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GOP Scrambles After McCarthy Bombshell; U.S. to Modify Syrian Rebel Training Program; President Obama En Route to Roseburg, Oregon; Ben Carson's New Book Stirs Yet Another Controversy; Paris Train Hero Stabbed; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 09, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:02] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: What do you think of those comments we just heard from Larry?

LADD EVERETT, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE: Well, let's be clear, Larry is flat-out wrong. Umpqua Community College doesn't -- does indeed allow students to carry concealed handguns on that campus. And in fact, MSNBC, the day after that shooting interviewed an John Parker, Jr. who was an individual on campus that, armed and who had a concealed handgun permit.

CABRERA: Right.

EVERETT: And according to his testimony, he was in a classroom with many other veterans like himself who also had concealed handgun permits and were carrying guns. And the explanation they gave as to why they didn't try to intervene in the shooting and stop it is that they were worried that they would be shot by responding SWAT officers who would mistake them for bad guys.

So, look, I mean, it's time to get passed, you know, movie or cowboy fantasies back to reality and figure out what we can do to stop kids, like Chris Harper Mercer, from getting their hands on guns. And I think in this case, we clearly see an example where Chris Harper Mercer's mother bought into a basically -- you know, a degenerate culture that taught her that putting an arsenal of guns around a kid with severe behavioral problems who often had violence temper tantrums was a good idea.

CABRERA: Ladd Everett --

EVERETT: And I think any sane individual would understand it's not.

CABRERA: Ladd Everett, Larry Pratt, got to leave it there. Our thanks to both of you for joining us.

Let's get right back to Capitol Hill right now. We understand that more developments are under way on the Hill regarding the speakership race. And let's go to Manu, he has Jason Chaffetz, who of course has thrown his hat into the ring -- Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we just spoke with Jason Chaffetz. He said that he would actually support Paul Ryan if Paul Ryan ran for speaker. Of course Jason Chaffetz is that congressman from Utah who actually tried to challenge Kevin McCarthy before Mr. McCarthy decided abruptly to step aside from the speakership and really threw the Republican leadership contest into turmoil.

But Chaffetz, and we already made some news here when he said that he absolutely would get behind Paul Ryan, if Mr. Ryan decided to run. Now Republicans just gathered in this room right behind me where they talk for about an hour about the way forward. And they try to figure out what they should do after that sudden resignation announcement.

And what we've learned was that, actually, Paul Ryan did not really say much. There were some who encouraged him to run, there are pictures that people made but he did not express his interest whatsoever. Members have been just talking to him behind the scenes. One member I talked to talked to him at the House gym this morning, and he said, well, yes, something to tell me, Mr. Ryan? And then Paul Ryan said, no, I don't.

So he is keeping his cards very close to his vest as he's deliberating what to do. But it's very clear, if he does get in this race, he's going to clear the field and he will almost certainly be the next speaker. So we'll have to wait for him on what he decides to do.

CABRERA: As we wait for Paul Ryan to come and speak to the rest of the world about what's going through his mind, I know, Dana Bash, you spoke with Congressman Issa just a few minutes ago right here live on the show. He seemed to imply that Paul Ryan may be coming around.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He did. And I want to get to that in a minute but I think first it would be interesting for our viewers to hear again from kevin McCarthy, of course, his surprise, really stunning announcement yesterday that he was not going to run for speaker. He withdrew his name and threw all of this into chaos.

He was walking by where I am now. I got him to stop and ask him about Paul Ryan, who I should say the two of them are very, very good friends. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MAJORITY LEADER: We have a very good conference, working together, trying to work together. I know a lot of speculation about who should run and others. Paul is looking at it but it's his decision. If he decided to do it, he'd be an amazing speaker but he's got to decide on his own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He's got to decide on his own, but then as he was walking away here, I said, do you think it's going to happen and he said, I think it will. So that is I think a very good indicator. But then, Ana, you mentioned Darrell Issa. Manu was talking about the fact that Paul Ryan behind closed doors and this meeting that is just wrapping up now, was very quiet, didn't say much of all of anything as people were making their pitches for him to reconsider and to get into the-- into the race to become speaker, Darrell Issa is one of those who was talking behind the scenes with Paul Ryan. He talked to me about that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP, DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: I think he's gone for a hard no to he knows he has to consider it and I know he's going home to have the kind of real meeting with his family that would allow him to weigh that. All of us are trying now to make sure he understands that the support will be behind him. If he chooses to do it, one of our commitments has to be that we will not put him back in the box that John Boehner has found himself in. We have to be governable if we choose broadly a consensus candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:02] BASH: So at this point it sounds like from what we're hearing that it looks much more likely that Paul Ryan will do it but he's got to go home, talk to his family. As we've been reporting, he has a young family. He is not somebody who -- as actually he has said before, someone like John Boehner, who's an empty-nester, this is a very tolling job to be speaker of the House on your personal life. Never mind what it does to you professionally as Darrell Issa said to me, it's a great name and title except for the fact that you get tarred and feathered all the time.

