Transcripts For CNNW New Day 20140613

After five years in taliban captivity u. S. Army Sergeant Bowe bergdahl is back on american soil. Touching down overnight bergdahl arrived at Lackland Air Force base in san antonio and transported to a military medical facility with a room prepped for his arrival and a support Team Standing by along with his family. He just came out of five years of canptivity. Were going to get a chance to find out what was in his head there that day when he was taken captive. Reporter the daily beast with letters. They may give a glimpse into his disappearance in 2009, writing, leadership was lacking, if not nonexistent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the man that were actually the ones risking their lives from attack. The letters are dated 2012 and 2013. Penned in two very different writing styles. One in cursive. The other in block print. The family confirmed the authenticity of the letters revealed by sources from the taliban. Held hostage in iraq for nearly a year, american roy hallems can relate. When i did mine they set a piece of paper in front of me and gave me a pen and one person sat on each side of me and told me what to write and they wanted me to print it and not write it in script because they couldnt read english in script. Reporter at times his thoughts seemed to wander, touching on mathematicses, god, and the universe. Several portions of the letter blocked out, words in letters oddly misspelled. In 2013 he wrote, if this letter makes it to the usa tell those involved in the investigation that there are more sides to the cittuwation. The reunion with his family, everybody wants to know when is that going to happen. If military says there is is no specific timeline. It will take place inside the hospital where Bowe Bergdahl currently is. It will take place in a room and it will be very carefully handled, first meeting only expected to last a few minutes. Martin savidge for us in texas. Now to iraq. Bloody chaos is taking over. Days after they seized mosul the countrys second largest city now theyre moving south near getting close to baghdad. Cnn is all over this story and were going to begin with Senior International correspondent arwa damon tracking developments from iraq. The situation for iraq could not be in the words of one iraqi politician, more catastrophic. Leaving no doubt about their reach video claiming to show the radical islamist terror group isis arriving to cheers in syria with an iraqi Army Military humvee. Isis gaining control, not just over land but armored vehicles, weapons, and am mu in addition, abandoned by the iraqi forces as they fled mosul. Iraqs second largest city. Parts of baji, oil refining town, area surrounding the oil city of kirkuk, prompting Kurdish Forces to send if their troops after the Iraqi Military fled there as well. And in this video from saddam husseins hometown of tikrit showing fighters parading hundreds of captured Iraqi Security forces. They have melted down unfortunately. Two Army Divisions in the city and their commanders escape to the north. And really the government needs to take serious action. Reporter with isis threatening baghdad is next, u. S. Contractors were evacuated from an Iraqi Military base and chartered out of the country. Still, some u. S. Commanders remain optimistic about the Iraqi Security forces they left behind. Theyve got a lot of equipment and they have some of their forces are pretty well strained, i believe, by our folks and nato, allies before we left. So i think they have the capabilities to do this. Reporter nearly three years after american boots left iraqi soil, a terrorist group more powerful than al qaeda is gaining greater control. Brianna, one of the main reasons that isis is able to gain territory so quickly is that other sunni insurgent groups have also emerged in the fight against the predominantly shia government of Nuri Al Maliki. They are not going to come under control by sheer of military might. There has to be true political reconciliation. Or a damon for us, thank you. The Iraqi Government is asking the u. S. For help. President obama says hes not ruling anything out. Lets bring in our senior White House Correspondent jim acosta. Not ruling anything out, what does that mean, jim . Brianna, that does mean the u. S. Is now considering air strikes. The president met with the National Security team to talk about options to cob tan the growing crisis in iraq. Here are some of the options the white house is talking about at this point. The president is considering drone or air strikes to contain the move ms made by isis in iraq. Hes also talking about ramping up military aid to iraqi fighters. At the same time, they are putting new humanitarian assistance in the pipeline. But keep in mind despite the president said he is not p ruling anything out there will be no boots on the ground. Official administration saying no boots on the ground. That is not being considered. Keep in mind at the same time with the sunni backed fighters making the advances in iraq and even some u. S. Contractors being evacuated from the country time is considered of the essence over here at the white house. That is why Senior Administration officials are indicating a strike could come as early as this weekend. Meanwhile, we should also point out white house officials are deeply frustrated with iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki. They believe he has failed to lead the factions in iraq. White house officials are kaukszing would be short lived and keep in mind for a president who pledged back in 2008 to end the war in iraq and then did so in 2011 there is great Political Risk for this president. Chris . All right, jim, speaking of failure there is plenty of it to go around in this situation. So lets get into it. For more on who isis is, how dangerous they are, whats going to happen next, lets bring in bobby goech. Its good to have you back here. One quick editorial point before we get into the particulars here, no boots on the ground. We need political reconciliation to make this stop. That sounds like almost magic talking about this point now. From what we understand about the situation, is there any way that air strikes would be enough . Is there any chance at any kind of political reconciliation right now . Not at the moment. You dont know who to strike. Air strikes involve intelligence. Intelligence means you have to trust the people giving it information. We talk about Iraqi Government whose own military doesnt trust it. They walked away. They walked away because they didnt feel they had a stake in the future of their country. The kurds dont trust their government. Many sunnis dont trust their government. How can the United States trust any intelligence that comes out of the government of Nuri Al Maliki. Air strikes, boots on the ground, these things are simply not part of the equation right now. Were dealing with really a threetiered problem. Even to keep it simple. Were focusing on isis. Isis is the militant group, the acronym isis is busy islamic straight in iraq and syria. You told us already they are different because they are not about chaos. They are about land grab and control. Explain. Well, most terrorist groups that were familiar with in modern times, all they want to do is mayhem. They want to kill a lot of people. They talk about going to paradise. They talk about the perfect Islamic State. But this is is a group that is actually seizing territory, holding on to it, appointing governors, appointing local administration. They seem like they want to rule. They want a nation on this earth, not the one in paradise. And that makes them very different. Thats a different level of ambition than weve seen from lets saby Osama Bin Laden or people from his group. We are impressed by the speed. Theyre over taking the country. Almost no resistance. But theyre being smart. Mosul, why do they want mosul . Second biggest city but huge cultural cache to it, historical importance. The metaphor is, if i control this i control what matters. True . Mosul is an ancient city. Its a very important business center. It has been for hundreds of years. It is the home of many of iraqs most famous military commanders. Mosul prides itself as a city that gave iraq the greatest military command. Theres a big political and propaganda message being sent when they take mosul. They just rolled through. They copy doame down this ro faster than the United States and its coalition went up in 2003. That speed is incredible. They travel very light, very fast. And they are traveling, lets not forget, a lot of this is sunni part of the country. So they are traveling in territory if not friendly is certainly not hostile towards them and their interest. Now we believe theyre heading toward baghdad. Getting very little resistance. Kirkuk is important because when they took that city it triggered second layer of problem now if its not just that they have to deal with isis in iraq but now the kurds who believe kirkuk should be theirs, so now you have this tribal movement. They come down. Now theyre controlling kirkuk. Isis is gone but you have a new set of not bad guys but people who are against the Iraqi Government in control. And as they move toward baghdad you have the sunni shia die dam mick coming into play where the shia military types. Three layers . Absolutely. With the kirkuk, the kurds, these are friends of ours. They fought alongside the American Military against saddam hussein. They are fabled fighters. Known for their fer ross city. The name peshmerga is known for death. They are not going to easily gave it back to the government in baghdad. They wanted kirkuk for a very, very long time. Kirkuk is an oil city. Giant it sits on a super lake of oil. At a teestrategic importance. What we start to see is this man at the center of isis and as we touched the center of the nose, here is a different picture of the guy. When you look at the precision, the speed, the acquiring of assets and cash because hes emptying the banks and the momentum hes getting among the people, how do we see this man and what his future is . He is now probably the most successful modern terrorist because he holds all of that territory. Thats the country the size of jordan. There are only three or four pictures of this guy and thats part of his power that nobody really knows him. There are no videos of him. They wanted to audiotapes out there that we think may be better known for his ambition. Everything that you see in dark now on your screen he believes should be under their control of one true Islamic State and it almost includes israel. Nobody can say these guys havent told us what they want. Its very clear what they want. They want all of this territory. And this includes, as you say, israel, all of iraqs oil, bordering on some incredibly, you know, ally here, arrival there. You mentioned to me before we came on, theres word that revolutionary guard from iran are on the ground in iraq to help the state but to the iraqis thats just more destabilizing because of the history with iran. Reports of that yesterday. If it was true it would be like throwing a grenade into an armory because iraq and iran fought eightyear bloody war. Half a million iraqis died. Even shiites are not particularly fond of them. And so the idea that iranian boots are on the ground in iraq, even if to protect baghdad, that would be very humiliating to a lot of iraqis. Remember this, right now were hearing from u. S. Authorities, no boots on the ground. Were going to do some drone strikes, help with the military. It doesnt even end in iraq, even if the drone strikes were effective and whats the real chance of that and no boots on the ground it emanates from syria so you would have to be involved there as well. Its moving very lick quickly. Im sure to have you back to help me understand this as we move forward. Next up on new day, new video of Bowe Bergdahl back in the u. S. As just published letters cast new light on why he may have disappeared. Were talking to the reporter who obtained those letters. And new Jersey Governor Chris Christie is noticeably slimmer and also busting a move on late night tv. Talking trash as well, not about Hillary Clintons politics but her dancing skills. [announcer] play closegood and close. Help keep teeth clean and breath fresh with beneful healthy smile snacks. 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Now, of course, the big question isnt where he is, its why he left his post in the first place. And we may be getting some information that pushes us toward an answer there. Newly published letters written by bergdahl. We believe joining us this morning is kimberly dozer, contributing as the writer of the daily beast article about this. She obtained the letters. Kim, its good to see you. This is important here because this question is plaguing the analysis of the deal to bring bergdahl home. Lets start with the letters. The authenticity is the obvious question. What can you tell us about authorship and whether they were under duress. There are two letter one from 2012 and one from 2013. I have to say the first time i saw them i thought, this is a joke. These cant really have been written by Bowe Bergdahl himself. Then i showed them to u. S. Officials, western i was officials who had been part of this whole process to try to get him back. They said, no, those are the real things that the red cross delivered to bergdahls family. And that the family had examined the letters and saw things in both of them that only could have been written by bowe p. Things like a little paw print on the first one which used to be one of his traditional ways of signing off on letters and references to things that the family would talk about. Now, they do start logically talking about things like im being fed, im okay, but the first one in particular devolves into the long dietribe on god, faith, the weather, its hard to follow. That is probably the best indication that we have that bergdahl was under a tough situation when he wrote them. Maybe somebody was watching him. Maybe this was one of the only times that he got a moment out of his cell to write and he was taking advantage of that, to write as much as he could for as long as he could. The taliban sources ive spoken to have said that he was held in a cage after his second escape a tempt. Though he was also moved around. So sometimes it was a cage, sometimes it was a basement. He has told some of the people debriefing him that he had a hood over his head much of the time as well, except when he was eating or drinking. So, yes, he probably wrote these letters but people were watching him and his state of mind cant have been good. Wow. We had heard about one escape. Now theyre saying two attempted escape, kept in a cage. Harsh conditions. How do you explain some is in cursive, some is in block letters. That may be an indication of monitoring. It can be. If his captors were trying to read what he was writing and they often are able to read block print but not cursive. Its like, im okay in spoken arab b arabic, i cant read it. It also indicates that maybe hes trying to send a message. The second letter there does seem to be aware that there was an investigation into his departure from the base and he seems he