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Countries Meet for International Climate Change Conference; U.S. Policy for Syria Examined; Interview with White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 30, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Alisyn and Michaela are in New York and we are in Paris. The authorities here have all they can handle. Operations are ongoing. The extent of the terror network here still not completely known. The threat is very real of more attacks. And yet, we have 147 heads of state, including the president of the United States, assembled here right now for the 21st Conference of Parties. The U.N. meeting to stem climate change, the COP 21.

The planet certainly warming, according to scientists. The president acknowledging that U.S. is partly to blame for climate change. He also emphasized, no nation can get everything it wants in the battle to curb greenhouse gases, and attendees of COP 11 need to recognize that nations have various needs and all need to be taken into account.

But for all the urgency of climate issues, the cloud hanging over this event is obviously security. The French are scrambling. There's over 120,000 military and police in place to keep this summit safe.

Now, despite all that, there's still issues. You're looking now at the Place de La Republique, filled with protesters. But there was a ban on demonstrations is and there wound up being violence as a result. CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta begins our coverage at the conference. Some news was made by the president, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris. President Obama saluted the French people for continuing with this climate summit despite the Paris attacks just a couple weeks ago. In a speech to more than 150 world leaders gathered here, president said the global community must show its resolve not just against ISIS, but to confront the threat posed by climate change. And here's more of what the president had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've come here personally, as the leader of the world's largest economy and the second largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our role in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: That was a somber start for this climate summit as the leaders observed a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the Paris attacks. As soon as President Obama landed in France, he stopped at the Bataclan Theater where he laid a single white rose in memory of the people killed by ISIS in the city. The French capital is very much on edge, as you said, Chris, in the aftermath of the attacks on November 13. Protestors clashed with French authorities Sunday over new rules that are now in place that are set down to clamp on large scale demonstrations.

But these world leaders who are gathered here for the summit, they want an agreement that will commit every single country on earth to big reductions in carbon emissions over the coming decades. But Chris, they have to do all of that, as you said, under this cloud of security and concerns about threats of terrorism all around the world. Chris?

CUOMO: Jim, thank you very much. The challenges are obvious. They've tried at least twice before to get the kind of cooperation and consensus they're trying to get here at the COP 21. And the security situation every bit as nebulous. We have breaking news on that front. Two sources telling CNN French intelligence now operating under the theory that the surviving Paris attacker has in fact escaped and made it back to Syria.

We've also learned that this man bought 10 detonators at a fireworks shop locally, right on the outskirts of Paris. And he was asking they be very reliable in his conversations with one of the store owners coming forward and telling what happened before the attacks.

Meantime a source also telling CNN that attack plots were thwarted after the Paris massacre. They were supposed to target Jewish areas, transport networks, and schools.

All right, with that as the context, obviously, the business at hand is the COP 21. Climate politics are difficult globally, certainly in the United States specifically. So let's bring in White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest obviously in Paris for the climate conference. Good to have you, Josh. There is news to be made. The president is saying the U.S. is to blame, but also seeming to speak with a high degree of optimism that he believes he can get an agreement here. Why?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, Chris, thanks for having me on the show. Listen, what the president has come to Paris to get is to get all countries around the world to follow through on their commitment to make ambitious, robust commitments to cut carbon pollution and fight the climate change, and also commit to a set of verifiable, transparent steps to make sure that we can account for them living up to those commitments.

That would make a significant impact on our ability to fight the causes of climate change that are already being felt in communities, in some cases, across the United States, but certainly in places around the world.

There's also a significant economic opportunity here. For a long time, Chris, we heard the critics of climate change policy suggest that it was foolish for the United States to take steps to curb our carbon pollution as long as the rest of the world was going to pollute and they were unwilling to follow our lead.

[08:05:05] Well, thank to this president's leadership and the success that he had in getting China to make a significant commitment to reduce their carbon pollution, we've actually now seen that about 180 countries have made substantial commitments. That means we actually are going to do something to follow through on the cause of climate change. None of it would be possible without the leadership of the United States and without the leadership of this president.

CUOMO: All right, so Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, let's look at the plus-minus on this. I'm an optimist, so we'll start with the plus. Bill Gates joining forces with the president in one of these key public-private partnerships. Bill Gates says, forget about punishing people for not following the standard. Once we get cost equivalency, the innovators will kick in, the businesses will kick in, and that will be all the enforcement mechanism that you need. How important is it in the president's mind to foster the private side of things?

