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Trump Denies Playing Part in Causing Violence; Legacy of a Disaster; U.S. Says North Korean Submarine Missing. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired March 12, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:09] LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: They came to silence Donald Trump, and for at least a while, these protesters got their wish. But the Republican presidential front-runner is now speaking out to CNN about the scuffles that stopped his rally in Chicago.

Fukushima five years on. Why the Japanese region devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami and a nuclear meltdown is still struggling to recover.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the U.S. military and the South Korean military's chance to show off their military preparedness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Ivan Watson gives us an inside look at the drills that are prompting fury in North Korea.

Hello. Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and right around the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade, and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

(MUSIC)

KINKADE: Our top story this hour, Donald Trump's canceled campaign event in Chicago takes a violent turn. These are the sorts of signs that demonstrators brought with them to protest Trump long before he even showed up.

Trump's event never took place. Instead, fistfights and scuffles broke out among the crowd, as supporters and protesters clashed. Police were soon brought in to calm everyone down. And all told, inside and outside, five people were detained with two officers injured.

CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta was at the arena when the scuffles broke out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Things are finally back to normal in Chicago after a Donald Trump rally was canceled, resulting in chaos and a near riot inside this arena on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Essentially, what happened, it unfolded over the course of a few hours. There were hundreds of protesters gathered inside this rally with the purpose of disrupting this Donald Trump event, and essentially, that's what happened. Donald Trump organizers came to the podium, announced that this event was being canceled. That is when the crowd inside this arena just exploded into chaos.

We saw fights breaking out between Donald Trump supporters, Donald Trump protesters breaking out throughout the arena. There were not enough police officers and security personnel on the scene to get the situation under control. Then we saw Chicago police, dozens of them, filed down to the floor of the arena, they were starting to escort these protesters outside of the venue.

At that point, you did see some scuffles, some fistfights breaking out outside of arena. There were a few arrests made. But overall, this could have been so much worse. There could have been a full-on riot that broke out here tonight on the streets of Chicago.

The event was canceled and protesters moved on. No big problems occurred as a result of the rally being canceled and the chaos that followed.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Trump has had protesters at nearly every event he does, and at times, things have become violent, but nothing to the extent of what happened in Chicago on Friday.

Earlier, Trump spoke to CNN's Don Lemon. He said he would not take responsibility for what's going on at his events.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I got to Chicago a couple of hours ago. And we had 25,000 people scheduled for tonight. We're going to have a lot outside and inside. A tremendous gathering. And a real supporters and at the same time, we had some protesters outside which was probably 2,000 or 3,000.

And I met with law enforcement. I don't want to see anybody hurt, Don. So I met with law enforcement and I think we made a wise decision to cancel. Now, it's pretty well broken up and no major problems. And we made a decision even though our freedom of speech is violated totally. We made a decision not to go forward.

I don't want to see anybody get hurt. And you would have some people possibly getting hurt, or beyond. And so I made the decision in conjunction with law enforcement not to do the rally, we postponed it. DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that you were -- the protesters have been expected tonight at your rally. Was your campaign prepared for this?

TRUMP: Oh, I think we were prepared. But, you know, you can be prepared as you want when you have thousands of people, you don't want to see attack --

LEMON: Yes.

TRUMP: -- and they were minor skirmishes but no major clash. So, we --

LEMON: You've seen the pictures, I'm sure, of what happen inside of that really. I'm sure you've been watching it looking at these pictures? What do you make of what you saw?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's a divided country. I think we have a very divided country, Don. And it's been all this a long time and it's very sad to see. It is divided among many groups. And frankly, it is terrible.

You look at a lot of people who are upset because they have enough salary increase in 12 years. You know, if you look at the workers of the country our jobs are being taken away.

[04:05:01] Our jobs are being sent to Mexico. And they are being sent also to some other countries. And our factories are closing. We have a lot of problems.

