Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Republicans Set to Debate. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 16, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: But most importantly is, what do you do in terms of stability and love and pride and confidence in your guy in this case, since it's only been the guys?

And I think, when I saw those love letters between the two, I had an understanding much deeper than I ever had before of what it meant for him to have her there. He said he looked in the Oval Office and if she was around the corner and he could see her through the window, he felt better. When she went away, he felt sadden, even minutes after she was gone. That's an extraordinary bond for a political couple.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: That moment watching the funeral live and her kissing the casket, whew, goose bump moment for sure.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, thank you so much.

GOODWIN: No, I know.

You're so welcome.

BALDWIN: And we continue on, hour two. I'm Brooke Baldwin thrilled to be live with you with this special coverage of CNN's Republican debate here in Simi Valley, California, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The clock, it is ticking, under the three-hour mark here until that first debate on stage. In these final hours, candidates, I should point out, because we will be nimble in taking live pictures as we're seeing different candidates arriving here on property, taking a look. We know their campaigns have already been here just about 24 hours ago.

But now it's the candidates themselves taking a look, getting the feel behind the podium, seeing how intimate the audience is before them. It's a stage, according to a lot of pundits, where the president -- presidential election won't be won, but it could be lost. The first debate now under the three-hour mark will feature the undercard four candidates, and then, of course, the focus at 8:00 Eastern the prime- time event with the top 11 candidates. That will begin then.

Let's kick this hour off with Athena Jones. She's been watching and trying to grab some of these candidates as they have been arriving with some of their families.

Athena Jones, I have seen several people you have spoken with. Tell me what they're doing, how they have been spending their mornings.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke.

Well, I can tell you, I just spoke with Governor Jeb Bush. He said he spent his morning on a six-mile hike. He said he wasn't bitten by a rattlesnake, so he's feeling good.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: I talked to several more people who have arrived in the last hour, hour or so do their walk-throughs, for instance, Senator Ted Cruz, who's been doing pretty well in the polls.

He said his goal was to talk about his true conservative record. He says a lot of other folks on the stage tonight will be campaign conservatives who don't have a conservative record to back that up. He also said he expects to see fireworks tonight.

Some of the candidates are going to be going after each other. He said he's not going to be one of them. He's going to stick to his hopeful, optimistic, conservative message. I had another interesting conversation with Senator Marco Rubio. And I said, what's your goal? How are go you going to break through? He said, look, this is a long process. The campaign won't be -- the contest won't be decided tonight.

But, as you mentioned, Brooke, it is going to be do or die for some of these candidates, folks like Jeb Bush, folks like Scott Walker, who saw their numbers in national polls and in state polls take a hit after that first debate when they had some would say a lukewarm showing. So some folks like Scott Walker have said they're going to come out and be more aggressive tonight.

But it's been pretty exciting watching people come in. Some are stopping to chat for longer than others. But they're ready to get in there, take a look at the stage, find their podium, get the lay of the land, so that they will be ready for tonight -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's funny. Jeb Bush says he's trying to avoid rattlesnakes on a hike. There are all these signs around the Reagan Library saying beware of rattlesnakes. But hopefully, for all of our sakes, the only venom we will see will be on the stage in a couple of hours.

Athena Jones, thank you so much.

And now for some bold predictions from a panel of political pros who we will put on the spot here.

Joining me now, I have CNN politics reporter Sara Murray. I have Michael Smerconish, CNN political commentator and host of CNN's "SMERCONISH," and our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

So, so great to have all of you here, less than three hours out.

Beginning with you and some of your sourcing with the Jeb Bush campaign, how are they feeling going into tonight?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I have been talking with a lot of sources in the Jeb Bush campaign.

And the one word I would think of to describe what they want to do tonight is contrast, contrast themselves with Donald Trump, as being a real conservative, a real reformer, somebody who has experience, somebody who knows how to get things done in politics, in the real world, and also one other huge contrast, particularly here at the Reagan Library, somebody who is optimistic like Donald -- like Ronald Reagan, compared to somebody who is not like Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Right.

T. Boone Pickens sat in that seat a bit ago and he endorsed him before he jumped in. And he said, Brooke, he's walking in molasses.

