Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obamacare's Newest Enrollee: Ted Cruz; World Leaders at Crash Site; New Details on Flight Voice Recorder; Afghan President to Address Congress. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 25, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:33:40] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you're looking at pictures from the crash site staging area. You see the leaders from three countries, the French president, Francois Hollande, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rojoy. They're there shaking the hands of recovery workers who are set to begin the grim task of, you know, going into those helicopters and going into the mountains to try to recover any bodies they might see. We expect one of these world leaders to speak at any moment. When they take the microphones, of course, we'll take you back to the French Alps.

But first let's talk a little American politics, shall we? He's among the most vocal and visible opponents of Obamacare in Washington. Just days after Ted Cruz declared he's running for president, Cruz may be changing his tune -- I don't think that's really true. But anyway, he may be changing his tune on Obamacare, at least when it comes to his family's health coverage. CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash has more for you.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, when Ted Cruz announced that he was going to run for president on Monday, along with that he and his campaign said that his wife Heidi would be leaving her job at Goldman Sachs in order to help with his presidential run. Now, Goldman Sachs is where they got their health insurance for their whole family. So, with that gone, I wanted to know where he's now going to get his insurance. And here was his answer.

[09:35:02] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: So she's taking an unpaid leave of absence from her job and so we're transitioning. We'll be getting new health insurance and we'll presumably do it through my job in the Senate and so we'll be on the federal exchange like millions of others on the federal exchange.

BASH: So you will be getting Obamacare effectively?

CRUZ: I -- it is one of the good things about Obamacare is that the statute provided that members of Congress would be on the exchanges without subsidies, just like millions of Americans, so there wouldn't be a double standard. BASH: But, senator, for right now, the irony is just kind of

unbelievable that you have made your name fighting against Obamacare and you now are going to sign up to get your insurance through that very process, Obamacare.

CRUZ: Listen, it was the case before Obamacare that federal employees could get health insurance through their jobs. That's not a new development. So, yes, I'll get my insurance through my job, like millions of other Americans. That's not as shocking --

BASH: Will you take -- will you take a subsidy from your job, which is the federal government?

CRUZ: We will follow the text of the law. I strongly oppose the exemption that President Obama illegally put in place for members of Congress because Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats didn't want to be under the same rules as the American people.

BASH: That means you are going to take a government subsidy?

CRUZ: I believe we should follow the text of the law.

BASH: The law that you want to repeal?

CRUZ: Yes. No. I -- I believe we should follow the text of every law, even laws I disagree with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, one key question that the senator didn't answer but his campaign later clarified was about getting a subsidy, taking what is effectively an employer contribution, which in his case, because he works for the federal government, is paid for by the taxpayer. He didn't' say but later his campaign said that he is not going to take that subsidy, just like many other Republicans who also have Obamacare for their health care. But even though they oppose it, they sort of stand on principle by doing that.

Now, the Cruz campaign, they are pushing back saying, look, this is not unusual. There are many, many Republicans who want to repeal Obamacare and still have to get it because it is the law of the land. The issue, though, is, Ted Cruz has been the most vocal opponent of Obamacare. He started his presidential campaign on the fifth anniversary of Obamacare saying such. So it is -- obviously, that is giving the Cruz campaign some heartburn in terms of trying to explain this issue, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash, thanks so much.

Joining me now to discuss this further, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Ana Navarro and CNN political commentator and host of the "Huffington Post Live," Marc Lamont Hill.

Welcome to you both.

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol. MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

COSTELLO: So, Marc -- thanks for having -- thanks for being here. I appreciate it.

So, Marc, Ted Cruz sounds reasonable. He's following the law. What's wrong with that?

HILL: Yes, I think some of this is over blown. We're beating up on Ted Cruz for taking Obamacare. I thought he gave the perfect answer with regard to that point, which was, I follow the letter of the law. Obama doesn't. I don't agree with him, but I think he gave the right answer given his position.

Now, here's the problem. Dana Bash asked him a very direct question, are you going to take the subsidy? I don't know if he didn't understand the question or if he didn't know what answer he should give, but he didn't just say no. He said, I will follow the letter of the law. We left that interview with the impression that he was going to take the government subsidy, which is optional. That's what looks bad for him. He could have done Cobra. He could have done private insurance. I don't knock him for taking the government -- the government plan, I knock him for taking the government subsidy, which is what we left the interview thinking.

COSTELLO: Well, on the other hand, Ana, he was doing what was most economical for his family. Isn't that what we're all supposed to do?

