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Kentucky Bonnie & Clyde Arrested; Tensions High in Europe; Shots Fired Near VP Biden's Home; What Will Obama Say on Tuesday Night?; ISIS Releases Hundreds of Civilian Hostages; Pope Francis Ends Asian Trip
Aired January 18, 2015 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now in the NEWSROOM, Europe on edge as new details emerge on terror probes across the continent. Belgium now requesting the extradition of a person arrested in Greece on suspicion of terrorism. Shots fired near Vice President Biden's home in Delaware. The hunt is on for the car that fled the scene as investigators searched Biden's house to see if any rounds hit it.
Plus --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED MALE: We know that you have done wrong but you need to step up and, you know, take the consequences of what you have done and come home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Captured after two weeks on the run. Two teens wanted for multistate crime spree arrested. The NEWSROOM starts right now.
All right. Hello and thanks again for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
First up, tensions remain high in Europe as new details emerge on terror probes across the continent. In Belgium five nationals are now facing charges over a foiled plot to attack police. All the suspects had been accused of participating in a terrorist organization. Belgium is now requesting the extradition of a person arrested in Greece on suspicion they may be part of the plot.
Police remain on high alert across Europe. Troops are patrolling the streets of major Belgian cities and in Brussels, they are still standing guard outside the embassies and the country's National Jewish Museum which was attacked last year. There are fears as many as 20 so-called sleeper cells may be activated to carry out terror plots.
So do the arrests in Greece mean the terror investigation is widening? CNN's Pamela Brown is in Paris. Pamela, what more can you tell us about these arrests in Greece and why the Belgians now want one of the suspects extradited? PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a manhunt has been
under way, Fredricka, for suspects believed to be tied to this terror cell in Belgium. Allegedly these people wanted to launch an imminent attack in Belgium. We learned that Greek authorities arrested two people yesterday, and now the Belgium prosecutor announcing today that Belgium wants one of those people arrested in Greece extradited in connection to the raids that Belgian authorities did just a few days ago.
It's unclear, though, why beyond that what role this suspect may have played in the actual terror plot, or whether Belgian authorities just want to be able to have this person extradited so that they can interview him to build their case. We can tell you that Belgian authorities will have to convince a Greek court to extradite this suspect that is in Greek custody.
So you can imagine the Belgian authorities right now are trying to build that case in order to make this happen. They're also trying to get two people here in France extradited to Belgium as well tied to the terror raids there just a few days ago. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And then there were, you know, some of the suspects that were arrested earlier in France, some of whom you are speaking about, some have actually been released. So what happened in that investigation? Was it a matter of some people just caught up with the wrong people in the wrong place? Or did they just not have the evidence that they needed?
BROWN: Well, they clearly didn't have the evidence they needed in order to actually file charges against those three people. Just to kind of put this in the context here in France, authorities have 96 hours to question people in a terrorism-related case. They were within that window, and they questioned these people after scrubbing the suspects' computers and cell phone records and so forth.
Also we know that some of them, apparently, according to a source who was tied in with the security services here, their DNA, some of the suspects' DNA was found on one of Coulibaly's phones and cars and so forth. Of course, they wanted to bring these people in to see if there is a wider network involved with the actual terrorist attack that took place here in France.
There are still nine people under police custody right now being questioned, one woman, eight men. But they, as far as we know, have not been charged, because police are still within a 96 window where they can question them. Of course, once that window ends, either they're going to be charged or let go. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right. Pamela Brown in Paris, thank you so much.
All right. Last hour I had a chance to talk with a man on the front lines of the terror threat in Europe, Rob Wainwright. He is the director of Interpol, the agency in charge of law enforcement in the European Union. He called the security effort across Europe collaborative and urgent.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB WAINWRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF INTERPOL: They have been working with Belgian and Greek authorities and many other authorities around Europe, trying to develop the intelligence around what we have seen in the last week or so.
We're doing that rather urgently, also following up some other lines of inquiry, because the police action that we're now seeing, Fredricka, around Europe, obviously reflects the extent to which security authorities in many European countries are concerned about the nature of the threat, the extent to which it's believed that maybe the next attack could happen, and therefore this is a determined show by the police forces around Europe to try to scale up their activities to try to protect our citizens.
WHITFIELD: And what was it about the kind of information that Belgian authorities had that they felt that the timing was right to try to disrupt the terror suspects a few days ago?