EARNEST: Chris, the truth is, we need to bring everything that we have to fight this challenge. So it's not just governments and multilateral institutions making contributions to fight climate change. We also need some investment and some capitalization from the private sector. Fortunately, the private sector recognizes the economic opportunity that exists here.

As the world turns toward a more low carbon economy, certainly an economy of the future that is lower in carbon, that creates significant economic opportunities. Innovations related to solar energy and wind energy, innovations in technology related to energy efficiency are all fruitful opportunities for people to do something good for the planet but also to go make a lot of money.

So this is why the president has prioritized investments in this sector in the United States. Now that we know the rest of the world is committed to pursuing this path, there means that there are now customers all around the world for these kinds of innovations. Again, whether it's renewable energy, like wind and solar, or investments in energy efficiency, there is economic opportunity, there is money to be made here in a way that's also good for the planet. So we do believe that leveraging private sector involvement here is going to be important to achieving our ultimate goal.

CUOMO: And yet there is the negative, right, which is, despite these commitments, in quotes, and this desire for an agreement here, it won't be legally binding. You have China meeting with the president, saying we're going to do things, making new commitments. But then the news comes out they're creating more emissions now than we thought they were. India saying, you had your industrial revolution. We're having ours now. We need fossil fuels. How do you get these giants to do what is not in their economic interest? One guy gave me a great analogy. He said, this is a ham and egg situation. Eggs, that's an easy thing to give. It's a contribution. But we're talking about ham from a pig. That's a sacrifice. How do you get these big countries to make a sacrifice, something that may hurt them in the short term?

EARNEST: Chris, the truth is, we've actually gotten these countries to do more than they've ever been willing to do in the past. The United Nations has been organizing these climate talks for more than 20 years. And it's only because of this president's leadership and securing a commitment, the bilateral commitment that we announced last November with the Chinese for both of the economies to make significant commitments to reduce carbon pollution that we have been able to catalyze actions from countries all around the world. So we've already gone farther than we ever have before.

The second part of this is there is a clear economic incentive for countries around the world to start to make these investments now. As I laid out before, we're seeing the private sector make substantial investments because they recognize the economic opportunity that exists. But Chris, the other thing, if we're being honest about it is, we need to acknowledge that while what's happening in Paris is critically important, it's not going to solve the overall problem. We also need to build into these negotiations a mechanism where we have countries around the world every five years or so revisiting their commitments and looking at what more they can do to advance this effort, because of the economic potential, because of the innovation we've already seen, the pace of innovation that we've already seen, we're optimistic that five years from now when we look at the progress we've made, we'll see what we've done is good but that now it's also possible to do ever more. So setting up a mechanism where every five years we have countries around the world revisiting their commitments and seeking to do even more, it's going to be critical to solving the challenge over the long term.

CUOMO: Ambitious, tenuous. Let's make a shift to the context within this context that we're discussing right now, which is the security situation here. Something that Christiane Amanpour just got out of the French defense minister, he said Assad's troops are not going to be any part of coalition efforts. Josh, you know that this is a really critical point of what's going on in the battle against ISIS, that the U.S. has been staunchly opposed to Assad. You know that fellow Democrat Tulsi Gabbard is pushing the bill to stop the war on Assad, saying that it's illegal, but also that it's a distraction from ISIS efforts.

[08:10:08] How do you get around the fact that you need Assad in the fight against is? You need those forces. You need the sense of urgency on the ground proper in that locality. How do you deal with this political challenge that you have now, of dealing with Assad in the context of this larger battle, if the coalition is saying his forces can't be a part of it?

EARNEST: Chris, you're right. This is complicated. There are a couple important things for viewers to understand. The first is the Assad regime is not going after ISIL. Right now the Assad regime is going after their political opponents and minority communities in Syria. That's precisely why Assad has lost legitimacy to lead his country. He's been using the armed forces of that country to attack innocent civilians in his country.

So it's not just the moral repugnance of Assad's leadership, it's his failure to unite the country. The fact he used the armed forces to attack innocent civilians means the civilian population inside of Syria is no longer willing to support him remaining in power. That's why the United States has led a diplomatic effort to try to effectuate a political transition inside of Syria.

