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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Plan In Works To Transfer Gitmo Detainees; Tsunami: A Decade Later; Putin Cancels Holiday; Money Missing After Van Spills Cash; Perry On Possible Presidential Run In 2016; Conservative Base Might Challenge Jeb Bush

Aired December 26, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DANA BASH, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash in for Jake Tapper. In our World Lead today, the Obama administration appears to be moving forward on closing the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.

CNN has new details about plans to transfer dozens of detainees from the facility. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins me now. Barbara, how soon could these transfers happen?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, some of them have are already been under way and what we are all learning here now is that expect to see several more transfers, perhaps half a dozen, by the end of the year and then dozens more through the first half of 2015.

This gets the president at least further down the road to making the population of Guantanamo Bay smaller. Maybe he can get it down to just several dozen. Whether he can get it closed or not is going to be an issue.

There's a lot of political and legal controversy about all of that. But they are on the road to try and ship out basically as many detainees as they can, send them back to their home countries or get a third country to take them.

One of the big issues, they have dozens of detainees from Yemen. You cannot send them back to Yemen. Al Qaeda is very strong there right now. So they're trying to solve that problem.

If they can do that, they might be able to really get the numbers down. President Obama is closer to his vow to try and close Guantanamo Bay.

BASH: Barbara, you mentioned Yemen. You well know that a lot of the complaints from Capitol Hill that I hear on a daily basis from Republicans is the rate of recidivism, the people who they end up releasing, on purpose or not, they go back into the battlefield against the U.S. What are you hearing about that from your sources there about how they try to avoid that?

STARR: That's one of the reasons they don't want to send them back to Yemen. Very careful about where they are sending them. In fact, just a few days ago, they sent several detainees to the South American country of Uruguay, hoping that would be a relatively safe place to keep them.

BASH: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, thank you for that information.

Today marks ten years, hard to believe it, since this powerful wall of water rushed land in Southeast Asia killing nearly 230,000 people. That was December 26th, 2004.

A tsunami came after a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was the third strongest quake on record. The tsunami that followed left people devastated in 14 countries. Now, ten years later, you'll notice something striking about children in Indonesia.

CNN's Andrew Spencer shows us the psychological scars that remain.

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ANDREW SPENCER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you see enough children in the Indonesian village here, you'll soon realize few of them are older than 10, because ten years ago, a tsunami killed most of the kids in this village. It also wiped out the village where this boy lived.

Martinez had been playing soccer on the beach when the waves hit the shore. He was found three weeks later still alive and still owns the Portugal jersey he was found in.

MARTUNIS, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR (through translator): I was alone on the sea for 21 days and I saw dead bodies around me. I ate what I found in the sea.

SPENCER: The images from ten years ago were startling, but few could show the scale of the devastation more than 1.7 million people displaced, more than 227,000 believed to have died.

For weeks, photos of the missing and lists of names papered bulletin boards in Thailand, many of these people were never found. The third largest earthquake ever recorded measured at a magnitude of 9.1 is believed to have displaced several feet of water across 600 miles of the Indian Ocean floor.

The resulting wave grew to be massive, drawing water away from the shore before hammering the coastlines of 14 countries in Southeast Asia. A second wave would follow, moving even farther inland. The resulting damage was incomprehensible.

Ten years later, the damage has been cleaned up and homes rebuilt. But the emotional and psychological scars remain. I'm Andrew Spencer reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: In Russia, Vladimir Putin is asking Santa for higher oil prices for this Christmas. He delivered a different natural resource to the people of Russia, coal, in their stockings.

With his economy tanking, Russia's president announced that he's canceling holiday leave for government employees saying Moscow can't afford to take a vacation. They celebrate Christmas on January 7th.

But Putin also ordered a cap on rising vodka prices also blamed on the falling ruble. So at least people can throw a few back to forget they have to work through the New Year.

Here is an ethical question for you, what would you do if cash started to rain on you from a city street? Would you grab the money and run? That's exactly what dozens of people did in Hong Kong on Christmas Eve.

The doors on that money man somehow malfunctioned and three boxes of cash fell out. That is $3 million. That's equivalent to about $2 million here. Crowds dashed towards it on the street, even dodged traffic.

