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U.N. Security Council Meets to Call for Pause in Saudi-Led Bombing Campaign in Yemen; Woman Survives Terrorism Attack at University in Yemen; U.S. Woman Arrested Before Attempting to Join ISIS; White House Calling Members of Congress to Support U.S.-Iran Nuclear Deal Framework; NYPD Detective Caught on Tape Yelling at Uber Driver Apologizes; Man Claims to Survive for 66 Days Lost at Sea; NCAA Basketball Tournament Enters Final Four. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired April 04, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:52] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: One hour away from an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on the growing violence in Yemen. This as new pictures appear to show an Al Qaeda leader inside of the country's presidential palaces.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And horrific details about a woman who hid for two days in a closet during the terror rampage in Kenya. Her incredible tale of survival and what she had to eat to stay alive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull over, you understand me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's crazy. That's really inappropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you been in this country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: A New York City police detective does an about-face, apologizing now to an Uber driver after this really nasty rant.

Always so good to have you with us on a Saturday morning. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's 10:00 here on the east coast, 7:00 out west. You are in the CNN Newsroom. And we're starting this morning with some dramatic new developments in the conflict in Yemen. Next hour the U.N. will be meeting to discuss a humanitarian pause in Saudi led airstrikes in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of Arab states in an air campaign against the Shiite Houthi rebels who have seized Yemen's capital.

PAUL: This comes as we're getting new images of a senior Al Qaeda leader inside a presidential palace in southern Yemen. We have to add here, CNN cannot confirm the authenticity of these photos, but Khaled Batarfi and more than 200 others were freed from prison by Al Qaeda militants earlier this week.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson. Nic, what else do we know about Khaled Batarfi.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we know is that he was in jail for four or five years. He was a senior Al Qaeda leader in Yemen, somebody that the government there locked up because he was helping establish training camps, helping them gain strength in the country. And that is exactly what Al Qaeda is going to continue to do, particularly at the moment because there is this high level of conflict now, the government is essentially broken down. The Houthi rebels are fighting the southern separatists who really in the town where the jailbreak took place, where Bartarfi got out of jail, that's one of their strongholds. So that alone is surprising and that tells you a lot about the situation.

What Al Qaeda has done in the past is take advantage of instability in the country and gain control, gain a stronger foothold, and that has everyone very worried at the moment. The Saudis say their air campaign continues, that they've been targeting the Houthi leadership. They also say that they've been using noncombat special forces on the ground in aid to try and take control of it. I can hear aircraft in the air above us right now, that Saudi jets continuing to fly from here into Yemen.

But also importantly, the Saudis say they also used special forces on an island right off the south coast of Yemen that is strategically important, that they say the Houthis have been using to get help from Iran to put weapons system on. The island is the sort of choke point on the gulf where so much of the world's oil flows out. Saudi special forces talking on Houthi militants on that island according to sources.

So this has many dimensions, the Al Qaeda dimension, the Houthis, the potential for interrupting international oil flows and the U.N. now calling for the emergency session to discuss the fighting for humanitarian pause, 519 people according to the U.N. killed so far and the hospitals there are running out of medical supplies. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

PAUL: So let's bring in CNN senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth. Richard, good to see you this morning. What have you learned about this discussion at the U.N. today?

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: The meeting of the U.N. Security Council was called by Russia to discuss the issue of a humanitarian pause that Nic Robertson discussed, the increase in violence and the casualties in the fighting in Yemen. This is the third weekend meeting on Yemen, I believe, for the Security Council, and it hasn't exactly led to any type of halt in the fighting. If anything, things have increased as big powers in the region do what they feel is necessary to protect their own interest.

[10:05:12] Now, Russia had been dueling with Saudi Arabia over the issue of coalition, Arab coalition air strikes in Yemen to fight the Houthis. The Saudi Arabian said president Putin of Russia was using very critical language that was not need because Russia has decided always to defend Assad in Syria, leading to over 200,000 deaths. Back to you.

PAUL: How plausible is it the U.N. may have plans to help the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, Richard?

ROTH: Well, they haven't exactly formally backed anyone. They were backing the former president, who has fled, and so right now, the council is not exactly coming out in this current phase of the fighting and saying we back Saudi Arabia, we back this or that. Once again, it was another situation of watching to see developments on the ground may outrun political decisions that some countries don't want to have to make and putting it on the record here.

