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Sen. Bernie Sanders apologized to Hillary Clinton; Suspicious device found on an Air France flight; Officer Cesar Goodson Jr.'s trial is set to begin next month in the death of Freddie Gray; Ted Cruz has used a little humor if you want to call it that in this approach; Army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will be arraigned raped for his court-martial this week; Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot; "Star Wars" now rules the box office galaxy; 5-6p ET

Aired December 20, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST, NEWSROOM: And to close out the show, well, why not bring in Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen rocking to "Santa clause is coming to town."

All right. Thanks everybody. That is going to do it for me. Thanks so much for being with me. I'm Fredricka Whitefield. Pamela Brown up next with the NEWSROOM.

[17:00:22] PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Poppy Harlow in New York.

And we begin with presidential politics and a whole new level of trash talking on the Republican side of the race. Donald Trump and Jeb Bush letting the insults fly. Here's just some of what they said in the last 24 hours, beginning with a new shot fired by Trump just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is an embarrassment to the Bush family and in fact, he doesn't even want to use the Bush name, which is interesting. He's an embarrassment to himself and his family.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just one thing I got to get off my chest. Donald Trump is a jerk.

TRUMP: It was so sad to watch him, so sad. Bush. No, it was just sad. I mean, it's like close to incompetent. It was terrible.

BUSH: For us to win, Donald Trump can't be the nominee. He's never going to beat Hillary Clinton. It's just not possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All Right. So here to talk about the growing Bush-Trump feud, CNN's political commentator and host of the "Ben Ferguson show," Ben Ferguson. And Jackie Kucinich is senior politics editor at "The Daily Beast." Thanks for coming on, guys. Ben, we just heard the back and forth and it seems like they're really

ratcheting up the rhetoric against each other. You have to look at this poll, this national poll from FOX News. It has Bush at just three percent to Trump's 39 percent. Is this a smart strategy on Jeb Bush's part to use this Trump media hype to grab the spotlight and possibly position himself as the best anti-Trump candidate?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look. At this point, you do anything you possibly can in try to get your numbers up from three percent, because your campaign is pretty much over if you don't get it to move up quickly. So he is going to try anything he can. The more you talk about Trump, the more you're in the media, maybe that will help him.

I think trash talking with Donald Trump, though, has shown to be very ineffective, especially if you're Jeb Bush. He is just not very good at it. And I think that you are always going to see Donald Trump gets the best of him in the situation.

But I also think from Donald Trump's perspective, this is a smart political move for him because Jeb Bush basically is the establishment candidate. And if he can beat him in to oblivion and buries him in this way and say, look, the establishment Republicans, they tried to put this guy on us and we said no and look at what we're doing and they're ruined and we're successful. It fits right into that narrative, us against the world, us against the Republican establishment and it weren't from Donald trump campaign. So from his perspective, I think it's pretty smart.

BROWN: That's an interesting viewpoint because I think people might look at that and say, well, Bush is at three percent, why is Trump sort of wasting his energy going after him.

FERGUSON: Yes. It is the establishment.

BROWN: Exactly. And Jackie, Bush for his part, it seems like he is sort of coming out stronger against Donald Trump but some would say that he is not so comfortable in doing it. In fact, I don't know if you saw the "SNL" parody and let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Bush, go ahead and say out loud what you've been quietly muttering to yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump, I mean, this guy's the chaos candidate, I mean, really. Is he for real? No, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jeb, you're a very nice man but basically a little girl. Folks, this is true. I got hold of his birth certificate. His real name is Jebra.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not true. That's not my name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That it true. Yes it is. Jebra, losers say what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, Jackie, your take?

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, DAILY BEAST: I mean, you know, that is -- it's obviously bigger than that. But this has been going on for such a long time. Remember, in one of the debates, I believe it was a CNN debate, he called on Trump to apologize to his wife and Trump said no and just said, OK.

BROWN: In Jeb's wife.

KUCINICH: Yes. And just sort of let it go. He hasn't been good at taking it to Trump like that. And now he's trying because ignoring him wasn't working, being kind of happy go lucky about him wasn't working and now he's got to take him on.

