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CNN NEWSROOM

Giuliani Starts Republican Presidential Candidate "Litmus Test"; Mother's Plea after Son Dies Fighting for ISIS; Ellie Tahari Making Ladies Shine at Oscars

Aired February 20, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Thanks for being with me.

What a discussion we've had. We're going to continue with Rudy Giuliani, won't be running for president in 2016. For those who may be, there's a litmus test, how they responded to Rudy Giuliani's commence. The former mayor said President Obama does not love America. This happened last evening at an event for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Now Governor Walker has responded, sort of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT WALKER, (R), GOVERNOR OF WISCONSIN: The mayor can speak for himself. I'm not going to comment on what the president thinks or not. He can speak for himself, as well. I'll tell you, I love America, and I think there are plenty of people, Democrat, Republican, Independent and in between who love this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: My panel is back, CNN political commentators, S.E. Cupp, Donna Brazile, Marc Lamont Hill; and Kevin Jackson, the executive director of The Black Sphere.

Kevin, I'd love to begin with you.

Big picture, this is bad for the GOP. Don't you agree?

KEVIN JACKSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE BLACK SPHERE: No. With all due respect to you, anybody that will answer that question is an idiot. And Scott Walker answered it exactly as he should. It's --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: First, you don't know how to answer the question, so please don't call me an idiot. You say it is not bad for the Republican Party. Continue.

JACKSON: I wasn't speaking about you. What I said is anybody who would answer that question is an idiot. And the reason that I say that is because it's Rudy Giuliani's personal opinion. He's put it out there, and Scott Walker did exactly what he should have which is to say I don't feel that way. It's his opinion. I have my own opinion about what I think is as -- I have my own opinion about what I think is as a patriotic opinion. Rudy Giuliani made his comment, whether you like it or not is up to you. I don't believe it was as incendiary as people are making it out to be. As far as other political candidates, the left is grasping at straws if they believe this is going to be the hotbed of what decides the next president.

BALDWIN: My other Republican, S.E. Cupp.

I know you all want to jump in.

But let's be clear, Governor Walker, not commenting on what Giuliani said. Let's be clear that. Senator Marco Rubio did strike a more balanced tone. He told the associated press that while no doubt President Obama loves America, "I think his policies are bad for our nation." Then Louisiana Governor Jindal, he acknowledged Giuliani should have used different phraseology more or less. And said that the president's love for our country is immaterial. To quote him, "The gist of what mayor Giuliani said, that the president has shown himself unable to speak the threat about the nature of the threats from these ISIS terrorists is true."

The question, S.E., presumably Jeb Bush may fill in the blank, potential White House contender, how do you respond to that?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is really a media exercise to keep this story going. Republicans don't need to take responsibility for what Rudy Giuliani said. We have a vice president who has repeatedly on tape made racially insensitive remarks. Does the president need to explain Joe Biden? If he does --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I understand --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: This is a Governor Walker event and this was an event --

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: No way. Governor Walker is not responsible for everything that Giuliani says. He answered completely, appropriately, which is to say, I don't agree with him. I have my own opinion. I love this country. This really -- this really isn't in the domain of what other Republicans should be talking about.

BALDWIN: OK. OK.

Marc Lamont Hill, you're shaking your head, why?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it's reasonable to ask Scott Walker the question. He was there. If I had someone -- when Jeremiah Wright was in the same room as President Obama, we were keen to ask questions about whether or not President Obama and his ideologies matched those of Jeremiah Wright --

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: No, but Democrats insisted they weren't related.

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: That's the point!

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: He made the speech on that and --

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: I'm sorry.

LAMONT HILL: What I'm saying is it's not unreasonable to ask the question. It doesn't have to be the same -- it's reasonable to ask the question. I think every Republican in the world has to answer the question? No. Just like every Muslim doesn't have to answer the question when is does something. Although it's interesting to see how people are proxied for other people. Republicans all the time critique America, talk about the moral decline, we lost ingenuity. The whole '80s was talking about that. But when --

(CROSSTALK)

LAMONT HILL: But when conservatives are in service to America, we don't say they don't love America. It's only when the left does it that we do. Not while Obama does it do we question his legitimacy as a citizen and patriot.

BALDWIN: Donna Brazile, don't you think they need to be careful who they associate with if they decide to run, right?

BRAZILE: Absolutely. The other day, Jeb Bush distanced himself from -- he said, I'm my own man, I'm not my brother --

BALDWIN: From his own family, right.

BRAZILE: I'm not my father. Right. They're going to have to distinguish themselves from not just the comments of Rudy Giuliani but others. I mean, look, they're running for the presidency of the United States. It will come up. And when you run for president, honestly, it's like filling out a questionnaire. You got to answer everything. They should be prepared to talk about it, even if they are uncomfortable talking about it.

