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New UN Sanctions on North Korea, But More Missiles Launched; Sanders to Continue Despite Losses; Hillary Clinton Campaigns in New York; Aircraft Debris Found on Shore in Mozambique; Special Unit of US Troops Fighting ISIS in Iraq; US War Veterans to Serve at Home; Astronaut Scott Kelly Back in Houston. Aired Midnight-1a ET

Aired March 03, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:02] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is "CNN Newsroom" live from Los Angeles.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, after the U.N. approved unprecedented sanctions on North Korea, Pyongyang responds with a show of military force.

VAUSE: Just 13 days to stop Donald Trump; the war inside the Republican party to elect anyone but Trump as a nominee for president.

SESAY: And what could be another piece in the puzzle of one of the biggest aviation mysteries ever.

VAUSE: Hello everybody; great to have you with us. We'd like to welcome our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay; "Newsroom" L.A. starts right now.

Our top story this hour, North Korea has fired six short-range projectiles off the east coast of the Korean peninsula. South Korea's Defense Ministry says it happened just a few days ago and now they're analyzing the situation.

VAUSE: All of this comes less than a day after the United Nations Security Council voted to impose harsh new sanctions on North Korea, the toughest in decades.

SESAY: Well, let's turn now to Paula Hancocks, in Seoul, South Korea with more. Paula, at this stage do we know what the North Koreans fired?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Well, Isha, at this point, the Defense Ministry is still looking into it. They just say "projectiles," so that could be missiles, rockets, artillery. It's not clear at this point, just off the east coast, but it certainly would not be a surprise. It's not the first time they have done this and it's widely believed to be in response to the U.N. sanctions that were passed overnight here, Korea time. So, certainly they would not be happy with what the United Nations Security Council unanimously decided on. The restrictions going far further than previous sanctions. Just to

have a quick look at what the sanctions would mean for North Korea, some of the restrictions are mandatory inspection of cargo, everything that goes in and out of North Korea will now be inspected, whereas before it was just if there was suspicion to believe there was something illegal there; complete ban on small arms sale and also other conventional weapons; and an expulsion of diplomats for illicit activities. All countries signing on to that, as well. Then, finally, a wider ban on luxury goods.

Of course, these aren't the only restrictions, but the luxury goods, certain like luxury watches, ski jets, snowplows under the price of $2,000, obviously those targeting that ski resort that the North Korean leader has just opened. And, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, really did mention how the North Korean leader is putting this money into the missiles and nuclear program and taking it away from the North Korean people. So it is very wide spread and wide ranging. These sanctions, if they are fully implemented, they should have a fairly strong impact on the regime.

SESAY: Paula, you just broached my next question, in bringing up the question of if they are implemented, what are we hearing about enforcement of these sanctions because we know in the past that has been a point where they have fallen down?

HANCOCKS: Well most of this lies in the hands of China. It has the most significant border with North Korea. This is where much of the smuggling takes place and has done in the past despite previous sanctions. So it really depends how heavily policed the borders will be by China; how much they want to zealously control what is going in and out of the country; what has to be inspected; and certainly, it was a surprise to many that Beijing did sign onto these stronger sanctions. But of course, they did have the threat of more U.S. military hardware in northeast Asia.

The U.S. and South Korea were talking about having a missile defense system here in South Korea, they're still talking about that because of what North Korea is doing, and this missile defense system is something China does not want in South Korea. They believe that the radar could be used against them. It could be used to spy on them, which Washington says simply isn't the case; but this could be one of the reasons Beijing signed onto the sanctions and potentially one of the reasons why they may try and police this border fairly heavily and implement these restrictions.

SESAY: We shall be watching very closely. Paula Hancocks joining us there from Seoul, South Korea. Always appreciate it; thank you.

VAUSE: You know what the music means; right? It's time for politics, U.S. politics, and growing panic within the Republican party where Donald Trump is their likely presidential nominee. Trump won seven of the 11 Super Tuesday states, putting him well on his way to winning the Party's nomination.

SESAY: Well voters are backing Trump in big numbers, the party establishment is trying to find a way to stop his momentum. Several members of congress say they will not vote for Trump and the public and operatives have set up an anti-Trump Super PAC.

