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Donald Trump Takes All 50 South Carolina Delegates; Voter Turnout Shattered Records; What Clinton Needs Beyond Primary Victories; Rubio Says He Can "Unify" The GOP; Apple Could Take Fight To Supreme Court; Kerry Announces Provisional Cease-Fire Deal. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired February 21, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:00:16] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think last night was truly the beginning of the real Republican primary. Here's where it really begins at this point now.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's going to be between Hillary and myself.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and has beaten Donald Trump is our campaign.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCARITC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The truth is for a campaign that started off as a fringe campaign at three percent in the polls, we have enormous momentum.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that voters have questions. I'm going to do my very best to answer those questions.

WHITFIELD: All in the NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hello everyone and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitefield.

We begin today with a key race alert. Donald Trump taking all 50 delegates in South Carolina. A decisive victory. This is important because South Carolina has an almost perfect record of predicting who will win the Republican nomination since 1980.

Also enthusiasm is high. Voter turnout records were shattered last night with more than 700,000 Republican votes cast and you're looking right now at live pictures from people lining up for Donald Trump's rally in Atlanta, Georgia today where Trump is expected to address the crowd of thousands. And he told CNN's Jake Tapper that he expects it to be a Trump-Clinton race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Bernie is not going to make it in my opinion and I never thought he would. Hillary won't make it, you know. I mean, frankly if she gets indicted that's the only way she is going to be stopped. And I think it is going to be between Hillary and myself. They say that it will be the largest voter turnout in the history of United States elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Today's headlines speak for themselves. Take a look right here. Is there any stopping Donald Trump? Is he inevitable? If Trump can't stop Trump, who can?

Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond who is at Trump's rally there in Atlanta.

So Jeremy, what is the message we expect to hear from Donald Trump today after that big win?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Fredricka. Today, Donald Trump is kind of starting to look toward the next contest coming ahead. You know, his campaign looking at South Carolina and saying this is a bell weather for what's going to happen in the southern contests that are coming up.

Donald Trump last night taking a huge victory in South Carolina. He came up 10 points ahead of his closest rivals and that comes off of his victory in New Hampshire. His 20 point victory in New Hampshire just a week earlier.

So certainly Donald Trump is looking to capture that momentum and move forward with it, you know. His victory last night was resounding demographically. You know, he captured a lot of evangelical as well who may be originally, you know, you wouldn't have thought would go with Donald Trump. And so going forward he is hoping that he can mimic that and do the same thing going into the southern states that will vote March 3rd.

But also looking toward Nevada where he will be headed tomorrow for a rally in Las Vegas. That's the next state that's going to vote their caucuses has been just a few days.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeremy, thanks so much. Stick around.

I want to bring into the equation now, Larry Sabato. He is the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Good to see you as well, Larry. So you wrote that, I'm quoting right now, "the fact that he won about the same share of the vote in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two wildly different states showed the broad appeal of his campaign among a significant portion of the Republican electorate."

So Larry, how does anyone really explain this? Especially since at the very beginning people were doubting Donald Trump and whether he could really be a viable candidate. He surprised everyone.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UVA'S CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, we all are surprised by the strength of his followership. Look. He has a solid third of the Republican Party and that isn't necessarily his ceiling. As candidates drop out and more will drop out with time, I could see his ceiling going up.

So look, this is a phenomenon that will go down in history and we'll be writing about it for many, many years to come. Doesn't mean he is the automatic nominee, Fred but it means he is clearly the favorite and the front runner.

WHITFIELD: But you also write that Marco Rubio, really, has the best shot at potentially impacting Trump's chances. In what way.

SABATO: Well, of the remaining candidates, he is really the one who potentially could put together enough votes from enough factions of the Republican Party who are opposed to Trump to compete with him. But a lot of good things have to happen for Rubio in order for that to happen. And they haven't happened yet. He's never won a state. He has alienated himself from some of Jeb Bush's donors and supporters. There's no love lost between those two. How is he going to get John Kasich out? We suggested a wild scenario whereby Rubio would offer Kasich the vice presidency. There are all kinds of things that could happen but they haven't happened and may not happen.

