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CNN NEWSROOM

JetBlue Airplane and Private Aircraft Nearly Collide Midair; Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Discusses Releasing Guantanamo Bay Detainees; NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Speaks about "Deflate- Gate" Investigation; Two Cases of Measles Reported in Arizona; Mitt Romney Announces He Will not Run for President in 2016; Florida Woman Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon has Sentenced Reduced

Aired January 31, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: A JetBlue plane nearly crashes into a small plane as it prepares for a landing. You'll hear from a passenger on board who describes this close call and what the airline is saying about this near disaster.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: And outgoing defense secretary Chuck Hagel holding nothing back. He sits down for an exclusive interview with CNN talking about pressure from the White House to release more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, and whether the U.S. may need to spend troops to Iraq.

BLACKWELL: She could have spent decades in prison. But this week the woman convicted of shooting a gun near her estranged husband went home as a new deal frees her from a prison sentence. Can life return to normal?

Plus heightened security, worries over the measles, and a fall from Grace for America's biggest sports league.

Don't forget this -- pretty big football game going on, too. Newsroom starts now.

It's 10:00 here in the east. Hope the morning has been good to you so far. I'm Christi Paul.

I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. You're in the CNN Newsroom. And this is an air traveler's worst nightmare, a midair disaster. This morning we're learning a JetBlue flight barely missed colliding with another plane. Here's what we know. The jet was headed from Orlando to Westchester County Airport in New York last Sunday.

PAUL: Just when the flight was trying to land, we're told, that's when the pilots saw another plane headed their way.

BLACKWELL: And this morning we have new audio of those terrifying moments inside the cockpit. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For 94 we have traffic 11:00 two miles moving. The height is unknown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking into it, 94.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But 94, if you'd like, you can climb or descend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have them in sight, JetBlue 94.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: OK, what you heard, that long beep, that was the alarm from the collision warning system. Let's bring in CNN national reporter Nick Valencia who has been examining this whole thing. That, if you're on a plane and you hear that, that's going to send a red alert.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's frightening. That's how one passenger described the situation to me, the whole experience surreal. They didn't realize how big a deal it was until they were able to process this. I spoke to Rick Germano. He was one of the passengers on a full commercial flight, that JetBlue flight 94 coming from Orlando, going towards White Plains, New York. And on its dissension, that's when the alarm system went off. That's a collision warning system. Rick Germano, who was on that flight, as I mentioned, described to me the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK GERMANO, JETBLUE PASSENGER: On approach to landing we were getting pretty excited because the flight was over, all of a sudden the plane made an abnormal maneuver. You could tell it just wasn't normal. And we turned quickly to the side and then all of a sudden heard a loud noise on the opposite side of the plane. I quickly looked over and my wife said to me we just got missed by a private plane. And our plane elevated and turned, and the other private plane dove and went underneath our plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Rick tells me he has a five-year-old daughter and she was also on that flight with him and his wife. She was sitting right in the middle of both of them. He said that his wife actually saw the plane as it was making its way towards that commercial airliner nearly missing that full flight. He says what chokes him up the most is that his daughter's life, that five year old, could have lost her life. They all could be dead right now.

He doesn't understand why it took so long for it to come out in the news. I was talking to him. I said, were you surprised there was a lack of news coverage? He said it speaks to perhaps that this happens a lot more than we care to believe.

BLACKWELL: What is the FAA saying about this, if anything?

VALENCIA: So here is the interesting thing. It appears that neither pilot did anything wrong, if you can believe that. This whole thing is under investigation right now. But the FAA did send a statement to CNN and I want to report that. It says "The pilot reported the smaller aircraft in sight, received the alert, and then climbed in response to the alert. The general aviation flight was operating under visual flight rules and was not required to communicate with air traffic controllers." So this small plane didn't do anything wrong. Rick Germano hopes that this would at the very least start a conversation about protocol in the air. He wants to see a change. The scary thing to him is that this could potentially happen again to somebody else.

PAUL: You know, we have that map, a lot of times, of all the planes flying in the air at once. And I know that people look at that and think, oh, my gosh, how does it not happen more often? So there's an investigation, but what exactly does that mean? Does that mean that they might actually implement some changes in terms of that small plane that you said it wasn't required to talk to traffic control, right?