[00:05:01] VAUSE: Doesn't stop there. The 2012 Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, is expected to go after Donald Trump in a speech in Utah on Thursday. Governor Romney is considered a party elder. He's critical of the billionaire and a source is telling us Mr. Romney will not be endorsing any other candidate.

SESAY: Meanwhile, Republican Ben Carson says he doesn't see a way forward though he hasn't said he's officially leaving the race. The retired neurosurgeon is not attending Thursday's Republican debate in Detroit. Carson has failed to win any primaries or caucuses.

Well, Mike Slater is a Political Analyst and Conservative Radio Host in San Diego. It is so good to have you with us.

MIKE SLATER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Wonderful to be here. That North Korea story reminds you how important this presidential race is. I tend to think of it sometimes as a game but it's not. This is really important.

VAUSE: So many things around the world, --

SESAY: Yes; absolutely.

VAUSE: -- what happens here is so consequential for effectively foreign policy, the economy, world economy. So, you know, this is serious stuff.

SLATER: Yes.

VAUSE: And that's one of the issues that a lot of people have with Donald Trump right now.

SLATER: Are you suggesting he's not serious?

VAUSE: Just putting it out there.

SLATER: I want to talk about the establishment.

SESAY: What is going on? Is your party in crisis; has it splintered? Is it in pieces?

SLATER: There is a chance it could go into two. It depends how it goes with a brokered convention. At this point I don't see a way for Donald Trump to not win the nomination. The establishment is going to try, but I don't think they can.

So this gets in the weeds but I'll try to be brief with this. We have a convention coming up in July. If Trump doesn't receive, up to that point, 1,237 delegates then any of the other candidates can submit their name to try to be the candidate. But there is a trick to this though; it's called Rule 40. no one is talking about this. In order to submit your name, other than Trump, you have to have won eight other states. Not only eight other states, you have to have won a majority of the delegates in eight other states. Now Ted Cruz has won four states, but he hasn't won the majority of delegates in four states. He's only won the majority delegate in one state. This is very confusing. The point is, there may not be another candidate who is even eligible to put their name in the hat at a contested convention. All that to say Trump has pretty much got it wrapped up.

VAUSE: This is the 2012 rules.

SLATER: Yes.

VAUSE: The rules change, and it wouldn't be beyond the Republican party establishment, at this point, to write the rules for the convention, they have done it before in favor of Mitt Romney. They could do it again to Donald Trump's disadvantage.

SLATER: Important point for the international community to know is that the Constitution of the United States doesn't really talk about how to elect a president. These are private clubs. The Democratic Party, the Republican Party, they are private clubs. They can come up with their own rules. The rule that I just described there, as you said, was a 2012 rule meant to protect Mitt Romney and it may be used to -- and in fact, to protect Donald Trump this go around.

SESAY: But the GOP establishment, if you will, is surely not hoping it gets to that point. They are trying to knock him out far sooner than that.

SLATER: They want to; I don't know if they can. What would happen if something happened -- let's say Trump wins the number of delegates and he's the presumed nominee and the establishment comes in and throws in another person or changes the rules at the last minute. It would be absolute disaster and you have a lot of people who are more on the fence like I don't really like Donald Trump that much, but I don't know what to do. If the establishment changes the rules to try to kick Donald Trump out, they are going to see a lot of people run to Donald Trump just to stick it to the establishment because they are changing the rules at the last minute.

VAUSE: Mike, we're 13 days away. Why are they now suddenly pulling out the stops, at this point? Why are they dousing (inaudible) with lighter fluid and setting it on fire?

SLATER: It's amazing.

VAUSE: They could have done this months ago.

SLATER: No one saw this coming. It's stunning.

VAUSE: No one saw this coming? A lot of people were talking about it. I mean, the guy has won every single poll since August.

SLATER: Yeah, kept winning. Never slowed down. Not only that, he won the media cycle, the 24-hour media cycle, every single day. He sucked the oxygen out of the room for ten months and it's amazing how long it took the establishment to realize what is happening.

SESAY: Let's talk about Mitt Romney, whose emerged as, I guess, a foil or a voice to really, kind of, be the emblematic figure of the opposition to Trump. He's speaking on Thursday. Do you have any concerns what he's going to say?

