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CNN NEWSROOM
Senator Ted Cruz Announcing Run for President; U.N. Security Council in Emergency Meeting; Possible ISIS Threat Against U.S. Troops; Wealthy GOP Donor Helping Peshmerga; Is Petraeus Plea Deal a Double Standard?; Murder Suspect's Source of Wealth; Starbucks Initiative Continues But No More Writing on Cups; Retro Tech in Retrospect; Does California Have a Year of Water Left? Aired 5:00-6p ET
Aired March 22, 2015 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The 2016 race for the White House officially -- officially kicks into overdrive. CNN has learned that Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz will announce he is running for president. He will announce that tomorrow during a speech at Liberty University in Virginia. That would make him the first candidate to formally enter this race.
So can other Republicans and Hillary Clinton be far behind?
Let's bring in our CNN political commentators to talk about it. Buck Saxton is with me in New York, and joining me via Skype is "Daily Beast" columnist and friend of CNN and contributor, Sally Kohn.
Thanks for being here, guys. I appreciate it. Well? It was going to happen any day now. And it has happened, the first official announcement.
Buck, let me ask you first. When you -- when you look at this bid, this happens without him forming a formal exploratory committee. Does that really totally matter?
BUCK SAXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I don't think it matters, in his case particularly because he recognizes that he has so much grassroots support. That the base is with him, the base is really expecting him to run. I think him getting in early is a sign of the fact that he wants to have an opportunity to catch up in terms of infrastructure and in terms of actual apparatus with some of the other candidates like perhaps a Jeb Bush. Some of those who are more establishment in nature.
HARLOW: Well, maybe also in terms of poll numbers because the most recent CNN/ORC in these potential Republican candidates from earlier this month had Ted Cruz at only 4 percent. It had the likes of Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, way out in front of him.
Does this getting in early help him on that front?
SAXTON: I think that's part of the calculation here. And I think that Ted Cruz realizes that the more particularly conservatives and members of the GOP who lean conservative, the more they hear from him, the more exposure they have, the higher that likely -- more likely that those numbers are going to go up. And I think relatively quickly.
He's a constitutionalist, the guy's a world-class debater, he is a constitutional scholar, and someone that I think will be able to articulate conservative messages and appeal to -- certainly the Republican side of the aisle incredibly effectively. So I think that we're going to see those numbers go up dramatically.
HARLOW: Sally Kohn, to you, as a first-term senator, this isn't the first time, right? Just look at President Obama. So it's not like he's going to say, well, President Obama has the same sort of experience that I did, but I just wonder if you think that will be something that his critics can go at effectively?
SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's given his critics plenty else to go at, you know, whether it's calling net neutrality Obamacare for the Internet, or calling birth control abortion- inducing, or, you know, being the guy who continually wants to vote for the 55th billionth time to repeal Obamacare, and shut down the government over it.
He's got plenty there. And all I can say is, bring on the popcorn and the "Crazy for Cruz" bumper stickers. I'm glad he's entering the race. It's just going to reveal the far right of the Republican base to be what it is, which is fully out of touch with mainstream America.
HARLOW: Buck, I do want to get your reaction to some comments that he made about climate change on one of the late-night shows, saying look, we looked at the satellite data, we haven't seen any evidence of global warming in the last 17 years. Today California's Governor Jerry Brown came out and pointed at those comments and said that makes him unfit for office.
SAXTON: Well, this will continue to be less controversial I think over time, as people see a lot of the predictions that are made not only change, but be shown to actually be false on the issue of how dramatic the impact from climate change is going to be.
HARLOW: Are you saying --
SAXTON: And also with the cost --
HARLOW: Wait.
SAXTON: With the cost associated --
HARLOW: Hold on. Hold on.
SAXTON: With the cost associated --
HARLOW: Are you saying that -- that science is not behind climate change?
SAXTON: No, the climate is changing all the time. And in fact it is going to get a little bit warmer the next hundred years. HARLOW: Are you saying that science is not behind global warming?
SAXTON: Global warming? Well, actually they say climate change. They don't say global warming because they don't want to be tied to actually one direction or the other on thermometer. It is going up. And that's actually -- rather, I should say it is changing. And the issue then becomes what do you do about that?
What is a realistic policy to actually address this issue that wouldn't hamper your economy, that isn't insane -- I mean, people can believe they're going to save the planet by recycling their cans every day, but it's going to take a lot more than that if you actually think we're going to melt because there's too much going up in the ozone.
HARLOW: But I do want to keep this focused on Ted Cruz, but that is something a lot of people have pointed out, his comments on climate change.
