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Turkey/U.S. Agreement on Air Bases; Gun Violence Crashing in on Presidential Race; Rough Day for Investors in China; Fiat-Chrysler Slapped with Massive Fine; John Kerry Honors CNN's Freedom Project. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 27, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & AUTHOR: So what you have, Wolf, is this, Operation Inherent Resolve consists of the U.S. providing close air support to a Turkish-designated terrorist organization, which Turkey is bombing alongside ISIS, which that Syrian affiliate has been at war with. I mean, this is something out of "Alice in Wonderland" truly. I think the U.S. concern is look at the way the messaging has been going on. Turkey came out straight away after it suffered the worst terrorist attack on its soil at the hands of an ISIS affiliate, and said, look, the U.S. has agreed to give us a no-fly zone. Pentagon, State Department officials are quick to downplay that and say we have absolutely nothing like that in the cards, but we are considering a so-called safe zone. The question is safe from whom? We are billing this -- meaning the United States -- as ISIS-free. Turkey means not just ISIS-free -- Assad free and, no doubt, Kurd free, or at least to prevent what is their greatest national security fear, the establishment of Rojava (ph), the Syrian statelet, that could well be, and has been for the last few months, creeping up on the northern border as the PYD has been so successful.

So essentially, Ankara and Washington are still at cross purposes and I think they're trying to split the difference at this point. We're giving them something in exchange for them giving a U.S. air base, which will put U.S. aircraft only 250 miles away from ISIS' de facto capital. Now compare that to the 1200 miles U.S. bombers and drones have had to fly from either aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf or other bases in the Middle East. So for us it's a great deal. For the Turks, I think they will try to get the most out of it themselves as well.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, guys, good discussion. Thanks very much for the latest developments, Michael Weiss, Barbara Starr, Nick Paton Walsh.

A horrific tragedy from gun violence in the United States is now crashing into the politics of the 2016 presidential contest. Controversial comments from Republican presidential candidate, Rick Perry, saying gun-free zones are a bad idea. We're going to ask Mark Kelly what's going on. He's the husband of former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a victim of gun violence. We'll get his reaction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:08] BLITZER: Mike Huckabee wasn't the only Republican presidential candidate making eye-raising comments over the weekend. Fellow candidate, Rick Perry, spoke to Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" about the tragic shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana. He said there's no reason to ban guns from places like theaters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK PERRY, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER TEXAS GOVERNOR: These concepts of gun-free zones are a bad idea. I think you allow the citizens of this country who have been appropriately trained, appropriately backgrounded, know how to handle and use firearms, to carry them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Funeral services for two victims of the theater shooting, Mayci Breaux and Jillian Johnson, are being held today in Louisiana.

Mark Kelly is joining us, a former space shuttle commander, and his wife, the former U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is -- was wounded in an incident, injured severely, the co-founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Captain Kelly, thanks very much for joining us.

I want to get your quick reaction to what we just heard from former Governor Rick Perry of Texas.

CAPT. MARK KELLY, CO-FOUNDER, AMERICANS FOR RESPONSIBLE SOLUTIONS & FORMER SPACE SHUTTLE COMMANDER: Wolf, I've flown in combat more than 30 times. I've been shot at a lot. It's not what people expect. I would suspect if you have a dark theater with multiple individuals, even people that think of themselves as the good guy with the gun and one person starts shooting and then there are others and instead of -- in this case instead of two dead individuals, you know, maybe that's four or maybe that's ten. Just consider how difficult the police have in handling somebody with a firearm. How often the police make mistakes. I appreciate that Governor Perry thinks that maybe under some circumstances this could help. But the majority of the time I don't know everybody is Clint Eastwood. Hard to understand, where to point the gun, who you're shooting at. And often I think we'd see -- we'd see more bodies.

BLITZER: What do you think about the shooter in Lafayette had a history of severe mental problems, had some criminal activity he was convicted of, yet, legally, in Alabama, could go ahead and buy this .40 caliber handgun.

KELLY: Well, my reaction is the same as other times that this happened. We have a background system where you can literally drive a truck through it. 40 percent of all gun sales are done without background checks period. And in a case like this individual, who should have failed the background check, often you see their information has not been shared with the state which then goes to the national instant criminal background check system. So we have holes in the system but we know that the system works a lot of times. We've stopped over 1.7 million felons from getting a gun when they failed a background check. Why do we allow them to go somewhere else? So if we don't make changes in our laws -- and I appreciate Governor Bobby Jindal, who, after this, said we really need to make sure that people like this can't get guns and all states should be looking at their background check systems. So I'd be -- as an organization, I'd love to partner with him and figure out how we can make this better in the state of Louisiana.

