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GOP Field Grows to Eight with Pataki, Santorum; Defense Secretary: "China is Out of Step"; Text Message Crashes iPhone; World Soccer Chief to Speak on Allegations. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 28, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:46] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Rick Santorum making his plans to run for president official but this morning he's sharing the spotlight with George Pataki. The former New York Governor announcing his candidacy and touting his leadership after September 11th and his call for Americans to unite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE PATAKI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to recapture that spirit, that sense that we are one people. When we do, we will stop empowering politicians and empower ourselves with the opportunities that have an unlimited, bright future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Pataki now one of eight Republicans who have thrown his hat or her hat into the ring.

While pundits maybe predicting a face-off between the eventual Republican nominee and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, she's facing a surprising and potentially strong challenge from the left and it's not from Joe Biden but from Bernie Sanders, the self-professed socialist senator from Vermont.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With your support, and the support of millions of people throughout our country, we begin a political revolution to transform our country economically, politically, socially, and environmentally.

We stand here and say loudly and clearly, enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people and not to a handful of billionaires.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was Sanders at his campaign kick-off earlier this week. A new Quinnipiac poll is out and it shows his views may be gaining traction. Sanders is currently in second place among Democratic voters. It's a distant to second to Hillary Clinton, yes, but several steps ahead of Joe Biden. Who would have figured?

So let's talk about this. Jason Johnson is here. He's a political science professor at Hiram College and Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics and the author of "The Surge: 2014 big GOP win and what it means for the next presidential election". Welcome to both of you.

JASON JOHNSON, HIRAM COLLEGE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Hi -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So Jason, Bernie Sanders -- socialist, 15 percent, ahead of Joe Biden, socialist.

JOHNSON: I think we can change the word socialist to "I don't like Hillary". I think at this particular point you have a large number of Democrats who just don't like Hillary Clinton, they don't like the Clinton legacy and they are looking for an alternative. I don't think he's going to provide much of a challenge. I don't even think he's much of an ideological challenge. I think that this is a resistance vote and it's all going to disappear by the time we get to Iowa next spring.

COSTELLO: Yes, but Larry -- Joe Biden, talk about name recognition, he's the vice president of the United States.

SABATO: Well Carol, he's not running. He's told a few people privately, yes, I'm going to run, but we see no evidence whatsoever of a real campaign being put together. If he were running, then I think he would be in second place.

But you know, Carol, somebody had to be in second place to Hillary Clinton. There are going to be several other candidates -- somebody is going to be number two.

Bernie Sanders is doing relatively well because he stands for something. He's not afraid to say it. He's not moderating his views. And as Jason said very well, you have a certain percentage of Democrats, nowhere near a majority, who want to, quote, "send her a message". That is, don't move too far to the middle. Stay with us on the left.

COSTELLO: Well, she is staying on the left, so to speak, at least on social issues because Jason, Clinton is running as the most liberal Democrat in decades. Her stance on gay marriage, and on immigration -- you can't get more left than those -- that her stand on those issues.

JOHNSON: But does anyone really believe her? The thing is the Clintons are political chameleons. They're going to put their finger to the wind and they'll say whatever they believe in. In the 1990s they'll say we're tough on crime and today Hillary Clinton will say that she's pro-gay marriage. And she'll say something else next year whatever is convenient. I think that's one of the biggest challenges that the Clintons

have that they can switch so quickly. I don't think this leftward move has to do with any real change in her heart. I think it has to do with keeping Elizabeth Warren out of the race and making primary voters happy. She will go back to herself once the election is pretty much over.

COSTELLO: Ok. Well, just let's talk about Democratic voters themselves Larry. Are Democratic voters becoming more liberal, or is it my imagination?

[10:35:06] SABATO: No, it's not your imagination. If you compare their issue positions in the 90s when Bill Clinton was president with today when Barack Obama is president, you'll find they have moved left considerably not just on social issues but also on some economic issues.

Well, the Republicans have moved to the right. So we have a polarized partisan area where the two parties differ more dramatically then they have probably since, well, since decades. So that's the system that people are presented with. Let's remember, it's the party bases that drive the candidates and where their positions are.

Remember that old formulation that Richard Nixon had that worked for him and for many others? He said to win a nomination for the Republicans, run to the right. And then when you get to the nomination, scamper back to the middle for the general election. For the Democrats it's the opposite. Run to the left to get nominated. Try to scamper back to the middle for the general. There's still some of that, even though the party bases are much more ideological than they used to be.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Jason Johnson, Larry Sabato -- thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, ramping up rhetoric: you'll want to hear how the United States is responding to warnings about keeping out of the South China Sea.

Plus, trying to fly while drunk? Yes, it happens. We'll talk about that next.

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[10:40:20] COSTELLO: Defense Secretary Ash Carter has a blunt message for China. That message, quote, "There should be no mistake. The United States will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows us to do all around the world." The statement coming just one week after China repeatedly tried to order a navy surveillance plane to change course. Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Foreign military aircraft. This is Chinese Navy. You are approaching our military alert zone. Leave immediately. (END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. I want to bring in CNN chief national correspondent Jim Sciutto. He was on board that navy spy plane. Is China reacting to Ash Carter's statement?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are reacting and in the anti-thesis of diplomatic speak really from both sides here. Here's the reaction from the Chinese foreign ministry today. "China urges the U.S. to think three times before taking action, act responsibly, stop all provocative speech and acts and do more things which will benefit the region's peace and stability instead of the opposite."

