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Rubio: "Count Me Out of Trump 'Freak Show'"; NASA Discovers Liquid Water on Mars; Fareed Zakaria Interviews Bill Clinton; Major News Involving Officers in Freddie Gray's Death; Obama, Putin Meet Face to Face at U.N. General Assembly. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 28, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SEN. TED CRUZ: But right now, there's a lot of encouragement from the establishment crowd for Marco Rubio to play that role. And his command over foreign policy issues is very important to that crowd. I see him coalescing a lot of support through the primary.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Real quickly, Jeffrey, last question. I want to ask about Rand Paul. Rand Paul told CNN today he will outlast Donald Trump in the Republican race. In what scenario do you see Rand Paul outlasting Donald Trump?

(LAUGHTER)

I hear your laughter.

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Lots of LSD. I don't see it.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: Jeffrey Lord, let's put drugs aside and be serious, please.

CARPENTER: No hallucinations.

LORD: I just don't see it. He's riding along at 3 percent at the polls. He's not struck fire with people. He's been overwhelmed in this tidal wave here. Like some of the other people, he's fading. That's a fact. I did see him --

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: I don't get it.

BALDWIN: Quickly, Amanda.

CARPENTER: Rand Paul has a built-in base support that Jeb Bush could only dream of. He has die-hard, committed Libertarians who will stick with him and Jeb Bush has nothing like this. So, yes, Rand Paul can definitely out last Jeb Bush.

BALDWIN: LSD, huh? (LAUGHTER)

All right, Jeffrey Lord.

Always a great talking to you, Amanda Carpenter.

CARPENTER: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much.

A reminder, CNN and Facebook will be hosting the first Democratic candidates debate, on Tuesday, October 13th, in Vegas.

Next, all right, space geeks, NASA announcing a huge discovery, water on Mars. What could this mean? The question is, signs of life potentially?

Also, CNN sits down with Bill Clinton about who he blames for his wife's dip in the polls and why he thinks Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. We'll talk to Fareed Zakaria, who sat down with President Clinton, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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[14:36:18] JIM GREEN, DIRECTOR OF PLANETARY SCIENCE, NASA: What we're going to announce today is Mars is not the dry planet we thought of in the past. Today, we're going to announce that under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on Mars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: It is the moment space experts have been waiting for. There's now proof that water and liquid water. I know that sounds like, you're saying the same thing, it's a very important point. Liquid water has been found on Mars. Is there or was there life as well? Scientists say it's the dark streaks looking at the surface that it's proof that it's salty water flowing in different seasons of the year. They still don't know where it's coming from. NASA had a gut feeling, but now they have the proof.

Joining me is the man who you saw make the mega announcement, Jim Green, the director of planetary science at NASA; and also with me Rachel Crane.

So awesome having both of you on.

Jim Green, before we totally nerd out, can you explain to me what standing up there meant for you? Is this like birthday, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year's all-in-one excitement or what?

GREEN: Of course, Brooke. And what you really realize when you look at Mars data is we were missing a lot of the pieces. We didn't know the water cycle. We knew there was humidity in the air, but to see the craters weeping during the summer is really fantastic. BALDWIN: Describe the moment when you saw the weeping, when you saw

this water existing in the recurrence?

GREEN: We had seen it several years ago, but didn't understand it. The more we looked and the more we found it in all kinds of region all over Mars, it really got us going such that we made the mineralogy and determined why water could exist at such low temperatures and low pressures.

BALDWIN: And when we keep hearing liquid water, that's significant because it's not ice. That's how you know it's salty because it changes the boiling and freezing points thus knowing it's actual liquid waters, thus life.

GREEN: Here we have an example of on the surface briny water that exists. Not all throughout the whole year, but at specific times. It's really a major breakthrough.

BALDWIN: I'm turning to Rachel.

If you want to ask him a question, ask him a question. But my question to you would be in terms of sending people to Mars, how would this mega piece of information change that mission?

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really important to keep planetary protection in mind. We don't want to contaminate the planets we go to. They are not sanitized properly. But in terms of the journey to Mars, which is going to happen in the 2030s, that architecture hasn't been determined yet. So finding liquid water on Mars, it could be a game changer. It could be used for rocket fuel. It could be used for radiation protection. You can purify the water and use it for irrigation. The possibilities are endless. This is incredibly exciting.

