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The iPhone Battle; Syria Ceasefir; GOP Frontrunners Make Personal Attacks; Two Moderate Republican Senators Breaking Ranks. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 23, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yesterday at Mobile World Congress, which is a big tech conference in Barcelona, and he -- he said, you know, he didn't believe in a back door. He said they want to help with terrorism, they want to help with law enforcement. The one interesting thing that just came out, a study came out showing that a lot of Americans are actually siding with Bill Gates, siding with the FBI, saying we want you to open up that phone. Fifty-one percent of Americans say, yes, Apple should assist the FBI, 38 percent said no, 11 percent had no opinion.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, why is that so surprising though? I mean when all is said and done, Americans fear a terrorist attack on American soil.

SEGALL: Yes.

COSTELLO: And if Apple can provide help in preventing that, then --

SEGALL: I -- you know, I think that's the basic thinking. And I actually don't think that tech has really come out and explained the other side as much as they could have. They put out these statements that say, we stand with Apple, but they haven't really explained to the American public the power of encryption, the power of what really is behind I think this request. This is the first time we're seeing Apple's hand forced to -- actually really coming out and saying it.

One other interesting part of that study is that there doesn't really seem to be a divide between Democrats and Republicans and how they're viewing it. Fifty-five percent of Democrats say that Apple should assist the FBI, 56 percent of Republicans. So a lot of folks kind of on the same page. It's interesting to watch this really play out in the court of public opinion. I think that will impact this, Carol.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Laurie Segall, thanks for stopping by.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

A one issue candidate who makes promises he just can't keep. Just some of the jabs Hillary Clinton has used in recent weeks on her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders. And while team Clinton feels those comments are getting traction, Sanders says in really Clinton is sounding increasingly like him on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am delighted that Secretary Clinton month after month after month seems to be adopting more and more of the positions that we have advocated. That's good. And, in fact, is beginning to use a lot of the language and phraseology that we have used. In fact, I think I saw her TV ad and I thought it was me, but it turned out it was Secretary Clinton's picture in the ad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about this. Van Jones is a former advisor to President Obama, Bakari Sellers is a Hillary Clinton supporter and a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives.

Thanks to both of you.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Van, is Sanders right? Is Clinton just stealing his lines and using them to sell herself?

VAN JONES, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, she certainly has been pulled further to the left by the Sanders candidacy. Nobody would argue that. Certainly she has, you know, a good strong liberal record in a lot of respects, but nobody would have expected a year ago for Hillary Clinton to be as tough on trade as she has been to be as outspoken and as passionate, you know, competing with Bernie on some of these racial justice issues, especially with criminal justice, where she really had not been a champion before. So, of course, she is being influenced. That happens in campaigns.

I think that Sanders is having a problem because he is starting to sound a little bit like a one note guy. It's sort of Wall Street, Wall Street, criminal justice, criminal justice and he's not really expanding and filling out his message and it's allowing him to be defined by Hillary Clinton. It is ironic that she's taken so many of his issues and now says he has one issue.

COSTELLO: So, Bakari, Bernie Sanders also mentioned in that very same rally for his supporters Senator Elizabeth Warren's name. Do you think at some point she will come out and endorse someone? And if she endorses Bernie Sanders, would that make a difference?

SELLERS: I don't think so. I think if Senator Sanders were to endorse she would do it relatively soon rather than later because Massachusetts is coming up next week. I just don't anticipate that happening. I think that Elizabeth Warren is sitting on the sidelines, but Elizabeth Warren still is commanding a lot of attention. A lot of the issues that she's a champion of, Wall Street, economic justice, even environmental justice. And to speak frankly, and I know Van will agree with this, one of the best speeches on criminal justice reform we've had in the past year was actually given by Elizabeth Warren.

JONES: I'll agree. SELLERS: And so she's helping carve out the debate that we're having -- that we're having right now. And so I don't anticipate her getting involved. I think that Bernie Sanders has made Hillary Clinton a much better candidate, not just for the primary, but for the general election as well.

COSTELLO: Really, Van, Bernie Sanders has made Clinton a better candidate? How so?

JONES: Well, I mean, I hate to agree with Bakari on everything. I've got to figure out something to fight with him on today, but because usually we don't agree, but I -- yes, you know, the reality is that if you look back in even October, it looked like Hillary Clinton was already turning in some ways toward the general election. She says, oh, yes, I am a moderate, et cetera. That's the kind of stuff you expect to hear in October of 2016, not 2015. I think that Bernie came on strong and showed, look, he got a lot of young people who have a very -- who are very frustrated with how much education costs, very frustrated with the job market, very frustrated with being -- feeling like the whole political system is so cynical, who want to be inspired. And what you saw is Hillary Clinton had to deal with that fact in her party and, frankly, she is dealing with it. You've seen her improve in that regard.

