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Donald Trump Holds Rally In Arizona; Trump Going After Hillary Clinton On Social Media And Pinning Her Against Russian President Vladimir Putin; Paris Terror Attack Suspect Salah Abdeslam Shot In The Leg But Captured Alive In Brussels; Bernie Sanders Speaks On Immigration In Arizona. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 19, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:29] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Top of the hour. 3:00 p.m. eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us, three days ahead of Arizona's primary. Donald Trump campaigns Phoenix, his rhetoric is tough. It is leading to some protest there in more than one place, while Bernie Sanders is also speaking today in Arizona talking about one of Trump's key subject, immigration. And as you see he is right there at the border with Mexico.

And in Belgian, is hunt for the most wanted man in Europe is over. What can authorities learn from a key suspect in the Paris terror attack?

All right. Any moment now Donald Trump is set to take the stage at a huge rally in Arizona. You see Sheriff Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona there standing next to the former governor, Jan Brewer. Earlier today, Trump's anti-Trump protests blocked the main artery, the main road that was leading to this event. Traffic was stuck for miles and miles. Protestors walked along the road in hot summertime temperatures. Emotions, as you can see, running high. Immigration, a crucial issue in Arizona, home to a significant number of Hispanics and Donald Trump's stance on immigration is expected to trigger a strong response there today.

Our Jeremy Diamond is inside the event that is being held in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Look, it looks like the protests cleared up. I know, Jeremy, they made three arrests, right, for people blocking traffic?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Sheriff Joe Arpaio who is speaking right now behind us just said that three protestors were arrested in connection with that incident of protesters blocking the roadway on the way over here to this venue. And sheriff Arpaio saying that nobody is going to intimidate the Trump supporters or, of course, Donald Trump himself, who he referred to as the next president of the United States.

And behind us, you can hear the music now beefing up as we're expecting Donald Trump to begin speaking. It looks he is taking the stage right now. HARLOW: And as we wait for him to take stage, Jeremy, what are some

of the folks there telling you about their main issue right now. Why they're supporting Donald Trump?

DIAMOND: Well, certainly people here are carrying the same message that they shared, supporters shared around country. They talk about the fact that he's an outsider. They talked about the fact that he is a businessman and, of course, here in Arizona one of the key issues, striking a cord with people is immigration. And that is something they are expecting Donald Trump to speak about right now as he just took the stage.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you all very much. What a great honor.

HARLOW: All right. Let's listen in to Donald Trump, Jeremy. Thank you.

TRUMP: -- some sheriff. There's no games with you, sheriff. That's for sure. And Jan, thank you so much, and Jeff, boy, oh, boy. We have such great support, and Tuesday is so important. We have a movement going on, folks. We have got to make that movement go forward. You have an establishment has doesn't know what they're doing. They have no clue. They don't know how to win. They haven't won in a long time. They pick the people that -- they absolutely will never win with the people they talk about. Go out on Tuesday and vote. I will never let you down. Remember it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And I want to tell you, you know, so much about illegal immigration, and so much has been mentioned about it, and talked about it, and these politicians are all talk, no action. They're never going to do anything. They only picked it up because when I went and when I announced that I'm running for president I said, you know this country has a big, big problem with illegal immigration. And all of a sudden we started talking about it, and then you had lots of bad things happening. Crime all over the place. And for the first time, people saw what was going on. You had the killing of Kate. You had the killing of Jamil. You had so many killings, so much crime. Drugs pouring through the border. People are now seeing it and you know what? We're going to build the wall and we're going to stop it. It's going to end.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[15:05:14] TRUMP: I only wish these cameras, because there's nothing as dishonest as the media. That I can tell you. I only wished these cameras would spin around and show the kind of people that we have, the numbers of people that we have here. I just wish that for once, do it, because you know what? We have a silent majority that's no longer so silent. It's now the loud, noisy majority, and we're going to be heard. We're going to be heard.

So today on drudge, one of the very big stories were the border agents, they say they support Trump. That Trump is the only one running that has their backs. OK? And they can do the job, but they don't get support from the politicians. Now, why? I'm self-funding my campaign. I'm putting up my own money. These guys are all -- I look at them all up and down. We started off with 17. We're down now to three. Don't we love that? Don't we love it? Don't we love it?

