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Presidential Candidates Sit Down For Interviews Tonight; Trump Meeting With Republicans In Congress; Clinton Blasts Republicans At Pro-Israel Conference; Sanders Not Speaking At Pro-Israel Conference; Kasich Says He's Only One Who Can Win In The Fall; Obama's Visit to Cuba; New Suspect Named. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 21, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. It's also 1:00 p.m. in Havana, 7:00 p.m. in Jerusalem. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We start with a very big day for the five remaining presidential candidates. Tonight, each one will sit down for interviews right here on CNN with myself and Anderson Cooper.

Four of the five are also taking part today in a major meeting with the country's leading pro-Israel advocacy group. Hillary Clinton spoke this morning at the AIPAC meeting, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee that's going on at the Verizon Center here in Washington. The three Republican hopefuls speak there later today.

Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, won't be there. Instead, he's campaigning in Utah today ahead of tomorrow's caucuses. It's Utah, Idaho and Arizona tomorrow for the Democrats. For the Republicans, it's contests only in Utah and Arizona.

Two of the bigger story lines today are Hillary Clinton's appearance at AIPAC and Donald Trump's arrival here in Washington, D.C. Trump is expected to speak next hour from the site of the old Post Office Building which is now a Trump hotel project on Pennsylvania Avenue, not far from the White House.

And last hour, he started meeting with a group of Republican lawmakers.

Joining us now, Brianna Keilar. She's over at the site of the AIPAC conference at Verizon Center. Sara Murray is at the old Post Office Building following the Trump meeting.

Sara, what do we know, first of all, about this closed-door meeting that Trump is having with Republican members of Congress and others?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, just as interesting as the people who are there are the people who aren't. The people who are not there are any of the Republican leaders. Mitch McConnell is not there. Paul Ryan is not there. But a handful of these sort of rank and file members, some members of Congress who have endorsed Donald Trump have already arrived. We are expecting Tom Cotton to be there as well.

And this is sort of an effort for Donald Trump to meet with these folks behind closed doors. Maybe give him a better sense of what kind of outreach he wants to do here in Washington, as he tries to sort of convince the Washington establishment to coalesce behind him.

But the other thing we know is the anti-Trump forces are already out there. They're monitoring this meeting. They're handing out Never Trump stickers. And they are trying to do sort of the same thing. They're trying to push these establishment Republicans not to jump onto the Trump train and to sort of hold off and see if there's still a way to thwart him ahead of the convention -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, we'll see what happens at that meeting. It could be very significant. What are you hearing, Sara, about his strategy going into his big speech later today before the AIPAC gathering at Verizon Center?

MURRAY: Well, you'll remember the last time he spoke in front of a pro-Israel group, he caused quite a stir. People did not feel like he was as supportive of Israel as he needed to be. This time, he's going in with a little bit of a different strategy. We're hearing he's going to be preparing remarks. We hear it's going to be a more substantive speech. Very different from Donald Trump who usually speaks off the cuff.

This is an effort for him to try to be more presidential. Now, it's interesting because people didn't really have worries about his support for Israel until he became a presidential candidate, until he started saying more questionable things on the campaign trail. This will be an effort to sort of smooth out those issues. And try to convince, especially Republicans, that he is supportive enough of Israel that he would be a supportive president of Israel if he does win the nomination -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Sara, stand by. Brianna is over there at Verizon Center. About 18,000 pro-Israel advocates are going to be there. What are the expectations you're hearing over there, Brianna, for Trump's address later today?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They're really not sure what to expect, Wolf. But what I can tell you is, by and large, folks who are here at the AIPAC conference are not fans of what they have heard from Donald Trump so far. Some of his remarks that they took to not be very supportive of Israel, where he's talked about being neutral in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. That is the antithesis of what they want to be hearing from a presidential candidate here. It was also pretty significant, Wolf. This morning, as things got kicked off, AIPAC leadership in the -- as they addressed the crowd here said, look, we have invited some candidates who we don't necessarily agree with in substance and tone. So, you knew exactly who they were talking about.

But what they did is they implored the crowd here to be polite. They said, if you agree, clap. If you don't agree clap, don't clap. I think there's certainly some concern about some folks who could walk out or even if there's some sort of interruption because of Donald Trump's appearance here.

BLITZER: How did Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, do? She spoke this morning at the AIPAC gathering. What was her bottom-line message?

KEILAR: Well, her bottom-line message is that she is the person who is best equipped to deal with foreign policy, as president.

[13:05:06] And the other -- I think the other bottom line was that Donald Trump is not. That was her message. She hit him over and over again. And this was a very receptive crowd to that. She took aim at his statements about being neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so that you can negotiate a peace accord.