PAUL: Richard Roth, always appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Michael Weiss, coauthor of "ISIS, Inside the Army of Terror." Michael, the public narrative is that this is an effort to get the Houthi rebels in some ways back to a negotiating table of some sort. Is that accurate, do you believe, that the Saudis really want to bring the Houthis back into some negotiating circle or is this an effort really to oust them?

MICHAEL WEISS, CO-AUTHOR, "ISIS -- INSIDE THE ARMY OF TERROR": No, I think it's more of the latter. Look, the Saudis launched this intervention, I think, for two reasons. Number one, they see Iran and particularly the Revolutionary Guard Corps' hegemony spreading like a cancer throughout the region. They're right now on their southern doorstep.

Number two they're sending a message to the United States, which is that the Pax Americana that has persisted for some 40 years in the region where the U.S. essentially had the Gulf States' back against Iran is now crumbling. The U.S. is pursuing this deal with Iran which the Saudis believe is not just about the nuclear file but is a broader rapprochement with the Islamic Republic. The president of the United States made noises to that effect himself, saying that this could welcome Iran into the community of nations.

So the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Qataris, even the Turks now, all of these Sunni led or the Sunni majority states in the region are chewing the carpet with anxiety and fear that this is going to essentially allow Iran to take over more of the region. I think it's an extraordinary thing that they assembled this coalition quite quickly. According to a room in Bloomberg last week the head of CENTCOM was told an hour before Operation Decisive Storm got under way that these Arab countries were going to war. So this is really unprecedented in the history of, I would say, certainly after the 1970s what America has been able to do and how it's been able to kind of regulate the activities in the region. But no, the Saudis don't want to see a settlement with the Houthis. They want the Houthis expunged.

BLACKWELL: Exactly. Let's talk now about AQAP. Even if the Houthis are pulled out, this vacuum will be filled by AQAP, ISIS to a smaller extent in Yemen as well. What's the realistic scenario of success here? What is the best outcome that is expected in Yemen?

WEISS: To be honest with you, I don't know. I don't know what the Saudis are playing at and I don't know what they think they can achieve. Yemen is a failed state. This is broadly speaking. You can get to a more granular analysis. You have four major factions. AQAP, which is probably the most formidable Al Qaeda franchise in the region, you have a minor but growing ISIS contingent, you have Sunni tribes, which are more or less defending the government, and then you have the Houthi rebellion.

So four competing factions all vying for the same resources and the same control of the land, and so far we've seen massive air power brought to bear on this country. But does this mean there will be a ground invasion? The Saudis have also indicated they might go that far.

So let's project a little bit into the future here. Let's say the Saudis dispatch ground forces. They may have already done special forces and covert ops, but a real, bona fide conventional invasion. Does that mean that they're go to go actually head to head with Iranian Revolutionary Guard operatives? So in effect a proxy war becomes an actual hot war between Saudi Arabia and its nemesis in the region. So the potential for a major catastrophe here is great.

The fact that Russia wants to sort of oversee a peaceful settlement I think should also be taken with very due amounts of skepticism here. The Russians no doubt are standing behind Iran and the Houthis in this regard just as they have done the Assad regime in Syria.

BLACKWELL: So to that end what do you expect out of this meeting today?

WEISS: Nothing.

BLACKWELL: OK. Simple answer.

WEISS: Truly, nothing.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about one event that happened this week, this freeing of 270 prisoners by AQAP. Do any of the prisoners, I think the threat to U.S. interest is obvious.

[10:10:03] WEISS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: But do you believe there's any threat to the U.S. homeland?

WEISS: Sure. AQAP, where to begin? Anwr Awlaki, the Al Qaeda cleric that we killed with a drone strike in Yemen, he was the guy who radicalized AbdulMutallab, the so called underpants bomber who tried to blow a commercial airliner in the skies over Detroit a few Christmases ago. The most recent case are these two Queens girls that were arrested here in New York, they were also radicalized by somebody with connections, actually the chief propagandist for AQAP. The have every intention of striking the American homeland.

