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GOP Hopefuls Head to Iowa for State Fair; John Kasich Rises as Trump Leads Iowa, New Hampshire Polls; Former President Carter Battling Cancer; At Least 50 Dead, Hundreds Injured in China; U.S. Launching Airstrikes From S. Turkey; Army Chief: Russia "Most Dangerous" Threat. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 13, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:02] PEREIRA: Yes, she does.

CUOMO: She didn't want to be honest. She was honest. Needless to say the store is not going to cash the check.

PEREIRA: It has been wonderful having you here with us this week.

CABRERA: Hey, it's been fun, guys. Thank you.

PEREIRA: Come visit us again soon.

CABRERA: I know Alisyn has been here in spirit the whole time but she is getting her deserved time off and sleeping in.

PEREIRA: Exactly.

CUOMO: It's good to have you. You, too.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CABRERA: Thank you.

PEREIRA: All right. It's time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

Good morning, darling.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You guys have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Trump still on top. And guess who he's winning over? We'll break down the latest poll numbers.

Plus, Putin a big problem? Why a top American general say it's Russia we really need to worry about.

And ref to the rescue. This linebacker's jaw-breaking punch might have sidelined a quarterback, but it won't keep him off the field.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

We begin this morning in Iowa where for the next 11 days Republican presidential hopefuls will blanket the state fair to shore up votes for their White House bids. The highlight, the "Des Moines Register" soap box where candidates get 20 minutes to make their pitch to voters.

But guess who will not take part in the soap box? That would be the GOP front runner in that state, Donald Trump. The top pick of likely GOP caucus goers, 22 percent, backing him. Rounding out the top five, Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, with Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee tied for fifth place.

CNN's political reporter Sara Murray has more on the people who are expressing support for Trump. She's going to parse the numbers for us this morning.

Good morning, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I do want to say just because Donald Trump will not be on the soap box, do not expect him to be absent from the state fair. He will be there this weekend. And, you know, hopefully he'll be trying some fried food on sticks. We'll see.

Now let's talk a little bit more about those numbers. The Iowa -- the new poll we have in Iowa does show him on top. And the interesting thing is when you dig in on the issues, voters give him really high numbers. He's ahead of the field when it comes to dealing with the economy, when it comes to dealing with illegal immigration and when it comes to dealing with terrorism.

All of this is particularly interesting because Donald Trump hasn't released specific policy proposals on any of these issues and yet he's still in the lead on a number of issues.

Now let's talk about who is supporting him like you said. Even though this guy is a billionaire candidate, he's funding his own presidential campaign, he's drawing a lot of support from working class voters. He gets pretty good marks from people who are earning under $50,000 a year. But the place he is suffering is with women. If you look at this support numbers, 27 percent of men say they support Donald Trump. Just 15 percent of women say the same thing.

Now that's a big deal because if you are going to win the Republican nomination, that's one thing. But if you are going to win the White House, you need big numbers of women voters to offset the problems the Republican Party has had winning over Hispanics. And if those numbers get worse for Trump, that is a big, big red flag for the Republican Party. Now the last thing I'll say is two-thirds of the voters in our latest

poll say that they are still undecided. So this is a very fluid situation. And we could still see a lot of changes between now and when voters actually go to the polls -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray reporting for us on those poll numbers, thanks so much.

Perhaps, and I emphasize perhaps, the man to beat Trump is Ohio governor John Kasich. Kasich is now surging at least in New Hampshire. He's just six points behind Mr. Trump.

CNN's Dana Bash sat down with the governor who'll have town halls in the state this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've balanced more budgets than about anybody walking on the face of the earth. I mean, I'm just kind of kidding, but I've done that. I've cut taxes at every step of the way. We have the largest tax cuts in Ohio of any sitting governor right now. I'm for school choice. We're getting at the problem of higher education costs. And somehow because I care about people or I care about the environment that that makes me something other than a conservative?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now to talk about all of this, Paul DiBartolo, a Trump supporter, and Julian Epstein, a Democratic strategist.

