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Ted Cruz first Out of the Gate for 2016; Yemen on Brink of Civil War; Military Advises Online Caution; Crowded GOP Presidential Field; American in ISIS-Controlled Hospital? Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 23, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:32] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're off. Ted Cruz becomes the first major candidate to throw his hat in the ring for a 2016 White House run. The big announcement and the crowded presidential field he's expected to face.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A country considered a success story just months ago now falling apart. What the dire situation in Yemen means for the war on terror and security here in the United States.

BOLDUAN: American troops targeted on a hit list. A group claiming links to ISIS is behind the new call to attack U.S. military personnel on U.S. soil. How credible is this threat?

Good morning. Happy Monday, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman in Washington today. The actual calendar might say March 23rd, 2015, but the political calendar says, "Welcome to the first day of 2016". Just moments ago, Ted Cruz said he i's in. No exploring, no listening. Just running.

The Republican Senator from Texas became the first person to formally declare his honest to goodness candidacy for president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is why today I am announcing that I'm running for President of the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He said it out loud right there. The campaign was actually launched on Twitter overnight. The formal in-the-flesh nondigital announcement came at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. That is the school founded by the late evangelist Jerry Falwell. Cruz's wife and two daughters, as you can see there, joined him on stage.

Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny in the crowd there. Hey, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey John, good morning. We really heard Senator Cruz, as you saw just a second ago. I mean, what I was struck most by was his generational call to appeal. It sounded almost like the eight years ago that we heard Senator Barack Obama, also a freshman senator, making a similar generation appeal.

Now, the similarities may stop there between Senator Obama and Senator Cruz, but it was an intentional decision to have this speech here at Liberty University in front of 10,000 people, to send the message that Senator Cruz is not the establishment candidate. That he is going to go hard against the Republican establishment candidate. We heard him go bit by bit, litany by litany, against Common Core. Of course that is something that Jeb Bush supports. Against changing immigration laws.

So we heard the outlines in Senator Cruz's speech. Of course, far too early to know if he'll win the Republican nomination. He has so many people ahead of him. But make no mistake, this speech today signifies that he will be a force in this debate; he will pull it to the right and we'll see if that ultimately changes this campaign.

But his speech today a powerful one. He's filling this vacuum created by kind of the exploratory committees of others. He's skipped that phase, as you said, and jumped right in.

BERMAN: Yes, no exploring for him. Jeff Zeleny in Lynchburg, Vriginia, thanks so much, Jeff. Kate?

BOLDUAN: We'll have much more on that ahead, but let's turn now to a major setback in the U.S. war on terror. Yemen ,once held up as a model of successful counterterrorism strategy by President Barack Obama, now on the brink of civil war. al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS, and the little known Houthi rebel group, all fighting for a foothold there. Yemen's third largest city was the latest to fall to rebel forces. The deteriorating security situation is so bad now the Pentagon decided to pull all remaining troops out of the country over the weekend, and confirmed just this morning, British special forces have also pulled out.

Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is joining us live now from London with much more. So what more are we learning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kate, right now the U.N. is saying that Yemen is effectively teetering on the brink of a civil war. And the real concern is that now with U.S. special forces, British special forces, pulled out, that al Qaeda and ISIS, who are on the ground there, who are fighting and killing -- ISIS killing over 130 people last Friday, twin suicide bombings targeting a mosque; al Qaeda attacking Houthi rebels killing them -- that al Qaeda and ISIS will do in Yemen what they've done in Syria, which is take advantage to the civil war to build training camps, to get stability, to increase strength, to improve tactics, and then potentially export that terror to the United States and Europe. [11:05:14] You have today a continued escalation of the situation.

Not only are the Houthi rebels now within 100 miles of the internationally recognized president, President Hadi, whose house in the south of the country, in Aden, was bombed on Thursday. But you have the Foreign Minister now, of the internationally recognized governemnt, calling on Arab Gulf countries to intervene military. Reuters news agency is quoting Saudi Foreign Minister as saying we'd like to see a peaceful resolution, but if there isn't, then the Gulf states will -- they know what to do. That's an implicit threat there.

So at the moment the situation in Yemen is looking dire and the consequences of it looking even worse.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Especially when someone -- when the U.N. starting to make a connection, saying it could be the next Syria and what ISIS has done there, that is sobering to say the very little -- to say the very least. Nic Robertson, thanks so much, Nic.

BERMAN: New today, the Army and Navy warning U.S. service members to limit how much personal information they share online. This comes after a group claiming to be an ISIS affiliate called for attacks against 100 service members, posting their names, photos and addresses on this website.

CNN national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux here with me in Washington. I suppose there are two big questions here, which is how credible is this group and what concerns exist now for the safety of these some 100 personnel?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. When you think about this, it must have been so alarming for those service men and women to actually learn that their names, their photos, their rankings, home addresses were out on this alleged hit lit.

Pentagon officials and the FBI, they're working together and they say they don't believe that this is a credible group, first of all. It could be an individual. Could be an ISIS sympathizer. But they don't believe that this is a credible organization necessarily.