And the -- we don't have a real under employment rate of 5 percent. It's much probably closer with 25 percent because --

LEMON: Do you think, Mr. Trump, with all due respect you think that --

TRUMP: -- our people as, you know, as people give up looking for jobs, Don, all of a sudden they're considered employed, statistically. And so, it's a lot problem --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Do you think that's what caused that directly tonight the scuffle?

TRUMP: Say it again?

LEMON: Do you think that caused the scuffle directly tonight because those people who were fighting weren't fighting over job?

TRUMP: Yes. I think it is largely economic. I mean, if you look at African-American youth, they have a 59 percent unemployment rate, 59 percent. And it's -- yes, I think it's largely economic problem. Absolutely.

LEMON: Do you think it has anything to do with the tone that some have said that you have set, by telling people that get them out or punch them in the face or they would, should be taken out on a stretcher? Do you think that you bear of any responsibility for what's happen at this tonight in the rallies?

TRUMP: No, I don't -- I don't take responsibility. Nobody is been hurt in our rallies and we have, I had 25,000, 35,000 people, more than that. We had on the other day 25,000 in Florida and we've never had anybody hurt or certainly seriously hurt.

We have -- I don't even know if we had anybody hurt. So, you know, we have a tremendous large number of rallies and massive numbers of people, nobody even close to us in terms of size and great people.

But we will had protesters stand up and be very, very abusive. Unbelievably abusive. And in some cases swinging and, you know, punching and swinging and not a good situation.

And I think we've been overall, I think we've been very mild with protesters. Then, some will stand up and we're just usher them out. And, you know, it is not me that ushers them out is the police force. And the police had done great job.

So, until today, we've really never had much of a problem. Now we were in St. Louis today, we had a packed house. We had thousands and thousands of people that frankly couldn't get in.

And we had a few protesters. It was not a big deal. It was individual protesters standing up. There were quite a few of them, seven or eight of them, I would say. You know, seven or eight incidents is which was fine. And we had all everybody had a good time. I hope the protesters had a good time, to be honest with you. Nobody hurt.

LEMON: So, I want to ask you a question that my colleague Jake Tapper asked you last night in the debates. Do you believe that you have done anything, Mr. Trump, to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged?

And, I'm going to add to that by saying, if your words and your tone inspire people to vote for you, to come to the rallies to go to the polls and vote, why wouldn't those same words inspire people to violence?

TRUMP: Well, I hope that my tone is not that of causing violence, because my basic tone is really that of securing our borders, of having a country and having a great country, of bringing our jobs back, of bringing our manufacturing back, Don, of getting people jobs. That includes African-American youth where you have a 59 percent unemployment rate.

So, I would hope that -- is not way, you know, I hope -- I certainly don't do that. I will say, we have tremendous success with people. You see the kind of polls you see the kind of, you know, popularity that we have in the rallies themselves as well. I mean, it's a love fest in the rallies themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: With several do-or-die contests in the race for the Republican nomination coming up in a few days, Trump's rivals are jumping at the opportunity to criticize him for the part he plays in the problem. Marco Rubio says Trump's unwillingness to take responsibility is indicative of larger issues with Trump and his candidacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I want to put aside the election and any sort of talk about that for a moment and to say, look, there are consequences to words, no doubt about it.

Let me back up and say this: it is clear from watching these images that there are people that are protesting tonight that are part of organized efforts to disrupt this event. This is not some sort of organic thing that happened. It's Chicago. There are a lot of groups that do this, basically professionally in some instances, and you can see there is this group of people there, but you can tell that it is an organized and orchestrated effort.

And I don't think you have a right to disrupt an event the way they've tried to do so just because you don't like what the people are saying, OK, number one.

On the other hand, I think Mr. Trump needs to own up to the fact that the rhetoric he's used at some of his events has also contributed to the climate you've seen in parts of other rallies that he's had. There are consequences to the things people say in politics.

