Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Four States Up for Grabs in GOP Race to the White House; Ben Carson Ends Presidential Bid; LAPD Investigating Knife Found at O.J. Simpson's Former Home; China Holds People's National Congress; Gay Iranian Poet Seeks Asylum. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired March 05, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:12]NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Taking stop of the latest in the U.S. Republican race to the White House. We'll tell you why four states are for grab this Saturday are critical to these four men still running.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton follows in the footsteps of her husband by laying out what she thinks matters in 2016.

And money matters for time as leadership as it gathers for the Annual National People's Congress. We'll take you live to Beijing, more on that.

And hello everyone, this is "CNN NEWSROOM" we are live from Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

There's just days after the heated Super Tuesday primaries in the U.S. presidential race, we now have Super Saturday. 109 delegates are up for grabs among Democrats in Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska. Hillary Clinton has a sizable lead over Bernie Sanders.

And for Republicans, there are 155 delegates at stake in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine. Donald Trump is leading that delegate count.

Meantime, Ben Carson officially ended his presidential campaign on Friday. He told the Conservative Political Action Conference, the delegate math would not in his favor. Carson did not endorse anyone.

The Republican still in the race spent Friday on the campaign trail after a debate where the insults went flying back and forth all night. Here is Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These politicians come up here like lightweight Marco Rubio, like lying Ted Cruz.

ATHENA JONES, CNN REPORTER: On the hills of a rockiest, even raunchy debate. The insults kept flying on the campaign trail Donald Trump not letting up in his criticism of his rivals and not letting go about Marco Rubio's comment about the size of his hand.

TRUMP: So when little Marco spews his crap about the size of my hands which are big, those hands can hit a golf ball 285 yards.

JONES: Ted Cruz, questioning the billionaire businessman's readiness to be president and his shifting views.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... how many times he said the most flexible. Let me tell you, when politician tell you he's going to be flexible, that means he's getting ready to speak in two.

JONES: A new shift on display Trump walking back this line from last night.

TRUMP: We should go for waterboarding and we should go tougher than waterboarding.

JONES: Reversing his fans on torture and ditching his calls to targets the families of terrorist in violation of international law. Saying in a statement he understands "that the United States is bound by laws and treaties and I will not order our military or other officials to violate those laws."

Thursday night's debate was laced with locker room innuendo.

TRUMP: He referred to my hands that they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you, he's no problem. I guarantee you.

JONES: Cruz and Rubio unloading a series of attacks on Trump's temperament, his business dealings and his immigration proposals, a concerted effort to stop the seemingly unstoppable frontrunner.

CRUZ: I think the American people understand that yelling and cursing at people doesn't make you a tough guy.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R-FL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He has spent a career convincing Americans to be something that he's not in exchange for their money.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: But later, all three contenders standing by their pledge to back a man they spent the entire night arguing isn't fit to lead the country.

Trump continuing to defy normal political rules, deciding to skip a major conservative gathering outside Washington this weekend. He'll campaign in Kansas instead.

Rubio took the opportunity to tweak Trump.

RUBIO: He really doesn't belong in a conservative gathering. Donald Trump is not a conservative.

JONES: Meanwhile, Cruz is throwing cold water on the prospects of blocking Trump at a contested convention.

CRUZ: If the Washington deal makers try to steal the nomination from the people, I think it would be disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Donald Trump is coming into Super Saturday after wrapping up wins in seven states on Super Tuesday. So can any of his rivals stop his momentum before the Republican Convention in July when delegates choose the party's presidential nominee?

CNN Chief U.S. correspondent, John King delves into that with Anderson Cooper.

JOHN KING, CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT: They all need to win to stop Donald Trump.

Well, let's look at the map and see how that would play out. If you -- here's where we are at the Super Tuesday. Let's just fast forward. This gets us through March 15th.

This is a scenario in which Donald Trump runs the board, wins everything this weekend, wins everything next Tuesday and then wins everything on Tuesday, March 15. Likely, don't know. But conceivable, yes. If that happens, game over just fold your tents get out, Donald Trump is almost three quarters the way the nomination plus he would make a convincing case, you guys can't beat me.