is defending himself. Hes telling his family, tell those doing the investigation in d. C. Wait until all the evidence comes in. He talks about the conditions being bad, not having confidence in his leadership, and the situation being very unsafe. Does it sound whats the take . Is it like its propaganda driven or do you think this comes across as specific i sight . Throw up the pictures we have of the letters so people can see for themselves the difference in writing and these different excerpts. Kim, whats your answer to that question . It can be one of two things. He could be defending himself saying i walked off that base for a reason because the conditions werent acceptable. But it was also good message that the taliban would want out, that the morale was bad, that the soldiers on the ground didnt have the confidence of their leadership. The investigation into bergdahls disappearance from the base did conclude that leadership at his platoon was lacking. Two of his leaders were replaced during the time he was there. Theres a lot of speculation about that to be sure. That will be part of any eventual investigation. The pentagon has been very strong on telling people to wait on making any type of conclusion about desertion versus walking off and doing something stupid. Lets pull up one part of one of the letters where its saying if this letter makes it to the usa tell those involved in the investigation there are more sides to the situation, he adds, please tell d. C. To wait for evidence. Why cant he spell and, two, what duke that suggests about his motivation when he walked off . Well, he was homeschooled. And i also did get to read the letters from bergdahls family back to him. We havent released those. Theyre private. Theyre about things like family births and things going on inside their home. But there are spelling mistakes in their letters as well. This just seems to be part of bowes tradition. Okay. The Washington Post also obtained some of his journal writings that he mailed off just before walking off base. And this script and this spelling is very similar to those. Two things to finish on for now, kim, really, thank you so much for doing this reporting. Youve always been known for great work in this area and this certainly advances it. One, does this mean that the red cross knew where he was if they were able to get these letters . Secondly, do you get the feel from the context and the writings that he left on purpose with a plan never to return or that he was just upset there . Can you answer those two . You know, i am not sure what the red cross knew. They were rather upset that i had obtained these letters because one of the things that they do is send thousands of these messages on behalf of detainees every year. And they rely on confidentiality. These letters were provided to me by people in contact with the taliban. The taliban decided to release them. And as to bowes state of mind, it does seem to point to him making a decision that he felt the conditions were too dangerous and he was deciding to leave them. Now, you talk to defense officials or those who served with him, they say thats not good enough. Not good enough meaning what . Thats not good enough, thats not a good enough reason, you dont walk off your base. You dont disappear when you have orders that you think are unjust or you have a situation that you think is unfair. Theres a chain of command. Theres a way to complain about those things. The one thing the pentagon and Bowe Bergdahl do seem to agree on is that they both want to wait until they have time to hear from bergdahl, hear his whole story before passing judgment. Definitely takes us one step closer to whether or not because whats the ugliest speculation, oh, he wanted to be with the taliban and all this that we learn about the escapes and the treatment paints a little bit of a different picture of these letters help as well. Kim dozier, thanks for being with us. Thanks, chris. Next up on new day, Hillary Clinton blasts a radio host during an interview when the issue of gay marriage comes up. Well bring you the Fiery Exchange and what she had to say about the accusation that she had a, quote, change of heart for political reasons. Plus, Chris Christie cuts a rug. There you have it, right . You can see the governor bust a move with jimmy fallon. Its really something you dont want to miss. Well show you the whole thing. The Clean Air Act stops polluters from. Poisoning his air with arsenic, lead and mercury. Now the loop hole that lets them pump unlimited carbon. Pollution into his air is closing too. If polluters and their friends in washington dont interfere. Dont let polluters weaken our clean air protections. ; you need to see this. Show em the curve. Do you know what this means . The greater the curvature, the bigger the difference. [scifi tractor beam sound]. Sucked me right in. Its beautiful. Gotta admit one thing. Cant beat the view. Introducing the worlds first curved Ultra High Definition Television from samsung. Welcome back. There is a lot going on to start your new day so lets get right to john berman. Hes in for nicky. Theres a lot going on. Starting in iraq, the u. S. Is weighing how to respond as radical islamists take over key iraqi cities and move closer to the capital. President obama saying he will not rule anything out if it keeps militants from gaining any permanent foothold in iraq and syria. Air strikes are a possibility but white house spokesman jay carney says u. S. Ground troops not an option. Texas republican congressman Pete Sessions will not be the next House Majority leader. Sessions saying he cant run because a, quote, Successful Campaign would create Division Within the republican party. Also he probably wouldnt win because House Majority whip Kevin Mccarthy has lined up enough votes to replace eric cantor. Cantor is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of july after being beaten badly and unexpectedly in the republican primary. So Hillary Clinton fired up. She was clearly irritated during an npr interview when the host terry gross brought up gay marriage repeatedly. Clinton said that gross was putting words in her mouth. Listen. You are playing with my words and playing with what is such an important issue. I just want to clarify so i understand. No, i dont think you are trying to clarify. I think you are trying to say that i used to be opposed and now im in favor and i did it for political reasons and thats just flat wrong. Clinton did not support gay marriage in her campaign but does now support and it did by video the first time last year. This is something you have to see and frankly you cant unsee. Chris christie busting a move. Heres a governor getting his move on with jimmy fallon on the tonight show. Keep on watching. All right. That last little thing clearly a good natured shot at the George Washington bridge scandal that embroiled the governors administration. Christie had been seen and maybe is being seen as a possible 2016 president ial candidate. He was asked if he could hypothetically beat Hillary Clinton, he said yes in a danceoff. Now, this was entertaining, folks, clearly. This was also clearly a deeply political dance from the very beginning. Chris christie trying to put this whole thing behind him and move on. Can you do anything that you would say is not deeply political . No, not like this. Certainly not appearing on jimmy fallon who just lamb basted him with that Bruce Springsteen song before. Going on this show and doing this dance is his way of trying to get beyond it with humor. A lot of politicians do it. But i dont know. I think Hillary Clinton could give him a run for his money. Weve seen pictures of her dancing, right . The bar is low. Yeah. But ill tell you the three amigos. He looked good. The governor has been working on his fitness and weight for a long time. The more you can laugh at yourself, the more it diffuses the strength of criticism against you. Its a win win for him and for jimmy fallon. He is funny. Also, so, from someone who may be on the way back up to someone who looks like they are on the way down, who were the reining champs on the Court Last Night . San antonio blew out the heat again. One win away from an nba championship. You may not be surprised but ill tell you who is, the guy with the nice golf shirts on, andy scholes who brings us the bleacher report. How is it going for you now . Youve got the heats color on there, andy. You picked them to win. Not so much. You know what, i thought this would be a much more competitive series than it has been. As did a lot of people. Chris, i know how much you love stats so ive got ood good one before when the team is down 31 in the nba finals they have a 0 chance of winning the series. Things are not looking good for the heat. And really they would be lucky just to win another game in the series. The spurs, man, once again just put a beatdown on miami in game four leading by 19 at the half. 10786 was the final. Spurs are just impressive back to back wins in miami. They will now look to win their fifth championship sunday night in san antonio. Turning on bleacherreport. Com this morning the world cup is finally off and running. Brazil beat croatia 31 in the opener behind two goals from their star namar. Three more games today including a rematch between spain and the netherlands. That game is at 3 00 p. M. Eastern. The usa they dont get to hit the field until monday night and head coach says we cant win the world cup this year. What do you think . Rachel nichols will tackle that topic tonight. You can watch that at 10 30 eastern right here on cnn. Were out here in pinehurst, north carolina, for the u. S. Open. Round two is just about to get going out on the course. Phil mickelson is in the hunt and he certainly had a weight lifted off his shoulders yesterday as the New York Times is reporting that he will not be charged with any wrong doing, any clorox inside trader investigation. Phil is five shots back of kyler. He shot a pinehurst best 65 yesterday. He has a threeshot lead heading into today. The fabulous sports week were enjoying right now will continue tonight with the stanley cup final game five between rangers and kings. Another do or die game for new york. Chris, i know youre pretty nervous about this. They have to win in order to bring the nervous back to Madison Square gardens. Do you think theyre going to get it done tonight . Absolutely. Theres a 0 chance they will win tonight. Shut up. See, you andy. Not nervous, i guess. And it is now cnn money time. Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans here with that. Good morning. Another week, another hack. A possible Security Breach at pfchangs this week. Experts say online hacking is only going to get worse so you have to protect your finances online. Its up to you. A few things you can do. Be diligent about software updates. When they find holes they send out security patches to solve it. Be aware of the webcam. Even if youre not using your webcam, hackers can get to it remotely. Put a piece of tape over it. Hackers can tap into the mike on your smartphone so put it away when youre not using it. Use two factor authentications, facebook, twitter, g mail, two its really important, two layers to the. Once you enter your password the site will prompt you for a second code from your phone. Half of americans were hacked last year. A few extra layers of protection certainly cant hurt. Nothing like tape to save you. The lowest tech possible solution, tape. I have paper over mine on the desk. Nice. Nice. Now you can do anything and no one will know. Thank you, christine. Coming up on new day, iraq is in turmoil and thats really putting it gently. Could the u. S. Get sucked back in . Spider marks is here. He knows the situation in iraq. He knows what intel there is and isnt. Hes going to give us the options and risks. President george h. W. Bush celebrating the big 90 high in the sky. Well talk live with his dive partner. 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For best results, use verizon. Help keep teeth clean and breath fresh. With beneful healthy smile snacks. With soft meaty centers and teeth cleaning texture,its dental that tastes so good. Beneful healthy smile food and snacks. Co until youre sure you do. You need a hotel room bartender thanks, captain obvious. Co which is why i put the hotels. Com mobile app on my mobile phone. Hotels. Com i dont need it right now. Welcome back to new day. A very volatile situation in iraq this morning. Militants seizing iraqi cities moving closer to baghdad on their mission to establish an Islamic State throughout the region. President obama says iraq needs help but what can america do and should it get involved again . Joining us now to talk about this is retired Major General james spider marks, former commanding general of the Army Intelligence center and cnn military analyst. He was the top Army Intelligence officer during the 2003 invasion in iraq. Major general, lets for once lets put the politics of this aside for a moment. Lets put aside the fact that americans are war weary. For stability in the region what needs to be done in your opinion . Well, the United States certainly has an obligation to have a leadership role so we can kind of say that up front, brianna. But clearly maliki has got himself into a real challenge here. And hes done this with his eyes wide open. Hes really established a sectarian government. The sunnis feel disenfranchised. Hes at the point now where he sees his government potentially in flight. Its going to collapse. It could collapse. Hes got a lot of work to do and he needs to do it very immediately. Step one clearly is he has to be able to reach out to his political detractors, the sunnis, and be able to bring them in as quickly as possible. Thats path one. Path two is he has to be able to very overtly make achieve some successes on the battlefield against isis which hes not been able to do. Clearly what isis has been able to achieve up north in mosul and tikrit en route baghdad. Clearly theres a line of communication that runs from north to south straight into baghdad. Maliki has to be able to control the momentum that isis has been able to achieve along that route. He hasnt been able to demonstrate that his military is up for the task. Now, the best military he has is in the vicinity of baghdad. They will be tested here shortly. He has to get those boys out of their position right now and start to confront isis and do it effectively. What about the u. S. . What about the role of the all considerations so you reach very quickly the determination that boots on the ground is not very likely option. There is the possibility of air strikes. Both manned and unmanned. But that could also be done by a coalition of partners from the region. The United States certainly doesnt doesnt need to do that alone. There are some very competent capabilities that exist in the region. Those strikes should be against very fixed targets. You cant use Close Air Support. In other words, where Iraqi Security forces are in a tight fight with isis unless you have u. S. Forces on the ground to direct that fire. Youre not going to have Close Air Support to achieve distance between those units that are in combat. But you can strike their lines of