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Hillary Clinton Lacks White Male Support; Alleged American ISIS Fighter; Ted Cruz's Heavy Metal Doppelganger Aired 10:30-11:00a

Aired March 18, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:00]

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The next battleground that is going to be the west, we're talking about Tuesday. 131 delegates up for grabs in Idaho, Utah, and Arizona. That is where Sanders was last night. This was a rally in flagstaff. And he is arguing now that with his 850 delegates that he still believes he has a path toward victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We think that the climate is a little bit friendlier for us. We think we have got a path toward victory.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

And if we can bring out large turnouts, we are going to win this thing.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

I'm proud that, up to now, we have won nine states. We have almost 850 delegates. And with your help on Tuesday, we are going to win here in Arizona.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Of course he has got a battle for those super delegates, Carol. And Sanders, he went after somebody that we both talked to numerous times, the immigration hardliner Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has made a name for himself arresting, detaining, deporting undocumented workers. And not surprisingly Arpaio he is endorsing Trump who has vowed to build a wall at the border, keeping out illegal immigrants. Well, in Arizona more than 30 percent of the population is Latino. And as you can tell, Carol, there is a fierce battle going on right now for their support.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Suzanne Malveaux reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

The war between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has already begun, though. Remember this ad that Trump released that featured Clinton barking and then Vladimir Putin laughing at her barking? Well today a Clinton super PAC fired back. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: Who are you consulting with consistently so you're ready on day one?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm speaking with myself, number one. Because I have a very good brain and I've said a lot of things.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. There you have that. Foreign policy may prove to be Clinton's strength but she does have a major league problem when it comes to a certain block of voters that would be white working class men. Exit polls show 89 percent of the white male vote in Ohio went to Bernie Sanders.

With me now is Michael Nutter, former mayor of Philadelphia and a Clinton supporter. Welcome, sir.

MICHAEL NUTTER (D), FORMER PHILADELPHIA MAYOR: Good morning, carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

There is an article in "The New York Times" that says while male voters think Clinton doesn't care about them, that she only cares about minorities and women. Why do they feel that way?

NUTTER: Well, one, Carol, nothing could be farther from the truth. The reality is that Hillary Clinton cares about all Americans. She has campaigned that way. She has campaigned in every part of the country, and has talked about issues that all Americans care about.

But certainly if we are talking about white males or any other males or anybody else, issues of jobs and the economy, and how do we get even more Americans back to work. Notwithstanding some of the good news that comes up from time to time about jobs or the declining unemployment rate, but the fact of the matter is that more and more people still need to work. And this is not about trying to slice up the electorate into each of its individual components. What we have seen in this election is Hillary Clinton clearly demonstrating what it takes to be president of the United States of America which is to build a diverse coalition of people...

COSTELLO: I will say --

NUTTER: ... all across the country.

COSTELLO: Right, diverse coalition there and there is the key. She seems to be actively courting minorities and the female vote but she doesn't seem to be actively courting the white male vote.

NUTTER: Well, I don't know what makes it seem that way. I know it gets portrayed sometimes when there are election contests down south. There certainly from a media standpoint a whole lot more emphasis on minority population.

But when you listen to what she actually says and what she talks about, and I've heard her many, many times in the north, in the north, in the south, in the east and everywhere else, the message is consistently the same. It's about children. It's about families. It's about jobs. It's about investing in our infrastructure. It's about making sure that our kids can go to school in affordable way and not have enormous debt.

And so I think that, you know, we all can do a better job as a candidate or having been a candidate...

COSTELLO: Well, clearly --

NUTTER: ... and so getting that message across is a challenge...

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you about that.

NUTTER: ... for Secretary Clinton and clearly she will do better.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you about that. Because whatever she is saying to voters she is not capturing that segment of the population and the exit polls prove that. According to philly.com you got the largest percentage of white vote ever cast for an African-American in a Philadelphia mayoral primary. Some say it was because you were unafraid to criticize some within the black community.

[10:35:01]

Here is what she said in 2011 after dozens of teenagers mostly African-Americans were robbing a store. You told a church gathering -- quote -- "If you want to act like a butt-head, your butt is going to get locked up."

I think and I'm guessing here that most white men out there think Hillary Clinton would never say something like that even if it was justified.

NUTTER: Well -- I mean, look, as an African-American, quite honestly, whether it's an election year or not -- and that was after the primary, but as an African-American, certainly I can say some things that maybe others can't say in certain situations and that was very particular to Philadelphia.

The larger point here is Hillary Clinton is doing very, very well all across the United States of America. And again, any candidate can do a better job with a particular segment of the population, but if you're running a broad-based campaign and if you're campaigning to be president of the United States of America, 320 million people, black, white, Latino, Asian, male, female, then, you have a message. And she will do I'm sure a better job at communicating that particularly message that maybe white males or others want to hear. But if you look at the website, if you listen to what she says she talks about jobs, jobs, jobs. Dealing with the economy. Helping our young people get an education.

