Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

British Special Forces Pulled From Yemen; GOP's Ted Cruz Announces 2016 President Run; FBI Investigates Hit List Against U.S. Troops; Will Tea Party Stand Behind Cruz in 2016? Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 23, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


ALIYSN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Great. That's great.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ACNHOR: On the side, there's her son.

CAMEROTA: I hope everyone knows that you always insert a joke into that stuff, which I love and it's always a surprise.

CUOMO: Because you want to make it counterintuitive. In the sunset, hey, cops like this make me believe that, you know, there are good guys out there.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Looking to protect and serve. Everybody won and she crossed the line. Awesome. Right?

PEREIRA: A great way to finish our show. And head over to the "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

Good morning, Carol.

[09:00:21] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is a great way to start --

PEREIRA: She's running, too.

COSTELLO: I am running. I'm back from vacation and I think I'm a little bit still there. Have a great day. Thanks so much.

NEWSROOM starts now.

Happening now in the NEWSROOM, an ISIS group posts a hit list online. The target, American troops with names and pictures. What's being done to keep our women and men safe.

And the United States pulling out all troops from Yemen. How it went from a success story to the edge of civil war.

Plus. Ready, set, campaign, Tea Party darling Ted Cruz announces he's running for president. So what's the advantage to being first?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News. COSTELLO: And good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so

much for joining me.

We begin this morning with breaking news out of Yemen. The crumbling security situation there has prompted Britain to evacuate its special forces troops from the country. Now the United States also took that extraordinary measure over the weekend. And against that backdrop a chilling statement, Yemen, a country the United States once considered a success story, now teeters on the edge of civil war.

Those words are coming from the United Nations. And here's why. Rebel force seized Yemen's third largest city and more importantly the international airport nearby. Yemen is spiraling into anarchy. The U.S. has pulled its last remaining troops. And Washington faces a grave concern.

Will terrorists seize the opportunity to build yet another stronghold?

Let's bring in senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, he joins us from London with more.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. I mean, that is the real concern. We've seen it in Syria where ISIS and al Qaeda took advantage of the civil war there to build strongholds, places of recruitment, places for training and then the plan to turn that training and turn it around and send it, export terror attacks to the United States and to Europe. And that is the big concern in Yemen at the moment because it really is moving quickly towards a civil war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Now in control of the international airport in the southwestern city of Taiz, the U.N. envoy warning that Yemen is at, quote, "the edge of civil war." This sectarian violence between Shiite rebels and a Sunni majority government spreading across the country, where Houthis who control the capital of Sana'a and areas of the north are now advancing south into Taiz, the country's third largest city.

The mounting unrest pushing the U.S. military to pull out over the weekend. Following the U.S. embassy evacuation last month.

ISIS claiming responsibility for this suicide attack on two mosques on Friday. More than 130 killed, hundreds more injured.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As we're seeing extremists try to capitalize on the chaos and instability inside of Yemen to carry out these acts of violence.

ROBERTSON: The nation now in an especially perilous position caught between the Houthis' violent rivalry with the Sunni, AQAP terrorists, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. But now growing concerns, the U.S. withdrawal is a serious blow to the counterterrorism mission. REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R), HOMELAND SECURITY CHAIRMAN: Without good

intelligence stops plots against the homeland, without that intelligence we can't effectively stop it.

ROBERTSON: This region home to violent al Qaeda offshoots. The terrorist organizations responsible for plotting several attacks against Americans. Including the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, leaving 17 sailors dead. And the underwear bomber attempt on the U.S. airliner in 2009.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And now all the U.S. military forces have gone, those special forces along with the British special forces. These were the people that would have been able, if they'd been accurate intelligence on the ground, to follow up and take out some of those key al Qaeda leaders, key ISIS leaders.

Now they're going to have a civil war that seems to have spiraled more out of control a much freer hand. The most sort of feared al Qaeda bomb maker lives in Yemen, the concern is now that this is going to give him much greater range -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson, reporting live from London this morning. Thank you.

A Florida woman is back home this morning after escaping the bloodbath of a terror attack in Tunisia. She was walking through a museum when there was a sudden explosion of gunfire. Terrorists slaughtered 23 people, most of them tourists.

[09:05:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIOVANNE GONZALEZ, SURVIVOR: The first thing that we heard, it was a bomb. And then him shooting. I thank God that I'm here to just go ahead and have my family and see my -- see my mom, see my daughter. And I'm happy to be home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tunisia's president confirming that a manhunt is under way for a third gunman from the attack. The other two were killed. ISIS has claimed responsibility for that attack.

Ignore the calendar, the 2016 presidential season is now under way. Right around midnight, conservative firebrand, Ted Cruz, tweeted out this announcement, quote, "I'm running for president." The Republican senator from Texas is now the first official candidate in the presidential race.