NAVARRO: Well, you know, well, not all of us are running for president and I think it's -- just off the gate it basically shows Ted Cruz that the scrutiny level, when you are running for president, the target on your back is going to be that much bigger.

First of all, I would say to Ted Cruz, you've got a great wife and a great woman. You know, just hang on to that woman. She's putting up her career on hold. She was the one that was providing the health care. And I know the story a little bit. I know that she also allowed him to take a loan out on the house when he was running so he could continue running the campaign. So if nothing else, you have got to say he married well. And he's got two cute little girls. And he's got to figure out a way to cover them for health insurance. So I think he's finding himself between the rock and a hard place that a lot of Americans do and, you know, following the letter of the law.

COSTELLO: Marc, he did marry a great woman, but I don't see him highlighting her career much. I heard no mention of her working or taking a break from Goldman Sachs, for example.

HILL: Because it doesn't fit the narrative. I mean this is where Ted Cruz, I think, is going to go wrong. He's of the belief that the Republican Party needs to have an extreme -- not an extremist, but certainly someone who is a dyed in the wolf (ph) conservative, he will frame it, not a moderate.

[09:40:05] And for him that's not just about policy, it's also about fitting a particular narrative about what your wife should look like. He delivers his address from -- his announcement from Liberty University. All of these things are to play to a certain narrative. Saying he doesn't like rock music any more. He doesn't listen to it any more. He listens to country music. All of this is playing to the political cheap seats.

And, yes, it's -- just as a gender problem with this, yes, there's an ideological problem with it. but in his mind, that's what's necessary to win the presidency. I think he's way off base here. I think Republicans are going to nominate another person who they think can actually win a general election, not someone who plays to, again, the political cheap seats.

COSTELLO: All right, Marc Lamont Hill --

NAVARRO: Oh, Marc, I listen -- I listen to country music, too, but, frankly, it's because it's the only lyrics I can understand these days in American music.

HILL: See, that's a good reason.

NAVARRO: But, Carol, that -- that point -- that point I think is unfair. I have heard him -- and you know that Ted Cruz is not my cup of tea, but I have heard him talk about his wife and his wife's career at length. I've heard him do it in private aspects and I've heard him do it also in public appearances. He had a video just before his announcement highlighting some of what his wife and mother have done. So I think that may be an unfair criticism, frankly.

COSTELLO: All right, Ana Navarro, Marc Lamont Hill, I have to leave it there. Thanks so much for your insight, as always. I appreciate it.

HILL: Thanks.

COSTELLO: We're going to take a break. I'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, let's head back to the crash site staging area at the base of the French Alps. As you can see, the three leaders of France, Germany and Spain, all talking to recovery workers here and military personnel. Erin McLaughlin is in the crowd somewhere in there.

Erin, if you can hear me, can you set the scene for us? There you are.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

That's right, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, as well as the Spanish Prime Minister Rojoy all arrived here just a short while ago. They choppered in. as you mentioned, they're meeting with emergency workers. Hollande was overheard speaking to some of them, asking them if they had been among the first to respond to the crash site. This visit seen as extremely important for these countries, a show of solidarity and respect for the victims and the families, as well as the countries mourning the loss of, you know, 49 people that were on board that plane were of Spanish nationality, 72 were of German nationality and France, of course, leading this recovery effort.

Now, the leaders are not expected to visit the crash site itself. It's very difficult. It's in a very remote location. In fact, choppers can't land in the area it's so remote and so steep, though it's not known if they were able to fly over the crash site.

[09:45:06] And the recovery effort very much continuing today. We do know that the recovery workers have managed to reach the area to begin the very important work of repatriating bodies. Identifying and repatriating, although we do not know if any bodies have been recovered from the crash site as yet. And their also working on assessing why and how this crash happened in the first place, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Erin McLaughlin, many thanks. I want to go to London now and check in with Isa Soares. We have Isa? We do.

ISA SORES, CNN CORESPONDENT: I'm here Carol.

COSTELLO: She has word on one of the flight data recorders that were recovered. Can you bring us up to date with the latest information on that?

SOARES: We'll do, we'll do Carol. Yes its like you're hearing from Erin. Of course, French authorities will say the priority is to identify the remains and it's a painstaking process, but let me bring you up to date on the other two angles in the investigation. What you do have, you have an air incident investigation, as well as a criminal investigation. Why we have a criminal investigation? Because so many people died in this crash.

But they have found -- they have found one of the black boxes. One of these black boxes is an orange box, but it's called a black box. It's a voice recorder. That is now what parents are being told. I've been told as well. They were expecting some news the next three hours from French authorities regarding that voice recorder. We've seen footage. You can see footage there. It is badly damaged. It is seriously badly damaged, a bit battered.