You know, a president, for example, can't just speak their mind. There are real consequences. They can't just say whatever comes to mind. There are real consequences to the words that someone speaks, whether it's a presidential candidate, or ultimately, as a president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:10:04] KINKADE: With so much riding on Tuesday's contests, this controversy comes at a bad time for Donald Trump, who has the chance to put away two rivals, if he can beat them in their home states.

Senior political analyst David Gergen spoke with our John Berman about the political importance and where Trump proceeds from here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This is maybe one of the most important moments of the entire campaign. This could cost him the nomination. It could also catapult it. We don't know which way it's going to cut.

I think a lot of people are going to be frightened and horrified. We've had this kind of -- we've had this kind of violence in Chicago in 1969, Democratic convention. Forty-eight years later, we still talk about it, you know. We had this kind of violence in George Wallace's campaign when he used language similar to Trump and bad things came out of there. There were a lot of fisticuffs, and eventually, the candidate himself was shot.

So, this is very dangerous. Here's the deal -- the candidate must set the tone for his rallies. That's his responsibility. He has set a tone that encourages his supporters to go after and punch people, and it naturally draws out bigger and bigger protests, and it sets the stage for this kind of incendiary, climatic moment.

And so, what he has -- this is a test of his leadership to be president to show he can unify in the way he claims. And what he has to do, I think he has to go to the country tomorrow, no later than this weekend, and make it clear that while he wants to have rallies, it's critically important that they be peaceful, that people come in peace and leave in peace.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: David, you said it could cost him the nomination. You think it could lose Trump voters, with the voters who support him?

GERGEN: Yes, sir. Look, I think a lot of people are going to look at these pictures and be frightened. There are going to be a lot of people -- you have to think, when you elect a president, what is life going to be like for the next four years with that person in office? If this represents the future, if this kind of chaos and the lack of control and the lack of leadership represent the future, a lot of people are going to walk away from it, as attractive as they may find Donald Trump.

I think many of his supporters will look at this and go the other way. They came, they shut him down, that's unfair, he's our candidate, and they will come out in large numbers. But I guarantee you, most American people like their politics a lot more peaceful than this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: Coming up in our next half hour, we'll hear more of Donald Trump's interview with CNN, and why a Trump supporter says this news cycle could be completely different if Tea Party members disrupted a Bernie Sanders rally.

Well, historic rains have drenched parts of the southern United States. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam has it for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

[04:15:46] KINKADE: Certainly does, and they're going to expect more.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They are, and these will become more frequent.

KINKADE: OK. Derek Van Dam, good to have you with us.

VAN DAM: All right. Thanks, Lynda.

KINKADE: Thank you.

Still to come, North Korea is franticly searching for a lost submarine. The U.S. military has spy satellites, aircraft and ships watching the search. Up next, why the vessel may be lost.

Plus, it's been five years since Japan was rocked by an earthquake and tsunami, but areas of devastation still remain. We'll tour some of the destruction, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Richard Quest and these are the top business headlines. The Dow surged 218 points on Friday and it's back over 17,000. A fourth straight week of gains for the Dow. European markets also performed well with the DAX and the CAC both up more than 3 percent.

President Obama says technology has a big role to play in improving people's participation in elections. The president gave the keynote speech at the South by Southwest Festival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We want to make sure that we're using big data, analytics, technology, to make civic participation easier. Voters, increasing voting rates and making sure that people are informed about who they're voting for and why they're voting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The chief executive of EasyJet, Carolyn McCall, has told me why the airline believes Britain should remain in the European Union. The U.K. will decide whether to stay or leave the E.U. in a referendum in June.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAROLYN MCCALL, CEO, EASYJET: For EasyJet, it is not a political argument, it is basically about our consumers. And we have been very clear, we've said that, actually. We believe consumers of aviation, it is better to stay in the E.U.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Those are the top business headlines. I'm Richard Quest in London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KINKADE: An Australian aviation official says another piece of airplane debris has been found off the Mozambique coast. Experts will investigate if it came from Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared two years ago with 239 people on board. A South African team found the debris in December and took it home. His family contacted officials after a different piece of debris was found last week.

