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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Interview With California Congressman Adam Schiff and Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger; Ray Rice Terminated; ISIS Threat; NFL Star Ray Rice Suspended Indefinitely; Hundreds of Kids Sickened By Virus

Aired September 8, 2014 - 16:00   ET

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


JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: In a new poll, CNN taking the pulse of the American people, and that pulse is beating very fast about the threat from the terrorists of ISIS.

I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

The world lead, 90 percent of Americans, 90 percent say they consider ISIS a threat. Most also think ISIS is already on our soil, some eye- opening new polling that we're releasing moments from now.

The sports lead, we're finally seeing what happened in that elevator between this football star and his then-fiancee. Now that this shocking video is out, Ray Rice will sit out a lot longer than his originally two-game suspension.

And the national lead. It's a normal type of virus. But the outbreak is totally abnormal and the CDC is warning this may just be the beginning. Why is this virus suddenly putting so many American children in the hospital?

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to THE LEAD.

We're going to begin with the world lead today.

We have heard for months now just how big of a threat the terrorists from ISIS pose. We have heard them espouse their murderous intent towards the United States. What we have not heard is any kind of comprehensive strategy for dealing with ISIS from the Obama administration. But President Obama will have his chance to lay one out 48 hours from now, give or take, when he goes before the American people with a highly anticipated speech.

And whatever course the president decides to take, he would do well to be clear and decisive because as you will see in a moment in these exclusive new CNN/ORC polls that we're unveiling, ISIS scares many Americans and they are ready to take the fight to them harder.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (voice-over): The Islamic terrorist group ISIS is growing in power and ambition. In addition to the path of destruction and murder it has blazed through Iraq and Syria, ISIS is now directing its ire at the United States with the gruesome beheadings of two American journalists. An exclusive new CNN poll finds that aggression has Americans worried

and many think the president should be doing more to combat the terror group; 90 percent of Americans say ISIS poses a threat to the U.S., with 45 percent calling the threat very serious.

That is roughly the same percentage of Americans who considered al Qaeda a very serious threat to the U.S. in 2003, two years after the attacks of September 11. The number of Americans who say terrorism is the country's most important problem has quadrupled since the last election, with 55 percent of those polled saying they were angry at the videotaped beheadings of the two Americans.

And an overwhelming 71 percent of those polled believe ISIS has terrorists in the United States. In recent weeks, the United States has launched more than 140 airstrikes against the group in Iraq.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is not contemplated the deployment of combat boots on the ground into Iraq or Syria.

TAPPER: And while many have criticized the American public as war- weary after more than a decade of battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, our polls show that now they increasingly support the use of military force. That support is up 16 percent since September of last year.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We don't have a strategy yet.

TAPPER: President Obama has faced criticism for not showing enough leadership on this issue. But Mr. Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he does have a plan to combat ISIS, a group the administration calls ISIL. And he will unveil it on Wednesday.

OBAMA: Over the course of months, we are going to be able to not just blunt the momentum of ISIL. We are going to systematically degrade their capabilities. We're going to shrink the territory that they control, and ultimately we're going to defeat them.

TAPPER: A majority of the American people will have to be co convinced; 67 percent of the American people believe the president does not have a clear plan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: The beheading of American journalist James Foley was the moment by the estimation of many observers that ISIS declared war on the United States of America.

Now, nearly three weeks since the release of the video showing Foley's execution, there may be some progress on finding the man in that video.

Let's get right to our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown.

Pamela, what have we learned? PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we have known

that ever since the video was released, it's been a top priority to figure out who that masked man was in the video.

We're learning from officials that U.S. law enforcement believe they may have identified a possible suspect, the man who we see, that masked man in the James Foley video. This is according to two U.S. officials we spoke with. As one source said, they have a pretty good idea of who it is. But they're not 100 percent yet. So, right now what's happening is U.S. officials are working with British authorities as well because they believe that the man they have in mind is tied to a group of extremists in London.

Jake, so they believe that this is someone who is a British citizen. So there's the U.K. link and then also, of course, the U.S. has an investigative interest because there was an act of terrorism, murder of a U.S. citizen.

TAPPER: Right.

BROWN: So, of course, the big question is, what will happen when they are 100 percent and they have positively identified the man? What is going to happen next? Sources tell me that essentially it's difficult because they do believe he could be in Iraq or Syria, a highly dangerous environment.

But, as one source said, he could meet his demise on the battlefield, be brought to a U.S. court or of course a British court.