And as I keeps saying, now you have this major competition between Al Qaeda and ISIS, the way that competition is to be played out is in the bloodshed on the streets of Europe and on the streets of the United States and also on the streets of the Middle East and North Africa. We're now at a rate of about one major terrorist attack per month and also one moderate to mild terrorist threat that has been successfully thwarted by FBI counterterrorism forces, also per month. So I think this is only a matter of time before unfortunately something really terrible is going to happen.

BLACKWELL: Michael Weiss, always good to have your insight. Thank you.

WEISS: Sure.

PAUL: What another unbelievable story of survival this morning that we're hearing after that attack at a Kenyan university. Terrifying details of a woman who hid in a closet for two days, just coming out today. Hear her incredible survival story, next.

BLACKWELL: Plus, it was the tirade that went viral. If you haven't seen it or heard this, you're definitely going to watch this segment. And a New York City cop going off on an Uber driver, and now the officer is apologizing. Hear what he had to say about that angry rant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: A stunning story coming in to us from Kenya this morning. This young woman, you're about to see her now, she survived two days shaking in a closet after heavily armed militants stormed her college campus.

[10:15:06] Her name is Cynthia. She's 19 years old, and this is happening in northeastern Kenya, and these are the first pictures we have of this young woman, brought to us by CNN's Christian Purofoy. He joins us from Garissa University College where the attack by Al- Shabaab happened Thursday. First, Christian, tell us about Cynthia.

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Cynthia is 19 years old, Victor, and found today at 9:00, over 48 hours since the attack on that university happened. She said that she hid in the wardrobe while the Al-Shabaab terrorists came in and began to separate Christians from Muslims. But here's what she had to say, Victor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA CHEROITICH, ATTACK SURVIVOR: And then me, I decided to go to the wardrobe. In the wardrobe we have these small rooms. And then I entered into that place and then I covered myself with the clothes, then these people ended up in the wardrobe and I had a roommate who were hidden themselves under the bed. They told them to go out, and when they were outside now, they told if you don't know how to read to them in the Muslim word, whatever. And then you lie down, and then if you know, you go to the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PUREFOY: Now, Victor it's in times of such horror like this that you try to look for those stories of hope, but Cynthia's story still has such shocking elements. She had to drink body lotion while she was in the wardrobe to try and keep herself rehydrated. She was still in shock when we saw her, and when she was found by the military she wouldn't leave the wardrobe. The military had to go get her principal, bring him back to the scene of the crime so he could tell Cynthia it was OK, these people were not going to kill her. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Drinking body lotion to survive, I don't know if many people would have that presence of mind to do that. We're already hearing Al-Shabaab is threatening more attacks, right?

PUREFOY: Yes, Al-Shabaab released a statement threatening blood bath, basically. This entire region has seen plenty of Al-Shabaab attacks and only about a four-hour drive from Somalia, which is the Al-Shabaab stronghold. Kenya, its regional partners, plus American drones are targeting Al-Shabaab leaders in the area. But it has a long porous border and very easy for fighters to come across and hit soft targets like this university. We spoke to one, we spoke to the governor here, and he said what Al-Shabaab are trying to do, because there is a strong Christian community here, he says what they're trying to do is they're trying to come in and create a division between the Christian community and the Muslim community. It is in that division that Al- Shabaab thrives, in that chaos. Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, Christian Purefoy, thank you so much and thank you for bringing us Cynthia's story this morning. Christi?

PAUL: That is something else.

All right, a massive brawl erupts in a New York casino, punches, flying chairs, arrests, and thousands of dollars in damage. We have details for you.

Plus a New York cop is apologizing after one ugly rant at an Uber driver that went viral.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:21] BLACKWELL: It's 22 minutes after the hour now. Let's get you caught up on other stories we're following this morning.

PAUL: A New York police detective offering an apology after his rant at an Uber driver went viral. Remember this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pull over. You understand me? Pull over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's crazy. That's really inappropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How long have you been in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost two years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Almost how long?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two years. I got news for you, remember this in

the future -- don't ever do that again. The only reason you're not in handcuffs going to jail and getting thumb prints in the precinct is because I have things to do. That's the only reason that's not happening. Because this isn't important enough for me, you're not important enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That was NYPD detective Patrick Cherry who has since been put on desk duty. In a new interview he said he's sorry and the emotions just got the best of him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK CHERRY, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DETECTIVE: I apologize. I sincerely apologize.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you want him to know?

