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Race for the White House 2016; :Police to Reveal Details in Alleged UVA Rape; What's Next for Amanda Knox? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 22, 2015 - 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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[06:31:41] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Ready or not, the 2016 presidential race begins tomorrow. At least for Senator Ted Cruz. "The Houston Chronicle" reporting the Texan will formally announce his candidate at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Cruz will be the first candidate to officially enter the race for the Republican nomination.

The most recent CNN/ORC poll shows Cruz with 4 percent of the vote among Republicans and independents who lean Republican in a hypothetical GOP primary. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush led that poll with 16 percent.

And "The Boston Globe" is calling on Massachusetts junior senator to seek the Democratic nomination. The paper implores Elizabeth Warren to reconsider her vow not to run for president and said if she won't run she should recruit another staunch fighter against income equality. "The Globe" says Democrats would be making a big mistake if they let Hillary Clinton coast to the presidential nomination without real opposition.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And the most recent CNN/ORC poll has Clinton outpacing Warren 62 percent to 10 percent in a hypothetical Democratic primary.

PAUL: Whoever the next president is, he or she may inherit some strained relations with one of the United States' staunchest longtime allies. I'm talking about Israeli, of course. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party captured the most seats in Tuesday's preliminary -- parliamentary, excuse me, election, you know. And now President Obama has spoken to the "Huffington Post" about Netanyahu's flip-flop on Palestinian's statehood.

Remember Netanyahu said he was against a two-state solution while he was campaigning. But since his party's victory, he said he believes in Palestinian statehood.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we take him at his word, when he said that it wouldn't happen during his prime ministership. And so that that's why we have got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don't see a chaotic situation in the region. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right. So let's hit all three of these big political stories with political reporter Zeke Miller from "TIME" magazine. He's on the phone with us.

Let's start with Senator Ted Cruz, Zeke. A most recent poll of GOP candidates, four candidates broke double digits with Jeb Bush on top, you see them here on the screen. Ted Cruz, way back in eighth place there with 4 percent.

You know, "The Houston Chronicle" is reporting he is going straight to announcing his candidacy, skipping the exploratory committee phase. If he get a head start, does that help him or does it matter?

ZEKE MILLER, TIME MAGAZINE: It certainly helps him. The big difference between Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush is that as a senator, Ted Cruz is not -- never allowed to personally go to a super PAC and try to raise money for that which is, you know, what Jeb Bush has been doing for the past two months now, raising millions upon millions of dollars for a super PAC that will help him seriously become a candidate (INAUDIBLE) he will become.

Ted Cruz doesn't have that luxury. So for him there's really, you know, every incentive to get in as soon as possible so he can start raising money in hard federal dollars that allow him to compete against the better funded Jeb Bush at the (INAUDIBLE).

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's move on to the Democrats now. Our latest poll shows that Hillary Clinton has an overwhelming lead over her two closest competitors, you got Vice President Joe Biden there at 15 percent. Elizabeth Warren down at 10 percent, Hillary Clinton at the top at 62.

[06:35:02] Warren has said repeatedly she's not going to compete for the 2016 Democratic nomination. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: I am not running for president. I am not running for president. I am not running for president.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: But if Hillary didn't run, you might give it a shot?

WARREN: I am not running for president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Gloria going in for it again. She said several times she's not running. You know, I wonder if Warren gets into this, is "The Boston Globe" editorial board asking her to -- suggesting that she will have a real opportunity to be a real contender for the nomination or is she just the more liberal voice to make sure that the more populace wing of the party, those interests are addressed? MILLER: Well, she'd certainly be the alternative liberal to Secretary

Clinton. But, you know, it's clear from polling that she really doesn't have a path to the nomination. She would probably keep Secretary Clinton honest with the leftist which is why you hear liberal groups like MoveOn and the Progressive Change Committee calling on her to run because they want to keep Secretary Clinton from moving to the center too soon, and reserved for the general election. They want her to speak to their interests now.

That doesn't seem to be the case. She says no. That's probably not going to change. You're probably going to see people more like Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley to (INAUDIBLE) right now before Senator Warren. But it's not clear that he's ever going to be a credible challenge to her but he will keep her honest to the base and that is what they are betting on.

BLACKWELL: All right. Rounding out the top three here. The current president, President Obama, this icy relationship with the Israeli prime minister. The White House reassessing that relationship. Do we know what this reassessing looks like and if this can be thawed?

MILLER: Well, certainly for this administration there never really was a strong relationship between the president and the Israeli prime minister, now that lack of a relationship is extending to the two administrations from a whole host of policy issue in terms of being wiser, how to deal with Palestinian statehood effort at the United Nations. This is something that, you know, right now the White House certainly talking.

