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Trump Warns of Riots if Denied the Nomination; U.S. Declares ISIS Acts as Genocide; Undercover in Syria; Liberal Anti-Trump Groups Back Massive Protest; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 17, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:01] REBECCA TRAISTER, "BIG GIRLS DON'T Cry": Not so far. There's not a lot of -- there's not a lot of reasons so far for them to be. In fact there are certainly -- you know, he's trafficking in a lot of pretty blatant misogyny in terms of his campaign rhetoric. You know, it's unclear yet what his profile and approach is going to be in the general election. But based on what we've seen so far it doesn't seem likely to me that he's going to enjoy a lot of support from unmarried women.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Rebecca Traister, I have to leave it there. Thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. It is St. Patrick's Day, and it's not just the Irish pub and the parades acting a bit more raucous today. The Donald trump campaign is showing its feistiness with some cautionary words leveled at the Republican establishment. Just hours after Donald Trump warned of possible riots if the GOP maneuvers him out of the nomination, new Trump surrogate Ben Carson drove the point home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no question that there would be a lot of turmoil if the establishment tries to thwart the will of the people. Recognizing that millions of new voters have come into the Republican poll largely as a result of Donald Trump. And it's very unlikely that those people would maintain their enthusiasm if in fact some shenanigans resulted in someone else being the nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's politics reporter MJ Lee is here to talk more about this. Hi, MJ.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Hi, Carol. There is now a sinking realization that Donald Trump has become a runaway train. As you know, he had a very good Super Tuesday, and he is getting closer and closer to getting the 1,237 delegates that he needs to clinch the nomination. Now with that being the new reality, anti-Trump Republicans are now pointing to a contested convention as their last hope of stopping Donald Trump. Now this of course is a scenario where nobody in the GOP feels that

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, is able to get the delegates that they need to outright win the GOP nomination and they would go to the convention this summer and fight on the convention floor to become the nominee.

Now Ted Cruz's campaign interestingly is one of the campaigns that's actually preparing for this scenario. To be clear, Cruz has insisted and still continues to insist that he believes that he can get the delegates necessary to actually win the nomination before he goes to the convention, but the campaign realizes that this is a very difficult thing and they're preparing as plan B to head into the convention and fight for the nomination. But as you heard Ben Carson say, this could be a situation where the conventions actually end up in chaos.

You saw what happened last week in Chicago, it was remarkable how Trump supporters ended up, you know, rioting and it was a violent scene and I think the concern is that this could also happen in the convention if the party tries to deny Trump the nomination.

COSTELLO: All right. MJ Lee, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

There could be chaos of a different kind at the Republican convention. Some conservatives are actually trying to thwart voters' wishes by defeating Trump in a number of backdoor ways. But Trump has moved on. Releasing an ad attacking his likely Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton.

But Trump may be getting ahead of himself. The Cruz camp is quietly plotting a complicated delegate battle at the Republican convention. An influential conservative blogger, Erick Erickson, is fighting for a third party candidate calling Mr. Trump a "moral cretin" and a "gold plated sleaze."

With me now CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord and former chief of staff for the Republican National Committee Mike Shields.

Welcome to both of you.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Happy St. Patrick's Day, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. Happy -- and none of us are wearing green.

LORD: I forgot my green tie and I'm Irish on my mom's side.

COSTELLO: That's a double whammy, Jeffrey.

LORD: Yes.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeffrey, I want to start with the ad. Mr. Trump has already been slammed for calling women dogs. Is this really the way to go? LORD: Well, look, Hillary Clinton has -- you know, the whole barking

episode, which I frankly found very funny, but in the world of politics and television it was kind of a dumb thing to do because of course somebody was going to pick up on it. Donald Trump or somebody inevitably would pick up on it.

Look, here's the thing. Donald Trump is going to fight here in terms of being the Republican nominee. I asked him a couple of years ago, in the sense that a lot of Republicans and conservatives felt that their presidential nominees -- Mitt Romney, John McCain, you can go on back -- frankly didn't fight when they got into the ring finally with their Democratic opponent.

