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Donald Trump Rails on Rivals at Iowa Rally; Kurds Liberate Key Iraqi City from ISIS; U.S. Strike Targets Jihadi John in Syria; Trump Says He Would Just Bomb Out ISIS; Secret Service Agent Accused of Soliciting Teen for Sex; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 13, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:24] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump is mad as hell. His unbridled anger on display for a full 95 minutes at an Iowa rally last night. He railed against immigration, the war on ISIS and Ben Carson, calling his opponent pathological.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Carson is an enigma. He wrote a book and in the book he said terrible things about himself. He said that he's pathological and that he's got basically pathological disease.

If you're a child molester, there's no cure. They can't stop you. Pathological, there's no cure. He said he went after his mother with a hammer. He wanted to hit her on the head, or he hit her on the head or he wanted to hit her on the head. And I said, wow, that's tough. So he went after his mother. This is in his book. This isn't me. I'm just trying to save you the cost of a book. So he's a pathological, damaged, temper, a problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: According to the "Washington Post" the Republican establishment is so worried about Trump possibly becoming the nominee, they're pushing for Mitt Romney.

Sunlen Serfaty is at the GOP summit in Orlando where Trump and Carson will take the stage in back-to-back appearances tonight. And David Chalian is CNN's political director. He joins us live from Washington.

Sunlen, to you, though, what's the mood in Orlando?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I think the elephant in the room is very clearly this new and refreshed feud between Donald Trump and Ben Carson. And certainly this dynamic of the sharp personal turn that the race has turned to in the last 24 hours.

This is a big GOP cattle call here in Orlando where we'll hear from nearly every GOP candidate. The marquee match-up of course be later this evening where Donald Trump and Ben Carson will appear back-to- back this evening on this stage after each other. So certainly we'll be looking for any sort of reaction or doubling down on the part of Donald Trump and his comments he made last night.

Of course, this really, again, is the dynamic in the room. See how each of them respond. Here's more of what Donald Trump said last night where he almost mocked Ben Carson and this stabbing incident that he's claimed in his past. Here's more of Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He took a knife and he went after a friend and he lunged, he lunged that knife into the stomach of his friends. But lo and behold, it hit the belt. It hit the belt. And the knife broke. Give me a break. Give me a break. Give me a break. The knife broke.

Let me tell you, I'm pretty good at this stuff. I have a belt. Somebody has to hit me with the belt going in because the belt moves this. It moves this way. It moves that way. He hit the belt buckle. Anybody have a knife, want to try it on me?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Believe me, it ain't going to work. You're going to be successful. But he took the knife, he went like this and he plunged it into the belt. And amazingly the belt stayed totally flat and the knife broke.

How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now we have gotten a small hint of how Ben Carson potentially will respond to this. His business partner telling CNN this morning that it's sad to see his campaign, in his words, implode like this. He also spoke to Ben Carson and his response was to pray for Donald Trump. So certainly, Carol, an interesting backdrop which will certainly be the focus of much of here today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Sunlen. Thank you.

So on to you, David. I know Ben Carson's people responded. We just heard Sunlen say that and Ben Carson's people said that we should all pray for Mr. Trump. Carly Fiorina also posted this on Trump on her Facebook page. Quote, "Donald, sorry I've got to interrupt again. You would know something about pathological. How was that meeting with Putin? Or Wharton? Or your self-funded campaign? Anyone can turn a multimillion dollar inheritance into more money but all the money in the world won't make you as smart as Ben Carson."

[10:05:02] So, David, are we about to see a coordinated Trump attack?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I don't know that we're going to see a coordinated Trump attack because each candidate in the field has their own strategy. And I don't think that they necessarily all overlap. I do think what you're seeing right now is Donald Trump reverting to the kind of campaigning that propelled him to the top of the pack where he sits. When he is threatened by a candidate, much like he perceived himself to be by Jeb Bush over the summer, Carol, he goes after them hard.

And do not forget where last night's event was. It was in Iowa. That is the place where Ben Carson is presenting the stiffest challenge to Donald Trump. He's aware of it. We're 79 days away from the caucuses. And Donald Trump is putting Ben Carson on notice that he is not going to escape the wrath of Trump. And this has been the stuff of his success.

