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Russia Orders Troops Out of Syria; Romney Hits Campaign Trail With Kasich; Presidential Race. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 14, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Nick Paton - to Nick Paton Walsh and Clarissa Ward. Excellent reporting.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. The news continues next on CNN.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, everyone. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me here on this Monday. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and all around the world as we're going to continue on this significant breaking news here that we are learning.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered some troops to withdraw from Syria. This is specifically coming from Russian state media. Let me begin our coverage this hour with our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and also Nick Paton Walsh who's on the phone with me from Beirut, our senior international correspondent there.

But, Barbara, to you first here. I have the note that Putin said they have achieved their goals in Syria. What does that mean?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, what it means is that certainly Bashar al Assad is in a much stronger position in controlling the territory that he does have in Syria as president of that country than he was months ago, which is what caused the Russians to a large extent to move in.

Now, how many Russian troops will they really leave? What does all of it mean? From the White House, to the State Department, to the Pentagon in the last several minutes, they are looking at this report out of Moscow and so far U.S. officials, to be blunt, have no reaction because they don't really know what Putin is talking about.

Look, in the last several days, Putin's air force has begun air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, which is what the U.S. wanted. If he has shored up Assad enough that he can turn to ISIS targets, does this mean that Putin is really done with what he wants to do in Syria? Unlikely at this point because you have to consider a couple of military facts on the ground in Syria that the Pentagon and the Obama administration is facing.

The Russians can still exert massive military influence no matter what troops, no matter what airplanes and ground forces they have there. They work through the regime, the Assad regime, as a surrogate for their agenda. They work through the Iranians as a surrogate for their agenda in Syria. And perhaps most important is a port in Syria called Lattakia. This is the port that the U.S. believes the Russians will continue to hold on to no matter what. That is a Syrian port on the Mediterranean where they began basing a lot of their operations out of. The Russians have always wanted that warm water port in the Mediterranean. I would tell you, across the board, I don't think there's a single U.S. official that believes the Russians are going to give up that port, access to that port, ever.

So you are seeing a statement, again, by Vladimir Putin's government out of Moscow, but what it means militarily on the ground, and perhaps most importantly what it means for the people in Syria who have suffered so much, I think remains a very open question. The Russians, as we have seen in Ukraine, in Crimea, the Russians are very savvy at exerting their military influence, even when they're not really there.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Barbara Starr, thank you so much. Obviously, as soon as we do start to get reaction from officials here in the United States, we'll get that to you.

Again, if you're just joining me, we're learning from Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering Russian forces to begin withdrawing from Syria.

Speaking of Syria, someone who has just been there and done some extraordinary reporting is Clarissa Ward, who's just now joining me.

So nice to see you.

Talk about the timing of all of this. And to Barbara Starr's point, you know, she was saying, what does this mean militarily on the ground in Syria, but also what about the Syrians? Your response to this?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm - my response is, I'm gob smacked, to be honest.

BALDWIN: You're shocked?

WARD: I was totally shocked. And especially that the Russian president is sort of marketing this as the task has been completed, because the stated goal has always been, of the Russians, that they're trying to defeat the terrorists and essentially bolster President Bashar al Assad.

BALDWIN: The terrorists haven't been defeated.

WARD: The terrorists have not been defeated. ISIS still has large swaths of territory. They have actually not really been the hardest hit by the Russian bombardment. It's mainly been various Islamist groups and also a lot of civilian infrastructure that has borne the lion's share or the brunt of the Russian bombardment.

And I think Barbara really touched on an important point, which is, this is a question of semantics possibly. What exactly does President Putin say - mean when he says pulling back ground forces.

BALDWIN: Some troops.

WARD: Some troops. Does this mean an end to the aerial bombardment? Because, actually, it's the aerial bombardment from the skies, that is what is having the most impact, the most suffering on the ground, as opposed to the actual presence of these ground troops. Certainly Russians always like the element of surprise and they've definitely got that going for them here. I think everybody is sort of running around right now trying to find out exactly what this news means and exactly what prompted it.

