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CNN NEWSROOM

Marco Rubio's Endorsements; DOJ versus Apple on iPhone Court Order; Winning the Hispanic Vote in Nevada. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 18, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:03] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK. I want to bring our viewers back to Greenville, South Carolina, for just a second because Marco Rubio was endorsed by Governor Nikki Haley. There you see a Cuban-American, an Indian-American. Marco Rubio was also endorsed by Senator Tim Scott, who is an African-American. So this is the face of the GOP that Republicans would like America to see. Tell me what you think about that.

STAR JONES, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Well, the Republicans would like America to see that, but instead we've been seeing Ted Cruz and Donald Trump throw mud at each other. It's (INAUDIBLE) like being in a pig fight and only the pig has fun. You get dirty. The pig is running around having a good time. So they may want to present this as the face of the GOP, but that's not the reality of it. When every single candidate is trying to throw people out of the country --

COSTELLO: Well, you see them standing there at that convention.

JONES: Well, they can stand there. That's a pretty optic. You and I both know, we work in television, we know what optics are. You can stand anybody next to you as a backdrop, but what are you going to do for them when you're in office? How are you going to represent them? Are you really going to stand up for them? No, you're going to try to throw people out of the country based on their religion. You're going to try to build a wall based on where they came from. These are the kinds of things that Republicans has already told you they're going to do. So I'm the person that believes, if someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time.

COSTELLO: All right, I want to bring in Dana Bash to talk about this endorsement by Nikki Haley because, Dana, this is an important endorsement and it does show a different kind of face of the Republican Party.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Carol. You know, and you were just discussing that with your guest. But I have to say, I've covered politics for a long time. I've covered South Carolina Republican primary politics for a long time. Just sitting in this room watching a Cuban-American, an Indian-American, and before, an African-American talking about Republican values is not something I think a lot of people in this room or in this state or in this country ever thought that they were going to see, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, Dana, let's listen for a second, shall we? SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That there are socialists in American politics, they deny it, right, governor? They deny it. They say, I'm not a socialist. You're smearing me. Bernie Sanders says it in his commercials. But at least he's honest about it. He's a Democratic socialist. I'm not saying he's a communist. He's a Democratic socialist. In essence he wants us to be a socialist country. I don't get that. If you want to be a socialist country, there is literally like dozens of places in the world that are socialists. Why don't you move to one of those countries?

A few weeks ago -- a few weeks ago I started saying, you know, Bernie Sanders would be a good president, of Norway. And the Norwegians got really upset, so then I said, OK, of Sweden. The Swedes got really upset. So, I don't know, is there anyone here from Luxembourg?

We don't want to be a socialist country. The problem with Hillary Clinton is just as bad. She's -- first of all, she's chasing him in that direction. The Democratic Party today has been taken over by radical elements on the left. When the leading candidate is an avowed Democrat socialist, you know the Democratic Party has gone off the deep end. And I mean the left deep end. OK?

But Hillary Clinton has serious problems. First of all, she's under FBI investigation because she put classified information on her server. Just yesterday on Fox News there was a report that some of this information revealed the names of foreign nationals of Afghans that were working with our intelligence agencies. Do you know what that means? Do you know it poses a threat to their lives? It poses a threat to our operations. It's a very serious thing. She did it because she thinks she's above the law. They've also thought they're above the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a traitor.

RUBIO: Well, I don't know. I wouldn't go that far, sir, but I would say that she -- that she is someone who thinks she's above the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

RUBIO: Well, let's talk about Benghazi, because I think that disqualifies her to be commander in chief. So she knew -- she knew that those Americans in Benghazi lost their lives because of a coordinated terrorist attack. And you know what she told their families? This was because of a video. Somebody made a movie, people got mad and that's why they died. That's a lie. She knew that was a lie. Anyone who lies to the families of people who have lost their lives in the service of our country can never be commander in chief of the United States of America.

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to do jump out of this and talk about this important endorsement that Marco Rubio just received. I'm also joined by CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for "The New York Times," Ross Douthat, and director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Larry Sabato.

Welcome to both of you. So, Larry, I'll start with you. How important are these endorsements for Marco Rubio?

LARRY SABATO, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, most endorsements aren't that important. There's an old line in politics that an endorsement is worth the vote of the endorser and about half the time his or her spouse. So it doesn't mean very much.

[09:35:09] But there are exceptions. And actually Nikki Haley is an exception. This is a very important endorsement. It should add a few points to Rubio. I don't think it's enough to vault him into the winning position in South Carolina, but I think it will add to his luster.

By the way, what your -- what you looked at just a few moments ago, that's the ticket a lot of establishment Republicans would like to see, Marco Rubio for president, Nikki Haley for vice president. It would be hard for Democrats to make an argument about diversity with that kind of ticket.

COSTELLO: All right, well, let's talk about the importance of that endorsement. I want to bring in back -- I want to bring back in Dana Bash as well.

