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More Trouble for Trump; Inside Raqqa; Germanwings Crash Report. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired March 13, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:11] LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: More protests at Donald Trump rallies. The details on this attempt to get the Republican presidential front-runner in Ohio.
Plus, why Bernie Sanders says his supporters are not to blame.
Also ahead, a rare look at life inside the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS, Raqqa, Syria. Two women risk death to uncover the harrowing reality of the militant rule.
And almost a year after the Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed into this mountainside, report on how the disaster was allowed to happen is due in the coming hours.
Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and right across the world. I'm Lynda Kinkade, and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
(MUSIC)
KINKADE: Red, angry faces and blue, rude language. The race for the White House is getting even more colorful. Police in Chicago now say they've charged four people from the clashes Friday between Donald Trump and supporters and protesters. Concerns about violence led to the Republican front-runner to cancel the rally there.
This was the scene outside a Trump rally in Kansas City, Missouri, on Saturday. Police used pepper spray on these protesters. Inside, demonstrators unfurled flags while Trump supporters screamed and jeered, and the candidate demanded their arrests.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope they arrest these people because they're really violating all of us. I'm going to ask that you arrest them. I'll file whatever charges you want. Who the hell knows?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Earlier on Saturday, Secret Service agents stopped a man from rushing Donald Trump while he spoke in Ohio.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS) KINKADE: The 22-year-old protester later called on people to nonviolently shut down every Trump event. From Ohio to Chicago, the anger surrounding Trump appears to be growing.
As Jeff Zeleny reports, it's reverberating across the political spectrum.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Protest here in Chicago are front and center on the Democratic side of the campaign trail today, as well. Bernie Sanders was campaigning here in Chicago and later in Champaign, Illinois. Hillary Clinton was in Missouri.
She took a forceful tone against what happened in Chicago against Donald Trump's rhetoric.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you play with matches, you can start a fire you can't control. That is not leadership, it is political arson.
ZELENY: Now, political arson, those are her words here, but it could be a preview of what's to come for the general election if Donald Trump should become the Republican nominee and if she becomes the Democratic nominee.
This could be the framework of their argument going forward. But Donald Trump accused Bernie Sanders supporters of sort of instigating the protest in Chicago. Now, I was at the rally outside and saw several people holding "Bernie Sanders" signs.
But Bernie Sanders issued a statement late today saying his campaign in no way organized this at all. He said some of his supporters were simply standing up to the divisive rhetoric from the Trump campaign that they didn't like.
But Bernie Sanders says he is not responsible for organizing these counter-protests. But, certainly, another day of Donald Trump dominating the conversation on both sides of the aisle. The Democratic candidate speaking pretty harshly against him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: So, who is responsible for the violence and protests at Trump rallies? Many pundits, Republican and Democrat, are blaming Trump himself.
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.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He loves the back and forth . He loves the thrash talking. 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 are coming out and 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 suckerpunched the individual, that are showing up and excited to be in the middle of this, they want to get into a fight. You can see that last night.
And Donald Trump has ratcheted the rhetoric up to a point where it's boiling over. And as a leader, when you're the president of the United States or trying to become the president, you can't be a part of this and be taken seriously. This is where I look at Donald Trump and say, what are we doing? Why is this individual this close to the White House when he's been advocating for violence and now somehow claims that he's not responsible for this?
[05:05:05] JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: 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 --
FERGUSON: Totally agree.
LORD: This is what goes on with the American life. Hubert Humphrey, for heaven's sakes, was pushing the politics of joy. They did exactly the same to him. Exactly the same thing. Went to his rallies like this, caused all kinds of havoc. Got 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, a wonderfully genial man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: That was former Reagan staffer Jeffrey Lord and conservative radio host Ben Ferguson speaking with our Poppy Harlow.
And be sure to keep it here. Coming up later in the hour, we'll have an overview of Trump's most controversial comments on the campaign trail and his history of kicking protesters out of his events.