WAINWRIGHT: Yes, I think the impact in particular of the attacks in Paris and the -- also the events in Belgium, which showed that we were dealing with clearly quite a dangerous terrorist cell in that case showed us just how imminent the threat is in certain cases and how widespread it is across Europe.
We have to remember that we are dealing with a large number, potentially thousands of people who we know have been radicalized in the internet by the conflict experience in Syria and Iraq, many of whom have now returned to European societies with some -- some perhaps with the intent and capability to carry out these attacks. So this is obviously a very pressing threat, it's something that we have to respond to very urgently, and we're doing that in many different ways.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. The actions and the profiles of suspected terrorists keeps changing. Let's talk more about that. Joining me right now is CNN political commentator Buck Sexton. He is also a former CIA counterterrorism analyst and the national security editor for the blaze.com.
All right. What does the request for extradition of this suspect in Greece tell you about where this investigation is headed?
BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it shows that obviously there are more branches to the cells that have already been taken down. It's very likely that there will be even further arrests. Some of the individuals who may have known about, although not necessarily participated in the operational planning of these cells in Belgium or France or elsewhere, those individuals may also know who else is out there, what other sleeper cells are essentially prepared to take terrorist action. So the authorities are in a race against time here, one, to catch those who would know about this so they can help prevent attacks, and also, of course, to make sure that any individuals who are trying to flee, who may have aided and abetted the cells that have already been taken down, that they can get them before they escape to, say, Syria, as we saw in the case of the fourth suspect from the Paris attacks.
WHITFIELD: And Buck, this evolution of terrorism, it's been very rapid. How does the intel community anticipate when the tactics used by the groups has become really a guessing game? We talked about 9/11, the use of airliners, and then it was the shoe bomber, explosives that were used with the underwear bomber, and now in the Paris attacks, we're talking about guns.
SEXTON: Well, that's the problem is that we have to be right always to thwart terrorist attacks, whereas they only have to get through our defenses once. I think what we see here is there's going to be a continued shifting in the targets they're picking. There's going to be a shift in the sites that they attack, how they attack them, where they attack. So despite the massive security presence we have seen across Europe in recent weeks, the fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as a perfect dragnet across terrorism. There's no such thing as a defense they can't get through. So that's where we have to get into the reality this is going to continue on, and the fact of infiltration across Europe that we've seen with these cells, I mean, hundreds if not thousands of people who have joined to fight ISIS with European passports. It's a very big ask that these security services are going to be able to stop all these. It's almost impossible.
WHITFIELD: Yes. Buck Sexton, thanks so much. Stay with me, though, we're going to talk more, particularly about the role of Turkey, in this fight against terror and how Turkey is being used as a perfect transit location for potential tourists.
And also how women are being recruited into these terror organizations. More next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. One of the main issues in fighting terrorism both here and abroad is building relationships with our allies to be able to properly share information, that something former CIA director Leon Panetta addressed today on "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEON PANETTA, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: You have to be very aggressive in confronting this more dangerous threat in terms of terrorism. You have to do it with increases or basic intelligence, because obviously whether it's human intelligence or technical intelligence, getting the right intelligence gives you at least a chance to avoid these kinds of attacks.
Secondly, I think we have to continue to stress our counter terrorism operations, both our intelligence operations, our special forces operations, to be able to use our capabilities to targets their leadership and their command and control.
And thirdly, you've got to build partnerships with the countries abroad that are confronting terrorism. We got to be able to share intelligence, share operations and be able to work together to go after this broad array of threats. Because these individuals, they come back, I think we're probably in a pretty good position with our watch lists and with our defenses that have been set up, to be able to check them, but the problem is in Europe -- frankly is, you know, a greater capability to be able to move from country to country without being detected. So somehow working with other countries, we have got to be able to share intelligence and improve our capability to track these foreign nationals that in one way or another are coming back to these countries and trying to conduct these attacks.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: CNN commentator Buck Sexton back with me now from New York. And joining the conversation via Skype Zainab Salbi. She is the author of "Between Two Worlds" and the founder of Women for Women International. Good to see you both again.
By the way, Zainab is joining us from Istanbul, Turkey. All right. So Buck in New York, Panetta talking about share intelligence. Hasn't that been happening? But the biggest problem is that people with travel from country to country, particularly when we talk about Europe because of the porous borders. So tracking people in their whereabouts is quite the difficult task.
