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CNN NEWSROOM

Rivals Attack Trump at GOP Debate; Syria Ceasefire to Take Effect this Weekend; Iranians Vote in Crucial Election; Apple Fights Courts Order; Unprecedented U.N. Resolutions Considered Against North Korea; Former CIA Chief Says U.S. Lagging in Stopping Terrorism; FIFA Votes for New President; Rivals Attack Trump at GOP Debate; Leo DiCaprio's Career. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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


(HEADLINES)

[02:00:47] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, we're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm George Howell, from CNN world headquarters. NEWSROOM starts right now.

And a good day to you. We start this hour in Houston, Texas. What a debate, what a debate. The gloves officially came off in the CNN's Republican debate. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, they took no time taking aims at the current frontrunner, Donald Trump. Demanding his plan to replace Obamacare and they challenged his position on immigration and demanded that he release his tax returns.

ALLEN: For most of the night Ben Carson and John Kasich struggled just to get into the conversation.

Here are some highlights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. BEN CARSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON: First of all, I want people to think about what kind of leader and person do you want your kids to emulate, think about that.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I get along with everybody. You get along with nobody. You don't have one Republican --

(SHOUTING)

TRUMP: You don't have one Republican Senator -- and you work with them everyday of your life -- although, you skipped a lot of time due to some minor details. But you don't have one Republican Senator backing you, not one. You don't have the endorsement of one Republican Senator and you work with these people.

UNIDENTIFIED MODERATOR: Senator Cruz.

TRUMP: You should be ashamed of yourself. SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, he's right. When you stand up to Washington, when you honor your promises to those who elect you, and say enough with corruption, enough with the cronyism, let's stand for the working people of this country, Washington doesn't like it. And, Donald, if you want to be liked in Washington, that's not a good attribute for a president.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: I'm the only one on this stage that's hired people. You haven't hired anybody.

(CHEERING)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you build the wall the way you built Trump Towers, you'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.

CRUZ: When I was leading the right against the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, where was Donald? He was firing Dennis Rodman on "Celebrity Apprentice."

JOHN KASICH, (R), OHIO GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to talk about that. I was with this little 12-year-old girl came -- was at a town hall meeting and she said, I don't like all this yelling and screaming at the debates. My mother's thinking I might not be able to watch this thing anymore. I think we ought to move beyond that. I'll tell you what I think. My view is we need economic growth. Everything starts with economic growth and how do you get? Commonsense regulations, lower taxes for both business and individuals, and a fiscal plan that balance a budget.

TRUMP: When you get rid of the lines it brings in competition, so instead of having one insurance company taking care of New York or Texas, you will have many, they'll compete and it will be a beautiful thing.

(CHEERING)

RUBIO: So, that's the only part of the plan? The lines --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You have many different plans. You'll have competition. You have so many different plans.

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: So, now he's repeating himself.

TRUMP: No.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Talk about repeating, I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago. (CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: And I saw you do it five times five seconds ago.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: I watched him meltdown on the stage like I've never seen anybody. I thought he came out of the swimming pool.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MODERATOR: let's talk about your plans.

RUBIO: It says five things, everyone's dumb, we're going to make America great again, we're winning in the polls and the lines.

(SHOUTING)

RUBIO: Every night, same thing.

CRUZ: When you say crazy zealot, are you talking about you?

CARSON: Somebody attack me, please.

(LAUGHTER)

KASICH: Whoa. Whoa.

RUBIO: Here's the guy that inherited $2 million. If he hadn't of inherited $2 million, you know where he'd be?

TRUMP: No, no, no, no.

RUBIO: Selling watches.

(CROSSTALK)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Jonathan Swan is national political reporter with "The Hill" and he joins me via Skype from Washington D.C.

Jonathan, we've seen many debates at this point in this race. What do you have to say about who may have come out on stop, and Marco Rubio really taking digs at Donald Trump?

