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Donald Trump Threatens a Third Party Run; Massive Fire Looming California Wine Country; Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 23, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] CUOMO: She tweeted Logan. You're stronger than anyone's hurtful words.

PEREIRA: That's right.

CUOMO: If you're ever in D.C., please stop by the White House. So it's exactly --

CAMEROTA: My gosh. That's great.

PEREIRA: That's so great.

CAMEROTA: That's a great outcome.

CUOMO: He went over there and got the whole thing, and he got to send his message of be bigger than the bullies.

CAMEROTA: Love wins.

PEREIRA: Love wins.

CAMEROTA: Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I like that. Love wins. It does sometimes. OK. It does maybe 70 percent of the time.

PEREIRA: Most of the time.

CUOMO: Go with 100. Go with 100.

COSTELLO: OK. I'll take that. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump lobs another bombshell into the presidential race threatening nothing less than bulldozing the entire political landscape of 2016. In an exclusive interview with "The Hill" the tough talking billionaire says the Republican Party is giving him the cold shoulder and if that does not change he could run instead as a third party candidate. It is a jarring headline of yet another day that Trump is at the

epicenter of the presidential race.

CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash is on the Texas border. She's in the Texas town of Laredo where Trump takes his immigration debate later today.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And certainly Donald Trump has already not been ruling out a third party run in the past in several interviews including with our own Anderson Cooper. What is new here is what appears to be kind of a threat to the Republican National Committee which has been very harsh when it comes to Donald Trump particularly after his comments about John McCain and his military service over the weekend.

And so what Trump seems to be saying to "The Hill" newspaper is, you know, be careful, RNC, Republican National Committee, don't push me too far. And why does that matter? Basically because historically when you had a significant third party candidate, Ross Perot for example in 1992, it has taken away more Republican voters than Democratic voters. Most people think that Bill Clinton probably wouldn't have been elected president if not for Ross Perot stealing votes or taking votes from George H.W. Bush.

So that's why this could be a significant issue and I have to say that, you know, really since Trump took off, Carol, I have a lot of Republicans privately say to me that they are concerned that they don't want to rock the boat too much with him because he isn't predictable. And if he goes his own way they could be handing keys to the White House to the Democrats.

COSTELLO: Yes. And you could see pretty sure he is going to go his own way, you know, he's going to be in Laredo, he's going to be on the Texas border to talk about his immigration plan, you know, to build a wall along the Mexican-Texas border. Here's what he told Anderson Cooper last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Excuse me, this animal that killed Kate, he came across five times. Five times. Now maybe he came across because he thought the weather was nice. Maybe he was pushed across by Mexico officials. Look, Mexico --

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: But you must --

TRUMP: Mexico's leaders are much smarter and sharper and more cunning than our leaders. They are doing things that we don't even know about. Let's see what happens. I'm going to speak to a lot of people tomorrow. There are a lot of people very excited that I'm going to the border tonight. I may never see you again but these are minor details.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: All right. He's talking about Kate Steinle, a young woman who was killed in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant. Are people excited to see him there, Dana?

BASH: I definitely think that there is going to be a mixed reaction. I was just watching the local coverage here and there are certainly, as you can imagine, a lot of critics out there saying that they do not like the way that he is portrayed undocumented immigrants the way that he has, you know, talked about them as rapists, as criminals saying that those are -- that's who the Mexican government is pushing here.

But one interesting note that's happened this morning, Carol, is that his tour might have hit a little bit of a snag and that is because he was initially invited by the Local Border Patrol Union. And this morning that union has said that they are officially pulling out of hosting Donald Trump here for various reasons. Basically they don't want to get involved in the politics that are going on here.

But his campaign just told us that he is still coming. He is still coming down to Texas, he is still going to take a tour with Border Patrol agents. It just won't be officially with the union as it was initially planned -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash reporting live from Laredo, Texas, this morning. Thanks so much.

