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Countdown to Final 2015 Republican Debate; Top-4 Things to Watch for in Debate; Jeb Bush May Not Last in Campaign; Newtown Retiring Police Chief Takes Action for Change; Breaking News: Maryland Man Charged with Supporting ISIS. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 14, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:03] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN: Bet Wolf Blitzer has a pretty good poker face.
You - you say that this is the most important debate so far. Why?
DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA & POLITICS: So, in the wake of Donald Trump's call for a ban on Muslims in the United States, this debate has gone above and beyond politics. These debates have been important and all of these have record audiences.
David Ignatius wrote something very important in "The Washington Post." He said that historical reputations among the GOP candidates will be made or lost over the course of the next few weeks. There's no moment when all of those candidates are going to be on stage and are going to be forced to come down on one side or the other of this issue, waffle or not waffle on this issue, other than the debate tomorrow night. So what we're looking at is not just the usual political maneuvering. We're looking at a historical moment when these candidates say where they stand.
BALDWIN: It will be interesting to see where they do that and thread the needle. In the latest numbers on how many Americans support Trump's idea, it was something in the 40s or low 50s. So they have those Republican voters in mind as they are speaking in front of millions of people tomorrow night on television, but also laying down the line with regard to Trump.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: It's a primary debate. It is for the Republican primary voting.
BYERS: That's true. This how do you play to the primary audience and also for some of these candidates who certainly do not agree with where Donald Trump came out of this, how do you play to your values. How do you get to the general election as the nominee if you weren't willing to go up against Donald Trump when that was something you would have done in the general election? I think there's a lot on the line and it's going to be interesting to see how all nine of the candidates on the stage address that issue.
STELTER: Last time we had a debate, it was not before the San Bernardino but before the Paris attacks. It's been a long time in this primary season. BYERS: And there's another important thing to remember, which is that
in addition to this whole question of the Muslim ban, we're about to enter a holiday period when everything is going to come down.
BALDWIN: We're about to blink and it's going to be February 1st.
STELTER: Right.
BYERS: Then we're going to have two debates in January. But this is the last chance that these candidates have to make their case before you have your Christmas dinners and holiday dinners and coming together and forming opinions in states like Iowa and New Hampshire about who you may want to vote for.
BALDWIN: This is always fun to host the show the debate of the debate because it's right around our hours when the candidates come through. They get the tour of the stage and the lay of the land. Some choose to chat. We ask them things about what they have been up to for the day. Are you finding anything about?
STELTER: Some are already here in Vegas. Trump having a rally here tonight Rubio also having a rally tonight.
BYERS: Rubio having a rally as well.
STELTER: I went on the stage this morning. I have never been to a CNN debate before. What surprised me is how close the podiums are together.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: I had seen it on TV, but now I've felt it in person and I guess they get friendly up there.
BYERS: This is one thing we bring up every single debate. It's important for the audience to understand it's different being in there. Playing to an auditorium and an audience how close you're standing to your competitors on stage. It's one thing to go after someone in a public campaign speech. It's another thing to do right next to them on the podium in front of a live audience.
BALDWIN: Can't wait. I feel the excitement.
Brian Stelter, Dylan Byers, thank you both very much.
Make sure you watch Brian on Sunday mornings at 11:00 eastern on "Reliable Sources."
Coming up next here, Donald Trump is calling Ted Cruz a maniac. George W. Bush famously said he did not like Cruz. We'll speak with someone who covered Cruz's entire career, and hear why some call him a genius.
Plus, from the theater to the substance, we will give you the top-four things to watch for during tomorrow night's debate.
You're watching CNN's special live coverage. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:37:18] BALDWIN: Here we are a day away from the final Republican debate of 2015 and the stage is set for a massive showdown between the front runners, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, and everyone else who will be on the stage. It's also the last chance in 2015 for the stragglers to make an impression in a crowded Republican field.
So let me bring in CNN national political reporter, Maeve Reston, who has for us the top-four things we're watching for tomorrow night.
(LAUGHTER)
Good to see you.
MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Good to see you, too.
I think, first of all, what's been so fascinating is the Ted Cruz and Donald Trump dynamic.
BALDWIN: This is really the first debate we're talking about that, and he's standing right next to him.
RESTON: Yeah. You have these wild shake ups in the polls in Iowa with Ted Cruz surging ahead. Donald Trump has been trying to go after Ted Cruz on temperament. It will be interesting to see that dynamic with Ted Cruz trying to play nice with Donald Trump as he's saying he's a little bit of a maniac.
BALDWIN: It's interesting how most of the time Trump doesn't directly go out first after someone, but he will be quick to respond.
RESTON: And Ted Cruz has said his strategy is going to be to play nice all the way though. We'll see --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: That's what they all say.
RESTON: -- over seven weeks. It will also be fascinating to see what Donald Trump does on national security issues.
BALDWIN: National security debate, let's keep reminding everyone in the wake of San Bernardino and Paris, this is huge.
RESTON: It's totally changed the dynamic of the race. He really has to show people like his strength, but he has to show he has the policy chops when out on that stage with the other candidates?
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: How does he do that?
RESTON: I think he has to speak more in specifics this time. He's going to be up there with Marco Rubio, who has been studying up on these issues for a long time. Jeb Bush is going to make a splash. Also Ben Carson, what is his move going to be? Right?
BALDWIN: He's been traveling overseas. He's been criticized for not having those chops. He has to prove that as well.
RESTON: Right. He's really slid in the polls, with Ted Cruz rising. He has to show he has command of these issues and can actually talk about them.
And the fourth thing it will be interesting to see if Chris Christie can have a breakout moment here. He made it to the main stage and he's hanging on and pushing up in New Hampshire. He may try to have a breakout moment in that establishment lane.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: It's hard for people to disregard Chris Christie. But when you look at what he went through after 9/11 -- and he talks about it a lot and he reminds everyone. But his role then and how he can bring that and how that would be germane to a national security debate.
[13:40:00] RESTON: Exactly. And remember, that was a very strong astute time for Giuliani. Spoke very emotional terms about that during that race. And Chris Christie really can grip a crowd with talking about those kinds of issues. He obviously has been studying these issues for some time and it will be interesting to see what happens.
BALDWIN: The top-four things on Maeve Reston's watch list.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you so much, Maeve.
RESTON: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Make sure you watch the final Republican debate of 2015 only here on CNN. Let me remind you it starts tomorrow night, at 6:00 eastern live, here from Las Vegas.
Next, we heard from Maeve and what she's watching for. We'll have more from Vegas as far as the debate is concerned.
But first, a couple from Pennsylvania have dedicated their lives from keeping children healthy in today's "Turning Point" from Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Darren and Phyllis Sudman lost their son, Simon, at just 3 months old to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
DARREN SUDMAN, FATHER OF SIMON: Our pediatrician and coroner said go get their hearts checked because babies just don't die. Phyllis was diagnosed with a syndrome that is an arrhythmia that causes the heart to beat irregularly. GUPTA: Although it was never confirmed on Simon, the Mayo Clinic
attributes 10 to 15 percent of unexplained infant deaths to this syndrome, and also heart defects like it, are causing deaths in later childhood as well.
PHYLLIS SUDMAN, MOTHER OF SIMON: At the time, there were no organizations out there that were checking kids' hearts.
We don't want another family to go through what we have been through.
GUPTA: The Sudman's start Simon's Fund. It provides free heart screenings for kids.
DARREN SUDMAN: Over the past 10 years, we have screened about 12,000 students. Approximately 1 percent discover some kind of heart condition.
GUPTA: Kids like Drew Harrington.
DREW HARRINGTON, HEART PROBLEM FOUND IN SCREEN: I went to a Simon Fund screening and found I had a structural issue with my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The opportunity of Drew having a heart screening allowed us to prevent an incident that could have been life changing.
GUPTA: Stories like Harrington's and over 100 others are Simon's legacy.