Now, the problem with Jeb Bush is some of these numbers were little baked in the cake. Republicans who did not want another Bush. So, he was trying to overcome that even to begin with. This is not the race Jeb Bush thought he would be running coming into this. And it's what he's stuck with and it is hard for him to get out of it because Trump isn't going to stop. There's personal things here. Trump just doesn't like Jeb Bush.

FERGUSON: I promise you this. You will not see them as president and vice president on a ticket. I think we can all agree on that one. There is now way. It is personal.

But Jeb Bush came in to this and he his biggest issue, his biggest asset was his last name, which gave him a podium. And his biggest negative was also his last name. And I think people said we want somebody knew and he never really caught on. And then when he saw that he was actually on the fight with Donald Trump.

I do think one of the things that kind of hurt him was the fact that he was like this guy is beneath he. I can't believe that my entire career, I have now come to a point where I have to deal with Donald Trump. Wake up you idiots out there? Are you seeing this guy? Look how stupid he is. Why are we even having this conversation? And that actually is what sunk his campaign, in my opinion. The fact that he didn't take him seriously enough early enough on and then at some point it's just over and he's done with.

[17:05:48] BROWN: And frankly, Jackie, for a lot of the candidates in the race. They were surprised to see how this has all unfolded with Donald Trump with such a strong lead.

KUCINICH: The candidates in the race, those of us --. No, but I think it could have predicted where Trump is right now, you know, six months ago. But a lot of them have adopted. Look at Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz and Trump have had alliance for goodness sake. Marco Rubio, whether some of the Trump puts ads. It's just Jeb let him get under his skin and Ben is absolutely right, he didn't take him seriously initially and that was his folly. BROWN: All right, Ben Ferguson, Jackie Kucinich, thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

KUCINICH: Thank you.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

BROWN: And moving on now to last night's Democratic presidential debate, a debate that began with an apology for Senator Bernie Sanders for a data breach and then move to attacks on GOP front-runner, Donald Trump, of course.

CNN's Chris Frates joins us from Washington to break it all down for us.

So Chris, what were the highlights?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: I tell you, Pamela. With so much drama simmering in days before last night's debate, it sure looked like sparks would fly between Clinton and Sanders, finally giving Democrats some of the excitement Republican had had all the debate season long.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES (voice-over): Finally, a Democratic debate with some potential for drama. After days of smack talking among the DNC, the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, the debate stage was set for the two top Democrats to throw down over accusations that Sanders exploited a software glitch to access Clinton's confidential voter information, a move Clinton's camp called below the belt. Clinton goes for jugular, "Politico" trumpeted, signaling she was ready to throw some mud in the debate.

SANDERS: I apologize.

FRATES: Wait, what?

SANDERS: Not only do I apologize to Secretary Clinton and I hope we can work together on an independent investigation from day one --

FRATES: OK. But Clinton's not going to let him off that easy, right?

CLINTON: I very much appreciate that comment, Bernie. If I don't think the American people are all that interested in this --.

FRATES: Instead it seems Clinton thought Americans wanted to hear how she would take on the Republicans, a theme she stuck to throughout the night largely ignoring her two Democratic rivals.

CLINTON: And we also need to make sure that the really discriminatory messages that Trump is sending around the world don't fall on receptive ears. He is becoming ISIS' best recruiter.

FRATES: Clinton went on to say that ISIS is using Trump videos to recruit more jihadists, a claim there is no evidence to support. CLINTON: We now finally are where we need to be. We have a strategy

and a commitment to go after ISIS, which is a danger to us as well as the region, and we finally have a U.N. security council resolution bringing the world together to go after a political --

FRATES: Republicans pounced on that remark, Jeb Bush tweeting, no, Hillary Clinton, we are not where we need to be in the fight against ISIS.

O'Malley, a distant third in the race, with national security implications into his pitch for tougher gun control.

O'MALLEY: ISIL videos, ISIL training videos are telling lone wolves the easiest way to buy a combat assault weapon in America is at a gun show and it's because of the flip-flopping political approach of Washington that both my two colleagues on this stage have represented for the last 40 years.

FRATES: But even when she wasn't center stage, Clinton was still the center of attention.

