Return to Transcripts main page
Wolf
Obama, Senate Battle over Supreme Court Vacancy; Obama, Senate Battle over Closing Guantanamo; Nevada Republican Governor Being Vetted for Supreme Court; Analyzing Trumps Victory in Nevada; U.S. Considers Plan B in Syria. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 24, 2016 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:33:17] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Two major battles are brewing between President Obama and Congress, one regarding the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the other, the future of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Just a short time ago, President Obama called on Senators to consider his eventual nominee to the high court. He says he realizes the politics are hard for Senate Republicans, but that it is their job. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My hope and expectation is that once there's an actual nominee, once this is no longer an abstraction, that those on the Judiciary Committee recognize that their job is to give this person a hearing, to show the courtesy of meeting with them. They are then free to vote whatever their conscience dictates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Senate Republicans, from Senate Republican leadership to the Senate Judiciary Committee, have vowed not to hold hearings or have meetings with any White House nominee, a move defended by House Speaker Paul Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Everything is up for grabs, the Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court, and we owe this country a choice and that's exactly what we're going to give them. The president has every right to nominate someone but let's not forget the fact that Congress is a separate but equal branch of government, and the Senate has every right not to act on a nominee. Both sides have rights here. And there is a precedence not acting on a nominee in the middle of a presidential election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Now to the battle looming over Guantanamo Bay. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain as well as Senator Lindsey Graham are not happy, to say the least, with the president's plan to close the detention facility, even though they both have called for the very same thing in the past. This is very interesting dynamic going on here.
Senator Graham says he met with President Obama six years ago to try and work out a deal. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[13:35:14] SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Right after the election, Senator McCain and I met with President-elect Obama in Chicago and we tried to create an agenda for his presidency in his first year. One of the areas of discussion was coming up with a plan to close Guantanamo Bay. During that campaign, Senator McCain and Obama suggested we should close the prison because it was hurting us, image wise, to see if we could find a way to move the prisoners inside the United States, consistent with being at war. Six years ago -- I can't remember the date but I'll give it to you -- I met twice with the president in the Oval Office and he said, go home and write out what you think the statute would look like. I did. It was one and a half pages. I didn't want to create a political document. I wanted to create an outline that would give the executive branch great leeway but recognize people could be held under the law of war, and that we were looking for a site in the United States. I was going to stand with the president along with Senator McCain. Rahm Emanuel helped broker this. And it went like this, we're going to move KSM back into military commissions. It was a bad idea to put him in civilian courts in New York. And the tradeoff was we'd come up with a way to move the prisoners from Gitmo inside the United States with a statute that allowed for indefinite law of war detention with adequate due process. I have yet to hear a response after drafting that legislation. I've been told numerous times in the last six years, we're serious about it, we'll send you something over.
What they've sent is a political document. This is a political exercise to check a block for a president who made a promise that he can't fulfill. Why can't he fulfill it? Because he hasn't led. There was a time when presidential leadership would have allowed the closing of Guantanamo Bay. There was a time when Senator John McCain and myself would have stood with the president to close this facility, open up a new one inside the United States that adheres to our values and recognizes we're at war. That time period has passed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: Time period has passed.
Let me bring in Athena Jones at the White House.
Athena, when you hear from Senator John McCain, when you hear from Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, standing there with them, about their feelings about this plan, it doesn't look like the prospects for work between White House and Congress on this Guantanamo Bay issue is getting better. What are you hearing from the White House today?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly doesn't. The White House still wants to have a conversation. They believe the presentation of this plan should start the conversation with Congress but this is one more area where politics are tough for the president here. All indications are it's a non-starter on Capitol Hill even with these two Senators who in the past supported the idea of closing Guantanamo Bay. Now you hear from Senator Graham the window is closed and from Senator McCain, you hear this is not a plan, there are no real specifics on cost, on the actual site where you might transfer these detainees. There's no plan for each of the detainees. There's no plan, not individual plan for each of the detainees. There's no plan for what to do about future law of war detainees, so what happens if you capture another big-name terrorist on the battlefield, where do you put them?
