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First GOP Debate, Who's in, Who's Out; FBI Investigates Clinton E-Mail Server Security; Obama Ramps Up Sales Campaign for Nuclear Deal; Expert: "Almost No Doubt" Part is MH370's; Al Qaeda Issues Call for Lone Wolf Attacks; Jeb Bush: "I Misspoke" On Women's Health Funding. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 05, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:01] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good job.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good stuff.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Really good.

All right. Time now for NEWSROOM with Carol Costello.

Good morning, Carol.

PEREIRA: Hi.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks for that great story. Have a great day. I like that. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

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

The hottest ticket in the country is no longer available. Yes, it's a sold-out show in Cleveland. It has nothing to do with LeBron James. The star of this show will be Donald Trump and perhaps nine other Republican candidates who will fight Trump for attention.

This is the line-up. Trump, Bush, Walker, Huckabee, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, Paul, Christie and Kasich. I'm out of breath. Although I know you want fireworks, though, it might not happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I'm not looking to hurt anybody. I'm not looking to embarrass anybody. If I have to bring up deficiencies, I'll bring up deficiencies. But certainly I'm not looking to do that. I'd rather go straight down the middle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The other seven candidates will take the stage earlier for what Senator Lindsey Graham calls the happy hour debate. He describes it in emojis under the headline "Pre-gaming for the Trump debacle- slash-debate. If that doesn't say politics these days I don't know what does."

Let's bring in CNN political reporter Sara Murray, she's in Washington to tell us more about the big happenings on Thursday.

Good morning, Sara .

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. You hit the nail on the head. I think everyone is wondering how much drama there is really going to be in this primetime debate. This other Donald Trump sounding like he wants to play nice, he doesn't want to go after his rivals on the stage.

And we've heard from other candidates and other campaigns that their goal is not to engage with Donald Trump. It's too risky to try to go after him because if you try to hit that ball and you miss, it could be really embarrassing.

Now I think that what you really want to watch for in this primetime debate are the unscripted moments. We don't know if a John Kasich or a Chris Christie could just get frustrated with Donald Trump and go after him or if Donald Trump could in turn go after them.

I also think you should not discount this 5:00 p.m. primetime debate. There are a lot of candidates on there that want to have a big TV moment to help their poll numbers. So we could see some pretty fiery exchanges there as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Pretty fiery exchanges but there are some people saying that happy hour debate will kill these candidates' chances all together.

MURRAY: I think it's a little early to say that it could kill these candidates' chances all together. We are a long way from the first nominating contest and polls can move a lot between now and then. But I think the reality is, if you're not going to be on the primetime debate for this debate, you definitely want to be on the stage for one of the upcoming debates. And I think that's why we're going to want to see -- these candidates want to have a breakout moment in the 5:00 p.m. debate to boost their poll numbers and make sure that they're playing at the big kids' table next time around.

COSTELLO: Yes. But here's the thing. Let's put that graphic back up. Put that graphic we just had back up of who's out -- see, we even have it. Who's out. That doesn't make it sound good for these candidates, Sara.

MURRAY: No, it doesn't. But look at these candidates who are on the stage. We are not talking about nobodies here. I mean, Rick Perry is the longest serving governor of Texas. Bobby Jindal, the sitting governor of Louisiana. Rick Santorum won Iowa last time. So there are a lot of very qualified candidates here and I think it is a little early obviously. You know, there are long shots right now. They're polling pretty low. But a lot of these candidates poll really low when you're a year out from the election. So I think it's too early to say that all hope is lost.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: OK. You stay right there, Sara, because I want to talk to you some more.

The RNC chairman, Reince Priebus, is praising the line-up for tomorrow's debate, saying in part, quote, "Our field is the biggest and most diverse of any party in history." That is true. But it does make for one unusual debate.

Consider this. Each candidate will get one minute to answer a question. Then 30 seconds for rebuttals. If you do the math, and I've done it, each candidate will get 10 minutes to talk total. Ten minutes.

OK, so Sara Murray is back with me and in Charlottesville, Larry Sabato, director for the center of politics at the University of Virginia.

Larry, what will we learn from this debate?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, we're going to learn at least a little bit about each of the candidates. I think your calculation of 10 minutes is generous, Carol, because you know there are three moderators for the debate and they're going to have some questions. Some of them will be tough and they may be lengthy.

So it really is -- it's easy to use up your time quickly if you want to. If you don't want to say anything, the frontrunners and people who are well-funded really don't need this debate. It's the candidates without a whole lot of money who are either little known or had been forgotten. Maybe they ran for president before. So I don't know how much fireworks we're going to see. I suspect there will be some because somebody is going to say something that irritates Donald Trump or Donald Trump is going to say something that irritates one or more of the other candidates and there's your headline.