CLINTON: Sorry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: So, none of the flash and bang that some had hoped for there, Pam. Neither Martin O'Malley nor Bernie Sanders landed any game changing punches last night and Hillary Clinton left the last debate of the year still solidly the front-runner. She was so comfortable, in fact, that she previewed her election message namely that Republicans just want to roll back all the progress that Democrats have made under President Obama -- Pam.

BROWN: And she certainly spent a lot of her energy on Donald Trump. But why didn't Clinton go on the attack against Sanders over that data breach?

FRATES: Well, I think there is a couple of reasons. One, you hear her say it herself, she doesn't think Americans are that interested in it. And in fact, voters don't really care about this inside politics. Though, she wanted to stay on message about what she wants Americans to know and that's mainly that she is best qualified to take on Donald Trump and punching down at Bernie Sanders after he had already apologized. Also, it could have been problematic for her in as much as it could have upset his followers and it made it feel like she was a little bit of a bully.

So, her staying above the fray for, saying, I take your apology. That's all we need. We'll move on. Let's talk about issues that are big and people care about was the best road for her to go politically, I think, Pam.

[17:10:29] BROWN: All right, Chris Frates, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

FRATES: All right. Thank you. BROWN: So, who watched last night's debate? Early numbers showed it

was the least watched of the three Democratic debates so far. The door is far smaller audience in CNN's Republican debate earlier in the week. Many Democrats, including Bernie Sanders argue the DNC is favoring the front-runner Hillary Clinton by holding far too few debates and scheduling them at times when fewer people are expected to be watching.

And coming up right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

BROWN: This video of Baltimore police officers arresting Freddie Gray led to riots after he died in custody. Well, now because of something that happened in the first trial, the whole case could be in jeopardy. We will have live update on that just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:14:24] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we done get it, shut it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Outrage in Baltimore this week as the future of six police officers facing trial. The death of Freddie Gray is suddenly in doubt. The first one of them to stand trial, William Porter, ended with a hung jury. Legal analysts call that a problem for the prosecution.

Our Polo Sandoval is covering the trial for us.

So, the big question remains, will William Porter have stand trial again?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is the question, Pamela. If we had a definitive answer, we will probably be in Baltimore tonight. But the reality is that there is still that gag order that is in place where some of the key players involved in. William Porter is now a mistrial. So, at this point, we are not 100 percent sure when or if the case will be retried again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[17:15:11] SANDOVAL (voice-over): Baltimore waits with baited breath as a decision looms on what's next in the case of Officer William Porter. A mistrial was declared last week after a jury failed to reach a verdict following three days of deliberation. The decision reignited frustrations in the community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm terrified. Are we going to have five more mistrials?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evidence was there. What more do you need to know? [17:00:00] CNN legal analyst Andrew Alperstein is a closely watching

Porter's case.

ANDREW ALPERSTEIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The mistrial is not necessarily a loss for the government because they can convict him again. It's just going to be a lot of strategy stuff that's going to play out the next couple of days.

SANDOVAL: According to Alperstein, trying Porter before the other officers is a crucial part of the state's strategy.

ALPERSTEIN: Giving a statement that implicated others and the state had said in filings with the court that it hoped to use him as a witness so that's why they had wanted to call him first.

SANDOVAL: Alperstein laid out the options for the state. They could grant Porter immunity, forcing him to testify against his fellow officers, but he said that likely option is a postponement of the rest of the trials to keep the order in place. The final decision will have to be made by the judge. Until that happens, the people of Baltimore are left watching, waiting and worried that peace could be broken again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And so one of the big questions that's looming, Polo, is whether or not there will be a change in venues for the other trials moving forward for the six other officers. Is there any indication that the judge might be willing to accept that?

SANDOVAL: Well, I think the answer - for that answer, really, we have to look back at these latest trial proceedings because the reality is the judge Barry Williams is very specific about making sure that the momentum continues with this case.

Over and over he has denied several requests for a change in venue. There is no doubt that we will probably see many more, not only from Porter's team but also the rest of the defendants. But again, we have to go back to how this judge has approached this case. He continues to keep them in the specific order but now the question is if prosecutors do decide to move forward with retrying Porter, will he change his mind and, of course, will he revisit this whole change of venue request?

BROWN: Yes. A lot of looming questions out there.