[00:05:09]But here's the Romney scenario. Let's say John Kasich wins in his home state of Ohio and Marco Rubio wins on the 15th in his home state of Florida.

Now, some contest this weekend and before then, you would think if they're going to stop Trump, they would get a start there. But let's just take this is the Romney scenario and just to show that maybe somebody gets momentum. I'm even going to give John Kasich Illinois in this scenario here.

Even if this happens, right. Even if this happens, guys win on their home court, Cruz win Texas, Rubio was Florida, Kasich wins Ohio and as a gift we'll give him Illinois for the sake of this scenario. Even in this scenario, Trump is well ahead.

But what Romney and everyone else in the establishment is hoping for is that then somebody get the hot hand. When they win, Trump comes down and something like this happens. This plays it out through it the convention. This is Rubio I have winning New York, winning North Carolina, winning Pennsylvania, winning some states out of the west including California. I used Rubio on this scenario. You could make a Kasich, you could make a Cruz, you could split the states between them. Trump win some, they win others.

But this is what the establishment is hoping for, something like this. Somebody gets a hot hand, Trump wins some but not as many as he's winning right now. And you get to the convention. This scenario has Trump at the convention over 1000. They're hoping to keep trump in the 800 to 900 range so they think they will have a stronger more argument to stop him. But if he had over 1000, he'd be more than three quarters in the way, but then you have Rubio here, Cruz here, Kasich here. And again if you're watching at home and you prefer one of these guys, switch to numbers.

Trump would be in the lead, the other candidates had some, some stronger than others. And then Anderson, the scenario Romney lays out is this where the negotiations begins. Nobody can win on the first ballot, nobody has enough. And so then, what would happen, nobody knows because this has never happen in our lifetime but could Trump negotiate with Kasich. That would get you close enough. A Trump- Kasich check would get you close enough to the finish line or would Cruz and Rubio cut a deal which would get them across the finish line with their delegates.

That this is the scenario they hoped for. They're just hoping to get through a convention and then write rules that they like and cut deals that they like. Can they do that? I don't know. And it's like, one of these guys -- here's the scenario, says one of these guys going to win the power ball, we just don't know who, if some like this plays out.

ALLEN: John King earlier on scenarios leading up to the Republican Convention.

Well, on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is looking ahead to her party's primary in Michigan on Tuesday at an other parts manufacturing plant in Detroit, Friday. Clinton vowed to boost unions and jobs. She also promised to resend tax benefits for U.S. companies that move jobs overseas. Rival Bernie Sanders, was also in Michigan ahead of Tuesday's vote. He criticized Clinton's past support of trade agreements saying they have hurt American workers.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face-off on the debate stage once again in the CNN Democratic debate that's on Sunday. We'll have that for you live from Flint, Michigan. Anderson Cooper moderates. He's here at 1:00 a.m. Monday, London Time.

Los Angeles Police are investigating a knife allegedly found at the former state of O.J. Simpson. The blade is being checked for DNA and hair in a forensics lab. Allegedly, a construction worker gave the weapon to an L.A. traffic officer sometime in the '90s but it's unclear why it's taken so long for the knife to surface or if it has any legal significance.

A police spokesman weighed in on the strange new development.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. ANDY NEIMAN, LOS ANGELES POLICE: I was really surprised. I would think that an LAPD officer -- if this story is accurate as we're being told would know that anytime you are -- you come into contact with evidence that you should and shall submit that to investigators. So I don't know what the circumstances are why that didn't happen or that's entirely accurate or if this whole story is possibly bogus from a get go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The case goes back nearly 22 years. It started in June 1994 when O.J. Simpson's ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman, a friend were stabbed to death outside her home in Los Angeles. Evidence pointing to Simpson was recovered and five days after the murder, he led the police on a car chase through Los Angeles before he eventually surrendered and was charged with murder.

The trial lasted more than eight months and is said to be the most publicized criminal trial in American history. Simpson was acquitted of the murders.

I'm joined from Los Angeles by Lisa Bloom. She's an attorney at the Bloom Firm and she covered the O.J. Simpson murder trial back in the day they're in Los Angeles.