It's not clear how much they will ever follow through on it, partly because of the invested politics, partly because of policy. But certainly the next administration, whether it be Secretary Clinton, a Democratic nominee, or really anyone on the Republican side, that relationship will be very different, both parties -- both likely, you know -- Democratic or Republican contenders, you know, better personal relationships with Prime Minister Netanyahu at the table and that's probably what we'll see that relationship change.

It will be very interesting to look is how Secretary Clinton tries to -- the president is and where Republicans are and, you know, building on her existing relationships with the Israeli prime minister.

BLACKWELL: All right. Political reporter with "TIME" magazine, Zeke Miller, thank you so much.

PAUL: New details in the case of the University of Virginia student claiming that she was raped by seven men at a frat party. The story made national headlines following a "Rolling Stone" article. There were so many questions after the report that police got involved. And now we can final get some answers.

Also, Amanda Knox once again in the news. The question everybody is asking, will Italy try to force the U.S. to extradite the murder suspect? That's still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:40:36] PAUL: Fixed mortgage rates dropped this week. Here is your look.

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PAUL: We're learning more about another incident at the University of Virginia. Tomorrow, police releasing their findings in the criminal investigation of an alleged gang rape. A student known as Jackie told "Rolling Stone" magazine -- you might remember this -- that she was attacked at a fraternity party. Well, discrepancies in her story emerged and that caused "Rolling Stone" to apologize for the article.

Sara Ganim is following the story.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, we may finally learn what really happened to the woman named Jackie, whose story of an alleged gang rape in "Rolling Stone" caught national attention last fall. Charlottesville Police are holding a news conference tomorrow to announce the findings of their investigation.

Now in the article, a University of Virginia student name Jackie claimed that she was brutally raped by seven men during a fraternity party. University officials who acknowledged that they did know some of the details of Jackie's story months before the "Rolling Stone" article published, they asked police to launch a criminal investigation.

Now long before this criminal investigation concluded, a few important things happened. First, "Rolling Stone" apologized for its reporting when it became clear that there were discrepancies in the woman's account. Second, friends of Jackie told CNN that they were with her that night and that she told a very different story of what happened. They also showed us e-mails and text messages that appeared to show that Jackie had fabricated the man who she says orchestrated her rape.

And police cleared the fraternity where Jackie said the alleged rape had happened, but police have always left open this possibility that Jackie was raped somewhere else, or on a different night. Now it's important to remember that the police investigation is separate from the University of Virginia's internal investigation into whether they handled Jackie's claim and other reports of sexual assaults correctly -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right. Sara Ganim, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes now.

PAUL: Yes. Of course, Tom, you know, we mentioned that the Charlottesville Police are going to release their findings in this press conference tomorrow afternoon. What questions specifically do they need to answer?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, Christi, they need to answer, did it occur?

PAUL: Yes.

FUENTES: And, you know, what part of her accounts are true and what aren't, and is there another possibility that she was raped somewhere else. But, you know, the number of discrepancies that came up in "The Rolling Stone" article caused "Rolling Stone" to issue a partial apology, I guess, this past December and -- but not a complete retraction of the entire story, so they left it open that it could have happened or something happened or someone did, you know, possibly rape her somewhere.

[06:45:18] So there is a lot of confusion about this case from the beginning, from the initial criminal investigation in Charlottesville and by the University of Virginia to, you know, the continuing investigation that went on after the two articles appeared. So hopefully, we'll get some answers tomorrow afternoon.

BLACKWELL: So, Tom, if this story was fabricated in part or in whole, will there be consequences for this woman known as Jackie?

FUENTES: Well, that's a good question. I mean, there could be. You know, she did make the report apparently and if she filed a police report that this happened at the time last fall, then the possibility of filing a false police report would exist or making false accusations against the fraternity, but, you know, we will have to wait and see just what they have in terms of facts to support her story or refute her story.

BLACKWELL: All right. Tom Fuentes, thank you so much.

We'll have more on this story the next hour and talk about "The Rolling Stone" element of this and if they will, if we learn that the story is made up, issue that full retraction.

PAUL: All righty. Let's talk about Amanda Knox. Yes, she is back in the news. Because we're wondering if she'll wind up back in an Italian jail cell for the murder of her former roommate. We may find out very soon.

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PAUL: Forty-nine minutes past the hour right now.

[06:50:02] Will Amanda Knox be extradited and forced back into an Italian jail cell for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher? Guess what, we may find out very soon. Wednesday, Italy's high court will rule on the 27-year-old's latest murder conviction. Yes, that's right. The case is not over. Since 2007 Knox has been convicted, acquitted, and convicted again of the same crime.