The Democratic race is hitting the Midwest in full force. Bernie Sanders was in Illinois on Saturday underling the importance of voter turnout if he wants to pull off the revolution that he's advocating for.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we have found throughout this campaign is we win and we win big when there are large voter turnouts.
(CHEERS)
And that means on Tuesday, let's see here in Illinois the largest voter turnout in the state's history. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton was in Ohio speaking on the issues facing African-Americans and why she's the right candidate to move those issues forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Any view of black America that focuses exclusively on poverty and crime is missing most of the picture. Let us celebrate the success stories, the rise of so many people, the vibrancy of the church, the contributions in all walks of life, business, law, politics, science, the arts, sports, the professions. We need to lift up all that has been done so we can shine an even brighter light on what we must do together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: And join us later for the CNN-TV One Democratic presidential town hall ahead of Tuesday's critical primaries. Ohio will put questions -- 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, right here on CNN.
We're taking a look at Saturday's Republican vote. Texas 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 Washington, D.C. He won the convention there and gained ten delegates.
Trump is still leading the pack with a total of 462 pledged delegates, Cruz has 371, and Rubio trails with 165.
Most Americans say they're fed up with Washington and want Democrats and Republicans to start getting along and getting things done. But at the same time, the level of vitriol seems to keep rising in politics.
Our Jonathan Mann, host of "POLITICAL MANN", looked into the reasons for the growing chasm between the parties.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: We're going to make our country great again.
(CHEERS)
CLINTON: We don't need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great.
(CHEERS)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN HOST, "POLITICAL MANN" : Great, not great, agree to disagree, but America is definitely divided. As the race for the White House has revealed, candidates and voters are split on almost every issue. The partisan gap seemingly wider than any other time in the modern era.
The political split is fueled by a demographic transformation within the country. America is becoming both younger and more diverse, and as Pew Research data shows, the U.S. is on its way to becoming a majority nonwhite nation.
The shift has led to a huge generation gap at the polls. In elections since 2000, that age gap has grown wider. The ideological divide also growing.
Here's a chart from Pew Research showing a range of ideology from liberal on the left to conservative on the right. Democrats in blue, of course, tend to be the liberals. Republicans in red tend to be the conservatives.
But in the middle, a big mound of moderates from each party. Two decades ago, median Democrats and Republicans were not so far apart. There could be a meeting of the mind.
But watch what happens when you fast forward 20 years. The moderate middle collapses and almost disappears. The extremes have mushroomed.
Can a divided America find common ground? Despite the fact that partnership is thriving, a majority of Americans say they'd like to see Washington rediscover the lost art of political compromise.
Jonathan Mann, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[05:10:02] KINKADE: Now to France where investigators are set to release a final report into the Germanwings plane crash. The Sunday's report comes just two weeks before the first anniversary of the crash. The Airbus A320 was flying from Barcelona to Dusseldorf when it crashed in a remote area of the French Alps, killing all 150 on board.
The flight data recorder revealed that the plane's co-pilot Andreas Lubitz deliberately crashed the plane after locking the pilot out of the cockpit.
For details in what we can expect from the report, let's bring in senior international correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen. He joins us now live from London.
Great to have you with us, Fred.
Now, given what we already know about the co-pilot, that he had been suffering from depression and that had he'd seen dozens of doctors before the crash, what else are we expected to learn about him and his actions?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes, 41 doctors apparently in total in the years leading up to the crash. And the big problem that the authorities have were that these doctors, because of their confidentiality agreements with their patient, were not allowed to tell the authorities about the state of Andreas Lubitz's mind, nor were they allowed to tell the airline about that as well.
But it's two different camps in all of this, when all of this comes out. On one hand, the airline industry is going to look at the report to see how can something like this be prevented in the future? But then, of course, you have the families of the victims. And some of them got a preview of what this report will hold yesterday both in Germany and in Spain.