CABRERA: Especially in the current political climate.

BASH: Exactly.

CABRERA: It will be tough one for sure.

Dana Bash and Manu Raju, thank you both.

We have more breaking news this morning. This time the crisis in Syria. We're waiting to hear from the president this morning. Expected to announce changes to the Syrian rebel training program. And while officials are already saying they plan to suspend this program, they maintain the U.S. support for the rebels is not ending.

So what plans are they considering? CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is joining us now -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ana. I think what we're about to hear is a massive overhaul of the program the U.S. has been running to try to train, supply, and equip a variety of Syrian rebel groups. Defense Secretary Ash Carter hinted at all of this earlier this morning at a press conference in London.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We have been looking now for several weeks at ways to improve that program. I wasn't satisfied with the early efforts in that regard. And so we're looking at different ways to achieve basically the same kind of strategic objective, which is the right one, which is to enable capable, motivated forces on the ground to retake territory from ISIL and reclaim Syrian territory from extremism. So we have devised a number of different approaches to that going forward and taken them to President Obama. And I think you'll be hearing very shortly from him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Capable and motivated forces. Several sources are telling me that what we are going to hear shortly is that the U.S. has made the decision to provide much needed ammunition supplies to a group of about 5,000 moderate rebels in northern Syria known as the Syrian Arab Coalition. You're going to be hearing a lot more about them. They have been having some success on the ground in northern Syria but have been running short of supplies for weeks.

The decision had been pending to try and help them out. Now it looks like the White House taking the Pentagon recommendation and going ahead and doing that. That will be a very, very significant step forward, at least they hope -- Ana.

CABRERA: Barbara, I want to talk about the current situation in Syria because it seems all the countries, the international community are really focusing on what's going to happen there, what they can do now. We saw airstrikes from France begin overnight. Russia we talked about all week long and what they're doing there. And now there are these reports that, you know, Russia's missiles that they've been shooting from the Caspian Sea that were intended to land in Syria, some might have actually crushed in Iran. What have you learned anymore about that situation?

STARR: Well, the government of Russia and the government of Iran are vehement in their public denials that that did not happen, that no Russian cruise missiles aiming at Syria fell short of their target and crashed in Iran. The U.S. says it did happen, four missiles crashing in a fairly rural area of Iran. These missiles have 1,000-pound warheads. The U.S. believes at least a couple of those warheads exploded and that there is damage on the ground in Iran and possibly even some civilians who are injured. The Iranian government says it didn't happen. Moscow says it didn't happen, the U.S. says it did.

CABRERA: We'll see what the facts play out.

All right, Barbara Starr, thank you.

It is a busy news morning as we continue to follow additional breaking news. This time out of Flagstaff, Arizona, a deadly shooting on the NAU campus there. One man dead, three others hospitalized with multiple gunshot wounds after an 18-year-old apparently fired shots following an argument, we've learned, in a parking lot near the university dorms. Flagstaff chief of police detailed just an hour ago what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF G.T. FOWLER, NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY POLICE: Two separate student groups got into a confrontation. The confrontation turned physical and one of our students, Steven Jones, 18 years old, produced a handgun and he shot four of our other students. One of our students is deceased. The other three are being treated at the Flagstaff Medical Center. A great many people are involved and need to be interviewed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The chief of police not naming the student who died until family has been notified.

[10:10:03] News of this latest shooting coming as President Obama heads to Roseburg, Oregon, a community still grieving the deaths of nine people in a mass shooting at the community college there last week. Obama boarded Air Force One just a half an hour ago. This is him. And in Oregon he's planning to meet with families of the victims in a private meeting and those affected by the shooting at Umpqua Community College but not everyone wants him to come. At least two protests are planned by groups who are angry with the president's call for gun safety laws right after the tragedy.

Ryan Young joining us live in Roseburg with more -- Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, what a conversation that's going on here. Of course you were here covering the story as well. I can honestly tell you that this is such a different community because with this shooting, only 21,000 people live in the area of Roseburg and we met so many people who knew some of the victims involved in the shooting. When the president had his address and talked about the shooting here, some people were very upset about the idea that he would politicize it and talk about gun control.

