Rivals Attack Trump at GOP Debate; Syria Ceasefire to Take Effect this Weekend; Rivals Attack Trump at GOP Debate
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, we're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.</s>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.</s>ALLEN: For most of the night Ben Carson and John Kasich struggled just to get into the conversation. Here are some highlights.</s>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.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I get along with everybody. You get along with nobody. You don't have one Republican --</s>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.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MODERATOR: Senator Cruz.</s>TRUMP: You should be ashamed of yourself.</s>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.</s>TRUMP: I'm the only one on this stage that's hired people. You haven't hired anybody.</s>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.</s>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."</s>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.</s>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.</s>RUBIO: So, that's the only part of the plan? The lines --</s>TRUMP: You have many different plans. You'll have competition. You have so many different plans.</s>RUBIO: So, now he's repeating himself.</s>TRUMP: No.</s>TRUMP: Talk about repeating, I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago.</s>RUBIO: And I saw you do it five times five seconds ago.</s>TRUMP: I watched him meltdown on the stage like I've never seen anybody. I thought he came out of the swimming pool.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MODERATOR: let's talk about your plans.</s>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.</s>RUBIO: Every night, same thing.</s>CRUZ: When you say crazy zealot, are you talking about you?</s>CARSON: Somebody attack me, please.</s>KASICH: Whoa. Whoa.</s>RUBIO: Here's the guy that inherited $2 million. If he hadn't of inherited $2 million, you know where he'd be?</s>TRUMP: No, no, no, no.</s>RUBIO: Selling watches.</s>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?</s>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.</s>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?</s>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.</s>ALLEN: And we should say Kasich and Carson were there tonight.</s>SWAN: That's right.</s>ALLEN: We'll give him hats off for that. Jonathan Swan, national political reporter, "The Hill," thanks for being with us.</s>SWAN: Thanks a lot. Thank you. Thanks for having me.</s>ALLEN: All right. Carson was pretty good with that one, wasn't he?</s>HOWELL: Someone please attack me.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>ALLEN: And former Mexican president, Vincente Fox, is slamming Donald Trump over his plans to build a wall.</s>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.</s>VICENTE FOX, FORMER MEXICAN PRESIDENT: I declare -- I'm not going to pay for that</s>ALLEN: In a tweet, Trump called FOX's language horrible and demanded an apology.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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?</s>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.</s>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?</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.</s>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.