Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Turkish PM Says Suicide Bomber Was ISIS Member; Aid Delivered to Madaya; NFL Give Rams Green Light to Move Back to LA; Battle Waged in Iraq for the Children. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 13, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: (HEADLINES) Hello, everyone, great to have you with us. I'm John Vause; "Newsroom" L.A. starts right now.

U.S. President Barack Obama wants the American people to know the state of the union is strong. He delivered his annual speech to Congress a few hours ago, saying that one of his few regrets is that partisan politics has become worse, not better. He called on Congress to work together to address the nation's problems, like poverty, education, climate change and the threat of terrorism. The speech came as Iran held 10 U.S. sailors on Farsi Island in the Persian Gulf. Iran says the two U.S. military boats were traveling in entered Iranian waters on Tuesday. The U.S. Secretary of State says he expected the sailors to be released very soon.

In Turkey, the Prime Minister says the suicide bomber, who killed at least ten people in a popular Istanbul tourist area, was with a member of ISIS. So far no group has claimed responsibility for the blast on Tuesday, which killed at least eight German citizens, and, of course, the threat of ISIS was with a big theme in the address by the U.S. president when he spoke to Congress a few hours ago.

We have analysts and correspondents around the globe joining me right here in Los Angeles, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson and Republican Consultant, John Thomas. CNN Military Analyst, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is in La Quinta, California and Ian lee is standing by live this hour in Istanbul.

First, we want to listen to some of the highlights from the President's speech to Congress just a few hours ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: So, let's talk about the future and four big questions that I believe we, as a country, have to answer, regardless of who the next president is or who controls the next congress: first, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us and not against us, especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policemen? And, finally, how can we make our politics reflect what's best in us and not what's worst?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Let's start with Colonel Rick Francona. So, Colonel, we're getting word now that these ten U.S. sailors being held by the Iranians could be released within the next couple of hours. That's a big if because all of this depends on everything going according to plan, but what would be the process here? What should we expect to see in the next few hours as they are released?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, the Iranians have made contact with the American Fifth Fleet and they are going to meet at a specified location and they're going to turn the two vessels and the ten sailors over to the U.S. control. That's how it should happen. This is going according to international protocols. We have to find out from the American sailors exactly what happened before we start passing judgment on the Iranians. Right now it looks like everybody's doing what they are supposed to do. I think we need to keep it at a very, very low level. Let's not make tensions worse than they already are.

VAUSE: Colonel, we'll be coming back to you shortly, so standby. We appreciate the update there on what we can expect to see, and, of course, the President did not mention the U.S. sailors who are being held. The only mention of Iran was the nuclear deal. Let's listen to what the President had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: As we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play this to their hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay, well, that was the President talking about the hyperbole surrounding ISIS and, of course, that seemed to be a bit of a veiled swipe at Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner who has been talking up the threat from ISIS, as well as other candidates.

[00:05:26] Let's go to the panel here in the studio. So, let's talk about this first, okay. So, John, as a Republican, that obviously was a swipe at Donald Trump. Did he have a good night tonight, because he obviously made it all the way to the State Of The Union?

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Yes, the President did Donald Trump a big favor tonight and that was basically picking a fight with Donald Trump, right. Now Donald Trump can then go to Iowa and New Hampshire and these early states saying I'm Barack Obama's worst nightmare that, and that sticks with our base. So the President did him a favor.

VAUSE: Okay, so when the President talks about the hyperbole and threat coming from these (inaudible), I mean, is he setting the stage in some way, not just for the end of his presidency, but clearly for the coming election?

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure. I think this was an opportunity for him to sort of set his framing of the status of America today; where we've been, where we're going. This was an opportunity for him to cement the narrative of the Obama legacy and present why it is important that he continue, that America continue his policies. Instead of changing course with a GOP leader in the White House sort of stay the course and elect another Democrat. So I think he used this as an opportunity to say, look, we've accomplished a whole lot of big objectives, climate change, health care, marriage equality, unemployment is now at five-percent, but we haven't done everything we want to do. There's still more to do, and that's why we need to continue these policies, continue the sort of progressive agenda moving forward.

VAUSE: John, this was going to be bipartisan, sort of, bring everybody together speech. It certainly wasn't that. It was very political, wasn't it?