CHERRY: That -- excuse me -- that I'm not mad at him, I was just angry at that moment, for that exchange, I was angry for that exchange. If the conversation initially went differently, we probably would have shook hands at the end of the encounter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Since the original video was released Cherry has been removed from the city's joint terrorism taskforce as well.

BLACKWELL: A wild brawl caught on video. Look at this. You can hear the glass breaking, the chair thrown. Dozens of people were throwing chairs and punches overnight at this casino in Queens, New York. Police say three men have been arrested and an injured officer was sent to the hospital. Here is the issue here -- nobody knows why these folks were fighting.

PAUL: A third American woman is taken into federal custody accused of terror charges. What is driving the disturbing trend of women sympathizing with ISIS? We're going to take a closer look at that for you.

BLACKWELL: But first, this week's "Ones to Watch" series examines the art of sculpture.

PAUL: We meet a rising star who has just been awarded the Guinness world record for the world's smallest sculpture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you look closely, you'll see a pair of feet. These are the first steps in the creation of the world's smallest sculpture.

[10:25:01] JONTY HURWITZ, SCULPTOR: My first reaction to the scale as an artist was to go absolutely Nano, to go as tiny as possible. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The figure of a woman dances on a thread of

human hair, so small she can only be viewed through a microscope.

ANTONY GORMLEY, SCULPTOR: I think the division between art and science should never be. Both science and art need structure. They need discipline, but they also need intuition.

ESTELLE LOVATT, ART CRITIC: No one else works like him today. His art is to do with a mix between the emotional and the intelligent, and that's what gives it that spark.

HURWITZ: That finger is a millionth of a meter, a millionth of a meter. It's stunning. A lot of the artistic expression that I bring to the world represents the absolute current moment in human development whether it's 3-D printing, whether it's technology, whether it's science, I love my art to represent you now in a way that can, you know, almost I sometimes say contemporary art down to the millisecond.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: That's something else, isn't it? You can catch the full show at CNN.com/OnesToWatch. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:04] PAUL: It's 29 minutes past the hour. So good to have you with us this morning.

New for you, two Illinois men have been indicted for allegedly conspiring to provide support to ISIS. A U.S. army National Guard specialist and his cousin are accused of plotting a terrorist attack on an Illinois military facility. If convicted of the charges against them both men could face 15 years in prison.

BLACKWELL: And it's not just men who are trying to support terror groups. This week several U.S. women were also placed into federal custody. CNN's Jason Carroll takes a look at the new developments for us.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, Christi, her alias was "The Young Lioness," but her real name is Keonna Thomas. She's 30-year- old. She's a U.S. citizen from Philadelphia. The criminal complaint basically spells out all of the allegations. She's accused of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Let me read you one quote from the complaint that reads that Thomas, quote, "attempted to travel overseas in order to join, fight with, and martyr herself on behalf of ISIL." Federal agents say that as far back as 2013 she was posting jihadi tweets on Twitter.

Also in 2013 she allegedly September an electronic communication to a known Somali terrorist. Also, again according to the complaint, several times over the course of last year, she reached out to another known terrorist in Syria. Federal investigators then began to look at her travel plans. She got a visa from Turkey, then arranged travel to go to Barcelona, Spain. If she's convicted she faces a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Her case not as specific as the case of what we saw with the two women in New York City. We do have an update on that. Noelle Velentzas, she's 28 years old, she's married. She has a young daughter and also an adopted daughter. Her husband is speaking out on her behalf. He is saying that she is, quote, "not a monster," saying she is not the woman being portrayed in the media. He spoke out. I want you to listen to what he had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABU BAKR, TERROR SUSPECT'S HUSBAND: I'm surprised, just like it was a knock at the door, and everything changed. I didn't see anything like this happening, didn't see anything like this coming. I'm just right now at a loss for words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Velentzas husband also says that she was a, quote, "very attentive mother," that she was always upbeat. He also knew Siddiqui very well, as well. He said that she was practically a member of the family. Her attorney spoke out basically saying she is not guilty. When pressed about more details about her and about the case, he said he was not going to try the case in front of the press. He said instead that he would try the case in court where it belongs. Victor, Christi?

