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Obama-Putin Talk "Surprisingly Frank"; Vladimir Putin Calls for New Anti-ISIS Coalition; Billionaire Investor Backs Trump; U.S. Launches Airstrikes on Kunduz Province; Trump Vows to Slash Federal Income Taxes; Freddie Gray Case: Defense Wants Trial Postponed. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 29, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:01] CAMEROTA: But he later returned with a duffel bag in which to carry all of Daniel's belongings and a new bicycle.

BERMAN: Good. Nice guy.

PEREIRA: Good people in the world.

BERMAN: Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

PEREIRA: Hey, Carol.

BERMAN: Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, have a great day. Thanks so much.

NEWSROOM starts now.

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

Next hour President Obama convenes a meeting trying to galvanize a global offensive against ISIS and Islamic extremism. And the timing is significant. Taliban fighters have captured a city in northern Afghanistan, its biggest victory since the 9/11 attacks. And this morning the U.S. is launching airstrikes there and Afghan Special Forces are launching a counteroffensive. But in today's war on terror, a common enemy does not always guarantee common interests.

Take a look at this frosty stare just before Presidents Obama and Putin held their first formal talks in two years. Putin called the meeting surprisingly frank, though. But just hours earlier the two men traded punches in their United Nations speeches. That includes Putin's veiled indictment of U.S. foreign policy and its support of the democratic uprising that have caused instability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA (Through Translator): I cannot help asking those who have caused the situation. Do you realize now what you've done? But I'm afraid no one is going to answer that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We are covering all the angles for you this morning. CNN's Michele Kosinski and Jim Sciutto look at the spike in U.S.-Russian tensions and the most substantive meeting -- and the most substantive meeting in two years. And Nic Robertson looks at the Taliban's stunning victory.

So, Michelle, you start us off.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Right. This one from something of a face off here. The dueling speeches. President Obama slamming Putin's choices, Putin blaming the U.S. for many of the world's problems. To Facetime between these two. For the first time in two years. And seems to have gone about as well as many would have expected. I mean, both sides are calling this constructive. So that means at least an opening to more dialogue on ISIS and on Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI (voice-over): With that stiff, silent handshake, preceded by an awkward, cold toast and two scathing speeches.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot stand by when the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a nation is flagrantly violated.

PUTIN (Through Translator): We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government.

KOSINSKI: President Obama and Putin did manage to tolerate each other enough to hash out their significant differences for an hour and a half behind closed doors starting with Obama confronting Putin over his refusal to back down in Ukraine. But on Syria where Putin continues to back and even tried to rally international support for longtime ally President Bashar al-Assad, currently at war with his own people, and President Obama believes he must go, calling him a tyrant.

OBAMA: There cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo.

KOSINSKI: They do agree fighting ISIS is a priority, as difficult as they may be to coordinate.

NICOLAS KRISTOF, COLUMNIST, "NEW YORK TIMES": Syrian government airstrikes on a hospital, killing three healthcare workers. Thereby Assad is empowering ISIS. So the idea that you're going to fight ISIS by supporting the Assad regime is crazy.

KOSINSKI: So in this rare meeting they decided the U.S. and Russian militaries will communicate to avoid fighting each other in battling ISIS. And Russia has agreed to explore the possibility of a political resolution in Syria.

Putin, calling this face-to-face time with President Obama meaningful and surprisingly frank. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSINSKI: So whether this leads to more than just dialogue and some actual cooperation down the road, the White House has a wait-and-see stance, although there is skepticism that Putin's actions will match his words. And as for the relationship itself, I mean, what really went on in that meeting on a personal level. The White House didn't say much. They rarely give that kind of detail. It doesn't seem much has changed in the working rapport because they again describe that relationship as simply businesslike -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Businesslike. Michelle Kosinski, reporting live from the United Nations, thanks so much.

I want to bring in Jim Sciutto now. He's CNN's chief national security correspondent.

So what's going on here? So the Russian military and the U.S. military are going to somehow work together to defeat ISIS now?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No, definitely not.

COSTELLO: Did that came out of that meeting?

SCIUTTO: Definitely not. I mean, they did at least say that they will de-conflict, which basically means you won't shoot at each other. Right? Because you're going to have Russia, and we already have Russian planes doing surveillance flights. There's concern they're going to do airstrikes and you certainly have coalition planes there. So they will de-conflict so they don't shoot each other down. But that's the --

[09:05:02] COSTELLO: That's the extent of it.

SCIUTTO: The -- the most basic. The trouble is big picture. You have competing goals here. I mean, Putin says that yes, they are fighting ISIS. It's a common enemy. But the fact is, Russia's priority is protecting Bashar al-Assad. And that's very clear. And the U.S. and Russia have diametrically oppose views of Bashar al- Assad's role in this. You heard Putin say yesterday he is a valiant fighter against ISIS, against terrorism. You heard Obama saying that he's a brutal tyrant who's killed tens of thousands of his own people.

