Return to Transcripts main page

iDesk

Heated Insults Fly at Republican Debate; Lula Questioned in Connection with Bribery Scheme; U.K. Researchers Claim Groundbreaking Cancer Discovery; Trafficking Survivor Fights Slavery; Voters Respond to Republican Debate; Scott Kelly Reaches New Heights during Stay on ISS. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired March 04, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Ahead at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, the Republican presidential debate gets very dirty.

Have scientists found cancer's Achilles heel?

And Brazil's former leader is detained in a corruption scandal.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: Hello and welcome, everyone, I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center.

Was it a political debate, a boxing match or professional wrestling?

Last night's Republican presidential debate in Michigan seemed to combine elements of all three. The gloves came off and the very smackdowns reached

new lows. Phil Mattingly has details of a night to remember or forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Off-color.

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I've never heard of this before.

Look at those hands.

Are they small hands?

And he referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): -- then off the rails...

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: I have a policy question for you, sir.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's see if he answers it.

WALLACE: Your --

TRUMP: I will, don't worry about it, Marco. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it, little Marco. I will.

RUBIO: All right, well, let's hear it, big Donald.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Don't worry about it, little Marco.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): -- in mere minutes, Thursday night's Republican debate turned into a personal affair and stayed that way all night.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Count to 10, Donald. Count to 10.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Three candidates desperate to stop one, Donald Trump. Florida senator Marco Rubio on full attack, just trying to stay

alive with the big March 15th win in his home state of Florida.

RUBIO: He's asking us to make him the President of the United States of America.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Texas senator Ted Cruz joining the fight, pushing for a one-on-one matchup with Trump.

CRUZ: But if, in fact, you went to Manhattan and said, I'm lying to the American people then the voters have a right to know.

TRUMP: No, no, you're the lying guy up here.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: Release the tape.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Excuse me. I have given my answer, lying Ted.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Ohio governor John Kasich continuing to believe his lower volume pitch will get him through his own must-win March 15th

contest in his home state.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: I have never tried to go and get into these kind of scrums that we're seeing here on the stage. And people say

everywhere I go you seem to be the adult on the stage.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Time running out for all of Trump's challengers, attacking in an effort to stop his momentum, targeting his political

donations.

CRUZ: Donald Trump has written checks to Hillary Clinton not once, not twice, not three times, 10 times. Donald Trump in 2008 wrote four checks

to elect Hillary Clinton as president.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): His business practices.

RUBIO: Ever heard of Trump Steaks?

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: All of these companies he's ruined.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): And even his character

RUBIO: He has spent a career of convincing Americans that he's something that he's not in exchange for their money. Now he's trying to do the same

in exchange for their country.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Everyone from candidates to moderators, attempting to pin Trump down, citing two interviews on CNN's "NEW DAY," where Trump

appeared to flip-flop.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: What about in Afghanistan?

Do you believe that American boots should stay on the ground in Afghanistan to stabilize the situation?

TRUMP: We made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place. That thing will collapse about two seconds after they leave. Just

as I said that Iraq was going to collapse afterwards.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About Afghanistan, you said we made a terrible mistake getting involved there in the first place.

TRUMP: We made a mistake going into Iraq. I've never said we made a mistake --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our question was about Afghanistan.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Oh, OK, I never said that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How is any of this telling it like it is?

TRUMP: Well, on Afghanistan, I did mean Iraq. In that one, if you notice, I corrected the it the second day.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): In fact, CNN's reporting was prevalent in the debate.

TRUMP: CNN just came out with a poll.

Excuse me, a national poll, a national poll where he's at a 15, he's at 14 and I'm at 49.

TRUMP: Are you at 15 in the new CNN poll? Do you believe in CNN?

CRUZ: I watched a CNN interview Donald did.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): This network being brought up a dozen times. The clock is now ticking for Trump's competitors to stop him before he moves on

to the next battle.