The White House says, because statute and legislation Congress has passed, their hands were, in some ways, tied, for instance, when it comes to coming up with a detailed plan about a specific U.S. site, for instance, Congress has stood in the way.
The bottom line here is that you're seeing pushback from Congress, even from people who in the past supported a plan to close Guantanamo Bay, and now, even though the White House says they're still hoping to have conversations continue, it's not looking good -- Kate?
BOLDUAN: Athena Jones, thanks so much. We will see where this goes. Appreciate it very much.
We have more breaking news to bring to you right now about a possible Supreme Court nomination as we were just discussing. Brian Sandoval, the Republican governor of Nevada, we're hearing is being vetted as a possible nominee.
Let's get back over to senior political reporter, Manu Raju, on Capitol Hill.
Manu, you have a lot of work on your hands today. What are you hearing about the possibility of Brian Sandoval, a Republican governor being vetted as the possible nominee?
[13:09:38] MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: He is being vetted. He talked about it with Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic leader on Monday. And Reid just told us in an exclusive interview with CNN that he would back Sandoval's nomination to the Supreme Court if the president chose him.
Let me read you what Senator read has to say as we spoke with him an hour ago. I asked him specifically, do you think Brian Sandoval would be a good Supreme Court justice? He said "You know, I don't pick the justices but I know if he were picked I would support the man. He's a good person. He has a great record. And he's been a tremendously good governor, in spite of having to deal with very big problems there."
It's an interesting move. We're not quite clear how serious this is, if this is a trial balloon, but as Republicans are saying, that I won't meet with anybody, what will they do if it's a moderate Republican, someone from their own party, who's Hispanic? BOLDUAN: Right.
RAJU: What are they going to do? Are they not going to meet with this person and not considering them for the nomination?
What we're hearing from Republicans after this has been floated, they're still not willing to consider this person. Orrin Hatch told Tom la Bianco (ph), one of our reporters, he would not consider Brian Sandoval, even if Sandoval were to be chosen.
What does it do for the Democratic base? Will they get fired up behind a moderate Republican for the bench? So it's an interesting political calculation the White House is making given the hard line Republicans are drawing.
BOLDUAN: It sure does seem that. Looking back at Sandoval's background, he was unanimously confirmed, I'm seeing right here, as a district court judge, nominated by George W. Bush, so you can see how this is going to get interesting.
Of course, many people are vetted before a Supreme Court nominee is decided by the White House, but this is an interesting wrinkle in this standoff, if you will, between President Obama and congressional Republicans.
Manu is on it. Brian Sandoval, the Republican governor of Nevada, according to Harry Reid, telling Manu Raju, he is being vetted as a potential nominee for the Supreme Court to take over the seat vacated after the passing of Antonin Scalia.
Manu, thanks so much.
A lot going on today. Up next for us, what drove Donald Trump's blow- out victory in Nevada? We'll break down where he got the most support and the most surprising support. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[13:46:22] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: That was Donald Trump proclaiming victory last night with help from virtually every demographic group in the Nevada caucuses.
Here to break down some of the more revealing entrance polls, what they tell us about the state of the race, going forward, CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "Smerconish," Michael Smerconish.
Michael, great to see you.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: Thank you, Kate. You, too.
BOLDUAN: Thank you. Let's start with the Latino voters. Trump, the candidate who pledged he was going to build a wall and when he announced his candidacy he said very disparaging things about Mexicans. He won 45 percent of the Latino vote, topping both Cruz and Rubio. Yes, there is some debate about how much folks can trust that number because of the -- because of the sample size, but how do you explain it?