[10:05:10] And Donald Trump made it plain to me a couple of years ago that if he ran and was -- and became the presidential nominee, he would fight back. I think that's what you're seeing here. He is fighting back. He's not just going to roll over here because Hillary Clinton is a woman, or she's a Democrat or she's this, that or the other thing. He is going to fight. And I think that's what you're seeing right here.

COSTELLO: OK. So -- and I believe you, Jeffrey Lord.

So, Mike, this is already shaping up to be a nasty campaign. Is this really good for democracy?

MIKE SHIELDS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, first of all, I want to dispel the notion when you lead in when you said that if Donald Trump doesn't get the nomination at the convention that it's somehow going a backdoor against the will of the people. Look, if he gets over 50 percent of the delegates through the primary process, he's going to be the nominee. There's no question about that. That will be the will of the Republican voters.

If he gets less than 50 percent, then handing him the nomination would be going against the will of the voters because over 50 percent of the voters would have said they don't want him to be the nominee. So I think everyone has known going into the Republican primary process that a plurality does not win the nomination and that you have to go to the convention at that point.

COSTELLO: Yes. But, Mike, you can say that. You can say that but voters won't understand that. They'll be angry.

SHIELDS: Well, OK. So some voters might be angry that he didn't get it. A tremendous number -- the majority of voters who voted against him might be angry that he did get it and so I think, look, if you're going to show leadership, if you want to be the nominee of the party, you've got to bring everyone together. And that's what Hillary Clinton is now having to do, that's what every Republican nominee in the past has had to do. We'd always had a sort of tough battle in the primary, a fructuous party leaders them come and say, look, I'm going to bring everybody together.

I'm going to -- here's a candidate who's selling himself as a negotiator, who wrote the "Art of the Deal," who's saying to everybody, I can bring people together, this is my job. Well, if you're going to be a leader in the party, you're going to have to show that leadership and you should start acting that way, and saying, I'm going to go to the convention, I'm going to work to bring everyone together. If I'm sort of short by a few delegates, I'm going to go make a pitch to those delegates to win them over and get a majority of the delegates on my side because I want to be the Republican nominee and I want to lead the party as opposed to if you don't give it to me, there's going to be a problem. It's a threat. I don't -- I don't think that shows the leadership necessary when everyone knows that a plurality is not --

COSTELLO: Yes, I hear you. I hear you, Mike. I hear you, Mike. I do. But then you have Erick Erickson coming out, Jeffrey, and calling Trump -- called Mr. Trump a moral cretin and a gold plated sleaze, and then threatened to, like, you know, get this third party candidate to run against him so how does Mr. Trump respond to that as a unifier?

LORD: Yes. You know, Donald Trump has won endorsements from Governor Christie on the moderate side of the GOP ledger. He's won endorsements from Ben Carson and Senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama on the conservative side of the ledger. I do believe the unification process has already begun. So -- you know, I like Erick Erickson a lot and I'm a fan. But I have to say I think he's going off the rails here with this.

So, you know, I don't speak for Donald Trump on this. I don't speak certainly for Erick Erickson. I just think he's making a mistake. I mean, it's fine if he wants to oppose Donald Trump. God bless America. I think that's what the Democratic process is all about. But I assure you that I will be supporting the Republican nominee, period.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Jeffrey Lord, Mike Shields, thanks to both of you.

LORD: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you.

A scathing attack going on right now, actually it's on Donald Trump. Actually it' about to begin. There you see Senator Harry Reid, I see the back of his head. He's sitting down there. He's expected to deliver a major address, blasting the Republican frontrunner and the role the Republican Party has played in his rise to popularity. We will monitor this for you and bring it to you when Senator Reid begins speaking.

Just last hour, Secretary of State John Kerry fired a new shot in the war on terror. He announced that the United States now views the ISIS attacks on religious groups and minorities as genocide. That label unanimously approved by the House but resisted by President Obama could force the U.S. to deeper involvement in fighting ISIS.

CNN's Elise Labott is at the State Department with more on this.

Hi, Elise. ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Hi, Carol. Well, this

legal determination that has really been debated by the administration since 2014 when ISIS was really growing, Secretary Kerry said that there was signs of genocide.