[14:05:12] WHITFIELD: And you know, Jeremy, there might be some candidates particularly like a Marco Rubio or even John Kasich. Some of the candidates in the GOP would feel like after a primary they need to modify their style a little bit, change some of the dialogue but what are you hearing from the Trump camp about whether there are any changes, you know, in the near future, if he feels like instead he needs to do more of the same as he had to do other primary states Super Tuesday right around the corner.

DIAMOND: Yes. I think we are going to see the Trump campaign continuing with its kind of playbook defining a campaign in which it doesn't really rely on the traditional, you know, TV ad spending, direct mail, any of that. Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told us that his campaign is certainly willing to spend more on TV advertising as that becomes necessary. But they really like the lean and mean operation that they have.

But one thing that we're certainly going to see, you know, Donald Trump lost his foil last night. He lost Jeb Bush who dropped out of the race. That's someone he has consistently hit on the stump. We maybe are going to see a little bit more of a Trump-Rubio fight coming now with the Rubio campaigning signaling last night of CNN's Manu Raju that they're willing to start attacking Donald Trump a little bit more. And of course we know that Donald Trump will no doubt fire back.

WHITFIELD: And you know, this of course is a high stakes political week. You have caucuses, primaries, caucus in Nevada. You know, on Tuesday, a town hall on CNN. A debate with the Republicans in Houston and all of this before Super Tuesday. So Larry, what does the horizon, you know, what do you see on the

horizon for the GOP candidates?

SABATO: Well, Jeremy is certainly right that Donald Trump lost this poorly with Jeb Bush. But let me make a firm prediction that has 100 percent accuracy. Donald Trump will find one or more foils. That's inevitable. One of them will be Marco Rubio. He will continue to go after Ted Cruz and if I were John Kasich I would hide out for a while.

WHITFIELD: And I know you are covering the Trump campaign, Jeremy, but you know, what are, you know, Trump supporters even saying there about what they anticipate to hear from him after his big win or, you know, do they - how many expectations about his message?

DIAMOND: The expectations among Trump supporters are always the same -- very, very high, you know. There's no doubt that Trump supporters are some of the most loyal supporters in the 2016 campaign. You know, they consistently echo his message. You know, they say when you go up and ask them why are you supporting Donald Trump? It's always the same lines that Donald Trump himself is talking about. She is self- funding his campaign, you know, he is an outsider, he ignores political correctness.

So certainly they're just as confident as ever especially with his win last night. You know, many Trump supporters kind of feeling like Donald Trump's path to the nomination is becoming increasingly clear. And I think we are seeing that even among non-Trump supporters, even among the establishment. Folks looking at Trump's candidacy in saying, wow, you know, he could actually win the nomination and taking a little bit of a closer look at his candidacy.

WHITFIELD: All right. And I know things seem to be all things Trump right now, but this is what Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz had to say after the big win in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Number one, we continue to see conservatives uniting behind our campaign. But number two, Jake, it is now apparent that the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and that has beaten Donald Trump is our campaign.

RUBIO: First of all because about 30 percent of the vote is coalesce around one person and Donald Trump. And then the 70 percent that is left over, the 65 percent is divided up among five or six people. And you do the math fairly quickly and you realize that if this was a more traditional and narrower race, the results would be different. We have to nominate someone who will unify our party, who will reach out to people that haven't voted for us and grow our party and ultimately who can win. Who do the Democrats fear most? Who do they not want to run against? I think everyone now acknowledges that that's me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And then Larry, elaborate further on, you know, if this really is about the anti-establishment, you know, how does Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz try to compete with that?

SABATO: What Ted Cruz has to do is very difficult, which is to jet up very conservative turnout, not just in the south but elsewhere. I don't think he can add voters from other parts of the Republican coalition. He has to get a maximum turnout from the folks that support him.

Marco Rubio has a different challenge. He is kind of the number two choice of a lot of different factions in the party. He has the potential to beat Trump but it's awfully difficult for him to make that potential a reality. He has a long way to go.

WHITFIELD: All right, Larry Sabato, Jeremy Diamond. Good to see you both of you. Thank you so much.

And of course that Donald Trump event likely to happen within the next hour or so. We'll dip in as it happens.

All right. Also coming up this week on CNN, the last Republican presidential debate before Super Tuesday. Watch it right here on CNN Thursday, 8:30 p.m. eastern time.