COSTELLO: OK. So the "Washington Post" had an interesting article this morning. It said the Republican establishment is so freaked out by a Trump candidacy that they're thinking of drafting Mitt Romney. Is that possible?

CHALIAN: Well, listen, our Jeff Zeleny and Gloria Borger has reported that the Romney sources they spoke to this morning say those are all about incoming calls from the establishment to the Romney world saying, hey, what are you thinking, but that Romney is not really giving any strong consideration right now.

I read that story in the "Washington Post" more about that this is the same nervousness the Republican establishment has expressed all the way out. Since June when Donald Trump got in the race and he started to rise and when Ben Carson started to rise in the polls at the end of the summer, Carol, the establishment does not believe that those are the two guys to take on Hillary Clinton, that could put the best foot forward for the party when looking ahead to the general.

But Donald Trump nor Ben Carson are looking ahead to the general right now. They are wooing the Republican faithful and the grassroots and the establishment in the Republican Party are not at all aligned right now. So I don't think that you're going to see Mitt Romney jump into the fray. I don't know that that would solve the problem for the Republican Party necessarily, that he would be seen as some white knight by the grassroots no matter how much the establishment may want to bring in a heavy hitter to try to bring order to what they see as a very chaotic nomination season.

COSTELLO: David Chalian, many thanks.

All right. Two major developments in the war on terror to tell you about this morning. First Kurdish troops with help from the U.S. military have now chased out terrorists and liberated the key Iraqi city of Sinjar.

This video shot by our own CNN crew on the ground, it shows just how fierce that battle was. Earlier today, hundreds of Kurdish troops poured into Sinjar on troop before facing heavy gunfire and going into battle with ISIS. The mission, moving faster than anyone expected.

Also new this morning, Jihadi John, the masked man who became the face of ISIS may now be dead. According to the Pentagon U.S. special forces targeted Jihadi John during an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria. Officials are still trying to determine whether that mission worked but a senior U.S. official tells CNN authorities are confident that Jihadi John was indeed taken out.

We're covering all of this with our team of experts. CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is imbedded with the troops on the ground in Iraq and our CNN military analyst and former Navy SEAL Jonathan Gilliam is with me, too.

I want to start with you, Nick, you're on the ground. Sinjar fell faster than anyone expected. Why?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not entirely clear whether ISIS simply didn't want to fight for it or whether they decided to let the numerous booby traps and landmines we've seen implanted around that city that's now fallen for the Peshmerga actually do the work for them and depart. It may well be that the sheer volume of Peshmerga, and we saw as they move into the city today, they were on foot in the hundreds moving in, that that proved too much for ISIS to resist. That's possible. But I think most people really we spoke to suggest it was down to the airstrikes.

Enormous air power being used by the coalition there. We saw it on the roads heading into the city yesterday, flattening anything ISIS could try and throw at them. Also, too, missiles given to the Peshmerga which seem able to take out the car bombs ISIS throw at them before they even get near them. So some tactical advantages but I think also some fortune of application here. Large numbers of Peshmerga, significant coalition air power for which the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani thanked the coalition today.

But it's still inside Sinjar we were there literally four hours ago and there were still snipers, it seemed, in place there, making the Kurds very anxious and fire back a lot. Explosions. Not so distant as well. So clearly pockets of ISIS still in there despite the Kurdish claim that it is now liberated -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So we have word that Jihadi John may have been killed by an American airstrike, by a drone. Do people on the ground care?

WALSH: No, not in Sinjar. It hasn't really figured there in all honesty. The issues here are much more local.

[10:10:05] We're talking about Peshmerga who are trying to lead a fight to push ISIS out of the neighborhood near the place they want to call their future homeland and already many of them do consider their homeland. And for the Yazidis, who used to live in Sinjar, yes, while of course Jihadi John and what he did on YouTube and in social media caused, perhaps, the United States to decide to intervene in the fight against ISIS, that may have some impact on their thoughts. This is much more of a local tragedy to home here.

The Yazidis live themselves in the mountains, those who fled Sinjar, looking down on their homeland, trying -- their home town trying to think of the day they can move back in. That day is significantly closer because of the actions of Peshmerga and the coalition but they'll going back to a town that is frankly rubble, laden with booby traps, something of a disaster to try and house ordinary life now -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, many thanks.