[02:05:05] JONATHAN SWAN, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Some of the debates beforehand have been frankly quite ridiculous. We've had 10 people on stage. Pre debates, post debates and Donald Trump has really been able to get away with not having much detail, flaunting around and throwing a line in here and there. But tonight there were only five on stage and that really clarified things and what you saw tonight was some really extended exchanges which we've never seen before with Donald Trump and in many ways he came up quite vulnerable. So, Marco Rubio, the Florida Senator really pressed him on detail. He said what's your health care plan and instead of being able to give a one liner as he's done in the past, he actually -- Rubio kept coming back and because it was this small assessing, it seemed to rattle Donald Trump. It was very interesting to watch in that sense.

ALLEN: Let's talk about Ted Cruz for a moment. The latest polls show he leads Donald Trump in his state of Texas by 15 points and this is a poll just shy of Super Tuesday, which is coming up. How much street cred does that give Ted Cruz leading into Super Tuesday?

SWAN: Well, again, there hasn't been very good polling done in a lot of these states. If Ted Cruz loses his home state, his campaign is dead. Completely finish. He has to win Texas, he knows that. He's spending a lot of time in Texas. The debate was held in Houston. As much as he was talking to a national audience, he was talking to a Texas audience. There's 155 delegates there, it's a big state and if Ted Cruz can win convincingly, I think it can take momentum away from Donald Trump and he really has underperformed in both Nevada and South Carolina. People thought Ted Cruz was going to do much better than he did in those two states.

ALLEN: And we should say Kasich and Carson were there tonight.

(LAUGHTER)

They got in there where they could perhaps Carson had the best line. He said can someone please attack me.

SWAN: That's right.

(LAUGHTER)

ALLEN: We'll give him hats off for that.

Jonathan Swan, national political reporter, "The Hill," thanks for being with us.

SWAN: Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

ALLEN: All right. Carson was pretty good with that one, wasn't he?

HOWELL: Someone please attack me.

ALLEN: Nobody did. That's a sad thing.

If you missed any part of it, we'll air it again at 10:00 a.m.

HOWELL: In his to visit to Mexico, the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says Republican candidates don't represent the views of the majority of Americans' views on Mexico.

ALLEN: Biden was in Mexico City to meet with the president. He did not name names but said he thinks the Republican's rhetoric is disturbing and dangerous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's been a lot of damaging and incredibly inaccurate rhetoric and I would argue I feel almost obliged to apologize for what some of my political colleagues have said. It's about Mexico, about the Mexican people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: And former Mexican president, Vincente Fox, is slamming Donald Trump over his plans to build a wall.

HOWELL: Fox urged Latinos in the U.S. to open their eyes or the country would fall into the hands of a crazy guy.

Here's part of that interview, what FOX told Fusion's Jorge Ramos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICENTE FOX, FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT: I declare -- I'm not going to pay for that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: In a tweet, Trump called FOX's language horrible and demanded an apology.

HOWELL: To Syria and a new peace plan, scheduled to go into effect in about 15 hours from now. The ceasefire agreement brokered in part by the U.S. and Russia has been met with a lot of skepticism.

ALLEN: On Thursday, U.S. President Obama once again called for Syrian leader, Bashar al Assad, to drop out. He said the world has to try despite the possible pit falls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If implemented, and that's a significant if, the cessation could get food and aid to Syrians who desperately need it. It could save lives, potentially it could also lead to negotiations to end the civil war so that everybody can focus their attention on destroying ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:10:12] HOWELL: Let's go live to Ian Lee in Cairo, Egypt.

Ian, good to have you with us this hour.

This is backed by both Russia and the United States and we're hearing skepticism, maybe even doubt from the U.S. President about if it will indeed be effective because there's so much room for things to go wrong. What is the sense in the region?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely seems like almost everyone is skeptical that this cessation will actually the take place. We have them determining if they're going to acknowledge if they're going to confirm it, abide by the agreement which takes place at midnight tonight. So, about 15 hours away from when the ceasefire is supposed to go into effect. The real question is who qualifies as part of the opposition to take place to be a part of the ceasefire because if you look at this plan, is, as well as al Qaeda affiliate are not part of the ceasefire and Russia has been fairly loose on who they determine as a terrorist organization. So, both sides will be looking alit at the other side, watching waiting for them to break the ceasefire. But both sides really want the ceasefire to hold. Will it be able to hold really is the question.

