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Death Toll Rises To 37 In Ankara Attack; CNN Exclusive: Inside Rebel-Held Syria; NCAA Basketball Tournament Field Is Set; "New York Times": Obama's Jokes Fueled Trump's Political Ambition. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired March 14, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:31:03] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The death toll rising this morning following a car bombing in the heart of Turkey's capital. At least 37 people killed and more than 120 others wounded. Authorities working now to determine who is behind that attack. Let's go live to CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon in Ankara -- Arwa.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alyson, the view of the actual blast site blocked by that white sheet you see behind us, the area still cordoned off. We've been seeing forensic teams moving in and out.
According to Turkish authorities, the attacker or attackers drove a vehicle laden with explosives, detonating it right next to a bus stop. This is one of the main boulevards going through the central part of the city, very crowded, especially at the time of the attacks at 6:45 on a Sunday.
There are shops here, open-air bars, and restaurants, concerned about the death toll is going to rise. Now Turkish media is at this stage reporting that this was an attack carried out by the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, saying that one of the attackers was a female born in 1992.
But the Turkish president and prime minister at this stage saying that they are not disclosing, which terrorist organization was behind this devastating violence until their investigation is complete -- John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: All right, Arwa Damon for us in Ankara. Thanks so much, Arwa. And coming up from the region, a CNN exclusive inside rebel-held Syria. CNN Crews witness an airstrike against civilians first hand. This is a story you won't see anywhere else. That's next on NEW DAY.
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[06:37:52]
BERMAN: Opposition-held territory in Syria's civil war is just being torn apart by indiscriminate attacks on civilians. In a CNN exclusive, senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and producer, Selma Abdul Aziz (ph), they went undercover into rebel-held Syria where virtually no western journalists have gone for more than a year.
They worked with Syrian-based film maker, Balal (ph) Abdul Kareem on this exclusive report. We do have to warn you, a lot of the images you're about to see are very, very graphic. Clarissa Ward is with us here in New York to bring us this remarkable report.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, you know, for months and months, we've been hearing about the Russian bombardment, the effect that it's had on the ground. And essentially, we were tired of looking at these grainy YouTube images.
We wanted to go and see for ourselves what it looks like. We knew it was bad, but it didn't take us long at all to realize just how bad it really is. Take a look.
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WARD: Moving through rebel-held northern Syria is difficult and dangerous. As foreign journalists in areas with a strong jihadist presence, we had to travel undercover to see a war few outsiders have witnessed.
The city of Idlib is the only provincial capital under rebel control. This was its courthouse until it was hit by an airstrike in December. Dozens were killed.
The 40-year-old lawyer, Tala Al-Jaway, told us he was inside the building when it was hit. His arm was smashed, but he was lucky to survive.
TALA AL-JAWAY, VICTIM OF BOMBING (through translator): The Russian planes target anything that works in the interest of the people. The goal is that people here live a destroyed life, that people never see any good. That they never taste life. This is the tax of living in a liberated area.
WARD: An hour later, we saw that tax for ourselves while filming in a town nearby. We heard the scream of fighter jets wheeling overhead. Moments later, a hit.
[06:40:02](on camera): There was just an airstrike here in the town. So we're now driving very quickly. It's not clear yet what was hit, but we are hearing that there are still planes in the sky.
(voice-over): Arriving on the scene, our team found chaos and carnage. Volunteers shouted for an ambulance as they tried to ferry out the wounded.
For many, it was too late. A woman lay dead on the ground, a jacket draped over her, an attempt to preserve her dignity. Russia has repeatedly claimed it is only hitting terrorist targets. This strike hit a busy fruit market.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is just a civilian market. This is not a military area. There are no military installations or anything. It's a market! Look, it's a market! A fruit market! Is this what you want, Bashar?
WARD: We couldn't stay long, often jets circle back to hit the same place twice. It's called a double tap.
(on camera): We've just arrived here at the hospital where they're bringing the dead and the wounded from those three strikes, which hit a park and a fruit market.
