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Romney Speaks At CPAC; Did Romney Impress at CPAC; Syrian Government Crackdown Continues, Opposition Hits Back, Protest on U.N. Resolution Failure; One Scarred Soldier Helped by Operation Mend; More Parents Suing L.A. School District for Abuse

Aired February 10, 2012 - 13:28   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And that is what you call red meat. Mitt Romney signing off on the main stage at CPAC. This is what you do if you need the conservative base. You talk about the core principles. And that's what Governor Romney did. Did you hear it? My presidency will be a pro-life presidency. I served in government, but I didn't inhale. I would veto anything that was -- had to do with abortion. This was classic. DOMA, gay marriage, done. This was classic. This is what we were expecting.

Also what we were expecting, and he delivered, was nailing down what his record in Massachusetts was. He listed it through, because this is what he's been suffering. It's been his Achilles heel if you look at how Newt Gingrich takes to the stump. Remember all those times he said Massachusetts moderate, Massachusetts liberal? This is what Newt Gingrich -- or Newt was pushing on Mitt Romney, and this is what Mitt Romney was pushing right back at Gingrich. And he was doing it to the base he needs.

But how much will it resonate? Did he get what he need? Did the applause-o-meter (ph) red meat line (ph)? As he glad hands with the group, we're going to chew on this with some of the people we know best. Our political pundits weighing in to find out if he did the job he need to do. Will it lead to a straw poll win? Does that even matter? So many questions. We've got answers. And that's all coming up in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Well, they were 30 critical minutes. That was Mitt Romney up on stage at CPAC talking to that base.

This is considered the Super Bowl of conservatives as they gather once a year. And it's critical, this year in particular, because Mitt Romney leads in delegates, but maybe not in the love, if you know what I mean. Key to what he said, "I was a severely Republican governor."

But did he do enough to sell his conservative chops to the people he needed to reach? That question, my friends, is "Fair Game."

So with us to talk it through is Republican strategist, Ana Navarro, who joins me, along with Democratic strategist, Robert Zimmerman.

Let's start with you, Ana.

Ana, did he do the trick that he needed to do?

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Look, I think he's working on it. But he still hasn't closed the deal. He's certainly getting better at it in acknowledging that he's got a problem is half the battle. He still has some ways to go with conservative base.

BANFIELD: I'm really surprised you're not sold. Only because I was trying to listen to the applause meter. It seemed like he was doing really well. Maybe I don't have the right barometer.

What do you think, Robert?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think he got great applause. Remember, between him and Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ann Coulter, this was an Atlantic City lounge act for the right wing.

Quite frankly, I really have to wonder whether, in fact, Mitt Romney, who couldn't get through a Senate confirmation hearing because of his Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts, really has the credentials or, for that matter, Newt Gingrich, who said the president could overrule the Supreme Court, whether they're really qualified to lecture the rest of us about fiscal accountability or the role of the constitution. The real --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: I think I've got to jump in there for a second, Robert Zimmerman. I've got to jump in there.

ZIMMERMAN: I was wondering --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Far be it for me, being an accountant here, but I think he could pass the Senate confirmation hearing with those accounts. All those tax returns were squeaky, squeaky clean.

NAVARRO: Timothy Geithner passed the Senate hearing. I think Mitt Romney could do pretty well himself.

BANFIELD: What do you think, Robert?

ZIMMERMAN: Let me tell you, I think the bigger problem is like everything else, Mitt Romney's paying -- he's paying a tax rate that a family making $70,000 a year would pay. I think you get some pretty tough questions, have to be accountable to it.

BANFIELD: Perfectly legal.

ZIMMERMAN: But I think --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Perfectly legal. ZIMMERMAN: But I think your question, realistically, Ana, is this. No one's questioning he beat the rap. The bigger question simply is this. By playing to that crowd and taking on -- carrying on the war against contraceptive rights for women, advocating deportation of people who are undocumented workers, taking on, you know, certainly engaging in homophobic rhetoric, he may win that crowd. He certainly is losing Independent voters. And credibility in terms of --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: That's a great point. Robert makes a great point.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: This stuff sells well to this crowd. His core, conservatives. It's what we call red meat. What is interesting, while it may sell well here, Peoria is a different story. What do you think, Ana? Is Peoria going to like what Mitt Romney said today?

NAVARRO: He doesn't get to make the sale to Peoria if he doesn't sell it to CPAC first. He's got to crawl before he runs. He's doing what he's got to do in that sense. The Republican base is saying we are not going to be pushed into an arranged marriage with Mitt Romney by the establishment. We want to love him. We want to feel passion. We want to know he's not a cardboard cutout. Then we'll give him the nomination. You're going to see Republicans unite around him.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: I hear you.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: First things first.