TRUMP: I beat Hillary Clinton in many polls. A Q (ph) poll just came out. I beat Hillary Clinton in a recent FOX poll. I beat Hillary Clinton in

"USA Today." I beat her today in a poll in Ohio. I beat -- I'm the only one that beats Hillary Clinton. I beat -- and I haven't -- I have not

started on Hillary yet. Believe me. I will start soon. I haven't even started.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: That was CNN's Phil Mattingly reporting there.

I want to bring in Kevin Sheridan from CNN Washington. He's a former senior adviser for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and former spokesman

for the Republican National Committee.

Hi, there.

[10:05:00]

CURNOW: One of those men last night on the podium could be the next President of the United States.

Are Republicans embarrassed?

KEVIN SHERIDAN, FORMER RNC SPOKESPERSON: What a night. It's amazing we have gotten to this point. Every time we think we can hit a new low, we go

lower.

But Donald Trump brought us to this place. Donald Trump started it with personal attacks and every time somebody tries to pin him down on a

specific policy issue, he sets a fire over here and says look over here, I just made an outrageous statement and that gets covered. So he knows how

to manipulate the media. He's a former reality TV star obviously. He's been in public life for 30 years. He's a showman. He's an entertainer.

So this is where we have gotten to and, unfortunately, that's what we saw last night. Mitt Romney yesterday laid out a very, very compelling,

substantive case but you never heard anything substantive response to it. All you heard was Mitt Romney's a failed candidate and he doesn't have a

say in any of this.

But we still have a couple more states to go here that are going to be very important this weekend. Then get into March 15th and we'll see if Marco

Rubio and John Kasich can win their home states and keep this thing alive.

CURNOW: Just talk about keeping it alive. How does the tone, vulgarity, the lack of substance damage the party of Abraham Lincoln?

Is this party shattering before our eyes, as "The Wall Street Journal" says today?

SHERIDAN: Yes, I think it is. I think we don't know yet what that looks like but there's clearly a big movement within the party that will not

accept Donald Trump. And some Trump supporters that probably wouldn't accept anything but Trump.

So we have gotten to this point where we don't really know the future of the Republican Party at this point. We may get to Cleveland. We may get

some sort of a convention where we can negotiate with all sides in a fusion ticket of some sort.

But right now it's looking tough. It's looking really unlikely.

CURNOW: Yes, no one knows where this is going. The top is not agreeing with the bottom. That's where the split is. So let's talk about this

contested convention. Mitt Romney, as you said, put some sort of blueprint out. Let's just listen to what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS: If the other candidates can find some common ground, I believe we can nominate a person who can win the

general election and who will represent the values and policies of conservatism.

Given the current delegate selection process, that means that I vote for Marco Rubio in Florida and for John Kasich in Ohio and for Ted Cruz or

whichever one of the other two contenders has the best chance of beating Mr. Trump in a given state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: So what does all that mean?

What is a contested election?

Is it even an option?

How unheard of it that the party might reject its own front-runner?

What does that look like at the convention?

SHERIDAN: Well, the system is not set up for just to select a front- runner. It's set up for somebody to get 1,237 delegates. That means you have to go through the entire process. There's a very good chance actually

if Marco Rubio can win Florida, big if but if he can and John Kasich can win Ohio his home state where he's very popular, that they could deny

quote-unquote Trump from getting the 1,237.

And that's what the system is set up to do. And Ted Cruz will still probably be in the race as well. So they will all have delegates, they'll

go to Cleveland, they will work it out, they'll set the rules. That's the way the system is set up to handle the nominee.

And that's what conventions are actually for. We just haven't seen them a lot. Usually you get a rallying around the candidate but it's not unheard

of. It's happened before.

CURNOW: But do you think this is realistic?

And how do you think voters will react if there is some sort of last-minute coup by the party on one of its own nominees potentially?

SHERIDAN: Well, it may be perceived as a coup but it's really not. It's more of a -- look, two-thirds of the party doesn't really support Donald

Trump right now anyway. So it's hardly a coup if two-thirds of the party is rejecting this nominee or this candidate that's leading the nomination

in delegates right now.

But it's not an entirely unheard-of thing. And I don't think it would be actually seen as a coup -- maybe by his people but it's really not.

