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Clinton Kicks Off White House Bid; Will SNL Portrayal Hurt Hillary?; Senator Marco Rubio Enters GOP Race Today; New Audio in Deadly Police Shooting; War on ISIS; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 13, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:06] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Hillary Clinton on the road and on message. Right now she's nestled in a caravan crossing the Midwest en route to Iowa for her first official campaign event tomorrow. She is determined to erase the mistakes of 2008 when critics accused her being disconnected from the voters and feeling entitled to the nomination. Here's a clip of her campaign ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been doing a lot of home renovations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But most importantly we really just want to teach our dog to quit eating the trash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And so we have high hopes for 2015 that that's going to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've started a new career recently. This is a fifth generation company which means a lot to me. This country was founded on hard work and it really feels good to be a part of that.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm getting ready to do something, too. I'm running for president.

Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times but the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion. So you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead and stay ahead because when families are strong, America is strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Let's begin our coverage with CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar.

I couldn't help but notice, Brianna, the Republicans who've announced appeared with their wives. Hillary Clinton did not appear with her husband.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That is a very good observation, Carol. This is something that we've been talking about. What kind of role is Bill Clinton going to play in her campaign? I think at least initially we're seeing her very much standing on her own two feet. I think that Bill Clinton -- I don't think there's any way that he's not going to play some role and be public and be a very good surrogate for her. That certainly is a skill that he brings to the table.

But for the time being he says that he's going to be playing this background role. But I don't know. We'll see. I mean, do you believe that he will stay completely out of it? I don't think so.

COSTELLO: No, he's going to appear on the cover of "Town & Country" magazine very soon. Right? Chelsea Clinton is very much in the forefront. Right? She was on the cover of "Elle."

KEILAR: That's right.

COSTELLO: She tweeted out that she was proud of her mother. If you go on Hillary Clinton's Facebook page, many, many pictures old and new of Bill Clinton and Chelsea.

KEILAR: That's right. And so I think you're seeing them certainly as a part of her life and he's of course going to be an adviser. But when you look back to 2007 and 2008, he was at times an asset but he was very much a liability at some times particularly in South Carolina he was very damaging to her. He responded so sharply when Hillary Clinton was attacked. He got so defensive in a way that he never did about being attacked by himself and it didn't really come off and paint him in a flattering light and ultimately wasn't great for his wife.

COSTELLO: So some people are complaining that this ad, this campaign ad that Hillary Clinton put out doesn't go into policy at all. Just shows a bunch of very nice families of all different types talking about stuff, and then about two minutes in you see Hillary Clinton saying, man, I want to be president.

KEILAR: That's right. This is sort of an umbrella concept that she's putting out there that she is the champion for everyday Americans. That she is the champion for the middle class. And you see -- I think what you're seeing here more than a specific message or specific policy is you're seeing who she's trying to attract and that's really a coalition that President Obama was able to build.

You see African-Americans, Hispanic Americans in this ad. You see what appears to be a single mother who's, you know, managing to get by. You see gay Americans. I mean, these are -- this is the coalition that worked for President Obama that she's trying to bring along as well. I think what we'll be seeing here she's got these events in Iowa then she's on to New Hampshire. They're going to be listening events. She's going to be hearing and trying to understand what people want.

And then as we understand it, Carol, she's not actually going to give a major speech until May. So it may be some time before we hear these really detailed policy prescriptions from her. She's going to be talking about some of these issues. I know that we've heard from Iowans they're really eager to get kind of into the meat of that, like you were saying. But for now, yes, this is definitely more of a broad strokes who she's trying to attract.

COSTELLO: All right. Brianna Keilar reporting live for us this morning.

Let's go back to Hillary Clinton's image because it could be one of her biggest obstacles. This weekend "Saturday Night Live," the sketch on there, well, it provided a prime example of accusations that Clinton can come across as cold and calculated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now since we're announcing your candidacy via social media, we thought it would be fun if you actually filmed the video yourself on your own phone. That way it seems more personal and intimate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Personal and intimate, yes. I better take off this jacket then.

[10:05:12] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's much better. Now want to do vocal warm-ups and then we'll get started.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Love to. Hillary is a granny with a twinkle in her eye. Hillary is a granny and she makes an apple pie. First female president, first female president, me, me, me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Great, Mrs. Clinton. OK. Now hold up your phone and you can just look natural. OK. And maybe you want to soften a little. OK. A little more. OK. Maybe a lot more. Great. Great. OK. And action.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Citizens, you will elect me. I will be your leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You can't help but laugh, right? Well, the perception problems may be no laughing matter for the Clinton campaign. Critics both Republicans and Democrats have long seized on the negatives of Clinton's image but longtime allies say those old criticisms will not inflict new damage.

CNN's Gloria Borger spoke with Bill Daley who served as the White House chief of staff for President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL DALEY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The misconceptions. There are certain people are fixing those with those beliefs and they've been for 25 years. You're not going to change them. What you've got to do is basically talk to the future about what you want to do with the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Let's bring in Gloria Borger, CNN's chief political analyst.

