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Wolf
Interview With Senator Rand Paul; Congress Hears Harrowing Story of Girl Slave of ISIS: Catching Up with Iraqi Family Rescued from Mt. Sinjar. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired September 29, 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] LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The Afghanistan forces are building up, but they are not to the point where they can take control of --
(AUDIO BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we have just lost our connection with Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. But we were wrapping it up in any case.
A very disturbing situation unfolding in Afghanistan right now. We will stay on top of that for our viewers here in the United States and around the world.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the government inching closer to the shutdown, but many believe it is going to be averted. Republicans are tying the budget to the battle of the federal funding for Planned Parenthood. We will talk about that more. Senator Rand Paul, one of the Republican presidential candidates -- there you can see him up there on Capitol Hill -- he is standing by live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:35:07] BLITZER: Today, up on Capitol Hill, a contentious hearing on Planned Parenthood funding. The president defending her organization as she was grilled by lawmakers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CECILE RICHARDS, PRESIDENT PLANNED PARENTHOOD: No federal funds pay for abortions at Planned Parenthood or anywhere else except for the limited circumstances allowed by law. This is when the woman has been raped, victim of incest or when her life is endangered.
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, (R), UTAH: If you want to be a private entity, be a private entity, but you don't have to use federal dollars to do that.
RICHARDS: I don't use federal dollars to do that, sir.
CHAFFETZ: You do, to run the organization. Planned Parenthood, in the pink is the reductions in the breast exams, and the red is the increase in the abortions.
(CROSSTALK)
CHAFFETZ: That's what's going on in your organization.
RICHARDS: This is a slide that has never been shown to me before. I'm happy to look at it and -- it absolutely does not reflect what is happening at Planned Parenthood.
CHAFFETZ: You're going to deny that we take --
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARDS: -- a slide you have just shown me that no one has ever provided to us before. We have provided you all of the information about everything, all of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. And it doesn't feel like we're trying to get to the truth here. You're just showed me this. I'm happy to look at it.
CHAFFETZ: I pulled up those numbers directly out of your corporate reports.
RICHARDS: Oh.
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARDS: Excuse me. My lawyer's informing me that the source of this is actually Americans United for Life, which is an anti-abortion group. So I would check your source.
CHAFFETZ: We will get to the bottom of the truth of it.
REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: This whole defunding fight is just a pretext for the real Republican agenda.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Some Republicans on Capitol Hill stepped up their opposition for federal funding of the organization after an edited video was released that reportedly showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue.
And an attempt to tie Planned Parenthood funding to a measure to avoid a government shutdown failed in the Senate yesterday.
Here's Senator Rand Paul on the floor of the Senate voicing his opposition to that so-called continuing resolution that would allow the government to remain funded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL, (R-KY) & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We were told when we were taking over Congress, when Republicans were elected to Congress, that things would be different, that if the voters put us in charge, we would right the ship, we would stop the deficits, and here we are with another continuing resolution. What is a continuing resolution? It is a steaming pile of the same old, same old. Let me be clear, a continuing resolution is not a good thing, it is more of the status quo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And Senator Rand Paul, the Republican from Kentucky and a presidential candidate, joining us now from Capitol Hill.
Senator, thank you for coming in.
PAUL: Thank you.
BLITZER: Everyone agrees that the continuing resolution is not the best way to fund the government, but it at least allows the government to be operational, and the vital services for the people can continue, and isn't that better than shutting down the government?
PAUL: Well, it is not an either/or situation. I think that we should no longer continue to spend money at the same rate that we are spending money, so, yes, we should let all spending expire, and then we should renew the programs that are working, and then it should require a super majority to get the program started. I went through the list of the ten programs about including one where we are studying the Japanese quail to see if they are more sexually promiscuous on cocaine, and the only way to stop the programs is to let them expire, and say it is going to be 60 votes to restart the programs. I am not advocating a shutdown, but I am advocating that all of the programs are shutdown and then we look at what is duplicative and what is working and what is not.
BLITZER: And so you want to have the government operating October 1st, and if they don't pass it, the government will be run out of money, and all of the government agencies will be shutdown without this budget.