PHYLLIS SUDMAN: If we save one life, it's amazing, but to impact so many other lives because of Simon, who was 3 months old when he passed away, it's pretty amazing.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:46:15] BALDWIN: Welcome back. A live look inside the debate hall here at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN's special coverage ahead of debate. Tomorrow, the big showdown, the CNN debate. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, really the two star standouts right now. Jeb Bush on the decline, now in single digits in polls. Jeff Zeleny has been reporting that Jeb Bush donors are doubtful he will be in it for the long haul.
Let me talk about this with CNN political commentator, Ana Navarro, who is a friend of Marco Rubio and supporter of Jeb Bush. And also with me is CNN political commentator, Patti Solis Doyle, who is a former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager.
Great to be back in Vegas with you.
Let me begin with Jeb Bush. I feel like we're not talking a lot about Jeb Bush and I wanted to begin with you with that that now we're hearing Zeleny is reporting that the donors are saying I don't know if he's in this for the long haul. They are saying this week is make it or break it. Jeb Bush is saying, I'm great.
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Frankly, I am one of those Jeb Bush donors. I have heard and seen no indication that there is a lack of commitment in that campaign to go on.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You haven't heard that?
NAVARRO: I talked to Jeb Bush fairly regularly. What I see is the commitment, the perseverance and he keeps putting one foot in front of the other and is focused ongoing through and going on with this. It would be fool hardy to get out now at this point. He has the ground team. He's got the money. He has the commitment. He's got the desire. He's got the energy.
BALDWIN: He doesn't have the support.
NAVARRO: So what. Let's just remember 50 percent of New Hampshire voters make up their mind the last week. So to go this far and knowing you're dealing with very fluid polls, you're dealing with an electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire and early states that traditionally make up their minds at the very last minute, and leave now, that would be insane.
BALDWIN: Glad I asked. There you go. We're fickle people.
Patti, to you.
In the head to heads, when you look at Hillary Clinton, she handedly beats Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz, but not Rubio or Carson. How do you read that and who -- between perhaps a Rubio or Carson, I feel like I keep hearing from camp Hillary is formidable. They see Rubio as formidable. Would you agree?
PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's very difficult to look at national polls in a head to head contest for the general election right now. It's just too early.
BALDWIN: Chuck the polls. If you were with Camp Hillary, who would you worry want most?
SOLIS DOYLE: Look, let's turn the clock back to 2012 when Mitt Romney lost to Barack Obama, in large measure because of that coalition that Barack Obama built of women, Hispanics, African-Americans, young people. The RNC's response to that loss was let's make a big camp, let's be more appealing to women, let's be more appealing to Hispanics. Donald Trump has single handedly blown that strategy to smithereens. So right now, Hillary Clinton sort of has the edge on all of them. She has successfully painted the Donald Trump brush broadly in that field.
BALDWIN: I read about the super PAC, Trump, Make America Great Again, as other Republicans, so I'm sure they have a good chuckle out of that, but still the question remains here in 2015 --
NAVARRO: You're going to make me pick.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: I'm going to make you pick.
Patti Solis Doyle?
SOLIS DOYLE: Of all of them, Marco Rubio probably. He's from Florida. He's Hispanic. Of all of them, he probably has the best shot, but it's probably a slim shot.
[14:49:45] BALDWIN: OK, OK, I appreciate that.
Ana, we have heard now from Donald Trump's doctor. His health records are most excellent, if I may, if I don't have everything blown away here. The line from the doctor, "If elected Donald Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency."
You like that?
NAVARRO: I love that. I want to know what the doctor's phone number is so I can call him for my insurance checkup --
(LAUGHTER)
-- which I have to do at the beginning of the year.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Great for Donald Trump that he's so healthy.
NAVARRO: Hilarious. Please "Saturday Night Live" --
(LAUGHTER)
NAVARRO: -- can we get an opening skit featuring Donald Trump's doctor, because this is just -- you can't make this stuff up.
BALDWIN: Patti and Ana, thank you both so much, here in Las Vegas.
