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Police Charge Four in Brussels Attacks; New Arrests in Wave of Anti-Terror Raids; Democrats Caucus in Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington States; Utah Teen Speaks About Surviving the Brussels Attacks; Donald Trump and Ted Cruz Defending Their Wives; Proposed Bill in Some U.S. States Gear to Discriminate? Aired 1-2p ET

Aired March 26, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:58] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we're following breaking news out of Brussels. Prosecutors have announced charges in connection with this week's terror attacks in Brussels. A man only identified as Faycal C was charged with terrorist murder. Three others are facing charges of participating in a terrorist group.

We're also learning today that the former Belgian ambassador to the United States, Andre Adam, died in the Brussels attacks.

CNN international correspondent Phil Black is in Brussels.

So do these charges tell us more about the investigation that is ongoing right now?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They imply a little, Fredricka, yes. So in the sense that a number of people have been charged today after days of around nine arrests or so, some people released. We now know that some people are facing charges for participating in a terrorist group's activities. That one person you mentioned, Faycal C, as in the letter C, that's how he's been identified by the authorities so far.

He has been charged in something -- charged with something more significant, more serious, that is, as you touched on there, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder. What this tells us is that his role in the attacks last Tuesday morning here in Brussels was more significant. It was more important. He played a direct role of some kind, although the authorities are not telling us precisely just what that is at this stage.

As I said, there have been a number of arrests here, very dynamic police work over the last couple of days. Yesterday we saw a man detained, shot in the leg at a tram station here in central Brussels. He is still in custody but he has not been charged. He is however still being held while he's being interrogated -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And then, Phil, we're also hearing that two of the Brussels attackers were on a U.S. watch list. Some real incongruencies in term of how certain names will be treated in the U.S. versus in Europe. How does that happen?

BLACK: Well, that's absolutely the take-away from all of this. And it has been the big issue following the attack. So you have two brothers who were involved, one in the metro bombing, one at the airport, both of them blew themselves up, both on a U.S. watch list before these attacks. And indeed one of them had even been deported by Turkey because of his connections to terrorism.

All of this, these are missed opportunities. And the Belgians are aware of this, so are authorities from various countries. And so that is why there is now this great effort really to share -- there's greater effort, there's greater importance being placed on sharing information quickly, efficiently, following up leads. And so that's why we're seeing all of these raids, all of these arrests, as the authorities here and other countries really struggle to play catch-up with the network that was responsible not just for this attack here but the same -- the one that took place in Paris last November, killing 130 people, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Phil Black, thank you so much.

Let's talk more about this with our panel Kim Dozier is a CNN global affairs analyst. Sebastian Gorka is the chair of the military theory at the Marine Corps University, and he advises the U.S. government on security issues. Also he is author of the book "Defeating Jihad."

All right. Good to see all of you. So, Kim, you first, I wonder, you know, do you feel like these arrests can or will lead to some important information to potentially thwart other planned attacks?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Absolutely. Once you have people in custody who you can question, you can search their computers, the phones with them, and also build a network of who they associated with, you can start to unravel some of this. But it shows you this is slow work as the nature of law enforcement is. And even though over the past year, U.S. intelligence has increased its sharing with European intelligence networks, something like 4,000 profiles were shared across Europe, they still didn't spot some of these guys. They're overwhelmed by information.

WHITFIELD: And, Sebastian, at the same time it seems advantageous when someone is arrested or they're taken down, they're injured but they're not killed, a benefit will be that they could extract some kind of information from them, but we're already seeing the Paris attacker, you know, in custody, Salah Abdeslam, he was cooperative at first, but then apparently, you know, Belgian authorities have not been able to get a whole lot of information out of.

[13:05:15] So do you worry that while there are these suspects, people have been, you know, arrested in recent raids, do you worry that they will, you know, clamp down and not provide any kind of information?