Welcome to both of you.

PAUL DIBARTOLO, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Thank you.

JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.

DIBARTOLO: Thank you for having me here.

COSTELLO: Thank you so much for being here. So, Paul, I'll start with you. I know you love Donald Trump. But would you ever consider voting for John Kasich?

DIBARTOLO: You know -- you know, I had a long conversation with the driver on the way in this morning. You know, obviously, you know, the commute from Eastern Suffolk County into Manhattan gives you an opportunity to -- you know, to do a lot of talking.

COSTELLO: To think. Right.

DIBARTOLO: Think a long time. So, you know, like I explained to him, it's not really that I love Donald Trump. To be perfectly honest with you, I never even watched "The Apprentice." I've never followed Donald Trump in any way. Really I'm for what he stands for. You know. I feel like he is speaking for the unheard majority in this country, people like me. [09:05:03] COSTELLO: You heard Sara parse the numbers, though.

DIBARTOLO: Yes. Right.

COSTELLO: He's a very wealthy man, but most of his supporters are decidedly not wealthy. So what about Donald Trump resonates with you then?

DIBARTOLO: OK. So --

COSTELLO: I'm assuming you're not worth $10 billion.

DIBARTOLO: No, I'm not worth $10 billion. As a matter of fact it's not like after this program I'm going with my wife to Central Park to Tavern on the Green and have a lunch. Straight from here I will go home, I get my car, and I have to drive to work. As a matter of fact, I'll probably have to work a couple of extra hours today just to make up for being here. You know, so, I mean --

COSTELLO: So how would Donald Trump improve your life?

DIBARTOLO: He would improve my life -- just to give you a perfect example, over the last couple of years just looking at my insurance costs, OK, which is -- which would resonate with a lot of folks in this country, and I know they do because I'm getting a lot of these stats from my Web site that I built to support Donald Trump.

You know, I've got a couple of raises over the last couple of years like hopefully most people have, you know, just cost of living increases. But because my deductible and the cost of my insurance has increased at such a high rate, it's actually exceeded my raises, which is not a good thing.

COSTELLO: So --

DIBARTOLO: Not a good thing.

COSTELLO: What will Donald Trump do for you to --

DIBARTOLO: Well, what Donald Trump for just -- not just me but for the entire country is he'll bring the jobs back from other countries, basically like he says, they're killing us right now.

COSTELLO: How will he do that?

DIBARTOLO: He'll make certain restrictions. OK. He'll make wise decisions to make sure that the jobs stay here. I mean, I'll keep it simple.

COSTELLO: So you don't know exactly how because Donald Trump hasn't said exactly how, right?

DIBARTOLO: Listen, let's face. It's so early in the game right now. You really -- let's face it. He needs to concentrate on staying in the lead with the Republicans. And later on when he's up against Biden, OK, or the other fellow that's in there -- I think Biden will be the one that he has to face. Let's face it.

COSTELLO: You think Joe Biden will get the Democratic nomination?

DIBARTOLO: Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: OK. Well, let's turn to Julian now.

DIBARTOLO: I mean, I can almost -- I can almost guarantee you it's going to be Biden.

COSTELLO: Julian is our Democratic strategist. Really? Well, Joe Biden is mulling over a run for the presidency as we speak. So what do you think about what Paul just said, Julian?

EPSTEIN: Well, I think from -- I don't know whether Joe Biden is going to run or not. I think he's a celebrated figure in Democratic circles. I think Hillary is -- continues to be the presumptive favorite. She's strong on all the fundamentals. Her favorability, her ground game, her fundraising. I think it's going to be virtually impossible to unseat her.

With respect to Donald Trump, I think Democrats hope -- I mean, I think like most political professionals that Donald Trump will be a Roman candle in that he will fizzle like most of these summer romances do in the off-year presidential elections. But from a Democratic point of view anyway he's very, very good for Democrats, because I think he is definitely harming the Republican brand.

