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Freddie Gray Settlement; Trump Rallies Against Iran Nuclear Deal; Source: Fire Suppression System Failed to Put Out Flames; New Details of American Woman's ISIS Ordeal. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired September 09, 2015 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:12]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: Trump rally. Donald Trump joins force with rival Ted Cruz to slam President Obama's nuclear agreement with Iran and pressure lawmakers to vote against it. Can their fiery rhetoric sway the outcome?
City settles. Baltimore approves a multimillion-dollar settlement in the police custody death that sparked days of unrest. Will the deal hurt the case against the six police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray?
And fire failure. CNN is learning that special fire suppression equipment on board this jumbo jet failed to put out a massive engine fire that nearly resulted in disaster. What could have caused that to happen on one of the most popular passenger planes?
We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
The Republican race for the White House is heating up tonight with Donald Trump and rival Ted Cruz bringing their opposition to the Iran nuclear deal to the door of the U.S. Capitol. And now Trump is coming under fire from Ben Carson, number two in the national polls. He's attacking Trump's immigration plan in his first major break with the GOP front-runner, setting the stage for a showdown at the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library just one week from tonight.
We're standing by to hear from Dr. Ben Carson just minutes from now. We're covering all that and much more this hour with our correspondents, our guests and our expert analysts.
Let's begin with our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash. She has more on the political odd couple, Republican rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz joining forces, Dana, against this Iran nuclear deal. What happened?
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this rally was hosted by the Tea Party Patriots. But I'm told it was Ted Cruz's idea to invite his competitor in this presidential race. The two have similar anti-status quo messages, but nobody expresses his disdain for Washington like Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are led by very, very stupid people, very, very stupid people.
BASH (voice-over): True to form, Donald Trump boiled down his opposition to the Iran deal to basics and blunt talk.
TRUMP: They rip off. They take our money. They make us look like fools.
BASH: Trump was invited to this anti-Iran deal rally by an unlikely source, one of his rivals for the White House, Ted Cruz.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to thank my friend Donald Trump for joining us today.
BASH: Instead of attacking Trump, Cruz has embraced him, especially when he can help draw a crowd for a cause like this one.
CRUZ: This Iranian nuclear deal is catastrophic. It is the single greatest national security threat facing America.
BASH: Although they agreed that the Iran deal is bad, they disagree on what to do about it. It's a difference that divides the Republican 2016 field. Cruz would get rid of the Iran deal on day one he is in office.
CRUZ: Any commander in chief worthy of defending this nation should be prepared to stand up on January 20, 2017, and rip to shreds this catastrophic deal.
BASH: Trump would not do that.
TRUMP: This will be a totally different deal. Ripping up is always tough. Don't forget we lost all of our so-called allies in the deal. They're all making a lot of money. We're not making anything. They're all selling missiles, and getting involved with Iran, using the money that we gave to Iran. I will do something that will be very strong, and, believe me, Iran will come back, and they will be much different.
BASH (on camera): If the horse is out of the barn, what are you going to do about it?
TRUMP: You're going to have to watch. You just watch. It will be a whole different bag.
BASH (voice-over): No specifics, he insists, because he doesn't want to telegraph it to the Iranians, but he did make this Trump-esque promise to the crowd.
TRUMP: We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning. Believe me.
BASH: Also at the rally, the woman who says she would like to serve in Trump's presidential cabinet, Sarah Palin. SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Only in an Orwellian Obama
world full of sprinkly fairy dust blown from atop his unicorn as he is peeking through a really pretty pink kaleidoscope would ever he victory or safety for America or Israel in this treaty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: As for Trump, after his rally, he met with one of the few elected officials in his own party who wants to be connected to him and that is Jeff Sessions. He's sort of well-known out there hard- liner when it comes immigration and also when it comes to sticking to conservative principle.
After the meeting, Sessions said Trump outlined, Wolf, trade and immigration policies that serve the national interest, not special interests.
[18:05:00]
BLITZER: Senator Sessions attended that Mobile, Alabama, rally where Donald Trump appeared a few weeks ago. Stand by.
BASH: That's right.
BLITZER: I want to bring in our senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar. Our chief political correspondent, Dana, Bash is still with us. Our CNN politics senior digital correspondent, Chris Moody, is with us and our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is with us as well.
Very quickly because you were there, Dana, you attended this rally. One of the charming things about Donald Trump, if you will, is just he goes out there and speaks off the cuff, no teleprompters, no scripts. He doesn't read anything. He just goes out there and talks, unlike a lot of other scripted politicians.
