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CNN NEWSROOM

U.S. Embassy Officially Opens in Cuba; Donald Trump Leads Another Poll; U.S. Investigating ISIS Uses of Chemical Weapons;36 Ex- Generals & Admirals Support Deal; Jeb Bush Takes Questions in Iowa; 56 Dead in China Blasts. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:01] PEREIRA: You too, darling.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Have a great weekend.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Happy Friday. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin this morning with an historic moment in relations between the United States and Cuba. After more than 50 years the U.S. embassy in Havana will formally reopen.

These are live pictures from the Cuban capital, the site of the embassy where Secretary of State John Kerry will speak later this hour. He's the highest ranking U.S. official to visit the island since the Castro revolution in 1959.

The trip coming a little over three weeks after diplomatic ties with Cuba were officially restored. And while Kerry will be on the ground for less than 12 hours, the impact of his visit will linger.

CNN's Jake Tapper live in Havana. Good morning, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": Good morning, Carol. It is a historic day here, as you mentioned. A U.S. secretary of state has not been in this country since 1945. And obviously President Dwight Eisenhower ended diplomatic relations with Cuba in January 1961.

We're expecting a big event here in Havana as the U.S. embassy reopens. Three of the U.S. Marines who were there taking down the flag in 1961 will be here as the flag is raised. We're expecting Secretary of State John Kerry to speak. We're expecting the head of the U.S. mission, Jeff DeLaurentis, to speak. He is not the formal ambassador because that has to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate and many in the U.S. Senate opposing this move today, as are some members of the dissident community, the human rights community here in Cuba with whom we've spoken.

They think the U.S. administration did not do enough to demand that Raul Castro and Fidel Castro allow freedoms, allow democracy, before taking this step. Nonetheless, whatever you think of it, it is going to be a very historic morning. We've expecting also Richard Blanco, the inaugural poet from January 2013 whose family -- I'm told you see Secretary of State John Kerry walking down right now, as he touches down, becoming the first U.S. secretary of state to touch ground in Havana, Cuba since 1945.

In any case, as I was saying, Richard Blanco, the inaugural poet from January 2013 will also be here, also talking about this. I'm told he's somebody with many mixed emotions about this move. His mother fled Cuba in 1967. Seven months pregnant with him. So we'll talk to him as well, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll get back to you, Jake. 9:30 Eastern for that.

Jake Tapper reporting live from Cuba as we watch Secretary of State John Kerry approach the podium in preparation for his talks about the reopening of that U.S. embassy in Havana.

On to Iowa now. State Fair goers about to get a helping of Jeb Bush, but not before we present a helping of Jessie Ventura. The former governor of Minnesota is open to the idea of being Trump's running mate. And while we tee up Governor Ventura's comments, let's go live to the soapbox at the Iowa State Fair where Bush will speak in the next hour. We expect Mr. Bush to take questions from reporters very shortly.

But back to Ventura for just a moment. He told Chris Cuomo this morning it's time to shake up this country and what better way to do that than to get on the Trump bus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE VENTURA, FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR: I think Donald Trump is wonderful that he's shaking the system to its core. We have a government in Washington that's broken, clearly, and it needs to be shaken up and Trump is doing that and so is Bernie Sanders.

I look at both their campaigns and I see great parallels to my campaign in Minnesota where the media attacks you at every direction but yet the people stand and support you. And look who ultimately won in Minnesota. Jessie Ventura did.

Could you image the Republican Party with the candidacy of Trump and Ventura, the ultimate independent, joining forces? I mean, that would be very, very interesting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hmm. Let's imagine that for just a moment. Hmm.

Sara Murray and Chris Moody are in Iowa. Can you imagine, Sara?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I -- I cannot imagine. Although on the upside both Jesse Ventura and Donald Trump like to talk about themselves in the third person. So I guess they have that in common. But I do think Ventura points out -- he points out what a lot of voters point out to us, that they Donald Trump because he's not a politician, because he doesn't talk like a politician. And they think it's refreshing. So he is kind of tapping into the same appeal that we're hearing from voters on the ground.

Who knows? Maybe it'll work out.

COSTELLO: I don't know. OK. Let's talk about someone who talks about a politician, Chris Moody, and that would be Jeb Bush. He's been talking a lot about Iraq and his ISIS strategy. Will he address that with reporters this morning?

CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I'm sure reporters are going to bring it up. But look, Jeb Bush might be winning in the money donor primary, but here in Iowa he's really in the middle of the pack. Scott Walker and Donald Trump are at the top.

[09:05:09] So the Iowa State Fair is really a great opportunity to do some really strong meet-and-greets with voters, although it does have its pitfalls. It can be a bit of a minefield. There's no underground tunnels, there's no way for candidates to sneak around the back. They have to come right through the front door, walk down the promenade, and address the people directly. And candidates in the past have not necessarily done well. But other candidates have really watched their campaigns here in Iowa in a really great way here at the State Fair.

COSTELLO: Right. Right.

MOODY: So this is a really big opportunity for Jeb Bush.

MURRAY: And Carol, I would say, it's interesting, though, that Jeb Bush is coming so early in the morning. I mean, by the time he hits the soapbox, it will be right around 9:30 a.m. So it will be interesting to see how big the crowd actually is, how many voters Jeb really does have to contend with so early in the morning on a Friday.

COSTELLO: Yes. I wanted to back up a bit and talk about Jeb Bush's stance on Iraq. Because he's been saying things lately that have stirred up some controversy about how President Obama is responsible for what's happened in Iraq as far as al Qaeda and ISIS goes. Here's what he said to Politico last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Had we not invaded Iraq in the first place, we wouldn't be dealing with this ISIS problem?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, who knows. I mean, that's such a, you know, complicated hypothetical. Who knows? I can't answer that. I'll tell you, though, that taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So he said taking on Saddam Hussein seemed to be a good idea, which kind of intimates that -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein made for a more stable Middle East and then President Obama messed things up. Is that what he's trying to say, Sara?

MURRAY: Well, look, I think the problem for this is that it's Jeb Bush talking and his last name. President Obama has also said that taking out Saddam Hussein was a good thing. But it's different when you hear it from the lips of a guy who's related to George W. Bush who decided to invade Iraq and I think that's where Jeb Bush runs into these problems.

I also just think people want him to have a better answer on these questions about the war in Iraq, on the questions about his brother. And so far it just doesn't seem like people have been very impressed by the way he's navigated this issue.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray, Chris Moody, we'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

And it's important to talk about Iraq and ISIS because there's been a disturbing new development in the war on ISIS. Pentagon officials are investigating credible reports that ISIS used chemical weapons in an attack against Kurdish forces in Iraq, specifically mustard gas. An Iraqi general telling CNN the soldiers got sick and had trouble breathing after the attack on Wednesday.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon with more on this. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Pentagon officials are still to be clear, trying to figure out all of this and exactly what has happened. There are credible reports they are looking at that ISIS may now indeed have used -- has used mustard gas. That is a chemical weapon agent.

It's not really something that causes mass death but it certainly does cause mass fear, potentially amongst those Kurds in northern Iraq that may have been subjected to this attack. One of the things that they're looking at is exactly what was the agent. There are some samples that have arrived from other attacks previously. The analysis is those may well be mustard gas.

Was the latest attack mustard gas, was it some kind of chlorine agent? People are reporting symptoms of blistering on their skin, symptoms of respiratory issues. So all of these now being looked at. But if ISIS indeed does have mustard agent, the big question for the intelligence community, of course, is where did they get it? Was it old chemical agent left over in Iraq that they stumbled across? Was it undeclared chemical agent from Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria? He was supposed to turn it all over so it could destroyed, or has ISIS actually mastered the ability to cook this stuff up themselves.

A lot of questions out there. The issue of chemical weapons has a lot of bad history in the United States for having some very questionable intelligence so it's no surprise the Obama administration taking this one very slowly and very carefully, trying to determine exactly what they have here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new video of that massive Chinese warehouse explosion. Questions remain. What exactly was inside this place?

[09:09:40]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: To the showdown over the Iran nuclear agreement. The House majority leader says there's a good chance the GOP will indeed have enough votes to override a presidential veto. Represent Kevin McCarthy also says it will, in his words, "play a very large role in the presidential race."

Now under this nuclear deal Iran promises never to develop or acquire a nuclear weapon. it agrees to reduce its nuclear stockpile, inspectors will be given 24/7 accent to key nuclear facilities. And international sanctions will be lifted as a result. Now as you know there is vocal opposition to the deal, not just from the GOP, but from Israel. But this morning surprisingly there is strong support from 36 retired generals and admirals who think the Iran deal is the very best we can do in preventing a nuclear war with Iran.

