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Deadlocked Baltimore Jury Sends 2nd Note to Judge; Cruz, Trump's Tough Talk on Keeping America Safe; Update in San Bernardino Shooting Investigation; Jeb Bush Took on Donald Trump at Debate; Trump Stump Speech in Mesa, Arizona. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 16, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: So many people in Baltimore following every single precise move from this jury, I'm sure, including you, Munir. You have your ears and eyes to the ground there in the city. Can you just tell me -- obviously, you can't speak for the entire city, but just for you and your group -- what's the sense right now in Baltimore?

MUNIR BAHAR, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: You know, quite ironically, we're less concerned about -- of course the verdict is important, but what we're concerned about is the potential of a spike in violence which is the exact same thing that happened back in April. There are not many people talking about it, but that week of unrest, we had almost -- we did have ten homicides in seven days. There's a lot of people to be frank are not concerned about Freddie Gray, are not concerned about any verdict, this way or that, there are people here who will use the opportunity to incite violence and commit violence themselves. Baltimore is experiencing one of its highest years of murders, of shootings and homicides, and this potentially could even add even more fuel to this problem that we're witnessing on a day to day basis.

So we're all bracing not really for protesters and people who are exercising their constitutional rights but others who, again, are going to use this as an opportunity to try to incite violence in their neighborhoods. Quite frankly, there are just not a lot of people who can stop that outside of law enforcement. A lot of people are trying to weigh in and give their opinions. But if the streets, the hood, catches fire and people are out with guns and knives and are doing things, that's a major concern because we're talking about the protection of the elderly, the protection of children, the protection of vulnerable people in these communities that literally won't have the help if this blows up. So that's what we're concerned about.

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I just want to add, though, Brooke, that we now know that the mayor's office, city hall and the police department have been working on making sure, regardless of the verdict, that the city of Baltimore is protected, that protesters certainly can exercise their rights to civil disobedience and to protest peacefully, but certainly they intend to protect the city and the citizens of the city.

BALDWIN: Munir, thank you for your group. No one wants violence but I'm sure feeling the pressure.

Sunny Hostin and Munir Bahar, thank you both.

HOSTIN: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Let me turn now to politics. Republican front runner, Donald Trump, making quite the entrance.

Do we have eyes on him, guys? Not quite yet. He's in there somewhere I'm being told.

We just saw the Trump plane land there in Mesa, Arizona. A huge crowd watching and waiting, have their Smartphones ready to roll. This is the first time we have seen Donald Trump speak publicly, holding this rally in the wake of the big final Republican presidential debate of the year.

We will take a break and be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:12] BALDWIN: Just really quickly I want to show you two different pictures. Obviously, on the right side of your screen, you're looking at Florida Senator Marco Rubio talking in New Hampshire. This is the first primary of next year after the Iowa caucus so he's talking in the wake of the debate. Left side of the screen, you're seeing a lot of people, not quite seeing the front runner in the Republican race, Donald Trump. Watching and waiting for him in Mesa, Arizona. The Republican presidential front runners, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, they're back on the trail tonight. Last night in Vegas stumping, now on the West coast.

The Trump rally in Mesa, Arizona, and Ted Cruz is campaigning in Los Angeles, and both likely continuing their tough talk on keeping America safe, especially with regard to this war on terror, ISIS specifically.

Here is Senator Ted Cruz and Donald Trump last night on the debate stage talking strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You would carpet- bomb where ISIS is, not a city but the location of the troops. You use air power directed and you have embedded Special Forces to direct the air power. But the object isn't to level a city. The object is to kill the ISIS terrorists, to make it -- listen, ISIS is gaining strength because the perception is that they're winning and President Obama fuels that perception. That will change when militants across the globe see that when you join ISIS that you are giving up your life, you are signing your death warrant.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: When you had the World Trade Center go, people were put into planes that were friends, family, girlfriends, and they were put into planes and they were sent back for the most part to Saudi Arabia. They knew what was going on. They went home and they wanted to watch their boyfriends on television. I would be very, very firm with families and frankly that will make people think. Because they may not care much about their lives, but they do care, believe it or not, about their families' lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Michael Pregent is with me, such an important voice here in the wake of the debate, the former intelligence adviser to General David Petraeus. He served in Iraq, and is the executive director of Veterans against the Deal, which opposes the nuclear deal with Iran.