In Asia, the U.S. military has been spying on North Korea as it franticly searches for a missing submarine. The U.S. is unsure if the vessel sank or if it's adrift off North Korea's east coast. They believe it may have suffered some type of failure during a military exercise.

Meanwhile, thousands of U.S. military personnel and South Korean troops are taking part in joint military exercises on the Korean peninsula.

As CNN's Ivan Watson reports, the drills come at a time of increased tensions in the region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a show of force, the U.S. and South Korean militaries carrying out drills here on a beach, performing an amphibious landing. You can see the assault vehicles coming in right into the beach right now, after exploding smoke to screen their arrival.

There are more than 17,000 U.S. and South Korean marines and sailors as well as small detachments from New Zealand and Australia that are all participating in these annual exercises. Now, the South Korean government has called these the largest joint exercises ever.

This is the U.S. military and the South Korean military's chance to show off their military preparedness, and it's coming at a time of increased tension on the Korean peninsula. North Korea says that it interprets these exercises as a precursor to a possible invasion, and they've warned about a preemptive nuclear strike in response to this. The U.S. and South Korean governments say that they've sent messages to the north, warning that this is purely defensive in nature and giving the time frame of the eight-week series of annual military drills.

This is an opportunity for the U.S. to reassure its South Korean ally within months of North Korea testing what it claims was a hydrogen bomb and firing a satellite into space.

These joint military exercises lead to annual cycles of tension between north and South Korea. The danger here is that both sides are armed to the teeth, and in case of a misstep, the risk of escalation is very, very high.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Polhan, South Korea.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: It's been five years since a deadly earthquake and tsunami claimed the lives of thousands of people in Japan. The waves from the tsunami flooded the Fukushima nuclear plant and caused one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in history. Parts of Japan remain uninhabitable and more than 2,000 people are still officially missing.

Our Will Ripley has more from the Fukushima prefecture, where much of the area remains devastated and empty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is my third visit to Fukushima prefecture, and this area in particular has changed quite a bit since I was last here a little over a year ago. You don't see the cars and the boats lying about anymore. They've cleaned a lot of that up. There are trash piles. And it appears that they are close to getting this area ready for people to move back.

Every step you take, people died. The new numbers from the fire and disaster management agency show that when you account for the dead and the missing from the disaster in March of 2011, nearly 22,000 people are gone. And you see and feel the reminders of them everywhere here.

In certain areas, the radiation levels are still so high, we have to put on this protective gear just to make sure we don't inadvertently contaminate ourselves.

These are hundreds of thousands of bags of radioactive soil. They're so heavy, crews have to use excavators to lift just two at a time. They're literally piling up.

There are more than 100,000 storage sites, 100,000 across Fukushima. This is just one of them.

Japan is building this massive, 400-kilometer sea wall -- that's about 250 miles -- to protect people from future tsunamis, but there's a lot of opposition.

[04:25:10] Critics say it won't fully guarantee people's safety. It will obstruct ocean views, and could actually hurt marine life.

It's sad to walk up and down these rows of drab, temporary housing, and think this is all people have left of their old lives. Entire communities were uprooted and planted in places like this, and nobody thought that five years later, tens of thousands would still be living here.

A lot of the younger people have moved on, they have relocated, but those left behind, often in their 60s, 70s, 80s, these are senior citizens who say they don't know where else they'll go.

I remember the last time I visited this school gym, and it was really striking, because the graduation banner was hanging on that stage, and I was told, had the tsunami happened just one day later, this whole room could have been full of people.

Thankfully, everyone here at the school survived. These workers took down the banner just today. They're here trying to clean up and trying to rebuild. But as we have seen touring this devastated area, there is still so much work that lies ahead.

Will Ripley, CNN, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KINKADE: Up next, fistfights and arrests after a Donald Trump rally is canceled. Why the U.S. presidential candidate says the violence is not his fault and he doesn't regret any inflammatory remarks.

