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Donald Trump Slams Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson; Sanders, Clinton Neck and Neck in Iowa; Backlash Against Fleeing Syrian Families; Raging Floodwaters Slam Japan. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 10, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, leader of the pack.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning.

COSTELLO: Trump trounces the competition in a new CNN poll. And in just hours we find out who he will face off with in Wednesday's big debate.

Also, raging flood waters. Dramatic rescues from above. And now major flooding in Japan leading to concerns about a radioactive leak.

Plus, can the officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray get a fair trial?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That would not bring that boy back. Life is worth more than money.

COSTELLO: On the heels of a major payoff by the city the officers' lawyers say change the venue. Today will they get what they want?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

There is no stopping the Trump train. It is annihilating the Republican field. Get a load of this. Donald Trump tops 30 percent support in a brand new CNN poll. And guess what, his support among Republican women is soaring despite what some call sexist taunts. The latest insult aimed at Carly Fiorina. Here's what Trump said in "Rolling Stone" magazine, quote, "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president," end quote.

For her part, Carly Fiorina had this response on FOX News' "MEGYN KELLY SHOW."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: What do you take that to mean, "look at that face, would anyone vote for that?"

(LAUGHTER)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no idea. And you know -- you know, honestly, Megyn, I'm not going to spend a single cycle wondering what Donald Trump means. But maybe, just maybe, I'm getting under his skin a little bit because I am climbing in the polls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Trump on CNN's "NEW DAY" is, as always, unapologetic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY: You had a "there he goes again" moment. First it was Rosie, then it was Megyn. Now you got Carly Fiorina. They've got you in "Rolling Stone" magazine making fun of the way she looks. What do you talk about how women looks so much? You know it's not presidential. It's probably not even kind.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I'm talking about looks. I'm talking about persona. Look, here's another one.

CUOMO: You said look at that face.

TRUMP: Between Carson and Carly --

CUOMO: You said look at that face.

TRUMP: I'll say some nice things about you at least so that they'll say at least he says nice things about some people.

CUOMO: I'll take it.

TRUMP: The fact is -- the fact is that Carly Fiorina has had a terrible past. She was fired viciously from Hewlett-Packard. The dean of the --

CUOMO: But then you should say that.

TRUMP: -- business school who is a highly respected man, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, wrote a paper that was one of the worst papers on CEOs. She goes down as one of the worst ever.

CUOMO: But --

TRUMP: The company practically crated.

CUOMO: But then say that. TRUMP: But -- excuse me, Chris. Wait. Thousands of jobs gone, stock

price gone. Still hasn't recovered. It's a total disaster. But still hasn't recovered. They're trying hard, but she was a disastrous CEO. She had a company before that called Lucent, which in my opinion and in my memory was even a worse catastrophe than Hewlett-Packard. She then gets fired from Hewlett-Packard, she runs for the Senate against somebody that could have been beaten easily. She loses in a landslide and now she's running for president.

Now when I said that and the "Rolling Stone" article had moments of beauty and greatness, and I did like the pictures, actually. One of the few magazines where I actually like the pictures. So the photographer is good. The writer actually called me and he said, I'm so upset, I wrote this great story and Jan Winters screwed it up. He told me that.

CUOMO: All right.

TRUMP: Because they added a lot of stuff, a lot of garish stuff that I think is disgusting.

CUOMO: What I'm saying is this.

TRUMP: But they added it. Excuse me. Wait. So -- but, Carly, I'm talking about her persona. Her persona is not going to be -- she's not going to be president.

CUOMO: Yes. But I don't know about that.

TRUMP: She had a terrible, terrible, failed time at --

CUOMO: I don't know about that. I'll tell you why. I hear everything you're saying about the record. They're all legitimate basis for criticism that you can level against one of your opponents. But I'm just reading the quote for what it is. "Look at that face. Why would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that's the face of our next president? I mean, she's a women, I'm not supposed to say bad things, but really, folks, come on, are we serious?"

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: You're talking about persona?

TRUMP: I'm talking persona.

CUOMO: How? Where's persona in that?

TRUMP: And when she hits me on my hair, I know that's OK. And you won't defend me.