SAXTON: Not a problem for the right.
HARLOW: Sally, quickly, to you on this.
KOHN: Yes. It's not a problem for the right. It's a problem for everyone else, including independent voters. And look, the Republican Party's biggest problem is that they can no longer win national elections because despite the fact that every time they lose a national referendum, they say we have to do some soul-searching, we have to stop this war on women. We have to be sensible on issues of climate change which 99 percent of scientists believe is manmade.
I believe somewhere over 80 percent of all Americans, including a majority of Republicans, believe it's manmade. But then they put these candidates forward who not only are out of touch with the majority on this, on gay marriage, you name it, but then they get support from within the party. That is a problem for the GOP.
HARLOW: Sally Kohn, Buck Saxton, thank you. Don't go anywhere, we're going to talk about another big headline today. What's happening right now at the United Nations, the Security Council, holding an emergency meeting about Yemen.
[17:05:00] The U.N. has warned for weeks that the country is collapsing, and today the situation looks all the more dire. The president of Yemen forced to flee yet another city after being deposed just weeks ago. This weekend a rebel group took over Yemen's third largest city after already really conquering the capital of Sana'a.
Also, this as of yesterday, the last remaining U.S. troops, Navy SEALs, special forces have been evacuated from the country.
This is what happened on Friday. Absolute chaos and mass murder breaking out in two separate mosques. Suicide bombers there in Yemen killing more than 135 people wounding hundreds more. Who is responsible still unconfirmed, though ISIS is claiming responsibility.
Our Richard Roth joins me now from the United Nations. Richard, obviously this is an incredible emergency situation in Yemen
that has deteriorated in recent weeks and days. What has come out so far of the Security Council's emergency meeting?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: The U.N. Security Council issued a statement, which has happened before and not listened to on the ground in Yemen, but this statement condemned once again the Houthis move to take over more and more parts of the country. It also called for all parties to come to some sort of negotiating table and it backed the current beleaguered President Hadi, who is in the city of Aiden while the rest of the country seems to be descending more and more into chaos.
Now the U.N. special adviser on Yemen, Jamal Benomar, told the Security Council in a video conference of his dire feelings about what's happening right now in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMAL BENOMAR, U.N. SPECIAL ADVISER ON YEMEN: Any sign that would want to push the country in either direction would be inviting a protracted conflict in the vein of an Iraq, Libya, Syria combined scenario.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROTH: That would be quite a debacle. The special adviser said it would be an illusion if either side thought it could take over control of the country entirely.
And, Poppy, as you know, there are big countries in the region, Iran, Saudi Arabia, backing various forces in the region.
HARLOW: Right.
ROTH: And Yemen remains a breeding ground for potential terrorist attacks aimed at the United States, as it descends further into what the special adviser said could be civil war.
HARLOW: Yes. Not only al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula but now clearly ISIS with this huge attack on Friday.
Richard, outside of this statement which I had and which I read, but as you said this has happened before and hasn't been effective, it's really been just ignored on the ground, what else can they do? Are they talking about sending in peacekeepers?
ROTH: I don't think you're going to find any countries who want to go into that. Especially after we saw that video. This -- the Security Council statement again threatened, quote, "additional measures," that might be possibly sanctions again certain individuals. These things take time. Yes, all the countries here on the council think it's the worst what's going on there. They're still talking behind closed doors right now.
Further options would have to be up to discussions, but the council would love the big powers to rein in their forces on the ground. That doesn't seem likely. The Houthi rebel leaders denounced the Security Council as a bunch of evil countries doing evil things, so it doesn't appear that the Houthis will heed this latest call by the Security Council to start talking instead of shooting.
HARLOW: Richard Roth at the United Nations for us this afternoon. Thank you very much.
Buck Saxton still with me, not only conservative political commentator, also formerly counterterrorism analyst with the CIA.
When you hear what Richard said and when you look at the situation in Yemen, do you think that this Security Council -- the U.N. right now can do anything?
SAXTON: No, I think that all you have to do is look at Syria and the U.N.'s inability to do anything meaningful to prevent that civil war from spiraling completely out of control, over 200,000 killed, upwards of probably 250,000 killed despite U.N. activities on the ground there, despite efforts to try to do something. They're going to be infective in Yemen just as they have been in Syria.
I think what you see happening is the transposition or the movement of a sectarian civil war between Shia and Sunni that's playing out in Iraq, it's playing on Syria, it's playing out elsewhere. Now Yemen has to be added to that ledger. And this is only going in one direction, and it's more instability, more violence, and the U.S. is going to have even lesser ability to do something about it.