[14:05:04] You know, you heard earlier, this war has been costing Russian a lot of money. Millions and millions of dollars. Thousands of sorties every single month. So it's perhaps not entirely unsurprising that they want to curtail their role in some sense, but I think the devil will really be in the details here. We'll have to keep a really close eye and wait to hear from the Kremlin as to what exactly this means.

BALDWIN: As we do that, we will talk to you later about your reporting from rebel-controlled Syria, which was pretty phenomena that you even and a crew were able to get - gain access and to tell the stories of these people and the fear they face each and every day.

Thank you, Clarissa Ward. Do not go too far.

Meantime, to politics here in the United States. A pivotal day in the Republican race for president. Happening right now, a full-court press on the campaign trail. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio holding events at opposite sides of the Florida coast. Ted Cruz, meantime, making his second of four stops today in Illinois. And John Kasich keeping his eye on the prize, his home state of Ohio, expected to take the stage there any minute with former presidential nominee Mitt Romney. That is today. And in little more than 24 hours from now, the political landscape of this race could look dramatically different.

First up here, for Donald Trump's opponents, tomorrow offers the last best shot to knock the Republican frontrunner off his trajectory toward the nomination. On the flip side, if Trump wins Florida and Ohio, his delegate lead, the count of those all-important delegates, would be virtually insurmountable, putting him within grabbing distance of the Republican nomination for president. The magic number, 1,237.

Remember, in Florida and Ohio tomorrow, it is not about getting as many votes as possible, it is about the most votes period. These are winner take all states. So just one vote, more than any other Republican means the winner gets all 99 delegates in Florida and all 66 delegates in Ohio. That's key to remember.

That is also how high the bar is for Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich. Both men say they need to win their home states to keep their campaigns alive.

Let's begin our coverage here with Phil Mattingly, who is live there for us in Ohio right now as we're watching and waiting to see Mitt Romney appearing with Governor Kasich. But again, as we saw with the University of Utah address, again, this is not a Romney endorsement, correct?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke, not an endorsement, just another piece of Romney's kind of full-court press to help anybody who might stop Donald Trump. And he's joining John Kasich on the trail, who, for much of the last couple months, has avoided going into the fight with Donald Trump as much as he possibly can. That started to shift. Take a listen to what he had to say this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This country is not about us tearing one another down or having fist fights at a campaign rally. That's not what America is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So, Brooke, John Kasich referring multiple times in the last 24 hours to the poisonous atmosphere that Donald Trump has brought to the trail.

Now, Brooke, there's been some criticism about what Mitt Romney did, whether or not it actually ended up having the effect of helping Donald Trump. Here in Ohio, team Kasich has a different plan for him. They're not looking at him to bolster John Kasich on the top line level. He's been very specifically deployed today, heading to Stark County and Franklin and Delaware counties today, two areas where Mitt Romney did very well in 2012, where John Kasich has to do very well on Tuesday.

BALDWIN: All right, Phil Mattingly, thank you so much.

As we want to hear from all these candidates as they're crisscrossing some of these states. Let's go to Marco Rubio speaking live here in Florida.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we return to those principles and back them up with real ideas, there is no reason why the 21st century can't be the greatest era in our history. That is what we have the chance to do together in this generation, at this time in our history. But we have to do it now. We have to do it now in 2016.

The price of failure is too high. If we lose this election, that means Hillary Clinton will be president and that will be a disaster for America. Or let me not leave him out. I don't want him to feel lonely. Or Bernie Sanders to be president. (INAUDIBLE). Oh, look, a Bernie Sanders sign. Don't worry, you're not going to get beat up at my rally.

That would be a disaster for America. We cannot afford another four years like the last eight years. And that is why we must win in November. But to win in November, we must first win now. If we allow the Republican Party and the conservative movement to be defined as anger and frustration, we will not win. For while we do have a right to be angry at our political class and frustrated at the direction of our country, we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by that anger and by that frustration. We must use it to motivate us, but do not use it to define us.