Also coming up, we will continue to follow a story that we have been following all morning long. Six people killed in a shooting rampage in Michigan. We have disturbing new details about the suspect who is now in custody. Those details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:13:45] WHITFIELD: A Michigan community is reeling following a series of seemingly random deadly shootings. The killing spree took place at three locations in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan last night. Six people were killed a 14-year-old girl and a mother of three were also shot and fighting for their lives now. The suspected gunman, 45- year-old Jason Brian Dalton was arrested after surrendering to police early this morning. We are just learning that he was an Uber driver who actually picked up fairs in between the shootings. The violent rampage left even long time law enforcement officers shaken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MATYAS, KALAMAZOO COUNTY UNDERSHERIFF: I was born and raised in this town and I still live here and this just shocks this community. You know, we are not a naive community. We have our situations that all communities have but to have somebody just drive around randomly gunning people down for no apparent reason, that just attacks the psyche of the community and any community for that matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Nick Valencia is following the developments for us from Kalamazoo.

So Nick, do investigators have any idea yet on the motive behind the shootings? [14:15:02] NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That motive is still

unclear at this hour, Fred. But I just spoke to a source with knowledge of the investigation not authorized to speak to the media but he does tell CNN that the suspect was an Uber driver and he was picking up fairs in between these three shootings.

Police also believe that he was still looking for fairs around that downtown bar that he was captured near. He was arrested and taken into custody. Police describe him as being even tempered when he was arrested by this Kalamazoo police department. This shooting spree starting at about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday night. When the suspect opened fire against a woman and her three children while he was driving by an apartment complex. That woman was critically injured and still in the hospital.

About ten hours later he moved on to a local car dealership where he opened fire against two individuals killing them. They died later at the scene. Ten minutes later he made his way toward the Cracker Barrel restaurant opening fire against two vehicles killing four people inside one car and gravely injuring a 14-year-old. In fact, police thought that that 14-year-old was also a victim, a casually and fatality in this shooting. She was so gravely injured they said there were seven people killed initially. They scaled that number back to include just six.

They believe -- police believe that this suspect acted alone. They don't think that there is a threat to this community that is still standing. But this community of course, Fredricka, still very much shaken by the sheer senselessness of this rampage.

Just to give you some perspective. Last year, all year in 2015 here in Kalamazoo, there were just two homicides. Just states just how safe this area is. That number, of course, already eclipsed this year with the shooting spree -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: That's heartbreaking.

All right, thank you so much Nick Valencia there in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

All right. Coming back, we will be turning to the presidential race. This week, it's going to be hectic with Republican caucuses in Nevada and a democratic primary in South Carolina. So with Hillary Clinton beating out Bernie Sanders in Nevada could we see her momentum rise? Well, Sanders doesn't think so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We saw so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [14:20:42] JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I congratulate my competitors that are remaining on the island on their success for a race that has been hard fought. Just as the contest for the presidency should be because it is a tough job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeb Bush suspending his campaign there.

A tough job indeed. And a busy week ahead now for the remaining candidates still in the race for the White House. On Tuesday, CNN host a Democratic town hall in South Carolina. And that's also the day of the Nevada GOP caucuses.

And then Thursday all five Republican candidates will face-off in a CNN debate from Houston and Saturday the Democrats compete in the South Carolina primary, three days before Super Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Now it's the Democrats turn in South Carolina. And among voters we talk to leading up to the GOP primary vote here the complications of choosing among the Republican candidates as varied as the candidates themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm definitely excited and involved in watching everything going on with the primary.

WHITFIELD: So you made a decision about who you would vote for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Not yet. Definitely not Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to protect the institution of traditional marriage. You know, those are at the top of my list. Of course a strong economy and defense of course.

WHITFIELD: Democrats anxious to welcome back Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton fresh off the Nevada caucuses. This week's Democratic town hall on CNN at the University of South Carolina in Columbia is sure to be intense. Voters we met up with on their picks and why.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on the fence still. But I'll probably go for Bernie Sanders.

WHITFIELD: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that because I think that sort of poverty has been one of the main focuses of what I have -- what's been at my heart for a long time and that's sort of what I think of as the lynch pin of his momentum.

