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Service Member Killed in Iraq; Ron Paul Talks About Political Race; Relaunched Ceasefire; Humiliated by TSA Search. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 03, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:50] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

A developing story out of Iraq. CNN has learned a U.S. service member was killed in action just north of Mosul. We're told the American was serving as an advisor to Peshmerga forces there and he got caught up in a firefight.

Jomana Karadsheh has the latest from Amman, Jordan.

Good morning.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And according to an American official, the service member was killed about 20 miles north of the city of Mosul. As you mentioned, he was an advisor to the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. And as is standard practice, he was a bit back from the line. But ISIS launched an assault on the Peshmerga front lines. They managed to break through and he was killed in the firefight that ensued.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced this news today, speaking in Stuttgart, Germany. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: An American service member has been killed in Iraq. I don't know much more than that. But I believe that much is true. And so our thoughts and prayers are with that service member's family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARADSHEH: And according to a U.S. official, the U.S. responded with an F-15 and drones, dropping more than 20 bombs. And Iraqi Kurdish officials are telling us that this was not the only ISIS attack today in that area in northern Iraq. The terror group managed to launch several attacks, several assaults on various Peshmerga front lines. The situation remains fluid and we are following that situation there. It really underscores, Carol, that while they may have lost some territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, the group still has the ability to carry out assaults like this, coordinated, and major attacks like this.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jomana Karadsheh, thank you so much.

The polls are open in Indiana, and voters are psyched. Long lines forming at a few precincts before the polls opened at 6:00 a.m. And here's why. Indiana boasts an open primary. That means independents can vote. It's the bloc of voter everybody wants, whether they lean right or left, including Donald Trump.

[09:35:02] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): I think a lot of the Bernie Sanders young people are going to join my campaign. And I see it all the time.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It will be a tragedy for this country if we end up with a Donald Trump or some other Republican in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so, who's right? With me now is the former presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Good morning, sir.

RON PAUL: Good morning. Nice to be with you.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you back. Thank you.

You know, your supporters in 2008 were remarkably similar demographically speaking to Bernie Sanders' supporters. They were young, they were mostly white, secular, and they were very passionate about their candidate. Would young supporters, like yours, like Sanders', gravitate to Donald Trump?

PAUL: I think some of them do, and I think both Sanders and Trump speaks to that because there are a lot of problems out there. In many ways, Sanders and Trump are similar. But they're different in the solutions. Sanders, you know, is blaming too much freedom, too much free market, so he wants socialism. And Trump -- Trump understand the system very well and the people -- young people are unhappy, but Trump has worked within the system. He has supported -- he has been part of the deep state that controls the politics. But he speaks frankly to them and the young people are looking for answers.

Unfortunately, the two of them are addressing the problem and describing it, but both of them come up with the wrong answer. But right now I think Sanders is getting a lot of support, but he's going in the absolute opposite direction because as far as the libertarians are concerned, it's too much government, too much interference, too much control of the markets, to many special interests. It's not capitalism, it's cronyism. And it's -- you know, the power of the special interests and the Federal Reserve. COSTELLO: I suspected you might say as much. Well, let me ask you

this, sir. Would you vote for Donald Trump if he wins the nomination?

PAUL: No, I wouldn't vote for him because I see him as a very, very strong authoritarian. If -- if he were strong in defending free market economics and sound monetary policy and cutting spending and not massively increasing the military spending and threatening people and wanting tariffs and blaming everybody, it's the Mexican's fault, it's the Chinese fault, maybe -- maybe it's the fault of some of our policies. And that's what we should be doing.

COSTELLO: So -- so are you --

PAUL: So I think he's misdirecting the people where we should be looking for the answers.

COSTELLO: So is it -- if it's between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, will you cast a vote?

PAUL: I'll cast a vote, but not for either one of them. I've never bought into this idea that the lesser of two evils is a good idea and I -- I just --

COSTELLO: So who would you vote for?

PAUL: That wouldn't be -- well, I would vote on principle and make my vote count. Probably vote for a libertarian, an independent candidate. But somebody that's trying to point out that there's no difference between these. As long as I've been watching politics for a long, long time, whether you have Republican or Democrats, they're always controlled by this coalition in the deep state, the special interests, the powerful special interests. And whether it's a Ronald Reagan or an Obama --

COSTELLO: Even Donald Trump?

PAUL: They still -- they still -- they still are controlled.

COSTELLO: OK. Let me ask you this. The former House speaker, John Boehner, he called Ted Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh." You worked with John Boehner. Should he have said that?

PAUL: No, I don't think so. I think it's terrible that people talk that way. And -- and it's -- but they -- they do this because they know that it will get -- if they want to get on the news -- I mean look at Trump. Look how successful he's been. So he has permanently changed the discourse, because the media responds. Guess what he said? Guess what Trump said? He said this, bash this, bash that. So the politician -- this is going to get much, much worse because Trump has been rewarded. He's had billions of dollars' worth of free publicity because he's mean and ugly and he yells and screams at people.

COSTELLO: Uh-huh.

PAUL: And I guess -- I guess Boehner felt like he needed a little more attention. He's been out of office for a while and, guess what, he got the attention.

COSTELLO: Could --

PAUL: But that's ugliness. I never liked the partisan stuff, nor the personality stuff.

COSTELLO: Could you -- could you -- could you support Senator Ted Cruz?