Others stopped and grabbed their cash out of their cars. Police eventually showed up. Officers blocked off the area that that was in and picked up leftover cash that blew in the bushes.

The next day, detectives tracked down two people and arrested them for hiding the money in their homes. Police are now asking any other takers to voluntarily return the cash. If not, they, too, could face charges and jail time if officers track them down.

In our politics lead, he had been an instant front-runner, but the star quickly faded after a series of embarrassing blunders. So will Rick Perry be able to reinvent himself for a possible 2016 run?

And is Hillary Clinton any closer to making up her mind. That's next.

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BASH: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Dana Bash in for Jake Tapper. In our Politics Lead, Rick Perry's name is on any list of probable 2016 presidential contenders. The Republican is finishing up his last few weeks as governor of Texas after 14 years in office.

And he's talking openly about his next move being another run for the White House potentially. And it would be a big test of voters' appetite for second chances given that Perry's 2012 run didn't go so well. No one can forget his awkward oops moment at a GOP debate.

I recently went to Texas, though, and found Governor Perry confident that if he throws his hat in the ring again he can go from political punch line to presidential nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOVERNOR RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: This is a union general saber, which is an odd thing to be in a southern state.

BASH (voice-over): Rick Perry, eagerly giving a history lesson of the Texas' governor's mansion, like what Sam Houston did in this very room with the telegram from Abraham Lincoln.

PERRY: He wadded it up and threw it in that fireplace.

BASH: This is not the Rick Perry the country saw during his ill- fated, at times embarrassing 2012 presidential campaign.

PERRY: The education --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Commerce.

PERRY: Commerce and -- let's see. The third one, I can't. Sorry. Oops.

BASH: He is about to step down as Texas governor after 14 years, the longest serving in lonestar state history. And he's trying to reintroduce himself as confident and charismatic as he test-drives his message for a probable second white house run.

PERRY: Americans are begging for a positive view of the future for an individual who's got a record of being able to make the future better for their families. That's exactly what we've done in Texas over the last 14 years, more jobs created than any other state, a third of all the jobs created in America since I've been governor were created in Texas.

BASH: He will carry some baggage, like an indictment for abuse of power his advisers call politically motivated. Still Perry spent most of December hosting potential 2016 donors and supporters in a series of lunches and dinners here at the governor's mansion prepping his pitch.

PERRY: Americans are looking for competent leadership and sometimes it shows itself in ways that you can never have dreamed of. The disease of Ebola coming onto our shores in the first city, they saw how we dealt with that.

BASH: He blames his poor performance in 2012 on pain and medication from back surgery and admits he was just plain not prepared. So he's spent the last two years doing his homework.

(on camera): You have been spending a lot of time brushing up on every kind of policy you can imagine. Tell me about that process.

PERRY: Running for presidency of the United States requires an inordinate amount of preparation. Sitting at the feet of Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, picking their brains about what's going on in the world that has paid great dividends. If I make the decision to run for the presidency, I will be prepared.

BASH: But this is the second largest state in the union and you have talked about the great strides you've made with this state. Why isn't that enough experience?

PERRY: Well, there's a great deal of difference between putting economic policies into a state and being very cognitive and versed in foreign policy, in monetary policy or domestic policy for that matter. BASH (voice-over): Last week, Jeb Bush became the first Republican to make official news towards a 2016 run.

PERRY: Jeb's a good man, a good friend, great family, good governor of Florida. As a matter of fact, I think Jeb getting into the race will help the field.

BASH (on camera): How so?

PERRYH: He's been a successful governor. Again, having a person of his background in the race makes a lot of sense. But it won't make a difference about whether I get in or not.

BASH: In Texas, there are a lot of donors that Jeb Bush might well be dipping into that you might need to fund a Perry presidential race. So doesn't that concern you?

PERRY: Well, if I decide to make the race, this will be about our vision. This will be about talking about the future of this country.

BASH (voice-over): Perry was lieutenant governor of Texas when Jeb's brother, George W. Bush, was governor, and they didn't always get along.

(on camera): It is an open secret that Rick Perry and the Bush family have had some tension with George W. Bush more obviously than his brother. Is that going to play into any potential competition going forward?

PERRY: Listen, this is a great family. You look back at George H.W. Bush who chose Texas A&M as his site of his library and comes to practically every aggie football game and to George living in this state. They're a great family. I respect them greatly, always have and always will.