Nina Burleigh joins us now. She's an investigative journalist and the author of a new "Newsweek" article on the Knox case.

Nina, I read the article. It's so --it's so informative. And you've covered this thing, this rollercoaster for years. As we get close to a resolution, do you think we will finally have one? NINA BURLEIGH, AUTHOR, "THE FATA GIFT OF BEAUTY": Well, I think that

we will have one in the sense that the court activity in Italy probably can't go any further. This is the final appeal. The system is sort of like a tennis game. It goes back and forth and back and forth of appeals, acquittals, both sides can appeal, and this is the final defense appeal. And the supreme court has already ruled once that the conviction should stand.

So they will probably rule as they did before and the conviction will be upheld and that means that the issue will become a matter of whether the Italians ask for her to be extradited and returned to Italy.

PAUL: Do you think that will happen? And do you think the U.S. will allow it?

BURLEIGH: My sources in the State Department told me they don't expect the Italian government to ask for extradition. The government, the political side of the Italian system is separate from the judiciary and the political people in Italy probably don't want to start a diplomatic showdown with the United States because the United States has informed them they probably not going to return her, they're not going to agree to an extradition.

Now this is all sort of behind the scene. It's hard to tell actually how they're going to behave. I can't predict that but that's what I'm understanding.

PAUL: So if they would try to extradite her and the U.S. would not agree to that, does that make her a fugitive of the law, and what would that mean for her life if she wanted to travel?

BURLEIGH: Well, that's a really good question that you should probably ask a lawyer. I understand that if -- I mean, she wouldn't certainly be a fugitive in the United States.

PAUL: Right.

BURLEIGH: If the United States doesn't put it into our own justice system, she is not a fugitive here but if she were to go to Canada or Mexico which I assume have extradition treaties with Italy, or anywhere that there is an extradition treaty. I guess the Italians could ask for those national governments to arrest her.

PAUL: Sure.

BURLEIGH: If they go to the -- if they go to the level of asking her to be extradited.

PAUL: Right. You know, you spent 10 months in Italy. You talked to lawyers in the cases and you communicated with defendants, interviewed family and friends, you scoured police record. And I'm wondering, what was your takeaway from all of the information that you gathered about Amanda Knox's involvement in this murder?

BURLEIGH: Well, as I wrote in my book, which is why I was there for 10 months, and as I wrote in the "Newsweek" article which is out this week, I believe that a miscarriage of justice occurred based on the fact that this was a naive young woman in a country where the language was not her native language. The police were in a hurry to get this case solved. The prosecutor made a bad call early on.

They had the person whose fingerprints and DNA are in the murder room in their clutches two weeks after they accused these students. But they didn't change their case around. And this, this happens in the United States, it happens often when prosecutors make mistakes, they don't like to turn the ship around. Once the jaws of the legal system start to work, it's very hard for them to admit that they made a mistake.

And in this case, they had -- it was a small town. The authorities had the international media, TV trucks filling the historic central of this old town, and they couldn't admit, oops, wait a minute, this salacious story that we've told you about a sex game gone wrong orchestrated by an evil American young woman is wrong and this was just a burglary gone wrong, which is what I believe it was.

PAUL: You believe it was. All right, Nina Burleigh, thank you so much for your insight. Again great article on "Newsweek," and your book as well.

Thank you.

BURLEIGH: You're welcome. Thank you.

PAUL: Sure.

BLACKWELL: U.S. forces pulling out of Yemen. This tiny nation is really spiraling into chaos. What might be the consequences for the U.S.? We'll get into that at the top of the hour.

[06:54:51]

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BLACKWELL: This Week's "Ones to Watch" series explores the work of sculpture. We take you inside the studio of a British sculptor Antony Gormley and discover how his greatest works take shape.

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ANTONY GORMLEY, SCULPTOR: If you go down 3,000 kilometers straight down, you will find liquid iron at about 1400 degrees and that is exactly the material that I use to make these evocations of the body.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Antony Gormley's obsession with the human form and the space it occupies has led him to create over 2,000 sculptures based on his own body. Arguably the greatest of which is the Angel of the North which towers over the British landscape.

His work is exhibited in public spaces around the world and he has received prestigious international arts award including Britain's Turner prize and Japan's premium (INAUDIBLE). Today he's in his studio in London giving free dimensions to a new

idea.

GORMLEY: You don't get good work without good ideas. But the ideas come from your work. Sculpture of all the arts is perhaps the most silent and only to listen to the work that you've already made is really where all of the core ideas come from. One work is the mother of the next.

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[07:00:10] BLACKWELL: New video from inside a mosque during a suicide bomb.