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Romney to Speak on 2016 Race Tomorrow; ISIS Operative Captured; Debris Studied for Link to MH-370; Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 02, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, judging from his actions last week where he started calling for the release of Donald Trump's tax returns, it's clear that Mitt Romney is frustrated with the way that things are going and somehow he wants to influence the race in a more positive direction or maybe hold Donald Trump to the similar standards that he was held to as a candidate. It's really hard to tell where he's going. That's kind of what's so enticing about this because if he had a chance to make an impact on the race, it really seems like it would have been before New Hampshire endorsing Marco Rubio. He didn't do that so the big question is, what is he doing now?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He clearly is no fan of the man you like, Scottie, Donald Trump?'

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, USA RADIO NETWORKS: No, he isn't. And he's exactly opposite of what Donald Trump was. You know, Mitt Romney had almost apologized for being successful and being wealthy, while Mr. Trump goes out on the front stage and says, you know what, I'm successful and I'm wealthy. So they are two opposites in character. But the only reason why we're paying attention to this is exactly what Amanda brought up. It's because he's called out Donald Trump.

Something that most other politicians have not had the courage to do. But let's remember, Mitt Romney not -- lost not once, but twice. So why are we giving him any sort of attention at all. He's the reason why we have a candidate like Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz at the top of the polls because of the establishment that he created.

BLITZER: He was the leader of the Republican Party four years ago. He was their nominee that's why we're paying attention, obviously, and he's highly respected.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. He's a party elder, he's a party leader, he's a former governor, he's someone who understands the Republican Party, the Republican base, I'm being, as you can tell, neutral. So, look, Mitt Romney probably is going to try to tell the Republican Party to get their house in order. There's no need for the Republican Party to fall apart and break up over the nomination of Ted Cruz or Donald Trump. So I'm sure as a party elder, his role tomorrow is to try to make sense out of this nonsense.

CARPENTER: And here's one thing, as we have seen, you know, after Super Tuesday last night, the establishment lane that we always talked about has been crushed. I think this is the establishment struggling to find relevance in this race so they're going to get Mitt Romney out and give some kind of big speech to kind of reset it since they have no other vehicle as a candidate to express their voice.

HUGHES: And let's remember, the reason why he lost in 2012 is because four -- four million to five million stayed home. Those same four million to five million are the ones that are making Mr. Trump and Senator Cruz be at the top. So the folks that he's going to sit here and talk to tomorrow are the reasons probably we're not listening the first time in 2012 and are ready for him just to kind of go back to Massachusetts.

BRAZILE: Amanda said that the establishment land is crushed, but you have all of these senators who are up for re-election, 24 this coming year. You have members of Congress who are up for re-election, governors, they're part of the establishment, and they want to make sure that they have a passing lane once all the debris has been removed.

BLITZER: Can any of these Republicans who are challenging Donald Trump right now, whether Cruz or Rubio, Kasich, Dr. Ben Carson actually get the number of delegates they need to become the Republican nominee, or can they combine to get enough delegates to prevent Trump from going to the convention, guaranteed with enough pledged delegates?

CARPENTER: Well, sure, I mean, we look at the states that are in play for March 15th. A lot needs to happen. I think that's why Ted Cruz is making the argument, asking his fellow contenders to prayerfully consider dropping out of the race because we have to go big or go home. I mean Marco Rubio is trying to say, we can go to a convention. But you can't keep moving the firewall back and back and back. It's really now or never. And I think that's why you see even people like Lindsey Graham of all people, who really has been open about how much he detests Ted Cruz, saying maybe it's time to get behind him to stop Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Because a lot of these Republicans, as you know, Scottie, and you support Donald Trump, they're going to do whatever they can to prevent him from being the leader of the Republican Party.

HUGHES: But I also call them the rusty Republicans. The reasons why we're in this position today it's because of them. And, you know what, Senator Graham, actually if I was Senator Cruz, I'd say, you know what, keep your endorsement please, because it's not helping Senator Rubio too much with all of these grand endorsements that's coming from him. I think the issue is that Senator Rubio woke up this morning, was going, I'm losing right now in the polls in Florida, I'm young, I have a chance of a future career. Do I really want to risk losing my own home state?

