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Wolf

50-Year Anniversary of Civil Rights March in Selma; Attack Raises Tension between Israel, Palestine; Some Iranians Oppose Iranian Nuclear Deal; Hillary Clinton E-Mail Controversy Heats Up

Aired March 06, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

President Obama and his family head to Selma, Alabama, this weekend to mark the anniversary of the historic civil rights march. In a new CNN poll, four in 10 Americans now say race relations in the United States have actually gotten worse under the country's first African-American president. In this new CNN/ORC poll, only 15 percent say race relations have gotten better while 39 percent say they've gotten worse. In May of 2009, just a few months into President Obama's term, 32 percent thought race relations were better. Just 6 percent said they were worse.

In a radio interview that aired this morning, the president said he's concerned that younger Americans feel far-removed from the civil rights struggle.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This isn't ancient history. I worry sometimes our kids, black or white, they are in a classroom and they see the "I Have a Dream" speech during Black History Month and they kind of think this is something way back in the past. You know, this is something that happened within my lifetime.

(END AUDIO FEED)

BLITZER: A major turning point for race relations, civil rights in the United States came about because of an incident on an Alabama bridge 50 years ago tomorrow. A group of about 609 people plan to march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery in support of voting rights but instead were brutally attacked by state troopers in what would become known as Bloody Sunday.

CNN's Ryan Young takes a closer look at where it all happened at the Edmond Pettus Bridge.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a bridge now just as important for what it brings together than for what it kept apart. From above, you can see the Edmund Pettus Bridge stretch across the Alabama River. Named after a Confederate general, U.S. Senator and a high-ranking member of the Ku Klux Klan, time has not changed this landmark very much over the last 50 years.

JOANNE BLAND, CIVIL & HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST: I had no idea there was a possibility of violence. Selma gave so much to America and the world.

YOUNG (on camera): This bridge is a powerful piece of metal for so many people across the country. When you stand here, you can't really see what's on the other side of the ridge. And the protesters had no idea what they were walking toward. But their walk changed the future of this country. The images that were beamed across the country, the video that helped everyone understand the struggle for the civil rights movement, a movement that really got its wings because of what happened here.

BLAND: I heard what I thought were gunshots and screams. And people just screaming and screaming.

YOUNG (voice-over): Joanne Blair was just a child when she marched on Bloody Sunday.

BLAND: And before we turned around, it was too late. The policemen came in from both sides, the front and the back, and there was nowhere to go. Tried to walk across and I couldn't.

YOUNG: It's a painful memory she shares with people, a memory she's found a way to embrace despite the horror and sounds of that fateful Sunday.

BLAND: I saw this horse and this lady and I don't know what happened. I could shear the sound when her head hit the pavement. And my sisters thought it was my head hitting the pavement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We must march.

YOUNG: Now the people who march are being celebrated in movies like "Selma" for their courage. The actor and rapper, Comon (ph), highlight this bridge was highlighted during a recent academy award acceptance speech for the song "Glory."

(SINGING)

YOUNG: During his speech, he points back here to Selma where he remarks, "50 years ago this bridge, once a landmark of a divided nation, but now it's a symbol for change. The nature of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and social status."

(on camera): There's now a lot of attention being paid to that bridge, those scenic shots, that majestic video all coming from a drone. This is the first time CNN has used a drone in partnership with the FAA to shoot parts of this story. And I can tell you a lot of people who live in this community are hoping the extra attention will bring more jobs to the area. Ryan Young, CNN, Selma, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We're going to bring you special live coverage of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march beginning tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. eastern right here on CNN.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Israeli police are treating it as a terror attack. A Palestinian driver plowed into a cyclist and four Israeli border officers. He then lunged at security guards with a knife.

As CNN's Oren Liebermann tells us, this incident just raises tensions between Israelis and Palestinians even more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this attack comes after a number of similar attacks here in recent month both in and around Jerusalem. Many of these attacks have come along the dividing line between east and west Jerusalem.

(voice-over): Police blocked off road number one after is suspect drove his vehicle into Israeli border patrol officers and a cyclist Friday morning. Police say the driver, identified by police as a Palestinian man in his 20s, turned back to the road, drove another quarter mile before light-rail security guard started shooting the car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

LIEBERMANN: Captured in the adrenalin-filled moments after the attack, the suspect surrounded by security guards, the cameraman, holding a gun breathing heavily, he says in Hebrew, don't shoot him, don't shoot him again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MICKY ROSERFIELD, ISRAELI POLICE SPOKESMAN: I know shots were fired at the vehicle itself and the wheels in order to stop the vehicle itself. Only when the terrorist himself came out of the vehicle with a knife it was clear it was a terrorist attack and then he was shot twice in serious condition, taken to hospital. Heightened security continuing here in Jerusalem.

