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Wolf

Hillary Clinton 2016 Candidacy Examined; Kenya Campus Attack Details; Tikrit Destruction Surveyed; Possible March for Peace in Korean Demilitarized Zone. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 06, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:40] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. The official kickoff of Hillary Clinton's second bid for the White House could be a few days away. That word from Clinton's aids. There is also word that if she does run, and we all expect she will, her new campaign will be different than what she did back in 2008.

Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny co-authored an article on CNN.com. You should read it. (INAUDIBLE) Hillary Clinton told him the second time around a new Hillary Clinton will hit the campaign trail.

Jeff is here, together with our senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar and our chief political analyst Gloria Borger.

Alright, Jeff, give us the update. We expect the timing of this announcement could be a few days away. She could surprise us and do it through social media or what?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I think we're expecting through social media and it could be days away. Her staff is alert that it could happen this week or next. More importantly, activists in Iowa and New Hampshire have been told that she's coming soon. That's what they really want to hear. They really want to see her out there. What her aids are telling them is she will campaign slightly differently. No big crowds or big rallies. She will be doing one-on-one campaigning. She struggled with those rallies in 2008, of course, because Senator Obama always seemed to get bigger crowds. But they're trying to reintroduce her. The problem with this is she's so well-known by so many people, this reintroduction also has a downside if she's reintroduced too many times. But from the beginning, they're starting with a smaller to make it look like she's fighting for this nomination.

WOLF: Brianna, you've been doing a lot of reporting. What are you hearing?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yet similarly that I think they're trying to kind of show -- I think like some of your reporting has been that they're trying to not make it all about her. But I think they're also trying to make it about her in a less overt kind of way. I think when you talk to people close to Hillary Clinton, they point back to that moment in New Hampshire right before the primary where she sort of had her emotional moment. She almost choked up and cried and really showed this softer side of herself. The themes that we've been seeing coming out, that she's grandma, that she's leaning into the being a female candidate and also championing a message of economics for women. But I think that she's trying to - I think we're going to see her doing that in a much more softer way and in an intimate setting trying to push that across.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It's a real problem when you've been around in the public eye for three decades and you've run for the presidency once before and you lost. It's easier in the Democrat Party to be a shiny new candidate than it is to be one who has gone before. That's why that hardly ever happens. With Hillary Clinton they're reaching back into another generation, which is odd for the Democrats, and she's got to present herself as something different. The only way for her to do that is to show another side of herself. Not to say I'm a completely different human being because then you're inauthentic. What they're going to try and do is show the more likable side of Hillary Clinton, the one that they know in private. I've been talking to lots of people who are friends of hers and they're saying smaller groups, warmer Hillary, like New Hampshire, as you saw when she really got her game on the last time she ran. So they're trying to figure out a way -- kind of remember the listening tour when she ran for the Senate in New York and she went and met people and listened to them. Take the inevitability out of this.

WOLF: What are you hearing about Bill Clinton, the role he might be playing getting ready for his wife's second bid for the White House?

ZELENY: We're not going to see him front and center, very often at least, at the very beginning. This is about her. This is about her reminding voters that she is fighting for this nomination. I am told that he is not going to be front and center at all. Of course, behind the scenes it's impossible to remove him from the equation. I'm not sure you would want to. He's the top strategist of our time. We saw that he stumbled a bit in '07 and '08 when he was trying to help her. So she has to present this on her own. There's a bit of a split in the campaign, I'm told. People who used to work for him say you've got to embrace him, you have to own him. He is who he is. Love all of him. But some of her aids and confidants think that he needs to step back. We'll not see him. He'll be involved in the foundation work for the next few months.

WOLF: Is that what you're hearing, too, Brianna?