The majority of senators usually win their home state. That's how it's been with Republican politics. Does he really want to take that risk and damage his credibility?

BLITZER: Let me play the clip, Donna, and I want you to react. This is Senator Lindsey Graham. Listen to this.

BRAZILE: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I think John Kasich is probably the most electable guy left in the field. Marco would be a close second. I think Cruz and Carson would be third. Trump is not a Republican.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: So if Trump gets the nomination, will you support him?

GRAHAM: Well, I'll have you ask me that after the convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was asked if Trump gets the nomination, will you support him? Well, ask me that after the convention.

BRAZILE: Donald Trump --

BLITZER: Not necessarily a ringing endorsement.

BRAZILE: Now, remember, I'm a Democrat, I'm neutral. But Donald Trump is redefining the Republican Party. Ted Cruz has redefined the Republican Party, as a member of the United States Senate, the most establishment of the establishment. So the notion then -- of course I respect Lindsey Graham, he's a great senator.

[13:35:02] But the truth is, is that the voters are also redefining the party. So to the extent the elders and the party bosses would like to control who sits at the table, they need to just chill out.

CARPENTER: Yes. Well, here's the one thing I think that the establishment, a lot of people, have underestimated throughout this race is the amount of voter anger. We talk about voter anger all the time. And you really have two approaches with Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. You have Ted Cruz who has really focused the anger at Washington, which I think is the more direct approach, the more productive approach.

For Donald Trump he's kind of firing the anger at anyone that gets in his path. So can the party channel it in a productive way or are we just going to go guns blazing, anyone that stands in our way, remains to be seen.

BLITZER: Amanda, you know, the whole notion, and let me ask Scottie to weigh in on this. Last night in the speeches, Donald Trump, he gave a speech that was trying to maybe say, I want to unify the party, let's move on. He didn't really go out there and slash Cruz or slash Rubio, but then Cruz came out and he really went after Donald Trump big time, talking about the vulgarity of his language, profane. He was really going after him. And Marco Rubio is not stooping either. He's really going after him. This is two-on-one on Donald Trump. HUGHES: And I think he can handle it because he is bringing the

diversity of the party. I mean, we're seeing -- what we in Massachusetts, the secretary of state said that 20,000 Democrats probably crossed over and his numbers were so huge for Mr. Trump in Massachusetts, they probably were for him.

I think what you -- what you saw last night, we've always said, Marco Rubio did not need to take Ted Cruz out, he -- or Donald Trump out, he needed to take Ted Cruz out. Ted Cruz, if he drops out, the majority of that I believe his base would go to Mr. Trump. So he needs to take Donald Trump out. So you've got this weird triangle going on right now, unfortunately, Mr. Trump's theory is not necessarily taking any of them out. More importantly --

BLITZER: Who would be a stronger challenger, let's say, to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders for that matter? Would it be Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio? Who would the Democrats fear the most?

BRAZILE: Well, you know, I see as a Democrat, we should only fear the Lord. We should not fear the candidates because there's a civil war going on. Let the Republicans sort out their nomination process and then we'll take that on. Right now our concern is voter turnout, voter enthusiasm. There's a lot of that going on in the Republican Party. Clearly we want to register new voters, get them deeply involved and turn them out this fall.

Wolf, one last thing. As you know, 17 more states will be holding caucuses or primaries over the next, what, several days, two weeks? There's a lot of delegates still left at the table, so whether you're Bernie Sanders or Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, or Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, you still need to accumulate delegates in order to win.

BLITZER: It's clear. The fight goes on and we'll be following --

BRAZILE: Yes. And we love to fight.

BLITZER: -- every step of the way.

BRAZILE: The mudslinging, the mud wrestling.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Thanks very much.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

BLITZER: We're following the breaking news on Mitt Romney about to deliver what he's describing as a major statement on the state of the 2016 campaign tomorrow. We're going to speak with one of his deputy campaign managers from four years ago when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

[13:42:21] BLITZER: We continue to follow the breaking news. The former Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, set to speak tomorrow about the state of the 2016 presidential race here on the United States.