CURNOW: Let's talk about Mr. Romney. Some people thought perhaps the optics of his speech yesterday meant that he might be offering himself up

as some sort of alternative option somewhere down the line. He's come out this morning on a network here in the USA. He wouldn't run for president.

He wouldn't offer himself up for president.

So what then is his role here?

SHERIDAN: Mitt Romney feels strongly personally, obviously, that this is something that he needs to weigh in on. He's a party elder at this point.

Was he the absolute perfect vehicle to be talking to the Trump coalition?

Probably not but he's got his feelings --

[10:10:00]

SHERIDAN: -- about this and he made a really strong case. And he showed why he was a two-time presidential candidate, why he was the nominee last

time.

He made a very detailed, very substantive case against Donald Trump and why he cannot be president and why he can't be our nominee and why it would be

damaging to the party.

So others can now take that up. I mean, they have been making that case. Marco Rubio's been making that case, Ted Cruz made that case effectively

last night.

Others have to get in this fight and they've got to go to Florida. They've got to go to Ohio, they've got to go to these other states, run ads against

Trump, expose him for what he is and let the voters decide because when ads have been run against Donald Trump effectively, he has -- and especially in

closed primaries, where only Republicans can vote, he's shown some vulnerability -- Oklahoma and Arkansas for instance.

CURNOW: Indeed. Many people, though, saying that this is just too late, that the train has already left the station. But let's see how this all

plays out. Thanks so much, Kevin Sheridan. Appreciate it.

SHERIDAN: Thank you.

CURNOW: You're at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Still to come, the U.S. response to a new round of provocations from North Korea. Lots more ahead.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. Thanks for joining me.

The U.S. military is urging North Korea to refrain from further provocations after its leader, Kim Jong-un, ordered nuclear warheads on

standby ready for use at any time.

He's apparently angered after the United Nations Security Council vote this week. The council approved sanctions on North Korea over a recent nuclear

test and suspected missile launch which defied international sanctions. Also North Korea's news agency confirmed the test fire of new multiple

launch rocket systems.

Brazilian police are questioning former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in connection with a massive bribery and money laundering scheme. Police

say evidence shows Lula got illegal kickbacks from the national oil company, Petrobras.

Shasta Darlington joins me now from Rio de Janeiro with all the details.

Hi, there, Shasta. This was a massive operation.

What else are authorities saying?

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Robyn, this is really dramatic development in this long-running corruption investigation. Police

are actually carrying out 33 search warrants, 11 temporary detentions.

But the big fish really is former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In fact, there have been live pictures on TV all morning showing police

outside his home in sanbernardducampamor (ph). Recently there have been clashes between police and supporters and also people who'd like to -- who

are supporting the investigation.

Also a media scrum at the airport where he's being questioned. This is huge news here in Brazil. Over the course of a year, there have been

dozens of top businessmen and politicians implicated in this bribery --

[10:15:00]

DARLINGTON: -- scandal that centered on the state-run oil company, Petrobras, but never before has the former president himself been

implicated.

Now prosecutors are saying they believe he may have received money from the construction companies that were bribing Petrobras. They think that money

could have come in the form of speaking fees, donations to his nonprofit institution, as well as even money to reform these properties, a beachfront

condo, a country house.

So they say he's not been arrested yet. He's not charged. But this is evidence they are looking for -- Robyn.

CURNOW: OK.

So then what next for Lula and, more importantly, what does this mean for Dilma Rousseff?

DARLINGTON: I think that's the big question right now, Robyn. Obviously, former president Lula has a huge legacy here. He's by far the most popular

president in recent history.

But the person who's in office is his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff. And she has rock-bottom popularity. The country is in a

prolonged recession. There have already been efforts to impeach her. And the general feeling is this will only give that whole effort momentum.

In fact, if you take a look, the stock market is up. The currency is strengthening because the general feeling is they might actually get Dilma

Rousseff out of office and investors think that could mean a turnaround in the economy. So it's a pretty crazy time -- Robyn.

CURNOW: OK. Shasta Darlington, thanks so much for that update.