SEXTON: Yes, counter terrorism cooperation with all of our European counterparts is traditionally excellent, and it continues to be very strong, because we have such a shared interest in preventing these attacks. We face attacks from groups of similar ideology, similar groups in fact but the problem is you're not looking for a needle in a haystack here, you're looking for a needle in a stack of needles. There's a lot of people moving around at any given time. We are in free society, we don't want to be operating with police state tactics, and so especially within Europe, the ability to cross over borders complicates matters a bit, because you're then asking for intra- European cooperation, and they also have to have information that is actionable so if there is a real threat, if there's a cell that looks like in the latter stages of planning, the authorities and whatever countries we are talking about within the EU, can take that action in time so that they prevent the kind of attacks we have seen recently.
WHITFIELD: Zainab, you're there in Istanbul where the suspected accomplice (INAUDIBLE) spent some time before moving from Turkey to then Syria. What is the feeling among Turks there that their country has this new reputation of being used as a safe place for transit for potential terrorists?
ZAINAB SALBI, AUTHOR: The Turks don't see themselves as a country that is a safe place for potential terrorists whatsoever. The issue really -- I mean, they see themselves as (INAUDIBLE) through their territory and they're trying their best to find her. The issue is not that actually. Really the issue for me is that, you know, since this incident happened, there hasn't been an Islamic debate within us Muslims about that this issue is indeed an internal issue, and that we've got to address the religion and you've got to allow some discussion about what's going on with the religion and how it's being kidnapped by these terror organizations who are kidnapping their religion really. They are hijacking the spirit of the religion itself. And I feel like the problem we are all acting out defensiveness.
The Muslims are defensive and saying this is not our religion, and the western world is defensive and they are afraid of the all the Muslims that are in their own countries. And what we have to do is sort of go above the defensiveness and sort of plant the seeds for the future, so we can avoid it in the future.
WHITFIELD: Zainab, I wonder how is that discussion going to help because if it's those who are not loyal to the faith of the Muslim faith, they're the ones who are the problem, right? Because those who are loyal to the faith, they can have this conversation, but it's a conversation amongst themselves. So how do you reach those who feel whether it's disenfranchised, who feel a certain void or feel like they are easily to be persuaded that the Muslim faith is anything about what it is.
SALBI: Well, a couple points, the issue is that the other alternative, the ones who are saying Islam it is a religion of forgiveness and we want human rights and freedom of expression and reforms within the religion and all of these things, they are actually being prosecuted in their own country, such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, you know, Egypt. They are being put in prison for expressing their own expression.
One you have someone in Saudi Arabia being lashed 1,000 lashes for speaking about (INAUDIBLE) Islam, you have people in Egypt being imprisoned for speaking about freedom of expression. The problem is that the alternative is being prosecuted, while ISIS is telling young women and men equally, come join our cause. They have a very clear message to them, we'll give you salaries, we'll give your protection, we'll give your security, they're not telling them you're going to be killed or raped and become a sexual slave if you are a woman. They're not telling them that. We don't know that until it happens, but the image in here, if you many, the propaganda image is they are winning, actually.
They are taking over our youth in a very scary way, and what -- we have to have room for the other side to also flourish, including in Europe. We have to have room for European countries to actually just be in debate with the Islam and their population rather than be in defense and scared of their Muslim population.
WHITFIELD: Well, Buck, let me ask you more about Turkey and what kind of place this puts that country -- it's the only Muslim NATO country and a very close ally to the U.S. and to Europe. Does Turkey find itself in a rather precarious situation, in that they do have this porous border? And there does seem to be a track record now of people who are using Turkey to get to countries like Syria undetected?
SEXTON: The precarious situation is much worse than just the porous border, of course, it's a porous board into a massive civil war that's killed over 200,000 people. That is spilling over to neighboring countries. It's already spilled over very much into Iraq and even into Lebanon. Obviously the Turkish authorities, the Turkish government want to make sure that there's no contagion to the north, that the Syrian civil war would spill over in some capacity onto Turkish soil.