BASH: You can say that again. He absolutely no notes with him. He had no speech. He likes to remind other candidates that they speak from teleprompters and he doesn't do it.
You definitely get the sense he thinks what he's going say beforehand. But then when he gets up to the podium it just kind of rolls off his tongue. The fact he said he will make winning so frequent that people are going to get sick of winning, I think that was probably one of the best Trumpisms of all time.
Actually, the crowd went huh? He said, OK, fine, you are always going to like winning.
BLITZER: You never do get sick of winning.
He's on the new cover of the new issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine. He's got this celebrity cool factor, if you will. It's certainly helping him, I believe, in the polls. He's going up and up and up. But does that usually last? CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: The celebrity factor helped him get to where he is today, but he's also built on that. He's had a message.
Whether or not the policies are substantive, that hasn't mattered as much. But the message has been resonating with people. So many folks you talked to at the rally today, they say Donald Trump speaks for me, says the things I haven't heard politicians say, but what I felt for a long time.
But here's the trick. Donald Trump has been able to define himself for so long in the media on his own terms on his shows and here on shows like this, but over the next few months this is when the paid advertisements will start in the campaign and other candidates and campaigns will work to frame him in a way he wouldn't necessarily like. So he's going to --
(CROSSTALK)
GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They have been trying.
(CROSSTALK)
MOODY: They haven't spent much money on the airwaves. Let that go on television and we will see where we stand in three months.
BLITZER: He's getting a lot of free airtime right now, Donald Trump, because all the networks take what he says and they show it. That's free advertising, if you will.
Let's talk a little bit about Jeb Bush. Gloria --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Jeb who?
BLITZER: Jeb Bush. He was on Stephen Colbert's debut of "The Late Show" last night and he was asked specifically where he differs with his brother the former president of the United States, George W. Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT")
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm obviously younger.
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": You're younger.
BUSH: Much better looking.
COLBERT: Policy, though?
(CROSSTALK)
COLBERT: Any policy differences?
BUSH: I think my brother probably didn't control the Republican Congress' spending. I think he should have brought the hammer down on the Republicans when they were spending way too much, because our brand is limited government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: To which Donald Trump tweeted today @realDonaldTrump: "Man, did Jeb throw his brother under the bus last night on Colbert Late Show. Probably true, but not nice."
BORGER: Not nice, because Donald Trump is so nice to everybody else. He called the president today and people who negotiated the Iran deal stupid. Right? Dana, look --
BLITZER: He called them very stupid.
BORGER: Very stupid.
Jeb has a very difficult time distancing himself from his family, from his brother. We saw that when it took him four or five days to answer the question on whether the war in Iraq was a mistake. His brother himself, though, has said that he wishes he could have restrained spending. This wasn't a real whack at his brother.
He's playing to conservatives who say one of the reasons we don't like your brother is that he spent too much money and he didn't rein in spending. I think Bush is kind of just playing to the base of the Republican Party there. I think his brother will forgive him.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: And it's not the first time he said this. He was on an I'm not my brother tour months ago. Maybe people weren't paying that close attention. Probably biggest audience that he said that to, but it's not the first --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: By the way, Hillary is on the I'm not Bill Clinton tour also. Just keep that in mind.
BLITZER: From time to time.
BORGER: Because she's moving to the left and whereas Bill Clinton was smack dab in the center, even to the right of the Democratic Party.
BLITZER: He was a more moderate, sort of new Democrat, as they used call it in those days.
BORGER: Exactly.
BLITZER: It took Jeb Bush, though, a few days to differentiate himself from his brother's position on going to war in Iraq. This time, he seems to be moving a little bit more rapidly.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A few painful days. Felt like years actually I think when he was doing that. That was
certainly very much a struggle for him, though I think he is sort of confronting the fact that he has to differentiate himself and if he's going to do it then he better do it with some speed.
BLITZER: He's getting some support, Donald Trump, from some unlikely sources out there. Listen to this. This is Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, on "The View" speaking about Donald Trump's tax policies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: There are a lot of places where he gets out and he talks about important things. Donald Trump and I both agree that there ought to be more taxation of the billionaires, the people who are making their money on Wall Street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:10:10]
BLITZER: And Warren Buffett has also supported Donald Trump's position going after the billionaires. They can afford to pay more taxes.
BASH: Right. Two things.