We lost the future of the Republican Party last Tuesday in Florida. You know that. He was the future. He was the future of the Republican Party. Except I won Florida in a landslide, because people are tired of what the politicians are doing to our country. Remember that. They are tired of it. They are sick and tired of it. So we're going to make change, but it's not going to be Obama change. Remember, Obama change. This is going to be real change. And we' going to have a border, and unless you have a border, you don't have a country, folks. You don't have a country. Remember that.

Now, in addition, and we'll go through a list of things very quickly, because frankly, it doesn't take a long time. We are going to end common core. We are going to bring education, it will be local. Everybody wants it. We don't want our children educated by bureaucrats from Washington, D.C. So we end common core education local.

We are going to terminate Obamacare. We are going to repeal it and replace it with great healthcare for far less money. That's going to happen. That is going to happen. We are going to protect our second amendment. Our second amendment. Remember, it's under siege, like you've never seen before, and we are going to protect it.

You know in Paris which has the toughest gun laws of the world -- the world. No tougher gun laws than Paris, France. Tough. Guess what? A hundred and thirty people dead. No bullets were going in the opposite direction. It was just, boom, boom, boom. Same thing happened in California, 14 people, radicalized people. She probably radicalized him. They went in and killed 14 people that they worked with, supposedly that they liked. It's not going to happen anymore, folks. It's not going to happen.

We're going to be smart. We're going to be vigilant. We're going to be the smart people. We're going to know what we're doing. We're going to be proud of our country again.

Our military is depleted. Our military is exhausted. We don't replenish. We take. We don't replenish. We send the best equipment in the world over to -- wherever we're sending it. We don't even know. I don't even think we know where we're sending it. And a bullet gets fired in the air and the people we send the equipment to, they flee. And the enemy takes over this great equipment and they have better equipment than we do, and they are using our equipment. Those days are done. Those days are done.

We are going to rebuild our military. It's going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever, and hopefully nobody, nobody, and hopefully we're not going to have to use it, but I guarantee you this -- nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to mess with us anymore. All right? Nobody.

(CHANTING "USA!")

[15:10:04] TRUMP: I love you, too. I love you, too. L love you. You know, I love this country. I feel so -- I have such a spot in my heart for this country. The people are so amazing. No matter where we go. We have crowds like this. I mean, this is a pretty big one. In Alabama we had 31,000 people. Oklahoma -- no matter where we go we have these massive crowds.

And by the way, are we winning or what? Look at the numbers. Man. You know, it's really amazing. It's really, to me, it's really amazing. We've won now, I think, 21 states. OK, 21. And we've won in massive, massive landslides. Started with New Hampshire. I wasn't supposed to win New Hampshire. Ted Cruz, can you believe it? He wasn't born in our country, folks! He was born in Canada. He is weak on immigration. He is in favor of amnesty. He shouldn't even be in the same category with the people that we're talking about. But Ted Cruz was supposed to win, but definitely was going to win in South Carolina. So I go New Hampshire. We win in a massive landslide. We go to South Carolina. Well, you have the evangelicals, now, 68 percent.

But you know, lying Ted. We call him lying Ted. Lying Ted. So lying Ted comes up with the bible high and he is going with the bible, and he puts it down, and he starts lying. And you know what? The evangelicals don't like liars. So we go into South Carolina. That was his stronghold. That was going to be an easy victory --

HARLOW: Donald Trump speaking live in Fountain Hills, Arizona introduced by the former governor Jan Brewer and the sheriff of Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We will keep monitoring this.

Talk about what we've heard so far with the Trump supporter, Jeffrey Lord, former White House director for President Reagan. Thank you for being with us. We heard some headlines. There he said you have no country if you do not have a border. He said, look, I'm the one who started this illegal immigration discussion.

But let me ask you this. When you look at the party as a whole, Jeffrey, and when you look ahead to a general election, if he is indeed the nominee, what about the GOP autopsy report that came out after Romney lost in 2012 that said we have to do a much better job of tapping into minorities, of getting the support of minorities? How does Trump walk those lines as he make these remarks today in Arizona? How does he also make sure he has the (INAUDIBLE) Hispanic vote?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Poppy, I think the autopsy report was wrong. And I think, frankly, I mean, this is the criticism I have of the Republican establishment, is that they are basically Democrat-like. And the Democratic Party, I won't go into all the history here, but they basically have a long, long history right from the beginning of appealing to people base on race which began in 1800 when the party first appeared on the scene with Thomas Jefferson.

