Interview with Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), Discussing Iran Provocations to U.S. and Britain; R. Kelly Indicted On New Federal Sex Crime Charges; Experimental Drugs Offer New Hope To Ebola Victims
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Let's return now to the rising tensions between Britain and Iran. And for that matter between the U.S. and Iran. Now, when it comes to Britain, it is sending another warship to the gulf after the U.K. government said Iranian boats tried to impede a British oil tanker their earlier this week. This all follows weeks of rising rhetoric and provocations between Washington and Teheran. Let's bring in Ami Bera, U.S. democratic Congressman and a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and he joins me now live from Washington. Thanks for being with us. So we're seeing, obviously, all over the world here on CNN International. What do you think the U.S. message to Iran should be at this stage?</s>REP. AMI BERA (D-CA): Look, I think the message that we want to send from Congress is, let's ratchet down the rhetoric, let's sit down, let's talk about this. Nobody wants another conflict in the Middle East. Both sides are taking provocative actions here. What the Iranians did with the British tanker isn't helpful. Let's sit down and let's talk about this. We can resolve this.</s>GORANI: Right. But the Iranians are saying, you know, we're not going to talk to you. Essentially, the U.S. walked away from this nuclear deal, were unable to do business, even with Europeans who want to honor it. This is the United States bullying us. What do you say then to Iran to convince it to sit down for talks? Because the U.S. president seems to say he's opened to that idea.</s>BERA: Yes. So you have the president of the United States who says he's open to talks. This is the -- I was in Europe last week. And this is where our E.U. counterparts, or German counterparts, or Russian counterparts, really can take the lead and step up, and say look, we want to preserve this deal, we want to move forward. I don't know if President Trump re-enters the Iran nuclear deal. But for a lot of us, once we are in it, we thought we ought to just enforce that deal.</s>GORANI: But Congressman, Europe is doing that. I mean, they're meeting with the Iranian foreign ministers, they're trying to give it some sort of economic, you know, lifeline here. But because of the U.S. and threatening sanctions on any companies, whether the European or American doing business with Iran, they're having a really hard time of it. How do you fix that?</s>BERA: Look, they are and we know the sanctions are having a biding effect in Iran. So if the Iranians are willing to come to the table, you know what? Maybe the United States is willing to lift some of these secondary sanctions. We already know that China is going around the secondary sanctions and continue to import oil. We've heard that President Trump may give China some relief here. Well, if he's willing to do that, he may be willing to engage in other negotiations.</s>GORANI: Let me ask you about the House voting to prevent the U.S. president from launching a war against Iran without House approval? Is that a concern of yours that the U.S. president could just sort of launch a military offensive on Iran without getting the consent of Congress?</s>BERA: Just a couple hours ago, we went ahead and passed that bill, now the Senate's got to take it up. But I think in a bipartisan way, Democrats and Republicans do have some concern that the president may try to use authorizations to take us to war. We don't think the president has that authorizations, only Congress has that authorization.</s>GORANI: Let me just pivot quickly, because this is making news internationally. And you were in Europe, so you must know this. But these raids that are being planned and the conditions of the detention facilities on the border, migrants trying to claim asylum and crossover have made big news internationally, because people have been pretty alarmed by the conditions that have been described. Now, the U.S. vice president, Mike Pence, is currently on the ground in Texas, he's going to be visiting these facilities. What do you think the administration should be doing at this stage with regards to these facilities?</s>BERA: I hope Vice President Pence, if he does visit the facilities, sees the horrific conditions. And as values as Americans, these are human beings, mothers, daughters, fathers, children. We need to treat them in a humane compassionate way. And then, you know, just having wholesale ICE raids over the weekend sends shivers throughout the entire community. I don't believe that is who we are as the United States. Yes, I'm a son of immigrants. Yes, they did come legally. But these are folks that are seeking that American dream. It's not the message that we want to send to the world. So, yes, we have to have the rule of law. We can't accept everyone, but let's understand that these are human beings.</s>GORANI: These raids, I mean, we're talking here about some mass, mass arrests in big American cities. What are your thoughts about just of the way this is being handled?</s>BERA: Well, I think this falls hand in hand with the president, and he likes that the affix -- he likes that pomp that's out there. And in this particular scenario, he could handle this in a quieter way if these are criminals. But by announcing it, by doing in such a public way, again, it sends the wrong message to the community.</s>GORANI: Congressman Ami Bera, thanks you very much for joining us to talk Iran and also these upcoming raids, as well, which many people around the world are talking about. Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate your time today.</s>BERA: Hala, than you for having me on.</s>GORANI: Thank you. Brazil's president is considering appointing one of his five sons to be the country's next ambassador to the United States. Eduardo Bolsonaro is currently a congressman in Brazil. But he's father, Jair Bolsonaro says he could be perfect for the job. Brazil has been without an ambassador in Washington since April. The elder Bolsonaro has said he wants to swap out at least dozen ambassadors in key countries to revamp Brazil's image abroad and he believes his own son would be the right man for the job. You might be surprised to hear that a majority of U.S. veterans believe the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting. That's according to new polling by the Pew Research Center. The survey found that 64 percent of veterans don't think the Iraq invasion was worth it, considering the costs versus the benefits to the U.S. And the general public seems to agree, 62 percent, overall, of Americans say the same thing. When it comes to Afghanistan, 58 percent of veterans doubt the value of the war there, 59 percent of the general public say that that war was not worth fighting.