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New Day Saturday

Will Plan To Retake Mosul Succeed?; New Defense Chief Is In Afghanistan; More Fighting In Ukraine Despite Ceasefire; Twenty Three Deaths Across The U.S. This Week; Chris Kyle Murder Trial; Bobbi Kristina's Breathing Tube Removed

Aired February 21, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And the next hour of your NEW DAY starts now.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: New images this morning, a show of force by ISIS, American-made M-16s, Humvees, as well. What can we learn from all these stolen firepower.

PAUL: Plus tensions rising between Russia and Ukraine, marches in Moscow's Red Square, protesting a memorial honoring the Ukrainian victims of Kiev's revolution.

BLACKWELL: Also closing arguments coming soon in the "American Sniper" trial, we'll take a closer look at the confession videos of Eddie Ray Routh made, he made just hours after the killings of Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.

Good morning to you. It's 8:00 straight up here on the east coast. I'm Victor Blackwell.

PAUL: I'm Christi Paul. It's so good to have you with us. Listen, we do want to get to what's new this morning as we want to show you these chilling new images of American-made weapons falling in the hands of ISIS in Iraq.

Look at this. Militants attacked an Iraqi military post in Anbar Province and this is what they walked away with, dozens of weapons, M- 16s, heavy machine guns.

BLACKWELL: And also American armored vehicles, Humvees as well. They left behind a trail of death, the burned bodies of Iraqi soldiers. Of course, we're learning this as the U.S. and Iraq plan this major offensive to take back the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.

PAUL: I want to get to CNN senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman. He is live in Erbil, in Northern Iraq there. So Ben, I know these images of ISIS capturing American weapons, they are clearly propaganda, but what can we learn from them? What's your take away?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the take away here is that ISIS despite more than six months of coalition aircraft is able to operate, attack Iraqi army positions. It appears to be in broad daylight and get away with it. Not only get away with it, get away with, as I counted from that video, at least 35 American-made M-16s, a large pile of AK-47s, mortars, ammunition, armored personnel carriers and Humvees. So, despite this pressure from the coalition aircraft, they are still sort of moving ahead, taking more territory.

Now, we have heard this morning from sources in Baghdad that the Iraqi army along with Iraqi police was able to retake an area near Baghdadi, which is north of the Iraqi capital, near the air base where several hundred Americans are stationed training Iraqi forces, so it's not all a sort of negative balance sheet for the Iraqi army.

But as we can see, the Americans are talking more and more about a possible operation to put -- push ISIS out of Mosul in Northern Iraq, a city of more than 2 million people. That the Iraqi army is still challenged very much closer to the Iraqi capital itself.

PAUL: Ben, I know that you spoke with a Kurdish commander there in Erbil and he calls the impending offensive we've been talking about unrealistic and impossible. Is there a concern that other commandos -- commanders there echo those same cynicisms?

WEDEMAN: Well, I've heard going back to last summer the same sort of cynicism and doubt among Kurdish commanders, about the Iraqi army. They just don't feel it's up to the task, they point to the experience of last summer when they retreated from Mosul leaving behind so much American weaponry and ammunition.

They don't have a lot of confidence. They feel that they are poorly trained, poorly led, poorly motivated and simply not up to the job of liberating Mosul.

PAUL: All right, Ben Wedeman, thank you so much, sir.

BLACKWELL: All right, so the U.S. is planning to retake Mosul could become the most decisive ground battle in the fight against ISIS so far and it would test the capabilities of the Iraqi army certainly.

Let's bring in Peter Neumann, director of the international Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. Guys, I want to speak to the control room for a moment. If we can pull that Kasich sound on nation building, I want to get Peter's response to that in a moment.

But before we get to that sound bite, Peter, the Iraqi army is struggling to defend what they have in Anbar Province. What's the general degree of confidence that they are strong enough to go on this offensive to take Mosul?

