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Stage Set for Republican Presidential Debate; Markets Flat Ahead of Fed Rate Decision; Interview with California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 16, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:29:50] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's see what's in the refrigerator. Aha -- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library water -- perhaps it will bring them good luck. I see maybe a stereo system, some last-minute tunes to get them ready to go. And really everything all culminates on this stage Wednesday night.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks, Brooke. So with just hours to go, what are the GOP contenders doing to get ready for the big main event? With me now, CNN political reporter Maeve Reston and Republican strategist and CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover.

Welcome to both of you.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So -- so, Margaret, Rand Paul has perhaps the most unique preparation technique. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Actually, I will be out shooting target practice in the morning. I'll be shooting the tax code with some friends tomorrow morning, and that will be my preparation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So he'll actually take a gun, Margaret, and shoot the tax code. It would relieve stress, right?

HOOVER: Yes. There's something incredibly satisfying about shooting off a .22 or a 20-gauge or a well, in Rand's case maybe a 2- 12. I'm more a 20-gauge girl myself. But there's something very satisfying about sort of the kickback of a gun.

Look, normally in a debate right now, candidates are going over policy positions and figuring out how to best articulate, make their best sound bite and draw contrasts between themselves and other candidates.

Now that Donald Trump is part of the race, what we actually see is this has become a reality TV show. This is who wants to be the next American president? Donald Trump actually, the reality TV series, and Donald Trump has more television experience than any other candidate in the race.

This is why style is substance. And this is why Donald Trump continues to sort of steal the headlines. Everyone now is actually preparing by figuring out what their Trump strategy is.

COSTELLO: Well, I know that many of the candidates, Maeve, have been not on television, not at campaign events. Carly Fiorina comes to mind. She's been at her home preparing, right?

RESTON: Right. Right. And Carly Fiorina is someone who we certainly are expecting some surprises from tonight. I covered her campaign out here in California, actually, in 2010. She's extremely disciplined. She knows how to just have that light touch with a jab. And I certainly expect her to get the better of Donald Trump on that face remark tonight. Obviously with millions of people watching, she'll be able to do that.

But also the guy to watch, too, is Ben Carson. He is sort of almost eclipsing Trump in the polls that we're seeing now. And a lot of people are looking to him as kind of the anti-Trump candidate in the race. People who looked at Trump first and then decided they didn't want Trump in the Oval Office. So there's a lot at stake for him.

And obviously for Jeb Bush who needs to really show donors that he has the fire to stay in this for the long haul and take it to Trump.

COSTELLO: Yes, just a word about Jeb Bush because I know he's been preparing. He was a little stiff during the last debate. He'll be standing very, very close to Trump because they're crammed together on this debate stage, right? So will Jeb Bush turn and look at Trump? Will he touch Trump?

HOOVER: Again, all these moments that are unscripted and on stage and that being the moments that capture the attention. It was George H.W. Bush who looked at his watch. This is one of the things that, you know, CNN has done this -- put everybody very close together so the body language is going to be very telling and could end up being the defining moment for some of these candidates.

Jeb does need to be stronger. He does need to have a more serious and sort of abrasive Trump strategy. But Maeve is totally right about Ben Carson. This is sort of the silent contender for the GOP lead right now, and nobody's really talking about what is his surge about? What is this about? And what's happened is he has silently codified the evangelical base in the Republican Party.

Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum should all be terrified that Ben Carson has come out of nowhere and supplanted them as the contender.

COSTELLO: And it's good you brought up evangelicals because Donald Trump -- one second, Maeve -- because I want your thoughts on this. Donald Trump was on the Christian Broadcasting Network for an interview. And Mr. Brody was interviewing Mr. Trump. I love David Brody. He's awesome.

And Mr. Trump said, he's going to tone it down just a little bit. He could tone it down. And he says, quote, "I dealt with the very tough hombres and very tough people and I've come out on top, and I can understand the evangelicals to a certain extent saying well, maybe he's not as nice as we want him to be, but they also want to see the country be great."

So he's starting to get it, right, Maeve?

RESTON: Well, I don't know. I mean, a couple of times he said he's going to change his tone, and then we kind of end up right back in the same place that we started. But what is really interesting is that fight between Donald Trump and Ben Carson for evangelical voters. I think that's been one of the most interesting dynamics in the race.