CUOMO: That's tit-for-tat.

TRUMP: Because my hair is -- by the way, I think you know me well enough it is my hair. But when she hits me on my hair --

CUOMO: Somebody comes on my air and makes fun about your hair, I'm going to tell him to shut up and move on to something else. If somebody does that to you on my air, and they say the reason he shouldn't be president is because of his hair, look at his hair, I'll say shut up, let's talk about something else.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well --

CUOMO: It's unkind and it's unpresidential.

TRUMP: You don't have to defend me. I'm not looking for anybody to defend me. I'm just saying when she and other people hit me on things, nobody ever comes to my defense. So I'm just saying this.

CUOMO: You come to your defense.

TRUMP: Carly had a terrible time in business. She destroyed a company. You have to get the report from Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale. He's the expert on Carly.

[09:05:04] It's a disaster. And check out Lucent beforehand. So you have Ben saying what he said, you have Carly saying, these are two people that will not be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Wow. OK. So if you look at the latest polls Carly Fiorina, well, she only garners 3 percent support. So take from all of that what you will.

Trump just doesn't have Fiorina in his sights, he's also taking aim at his closest competitor and that would be Ben Carson.

Here to break it all down, CNN Politics reporter Sara Murray and conservative radio talk show host, Ben Ferguson.

Sara, first take us --

BEN FERGUSON, CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Sara, first take us deeper inside the numbers, will you?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Sure. So let's take another look at that top line. Like you said Trump is now the first candidate to break through that 30 percent mark, polling 32 percent in our latest poll. That's a big number. And it sort of gives you an idea that his ceiling is much higher than we original thought. We keep saying he's going to hit it, he's going to hit. He certainly hasn't this time.

Now the other thing we want to talk about is where Trump is drawing this support from. And partly that's women and college graduates. You can see now he's pulling 33 percent support among women. That's a 13-point jump from the previous month. He's also improving his numbers with college graduates drawing in 28 percent support from college grads. That's a 12-point jump from last month.

So it's clear that in terms of the group supporting him, he's not just, you know, polling in more of the same kind of people. He's actually broadening the support from different parts of the party. And that's really interesting -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Ben, why does Trump continue to surge when he really hasn't outlined, you know, any complete policies and --

FERGUSON: Yes.

COSTELLO: And he says stuff like that about his fellow competitors. Why?

FERGUSON: It's because it makes you feel like someone's fighting for you. This goes back to a lot of what happened even with a completely different candidate, with a completely different set of values than Barack Obama. When he kept talking about hope and change, two feelings, emotions, people liked it. It felt good. They were saying, yes, I want hope. I want some change. I don't like Washington. I hate Washington. I hate politicians.

In many ways what Donald Trump has been doing is exactly the same campaign strategy that you saw from Barack Obama the first time around. It was, I'm different, I'm new, I'm not the normal. But I also don't understand why he takes these risks when he talks about Carly, you know, Fiorina. It's a great example. Saying Ben Carson today is an average doctor. He's not a great doctor. There -- at some point those things are going to come back to bite --

COSTELLO: Let's pause there. Let's pause there, Ben, because I want our audience to hear what Trump had to say for themselves.

FERGUSON: Sure.

COSTELLO: So, Ben Carson criticized Donald Trump saying, come on, his favorite book is not really the bible. He didn't say it in those exact words but that's what he meant. Here's Donald Trump's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Ben Carson, he's also making a lot of traction. He's feeling good about himself enough that he's coming at you. He is a man of faith. Everybody knows that. It's a cornerstone of his existence and certainly his motivation to run.

TRUMP: Well, I don't know that. I mean, I hadn't heard that. You know, I have known Ben Carson, of him, for a long time. I never heard faith was a big thing until just recently when he started running.

CUOMO: He's a Seventh Day Adventist. I mean, it's -- it's something he talks about a lot.

TRUMP: So I don't know about Ben Carson's faith and all of a sudden he becomes this great religious figure. I don't think he's a great religious figure. And I saw him yesterday quoting something and he was quoting on humility and it looked like he had just memorized it about two minutes before he made the quote. So, you know, don't tell me about Ben Carson. Now Carson is another one.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Well, Ben Carson is coming at you, too. He says --

TRUMP: He's starting to hit me so I hit back. I only hit back when I get hit.

