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Investigation Into the Russian Plane Crash; Jeb Bush on the Campaign; Backlash to Quentin Tarantino's Anti-Police Comments; Breeders' Cup: The Two Most Expensive Days in Sport. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 04, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:03] DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: It could either be from -- from some kind of bomb or something on board, but more likely it's from the shrapnel from the aircraft being torn apart. Pieces of those metal are going to go aft, they don't go forward, they'll go aft because of the aircraft's trajectory. And that -- and that that's where that metal would typically be if it was an inflight breakup, which at this point we know that it was.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So does that lend credence to the tail section theory, that the tail section wasn't repaired properly and broke off in midair?

SOUCIE: Nothing conclusive, Carol. What it tells us is that there was an inflight break up. That there were pieces of metal that were part of that break up. It doesn't tell us how it broke up. And that's what's real -- the real question is at this point.

COSTELLO: All right, David Soucie, thanks for joining me this morning.

Checking some other top stories for you at 30 minutes past the hour. Overnight, a Russian cargo plane with 18 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport in south Sudan. Officials say 15 passengers were killed, while three others, including a baby, survived the crash. Early reports from witnesses are that the cause may have been due to engine failure.

Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis has filed an appeal asking a court to dismiss rulings that landed her in jail. In September, Davis was found in contempt of court for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Her attorneys call the district court's original order a rush to judgment that trampled on Davis' religious rights.

The wife of late comedian Robin Williams is speaking out for the first time since his death. Susan Williams was on "Good Morning America" describing the day before Robin Williams took his own life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN WILLIAMS, ROBIN WILLIAMS' WIFE: It was a perfect day. We just did what we loved to do together. And I know now that he gave me that perfect day, he gave us that perfect day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He planned it?

WILLIAMS: In hindsight it's -- he knew what he was doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Susan Williams says that despite what most people think, her husband's struggles with alcohol, drug addiction and depression did not play a role in his death. She says what drove her husband to suicide was his battle with Lewy body dementia, which effects memory, movement and mood.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, don't count him out just yet. Jeb Bush is coming clean with his biggest critic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The hardest critic of Jeb Bush is Jeb Bush.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:50] COSTELLO: Jeb Bush may be down, but if you ask him, he's far from out. Despite sliding poll numbers, Bush isn't holding back. He's criticizing his rivals and showing off his confident side. During a recent one-on-one with CNN, Bush recognized that for him to win he needs a campaign reboot. Here's Jamie Gangel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: I have some good news for you. You are working with lowered expectations.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

GANGEL: No way to go. Does that in some way free you up?

BUSH: To a certain extent. I always knew this was going to be hard. I never felt like I was a frontrunner because we hadn't earned it. We haven't, you know, just starting out on the journey, you've got to go earn it. I've got to get better at debating, I guess, or performing, whatever that's called, and I will. I'm a grinder. I'm very competitive. And so I feel good about where we are.

GANGEL: What is that -- what -- you keep saying I'm a grinder. What does that mean?

BUSH: That means -- I described it as, I eat nails before I have breakfast. I'm -- I am focused. I am competitive. I'm -- I set high expectations on myself. I knew this was going to be hard.

GANGEL: Donald Trump is tweeting out every two seconds. This morning he said you should quit. He said all the candidates should quit, except for --

BUSH: Except him?

GANGEL: Except for him. Do you think an old fashioned guy who wants to be a doer, who wants to be a fixer, is really what people are looking for?

BUSH: Desperate for it. This is the real world. Now, in the pundit world, you know, where it's all about this kind of bizarre tweeting out things that aren't relevant to anybody's real life, you know, that's another subject. I'm not going to win over the punditry class for sure, but I -- I know I can win over people that aspire to a better life for themselves and their family. And as it relates to Donald, you know, he's run for president twice and quit. And I've run for governor in the biggest swing state and won twice. I know how to win. I've done it. I actually know how to govern, which is going to be an attribute when we get closer to the election.

