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High: Clinton Slams Trump & Cruz Over Terror Response Saying Their Rhetoric Is "Dangerous"; Obama Criticized For Dancing The Tango In Argentina In The Wake Of Brussels Bombings; Trump & Cruz Spar Over Attacks On Their Wives; Inside Brussels' Hub Of Terror; Working With Youth To Prevent Radicalization; Defense Sec. Carter To Europe: Step Up. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 24, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:31:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz both facing a bit of a backlash this morning from some quarters for their controversial responses to the Brussels terror attacks. President Obama and the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton lashing out at the idea from Ted Cruz that Muslim-American communities should be monitored by police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Republican candidates like Ted Cruz call for treating American-Muslims like criminals and for racially profiling predominantly Muslim neighborhoods, it's wrong, it's counterproductive, it's dangerous.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which by the way, the father of Sen. Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, let's discuss. We're joined by CNN political commentator and associate professor at the City University of New York, Peter Beinart, and Time magazine political reporter Zeke Miller. Peter Beinart, we heard the reaction from President Obama and Hillary Clinton right there to Ted Cruz. Donald Trump, for his part, by the way, not ruling out using nuclear weapons against terrorists right now.

So you see these proposals from the Republican candidates. You saw the reaction from the Democratic candidates, and just to put a point on it, this is what Ted Cruz said yesterday about his idea of monitoring Muslim neighborhoods.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, it has been interesting in the last 24 hours, when I called for proactive policing directed at radical Islamic terrorism, the reaction from Democrats. Mayor de Blasio, here in New York, held a press conference blasting me, attacking me. It's an example where Democrats are more concerned about political correctness than they are about keeping us safe, and that's why people are so fed up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: On the Republican side, talk to me about the politics of what Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are doing here.

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, on the Republican side the politics are good. I mean, let's remember that every single state that has voted the exit polls have shown that a majority of Republican voters support Donald Trump's proposal for banning Muslims from entering the United States -- temporarily banning. I mean, that to me is absolutely shocking and horrifying, but it's the reality. So, among the Republican voter base this kind of thing is popular.

The irony is that it makes America more like Belgium, right? What we know about Belgium is one of the reasons that Belgium is not safe is because Muslims in Belgium don't feel stigmatized, don't feel like full citizens. We've done a much better job in the United States of making Muslims feel accepted here. Why on earth would we want to do things that make us more like Belgium?

BERMAN: It is interesting. It's not oftenyou see people on both sides see a political opportunity. We saw it from Ted Cruz and Donald Trump in their statements. We saw it from Hillary Clinton, scheduling a speech at Stanford yesterday to take on the Republicans and also take on the issue of what happened in Brussels.

It's interesting, also, in the line of we have a new CNN-ORC poll out this morning which shows that Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump among all character -- not character issues, but all issue-based situations here, including better commander in chief. It's up to the middle class -- person you admire -- but better commander in chief. She's leading Donald Trump 55 percent to 36 percent. Perhaps that gives you a sign of what she's doing and why she's taking this head on.

ZEKE MILLER, TIME POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely. This is the type of thing -- we're still in the Republican primary phase, but this is Hillary Clinton who feels very secure in her own race, looking ahead to the general laying out the contrast. If you look at the two leading candidates on the Republican side they're trying to one-up themselves in terms of how to be tough on terrorism with these positions.

As you mentioned, Donald Trump not ruling out using nuclear weapons which you can sort of set that aside in its own area, but you're seeing the wide range of Republican viewpoints represented only by those two which are fairly similar.

