Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Clinton Reboots Campaign; Apple Holds "Hey Siri" Event; Former al-Baghdadi Slave Speaks Out; Queen Becomes U.K's Longest-Reigning Monarch. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 09, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:29:26] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Obviously, running for office is a long cruel slog especially if you are not a gifted performer or are unable to be yourself. Campaign aides close to Hillary Clinton are hoping a reboot which the "New York Times" says will allow Clinton to show more humor and heart will give her bid for the president, along with sagging poll numbers a big boost.

Clinton seeming to start that reboot during this ABC interview where she finally apologized for using personal e-mail while she was secretary of state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even though it was allowed, I should have used two e-mail accounts -- one for personal and one for work-related e-mail. That was a mistake. I am sorry about that. I take responsibility and I'm trying to be as transparent as I possibly can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And this morning, Clinton also stressed her readiness to be commander-in-chief touting her ability to handle Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: My approach will be distrust and verify. We should anticipate that Iran will test the next president. They will want to see how far they can bend the rules. That won't work if I'm in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Here to talk about this is Patsy Cisneros, an image specialist for politicians and executives; and John Avlon, CNN political analyst. Welcome to both of you.

JOHN AVALON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning -- Carol.

PATSY CISNEROS, IMAGE SPECIALIST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Good morning. I thought for a moment you couldn't hear and I was afraid. But I'm glad you can.

And John, I will begin with you. So Hillary Clinton apologizing -- did that surprise you?

AVLON: Well, I mean, she has been sort of inching out the apology tour for a few weeks now since I think the campaign realized that the status quo wasn't working. There are times when apologies feel like a bit of a hostage video, but as we learned from the "New York Times" yesterday this was also supposed to be the rollout of a new authentic Hillary.

But the problem is that, of course, when you are telegraphing authenticity via memos, it cuts against the grain of what she actually needs to do which is be a real person. And that still remains her biggest hurdle as a candidate. And we are seeing the effects of that as we head into the fall of this Presidential year.

COSTELLO: She still doesn't seem like a real -- OK. So Patsy, we have known Hillary Clinton since what -- 1991. I mean if we don't know Hillary Clinton as a real person by now, can we ever?

CISNEROS: Yes. What you are seeing is the real person. So that is her authentic self, and that is what people need to know. And either accept or not accept that that is who she is, and who she will be as president.

COSTELLO: OK. That is interesting, John. Why doesn't Hillary Clinton --

CISNEROS: Should she be elected, of course.

COSTELLO: Should she be elected -- right. And why doesn't she just go with who she is? Why reboot?

AVLON: Well, that is I think the point. She has to. There is no substitute for authenticity at this point. You can't spin yourself a new persona. Remember when Al Gore tried all the different makeovers. We had Romney 3.0. People are smart enough to realize that it's fake and when Hillary Clinton has broken out, for example in the New Hampshire primary in 2008 when she teared up a little bit, that is when she is most effective. She needs to take the risk of intimacy. She needs to be herself, be authentic, stop getting these mental handcuffed. And that's when she'll do her best. But the more she tries to manage her words and manage her image, the more she's going to get deeper stuck in the muck and mire.

And the media has a little bit to do with it as well, because of the gotcha game we've played with politicians. But she's got to break out of it, be authentic.

That is really ultimately the secret to why Trump for all of his insanity is doing well, and people can learn a little bit from that.

COSTELLO: OK. So I would suppose then Patsy, that it was a good idea that Hillary could not appear on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show", because Ellen DeGeneres has a way of making you be yourself. CISNEROS: Yes, and Hillary is now scripted, so she needs to be

scripted for the apology. She is scripted. You can tell that it still isn't a comfort level for her. And she definitely does not want to ask (SIC) any direct questions. However, the warmth is not part of her nature or her personality style, so that would have been uncomfortable for her to do more. You will see --

COSTELLO: But you can see her there -- she is dancing right?

CISNEROS: -- it is not credible. Yes.