By the same token, there have been some problems in terms of the Turks and their willingness to abide groups that many believe are in fact extremists or terrorists. They have provided safe haven for Hamas over the past year that's been troubling to allies, troubling they're a NATO country, and so they are caught between the obligations to the west and to the NATO as an allied country, as well as their obligations to the region and their sense that they have to be both a good neighbor and a neighbor that looks out for itself to make sure that what happens in Syria doesn't become more of a problem for them already. They have taken some proactive measures recently. I think we can say it's been a little late in the game but they are at least providing safe harbor for some refugees, they have clamped up the border somewhat but a lot of terrorists have filtered across that border in the past three years.
WHITFIELD: Zainab, I want to get back to something you touched on a moment ago. You know, the growing role women being lured into these sleeper cells. Wasn't there a time when the notion of women wanting to be pardon of a radical group was really possible, they would be used as sex slaves or mistreated in other ways, but now some young ladies could be treated as valuable commodity, perhaps Hayat Boumeddiene might be, and that may seem a luring to a lot of young ladies now. So what is happening? How is the strategy of luring young girls into this trap, so to speak, happening?
SALBI: What every research, every track record, every stories we have is once these young women are arriving to ISIS bases, for example, they are treated like sex slaves. They are force to marry the fighters and provide sexual services to them. There's no doubt about that, this is how they get treated. The propaganda image of that is that come, you are joining as a fighter in the -- in their purpose, in the jihad, they're giving her a role.
If you're a young woman who is disenfranchised in France, for example, if you are in your 120s, and you see Hayat, who is a normal-looking girl, you know, the most wanted woman in the world, who is roaming around the world, getting all the attention, frankly it's an appealing picture. It's scarily appealing. It's very scary that it makes an attractive image in here and what we do need to do is provide an alternative image. Where is our coverage of the young Muslim women who are scientists and who are doing wonderful work or are peace builders? We have to make that alternative image more attractive than what we giving Hayat the platform, frankly.
WHITFIELD: All right. Zainab Salbi, powerful words. Buck Sexton, thank you so much. Great conversation. To both of you, I appreciate it.
SEXTON: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, shots fired near the vice president's Delaware home, and the suspect is still on the loose. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Welcome back. One opened fire near the vice president's home in Delaware last night. So far the suspect or suspects are still at large. Vice president's private home is in Wilmington and often leaves the White House area or the vice presidential observatory address in D.C. for home on the weekends to Delaware. But he wasn't there at the time of this incident in Delaware.
CNN's Erin McPike is at the White House now. So what is the Secret Service saying now about their investigation?
ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, first to clarify, yes, the Bidens were in Wilmington, delaware this weekend. They were just not at home when these shots were fired, but we have gotten some information from the Secret Service today.
I want to read part of that statement to you that we have from spokesman Robert Hobach. He says -- "while the vice president and Dr. Biden were out for the evening, a vehicle drove by the vice president's residence at a high rate of speed and fired multiple gunshots. This occurred on a public road outside the established security perimeter. The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel posted at the residence, and a vehicle was observed by an agent leaving the scene at a high rate of speed.
Now as you said there was no motive. What they have found from searching the nearby residences is that no one was injured and there has been no damage, but of course the Secret Service and the Newcastle County police are taking this very seriously. They have learned that there were also shots fired at a nearby reservoir. So they're trying to figure out if those two are related and of course if it has anything to do with the vice president at all, but given that it was so close to his house, even though it was hundreds of yards outside and outside the security perimeter, they have to take this with a lot of caution, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Keep us posted on that, Erin McPike, thanks so much.
He's promising the middle class a new tax cut. But will the GOP- controlled Congress give it to the president? We'll preview the president's State of the Union speech, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for joining me in the NEWSROOM.
President Obama plans to lay out his game plan for the future Tuesday night during his State of the Union speech.
CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski has a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president of the United States.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama is getting ready to deliver his State of the Union address and put a tumultuous year behind him. One that saw challenges to Obamacare, scandals in the V.A. and Secret Service. And abroad, the rise of ISIS, a return to Iraq, airstrikes over Syria, Americans murdered.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done.
KOSINSKI: Not quite at getting away from the constant war footing that the president emphasized in his last State of the Union. Obama has been battered by Republicans over strategy, approval ratings down around the 40 percent mark. Add in a flood of immigrants, racial tensions and a violent end to Obama's attempted reset with Russia.
And 2014 ended with a painful loss of the Senate to Republicans in the midterm elections. But wait, Obama is now saying.
OBAMA: I'm still around. Because I've got some work to do.
