Return to Transcripts main page

NEW DAY

Demonstrations Continue in Chicago and New York Over Police Shooting of a Black Teenager; Tensions Continue Between Turkey and Russia over Shooting Down of Russian Warplane; 2016 Hopefuls Respond to Chicago Police Shooting. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: -- is warning its members of threats of an ambush from a gang enraged by Laquan McDonald's death. CNN's Ryan Young is live in Chicago tracking all the developments for us. Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, to be honest, people are very angry about this. We saw more energy in the streets last night. In fact we were on Michigan Avenue, and people came from the south side up Michigan Avenue and for the first time went up the Magnificent Mile, stopping traffic all around the route.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

YOUNG: A second night of unrest in two major cities as hundreds of protesters returned to the streets.

(SHOUTING)

YOUNG: From Chicago to New York, demonstrators marching in frustration over the shocking death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. Police arresting several protesters in New York City, their passion spilling into the Macy's flagship department store in the heart of Manhattan, their voices raging. In Chicago, demonstrators stage a sit-in blocking a major intersection, some trying to take police officers' bikes.

This as newly released dash cam videos obtained by "The Chicago Tribune," capture the moment before and after 37-year-old Jason Van Dyke shot McDonald 16 times last October. This is Officer Van Dyke's own vehicle dash cam. While out of focus, you can see McDonald cutting across the front of his police car and passing a nearby Burger King. Moments later, about six seconds after getting out of his vehicle, Officer Van Dyke begins to shoot the teen as he walked down the street, wielding a knife, continuing to fire even after McDonald fell to the ground.

Just minutes later this dash cam from another police car shows McDonald lying on the street, the other officers at the scene never opening fire. Van Dyke's attorney says, the officer was in fear for his life and says the videos don't show a complete picture, saying McDonald was -- DAN HERBERT, JASON VAN DYKE'S ATTORNEY: -- harassing business

owners, waving a knife for about 18 minutes on a busy street, him stabbing a squad car windshield that was manned with two police officers inside there.

YOUNG: Late Wednesday, President Obama reacting to the deadly shooting, saying he was, quote, "deeply disturbed by the footage, and is grateful to his hometown for keeping protests peaceful."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: We also saw some protesters go the Millennium Park and try to rip some Christmas lights off the tree that's there. There's also plans for something to happen here on black Friday. Look, the Magnificent Mile is right behind me. Of course black Friday sales will be happening. People said they're going to disrupt the sales here. You can see the energy changing. The first night, even though they were protesting, it remained very peaceful. But obviously right now you hear people's anger starting to ratchet up just a bit, Michaela.

PEREIRA: You can be vocal if you're angry, you don't need to be destructive with anger, and that's something community leaders are hoping protesters and demonstrators will adhere to, right? All right, Ryan, thanks for that for us.

We have breaking news overseas for you. No signs of tensions easing between Russia and Turkey days after Turkey shot down a Russia jet. Turkey's president now saying he'd do it again if the same circumstances presented themselves. Ian Lee live in Istanbul with the latest. Strong words from the Turkish president.

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Basically doubling down on that incident, saying that if he could go back in time he'd do the same thing over again, insisting that Russia owes Turkey an apology. This happening while they released the audio message of that warning to that Russian airplane, telling it to turn south to veer away. Now Russia's saying they didn't get any audio message as well as saying that they did not violate Turkish airspace.

While on the ground in Syria we are seeing Russian forces and allies going after rebels supported by Turkey. Russia has carried out at least 12 air strikes in the area where the plane went down. There's also heavy shelling from mortars and artillery by the Syrian army. Also there's a lot of talk about punitive measures to Turkey's economy. Turkey -- Russia is Turkey's second largest trading partner. Turkey gets 60 percent of its gas from Russia. Russian tourists bring in $4 billion a year, a lot of money there. Turkey saying that what happened in the skies over Syria should not translate to the economy, but it doesn't look like Putin's ready to forgive and forget.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Ian, thanks so much for all of that background.