Here's his campaign video that was unveiled last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: It's a time for truth. A time to rise to the challenge, just as Americans have always done. I believe in America and her people and I believe we can stand up and restore our promise. It's going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again. And I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Next hour, Cruz delivers his first speech as a presidential contender.

Our senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is at Liberty University, the conservative Christian school where Cruz will speak.

Jeff, why there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well, we're here at Liberty University because there is a built-in audience for exactly who Senator Cruz wants to reach. It is 10,000 young evangelical Christians. He is going to frame his campaign around a fight for a new age, a new generation of this Christian conservative movement.

You can probably hear the sound behind me, they're warming up. There's going to be song, there's going to be a lot of applause. We're in a basketball arena here so that is why he is here. It's a built-in crowd, he's not doing a hometown rally in Houston, Texas. He is here at Liberty University to get a head start on his other Republican candidates because frankly he needs to.

He's fallen slightly back in the large field here. So he's trying to get ahead of Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and so many more -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Why has he fallen behind in Tea Party support?

ZELENY: I think he still has that Tea Party support but frankly there are just so many Republicans in the campaign who are probably going to run. It's divided up. But there's some real questions about Senator Cruz. He fashions himself as a conservative fighter. We remember that government shutdown from 2013, that 16-day government shutdown. Some Tea Party activists view that as a good thing. But some mainstream Republicans thought it was a bad thing. So he needs to overcome that and show that he is a constructive fighter.

I just talked to one of his advisers a minute ago and they said that's why he's jumping in right now. He wants to show that he's serious about the race, that he'll be a serious candidate. At the very least he will drive the discussion, drive the debate and make this campaign a much more conservative one.

COSTELLO: Jeff Zeleny, reporting live from Liberty University this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, members of the U.S. military on edge after a hacking group allegedly linked to ISIS publishes a kill list with names, addresses and photos.

CNN's Pamela Brown has more.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. About 100 or so U.S. troops are on this reported ISIS kill list. Coming up, we'll tell you what the Department of Defense and the FBI are doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:12:04] COSTELLO: Right now the FBI and Pentagon are investigating an apparent threat against members of the U.S. military. The hacking group allegedly linked to ISIS is calling for beheadings and attacks against troops here at home. The group published what appears to be a hit list complete with names, addresses and photos. Despite major questions over the validity of this threat, military officials are quickly responding.

Let's bring in CNN's justice correspondent Pamela Brown. She's in Washington with more.

Good morning.

BROWN: Good morning to you, Carol. Officials are not taking any chances. They are taking this very seriously. In fact we know that notifications have been going out to those 100 or so U.S. troops on that list since over the weekend.

CNN has heard from the Army's Criminal Division -- Investigation Division which is now working with the FBI as you mentioned, as well as the Marine Corps spokesman who said that they've notified in person all of those service members who were named as potential targets on this list.

Now this surfaced on Saturday with a file posted online from a group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Organization. We know officials are still trying to investigate the legitimacy of this group but it basically called for beheadings and attacks in the U.S. of these military personnel, those that are on this list.

At least some of that information was already public, we understand, reportedly taken from Facebook and the white pages. But this highlights the concern that the FBI has been addressing for several months now, asking military officials to scrub their social media pages of any identifiable information.

And in relation to what just happened, what we know about this list, the former House Intelligence Committee chairman spoke about the dangers of being online and putting out personal information. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROGERS (R), FORMER CHAIRMAN, HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: This is this new cultural age of everything goes up on the -- on social media and you have access to everything about everyone. And that makes it a little more dangerous. Even though the group in itself by that name isn't known, the very

fact that they can do out on what is public information and pull it together to try to inspire some danger is -- is, A, it's dangerous for the 100 people on the list clearly but it's also dangerous for those people who are vocal and open about trying to make sure that their opinions are heard on ISIS and other challenges around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So now military officials are warning U.S. troops to adjust their privacy settings and limit the amount of person information online.

Now as for this group, Carol, as we said, the FBI and the Department of Defense is investigating its legitimacy. But I can tell you just from speaking to law enforcement officials, there is this growing trend of ISIS sympathizers all around the world who was sort of taking up this mission on their own, hacking into people's accounts and that kind of thing so this could be an example of that where you have an ISIS sympathizer who sympathizers who were doing this on their own or it could be emanating from Syria.

We just don't know yet and of course we'll bring you any updates as they become available -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. Pamela Brown reporting live from Washington.

Let's dig a little deeper with CNN military analyst, Lt. Colonel Rick Francona.

[09:15:01] Welcome, Colonel.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: How credible do you think this threat is?