[13:35:58] KEILAR: Yeah. He did some of the biggest damage to Hillary Clinton in 2007, 2008. But the trouble with Bill Clinton for Hillary Clinton is that he can be such a liability and an asset. And that's really the balance. I think We'll see him come out at some point, but I think right now it's about Hillary Clinton defining herself, kind of going back -- it makes me wonder how does this work -- going back decades, really, to when she was doing - and as she does do things for women and children - but really focusing back on some of her early efforts and trying to make it not all about the '90s and Bill Clinton. But at the same time, he can be very beneficial to her. WOLF: You remember when we covered the Clinton run for the White

House, Bill Clinton run for the White House, the slogan was "you get two for the price of one" and that could be a strong argument.

BORGER: Right. And I think at a certain point that would be a subtext. But maybe once the nominating process is over -- I was told by a good friend of theirs that he just wants to be helpful. Whatever that means. And it means that they're going to keep him under wraps for a while because the focal point has to be Hillary Clinton. But he's encourageable. You're not going to keep Bill Clinton from giving advice, nor do you really want to.

KEILAR: But when it comes to staffing they've laid more groundwork this time around to make sure that he doesn't step on her toes in the way that he did in 2007 and 2008.

BORGER: Look, when she was Secretary of State, everybody thought Bill Clinton was going to be running foreign policy and that was not the case and people pointed that as the model for how he should behave during the presidential.

WOLF: The last time she ran she did awful in those caucus states. She did much better in primary states. But in Iowa she lost, obviously, to Barack Obama. That propelled him to win the Democratic nomination and eventually become President of the United States. What is she going to do differently now to go after those caucus attenders or whatever?

ZELENY: She also lost to John Edwards. She got third place in 2008. She has not forgotten that. What they're really concerned about in Iowa, there's definitely a progressive streak, some people want a different kind of candidate. There was a blunt assessment last week, I'm told by two top Clinton advisers who are out in Iowa and New Hampshire having dinner with some activists and they said, look, you should be ready. Some Democrats are not ready for Hillary. They're trying to fight hard for this, not just go through the motions. What they're concerned about, uncommitted. What happened in 1976 with Jimmy Carter? He won the Iowa caucuses but he got second to uncommitted. Could you imagine what would happen if she was not to win or just get very close to uncommitted. She has to fight for these activists very hard -

BORGER: Paging Martin O'Malley.

ZELENY: Right. And try and expand the universe of caucus goers like Barack Obama did.

WOLF: Do you think this week or next week? When do you think the announcement is going to be made?

ZELENY: It could be this week, it could be - I'm told it will definitely happen by the end of next week. But that's just what we're being told here it could be any day.

KEILAR: We're in the window.

BORGER: We're ready. WOLF: We'll be ready and see if she will still be ready. Alright,

guys. Thanks very, very much.

Up next, we're going to go inside the campus which was the scene of that brutal terror attack in Kenya. The government there now naming the suspected mastermind of the massacre.

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[13:41:20] WOLF: There are new and very disturbing developments to tell you about in the Kenyan university massacre where nearly 150 people were killed, mostly Christians who had been singled out for death. Kenyan jets struck two Al-Shabaab camps across the border in Somalia today. It's Kenya's first response to the university attack. The government is also intensifying its search for this man, accusing him of masterminding the horrific attack. His name, Mohamed Mohamud, a senior leader of Al-Shabaab. There are also reports that the son of a Kenyan government official has been identified as another terrorist leader involved in the attack.

CNN's Christian Purefoy is joining us from Garissa in Kenya. That is where the university is. What do we know about this supposed mastermind of this brutal massacre? How dangerous is he? Obviously, he's a killer and a thug.

CHRISTIAN PUREFOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, Wolf. Kenya's interior ministry has put out a reward for this man, over $200,000. They've called on anyone who has any information on him to come forward. They say that he's the man in charge of the militia along the long porous border of Somalia, about a four hour drive down a dirt track from here. And he is in charge of control of cross-border attacks into Kenya. It has a similar modus operandi on many of his other operations, Wolf. There was one in particular in 2013 when a bus was stopped by some of his men, terrorists, passengers taken off, separated, Christians and Muslims and the fighters began to kill the Christians. Wolf.

WOLF: I understand today was the first time that the university officially allowed reporters like yourself to go on the campus. Didn't last very long, but what did you see there?