PETER NEUMANN, DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF RADICALIZATION AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE: Well, it's not a lot of confidence and that's inspired by what happened last year when essentially tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers were running away from hundreds of ISIS and were just dropping their guns, dropping their uniforms, abandoning their position and leaving Mosul which is Iraq's third biggest city to ISIS. Now of course, in the months since there has been a lot of training, there has been a lot of instruction, and we'll have to see whether that has paid off. My hunch is that it's not about training, it is about will. And it is about morale.

And my feeling is that a lot of people in the Iraqi army just simply do not want to fight. They are quite capable of fighting if they wanted to, and that makes me still skeptical as to whether it is possible for the Iraqis to retake Mosul.

BLACKWELL: Yes, many people asking if it's possible. Control room tells me we have the sound from Ohio Governor John Kasich. Let's listen. We'll talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: At some point in dealing with is you mark my words whether John Kasich, if you ever hear from him again, at some point it will require boots on the ground from the world to be able to deal with this problem.

And I would rather deal with it sooner than later, but you just don't go running over there, you've got to have a battle plan, you got to figure out exactly what you're going to do.

I would never suggest we should engage in nation building or trying to convert these people to our way of life. We need stability and we need to stop this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's take it in two chapters. First, he says it will take boots on the ground from the world. Do you believe that there will have to be some other force, U.S. forces, Jordanian forces that have been sent to the Iraqi border, to go in and fight in a combat role next to the Iraqi soldiers?

NEUMANN: Well, that's the key word here. Combat role because there are boots on the ground. There are a lot of Americans on the ground and coalition soldiers, who were training people. The question is how close are they to the front line? And should they directly engage with ISIS?

My personal view is that ISIS wants nothing more. It is aching for a conflict with America. It wants to kill American soldiers so I still think it would not be a good idea for American soldiers to directly engage with ISIS.

We would be back to where we were in 2004-2005. It would be a justification for ISIS to say that America is once again occupying Muslim lands, and I still do not think that would be a good idea.

BLACKWELL: Now the second part, the nation building, of course, a lot of blood and treasure spent building, rebuilding Iraq after the Iraq war and during the end after the combat ended. But what we learned from 2003 is that when you leave this country, after combat, the young men with weapons, no opportunities, and no opportunities to feed their families they are further radicalized. Will there not be a need for rebuilding after any combat effort?

NEUMANN: Well, I mean, it's very clear no one disagrees with the governor here in saying that America or the world shouldn't be running Iraq. What America can do and what it should do is to prompt Iraq to have an inclusive type of government.

The reason why some of the Sunnis in Anbar Province are supporting is ISIS because they feel that the government in Baghdad is not inclusive, it doesn't represent their interests. It is even hostile to them. It is sectarian.

Because America still has a lot of influence in Baghdad and gives a lot of money to Baghdad, it should force the government in Baghdad to have a government that is inclusive of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

It shouldn't build the nation, but it should make sure that what whatever government is in place is a government that all Iraqis are happy to be part of. That's the huge obstacle that is preventing Sunnis from rising up against ISIS.

BLACKWELL: Unfortunately, there is a lot of mistrust after the purging and the consolidation of Nuri Al-Maliki's government. Peter Neumann, thanks for being part of the conversation. We'll talk more.

NEUMANN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Christi.

PAUL: So just days after he was confirmed and sworn in, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is wasting no time on the job. He is in Afghanistan right now meeting with the Afghan president. The topic, U.S. plans to pull most of the remaining 10,000 American troops out by the end of 2016.

On the plane to Kabul, Carter laid out why he chose to go to Afghanistan first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The reason for this destination, Afghanistan, in my very first week in office as the secretary of defense, is because this is where we still have 10,000 American troops and they come first in my mind always.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Secretary Carter is going to get a chance to talk face-to-face with those troops tomorrow when he goes to Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. So let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst, Lieutenant Colonel James Reese. Lt. Colonel, thank you for being with us.

LT. COLONEL JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good morning, Christi. PAUL: Are you surprised Afghanistan, not Iraq, not Syria, where we've seen so many threats, that Afghanistan was Ash Carter's first stop as defense secretary? What does that mean to you?

