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Police Fire Pepper Spray Outside Trump Rally; Women Secretly Record Reality of Life in Syria; Voters in Germany Get Ready to Head to the Polls as Anti-Immigration Party Looks to Steal Support from Chancellor Angela Merkel. Aired 3-3:30a ET
Aired March 13, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[03:00:24] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: It come to this, police fire pepper spray outside a rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as more people protest the Republican front-runner.
A rare look inside this self-declared ISIS capital. Women secretly record the grim realities of life in Raqqa, Syria.
And polls open in three German States how Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping fend off a surging anti-immigration party.
It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.
The U.S. presidential race is looking more and more like a wrestling match.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do it myself, I know such ...
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ALLEN: In Ohio, secret service agents blocked the protester from rushing the stage while Donald Trump spoke. The demonstrator later released a statement calling for protesters to non-violently shutdown every rally held by the Republican candidate.
Jim Acosta has the latest on the increasingly violent tone at Trump's campaign event.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Another Donald Trump rally interrupted by protesters this time in Kansas City. There were roughly 30 to 40 demonstrators who were led out of this theatre during the course of this re-marching (ph) Donald Trump.
But, unlike the situation in Chicago which is exploded into a violent melee, this was a largely peaceful outbreak of demonstrations. But, Donald Trump was showing frustration with these protesters throughout the night. At one point, he said, he's going to start pressing charges against these protesters to make them stop. Here's what he had to say.
TRUMP: I hope these guys get thrown into a jail. They'll never do it again. It will destroy their record. They'll have to explain to mom and dad why they have a police record and why they can't get a job. And you know what? I'm going to start pressing charges against all these people, OK.
And then we won't have a problem. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to ruin somebody's life. They're probably good kids, you know, they're probably good kids. I don't want to ruin people's lives. But, the only way we're going to stop this craziness is if we press charges.
ACOSTA: Outside this rally, Kansas City police arrested a number of demonstrators even using pepper spray on some of them. Meanwhile, during his remarks, Trump defended his decision to cancel his rally in Chicago saying, it was the right decision to make. He also praised secret service agents for protecting him from a protester earlier in the day who had jumped a barricade.
Jim Acosta, CNN Kansas City.
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ALLEN: Trump is doubling down on his response to Friday's events in Chicago after saying he was not responsible for the violence. He is now placing that burden on another candidate. Trump accused Democrat Bernie Sanders of instigating the problems, and Sanders fired right back.
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TRUMP: The people that were there, that came there, that were invited there, thousands and thousands of people, they caused no problem. They were taunted. They were harassed by these other people. These other people, by the way, some represented Bernie, our communist friend.
With Bernie, so he should really get up and say to his people, "Stop, stop. Not me, stop." They said, Mr. Trump should get up, and this morning, tell his people to be nice. My people are nice, folks.
BERNIE SANDERS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don't think our supporters are inciting. What our supporters are doing is responding to a candidate who has, in fact, in many ways encouraged a violence.
When he talks about, you know, on things like, you know, I wish we were in the old days when you could punch somebody in the head. What do you think that says to his supporters? And what happened the other day when some young man was being escorted out and he would suck a punched to him, and we have seen other incidents. So, the issue now is that Donald Trump has got to be loud and clear and tell his supporters that violence at rallies is not what America is about and to end it.
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ALLEN: So, what about the violence and protests at Trump's rallies? Many pundits, Republican and Democrat, blame Trump.
CNN's Poppy Harlow spoke with Conservative Radio Host Ben Ferguson and former Reagan Staffer, Jeffrey Lord about the angry tone of Trump's campaign.
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BEN FURGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He loves the back and forth. He loves the trash talking.
[03:05:01] He loves talking about people leaving on stretchers and punching people in the face, "And hey, if you hit him, I'll pay for your legal defense team." He even said that from the podium one day.
So, these protesters, and a lot of them are coming out and they're acting, you know, in a thuggish way. I think that's very clear from what we saw last night. They are there to get into a fight.
But let's be clear, there are also Donald Trump supporters including that older man who sucker punched individual that are showing up and excited to be in the middle of this. They want to get into a fight. You could see that last night.
And Donald Trump has reacted this rhetoric up to a point where it's now boiling over. And as a leader, when you're the president of the United States of America or trying to become the president, you cannot be a part of this and be taken seriously.
