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President Rivals React to Terror Attacks; Iraqi Army Moves to Oust ISIS Near Mosul. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 24, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: When you look at the tremendous Trump support thus far, he has a lot of support from Republican women. Curious to see if that erodes at all, based upon this sort of silliness.

Let's talk about substance, let's talk about what's happening in Brussels. I'm just curious, your response.

To me, what's striking is how these different presidential candidates, the difference in their responses. You know, Bernie Sanders is really sort of staying on message with the campaign. We saw Hillary Clinton speaking yesterday flanked by American flags at Stanford University, giving a massive counterterrorism speech. Then you have Ted Cruz and Donald Trump talking about patrolling Muslim neighborhoods and yes to waterboarding Abdeslam. It's striking, the differences, no?

SUSAN PAGE, HAS COVERED TEN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: Very different approaches to this big challenge. And, of course, these terror attacks really bring the issues of national security front and center in the presidential race. That's likely to continue I think for the rest of this year.

You know, you not only saw Hillary Clinton take very different positions on what we try to do in response to these threats. She took a very different tone. She took a deliberately low key serious tone in her speech at Stanford yesterday, in contrast, to the kind of bluster yesterday with both Cruz and Trump.

It definitely displayed her familiarity about these issues given the four years she served as secretary of state. Now, that doesn't mean she's going to win over the Republican voters who think that U.S. needs to be much more muscular, maybe needs to be more isolationist, more withdrawn from the world when it comes to these threats. But it is an area in which Hillary Clinton is very comfortable making her case, and the case she's making is quite different from what we hear on the Republican side.

BALDWIN: From what you heard from secretary Clinton and even if you compared it to the response, what we saw a little bit from President Obama, speaking in you the most from the speech? Just curious.

PAGE: Well, the way she called for the need for coalitions, international coalitions. Whereas Donald Trump has suggested we might want to withdraw from NATO. That was one big difference. Also, her call for making Muslim-Americans and Muslim around the world our allies in this battle as opposed to figures of great suspicion. That's in some contrast to what we heard Ted Cruz the other day where we ought to start arming and securing Muslim neighborhoods. That's something Hillary Clinton pushed back quite a bit.

So, really different approaches both towards the Muslim world and also just generally, does the U.S. act more effectively when it's a coalition of other nations or should we be going it alone?

BALDWIN: Susan, stay with me. I've been told in my ear from my executive producer and we have more sound from Ted Cruz so let's see what else he's saying, shall we?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When he gets scared, he screams. He yells. Often he curses. He insults and attacks whoever is standing near him.

And you're right. Donald does seem to have an issue with women. Donald doesn't like strong women. Strong women scare Donald.

Now, Donald is scared a lot these days. Donald is scared to debate. He ran away from the last debate that was scheduled. Because he was scared of Megyn Kelly and because he was scared to defend his policies.

Listen, Donald doesn't know much about foreign policy. The day before the Brussels terror attack, Donald for America effectively withdrawing from NATO. That is utter foolishness. It would hand a massive victory to Putin and to ISIS.

That weakness and unilateral surrender is indicative of someone who doesn't have a basic understanding of foreign policy. That's why Donald is afraid of debates, because at debates, his lack of understanding of the basic knowledge necessary to keep this country safe, those become revealed.

When it companies to the economy, Donald has no idea how to bring jobs back to America. At debates, that becomes exposed.

So, he's scared of debates. He's scared of Megyn Kelly. But he's also scared of seeing Republicans uniting behind our campaign.

You know, we just had an election a few days ago in Utah. We worked very hard. We were hoping to break 50 percent. If we broke 50 percent, we would get all the delegates from Utah. Not only did we break 50 percent, we blew past that, got nearly 70 percent, 69 percent of the vote.

Donald didn't like that so you're right, he began lashing out at my wife, attacking Heidi directly.

Let me be absolutely clear: our spouses and our children are off bats. It is not acceptable for a big loud New York bully to attack my wife. It is not acceptable for him to make insults, to send nasty tweets late at night. I don't know what he does late at night but he tends to do these about 11:30 at night. I assume when his fear is at the highest point.

[15:35:07] But I also have to say -- Heidi, she is the daughter of Christian missionaries. She lived in Africa as a little girl. She's an unbelievable mom.