WHITFIELD: When the polling stations open for the Democratic primaries on Saturday this trio of Sanders supporters are banking on a Clinton upset.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're out here kind in support of Bernie Sanders and kind of taking a stand against Donald Trump. I'm a big fan of immigration and I think everybody should support immigrants and should welcome Syrian refugees and everybody else in because I think that's the right thing to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bernie cares about bringing the middle class back. He cares about women. He cares about students and it's all of these groups that no one has really paid attention to or cared about before.

WHITFIELD: This couple is backing Clinton in the primary. Even if it means upsetting family traditions in this mostly conservative state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I definitely support Hillary.

WHITFIELD: But your family is Republican.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My family is Republican.

WHITFIELD: So has that created any (INAUDIBLE), any interesting family dinner dialogues? Family gathering dialogues?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We tend to stray away from political talk during those kind of dinners and that sort of thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did confirm that they were not Trump supporters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Staying with the Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We saw so much great activity the last week and it turned out to be more than enough and I'm really happy about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Will it be enough? Even if Hillary Clinton wins the rest of the 47 states winning the nomination is not a shoe in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:05] WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks again for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitefield.

Coming off her big win in Nevada, Clinton acknowledged today on CNN that she still has a lot of work to do connecting with voters and convincing them that she's trustworthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I understand that voters have questions. I'm going to do my very best to answer those questions. There's an underlying question that maybe is really in the back of people' minds and that is, you know, is she in it for us or is she in it for herself? I think that's, you know, a question that people are trying to sort through. And I'm going to demonstrate that I have always been the same person fighting for the same values. Fighting to make a real difference in people's lives long before I was ever in elected office, even before my husband was in the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Clinton may have beat Sanders in two out of three primaries so far, but in order to clench a presidential nomination, it is possible Clinton won't just need delegates but super delegates.

Here's CNN's John King to explain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She just won Nevada. This are signs for South Carolina next week at a 55-45 margin. She wins, 55-45. Let's assume, OK, that's a hypothetical, let's assume she wins everything else, right. She wins Super Tuesday, 55-45. Then, she would start to pull away with delegates.

Let's assume throughout the month of March that Hillary Clinton won everything. Now the Sanders campaign thinks they're going to win some of these states, right. They think they're going to win Vermont for example. This is a hypothetical. Let's assume she wins 55-45 all through there.

Then we get to May. She is continuing to win 55-45. Then we finish out. The final progress, if she won 55-45 all the way out, she would still be short of what she needs to clench the nomination if Sanders stays in to the end because of the Democratic Party delegate rule, but over 400 super delegates right now and more people that pledged to support her and keep it private now in case they want to rolled them out, maybe when they stays as up or if he has bad di. If she wants to roll out endorsements.

If she won everything 55-45, and again, Bernie Sanders may win some of these states. So Hillary Clinton may win some by 65 percent. But if you just hypothetically play it out like this in a long contest, it is conceivable she gets to the convention even if she won 49 states she could end up short of the delegates, the pledge delegates from the primaries and caucuses. She needs the super delegates. The way to keep the super delegates is to keep the party support by winning contests. Some people will say its winning ugly or winning close but its winning. That's how you keep the party establishment on your side.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more about the impact of super delegate with CNN political commentator and Democratic super delegate - Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter. The title gets longer and longer, Maria Cardona. Good to see you.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right. So Maria, you first. So how does a candidate campaign to better secure a super delegate's backing?

[14:30:00] MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think in what John was saying is if you campaign hard and you are able to actually win most of these contests, most of the primaries, most of the caucuses, then you are reflecting what most of the Democratic voters are saying and what they want.

And so I think at the end of the day, that is what Hillary is focused on. That is what the Clinton campaign is focused on. I'm sure it's what Bernie's campaign is focused on too.

So if the candidate is able to win most of these contests then they will be reflecting what the majority of Democratic voters want.

And then if they need the superdelegates to get to the end, I think it's completely appropriate for them to reflect that too.

WHITFIELD: Right, but it doesn't always guarantee that they'll have the superdelegates. They have to do some persuading there.

So Nomiki, Clinton has branded Sanders as a one issue candidate. Do you see that influencing Sanders message and style because of this so that he might be able to shore up more delegate and superdelegate supports?