SMERCONISH: Well, it's pretty stunning, I mean, let's give him credit where credit is due, I have on my computer the way that you have on yours all of the internals, meaning the demographic breakdown, the issue breakdown of those who came out in the Nevada caucus. He won everywhere, among virtually everybody, any way you slice and dice the data, it was Donald Trump's night. I would say keep this in mind -- it was a caucus, it was not a primary, although he's run well in primaries also. This required some skin in the game. You've got to come out of your house, you're just sending in a ballot from home, you have to invest some time, you've got to converse with your neighbors. And I think that it attracts the most passionate.
One thing we can agree on is that the passion crowd is going with Donald Trump. Another stunning statistic from that data, how many individuals came out in Nevada and said they are outright angry about the federal government that's a Trump voter as well. So I guess what I'm saying I'm giving him his just due. He won across all demographic lines including Hispanics, but where whether that's a representative sample size among all Republicans or Americans we could debate.
BOLDUAN: Trump also won among evangelicals. That's not just in Nevada. He won among evangelicals in South Carolina. This is a key voting block Ted Cruz has been targeting. These are the ones from Nevada. Do you think this shows Trump's strengths winning over evangelicals or do you think this shows a failure in Ted Cruz's strategy?
SMERCONISH: I think it shows a combination of both. What I'm mindful of is the fact that the Cruz strategy was intended to be a Reagan- esque-like strategy, do well in the south and the West, do particularly well among evangelicals and Libertarian pockets. Now as we're getting ready to do Tuesday, or the first of several Super Tuesdays next Tuesday, we see Ted Cruz did not win in South Carolina, now he's been bested by Donald Trump out west, and so you really do have to begin to question the whole Cruz model and whether it provides him any kind of a path to pose a serious threat to Trump.
BOLDUAN: We will see. It's going to get -- I project, I'm going to look at my crystal ball and say it's going to be messy and nasty. But important for voters to watch tomorrow at the CNN debate, the final debate before Super Tuesday, because they all have a lot at stake to make their case before Super Tuesday.
Michael, great to see you. Thank you so much.
SMERCONISH: Good to see you, Kate.
[13:50:00] BOLDUAN: Thank you.
A reminder for all of you, you can catch Michael's show, "Smerconish," every Saturday, at 9:00 a.m., right here on CNN.
Still to come, an uneasy feeling is setting in over the proposed Syrian cease-fire. Now the Obama administration is pondering a Plan B. What does that look like? It's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BOLDUAN: In just three days, a cease-fire deal is set to go into effect in Syria. But already, the United States is having second thoughts, it appears, because of aggression from Russia in the region.
Let's get over to CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. She has much more on this.
Barbara, lay it out for our viewers. Why is the U.S. looking at a Plan B already? And do you know what it is?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Plan B is what the officials are talking about, Kate, if the cease-fire doesn't work. And there is a lot of skepticism that the Russians are going to adhere to the cease-fire. They say they will, but the U.S. has a long history of skepticism where the Russian military and Vladimir Putin are concerned. So Secretary of State John Kerry says it makes perfect sense to begin to consider Plan B. What do you do if the cease-fire doesn't work? Especially since the Russians have been stepping up their air strikes anyhow in recent days?
So what is Plan B? Well, that gets to the problem. While it is a nice sounding name, there were really no specifics yet, we're told. Maybe you put more sanctions on Russia. Maybe you publicly shame them by talking about what the U.S. sees as their indiscriminate bombing and killing of civilians. But is that really going to change Moscow's mind? A lot of people don't think so.
So, in about three days, we'll see if the cease-fire works. The U.S. is looking for what the alternatives are. But let me tell you, we once asked a Marine Corps general during the dark days of Iraq what's Plan B, and he says Plan B is always to make Plan A work -- Kate?
[13:55:45] BOLDUAN: That's the on way to put it.
Barbara, great to see you. Thank you so much.
STARR: Thank you, Kate.
BOLDUAN: A lot at stake in three days when the cease-fire is scheduled to set on place.
That's it for me.
For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.
For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Poppy Harlow starts right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