This is the wrong way to do this. Latinos are American. African- Americans are Americans. Donald Trump tends to appeal to these people as Americans, and based on ideas about economics, foreign policy, et cetera, not by race. That is the approach that I think should be taken with everybody in this country. We are all American citizens. Races I frequently quote President Kennedy from his Birmingham speech in 1963, has no place in America, life or law. And so I think that we should just approach people of all backgrounds exactly the same way based on the fact that they are Americans.

HARLOW: Do you think, Jeffrey, quickly, that Donald Trump, your candidate, has enough support among minority voters to win in the general? Because the numbers didn't bear out for Romney.

LORD: Yes, I do. I think, Poppy, I think I'm correct in saying that the exit polls in Florida showed that he did very well in the Hispanic community. So yes, I do.

HARLOW: All right, Jeffrey lord. Thank you very much. Stay with me.

Ahead, a lot this hour on Monday night, a CNN presidential primetime event. All of the remaining Democratic and Republican candidates make their cases to the voters on the same night only on CNN. The five final candidates, Monday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern hosted by our Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer.

Ahead tonight, also, Donald Trump, not the only candidate in the southwest today. Senator Bernie Sanders speaking in the shadow of the border fence. You will hear from his next.

Also, the world's most wanted man behind bars. What does the arrest of the suspect in the Paris attack mean in the fight against ISIS? We will discuss.

And later in the hour, what do people around the world think of a Donald Trump potential presidency? What do global experts say he could do in terms of the global economy, the terrorism threat? We'll go through it all, ahead. Stay with us.

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[15:18:25] HARLOW: Right now Donald Trump is speaking live in Fountain Hills, Arizona at a rally. He is focusing on immigration. Let's listen.

TRUMP: -- choked. Pure and simple. He choked like a dog and that's not going to happen. That doesn't happen with me. So here's the story. Here's the story. We're going to tell our company, come on back, folks. Come on back. You left. We had incompetent leadership. You left, and they're not going to come back. They're going to say we're not coming back, why should we? We're in Mexico. We are all over the place. Here's what we have to do.

You know, Jeb Bush would say, he is not a conservative. I'm conservative, folks, but I'm also like, smart. You know? Smart. Hey, look, Jeb spent $48 million in New Hampshire. I spent $2 million. I won in a landslide. He was number six. I mean, give me a break. OK? Give me a break. He is not a conservative. I am a conservative but, you know, they get me on trade because they say he is not a free trader. I'm a free trader but it's got to be smart trade. It has got to be

good for us. Not bad for us. OK? And if our incompetent politicians use political hacks to negotiate trade deals --

HARLOW: Also speaking about immigration this morning, Bernie Sanders. Democratic candidate digging into Donald Trump at a news conference at the U.S./Mexico border earlier today slamming Trump's views on immigration. This is all ahead of a crucial primary. Arizona on Tuesday.

Our Chris Frates is in Washington.

And, Chris, it is interesting to me. So Sanders speaks at the border this morning. He goes hard after Trump. Clinton not on the trail today is that right?

[15:20:03] CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And what was so interesting, Poppy, to watch, was, you know, in that tour and that visit to the border, he did take these shots at Donald Trump's immigration policy. Sanders saying the country does not need a wall or barbed wire. Here's what he had to say about it, Poppy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To insult an entire nation is not befitting of anybody, let alone a candidate for president of the United States. Our job as always is to bring people together. Not drive them apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So Sanders has been campaigning very, very hard out west, and it's a region where he thinks voters might be more open to his message. It is a place where he thinks he can make up some of the ground he has lost to Hillary Clinton. And yesterday, he was in all three states that have contests on Tuesday. He hit Arizona. He hit Utah. He hit Idaho and he has been spending a good chunk of his time in Arizona. That's no surprise. The Grand Canyon state has the most delegates at stake on Tuesday. They have 75 delegates up for grabs.