HARLOW: Right. So basically Yemen is, for all intents and purposes, a failed state. This is one of the poorest countries in the region, this is a country that's predicted will run out of water by 2017. I mean, not to mention their oil resources being depleted.
What do you do to prop up a country like Yemen? Is there any sort of monetary assistance? Anything that the West would want to do to try to save Yemen, if you would?
SAXTON: Well, the U.S. has been allies of the Yemeni government for some time now.
HARLOW: Right.
SAXTON: Specifically for counterterrorism reasons but also for regional stability issues but --
HARLOW: But the president, they were allies with --
[17:10:04] SAXTON: I understand that, and we're also now backing once against the weakest faction in Yemen, just as we backed the weakest faction in Syria. We seem to always pick the guy who is losing. But we've tried --
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: That's not picking. We're reacting to -- who was the president.
SAXTON: I understand. But we always find ourselves backing the guy who somehow is the weakest when events play out. And if you look at our policies in Yemen, what we've been trying to do there, there was a period of time not far -- not far back when the administration was saying that this is somehow a model of success. And it was one they wanted to replicate --
HARLOW: Example.
SAXTON: Yes. It was one they're going to replicate elsewhere. Essentially the CT counterterrorism light model. Do this in Afghanistan. Maybe we can do this in Iraq. What you see is that --
HARLOW: I do want our viewers to listen to that so they can hear what the president said. Let's roll that sound about Yemen and Somalia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This counterterrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our airpower and our support for partners' forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us while supporting partners on the front lines is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. So pointing to Yemen and Somalia as a success story, does the strategy totally have to change?
SAXTON: Well, yes, because airstrikes and working with partner forces on the ground don't make much of a difference in the midst of a civil war -- particularly sectarian civil war like this. Precision strikes in the middle of a failed state situation or civil war situation aren't going to do very much other than sort of add to much of the chaos, I think. And Yemen is going to be yet again another country that we see spiraling out of control and another country, by the way, where the U.S. has had to evacuate its embassy of the last few years which I think is symbolic of a lot of what's happening in the world right now.
HARLOW: All right. Buck Saxton, thank you. Sally Kohn, thank you to you as well.
I so want you to stay with me because we're going to talk about another very disturbing headlines. What we learned earlier today that about 100 American troops here on the ground in the U.S. could be the target of ISIS.
There is this group known as the Islamic State Hacking Organization, and they are calling for beheadings and attacks right here on U.S. soil. This was posted online and what they posted are names, pictures and home addresses of service men and women from all branches of the U.S. military, much of which of course is information that's publicly available online.
We asked the Defense Department, they said that they could not confirm the validity of this information. The Pentagon, of course, is investigating. Anyone on the list is being warned to check their privacy settings for any sort of online accounts.
When you look at this, Buck, it's incredibly disturbing, but I do want to note there have been threats like this online against service men and women before. How much credence do you give to this?
SAXTON: I think that this just continues with the posture that we currently have which is that you need to be vigilant and you need to take seriously threats made by ISIS and even ISIS supporters because they tend to follow through on them. They don't tend to make idle threats over a period of time.
HARLOW: But we haven't seen this -- really come to U.S. soil?
SAXTON: I understand. I'm just -- that's why I said vigilance.
HARLOW: Yes.
SAXTON: I don't think people should overreact to this.
HARLOW: OK.
SAXTON: And I don't think we should assume that ISIS is omnipotent or can be anywhere at any time and strike anywhere any time, especially on U.S. soil. They have had a limited ability to do anything of real note, but we should look at the recent history, though, of their ability to hitting places like Europe and to try and hit places like Australia --
HARLOW: And inspire Americans.
SAXTON: And to inspire Americans to go join them. We know there are Americans who are filtering back after having been in that country as well as Europeans who have done the same thing.
HARLOW: Yes.
SAXTON: So I think that there's something that we have to be aware of, and they're -- they'll try to do this, but I also don't think that this is something that everyone needs to be spun up beyond what we already know.
HARLOW: Right. Just incredibly disturbing to see.
Buck Saxton, thank you very much. Good to have you on the program.
Coming up next, we're going to switch gears and talk about a fascinating story. What do some Republican presidential candidates and the Kurds fighting ISIS have in common? Well, apparently this man supporting both of them, a billionaire who wants the United States to do more to help those Peshmerga forces. Our nation has had few military leaders as decorated as General David
Petraeus, that is also coming up because that makes his fall from grace all the more stunning. We'll talk about both of those, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:17:15] HARLOW: A wealthy well-known donor in Republican politics is throwing his support behind the Kurdish troops as they battle ISIS. Conservative millionaire Foster Friess, seen on the left right there on the green tie, is probably best known for helping bankroll the presidential candidacy of Rick Santorum. Well, Frieze says he desperately wants the U.S. government to send advance military aid to the Peshmerga fighters.
