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CNN NEWSROOM
Inside the U.N. Resolution on Syria; Obama Visits Families of San Bernardino Victims; Trump and Putin Exchange Praise While Bush Blasts Trump; Cruz and Rubio Butt Heads; Not All Syrians Want to Leave Their Homeland; Baby Born on "Star Wars" Opening Day. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired December 19, 2015 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Forging a path to a peaceful Syria: diplomats agree on steps to end a conflict but something critical is still missing from the plan.
Donald Trump, he enjoys his lead in the Republican race for the White House. We examine what is separating his two closest rivals.
And a stunning number of people around the world are already listing their religion as Jedi. But this baby's parents went one step further. We'll have that story.
From CNN headquarters here in Atlanta, I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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HOWELL: And good day to you. At least a quarter million people killed and countless lives have been ruined. And now a glimmer of hope. There could be a path to peace in Syria and free elections within 18 months, that is, if the U.N. Security Council's plan works.
It approved the resolution on Friday that supports a political solution to ending the civil war in Syria.
The U.N. envoy to Syria says the peace plan is complicated but that it is possible. The resolution also calls for formal peace talks to start next month but there is no agreement on the future of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.
Russia warned against demonizing the leader, saying it won't help to bring peace about.
There are still many other issues that need to be resolved, including the question of which specific parties should be involved in the talks. CNN global affairs correspondent Elise Labott has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Desperate to refocus the world's attention on ISIS, world powers, all stakeholders in Syria, inch closer to agreement on a road map for ending the Syrian civil war.
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We have agreed on a plan of action. And the council's vote today is an important boost on the road to a political settlement.
LABOTT (voice-over): Today, the U.N. Security Council blessed those efforts, beginning with a cease-fire between regime and rebel forces and starting political talks early next year.
But nations can't even agree on which Syrian groups to consider terrorists and which to include in the talks.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): We are all united on the front, that terrorists of all stripes have no place in the talks.
LABOTT (voice-over): And still unresolved, the fate of Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the bloodletting.
LABOTT (voice-over): But today, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told "Foreign Policy" magazine, President Obama's decision in 2013 to stand down on strikes in Syria, ignoring his own red line on Assad's use of chemical weapons, dealt a severe blow to U.S. credibility, which many argue has given space for ISIS to grow and for Russia to enter.
As the coalition continues to pound ISIS targets in Syria, including these strikes, which helped thwart a massive ISIS attack, the U.S. has set its sights on the group's branch in Libya, killing the affiliate's leader in an airstrike last month.
Now these photos show U.S. military personnel on the ground in Libya, helping to beef up the Libyan army's defenses against jihadists. On a swing through the region, the Secretary of Defense warned ISIS' global reach is never-ending.
ASH CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We're in Syria in Iraq, which is the home tumor of this movement. We are seeing little nests of ISIL spring up around the world, including here in Afghanistan.
LABOTT: And a U.N. diplomat tells me, these negotiations to be led by the United Nations, are only going to work if the U.S. and Russia stay united. Only they can put pressure on the regime and the opposition groups to stay on track with the political process.
And without them, this diplomat says, the U.N. will only be leading from behind -- Elise Labott, CNN, New York.
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HOWELL: Here in the United States, President Barack Obama made some unplanned comments to reporters as he left the state of California just about a half hour ago, I should say. Mr. Obama stopped in San Bernardino to meet with victims' families and first responders from this month's massacre.
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OBAMA: If you met some of these folks, despite the pain and the heartache that they're feeling, they could not have been more inspiring and more proud of their loved ones and more insistent --
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OBAMA: -- that something good comes out of this tragedy.
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HOWELL: And that was the president's last scheduled public appearance for the year. Mr. Obama and his family are now on their way for Hawaii for Christmas.
As Mr. Obama takes a break from the corridors of power there is a mutual admiration society, you could call it, maybe even a bromance, that appears to be blossoming between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
It follows compliments from the Russian president that Mr. Trump is, quote, "outstanding and talented," and the, quote, "absolute leader" in the U.S. Republican presidential race.
Trump says in fact that he would get along very well with Mr. Putin. Listen.
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DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR: You know, I'm fine about Putin. I think that he is a strong leader. He is a powerful leader. He has represented his country. That's the way the country is being represented. He's actually got popularity within his country. They respect him as a leader.
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HOWELL: But one of Mr. Trump's presidential rivals, Jeb Bush, is tweeting some scathing criticism of the billionaire candidate.
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JEB BUSH, FORMER GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: The best way, I think, to deal with a bully is probably to pop him in the nose. That's how a bully stops.
HOWELL (voice-over): "Pop him in the nose."
Bush tweeted, quote, "A real leader would stand up, not suck up, to bullies and despots like Putin."
Bush also took Trump to task during a CNN interview. Listen.
BUSH: I don't respect Vladimir Putin. He is the leader of an important country, certainly not a regional power, as Barack Obama called him.