SEBASTIAN GORKA, AUTHOR, "DEFEATING JIHAD: THE WINNABLE WAR": Well, I do, but that's not really the broader problem. So terrorist organizations are like intelligence organizations. They are compartmentalized and they function on a need-to-know basis, so you will not be able to roll up all of the ISIS or jihadist terrorists in Europe, even if all of these canaries start to sing. So the fact is, we now know there are at least 6,000 Westerners who have been recruited by ISIS into the jihadi movement. There's no way that this cell will know the identities of all of those people. There is strategic problem here. It has to do with open borders and the lack of integration of minorities into European society.

The fact that this man, the most wanted person after the Paris bombing in Europe could hide in plain sight in what is the equivalent of the capital of the European Union tells you everything you need to know. This is a tactical challenge about how much intelligence you can get out of an individual captive or prisoner. It's about the policies of Europe and how they have led to hotbeds of radicalization across continents.

WHITFIELD: So there have been so many -- I mean, a host of incidents, you know, just in the past couple of years alone, Kim, if it does seem to highlight that there's this kind of lack of cooperation between countries, at what point is there some impetus to change that or to have a more cohesive plan so as to get at these, what, 6,000 Westerners that Sebastian was talking about who have, you know, gone to the other side, so to speak?

DOZIER: And those numbers wildly fluctuate. Sometimes you hear it's 4,000, sometimes higher. The -- what they've been trying to do is build up their intelligence sharing and break down some of the barriers that Sebastian talked about. There is a lack of sharing sometimes even between intelligence agencies within countries within Europe, but we have the same problem here after 9/11, when we found out that the CIA and the FBI weren't sharing counterterrorism related intelligence.

This is something that is inherent to large institutions that's going to take possibly years to break down. And in the meantime, the attackers without those sort of bureaucratic walls can infiltrate. That's one of the reasons that U.S. intelligence and British intelligence are trying to push as much information as they can into the zone to help these overburdened services keep up.

WHITFIELD: And then, Sebastian, not only is there that in filtration that Kim is talking about, but there's almost like an evolution, there is a constant churning or becoming more sophisticated in the way in which these cells or people who are influenced by the network, whatever, you know, you want to call them, how they're changing their tactics and essentially staying out in front.

GORKA: Absolutely. Just look at the trend lines. This is the 13th significant attack on European soil since September 11th. We had Paris, we've had Madrid, we've had London, and now Brussels. Look at what's happening here in America. In the last two years, we have arrested or killed more than 95 people linked to ISIS on U.S. territory. This is the reality. 2005 if you just look at the threat to this nation, 2005 saw the highest incidence of jihadi plots on U.S. soil since September 11th. They are constantly upping their game and we seem to be for strategic reasons in a game of catch-up. And they seem to be outsmarting us at every turn. WHITFIELD: All right.

DOZIER: Fred, if I can jump in just briefly.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead. Sure.

DOZIER: That's why I think we have seen from the Pentagon an announcement that they might be having a slight increase in U.S. troops on the ground and also the State Department launched a new campaign to counter ISIS propaganda, but without the State Department label on it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kimberly Dozier, Sebastian Gorka, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right. And on to the road to the White House. Right now live pictures from Seattle where voters are beginning to caucus there. It is western Saturday for the Democrats, and Bernie Sanders is looking for a sweep. He is counting on it.

And on the Republican side, the gloves have officially come off at the heart of this week's battle, the leading candidates' wives. So how will this political infighting resonate with women voters?

[13:10:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: At least four suspected terrorists has been charged in connection to the terror attacks in Brussels. And a stockpile of explosives have been found.

CNN justice correspondent Pam Brown has the latest on the anti-terror raids across Belgium.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anti-terror raids across Belgium and beyond. Dramatic video shows one suspect believed to be linked to Tuesday's attacks wounded on the ground in the Brussels district of Schaerbeek. Police shot him in the leg and then the bomb squad moved in, using a robot to check the man's backpack for explosives before dragging him down the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They shoot one guy. They're shooting behind me. I was watching him. It was with a little girl and that was very, very fast. And he looked back, and after, robots come to take the bags.