Thank you for joining me.

MICHAEL PREGENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VETERANS AGAINST THE DEAL & FORMER INTELLIGENCE ADVISOR TO GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: Nice to be here. Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: When you hear things about carpet-bombing and taking out families from Cruz and Trump and even some others, do those constitute war crimes, first and foremost?

PREGENT: Indiscriminately targeting civilians? Yes. Carpet-bombing analogy was poorly used. The last time the U.S. carpet-bombed was in Tora Bora going after Osama bin Laden.

BALDWIN: What is carpet-bombing?

PREGENT: Several aircrafts dropping numerous bombs to basically do aerial denial, take out a mountain, a hill. When he talks about carpet bombing he's really talking about bombing formations of ISIS. But those days are gone. ISIS has melted back into the population. So the U.S. does not indiscriminately target Sunnis, but Russia, Iran and Assad do with barrel bombs and other weapons. So when people complain about 70 percent of the munitions not being dropped in the bombing raids that the U.S. does, it's because we don't have precise intelligence on the target. We're not willing to drop weapons on civilians because it alienates the very Sunnis. We need to fight ISIS and topple Assad. If I'm a Sunni military agent in Iraq or Syria listening to what they heard last night, you just have to question what our policy is. They're looking for more leadership but not looking for carpet bombing and taking care of family members.

BALDWIN: There was a lot of talk about violent jihadist extremists or the war on terror, killing, destroying ISIS. From your perspective, you have been on the ground in Iraq, how -- do their heads and strategies seem wrapped in reality to you? I'm curious your perspective.

[14:40:08] PREGENT: The biggest problem in Iraq Syria is ISIS sees it as one battlefield and so does Iran. Iran is sponsoring Shia militias in Iraq. In Syria, Iran is propping up Assad with Russia. So when you talk about a strategy, we don't have a capable ground force in either Syria or Iraq to actually fight ISIS. You have to do it with Sunnis, you have to do it with indigenous Sunnis. Sure, they can partner with allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, but we need indigenous Sunnis to help. That's what's missing from the strategy. BALDWIN: From everything you heard last night, do you get the sense

that they know that they understand the realities on the ground, or are these big easy sort of sweeping statements, I'm going to kill ISIS?

PREGENT: Right. You could take one thing from each candidate and put together a strategy. I liked what Carly Fiorina said about brake bringing back the warrior class. A lot of generals were fired that warned about, ISIS, Iran --

BALDWIN: The Petraeus --

(CROSSTALK)

PREGENT: Right. Allen, Matis (ph), both kind of exited based on these types of warnings about Iran and ISIS. This warrior class is out of the military. In Iraq, we have a generational gap. Most Americans in Iraq training Iraqis haven't been there in a combat role. They don't know the forces they're working with. We already have a generational gap not only in our intelligence community but also in our guys training Iraqis on the ground. They need to know who these forces are. So I heard bits and pieces that would work if they were one strategies, bits and pieces. But I didn't hear one candidate have a strategy that would fix this. I think Rubio came closest it, to being honest.

BALDWIN: Interesting. There you go.

Michael Pregent, thank you so much.

PREGENT: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

BALDWIN: Just in to CNN, plans for President Obama we're learning to visit San Bernardino.

And the FBI revealing new details about the shooters before the attack and the private messages they actually exchanged before they got married.

Plus, more breaking news out of Baltimore. We were just talking about that jury involved in the Freddie Gray trial, the first trial. We're getting word the jury has sent another message to the judge. We'll take you there live coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:56] BALDWIN: CNN has just learned that President Obama will travel to San Bernardino on Friday to meet privately with the families of the victims of the terror attack there.

That news coming on the heels of disturbing new details about those attackers specifically. The FBI chief revealing today that two years ago -- this is before they exchanged their wedding vows, before they even actually met in person -- the couple that carried out the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil since 9/11 made a joint commitment online to wage jihad. But the director of the FBI, James Comey, stressed their battle oath was not a public one.

I have our justice correspondent, Evan Perez, in New York.

Because you were listening to the FBI director in person. Specifically, they were exchanging on direct message via what?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it wasn't on social media. That's one of the important things the director wanted to make clear.