VALENCIA: It was operating under visual flight rules. So just what you see, watch out when you're up in the air, just be careful what you're doing. You don't have to check in with air traffic controllers. That's the scary part of it all. But JetBlue is saying they're cooperating with the FAA, launching an internal investigation. We'll see what comes of this. This happened last Sunday in the middle of the afternoon, the details of which are coming out now, a week later.

BLACKWELL: We, of course, will continue to follow it. And I know the people on that plane including the Germano family will follow it until they get some answers.

VALENCIA: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: All right, Nick, thank you so much.

PAUL: Boy, just glad that everybody is OK. But you know what, let's talk about this with CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector David Soucie. David, thank you for being with us. There have been, as we understand now, at least two incidents of near collisions involving JetBlue. First of all, does that alarm you in itself?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, JetBlue specifically doesn't alarm me necessarily. I think that this is something that's a system- wide problem. It's something the FAA has been dealing with for many years now. It's another example of this overcrowding and trying to mix VFR with IFR, visual flight rules as Victor was saying with instrument flight rules. And there's just no real communication between the two. But operating in airports such as that, it is frightening and it is something that needs to be improved.

PAUL: So as Nick was saying, since nobody did anything wrong and you talked about that as well with the visual flight rules, do you think that it's necessary to modify the way the small planes handle themselves?

SOUCIE: I don't think that's the case. I think the biggest problem is the air traffic control centers themselves who do monitor movement of VFR aircraft from primary radar. But I think the biggest problem is just that there's so much going on for those air traffic controllers, this is yet another case for next gen, which is the modification of our air traffic control system, the air space system itself, which would alleviate a lot of the air traffic centers' work burden. And so that's something held up by Congress, something that needs funding, but yet Congress is holding it up waiting for results from the FAA. It's a very difficult position that both of them are in.

PAUL: I'm sorry. Just so I understand and to clarify what you're saying, you do think that there need to be changes with air traffic control itself. Do you think --

SOUCIE: Correct.

PAUL: Do you think it's possible for them to add more people? Is there room for that? Is there money for that?

SOUCIE: That's a good point, Christi. What really next gen is an improvement in the technology itself. It would not require more people. It would actually require less. It puts more of the burden of separation on the aircraft as they speak to each other in the air. Right now everything that goes communicating-wise and coordination and logistics goes through the air traffic control centers themselves. What next gen does is it allows the aircraft themselves to communicate back and forth to each other, thereby allowing them to know exactly where the other aircraft are at all times. So it really relieves the burden on the air traffic control center and makes it a lot more safe essentially now you're communicating directly with that other aircraft in the air with you.

PAUL: All right, David Soucie, we always appreciate getting your expertise on these issues. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us.

SOUCIE: Thank you, Christi and Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, David.

And now to the fight against is. We're learning coalition forces have carried out nearly 30 new air strikes against the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria. At least ten of those focused on Kirkuk, the city with the rich oil reserve. Now the latest operations destroyed various ISIS targets, including a rocket tube, several vehicles, buildings as well as a bunker used by ISIS.

U.S. ground troops may be needed to fight the terrorist group on Iraq's frontlines, that's according to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel who sat down with CNN for an exclusive interview. Hagel, who has openly disagreed with the administration, is scheduled to leave office in just a matter of days. Yesterday employees lined the halls of the Pentagon to show their appreciation. Hagel offered his resignation in November after pressure from the White House. But, as Hagel prepares to leave, the big question remains, will U.S. troops be returning to the fight in Iraq? CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more for us. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: I asked Secretary Hagel if he thought it was possible a small number of U.S. troops might get sent to the front lines in Iraq to help Iraqi combat troops do things like picking out targets. He made clear it's an idea that cannot yet be ruled out.

CHUCK HAGEL, DEFENSE SECRETARY: He said to his combatant commanders, Steve Hayes, senior writer for "The Weekly Standard," General Dempsey and General Austin, if you believe and you want to recommend, you think you need to recommend to me, to the president, that we should look at other options, then I want you to bring those recommendations to me. That so far has not happened. Whether that would happen in the future, again, the president has said to his commanders, if you think this is what's going to be required, I need to know it, you need to make the recommendation, and I'll listen.

STARR: What do you think?

HAGEL: Well, I think just as the president has said, and it's the advice I've given the president, it's what General Dempsey has, is we have to look at all the options. And I think it may require a forward deployment of some of our troops, not doing the fighting, not doing the combat work that we did at one time for six years in Iraq and we did for many, many years in Afghanistan, but to help air strike precision --

STARR: Locate targets, intelligence.