One is, it's a more populist message and that's what Elizabeth Warren is and that's the wing of the Republican electorate that Trump has been appealing to in general. However, this is kind of a problem for Jeb Bush, because his whole message for the past two weeks has been Donald Trump isn't conservative enough, and this is actually an issue where Jeb Bush now agrees with Donald Trump, specifically on taxing hedge fund managers who are not taxed on their regular income. They are taxed on investment income, which means they get to save a lot more of their money than most people do.
BORGER: This was the mistake Republicans realized they made in the last campaign, because Mitt Romney was the last, of Bain Capital, was the last person in the world who was going to attack hedge fund managers and Wall Street.
And Republicans understand, as Dana was just saying, that there's a populist movement in the Republican Party that is anti-Wall Street and if they can tap into that, even somebody like Donald Trump who says I'm very, very rich but you should tax me more, then they are going to be on to something.
And it's something that lots of people said they wished Mitt Romney had done last time around.
KEILAR: He also seems to share a philosophy that Democrats, certainly the Clinton campaign believes, which is this will be decided very much on the economy. You see Donald Trump, I think more than any other Republican, really getting to that point in a way that we see Democrats really talking about more. BLITZER: Because it goes against the Republican traditional line, no
new taxes, and what Donald Trump in effect is saying, yes, there can be some new taxes on hedge fund guys, for example.
MOODY: Words we never thought we would hear from Elizabeth Warren, saying I agree with Donald Trump on this. I think if you talk to a lot of people, you're right about the populism within the Republican Party. That's there.
Donald Trump though I think is the only one who can really say, yes, I think some people's taxes are going to go up. He's the only one who will be given a pass, because you have Jeb Bush saying that or anyone saying that in 2012 during the primary, they're just cut off. It's over for them.
BLITZER: Gloria, Dr. Ben Carson, who, in a lot of polls, he's number two, not that far behind Donald Trump. He's the retired pediatric neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins University. He's doing remarkably well.
But he's also now distancing himself from Donald Trump on some sensitive issues like immigration. I want you to listen to what he said about Trump's idea that the 11 million or 12 million illegal immigrants, undocumented immigrants in the United States should all be deported, the good ones can come back. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It sounds really cool, you know. Let's just round them up and send them back. People who say that have no idea what that would entail in terms of our legal system, the costs. Forget about it. And, plus, where are you going to send them? That's a double whammy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: This is really the first time I have heard Dr. Ben Carson take off the gloves and go directly after Donald Trump on a sensitive issue like immigration.
BORGER: Can you say he's number two and Donald Trump is number one? And I think Ben Carson what we're seeing is he's decided he's got to start taking on Donald Trump.
And our own Maeve Reston out in California just reported that Carson again took on Donald Trump and said -- he was asked about the biggest difference between himself and Donald Trump and he said: "I realize where my successes come from and I don't in any way deny my faith in God."
So what he's doing is he's appealing to evangelicals, and he is positioning himself as the man of faith against Donald Trump as a candidate of anger.
MOODY: He's not the only one going on the attack on the immigration line. The Koch brothers' Hispanic group, the Libre Initiative, released a letter today pointing out Donald Trump's positions on immigration on sending everybody back, saying this is wrong, Republicans should not stand for policies like this. It's coming from a lot of sides right now.
KEILAR: On Ben Carson's Facebook page, which has been huge for him doing outreach, there's a cartoon he's posted where it's Donald Trump sort of portrayed as a campaign bus and he's saying I don't see anyone right behind me and then there's a little race car on top of the bus that is Ben Carson.
He's represented by that race car. So this is someone who is -- he sees that he's close to Donald Trump, that he's gaining on him and he's doing certainly better with evangelicals and women.
(CROSSTALK)
MOODY: And to that point, I think that in the last 24 hours, we have seen the terrain on the Republican side shift and it's going to be much more I think in the coming days about Donald Trump and Ben Carson, the two outsiders vying for that top spot and those voters.
BLITZER: Usually, usually, when some of these Republican candidates attack Donald Trump, he doesn't waste any time. He hits them right back. Let's see what he does with Dr. Ben Carson.
(CROSSTALK)
MOODY: He did with Sara Murray today.
(CROSSTALK)
[18:15:04]
BORGER: He said, Jeb Bush is low energy. Donald Trump accused Jeb of having low energy. What about Ben Carson? He makes Jeb Bush look like the Energized Bunny.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: We're going to take a look at what is going on with Hillary Clinton. Stand by. We have a lot more to report. New information coming in. By the way, the Republican presidential candidates now just one week away from their second presidential debate. It will air only here on CNN on Wednesday, September 16, live from the Reagan Library in California.