This is where I look at Donald Trump and I say, "What are we doing?" Why is this individual this close to the White House when he has been advocating for violence and now somehow claims that he is not responsible for this?
JEFFREY LORD, FORMER REAGAN WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL DIRECTOR: When we talk about the subject, we have got to hold the people who do these acts responsible. And as I said earlier in the day, Poppy, you know, this is what goes on with the American life.
Hubert Humphrey, for heaven sakes, was pushing the politics with joy, and they did exactly the same thing to him, exactly the same thing.
I went to his rallies like this, caused all kinds of havoc, that tossed out by the secret service. I mean, if there was anyone least deserving of that kind of treatment, it would have been Hubert Humphrey who was wonderfully tricky (ph) old man.
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ALLEN: Trump continues to push back that he is inciting some of these outburst that we're seeing at his events.
CNN did compile a timeline just show how Trump's rhetoric has simmered, leading to Friday's boiling point in Chicago.
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TRUMP: I was nice. Oh, take your time. The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I'll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I'll say, get the hell out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rough up, he should have been -- maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting, what he was doing.
TRUMP: If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them. Would you? Seriously. Just knock the hell. I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise.
Do you know what they used to do the guys like that when they were in a place like this, they would be carried out on a stretcher folks. "The guards are very gentle with him. He is walking out, like, big high-gives, smiling, laughing. I like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.
In the good old days, they would rip him out of that seat so fast. Yeah, get him out. Try not to hurt him. If you do, I'll defend you in court, don't worry about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have been a lie.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that you have done anything to create a tone where this kind of violence would be encouraged?
TRUMP: I hope not. I truly hope not.
We have to be politically correct, oh, please don't hurt him. They're allowed to get up and interrupt us horribly, and we have to be very, very gentle, very gentle They can swing, they can hit people, but if we hit them back, it's a terrible, terrible thing, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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. Yeah, I'm not happy about that and I would always express my feelings about that.
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ALLEN: In the meantime, there were two Republican caucuses this Saturday. Texas Senator Ted Cruz won the most delegates in Wyoming with nine, front-runner Donald Trump gained one, so did Marco Rubio. The Florida senator did better in the capital district of Washington. Rubio won the convention there and gained 10 delegates. Trump is still leading with the total of 462 plus delegates. Cruz with 371, Rubio trails with 165. 1,237 delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination.
Well, join us later for the CNN TV One Democratic Presidential Town Hall ahead of Tuesday's critical primaries, Ohio voters will put questions to both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. That's Monday at 8:00 a.m. in Hong Kong, midnight for you night owls in London here on CNN.
Well, in Germany, polls are now open for regional elections in three states there. Chancellor Angela Merkel facing her first electoral test and she accepted more than a million asylum seekers. The anti- immigration party alternative for Germany has been gaining support, and Merkel is trying to win support for a migrant proposal from the European Union under the deal.
[03:10:11] The member states would accept the Syrian refugee for every economic migrant returned to Turkey.
It's been five years since Civil War erupted in Syria, leading to the migrant crisis (sustained). Ahead, we'll explore some of the unexpected effects of the war and the latest efforts to end it.
Also, the U.N. says, state-sponsored violence against civilians is rampant in South Sudan. A nation not even five years old, we'll have details on the allegations, coming up.
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ALLEN: We turn now to the war in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to meet with some of his international counterparts in Paris. In the coming hours, the discussion comes ahead of crucial Syrian peace talks expected to open in Geneva on Monday.
Those talks are planned amid a fragile cease fire which Kerry says has reduced Syria Civil War violence though up to 90 percent. The devastating war in Syria is approaching the five-year mark ahead of that grim anniversary.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh explores five unexpected effects of Syria's years of conflict.
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NINK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For five years, the west has fought to stay out of another Middle East quagmire. And so, on five occasions, the things it never imagined could happen, did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Foreign Language]
WALSH: It took thousands to die from bombing before the first White House red line was even crossed. And vast was the use of chemical weapons, siren in Damascus suburbs. Unimaginable, so many but really happening in 2013, that there was something you could feel on YouTube.
Syria gave up its chemical weapons, but so too, did many on the bomber's red line.