communications, you can strike their stockpiles. And isis support comes from syria. So the challenge now becomes if we were to conduct air strikes it just wouldnt be over iraqi territory, we would have to stretch into syria. That complicates it further. But we have the capability to do that. The United States and its partners can do that. We saw in libya president obama went it alone without congressional authorization for air strikes there. But just this last year when it came to syria, he bowed out of that without getting the backing of congress. Do you think its a real possibility air strikes, even if president obama doesnt get congressional support, whether its in the form of a vote or in a more informal way . Very good question, brianna. I have to tell you, this administration has not been averse from using military force when it needs to. It also has some repair work to do with our congress because they havent necessarily bridged those two authorities as effectively as they could. At this point i dont know what type of congressional support we would get to do almost anything in iraq. So if you want to keep malikis government viable and you dont want to have it in a situation where it has to flee baghdad and now its elsewhere and one of those locations could be in exile in tehran, that would be a horrible outcome, the president is going to have to act, the administration is going to have to act pretty swiftly in order to get something done because right now the bleeding is immense and iraq needs the help. And we imagine the administrations decision will come in the next few days. Major general james spider marks, thank you so much. Important information there, brianna. Thats for sure. Coming up on new day, Bowe Bergdahl back on u. S. Soil this morning. We have letters he wrote in captivity. Were going to tell you the clues they contain to why he left. And its a bird, its a plane, no, its our 41st president george h. W. Bush celebrating his 90th birthday like a man. Thats him jumping out of a plane. Were going to speak with the man who took the plunge with him. Look at him. Fourpoint landing. This is a view. You have to leave the couch to believe. Seize the summer with up to 40 off hotels from travelocity. Chris cuomo has the good stuff. Were going to call this the awesome stuff. Former president george h. W. Bush celebrating his 90th birthday just like 90yearolds by jumping out of a helicopter at 6,000 feet. The former president jumped in tandem with retired Sergeant First Class michael yot. Mr. Elliott is part of the all veterans parachute team. I cant get enough of this. Mike joins us now from kmaine. Thank you so much for being with us. This is such a wonderful joyful thing to see. As i said, we simply cant get enough of it. Explain to me the feeling of being at 6,000 feet with a 90yearold former t president of the United States with everyone on earth watching and filming this. What are the feelings going through your mind . Well, let me tell you, its quite amazing. And just the feeling of honor to have such American Hero strapped to you. The nerves are definitely a little high because you know the whole world is looking at you. And you know you are representing every veteran, every soldier. But just a feeling of of american pride. Its kind of hard to describe this sensation. A former president has done this a few times, the first time he did it was went when he was shot down over the pacific as a very young pilot in world war ii. We watched the video of this jump yesterday. The landing, you know, you might have had smoother landings with him in the past. Is everyone okay after that landing . It looked a little bit bumpy. Absolutely. He is completely okay. After the jump i went up to the house and spoke with him and 43 and the entire family and he was smiling. He reminded me of a 10yearold christmas day. We have to realize that the former president is 90 years old. So things are not as mobile and he doesnt have his strength of, you know, of a 60yearold man so the landing was not as perfect as we wanted it to be but, you know, he had a safe and enjoyable tandem sky dive. Sergeant, john berman is being gentle about it. Lets put it a different way. You kind of pancaked the president there on the landing. Is there something you would have done differently the next time instead of flopping on top of the man like that at 90 years of age . Well, ill put it to you like this. It was a risk taking the former president with his age, with his parkinsons disease. And you know, it is what it is. It wasnt perfect. I wish it was better. But you know what, he is happy. So at the end of the day, thats what its all about. That is what its all about. Sergeant, brianna here. Do you think hes going to keep doing this . This has been something he has been doing a few times. Does he want to keep going . Sergeant, can you hear us okay . Hes thinking about the question. I think we may have lost him. Got it, sergeant . Are you thinking back to the parachute with the president . Well, the sergeant was saying that what was important was that former president bush was happy. I think one of the most interesting things about george h. W. Bush has been the last year or so. After he got sick he has done so much, so many wonderful happy things. I have never seen him without a smile on his face over the last year. It just seems like he is living this life to the fullest and you can see his family all around him taking great joy in every moment as well. I love the message that that sends to people who are in their 70s, their 80s, or their 90s to just, you know, theres nothing really stopping you. Or early 40s, very young early 40s. That, too. I was teasing the sergeant there. But this isnt the first time hes jump wed the president. What an amazing memory for him to make also. He obviously cares about the man, not just the office very much and ensure his safety there. Got a little bit of a tear in my eye. When you see the video, his wife, barbara bush, comes flying out. She kisses him on the cheek. Shes rushing out there to make sure herm man is okay. Theyve been married 70 something years . Yeah. Theres a picture of them kissing. After all of these years she ran out and made sure her man was okay. Happy birthday to the president. What a life this is and what a life it has been for him. On sunday you have to tune in as 41 american notables come in together to bring you a unique portrait of george h. W. Bush. Its called 41 on 41. I cannot wait to see this. Its sunday night 9 00 eastern right here on cnn. God bless him. Impressive what hes doing here. Were following a lot of news for you on your new day. Lets get right to it. Bowe bergdahl is back on american soil. Were going to get a chance to find out what was in his head that day when he was taken captive. Letters purportedly written from Sergeant Bergdahl to his family. Was he saying what the taliban told him to say . American forces were the glue that was holding iraq together. With the makings of an iraqi civil war now full blown, Foreign Policy crisis. 100 miles from baghdad. Whats the president doing . Taking a nap. Its brutal. I would say its inhumane. Reporter these are the faces of a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of children as young as 4 traveling alone. A Processing Center is no place for your child. Good morning. Welcome back to new day. We have the tgif special edition for you. Weve got Brianna Keilar in for kate. Jb sitting in for michaela this morning as well. We also have breaking news for you this morning. Bowe bergdahl is back on u. S. Soil after five years in taliban captivity. The 28yearold arrived in the dark of night in texas. His disappearance has been the speculation kind of capital of the week. His release is a topic of controversy. Why he left is the main question. Lets bring in cnns Martin Savidge live in san antonio with the latest. Martin, good morning. Good morning, chris. It was, as you say, the middle of the night that Sergeant Bowe bergdahl touched down. Military flight brought him from landstuhl, germany, to Lackland Air Force base. He was transported from there and brought to the san antonio military Medical Center located behind me there. Right now hes isolated. Thats where they will care for him. This is all carefully done. Its not done because he is Sergeant Bowe bergdahl. Its done because this is the way the army says it treats all returning captives. It was a statement put out that just says our focus from the army here, our to can you remains on his health and well being. Secretary hagel is confident the army will continue to ensure that Sergeant Bergdahl receives the care, time, and space he needs to complete his recovery and reintegration. Key to that will be reunion with his family. No timeline. We expect it to be soon. It is crucial for his overall recovery. That is what they say. Thank you. Now to iraq in turmoil. The u. S. Now said to be weighing how to deal with radical islamists and they topple key, big iraqi cities. The militants now moving south nearing baquba becoming a bigger threat to baghdad. Lets bring in senior White House Correspondent jim acosta with the latest from the white house. What are we hearing, jim . Brianna, Senior Administration official said the president has not yet made any decisions yet on whether to strike in iraq, but a separate Senior Administration official is indicating that a decision could come as early as this weekend on how to proceed including the possibility the u. S. Could conduct air strikes. With the makings of an iraqi civil war now a full blown Foreign Policy crisis president obama huddled with his National Security team to talk options. What was once unthinkable for this antiiraq war president is on the table. I dont rule out anything because we do have a state of making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either iraq or syria, for that matter. Reporter to prevent isis from taking baghdad, white house Officials Say the president is now considering drone or air strikes on the sunnibacked fighters but no boots on the ground. The u. S. Is prepared to ramp up military aid and is boosting humanitarian assistance. With isis seizing more iraqi ground and some u. S. Contractors being evacuated from the country, decisions could come quickly. Options are on the table right now, and at the appropriate time im sure you will hear from the president. Reporter acting as a Foreign Policy fireman Vice President joe biden was on the phone with iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and briefing lawmakers. But that isnt putting out the flames on capitol hill. Were 100 miles from baghdad. Whats the president doing . Taking a nap. Reporter arizona senator john mccain demanded that the president fire his entire National Security team. I believe that history will judge this president s leadership with the scorn and disdain that it deserves. Reporter republicans are all but say i guess told you so. After nearly nine years americas war in iraq will be over. Reporter after predicting the president s full withdrawal from iraq would backfire. But for mr. Obama it was about fulfilling a campaign promise. Former secretary of state and perspective 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton argued it was hard to see this crisis coming. I could not have predicted, however, the extent to which isis could be effective in seizing cities in iraq and trying to erase boundaries to create an Islamic State. Reporter as the president weighs his options its important to point out he and the National Security team is frustrated with iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki. They believe malikis failure to unite the warring factions were a key contributor to the current crisis. That is why officials are cautioning at this point that these military options are on the table may only go so far. Any actions that might be taken would be very short lived. Thats what officials are saying at this point. Brianna and chris . Jim, lets get perspective from where it goes from here. John negroponte, former director of National Intelligence under president george w. Bush. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Do you believe that we are in the if or the when stage of wondering about iraqs future and falling to these militants . Oh, i think theyre a long way from that. Theres no question this has been an alarming and rather abrupt development, but i think they will get pushback as they go further south. I think the situation is very urgent. I think the president is right to be considering his options. And i hope he makes his decisions soon. I think he was also right to say that the politicians in baghdad have got to now rally around their country instead of perpetuating their partisan bickering. And lastly, i would say this is also, anything to being important to iraq and to ourselves, its a major regional issue because of the uniindication of these Extremist Groups across borders between iraq and syria and i think there are other countries in the region like turkey that have a deepseeded interest in this situation. Theres something strange going on here. You have iran, iraq, syria, and the United States all sharing a joint purpose of wanting to stop isis. Isnt that true . Well, in a way, yes. And it shows that politics sometimes makes very strange bed fellows. But i think we have a particular interest in the stability of iraq. I think if it were to fall into if hands of isis that would be maybe just a bridge too far in terms of middle east stability. I could visualize it throwing the entire region of the middle east into complete turmoil. What do we do . Well, the president s considering offering some military assistance. I would assume hes considering either air strikes or drone strikes. I think we need to keep the military aid flowing. This situation can be reversed. At the moment theyve had some spectacular victories, but they can be stopped and i dont think if under the proper Political Leadership in baghdad, i think that the iraqi forces can turn this situation around. It looks dire at the moment. But that isnt necessarily the way its going to look a week or two weeks or a month from now. What is your source of confidence in iraqi leadership coming together and finding a way to present a formidable opposition . Well, im not saying formidable. I think they just have to put up resistance and my source of confidence, if you look at a politician like mr. Maliki, hes been Prime Minister for eight years. Theres been a political process going on out there. Perhaps one of the things where we can fault ourselves it would have been desirable if possible to have left behind a residual force when we with drew the last combat forces from iraq and i think perhaps our departure, our military departure from iraq, was a bit too abrupt. But we can repair some of that damage now if we rap rlly to th assistance of iraq and if we work with some of the other regional powers to do that. Do we have to put boots back on the ground to make this stop . And is this a lesson for us somewhat of a ghost of christmas future of afghanistan as a message there that you just cant leave . First of all, i cannot see us putting boots on the ground other than to man a few drone sites or Something Like that. But in terms of combat