CUOMO: I know --

TRUMP: I'm a great counter-puncher.

CUOMO: Let me ask you --

TRUMP: But Ben Carson, you're talking about his faith -- excuse me, Chris.

CUOMO: Please.

TRUMP: Go back and look at his past. Go back and look at his views on abortion and see where he stands. You talk about abortion. I mean, go back and look at his views on abortion. Now all of a sudden he gets on very low key, I mean, frankly he looks like -- he makes Bush look like the Energizer Bunny. He's very low key. He's got a lot of jokes.

CUOMO: Strong words.

TRUMP: A lot of people pushing him. But Ben Carson, you look at his faith and I think you're not going to find so much. And you look at his views on abortion, which were horrendous. And that's, I think, why I'm leading with all of the evangelicals. I'm, as you know in your poll, number one, I'm leading Ben Carson by a lot. You know, you said, Ben Carson is surging. Well, I'm almost double his numbers. So you know, got to remember that.

CUOMO: Absolutely. But I'm saying he came out of nowhere is all I'm saying. He's not a big celebrity. You know, people didn't know about him. He doesn't get anywhere near the attention that you get.

TRUMP: Well, I only bring this up, Chris -- hey, Chris. I only bring it up because I saw him hitting me yesterday. He's questioning my faith.

CUOMO: Let me ask you something.

TRUMP: I happen to be --

CUOMO: He definitely is questioning your faith.

TRUMP: -- a great believer in God, a great believer in the bible.

CUOMO: He is definitely questioning your faith. TRUMP: Hey, Chris, who is he to question my faith when I am -- you

know, I mean, he doesn't even know me. I've met him a few times. But I don't know Ben Carson. He was a doctor, perhaps, you know, an OK doctor, by the way, you can check that out, too. They're not talking about a great -- he was an OK doctor.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I don't know about OK doctor.

TRUMP: He's just fine.

CUOMO: You know, he was the first man to separate conjoined twins.

[09:10:01] TRUMP: He's just fine. And I was -- because he's a doctor and he hired one nurse he's going to end up being the president of the United States? But for him to criticize me on my faith is absolutely -- and for him to read from the bible in his memory, it looked like he memorized it about two minutes before he went on stage.

CUOMO: Do you think you're more a man of faith than he is?

TRUMP: But Ben Carson -- Ben Carson is not going to be your next president. That I can tell you.

CUOMO: You think you're more a man faith than Ben Carson is?

TRUMP: I would say -- I can't quote him. I can only say I am a man of faith. I can't -- I don't know enough about Ben Carson. But if you look at his past, which I've done, he wasn't a big man of faith. All of a sudden he's become this man of faith. And he was heavy into the world of abortion and he was a doctor. And take a look at the hospitals where he worked. He was a doctor. Check out the past and see. All of a sudden he's -- he's totally antiabortion. Well, if you look back, you will find he's a very much different Ben Carson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Sara, that was a lot. I'm still getting over the line that, you know, about Jeb Bush looking like the Energizer Bunny next to Ben Carson.

But, Sara, I just want to focus on something about Ben Carson being a man of faith. He rose to prominence among Republicans, conservative Republicans, because he spoke at a prayer breakfast and he dissed President Obama.

MURRAY: Yes. And I think the reality is, look, Donald Trump is leading Ben Carson right now with white evangelicals but just barely. This is an area where Ben Carson is really challenging Trump. And when you go out to these early states, especially a place like Iowa and you talk to voters, they'll say look, these are two guys, neither of them are politicians, both seem to kind of just shoot from the hip and say -- and speak their mind. But Ben Carson is more in line with my values. He's more in line with your belief. And that's the kind of thing that could become a problem for Donald

Trump. And I think that's why, and especially in a state like Iowa, and I think that's why you see him hitting back.