BANFIELD: This is YouTube generation. This is YouTube generation. You don't get to leave your words at CPAC. They come back to haunt you all the way along the campaign trail.

Robert pointed out very, very clearly, the Independent voters is huge. It is critical. Independent voters don't necessarily like to hear a strident campaigning. But what might sound to these conservative Republicans who gathered at CPAC is the exact message they want to hear.

How do you sort of like -- Robert, jump in. How do you strike that balance?

ZIMMERMAN: The reality is --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Right now, Independent voters right now are not his problem.

(CROSSTALK) ZIMMERMAN: Ana, I'll try to -- Ana overwhelms me sometimes. Here's the reality of it. The fact is, if you're going to engage -- you can't walk back to the middle and run to the Independents after engaging in that kind of extremist rhetoric. Ultimately, as you pointed out, Ashleigh, you are in fact in a YouTube culture and the culture of transparency and accountability. You are held accountable to your record and positions.

Now, with Mitt Romney, there are a lot of different positions on the same issue, I grant you. But what we're seeing here is the fact that the right wing has been so dominant in this political dialogue, so dominant in the Republican Party nomination, that he has to, in fact, play to them to get the nomination. My party went through this in the '80s, where they had to play to the left. They ultimately could not get back to the center. I think it'll take the Republican Party 10 years to work out of this. They're the victims of their own extremist rhetoric.

BANFIELD: I find it shocking. I hear that he had the job to do. He had to sell his conservative message to these straw poll voters. But strangely enough, the last two years, CPAC has had a straw poll win of Ron Paul. It just seems odd.

But, Guys, I got to cut it off there.

Robert Zimmerman, Ana Navarro, thank you both. It's good to talk to you.

And that certainly is "Fair Game."

ZIMMERMAN: Good to be with you.

BANFIELD: Good to be with you guys, too.

We're going to switch gears completely and take you overseas. This has been a story that will not leave your psyche. If you've seen the pictures, the scenes are like out of a horror film in Syria. But the reality, people, it is so much worse -- bloody bodies, severed limbs, all lining the streets. Another catastrophic attack today. Coming up, someone who has been there firsthand. He has seen the desperation. He has spoken with the people. CNN's Nic Robertson, joining me live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We are following news out of Syria on multiple fronts. Government forces are still attacking critics of the Assad regime, and anyone else who happens to be in the way. And it now appears the opposition is hitting back somewhat. Explosions hit a military building and police headquarters, reportedly killing at least 25 people. Thousands hit the streets, meantime, protesting not just the Damascus government, but its allies in Moscow who vetoed a U.N. resolution condemning the crackdown.

I'm joined here in New York by CNN's senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who was in Syria just last month with a group of Arab League monitors.

Nic, it's really great to see you. I was fascinated watching your reports coming out of Syria. Particularly, the town of Zabadani. You spent some time in that town and some people seem incredibly desperate.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Incredibly desperate. You can tell by the way they're talking to you. They're so emotional. They're grabbing you, screaming at you. Everyone wants to do it. One person will be talking to you and the others are trying to get in and explain things to you.

One of the incredible things that happened when we arrived there, this huge cheer went up when international monitors came in. They were lifted up on to the shoulders of the crowd there. Even our cameraman was lifted onto the shoulders of the crowd. They were so pleased to see somebody coming in who could tell their story, get their message out.

BANFIELD: That did not last.

ROBERTSON: It didn't, right.

BANFIELD: You had to leave, ultimately. As you were leaving, what did you see coming in?

ROBERTSON: We drove out on a road that was a frontline to the army check -- to the Syrian Army, Bashar al Assad's forces. On that frontline, we saw well armed soldiers, well equipped soldiers, multiple armored personnel carrier vehicles, some of them with multiple quad anti-aircraft machine guns on them, the type -- they fire the type of bullets that smash through houses. There were armored personnel carriers with heavy machine guns on them and other heavy military equipment.

BANFIELD: This is the image here I'm talking about. This is you driving out and watching that drive in. Nic, at the time I remember your foreboding sense. Did you have any idea at that time it could get as bad as we've been seeing, particularly this week?

ROBERTSON: We knew that it could. What the Arab League monitors were there to do was to see that these troops were drawn back and pulled back to their bases. They weren't. It was clear the potential for the army -- and we saw the depth of those forces. Many, many checkpoints down the road. We knew that if they wanted to go in and try and crush the opposition, as -- as many people suspected they would, in particular, the people in the town, we knew it was possible. We just didn't know when.

BANFIELD: We've had five days now of the most harrowing photographs, of little children covered in blood, bandaged. Just wholesale attacks on these communities. I reached out to you yesterday, saying, Nic, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel a lot like Bosnia in 1995. Am I off the mark?