[09:35:25] I would like to see Bernie Sanders stop what he's doing now, which is like trying to attack her about the Wall Street issue. I think he's made that point. There are other points of difference. For instance, African-Americans are in the military in very large numbers. Let's talk about war and peace. African-Americans in the industrial belt have been hurt by NAFTA and bad trade policy. Let's talk about some substantive issues that affect African-Americans, not just criminal -- I love criminal justice. I'm so glad it's a big issue, but there are other issues now and he's starting to sound one note, which lets her define him as one issue, even though he's not.

COSTELLO: So among minority voters, Bernie Sanders is getting some help and, Bakari, Spike Lee came out and offers his endorsement. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE: Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take. And when Bernie gets in the White House, he will do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so Spike Lee is on that theme too, Bakari.

SELLERS: Yes. And Spike Lee is a good friend of mine. We're both Morehouse brothers. So I don't want to be disparaging towards Spike. But what we have here is, it's the epitome of what Bernie Sanders' campaign really is, and his largest problem. He still hit on that one note. If you compare and contrast that campaign ad versus the recent campaign ad with Morgan Freeman and Hillary Clinton, where she has those mothers of the victims of gun violence, where she Trayvon Martin's mother and Jordan Davis' mother and he says -- and she says her name in speaking of Sandra Bland, it speaks to a very specific pain. The fact of the matter -- the reason that this Spike Lee ad won't resonate with African-Americans, especially here in South Carolina in Super Tuesday, is because if you break up the big banks, if you break up the Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs and you break up the big banks, African-Americans will still make 60 cents on every dollar. African-American will still be incarcerated at higher rates. I have two degrees. I still can go outside and get gunned down unarmed by police. So, I mean, he has to begin to break away from his note. And, unfortunately, that ad actually drives home Hillary Clinton's point, that he's a one issue candidate.

COSTELLO: Interesting. I have to --

JONES: Look --

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Van. Last word.

JONES: I was just wanting to say one last thing. Sanders does have a great civil rights story to tell. In the '60s he was doing for -- he was for civil rights. Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton was for Barry Goldwater. He could talk about other issues and I think he should, especially when he's talking to the African-American audience. Tell your story about civil rights.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there.

SELLERS: Especially with that voice of Spike Lee. Yes, thank you.

COSTELLO: (INAUDIBLE), Bakari. Bakari Sellers, Van Jones, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new ceasefire plans for Syria. Who's working together to make it happen? And could it last?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:08] COSTELLO: A potential break from civil war for the Syrian people. Syria's president, Bashar al Assad, has agreed to a temporary ceasefire. It's set to start on Saturday morning. The U.S. and Russia helped broker the deal, which does not include ISIS or an al Qaeda group, but it could be a reprieve from the five-year-old war that's killed hundreds of thousands of people and left millions more homeless. And in just minutes, Secretary of State John Kerry will defend the plan on Capitol Hill. Nick Paton Walsh is covering this for us from Beirut.

Hi, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, an awful lot, though, could still go wrong here. Now, all of this has come about because of intense discussions between Moscow and Washington. Vladimir Putin very clearly trying to take credit for it with the Russian people, addressing them last night.

Now the big caveat here, when the guns are supposed to fall silent, late your afternoon on Friday, midnight Damascus time here, is that ISIS and the face of al Qaeda in Syria, the Nusra Front, are not involved. Now, that has a huge potential for misunderstanding here because when the Syrian government themselves said they would in fact abide by this ceasefire, they used slightly different wording and how they referred to, quote, "terrorists" that gave you an idea maybe there could be confusion when the ceasefire's supposed to come in, but could allow it to fall apart, because the key problem here is many of the moderate opposition groups on the battlefield have at times had links to the Nusra Front, that face of al Qaeda in Syria, fought alongside them. It's often a very gray area and Russia has been accused of using that gray area and the guise of a campaign of bombing ISIS to in fact attack those opponents of the Syrian regime who are more or less moderates at times. So there's a lot that could go wrong, a lot of mistrust here and I think a big, real question that has to be answered at this stage, if it really took the Kremlin and the White House negotiating this in the old Cold War style, for this paperwork to come forward, what about the actual Syrians involved? We still haven't heard from the Syrian armed opposition, their political win, who has said, you know, we think we can go along with this. There's still that question unanswered and the clock is already ticking.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, so is all the infighting between the GOP candidates turning off voters or is it firing them up? CNN went to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:56] COSTELLO: Finger pointing, personal attacks, accusations of lying. The race between the GOP front runners is only getting nastier. But is all the in-fighting turning off Republican voters or is it firing them up?

CNN's Gary Tuchman has the answer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since the South Carolina primary victory, Donald Trump hasn't let up on his GOP competitors.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You want to know something? I'm a better person than the person I'm running against.

TUCHMAN: But he isn't the only one making digs. Ted Cruz managed to hit Trump when speaking about Jeb Bush withdrawing from the race.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRSEIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A man who didn't go to the gutter and engage in insults and attacks.

