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Virginia Lawmaker Stabbed and Son Dead; Girlfriend Says Zimmerman Pointed Gun at Her; President Briefs Senators on Iran Talks; Senators Briefed on Iran Nuke Talks; Interview with Sen. Bob Corker; Check of the Markets; United Readies for U.S. Airways/AA Merger; George Zimmerman to Be Arraigned

Aired November 19, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, George Zimmerman is only minutes away from being arraigned. He's charged with felony aggravated assault for allegedly pointing a gun at his girlfriend. We're going to have live coverage of the arraignment later this hour. Stand by for that.

Right now, a tragic and shocking story developing in Virginia. State Senator Creigh Deeds stabbed multiple times. His son dead from a gunshot wound. Virginia state police are investigating. We'll go there will live.

Also right now, Senate leaders are wondering what to do about additional sanctions against Iran. The president doesn't want them and he's made that clear. He briefed them at the White House just moments ago.

Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting today from Washington. In less than an hour, George Zimmerman will be back in front of a judge this time on video. Today's arraignment comes after Zimmerman was arrested yesterday for allegedly pointing a gun at his girlfriend. He's charged with felony aggravated assault.

Our own Alina Machado is live from Stanford, Florida. Alina, the what -- this is the fourth time he's had a run in with the law since he was acquitted of murdering it Trayvon Martin. Tell us what happened last night and what else he's being charged with.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, police say this stems from an argument between Zimmerman and his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe. That argument turned physical. And he was arrested on charge -- on that felony charge that you mentioned as well as two misdemeanors, battery, domestic violence and criminal mischief.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): What's going on?

SAMANTHA SHIVY (via telephone): He's in my House breaking all my (INAUDIBLE) because I asked him to leave. He has his fricking gun breaking all my stuff right now.

MACHADO (voice-over): That's the 911 call authorities say George Zimmerman's girlfriend made during the domestic dispute that allegedly turned violent inside the home they share.

SHIVY: I'm doing this again? You just broke my glass table. You just broke my sunglasses and you put your gun in my fricking face and told me to get the (INAUDIBLE) out. So, this is not your house. No, get out of here.

MACHADO: The woman told the 911 operator she was pushed out of her house by Zimmerman and that he had a shotgun, an AR15 and two handguns inside. She also said the fight started after she had asked the 30- year-old to leave but Zimmerman tells a different story in his own 911 call.

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN: My girlfriend has, for lack of a better word, gone crazy on me.

MACHADO: Police were already at the Apopka, Florida house when he made the call. He told the operator he wanted everyone to know the truth about what happened.

ZIMMERMAN: Just started smashing stuff, taking stuff that belonged to me, throwing it outside, throwing it out of her room, throwing it all over the house. She broke a glass table because she threw something on it.

MACHADO: Zimmerman went on to explain how the fight started saying the woman told him she was pregnant and wanted to raise their child without him. She got mad that I guess I told her that I would be willing to leave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

ZIMMERMAN: I guess she thought I was going to argue with her but she's pregnant. I'm not going to put her through that kind of stress.

MACHADO: Zimmerman denied using a weapon to threaten the woman, responding officers say they used the alleged victim's key to get in and pushed their way through furniture Zimmerman had placed behind the door. They found Zimmerman inside unarmed, his demeanor described as passive.

DENNIS LEMMA, SHERIFF'S OFFICE, SEMINOLE COUNTY: Clearly, he's had the opportunity to encounter a situation similar to this in the past, offered no resistance and cooperated the entire time.

MACHADO: It's not the first time Zimmerman has had a brush with the law since he was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of 17-year- old Trayvon Martin. In September, his estranged wife accused him of assault. Police investigated and no charges were filed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Florida SUV --

MACHADO: He has also been stopped twice for speeding. Once in Texas where he got a warning, a second time in Florida where he was ticketed and fined $256.