HAGEL: Those are things where we can continue to support. I would say that we're not there yet. Whether we get there or not, I don't know. Whether that's something that our military commanders would recommend into the future, I don't know. But I think, just as the president has made clear, I need to know your honest opinion, and he's been very forthright about that, what you think, if that's something you think is required.

STARR: You're saying you think it could be necessary?

HAGEL: It could be. But I'm not willing to say that it will be necessary. I say it could be necessary.

STARR: Hagel leaves office in a few days, but his view is one that is shared by some current military commanders.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Barbara, thanks. And our next segment we're going to talk with our military experts. They're going to way in on what the defense secretary just said. Are they surprised to hear that Hagel believes that there may be pressure or has been pressure from the White House over release of Guantanamo detainees? Also, what do they think about this suggestion that we could see U.S. troops on the front lines in this fight against ISIS?

PAUL: Also, all the attention should be on the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, right? This year football may be the distraction surrounding the Super Bowl. Commissioner Roger Goodell not done talking about deflate-gate. We'll hear more. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We return now to CNN's exclusive interview with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. He says White House officials disagreed with his slow pace of releasing Guantanamo detainees. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAGEL: Not everyone at the White House has agreed with me.

STARR: On what part of this?

HAGEL: Probably on the pace of releases.

STARR: Because you've been cautious?

HAGEL: Because I have the responsibility, and I play my own game here, and that is because by law I am the one, the one official in government charged with certification of releasing detainees. I take that responsibility very seriously.

STARR: Have you had pressure?

HAGEL: We've had a lot of conversations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So let's bring in CNN military analyst Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and lieutenant Colonel Robert Maginnis. Gentlemen, thanks for being here. General Hertling, let me start with you. There are reports more of the detainees released during the prisoner swap for American soldier Bowe Bergdahl has already contacted militants, but at one point Secretary Hagel says he agreed with that decision. Can you help us understand that?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, FORMER COMMANDING GENERAL, EUROPE AND SEVENTH ARMY: There is a recidivism rate, among all the prisoners released from Guantanamo, Christi. And this is one out of five attempting to make contact. Certainly they have not changed their stripes. Some of them are going to continue to want to be in the fight. But to continue to hold people without legal potential of dismissal is very difficult. And the secretary, as he just said in that tape, has to make some tough calls. His name goes on the piece of paper to release guys. And there's always risk in terms of releasing prisoners of conflict. But it's even a bigger risk if you don't have evidence to prosecute.

PAUL: So Lieutenant Colonel Maginnis, how does the process work in terms of releasing these men and trying to be certain that they do not plan another attack? LT. COL. ROBERT MAGINNIS, U.S. ARMY (RET): That's a good and a tough

question to answer, Christi. Of course, as we look at the failed state of Yemen and we have a lot of Yemenese detained at Guantanamo, do we send them back to a failed state? Of course not, because as Mr. Hagel indicated, he has to certify that we're going to make sure that they're not going to be doing things that are going to harm U.S. forces that are deployed in the region. So you have to work out some sort of meaningful agreement. The Qataris who, of course, have taken the five Taliban in exchange for Bergdahl, they must have given Mr. Hagel and the U.S. government some guarantees that they're going to keep a watchful eye, constant surveillance of these folks so that they aren't back in the fight.

Now, just how this one person is allegedly back in the fight is hard to know. Most of these guys are pretty old. They're not going to be young warriors like 19 and 20-year-olds. They're probably going to help through financing or recruiting or the like. That's hard to really monitor because it's going to be done mostly through personal contacts and through telephone and the Internet. So this is an incredibly difficult task the secretary has been given, and yet it's something that really must be followed through with.

PAUL: I want to listen here to Secretary Hagel who also says that fewer troops are reenlisting. Listen to what he says here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HAGEL: I would tell you that across the board, as I have talked to hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of these young officers, young enlisted, it's no better than 50/50, it's probably less than that, that I hear commitments from these young men and women that they're going to stay because they're so concerned about the uncertainty of the military. I don't think Washington understands the depth of that issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: General Hertling, do you have any gauge as to the strength of our military capacity and the commitment of the people who are in it when he talks about, at one point he said 50 percent, they don't want to reenlist.

HERTLING: I do have some, Christi, in fact some very extreme detail on this. As you know, I just retired two years ago. And at various levels of command, you're always concerned about the retention of good soldiers and the reenlistment rates that you have. We track that continuously at all levels of command.