COSTELLO: I see what you are saying -- yes.

CISNEROS: Yes, great moves -- right?

COSTELLO: But in a way that can be endearing, too, right?

CISNEROS: Sure. Oh, absolutely, as long as it is her, that's just fine. And that is her. So if she could really bust out the moves, that would really shock people if she had some real, like rhythm going on there. It's not her.

COSTELLO: Well, not many candidates do.

CISNEROS: She's more executive-looking. She wants to be more executive-looking and she is a drier personality, and very direct. That is what she is doing.

COSTELLO: OK.

So let's talk about Jeb Bush because he also is sort of -- go ahead, John.

AVLON: No, just, I mean own it. You know, stop trying to sell yourself as a grandma and be the former secretary of state. Talk about being tough with Iran. Talk about being tough with Putin. That kind of authenticity rooted in her experience will resonate a lot more than kind of some focus-group vision of herself.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

John Avlon, Patsy Cisneros -- thank you so much.

And remember the GOP presidential candidates face off in back-to- back debates. Watch it one week from today, but tomorrow, we will find out who exactly will take part.

[10:35:07] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we may have asked Siri for a hint, but it is Apple CEO Tim Cook who has the answers. We will get a preview of Apple's big announcement next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are just about three hours away from the latest Apple announcement. The company tempting speculation with this invite, asking, "Hey, Siri, give us a hint." We're going to do that in just a minute. So far though, no rumors that Tim Cook will have any iPad or Apple watch style introduction. But that has not stopped tech watchers from guessing.

[10:40:00] And I have a few tech watchers with me right now: CNN's Samuel Burke and Wired editor-at-large, Jason Tanz. Welcome to both of you. So Samuel, what do you expect?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, the iPhones are usually the big stars of these events, but it looks like this time it is going to be the Apple TV. And that's because no one is expecting an iPhone 7.0. Everybody is expecting an iPhone 6S. What's that going to mean? A faster processor, a 4k rear camera -- if you thought you looked great in HD. Carol get ready for 4k on your iPhone and a "Force Touch" screen. That means you're going to have to relearn how to touch your screen because you can press hard or press soft and you'll get different menus depending on how you press.

COSTELLO: That one's confusing -- I can't get it, you know.

BURKE: I know. At the end of the day, look I think it's all going to be about the Apple TV. Also not huge changes with the iPad -- there might be something called an iPad pro which will have an enormous screen -- 13 centimeters diagonally, and maybe a stylus pen and a USB port.

So that means at the end of the day, it's going to be all about the Apple TV. No, not a television set, but rather that little box that connects your television set to the Internet. People are expecting a big change there. It might go from $60 to up to $200, a remote control with touch pad, and a TV app store. At the end of the day, this is great news for us Carol because CNN is, of course, on the Apple TV already.

COSTELLO: We're ahead of the curve -- baby.

BURKE: So if they want to get us off TV, we're going to have to go kicking and screaming. We'll be on some other screen.

COSTELLO: OK. So Jason, I'm going to login to my iPhone here. Just so we can have a little bit of fun.

BURKE: I hope your husband doesn't call you while you are trying this out live on air.

COSTELLO: I know. Exactly.

But go ahead, and talk about the Apple TV here. The viewers are excited about.

JASON TANZ, WIRED EDITOR AT LARGE: So the question is whether at this event Apple can actually get us to care about the Apple TV -- right. It has been around since 2007. The company has always sort of kept it an arm's length distance from it referring to it as a hobby. And people have been expecting Apple to make some big play into the living room for a really long time.

COSTELLO: Well, I think people are ready to cut the cord right now, right?

TANZ: People are ready to cut the cord. This version of the Apple TV is not going to let them do it. You know, there's some hope that at some point Apple is going to announce some kind of Netflix like streaming service, some subscription service. That means you no longer have to subscribe to cable and you can get a la carte channels. They were not able to line up those deals in advance of this announcement.

