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Mitt Romney to Run for a Third Time?; Gitmo Prisoner Freed Contacts Taliban; More Snow Expected for New England; Aaron Hernandez Trial Gets Under Way

Aired January 30, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with a major development unfolding this morning in the 2016 presidential race.

Just two hours from now, Mitt Romney will tell his supporters whether he's pushing ahead with a third run for the White House. Now keep in mind, it was just a few weeks ago that Romney dropped the bombshell that he -- that he was even considering another bid and that news did not sit well with a lot of Republicans.

CNN's Dana Bash joins us live from Washington.

So what will happen at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Dana?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What will happen, Carol, is that Mitt Romney is going to be on the phone with supporters, with donors, with people who he gave super secret phone number to, to reveal whether or not he's going to take the next step and actually make a third run or not.

You might want to ask why now. And the answer is, because over the past -- even these couple of days, even hours, we have seen some important donors, some important staffers in key states began to choose other candidates. And he knows how this game works. He's done it twice. So he's got to fish or cut bait, for lack of a better way to say it, now if he wants to actually do it.

LEMON: So why is he making the announcement this way, by phone?

BASH: That's a good question. I think, look, what -- here's what has been going on behind the scenes over the past couple of weeks since Mitt Romney, as you pointed out, told some donors in New York that he's seriously thinking about it. He is, if you talk to anybody who knows Mitt Romney they say they use the word "data." He is a data driven guy.

So he's has asked his closest confidents, his confidantes, who have been with him since the beginning of political time for him to gather data. That's polling, that's information from people who have been with him for the last two elections in key states. To see what the genuine appetite is for a third Mitt Romney run. So he has been looking at that and crunching those numbers.

But of course, when you run for president, it's not just about numbers, it's about fire in the belly. Do you really want to go through this again? Do you want to put your family through this again? So those are the things that he has been weighing. And he's going to do this by confidence call now because he wants to get the message out ASAP.

An order -- one other thing that I wanted to point out is that there's been a lot of talk understandably so about Ann Romney because she has so often publicly said no, no, no, I don't know how many ways I can say no, he's not going to run. I've been told that over the past couple of weeks, maybe even longer she has been much more positive, even encouraging him to do so.

For various reasons, mostly because they -- he and -- she and the rest of the family know that this is something that he has always wanted to do. And if they see the data and he's got the fire in his belly, they're with him for a third time.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash, stand by. Many thanks.

Now if Romney does throw his hat into the 2016 ring he's facing a slew of possible GOP contenders. A lot of GOP chatter is out there. Look at all those heads on the screen. As for the Democrats, well, cue the crickets, the shortlist includes Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden.

So let's talk about this, I'm joined now by John King.

Good morning, John. So it just seems like it's going to be a repeat of the last presidential election or the GOP primary, I should say?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're going have a much more crowded field, Carol. And most Republicans would concede with or without Mitt Romney they believe it's a much more established, much more credible field.

Now you'll an ideological split, you have the Tea Party guys like Ted Cruz. You have a -- you know, Rand Paul, the libertarian, you have more establishment candidates like Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, perhaps Mitt Romney. And so there's an ideological split in this field. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, probably somewhere in the middle there.

You also have a generational split. The younger guys. Again, the younger -- Rick Santorum has run before, you see his picture there. I would take Sarah Palin and Donald Trump out of that, I think they're mostly trying to get attention at the moment when they say they'll seriously consider it but we'll see if they run. Ben Carson, former FOX News contributor, Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana.

There are at least two dozen Republicans, Carol, taking a look at this. And it's one of Mitt Romney's calculations. As Dana noted, he's a data guy. If you look at any polls that are taken, Mitt Romney is still at the top of the pack, even if he believes a decent number of his donors and a decent number of his operatives, he would start with a bigger or better infrastructure than any other candidate.

Mitt Romney, I'm told, has sat down with his people and said, I think I'm better than Jeb Bush. I think I have a better chance against Hillary Clinton than anybody in this field. The question is, and Dana touched on this, most people who've watched Governor Romney in recent days believe he's going to run. Just last night after President Obama spoke at a Democratic retreat, Romney tweeted back to have a debate with Obama.

All public signs are he wants to run but I'm told this morning there are some dissenting opinions among his closest inner circle who Governor Romney has talked to one last time and then gone off to do his own assessment. And we're two hours away from finding out just what that is.

COSTELLO: All right. Well, let's talk about some of Romney's closest donors, he's closest supporters, he's closest advisers.