KOSINSKI: Which in just a few weeks has included groundbreaking moves on immigration, Cuba, free college education, a victory lap on the economy.
OBAMA: America is coming back.
KOSINSKI: His ratings bouncing back some as well.
2014 was also, remember, Obama's self-titled year of action, with dozens of moves on the climate, the labor force and trade. He proclaimed Obamacare a success, reached out on social media, sat between two ferns.
Now he needs to address the nation with resolve. In the face of fresh cyber and terror attacks.
(On camera): Are they having to rewrite it because of what happened?
DONALD A. BAER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR TO PRESIDENT CLINTON: Things are going on as we speak. They're rewriting now the whole thing anyway.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): Don Baer was chief speech writer for President Clinton, worked on his State of the Union in 1995 after both Houses of Congress shifted Republican.
BAER: This is a president who now is sort of saying the battle for the middle class in this country has begun. And in some respects this is the first shot in the battle of the 2016 presidential election because there's a fight for what the next American agenda is going to be.
KOSINSKI (on camera): Does he need to start out with countering terror because of France? If you were writing the speech, would you start with that?
BAER: Probably not. I think I probably would start with the domestic, but that's a good question.
KOSINSKI (voice-over): In the last few weeks the president has already laid out a sort of road show prequel, a trailer for his State of the Union, but will that encourage more Americans to tune in?
(On camera): If you had to wager on how many millions were going to watch, what would you say?
BAER: Pick a number.
KOSINSKI: What would you say?
BAER: Forty million.
KOSINSKI: Given that last year saw the smallest audience in more than a decade, that would be a success.
Michelle Kosinski, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right. So the president has been busy this weekend getting ready for Tuesday night's State of the Union speech. The administration in fact posted this picture on the White House Instagram account of him and his main speechwriter working on his address.
Obviously a lot is at stake. Joining me to talk about it, Theron Johnson, who was south regional director for the president's 2012 campaign, and Adam Goodman, a GOP communications strategist.
All right. Good to see both of you.
THERON JOHNSON, FORMER SOUTH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012: Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: Often the State of the Union, it is great theater. I mean, it really is the popcorn moment, I believe, you know, where everyone crowds around the camera, but too is that fascinating walk of the president into the chamber, and usually Republicans, Democrats leaning over trying to touch the president. We see it here with George W. Bush, and we see it here with, you know, President Obama, but I wonder now we're talking about a Republican-controlled Congress.
JOHNSON: Right.
WHITFIELD: Might the tone be different? Or do you believe that a message will still be sent, you know, Theron, to the nation that everyone kind of gets along and is excited about the president being here?
JOHNSON: Well, this is an excellent opportunity for the American people. I mean, this is the kickoff of the session. This is the one time where with both chambers come together, and both -- all three branches, but I think the president has done something that's very unorthodox. I mean, he's gotten on the front and started telling the American people some of the programs and proposals that he's going to make in his State of the Union.
I think what's going to be very interesting about this particular State of the Union is that you're right, Fredricka. I mean, this is the first time in his seven years of being president where you have both chambers being controlled by the Republicans, so I think you'll see sort of a bipartisan outreach on the president.
WHITFIELD: Adam, how do you see?
ADAM GOODMAN, GOP COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: Totally differently.
WHITFIELD: What's the anticipation?
GOODMAN: Totally differently.
WHITFIELD: Yes?
GOODMAN: Well, first of all, you're absolutely right, Fredricka. This is awesome theater. I mean, you can't pay for this. It's interesting that one projection there was 40 million, I've heard as low as 30 million, versus the first State of the Union speech which was at 52.
I think the president has got to do a couple things.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
GOODMAN: Recognizing it is a different Congress and recognizing also the moment we're now living through, I think the events in Paris and that's before and Canada and Australia, New York --
WHITFIELD: You think that's top of mind?
GOODMAN: I think that's top of mind in terms of what people are looking for -- this stage, but he has to do more than try out a number of proposals which a lot of -- many of which might be dead on arrival as they are. He's got to be a leader here. He has a chance in his last two years to really tell the nation I'm ready to lead.
WHITFIELD: And knowing that, that they may be dead on arrival, why is it so important that he would unveil, like you just said, you know, and as a precursor to the actual State of the Union speech, he's talking about trying to hit the wealthier people in the pocketbook, via the more taxes. You know. Why is this a priority for the president when the economy is strong? When economists are saying, you know what, unemployment very low?
