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El Chapo Recaptured; Venezuela and Hugo Chavez; Shooting of Philadelphia Police Officer Detailed; Latest from the Campaign Trail. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired January 09, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

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[03:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: A notorious Mexican drug lord finally recaptured. We'll tell you how police tracked down El Chapo.

A police officer is attacked in the U.S. City of Philadelphia and officials say the suspect was inspired by ISIS.

And a Muslim woman is escorted out from a Donald Trump rally, simply for standing up in silent protest. But it was Trump's supporters who made all the noise.

That's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.

Hello everyone. We are live from Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

And we begin in Mexico where drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is returning to the same prison he escaped from last year.

Late Friday night, we saw Guzman put onto helicopter after authorities revealed details of his arrest earlier that day. They say months of investigation led them to a home where he was hiding.

And during a raid, Guzman fled through a manhole connected to a sewer system. He was later called on a highway near Los Mochis. Mexico's attorney general outlined the final moments leading up to Guzman's dramatic capture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARELY GOMEZ, MEXICAN ATTORNEY GENERAL, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): When one of the vehicles was located on the highway in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, elements of the forces that were participating in this intercepted and stopped Guzman Loera and Gastelum Avila. With the objective of securing the criminals and protecting the integrity of the elements, these were transferred to a nearby motel to wait for reinforcements.

A few moments later, they were transferred to the airport of Los Mochis and subsequently to the City of Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: This is the third time Guzman has been captured by Mexican authorities, that's because he continues to break out of prison.

CNN's Polo Sandoval shows us the dramatic moments leading up through Friday's capture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shirtless, shoeless and in handcuffs, this is one of the world's most wanted men back in custody after a nearly six month manhunt. Joaquin El Chapo Guzman was captured after a deadly shootout with the Mexican military.

The drug lord was hold up inside a home in a coastal town of Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Mexican authorities say five of El Chapo's men were killed during the raid, but the notorious criminal was captured unharmed.

Among the items seized, armored cars, high powered rifles, and look closely, that's a rocket launcher. It's evidence of the level of firepower available to ruthless cartels south of the border.

El Chapo was the head of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, a multi-million dollar organization responsible for supplying a lot of America's marijuana, cocaine and heroin.

Guzman was last seen in July when surveillance video captured his escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico. He simply ducked behind a wall in his prison cell and disappeared into a mile long tunnel below.

The escape was an embarrassment to the Mexican government. President Enrique Pena Nieto wrote on Twitter, "Mission accomplished and, we have him." And he attempted to restore confidence in his government.

ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, MEXICAN PRESIDENT, (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): This is an achievement in favor of the rule of law, an achievement which is the result of the coordination of our armed forces, of the Mexican Army and the Mexican Navy.

SANDOVAL: El Chapo's arrest in Sinaloa confirms what intelligence experts on both sides of the boarder and suspected since the daring escape. El Chapo would likely hide out in his home turf, a place where he's widely admired.

Questions now over what will come next for the drug kingpin, to remain in Mexico a country where he's respected by some and feared by many or will he finally face extradition to the U.S.?

And now there is a sense of urgency that seems to be building among U.S. officials who would like to see El Chapo Guzman extradited to this side of the U.S.-Mexican border. At this point, they're very well aware that this is a man with very powerful and very far reach capable of buying his way out of any prison cell south of the border.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: We turn to the deepening political crisis in Venezuela.

New opposition lawmakers removed portraits of the late president, Hugo Chavez, after taking control of the national assembly this week. They were sworn in on Tuesday, marking the biggest political shift since Chavez was elected 17 years ago.

The portrait's removal hit a nerve with socialist supporters. The new national assembly vows to remove the socialist President Nicolas Maduro as the country faces one of the worst economic recessions in its history.

[03:05:11] Our Shasta Darlington has more.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This week marks a new era in Venezuelan politics with the opposition taking control of congress for the first time in nearly 17 years. And yet it's these images that are sparking some of the most heated debate, portraits of the late Hugo Chavez being removed from the assembly.

You can see the new president of the assembly Henry Ramos Allup on the steps of the capital, ordering them removed. You can hear him saying at one point, take them away. You can even throw them in the toilet, nothing stays here.

Now, this decision has outraged many of Chavez's supporters. Remember, he was elected back in 1998 and was in power until he died in 2013. His hand picked successor Nicolas Maduro came out calling it an affront to the nation and urging Venezuelans to rebel against what he calls the neo-fascists in the assembly.

The opposition has defended their decision saying they need to break with the past and what they say represents a Marxist view.

