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Obama Commutes Sentences of 46 Inmates; International Manhunt for Escaped Drug Lord "El Chapo"; Scott Walker Announces 2016 Presidential Run; Clinton Announces Policy to Put More Money in Middle America's Pocket; Greece Deal Bitter Pill to Swallow. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 13, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:31:38] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: President Obama today commuted the sentences of all 46 inmates, all guilty of non-violent drug offenses. They'll be freed on November 2nd.

CNN's justice reporter, Evan Perez, is here with us.

Tell us what's going on, these commutations.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: These are all 46 people who have been serving very long sentences for crack cocaine and other drug offenses, Wolf. And this president, President Obama, has been among the most stingy when it comes to clemencies, when it comes to pardons and commutations. So it's interesting now that, with this number, he's really increasing his total and matching more closely what other presidents have done.

Now I'll give you a couple numbers that we have right now. With this, President Obama now has 153 pardons and commutations. George W. Bush had 200 by the end of his presidency. Bill Clinton had 457 and H.W. Bush had 77. Obviously, he only served one term. That's why the numbers are different.

It's interesting that this is part of what the administration has been doing over the last couple years with regard to drug laws. As you know, they've changed the way prosecutors prosecute drug offenses. In part, because they were seen as being too harsh, Wolf, especially in this case, in these cases, these 46 cases, these are people who went to prison for crack cocaine and were given stiffer sentences than they would be given now and certainly were given stiffer sentences than similar offenses for cocaine which were mostly to white defendants.

And I'll give you a quick read of the president's letter that he sent to every one of these people he's given commutations to. He said, "I am granting your application because you have demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. Now it's up to you to make the most of this opportunity."

If you imagine spending what you think is the rest of your life in prison and you get a letter from the president saying, "You can go home now," it's got to be a big moment.

BLITZER: I assume these men after they are released will be monitored, right?

PEREZ: They have to make sure they stay on the right path because, if not, you've got -- these offenses don't go away, Wolf. This is just in one way the president is wiping away the rest of their sentences. But the offenses don't go away.

BLITZER: Evan Perez, thanks very much.

One of the world's most notorious drug kingpins is on the run after escaping from prison. Just ahead, the former assistant director of the FBI, Tom Fuentes, is here. We'll talk about why this is a problem for U.S. law enforcement. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:35] BLITZER: There's an international manhunt going on right now for one of the world's most notorious drug lords, Joaquin Guzman, better known by his nickname, el Chapo, broke out of a Mexican prison over the weekend. He escaped through an elaborately built tunnel that extended a mile beyond the prison walls. El Chapo is head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, considered one of the biggest and most violent in Mexico.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is joining us now from Mexico.

What's the latest, first of all, in the search, Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this search shows no signs of stopping here on the outer fringe. We see Mexican police coming and going from a staging area here outside this maximum security prison where Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman was able to escape from. What's very interesting here, Wolf, and what we've noticed in the last few hours is just the sheer amount of traffic that's made its way past us, mainly construction crews. And could be very crucial here as investigators have reason to believe that Guzman had a tremendous amount of help from the outside, likely people who were digging their way towards that prison, that nearly mile stretch tunnel that you'd be -- that runs underneath this road and eventually makes its way into the prison facility itself.

And that begs the question -- how would these crews these alleged accomplices be able to slip under the radar where I can tell you we continue to see dump trucks. Construction crews are working on a project here, part of the infrastructure that's supposed to bring water, fresh water to residents. So it would be easy to slip under the radar and hide in plain sight so investigators look into that as a possibility. As investigators look into that as a possibility, we know that police are speaking to at least 18 guards at this facility. They've taken them to Mexico City, which is only about an hour's drive east from where we are. They're trying to find out if Guzman had some help.

Last thing I should mention, Wolf, is that it's important that the Mexican government track down the individual again. You recall, in 2001, he was able to escape, elude authorities for 13 years. Authorities don't want to make sure -- they want to make sure that does not happen. Again, especially as this could be seen as really quite an embarrassing moment for current president, Enrique Pena Nieto -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Extremely embarrassing, indeed.

Polo, we'll stay in close touch with you as well.

Let's get more on this brazen escape. Tom Fuentes is CNN's law enforcement, the former assistant director of the FBI.

First, give us background on what's going on. Because this looks like a sophisticated plot, a lot of conspirators. This is a mile-long tunnel with ventilation, with lights. It's not a simple thing to build.