PAUL: Jason, thank you so much. We want to get more insight on these latest arrests and this disturbing trend involving U.S. women attempting to join ISIS with CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes. Tom, thanks so much for being with us.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Christi.

PAUL: In both of these cases this is week the accused women were really vocal about their support of ISIS, getting on social media to, I guess, let it be known. What do you make of the fact that they're so open about it?

FUENTES: Well, I think that's exactly right. They want to let it be known that they have these intentions. They're probably trying to rally others to consider doing the same thing on behalf of the cause. So I think that's part of why they want to get on. It's also their undoing because it leads either friends of theirs to contact the FBI or the FBI to monitor the social sites and discover it on their own. So, you know, that makes their undoing, basically.

PAUL: But, I mean, don't you know that? I just think it's odd that somebody, you know, who is smart enough to I guess want to try to make a plan about something will broadcast it on social media. Don't they know that that's part of their own doing?

FUENTES: I think they get caught up in what they're trying to do and maybe don't think that's going to happen to them. And from the FBI standpoint, I've talked to many executives over the last year or two since this recent phenomenon, and they almost regard these cases as just a nuisance. They want to know, they want to focus their resources on ISIS' threat and Al-Shabaab's threat to attack a U.S. facility, a U.S. mall, U.S. soldiers and police, and look at that kind of serious threat, and then up pop these social media broadcasts, and then they have to put resources to it.

PAUL: It's almost a distraction.

Can I read you some numbers here? I want to read you some numbers. Officials estimate more than 500 western women joined jihadi ranks in Syria and Iraq. Up to one-fifth of all foreign recruits to jihadi groups are women. How do you think, Tom, what is it about ISIS that entices women?

[10:35:15] FUENTES: I think there's a couple of classes of the type of women that get attracted to it. When you hear stories of the 15 to 17-year-old teenage girls that want to go join and become ISIS brides, Suzy homemaker for terrorists, you know, that's just they're goofy teenagers and don't realize what they're getting into. That's a different category than the women arrested this week by the FBI who are going to be terrorists.

PAUL: Yes.

FUENTES: They're either going to martyr themselves over there or do it here. And they're learning how to make bombs. They plan on doing it. They've already targeted who they're going to use the bombs against. That's a different category.

PAUL: And they're moms, some of them. Do you have any idea what it is that's enticing them specifically, that age group?

FUENTES: No. I think in our case they want to join the cause and support it. And we've seen so many martyrs, male and female, not care about sacrificing their children are not going to have them anymore and their husbands or wives are going to be single parents and the whole thing. And then you have this husband, and we see that typically, the spouse is delusional, "No, not my wife, not my husband," not realizing that she just about gave him a no cause divorce and left him as a single parent.

PAUL: Tom Fuentes, your insight is always so educational to us. Thank you so much.

FUENTES: Thank you, Christi.

BLACKWELL: Question for you. Could you survive at sea without fresh water, without fresh food for 66 days? A castaway shares his miraculous story of doing just that, and a former Navy SEAL examines the challenges.

Also breaking developments from the crash site of Germanwings 9525. The investigation just entered a new phase, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [10:40:38] PAUL: I want to share breaking news we're learning about regarding the crash of Germanwings flight 9525. Officials just told CNN that, quote, "All the police investigators have left the crash site," which means the investigation is complete at that site. We also learned today that this week, the investigation is going to focus on the flight data recorder on 40 mobile phones recovered from the crash site and the analysis of the 150 DNA profiles that has identified. We'll have more of these breaking developments at the top of the hour as well.

A castaway lost at sea for more than two months says he's grateful to God for giving him another shot at life.

BLACKWELL: Yes because this story reads like a Hollywood script. Stuck aboard a wrecked ship with a broken shoulder, Louis Jordan says he managed to keep himself alive for 66 days eating raw fish and collecting and drinking rain water. He told CNN how he rationed freshwater before he was rescued about 200 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUIS JORDAN, RESCUED AT SEA: I was running out of water, drinking a pint a day for a very long time, rationing the water, almost out, almost. Finally God answered my prayer right before I ran out of water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You know there's some skeptics out there. They have questions about this what is being called an amazing story. Kate Courtley, a former Navy SEAL, joined us to talk about the conditions the 37-year- old would have faced during the two months, two actually plus months out on the ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CADE COURTLEY, FORMER NAVY SEAL: There are three things you need to worry about -- exposure, dehydration, and then basically starving to death. And they talked about the conditions out there as far as air temperatures. Talk about the water temperatures. He mentioned he had been living in a vessel that was chest deep in water. Well those water temperatures, you're losing your core temperature 10 times faster than if you're just standing outside. So I want to know about hypothermia conditions.