Among them, my guest, general Tony McPeak, a former Air Force chief of staff.

Welcome, sir, and thank you so much for being with me.

GEN. MERRILL "TONY" MCPEAK, (USAF RET.), FORMER AIR FORCE CHIEF OF STAFF: Good morning, Carol. Nice being here.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. So you along with 35 other retired generals and admirals wrote this open public letter. Why did you think it was important to do that?

[09:15:10] MCPEAK: Well, I think all of us agree it's a good idea to stop Iran from having a nuclear weapon capability. So as a practical matter we can either do that through this agreement or take military action to head it off.

And these military professionals, dozens of us, agree that the diplomatic approach is much to be preferred to the military approach.

COSTELLO: There's been some strong language out there, specifically from President Obama, who says you know if we don't go through with this Iran nuclear deal, it means war. Some say that's just fear mongering.

What do you think?

MCPEAK: Well, I haven't heard anybody suggests a reasonable alternative. People who opposed this treaty better have something better in mind. But I haven't heard of anything better and it's obvious therefore that military action is the -- is the real alternative. And those of us who spent our lives, you know, professionally working

on the problem of how to do combat think that this approach is a lot better than the military alternative.

COSTELLO: Opponents say specifically, though, that if we lift the sanctions, Iran will be flooded with all of this money, its economy will grow and then it will acquire enough resources to actually build a bomb. Maybe ten years from now it will do it, but it will be there. And there's Israel sitting right in that neighborhood.

MCPEAK: Well, let's be clear. Iran was building a bomb. They were within months probably of having some kind of capability. That's been stopped already.

And so, to say that the implication is they didn't have the resources before to build a bomb. Of course they did. That's what this negotiation has been about, giving at least a ten-year pause in their ability to produce such a bomb rather than being months away. So, I don't think that argument makes any sense.

COSTELLO: The other concern that opponents havee is some nuclear weapons inspectors will be allowed inside supposedly, but they have to have this 24-day delay. A lot of people say, really? That's not --

MCPEAK: Well, I think this is -- I think this is a very intrusive inspection regime. I don't think we would want to have -- to have our nuclear facilities inspected on such terms. I doubt very seriously if Israel would like to have its nuclear facilities inspected on these terms.

So I don't think you can hide or cover up or sweep under the rug a large scale nuclear program in 24 days. It just doesn't work. So I'm convinced professionally that this inspection regime will be effective.

COSTELLO: General McPeak, thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it, sir.

MCPEAK: Pleasure.

COSTELLO: All right. Let's head back to Iowa and Jeb Bush, because he's talking with reporters now. This is what he had to say moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You see what's going on in the world today. We need to reengage and be the leader in the world to create a safer world for ourselves and the rest of the world. We're not going to grow economically so people can have rising income unless there's certainty that there's going to be security.

And I think the president's efforts to negotiate with Iran, today we're having Secretary Kerry doing a victory dance inside of -- in Havana, Cuba. It's heartbreaking to see the lack of commitment to true leadership,

and we're going to have to pay a price. The president is going to have to restore relationships that keep security and have to rebuild the military. We're going to have a strategy to deal with this rising tide of Islamic terrorism that threatens our country.

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: The polls suggest that Donald Trump and Ben Carson are on top. And even on Democratic side with Bernie Sanders. Does that suggest voters are looking for an outsider?

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: -- go outsider?

BUSH: Yes, I haven't been in Washington, D.C. I wouldn't know how to drive -- I could barely get from Dulles to Senator Grassley's office. I think I could probably get there with GPS. I never lived there. I've been a reform-minded governor.

There's a yearning -- I got the family thing. That's true.

But look -- I'm blessed with a great family. But my record of success is something people yearn for in Washington, D.C. We've had gridlock in Washington.

We have two really talented public servants who would love to form solutions. Even across the aisle, Senator Grassley has been doing this for a long while, and this idea that a president tears down his opponents, demonizes them, says that if you're against the Iran deal, you're part of a "death to America", you're in cahoots with the "death to America" crowd?

[09:20:05] Give me a break. I mean, this is not how we're going to solve our problems.

So, I haven't been contaminated by that culture that always tries to demonize and divide. I'm from Florida. We solve problems there.

(CROSSTALK)

That's because I was worried about you hitting each other and getting in a fight and elbowing. You make me nervous.