If you look at the last six elections Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the last six elections. And part of it is because of the self-inflicted wounds that the Republicans do to themselves in the primary process. You know, if you think about how they kind of crawl over each other for this anti-establishment vote, it generally tends to be a lower educated, a lower income and kind of very angry demographic.

And the 22 percent on your polls, that represents about five million voters, Carol. And the problem is there's about 140 million Americans that are going to vote in the next election. So if the Republican Party is catering to kind of a very narrow angry demographic of five million people, there's something just fundamentally wrong with that math there.

And that plays out when you look at all of the -- all of the head-to- head polls, Hillary trounces Donald Trump in a general election. Not only Hillary trounces a Donald Trump, every Democrat trounces Donald Trump, including Bernie Sanders. You know, so I just think Trump is going to fizzle at some point.

I think, you know, for three essential reasons, one is he has essentially no ground game going on right now. He is conducting his campaign almost entirely out of the Trump Towers. He's not participating in any meaningful way on the ground. Secondly I think the kind of the low-brow style, the kind of insults to women, the insults to Latinos, the kind of style of telling everybody that disagrees with him that they're stupid, they're losers, they're disastrous, that at a certain point is going to wear pretty thin. And it's going to be regarded, I think, increasingly as kind of low class.

COSTELLO: OK.

EPSTEIN: Finally, just to go to the point on policy here, you know, I think Donald Trump's supporters are somewhat confused. Donald Trump is on record as saying that Democrats produce the best economic record. Donald Trump is on record as saying that he likes health care. Just a few years ago he liked the single-payer program. He's now disavowed that.

COSTELLO: Right, right.

EPSTEIN: But just several years ago he said he liked the single-payer program.

COSTELLO: OK. We get your point. We get your point, Julian.

EPSTEIN: So he's --

COSTELLO: We do. I just want to pose one more question to Paul.

EPSTEIN: OK.

[09:10:02] COSTELLO: Since -- right. So you've heard what Julian said. George Will --

DIBARTOLO: Some of it. It was -- yes.

COSTELLO: George Will, who's a conservative, he wrote a column in the "Washington Post" this morning, kind of echoing what Julian said.

DIBARTOLO: Sure, sure. Listen, let me just tell you a quick story.

COSTELLO: Just quickly wrap this up why --

DIBARTOLO: Let me tell you a quick story, very quick story that's going to blow your mind, it's going to blow a lot of minds of the people out there. OK. A friend of mine at work, Bret, he mentioned to me the other day when I told him I was coming on the "NEW DAY" show which was last Thursday, and he's a lifelong Democrat. He told me, I've always voted Democrat. I've never not voted Democrat.

But let me tell you something, Donald Trump intrigues me. I feel like he's speaking to me. This is a lifelong Democrat. And he says more than likely I'm going to vote for him. I'm not positive right now because it's early in the game, but more than likely. I mean, that should resonate -- that's the way a lot of people feel. And that's a Democrat speaking.

COSTELLO: Right.

DIBARTOLO: Forget about the independents. Forget about the -- you know. EPSTEIN: Not when you pull the layers back.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I've got to leave it there, guys. I've got to leave it there.

DIBARTOLO: He's going to blow it out of the water. And against Biden?

COSTELLO: OK. I got to leave it there.

EPSTEIN: Good luck.

COSTELLO: Paul DiBartolo, Julian Epstein, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

DIBARTOLO: Thank you very much, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk about Jimmy Carter. Well wishes pouring in for the former president after he announced he is indeed battling cancer. This political editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich titled "Another Journey" is featured in today's "Atlanta Journal Constitution."

You can see it there, "Jimmy Carter Cancer Survivor." President Obama and Vice President Biden both say they spoke to Carter on the phone. The Obamas also releasing this statement, quote, "Jimmy, you're as resilient as they come. And along with the rest of America we are rooting for you."