Going back to the topic of whether Donald Trump will run as a third party candidate, an interview with CNN's Alisyn Camerota, Trump's supporters don't sound enthusiastic about that idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN VAN ANGLEN, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I don't believe he would want to do that to hurt. I don't think he would want to go out and hurt the Republican Party's chances. I don't think any other Republican candidate can win therefore if Trump doesn't get the nomination I can't see myself personally actively supporting someone else other than Donald Trump.

[09:05:11] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So then why not say that he should run as a third party candidate? Maybe -- because you don't think he can win that way?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It splits the votes.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Joining me now to talk about this -- joining me now to talk about this, CNN politics reporter, MJ Lee, here in New York, and Jeremy Diamond, he's in Laredo, Texas.

Welcome to both of you. Thanks for being with me.

So, Jeremy, you heard these voters tell Alisyn they're not really thrilled about Donald Trump running as a third party candidate. Why?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I think he is still trying to capture the Republican nomination. I mean, listen, he's getting huge base of support within the GOP. He is able to fire up a certain segment of voters who really kind of either feel alienated with the way politics have been and the way politics are and at the same time really his comments about immigration have definitely been resonating with a certain segment of the Republican base. And that's undeniable. So he's still going to try and go after the Republican nomination but he is saying, you know, if it doesn't work out he might consider a third party run.

COSTELLO: Well, MJ, I think the reason that he is thinking of a third party run is because the Republican National Committee dissed him. He doesn't like to be dissed.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes. And we've seen him in full Donald Trump form this week. I mean, you saw the comments that he made and the criticisms that he made of some of his rival candidates this week at a speech in South Carolina. I mean, when you're on stage giving out Lindsey Graham's personal cell phone number to the audience just to sort of mock him and when you're calling, you know, Rick Perry's glasses, you know, just a prop to make him look smart.

I mean, this is someone who takes things very seriously. And I think the Republican Party and his fellow candidates are really feeling those effects. And they're -- you know, some of them are choosing to really hit back. I think they get that when you hit Donald Trump he only hits back harder. And so the only way to really deal with him is to sort of go all the way in.

COSTELLO: And the other thing, Jeremy, I think that even Trump supporters don't want the Democrat to win. And by most accounts, most analysts say, that Donald Trump runs as a third party candidate this paves the way for somebody like Hillary Clinton to win.

DIAMOND: Yes. Most definitely. Donald Trump could be a big danger for the Republican Party. And that's why I think by issuing this kind of a threat essentially to the Republican Party saying, if you don't back off of me, if you don't, you know, stop slamming me the way that you have, the way that Lindsey Graham has, the way that Rick Perry has, if you don't stop doing that then I may run as a third party candidate. And they know that that will damage them. They know that that will hurt their chances of capturing the White House in 2016.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeremy Diamond, MJ Lee, thanks so much to both of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Sandra Bland in her own words. The voicemail she left from jail before she died. Are investigators any closer to finding out what really happened?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:12:06] COSTELLO: Checking on some top stories at 11 minutes past the hour. First to Oklahoma where two teenagers are under arrest. They're suspected of killing five family members. The victims were found inside a home just outside of Tulsa. Police say the two kids were -- that two kids were found alive at the scene. One has been taken to a hospital but is in critical condition. The other was not hurt.

We'll have more on this in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

"And good morning. Good morning, American pilots. We are here to greet you on your Fourth of July Independence Day." That was the message sent by two Russian bombers back on the Fourth of July. NORAD says American fighter jets intercepted the planes just 10 miles off the coast of California during the holiday. Two more bombers were also intercepted off the coast of Alaska. NORAD says the bombers never entered U.S. air space but did call the unannounced move potentially destabilizing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My gosh. Go. Go now. Go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, Larry. We need to go. Go, go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you -- fast. Yes. Go. Holy crap. Now go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. That's what I was waiting for. Dramatic scene in Glacier National Park. A Missouri family on vacation forced to race from the flames as the Reynolds Fire exploded on Tuesday. The family was about a mile away from the fire. But the man filming told a CNN affiliate the heat was so intense he could feel it on his hands as he held the camera.