And I think within the last couple years several things have been affecting that. There is a perceived loss of trust by some within the military that their civilian leaders are not considering their best interest. When we see continued reductions in some of the things that support our soldiers, and they run from the sublime to the ridiculous. Retirements, paychecks, all the way to number of commissaries that are open, there's a gradually increasing decrement in those kinds of opportunities. Additionally, though, many of our young men and women join the

services to fight for their country. And I think the overhanging threat of continued sequestration is affecting that, too, because, truthfully, the budget that is applied for not only the modernization of the force but the continual operational tempo and the training of the force is all based on how Congress allocates funding to the force, and that funding has been reduced. And my friends who are still commanding in the force are all telling me that is a continuing blight on the military. We have to get beyond sequestration and force Congress to address that issue, and all the service chiefs have been doing that just recently this week.

PAUL: Colonel Maginnis, I have 30 seconds left. But I see you nodding your head. What don't you have the last word here?

MAGINNIS: Sequestration is a terrible decision on our military. It's downsizing the troops. Read the papers, Christi. They know exactly the bad news down the road and they also are feeling the force reductions. That's all over the papers. So these people, just like you and I, they have families they want to take care of, they want a retirement in the future. And yet we've been sending them back and forth to combat zones for the last decade plus. They are worn out and they need to have hope. And unfortunately we're draining that hope out of them.

PAUL: All right, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and Colonel Robert Maginnis, we thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: All right, still to come, the head of the NFL admits 2014 was a tough year for him. But he insists progress is being made. Rachel Nichols joins us from the site of the Super Bowl next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Goodell must go, that's the message by one women's rights group who bought this mobile billboard. The group has criticized the NFL commissioner for his handling of domestic abuse cases.

PAUL: This of course coming on the heels of the commissioner addressing those criticisms in front of the media. He not only discussed domestic abuse issues, also recent controversies over player concussions, deflate-gate. Take your pick.

BLACKWELL: There's so much. Let's bring in CNN's Rachel Nichols. She was there at the address the commissioner responded to deflate- gate for the first time. Did he properly address this issue?

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, he promised a thorough investigation. He also outlined exactly what the league is investigating, how the footballs were deflated in the first place and whether that deflation was the result of specific action on the part of the Patriots. Did they intend to cheat, basically.

You might remember Patriots owner Robert Kraft came out pretty strongly at the beginning of the week saying that unless there was really hard, specific evidence that the Patriots cheated here, he expects an apology from the NFL and that he was displeased in general about the way the NFL has conducted this investigation. Goodell responded to that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: This is my job. This is my responsibility to protect the integrity of the game. I represent 32 teams. All of us want to make sure the rules are being followed. And if we have any information where the potential is that those rules were violated, I have to pursue that, and I have to pursue that aggressively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Now, there's questions whether this deflate-gate issue is going to seep into the game, but maybe not in the way you might think. Earlier in the week this might have been a distraction for the New England Patriots. But, guys, on Sunday, you can pretty much count this as an advantage for the New England Patriots. All week, really for the last 12 to 14 days, they have heard maybe they cheated their way into the game. Maybe they don't really deserve to be here. You can bet that Coach Bill Belichick will try to turn that around, that he will tell them, you think that maybe we don't deserve to be there? We are going to show the world just how much we deserve it by winning this game. You can look for an angry Patriots team when they come out on the field for the Super Bowl.

PAUL: That is some incentive.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it is, especially if they bring a pummeling like they did in the AFC championship game. Rachel Nichols, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thanks, Rachel.

Now, from the heart of Super Bowl central in downtown Phoenix, Rachel is teaming up with hall of famer Dan Marino for CNN's kickoff in Arizona. There they are tonight at 4:30 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: New York state has confirmed that a Baird college student has the measles. That student goes to the Annandale on Hudson New York campus about 100 miles from New York City.

PAUL: A press release from the colleges says the majority of students there are immunized as part of enrollment requirements, in fact. However, the student traveled on an Amtrak train across the state. Health officials say if you rode train number 283 from Penn Station in New York City to Albany last Sunday, please be aware of symptoms.

