Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Poll: Trump Surges to Biggest GOP Lead Yet; Jury Deliberations Underway in Officer Trial. Aired 9:00-9:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:00:06] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, we have a big night tomorrow night. It's going to be good. This will not be like an evening in paradise for me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Debate day in America. And this is where it is all about to go down.

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

The stage is set and the stakes are very high. The Republican presidential candidates face off tonight in their final debate of 2015.

You are looking live at the Venetian Casino in Las Vegas. This is where the CNN debate will begin to unfold. Less than nine hours from now. And swaggering to the middle of the main stage, none other than Donald Trump. The longtime frontrunner now holds his biggest lead yet in the Republican race. According to a new "Washington Post"-ABC News poll, Trump now commands support from 38 percent of the GOP leaning voters.

But he faces a new challenge. Ted Cruz has surged to second nearly doubling his numbers from last month. Trump says make no mistake, everybody is gunning for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They are all coming after me. I heard today, I'm watching, I'm saying, man, this is like crazy. Who's going to attack Trump first? Will it be this one? You know, he's taken down seven so far. You know if you look, so far everyone who's attacked me has gone right down the tubes so that's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, let's take you center stage and show you around the venue for tonight's debate.

CNN's Athena Jones is in Vegas. ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Just a few

hours from now nine candidates will take the stage for the last GOP showdown of the year. You can see Donald Trump will be here at center stage. He'll be flanked by Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. And if you look over here, CNN's Wolf Blitzer will be standing here as the moderator. Just on the other side of the stage, CNN's Dana Bash and Salem Radio host Hugh Hewitt will be seated also asking questions.

And this grand theater, the Venetian Theater, will be filled by an invite only crowd of about 1400 guests for the big night. All this comes as Trump's national poll numbers are reaching heights many political pundits thought they'd never reach, making him a top target tonight. He was also a target of protesters last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Outrage overnight during Donald Trump's rally in Las Vegas. Tensions high just hours before tonight's final GOP debate of 2015. Multiple protesters forcibly removed while trying to interrupt the frontrunner's speech.

TRUMP: Get them out.

JONES: Trump taking shots at his Republican competition.

TRUMP: The other candidates should be thankful. Because I'm giving them a chance to make total fools of themselves.

JONES: And bashing the media.

TRUMP: I've learned two things, more than anything else. How smart the people are and how bad and dishonest the press is. Because it is really dishonest.

JONES: Trump's GOP rivals going after the billionaire businessman who for the first time has topped 40 percent in a Monmouth University poll of likely GOP voters. That's more than the next three competitors combined. And Trump towering 23 points above his closest rival in this new "Washington Post"-ABC poll.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I cannot imagine Donald Trump becoming president because he would never win. He would never win. Hillary Clinton would clean him.

JONES: This as Texas Senator Ted Cruz surges into second place in national polling and tops Trump in several polls in Iowa.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God bless the great state of Iowa.

JONES: Which means all eyes will be on center stage to see if the two former allies will go after each other.

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: They are both strong and very decisive and someone who would take the initiative. That is what we need today. And both those candidates fit that bill. JONES: Tonight's debate is the first for the GOP contenders since the

Paris and San Bernardino terror attacks, and comes about a week after Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. The debate will keep national security at the forefront.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The vast majority of people that are trying to come are people that we just don't have information on. This is an issue that you have to be right 100 percent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: And Marco Rubio is another candidate to keep an eye on tonight. He's performed well in past debates and his team is hoping for another strong night tonight. Their view going into tonight is why try to fix what isn't broken.

When it comes to Trump and Cruz, the question isn't so much whether Trump will try to hit Cruz but whether and how Cruz will hit back.

And I should mention, Carol, the security sweeps are just now beginning in and around this theater. So it's just one more sign we're getting closer to the main event.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: We certainly are. Athena Jones, thanks so much.

So the stage is set, the anticipation is building. Donald Trump ready to rumble. And maybe he ought to be. Ted Cruz has questioned his judgment.

[09:05:02] Marco Rubio says Trump is not qualified to be president. And Jeb Bush, remember him? He says Trump is not serious enough to be president. So let's talk about all of this.

Mercedes Schlapp is a former Spanish language media spokesperson for President George W. Bush. She joins me. And in Las Vegas, Kayleigh McEneny, who's a Republican strategist.

Welcome to both of you.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP, FORMER SPANISH MEDIA SPOKESPERSON FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank you.