Obviously, Trump is still appealing to those voters. Some of them are beginning to question some of his past statements. And we certainly are seeing other candidates go out there and talk about pro- choice statements that he's made in the past. So that will be interesting to see how Trump deals with that tonight.

[10:35:04] And obviously the Brody interview is a step in that direction for him, talking about, you know, the verses of the bible that he loves. And we'll see how that resonates with voters.

COSTELLO: We will. Maeve Reston and Margaret Hoover -- thanks to both of you.

HOOVER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a California Democrat has been on a Twitter tear taking on both Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee in the course of one week. I'll talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:39:52] COSTELLO: California, land of sunshine and good cheer, isn't exactly totally welcoming Donald Trump with open arms. In fact, Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor, has already released an ad hammering Trump's immigration policies.

GAVIN NEWSOM, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA: Donald Trump will be paying us a visit. It's -- it's a perfect time to show you the truth behind his immigration ideas and how they'll hurt all of us. So what would Mr. Make America Great Again scheme do to our economy? Well, we'd lose half of our farm workers and 6 percent of America's work force. Trump's plan would send our economy into a downturn worse than the great recession and cost our economy more than $1.6 trillion. Trump's plan would be a disaster. And Donald, I'll debate that plan anytime, anywhere. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Newsom is also critical of Trump's hair. He tweeted out this, quote, "Nothing against comb-overs, just racist comb-overs." Newsom plans to run for governor in 2018. And as you might guess, he is a Democrat. He joins me now from Irvine, California. Welcome, sir. Thank you for being with me.

NEWSOM: Thank you. The hair was a cheap shot, I'll admit, and by the way, I open myself up to appropriate critique as well. So I should have been more cautious there.

COSTELLO: Fair enough. Fair enough. As a Democrat who will soon run for governor of California, what will you use in your own campaign that comes out of tonight's debate?

NEWSOM: Look, it's what I won't use, I think. I mean, look. At the end of the day, here they are, the Republican candidates, in a state that practices pluralism. What makes California so great is that we don't just tolerate our diversity. We celebrate our diversity.

What's interesting just last year for the first time in the state history, Latinos now outnumber the number of Caucasians and whites. We are a majority/minority state. We're a proud state. And we're a state that I think is an example to the rest of the world that's torn asunder because of racial and religious and ethnic controversies.

So I think those are the points and principles that we're proud of and we stand strong and advocate for it and those are the things we'll be talking about every day, not just on the campaign trail.

COSTELLO: You know what Donald Trump would say to you, among other things, he would say, you know, Lieutenant Governor Newsom, you accepted 2,500 bucks from me, and now you're maligning me? What would you say back to him?

NEWSOM: Exactly. It was penance. I completely agree. We used that money to help fund that ad you just saw. You know, at the end of the day, he was sprinkling money around because he thought he can buy politicians. He said that. What a crass statement. What an extraordinary statement of his values and the way he perceives the world.

So I have no idea why he gave me money. I'm happy to accept the money, but I was more happy to invest it back to highlight his plan, which would crush the economy. A plan, by the way, where he would force mass deportations, create special police units, force midnight raids, a country that would be paranoid where neighbors are turning on neighbors, where racial profiling's the norm, not the exception.

That's not a country I want to live in. But that's a country he is specifically, the only public policy that he's organized in a very cogent way. He's specifically advocating for. We need to highlight that. COSTELLO: Can we talk about the Democratic side of the

Presidential coin for just a moment? Because Hillary Clinton's poll numbers keep slipping. She's really not resonating. Why do you think that is?

NEWSOM: I think the e-mail issues -- you know, there's not two days that go by where the headlines aren't about the e-mails. And that gets in way of her message. Hopefully when that settles down after the Benghazi hearings where I expect she'll perform extraordinarily well, the facts are on, I think, her side and when the e-mail issue moves past her, I think she'll recover quite significantly. So I wouldn't count her out by any stretch of the imagination.

COSTELLO: Are you supporting Hillary Clinton for president?

NEWSOM: Yes, I'm a very enthusiastic supporter. And I'm not just saying that as someone that is paid to say that, so to speak, even though I'm not on the payroll. She's someone I believe in. Someone I've known for decades. She's a hard-headed pragmatist. She gets things done. She can truly make this country, I think, an extraordinary place to live for all people regardless of walks of life.

COSTELLO: You say she's a hard-headed pragmatist. So why is she running around trying to present herself as this warm grandmotherly type? Why doesn't she just be who she is?

