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Man Hijacks EgyptAir Flight; GOP Rivals Gear Up for CNN Town Hall; Trump's Interview with #NeverTrump Radio Host; Candidates Focus on Wisconsin; FBI Aiding Brussels Authorities. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 29, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:19] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me. A hijacker seizes an airliner and the drama ends peacefully on live television.

This is one of the last hostages escaping through a cockpit window and scaling down the side of the airplane. Minutes later the hijacker surrenders. That is reportedly him in the white shirt. The man you see being led away there. Officials say this was not an act of terrorism but a man upset over his ex-wife.

The flight from Alexandria, Egypt was supposed to be a short hop to Cairo. Instead the hijacker said he had an explosive belt and ordered the flight to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

CNN's Ian Lee is in Cairo with more for you. Hi, Ian.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And what we're hearing from this man is that -- or from officials is that this man was very much disturbed. That he had a list of demands. Nothing very consistent. And after they were able to successfully arrest him, they were found out that the bomb that he claimed he had wasn't in fact real.

This brings a very terrifying moment for a lot of people, especially those hostages on board that plane. There was a lot of dramatic footage coming out of that. Talking to one of the passengers who was on the plane saying that they didn't really know something was wrong until they were flying over the Mediterranean, not on the flight path to Cairo. And that the stewardess told the passengers that there was a hijacking. They collected the passports of the people.

A really terrifying moment because nowadays you don't have these sorts of incidents and peacefully end the way they do. The passengers really breathing a sigh of relief once they touched down in Larnaca. But from what we're seeing right now, from what officials are telling us, both Cypress and Egyptian, is that this is a man who, as they say, is disturbed. Someone who has issues. And going forward the question is going to be, what kind of motivations were behind it and what can they figure out about security going forward.

COSTELLO: All right. Ian Lee reporting life for us from Cyprus this morning. I want to bring in our aviation expert right now. Peter Goelz is a

former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board. He's now a senior vice president at O'Neill and Associates.

Welcome, sir.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER MANAGING DIRECTOR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Good morning carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So early on officials publicly doubted that the hijacker really had an explosive belt on. Does it worry you at all that terrorists are also watching this drama play out that they realize they can commandeer an airliner with just a bluff?

GOELZ: Well, I think that's a growing concern. I mean, I think the Egyptians handled this as well as they could. The flight crew did. And I think the Cypress did the same. But the question is, did this guy have even a fake bomb that cleared security? And if he did then there is a question of security at the check points. But if he simply he got on board once he was on board and said I've got a bomb, well, then that's -- that's a challenge. But it does raise that question -- Carol. Anybody can do it.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. I just want to ask another question about how Egyptian authorities handled this because they held a news conference early on. They got the name of the hijacker wrong. They released the wrong name to the public. The Egyptian president even laughed at the hijacker's possible motive. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. NICOS ANASTASIADES, CYPRUS: In any case it is not something which has to do with terrorism. Always there is a woman in the --

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. That was the Cyprus's president. But still it was just a strange moment because the hostage drama was ongoing at that time.

GOELZ: It was a very unusual moment. And inappropriate to be honest. And the issue is haven't the Egyptians learned anything over the past year and a half after the aircraft was blown up after ground personnel put the bomb on board. One of their flights -- so it's a question of, are the Egyptians taking this seriously? And given how much they rely on tourism you would think they would have a much more professional and serious approach, even to these kinds of events.

COSTELLO: OK. Just a question from a person who flies a lot. And I am that person who flies a lot. How should passengers have reacted to this mentally unstable man claiming he had a bomb?

GOELZ: Well, you know, that is a very difficult question. You know, ever since the heroes that the Shanksville, you know, tragedy where they tried to take over the plane, and since then passengers have taken things into their own hands.

[09:05:13] But when you've got someone who says they have a bomb, I think for -- I think for a while you've got to figure out whether that's true and what his motives were. And that he was flying to Cyprus seemed to indicate that this was not an act of terrorism. But boy, that is a very difficult question. And each of us has to answer that God forbid if we're ever put in that position.

