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ISIS Claims Baghdad Blast That Kills 200; Two People Injured in Dhaka Turned Out to Be Suspects; Man in Traditional Clothing Held at Gunpoint; Trump Tweet Evokes Anti-Semitic Imagery, Outrage. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired July 04, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

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[09:00:15] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Independence Day, greeted with a heavy dose of security, hundreds of extra officers out in force.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have technology that folks will not see.

COSTELLO: This, after terrorists launch a string of attacks overseas. Iraq reeling from a market explosion, CNN in Baghdad this morning.

Plus, controversy hits the presidential campaign trail. Backlash growing over a Trump tweet evoking anti-Semitic imagery.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER FOR DONALD TRUMP: A tweet is a simple tweet and the bottom line is you can read into things that aren't there.

COSTELLO: And Hillary Clinton can't shake the e-mail scandal, her meeting with the FBI.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

It is the Fourth of July, but across the United States, it will be a working holiday for much of the nation's law enforcement. Security is beefed up in big cities and small towns, as ISIS sends a chilling message. They're ready to kill and defenseless civilians are a prized target.

ISIS now linked to three deadly attacks on three separate continents just in the last week. The most recent, also the most deadly. At least 200 people killed by a massive truck bomb that ripped through a busy shopping area in Baghdad. The blast so massive it incinerated some 81 people. The remains will have to undergo DNA testing just to be identified.

Iraq's prime minister chased from the scene by furious residents. They say the government has shown it's powerless to stop ISIS and its terror attacks on the innocent.

CNN's Ben Wedeman live in Baghdad. Hi, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Really heartbreaking scenes here. Just a few moments ago, I was sitting next to a man who had found the prayer beads of his brother charred. And they were the only sign he could find of him. And of course was in tears, he was sobbing, and the heart-rendering job of having to call his mother and to tell them that he thinks his brother is dead.

And you see this time and time again. Another woman I spoke to, she had gone around to all the hospitals in Baghdad, all of the morgues, looking for her 29-year-old son, who she knew on Saturday evening had come here to buy clothing for the Eid al-Fitr, the holiday at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. She's also desperately looking for her son, and of course, this is a situation repeated time and time again.

As you mentioned, there are so many bodies that have been recovered, but charred so beyond recognition that they're going to have to carry out DNA tests. And of course at this point, the death toll, according to the Iraqi police, is at least 200, but we were watching this morning and into the afternoon, as people were trying to recover bodies, and they were just finding body parts among the charred ruins of this shopping district -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Ben Wedeman, reporting live from Baghdad this morning.

We also have new video to show you out of Saudi Arabia, where a police robot has detonated explosives found inside the car of a suicide bomber. The man killed himself just outside the U.S. consulate this morning as Saudi police approached him. Two officers were wounded.

Police became suspicious of the man when he appeared to be wandering aimlessly in the parking lot of a nearby hospital. It is not clear if it the bomber is linked to a terrorist group.

Police now say two people injured in that horrific cafe terror attack in Bangladesh are suspects. According to an official, both individuals are in the hospital and they will be interrogated once they recover. This comes as CNN talks to the father of one of the attackers, who said he learned his son was involved after ISIS released photos of the terrorists. And Secretary of State John Kerry now offering FBI help to the Bangladeshi government.

Let's get right to Dhaka where that attack took place. Alexandra Field is there. Hi, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. We are learning through investigators that the people who are killed inside that cafe were killed within minutes of the time that the gunmen stormed in there, firing shots, lobbing explosives and then conducting an 11-hour standoff with police. Twenty civilians were killed, two police later died, and now we are learning more about the men who carried off this deadly attack. They've all been identified as Bangladeshis. [09:05:02] We are told that they range between the age of 18 and their

mid 20s. They're all considered upper middle class. Each of them, well educated. I spoke to the father of one of the youngest attackers, that man, an 18-year-old Saameh Mubasheer. His father said that the son had gone missing months earlier. They hadn't heard a word from him. They hadn't seen any signs of radicalization before he left, but they became increasingly worried in the period of his absence that he may have joined an Islamist group.