KAYLEIGH MCENENY, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Hey, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So Trump launched a preemptive strike against Cruz by citing his poll numbers. But I don't see Ted Cruz eager for a fight with Trump. Do you, Kayleigh?

MCENENY: No, I don't. You know, Ted Cruz has played this so wisely. You look at all of the candidates who have been, you know, on Trump's heels and he smacked them all down very successfully. Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, and they all to some degree fought back. Ted Cruz had not fought back, and Donald Trump is going to have a very

hard time attacking Ted Cruz because Ted Cruz's record is stellar. As a conservative candidate, his votes are on par. He's one of the most conservative candidates in the race so Trump may have a hard time attacking him and Ted Cruz is brilliant by not striking back.

COSTELLO: So, Mercedes, will Ted Cruz just stand there and -- and will bit a big love fest between the two men?

SCHLAPP: Well, I don't think it will be a love fest. But what I think you're going to see from Ted Cruz is the fact that he understands that he is the one to gain the most if Trump were to fall. What we're seeing right now is a divide in the conservative party. Where you have a portion of the voters going to Trump. And the other portion going to Cruz. And so I think for Cruz he's going to say we're going to be focusing on policy, he's going to focus on his character.

He doesn't want to go into, as he tweeted out, the cage match with Donald Trump. And I think that's a very smart strategy because all the other candidates that went after Trump, obviously they failed.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about one candidate that many analysts say is on the rise. And that would be Chris Christie. So, Kayleigh, might Chris Christie take on Donald Trump? Because he's just as combative.

MCENENY: You know, I think he could. And it's interesting because you're right to point out that they have very similar personalities. They're both very strong. They're both dynamite personalities on the stage. But Chris Christie is going to have a hard time because if you look at the tempo of this race it is a conservative race. It's one like we've never seen before.

A John McCain couldn't win in this climate. A Mitt Romney couldn't win in this climate. A Jeb Bush couldn't win in this climate but a Ted Cruz can. And if Chris Christie, although he's very strong when it comes to foreign policy, is going to have a hard time catering to that conservative base that is eager for a true conservative candidate.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Mercedes, we have to talk about the Muslim question. Mosques across the country are being vandalized. Muslim Americans are scared. Who might criticize Donald Trump for his rhetoric on Muslims?

SCHLAPP: Well, I think you're going to see a number of candidates basically say we don't support what Donald Trump is mentioning. I mean, they have already gone on the record basically like Bush said Trump has been unhinged on this policy. And the fact that in many cases they are viewing it as unconstitutional.

So I believe you could see a bit of these other candidates maybe piling on Trump. The problem is, is when you're looking at these poll numbers, Republicans, as close to 59 percent support this man. So this is going to be an interesting and important conversation to have this evening because obviously it's a very divisive policy nationally, although for the most part you're talking that over majority of Republicans support it.

COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh, Mercedes mentioned that --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, let me just run this by you because Mercedes mentioned that "Washington Post"-ABC News poll. Six in 10 Republicans agree with Trump's ban on Muslims. So, Kayleigh, wouldn't it be dicey for the other candidates to come out strongly against that ban even though they may -- even though they may not support the ban?

MCENENY: Carol, no doubt about it. You know, most Republican voters are scared. We saw someone get here on a fiancee visa that was screened with a background check three times. And the folks who were doing that did not catch the fact that she had radical extremist views publicly out in the open. So Republican voters want this problem to be fixed.

And we know who's going to have to explain himself tonight is Marco Rubio because Rand Paul last week put a bill on the floor that ban immigration from 30 countries that are hotbeds for terrorism. Ted Cruz voted for that bill, Rand Paul voted for that bill, Marco Rubio did not. So Marco Rubio may be the one to attack Trump on this but I think it would be very unwise to do so.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Mercedes Schlapp, Kayleigh McEneny, thanks to both of you.

You can only see the fifth GOP presidential debate right here on CNN. Moderated by Wolf Blitzer, the first debate starts 6:00 p.m. Eastern tonight.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the polls show Trump surging but that's not all they're saying. Is the picture as rosy as you think for Trump?

[09:10:04]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Police are questioning two people in possible connection to the January siege of a kosher grocery store. Four people were killed and others held hostage before police stormed the building and killed the gunmen. The subjects of the police focus are a suspected gun dealer and his wife. Police believe the couple could be tied to some of the weapons in the killers' arsenal.