Also, three German states are holding elections on Sunday. Coming up, what's at stake for Chancellor Angela Merkel?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:07] KINKADE: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade.

And here are the headlines we're following this hour:

At least five people were arrested and two officers hurt at a violent Donald Trump rally in Chicago. The U.S. Republican presidential candidate actually canceled the event before he showed up over security concerns. Trump told CNN he is not responsible for the clashes.

U.S. officials say North Korea has lost contact with one of its submarines. The U.S. is unsure if the missing vessel sank or is adrift at sea off North Korea's east coast. This comes as thousands of U.S. and South Korean troops are taking part in joint military exercises in the southeastern Korean peninsula.

An Australian aviation official says another piece of airplane debris has been found on the Mozambique coast. Experts will investigate if it came from Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370, which disappeared two years ago with 239 people on board. A different piece of debris was found last week.

In America's southeast, at least four people have died in record- breaking rains. Hundreds of homes are flooded in Louisiana and Mississippi and they have declared states of emergency. The risk of more flooding is expected to continue until Monday.

When protests at a Trump rally in Chicago turned violent, the event had already been canceled, but it is raising questions about whether Trump could continue to face problems with violence on the campaign trail in the future.

Earlier, Donald Trump spoke to our Don Lemon about how it was the protesters and not him were the ones causing the problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: In the past, let me tell you some of your own words you have said at your rallies. That people should knock the crap out of a protester. That you pay the legal fees, you talked about people being brought out on stretchers. Also, you said that you would like to punch a protester in the face.

You've insulted all -- you've insulted all kinds of people, according to what people believe by saying that Mexico is sending over rapists. That Muslims shouldn't be allowed in this country. This should be a moratorium for a while.

Do you regret saying any of those things -- especially the things that you have said about punching protesters, sending them out on stretchers?

TRUMP: No. I don't regret it at all some of these protesters were violent, there were swinging, there were hitting people and they were really doing damage. And frankly the crowd turns on them or the police said turned on them in most cases it was the police.

[21:10:04] And I would absolutely on occasion usually I said, "Please don't hurt them, please take it easy", because, you know, elevated and being, you know, looking down at audience usually I'm higher than the audience so they can see. What happens is I'm able to see the protesters, I'm able to see what's going on.

And, you know, generally speaking, it's very mild. But on occasion, and the occasions that you said I still up very, very strong, very violent protesters hitting people. And yes, I'm not happy about that and I would always express my feelings about that and --

LEMON: Our reporters who follow you, Mr. Trump, and who have been very fair with you have said that they have not seen protesters attacking anyone. If anything it is the other way around that protesters are being attacked after they start to protest or to anyway disagree with you. But they're not -- protesters are not the ones who resort to violence first. It is supporters who are doing it.

TRUMP: It's totally -- you know it is not true when you say that statement Don. You know it's not true. It's absolutely false.

LEMON: I don't know it's not true. That's why I'm asking.

TRUMP: They'll stand up and they'll start swinging at people and matter all said, the first I seldom -- I mean, 10 percent of the cases. But we have some very rough dudes as protesters. We had one that his voice was like Pavarotti, Luciano Pavarotti I think was a tough guy and he was swinging and hitting people and then people turned on him and started swinging at him.

And ultimately they were successful and we got that publicity forward. It wasn't their fault. I mean this guy was a pretty tough cookie and a very loud guy. I don't mind the loud. But he was very violent.

And the next day he was like he was an innocent little lamb and I saw what happened he was very violent. So we don't go in there in person, they start and usually it's not us anyway, the usually it's the police.

Now at the same time, all of the Trump supporters have been really treated unfairly. Because the First Amendment says we have a right to speak. I mean we have a friendly rally. We have a right to speak and we were stopped from having that right of freedom of speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:35:03] KINKADE: And those events come at a poor time for Donald Trump with some major contests coming up this Tuesday.