REESE: Absolutely not. I think it was a great move by Secretary Carter. I call it lead by walking around. You get out of the Pentagon, he goes to the first place that we have the largest concentration of U.S. forces.

So he's going to meet out there, get a chance to go face-to-face with commanders out there, let them hear what's going on. He has big decisions and adviser rolls to help what's going to happen in Afghanistan, pull out, no pull out.

I think what you'll see Secretary Carter then begin to move to the west and go into Iraq and hit Qatar and the other places again. So he's doing some battlefield circulation as a key leader.

PAUL: Based on the threats in Syria and Iraq, do you believe that the mission in Afghanistan needs to be reassessed right now?

REESE: Well, I think we continually have to reassess. We have to definitely keep an eye on Afghanistan because personally I think we need to watch what we did in Iraq, if we do that in Afghanistan, we could be -- we would have the same, I believe, the same situation happen to us in Iraq where everything started to collapse and find ourselves going back in several years later.

PAUL: What do you make of this spring offensive, this plan to retake Mosul and some of the definitive information that's come out about it? A lot of people look at that and say why are we essentially giving a green light to ISIS and letting them know when we're going to be there and where we're going to be? What's that strategy?

REESE: Yes. You know, it's not a green light. ISIS knows this is coming. You know, the last couple months now we've watched the Iraqi army along with some of the militia, Shia militia, moving north up the Tigris River Valley.

They have taken cities along the way, Kurdish have done very well and put themselves in positions around the northeast of Mosul. They had skirmishes with ISIS, and everyone knows the Iraqis have talked about they are going to take Mosul back.

ISIS is watching the Iraqis move up. We on the other hand continue to help and help suppress and denigrate is by air power, having our special forces there, helping the Iraqis find synergy and synchronization in their piece.

So I think everyone is getting wrapped around the axle here where everyone knows this is going to happen. We also have to kind of think outside the box. I think it's great the Iraqis are saying, we're bringing 25,000 soldiers after you, and see what happens.

PAUL: All right, Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, always appreciate your insight. Thank you, sir. REESE: You too, Christi. Have a great weekend.

PAUL: You too.

BLACKWELL: Thousands of pro-kremlin activists flood the streets of Moscow's Red Square. A rally against what they are calling a coup that removed Ukraine's pro-Russian president last year. A former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine weighs in on this developing story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: In Moscow this morning, thousands of pro-kremlin activists are marching near Moscow's Red Square. They are holding a rally to condemn what they view as a coup that removed the Ukraine's pro- Russian president.

Kiev on the other hand is marking one year since that ouster. Meanwhile, guns are still blazing despite a ceasefire being declared one week ago. Let's bring in former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst. Good to have you, Mr. Ambassador.

JOHN HERBST, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UKRAINE: My pleasure.

BLACKWELL: So first, let's start with the significance of the rally this morning. What do you think the significance is?

HERBST: It's really of very little significance. The kremlin has spread the propaganda line to its own population, since a year ago that he was removed in a coup.

What they don't point out is that before he left he oversaw whether by permitting or by ordering, the use of sniper fire against peaceful demonstrators, which killed almost 100 people.

Ukrainian people were outraged by that violence against peaceful demonstrators and he fled the country as a result.

BLACKWELL: I'd like to know when we have that full screen ready. First, let me ask you about what German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the French President Francois Hollande, what do they see as any indication that these agreements will hold?

Minsk 2 was violated probably with a few hours or a day or so right after the first agreement in September was violated. What do they see that I guess so many of the people do not?

HERBST: Well, they are hoping that somehow you can reach a diplomatic settlement with the kremlin to stop its aggression in Ukraine and they believe the diplomacy, they keep saying that there is no military solution to this conflict.

The problem with their logic is there is one person who believes there is a military solution, that's Vladimir Putin. He has been sending in his troops, his arms, sending in his money to make sure that he controls at least these eastern lands in Ukraine. There's a need for some pushback, some military pushback, which is why it's very important for the United States, for President Obama to finally decide to send weapons to Ukraine.