(END VIDEOTAPE) (live): Now, we could learn as early as half hour whether Zimmerman will be granted bond in this case -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I understand, Alina, that Zimmerman's defense attorney spoke to the press just a few moments ago. What did he have to say?

MACHADO: Well, Jeff Dowdy, the Chief of the Seminole County Public Defender's Office says he spoke with Zimmerman this morning. He says Zimmerman is indigent and has $2.5 million in debt. He says, Zimmerman is requesting a public defender. He also says Zimmerman appeared calm but was upset and, quote, "wants to go home." -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Alina, don't go too far away. We'll get back to you later this hour. Thank you.

Stay with us for live coverage of the George Zimmerman arraignment scheduled to begin about 25 minutes or so from now. Our own Jeffrey Toobin will also be with us. Our Senior Legal Analyst will discuss what's going on.

Other news we're following right now. A Virginia state senator stabbed multiple times. His son dead from gunshot wounds. That's the situation Virginia state police are investigating right now. Our own Political Director Mark Preston is following these tragic developments for us. So, what's the latest? What's happening with the state Senator Creigh Deeds?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Wolf, what we've just learned from state police in the past hour is that they were called out to a home in Bath County, Virginia. That is in the far western part of Virginia. They found Creigh Deeds with multiple stab wounds above the torso, above the head. In addition to that, they found his son at the scene. And this is what the state police spokeswoman had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORINNE GELLER, SPOKESPERSON, VIRGINIA STATE POLICE: Senator Deeds' son, Gus Deeds, age 24, also of Middleboro, was found inside the residence suffering from life-threatening injuries associated with a gunshot wound. Despite efforts by troopers and first responders there at the residence, he died at the scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: So, clearly a violent altercation at this residence early this morning. Right now -- Wolf, Creigh Deeds right now at a hospital in Charlottesville right now being treated. He is speaking to investigators so there is some understanding of what has happened. But the state police has cautioned that they still don't know the all the details right now. It's only been about five or six hours into the investigation. We should learn more in a few hours.

BLITZER: A very tragic story. But police are saying they're not looking for any other suspects right now. What are they saying about the son? PRESTON: Well, they're not very much. But, correct, you would have to infer that in fact that there had to be some kind of altercation between these two gentlemen if in fact they're not looking for another suspect at this time. Gus Deeds, 24 years old, was actually alive at the scene when police did arrive. However, he passed away a short time after that. That's when they airlifted the father out and got him to a hospital in Charlottesville.

BLITZER: Tragic story this is. All right, thanks very much, Mark Preston, for that report.

The president has been briefing a group of senators about those nuclear talks with Iran. There are developments that are just coming in. We're going to speak about what's going on. Senator Bob Corker, the ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee will join us live to discuss the president's message, where the Senate stands right now when it comes to Iran and its nuclear program.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Overseas now where a double suicide bombing has killed more than 20 people in Beirut, Lebanon. It happened right in front of the Iranian embassy in Beirut. The group claiming responsibility pointed to the ongoing war in neighboring Syria as the reason they're demanding that the Iranian-backed terror group, Hezbollah, pulled out of Syria. Iran supplies weapons to the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad as well.

President Obama met with Senate leaders from both parties earlier this morning updating them on the nuclear talks with Iran. The next round of talks starting tomorrow in Geneva. The president is against imposing any additional new sanctions calling them an obstacle to getting an agreement. Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker was over at the White House for that meeting. He's back on Capitol Hill right now, the ranking member of the foreign relations committee. So, did you buy, senator, what the president was selling today as far as no new sanctions against Iran, at least while these negotiations are underway?

SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: You know, Wolf, we had a very good, you know, long, detailed conversation about where things are. This weekend, obviously, in Geneva, a break-through could occur, might not occur. I don't think anybody's looking at it as a fait accompli. And I think you know that the Senate business on the Senate floor is such that there's not going to be any kind of amendment that passes. I think you know that Senator Reid has, quote, "filled the tree." And to your listening audience, what that means is we're going to keep any kind of amendments from being heard on Iran anyway.