THOMAS: It was, and it's interesting when you flash back to Barack Obama in 2008 and Barack Obama in 2012, when he so famously said, you know, I'm bringing hope and change because there's no red or blue state, there's the United States. This speech wasn't anything of that, right? It was you need to agree with me and it's the Republicans fault.

I thought it was interesting, John, that it took 30 minutes, half way through the President's speech, for him to mention national security. That is top of mind, not just of the Republican voter base but nationally. Meanwhile, ten Americans are being held hostage in Iran.

VAUSE: Well - sorry.

JACOBSON: Yes, I was going to say, that's one thing, actually, you bring up the point about his 2004 speech, and I think you are right. He did reference and at least acknowledge, right, that there hasn't been any meaningful, real major bipartisanship that's happening in Washington right now. That's where the frustration that you see out there, right. That's where you get the Donald Trump's, and the Ted Cruz's, and the Bernie Sanders. People are angry. People are frustrated, right? They're not seeing anything getting done in Washington. He acknowledged that tonight. Go ahead, John.

VAUSE: He did, but I want to get to the issue, because you brought up ISIS and the threat being posed by ISIS; and the President did sort of essentially play the I killed Osama Bin Laden card during the State Of The Union address. Let's listen to that part of the speech. I think we've got that ready to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: If you doubt America's commitment, or mine, to see that justice is done, just ask Osama Bin Laden. Ask the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen, who was taken out last year, or the perpetrator of the Benghazi attacks, who sits in a prison cell. When you come after Americans, we go after you; and it may take time, but we have long memories and our reach has no limits.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: John, I want to go to you because this is one area where I think it could be argued the President is out of step with the vast majority of Americans. (Inaudible) the opinion polls they believe that the strategy on ISIS, which the President is clearly sticking to, from everything he said tonight in the State Of The Union, vast majority of Americans believe that strategy is not work.

THOMAS: Right, that's right. There's a disconnect there. The fact is, I think the President said in the speech, four people in the back of a pickup truck with guns are not a threat, existential threat to America, just like he called them the "JV team" a few weeks ago. Well the fact is, Americans think they are a threat. In fact, this studio sits merely a few miles from San Bernardino where the threat came to us. So I think he is fundamentally out of touch with what Americans think. Look, if his party continues along those lines I think it will be to their peril in November.

JACOBSON: Well, and I think also - sorry, if I can jump in -

VAUSE: Yes, go ahead.

JACOBSON: You know, I think the Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, sort of understand that. They get that people are frustrated with what is going on with ISIS, that not enough is being done to tackle them. That's why they are changing the conversation to economic and --

THOMAS: That's right, you've got to shift to your strength, and that's what he is doing.

VAUSE: Okay, I want to give an update now exactly what the situation is, because we did have this bombing, which was carried out in Istanbul, in Turkey, just about 24 hours ago now. Ian Lee has been covering that story for us and he joins us now, live, with an update.

So, Ian, what is the very latest on the investigation? What more do we know about how this attack was carried out?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, they were able to identify the person they believe carried out this deadly attack relatively soon. They say it is a person who was born in 1988 and recently entered Turkey. He was registered at a refugee [00:10:17] camp, and that's how they were able -- or registered as a refugee and that's how they were able to identify him so quickly, but really, the investigation right now is going to be how he was able to come to Istanbul; where did these explosives come from? These are the major questions they are trying to answer this hour.

Also, how he was able to carry out this attack? There's going to be a review of the security services, how they operate. This is a very large country though; one of roughly 70 million people, and it has a long, porous border with Syria, even though the Turkish government has been trying to clamp down on that. These are things that are going to be reviewed in the aftermath of this attack.

Turkey also right now is calling for solidarity, calling out to the international community for help with this -- after this incident. This is one of the deadliest attacks here in Istanbul. Now, you may remember last October, over 100 people were killed in what they said was an ISIS attack, in Ankara. So, Turkey very much on edge. These sorts of incidents are things that the security services will be reviewing. But moving forward, going forward with this, they are going to be looking at how this person was able to go relatively quickly from Syria to blowing himself up here in Istanbul.

VAUSE: Very quickly, Ian, what would the reaction be there, I know it is still very early, to the words from the President and his state of the union when he said that ISIS is essentially a bunch of thugs and fanatics in pickup trucks?