BALDWIN: OK.

PEREZ: That's one reason why the FBI had no visibility into this.

BALDWIN: There was a lot of criticism, why didn't they pick it up?

PEREZ: There was a lot of criticism, because of the fact that perhaps this was publicly visible and this wasn't known when Malik applied for her fiancee visa before she immigrated to this country. These communications were happening in direct private messages, and they occurred, Brooke, between Malik and Farook, who she yet had met. They hadn't even started dating really. They were just communicating online and between Malik and other friends. Those communications have now been uncovered now that the FBI obviously has been able to get warrants and has reason to go get the content of these communications. They really had no other visibility on these people because they had no -- they didn't raise any red flags up to the day they carried out these attacks.

BALDWIN: So they were communicating long before they actually met in person when they came over on the K-1 visa.

PEREZ: Right.

BALDWIN: Beyond that, Comey talked about Chattanooga.

PEREZ: One of the interesting things about Chattanooga is the FBI was trying to figure out what exactly motivated --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The recruitment center.

PEREZ: He killed five people at the recruitment center. His name is Mohammad Abdulaziz. We previously reported that he was partly inspired by the propaganda and the sermons of Anwar Awlaki, the cleric killed in a U.S. drone strike. We've now concluded it is a terrorist attack, that he did have drug problems. He had other issues.

As you know, his family was aware of them. And he sought essentially help, looking at some of the sermons about jihad and so on. That's the reason he carried out this attack. At least part of the motivation was this propaganda from Anwar Awlaki and other terrorists online. Then he carried out these attacks killing five people. But the key here is that the FBI has now concluded that this was definitely a terrorist attack. BALDWIN: Evan Perez, thank you, my friend.

PEREZ: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Coming up, any moment now, we're watching and waiting for Donald Trump. You see the plane. Look at this backdrop. What an entrance, Mr. Trump. Here's the plane. There's the podium. We're expecting to see the Republican front runner showing up and speaking to this crowd in Mesa, Arizona. We'll dip into that live as soon as we see him. Keeping an eye on that.

Also watching very closely what's happening in Baltimore. We are just getting word that the jury has sent another note to the judge. Still deliberating. Still deadlocked.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:56] BALDWIN: Definitely something of note from the debate last night in Las Vegas, Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush a feisty, fighting Jeb Bush, who was more than willing to spar with the front runner Donald Trump. Jeb Bush did not back down when Trump counterpunched. Here's the clash between these two men.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: If you think that this is tough and you are not being treated fairly --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: This isn't tough.

BUSH: -- imagine what is it like to deal with Putin --

(CROSSTALK)

BUSH: -- or dealing with President Xi or dealing the Islamic terrorism that exists.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Oh, yeah.

BUSH: This is a tough business to run for president.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: I know. You're a tough guy, Jeb. I know.

BUSH: It is.

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: And we need to have a leader that is --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You're tough. You're real tough.

BUSH: You're never going to be president of the United States by insulting your way to the presidency.

TRUMP: Let's see, I'm at 42 and you're at 3. So, so far, I'm doing better.

BUSH: Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Tim Miller, let me bring you in. You are Jeb Bush's communications director, live in Miami.

I know Jeb Bush told Jake Tapper he was having fun. It looked like it. It was a big night for him. I'm wondering where this Jeb Bush was months ago. Did Donald Trump sort of change Jeb Bush's game plan when he joined?

TIM MILLER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR JEB BUSH CAMPAIGN: Hey, Brooke. Donald got a little taste of his own medicine it looked like last night. Look, after he came out with that unhinged and un- American Muslim ban that really would have made the country less safe last week, Jeb out on the stump for those following him around in the lead-up to this debate really demonstrated that he was going to take on Donald Trump and going to be the one guy in this Republican field that will challenge him and call him out as an unserious candidate who's not prepared to be commander-in-chief. In these perilous times we need somebody capable of making the tough decisions to take on is. That was the contrast Jeb wanted to lay out last night. I thought he did it really successfully.

BALDWIN: There was a big zinger, the chaos candidate line, though even though it looked like he was getting under Donald Trump's skin. He is not getting his numbers. Jeb Bush is somewhere in the single digits when you look at all those polls, and I'm just wondering how, looking ahead, Tim, your guy will really be able to take on a pretty formidable front runner.