SLATER: I'll show my conservative stripes here. I don't need a lecture from Mitt Romney. Romney had all the ability to win against a weaker President Obama in 2012 and did a terrible job. I don't need to be lectured about tone or policy from him, and a lot of conservatives feel that way.

VAUSE: Yeah; okay. We hear that a lot from many people within the Republican party. We'll talk to you next hour.

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Hopefully you stick around.

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: One of the stranger moments, certainly one of the more talked about moments on Super Tuesday was this, New Jersey Governor and former republican presidential candidate, Chris Christie's shellshock stare for 30 long minutes as Donald Trump celebrated his victories in seven states during a news conference. Christie's earlier endorsement of Trump had already drawn a lot of criticism and, predictably, Twitter went into full mocking overdrive last night.

[00:10:02] "Chris Christie is realizing he's made some poor life decisions."

"My goodness Chris Christie looks like he's appearing in a hostage video."

"Chris Christie blink twice if you need help".

VAUSE: And, beyond the Twitterverse, six New Jersey's newspapers are calling for Christie's resignation as state governor, in part, because he has endorsed Donald Trump.

Political Reporter Eric Bradner joins us now from Washington with more on this ongoing Chris Christie hostage situation. Eric, there has been this huge backlash to Christie. Someone once seen as a leader within the Republican party, now commentators on the conservative side are saying his political career is in ruins.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER, via satellite: That's right; you know, I love the hostage comparison but it's not really clear whether he was the hostage taker or the hostage himself.

Look, there is a sense that Chris Christie has betrayed his supporters, people who thought of him as sort of this guy who could win in blue states and get things done. A lot of this is coming from his home state of New Jersey, where there is real anger about all the time he spent on the campaign trail. He basically made New Hampshire his home over the last year rather than New Jersey and so, newspapers were ready to pile on when he came back.

VAUSE: So what's behind Chris Christie's calculation here? Is he angling, I guess, for the vice presidential slot here? He's looking for Attorney General; maybe Transportation Secretary?

BRADNER: Yes; forget about specific jobs. He's basically decided Donald Trump will be the nominee and its time to get on the team, right? He's figuring that there is nothing good that can come from waiting, from refusing to support the guy that he sees as inevitable at this stage. And this is a decision that all Republicans are going to have to make. Chris Christie is sort of taking the heat because he's the first.

VUASE: It's an interesting calculation. As you say, they'll all have to do it at some point but for those that are not on Team Trump, in particular, it seems 2012 republican nominee Mitt Romney, he is set to make some kind of public statement on Thursday. There's been a lot of speculation maybe he will jump into the race, that doesn't seem to be the case. So what can we expect when Governor Romney speaks out?

BRADNER: Yes, so he's going to be speaking in Utah on Thursday and he's not going to jump into the race. He's not going to endorse anybody, but will have some kind words from Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and maybe even John Kasich. Most of his time is going to be spent hammering Donald Trump. Romney has made his distaste for Trump abundantly clear on Twitter the last few days but we do need to note the irony here. Four years ago, it was Mitt Romney really clambering for Trump's endorsement and that was after Trump had sort of led the birtherism charge against President Obama.

But Romney is sort of picking up establishment republicans who are really put off by Trump, who are worried about the down ballot consequences of Trump and he's going to sort of take the case he's been making on Twitter out in front of the public and say look, this isn't the direction that we want to take the Republican party in. So it's going to be sort of a return to a big stage for Romney, who has been very much behind the scenes up to this point in the campaign.

VAUSE: Something certainly to be looking out for. Of course, lots more about this, all the day's political news and what we can expect coming up in the next day. You got tomorrow's news today. It's all on your newsletter there called "The Night Cap" and your web address is cnn.it/nightcap, all in lower caps. Eric, thanks for being with us.

BRADNER: Thank you.

SESAY: Well, turning at the U.S. Democratic race for the White House. Bernie Sanders campaign says he's not giving up, despite losing several states to Hillary Clinton on Super Tuesday.

VAUSE: He's got $40 million so why not? Meantime, Secretary Clinton is back on the campaign trail in New York, where she took aim at her republican rivals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEC. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Make no mistake about it, the other side has a very different vision about what our country should look like, how we should look to each other. There is a lot of finger-pointing and insulting going on over in their primary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, for more on the U.S. presidential race, head to CNN.com/politics. You can see the latest news about each candidate.