Of course, most of the victims are from Germany and from Spain, and for the victims, the big question remains, how could something like this happen? How could it be that when Andreas Lubitz went to flight school in the United States that he -- at that time he took time off for serious depression and then he was able to come back and complete his flight training? And also during his time with Lufthansa and Germanwings, why did no one notice he had a serious depression, or did people notice and information was not passed on?
So, there are open questions that especially the victims' families want answers. But, of course, there are also wider implications for the airline industry -- Lynda.
KINKADE: The victims' families have been waiting almost a year for answers. Now we know that Andreas Lubitz locked the pilot out of the cockpit. With that in mind, what sort of recommendations are likely to be made by the French civil aviation investigators?
PLEITGEN: Yes, it's going to focus on that. It's going to focus on the cockpit itself, entry to the cockpit, access to the cockpit. It's also going to focus as well on the psychological state and pressure put on pilots, as well.
What we're expecting is on the one hand for recommendations to be made about who has access to the cockpit, who should be in the cockpit, and in what situation should it be possible to get back into the cockpits in an emergency situation. Of course, we have to keep in mind that the security mechanisms in airliners at this point in time were reformed after 9/11, after the 9/11 hijackers were able to get into the cockpit of airplanes and then steer them into buildings. That's why cockpits are locked.
The question is, how is that going to be reformed? What are the recommendations going to be?
And then, also, we can expect recommendations about keeping track of the mental and physical health of the people who are piloting aircraft and also making it easier for them to tell their employers that they have issues to get treatment, possibly going into other departments in airlines, but also still not completely derailing their careers. It really is a very touchy, a very sensitive topic, both of them, but especially the mental health of pilots is something that the airlines really have a big stake obviously in coming to terms with. But also on the one hand, they want to make it apparent that they have a mental issue, but at the same time, of course, they have to take action to make sure that people are mentally fit when they enter into the cockpit.
KINKADE: Absolutely. A lot of people will be awaiting the findings of these report.
Frederik Pleitgen in London, thank you very much. We will come back to you when that report is handed down in the coming hours.
Our coverage of the Germanwings crash report will continue.
Also ahead, we'll explore how Syria's civil war has spread beyond its borders through five years of fighting.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:56] KINKADE: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with some of his European counterparts in Paris this hour to discuss the Syrian conflict. The meeting comes ahead of Monday's peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition representatives.
The U.N. is backing those talks which Kerry says should go on as planned despite complaints of cease-fire violations. The opposition wants presidential elections and a transitional government which the government has rejected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED ALLOUSH, JAISH AL-ISLAM SPOKESMAN (through translator): We consider that the transitional period starts with the fall of Bashar al Assad or his death. There's no possibility to start this period with the presence of this regime or the head of this regime in power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: The devastating war in Syria is approaching the five-year mark. And ahead of the grim anniversary, CNN's Nick Paton Walsh explores five unexpected effects of Syria's years of conflict.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For five years, the West has fought to stay out of another Middle East quagmire. And so on five occasions, the things have never imagined could happen did.
It took thousands to die from bombing before the first White House red line was even crossed. That was the use of chemical weapons, sarin, in Damascus suburbs.
Unimaginable to so many but really happening in 2013. The terror was something you could feel on YouTube.
Syria gave up its chemical weapons, but so, too, did many on Obama's red line.
Mere smooth months later, radicals pour into Syria. Here at the airport, we watched 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 Yazidis, a sect whose obscurity didn't shelve them from ISIS, were brutalized.
Women used as sex slaves. Children for soldiers, men just murdered. It is unclear how many died. U.S. officials think it may be genocide.
It took four years of desperation to spark the largest refugee crisis since World War II. But even the rise or fall of the Soviet Union did this.
Unable to see an end to the war or a future in the Middle East, they left to Germany, to Greece or anywhere in between or beyond. Risking life, bringing out the worst and best of those welcomed.