Good morning, Gloria.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So how much -- good morning. How much of Clinton's past could shape her future?

BORGER: Well, look, I think an awful lot of it. And what you saw and what Brianna was talking about in the ad, Hillary Clinton is not someone who is running this time on her past. She's going to certainly talk about her experience but in 2008 she ran on her experience and that didn't get her anywhere. The new guy walked in the room and he's the one who won. So this time she's going to run on who she is.

She's going to talk about being a woman and she's going to talk about the future and what her campaign ad was about was the new diverse Democratic coalition that as Brianna was saying she really wants to attract. And you cannot attract that by talking about the past. And by the way, these voters do not really remember the '90s a lot. OK. I covered the Clintons in the '90s. I remember the '90s.

They don't remember the '90s. They know Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and they want to take that and move -- you know, move on from there.

COSTELLO: That's true, but don't the people in our age bracket vote the most?

BORGER: We do. We do. And this is why Republicans are reminding everybody about the Clintons talking an awful lot about questions about funding and the Clinton Foundation contributions to the Clinton Foundation, whether there was any conflict of interest there, reminding voters about recent history, about Benghazi, for example. They are going to talk about that. We've seen the e-mail controversy.

You know, I don't think it does them really a lot of good to stretch all the way back to the '90s and talk about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton and all the rest of it, because I think -- and Rand Paul has done that. But I think, you know, that could potentially backfire on them quite honestly. And I'm sure Hillary Clinton is prepared for that. But she's got to look like something new.

You know, it's very rare that a political party reaches back a generation to have somebody carry them forward and appeal to a younger generation. Particularly for Democrats. Democrats never do that. But they're doing it this time. And she's got to try and appeal to those new voters.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Gloria Borger, thanks for your insight as always.

BORGER: Sure. COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

Now let's turn to the Republican race for the White House. A rising star in the party, Senator Marco Rubio, will officially announce his bid later today in his hometown of Miami.

That's where we find CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You know, Rubio is going to be the third freshman senator who came to Washington on a Tea Party platform to announce for president just in the past couple of weeks. Of course Ted Cruz and Rand Paul came before him. So the question is, how is he going to be different? And the answer, according to Rubio aides, is he's going to push the idea of his world view, his world view that was shaped by his Cuban American family and the people who came to this building seeking refuge in the United States. This building where he's going to announce.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I owe to God.

BASH (voice-over): Marco Rubio's announcement preview. A video of his speeches. The greatest hits.

RUBIO: I've raised in a community of exiles.

BASH: The son of hard-working Cuban refugees made good as a compelling personal story and Rubio is known for his eloquence in how he tells it.

[10:10:10] RUBIO: Our children deserve to inherit the greatest society in all of human history.

BASH: Now building that into a new optimistic Rubio 2016 tagline. "A New American Century." It's a message Rubio has been honing since he first ran for Senate only five years ago when he rode the Tea Party wave to Washington.

RUBIO: Thank you.

BASH: In 2012, after Mitt Romney lost big among Latinos, Rubio helped craft a bipartisan immigration bill with a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Anathema to the GOP base. He told us then there'd be blowback.

(On camera): Is it a risk for you politically?

RUBIO: Well, I don't know about for me. Certainly there are people that are upset. I mean, there are people that I agree with on every other issue who are mad at us for having -- gotten involved in this issue. BASH (voice-over): But mad was an understatement. Rubio got torched

by conservatives who accused him of backing amnesty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like you a lot. Can you commit if elected president to sending home every single person that's violated our country's laws ?

RUBIO: I don't think anybody can commit to that.

BASH: Rubio turned his Senate focus to foreign policy delivering a series of speeches designed to showcase him as a well-versed conservative hawk.

RUBIO: We must be prepared for threats wherever they arise because our nation is never isolated from the world.

BASH: Just now 43 years old now, Rubio gained prominence in Florida at age 34 as the first Cuban American speaker of the Florida legislature.

RUBIO: In her heart burns the hope that everything that has gone wrong in her life will go right for that child.

BASH: His acceptance speech choked up the outgoing governor, Jeb Bush.

JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Wow. I cannot -- I can't think back on a time where I've ever been prouder to be a Republican, Marco.

BASH: Bush even passed Rubio a baton of sorts. Bestowing him with the Sword of Chang. He called it a mystical warrior.

BUSH: Chang is someone who believes in conservative principles, believes in entrepreneurial capitalism.

BASH: Over the past nine years whenever the two appeared together in public, it was a love fest.

RUBIO: You look up the words of leadership and there's a picture of him in the dictionary.

BASH: It's no wonder many mutual Florida friends are bewildered that Rubio is actually running for president now even after Jeb Bush, a mentor, made clear he would be in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And Carol, Rubio sources say that he has been talking to friends saying that they're not necessarily competing with one another. They're just auditioning for the same job. But as you well know in the rough and tumble world of politics, it can get very ugly very fast.