So Secretary Kerry has been leading talks in Vienna that has brought 20 or so countries to the table to begin negotiations about a political transition. Ultimately it is Assad's failed leadership that is the root cause of all of these problems. So even countries like Russia, that have previously propped up the Assad regime and in some cases are still taking military action to prop him up, have acknowledged that a political transition is necessary to ultimately solve the problems that are plaguing Syria. And that means stemming the flow of migrants.

CUOMO: Except that --

EARNEST: It also means trying to bring security to the nation of Syria, to prevent ISIL from establishing a safe haven here.

CUOMO: But this is not a subtle distinction with Iran and Russia versus the U.S. and other western partners. They're saying Syria should decide its own fate in terms of any transition because they're believing that Assad would stay in power. Don't you have to make a decision of priorities at some point, that you're obviously not transitioning Assad out right now because de facto, it's not happening. And is it a distraction from the fight against ISIS? You have to pick your priorities right now.

EARNEST: Chris, we do have to pick our priorities. The priority of the United States is going after ISIL and preventing them from establishing a safe haven inside the chaos of Syria that allows them to plot and carry out attacks against the west. That has been the reason that the United States has been militarily involved inside of Syria more than a year now, to carry out air strikes and support forces on the ground against ISIL. That is part and parcel of our strategy and that is why we're engaged in the first place.

But the enduring solution to all the problems plaguing Syria is a long overdue political transition inside of Syria. The Syrian population does not support the Assad regime, because the Assad regime has been using the military of that country to attack them. Hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians have lost their lives because of this chaos and because of the failed leadership of Bashar al Assad. That's why the international community needs to come together and bring about the kind of political transition that moves Assad out of the way so that the moderate Syrian opposition can come together and negotiate and come together around a vision for a Syria that remains intact, and for a central government that retains the confidence of the Syrian population. Right now the Assad regime doesn't do that. And that is a significant problem right now.

CUOMO: Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, thank you for joining us on NEW DAY. Stay safe.

EARNEST: Thank you, Chris. I appreciate the opportunity.

CUOMO: All right, we'll get back to New York right now. Alisyn and Michaela, back to you in New York.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Chris. We do have some breaking news to tell you about, because breaking overnight, the U.S. embassy in Kabul issuing a serious warning of credible threats of an imminent attack in Kabul in the next 48 hours. There's no word of a specific target. Americans in the area are being urged to use extreme caution.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The man accused of killing three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs is expected to face a judge today. This as authorities try to determine Robert Dear's motive. A source tells CNN, Dear made remarks about baby parts when he surrendered. He also allegedly expressed anti-abortion and anti-government views to those officers. It's not clear if his views played a direct part in the incident.

CAMEROTA: More breaking news overnight. An anonymous threat of gun violence forcing the University of Chicago to shut its Hyde Park campus. Officials say the online post suggested an attack this morning. CNN's Ryan Young is live in Chicago with the very latest. What have you learned, Ryan?

[08:15:00] RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. You're talking about Obama's old neighborhood. In fact this is the quad, the area that the FBI said that threat talked about. This is where the gun violence was supposed to happen around 10:30 this morning, gave a specific time.

And in fact, just look behind me, it's pretty empty here. We've seen a couple people walking their dogs. But so far, seems like everyone has heeded the warning and stayed out of this area.

We have seen additional police, resource officers, in the area, driving around overnight as they watched this beautiful campus.

Now, of course, a statement came out that said, "Based on the FBI's Assessment of this threat and recent tragic events at other campuses across the country, we have decided in consultation with Federal Law and local law enforcement officials, to exercise caution by cancelling all classes.

Now, look, there's also on campus housing here. Those students have been told to stay in as much as possible. This is the final week of classes before finals. You can understand, this campus is full, but they're taking this threat seriously. In fact, as we looked around campus today, it looks empty.

PEREIRA: All right, Ryan, we'll check back with you as morning progresses.

Baltimore may all bracing for a trial with big implications. Jury selection is set to begin this morning for the first of six officers charged in their Freddie Gray case. CNN's Jean Casarez is live in Baltimore for us this morning. Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

You know, the big looming question is, can a fair and impartial jury be found right here in Baltimore? Jury selection is going to start a little over an hour in the courthouse right behind me. And up first is William Porter.

And Judge Gary Williams severed all of the defendant's trials, so there will be six individual trials. And this is a critical one because this will be sort of the prototype to see if that jury can be found.

