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GOP Candidates Ramp Up Personal Attacks; Knife Purportedly Found At O.J. Simpson's Former Estate; How Raucous GOP Debate Affects The Race; February Jobs Report. Aired 1:00-1:30p ET

Aired March 04, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We're following breaking news. We want to welcome viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting. It's 10:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Right now, we're waiting for the start of the Donald Trump campaign rally. The event in Cadillac, Michigan expected to start any minute now. We'll bring it live when Donald Trump takes the stage. We'll also get to the rest of the presidential race in just a few moments.

But first, we start with a stunning new development in the O.J. Simpson murder case. The Los Angeles police, they are now talking about a knife. A knife allegedly found when Simpson's former Brentwood house was demolished back in 1998. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW NEIMAN, CAPTAIN, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: Within the last month, LAPD became aware of an item that was allegedly recovered by a citizen at the Rockingham property, possibly during the demolition of the site. We need to vet that. We still don't know if that's an accurate account of how this item came into our possession. The actual item is described as a knife.

I'm not going to go into the description of the knife because that could be germane to determining whether or not this actual piece of evidence is, in fact, evidence or it's just a facsimile or made up story. So, we need to look into that. And our robbery homicide is going to look into that.

So, what I can tell you is that the story, as it's told to us by the person we received it from. And the person that we received this knife from is a retired LAPD officer who retired back in the late '90s. He was a motor officer. And at the time, according to him, he was working an off duty, which is -- he was working a movie job which a lot of our officers do on an off duty basis as well as our retired officers.

So, I do not know whether he was retired at the time that he allegedly received this item from the person who claimed they found it on the property or whether he was still, in fact, an LAPD officer and then retired sometime after that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right. Our Paul Vercammen is joining us now live from Los Angeles. He covered that news conference. Also joining us, our CNN Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos. He's joining us from New York.

Paul, the knife resurfacing now all these years later opening new questions about the killing of Nicole Brown Simpson, Ron Goldman. Why was this knife withheld from police for all of these years?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is something that Captain Neiman and others are asking themselves. They want to know why. And as you heard, a lot of this sounds almost second hand. They say that this officer, Wolf, was working on a movie shoot, that's a very common thing in Los Angeles to make a little extra money, when this knife was turned over to him by a construction worker.

And you'll note that Andy Neiman, the captain, was extremely careful to say allegedly. There was no specifics given about this knife. I pressed him on whether it was a machete or a kitchen knife or a pen knife. He just said it wasn't a machete and it was a knife.

So, they are being, as I said, cautious about this. And I can tell you that Neiman is traditionally a pretty straight shooter. I pressed him off camera as well and said what about this? All of a sudden, we've got O.J. Simpson back in the news. People are watching this television show. And he just smiled at me and laughed and said, the timing is interesting. The timing is interesting.

And he also added that they will not come out and have another press conference unless there's significant developments. They are trying to find out why, if this knife is somehow connected to this case, why it was not turned up until what seems to be about a month ago was the timeline he gave us.

BLITZER: Well, let me bring Danny Cevallos, our Legal Analyst, into this. Danny, all these years later, how long would it take, normally forensic wise, to go through, take a look at this knife and see was this knife really available to folks back in the 1990s at the time of the killing of these two people? Does there exist any DNA evidence on this knife potentially? How long does that forensic analysis usually take?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, in the typical case, the test has to wait until they get through all the other tests that are ahead of it the line. Even if it gets a priority, they're going to be testing for a number of different things. They're going to be testing it for hair. They're going to be testing for blood. Virtually all of the forensic potentials.

[13:05:02] But the reality is it's going to be a difficult test because this stuff is probably degraded significantly by being buried in the soil for decades. So, the extent to which they can these tests depends in for -- in part upon an initial evaluation of how much material is even on there to begin with.

So, it's hard to say, at this point, when you consider what priority it's been given and the extent to which they're going to subject the knife to testing. That will tell us. But there's really no way to predict exactly how long it will take, even with a priority. It could take, with the highest priority, maybe a few days, maybe a week.