So, did Turkey dangerously overreact in shooting of the Russian jet? [08:05:00] Joining us now are two military experts on opposing

sides of this issue, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks, our CNN military analyst. He's formerly with the army. He's now the executive Dean of the University of Phoenix. He says yes, they did over react. CNN military analyst and retired army former commanding general of Europe and the Seventh Army, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling says no, they did not overreact. We thought it would be interesting to have you two generals on duke this out. So I will refer you to your titles during this to put you on even playing field. Let's start with you, General Hertling. Why do you say they were justified in doing so?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, good morning, Alisyn, happy Thanksgiving, first of all. But secondly, it's great to have dueling generals who are also friends and West Point classmates.

What I suggest is the first question you have to ask is does a 17-second Turkish border incursion justify deadly force? No, it does not, if taken alone. But in this case, we have both the law and the facts on Turkey's side. The law, first of all. Article 51 of the U.N. charter says, any kind of attack into a country or a foreign incursion justifies the use of force.

But there are mitigating circumstances in this. There were multiple Russian incursions into Turkish airspace over the last month, number one. Number two, Russia flew a UAV into Turkish airspace and it was actually shot down. Number three, about a week and a half ago, a MiG-29, Russian fighter, painted two Turkish F-16s for over four minutes, giving them the fear they had locked on weapon system. That's number three.

And number four, on November 19th, the Turkish government called the Russian ambassador into Ankara and said "We have seen you crossing our airspace multiple times, we have seen you strike Turkmen forces in Syria. Knock it off." So there was a warning. Those are facts of the cases. And there's a whole -- those are the legal aspects. There's a lot of facts that go with that, too. Mr. Putin has done this repeatedly. He has done this not only to Turkey but other NATO allies, and the Turkish -- I'm sorry, the Russian media has a propensity to have a distance from the truth and is lying about what actually happened.

CAMEROTA: OK, there you go. General Marks what does your friend and former classmate get wrong about this scenario?

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Classmate forever, and Mark Hertling is a very dear friend. The facts, as Mark laid them out are absolutely spot-on. The challenge that I have is that at this time, irrespective of those facts, that litany of occurrences that took place, Turkey had an option to deescalate.

We don't need to be provocative against Russia, and Russia is routinely provocative with the use of its military force, not only against NATO but in the region where we are right now. And there seems to be potential confluence of interest that we could possibly have with Russia vis-a-vis ISIS. That is a possibility. Evidence is, is that that would be a very, very hard road to go along.

But I find it ironic that we have a NATO partner that would take everyone in NATO into a potential hot war with Russia. We've not been in a hot war with Russia. We don't want to be in a hot war with Russia. But would drag NATO into potential hot war with Russia at the exact time when we have an issue with ISIS. And if we were to converge against ISIS, we would have the likelihood of eliminating or at least ameliorating the problem there and not escalating a problem with Russia that has nuclear capability that we have historical animosities against. We now have an opening to cooperate, and we're starting to close that door. That's my larger concern.

CAMEROTA: General Hertling, I want to ask about the 17 seconds. If there was a -- some sort of jet that was over U.S. airspace for 17 seconds, would U.S. shoot it down?

HERTLING: Well, again, I go back to the argument, Alisyn. And first of all, I agree with everything Spider is saying. This could not have happened at the worst time. But truthfully, Russia has been tweaking not only Turkey's nose the last several months but NATO for the last year or so.

But if you go back to the statement you just made, if it was 17 seconds over Alaska, probably not. We would likely escort it out of territory very quickly. But again, you look at the extenuating circumstances and the repeated violations by Russia in NATO territory, that's got to be considered. If this happened multiple times over the United States, and the United States had warned Russia knock it off, we might just shoot it down as well. Again, territorial integrity is very important.

CAMEROTA: So General Marks, what about that? You've even said that they have had repeated provocations, Russia has. So what are countries like Turkey supposed to do about that? Let it keep happening?

MARKS: Again, what do we want to achieve as end-state? The short answer to your question might be, yes, you let it continue as long as it's not provocative. You acknowledge it, you escort it, you create a corridor.