So, you know, we're going to -- I'm going to assess here over the next couple hours what the president said, how the conversation went, go over some of the details with our staff. But let's face it, I mean, at the end of the day, there aren't going to be sanctions in place prior to -- new sanctions anyway but the in place relative to Iran before this meeting takes place. And you know, it could be -- it could be good to see how this weekend goes before assessing what next Congress needs to do.

So, it was a good meeting. I think there are a lot of us, me being one, that still is concerned about alleviating the leverage that we have and not getting enough in return and a lot of concerns about this is interim deal being the new norm, that once you hit this interim deal, that's the end of it. There's --

BLITZER: Well, let's --

CORKER: -- I'm concerned about a not very explicit end state being part of this and that's of great concern to me.

BLITZER: -- Well, Let's say there is an interim deal worked out in Geneva over the next few days, for six months let's say, just throw out that figure. The Iranians are demanding at least some easing of international, including U.S. sanctions, on Iran which are very painful, obviously, to the Iranian government and to the Iranian people. Would you be willing to ease, ease up at least moderately, some of those sanctions if there is this is so-called interim deal?

CORKER: Well, actually, Wolf, Congress has no say on the easing of those sanctions. The president has full waiver authority. Some of the sanctions were put in place by executive order. The most binding were put in place by Congress. But even so, he has a waiver. I don't think that he's planning on waiving any of those that were put in by Congress. You've read news accounts as to what they're looking at and I don't know that it's my place to go into details.

But the fact is that Congress really, at this point, in the negotiation -- and especially because you know, a deal would be reached this weekend, there's not going to be amendments on the floor. There's certainly not going to be passage of a bill. Congress really has no say so in what the president may agree to waive over the next few days.

BLITZER: As you know, this potential deal is putting a real serious strain in U.S. relations, not only with Israel but a lot of the other friendly countries, the Saudis, the Emirates, Kuwait, the new regime, if you will, in Egypt. Was the president concerned about, for example, the U.S.-Israeli fall out from this?

CORKER: You know, Wolf, there was -- there was a good deal of discussion about Israel. It was more about some of the technical aspects of the deal and some of the concerns that they have. Obviously, because of Iran's stated of position of wanting to wipe Israel off the map, and the proximity, obviously, to Israel, this is something that's more up close and personal by far. And so, you know, we did discuss some of those concerns. There really wasn't a great deal of discussion about the relationship, the allies, except in passing.

It was really, Wolf, to focus on the potentialities of this deal. The details. What an end state might be. What the interim deal was composed of. That was really the major focus. And I thought the meeting was a good meeting from a standpoint of understanding those issues. Again, I think you've got people at that meeting that feel like this is a really bad thing to be doing. I think you've got people in the meeting that feel like this is a very good thing to be doing. And I think there's probably multiple folks in the middle that are still concerned about the loosing of this leverage.

As I mentioned before, the interim deal becoming the norm, meaning that's the deal. We never get to the end state. And the fact that then you've sort of lost your coalition of countries that are involved with you in these sanctions. But again, we're going to -- I'm going to digest over the next few hours what was heard. Talk a little bit -- talk it over and, again, just for what it's worth, there's nothing, regardless of what is being said, there's nothing that Congress can do between now and this weekend to affect this weekend's discussions. I think the concerns that were raised, though, one or two specifically, could affect the way the administration does approach this weekend. And to that end, I think it was positive when we had the meeting today.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. Senator Corker, thanks so much for coming in.

CORKER: Thank you. Thank you.

