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Indiana Law a Challenge to GOP; Video Inside the Germanwings Airplane Found; Negotiators Ignoring Self-Imposed Deadline; Boston Bombing Defense Rests. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 31, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:07] MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well see, Republican candidates are finding themselves in a bit of a tricky situation. On one hand, they want to appeal to conservative voters, evangelical leaders and so in that sense, it's not really surprising that we've seen folks like Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz come out and say, we are behind Governor Pence. We support this law.

BALDWIN: You weren't surprised with the Jeb Bush of all these Republicans?

LEE: I think Jeb Bush was perhaps the one candidate we could have seen taking a more moderate tone. But look, all of these candidates have sort of left room to eventually perhaps when we get closer to the general election to walk it back a little bit and say, look, I am for religious liberties, but that does not mean that I would ever condone or support a law that would allow discrimination.

BALDWIN: Leaving walk-back room, if need be.

LEE: Exactly.

BALDWIN: I mentioned Ted Cruz. Let me just read this tweet, we can pull up here, Ted Cruz Tweeting his support saying, he's proud to stand with Governor Mike Pence for religious liberty and urging other Americans to do the same.

When you talk a little bit about this wiggle room and walk-back room, how will they play that? Because won't Democrats on the flipside say, well, you said one thing, and now you're saying this?

LEE: Right. And here's something that they really cannot ignore is the fury of backlash that we have seen from the business community.

BALDWIN: Yes.

LEE: Here are the group of candidates --

BALDWIN: Don't you want to appeal to that community if you're a candidate for president?

LEE: And it's a very important community if you want to fund raise, if you want to have the support of the broader community. And if you're having a law that's put in place that could potentially be detrimental to Indiana's economy, could be a job killer, we have, you know, heads of corporations coming out and saying we are not going to have any part in this unless you fix this law, we are pulling out. That is detrimental to Indiana. And I think for candidates who are out there trying to sell their economic views and their economic message, that is an uncomfortable position to find themselves in.

BALDWIN: No surprise Hillary Clinton on the flipside, right, say being one of the critics of what's happening in Indiana. I do find it interesting that a lot of these Republicans do use the name Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, in saying, well, these guys signed this once upon a time. What do you make of that flip? Is it times have changed? Is it ironic?

LEE: I think the critics of the Indiana law specifically will say things that have passed in the past have been more broad. Or more specific, rather, and the Indiana law is too broad and so would allow the kind of discrimination that they're afraid would take place if the law were to stay in its current form. And then of course, we had Governor Pence going out today saying in a press conference, we're going to fix this. Now, how exactly he's going to fix this is the big question.

BALDWIN: That is the money question.

MJ Lee, thank you very much.

LEE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Come back. Come back.

Back to our breaking news here. Let's get you back to what we're learning about the cell phone video, this memory card from a cell phone has been found amid all this wreckage the remains and the debris in the French Alps shows those final moments of flight 9525 from inside the plane. We're live at the crash site for more on that next.

Also ahead, talks on that Iran nuclear deal we have now learned will continue into tomorrow. And while the negotiation continue a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq says the Middle East is in a free fall. He'll join me live to explain.

You're watching CNN.

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[15:37:55] BALDWIN: Back to our breaking news. This French magazine and this German tabloid published subscriptions of cell phone video they say was recovered from the flight 9525 crash site. The video reportedly showing the terrifying final moments on board that aircraft when the plane clipped a mountain is what it describes. Passengers screaming and the sounds of metallic banging, possibly from the pilot trying to get into that locked cockpit.

To be clear, these publications are not releasing the video itself. They're releasing descriptions after seeing the video. Let's go to our CNN international correspondent Karl Penhaul, live near this crash site there in France. And Karl, let's just begin with the video and what we've learned.

What are rescuers there saying about these reports?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just in the last few minutes, I've been talking to the commanders of the high mountain recovery and rescue teams. Just to be clear on that, these are the guys that are actually at the crash site. These are the guys that would actually have picked up this kind of evidence from the debris.

Now, talking to them, they simply say they do not believe these reports. They say that they do not believe these reports can be true. Why? Well, I'm going to talk to you a little through the chain of custody.

Once any elements get recovered, and these commanders of the recovery operation say that, yes, parts of cell phones and cell phones have been recovered from the debris. But they say that once those elements are recovered, they're brought here to this staging zone about five miles west the core flights (ph) from the crash site. And then from here, those elements would be sent to a criminal investigation laboratory up in Paris.

But what they say quite categorically is that none of the cell phones and none of the cell phone parts have been sent to Paris yet. They say that they simply they simply haven't gone there yet. And they say that no material from any of those cell phones has yet been extracted from those cell phones. They just do not know how any of this material could have got out, given that the cell phones and their parts are still here close to the crash site, Brooke.

[15:40:03] BALDWIN: Well, this is significant. So basically, these crews, who are the ones sifting through the remains and debris, they're basically calling B.S. on these reports.