PAUL: Well, it is a lump together with no reform, so we are borrowing $1 million a minute, and it makes no sense to continue money at that rate, and so I would stop all of the spending and let it expire, and the interesting thing at the Senate is that it takes 60 votes to affirmatively pass anything, and the hurdle of 60 votes should not be used to stop spending, but to get it starred. So things like Planned Parenthood which are very, very controversial, and the procedure of turning the baby around to get to the organs to get to the organs is controversial and it should require 60 votes to start spending money on Planned Parenthood, and this can happen to let it expire and restart the parts of government working that we want to continue.
[11:40:09] BLITZER: Well, it looks like the House will pass the temporary measure, and the government will stay open for three month, and then the bigger battle that you want to undertake, you will be able to continue the fight.
And let's talk about the race for the White House for a few moments while I have you. And in the last polls, right now, 3 percent, and at that 11 percent, and Donald Trump, and he is going after you, and you are going after him, and he tweeted this, my prediction is that Rand Paul has been driven out of the race by my statements about him, and he is going to announce soon, 1 percent. What is your reaction when you see him that you are about to drop out of the race.
PAUL: It is sort of silly season any time that he opens up his mouth, but something that is very important about Republicans. He is not a real conservative, and no real conservative would have supported a single payer system for medical or health care or raising taxes, and no real conservative would is have supported President Obama's spending plan. The only thing he is for is taking private property from eminent domain to take it from smaller people to give it to big corporations like himself. And people like me in the tea party, we were upset about people manipulating government for their own Benefit, and that is who he s and so once the tea party and the conservatives wake up, they will see that he is the consummate insider, and use the government for his own personal Benefit, you will see a shift away from him.
BLITZER: But in the national polls, he is at 25 percent, and you are at 2 percent and 3 percent, and why is he doing so well, and you are not?
PAUL: Well, there is a certain celebrity phenomenon going on that is skewing the polls, but we are seeing a shift, and he is down 10 point, and there is a time when he is marginalized and seen for the comedic individual that he is, but not really as a serious contender, and that is where he will wind up. And we have to move along to get to the point where Americans realize he is not a serious contender.
BLITZER: And he issued a tax relate lowering the top rate to 25 percent, and eliminating the taxes for individuals under $25,000 and couples under $50,000, and I assume you like the reductions in the tax rate that he proposed?
PAUL: I think that my tax plan is better, and I get rid of all 70,000 pages of the tax code. I have one single rate 14.5 percent for individuals and 14.5 percent for corporations. And I also do what other tax does is I get rid of the payroll tax, which every American will have a few more dollars in their pocket. And so his still goes with the cronyism, and ours eliminates that and you can file it on one single postcard.
BLITZER: And what about the proposal to raise the taxes for what he calls the hedge fund guys.
PAUL: I would do the opposite. I would lower everyone else's to that level. So hedge fund guys, and those who have capital gains, they pay about 20, 23 percent, and I would like to lower everybody else to 14.5 percent, and individuals are paying about 40 percent, and I would bring it back to 14 percent, and I would have one of the most dramatic tax cuts in history, and it would leave all of that money in the private economy where the jobs are created and my plan would create millions of jobs, and stack up well against any of the other proposals.
BLITZER: And one last question related to the taxes, and this report to the Homeland Security, and combating the foreign fighter travel, and it is a damning indictment of the no counter terrorism plan on the table for a decade of fighting terrorism in foreign travel, and it is shocking when you go through, and I know that you have not gone through the entire report, but what do you have for a reaction when it is a bipartisan committee report of not just Democrats, but both parties.
PAUL: And we had one that I did agree that President Obama got the rid of, and it had special scrutiny for the entry and the exit of people coming from 25 countries with significant jihadist movements intent on attacking America, so we should have special scrutiny on those wanting to come in as students and green cards and travelers, and frankly, that is where the hijackers came from, and we have to be more careful, and have more scrutiny on those coming into America.
[13:45:10] BLITZER: Thank you, Senator Rand Paul, for joining us.
PAUL: Thank you.
BLITZER: The Yazidis in Iraq faced unimaginable horrors at the hands of ISIS. After a break, you'll hear from a woman who says her tormentor wasn't just an ISIS militant. He was also an American. She describes her nightmare. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:49:55] BLITZER: Members of Congress heard the harrowing testimony of a young girl, a victim of violent persecution by ISIS. She's a 20-year-old Yazidi, who was bought and enslaved by an American ISIS fighter.