Our Nick Valencia spoke with Friess about this recently. He joins me now.
Nick, it's a fascinating story because I think the headline that jumped out to a lot of people was, oh, is he trying to build this sort of private army to fight alongside the Peshmerga, or build them up? That's not exactly what he's doing. At least not yet.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not exactly. He is a Christian conservative, a big donor, a political donor, mega donor, and he talked to me and saying that the U.S. government needs to do more to help support those Kurds fighting ISIS. He says if they don't have the resources to protect themselves from things like IEDs or de- booby trap areas where they've already pushed ISIS out.
And since he's talking about non-lethal goods, but as you mentioned, Poppy, I did ask him about this article that was written about him in "The Daily Beast" where it alluded to him perhaps funding a private army. I spoke to him from his -- from a studio in Arizona earlier this month.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER FRIESS, MILLIONAIRE GOP DONOR: That's simply not on the table. And I wouldn't want to get engaged in doing any private armies, but I'm going to do everything I can to help these people because I have a heart for them, and they deserve it, and we've treated them shabbily, and it's about time we treated them right and -- America should stand for something, and what we should stand for is liberty, freedom and support those people who are fighting for it. And why people aren't more upset about what ISIS is doing to them it just -- it troubles me.
Our hearts should be broken, Nick, by what breaks God's heart. And this is a sad situation, when we see what's happening over there and we stand by. And we're in World War III, Nick, and so we have an opportunity to engage in it. And it's been declared upon us by the global jihadist movement. And if we don't engage in it, then we can tell our grandchildren that we watched the second holocaust roll by.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALENCIA: Friess has already spent $50,000 in humanitarian aids for things like blankets. He also told me that he has identified at least 2,000 Christians in the region that are willing to fight ISIS. He wants to help them out -- Poppy.
HARLOW: Pretty strong words coming from him, Nick. And of course, it's got to have caught the ear of the State Department. Are they saying anything?
VALENCIA: Well, I did reach out to the State Department this weekend, asking them if they were going to comment about Foster Friess' intentions. They said they don't have a comment right now. They will get back to us.
We've also reached out to the Department of Justice, but just to clear, Foster Friess told me, it's not about funding a private army, this is about, you know, helping those boots on the ground he says that are already there. These Kurds, who are our friends and our allies, he says.
HARLOW: Nick Valencia, on the story for us. Thanks so much.
VALENCIA: You bet.
[17:20:08] HARLOW: Now I want to turn to a man who has really made his name commanding U.S. forces in Iraq. David Petraeus was considered one of the America's most highly regarded generals. He was head of the CIA, was even considered a rising star in the race for the White House. It all came to a screeching halt when he was caught leaking classified information to his mistress, then lying about it to officials. A public apology quickly followed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I know that I can never fully assuage the pain that I inflicted on those closest to me and on a number of others. I can, however, try to move forward, and as best possible to make amends to those I have hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: All right. I want to bring in author William Doyle. He just wrote "A Soldier's Dream."
You interviewed Petraeus for this book. So you have a perspective unique to so many. So he obviously has reached this plea agreement, this plea deal. And the headlines recently have been it's been uncovered that he has been an adviser to President Obama to the White House on Iraq right now.
What do you make of that?
WILLIAM DOYLE, AUTHOR, "A SOLDIER'S DREAM": Well, I interviewed Petraeus for the book, "A Soldier's Dream," several years ago, and I was struck by how powerful -- powerfully he courted the press, including myself. He seemed to be a man on the mission to really burnish his historical image which --
HARLOW: Legacy?
DOYLE: His legacy. Absolutely. He was very, very good at that. Some of the people in the military did not feel fondly toward him for that reason.
HARLOW: Really?
DOYLE: And, you know, he's one of the very few people who are credited with achieving success in the world of counterinsurgency and our recent wars, but he was very interestingly in my book "A Soldier's Dream," he said that he gave the credit to junior officers the year before who kicked things off in Anbar Province in the awakening, so I credit him for certain intellectual honesty. But advising Obama now is interesting.
HARLOW: Yes.
DOYLE: Because as you said, he faced criminal -- he faced a felony charge, very serious charges.
HARLOW: Right.
DOYLE: Giving classified information.
HARLOW: And he hasn't been sentenced yet. That comes next month. As expected he'll pay a $40,000 fine, maybe probation. But who knows, it's going to be up to the judge.