He describes his son, 18 years old, as being immature and easily impressible. We are now learning that his son was one of the attacker who stormed into that cafe. Police have said initially that one attacker survived. That attacker is too injured to speak to investigators and is still in the hospital. They do say they have a second suspect who was also injured in the cafe, but they have not said who that second person is.

Carol, ISIS was quick to claim responsibility for this attack, and U.S. intelligence officials are looking at ISIS as the likely perpetrators of this attack. But here in Bangladesh, officials are casting a wider net, saying they believe that it could be the work of homegrown domestic terrorists, part of locally banned Islamists groups. They say they're not ruling out the ISIS possibility, that they're entertaining all options, but they are currently believing it is the work of homegrown terrorists.

As for this 18-year-old boy, who was part of this attack, his father today told me he does not understand how his son could have been part of this. He describes the boy who he says was loving, kind and full of humanity. It certainly doesn't square with any of the horror that unfolded inside of that restaurant. The attack on so many unsuspecting people. But the father looked at me and he said he had a message to convey, which was this. He said he is grieving and sending his condolences to the family members of all those killed -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field, reporting live from Bangladesh this morning.

The United Arab Emirates has a warning for its citizens. If you travel to the United States do not wear traditional garments. Blend in. This is why. A hotel clerk at Avon, Ohio, near Cleveland, panicked when she spotted a man dressed in traditional clothing. She told her sister to dial 911 to report a man affiliated with ISIS.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a male in a full headdress with multiple disposable phones, pledging his allegiance or something to ISIS.

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COSTELLO: As you can see, the police did show up. They detained the man at gunpoint. They put handcuffs on him. The man, later collapsed. He turns out he was not a terrorist. He was visiting the United States for medical reasons. With me now, CNN military analyst, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling

and CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

Welcome to both of you.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. General, I want to talk about what happened in Ohio first. Obviously this was an overreaction. It is the Fourth of July holiday. Security is ramped up across the country. Can you put things in perspective for us?

HERTLING: Well certainly. I mean, we have had security officials tell us as a nation that if you see something that's unusual report it. Unfortunately sometimes that goes to extremes, and in this case, it certainly did. A hotel clerk seeing a man in a thobe, the traditional Arab dress, got nervous. That's the unfortunate part of this. That you have to actually see something that's occurring that might be threatening. This individual was just simply in a thobe making phone calls. You have to differentiate between what might be occurring versus what you suspect might be occurring.

COSTELLO: Of course, General, that might be difficult sometimes.

HERTLING: Yes, it certainly will.

Carol, and I work for a hospital that takes in a lot of destination medicine patients, which this individual was. And unfortunately you're going to see a lot of people from other countries bringing part of their culture into the United States. We are normally very welcoming in that, but I think the degree of fear and anxiety that we have in our country right now due to Islamic terrorists is causing some of these actions.

That's unfortunate. But we also have to make sure that we're careful about what we do, but at the same time not do the kinds of things that would be driven against ethnic diversity. It is a very hard line to draw.

COSTELLO: It sometimes is a very hard line to draw.

Nic, experts say these terror attacks overseas are happening because ISIS is actually losing territory in places like Iraq, and also in Syria. They're still trying to prove they are a group to be reckoned with. Can you address that for us?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Sure. I think there were several things happening here. One, they want to continue to be the most dominant radical Islamic terrorist group on the planet, so they are attacking beyond the areas, Syria and Iraq, where they're trying to hold on to territory. They are losing territory. That's a very negative -- that's a very negative for them on the PR front.

[09:10:04] In fact, if ISIS loses all its territory it kind of ceases to hold that special place for these radicals because that's what set them apart. They've had territory. But I think also what we're seeing here is the fact that they are maturing or at least they're maturing their global support. They've been in a fight with al Qaeda as well to try to sort of bring as many affiliates from as many countries on board as possible. So when we look at Bangladesh, where this attack took place, we notice that ISIS just last year had claimed an attack and the killing of an Italian aid worker, a month later, in October claimed the killing of a Japanese businessman, claimed several other killings since then.

