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CNN NEWSROOM

Obama: U.S. Underestimated ISIS; Dozens Dead after Japanese Volcano Erupts; Syrian and Israeli Leaders to Speak at the U.N.; CDC Launches Investigation Into Source of Paralysis for Colorado Children

Aired September 29, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Randi Kaye in for Carol Costello today.

In an interview that is drawing a whole lot of scrutiny this morning, President Obama is opening up about his administration and how it has handled ISIS.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think our head of the intelligence community, Jim Clapper, has acknowledged that I think they underestimated what had been taking place in Syria.

STEVE KROFT, CBS HOST: He didn't say that -- just say that we underestimated ISIL. He said we overestimated the ability and the will of our allies, the Iraqi army, to fight.

OBAMA: That's true. That's absolutely true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: But a former senior Pentagon official is leveling sharp criticism at the President over those comments telling the "Daily Beast" quote, "Either the President doesn't read the intelligence he's getting or he's BS-ing."

So let's talk about this. Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and a Democratic strategist; Ross Douthat is a CNN political commentator and an op-ed columnist for "The New York Times". Nice to see both of you.

Maria to you first on this.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

KAYE: The President has gone from calling ISIS a JV team this past January to saying eight months later that the U.S. actually underestimated the threat of ISISS. In light of that, how would you respond to that former Pentagon official's critique?

CARDONA: Randi, it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is for unnamed officials to be backseat commanders in chief especially those who don't see the depth and breadth of the intelligence that the President is seeing each and every morning. And I actually think that it's refreshing that the President is acknowledging what his head of intelligence has acknowledged, that they did underestimate the threat but I think more importantly, what the American people are focused on and should be focused is what are we doing about this moving forward?

We have seen tremendous coalition forces coming together to really help the United States and Iraq fight this. And the President is right on when he says that this is not a fight or a war between ISIS and the United States. This is an existential threat to the countries in that region who we are now seeing in a historic way that are stepping up and taking responsibility and helping the United States really fight this. And I think that's incredibly important to acknowledge.

KAYE: Ross, when asked in that "60 Minutes" interview, the President would not call this a war. He says the U.S. is assisting Iraq in a battle on their soil and that it is in our interest, our best interest to do so. But a majority of Americans worry that military action will develop, of course, into a larger war. Should the President just call it a war? He kept calling it a war environment in that interview.

DOUTHAN: Yes. I mean this has been a persistent phenomenon with this administration, the use of very strange language to describe military operations. When we were fighting in Libya there was a similar extreme discomfort with saying that the U.S. was at war and they used terms like well, this is a kinetic military operation.

And there are sort of interesting constitutional reasons for that even though Congress may ultimately vote in some way, maybe in the New Year, who knows, to authorize military action. There isn't a congressional vote forthcoming any time soon and as in Libya the President is claiming authority to conduct this operation in this case under existing authorizations for use of military force but again, there's a desire not to say this is a war because then maybe there would be some questions about what Congress should be doing to vote about it. To Maria's point, I just think it's a little bit too soon to sort of congratulate anyone. Our allies our ourselves on everything that other countries in the Middle East or the Iraqi government such as it is are doing at the moment and I think that, you know, looking back and looking ahead, the big story here has been the inability of groups from the Iraqi army to even Kurdish forces who are now fighting better but perform disappointingly, to deal with ISIS.

And that's been the story all along and it's likely to continue to be the story which is why we're having this debate about the possibility of U.S. ground troops. There just so far isn't strong evidence that regional actors are -- well, there's evidence they're capable of containing ISIS, at least with American air support but there isn't evidence that they're capable of rolling them back.

CARDONA: You know what, Randi, I would actually agree with most of what Ross said but I do think we do need to acknowledge the historic stepping up of our allies. Whether that's going to continue to gel and actually do what we need them to do, yes, of course that's a question. But the fact that they have stepped up in a way that they never have before I think is important.

And in terms of the Iraqi forces, yes, they completely fell apart but now we're seeing that with the new Iraqi government in place, which is another huge step in the right direction, we saw that one of the reasons why this vacuum happened and let these jihadist forces really gain steam in the last eight months is because Maliki refused to put in place a coalition government that included the Sunnis. That is now changing and it's changing at a rapid pace and that's also important to acknowledge moving forward.

DOUTHAT: I would just say that that is an -- it's obviously encouraging. It's encouraging that Maliki stepped down and so on but in terms of looking back on the President's own choices and this administration's choices over the last two years, I think it's pretty hard to argue that the White House didn't in some sense take its eye off the ball around Iraq.

I mean, you had John Kerry spending a huge amount of time shuttling around the region on a major and ultimately failed push to restart Israel/Palestine peace talks at exactly the moment when the Maliki government was sowing the seeds for ISIS' rise.

So saying that we've achieved as much is I think an implicit indictment as the President basically admitted what the administration has done the last few years.

KAYE: All right.

CARDONA: Yes. I mean I would think that's right but, again, let's focus on the positive and making sure that we're doing what we need together with our allies in the region to move forward to where we need to get to.

KAYE: Right.

DOUTHAT: Let's hope there's positive to focus on soon.

KAYE: Absolutely. I'm with you on that.

All right guys. Thank you so much -- Maria, Ross nice to see you.

CARDONA: Thank you.

DOUTHAT: Thank you.

KAYE: I will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. Let's check some top stories now.

The FAA is launching an internal review of security protocols at agency facilities. This after a fire broke out at the Chicago Air Traffic Center on Friday. The FAA hopes to have the Chicago Air Traffic Center back to full service in two weeks, October 13, they're saying. A U.S. doctor exposed to the ebola virus is now back on American soil.