COSTELLO: Peter Goelz, thanks for your insight as always.

GOELZ: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. On to politics now. Three candidates, one stage. Hours from now, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich make their pitch to voters during CNN's town hall in Milwaukee. Vying for support ahead of next week's critical Wisconsin primary, all of this as the Grand Old Party is looking more like a big old brawl.

CNN's Phil Mattingly live in Milwaukee with more. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Carol. No shortage of issues for the three candidates to delve into tonight and no doubt that they certainly will. Whether it is personal attacks, whether it is their wives, whether it's Donald Trump's foreign policy, which really over the last couple of days has been flushed out in a way that we haven't seen before.

All of that is on the table and no time like now to do it. Only seven days before the next crucial primary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): All three GOP candidates converging on the battle ground state, Wisconsin, for tonight's CNN town hall, a week before voters head to the polls in the high stakes primary.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump receiving a hostile reception Monday. Protesters demanding Trump cancel a rally later today, saying to, quote, "keep hate out of our state." Popular Wisconsin conservative radio host Charlie Sykes who has endorsed Ted Cruz also giving Trump the cold shoulder.

CHARLIE SYKES, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: Mr. Trump, before you called into my show, did you know that I'm a #neverTrump guy?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That I didn't know.

MATTINGLY: An opening act for a state with 42 delegates at stake and a strong anti-Trump movement.

SYKES: Here in Wisconsin we value things like civility, decency and actual conservative principles. So let's possibly make some news.

MATTINGLY: Trump continuing to defend his campaign's attacks on Ted Cruz and his wife Heidi. Again blaming Cruz for a super PAC ad in Utah that featured Trump's wife Melania. TRUMP: He owes me an apology because what he did was wrong. He sent

out a picture to people in Utah.

SYKES: No. Well, actually he didn't. And you know that he didn't. You know that it was a super PAC.

TRUMP: I know he knew about it.

MATTINGLY: In an interview with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, Cruz laying down another challenge to Trump.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have heard that you want to debate Donald Trump one-on-one.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

SERFATY: Why?

CRUZ: CNN has two town halls back-to-back. An hour with me. An hour with Donald Trump in the exact same location. We should make it a debate. Let's make it a two-hour debate. Let's combine our events.

MATTINGLY: And Ohio Governor John Kasich attacking both of his opponents on their foreign policy positions.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We got one guy saying we should patrol Muslim neighborhoods and the other one saying we should have a religious test. It's not good foreign policy.

MATTINGLY: All while Trump threatens to sue over delegate allegiances in Louisiana. A state Trump won but Cruz could walk away with more delegates. The Texas senator brushing off Trump's litigation threats.

CRUZ: Who cares? He can threaten whoever he likes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, Donald Trump taking to Twitter to reject Ted Cruz's challenge to a one-on-one debate but really does have an extensive public schedule in the state over the next couple of days. This coming after about a week of not having any public events at all. Really underscoring that he has work to do if he wants to do what he's been doing over the last couple of states and that's win Wisconsin. Ted Cruz with very good numbers in the state. John Kasich really zeroing in on a number of congressional delegates -- congressional districts where delegates will be allocated from.

There is a lot of ground to move in this state right now for these three candidates, just kind of making clear that tonight is a very important event in advance of the Wisconsin primary, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Milwaukee. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, if you thought Trump's interview with the never-Trump host was awkward, wait until you hear what Trump said about Heidi Cruz during that call.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:13:33] COSTELLO: Governor John Kasich's respectful tone is winning over voters but not nearly enough of them. His campaign is apparently pulling its radio ads in Wisconsin so it can target certain districts in the state. That means Kasich is going for delegates, not a win. He's also targeting his rivals on hot-button issues like foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASICH: This is just the voice of inexperience. Amateur hour. It is what it is. It is time for grown-up leadership.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, but the clock has not run out on the so-called amateur hour. Before the break you heard a bit of what went down on Milwaukee radio when Mr. Trump called into the Charlie Sykes radio show. Sykes in his own words is a never Trump guy, and he was relentless in the war of the wives which began with a anti-Trump super PAC ad facing a racy photo of Melania Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He knew totally about that. If he didn't know about that it would be a whole different thing. But he totally knew about it. It was done by people that he knows very well.