And she actually said that he -- basically, without naming names by Donald Trump, she called him a bully. Said he inspires violence and practices bigotry. Here's some more of what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Israel's security is non-negotiable. Yes, we need steady hands, not a president who says he's neutral on Monday, pro-Israel on Tuesday and who knows what on Wednesday, because everything's negotiable.

Some things aren't negotiable and anyone who doesn't understand that has no business being our president. If you see bigotry, oppose it. If you see violence, condemn it. If you see a bully, stand up to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: The RNC responding, Wolf, to some of Hillary Clinton's remarks saying that only a Republican president will reverse this administration's break with Israel. Highlighting that, at times, rather frosty relationship between prime minister Netanyahu and President Obama.

But even Hillary Clinton was drawing some contrast between herself and President Obama. She's aware that there have been concerns about the Obama administration in this crowd and she wanted to convince folks here at AIPAC that there will not be any sort of wedge between her and Israel if she is to be president.

BLITZER: Of the five remaining presidential candidates, only Bernie Sanders, Brianna, has decided not to come to Washington to speak at the event. What's the reaction over there to his decision?

KEILAR: I think there's certainly some surprise and also because Bernie Sanders is the only Jewish candidate in the race. But he's clearly made a calculation that he needs to concentrate on these western contests. This is where the Sanders' campaign thinks that they have some advantage even though they are trailing so much in the delegate count with Hillary Clinton.

But he will be giving a foreign policy speech tonight in Utah where he's clearly going to try to make his case and he'll be addressing some of the things that he would have addressed had he come to AIPAC. But it certainly is a noticeable absence -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Brianna Keilar and Sara Murray, thanks so much. We're going to get back to you.

I want to talk about all of this with our political panel. Joining us, Political Strategist Angela Rye, she's a former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. Also, Matt Lewis, he's a CNN Political Commentator, Senior Contributor to "The Daily Caller." And John Phillips, he's a radio talk show host at KABC and a Donald Trump supporter.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. First of all, this meeting, Matt, what are you hearing about this private meeting that's going on right now that Trump is meeting with some Republican lawmakers? I assume he's trying to reassure them that if he is the nominee, he can work with Congress, work with the Republican leadership.

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. This -- we've been saying, for months now, Trump's about the pivot and become more normal, more of a traditional politician who wants to bring people together. And every time he starts to do that, he does something else. So, we'll see if maybe this is finally the beginning of that.

There is some pushback from people like Erick Erickson, a conservative talk radio host and conservative blogger who is on part of the never Trump campaign, who thinks that Republicans are basically selling out by even meeting with him. I think that the most interesting person attending is Tom Cotton who does not seem to be a Donald Trump -- the type of Republican who becomes a Donald Trump fan. I'm curious why he's there. I think, otherwise, they are mostly supporters of his. But why is Tom Cotton there? That's really the big question.

BLITZER: The Senator, John Phillips, from Arkansas, he's an Iraq War veteran, a Harvard Law School graduate. Obviously, he's got a huge future ahead of him right now. Give us your analysis. What's he doing there and what is this meeting all about?

JOHN PHILLIPS, HOST, KABC: Well, this is the establishment acknowledging that Trump is the only game in town. And it may be one of these situations where your daughter is dating this guy who maybe has some long hair and tattoos and piercings you don't like. But they're engaged and they're going to get married. And you don't like it but you finally come to acknowledge that they're going to get married and if you want to see the grandkids, you better make nice.

And that's what the Republican establishment is doing right now. They don't like Donald Trump. They would certainly prefer another candidate to be the Republican nominee. But that's just not in the cards this year and this is them tactically (ph) acknowledging that.

BLITZER: What is your reaction when you hear about this meeting going on, Angela? You've been in closed-door meetings with politicians over the years.

ANGELA RYE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Sure. I think, first and foremost, there are probably some attendees who just are fascinated with Donald Trump's rise. There have to be some people in the room who are just, like, I just really want to know how this happened.

[13:10:02] So, I went -- I know, earlier today, there were a lot of reports that there was going to be Super Pacs who use this against these Republican participants. I wouldn't necessarily think that that means they're pro-Trump. Certainly, the folks who are listed are but I don't think that that necessarily is the case for those that haven't --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: I want to play for you, Matt, this is John Kasich, who's also a Republican presidential candidate, he won his home state of Ohio, saying this is going all the way. Listen to what he said on CNN's "NEW DAY" today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is not going to be enough delegates for anybody. And when we go to a convention, they are going to consider two things. One is who can win in the fall? And I'm the only person that can win in the fall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Is he right?

