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Women in Combat; Six Turkish Soldiers Dead in Bombing; Rubio: Photo of Handshake with Obama is Fake; Lost Wallet Saga Sparks Laughter in NYC. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 18, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:29:50] SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do not believe that the military is a place where we should be lowering standards in order to meet some sort of other goal. I believe that -- I'm open to people in both genders serving in combat so long as they can meet the minimum requirements necessary for the job.

And we can't weaken those standards in order to accommodate somebody into the job. That I believe in strongly because lives are on the line and national security is on the line. By the way, there are plenty of men that can't meet those standards either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I had a chance to speak with two female marines. Both served in Iraq. I asked them what they thought.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All jobs in the U.S. military are open to women -- that means combat. And it could mean the draft. And like most decisions involving the military, it's become political even a focus at the primary debates.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat -- I think it's wrong. It is immoral. And if I am president, we aren't doing it.

COSTELLO: The fact is 300,000 women have already served in Iraq and Afghanistan. 9,000 of them have earned army combat action badges -- meaning they engaged the enemy.

Mariette Kalinowski (ph) is a former marine.

You served in Iraq.

SGT. MARIETTE KALINOWSKI, FORMER U.S. MARINE: I was a turret gunner on convoy security patrols.

COSTELLO: This was at a time when all combat roles were not open to women.

KALINOWSKI: Correct.

COSTELLO: Was it noncombat?

KALINOWSKI: Not at all. There were instances in which I took enemy fire and I had to provide fire.

COSTELLO: With a machine gun?

KALINOWSKI: Yes.

COSTELLO: And while she thinks women are more than capable of hand to hand combat, their membership in a historic boy's club isn't easy.

Did your male counterparts worry that you were up there providing cover for them?

KALINOWSKI: I was ridiculed. I was accused of sexual favors in order to get the position, but when it actually came time for me to perform in that duty, and I met or exceeded their expectations, that's when the discrimination fell away.

COSTELLO: So what kind of things would your fellow troops call you?

KALINOWSKI: They called me slut, bitch, (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

COSTELLO: What would have helped your situation or eased the situation for you?

KALINOWSKI: Having more women.

COSTELLO: More women is the Pentagon's goal. One reason why it's opened all combat roles to women, even the elite Special Forces.

It's a move Jude Eden, a former marine herself says will weaken the military.

JUDE EDEN, FORMER U.S. MARINE: It follows suit with other destructive things that this administration has done with the military and weakening it. I think that it's also part of a -- the political agenda that is feminist-leaning to increase their representation of females to 25 percent. That's a quota. They can't fill that quota without lowering standards or without having a double standard.

COSTELLO: Pentagon officials have testified that no target percentages have been set though.

EDEN: Women in the military tend to be injured more than twice as much. Where we're going to be asking a lot more of them physically for the combat standards, those injuries are bound to skyrocket, and that alone is adding weakness.

COSTELLO: Eden says there are other important roles for women to fulfill that do not involve combat. EDEN: You can make a policy to utilize your best military women

without completely repealing the combat exemptions that removes the choice of active duty women and opens up the question of the draft for women.

COSTELLO: That is a big concern that all women have. It's like if you open all combat roles, what if there's a draft?

KALINOWSKI: I think women should be in the selected service program even if we're not open to combat. If you are expecting that the government, that the country will support you in your time of need, there does need to be a reciprocal willingness on the part of all American citizens, regardless of gender.

COSTELLO: Unlike his rival Ted Cruz who says it's immoral for women to fight, Donald Trump says he would let women into combat.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess the answer is yes because they're really into it. And some of them are really, really good.

COSTELLO: Contrasting view points that could tip the scales in a military state like South Carolina where 75 percent of all female army recruits are trained.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Special thanks to Mariette Kalinowski and Jude Eden, both for taking the time to talk with me. It's interesting right.

So let's talk more about this with CNN military analyst and retired Major General Spider Marks. I'm also joined by CNN military analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton, he's a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Welcome to both of you.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES SPIDER MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: General Marks, you heard what Sgt. Kalinowski said, that her fellow marines called her names when she was manning that machine gun. Does that surprise you?

MARKS: No, it doesn't surprise me, but I think this discussion is one that we need to address. But the decision has been made, Carol. My view all along has been, and it's based on personal experience.

[10:35:03] I have served in gender-mixed units my entire career. I have to tell you, the women in those organizations are phenomenal, and they did their part magnificently.

So I think this discussion has been had. I think we're going to continue to have it. But the decision has been made, and we should be open.

There also is a requirement, Carol, that leadership at all levels get actively engaged so you stamp out behavior like that. You treat everyone equally. And if you can do your job, then you're not worried about standards.

If congress gets involved and they start to legislate, and the military legislates, or excuse, establishes quotas, now we have a problem because standards will be dropped. That's where I step in and say we can't do it.