[05:20:07] 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've since been unable to verify enough information.
Even in this, the most filmed and social media-posted war yet, the utter chaos stops one basic dignity. Some say 470,000 have died. Five years in, still impossible to know what the number will stop at.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Beirut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: And the brutal violence in Syria has kept journalist from entering parts of the country, making it difficult to get a glimpse of what's really happening.
Recently two women wore hidden cameras for the Swedish newspaper "Expressen," to show the world what life is like inside the self- proclaimed ISIS capital of Raqqa and the oppression of women there. They put themselves at grave risk. And we need to warn you that some of the video is graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: It is late winter, and the shops are open. The city has an air of fear about it. A woman's uncovered face is punishable, even if it's just on the front of a packet of hair dye.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Here you go.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'd like some hair colouring.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Which colour?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Can you even see what colour it is?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, you can see the colour here on the hair.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What's this? Why have you scribbled on it? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Have you covered it up?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yes, we have.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Has this happened to everything?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: She's wearing a niqab.
QUM MOHAMMAD: All women like to show their face.
We've lost that option. We've lost our femininity.
REPORTER: Al Raqqa fell in 2014 towards the end of summer. Since then, the city has been governed by medieval methods.
The worst affected are the women. They're not allowed out on their own. They must be accompanied by another woman or male guardian. They're not allowed to work, g to school, or go to university. They have been stripped of all rights.
In the taxi, an anthem is playing on the radio. It praises the highest leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It would mean big problems if you picked up a woman on her own. The driver is punished with 30 lashes.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thirty lashes?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What do you think?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's if you pick up a woman on her own.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If you would give a lone woman a lift?
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, they would stop the car and punish you with 30 lashes. The woman will be punished as well.
REPORTER: Qum Omran (ph) and Qum Mohammad lived in Raqqa when ISIS stormed the city. Since then, they've lived under the oppression of the terrorist group. They've witnessed murder and torture --
QUM MOHAMMAD: I was shocked. It was the first time ever I saw anything like that. I went over there, being curious is human, really. I tried to watch, I could see there was a man sitting on the ground. It was a young man. He was a soldier.
He sat there and they'd placed knives beside him. The executioners were lined up. They were dressed in black. There were four or five executioners. Each and everyone fired at him with four or five shots. He died, they eventually beheaded him. I tried to look, but I couldn't do it.
REPORTER: Qum Omran and Qum Mohammad have dreamt of fleeing for a long time, but they had to stay to save a pregnant friend from certain death. Extramarital relations are punishable by stoning.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If she kept the child, they would ask her about the child's father. What can she say? Of course they would stone her to death. The other reason is that there aren't any doctors who would dare carry out an abortion. We had to organize tablets for her, to do the abortion at home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: And CNN's Clarissa Ward has also been inside Syria. In the week ahead, she'll take down the only rebel road leading into Aleppo surrounded by snipers -- a lifeline to the people who still call the embattled city home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:25:00] CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As we arrived 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 translator): Should we leave our country and go to another? No. This is our country. We will remain in it until we die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: It's part of our exclusive coverage "Inside Syria: Behind Rebel Lines." And it's only on CNN.
Well, mass rape and civilian murder traumatizing South Sudan. Details on the United Nations investigation into the young nation and what amnesty international is saying.
Also ahead, more on the growing hostility between Trump supporters and protesters across the United States.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
These are the headlines we're following this hour:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris discussing the Syrian conflict with some of his European counterparts. The meeting comes ahead of Monday's peace talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and opposition representatives. Kerry says those talks should go on as planned despite complaints of cease-fire violations.
Six people were killed in a third deadly avalanche to hit the Alps this year. Over a dozen skiers were buried by a torrent of snow and ice near the Austrian border in Italy. About 100 personnel were part of the rescue efforts that managed to save eight people. [05:30:04] German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is crossing her
fingers as voters hit the polls. People in three states will elect their regional parliaments. The vote is seen as a test for Merkel's open migration policies. She has been losing support to the anti- immigration party.
