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President Obama to Speak on Gitmo Plan; GOP Rivals Geared Up for Nevada Showdown; Sanders Ramps Up Rhetoric Against Clinton; Police: Uber Driver Admits to Killings; Bill Gates Supports FBI in Phone Battle. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 23, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[09:00:10] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump takes on protesters.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Smiling, laughing, like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz, immigration.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should enforce the law. Federal law requires that anyone here illegally that's apprehended should be deported.

COSTELLO: And today, they're all fighting each other for a win in Nevada.

Also, copy cat Clinton?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I saw a TV ad, I thought it was me.

COSTELLO: And that wasn't Sanders' only slam. Wall Street super PACs. Will ramp-up attacks get his backers to show up and vote?

Plus protesting for privacy. Nationwide rallies planned in support of Apple for refusing to unlock a terrorist iPhone. Now Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg weigh in.

What do you think should happen?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

In the next hour President Barack Obama will deliver a statement on his plan to close Guantanamo Bay. It's a promise seven years in the making. Gitmo is now home to 91 detainees including this man, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon this morning with more. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is a report that Congress ordered up. They wanted to see the president's plan to shut down Guantanamo Bay and transfer the remaining detainees to the United States.

Now some will go back overseas. They have about 90 left there. Some will be transferred to their home countries. Some will go to other countries. But as soon as they get the population down as far as they can there will be a hardcore group of detainees that the president has wanted to bring to the United States into the federal or military prison system.

A lot of legalities to this but the practical fact is this. Congress has thrown a significant roadblock in that idea banning any money being spent to transfer that small group to the U.S. prison system. So what will this report say? The president by all accounts is going to acknowledge he needs Congress's approval. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, keen military leaders have said there is going to have to be some legislative understanding on all of this to make it happen.

A lot of talk over the months from the White House, could he do it by executive action, but this is going to provoke a firestorm of controversy in Congress. Right now the cost they say of keeping a small number at Guantanamo Bay would actually exceed the cost of keeping a prisoner in the federal system. So what they hope to do is get the population down so low that they can convince Congress this is the only economic alternative. But we've seen years of opposition to this idea -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon, and this news is actually going to break around 10:30 Eastern Time. Of course we'll keep you posted.

On to politics now. Showdown in Nevada. We're just hours away from caucus night and the Republican candidates are sweeping across the state trying to stay on message. Trump making one last pitch to voters, ramping up his rhetoric. Even lashing out at a protester.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Do you know what I hate? There is a guy totally disruptive, throwing punches. We're not allowed to punch back anymore. I love the old days. Do you know what they used to do to guys like that when they are in a place like this? They'd be carried out on a stretcher, folks.

Here's a guy throwing punches, nasty as hell. Screaming at everything else when we're talking. I mean, walk it out, and we're not allowed, you know, the guards are very gentle with him. He's walking out, like, with big high fives, smiling, laughing. Like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz in damage control mode, firing his campaign's national spokesman for sharing a false story about Marco Rubio dismissing the bible. The video, which you will see right here, claims Rubio said there weren't many answers in the bible. What he actually said was that the bible had all the answers.

Let's bring in CNN political reporter Sara Murray. She's live in Las Vegas this morning. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You are right. So this is the first Western nominating contest for Republicans and it could be a wild one. Turnout here tends to be very low, which makes polling very unpredictable. But all signs point to Donald Trump having a lot of momentum in this state despite some of his wild comments and in light of the fact that many of his competitors seem to be struggling.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump is hoping to lock in another win in Nevada.

TRUMP: Forget the word caucus. Just go out and vote. OK?

MURRAY: While Marco Rubio appears set on amassing endorsement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm supporting Rubio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's conservative and he's electable.

MURRAY: And arguing it's time for Republicans to rally behind him as the alternative to Trump before it's too late.

[09:05:03] SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we nominate someone that half of the Republican Party hates, we're going to be fighting against each other all the way to November. We will never win that way.

MURRAY: But right now Trump's blows are trained firmly on Ted Cruz.

TRUMP: This guy is sick. There is something wrong with this guy.

MURRAY: Just hours before voters cast their ballots in the unpredictable caucus state of Nevada.

TRUMP: You know, it is Las Vegas, it's a little tricky. A little tricky.

MURRAY: Cruz was still trying to nix the narrative that his campaign plays dirty.

TRUMP: This guy Cruz lies more than any human being I've ever dealt with. Unbelievable. RUBIO: Every single day something comes out of the Cruz campaign that

is deceptive and untrue.