That's a problem if you're talking about a political solution to this and you disagree on his role whether he should have a role.

COSTELLO: So what is Putin's game here? Is he trying to push the United States out of the fight against ISIS and take the lead role? What's going on?

SCIUTTO: No, but he is trying to reestablish Russia's presence and power in the region in a greater way. I mean, it's maintained some presence. It's been a chief backer of Assad up to this point. But now he's got troops on the ground and weapons and so on. And that's got to message internationally. Russia is back in the Middle East. And oh by the way, we know that you've noticed the U.S. pulling back as well. There's a little bit of that, you know, because you hear that from all sides there.

And there's a message to the domestic audience because for him this shows Russia returning to the world stage. There's definitely domestic politics at play.

COSTELLO: Interesting. In the meantime, you know, there are things going on in Afghanistan as well. And U.S. forces are again involved there so I want to bring in our Nic Robertson to tell us what's happening there.

Nic, give us the latest.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The Taliban took over the town of Kunduz in the north of Afghanistan yesterday. Significant for them, this is the first time they've had such a victory since 2001. U.S. responded with airstrikes on Taliban positions outside of the town this morning. Lot of civilians still living in that town, got to be careful, don't target the town itself. But the Taliban, a group of them, were camped outside.

And we're learning from a military commander in the town of Kunduz now, a government military commander, that 83 Taliban have been killed so far. They say among them, two of them, were Arabs. This is something the Afghan government is saying that some of these Taliban fighters are coming from outside the country. But that U.S. airstrike taking out a significant number of the Taliban. The majority of those 83 were killed in that airstrike.

This town is important. Why? Economically it does well. It's sort of a -- part of a bread basket area in the north of Afghanistan. It's on a strategic highway linking the country to the north, to Tajikistan.

But how did this happen? The Taliban have been building up north of this town since April this year. The government has more weapons, more troops, more policemen in the town. Yet yesterday again on toward the Taliban they fell back. The Taliban got to the jail, took the whole town. Released 600 prisoners from the jail, 110 of them are understood to be Taliban.

Now the government is saying it's back on the offensive today, that it's retaken the jail. But the fight will be tough because it's going to be house and house and that right now the government is saying -- in Afghanistan the government is saying the Taliban are using people in that town as human shields -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson and Jim Sciutto, I know. It's such a complicated world. We have the situation in Afghanistan now involving the Taliban, not ISIS. We have the situation in Syria involving ISIS and Bashar al-Assad and now Russia.

SCIUTTO: I think these are -- Afghanistan and Iraq are two countries the U.S. has already spent more than a decade in. Right? And lost hundreds, thousands of troops. Trillion dollars. There's already been this investment. And what are you left with in both places? You know, hard questions.

COSTELLO: Confusion.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

COSTELLO: Yes. Jim Sciutto, thanks so much.

Also later this hour, President Obama meets with the Cuban leader, Raul Castro. A gathering that would have been inconceivable just a year ago. But despite their shared efforts to normalize relations decades of Cold War differences still linger. In his first ever United Nations address yesterday Castro criticized U.S. policies toward his country and around the world.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, forget cutting taxes for the poor. Donald Trump says they will pay no income taxes. But does his plan really add up? We'll break it down for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:13:10] COSTELLO: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump picks up a major endorsement. This time from billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The man Donald Trump wants to be his Treasury secretary. In a new video, Icon, a billionaire investor worth $24 billion, admits he doesn't agree with Trump on all the issues but says he believes Trump has the ability to wake up the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARL ICAHN, BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR: We need a president that can move Congress. And I think Donald Trump could do it. I disagree with him on certain issues and certainly would talk to him more. But this is what this country needs. Somebody to wake it up. Donald, of all of them, maybe he's brash but he's willing to say what he believes and willing to say hey, this is complete (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump already celebrating the news. Here's what he told CNN's Erin Burnett.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a friend of mine and he knows I know what I'm doing. I mean, look, Carl is no nonsense. One thing about Carol, there's no games. If he didn't think I was good and really good, he wouldn't have done that. But when you get Carl's endorsement in this world that we're talking about that's a great endorsement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And like Trump, Icahn is also worried about the economy and supports Trump in trying to do away with loopholes for hedge fund managers.

So let's get more from CNN political reporter Sara Murray. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Sort of a bromance between billionaires there. Now the interesting thing for Trump is while this may be helpful to him, he's still the Republican frontrunner for the nomination. But look, there is a new poll out today and it shows that Trump might be struggling a little bit when it comes to the general election.