I do want to read to you what the White House said about this, Josh Earnest saying, "General Petraeus is somebody who served for a number of years in Iraq. He commanded a large number of American military personnel in that country. He is, I think, legitimately regarded as an expert when it comes to the security situation in Iraq, so I think it makes a lot of sense for senior administration officials on occasion to consult him for advice."
I wonder if he will have access or has had access since this revelation to classified material. Would he?
DOYLE: I think he's been completely walled off from all classified material for the past several years. I've dealt with classified material as a journalist in my last book "Navy SEALS: Their Untold Story," which was a history of the SEALs. I had to deal with the Pentagon and the CIA asking me not to publish the name of the SEAL team which took out any Osama bin Laden, which any 10-year-old with a smartphone can find out.
So there are layers of complexity and sometimes absurdity at the classification area. Right now there are people in jail for doing less than what Petraeus did, you could argue. And Petraeus now has a plea deal for a misdemeanor, not a felony, for a fairly small fine, and possibly an arrangement for two years probation. So nothing is really happening to him.
HARLOW: Quickly before I let you go, you said it's so important to Petraeus how he is remembered. Looking at his life up until now, how will people remember him?
DOYLE: A brilliant man who's very good at promoting himself, who made a real contribution in Iraq, whose legacy I think is properly diminished by the role of other soldiers in building -- in contributing toward -- sacrificing toward Iraq, much of which seems to have fallen apart, that legacy, so far. But also a man who rose as high as you can go and through stupid human decisions, on his own account, fell farther than most other people fall.
Maybe it's a good thing to see people able to have a second life as he's having now, but there are definite double standards and complexities to this. And if I were one of the people in jail for leaking classified information in a noble cause, I would be awfully angry that more wasn't done to make an example, perhaps, but maybe we should all have a chance for redemption.
HARLOW: William Doyle, good to have you on the program. Thank you, sir.
DOYLE: It's great to be here. Thank you.
HARLOW: Appreciate it.
Coming up next, you know this name well by now. Robert Durst may right now be the most notorious murder suspect in the country, but his last name is synonymous with something else here in New York City -- wealth. The fortune behind the murder suspect, next.
[17:24:57]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst faces a bail hearing tomorrow. He has been charged with the 2000 murder of a close friend of his. The durst saga detailed in HBO's documentary series "The Jinx" has many people asking where his fortune came from? That's a good question.
Our Cristina Alesci has been digging into the numbers because he and his family are so famous for being multi-multimillionaire.
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Right. And now because of Robert's arrest and the documentary around his story, a lot of people know this is a very powerful and rich New York family.
HARLOW: Yes.
ALESCI: What they don't realize is the inner workings of the family finances, and the family's really fought to keep that secret. Now what they don't mind publicizing is just how many buildings in New York City they own. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESCI (voice-over): One Bryant Park, 4 Times Square, One World Trade Center, iconic pieces of the New York skyline, all owned or managed by the Durst Organization. Across the nation, Durst is now synonymous with an alleged murderer, but in New York City the name evokes a multigenerational success story.
STEVEN SPINOLA, REBNY PRESIDENT: Real estate in New York is very much a family business. The Durst family are clearly at the top of the leadership of the industry, and that means leadership of the city of New York.
[17:30:04] ALESCI: Joseph Durst, an immigrant from eastern Europe, started the family business in 1915. Over 100 years, the family, Joseph, his son Seymour, and his grandchildren, have changed New York's urban landscape.
SPINOLA: Joseph builds the first office building on 3rd Avenue that was built there. Seymour Durst really wrote the book on how to assemble property and as a result of that, the Durst family now owned properties throughout the city of New York.
ALESCI: The next generation, Douglas and Jonathan, revitalized Times Square.
JONATHAN MILLER, CEO, MILLER SAMUEL, INC.: Time Square up until really the mid '90s was extremely seedy, a lot of x-rated type strip clubs and bars, and not a great place to be at night. Really over the last 20 or so years, developers like Durst with Four Times Square, have remade it to one of the most vibrant tourist spots that the New York City currently enjoys.
ALESCI (on camera): Today the Durst organization owns or manages 13 million square feet of office space in Manhattan and another two million square feet of luxury residences. In total, the family has built a fortune of $4.4 billion, according to "Forbes." And in doing so were very careful to distance themselves from Robert Durst, who has become the dynasty's pariah.