BLACKWELL: The defensive lethal aid or would you suggest more than that?

HERBST: Well, I think let's start with defensive lethal aid. Specifically, we're talking about sending in anti-armor weapons, javelin missiles. Tanks have been prominent in the kremlin offensive in Eastern Ukraine.

We're also talking about sending counter-battery radar for missiles, 70 percent of Ukrainian casualties come from missiles from a distance of 30 or 40 kilometers.

If we give the Ukrainians radar which can target those missiles, they will be much less effective. These things will help the Ukrainian army, which is fighting valiantly to stop the Russians.

BLACKWELL: You know, you said something that I found pretty interesting. I was hoping that we could put it on the screen, but I've got it here anyway, I read a report in the "Military Times" in which you said -- here it is.

"I would make the argument that much of our foreign policy's establishment including the president, Congress, is strategically confused in paying more attention to the danger of the Islamic state than to the danger of Mr. Putin's Russia. ISIS is a rag tag terrorist group that has no major economy and no nuclear weapons and is not able to change borders."

We spent a lot of our show this morning talking about ISIS, and you believe that Vladimir Putin is a greater threat to the United States and its interests, safety especially, than ISIS. Explain that if you will.

HERBST: There is no question about this. Mr. Putin controls one of the world's largest economies, controls one of the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. He has used his army to change borders by force in Georgia and now in Ukraine.

His doctrine is he has the right to intervene anywhere there are Russian speakers, who are quote/unquote "threatened." There are many Russian speakers in the Baltic States. If he has his way in Ukraine, we have to worry about a provocation of the Baltic States.

The United States has a commitment under NATO Article V to defend the Baltic States from aggression. So Mr. Putin's clearly at much greater danger than ISIS and he is going to look back at this period of western foreign policy and laugh at the strategic cluelessness of our leadership.

BLACKWELL: Strategic cluelessness. I'm sure we'll be talking more about that. Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, John Herbst, thank you so much. HERBST: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: As this conflict worsens in Ukraine, civilians are falling victim to this crossfire, for ways you can help support them, just go to cnn.com/impact.

PAUL: Still ahead, the winter blast that's bringing sub-zero temperatures to millions of us across the country. We're going to tell you how this is affecting travelers, the human toll this storm is taking, and also the trial of the "American Sniper" is entering its final week. Why lawyers say you know what, drugs are not a defense.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Deep freeze is right. Look at this, close call for a DOT worker trying to move away from an out-of-control car. The car is sliding over the road. You see the cab here and the trailer off to the side of the road. This is -- it's a mess in the eastern part of the U.S.

PAUL: It's dangerous whether you're in the car or whether you're not. There have been at least 23 winter deaths since that related just this week to the storm. So CNN's Ivan Cabrera is following the latest on it. What's the target right now?

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: So I think what happens with these spin-outs and car wrecks is that when it's snowing everybody kind of slows down and you kind of prepare for things, but what happens is once the snow falls, it freezes, the ground becomes essentially iced over.

Nothing is falling from the skies so you think you're good but you're not. This is happening across the mid-south right now. Some of the rain is going to be caking onto the untreated roads. You have to be careful out there.

Nashville is out of the ice storm warning. So we have switched over from freezing rain to a rain event so that's excellent news along I- 40. Watch the snow as it moves into parts of the Ohio Valley and the northeast.

This will be a snowmaker for you, just not as heavy. Take a look at all the winter storm warnings that are posted right now. Let's follow this and time it out for you. There is Nashville with the rain.

There you see the snow beginning to push in to Ohio and Pennsylvania and watch, by Saturday evening, I think it will be snowing in Philly and New York and then eventually Boston. It will not remain as a snow event.

That is the good thing here is that this warm push of air coming in, you see the stream lines coming in that means a warmer air direction. So whatever starts as frozen will begin to turn into plain old rain. This is excellent news. That is what we're looking forward to.