TAPPER: All right, Pamela Brown, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Joining me now are Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Republican from Illinois -- and he's a member of the House Committee of Foreign Affairs -- and Congressman Adam Schiff, Democrat from California. He's a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence.

Gentlemen, thanks for being here. Appreciate it.

I want to start by asking each of you what you want to hear from President Obama when he lays out his strategy to fight ISIS on Wednesday. He's going to lay out that strategy.

Congressman?

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: I think it just needs to be a very clear, concise, here's what the threat is, here's what we're dealing with. If we don't act, here is what we're going to potentially see in the Middle East.

This is why it's in America's interest not just to protect us even within our shores, but to protect our allies overseas and our interests overseas, and then a clear and concise plan about how we're going to achieve that.

One of the areas I have been critical of the president is seemingly his inability or lack of desire to try to sell this to the American public. The American public naturally does not like to go to war, does not like to go to any kind of conflict. And they need a strong commander in chief to come out and make that sale.

I like what I'm hearing so far. And if he can continue to make that, and repeatedly, it's probably going to be every week or so he's going to have to come out and make this kind of a pitch, then I think it will be successful.

TAPPER: Congressman, what do you want to hear?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: I would like to have him lay out why this is a threat to the American people, why we have to act, and what we're going to be asking our allies to do.

But I would go beyond that. I would like to hear him say that he is going to come to the Congress, that he wants the representatives of the people to buy into this, and that he's going to ask for an authorization to use force. In particular, now that he says he wants to go on the offensive, as indeed we should, I think it really requires congressional authorization.

We're going beyond the protection of the American people. We're going beyond these humanitarian crises, and it's really necessary I think for Congress to act.

TAPPER: President Obama has been cautious so far in how he's talked about going after ISIS.

There's new reporting that you heard from Pamela Brown about how we're closer now to identifying who beheaded James Foley. You're in the House Intelligence Committee. I don't know if there's anything you can tell us about that. But are you at all concerned that there still seems so little that we know about these people in ISIS while we're about to, you're about to vote and debate whether or not we take military action against them?

SCHIFF: Well, there's nothing I can say specifically today.

But, obviously, we want to identify and I think we're getting very close, who is immediately responsible. But the reality is, all of ISIS is responsible. These people are not acting on their own. And probably the most significant part of this is not the identification of these people -- we're ultimately going to bring them to justice -- but rather the fact that these are foreigners.

These are part of those -- that threat to the United States and Europe that may come back to our shores. And I think it's highlighted not only to Americans, but to Britons and others, that this is the preeminent threat, which is these people are going to come back one day, they're going to try to come back one day, they're going to try to make attacks on our shores.

And that's a problem that's going to be with us for probably the next 10 years. TAPPER: Congressman, you have been critical of President Obama for

saying that boots on the ground is not on the table. Six in 10 Americans in our new poll do not want boots on the ground. What's your message to them, a majority of the American people who agree with President Obama, no boots on the ground?

KINZINGER: I don't want boots on the ground either.

I think we can accomplish this without it, using the Iraq military, the Peshmerga, the Free Syrian Army as our boots on the ground, similar to what was done at the very beginning of the war in Afghanistan that was so successful.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: You're saying the beginning was successful?

KINZINGER: The beginning,right.

So, I think it's something that can be done that way. But the point is, you never take off the table -- you never say what you're unwilling to do, because you take the psychological effect off the table. The American people understand, for instance, that we're going to have to have special forces on the ground. And they're very good at it. And they're really good at what they do.

Does that qualify as boots on the ground? It's kind of a nebulous term. I think nobody wants to have 100,000 American troops in Iraq and Syria again. But the idea that you continually tell your enemy what you're not willing to do is just bad strategy.

And so that's where I have been critical. Again, I would not want to see him introduce large American ground forces right now. But let's be very clear that the goal here is the destruction of ISIS. And we're going to do what we have to do to destroy them, including whatever it takes.

TAPPER: Congressman, again, as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, 71 percent of the American people believe that there are members of ISIS in the United States ready to carry out attacks. Are they wrong?

SCHIFF: Well, I think that that perception is wrong.

I don't think there are cells operating in the United States. But I think the American people is right to be concerned with the fact that it's not difficult to mount these domestic attacks. And the threat may come from people who are self-radicalized, that identify with ISIS because they have looked at the propaganda online.