Gloria Borger has talked with some donors. What are they telling you, Gloria?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I've talked with donors, a couple of donors, who believe that Romney will as one put it, quote, "lean in" on this phone conversation to running. He knows he's got to make a decision quickly because he's going to lose the donors otherwise. He's going to lose campaign staff otherwise. He just lost his former Iowa campaign -- chief campaign staffer to Jeb Bush yesterday.

But I think there's something more personal underlying this in talking to people who are close to Romney. Yes, as Dana points out, is with him and because she is with him because he really believes he should be president of the United States.

You know, about a year and a half ago, I interviewed them both in Park City, Utah. And I asked Mitt Romney if he would ever run again. This is after the loss. And he has said, oh, I'd do it in a minute. And I sort of couldn't believe him. And Ann said, huh? Because she clearly was not as enthusiastic. But if Mitt Romney really wants this and will do this, their son Tag would be -- Tag Romney would be quite involved.

As John points out the staff is kind of split, the old gang is getting -- the band is getting back together sort of. Some people are still scratching their heads about this, but Romney believes he's better than anybody else in the field. And that one thing he has on his side, he believes, is that he's been the nominee before. So he's kind of been to the Super Bowl once, even though he lost. He feels that he's -- he can withstand the kind of scrutiny and the kind of campaign that will be ahead of him.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So you mentioned Ann Romney.

BORGER: Yes.

COSTELLO: And I just want to remind people what Ann Romney said in 2013, let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN ROMNEY, MITT ROMNEY'S WIFE: I feel like, you know, we did our best. We had had our turn. We gave it our all. I believed in it completely. I believe in my husband completely. And now I feel like it's time to pass the baton on to someone else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So that's what she said in 2013.

So, Gloria, stick around, I want to bring in Chris Moody, too, because he has some stuff to add about Ann Romney.

Take it away, Chris.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I want to say something about what she said right after the campaign. If you've ever met anyone who has ever worked on a presidential campaign there is a fog hanging over them for quite a while after a loss. And I think that has to hit especially hard on the families. So, you know, I would expect somebody who had just gone through a multi-year process, devoted their life to something, and then didn't achieve the goal to feel a little discouraged.

But, of course, the Romneys have had a couple of years to come back from that. And their heads cleared up a little bit. And I think the -- as our CNN correspondents have said, they've looked at the data here in the future, and see that there just might be a path for him. And they're looking at that. We'll have an announcement here with his closest supporters very soon.

COSTELLO: Very shortly.

OK. Thanks to all of you for joining me this morning, Dana Bash, John King and Chris Moody.

And again a reminder, Romney is due to hold that phone call with his supporters. Less than two hours from now at 11:00 Eastern. CNN reporters will bring you his decision live. Thanks to you too.

Also coming up in the NEWSROOM, say it ain't snow. The blizzard weary northeast. Ready for another dousing. Sara Ganim is in Portland this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This morning, new concerns over a controversial prisoner swap for an American. Remember when U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was freed after the United States handed over five Taliban detainees who had been held at Guantanamo Bay? Critics accused the White House of negotiating with terrorists but today the controversy mushrooms. Sources telling us that one of those detainees is apparently trying to return to militant activity.

CNN's Barbara Starr has been working her sources. She joins us live from the Pentagon to tell us more.

Hi, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, as you recall, these five men were sent to the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar which promised to keep an eye on them at the same time. The U.S. was conducting a classified surveillance program monitoring, intercepting all of their communications. And apparently in the last several weeks one of them in fact tried to make phone calls to former Taliban associates. U.S. intelligence picked it all up very, very quickly. They caught the call.

Now what does this all mean? Some in the intelligence community have said, as long as we caught the problem, it's OK. I will tell you that several sources tell me that there is considerable concern about this. It is not a good sign. They may have caught the communication, but this is not a good sign. They've had detainees do this, return to the battlefield, sort of activity in the past.

It's happened before but in this case, of course, it's very distinctive because of that political controversy surrounding the five for one trade swap to get Bowe Bergdahl back. These five detainees from Guantanamo Bay all were suspected of fairly significant activity in operating with the Taliban in Afghanistan. That's what got them picked up and sent to Gitmo in the first place.

So likely to see a lot of additional criticism of this from many Republicans and in fact, some Democrats here in Washington -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wasn't someone supposed to be keeping an eye on these men?

STARR: Yes, you know, here's the deal, the Qataris promised and apparently have promised again to keep a very close physical eye on them. They are not allowed to leave the country, though they may be within the next several months, that travel ban expected to be lifted. It is that classified U.S. intelligence intercept surveillance program of their communications, their e-mails, their cell phone traffic that caught this.