troops, in terms of organized units and so forth, no. As far as afghanistan, yes, its definitely a lesson. I would hope as time goes on we are able to find ways to maintain a presence in afghanistan for a longer period of time. Institutions in these countries that have suffered the kinds of earthquakes that they have, political and military earthquakes, cannot be rebuilt overnight. And once we get committed in there, i think it behooves us to try and stay as long as we can with them to help them restore their institutions to political health. What is is the percentage chance that you would place on isis overtaking control of iraq . Low. I mean, certainly yeah, im not going to assign a number to it but i would have great difficulty conceiving that outcome. What do you think the percentage chance is the u. S. Does air strikes . I would consider that quite high. Air strikes or drone strikes and beefed up military assistance. Has that ever been enough for the u. S. To control a situation on the ground . No, but its not us who are going to have to control it. Its going to be the iraqis. But i think it would be it might be enough in terms of giving a real morale boost to the government of iraq in terms of people having confidence that we stand behind them. I think at the moment the political and psychological impact would be as important as the military impact. All right. Ambassador negroponte, thank you very much for the perspective in the look forward because we could be easily facing the same situation in afghanistan. Not from isis. Thats not part of their controlled plan but there are other groups looking to take land and opportunity. Thank you for the perspective on that. Thank you. Lets get over to john berman in for mic. Theres a lot of news to start your new day and he has it. Ukrainian officials claiming russian tanks have entered the country. Ukraines acting interior minister said the vehicles entered Eastern Ukraine by crossing the border at a checkpoint controlled by prorussian separatists. He said the countrys military forces attacked two tanks. Russias top diplomat denied the charges claiming the country is ready for a pause in this conflict. New this morning. Donald sterling is trying to play offense, multiple media reports say attorneys have hired four private investigation firms to look into former and current nba commissioners and other team owners. Sources say the primary targetses are former commissioner david stern and current nba chief adam silver who hit sterling with a lifetime ban and 2. 5 million fine for serl i sterlings racist comments. Security contractors are failing to fully screen local guards. Thats the word from an internal audit by the state departments Inspector General thats due out today. The review found contractors sent local guards to six embassies to improve security did not thoroughly perform all the vetting specified in their contracts. And legendary actress and activist ruby dee passed away. For seven decades she sgrased the stage and screen earning an oscar nomination for 2007s american gangster playing the mother of a drug lord. More than being trailblazing actress, dee and her husband ozzy davis was center stage of every civil rights battle. They emceed the march on washington. Ruby dee once said you only appreciate freedom when you find yourself in a position to fight for someone elses. Ruby dee was 91 years old. Indra petersons has the track of the forecast. Look at the hail from abilene, texas. Baseball, even reports of some grapefruit size hail. Look at that. Look at the back of your windshield. No thank you. That was the story and there is still a threat of Severe Weather out there today. More likely down in the south. In the northeast, so close to the weekend. No one is happy theyre talking about rain but dont worry its here for one day. Lets talk about it. Still seeing the showers out there this morning. By tonight we still have a cold front. Yes, you may see a hint of a break as the warm front passes. You still have to get to the cold front as it all clears out of here. Warm front, right . Cold front, heavier showers. Sunshine making it very simple. Thats what comes in for the rest of the weekend. By saturday and sunday, things only get better. Very key as we get closer towards fathers day. Rain, one side of the equation. How about the sticky factor. Hot and humid. The moisture is coming out of the gulf. As soon as that cold front swings through overnight and tomorrow, these numbers draw. Look at the 60s and 70s by tomorrow. 30s and 40s is going to feel better out tl. The big thing is fathers day. Beautiful in the northeast. Southeast, scattered showers. Threat for Severe Weather in the northwe northwest. Cool out towards the pacific northwest. A couple of dads out here. Hopefully you will get something nice. Hammock and beer. Longing for the hammock and beer. Ill tweet her. I hear that. Thats easy. Ill make sure it happens. Im on it. Coming up on new day, Bowe Bergdahl wrote letter in captivity and we have them. The main question, did he desert. There are clues for us to follow and we have a former navy s. E. A. L. To talk to us about his disappearance. Coming up on inside politics, Hillary Clinton got a little hot under the collar. What were the questions from a radio host on npr that frustrated p former secretary of state . Well tell you. Let me get this straight. [ female voice ] yes . Lactaid® is 100 real milk . Right. Real milk. But it wont cause me discomfort. Exactly, because its milk without the lactose. And it tastes . Its real milk come on, would i lie about this . [ female announcer ] lactaid. 100 real milk. No discomfort. Come on, would i lie about this . So i use lactaid® members are cottage cheese. Ry. Its 100 real dairy without the lactose. So i can make these creamy dishes my family enjoys without discomfort. 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[ male announcer ] with millions of reviews, a visit to tripadvisor makes any destination better. Welcome back to new day. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl back on u. S. Soil this morning for the first time in five years. Flown in overnight to Brook Army Medical Center in texas after nearly two weeks under treatment at Military Hospital in germany. This is new letters obtained by the daily beast is offering new insights into bergdahls mind while in captivity. Joining us now is chris, a former u. S. Navy s. E. A. L. And navy s. E. A. L. Medical professional. Chris, thanks for joining us. Also, give us a sense of what Bowe Bergdahl is going through right now that he is back on u. S. Soil. You know, emotionally its probably almost surreal for him. Hes back in the u. S. Hes no longer under that intense microscope where he was at landstuhl from a medical stand point, psychiatric evaluation, and just being quasiinterrogated by the army there. So the heat is probably off of him a little bit right now which is a good thing. Theyre going to try to see if he can kind of transition him back into regular army life. Theyre probably going to ascertain what to do with him. Bowe, do you want to stay in the army . Are we going to release you . Do you want to get released . Theyre going to talk about things like that. I believe hes also going to the investigation is probably going to start on what happened on that day he left post and theyre going to take a look at all of these letters and the evidence and hopefully a clearer picture will come out from this point Going Forward. You mentioned these letters that we have seen through this piece in the daily beast. His first letter in 2012 kind of goes off in a bit of a strange did as tribe. He says, just because we cannot understand the master equation does not mean it is not there. Math is gods code for this universe and beyond. I miss you all. When youre looking at that, what are you taking away from that and his state of mind . Well, you know, i think theres a little bit of a fatalist commentary, inner commentary coming out in the letters. Theres a reason why the written word has never faded from history, from time. Present day, common day. People love the written word. We tend to be more insightful. So this is probably whats happening in his mind. He doesnt know if hes ever going to see his family again. He may think hes going to be could die at any given day. So i think his mentation is coming out in his letters. Lofty thoughts. Prosaic and cryptic. The flood of emotions that you go through day in and day out in captivity is substantial. We saw some of that kind of thinking, i think, leading up do his disappearance as well. He complains about there being a lack in leadership in one of these entries. Do you think that we can take that to the bank considering the conditions . I mean, this is when he was under captivity. Yeah, he does have a comment in there that things were very very much unstable at the top, the leaders he felt were not leading the men as they should have. He was listed as awol by the army. He was taken into captivity and listed as being awol, absent without leave. So, you know, i think the letter that where hesitating that is basically his attempt to let the army know that, you know, look, things were not good a that post. Then he also goes on to say, hey, please look at all the facts before you make a judgment. I think he kind of was chris, i want to pull that out real quick just so we can see his words. He said if this letter makes it to the usa, tell those involved in the investigation that there are more sides to the situation, misspelled, please tell d. C. To wait for all evidence to come in. Now, the army Fact Finding Investigation had found he left his outpost deliberately and of his own free will. What do you make of that excerpt . Well, i think he knew that he at some point in time he was going to be held accountable for his actions if he ever made it out of there alive. He knew in his heart of hearts, you know what, i did a very stupid thing by walking away. And im going to have to pay the man, as we say, or answer to that at some point in time if im ever out of here alive. And how should we react to that . Hes asking for people to kind of hold off on judgment. How do you think people should relate to that . Well, i think hes looking. Hes kind of planting a seed of justification for why he went awol and why he abandoned his post. At the end of the day you never leave the man to the left and to the right of you. There are ways to handle that situation. You run things up the chain of command at the very least you get 15, 20, 30 guys together and approach your leaders and say, look, were not happy with the way things are going right now and things have to change. A couple of the command commanders in that platoon were relieved during his rotation there which isnt uncommon. It happens all the time. So, yes, theres always some derision in the ranks but to walk away i think he realizes in his heart of hearts he was wrong. That wouldnt have been the way to handle it. Chris heben, thank you for your insights. Chris . Were going to take a break here on new day. When we come back, thousands of undocumented children have been caught crossing the border. They are stuck in holding centers. Were hearing the dangerous conditions are there. A top obama Administration Official is going to weigh in. His take on the immigration debate. But is there any debate on how to take care of kids . Also, this is the video of the day. Chris christie busting a move on late night tv. Inside politics will ask the big question, can he move . Yes, he can. So nice, so nice sweet, sweet, st. Thomas nice so nice, so nice st. Croix full of pure vibes so nice, so nice st. John a real paradise so nice, so nice proud to be from the Virgin Islands and the whole place nice [ female announcer ] to experience your Virgin Islands nice, book one of our summer packages today. Virgin islands nice, at od, whatever business youre in, thats the business were in. With Premium Service like one of the best ontime delivery records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. Od. Helping the world keep promises. This is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. During the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar. At night and when its cloudy, we use more natural gas. This ensures we can produce Clean Electricity whenever our customers need it. Woooooah. [ male announcer ] youre not just looking for a house. Youre looking for a place for your life to happen. Zillow. Lets get right to john berman in for michaela. Hes got the to be stories that are beginning your new day. Thank you. Starting in iraq, radicalism is toppling key iraqi cities and moving closer and closer to the capital in baghdad. President obama saying he will not rule anything out. But cnn has learned a decision to take action could come by this weekend. White house spokesman jay carney says air strikes are possible as well as sharing intelligence but he says u. S. Ground troops not an option. The bodies of three u. S. Soldiers killed in a friendly fire attack in southern afghanistan back in america. Dignified transfer took place at Dover Air Force base in delaware on thursday. Cnn identified four of the five soldiers killed monday when a Coalition Jet bombed u. S. Special forces who had called for help fighting in the taliban. Tracy morgan is on the mend according to a spokesman who says the comedian is improving and doctors are optimistic now about his recovery. Morgan who broke a leg and several ribs when his limo was slammed by a tractor trailer remains in critical but stable condition. Comedian james mcnair died in the crash. Several others were injured. The truck driver pleaded not guilty to charges of vehicular homicide and auto assault. Chris . Thank you very much, jb. A lot going on in the political world right now. Perhaps no pressing than someone who covers the white house as whether Chris Christie can dance. Who better to answer this question than the man known for his samba, john king, inside politics on new day. I hope i didnt reveal something. John king and dancing skills will never be in the same sentence. It just was. Tgif. With me to share the reporting and insight, plit as maggie haberman. Lets get to a very bloody, difficu divisive fight. It seems as we speak today number three will move up to the number two and thats a big question. John baner is the speaker. Tea party wanted somebody from the south. They wanted texans wanted somebody from texas. Magg maggie, what happened here . Ive been covering Hillary Clintons issues a bit more than the parliamentary maneuvers here. As i can see there was consensus around mccarthy. He built a very smart team and he is somebody who has allegiances in both camps, tea party and establishment. Boehner has also signaled clearly that he wants this done fast. I do think that that came down, a message heard very, very clearly by other members. And the who matters because he is more open, Kevin Mccarthy, to Immigration Reform. He is viewed as more friendly to wall street and some of the Tea Party Folks have said, we have the pitchfork guy in there. Draw the line on immigration. Fight the big banks. He wont like the comparison at all, molly. But im going to say hes a lot like nancy pelosi in the sense that these elections are often like class