CUPP: Donna, I assume you'll hold Hillary Clinton to the same standard, right? Everyone she associates with and speaks to her?

JACKSON: My goodness. Good point, S.E.

BALDWIN: Yes?

BRAZILE: Mr. Kevin. I don't know if you've been sleeping lately, but Hillary has answered just about everything that's happened in the United States for the last 300 years. She's been on record. There's been so many books, quotes, conversations. I am -- I am confident that if she had something to say about this she will try to speak to what's in our heart as a country who must come together. ISIS is a threat to all of us. Whether we choose to fight it by ending? Air strikes or in President Obama's way of dealing with, it getting allies on board as well as figuring out America's role, we can have these conversation without being personally vindictive and nasty, as those remarks have been.

JACKSON: Look, we got --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: This is about -- we got to go. Listen, this is about equal -- equal accountability, whether you're a "D" or "R." Absolutely equal, especially as we approach 2016.

S.E. Cupp, Donna Brazile, Kevin Jackson, Marc Lamont Hill, I appreciate each and every one of your voices. That was an excellent, excellent discussion. Coming up here on CNN, a mother's plea after her own son was killed

while fighting for ISIS. How she says her own son was radicalized, and what she's doing now to help warn parents. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Police in the U.K. appealing for help from the public as they're looking for three teenage girls who are missing after taking a flight to Turkey, presumably making their way to Syria where authorities are concern they may be heading into areas controlled by ISIS.

My next guest personally knows the pull of ISIS. Her son was recruited by the terror organization. He was radicalized and died fighting for ISIS in Syria.

His mother joins me now, Christianne Boudreau.

Christianne, welcome.

CHRISTIANNE BOUDREAU, MOTHER OF RADICALIZED TEEN: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I am so sorry about your son. I appreciate the strength you have to come on and how you're helping other parents. I know you have an outreach for friends and families of those who are radicalized, which we'll get to. But first, can you tell me about Damian and as far you knew, he left home in Calgary to study Arabic and linguistics in Egypt. How did he wind up in Syria?

BOUDREAU: That's a good question. All along we thought he went to Egypt. I believed it the whole time. On December 23rd, 2012, the last phone call I had for about a month. Then security intelligence came in and said that they had been suspicious he had flown into Turkey and then crossed over the border into Syria. And I didn't hear from him again until the end of February. Thank goodness, at least then, he was still alive. And I confronted him. He admitted that, yes, he was indeed in Syria. And he had gone over to fight Bashar al Assad and to try to save women and children from the rape and murder going on under the government regime.

BALDWIN: If you're talking to him and he tells you he's in Syria and he's there to try to help children who he says are victims of the Syrian leader and is then on the battlefield with ISIS, can you connect the dots for me? How did he make the switch?

BOUDREAU: Basically, back then, in the early days, a lot of these various groups were working together to overthrow the regime. Over a period of time, what happened is there was a struggle, power struggle, of course. They all started splintering off on their own. He switched to the ISIS piece. It would have been the summer of 2013. That's when we lost contact with him. And basically, once you're in that type of environment and on the battlefield and have atrocities that go on and the mixture, you're going to stay with the group that's going to help you survive the longest.

BALDWIN: And as a mother, I know you said, please, come home. What did he say to you?

BOUDREAU: He said that he couldn't come home, that he was finally doing something productive in his life and he was where he needed to be to help others and that we as a Western world weren't doing enough to help these people, that we were selfish here, that we were depended on drugs and alcohol and pornography. And he didn't want to live like that. He wanted to live a pure life practicing the Muslim faith.

BALDWIN: How did you respond?

BOUDREAU: I told him he could continue to practice here in Canada, and that he didn't have to be a part of the alcohol and drugs, and we would find other ways, more productive ways to support people, but be here with us like we'd always done before.

BALDWIN: And so you lost him. I know that despite that, you are -- or because of that, you are helping other parents make sure this doesn't happen to their son or their daughter. Tell me how.

BOUDREAU: Basically, there's several projects and programs that I've been working with. Extreme Dialogue is one in Canada that we just kicked off this week. It's an educational program that we're putting in schools, youth groups, even for parents to use. It's free and available on the web. And that's to open up the dialogue and critical thinking with youth so that they're prepared with all the propaganda is has out there. There's nothing to counter, nothing to challenge those ideologies. That's what's this program is designed to do, as well as give them resources where they can help with legitimate organizations, legitimate help for people.