I mean look at that kind language. You have Ash Carter saying, "Make no mistake, we're going to continue to fly these surveillance flights, sail our ships where we want to." Now you have Chinese in very explicit terms saying, "Wait a second, think three times before you act. What you're doing here is the opposite of encouraging peace and stability."

Typically the exchanges between the U.S. and China are pretty mellow -- Carol. They are diplomatic because they know that these things are parsed at every level of the country -- the public, the government, et cetera. You have both sides, both in their words and their actions, digging in their heels there over these islands. And I have to tell you, it's really hard to see how they back down and back down quickly.

COSTELLO: Think three times.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COSTELLO: I don't even know what to think about think three times. Tell us about these islands though and why the United States is so concerned. Why it has to talk tough.

SCIUTTO: Well, here's the thing. This is the South China Sea. We don't normally talk about it, you know. It feels a million miles away. But this is where 60 percent, almost two-thirds of the world's shipping goes through. These are important shipping lanes.

And they are also claimed by several countries. It's not just China down here that's claiming these little reefs. You've got Vietnam. The Philippines which is a U.S. ally -- the U.S. has a defense treaty with the Philippines.

So China has kind of doubled down here by instead of just sailing ships around the reef, they are turning these reefs which are really just piles of rocks in the middle of nowhere, into major islands as you can see there. And not just islands with vacation homes on them. They are putting an airstrip. They are putting early warning radar. They are digging deep harbors.

And the U.S. view is that looks a lot like you're turning these into military bases and that is a direct threat in the U.S. view, not just to shipping there but to the U.S. -- the presence of the U.S. military in that part of the world. That's important to American national security, say U.S. officials.

And the other point that Ash Carter made in his comments yesterday. He said, listen, we're not the only ones who want to be there. You have a lot of countries in that region -- the Philippines, Vietnam asking for the U.S. to be there as well because they don't want to be bullied by China. That's the U.S. view.

Of course the Chinese view is that the U.S. is bullying them and when you have that kind of diametrically opposed view of the facts on the ground, it just makes it very difficult to find a diplomatic off- ramp. I mean this is a real potential conflict.

COSTELLO: All right. Jim Sciutto -- thanks so much. I appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Startling new details about a plane crash at a Florida airport, the pilot arrested. Officials say he was drunk when the accident happened. His pre-teenage son was on the plane with him at the time. Rene Marsh is our aviation correspondent. She joins me now with more. Good morning.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol.

Yes, this man is accused of being drunk in the cockpit. He crashed his plane at Melbourne International Airport and he had his pre-teen son on board. Here he is. We have a shot of this man's mug shot. He's 57-year-old Christopher Hall. They say he asked air traffic control for clearance to enter the runway. But that request, for reasons unknown at this point, was denied. But he started to move that aircraft anyway towards that restricted area, that runway.

Take a listen to air traffic controllers. They are clearly very frustrated as they order the plane and the pilot to stop, it appears Hall was defiant. Take a listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok. 32 Mike, where are you going, sir? Skymaster 32 Mike, is everything all right sir. 32 Mike turn your engines off. Twin Cessna 32 mike, turn your engines off, sir. Kill your engines.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

[10:45:03] MARSH: All right. Well, the FAA says that this private plane ran off the runway through a ditch before hitting a satellite dish on the airport's grounds. We do know that Hall has been charged with reckless operation of a vessel and child abuse with great harm. We do know that this is one of the -- at least one of those charges of felony, and he was released on $4,000 bond. We want to also point out that this airport is a mix of general

aviation as well as commercial flights -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Rene Marsh, reporting live from Washington -- thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, talk about a text mess, the message that can shut down your iPhone next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW ZIMMERN: Everybody, I'm Andrew Zimmern. I moved from New York City to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis in St. Paul. And when I'm on the east side of the river, in St. Paul, I always hit up Ranham Bowling Alley.

I started coming here in '55.

ZIMMERN: People who have been coming here have been coming here forever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And guess what -- it hasn't hardly changed.

ZIMMERN: I have yet to find traveling around the United States anything quite like it. Eight lanes in a basement, old timey bar, everybody knows each other.

Right up there is a lot of money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. We had local regular she went overseas for a couple year. She said when I come back I want to make sure I have a dollar to buy a drink when I come in here next.

ZIMMERN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So it started there and then people have just kind of people caught out on the whole thing. Now, it's our retirement someday if they never come back.

ZIMMERN: I bring people from out of town here just to sit down, have a beer, a hamburger, and I say, this is what St. Paul is all about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a nice, close community around here.

ZIMMERN: Embarrassing yourself on television by showing the world what a crappy bowler you are is something that you have to have really big shoulders to handle.

Some of the best fries you'll taste. Gorgeous little traditional bowling alley grill burger, heaven.