president s filings. She knows when their birthdays are, she knows the ganames of t birthdays. Thatsst theres not a lot of frank underwood. Mccarthy is good at making everyone like him. Hes not good at bringing the hammer down. Was he good at his job of whipping votes . House republicans have lost a t love of votes. Thats an embarrassing thing when youre in the majority in the house. But as majority leader he is expected to coast to it now which is terribly ironic for all republican primary voters in eric cantors direct who wanted to send a message they were against Immigration Reform and against the sort of wall street establishment and now you have a guy who is the establishments guy and who is pro Immigration Reform and hes going to be the one whos a sends as a result of cantor getting booted. The grumbling will conclude at the back bench. Lets move on to a difficult issue for the president obama. President obama is president. Won the candidacy. He promised to get the United States out of iraq war as soon as possible. Here he is yesterday considering restoring a u. S. Military combat role in iraq. I dont rule out anything because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either iraq or syria. Now, his press secretary came out quickly to say no boots on the ground. Look for air strikes as early as this weekend. If youre barack obama and this was the definition of your presidency, get out of iraq, get out of afghanistan, and pretty delegate moment even though say they it will be limited. This is a very messy time in that region. This is a totally destabilizing moment. The only person who wants to talk about this less than barack obama is probably Hillary Clinton who recently in her book for the first time said she was wrong, plain and simple, to vote for the iraq war. Shes going to have to talk about it a bit yesterday at the council on Foreign Relations how she would deal with it. Shes going to continue to get pressed for answers. Is it inevitable in washington that we cant have a conversation just about what needs to be done now, what are the best options to help the Iraqi Government . Instead you have republicans saying we told you so, mr. President. You should have left more troops there when you came into office. Democrats are saying, excuse me . You guys pushed and started this mistake war to begin with. The thing is there is a lit of relitigating of the iraq debate going on. Obama probably wins. The tougher debate for him is the what do we do now debate because there are no good options and you have to expect that the administration anticipated on some level that the countries that we are now leaving would descend into chaos and the question is how aggre aggressive do you get and how much do you tolerate in terms of criticism while riding it out and knowing that theres not an appetite to really go in there in a vigorous way. Negroponte made a good point, this will impact the president s decision calculation about how many troops to leave in afghanistan when that one draws down. Hillary clinton, the book to a rollout, earlier in the week we were talking about dead broke, a mistake. She had an interesting corporation yesterday, aired yesterday on npr. The interviewer trying to get Hillary Clinton to explain her evolution, thats secretary clintons word, on samesex marriage. A few minutes into the conversation secretary clinton gets a little testy. So thats one for you changed your mind. I have to say, i think you are very persistent, but you are playing with my words and playing with what is such an important issue. I want to clarify so i can understand. No, i dont think youre trying to clarify. I think youre trying to say that i used to be opposed and now im in favor and i did it for political reasons. Thats just flat wrong. Dissect this one for me. Is is this somebody who is just pushing, trying to get the answer they want or is this a glimpse of Hillary Clinton who sometimes does get a little snappy. I heard from a bunch of Hillary Clinton supporters over the course of yesterday who said they liked what she did. They felt she answered the question, you go, push back. The media is not beloved so people are going to win on that front but i dont think this was a good moment for her and the house think its an error. This one, this is a liberal radio show, a liberal host, who is trying to ask a legitimate line of inquiry and if youre going of get that angry or annoyed or whatever word you sounded, this is very early. She this is a friendly audience. This is a book rollout. This is the soft launch. She can get some doovers in a mean team but you cant go into a president ial campaign sounding mad with your backup. I thought i did answer your question but if you dont think i did, let me try this again, more politely than, no, youre not trying to clarify it. Shes preaching to the choir here or letting the choir see a little bit, is she rusty or is this her personality . She didnt answer the question. We still dont know when she changed her mind. She wouldnt even admit that she did obviously she did change her mind on gay marriage and thats something that people have a right to be interested to know. It reminds people of her principle flaw as a candidate when she ran before, which is that she tends to not be very adept in these situations. And she has an instinct to not want to make anybody angry but that leads to trying to have it both ways or try to triangulate, a word from the 90s. Another candidate, potential candidate, sometimes we learn a lot from politicians in humorous settings. Heres Chris Christie going through a little bit of hypotheticals. Hypothetically. Hypothetical. Hypothetically, you run for president. Okay. Hypothetically. Hypothetically, Hillary Clinton runs for president. Hypothetically. Hypothetically, do you think you can beat her . Hypothetically . You bet. In a danceoff. Thats what i was talking apartment. What were you talking about . There you go. Hypothetically in the danceoff, im just going to leave it alone. Back to you guys in new york. Maggie and molly are better dancers than Chris Christie. Thats a compliment. Well leave me out of the dancing conversation and, yeah ive seen you dance, john king. Youre all right. You do okay. I dont think you have. I dont think you have. I believe we attended a wedding to the and i believe that you have a rug there. I could just watch that all day. I got some other work to do. But thats pretty funny. Pretty good. What do you think . I like a man that can move. Im not going to lie. Kind of fun. I think it says something about him, depth to character. And just putting ourselves out there is good for politics. Sense of humor does matter in this business. Absolutely. If you dont laugh at yourself nobody else is going to laugh for you. Next up on new day, thousands of undocumented kids crossing into the u. S. Alone. Now being held in Detention Centers. Whats being done to help them . Well be hearing from education secretary arne duncan who is making the strongest comment yet on this. And things are getting down right dangerous in brazil. Was holding a multibillion dollar world cup there a good idea . Our own correspondent was caught up in the violence. Were going to talk to her ahead. So i get invited to quite a few family gatherings. Heck, i saved judith here a fortune with discounts like safe driver, multicar, paperless. You make a mighty fine missus, mlady. Im not saying marks thrifty. Lets just say, i saved him 519, and it certainly didnt go toward that ring. Am i right . [ laughs ] [ dance music playing ] so visit progressive. Com today. I call this one the robox. [ girl ] my dad, he makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. He can print amazing things, right from his computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] he makes trains that are friends with trees. [ train whistle blows ] my dad works at ge. America is known to around the world for its compassion, especially for children. But you wouldnt know it from the screenplaying out in the southwest right now. Thousands of undocumented children shoved in overcrowded Holding Cells as they wait to be deported. Too many think its okay because they broke the law. Now, education secretary arne duncan is making some of the strongest comments yet by anyone in the administration about the problem. Lets bring in cnn Business Correspondent chief correspondent, of course, Christine Romans. She just spoke with duncan. Also with us, cnn correspondent along the texas border this morning. Very important to talk to you because we want to know wlatsz really going on there. Youre on the ground. Christine, very important that were getting the administrations take on this. Christine is going to have the full interview with arne on her own show tomorrow cnn money. At 2 00 eastern. Lets get a taste of what arne duncan is saying here. Lets him hear him. Its brutal. I would say its inhumane. We have far too many young people across the country who came here 3 months old or 6 months old, played by all the rules and then we say they cant go to college . Were cutting off our nose to spite our face. It makes no sense whatsoever. It makes perfect sense to people who say its talk like this that is encouraging people to send their kids here illegally and burdening the u. S. Hes talking about the dream act. Hes talking about Immigration Reform. A week ago Senior Administration official told me they were confident about Immigration Reform for the end of this president s term and everything turns upsidedown. The education secretary saying we have these kids inside our borders right now and we need to be talking about the dream act and Immigration Reform and not using this as an example to try to scuttle it. Thats exactly what its become. The administration is encouraged people to break the law and now you got these kids here and its a problem. Heres the bigger problem. The kids are now political pawns. Polo, youre down there on the ground. What do we know about the conditions . How many kids . How are they being kept . These allegations weve been hearing about abuse. Are you hearing them as well . Fill us in. Chris, you know, this morning this new day is going to bring a new wave of what is expected to be those unaccompanied children. The Immigration Reform debate is raging. Thousands of miles away but here along the south texas mexico border this is where really the face of this issue is this is where we found it yesterday. Weve been driving up and down the border speaking to people speaking to some of these people who are essentially crossing the border that you see behind me here. Just yesterday speaking to a 16yearold boy named juan from el salvador, made the journey on his own, eventually called an orchard not far from here home for five days. Oranges and murky water from the canals. These are the people essentially trying to make their way from Central America here to the United States. And theyre told to go straight tord whoer patrol because they do know based on what were hearing here directly from the families crossing every day, they do know they stand a better chance of actually crossing. Back to their shoe you discuss there that you mentioned there, a lot of these individuals, the kids specifically, they are in Holding Areas here, Detention Centers that are already overflowing with activity. 1300 people in this sector alone expected to be detained again today. Really about a third of those are unaccompanied minors. When we say minors, you mentioned a 16yearold, polo, but how young are we talking about here unaccompanies . We spoke about two days ago we spent the day driving with some of the Law Enforcement that patrol this stretch of border here. They tell us theyve seen children as young as 4 on their way here. For the most part according to the Law Enforcement officials taking us along the border, is that the smugglers transport these kids in rafts across the river there in the foreground and dropping them off on the banks here and told to move north, find the nearest man in uniform, border patrol, police, and ask them, show them a piece of paper that specifically has their familys name, their relatives, and are told this is where my family is. And to reach out to them. Reach out to them for what, polo, to have them repesent bac they have family in the u. S. . What does that mean . A lot of these children have to go through a process. Some of them are essentially given Refugee Status as the immigration process begins. All of these children are still coming into a system that is already overflowing. There are so many children already here in the system. Many have to be kept at military bases. Its an endless cycle. Officials here on the ground are frustrated because they essentially see the face, a lot of these are fathers themselves. Imagine having a 4 or 5 or 6yearold child essentially going through some of the terrain that we see here, the mosquitos, the heat. Its quite intense. And it really does tug at the heart strings. But at the same time they are forced to do their job and that is to essentially really enforce the laws including federal immigration laws. Many times its putting it means putting these children into the system thats already overflowing. Chris . Polo, thank you very much. Now, christine, what do we know about what the realities are . Its easy to say send them back. Right. This isnt mexico. This is Central America. You dont know who their families are. Thats a difference. We dont have an easy operation, cooperation with these countries. The issue here is if they are mexican citizens many times they will be bused or put on an airplane and sent back to their home states. This is Central America so what happens is the word is out in system of these Central American towns if you can just get your kid here theyre going to be reunite with their family in the United States and youre going to be given a desk ticket to appear before immigration judge. And then nobody shows up. You know, theyre called running tickets. People get the ticket and they dont show up. So ahead of Immigration Reform, the potential for Immigration Reform is called amnesty or the ability to get in line for a green card and eventually citizenship. The word on the street in Central America is get your kids here now. Its the best chance youre going to get. The desperation of a family to send a child alone, you have to think about that. And then, what we do with these kids. We are just warehousing them right now. This is one of the most frightening things ive heard in a long time. 50,000 kids this year expected to come across the border. 