MURRAY: Yesterday Cruz fired his communications director.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This morning I asked for Rick Tyler's resignation.

MURRAY: That's after the staffer distributed a video that appeared inaccurately to show Marco Rubio dismissing the bible.

RUBIO: Perhaps that was the most offensive one because they basically made it up.

MURRAY: As Cruz struggled to regroup John Kasich had his own awkward campaign moment saying women left their kitchens to support his 1970s state House bid.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We just got an army of people who -- and many women to left their kitchens to go out door-to- door and to put yard signs up for me.

MURRAY: His offhand comment quickly called out by a voter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll come to support you but I won't be coming out of kitchen.

KASICH: I got you. I got you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now today Ben Carson is wading into this race with his own eyebrow raising comment saying President Obama was raised white. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected. But I also recognize that his experience and my experience are night and day different. He didn't grow up like I grew up by any stretch of the imagination. Not even close.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's an Africa-American.

CARSON: He's an African American. He was, you know, raised white. Many of his formative years he spent in Indonesia so for him to, you know, claim hat, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans I think is a bit of a stretch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So, Carol, you see there the lone African-American candidate on the Republican side questioning the first black president's black experience. We'll get a better sense of how that comment is playing out I'm sure later this morning. Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray reporting live from Las Vegas.

The Cruz camp, let's talk about that because it is in disarray in a very bad time. Cruz needs a decisive win or a second place finish in Nevada to prove he is the candidate to beat Donald Trump. You could argue Cruz's next step to beating Trump is to echo Trump's most popular themes. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Build that wall. We're going to build that wall. Don't worry about it. We're going to build that wall. We're going to build the wall and who's going to pay for that wall? Who?

CRUZ: We should build a wall. We should triple the Border Patrol.

TRUMP: The first thing we do is get the bad ones out. We have a law. Right? You are supposed to come in legally. I would get people out and I would have an expedited way of getting them back into the country so they can be legal.

CRUZ: Federal law requires that anyone here illegally that's apprehended should be deported. You know, the biggest difference, Bill?

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Mr. Trump would look for them to get them out. Would you do that if you were president?

CRUZ: Look, Bill, of course you would. That's what ICE exists for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So is Cruz become Trump's mini me? With me now, Hadley Heath Manning, she's a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women's Forum, and Jamie Weinstein is a senior editor at the "Daily Caller."

Welcome both of you. So --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good morning.

JAMIE WEINSTEIN, SENIOR EDITOR, DAILY CALLER: Thanks for having us.

COSTELLO: So, Jamie, is Cruz just echoing Trump now? Or is there real differences between the candidates?

WEINSTEIN: Well, I think he's trying to be more extreme than his position was previously. In 2013 of course he called for trying to come up with some solution to bring immigrants out of the shadows, illegal immigrants, and create a pathway to legalization. Now he's trying to echo Donald Trump.

I think the real question here is whether this is a real resonant issue. Exit polls in New Hampshire and South Carolina showed that voters don't rank immigration as one of their top concerns and most voters in both states, Republican voters, actually favor some path to legalization for illegal immigrants. So it seems that this is a bizarre strategy if he's trying to expand his support in the Republican base but he does seem like he's trying to match Donald Trump in the hopes he kind of soars in the polls kind of like Donald Trump has.

COSTELLO: So, Hadley, do you believe Jamie is right because immigration seems to be at the core of both Donald Trump's campaign and Ted Cruz's?

[09:10:04] HADLEY HEATH MANNING, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: That's right. But I believe that voters who are really looking for a candidate who's extremely tough on the issue of immigration, then they may have already found themselves in Donald Trump's camp. They may not be willing to switch now into the Ted Cruz camp. So I don't -- I don't believe this is a wise strategy either.

I thought for a while that Ted Cruz would be trying to talk tough on the issue of immigration during the Republican primary and then would pivot to the center back towards a position he held in 2013, a path to legalization during the general election should he take the nomination so that he could broaden his appeal with the general electorate. But these comments last night seem to make it impossible now for him to do so.

COSTELLO: Yes. He said some of those comments to Bill O'Reilly last night. You saw that in that clip we played.

I want to go back to Cruz firing his communications guy, Rick Tyler, Jamie. You know, he fired Rick Tyler for underhanded tactics. Cruz toughened his language toward undocumented immigrants. Marco Rubio, though, picked up a new wave of establishment GOP endorsement yesterday. About 16, I believe.