LEE: Well the thing here in Turkey is, they have experienced a number of attacks from ISIS. It is on their southern border in Syria. This is a real threat, and they have allowed the United States to use a military base here to launch air strikes against ISIS in Syria. For them, they've had well over 100 people in multiple attacks killed by ISIS. So that is a real threat here in Turkey, especially as Turkey helps the U.S. Coalition against ISIS. So for them, it's maybe not this existential threat that has been described. This is a real threat, that's killed people and does hurt their economy, as well.

VAUSE: Okay, Ian; thank you. Ian Lee, live for us this hour in Istanbul, the scene of the latest attack carried out, we believe, at least according to Turkish officials, by an ISIS militant.

Very quickly, Rick Francona is with us as well. Rick, your opinion though, when the President says, describing the threat posed by ISIS as World War III is "playing in to their hands", do you agree with that?

FRANCONA: Well, I think that's a bit flip, a bit glib. They are a threat. We see what is happening in Syria, what's happening in Iraq. They continue to mount attacks. They continue to take territory. They are losing some, they're taking others. They're mounting this attack in Istanbul. So, I don't think we can count them out and the people do regard ISIS as a threat. So the President cannot dismiss them just because they are not -- they are -- [ inaudible ]

VAUSE: Okay, Rick Francona, we'll leave it there. Obviously, having a few problems with our connection to you, but one of the other big issues which came out this state of the union, you don't often hear a president expressing regret. This was that moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: It's one of the few regrets of my presidency, that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. I have no doubt, a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide; and I guarantee I'll keep trying to be better, so long as I hold this office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Okay, so, Dave Jacobson, Democratic strategist here, and John Thomas, Republican consultant, is this one area where you guys can agree?

JACOBSON: Sure, I think so at least. The president came in bringing a new kind politics right, bigger than the partisan bickering that we had seen during the Bush Administration, right? So that is what he supposedly was supposed to go in to the White House with.

VAUSE: Right.

JACOBSON: Unfortunately, I think he acknowledged at least -

VAUSE: It never happened.

JACOBSON: Well it happened a little bit, but not a lot. We've seen some recent compromises this year with education reform, bipartisan budget, but largely, yeah, there hasn't been enough commonsense compromise and I think he regrets that, for sure.

VAUSE: John?

THOMAS: Yes, President Obama rode in to office on the idea of hope and change, the idea that he would reduce the partisan divide. In fact, it's grown bigger under his presidency, which is a fundamental promise of why he ran in the first place.

VAUSE: Of course you can argue, essentially, who is to blame for that. As we look ahead to the coming election, what I thought was particularly interesting wasn't just the state of the union but the republican response. South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley seemed to call out Donald Trump as well. What's your take on that?

THOMAS: Yes, I think the party establishment is very fearful of a Trump nominee. So this was the party's opportunity to put together a female voice who spoke a very clear, eloquent, and in controlled manner, really the opposite of Donald Trump, trying to project to the nation that Republicans are not bombastic and try to offer an alternative vision to Donald Trump.

VAUSE: Dave, last word.

JACOBSON: Sure. I think also she sort of represented a broad optimistic narrative and also a message of let's get things done. I think that's something that both democrats, like President Obama talked about tonight, and bird's-eye view, that's what Governor Nikki Haley talked about tonight.

VAUSE:: Okay, I know you guys will be back with us next hour, but Dave Jacobson, Democrat Strategist and John Thomas, Republican Consultant. Also we had Rick Francona, our military analyst, and Ian Lee in Turkey, giving us the very latest on the other big stories of the night. All of this, of course, linked in to what is happening with the State Of The Union Address. Thanks to you all.

We'll take a short break here. When we come back, aid finally arriving in a besieged Syrian city. We will hear what aid workers found and what the long-term needs are. Also, we'll take a heartbreaking look at what the children freed from ISIS have endured and Kurdish fighters feel about firing on kids. (Inaudible); that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:20:15] VAUSE: (HEADLINES) Aide workers are describing heart- breaking scenes in the Syrian city of Madaya. A convoy of trucks delivered desperately needed food and other supplies on Monday. Nick Paton Walsh has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm told by a source in the convoy that as dusk had fallen and a majority of the trucks, the 44 trucks carrying aide moved into Madaya, there were experienced aide workers in that convoy, who had seen a lot, were reduced to tears by what they saw inside of Madaya.