Coming up here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, British researchers claim a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer. We'll have details in a live

report. Stay with us.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: During what is supposed to be a cessation of hostilities in Syria there are reports that three airstrikes hit Douma Friday. Now the area is

on the outskirts of Damascus. Local opposition activists say they believe Russian warplanes carried out the strikes and that the city was hit by

regime tank shelling at the same time. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says one person was killed.

And Spain has seized 20,000 uniforms it says were headed for jihadi fighters in Iraq and Syria. They were found during a police operation that

neutralized a business network that provided supplies to ISIS and other terror organizations. Seven people were arrested.

And British researchers say they have made a breakthrough. They may have found the Achilles heel of cancer. It involves getting the immune system

to recognize and target tumors. The discovery could lead to new treatments for advanced cancer patients.

CNN's Kellie Morgan has more from London.

Hi, Kellie. Immunotherapy is not new.

What is it about this announcement that is so significant?

KELLIE MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Robyn, immunotherapy has been -- treatments have been around for around 15 years. But what the

problem with those immunotherapy treatments has been in the past is that they will go in and they will attack some of the cancer cells within a

tumor.

Tumors are very, very complex and they have many mutations. So immunotherapy treatments up to date have only been able to target part of

the mutations and so they don't kill the whole cancer, the whole tumor.

So what this discovery is hoping will happen, it will suggest that what will happen is that they have identified --

[10:20:00]

MORGAN: -- what you would call a seed within the original cancer cell that is shed by all these mutations. So they are calling it a chink in the

armor and what they're hoping to do is going forward is that they will be able to actually target that seed and then kill off the entire tumor,

though I have to say that it is very early stages. There have been no human trials of this yet. It's all just in the lab at this stage. So a

long way off.

But certainly scientists saying it does have potential.

CURNOW: Well, you say a long way off. Obviously a lot of people watching this, either touched by or know family and friends touched by cancer.

How soon do you think these red flags can really specifically target tumors like this, particularly in the advanced stages of cancer?

MORGAN: The oncologist that I spoke to and who actually led the study said that they are hoping to begin human trials within two to three years.

That's a very costly exercise. He's hopeful that he does -- he himself admits that this is a theory that hasn't been proven. While it looks good

on paper and the theory is sound, it's based on basic evolution that survival of the most adaptable.

It's a battle in our bodies between cancer cells and our immune system. So he's saying that even though the science is good, really we need to wait

until we have those human trials to know whether or not it will indeed be effective in reality -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Kellie Morgan in London, thank you very much.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: In our ongoing mission against human trafficking, today we come full circle. The CNN Freedom Project has the story of a woman from

Cameroon who managed to break the bonds of modern-day slavery. She was actually inspired by one of our Freedom Project stories to reach out for

help. Here's CNN's Clare Sebastian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In August last year the CNN Freedom Project aired a story profiling former Ford Models CEO, Katie

Ford, and her fight against human trafficking.

JUDITH OLAH, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR: When I arrived, this Hungarian man picked me up in the airport, took me to his apartment (INAUDIBLE). Before

long I realized that this guy was a pimp.

KATIE FORD, FORMER CEO, FORD MODELS: It's just so shocking. It is out of our consciousness.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Six thousand miles from Ford's home in New York City, the story had an immediate impact. Francisca Awah, a 32-year-old

from southwestern Cameroon, was watching from Kuwait. She says she had been trafficked there into domestic servitude.

She contacted Katie Ford's organization and they began communicating via e- mail.

FORD: This is the first time I have been contacted by somebody who was enslaved at that time.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Encouraged and advised by Ford, Awah managed to leave the household where she was working and take refuge in a friendly

embassy.

Katie Ford helped her pay for her flight home.

FORD: It's not what we do. And we couldn't afford to do it for everyone. But we had been through the whole thing with her. We had committed to

helping her get out of that situation. So it seemed false for me to stop there.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Having arrived back in Africa, Awah was keen to tell us her story.

SEBASTIAN: So what happened when you arrived in Kuwait?