COSTELLO: The Pentagon assures me that there are no quotas. They just want to attract more women to the service, and Colonel Leighton, they want to open all of these combat roles to women to assure women joining the military that there's equality within the ranks. That doesn't mean every woman is going to fight hand to hand combat. And I think that's where many people misunderstand.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: That's right -- Carol. And I think the big reason here is there are a lot of support functions in the military already. All of the things that most military members do are technically support functions. Basically they're the tail part of the tooth to tail ratio.

So even in the broader armed forces, there are even less people who are actually on point in combat positions -- in real combat positions on the front lines. And that also makes a difference.

Plus the other part of it is the draft, quite frankly, hasn't really been used since Vietnam. There are a lot of discussions here that may not be, quite frankly, in line with reality.

COSTELLO: Yes. So something else that I run across all the time, General Marks is that the army is lowering standards and that's why these female rangers, you know, pass the test. But again, there's no evidence that the army lowered standards at all. So why do these things persist?

MARKS: I think that's just old school talk -- Carol. This is nonsense. Look, these young ladies that made it through Ranger School are phenomenal. They met the standards that I met. That everybody else -- and they probably exceeded the standards that I had to meet 40 plus years ago.

This is a phenomenal group of young women that have, excuse me, chosen to join our military. The door has been opened up for them. The opportunity exists. And we need to stay out of the business of establishing quotas. It will -- the women in uniform will self select. They'll meet the standards or they won't. And those organizations will be great doing their jobs.

And as Cedric indicated, there's a large -- there's a disproportional number of folks that are in the support elements. But those that have to do the door kicking, that have to do the hand to hand combat, that have to do the heavy lifting, the long marches, the physical engagement, there will be a select few that will make it in and they'll perform very well provided leadership stays involved to ensure that everything remains equal. COSTELLO: And just a word about these three women who went

through army ranger school, Colonel. They're very loathed to talk to the media because they didn't expect such a backlash. I find that sad.

LEIGHTON: I do too. And, you know, just like General Marks mentioned, it is all about the leadership. Leadership matters at every level of command. It's particularly important at the unit level. And so it's very important for unit leaders, battalion commanders, squadron commanders and on up to really set the tone and set the standards for the people under their command.

And that means that that kind of behavior won't be tolerated. If they're competent, they should be accepted and that should be the end of the discussion.

COSTELLO: All right. Thanks so much.

MARKS: Carol -- can I jump in very, very quickly? You made the comment about it being sad that they didn't comment? I'm very proud of the fact that these are incredibly humble young ladies and it's more about the organization. It's more about the rangers than it is about them meeting the standards. I understand your point, but I think it really speaks highly of them and the culture.

COSTELLO: And, by the way, I should add their male counterparts support them and have spoken out about them in a positive way. And that's all great.

General Spider Marks, Colonel Cedric Leighton -- thanks to both of you.

MARKS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a roadside bomb kills six Turkish soldiers coming just hours after the country launches air strikes in northern Iraq. We'll take you there live -- next

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[10:43:54] COSTELLO: A gruesome day in Turkey. This morning six Turkish soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb hit a military vehicle. The attack coming after an explosion in Ankara believed to have been carried out by a native Syrian.

Arwa Damon is following the story from Ankara. Arwa -- tell us more.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, everything is really intertwined at this stage no matter how you look at it. You have the attack that took place behind us here just down the road that cost at least 28 lives both military personnel and civilians.

This, the Turkish government is saying was carried out by a Syrian national who crossed over from Kurdish-held territory Syria, territory held by a group called the YPG or the PYD depending if you're talking about their military or political branches, who then crossed over into Turkey, linked up with elements of the Kurdish separatists, the PKK who were the group responsible for that bombing that killed those six soldiers you were just talking about.

And then those two groups were needed to carry out this attack. Turkey considers both of these entities to be terrorist organizations. The U.S. however does not. It does have the PKK on its terrorist list but the YPG, Carol -- the YPG is America's strongest ally inside Syria.

[10:45:11] They're getting the most support from the United States and they're getting the most support from the United States and they're getting the most support from the U.S.-led coalition. So we asked the spokesman for Turkish prime minister Mr. Osman Sert exactly how this was going to impact Turkey/U.S. relations.

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OSMAN SERT, SPOKESMAN FOR TURKISH PRIME MINISTER: The relations with America for Turkey, of course, so important. You cannot deny it, but I really wonder at this right at this corner, 28 Turkish citizens is killed by PYD in Ankara. And how many more Turkish citizens should be killed by YPG, PYD, PKK together that our American friends should believe that PYD is a terrorist organization?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: We then also asked if the Turks would find themselves in a position where they would end up asking the United States to choose between them, to choose between Turkey, or to choose between these various Kurdish fighting forces. The bottom line the answer is yes, the U.S. is going to have to make a decision about who to ally itself with. All of which, of course, as we've been reporting is not only going to potentially be impacting Turkey but the battle field in Syria as well, one that has dragged on for way too long and cost way too many lives -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Arwa Damon reporting live from Turkey this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, is the handshake between President Obama and Senator Marco -- you see it there? Is that real or is it another dirty trick in an increasingly nasty campaign for president? We'll talk about that next.