BLITZER: In the -- because they've had the knife, apparently, now for a month, and they say they're continuing the testing. In the news conference, Danny, the LAPD captain also said he doesn't believe O.J. Simpson can be tried again for murder. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIMAN: I am not an attorney but it's my understanding, from being a police officer for nearly 30 years, that double jeopardy would be in place here so we could not charge Mr. Simpson with the homicides that he's already been charged with because he's been acquitted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you agree? You are an attorney. What do you think, Danny?

CEVALLOS: He is correct in so far that double jeopardy, once it attaches, will barre re-prosecution for the same crime or a lesser included offense. So, O.J. could not be charged again with murder nor could he be charged with, say, aggravated assault which exists somewhere below murder. So, for the most part, the answer is yes. He cannot be re-prosecuted.

However, there are exceptions to double jeopardy. And under the applicable test, it's called the Blockburger Test, the question is is the new crime the same as or similar to the prior crime? And the test is whether or not it has elements that differ from the previous acquitted Crime.

Now, in reality, a court would probably look at, say, a charge of burglary and say, well, it's too close. It arises out of the same transaction and probably bar it. But a creative prosecutor might find not only a new defendant, maybe someone who was complicit theoretically in this knife hiding or any other crime, or against the same defendant, against O.J., if they believed that there was a separate crime that was so distinct that it would survive a constitutional challenge.

So, just for example, and I'm just sort of throwing one out there, burglary might be a different enough crime. If someone entered the premises with the intent to commit a felony therein. But the problem is still, you have the underlying felony of still that murder and he gotten an acquittal on that.

So, in all likelihood, double jeopardy applies but there's always a glimmer of hope for a creative prosecutor.

BLITZER: Paul Vercammen, good explanation, Danny. Paul, let's just review the timeline for a moment. The murder occurred back in 1994. The O.J. Simpson estate was demolished in 1998. That's supposedly when this knife surfaced, when some individual, we don't know who this person was, handed over this knife to this retired -- we believe it was a retired police officer at the time. And for all these years, that police officer had this knife. And only recently, within the last month, handed over the knife to authorities. Is that the correct timeline?

CEVALLOS: Not exactly. We understand that the demolition took place in around 1998, Wolf. And we're not sure if this officer was retired at the time. What we do know or what they did say is that he was off duty working on the movie shoot. And, apparently, the person who gave him the knife, allegedly according to the LAPD, was a construction worker. We also asked, was it found in the ground? Was it buried? Was it possibly concealed in the wall? No answer on that.

And they say, of course, that they won't give up too many clues, because this is an active -- and ongoing Nicole Brown murder investigation and Ron Goldman murder investigation. That has never been solved per law. Many people, of course, would say they believe O.J. Simpson did this.

So, they were careful to go ahead and call it the Nicole Brown investigation, and we'll just have to see what the next steps are. As they pointed out, they're waiting for all of the studies to come back on this knife. And, again, they're couching it very carefully saying, allegedly, that this knife was given to this officer by someone who was working construction at the now famous or infamous Rockingham Manor -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, because the police captain, himself, said this could all be some sort made up story. Because whether he was retired, whether he was off duty, why would a police officer hold onto a knife since 1998 that was handed over to him that may or may not have been directly involved in the murder case of these two people in Los Angeles? Why would he hold onto it all of these years and now, all of a sudden, hand over a knife?

[13:10:03] Because there's a lot of suspicion, Paul, as you know, that this follows this major T.V. movie about the O.J. Simpson case that has just aired. So, there's a lot of people raising a lot of doubt about this whole story. You've heard that, right?

VERCAMMEN: Oh, no doubt. And not the least of whom is Captain Neiman himself. I mean, he raised his eyebrows and he smiled and he turned to me off camera and said, interesting timing, interesting timing. Of course, anything involving O.J. Simpson in this city seems to whip up some sort of hysteria and they are going to view this with an extremely healthy dose of skepticism.

And there's no doubt that people want to know more about this. They want to hear more about that knife. That knife being the alleged murder weapon, the holy grail, if you will, for people who are obsessed with this O.J. Simpson, you know, Nicole Brown story. So, they are going to be very careful.

And as he said, there's not going to be any press conference unless there's some sort of significant development.

BLITZER: Paul Vercammen, Danny Cevallos, guys, thanks very much. We'll, of course, stay on top of this story.