So, we're hoping, for Jeb Bush's sake, the molasses goes away.

BORGER: Well, but, to simplify, Donald Trump would be the impostor on the stage, and not the real conservative.

BALDWIN: Speaking of Donald Trump, you have been following his every move recently, and it's interesting with Donald Trump where even though he told CBN last night he may tone things down, you see the attacks, not just from the vice president, saying he has this xenophobic message, he's denigrating this group of people.

[15:05:14]

You have President Obama sort of saying, hey, that the country is winning. And then, of course, you have the Bobby Jindals calling him a madman, Jeb Bush taking him down. There have been several. And I'm wondering, with these attacks, is this a preview of what we will see tonight?

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a really interesting moment in the Trump campaign for Donald Trump, because you're starting to see it hit him at these events.

He's realizing this is a real thing, it's a real campaign, he's a real candidate for president. But I think right now he's struggling with how to walk this line. How do you maintain the Donald Trump flair, but become a more disciplined candidate?

When you talk to him now, he will occasionally mention that he wants to be a little bit nicer, that he wants to tone it down a little bit. And I think that will make tonight's debate particularly interesting because we know he's going to take incoming fire from other candidates, and we know he likes to punch back and punch back hard.

But there's some concern that, if that's all you do, you don't appear presidential enough to be the nominee. BALDWIN: Michael Smerconish, if we take Trump at his word and he says

he wants to be nicer and he wants to tone things down, do you see this man sitting on stage for two hours taking blow after blow after blow and not hitting back?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No. It doesn't seem to be his nature, although I think self-deprecation, some humility on his part would go an extremely long way, because we would all perceive it to be so out of character.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Do you think he could do that, though?

SMERCONISH: I don't know, especially not for nearly three hours.

BORGER: It sort of seems like a contradiction, humble Donald Trump.

MURRAY: But I think that's particularly something that could appeal to evangelical voters.

If you look, that's where Ben Carson is really catching up with him and even surpassing him in a place like Iowa. I think that if you were an evangelical voter in Iowa, you want to see a little bit of humble Donald Trump, so you feel like you can relate to him.

BORGER: But we never heard so much as an apology from Donald Trump when he talked about Carly Fiorina's face or John McCain not being a war hero.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But doesn't Donald Trump want to be attacked? Doesn't that essentially show that I'm the big guy and everybody else is losing and they're coming after me?

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: And more that attack, the better.

He wants everyone to be attacking him. I'm sure he loves that Club for Growth ad that is now being run against him, because it allows him to portray this as Donald Trump, the outsider, against all the rest.

BORGER: But it depends how the attacks are done.

I mean, we have to assume that the people that are going to attack him are not going to do it kind of frontally and say, OK, you're an impostor here on standing on the stage.

SMERCONISH: The way he would.

BORGER: Exactly the way he would. They're going to try and get the message across in a more subtle way.

Whether that works or not from Jeb Bush, for example, you have no idea whether that will work. But negative ads, by the way, the Club for Growth ad, our experience in covering politics is, they work.

BALDWIN: They do work.

BORGER: They work.

BALDWIN: What about Carly Fiorina? We have seen the New Hampshire poll. She's now at number three. You have all these outsiders. You have Trump, Carson, Fiorina. Psychologically going into this evening, that has to be huge for her.

SMERCONISH: The one thing I feel certain about tonight is that she has the line in her hip pocket. There has to be a face reference.

BALDWIN: This is my face, Mr. Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: Whatever it is, you have got to believe she's brought in the best of minds or maybe came up with something on her own and that she will deliver that blow when she's provided the opportunity.

Going to get a lot of attention tonight. Ben Carson will get a lot of attention. Brooke, I have to say that I think that he had that closing statement in the first debate, which was a tremendous -- knocked it out of the park.

Up until then, I personally haven't been overwhelmed with the performance. So, I'm not sure what game he brings tonight and I'm not sure whether it suits this venue, which we talked about, very intimate. I doubt there is going to be much of a crowd reaction.

(CROSSTALK)

MURRAY: I do think the stakes are very high for Ben Carson in this, because he is not a natural, dynamic, vibrant campaigner. He's a little bit more professional. And he did have one big moment in the debate, but he said it took him a while too get there. There were some nerves he had to shake off. And he has got to really just come out I think and be vibrant from the outset.