REPORTER: Do you take any lessons from your dad's campaign here, for example, or your earlier days on the campaign trail, kind of seeing that (INAUDIBLE), memories from that time?

BUSH: If you've been around this and I have helping elect Republicans for a long while, it's a long haul, not just in Iowa, across the board.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELL: We step away from this. That's Senator Chuck Grassley, by the way, of Iowa, standing beside Jeb Bush. He speaks to reporters off the cuff. You've heard him come out against the Iran deal, against the president's strategy against ISIS in the Middle East.

Of course, we'll have more from Jeb Bush in the next hour or so, because he's expected to take that soapbox at the Iowa state fair and give his stump speech for all the world to see how he plans to fix the nation. That will come your way around 10:30 Eastern Time.

In other news this morning, chemical specialists are testing for toxic gasses after a series of deadly explosions devastated a Chinese port city. The blast came from an industrial warehouse that stores dangerous materials. But officials still don't know what type of materials were inside this plant at the time or what exactly caused the blast.

In the meantime, the death toll continues to rise, 56 now confirmed dead, including 21 firefighters. More than 700 people are in the hospital.

CNN's Will Ripley has been in China, in Northern China, since the story broke. He joins us now.

Hi, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. The owners of that factory have been detained and are being questioned about what exactly was being stored in there and why. Firefighters apparently did not know exactly what mix of dangerous components they were dealing with. Some of the chemicals we know for a fact have a very dangerous and potentially explosive reaction if they're exposed to water.

Did the firefighters know that? Was water in the initial approach when this chemical fire first ignited? And was that a factor in that massive explosion that has killed and injured so many people? Those are the questions that are being asked.

One miraculous sorry: a 19-year-old firefighter is alive. He survived for 31 hours after the explosion. He has leg injuries, smoke inhalation and burns. But when you see the new video of the blast, the fact that he was able to make it out alive truly incredible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): One day after a series of massive explosions destroyed so much of Tianjin, a black cloud continues to hang over the city, the air thick with a chemical stench. A sea of cars destroyed. Their paint stripped off by the intense heat.

Broken glass covers streets and sidewalks for miles around. And when the wind blows, more glass rains down from apartments and homes.

Today, new images of those amazingly powerful blasts. This cell phone video records the moment of impact, the first blast around 11:30 at night. Fire officials say hazardous chemicals stored in a warehouse were ignited by fire. The bright flash followed by a tremendous explosion, waking people all across this port city of more than 13 million.

Another explosion followed just seconds later. Seven times more powerful, the equivalent of 21 tons of TNT, according to a Chinese data center. Buildings shook, windows blown out.

Blast felt more than two miles around the epicenter. Some likened it to a nuclear explosion even as a mushroom cloud rose over the blast site.

"The house collapsed. We didn't know what happened", says one survivor.

Surveillance video obtained by ABC News captured the explosion's sudden furry. This man buried under a wall of glass.

At least 50 people killed. Hospitals said to be overwhelmed by the hundreds injured. More than 1,000 firefighters ran to the danger. At least 17 died and dozens are missing.

Emotions are running high. I was reporting outside a hospital when a small group of people challenged me, demanding to see my phone. Police arrived but I was temporarily forced off the air.

A statement from the environmental group Greenpeace expressed what many fear, quote, "We are concerned that certain chemicals will continue to pose a risk to the residents of Tianjin."

The company that owned the warehouse was in the business of storing dangerous chemicals. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: And with rain in the forecast here, Carol, there is grave concern for the thousands of people who are living outside in 12 different emergency shelters, many of them tent cities.

[09:25:01] But this is the good thing about disasters in any part of the world. They bring communities together. This is a line of people who are volunteering to come here and help the survivors of the blast, those thousands of people who were displaced. We've seen trucks coming in all day with donated food and clothing and water and medicine, because a lot of these people ran out of their homes, Carol, they didn't even have shoes or clothing on because they were jolted awake in the middle of the night. They just ran out from their beds.

So, there's help for these thousands of people. And, of course, lingering concerns about their danger, the exposure to the chemicals and the environment. Hundreds of specialists are on the ground right now to try to figure out the extent of the environmental damage -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Will Ripley, reporting live from northern China this morning.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: history in Havana, as the U.S. embassy reopens in just a few minutes. Our special coverage is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)