TUCHMAN: And then there's Marco Rubio.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I didn't become a conservative two years ago, or a year ago.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Among the litany of insults during the heat of the campaigning, we've heard Trump call Cruz unstable and a liar. Trump called Rubio a lightweight and a clown. Cruz called Trump a liar. Cruz called Rubio a liar. Rubio called Cruz a liar. And Rubio called Trump crude.

[09:50:03] (voice-over): A CNN exit poll in South Carolina shows GOP voters believe Trump is the main instigator. When asked who ran the most unfair campaign in the state, Trump topped Cruz with Rubio coming in third.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go Trump! Let's go Trump!

TUCHMAN: Not surprisingly, almost all the Trump supporters we talked to after the South Carolina win want Trump to be Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have a problem with a man, if somebody is stupid, saying they're stupid.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Does it bother you though when he says things like about Cruz, like he's the biggest liar he ever met, and he says negative things about the pope?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I was there. I witnessed it. I mean, he absolutely was lying.

TUCHMAN: But what about, like, the Pope, though?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pope started that one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the Pope swung first. And everybody knows that Donald is going to deliver the knockout punch.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Meanwhile, while many of Ted Cruz's supporters at this Las Vegas rally complain about Donald Trump's behavior.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump is a schoolyard bully. He's spoiled.

TUCHMAN: They say Cruz is just defending himself when he delivers his own attacks.

CARISSA HERNANDEZ, CRUZ SUPPORTER: I absolutely do believe it's important that he defends himself. I don't know how much energy he really needs to put into it. Because I believe true Ted Cruz supporters are going to support him no matter what because we know the truth.

TUCHMAN: And at this Rubio Nevada event, the supporters told us their candidate has no choice.

DAN BEASTON, RUBIO SUPPORTER: If he doesn't respond, well, Trump will keep on doing what he's doing. However, if Rubio responds, it shuts him down like Jeb Bush did, I think we'll be fine.

TRUMP: I have never, ever met a person that lies more than Ted Cruz.

RUBIO: Ted Cruz has just been telling lies.

CRUZ: Whenever anyone points out their record, they simply start screaming, "Liar, liar, liar."

TUCHMAN: There's already a lot of bad blood and the political season is still young.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It certainly is. Gary Tuchman, thanks for that report.

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

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, breaking ranks. Two GOP senators now saying an Obama nominee to the Supreme Court should at least receive a hearing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:56:30] COSTELLO: A pair of moderate Republican senators are breaking ranks with their party leaders and arguing that President Barack Obama's potential Supreme Court nominee should receive a hearing.

CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju is covering this for us this morning. Good morning, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Now the Senate reconvened last night for the first time since Justice Scalia's death created a vacancy on the Supreme Court. And by and large, Republican Senators do not want to move forward with any sort of proceedings, including confirmation hearings. John Cornyn, who is the No. 2 Senate Republican, told me yesterday, no, there should be no hearings.

But he is -- but there are a couple of moderate Republicans who are breaking ranks. Mark Kirk of Illinois said there should be votes and a hearing on a nominee. And Susan Collins of Maine told me yesterday that hearings would help her properly assess a nominee's qualifications.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: For my part, it's clear the president can send up a nominee, regardless of where he is before he leaves office. I believe that we should follow the regular order in this process and give careful consideration to any nominee that the president may send to the Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Democrats are hoping to exploit these fissures in order to push forward with confirmation proceedings and potentially a vote on the floor. But they have their own problems, namely Joe Biden. In 1992, he gave a floor speech saying there should not be any confirmation hearings for a possible George H.W. Bush Supreme Court nominee. Republicans were playing this clip yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, THEN-SENATOR: President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors in not -- and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Democrats in the White House say that it was taken out of context, that Biden actually was trying to urge consensus behind a nominee. But we'll see how that actually plays out. Today the senators in both parties will meet for the first time in a full conference setting to discuss their respective strategies. Republicans (sic) are meeting in the Judiciary Committee, Republicans with Mitch McConnell this morning and having a lunch later. We'll see how unified they are. But at this point we're not expecting them to move forward with anything, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Manu Raju reporting live from Washington this morning.

Checking some other top stories for you at 58 minutes past. Opening statements start this morning in the $75 million lawsuit brought by Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews. Andrews is suing a national hotel for allowing a man who was stalking her to reserve a room right next to hers. Michael Barrett pleaded guilty to stalking Andrews back in 2009, and he admitted to using peepholes to record nude images of her. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Three people are dead after a man shoots at his mother, father, and sister and then sets the house on fire. That's according to CNN affiliate KPHO (ph). Police say the suspect is down but it's unclear if he's among the dead. The suspect shot at firefighters when they arrived on the scene. They used their trucks to block the bullets and then put out the fire.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump takes on protesters.

[10:00:01] TRUMP: Smiling, laughing, I'd like to punch them in the face, I'll tell you.

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz, immigration.

CRUZ: We should enforce the law. Federal law requires that anyone here illegally that's apprehended should be deported.