There is a "WSJ"-NBC poll that shows a potential head-to-head match-up between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and you could see there, she kind of crushes him, 49 percent to 39 percent. Now it's still very early, take this with a grain of salt. But what it does tell you is even though Hillary Clinton is damaged, even though she's struggled to answer her e-mail question, she still has a broader appeal than Donald Trump.

[09:15:08] Part of that could be because there are still a lot of questions about whether Donald Trump has the temperament to be president and Erin Burnett asked about that last night and Donald Trump admitted to her that he can be a little bit childish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Probably it's a little childish. But you know what? This is a campaign and usually -- and I think you know this better than anybody -- I'm responding to them. I'm a counterpuncher.

I think in every single instance I've hit -- for instance, Walker was very nice to me, all of a sudden, he hit me and I hit him back.

All of these guys. Rubio was very nice to me. Couldn't have been nicer. All of a sudden, a week ago, he started hitting me. I hit him back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now in that same interview, Trump tells Erin Burnett that he thinks he could beat Clinton easily. So my guess is he's going brush off these polls.

And, Carol, as far as endorsements go today, he may have picked up Carl Icahn, but Tom Brady, Patriots quarterback, says he is not endorsing Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: No, Sara, he was just kidding. In fact, I think we have sound from Tom Brady. He was on a radio show. Oh we don't have the sound now we'll get it for you later.

But Tom Brady came out and said he was just kidding when he said he would endorse Donald Trump for president.

Sara Murray, many thanks. Exactly. Thanks, Sara. OK. So, Carl Icahn thinks danger is lurking around the corner when it comes to the American economy. Trump is on board with that. Even though our unemployment rate is 5.1 percent, that would be the lowest in 7 years, and even though the price of gas is $2.28. And consider this, new home sales are the highest since 2008, in fact they're on the rise of 5 percent in the last year.

And yet, Trump insists the unemployment rate in this country is actually not 5.1 percent but catastrophic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right now, we have a false 5.4, 5.3, 5.6 -- everybody month it's different. It is such a phony number. Because when people look and look and look and then they give up looking for a job, they are taken off the role. So the number isn't reflective.

I've seen numbers of 24 percent. I actually saw number of 42 percent unemployment, 42 percent.

I hear 5.3 percent unemployment. That is the biggest joke there is in this country. That is so false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All righty then. So what is Mr. Trump talking about?

With me now, CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans and CNN political commentator Errol Louis. He's also a political anchor at New York 1 News.

Welcome to both of you.

OK, Christine, is our unemployment rate 5.1 percent or 42 percent?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is not 42 percent. Donald Trump when he's using that number what the likes like he's going after the adults who are not in the labor market. Those are stay-at-home mom, those are retirees. And the retiree numbers is getting bigger and bigger every day because you have a baby boomer cohort is retiring in spades.

It is also people who have dropped out of the workforce, people who are disabled. It's anybody whose an adult who is not looking for work. When you take the pool of people who are in the job market or looking for a job, have been looking for a job, that unemployment rate is 5.1 percent.

Now, if he wants to be critical of that number there is a better number to be critical with. And that is number called U6, underemployment, 10.3 percent is that number. That's people who are out of work or they're working part-time and want to be working full- time. There is work to be done, but that number is also going down, Carol.

COSTELLO: From a political perspective, Errol, why might Donald Trump be trumpeting his number?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, Donald Trump is running what I've said is not so much a campaign, as a complaint. He's the voice of the aggrieved. If there is nothing to be terribly aggrieved about, then the rational for a Donald Trump, and for the very sort of radical changes that he's proposing become a lot less clear.

So, if you don't believe the economy is fundamentally broken, you don't necessarily need Donald Trump in the White House. If you do think that then, and he has to make the case for that, then maybe you take a look. If unemployment really were 42 percent, I think a lot of us would consider voting for the devil himself if that would do something about it.

(CROSSTALK)

LOUIS: That's twice the rate from the great depression by the way. Just for perspective sake.

COSTELLO: So, let's talk about his tax plan. I want to get in that. Under Trump's tax plan, there would be no federal income tax plan for singles making less than $25,000 a year or couples making a combined $50,000 year.

And, Christine, that sounds wildly populist and kind of cool.

ROMANS: Wildly populist that he's lowering tax rates for everyone, including rich people. One thing to remember is that for many families already in that income level, they are not paying federal income tax already. There are a lot of loopholes and deductions that help them lower their tax bill.

So, these are the working poor quite frankly. So, it is populist. It appeals to everybody.

[09:20:01] But when you really step back and think about it, he's also saying he wants almost half of American families to pay no income tax as all. That's something to think about, too. It kind of harkens to the makers versus takers theme back in 2008. Remember the idea of makers versus takers?