BALDWIN: Maybe this is a -- forgive me, Jim -- a "duh" sort of question. But if you had the opportunity to go to Mars, would you take it? And what would you do?

[14:39:57] GREEN: Absolutely. What's critical is we're accumulating the knowledge for humans to go to Mars. They are going to need these resources. The knowledge of where the water is, how to get access to it, not only provides an opportunity to do the science to really look for life, but also as Rachel mentioned, critical to support our human program.

BALDWIN: How incredible.

Jim Green, congratulations. Thank you so much. We'll be covering it here at CNN.

And, Rachel Crane, thank you as well.

CRANE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: To Mars we go. Coming up, CNN sits down with Bill Clinton about who he blames for his

wife's dip in the polls and why he thinks Donald Trump could win the Republican nomination. Fareed Zakaria sat down with him.

Also, why isn't President Obama following tradition and staying at the Waldorf Astoria in New York? We investigate. You don't want to miss this. Ahead.

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[14:45:15] BALDWIN: When Bill Clinton sat down with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, he said a lot. He had some harsh words for the Republicans. And he had a surprising response to a question about Donald Trump and his ability to win the Republican nomination.

Fareed is joining me.

Let's tee up the first sound byte in which Bill Clinton is talking about the e-mail controversy and why he thinks it's not going away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is just something that has been a regular feature of all of our presidential campaigns, except in 2008 for unique reasons. Ever since Watergate, something like this happens.

I would rather it happen now than later. And it was always going to happen. The other party doesn't want to run against her. If they do, they'd like her as mangled up as possible.

It's obvious what happened. At the beginning of the year, she was the most admired person in public life.

There are lots of people who wanted there to be a race for different reasons. And they thought the only way to make it a race was a full- scale frontal assault on her. And so this e-mail thing became the biggest story in the world.

What happened? The presidential campaign happened. Nature of the coverage shifted from, is she based political? And it happened. You can't complain. This is not -- this is a contact sport. They are not giving the job away. And people who want a race wanted her to drop some, and people in the other party desperately wanted it because she's already put out more positions on more issues and said how she would pay for them based on all the other combined based on the two -- the Republicans, based on the two debates I saw.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Fareed Zakaria, you didn't know what you were going to get by asking that question. We have seen Hillary Clinton on one hand going around, I apologize, I own it, wanting to move on. Here's her husband digging into it and blaming Republicans and media for the fact this e-mail thing isn't going away. FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, FAREED ZAKARIA, GPS: Yeah, it's a very

different narrative than the Hillary Clinton would like, which is, look, it's a mistake. We have owned up to it. We have given the prosecutors and FBI whatever they wanted and let's move on. What you saw there is Bill Clinton is a husband, and for all that people say about their relationship, I have always thought he's very loyal to her and is actually very, very devoted to her political future. I think this was actually an emotional response. This was not calculated. If you watch the whole thing, you notice he begins by saying, you know why this happened. Then there's a pause. You can tell he's thinking to himself, I probably shouldn't go there. But it was an emotional thing.

BALDWIN: You ask him about Donald Trump.

Here is President Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He's a master brander. When you have a lot of people running and people are trying to make distinctions, being able to put a personal stamp on it so people identify with who you are, it counts for something. Certainly in the beginning. He has a lot of pizzazz and zip. He's braded himself in a clear way. And he's generated some excitement. And it remains to be seen what's going to happen.

ZAKARIA: Could Trump be the nominee?

CLINTON: I think so. I mean, how do I know? I don't understand any of it very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What do you make of that? It's the whole, yes, he could be the nominee. Well, I haven't run for politics in 20 years, I'm not good at this anymore. What did you make of that response?

ZAKARIA: He was very honest that part. He says I haven't run for 20 years. Let me be honest with me, Fareed, my instincts are not what they used to be. The part he said he could be the nominee, I think he's doing the math we're all doing, which is, if it's just two people or three people, it's hard to see how Trump gets to the 45 percent you need. But if six people stay in the race for awhile and, given the nature of the money, all you need is a couple of rich people willing to back you. If there's six people in the race, the anti-Trump vote is divided into five and then his percentage looks good. That's what we're grappling with. That's the scenario in which Donald Trump could be the nominee. It's a long shot, but it's not as long as it seems.