Lisa, thank you for being with us today.

LISA BLOOM, THE BLOOM FIRM ATTORNEY: Thanks for having me.

ALLEN: We remember that well. I was on the air when he went missing that day.

BLOOM: Yeah.

ALLEN: So this kind of all brings back, doesn't it that there's a ...

BLOOM: It sure does.

ALLEN: ... development in this story that riveted this nation still does. And now we hear about a knife perhaps found in the rubble somewhere at his home that was being torn down.

[00:10:05]What do you make of this story?

BLOOM: You know, it's so stunning is that 20 years later this tantalizing new evidence is so much like the evidence from the original trial. It could prove O.J. guilty if there's DNA on the knife and it's found in his home or it could show at the defense argued a trial namely police in confidante or perhaps both. And that was exactly the case for so many pieces of evidence that came in 20 years ago in the O.J. Simpson trial.

ALLEN: The big missing piece among a few other missing pieces was, where was the weapon. That was a riveting point and a turning point, wasn't it?

BLOOM: Well, that's right. And at one point, the prosecution seemed to suggest that a certain knife that they had found on O.J.'s property was the murder weapon. They even backed away from it and said "No, that was not it." The experts who testified the trial said "It would have to be about a 15 inch blade that's serrated." A knife meeting that description was never found.

There was a witness who said that O.J. Simpson disposed of some items at a trash can at the airport because that night he went on a flight from Los Angeles to Chicago.

So, the bottom line is the knife was never found. And we don't know the description of the knife that the police are now talking about today. Was it serrated, was it 15 inches, I mean we just don't know.

ALLEN: The Nicole Brown Simpson was killed that night and Ron Goldman who was arriving at her home. And all of the blood, evidence and the testimony of course, the defense team are refuted so much that the investigator's problem. Was Ron Goldman's blood ever found on anything? So if not, would they be looking for that in this investigation of this knife?

BLOOM: I think a finding of Ron Goldman's blood on this knife would be just positive of the whole issue. I think that would prove in the eyes of the public that O.J. Simpson killed both of them. Why do I say that because if this is a knife that was in O.J.'s possession, we would expect it to have some of his DNA on it. And Nicole visited him on many occasions. They shared children together. And so, even her blood could be explained. But nobody would be able to explain Ron Goldman's blood on that knife. And so that would be very significant.

But look, let's take a step back and get real for a moment. Because of the double jeopardy clause in the U.S. constitution, O.J. Simpson cannot be retried for this double murder. Even if there is DNA on this knife, even if he stood up in the middle of Time Square and said I did it. Even if the new witness came forward, it doesn't matter. He's already been tried. He's been acquitted. It's over. So this is not going to matter in terms of his legal jeopardy but in the eyes of the public, in terms of the history of this case it could be very significant.

ALLEN: Well, he's in prison right now on another charge if something were to come out of this knife investigation, could that perhaps keep him in prison longer?

BLOOM: Well, that's a very good question. And the answer is yes. So O.J. Simpson is up for parole for the burglary and kidnapping charges that he's currently incarcerated for and that goes back to an incident in Las Vegas hotel room a few years ago.

When he goes up for parole, parole cast a very wide net and people are entitled to come in and tell the parole board reasons why he should be released and reasons why he should remain incarcerated. And this would be a something that could be used in the parole hearing. Will it ultimately make a difference, you know, who knows. I mean he's in the 60s now. He's in poor health. I would expect him to be paroled next year assuming he's maintained good behavior behind bars. But this is something that could be raised, yes.

ALLEN: Lisa Bloom, here we are 20 years later talking about the O.J. Simpson case again. It is sure real, isn't it?

BLOOM: It really is especially with the special explaining here on one of our cable networks. I mean, everything old is new again.

ALLEN: Absolutely. Well, we thank you for joining us and we'll see what happens in this story. Thank you.

BLOOM: Thank you. BLOOM: Well it is a Chinese government's biggest week of the year just ahead. We'll take you live to Beijing for a look at what's in store for this year's National People's Congress and it begins with a harsh look at the country's economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:16:45]ALLEN: And welcome back to "CNN NEWSROOM".