FRANCONA: Well, I don't know how credible it is, but I think we have to take it seriously because once it's out there in the public domain, any who has this bent they're part of the ISIS organization in the United States might just act out on this. And we've seen this happen in Europe and may have seen it in New York with the attack on the police officers where someone reads something on the Internet, hears something from ISIS, believes he is part of the organization and acts out.

It only takes one or two of these types of attacks to really cause a lot of problems. The impact would be far reaching.

And if you're ISIS and you want to strike fear into the hearts of your enemy, there's no better way to do this than to go after the military in their homeland. So, this is a real -- if you're ISIS, this is a smart thing to do.

COSTELLO: Supposedly, this group is getting the information about address and such from social media. So, should members of the military not use social media?

FRANCONA: Well, they can use social media but they have to be smart when they do it, because they have to realize they're exposing not only themselves but their families.

I just did some checking over the weekend on these social media sites. There are some that are specific to the military. Those are the ones I would go after if I was doing this. I was just going through randomly and I was able to pull out so much information about where people are going to be, what schools they do to, what athletic leagues they play in, even down to the point of where the military force are going to be deployed.

There's just so much information out there. I don't think we're going to be able to shut off the flow of information but I think the military has to be smarter in how they do this.

I know the Defense Department and Central Commands, since they're the ones affected have already sent out guidelines on what the people should do. But I have to tell you, Carol, they're not following it and this is a big breach of security.

COSTELLO: I know the Marine Corps has visited affected service members in person. What do you suppose they're telling military personnel?

FRANCONA: Well, they're probably telling them to scrub everything off the social media, take it down, get rid of it and then pay attention to their own personal security.

Now, I don't think there's a great risk for all of these people and may be no risk at all. It only takes one. And somebody of this bent reads this, says, hey, that guy lives down the street, I see him going to work, I think I'll just go down and shoot him or kill his wife while he's at work. That's what we have to guard against.

So, everybody has to be vigilant. It goes back to the person. The problem is it's almost impossible to detect these kinds of attacks before they happen. So, very, very difficult to defend against.

COSTELLO: Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona, thanks for your insight as usual, I appreciate it.

Nearly a dozen medical students including one American are said to be in Syria working in ISIS-controlled hospitals. That's according to a Turkish lawmaker who tells CNN the group was, quote, "brainwashed". Eight of the students had just graduated, three are in their final years. This morning, their families are pleading for their return and calling on authorities to help track the group down.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Ted Cruz says he hopes to earn the support of voters and his effort to be president. But could he run into the stumbling block in the form of fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren? And what would a Warren candidacy mean for Hillary Clinton? We'll talk about that and more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:06] COSTELLO: For those who question whether Ted Cruz has enough experience to run for president, the conservative blog Redstate.com says don't judge Cruz by what he's passed in Congress, judge him by what he has prevented.

As we told you earlier in the show, Ted Cruz is going to announce officially his run for president. But I want to read you what blog founder Erick Erickson wrote about Cruz's presidency, in part, quote, this is from RedState, "He has shown himself a leader of the conservative movement. He has shown himself willing to stand up and thwart history and yell stop. He has shown an appreciation for the idea that not every man need to go to Washington to get things done."

And while Erickson hails Cruz as a conservative leader, a recent poll shows he may be losing ground among Tea Party supporters who launched him onto the national stage. Cruz coming in seventh after leader Scott Walker, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush and others in a McClatchy-Marist survey earlier this month. That's where those numbers come from.

So, let's talk about this with Tea Party activist, Jennifer Stefano.

Welcome, Jennifer.

JENNIFER STEFANO, TEA PARTY ACTIVIST: Hi, Carol. Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

I want to start with Erick Erickson's comments: should Ted Cruz really go to Washington not to get things done but to stop things?

STEFANO: Well, I think what Erick was saying in that article was that when Ted Cruz entered the Senate, he wasn't part of the majority party. So, you really can't look at what could get done, because he was in the minority. You have to look at what he helped prevent, the way he defended the principles of conservatism that Ted Cruz and a lot of the Republican base believes could help propel the country forward. I don't think the overarching goal is for anyone to go to Washington to stop things but to lead but the only way when you're in the minority to lead in the minority party is work to block the agenda from the Democrats.

COSTELLO: Can you give me an example what Ted Cruz wants to accomplish?

STEFANO: Well, you know, it's going to be interesting. I'm interested when his book comes out this June, "A Time For Truth", because we know Ted Cruz is defined as the conservative, you know, hard right firebrand. So, he's for limited government. He is a social conservative as well.

