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London Mayor Pushes for U.K. to Leave E.U.; Cameron Makes Case for Britain to Stay in E.U.; Republicans Set Sights on Nevada and Super Tuesday; Rubio Promises to Unite Republican Party; Uber Driver Arrested in Serial Shooting; El Chapo's Wife Speaks Out. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired February 22, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Ahead at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, David Cameron takes his case to stay in the E.U. to Parliament.

Is there a Republican candidate who can stop Donald Trump?

And El Chapo's wife says she fears for her husband's life.

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CURNOW: Thanks for joining me, I'm Robyn Curnow. You're watching the INTERNATIONAL DESK.

We start with David Cameron's pitch to Parliament to keep Britain in the European Union. The prime minister is set to speak in the House of Commons

in about half an hour from now. Of course, we'll bring you that live on CNN.

Now Mr. Cameron scored a victory Friday when the E.U. granted Britain's special status at a summit in Brussels but the nation is deeply divided

over whether to stay or go.

And a high-profile member of Mr. Cameron's own party, London mayor Boris Johnson, says he wants Britain to leave the E.U. A nationwide vote will

happen in late June.

We're covering all the angles of this story. Max Foster is live at 10 Downing Street. Nina dos Santos is at CNN London with the financial

implications of a possible Brexit.

Max, you first.

How has the entry of Boris Johnson into this debate changed things?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's changed everything really, particularly for David Cameron and the campaign to keep Britain

within the European Union because there wasn't a big opposition figure really as the headline act on the campaign to bring Britain out of the

European Union. They've now got that.

It's Boris Johnson, probably David Cameron's worst nightmare. He's also part of the Conservative Party but a very high-profile, very charismatic,

vivacious figure, who clearly is a huge advantage for the campaign to take Britain outside of the European Union.

But there's also an underlying narrative here, Robyn, which is that Boris Johnson is seen as a contender for David Cameron's position as leader of

the Conservative Party in this Parliament.

So if he takes over in that position, he will become prime minister. So some suggesting there's a personal agenda here as well. But nevertheless,

it's really heated up the debate here. David Cameron had it a lot easier on Friday before Boris Johnson entered this campaign.

CURNOW: Yes. It was a different conversation on Friday, wasn't it.

Now, Nina, to you. The heads of FTSE 100 companies for the most part are supporting the prime minister here.

What does big business have to say about all of this?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Yes. We're likely to hear a lot more from big business over the next few days because what happened over

the weekend, Robyn, is that we now have the starting gun fired and a lot of big business leaders have been very, very cautious to voice their concern

about a Brexit up until now.

They didn't want to go on the record. But now we know that about 50 of the top 100 listed companies are seeing their bosses penning a letter which

will be published, I believe, in the "Financial Times," this time tomorrow urging the U.K. not to vote to leave the European Union.

They say that there's just too much at stake. Remember that the E.U. is the U.K.'s largest trading partner as a bloc, 44 percent of exports leave

this country and go out towards European Union countries.

So they are saying this is trade we just can't afford to say goodbye to. But one thing they will be looking at, Robyn, is also the value of the

British pound, which is falling like a stone in today's session. As Max was just saying not, just for the reason that we have that referendum call

but also because Boris Johnson is throwing his hat into the ring has radically altered things post- and pre-Brexit debate.

And as you can see, the British pound is down about 2 percent today. That also makes U.K. goods more competitive internationally. But obviously if

the U.K. closes itself off from international trade because it votes to leave the E.U., that throws a completely different dynamic on things.

CURNOW: Yes, absolutely.

Max, I think you mentioned the domestic political dimensions of this.

What is interesting is that the traditional alliances are being torn up here. We really are going to see that in Parliament at the bottom of the

hour.

FOSTER: Yes, so David Cameron is in the building. And his outriders are here. They're about to set off, get out to Parliament, a big challenge for

him. He does have to convince all of those doubters in his own party.