Let's take a quick break. Much more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:20:03]
BLITZER: With the Republican presidential debate just one week from tonight right here on CNN, we're following Dr. Ben Carson. He's now second in the national polls among Republicans and he's taking a new swipe today at Donald Trump. Our national political reporter, Maeve Reston, is out at a Carson
rally that's under way right now in Anaheim, California.
I see him speaking right behind you, Maeve. What did he say? I know you had a chance to question him.
MAEVE RESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. There's some really fierce fighting words from Ben Carson today which you all have been talking about is very out of character for him. He's really going after Trump today, not only on immigration, but actually questioned the authenticity of his faith and I think we just have the sound in on that. So, let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARSON: Problem the biggest thing is that, you know, I realize where my success has come from. And I don't in any way deny my faith in God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RESTON: So, it just is a really different Ben Carson out here today. He's got the gloves off. He's going after Donald Trump. What's so interesting is the huge crowd here in Anaheim at a convention center in deep blue California and a lot of people in the crowd here said they would not vote for Trump under any circumstances, that they love that Ben Carson is this calm, cool, reasoned voice in the race.
They don't like Trump's tone. And so it will be really interesting to see whether or not this is actually the moment where Trump and Carson just really start going at it and whether the polls start to change and we start to see Trump slide a bit.
BLITZER: Any idea, Maeve, how many people showed up at that event in Anaheim that's under way right now?
RESTON: I know that about 8,000 people RSVPed. There still are some empty seats here in the auditorium, but it's a big crowd and a lot of excited people in line who interestingly say that they are committed to Carson, a lot of them, and not as much candidate shopping as you might see in Iowa or New Hampshire.
BLITZER: Fascinating development out there. We will get back to you. You're going to monitor that rally out there for Dr. Ben Carson.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is now trying to get out from under the controversy over e-mails sent from her private server while she served as secretary of state, an issue that has certainly being dogging her presidential campaign now for months.
She's also now calling her actions a mistake and she's apologizing.
Once again, our senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, is here with more on what is going on.
Brianna, what's the very latest? KEILAR: Wolf, it's really interesting, because Hillary Clinton but
welcomed the chance to talk about issues today, even a hot button one like the Iran nuclear deal. The campaign certainly doesn't think this whole e-mail controversy is going away. We will be seeing continual releases of e-mails.
But the campaign does hope her apology for how she handled her e-mail while secretary of state will dampen some of the criticism.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): Hillary Clinton offered a full apology for the controversy surrounding her e-mail.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That was a mistake. And I'm sorry about that. I take responsibility. And I'm trying to be as transparent as I possibly can.
KEILAR: She put it on Facebook as well, a mea culpa she has resisted for months since March, when she first addressed her e-mails.
CLINTON: The server will remain private.
KEILAR: In July, as more voters questioned her trustworthiness.
CLINTON: I can only tell you, Brianna, that this has been a theme that has been used against me and my husband for many, many years.
KEILAR: And in August, even after turning her server wiped of e-mails over to the FBI.
CLINTON: What, like with a cloth or something?
Nobody talks to me about it other than you guys.
KEILAR: Clinton edged closer to an apology last week, but didn't quite get there.
KEILAR: I am sorry that this has been confusing to people and has raised a lot of questions.
KEILAR: Then Tuesday, one day after telling the Associated Press she had no reason to apologize, she finally, finally did, repeatedly admitting mistakes.
CLINTON: I do think I could have and should have done a better job answering questions earlier. I really didn't perhaps appreciate the need to do that.
KEILAR: As Clinton tries to turn a corner, Secretary of State John Kerry just appointed career diplomat Janice Jacobs as transparency czar in part to oversee requests for Clinton's e-mails. In June of this year, Jacobs donated money to Clinton's campaign.
JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: We were not aware of the contribution. But I would tell you, Matt, that it bears no relevance on her selection.
KEILAR: Part of Clinton's strategy to move past the controversy, addressing other issues like her support for the Iranian nuclear deal.
CLINTON: You remember President Reagan's line about the Soviets, trust but verify? My approach will be distrust and verify.
KEILAR: Even as she addressed a serious topic today, she had some lighter some moments, laughing off a coughing fit as she delivered a political jab.