BORGER: And I think the setting is really important.

BALDWIN: Quick pause just for all of you watching, Bobby Jindal now arriving here at the Reagan Presidential Library. We will keep an eye on him, somebody who has called Donald Trump a narcissist, and in that opinion piece called him a madman.

And, obviously, he's in a separate debate, but I'm sure he will evoke Donald Trump among the four.

BORGER: Yes, of course he will. And so will Lindsey Graham, who is also not in this debate.

But in terms of the setting here, and we have all gone in that room, we know how intimate it is.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let's take a listen, actually.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R-LA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm just going to be honest with the American people.

The idea of America is slipping away in front of us, $18 trillion of debt, Planned Parenthood selling unborn baby organs across the country, a president who won't say we're at war with radical Islamic terrorism. The idea of America is slipping away. Now is a chance to get the idea of America back. That's what this election is all about.

QUESTION: And you do anything exciting or interesting this morning to prepare?

[15:10:00]

JINDAL: I had a great breakfast of cold pizza and Diet Coke. And I'm happy to be here.

QUESTION: Campaign breakfast. Good luck.

JINDAL: That's exactly right.

BALDWIN: Well, that sounds like a square meal. It's so interesting how they have all been...

BORGER: How does he stay so thin?

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Diet Coke.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: I'm sorry. You were going to say something.

BORGER: No, I was going to -- go. Make your point about him.

SMERCONISH: My point is, I think I would rather be Bobby Jindal tonight than be Rand Paul or Chris Christie.

BALDWIN: Because?

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: Because they're going to get a lot of attention, four of them, for 90 minutes on that stage. There is a Carly Fiorina opportunity.

BALDWIN: Who will have the Fiorina moment?

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: And, by the way, if he says something outrageous about Trump, you know, it could bleed into the next debate...

SMERCONISH: Absolutely.

BORGER: ... because certainly it could become fodder for that.

But on the stage -- and this is what I was talking about -- is that it's intimate. These are not sort of people who are going to stand up and go, woo-hoo. This is the Reagan Library.

BALDWIN: It's not an Arsenio Hall audience.

BORGER: It is not, exactly.

And so Trump kind of feeds off that crowd. And if the crowd is not cheering one way or another, how will that affect Donald Trump?

BALDWIN: It could fall flat.

OK, Sara, Michael, and Gloria, thank you so much.

Cannot wait. Can we say that enough? Cannot wait for this. Make sure you tune in tonight for the first of the two debates beginning at 6:00 Eastern here on CNN, and then the main event with all 11 candidates on that stage. That's at 8:00 Eastern, the prime-time debate.

Coming up next for us here in Simi Valley, California, he was once at the top of the heap, but now Scott Walker needs a big moment to break out of the pack. We will talk with a senior adviser to his campaign about what to expect from the governor this evening.

Also ahead, Donald Trump might be leading in the polls, but where does he stand with the smart money, those who are actually gambling on the election? Yes, many people are doing that. You may be surprised who is the odds-on favorite when real money, cold hard cash, is on the line.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:23]

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

QUESTION: What's your goal? How are you going to make a strong impression?

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not worried about making a strong impression. You worry about that, you don't make a strong impression. I'm just going to be me. See what happens.

QUESTION: And one more thing. What have you done, if anything, to prepare for this morning? Did you go for a round of golf? Was that a golf swing you were showing off?

KASICH: Oh, no, no, no. I was just kind of hanging out. That's all. Nothing big.

QUESTION: All right, thanks. Good luck.

KASICH: OK. Thanks.

BALDWIN: All right, so Governor John Kasich of Ohio just kind of hanging out. We heard from Bobby Jindal a moment ago his breakfast consisted of cold pizza and Diet Coke.

Listen, it's anyone's morning, it's anyone's day ahead of the big, big debates here on CNN. I have talked to a lot of experts this week, folks who have been down into the nitty-gritty in these campaigns. And they all know this. You don't necessarily win an election from a debate, but you most definitely can lose one.

And some political analysts are talking about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who could be on that brink. An ABC/"Washington Post" poll from just a couple of days ago shows how much support he's lost since July, 11 points.