BROWN: At least six suspected terrorists were arrested overnight in Belgium. And we're getting our first look inside the safe house where the Brussels terrorists allegedly plotted their attacks.

[13:15:01] Another suspected terrorist was arrested near Paris believed to be involved in an advanced terror plot there. French police recovered two kilograms of the explosive TATP and a Kalashnikov rifle following the arrest, according to a source briefed on the investigation.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (Through Translator): In Brussels as well as in Paris, we arrested a certain number of suspects and we know other networks are still out there. Although we can say the terror cell who committed the Paris and Brussels attack is being wiped out, we are still threatened.

BROWN: And in Germany, police captured two men with alleged ties to the Brussels terror cells, one of them a 28-year-old Moroccan man who allegedly received two text messages before the attack, one with the name of the Brussels metro bomber, Khalid el-Bakraoui, and the other message with a French word for end, just three minutes before Bakraoui detonated his bomb, according to a source briefed by German officials.

And Belgian prosecutors have now confirmed 24-year-old Najim Laachraoui, the alleged Paris bomb-maker, is one of the two suicide bombers at the airport.

(On camera): And we have learned that both of the suicide bombing brothers were on U.S. counterterrorism watch lists. In fact one of them, Ibrahim, the one at the airport, was put on the watch list even before the Paris attacks. And then the other brother Khalid was added after the attacks for his ties to the Paris attacks. All of this raises questions about how much Belgian authorities knew about the men who were clearly operating under the radar in Belgium after the Paris attacks and then went on to launch those horrific attacks in Brussels earlier this week.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Pam.

Straight ahead. 142 delegates are at stake today for the Democratic candidates. Washington, Alaska, Hawaii all on deck. Live pictures right now. Caucusing beginning there in Seattle, voters lining up to cast their votes. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:19] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

So on to the road to the White House. Bernie Sanders had a chance encounter on the campaign trail yesterday that's getting a lot of attention during a rally in Portland. A small bird began chirping within reach of the microphone. Takes tweeting to a new level. Right? Well, then something else happened to much of the crowd's delight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This little bird doesn't know it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Interesting little bird chat there. So Sanders said that bird was symbolic of a peace dove. The #birdieSanders is now trending on Twitter. What a moment.

All right. Sanders no doubt is hoping to see some of that serendipity today on the West Coast. Democrats in three states will caucus today, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. Washington caucuses started just about 20 minutes ago. And these are live pictures right now. We had live pictures. Well, there's a live picture of Chris Frates there.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: He's there in Washington, D.C.

OK, so, Chris, the expectations are high for Bernie Sanders. He's feeling lucky, too, now that the bird kind of had its moment on stage with him.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right. Today is expected to be a good day for Bernie Sanders, Fred. A lot of that has to do with Washington state. Washington has 101 delegates up for grabs today, and it's really a must win for Sanders as he tries to stay competitive with Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. And there are few states as favorable to Sanders as Washington state is. For instance, of the nation's 50 biggest cities, Seattle has given Sanders the most campaign contributions per capita, That's according to "Seattle Times."

And I'll tell you, Fred, thousands and thousands have flocked to Sanders rallies in that state. Just last night, he spoke to 15,000 people at the Seattle Mariners Ballpark.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Poll after poll shows us that in matchups with Donald Trump we --

(CROWD BOOS)

SANDERS: Don't worry, Trump will not become president.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: A recent CNN poll consistent with many other polls showed Hillary Clinton doing very well against Trump. She was beating him by 12 points. We were beating them by 20 points.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So Sanders is also expected to do well in contests today in Alaska and Hawaii, which combine for a total of 41 delegates. And for her part, Hillary Clinton is doing her best to stay close to Sanders. Because remember, delegates today they're awarded proportionally so Clinton will almost certainly put points on the board today. And if she can avoid a blowout, she can collect a really good chunk of delegates and build on her lead.