But right now, we're going to move on to politics here in the United States. The race for the White House. We're waiting for the start of a Donald Trump campaign rally in Cadillac, Michigan. We're going to bring it to you live once Donald Trump takes to the stage. It's Trump's second event in Michigan today.

We've also heard today from Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, fresh off of last night's Republican presidential debate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Little Marco, little Marco. Cruz, lying Ted Cruz, lying Ted. The stupid Romney, stupid Mitt. He is a dumb guy.

MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 are going to have a party that's divided. We are going to have a party that has to somehow, you know, justify to itself why it's voting for this man.

TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I get that people are angry. We're so frustrated. We're so furious because we've been lied to. We've been lied to over and over and over again. But Donald Trump embodies that Washington corruption that we are angry about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The candidates are pushing ahead to tomorrow's contest. We're calling it Super Saturday. On the Republican side, it's four states. A hundred fifty-five delegates at state, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine. Sunday, Puerto Rico votes. The Democrats have three contests on Saturday. Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska will award 109 delegates total. Maine holds its Democratic caucuses on Sunday.

Last night's Republican debate was indeed raucous, even raunchy at times. But did it do anything to really change the state of the Republican race moving forward? Joining us now to talk about that, Matt Schlapp, Chairman of the American Conservative Union. He's the host of the ongoing CPAC conference that's taking place here in Washington. Also joining us, John Phillips, talk -- radio talk show host, a Donald Trump supporter; Amanda Carpenter, our CNN Political Commentator, former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz; and our CNN Political Commentator Ana Navarro is joining us as well.

Anna, did either Senator Cruz or Senator Rubio really make any progress in slowing down the Trump momentum?

ANA NEVARO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I don't think anything changed as far as, you know, where the difference candidates stand. I do feel -- I do get the sense that last night was the turning point and maybe just the drop that, you know, filled the cup with the crassness, with the vulgarity. So many people, Republicans, not Republicans that watched that debate yesterday are feeling, today, disappointed, are feeling today distraught by just how low the level of discourse has dipped in the midst of this Democratic process.

And I think all of us, regardless of who we may support, should today call on those Republican candidates and say, enough is enough. You are running for president of the United States. Start behaving as such. Take your juvenile insults elsewhere. This process, this office requires a different kind of behavior.

BLITZER: Amanda, what do you think?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, to be fair, I found the debate hard to watch at times and I think it's largely because Donald Trump continues to dominate the debate. He has dragged the discourse down so low, Marco Rubio's kind of been goaded into taking him on and adopting his tactics. People don't like to see that.

But the thing that does give me hope, the thing that I did like to see was Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz teaming up to make the critique of Donald Trump that you can't trust him to create American jobs. He's a Washington deal maker that you can't trust. That is the one thing that could bring the party together. The Republican Party will lose a lot if Donald Trump becomes the nominee. Those two guys showing a way forward for the establishment, the conservative wings to come together is the only path out of this.

[13:15:00] BLITZER: All right. John Phillips, let's talk a little bit about what happened on CNN's "NEW DAY" earlier this morning. Senator Marco Rubio, he called Donald Trump "the most vulgar person to ever aspire to the presidency." But one of the low points of the debate came when Trump responded to Rubio's earlier remarks about the size of his hands. That was just part of the back and forth. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands, if they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee you.

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

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), 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, we'll let's hear it big - big Donald, big Donald. WALLACE: Your -

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

WALLACE: Gentlemen.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 because we've been lied to so many times.

TRUMP: No, no, you're the liar. You're the lying guy up here. You're the - you're the one.

CRUZ: Why don't you release the tape? Release the tape.

TRUMP: You're the one.

CRUZ: Why are you - what are you hiding in the tape?

TRUMP: Now let me just tell you - let me just tell you - excuse me. I've given my answer, lyin' Ted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I've given my answer, lyin' Ted.

John Phillips, what does that - that exchange, and there were several other exchanges similar to that, what does that say about the state of this race right now?

JOHN PHILLIPS, TALK RADIO HOST, KABC: Well, I can tell you this, watching last night's debate, watching that exchange reminds me why I hate playing monopoly with married couples, where you spend an hour trying to unload Oriental Avenue and they pass back Park Place for fun-sized Snicker bars. It was a two-on-one affair where they both changed their philosophy and ganged up on Donald Trump. And they clearly got the same memo from Mitt Romney, where they said he was untrustworthy, they said he was transactional, they said he was a con man.