NEWSOM: I think because she is a warm grandmotherly type. I know her quite well. And you hear this all the time, don't you, folks that know her well, that say boy, if you just knew that person, well, that person is who she is. So as she tries to express that more publicly, I think that's a positive thing.

Some will look at it as a little cynical and political, but I know who she is. So she's not faking that. She is a grandmother. She is proud. She's an extraordinary person and an extraordinary leader.

And I have great hope and confidence in her capacity not just to win this campaign but to get this country back on firm footing and be a contrast to this sort of dystopian vision that is I think the vision that will be disproportionately on display tonight where we're pitting people against each other. We're basing our political strategies on our worst instincts, not our best and dividing folks.

[10:45:04] That's not the kind of country I want to live in. That's not the kind of state I'm currently living in. So I'm excited about the general election because that contrast will be on firm display.

COSTELLO: All right, Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

NEWSOM: Thank you. COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we are one day out from

the Fed deciding whether or not to hike interest rates. What could that mean for you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM)

[10:50:59] ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: decision. You know, this is what's really kept the market on edge lately. We've seen these wild swings in the market because there is a big question mark about what the Fed's going to do. But the reality is even if the Federal Reserve holds off on raising rates, it's going to eventually raise them. Because the economy's not in crisis mode anymore. And the fed wants to get its target rate back to some kind of normal level.

But you're seeing this hesitation, Carol, because the economy -- everyone wants to know if the economy has really turned the corner enough to warrant the fed to pull the trigger. But whatever it decides, it's going to impact everybody because the higher interest rates mean that it's going to raise how much it costs to borrow money. On your car loans, your mortgages, your credit cards, all of these rates will go up. You'll especially notice it if you've got a variable rate credit card, you'll feel it right away.

But if you look overall, the rate hikes are really going to be gradual. And you shouldn't see any massive jumps. That's the one thing the fed is going to really try to avoid because it's going to raise rates very slowly.

But bottom line here, borrowing money is going to get a little more expensive. But this is a necessary step for the fed to get the economy and its policies back to normal. But the question is, will that rate hike happen in September, or will it happen in October or December? That is the question, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll check back with you tomorrow.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the stage is set. The lights are ready. And that means it's almost show time. Coming up next, we'll take you behind the scenes as crews put the finishing touches on tonight's debate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The debate stage itself has 14 cameras. We're looking at six studio buildups. There will be two hand-helds that will play down here. Their job is to pick out people in the audience. For the first time at CNN we're what we call jitacameras which are j-i-t-a. They're doing the big arcing, sweeping shots.

JASON GREENSPAN, CNN LEAD AUDIO TECHNICIAN: Up is loud. Down is not loud. Everything else is gravy. I am in charge of audio for broadcast. All the signals for the entire broadcast are passing through the audio room, and anything that needs to get tracked to air, I take care of it over here on these faders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're about 45 feet up in the air. When they started construction about a week and a half ago, they put in over 500 feet of truss to hang about 250 light fixtures off of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And you can catch all the action right here on CNN. The main event with the top polling candidates at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. And before that the first round with Pataki, Santorum, Jindal and Graham -- they will face off at 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right. Checking some other top stories for you at 58 minutes past.

The death toll climbing in Utah this morning. This, as dangerous flash floods claimed the lives of 16 people. More than half of those victims died after two cars were swept away by a wall of water. Rescue operations are set to resume at noon for four people who remain missing.

Police are trying to figure out what caused a man to take the life of his girlfriend, to kill his girlfriend, and then drive hundreds of miles to murder a colleague at the university -- at a university in Mississippi. Officials say Shannon Lamb left a note by his girlfriend's body that read, quote, "I'm so very sorry. I wish I could take it back. I loved Amy and she's the only person who loved me." Lamb was later found dead by police of an apparent suicide.

And the International Olympic Committee has announced that these five cities will compete to host the 2024 Olympic Games. They include Los Angeles, Rome, Paris, Budapest and Hamburg, Germany. The winner will be announced in September of 2017.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: If you build it, they will come. Well, we built it, and any minute now, they will come. The candidates due to arrive at the CNN debate. But will it be their field of dreams or nest of nightmares?

[11:00:03] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: And the real pressure, though, folks tonight may be on the insiders. An important new poll shows guys like Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, they are seeing dramatic drops. So is tonight make or break --