If you look at the Lindsey Grahams who come now behind Ted Cruz as a last ditch effort to stop Donald Trump, they heard Hillary Clinton's speech. They probably had more in common with Hillary Clinton's speech yesterday than with Ted Cruz's comments and that's sort of an indication where Hillary Clinton sees an electoral opportunity come this fall. [06:35:00] BERMAN: There's also an interesting dynamic going on right now because both Hillary Clinton and the Republican candidates may be positioning themselves a little bit versus President Obama right now. We have some video of what President Obama was doing last night in the wake of Brussels.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

He was in Argentina, as you can see right here, dancing the tango. He was invited to dance -- more like forced to dance -- and he didn't dance badly, but Peter Beinart, the question is one of optics. He went to a baseball game in Cuba the other day. He defended those actions. Dancing the tango last night in Argentina -- I'm sure he would defend these actions, too.

(END VIDEO)

BEINART: Sure. I mean, he'll get slammed for this by --

BERMAN: He is getting slammed for this.

BEINART: He is getting this, right. It's an easy attack for Republicans. I think the question is what exactly do they want Barack Obama to do differently?

BERMAN: Well, they said he should come back to the United States -- some have. They said he should at least not go to the baseball game in Cuba.

BEINART: But let's not -- if they didn't want him to go to Cuba because they don't want the opening to Cuba. I mean, what was he going to do differently once he came to the United States? This is an attack in Belgium. The United States has actually been under Barack Obama's presidency.

The scale of terrorist attacks, thank God, in the United States has been fairly small, both compared to Europe and compared to 9-11 or under his predecessor. So, these seem to be easy shots for a Republican primary electorate that can't stand Barack Obama and don't like the fact that he went to Cuba in the first place.

BERMAN: And Zeke, I do want to end on the latest wife tweets from Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, which seem to be causing controversy again in the wake of what happened in Brussels. Donald Trump retweeted something that was on his Twitter feed last night about his wife and Heidi Cruz. Said, "No need to 'spill the beans'. The images are worth a thousand words." You can see that right there.

A lot of people thought it was classless that Donald Trump retweeted that. One of those people was Ted Cruz, who said "Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life." How much longer is this going to go on, Zeke?

MILLER: You know, what's shocking about this cycle is that it used to be pushing the bounds of public and civic discourse. I mean, calling somebody a liar in politics used to be the type of thing that would spark a 2-day argument of whether or not it's appropriate to call somebody that. And now we've got into attacks on spouses, and that's something that Donald Trump has turned into a campaign asset when he's saying oh, just wait until I get started on Bill Clinton, come the fall.

So this is the type of thing that hasn't hurt him yet and may not hurt him going forward, but it's the type of thing that should start a conversation in all of us why is all of this acceptable now when we used to push and set that aside.

BERMAN: And more important things to talk about. Zeke, Peter, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it. Let's go back to Alisyn in Brussels.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, John, thanks so much. Since the terror attacks in November in Paris, the eyes of the world have been focused on a small neighborhood of Brussels that has become a hotbed of extremism. When NEW DAY returns we take you inside Molenbeek.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:00] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. So, we've all heard of this Brussels neighborhood called Molenbeek. It's the place about 10 minutes from where I'm standing where Salah Abdeslam was captured on Friday. It's also the place where the November Paris attacks were plotted. It has been described by government officials as a dangerous extremist neighborhood where police have lost control. So we wanted to see and understand Molenbeek ourselves, so yesterday afternoon we ventured into the area called a hotbed of radical extremists.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: This is not what we expected when we arrived in Molenbeek. Children playing and laughing at the youth center in the heart of this working-class immigrant neighborhood.

JOVIC MAFUTA NSENGE KUMPNKUNGULU, SOCIAL WORKER, LE FOYER MOLENBEEK: We made workshop activity with the young people -- theater activity. We write music. We play music with the young.

CAMEROTA: Jovic is a social worker here, originally from the Congo. He knows well the challenges of trying to fit into Belgian culture.

KUMPNKUNGULU (through translator): Most of these kids were born here in Belgium. They were born in Belgium so they are Belgian outright, but they find it hard to feel Belgian because on the other side -- the Belgo Belgium -- the native Belgian don't see them as pure Belgian.