So Sanders really has been putting some time in, in Arizona. As you point out, Poppy, Hillary Clinton has not been to any of those states. She's been doing a lot of fund-raising. Bill Clinton will be in Arizona on Sunday. Hillary will be there on Monday - Poppy.

HARLOW: I think it's interesting, this recent piece in the "New York Times," Chris, pointed out Clinton's camp is looking ahead more to a general election. Looking at what it would be like to run against Donald Trump and saying some of those campaign officials, to the "Times" that she would try to run a quote "campaign against bigotry really playing on and focusing on Trump's stances on immigration, as they see them. So we will be watching sort of how that strategy shifts especially heading into Arizona as Clinton faces off with Sanders there.

Thank you, Chris Frates. We will get back to you. I do want to take our viewers to our Stephanie Elam, because she is

live in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

And Steph, you are right with some of those protestors, right, some of the protesters at (INAUDIBLE) like a few hours this morning. What are they saying?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Poppy. They have made their way to the protest, to the rally to protest, as we expected. So you see a lot of people here who have signs. I'll step out of the way so you can see it. "Hate it not welcome in our state" love Trump's hate." These are kinds of signs that are out here. They are mixed in in the middle of a lot of the supporters of Donald Trump who came out here as well. But what's interesting, too, about this setup now and the way that this rally is set up, where Donald Trump is speaking it's really far out into the distance. They moved the barricade back when we were here earlier so the people who are protesting out here, they are far removed from Donald Trump. They are not wipe up in this face. But there are good number of people who are out here.

But there are also a lot of people out here supporting Donald Trump who came out here at 8:00 in the morning, some of them, to line up to get inside of this event. It's a free event but they had to sign up to get tickets online.

You have right here, but when you take a look at it, a lot of people who just here to just get attention and then there is other people here who are genuinely here. If you look up past here, asking my photographer Jordan to show this. They're here to support Donald Trump. Have been here. You can see them and you hear the chants there. But then there are -- yes. There are also people here that are showing that they are not down with the idea of hate being a message, and that something that these people feel is out there. Obviously, you have a situation like this. You hear things that you don't want to hear. So we apologize to viewers who heard that, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. Stephanie Elam. We know it's a fluid sort of uncontrollable situation. Thank you very much. Bring us more when you have it.

We are going to take a quick break. We are going to keep monitoring Donald Trump speaking live there.

Also a lot of global news to get to including the arrest of the most wanted man in Europe.

Much more on that, straight ahead. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:30] HARLOW: We are continuing to monitor Donald Trump speaking live there in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Speaking largely about immigration, bashing, though, his opponents on the Democratic side. Taking a swing at mitt Romney as well. We will keep monitoring.

On the other side of your screen you see a number of protestors who stopped traffic for a while today for miles and miles protesting Donald Trump at this event. We will bring you more in a moment.

Though, I do want to get to this. Because Europe's most wanted man has been captured.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

HARLOW: This gunfight ended with Paris terror attack suspect Salah Abdeslam shot in the leg captured alive in Brussels. It all took place in the suburb of Molenbeek yesterday. Four other people arrested along with him. One was later released without being charged.

For four months this man, Abdeslam, had evaded a global manhunt that stretched from Belgium to Syria. Remember, this is the man who was stopped by authorities driving to Belgium in the hours following the Paris attack. That attack claimed 130 lives. At the time, though, authorities didn't know he was one of the suspected terrorists, so they let him go. They have been hunting for him ever since.

With me now is our senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir. She is on the outskirts of Brussels. You are in Molenbeek. This is the suburb where he looked for ages and ages for him. And it turns out that he was basically hiding in plain sight. What do we know about who may have been helping him evade authorities for so long?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, we are just a street away from the original raid site in those days following the Paris attacks. We stood just a few houses from where I'm standing now watching police for Salah Abdeslam. And it turns out her was finally found just here around the corner.