BLACKWELL: The number of measles cases is rising across the country. It has a lot of people concerned. In California alone it has risen to 91 with 54 cases now linked to the outbreak at Disneyland. That outbreak has now spread to 14 states. PAUL: So as masses of football fans pack into Arizona for the Super

Bowl, of course, two new cases are reported there, which brings the total to seven. Let's talk to Dr. Robert England about this. He's the director of Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Dr. England, we're so glad to have you with us. A pediatric health center in Mesa discovered the second measles case, as we understand it. And they can't determine how many people were exposed. So may I ask, what are you doing to track and stop the exposure there?

DR. ROBERT ENGLAND, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: Actually, we're very fortunate. We're in a very early place in our outbreak, and we are able to identify who was exposed, get them information, make sure that anyone who is not immunized in that group is excluded from childcare or going to school or going to work. We're asking people in that situation if they're not immune, if they never had the disease and they're not immunized, to not go out in public or to wear a mask if they absolutely have to. So we're fortunate to be at an early phase of this outbreak. And by doing a real full-court press on it, we hope we can nip it in the bud before it becomes communitywide.

PAUL: You know, we just mentioned this college student in New York who was diagnosed with the measles. Of course, the game is being held at the University of Phoenix stadium for the Super Bowl. How concerned are you about that risk?

ENGLAND: I'm actually not very concerned about the Super Bowl and the related events that are happening this week because of where we are in the outbreak at this point, because we know who has been exposed to the only two identified cases in our county so far, and because we can get them information. The odds of bumping into somebody with the measles at a large event here in our community right now is actually really small. There's lots of flu out there, there's lots of upper respiratory viruses of different types, but the chance that you're going to bump into measles is really quite small. So if you were comfortable going into a crowded situation last week, you should be just as comfortable today.

PAUL: Carolina, somebody tweeted me earlier asking, "Is the measles the new Ebola in terms of hype and fear? It certainly is more infectious." What do you say to that?

ENGLAND: Let me tell you, measles is the most infectious disease known to man. That's why we're paying so much attention to it. But the way we took this disease from being a half a million cases a year to almost none, and the reason it's such a big fuss now is because we got enough people immunized in our community so that when one person comes in with the germ, that person's germs have a hard time finding another person to get to. That's called herd immunity, and that's what really protects us. What's protecting you right now in the studio isn't so much the vaccine that you got as the vaccines everybody around you got, because not all vaccine works perfectly. If yours didn't work or for some reason you can't get vaccinated, you're still protected by that vaccine that everybody has around you. It's actually a beautiful thing.

PAUL: All right, well, Dr. Robert England, we so appreciate you talking to us about this today. Thank you.

ENGLAND: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, Mitt Romney pulls the plug on his 2016 presidential push before his campaign is even off the ground. Which potential candidate has the most to gain from this announcement? We'll talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: All right, let's talk some politics here. Mitt Romney announced he doesn't want it.

BLACKWELL: He's out.

PAUL: Not going for the presidency.

BLACKWELL: Let's say, he's not saying he doesn't want it, he's just is not going to run for it.

PAUL: That's true. They are two different things at the end of the day.

BLACKWELL: There are other Republicans who are still thinking about jumping into the ring, though. Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul. Let's bring in Republican strategist Lisa Boothe and Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman. Lisa, I want to start with you. We have got an important list of big names here. Who benefits the most from this retreat from Romney?

LISA BOOTHE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Right. Well, if you look at just a donor perspective, I think it's Jeb Bush and Chris Christie. I think they're looking at a lot of the same donors and probably a lot of the same staff that would potentially want to go work for Romney would also be interested in working for Jeb Bush and Chris Christie.

But here is what I think is good for the Republican Party. As much as I like Mitt Romney, I think he's a great guy, I think he loves his country, but the problem he had was he just wasn't relatable to Americans in 2012. And what I think is we need a candidate who, you know, is a little bit more relatable to Americans.

And here is the problem that Democrats are going to have. I think Hillary Clinton has the same problem that Mitt Romney had with Americans just not seeing them as relatable. Hillary Clinton is someone who has lived in a rarified world since she was first lady of Arkansas. This is someone who told the Car Dealers Association that she hasn't driven a car in 18 years. And this is someone despite amazing an over $100 million fortune said that she's not like the truly well off. So I think we need a strong candidate who has a sharp contrast to Hillary Clinton.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know, Lisa, your comments illustrate the challenge and the problem facing the Republican Party. It's not about the fact that they need a fresh face or a political facelift. They need a new message. And that's their issue. Your comments alone, despite all the cliches you went after with Hillary Clinton, I didn't hear one new idea.