This attack was a different scale. It showed more planning and preparation. They've been laying down the roots for networks there and in other countries for some time, and those networks are beginning to mature in their capabilities are beginning to mature. They want to use this to recruit more people to the fight in Iraq and Syria because they need more war recruits, but they also still want to outplay, if you win, and outgun globally al Qaeda and its message.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So, General, Colonel Garver who is in the Middle East representing American troops, assisting in the fight against ISIS, he put it this way. Listen.

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COL. CHRISTOPHER GARVER, SPOKESMAN, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: As we take terrain away from them and we defeat them, and they have not won a battle in Iraq in the last seven months, ever since the fall of Ramadi last year, they have not won a battle and only lost ground, they're trying to remain relevant on the global stage and trying to show as they attract crazies and sickos from across the globe, they're trying to show that hey, we're still a viable threat.

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COSTELLO: General, you know, I hear what Nic said. I hear what Colonel Garver is saying but when so many civilians are killed it's hard to be hopeful.

HERTLING: Yes. It's very difficult to match those two narratives, isn't it? Colonel Garver is absolutely right from a tactical, military standpoint, Carol. But as we've said from the very beginning, this particular fight against the Islamic extremism takes several fronts. What we've seen in Baghdad this week and in the Karrada district especially because it is a Shia dominated suburb of Baghdad, we have seen ISIS attempting to kill Shia to stoke the fans of terror.

They've cause now the government of Baghdad to counter -- to attempt to counter that and the people in Iraq have the same fears that you and I have against these kind of extremist actions. But you're also required, as Nic pointed out, to go after ISIS in several other fronts. The economic front. Take away their money. Get them on the Internet. Get their recruiting effort, stop the flow of fighters. Have the diplomacy of all the Muslim countries counter this.

So there are several fronts and whereas Colonel Garver is absolutely right, we have taken ground against these individuals, you're going to see a generational fight against this ideology until it is completely squashed and people can live in peace again. That's the unfortunate truth of the matter.

COSTELLO: All right. Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, outrage online as a new tweet from Donald Trump sparked charges of anti-Semitism.

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: With just two weeks to go until he is officially crowned, the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is embroiled in controversy. This time, it is over this tweet.

The tweet shows rival Hillary Clinton next to a Star of David shaped logo, and piles of money. The image, which drew sharp criticism with many denouncing it as anti-Semitic was soon revised.

And now the image shows a circle instead of that six pointed star. Now that Star of David was often used by Nazis to identify Jews during the holocaust with children as young as 6 years old forced to wear it.

For its part, the Trump campaign has yet to comment on the tweet. But Trump's former campaign manager and current CNN contributor, Corey Lewandowski, says the outrage over the tweet is overblown.

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COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Look, a tweet is a simple tweet and the bottom line is you can read into things that aren't there. You know, this is a simple star, and you know, to make an accusation, it is the same star that sheriffs' departments across the country use all over the place to represent law enforcement. To read into something that isn't there is, you know what, I think again the mainstream media trying to attack Donald Trump for something that really isn't there.

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COSTELLO: OK, so let's talk about that with Jonathan Greenblatt. He is the CEO and national director of the Anti-defamation League. Welcome, Jonathan.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Well, thank you. Thank you for having me.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Is it possible that Mr. Trump, or someone in his campaign did not realize that this tweet could be offensive?

GREENBLATT: Well, look, we've been troubled by the tone of this campaign now for the past six months. The first time something happens like when you quote Mussolini, it is a mistake.

The second time when it happens, like you retweet from a white supremacist Twitter account or you source your information, that's sloppy. But we are now at about the sixth or seventh time that the Trump campaign has invoked bigotry and anti-Semitism, racism.

And now it's -- now it's hard to call it anything other than a pattern. And it is a pattern that to us is perplexing, troubling, and we think wrong.