Now, the problem here is that this really set the tone for the coming weeks and months, if -- when a country that is really suffering it's biggest economic crisis in over a century, there's triple digit inflation, rising crime and violence and shortages of the most basic of goods.

What many voters were saying they wanted were these economic problems dealt within, instead what they're getting are the two sides throwing punches.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

ALLEN: U.S. federal authorities say the suspect accused of ambushing a Philadelphia police officer Thursday night had traveled to Saudi Arabia and Egypt within the past five years.

The FBI could not say whether the man interacted with terrorist groups. Philadelphia police say the suspect said he shot the officer in the name of ISIS.

Here is Miguel Marquez with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These photos show a man firing his gun directly into a Philadelphia police officer's car and police say he claims to have done it in the name of radical Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired, shots fired, I'm shot, I'm bleeding heavily.

MARQUEZ: The suspect, 31-year-old Philadelphia resident Edward Archer allegedly ambushed Officer Jesse Hartnett at close range firing at least 11 shots from his 9 mm. pistol, striking the officer three times in the arm.

JAMES CLARK, PHILADELPHIA POLICE CAPTAIN: He pledges his allegiant to Islamic state. He follows Allah and that is the reason he was called upon to do this.

MARQUEZ: Hartnett managed to get out of the car and returned fire, hitting him in the buttocks.

Police arrested him and recovered the gun.

RICHARD ROSS, PHILADELPHIA POLICE COMMISSIONER: The bravery he demonstrated was absolutely remarkable. His will to live undoubtedly saved his life.

MARQUEZ: But it was revealed by the police commissioner that the weapon used was a stolen police gun.

ROSS: It was stolen back in October of 2013. It was reported, and that is one of the things that you absolutely regret the most when an officer's gun is stolen, that it is used against one of your own.

MARQUEZ: The FBI confirms its involvement, releasing a statement, "We are working side-by-side with the Philadelphia Police Department, but made it clear Philadelphia police are the lead agency in the case.

In response to this shooting and another attack on police in Paris, the New York Police Department issued an internal memo urging officers to exercise high in vigilance and implement proactive measures at all times, reminding them that ISIS has called for supporters to carry out attacks on law enforcement.

JIM KENNEY, PHILADELPHIA MAYOR: Our main concern at the moment today is the well-being and the health and the recovery and rehabilitation of Officer Hartnett.

ROSS: It's both confounding and astonishing that he was able to escape it like this. And I can't say it enough for his bravery and how he conducted himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: So again, the commissioner there talking about the gun used was stolen from the police department and then used to shoot a police officer. And Guns in America that was a big topic this week in Washingtonm, U.S. President Barack Obama tried to convince Americans he doesn't want to take their guns away from them. But you'll hear from an analyst who thinks Mr. Obama made a severe mistake. We'll have that for you in a moment.

[03:09:32] Plus, more drama for the Donald Trump campaign. We'll tell you why this Muslim woman was escorted out of a rally.

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ALLEN: A Muslim woman was ousted from a political rally for U.S. Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump.

Rose Hamid wore a Hijab to the rally in South Carolina and stood up in silent protest when Trump linked Syrian refugees to ISIS. Though she said nothing, Trump supporters pointed and shouted at Hamid until police kicked her out.

Here is Jeff Zeleny on the campaign trail.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Now, Donald Trump attracts protesters pretty much everywhere he goes across the country. No exception on Friday night here in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He drew a crowd of about 6,000 people or so to the campus of Winthrop University. He fired them up talking about his appointed plans on immigration, his Republican rivals as well as his attacks on Hillary Clinton. But something changed about midway through the rally. There were a few sporadic protests throughout the crowed and then we noticed that one woman was standing up with a friend of hers, silently protesting.

It turns out she was 56-year-old Rose Hamid. She is a flight attendant from nearby Charlotte. Well the crowed quickly began to turn on her, right around her and the police escorted her.

Take a look at some of these video as she's being escorted out of the Donald Trump rally. She says for no reason in particular, she wasn't saying anything, but on the way out, some of the supporters of Donald Trump were aggressive and rude to her. She said she was not scared at all, but she had this take away from her experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSE HAMID, ESCORTED OUT OF TRUMP RALLY: What happened when the crowd got this like hateful crowd mentality, as I was being escorted, it was really quite telling and a vivid example of what happens when you start using this hateful rhetoric and how it can incite a crowd where moments ago were very kind to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, it was unclear if Donald Trump knew what was happening behind him. There were protests breaking out throughout the event. But his rhetoric has caused some of these protests at his rallies across the country.