[14:10:20] We know that we can do anything. This is a nation that put a man on the moon. These are the people that invented the Internet. Not Al Gore, the American people. This is the country that has sought - that has cured diseases and liberated nations. And that for over two centuries, the nation where each generation has left the next better off.

Americans are a blessed people. For over two centuries, this has been the land in where parents have fulfilled dreams and left their children better off than themselves. This is who we still are. But we must remember who we are in this election cycle. This is the time for us to remember the journey that has brought us to this point as a nation and as a people, to embrace our heritage has an optimistic people who know and understand and believe that our tomorrows are always better than our yesterdays.

And while we face great challenges, we are reminded that each generation before us did as well. There has never been a time in American history where we ever had it easy. There has never been a generation in our history that did not face great challenges. And each one of them overcame them. And because they did, you and I inherited the single greatest nation in the history of mankind.

BALDWIN: Marco Rubio firing up a crowd there in Melbourne, Florida. Note, though, he said don't worry, you won't get beat up in my rally, referring to some of the clashes we've seen recently. We're going to talk about those clashes and some of the anger that's being experienced at other rallies here, especially over the weekend.

Meantime, we have eyes all over this country here. Crews all over the country following ahead of Super Tuesday, the third Super Tuesday. Live pictures here, North Canton, Ohio. This is the home state for the governor there, John Kasich. We're watching and waiting to see Mitt Romney speak aside him. We'll take that live for you.

A quick break. Back in a flash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:17] BALDWIN: And we're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

And here we are on the eve of Super Tuesday number three, the most consequential day of this race up until this point. So, what if John Kasich wins his home state of Ohio? Today Ted Cruz said all those votes would be wasted, but Kasich countered saying that at this stage of the race, anything is possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, with John Kasich, it's real simple, it's mathematically impossible for him to become the nominee. He cannot beat Donald Trump. So a vote for John Kasich or a vote for Marco Rubio is a vote that's thrown away. John Kasich would take greater than 100 percent of the delegates to go on and have a path to winning. Math actually matters. And we've had over 20 states vote. Governor Kasich has won zero.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen, I'm not running to block anybody, but the math is real. And if somebody can't get the total number of delegates, and, look, we have 1,000 delegates yet to go. You will see me pick up speed and have momentum. I may go to the convention with more delegates than any of them, but probably not enough to win. So we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So let's begin with some simple math with my two friends here, AB Stoddard, associate editor at "The Hill," and CNN political director David Chalian.

I mean Chalian, to you first, you heard - we perfectly juxtaposed what Cruz was saying, what Kasich is saying with regard to those delegates. Who's right?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, they actually don't disagree. They're both right in what they're saying. It is true that John Kasich would need more than 100 percent of the delegates remaining in order to become the nominee outright before the convention, getting to that magic number of 1,237, 50 percent plus one, a true majority. But as Kasich stated, if Kasich wins Ohio, it is quite possible that this thing goes on potentially as a three-man race if Rubio ends up getting out, if he does indeed lose Florida, and nobody gets to 1,237 before the convention and it goes to a contested convention. So what Cruz and Kasich are saying are actually not at odds with each other, they're just try to each put their best spin forward to win the votes tomorrow.

BALDWIN: So, AB, let's go down a couple of different potential narratives. What happens if John Kasich were to win his home state of Ohio tomorrow, then what?

AB STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": Well, I think he's going to say that it's resetting the race. You might actually see some more sort of endorsements and kind of a coalescing behind him. If Marco Rubio loses Florida, I think you're going to see a lot of people like Mitt Romney and others say good-bye and back Kasich. I'm not saying that they will outright, but this never Trump bandwagon is going to have to get behind somebody.

Cruz is, you know, willing - he doesn't want to join a bandwagon. He wants to run on his own and defeat Trump on his own and he says things like, there shouldn't be a contested convention. But, look, he doesn't have the math either, so he has to win at a contested convention as well. I do think that you're going to see Kasich confident that the party

would like him to come out of a contested convention maybe with Marco Rubio as a VP pick, push and push and push. But when he says, I'm not running to block anybody and the math is real, those two statements are wrong. I mean he's an honest man, but really the math is not in his favor. If Rubio and Kasich win Florida and Ohio tomorrow, combined they will have fewer delegates than Ted Cruz.