And the challenge for the Republican Party is these candidates, as long as they pursue an agenda of advocating deportation of 12 million undocumented workers, demonizing the gay and lesbian community, or denying science exists and we have responsibility for climate change, as long as they pursue that strategy they may win the right wing and the nomination, but disqualify themselves from the general election. So the challenge for the Republican Party isn't about finding a new face or a new messenger. It's about really an organ transplant and getting a new message.

BLACKWELL: Well, let me ask you about the announcement. And, Lisa, Romney said "I've been asked and will certainly be asked again if there are any circumstances whatsoever that might develop that could change my mind. That seems unlikely." Listen, after '08, he said no, I'm not doing it again. After 2012, he said no, I'm not doing it again. He's not even in 2016, he says no, but he doesn't say no. Why not just close the door?

BOOTHE: You know, that's a good question. I think maybe it's just hard for him to close the door. But I don't think he's going to run and I don't think he should run. I do think it's time for someone new. And to go back to Robert's point about the Republican Party, Hillary Clinton is not running any sort of new message and she is certainly not a fresh face for Democrats. And the biggest problem Democrats are going to have is someone like Hillary Clinton who, as I said, has lived in a rarified world, is someone that doesn't understand the average American, is someone who hasn't driven a car in 18 years.

ZIMMERMAN: You know, Lisa --

BOOTHE: -- is going to have a really hard time driving a populist narrative that Democrats are trying to drive. So I think Robert should look in the mirror as well as the Democrat Party.

BLACKWELL: Robert, last word.

ZIMMERMAN: Lisa, what I found most interesting about Mitt Romney's comments is the way he completely dissed Jeb Bush. He couldn't have been anymore dismissive of Jeb Bush.

BOOTHE: That doesn't mean anything, though.

ZIMMERMAN: Let me finish my point.

BLACKWELL: Let him finish.

ZIMMERMAN: He couldn't have been any more dismissive of Jeb Bush had he called him one of the 47 percent. So I think that speaks to a basic divide that exists among the personalities in the Republican Party. But the bigger issue is not the personalities. The bigger issue is having a message and having new ideas designed to play to the extreme right wing.

BLACKWELL: Well, it looks like the train is starting to move. People are starting their PACs. And of course we'll continue these conversations, Lisa Boothe, Robert Zimmerman, thank you for being part of it.

ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.

BOOTHE: Thank you, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Christi?

PAUL: A Florida woman's agonizing choice, take a plea deal or face up to 60 years in prison. Marissa Alexandra said she was standing her ground against a man she says who wanted to kill her. We're going to dig into this case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: A woman in Florida is at home this weekend under house arrest after spending three years behind bars. Her crime, firing what she says was a warning shot in the direction of her estranged husband. Now, we have to say her children were in the room as well. Her name is Marissa Alexander, and she said that she feared that her estranged husband was trying to kill her and she was acting in self-defense.

PAUL: Her case is one of many that shined a spotlight on Florida's stand your ground law, but the court did not buy her defense. She could have spent decades in prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARISSA ALEXANDER, RELEASED FROM PRISON: This is my life I'm fighting for. This is my life. And it's my life, and it's not entertainment. This is my life.

PAUL: Melissa Alexander's legal odyssey all started here in 2010. She said her abusive husband Rico Gray was in a jealous rage over text messages on her cellphone. Gray had been arrested in the past for assaulting her. She locked herself in the bathroom.

ALEXANDER: He managed to get the door open. And that's when he strangled me. He put his hands around my neck.

PAUL: Alexander got away and ran into the garage. But she says the garage door was stuck, so she grabbed a gun she kept in the garage. She explained what happened next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you thinking you might have to shoot him?

ALEXANDER: Yes, I did, if it came to that. He saw my weapon at my side, and when he saw it he was even more upset, and that's when he threatened to kill me.

PAUL: That's when she fired what she calls a warning shot into the wall.

ALEXANDER: I believe when he threatened to kill me, that's what he was going to do. PAUL: Rico Gray fled the house with his two young children who were

there at the time. Alexander was arrested but maintained she was standing her ground, but was convicted and sentenced to 20 years for three charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

ALEXANDER: If you do everything to get on the right side of the law and there is a law and it does not apply to you, then where do you go from there?