So let's go to the chalkboard here now, Fred, and do a little math.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

FRATES: Clinton has about 1700 of the roughly 2400 delegates she needs to win the nomination. Sanders has won about 950 delegates. So that means that Sanders has to win 75 percent -- 75 percent of the delegates left to clinch the nomination. That's a really high bar. Clinton on the other hand, she needs to win just 35 percent of the remaining delegates to become the nominee.

So, Fred, even if Sanders wins really big today, the math, it's still favoring Hillary Clinton.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Big contrast there. All right, thanks so much, Chris Frates in Washington. Thank you.

FRATES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. After the break, Belgian police issuing the first charges in connection to this week's deadly terror attacks in Brussels. We're live from Belgium with the latest next.

[13:25:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. We're following breaking news out of Belgium. Prosecutors have announced charges in connection with this week's terror attacks in Brussels. A man only identified at Faycal C has been charged with terrorist murder. Three others are facing charges of participating in a terrorist group.

The Belgian Health Ministry also said today that 101 people are still being treated in a hospital. 62 of them are in intensive care.

I want to bring in Phil Black who is in Brussels for us with a large crowd of people who've come out this holiday weekend to pay homage to those who have been injured and killed.

So you had a chance to speak to one of the victims in the hospital. And how is he doing?

BLACK: Well, he's doing surprisingly well. 19-year-old Mason Wells, a Mormon missionary who's at the airport during and very close to the first of the suicide bombings that took place there on Tuesday. He has suffered severe burns to his face, his arm, a shrapnel -- shrapnel injuries to his leg, I should say. Severe ankle wound as well.

[13:30:05] Despite that, he is able to give just this incredibly vivid account of those few minutes leading up to and during the two suicide bombings that took place there. Take a listen.

MASON WELLS, SURVIVED TERROR ATTACK: I was actually conscious for all of it. We tried to pull out my friends' tickets at a small little station. You know, my friends' tickets to go to the United States and the machine wasn't working actually. So after working with the attendant she took us to the back of the line, the check-in line. I'd actually pulled out my iPad to look at something. So it was part of my responsibilities in the mission, and I was starting to look that up. I was looking at my iPad when the first blast went off. It was really loud. It really came out of nowhere.

I wasn't expecting it at all. I was looking down and all of a sudden a huge blast came from my right. I believe my body was actually picked up off the ground for a moment, and my iPad that was in my hands, I don't know what happened. It just disappeared. I think it actually might have hit me in the head when it got blasted out of my hands.

So my watch on my left hand just disappeared. My left shoe just was blown off and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold, and I was covered in -- a lot of -- a lot of fluids. A lot of blood, and a lot -- a lot of that blood wasn't mine.

BLACK: How close do you think you were to that initial explosion?

WELLS: Within 10 or 15 meters. When the blast went off, after I had these feelings of warm and hot, I was actually -- I saw fire in front of my face and around my body. Fire literally almost engulfed the four of us. There was fire around us in the blast.

BLACK: Do you remember the second explosion?

WELLS: I do. It took my body about a second, half a second to realize that it was a bomb that went off. And of course I'm sure my body was in complete physical shock. I knew that I had been wounded. I didn't know how bad it was. I located an exit -- I looked up, I located an exit and I started to run towards the doors that we came in through. And I took a couple of steps, about three seconds after the -- three or four seconds after the first blast, the second bomb went off. And I actually felt the explosion on the right side. I could feel the blast, but I don't believe I was hit by anything, any shrapnel or anything.

BLACK: As you lie there now a couple of days later, I guess what are the thoughts and the feelings about what you've experienced?