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[10:50:37] COSTELLO: If you thought the battle between the GOP candidates was heating up, the political punches, they just keep on coming.

Senator Marco Rubio now accusing rival Ted Cruz's campaign of posting a fake picture online -- there it is -- that shows Rubio shaking President Obama's hand. It's on a Web site called The Real Rubio Record -- a Cruz campaign site intended to paint Rubio as the, quote, "Republican Obama".

Phil Mattingly has more on this. He's on the trail of Rubio in Greenville. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The Rubio campaign is urgently trying to get the message out about this Web site. Now, they look at this photo and they say according to senior advisor Todd Harris, Rubio doesn't own that suit, he doesn't own that tie, he doesn't own that watch. This is a fake photo being circulated on a Web site paid for by Cruz's campaign.

Now look, Carol, Web sites created to attack candidates is not a new thing in politics. Just about every party committee does it. A number of candidates do it as well.

What the Rubio campaign is seeing on this though is an opening to continue to attack Cruz on deception, on dishonesty -- a theme for the campaign really since Saturday's debate in South Carolina. Now, Ted Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told our colleague Sunlen Serfaty that he didn't believe that the campaign would use any fake photos and then quickly tried to spin it himself saying that the Rubio campaign is the one using smears and lies and said quote, "This is pathetic this late in the campaign to be doing this."

Carol, obviously, as you know and we've seen over the last week, this battle between these two campaigns and even Donald Trump coming in and calling Ted Cruz a liar is only heating up as the race gets closer to when voters actually get to go to the polls.

This is not going away any time soon. I think you're going to hear a lot from the Rubio campaign on this going forward.

COSTELLO: Although it may seem a little silly that we're all fighting about a picture showing Marco Rubio shaking hands with the President of the United States. We must hearken back to Chris Christie, right, who hugged President Obama when he came to the state of New Jersey to offer financial aid to that state, and Chris Christie could never recover from that image.

MATTINGLY: Every single time, Chris Christie seemed to talk about Sandy somebody seemed to bring up the hug. And it should be noted that he said over and over during his campaign in New Hampshire before he dropped out of the race, that he did not in fact hug President Obama. It was just a bad photo.

But look, another kind of interesting element to the photo of Marco Rubio shaking -- allegedly shaking President Obama's hand, it it's a left-handed handshake which isn't exactly the norm in society that we've seen here.

I think the Rubio campaign clearly they want to push back on this Web site. It's kind of a detailed attack on all of Marco Rubio's positions paid for by the Cruz campaign. But again Carol, they also like that this easily fits into the narrative of the attacks the Cruz campaign has been leveling at Marco Rubio and they're going to try and exploit this I think over the next couple of days -- Carol. COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly -- thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the saga of a lost wallet sparks lots of laughter in New York City. You'll want to see this story next.

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COSTELLO: A Florida couple has come forward to collect their portion of last month's record breaking $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot. Maureen Smith and David Cole Smith have opted for the lump sum payment. That means they take home $327.8 million after taxes. The pair said they were kind of nervous about coming forward. They didn't even tell their families until last week. But there they are holding that big old check. Congratulations.

That finders' keepers stuff only applies partially to this next story. A man who lost his wallet got some of the contents back along with a priceless letter that has New Yorkers in stitches.

CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He went to a Wilko concert in Brooklyn and when Riley Flaherty got home, he realized, uh-oh, lost my wallet.

RILEY FLAHERTY, LOST WALLET: I have that classic freak out moment.

MOOS: But the really freaky part happened later.

FLAHERTY: Two weeks later, you know, this crazy envelope just shows up. "Dear Riley Flaherty, I found your wallet and your driver's license. It had your address so here's your credit cards and other important stuff."

MOOS: that's the good news even though Riley had already replaced his license and credit cards.

The bad news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I kept the cash because I needed weed.

FLAHERTY: The Metro Card because the fare is $2.75 now and the wallet because it's kind of cool.

MOOS: At least the walletnapper has good taste. It's a hand- made leather wallet. Riley posted the letter on social media writing "Thanks, I think."

Next thing you know the letter's on the front page of the paper and it's being read aloud on national TV.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Enjoy the rest of your day. Toodles -- Anonymous."

MOOS: Toodles -- what kind of half-Good Samaritan, half-thief talks like a teenager?

FLAHERTY: The ironic thing really is that we could have been good friends -- right. We both like Wilko indie music, same taste in wallets.

MOOS: It's such a New York thing -- a little selfish, a little selfless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anonymous' honesty is like actually kind of charming.

FLAHERTY: We have this pot smoking modern day Robin Hood that's out there.

MOOS: Sending a hand-scrawled letter with a Charlie Brown stamp. Maybe that's a clue. Maybe Charlie Brown did it.

[11:00:03]DENTIFIED MALE: Good grief.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Oh, my.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.