This doesn't obligate the U.S. to do anything legally. But as you said I think what it's going to do is give weight to calls to the U.S. for more aggressive action against ISIS, more aggressive action in terms of protecting this type of minorities. I also think it's going to open up the debate here in the United States about welcoming some of chose ethnic minorities, whether it's Yazidis, Christians, some Shia Muslims here to the United States.

Take a listen to Secretary Kerry just a little while ago talking about what the U.S. wants to do in terms of not only documenting these crimes but holding those accountable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:10:07] JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I am neither judge nor prosecutor nor jury with respect to the allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing by specific persons. Ultimately the full facts must be brought to light by an independent investigation and through formal legal determination made by competent court of tribunal. But the United States will strongly support efforts to collect, document, preserve and analyze the evidence of atrocities and we will do all we can to see that the perpetrators are held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: And Carol, the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court, but what Secretary Kerry is saying is that it will help document these atrocities. We're talking about crucifixions, beheadings, slavery, rape as a tool.

But if you remember, Carol, it was the purge of the Yazidis from Sinjar Mountain by ISIS that got the U.S. really militarily involved in the first place, and so for someone like Secretary Kerry who's been pushing for more action I think it will give weight to those calls even if it's not a legal obligation for the United States -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Elise Labott reporting live. Thanks so much.

Want to go back to the Center for American Progress. Senator Harry Reid now speaking. Let's listen.

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: Recall where our nation stood at the end of 2008. President Bush was on his way out of office, after a failed presidency that left the nation teetering on the brink of disaster. President Obama came into office with a broad mandate, promising pragmatic, bipartisan solutions that our nation really needed. Republicans were looking to their leaders to bring them together. Sadly Republican leaders chose the opposite path.

Instead of cooperating on commonsense solutions to help the millions of Americans still suffering from the Great Recession, Republican leaders chose obstruction and scorched-earth policies. The night of President Obama's first inauguration, a group of Republican congressmen, Senators and strategists met at a nearby restaurant to plot the party's opposition to the new administration. Those in attendance decided on a two-fold mission. First, they promised they would do everything in their power to keep President Obama from being re-elected. Second, they would prevent President Obama from achieving any of his legislative priorities.

Republican leaders' rejection of President Obama manifests in one big lie, that they repeated different ways over and over and over again. This is the lie. The economic hardships Americans face could not be addressed by smart, targeted policy solutions, if those solutions were opposed by Obama.

Again and again Republican leaders told Americans that any policy put forward by Democrats was nefarious, simply because it came from President Obama. We've seen this big lie resurfaced in the last 24 hours as President Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court overwhelmingly needs someone and the Senate with a large vote appointed him, selected him, confirmed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals, to the D.C. Circuit, the second highest court in the land, did it in 1997.

At that time, 32 Republicans voted to confirm him, including Republicans Cochran, Collins, Hatch, Inhofe, McCain and Roberts.

Here's what Senator Hatch said of Merrick Garland, and I quote. "I know Merrick Garland very well. He'd be very well supported by all sides and the president knows that," close quote. And he said a lot more very complimentary things.

Republicans are slamming the door on a good man they once embraced, simply why? Because President Obama nominated him. That's how they've treated him over his entire presidency. They've done it for seven and a half years. It didn't matter where these ideas came from, it didn't even matter if they came from Republicans. Republican leadership repeated their big lie over and over in many different ways.

COSTELLO: All right. You get the gist of this. Senator Harry Reid lambasting Republicans on the Supreme Court pick, on President Obama's Supreme Court pick. Of course we'll continue to monitor that for you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, CNN's exclusive coverage undercover in Syria, and why one doctor would rather die than leave the war-torn country.

[10:14:41]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: CNN's Clarissa Ward undercover in Syria, takes us behind rebel lines in Idlib where virtually no Western journalist have traveled for more than a year. A city where rebels hoped to establish a safe stronghold has been targeted with relentless bombardment from Russia and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, hitting schools and courthouses, even hospitals.

Clarissa Ward is here with her exclusive report. Good morning.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Carol.

Well, as we saw for ourselves, it is civilian infrastructure on the ground that has borne the brunt of this bombardment. Schools, courthouses, even hospitals. As we saw, take a look at our report, but I must warn you, there are some graphic images.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): It is an all-too-common sight in rebel-held parts of Syria, the moments after an airstrike. Dazed survivors stagger from the rubble. Those still trapped call out for help. The target this time, the courthouse in Idlib City. Activists say the bombs were Russian.