Now, he's campaigning aggressively in South Carolina which is home to the first primary in the south. But before that comes Iowa. That's why he's heading there on Saturday. He's locked in a tough fight with Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas. He's up by -- in many opinion polls including a new one by Fox News out on Friday night, up four points over Donald Trump, which is exactly why Donald Trump is spending a Saturday in Iowa.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Rock Hill, South Carolina.

ALLEN: And Donald Trump used that same rally to again attack President Obama's executive orders on gun control.

Trump said that fewer people would have died in attacks in Paris and California if more people had been carrying weapons.

Separately, fellow Republican Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush reiterated his pledge to protect the constitutional right to bear arms. You can watch Mr. Obama defend his gun control measures.

Catch a replay of CNN's town hall with the president at 4:00 p.m. in London.

Jeffrey Lord is a CNN political commentator who served as White House political director under President Ronald Reagan. Jeffrey joins me now from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hi there Jeffrey, thanks for being with us.

[03:15:00] JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, Allen, nice to see you.

ALLEN: And let's talk first about the fact that we are in the election year. Happy election year, we're finally here.

LORD: Exactly.

ALLEN: And let's talk about the fact that it was President Obama that kind of got things rolling in a huge way with his thoughts on gun control. What was your reaction to the town hall that CNN held and how the president did in that?

LORD: well, yeah, there's a pretty wide gulf here on this issue. And, you know, it's too bad, I mean this has been going on for decades. And, you know, I noticed the National Rifle Association was not there, And I should say, you know, one of the Christmas presents I got unexpectedly to me from a relative was a membership in the NRA. I don't even own a gun. But I guess I now need to submit that post- Christmas that I'm a member of the NRA.

And I would suggest here that the White House made a mistake here, you know, they tried to make the NRA the bad guy here for months and months and for all the time that he's been in office. And then they want him to come to this and this was a CNN event, not a White House event. But I think that the damage has been so severe here that there's just no trust. And that's not a good thing.

ALLEN: Well, let's talk about the candidate's reaction, though. You had Donald Trump saying you won't be able to get guns. It's the same thing that we hear every time someone talks about gun control, we hear that they're wanting to take your guns away.

However, we did a poll a CNN ORC poll that showed yes, most Democrats said they supported the president's moderate plan to reign in some guns, but also Republicans that took the poll agreed as well, though the numbers were quite lower. So how does that square with what you're saying?

LORD: Well, the thing that you're -- you know, I live here in Pennsylvania. And this is a very, very sensitive issue. A lot of people tend to think that Pennsylvania is an urban, northeastern state or mid-atlantic state. And point of fact, a fair share of elections have been lost here by proponents of gun control because we have a lot of hunters, a lot of NRA members, a lot of gun owners here in the state.

So I tend to think if you have -- the polls aren't as important as actual elections, and when we get to election time, really turn gun owners really turn out. And I think that's what you have to look at.

ALLEN: As far as the Republican field, everyone it seems just about is saying that Donald Trump will not be the candidate. But now that we're into 2016, we have a lot of the candidates bickering among themselves this week. Who knows how far he may go. What do you think?

LORD: Yeah, I mean I have always been, you know, everybody thought I was crazy when I said he was going to run in the first place. And then they said well he wouldn't file and he wouldn't file his finances and all of this, and here we are.

I really do think he's very serious. I think he has touched a nerve here in this country that was sort of out there before he got into the race that had nothing to do with him. But he understands it totally. And I think that this is, you know, sort of rocket fuel for his campaign.

But one thing I would caution on, when Ronald Reagan ran against President Gerald Ford, the incumbent in 1976, Reagan lost not only the Iowa caucus, he lost the next five primaries. And yet, suddenly he won the North Carolina primary and this went on to the convention where he lost by 117 votes.

Four years later, he lost the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush, won New Hampshire, then they sort of battled back and forth that went on until May. And then Reagan finally nailed it down.

So my suggestion here is this is going to go on for a good, long while here between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz and perhaps Marco Rubio and someone else, Chris Christie, et cetera. I think this will go on for a while. But I think Donald Trump is very well positioned here.

ALLEN: And what does that mean to the Democratic field as far as they sit and wait to see how this shakes out?

LORD: They do, although just tonight I was seeing, you know, how much strength Bernie Sanders has in New Hampshire. I mean if he -- I think it's frankly unlikely, but boy, if he up-ends Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, I mean, this is not -- this does not bode well. And I guess in general, I have to say Hillary Clinton, whether it's Hillary Clinton or anyone else, the Democrats held the White House for eight years and it's very hard.

Ronald Reagan was the rare exception. He was able to help elect George H.W. Bush to what they called in the day Reagan's third term. But President Clinton couldn't accomplish this for algor, George H. -- George W. Bush or John McCain, Dwight Eisenhower couldn't manage the trick for Richard Nixon. Dwight Eisenhower was a pretty popular president. So it's a pretty hard road to hoe here for Hillary Clinton, I think.