Carter says doctors discovered the cancer had spread when he had surgery last month. He hasn't revealed what type of cancer he's facing or his prognosis but says he'll share more details as early as next week.

Martin Savidge is in Atlanta with more this morning.

Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. And you're right. A lot of people are anxious to hear what those details are, specifically as to what kind of cancer is it that Jimmy Carter now says that he has because keep in mind his family has had a very long and very painful history when it comes to pancreatic cancer. He lost a brother and two sisters, his mom died of cancer as well that spread through the pancreas. So they know that this has been a concern within the family. We do not know if that is the kind of cancer that we're dealing with now with the president.

His statement that he put out just merely said that the recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer and that it has spread. That of course is a concern once it spreads in the body. He is 90, going on 91 in October. So that too is going to have an impact and the sort of treatment or the regiment that would be used to treat cancer with him. But that's not to say can have a successful outcome. Medical experts say that there is no reason given how healthy he has been that the prognosis shouldn't be good given the right sort of treatment.

And then you mentioned just the outpouring. It's not just because he was president of the United States, but because of all that humanitarian work that he did afterwards. Both the medical and also with the building of homes and Habitat for Humanity, and on and on and on. And they are receiving all of that here at the Carter Center. So many, many people rooting for the 39th president -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Martin Savidge, many thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, deadly explosion in China so violent they could be felt for miles. But the images from after the blast are disturbing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:30] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: At least 50 people are dead after a series of deadly explosions so powerful and so violent they could be seen and felt for miles. They even registered as earthquakes. The blast came from a warehouse in northern China that handled hazardous materials, created a fireball that charred buildings and melts cars.

CNN's Will Ripley is live in northern China, a mile from the site of those explosions, to tell us more.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes. We are one mile away from the epicenter of the blast.

When you take a look at this damage, it really is incredible to think that one mile away a blast caused people's living room windows to fall into the street. We -- the wind has been shifted here and the fire continues to burn, even though we can no longer see the huge plume of smoke because night has fallen. So, in between shots we've been wearing these masks to protect us from, I'm not wearing it now because it muffles when I'm speaking, but to protect us from the toxic air.

These factories that are burning have a very hazardous mix of chemicals. And even city officials here right now are acknowledging that there is a danger of prolonged exposure for people breathing the air. Obviously, a lot of concern for families with children, people living so close to a major industrial disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): This morning, horrific video pouring in of a series of catastrophic explosions in a major Chinese port city late Wednesday.

Watch this surveillance video obtained by ABC News of a man standing near the entrance of a building. The blast decimating the wall, caving in right on top of him.

The explosions felt miles away, emanating from an industrial warehouse in Tianjin, a city of 15 million two hours south of Beijing. The chemical material inside unknown and dangerous, according to

Xinhua, a state-run news agency. Xinhua reporting firefighters are now suspended from tending to the billowing flames, in fear the mysterious chemicals might pose a further threat.

This as the death toll continues rising. Dozens now dead, including firefighters, and more than 500 injured.

"The house collapsed. We didn't know what happened," says one survivor.

During my live report from outside the hospital, tempers flared.

[09:20:00] A group of apparently distraught survivors, along with security officers demanding to see the pictures on my phone, forcing me off the air. Police don't stop them. Emotions running high.

The massive explosions equivalent to a small earthquake, according to a China data center.

(on camera): When you look around at all the devastation here, it's really remarkable.

(voice-over): The aftermath found far and wide, buildings destroyed and cars are completely charred more than a mile away from the blast site.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY: Right now, thousands of people are spending the night in shelters. These normally densely populated neighborhoods, as you can see, are pretty much empty right now. Nobody's able to go inside these buildings. There's a lot of people, thousands of people who live in these apartments alone, Carol.

It just goes to show the scope of a disaster like this in a city of some 15 million people. It also raises new concerns about these industrial plants and how close they are to people's homes.