[18:25:08]
CLINTON: Suffering under massive already assault. Yes, Republican histamines are everywhere.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Clinton aides hope reportedly that she will be here in -- as she enters the fall, less defensive, more spontaneous and funny. Perhaps what we saw there, Wolf, was part of that.
BLITZER: Trying to be funny at least.
KEILAR: Trying at least.
BLITZER: Gloria, let's talk a little bit about this apology spree over the past few days. What's going on over here?
BORGER: Everywhere. Everywhere.
I think she had a problem and she recognized it because she wasn't consistent. The first thing you have to do when you answer questions from people like us is to actually have a consistent answer and stick with it. This is what we call an evolving answer which was at first, as Brianna points out, she made fun much it, then she said I'm sorry I confused people and then finally she said it was mistake.
For me, it was little bit reminiscent when you think of her inability to say that her vote for Iraq was a mistake back when she last ran for the presidency. In her book, when she wrote about it, she said, yes, my vote was a mistake, but it kind of takes her a while to get there and I think that's because they didn't really understand the dimension of the problem and how it would go to the heart of the questions a lot of people have about Hillary Clinton and the question of whether she's trustworthy or honest.
KEILAR: Or about a year ago when it came to her comments on being dead broke. It took her a few weeks to clean that up.
The lesson she took away from that on her book tour was that she needed to be quicker in cleaning these things up, and yet it seems like she's learning this lesson all over again in this instance. BLITZER: Very quickly on this transparency coordinator Janice Jacobs,
you report she's a career foreign diplomat, retired Foreign Service officer. President Bush did name her as the U.S. ambassador to Senegal. But she retired. She gave, what, $2,500 or so to the Clinton campaign recently, as recently as June. How does this play out right now?
KEILAR: She maxed out at $2,700. That's a considerable political donation for sure.
When you look at this on its merits, certainly, the State Department feels that Janice Jacobs is cut out for this. This is someone who helped fix the visa application process after 9/11. She has a lot of experience. But this issue of this apparent conflict of interests, I don't know how much ultimately it's going to affect Hillary Clinton, but I don't think it's ideal for her that someone who is supposed to be doing other things aside from dealing with the Clinton e-mails is someone who has given --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: It was awkward for John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. They never checked to see if she made any political contributions.
Could all this backfire, the apology tour, if you will, for Hillary Clinton right now?
BASH: You know, I'm actually a person who believes that once a politician gets to the right place politically then and sticks there, and in this case Hillary Clinton's right place is, as I said before, being human and saying, you know what, oh, my gosh I didn't mean for all of this to happen, I'm sorry that this happened, then she will be OK.
I love that you mentioned, Gloria, the sort of problem she had back in 2008 of getting to the Iraq vote was wrong. When she said it flat out in her book, it was like, oh, so she is human, she made a mistake. She can says, you know what, I learned from that lesson, and if I'm commander in chief, I will know so much better and be so much stronger and wiser from that experience that I had in making the mistake in Iraq.
If she took that and did it a lot sooner on her e-mail issue, I think it would have been better for her.
BLITZER: Because she's still getting some grief in that "New York Times" article this week saying the campaign now wants her to show more spontaneity, a little bit of humor, go out there and be more of herself. When you have to write an article like that and campaign officials have to say that, that's awkward.
MOODY: When someone tells you that need to be more spontaneous and you reply, OK, darling, well, what time would you like to be spontaneous, and then put it in the front page of "The New York Times," that doesn't necessarily work out so well. BASH: I'm guessing that wasn't their strategy.
(CROSSTALK)
MOODY: But it did end up in the paper.
This is something she's been dealing with this a long time. I have evidence of a 1999 memo to Hillary Clinton from an adviser that said, look for opportunities for humor. It's important that people see more sides of you. And they often see you only in very stern situations.
This is not new for her. She has struggled with her image problem for a long time.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: Hillary Clinton does not love campaigning.
This garish spotlight that's on her, this is not where she's most comfortable. I have been in the run-up to her campaign. I was covering her for a year before. In some of these speeches, she seemed much more loose. When she had a shoe thrown at her, she was really quite funny about it.
But something happens when she gets on the campaign trail. And it's like this kind of curtain comes down.
BORGER: Well --
KEILAR: And the campaign, you can't blame them that they want to lift it. It should be out there like this.
[18:30:17] BORGER: It's the same thing, actually, that happened to Mitt Romney. People...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Al Gore.