50,000. The United States government is in this position where they have to figure out how to receive these children and clothe and feed these children and reunite their children with either home to their home country or with their family thats here. The irony is the pictures showing you there, the pictures of the kids are blurry because we dont want to show their faces. Right. The irony is, we dont want to show you the faces to protect the kids but look at the kids. The kids are crammed in. We woiuldnt do this to puppies. We are doing it to human beings. Its okay because they broke the law. Thats the situation. You talk about it amongst yourself. Tweet was the newday but youre looking at the reality. I cant think of one thats more ugly than how its being handled right now. Christine, thank you very much. Polo, thank you. Let us know about the conditions and what any plans are on the ground of how to deal with these kids. Christines full interview with arne duncan airs tomorrow at 2 00 p. M. Eastern. Please Pay Attention to this story. Next up on new day, protests threatened to spoil the world cup just as it gets under way. Can brazil handle posting this big event. One of our correspondents actually got caught up in the melee. Well be taking you there live. Its a known fact that 100 of the swordfishes you dont try to catch. Will get away. Seize the summer with up to 40 off hotels from travelocity. Look like protesters are moving. Theres some pushing back. If they shoot this got to go. That was cnns shasta darlington, caught up in the protests that have marred the opening of the world cup. More than 11 billion spent which many say should have gone to schools, hospitals and public transportation. Lets bring in shasta live now from sao paulo. Describe the scene to us that we just saw as you had to run away from police. Reporter brianna, it did catch us off guard a bit because the police were much more aggressive than usual. Weve been covering protests for over a year now. It became clear at that point that they really werent going to let anybody take even one step towards the stadium. We were hit by fragments of stun grenade. Luckily i just have a couple stitches. Im fine. Our producer barbara is back in the hospital. She has a deep gash in her arm. Theyre monitoring her. Were just hoping for the breast there, brianna. Its very dangerous, these protesters being out there. Tell us a little bit we covered it briefly. Tell us a little more about their grievances. Brianna, basically this has been going on for a year now. These are people who feel like the government has spent so much money on this global sporting event, 11 billion, when the country itself still has so many problems. They think that money could have been better spent on schools and hospitals and public transportation. They just want to make sure the world doesnt form get that, that while everyone is tuning in to watch these games, they also realize and recognize all the problems that brazil still has. So they say theyre going keep up the pressure through this whole month of games so that people dont forget, this brianna. Do you think police are going to continue now with this sort of stepup of aggression against protesters . Yes, brianna. From what we saw yesterday, they have a clear mandate that. Is do not let anyone block the fans entrance to the stadium. We were 11 kilometers from the stadium. We werent anywhere near it. But the protesters were planning to start marching down one of the main avenues that leads to the arena. As soon as they started getting close, the police moved in in huge numbers. They were on horseback. They were obviously in their patrol cars. Riot police decked out in full gear with their batons and shields. They made it very clear that nobody is going to be allowed in any way to impede access to the stadium. I do think that we will see that 62 games. Its a lot of games. It will be a story we keep following and will be checking in with you. Shasta darlington in saw palo. Coming up on new day, bowe bergda bergdahl, home. Newly released letters where he talks about why he walked off post. Complete chaos in iraq, radical militants are taking over cities, looking to control. The government there asking for help. Will they get it from the u. S. And what will it be . Senator john mccain says he knew this was going to happen and that basically the u. S. Did nothing to prevent it. Hes going to join us live. R vo when i was pregnant. I got lots of advice, but i needed information i could trust. Unitedhealthcares innovative, Simple Program helps moms stay on track with their doctors to get the right care and guidance. anncr vo thats health in numbers. Unitedhealthcare. The porter was so incredibly. Careful. Careless. With our bags. And the room they gave us it was. Beautiful. A broom closet. But the best part but the worst part was the shower. My wife drying herself with the. Egyptian cotton towels. Shower curtain. Defined that whole vacation for her. Dont just visit new york. Visit tripadvisor new york. [ male announcer ] with millions of reviews, a visit to tripadvisor makes any destination better. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com [ male announcer ] with millions of reviews, breaking overnight, Bowe Bergdahl is back, landing in texas early this morning. Now the next step in his rehabilitation. New questions after new letters he sent while in captivity have surfaced. We have live with the latest. Happening now, the terror group isis looking to take bagdad. American contractors are fleeing as the government there asks for help. Will the u. S. Provide more support. Senator john mccain will be joining us live. Then the governors new groove. Move over jagger, Chris Christie cuts loose. The tonight show danceoff you have to see. Plus what he says about a possible matchup with Hillary Clinton. Your new day continues right now. Good morning. Welcome back to new day. Its a tgif edition. Kate bolduan on vacation. Very lucky to have Brianna Keilar with us. We have breaking news. Overnight, Bowe Bergdahl back on american soil for the First Time Since being taken prisoner by the taliban. Arriving at Brook Army Medical Center in texas just hours ago. Remember, five years of captivity and abuse in his past. Ahead of him, a long process of recovery and what they call reintegration. Cnns Martin Savidge is in san antonio with the latest. Good morning, martin. Good morning, chris. When that plane touched down, and it was in the dead of night here in san antonio, there was no special greeting. There was no sort of special welcome for Sergeant Bergdahl. Instead, it was just as they had carefully rehearsed. This is all going to be done, the army says, by the book. Reporter after five years in taliban captivity, u. S. Army Sergeant Bowe bergdahl is back on american soil, touching down overnight, he arrived at Lackland Air Force base and then transported to a military facility with a room prepped for his arrival. He came out of five years of captivity. Were going to get a chance to find out what was in his head that day when he was taken captive. The daily beast obtained letters purportedly written by Sergeant Bergdahl to his family when he was in captivity. They may give a glimpse into his disappearance from his base that night in 2009 writing leadership was lacking, if not nonexistent. The conditions were bad and looked to be getting worse for the men that were actually the ones risking their lives from attack. The two letters are dated 2012 and 2013. Two different writing styles, one in cursive and one in block style. The family confirmed the source of the letters. Im please asking for helped. Held hostage in iraq for nearly a year, american roy hall lums can relate. When i did mine, they set a piece of paper in front of me and gave me a pen. One person sat on each side of me and told me what words to write. They wanted me to print it and not write it in script because they couldnt read english in script. Reporter at times bergdahls thoughts seemed to wonder, touching on mathematics, god and the universe. Several portions of the letter blocked out. Its unclear by whom. Words in letters oddly misspelled. In 2013 he wrote, if this letter makes it to the u. S. A. , tell those involved in the investigation that there are more sides to the situation. One of the key moments, of course, is going to be the reunion of Bowe Bergdahl with his mother and father that will take place. Its going to be carefully handled. The first meeting will only last for a few minutes. It isnt like the family will meet and then leave. No, they are an integral part, the army says, of Bowe Bergdahls reintegration to freedom and his new life. Brianna . Well be standing by for that process no doubt. Martin savidge, thank you so much. Now to iraq where the u. S. Is deciding how to respond to bloody chaos, a decision that cnn has learned could come as early as this weekend. Radical islamists are moving south, getting perilously close to bagdad. And the most powerful shiite cleric is calling for fighting against the militants. Cnn International Correspondent arwa damon is tracking the events in iraq. Whats happening there, arwa . Reporter brianna, were getting even more reports about fighting in diyala province just north of the capital bagdad as isis fighters try to gain more territory. The forces seem unable to stop them. Leaving no doubt about their reach, video claiming to show the Islamist Terrorist Group isis arriving to cheers with a humvee. Isis gaining control, not just over land, but armored vehicles, weapons and ammunition abandoned by the forces as they fled. Parts of an oil refining town, an area surrounding the city of kirkuk also seized by isis, prompting British Forces to send in their troops after the Iraqi Military fled there as well. And in this video from saddam husseins hometown of tikrit purporting to show hundreds of captured Iraqi Security forces. They have melted down, unfortunately. Two Army Divisions in the city and their commanders escaped to the north, and really the government needs to take serious action. Reporter with isis threatening that bagdad is next, u. S. Contractors were evacuated from an Iraqi Military base and chartered out of the country. Still some u. S. Commanders remain optimistic about the Iraqi Security forces they left behind. Theyve got a lot of equipment and they have some of the forces are pretty well trained, i believe, by our folks and the nato allies before we left. I think they have the capability to do this. Reporter nearly three years after american boots left iraqi soil, a terrorist group more powerful than al qaeda is gaining greater control. Chris, those capabilities of the Iraqi Security forces at this stage seriously being thrown into question, and whether or not theyre going to be able to stop the isis advance is going to be key in the coming days. They have requested air strikes from the u. S. The americans saying they are considering that option and looking at other options as well. Although boots back on iraqi soil at this stage is not on the table. The critical issue, of course, in all of this is this is not a crisis that is going to be averted by military force alone. There has to be real political reconciliation for iraqs sunni and shia populations to be able to come together. Chris . All right, arwa, thank you very much for the reporting on the ground. Lets bring in republican senator john mccain. He says he predicted all of this three years ago and has called for the president s entire National Security team to be fired. Senator, i know you have good reasons for that position. Well get into that. First, i want to give you one chance to clear the record on the stories surrounding Bowe Bergdahl. Did you in the past back the fiveforone deal for bergdahl in exchange for the five taliban men . Did you ever support that deal . Thank you for asking. I have said and i stated that i was in favor of a prisoner swap, but i would have to know the details, just like im for a deal with the iranians over their nuclear efforts, but i have to know the details. That is the key to it, and obviously that detail those details were and i said it twice when i was asked are such that i could not support such an action, and to portray it as any other way is absolutely false. Thanks for asking. Could i mention one other thing about bergdahl and the letters that were sent . Please. I would discount anything that i have not weighed in on Sergeant Bergdahls guilt or innocence. I dont think that im in any way qualified to comment on it. I am qualified to comment, i would discount anything that he wrote from prison. In that situation, its clearly his captors had the ability to force him to write whatever they wanted him to do. An important perspective. We know it comes from the depth of your personal history as well. Well take it under advisement. We certainly have to know from bowe himself what happened. Whether he deserted or not is fundamental to how that kid lives his life Going Forward. Now to another urgent circumstance at hand. Whats going on in iraq is no surprise to you, and many others to be frank. You believe this is the price that is to be paid when americans left their completely. Fair . I think thats fair, chris, and i think its important for us to note that in other wars and other conflicts we have left residual forces behind, not in a combat role was a stabilizing role, whether it be korea, japan, germany. We still have forces in bosnia from that conflict. And what most of us wanted after we had won believe me, we had won thanks to david petraeus. By the way, i had called for the firing of Donald Rumsfeld because of our failure prior to the surge and advocated the surge. This isnt the first time ive asked for a National Security people to be fired. We had it won, and we needed to have a residual force. We had literally no casualties there in iraq during the last period after the surge was over. And by leaving a vacuum, then that was obviously filled. Maliki you trust maliki . No, i do not. The first thing, as was just mentioned in the report, hes got to have an inclusive government. He has got to reconcile. If he cant do that, then i think he should be replaced by somebody that can. If hes already poisoned relations so badly with the sunni that he cant reconcile, he should leave and somebody else who can. Reconciliation is a vital part of this. What should the United States do . Chris, i think that air strikes are certainly something that should be considered, but i would point out that air strikes are not easy. You just dont say, hey, lets go hit something. It requires coordination and intelligence, a whole lot of things. It would have to be part of an overall strategy. Thats why i think i would call in david petraeus, general keen, ryan crocker, all those people that won in iraq oovps and say, okay, give us a strategy and then well implement it with action. You see my point . Absolutely i see it. If you look at the facts of the situation, the iraqis rejected our troop retention plan. They didnt want to sign it. The American People wanted us out of there. The president won the election in large part by promising to end the war. Werent those all circumstances that demanded we get out of there . Its not our fight. Well, you know, its interesting, that narrative. But the fact is that we could have negotiated a residual force just as we could have in afghanistan. By the way, youll see the same thing happen in afghanistan thats happening in iraq. If the president goes through with total withdrawal. Lindsey graham, Joe Lieberman and i were in bagdad and ir beal. They were ready to accept a residual force of americans. The president wanted out. We came back and said, look, weve got a deal there and it was rejected by mr. Donelan and the white house. We could have negotiated a deal because lindsey graham, Joe Lieberman and i were on the ground and got the commitment from maliki and ar law which to do it. Thats just a matter of record. You