BALDWIN: OK. And again, just reminding people as we're talking about Ohio, live pictures here in North Canton, this is where we're waiting to see not only the governor, John Kasich, but with him, Mitt Romney.

And so, David Chalian, to you. You know, talk about full-court press in his home state because he said, listen, if I don't win my home state, I'm out. What is he hoping Mitt Romney can help deliver for him on the eve of this all-important primary?

[14:20:03] CHALIAN: Well, I mean, he's hoping to motivate some tried and true Ohio Republicans to get out to the polls that he believes will be in his corner on Election Day. He's also trying to persuade the few folks that are still undecided out there or very late deciders in this race.

But, listen, in one respect of this, Brooke, you know, John Kasich is the current governor of Ohio. He should win Ohio. Like, this is not - this should not be a huge lift for him. But obviously Donald Trump has been extraordinarily competitive there. It is a hugely significant victory if he does win Ohio, if John Kasich does, because it really does mean it throws a wrench into the works and that this contest is more likely than not to head to a contested convention if Donald Trump does not sweep all these states tomorrow.

BALDWIN: OK. What about Democrats, AB? You have Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, they're tossups. We saw what happened, that massive surprise upset, Michigan, with Bernie Sanders clinching there, super, super tight race. Could we see some of that going into tomorrow with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton?

STODDARD: Oh, yes, again, it's the same thing, I mean the delegate math could be on the side of Hillary Clinton, but the psychology could sort of reset the race just like Kasich hopes it will if he takes 66 delegates in Ohio to add to what's already sort of a feeble pile. But because it's the, as David said, such a significant battleground, you know, he's going to have a case to make.

Hillary Clinton's going to end up, if she has Florida, even if she loses Ohio and Illinois with more delegates, but that would be a huge blow. It would make - it would create more momentum and more excitement around Bernie. He'd raise a gazillion dollars, like he does after every time he has a good election night. And he intends, as he keeps saying, to go all the way to the convention. So it makes it for her a more taxing and costly grind, it makes it a longer path to the general election, a more expensive one and potentially more just politically damaging as he continues to hammer her for months and months to come.

BALDWIN: So that's the Dems.

Let's pull up this picture full here back in Ohio as we now - well, we can't really see it right now. I don't know if that's a protester or just someone in the crowd there. But Mitt Romney will be standing alongside John Kasich.

And to David Chalian's point, listen, I mean this is - this is - this is do or die for John Kasich. This is his state. He is the executive of this state as governor.

So, David, as we wait to hear from Mitt Romney, and, you know, yes, this is a about, as you point out, getting Republicans out at the polls tomorrow and voting for the establishment candidate being John Kasich instead of say a Donald Trump. What do you expect to hear from him in this sort of 11th hour push?

CHALIAN: Well, I think we're going to hear a lot of what we heard from Mitt Romney in his big speech a couple weeks ago. We are going to hear the never Trump, the stop Trump movement. Because, remember, as you said, Mitt Romney hasn't endorsed Kasich. He's offering his help to Kasich, to Cruz, to Rubio, anyone that wants it. This protester here who's holding up that sign there, Brooke, who was trying to -

BALDWIN: Actually - actually now we have a clear view. Let's just go ahead and dip in.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Become the next president of the United States. And you had this chance about six years ago. You were looking for someone to come to this state. You did some interviews and you concluded that this was the man you wanted as the governor. And the reason was, not just that he say the right things, but he had a record. You could look at his resume, so to speak. You could see what he'd done. He'd been in Washington, where he had helped balance the budget. And getting that done, the economy began to come back and create jobs for people across the country. And so you said, you know, this guy's kind of been there. Let's try him as governor. And when he got in, you know, he made a lot of changes. A lot of people said, boy, this is uncomfortable. But those changes made a difference.