PUREFOY: Wolf, well, the first thing you see when you walk in was utter destruction. A lot of the buildings and sort of structures have been torn down as tanks had come in to the university to try and take out what were four terrorists that carried out the attack. Then there was just simply bullet holes scattered across the building little craters from grenades. But really, apart from the destruction, it was also the human angle, Wolf. In these dormitories that were attacked, all of the belongings of the students were still there as if they would just come back in the next day. As your cameraman is filming, you suddenly realize it's the silence, Wolf. This is a university where hopes and dreams were being planned for and now it's just silence.

WOLF: You interviewed one survivor named Cynthia. Tell us about her horror, what she went through. PUREFOY: A remarkable story, Wolf. The attackers came in on 5:00 a.m. in the morning. 48 hours later the authorities found this young girl called Cynthia hiding in a wardrobe. She had covered herself with clothes and blankets and it's incredibly hot here. All she had -- she told us to drink to keep herself rehydrated was body lotion. Really quite remarkable. Here's what she had to say, Wolf.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNTHIA CHEROTICH, GARISSA UNIVERSITY SURVIVOR: I was scared so much.

PUREFOY: You were hiding?

CHEROTICH: I was hiding. You know how I had covered myself with the clothes.

PUREFOY: While you were hiding, what did you hear?

[13:45:00] CHEROTICH: The shootings. They were shooting everywhere. I had closed my eyes. I didn't want to open my eyes. I just closed my eyes at that time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PUREFOY: When we met Cynthia, she was still in great shock, Wolf. But it's at times of complete horror like this that you want to try to and find some sort of hope. As I said, she was in shock when we found her. When the authorities found her buried under these clothes in the cupboard, she wouldn't come out. They had to get the authorities, the principal of the university, to come back to the scene of the crime and tell her, Cynthia, it's okay, these people are not going to kill you. Wolf.

WOLF: What a horrific story. And of course, as we all know by now, these terrorists, they went to this university, they took the students out, they divided the students between Muslims and non-Muslims, mostly Christians and they went ahead and killed the Christians, a brutal development. We'll stay on top of the story. Christian Purefoy in that town of Garissa. We'll stay in close touch with you.

Up next, we're getting our first inside look in the town of Tikrit, Iraq. That's a key city now liberated from ISIS. But can Iraqi government troops keep control over Saddam Hussein's former hometown or will the Iranian-backed Shiite Militias effectively take charge?

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[13:50:03] WOLF: After brutal and fierce fighting, we're getting a new look inside Tikrit, now that it has been liberated. Tikrit, Iraq's city on the government's march to try to take back. The second largest city in Iraq, Mosul, the city of nearly 2 million people, but it has revealed some of the horror that ISIS inflicted on people there, including mass graves, like this one. They contain the remains of as many as 1700 people.

Hundreds of them Iraqi soldier, executed by the terrorists. Many of them, simply, beheaded we're told. Our Senior International Correspondent, Arwa Damon, saw the horrifying evidence first hand. She's joining us now live from Baghdad. What does these graves actually turned up in one of Saddam Hussein's palaces. Tell us what you saw Arwa because this is simply brutal.

ARWA DAMON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is and it's a very grim experience, especially the task that lies ahead for the expert teams that have to exhume all of these bodies. Now, within the presidential complex that contains upwards of two dozen palaces, they have identified so far eight locations where they believe there are mass graves. Another two locations identified outside the palace complex. So far, although they worked throughout the day, they only managed to exhume around 12 bodies. This is a very difficult laborious, long process. They want to be extra sure they're not damaging the bodies in any way. A lot of them are going to be identified from DNA sampling.

Now, the victims, those who were killed in what is now known the Spiker Massacre, when ISIS marched hundreds, if not upwards of 1500, Shia recruits to their deaths. On site, we actually met at one of the execution sites along the river, a man who was among the very few survivors. And he was describing how when they initially were caught by ISIS, or whomever it was who he says captured them, they were told they would not be harmed.