[14:55:02] MILLER: Look, I think he showed you last night. This was the first debate since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino. I think the American people are looking for somebody who is prepared to be president. Who's not going to be the chaos president? And if you look at Donald Trump's record, this is the kind of guy who is going to alienate our allies. He said Hillary Clinton would be a good -- he didn't know what the nuclear --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What be those who say this is too little, too late? Where was this Jeb Bush months ago? What are your thoughts? MILLER: Well, we've got two months until the February election so I

tell everybody to hold their horses. Basically, what we have is a real close race, a jumble behind Donald Trump. I think noteworthy last night for all those looking for a serious commander-in-chief who isn't Donald Trump, they see it's Jeb Bush. Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, basically in a jumble, none of them had the courage to stand up to him last night. I think that will play well for us in the weeks ahead.

BALDWIN: We'll see how the jumble breaks out in the first couple of states.

Tim Miller, thank you.

MILLER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We're going to go to Donald Trump, speaking in Mesa, Arizona. First time he's spoken since last night, Mesa, Arizona.

TRUMP: I was doing great. I've been number one. By the way, since I went, they're all talking about it. In the history of politics they say this isn't me, it's those people who I don't trust worth a --

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But you know I go through this all the time and I always say, although today I think the fact that I did Bill O'Reilly in that corner but they had no choice but to follow. But they never show the crowd size. You know that. I go home. My wife says, did you have many people? Because they just don't show the crowd. They show my face, never the crowd. Unless -- I used to think the cameras were fixed, that they couldn't move. Modern cameras, a lot of them don't work like the old camera. Then all of a sudden, we'll have a protester in the back corner and you'll see these cameras twist like a pretzel.

(LAUGHTER)

It's unbelievable. But I think today -- look at all of them back there. Look at those cameras. They are the worst people. The worst. The worst!

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Not all of them, 70 percent, 75 percent. It's true. And some are very good. But you have so many dishonest reporters. I've never -- in fact, it's almost amazing to me because I consider myself to get the worst publicity and yet I've got this massive lead. It tells you two things. They're dishonest and the people are really smart. No, they're really smart.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: I mean, I'll get stories that are so bad, and then they'll come back, Mr. Trump, sir, your polls just went up seven points. How could that be possible? People get it. They know the press is dishonest. It's a whole big con job.

So it's one of those -- in fact, in Phoenix, do you remember the -- was anybody in Phoenix?

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: It was like this. We had 15,000 people. They reported it at 4,000 and then 2,000, and then what's his name, Bernie Sanders -- he's gonzo now. He lost it when he said Hillary is fine with the e-mails. She's not fine with the e-mails. That was really breaking the law, folks, OK?

(SHOUTING)

TRUMP: So he doesn't get big crowds anymore. But he was there a little bit before or after. His crowd -- we have pictures -- his crowd, my crowd. His crowd was much lighter than mine. He had a lot of people, but it was much lighter. They say he had more than Trump. Not that it matters, but it's just dishonest reporting. It's one of those things, OK?

Now, last night, I had Jeb come at me. You know, low energy.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: No, I'm standing there and, all of a sudden, I hear this, Donald Trump -- it's like --

(LAUGHTER)

He said it just the way his pollster told him to say it. Then I hit back very, very hard.

But look, we need strong people. We need sharp people.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: We are being killed. We are being beaten by everybody. We're not winning anymore. And I finished up by saying, we aren't winning anymore. We don't win on trade. We don't win against ISIS. We don't win with the military. Our vets are being mistreated so badly it's horrible. Horrible.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: So I just want to go over this. So here we are, ready? Really?

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: They're complaining. Actually, don't complain. You're going to be the only ones that anyone will see on television tonight.

(LAUGHTER)

In a certain way, they have the best location. You'll be happy tonight when you're watching yourself on television.

So last night, they do all these polls, it's great. They poll everything. It's amazing to me. The candidates go out and spend hundreds of thousands for pollsters, right? I don't. I've got a lot of money, and it doesn't matter. I have like unlimited campaign. And yet, think of this, think of this, think of this.