LIEBERMANN: The attack happened near a border patrol headquarters about 10 minutes north of the old city of Jerusalem on the tense line between east and west Jerusalem. It comes after a string of similar attacks in central Jerusalem. In October, police say a Palestinian man drove his car into a crowd killing a baby and injuring others. And then a Palestinian man drove a commercial van into a crowd killing a border police officer and injuring 13 others before getting out of his van and attacking people with a metal bar.

(voice-over): A short time after the attack, Hamas released a statement not taking responsibility for the attack but praising and blessing the attack. Wolf, this attack comes on the Jewish holiday that has a very different feel here on this day.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Oren Liebermann, reporting for us from Jerusalem, thank you.

Still ahead, Iranian leaders say they're inching closer to a nuclear deal but they may face their biggest challenge to any deal right in their own backyard. Stand by. We're going live to Tehran.

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BLITZER: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week made no secret of the fact he does not support the ongoing nuclear talks between the U.S. and five other countries and Iran. But Iran's religious conservatives are also making it clear they're not big fans of the talks either.

Our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, reports from Tehran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Death to America, death to Israel," thousands chant at the main Friday prayers in Tehran, a show of force by this country's religious conservatives.

(on camera): Iran has a very large and very powerful religious community. And one thing's clear, those negotiating on behalf of Iran are not going to be able to sign any nuclear deal without the backing of these people.

(voice-over): But that will be hard. Many of those attending the sermon are more than skeptical of the negotiations the Rouhani government says are inching closer to a deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rouhani is making a fool of himself by going and saying, we will negotiate with the U.S. while the U.S. is tricking. This is not right. They did not have a good-faith negotiation on the part of the U.S.

PLEITGEN: "Unfortunately, we've seen that we cannot trust the Americans," this young man says, "they've shown the nuclear issue is an excuse, they want to take everything away from us, our religion, our dignity."

And this one says, "The Americans want too much, that's why we are not optimistic. And there have been many times when the U.S. has not been honest." For now, Iran's highest authority, the supreme leader, Ayatollah

Khamenei, says he supports the negotiations but he also says he wants a good deal for Iran. "I will agree to a deal that is practical," he said, "of course, not with a bad deal. The Americans repeatedly state that they believe no deal is better than a bad deal. We are of this opinion as well."

And many attending the Friday prayers say additional sanctions and even a military confrontation don't scare them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reason we are progressing is because of the sanctions, not despite of the sanctions. See, we are a great nation. Everybody you see here, they're ready to go to war. We are not afraid.

PLEITGEN: Many Iranians do want sanctions relief as fast as possible. But strong hardliners say they would rather continue to live under sanctions than make concessions to the West.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Fred Pleitgen is joining us now live from Tehran.

Fred, are Iran's leaders doing anything to try to convince these opponents, these religious conservatives that the talks will benefit Iran in the long term?

PLEITGEN: They certainly are trying and there's certainly still an uphill battle they have in front of them. They keep saying they're being tough on the U.S. They say they want to get something out of Iran -- out of these negotiations. And I think that's also one of the reasons why you keep hearing the Iranian negotiators like the foreign minister say they want the sanctions to be lifted as fast as possible. Of course, in their view, the sanctions should be lifted immediately. But it really is a very, very difficult thing for them to sell at home to these religious conservatives.

It's interesting, for us, having been here for about a week, it seems the majority of the population wants a deal and they're willing to make concessions. However, there are some very powerful institutions in this country that really don't necessarily feel Iran needs a deal and they want to stay tough in these negotiations. Wolf, it's so interesting, you only have to look at who was there during these Friday payers today. It was the top members of this country's clergy but it was also, for instance, the head of the Revolutionary Guard corp. He was there as well. So these powerful institutions want to continue to play hard ball. They don't feel they need the deal. They're more than willing to make sure. So this is something these negotiators have to take into account. And they have to have something to show for it if they sign a deal. But also, Wolf, it's interesting, because you remember how President Obama said he wasn't certain that the Iranians said they were going to be coming to a yes, and now we know why -- Wolf?

BLITZER: When you hear these thousands of people chanting, "Death to America, death to Israel," we've been hearing that for a long time. But do they really mean it? Or is it just the slogan? What was your sense?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think a lot of it is a slogan. I think a lot of it is part of the ceremony that goes on here. A lot of it is reflexive. Of course, they do feel very combative to the United States, especially if you look at the leadership of this country. Of course, if you look at the many military institutions of this country, they feel that they are the ones who are standing up to the U.S. and, of course, to Israel as well. You see it around town here as well. There's banners all over the place. The big slogan there is "Resistance forever." So while "Death to the U.S., death to Israel" is probably not something they necessarily mean literally, it is something where they do believe they are in a struggle and they feel that U.S. and the Israel doesn't want anything good for Iran -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Fred Pleitgen reporting live from Tehran. Thank you for the report.

Up next, Hillary Clinton says her e-mails are on the way. She wants them made public. But the issue itself may now be troubling Democrats here in the United States as they look ahead to the presidential contest in 2016. We'll take a closer look. That's coming up next.

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BLITZER: Now to the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy here in the United States. The State Department is going through Clinton's e- mails from her time as secretary of state. She's called on the department to release the e-mails to the public. But the process could still take months. This all has to do with the former secretary of state not having a State Department e-mail account instead only using a personal e-mail account. The complaint from Republicans and others who have asked for the e-mails in regards to the House investigation into the Benghazi consulate attack is that Secretary Clinton could have easily deleted e-mails pertaining to the attack or any e-mails she deemed controversial.

Joining us now is Gloria Borger.

You posted on CNN.com. Let me read from it. "The truth is simple, your job is to defend Hillary Clinton, not to bury here. Yes, it can be hard, even annoying. But think about it this way. If you don't, her problems become your own."

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's to Democrats.

BLITZER: That was your advice to them.

BORGER: Look, Democrats are worried about this, and rightly so. Hillary Clinton is their punitive Democratic nominee. They don't even have someone else in a close second place. If any they can't defend her because they have such a thin bench out there, then they'll have a real problem in this presidential campaign. The problem they've got is that people close to Hillary Clinton and Hillary Clinton herself are not exactly telling them what they ought to be saying or what their so-called talking points ought to be because it has not been clarified yet, Wolf. And I think the only way Hillary Clinton can really clarify this and turn the corner on this story because this investigation is going to take months and months. They're going to have to go through all these e-mails.

The question -- the way she can turn the corner is to actually talk about it, not tweet about it. Explain it to the American public why she did this, why what she did was well within the law. If in fact, it was at the State Department. Did she do it to protect her privacy? Did she do it to be evasive? I mean, these are questions that need to be answered if only because her Democrats are sitting out there and saying, OK, these are legit questions. How do we answer them on her behalf?

BLITZER: This new Quinnipiac poll, she's at 56 percent. These are among likely Democratic voters. Elizabeth Warren, the Senator from Massachusetts, is at 14 percent. Joe Biden, 10 percent. Basically, everyone else really, really down there who's even being talked about right now. She's got a lot, but it's gone down since January, her points.

BORGER: Her numbers have gone down, but I think the theory on team Clinton was that they ought to wait for her to announce, because while the Republicans seem to be destroying each other, they were kind of happy to sit back and watch that go on. And why not? But now I think you're seeing the flipside of it. The flipside is when you don't have an organized apparatus out there for response, when you don't have a ready explanation as a campaign would, when you don't have a candidate who's out there talking about this particular issue, explaining herself, then you create more of a problem. Hillary Clinton has been making a bunch of personal appearances and she hasn't talked about the elephant in the room. She's going to be at the Clinton Global Initiative over the weekend. We don't know whether she'll mention this or not. It may not be the right venue. But at a certain point, I do think you have to hear from her. And this is kind of a problem with being a non-candidate candidate. You either are or you're not.

BLITZER: So what you're saying -- and we're out of time -- is that one tweet at 11:30 at night basically saying I've handed over the e- mails to the State Department, that's clearly not enough.

BORGER: Right. And the State Department is having to do all the explaining, right?

BLITZER: There's going to have to be some more explanations.

BORGER: Right. There are.

BLITZER: Gloria, thanks very much.

I'll be back later today, 5:00 p.m. in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers here in North America, "Newsroom" with Ana Cabrera starts right now.