(Voice-over): The multiple murder suspect has funded his defense through payouts from his $43 million trust fund set up by his father Seymour in May 1962. In 2006, Robert sued for full control of that money. The family settled and bought out Robert's stake in the business for $65 million. Despite breaking ties with his family, Robert has kept up the real estate game. He sold two buildings in Brooklyn in 2014 for a reported $21 million. Probably enough to fund his legal fees for years to come.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: It's fascinating. Those are some of the most iconic buildings in -- not only New York City, in this country and until seeing your piece, I didn't even know that they were connected to this family.
ALESCI: Yes. It's quite amazing. And what is also very telling here is that it was very difficult to report this story out because the family in that settlement had all of the terms of the agreement when they broke -- they officially broke ties with Robert, they had the court sealed those documents. Now someone leaked them to the documentary filmmaker and now the family is bringing action against the filmmaker.
And there's a little bit of, if you actually paid attention, there was a little bit of a difference between the $43 million or $42 million that Robert Durst was entitled to under his trust fund and the $65 million that were paid out.
HARLOW: Right.
ALESCI: And we don't know why --
HARLOW: Why.
ALESCI: -- the family paid more money out. One theory floating around out there is that Robert Durst actually had some equity or interest in the family business, and they just wanted to break all ties with him.
HARLOW: Everything.
ALESCI: And they figured $65 million out of $4.4 billion it's a dropped in the bucket, they'll keep his mouth shut and we'll move forward.
HARLOW: And you know what's going to be fascinating to see is if in this -- if this goes to trial, these murder charges, if they're going to unseal a lot of the documents previously sealed by the other court. So we'll be watching.
ALESCI: That's the family's worst fear probably at this point.
HARLOW: We'll be watching, you'll be on it.
ALESCI: Yes.
HARLOW: Thank you, Cristina. Fascinating story, appreciate it.
ALESCI: Of course.
HARLOW: Coming up next. Starbucks trying to spark a national conversation about race in this country, launching the "Race Together" campaign a week ago. Has it been effective? We'll talk about it with brand expert and author of "Think Round," Martha Pease. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:36:05] HARLOW: For the past week, you may have seen your barista at Starbucks write "Race Together" on your coffee cup. That part of this campaign will end tomorrow as planned, but the broader "Race Together" initiative by the coffee giant will continue.
The whole point here they say to encourage employees to talk about race with customers, with each other, and it's an idea that's sparked backlash from some online. It was lauded by others and this week I spoke with Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, about why he did this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD SCHULTZ, CEO, STARBUCKS: This is an issue I brought into the boardroom over the last few quarters, and to the board's credit, they understood that this is an issue facing the country not only people of color, but the entire country and perhaps we could have a positive effect. But certainly there were people, friends of mine and certain people at Starbucks, who felt that this is not an issue that we should engage in.
And I rejected that. I rejected that because if we all individually and collectively continue to be a bystander on something that is dividing the nation, where is this headed?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Brand expert Martha Pease joins me now. She's CEO of DemandWerks, her new book is "Think Round."
Thanks for being here. What's your take on whether or not Starbucks is a better brand now a week after launching this? It's clearly the most hot button topic that they have touched. And they've taken a position on gay marriage, on gun rights, but this really seemed to spark huge debate.
MARTHA PEASE, BRAND EXPERT: Well, a week into this, I think -- actually I think they're probably slightly better off as a brand.
HARLOW: Why?
PEASE: Well, I think they really did -- he did a couple of things right and they came out in your discussion with him as well. One is he communicated that the company cares, and that the company really has a value system that's based on empathy and understanding. And I think that's important. That puts Starbucks into kind of a class with very few other companies.
So that made a difference for the brand and I think people will come away from this whole -- this whole event with the feeling that Starbucks has a lot of empathy towards everyone involves with their brand and really toward America.
I think the other thing that happened that's probably good for the brand is that this issue of race and what race means to Americans, and the issues surrounding race is a very relevant conversation for Americans to be having. And I think it was important that a brand actually step into what they believe and elevate the issue and put it out there for discussion.
HARLOW: Look, it's something that most CEOs wouldn't even touch. No way, no how. I spent time with Starbucks across the city talking to folks about it. Some people loved it, some people said this is not the right venue. This is not the place to have the conversation. What do you make about those people who say -- and some have even said this sort of, you know, diminishes it, to think that you can solve it this way.
Howard Schultz told me, "I'm not trying to solve it, but I want us to talk about it."
PEASE: Right. Right. And I think the venue is the issue. I think there's so many great assets that the company can bring to helping have a conversation like this. The context for it was probably a misjudgment, putting this into the middle of their commerce, into the middle of their store, and inserting this conversation into the world of their customers.