If you look at the Boston Marathon bombers, they showed what you can do with a very low-tech explosive. You can cause a lot of mayhem. So, Americans are right to be concerned about that. But I think we have to be very careful not to let that concern, not to let the provocation of these horrible executions force us to do things that are not in our interest to do. I would say one thing. I do take some issue with Adam's comments, in

the sense that it's also important for the president to talk to the American people. The American people don't want another major occupation of another Muslim country. And to get support for what the president wants to do, he needs to, I think, make sure the American people are comfortable with what he's not prepared to do as well.

TAPPER: Congressman Adam Schiff, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

KINZINGER: Thank you.

SCHIFF: Thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up on THE LEAD: Another NBA owner will sell over racially charged comments he made, this time two years ago. But was the Atlanta Hawks' owner looking to off-load the team all along?

Plus, he knocked his then fiancee, now wife out cold and he was only suspended two games for it. But now Ray Rice is done after a new video surfaced. But did the NFL know about this tape all along?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

We've got some breaking news in the sports lead today.

He's an NFL star who was suspended for just two games and even called a heck of a guy by his coach after a violent confrontation with his then-fiancee now wife in a casino elevator. But now, that video has surfaced showing exactly what went down inside the elevator. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice's NFL career may be over. Just about an hour ago, the Ravens sent out a tweet that Rice's contract had been terminated. The NFL followed that up by tweeting that Rice had been suspended indefinitely.

This comes in the wake of public outrage following a disturbing video released by TMZ. The video shows what happened between Rice and his then-fiancee at an Atlantic City casino back in February.

Before now, we only saw what happened after the altercation. But this video released today gives the full picture of the encounter. And, well, it's sickening. Rice enters the elevator behind his fiancee. Once inside, things get physical. Rice knocks her to the ground with one powerful blow.

NFL Commissioner Robert Goodell insists he had not seen the video when he handed down Rice's original punishment. In fact, he claims he only saw today. But there's some skepticism surrounding that claim.

Joining me now is CNN's Rachel Nichols, and she is the host of "UNGUARDED". And we also have "Washington Post" columnist Clinton Yates with us today. Rachel, let me start with you. Did the NFL know that this tape from inside the elevator existed before today? And if so, wouldn't they have seen it by now?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN'S "UNGUARDED" HOST: Look, they clearly should have noun. They say they didn't. In fact, the way they put it, they said, hey, we asked for this and it wasn't given to us.

Frankly, considering all the other problems with the NFL's investigation, you can almost believe them just because they did so many other things wrong. It's not too far afield to believe they did this wrong, too.

But don't make any mistake. Just because they may not have seen the video, doesn't let them off the hook. This was an obtainable video. TMZ obtained the video. Therefore, the NFL could have done the same thing.

In fact, they had someone in their offices who had the video. Ray Rice had to have access to this video as part of his defense in his legal case. He's allowed that kind of materials and disclosures.

So, the idea that the NFL didn't know or have any way to get this is ridiculous. They could have said to Ray Rice and his lawyers when they came into the NFL offices, you better bring that tape. Otherwise, we're not letting you back on the field, power by the way that they had. And they didn't do that.

So, you have to think this was a huge -- yet another, Jake, huge part of falling down on the job by the league.

TAPPER: Clinton, I'm assuming you agree with everything she said. But you say it's almost irrelevant.

CLINTON YATES, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It's completely irrelevant because both Ray and his then-fiancee admitted to the police what happened in the elevator, meaning they knew the facts.

It shouldn't have to be backed up by video evidence in order to indefinitely suspend the guy. They knew what happened. They made an assessment. They only wanted two games to start with. And then, all of a sudden, Roger Goodell says, my bad. That was not quite thing to do.

Again, they knew what happened. It should not have taken the terrible optics that it was -- in that perfectly horrifying video in order to force them to force their hand.

TAPPER: And what do you think should have happened? Back in February?

YATES: I think once you know something like that goes down, you have to suspend the guy immediately. It just -- the message it sends to America about the abuse of women, the abuse of -- domestic violence in this country is outrageous if you're just going to say, oh, now that we've seen it, we know. He said it. He said as much. He told the team, he told the league

that he assaulted his wife in an elevator and they decided they were going to let him play either ways. It's outrageous.

TAPPER: Rachel, what happens to him?

NICHOLS: Well, look, he's suspended indefinitely. The idea is probably, if you look at the NFL's new domestic violence policy, that's going to be at least for a year, if they're going to match up.

But they're not saying he falls under it. But this is a nod to saying, hey, he's going to now be in this same boat.

