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Dow Tumbles; Trump and Cruz at War; Sean Penn on Accusations; Rotting Detroit Classrooms. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired January 15, 2016 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hours before Iraq and Saddam Hussein called it quits.
Remember those days vividly.
The news continues next right here on CNN.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Pamela Brown. Great to have you with us.
Breaking news at this hour, the year's rough start on Wall Street seems to be getting worse. The Dow has tumbled hundreds of points on this brutal trading day. Take a look right here. A short time ago it plunged about 500 points. I'm going to bring in CNN Money digital correspondent Paul LaMonica.
Paul, we know that oil prices are triggering some fear as part of this. Break it down for us. What is going on?
PAUL LAMONICA, CNN MONEY DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think, Pamela, that oil is one of the main reasons why stocks are plunging today. And it pretty much plummeted all year, and that's tied to China. You have very considerable concern that China's economy is slowing down. That's led to the pullback in oil. But also supply as well. Iran very soon could have more oil supply on the market. We see what's going on with Saudi Arabia not cutting back on production despite the plunge in oil. So a lot of concerns.
BROWN: And is this upcoming three day weekend playing a role at all in today's sell-off, do you think?
LAMONICA: I think it is a little bit. I'm sure that there are many investors, both average investors as well as pros, who don't want to get caught heading into a long weekend with, you know, their portfolios in a position where they could be hit with more losses come Tuesday. So I think that's magnifying some of the losses today because we're not going to have the market open on Monday.
BROWN: That's a very good point. Not a great way to start off the year here in 2016. Paul LaMonica, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
LAMONICA: Thank you, Pamela.
BROWN: Now to the race for the nation's next president. Neck and neck in the Iowa polls, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz go after it center stage at the Republican presidential debate in South Carolina. And it's official, the gloves are off and it's game on. Even Trump said so. Trump was referring to Cruz attacking his, quote, "New York values." A
line of attack that has now made Cruz persona non grata (ph) at "The New York Daily News." Check out its front page. It is clearly not liking the response that Ted Cruz made.
I'm going to now bring in one of our political correspondents here to talk more about this, Jim Acosta.
It seems like, Jim, that the jabs keep coming, even today.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And, Pam, actually, you know, we should point out this clash between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz took a little bit of a time out here in Iowa. Donald Trump was in Urbandale, Iowa, earlier today and he just stopped at this pizza ranch, which is sort of an Iowa tradition heading into the Iowa caucuses. Candidates will go through this chain of restaurants from across the state meeting and greeting with voters. It's one of those things that Donald Trump has not done a whole heck of a lot during the course of this campaign, but he's starting to do it more, Pam, and that is a sign that Donald Trump is very serious about winning these Iowa caucuses in just a little over two weeks from now.
And earlier today in Urbandale, you know, he didn't really talk about Ted Cruz very much. Didn't talk about this controversy about the Texas senator's citizenship and Donald Trump's questioning of whether or not he can be eligible to be president and Ted Cruz's retort that Donald Trump has New York values. None of that really came up during this event. This was really Donald Trump focusing on some of the basics in Iowa, and that is getting his voters out to the caucuses on caucus night. He wanted to make sure that caucus goers know what to do, where to go when they make their choice coming up on February 1st and he talked about the crowds that are showing up at his events and how he feels like that is a sign that he's going to do quite well here in Iowa. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the other day you heard we had a tremendous - we had 15,000 people and 7,000 people were sent - we couldn't get them into the arena. And the pundits are saying, well, but maybe they won't show up to vote. And maybe they won't show up to vote. I don't know. Maybe they won't. But it seems crazy because some of those people were waiting in line for seven hours in the cold. I don't even know how you do it, but seven hours in the cold. And they wait and wait and wait. And it just seems hard to believe that you wait seven hours in the cold and then they like me more after the event and then they don't show up to vote or caucus or whatever they want to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: So there you have it, Donald Trump speaking very honestly about the conventional wisdom in Washington, which is, yes, he's doing well in the polls, yes, he's riding high, yes, he had a good debate performance last night, but can he get all of these people, the thousands of people who show at these - show up at these big arena events, out to actually vote. And so to hear Donald Trump talk about that is an indication that it's a concern inside his campaign and he knows that he has to get that part of this done in order to close the deal in a couple of weeks.
And the other thing that he hasn't done a whole lot of is to come to places like this Pizza Ranch. And we should point out, Pam, he didn't actually have a slice of pizza when he was here, but his - and people made note of that. But the campaign sent out a statement just a little while ago -
[14:05:08] BROWN: As they should.
