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Former Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney Weighs in on Cruz Citizenship Question; Drug Kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Recaptured; Edward Archer Arrested for Terrorist Attack Against Philadelphia Police Officer; 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 08, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to save some lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys be in favor of removing restrictions for honest Americans that want to be able to buy firearms to protect themselves? Are you on that side as well?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that honest Americans who want to buy firearms now are currently being denied that right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a country that was founded on the principle of basic authority.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: And this is just an example of how difficult this discussion is. Town hall is long over. These two are back and forth representing two very important pieces of a discussion. We are so glad we had this discussion tonight here at George Mason with the president and folks like this. Good folks like this, the conversation needs to continue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Just reminder we are airing once again if you haven't seen it, you have to see this. The town hall between President Obama and members of the public, people who have been affected by gun violence and members of the NRA. Really, important conversation we are airing it tonight at 9:00 eastern here on CNN.

Developing political news now involving Senator Ted Cruz and whether his Canadian birthplace could prevent him from becoming president of the United States. Former Republican presidential Nominee Mitt Romney now weighing in on the issue.

I have Sara Murray with more on that. What is Mitt Romney said?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (on the phone): Romney has weighed in on this time to time on twitter. He is doing it again today. And he tweeted that Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen, Obama too. Even George Romney. He tweets this isn't the issue you are looking for.

And this is particularly interesting coming from Mitt Romney because he invokes his dad on this. And this is a question that his father faced when he was running for president in the 1960s because George Romney was born to American citizen, American tourist but he was born in Mexico. And so, it was interesting to see, you know, the former republican standard bearer weighing and essentially saying, OK, this isn't a fight worth fighting. We shouldn't be having this discussion.

Now, that said I was with Ted Cruz earlier this morning at one of his events here in Iowa. And he was asked about this by one of the voters who said can you just put this to rest. Can we put this to bed for the voters of northern Iowa and explain to us why you are a citizen? So, it is clear that this question is sort of percolating down to voters. Whether it's the kind of thing that will actually change people's minds about them, whether they think it's something that could be a problem for him later down the road, I think that remains to be seen.

BALDWIN: All right. Sara Murray, thank you so much on Mitt Romney's commenting on this whole back and forth over Ted Cruz whether he become president. Thank you so much.

Let's get straight now to Brian Todd, who has a little bit of information here on the other breaking story today of this El Chapo arrest in Mexico.

Brian, what do you know?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, just got off the phone with a Mexican official. Dramatic new details of El Chapo's the capture today. It looks like this follows the pattern of his escapes and everything else he's done recently. Just incredible drama in the operation.

A Mexican official tells me this operation began at 4:30 in the morning local time when Mexican Special Forces closed in on his house in the city of (INAUDIBLE) where he is from. They did some house searches before that according to this official. This official says there was a shootout. Five people were killed, Mexican officials are telling us they were on El Chapo's side of this gun battle.

Six people were arrested, one Mexican marine was injured in this. And it looks, Brooke, like El Chapo had quite a lot of fire power with him. This Mexican official telling me that eight rifles were seized and an undetermined number of rocket launchers were taken in this operation. Four vehicles were seized. Two of them were armored.

I have been talking to experts, former DEA people and others who say they are a little bit surprised that he went out of this alive. They thought that because he did not want to go to the United States to face charges that he might go out in a blaze of glory, but he was captured today. But this wasn't obviously not without casualties. Five people killed, six arrested, one Mexican marine injured this this very, very dramatic operation in the predawn hours in the city of (INAUDIBLE), Brooke.

BALDWIN: That is exactly what I have heard also from people who made movies about this man, covered him for the last two decades, cannot believe they took him alive.

Brian Todd, thank you so much. We will look to see more of your reporting with Wolf on "the SITUATION ROOM."

Meantime, we are watching and waiting for this news conference to get more details on this arrest in Mexico in (INAUDIBLE). This is massive news. Standby for that. Dog the bounty hunter will join us live, coming up.

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[15:35:24] BALDWIN: All right. Let's get to it. More on our breaking story here as we're watching and waiting in Mexico for this news conference to happen any moment now. As we have learned Mexico has recaptured the world's most infamous drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. As I mentioned, any minute now, Mexican authorities will be holding this news conference to find out how they pulled this it off.

We do have new pictures. Look at this. My goodness. We were hearing about all the rifles and the weaponry that was found here as part of this it takedown. And now you're seeing it. This is western Mexico. Mexican law enforcement official telling CNN that several members of El Chapo's organization died during this fire fight, during this takedown.

I have Duane Chapman with me on the phone, better known as dog the bounty hunter.

So, great to have you call in here. Let me just begin with - I mean, listen, this part of Mexico, this is pretty much as dangerous as it goes. And the fact that -- talk to me about the terrain and how it's difficult to even get close to El Chapo's home turf.

DUANE CHAPMAN, BOUNTY HUNTER (on the phone): Well, thank you. And yes, the terrain is terrible. I mean, it's rocky, hilly, a lot of brush. So if you wanted to hide, of course, you pick Mexico, the place to pick, is exactly where e he did. You know, El Chapo first went out wanted, I assumed and said if you're going to catch him this time, you better have the United States marines with you because he is going to go down in a shootout. And that's exactly what happened. They got him, but there's a lot of people lost their lives.

[15:40:00] BALDWIN: That's right, people lost their lives. People were injured. I mean, in your experience, Doug, as far as what you know in Mexico, the fact that this apparently happened according to our reporting from Brian Todd, this happened at his home. They were searching other homes. This is around 4:30 in the morning. What multiple agencies here involved, the best of the best in Mexico, are you surprised they took him alive?

CHAPMAN: I'm very surprised they took him alive because, you know, that's very surprising. But this is the greatest manhunt that, you know, right now in America in the world that we have ever seen. The reason they caught him is exactly what you said. Both agencies worked together. Years ago you could run to Mexico and hide and that was it. That's not happening anymore. They just caught Ethan Couch down there. Now they caught El Chapo. There is almost nowhere in the world for these guys to hide anymore.

BALDWIN: Doug, who would he have been with? You know, talk about loyalty of an inner circle and really beyond within the community there in (INAUDIBLE). I mean, they all know and sort of revere this leader of this cartel. Who would have been with him to have been involved in the fire fight?

CHAPMAN: Well, who would have been with him is, you know, pardon the pardon, but his gang, OK. El Chapo had one of the most extensive gangs, loyal guys in the world because of the money he mad. I mean, this guy is a billionaire, OK. It's incredible that, again, he was at his house. Just like Osama bin Laden, he was at his house. You know, don't these guy learn? They just don't think that the government is going to come after them like that.

So very incredible. You know, I doubt if there were too many family members because usually El Chapo sent the family away. But it's incredible they found him at his house. And again, in the predawn raid, you know, at 4:00 a.m., they got him.

BALDWIN: Now what? I mean, apparently the papers are signed and I'm hearing from our reporting. He gets extradited to the United States. Where would he even go and what's that process of extradition?

CHAPMAN: Well, the process of extradition changes constantly between Mexico and America. You know, there is extradition if he is going to do more than I think it is 40 years Mexico won't let him go back, but it's changing, you know, monthly these laws about Mexico and America. I think that we have made a deal with the Mexican authorities that if we caught or they caught El Chapo, that we would put him in a Mexican prison. That conversation was happening when the two inmates escaped from the big New York prison. So everyone was like, yes, you go to Mexico and you get right out. Well, you come to America you can get right out too.

So I would suspect one of the top right now in America, one of the top federal institutions is in where I was raised, Colorado. So I would suspect they would put him in Colorado. For him to say he would never get out again, for someone to say that, you can't say that, OK. Whatever a man can build, a man can escape out of it. So I would think that the best place now is put him in America where he doesn't have as many loyal friends and family members.

BALDWIN: No tunnels and makeshift motorcycles and pilots on the ready in Florence, Colorado, that is for sure.

Duane Chapman, aka, Doug the bounty hunter, thank you for calling in. We really appreciate it.

Again, watching and waiting for a news conference out of Mexico to get new details as far as how this arrest went down in (INAUDIBLE) Mexico.

In the meantime, new information today as far as this would be assassination attempt in Philadelphia. We now have new information on this shooter who apparently pledged his allegiance to Allah, said he did it in the name of the Islamic state and also what we're learning about the gun he used and his extensive criminal history. That, next.

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[15:47:20] BALDWIN: He was quote "called upon to do this." That is what Philadelphia authorities are saying about this man we now have a name, Edward Archer, and here he is. Police say he told them he quote "follows Allah" and that he opens fire on an unsuspecting police officer in the name of ISIS.

This man has been arrested for this terrorist attack against an officer Jesse Hartnett (ph), the 33-year-old who has been on the force for five years. Sitting in the patrol car when police say a man approached him and then opened fire, firing 13 rounds point-blank range deep into this it patrol car here. Investigators say he was trying to quote "execute the officer."

Joining me now is Buck Sexton, former CIA counterterrorism analyst.

Buck Sexton, good to see you, sir. I mean, according to this story out of Philadelphia, phenomenal, just hearing from the police commissioner saying that, you know, despite all of this, we see the images. It's chilling. The fact he was then able to then, you know, chase the man, shoot him, stop him, you know, radio in for help, that's one piece of it. But the other piece is this man saying confessing he did it for Islamic state.

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. The perpetrator here checks a lot of boxes. And so you would have to call a terrorism, I think we have to take him at his word because an individual can engage in an act of violence in the furtherance of some political cause whether it's a realistic cause or not doesn't matter. I mean, report is going about the definition of terrorism. Then one person can be a terrorist. We have seen this many times over. We call them lone wolf terrorist here.

But he also has this long history of criminality, of mental illness, he checks a number of boxes. Now, I would say that mental illness, for example, and jihadism and terrorism are by no means mutually exclusive. It's tough to tell at this point which one may have been the predominant factor. It's very possible these two things were coincided. He might have had issues of mental health in the past and also been a devout Muslim who thought that ISIS was asking him, because ISIS did put out a call. Not just to attack in the west, but specifically to law enforcement.

BALDWIN: Yes. This is like the worst fear in terms of law enforcement are out, you know, trying to protect us and here they have to worry about a lone wolf.

SEXTON: And it's hard to defend against. This officer is both lucky to be alive and also showed, as you said, a tremendous amount of bravery and skill on the spot to get out of the car, return fire. There's very little that can be done to prevent this kind of attack. If somebody snaps like this and, in this case, it was a stolen firearm, once again, so that's not at issue here. He got -- somehow he got into a police officer's home and stole the weapon from what we know. So this just is one of these attacks that ISIS is hoping will continue to happen. Whether they actually have contact with the person or not in this case I would guess they certainly didn't. But whether they have contact doesn't matter. It still creates this fear, this puts us on edge that our law enforcement as well as all the rest of us could be at target any point in time.

[15:50:07] BALDWIN: Putting on your political hat for a moment, because I'm also wondering, you know, what the headline will be in 24, 48 hours as far as on the trail, right? We've already seen a tweet from Jeb Bush praying for officer Hartnett, threats from home grown radicalism continue to grow. We need a president who will lead the fight against it. How do you see this playing out politically?

SEXTON: Well, I think all the Republican candidates are going to seize upon this to once again say that they think President Obama has not done a good enough job at defending the homeland against terrorism. There's just momentum now it seems the president doesn't have a handle on this. That's just evidence by the polls, the American people a solid majority of them now think the president's not doing a good enough job against ISIS in Iraq or Syria or in defense of the homeland. So I think you'll see all of the Republican candidates trying to make that case, whether the American people actually care in a few months or not we'll have to see.

BALDWIN: Again, you see what's happened in Ramadi and some gains that have been made. I know you can argue against me, but again, perspective.

Buck Sexton, thank you very much.

SEXTON: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Let's pivot and talk once again as we're getting new video. Let's roll it and look at it together. The arrest -- guys, get in my ear and tell me if this is post arrest -- transfer. This is the transfer, thank you. This is the transfer of "El Chapo."