They were promised they would not be harmed and that is why in the ISIS videos, you really don't see them trying to escape or struggle. They were told they would be going home to their families. They were then split into smaller groups, and then the executions began. The families of these recruits, have been waiting since June, many of them holding out hope, against hope that perhaps, their sons would have somehow survived this horrific massacre. But, based on what we're seeing, in Tikrit, now is this long process does begin. Those bodies beginning to be exhumed. The families are going to have to go through the difficult and unimaginable task of trying to identify their loved ones lost. Wolf?

[13:52:53] WOLF: Arwa going to have a lot more on this horrific story coming up throughout the day here on CNN. Arwa, thank you very much for that report. Awful, awful news out of Tikrit.

Up next, North Korea gives its approval to a new push for what is described as peace on the Korean peninsula. It involves dozens of prominent women from around the world. We'll going to tell you what the North Koreans are planning on doing.

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WOLF: Peace activists are hoping new effort, by prominent women from around the world, will bring peace to the Korean peninsula. Reports say North Korea has decided to support what's being described as a walk across the demilitarized zone next month. South Korea has not approved this walk, at least not yet. Among the women who planned to take part in the walk, Gloria Steinem and two Nobel Peace Prize winners. Brian Todd is following this story for us. What exactly, Brian, is going on? What are these women hoping to accomplish? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Wolf, this group of women, called

Womencrossdmz.org, they're hoping to promote unification the of two Koreas. They're hoping to bring about a formal end to Korean war, which, of course, has not formally ended. That is their primary goal in engaging in the walk. They want to walk from Pyongyand through the DMZ and their planning of doing on May 24th. They say that the North Korea regime has given them permission to do that. They are waiting for permission from the South Korea government.

We've reached out, in both Seoul and in Washington to the South Korean officials. to see if they're going to grant permission. We're only told now that it's under review. But, one thing that we've been told by, at least one prominent human rights group, which is called the Committee for Human Rights, in North Korea. Greg Scarlato is the leader of that group. He says, be a little weary of the motivation of this women's group who wants to do this. He says they're known to be fairly sympathetic with the North Korean regime. Now, the leader of the group, Christine Ahn, told me that's not accurate. That we just want to promote the unification end of the Korean war. But again, just this like many other of these types of events, involving Koreans, is turning out controversial.

WOLF: Does Gloria Steinem-does Gloria Steinem have that type of history of being sympathetic to North Korea.

TODD: No not at all. And she says she's passionate about this. She wants to do this. But again, this human rights group, Greg Scarlato, The Committee for Human Right in North Korea, they say that Gloria Steinem and maybe a couple of the noble laureates who are attaching their names to this, may not quite realize what they're get are getting in to. Again, we're reaching out to Gloria Steinem's people so say here is what is being said about this. We haven't gotten a response to that yet.

WOLF: SO basically, they would start in North Korea, then walk across the DMZ, demilitarized zone to South Korea. Is that the plan?

TODD: That is the plan. Start at Pyongyand, walk across the DMZ -

WOLF: All the way to Pyongyand? They would walk all that way from Pyongyand to the DMZ?

TODD: That's right.

WOLF: That's a long walk.

TODD: It's a long walk. It's apparently going to happen May 24th, if it happens at all. But again we have to point out, Wolf, the North Korean regime is accused, this is a women's group doing this, the North Korean regime has been accused of some incredible human rights violations towards women. The forcible detention of women in labor camps, raping of women. Kim Jong-un is now said to be starting his joy brigades again. These are women who are basically they're 15 to 20-years-old, who human rights groups say are basically there to give pleasure and entertainment to Kim and and North Korean leadership. This is not a regime sympathetic to women's causes which makes this even more curious.

WOLF: We'll see what the South Korean government decided to do about this. Remember, there are 30,000 U.S. troops along the border, between North and South Korea, in the demilitarized zone as well.

TODD: We'll have more on this in the SITUATION ROOM

WOLF: Thanks Brian. I'll be back 5 p.m. Eastern in the SITUATION ROOM

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