We don't know the exact number of casualties there, but the scenes of devastation, blood on the ground, dismembered body parts and the injured and dead that we've seen arriving here indicate that this was a very bad strike indeed.
(voice-over): Among the injured brought in, a young boy, moaning in pain. He died moments later. The strikes that day killed 11 people, among them a woman and two children. Rescue workers wasted no time in clearing away the rubble. In this ugly war, massacres have become routine.
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BERMAN: Routine. And Clarissa, we saw that fruit market there, a reminder that civilians are being caught in the middle. It's just a fact. They are civilians are dying in these attacks. Do the Russians claim responsibility for this? Do we know for certain whose jets they were?
WARD: No, we don't know for certain. There are basically only two potential candidates here, it was either the Syrian Air Force or the Russian Air Force. We have reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense trying to get some kind of comment.
We do know that they are responsible for the vast majority of strikes that have been going on in Syria since they intervened, but at this stage, we don't know exactly who was responsible for this attack.
BERMAN: The distinction may make a difference, they are working hand in hand right now. You are getting a lot of questions on Twitter about why you were wearing what you were wearing there, was it for your own safety to blend in?
WARD: That's exactly right. It's interesting to see how many people on Twitter have been coming out wanting to know why I was dressed in that way. And what I would say is that this area of Syria is one of the most dangerous places in the world. Particularly for foreign journalists, western journalist, obviously I don't blend. I was wearing this very much for my safety so that we could go undercover.
BERMAN: You have to go undercover to be able to get a story like that to see the effect on thousands and thousands of people living in there in the midst of all that changer. Clarissa Ward, thank you for doing that, from all of us. We really appreciate it, phenomenal story -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: What an incredible window into Syria. Thanks to Clarissa.
Back here at home, what is motivating Donald Trump? Could it be something that President Obama said five years ago that Trump never forgot? We take a closer look at that exact moment when NEW DAY returns.
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BERMAN: Let the madness begin. The field for the NCAA men's basketball tournament is set. Now you can fill out all those brackets on company time. Coy Wire with more on this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. An estimated 20 percent of the American workforce will fill out brackets, and an estimated $1.3 billion of company money is going to be wasted each hour of the workday by people building brackets or watching games.
Probably the most controversial selection yesterday was Michigan State not getting a number one seed after winning the big ten tournament. They're the number two seed in the Midwest.
Here are the top seeds in the big dance, Kansas in the south region, the number one overall seed, North Carolina in the east, Virginia in the Midwest, and Oregon out in the western region.
Now, did you hear about some of the drama that happened about midway through yesterday's selection show on CBS? Someone leaked out the actual bracket on Twitter before all the selections were announced.
The NCAA was not happy about this, and they're hooking into the matter, and imagine the companies who paid for commercials during the show. They can't be happy either, because you know some people probably changed that channel.
Now time for you all driving in your cars, watching at home, listening at home, here's where can you turn some bragging rights. Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo, John Berman, the rest of the CNN anchors and I want to see if you can pick a bracket then us. Go to CNN.com/brackets and join the CNN group to see if you can take us down.
CAMEROTA: That's awesome, Coy. You know, I choose based on the color of the uniform that the teams wear, and I got pretty far last year.
WIRE: I know you did. I went back and looked. You did pretty well.
CAMEROTA: Yes, so that's my secret sauce.
BERMAN: You have to read basketball phonetically.
CAMEROTA: Thank you for that, Coy. So listen to this. What drove Donald Trump to make a run for the White House? Could it have been President Obama's jokes that were responsible for Trump's desire to be commander-in-chief? We're digging deeper into the moment that may have started it all.
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[06:54:06]
CAMEROTA: Was there a defining moment that may have motivated Donald Trump to want to be president? According to "New York Times" reporter, Maggie Haberman, something happened at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner at that may have spurred Trump to run for the White House. Here is a piece of that moment.
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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. And that's because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter. Like did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell and where are Biggie and Tupac?
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CAMEROTA: Let's bring back Maggie Haberman. She co-authored this article. So Maggie, tell us about that 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner and why the seeds of his desire to be president may have been sewn there.