SYKES: Well, it was not Ted Cruz or his campaign. So is your standard is that if --

TRUMP: No, no, I'm just telling you he knew. He knew.

SYKES: OK.

TRUMP: He knew these people did it. He totally knew they did it.

SYKES: So is this your standard, that if a supporter of another candidate, not the candidate himself, does something despicable that it's OK for you personally, a candidate for president of the United States, to behave in that same way? I mean, I expect that from a 12- year-old bully on the playground. Not somebody who wants the office held by Abraham Lincoln.

TRUMP: Well, I did a re-tweet and it was a re-tweet by somebody else because I have a lot of support.

[09:15:00] I have a tremendous amount of very fervent supporters and they were angry about what they did, you know, in sending out this photograph -- which was frankly fine. It was an artistic picture actually. It was a cover of GQ, which is not a big deal.

SYKES: Your wife is a beautiful, classy woman. Why can't you say the same about Ted Cruz's wife? TRUMP: I don't know Ted Cruz's wife. I'm sure she's excellent. I

mean, I just don't know her. But, you know, all this was, was a response to what he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK so let's talk about this with CNN political commentator and radio host Ben Ferguson. I'm also joined by Trump Supporter and Arizona state treasurer Jeff DeWit. Welcome to both of you.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Morning.

JEFF DEWIT, ARIZONA STATE TREASURER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Ben, many of Wisconsin conservatives reacted strongly to that interview. The Twitterverse went wild. I'll just read you a few tweets from fellow conservatives in the State of Wisconsin.

This from Marcus White (ph), "Props to Charlie Sykes for pressing Donald Trump. That's real journalism," he says. "Wisconsin GOP voters deserve real dialogue like yours, Charlie."

This from Dave Gesch (ph): "Never ceases to amaze me how much Donald Trump sounds like whiny little kid when pressed but I always taste vomit in my mouth."

So Ben, why did so many Wisconsin conservatives react to that interview with Charlie Sykes that way?

FERGUSON: I think it is because they saw that you had a talk show host that was asking questions of a presidential candidate about what does it mean to be presidential. And you can see in the response from Donald Trump that he is not willing to act presidential. He is willing to act like a 12-year-old boy on the school playground who got his feelings hurt.

But it also comes down to a bigger issue, and that's the issue of lying that we see from Donald Trump. Donald Trump has been saying over the last 48 hours that somebody connected, you know, with the Trump campaign deliberately purchased this picture at this campaign and then gave to it the super PAC. That is an absolute and utter pathological lie. No one in the Cruz campaign -- and there is no proof -- that anyone in the Cruz campaign purchased a picture from GQ and then gave it to a super PAC, which by the way would be against the law.

But this is a pattern of what Trump does when he is challenged on the absurdity of what he says. Then he says, well, I just know that Ted Cruz knew about it. There is no proof that anyone bought any picture from anybody. It's an actual lie, and he got busted by a local talk show host who asked him a real question. And this is what Donald Trump does. He comes in, he throws a bunch of stuff out there in the world, and runs away from it and says, well, it's not directly me. I didn't tweet it. I retweeted it about Heidi Cruz. I didn't say it about how ugly Heidi Cruz is. Someone else did and I just retweeted them. And this is a pattern.

COSTELLO: Here's the thing -- here's the thing. And I'm just going to put aside who's right and wrong in this argument, Jeff. But it is the State of Wisconsin, and that is a Midwestern state. I am from the Midwestern state. We like civility in a Midwestern state. Donald Trump doesn't practice that often. Do you think that will hurt him in the State of Wisconsin?