COSTELLO: Wasn't someone supposed to be keeping an eye on these men?

STARR: Yes, you know, here's the deal -- the Qataris promised and apparently have promised again to keep a very close physical eye on them. They are not allowed to leave the country, though they may be within the next several months, that travel ban expected to be lifted.

It is that classified U.S. intelligence intercept surveillance program of their communications, their e-mails, their cell phone traffic, that caught this. So the U.S. intelligence community was working very closely, we are told, to try and make sure that all of their communications were monitored. One of them apparently thought they could get away with it. The good news is they got caught at it. The not so good news is that these guys apparently still, at least one of them, has an interest in returning to militant activity.

COSTELLO: All right, Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon for us, thank you.

All right, let's talk some more about the weather. New Englanders bracing for yet another round of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I used to love it when I was a kid. And now when you get a car and stuff, it's not the same.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's certainly not the same. Just when you can see the pavement, fresh flakes are hours away from falling. At least this time around John Kerry should be prepared. The U.S. Secretary of State is actually facing a $50 fine for not clearing the snow outside of his Boston mansion. In all fairness, he was in Saudi Arabia attending the funeral of King Abdullah, but I still think he probably will have to pay that $50 fine.

So much snow should New Englanders expect this time around? Sara Ganim in Portland, Maine, with the answer. Good morning, Sara.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Hey, guess what? It's snowing again in New England. Now, nothing expected like those blizzard-like conditions that we saw earlier this week, but it is a given amount of snow given what's already on the ground here.

I just want to show you -- I'm in Portland, Maine, downtown. Here they got about 27 inches of snow from the blizzard. Take a look at this, Carol; this is a lot of snow that's around me already that was on the ground before it even started snowing today. There are snow piles of plowed snow that are stacked up. And when we got here this morning, crews were scrambling, racing against the snow, trying to clear the streets, trying to clear the snowplows -- piles with plows and dump trucks, trying to get the snow out of the city, because 6 to 10 more inches are expected to fall between today and tomorrow with the potential, Carol, for a third storm, another storm, to come Sunday into Monday.

And all of this is significant, because when you get to that many, that high of snow totals on the ground, that leads to problems removing the snow, plowing the streets, keeping everything clean, also rooftop safety concerns. And, of course, all of that on top of the potential for power outages with storms like this. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Sara Ganim reporting live from Portland, Maine, this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a deadly hit and run and a notorious rap mogul in custody for murder. Sara Sidner is in Los Angeles with more.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the rap mogul Suge Knight has now been booked on suspicion of murder. We'll tell you what happened in the middle of the day, according to sheriff's deputies.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Right now, former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez sits in a courtroom accused of murder. Hernandez's defense team claims he was targeted by police because of his celebrity status.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL FEE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: As soon as they found out that Aaron Hernandez, the celebrity football player, the New England Patriot, was a friend of Odin Lloyd's, Aaron never had had a chance. It was over.

Aaron Hernandez was planning a future, not a murder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The prosecutors argue Hernandez not only orchestrated the killing of his former friend, Odin Lloyd, but tried to cover it up. Today, several key witnesses are expected to take the stand, including Lloyd's mother, Lloyd's girlfriend, and a police officer who was at the crime scene.

So let's talk about all of this with CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Danny Cevallos, HLN legal analyst Joey Jackson, and joining me by phone, Clark Pennell. He was a jury foreman in the murder trial of former Carolina Panther star Rae Carruth. Welcome to all of you.

Clark, I want to start with you. Tell me what it was like to sit on a jury in the Rae Carruth trial?

CLARK PENNELL, JUROR FOREMAN, RAE CARRUTH TRIAL (via telephone): Well, it was very interesting and very enlightening to be able to sit there and listen to all of the different versions of what happened, and then try to sort through it with my fellow jurors to come to the conclusion that we did.

COSTELLO: Was it -- I mean, did Rae Carruth's celebrity status affect any of the jurors' decision-making?

PENNELL: I don't think so. We had a fairly mixed jury. I think it was like seven men, five women. All of us were locals, so we knew about the Panthers and we knew about Rae Carruth, but I don't think that that really played into the decision of anybody.

COSTELLO: What do you expect the jurors are feeling now as they sit through the beginning days of this trial?

PENNELL: Well, if they're like me, they're overwhelmed. You know, not a lot of us know a lot about the legal system. And once you get into a courtroom and you're told you can -- you hear certain things and then you're told to disregard them, that's hard to do. You're told that, you know, you can take notes, but you can't take them home with you. You can't watch television. You can't read the newspapers, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, to have all of that coming at you right on the first day or two of the trial is -- to me, it was very overwhelming. I was just kind of walking around in a daze for the first couple of days, I guess.