HOWELL: And as you point out, you have ISIS that are not part of this ceasefire deal and then it comes down the question of who is aligned with whom? These different opposition groups and Russia plans to continue against the terrorists but who are the terrorists. Talk to our viewers about what's happening there. Is there a sense that it will be better for people when the cessation of hostilities takes effect?

LEE: You're exactly right. And it's really not just stopping the violence, the fighting which leads to loss of life but getting that crucial humanitarian aid into the places that there cut off, under siege, also getting medical aid because lot of these places don't have proper doctors. So too, get the help to the people, about 13.5 million people are in need of aid. Of some sort or another and so that is going to be the main effort during this cessation of hostilities is get food, medicine to these various besieged areas and help these people out. A lot of them have been under starvation conditions and so that's what the U.N. is hoping to do. Other than stop the fighting.

HOWELL: The cessation to take place in about 15 hours. We'll cover it and have the latest on CNN.

Ian Lee, live for us in Cairo, thanks for your reporting.

ALLEN: Just after President Obama's briefing Thursday, Hala Gorani got a rare interview Robert Malley, Obama's top advisor on ISIS. Mali told Hala what the U.S. would consider a partial success in Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT MALLEY, WHITE HOUSE ISIS ADVISOR: The situation a week from now will have to be markedly different from what it is today from the point of view of ordinary citizens. They shouldn't be subject to the air strikes from Russia. If we see that -- we don't expect it's going to go from black to white but if we can see real progress. We've seen some on the humanitarian side already but cities and individuals that have been deprived of food and medicine, people dying of starvation, we're seeing some trucks coming in and that's important. Again, we'll have to test it. We'll test it beginning on Saturday and it's going to take weeks to see whether this really can take hold. And as you said yourself, the last five years have given us every reason to be pessimistic but every reason to try to turn that pessimism into a reality that will surprise us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Live to Baghdad for optimism. A radical cleric has organized a million-man march in Baghdad. He says this peaceful protest is to demonstrate against corruption and to terrorize ISIS.

[02:15:15] HOWELL: Police say a gunman killed three people in a series on Thursday, ending at Excel Industries in Heston, Kansas. Officials say the suspect, an employee at the lawn care manufacturing company, wounded 14 other people, and the victims appear to have been targeted randomly. One eye witness describes the ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED WITNESS: We heard a pop, pop, and we thought it was just metal falling on the ground and then the doors opened, people started screaming coming out saying going to the front and they said no he's out front so everybody started going to the back over here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The gunman was shot and killed by police. The sheriff's office has not released the name of the suspected shooter but he has been identified as Cedric Ford by friend and co worker, Matt Gerald. Officials say the shooting was non-terror related.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, Apple refuses to help the federal government decrypt the phone of a terrorist. Now the company is taking that message to the courts.

ALLEN: And Iranians are voting in a historically crucial election. Up next, we'll tell you why this vote could drastically change the direction of the country.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Iranians are voting for the first time since last year's pivotal nuclear deal. The Ayatollah voted earlier today.

ALLEN: Voters will choose the members of the assembly that elected him and could choose his replacement. They're also electing law makers to parliament. It could determine the future relationship with the West.

For more, let's turn to Fred Pleitgen who joins us via telephone from Teheran.

Hello, Fred. This election is considered a test of the West's nuclear deal with Iran, is that right?

[02:20:08] FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely. And it certainly was one of the main election campaign issues of both sides. The nuclear agreement. Of course, the reformers believe if they win, that court opening up further to the West will be accelerated, however, there was a conservative who said there could be Western infiltration. It seems as though both sides have led to a big turnout. There's actually people outside, trying to get in. So there are long lines of people who want to cast their votes. There are people who say they're very optimistic and some support the reform movement but there were a lot of conservatives in the line as well. It is shaping out to be fairly high turnout. Some thought this to be the most important nonpresidential election in this country's history. The campaigns were fierce on both sides. There was a lot of rhetoric created and it clearly has brought people to the polls today -- Natalie?

ALLEN: Interesting. And we saw the religious leader, ayatollah voting. Has he given guidance to voters on what he's thinking?