BLITZER: Are you going to reach out directly to him?

KELLY: Yeah, yeah. We'll do that.

BLITZER: And to others as well, who you think may be beginning to come around a little bit to your perspective?

KELLY: Well, we've been working -- currently, we're working in 12 different states. We have a lot of work we do in Washington, D.C., but around the country in a dozen different states we've helped pass -- strengthened background checks in eight different states and it's something we continue to work on. Background checks, gun trafficking is another major issue. How we deal with domestic abusers and domestic violence and stalking. We're not 15 to 20 times worse than any other industrialized country for just one or two reasons. It's complex but, over time, and with some common sense laws, we can make our country safer from this gun violence.

[13:40:32] BLITZER: Mark Kelly, thanks very much for joining us.

KELLY: You're welcome, Wolf.

BLITZER: Up next, a U.S. automaker is facing a massive fine after mishandling years of recalls on millions of vehicles. We'll have details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:44:54] BLITZER: It's been a very rough day for investors in China. The Shanghai Index, the Chinese equivalent of the Dow Jones, it plunged 8.5 percent today, the biggest one-day drop since 2007. And with such an influential market dropping that much, it will be felt around the world.

Let's bring in Paul la Monica from New York. He's "CNN Money's" digital correspondent.

China's markets have been struggling for a while now. The Chinese government has put a lot of effort into making sure they didn't fall off a cliff. What's going on?

PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: What's going on is that it appears there's renewed skepticism schism about the health of China's economy because you had some lousy profit reports from big Chinese industrial companies. That seems to be scaring investors. Chinese stock market had rebounded in the past week or so because of the big steps the Chinese government has taken to prop up the stock market and stem the leading but now it looks like everybody is worried once again. BLITZER: It's a big story. We'll stay on top of it. What about the

markets here in the U.S.? How are they doing today?

LA MONICA: Fortunately, the markets in the U.S. are not down that much, but the bad news is that we're down again and this is often a bad week last week. So the trend for the past week or so has been having stocks in the red and they're definitely following China down today.

BLITZER: Yeah, the Dow Jones down 140 points.

Paul, thank you.

Fiat-Chrysler has been slapped with a record $105 million fine. U.S. federal safety regulators say the automaker mishandled 23 recalls involving some 11 million vehicles.

Our government regulation correspondent, Rene Marsh, is with us right now, has the latest on what's going on.

Huge numbers.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: This is huge. Federal regulators are coming out hard against the automaker saying it failed in several ways. It failed to protect American drivers, regulators also say it failed to come up with effective remedies to fix defects on its vehicles and it failed to give the government information it need to make sure that drivers were safe. Now, this is a record fine. $105 million. This stems from the mishandling of 23 recalls involving 11 million vehicles which included but not limited to the Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1993 to 2007. The Jeep's faulty gas tanks, they had this potential leaking that could cause a fiery exPLOsion if there was a rare impact. Now people who own those cars, they can trade in the SUV for above-market value or they can get cash to fix it. Also owners with vehicles that have defective suspension part which is can lead to loss of control of the vehicle. They can now sell their vehicle back to Fiat-Chrysler. Besides the hefty fine, we know Chrysler will be under the watch of a third party auditor. So that is something else that they'll have to submit to.

BLITZER: So what's the automaker saying about all of this? Obviously, safety concerns are critical.

MARSH: Right, they reached out to CNN with a statement and acknowledged the consequences. They acknowledged the violations. And they say that they will be moving forward to make sure that they have the consumers' safety in the best interest. So they're not denying all the claims here and that -- again, that's the largest fine we've ever seen from the federal regulator. So they want to correct this problem quickly.

BLITZER: All right, Rene Marsh, thanks very, very much. We'll stay on top of those stories as well.

Coming up, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry honors CNN for its Freedom Project, an effort that has helped raise awareness of the tragedy of human trafficking worldwide. Much more on this story coming up.

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[13:52:45] BLITZER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Earlier today, CNN received a really, really special honor. The U.S. Secretary of State recognized CNN for its critically important work shining a light on international human trafficking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Closer to home from the United States, Mr. Tony Maddox.

Mr. Maddox, we congratulate you for your sustained campaign to raise public awareness and understanding of human trafficking on a global scale, your advocacy on behalf of victims and your dedication to ensuring that survivors and their stories are heard.

Congratulations to you, and well come.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Tony Maddox, our CNN executive vice president, managing director of CNN international, is joining us now. He spearheaded our Freedom Project. He's joining us from the State Department.

First of all, congratulations to you and congratulations to all of our CNN team that began this project five years ago.