I will leave you with more depressing news. There is the Siberian air, February 23, 24, 25. It goes through the first week of March and we're still in the deep freeze, unbelievable. Thereafter I think a big pattern change. We'll have to wait a few more weeks.

PAUL: All right, so much for -- yes, no kidding. So much for the groundhog is what I wanted to say. Thank you, Ivan. We appreciate it.

We have some new developments on the condition of Bobbi Kristina Brown. The latest on how she's doing and why doctors removed her breathing tube.

BLACKWELL: Plus, the battle of the medical experts in the "American Sniper" trial, all to help decide if the defendant will be sent to prison or to a mental hospital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Bottom of the hour now.

Closing arguments could begin as early as Monday in the American sniper trial. Both the prosecution and the defense are relying on key expert witnesses to prove their cases. Attorneys for the Eddie Ray Routh group, they call up a forensic psychiatrist who they interviewed, they say interviewed their client six months after the deadly shooting. He claims Routh displayed signs of schizophrenia and he was also delusional. On the other side though a psychiatrist for the prosecution said Routh knew exactly what he was doing.

CNN's Ed Lavandera has the latest for you.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi and Victor, it's a battle of the medical experts in the American sniper trial and the question is which psychiatrist will this jury believe?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: All those times Eddie Ray Routh is seen squirming around the inside of a police car or rambling incoherently as he was interrogated by murder investigators, the prosecution's medical expert says these moments are examples of Routh's personality disorder -- a man desperate for attention not evidence of an insane killer.

BRADLEY COOPER, ACTOR: I got a military age on a cell phone watching the convoy, over.

LAVANDERA: At the moment Routh killed American sniper Chris Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield the forensic psychologist says Routh was in a substance induced psychotic state fueled by marijuana abuse. And that Routh knew what he was doing was wrong and he did it anyway.

The judge is not allowing courtroom audio to be broadcast until the trial is over.

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: If he wants to go out and smoke pot or drink alcohol in the morning, he can do that but he cannot use it as a defense to a crime. What the prosecution is going to say is that was his own voluntary decision, and it's not an excuse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm talking about a pig man. I walk into the wrong room and there he was.

LAVANDERO: The prosecution psychologist even suggested the comedy show "Seinfeld" might have inspired Routh's psychotic sounding ramblings about pigs. The psychologist says Routh spends a lot of time watching "Seinfeld" re-runs inside the jail where he spent the last two years and he says Routh might have been influenced by this famous episode, where the character Kramer is convinced he has seen a half pig, half man creature roaming the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw a pig man, a pig man. He was sleeping and then he woke up and he looked at me and he made this horrible sound.

LAVANDERA: Another forensic psychologist says Routh was intoxicated at the time of the murders. Routh is pleading not guilty by reason of insanity but the prosecution expert says any time intoxication is present, game over. Meaning Routh cannot be considered legally insane.

But investigators acknowledge that no one administered a blood exam on Routh the night he was arrested to determine exactly how much drugs and alcohol were in his system.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Testimony is still not over in the American sniper trial, they will resume again on Monday. And it's possible that closing arguments could begin then -- Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All right. Ed -- thank you so much.

Let's talk about the trial with CNN legal Danny Cevallos and also psychologist Jeff Gardere.

Danny, I want to start with you. No one disputes that Eddie Ray Routh shot and killed these men but so far do you see which side may have been doing a better job convincing jurors which doctors and experts to believe?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The prosecution has better facts, so the science is going to support their position more. And remember, this is a very simple assessment. It's entirely possible that Routh suffered from mental disease or defect. That alone does not mean that he is legally insane.

He must as a result of that defect, believe that what he was doing or -- or not be aware that what he was doing was wrong. In Texas that word wrong is defined very specifically as illegal. So in other words, the fact that there is the presence of any kind of illness is not enough. And, remember, it's a little counter intuitive but any evidence of intoxication is good for the prosecution because in Texas, voluntary intoxication is not a defense to any crime. So, the more evidence of drug use that is adduced in this case, better for the prosecution and makes the defense's hill higher and higher to climb. PAUL: Dr. Gardere, let's listen here together to Routh in this

seemingly rambling incoherent state as he was interrogated by murder investigators.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: "I keep talking to Chris, there's a few dozen Chris's in my world. And it's like time I talk to another man named Chris or get sent to another man named Chris it was like talking to the wolf, you know, the ones in the sky are the ones that fly. You know what I mean? The pigs."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All right. So the defense's psychiatrist told the jury that he was acting delusional. What is your reaction to that?