The broader network which is what you were touching on, really what is crucial now. That's what investigators are trying to ascertain in their questioning of him. The fact that he was able to disappear in plain sight for all of these months. That gives them a sense that there is a much wider network than they had suspected supporting him. And even the raid in forest, which through sheer happenstance on Tuesday triggered the series of events that led them to Salah Abdeslam here in Molenbeek, even that, that was part of a series, a sequence of safe houses dotted around this city. And that's what they're going to be looking to pin down now in their questioning of him, because there are still key conspirators on the run. Already he is giving detail, describing a role that investigators are characterizing as central to the conspiracy that led to Paris. They believe that he deployed, those commando teams. They believe he ferried them, that he rented the car. What they still don't understand is why he, in his own words, decided not to detonate that day in front of the (INAUDIBLE), Poppy.

HARLOW: The fact thought that he is speaking them is huge because they didn't know if he would give them any information that would help them -- lead to clues about this bigger network. So that is quite a development.

Nima, thank you so much, live for us tonight in Molenbeek, Belgium. We are going to take a quick break and then we are going to take you

back to Belgium and talk about this in the bigger context. The fears that exist. The capture of Abdeslam is going to trigger embedded ISIS cells to potentially carry out more attacks? Kimberly Dozier is with me next on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:34:04] HARLOW: Donald Trump just wrapped up speaking at a rally in Fountain Hills, Arizona focusing largely on immigration. The rally held up a little bit by a number of protestors who stopped traffic for miles and miles leading up to it.

Meantime, let me take you overseas because the final suspect of the Paris terrorist attacks that left 130 people dead, well he is now in custody. His name, Sala Abdeslam. He was shot yesterday in the leg following a fierce gunfight with authorities, right now being questioned by those authorities in Belgium. The terror suspect was found a Brussels suburb. But it is a pretty frightening reality when you think that Abdeslam was able to hide so long in such a small neighborhood essentially in plain sight.

Our global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier is with me from that suburb of Molenbeek.

When you look at what the prosecutor just said there, Francois Hollande, just said that Abdeslam has told authorities his plan was to blow himself up along with some of the others at the (INAUDIBLE) but then backed down at the last moment, but the prosecutor also warning, take that with a grain of salt, Kimberly. What's your assessment?

[15:35:11] KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the first news is, it is good news for Brussels. Their intelligence service is always getting beaten up as being too small, underfunded. There's a lot of criticism from both U.S. and British intelligence services that they don't have enough penetration of the terrorist networks in neighborhoods like this. So this means they finally did get some progress, and some penetration.

But what they're hoping to find out is just how big this network is. The worry is that, you know, as we've been hearing from U.S. officials, something like 1,500 hardened fighters from ISIS have hidden themselves in the refugee flows and also in criminal networks and come to areas like this and there could be other cells waiting to launch new attacks in revenge.

HARLOW: What about that? Because you have spoken extensively about that. The fear some of these embedded ISIS cells will try to carry out something? Even a symbolic attack to show that they are still here, that they are still able to harm?

DOZIER: Well, U.S. intelligence does know that there are cells, but they don't know at what stage, how large they are what stage of planning they're in, and the fact that this suspect was able to hide here so long really gives them pause. Now, I'm in Brussels for some the called German martial forum and it

has a lot of top Belgium and officials at it. And during the raids last night they actually whisked one U.S. official away, Belgian police did. They later allowed him to return saying it was a false alarm. But there is concern among those officials that they could be targets of something unknown that they haven't yet penetrated.

HARLOW: Are your intelligence sources, Kimberly, telling you indeed some of these hardened jihadi ISIS fighters are returning from Syria, et cetera, from these training camps to Europe?

DOZIER: To Europe, different European officials have spoken about this. I have also spoken to U.S. military officials who say they are trying to track some of these people as they leave places like Iraq and Syria, and share that information on with European law enforcement.

At this point they don't know how many, but they know that there are cells here. There will be future plots that they hope to intercept. At this point, because there's this intricate lattice work of European intelligence services that don't all yet work well together and are a little suspicious sometimes of sharing with each other, it's going to take several months. This is like a post-9/11 moment in the United States for Europe learning how to share intelligence.

HARLOW: And that is critical as we talked a lot about in the days following the Paris attack, and it does look like some of this intelligence sharing is getting stronger among the authorities there in Europe.

Kimberly Dozier live for us tonight in Molenbeek. Thank you so much.