For those around the world who are not familiar with what we are trying to do, give us a brief update.

TONY MADDOX, CNN EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & MANAGING DIRECTOR, CNN INTERNATIONAL: We decided that we could use resources of CNN to highlight levels of slavery and human trafficking. Just like years ago, I don't think this story was as mainstream as it is now. We though if CNN was able to use the power of the CNN brand to shine the CNN light on these stories -- we distribute to over 250 countries around the world, you take into account our websites and the audiences that we have, the domestic audiences that we have, the affiliates that we have, we realized that if we were to tap into some of the great work that was being done by agencies at that time to highlight this problem, we could really make a difference. So we just put the word out to staff about, should we talk about the Freedom Project. I expected about 30 people to come to the first meeting. We had around 100. The next one had over 200. It's been absolutely remarkable the extent that people have taken this on board.

You and I have worked on CNN for a long time, Wolf. It's important to some people and not so much to others. But not this one. They have experienced nothing but goodwill and support. And that's a key reason why we have the recognition for CNN that we've got today. It's very humbling and we're also very proud.

[13:55:09] BLITZER: All of us are extremely proud of what our entire team has been doing, led by you.

Tony, five years later, our network has done over 400 investigative stories from dozens of countries, and crews and correspondents around the world have been involved and -- get this -- as you well know, more than 1,000 survivors have received assistance. Millions of dollars have been raised. So here's the question. Where does this project go from here?

MADDOX: Well, I think we're really just getting started. I think everybody recognizes that human trafficking and slavery is something that everybody can take action on. These things often feel a long way away. We have the recent documentary that Jada Pinkett Smith highlighted it inside the U.S. but also in the choices that we make, the products that we consume and places that we travel and behaviors that we do. When you have a choice that can really impact on how this dreadful, evil, wicked business develops. But after all is said and done, it's still a business. And if a customer decides to turn away from that business, then it will impact that business in a negative way.

We want to keep shining the light on that and also highlighting the successes, there are a number of people that do extraordinary work and before CNN got behind the project and they were the vital people. The people I was on stage with today, their stories bring tears to your eyes. You realize the chances that they are making and really, really fundamental change that they are affecting. We want to continue to work with those groups. We're just getting started on this.

BLITZER: And it's a problem, human trafficking, that doesn't just exist in one part of the world. It exists all over the world, right?

MADDOX: It does. One of the ways I got into this story, I was taking my son to college and we were driving from Atlanta to Savannah and we stop in a city, alongside auto shops and fast food outlets, they were advertising Thai massage, an Asian massage and young girls. And I thought, how could young Asian women possibly find themselves in that place at that time? It's well worth investigating. And the people who choose to use those services need to think about that. Who are the people who they are visiting? What circumstances have been kept in there? Are they consenting to that? That came close to home in that regard. And I think back of that, we've been able to build it into something that is truly global but also personal as well. Individuals can make a difference here. We're working to do that. We're going to keep bringing these stories to them to help them do that.

BLITZER: Are these world leaders -- they know about this crisis involving human trafficking. Are they doing enough?

MADDOX: That depends on the country. And many of the countries that human trafficking is a really big problem are failing countries, they are failing states. And it's a question of priority. Some of these countries don't put enough high priority on this. And we believe when CNN as well as anyone, Wolf, when CNN decides to look at a story, that will attract world leaders' interests. So we can use a CNN effect to say, we're highlighting this. What are you doing about it? If you want to be a player on the world stage, what are you doing about this problem? And we'll continue to do that as well.

BLITZER: Tony Maddox, thank you for leading this project for us. We're proud of what we've achieved. But as you point out, there's a lot more that needs to be done. I think I speak for all of us when I say we're only just beginning.

Tony, thank you very much.

MADDOX: Thank you, Wolf. Thank you for talking to me.

BLITZER: To learn more about CNN's efforts to fight human trafficking, go to CNN.com/freedomproject. CNN.com/freedomproject.

Before I go, I need to reflect on the passing, unfortunately, of a man who contributed so much to CNN. One of my producers, Joe Conley, passed away suddenly over the weekend. He joined this network almost 20 years ago. He worked with me very closely on "Wolf Blitzer Reports." I got to know him very well. I learned that I could always rely on him 100 percent. Joe was an inspiration to all of us. He simply had it all. He was smart, dedicated, funny, humble, and someone who any of us could talk to about the news or life in general. He was a very dear friend, and his death is a tremendous loss to all of here at CNN, one that we will all feel for a long time. Our deepest condolences go out to his wife, Lisa, and Joe's family. Joe was only 52 years old.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next.

And for our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

[14:00:11] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you so much.

Great to be with you on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin.