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New Terror Warning for European Cities; Can Bernie Sanders Catch Hillary Clinton?; California Wildfire Burns 1,200 Acres; Would- Be "First Gentleman"; Chief Gives Amnesty to Addicts Seeking Help. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired December 26, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:03] CASEY CURRIVAN, RECOVERING HEROIN USER: Because if I met you on the street, you wouldn't think that two years ago I was an I.V. heroin user.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yes, Casey is a new face, now tasked with taking the message of 23 million Americans currently in recovery straight to the candidates, Jeb Bush, Bernie Sanders, Chris Christie, anyone who could possibly stop this epidemic.

CURRIVAN: I'd appreciate it if they use the same language, not those addicts, those people, because those people are your moms, your dads, sons, daughters, they're your neighbor, they're the chief of your police. They're everybody. They are your doctor, your nurse.

We're not unique people. Just we have a chronic neurological condition that treatment is available and recovery is 100 percent possible.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, top of the hour, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you for being with us.

Several European countries on heightened alert right now after officials in Vienna warned of possible terror attacks in the coming days. They included the names of the possible attackers. There is still no concrete evidence, though, of a specific planned attack or location, but the threat still raises questions about the ongoing war on terror.

Let's turn now to CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier, CNN military analyst, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

Thank you both for being with me.

Again, this is coming to us from authorities in Vienna. They are not specifically naming the countries that are in focus or where the potential attack could take place. But, General, to you first, you were commander of all U.S. army troops in Europe not long ago. You dealt with situations like this as recently as 2011.

When you got these nonspecific terror -- potential terror threats, how did you handle them?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's tough, Poppy. What you have to do is really drive for more information. You always have to fight for more intel, because you can watch people that indicators are there's a couple of individuals involved, but just watching people if they are not doing anything, you can harass them. That might turn a potential attack off, and it might happen later on.

So you have to do some very good intelligence work and police work in terms of surveillance. You're always looking for more details on who, what, why, when, where, and how it's going to be conducted. Unless you have some specifics on that, it really blows the situation if you try and pull someone aside that you think might be about to conduct an attack if they are not really going to do it. So, that's all part of the equation.

HARLOW: Kimberly, when you look at just intelligence sharing right here in the United States in the wake of 9/11, information sharing between U.S. government agencies, got a lot better, it became a top priority no question, and when you look at the recent terror attack in Paris, that highlighted major deficiencies in intelligence sharing between European countries. You saw the attackers move between Belgium and France, no red flags raised.

In this case, officials in Vienna were warned about several European cities. How difficult is it to get all of those European countries onboard and share all the necessary information?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, they are probably about a decade behind the U.S. in terms of tearing down the walls between their different intelligence agencies. You have to look at historically some of these countries have been allies with, say, Russia. So, if you're Britain, for instance, you don't want to share everything you've got, because you're afraid it's going to get passed on to an adversary.

Some of the other things that happen is intelligence agencies even within countries don't want to share all the details of how they got something, because they are competing with other agencies. That's human nature, it happens everywhere. That could explain why this warning is so vague, because whoever's sharing it doesn't want to tip their hand as to what networks they are watching.

HARLOW: That's a scary thought.

All right. Kimberly Dozier, General Mark Hertling, stay with me. Much more with both of you ahead later in the hour.

I do need to get to politics, though, Bernie Sanders facing a long climb to catch up, if you look at the polls, to the front-runner Hillary Clinton. Here's the latest CNN poll, Clinton is 14 percentage points ahead of Sanders among Democrats asked to name their choice at this point for the 2016 nominee. Clinton 50 percent, Sanders 34 percent, former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley trailing at 3 percent.

Bernie Sanders' press secretary Symone Sanders back with me here to talk about their plans and much more.

Appreciate you coming on the program again. Thank you.

SYMONE SANDERS, NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY FOR BERNIE SANDERS 2016: Thank you for having me, Poppy. I'm glad to be here.

[16:05:00] HARLOW: All right. Let's talk about the fact you look at a Bernie Sanders and for his supporters, he represents the heart and the soul of the left, but he loses to Hillary Clinton by every measure in this CNN/ORC poll, including those Democratic voters who they trust to handle the economy.