It looks like the contribution to the, you know, global GDP is very high, and this is impressive. So what's the explanation behind, you know, this type of approach by the president?
JOHNSON: When the middle class is working, it is the backbone of our American economy. I mean, you have 11.2 million new jobs, 58 months of straight job growth, the most ever in history of America. And so that's what the president is going to talk about.
When you talk about these tax cuts, I mean, he's going to look at fair options to really look at some of the loopholes in our tax codes. But again his message on Tuesday is going to be all about strengthen the middle class and making sure that these people -- because what we're seeing is that these full-time jobs that people have, they're getting them, but also he wants to train more Americans through his proposal with a two-year college to make sure that they are trained and they're educated about this two-year job -- I mean, this two-year proposal.
WHITFIELD: So who is -- we have to apologize for the mood lighting because suddenly you no longer in the light. We just have a new studio.
JOHNSON: OK.
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: We've been working out a few bugs. We're all still here.
(LAUGHTER)
JOHNSON: The mood is set a little bit. Yes.
WHITFIELD: Yes. It really was. So who's the audience here when you talk about this? Is it the small business? Is it big business? Is it the middle class? Is it, you know, those who were still struggling?
GOODMAN: Whether it's 30 million or 40 million, it's still pretty much everybody, but I think the president is going to an environment, Fredricka, where there is a real lack of confidence in this country about our confidence in government. They want things to work again. In 2014 Republicans did so well --
WHITFIELD: And who needs that confident particularly?
GOODMAN: I think -- I think what government has to understand is the American people want to raise the bar in Washington, tell them we want stuff to happen again. If the speech is all about creating divisiveness between the two sides, it will not be the success. If he leads, I think we have something to start cheering about.
JOHNSON: And I want to jump in here.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
JOHNSON: I think -- let's look at it from a different point of view. This is the first time when Republicans have a real opportunity to lead here. For the last seven years they've been the party of no. No to every single thing that the president wants to propose. Well, now the American people are anxious to see what this Republican Congress is going to do. And also they've got to work with the president. I mean, they need the president as much as he needs them, because
these results that they want to produce for the many, many people that they talked to all around the country is going to require the president's signature.
WHITFIELD: So we might get an indicator of that when he hear the Republican response, and that will be Senator Joni Ernst, made in part famous for her, you know, let's make them squeal cut pork campaign. We're not going to roll the tape on that one.
(LAUGHTER)
But you know, sometimes the person as opposed to the message, you know, kind of upstages everything. We saw that -- Marco Rubio, you know, moment with the, you know, sipping of the glass, and then, you know, Bobby Jindal, some said he didn't look very comfortable. So what do the Republicans or maybe, you know, what does Senator Ernst have to win or lose in that Republican response?
GOODMAN: Well, Joni Ernst is part of a new class of senators that came in '14 that go by the names of Cotton and Tillis, and Sullivan, Gardner. And they came in with a message. Their message is -- was and still is, let's make things work again. So I think it's incumbent on Joni Ernst, who's popularized every farm animal -- now focus groups have seen every farm animal, and which ones are going to take place of the pig?
We're trying to figure out how to get that done. And I think you're going to find from Joni and from her colleagues a sense of refreshing kind of freshness, spirit, looking at things differently. And bottom line, willing to go back home and say, darn it, we got things done today.
JOHNSON: I think the most important thing the Republicans are doing is that they're putting out a woman. I think they are sort of looking to the future to see that on a Democratic side, it's highly likely that we may have a woman to be our nominee and so I think that they are reaching out to women across the country, and that she is a freshman, and they really are going to come with sort of an inclusionary message.
GOODMAN: If you look at the presidential campaign so far, Fredricka, starting to percolate on the Republican side, you see Jeb Bush with his "Right to Rise" act.
WHITFIELD: Right.
GOODMAN: And Romney's comments from the weekend about economic empowerment.
WHITFIELD: Great.
GOODMAN: Getting out of poverty. I think actually both sides are moving that way. Isn't that interesting?
WHITFIELD: Yes. GOODMAN: And very, very quickly. And I think that's going to be a
fault line in the campaign.