COSTELLO: This tweet seems to be a retweet from some fringe message board that is anti-Semitic. So maybe Mr. Trump just re-tweeted it or someone in his campaign did without knowing where it came from.

GREENBLATT: Well, it is an interesting question to ask why is your fact-finding department focusing on fiction, and how a major presidential campaign can be looking at racist websites or anti- Semitic sections of other online sources and using it to find content to share with the American public.

I mean, look, the Anti-Defamation League has been fighting anti- Semitism and bigotry for over 100 years. As a nonprofit organization, we don't normally engage in politics and don't want to, but the fact of the matter is, these bigoted and prejudicial ideas don't belong in the public conversation, and that's why we're speaking out.

COSTELLO: But what do you say to Corey Lewandowski who said this six- sided star like it could depict the sheriff's badge and this is an outcry -- you know, it's just more political correctness mucking up our culture.

GREENBLATT: Look, that's a very weird and abnormal definition of political correctness.

[09:20:01]If you think dog whistles to neo-Nazis is political correctness, if you somehow think that Erick Erickson of "Red State" or the ADL is represented by the mainstream media, that's somewhat bizarre.

The bottom line is this, Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee for the presidency of the United States. And we would like to see him speak out with the same energy that he brings to the campaign trail, when he calls out Hillary Clinton, or his GOP rivals, bring that energy to call out white supremacists.

Bring that energy to call out hate and make it clear that bigotry and anti-Semitism has nothing do with making America great again.

COSTELLO: All right, Jonathan Greenblatt, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

With me now to talk more about this, Trump surrogate, Boris Epshteyn, and Jason Johnson, politics editor for theroot.com, Sirius XM contributor and political science professor. Welcome.

Boris, you are a Trump supporter and you are also Jewish. Is this an overreaction?

BORIS EPSHTEYN, TRUMP SURROGATE: Well, first of all, I would like to react to what Mr. Greenblatt said there. The ADL is a notoriously left leaning Jewish organization. There are a lot of conservative Jews who disagree with the ADL on a lot of its stances.

And he was taking a very obviously pro left position there, pro- Hillary Clinton position. And I as a Jew do not appreciate him using this opportunity to support Hillary Clinton, one.

Two, my family came here in the early '90s. We're Jewish refugees from Russia. I've been called a kike before. I will stand for this. I will not stand for somebody saying that a tweet like this is some sort of clear anti-Semitism.

It may have been a mistake. It was taken down. It's not up anymore, end of discussion. Let's talk about how Donald Trump supporters for a long time, very devout Jews in his own family, and he is not an anti- Semite in any way.

COSTELLO: Let me put it to you this way because some people do say this tweet has ramifications. This is the reaction from an anti- Semitic website. This is the headline on this anti-Semitic website, "Glorious leader tweets Hillary image with dollars and Jew stars."

The article that accompanies this headline is so hateful, I will not read it on television. So Boris, this does have ramifications.

EPSHTEYN: Not at all. There are --

COSTELLO: Why is this website deriving energy from what Donald Trump's campaign or himself is tweeting?

EPSHTEYN: They are KKK leaders who are talking about how great Hillary Clinton is, how they're supporting Hillary Clinton. So there is obviously fringe parts on all sides. We don't need to listen to them. And of course, the mainstream media will bring it up and keep the conversation going.

What we should be talking about is what Hillary Clinton has not done for the Jewish people. She is in support of that Iran deal, which is an existential threat to not just Jewish people, but the state of Israel specifically.

That's what we need to be talking about. We need to be talking about the speech that Donald Trump gave at APEC, where he talked about America being 100 percent allied with Israel, which it has not been under Barack Obama.

By the way, just a few days ago, somebody spoke out against Israel in an anti-Semitic tone, and Donald Trump shut them down completely and said Israel is 100 percent an ally.

That's what we need to be concentrating on, not an errant tweet that's now off the internet.

COSTELLO: OK, I just want to say, I know you call it an errant tweet, but I just want to say one more thing about this and I want to address this to you, Jason. Because this might surprise some people, right.