U.S. Secret Service agents stopped a protester from rushing the stage while presidential hopeful Donald Trump was speaking on Saturday. It happened in Ohio. It's the latest in a string of increasingly bold protests against the Republican front-runner.
The bad blood between Trump and his detractors goes both ways. As CNN's Gary Tuchman reports, Trump supporters have been lashing out at protesters with increasing force.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what happened to a man at a Donald Trump rally who let it be known he doesn't want Donald Trump as his president -- a sucker punch to the head by a 78-year-old Trump supporter. The man who was punched ushered out of the arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The man who threw the punch staying in his seat for the rally and saying this --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next time we see him, we might have to kill him.
TUCHMAN: The next day, John McGraw was charged with assault. But the fact this happened at a Trump rally isn't shocking. It certainly could happen again. Many believe Donald Trump himself helps light the fuse.
TRUMP: I would bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of 'em. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists.
TUCHMAN: And there's no indication Trump has any desire to stop talking like that, this saying this today --
TRUMP: We've had some violent people as protesters. You know, they're not just saying oh, these are people that punch, these people that are violent people.
TUCHMAN: But there have been no confirmed reports of anti-Trump demonstrators throwing punches at his rallies. Although in January, someone did hurl tomatoes at Trump in Iowa, narrowly missing him.
This is what Trump said about that --
TRUMP: So if you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. OK? Just knock the hell -- I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise.
TUCHMAN: No indication as of yet that Trump will be helping John McGraw with his legal fees. Trump rallies like most presidential candidate campaign events are
officially private. At this rally Concord, North Carolina, as the crowd eagerly awaited Trump's arrival, a man stood in the back of the room wearing this t-shirt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man doesn't deserve to have the launch code for nuclear weapons. He can't even control his Twitter account.
TUCHMAN: It would have been likely this man would get booted out during the rally, but it didn't happen because he got booted out before the rally.
(CHEERS)
TUCHMAN: Call it a preemptive strike against one of the increasing number of Trump demonstrators.
TRUMP: Yes, get that guy out of here, police. Thank you. Get him out. Come on.
Get him out! Get hi out of here! Out!
Bye. Go home to mommy! Go home to mommy!
Out! Out, out, out, out.
TUCHMAN (on camera): What do you think of that, that he want to get people out of here who --
UNIDNENTIFIED FEMALE: I loved his comment on punch. Back in the old days, when you could fight and punch in the nose and carry out on a stretcher. That's fine with me.
TRUMP: Bye-bye. Good job, fella.
Like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Other presidential candidates have people ushered out of their rallies, too. But the Trump campaign takes it to a whole new level.
The real estate mogul who says he will be a unifier as president seems to revel at egging on supporters.
TRUMP: Go home and get a job. Go home, get a job. Get a job!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald is a leader. He can do what he wants.
TRUMP (on camera): There are many who find it unlikely that Donald Trump will ever be a unifier. In a sense, he has already proven he is.
At this rally and many others, he has unified the majority of people who love him against the minority of people who most avidly don't.
(voice-over): At this rally, we saw at least nine groups of people kicked out during Trump's 40-minute speech, an average of one every 4.5 minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you're going to vote, demonstrate against him, yes, you need to go.
TUCHMAN (on camera): So, you think it's OK for Donald Trump to encourage people --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, he can do what he wants to. He's our future president.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): People at Trump rallies will undoubtedly continue to get kicked out. It remains to be seen if any more get punched out.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE0
KINKADE: The Donald Trump campaign has time and time again dismissed various low points in Trump's career. After all, most of Trump's public image is based on a name brand association with success. It has been instrumental in helping him reach and maintain front-runner status in the Republican race.