FRANCISCA AWAH, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR: Kuwait, first by the airport, my passport, my travel documents were being seized. So I was just taken by a

family that claimed that they were my sponsors. Immediately I went home with them and I found myself being the housemaid instead of the teaching

job I was being promised before leaving Cameroon.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Awah says she was employed by a local agency. She moved households several times before arriving at one where she stayed two

months. She says she saw her passport a couple of times but it was never returned to her.

Gradually, she says, the conditions worsened.

AWAH: I have no time to rest. Even when the lady comes (INAUDIBLE) sitting in the kitchen, she will ask me, Francisca, I bought you. You are

like a commodity. You get up and work. You (INAUDIBLE) you need. I pay you money. You work.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): She kept records, photos and even videos on her phone. And whenever possible, she watched CNN.

AWAH: Watching CNN Freedom Project was like giving me (INAUDIBLE) one day I will be like those people that they are (INAUDIBLE).

SEBASTIAN: Did you ever tell the family that you wanted to leave?

Did you ever ask to leave?

AWAH: I asked the wife several and the husband I asked him once. I used the pretense of my son being a street child so that they can have pity on

my son and allow me to go home. But the wife bluntly told me, she pointed to the television and said, you are like that television. I bought you.

You can't go like that. My money is valuable. You have to pay my money back.

[10:25:00]

AWAH: And then you pay your flight before you leave the country.

SEBASTIAN: I did contact the man she worked for and he denied they stopped her leaving, saying this was ultimately the agency's decision. He also

denied his wife had demanded that she pay back the money they paid to the agency for her.

He said she wasn't overworked, that she worked no more than eight hours a day, as stated in the contract from the agency. He did admit, though, that

she did not sign that contract.

He said she had a telephone that they paid for and money for things like ice cream. As for her passport, he told me she had asked him to hold it

for her safety.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): We offered him a chance to appear on CNN. He declined. The agency in Kuwait also refused to answer our questions. We

did speak to a diplomat at the embassy where Awah took refugee when she left the house. He did not want to be named.

He did, though, confirm the date she arrived and said she was sick and exhausted. He said he called and confronted the man whose house she had

worked in. He convinced him to return her passport.

Kuwait is classified as one of the most problematic countries in the world when it comes to human trafficking. The U.S. Trafficking and Persons

Report ranks it as tier 3, meaning it doesn't comply with the minimum standards of protecting trafficking victims.

Kuwait did pass a landmark law in 2015, giving domestic workers enforceable labor rights, regulating pay and work hours. That's been set

to come into force this year.

AWAH: If you want to travel out, be very careful --

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): As for Francisca Awah, she is now working on her own campaign to raise awareness about trafficking. Her mission is to try

to stop other young people from following her path.

AWAH: (INAUDIBLE) for others, who are wanting to go (INAUDIBLE) to stop (INAUDIBLE) any means. I'm standing here to talk to people today to make

them really know that what I'm saying is real.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Clare Sebastian, CNN, New York.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW (voice-over): Go to cnn.com/freedom to see how people around the world are making a difference in the fight against modern-day slavery. You

can find all the information on hotlines and global charities engaged in this battle. That's at cnn.com/freedom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Coming up at the INTERNATIONAL DESK, Donald Trump goes where no one has gone before during a presidential debate. Marco Rubio set him off.

CNN asked Rubio what made him do it, that's next.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Thank you for joining me, I'm Robyn Curnow. Here's a check of the headlines.

(HEADLINES)

CURNOW: The war brewing inside the U.S. Republican Party descended into vulgarity during last night's debate in Detroit. Presidential candidate

Marco Rubio had earlier goaded front-runner Donald Trump about his little hands. And then Trump responded with a reference to his anatomy.

Alisyn Camerota spoke to Rubio about what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You have talked about his little hands and last night that came up. He talked about his endowment. And I don't mean

to his alma mater. So let me play that moment for you.

CRUZ: Yes --

CAMEROTA: Hold on; let me just play it.

TRUMP: He's really not that much of a lightweight. And as far as -- and I have to say this, I have to say this. He hit my hands. Nobody has ever

hit my hands. I've never heard of this before.