Jeb Bush really needed Nikki Haley's endorsement. He sounded unbelievable disappointed that he didn't get it. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Disappointed. I think, you know, she's a very good governor and so to win the nomination there would be a role for her in the campaign. Trust me, she's a great person.

She's a great person. I'm disappointed she didn't endorse me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Dana, I don't know, everybody keeps saying that Jeb Bush's campaign is pretty much over now. Are they right? Was this endorsement that important?

BASH: I don't think that this endorsement was the death nail for -- or potential death nail for Jeb Bush. No, I think that's probably taking it a few steps too far. But there is no question, and you heard it in Jeb Bush's voice, that this is something that he could have used. He could have used the woman standing behind me, Nikki Haley, standing at his rally, not at Marco Rubio's rally, because he needs whatever kind of boost he can get right now and his campaign and even reportedly his brother, the former president, tried to convince Nikki Haley to come his way.

But I have to tell you, just being in the crowd here talking to voters before they took the stage, there are still a lot of undecided voters. But I didn't talk to one who said that they were deciding between Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush. You know, for people who are kind of already looking at Marco Rubio, it seems like the Jeb Bush train has left the station for them because a lot of people here, what they tell me their criteria are, somebody who is kind of a new face and somebody who is electable. I heard a lot of that in this crowd. They want somebody who can beat the Democrat. And right now they're looking at Marco Rubio for that. There are a lot of people who are deciding between Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, but they are thinking about the long haul and about November, a lot of these voters when they're thinking about their primary vote on Saturday.

COSTELLO: So, Ross, the polls, they're just all over the place. It's hard to determine exactly what they mean. So do you have any best guesses for what might happen with Marco Rubio in South Carolina?

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, The good news for Rubio is, as Dana said, that this, in theory, helps him consolidate the votes that Jeb Bush and maybe even John Kasich were trying to take from him. Votes about electability, votes about sort of the quote/unquote establishment lane and so on. I guess the only bad news is that it raises expectation. Rubio's now been endorsed by Trey Gowdy, Tim Scott, and Nikki Haley, three major South Carolina politicians. And if he finishes third behind Cruz and Trump, which he still might, then it's harder for him to portray that as a sort of moral victory and so on. At this point he would say, you know, he's running close to Cruz in a lot of South Carolina polls. He -- it would be really good for him to beat Cruz, to put it mildly. I'm sure he agrees.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to leave it there. Thanks to all of you. Dana Bash, Ross Douthat, Larry Sabato.

And tonight be sure to catch part two of CNN's Republican presidential town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper. Trump, Bush, Kasich all on one stage, starting 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:43:08] COSTELLO: A Los Angeles hospital pays a ransom in bitcoin after its computer system is attacked. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center paid around $17,000 in bitcoins after malware placed on its computers locked access to certain systems. The hospital said the quickest, most efficient way to restore the system was simply to pay up. The FBI is now investigating.

The Department of Justice says Apple is misrepresenting its request. This less than 24 hours after the company opposed a judge's order to help the FBI break into the county owned iPhone of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook. A DOJ spokesperson saying in a statement, quote, "the judge's order in this case does not require Apple to redesign its products, to disable encryption or to open content on the phone. The order was narrowly tailored to this particular phone."

Laurie Segall joins me now with more.

Good morning.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Hey there.

It's interesting, you're hearing from a White House spokesperson. They say this is a one-time request. We're also seeing reports out that, you know, Apple has unlocked phones in the past. There's a reports that says up to 70 in the past. I want to clarify that a little bit.

Apple has cooperated in the past, but what they've done in the past, Carol, is data extraction. And that was available on an older version of the software. So this particular phone had a newer version of the software that wouldn't enable that kind of security.

So now Apple is saying in order to actually get into that phone, in order to unlock it and do what the feds are asking us to do, we've got to build out this new software.

So what's really interesting here, Carol, and what a privacy expert said that really kind of struck me was, does the law give the government the ability to force Apple to create new code? So we're really in kind of some unprecedented territory here. You have, on the tech side, the Google CEO, he's come out to support Tim Cook. He recently tweeted -- I want to read you what he tweeted. Important post by Tim Cook.

[09:45:00] We talked about this yesterday. "Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy."

The WhatsApp CEO has come out. But then of course you have the feds on the other side, saying, you know, Apple is doing this for business purposes and we also have to have some kind of means to extract data in such sensitive cases. And this is the perfect case, a very sympathetic case for the government to raise these questions. Carol.

COSTELLO: It is a sensitive case for the government, because the government is saying, look, why doesn't Apple want to help us prevent a terrorist attack? So if you argue that in court, would that be effective?