LEWIS: Oh, I don't think he's right. I think it's possible that Donald Trump could beat Hillary. I think it's certainly possible that Ted Cruz could beat Hillary. Maybe if you're looking -- if electability is your primary concern, Kasich should be on the ticket. I think that's sort of his play is to go to the convention. Don't let Donald Trump get the 1,237 delegates. And Maybe Kasich ends up being in the compromise running mate of Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Well, let me get your reaction, John Phillips, to what Kasich said that he's the only person among the Republican candidates that could actually win a general election.

PHILLIPS: OK. It's mathematically impossible for him to pick up the delegates required to win this thing outright.

BLITZER: But what if there's an open --

PHILLIPS: So, --

BLITZER: -- what if there's a contested convention? No one gets the nomination in the first round. It goes to a second, or third or fourth round and he emerges as the nominee.

PHILLIPS: OK, but that's a hail Mary pass. That hasn't happened in the Republican Party in years and years and years. And if it goes to a contested convention, if it goes beyond that first ballot, then that opens up the floodgates to other candidates. People whose names that weren't necessarily on the ballot in the primary.

So, what's to say that everyone's going to rush to John Kasich? This could open things up for Mitt Romney. This could open things up for a Paul Ryan. In which case the Trump people are going to go absolutely bananas if he comes in there with a plurality. I don't see that as a likely scenario. I think that John Kasich -- if John Kasich thinks that he's going to be the nominee, he's delusional.

BLITZER: Go ahead, Angela, what's your reaction?

RYE: I think -- I don't believe that John Kasich could be the nominee. I also think that it's ridiculous that Donald Trump supporters continue to talk about this plurality thing if it's a majority. It's not. And I think that if they're going to be beholding to the Republican Party, which he agreed to do by signing off on that little thing that said that he wasn't going to run as an independent, then he needs to be beholden to the rule

BLITZER: What Trump has said is let's say he gets almost at 1,237 --

RYE: Yes.

BLITZER: -- which is the magic number. Let's say he's a hundred short. But other candidates are 500 short or even more short. It would be -- he said that his supporters -- they might have riots if he didn't get the nomination.

RYE: I get it. And that is exactly the problem, Wolf. He should stop encouraging riots even in implicitly.

BLITZER: We're going to see Donald Trump do something pretty unusual today at the AIPAC speech we're told. He's actually going to have a prepared text. He's going to read a speech. He may even have a teleprompter there. We haven't seen that so far all of these many months, have we?

LEWIS: No, and it raises the question, can he do it? Will he be good at it, right? Because a lot of his appeal has been that he is impromptu and that he is not scripted, that he's not a regular politician. But, again, we've been saying for a long time now, at some point, Trump pivots. He becomes a more traditional politician, maybe he can bring people to support him. He's got a lot of ground to make up.

And, most probably, what he said at the debate about being a neutral broker between the Palestinians and Israel. That is a big, big deal. And can he clean that up in his speech? He's going to need a teleprompter if he's going to pull that off.

BLITZER: Well, I'm sure he's going to try to clean that up but we shall see. All right, guys, stand by. We have more to discuss.

This important note to our viewers. Later tonight starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Anderson Cooper and I will be interviewing all five remaining presidential candidates, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. You can see one of those interviews, by the way, early. I'll be speaking to Donald Trump in "THE SITUATION ROOM" 5:00 p.m. Eastern. Please join us for that. Coming up, history now in the making. President Obama and the Cuban

president, Raul Castro, they are meeting right now in Havana. They're expected to come out and speak to the news media this hour.

And Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, she's part of the congressional delegation traveling with president Obama right now. She's standing by to join us live from Havana.

And authorities may already be getting valuable information from the alleged terrorist who was captured in Belgium. Was he planning another terror attack?

[13:14:30]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:24] BLITZER: It was unthinkable only a year and a half or so ago, a warm handshake between cold war foes in Cuba. After decades of animosity, today marked a pivotal moment in the relationship between President Obama and the Cuban president, Raul Castro. The two are meeting at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana.

Earlier, President Obama honored the Cuban revolutionary hero, Jose Marti, with a wreath at his memorial. It was a moment of respect in an iconic location, Revolution Square, where Fidel Castro's long and winding speeches once drew massive crowds.

Members of Congress, along with U.S. business leaders, are accompanying President Obama on this historic visit to Cuba. Among them, Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. She's joining us now live from Havana.

Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D), MINNESOTA: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: In a nutshell, how significant do you believe this visit is?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, this is significant for the people of Cuba, who have been way ahead of their government. All those 500,000 entrepreneurs that want to do business with the United States. I also think it's significant for the people of America to see their president here, to see a Major League Baseball team play and to realize that Congress has been holding things up, those that don't want to lift this embargo, which really would mean more jobs for the U.S. From Minnesota we see the ag potential, the exports and people want to get in there and do business. Eleven million people 90 miles off our shore.