We've got two little girls who are 7 and 5, Caroline and Catherine. I tell you, our girls are going to come join us on the road later this afternoon. I'm not looking forward to telling the girls why Donald Trump is launching insults and attacks at their mommy. I'm not looking forward to that conversation, because it is not acceptable.

Real men don't try to bully women. That's not an action of strength. That's an action of weakness. It's an action of fear. It's an action of a small and petty man, who is intimidated by strong women.

Real men don't do that. And Donald is indicating the fear that keeps him up at night when he lashes out with anger.

Heidi is my best friend in the whole world. She is the love of my life. And Donald should stick with attacking me, because Heidi is way out of Donald Trump's league.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Sniveling coward he says, Susan, big loud New York bully. This whole back and forth between -- the dispute between these two candidates regarding their wives.

I think it's worth reminding folks, because we haven't seen as much from Heidi Cruz, Susan. We saw her come out, it was just yesterday, to a microphone in Waukesha which is sort of rare for a candidate's wife to sort of stand up for herself. What more do we know about Heidi Cruz?

PAGE: Well, Heidi Cruz is very accomplished on Wall Street, you know, bigger earner than her husband. He's boasted about that.

She acknowledges that she struggled with depression about a decade ago. And there's been speculation that's what Donald Trump is going to spill the beans about. But she is, you know, she is someone who's been by Cruz's side from the start of this campaign. She's not somebody who's been a mysterious figure.

You know, that was just an extraordinary attack from Ted Cruz that we just heard on Trump, designed to get a rise out of him, designed to maybe force him into a debate.

Look where he was speaking in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin primary on April 5th is a crucial one for Trump to win. If Cruz is going to break through and be able to deny Trump the nomination, the majority of delegates, Wisconsin may well be the critical place for that to happen. It's winner-take-all by congressional district.

So I think Cruz is seeing -- Cruz is honestly angry about the attacks on his wife. Also seeing an opening here for the most frontal attacks so far in this campaign. BALDWIN: We'll stay tuned, I suppose here. As thing I have a feeling

is far from over.

Susan Page, thank you so much as always.

Just a reminder to all of you, CNN Films produced a fascinating series about the direst presidential campaigns in history. News flash, this is not new what we're watching this week. It is Truman versus Dewey. "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE" airs Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Coming up next, two brothers serving as two different suicide bombers in the Brussels terror attacks, one at the airport, one at the subway station. This is all part of a disturbing trend siblings joining jihad. We'll talk about how terror groups like ISIS are exploiting entire families.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:43:39] BALDWIN: A common thread a number of people are picking up on, several significant terrorist attacks, the theme of siblings as suspects. In fact, in Brussels, most recently, we know that there were brothers who hit both the city's main airport and the subway station. Take you back to November, the Paris attacks, the brothers there were involved.

Another pair of brothers attacked "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris, murdering 12 people that previous January, and the brothers carrying out the Boston marathon bombings.

Let me bring in Mohammed Hafez. He is the chairman of the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Post Graduate School.

So, Mohammed, so nice to have you on. Thank you.

MOHAMMED HAFEZ, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS DEPARTMENT, NAVAL POST GRADUATE SCHOOL: Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: You know, I was even reading. There was also, I know you've done a lot of research on this. There was a piece in "The New York Times" this morning also pointing out there were three sets of Saudi brothers going back to among the 19 hijackers from 9/11.

And I'm curious, with your research -- why do you think this is happening?

HAFEZ: Well, there are lots of advantages to using siblings and family members more generally in terrorist attacks. The first thing to consider is that the entry barriers radicalization are quite low.

Think about it, it you love your brother or you look up to your father and they are radicalized individuals, you are likely to listen to them, to trust in their message and perhaps go along with their radical beliefs, even if you yourselves are not that political.

[15:45:11] So, that's one advantage to turning to family members. BALDWIN: Do you think -- thinking back to when I was covering the

Boston bombings. Much was made about the older brother and how he was the, quote/unquote, "mastermind" and how the younger brother was more malleable. Is that a theme among these sets of siblings?

HAFEZ: I think so. I think what terrorist recruitment depends on is bonds of trust and pre-existing social ties, and nothing is more firm than a bond of family members with shared experiences growing up together, you know, loving each other. And I think that is very important. The history of terrorism is a history of recruiting friends and families, family members.

This is very important because it builds on preexisting ties. And those ties can then be transformed into nefarious ends. And unfortunately, that's what we've been seeing in the past two years. And what we saw in Brussels as well.

