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Russian Jets Fly Extremely Close to U.S. Destroyer; Interview with Ryan Paul; Al Qaeda Very Active Threat in Afghanistan?; Loaded Gun Found in Ex-NFL Star's Vehicle. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired April 13, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
First on CNN, Russian fighter jets got extremely close to a U.S. destroyer in the Baltic Sea twice this week. A third overflight at a more acceptable distance happened on Sunday. Earlier a Russian intelligence gathering ship had been shadowing the destroyer.
CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more for you this morning.
Hi, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This was in the Baltic Sea late yesterday when a Russian SU-24 fighter jet and military helicopter flew too close to the USS Donald Cook operating in that area. U.S. officials describing the U.S. Navy encounter with the Russians as unsafe, provocative and potentially very dangerous. Could have caused an incident. Thankfully it did not.
But what did happen is on these two overflights, one of them was so close to the deck of the Donald Cook that the Navy had to halt flight operations on the deck because of this Russian flyover. And it was pretty interesting because at the time there was a Polish helicopter on the deck of the U.S. Navy ship conducting routine training operations. Those training operations involving the Polish helicopter had to be halted.
[09:35:10] A lot of questions. Was Moscow trying to send a message? Use the U.S. Navy to send a message to Poland?
These encounters have happened before. Most of them are safe but this time the U.S. Navy very unhappy. Potentially pressing we are told for a formal complaint to Moscow -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
An extraordinary battle is brewing between the GOP frontrunner and the Republican National Committee. Donald Trump again calling the system rigged in Colorado.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They change the rules a number of months ago. The people --
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: About eight months ago.
D. TRUMP: Well, that's not very long ago.
COOPER: But you had a lot of time to prepare a better organization?
D. TRUMP: Do you know why they changed the rules? Because they saw how I was doing and they didn't like it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Trump is angry that all of Colorado's delegates will go to Cruz despite not a single ballot being cast by voters.
Colorado elects delegates in a complicated party meeting. A series of party meetings instead of appointing delegates based on a traditional state primary or caucus. After more than a week of Trump's complaints about the process in Colorado, the RNC, the national RNC chairman Reince Priebus fired back on Twitter, writing, quote, "It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand the rules. Complaints now? Give us all a break."
Here to talk about this is Ryan Paul, the former Republican state chair in Colorado.
Good morning, sir.
RYAN PAUL, FORMER CHAIRMAN, COLORADO STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY: Good morning, Carol. It's good to be with you.
COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. Does Donald Trump have a point?
PAUL: He does not have a point. The process in Colorado is transparent. It's fair. And the reality is we've used this process here in Colorado to elect our delegates going back all the way to 1912. And so if he --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Without holding a caucus or a primary?
PAUL: Well, Colorado did hold a broad primary in 1992, '96 and in 2000 to bind and allocate the delegates but the delegate election process really has been unchanged for over a hundred years in the state.
COSTELLO: But they changed the rules eight months ago.
PAUL: Now if -- they did not change the rules. Colorado has never bound or allocated our delegates in connection with any poll taken at the caucus. This is a process --
COSTELLO: So what did they do eight months ago?
PAUL: The only thing they did eight months is they decided not to hold a non-bindings preference poll in connection with the caucuses but we have never bound or allocated our delegates in connection with any vote taken at any caucus. That only happens when we elect our delegates at state and congressional district conventions.
COSTELLO: Would you prefer that Colorado held a caucus or a primary like most other states do?
PAUL: Now I would prefer it because I think it engages a broader level of the electorate. But for Donald Trump to come back now to complain that the process was rigged or corrupt or unfair is just quite frankly not true. Is it hard? Is it complicated? Does it require building a strong campaign team? Absolutely. But so does the presidency of the United States. It is complicated. It is hard. It requires a good team.
And if Donald Trump can't manage as our Republican senator has observed to figure out Colorado's delegate election process, which is complicated and hard, how is he going to manage to figure out the presidency of the United States?
COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing. Donald Trump is also accusing the national RNC of controlling the Republican Party in the state of Colorado. How much of a say does the RNC have in, you know, how delegates are elected in Colorado?
PAUL: The RNC does not control this process. Again, the rules governing the election of Colorado delegates have been in place going back at least since 1912. And the process we follow this year is no different than every other year. The fact that Donald Trump did not have a campaign presence here on the ground, he didn't show up at the state convention to make his pitch directly to the delegates as Ted Cruz did. And that he didn't build the kind of campaign organization needed to deliver the vote.
For him to complain about the process afterwards when he didn't even show up is -- is just not appropriate. Colorado's process was fair and is transparent.
COSTELLO: But let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Because to the average voter out there, they look at the state of Colorado and they see voters didn't cast a single ballot. They have really no say. I mean, this is the perception that voters outside of the state and perhaps some voters within Colorado have. They have no say in who wins the primary in their own state. How does that Democratic?
PAUL: Well, I've got news for you and for Donald Trump. We do not live in a direct democracy. We live in a republic. And we elect representatives through a grassroots process beginning with neighborhood precinct caucuses, county assemblies, district conventions that every registered Republican in the state of Colorado was allowed to participate in. [09:40:05] Those delegates go to represent the interests of the
Republican Party and voters in our state. And I understand the frustration that many voters feel because they didn't participate in the process. But there is a difference between not being able to participate and not choosing to participate.
COSTELLO: I will only say that this is the thing. That many voters are upset at establishment Republicans, right? Because they -- they accuse establishment Republicans of wanting to control things and elect their own candidate, right? And doesn't this process give some credence to that fear?
PAUL: Not at you will. I understand the perception or what Donald Trump and his campaign folks are trying to argue.
COSTELLO: It is not just Donald Trump.
PAUL: But these rules have been in place for over a hundred years and I understand the concern and frustration that many voters feel. And my hope is that this creates the kind of incentive to bring back and restore the broad presidential primary that Colorado did hold between 1992 and 2000. But to complain about --
COSTELLO: So you do think that Donald Trump has a point if that's your wish. You do think Donald Trump has a point if that's your wish.
PAUL: No. His point and the argument he's trying to make is that the process or that the rules were changed. The rules were not changed. The process is fair. It is transparent. And it is a process by which every Republican in the state of Colorado could choose to attend caucuses.
COSTELLO: Right. I get that. But you do -- but you do prefer a more traditional route perhaps for lack of a better term, that there would be a primary in the state of Colorado.
PAUL: I would like to see a primary that is allowed to bind and allocate the delegates. But the delegate election process itself, I'd like to see it retained.
COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Paul, thank you so much for stopping by.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a scary new warning from Afghan officials. Al Qaeda is getting stronger and teaming up with another terror group.
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[09:46:05] COSTELLO: Defense officials in Kabul say al Qaeda is very active and a big threat in Afghanistan. Not just that, they have renewed their partnership with the Taliban and their core focus is attacking the West.
CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh has more for you.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Remember why the United States came to Afghanistan? Well, al Qaeda are back and thriving. A big threat finding safe haven here, according to Afghanistan's Defense chief. Even U.S. officials here admit there's a lot they don't know, and there could be hundreds of al Qaeda core members here.
MOHAMMED MASOOM STANEKZAI, AFGHANISTAN'S ACTING DEFENSE MINISTER: They are really very active. They are working and quite organizing themselves and preparing themselves for more bigger. They are working behind other networks, again giving them the support, giving them the experience they had in different places. They are not talking too much. They are not making too many press statements. But they are a big threat.
WALSH (on camera): But they were a big threat.
STANEKZAI: Yes, it is a big threat.
WALSH (voice-over): A big threat they say because the Taliban, who was said to have regretted harboring bin Laden, have again decided to get close to al Qaeda.
STANEKZAI: Their big cover is Taliban. Because they are enabling the al Qaeda, the ISIL.
WALSH (on camera): The phrase renewed partnership is what John Campbell used, the former U.S. commander here.
STANEKZAI: And because as you know, they need the fighters. They need the support. They need the experience and they need the recruitment from other places and this is why that they embrace them.