Another program I've been working with is here in Canada, I founded it, Canada Family Support. I've been working with Daniel Kohler, from Germany, to develop the methodologies and counselors to work with families, to coach them, and to counsel them and support them. So what we do is if they have youth they consider at risk, they contact us. We do a risk assessment, and then if there is something to worry about, hopefully, before the youth leaves, we counsel and coach the parents on how to reconnect and bring them back to the family unit. If need be, and they've gone away, the different networks and community outreach programs that we can connect them with, if they do come back, to try to stabilize their life. With Daniel Kohler, we've also worked with his organization, doing research into de- radicalization. Under that umbrella, we have an international mothers group called Managers for Life that we're doing projects with.

BALDWIN: Sadly, there is such a Democrat for the work you're doing now.

Christianne Boudreau, thank you. I'm so sorry about Damian, but I really admire your strength and your resolve. I appreciate your time here on CNN.

We're back in a moment.

BOUDREAU: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Stress time for actresses planning to hit the red carpet for the Oscars. Stress because every actress knows we'll be watching the hair, the dress, the make-up. One wrong choice, and the fashion police will pounce. Just Google Laura Flynn Boyle. Her night in one bad dress -- 2003 Oscars -- will live in infamy on the Internet forever. Maybe some people really like tu-tus. Whatever floats your boat.

Maybe not for this guy. Fred Tutino is one of the fashion experts who try to make sure these lovely ladies do not look bad at all. I have to say he does a pretty darn good job. Fred is vice president of design at Ellie Tahari.

It is, you know, awesome having you on.

FRED TUTINO, VICE PRESIDENT OF DESIGN, ELLIE TAHARI: Thank you.

BALDWIN: A huge fan. We've done segments with you guys for fashion weeks.

But first, just -- who have you dressed?

TUTINO: Oh, wow. You know, princesses and the princess of Spain, Sarkozy, Rosie Huntington, to name a few, Penelope Cruz.

BALDWIN: A certain name this weekend of a lovely lady.

TUTINO: Oh, we're doing Susan Sarandon, for the whole award --

BALDWIN: Season.

TUTINO: -- season.

BALDWIN: What does that mean? Does Susan Sarandon say, I love Ellie Tahari? Do you pick it out, design it? TUTINO: It's back and forth. A discussion and organic process. So

we -- work it out that she liked our clothes, we met with her. And we show her thing and talk about it. We discuss it. Do you like this, do you like that. Then the dress and -- you know, I think part of the DNA of our brand is comfort. We started thinking about evening gowns and how to make them feel good. We're doing them in scuba fabric.

BALDWIN: Scuba fabric? For high-end fancy pants --

TUTINO: It's great. It sucks you in and feels good.

BALDWIN: If you want to keep showing some of your designs and dresses past. And this is yours.

TUTINO: Yes.

BALDWIN: This came from your brain?

TUTINO: Yes.

BALDWIN: How do you do that?

TUTINO: I think it's a process.

BALDWIN: Mary J. Blige.

TUTINO: We did that with Ellie Tahari for Mary J. Blige.

BALDWIN: How does this happen? How do you go from here to what we see?

TUTINO: It's funny because to me it seems like such a natural thing, an easy thing. And I guess because I've been doing it for so long. It's something that I'm passionate about. And so then I have conversations with other people like, you know, the dress should be like this, and they're like, what do you mean, you know.

BALDWIN: Can you walk me through one dress? For example, whatever it is that Susan Sarandon is wearing, do you start with a fabric, a cut --

(CROSSTALK)

TUTINO: You start with a fabric, I think, and an idea. It's scuba fabric. It's close to the body and form fitting. And then you think about the seaming in the dress and what's very flattering. And we're -- Ellie Tahari is always thinking how to make her look more beautiful. That's what we're about. That's what the brand's about. That's why then we mix it with some mesh inserts because we want it to look very modern but at the same time. You work from there. Hugging the body, enhancing the parts of the body --

BALDWIN: We appreciate that as ladies.

Quickly, other than looking for Susan Sarandon, who else are you really excited to see? TUTINO: I think it's a designer's dream this season. The top five

for best actress. It's a crazy lineup. From --

BALDWIN: Reese Witherspoon --

TUTINO: Rosamond Pike. Like, it's crazy.

BALDWIN: We'll be looking especially for Susan Sarandon, who is just gorgeous. Wonderful, wonderful actress and woman.

Fred Tutino, of Ellie Tahari, thank you very much.

TUTINO: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Make sure you watch CNN's special coverage at the Oscars, live from Los Angeles with these two. You don't want to miss this, Sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern here on CNN.

Coming up, Bill O'Reilly firing back against allegations that he exaggerated his war-zone reporting from years and years ago. We'll talk to the co-editor of Mother Jones magazine, the organization that initially lodged the claims, and why they believe it should not be compared to the Brian Williams scandal.

Stay here.

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