WELLS: I just -- I feel bad for those injured, I felt so bad for those. I was so lucky. And I saw a lot of people that were injured worse. I heard a lot of people that were injured badly, and, you know, my only thoughts, my only feelings are just for the people that are out there,. I hope that they're doing OK. I just wanted to pray for them. I've been praying for them since it happened. That's the only feeling I have is, I hope that they're OK because I'm very lucky and I know that there were maybe some that were not as lucky as I was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: Fredricka, an extraordinary story, and he's just so composed. Mason has been reunited with his parents, Chad and Kimberly. They flew over from the United States. The first time they have seen him in two years. You can imagine what they were feeling. And the news from his doctors, it's all good so far. With time, he should make a complete recovery from those injuries -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Wow. He is extraordinary. And really incredible to be able to tell with such fluidity that story.

All right. Thanks so much, Phil Black.

All right. On to the race to the White House. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz locking horns this week over their wives.

Up next, how this infighting impacts the female vote.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:38:40] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. The attacks between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are getting increasingly nasty and personal. The big battle this week involved their wives and a tabloid story that Cruz that the Texas senator is blaming on Trump.

Sunlen Serfaty is following the Cruz campaign in Wisconsin.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred, Ted Cruz had a remarkably aggressive press conference here in Wisconsin where he blasted and blamed Donald Trump, alleging that he, Donald Trump, planted that story in the tabloid.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): Ted Cruz breathing fire at Donald Trump.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics.

SERFATY: In a hastily arranged press conference the Texas senator bringing up unprovoked a tabloid story about him, accusing Donald Trump of being behind it, but not offering any proof.

CRUZ: It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear. And it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.

SERFATY: Trump responding in a statement saying, quote, "I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it and have not as yet read it."

SERFATY: This comes as the GOP rivals have been sparring in sharply personal attacks involving their spouses. Trump's attacks include a tweet threatening to spill the beans on Heidi Cruz and a re-tweet of a split screen image of his wife, Melania, and Heidi Cruz, with the caption, "The images are worth a thousand words."

[13:40:14] Cruz looking to frame this as a pattern for Trump.

CRUZ: Strong women scare Donald. SERFATY: This isn't the first time Trump has stirred up controversy

with his comments about women. From his criticism of FOX News anchor Megyn Kelly's debate moderating --

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous question, and you know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever.

SERFATY: And his comments to "Rolling Stone" about former rival Carly Fiorina's appearance, saying, quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?"

CARLY FIORINA (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.

SERFATY: To his assortment of dig that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: And Hillary, who's become very shrill. You know the word shrill? She's become shrill.

SERFATY: The latest CNN/ORC poll shows that while 59 percent of Republican women have a favorable view of Trump, 39 percent have an unfavorable view, and his unfavorable mark jumps to 73 percent among registered women voters nationwide, revealing how much of an uphill climb he could face in a general election if he emerges as the nominee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Ted Cruz blasted Donald Trump also for largely being off the campaign trail this week, stating that Trump is sitting out, hiding in Trump Tower, just picking Twitter fights essentially. Now we know that Donald Trump will return to the campaign trail next week -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots to discuss here. Let's bring in CNN political commentator Tara Setmayer and Kayleigh McEnany, a CNN political commentator and Trump supporter.

All right, ladies, so let's begin with this -- this tweet, rather. It's not a treat. The tweet that Trump sent out this morning saying, "The media is so after me on women. Wow. This is a tough business. Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump."

Tara, you first. What do you say to a comment like that from Donald Trump?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When I saw that, I said, is this guy kidding me? He's unbelievable. So this is a tough business, no kidding. Politics is a blood sport, welcome to it. But he prides himself on being a tough New York businessman, a successful billionaire, so -- and he is complaining about people pointing out his own 30-plus year record of disparaging comments and behavior toward women. I don't care how many executives his Trump company allegedly has or

what positions they're in. I highly doubt that Donald Trump is hiring all these people personally, number one, because that's a talking point Trump people like to throw out. He's got wonderful female executives. I don't care. You know, you judge a person based on their words and their actions, and his words have been despicable toward women.