Do you get the sense Cruz is panicking? Or is he making changes in an orderly fashion?

WEINSTEIN: Well, I was there yesterday when he made -- when he made the announcement that he was firing Rick Tyler and all the press was shocked. They didn't see this coming. But what I think we saw was again back to the exit polls in South Carolina when they asked voters who is running the most dishonest campaign, Ted Cruz won out by far. So he might have saw he had a problem there with Marco Rubio and Donald Trump attacking him on maybe the dishonest tactics they claimed he was using in his campaign.

Then he saw this as a way to show voters perhaps that he's trying to get a handle on his campaign and that he's not trying to run a dishonest campaign. So he hopes maybe to stop the bleeding. We'll see if that happens. Neither Donald Trump nor Marco Rubio's campaign seem to be buying it, though.

COSTELLO: But, Hadley, doesn't this move by firing Rick Tyler put Cruz in handcuffs when it comes to really going negative on Donald Trump? MANNING: I don't think so. But ultimately any decision that the

campaign has made about staffing, who they've hired, who they fired, is a reflection of the candidate himself. So as Jamie mentioned nationwide, you know, Republicans like to talk about how Hillary Clinton's struggles with this characteristic of honesty and trustworthiness, well, Ted Cruz isn't doing much better nationally and this is another problem for him to deal with.

But there's two issues. Ultimately the fact that the campaign released the video to start with and then of course their response was too slow and in the case of, you know, firing a staffer and trying to blame that one particular staffer for a video that surely had to get some kind of approval from other members of the campaign staff, that's troubling. I want voters to ask themselves, you know, can I really trust this candidate?

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Hadley Heath Manning, Jamie Weinstein, thanks to both of you.

The five remaining Republican presidential candidates will meet for the next GOP debate this Thursday night in Houston. Wolf Blitzer will moderate the CNN GOP presidential, starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Bernie Sanders not holding back. Ramping up his attacks with just days until a critical contest in South Carolina.

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[09:17:16] COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders taking off the gloves in his battle with Hillary Clinton. The Vermont senator using campaign stops Monday to blast Clinton on everything from her super PAC to her ties to Wall Street, and he says he's just getting started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the coming weeks, we are going to continue to contrast our point of view with Secretary Clinton's on a number of issues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins me now from South Carolina, the site of tonight's Democratic town hall.

Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey. Good morning, Carol.

I mean, the Democratic side is nothing like the Republican side where the volume is slightly higher shall we say. But for Bernie Sanders, that is a pretty intense way of saying he's going to spend the next several weeks in a sort of negative attack, much more of a negative campaign than we've seen him so far. And the reason is this: Hillary Clinton is coming into the South

Carolina with the wind at her back no question about it. She now has a small lead in the number of delegates, a much bigger lead in super delegates, which we talk about so much.

But Bernie Sanders is already looking ahead to those Super Tuesday states a week from today. I thought it was so interesting yesterday up in Massachusetts when he acknowledged he is so far behind in the African American vote, which of course is so important here in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Are we behind today in the African American vote? The answer is yes. We are.

But I would also tell you that we are making progress. And I believe we will continue to make progress. As the African American community understands my record, understands our very strong feelings about reforming a broken criminal justice system, which has allowed this country to have more people in jail than any other country on earth, largely African American and Latino.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, there is no question that message is resonating particularly with younger African-American voters. But Senator Sanders is, of course, not going to be left alone drawing these attacks.

The Clinton campaign I'm told by senior advisors is going to adopt sort of a three part strategy. Diminish Bernie Sanders. Define Bernie Sanders and defeat Bernie Sanders.

They are not going to let their foot off the gas here, even though she is slightly ahead now because they believe one of the biggest miscalculations of this campaign so far was underestimating him from the very beginning, Carol. So, they are going to keep defining him and we're going see much more of that tonight here in South Carolina at the town hall meeting between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders -- Carol.

[09:20:03] COSTELLO: All right. Jeff Zeleny reporting live this morning -- thank you.

Tonight's final Democratic town hall, as Jeffrey said, starts at 8:00 eastern only here on CNN.

Checking some other top stories at 20 minutes past.

President Obama is asking lawmakers to approve an emergency $1.9 billion to combat the spread of Zika virus. The White House also wants approval to use leftover funds from 2014 which were designated for the Ebola virus. Officials estimate 3 million to 4 million people in the Americas could be affected with the Zika virus next year. Senator Claire McCaskill has been diagnosed with breast cancer. The Missouri Democrat made the announcement on Monday on social media, noting that her prognosis is good and expects a full recovery. She'll take the next three weeks off to receive treatment in St. Louis.