From what I've been told, the orange cylinder, if we can show it close up, the orange cylinder in that voice recorder is intact. So they're hoping that they can take up information from there. We heard from the transport minister from France and he said if the voices had been recorded, then they'll be able to actually find out perhaps why it happened. This is the why, Carol, this is not the what. We asked basically Deborah Hersman, the president of the National Safety Council, if it is damaged, how much realistically can you get? How much information? Take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH HERSMAN, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL: So it's no surprise to hear that the cockpit voice recorder is damaged because of the type of crash that occurred and the damage that occurred to the rest of the aircraft, you probably expect that outside housing or the casing that holds the recorder to be damaged. What's most critical is that the information that's inside that data is protected. These are crashworthy, fireproof boxes that are designed to withstand these forces and so it will be important for them to pull that information off if it's usable and they should be able to do this within hours if the data and that solid state recorder is not damaged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: Now the (INAUDIBE) next that I was speaking to saying the cylinder in the middle, that looks to be intact and hopefully that will provide more information of, like I said, French authorities hoping to have some more information, exactly the why in a couple of hours, in three hours or so. But that still leaves as if one key - that's other black box and that is the data recorder, Carol. That will explain the what happened. So many questions regarding exactly what happened. Why it went cruising altitude within 3 minutes it started descending. Why there was no mayday call. So many questions and no doubt, we'll be focusing in, honing in on the key minutes between the time of cruising altitude and the descent, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Isa Soares, thanks so much. I want to talk a little more about the black box and about the coming news conference we expect to happen at any time at the crash staging area, with the three world leaders. But let's go back to that black box for just a second. We've always heard they're indestructible and you heard what the experts said. It demonstrates the terrible impact at the crash.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Right. So this -- the box itself is most definitely-it's not indestructible per se but, yes, it is designed to withstand the ferocious forces of an aircraft hitting ground at 500 miles an hour. It is also designed with mh-370 in mind to go down 20, 30,000 -- 20,000 feet into the ocean. So they are most definitely designed for exact -- there would be no point, Carol, in building a contraption that couldn't withstand these sort of forces. It would be a nonstarter. And what you have here, obviously that's just the box --

COSTELLO: Yes, it'll get back to it in a second.

[09:50:35] QUEST: That's the box it's being carried in. So you have the outer casing, if you like. Look at that on the left. On the left, that's the pinger, remember that we know, in case it was lost at sea or whatever, it also has an emergency locator beacon on it, in case it had to be located, and what it-and the round part is the bit which is solid state. There's no tape. In the old days it was magnetic tape that would be recorded pulses or be recording a voice. No longer. It's solid state. So providing you've physically got the chip and providing it's not been completely destroyed, you can actually extract the data from that and they'll be able to do that reasonably quickly.

COSTELLO: As far as what's on the --

QUEST: Right, Here we go.

COSTELLO: on the (INAUDIBLE) area

QUEST: Here we, here way have it. Allow me to--

COSTELLO: That's better. It's not moving.

QUEST: Right. So that's the locator that we've seen before. Over there is just the housing and the casing and the electronics. This is the bit that carries the recording.

COSTELLO: That looks pretty intact that part.

QUEST: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely and it's designed to be. It's designed to be ro-- more than robust. And this is, of course, there'll a similar one for the flight data recorder and that is what they'll be able to extract the information and what it will tell us is what the pilots were saying to each other. There are, I think it's five microphones in the cockpit. There's one in each of the headsets and then two area mics and there's another area mic and they will all be on different channels and why that's important if I may is because you not only want to hear what we're saying to each other, but you also want to hear any external noises. So those microphones will pick up the flaps going down, the wheels being retracted. It will pick up the difference in engine noises, if an alarm has gone off. When you read a report, it says you know, sound of auto-pilot disengaging. That particular noise. A lot of information.

COSTELLO: A lot of information. And of course crucial information, supposedly this one-minute span of time between 10:30 and 10:31. And --

QUEST: I would say it's a bit longer than that. The aircraft reaches its cruise altitude roughly 10:28, 10:27, 10:28. Then at 10:30, it-- around that time, it levels off around 10:28. You've got two to three minutes when they go and do the checklist. It's now known as in the cruise, the cruise (INAUDIBLE) the flight. And as you look at the time, line the plane is around 10:30, 10:31, the plane starts its descent, just begins it descent without authorization. The ground asks, according to the French, what are you up to? what are you doing? No answer. And then at 10:35, it lo-- disappears from radar round about there. That 10:53, I think, might be a little bit, might be a little bit

previous.