matter tremendously in these situations because of your expertise. Youve become a little bit of a cassandra. By that i mean you predict doom in all these situation. Is it incumbent upon you, especially because of who you are, to be Offering Solutions and not doing what some are suggesting is a victory dance that things have gone wrong . Well, thank you for that comment, chris. But in 2006 when i called for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld because we were losing in iraq, then i was the brave maverick standing up against my own president. Now saying what i think is the right thing in this situation, im now, as you said, the cassandra. I know the formula for victory. I know how war affairs are conducted. I trust people like general keene and general petraeus and others who are seasoned warriors. Frankly, they shared exactly my viewpoint. It was president that im out there as a lone ranger. We could have won this. We sacrificed over 4,000 people. If i sound angry about it, im sore richlt i know too many of these people. Ive met too many at walter reed that have been wounded. We had it won thanks to the surge and we blew it all and thats a tragedy. You think youre going to have to put boots back on the ground, keep boots in afghanistan . In the short term the same kind of residual force that we have now in bosnia, germany, japan. That doesnt mean were in combat. It means we are there as a stabilizing force. But i think that this new situation is now an xis tenl threat to the United States of america. They are the richest and most powerful radical extremist force in history and they are dedicated to attacking the United States of america. Thats the view of the director of National Intelligence, general clapper. Our failure to help the resistance in syria, which i have been begging for is also one of the causative factors. As you notice, theyre now going back and forth between iraq and syria. This is an xis tenl threat to the United States of america. Because of that, can we suggest you will start working with the white house to come up with a plan of how to combat the situation in iraq and hopefully do better in afghanistan Going Forward . Thats what we need, right . We need the solutions. We need our best to do their best right now. The blame game really isnt going to get us anywhere. Thats true, but we cant ignore the lessons of history, nor can we distort history. Many people are saying now, well, this was inevitable, we never should have gone in in the first place and maybe we shouldnt. That ignores the fact that thanks to the surge and the sacrifice of so Many Americans, we had this conflict won in iraq, and then by taking the action the president did, it caused us to lose and thats what i said was going to happen back in 2011 when i begged them to stay with a residual force. You were right about that. Hopefully youll be right about figuring out how to stem the tide of violence and help us have a better outcome in afghanistan. Certainly the American People and our fighting men and women have had a lot of fatigue on these issues. Senator mrk cain, thank you for coming on new day as always. Good luck finding a strategy to get us out of it. Thank you, chris. A lot of news this morning were following as you begin your new day. Lets get to it with mr. John berman in for michaela. What an interesting discussion that was. Yu crane says russian tanks and several armored personnel carriers have entered their country. The interior minister says the vehicles were spotted by prorussian separatists. Russias top diplomat denied the charges. Texas congressman Pete Sessions have bowed out to replace eric cantor as House Majority leader. The republican said he worried running would create Division Within the republican party. Sessions announcement will likely pave for the way for Kevin Mccarthy to clinch the second most powerful house post. New this morning, Donald Sterling now on offense. Multiple media reports say attorneys for the l. A. Clippers owner have hired four private investigation firms to look into former and current nba commissioners and owners. He says its current david stern and adam silver who hit sterling with a lifetime ban and a 2. 5 million fine for sterlings racist comments. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie letting his hair down and flat out getting down on the tonight show dancing with jimmy fallon in celebration of fathers day. Didnt need a reason to dance, really. Governor christie seen as a possible 2016 president ial candidate. So fallon had to ask him about a potential opponent. Hypothetically, you run for president. Okay, hypothetically. Hypothetically Hillary Clinton runs for president. Hypothetically. Hypothetically do you think you could beat her . Hypothetically, you bet. [ cheers and applause ] in a danceoff . Thats what i was talking about. What were you talking about . There you go. Hes got comic timing. Dance, boy, did he ever. You just cannot stop watching this. The governor showing off his moves, even enduring fallons comments about weight and the George Washington bridge scandal. Youll notice hes lost a lot of weight in the last year. He passes the seminal test of dancing which is lower body and upper body coordination. Not to name names, there are men known for just the bite on the lip and a little bit of hand jive. Im a bad dancer myself, like really bad. Like elaine on seinfeld bad. Shes trying to make us feel better. I appreciate that. Well take it. I have selfawareness. Well take someone elses failure as our success. Im sure you will. Next up on new day, were following a lot of news. Bowe bergdahl back on american soil. Weve got new letters shedding light on the 28yearolds time in captivity. Whats next for him . You know that dream. On my count. The one where you step up and save the day . Make it happen. crowd oh no. Introducing verizon xlte. Hey guys, i got it right here weve doubled our 4g lte bandwidth in cities coast to coast. So take on more. With xlte. For best results, use verizon. The porter was so incredibly. Careful. Careless. With our bags. And the room they gave us it was. Beautiful. A broom closet. But the best part but the worst part was the shower. My wife drying herself with the. Egyptian cotton towels. Shower curtain. Defined that whole vacation for her. Dont just visit new york. Visit tripadvisor new york. [ male announcer ] with millions of reviews, a visit to tripadvisor makes any destination better. Welcome back to new day Sergeant Bowe bergdahl is back in the u. S. After two weeks of being treated in germany. Now another glimpse into his mind. The main question, did he desse dessert . There are new details that shed light on what the soldier may have been thinking when he walked off the post in 2009. Joining us is phillip mudd, a senior fellow at the new america foundation. Good to have you. If you were listening, i say may have been thinking because the first question about these letters is do we trust their authenticity, not just that they were written by Bowe Bergdahl, but that they are a legitimate reflection of his ideas. What do you think . I dont trust their authenticity. I dont see why it makes so much difference. First, we have access to this guy now so we can talk with psychologists and other specialists to him about what he thought. Second, were suffering from what i used to call in the business hind side bias. Were trying to look at a decision the president made a month ago and take information we learned later and apply it to that decision. We have a decision a month ago. We have information acquired after w5rd. The two dont mix. Let me help you with that. The supposition of criticism is this. You knew when you made the deal that these were really bad dudes you were giving back who may get on the field of battle and try to kill people like you, so you shouldnt have done it. Thats where that basis of criticism comes from. On bergdahl its, if he deserted, it makes people feel differently about whether a deal should have been made. Does that make sense . No. My answer is so what . Two facts we know. An american went missing on a battlefield and hes a soldier. He doesnt have a name and he doesnt have a face, but he has a uniform. Hes an american citizen. Those are facts. The rest of this isunder brush, speculation. I dont want an American Committee if i were in the field deciding whether its appropriate to capture me or recapture me because of speculation of what was going on in my mind, irrelevant. On the taliban issue, lets cut to the chase, dude. We go into the casino and were surprised the guys that own the cass sane know, the taliban, set the rules and we dont like the rules. This is the real world. They own the turf. They make the rules. If we wanted to get the guy home, the deal wasnt going to be easy. Theyre casino house rules. Do you think the administration caused some of their own trouble in terms of how the deal is perceived by playing with whether they were negotiating with terrorists, playing with guarantees of how its going to be monitored, these guys by qatar. Do you think those were mistakes in terms of message . I think the messaging is a bit off. I think the white house is saying maybe getting with the family is a great idea. Lets not mix up the decision that was made and the optics of the decision afterward. I think if i were sitting in the situation room of the white house, and ive been there many times, this is a 30second decision. Are we going to bring him home or not. What were not considering is what might have happened had we chosen to withdraw from the negotiations. Like what . Lets have a cnn conversation about a beheading video . Were focused on one optic. The optics on the other decisions, if we had drawn out and they killed him or we left a soldier on the battlefield . You want that debate . Lets not focus on the decision that was made. Lets focus on bad options and choosing the best of bad options. How do we know those other things were in the air in terms of what might happen . They kept him for five years, he was still alive. Sure. We know one thing, the president said were getting at. Once we get out, our negotiating leverage is minimal. So as ive said in the past, youve got to strap your big boy pants on because there aint no good decisions. When you go in front of the cameras and announce the decision, nobody is going to like it. Thats why you get paid in washington, d. C. Its a dogfight. What do you say to the politicians who say we dont like this deal, you shouldnt have made this deal, are they being naive or is that legitimate cocriticism and you have to suck it up and take it. Suck it up. Thats why you live inside that beltway. Its a tough environment. My question for them is, give us a better option. If they say we dont like giving up five bad guys. So they go back and kill him. Thats on your head. There was a lot of pressure on getting Bowe Bergdahl. Is that your recollection as well, a lot of the lawmakers shaking their head before are saying you better get him, hes a hero . I think thats true. I think youre dealing with what in intelligence we call hindsight bias. Youre looking back at a whole wealth of information. People are forgetting what information we had before the decision, at the time of the decision and what we acquired afterwards. This is going to continue when some psychologist comes out in six month, for example, and says this guy left of his own accord and we reopen the debate. Guy back to a simple proposition. In difficult Decision Making moments, capture the decision in one sentence. Regardless of his mental state, whether he left willingly, do you want to bring the boy home or not. Thats it. It doesnt matter those conditions. When you look at the facts as theyre developing about Bowe Bergdahl and his disappearance. Dulz it look to you as if this was a planned desertion or even a defection or does it look like someone who did something stupid and paid a dear price for it. Im not sure. Im not really qualified. If i were in the Decision Making room and someone raised that, i would say im not sure why thats relevant, its speculative. Were looking inside someones head. We dont know. Why are we making decisions on something that is unknowable. Important to note, the letters dont matter to you because we dont know how manipulated they were. They have bergdahl, so well get the straight story from him. Correct. A lot of people dont see it the way you do in terms of making the decision and putting on your big boy pants. A lot of them sounding now like they could have caught a better deal. So tell me what that deal is. Remember, in these negotiations, the taliban knew the president said were leaving. They know they hold the cards. Lets go into that room with the taliban and say we dont like the five well give you five chumps out of guantanamo. I want to know what the better deal was when we dont hold any cards. The cards we have are guys in guantanamo who might be released anyway because somebody after we leave afghanistan is going to say why are we Holding Taliban guys . Were not fighting the taliban anymore. These arent al qaeda guys. I want to know what the better deal was. Philip mudd you give us good inside as always. Appreciate you being on new day. Next up on new day, chaos in iraq. The white house is debating what to do as radical islamists move closer to bagdad. Wheel walk tlup the options with two former white house insiders. vo after 50 years of designing cars for crash survival, subaru has developed our most revolutionary feature yet. A car that can see trouble. And stop itself to avoid it. When the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested front crash prevention nobody beat subaru models with eyesight. Not honda. Not ford or any other brand. Subaru eyesight. An extra set of eyes, every time you drive. Help keep teeth clean and breath fresh. With beneful healthy smile snacks. With soft meaty centers and teeth cleaning texture,its dental that tastes so good. Beneful healthy smile food and snacks. How can a tablet replace your laptop . Start with the best writing experience. Make it incredibly thin. Add an adjustable kickstand, a keyboard, a usb port, and the freedom of touch. And, of course, make it run microsoft office, with the power and speed to do real work. Introducing surface pro 3. The tablet that can replace your laptop. Time for the five things you need to know for your new day. Number one, Bowe Bergdahl back on u. S. Soil after five years in taliban activity. The Army Sergeant arriving in texas to continue his recovery even as controversy continues. Cnn learned the u. S. Could decide by this weekend whether to take action against radical islamists pushing toward bagdad, president obama saying he wont rule anything out, not ruling anything out except putting u. S. Troops on the ground. That is off the table. Texas congressman Pete Sessions bowed out of the race against kantor. Violence and bloodshed has marred the first day of the world cup, Police Firing flash grenades and teargas into the crowd. The crowd was at least 200 people including a cnn crew. L. A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling fighting back. There are multiple reports his attorneys hired private investigators to look into current and former nba commissioners and others, this as he sues the league in their attempts to ban him for life. Go to new day. Cnn. Com for the latest. This weeks cnn hero, just 50 of teen moms graduate from high school by the age of 22. Less than 2 graduate college by 30. The ramifications can last a lifetime as you can imagine. No one knows that better than this weeks cnn hero. Thats why Nicole Lynn Lewis is doing something about it. I was 17 when i was pregnant with my daughter and 19 with my son. You ready to get up . Ready to go to school . When being labeled a teen mom, there are certain stigmas that youre lazy, youre going end up living on welfare and working the system. When a young person discovers a pregnancy, people stop talking to them about college. We saw that we could be that voice, yes, you can go to college, this doesnt have to be the end of your life. I knew from my own experience that college had transformed my life as a teen mom. I wanted that same success for other young parents. Were going to get the other room set up for the kids. It becomes imperative for parenting students to have their band of cheerleaders behind them. I ended up getting my gpa up to 3. 