BORGER: And Al Gore. People who have experience in politics know what can happen to them if they make a mistake. Therefore, they become much more guarded, and they kind of retreat. And they put this fence around themselves, which Hillary Clinton, I would argue, did not do when she was secretary of state, you know. She was much more forthcoming.
So we end up with these presidential candidates -- let's put Donald Trump to one side. We end up with these presidential candidates who have to be humanized by their spouses or their friends or their surrogates.
BASH: Just quickly, to be fair to Hillary Clinton, everybody says and anybody who's spent any time with her in private, that she is human and she is funny.
BLITZER: Yes, all right.
BASH: It's just a question of getting that out to the public. Why is it so hard for some people?
BORGER: You're human and funny.
BLITZER: Wasn't hard for her husband, Bill Clinton. He was very, very good at this kind of stuff.
BORGER: Right. He was -- too.
BLITZER: All right, guys, thanks.
Just ahead, Baltimore makes a controversial settlement in the police custody death of Freddie Gray. Will it impact the case against those six police officers who have been charged?
Plus, disturbing new details about this fiery near-disaster. Did a critical system on this jumbo jet fail?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:36:20[] BLITZER: Baltimore officials have approved a $6.4 million settlement with the family of Freddie Gray whose controversial death in police custody sparked riots in that city and lead to charges against six police officers ranging from assault to murder. And some are now wondering, will that settlement impact those legal cases?
CNN's Miguel Marquez is in Baltimore for us tonight. Miguel, what's the reaction there, first of all, to the settlement?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, particularly that reaction to the settlement on the eve of the next hearing in this process where the six officers are accused in his death.
I can tell you, in the neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested, there's a lot more organization, a lot more focus on tomorrow's hearing, handing out signs in that neighborhood today. So the question is, that settlement and this hearing, how will Baltimore react?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ (voice-over): In the neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested, reaction to the $6.4 million settlement, swift and angry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not as much. It's not as much that they should get -- they should get much more.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of what he went through.
MARQUEZ: Do you think it's a measure of justice for the family?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do. I do. But it will not bring that boy back. A life is worth more than money. MARQUEZ (voice-over): Twenty-five-year-old Gray was arrested in this neighborhood on April 12. While in a transport vehicle in police custody, he suffered neck and throat injuries that killed him. The city erupted in anger.
Today the lawyer for Gray's family said the settlements will have a calming effect.
BILLY MURPHY, ATTORNEY FOR GRAY'S FAMILY: They wanted to resolve it now so that they and the city could put it behind them.
MARQUEZ (on camera): And they believe that this settlement will lower the temperature in Baltimore?
MURPHY: That is the absolute hope. That it is possible that justice can be done.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): Attorney Billy Murphy says the settlement comes with a promise: to quickly ramp up the use of body cameras in Baltimore's western district. That's the neighborhood where Gray was arrested.
MURPHY: I have no reason to distrust the mayor. I believe she's going to keep her word.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Cameras in the western district?
MURPHY: Absolutely, 150 cameras.
MARQUEZ: Baltimore's mayor says the settlement is best for the city, avoiding even higher legal costs and potentially an even bigger pay out. She also says the settlement should have no bearing on the criminal trial of the officers charged in the death of Gray.
MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE: The city's decision to settle the civil case should not be interpreted as passing any judgment on guilt or innocence of the officers. This settlement is about making the right fiscal decision for the city of Baltimore.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now officials across the city very sensitive to this settlement that happened today and this hearing tomorrow. Officials say the reason they settled it today is that so, in a couple of weeks, defense attorneys cannot come back and say, "We need another change of venue hearing because of this settlement."
So they believe that this will be sort of taken on board today, that they'll move ahead with this hearing tomorrow.
How quickly the judge rules is not very clear. I suspect, based on what he said last week, that he will put off ruling until he can see if he can get a jury when that first trial starts, expected in October -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Miguel. Thanks very much. Let's bring in our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin; the former
federal prosecutor, our legal analyst Sunny Hostin; and our CNN Don Lemon.
Jeff, what does this settlement actually mean for these upcoming six criminal trials against these police officers?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, as a technical legal matter, it means exactly nothing. It is not admissible evidence. It's not proof of anything.
The only thing you can say is that the city of Baltimore worried about what a jury would do, gave an enormous amount of money in a settlement; $6 million is a lot of money. They seem to think that the plaintiff, which would be like the prosecution, has a pretty good case here.