Look at those hands.

Are they small hands?

And he referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee.

CAMEROTA: Senator, what was going through your head at that moment?

RUBIO: Well, nothing surprises us anymore. This man is -- as I told you, he's injected a level of vulgarity into the political discourse that we

have never seen.

And as far as what I said, I said something -- first of all, I didn't say what he's saying and I said it one time and he's personally attacked a

disabled journalist, I mean, everyone, basically. There's no one who he has not personally attacked, sometimes in the most vulgar ways.

But again, that's not what I want my campaign to be about. It's not what my campaign is about. I'm out there every day, talking about the future of

America, outlining real plans and by the way, an optimistic vision of the future.

My campaign is not doom and gloom. It is about how things can be better if we do a certain set of things. And that's what I want the Republican Party

to be about, the conservative movement to be about and ultimately what our next president should be about.

And I'm asking everyone to join our efforts at marcorubio.com so we can put a stop to this ridiculousness and rally the party and offer a clear

alternative for the American -- to the American people.

CAMEROTA: And yet, Senator, at the end of the night last night, you reiterated a pledge to support the GOP nominee, whoever that person is.

So this man, Donald Trump, whom you have called vulgar, a con artist, a liar, bad for American workers, among other things, how can you support --

if he is all those things, you say, how could you support him for president?

RUBIO: No, I get it. And that's the quandary we find ourselves because the alternative is Hillary Clinton, from who -- from a policy perspective I

believe is completely unqualified and would be bad for the country.

And that is the quandary -- that's I'm trying to avoid, the Republican Party having to face. I don't want us to have a nominee that people have

to make up an excuse why they're voting for or hold their nose and vote for. I want us to have a nominee that we're excited about.

If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, we're going to have a party that's divided, we're going to have a party that has to somehow justify to

itself why it's voting for this man. I think it's hard to win an election with a nominee like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: The debate certainly turned heads and even caused some to gasp.

But what did voters in Michigan think of it all?

Our Gary Tuchman was there to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN HOST: We were invited to this debate watch party at the Gerald R. Ford Republican Party Headquarters in Kent county, Michigan, here

in Grand Rapids.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for inviting us.

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: I want to ask you, first of all, who is supporting, after this debate, Cruz?

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: Rubio?

OK.

Trump?

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: All right, so far Cruz is leading.

Kasich?

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: All right. So very interesting. Kasich needs to do well in Michigan and Ohio, his home state. He's doing well in this county, no

question about it.

[10:35:00]

TUCHMAN: One thing I need to ask all of you at this point is a lot of you were cringing during these insults and these criticisms that we heard

during this debate. This was the liveliest debate in terms of those criticisms.

How many of you were upset about hearing all those criticisms and insults?

And that's pretty much everybody. And that's pretty much everybody.

I want to ask you over here.

Tell me why that bothers you. It makes it livelier. People pay attention. People are sharing true feelings.

Why does it bother you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's good for substance to come out and we do need to see who these people really are. But it's embarrassing. It's not

what our party is about. It doesn't represent me.

I don't want a candidate that is going to -- representing my party and me as an American that's going to constantly be insulting everyone everywhere

they go.

TUCHMAN: How many of you when you walked in here today were undecided, didn't know which candidate you wanted to support for president?

Raise your hand.

You right there.

Are you still undecided now that this debate, the last debate before the primary Tuesday, is over?

Have you decided?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have not decided. I am still undecided.

TUCHMAN: Who have you decided between?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like John Kasich and I like Ted Cruz.

TUCHMAN: So how are you going to decide?

You've got to vote in a couple days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will have to figure it out.

(LAUGHTER)

TUCHMAN: What will make you decide?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I like that -- I felt like Donald Trump was the candidate on the stage that had the most -- was the most confident.

But yet I did not like all the insults and the back-and-forth.

TUCHMAN: OK, but this is not Donald Trump's best crowd. And it leads me to this final question and that is, if Donald Trump gets the Republican

nomination, would any of you not vote for the nominee, Donald Trump?