But there's one Trump venture that seems particularly dubious. Christine Romans of CNN Money takes a closer look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the stump, Donald Trump spins away every business failure, whether it's using bankruptcy laws for his four troubled casinos --
TRUMP: I have used the laws of this country just like the greatest people that you read about every day in business.
ROMANS: -- to Trump University --
TRUMP: Trump University, we're going to start it up as soon as I win the lawsuit.
ROMANS: -- to Trump Airlines --
TRUMP: I sold the airline and actually made a great deal.
ROMANS: But the one you don't hear much about -- Trump mortgage. It launched in the spring of 2006, the peak of the housing bubble when there were already warning signs the housing market was headed for collapse.
Months earlier, Fed Chief Alan Greenspan hinted at a bubble.
ALAN GREENSPAN, FORMER FED CHIEF: Signs of fraud in some local markets where home prices seem to have risen to unsustainable levels.
ROMANS: Of course, Greenspan didn't see the size and scope of the coming meltdown. Apparently, neither did Donald Trump.
Here's what he told CNBC in 2006 --
TRUMP: I think it's a great time to start a mortgage company.
ROMANS: Trump mortgage connected lenders with borrowers looking for loans. It didn't actually lend money outright to home buyers. It promised to be, quote, "the strongest and safest residential and commercial mortgage company in the industry."
A year later, the bottom fell out of the housing market.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The biggest housing bust in history --
ROMANS: This is your biggest asset, folks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Housing prices falling in most parts of the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The economy could turn south. We would go into recession.
ROMANS: Trump mortgage failed to hit its financial targets. Less than two years after it opened, the company was history.
These days, Trump's campaign downplays this failed business. In an e- mail to CNNMoney, it said, this was, quote, "a tiny deal that Mr. Trump looked at but never ultimately moved forward with because Mr. Trump decided he didn't want to be in this business foreseeing the market crash."
Is that just more spin on a failed business venture? That's for the voters to decide.
Christine Romans, CNN Money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Derek Van Dam has a whole other world for us of weather.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right.
KINKADE: Tell us what's going to be happening, especially California.
(WEATHER REPORT)
[05:40:12] VAN DAM: Lynda, if you get the opportunity, head to Chicago, because this is an annual event and it's unlike anything you've seen before. Four hundred thousand spectators line the banks of the Chicago River.
And what do they do? They put dye in it to celebrate St. Patrick's day which is associated with that coloring of green. A tradition since 1962. So, it's going on over half a century.
They say that they won't give out the secret formula for that dye. But it doesn't pollute the river.
KINKADE: It doesn't pollute the river?
VAN DAM: It doesn't pollute the river, but if they were to give up --
KINKADE: All the animals --
VAN DAM: If they were going to give up that secret formula, it would be equivalent to telling people where the leprechaun hides his gold.
(LAUGHTER)
KINKADE: I love it. It's a great day for the Irish.
VAN DAM: It is, I agree.
KINKADE: Happy St. Patrick's Day.
VAN DAM: Same to you, Lynda.
KINKADE: Thank you.
Still to come, the American comedy "Saturday Night Live" is at it again. You'll see how the show has made Ben Carson's endorsement of his former rival, Donald Trump. Stick around for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back.
A damning report from the United Nations is painting a horrific picture in South Sudan. It says the nation's troops have raped women and girls and have burned and suffocated men and boys. The military calls the report not genuine and says it is trying to protect the country's people.
Robyn Kriel has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBYN KRIEL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's an all-too common scene in South Sudan, villages destroyed here, bodies littering the streets.
[05:45:04] Thousands left homeless trying to flee the violence.
Now, the United Nations accused the 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 generally 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 payment. 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. According to the report, 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 perpetrators 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 conflict, 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. Multiple aid workers tell AFP they believe the number to be as high as 300,000 killed.
Whatever the number, the U.N. calls South Sudan one of the most horrendous human rights situations in the world.