BASH (voice-over): Perry is taking 2016 prep beyond policy to performance, working with a company called Podium Masters, run by a former head of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

(on camera): Why did you choose that?

PERRY: I guess so my Hamlet would come out right when I decide to quote Hamlet on the stage. We use a lot of different people, Dana. I think that's an appropriate thing to be engaged with folks to help folks in all aspects of your public speaking. I desire to be better at what I do and I think that's a very important part of it.

BASH: I'm guessing also, too, avoid an oops moment if you run in 2016?

PERRY: That would be preferable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And 2015 marks the unofficial start of the race for the White House in 2016. To talk more about that, I want to bring in our Maria Cardona, our CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, and also here is Terry Jeffrey, who is editor-in-chief of cnsnews.com. Thank you both for being here.

Terry, you're the Republican so I'll start with you. What did you think of Rick Perry 2.0?

TERRY JEFFREY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CNSNEWS.COM: Well, he's obviously working very hard to prepare himself for another campaign, Dana. But I think if he runs, he's not going to be one of the establishment candidates.

Jeb Bush and Chris Christie will have that end of the field. He's going to be competing against conservatives. You have Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Governor Walker of Wisconsin, potentially Mike Pence of Indiana, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, they might be all there in there competing against him.

So I think it's going to be pretty tough for him to carve out a position in there.

BASH: But in a conservative electorate, which is the people who vote in primaries, not being an establishment candidate is not necessarily a bad thing, right?

JEFFREY: Well, that's true. But if he's going to try to position himself to the right of Jeb Bush, which is what I think he needs to do, he's got all the other folks to compete against. And some of those will be very formidable candidates, particularly in a place like Iowa.

He's got a lot of work cut out for him, not just in being able to speak well and position himself, but to go out there and convince voters in the grassroots that they should vote for him in a caucus.

BASH: You work in politics, you understand politics and the kind of feel of the voter, whether it's a Democrat or Republican. Second chance here possible?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, Americans love a redemption story. So I actually think it's great that he's getting prepared and that he understands and acknowledges how terrible his campaign was in 2012.

But I think he's going to have more problems than just dealing with his conservative -- the other conservative governors and senators who might be running. He has a real problem with his record.

He talked to you about job creation and about helping Texas families, but what he's not telling you is that it's the top 1 percent that he has really helped.

During his administration, the top 1 percent made 26.3 percent more than the bottom 99 percent, 49 in high school graduation, 50 in poverty --

BASH: Somebody did their homework. CARDONA: And that's the problem.

BASH: I want to move on to Jeb Bush really fast. I asked him about some of that. That will be in "STATE OF THE UNION" on Sunday. But let's talk about Jeb Bush. He obviously is the only one unofficially in the race now. What do you think his chances are with the conservative base that you know so well?

JEFFREY: He's not going to be the conservative base and he's not going to be the conservative candidate in the primaries. You look back four years ago, you had two conservatives splitting the vote, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

Mitt Romney basically had the establishment to himself after they got out the early caucuses and primaries. I suspect Jeb Bush could be in the same position as Mitt Romney. So the conservatives have the question, can they unite behind a single formidable candidate who's electable, presidential --

BASH: Can they?

JEFFREY: I think they can.

BASH: Who is that person?

JEFFREY: I don't know. We're going to see.

BASH: What about from the Democratic perspective? I mean, Jeb Bush is somebody, as Terry said, who doesn't necessarily appeal to the conservatives whom could elect him and allow Democrats to paint him as a right winger.

CARDONA: Well, I do I think that symbolically and on the surface if Jeb Bush becomes a nominee and that's a big if, he could be a formidable candidate against whatever Democrat is running. He speaks perfect Spanish.

We all know that in 2016, no one will be able to win without additional majorities of the Hispanic vote, especially the Republican nominee. He understands how to speak to Latinos.

But you also go back to the problem with the other Republican candidates, which is his record. With middle class families --

BASH: Having said that, you cannot find a Republican, I'm sure you agree, who doesn't say in 2016, we've got to be better about reaching out to the Latino population. He could do that, right, real quick?

CARDONA: He could absolutely do that and he could do it in a way that is very genuine.