So the Conservative Party has always been split on European lines. Pro- Europeans and anti- Europeans. And this is really how this referendum came about in the first place. But what Boris Johnson has done is made it

easier for some MPs who weren't quite sure -- here's David Cameron heading off into Parliament. He's got a big smile on his face, just looking quite

confident. But he's got to convince lots of wavering MPs to stick with him --

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FOSTER: -- because up until now the issue that he had really was that a lot of the waverers, they were sticking with him because thought he would

win. But now there's a sense that actually they've got a big heavyweight campaigner for the campaign to leave the European Union then it's a lot

easier to switch sides.

It's also made the debate a lot bigger across Britain because the anti- leaving -- the campaign to get Britain to leave Europe didn't really have any convincing figures in it. There was lots of infighting; it was very

disorganized. So they weren't ever going to do very well in the campaign until they got this senior figure to head things up. And they got the --

probably the most charismatic senior figure they could have wished for.

CURNOW: Indeed. And it will be interesting to see how Boris Johnson and David Cameron perhaps clash in Parliament. So I think Parliament's always

good theater but it's going to be particularly interesting in the coming hours.

Thank you so much to both of you.

To Syria now, where the death toll is climbing after a series of attacks by ISIS in Homs and Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says

198 civilians were killed in five suicide and car bombing attacks Sunday. Hundreds more were wounded.

The violence happening on the same day U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced a provisional cease-fire in Syria could be days away. However

ISIS and the Al-Nusra Front are not a part of that agreement.

Let's bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, who joins us now live from Beirut, Lebanon.

There are various dimensions to this, as you have reported over the past few years. But what is interesting now is, is Russia trying to resurrect

some sort of Cold War bipolar world structure in trying to deal with this geopolitically?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: One of the interesting bits of the small print of John Kerry's discussion of the potential in days

ahead to see the provisional agreement on what possibly could be a cessation of hostilities, the sheer level of verbiage there tells you how

far away they are from actually potentially ebbing the violence.

It was the key next step in what explained was how Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin may talk potentially in the days ahead to solidify the terms

of that cease-fire. Now bear in mind, Russia is fighting in that war certainly on behalf of the Damascus regime. But the U.S. are assisting

some of the rebel groups.

Yet the discussions you say occurs in this sort of bipolar Cold War-esque fashion, where the White House calls the Kremlin and they work out how

things are going to be in another part of the world, where neither of the governments reside.

So yes, that's perhaps, I think some may say the Kremlin's way of trying to restore what's -- what Vladimir Putin saw as his sort of heavy, happy

heyday. Remember he described the fall of the Soviet Union as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of history.

But it hasn't really done much to slow the violence on the ground at all yet. And even though you talk about the Syrians human rights call a record

death roll in the attacks at the site of Zeinab Shrine, now having risen in those three separate blasts to 134, quite staggering figures, still

violence continues around the town of Aleppo.

To its southeast, reports of ISIS trying to cut off regime supply routes; to its northeast, reports from activists of the regime dropping barrel

bombs on rebel positions there.

So the violence unabated. A sense perhaps of escalation ahead of any sort of cease-fire but also a sense, I think, too, of the realism of that

cease-fire, cessation of hostilities, as John Kerry was careful to call it, ebbing somewhat.

And this sense of distance, we now have Moscow talking to Washington. No Syrians really in the process. But the hope those two world powers -- or

one former, one current -- could perhaps persuade doing the actual fighting to slow down. Even though they don't accept that ISIS are now cut a

franchise in Syria, Nusra aren't part of those cessation of hostilities negotiations at all and won't be affected by them -- Robyn.

CURNOW: In Beirut, Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much for that.

Coming up, Donald Trump's momentum grows after another key primary win. He and his rivals head next to Nevada. But a bigger target looms on the

horizon.

Plus an Uber driver in the U.S. state of Michigan is accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage. He's due in court to face charges in just a few

hours. We'll have that and much more just ahead.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow. You're watching CNN.

Now the next 10 days will shape the race for the White House. Here's what we're watching. The U.S. Republican presidential candidates are just a day

away from the Nevada caucuses but all campaigns are eyeing a much bigger target: next week's Super Tuesday contest in 13 states.

And Donald Trump looks even more formidable after a weekend win in South Carolina.

Our Chris Frates joins me now live in Las Vegas.