No details on the patient have been made available but officials at the national institutes of health say he was volunteering at an ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone. He will be kept in an isolation unit out of what is being called quote, "an abundance of caution".

More than 30 people are dead after rescuers found their bodies at the summit of a Japanese volcano that erupted Saturday. Crews started airlifting bodies out of an area near the summit of Mount Ontake after the surprise eruption. But that operation has now been suspended because of some safety concerns. CNN's Will Ripley has much more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This road block is as close as we are safely allowed to get to Mount Ontake. You can see the emergency vehicles that are coming through here almost continuously that are carrying the people who have been recovered from the mountain to the area where their bodies are identified.

The ash continues to rain down on us here which is why we have helmets and we're wearing face masks at times when the air gets a bit thick. You can see the seismic activity continuing up on the mountain.

The only people who are going up there are the rescuers who are putting their lives on the line to bring back injured survivors. And also bring back the victims, place them on ambulances, and carry them away.

Those ambulances come here to a former elementary school that has now turned into a morgue where the people who are pulled from the mountain are taken and identified. Just a few minutes ago we watched another one of these ambulances come and they pulled a body that was wrapped in cloth. It's a scene that we see playing out here over and over again. After a body is positively identified, then it's time to notify the family.

Kiyokasu Tokoto's (ph) son and girlfriend were on the summit just before the eruption. It's the same area where rescuers keep finding more bodies. You can feel his grief. It's a grief shared by so many families. Their loved one climbed that mountain and now they're making their final journey home.

Will Ripley, CNN, Mount Ontake, Japan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Those are some incredible pictures.

Still to come, the world's largest diplomatic gathering and the leaders of two hot spots weighed into the escalating tensions in the Middle East. We'll have a live report from the United Nations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAYE: We are closely watching the United Nations General Assembly right now. Leaders from two hotspots speaking today -- Syria's deputy prime minister is going to speak any minute now; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also set to speak soon.

So let's bring in CNN's Richard Roth. He's joining us live from the United Nations. Richard, from Syria's deputy prime minister, what can we expect to hear?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can expect again probably denunciations about Western involvement. It's going to be interesting to see whether the deputy prime minister refers and how he refers to the air strikes -- over 50 U.S. Coalition air strikes inside Syria against ISIS targets.

In the past, the speeches from the General Assembly rostrum by this same person have been strident against Western involvement and backing rebel groups which Syria likes to refer to as terrorists.

KAYE: And on Friday, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas he spoke and he accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians. Are we expecting Netanyahu to respond to that accusation, do you think, directly today?

ROTH: Oh, I'm sure he will. His foreign minister just issued some sharp criticism of Abbas saying that everything to him is an insult but we believe that the Israeli leader will target Iran and its leadership much more. That's always been the bigger concern, despite the fighting in Gaza that lasted for weeks and the heavy casualty totals there. Israel still remains very firm in its criticism and its alarm about Iran and its nuclear program as talks and deals swirl on the sidelines regarding the nuclear program. Israel is already saying it's going to be a bad deal if there is a deal.

KAYE: Yes, certainly things getting interesting there at the U.N. Richard Roth, thank you very much.

And I will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Getting a check of top stories now.

Could a virus that has sickened hundreds of children in recent weeks be the source of paralysis in some Colorado children? The CDC has launched an investigation. Nine children suffering from paralysis or muscle weakness are being treated in a Colorado hospital. The children first had respiratory problems before developing the muscle problems.

The CDC is looking at a possible connection to the enterovirus 68 -- that's the respiratory virus that had spread to 40 states now.

In money news, the fee to use ATMS that are not owned by your bank have jumped about 5 percent over the past year. On average -- that's more than $4 per transaction. While there are a few banks that reimburse those fees, the simplest way really to avoid them is to use your bank's ATM.

All right. Move over Ben Roethlisberger, there's a new number 7 in town. As Jeanne Moos shows us, this number seven is getting a big -- make that a huge break in life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: It's normal for cows to have spots but can you spot a number on this newborn calf? It's plain as the nose on his face, lucky 7. The calf was born at Veil Wood Farms in Pittsburgh Steeler country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, of course, when we saw a number 7 our thoughts right away jumped to the number 7 with big Ben Roethlisberger.

MOOS: Number 7, the quarter back for the Steelers. The calf was christened Baby Ben and Big Ben must have approved because next thing you know, a photo of number 7 the calf was on number 7 the quarterback's official web page.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Each cow's markings are like fingerprints so no two cows have the same spots.

MOOS: This isn't the first time spots ended up in the spotlight. First there was Mickey Moo whose marks looked so much like Mickey Mouse that Disney spent an undisclosed amount to acquire the cow.

But the one who looked like she was metaphorically scratching her head with question marks. She has since gone on to the great unknown in the sky, but I had the honor of meeting the quizzical cow.

Does she have any other punctuation marks on her? Any periods or exclamation points? Question mark went on to have bit parts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The old cow was smeared with new cow scent.

MOOS: Questionable roles in movies such as "Someone Like You". now that she's gone there's no question who's inherited the top spot.

But, you know, Baby Ben 7 really is lucky. I mean really, really lucky. As one poster noted, one day he will be used for some Roethlisburgers (ph). It's true that the dairy farm where Ben was born normally keeps the girls and sells the boys for eventual slaughter. But Baby Ben's 7 makes him so special he'll be spared and put on display.

You're promising that Baby Ben is not going to become a Roethlisburger?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not on our watch, I promise. Not on our watch will he become Roethlisburgers.

MOOS: Lucky 7 saved from the grill. Here's hoping he'll end up where old quarterbacks do -- put out to pasture.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York. .

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Let's hope he's put out to pasture.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Randi Kaye.

"@ THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA starts right after a quick break.

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