Now, William Porter is charged with very serious offenses. First of all, involuntary manslaughter, second degree assault, misconduct in office, reckless endangerment. These are very serious felonies for the most part. And the fact is, 75 to 80 jurors are going to come into the courthouse in a little over an hour. They will be questioned by the judge with a showing of hand. And then if there are answers that have to be explained, like what do you know about this case, do you have an opinion? What is that opinion? Can you set aside? That well then they'll go into a conference room and out of the earshot of anyone, the explanations will come individual questioning.

So it may take some time but William Porter was not there at the beginning when Freddie Gray was arrested and he was taken to the original police van. He came in midway and critical in this case for prosecutors is this statement where he says that he asked Freddie Gray, do you need medical attention, the response was yes. And at that point he was not taken to a hospital. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK. Jean, thanks so much for all of that, all right.

On a later note, if you went to bed before the end of last night's Patriots-Broncos game, we have the recap.

PEREIRA: Tell me about it.

CAMEROTA: I could tell you about it or I call in Coy Wire with the overtime thriller in this morning's Bleacher Report. Good morning Coy.

PEREIRA: Hey Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN AMERICAN SPORTS BROADCASTER: I got your back Alisyn and Michaela. Good morning to you.

New England's dream of a pristine season fell like the snow flakes on the fans in the stands in Denver last night.

This would have been the 17th meeting between Tom Brady and Peyton Manning but Peyton didn't feel so good. He was out left foot injury. So Brock Osweiler got it Denver to the go-ahead score putting them up by a three with just over a minute left to play. That's plenty of time for Tom Brady though. He pushes the Patriots into game time field goal position. Stephen Gostkowski got it to overtime, this one would go.

But in O.T., C.J. Anderson, he'd unlocked legend status in Denver for the night, at least. He's quicker than a hiccup on this 48 yard walk off T.D.. Broncos beat the Patriots, 30-24 they move to 9 and 2, handing New England their first loss of the season. Pats now 10-1.

Now, on pensive poem titled, "Dear Basketball", Kobe Bryant confirmed that this 20th season will be the last of his legendary NBA career. The ode was posted on The Players' Tribune website which briefly crashed after the announcement. And Kobe wrote, "This season is all I have left to give. My mind can handle the grind but my body knows it's time to say goodbye. And that's OK I'm ready to let you go." After last night's loss to the Pacers, Kobe talked about his decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOBE BRYANT, NBA PLAYER: You know, I've had so many great times, right. It's, I think, it's a -- yeah, I see the beauty in not being able to blow past defenders anymore. You know what I mean?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: So after 17 all star selections, five NBA titles, a league MVP award and two Olympic gold, Kobe Bryant will soon say goodbye to the game he loves for good. Michaela, Alisyn.

PEREIRA: And I send a big hug to Los Angeles. Kind of that's big news for them to manage. Coy, thanks so much.

WIRE: You're welcome.

PEREIRA: All right, so you might recall last week, Donald Trump said he was getting the endorsement of 100 black pastors and evangelicals. Well he abruptly canceled that event.

[08:20:00] What happened? We'll try to find answers next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump's campaign cancelling a scheduled news conference with 100 black pastors. Trump's campaign had said the religious leaders would endorse Trump. So what happened?

Here to talk about this is National spokesperson for the Trump campaign and national tea party leader, Katrina Pierson.

Katrina, good morning. Thank you for being here.

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. So it turns out that these 100 black pastors were not planning to endorse Donald trump. How did you guys get that one so wrong?

PIERSON: Well, the idea was, the Coalition of Pastors were going to be meeting with Mr. Trump and some of them are endorsing Mr. Trump. But because the press conference make such waves in the media, as it would.

[08:25:00] A lot of the pastors were concerned then they might get backlash if they weren't one of the pastors that were endorsing at this time.

So the campaign decided, you know what, we want to have the meeting. All the pastors are going to come and meet with Mr. Trump. We'll just close it off to the media at this time.

CAMEROTA: It sounds, however, like some of the pastors were never planning to endorse Donald Trump despite the backlash you talked about.

So let me read to you one of the bishops, a prominent bishop in Detroit. This is Corletta Vaughn. She put out a scathing statement on Facebook, where she says, "Trump is an insult and embarrassment, but he represents the country we have become zero experience, flaunting a ticket of unbridled bigotry, sexism, racism and everything that is wrong with America."

She does sound like she was ever going to endorse Donald Trump. So did you guys not talk to these folks beforehand?

PIERSON: No. But like I said, some of them weren't going to be endorsing Donald Trump but they were attending the coalition meeting, which is why they finally canceled the press conference because there was all of the confusion that every single one of the pastors at this event was going to be endorsing and that was not the case.