She spoke exclusively to our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour. Her face is hidden to protect her identity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What did they do to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): There was nothing left to do to me. They did everything.
AMANPOUR: Can you tell me?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): They separated me from my family. They got me married by force. They took my nephew by force from me and they were hitting him in front of me. I was raped by them forcefully.
AMANPOUR: When you say them, many people? He was an American?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Yes, he was American.
AMANPOUR: Describe the American. What did he look like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): He was very white. He was a little bit taller than me. With a black beard, black hair. I also saw his own family. He had a wife and two children, a son and a daughter. AMANPOUR: Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): They were American as well. He showed us his family with videos and photos. His family lived in the U.S. He was taking videos and taking photos and sending to them.
AMANPOUR: Did he tell you why he was doing this to you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The reason was because we were not Muslims. He was telling us we should go back to the prophet stage where they force everyone to become Muslim. Everybody should be a Muslim. Either being a Muslim or die, get killed or die.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Shocking stuff.
No one will forget the panicked escape of so many Yazidis witnessed by CNN's Ivan Watson. They fled by helicopter in search of sanctuary. One year later, CNN found one family who is hopeful for the future but also scarred by what they endured. Their story is coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:56:27] BLITZER: The reign of terror created by ISIS destroyed so many lives, forced so many people to flee their homes. Ivan Watson was traveling with the Iraqi army by helicopter as they rescued people from Mt. Sinjar. Now one year later, that little girl in purple talks about how her life has changed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a rescue from hell. In the mad dash to climb aboard a flight to safety, families scrambled to stay together. These desperate people spent nine days trapped on a barren mountain under siege from ISIS militants who chased them from their homes.
(GUNFIRE)
WATSON: Amid the chaos and gunfire, terror frozen on the face of a girl in purple, 14-year-old Aziza Hamed.
More than a year later, we found Aziza and her family in this refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan.
(on camera): I'm looking forward to this. We're going to meet some old friends that we encountered in very dramatic circumstances more than a year ago. And they're right up here.
Dunia, how are you?
WATSON (voice-over): Aziza and her older 18-year-old sister, Dunia, are here along with their elder brother, Thabet, his wife and three children. Their situation now much better than the unfinished construction site where they lived for the first seven months after ISIS made them flee their homes.
The girls tell me they go to school here and they say the camp has started to feel like home.
(on camera): Aziza, you've gotten a little taller than Dunia since I saw you last.
WATSON (voice-over): But it does not take long for terrible memories to resurface.
(on camera): What's making you sad right now?
"When I see you," Aziza says, "I remember what happened."
AZIZA HAMED, RESCUED FROM ISIS (through translation): We saw ISIS with our own eyes, how they were capturing people. If we drove down the wrong road that day, we would have ended up in ISIS hands, but we took a different road and made it to the mountain.
WATSON (on camera): In the year since their narrow escape, their father's health has deteriorated, and he can no longer walk. No one knows what happened to two elder brothers, who were captured by ISIS last year and haven't been heard from since. And another brother, 23- year-old Karem, smuggled himself to Europe on the migrant trail taken by so many other people fleeing the Middle East.
(on camera): Hey, Karem.
KAREM HAMED, RESCUED FROM ISIS: Hello.
WATSON: Hey, how are you? Where are you?
HAMED: Deutscheland.
WATSON: Germany?
HAMED: Yeah.
WATSON (voice-over): I ask Karem if he misses Iraq.
HAMED (through translation): No, that's gone. Iraq is gone for me. I lost it. I want to build a new future for myself. There's no future in Iraq.
WATSON (voice-over): That hopelessness, shared by so many people we talked to in refugee camps in northern Iraq, where people like Aziza and Dunia's older brother, Thabet, still struggle to deal with the trauma they endured.
"I just want to start a new life," he says, "And I want my family to stay safe and to stay together."
One of the few times 15-year-old Aziza really smiles is when I ask her what she'd like to do to the men from ISIS who attacked her family.
"I would stomp on their heads and kill them," she says. This girl may have escaped to live another day, but her innocence has
been forever lost.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Dahak, Iraqi Kurdistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