Let me just bring in Rafael Romo and Art Roderick, former U.S. marshal to sort of walk me through.

Rafael, here he is. Is that him with a towel over his head into the plane?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's the image that we have received that shows purportedly the transfer of "El Chapo." This would be in the Mexican state of Sinaloa is in the city of (INAUDIBLE) in the early hours of the morning. And this video shows the moment in which Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is being transferred on a government airplane. There you have it right there. He's covered by some sort of white piece of cloth. He is being transferred from Sinaloa state to Mexico City by members of the Mexican Navy who conducted this predawn raid in the city of (INAUDIBLE).

As you can see, Brooke, there's a lot of fire power there. And they're doing this is a military operation setting up perimeter, looking at all sides because "El Chapo" Guzman has a lot of followers, has a lot of loyalists who would not think twice about attacking the Mexican Navy even under these circumstances. And so these are the first images we get to see "El Chapo" Guzman already in custody of Mexican authorities, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And, Rafael, as we're playing this on loop you'll see wait for the left side of the screen, there's a guy with a cell phone taking a picture. I mean, this is such a big, big deal not just in Mexico but globally this arrest. This, you know, multibillionaire who is obviously made his fortune in trafficking drugs, what do you know about the arrest, the takedown, the weapons that were found in his home?

ROMO: "El Chapo" Guzman and his people had a lot of fire power. We are talking about at least eight high caliber rifles. Also rocket launchers that were found where he was hiding in that house in (INAUDIBLE), Sinaloa. So last time that he was captured, he was found alone with just a couple of relatives at his home. It was not the case this time around. He had a number of people with him. And according to sources with the Mexican government we know that five people killed -- were killed in the shootout. Six more were arrested. And on the side of the Mexican forces at least one soldier was injured. So he didn't get out of that house happily as you can imagine. And it was a military operation.

Now, an interesting point, Brooke, is that the Mexican government issued a press release earlier saying that there was a report of people armed in a house and that's what started the situation. So it makes you wonder exactly how they found him and whether they had prior information before they attacked this house, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Waiting for new details from that news conference out of Mexico. I'm sure they'll take it on "the LEAD" with John Berman in just a moment.

Rafael, thank you so much.

I do want to share this with you as we did send our correspondent Nick Valencia to Mexico. You all know, of course, about the massive highly orchestrated escape out of that maximum security prison last July when "El Chapo" got away, the tunnels, right? Well, Nick went deep into those tunnels to show you what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the closest that we have been allowed to get to "El Chapo's" tunnel, the tunnel he used in his brazen escape on Saturday night. It is by all accounts a magnificent feat of engineering. Let's come on in and see exactly what "El Chapo" here had in store.

This is a small little exit, just a couple feet wide and a couple feet long, you see with a ladder. Maybe about 10, 15 foot ladder that leads down into that tunnel. The room here is nothing to brag about. It's empty, full of cinder blocks. You can see these containers full of dirt here, these wheelbarrows full of dirt. Here we go. OK. Here's another ladder leading down into another

part, deeper part, deeper section of the tunnel. It's a ways down. You can see here this is the modified motorcycle that investigators showed us images of before. This is on a track. It rolls back and forth. You see that. There's buckets left behind. And look at this, left behind oxygen tanks as well in order for them to survive down here. It is a very tight space. I can't even stand up. I'm about 5'10", I can't even stand up all the way. It is just remarkable feat of engineering. The tunnel stretches for more than a mile, carved out earth here. This modified train track for that mini-motorcycle, you see here electricity lines. It's very difficult to breathe down here. A lot of dirt, dust. This here for the ventilation system. Tight, tight space down here. But for a man known as "El Chapo" --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:56:42] BALDWIN: Unbelievable. Nick Valencia, thank you so much for those tunnels in Mexico, how he escaped.

Again, we're watching and waiting for that news conference out of Mexico how they have arrested now "El Chapo." Special coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome to "the LEAD." I'm John Berman in for Jake Tapper. We are following two big breaking stories.