And breaking news here. The jury now has the case of the Baltimore police officer accused in the death of Freddie Gray. This is the first trial in the case. Deliberations are underway. We'll keep you posted. We are covering the latest there from inside the courtroom.
Coming up next, we'll talk to someone who says, do not be fooled by Donald Trump, he's really, deep down, a Democrat.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:55:04] BALDWIN: Today, flags across the country are flying at half staffs as the nation marks three years since the massacre of 20 first graders and teachers at Sandy Hook. Protesters gather outside the NRA headquarters this afternoon in Virginia just as they have every 14th day of the month since Sandy Hook. Front and center at today's rally, the parents of Alison Parker, who was murdered on live television last August.
Back in Newtown, the police chief in charge at the time of the killings is retiring after nearly four decades on the job.
He spoke with CNN's Deborah Feyerick about his mission to reshape his legacy from one defined by tragedy to one focused on change.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(GUNFIRE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are on the battlefields --
(GUNFIRE)
FEYERICK: -- in the cities --
(GUNFIRE)
FEYERICK: -- and in the hands of law enforcement across America, firearms, millions of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know the biggest purchaser of guns in the United States is? We are!
FEYERICK: Guns are $13.5 billion a year industry with 26 percent of all guns bought by America's military and 38 percent bought by federal, state and local law enforcement and civilians. That's 64 percent of total sales. Using that kind of buying power as leverage could be key to forcing gun makers to make safer guns says, Newtown, Connecticut, Police Chief Michael Kehoe.
MICHAEL KEHOE, POLICE CHIEF, NEWTON, CONNECTICUT, POLICE DEPARTMENT: If we can have that message sent to those that have a voice, we can start that conversation and shift that needle in a positive direction.
FEYERICK: If Kehoe looks familiar, it's because he was police chief when the Sandy Hook shootings happened in 2012. 20 children and six educators gunned down inside their elementary school, a tragedy that turned into a powerful soul searching debate on gun control.
(CHANTING)
KEHOE: Everybody said it, if you couldn't make changes after Sandy Hook, when could you make changes? You have to take another approach. This seemed to be a common-sense approach.
FEYERICK: The approach was created by the campaign Do Not Stand Idly By, leveraging tax dollars to force gun makers to make safer guns through things like safe technology.
KEHOE: We can't be satisfied with the status quo on the amount of deaths we have with guns each year.
FEYERICK: In October, he tried to persuade others to join him traveling to IACP, the largest police chiefs conference in the nation, where gun makers, like Smith & Wesson and Sig Sauer, show off their latest products. Of thousands attending, Kehoe says, only a handful of chiefs seemed interested in the idea of leveraging their gun buying power.
(on camera): Why do you think there's pushback?
KEHOE: Because there's fear, maybe unfounded, that we're going to take away guns as opposed to just let it being smarter about what we're doing and how we manufacture guns.
FEYERICK (voice-over): We contacted several police chiefs who said the idea was unlikely to make a dent because police need the latest firearms when going up against criminals.
Still, Kehoe, who is retiring after 37 years in policing, is not giving up.
KEHOE: This is a great turnout. And that's what we need.
FEYERICK: He says America has to start somewhere.
KEHOE: I think we have to come together. I think that's going to make significant changes rather than just try to separate the haves and have notes.
FEYERICK: Changes he hopes that could unify all sides and ultimately make a dent in ending gun violence.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BALDWIN: Breaking news now. We are getting word that a Maryland man has been charged with trying to support ISIS.
We want to go straight to Washington to our Justice correspondent, Evan Perez.
A Maryland man, Evan? Tell me what you know.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. His name is Mohammed El Shinowi (ph). He's 30 years old. And according to the FBI and the Justice Department, he received at least $3,500 over the last year or so from people he knew or believed were members of ISIS. The purpose of this money was in order to carry out a terrorist attack here in this country. He is charged right now with material support of a terrorist group, which is ISIS. And according to this affidavit that was filed today in court by the FBI, he was working or communicating with members of his family and others, who he knew were connecting him with ISIS operatives who wanted to carry an attack here in this country. That is what the FBI charges him with.