DEWIT: Well, that's a very big mischaracterization of Donald Trump and especially how that Charlie Sykes interview went. What you have with Charlie Sykes was a self-admitted Trump hater who was surprised that Donald Trump had even agreed to do the show. And it was a 17 minute character assassination attempt by Charlie of just teeing (ph) off --

COSTELLO: I think it was an accident that Donald Trump did the show, because Donald Trump himself admitted that he didn't know that Charlie Sykes was anti-Trump.

DEWIT: Oh yes, no. Absolutely. He had no idea --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump didn't agree to do that interview.

DEWIT: -- how much Charlie hated him

Absolutely, no. That's absolutely correct that he did not know. But then to have Charlie Sykes go and be as rude and condescending as he was the entire time to the leading presidential candidate, and to hear how presidential Donald Trump sounded -- he didn't lose his cool. He stayed very calm and collected and answered the questions, even though Charlie was very much trying to rattle him, asked gotcha questions, and honestly just be condescending the entire time.

So there's your proof for Ben right there that he is being presidential --

FERGUSON: Here's what I'll say --

DEWIT: -- in how he responds to that.

COSTELLO: Ben?

FERGUSON: You have a talk show host, by the way, that asked blunt questions about lies that have been put out by the Trump campaign. And that is not an "I gotcha" question. This is what concerns me about Donald Trump and his campaign. If something doesn't go his way, he either slanders you and then does it through someone else's tweet, or he says I'm going to sue you.

Let's look at what he said about Louisiana --

DEWIT: So Ben, are you saying that --

(CROSSTALK) FERGUSON: Let me finish this. Let me finish this.

COSTELLO: Because that sounds like what you (ph) accused him of.

FERGUSON: Let me -- I'll explain exactly what I'm accusing him off. Donald Trump was whatever he thinks will get him out of a situation, including lying about a picture being sold that was never sold to anyone, about Heidi Cruz and his wife.

DEWIT: How do you know that? How do you know that?

FERGUSON: He will call into a radio show --

DEWIT: How do you know that? You sound like you really know. How do you know?

FERGUSON: Well, Donald Trump said verbatim, OK? And the campaign said verbatim that there was a picture that was bought by Ted Cruz's campaign and given to a super PAC.

[09:20:01] There is no proof of that. It is a factual -- it's a lie, it's an absolute utter lie.

DEWIT: You don't have proof of (INAUDIBLE).

FERGUSON: OK, let me ask you this, are you saying right now --

COSTELLO: Let me stop you both right here.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: No, no, let me stop you both right here. Because it doesn't really matter what's true and what's false; it's what Donald Trump is saying about Heidi Cruz that upsets the majority of Republican women. 73 percent have a negative view of Donald Trump and it's because of stuff like this, Jeff. So isn't it time that Donald Trump rose above it? I mean, whoever's right, it doesn't really matter. Doesn't he have the obligation to please half of the American population, and that would be women, and say that, you know, attacking someone -- a woman's looks is just wrong?

DEWIT: Again, he did not attack anybody. He retweeted someone else --

FERGUSON: Yes, he did.

DEWIT: -- which is the Internet equivalent of saying --

COSTELLO: Oh come on.

DEWIT: "Hey, check out what that guy said." No, he didn't -- what happened first was that Donald Trump's wife was attacked in an ad that was targeted to Mormon women using a GQ spot she did, a GQ picture from a long time ago. And Donald Trump gave Ted Cruz the opportunity to disavow that. Ted Cruz refused to disavow that act.

FERGUSON: That's also a lie. He did disavow it. That's again another lie.

DEWIT: That's what Ted Cruz did, and that's why Donald Trump responded --

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz did disavow that ad.

(CROSSTALK)

DEWIT: -- by just retweeting that.

FERGUSON: Carol, this is what I'm saying. This is the pathological lying of Donald Trump and his supporters. Ted Cruz came out and condemned that and said he had nothing to do with it and it was absolutely wrong immediately when it happened. Why? Because that's what you do when you're running for president --

DEWIT: He did not!