And after two hours of telling us what a grafter Donald Trump is came the best question of the debate, when they were all asked, if he's the nominee, will you support him? And after trashing him for two hours, every single one of them said "yes." So all of his imperfections that they described in great detail for two hours weren't enough to disqualify him as being the Republican nominee for president in their eyes. And if it's not enough to disqualify him in their eyes, why should it be enough to disqualify him to voters and specifically to a plurality of Republicans who have been supporting him in all of these early voting states?

BLITZER: And Trump also was asked if he would support the other three if they got the nomination and not run as a third party candidate. He said, yes, he would support whoever the Republican nominee is. He would honor that pledge. The other three also said they would honor that pledge they signed months ago.

Matt, we just got word a little while ago that Donald Trump has decided not to attend the CPAC conference, where you are right now. He's going to stay out there on the campaign trail looking ahead to the contest tomorrow. What was the reaction over there at CPAC?

MATT SCHLAPP, FMR. GEORGE W. BUSH POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I mean, that - I guess that's one way to say it. I guess I would say something different, which is, we were very firm with all of these candidates - by the way, we're neutral in this presidential race - but we were very firm with all these candidates that we wanted them all to be at CPAC and they all eventually RSVPed but they had to give a speech and they had to answer questions. We got into a disagreement as to whether those rules would be enforced for Donald Trump as well and he decided to pull out. And we're really disappointed by this. Donald Trump has been at CPAC for several years. There's a lot of people who fill this room and this room is full behind me that would love to hear from him.

In a sense, when you come to CPAC as a presidential candidate, you're paying respects to conservative voters who will make up two-thirds of those who will pull the levers in these states. I think it's a big mistake for him not to be here and it's a big mistake for him not to be willing to come to these conservatives and tell them why he thinks he'll be a great president.

BLITZER: And just to be precise, Matt, what you're saying, what you're hearing, he didn't want to go there and accept the format, Q&A, as part of the dialogue he was going to have with people attending the CPAC conference? Is that the suggestion?

SCHLAPP: Yes, let me be very clear. He RSVPed, as I've said on the record over and over again immediately. He's always loved coming to CPAC. This crowd enjoys hearing from him. We thought everything was set. But the one thing we have to be clear on with every candidate is we're going to use the same format - they're going to get the exact same amount of time to speak and they're going to get the exact same amount of time to answer questions on the sage. And we are not going to bend on that.

BLITZER: All right, I know that's probably a big disappointment to the folks who have gathered at the CPAC conference right now.

Guys, thanks very much.

Also coming up, President Obama just spoke about today's jobs report here in the United States. Was it good news for the U.S. economy? What does the rest of the world think of Donald Trump and his candidacy. Richard Quest standing by the join us.

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[13:23:28] BLITZER: Now positive news on a major issue in the U.S. presidential race, the state of the U.S. economy. Brand new figures show 242,000 jobs were added here in the United States in February, beating expectations. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent, but wage growth only grew at 2.2 percent. Just a little while ago, President Obama had this to say about the new numbers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, America's businesses are creating jobs at the fastest pace since the 1990s. America's workforce is growing at the fastest pace since the year 2000. It is showing the kind of strength and durability that makes America's economy right now the envy of the world, despite the enormous headwinds that it's receiving because of weaknesses in other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The U.S. labor secretary, Thomas Perez, is joining us now.

Mr. Secretary, thanks very much for joining us.

THOMAS PEREZ, LABOR SECRETARY: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: So you're happy with these numbers, obviously?

PEREZ: This is a solid report showing a confident economy that's moving in the right direction.

BLITZER: The RNC, the Republican National Committee, obviously not very happy. They put out a statement. I don't know if you saw it.

PEREZ: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: "The economy is still not close to where it needs to be. The Obama economy continues to produce falling wages for American workers, making it harder and harder for them to support their families."

Wage growth, that's what they say is a big problem.