COSTELLO: I know. I was going to say that's a very political way to put it.

Dana Bash reporting live from Miami this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, nine days later new audio of who is thought to be Officer Slager moments after Walter Scott was shot. It's shocking.

Nick Valencia live in South Carolina.

Good morning.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Department responding to that newly uncovered audio.

I'm Nick Valencia in North Charleston. The details on that right after the break. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:07] COSTELLO: New audio surfacing catches the aftermath of that deadly police shooting in South Carolina. Now it's hard to hear but listen to how Michael Slager, the officer, is speaking with another officer moments after firing eight bullets at Walter Scott. That unarmed black man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last time we had to wait a couple of days to interview -- the official interview to sit down and tell what happened by the time you get home, it'd probably be a good idea to sit down your thoughts about whatever happened, once the adrenaline stops pumping.

MICHAEL SLAGER, FORMER NORTH CHARLESTON POLICE OFFICER: It's pumping.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes. Oh yes. Oh yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Nick Valencia live in North Charleston with more on this, this morning.

Hi, Nick.

VALENCIA: Good morning, Carol. We have reached out to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Department, the lead agency in this investigation, and ask them how they would characterize what you just heard there, that exchange between a senior officer and Officer Slager in the immediate aftermath of the shooting death of Walter Scott. When asked how they would characterize it, they said, quote, "It was information that was discussed at the scene. It's part of our investigation."

Meanwhile in the community here in North Charleston, just a day after a vigil was held for Walter Scott at the site where he was shot and killed, people here in this community and beyond questioning the conduct of the other officer seen in that tape. Critics asking was he complicit in a cover-up? Did he do enough to help Walter Scott? We should mention no formal charges have been leveled against anyone else other than Officer Slager.

When I spoke to the mayor of North Charleston yesterday at that vigil, he did not know if that other officer was on active duty. He did, though, have some pretty choice words for Officer Slager.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KEITH SUMMEY, NORTH CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: My heart goes out to his wife, who's a lady that's eight months pregnant. Seeing a future bright spot, you know, in their lives and now we've seen two families devastated, not just the family of Mr. Scott that got shot but the family of this police officer as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: This morning we saw a handful of demonstrators continuing their protest against the police department. A bigger demonstration is planned here at North Charleston city hall at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

We should say that Officer Slager remains in jail just about a week after he was arrested. He's being held without bond -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Valencia reporting live from North Charleston, South Carolina this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, hundreds of years of history blown to pieces in just minutes. What was lost next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:23:23] COSTELLO: ISIS obliterates an ancient city. An intense explosion artifacts dating back to 900 B.C. reduced to dust in this newly released propaganda video. Before the blast militants destroyed historic antiques piece by piece with sledgehammers. The city that was blown apart was Nimrud. That's in a Syrian city found in Iraq. It's located just south of ISIS controlled area of Mosul.

Our senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is in London following these latest developments.

Tell us more -- Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes. It really is outrageous and certainly part of the pattern of ISIS destroying historic cultural sites that are really invaluable to humanity. This one as you said is Nimrud. It's a little bit south of the city of Mosul, which is the main stronghold for ISIS in northern Iraq. And really we heard about the destruction of Nimrud last month.

And at the time it was said that it was bulldozed over so there were some people who believed that maybe parts of it might have been saved, that maybe ISIS didn't destroy all of it but certainly the video that we're seeing right now shows that they did destroy literally everything. The video shows them using power tools, destroying ancient frescos, ancient statues. All of this keep in mind is more than 3,000 years old.

These are the remnants of an ancient Assyrian civilization there and then in the end they go and blow everything up. And the worst part about it is, Carol, that the ISIS fighters who were involved in this on that video say that they are actually proud of what they're doing. They say that this is all in line with their interpretation of Islam. Needless to say that pretty much all Muslims would have very strong objections to that.

Certainly the United Nations has very strong objections to it as well. The head of the U.N. has said that the destruction of cultural goods like the one that we're seeing right now is nothing short of a war crime -- Carol.

[10:25:12] COSTELLO: It just seems so stupid and pointless. I mean, I know there's no way to actually tell if this will actually recruit followers but come on.

PLEITGEN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, that certainly is one of the things that they seem to be trying to do. I mean, this is obviously all part of the PR strategy that they've been using. And it really is almost bizarre to see that, you know, after we saw what they did to that Jordanian pilot, after all the beheading videos, and now this, you would think that they wouldn't get any new recruits but still it seems, as though, there are people who are trying to join ISIS still going into Syria, going into Iraq.

So it certainly seems as though it is part of their PR strategy but certainly one that is very much met with disgust around the world -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Frederik Pleitgen reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton 2.0. A new message, a new image. Who she's trying to reach in her latest bid for the presidency. That would be women I would guess.

We'll talk about that just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

[10:30:02] Hillary Clinton is running for president in 2016. It is official. But one fellow Democrat may be running away. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive, is not endorsing Clinton.