[06:55:05]MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that he has wanted to be president, flirted with president in a loose way for many, many years, this is a threat that he began in 1987, continued it again 2000, and was looking at it in 2011.
But the beating that the president gave in that speech was pretty savage, and if you were in the room that night, and I was, it was rough.
Now Donald Trump will tell you and we will tell you pretty angrily, you reporters are dishonest, that's not true. I loved that speech. You saw that video.
He did not look like he was enjoying it. Reporters who spoke to him right after it, did not get the impression he was enjoying it, and when he did a telephone interview the next morning with a cable outlet, he did sound like he had enjoyed it either.
And I think that if you look at Donald Trump, remember he talks frequently about how he is the best counter puncher around. He got punched pretty hard.
The president was unhappy about the speculation about whether he was Kenyan born. I think there are many reasons why Donald Trump ran, but I do believe that that was an important driver toward wanting to be taken seriously.
CAMEROTA: We have another moment from that night because, as you describe, he got more sour and his expression got more sour. At first he liked that he was the subject of these jokes, and then he started to not like it so much. So let's watch that moment.
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PRESIDENT OBAMA: Just recently, in an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice", at the Steakhouse, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha steaks. And there was a lot of blame to go around, but you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. You fired Gary Bucyk and these are the kind of decisions that would keep me up at night.
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CAMEROTA: So there he has a sort of forced smile on his face, but you think that was the night that the switch was flipped?
HABERMAN: There's other moments in that evening where Seth Meyers, the "Saturday Night Live" host skewered Trump. It was even worse than what the president was saying. Trump decided he wasn't ready to give up his TV show. Trump decided there wasn't a clear path for him.
There were a lot of things that went into it. He pulled the plug on running pretty quickly after that in part because the new season of "The Apprentice" was coming up.
But he looked at Mitt Romney. He didn't think Mitt Romney did a very good job. It was pretty clear soon after 2012 that he was very serious about it.
I say this as someone who did take it seriously and I've said to him on Twitter for a very long time, I would not write about it until the minute he declared because I was concerned after 2011 that this wasn't serious.
But he spent several years doing actually prep, research, going to cattle calls, accepting staff recommendations, listening to other advisors, and then he pulled plug.
It was clear when I met with him before he did run in June of last year, he kept laying out his plan for me and he could see that I wasn't moved. It was frustrating to him that people weren't taking him seriously.
And he said to me on the phone last Friday that after 2011 to be taken seriously as a political force, he realized he would actually have to run or people wouldn't buy it.
CAMEROTA: That's what's at the heart of it, so it isn't just the narcissism that people have talked about, but it's the wanting to be taken seriously. And even the GOP party you've described, has had a real conflict with this. They were always happy to take his money, but not so happy to take him seriously.
HABERMAN: They were very happy to take his money because they thought it would buy some quiet. It would keep him in line. Trump doesn't want to be a joiner, he wants to run something. Those who thought that they were going to sort of accept his endorsement and accept his donations, which he started making in earnest after 2011, after being pretty tight fisted for years before that or at least giving sort of smaller chunks to both parties.
They decided that it was worth the risk to keep him in line that was not his goal.
CAMEROTA: And case in point, Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney, who accepted his endorsement, next to him, national television, and that is what the moment quickly that elevated Trump.
HABERMAN: That was the moment that elevated Trump in a real way. A lot had sought his endorsement throughout 2011, but Romney was very clearly the frontrunner and stood at this press conference, looked bewildered the whole time, but it did solidify Trump's standing.
CAMEROTA: Fascinating article. Fascinating premise, Maggie. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. Everybody should look it up online. We're following a lot of news this morning, including a look at last night's Democratic town hall. So let's get right to it.
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TRUMP: Hey, Bernie! Get your people in line, Bernie!
SANDERS: He is saying, if you go out and beat somebody up, I'll pay the legal fees.
TRUMP: A lot of them come from Bernie Sanders, and if he says no, then he's lying.
SANDERS: Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