COSTELLO: Yes, who could forget?

ROMANS: Right.

COSTELLO: Yes.

OK. So the other part of the Trump's tax plan. He says he would reduce corporate loopholes and slash taxes for the rich by more than 14 percent. He would bring the rate down from 39 percent to 25 percent. So, if all the people aren't paying income taxes and he's slashing wealthy people's taxes by 14 percent, how would he pay to run the country?

ROMANS: Good question. That's why tax plans are aspirational. He also has to get them through Congress.

Look, he's talking about lowering tax rates for everyone but getting rid of the loopholes. He would get rid of the carried interest tax of the hedge fund managers. That would give them a little bit of money.

He wants to do a one time tax on foreign profits, a 10 percent tax on foreign profits. If that worked, that would bring some money home and he says create jobs.

But, Carol, the thing about tax plan, this is where he stakes out what his vision is, right? And his vision is in the direction of what we've already been seeing. Lower the corporate tax rate. That is something all the businesses want. Simplify, simplify, simplify. And cut the rates for the middle class.

COSTELLO: OK. So it's good you said that.

Because my next question to you, Errol, it seems that this tax plan put out by Donald Trump pleases everybody.

LOUIS: There's something for lots of people to like.

COSTELLO: Right.

LOUIS: Oh, sure. I mean, look, like everybody else, I'm sure it might have been true for you, too. I read it and I said oh no alternative minimum tax. I hate that one. That could really work out for me and my family.

People at the lower end, if you are two people making $50,000 or less, I said, hey, that could work out for us. At the higher end, by the way, one of the loopholes not mentioned is getting rid of the inheritance tax which has been on people's agenda of the super wealthy for generations.

So, there's lots for lots of people to like. It's a very populist plan. I think it does depend, first of all, I don't know that the numbers work. I mean, I read some stuff suggesting there will be tens of billions in shortfalls, as well as the difficulty of getting it passed, as well as the assumption that he's making that growth will suddenly jump up to 4 percent, 5 percent, 6 percent growth.

ROMANS: He said 6 percent growth and I got to tell you, there were groans among tax specialists and economists when he said that, because they don't see -- when Jeb Bush said he could get 4 percent, GDP growth, people said that is not going to happen. But Trump said he could get 5 or 6 percent that. Could be an economy going wild.

COSTELLO: People have all these money to spend because they -- yes, Christine Romans and Errol Louis, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

ROMANS: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Death row inmate with hours to live. A Georgia woman gets one final chance to stay her execution.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:27:00] COSTELLO: Attorneys for six Baltimore police officers facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray will soon appear in court. Defense teams trying to postpone the first trial date in the case, claiming new material has created several discovery issues.

Officer William Porter's trial is set to begin next month. Prosecutors calling him a, quote, "necessary and material witness" in their cases against the other officers.

Jean Casarez is in Baltimore ahead of this hearing. She has more.

Good morning, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

You know, it's suddenly gotten so noisy here. But we're in Baltimore City a right at the courthouse. Important hearing today, scheduling hearing. So, you say, OK, scheduling hearing.

Well, the first trial is set to begin about two weeks from now, October 13th. And the defense is saying we need more time. We can't start in two weeks. We don't think it is going to be a long continuance or postponement if the judge allows it.

I hope you can still hear me, an ambulance. But the last hearing several weeks ago, I was in the courtroom and I heard the defense argue that the prosecution because they said that they had their own investigation, that they should be entitled, the defense, to exactly what that investigation includes.

The judge appeared to agree with that. But wanted a narrowly tailored motion of what exactly you want. With that discovery now changing hands, that is going to create an issue where the defense is going to say we need to go through these pages and they have 7,000 pages as it is.

Now, who's going to go first is a very big issue. That we believe is going to be Officer William Porter. In open court, we heard that William Porter made a statement to the driver, Oscar Goodson, and maybe some of the other officers about Gray. What was it?

Well, the "Baltimore Sun" got some snippets of those statements and they say that it's Porter said Gray needs medical attention. And he said to Goodson, if you don't take him to the hospital because central booking isn't going to take him. He needs medical attention.

Prosecutors are saying that was ignored, an omission. And because of that, that is what ultimate then caused the death of Gray.

So, the prosecutors have said in open court we need Porter to go first because of this statement. And that statement then can be used against other officers a as the other trials proceed.

So, Oscar Goodson is facing the most time here. He's charged with second degree depraved heart murder. That is 30 years maximum. Many of the other officers are charged with manslaughter, which is up a to ten years and numerous other charges, Carol, felonies. One misdemeanor, misconduct in office but many charges that effect the lives of these officers for years to come and of course, Freddie Gray, is no longer with us.

COSTELLO: Jean Casarez reporting live from Baltimore, thank you.

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