ACOSTA: Well, and the campaign put out a statement just a little while ago saying that the pizza was waiting for him on his plane on his way back to New York.
BROWN: OK.
ACOSTA: So they wanted to make sure that the folks here in Iowa understand he did have some Pizza Ranch pizza.
BROWN: As a pizza lover myself, I can't imagine being there and not having a slice. Jim Acosta, thanks for pointing that out for us.
And perhaps the biggest win for Trump was his comeback to Cruz's attack that Trump has, quote, "New York values." His response even won praise from Trump's arch rival, former New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Take a look here. She tweeted, quote, "just this once, Trump's right, New Yorkers value hard work, diversity, tolerance, resilience." And here's the exchange from the debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal, are pro- abortion, are pro-gay marriage focus around money and the media.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: New York is a great place. It's got great people. It's got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanly than New York.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And with me now, CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston.
Maeve.
MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean this is such a fascinating moment in the debate. A really strong moment for Donald Trump. Obviously, it's a - it's always a risk when you talk about September 11th for any politician. But he really got the better of Ted Cruz in this exchange. It was a very human moment for Donald Trump talking personally about how this affected him. And he really just neutralized that attack. You could see it in Ted Cruz's face as he was watching this play out.
And I do think that that attack on the campaign trail from Ted Cruz will just disappear after that exchange during the debate. New York values does work as an attack in Iowa, but the way that Donald Trump came back against it and the way that people feel about September 11th and New York, I just don't think that it's got any - any punch behind it anymore.
BROWN: Well, explain to us why it works in Iowa and how it could backfire though if you're looking more long term for Cruz.
RESTON: Well, the thing about Cruz is that so much of his campaign right now is key into those conservative, evangelical voters in Iowa and many of them do think that the big cities on both coasts, Los Angeles and New York, have completely lost touch with American values. And that's why Cruz went there with Donald Trump. He thought it was a - a strong line of attack against him. But what Ted Cruz's biggest risk is right now is that he's keying his message too much to that early state of Iowa. You see how well, for example, Donald Trump is doing in New Hampshire, where you have a little bit of a broader base of voters. Those attacks are not going to play as well as people are looking at Ted Cruz and saying, could he really be a good general election candidate, could he go up against Hillary Clinton, or is he just too conservative for undecided voters, for middle of the road voters to embrace him.
BROWN: And, you know, Trump wasn't the only one going after Ted Cruz.
RESTON: Right.
BROWN: We also heard Marco Rubio unleashing on him on multiple key issues. Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz, you used to say you supported doubling the number of green cards. Now you say that you're against it. You used to support a 500 percent increase in the number of guest workers. Now you say that you're against it. You used to port - you used to support legalizing people that were here illegally. Now you say you're against it. You used to say that you were in favor of birthright citizenship. Now you say that you are against it. And, by the way, it's not just on immigration. You used to support TPA. Now you say you're against it. I saw you on the Senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance because they told you it would help you in Iowa. And last week we all saw you flip your vote in ethanol (ph) in Iowa (ph) for the same reason. That is not consistent conservatism. That is political calculation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: OK. So Cruz's response to this was that at least half of those accusations were not true. So what does that mean, that the other things he said are accurate? What does that mean? RESTON: Well, didn't you - didn't you love that, that Cruz was counting the attacks down to each one in his head? I mean both of these guys are great debaters, right, but this was one of the toughest moments that we've seen in a campaign so far among these other candidates with the exception of Donald Trump.
And it's a, you know, this classic debate technique where you just throw everything at the other candidate. And Ted Cruz didn't have enough time to come back and explain, you know, on each of these instances the parts where Marco Rubio was wrong. And so it was a really powerful moment for Rubio in that - in that second there that really might start to raise questions for a lot of voters about whether Ted Cruz has flip-flopped on some of these issues, because he has evolved, as many of the other candidates have over time, and so it was really a fascinating aggressive moment by Rubio, really showing what Rubio's trying to do, which is move in there, finish strong in Iowa and then knock out Ted Cruz and go up against Trump as we move forward in the primary.
[14:10:05] BROWN: Yes, 17 days away until the Iowa caucuses. Maeve Reston, thank you very much.
RESTON: Thank you.
BROWN: Meantime, Sean Penn breaking his silence over his controversial interview with El Chapo. Why he says he's now at risk and in the crosshairs.
Plus, sources telling CNN Iran instructed the American sailors to act happy during their detention. But it doesn't stop there.