Now, these 44 trucks met a population whose children simply approached them and politely said, can I have a biscuit please. Some of the children said I just want French fries and a ketchup. Very human needs, and very urgent need for 400 hundred people there, says the U.N. to be evacuated, such is the state of their malnutrition. And those aide workers in their, despite the fact that 44 trucks of food, medical and surgical supplies and winter clothing isn't much in a population that is starving of 40,000. Aide workers have a more immediate challenge, because if you over feed or too quickly feed people who are badly malnourished it can make them sicker. So they are going to have to stagger the deliver of aide to who the priorities are while, of course, dealing with this urgent situation where, in hospital, I'm told, the aid workers were actually able to come across an emaciated man in that hospital. The hospital itself, makeshift; part of a home where a veterinarian, two dentists and a doctor are delivering what care they can, and nurses are simply learning on the job. That's the kind of challenge those inside that town are dealing with.

I should point out though, this isn't the only city in Syria that is badly in need of food aid. 15 are, say the united nations. On that same day that Madaya got assistance, Madaya held by the rebels, besieged by the government, two towns in the North of Syria who Fuaa and Kefraya, which are loyal to the government, besieged by rebels, well they also got aid too, to their population of 20,000. That is the spotlight on that tragedy in northern Syria.

Madaya, through the social media campaign that led to the U.N. brokered decision to allow tit for tat aid to both the rebel and regime sides here, this now needs aid day by day, we're told by workers, to allow anything like a normal situation to return. People living on what they refer to as "besieged soup", and that's just simply hot water with spices and occasional flecks of wheat added to it. That's what a child gets each day, and that's actually what the aide workers were offered when they entered, by residents trying to customarily be hospitable like Syrians want to be, and they, of course, aide workers refused that but the sense, I think, of desperation they saw in the eyes when they went into Madaya, stayed with, certainly the source I spoke to on the convoy and brought home the urgency of a kind of consistent, daily aid that's going to be required to prevent further loss of life inside of Madaya.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Mexican government now says it is not directly investigating actor Sean Penn over his interview with drug cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Instead, the Reuters News Agency reports authorities are looking in to the circumstances surrounding the meeting in which Guzman agreed to an interview. This is a photo from that meeting. Meantime, "Rolling Stone" has released the full interview. Guzman answered questions provided by Penn, but were read to Guzman by someone else and his answers were at times vague and brief.

We're getting more details about El Chapo's dramatic attempt to avoid recapture. Martin Savidge has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mexican authorities released this new mugshot of "El Chapo", showing the drug kingpin with his head shaved and wearing prison clothing. meanwhile, "Rolling Stone Magazine" released, for the first time, the entire on-camera interview of "El Chapo" conducted at his mountain hideaway in Sinaloa State last year. The video runs 17 minute and the person asking the questions is not actor Sean Penn, but one of the crime bosses own men, who was given the questions. That explains why there is no follow-up to any of El Chapo's answers.

Also new, a CNN crew was allowed in to "El Chapo's" safe house which special forces raided last week. The images reflect the violence inside, as Mexican marines battle gunmen room by room. There are bullet holes and blast marks on the walls, as well as [00:25:40] blood stains. The furniture and everything else tossed about.

The also video reveals the remarkable escape tunnel that allowed "El Chapo" to get out of the house before being captured sometime later. It took 90 minutes of searching to even find the tunnel's entrance, hidden behind a mirror in a large closet and blocked by a steel door that looked like it belonged to a vault. Wooden stairs descend to a walkway large enough for a person to stand upright. The tunnel has several inches of water on the floor since it connects to the sewer system. Another large water tight door prevents the tunnel from flooding during heavy rains.

Authorities say "El Chapo's" elaborate plans allowed the drug lord to flee, but in the end he found there was no escape.

Martin Savidge, CNN, (Inaudible) Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, still to come here, ISIS using children as soldiers; our month-long investigation into the stolen childhoods and the battle to get them back.