BALDWIN: But you point out in your research, you argue that the terrorists are the ones exploiting the family ties, the family bond. How do they exploit that?

HAFEZ: Well, I think part of this has to deal with a security environment that is increasingly constricting on recruitment. To give you an example, Belgium used to have a network called Sharia for Belgium, but given they were recruiting a lot of individuals to go to Syria, the government shut them down.

When you have a security environment that is constrained, you have to look elsewhere. And one place to look is the family unit. So, I think there is an attempt to exploit those pre-existing ties.

But more importantly, there's the operational security as well. That is not a small consideration. When you recruit within a family, you don't have to make as many calls that can be intercepted. You don't have to make as many trips that can be monitored and tracked.

And so, when planning is taking place inside of a family, that is very difficult for security services to interdict.

BALDWIN: The trust, the bond, the keeping it within the home, and sadly, in these cases, the follow-through. Mohammed Hafez, thank you so much.

HAFEZ: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, ISIS pulling off deadly attacks in Europe, just as militants maybe losing ground in Iraq and Syria. And that includes one ancient city we talk a lot about that this terror group has decimated. New developments on the battlefield today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:04] BALDWIN: ISIS is threatening to hit Europe again after, as you well know, they have claimed responsibility for the deadly terror attacks in Brussels. But in Iraq, the terror group is on the defense. The Iraqi army is launching a new operation to try to retake the contested city of Mosul. And in Syria, state run media indicate regime forces entered the ancient city of Palmyra trying to regain control from ISIS militants.

In response, ISIS released its own video that shows ISIS militants still in control of that city.

That said, let's get some perspective from our senior international correspondent Arwa Damon who's covered, of course, both countries and ISIS here as well on the threat.

So, Arwa, first to you. On Syria, when we talk about Palmyra, just remind our American viewers, this is the cradle of Syrian civilization, the 80-year-old historian who was decapitated. Tell me about the battle now for Palmyra.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, our information is based on what Syrian state television is putting out there, but they are saying that Syrian troops have managed to regain control of a according to them significant advances when it comes to pushing ISIS out of this incredibly historic area.

Palmyra is absolutely stunning. I went there years ago, well before all of this fighting broke out, and it truly is one of those ancient sites that just takes your breath away.

For our viewers as a reminder, is swept through the area back in May of last year and over the summer began destroying some of these historic ruins, including blowing up a 2,000-year-old temple.

Now, Palmyra in terms of the battlefield is, yes, slightly strategically located, but losing Palmyra is not necessarily going to deal ISIS a strategic, definitive blow when it comes to significantly weakening their grasp on some of their other strongholds, but it would be, if it were to actually materialize, a pretty significant win for the Assad regime. And this is a win that according to state television would end up actually materializing thanks to air strikes by Russian fighter jets, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thirty seconds, what's the status update on Mosul?

DAMON: Mosul, well, the Iraqis say they have begun the operation to liberate the province where Mosul is located, taking over a number of villages to the south of the city. But let's also remember that does not necessarily mean that the big decisive battle to take back Mosul, Iraq's second largest city where ISIS has been holed up for almost two years now is imminent at this stage.

But the Iraqis do say that they're making gains, they're getting ready for it, a lot of bluster and confidence on their part. But this is still going to be such a long and protracted battle, not to mention the civilians that are still inside that city that ISIS is potentially also using as human shields.

[15:55:04] BALDWIN: Arwa Damon, thank you so much.

Coming up next, breaking moments ago, the family of the so-called bombmaker in the Brussels attacks has just come forward, speaking out about the attacker's recent travels.

Plus, as security officials say, thousands of jihadists may right now be in Europe. Prosecutors reveal why they fear new attacks could be in the works.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The terror attacks in Brussels are even having an impact on the NCAA tournament here in the U.S. A spokesperson releasing a statement this morning, saying, "Safety and security of our players, teams and fans is a priority. We continue to monitor the situation in Brussels and as with any incident we coordinate with local, state and federal agencies as necessary."

Sweet 16 games kicking off tonight, Miami/Villanova playing at Louisville. Oklahoma and Texas A&M face off in California. Watch the game 7:30, sister network TBS, and go to CNN.com/brackets to see how we're all doing.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me.

"THE LEAD" with Pamela Brown starts now.