And stunning images from inside an American school. Teachers walking out over the conditions. From rats and roaches to mold, just absolutely disgusting. We're going to take you inside.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, he says he wants to start a conversation about the war on drugs. Actor Sean Penn is now breaking his silence about his controversial secret meeting with Mexican drug lord El Chapo Guzman. Penn wrote a lengthy expose about the meeting for "Rolling Stone" and it was released the day after Guzman was captured, although Penn and El Chapo met last October. Mexican officials told reporters that this meeting was, quote, "essential for locating and capturing El Chapo." And today Penn is calling that an absolute myth.
[14:15:20] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN PENN, ACTOR: We know that the Mexican government, they were clearly very humiliated by the notion that someone found him before they did. Well, nobody found him before they did. We didn't - we're not starter than the DEA or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation.
CHARLIE ROSE, CBS NEWS: Do you believe that the Mexican government released this in part because they wanted to see you blamed and to put you at risk?
PENN: Yes.
ROSE: They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their crosshairs.
PENN: Yes.
ROSE: Are you fearful for your life?
PENN: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: All right, so I want to bring in Peter Vincent. He was with the Department of Justice at the U.S. embassy in Colombia, where he coordinated nearly 500 extraditions.
Great to have you on with us, Peter. So we just heard Penn say there that the Mexican government is embarrassed by the fact that he met El Chapo before they caught up with him just recently. Do you really think that his visit was a critical part of El Chapo's capture as the Mexican authorities have claimed?
PETER VINCENT, FORMER JUDICIAL ATTACHE, U.S. EMBASSY IN BOGOTA, COLOMBIA: Good afternoon, Pamela.
There's no doubt whatsoever that the Mexican government was deeply embarrassed, I dare say humiliated, by the escape of El Chapo Guzman six months ago from one of their maximum security prisons. I think Mr. Penn is engaging in a bit of self-flattery if he thinks that the Mexican government is concerned regarding Sean Penn's role in this particular issue and whether or not Sean Penn is being blamed by the Mexican government.
BROWN: Interesting. But, I mean, does he have a point there, that it could make them look bad that he got to them before, you know, they did recently?
VINCENT: Well, Sean Penn did - was able to obtain an interview. The Mexican government, especially the very, very good Mexican marines, were getting close already. I have no doubt that they were monitoring communications within the state of Mexico and were well aware of this particular meeting. Didn't know exactly where it was going to take place or at what time. But again, the Mexican government, having been humiliated, deserve a great deal of credit for actually capturing El Chapo Guzman last week.
BROWN: You're right. In fact, sources say that they delayed this operation in October because Penn was meeting with El Chapo. So if investigators do confirm that this secret meeting helped them locate El Chapo, should Penn and del Castillo be fearful of retaliation from the cartel? As he said, he - he is - he does think that the Mexican government is trying to put his life at risk.
VINCENT: No, I don't think either Sean Penn or Kate del Castillo should be fearful of the cartel. I think that the cartel has more serious matters, more savage issues to deal with and they're dealing with that on a daily basis. I do think that Miss del Castillo in particular needs to be concerned about what role she may have played in her continuous communications with El Chapo and whether or not her activity actually helped them locate Mr. - El Chapo Guzman.
BROWN: And the U.S., as we know, wants El Chapo on U.S. soil to face justice if he is indeed extradited to the U.S. Is there a possibility that Sean Penn and the actress, del Castillo, would have to testify?
VINCENT: There's a strong possibility. I have no doubt that both Mexican officials and United States officials would very much like to speak to both Mr. Penn and Kate del Castillo for lots of reasons. And I do believe that U.S. law enforcement would be reaching out to Mr. Penn. I don't believe that he - there's any legal jeopardy for him. I don't believe that he engaged in anything that would enable the United States government to bring charges against him. He wasn't obstructing justice based on what - at least on what we know. He wasn't harboring a fugitive. And unless he was actually engaging in some sort of elicit financial transaction with the Sinaloa Cartel, he faces very, very little risk of criminal prosecution.
However, as I said, the authorities very much will want to talk to him and a judge will be able to subpoena his testimony either at a federal grand jury to supersede the eight indictments that are already pending against El Chapo Guzman or at a trial in the United States, if he is actually extradited to the United States.
BROWN: And for all we know, the U.S. law enforcement has reached out to him. I'm not sure if that was part of the interview with Charlie Rose. But I know that's a question a lot of people are asking.
Peter Vincent, thank you so much.
VINCENT: Thank you, Pamela.