PEREZ: Well, you know, the Eeyore caucus of fear-mongers and fact deniers are at it again. When this president took office, we had lost over two million jobs in the three months before he got there. This report now, we've had six years in a row, the longest streak on record of private-sector job growth to the tune of 14.3 million jobs. Not only that, not only quantity but quality as well. The areas where we see the biggest growth are in education and health, business and professional services. These are good middle-class jobs. Construction is beginning to come back. A good month last month. And so we're moving in the right direction, notwithstanding these - the Eeyore caucus who frankly have an interesting relationship with the facts.

[13:25:33] BLITZER: Well, they also say this. "The percentage of Americans no longer in the labor force is at a three decade high. Economic growth continues to be anemic and the middle class continues to shrink." Factually -

PEREZ: Sure.

BLITZER: Is the percentage of Americans no longer in the labor force at a three decade high? PEREZ: No. And, in fact, if you look at the labor force participation

rate, not only is 242,000 jobs last month a very good number, but what we're seeing is a trend over the last five months especially of more people entering the work force. Why? Because they have confidence, Wolf. We - our labor force participation rate is the highest it's been in over a year. And the reason is because people think they can get a job and, in fact, they are getting a job. And that's one indicator of confidence. Another is car sales. You know, last year was the best year for car sales ever in our country. Another solid month last month. You look at - you look at all the data. We had almost seven job seekers for every job opening in the depths of the recession. Now we have 1.4. We've got work to do. We - we need to continue to make -

BLITZER: It's not perfect. And the critics point out that a lot of people have simply given up looking for jobs.

PEREZ: Well, again, you know, you look at the labor force participation rate and it's better than it was in over a year. You look at the broadest measure of unemployment and we keep six different measures, that broadest measure went down by 0.2 percent last month. So, again, people who oppose this president - and, by the way, this progress occurred notwithstanding people like Mitch McConnell who said, I want this guy to be a one-term president. So we continue to see progress. We have to make sure that the wind that's at our back results in shared prosperity. That's the unfinished business of this recovery.

BLITZER: And people, you know, have to remember, when President Obama took office, the people were losing jobs at a rate of 800,000, 900,000 jobs a month.

PEREZ: Absolutely.

BLITZER: And the unemployment rate was, what, close to 10 percent.

PEREZ: It was close to 10 percent. Mitt Romney, when he ran for president, said, if you elect me president, I'll get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent by the end of 2016. Here we are at the beginning of 2015, we're at 4.9 percent.

BLITZER: How's this going to play out politically in the campaign right now, these positive job numbers?

PEREZ: Well, what we're going to do is, the president, as he did today, and I was there with him, he's going to continue to tell the story of the facts. Again, people are in a fact-free zone who oppose the president. And the fact of the matter is, the president inherited a mess. As a result of his investments and courageous decisions to help save the auto industry, to have the recovery act, we are now seeing the longest sustained period of private-sector job growth in history.

BLITZER: You -

PEREZ: We still have more work to.

BLITZER: You've endorsed Hillary Clinton, right?

PEREZ: I have. But I'm here today in my -

BLITZER: Official capacity as the secretary -

PEREZ: Official capacity, so I'm not talking about that.

BLITZER: Secretary. You've seen all these reports. I've got to ask you that your name is being floated as a possible vice president running mate for Hillary Clinton. You're smiling. You like that floating?

PEREZ: No. No. What - I'm smiling because my focus - I've got 322 days, Wolf, till the weekend (ph). My singular focus is on continuing this progress. I meet people everywhere I go around this country who were kicked to the side of the road in this recession. They're coming back. They appreciate the investments we've been able to make. And that's what it's all about, making sure that the wind at our back results in shared prosperity.

BLITZER: It's good to have a fellow Buffalonian here on CNN.

PEREZ: Amen. Go (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: Secretary Perez went to Kanishis (ph) High School in Buffalo. I went to Kimore West (ph). So there was not much of a rivalry there, but it was a very good high school.

PEREZ: Excellent. We played you in basketball.

BLITZER: Yes. All right, thanks very much for coming in.

PEREZ: Take care. Always a pleasure.

BLITZER: Go Bills (ph).

PEREZ: Amen.

BLITZER: All right, up -

PEREZ: (INAUDIBLE) hope is better than no hope at all.

BLITZER: Up next, the water crisis in Flint, it's a political issue right now. Democrats are there in force, but Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says they're not being genuine. We're going to get reaction to that and a whole lot more when we come back.

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