ROBERTSON: This is what I felt when I was in Zabadani. Looking at the military checkpoints, looking at the people fleeing on foot, looking at the areas of abandoned housing, you just knew that that sort of scenario could happen. And the wanton slaughter of civilians that we saw, even under the protection of the United Nations in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, a quarter of a million people killed. It is so reminiscent of the horrible scenes we saw there, where you'd see people killed by mortar bombs at the side of the road, houses smashed, dead bodies.

BANFIELD: Markets bombed with civilians in them, children, women alike. Bill Cohen, secretary of defense, former secretary of defense, was talking on CNN yesterday just about this very notion of sending in the Marines is not always the easiest option and nor is it the most successful option.

A quick list, just looking at a couple of our military actions in the last couple decades. Beirut, 1982, 241 of our Marines bombed and killed. Somalia, 1993, Blackhawk down. No one will forget that. Bosnia, 1995, could be looked at a number of different ways. Afghanistan, 2001, we are still there. Iraq, 2003, a trillion dollars almost, thousands dead. It's not the easiest thing in the world. Is there anything in this blueprint that can help us look forward to Syria?

ROBERTSON: At the moment, no. Not in terms of military intervention. In terms of sort of covert military support by neighboring nations, and here that has to mean either Lebanon or Turkey, to provide a pathway for other nations. People have suggested perhaps Saudi Arabia would contribute weapons. Perhaps Qatar. The Gulf Arab states would contribute weapons to the opposition to overthrow Assad. That's how it may come together.

But overt military intervention, what diplomats I've been talking to are being told by military planners, if you want to put troops on the ground, you need to crush the air capability. Assad's father was in the air force. It's a very strong -- the air force is very strong. Air defense is very, very strong. To go in, you'd have to bomb all those air defenses. They say there are so many of them it would cause collateral damage, civilian casualties, civilian deaths. You cannot even countenance putting military forces on the ground because you can't take out the air defenses.

BANFIELD: It's so desperate. No easy answers here.

Nic Robertson, it's great to see you. Thanks for your perspective.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

BANFIELD: For many of our troops returning home from war, readjusting to civilian life is hard enough. But for those who are marred by war, life can be so much more taxing. Coming up next, I'm going to speak with one vet, whose face was burned so badly, he hardly recognized himself. All of that has changed with a very special program and one very talented surgeon. Both of those gents going to join me in a moment, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Retired Army Specialist Joey Paulk is an Afghan War vet living with a new life and a new face. On his first deployment in 2007, his Humvee hit a roadside bomb that ignited the fuel tank. He suffered burning to 40 percent of his body and his face was nearly burned off. Back in the U.S., he was treated at an Army hospital. But there were some injuries that weren't treated by the government. He was horribly disfigured. But by chance, he heard about a program at UCLA, called Operation Mend, that provides cosmetic surgery for severely burned vets at -- get this -- no cost.

Joey joins us live, along with the surgical director of Operation Mend, Dr. Timothy Miller.

Thank you to both of you for joining us. It's really a thrill for me to be able to speak with you.

And can I just start by saying, Joey, you look terrific. I expected, upon engaging in this interview, to see a very different person, given what you've been through. But can you tell me what you saw when you first looked in the mirror and came out of your medically induced coma?

JOEY PAULK, U.S. VETERAN: I was pretty bummed out. I was in shock. I didn't really think that my face or anybody's face can be that disfigured. It took a toll on me that day. I was going out for some physical therapy and I had walked by a mirror that I had walked by numerous times but I had always looked away. The first time I looked in the mirror, it was a complete shock and awe to the point where I didn't want to do any more physical therapy. I just walked back to my bed and just laid down.

BANFIELD: The transformation -- we were just looking at some pictures of your progression. The transformation has been nothing but remarkable.

Dr. Miller, I think this is a testament to you and the good work that you're doing. When you saw Joey's case, did you know right away that you could make a difference? Because there had been some procedures that had failed.

DR. TIMOTHY A. MILLER, SURGICAL DIRECTOR, OPERATION MEND: I was very optimistic. Joey was a different person then. And I think with each operation that was done, done in stages, you could see a personality begin to emerge. And I think, from a psychological standpoint, he got better as things got better in terms of the appearance of his face. You can see it. Early on, he didn't talk much to me at all. Now we've had any number of real conversations. It's been a tremendous change.

BANFIELD: And if I can just add, Joey, you've got a tremendous smile as well. I know there's been nearly 30 operations in 18 months. Also, if you could just do me a favor and lift your hands so that our viewers can see some of the other injuries that you've suffered. You lost all of your fingers as well. Are you adjusting to life now? It must be so completely different. PAULK: It is different. In a way, I do a lot of things that people would do one-handed with two hands. I have a couple attachments to help me feed myself. But for the most part, I live a normal life just as if I had my fingers. I play football, I play volleyball, I play video games with my buddies, and I go out and do as much as I can to try to stay active and stay positive.