So you know, look, we have a ways to go in this election cycle but she is doing very, very well so far.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you one more question about President Obama. Everybody says at some point he is going to come out and actively support her. You know, from the state of Ohio, I grew up in those blue collar areas. White men did not particularly like President Obama. They think he did a terrible job. Will President Obama's support of Hillary Clinton hurt her even more among that particular group of voters?

NUTTER: No. And, secondly, you know, President Obama, with his incredible work and legacy, folks will decide who they want to be for and, you know, if they like someone else, you know, that is the way it goes in electoral politics. But Secretary Clinton has been very supportive and faithful to much of what President Obama has done.

Let's think about where we were. He rescued the auto industry. He brought us the Affordable Care Act. He supported the improvements that we have seen in housing. The unemployment rate is below 5 percent. Certainly much less than when he took the oath of office in January of 2009.

So, you know, any one of us can do better at communicating a message to a particular constituency but, again, Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, have an ability to communicate to the breadth and depth of the American public, which is not monolithic and people hear different things from different candidates based on what is on their minds.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Michael Nutter, thank you for your insight. I appreciate it.

NUTTER: Thanks, Carol.

NUTTER: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an alleged ISIS fighter says he is American.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:22]

COSTELLO: A gold mine for U.S. intelligence that's how analysts are describing an alleged ISIS fighter captured by Kurdish forces who claims he is American. Now it's possible he could be the first American fighter to defect from the terror group in the field.

CNN's Brian Todd has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The moment of capture. Interrogated by Kurdish forces the man says he is American. That his father is Palestinian and his mother is from Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you from?

MOHAMAD JAMAL KHWEIS, ISIS FIGHTER: The United States. TODD: Kurdish officials say he is 26-year-old Mohamad Jamal Khweis. They say they captured him trying to leave ISIS territory in Iraq and flee home. Kurdish TV aired an edited interview with Khweis while he was in captivity. He said he traveled through Europe late last year to Syria then to Mosul, Iraq. Khweis said he was put in a house just for foreign fighters, that life was hard and that the people who command ISIS aren't good Muslims.

KHWEIS: I didn't really support their ideology. And that's -- at that point, that's when I decided I needed to escape.

TODD: Analysts say he could be a gold mine for U.S. intelligence on the inner workings of the terror group.

SEAMUS HUGHES, PROGRAM ON EXTREMISM AT GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: What I think is most interesting about this case is how he traveled, what routes did he take and that will give us insight of how other Americans are trying to travel in Syria and Iraq.

TODD: CNN went to see his father...

JAMAL KHWEIS, FATHER OF MOHAMAD JAMAL KHWEIS: This is wrong information. You are (ph) talking to the wrong person.

TODD: ... but the man clearly seemed upset and later told reporters this.

JAMAL KHWEI: He is old enough. I cannot ask him where he is going, where he's coming from. He is in Iraq -- he is not. I know he is -- he will never go there.

TODD: Khweis graduated from Edison High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2007.

Harrison Weinhold, a friend from high school recognizes Khweis from the driver's license. Weinhold says Mohamad Khweis was a normal teenager who made fun of people who were religious.

TODD (on camera): What do you make of this news about friend?

HARRISON WEINHOLD, HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND OF MOHAMAD JAMAL KHWEIS: It's really -- it's upsetting. It really sucks. It's something you feel for his family. It's just not something that you would ever think would happen. He definitely wasn't the type of person. He wasn't an angry person. He wasn't a, you know, an outcast by any means. He was just a normal guy. We did normal stuff in high school.

TODD (voice-over): Another friend who didn't want to be on camera told CNN Khweis was a friendly and goofy kid who often joked around. If Khweis was with ISIS why would he have abandoned them on the battle field and walked into the arms of the enemy?

HUGHES: The main reason was, you know, it wasn't what they told them it was going to be. They thought it would be this great so-called caliphate, and it's just not. And they saw the infighting, and the killing of other Muslims. [10:45:01]

TODD (on camera): A primary task for U.S. law enforcement now might be to find out whether Mohamad Khweis acted alone in moving toward ISIS, who might have recruited him? Another big question, will be he charged with materiel support of terrorism? Right now the FBI is not commenting on any of that.

Brian Todd, CNN, Alexandria, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Marco Rubio is out of the race but he hasn't stopped trying to beat Donald Trump. How he is urging his supporters to block a Trump win in Arizona next week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The Republican candidates are turning their eyes to Arizona. Donald Trump will be in the state on Saturday holding a rally in Phoenix ahead of Tuesday's primary. It is our Kyung Lah reports his former rival Senator Marco Rubio is urging his supporters to stop Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out of race but not out of words. Marco Rubio urging his supporters to fight front-runner Donald Trump.

RUBIO: Hopefully, there is time to still, you know, prevent a Trump nomination which I think would fracture the party.