PLEITGEN: Absolutely. There was a lot of guidance in the run up to the election. He said he wanted people to go out and vote. He said he believed during the election there would be some sort of -- from the United States to try to infiltrate Iran. But the main message was to go out and vote. And I was actually at that event where he cast his ballot and that was the main thing he said was it was the duty of the citizens to cast their ballot. And this is one that's going to be very important for this country's future going forward, not just because of the parliamentary elections but also because of the elections for the counsel of exports, which will, at some point, determine his own replacement and, therefore, to a very large extent, the course of the country going forward.

ALLEN: Fred Pleitgen, following it for us from Teheran. Thank you.

HOWELL: Apple says a court order to hack into an iPhone is unconstitutional. The FBI wants apple to write special software to help them unlock the phone to San Bernardino terrorist, Syed Farook.

ALLEN: Apple stating the following, "When apple designed IOS 8, it wrote code that announced the value it placed on data security and the privacy of citizens by omitting a back door. But government wants a tool that will create a crippled and insecure product."

HOWELL: It's a talker around the country.

Let's go to "CNN Money" business correspondent, Samuel Burke, is live with us.

Samuel, good to have you.

Apple said it would set a dangerous precedent to hack into its own phone. It has supporters and even a great deal of push back, even among presidential candidates.

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, CNN MONEY: George, it's a talker not just in the United States but all around the world. Because this could affect so many places because we carry these devices whether we're in Atlanta or London. A lot of people thought it would be pretty simple and apple would type in the code the way we all do but it's not that simple. The court is asking them to write code that would undermine its system. They have chosen this argument that when they code something that is a type of speech, so to go in and essentially be forced to do this would be violating their First Amendment rights. Supreme court observers have seen in the past couple of years things that don't seem like speech to us lay people has been a successful argument over and over again, equating money with free speech and there are other court cases where we've seen coding come up as free speech.

HOWELL: And how are they suggesting none of this would have been necessary had had investigators not initially made a mistake handling the phone.

BURKE: What apple has said is the government went in and changed the password on the iCloud and that means the information from the phone would have been backed up in the server, and that way that the government could have gotten in. But I think it's a mute point in the sense that we've all this is going to the Supreme Court. Do you want a system so secure that even the government can't get in? So one way or another, this was heading for the top court in the land in the United States.

[02:25:17] HOWELL: Samuel Burke, live for us in London. Thank you so much for your reporting there.

ALLEN: Coming up, a new resolution that would impose the toughest sanction sanctions North Korea has seen in decades.

ALLEN: And FIFA has a branding crisis but it is hoping a vote in a few hours could help it regain the trust of its fans.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: A very warm welcome back to our viewers around the world. This is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen.

Let's update you on our top stories this hour.

(HEADLINES)

HOWELL: North Korea could be facing its toughest sanctions in more than two decades. The U.S. work with China to unveil what is being called an unprecedented U.N. resolution aimed at stopping Pyongyang in its tracks, its nuclear program.

ALLEN: They include mandatory inspection of cargo boats and banning the sale of aviation and rocket fuel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMANTHA POWERS, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: These sanctions, if adopted, would send an unyielding message to the DPRK regime. The world will not accept your proliferation. There will be consequences for your actions. And we will work relentlessly and collectively to stop your nuclear program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:30:00] ALLEN: Well, for the latest, let's go to Paula Hancocks. She's live for us in Seoul, South Korea.

Paula, what makes them so unprecedented?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, nattily, certainly they seem to be going further than previous sanctions and resolutions. We're expecting the vote to happen as early as this weekend. The 15 member states are looking to see if they approve with the wording. The obvious points that would stop that. And things like luxury goods, the sanctions would be expanded to ski lifts and exports like coal, iron, titanium. So that North Korea would not be able to get as much income as they have been in the past. One official says it will be felt and will have an impact and previous resolutions have had less of an impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SINGING)

HANCOCKS (voice-over): Jamming in downtown Seoul --

(SINGING)

HANCOCKS: -- a popular South Korean site, shows what could have been. The reality between the United States and North Korea is very different. Washington has called on Pyongyang give up its nuclear missile program for years. Four major resolutions have been passed by the United Nations Security Council since Pyongyang's first nuclear test a decade ago. 2006, the U.N. imposed a series of economic and commercial sanctions. 2009, the second nuclear test, also met with a U.N. resolution and expanded sanctions. A 2012 satellite launch, widely believed to be a long-range missile test. Further sanctions. 2013, its third nuclear test, another U.N. resolution.