This is hotting up.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning from Sin City, Robyn, where Republicans are getting ready for the next round in this bruising GOP

primary debate, when people go to vote here in caucuses tomorrow.

The three winners of the South Carolina primary taking their message to voters. Donald Trump trying to cement his lead among the polls here with a

big win in Nevada. Ted Cruz arguing he's really the only true conservative in this race and Marco Rubio telling people that he's the only one who can

unite all Republicans and take on Democrats in November.

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FRATES (voice-over): A reordered Republican field is barnstorming across Nevada ahead of the caucuses Tuesday, Trump's sweeping victory in South

Carolina over the weekends still sinking in.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is crunch time. We have to go out and vote.

FRATES (voice-over): Trump is looking to build on his momentum after back- to-back victories with his sights set on Super Tuesday one week after Nevada's showdown.

TRUMP: I tell you what, we're going one after another.

Are we going to win Georgia?

Yes.

FRATES (voice-over): Meanwhile the GOP front-runner was stirring up controversy over the weekend by retweeting this message, claiming both Cruz

and Rubio are ineligible to be POTUS and defending the retweet on ABC's "This Week."

TRUMP: I honestly never looked at it. Somebody said he's not. And I retweeted it. I retweet things and we start dialogue and it's very

interesting.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the Constitution with regards to

eligibility. And I'm going to spend all my time talking about what this campaign should be about.

FRATES (voice-over): Questioning opponents' eligibility for the presidency is a favorite Trump attack. Texas senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, is

sharpening his counterattack.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: For folk who is are concerned that Donald Trump is not the best candidate to go head-to-head with Hillary Clinton in

November, it is becoming clearer and clearer that we are the one campaign that can beat Donald Trump. Indeed, we're the only campaign that has

beaten Donald Trump.

FRATES (voice-over): And Marco Rubio is making the case in Las Vegas that he's the new face of the conservative movement.

RUBIO: Of the people left in this race, no one can unite this movement or this party faster than I can. We will unite the Republican Party and the

conservative movement.

FRATES: So the one candidate missing from this Silver State: Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, dropped out of the race after a disappointing

showing in South Carolina where he finished fourth. So this huge field we started with last year down to just five candidates going into the voting

tomorrow -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Indeed, thanks so much Chris Frates there in Sin City, as you say.

Let's talk more about this. Trump has predicted he will face Clinton in a general election and that they'll spur a record number of voters to the

polls. Trump is dominant, outspoken and, of course, controversial. But is he unstoppable?

CNN Political commentator Tara Setmayer joins me now live from New York.

So what is it -- hi, there, Tara.

What is it about Donald Trump that is alarming the Republican establishment?

We know the answers in terms of what voters might be concerned about.

But in terms of the Republican establishment, what scares them?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the list is long.

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SETMAYER: But I think what scares them the most is the fact that he's so rogue, that he does whatever he wants, says whatever he wants. He has

positions that are wholeheartedly not Republican and they are concerned that he's dividing the country.

He's giving the Republican Party a bad name with these tactics, being acting like a bully, calling people names, attacking different groups.

These are problems that the Republican Party as a whole doesn't want someone like this representing conservatism in our values.

So also the fact that they can't -- I don't want to use the word "control" but I guess they can't control him because he's self-financed. He has his

own agenda and he is not listening to anyone. And anytime you're a party apparatus, part of that is being able to work as a team. And clearly

Donald Trump is not a team player by any means.

CURNOW: With all of that, though, the fact remains is that it he has, in a way, broadened the base. He has broad support.

So will there be a time or is there some hard thinking going on, where the Republican establishment is thinking we're beginning to have to work with

this guy? Let's make it work.

SETMAYER: Well, I think there's a lot of trepidation going on right now in Washington over the fact that we're even in this position.

How did this happen? There are so many -- I was in South Carolina over the weekend and I talked to a lot of my friends that are operatives and

everyone is a little shell-shocked of a year ago, if you would have asked where we'd be right now, this certainly is not it. No one saw this coming.