[14:50:03] BALDWIN: Did you get the sense just reading in the papers this morning, I got the sense this is the beginning of Bill Clinton really getting out and playing a larger role as part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. You say you didn't get that sense.

ZAKARIA: He didn't indicate that to me. The sense I got is he wanted to focus on the Clinton global initiative and the work he's doing, it's the ten year anniversary going on. It's a double-edged sword. He is Bill Clinton. He's an incredible campaigner and politician. But that comes with some baggage, which is Hillary Clinton is not as charismatic as Bill Clinton. She's plenty smart and a formidable public figure, but she's not Bill Clinton. Do you want to keep bringing that comparison up? Do you want to remind people of having to do with Bill Clinton? There's the issue which I think his responses with regard to her as not as calculated a he normally is. He lets his emotions get in the way. She's his wife. They have been together for a long time.

BALDWIN: Which is what we saw.

ZAKARIA: Yeah.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much.

And make sure you watch "Fareed Zakaria, GPS" on Sunday at 10:00 in the morning, and 1:00 p.m. eastern, here on CNN.

Thank you very much, Fareed Zakaria.

ZAKARIA: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Next, major news involving the officers accused in Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore. Is one pointing fingers, implicating the others? A new report about what happened at the scene some months ago.

Also, it's a tradition for presidents to stay at the Waldorf Astoria during their U.N. visits. But not this year.

Our correspondent, Richard Roth, with a candid explanation as to why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I would like a room.

Well, it's definitely cozy.

There's something on the wall and on the pillow that would be a little different than the average hotel room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:56:03] BALDWIN: At least one of the Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray told the investigators that the man said he needed medical attention. The same officer says he warned his fellow police officers. This news comes from the newspaper there in Baltimore. The paper reports it received exclusive details about statements made in the case never released publicly. Investigators reviewed statements from all officers charged and say William Porter asked Freddie Gray if he needed to go to the hospital. They report the officer alerted the police transport van driver, Officer White, that Gray needed help and medical attention but none was provided at the time. All six officers involved will be tried separately.

Miguel Marquez has been covering the Baltimore story since it broke and joins me there in downtown.

What's the situation? This was sort of anticipated the notion that since if they would be separated that they would implicate one another in the crime.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these statements that we have known about but haven't heard much about, except until now, are going to be absolutely critical to the state's case against those officers. Porter is the one who implicated other officers in his statement immediately after, within 24 hours after Mr. Gray was admitted to the hospital when he was found in that van to be nonresponsive. Porter basically implicated Officer Goodson -- he was the driver of the van -- saying that he had said it looks like he needs help. He asked Gray if he wanted a medic, Gray said, yes, I do. But still he wasn't taken. Sergeant White, some while later, spoke to Gray. Gray was unresponsive at that point. She told the driver that he should probably be taken to the hospital or go directly there. It wasn't until, according to "The Baltimore Sun" and the embed they did with the police department in the days after Mr. Gray died, that they say that they found him completely unconscious with his head sort of up against the wall, the front wall of the van on his back, and completely unresponsive. His heart even stopped at that point. They were able to revive him and get him to the hospital, but he died seven days later. We don't know if the statements were complete. They never saw the actual statements.

I think tomorrow we have a hearing here in Baltimore. The judge is going to be -- he's not beginning to like the fact this was reported by the local newspaper and the defense is going to make a lot of hay out of this and have charges thrown out or dismissed based on this information.

BALDWIN: We'll follow up tomorrow and talk after that hearing.

Miguel Marquez, in Baltimore, thank you so much.

Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

President Obama is just about two hours away now from sitting down face to face with the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. A picture speaks a thousand words, and this one says a lot. We have some color now from a toast after a morning of trading barbs. To say the two leaders have had some icy relations, could be saying it gently. Tension has escalated with Russia announcing a new intelligence sharing agreement with Iraq, Iran and Syria, adding to the standoff about Russia's annexation of Ukraine and Putin's insistence in propping up the Syrian regime.

Obama taking the podium at the U.N. G.A. a short time ago and he did not hold back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:00:00] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: With this it logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al Assad who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children because the alternative is surely worse.