Joining us now on the phone is Mitt Romney's former deputy campaign manager, Katie Packer. She now runs the anti-Trump, Our Principles super PAC.

Katie, what do you anticipate? What are we going to hear from Mitt Romney tomorrow?

KATIE PACKER, MITT ROMNEY'S FORMER DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, I think that we can expect that Mitt is going to be sort of quintessential Mitt, you know, reminding people of the largeness of the decision that's at hand. I think, you know, we can expect to hear a little bit of disappointment from him, you know, sort of s where the -- you know, the rhetoric has gone in this race and I think he's going to address that.

He always conducted himself as a candidate with such dignity and in a way that, you know, Republicans across the board could be proud of him, even if they didn't agree with him all the time. And I think that, you know, we can expect that he's going to want to remind people how important that is when you're looking to run to be the leader of the free world.

BLITZER: I know he's been very critical of Donald Trump, but do you think it's reasonable to think he's going to leave the door open at least a bit to the possibility of his running for the presidency once again?

PACKER: I don't anticipate that. I think that he's made it very clear that he has no intention of running again, but I do think that he wants to sort of continue to be, you know, a voice, an adult in the room, if you will, that's just sort of reminding these candidates that this is a very big office and that the rhetoric should sort of match the importance of the office that these candidates seek and I think that he's hoping to do that tomorrow.

BLITZER: What about endorsing one of the other Republican candidates? Do you anticipate he will do a formal endorsement?

PACKER: You know, I think if he ever decides to do that that he'll do that on his own time frame. I don't anticipate that tomorrow's speech will be the -- you know, the place for that. I think he really wants to send a larger message about the issues at hand and the things that candidates should be focusing on and frankly trying to sort of salvage the brand of the Republican Party that's been a little bit tarnished in recent days.

BLITZER: But a lot of the critics would point out, Katie, and you've heard this so many times, it's obviously going to be a little bit too little too late, this Trump train is moving ahead.

PACKER: Well, there's 71 percent of the delegates still yet to be decided and you can't become the nominee until you win a majority of the delegates. And so there's a long way before Donald Trump is there and, you know, I think Mitt Romney, like I said, I think he's just going to be reminding people tomorrow that this is a very, very big decision and maybe not -- maybe the answer to it isn't a reality TV star.

(LAUGHTER)

[13:45:08] BLITZER: All right. Katie Packer, thanks very much for joining us. Of course we'll have coverage of that tomorrow. The Mitt Romney speech, 11:30 a.m. Eastern, 9:30 a.m. in Mountain Time in Salt Lake City, at the University of Utah.

Still ahead what's U.S. officials are not calling a crucial development in the fight against ISIS. A key operative just captured by elite American forces in Iraq. We're going to talk about what it means for the future of the overall mission in Iraq.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A secretive American military special operations force has had its first major success grabbing a suspected ISIS operative in northern Iraq. After weeks on the ground, developing intelligence, the team from the U.S. Army's elite Delta Force caught the ISIS target and may have also disrupted a major terror plot.

Let's go to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She's been following this for us.

So, Barbara, so what is the U.S. doing now first of all with this detainee?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf. Well, what is happening now, this person is being held in Irbil in northern Iraq by the U.S. military. They are interrogating him for everything he may know. They do believe he has valuable information about ISIS.

[13:50:11] Now what kind of information, we don't know. Did he have information that could have led to the disruption of a plot? Nobody is exactly saying that just yet. But we are told he is talk in this interrogation process. The U.S. says they don't want to hold people, they don't want to hold new detainee program but Delta Force, the Army's elite force, is now on the ground in Iraq conducting these missions. They have orders, capture or kill top ISIS operative, capture them, interrogate them for all the intelligence they have.