WHITFIELD: And that brings us to Congressman Jason Chaffetz who had these comments. These things to say about Mitt Romney and the search for that Republican nominee for 2016. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: He did call, and we did speak, and he said that he's seriously considering it. He wanted some advice and input, but the rumors that were out there were true, and certainly for him to appear at the GOP event that was there in San Diego recently, you don't do that if you're just putting your ball cap down and going to SeaWorld for the afternoon. So yes, I think he's very seriously considering it.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: What does he say is going to be different about this time around that's going to make this run a successful one?
CHAFFETZ: Well, he does have the experience. I really think that Mitt Romney checks three boxes that the rest of the -- rest of the candidates don't necessarily do. Number one, he's vetted. We know exactly what we're going to get. There won't be that October surprise that Republicans are -- would naturally be worried about. I think he has been proven right on so many of the issues, certainly domestic policy, but foreign policy.
I mean, he almost looked prophetic there talking about Russia and talking about the war on terror, and those types of things. So we know he was right on the issues, and then you've got to have somebody who can raise the $1 billion that it's going to take in order to beat Hillary Clinton. And certainly Mitt Romney can do that as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A lot of love there. Is that indicative of the love the Republican Party is going to, you know, share with Mitt Romney this go around?
GOODMAN: I can tell you this much. At the end of the day, the Republicans have a field of tremendous candidates to choose from. I don't see right now the rationale for Mitt to get into the race today. Maybe there would be downstream in '15. Right now with people like Bush and Christie, and Scott Walker, and Rand Paul, you know, we've got a lot to choose from. I think -- I think we're not going to need Mitt to come in to say --
(CROSSTALK)
WHITFIELD: And some people say with all those names that would make it so exciting.
JOHNSON: Absolutely. And look, Mitt Romney, Governor Romney was a very successful businessman. He's been an unsuccessful president candidate. For someone who went up against him in 2012, his problem in 2012 is going to be the same problem he's going to have in 2016. And that is pushing forth a narrative around economic equality, and also dealing with some of the waste stagnation that we have in this country.
I mean, he is a part of this wealthy class of people --
WHITFIELD: He's tried to change his tune a little bit or his promise or commitment toward, you know --
JOHNSON: Yes. But --
GOODMAN: I think you saw more of that --
WHITFIELD: People less than rich.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNSON: Yes, but also the Republicans, (INAUDIBLE) somebody's governors. Even here in Georgia, there's going to be more of a bipartisan talk, because I think that they came out of these midterms and now they're really trying to prepare for 2016.
WHITFIELD: All right. Last word?
GOODMAN: Last word is stay tuned, you think theater is going to be great Tuesday night? '16 is going to be even better.
WHITFIELD: Yes. This is going to be fun.
All right, Adam Goodman, thanks so much. Theron Johnson, good to see both of you, gentlemen.
JOHNSON: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.
All right. Don't forget to tune into the president's speech Tuesday night. Television's best political team. We'll have every angle covered right here on CNN. Our coverage beginning 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: An unexpected development in Iraq this weekend. ISIS suddenly released hundreds of civilian hostages including children and the elderly.
Here now is CNN's Ivan Watson.
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the Iraqi Kurdish government and Kurdish activists are trying to take care of an enormous number of prisoners from the Yazidi religious minority who were released without really any explanation by ISIS militants on Saturday after they've been held for months in ISIS captivity. These members of the Yazidi religious minority described by one
activist I talked to as almost entirely elderly men and women. Many of them filthy and hungry and sick after months in captivity, some of them mentally or physically disabled.
We don't know why they were released, they were dumped by an ISIS front line and sent walking, those who could, towards Kurdish Peshmerga positions near the northern Kurdish held city of Kirkuk.
Their release underscores a much bigger problem, the fact that when ISIS launched its military offensive last summer in northern Iraq, they took thousands of members of the Kurdish religious minority hostage, many of them girls and women, who have basically, according to some survivors that I've talked to, been sold into slavery, modern- day slavery, where they have been used in many cases as effectively sex slaves.
ISIS has been very public about this. They have justified this along religious grounds. And they've even issued instructions for what age, for example, someone can begin to have sex with their Yazidi slave, under what conditions they can trade or sell their slaves.
This has been a devastating development for members of this religious minority, some of whom have been forced to try to gather up money to pay ransoms to win back the release of their missing loved ones, still believed to be missing and held hostage, in the thousands at this date -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: A horrible situation.
Thank you so much, Ivan Watson.