Again, it's not a legally relevant fact, but it does tell you something about what the atmosphere in Baltimore is like right now.
BLITZER: Sunny, does this $6.4 million settlement mean there can't be any future lawsuit opportunities?
SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think that the defense attorney or the attorney, rather, for the family indicated during his interview that part of the settlement seemed to be that the officers would not have any more civil liability. And so I think in that sense, it is over civilly for the officers, clearly not criminally.
And so I think that would be the end of the road. And it's very clear that the city does want to put this incident behind it fiscally, because as Jeff mentioned yesterday, these -- in these kinds of cases, jurors give a lot of, a lot of money to victims and victims' families. And so this is the right fiscal decision for any city. I mean, we're seeing, I think, larger and larger sums coming down in cases of police brutality.
BLITZER: Let's move on, Don. I want to get your reaction to this dash cam video showing a Florida police officer who had pulled over a 62-year-old driver for speeding going 51, allegedly in a 20 mile-per- hour school zone. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're being cited for speeding. That explains what your options are.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know what? No wonder you people get shot. You're absolute (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, thank you, ma'am. I appreciate that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome. Have a nice day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: It's pretty -- pretty sad, that commentary over there. What's your reaction when you see that, when you hear that, Don?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It's awful. And you know, I have never spoken to a law enforcement officer that way. And I don't think any -- I don't think anyone should. If you get pulled over for a ticket, obviously, you're not is going to be happy. You're not going to smile and say, "Oh, thank you for pulling me over, Officer." But to say something like that is just really beyond the pale.
And the -- the police chief said he's glad that this videotape is out there -- at least some high-ranking official in the police department -- because it lets people know what these officers go through sometimes, that they not only deal with, as they say, people who are doing harmful things out in the street; but in this instance this was a school zone. They're trying to protect kids. And you have someone who is in their 60s, who should know better, speaking to a police officer that way. So I would not -- in this environment, I wouldn't want to be a police officer nor run for president, because it's a tough environment.
BLITZER: Quickly, Sunny, what do you think?
HOSTIN: I think what we need to look at is how professional that police officer was in the face of someone that was just taunting him...
LEMON: Amen.
HOSTIN: ... and being so inappropriate. Really disgusting and despicable behavior.
The police officer, as I often say, Wolf, is the professional when it comes to situations like this, especially traffic stops. What did he tell her after she said these horrible, you know, things to him, expletives included? "Have a nice day, ma'am," because he's doing his job. And he is the professional. And that type of behavior is to be applauded.
LEMON: That's what we said in the Sandra Bland case. That the police officer didn't do anything to deescalate it. That officer didn't react.
HOSTIN: Right.
LEMON: He's just like, "OK, ma'am. Go about your business. See you later."
BLITZER: Yes, it's pretty disgusting when you think about it.
All right. Don Lemon, thanks very much. Sunny Hostin, Jeffrey Toobin.
Don, by the way, will be back in a few hours. "CNN TONIGHT," 10 p.m. Eastern. You'll want to catch that show.
Just ahead, runway emergency. We're learning new details about the engine fire on this jumbo jet. The critical system that may have failed.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:48:26] BLITZER: There's concern tonight about one of the most popular passenger jets in the world after this fiery near disaster forced the pilot to abort takeoff and panicked passengers had to evacuate. Now, sources telling CNN the system design to put out engine fires was deployed but failed to extinguish the flames.
Let's go to our aviation correspondent Rene Marsh. She's working the story for us.
Rene, what are you finding out?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the intense smoke and flames that we saw on that video that is a rare event. And tonight, we have learned the fire indication light came on and the engines on this plane are equipped with fire suppression equipment. But it didn't extinguish the fire.
So, now, the question is, did the equipment fail or a fuel line rupture cause the fire to spread?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH (voice-over): British Airways Flight 2276 burst into flames shortly before takeoff at the Las Vegas Airport with 172 people onboard.
JAY JENNINGS, PASSENGER: We were just getting speed to take off and heard a big thud. I opened up the cover of my window and saw flames on the engine.
MARSH: The pilots of the London bound Boeing 777 were forced to abort the flight when the left engine failed and caught fire.
PILOT: Mayday, mayday, Speedbird 2276. Request fire services.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Speedbird 2276. Heavy fire services are on the way.
PILOT: Speedbird 2276 heavy. We are evacuating on the runway. We have a fire. I repeat, we are evacuating.