JEFFREY GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, it makes sense to me. After all, this is an individual whose mom tried to get him to be committed to the VA Hospital psychiatric ward, has had four commitments already to the V.A. with regard to psychiatric issues. Certainly what we heard these ramblings are part of schizophrenia -- a paranoid schizophrenia, dissociate state.

But I your analyst is absolutely correct, now that this intoxication issue has come in, perhaps the prosecution will say well, it was the intoxication that may have brought on the delusional behavior. But I think the reality is and it may not play out that well for the defense, is that this was an individual with a long history of PTSD and psychosis but who was in many ways self-medicating with PCP and with marijuana which made his psychosis even worse.

PAUL: Even worse. All right. Danny, let's listen to more sound here from Routh. This is again from the interrogation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: "You can't just keep letting people eat your soul up for free you know. It's not what it's about. It's about having a soul that you have in you for yourself and there are tons of people that are eating on my soul right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: You know, The point was made in court, Danny, that Routh was showing normal behavior since his incarceration because he didn't have access to drugs or alcohol or to proper medication and he is now being properly medicated. The fact that he was not properly medicated at that time and clearly ill -- does that play a role in any way?

CEVALLOS: It's not much. And here's why. The reality is all of this science ultimately boils down to a lay jury's impression of that science. And that's why insanity defenses even with that scientific evidence have such inconsistent treatment.

For example, PTSD has been successfully used in the past as an insanity defense and when used as describing a dissociative state. That may be the situation here. But ultimately this is not a case of on one side the defense says I see dragons, I see things and on the other side, he's aware of what he was doing was wrong. If he is aware what he was doing was wrong consider that a trump card. That beats out all the other delusions, It beats out all of the other things he imagined or didn't imagine or perceived.

That awareness of right and wrong, what is illegal and what is not illegal, is the trump card.

PAUL: Jeff, real quickly -- do you think the jury could buy this insanity defense?

GARDERE: Well, I think it's going to be very, very difficult. I think the intoxication really messes things up for the defense here.

The really sad part of this, this is yet another individual who couldn't get the proper treatment, couldn't be hospitalized, and now two people are dead, his life is pretty much over whether he goes to jail or to a mental hospital for the rest of his life. And we've got to fix this inadequate mental health system that we have in the United States.

PAUL: Yes. Yes, a lot of questions starting now on that V.A. hospital and the V.A. treatment that he got.

Danny Cevallos, Jeff, we appreciate both of you. Thank you.

GARDERE: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. For three weeks now Bobbi Kristina Brown has been in an Atlanta hospital. We have a new report on her condition. And why her family remains optimistic. What they are trying now to revive this 21-year-old.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Coming up on quarter until the top of the hour. Sources tell CNN that Bobbi Kristina Brown has had her breathing tube removed but that's not necessarily great news here.

PAUL: Yes, the daughter of the late Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown, of course, is now ventilated through a hole in her throat. And CNN's Alina Machado gives us some more details here.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two sources close to the Houston family tells CNN that doctors at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta performed a tracheostomy on Bobbi Kristina Brown this week. Those same sources say doctors are slowly trying to bring her out of a medically-induced coma. The tracheostomy was done to replace a breathing tube that had been in Bobbi Kristina's mouth. She will now be ventilated instead through a hole in her throat.

And according to CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta this is a standard procedure and it is often done to reduce the risk of infection. Now, as you know, Bobbi Kristina has been hospitalized since January 31 after she was found unresponsive in a bathtub at her home just outside of Atlanta. The 21-year-old has been in intensive care and on a ventilator for three weeks now.