Donald Trump's critics say he is inspiring violence by using divisive rhetoric, but his supporters claim it's the protesters who are responsible for the problems, and not Trump's fans.

Neil Bush, whose brother Jeb ran against Trump for the nomination, says Trump is the wrong person to run the party and the nation. Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany insists that Trump handled the situation in Chicago admirably.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL BUSH, TED CRUZ SUPPORTER: Donald Trump has used tactics that have raised an army of very ardent fans, for sure, but he's also locked in a lot of people that just don't like him. And I am not saying the people protesting there in Chicago are Republican voters by any means, but there is a growing coalition of antiestablishment Tea Party, Ted Cruz-type people and establishment folks that are rallying behind the candidacy of Ted Cruz to unify our party before the national convention so that we can have a positive message.

We don't need Donald Trump to be the head of the ticket, you know, for this great country of ours to be represented by a man with such a giant ego and with so few solutions to the problems would be tragic. And it's not in the nature of a Reagan or a Jack Kemp, or you know, a George Bush Sr. or a George W. Bush, to have someone who's got this kind of behavioral challenge.

So, I think it's tragic. I think he brought it on, you know, because of his tactics that he's used to show that he's the tough guy that's going to be able to, you know, to keep us safe from these threats. We are still the greatest country on the face of the earth, and he's not the right guy to lead us forward, period.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Tonight, he did exactly what he should have done. He shut down the rally. He didn't want violence. He said so repeatedly in your interview with him. In the statement he released, at the very end of it, he said, "Please go in peace."

He did the right thing this evening. And instead of the story being 10,000 protesters showed up, disrupted the First Amendment rights of Donald Trump and Trump's supporters -- and on the screen right now, you're not seeing people in Donald Trump shirts causing the ruckus, you are seeing the protesters.

LEMON: Who is criticizing him? I haven't heard anybody criticize Donald Trump tonight.

MCENANY: Many pundits on this network have criticized Trump and one of them said he wanted the violence that happened this evening. That's just not true. And I can tell you this, if 10,000 Tea Party activists had showed up at a Bernie Sanders rally and acted this way, those same pundits would be criticizing the Tea Party and would be calling on anyone who called out Bernie Sanders for being responsible for that. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: It's not clear whether that Chicago rally will be rescheduled for a different time.

Hillary Clinton is weighing in on Friday night's violence. The Democratic front-runner released a statement saying, "The divisive rhetoric we're seeing should be of grave concern to all of us. We all have our differences and we know many people across the country feel angry. We need to address that anger together."

A different view of Washington now behind the scenes in a moment of crisis. Five years after the start of Syria's civil war, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg has revealed an astonishing glimpse inside the Obama administration as it grappled with its response.

One issue, whether the president would treat the regime's use of chemical weapons as a red line, which could invite an American attack. For a time, it seemed he would. Then ultimately, he didn't.

Goldberg writes in "The Atlantic" magazine that critics of Obama's lack of credibility were missing the point. Here's how he explained it to my colleague, Jonathan Mann.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, CORRESPONDENT, THE ATLANTIC: He argues that credibility is a very amorphous idea, it's very hard to put your finger on, we still have credibility. People know that when he says something, he'll do it and that the world should understand American power.

Now, a lot of people say, well, when you threaten to use force and you're the superpower, you have to follow through or else people are not going to be scared of you and they hold up Putin, Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, as a sort of obvious example of that. And I don't think we're ever going to -- we're not going to resolve this problem, but it is a problem that sort of hovers over the Obama administration legacy on foreign policy.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Now, it's intriguing, because he had some very respectful things to say about Vladimir Putin, nicer than we would have expected. But while you were talking, we were looking at pictures of the president with Secretary of State John Kerry, and their relationship is something less than we would have expected. Tell us about that.