With me now, we're going straight to the campaign. I have with me his senior adviser, Ed Goeas.

So, Ed, great to have you here. Thank you so much.

ED GOEAS, SCOTT WALKER CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Nice to be here. Thank you.

BALDWIN: So, hours away. Listen, I want to begin with Iowa, because I know that was the strategy, right, win Iowa, throw all of the eggs in a basket in Iowa.

GOEAS: Sure. Right.

BALDWIN: When you look at multiple polls, your guy is in the single digits. Tonight -- I know -- tonight, is it make or break for you?

GOEAS: OK.

No, it's not make or break. I think he needs a good, strong performance, and I think you will see that of him, more aggressive certainly and more bringing it back to his record, his story and connecting that with where he wants to take the country. And I think he is going to do very well.

On the Iowa polls, though, let me just mention...

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

GOEAS: ... your own poll in Iowa, all these public polls are not getting down to the real voters.

BALDWIN: I know. And I have heard you all say that before.

GOEAS: And I think specifically on the Iowa poll, there was an interesting question that you asked after your first numbers, which is, are you definitely for that candidate? Are you leaning towards that candidate or are you still shopping?

And 66 percent of the people that just named a candidate said, I'm still shopping. These polls right now are not indicative of what's on the ground. What we do see on the ground is, we just announced the other day we have 99 county chairmen, and all of the 99 counties, we have a strong, muscular operation and he's spending a lot of time there.

BALDWIN: All right, so maybe some of the electorate will continue their shopping and head toward Governor Walker's way.

GOEAS: Right.

BALDWIN: How aggressive will he be this evening? We were talking quickly before the cameras were rolling about how he likes this setup. He likes the intimacy of the seats. He will be able to see his wife in one of the first couple of rows. He wants to bring this audience into it.

GOEAS: Well, he's a people person. So he does -- if you notice, a lot of times when he's talking or he gets -- people applaud him, he nods his head. He's always kind of pulling those people in.

BALDWIN: He acknowledges that group.

GOEAS: And acknowledges that group. That's something that works very strongly for him.

I think what you will also see in this debate, as I said, is he will bring it back around to his record. I think what you saw in the first debate is, he answered the question, but didn't use the time to then say, now, this is how it compares to my record. And it's a record that plays very well with the voters out there.

So telling that story becomes very important.

BALDWIN: Does he jump in, though, knowing that we would be talking about it the next day and go after Trump initially or wait to be attacked? Because he may -- Trump may not waste his time on a Scott Walker.

GOEAS: Well, I don't know that Trump is going to have that option.

I think, from everything I have heard from watching your show and others, is that there's probably going to be a lot of back-and-forth with Trump on the stage.

[15:20:00]

But, no, I think he has a record that he's a problem-solver. He gets to the core of the issues. He has fought and won on those issues and kind of moved them forward, keeping his conservative credentials in terms of fighting those issues.

And I think he's going to tell that story and show how it connects on moving the country forward. That's something Trump can't do. And I think it's more important he tell the story than draw the contrasts with Trump.

BALDWIN: Final question. Just in terms of raising money, how are you all doing in that regard?

GOEAS: Oh, I think the campaign is doing fine.

One of the questions you always ask in a campaign is, are you overrunning your supply line? Are do you doing more in more places than you should be? It's very interesting. Kind of the spring and summer, everyone is window shopping. In the fall, they start going into the store and trying on different pieces.

That's when you really have to focus on keeping the main thing the main thing. And right now, the main thing is those early state voters and really communicating to those voters.

BALDWIN: All right, Ed Goeas, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Good luck tonight.

GOEAS: Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Good luck. Good luck.

Coming up next, tonight's debate could be quite different, actually will be quite different from the first for multiple reasons. The stakes are higher, the exchanges sharper, and the crowd energy, it is much more intimate, as we were just discussing, just about 500 people sitting right there.

We will take a look at the impact all of that will play on our colleague and moderator Jake Tapper, including your home viewing guide for tonight's debate.

Keep it here. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Special live coverage from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library continues just after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:01]

BALDWIN: And here we go.