SANDOVAL: Too many for that.

BROWN: Polo Sandoval, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

And a community in East Tennessee is mourning a teen hero this weekend and who saved the lives of three of his friends. Several young men who police say had gang ties, opened fire on young people attending a holiday party Thursday night. 15-year-old Zaevion Dobson never hesitated. He saved the three girls from the gunfire. They weren't hurt, but he was killed. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID RAUSCH, KNOXVILLE POLICE CHIEF: Zaevion Dobson, a 15-year-old Fulton high school student and football player was struck and killed after he jumped on top of three girls to shield them - sorry, to shield them from the shooters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Gives you chills watching that.

And earlier on CNN, Dobson's football coach called him a fine young man.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB BLACK, FULTON HIGH SCHOOL HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: Well, that was him, you know, happy guy. He was an innocent kid with a bright smile and, you know, a fun kid. Kind of a jokester type kid, you know, that had fun in the locker room and in class. And I was talking to some of his P.E. teachers just yesterday who were talking about, you know, he couldn't wait to get into gym classes to see what kind (INAUDIBLE) can be play in. And then he had a radio class with Coach Maize where he was doing radio broadcasting and he's in there, you know, getting his iPad and taking selfies so when the teacher comes back, (INAUDIBLE), he finds his selfies on there. So, just that kind of guy, you know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And one of the gunman was later shot dead. Police arrested two others in the case is still open at this hour.

President Obama is highlighting Dobson's death to underscore his drive for gun control. On twitter, the president wrote, Zaevion Dobson died saying three friends from getting shot. He was a hero at 15. What's our excuse for not acting?

And still to come right here in the NEWSROOM, army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl will be arraigned in two days ahead of his court-marshal for desertion. And we are getting new insights into his Taliban hostage ordeal for him very popular podcast. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:22:53] BROWN: U.S. army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl is facing a military judge on Tuesday, nine months after he was charged with desertion and endangering his fellow soldiers. His released from his Taliban captors stoke outrage and supports. And now we are hearing from Bergdahl himself about what happened during his five years in the hands of the Taliban.

CNN's Nick Valencia has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By now you have probably seen this video, a U.S. black hawk helicopter lands in the middle of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. With each passing second, U.S. army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl takes a step closer to freedom. After five years in Taliban captivity and torture, he is finally going home.

BOWE BERGDAHL, U.S. ARMY SERGEANT: Like you're standing there screaming in your mind, in this room you're standing like in this blackened dirt room that's tiny. And just on the other side of that floozy little wooden door you could probably rim off the hinges is the entire world out there.

VALENCIA: That's Bergdahl describing his captivity in an interview with a popular podcast, Serial.

SARAH KOENIG, HOST, SERIAL: From this American life and WBEZ Chicago. It's Serial. One story told week by weeks. I'm Sarah Koenig.

VALENCIA: Host Sarah Koenig chose Bergdahl as the subject for the show's second season. In it, we got a chance to hear from Bergdahl for ourselves. A man who was discharged from the coast guard for psychological reasons only to be put in the army under what he calls inept leadership. Bergdahl says as the 23-year-old private, he didn't feel like his concerns will be taken seriously.

All is I was seeing was basically leadership failure to the point that the lives of the guys standing next to me were literally from what I could see in danger of something seriously going wrong and somebody being killed.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good afternoon, everybody.

VALENCIA: Shortly after Bergdahl's release, President Obama hosted Bergdahl's parents in the Rose Garden. He defended his decision to exchange five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay to bring Bergdahl back home.

[17:25:02] OBAMA: We also made an ironclad commitment to bring our prisoners of war home. That's who we are as Americans. It is a profound obligation within our military. And today, at least in this instance it is a promise we have been able to keep.

VALENCIA: But seems it was this moment from Bergdahl's father that also cause concern and piled on to the controversy. Bergdahl's father grew out his beard and learned to speak Pashtu (p) in hopes of connecting with his son's capture. The gesture only added to the critics' skepticism that Bergdahl swap to freedom.