And now he's come back again to you. And he said, look, I'd like to be able to help take the reins of the country. And so the people of Ohio are once again, tomorrow, going to be able to decide who is it that should lead our nation. And this time you also have a track record you can look at. And the track record is, hey, this is a guy who came into Ohio when things were tough, when the - when there was an $8 billion -- $8 billion budget gap, and he turned that around and turned it into a surplus. When you were losing employers and losing jobs every month, he turned that around, 400,000 jobs have been created. And he also has a little part of his resume that says he was in Washington for a while, worked with the armed services committee.

And so you look at this guy, and unlike the other people running, he has a real track record. He has the kind of - the kind of record that you want in Washington. And that's why I'm convinced that you're going to do the right thing tomorrow, agreed? And so if you want to - if you want to actually see a balanced budget

in Washington, you want to see that balanced budget, if you want to get rid of Obamacare, if you want to see employers come back - employers come back to America instead of fleeing America, and jobs come again, if you want to get wages up. And, by the way, the only way you get wages up, the only way you get real wages up is if you're creating more jobs and more employers come here and they start competing for good employees and then they have to raise wages in order to get those good employees.

[14:25:31] And so this is the guy that Ohio needs to vote for. America's counting on you. Let's do it. Let's welcome a great governor of a great state, John Kasich.

Governor. Thanks, buddy.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.

ROMNEY: Thank you.

KASICH: Thank you.

Wow, how things would have been different if the election results had been different four years ago, huh? If Mitt Romney would have been president? What do you think, huh?

You know, it's so nice of Mitt to come out and support me here in this effort to win this state. I want to just say a couple things about Mitt.

You know, the thing that always - first all, he was the governor of Massachusetts. And that's not an easy state to win in, Massachusetts, when you're a conservative Republican. And he did a fantastic job and he was a leader when he was there.

But you know what always has stood out - by the way, incredible family. His wife, an incredible lady.

But what always stood out for me more than anything else, one of the things that the world watches are the Olympics. And we had the Olympics in Salt Lake City. And they were falling apart. And they didn't know what they were going to do. Could you imagine having that kind of an embarrassment? I mean, it would almost be as bad as people slugging it out at a campaign rally with images - no, seriously, you think about this. W kind of chuckle about this. Think of the images that have been broadcast across this world of the way we're picking a president here. I mean my kids are watching this. Your kids. Your grandkids are watching what's happening here. And they're looking at a scene of people ponding each other. You think they're not using that for propaganda to send a message to people that America's broken, that America's lost?

Well, we had that other opportunity back with the Olympics. We could have looked really, really bad. And Mitt Romney went in and saved the day and ran one of the greatest Olympics games in modern history because of his leadership and because of what he was able to do. And he's a great job creator. I tell you something. You let - you

think you - I'm going to let Hillary Clinton disparage job creators in this country, you got another thing coming. It is not going to happen, because we need the job creators to help our families. So, folks, here's the way I - I've been seeing it.

First of all, you know, where I grew up, my dad carried mail on his back. Do you all know that? I mean 29 years my dad carried mail on his back. What you don't know is that my father's father, my grandfather, was a coal miner. He'd go down in the mine. He'd dig all day long. And he'd think he'd had a good haul and he'd go up top and they would say to my grandfather, well, you dug too much peat, you didn't dig enough coal, so we're going to cut what we're going to give you in half. He had nobody to go to. Nobody to talk to. And he died of black lung, losing his eyesight along the way.

My mother's mother - or my mother, let me tell you a little bit about her. I just found out the other day - because we didn't talk about these things. It's sort of funny because my Uncle George, who has now turned 90, my father's brother, he and his brothers used to go to school in remade flour sacks. They didn't have anything. My uncle was really mad at me. And if he's watching today, Uncle George, if we're on television, I'm not saying that to embarrass you. I'm saying that because I want people to know how proud of - that I am your nephew, of the fact that you graduated from high school, went to college and became a guidance counselor for 39 years, helping kids get their lives, and you built yourself up. And how proud I am that your my uncle and it happened in America.

[14:30:00] So I didn't - we didn't talk a lot about this. You know, I found out my mother is one of four. Two brothers and a sister.