PAUL: No. No. He's -- he's -- he's -- he's way too authoritarian. I mean -- and he -- and I'm a -- I think he's -- you know, somebody that over emphasizes his religion. I mean we don't want people who -- we want people to have sound ethical and moral and religious beliefs, but we don't want them to impose that or think that's the government's role. I think -- I see him more as a theocrat. I think theocracy is very, very dangerous. So, no. And a matter of fact, he's -- he's -- he's too willing to use bombs, just as Trump. Trump's willing to use nuclear weapons and he wants to build more of them. So they're all so militant. And I think that's a great danger. I've been fighting that the whole time I've been in, you know, in politics, as our country is way to militant in --

[09:40:09] COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you -- let me ask you this. Do you wish you were running this time around as opposed to when you ran the last time? Since people seem to be, I don't know, more people seem willing to accept a different kind of candidate.

PAUL: Well, that's a mixed bag. I'm glad I'm not running at this present time. But if I had a choice on the conditions of what we had four years ago versus now, yes, the conditions are more ripe for the message I gave. But there was good reception then. But then it was, you know, the Tea Party movement was something we started, but then it was taken over by the militant Republicans because they couldn't stand my foreign policy.

So, you know, the conditions are ripe. The conditions are so bad, but there are answers found in liberty and sound money and looking at the special interests and looking at the deep state and the federal Reserve. That's all available, but they don't really talk about that. How often do you hear them say, what we need is liberty, what we need is less government. No, we need more authoritarian, whether it's military authoritarianism or we need authoritarian in the redistribution of wealth. We will have fairness. And what shocks me is that people will respond to, well, socialism doesn't sound so bad. Yes, I would like to be able to have answered those questions, I'll tell you.

COSTELLO: Ron Paul, thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a new cease-fire could be announced in Syria after a series of rocket attacks kills women and children in Aleppo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:45:48] COSTELLO: A relaunched Syria cease-fire could be announced any minute now with a new U.S./Russia partnership aimed at maintaining it. The announcement follows another series of rocket attacks in Aleppo. At least 20 people are dead, including three women. CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is in Moscow with more.

Hi, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. That's right. Carol, the diplomatic push has moved here to the Russian capital, Moscow, where the U.N.'s special representative to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, he's in town, he's been speaking with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, trying to see what pressure the U.N. can put on the Russians to -- to pressure -- get them to pressurize their Syrian allies, of course. Russia is a major backer of Bashar al Assad. To claw back on the fighting, particularly around the city in Aleppo, where there have been scenes of horrific violence in the past nine or ten days, with an attack on a hospital taking place as you just mentioned within the past few hours with multiple casualties.

De Mistura said today at a joint press conference with Sergey Lavrov, that it was crucial to reinvigorate and relaunch the cessation of hostilities that has supposedly been in force across Syria since February. There have been certain breakdowns in that cessation of hostilities, particularly around Aleppo. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, offering a ray of hope, perhaps in the sense that he is expecting what he called the regime of calm or a regime of calm to be extended to Aleppo within the course of the next few hours, he said. And so clearly the Kremlin has decided to put some pressure on their Syrian allies to claw back on their military offensive.

COSTELLO: Matthew Chance reporting live from Moscow this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a wheelchair bound former Olympian is humiliated by a TSA search.

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[09:52:23] COSTELLO: All right, day two of the trading week. You see the Dow there. It's down, oh, almost 177 points. That's after positive gains on Monday. Today watch for earnings reports for some big companies, including Sprint, CVS and Papa John's. Automakers GM and Ford are also expected to report U.S. auto sales for April, and they predict they may hit record levels, so we could see a different outcome to the Dow a little later today. Let's hope so.

The TSA says it's retraining several officers in Denver after a six- time Olympic gold medalist says she was humiliated by a full body search. Amy Van Dyken-Rouen has been wheelchair bound since an ATV accident two years ago. In an Instagram post, she said she was searched inappropriately even though she has pre-check and this airport has had trouble with its officers before. CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh is in Washington with more.

Good morning.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

You know, the bottom line is, these TSA officers in Denver did not know their own screening policy for disabled passengers. Now, this former Olympic swimmer said she was given an invasive, full body pat down out in the open despite the fact she had pre-check, which, as you know, it's a program that TSA has for passengers who are deemed low risk and those passengers have undergone background checks.

Take a listen to the former Olympic swimmer who's now speaking out.

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AMY VAN DYKEN-ROUEN, SIX-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: It's really sad. I just want to be able to help other people who don't have a voice. Just fair treatment for everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: Well, TSA's own website says pre-check passengers will disabilities do not have to remove their shoes. Their hands only need to be swabbed or explosives. This woman clearly received a more invasive search than she should have, Carol. TSA in a statement saying that they reviewed the case and they did determine that the "officers did not follow correct screening protocols." We know that their officers are getting refresher training. But as you mentioned off the top, this airport has had problems before. Just last year two TSA officers were fired after plotting to grope attractive men at checkpoints.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, I was just thinking -- because I have pre-check. You go through a whole separate line. How could they not know that they weren't supposed to check her so thoroughly?

MARSH: Yes. And you know what? And you -- you have pre-check, so you know, you go through this background check. You are deemed low risk.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MARSH: So she got a really invasive pat down, and you saw her on the screen there and her social media. She was severely embarrassed.

COSTELLO: Oh. Rene Marsh reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

[09:55:00] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a mother faced with a terrifying decision, drop her babies from a burning apartment or face an almost certain death.

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COSTELLO: Oh, check out this dramatic video. A South Korean mother is forced to drop her three babies from a fourth floor window of a burning building. Luckily for her, U.S. soldiers and airmen were in the area and coordinated people on the street to catch the children in a blanket and eventually the mother jumped out of the window, too, and she was caught in that blanket. I'll talk to three of the rescuers in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

A second day of teachers sick-outs have shut down most of Detroit's public schools today. Officials say 94 of the district's 97 schools are closed. That's the same number of schools that were almost shut down Monday. The teachers union asked its members to call in sick after they were told there's not enough money to pay them past June.

[10:00:02] The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The entire country is depending on the state of Indiana.