HARLOW: So what should they do as they take it forward?
PEASE: It's probably not a place to have.
HARLOW: I know they're having more of the town hall meetings across the country, internally at Starbucks. What should be sort of the next step in your opinion?
PEASE: Well, the first thing that they should do that they didn't do, is listen to their customers. Find out from their customers really, how they want to be engaged in this conversation. They went to role is a Starbucks where there is a role for Starbucks to play and engaging people in this conversation. I think context is the number two issue, find where it's the right place to play.
[17:40:05] And it may be that separating this from Starbucks, the Starbucks Race Together Foundation, not unlike the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that elevated public health and world's health. You know, that the Race Together Foundation is a way to trick this issue and bring all the assets of Starbucks and their culture to this but make it not an intrusive -- an intrusive part of the commerce that a customer expects to have with Starbucks.
HARLOW: Got it.
PEASE: And I also think that the town halls are important. And you know a strategic partner like a media partner like CNN who could help --
HARLOW: They did. They partnered with "USA Today."
PEASE: Exactly.
HARLOW: So there's this big insert with actually fascinating graphics about sort of race in this country from the 1960s until today that people should take a look at. But look, it's interesting, it was a risk and people reacted differently. It sounds like you think it's a win overall.
So, Martha Pease, thank you very much. Appreciate it, good to have you on. Congrats on the new book as well.
Coming up next, something a little fun, retro tech. It's cool again, folks. Haven't you heard? Walkman, Polaroid, the boom box. These old-school devices could also point in the direction for tech of the future. We'll tell you why, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARLOW: All right. Long before we had iPods and smartphones, we had the faithful Walkman, the boom box, the Polaroid camera.
CNN Money correspondent Laurie Segall looks back at the gadgets that paved the way for today's coolest products and could pave the way forward for the devices of tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT (on camera): People hold them like this, like on the street.
Is that a cassette -- OK. You know, I'm not going to do that. I don't even know how to use this anymore. Is it making noises?
We are more connected than ever these days. We listen to music, we check our e-mails, we take photos, we do just about everything on this device. We decided to take a little bit of a trip down memory lane.
[17:45:01] First up, the boom box. I don't even know how to do it anymore. What was like very cool about the boom box is it was almost kind of like a statement, and it brought music to the street. Even today, you look at something like the Jambox, some looked like kind of a throwback to the boom box.
Yes.
So the boom box was this very like social, everyone-listening-to- music-together type experience, but it was heavy. And sometimes you just want to be alone with your music. So that kind of paved way also for the Walkman.
These are classics. There we go. This completely changed the way we dealt with music, right. And commercials showed people like running around jumping. And it seems kind of laughable now but like this was the first kind of device that enabled you to do that. This paved the way for our smartphones, and we're just listening to music and streaming music online. Walking around, kind of bopping around. I didn't do that. I didn't do that.
Before there was Instagram, and you could just take a photo on your phone and just see it, there was the instant photo. Boom. Instead of going, taking a picture and then having to go develop it, it was kind of this instant gratification. You've got to do this, wait. It's just this idea that you could be around the dinner table with your friends and then you want to get a picture and you want it now, that's what Polaroid did, which is something that was very revolutionary at the time and it definitely paved ways for these companies like Instagram.
We have our smartphones, and we have Facebook and Twitter and Instagram, but before all of these technologies, there's technology that inherently changed the way we interacted, how we consumed music, how we took photos. So what we're seeing now is a little bit of kind a reinvention of technology. There's actually a case for the iPhone that enables you to print photos and have all sorts of different types of Bluetooth speakers that are looking more and more like kind of an old school boom box.
These are the devices that came before and these are the ones that kind of make you remember when things were a little bit more tangible. And that's going to be a market in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: That was awesome.
Laurie Segall, thank you for that.
Coming up next, we're going to switch gears to a very important story. Imagine a natural disaster so severe it could change the life of every man, woman and child in this country. That is what is facing California right now. A drought so terrible it could change life not just there, but for all of us. We'll discuss, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:50:42] HARLOW: All right. Well, here in the east we're talking about all of that snow that piled up this winter, the largest state in the country is in the middle of a true water emergency. A severe drought that has now lasted for years.
California needs a staggering 11 trillion gallons of water. Governor Jerry Brown hopes a billion dollar relief package will help, but he admits that it's simply a band-aid.
CNN meteorologist Tom Sater joining me now.
We should only be probably talking about this a lot more than we are.
TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HARLOW: When you look at how severe it is.
