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AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

2 Americans Missing After Brussels Attacks; Jeb Bush Endorses Ted Cruz; Heidi Cruz Speaks to Media; Trump Threatens to Reveal Heidi Cruz Secrets. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired March 23, 2016 - 11:30   ET

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


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[11:32:36] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Moments ago, the State Department told CNN approximately a dozen Americans were injured in the Brussels attacks. Several U.S. citizens are also still unaccounted for. That could include two siblings from New York who ere at the Brussels airport yesterday. There are pictures of them right there. They were getting ready to fly home when the bombs went off and no one has heard from them since.

Miguel Marquez is here. He has been following all of these details.

And it's difficult because there are a lot of people are unaccounted for today.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the hours and days after this, this is always the case, and hopefully they will be found eventually. But Alexander and Sasha Vonshowski (ph), they were living in New York. It's not clear that they were U.S. citizens, but they had been living here. She worked as a caterer as an intern and had a great future ahead of her. They were at the airport. They have not been heard from since. They were coming to New York. Several people, we know, are in that similar situation.

BOLDUAN: A lot of folks at the airport unaccounted for now. One couple a lot of people are asking about is a young couple -- I think we have a picture of them as well -- they had moved to Brussels from Nashville. What are you learning about them?

MARQUEZ: They moved to Brussels from Nashville. They were to move back to the states in 2017. Stephanie and Justin Schultz. They're mother, Stephanie's mother was visiting them in Brussels. They had dropped her off at the airport. This is actually frightening. They were at the security line. Mom was about to go through. That's when the bomb occurred and they haven't heard from Stephanie or Justin since. They have heard from Carolyn Moore, Stephanie's mother. She was able to make it out. She's been scouring the neighborhood, going to every place that they know to see if she can find them, but so far they still have not been able to hook up. Justin's brother has texted that he woke up to text messages from his mother, "Call me, urgently," and knew it was going to be a bad day.

BOLDUAN: This drives home something we understand. It's just a matter of feet, really, that could be a deciding factor between life and death.

MARQUEZ: Two bombs went off in quick succession. It's hard to know. One bomb goes off, people rush to another area. The other bomb goes off and even more people get injured.

BOLDUAN: 37 seconds apart.

MARQUEZ: Two others missing, Bart Lignam (Ph) and Andre Adam (ph), a former ambassador to the U.S. And then several people were injured there, including someone from Michigan, three Mormon missionaries from Utah, a lieutenant colonel serving in NATO. We don't know his name yet. He was injured there.

[11:35:12] BOLDUAN: And we heard from the health minister that these were war-like injuries. That's what they are looking like and dealing with at these hospitals. We're still awaiting word and we'll stay close to it.

(CROSSTALK)

MARQUEZ: We're keeping a list and trying to keep everybody up to speed as quickly and as definitively as possible.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Thank you so much, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: Great to see you.

Right now, security teams across Europe, they are on the hunt for the terrorists and their associates who helped suicide bombers unleash these terror attacks in Brussels. New details on the manhunt. We'll be bringing that to you.

Also, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz offering up their plans of how to prevent another Brussels-style terror attack and it may one of the few areas where the candidates agree. We've be live with top advisers for both candidates.

We'll be right back.

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[11:40:57] BOLDUAN: Turning now to the race for the White House, on the Republican side, in Utah, Ted Cruz, he won the voting there with 69 percent of the vote, passing the ever important 50 percent threshold, taking home all 40 of that state's delegates. Now, Trump, he came in third there behind John Kasich with only 14 percent of the vote. Now, in Arizona, a very different picture, a winner-take-all state, of course. Trump won big, 47 percent of the vote, capturing all 58 delegates. This brings Trump's delegate count up to 741 putting him closer to the magic number of 1,237. Ted Cruz is at 461. And John Kasich is at 145, picking up no delegates yesterday. That is the state of play. But also this. A major new endorsement this morning coming for Ted Cruz picks from former Republican rival, Jeb Bush.