VAUSE: Okay; short break here, but when we come back, a piece of plane wreckage sent to Australia. We'll take a look at the debris that one U.S. official says could be from the missing MH370 flight.

SESAY: Plus, as Zika cases double in Puerto Rico, the U.S. is debating emergency funding. Up next, we talk about what could happen if the virus goes unchecked. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:18:38] ESAY: Hello everyone; a piece of debris that may have come from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 is headed to Australia for examination. An American tourist found the piece over the weekend on Mozambique's coast.

VAUSE: U.S. official says the piece appears to be from a Boeing 777, like MH 370, which vanished two years ago on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

SESAY: CNN Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson joins us from Hong Kong with the very latest. Ivan, what do we know about where this debris will be analyzed and the team of experts that will be involved?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Well, it would go to Australia, which has been leading the search operation for this missing jet, one of the biggest aviation mysteries in generations, really. The piece is about just under a meter long and it was found in Mozambique, again, as you mentioned, by this American tourist, Blaine Gibson, who's something of a story on his own because he is an amateur MH370 sleuth who has traveled, according this blog, to the Maldives, to Reunion Island, to Burma, all in search of information about this missing plane. Take a look at an excerpt from his description of what he found in Mozambique.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAINE GIBSON, FOUND DEBRIS N MOZAMBIQUE: It has "No Step" on it, as is [00:20:02] written on many aircraft wings. It has a high lock pin that is intact, and other areas have been torn off; and many pins are also missing. It is quite clear that this was torn apart by very strong impact; and on the inside, there is an aluminum honeycomb as occurs in the manufacture of many aircraft.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: So, Isha, a U.S. official tells CNN that this appears to be part of the horizontal stabilizer. It's a horizontal piece on the tail of Boeing 777 and also, an aviation parts manufacturer has confirmed to us that this does look like parts of it are pieces that they would make for express use onboard a Boeing 777.

Now, a Malaysia transport minister has responded on Twitter to this news announcing "Based on early reports, high possibility debris found in Mozambique belongs to a B777. It's yet to be confirmed and verified. The director of civil aviation is working with Australian counterparts to retrieve the debris. I urge everyone to avoid undue speculation, as we are not able to conclude that the debris belongs to MH370 at this time."

There has been one piece confirmed from the missing plane that was found on Reunion Island. That's about 5,600 kilometers west of Malaysia where the plane took off from. If this turns out to be another part of the plane, it would be another 2,000 kilometers further west from where the first part was found last summer. Isha?

SESAY: Ivan, I'm going to ask you whether there's been any reaction from the relatives of those aboard MH370? They've been through so much. Are they saying anything in light of this new development?

WATSON: That's right. I mean, it's almost two years to the date since the plane disappeared. So some of the relatives are organizing a commemoration ceremony in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. We've reached out to three different relatives of passengers aboard the plane who have all really expressed skepticism about this. There is great seething anger among some of these people about the way they feel that they have been treated by the Malaysian government and more specifically by Malaysia Airlines, which has undergone, in recent months, a difficult change firing thousands of employees, basically restructuring the entire company, and raising concerns among some of the family members that this may be a way to evade having to pay compensation for their missing relatives. Isha?

SESAY: Ivan Watson joining us from Hong Kong with the very latest. appreciate it, Ivan; thank you.

VAUSE: Right now in the U.S., state health officials are working with pharmaceutical companies to try and develop a Zika vaccine but those efforts could stall if congress does not approve $2 billion in emergency funding to fight the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He joins me from Washington. Doctor, good to have you with us. The argument from some republican lawmakers goes something like this, if this is such a big deal, such an emergency, why not issue a travel warning to avoid the countries where there is Zika transmission?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Well there is a travel warning and alert for pregnant women. The issue really with this particular virus is the effect it could have on the fetus of a pregnant woman, and there is very clear CDC announcement and CDC guidelines that say if you are pregnant and planning to travel, either to the Caribbean or South America, you should seriously consider cancelling and putting off that until the situation clarifies.

The idea about preventing travel or having a travel warning for everybody who goes there, that is very, very difficult. There are about 30 to 40 million people that go back and forth between the United States and the Caribbean and South America so that's really not very feasible to do. We've got to concentrate on protecting the pregnant women.