PAUL: A new legal team picked up Alexander's case after her conviction, and in 2013 fought and won her a new trial. But the victory was short lived. Florida State Attorney Angela Corey said this time around if Alexander was found guilty, they'd be seeking a sentence of 60 years rather than the 20 she was originally serving. Corey's office then offered her a plea deal, if she didn't go to trial, three years behind bars and two years under house arrest. Tuesday the judge accepted that deal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: So let's talk about this with CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Mark O'Mara. So good to have you with us.

MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Great to be here.

PAUL: Thank you. First of all, what did you think of the plea deal?

O'MARA: I think under the circumstances where she didn't have to spend much more time in jail and she was basically let out, pragmatically it made sense particularly with what she was facing, which under Florida's minimum mandatory sentencing, she would have died in prison. It would have been a 60-year sentence.

PAUL: Let me ask you about that, 60 years in a case where nobody was even hurt, for one thing, even though she admitted that she fired the shot. Why were prosecutors, do you think, seeking such a lengthy imprisonment? Was it because there were children in the house?

O'MARA: Partly. This prosecutor is known for being very strict in the way she handles cases. But the law does say that you're going to, one on top of the other, the 20-year minimum mandatory sentence thing. So they had the right to prosecute her this way. The frustration really is with the sentencing guidelines that we have and the minimum mandatories demand such an outrageous sentence.

PAUL: At Tuesday's hearing I understand the judge did hear from the 15-year-old son of Alexander's estranged husband. He was in the room apparently when the shot was fired. Is it unusual in a case like this to hear from a teenager?

O'MARA: Well, victims have the right to have a voice in the process throughout in Florida and in most states. So it's not unusual. Normally the younger the child, you don't have -- realize that there was a domestic violence history between the victim, the boyfriend, and her. And I'm sure that that impacted on the way the son looked at it as well. PAUL: And because there was a domestic violence history, help us

understand this, because I think this is what people have a hard time comprehending. Because there was a domestic violence backstory here, how is it that she ended up being guilty and that they didn't believe her? What is your take on that?

O'MARA: Well, two problems with the way Marissa acted. There was definitely some threats there between him and her, but she went out to the garage, left their living room, went out to the garage and got a gun out of the car. Could maybe have left the garage, didn't. So coming back into the scene, the Florida stand your ground law says you don't have to retreat. Once you retreat, you don't have the right just to arm yourself and come right back. I think that was fatal to her defense.

PAUL: She initially was sentenced to 20 years we know, and that itself drew an awful lot of attention to go to trial. In fact, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER: You know, you can't even digest something like that. I can't tell you that I did, and when I did it was extremely difficult. I don't believe I ever really accepted that sentence. I believe I was going to fight, but it's just not something you can ever really digest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So she can't digest it, but she has said now she wants to move on, but she's under house arrest for two years. How plausible is it?

O'MARA: Well, she's not going to do very much for two years. She can work, she go to school, but she has very strict guidelines and regulations she has to follow. After those two years, she's back to her life, again, much better than the alternative.

PAUL: Absolutely. Mark O'Mara, appreciate your insight. Thank you for being here.

O'MARA: It's great to be here.

PAUL: Absolutely. And we'll be right back. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Well, cities around the world are continuing to expand, but sometimes green space gets lost in the way. Vietnamese architect Truong Nghia, he has been chosen as one to watch. His designs are famous for readdressing the green balance and restoring tropical beauty to Vietnam cities.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ho Chi Minh City, home to 7.99 million residents and counting. Vo Trong Nghia has a master plan to reintroduce tropical green beauty to the urban sprawl of Vietnam's overcrowded cities. He's been chosen by international architect David Adjaye as showing great promise.

NGHIA: In Ho Chi Minh City we just have one square meter greenery per person. It's lower in Asia. For example, Hong Kong, they have more than 50 square meter per person.

DAVID ADJAYE, ARCHITECT: When you hear a stat that is so depressing, and it's actually hard to believe that in the '70s there was a time when people thought cutting down trees in cities was a way to get a modern city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hidden from the street, this is Vo Trong's house for trees, five individual rooms which double as huge plant pots for the trees on top. By separating the bedrooms, bathroom, living space, and a meditation room, the building compels its occupants to pass through the canopy of trees outside.

NGHIA: Sometimes we just make a question that is how many green, how many trees can we give back to our earth? So the question and the answer is really simple.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Watch the full show at CNN.com/OnesToWatch.