We've also learned this week that her boyfriend, Nick Gordon, has tattooed her name on his forearm. Gordon's attorney says his client has been trying to see Bobbi Kristina, but is staying away from the hospital to respect the family's wishes.

Alina Machado CNN, Miami.

PAUL: Alina thank you. So, still ahead, Rudy Giuliani is standing by his comments that the President doesn't love America.

BLACKWELL: And now the former mayor is making new claims about the President. You want to see what he had to say. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: New this morning, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is again standing by his comments questioning the love President Obama has for the United States. Check out the cover of today's "New York Daily News". A picture of the President and the style of the cable TV show "The Americans". Giuliani says Obama was influenced by communism and socialism, and we'll talk more about that in a moment.

But it all stems from this statement by Giuliani Wednesday night. "I do not believe that the President loves America." Giuliani goes on to say, he doesn't love you. And he doesn't love me. He wasn't brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country."

Let's talk more about this and what dopes it mean for 2016 possible candidates. Lisa Booth is a Republican strategist. Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator. Ladies, good morning.

LISA BOOTH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hi Victor.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Lisa, I want to start with you. You knew that was coming, right.

Jim Acosta spoke with the former mayor last night. He is not only standing by those comments that went down and as part of that interview with the New York Daily News he says that "I don't see the President as being particularly a product of African-American society or something like that. He isn't; the ideas that are troubling me and leading to this come from communists with whom he associated when he was nine years old.

Obama's grandfather introduced him to Frank Marshall Davis, a member of the communist party when he was 9. What is the value of introducing a meeting when the President was 9, and how that could impact his decisions today? What is Rudy Giuliani trying to get at? BOOTH: Look, I think Rudy Giuliani using hyped up political rhetoric,

absolutely but if you look at the base of his statement, you look at the broader context of his overall speech, what he's trying to get at is something that I think a lot of Americans agree with. And that's the fact that we do not see the same kind of rhetoric from President Obama that we have seen from past presidents about American exceptionalism.

He doesn't speak about America the same way the John F. Kennedy does. He does not seek about America the same way that Bill Clinton does, the same way that George W. Bush did, the same way that Ronald Reagan did as well.

Instead said what we have seen is a President who's been incredibly weak on foreign policy. He's been incredibly weak on the world stage who's apologized for America, who said that America is arrogant and who is more concerned with being politically correct than he is about properly naming the Islamic extremist threat that we face from ISIS.

And so I think what Rudy Giuliani is getting at is more on the weak foreign policy and these apologist remarks that President Obama has made in the past.

And look, I think Rudy Giuliani as someone who led New York City during one of the darkest hours that this city has ever faced, one of the darkest hours that this country has faced with more leadership than we have ever seen through President Obama has earned his right to criticize President Obama.

BLACKWELL: What do you believe? You believe the President loves this country -- Lisa?

BOOTH: Sorry, I thought you were talking to Maria.

No. Look, I do believe that President Obama loves America but look, I think that he has, as I said before he used a different kind of rhetoric when speaking about America than presidents past. This is something that was highlighted -- this is something that was highlighted even by liberal publication, "Slate". "Slate" highlighted the differences between President Obama's rhetoric and rhetoric of presidents past.

BLACKWELL: Lisa, I'm not going to take a side here, obviously for obvious reasons -- not my job. I will have to take the side of things that have actually happened and have not happened. And the President wrote in his book and has said in many speeches, that in no other country would a story like his be possible and has talked about the exceptionalism of America and Americans on many occasions.

BOOTH: But Victor, but Victor --

BLACKWELL: I got to get to Maria here because I wonder if we should look at this from another angle. We're going to talk now about 2016, the GOP hopefuls, they have now got to negotiate this mine field whether they back Giuliani or not. Why should they? Marco Rubio asked why they should have to respond to something that Giuliani said, in his words, Democrats aren't asked to respond every time Joe Biden says something that's off color.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, it's interesting that you mention Marco Rubio because I actually applaud him because after he said all of that Victor, what did he do, he responded to the comment that Rudy Giuliani made because he knows if he wants any kind of credibility moving into 2016, he is going to have to respond to somebody who used to be seen as a leader in the Republican Party, as this giant figure.