In fact there's a group that says they're going to have 8,000 people showing up to protest the president's visit. Other, though, believe that he should meet with the victims and have that one-on-one conversation to show their support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the timing of the president's visit was, frankly, very insensitive to the families and the community as a whole. We're a little hesitant to embrace his visit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We welcome him and we are going to treat him with respect and open our arms and appreciate that he is here in our town.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Look, many of the people we talked to in this community point this as a hunting community and there's a different relationship here with guns and the community. In fact look in the paper we've even seen ads for gun sales just as early as yesterday. So, honestly, I can tell you, people are still having an active conversation on this. But they're also pointing to the three heroes that were involved in this case, the two officers and the young man who stood up against that shooter.

CABRERA: All right, Ryan Young, tough story to cover for sure. Great job out there. Thank you.

Still to come, Ben Carson playing a lot of defense lately. Now he's being forced to explain what he said about gun control and the holocaust.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:16:13] CABRERA: Today Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson is in the nation's capital and in just a few hours he'll be speaking at the National Press Club. He's there to promote his new book, "A More Perfect Union," but he is also expected to take questions from the audience where he may have to defend some of his recent comments on issues like gun control.

Let's bring in senior reporter for CNN Politics, Stephen Collinson.

And Stephen, Carson spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett last night. He had a couple of interviews here on CNN, answered all the tough questions, and he addressed that controversial tweet that so many have talked about from media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He said Carson would be a, quote, "real black president."

Stephen, how did Carson react?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, it's very interesting. Mr. Murdoch has since apologized for that tweet. He said that he didn't mean to be offensive to President Barack Obama. But it's an interesting episode because it tells us something about Mr. Murdoch, how excited he is about this candidacy of Ben Carson, he's been a longtime booster of Mr. Carson.

And it also shows us that Mr. Carson is an unusual politician in many ways. This outsider, who's willing to take on subjects that some other potential presidents in this race are not willing to take on. And race is one of them. And I think if we look at that clip from CNN last night, we can see that he's now beginning to weigh in on President Barack Obama's record with the black community and in many ways it's not very complimentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I think he was trying to say is that the black community was extremely excited about his election and that their plight has not improved significantly under his administration.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, "OUTFRONT": So would you do something specifically and more for the black community?

CARSON: I would.

BURNETT: What?

CARSON: I would do something specifically to create ladders of opportunity that allow people to climb out of poverty, out of dependency. And that's going to require an overall plan. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINSON: Yes, Ana, I think we can see that -- it's quite a difficult thing for Dr. Carson to navigate this issue. And it comes to the point of could a Republican nominee who's an African-American do better than what we've seen throughout history, you know, white nominees of the Republican Party tend not to do very well with African-American voters. President Barack Obama, for example, won 90 percent of the African-American vote. And that's consistent with what we've seen for Democratic candidates for the last number of election cycles.

The answer to that question is probably that he could not do that much better. We've never obviously seen the scenario, but the political science that has been conducted suggest that on down ticket races, Republican candidates or African-Americans don't do significantly better than -- you know, white Republican candidates with the African- American vote. So it's something we would watch in an election but it doesn't seem like it would be something that will change the dynamics of ethnic vote which have been in place for many decades.

CABRERA: Stephen, let's say he does become president, does he have a plan that would help the African-American community?

COLLINSON: He's not really rolled out specifics. He's basically talking about lifting the whole economy so everybody's situation is better. What we've seen is that Republican candidates have tended to alienate the African-American vote on issues like the economy. And like civil rights. So I think it was interesting yesterday that Mr. Carson did come out and say that he was -- he would be for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

That was a break with candidates like Jeb Bush, for example, and the orthodoxy of the Republican Party. So we're seeing a little bit of a difference between Dr. Carson and the rest of the party on these issues, but I don't think he's yet to come out with any substantial plan that would convince us that things would be an awful lot different.

[10:20:11] CABRERA: All right. Stephen Collinson, thank you.

Another question Carson will be forced to probably explain today is the recent comment he made about gun control and the holocaust. And in his new book, he writes this, "Through a combination of removing guns and disseminating propaganda, the Nazis were able to carry out their evil intentions with relatively little resistance."

Well, yesterday my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, sat down with Carson and he asked him to clarify what he meant. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: So -- but just clarify. If there had been no gun control laws in Europe at that time, would six million Jews have been slaughtered? CARSON: I think the likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his

goals would have been greatly diminished if the people have been armed.