Also, we will have more on U.S. President Obama's State Of The Union speech. You're watching "CNN Newsroom" L.A.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles; I'm John Vause. The headlines this hour:

(HEADLINES)

[00:30:16] VAUSE: There's a battle going on in Iraq, it's the fight to bring home the children forced to kill for ISIS. Those who are free from the terror group still live in fear. In this CNN exclusive, our Nima Elbagir has the chilling story of the ISIS child soldiers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 5-year-old Sara was captured alongside her mother by ISIS. Now free, when her parents aren't looking, she runs to cover her face. It's what their ISIS captors taught her at gun point. Al-Farouq Institute in Raqqa, ISIS claims it is their main child soldier training facility. To Jihad, to Jihad, they are chanting. In this propaganda video, spread out on either side of an ISIS trainer, blank faced rows of children sit. One boy shakes visibly; others unable to raise their gaze.

These are the so called "cubs of the caliphate," ISIS' army of child soldiers.

And by god's grace, he's saying, in the coming days they will be at the front lines of the fight against the nonbelievers.

The (inaudible) front line, South of the Kurdistan regional capital, the Peshmerga commander tells us this is one of their most contested front lines. Just the other side of that river there, that's where he says the ISIS positions are, just the

other side of that broken bridge. It's from there, he says, that desperate children are fleeing, making their way through that river, swimming through the river, under cover of dark, risking their lives to make it here, to safety. But not all manage to

escape.

AZIZ ABDULLAH HADUR, PESHMERGA COMMANDER: Many times when we are fighting ISIS we see children at the front line. They are wearing explosive vests.

ELBAGIR: What's it like for you to have to open fire on children?

HADUR: They are brainwashed. When they make it through our lines, they kill our fighters. It is an unbearably hard decision. You don't know what to do. If you don't kill them, they'll kill you.

ELBAGIR: U.S. military sources tells CNN, as ISIS comes under increased pressure on the battlefield, they are relying on child soldiers to fill out the ranks. This 12-year-old boy was featured in the Al-Farouq Institute

propaganda video. He says he was training to be a suicide bomber. Now reunited with his mother, he's asked us not to broadcast his face or his voice. He's asked we call him Nasar, not his real name.

NASAR, former ISIS CHILD SOLDIER: There were with 60 of us. The scariest time for us all were when the air strikes happened. They would lead us underground, into the tunnels, to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us, but they, the fighters, they loved us.

ELBAGIR: This, of course, was all part of the indoctrination. His ISIS handlers would tell him they were now his only family.

[00:35:43] NASAR: When we were training, they would tell us our parents were unbelievers, unclean, and that our first job was to go back and kill them; that we were with cleaning the world of them, of all unbelievers.

ELBAGIR: Nasar say the youngest of the boys was 5 years old, none of them exempt from the grueling training.

NASAR: We weren't allowed to cry, but I would think of my mother, think about her worrying about me and I'd try to cry quietly.

ELBAGIR: Highly stylized and romanticized, ISIS released a number of videos showcasing its child army, but the reality is, of course, very different.

HADUR: When they arrive to us, they are so skinny; they barely look human. They tell us they have been living in a hell.

ELBAGIR: Back at the camp, Sara's mother hopes her little girl will eventually forget about the head scarf and the face covering and the men with guns who threatened her life.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: The National Football League has given the Rams the green light to move back to Los Angeles. The majority of the League's owners voted to allow the team to relocate from St. Louis, Missouri to L.A. for the 2016 season, which would be this year. The San Diego Chargers also have the option to join the Rams here in Los Angeles, but there's a little kabuki dancing sort of going on here, as to what's going to happen and when. Let's go to CNN correspondent Sara Sidner with more on this.

Okay, I tried to work out exactly how they got to this point. There was a three-quarter vote of the owners of the 32, but other teams had like a block so they could stop it. It was kind of like three dimensional chess.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's why it took so long?

VAUSE: Yes.

SIDNER: But boiled down to one thing. The easy thing is, you always know why they are moving and it's always because they want a new stadium.

VAUSE: Money.

SIDNER: Yes.

VAUSE: Okay.

SIDNER: Money and place. So what happened in this case is these three teams have been trying to get the public, the cities, to pony up the money from public funds to buy new stadiums and have these state of the art, amazing, fantastic stadiums.

VAUSE: Because these teams are struggling financially, right?

SIDNER: Correct.