[08:10:06] And then have diplomatic options to go back and say, look, we've got to cut this out, we cannot allow this to occur. This is not the time. This is I inopportune for us to be in some type of a provocative arrangement with Russia. We haven't read -- we haven't read the indicators right now relative to ISIS where a strategy should be changing, and right now we're trying to return to Russia and poke them in the eye. That's not what we want to do right now. We've got to be able to deescalate. We've got to breathe through our nose and approach this in a far more measured way. We can't afford to have a strongman in Turkey say, I'm going to stand up to Russia. You guys can't, you, NATO, the United States, you've not done this. We're now going to stand up to Russia. This is not the time to do this that.

CAMEROTA: General Marks --

HERTLING: Alisyn --

CAMEROTA: Very quickly.

HERTLING: Spider makes a very important point there, that repeatedly NATO has not stood up to Russia. Turkey has taken it on themselves to not be intimidated by that, and this might be a good thing. But remember, too, at early stages of this, the United States came to Russia and said let's cooperate and coordinate on airspace, and Russia said no, we don't need that. We're going to operate where we want to. They are now paying the price for that.

CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, you both make excellent points and you were far too friendly to each other and respectful. General Marks, General Hertling thanks so much.

MARKS: You have my apologies. Thanks, Alisyn. Happy Thanksgiving.

CAMEROTA: To you, too. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: Let's hope world leaders can have that warmth with one another.

French President Francois Hollande facing his most diplomatic challenge, sitting down with Vladimir Putin in less than three hours' time from now in Moscow, attempting to convince the Russian president to concentrate air strikes in Syria solely on ISIS while compromising on a political solution to the Syrian crisis. I want to turn live to Paris and bring in CNN senior European correspondent Jim Bittermann. Jim?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, both of those issues are really tough ones for the two presidents to talk about. Basically the west has said for some time now that Russia is not concentrating its air strikes on ISIS. They're hitting ISIS targets, but only in minority compared to the number of other anti- Assad targets that they're hitting.

And of course, Russia wants to defend Assad, they want him in power, that's the political part of the equation. The west would like to see Assad, and Hollande has already said that he wants to see Assad out of there

And just to show you how complex these diplomatic dance is, both Putin and Hollande will be here in Paris on Monday for the climate change talks with Vienna, as well as President Obama and 147 total leaders will be here talking about climate change. Now, this is something that everybody would like to get on board with at least to some measure, at least they want to be seen to be getting on board with this.

So the kind of talks going on in Russia today between Hollande and Putin, they may be on the sidelines of what happens here next week when the climate change talks start. I think a lot of people worried one is going to influence the other. You pull one thread, it's going to have an impact somewhere else down the line. So we'll see how this all goes next week. It's a terrible thing to have happen right after the horrific attacks here, the horrific terrorist attacks, and the French security forces really have a problem on their hands defending these 147 leaders and keeping them safe.

CAMEROTA: So challenging. Jim Bittermann, thanks so much, from Paris.

President Obama doing his best to reassure Americans celebrating Thanksgiving holiday that we are safe. The president says there are no credible threats and that law enforcement and Homeland Security officials are ready for anything. CNN's Joe Johns is live at White House with more. Good morning again Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You know, this is really just an acknowledgment by the president of the United States national security team, that Americans are thinking, they're talking, they're wondering if it's OK to travel, OK to get on a plane, OK to gather together.

So the president meeting with the security team, including the director of the FBI, the attorney general, the secretary of Homeland Security, then coming into the Roosevelt Room sort of a show of force to give a calibrated message to the American public -- the United States government is looking out for you, be safe, also be vigilant, and just go on about your Thanksgiving holiday business. Listen to what the president said here at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, we know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland. So as Americans travel this weekend to be with their loved ones, I want them to know that our counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security, and law enforcement professionals at every level are working overtime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:15:10] JOHNS: So, even though they say there are no credible threats that they know of here in the United States, there are a lot of concerns abroad, after Paris, Egypt, Beirut, and Tunisia yesterday, many concerns. As you know, there is that worldwide travel alert for Americans to be vigilant.

Back to you.

PEREIRA: That's right.