NOMIKI KONST, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think anybody that listens to a Sanders speech or heard him at any of the town halls or debates knows he's not a one issue candidate. Sure, the economy is the root message and every candidate has a message and that's campaign 101. You have a message.

But he talks about income inequality, education reform, health care reform and immigration reform, the list goes on and on and on and he's gotten into debates with Hillary Clinton over this.

But put that aside, let's keep in mind, that as of August of last year, Hillary Clinton had 359 superdelegates endorse her, which means that she was able to shut out potential opponents.

Which is essentially what she was trying to do as a strategy was to be the essential nominee and Bernie Sanders has popular support right now.

If I were Bernie Sanders right now and if I were the voters who have voted for Bernie Sanders up until this point or anybody in the Democratic primary, I would be calling on the DNC very clearly to scrap the system.

It is not reflective of the democracy. It's not reflective of one person one vote. These are party insiders stacking the deck in favor of their goals and their needs. What is that in exchange for? That's the question.

WHITFIELD: So Maria, respond to that, is it that it's lopsided?

CARDONA: Well, if we're going to talk about what true democracy is then I think we would have to scrap our whole system. I mean, let's not forget if we were going to reflect as a country the popular vote Al Gore would have been president.

And let's not forget that in 2008, President Obama won the delegate vote but Hillary Clinton got more votes than President Obama did. So if we want to have that discussion, then let's have that discussion.

KONST: She had more superdelegates before to be fair.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: She did not -- let me finish. She started with a lot of superdelegates, but what happened is exactly what I was talking about earlier. President Obama started winning, more contests, more primaries, more caucuses than Hillary did and superdelegates started switching from her side to his.

If Bernie Sanders wants to compete on the superdelegate side first of all he should start lobbying them. I know he hates to lobby, but he should start lobbying them and he should start then winning contests.

To John King's point that's what it's going to take to get the party establishment on your side.

WHITFIELD: So Nomiki, any of those changes that you're proposing right now, if they're to come, that's somewhere way down the line, but for now over the next couple of months so that Bernie Sanders and his camp can say we want to better secure our chances to become the nominee.

In what way might there be some style differences from Bernie Sanders since he is the antiestablishment person, how would he try to court that support without going back on his pledge of, you know, being a Democrat socialist?

KONST: Well, I think that, you know, if he wants to win over the party, the party insiders, the party insiders need to understand that the future of the party is the Bernie Sanders campaign.

We're talking about in Nevada yesterday, 78 percent of those under 45 supported Bernie Sanders including Latinos and including some African- Americans under that age.

We have to look at the demographics of our party and realize that there is a real change happening here and it's not about rewarding a dynasty who has the best name I.D. and the best donor support.

It's about understanding that the country is shifting. It's not a blue dog country anymore. That's why we have the superdelegate system, which we created in 1984 to prevent grass root candidates because the party is essentially a much more liberal party than a decade ago. And I think --

CARDONA: It works.

(CROSSTALK) KONST: But here's the difference, Maria -- that's because there were seven candidates. There were seven candidates running in that primary.

CARDONA: Not at the end.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:35:06]KONST: But to be fair here we have to keep in mind that half of the superdelegates have already endorsed and not just pledged but endorsed Hillary Clinton in August.

CARDONA: They can change their vote. They can change their vote.

KONST: You think that's going to happen. Come on.

CARDONA: It happened with President Obama.

KONST: Let's be real -- but adding a real primary.

CARDONA: So you're saying that Bernie Sanders is no President Obama. I agree with that, but at the end of the day the voters are the ones that will reflect.

WHITFIELD: I think we do all have to agree that therein lies the volatility of the superdelegate vote because really anything can happen and that's why this is so important for either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton to try to clinch as many as they can going into this -- ending this primaries. All right, thanks so much ladies. I appreciate it. Nomiki Konst and Maria Cardona.

All right, and of course, you can check out the Democratic candidates. This week on CNN very busy week. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will participate on our town hall right here on CNN airing this Tuesday night at 8:00 Eastern Time.

And then this Thursday right here on CNN again watch the last Republican presidential debate before Super Tuesday, March 1st. This Thursday night, which is that presidential debate for the GOP, 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

All right, speaking of one of the GOP candidates who is quite happy with his outcome there in South Carolina at the primary yesterday coming in second place to Donald Trump's number one, right there in Franklin, Tennessee, let's listen in to Marco Rubio speaking at a rally there.