[13:20:02] BLITZER: I want to play a little clip. This is Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, speaking about Raul Castro's absence at the airport in Havana when President Obama arrived. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He landed in Cuba, and Raul Castro, or Fidel Castro, but Raul Castro, who's the head of Cuba, wasn't there to greet him. He wasn't there for the president of the United States. I mean, we are amateur hour, folks. Amateur hour. And, honestly, Obama should have turned the plane around and left. No, he should have. He should have turned it around. He should have said, bye-bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, your reaction to that. You landed, obviously, around the same time.

KLOBUCHAR: We'll I'd say that for 55 years presidents have been saying bye-bye and look where it's gotten us. We've cut off a relationship, no better human rights in Cuba. And today the president had extensive meetings with Raul Castro. There's a state dinner tonight. And so far people have been greeted with open arms by so many entrepreneurs in Cuba that say, we want to change this policy. We have had it with the socialism in the country and we want to see a different government, we want to push the envelope.

And the only way you do that is by opening up diplomatic relationship, like our president has done. And the business interest here, incredible number of CEOs, they want to do business here. It's best for America. So let's get it moving. And he can use all the rhetoric he wants and finger pointing and making fun of everything, but there's real work being done here.

BLITZER: I know you're there with some other members of Congress that are there. You're trying to lead this bipartisan effort to lift the long standing U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Congress is going to have to pass legislation. Do you have enough support in the Senate to pass that legislation?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, we are -- I have 24 authors now, co-sponsors on the bill. Senator Flake is here with me and he's done incredible work for years. We feel good about this bill. Dozens of other senators have said they'll vote for it. We need it to come to the floor. We need it to go through the banking committee to the floor because if you just lift the travel ban, which the president is valiantly trying to do, if you bring in 5 million Americans a year, if we don't lift the embargo, pretty soon they're going to be sleeping in Spanish hotels and eating Chinese food. We need to have America doing business here and working with Cuba.

BLITZER: As you know, there have been some highly publicized arrests of political dissidents in Havana over the past few days. This is seen as another snub at the president of the United States. I know you're worried about the human rights situation in Cuba right now. What have you seen on the ground?

KLOBUCHAR: Well, first of all, I think it's incredibly important that the president is meeting with dissident leaders. He'll be meeting with the group of women who have just so courageously been protesting through the Catholic Church. The Ladies in White. He's going to be meeting with leading dissidents. Obviously a few have been recently released, but there's so much work to be done. And the way you get that work done is working with the Catholic Church, working with the Jewish community, having a president who's willing to come here and speak about human rights to the people of Cuba. And that's what you're going to hear from our president tomorrow.

BLITZER: Amy Klobuchar is a senator from Minnesota. Senator, thanks very much for joining us.

KLOBUCHAR: Well, thank you, Wolf. We'd love to have you at the baseball game tomorrow. It's going to be good.

BLITZER: I know. The Tampa Bay is coming to playing the national team of Cuba. Let's see who wins that game. Thanks very much for that, senator.

KLOBUCHAR: Thank you.

BLITZER: Up next, days after the capture of Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam, authorities are now trying to track down another suspect. We're going to have an update on the investigation.

Plus, we're awaiting President Obama and the Cuban president, Raul Castro. They're going to be speaking. These are live pictures, we're told, right now. They're going to be speaking following their historic meeting in Havana. You'll see that, you'll hear that live right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:28] BLITZER: Live pictures coming in from Havana right now. President Obama and the Cuban leader, Raul Castro, they're set to speak any moment right now. The president just released a statement saying, "I know one visit, one president cannot erase the decades of history that have left so many Cubans in poverty or exiled, but sometimes the most important changes begin with the smallest step. I believe in the Cuban people and their desire to build a future of their own choosing and I believe that changing the way we do things between our countries will over time help make that possible."

We're going to bring you the president's remarks live when they happen. You're looking at these historic pictures from Havana. The president of the United States now shaking hands, live -- oh, this is just moments ago, with Raul Castro. Standby for that.

Right now let's get to the latest in the investigation of the Paris terrorist attacks. A manhunt is underway for a newly identified suspect. They're looking for this man. His name, Najim Lashrowi (ph), who they say traveled to Hungary with captured terror suspect Salah Abdeslam last September, two months before the Paris attacks in November.

And take a look at this. Newly released footage showing the raid where Abdeslam was captured alive on Friday. And take a listen to the exchanges of gun fire.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's discuss all these late-breaking developments with our CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd.

Phil, a joint press conference in Belgium just a little while ago, Paris and Belgium prosecutors they said they're far from solving the entire nature of the Paris attacks, but they're moving a little bit closer. There's a lot of work that still needs to be done.

[13:30:10] PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: There are a couple things they've got to do here.