But even having said that, there is word and need for precaution. So what they have gone is they have actually gone to each one of those U.S. troops who were on that list and they have told them this is where we believe the information has come from. No, not necessarily that it was hacked from the Pentagon or from their server, but they believe a lot of this was public information either from folks' Facebook page, Twitter, social media, just out there in the public. They have asked those service members to take a look at those settings, the security settings, to shut some of these things down to keep their information at a minimum.

But they reached out personally, we're told, to each and every one of those people on this alleged hit list. It is so frightening in some ways, John, because whatever that was that was posted, they had asked for a lone wolf or jihadist people who might be here in the United States to go after and shoot and behead these service men and women. There's so much information that is out of the public via social media already, so it's almost like you can't take it out of the bottle. It's already out there. They are just simply asking for people to be cautious, but they don't necessarily see this as a credible group.

BERMAN: Not to mention, these people have families as well, so it is really terrifying as you say. Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much for being here. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, John, the first out of the gate. Ted Cruz says he's running for. What kind of campaign is he going to run and what kind of GOP field is going to be he be facing?

Also this, an American is said to be among 11 medical students now believed to be in Syria working for ISIS. But one official insists that's not why they went there. That's ahead.

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[11:12:05] BERMAN: AT THIS HOUR, we have our first big taste of the 2016 presidential race. Texas Senator Ted Cruz just a short time ago made it official. He's running. Gave a speech where he talked at length about his parents, his life, his faith. He also talked a little bit about the president, slamming his policy. The biggest response was about comments that he made of President Obama strained leadership with Israel's prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyah Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now take -- here's the big takeaway of it all. This is day one in the 2016 race. Very early on in the game, of course. Look at your calendar. But Cruz no doubt in all of this will face a whole lot of competition within his party. It promises to be a crowded field of Republican contenders. We're having a hard time fitting them all on the screen for you. Just kidding.

So where does Cruz stand in that packed field and what does a Cruz campaign look like? Let's talk about this with our smart minds. Republican strategist Ana Navarro, a political commentator, S.E. Cupp, and senior political analyst David Gergen. It's great to see all of you.

So, Ana, straight out of the gate, that's my question -- what's the advantage of being first in?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, the timing here was brilliant. I don't agree with Ted Cruz on a lot of things but I really do hand it to him on timing. First of all, he's first out of the gate, as you say. He takes all of the media spotlight. He beats Rand Paul to the punch, who had announced that he's going to announce on April 7th. He does it on the fifth anniversary of Obamacare. So everything about this, the timing and the symbolism of where he did it and when he did it was, just from a political standpoint, frankly brilliant.

BERMAN: So, S.E., one of the things that interestS me in this is JUST how much real estate is there for Ted Cruz? Because isn't he vying for pieces of the same vote as Rand Paul, as Mike Huckabee, as Rick Santorum, as Scott Walker, as Ben Carson? And ironically, if they are vying for that same real estate, does that not help the establishment candidate Jeb Bush?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's going to be a crowded field so everyone is going to have that same problem. But Ted Cruz is going to be an indicator of where the far right base is. And for people like Jeb Bush, Chris Christie if he runs, certainly, Scott Walker to a lesser extent, they need to be watching Ted Cruz so that they have an understanding where the base is. And it will be very hard for people like Bush and Christie and Walker to dismiss Ted Cruz without dismissing the base.

And that's going to be the challenge because Ted Cruz is very popular among the base. He's only been in the Senate for two years.

[11:15:00] But he's done a lot in the minds of conservatives who wanted him to really stick it to President Obama like he said he would. So he has a big following. You can't -- if you're Jeb Bush, you can't just sort of whack him away as a crazy conservative without insulting a good chunk of the conservative base.

BOLDUAN: David, weigh in on this. First, listen to what the Democratic Governor of California said yesterday on Meet The Press then I want to ask you about it. Here's Jerry Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JERRY BROWN, (D) CALIFORNIA: That man would token such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of existing scientific data. It's shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be runing for office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now that comes from a liberal governor of a liberal state of California. That should be good for Ted Cruz, shouldn't it, David?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it should be. Listen, what I do think it also illustrates is how wide the Gulf is now between Ted Cruz's announcement and what -- I think Jerry Brown is a mainstream Democrat. I don't think he's an Elizabeth Warren Democrat at all -- How wide the Gulf is between them in their world views and how -- The Ted Cruz speech, I agree totally with Ana, that it was a smart move to go early. He gets first mover advantage. He gets a lot more attention. If he were fourth or fifth in line, we wouldn't be talking about him in the same way and giving him this much attention as he will get for the next two to three days. Putting it there in front of those cheering 10,000 students, not explaining that they had to be there, that it was required by the university. But he got a lot of cheers out of that. Smart.

And he had all the values. Where I thought it lacked, it wasn't an interesting speech. It didn't say anything that was sort of, like, oh, that's interesting. I would like to hear more about that. It was rather a recitation of a traditional conservative views, pretty far right, wide Gulf, but I think he's going to need to do more than this in order to be taken seriously. He has to talk seriously to the country about what he would do to achieve what this nirvana he talks about.