GANGEL: So for the record, for Donald Trump, you're not quitting?

BUSH: No. I mean, what -- do we have to talk about Donald Trump? No, I'm not quitting. He's entertaining. He's fun. He says really funny things in the breaks in the debate, but I'm running for president of the United States. And it's a serious endeavor. I do it with joy. It -- there's a lot of fun parts of it for sure.

GANGEL: Marco Rubio, he is now rising in the policy. Your former protegee, in the debate you went after him for missing votes, but he hit back. And some people think he got the better of the moment. Was it a mistake to attack him on that?

BUSH: Here -- here's -- here's my point. People that are serving need to show up and work, period, over and out.

GANGEL: So it wasn't a mistake?

BUSH: I just think people need to show up and work.

GANGEL: I understand. But this is a campaign. You got to beat these other guys. So do you keep attacking? Is --

BUSH: I'm not attacking to say someone should show up and work. Do you get paid when you don't show up?

GANGEL: No.

BUSH: I mean, come on, does -- does anybody in this room get paid when they decide, oh, well, I'm going to go do something else. You know, Rand Paul is -- got a pretty good attendance record. He's running for president as well. You can make an accommodation. The people of the state of Florida expect people to show up and work when they elect them. It's not a criticism. It's just a simple fact.

[09:40:16] GANGEL: But you're going to keep saying it?

BUSH: That people ought to show up and work?

GANGEL: That Marco Rubio -- BUSH: Yes. Yes.

GANGEL: You're going to keep --

BUSH: Yes. It's not a criticism.

GANGEL: OK. Donald Trump. You have to get back to him one more time. He just called Marco Rubio a lightweight and he said Vladimir Putin would eat him for lunch. Do you think that's fair?

BUSH: No, it's not fair. He's a -- look, Marco's a capable guy. He's a talented politician. Here's what I think. I think I'm the best qualified to be president.

GANGEL: But is Marco Rubio ready to be --

BUSH: I'm the best qualified guy to be president.

GANGEL: You're not going to answer the question?

BUSH: I -- if you're comparing me to Donald Trump, I'm -- I'm better qualified to be president.

GANGEL: Are you -- is Marco Rubio --

BUSH: I'm better qualified than anybody else running for president and it's not -- I'm not pushing people down when I say that. And if it makes you feel better, everybody on the Republican stage is better than Hillary Clinton. There's a low bar though.

GANGEL: You have said you have grave concerns about Donald Trump. You watch firsthand your brother, your father be commander in chief.

BUSH: Yes.

GANGEL: Are you comfortable with Donald Trump as commander in chief?

BUSH: I'm not comfortable with some of the things he says, particularly about Syria, where he one week says that, let ISIS take out Assad and then the Russians come in and he praises Putin and says, let -- let Russia take care of ISIS. It's -- it's a reactive kind of mode that somehow I'm the big guy in the room, I'll just figure it out as I go along. Foreign policy needs to be under gured (ph) with a settle of principles.

GANGEL: Do you -- do you --

BUSH: And so I think he's going to have to learn, if he's serious about this, you know, to be able to get your foreign policy advice from the shows is probably not the best way to be ready to be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now, Jamie Gangel.

He's the most qualified to be president?

GANGEL: He is. He is.

COSTELLO: That's what he said.

GANGEL: He's on message. He's on message.

COSTELLO: He stayed on message. I was just wondering, he seems to be exuding more confidence, especially in your interview, but you also asked him about his family. Has he improved with the answers as far as his family is concerned?

GANGEL: You know, I think when he spoke about his family, look, they are very disappointed about the poll numbers. There's a new poll out today. Quinnipiac has him at 4 percent, falling from 8 percent. So they're very frustrated. But this is a family that knows politics. So he likes to say, oh, my father is throwing things at the TV. But he talked in a way I've never heard him speak before. He said he hoped he wasn't letting them down. And I asked him about his brother and whether his brother had any advice for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: His advice is to be patient, stick with it. At the end of the day, they're going to -- people are going to start figuring out who's going to be president. Who's going to sit behind the big desk, to use his terminology. And it's encouraging to hear him say that because he knows. He's been through ups and downs.