That's a lot of people in this room.

Would any of you vote for a Democrat instead of Donald Trump?

So we have five hands in the Republican Party headquarters, in the home of Gerald R. Ford, who would vote for a Democrat.

Can I leave you with this, are you still all proud Republicans?

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: OK. Thank you for having us.

And we have learned a lot from this room.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Unprecedented race, isn't it.

Well, let's talk about the Democrats. Remember them? They are focused on a string of contests coming up in the next week. Four states hold their

Democratic caucuses and primaries this weekend.

And Tuesday the delegate-rich state of Michigan comes into play. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will hold campaign events in Michigan in

the next few hours. And the state will also be the site of their next debate hosted right here on CNN. Tune in for the Democratic presidential

debate at 1:00 am Monday London time.

You're at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Still ahead, Rupert Murdoch is once again a married man. The details on his wedding to former model Jerry

Hall.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CURNOW: Congratulations are in order for --

[10:40:00]

CURNOW: -- media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall. They are now husband and wife. The two married at Spencer House, a mansion

in Central London. They plan to hold a private ceremony to celebrate their nuptials on Saturday.

The 84-year-old News Corp member and founder and 59-year-old former model announced their engagement in January. This is the fourth marriage for

Murdoch, a first for Hall, who was formerly the partner of Mick Jagger from the Rolling Stones.

Moving on, remember this guy as well?

What a rock star in himself. Astronaut Scott Kelly is getting used to the simple things again after a record stay on the International Space Station.

One of his latest tweets says he missed the dinner table as almost as much as he missed food. Spending almost a year in space also had some real

physical effects. Our Jeanne Moos reports, it made him a bigger man.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If your answer to this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you wish you could grow taller?

MOOS (voice-over): -- is yes, you could try growth supplements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're guaranteed to grow taller by 2 to 6 inches.

MOOS (voice-over): Or even.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body tractor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can grow 3.7 (INAUDIBLE) taller.

MOOS (voice-over): Or you could do what Commander Scott Kelly did, go to space for almost a year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scott Kelly, back on Mother Earth.

MOOS (voice-over): Kelly arrived back after growing about an inch and a half.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a phenomenon called spinal elongation.

MOOS (voice-over): Without gravity compressing the vertebrae, the space between discs expands without gravity and the spine gets longer. The

physical impact of space flight on Scott Kelly is being measured against his twin, former astronaut, Mark Kelly.

SCOTT KELLY, ASTRONAUT: My brother, Mark, who is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Theoretically he'd be a little bit taller than his brother. It actually goes away pretty quickly. So when you get reexposed

to gravity, as he walks around.

MOOS (voice-over): He's already back to his old size. Sometimes the increase in an astronaut's height even required NASA to go up a size in

space suit. Though the growth spurt didn't prevent Kelly from donning a gorilla suit in space.

When Isiah Thomas heard about the size increase, the Celtics' point guard tweeted, "I need to go to space ASAP, LOL."

MOOS: Now if you think that this is no big deal, hey, a measly inch has become part of the presidential debate.

RUBIO: He's always calling me little Marco. And I'll admit, the guy, he's taller than me. He's like 6'2".

TRUMP: I say I'm 6'3", not 6'2". But he said I had small hands.

MOOS: Even space isn't going to make your hands any bigger, Donald.

MOOS (voice-over): As for testing the twin astronauts, cartoonist Ed Hall depicted one-year exposure to the silence of space versus one-year exposure

to a presidential race. It's enough to make an astronaut race back to the space station -- Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: To what one expert says could be the most remarkable discovery in the world of sports collectibles. Seven rare and identical Ty Cobb

baseball cards were found among apparently discarded papers in the home of an elderly couple that had passed away. The century-old collection is

worth at least $1 million, according to the man who authenticated the cards.

Cobb was an American League outfielder, considered by many to be one of the greatest players of all time.

That does it for us here at the INTERNATIONAL DESK. Thank you for watching. I'm Robyn Curnow. "WORLD SPORT" with Alex Thomas is up next.

END