(On camera): When rebels took the provincial capital of Idlib, they saw it as a crucial opportunity to demonstrate that they could build their own state and they believe that's exactly why the Russians bombed this courthouse, to undermine that effort.

[10:20:14] (Voice-over): Any civilian infrastructure is a potential target, including hospitals. Last month four were hit in a single day, one in the city of Marat al-Numan was supported by Doctors Without Borders. This is what remains of it now. At least 25 people were killed.

Doctor Maz al-Souad was the general manager. He told us that Russian and regime forces target hospitals cynically and deliberately.

DR. MAZ AL-SOUAD, GENERAL MANAGER OF HOSPITAL (Through Translator): They want to kill the maximum number of people. Also they want to forbid the area from having medical service. If there's no doctor, no nurse, no hospital, then there is no health care for the people and people will flee.

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

AL-SOUAD (Through Translator): Everyone knows this is a hospital. There was even a sign that said this is a hospital. But if they didn't know, this is an even bigger disaster because if you were bombing a building like this without knowing it's a hospital, it means you are hitting totally indiscriminately.

WARD (voice-over): Against the backdrop of this vicious war, Islamist factions have gained the upper hand here, among them al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra. The landscape is peppered with signs, shunning Western democracy and urging all men to join the jihad. One encourages women to cover up completely.

Dr. Faraz al-Jundi works at the only hospital still standing in Marat al-Numan. He's no militant but sees this conflict in black and white. DR. FARAZ AL-JUNDI (Through Translator): The whole of the Syrian

people is against ISIS and against extremism but we see that the Russians are bombing far from ISIS and they're focused on civilian areas.

WARD: I asked him why he doesn't leave Syria.

AL-JUNDI (Through Translator): If I did that, I would abandon my conscience. This is our country. We can't desert it. If we left, then we have sold our morals. Who would treat the people? I can very easily leave but we will remain steadfast. I am prepared to die rather than to leave and I will carry on no matter what.

WARD: Carry on in the faint hope that for the next generation of Syrians it will be better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's just unbelievable. Give us a sense of the scope of this destruction.

WARD: Well, it's interesting because the Russians and the regime have consistently denied targeting civilian infrastructure and particularly targeting hospitals, but we looked up a report from last year by Doctors Without Borders and they said that in those rebel-held areas, 82 medical facilities were hit last year. 82 medical facilities, of those 12 were completely destroyed.

And one other number that just really blew my mind, Carol. In this tiny pocket of rebel-held Syria in the northwest, 462 children under the age of 5 were killed in 2015. Clearly civilians bearing the brunt of this awful conflict.

COSTELLO: And still the country's in chaos. I mean what's next for these poor people?

WARD: Well, the hope is with this temporary cessation of hostilities, with Russia announcing its withdrawal, with peace talks going on with Geneva, that perhaps some kind of longer lasting truce can be negotiated. But it is still very much up in the air, Carol.

COSTELLO: Clarissa Ward, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a massive protest in the works designed to boot big money out of politics.

[10:24:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Activists are now organizing what they call one of the largest civil disobedience actions in a generation. It takes place in Philadelphia and Washington in a few weeks. And these activists say this protest is about big money in politics. But Breitbart, a conservative blog, calls it an anti-Trump rally intended to transform the political climate in America.

So let's talk about this. Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law Professor and 2016 candidate for Congress in New York. She supports the protest which is called Democracy Spring.

Good morning and welcome.

ZEPHYR TEACHOUT, ASSOCIATE LAW PROFESSOR, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Good morning. It's wonderful to be on.

COSTELLO: It's nice to have you here. So what is Democracy Spring really about?

TEACHOUT: It's really about standing up, speaking out, tens of thousands of people saying Congress is broken, we actually have to change the way that we fund campaigns. There's a deep corruption in our current system. I think most people see that. We certainly hear it all the time. And it's saying we actually need to speak up for this thing that should really be basic which is democracy itself. That means making sure everybody has equal access to the right to vote and it means changing the way we fund the campaigns.