Despite one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on earth, Pyongyang was still able to develop and test its nuclear capabilities.

One former presidential adviser in South Korea is not surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED FORMER SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: It was designed not to have an impact, because China watered down the resolution and made it almost ineffective.

HANCOCKS: Official talks on denuclearization are a distant memory. Six-party talks with the U.S., Japan, Russia, China and the two Koreas ended abruptly in 2009 when North Korea walked out.

Some experts feel stronger sanctions against North Korea, what would it mean for the people and the first tenuous signs of economic growth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you just sanction these guys, and this country, to death, if you just try and inflict pain on Kim Jong-Un, you're probably not going to hurt Kim Jong-Un, but you are going to hurt all of these ultimately positive forces for the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HANCOCKS: So, 15-member states of the security counsel are now looking through that resolution to see if they're happy with it. 22 pages long and as the U.S. ambassador has said, the strongest set of sanctions in two decades -- Natalie?

ALLEN: If they are implemented, what kind of difference will that life we make on the ground in North Korea?

HANCOCKS: Well, certainly, the implementation will be key. It's one thing to have a resolution and another to sign off on the sanctions but there has to be implementation on the ground. It is likely to have an impact on North Korea. Look at one of the, the coal, iron minerals. That is a money maker for North Korea. They do rely on these exports. The unification ministry here and reserving the right to give an actual response until it is voted into the U.N. Security counsel and voted as a resolution. The rocket fuel certainly could an impact as well. Not just on rocket tests and rocket launches and on military aviation that North Koreans would want to do. So, there do appear to be going further than other sanctions. Others are being expanded upon. The luxury products, for example, that has been in there before. It will have an impact. We have to wait to see if it clears the security counsel and exactly what does happen on the ground.

[02:35:03] ALLEN: We'll cover that.

Thank you, Paul Hancocks, live in Seoul, South Korea.

HOWELL: A former CIA chief says the U.S. is in the middle of two battles with terrorism and it's only winning one of those battles. Retired General Michael Hayden says the U.S. is doing well in immediate fights but lagging behind in stopping terror attacks further down the road.

Michael Holmes spoke with Hayden earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA CHIEF: I think at its core, we are collateral damage to a war within Islam. Sunni, the monarchies against ISIS and al Qaeda, Sunnis, obviously, the Iranians Saudis and so on. And finally a struggle in Islam to deal with --

(CROSSTALK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Isn't there more than that when you look at the West and their authoritarian regimes, when it suits the West. The accusation that the West is medaling for its own interest has fermented a lot of what we're seeing now.

HAYDEN: The boarders were entirely artificial and kept in place by the raw imposition of power. I get it. I have a book and in that book I talk about my last visit to Cairo and a meeting with the Egyptian president that he wanted to have and he spent more than an hour yelling at me telling that American policy was misinformed that this push to democracy and participation and more openness just revealed that we didn't know anything that was going on in Egypt. As it turns out, we knew a lot about what was going on in Egypt. We were trying to nudge our friend into something that would have more stability and frankly, more democracy.

HOLMES: And when it came along, we didn't like who won and then we supported the guy who got rid of the Muslim Brother.

HAYDEN: Let's be careful about the pronoun "we." I wouldn't have voted for Morasey but I wanted to see the Muslim Brotherhood govern in Egypt. It was very ideologically poor in opposition. I wanted to see how it would act when they were responsible for picking up the garbage. I wanted to see political Islam deliver or not deliver.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: That was former CIA Chief General Michael Hayden.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. In just a few hours, football's governing body is set to elect its new leader. What Wall Street says FIFA should do to recover from various scandals.

ALLEN: That's coming up.