VAUSE: We're also are hearing from the United States that if Zika goes unchecked there could be 4 million cases in the Western Hemisphere. What time period would that be and what are the implications of that?

FAUCI: Well the reason why there is a concern about multiple millions of cases is because there is already, for some time now, in South America and in the Caribbean a similar disease, similar type of virus, called Dange and Dange has really affected and infected millions of people in South America and in the Caribbean. It's transmitted by the same mosquito that transmits Zika, and it is seen in the same region. So that's the reason why we are [00:25:02] concerned that as this thing even accelerates more, there will be millions and millions of people. The problem is that among those people a certain percentage of them obviously will be pregnant women, and that's the vulnerable population that we're concerned about.

Again, Zika, when you look at it, in general, is a relatively mild disease. It's self-limiting. It's characterized almost like a flu- like syndrome: fever, muscle and joint aches, rash, headache, and some redness in the eyes. It goes away in about seven to ten days. Is very, very low, if any, mortalities associated with it. It's the pregnant women that have the deleterious issues with regard to their baby.

VAUSE: I'm just curious if the big picture here is that the closer you look at Zika, the more we get to learn about this virus, the worse it seems to get?

FAUCI: Well, that's a very good point, that's what we're seeing; quite honestly. We're learning a lot, literally, on a week by week basis you learn more and more. The reason that's the case is because even though this virus was first recognized in 1947 in Uganda, in actually the Zika Forest of Uganda, which is the reason it's called Zika virus, there wasn't a human case reported until a few years later in 1952 in Nigeria, and then it kind of stayed under the radar screen in Africa and in southeast Asia.

Then it wasn't until 2007 when we experienced the first outbreak in the island of Yap in the Pacific. Then over a period of a couple years, it worked its way across the Pacific, got to French Polynesia, got to Easter Island. Then when it hit South America and Brazil, with the enormous population of the mosquitos, which are a perfect setup to have an outbreak, that's why we're having the explosive outbreak now. So the fact we didn't know much about it before, is because it was a relatively inconsequential virus until it became clear that it caused these outbreaks.

VAUSE: Doctor, thank you for speaking with us. Appreciate your insights and expertise.

FAUCI: Good to be with you. SESAY: Time for a quick break. U.S. Special Operation forces

secretly captured and held an ISIS operative in Iraq. We'll explain how these raids work next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:46] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching "CNN Newsroom" live from Los Angeles; I'm John Vause.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Isha Sesay; the headlines this hour: (HEADLINES)

VAUSE: CNN is learning information about a special unit of elite American troops that recently began fighting ISIS in Iraq.

SESAY: U.S. officials are keeping many of the details secret, but what we now know is that the operations include targeting and capturing ISIS personnel. Here is our Pentagon Correspondent, Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Special Operations Forces have secretly held an ISIS operative in Iraq for days after capturing him on a raid. The Pentagon's new targeting force: commandos with orders to capture or kill top ISIS personnel, carrying it out.

JOSH EARNEST, PRESS SECRETARY, WHITE HOUSE: At this point I can't discuss the details of any missions, particularly when it comes to risking operational security.

STARR: U.S. officials tell CNN additional operations are in the works. The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, is being held in Irbil, in northern Iraq; the mission to get him led by the Army's elite Delta Force.

He is talking to U.S. interrogators, officials say, and has unique information about ISIS personnel and networks, but officials will not reveal whether the interrogation has yielded specific intelligence about ISIS operations or attack plots. The head of U.S. military intelligence chose his words carefully, describing operations on the ground.

LT. GEN. VINCENT STEWART, DIRECTOR, U.S. DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: You may have noticed an uptick in special operations intended to capture, interrogate and gather materials that will give us greater insights into the network.

STARR: The new effort puts the military back into the business of holding and interrogating suspected terrorists, but U.S. officials say there will be no waterboarding or so-called "enhanced interrogation" and no detainees will be sent to Guantanamo Bay. The plan instead is to turn them over to the Iraqis, eventually.

EARNEST: Any detention of ISIL leaders in Iraq would be short-term and coordinated with Iraqi authorities.

STARR: So far U.S. officials are refusing to specify what skills and intent this man had that caused them so much concern.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)