But I got to tell you Victor, after his comments and his continued comments which go from dumb to dumber, oh, how the mighty have fallen. This is somebody as Lisa said, that was a huge figure in American politics, and in American mythology, frankly, because of the leadership that he showed after 9/11. This was somebody who was "Time's" man of the year. But man, that has changed now. He has now with these kinds of comments which are just ridiculous in their stupidity and every single Republican candidate who wants to be taken seriously is going to have to respond to that question. And you know, frankly moving forward it is something that is going to hurt the GOP because it really is a meme that goes to whether this is a party that wants to expand and wants to speak to voters that are more diverse, or whether it's going to continue to be a shrinking party, of bitter, curmudgeonous (ph) old white males, frankly like Rudy Giuliani.

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Bobby Jindal -- in the discussion of 2016 candidates Lisa, Bobby Jindal according to Mayor Giuliani, called to congratulate him on his comments going to that extent. What do you think about that call?

BOOTH: Look, I think that this has no bearing on the 2016 presidential elections at best it's a couple of day story and Maria, did you criticize President Obama in 2008 when he said that President George W. Bush was unpatriotic?

CARDONA: Yes, I did. I didn't think he should say that.

BOOTH: Well, good for you.

CARDONA: By the way, speaking of that he wasn't talking about President Obama or President Bush as a person. He was talking about his policies. His policies are absolutely fair game. The same way that President Obama's policies are fair game.

BOOTH: If you look at what Rudy Giuliani said outside of parsing individual statements, what he said in the broader context of his speech was criticizing President Obama a weak foreign policy and criticizing President Obama for apologizing for America on the world stage.

At its core the core of Giuliani --

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKWELL: Let her finish. Let her finish. BOOTH: I think he's accurate in that statement. I think that's something that a lot of Americans would agree with.

Now did he say other statements that a lot of people probably wouldn't agree with -- yes. But if you look at the core of his speech, if you look at the base of his speech --

BLACKWELL: All right.

BOOTH: -- if you look at his direct attack against President Obama on foreign policy and apologizing for America on the world stage a lot of Americans would agree.

BLACKWELL: We've got to wrap it up here. Lisa, Maria. I'm sorry. We've got to wrap it up. We've got to get to Smerconish.

CARDONA: That's fair but going to the motivation is not.

BLACKWELL: All right. Smerconish will have more about this conversation at the top of the hour. Lisa, Maria -- thank you so much.

CARDONA: Thank you Victor.

BOOTH: Thank you Victor.

BLACKWELL: We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA BRADLEY, R. RIVETER: I'm Lisa Bradley. And this is Cameron Cruz. We're the co-founders of R. Riveter.

CAMERON CRUZ, R. RIVETER: We make hand bags (inaudible) and military stuff. Ever R. Riveter bag is made from some form of recycled military material whether that be a canvas tent or an old duffle bag.

BRADLEY: We started R. Riverter in 2011. Our husbands were stationed in (inaudible) Georgia. We found ourselves like so many military spouses find themselves in which is unable to find employment.

CRUZ: Starting the company that provides mobile employment was something that we decided we were going to take on.

BRADLEY: The hand bags have a lot of parts and pieces so it allows military spouses to be located all across the country.

CRUZ: Every material is hand cut, hand dyed by a military spouse in their home wherever the military takes them. And then they send those individual parts to the shop here in North Carolina where everything is assembled.

BRADLEY: Social media is a necessity especially for a business like ours where it's all about the message, it's all about our mission. CRUZ: We wanted to help military spouses before we even made our

first-hand bag. The moment I felt like we really created something here was when one reached out and said this is the first time she's enjoyed being a military spouse. What I really wanted to do was create a consistency in a very inconsistent lifestyle and be part of something larger than one's self.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. That's it for us.

PAUL: Yes. "SMERCONISH" starts for you right now.