And big score for this little football fan. We'll have his story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(HEADLINES)

[02:42:46] HOWELL: Just a few hours from now, FIFA's members will vote for their first new president in nearly two decades.

ALLEN: And these are the five men in the run to become the influential leader of the soccer governing body.

HOWELL: Suspended former President Sepp Blatter was forced to step down amid various corruption scandal. Delegates will also vote on reform.

ALLEN: FIFA hopes the new president will help it regain public trust.

HOWELL: "CNN Money's" Claire Sebastian reports on what the football giant could do to save itself from financial disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLAIRE SEBASTIAN, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one of the many videos FIFA uses to promote its core butted now what comes to mind is a little different.

(MUSIC)

SEBASTIAN: Millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks, they corrupted the business of world wide soccer.

(on camera): When it comes to fixing that tarnished brand and moving forward, many say look at business.

(voice-over): They say they should take their world side and listing it on the stock exchange.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They would have to report to share holders and subject to giving a significant fraction of its profits back to FIFA to feed into the grass roots and for the development of soccer, football world wide and then it could have to be accountable for minimizing the operation cost.

SEBASTIAN: The World Cup generates around 90 percent of its revenue. In the last World Cup cycle, that was over $4.5 billion.

Crisis management is expensive. With legal fees mounting and struggling to attract new sponsors, FIFA is expected to post less than a half million dollars in 2015.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've already spent millions and millions on legal fees.

SEBASTIAN: This man spent two years on FIFA's independent governance committee.

[02:45:10] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have to do it by putting their money where their mouth is and their resources where their mouth is. They have to contribute to civil society and join businesses in starting a march against corruption in sports.

SEBASTIAN: FIFA must not only fix the damage to this core brand, it must be seen to be doing so.

Claire Sebastian, CNN Money, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Football around the world, it's such a wonderful sport. It's so unfortunate this cloud is hanging over it.

ALLEN: Well, the FIFA story is a downer about football. So, we have an upper for you. A football icon has made a little boy quite happy. That's 5-year-old boy from a village in Afghanistan. He was wearing a home-made shirt of his hero, Barcelona's Lionel Messi. And the ball made from plastic bags.

HOWELL: Messi him two real shirts and that snazzy looking ball is also a gift. Very well deserved.

ALLEN: The future Lionel Messi right there. That is adorable.

Will this finally be Leo's year? Coming up, a look back at the most Oscar snubbed actors, Leonardo DiCaprio. And we'll tell you what a critic thinks he will win this year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: The gloves came off at the latest presidential debate. CNN's Republican debate was without a doubt, maybe the most contentious debate with frontrunner, Donald Trump the main target.

[02:50:04] HOWELL: The insults were flying fast and furious.

Here's a look at some of the highlights from that debate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: This guy's a joke artist and this guy's a liar.

You don't know how to think about business.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know anything about bankrupting four companies.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Where was Donald? He was firing Dennis Rodman on "Celebrity Apprentice."

TRUMP: You should be ashamed of yourself.

RUBIO: If he builds the wall, the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.

TRUMP: He lied, 100 percent.

RUBIO: If he inherited $200 million, do you know where Donald Trump would be right now?

TRUMP: No, no, no, no.

RUBIO: Selling watches --

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: This is another area in which Donald agrees with Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: I think Bush did a hell of a bad job.

First of all, very few people listen to your radio show. That's the good news.

RUBIO: A lot of these positions he's taking are new to him.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: When you say crazy zealot, are you talking about you?

RUBIO: You may not be aware of this, Donald, because you don't follow this stuff closely.

TRUMP: I know you're embarrassed. I know you're embarrassed. But keep fighting, keep swinging man. Swing for the trenches.

I wanted him melt down, and I'll tell you it was one of the saddest things I ever seen.

We're having lot of fun up here, I got to tell you.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: Donald, relax.

TRUMP: I'm relaxed.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You're the basket case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: You saw Donald Trump get a little flustered when he said you borrowed $200 million, and he only borrowed $1 million.

ALLEN: Turn that over to our fact checkers.

Western Europe is breaking for a powerful storm. Our meteorologist Karen McGinnis is following this for us.