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our rights do not come from the constitution. Our rights do not come from the law, our rights come from an all-powerful God and the job of our government is to protect those rights.

But it is this belief that we are all equal. It is this belief that our rights come from our creator that set in motion a series of events that in this nation lead to the greatest nation in the history of all mankind. For here we embraced individual liberty because we believe that God created man to be free. Here we embraced free enterprise because we believe God created man to fulfill their dreams and their potential.

Here we embraced a republic because we believe that the job of our leaders is to serve the people and not the people serve the leaders. The result is this extraordinary nation. A place where we formed our society into a strong one.

We became the most generous people in the history of the world. Americans give more to charity than most governments do. Not because the government makes us. Not because you get a 60 percent write off on your taxes, but because we are taught by our faith.

We are commanded by our faith to care for the less fortunate. To feed the hungry and close the naked and house the homeless and the result is an incredible nation.

Now when you are born and raised in a country like I have been in this one and you do not know what life is like in any other place, I believe sometimes it's easy to take for granted how special America truly is.

But one of the blessings I have had is that I was raised by people that knew what life was like outside of America so they always taught me how special life was in America.

My parents were both born on the island of Cuba. They came here in 1956 with nothing. They barely spoke English. The first words my father learned in the English language was I'm looking for work.

My father had not gone to school past the age of 9. His mother died four days shy of his 9th birthday. So he had to go work and he would never go back to school. He would work for the next 70 years of his life.

My mother was one of seven girls raised by a disabled father in rural Cuba. My mother says her and her sisters never went to bed hungry, but she is sure her parents did many nights.

When they came here in 1956 they didn't know anyone. They had few skills. They had big dreams and not much more. And life in America was not an instant success.

Years later my parents admitted to me they struggled. They were discouraged. They wondered out loud whether they made a mistake. They even contemplated at one point going back to Cuba. I thank God every night they did not.

WHITFIELD: Marco Rubio there in Franklin, Tennessee with the message of pulling up from boot straps with his family's own example. We're going to continue to monitor his remarks there from Franklin, Tennessee, a day after his second runner up placing there in the South Carolina primary. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:43:26]

WHITFIELD: Apple has until Friday to respond to a court order to help the FBI hack into an iPhone in a terrorism case. The tech giant was ordered by a judge to unlock iPhone belonging to Syed Rizwan Farook. He and his wife killed 14 people last December in San Bernardino.

CNN Money's Cristina Alesci is here with more on this. So Cristina, what can Apple do at this point?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: At this point, Apple looks like it's going to fight the judge's order. It's going to say this request from the government is burdensome and could suggest that the FBI does not have the authority to make this kind of request of Apple.

Now at the end of the day central to Apple's argument is that the government is asking it to make its product less secure or even not secure at all and this will create an opportunity for anyone to hack into Apple's products.

Potentially giving everybody a sense of insecurity on Apple's products. Now that is the essential argument that Apple has. The FBI counters that look this is a one-time request. We're not going to make this a habit.

This is a very important case and we need to get into the phone and by allowing us to get into that phone this one time doesn't mean that everybody else's iPhone will become insecure.

Two very different -- they're at opposite ends of the spectrum on this. Very interestingly, you know, one of my CNN Money colleagues, Richard Quest put out a column today saying this presents a very interesting question for the American public, which is who do you trust more with your data, Apple or the government?

[14:45:14]WHITFIELD: And you know, Tim Cook had said this is precedent setting, but overall what is at stake for Apple?

ALESCI: Very interesting because Apple as you know sells its phones around the world. It has business in China, in Russia, everywhere. And what Apple doesn't want to do is send a signal to its customers around the world that every time the U.S. government wants to get into someone's phone that they're going to fulfill that request.

Because customers around the world may not feel great about having the fact that Apple cooperates with the government so willingly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYRUS VANCE JR., NEW YORK DISTRICT ATTORNEY: This has become the Wild West in technology. Apple and Google are their own sheriffs. There are no rules and for this one person's opinion when you are dealing with matters that have such consequence in terms of the use of electronic devices this is a decision of where to draw the line that needs to be made by independent players the legislators and the courts. Not by two companies. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALESCI: So that was the Manhattan DA saying we can't allow two companies to decide, you know, how we get information and a lot of law enforcement is siding with the FBI not surprisingly and the rest of Silicon Valley. Companies like Twitter and Google siding with Apple.