Somehow I just got cheated out of a lot of points.

Let's see how we did, shall we? 122. They say you should be able to bowl your weight. With me that's not happening. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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[10:51:07] COSTELLO: There's a text message you never want to get on your iPhone, that's because it will crash it.

CNN Money tech correspondent Laurie Segall joins us now. Is there any way I can prevent my cell from receiving this text?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: No, Carol, but you should be lucky that I don't have your phone number because I've actually been testing this out all morning on my colleagues. And I can assure you, it works.

And what it is, you can actually send this certain text message, it's a string of Arabic characters. It's also a couple of English words and if you send this particular text message, you don't even have to open this but the person's phone will automatically shut off and then it will reboot after 15 seconds -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So why are people doing this?

SEGALL: You know, right now it's a bit of a prank. This kind of emerged on Reddit. People saw on Reddit, someone discovered that there was a problem with IOS, that this was a bug. So, you know, right now people are just doing this to their friends, it's kind of funny. I want to read you though --

COSTELLO: Oh no. That's not funny. It is not funny.

SEGALL: It's not funny especially if you're on an important call, if you're doing something important on your phone. But Apple has addressed this. I want to read to you what they said. They said that "We're aware of the iMessage issue. We'll make a fix available in a software update. That cannot come too soon, Carol, I'm telling you this.

But this one is a lot of fun. This isn't something that's a horrific hack.

COSTELLO: Quit saying it's a lot of fun.

SEGALL: I've got to tell you, it doesn't do any permanent damage. But let me say this, if you actually tweak the code a little and you tweak the message, which I'm not saying anyone should do and I'm not going to tell you how, you have to be very, very careful with this because it can permanently disable iMessage and you have to delete your conversations that you've had for sometimes years to actually get it back.

You have you to be careful with this. A lot of kids are having fun with this. I hope Apple gets it together and updates it very short. I will stop saying it's fun -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, that's right because I'm never giving you my phone number, ever. Thank you, Laurie. I appreciate it.

SEGALL: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Laurie Segall reporting.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Russian President Vladimir Putin says America should butt out of soccer's corruption scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:00] COSTELLO: Active anthrax accidentally shipped to several states and a U.S. airbase in South Korea. Now the Pentagon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are trying to figure out how exactly that happened. The samples originated at a lab in Utah. Four lab workers in the United States and at least 22 overseas are now being treated for possible anthrax exposure. Officials say the public is not at any risk, though.

World soccer group FIFA opens its annual meeting today. The president Sepp Blatter is expected to speak just moments from now addressing the corruption scandal for the first time since officials from the group were arrested yesterday.

In the meantime the Russian president, Vladimir Putin is stepping into the fray defending FIFA's president Sepp Blatter and slamming the United States for, quote, "Spreading its jurisdiction to other countries."

CNN sports anchor Coy Wire is following this. I don't mean to laugh but you know, Russia hosts the World Cup soon. It's probably afraid of maybe kind of losing it. I don't know.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Yes. And maybe they should be, you know. We're going to hear from Sepp Blatter in moments at 11:00 a.m. So we'll see if he says anything.

But yes, first of all, Putin said that this whole FIFA scandal will now have any impact on his country's plan to host the 2018 world cup, even though there are accusations, Carol, that FIFA officials were paid off so that his country could host it. And yes, Putin is taking jabs saying that the U.S. meddled in FIFA affairs. He's saying that the U.S. is trying to take the World Cup away and he said it's quote, "odd that the U.S. launched this probe when the alleged crimes don't involve any American citizens".

COSTELLO: We were in line for the World Cup.

WIRE: Right. But let's be clear here, this does involve U.S. citizens. Two of the 14 who have been charged, they're U.S. citizens. And also money laundering and the wire fraud that has allegedly occurred, a lot of that is involving U.S. banks. So it does involve the U.S. and it's rightful that they're stepping in.

COSTELLO: I know. The attorney general was making that really clear in her press conference yesterday, right?

WIRE: Yes.

COSTELLO: So, I know that FIFA sponsors are reacting at the moment. What are they doing?

WIRE: They are reacting. None of them have pulled their sponsorships yet. But they are basically saying they are going to reassess things if they find out what they think they are going to find out. If they did, we're talking about serious money here, Carol. To give perspective, there's a consulting firm, a research firm that estimated that over the past four years, companies like Adidas, like Visa, have paid an average of $32 million per year for their partnership deals with FIFA. So then you have companies like Coca- Cola, McDonald's, Budweiser -- they've also forked over about an average of $19 million each.

We're talking about $1.6 billion that FIFA has pocketed from major sponsors from 2011 to 2014 according to this IEG and their estimates. So Visa released a strong statement last night and they said, quote, "It is important that FIFA makes changes now. Should FIFA fail to do so, we have informed them that we will reassess our sponsorship."

So what type of change are we talking about? Are they asking that Sepp Blatter step down? We'll see. More to come.

COSTELLO: Well, it will be an interesting news conference for Mr. Blatter.

WIRE: Absolutely.

[11:00:02] COSTELLO: Coy Wire -- many thanks to you. Thanks so much.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Evacuation -