COSTELLO: That's just according to French authorities --

QUEST : Yes

COSTELLO: And that just came out this morning.

QUEST: If you look at the -

COSTELLO: So there two different time lines.

QUEST: If you look at the ADSB, the -- it's about a nine-minute window in which this takes place. We won't know the exact minutes and seconds until we get the report but we're in the area.

COSTELLO: Okay, Richard Quest, thanks so much. I got to take a break. We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:55:00] COSTELLO: All right, we're still awaiting these three world leaders to speak at the crash site. They're at the staging area right now, but this picture was sent out by the French government and you can see the French president and German chancellor all referring to some sheet of paper there on the helicopter on their way to a staging area. They are there right now. They've been greeting rescue and recovery workers and talking to military personnel on site. We do expect them to say something in the coming minutes because there are podiums set up, of course when that happens, we'll take you back to the staging area live.

In other news this morning, in just over an hour, Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani will address a joint meeting of Congress. It's his first official visit to the United States since being elected last year. The speech coming on the heels of President Obama granting Ghani's request to keep 10,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan until the end of the year. Previous plans was to cut that number in half. So let's talk about that with CNN global affairs analyst, Bobby Ghosh joins me now. Thanks for being here. So what do you expect the Afghan president to say?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, he will get a warm reception in Congress. His No. 1 virtue is that he's not his predecessor. He's not Hamid Karzai. Hamid Karzai had become, particularly in his second term, very difficult to work with for the

U.S. He was a hurdle to a lot of things. It was not clear what he was trying to achieve. Ashraf Ghani is a much more considerately figure. He seems takes a more sober approach to the problems in Afghanistan. He's asking for greater help. The Obama administration has already responded positively and so far that's gotten bipartisan support in Congress. So I think he will get a good reception. He will say things that Congress likes to hear. I think he'll say that he's grateful for American support and say it's important.

COSTELLO: Now see, that's a big deal.

GHOSH: It is.

COSTELLO: That is, because he said that before.

GHOSH: Yes.

COSTELLO: You know, I think yesterday -

GHOSH: Yes.

COSTELLO: He said that. They thanked America for its help in Afghanistan and that goes a long way.

GHOSH: It certainly does. At particularly this time when you're asking for more help, when your asking for money. He's also been very smart. It's not just about military support. He's also said, for instance, that aid from the United States should be linked to reforms to actual achievements from his government. His government is suggesting this, which is a positive step, which conveys a sense of a desire to make things happen. So, in his first trip to America years and years ago, his predecessor has also seemed like a transformational figure. So it's right to be skeptical, but at least at this moment he's saying all of the right things and Congress will appreciate that.

COSTELLO: Help the American people understand why Afghanistan needs U.S. troops to stay longer. Why don't - why can't they get it together for themselves?

GHOSH: Well, they were badly devastated in the war and the Taliban remains despite America's best efforts, the coalition's best efforts, the Taliban remains a huge presence, controls large parts of the country. Yes, the Afghan military forces are about 300,000 strong. It's a large number of people. The quality of those forces is very questionable.

COSTELLO: Haven't American personnel been training those Afghan troops for like, over the last ten years?

GHOSH: Well, they have been training some of them, so there are some elements within the Afghan troops who are really quite good and are taking the fight back to the Taliban, but the large majority of them are not. Try putting an army up from scratch. Look at what we learned in Iraq. Putting an army up from scratch, despite the training you can give them, is not easy. It takes a lot of time and takes a long period of peace. It's hard to build an army when you're still at war. When the Taliban is actively killing people, attacking not just towns and villages but also military attachments, it's difficult to create an army.

COSTELLO: Well, is there a sense you can teach men how to fight, right, but you can't teach them nationalism, love of country?

GHOSH: No, it's not as simple of that. It's actually much more complex. It's like, you can't tech them - it's not easy to learn command and control. It's one thing to learn how to fight. And your right. It does -- they have to feel a sense of national duty. It was hard to do that under Karzai when the president and some members of his family were on the take or were very corrupt. It was hard to feel loyalty to a government that is not serving your interests. But it also, as any military commander will tell you, command and control, what to do when you're attacked, who to listen to, how to follow orders despite what you're seeing, how to recognize that somebody who has a 30,000-foot view, is the person you should be listening to. These are things in the heat of battle that take a lot of training and it's not simply training that you can give them in a military base behind closed wall, but training in actual combat.

[09:59:51] COSTELLO: Bobby Ghosh, thank you for your insight as always. I appreciate it. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(MUSIC)