JEFFREY: But if that means backing an amnesty for illegal aliens, it will kill him in the Republican primaries and turn off conservatives.

CARDONA: That's the problem you have.

JEFFREY: It's fundamentally unjust. It will hurt him in a general election.

BASH: And we have seen that movie before. Terry Jeffrey, Maria Cardona, thank you both. Happy holidays.

Coming up, it has been 45 years since man stepped foot on the moon. What will be the next big mission that will grab the world's attention? Scientists and investors are working on their biggest breakthroughs right now. We'll show you some next.

Plus quite possibly the sweetest moment of the year, a boy's gesture is inspiring others. He tells me about it next.

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TAPPER: We're back with our Buried Lead. Millions watched in amazement as Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon that was in 1969 more than 45 years ago. The effort to get them there was an ambitious dare.

This weekend, CNN will show you the next moonshots that could catch the world's attention. Will it be a hypersonic flight that could travel from New York to London in an hour or maybe a star created here on earth.

U.S. researchers are part of a 35-nation team working to make that happen. What if humans could live on Mars? Fareed Zakaria is host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS," he'll show you the space camp set up here on earth to simulate the red planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Five people spent four months in a small dome on the Mars-like Monoloa Volcano in Hawaii. There was a 20-minute communication delay with the outside world, similar to what Mars astronauts would face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the only window we have in the habitat.

ZAKARIA: The only time they were allowed to leave the habitat was in spacesuits.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: This weekend on "GPS," Fareed will explore "moonshots For The 21st Century." That's Sunday at 10:00 Eastern here on CNN.

And a young man is on a mission to find the little girl, who sat behind him at a baseball game this past summer. It's not quite a love story. But what happened at that game may be an inspiration to you, especially on this holiday season. Here's more about that and the motivation behind it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: It was one of the feel-good moments of 2014.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't that nice?

BASH: The 12-year-old Ryan Gants getting a foul ball at Boston's famed Fenway Park and handing it to a little girl he had never met.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gives the baseball.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Generous.

BASH: The veteran Red Sox announcers were so astonished by his generosity. They sent the reporters to the stands for an interview and to replace the ball. Ryan keeps one in a special case to protect not just the baseball, but the memory and the lesson.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I thought it was the right thing to do.

BASH: The story behind the moment is even more inspiring. Early in the game, Ryan told his mother if he got a ball, he'd give it to the little girl.

RYAN GANTS, GAVE FOUL BALL TO STRANGER: She kind of looked at me weird because she didn't think I would get one.

BASH (on camera): You proved her wrong.

GANTS: Yes.

BASH (voice-over): He got the "pay it forward" idea from his grandma, Gail, who had told him a story of what she did when a man asked for money outside a grocery store.

GANTS: She said, instead of giving you money, I'll bring you in and you can take a basket of food. And I just thought, wow, that's very nice, but she didn't get any attention from that.

BASH: Ryan has gotten a lot of attention. Major League Baseball even honored him with a year-end award, the same kind Derek Jeter got for driving home a winning run in his final home game.

(on camera): Can you believe that?

GANTS: It's pretty crazy to imagine.

BASH (voice-over): Ryan's parents beam with pride.

KELLY GANTS, RYAN'S MOM: It's been really fun to see -- for him to see how good it makes you feel to do something nice for someone else and how everyone likes to see that.

BOB GANTS, RYAN'S DAD: He's the oldest of our three kids and sets a nice example for the other two and for a bunch of other kids out there, too. Maybe other kids will do the same thing just for fun.

BASH: Ryan's New Year's resolution is to reconnect with Reese, the girl he gave the ball to. Not realizing the heartwarming move was going to go viral, the families didn't exchange phone numbers, but we did gave her some of the swag the Red Sox sent to his seat. RYAN GANTS: They gave me two bracelets and I decided to give her one.

BASH (on camera): You gave her more, really?

RYAN GANTS: Yes.

BASH (voice-over): Full disclosure, I have known Ryan Gannts since the day he was born. His proud parents who clearly taught him well are my dear friends.

(on camera): You are an amazing kid and I just hope that my son can turn out even this much like you because you're pretty awesome.

RYAN GANTS: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: That's it for THE LEAD. Time now for "THE SITUATION ROOM."