WALSH (voice-over): Alarms were raised by a 30 square mile camp found and obliterated by Afghan and U.S. forces in a remote part of Kandahar late last year. Revealing al Qaeda's true strength to Afghan and U.S. officials.
MAJ. GEN. JEFFREY BUCHANAN, DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF RESOLUTE SUPPORT: Very sophisticated ties back into al Qaeda and a subset, which is called Al Qaeda in the Indian Sub-continent, to find them in Afghanistan also caused us quite a bit of concern.
If you go back to last year, there were a lot of intel estimates that said that within Afghanistan, al Qaeda probably has 50 to 100 operators or 50 to 100 actual al Qaeda members in Afghanistan. Well, at this one camp, you know, we found more than 150. So I think that --
WALSH (on camera): There is a pretty big gap in your knowledge to what our officer do.
BUCHANAN: I think there is. I think, you know, there's not thousands of them, but clearly in remote parts of Afghanistan, there are al Qaeda leaders that we're concerned about and what they're capable of doing.
WALSH: And they're plotting still attacks against the West?
BUCHANAN: Absolutely.
WALSH: That's their core concern?
BUCHANAN: That is their core concern. They've made those announcements, and they've never backed off of it.
WALSH: Well, clearly attacks against the West, one massive concern about al Qaeda resurgence here but there is another spinoff and that has potentially enormous impact on what is the key tenet of U.S. and Afghan policy here with the Taliban and that's to find some sort of diplomatic or negotiated settlements with them.
Now they're clear, the U.S. and Afghanistan, that that can't happen until the Taliban renounced, quote, "international terrorism," but it seems quite the opposite is happening with this renewed partnership they have with al Qaeda. The new deputy of the new Taliban leader is a man called Siraj Haqqani, who the U.S. considered to be the leading facilitator of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. It does seem the Taliban and al Qaeda are getting closer together rather than further apart, although some officials insist there are moderate Taliban who still want to see some kind of peaceful settlement.
But as the Taliban expand in the territory they control here, there are fears that buys more space for al Qaeda to potentially plot attacks outside of Afghanistan and again find themselves safe havens here. 15 years after the U.S. intervened to try and catch bin Laden.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new details about the moments just before an ex-NFL star was shot and killed.
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COSTELLO: CNN has obtained new video of the fender bender that happened right before ex-NFL star Will Smith was shot and killed. Smith's silver SUV, you see it rear-ending a red hummer. He then speeds off. His suspected killer follows. Minutes later, Smith is dead. Police now using this footage and new evidence in their investigation.
More now from Martin Savidge.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Significant developments already in this case and there could be more information forthcoming as we expect the coroner to deliver at least that initial report that could tell us more about the body of Will Smith but it could also tell us a little bit more about the crime scene itself.
[09:55:09] New Orleans police officers have come out and said that Will Smith had a 9 millimeter loaded handgun in his car. It was fully loaded. They didn't find any shell casings so it would imply that it wasn't fired but it does change the story somewhat and it backs up what witnesses that night say they heard and saw, and that was that the two men, Cardell Hayes, the accused gunman, and Smith in the street arguing and they both claimed that they had weapons.
And remember, here in Louisiana, they have stand your ground, plus it's stronger than that. You also are not required to retreat. So it's possible that if in some way Hayes perceives he was in threat of his life, well, a jury later might agree with it on that. But we're a long way from that particular point. Meanwhile, Will Smith's father has been speaking about the loss of his son.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILL SMITH SR., FATHER: I'm going to miss his smile, his demeanor, his thoughtfulness for other people. I raised a young man, an outstanding citizen, a person that cared about other people. That was my job as a parent. Did he kill my child? Yes, he did. Can I forgive him? Yes, I can. But am I going to forget it? I'll never forget it.
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SAVIDGE: Despite all the changes in this case, it still has to be remembered that this is a tragic loss of a husband, of a father and of a man who was not just a hero on the sports field for many but also in his community.
Martin Savidge, CNN, New Orleans.
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COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.
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