new details have emerged about just how French hostages survived near encounters with death during the supermarket attack in Paris Friday. Each and every one of those hostages feared that they would die. So how did they hang on?

Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(GUNSHOTS)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the face of terror, survivors and heroes emerge. Like this man, a practicing Muslim who herded people into a freezer at this kosher market where he worked.

The gunmen, Amedy Coulibaly, had just charged into the store and opened fire.

LASSANA BATHILY, SHOP WORKER WHO SAVED PEOPLE (through translator): I switched off the light and switched off the freezer. He asked us to all come upstairs, otherwise he would kill everyone downstairs.

I asked my colleagues what they thought, should we go up or stay here. With me, there was a person with a 2-year-old baby. I told them, you stay calm, I'm the one who is going to go out. I took the elevator and went upstairs.

KAYE: Lassana Bathily then managed to run outside to tell police about the gunmen and the hostages in the freezer. One of those in the freezer, Rudi Hadad, later spoke exclusively with Israeli Channel 2 News.

RUDI HADAD (through translator): He was there to kill people. We heard a big explosion. We were all closed in fridge. We heard gunfire from everywhere.

KAYE: When they were freed --

HADAD: They said to climb upstairs and not look on the floor, because there was a lot of blood on the floor. It's a miracle that we're all still here, me and the people who were in the fridge.

KAYE: As news of the freezer hide-away spread, social media lit up. Lassana Bathily was hailed a hero. This tweet reads, "Muslim worker in kosher store hid Jews, saved them. Right now, Lassana Bathily is the coolest man on the planet."

(on camera): Just north of Paris, the suspects from the "Charlie Hebdo" massacre were cornered inside a printing plant. What they didn't know was that Lilian Lapier (ph), a graphic designer, was hiding inside a cardboard box, texting police about the gun men's movement and his own whereabouts in the building.

(voice-over): He also reportedly sent a chilling text to his father, "I am hidden in the first floor, think they have killed everyone. Tell the police to intervene."

His texts likely helped snipers set their positions. In the end, Lapier and a hostage being held at gunpoint survived. It turns out there were no other victims.

Another man at the printing plant earlier also survived a close encounter with the Kouachi brothers. He told French radio he mistakenly shook hands with one of the suspects, before the owner told him to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I suppose he was a terrorist. I didn't really know. I took him as an armed policeman. He was wearing a uniform and he had a bulletproof vest on.

KAYE: When the siege was over, he told reporters he was going to buy a lottery ticket. That it was the luckiest day of his life.

Randy Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Tremendous tales of survivor. We're following a lot of these this morning, so let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The search continues for the one confirmed suspect, the girlfriend of kosher grocery store attacker, Amedy Coulibaly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The surveillance footage showing Hayat Boumeddiene entering Turkey from Madrid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If she has gone to Syria, it will be virtually impossible for any sort of intelligence service to get hold of her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think eventually she'll die out there. She will not come home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leaders from 40 countries marched with French president, Francois Hollande. Notably, President Obama. EARNEST: I think it's fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We asked them to stand with us time after time when we think we're threatened. And now, they are threatened, we have to stand with them.