[09:05:07] COSTELLO: There's your headline.

Sara, I would venture to say that this will be the most watched debate in history. And just from a human perspective, those candidates have to be nervous.

MURRAY: Yes, I think a lot of them are nervous. And that's why basically everyone aside from Donald Trump says they're spending a lot of time in debate prep. They're trying to practice within the confines of this time limit, making sure they know where they stand on policy.

Look, nobody wants to have a Rick Perry oops moment. It is really embarrassing if you make a gaffe like that on the public stage. And with so many candidates to choose from this time, there's an even smaller margin of error. It's easier to discount a candidate and say, well, we have a dozen other, 15 other that we can choose from.

COSTELLO: So, Larry, if a candidate makes a gaffe, a huge gaffe on that debate stage, is it over for that candidate?

SABATO: Well, I think as Sara noted, it's a long campaign. You know, it's six months until the first voting in Iowa. And it's a year and three months until the general election. So you don't want to rule anybody out because of one gaffe.

But let's flip that around. Suppose you're a Republican activist watching this debate and you're uncommitted, well, there are 17 candidates. Ten of them are going to be on that primetime debate. They have to get down to one. So they're going to be looking for reasons to eliminate candidates. That's why a mistake can really cost you even early.

COSTELLO: Unbelievable. OK. Larry Sabato, Sara Murray, thanks for your insight as usual. I appreciate it.

Hillary Clinton won't be anywhere near this debate. She might be watching and maybe she'll be feeling the heat. Clinton's lawyer has confirmed to CNN that the FBI is looking into the security of the private e-mail Clinton used when she was secretary of state. In particular the server at her home in Chappaqua, New York.

National correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is following this political story this morning.

Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Well, yes, it's David Kendall, that's Clinton's lawyer. He has confirmed that the FBI is looking into the security. This is used to protect Hillary Clinton's private e-mail system. Looking into the private e-mail set up during her time as secretary of state and particularly the security that was used to protect the information on the server that she used from her home in New York.

Now Kendall is telling CNN, and I'm quoting here, he says, "quite predictably after the intelligence community and the inspector general made a referral to ensure that the materials remain properly stored, the government is seeking assurance about the storage of the materials. So he said Clinton was actively cooperating with this inquiry but they consider this old news.

Now, as you know, Clinton's exclusive use of the private e-mail at the State Department and the security of the sensitive information on this server has been the subject of near constant attention since the set up was reported back in March. Well, it was late last month that the intelligence community and the State Department inspectors general disclosed that some of Hillary Clinton's e-mails contained classified information that was not identified correctly because it's not marked classified.

It's really unclear, Carol, whether or not that Clinton realized she was potentially compromising this classified information. And Clinton has repeatedly denied that she ever sent classified information. It was just last month in New Hampshire she declared, saying, "I am confident that I never sent nor received any information that was classified at the time it was sent and received."

Last night her traveling press secretary Nick Merrill, he reiterated the point in response to this inquiry insisting she did not send nor receive any e-mails that were marked classified at the time. He says they want to make sure that these get out, these e-mails, as quickly as possible not delaying the process.

But as you know, Carol, I mean, this is something that is dogging her throughout the campaign. She'd much rather be talking about other things. It continues to remind some people, some voters of why it is that they don't trust her as her numbers continue to go down -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes. Suzanne Malveaux, many thanks to you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, al Qaeda taking a page out of ISIS' playbook? Scary new threats against the United States.

And this hunter helped that American dentist kill Cecil the Lion. Now we're hearing from the professional hunter himself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:13:27] COSTELLO: From Capitol Hill to a college campus, the Iran nuclear deal goes under the microscope. Next hour skeptical lawmakers look at a key part of that agreement, lifting sanctions on Tehran. And then later this morning President Obama ramps up his campaign to sell it. In just a couple of hours the president will speak at American University in Washington.

Let's head there now and check in with CNN's Michelle Kosinski.

Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Right, the White House wants this speech today to be very strong. This is the president really not just speaking to a university, but speaking in a sense to the world, hitting those points again on why the U.S. and Congress should go along with this nuclear deal with Iran.

When you look at what the White House has been up against, I mean, some serious lobbying there. We're talking millions of dollars pumped in by advocacy groups, the advertising buys, trying to meet with every single member of Congress.

The White House has in a sense tried to do the same thing. I mean, they too have been holding briefings and meetings, one-on-one between President Obama and undecided Democrats. Still though, we have seen some prominent Democrats already saying no to the deal. I mean, four of five congressmen from Long Island have said no. But on the other side, other prominent Democrats, for example in the Senate, Barbara Boxer, Tim Kaine, Bill Nelson, they wanted to come out and say that they are in support of the deal.