[13:40:20] TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: No, it's not. But we have to start with Guzman's background. He's one of the richest criminals that ever lived. Guzman's worth is at least $1 million, estimated by Forbes. He built more than a dozen tunnels at the Mexican/U.S. border and he specialized this running long tunnels under the boarder to traffic drugs into the U.S. So for him, he's got a number of these construction companies that work for him. He brought a company down. He somehow got access to the blueprints of that prison so they know that when they went laterally for a mile they would come up in his cell. Miraculously. And this is not a hacksaw job like we saw in New York. This is a sophisticated engineering project with a major excavation of dirt, lighting, ventilation, a powered vehicle inside the tunnel for him to get out with. So this was a huge project. Everybody in the world must have been aware of the construction and knew about it. But the guards, the corrections officers, police officers, generally don't want to cross this guy because he'll kill their entire family, unfortunately.

BLITZER: He's a dangerous guy. Does this shake your confidence in Mexican law enforcement?

FUENTES: Not generally in law enforcement. The difficult thing is that even where you have -- and I know many Mexican officers who are diligent and dedicated, have integrity, but these guys will show up, show the officer a pictures of their children, their wife, their parents, their cousins, and say, "Tomorrow, go fishing. We're going to have activity you don't want to be around." And they know if they don't, their kids, their spouse, their parents will be tortured, skinned alive, dismember, poured in vats of acid. I've seen crime scene photos from Mexico on many occasions. They're horrific. They almost make ISIS look like Boy Scouts.

BLITZER: So in other words, of his cartel -- they have a lot of money, as you point out. They can pay off a lot of people to undertake an operation like this?

FUENTES: Absolutely. Pay them off. Not only do they pay off law enforcement but journalists, politicians, mayors, anybody that can obstruct their operation. And for journalists, it's estimated that over 100,000 people, innocent people, have been murdered in Mexico in the last seven or eight years. We hear almost nothing about it. Their reporters are not allowed to report on that in the newspapers, their TV stations are not. And they've killed plenty of journalists to prove their point, don't talk about this. So we hear very little in the U.S. about all this.

BLITZER: What's the U.S. role or what should the U.S. role be right now trying to capture this guy?

FUENTES: Well, all the U.S. can do is offer every kind of assistance, and it has offered it. We've offered it on many occasions in the past. But the Mexicans have generally, in a big way, been difficult. Iran, the FBI's attache program, FBI has half a dozen officers in Mexico as does DEA, the marshals, ICE. They're difficult to deal with. At one point, the main concern that the Mexican government had was too many U.S. agents running around Mexico carrying guns. They didn't want the agents carrying guns. So in 2011, we had two ICE agents ambushed, one of them murdered because -- and they were unarmed, couldn't defend themselves. That's part of the policy Mexico has had that we don't want your people down here carrying guns.

BLITZER: I guess the suspicion is he won't be found any time soon?

FUENTES: I don't think so.

BLITZER: Tom Fuentes, thanks very much for that.

Just ahead, Hillary Clinton says she wants to boost the paychecks of middle-class Americans. You'll find out how she plans to do that. She delivered a major speech today. Much more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:01] BLITZER: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker says he's in the race for the White House, becoming the 15th Republican presidential candidate to announce a bid. Today, he tweeted this: "I'm in. I'm running for president because Americans deserve a leader who will fight and win for them." He also put out a video this morning. Scott Walker is scheduled to make a formal announcement outside Milwaukee. We'll have coverage in "The Situation Room."

Now to one of Walker's Democratic rivals, Hillary Clinton, who says she wants to put more money in the pockets of middle-class Americans. She outlined her plan today in the first major policy speech of her campaign. Among other things, she called for tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, raising the federal minimum wage, and tax reform that would result in the wealthy paying more. She also took a swipe at Republican Presidential Candidate Jeb Bush's comment that Americans need to work longer hours.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, he must not have met very many American workers.

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Let him tell that to the nurse who stands on her feet all day or the teacher who is in that classroom or the trucker who drives all night. Let him tell that to the fast-food workers marching the streets for better pay. They don't need a lecture. They need a raise.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

Gloria, to be fair, Jeb Bush says he was talking about part-time workers, they need to work longer hours hopefully to become full-time workers. So her strategy in this particular speech was?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Her strategy was to take on Republicans in the issue of income inequality. This is a huge issue right now. Republicans are talking about it as well, I might add. But in this speech he was kind of channeling her inner Bernie Sanders and her inner Elizabeth Warren and she was effectively saying, I'm on your side and those Republicans are not, whom she named by name. Not only Jeb Bush but she named Scott Walker, Marco Rubio. And she was making the case that they don't understand your problems the way I understand your problems and the way the Democratic Party understands your problems. It's a lot more populist than we're used to hearing a Clinton, but it's something she has to do if she wants to rally the base around here.

BLITZER: Because of Bernie Sanders? She didn't mention his name, did she?