We're back live and we have cameras everywhere, including on that debate stage. You see them there. The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, as we have seen candidates preceding him, seeing where he will be standing behind the podiums. Each of the podium have their different head shots. And he will see really how intimate this is, how so totally different this particular debate will be.

This is by no means a basketball arena. This is an intimate setting here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library here.

A couple of hours away from that initial debate, and, then, of course, the biggie with all 11 candidates on stage happens at 8:00 Eastern.

Let me bring in CNN's John Berman and Dylan Byers, CNN senior media and politics reporter.

Welcome to the team, by the way.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

BALDWIN: Great to have you.

BYERS: Feels good.

BALDWIN: I'm going to bypass you for a second and go straight to Dylan. Sorry, buddy. Sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just pretend like I'm not here. Talk amongst yourselves.

BALDWIN: The strategy for Tapper. We have heard him over and over, I want this to be a debate, really chew on the issues. How does he get them to do that?

BYERS: Well, look, I think in the first debate, what the FOX News moderators, and they did it quite well, was they asked questions of the candidates and expected responses coming back to the moderators.

I think Jake is going to do is something totally different, which is try and get these candidates talking amongst one another, which is really what a debate is supposed to be about. That's going to require planting a question here about something someone else said about a candidate. And then you can just sort of hope that the sparks fly.

BALDWIN: How do you think this will, other than -- and we have talked about it and I don't think we can talk about it enough, just the sheer physicality where this is located, this debate, vs. the Cleveland basketball arena, the differences this time vs. the last.

BERMAN: I think it's night and day. You have the plane that Ronald Reagan used, the 707 he used as Air Force One, right there.

It is a constant reminder that this is a contest for something serious. This is a contest to be president of the United States, arguably the most important job in the world, is no game. This is not a basketball game in a basketball arena. This is important stuff.

And you're not going to have the crowd out there yelling and screaming and hooting and hollering when every little quip is made. So it will be a much different setting and I think a much different tone.

BALDWIN: We anticipate, we hope, for a massive, massive obviously tune-in factor. And we have been going through so many of the different candidates. I think Carly Fiorina comes to mind, as she -- that super PAC video has used Donald Trump's words against him.

Have to assume she's got a line ready in her back pocket with regard to, America, or Mr. Trump, here's my face. And so let's go ahead and put up -- apparently -- and I haven't seen

this -- we're all going to see this together for the first time -- the CNN bingo board, which I imagine you can find at CNN.com, with things to look for if one were to play some sort of game, if we have that, to go through some of the lines, which...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: The first part of the contest is eyesight. If your eyesight is good enough to play, you automatically get three squares.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I'm failing right now.

BYERS: So, here's what I'm hoping is on that board, is the word Reagan.

BALDWIN: Yes, how many times...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: ... his name.

BYERS: With that plane behind the stage, they're going to be saying Reagan a lot more than they were in Cleveland. So, if that's on there and this is a drinking game, we're all done like early tonight.

BALDWIN: Like gone within the first 20 minutes.

BYERS: Yes.

BERMAN: It either said Reagan or avocado. I couldn't make it out, what the word was right there.

BALDWIN: How about, in addition to the bingo game, which I'm sure you can find at CNN.com, there's a guy, Tom Brady.

BERMAN: This is pretty interesting. So, Tom Brady and Donald Trump have known each other for a long time, since Tom Brady was a judge at one of Trump's beauty pageants.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Look how you just light up. Look how you light up.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Talking about Tom Brady, a guy who is a winner. He's not even on the debate stage, and he's already won.

He's known Trump since 2002, when he was a judge at the debates. He's got a make America great again hat in his locker, which actually was given to him by the owner of the Patriots. In any case, Brady was essentially asked today if he endorsed Donald Trump or if he would vote for him. Listen to the exchange. I want you to watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Speaking of guys who winning, you still have the Trump hat up there. He loves winning. Have you talked to him at all? And you have any advice for his big debate tonight?

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS: No.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

BRADY: That was a nice keepsake, so it could be a -- yes, a nice piece of memorabilia he sent.

QUESTION: He's a guy who likes winning, like you. You think he's got what it takes?

BRADY: I hope so. That would be great. Be a putting green on the White House lawn. I'm sure of that.