JENNINGS: We just heard the captain say, it's an emergency, evacuate, evacuate.
MARSH: Emergency slides deployed seconds later, and all passengers were able to evacuate.
[18:50:03] But some suffered minor injuries coming down the slide. Everyone onboard made it out alive despite the chaos. This photo shows some passengers even stopped to grab their luggage
before making the escape.
SHAWN PRUCHNICKI, AIR SAFETY EXPERT: You wasting time with your bags, to you it may seem to delay three or four seconds. If 50, 60 people do that, now we're talking a serious amount of time.
MARSH: A local hospital treated 27 people. Chris Henkey, the British Airways captain at the controls, is being hailed as a hero for his quick action to stop the plane and get everyone off alive.
PRUCHNICKI: For that much fire and smoke that I saw, it's highly suggestive that we have fuel lines involved. Did something happen that ruptured a fuel line, like ingesting something like a bird?
MARSH: More than 1,300 777s are currently in operation. In recent years, there have been only five where a 777 has been damaged beyond repair. That includes the still missing MH370, the 2013 crash landing of Asiana Flight 214 at San Francisco Airport was the first fatal 777 crash after 18 years of service.
This is what's left of British Airways Flight 2276. Federal investigators must now figure out what caused this catastrophic failure.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARSH: And investigators will be reviewing the plane's black boxes second by second to see how the plane's edges and other parts were operating. I've been inside that NTSB lab where this all happens. It's a very tedious process. They're also going to look at burn patterns to determine whether the fire started, and they'll dissect that engine to see whether something was ingested -- Wolf.
BLITZER: They've got to figure this out. Thanks very much. Good report.
Let's have more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:56:34] BLITZER: CNN is learning exclusive new details of the ordeal endured by American captive Kayla Mueller, who died while being hailed by ISIS. A girl who says she was held side by side with Mueller as a slave to the ISIS leader is now telling her story. CNN can't independently confirm all the details, but Mueller's family tells us some of it matched what the family has learned from government officials.
CNN senior international correspondent Atika Shubert has this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Zeinat was just 15 when she was captured by ISIS fighters and brought, she says, before their leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
ZEINAT, FORMER BAGHDADI SLAVE (through translator): First time he came, I was 15 and crying. When I stood up, he looked at me and told the guard, take this girl away and put her to the side.
SHUBERT: She says she was taken to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold, where she cooked and cleaned for Baghdadi's three wives and six children. She tried to escape once. Her punishment: beatings with a garden hose, the last blows delivered by Baghdadi himself.
(on camera): What did he say to you when he hit you?
ZEINAT: Abu Bakr Baghdadi told we beat you because you run away from us. We chose to convert to our religion. We chose you. You belong to the Islamic state.
SHUBERT (voice-over): Then she says she was thrown into a cramped cell for a month. That is where Zeinat says she met Kayla Mueller.
ZEINAT: I told her, I'm a Yazidi girl from Sinjar and I was captured by Daesh. After that we stayed together and became like sisters.
SHUBERT: She and Kayla were moved to the home of Abu Sayyaf, a high ranking ISIS commander. Shortly after, she says, Baghdadi came to visit. He called for Kayla.
ZEINAT: When Kayla came back to us, we asked her, why are you crying? And Kayla told us Baghdadi said I'm going to marry you by force. You're going to be my wife. If you refuse, I will kill you.
When I heard that Kayla told me, I wanted to escape, and I told Kayla to escape with me, but Kayla refused. She said, "If I escape, they will behead me."
SHUBERT: She says she waited until 1:00 a.m., and pushed open a broken window into their room and ran. A man in a nearby village smuggled her out to her family and only then did she discover who the man who tortured her really was.
ZEINAT: When I escaped, I saw him on TV and I heard his voice. When I ran away I asked my family, who is this man? They told me this is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
SHUBERT: Zeinat says she has told her story to U.S. investigators including details of Baghdadi's daily routine.
(on camera): What kind of a man was Baghdadi? Was he ever, ever kind to you?
ZEINAT: No, he was always evil. There were no kind words.
SHUBERT (voice-over): She says she hopes some piece of information, however small, will lead to the downfall of the man who once called her his slave.
Atika Shubert, CNN. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: What a story that is. We're going to stay on top of that and follow it up for you, of course.
Remember, you can always follow us on Twitter. Just tweet me @WolfBlitzer. Tweet the show @CNNsitroom. Please sure to join us once again tomorrow right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