GANGEL: Right.

BUSH: You know, that's just the way it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANGEL: They have been through ups and downs. But the -- I don't think anyone in the family going into this expected that he would be in this place, that Donald Trump would be doing what he's doing, Carson. This is not the political climate that his brother ever ran in or his father ever ran in or he ever ran in when he ran for governor.

COSTELLO: You're right about -- certainly a different climate this time around. Jamie Gangel, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a legendary movie director takes on police brutality and faces massive backlash. Quentin Tarantino finally speaks out about the controversy. We'll tell you what he said, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:21] COSTELLO: Quentin Tarantino is breaking his silence finally. He's slamming his critics for trying to, quote, "demonize him". The whole controversy began over comments Quentin Tarantino made at a New York City antipolice brutality rally last month. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUENTIN TARANTINO, DIRECTOR: I'm doing here because I'm a human being with a conscience. And when I see murder, I cannot stand by. And I have to call the murdered the murdered, and I have to call the murderers are the murderers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Some police groups were outraged at that the remark and they're calling for a boycott of Tarantino's upcoming film, "The Hateful Eight". Now the controversial director is firing back, saying, quote, "I have a First amendment right to protest against police brutality as I see it and I'm not backing down from that."

So let's talk about that. I'm joined on the phone by Patrick Colligann. He's the president of the New Jersey State Policeman's Benevolent Association. Welcome, sir.

PATRICK COLLIGAN, PRESIDENT, NEW JERSEY STATE POLICEMAN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOC. (on the phone): Thanks for having me, Carol.

COSTELLO: What do you say about Quentin Tarantino First Amendment rights?

COLLIGAN: I say he certainly has a First Amendment right. We defend it every day in every state in this country, and we have the First Amendment right to say we don't agree with him and implore our members to boycott his movies.

COSTELLO: Also in that interview, I just want to read you another line, Tarantino said, "Instead of examining the problem of police brutality in this country, better they single me out, and their message is very clear, it's to shut me down. It's so discredit me. It is to intimidate me."

Your thoughts?

COLLIGAN: We have a guy who arrives from L.A. on a plane, gets off, goes to an anti-police rally, finishes his anti-police rhetoric, which we don't need at this time in 2015, gets back on his plane, goes back to his mansion, and sleeps soundly, and stirs the pot of, you know, certainly a fragile relationship we have right now with the citizenry of the country.

[09:50:13] COSTELLO: Tell me about that fragile relationship and how exactly Tarantino is feeding into that.

COLLIGAN: Well, you know, since, of course, the events of Ferguson, things have changed dramatically in our business. But the thing that people lose touch of, we have -- there are almost 1,000 arrests a day by law enforcement officers throughout this country. There's 12.5 million people a year get arrested. And by far, you don't hear about them. They're not all pretty, when we arrest somebody. Even if it's not violent, it's nothing fun to watch, it's nothing pretty to see. We don't take great pride in it. But unfortunately, some people choose not to follow the lawful direction of police officers. And again, it's not pretty when it happens. When we're fighting with a suspect, you know, we know that there's 50 cameras on us now. There's things that we have to do to effect an arrest. We can't walk away and say we're going to get you next time. When somebody's placed under arrest, and they have a lawful order, they're compelled to comply with that order.

COSTELLO: You mentioned that Quentin Tarantino lives in this fantasy world, and I just want to play a clip from the upcoming movie. What is it? Gosh, I'm going to forget its name now. "The Hateful Eight". And, you know, Quentin Tarantino's movies are often ultra-violent and they feature gun violence often. So I just want to play you the clip from the trailer to his latest movie. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move a little strange, you're going to get a bullet. Not a warning, not a question, a bullet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In your mind, does Quentin Tarantino have a responsibility for some of the gun violence that's occurring in this country?