The feeling is by special operation is this will provide them very valuable information if it works out about ISIS, where ISIS is located, how they operate, what their plots and plans are that can be disrupted down road. But this now the first step. The Pentagon says they will turn him over to the Iraqis. Only a short-term detention. But very interestingly today the Pentagon did not define what is short-term detention -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes. And it sounds like this is just the beginning a lot more military activity for the U.S. boots on the ground, as they say. These are real combat boots on the ground and they've got a major mission.

All right, Barbara thank you very much. Coming up a possible new clue in the search for Malaysia Airlines

Flight 370. Debris discovered along the African coastline. Why there is a good chance it actually came from the missing jetliner.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:55:46] BLITZER: Another piece of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 puzzle may now be in place. Investigators hope to learn more about a piece of the wreckage from a Boeing 777 that washed ashore over the weekend along the coast of Mozambique in Africa. MH-370 disappeared almost exactly two years ago with 239 people on board.

Our aviation correspondent Richard Quest is joining us now live from New York. Richard has a brand new book that's coming out next week entitled "The Vanishing of Flight MH-370: The True Story of the Hunt for the Missing Malaysian Plane."

Richard, thanks very much for joining us. So tell us about this piece of the wreckage. What do we know?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: We know that it -- that those who have seen it and those who've looked at photographs believe that it is a strong possibility that it has come from a Boeing 777. They believe it has come from the part of the aircraft known as the horizontal stabilizer, which puts it at this part of the aircraft right at the back. Very different from the flaperon which was found in Reunion Island which came from the wing.

But still, we must caution and caveat there, Wolf, that although it is in the right place -- if you look, you'll see where the other piece was found off Reunion and then on the other side of Madagascar you've got this piece -- it's still way too early to say with any degree of certainty or with confirmation this is from MH-370. But those who have looked at the pictures, those who have seen it say there is a strong possibility.

BLITZER: Have there been any other 777s that have disappeared in any part of the world around there?

QUEST: No, there haven't. And that's the strongest piece of evidence. But before we get to that part, the piece is not that big. It's not like the flaperon. This is only several feet -- a couple of feet in each direction. So before they go much further they need to establish it is from a 777. They need to absolutely identify, maybe if not the parts numbers or the serial numbers they need to at least find some form of identification. That it's from an aircraft seems to be clear. It has the words "no step" on it which is what you find on those parts of the plane where they want to warn engineers and mechanics from stepping on that part of the fuselage.

Wolf, this is -- even if is from the plane it is unlikely to tell us anything about that final precise resting ground of MH-370. And it's certainly not going to tell us what happened when the plane went missing. It's disappointing to say it. It's just further evidence the plane did crash. But it's not going to tell us why. BLITZER: But the other piece that was found earlier, the flaperon,

they did confirm -- and just to remind our viewers -- that they know for sure it did come from MH-370, right?

QUEST: Yes, and it wasn't until it was an enormous amount of gnashing and wailing of teeth. The Malaysian said they confirmed it and the BEA said high probability. And they went backwards and boards. Finally after weeks they did say yes, it is from MH-370. And so far, no one has seriously come forward to contradict that plane.

The conspiracy theorists say a government or something planted it to hide what really happened. And no doubt, Wolf, the conspiracy theorists this time will also say that whatever is found is merely a plant or some sort of decoy. Well, those of us that live in the real world have to take what the experts say. And so far from those who looked at it -- and there will need to be further tests by the Mozambique authorities, the Australians and the Malaysians, but it does -- it's trending towards this is part or one part of MH-370.

BLITZER: Arguably the greatest aviation mystery ever.

QUEST: It is.

BLITZER: I want to remind our viewers about your new book, it's coming out in the coming days.

QUEST: Thank you.

BLITZER: Let me just put the full screen up there. There you see it, "The Vanishing of Flight MH-370: The True Story of the Hunt for Missing Malaysian Plane." Richard Quest is the author. I highly recommend you reading it. Go ahead.

Another quick programming note for our viewers. Right now you can retrace the key moments of MH-370 by tuning in for a CNN SPECIAL REPORT, "Vanished: The Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370," that airs here on CNN this Friday night 10:00 p.m. Eastern.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM." The news continues next on CNN.