Many months later, radicals pour into Syria here. At Hat Yai airport, we watch dozens of foreigners from Libya, Mauritania, Egypt insist they were charity workers. Turkey let many like them cross into Syria and ISIS took root right on Europe and NATO's doorstep.
It is in the nature of wars to spread chaos, and just across the border in Iraq, another never again. The Yazidi's sect to its obscurity didn't shield them from ISIS were brutalized.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Foreign Language)
WLASH: Women used as sex slaves, children as soldiers, men just murdered. It is still unclear how many died. The U.S. officials think its maybe genocide.
[03:15:11] It took four years of desperation spark the largest refugee crisis since World War II, but even the rise or fall of the Soviet Union, did this.
Unable to see and end to the war or a future in the Middle East, they left, for Germany, Greece, or anywhere in between or beyond, risking life, bringing out the worst and best of those local (ph).
One small fact also exposes how the war has hamstrung our humanity. We don't know how many people have died in it. Not since January 2014 when the U.N. last counted 100,000. They, since, been unable to verify enough information.
Even in this, the most filmed and social media posted war yet, the after chaos stops one basic dignity. Some say, 470,000 have died. Five years in, still impossible to know where the number will stop at.
Nick Payton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.
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ALLEN: Well, the brutal violence in Syria has kept journalists from entering some parts of the country, making it difficult to get glimpses of what's happening. We hear the stories, but we don't see it.
But, recently, two women wore hidden cameras for a Swedish newspaper, expressing to show the world what life is like in Raqqa, the self- proclaimed ISIS capital.
It's just a snapshot, but it is horrific. These women put themselves at grave risk and we warn you, this video is (graphic).
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIS practiced the most brutal form of Sharia. They crucify people, take their enemies, women as sex slaves. Punish men and women by flogging them on the streets and in public squares, and have beheads their prisoners.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Once they threw a young man off a tower black into the street below. They claimed he was gay.
At first, they sent him on a 15 day Sharia course. He learnt to memorize sections of the Quran.
Afterwards, they told people he is gay and that he would get punishment.
They took them up to the roof. Even as people gathered there, they asked people not to call out "Allahu Akbar" and not to take photographs, as he was a Muslim.
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ALLEN: Absolutely sickening.
CNN's Clarissa Ward has also been inside Syria, and in the week ahead, she will take you down the only rebel road leading into Aleppo surrounded by snipers, a lifeline to the people who still call that embattled city, home.
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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As you arrive in the city, the scale of the destruction is breathtaking, stretching on and on.
Entire residential neighborhoods reduced to rubble. Still, we found pockets of life among the devastation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Should we leave our country and go to another country? No, this is our country. And we will remain in this until we die.
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ALLEN: Clarissa's report is all part of exclusive coverage here. It's called "Inside Syria, Behind Rebel Lines," see it only on CNN.
A damning report from the United Nations is painting a horrific picture in South Sudan. It claims, the nation troops rape women and girls and burn and suffocate civilians. But the military said it's trying to protect the country's people.
Here is CNN's Robyn Kriel from Nairobi.
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ROBIN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's an all-too common scene in South Sudan, villages destroyed here, bodies leistering the streets. Thousands have been left homeless trying to flee the violence. Now, the United Nations accuses South Sudan's government of operating what it calls, "A scorched earth policy," against its own people.
DAVID MARSHALL, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS MISSION ON SOUTH SUDAN: Which is killing of civilians, displacement, pillaging, abductions, rape and general - generally it's terrorizing the civilian population.
KRIEL: Among the more horrendous abuses detailed in the new report, the U.N. says, South Sudan lets fighters rape women as payments.
In another case, amnesty international says, scattered human remains in this field are all that's left after government forces let more than 60 men and boys suffocate in a shipping container.
[03:20:12] According to the reports, they were suspected of supporting the opposition.
South Sudan's government denies those accusations. A spokesman also says, "The U.N. report is not genuine and that the military's mission is to protect the people, vowing any perpetrations of human rights violations will be brought to justice."
But the country has been racked by years of violence. After gaining its independence in 2011, Civil War erupted two years later, splitting the already poverty-stricken country along ethnic lines.
And while the U.N. says there have been war crimes committed by both sides of the bloody conflicts, they add this.
MARSHALL: The violations in 2015 are predominantly the responsibility of the government.