WHITFIELD: Trying to protect their product and the rights thereof. All right, Cristina Alesci, thank you so much. Appreciate that.

All right, coming up for a country devastated by a five year civil war, finally a ray of hope. The U.S. and Russia are working on a provisional ceasefire in Syria. A live report straight ahead.

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[14:50:50]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Dozens of people are dead and nearly 200 more were injured after a series of ISIS attacks in Syria. They happened in the southern part of Damascus and were carried out with both a car bomb and suicide attack.

A new development from the Middle East provides a glimmer of hope in the five-year civil war in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart say there's a provisional agreement on a ceasefire. It could begin in a matter of days.

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JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The path to peace. The path to isolating dash and degrading and degrading and destroying dash and to giving the people of Syria a real choice for their future is actually right in front of us now. Now we have this moment of opportunity.

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WHITFIELD: But for now, no break in the violence. A double bombing in homes has killed more than three dozen people according to the Syrian government run news agency.

Let's get the latest now from CNN international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson in London joining me on the phone. So how firm is this agreement?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (via telephone): You know, Secretary Kerry calls it a provisional agreement. In principle there were the terms for the hostilities. It could begin in the coming days so he himself is using cautious language.

And of course, it's no surprise at all that ISIS would want to have some of the most strategic and deadly attacks that they can have. They attacked two very sensitive places right in the center of Homs and this Shia shrine in the suburbs of Damascus.

These are very sensitive regime held areas for them to target and why would they do it now? Because the possibility of peace is beginning to emerge on the table and that possibility means that ISIS would be completely isolated.

And they would become the sole target of not just the regime and not just Russia but the United States and its allies and the moderate opposition.

But I think Secretary Kerry has been very cautious. At the moment, the language that he is using and we can listen to his words, I think that he himself is just still trying to be a little cautious about this. This is what he said.

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KERRY: We have reached a provisional agreement in principle on the terms of a cessation of hostilities that could begin in the coming days. It's not yet done and I anticipate that our presidents, President Obama and President Putin, may well speak somewhere in the next days or so in order to try to complete this task.

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ROBERTSON: One of the reasons I think we can see where Secretary Kerry may be getting his optimism from. He's been in London. He met with the British foreign secretary here. He's been to Jordan. That's where he made these statements.

He met with the Jordanian foreign minister. What has been happening, British diplomats have been meeting in Turkey with opposition members. Fighters have come out of Syria to Istanbul.

Met with British and other diplomats. Sat around the table there, talked about the cessation of hostilities and similarly in Jordan. The fighters from the moderate opposition have come out of the south of Syria. Gone to Jordan. Had discussions about how the ceasefire might work.

So I think what we are hearing from Secretary Kerry is based on what he's hearing from them. However, the opposition is also saying look unless something changes really soon, this that was brought up a week ago we're going to have to view it as that. So this is a very limited window and I think hence the caution.

WHITFIELD: And then potentially what would jeopardize this provisional deal.

ROBERTSON: Well, what we know from Secretary Kerry and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is they're still working out the modalities of a ceasefire. It's incredibly complex.

[14:55:01]You know, on the one hand we had just on Friday, Russia going to the United Nations and emergency meeting of the Security Council to complain that Turkey was shelling over the border Kurdish Syrian fighter inside Syria who were taking advantage of the change of the battlefield. You have multiple players. Multiple interests. One of the flies in the ointment here as well is that we have President Bashar Al-Assad today saying, yes, I'm ready for cessation of hostilities but not if the terrorists take ground.

And he named two opposition organizations (inaudible) as being terrorist organizations. Both of these groups are represented in the opposition faction that came to meet for peace talks with his government representatives.

So deciding who the terrorist is has always been the big issue for the Russians and the Syrians. Of course, groups like (inaudible). United States knows that they need to be in at the negotiating table.

That's why they have been part of the negotiating team for the opposition, but it's thorny issue like this that are going to make it really hard work.

WHITFIELD: Incredibly complicated. All right, thank you so much, Nic Robertson in London. I appreciate that. We'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.