[10:50:01]

LAH: Rubio supporters in Arizona are listening. Clutching her now by gone Rubio bumper sticker, Arizona for Rubio social media director, Lilia Dashevsky, is mobilizing for a new cause ahead of her state's primary just days away.

Are you telling them to go vote for Ted Cruz?

LILIA DASHEVSKY, RUBIO SUPPORTER: At this point, I am. Yes, I think he is probably the best shot right now to take on Donald Trump. We think Cruz has really strong case to make here in the state. I think he definitely has a very good shot.

STEVE RONNEBECK, SON KILLED BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT: My son, Grant, was killed working an overnight shift at his job by an illegal immigrant.

LAH (voice-over): That good shot in Arizona begins with his position on immigration. The Cruz campaign sealing a page from the Trump playbook launched this new ad in Arizona featuring a father whose son was reportedly killed by an undocumented immigrant.

RONNEBECK: I trust Ted Cruz.

LAH: Cruz trailing Trump at the polls now renewing a challenge of this GOP winner take all state by hitting hard on immigration, the issue in this border state.

Six years ago, Arizona passed the broadest and strictest immigration law in generation giving police the power to detain anyone suspected to being in the country illegally and making it a crime if immigrants didn't carry their papers. Protesters called the law state sponsored racism. Eventually the Supreme Court gutted portions of Arizona's law so Trump's anti-immigration rally cry?

TRUMP: I will build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall.

LAH: Is a second chance for Arizona to see immigration reform, says Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Arpaio, a vocal illegal immigration faux endorses Trump calling him a savior.

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: And it was dying until Trump brought it up. When he was here, he started talking about it again.

LAH (on camera): Do you think that is why he is resonating so much with People in Arizona?

ARPAIO: They were waiting for somebody like him.

LAH: There is not a lot of polling in Arizona but of the polls that have been done the latest one showed Rubio hovering around 10 percent. If all of those supporters go to the Cruz camp then Ted Cruz could be competitive here in this state.

Here's something important to note though. Early absentee voting rates in Arizona are quite high. It is possible that many of those Rubio supporters already mailed their ballots in before Marco Rubio dropped out of the race.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz is holding a rally at Arizona Christian University later tonight. John Kasich doesn't have any publicly listed event in the state for now but he will be in Utah this afternoon.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, does Ted Cruz have a heavy metal past? Or is it just a doppelganger? Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:04]

COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 56 minutes past. Closing arguments are under way in Hulk Hogan's invasion of privacy

trial against Gawker. In 2012 the website published an excerpt from Hogan's sex tape and claims it is protected by First Amendment because Hogan made his sex life public. But Hogan's attorney say there's a difference between the wrestler and the man who portrays him. Hogan is seeking $100 million in damages.

A construction worker is dead after plummeting 53 floors from an L.A. skyscraper. The man who is (ph) now (ph) on his second day on the job hit a moving vehicle after he fell. The driver of the vehicle is now in the hospital. The company at the site said the man was not doing anything work-related at the time of the accident.

Former CIA director David Petraeus will be making a second appearance before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. A source telling CNN he'll face the panel tomorrow in a closed session. Petraeus first testified before the committee behind closed doors in January. He led the CIA when a terrorist attack killed four Americans in Libya in 2012.

Well, you may not think heavy metal when you look at Ted Cruz but the internet does.

Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They don't have much in common. The lead singer for a heavy metal band and Ted Cruz, or do they?

MICHAEL SWEET, STRYPER LEAD SINGER: I don't really see the resemblance.

MOOS: But the internet sure does. So Michael Sweet, front man for the band Stryper surrendered the popular demand and tweeted, "I guess my doppelganger is Ted Cruz? Guess I better cancel the Stryper tour so I can focus on my campaign."

The photo Cruz resembles is of Michael back when he was 22. The two do share the same religion. Stryper is a Christian heave metal band. Michael is now joking about his Cruz connection.

SWEET: That I really am Ted Cruz and I have very big hands.

MOOS: Back in the '80s, people mistook him for Boy George. And now they ask --

SWEET: If I'm Billy Ray Cyrus. Get that all the time. Never Ted Cruz.

MOOS: He says he tends to vote Republican but is still undecided.

This is not the first time that Cruz has been accused of being a twin.

Opponents (ph) joke (ph) that (ph) Cruz is actually the Zodiac Killer or even Grandpa Monster. Cruz admits he can't sing but he calls his wife and serenades her any way.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just called to say I love you

MOOS: Michael suggests one of the band's classic could serve as the Cruz campaign song. Rival Donald Trump in mind --

SWEET (singing): To hell with the devil.

MOOS: But for the debatable doppelgangers, we suggest --

SWEET (singing): You and me together

MOSS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: To hell with the devil, isn't that redundant?

[11:00:00]

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. At this hour, Berman and Bolduan, starts now.