So this announcement is going to be opening up the operating system to developers so that people can develop apps directly for your TV, just as they can now develop apps on your phones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry -- I'm not sure what you said.

BURKE: She's not sure what you said.

TANZ: Sorry -- was I unclear, Siri?

COSTELLO: You were. OK. We try this again. Siri, can you give us a hint?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, I missed the super secret keynote meeting, because I was busy telling three million people why the chicken crossed the road.

BURKE: She's got a sense of humor.

TANZ: Sassy.

BURKE: Everybody -- you know, streaming is huge for the entertainment industry, now for the tech industry. These boxes allow you to stream Netflix, YouTube, like I mentioned CNN. So even if people are changing how they use the cord, they're still going to get the same content, mentor minds, great storytelling never changes, it is just the medium that changes.

COSTELLO: Well let's -- can we just talk a little bit about the challenge that Tim Cook faces today. Because everybody is going to -- you know you always expect some major big amazing announcement. And it is affecting their stock prices, right, because I mean how many amazing gadgets can you actually develop over time?

TANZ: Well, you think about it, actually this was a bigger problem a few years ago. You know, after Steve Jobs died, and everybody was waiting for the next big announcement from Apple. And it felt like a very long time that wasn't happening. Since then, we've got the Apple watch which was not long ago, you know, a year ago or so. We got -- you know, we got Apple music, and we have -- now we're going to have this Apple TV thing. So it feels like they are starting to roll out some of these things they have been working on for a really long time.

I will also say that part of the reasons that Apple events were so exciting in the past is we didn't know what we were getting. They've done a really good job of keeping them secret. BURKE: Now, we always seem to know.

TANZ: Now, we always seem to know. And so hardly surprises.

COSTELLO: Sorry -- Siri. Yes, exactly.

Samuel Burke, Jason Tanz -- thank you so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:28] Convert or die -- that was the ultimatum posed to one young woman forced into slavery by notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. In 2014, Kurdish, Iraqi and U.S. troops rescued thousands of Yazidis from ISIS, but thousands more were captured, countless women, children parceled out as slaves.

Now one of al-Baghdadi's former slaves is breaking her silence. She talked exclusively with CNN. Here's Atika Shubert.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zainat (ph) was just 15 when she was captured by ISIS fighters and brought, she says, before their leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

ZAINAT, FORMER BAGHDADI SLAVE (through translator): First time he came, I was 15 and crying. When I stood up, he looked at me and told the guard take this girl away and put her to the side.

SHUBERT: She says she was taken to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold where she cooked and cleaned for Baghdadi's three wives and six children. She tried to escape once. Her punishment -- beatings with a garden hose, the last blows delivered by Baghdadi himself.

What did he say to you when he hit you?

ZAINAT: Abu Bakr Baghdadi told we beat you because you run away from us. We chose to convert to our religion. We chose you, you belong to the Islamic state.

SHUBERT: Then she says she was thrown into a cramped cell for a month. That is where Zainat says met Kayla Mueller.

ZAINAT: I told her, I'm a Yazidi girl from Sinjar and I was captured by Daesh. After that we stayed together and became like sisters.

[10:50:06] SHUBERT: She and Kayla were moved to the home of Abu Sayyaf, a high ranking ISIS commander. Shortly after she says Baghdadi came to visit. He called for Kayla.

ZAINAT: When Kayla came back to us, we asked her why are you crying. And Kayla told us Baghdadi said I'm going to marry you by force. You're going to be my wife. If you refuse, I will kill you.

When I heard that Kayla told me, I wanted to escape, and I told Kayla to escape with me, but Kayla refused. She said if I escape they will behead me.

SHUBERT: She says she waited until 1:00 a.m., and pushed open a broken window into their room and ran. A man in a nearby village smuggled her out to her family and only then did she discover who the man who tortured her really was.

ZAINAT: When I escaped, I saw him on TV and I heard his voice. When I ran away I asked my family who is this man. They told me this is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

SHUBERT: Zainat says she has told her story to U.S. investigators including details of Baghdadi's daily routine.