GOLDBERG: Well, maybe less and more. I mean, I think Obama is very pleased with John Kerry's performance. He's sort of the senior action officer for the administration. And you know, when Obama says, "Charge the hill", Kerry has no compunction about carrying out that command.

[04:40:08] And, you know, the Iran deal, climate change, I mean, he's done a lot of things. On the other hand, he definitely has more of a bias toward action, certainly in the Syria conflict, than the president, and he's advocated for things that the president doesn't like and doesn't want to do.

And so, there is a kind of -- I think of it as a healthy tension. Kerry brings ideas and pressure tests them with the president. The president says yes or no. But they definitely come at these problems from different perspectives, it's true.

MANN: Going back a long way, many of America's presidents have been known for their guiding principles on foreign policy.

GOLDBERG: Sure.

MANN: The Monroe doctrine, the Reagan doctrine, the Bush doctrine. Your article is called "The Obama doctrine."

What is his guiding vision, his guiding principle when it comes to America's place in the world?

GOLDBERG: Right. Well, I'll tell you, there is a new understanding, this as a journalist as well, that one of the problems about writing about the Obama administration is that, especially in foreign policy, there's nothing that fits on a bumper sticker, you know? It's not entirely clear and some of it's contradictory.

But I would say, to the extent that there is a doctrine, it's question, question, question the use of military force, particularly in the wars of the Middle East, which he believes America can't win. And so, the goal is to pay as much attention to the rest of the world as possible, Asia in particular, and to mitigate your exposure, mitigate American exposure in the Middle East, which he thinks is not as important as previous presidents have thought, and also not something that within the term of his presidency he's going to be able to fix in any case. So, it's about caution, particularly in the world's most volatile region.

MANN: The article is "The Obama Doctrine," in the latest issue of "The Atlantic." Jeffrey Goldberg, thanks so much for talking with us.

GOLDBERG: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: And we have this programming note for you. Next week, CNN's Clarissa Ward is taking you into a harrowing journey deep into the heart of a country scarred by five years of that war and isolation. You'll get an inside look inside Syria behind rebel lines and meet the people who call what's left of the embattled country home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We had to travel under cover to see a war few outsiders have witnessed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The Russian planes target anything that works in the interest of the people. The goal is that people here live a destroyed life. The people never see any good. WARD (on camera): There are snipers all around here, but this is the

only road now to get into Aleppo.

(voice-over): Aleppo was once Syria's largest city, now an apocalyptic landscape. Any civilian infrastructure is a potential target, including hospitals.

(on camera): Is it possible that they did not know that this was a hospital?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Everyone knows this is a hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KINKADE: It's all part of our exclusive special coverage "Inside Syria: Behind Rebel Lines," and it's only on CNN.

Still to come, Germany's far right is on the rise, fueled by frustration over the migrant crisis. Coming up, we'll hear from the leader of the anti-immigrant party ahead of this Sunday's elections.

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[04:46:46] KINKADE: Welcome back.

Elections on Sunday in three of Germany's 16 federal states seems a test of support for Angela Merkel. The German chancellor is expected to rally one final time before the ballots. The migrant crisis is expected to dominate voters' decisions, and even some members of Merkel's own party are at odds with her and her decision to admit more than 1 million migrants into the country.

Germany's anti-refugee party, known as the AFD, is expected to do well in the elections. Senior international correspondent Atika Shubert asked the party's leader what the right-wing group represents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As campaign ads go, it's a soft sell. "Hazy images of idyllic German life for our country, for our security."

No mention of specific issues or policies. The AFD, or Alternative for Germany, is selling an idea, the only political party, it says, willing to stand up and defend German identity and values, especially on the refugee crisis.

FRAUKE PETRY, AFD LEADER: We have the label of being Nazi, of being brown, which is something very, very bad in Germany, something which frightens most people and society, and we say, hey, whatever the label is, let's discuss content.