BERMAN: It was a speech, though, in front of several thousand people which was the advantage of giving it at Liberty University in a crowd that was already built rather than having to gather his own crowd. Because gathering his own crowd, S.E., might have been a little difficult right now because he's at 4 percent in the polls, if we can throw up the numbers right now. I mean, Ted Cruz is at 4 percent in the polls. And at least according to CNN, that's actually slipping and not rising. He's a little bit lower than he has been. Does he have a hope of increasing those numbers and where do his numbers come from?

CUPP: Yeah, he's going to play pretty well in Iowa and I think he knows that. He's trying to, as we've said, carve out this lane of young evangelical support. He'll have a tough time getting the young part. I think they will be firmly behind Rand Paul. If you look back at Ted Cruz's last Senate race, he beat back the establishment candidate, David Dewhurst., forced David Dewhurst. to spend $25 million of his own money just to lose to Ted Cruz. I think he's trying to play that same playbook again this go around for president.

BOLDUAN: Ana, this will be good for maybe Ted Cruz in a primary, possibly. But when you talk about a presidential run, you have to run a national campaign and this is a man, you remember well, John McCain, called a whacko bird and Peter King, the Congressman from New York -- our producer, Deirdre Walsh just sent this around -- he just released this statement. Mind you, Peter King is also considering a run. He says this: "The Republican party and the American people have to be able to find a more qualified candidate than Ted Cruz. Shutting down the federal government, reading Dr. Seuss on the Senate floor, are the marks of carnival barker, not the leader of the free world." Ouch.

NAVAROO: Well, look, I think it tells you and is reflective of the very wide spectrum of diversity of thought that exists in the Republican Party right now. I am one that thinks it's fun. I think it's fun to see all of these different voices representing different parts of the Republican Party out there in the campaign trying to court voters, trying to develop a message, trying to make themselves good candidates, as opposed to what Democrats have which is plain vanilla, one flavor and that's all you get, no toppings. I think that for Republicans, the field is much more interesting. Okay. There's people that are running for president to become president, there are people that are running for president for other reasons. I don't know yet what Senator Cruz is doing. I think that S.E. is right and he cannot and should not be dismissed. If nothing else, if nothing else, if he doesn't manage to grow his numbers, I think he does stake out the territory as the undisputed standard barrier for the social conservatives and that's what he is going at, therefore, the symbolism of being at Liberty University today. Yes, a captive audience. Again, another brilliant move.

BERMAN: I think all of us who love politics are just glad that it's all starting. Ana Navarro, S.E. Cupp, David Gergen, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

GERGEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, an American is among 11 medical students believed to be working with ISIS and Syria. But one official says their original plan was not to join ISIS, but to fight it. So were the students brainwashed? We'll tell you what we know new next.

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BOLDUAN: An American is said to be among 11 medical students working at an ISIS-controlled hospital in Syria. The group includes seven British students, two Sudanese, one Canadians, plus the American. According to a Turkish lawmaker, the young men and woman are believed to have been brainwashed by the terror group.

Senior international corespondent, Nima Elbagir, has much more on this.

So Nima, what are you learning? What are families saying at this point?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORESPONDENT: Well, as you can appreciate, the families are in a really difficult way, Kate. They've gone to Turkey, they're trying to find their children. They've now released a statement and what they say is very important to them is they want the world to know that their children, as they believe it, are involved in humanitarian actions. They say they have gone to help with the refugee crisis and they're helping in hospital.

But the reality is, of course, that these hospitals are still believed to be in ISIS-held territory. And all of these students are either medical doctors or one of them is a pharmacist. These are very valuable assets in terms of this terror group. This is what we've been learning in terms of who they've been targeting for their radicalization in the past. It does give you a sense of the penetration of ISIS in a lot of these countries. We had Tunisia, we had Libya, we've had Egypt. And now you're seeing this real growth in Sudan and, of course, for the families of these kids, it's a matter of huge concern but for international intelligence agencies, for Western intelligence agencies, the concern is that American passport holders and those British passport holders, one of whom we understand was in Britain as recently as in December, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Wait all of that in mind, Nima, what are efforts, if there are any, to try to find them and get them back and can they?

ELBAGIR: The Turks have a very good relationship with the Sudanese government and it seems that they are working very closely with the Sudanese government and with the parents. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time that students from universities in Sudan or recent graduates from Sudan have gone over into Syria and there is a huge concern that it's going to be very difficult to stem the tide. The bigger concern right now is who they were working with, who gave them the money to get there, who facilitated their entry? The two Sudanese would have need entry visas into Turkey. So that is what all the authorities are looking into now. But at a family level, a lot of the family members that we've been speaking to have asked us not to call them by name, but at a family this is fundamentally a tragedy for them. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Especially when you think of what they say, one line of thought is what they say, and why they went over there in the first place and then word they could be brainwashed now working for ISIS. It's just unbelievable.

Nima, thank you so much. Nima Elbagir bringing that to us. John?

BERMAN: Ahead AT THIS HOUR, Yemen in free fall. The U.S. pulls the last of its personnel out of that country as it teeters on the brink of civil war. Maybe past the brink. How big of a setback will this be now in the U.S. war on terror? New details next.

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