COSTELLO: All right. Will Ripley reporting live from northern China this morning -- thank you.

For the first time in the war against ISIS, U.S. fighter jets are now using Turkey, an air base there in southern Turkey, to carry out air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria. While it greatly reduces the distance F-16s must fly, the outgoing army chief of staff warns the airstrikes alone might not be enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. RAY ODIERNO, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: If we find in the next several months that we're not making the progress that we have, we should probably absolutely consider embedding some soldiers there and see if that would make a difference. That doesn't mean there would be fighting, but it would be, you know, embedding them and moving with them. I think that's an option we should present to the president when the time is right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh live in Turkey this morning to tell us more.

Hi, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, behind me is Incirlik air base, which the U.S. has long negotiated with Turkey for the use of, to launch airstrikes against ISIS. Those started just yesterday, and throughout this morning, it's been a pretty busy airstrip. We've seen a number of F-16s soar over us here. They could be American, but we can't tell how fast they're moving. But reports that, of course, the Pentagon saying not only were they hitting inside Syria yesterday, and now first day of strikes launched from this base, a number of targets they had longed planned to hit, there are also activists today from inside Syria suggesting it's been a pretty heavy day on the receiving end of coalition air power there on ISIS targets.

Just now, in fact, we saw a fuel it seems, reloading larger cargo plane that helps planes refuel in the air just take off from here, a C-17 cargo plane, American, just earlier too. This base has had American troops on it for nearly, for a number of years, nearly 2,000 of them. They haven't been allowed to carry out strikes like this.

And the key reason the U.S. wants this so badly is it takes the flight time from hours potentially in the bases in the Gulf that U.S. jets had been using. So, just 15 minutes, 15 minutes from taking off from this runway strip to being in the skies over Syria and able to hit ISIS targets there. That means the turnaround of jets faster, it's quicker to refuel them, quicker to reload their ammunition. It means they can spend longer in the skies over Syria hitting ISIS targets, one they've long spotted or one that perhaps emerges on the ground as they're in the air. That potentially radically speeds up the fight against ISIS.

But it's come in some degree of cost. There's been a pretty public dispute between the U.S. and Turkey as the way forwards in the ground war inside Syria. Turkey badly wanted a safe zone, an area free of ISIS and the Kurdish militants they don't like either in that area, too, to allow moderate Syrian rebels to move in. Washington doesn't even want to talk about that as an idea. That many say you need some kind of ground presence to really push ISIS back in northern Syria.

But it's here on that airstrip behind me that the U.S. is key part of its war against ISIS, and that's air power, has now seen a rapid uptick in its use -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nick Paton Walsh, reporting live from Turkey this morning.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: markets rebound after a Chinese curve ball. But will another currency drop send stocks again? The opening bell after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:30] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

An alarming new warning from outgoing Army Chief General Ray Odierno -- Russia, not ISIS, poses the most dangerous threat to the United States.

Listen to what Odierno told reporters on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ODIERNO: I believe Russia is the most dangerous because of a couple things. First, they are more mature than some other of our potential adversaries. And I think they have some stated intents that concern me in terms of how the Cold War ended. And so for me, I'm concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Odierno also cited Russia's sophisticated operations in Ukraine where Russian-backed fighters are locked in a fierce battle with the Ukrainian military.

Odierno isn't the first to sound the alarm when it comes to Russia. Last month, incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, voiced similar concerns to lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

So, let's talk about this with CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

Good morning, General. Thanks for joining me.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

So, first off, do you agree with General Odierno?

HERTLING: Well, I certainly think General Odierno is correct in saying that Russia is a threat. I'm not sure I completely agree with him saying it's the most dangerous, but it's certainly a growing concern. We saw that up close and personal when I was commander in Europe.

COSTELLO: It seems he's saying that Russia is more of a threat than is. Is that what he's saying?

HERTLING: Well, I'm not sure I would interpret it that way.