BROWN: And coming up on this Friday, love him or hate him, Ted Cruz earning marks as a savvy and slick debater last night. We're going to talk to someone from the senator's Princeton debate team, his former partner. What he thinks about Ted Cruz then and new.
[14:20:01] And up next, brace yourself. From a rodent infestation, to bathroom stalls with no doors, CNN goes inside the Detroit schools where teachers organized a sick out. But will anything come of it? We'll go live to Detroit, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Michigan's attorney general says his office is opening an investigation into the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The announcement posted on Twitter today. Flint's water supply has become tainted with high levels of lead after it switched water sources back in 2014. Bill Schuette says he will see whether any state laws were broken in the process that led to this contamination. And Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says his office will cooperate. He's also appointed an independent panel to review the city's water challenges. The governor is also asking President Obama for a federal disaster declaration so Flint residents and the city could get federal aid for such remedies, such as temporary housing and home repairs. FEMA is already helping coordinate a response for this. And as many as 30 Michigan National Guard members are expected on the ground in Flint today to help pass out supplies and clean water.
[14:25:21] And meantime, right next door, CNN is getting a firsthand look inside some of the Detroit public schools that are in gross disrepair. The dilapidated state of some classrooms prompted scores of teachers this week to stage a sick out. Dozens of schools had to temporarily shut down because instructors refused to work in these buildings with no heat, bad plumbing, even some infested with rats. CNN's Jean Casarez shows us the shocking images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School conditions like this at Spain (ph) Elementary prompted Detroit public school teachers to call a sick out several days this week. Sixty-four or roughly two- thirds of the city's public schools were closed Monday, leaving thousands of students out of the classroom, sparking Michigan's Division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to launch an investigation into Spain Elementary School.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our gym. We have been told that this portion of the building is off limits to us as of two months ago. Our pool has been empty like this for about six years. We've now been banned from our own playground. No gym and now no playground.
CASAREZ: Twenty minutes away at Frank Cody (ph) High School, principal Latoya Hall King (ph) told the national president of the American Teachers Federation, who flew in from Washington for the meeting, conditions at the school are intolerable. From a rodent infestation, to girls bathroom stalls having no doors. The technology classroom, without access to the Internet.
RANDI WENGARTON, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: I see a lot of bad situations. This ranks about some of the worst.
CASAREZ: Additionally, water leaks at the school, fixed but never sealed.
CASAREZ (on camera): I've been in this building about 40 minutes now and I am hoarse. I wasn't hoarse when I walked in. Are you concerned about that for the children?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. There's clearly environmental issues when you have leaks in buildings, when you have carpeting that has been leaked upon.
CASAREZ (voice-over): Darnell Earley, appointed one year ago by the governor to head emergency management for the district, says not all of Detroit's 97 public schools have these issues. And with an accumulated debt of $515 million, they have to make tough decisions on what schools get what improvements first. DARNELL EARLEY, EMERGENCY MANAGER, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
Financially, we don't have the capacity. And decisions have been made for years about how best to use those dwindling resources. You have to really use a - kind of a crystal ball to decide what's the best way to spend these few dollars.
CASAREZ: At this Detroit parent network forum Thursday night, teachers got support across the board, but not everyone agreed on the tactic of the sick out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe it's a bad thing for the children. I believe that their education, you know, should have really been really considered and thought about.
CASAREZ: Although the community is divided on what to do about very real challenges, and until the district can get money, the students will continue to bear the burden.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I worry about is losing - losing - losing the teachers and also closing down the schools.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Jean joins me now. What a - what an enlightening report there just to see the conditions that these students and teachers have to endure. What are city and school administrators doing to fix this problem?
CASAREZ: Well, the state legislature yesterday introduced legislation, controversial I am told, but what it would do would be to take that $515 million debt that's on the shoulders of the school district here and make the state responsible for paying it, which would then free up the money - moneys for the school district to pay for some of these repairs. Now, don't know if it's going to pass. And the emergency manager tells me the district's going to run out of cash in April. And so if that legislation does not pass, they are going to have to make the serious decision whether to determine that the school district itself is insolvent and then they have to figure out what to do with the children.
We do want to tell everybody, the technology room at the school, one of the three schools I visited yesterday, that has no Internet, they have the computers but no Internet, that wiring had to be cut out last year some time because of a water leak. It was never put back in, but they tell me they're back on it now and they will restore that Internet for the students today or next week.
BROWN: Wow. Well, I'm glad some improvements are being made. But just seeing you in that interview hoarse just from being in the school for 40 minutes, it's just startling to see that.
Jean Casarez, thank you very much.
[14:30:06]