It is a crucial week in China as the National People's Congress holds its annual gathering in Beijing. That picture right there gives you a sense of how big we're talking.

The Chinese premier opened the session Saturday. Nearly 3000 delegates over across the country are there. The 12 days of meetings will focus on China's development plan for the next five years.

For more, let's bring in Andrew Stevens. He joins me live from Beijing and certainly it's been interesting time for China with their economic woes and is that a headline as they begin this important meeting, Andrew.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Yeah, Natalie. The big question really was, what was the government going to say in as far as the target for economic growth is both in 2016 and also for the five years stretching up to 2020 because this NPC meeting also coincides with a lot of the latest of China's five year plans.

Now, what will happen is as you say, this meetings over the next few days will discuss details of these plans. It's all agreed. It's not -- there's not going to be much since it's a rather stunt meeting really of the party which will go ahead with the proposals being put forward by Li Keqiang (ph). He is some sort of the economic architect really. The man who's position it is really to steer the economy.

So, as far as the numbers go, Mr. Li today saying that growth in 2016 will be between 6.5 and 7 percent. This is pretty widely expected but it's also the first time we've seen arranged. But last year it was around about 7 percent. This year, it's getting a little wider which gives the policy makers a little bit more flexibility.

And looking at further to the next five years, Li says that the economy will have to grow 6.5 percent at least into this to meet its target among the term target and this is a big target that the Chinese keep talking about, Natalie, which is to be a modestly prosperous -- moderately prosperous economy by 2020. So it leads to 6.5 percent growth.

The question of course is can it hit those numbers? Well, there's enough suspicion around the numbers to suggest that whatever happens will be told they hit those numbers. But certainly, as you say, with the economy weakening now, with job losses and restructuring becoming in the headlines so much more often. It is going to be much tougher this time around that it has been in recent years.

ALLEN: And so, the question is, you know, can you trust the numbers that they're laying out, like you said, suspicious numbers sometimes from China.

STEVENS: Well, yeah. Well, that's right. And there's always been the suspicion over the official statistics. In fact, Li, himself once said that he didn't trust what he described as man made statistics. Talk through economist and they'll probably tell you that they think the economy is growing post are 4 or 5 percent. And it doesn't really matter to the extent that as long as there is not wide spread upheavals until that domestic social upheavals here that the party remains in control. That's really what this is all about. The party remains in control.

[00:20:02]And the people still are happy and satisfied enough to support the party. Now, what is going to be tough and what the government has repeatedly talked about in recent months is this getting rid of excess capacity in some of these big old state industries.

Now, the industries that made China really take-off on this industrial growth path, you know, to their steel making, coal mining, the big heavy industries. These are now -- and lot of these are obsolete and the Chinese government is trying to turn China into much more high value added industry.

But to get rid of this industry means laying off literally millions of people and trying to get them into other sectors. That is the difficulty. That is the delegate balancing act that they have to achieve over the next five years to stay legitimate, to stay in power (ph) and certainly that is not going to be easy.

ALLEN: All right. It'll be certainly interesting to watch and we thank you for that as Asia Pacific editor Andrew Stevens, of course live in Beijing. Thank you.

We want to turn now to a bitter winter storm climate in Britain and left of Western Europe right now. Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, following it. That is the exact same thing I said last week end.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Recurring theme. Here, it is winter, right. So we would expect this type of weather but it really is coming to quite a wake-up call just to remind us that Mother Nature still in control.

It's about 5:20 in the morning in London right now, Natalie, and they have a wake-up call to get through this morning as you start to see the sun for the first time. There is some snow just here Northwest in Liverpool and we'll talk about that in just one second.

Take a look at this. You can see, well, people in Buxton, England having to deal with some of that heavy shoveling of that very thick wet snowfall. They had about 10 to 15 centimeters of fresh falling snow.