And we're charting new territory here. No one is quite sure how to deal with this. The fact that the field has been winnowing down, now we have

basically it's between Rubio, Cruz and Trump; Carson's a non-factor; Kasich is still kind of an X-factor here, what he's doing, still staying in this

race after Jeb Bush bowed out is still somewhat of a question. Perhaps he's positioning himself for V.P. We're not sure.

But they are trying to figure out how do we stop Trump at this point because once start to we hit the Super Tuesday states and then it becomes

winner take all, it's going to be very, very difficult.

And most people want to avoid a brokered convention. As we go into the convention and Trump has the delegates and there's some kind of high jinx

and they steal this from Donald Trump after he's won legitimately, I think you'll see a really fractured Republican Party that may never recover from

it.

So there's a lot of scenarios going on. Things are still very fluid. There's still some hope for coalescing behind someone maybe like Rubio.

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CURNOW: That's what I was going to say.

Who can do this?

What needs to be done and who can do it, in terms of taking on Donald Trump?

Is it too late?

SETMAYER: Right. Well, Ted Cruz will say it's him because he's the only that's beaten Donald Trump so far in Iowa. He was able to do that.

But I think some concerns over Ted Cruz is that he has narrow appeal also. He appeals to a very specific slice of the Republican Party, the

evangelical right-wing part of that, and he would be a problem in a general election. He's not broadening the base; whereas someone like Marco Rubio,

when you saw that pretty remarkable picture of Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott standing on a stage together saying that this is the children of

Reagan have come now to unite the party, the diversity, the future of the Republican Party, a positive message, that is really what most of the party

leaders would hope would be the future of the Republican Party, not this brash, braggadocio, all-over-the-place Donald Trump, who doesn't even take

Republican positions.

So we'll see what happens within the next two weeks. But it's becoming something that a lot of people are starting to face the reality that this

Trump thing could be real.

CURNOW: And of course the impact potentially on how that plays out in a general election, whether that makes it easier or not for a Democratic

candidate, thank you so much, Tara.

SETMAYER: You're welcome.

CURNOW: The remaining Republican hopefuls face off in a debate Thursday in Texas. The five of them, as Tara said, you can see it Friday at 9:30 am in

Hong Kong, only on CNN.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are also gearing up for a crucial Super Tuesday race. First, they have to head off and face off in

South Carolina. Clinton is the clear favorite in a new CNN Poll of Polls. She commands 57 percent of Democratic voters in the state compared to

Sanders with just 32 percent. Clinton is fresh off a victory in Nevada caucuses.

Sanders' campaign is no doubt bruised by that loss but he has brushed, highlighting his national momentum instead. And ahead of Saturday's

Democratic primary in South Carolina, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face voters in a CNN town hall. That airs Wednesday at 9:00 am in

Hong Kong.

Moving on, the Mexican drug lord El Chapo is getting some vocal support about his alleged mistreatment behind bars.

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CURNOW: His beauty queen wife is speaking out for the first time.

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CURNOW: Police in the U.S. state of Michigan remain puzzled over what prompted a gunman to kill six people around the city of Kalamazoo Saturday.

Authorities say Jason Dalton went on a deliberate shooting rampage that lasted several hours. In between the killings, he apparently picked up

passengers for the ride service, Uber. Our Ryan Young has more on the investigation.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kalamazoo is in mourning, looking for answers after six people were killed and two others injured in

a shooting rampage on Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an opportunity that we get to pray for our victims.

YOUNG (voice-over): Authorities say the suspect, 45-year-old Jason Dalton, doesn't appear to be connected to any of the victims.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These were very deliberate killings. They were intentional, deliberate and -- I don't want to say casually done -- coldly

done is what I want to say.

YOUNG (voice-over): Neighbors who know the alleged shooter say they are in shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just seemed like a normal, normal guy. This is just so strange.

We're wondering what might have caused him to do this.

YOUNG (voice-over): Dalton worked as an Uber driver. A passenger who rode in his car just before the shootings said he was acting strange.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were kind of driving through medians, driving through the lawn, speeding along and then finally, once he came to a stop,

I jumped out of the car and ran away.