FERGUSON: Yes, and Carol, here's the thing.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Ben --

FERGUSON: Name one other politician that's ever become famous or any person in politics because they spoken at a prayer breakfast and then you say the guy's not a man of faith. The most famous video of Ben Carson still to date is him speaking at a prayer breakfast.

You have an individual that literally was able to take and allow them live. Twins that were conjoined. And Donald Trump says he's an OK doctor. If that's his definition of OK --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But he also said he worked at a --

FERGUSON: What is his definition of great? Because these are the attacks I don't get.

COSTELLO: I don't either.

MURRAY: The thing is, it doesn't seem to be hurting him. I mean, he's at 32 percent in the polls. So yes.

FERGUSON: But I think at some point, though, it probably will start. This is a very big risk. When you start coming after people and saying they're not people of faith, when you start coming after them saying they're average doctors, no one out there in the medical profession has come out and said anything towards Ben Carson being average. He has been talked about as being an incredible leader in research and development and doing unbelievable things.

In fact, some people even criticize him saying how could he run a country when he was so focused solely on medicine and breakthrough medicine. He doesn't understand the rest of the world because this is all he's ever done. And now Donald Trump says you're average at best? Again, I don't understand the risk he's taking here, why it would work.

COSTELLO: Well, at least, at least, and I'll end it with this. At least he didn't say anything about Ben Carson's face, because apparently Ben Carson is good looking enough.

Thanks to both of you. I enjoyed it.

Tune into the big Republican debate right here on CNN Wednesday, September 16th at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern. And tonight at 8:00 Eastern on "AC 360" find out which candidates will be on the main debate stage.

But before that be sure to check out Jeb Bush today. He speaks to CNN's Jake Tapper on "THE LEAD." That airs at 4:00 p.m. on CNN.

All right. It's just as unusual on the Democratic side of the aisle. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist, is now tied with Hillary Clinton in Iowa. That's according to a new Quinnipiac poll. According to the "New York Times" Democratic insiders are getting nervous. They call a Sanders primary win, quote, "disastrous."

So let's bring in our CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, to parse these numbers. Good morning.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So we have seen essentially a summer slide for Hillary Clinton in Iowa and a summer surge for Bernie Sanders. She is now behind him 40 percent. He's at 41 percent. Essentially a tie in Iowa.

But here's the thing. You have a situation I think where initially people thought that Sanders would sort of hit a ceiling, maybe even sort of flame out. And he seems to be surging. And if you look deeply into these poll numbers he's doing well among a couple of groups, one of which is younger people.

If you look in these poll numbers 66 percent of young people are backing him, versus 19 percent for Hillary Clinton.

[19:15:01] If you look at how Hillary Clinton is doing, her strengths are really among older people -- 53 percent of people 65 and over back Hillary Clinton. So, that is her strength.

I was on the phone yesterday with a lot of Sanders advisors, three Sanders advisors who basically are saying they feel good about where they are and they want to take this thing nationwide. He'll be in South Carolina.

So, if you remember, the South is very much supposed to be kind of a firewall for the Hillary Clinton campaign. African-American voters will be very prominent in South Carolina and in Southern states more broadly. But Sanders is ready. They are building infrastructure in all these states.

COSTELLO: All right. Nia-Malika Henderson, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Make sure to stay with us. Bernie Sanders will join Wolf Blitzer on CNN for a live interview. That airs at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still to come in the NEWSROON: raging flood waters and concerns about nuclear safety. The latest on the disaster happening right now in Japan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:02] COSTELLO: Now to Europe around the growing refugee crisis. Millions of displaced Syrians fleeing their war-torn country in search of a new hope.

Today, President Obama signaling he's ready to welcome more in, offering a proposal to allow 5,000 refugees to come into the United States. But as Europe struggles to find these families homes, there's been backlash against those in search of a new life.

CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon and her crew have been doing outstanding work shining a light on this escalating crisis. But Arwa has also received some pushback. And to be honest, some of the comments on her Twitter feed are downright ugly and in my view, they certainly lack compassion.

Here are few examples, this is what I'm talking about. Quote, "One million migrants equals 1,000 suicide bombers."

Here's another, quote, "You should dial down on the blame on Hungary. These people are animals. They break into our houses, leave destruction everywhere!" end quote.