FERGUSON: -- against someone that's classless. He did come out. There is video of him saying this. This is again the pathological lying of Trump supporters when you guys get busted doing something or saying not true.

DEWIT: So now I'm lying. Now I'm lying. Sure, Ben, OK.

FERGUSON: It's right there in front of you. You then come out and you make up stuff. It's called lying and it's exhausting to hear it from you. Admit that you made a mistake, admit that it was wrong, admit that no one bought a picture or sold a picture, but you will not do that. You just keep putting the lies out there.

DEWIT: That's the same way you'll never say anything positive about him --

COSTELLO: Jeff, last word, then I got to go.

DEWIT: You're one of the biggest Trump haters out there. So all it is, is a way for Trump haters to attack the lead presidential candidate --

FERGUSON: If looking at facts --

DEWIT: -- because they're part of the establishment elite that's afraid of a businessman who's going to revamp Washington and make America great again. That's all it is.

COSTELLO: OK, I got to leave it there, guys. Thanks so much.

FERGUSON: Make America great again. There's your sound bite.

COSTELLO: I got to leave it there. Thanks for being with me. Ben Ferguson, Jef DeWit.

The CNN town hall, by the way, with the final three Republican candidates is live from Milwaukee tonight, moderated by Anderson Cooper. It starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are also in Wisconsin today,

crisscrossing that state in a bid to win over voters. On the agenda, a set of rallies for Sanders while Clinton kicks off her day with a community forum in Milwaukee. Clinton's focus? Gun violence.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Milwaukee with more. Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. An equally contested race on the Democratic side but I can tell you the conversation is so different from what you're hearing on the Republican side, just listening to that argument going on. Quite different indeed.

We're here inside the Community Tabernacle Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton is trying to make her appeal to voters here in Milwaukee, to African-American voters, to other core Democratic base voters. She knows she has a real fight on her hand with Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is trying to make Wisconsin not his last stand but a good stand to keep this energy going along here.

Of course, Wisconsin has a liberal roots or progressive roots. He's hoping to tap into some of that. Important to remember, Barack Obama won this state in 2008 by some 18 points. So what is the Clinton campaign is up against. But yesterday she was campaigning, she didn't mention Bernie Sanders at all. Instead she talked about the Supreme Court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As scary as it might be, ask yourselves, what kind of justice would a President Trump appoint? Or for that matter, what kind of Attorney General? What kind of lower court judges? As you know, he believes Muslims should be banned from entering this country because of their faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So clearly Hillary Clinton there trying to make the case of the stakes of this election, that the consequences are so high. She is engaging the Sanders campaign but certainly not to the degree that she had been earlier in the campaign. The reality is this Democratic race is going on, the Sanders campaign is fighting on, they are making a gain in delegates, but still so far behind, mathematically speaking at least, that Carol, for the next week, the center of attention for both sides of this campaign -- and certainly on the Democratic side as well -- is here in the State of Wisconsin. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jeff Zeleny reporting live from Milwaukee this morning. Thank you.

Senator Bernie Sanders will be a guest on "ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" tonight, 7:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we need a grown up, not a three-year- old, in the White House. That's how one Republican Congressman describes Donald Trump. He joins me live next. [09:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The FBI is helping Belgium authorities after a slew of terror raids. U.S. officials now analyzing recovered electronic devices seized after the Brussels attack. This as the manhunt continues for at least eight suspects, including the apparent third airport bomber whose identity is still unknown. Investigators now looking into whether two gloves found on an airport bus could provide any clues.

Nick Paton Walsh in Brussels this morning with more. Hi Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We do know at this stage, Carol, that the FBI have shipped hard drives containing data from their FBI agents here in Brussels to the United States for further analysis by the FBI here. The language suggesting this must be encrypted data of some description that they can't get into it.

These laptops, phones seized during the number of raids.

[09:30:02] We've seen them happen, it seems, often every night here since those attacks. But the key issue at this point is who is the man in white, Carol, in that surveillance video from the attacks?