All right. Joe, thank you so much for that. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

To that point that Joe made, British Prime Minister David Cameron making his case to parliament for the U.K. to join the coalition launching air strikes this Syria. Britain launching strikes in Iraq. Prime Minister Cameron trying to convince members of the British parliament any strikes are unlikely to end in civilian casualties. A vote from the House of Commons is expected within a few weeks.

CAMEROTA: The federal government warning states they cannot legally block the resettlement of Syrian refugees. The federal office of refugee settlement sending a letter to all state resettlement agencies ordering them not to deny benefits and services to refugees based on their religion or their country of origin. Now, Texas officials refusing. They say they will not participate in the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

PEREIRA: President Obama once again keeping a turkey off the Thanksgiving table. He pardoned Abe, an 18-week-old 40-pounder from California. Abe beat another turkey, Honest -- get it? -- in an online vote. But both will live out their days happily in retirement on a Virginia farm.

I want to show you something interesting. Check this out -- look how much the first daughter, Sasha and Malia, have grown up since the turkey pardon.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh!

PEREIRA: On the left side of your screen is 2009, their first turkey pardon. On the right side is currently. They have grown so much in that such short amount of time.

CAMEROTA: Even the little one.

PEREIRA: I know. Yes, she's quickly overtaking her big sister.

Meantime, some of the Republicans looking to take the president's place, trying their hand at a turkey pardon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think you're so beautiful, you should be pardoned.

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm pardoning it for being ugly. It agrees.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope you don't grow upset at me, but we roast one the normal way. And the others, we fry 'em.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: More importantly, is there somebody whose job to grasp the turkey's legs and hold it still? Where is --

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: A little uncomfortable is what I'm thinking. Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Carly Fiorina, they're looking to show off lighter sides in time for the holiday.

CAMEROTA: Fantastic.

PEREIRA: That was a bad image.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, I'm glad it doesn't -- that could have gone wrong fast. Working with animals, as we know from morning shows --

PEREIRA: Very good point. They will overtake.

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, the breaking news overnight, there was another night of protests in Chicago, after the release of video showing the police shooting death of a black teenager. What do the 2016 candidates think about this incident? We'll get their reactions, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:42] PEREIRA: Protests continue in Chicago, over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old. Now, a number of 2016 candidates weighing in. The issue appears to be an area where Democrats and Republicans, perhaps, are in agreement.

Joining us this morning CNN political commentator and political anchor at Time Warner Cable News Errol Louis, and "TIME" political reporter, Zeke Miller.

I swear we're going to let you two go home, and have a nap before you eat some turkey, have another nap after you eat the turkey.

Let's play a little bit of sound because Jeb Bush, Alisyn had an interview with him just the other day here on "NEW DAY", reacting to the story ongoing death of the 17-year-old in Chicago. Let's listen to some sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a rising tide of violence in big urban areas, Chicago has an extraordinarily high murder rate. It's tough to be a police officer when they do what appears to have happened here, they should be charged as was the case in this case. And the fact that there was protests but no violence in Chicago is a tribute to the people of Chicago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRE: Zeke, interesting to hear a measured response from Jeb Bush, typically we've seen Democrats and Republicans sort of take different tacts on police shootings.

ZEKE MILLER, TIME POLITICAL REPORTER: Certainly. This is one of the examples of Republicans, A, being confronted, seeing video evidence, seems to be incontrovertible on its face and them taking that, and sort of not wanting to be on the wrong side of the issue. Republicans have live identified the need to expand their appeal in black and Hispanic communities, and certainly, you know, their traditional sort of "cops first" mentality, which we've seen a lot from Republican politicians over the years, sort of tough on crime stance.

It's something that they're certainly re-evaluating criminal justice reform in general. The change in relationship between police and law enforcement system and the communities they serve is something that both parties are in broad agreement on. It might be one thing that can get done in Congress in the next year.

CAMEROTA: But, Errol, I mean, Jeb Bush said a few different things, a few different points in there -- rising tide of violence in big urban areas, we've heard Republicans talk about that, why isn't that getting more attention? We see the sort of isolated incidents that get a lot of attention but not the rising tide of violence. It's tough to be a police officer, everybody agrees with that, that this officer should be charged, and he was happy there weren't protests.