SEGALL: You know, it's hard. Because along with this, and then you have Apple saying of course we want to help in any possible way we can, but the building out software -- if you build this software, and this is Apple's argument, the bad guys could get their hands on it. And of course you could have the feds saying do this in your lab, don't put it out there. And privacy experts saying that's not how this works. If you build the software, the good guys will be able to access it, but you'll have folks from all around the world looking to access this as well, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Laurie Segall, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, when it comes to the Democratic race for president, it's anybody's game. In Nevada, why the Latino vote could make or break the candidates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:50:47] COSTELLO: Nevada, once a sure bet for Hillary Clinton, now a challenge she must overcome. It's quite possible Bernie Sanders could win in Nevada. So Clinton is now embracing immigrants in the state, casting herself as the candidate who can protect them from deportation, as highlighted in this new ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to do everything I can so you don't have to be scared and you don't have to worry about what happens to your dad or somebody else in your family. I feel really, really strongly that you're being very brave, and you have to be brave for them too., because they want you to be happy. They want you to be successful. They don't want you to worry too much. Let me too the worrying. I'll do all the worrying, is that a deal? I'll do the worry and do everything I can to help. OK?

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. With me now, Javier Palomarez. He's the president and CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Welcome, sir.

JAVIER PALOMAREZ, PRES. & CEO, UNITED STATES HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Hi Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm fine. Thanks for coming back. I appreciate it.

So is that ad effective? Will this strategy work for Clinton?

PALOMAREZ: Well, you know, here's what we do know, that in Nevada, regardless of which candidate comes out on top, the clear winner is going to be the Hispanic electorate. As we stand today, some 27 percent of all voters in the state of Nevada are Hispanic.

And so I think Hillary has had a strong record of working with the Hispanic community. Back in March, she reached out to me and her camp held one of the first town hall-like conversations, a round table with Hispanic business-owners in Las Vegas, to begin to talk about her work with the Hispanic community. So she's got a record of working with the community.

On the other hand, you have Berni,e who, you know, let's be frank here, he's from a state that is 97 percent white. He doesn't have a track record with the Hispanic community, yet he is appealing to young voters, minority voters, and certainly the Hispanic vote is up for grabs.

COSTELLO: Are you endorsing anyone?

PALOMAREZ: We are not endorsing at this point. We've had the wonderful privilege to work with John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley, the breadth of the players in the campaign. But at this juncture, we are going to wait and see what they have to offer my community of 4.1 million Hispanic-owned firms in this country that collectively contribute $661 billion to the American economy.

COSTELLO: But well, let's talk about Marco Rubio for just a second. He's a Cuban-American, right? Nikki Haley, a child of immigrants, endorsed Marco Rubio. She's the governor of South Carolina. Last night at the town hall, Marco Rubio spoke movingly about discrimination he faced as a child. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: I do recall as a child, during the Mariel boat lift, growing up in Las Vegas, that some of the neighborhood kids, older kids, one day were taunting my family, saying why don't you go back on your boat? Why don't you go back to your country? Why don't you leave here? I didn't know what they were talking about. I was seven years old. Said what boat? my mom doesn't swim. She's afraid of water. And my parents had to sit me down and explain the Mariel boat lift is going on, people are really upset about it, and they're hearing this stuff. And don't blame the kids, they must be hearing it from somebody. That's why they're repeating it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So Javier, does that resonate for you?

PALOMAREZ: Absolutely. Listen, I've had the same experience as Senator Rubio. I'm not Cuban; I am Mexican-American and I think that's a very common occurrence, sadly, in this country.

But I commend Senator Rubio for being candid about it, being transparent, being authentic. He brings that authenticity into his campaign. And I think he spoke I think very eloquently about the potential for the Republican Party to yet change. He spoke about Governor Nikki and her Indian background. He spoke about the fact that he would be, today, with an African-American senator, and of course he's of Cuban descent himself.

So it speaks to the fact that there is yet hope for the Republican Party to modernize and begin to really reflect the face, the changing face of America.

[09:55:06] COSTELLO: Do Rubio's actions trump the divisiveness that Trump talks about in his campaign?

PALOMAREZ: Well, you know, Donald Trump has made his claim with the Hispanic community. In my conversations with Donald, he assured me that he would win the Hispanic vote and he would win Nevada, but that he would win the Hispanic vote in Nevada as well. So it remains to be seen --

COSTELLO: Will he win the Hispanic vote in Nevada?

PALOMAREZ: You know, that remains to be seen. He is sure --

(CROSSTALK) COSTELLO: So it's possible?

PALOMAREZ: I think anything is possible, Carol. I mean, I've given up trying to determine what's going to happen here. Donald Trump, I think, has trumped everything. But I do believe, again, that whichever candidate comes out on top, it's the Hispanic vote, the Hispanic voter, that will be the clear winner. For the first time in the history of that state, that community, the Hispanic community, will play a deciding role in who comes out on top in the State of Nevada.

COSTELLO: All right. Javier Palomarez, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

PALOMAREZ: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)