SHUBERT: AFD leader Frauke Petry is a chemist-turned-politician, the new face of Germany's conservative movement. She talked to CNN on the campaign trail as extra security patrolled

the grounds of the local sports center where she was speaking. Petry has received threats and protests follow her campaign, but her party stands to make big gains on a policy that advocates stopping migration altogether, at least for now.

PETRY: We need to define who is allowed to stay, who's going to go back, and then we need to talk about, after that, about migration laws. And at the moment, we have the problem that we don't take these two problems apart, and that's the Merkel government afraid of sending a nuclear signal.

SHUBERT: Germany is under pressure. Last year, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed to the country to take in more than a million asylum-seekers, initially basking in (INAUDIBLE), or welcoming refugees, but then came New Year's Eve in cologne and refugees were blamed on sexual assaults on women and then the backlash, arson attacks on refugee shelters.

In one case, an angry mob blocked a bus full of refugees from moving to town.

Recent polls show that a whopping 80 percent of Germans no longer support Merkel's refugee policy, but many do not want to be lumped in with far-right anti-Islamic groups, either -- as audience members made clear to Petry during the rally we attended.

The AFD fills that gap, but Petry still struggles to define where the party stands. A local paper quoted her as saying police should use firearms, if necessary, to stop people from crossing the border illegally. That sparked magazine covers accusing her of inciting violence.

(on camera): I mean, the headline here, "The Hate Preacher," what do you make of it?

PETRY: Yes, it hurts. It hurts because what I really want to say doesn't get through anymore.

[04:50:02] We need to be very strong about that and punish everyone who's sort of involved in violence.

SHUBERT: But precisely by providing a conservative alternative to the powerful central bloc of Chancellor Angela Merkel, Frauke Petry believes the AFD is here to stay.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Donald Trump says that people love pledging to vote for him. But coming up, we'll introduce you to a furry friend who needs some convincing.

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KINKADE: Welcome back.

In the U.S. presidential race, Republican front-runner Donald Trump has shown he has many habits. He tends to insult and attack rivals. And he also likes to ask his supporters to pledge to vote for him.

But as our Jeanne Moos reports, there are some who need a little bit more encouragement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I think --

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Repeat after him. I pledge allegiance to the Donald.

TRUMP: Should we do the pledge?

Let's do a pledge. Raise your right hand.

[04:55:00] I swear I'm going to vote for Donald Trump next week.

Raise that hand. I love you.

MOOS: But not everyone loves the pledge. All of those upraised hands remind some of a Nazi salute which Trump called ridiculous, though he promised to look into it because he didn't want to offend anybody.

TRUMP: But when I say raise your hand, everybody raises their hand. They're screaming to me to do it. We want to do it.

MOOS: But they didn't all want to do it.

TRUMP: I do solemnly swear.

AUDIENCE: I do solemnly swear.

MOOS: Look at the furry four-legged audience member who seemed to be an unwilling pledge participant.

TRUMP: Will vote for Donald J. Trump.

MOOS: Video of the doggy pledge resistor went viral --

TRUMP: I do solemnly swear.

MOOS: -- inspiring Tweets like "Friends don't let man's best friend vote Trump."

So, Donald also has his canine supporters and the dog reluctant to raise his right paw went nowhere near as viral as Hillary's famous bark.

(BARKING)

MOOS: The Donald, himself, seems to have a thing for dogs, at least when it comes to delivering insults. TRUMP: He was choking like a dog. He couldn't be elected dog catcher. I'm watching Marco sweating like a dog on my right.

MOOS: Trump seems to have a way with pups. Remember the time he yelled at a reporter?

TRUMP: Sit down, sit down, sit down.

MOOS: Jimmy Kimmel tested the command on actual dogs --

TRUMP: Sit down. Sit down. Sit down.

MOOS: Three out of four sat. Sit down and pledge.

TRUMP: I do solemnly swear --

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --

TRUMP: Raise your right hand.

MOOS: -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KINKADE: Well, thanks very much for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Stay tuned to CNN. I'll be back after the break with another hour of news from right around the world.

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