He said that he gathered rainwater. Yes, that's highly likely but then again he said that he was constantly battling waves. And when that saltwater gets into that rainwater, it's contaminated, you can't drink it.

And then the big thing for me is his condition when they found him. Now I spent six days in POW school. I lost 22 pounds in 60 days. This guy looked healthy. He was walking, he didn't appear to have any exposure wounds on his skin or his face. And again, I'm glad Mr. Jordan is alive, but I want to ask him some questions. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The Coast Guard tells CNN that they have no reason to doubt Jordan's story.

Now that the president has this nuclear deal or framework for a deal with Iran, he has to sell it to Congress. Why it may not be as easy as one would think. I don't know if anyone actually thought it would be easy, but it's probably tougher than you imagine. We'll let our political experts weigh in next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:17] BLACKWELL: This weekend the president is personally calling members of Congress trying to drum up support for the recently announced framework for a nuclear deal with Iran. But it's going to be a hard sell for the president as he faces down a Congress he has repeatedly clashed with. So how does he do it? Let's bring in our panel this morning, Lisa Boothe is a Republican strategist. Maria Cardona is a CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist. Good to have both of you back.

LISA BOOTHE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Good morning.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hi there.

BLACKWELL: So, Maria, let's start with you. The president is not one who is known to have members of Congress over for cocktails. He's not one who will have them over for a game of golf or anything like that. How does the president now try to create these relationships to try to pass this or get congress's support?

CARDONA: Though he has done all of those, Victor, yes, you're right. I think right now what we're seeing is this president doing exactly what he needs to do. He is calling members of Congress personally, making sure that they know the details of this deal, making sure that they understand that this is the best verifiable deal moving forward that will keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which he knows is everyone's priority in Congress.

But it's not just the president. As you know, the president has a huge team around him that has been working on this deal and they know the details of it, so he has his national security adviser, his own chief of staff, various deputy national security advisers, the secretary of state, John Kerry, various deputy and undersecretaries of state have been calling members of Congress, his secretary of the treasury, various undersecretaries of the treasury as well, the U.N. ambassador, and many of her deputies. So he has a whole team around him that have been focused on this deal, and all of them have been calling members of Congress on both sides of the aisle, and those kinds of briefings will continue until we actually have -- we're at a point where Congress understands this is the best deal moving forward to focus on the priority that we all want.

BLACKWELL: Let me bring in Lisa here, because Lisa, it seems like many Republicans made their mind up before the details of the framework were even announced. Are they even open to listening to the details of the plan?

BOOTHE: Look, I think President Obama is going to need all the help that he can get because it's not just Republicans that have expressed concern, it's also Democrats. If you remember just recently 367 members of Congress from both sides of the aisle sent a letter to President Obama demanding congressional approval and asking for congressional oversight over any sort of deal that gets made.

And look, here's the thing to remember. When Iran's supreme leader says "Death to America," we should listen. Iran is the most active state sponsor of terrorism. They've worked closely with our enemies to kill Americans and to kill our allies.

[10:50:05] And look, President Obama has pointed to Yemen as the beacon of his counterterrorism policies, but we're on the verge of a full scale proxy war between Iran and Sunni Arab states. So I think the concern for everyone is that President Obama has really been blinded to the devil that we're dealing with, with Iran, and that he's more concerned about cementing his foreign policy record than he is about putting together a good deal in the best interests of our country.

BLACKWELL: Another topic way tonight get to, we don't have much time but we can't ignore it, the religious freedom bills that have been passed in Arkansas and in Indiana over the last couple of days. And Lisa, I'm going to start with you with this one. We heard from potential candidates as well for 2016 supporting these coming out full-throatedly and endorsing some of these bills and now laws. Do you think they got ahead of their skis and were too optimistic about how people would support them, because we saw a fix in Indiana, a recall and an amend in Arkansas, and in North Carolina and Georgia they're stalling. Will they regret that?