But to get praise from Vladimir Putin is not going to help Donald Trump. He's not a serious candidate. And he would bring chaos to the presidency, just as he has done to this campaign.
It's entertaining. But the simple fact is, we are at war right now with Islamic terrorism. And he's not offered one compelling, specific thing to do to keep us safe. It's all high-volume, lots of talk but nothing specific because he hasn't taken the time to learn the issues.
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HOWELL: Despite the criticism, Donald Trump still holds a commanding lead in the Republican field of candidates. And two candidates that are trying to overtake Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, are, in some ways, cut from the same cloth.
But that doesn't stop them from continuing to butt heads in debates and on the campaign trail. CNN's Tom Foreman looks at their similarities and their differences.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even in the fiery midst of the year's final GOP debate, the fight between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio stood out.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Marco knows what he's saying isn't true.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLA.: It sounds like what he's outlining is not to lead at all.
FOREMAN (voice-over): In some ways, the clash might seem surprising. Both are Cuban Americans, both 44, both conservative, both junior senators from Southern states. But that's where the similarities end.
CRUZ: ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism will face no more determined foe than I will be.
FOREMAN (voice-over): When Cruz lit up phrases about bombing terrorists, Rubio said the Texan had undercut funding for the very planes needed for the job.
RUBIO: We are going to be left with the oldest and the smallest Air Force we have ever had.
FOREMAN (voice-over): When Rubio railed about Cruz's backed legislation to curb government data collection, Cruz came right back.
CRUZ: The metadata program was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Cruz?
CRUZ: Well, you know, I would note that Marco knows what he's saying isn't true.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And on it went. On immigration, Rubio punching, Cruz countering.
RUBIO: As far as Ted's record, I'm always puzzled by his attack on this issue.
Ted, you support legalizing people who are in this country illegally.
CRUZ: I understand that Marco wants to raise confusion. It is not accurate, what he just said, that I supported legalization.
FOREMAN: The two have decidedly different political styles. Even away from the debate stage, Cruz is the go-it-alone crusader, who's often seen as uncompromising to a fault and Rubio tries harder to get along with the Republican old guard, even as he presents himself as a reformer.
FOREMAN (voice-over): But what really has them at odds right now is math. The whole party is looking to see who will emerge as the chief challenger to Donald Trump and these two men know only one person can have that job -- Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
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HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM and still ahead, frigid, frightened and weary. The sea of migrants entering Europe is about to hit a milestone. We'll meet some of the volunteers welcoming those fleeing terrifying conditions back home.
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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.
Tens of thousands of Syrians are fleeing their homeland, seeking safer ground elsewhere. But there are some who say they want to stay. Our CNN international correspondent, Matthew Chance, takes us to the Western Syrian city of Latakia, a refugee camp there, where some say they prefer to be under Bashar al-Assad's control.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the game for Syria, Russia's Putin and Bashar al-Assad are on the same side. "This is thanks to Russia," the poster reads.
We were brought to this, the "Sport City" camp in Latakia to see how the Syrian government and Kremlin backers say they give refuge. One government sanctioned aid worker told me how and why these people are here.
CHANCE: What have these people been through, to drive them to become refugees?
ZEN HASAN (PH), AID WORKER: These people just don't have any homes. They don't have any families. So horrible stuff. Kids here, I hear stuff from kids about killing, about death about -- you know? It's really hard on them. They live horrible, you know. They're just pretty safe here. They don't want to leave the land. And they don't have the money to pay for the trip to Europe, which anybody can do. It's not the other side.
CHANCE: Is that why these refugees are here, being protected essentially by the -- by President Assad?
Because they couldn't afford to go to Europe?
HASAN (PH): No, no; I'm not saying they want to stay here -- there with President Assad, you know, but they just didn't want to leave.
CHANCE: Well, the authorities tell us that housing at least 5,000 or 6,000 people in this one camp, just a fraction, of course, of the millions made refugees by Syria's brutal civil war.
One of the reasons we have been brought here is to illustrate that not every Syrian wants to escape the clutches of the Syrian government and its president, Bashar al-Assad. Some feel much safer under his control.
CHANCE (voice-over): Some like Aisha Adbulraheem and her family --
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CHANCE (voice-over): -- who fled Aleppo earlier this year.
Her husband is in the Syrian army, she told me. Rebels behead family members of Syrian soldiers, she says.
For some, the choice between the evils of Bashar al-Assad and the rebels who oppose him is simple to make -- Matthew Chance, CNN, in Latakia, Syria.
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HOWELL: The onset of winter has now slowed the pace of refugees into Europe but we're still seeing boatloads of people arrive every hour on the shores of Greece. Senior international correspondent Sarah Sidner has more from the island of Lesbos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They don't know each
other's names. They don't speak the same language. But they cling to one another like mother and daughter. One is a refugee from Syria. The other an Australian volunteer.