And then we'll see. Look, he's reaching 30 years old. He's a couple seasons away from a particularly bad football season. He'll be out of the league for a year. He'll have this to his name.

So, there's going to be some teams that say, you know what, we don't want to take a chance on him. Maybe he can't play. Maybe we don't want to be associated with him.

But, Jake, you know this from being a sports guy. If a guy can play, somebody will put him on the field.

TAPPER: Yes.

NICHOLS: There's no doubt about that. The rest of this will not impact his playing career if he is allowed back in the league and people think he can play. So, watch for that.

And, look, the court of public opinion has been huge in this case. The NFL thought they could get away with suspending him for two games. They got a huge backlash and outrage. TMZ puts this video up -- huge backlash and outrage. And, by the way, if that hadn't happened, we wouldn't be talking about this today. Ray Rice is still be a Raven.

So, it's up to everybody out there to keep an eye on this. If that suspension is lifted, if another team does try to sign him, everyone needs to speak up.

TAPPER: And we've also following, of course, another huge sports story, an NBA owner who came down hard against former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling for Sterling's racist comments. This other owner is now entangled in his own controversy over racial comments. Atlanta Hawks owner Bruce Levenson is offering to sell his stake in the team, he's a major holder, because of an e-mail he sent back in 2012 where he expresses somewhat of a frustration that the majority of fans going to hawks games are African-American.

Levenson writes, quote, "My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base." He went on to write, "I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority."

Levenson says he made the comments not because he's a racist, but because he wanted to expand the team's fan base and sell more tickets. Unlike Donald Sterling who first denied making racial remarks, Levenson owned up to his e-mail as being inappropriate and offensive. He apologized, saying, "I trivialized our fans by making cliched assumptions about their interests. By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans."

But, Rachel, of course, there's more to the story that meets the eye. For instance, this email, how did we know about it?

NICHOLS: Yes, when the NBA made this announcement yesterday, they made a big deal about the fact that Bruce Levenson had self-reported the e-mail. And he did. We have to give him credit. This is different from the Donald Sterling case.

But his hand was forced. What happened was the Danny Ferry, the GM of the team, repeated on a conference call in a meeting with some scouts a racially offensive phrase about Luol Deng, a free agent at the time. It got enough people on the call's ears perked up saying, wait a minute, this is not appropriate, how is this kind of talk OK in our organization? It prompted an internal investigation in which 19 different people in the organization were interviewed, 24,000 documents were sifted through and that's where this e-mail popped up.

And then once this e-mail was brought to light by this independent investigator, some of Bruce Levenson's other partners said to him, we got to bring this to the league. This isn't OK. And he decided he was going to do that himself.

And then after a brief investigation, he called Adam Silver and said, you know what? I don't even want to finish the league investigation. I'm just going to bow out. I don't want my name drag to the mud anymore than it already will be.

TAPPER: Clinton, he has if not defenders, individuals who are saying -- individuals in the African-American community who are saying this is not the same thing as Sterling, even though there are some, you know, cringe-inducing moments in that e-mail. It's not racist. It's more like hard-scrabble business. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar even said something like that.

Do you agree?

YATES: I agree. I also think that the overall larger point he was making is actually quite salient. What he said was, I want to find a way to expand my fan base and make sure people are willing to come to Philips Arena and not simply believe that it's an unsafe place to be. I don't want to scare people off with that sort of notion that it's fueled by a lot of racists people in his you know, in the Atlanta territory.

So, I think it actually made a lot of sense. And I thought his apology was heartfelt. He explained, hey, look, I don't need this and I wasn't trying to stoke those fires.

But, again, business is business. If it was the other way around, I feel a lot of people would feel the same way. You go to a hockey game in D.C., there's not a lot of black people there. It doesn't feel like it's marketed that way. I think if you switch the roles, it wouldn't seem as sort of hot as it does. But, you know --

TAPPER: Some of the diction, like saying, I want the kiss-cam less black and things like that --

YATES: Right, and saying also that there are not as many fathers and sons at the games sort of plays into a pathology about the African- American family that I don't think make sense. I think those are just sort of a crude way of saying things. But his overall point made some amount of sense to me.

TAPPER: Clinton, Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it as always.

Coming up next: hundreds of children hospitalized by the virus that makes it difficult to breath. What parents need to know about the symptoms and why it's spreading so quickly.

Plus, they might be opposites politically. But today, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were trading compliments, even holding hands. What was -- what is going on with the love fest here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)