BOOTHE: No, because what we've seen is demagoguery from the left about what the RFRA actually does. And what is ironic to me is you've got some of the same individuals who once supported RFRA that have come out against it. If you remember, Senator or then House member Chuck Schumer is the one who introduced the federal RFRA in Congress which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. President Obama when he was a state senator in Illinois once supported RFRA. And the reality is the RFRA doesn't enshrine discrimination. All that it does is it seeks to provide a defensive protection against more vulnerable religious groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, like Muslims, and individuals like that.

BLACKWELL: Let me get to Maria. Does Hillary Clinton want to launch a campaign with the culture war that her husband started against in '92?

CARDONA: No, absolutely not. And that's not what she will focus on. She will focus on themes having to do with helping middle class families and workers in this country try to move forward with this burgeoning economy that has not touched everybody. And I think you're not going to be able to see a more stark contrast between her focus on fighting for the middle class each and every single day and the extreme views that you just talked about, Victor, in terms of what Republicans want to focus on, which is keeping LGBT community in this country from enjoying the same rights as everybody else. And covering that up with talking points about how this is about protecting religious freedom when we all know what is at the bottom of this, and clearly the folks who have --

BOOTHE: President Obama's economy middle class families have suffered under.

CARDONA: I think they have whiplash with the kind of 180 that they have done, because their own Republican chambers of commerce and other Republican leaders have said --

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: They're going against what this country is about, and it's going to be a very stark contrast.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Maria, Lisa, we have to wrap it there. We did see the business community came out pretty strong especially Wal-Mart in Arkansas, and the change was made that their voice certainly was heard. Lisa Boothe, Maria Cardona, thank you both.

BOOTHE: Thank you.

CARDONA: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:12] PAUL: All right, ready for some basketball?

BLACKWELL: All right, the Final Four kicks off in about seven hours, college basketball's biggest weekend, possibly all eyes on Indiana. And everyone is talking about Kentucky and their perfect season that is on the line tonight. It's on the line every night they play, but tonight especially. CNN's Rachel Nichols is live in Indianapolis. Rachel?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's been 40 years almost since we had a perfect season in college basketball, 1976, half the newsroom wasn't born there. So it has been a while, guys.

And, of course you don't need a perfect season to make it into the NCAA tournament and win. So I asked coach John Calipari of Kentucky when we sat down, hey, doing a perfect season and trying to win the NCAA tournament, is that too much pressure for your guys to carry into the games this weekend? Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICHOLS: Anyone throws the "perfect record" quote at you, I always hear you say "we are undefeated, we are not perfect." Why is that distinction so important to you? JOHN CALIPARI, KENTUCKY HEAD COACH: We're undefeated but we're not a

perfect team. And our game is defensively, that if we swarm and play off of your defense we're really good. But you have to be high energy. You have to be into it. You have to have that mentality not that I'm coming to play a ball game. I'm coming out to maul this dude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: "Maul this dude," So no animosity there at all. If you want to know about that matchup they're going to face Wisconsin, the team they faced in this exact same stage of the final four last year. And by the way, Wisconsin thought it was winning that game. One of Kentucky's players Aaron Harrison a crazy three-point dagger with about 10 seconds to go to. So Kentucky hoping for a repeat of that. Wisconsin very open about the fact they have waiting for this moment for a year. They want their revenge. It's going to be good this afternoon.

BLACKWELL: All right, Rachel Nichols, looking forward to it. Thank you very much.

NICHOLS: Thanks, Rachel.

BLACKWELL: Don't forget to tune in to CNN today at 2:30 eastern for Rachel's March Madness special, all access at the final four.

PAUL: Hope you enjoyed watching. Have a great weekend. Make great memories.

BLACKWELL: Yes. There's much more ahead of the next hour of the CNN Newsroom. We turn things over to Fredricka Whitfield.

PAUL: Hey, Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, you guys. Have a great weekend. Happy Easter weekend.

BLACKWELL: You too.

PAUL: Happy Easter.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. It is the 11:00 eastern hour. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Newsroom starts right now.