Joining now to discuss is Jeb Bush's brother, Neil Bush. He is also part of Ted Cruz's finance team.

Neil, thank you very much for joining me.

NEIL BUSH, FINANCE TEAM MEMBER, TED CRUZ PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN & BROTHER OF JEB BUSH: Kate, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

This was a big surprise this morning, your brother endorsing Ted Cruz. Pretty amazing after the race that they ran and how they were pretty bitter rivals. He could have endorsed John Kasich. He could have endorsed a guy who he was friends with many years before Florida, Marco Rubio, but he held out until now to endorse Ted Cruz. Is this about Ted Cruz or is this more about beat Trump?

BUSH: I think it's both. I think it's both. It's clearly about wanting to have conservative government. We have a speaker of the House and a Senate majority leader ready to make reforms to our system to end the gridlock, and Ted Cruz is a clear-minded, principled conservative leader. And so my brother Jeb admires and respects that, I'm sure, and wants to see us make the reforms that will help move this country forward in a great way.

But clearly, he along with Rubio supporters and other supporters of candidates that have dropped out, see that Donald Trump represents the greatest threat to the Republican Party. He's a flawed candidate. I don't know if Jeb would word it this way. I only speak for myself. But he's such a flawed candidate. He has -- clearly, he's raised an army of devout followers. He's had $1.8 billion of free publicity on the FOX and CNN and all the networks. He's got the highest negative ratings. And you can't take back what you said. It's as though he's running for eighth grade class president and we're looking for leadership at a critical time in our country's history. And Ted Cruz represents the best hope for that kind of leadership, for winning the nomination, potentially going into the convention, at least having more delegates than Donald Trump at the convention, so that we can use our convention as a positive, you know, benefit to the Republican Party message.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: You've got a long way to go -- you've got a long way to go until then, Neil, it sure seems.

But on the road to the convention, what are we going to see from Jeb Bush? Is he going to be out there campaigning for Ted Cruz? What role is he going to play?

BUSH: I really honestly don't know. If I were Ted, I'd get him out there for sure. My brother had a track record of reform-minded leadership. BOLDUAN: You know what, Neil, let's hold -- I'm sorry to interrupt,

Neil. I do though want to get right now to Heidi Cruz, Ted Cruz's wife, speaking to the media. Let's listen in.

HEIDI CRUZ, WIFE OF TED CRUZ: -- conservatives around this country are rallying behind Ted, because the more they learn about him, and learn about our family, they vote for us. It was a big day to have the endorsement from Mike Lee and Nia Love, a congresswoman there. So many people came on board because they know Ted. We're really excited this morning to have people working here.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What was your reaction when you first saw that tweet that he was saying about you?

CRUZ: As you probably know by now, most of the things that others say are not based in reality. So we are excited to be campaigning -- I have one job on this campaign and that is to be helping Ted on this race and it's the easiest job in the world, because all I have to do is speak the truth, what I know about my husband, my family and myself. We are just really gaining momentum in this campaign to win the 1,237 votes.

[11:45:27] UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And you have had an incredible career and still do. Can you send a message to the women of Wisconsin what your reaction is and what you hope people of Wisconsin learn from this or what you have learned from that?

CRUZ: Absolutely. What I think most women want is a better future for their children, and that's certainly what I want, and why Ted and I are running for this -- for Ted to be president of the United States, because I think women across this continent, across this country want to elect a leader that is optimistic and plan for the future of their country and to turn this country around. And that is why I know we're going to do really well in this state and why we've been gathering the momentum to beat the front runner.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

CRUZ: You know, as I said, you probably know that most of the things that Trump says has no basis in reality. So we are not worried in the least. We are going to continue with our campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mrs. Cruz, are spouses fair game in this election?