BLITZER: It looks like U.S. Airways and American Airlines will merge to become the world's biggest airline after all. Now United Airlines says it's getting ready for the competition. We're going to hear from United's CEO on his plan to cut billions from his bottom line.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Yesterday the Dow Jones hit a big milestone when it crossed the 16,000 mark for the first time. So how are we looking right now? There you see, pretty flat, up one point basically the Dow Jones. Richard Quest, the anchor of "Quest Means Business" on CNN International is joining us right now.

Richard, was yesterday's number more -- anything more than just symbolic?

RICHARD QUEST, ANCHOR, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Oh, we're going to -- it's going to do 16,000 again. That I'm pretty certain about.

No, what we're seeing today is a pause for breath. I think the market really went on a tear when it got up over 40 points yesterday at the open, and it tore through and then came back. In classic market fashion, Wolf, you know everybody went, oh, what happened? It all happened a bit too quickly and now it's a classic pause for breath. And don't be surprised if you see some money coming off the table. A bit of the old profit taking. This is what we would expect to see at the moment.

BLITZER: Yes, and let's not forget, when President Obama took office, Richard, what the Dow Jones was right around 7,000. You think about that now, 16,000. It's pretty amazing the way the Dow Jones, the markets have moved over these past few years.

QUEST: There's no question that -- I think the issue is whether the wealth has been equally divided. And, of course, the critics would say it's gone to the top few percentage points and the bottom in equality and the range of inequality in the United States has widened. And that really is the fundamental economic equity argument in the U.S. at the moment.

BLITZER: Yes, but you can't deny that a lot of people who have 401(k)s, other retirement plans, they've made money investing on the Dow Jones, the S&P, the Wall Street markets over these past few years. People have made money. But you're right, there is this income distribution issue. Rich people are making more than middle class or poor people, which is a subject for serious debate.

Let's talk about something else right now, something you know a great deal about. Last week the government cut a deal with U.S. Airways and American Airlines that would let the merger go ahead after it was originally opposed. That's putting a lot of pressure on the competition, isn't it? You've been speaking to the head of United Airlines, for example. An airline that wants to make billions in cuts.

QUEST: Right.

BLITZER: Tell us about your conversation.

QUEST: United Airlines had third quarter numbers. And by the airlines own admission, they were not good enough. Now, with an American/U.S. Airways, a new hard competitor, and with Delta eating everybody's lunch, United's chief executive announced today they're going to save, their numbers, $2 billion annually by cutting costs, and by finding some new ways to raise revenue. I asked Jeff Smisek, the chief exec of United Airlines, what that meant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF SMISEK, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: We'll have hundreds of millions of dollars of additional revenue, including a pretty sizable amount of ancillary revenue, with has a high margin. And with that, I think we ought to be able to earn multiples of what we earn today.

QUEST: Oh, ancillary revenues. That means charging passengers for extra things and things and options and the like.

SMISEK: Well, a lot of our ancillary revenue comes from our mileage plus program for partners. For example, we have partners with Marriott, we have partners with Mercedes Benz. We have a huge credit card base with Chase today. And that's a very profitable line of business for us. And we intend to expands that.

QUEST: But is the goal to increase ancillary revenues for things like baggage or food or any of the other things where you can charge passengers extra?

SMISEK: Not necessarily increase, but to offer different products and services. For example we can now -- we've unbundled a lot of things and we can rebundle things into packages, for example, a combination of premier access, a club pass, and a ticket. We can rebundle that into a price that's very attractive to customers. (END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: So, Wolf, having had a difficult merger with Continental, what I now see from Jeff Smisek and United is they've got the bit between the teeth and they're now determined. They see Delta snapping around. They see American on the horizon. And this is their plan to at least stay as competitive as they can be.

BLITZER: Yes, they're all trying to be competitive. All right, Richard, thanks very much. Richard Quest reporting for us.

When we come back, we're going live to Sanford, Florida, again. This time George Zimmerman waiting to be arraigned. Our own Jeffrey Toobin, he's standing by. He'll weigh in on what kind of prison time Zimmerman potentially could face. Lots of legal questions. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)