Prosecutors also announced the arrest of a 29-year-old man in connection with the terror attacks in Paris just last month. It is not known if the attacks or the suspects are related.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow for top level meetings on two of the world's hot spots. Earlier this morning he met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and in the next hour Kerry will sit down with the Russian president Vladimir Putin. The two countries are discussing ways to end the conflict in Ukraine and Syria. The U.S. and Russia are at odds over Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and whether he has a role in the peace process.

Russia, ISIS and American security will be the hot topics in tonight's debate. Donald Trump seems to have the upper hand. A new poll out this morning shows he's on top. Way on top. A "Washington Post"-ABC News poll shows among Republican-leaning voters, 38 percent say they support Trump. His closest competition, Ted Cruz, he's at 15 percent. Marco Rubio and Ben Carson are tied for third.

The lead also comes after Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric. He gained six percentage points since October and November. But if you look more closely at the numbers, the picture isn't so rosy for Donald Trump.

[09:15:10] With me now is Andy Smith, the director of the University of the New Hampshire Survey Center.

Welcome.

ANDY SMITH, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SURVEY CENTER: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Glad to have you here.

So, Andy, Donald Trump has 38 percent support. But dig a little deeper, there are problems. For example, 69 percent nationally say they would feel anxious if Trump were elected president, while 29 percent would feel comfortable.

So, what are those numbers say about Trump's chances of becoming president or event the Republican nominee?

SMITH: Well, one of the things we've been seeing with Donald Trump throughout this campaign is he's been leading in polls, but he's also been leading among Republicans as the candidate they would be least likely to vote for under any circumstance.

And what typically happens in nomination processes is the parties come up with a candidate who's most acceptable to their party. Not necessarily the favorite of any one faction but the acceptable candidate. And that usually positions that candidate to be pretty good in the general election.

Polarizing candidates generally don't do well in general elections and I think the Republicans have to go back a few years, but the Barry Goldwater campaign in 1964 is probably the one that's most emblematic of this. And on the Democratic side, the George McGovern campaign in 1972.

So, they want to have a candidate who's less polarizing than Donald Trump is.

COSTELLO: OK. So, something else I don't understand about this poll, 69 percent feel anxious, yet 54 percent say Trump is the strongest leader. How can that be? SMITH: Well, I think they are probably measuring different things.

Strong leaders mean you are probably looking at somebody who voters think can accomplish things and do things.

At the same time, that same strength in leadership could lead the United States or the leader to do things that might not be good for country. And I think that's the sense of anxiety. They see Donald Trump a leader. They are just not sure where he wants to lead.

COSTELLO: OK. So, another number that's interesting -- 23 percent say Trump has the best personality. He beats all the other candidates. So, might it be fair to say many voters favor Trump simply because they like him at the moment?

SMITH: Absolutely. And that's a critical point with any poll. So speaking as a pollster, primaries are notoriously difficult to figure out what is likely to happen, even the weekend before the primary. So, at this point, back in 2008 or 2007, I was looking at our polls here in New Hampshire. We had Romney comfortably up over McCain and Rudy Giuliani, and Giuliani was leading in national polls.

But it's a sequential process. Voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are going to winnow the field significantly and things after Christmas and after the New Year's are going to look quite differently where voters are going to finally get down to the point where they're going to start looking at these candidates as presidents and evaluating them as presidential material.

COSTELLO: So, help us make sense of these polls, because you have Ted Cruz up in some polls in Iowa, right? Chris Christie is up in some polls in New Hampshire. Trump leads in polls nationally and in some polls in Iowa.

So, what should we make of this race?

SMITH: Well, I would focus on the early states and not the national polls. So, in Iowa we've seen that Ted Cruz has been moving up fairly quickly and the Republican electorate in Iowa is largely dominated by conservative evangelicals and Cruz has been doing quite among that group and their support for Ben Carson has been dropping quite a bit. You move to New Hampshire, a much moderate state, much higher turn out so it's not just activists, and here you are seeing the more moderate candidates doing better. Trump is still leading but the more moderates are doing better.

So, we have Marco Rubio at 14 percent, Bush at 7, Chris Christie at about 8 percent, John Kasich at 7 percent. So, if you put those moderate, more mainstream Republicans together, they total about 36 percent of the Republican vote right now, which is more than Donald Trump. So, those early states with the very different electorates are the places to focus your attention. Not the national polls.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So, might some in the Republican Party hope some of those lesser candidates will drop out so that support will coalesce around one of those more mainstream candidates? SMITH: Yes. I think that what we're seeing here in this campaign is

a race somewhat like the 1996 primary, where Republicans were quite unhappy and they didn't really like Bob Dole as their candidate, but there was also some other Republicans that we're keeping that race from coalescing -- Lamar Alexander and Steve Forbes.