Another one, "Europe is multicultural. Muslim migrants are replacing multiculturalism with Sharia law", end quote.

Arwa Damon joins us now to talk about this.

Arwa, there are a lot of tweets of support on your feed, but there's also a good number of these vile tweets.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, Carol, it's not just us. It is a lot of my colleagues as well from very different networks that are receiving similar messages too on their social media feeds. Some of the more disturbing ones we've received will be along the lines of, well, let them just go back to Syria and have ISIS kill them anyways. Or, why are they bringing their babies? They shouldn't be having children. Let them all go back home.

There is a shocking lack of empathy in his messages. And I think for me personally and I know for a lot of my colleagues as well, this story in particular, yes, it is very controversial. But we've covered controversial issues in the past. This one in particular, we've seen a lot of very intense hate messaging coming out as a reaction.

But you also do see a lot of compassion, especially on the ground as the crisis has been escalating. Just look at what's happening around us. The conditions, if they could get any more miserable for these people. It's raining, it's bitterly cold. You see them coming across the tracks there.

Many of them, the children, soaked all the way down to the bone. A lot of children, the babies arriving absolutely drenched. But they are getting some assistance here, not from the Hungarian government, not from any sort of organized NGO or nonprofit, but rather volunteers who are bringing things like clothing so needed at this point, especially when you arrive cold and wet. You see people sifting through some of it there.

There's vans around here that are packed with clothing as well. Those makeshift flimsy tents also set up by volunteers.

And you have people all the way from Germany who are cooking up a warm meal. This really does help to counter-balance a lot of that negative hate messaging and that very aggressive attitude that one does see in some of these countries, especially in Hungary towards these people. So, you do get a lot of both. But it has been fairly disturbing I think it's fair to say for a lot of us covering this to see how vile some of those messages we've been receiving have been and how much there is such this lack of compassion among some people as if they seem to forget this notion that, you know, we're all human. And frankly this could be anyone of us.

COSTELLO: Arwa Damon, thank you so much. I'm glad you reminded us too there are wonderful people in the world who are willing to open their hearts. It's good to hear.

I want you to take a moment to take this in -- raging floodwaters in Japan ripping this home right off its foundation. And the disaster is far from over. The country is bearing the brunt of a massive typhoon right now, nearly two feet of rain falling just this week. The situation so dire, military helicopters are now plucking people off of their rooftops.

Will Ripley is in northern Tokyo with the latest. He joins me now.

Hi, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Carol.

Yes, we're on our way to the city of Joso where 65,000 people have been evacuated, part of a larger evacuation order affecting more than 170,000 along the Kinugawa River in eastern Japan. This is a very scary situation for these folks, because the floodwaters that you're seeing, they came up in just matter of moments.

People did not have time to leave their homes in many cases. That's why we saw people running up their rooftops, to their balconies. There were people stuck in their cars, even just grabbing on the light posts waving at the military helicopters that have been called in to help rescue them. At least 121 people have been rescued so far.

[09:25:01] But the authorities in the self-defense force, the Japanese military that's on the scene right now, they believe that there are potentially many more trapped in flooded out buildings right now. So, at this late hour, the sun has gone down, but now they're conducting boat rescues and they're walking through areas where the water isn't too high and dangerous, going door to door to try to find people who may be stuck.

Meanwhile in nearby Fukushima prefecture, we're also following the situation at the crippled nuclear plant. There had been heavy rain, as you mentioned, from that typhoon Etau, and the rain actually overwhelmed the Fukushima plant's rain system causing a leak for several hours yesterday much larger than the normal slow leak that has been observed at that plant since the melt down in 2011. They're testing radiation levels. The power company said they have the situation under control for now.

But there is a lot of concern with drenched ground, more than a month of consistent rain here in Japan and more rain in the forecast. But the flooding could be a problem affecting many, many people in the days to come, Carol.

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

Still to come, we'll take you out to Baltimore. You can see these six officers, well, there will be a hearing today to decide whether their trials will be held in the city of Baltimore, and you can see the show of force because protesters are expected to be out in force. We'll take you there next.

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