This is the latest radar. And I want to show you what's happening here. We've got a band of precipitation that's created some snow showers overnight as temperatures drop near freezing especially for the high ground of Britain. There's also a band of precipitation that's moving into the Eastern sections of the U.K. near London and that will spread some cold wintery showers.

Be careful waking up this morning and if you do have to travel certainly some icy patches on the roadways throughout the United Kingdom this morning before temperature really start to warm with the daytime heating from the sun.

This is a synoptic pattern. We have a large area of low pressure slowly entering across Central and Western Europe. That's going to bring snowfall to the Alps and rain showers from Paris to Berlin as well as the Warsaw region.

Let's focus into the United Kingdom because now our winds are starting to change to an orderly direction. So, now you've heard about this thing call wind chill, the factor in the winds and it feels closer to zero degrees than it though the actual air time -- air temperature which is roughly about eight degrees in London for (inaudible) high.

The broader perspective here shows the amount of precipitation that should fall especially into the Alps say. This is great news for skiers and snow boarders. Anybody hitting the slopes this weekend from the South of France through Northern Italy, Austria and into Switzerland, may be 50 centimeters of fresh falling snow.

Lighter showers though as you have to France and in to the Netherlands as well as Germany. But cold air in store for this forecast, look at London, eight degrees in the course of the weekend. And anytime you see that shading of blue, you know what that means, cold weather continues to plunge in behind this Atlantic storm system. You can see the three day forecast for a few selected cities.

I want to show you some dramatic video coming out of Peru. Quickly, we'll end with this Natalie. A heavy rain leaving, unfortunately, 11 people dead. This is after a series of storm continues to impact Southern Peru. You can see some of the dramatic rescues taking place there. 42 areas declared a state of emergency. This is all El Nino driven rainfall events.

ALLEN: And it would keep going for a while.

VAN DAM: It will.

ALLEN: All right. Derek, thank you.

VAN DAM: Thanks, Natalie.

ALLEN: Well, being openly gay is not an option in many parts of the Middle East. Next here, we meet a gay poet who fled his native Iran for a nearby enemy nation. This story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:25:37]ALLEN: A gay poet who fears persecution in his native Iran is seeking asylum in a country where he feels accepted but it is a place his homeland considers an enemy.

Here's Oren Liebermann with the story. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Payam Feili no longer needs to hide. On the streets of Tel Aviv he is open, he is out. An unlikely transplant (ph) who found a new home when he says his country became his prison.

PAYAM FEILI, IRANIAN POET: (Through translator) My life came to blind alley. It was empty. I couldn't anymore. And the circumstances I had with who I am, I couldn't survive in that country.

LIEBERMANN: They openly gave Feili, left his family and his native Iran two years ago. A victim of persecution he says in a country where homosexuality is illegal.

The book you see him reading, I will grow, I will bear fruit, figs, has passages about homosexuality. When he published it in Hebrew, he says he was held captive in Iran for 44 days. Upon his release, he says he fled through Turkey to Israel.

He arrived, the day his writings were featured during a performance in Tel Aviv. Ido Dagan arranged his visa.

IDO DAGAN, FEILI'S FRIEND: It felt like it was warm welcoming of one big family.

LIEBERMANN: We need Feili on Rough Trial Street (ph), on of the most popular streets in this progressive city.

It's almost bizarre in a way to sit here in Tel Aviv in Israel holding a passport that says Islamic Republic of Iran. And you open it, there are few stamps here, there are few Turkey stamps and right at the back it says, "The holder of this passport is not entitled to travel to the occupied Palestine."

It's a beautiful day in the street, sitting (ph) and Feili is relaxed. In the city that hosts the largest gay pride celebration in the Middle East. He says he feels safe.

He considers himself an atheist, sporting blue nail polish, a cadimus (ph) earring and a Jewish star on his neck.

FEILI: (Through translator) When you talk about Israel in Iran, his enemies, you're talking about government not people. Many people in Iran really love Israel and would like to visit just like Israelis who talked to me about Iran.

LIEBERMANN: Feili's three month visa was about to run out when it was extended until November but he still has no permanent home. A stranger seeking asylum in a country where he says he feels like a native son.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: And that is "CNN NEWSROOM". I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)