CRUZ: Like I said, we have run our campaign with the principles that Ted and I believe in, and a lot of the things that are done from time to time are not from our campaign. And so I want you to focus on what our campaign puts out, which you'll find is a positive and hopeful agenda for this country. We need to show this country the principles of the left have not worked. We've had eight years of a failing economy, of a Great Recession that we've never recovered from. This is an incredible opportunity for Republicans to elect a leader, who understands the Constitution, understands free markets, that will turn this country around and the economy around, and focus on the issues of the day. UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Last question. What is your message to Donald

Trump after seeing that? What message do you have for him?

CRUZ: I have the same message to this country and to all of the candidates, from day one, that Ted Cruz is a great person to be leading this country. And he's ready to be commander-in-chief on day one, because he knows the issues that are most important to Americans. He has the experience of winning over and over. And we have issues like religious liberty, freedom of speech, the Second Amendment. These are issues facing this country. There is one person left on that stage that has a track record of actually winning the arguments and defending over and over, and I think the American people need that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Thank you, Mrs Cruz.

BOLDUAN: You're listening right there to Heidi Cruz, in Wisconsin. Something pretty unusual. Let's give the context for this because I want to bring Neil Bush back in. The context for this is, we don't often see the spouse of a candidate holding a solo press conference, and Heidi Cruz coming out this morning feeling compelled to do so to speak to the media.

The back-story on all of this, she was asked to respond to a slam coming from Donald Trump over a super PAC ad that was put out that was aimed at Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump. You're seeing

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BOLDUAN: I want you to listen to what the New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, how he responded to that proposal this morning on CBS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BRATTON, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT: He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Quite frankly, I took great offense at that statement. I have almost 1,000 Muslim officers in the NYPD. Ironically, when he's running around here, we probably have a few Muslim officers guiding hill.

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(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: "He doesn't know what the hell he's talking about." That's from Bill Bratton. A very well respected law enforcement official. What do you say?

BUSH: I think he took Ted's words out of context, truthfully. Ted is just making a pragmatic idea or suggestion that we need to be diligent. We need to be diligent as a nation. The --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: Do you think he needs to dial back that language, because he's doubled down on this about patrolling neighborhoods.

BUSH: I think it might be helpful for him to clarify and say, look, we're not racially profiling. He wants non radical Muslims to participate as well. Get him on your show and ask him yourself. But I'd presume he's also talking about extremists in the Christian faith and other faiths. We need to be diligent in our neighborhoods, in America, to keep an eye out for a terror cell that's festering that could potentially blowup. I don't think Ted is singling out the Muslim neighborhood the way the good chief suggested. I think he's looking at a practical suggestion that we need to be more diligent in our country. What happens over in Europe is likely to happen here and we need to be aware of it. We need to view ISIS as an enemy. We need to call it like it is. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and it looks like a duck, it is a duck. They are an enemy and we need to be diligent about dealing with it, is what I think Ted would say.

BOLDUAN: Neil, thank you for your time. Appreciate it.

A lot to get to today. We thank you for your time.

BUSH: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I do want to move quickly over to get the Donald Trump campaign of side of this.

Stephen Miller, he's a senior advisor to Donald Trump, a top aide to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions. He's here with me right now.

Stephen, thank you for coming on.

STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN & SENIOR AIDE TO SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about the latest in the feud that's gotten nasty overnight. I kind of gave the context for the viewers, the back and forth, showing the tweet that Trump sent out, calling Ted Cruz and "Lying Cruz" and warning, "Be careful or I'll spill the beans on your wife." Cruz this morning responded. Heidi Cruz responded for herself. She said, "Most of the things that Trump says have no basis in reality."

What are the beans that Donald Trump is threatening to spill?

MILLER: Well, first, I'd like to respond to a comment from your last guest, who said that Mr. Trump would be a threat to the Republican Party. Mr. Trump is going to save the Republican Party, because he is a threat to the special interests who controlled both parties in Washington for too long. This special interest who off-shored our jobs and left our border guide open and sent us into reckless foreign wars. So --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I get that, Stephen. But what are --

(CROSSTALK) MILLER: The only people threatened by Mr. Trump are the special

interests. We need to be talking about that.