BANFIELD: I remember, going into this, you said something along the lines of you just want to be able to eat a double-cheese burger and whistle again. Can you? Can you do those things?

PAULK: I can whistle sometimes. It's very faint. The double- cheese burgers are definitely being indulged, probably more so than they should. I can definitely eat them now and I'm enjoying every little bit of it.

BANFIELD: Listen, Dr. Miller, I just want to --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: When I first saw him, he --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Go ahead.

MILLER: When I first saw him, he could not pronounce his last name, which is Paulk. Once we reconstructed his lip, I called him up one day and I could understand him over the phone. And it was really quite something. I'd like to also say this has been a combined effort by UCLA and Brooke Army Burn Center. And it's been a coming together of medical talent, to be sure these people get the very best care that they possibly can. It was an idea that was --

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Well, you've done a terrific job.

I should note as well, as you say that, Dr. Miller, that it's about $500,000 per case, per patient, that you've been able, through Operation Mend, to help about 50 vets in five years. But there's a lot more work out there to do. There are about 900 American servicemembers who have been severely burned.

So, as I thank you both for bringing your story to us, I also want to let our viewers know that if you would like more information on Operation Mend, you can find it at operationmend.ucla.edu.

Specialist Joey Paulk and Dr. Timothy Miller, thank you for your time and the best of luck to both of you.

PAULK: Thank you. Appreciate it.

MILLER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Thank you. Moving to another story, the parents of several Miramonte Elementary students are now suing the L.A. school district after unnerving allegations of child sex abuse at that school. The attorney for six of those parents is going to join me in just 60 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: We promised you we would stay on top of the developments in this next story that unfolded at the Los Angeles school that's been rocked by disturbing allegations of child sex abuse. There are now more parents who are signing on to sue the school district.

One attorney tells us at least 15 families are now on board. And that, as children at Miramonte return to school with a 100 percent new staff including janitors, teachers, the whole works on Thursday. The superintendent says the replaced teachers could come back depending on how the investigation goes. All of this following the arrest of these two teachers, Martin Springer, on the right, Mark Berndt, on the left. Springer, who was charged with allegedly fondly two young girls, is reportedly out on bail.

Attorney, Brian Claypool, represents six of the alleged victims and their family and he joins me live.

Brian, I want to get right to this. This is a very tricky endeavor, because when there are young children involved, it's not only difficult for them to go into a courtroom and tell what happened, but it's also difficult for children sometimes to remember. And they can also come up with memories that aren't real. Are you concerned at all about this?

BRIAN CLAYPOOL, ATTORNEY: We're not at all concerned about the children remembering what happened because, in this case, you have now almost 400 photographs that have been retrieved by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department that depict many, many children being subjected to lewd and lascivious acts by Mr. Berndt. So for purposes of even a preliminary hearing, you wouldn't even have to call the children, you could just show the photographs. And I think you've got these crimes well documented. So the kids may be insulated.

BANFIELD: So as a civil action, you would more than likely have to wait out criminal action. And to that end, in your work, you have been able to determine there may be a third teacher, a woman, who may have allegedly conspired somehow with either one or two of these men? Can you explain what that is? Keep in mind, these are just allegations.

CLAYPOOL: Sure, Ashleigh. It's our position that this couldn't have taken place over the span of 15 or 20 years without some help or from some infrastructure in place at Miramonte School. One of my clients is an 11-year-old girl. She gave some testimony on a local station out here the other night that was very chilling, where she clearly identified a third teacher who had entered an empty classroom with Mr. Berndt, and she actually watched Mr. Berndt feed this little girl a vanilla cookie with a white gooey substance on top with red sprinkles. She watches him take pictures. She then has a conversation with Mr. Berndt saying things like, well, ask her if she liked the cookie. So clearly, we think that information should put the L.A. County Sheriff's Department on notice that they need to investigate this third teacher, because she may have been facilitating and/or aiding and abetting Mr. Berndt in carrying out these lewd and lascivious acts.

BANFIELD: We're reached out to the sheriff's department because, clearly, that is something we haven't been able to get any evidence on. The sheriff's department hasn't been able to get back to us. There is a time difference, which we recognize as well. We've also asked the superintendent, Mr. John Deasy, to come on and that has not materialized, either.

Brian Claypool, we'd like to keep you with you. And thank you for joining on. We do appreciate that.

CLAYPOOL: Sure. Thanks for having me, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: And thank you for being with u s and thank you all for watching.

CNN NEWSROOM is continuing next with Hala Gorani.

Hi there, Hala.

HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there Ashleigh. Thanks.