CAMEROTA: Still, it came as a shock to everyone to learn that two of the suspected Paris terrorists spent years here at this youth center as children. Salah Abdeslam, who until his capture on Friday, was Europe's most wanted man -- and Mohamed Abrini, his accomplice who is still on the loose.

ILIAS M'RABET, MEMBER, LE FOYER MOLENBEEK: It's weird to know that the guy that went here and had fun when he was little to do this. Like, I don't know what went through his head when he did it but you can't really put a connection to his acts and this.

CAMEROTA: Today, the center's leaders try to reconcile how these quiet, well-behaved boys could turn into cold-blooded killers.

KUMPNKUNGULU (through translator): They push each other to do bad things. Instead of encouraging each other to be on top of the class, they encourage each other to do foolish things.

CAMEROTA: It's hard for 15-year-old Ilias to understand why anyone would turn to terrorism, though he sees the challenges ahead in a neighborhood with 40 percent youth unemployment.

M'RABET: For me, personally, I think it's going to be much harder to get a job if they know you're from here.

CAMEROTA: The people we met in Molenbeek do not want the link to terrorism to define them, and they pray that these children will have brighter futures.

BACHIR M'RABET, COORDINATOR, LE FOYER MOLENBEEK (through translator): I hope that in the coming days we try to think about what happened -- to what's happening to us -- to this reality. Trying to think about all of this and maybe tell ourselves that we can't go lower and that we can only go forward for something more positive by going from a misfortune to something happier.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Joining me now is Dr. Edit Schlaffer. She witnessed the aftermath of the Brussels attacks, and she's the founder of Women Without Borders and Save Sisters Against Violent Extremism. It is the world's first female counterterrorism platform. She was in Brussels for an anti-extremism discussion with mothers during the attacks. Doctor, so good to have you here.

DR. EDIT SCHLAFFER, FOUNDER, WOMEN WITHOUT BORDERS & SISTERS AGAINST VIOLENT EXTREMISM, WITNESS TO BRUSSELS TRAIN ATTACK: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Before we get to what you were doing in Brussels and what happened during the attacks, I just want you to comment on what you just watched from Molenbeek because I know you've been talking to the young people of Brussels. What have you found about the connection between young people and their futures, and then how they turn to radical ideology?

[06:45:00] SCHLAFFER: We have been talking to youngsters across the globe now who are desperately defying the labels placed upon them. And here in Belgium, over in Brussels over the last two days, where I've had good discussions with youngsters from Vilvoorde, a suburb where 68 youths left for Syria.

CAMEROTA: Sixty-eight --

SCHLAFFER: Sixty-eight from Vilvoorde.

CAMEROTA: -- from this neighborhood? From one suburb, left to go to Syria to be trained and to join ISIS.

SCHLAFFER: We met these youths because we are so interested why would they not go? What made them resilient? I think these are the questions. These are our allies now and we have to go there. They are the frontlines because --

CAMEROTA: And is there a way to sum up why some went and some didn't? What did they tell you? The ones who didn't go and are resilient, what did they tell you?

SCHLAFFER: They told us that they still cling onto the label -- or to the hope -- that they are accepted as true Belgians. That this narrative -- this dividing narrative of immigrants, Muslims and true Belgians will stop. And they are here to fight it and they need our support.

CAMEROTA: We've heard that same thing when we went to Molenbeek. That they don't feel as though their true Belgians. That they feel still like outsiders.

SCHLAFFER: So we do need to go there the where the violent insecurity starts because with the violent insecurity violent extremism starts.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

SCHLAFFER: We must be aware of this and, for this reason, we are rocking the civil society, particularly with the mothers who are at the frontlines with these youngsters.

CAMEROTA: Yes. If mothers can figure it out -- I mean, you're working with mothers to try to stop extremism. Ironically, you were working with the mothers here in Brussels when the day of the attacks. What was your experience during the attacks?

SCHLAFFER: We came to Brussels to celebrate the first group of mothers who graduated from our mother school model which we have created and which is working now across the globe in a beautiful way.