BLITZER: Because they had a powerful military machine, as you know, the Nazis.

CARSON: I understand that.

BLITZER: They could have simply gone in and they did go in and wiped out whole communities.

CARSON: But realized there was a reason that they took the guns first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let's discuss with CNN political analyst, Josh Rogin, he is also a columnist for Bloomberg View.

Thanks for being here, Josh. The Anti-Defamation League has said these kind of comments, and I'm quoting here, are historically inaccurate and offensive. What's your take on what Carson said?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think this is sort of an old trope, it misreads the history of World War II, and also in my view, trivializes the holocaust and explains it poorly. I mean, the bottom line here, as Wolf Blitzer pointed out, that it really doesn't make any sense when you think about it, that more guns, pistols and shotguns in the hands of the Jews of Germany would have able to prevent them from being slaughtered by the Nazi war machine.

Let's remember, the Russian Red Army wants seven million people to the Nazis during World War II and they had tanks and artillery, and planes and everything, and Stalin didn't have any gun control at all and he killed more people than Hitler ever did.

So it just doesn't really make any logical sense. It's not a new idea. It's something that Joe the plumber used to talk about a lot in 2008. But, you know, it's not borne out and it's really offensive to a lot of Jewish groups.

CABRERA: You hear those comments and you think, well, maybe we're misunderstanding or maybe the media is taking him out of context. So he had a chance, again, to clarify on "Good Morning America" today and he seemed to double down. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: It is well known that in many places where tyranny has taken over, they first disarm the people. There's a reason that they disarm people. They don't just do it arbitrarily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: OK. Let's take the conversation a step forward here. We know that he's made other controversial comments like this before, talking about Muslims and maybe not being fit to be president. It hasn't seemed like comments in the past have hurt him in the polls. If anything, he's gained more supporters. Will it be different this time, do you think?

ROGIN: Yes. Well, I think there is a critical mass of offensive comments that eventually begins to convince people that he's simply not ready for prime time. I mean, Ben Carson can gain supporters who agree with him but in order to run for president he'll have to gain supporters who may not already agree with him.

And his attitude which is basically I didn't -- I'm not trying to be offensive so if you're offended, that's your problem, not mine, only go so far and if he wants to break out of his sort of core constituency and be a more mainstream candidate he's going to have to address that issue because it doesn't look presidential and it definitely doesn't main stream.

CABRERA: All right, Josh Rogin, thank you for your thoughts.

ROGIN: Any time.

CABRERA: Still to come, an American hero stabbed again. And we're getting our first look now at the violent attack that's put one of those European train heroes back in the hospital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:27:59] CABRERA: New insight into that horrific stabbing of the Paris attack hero Spencer stone. The stabbing just happened in Sacramento. And here's the surveillance video we have now showing the violence that unfolded. And while it's grainy, you can see Stone being stabbed multiple times on this Sacramento street corner.

Very disturbing. Now in August Stone was recovering from a different stab wound. That was after he helped stopped a would-be gunman who was on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. He and others have been hailed heroes in preventing that gun attack.

Now Kyung Lah is in Sacramento with more on this latest stabbing.

Kyung, do police have any suspects yet?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there are two people, Ana, that they would like to speak with. They do have pictures, at least surveillance pictures of these two fleeing the scene in a Toyota Camry. They don't know their exact involvement but certainly they are asking for the public's help in trying to identify these two people. Meanwhile, Spencer Stone remains here in the hospital. He's in serious condition. Doctors say when he arrived here, he had potentially life-threatening injuries from three stab wounds he sustained during that street fight.

Police say the fight started inside a bar, spilled out into the street where a liquor store surveillance camera caught that fight on camera. We want to that liquor store and they walked us through what the video shows. Here's what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: It looks like there's a number of people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it looks like to me, it looks like five or six of them against one. It looks like a bunch of small guys but he's handling his own. He's fighting back and he never really goes down. Never looks like he really takes any punishment except for the stabbing. Yes, there's where he gets stabbed. And you can see all the blood.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: And police say that the people who were fighting Stone likely had no idea who he was but they probably, Ana, know now -- Ana.

CABRERA: All right. Kyung Lah, thank you.

[10:30:03] Good Friday morning. Thank you for staying with me. I'm Ana Cabrera in for Carol Costello. Again thanks for being here. Back to the hill now where that battle for House speaker is heating up this morning.