What kind of a man was Baghdadi? Was he ever, ever kind to you?

ZAINAT: No, he was always evil. There were no kind words.

SHUBERT: She says she hopes some piece of information however small will lead to the downfall of the man who once called her his slave.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Chilling story -- thanks to Atika Shubert for that repot. While we can't independently confirm all of the details of this young woman's story, Kayla Mueller's family tell CNN some of the details match what the family has learned from government officials. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:56:04] Queen Elizabeth will make history today. By the end of the day, she will be the longest reigning monarch in Britain. And I can't think of a better time to show pictures of Prince George -- I know. But as you well know Kate is my favorite royal, and George is simply the bomb. Look at him.

OK -- now that I have my daily dose of adorable, back to the queen. She rang in the occasion with business as usual, opening a railway station in the Scottish border. So let's talk about this achievement and more.

I'm joined by CNN's Max Foster, and CNN royal commentator Victoria Arbiter. Welcome to both of you. And Max, I will start with you because I understand that the queen has already made some remarks.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She has. I have to say she wasn't planning on doing anything today. She was going to spend it quietly with the family. But I think she got a lot of advice from the people around her are saying. Actually the public are expecting to see her on this very historic day. So quite a hum-drum engagement today really in Scotland just to

show that she is doing business as usual, as it were. So she was up in Scotland, and she did speak very briefly about this major milestone, but for her, it is not actually that big a deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, BRITISH ROYALTY: Many including you, first minister, have all said kindly noted, another significance attaching to today. Although, it is not one to which I have ever aspired. Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestone, my own is no exception. But I thank you all and the many others at home and overseas for your touching messages of great kindness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Just to explain the thinking, Carol, not that she doesn't think that it is a historic day, it is really because it is tinged with mourning and sadness for her actually. This is defined by the date that her father died. So that is why she does not want to see it as a celebration.

COSTELLO: Well, I can certainly understand that. And you know, and she has -- I mean, she seems to be modest Victoria. Why does she hang in there though? Why doesn't she just retire and turn things over to Charles?

VICTORIA ARBITER, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Really what it comes down to is the fact that she took her oath before God in Westminster Abbey on coronation day on the occasion of her 21st birthday. She gave a speech in which she said she promised to serve all the days of her life whether they be long or short. Cut to the coronation where she made her vow. Cut to the diamond jubilee where she rededicated herself to the country.

She's not going anywhere. She vowed to serve all the days of her life and hoping that she doesn't become incapacitated whether physically or mentally. That's exactly what she's going to do.

COSTELLO: How much does she actually do through the day or through the week, Max or does Charles assume some of her duties.

FOSTER: Well, she is doing a bit less. She doesn't go on those big foreign tours that she used to. But actually if you look at the number of engagements she does, they might be closer to home so she's still very busy indeed. And actually this photo was released today to show her at her desk working. The message behind that business as usual.

But also as Victoria was intimating there, no letup in the work schedule -- she is not going to abdicate. There's a sort of subtle messaging there. And in terms of other markings today, if I can call it that, the palace has allowed us here into the back garden of Buckingham Palace so they recognize that it is a moment.

I have been given a mug as well, a little commemorative mug which I'm going to pass on to you, Carol, because it is a dedication from Carol Costello to the royal cause. I know you're a fan of Prince George. But the queen also feels it. So we've been given this mug which reads inside, "longest reigning monarch, her majesty Queen Elizabeth II". So they are a mark of the occasion and this is winging its way towards you for your good work.

COSTELLO: Yes. You wrap that in lots of bubble wrap so it doesn't break on its way. Max Foster thank you.

And Victoria -- just say Prince George is delicious because I love how you say that.

ARBITER: Well, Prince George is utterly delicious and I hope that one day you get to see him in person and see for yourself.

[11:00:07] COSTELLO: That would be so much better than that cup.

Victoria -- thanks so much. Thanks to you as well -- Max Foster.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

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