Now to you, Jonathan. So this drone supposedly took out Jihadi John over Raqqa, Syria. How do they prove that Jihadi John was really killed?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, probably the same way that they decided that this was Jihadi John. I mean, we -- I'm telling you that the sources that we have throughout the world are our greatest assets in the war on terror. And this just shows that technology can do a lot but if you don't have sources to confirm somebody's location prior to the bombing, it doesn't really do you a whole lot of good to throw bombs down there.

So I would assume that if our intel community is telling us that he is no longer with us, he's most likely not with us.

COSTELLO: But we heard not so long ago that they targeted Baghdadi and killed him, the leader of ISIS.

GILLIAM: Sure.

COSTELLO: But it turns out that we really didn't kill Baghdadi.

GILLIAM: Right. And that's why the intel sources are not saying to CNN or anybody else that they're 100 percent sure. They're saying 99 percent sure because the fact is unless they have eyes on specifically, source information can be flawed sometimes, but still it has been -- it has proven our greatest information.

COSTELLO: OK. I'm getting some new information from my producer in my ear. And I'm just going to ask you about. And tell me if I get this right, Carolyn. So Putin has said he's willing to work with Washington to defeat ISIS. Is that correct? That is correct. So even though they're violating international law, but still -- and I would suppose that has arisen out of the terrible catastrophe with the Russian jetliner, right?

GILLIAM: Most likely --

COSTELLO: Russian jetliner, right?

GILLIAM: Right. I think one thing that Putin may be starting to realize -- listen, he's a trained KGB officer. I'm sure he did not go into this frivolously, on a whim, however what he has to start realizing is that a lot of people forget that Assad is Muslim. That Iran is backing and working with Assad. Hezbollah is working with Assad. And they're fighting against another extremist group which is ISIS. OK. So what's happening here is Putin has put himself in the middle of this mix and it could turn against him at any time. It's -- you know, like being --

COSTELLO: And now he's suddenly realizing this because that aircraft was --

GILLIAM: Well, I'm sure that now what's going to happen is Russia could potentially start becoming the center of attacks in Russia or Russia itself because they don't have the ground troops.

See, here's the biggest problem. All these bombings that are going on, where the Kurds are going for, that report just showed exactly what happened. When they go in, they took over a town or they took it back, and they had snipers in there, the reporters said that they are potentially moving backwards a little bit because they get a little antsy. That's the difference between when we go in with ground troops or if Russia had ground troops than the locals fighting. And I think that's probably where Putin is in the middle of this and it's not just advancing the way he'd like it to.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Jonathan Gilliam, thanks for stopping by.

GILLIAM: You got it.

COSTELLO: Still to come in NEWSROOM, the liberation of Sinjar. Huge victory in the fight against ISIS but will that change the terror group's strategy? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:17] COSTELLO: An act of self-defense and an assault in the heart of ISIS. That's how British Prime Minister David Cameron described a drone strike targeting Jihadi John. The masked face of the terror group. U.S. authorities now working to figure out whether that hit worked and that Jihadi John is indeed dead. A senior U.S. official tells CNN authorities are confident, though, Jihadi John was indeed was taken out.

In the meantime, Kurdish troops force ISIS militants to run. They liberate the key Iraqi town of Sinjar. American forces helping in that effort with airstrikes. The president said the U.S. has ISIS on the retreat, although Donald Trump has other ideas in how to fight the terrorist group. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. I would bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of them.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I would just bomb those suckers. And that's right, I'd blow up the pipes. I'd blow up -- I'd blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left. And you know what? You'll get Exxon to come in there, and in two months -- have you ever seen these guys how good they are, the great oil companies? They're rebuild that sucker brand new. It'll be beautiful and I'd ring it, and I'd take the oil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk about this with CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

OK, so, General, why even bother with the Kurds? Why bother convincing them to fight ISIS on the ground? Why not just bomb the -- out of Iraq?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I would suggest, Carol, that Mr. Trump might want to take a visit to Iraq or some of the combat areas and see how things actually work on the ground.

[10:20:04] This is -- it's now getting into the scary category. He is talking about things that he knows very little about. It's not only a little bit scary, but it's also dangerous and it's also immoral. You just don't do that. Americans don't fight wars by carpet bombing nations. And I think if he were on the ground in Iraq or Syria, and he would see the population that is in dire fear of ISIS and how they are intermingling with the population, I think he would have a better perspective.