PENHAUL: In a word, yes. I mean, they were categorically -- couldn't be more categorical. They say that this chain of custody is still intact. That the cell phone they've recovered. They haven't told me how many cell phones they've recovered or how many cell phone parts. But they do even admit that even if it was just a memory card lying around in the shale, in the gravel, in the rock, perhaps they could recover that. But they say that once it gets here to the staging post, it is handed in to the head of the operation and then will be sent to Paris to the criminal research labs. But they say that stuff has not been sent yet. None of that material has been extracted. None of the data from those phones or from the memory cards has been extracted here yet. So they don't know where this leak could have occurred, and they say they just do not believe these reports, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Talking to experts before, saying this has been the leakiest investigation they have ever seen. Who knows, I guess at this point.

Karl Penhaul, thank you very much.

We're going to work to get to the bottom of it. Again, you know, pinning this all on this German tabloid and this French magazine. Next here on CNN, world leaders are working on this nuclear deal with

Iran. They're going to keep talking as we've learned until tomorrow, over the deadline was midnight tonight. That's continuing on another day.

Also we are hearing there was a close call between U.S. Navy helicopter and Iranian aircraft. We have details on that.

And the defense has rested in the Boston bombing trial. This is day two for the defense. They've called just four witnesses. We'll go through the defense's case straight ahead.

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[15:46:00] BALDWIN: In Switzerland right now, negotiators from the United States and from Iran and other major world powers are ignoring their own ticking clock hours before this self-imposed deadline at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. A state department spokeswoman says, negotiators have made enough progress to merit staying until tomorrow, though admitting there are several difficult issues still on table.

At the same time, we are learning that earlier this month an Iranian military observation aircraft flew within 50 yards of an armed U.S. Navy helicopter. Basically buzzed this chopper in two passes before the American pilot moved away. Military officials are concerned the maneuver could be a sign. The top Iranian commanders may not be in full control of local forces. This may have been ordered by local commander who was then reprimanded by higher ups.

I'm going to come back to Iran in just a moment. But first this.

Tikrit, major developments in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, Saddam Husain's hometown. The city became one of the terror group ISIS' most prized strongholds. Now back under Iraqi control. This is according to Iraq's Prime Minister today. Iraq's forces have waged their campaign to win back Tikrit since ISIS militants overtook the city last June.

Still, officials are saying there are ongoing operations to quote/unquote cleanse the remaining outskirts in parts of the province, including remaining ISIS booby traps rigged in homes and government buildings. The joint effort to liberate the city was most notable for how it was led, with Iranian-backed militias on the front lines and U.S. air strikes targeting the terror group from the sky.

So let me bring in James Jeffrey, man who served as President Obama's ambassador to Iraq and was a top National Security Aid in the George W. Bush White House.

Ambassador, welcome back.

JAMES JEFFREY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Thank you very much, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I'd love to start just with the significance of taking Tikrit back. Ambassador Jeffrey, how significant, in your opinion, is this?

JEFFREY: This is significant in and of itself. You can't take Mosul, the second city of Iraq and where ISIS has made its headquarters, without first taking Tikrit on the road to Mosul. So it's important militarily.

It's also important psychologically. Because when the Iranians were basically in charge with their militias, or they're back militias, they couldn't finish the job. It was U.S. air power and a bigger role by the Iraqi army that led to the fall of Tikrit to the Iraqi government. This is a big victory for Prime Minister al-Abadi, he's a good guy. And this is something, a rare something to celebrate in the Middle East today.

BALDWIN: OK. That's interesting. Because I had read something you had said, that this is a defeat for Iran. I think you just alluded to it a moment ago, that they couldn't ultimately finish the job, right. So you're giving the credit to Iraq, to the U.S. but very clearly not Iran.

JEFFREY: That's exactly right, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Let me move along. On these nuclear talks with Iran, I've been wondering, you said that the Middle East is in free fall. That could have ripple effects around this negotiating table. We know the deadline for the sort of self-imposed deadline, let's be clear, is tomorrow. You have said it's infantile to fear that anything the U.S. does in the Middle East will adversely affect negotiations. Why do you say that?

JEFFREY: Because as we've seen, in supporting the Saudis and other Arab states against Iranian-backed militias in Yemen, in taking over essentially from the Iranians in Tikrit, these kind of steps unnecessary, and they're not going to lead the Iranians to walk away from the table. The Iranians are negotiating for very specific goals. That is to get sanctions lifted with enough freedom to have options open on an eventual nuclear weapons program. They're probably going to achieve that.

BALDWIN: Let me push you on that just from a different perspective. I've been talking to Joe (INAUDIBLE) two days in a raw, nuclear expert advising and he spelled it out differently saying that what's been happening, you know, with the Saudis, bombing Yemen, would they absolutely would be, you know, objecting to any kind of nuke deal and more importantly objection to this growing influence of Iran in the region.

So if looking ahead, with this Middle East free fall, if more starts up and that could really turning to this Sunni Shea war rippling through the region which would sink the deal.