BOLDUAN: It seems one person that is not threatened is Heidi Cruz. I'd like you to respond to that. And what are the --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: There was obviously a very inappropriate ad, very mean spirited, put out by a super PAC. And Donald Trump said, if we're going to go there, we can go in that direction. I'm assuming we all hope that the Cruz campaign is going to tell the super PAC, with a public message, to stand down.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: What are the beans that Donald Trump is threatening to spill about Heidi Cruz?

MILLER: Well, it's not for me to say so, right now, today, is it? His whole point was is that we have to be careful not to go in that direction. And if we do go in that direction --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: But Ted Cruz did not. It was a super PAC, an anti-Trump super PAC.

MILLER: Right, and hopefully Ted Cruz -- we all know the game with the super PACs. If Ted Cruz comes out and gives a firm message, the super PAC attack ads are going to stop.

What's really happening here that nobody is talking about is that all of the super PACs that you have, including the former super PACs from candidates who have left the race, are now spending millions and millions and millions of dollars to try to prevent the front runner, Donald Trump, from getting the nomination.

BOLDUAN: Stephen, are you comfortable --

(CROSSTALK)

[11:55:30] MILLER: So the question is -- the question -- the question is why.

BOLDUAN: No, the question is, are you comfortable with your candidate threatening to spill the beans on another candidate's wife because of an ad that that candidate had nothing to do with?

MILLER: Of course I'm comfortable with saying that if we're going to go in that direction, then there's issues that can be addressed. But the point is we're hoping that Ted Cruz is going to tell his super PACs to stand down. This is not a story about Donald Trump. This is a story about Ted Cruz and dirty special interest money aligned behind Ted Cruz. Donald Trump is the only candidate --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: -- the only candidate not financed by special interests.

BOLDUAN: Stephen, Donald Trump, in his tweet, where Donald Trump likes to communicate very much, in this tweet, he doesn't talk about a super PAC. He's talking about lying Ted Cruz --

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: Right. Because -- right --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: "Lying Ted Cruz, be careful, or I'll spill the beans on your wife."

MILLER: We can play the game -- we can play the game --

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: I'm not playing a game.

MILLER: No, not you. No you. But we can play the game, pretending that Ted Cruz and all these super PACs and everyone in the, quote/unquote, "Never Trump" movement, are all separate and apart from one another.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: But we know that isn't true. You know that isn't true.

BOLDUAN: So what you're telling me is you do think that Ted Cruz is behind this ad?

MILLER: I think Ted Cruz has the power to stop the lies that are being aired on TV and online and in print every single day by these super PACs. Remember, they're on the same team. The super PACs and their donors and Ted Cruz and his donors are all on the same team. And the team that they're on is a team trying to keep their policies in Washington exactly as they are. They're trying to keep the trade deals that offshore our jobs, to keep our border wide open, to continue our reckless refugee programs and reckless foreign wars.

All I'm saying is that we can have this pretend, imaginary line that we think exists between Ted Cruz and his donors. They are on the same team. It is Ted Cruz who should be apologizing. If he goes in that direction, we can go in that direction.

It's not for me, today, right at this moment, to say what might happen tomorrow. What is for me to say, and is important to say, and to my original point, is that the only people to whom Mr. Trump is a threat are the special interest bullies who have never been told before to stand down. And for the first time ever, the special interests, who have been destroying our economy and wiping out our middle class, are actually facing somebody who is going to take away their power and give it to the people who are listening to your show today. BOLDUAN: I'll tell you, Stephen, we had a whole lot more to talk

about, but it seems that this latest spat on Twitter has taken over that today. We'll have to have you back on tomorrow to continue the conversation.

MILLER: Thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: Stephen Miller, thank you very much.

MILLER: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: A lot to discuss that ahead.

Also ahead, any minute now, President Obama holding a press conference from Argentina. You see them standing right there. This comes amid criticism for the president, coming mostly from Republicans, that he did not return to the United States after the Brussels attack. He's in Argentina for an historic visit with the new president there. We'll bring you the president's remarks live when we return.

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