That blaze is far from the only one burning out west right now. Chad Myers is following the story for us.

Good morning, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. Yes, one very close to Sonoma and Napa Valley blowing smoke into Sacramento, as well. That will be affecting a lot of California especially northern California with the winds, they're west now at seven miles per hour. So not blowing back towards the vineyards into Sonoma and into, let's say, Napa Valley area but blowing farther to the east into the Sacramento area. Only 59 degrees right now.

That's some help. You don't like to fight a fire. No one likes to fight a fire when it's 105 degrees already because you get closer to the fire and it's even warmer than that. The winds, though, today will gust to 15. Anytime you get the double digit winds you will eventually get to somewhere where the embers can fly farther, a mile away. So you get a fire, you think you have it under control and then another spark will spark later on or further down the line.

We go from 77 to 80 to 79. I'm going to push a button and hope that I get what I get here. Here's our Google Earth. Here's the Wragg Fire, we're talking about that fire right there. Here's Southern California, Los Angeles. There would be San Francisco. There is Sacramento. Right here through the valley. Then to this area, many times you'll talk about the Sonoma and the Napa Valleys. Right there is the town of Napa so just farther to the east than that and the wind is blowing in that direction so not blowing back towards the more populated areas -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chad Myers, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Bill Cosby's lawyer speaks out. Up next, one-on-one with one of Cosby's lawyers. Hear what she says about Quaaludes, allegations of sexual misconduct and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: Bill Cosby's lawyer speaks out. Up next, one-on-one with one of Cosby's lawyers. Hear what she says about Quaaludes, allegations of sexual misconduct and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Chuck it up. It's just a speed bump as Uber scores a big win over New York's mayor. Bill de Blasio says he will shelve the controversial plan to regulate the ride-sharing service and limit its vast number of drivers.

Laurie Segall is a technology correspondent for CNN Money. She's been covering the latest challenge Uber presents to the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A $50 billion startup versus a city of 8 million.

Uber, the fast-growing ride sharing service, was facing a fatal threat. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pushing for legislation capping the growth of big car limo companies and knee-capping Uber's expansion in one its biggest markets.

The city's reasoning?

PHIL WALZAK, OFFICE OF NY MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: There are a host of issues -- traffic congestion, we talked about our drivers being (INAUDIBLE), our consumers getting on the right deal. Let's take a breath. Let's talk about capping for a short period of time the growth of new vehicles on congested and flooded streets.

SEGALL: For Uber, that would mean 200 new cars over the course of a year. The startup never shying away from a fight launched a major offensive. Its mastermind is a man with a track record, President Obama's former campaign manager, David Plouffe.

DAVID PLOUFFE, SVP FOR POLICY & STRATEGY, UBER: They want to cap our growth. I think really as an offering to the taxi industry who has showered them with a lot of a campaign money. With a stroke of a pen, the mayor of New York City would be eliminating over 10,000 jobs. It's unbelievable.

SEGALL: So, Uber launched its own political campaign. They put a De Blasio tab on the app, showing what it would look like with fewer cars on the road. They released commercials.

AD NARRATOR: Tell Mayor de Blasio: don't strand New York.

SEGALL: Hosted rallies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to support Uber because it's about our families.

SEGALL (on camera): How is this fight similar to a political campaign?

PLOUFFE: In this case, we don't have an electorate. You know, this is a small number of city councilors who we're trying to reach. But we are trying to generate interest in the public. As this debates played out, I think there's a lot of people are puzzled by it, saying, why would we do this? This is working well. It's providing a lot of economic opportunity, which is why we've had to run such a vigorous campaign here.