BORGER: No, she didn't mention Bernie Sanders' name. But she's clearly talking about him and the things he's talking about, raising the minimum wage, profit sharing, some we haven't heard from Hillary Clinton before, raising taxes on the wealthy.

Also one other thing, Wolf, sort of interesting to me. She took kind of a little swipe at President Obama after saying how he had rescued the economy after the crisis in 2008. But she kind of -- she took a little swipe at him for not prosecuting Wall Street. Made it clear, without mentioning his name in that context, but made it very clear that there are people on Wall Street who have gotten away with a lot of things that she would not let them get away with, that they have had no price to pay. So that was another clear homage to Bernie Sanders.

[13:50:27] BLITZER: If you listen closely to her speech and you remember her husband's economic policies during his eight years in the White House, she touted the economic gains --

BORGER: Sure.

BLITZER: -- during his administration, but she's moving in a different direction, away from the traditional Clinton approach, which was much more mainstream, shall we say.

BORGER: The Clinton approach, which was very successful -- BLITZER: The Bill Clinton approach.

BORGER: -- the Bill Clinton approach, she said, I'd like hearing the phrase President Clinton. She talked about him. His was much more centrist, third way Democrats, as we used on call them.

BLITZER: DLC.

BORGER: The Democratic Leadership Council. Exactly. Hillary Clinton has pivoted to the left because, by the way, the party has pivoted to the left. The interesting thing about Hillary Clinton's pivot is that her husband says, you know what, I think actually when you look back at trade deals, maybe we should have been more -- maybe we should have thought more about labor, for example. So I think as she pivots to the left, her husband will be right there with her. So she's able to do that pretty easily. The world has changed, the party has changed dramatically.

BLITZER: In the olden days, the Nixon strategy was during the primaries, you go to the right, but once you get the nomination, you go to the center. In this particular case, she's going to the left. But when she gets the nomination, she'll go back to the center. Is that the theory?

BORGER: She'll go back to the center. And in many ways, it's sort of what Mitt Romney tried to do in another direction. You know, he tried to go to the right and then move back to the center. And she's got to be very careful navigating this or she could wind up with a Mitt Romney problem when she gets to the general.

BLITZER: Gloria, thanks very much.

BORGER: Thanks.

BLITZER: Greece getting a new bailout worth about $100 billion. We'll show you how the U.S. markets are reacting to the deal when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:27] BLITZER: Let's head over to Wall Street and take a closer look at the markets. The Dow Jones up 170 points. European markets were also higher today. Much of those gains being chalked up to a new bailout deal that was hammered out in Greece over the weekend. It will give the Greeks an additional $96 billion to help keep the country afloat.

Greece needed a new bailout after defaulting on its last payment to the International Monetary Fund. Just last week, Greek voters rejected the earlier bailout in a national referendum saying the terms were too harsh. But the Greek prime minister now admits the new version is a bitter pill to swallow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXIS TSIPRAS, GREEK PRIME MINISTER (through translation): The deal was difficult, but we avoided financial suffocation and the collapse of the banking sector that we had been heading towards. We have left an important legacy for change, which is necessary for the whole of Europe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our business correspondent, Richard Quest, was in Brussels as they hammered out the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Seventeen hours of negotiations. It's believed to be the longest Euro summit on record. And throughout the long night, the different aspects kept coming up. Firstly, Greece wanted the IMF out of the Euro. The other countries said that was a non-starter. Finally, Greece had to agree. The IMF would be front and center along with the other institutions throughout the deal.

And then the question of this privatization fund. A certain number of Greek assets, up to 50 burrow Euros worth, will now be put into a special trust fund, if you like. They will be kept in Greece. But the money will be, when privatized, the money will be used to pay down debt, to pay off bank recapitalization, and there will be a component for Greek growth. That was crucial for Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, and finally the others went along with it.

Greece now has an extremely hard task ahead. It has to push through some very tough laws through the Greek parliament in a matter of days. And then it has to commit itself to even more reforms in the future. Only when the Eurozone leaders see that that has happened will they agree to open negotiations for a full Eurozone bailout.

The total amount involved here is in the tens of billions of Euros, some estimate up to $96 billion worth of money.

But what this was really all about was trust. Can Greece be relied upon to keep its word, to keep the promises that it's made tonight? The agreement that is being produced is full of shackles and chains to make sure Greece does follow up with what it said it's going to do, but everybody really knows this is about trust. And it's up to Greece to prove it will keep its word.

Richard Quest, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Richard, thank you.

Even with this deal in place, by the way, Greece still has to keep its banks closed for the next two days. They've been closed for the last two weeks to prevent money going out of the country.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is next.

For our viewers here in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Pamela Brown, sitting in for Brooke Baldwin, starts right now.

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