But what awaited back home was anything but a homecoming. The celebration in his home town of Hailey, Idaho, canceled amid controversy of Bergdahl's release and questions surrounding his disappearance.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: President Obama who wants to justify his hasty Bergdahl terrorist swap by claiming the soldier was too sick to wait. Then he needs to share his evidence with the rest of the country.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We don't negotiate with terrorists. The fact is, is that we have violated that policy.

VALENCIA: The frustration was especially expressed by some of Bergdahl's platoon who were part of the initial rescue mission.

DARRYL HANGON, BOWE BERGDAHL'S PLATOON: If we would have found him I think a lot of us would have shot him, if that tells you anything. I really say that with sincerity that we had that much hate towards him.

VALENCIA: Despite a military investigator's recommendations that Bergdahl not face jail time, the army announced this month, it will court-marshal Bergdahl on charges of desertion and endangering fellow soldiers.

HANGON: I made the through the last five years it is just kind of the had seems stupid -- lose whatever it is that --

VALENCIA: If convicted, he could face life in prison. But the court's decision may not matter much to those who already see Bergdahl as either a hero or deserter.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And up next, right here in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton takes on Trump with a stinging accusation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is becoming ISIS' best recruiter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: But is it true or just part of the politics of fear dominating the 2016 race?

We are back with the facts in the CNN NEWSROOM right after this quick break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:30] BROWN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Great to have you along with us on this Sunday. I'm Pamela Brown.

And today, the Hillary Clinton campaign is doubling down on a bombshell accusation she made at last night's Democratic presidential debate. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He is becoming ISIS' best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, experts say there's no evidence that the videos exists and Donald Trump also weighed in tweeting Hillary Clinton lied when she said that ISIS is using video of him as a recruiting tool.

Joining me now is CNN senior political analyst and former advisor to four president David Gergen.

David, great to have you on with us.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you, Pamela. Good to talk to you.

BROWN: So David, we hear Democrats accused Republicans all the time it seems of playing to politics of fear. When you hear Hillary Clinton make a claim like that, when there is no evidence to support it, isn't that right out of the same play book?

GERGEN: It is indeed. Let's start with the proposition that Hillary won that debate handily last night. And I think even after this flat goat pass she will still be the very, very strong front-runner. But what struck me, Pamela, was that CNN's own reality check team did a thorough search of a lot of assertions made last night by all three candidates. And on this particular assertion what they concluded was this.

Look, there is no question that Donald Trump's comments are probably helping ISIS and going to people and convincing them that America doesn't like Muslims. But when you come down to what she actually said and that was there is ISIS videos, CNN concludes there is no evidence of such videos being out there. And they conclude that the overall charge was false.

BROWN: And so, let me ask you this then. Because she said Donald Trump is ISIS' best recruiting tool. But then why did she take it a step further, do you think, to make this assertion that clearly doesn't have any evidence to support it?

GERGEN: That's a really good question. That's exactly what I wondered about. And because it seems to me that first notion, he's the best recruiting tool. She should have let that lay out there and people can make-up their own minds. That's what Trump does all the time. And you know, but to go with the next step and to make it more concrete, she left herself open to, wait, a minute, you want to stretch the truth and it gave Trump as open and he can come back and say, I say I told you, she tells lies all the time.

I thought last night, frankly, he also (INAUDIBLE) irresponsible. And he called her a snake. I just thought that it was such a repulsive analogy that I just - I don't know. Those are the kind of things that get him in trouble.

But last night, you know, as well as she did and she was an excellent debater last night and you couldn't help by saying, what's going to be like with Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. That's where we are. What is going to be like with the debates in the fall? They are going to be fascinating. Completely different kind of personalities. But he is going to call her on her stuff just as she does him.

BROWN: Absolutely. And let's talk at this CNN/ORC poll, David. It was released earlier this month. And it shows a majority of Americans, 60 percent disprove with how President Obama is handling terrorism and that was before the shootings in San Bernardino.

So, when you look at that, how can Hillary Clinton avoid being weighed down by the way Americans view President Obama when it comes to terrorism?

GERGEN: Well, I do think she's beginning to separate herself out and arguing that basically she is tougher than he is. And she would have done things like arming the rebels in Syria a long time ago. And she would engage in, you know. She is more open to some sort of a larger Special Forces footprint on the ground in Iraq and Syria. So, she's trying to do that.