YOUNG (voice-over): Shortly after that, authorities say the nearly seven- hour shooting spree started; 5:42 pm, a woman is shot several times in a parking lot at an apartment complex. She survived but is in serious

condition.

At 10:08 pm, Richard Smith and his 17-year-old son, Tyler, are shot and killed at a car dealership. And at 10:24 pm, Dalton pulls into this

parking lot at a Cracker Barrel, where he allegedly kills four women in their cars, all over the age of 60.

A 14-year-old girl was also shot but survived.

Finally after midnight, police locate Dalton's car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We determined that this was indeed our suspect. He was taken into custody.

YOUNG (voice-over): Investigators believe Dalton was looking to pick up passengers even after the final shooting.

Uber said in a statement, "We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence. We have reached out to police to help with their

investigation in any way that we can."

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CURNOW: Our Ryan young reporting there. Now Dalton is set to appear in court later to face formal charges.

The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has just given her first television interview. She said she fears for her husband's safety

behind bars and claims that he's being punished for his escape. Senior Latin American affairs editor Rafael Romo is with me.

So this is the first time we're hearing and seeing his wife, a woman who he married on her 18th birthday.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's right. The only images we had were pictures from back in 2007, when she was a beauty

queen in her home state of Sinaloa. But her name is Emma Coronel Aispuro. And she says that the conditions El Chapo Guzman is enduring in prison are

creating a situation in which he is getting sick.

She told the U.S. Spanish network, Telemundo, that El Chapo has now developed --

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ROMO: -- high blood pressure and among the things that she said in the interview is that he is being watched 24/7, that there are dogs watching

him at all times and that he is being constantly moved. She says that what Mexican officials are doing to El Chapo, her husband, is tantamount to

punishment. Let's hear.

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EMMA CORONEL AISPURO, WIFE OF EL CHAPO (through translator): What they're doing is very cruel. They are trying to make him pay for his escape. They

say that they are not punishing him. Of course they are.

They are there with him all day long, watching him in his cell. They are there all day long. They are doing roll call every hour. They don't let

him sleep. He doesn't even have privacy to go to the restroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And she also said that she fears for her husband's life. She also said, Robyn, that they met, she and El Chapo, when she was only 17. She

was a beauty queen. He asked her to dance and that he was a man who was good with words, that he was very caring, a gentleman and that's why she

fell in love with him.

Now they have two daughters, twin daughters, who were born in California -- she's an American citizen, by the way -- in the year 2011 and she says her

main concern other than her husband's being in prison is the fact that her daughters are not going to grow up having the kind of normal life that she

would have wanted for her.

CURNOW: We can't forget that this man is accused of being one of the world's most dangerous drug dealers essentially. But this also comes a few

weeks after you sat here and we had a conversation about his lawyer coming out and saying that El Chapo felt like he was being treated like -- he was

a zombie because of all these wakeup calls in the middle of the night. This seems like some coordinated campaign from his side.

What do they want?

ROMO: Yes, that's a very good point because we have heard a lot from the Mexican government. We heard about how El Chapo escaped, what he's done,

what he's being accused of.

And starting about a week and a half ago, we started hearing from the attorney, saying that he's being mistreated, that he's being moved, that

he's not allowed to sleep. I think this is part of a strategy to counteract what the Mexican government has done so far.

And when you watch the interview, you get the feeling that she may not necessarily be doing this because she wants to be on camera but because she

feels or the attorneys have told her that she has to come out and speak publicly about what El Chapo is going through.

Now in Mexico, El Chapo, as you can imagine, is not getting a lot of sympathy. A lot of people see him as a man who was behind a drug cartel,

responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people. So not a whole lot of sympathy there.

CURNOW: No. Rafael Romo, thanks so much.

ROMO: Thank you.

CURNOW: Well, still on the IDESK, Britain's prime minister about to make his case to Parliament for Britain to stay in the European Union. We'll

have live coverage of David Cameron's speech. Stay with us.

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CURNOW: Welcome back. You're watching the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Any time now, British prime minister David Cameron is set to

address Parliament to make his case for Britain to stay in the European Union.

And he's doing it right now. Let's listen in.

END