CAMEROTA: And how does it work? You have mothers who then try to talk to their children --

SCHLAFFER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- and stop whatever indoctrination is happening?

SCHLAFFER: They are eager to talk to them but they, very often, don't know how to talk to them. It's not easy to talk to adolescents in a normal arena, so they need the confidence that they have the right, and they need the confidence that they have the skills to address these delicate issues of warning signs and not even spotting them, but to addressing them in a competent way.

CAMEROTA: Proactively. Before you see warning signs, talk to your adolescents.

SCHLAFFER: And you know, you see so many small signs. You know, it's a continuous emergence of small signs but very often also these women they are kind of brushed away. You're just a woman, you know. This is about politics and religion. We don't even touch upon religion. This is about the search of meaning, you know, of belonging of these young people, and this is a call for action.

We are now also at the frontlines, you know. It's the day after and we have to not only stand together but act together and to support these mothers. And if we support these mothers in a broader sense, we support all of us.

CAMEROTA: Yes, mothers are truly on the frontlines. But, back to you. Where were you when the explosions went off?

SCHLAFFER: We were just checking out from the hotel, which is right at the entrance of this --

CAMEROTA: Of the subway station.

SCHLAFFER: Of the subway station.

CAMEROTA: And what did you feel and see?

SCHLAFFER: Well, we felt that something was terrible wrong. We hear noise and the air was filled all of a sudden with smoke and people flooded into the lobby, but we just ran out and left. We felt we shouldn't be in account (ph) at this very moment.

CAMEROTA: It's just so terrible. I mean, here you were in Brussels trying to fight extremism and then almost victimized by it.

SCHLAFFER: I wanted to leave. We were on the way to meet the mothers who graduated. This first class graduated of the mother school who went to our training over months and now we're standing there in the presence of the parliamentarian and the media to talk about their experiences and the change they're making in their families, particularly the change in the dynamics in the family routine because school the mothers we don't only reach the children, we reach the fathers. So it's hard to get emotion access to these fathers. They have kind of found in this shield of masculinity.

We have to break through this so that they also stand up and say boy, girl, there's something quite not right, you know. This has to stop. And we reach the peers. We reach the siblings which is so important. So this is the mother schools against extremism. Everything is set. It's a true missile. I think it's sharper that any weapon. We need the words and not the weapons. We need to have a focus on the support of civil society. All the resources should be kind of streamline taught as well.

CAMEROTA: And stopping it beforehand.

SCHLAFFER: Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: And the mothers are the conduits to everyone in the family as you -- SCHLAFFER: We can see that. We can see that now from Pakistan to Kashmir to Indonesia. We work in all those countries and we're still piloting it. But, you know, we need the support now -- the biggest support to scale it up.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for your good work, Dr. Edit Schlaffer.

SCHLAFFER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for being here on NEW DAY.

SCHLAFFER: Thank you. Thank you. A pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Great to talk to you. All right, back at home Defense Secretary Ash Carter thinks it's time for U.S. allies in Europe to step up the fight against terrorism. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: As we have been accelerating our campaign to defeat ISIL in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere, they need to accelerate their efforts and join us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So what does the U.S. military chief think about torture and torturing terror suspects? Our Carol Costello speaks with Ash Carter about that next on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:54:00] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: Authorities in Belgium are under scrutiny in the wake of the Brussels terror attacks. Warning signs, critical intelligence appear to have been overlooked just months after similar coordinated attacks were carried out in Paris. Our colleague and anchor, Carol Costello, spoke with U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter about this situation. She joins us now. You had a quite an extensive sit-down with him.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: It was pretty interesting. It was at West Point and Ash Carter was talking to the future military leaders of our country, who are very impressive by the way. He talked about how our military must change and become stronger in different ways. He talked about opening combat roles to women, and he also talked about fighting ISIS.