All right, meantime in this country, a nationwide manhunt is over. Two teens on the run after allegedly going on a cross-country crimes spree are now in custody. Now how police found them, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Checking our top stories. Icy roads in the northeast have caused more than 420 accidents today, some of them deadly. Police say two people have died in accidents related to black ice in the Philadelphia area. One of the victims was killed getting out of his car after he crashed into a large pileup on Interstate 76.
And two Kentucky teens are in police custody after their arrest in Panama City Beach, Florida, following an alleged multistate crime spice. 18-year-old Dalton Hayes and 13-year-old Cheyenne Phillips were spotted sleeping in a stolen pickup truck, and then were then arrested. They were wanted on several felony charges.
And changing careers can be pretty tough for everybody. Chris Cuomo shows us how one man did it, and in the process he is now changing lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICARDO SILVA, BALLOU HIGH SCHOOL GEOMETRY TEACHER: You have four minutes, four minutes. This is a competition.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Ricardo Silva is using his competitive edge to make math count for these high school students in Washington, D.C.
SILVA: Number three is what?
My hope is to bring awareness to the students, not just geometry but total life outcomes. And you can do whatever you want through education.
CUOMO: Silva's first job wasn't in a classroom, it was on a football field playing for the Detroit Lions.
SILVA: My mission was to get to college and start in the NFL. Now that's moved on to something more meaningful to me, which is providing opportunities to kids that do not necessarily know how to get where they need to be.
CUOMO: Helping Silva do just that is Teach for America. The program offers free classroom training to college graduates and professionals from various backgrounds. In exchange they teach in an underserved school for two years.
SILVA: Kids that have low socioeconomic status are, you know, not achieving as well as their more affluent counterparts, and we're trying to close the educational achievement gap. This is why I'm here.
CUOMO: It's certainly not for the paycheck or the ease of the job.
SILVA: Football, all you have to do is wake up every day, work out and do what the coaches tell you to do. In school you've got to motivate young teenagers who are more interested in their social media outlets than math.
CUOMO: A seemingly impossible task, but Silva is up for the challenge.
SILVA: What's the first thing that we must do?
All I had was one person believing in me my entire life, which was my mom, and I feel like I can bring that to the kids.
Way to go, (INAUDIBLE).
All they need was one person telling them they can do it and they can be successful.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Pope Francis wrapped up his week-long trip to Asia. Wind and rain weren't enough to stop an estimated six million people for a papal mass. Here's CNN's Anna Coren.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As steady sulking rain fell from the heavens, they came in the millions. Gathering to bear witness to papal history and celebrate mass with the man they believe represents the son of God.
Pope Francis arrived wearing a plastic poncho, the same worn by the faithful who have been standing in the mud waiting patiently for hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome, Pope Francis.
COREN: It's been 20 years since the Pope visited the Philippines, home to the third largest Catholic population in the world. The last was Pope John Paul II in 1995, when five million parishioners attended mass. And while authorities believed that record would be surpassed, the wet weather may have dampened numbers, but not spirits.
Continuing his message of helping the poor and preserving the family, the 78-year-old pontiff delivered his homily in English, this time focusing on children.
POPE FRANCIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH LEADER: We need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemn them to a life on the streets.
COREN: A theme touched on earlier in the day when the Pope addressed 200,000 people at Asia's oldest Catholic university in Manila, during which a street child asked the pontiff, why do children have to suffer, before breaking down.
From the outset Pope Francis said he was going to be a pastor on this visit, and he didn't disappoint. Warming the hearts of so many in a country that has endured so much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel ecstatic. It's overwhelming. I just want to cry. I just want to laugh. And I just can't wait to see the Pope in person.
COREN (on camera): If the Catholic Church was concerned about a disconnect with the congregation then Pope Francis has certainly brought many of those sheep back into the flock.
For the millions who have gathered in the rain, his visit, a mission of mercy and compassion, have united the country's faithful.
(Voice-over): After 90-minute mass of reverence and reflection, the crowd erupted again with Pope mania.
As he said his final farewells, blessing the adoring public, the Pontiff stopped the Popemobile several times to kiss children -- a demonstration of his love for the people, whose unwavering devotion they give in return. Anna Coren, CNN, Manila.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wow, what an incredible sight. Hey, thanks so much for joining me and spending part of the day with me. I'm Frederick Whitfield. The next hour of the NEWSROOM begins right now with Poppy Harlow in New York.
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