KRIEL: The U.N. says, some 50,000 people have died since the fighting broke out, but multiple aid workers tell AFP, they believe the number to be as high as 300,00 killed.
Whatever the number, the U.N. called South Sudan, one of the most horrendous human right situations in the world.
Robin Kriel, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.
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ALLEN: See the look on people's faces to see what their life is like there.
In the next hour, we will hear more about the report allegations from an amnesty international crisis adviser. So, stay with us for that.
We'll be right back.
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ALLEN: Derek Van Dam is with us now because it's the height of the tropical cycle season in the Southern Hemisphere. But it's been eerily quiet lately ...
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: I know.
ALLEN: ... ever since we saw that one recently in Fiji.
VAN DAM: It's correct. Yeah, that was tropical cyclone Winston. That was in mid-February. That was a scary, scary storm.
ALLEN: Right. VAN DAM: I remember being on air when that made landfall overnight, Eastern Standard Time, but now, it's just been almost, well let's call it a drought in cyclone activity for this part of the world which is strange, because this is when we should see one storm line up after another.
Let's find out what is going on here. Natalie, bring the viewers near of south towards this NanaWall. And you can see, we've had what is called the accumulated cyclone energy, and that is typically peaking around this time of year in the Southern Hemisphere, specifically over the extreme Western Pacific, just off the coast of Australia. But, there's just no storm.
Again, our last storm was tropical cyclone Winston across the Fiji Islands. Now, we can blame at least partially the El Nino or the effects of El Nino. Remember, that's the cooling of the warm waters across the Eastern Pacific that at least kind of a deficit in the temperatures over the Western Pacific.
So, we typically see over Australia, a fewer tropical cyclones, more intense droughts and also more intense heat waves, which have been prevalent across the mainland of Australia this season.
[03:25:10] Now, one part of the world that certainly hasn't had a droughts or any kind of lack of weather has been the deep south of the United States. Look at what they are contending with in Louisiana, extreme rainfall amounts from Texas to Arkansas, Mississippi, Western Tennessee and specifically Louisiana.
We've highlighted some of the most rainfall accumulation we saw with this particular storm that by the way was basically from the start of the work week through about 24 hours ago, it started to come to an end now in terms of the heavy rain. But, that doesn't mean the flood threat is over. We have plenty of days ahead of us where that water will recede, and a clean up after it will commence.
531 millimeters of rain in Monroe, Louisiana, that is not a typo. That is why the National Weather Service has a flood warning in effect anywhere you see that darker shading of green.
Now, you can see the storm is just kind of exit in the region. We're bringing the rainfall and the bulk of the moisture towards the Ohio River Valley. That's an area that will experience maybe 50 to 75 millimeters of rainfall at best going forward.
But again, the bulk of the heavy rainfall moving out of that flood- prone area, but the Mississippi River and the down streams across that region will still have the potential for flooding going forward.
Here comes the drier air settling in, and then we focus our attention now on the Western U.S., where they will have their fair share of rainfall.
I'll leave you with this. Take a look at the some of the footage coming out of Louisiana. And this is what is called that citizen rescue, so people helping people in this flood-prone area. A critic crisis, Governor Andrews looking -- or Edwards rather, looking at the damage and assessing his particular state. 64 parishes in total declared states of emergency in Louisiana.
ALLEN: You know, with our election season, you know, it takes sometimes a tragedy to bring people together. It's nice to see the people and, of course, as always helping the people that really need it.
VAN DAM: I agree.
ALLEN: All right, Derek, thanks.
Well, check this out. The police officer in Australia has an unlikely pet. I've seen this. This is Constable Scott Mason and his tiny baby kangaroo keep in his shirt like a pouch.
The police station asked people to help give the little animal a name and they ultimately decided on "Cuejo". They cannot (really) a "Cuejo". The kangaroo was just 4 months old and was rescued in Western Australia. The police officer thanked the supporters with the help that and said he was looking forward to taking care of his new baby kangaroo.
The video has charmed the users online. It's been viewed more than 1 million times on the station's Facebook page. And one of those million was by me.
VAN DAM: Yeah, that baby kangaroo probably thinking he has a new mother figure.
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ALLEN: Climbed into his t-shirt. Good luck, "Cuejo". Thanks for watching. "Erin Burnett OutFront" is next.
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