KAREN MCGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, yes, we do have a very powerful storm system that is going to usher in quite a bit of wind, rain and considerable snowfall as this dives further towards the south over the next day or so, it will merge with another system that is swirling around right across the north central Mediterranean. Most areas across Spain, also Portugal, into France and eventually Italy are looking at pretty substantial rainfall totals, maybe isolated areas where we could see possibly double that. But the snowfall, this is probably going to be a one of the biggest events that we've seen so far of the season where up to a meter of snow extending from the Pyrenees into Alps could materialize. We're expecting the next several days to be quite substantial. Around Madrid the heavy rainfall and eventually really adding up across north central Italy and down towards Rome and into Naples as well. And for the eastern Adriatic as well. We'll see substantial rainfall. Can't rule out the possibility of a couple thunderstorms as well. But look at the temperatures over the next several days in Madrid. Temperatures below average and zooming up around 18 by the middle of next week. This is very fascinating. This is in Hawaii. It doesn't happen very often. This is a quick silver event. These are between six and nine meters, between 20 and 30 feet. There's already been a winner, if you can imagine just the nerve it would take to ride these high waves on a surf board. John Florence has won this event. He's 23 years old. This is along the north shore. One of those key areas where they wait for these waves they hope to not wipe out -- Natalie, George?

ALLEN: Pretty cool. Easy breezy.

HOWELL: Not. Looks intense.

ALLEN: Thanks, Karen.

HOWELL: Yeah, thank you.

Movie lovers are counting down until Sunday. Are you counting down?

ALLEN: Just want to see the dresses.

HOWELL: Well, there you go.

ALLEN: Not counting down for dresses.

HOWELL: The Academy Awards. And here is a quick look by the numbers at the Oscars. 24, is the number of award categories and most have five nominees each.

ALLEN: 121 is the total number of nominations. 72 the number of envelopes with the winners inside.

HOWELL: And two is the number of people who know ahead of time who the winners are. Both are from the accounting firm that tallies up the ballots. Big surprise.

ALLEN: Leonardo DiCaprio, only 41 but has become one of Hollywood's leading men and everyone thinks this is it.

HOWELL: We'll see. Despite his success, Leo has not managed to take home an Oscar. Many are hoping his performance in "The Revenant" will change that.

Here's Stephanie Elam.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From "Titanic" to "The Revenant" Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation.

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: It's a thirst that's never quenched.

ELAM: Throughout his career, the 41-year-old has garnered six academy award nominations.

DICAPRIO: It's very rewarding.

[02:55:18] ELAM: But could this finally be Leo's year to win Oscar gold?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the type of movie and performance that is showier than typical Leo performances. I think at this point it is Leonardo's Oscar to lose.

ELAM: He began acting as a teen, nabbing supporting rolls on TV shows like "Growing Pains" before making his big screen break through as Johnny Depp's mentally impaired brother in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"

(SHOUTING)

DICAPRIO: I'm proud of myself at that age I was that passionate about a character.

ELAM: The film earned DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination and led to a string of fan favorites including the film that would make him a household name.

(MUSIC)

ELAM: "Titanic" catapulted DiCaprio to A-list status and one of the most highest grossing films of all time. And since then, he's starred in a series of box office hits.

DICAPRIO: Can't repeat the past.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: No.

DICAPRIO: Of course, you can.

ELAM: And award winning features like "Aviator." And the "Wolf of Wall Street."

(SHOUTING)

ELAM: His work in "The Revenant" has already won him both a Golden Globe and a SAG award.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's eating bison liver, he's sleeping inside a horse. He's not relying on his looks at all in this movie or his charm.

ELAM: A gritty role that may finally earn Leo an Oscar.

DICAPRIO: I have so much respect for this art form.

ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: If you sleep inside a horse, you should win.

ALLEN: For real? He did it for real.

HOWELL: Thanks for watching. ALLEN: That's a real hour from us.

HOWELL: For sure.

Thank you. We'll have more highlights ahead from the presidential debate that CNN hosted.

ALLEN: Also a preview of a big vote ahead.

Stay with us.

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