I think it might also be interesting to get him into that country when other organizations like Mobil or Exxon have attempted to try and repair some of the oil works because I was there when that occurred. And it's very challenging truthfully.

COSTELLO: Why is it challenging?

HERTLING: Well, I mean, this is an applause line for Mr. Trump. And a lot of people -- again I would remind folks that less than 1 percent of the American population has served in the military. And even a fewer percentage of the population has served in these kind of areas so you just don't know what it's like.

When other countries are under conflict, under siege like this, it's hard, extremely hard, to reestablish both their economic and their industrial capacity once they're bombed. There are people living there. There are 11 million people in northern Iraq where the oil fields are. And not all of them are ISIS supporters. In fact, very few are. So when you're talking about dropping bombs, first of all, you've got to have targets to drop bombs on. It's an applause line for people who have never been there and have never seen what it's like.

COSTELLO: But, you know, you think that history would give us a clue, right? Because we went into Baghdad. We overthrew Saddam Hussein. We're good at that. The U.S. military is great at that.

HERTLING: Yes.

COSTELLO: It's what's after we're not so great about because we didn't have someone who would run the country.

HERTLING: You're exactly right, Carol. Yes. Well, that's exactly right. And you recall the great touting of the shock and awe campaign in 2003 when we did go into Iraq. That shock and awe was actually contributing to the inability to re-establish essential services to the country. There are also some decisions made in terms of the governmental officials and how they aren't there to run the country. This is the hard work of politics. This is the hard work of conflict

that Mr. Trump is not talking a lot about. And again, I'm trying to remain apolitical in this, but it's increasingly difficult to do that when you hear these kinds of statements of individuals who have not been there, who don't know more than the generals do. And in fact in many cases don't know more than the privates do.

COSTELLO: OK, so, General, if your commander-in-chief said, go into Iraq and just bomb it, bomb it to smithereens, how would you react?

HERTLING: Well, I would react by first of all trying to inform him of the laws of land warfare and Geneva conventions that are involved in this and how it is not only immoral but illegal to do that. And I would not be privy to -- or I would not be a partner to these kinds of things because it would put me as a commander before the Geneva -- the Hague courts.

And if he persisted in saying bomb it, I think what you would eventually have in the military across the board is mass resignations. And that's -- that's a tough stance to take, Carol, but truthfully, that's what would occur because the American military studies these kinds of things. They know the moral and the values implications associated with these kind of decisions. They will attempt to persuade their leaders the right approaches to take and the various options available. But they won't do things illegally or immorally.

COSTELLO: All right. General Hertling, thank you so much. I do appreciate you being with me today. I'll be right back.

HERTLING: Thank you, Carol.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:28:10] COSTELLO: Another black eye for the Secret Service. Today 37-year-old Secret Service Officer Lee Robert Moore will appear in federal court to answer charges he texted naked pictures of himself to a girl he thought was 14 years old. And yes, Agent Moore was assigned to the White House.

CNN's justice correspondent Pamela Brown is here with more. Good morning.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Really disturbing details in this criminal complaint, Carol. We've been looking through -- Officer Moore was actually on duty at the White House, according to officials, when he allegedly sent naked pictures of himself to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl and tried to meet up with her for sex. It actually was a detective with the Delaware State Police. And the person was chatting with online he talked about wanting to meet up.

On August 26th actually Officer Moore asked to meet the alleged girl in person and requested she wear a skirt, saying online, "I would take immense pleasure in pulling those shorts off your hips and down your cute little legs." Moore was arrested on Monday. And court documents show he waived his Miranda rights, and agreed to talk with detectives, allegedly admitting that he sent those messages while he was on the job at the White House and that he had sent similar messages to other underage girls online.

The Secret Service released a statement, Carol, saying it, "takes allegations of potential criminal activity extremely seriously. This incident was reported to our Office of Professional Responsibility on Friday, November 6th. And on that same date the employee's security clearance was suspended and the employee was placed on administrative leave. All Secret Service issued equipment was retrieved and the employee's access to all Secret Service facilities was terminated."

He is set to appear in court today and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Pamela Brown reporting live. Thank you.

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

Donald Trump heads to Florida today where are expecting to hear his rhetoric towards Ben Carson.