I do want to take you to Russia now. That is where the U.S.-based NTSB, those investigators, are set to travel to the scene of a terrifying plane crash that happened late last night. According to Russian state media, this video shows the moment when the plane went down. You see the explosion in the background. All 62 people onboard were killed. It was fly-divide Boeing 737 jet. It circled the airport for more than two hours because of bad weather, only crashed at (INAUDIBLE) airport.

Russian media reporters on the scene have found both the flight data recorder and one of the flight's voice recorders. Obviously, they are trying to get bottom of what caused this plane to be downed.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:33] HARLOW: Republican front-runner Donald Trump going after Hillary Clinton on social media pinning her against Russian president Vladimir Putin. This is in one of his latest Instagram ads. Look.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

HARLOW: Well, that ad certainly sparking reaction from the Kremlin. Our international correspondent Matthew Chance has more on that for us

-- Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Poppy.

It was a little bizarre, actually. It shows the Russian president Vladimir Putin showing an opponent in a judo bout then he cuts to Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic Party rival with the sound of a dog barking as if it's her making that noise. Then cuts again to Putin laughing hysterically. The idea being that Clinton can't stand up to American opponents.

But I can tell you, the Kremlin isn't amused. Its spokesmen saying that the video demonizes Russia's image. This is what he says. I don't know if Putin has seen the video, the spokesman says, but our attitude is negative. It is an open secret, he continues, that demonizing Russia and whatever's linked to Russia is a hallmark of America's election campaign. We regret this and wish the U.S. electoral process was conducted without such references to our country.

Back to you, Poppy.

HARLOW: Matthew Chance for us in Moscow.

I want to get another world view on Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner.

CNN correspondent Matt Rivers is in Beijing, China for us with that reaction -- Matt.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy when it comes to Donald Trump's perception in China, look no farther than an editorial published in a state-run newspaper here earlier this week that called the front- runner among other things a rich narcissist and a clown.

Now, those strong words likely in part due to Trump's consistent China bashing where he says that China has stole's U.S. jobs and Trump has even threaten to put on tariff on Chinese exports.

Now, ordinary people here called those policies and statements unfair and saying they are simply rhetoric designed to attract votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most people in U.S., they can -- they need to -- that's why he said, Chinese people is cheating the U.S.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Now, to be fair, Donald Trump is certainly not a household name here China yet, but the people that we have spoken to that know who he is and have heard him talk about China, Poppy, they are certainly not big fans at this point.

[15:45:08] HARLOW: Matt Rivers in Beijing. And I want to take you now to Jerusalem. That is where our Oren

Liebermann has the view of some Israelis on the rise of Donald Trump.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, Donald Trump is just as divisive in Israel as he is the U.S. His comments about registering Muslims in the U.S. pictures that have echoes of a Nazi salute t Trump rallies, these are very, very frightening to many Israelis. And when he said he would be the quote "neutral" guy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that language, that doesn't win him many fans among Israelis. And yet, some Israelis see him as far better for the country than President Barack Obama. And they are willing to forgive Trump for just about everything long as long as he's pro-Israel.

But what is interesting about all of this is that it may not be Trump who is the most popular candidate here. Clinton may very well out pace him. Analysts here say she still pulls a lot of the popularity of Bill Clinton. When he spoke at a rally here late last year, the crowd went wild for him, and Hillary Clinton may be able to capitalize on that enthusiasm - Poppy.

HARLOW: Oren Liebermann for us in Jerusalem, thank you so much for that.

Coming up we're going to talk a lot more about some of the warnings that have been expressed by experts when it comes to the potential of the Donald Trump presidency in terms of global threats. The global economy, et cetera. We'll examine that. And those claims, are they factual next? Stay with us for that.

And also, this -- this week's "CNN hero" once had a brush with the law only to be given a second chance. He went on to become an elite chef. And today he is helping other former inmates get their life back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming back from prison after somebody's done their time, everyone deserves a second chance.

I right hand moves, my left hand follows.

I can see it and feel it and given the gifts to fight to make sure that that door does get opened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So how does Brandon open that door? To find out, watch his story. Just go to CNNheroes.com. While you are there, we want you to nominate a hero of your own. Someone you think should be named the 2016 hero of the year.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:51:11] HARLOW: The possibility, the real possibility of a Donald Trump presidency has triggered a warning from some experts who assess global threat. The economist magazine's research firm has ranked a Trump presidency among the top ten risks facing the planet. They warn specifically that his attitudes on free trade could disrupt the global economy and they warn that his stance on Muslims in America could increase jihadi recruitment and terror.