SEGALL (voice-over): And in the end, let's put it this way, Uber was elected, but not without concessions. A city source tells CNN that Uber agreed to address concerns by studying worker protections and how to make Uber more accessible to the handicap. Uber has also agreed to limit its fast-paced growth in New York City.

But they're not out of the woods yet. The city says the cap remains on the table as the company doesn't hold up its end of the bargain. New York is one battle won, but the war is global.

In many markets it's facing protests from local taxi drivers, millions of dollars in fines and lots of regulatory questions.

(on camera): How is what's happening here in New York, how does it relate to what's happening all around the world when it comes to Uber taking a lot of cities, taking a lot of states?

WALZAK: Well, I think that certainly we have seen a lot of places around the world grapple with the Uber question. How do municipalities and states deal with, again, a $50 billion giant corporation coming in to write some of the rules, or having no rules at all?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: And, Carol, if you look at it, this isn't just a win for Uber. This is also a win for companies like Lyft. If you look at Lyft, Lyft owns 7 percent of the market share here in New York City. Uber owns 90 percent. Had this gone through Lyft wouldn't have been able to grow and potentially compete with Uber.

So, a lot of people are taking a deep breath. Now, if you talk to the city, they say the cap is still on the table. They want to do the study for four months, and they're saying Uber has to play nice. They have to be a little more open about their data and what they're doing.

COSTELLO: The other thing I think progressives are concerned about when it comes to companies like Uber is they create this gig economy. In other words, you hire part time workers, really contract -- workers contract with Uber. They don't have to pay them benefits. They don't have to give them full-time work. And many progressives think that's bad for the city's economy.

SEGALL: You know, it's really interesting to see kind of this startup community. If you look at Airbnb, Lyft, Uber, over the last four years, these companies have become these multibillion-dollar companies, they've created hundreds of thousands of jobs but they've also created hard questions. You hear Hillary Clinton recently in a campaign speech address this and say, innovation is amazing but we have to begin to ask ourselves those questions.

So, I think part of why the city was trying to -- what they told me -- put pause on Uber was to force uber to ask questions about worker protections, jobs, benefits. I have a feeling that this is going to be on the campaign trail, that this isn't the last time you hear about it, Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you are right about that.

Laurie Segall, many thanks. I appreciate it.

Tune in tomorrow for my sit-down interview, by the way, with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and yes, I will be asking him about Uber and his laws.

Coming up next in THE NEWSROOM: Sandra Bland in her own words.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SANDRA BLAND'S VOICEMAIL FROM JAIL: Hey, this is me. I'm -- I just was able to see the judge. I don't really know, they have me at a $5,000 bond. I'm still just at a loss for words, honestly, about this whole process. How did this witching lanes with no signal turn --

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I will talk to the friend she called days before she was found dead, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:32] COSTELLO: New this morning: after chilling comments about the threat of ISIS by the FBI, Defense Secretary Ash Carter makes an unannounced trip to Baghdad. Its top priority is to discuss the war against terror, as in ISIS, important because ISIS is now a bigger threat than al Qaeda. The fact that FBI Director James Comey says keeps him up at night.

Let's bring in CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns. He has more.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

It's one thing to know from the headlines and public polling that ISIS has now edged out al Qaeda and the Khorasan Group as a top national security concern. But it's something completely different for the FBI director to acknowledge it in an on the record television interview.

Comey made these remarks in a talk with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: What keeps you up at night?

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: What keeps me up at night is probably these days the ISIL threat in the homeland and I worry about what I can't see. If you imagine a nationwide haystack, we are trying to find needles in that haystack. And a lot of those needles are invisible to us either because of the way in which they are communicating or just because they haven't communicated or touched a place where we could see them.

And knowing there are needles that you can't see is very worrisome.

BLITZER: Is that a bigger threat to the U.S. homeland than al Qaeda?

COMEY: Yes.

The threat that ISIL presents, poses to the United States is very different in kind, in type, in degree than al Qaeda. ISIL is not you parent's al Qaeda.