COSTELLO: I can't even imagine.

So, Joey, one of the difficulties of the attorneys in the courtroom is, A, to make the jury understand where they're coming from, right?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

COSTELLO: And, in this case, especially for the defense attorneys. They want to paint a picture of Aaron Hernandez as this handsome, rich, football player who had it all. In fact, one of his lawyers looked at the jury and said this is the picture of Aaron Hernandez. And he had his arm around his fiancee and he was smiling. This is not the picture of a murderer.

JACKSON: Aha. So what happens, Carol, is in a courtroom you have these competing theories. And of course the prosecution's theory is far different. He's the orchestrater, he's the murder, this is the guy. But, remember, and see what the defense is doing, it goes to motive. And you never have to establish a or prove motive, but inquiring minds want know. Why would he do this? And if, as the defense points out, he's got everything. He's got the world at his feet -- $40 million, a fiancee, a beautiful child. Why, oh why would he do it? Does it make sense to you? If not, you can't convict. And that's the theory.

COSTELLO: And from the other side, for Odin Lloyd, right, prosecutors are -- they're trying to paint a picture of Odin Lloyd as this drug dealer guy, not this loyal son. I don't think it's a surprise that Lloyd's mother is going to take the stand today, Danny.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: There's no question, in every one of these cases, there's a subtle amount of character assassination that goes on involving the victim. Because, after all, they're not here speak for themselves. And while it's subtle -- well, sometimes it's sublte, sometimes not so subtle -- but it's critical to paint a picture not only of the defendant and who he is, but the victim and who he was. Because jurors will make that decisions based on that kind of relatability. And if the defense succeeds in showing that the So each side is doing it whether admitting it or not.

COSTELLO: So, Clark, did that enter into the Rae Carruth trial?

PENNELL: I suppose that it did. It was a long time ago, so I can't remember all the facts. But I suppose that the -- as one of the attorneys said, you did their character assassination on the victim in this, in the Rae Carruth trial. And, you know, she worked in a nightclub, et cetera, but I don't know if that really made anybody empathize or not believe that Rae was the instigator of this. COSTELLO: Right. And just to remind our viewers, Rae Carruth was

convicted of orchestrating the death of his girlfriend, who was pregnant at the time. So you had a question, Joey.

JACKSON: You know, Clark, interestingly enough, I used to be a prosecutor, now a defense attorney. Danny and I are both defense attorneys. And we always wondered, because you know what, Carol, the judge admonishes the jury don't read anything -- and Clark alluded to it. Don't read anything, don't review anything, don't pay attention to all of the media crush you're getting over it. But you have analysis night after night, paper after paper.

And so the issue, Clark, did that influence you or anything that the other jurors in terms of whether the media was covering it? Did you really follow the instructions that the judge gave the jury not to look at any of that stuff?

PENNELL: I can only speak for myself. But I did. My wife was very faithful about getting the newspaper in in the mornings before I've had a chance to get up. And if there were articles in there about the trial, she'd cut them out. If we were watching the TV at night and one of the props came up and said coming up soon information or details about the Rae Carruth trial, then we turned off the television.

And I have to think that the majority of the other jurors did the same thing. You know, I never heard anybody say when we were sitting around that, hey, did you see the newspaper article or hear what was on the news this morning?

CEVALLOS: Very interesting.

COSTELLO: Well, that's -- that's awesome, right?.

JACKSON: I'm glad they followed the judge's instructions.

CEVALLOS: Makes you feel better, doesn't it?

JACKSON: Yes, the judge admonishes the jury constantly, don't follow that stuff. I'm glad they didn't.

COSTELLO: It'd be really difficult because we're surrounded by information these days, right?

PENNELL: Yes. What my wife did, she cut out all the articles out, and then after the trial, she had put them in a notebook for me so I could read what had happened.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

JACKSON: The Swiss cheese newspaper.

COSTELLO: So last question for you, Clark. Are you going to pay attention to this trial, this Aaron Hernandez trial?

PENNELL: I won't follow it on a daily basis. You know, I read a little bit about it and seen a little bit about it. But, you know, I feel like I've had my share of those.

COSTELLO: That's what I expected you to answer. Danny Cevallos, Joey Jackson, and Clark Pennell, thank you so much, all of you, for joining me. I appreciate it.

Be sure to tune in tonight for a CNN special report, "DOWNARD SPIRAL: INSIDE THE CASE AGAINST AARON HERNANDEZ". That's tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.