CAMEROTA: Right.

PIERSON: So that's why it's been closed off to the media.

CAMEROTA: But to me clear, the confusion came from your campaign's press release. It was the Trump campaign's press release that said that they would be endorsing them. We have a little quote of it. "Mr. Trump will be joined by a coalition of 100 African- American Evangelical pastors and religious leaders who will endorse the GOP front runner after a private meeting at the Trump Tower." That's where the confusion came from.

PIERSON: Well, that is confusing, that all of them will be endorsing. However, it's probably going to be more than 100 that are going to be at this meeting. It's a coalition meeting. Some of these pastors were not going to be endorsing to begin with.

Now, if the campaign had said that some of them won't be endorsing, it just was -- it's a way too confusing, Alisyn. And the fact of the matter is, they're definitely going to be meeting with Mr. Trump, having this coalition discussing and some of them are going to be endorsing Mr. Trump for president. CAMEROTA: Is it possible, Katrina, that's sometimes, Mr. Trump

and his campaign playing loose with the facts does end up fighting you guys? I mean, that was not a fact in the press statement. And look, over the weekend, we've talked again about Mr. Trump saying there were thousands of extremists celebrating as the twin towers fell. No one has been able to find any shred of evidence of that and that number. So will he...

PIERSON: On that particular...

CAMEROTA: OK.

PIERSON: On that particular incident, yes. There have now been three archive newspapers that did talk about, that there were Muslims in New Jersey, New Jersey City and Paterson to be specific, including a retired FBI agent that was there at the time saying they had several calls come in with people saying they saw the exact same thing.

CAMEROTA: Yes. But...

PIERSON: Now, we understand that we don't have a ton of video showing that, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Sure.

PIERSON: Hold on, just one second. We don't have the videos because the iPhone didn't drop until 2007. So the media can't just base everything prior to that on the amount of the absentee cellphone videos.

CAMEROTA: That's not why we don't have the videos. We don't have the videos because there weren't thousands of people. Several calls is completely different than thousands of people celebrating.

PIERSON: The FBI agent says pages and pages of calls and several people from New Jersey have taken to the internet to say, I saw it too. So now, we're saying, did it or did it not happened? And the answer is yes, it did happen.

If we're talking about the magnitude, we're talking about the wrong thing.

CAMEROTA: Katrina, the magnitude is what makes this so shocking. If there were one or two people celebrating, well obviously those are the outliers.

PIERSON: There's always one or two.

CAMEROTA: But there weren't thousands no one -- even the FBI official. Hold on a second. That you say.

PIERSON: He didn't probably sit there and count every single head that he saw on the television.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Trump said thousand and thousand.

PIERSON: But it was that that even New Jersey City it was in Paterson. Yes that's right.

CAMEROTA: There were not thousands and thousands. And in fact, even the FBI agent whom you cite says that they did get many calls but let me reach you what he says.

PIERSON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Most of the calls, he said, were deemed unimportant and the agency, the FBI, did not see fit to initiate investigations. In other words, there may have been plenty call but they didn't have...

PIERSON: The many individuals that were detained on that day for celebrating.

CAMEROTA: OK. So Katrina, you're sticking with the story that there were thousands and thousands of people celebrating?

PIERSON: I'm sticking with the story that there were Muslims in Paterson and Jersey City celebrating. There's an individual that was on his construction site that he watched it. There was a lady on her balcony that said she watched the tailgate party. So absolutely we're sticking to that.

I don't know why the media so intent on trying to suppress the radical Muslim activity in this country. Maybe we should talk about that.

CAMEROTA: Well let's talk about the precision, that's necessary. For when you're president you can't just say, how many ISIS members are there? There's five, no, actually there's 5,000. No, actually, there's 5 million. There are distinctions between numbers. And when you're president you need to know those.

PIERSON: There are distinctions just like President Obama, is it going to be 10,000 refugees? Is it going to 65,000 refugees? Nobody knows.

The problem here is, Mr. Trump saw it on television, several others people saw it and reported it. There is evidence and record of that happening whether or not he sat there and counted every last individual head, probably not, but it looked like a lot, just like it did to a lot of people in Jersey and in New York City, by the way.

CAMEROTA: Katrina Pierson, thank you. We appreciate getting your perspective this morning.

PIERSON: Thanks, Alisyn.