Robyn Kriel, CNN, Nairobi, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Now, a senior crisis adviser with Amnesty International, Lama Fakih, spoke to us earlier. She recently returned from South Sudan's unity state.
This is what she had to say about the United Nations report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAMA FAKIH, SENIOR CRISIS ADVISOR, AMNESTY INTL.: Like the findings in the U.N. report, we did in fact see that even after the signing of the peace agreement in August of last year, that there continued to be systemic attacks against the civilian population -- civilians being killed while they were fleeing, women and girls being subjected to abductions and sexual assault, and attacks on the food supply and other types of civilian property. These attacks have devastated the civilian population.
KINKADE: And as we saw in the report, sexual violence has been used to torture and terrorize many women and girls. The report documented more than 1,300 cases between April and September in unity state alone, and more than 50 cases from September to October. No doubt that's just the tip of what's really going on.
FAKIH: We do, in fact, believe that there are women and girls that continue to be abducted and are still being subjected to this violence today. The types of denials that we saw from the South Sudanese government are shameful in light of the strong, credible evidence of rights abuse that have and continue to be perpetrated in the country.
KINKADE: And looking at children, we know that thousands of child soldiers have been recruited to fight in the war. Some, as we've just seen, in that last piece that was filed, have been brutally killed if they don't join in the fighting.
FAKIH: That's right. There are child soldiers that continue to serve today in South Sudan. Some of them against their will.
This is why it is critically important that steps are taken to implement the peace agreement that was signed by both parties to the conflict in August. There has been a failure for the parties to move forward in doing things like demobilizing child soldiers.
KINKADE: And most of the crimes against humanity and the war crimes listed in the report have been committed by the government. We know the government has rejected this report. What needs to happen?
FAKIH: We are looking to the African Union to take a lead in ensuring that some steps are taken in South Sudan to allow for peace to take hold in the country. This critically will include the establishment of a high court. We've seen that the government is failing to admit that these crimes have taken place.
So, we do need to have an international body that will prosecute war criminals on both sides of the conflict in South Sudan. Right now, the U.N. Human Rights Council is also meeting and discussing South Sudan. We are looking to the council to take steps to also promote accountability, including by establishing a special rapporteur. And again, African states are really going to have to take the lead in ensuring that these types of abuses are not tolerated on the continent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:50:03] KINKADE: Lama Fakih from Amnesty International talking with me a short time ago.
Now, to a little bit of comfort in a cold climate. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is trying to take a sad song and make it better. He's sending a grand piano to a refugee camp at the Greece-Macedonia border.
This is video of North Syrian concert pianist at the camp playing the piano. Ai Weiwei has been at the camp for several days documenting the conditions there. The United Nations estimates that nearly 20,000 people are living at the border camp.
We're watching the CNN NEWSROOM. We will be right back after a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KINKADE: Welcome back.
The American satirical show "Saturday Night Live" has found its comedy bonanza in the U.S. presidential race. Last night, the show took inspiration from clashes at rallies for Republican front-runner Donald Trump, plus the show had fun with former Republican candidate Ben Carson's endorsement of the Donald.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[05:55:11] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news right now: we're getting word now of yet another incident of violence at a Donald Trump rally. Apparently, the victim was this man, Dr. Ben Carson. He was attacked moments ago by an angry mob that mistook him for a protester.
We go there now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK. I'm fine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, what did I say? Not this one.
This is one of the good ones.
I'm sorry, Ben.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, they're just lucky I don't have my knife on me. I've been known to cut a (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. We've got a very classy Trump steak on his eye.
And to the media, please don't use this as an excuse to call me racist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald's actually got a lot of black friends, Omarosa, Dennis Rodman --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The list goes on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Tyson --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The list ends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: And comedian Larry David also did his spot-on impression of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.
Well, thanks very much for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
For viewers in the U.S., "NEW DAY" with Christi Paul and Victor Blackwell is just ahead.
And to everyone else, "THE BEST OF QUEST" starts in just a moment.