ALLEN: It's going to be some interesting months ahead for sure.

Jeffrey Lord, thank you so much for joining us.

[03:20:02] LORD: All right, thanks for having me.

ALLEN: North Korea claims it tested an H-bomb and what is the reaction by some people in South Korea?

Well, they went ice skating. We'll have that story next.

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ALLEN: Once again, escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula as the south blasts propaganda over the border for the second day in a row.

These broadcasts are in response to North Korea's claim is detonated a hydrogen bomb. North Korean leaders deplore these broadcasts, and they say it may push them to the brink of war. That is typical rhetoric from North Korea.

And as Ivan Watson found, South Korean citizens are shrugging it off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To the outside world, it may look like South Korea is skating on thin ice. But here in the South Korean capital, nuclear tensions are just a fact of everyday life.

And clearly not worth spoiling a good day of ice skating.

So when you heard about the nuclear test, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If they have a serious nuclear bomb everybody will die. (Inaudible) I just enjoy my, you know, the whole life.

WATSON: You might as well go ice skating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WATSON: Seoul is less than 30 miles, around 50 kilometers, from the demilitarized zone, a city within easy reach of North Korea's conventional weapons. People have gotten used to treating news of North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal with a grain of salt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, the people here are just seems like it's no big deal. It's like everyone is walking around here, does it look like there was a nuclear weapon fired how far is it from here? A few hours away.

WATSON: Do Koreans care when the neighbor to the north sets off a nuclear blast?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, of course we do. We do. But we've been living in this situation for the past 60 years.

WATSON: But it's not like South Korea is completely unprepared. The subway system, for example, is designated as a shelter and many institutions carry out monthly drills in the event of an emergency.

To protect South Korea from the constant threat to the north, all men here have to do nearly two years of mandatory military service.

In response to Wednesday's nuclear test, the government in Seoul ramped up military and cyber security. Still, the crisis hasn't stopped people here from enjoying a Friday night out. If barbecue, booze, and a good deal of laughter.

[03:25:04] South Koreans have grown accustomed to living life on the edge.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: That's a telling closing shot there of the South Koreans just shrugging it off.

OK, we're going to turn to something that they're not shrugging off in Australia.

Allison Chinchar is here with the story about a bush fire that has destroyed 120 homes and close to 60,000 hectares. This is a massive fire and it came up so quickly.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It did. It started on Tuesday and then kind of Wednesday and Thursday just overnight it doubled in size, which is so unfortunate for the people that live in those homes that were evacuated because they had no time to really pack up some of their belongings and take them with them and then only to come back and find that your home isn't there anymore. It's unfortunate.

The images coming out are absolutely incredible. Take a look at this one. This one is out of the City of Yarloop which is in Southwestern Australia.

Just for some perspective notice the vehicle down in the bottom. And then you notice the trees on the right hand side. The flames go equal to the height of the trees, dwarfing that vehicle. And we know it has to be a decent sized vehicle. Google map were zoomed in to the southwestern portion of Australia first located right up there in the top of the image. But notice the largest cluster of these fires it's a little bit farther to the south of the city of Perth. And this is the area near Yarloop where we were talking about, how the fire doubled just overnight, again, and so rapidly.

Here is a look on Tuesday. Again, you can see the town of Verona, the white dots that you see those are clouds. But now we fast forward to a different day, the day after that. And notice this grayish brown, what looks like fog sitting over top of the city. That's actually smoke from some of the initial fires that lightning caused. Then you fast forward another day. Notice how widespread those fires have become from where the smoke is.

And unfortunately, that kind of was the case. Friday, they had thunderstorms move in which you can see because the entire area is engulfed in some convection, but these types of thunderstorms that brought were not the good kind, because they didn't really bring a lot of the necessary rain, they just brought additional lightning storms.

But the good news is, the wind is going to shift over the weekend and hopefully make it a little bit easier for the firefighters to battle those blazes.

ALLEN: All right, well thanks, Allison, I guess.

As far as people that lost their home says that.

All right, we're going to turn now to Powerball fever here in the United States. People throughout the country that bought a ticket awaiting Saturday night, that's when numbers will be drawn for the Powerball lottery jackpot, now worth $800 million. It is already the biggest lottery in U.S. history, and if there is no winning ticket drawn, the jackpot will only continue to swell. And the fact that sometimes they don't have a winning ticket just shows you what your odds of winning. Good luck out there.

Up next here, it's Political Mann. Thanks for watching.

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