But what we saw was Pat Buchanan really was the catalyst in that race to get the people who are angry at the Republican mainstream together on his side.

[09:20:08] He even won the New Hampshire primary, but just didn't have that broad enough support.

What we saw is, after New Hampshire, Bob Dole was close in second and the mainstream support coalesced around dole. We're likely to see something like this year. But again it is really early. There are six weeks to go. I know we've been covering this race for a long time. But the voters really aren't engaged just yet.

COSTELLO: All right. Andy Smith, thanks so much.

The fifth GOP presidential debate only on CNN, moderated by Wolf Blitzer. The first debate 6:00 p.m. Eastern tonight.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: she might not be at the debate but Hillary Clinton will certainly be on the stage. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:12] COSTELLO: A verdict is expected to come soon in the trial of first officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Right now, jurors are deciding the fate of William Porter, the first of six Baltimore police officers to face charges in the death of the 25-year- old.

In the meantime, the city is bracing for any possible fallout, police officers working 12 hour shifts and the city's emergency operation center has been activated should riots or protests erupt over the eminent ruling.

Things have been peaceful so far. Last night, residents marched through the Senate, arm in arm with police officers.

CNN's Jean Casarez is live outside the courthouse with more for you this morning.

Hi, Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Good morning.

The jury has deliberated already. They wanted to come in at 8:30 this morning to deliberate. That's much earlier than they have ever come in before. So, it shows they really wanted to get to work.

Now, there has been a note this morning. We don't note yet what that note says. But the last note yesterday was very interesting.

They wanted to see the police transcripts from the dispatch calls and the transcripts from the defendant's videotaped statement. The judge said, no, you can't have them, because they're not evidence. But it shows that they wanted to look at it.

They also wanted to know if their deliberation room was going to be locked during the night. The answer was no because they come in to clean and so then the jurors realized that they would have to erase their board that they were writing on.

They also wanted to understand the definition of misconduct in office, which has to do with an evil deed. And last but not least they wanted candy. Because they have gotten candy the whole trial.

Now, this community is preparing, all entities are preparing in all of this. The Police Commissioner Kevin Davis sent a letter out yesterday to his entire force, really a pep talk.

I want to show everybody a little of what he said. He said, "The days ahead present us all an opportunity to show the world why Baltimore is such special place. Regardless of the outcome of this trial or any future trial, we refuse to surrender to the low expectations of those who wish to see us fail."

And he also said to the community that there has been much done since the unrest in April that policies and procedures have changed. They have gotten specialized training.

And, Carol, they also have specialized equipment now.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see what happens. Jean Casarez, we'll check back. Thank you.

(MUSIC)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

A few hours from now, nine Republican candidates crowd the stage in Las Vegas to battle once again for the GOP nomination. They will go after each other for sure but one name will likely be mentioned so many times you might think there is a tenth candidate on the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: Tomorrow is the fifth Republican presidential debate. And if you have been keeping score so far the winner of most of the Republican debates has been Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton is very aware she will be the target of many of tonight's attacks. Last night, she talked about immigration. She didn't mention any names but, you know, who she's talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are hearing all kinds of anti-immigrant sentiment in the news right now. Candidates for president are calling immigrants drug runners and rapist. They promise if elected to round up and deport millions of people, build a mammoth wall, militarize the border, tear families apart. And after the terrorist shootings in San Bernardino at a time when a lot of Americans are fearful about future attacks here at home, some candidates are even stoking those fears more and turning people against Muslim Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And just to make sure everybody heard it, Hillary Clinton sent out a tweet this morning and it says, I quote, "We can't sit idly by while Republicans shame and blame women, demonize immigrants and say climate change isn't real."

So, let's talk about this with Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman. He also raises money for Hillary Clinton. And in Las Vegas, Republican strategist Josh Holmes, former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Welcome both of you.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here.

So, Josh, how many times will Hillary Clinton's name be spoken on stage tonight?

JOSH HOLMES: Well, I imagine you hear a great deal of it, you know. With the increased focus on terrorism, national security issues, each one of these candidates wants to draw a contrast from an Obama/Clinton foreign policy agenda. And some interesting numbers have come out in the last couple days, "Wall Street Journal" poll yesterday, 83 percent of all Americans say they want the next president to have a very different approach to foreign policy than the current president.