[06:55:00] I sat down with Ash Carter for about 20 minutes after his speech with students, and the thing that surprised me, Michaela, he said -- in more diplomatic terms than I'm going to put it, right? He said Europe has to step it up. They have to intensify their efforts in fighting ISIS not only at home, but they have to help the United States in the field of battle in Iraq and Syria -- wherever ISIS lives. Not necessarily militarily, but well, listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CARTER: It's not enough that we defeat them in Iraq and Syria. What

Brussels tells us is that they have sympathizers -- people who are Belgians or French who live there already and, therefore, an important part of the fight is also going to be Homeland Security and intelligence and a law enforcement fight. Now that's not what the Department of Defense does, but that's important as well.

The other thing I think that the Brussels event is going to further signify to Europeans is that they -- as we have been accelerating our campaign to defeat ISIL in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere, they need to accelerate their efforts and join us.

COSTELLO: Some suggest that we should revisit the subject of torture to get information faster. Is that a good idea?

CARTER: All of our military and intelligence leaders have spoken on this, and we, in the Department of Defense, follow the Army field manual. It does not allow torture and America conducts itself in accordance with its values. That's important.

COSTELLO: Does torture work?

CARTER: The experts there who have laid down our policy in that area have agreed for both effectiveness reasons and for reasons of reflecting our own values that we're not going to do that sort of thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: I want to go back to what he was talking about the European nations, considering our breaking news -- what we've been watching happening Belgium and the criticism of how authorities have dealt or not dealt with the terrorism threat there.

He talks about the need for European nations to accelerate their counterterrorism efforts. What does he mean? We can't just put an American perspective on it. They're dealing with a very different reality. The proximity, the threat, the homegrown-ness of it.

COSTELLO: Yes, but you always have to keep in mind that the people who are carrying out terror attacks in Europe -- many of them go to Syria. They go to Iraq. They get direct orders from the commanders in the field, so to speak. From ISIS, right? So, what Ash Carter is saying is that Europe needs to help the United States, for example, rebuild cities. Right? Because once Iraqi forces, for example, take control of a city from ISIS it's totally destroyed. They need an infrastructure to keep hold of that city.

Somebody needs to go in and rebuild it and that takes money and it takes manpower, and Ash Carter suggests maybe Europe should concentrate on that. Help us keep those cities in the hands of the proper people, and that would be the Iraqis or the Syrians, or whoever -- just not ISIS.

PEREIRA: And really quickly, we talk about the threat, and obviously given the threat in Brussels, U.S. officials are very wary and watchful of what's going on here. Did he talk about that? The threat of how it affects the U.S. as opposed to the threat that's faced by Europe?

COSTELLO: He said it's completely different because as you well know they have cells in Europe, right? As far as we know there are no cells working within the United States. It's mostly lone wolves and that's what we have to concentrate on. He did say, though, that Homeland Security, intelligence services, and the Defense Department all have to join together to fight ISIS collectively. No single entity can do it alone.

PEREIRA: It's a great conversation. Thanks for bringing it to us.

COSTELLO: Anytime.

PEREIRA: All right, we'll see you a little bit later, Carol. We're following a whole lot of news this morning. A frantic manhunt is underway for two suspects connected to the Brussels terror attacks. We're going to get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: A second man is suspected of taking part in the Metro station bombing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The scope of the extremist network more sophisticated than ever imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's more raids going on here in the Brussels area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His DNA was found on two of the suicide belts used in the Paris attack.

CAMEROTA: There could be multiple targets across the continent.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to change our law on the waterboarding thing.

CLINTON: It's wrong, it's counterproductive, it's dangerous.

TRUMP: Well, I'm never going to rule anything out.

CRUZ: Donald doesn't know what to do to deal with ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't know if my niece and her husband have been able to get out of the airport.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's horrible beyond imagination.

EMILY EISENMAN, BOYFRIEND MISSING IN BELGIUM: I guess I didn't know how much one person can love another until you just don't know where they're at --