8. We offer trainings on various topics. Were going to talk about balancing school and balancing your role as a parent. The most important part of our program is the intense oneonone mentoring from a caring individual within the community. I won the college of science deans award. I knew you could do it. Im motivated by the potential. I want to be able to help each and every one of them achieve their own success. Great cause. If you know someone who deserves recognition, go to cnnheroes. Com. Taking a break here on new day. The Obama Administration is weighing its options from keeping iraq from crumbling into chaos anymore. America already had two wars with that country occurring under two separate bush Administration Officials. Well talk to officials from both. Great rates for great rides. Geico motorcycle, see how much you could save. Means keeping seven billion ctransactions flowing. G, and when weather hits, its data mayhem. But airlines running hp endtoend solutions are always calm during a storm. So if your business deals with the unexpected, hp big data and Cloud Solutions make sure you always know whats coming and are ready for it. Make it matter. But with less energy, moodiness, and a low sex drive, i had to do something. I saw my doctor. A blood test showed it was low testosterone, not age. We talked about axiron the only underarm low t treatment that can restore t levels to normal in about two weeks in most men. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. 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President obama is saying the us has a stake in making sure isis doesnt get a permanent foothold in iraq. Should america get involved again. Here to talk about that, andrew card, chief of staff to george w. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, the former National Security adviser to gerald ford and george h. W. Bush. First question to you, andy, thanks for being with us, weve heard from the Iraqi Government that they are open to air strikes, u. S. Air strikes. What should the u. S. Do . The president should take this very seriously. This is a big challenge for the United States of america. Obviously its a huge challenge for the Iraqi Government and their stability. I hope that he will exercise prudence. I think he has to understand that there are many, many moving parts and many ramifications to what happens over there. Youve got the sunni shia split, the curds, the turkish, the syrians all paying attention to whats happening. I hope he will seek wise counsel from wise people that really understand the region. I hope he will also recognize this insurgency is very, very dangerous. They are not afraid to attack america. They want to attack america wherever they can. They want to attack our interests. I think theyre looking the take advantage of this situation and they built up too much momentum. I think in part because president obama did not do what he should have done which is have a status of forces agreement at the end of the iraq war so we would have troops there that would Pay Attention to what happened and act as restraint to bad actors. I think its a flaw. I think he should keep everything on the table. Im fearful of putting more boots on the ground. I think its appropriate for us to consider air strikes. They should be very targeted and we have to be careful we do not cause unintended consequences by hitting an element of support that may be in the kurdish region, for example. Im very concerned. I know the Obama Administration would say that sort of the hand was dealt to them by iraq when it came to that s. O. F. A. , the status of forces agreement. Brent, you served as the National Security adviser to george h. W. Bush. You were in the ford administration. You at times have warned about involvement in iraq. Youve stressed caution. But it came to pass that the u. S. Obviously had great involvement in iraq and has since left. Now that we see the situation as it is, what do you think the obligation of the u. S. Is . Rather than obligation, i would say what are the interests of the United States. And the interests of the United States are an iraq which is a moderate regime with sunni and shias balanced in a way they have not been yet. And iraq as a player in the region and Energy Supplies to the world. As was said, we did not agree get a status of forces agreement, and now it appears to me both sides wish we had one. I certainly agree with andy that we ought to be very careful and cautious, and this is not an issue of returning to occupying iraq, but selective strikes against isis if they move to take over cities by force, which is what theyve been doing, is something that the administration should consider. Youre saying selected air strikes, and thats something the administration should consider. Andy, thats obviously something that the Obama Administration is really weighing at this point. But certainly there is a war weariness i think for Many American citizens. You look back to september when president obama was thinking about whether he was going to enforce that red line in syria and go ahead with air strikes. He ultimately chose not to, found a diplomatic offramp. We dont see one of those here. So what do you think he should do considering a lot of americans may not be in favor of air strikes . I think this is much more serious than whats been happening in syria, because this Extremist Group is closely aligned with al qaeda, in fact, even more extreme than al qaeda. They do want to attack the United States. I think we have a National Security concern here, but not one of a nation state. Its one where we dont want to have this branch of al qaeda to get more powerful, to have more resources and to have a greater footprint where they can train and launch attacks on american interests. Yes, they would like to hit america on our soil. So we have to Pay Attention. I hope president obama is beefing off the intelligence gathering and the efforts to understand what might be happening in terms of planning attacks on the United States. Im very fearful of another attack ton United States. In the meantime, we have to make sure that maliki has the support he needs to be able to maintain a sovereign iraq that is not splintered into some type of cally fay that would be a greater threat to the iranians and we dont have much of a relationship with the iranians. We have to worry about the kurdish interests as theyre challenged by the iranians, maybe malikis government itself and the turks. Theres a lot of moving parts. I do think this is something the president has to focus on, he has to focus on protecting us. This is a National Security concern, and i do have fear that the cally fate desire will end up being motivation to cause people to join the fight on the wrong side and attack american interests. This is a very dangerous time. I hope the president acts decisively. I hope he doesnt put the threat out there without the courage to follow through. I hope hes very careful before he puts a red line down and says, if you cross this line, we attack. If they cross the line, hes got to attack. He didnt do it in syria and i think it caused other people to see that we were not going to follow through on our threats, and we have to have the courage to follow through, although we should hope that we dont have to follow through because they feel that we would. Its very important that people respect the United States, admire the United States and fear the United States. While i have both of you here, i want to put a quick question to each of you. We have a great documentary coming up about george h. W. Bush here on cnn. You both served in the george h. W. Bush administration. First to you, brent. I want to talk a little bit about your first impression, i guess, of george h. W. Bush and also what it was like to work with him as a colleague as you did for many years. Well, ive known george h. W. Bush for a number of years and admired him since i first met him many years ago. He is probably the best prepared president we have ever had in terms of his career and the jobs that hes had, and he got all that background, knowledge and skills to apply to his presidency, and i think he did an absolutely marvelous job. And already you can see, even though hes a recent president , you can see that sentiment and interest and acknowledgment of his role is growing almost daily. A final word to you, andy, as we have about a minute left, you served in both bush administrations, so youre pretty familiar with the relationship between the two men. Talk a little bit about that, how george h. W. Bush relied on george w. Bush for obviously some counsel and maybe vice versa. First of all, theyre father and son. They have a tremendous love for each other, tremendous respect for each other. They also have empathy because they both had to do the toughest job in the world. I witnessed how the father was acting like a dad to his son when the son was president. He wasnt trying to manipulate or be a vicarious president through his son. He stepped back. He knew the sitting president always knows more than the former president. He was very understanding of that. Their relationship was one of love. George h. W. Bush is probably the consummate gentleman. Hes the most noble of noble Public Servants. Hes a great role model. This show that cnn is going to have out there will reflect youll hear from the people you would expect to hear from like Brent Scowcroft and jim baker. Youll also hear from president clinton and president obama. Youre going to hear from mike elliot, the fellow who jumped out of the helicopter yesterday with the president , parachuted with him. Youll hear from secret service agents, butlers at the white house. Youll see the real george h. W. Bush who was a consummate gentleman, a real noble Public Servant and a wonderful person who cares. 41 people on 41. Brent and andy, thank you to both of you. Can watch it as well, 41 on 41. It will feature interviews with andy and brent and 39 other people who knew george h. W. Bush, it airs sunday at 9 00 p. M. On his 90th birthday, he jumped out of a plane and looked great doing it. Coming up on new day, the last chip will set sail on your tv soon, about saving humanity from a virus that threatens our extension. How far fetched is the plot really . Well tell you coming up. Are the largest targets in the world, for every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. But systems policed by hps cyber Security Team are constantly monitored for threats. Outside and in. Thats why hp reports and helps neutralize more intrusions than anyone. In the world. If Hp Security Solutions can help keep the Worlds Largest organizations safe, they can keep yours safe, too. Make it matter. Thebut in the case of the s to thlexus ls. Which eyes . Eyes that pivot with the road. That can see what light misses. Eyes designed to warn when yours wander. 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Nathan james fighting for their lives and whats left of humanity. Tom, i appreciate what youre trying to do. Its not going to work. People want to v to get home. Who exactly gets to go home . Reporter dramatic, yes. Its television. But is it really that far fetched. Very timely. 30 years ago this would have been science fiction. Now its highly probable which is a scary thing. Its authentic and well done. This is representative of the new tnt. Reporter tnt, a division of turner broadcasting along with cnn is following a new trend in hollywood, making Television Dramas that look like mini movies. Were blowing things up for real. Reporter but it comes with a risk. The network thats been known for where you go to bing on law and order reruns is attempting something new. Life and originality. Tnt has some of the most successful original programs on cable. But now is the time to be a little louder, a little noisier, edgier. Reporter Michelle Turner, cnn. The last ship premiers on tnt sunday, june 22nd at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Watch it, please. Coming up, kick ball, a tradition of youth is off limits to the blind until now. This is the good stuff, and its coming up. Hey. Im ted and this is rudy. Say hi rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] id do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy. Thats why im so excited about these new milkbone brushing chews. Whoa, im not the only one. Its a brilliant new way to take care of his teeth. Clinically proven as effective as brushing. Ok, here you go. Have you ever seen a dog brush his own teeth . The twist and nub design cleans all the way down to the gum line, even reaching the back teeth. They taste like a treat, but they clean like a toothbrush. Nothing says you care like a milkbone brushing chew. [ barks ] my man qtip. Can i kick it . Yes, i can. Perfect for this song, the good stuff. Todays edition, the playground tradition of kick ball. You love it. But its off limits to visually impaired kids until now this is beep kick ball. Kick the ball, run to the buzz before the fielders find the beeping ball. A simple concept that has big meaning kids otherwise excluded. The sport itself, it gives the kids a lot of confidence. A lot of times visually impaired students are not allowed to play athletic, team sports. Easy to take it for granted. For these kids, even being able to run free without worrying about whats in front of them is the good stuff. I like running, because its one of the times i get to run as fast as i can. Its so exciting, running the the bases, hitting it, knocking it over. Theres nothing bad about it. At the end of the day, thats what its all about, the kids are having fun, getting to go all out and its safe for them. Awesome enough to be the good stuff on this friday. A lot of news as well. Lets get you over to the newsroom with ms. Carol costello. Thanks so much. You have a great weekend. Newsroom starts now. Captions by vitac www. Vitac. Com happening now in the newsroom, breaking overnight. Bergdahl back in america. Arriving just hours ago at Brook Army Medical Center in san antonio, texas. The Army Sergeant starting to heal. Hes going to need time to reassimilate. Tinderbox