But I think what her problem with this ISIS claim that she made about how they are making videos about Trump, is it feeds the narrative that she's not quite trustworthy, you know, That you can't be sure of what she is saying. And that is not where she wants to be. You know, to lead and lead effectively, as she knows better than anybody else, trust is really, really important.

BROWN: And let's talk about this interesting moment when Clinton was asked about the role of president spouses. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: With respect to my own husband, I am probably still going to pick the flowers and the China for state dinners and stuff like that, but I will certainly turn to him as prior presidents have for special missions, for advice, and in particular how we're going to get the economy working again for everybody which he know as little bit about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:35:10] BROWN: So David, what do you make of her response?

GERGEN: I thought she did it with a certain warmth and charm in the beginning part of that answer and then she turned to the politics of her answer which was I will send him on these missions. But most importantly, she reminded us right at the tail end of that answers, those were economic good times. The Clinton decade, 1992 to 2000, the bottom quartile - the bottom quintile actually moved up faster than people above them did. And so, there was a lot of -- as people look back at God's created, the Clinton economy was a strong economy. So she is going to use that. I think she gave us a taste of what's coming this campaign and how she is going to draw upon the strengths of the Clinton years to sell herself.

BROWN: All right, David Gergen, great conversation with you. Thank you so much. GERGEN: Thank you, Pamela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The force, it's calling to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, there's this little movie out this weekend, kind of hard to miss the excitement surrounding the new "Star Wars." And like everyone is expected it to do well at the box office and did it ever. Some big numbers up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got nothing to fight for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:39:28] CLINTON: Thank you. Good night. And may the force be with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That was Hillary Clinton at last night's democratic debate, ending the night with a "Star Wars" reference as you just heard there.

Worldwide mania for the force awakens is at cosmic levels on this weekend's box office opening long ago predicted to be huge, well, it did not disappoint.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): "Star wars" awakens to the biggest box office opening in history. The newest installment bringing an estimated it $238 million this weekend in the U.S. and Canada alone. The sci-fi franchise continue this legacy of being an opening weekend hit.

The first "Star Wars" film also had the highest weekend debut back in 1977. The Force Awaken flew past current record holder, "Jurassic World." But it is no surprise. Fans were anticipating the movie well before its arrival, standing in line for hours and even days for tickets.

[17:40:28] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it started on December 5th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I put in about 26 hours on Friday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The three days now and got here at 5:00 a.m. this morning.

BROWN: One couple even marked it as their own special day. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I now pronounce you husband and wife, may your

love last longer than a Silax (ph) digestion.

BROWN: The White House even got in on the action, sharing a stage with a storm trooper at Friday's press briefing. And President Obama ended his last press conference of the year with this.

OBAMA: OK, everybody. I got to get to "Star Wars" --

BROWN: And it is not just the box office. The Force Awaken was also a hit with critics, scoring near perfect on rottentomatoes.com.

So, what will the director J.J. Abrams think about all this?

J.J. ABRAMS, DIRECTOR, STAR WARS, THE FORCE AWAKEN: The success for me is if people go and like the film and if kids go and see themselves in the movie and people feel better than when they got there and the numbers are the numbers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So, the force was definitely not with movie goers in Hollywood of all places. They were watching The Force Awaken when this happened.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING) BROWN: Fans freaking out as you see the cell phone video captured the outrage from some fans when the film suddenly stopped during a midnight showing of "the Force Awakens." Apparently, the projector had a technical glitch. The film went to black then jump ahead to a scene 20 minutes later causing fans, as you see, they freak out and think the end of the film was about to be spoiled. A refund was issued to everyone in the theater along with a voucher for a free movie. I hope that man is going to be OK.

And still to come right here in the NEWSROOM, a passenger plane bound for Paris forced to make an emergency landing. We will tell you what was found in the plane's laboratory.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER (voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) to learn about the art of making baklava. Before heading back to Copenhagen to put his spin on the dish, he returned to Istanbul to look for the best compliments for the sweet confection.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), thank you for coming her as one of the leading coffee experts in Turkey. Today, there is coffee shops all around the world. Could the modern coffee shops sort of originates from the Turkish coffee house?