According to the FBI, almost 57 percent of hate crime, hate crime victims are Jewish, 16 percent are Muslim. Now, let me read that to you again. Almost 57 percent of hate crime victims are Jewish, 16 percent are Muslim. Isn't this why, Jason, it is important for prominent Americans, whoever they are, to be careful?

JASON JOHNSON, POLITICS EDITOR, THEROOT.COM: Not only that, Carol, but on a more practical campaign issue, this is about Donald Trump not taking responsibility for his own brand. He can say that this tweet didn't mean this, he can say that eating a taco bowl didn't mean that.

But the fact of the matter is if you establish a reputation, people are going to think these kinds of things about you. It is just like last week, Bill Clinton goes and meets with Loretta Lynch.

Now maybe they were just talking about hotdog recipes for the 4th of July, but given the history of the Clintons, people have reason to suspect that maybe they were trying something untoward or unethical.

It is the same thing with Donald Trump. So he can't say I'm so surprised that somebody thinks I'm saying something anti-Semitic when he has a long history of this kind of behavior. Take responsibility for your campaign, stand up against these issues and it won't be a problem. But The Trump campaign seems to keep making these mistake.

EPSHTEYN: Donald Trump does not have a long history of anti-Semitism. Again, I will not stand for this. He does not --

JOHNSON: I'm taking about bigotry.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHNSON: I'll let you take responsibility for his campaign.

EPSHTEYN: He does not have a long history. You cannot say that. You're simply lying to the American people when you say that.

JOHNSON: He has a serious problem in the campaign. If he wants to do something about it, he can.

[09:25:04]COSTELLO: OK, so Boris, why doesn't Mr. Trump come out on camera and say you know what, this tweet was just wrong. It wasn't my intent to send out a hateful message. It was a mistake. I'm sorry. And these websites that are making hay of this of this tweet, I disavow them.

EPSHTEYN: The tweet is down. It shouldn't be talked about any more. It is obvious in the fact that it is down. It was not meant to portray whatever has been take out there. We should move on and talk about issues that affect the country, Jews, Muslims, we should move on to those issues.

COSTELLO: You know, Hillary Clinton did meet with the FBI over the weekend, Jason, right, three and a half hours, she was interrogated by FBI investigators. That was really bad. But this tweet that Donald Trump sent, sort of overshadows that and --

JOHNSON: I agree, Carol. COSTELLO: It is mind-boggling. I mean, both presidential candidates and their actions are mind-boggling in different ways.

JOHNSON: Yes, this is the most amazing race to the bottom. Every single time Hillary Clinton does something that should -- that would almost disqualify any other presidential candidate in the last 20 years, Donald Trump does something even more offensive, which takes the news attention away.

I think as an American, as an independent, I'm distressed by both of their behaviors. At the end of the day -- at the end of the day, the problem that we have here is no matter what Hillary Clinton does, she deserves to be criticized or possibly investigated for, Donald Trump rather than seizing those opportunities, says something else problematic which highlights his own weaknesses. That is what we've seen throughout the entire campaign.

COSTELLO: Well, I think Boris has a good point, Boris.

EPSHTEYN: There is no way that an errant tweet rises to the level of endangering American lives by having a private server and having secret and classified information --

JOHNSON: When 57 percent of the hate crimes in America are against Jewish people and anti-Semitic tweets is a problem from a presidential candidate, it is.

EPSHTEYN: Hillary Clinton is a habitual liar. She's broken the law.

JOHNSON: Donald Trump has allied himself with terrorists organizations --

EPSHTEYN: Jason, you can talk over all you want, but it is obvious Hillary Clinton is using this tweet to obstruct the fact that she is someone who has interviewed for three and a half people. The fact of the matter is your candidate is someone who should be arrested.

COSTELLO: I'm going to stop this now.

JOHNSON: She is not my candidate. I'm an independent.

EPSHTEYN: OK.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there, Boris Epshteyn, Jason Johnson. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the U.S. on edge after a string of terror attacks overseas and security officials here on alert, major preparations on this holiday.

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