The two most powerful Democrats, though, in the Senate Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid still undecided. So for that reason and many others this lobbying hard continues and when you listen to influences like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I mean, listen to this Web cast that he put out with the goal of having it directed at Jewish groups here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:15:13] BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The nuclear deal with Iran doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It actually paves Iran's path to the bomb. Worse, it gives Iran two paths to the bomb. Iran can get to the bomb by keeping the deal or Iran can get to the bomb by violating the deal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So, what does President Obama really want to hit today in the speech? Senior administration officials say that he's going to frame this as the most consequential foreign policy issue since the debate over whether or not to go to war with Iraq, and he's going to make a comparison between those who oppose this deal with Iran, and those who voted for war back then -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michelle Kosinski, reporting live from the White House this morning -- thanks so much.

This just in to CNN about the search for the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A former BEA director, the French investigative agency, tells a CNN affiliate there is, quote, "no doubt" that the flaperon found last week on the island off the coast of Africa does indeed -- well, is indeed a part of Flight 370.

The latest news coming as expert teams from France, Malaysia, and Australia have gathered at a specialized lab near Toulouse, France, where they have begun the work of trying to identify -- positively identify that flaperon that washed up on shore last week.

Boeing has already confirmed it does belong to a 777. Now, we want to learn if it does indeed comes from that missing Malaysian flight. Australia says French and Malaysian officials could put out a statement as soon as this week. Of course, we'll keep you posted.

A startling new threat from al Qaeda in Yemen. The terror group taking a page from ISIS' playbook and encouraging lone wolf attacks on the United States. In a letter purported problem al Qaeda's top bomb maker, the terror group asks its followers to, quote, "strike America in its home and beyond." CNN cannot verify the authenticity of this message, but it has drawn the attention of some top intelligence groups.

Brian Todd has more for you this morning.

Good morning, Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.

These are stunning messages from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a couple of them, as this group tries to reassert itself against ISIS. A chilling piece of writing that you mentioned, this article linked on Twitter apparently from the master bomb maker of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, also known was AQAP, this is a name many Americans are going to know, Ibrahim al-Asiri.

Now in this article, as you mentioned, Carol, this writer believed to be al-Asiri, he tells the al Qaeda affiliates, "We urge you to strike America in its own home and beyond." CNN, as you said, cannot independently verify the authenticity of this writing.

Analysts this is striking because according to U.S. intelligence officials, al Asiri almost never makes statements in public. He's got up to a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head. He's been targeted by American drone strikes in Yemen.

Intelligence officials say Ibrahim al-Asiri was behind the 2009 Christmas underwear bomb plot, and the attempt to place bombs in printer cartridges in 2010. Both targeted the United States, both plots failed. But they could have killed hundreds and they came very close to succeeding.

Asiri was with his brother in 2009. He once even placed a bomb inside the body of his own brother in an attempt to kill Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism chief. The bomb killed Asiri's brother but it failed to kill that Saudi minister. Carol, if this message really is from Ibrahim al-Asiri, it is extraordinary because of the risk to his own security he would be taking.

Also, we have another message from AQAP this morning. In a new video released online, a man named Khaled Batarfi, who has emerged as a top leader in al Qaeda, praises the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks in Paris, and he praises the shooting at the two military offices in Chattanooga, Tennessee, by Mohammad Abdulazeez. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHALED BATARFI, AL QAEDA LEADER (through translator): He penetrated the base, killing and injuring American marines in a blessed jihadi operation. We ask Allah to accept him and raise his status among martyrs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now, in this video, Khaled Batarfi also calls for more lone wolf attacks against America. A U.S. intelligence official told me the tape is legitimate. Batarfi has become a top spokesman for this terror group since his escape from Yemeni prison this spring -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd, reporting live from Washington, thanks so much.

Excuse me.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: one of the hunters accused of killing a beloved lion in court. Do you think he's sorry?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you feel about the charges laid against you and the landowner?

THEO BRONKHORST, HUNTER'S GUIDE: I think it's frivolous and I think it's wrong.

MCKENZIE: And you think you'll come through this?

BRONKHORST: I got a good legal team and I hope so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:24:09] COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Welcome back to NEWSROOM.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is getting caught up in the debate over cutting off federal funding to Planned Parenthood. In fact, he says he misspoke and it's reignited this supposed war on women.

Here's CNN's Joe Johns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): GOP presidential hopeful Jeb Bush walking back a seemingly offhanded jab over women's health funding.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm not sure we need a half a billion dollars for women's health issues.

JOHNS: Jeb said in a statement soon after he misspoke at the Southern Baptist Convention in Tennessee Tuesday, he says he meant to say the $500 million in federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood should be directed to other women's health organizations.