</s>GORANI: For the third time this year, music star R. Kelly is in legal trouble over alleged sex crimes with underage girls. Prosecutors unsealed two new indictments against the R and B singer Friday in two different states. Kelly is facing more than a dozen federal charges including making and sharing child pornography, kidnapping, and trafficking underage girls for prostitution. The indictment say the crimes go back decades. Kelly is being held in Chicago. Brynn Gingras joins me now from New York where prosecutors brought some of the charges. How is this different from the previous cases against R. Kelly?</s>BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Hala. I mean, this is a big difference. Right up until now R. Kelly has faced state charges and until last night when federal authorities arrested him while he was walking his dog. These federal charges now handed down. Again, two different jurisdictions. We have the case here in New York and we have the case in Illinois. Eighteen federal charges in total. Let me quickly walk you through each one. In New York, it's five separate charges, including racketeering and the main act, which is essentially human trafficking. The prosecutors here in New York alleged essentially that R. Kelly had an entire enterprise, a corporation of people, including managers, bodyguards, personal assistants, who would help him recruit victims, women who are really girls, underage, when they went to concerts and several different states and different countries. And basically, he would get the phone numbers of these girls and he would sexually abuse them. I want to give you just a few more details because this indictment is just so shocking. What we've somewhat heard through that documentary "Surviving R. Kelly," but in the court documents it says that he -- these girls weren't allowed to leave rooms without R. Kelly's permission. They were only instructed to only wear baggy clothing. They couldn't look any other men. They had to keep their head down, they were to call R. Kelly "daddy." I mean, just a horrible, horrible allegations in that indictment. Then we go to indictment that was unsealed in Illinois, that has 13 federal charges, and essentially, child pornography charges and obstruction of justice charges. And those really deal with in crux those videos that we have heard about R. Kelly making those ex tapes with girls who were underage. And they essentially say that even with some of those videos leaked, R. Kelly and two other former employees who are also named at this indictment and are also charged, would do whatever they could to cover up the crimes whether it means to paying off victims, paying off their families, giving them cars, using tactics such as blackmail and physical abuse. So just incredible accusations that we, again, have heard before, but it's on a different level now because it's federal cases in two different states. R. Kelly, as you've said, he is behind bars right now in Illinois. He has an extradition hearing coming up. It's possible he will be brought to New York to face those charges first, but it's unclear. But right now, he's behind bars, and I think a lot of people are happy about that.</s>GORANI: Brynn Gingras, thanks very much. Moving now to Africa, and new hope for the victims of an ongoing Ebola outbreak. It is the second worst outbreak ever seen. It's covered more than 1,600 people so far. Hasn't made the news as much for some reason. There was a lot more going on. Because the first time around thousands died, and really, it was a just kind of worldwide panic, but this time it's just been a quieter story, but still very deadly. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, the U.S. is testing new experimental drugs that could give victims a fighting chance take a look.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's another step forward in the battle to contain the deadly Ebola virus in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This one happening at the Atlanta- based Center for Disease Control and Prevention where two experimental treatments were tested in a lab for the first time. Dr. Lauren McMullan was the lead on the study.</s>LAURA MCMULLAN, CDC MICROBIOLOGIST: So we use that sequence information of the current Ebola virus strain and we were able to reconstruct the virus in the lab. We were able to use that virus strain to test these investigational therapeutic and diagnostic tests. Make sure that they are going to be accurate and sensitive against the current</s>GUPTA: The treatments involved Remdesivir and ZMapp were used against the Makona strain of Ebola that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. In the eastern DRC, the Ituri strain is dominant and has killed more than 1,600 people, according to the World Health Organization. Remdesivir and ZMapp, the treatments used to fight Makona strain have been offered on a voluntary clinical trial basis in the DRC and findings from of the CDC study, show that they are effective in laboratory tests.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our rule was to test the effectiveness of these drugs in the laboratory.</s>MCMULLAN: We still need to have continued research to ensure that we can give the best possible drugs to an Ebola patient. So we want to encourage the continued development of these, as well as the additional development of diagnostic tests that can be used in the field.</s>GUPTA: While the CDC findings are for promise for the DRC, there are other factors complicating the efforts to contain the deadly virus. The outbreak is in the middle of a war zone. Treatment and prevention are hampered by attacks on health workers. Factional and ethnic fighting also prevent health workers from reaching thousands of people who may be exposed to the virus. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.</s>GORANI: All right. Still to come tonight. Remember this moment? CNN's chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, refusing to back down when questioning the U.S. president on his rhetoric over immigration. We speak to Jim about his new book of "The Enemy of the People." We'll be right back.