COLLIGAN: You know, that's been debated for decades now. He has the right to make any movie he wants. But his timing, I really question the timing of him flying out here, talking at this rally, and heading back when his movie's about, what, less than a month away.

And that's really my issue. To come, hop in at a popular time at a large rally, say what he says, and then, like I said, get back on the safety of his plane and sleep soundly in L.A. isn't sitting with me or any of the other police groups that have chosen to boycott, again, this anti-police rhetoric that we don't need right now.

We need to heal. We don't need to exacerbate the problem and just make it worse throughout this country. It's a time for us to move on -- and the changes are made. Body cameras are coming out. We're certainly -- we know we're on video every time a police encounter occurs. So let's move on. I mean, like I said, 1,000 arrests a day. And every once in a while we make a mistake, and we know we make a mistake. And do we have bad cops out there? There's bad doctors out there. There's bad mechanics out there. But let's all learn instead of sit there and pointing fingers and calling us murderers.

I mean, let's face it. He wasn't at a Girl Scout rally. He was at an anti-police rally. And his statement was "I have to call the murderers the murders." I don't know what he thinks he said. I don't know what he thinks he wants us to assume that he meant. He called us murderers. It's just clear and simple.

COSTELLO: All right. Patrick Colligan, the president of the New Jersey State Policeman's Benevolent Association, thank you so much for joining me this morning.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:43] COSTELLO: Lifestyles of the rich and famous -- it's not just for celebrities or GOP front-runners. Saddle up. America's most expensive sporting event is making the Super Bowl look like chump change.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has the all-access pass.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's never been done before. Preakness, the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont, and now the Breeders' Cup. Welcome to the two richest days in sports.

CRAIF FRAVEL, CEO, BREEDERS' CUP: We're going to pay out $27 million over the next two days. And that certainly gets people's attention and gives people a reason to be here.

YURKEVICH: And no expense was spared to witness history. 450 private jets descended on Lexington, Kentucky.

Sentient Jet is the official private jet partner of the Breeders' Cup. And to charter a flight, it costs up to $14,000 an hour.

ANDREW COLLINS, CEO, SENTIENT JET: Usually the Super Bowl is the top of that for private jets, followed by the Masters. This year, because of American Pharoah, it kind of got inverted and flipped on its head.

YURKEVICH (on camera): What effect has the partnership with the Breeders' Cup had on your bookings for this event?

COLLINS: Traditionally, prior to being involved with the Breeders' Cup, we would put a handful of flights in here. But because of the exposure we've given the Breeders' Cup, and you align that with American Pharoah's popularity, our bookings are up 800 percent.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): At Keeneland Racetrack, 95,000 racing fans spent on average $860 per two-day ticket. For VIP, it was north of $1,200.

FRAVEL: What we needed was a little extra seating capacity, so we created these luxury chalets that really handle the demand for our customers. Last year we sold about $8.5 million worth of tickets.

YURKEVICH: This year, it was over double that -- $19 million.

And big money isn't just spent on the horses. The races are a runway for pricey fashion. These hats and fascinators can cost up to $2,000 apiece.

CHRISTINE MOORE, DESIGNER: It pays to look good. Yes.

YURKEVICH (on camera): Yes. What's business been like for you since you became the official milliner?

MOORE: Business has been great. I mean, it's bolstered up our sales incredibly. It has opened up my demographic of buyers. It's introduced me to people I never would have met before any other way.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): After a proper hat is secured, it's time to bet. This year's Breeders' Cup had a betting pool of $150 million. That's $50 million more than the Super Bowl.

[10:00:07]

(on camera): How do you bet smart?

PETER: Money management is the key. I know I put a lot of work into my handicapping.