He calls them fat pigs, he says that it doesn't matter what the media says about you as long as you have a hot piece of blank on your arm. He said -- you know, he's called women dogs. He's gone on and on. And then this attack against Heidi Cruz, his initial response to lash out, objectify her and his own wife speaks volumes about where he is with women. He has a significant problem and this is going to hurt him as he moves forward, particularly in the general election, god forbid we ever got there with him.

WHITFIELD: So, Kayleigh, how damaging potentially do you see this, this kind of jargon, this back and forth that these two candidates are even going in this space?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's very damaging I think. Look, right now when we should be talking about terrorism we're talking about a battle between wives, and candidates defending their wives. And this was started when a group, I don't know if they support Ted Cruz or not, apparently they're just an anti-Trump PAC, came out with a naked picture --

SETMAYER: They're not Ted Cruz.

MCENANY: But they wrote in the bottom "Vote for Ted Cruz." So the point is this started when someone put out a photo -- a PAC put out a photo of Melania Trump naked, and said vote for Ted Cruz at the bottom.

WHITFIELD: A super PAC.

MCENANY: So the point is right now it's evolved, it's wrong. Donald Trump should not have tweeted out that picture of Heidi Cruz. But now it's this tit-for-tat about wives when we should be talking about terrorism because quite frankly the American people are scared right now. 31 people just died in Brussels and this is what we're talking about. And the Republicans are to blame for this. We need to stop either Ted Cruz or Donald Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: No. Donald Trump is to blame for this. Donald Trump is to blame for this alone. What the super PAC did, which is again, and Kayleigh, you know better, you're in law school, you know that super PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns. This super PAC had nothing to do, zero, nothing to do with Ted Cruz. And so to continue to put that out there as if --

WHITFIELD: But you know, it speaks to -- but neither one of them hasn't been to the fray. SETMAYER: True.

WHITFIELD: It is a super PAC, but why does this serve well for either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.

SETMAYER: It doesn't. It doesn't. But Donald Trump is the one who elevated this by making the comment and associating it with Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz simply -- and threatening Ted Cruz's wife, let's not forget that. Donald Trump chose to respond to a super PAC ad by threatening Ted --

[13:45:01] WHITFIELD: You mean the spill of the beans moment.

SETMAYER: That's right. By threatening Ted Cruz's wife. And so that is what started this. And Ted Cruz only defended his wife after being threatened. I don't want to hear the excuse that Donald Trump is defending his wife first because that's --

MCENANY: Sure, two wrong --

SETMAYER: He didn't have to attack his wife to do that.

WHITFIELD: So Tara --

MCENANY: We are agreeing. We are agreeing here that two wrongs don't make it right.

SETMAYER: You're right about that.

MCENANY: Tara, here's the point, though. Ted Cruz had a choice to disavow this group that put his name on this naked picture of Melania. He didn't --

SETMAYER: And he did.

MCENANY: My only point is that both men are at fault. And one man needs to stand up and say enough is enough, and I hope it's Donald Trump, but I would like to see Ted Cruz to do it. I want one of them to do it because I want to talk about terrorism.

SETMAYER: Well --

WHITFIELD: So how does either one of them try to recover now? Try to court the all important female vote, you know, try to persuade women that Donald Trump or, you know, Ted Cruz or Kasich are the GOP candidates for women?

MCENANY: I think --

SETMAYER: Well, here's the thing. I'm sorry.

WHITFIELD: Go Tara first.

SETMAYER: OK. Well, here's the thing. First of all, to make any kind of moral equivalency to what Ted Cruz, to what Donald Trump did, I think is ridiculous. Ted Cruz did not threaten anybody's wife, he simply defended her after a threat. That's number one. Number two, listen, this should be the year that Republicans should celebrating their accomplishments with women. It was Republicans who first introduced the 19th amendment for women to vote, it was Republicans who first introduced equal rights for women into their platform.

It was Republicans that had the first woman elected to Congress in 1916. It should be the centennial year to celebrate that. But instead, we are back into a situation where we are consistently losing women because we're getting bogged down in issues like this. McCain lost women by 7, Romney lost women by 12. And we have someone like Donald Trump as our nominee. He is going to get destroyed. 70 plus women -- 70 plus percent of women do not have favorable view of Donald Trump and he loses to Hillary Clinton by double digits with women.

So it's not as much as what can Ted Cruz or John Kasich do to recover for women, they don't have the same level of negatives that Donald Trump does. But if our nominee continues to put forth this kind of garbage or the presumptive nominee puts forth this kind of garbage, we are unfortunately going to keep having these conversations. He does it to distract from having real policy discussions when is ill equipped to have.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to have to leave it right there, ladies. Something tells me this is just the tip of the iceberg of the conversation. Tara Setmayer, Kayleigh McEnany, thanks so much, ladies. Appreciate it.

MCENANY: Thanks, Fred.

SETMAYER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up next, it's the state bill that has sparked a national debate. Georgia facing major pressure from a slew of businesses who oppose the so-called religious liberty bill. That's right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:57] WHITFIELD: All right. There's a legal battle brewing in two southern states right now. North Carolina passed a sweeping law that eliminates anti-discrimination protections for the LGBT community including a provision that forces transgender individuals to use a bathroom corresponding to the gender listed on their birth certificate. The bill also bans city minimum wages from surpassing the state's rate of $7.25 an hour and it ends anti-discrimination protections that were in place for veterans.

Meanwhile in Georgia, the governor has not said whether he will sign a so-called religious liberty bill, which critics say allows businesses to discriminate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. MIKE CRANE (R), GEORGIA: There's an undermining of religious freedom in this nation. The Christian community in particular is really the group that's going to end up being discriminated against, if the states don't stand up and say, this liberty is important.

KELVIN WILLIAMS, FOUNDER OF 373K: It tell me I'm not really welcomed here anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: By who?

WILLIAMS: By the state. And by none of the Republicans under this (INAUDIBLE) don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A number of industries and businesses have come out against the Georgia bill, including CNN's parent company Time Warner saying in a statement, quote, "We urge Governor Deal to exercise his veto," calling the bill, quote, "a contradiction to the type of workplace we guarantee to our employees," end quote.

Time Warner's Turner Division, which houses CNN, is based in Atlanta and has thousands of employees in Georgia.

So let's bring in our legal guys, Avery Friedman is civil rights attorney and law professor, joining us from Cleveland. Hello. And Richard Herman, a New York criminal defense attorney and law professor joining us from Las Vegas.

Good to see you. It's been too long, guys.

AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Way too long.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: You're always there for us. All right, so, Avery, you first. How far can a state go to protect one person's rights without damaging another's?

FRIEDMAN: Well, that's actually a good question and it really goes to the heart of both what's going on in Georgia and North Carolina. As long as there is some factual foundation for the enactment of legislation, if not, it's likely to be unconstitutional. The problem in Georgia is some of the senators got nervous about something that happened in New Mexico by putting two little plastic guys on top of a cake. That's what that's about, and in North Carolina, it even gets wackier, because they're concerned that predators who are pretending to be transgenders are looking for a way to get into ladies' restrooms. Neither of them have any factual foundation.

In South Dakota the governor vetoed the same bill that the governor of North Carolina signed this week. So believe me, both are heading to a federal courtroom. Both, both in Georgia and North Carolina, will be held unconstitutional.

WHITFIELD: And, Richard, how do you see it? Do you see the road toward a federal court? And potentially even maybe U.S. Supreme Court for these states?

RICHARD HERMAN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I do, Fred, because I don't think it's an issue of religious freedom. It's an issue of separation of church and state, and in most civilized states in this republic of ours they enact rules by discrimination laws with respect to public housing and public accommodation and in the workplace.

[13:55:11] And what these statutes do is they undermine that. They slickly find a way under the guise of religious freedom to discriminate. And there's going to be serious ramifications if states enact those including Georgia, who's looking to host a Super Bowl, who no way the NFL will give them a Super Bowl if they enact any kind of discrimination statutes so --

FRIEDMAN: That's right. That's right.

HERMAN: Over this fact, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And so, Avery, how influential do you see big business potentially being in the equations here?

FRIEDMAN: Well, in -- I mean, Governor Deal hasn't signed the legislation. I think common sense will prevail, he will not sign it. In North Carolina, however, in 2017, the NCAA has an all-star game. And believe me, that's going to wind up being canceled. Both states are going to take a multimillion dollar hit if this is in trade. Now I think it's all going to be rendered moot because I think both laws are unconstitutional, but while this controversy rages, businesses likes Apple, and like Dow and major institutions like Duke, for example, are all saying, what are you doing? Bottom line, hopefully someone's going to come to their senses before a federal judge says they're invalid.

WHITFIELD: And Richard, you know, the bill in North Carolina goes far beyond the LGBT community. And it affects veterans and people making minimum wage. This might be a legal battle potentially in a few different directions?

HERMAN: All around. It's like a law school exam, Fred. You know? Spot the issues, and then give pros and cons. And that's what's going on here.

FRIEDMAN: Right.

HERMAN: They rushed the bill in North Carolina. They didn't allow the legislature to vet it. They asked it overnight, in a matter of hours, because they knew if it took scrutiny there's no way it would pass. It's really -- it's why people are so frustrated with politics in this country when you see something like happened in North Carolina. It's just horrible, Fred. It will not stand.

WHITFIELD: And then, Avery, as it pertains to Georgia, that the governor hasn't really made a move on this, does that tell you that, you know, he's waiting, or --

HERMAN: Scared.

WHITFIELD: -- looking to see what legal road potentially there would be? FRIEDMAN: Well, the fact is that Georgia, the state doesn't have a

public accommodations law. So the so-called Religious Freedom Restoration Act is a nullity because there's nothing to restore. That's why this whole thing really is founded on guessing and religious beliefs of some, and ultimately, I think both violate both due process and equal protection. There's no way a federal district judge or a federal appeals court would ever approve either of these laws. They're going to be gone.

WHITFIELD: All right. All right. Avery, Richard, thanks so much. You know, we're doing things a little differently today. Usually we see you in the noon Eastern hour. Thanks so much for sticking around to being with us with the 1:00 hour and we're about wrapping up our NEWSROOM today at this hour, because our political coverage begins with three caucus states for the Democrats under way today.

But before we go, because we are doing things differently, how about a little concert? Let's take you to Havana with the Rolling Stones, shall we? They're capping off a historic week for that country. Listen in.

Rolling Stones. The fans were out in full force for the first time ever there. The Stones rocking a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people right there in Havana. Months of negotiations went into setting up this free concert, and for the first time in decades, Cubans were treated to music that was once banned in that country. The concert came just days after President Obama's historic visit to Cuba.

And this reminder, you don't want to miss next week's CNN Republican presidential town hall. All kicking off Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern live from Wisconsin. Only on CNN.

Right now Democrats caucusing in Washington state and they are about to get started in Alaska as well. CNN is ready to walk you through today's three Democratic caucuses.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks for being with us in the NEWSROOM. Our special coverage begins right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very doable. She can get the public options through. He cannot do that. Hillary also wants to -- regulations. Bring down prescription drug prices. We get a universal health care with a public option. A hybrid system. Bring down drug prices. Health care. The other example Bernie says he wants to break up the big banks. He can't do it. We did get Dodd-Frank through.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The presidential race is heading to distant corners of the country right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Three new contests could make the fight for the Democratic nomination more competitive.