Let's talk it all over with Jeffrey Lord. He is a Trump supporter. He is back with me.

Look, you were Reagan's political director and I want to compare this time in global relations to then. Do you think at all that Donald Trump's, this version of Donald Trump if you will that we see on the campaign trail needs to change at all if he is in the oval office and he has to forge relationships like what Reagan forged with Mikail Gorvachev or Margaret Hatcher (ph)? Does he have to change the temperament to telling the world?

LORD: Yes. Poppy, you are making a good point. I would point not just to what Reagan was like as president but what the reaction around the world before he was president to his candidacy. And he was repeatedly called a cowboy, irresponsible, he was going to get us in World War III. This went on and on. And frankly, it went on while he was president and the beginning of his term.

If you remember there was a television movie about a nuclear attack in the middle of Kansas. There were a million people or so that gathered in New York to protest Ronald Reagan. And they thought he was bringing World War 3. So I see a lot of similarities with that. Donald Trump is a very responsible guy. He built this entire --

HARLOW: But you said yes at the beginning, Jeffrey. You said yes. So you do think some things need to change if he does take the oval office.

LORD: I think that Donald Trump is a very responsible guy. He built this entire Trump organization, the formal name of his business, which is not possible to do unless you have a solid good level temperament, unless you have good judgment, unless you can judge people, unless you can, in his phrase, make deals which is what Ronald Reagan was about as well. So yes, absolutely but --

HARLOW: Here is something that didn't happen to Reagan, and that is what has been debated in parliament and the United Kingdom. And that is the possibility of banning Donald Trump from the country after what he said about Muslims in this country. How do you get him to work with the UK, for example, one of America's strongest allies?

LORD: Well, the reaction I find the reaction, that reaction, is more or less the British equivalent of the intolerant left as I call them. And this is what they do. I mean, Donald Trump's position on this is -- I mean, as I think I said when I was in the studio once, Poppy, we're all immigrants here, descendants of immigrants. All he is saying is stop the flow until we can figure out what's going on, fix the system and start it up again. That seems eminently reasonable when you have people coming in here and killing -- HARLOW: here you have the parliament of one of our greatest allies

debating over whether he should be banned in their country. Before I let you go, though, Jeffrey, I do want to ask you on the economic front. Because this is really important, the economy is issue number one democratic voters and Republican voters right now. And you had recently the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, one of the biggest multinational companies, coming out and saying that if Donald Trump's proposal for a 35 percent tariff on imported goods were to actually be enacted, that would cause a recession. That would sink this country into recession. And that goes along the lines of what these economists are saying from this research group. Do you think some of these policies he's thrown out would be harmful to the economy?

LORD: Well, I mean, I think the answer to this, Poppy, is when you look for instance at that famous now famous viral video of the people at carrier air conditioning, I mean, the current economic policy that we have was decidedly harmful to them. All of these people, 1400 people who were lost their jobs. You can't get any more harmful than that. When you realize that a companies are leaving the country, leaving this country deliberately to go to Ireland, for instance, to avoid the U.S. tax structure.

I mean, this is harmful right now. So, I mean, we need to get out of the realm of theory and get down to what is in fact happening in this country right this minute. That's what he is talking about.

[15:55:33] HARLOW: Jeffrey Lord, stay with me. A lot more to get to it. I do want to get a break in, though. Jeffrey will be with us next hour.

I also want to point you to this, a big, big day tomorrow on this program, you will see history made as the president lands around 5:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow night in Cuba. He will become the first U.S. president to visit that country in 88 years. You will see it live right here.

And later, you'll get a fascinating up and close view, a personal view of Cuba. This is the season premiere of the CNN original series the wonder list, Bill Weir takes us into Cuba tomorrow night 10:00 p.m. eastern only right here. We'll be right back.

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[16:00:00] HARLOW: 4:00 eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow. Thank you for joining us.

We begin with Donald Trump who just wrapped up a rally in Arizona. He spoke largely today about immigration. He did slam his chief rival Senator Ted Cruz saying quote "evangelicals do not like liars."