[15:50:22] JEFFREY: In the end possibly. But I think the Iranians and the Obama administration are both separating this negotiation from the other events happening around the region. The Obama administration up until recently didn't want to do anything in the region to upset potentially the negotiations, but it is seen in Yemen and Syria and elsewhere it has to take some action and the whole thing as I said isn't free fall.

BALDWIN: We know that again this self-imposed deadline now going into tomorrow. Ultimate they have until end of June. And I'm wondering if you -- what you've gather and the fact that they're moving this -- they're sliding this deadline. Is that a good sign, is there substitute of discussion happening or not so much?

JEFFREY: It's always a good thing to keep negotiating, particularly as we do have a regime in place, the joint plan of action, that's pretty tough on Iran, imposes limitations. Has a lot of inspectors on the scene. So that's a good thing. Let's just continue negotiating and see what happens. Not only is the 1st of April an arbitrary deadline but even the end of June. We've extended this joint plan of action twice in an emergency it could be extended again or somehow a way could be found to continue on with the talks. Talks aren't in themselves bad.

BALDWIN: Why create -- Why create deadline then, what's the point?

JEFFREY: It's a -- in diplomacy it's a Ying and Yang. If you don't have deadlines, everybody negotiates forever hoping that they'll get a better deal because of political change, developments in the region. On the other hand, if you are close and they do appear to be close to a framework agreement, that is, an unwritten list of principles, there's a case to be made to try a little bit harder. But they can't do this more than one or two more days I don't think.

BALDWIN: OK. Ambassador James Jeffrey, thank you so much.

JEFFREY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: The trial for the accused Boston marathon bomber could be over very soon. We have just learned the defense has rested. This was just day two. Four witnesses were called, that's it. We're live at the courthouse there in Boston.

Also, breaking news, in plane crash in France. There are reports, cell phone video exist reportedly showing the scene inside the cabin moments before the jet went down. Chilling description ahead.

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[15:56:43] BALDWIN: The defense has rested in the Boston marathon bombing trial. One day after prosecutors closed their case with graphically raw detail of the killing. Attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have called on the four witnesses to the stand. Essentially, their challenge to present the case that it can somehow soften this harsh unforgettable, you know, image after image.

Who could forget this day in Boston? They are in Boylston Street.

CNN's Alexandra Field is live in Boston outside the courthouse.

And my goodness, I mean, after of several weeks of the prosecution you have two days, four witnesses? What happened? ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. This entire trial has

lasted so far 16 days, we've had a total of 96 witnesses. But when you get to the defense they call just four witnesses, you point out, Brooke, and they spent only about five hours between yesterday afternoon and this morning making their case.

So I think, this does leave a lot of people scratching their head. You have to, of course, go back to the opening statements to understand what really happened here.

This trial started with the defense looking at their own client and saying, he did it. So there was really no effort to try to disprove the case the prosecution had spent weeks building. Instead, they were really just trying to turn the jury toward their theory, which is that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was led into what he did by his brother, Tamerlan is the mastermind. So they called a couple of witnesses to try and do that, they call a digital forensic paid expert to testify to the fact that some of the most incriminating materials found on Dzhokhar's laptop, like the instructions for how to make a bomb were actually originated with on Tamerlan's computer and then transferred with a some drive. They also tried to make a point using an FBI witness that there were a lot of materials that could potentially been used to build bombs that had Tamerlan's fingerprints, but not Dzhokhar's.

So they're really just trying to plant those seeds of doubt for the jury, trying to build this theory out that Tamerlan was really the leader here, not that Dzhokhar didn't have anything to do with this, Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right. So the court goes dark. We know they're dark through, what, Easter weekend, and I'm sure told by the judge to keep your mouth, you know, keep quiet until you return. What then happens next?

FIELD: Yes. This is an extremely high-profile case, of course, Brooke. And the jurors have been told, beside the judge a number of times, they actually said that don't talk to anyone including yourself in the mirror. Because when they get back here on Monday, then they sit and they listen to closing arguments. Then they'll hear the charges, then they would go and deliberate site.

But while it might sound like this is starting to wrap up, you now, this is just maybe about the halfway point. Because once they deliver their verdict, then the second phase of this trial starts, that's the penalty phase, when the death penalty would be on the table and really you get a reset here, where you starts essentially a completely different trial.

And this is the time, Brooke, where we should hear a lot more from the defense, they're trying to build out this theory about Tamerlan really influencing Dzhokhar. A lot of that evidence they wanted to get to this initial phase of the trial, it was really just inadmissible.

BALDWIN: That's right. I remember we talked about this before. Even when the jurors was selected not process to quite a while as well. You know, and the Federal Courts, you know, part of this death is absolutely on the table and we'll watch that phase of all of this. But, you know, when you were selected to be a juror you had to be able to handle that.

Alexandra Field, thank you so much here.

As the defense is now officially rested in Boston, in this case involving Boston bombing, suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

I'm Brooke Baldwin, here in New York. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Tuesday. A lot happening please stay with us here at CNN. Let's go to Washington and with my colleague Jake Tapper with "THE LEAD" starts right now.