I think what's going to really matter here is the manner in which he starts to talk about this. As you noted, he started to lose support for Tea Party base and some newer candidates, their message appeals to a broader spectrum as well. So, I think what you really have to look with Ted Cruz is that he

launches this campaign and the first one out of the box, is how he starts to form his message and drive that going into states like Iowa. When that caucusing happens for the first presidential primary, it's made up of almost half are evangelical Christians and how he's going to appeal to that base and drive it forward.

COSTELLO: So, has Ted Cruz lost tea party support in part because he has no new ideas, because he's too much of a person who likes stops things from getting done in Washington?

[09:25:05] STEFANO: Oh, no, I think the Tea Party is very happy and a lot of people on the right are very happy people like Ted Cruz are there to stop things from happening. If you look at what it is, I'm looking at there's a lot of new names filtering to the top, someone like Ben Carson burst onto the national scene and he brought a lot of excitement about him.

And I think Scott Walker being an executive and leading the state of Wisconsin, being the only governor to ever survive a recall and recently being able to pass right to work and getting a lot of things done in Wisconsin, he's sort of taking the headlines. And I think when the grassroots looks to Scott Walker, he can not only bridge the divide in this Republican Party, but I think they also see he might be the one that can bridge the divide, like he did in Wisconsin, across the aisle.

And so, that's what I think is dominating Ted Cruz, he hasn't made as many headlines as when in 2013, when he tried to stop and de-fund Obamacare and sort of led the charge --

COSTELLO: And shut the government down, right.

STEFANO: -- to the government shutdown.

COSTELLO: Yes, yes.

STEFANO: Right.

COSTELLO: Also, there's this, too -- you know, he's a freshman senator, he seems to be preparing to run for president since the day he was elected to the Senate, right? President Obama is often criticized not having enough experience to be president. So, does Ted Cruz have enough experience?

STEFANO: Well, I think there's very limited what's required to be for president in the Constitution, so I don't know if we can judge that. That's going to be something that's up to the voters. I think at this point --

COSTELLO: But Republicans judge President Obama on that matter, why aren't they judging Senator Ted Cruz?

STEFANO: Well, probably the same reason that in 2008, President Obama ran on a platform of criticizing President Bush for expanding the executive powers of the presidency and then when Obama became president he not only didn't cut back the powers of the presidency, he extended them even further. I think what you're seeing is typical in American politics that when your party is in power and doing something, you find every reason and way to justify it. And then, when your party's not in power you find a reason to criticize it. That's pretty typical of American politics --

COSTELLO: That's pretty honest, right?

STEFANO: Yes. What I would say is this --

COSTELLO: Do you honestly, honestly think Ted Cruz has a chance to become president of the United States?

STEFANO: I think Ted Cruz right now is positioned in a way Rick Santorum was back in 2012, where you're going to go into Iowa. And again, they don't -- it's not straight voting, it's caucusing, heavy grassroots, heavy evangelical, hard right to the right base that really, really resonates with Ted Cruz's messaging.

Now, do I believe he can jump out of Iowa as one of the top winners and pretty adept fund-raiser? Yes. Whether that can spring him to the other states, like New Hampshire and South Carolina, and into the White House remains to be seen. So far, we haven't seen a conservative firebrand that can do it.

And what I believe is we're going to need someone who can bridge the divide in the Republican Party, between the grassroots Tea Party and the more establishment and take that work, having bridged the divide and not change their conservative principles but talk about it and message it to the American people in a way that really talks about results of what that will bring and how conservative policies could change people's life and help people along in their life.

I think that's what's going to make a winner for the Republicans. I don't see right now Ted Cruz doing that. It will be interesting to see how he positions himself in his book coming out in June.

COSTELLO: All right. Jennifer Stefano, thanks for being with me. I appreciate it.

STEFANO: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Joining me now, Democratic congressman and DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Welcome.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: Good morning, Carol. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

Let's just touch on Ted Cruz for a minute I think I know what you're going to say. But just give me your thoughts at a Ted Cruz run, because you could argue Ted Cruz is effective. He filibustered his way to a government shutdown. He made no apologies. He keeps his word.

Isn't that what some people want in a politician?

SCHULTZ: I think Ted Cruz being the first candidate to officially announce on the Republican side his candidacy tells you is that this is where the Republican Party's mainstream is now. I mean, Ted Cruz has been the de facto leader of the Republican Party in Congress for more than a year. You know, he led the charge and convinced a number of his colleagues to shut the government down in the name of 9 millions of people access to quality, affordable health care.

And then, Carol, he was willing to do it and risk our national security and jeopardize our Homeland Security budget in order to try to make sure that we couldn't implement the president's immigration reform executive orders.

He's for a 23 percent national sales tax. He proposes slashing corporate taxes. His first two bullets on his jobs plan on his Web site are to repeal the Affordable Care Act and have our nation default on our debt by refusing to raise the debt ceiling.