VAUSE: So they need the taxpayer to pony up for a billion dollar stadium.

SIDNER: Yes, see, that's where the trouble comes, right, --

VAUSE: Yes.

SIDNER: -- the public is, like, wait a minute. Why are we paying for this? Cities have also been struggling since 2008, trying to make sure that everything solvent. So, it's a hard pill to swallow for a taxpayer, but they do get their way somehow. What they have done, basically, now is L.A. has said by to St. Louis. They said that the deal for the stadium did not work out. It is not what they wanted.

VAUSE: Yes.

SIDNER: They are coming here.

VAUSE: The Rams are here.

SIDNER: That's right.

VAUSE: To start the season -

SIDNER: That's done.

VAUSE: -- in Los Angeles?

SIDNER: They are coming. They will start the season in los Angeles in a temporary stadium. They are willing to wait.

VAUSE: Where about is it, the Coliseum?

SIDNER: Yes, we think it's going to be in the Coliseum. They haven't given us all those little details, but we do know that [00:40:14] the new stadium will be done in 2019.

VAUSE: This is - and this is interesting because this is going to be, they say it is like 1.8 billion.

SIDNER: Yes.

VAUSE: By the time it will be over 2 billion, which will be, what, the most expensive sporting venue ever?

SIDNER: And it's supposed to be not just a stadium but, like, a whole complex of entertainment. So this is going be a place to bring entire family's so that everybody can do something, even if you are not in to football.

VAUSE: Football Disneyland.

SIDNER: Yes, pretty much.

VAUSE: Okay, so what about the other two teams? They go back to their hometown, we really want to stay. We didn't mean it. We love you guys. Take us back?

SIDNER: Yes, that's -- look, fans get really annoyed and you can imagine why. They like their teams. They want them to do well. They stick with them through thick and thin, and winning and losing; and then the teams say if you don't give us a stadium we will leave.

What is happening with the Chargers in San Diego and the Oakland Raiders is that they have been given this fabulous option, as far as I'm concerned. They can either stay and get $100 million from the NFL toward helping build a new stadium, or the Chargers can -- they have first option move to L.A. as well.

VAUSE: In a couple of years.

SIDNER: In a couple of years. They can say hey, you know what; we want to move to L.A. So we're going with that option, but then Oakland has a stay -- if the Chargers say no, we're not going to move, then Oakland can come to Los Angeles as well.

VAUSE: It's amazing to think that the NFL has $200 million just in petty cash to throw around. I mean, that is big money we're talking.

SIDNER: Yes.

VAUSE: This does raise the question though: is L.A. really an NFL team? Because when they had an NFL team here it's a bit whatever.

SIDNER: A lot of people talk about that but there is a whole large group of people who have been trying to get the team back. In going out and talking to people there's a huge excitement because it's another team. Everyone feels it is strange that Los Angeles has the Lakers, they've got all these teams; they don't have a football franchise. It just seems odd. To be fair it's going to be in Englewood, but it's the L.A. Rams.

VAUSE: And this is basically because L.A. is the second biggest television market in the United States.

SIDNER: Right. Right.

VAUSE: That's the bottom line in all this.

SIDNER: The bottom line is - that is correct. You know, everybody knows who the Raiders are. Everybody knows who the 49ers are. So, the Rams were here 20 years ago; they are back. And, generally speaking, people in Los Angeles are happy about it.

VAUSE: Why did they leave, very quickly?

SIDNER: Take a guess.

VAUSE: Money, they wanted a new stadium.

SIDNER: Correct, and they got that in going to St. Louis. They had to pay; the former owner had to pay $46 million to get approval to leave and they paid that because they were promised this brand new stadium, which they got, but 20 years later they want another one. Like shoes, right? I mean, sort of, to the NFL stadiums are like shoes, you buy them up, you know what I mean? Every couple of years.

VAUSE: That is an interesting analogy. I would have never thought of that but now you say it, it makes absolutely perfect sense.

Thank you, Sara Sidner, our shoe reporter and NFL expert. Thank you for being with us.

SIDNER: No problem.

VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. If you haven't had enough sports, stay with us; "WORLD SPORT" is up next. Then I'll be back with another hour of news from all around the world. You are watching CNN.

(WORLD SPORTS)