The search for a motive continues in the Kalamazoo shooting rampage. Investigators say the Uber driver accused of massacring six people admitted to the killings. But the married father of two has not explained why he allegedly went on his bloody shooting spree. One witness says a mystery phone call might have set the 47-year-old off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW MELLEN, UBER PASSENGER: He received a telephone call. It was over the Bluetooth. Once he hung up with that phone call is when he started driving really erratically. He was running red lights at that point, squealing the tires. We ran a stop sign and sideswiped another vehicle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Ryan Young live in Kalamazoo with more on this.

Good morning.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Still, very baffling here, especially in Kalamazoo. As you talk to people around this community, they are still trying to put the pieces together. In fact, just talking to police chief this morning, really he says they are still trying to nail down the motive for this crime.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDGE: Are you Jason Brian Dalton?

JASON BRIAN DALTON, SUSPECT: Yes.

YOUNG (voice-over): Shackled wearing an orange jumpsuit, the 45-year- old Uber driver accused of killing six and injuring two appearing in court for the first time via video, showing no emotion as the judge read the 16 charges against him.

JUDGE: Is there anything you wish to tell the court?

DALTON: I would prefer just to remain silent.

YOUNG: At a probably cause hearing, detectives testify that Dalton admitted to, quote, "taking people's lives". For seven hours Saturday, investigators say Dalton roamed the streets, targeting his victims at random, gunning them down all while picking up fares between and even after the attack.

One of those passengers identified only as Derek was drop off by Dalton just 20 minutes before he was arrested. "DEREK", UBER PASSENGER OF JASON DALTON: I said you're not the shooter, are you? And he said no. And I said, are you sure? And he kind of just said, no. I'm just tired. I've been driving for seven hours.

YOUNG: His youngest victim, 14-year-old Abigail Kopf, clinging to life in a hospital. So critically injured, police initially pronounced her dead before she miraculously squeezed her mother's hand.

VICKI KOPF, ABIGAIL KOPF'S MOTHER: She is alive and she is fighting for her life. I want everybody to understand that. Abigail was strong and she was a vibrant, beautiful young lady and did not deserve this.

YOUNG: Law enforcement seizing 11 rifles from inside Dalton's home. According to Uber, Dalton had passed a background check and received favorable feedback. Investigators trying to unravel a motive for why the married father of two with no criminal record would carry out such a cold-blooded massacre.

DAVID PFAFF, PRINCIPAL, EASTERN HANCOCK HIGH SCHOOL: It was an awful, awful feeling to know that someone who you had once worked with and been relatively close to was capable of something like that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Now, Carol, the Dalton family through an attorney released a statement just yesterday, it says, "We express our love and support for everyone involved. We intend to cooperate in every way we can to help determine why and how this occurred."

So, even the family questioning why. A lot of people focus on that phone call, Carol, trying to figure out exactly who he called before everything started.

COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Young reporting live for us this morning -- thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: an all out brawl between the Democrats, as Bernie Sanders picks up a new high profile endorsement.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:35] COSTELLO: Protesters are planning to gather outside Apple stores at more than 30 cities, opposing the FBI's request to unlock an encrypted an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters. But the FBI is also getting some support and it comes from one of the biggest names in the tech world, that would be Bill Gates.

Laurie Segall joins me now.

Are you surprised?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: You know what? I actually am pretty surprised. Usually, Silicon Valley is pretty tight knit on these issues.

It's a big deal that Bill Gates is speaking out. You have Google, Twitter, Facebook has rallied behind Apple. But Bill Gates, the first tech titan to say I side with the FBI. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GATES, TECH ENTREPRENEUR AND GLOBAL PHILANTHROPIST: Apple has access to the information. There is not -- they are just refusing to provide the access and the courts will tell them whether to provide the access or not. You shouldn't call the access some special thing. It is no different than should if anybody ever been able to tell the phone company to get information, bank records. Should anybody be able to get it, at bank records?

There is no difference between information. The government's come asking for a specific set of information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: Now, what Apple will say is, you know, this is the first time they are asked to actually build new technology to access information. That is what's dividing this case. And they say it makes users less safe.

Mark Zuckerberg actually spoke yesterday at Mobile World Congress, which is big tech conference in Barcelona, and he said he didn't believe in a back door.