SATER: More people need to know about this, and it's really been just, Poppy, the last couple of years, maybe two and a half to three. This is a picture of just one out of several lakes. Reservoirs look like this, too, just dwindling water, when rainfall is sporadic at best, when you have high temperatures above average and no snowfall this is what happens now.
This is 2013. Notice California, zero percent, exceptional drought. Let's go to September 2014, 58 percent. Now we did have a little bit of help with some rainfall, this is done December 2014, but watch, we're still seeing an increase again back up to 3099.
We should have some good rainfall in the area affected. If you look what California for January and February into March should look like and it compared to what we've received already, that's just precipitation. Snow pack in the highest mountains is only at 12 percent of what it should be. But the drought's been continuing not just for California but the last two winters it's been cold in the east. It's been warm in the west. In fact this winter alone, 10,000 record lows in the east but over
15,000 record highs. So without the rainfall, without the snow melt, this is going to continue to be a problem.
HARLOW: All right. Thank you so much, and when you look at those pictures, they really speak for themselves, painting a grim picture of a state slipping very much into a dangerous situation. Look at that. 2011 versus last year.
California is the seventh largest economy in the world, not because of Silicon Valley or Hollywood, but because of agriculture. Virtually all of the almonds, artichokes, lemons, pistachios and processed tomatoes grown in the U.S. come from the state's Central Valley.
Let me bring in Jay Famiglietti, who's a senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also professor of Earth Science at U.C. Irvine.
Thank you for being here. You've written a lot about this, the most recently an op-ed in the "L.A. Times." It got a lot of attention. You call water the new oil. That's how important this situation.
How dire it is in California right now?
JAY FAMIGLIETTI, SENIOR WATER SCIENTIST, NASA JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: That's right. It is pretty bad. We, over the last few years, have lost something like 12 million acre feet of water per year for the last three or four years, but that's more water than all Californians, all 38 million Californians use every year. So that's a tremendous amount of water and a lot of it, about two-thirds of it, is from groundwater depletion and the groundwater is used to support agriculture. So we're really in a very, very difficult situation.
HARLOW: So what can you do? Because what the farmers are doing there because they have to, to provide for their crops is they're drilling up all of this groundwater and up until very recently there was nothing to regulate how much they could take and it's harder to -- you know, it gets depleted at some point.
FAMIGLIETTI: That's right.
HARLOW: I guess what I'm asking is what can be done to stem this.
FAMIGLIETTI: Well, we did in California passed new legislation, thankfully, and you know, what the upside of the drought is that we're able to get this passed. And that legislation, hopefully, will help slow the flow, but one of the issues is it's going to take a few, you know, water legislations. It's complicated. It's going to take a few decades for that new legislation to be implemented and so my personal -- my private fear is that we may run out of ground water in some places before the legislation has a chance to kick in.
HARLOW: Can you paint the picture for everyone watching of what that scenario would look like and how the average person would feel it?
FAMIGLIETTI: Well, I think the future of California is one that is not quite apocalyptic, but we'll have some major changes. We'll still have agriculture, I think, but we'll be collecting different things, things that are more efficient.
[17:55:03] I think the message is, we'll have to just -- have to evolve towards a more efficiency. Maybe we'll be growing less food. Maybe we'll be growing different crops. The bigger issue, I think, is that most of us in California will have to realize that we actually live in an arid or semi-arid environment. We will have to get much less water.
HARLOW: Jay Famiglietti, thank you so much. You've done extensive work on this. We appreciate you coming on the program. Good to have you.
FAMIGLIETTI: My pleasure. Thanks a lot.
HARLOW: Well, the online threat that has been posted within the last 24 hours has led the Pentagon to warn some service men and women they could be targets of ISIS.
Also coming up, Ted Cruz saying loud and clear he's in for 2016. We'll discuss next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Indian Wells, I think every player and myself included will consider the fifth grand slam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a really well-run tournament than the -- well, it's the second biggest stadium in the world after the U.S. Open.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's just something about this laid back event.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's obvious that the tournament is just one of the best of the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The man in charge of overseeing the operation here is tournament director, Steve Simon. For over a decade now, he has watched Indian Wells and its audience grow.
STEVE SIMON, TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR: We had 430,000 people last year, and this year we're looking at 450,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, that's as much as the French Open.
SIMON: Yes. Yes, we're right there, attendance wise. Some of what's made us special is the experience that people are having here. We're basically so close to the players, you can hear them trash talking each other a little bit or the coach yelling at them. And this tournament now has gotten to the point where it means something to the guys and girls to win it. They like to have this title in their pocket. It's not history, not the slam, but it's become the perception of importance, which I think is good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