But truly, is this the purview of the president or is this what mayors deal with?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, no, there needs to be a national solution to this. I mean, I have to disagree with what went on in Chicago. I don't see a happy ending here at all.

That video we've been showing over and over was in the hands of prosecutors and police a year ago and only the release of it over their objection, when it was ordered by a court, only then did they charge the officer with murder. So, they had all of the evidence, and there's a question about why it wasn't prosecuted.

CAMEROTA: But is that something the president should be weighing in on?

LOUIS: Look, it has to be done at the national level. It absolutely has to be done at the national level, because in this case, you have a compromised local prosecutor, you have a mayor who's playing politics with this, a police force that needs to, at a minimum, be investigated.

And that has to be done at state level. It has to be done at a national level. There's a law that's been out there. I've been talking about this a while now, that's supposed to have the U.S. attorney general put out a report annually to Congress, this has been on the books for 20 years, about how many people are killed by police.

It has never been properly funded and never enforced. Something of this --

[08:25:00] CAMEROTA: Why?

LOUIS: Well, I mean, Congress has refused to fund it. Local departments, and there are thousands across the country, they don't keep the numbers in the same way. And so, there needs to be some standardization, needs to be order placed on this and it has to come from Washington.

This is not something that they continue to -- they continue to sort of use these aphorism. They try to get past it a couple of talking points and get to the next debate. We've got to solve this. And that is what the presidential candidates should be talking about.

PEREIRA: Another presidential candidate sounding off on it, Bernie Sanders, as one might anticipate, firmly the other way, calling criminal justice reform the civil rights issue of the 21st century.

I'm curious, Zeke, how you think this issue is going to play in the 2016 campaign, how central will it be to the conversation?

MILLER: You know, when we see Bernie Sanders saying something like that, it's a very smart position for him politically, because he's having trouble reaching out to the African-American community, somewhere where Hillary Clinton has long and very deep ties and she's in that contentious primary, she's doing better so he's trying to one- up her in a certain sense on that side broadly in 2016, it's an area where all candidates are held into account.

You know, when it's -- if you look back at the last six month, eight months, a year, there have been three, four, five, seven, ten major national conversations around this issue. And there's no sign of it going away. And candidates are constantly going to have to find a way to address it and certainly when it comes to those debates, when it's a Democrat or Republican on stage next fall, you can imagine several questions on this subject, and their answers are going to have to be in lock step with American public, which is, there should be some sort of change. There may be disagreements about how necessary it is. Yes.

PEREIRA: Yes.

Well, you're wondering, perhaps, where is Trump in all of this? He has not said anything specific, Errol, about the shooting in Chicago, but he claims he is going to, today, get the endorsement of some 100 black pastors and evangelicals today. Is that going to be enough to undue damage, anti-minority damage that he's done?

LOUIS: Oh, not at all. I mean, this is not something that you can do away with, with a press op. It took us decades to get to this point. There's been a lot of bloodshed, there's been a lot of misunderstanding, there's been a lot of lawsuits.

Untangling this is going to take quite a while. It's part of a big national conversation, as Zeke points out. But we can't just do it when there's blood in the streets and we just can't do it with a photo op. It's going to take something a lot more concentrated.

That's what we need to see from protesters and from the police unions, from the mayors, from the Congress, and certainly from the next president. It needs to be -- this is a big, big deal.

I mean, I think Bernie Sanders is right about that point. This is a big, big, deal. It's going to take time it's like an onion, you come up with one intractably difficult issue after the other the minute you peel apart race, crime, disorder, and sort of the cities and the relationship to the government, it really gets very, very, very tough.

PEREIRA: Well, Zeke, Errol, we release you now.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PEREIRA: Like pardoned turkeys.

CAMEROTA: But stay close.

PEREIRA: Yes, that's true. They should probably stay close. You'll be needed at CNN I'm sure.

Thanks for joining us today.

LOUIS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Happy Thanksgiving.

All right. Russian President Vladimir Putin set to meet with French President Francois Hollande. The pair is expected to hammer out a unified deal, somehow, to defeat ISIS, or at least try to. But how will things play out after that Russian jet was shot down?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)