Not matter, rival Hillary Clinton pounced.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess women's health just isn't a priority for him.

[09:25:00] JOHNS: Hillary first firing off this tweet at Jeb Bush. "You are absolutely unequivocally wrong." Bush tweeting right back an hour later, "What's absolutely unequivocally wrong is giving taxpayer money to an organization whose practices show no regard to lives of the unborn."

At a campaign event in Denver Tuesday, Hillary did not hold back.

CLINTON: I'm really tired of the double speak. I'm tired of women being shamed and blamed and dismissed.

JOHNS: Coming to his aid, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, tweeting that Clinton ought to be ashamed for standing with Planned Parenthood.

The fight over women's health intensifying just a day after the Republican effort to defund the organization failed to get enough votes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion is not agreed not.

JOHNS: Some Republicans now threaten a government shutdown of Planned Parenthood is not defunded.

CLINTON: When you attack Planned Parenthood, you attack women's health. And when you attack women's health, you attack America's health.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting from Washington, thanks so much.

Joining me now, Tara Setmayer, former communications director for Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Welcome, Tara.

And Peter Beinart, who's contributing editor "The Atlantic".

Peter, are you there?

PETER BEINART, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, I'm here.

COSTELLO: Oh, good. I'm glad.

We're having some technical snafus this morning. So, I'm trying to keep and I apologize. But I'm glad you're both there.

So, I'll go to you, Tara, first. What do you make of this controversy?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think this was a controversy that Republicans wanted to avoid.

They gave a wide open door to resurrect the war on women meme that we thought we had gotten past. If you look at what happened in 2014, the Democrats tried to do this ad nauseam in the Senate race in Colorado. It backfired. The Democrat candidate they named uterus candidate because he just kept talking and hammering it home and it didn't work. He lost. The Republican won.

This is something that I think Jeb Bush should have known better. This is messaging that the Republican Party has got to work on. We lost women almost by double digits in 2012. We cannot afford to lose the female vote again this time around on things like this, where I don't believe that Jeb Bush doesn't believe in investing in women's health. It was clearly a misstatement that he made there.

But you can't afford to do this when you're supposed to be the adult in the room. What he should have said was --

COSTELLO: And his campaign came back with the correct message but it wasn't the correct message. They issued another statement. SETMAYER: At least they didn't wait five days to come back and change

it like they did with the Iraq thing. But what he should have said was, I don't think it's appropriate for half a billion taxpayer dollars to go to an organization who's engaging in the harvesting of fetal body parts.

I think that's something we need to take a look at and I don't think that's a proper use of American taxpayer dollars.

COSTELLO: OK.

SETMAYER: And anyone who respects life would agree with me. That's what he should have said.

COSTELLO: And, Peter, I think that Jeb Bush handed Hillary Clinton what she so desperately needs right now, because oddly enough she is losing support quickly among women, older women especially, ten points in a month she's down.

BEINART: Right. This was a godsend for Hillary Clinton. It distracts attention from some of the scandals that have caused her problems. It allows her to shore up her base amongst women, amongst progressives in the Democratic Party, where she has an unexpectedly strong challenge from Bernie Sanders.

And as Tara said, it revives an issue that has been tremendously problematic for Republicans and raises a difficult question for Republicans, which is how good a candidate is Jeb Bush? This is not the first time this has happened. He hurt himself badly with that unforced error, as Tara mentioned, on Iraq. Right now, because Trump is getting all of the attention, it's really cemented Jeb as the kind of the main alternative to Donald Trump.

But the problem Republicans may face is they have on the one hand, Trump who was entirely unelectable, and the other hand Jeb Bush who is turning out to be not a great candidate.

COSTELLO: So, on that debate stage on Thursday night, Jeb Bush is going to have to hit a home run somehow, right, and overshadow Donald Trump?

SETMAYER: Yes, he has to step it up. I mean, he's -- you know, people say that he hasn't run for office in a couple years. He's a little rusty. And it's showing that.

I think it's going to be tough because you have ten candidates on stage with an average of ten minutes each -- throughout the entire debate to stand out. And with the Donald Trump factor, we don't know what's going to happen. Someone said it's like a stock car race where 16 of the drivers are sober and one's drunk, you know?

We don't know what's going to happen on Thursday. I think he has to do a better job. Not only Jeb Bush but the Republicans have got to do a better job on messaging. Women in this country largely agree with issues of lower taxes, better choice for their families, school choice for their children. Those are issues that Republicans can win, but if they don't message it properly, women are going to go -- they don't relate to us and we're going to lose the female vote again. And that, we cannot have that --

COSTELLO: The female vote, I mean, the women's vote, it's interesting, right?