ALISON THOMPSON, VOLUNTEER: She was just like in shock and shivering. And so we just wrapped her and she wouldn't let go of me. So she just felt safe. We're just trying to give her love.
SIDNER (voice-over): Alison Thompson has dedicated her life to caring for the most vulnerable, from New York during 9/11 to the shores of Lesbos, Greece, where tattered boats filled with refugees arrive daily.
THOMPSON: This is a kind of a gentle landing, but it gets chaotic, especially at night. The screams are terrifying for us, too, the volunteers. It's like everybody's screaming. And it's so dark you don't see them until they're about 10 feet from the shore.
SIDNER (voice-over): On this day, by 2:00 pm, five distressed boats filled with cold, wet people have been towed in.
This family of five says they escaped from Deir ez-Zor, Syria, with three young children.
"We left because of bombing from al-Assad, war, just war everywhere," father Mohammed al-Ahmed tells us.
The refugee crisis, nowhere near slowing down; as long as the bombs keep falling and the bullets keep flying, the waves of the people will keep coming.
But fear is also rising, as new details about the path of the ringleader of the Paris attackers and two others mimic that of the refugees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Greek media, there was a lot of coverage that one bomber from Paris, he passed from the Greek islands. So I think all this thing gives support to the right-wing parties, their rise in all of Europe.
SIDNER: Jason from Athens is here to try to temper that fear, showing his support for the refugees. Jobless in the stagnant Greek economy, he spends his days rescuing those far worse off.
Hundreds of thousands have made it to the Greek island of Lesbos, the vast majority on dangerous vessels like this rubber dinghy.
Desperate people often running from terrible atrocities with no other options -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Lesbos, Greece.
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HOWELL: It is a cold, desperate journey for many, many people and the number of migrants, the number of refugees entering Europe this year will top 1 million in the coming days and we understand that the weather conditions may be getting just a little warmer in that part of the world.
Let's go to Karen Maginnis in the International Weather Center, Karen, to kind of explain the situation there.
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KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Back to you, George.
HOWELL: Karen Maginnis in the International Weather Center, thank you.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And ahead, he was born on the day of the new "Star Wars" movie that had opened in the U.S.
What's his name?
Meet baby Jedi. That's right. We'll have that story ahead.
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(VIDEO CLIP, "STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS") HOWELL: I hear it's like being on a ride. Friends just say they --
they rave about it, the movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," it has jumped into hyperspace, this movie earning now a record $57 million from North American preview showings alone on Thursday night.
The old record, though?
More than $43 million for the last Harry Potter movie back in 2011. Disney expects its sci-fi adventure to top $200 million at the box office this weekend.
"The Force Awakens" inspired one family to mark their special arrival in a very lasting way. Their infant son, who was born on the same day that this movie opened in the U.S., now bears the name Jedi.
Reporter Jack Harper of Boston affiliate WCVB has this story.
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JACK HARPER, WCVB: Are you Denise?
DENISE GRACIE, NEW MOM: Yes, I am.
HARPER: Nice to see you.
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DENISE GRACIE: You, too.
HARPER (voice-over): At Winchester Hospital, just after delivering her new son...
HARPER: Who's this?
DENISE GRACIE: This is Ryker Jedi Gracie.
HARPER (voice-over): Denise, Jim and 4-year-old Noah, all big "Star Wars" fans, so the arrival timed with the movie opening made the name seem natural.
DENISE GRACIE: I don't know, it just like kind of seemed appropriate.
JIM GRACIE, NEW DAD: We were watching the news this morning, we didn't have him and it was all over the news. So we just thought, well, now is the time to do it.
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HARPER (voice-over): Going to take a little getting used to.
HARPER: His name is what?
NOAH GRACIE, NEW BROTHER: Ryker Vincer (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ryker Jedi.
NOAH GRACIE: Oh, I keep forgetting that name.
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HARPER (voice-over): Grandma is OK with it now.
HARPER: So did you think that was a good choice?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, oh, yes. You know, different and, you know, that's good.
DR. KIMBERLY COLE, OBSTETRICIAN: I thought I had seen it all. I've been doing this a long time. Never delivered a Jedi before.
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HARPER (voice-over): Dr. Cole says Ryker's arrival was picture perfect, just like something out of a movie.
COLE: He just flew right out, like a true Jedi.
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HARPER: Does this mean you're not going to get to see the movie?
You're going to be --
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JIM GRACIE: Apparently, yes. We haven't bought our tickets, everybody was bothering us if we bought our tickets and we just never did it.
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HOWELL: Gracie says instead of congratulating his family on the birth of Ryker Jedi Gracie, hospital staff have just been saying, "May the force be with you."
A beautiful baby, he is.
And thank you for watching, we do.
I'm George Howell. Next on CNN, "POLITICAL MANN." Stay with us.