Let's put everything else aside, Symone, for a moment. This is what he launched his campaign on, the economy, the economy, the economy, income inequality, and fairness. What are you going to do to get his 39 percent on the economy up past Clinton's 47 percent?

SANDERS: Well, Poppy, we are going to continue to take our message across America and meet these voters where they are. I mean, I'd like to note that, yes, Secretary Clinton is at 50 percent, but that is an eight-point drop from when this poll was last conducted a month ago. Meanwhile, Senator Sanders has almost cut Secretary Clinton's lead in half.

So, we're feeling good about this poll. This is showing momentum, and voters out there know that senator Sanders has built his life, his career, on advocating for hard working families, and he's the only candidate out there that's going to take on the rigged economy that's kept in place by a system of corrupt campaign finance.

So, what we're going to do is continue to take that message across America and, you know, we've still got time. Polls go up and down, and we're confident that we're going to see those numbers change.

HARLOW: All right. Let's talk about overall electability, right, and viability in a general election. If he makes it to the general, he definitely, his supporters would say embodies the fervor of the left.

There also seems to be, Symone, when you look at some of these numbers, a bit of hesitation about his overall electability. Do you think he's failed in any way to make the case to Democrats that want to love him that he is viable in terms of being elected in a general election when so much focus right now, as you know, is on the terror threat?

SANDERS: You know, Poppy, no, I don't think so at all. Look, when you match up Senator Sanders with any of the Republicans on the other side, he does better than Secretary Clinton against all of them.

Take Donald Trump, for instance. In the Quinnipiac poll that was released last Tuesday, I do believe, Senator Sanders beats Donald Trump by 13 points. If that margin is held going into the general election, I think there was a reporter at "The Hill" newspaper that said this will not only, you know, help elect senator Sanders and help the Democrats keep the White House, it can help the Democrats take back the Senate and potentially the House of Representatives, as well.

So, in all of these, if you look at any poll, these general election matchups, Senator Sanders does better. He is beating these Republicans and that goes straight to this issue of electability.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Let me -- let me mention one poll from the CNN poll this week on favorability. You've got among all voters, you've got a 47 percent favorability rating for Sanders. Among Democrats, you have a 74 percent favorability rating. So, obviously, focus needs to be bringing up the all voters part of it.

Let's move on to something else, because Simone, I mean, you joined this campaign after being very active in the Black Lives Matter movement, and you joined the campaign months ago. I know this is an area of focus for you and the campaign, galvanizing the African- American vote behind Sanders.

If you look at the most recent "Washington Post"/ABC polls, they show that Sanders trails Clinton among African-American voters 71 percent to 19 percent. What are you doing to change that?

SANDERS: Well, Poppy, we are going out and we're meeting people where they are, in the African-American community, we are in the barber shops, the beauty shops, and bible studies. We are actively holding conference calls, because, you know, Senator Sanders' name ID was and is lower in African-American and Latino communities. He was not as well known as Secretary Clinton. So, we have to do some voter education, and we're actively doing that.

I think if you look closer at the CNN/ORC poll, you'll see in the same poll conducted in April, Senator Sanders was polling at 1 percent with non-white voters. When this poll just came out, he's now polling at 32 percent. That's a significant jump for someone whose name ID was particularly low, and we're looking to see the numbers climb.

I think it's really important that we can connect our message to African-American and Latino voters. Yes, African-American voters that care about criminal justice reform, they care about ending the disgrace that is the mass incarceration of African-Americans, but they also care about economic inequality.

You know, they want to know how you're going to help put more money in their pockets. How are we going to help close the wealth gap? They want to know, you know, what are we going to do, are we raising the minimum wage? And these are all things Senator Sanders is very strong on.

You know, 54 percent of African-Americans stand to get a wage increase by rates under Senator Sanders' plan to raise the minimum wage to $15.

[16:10:04] On the Latino voter front, same deal. You know, Latino voters, they do care about immigration, but they also care about economic inequality and education. We are definitely making those points.

HARLOW: We saw 14 states in 2015 raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour. To have it happen on a federal level, though, it is a big, big battle in Congress. We'll talk a lot about that in the next hour.

Before I let you go, all right? Let's talk about the money. Your campaign came out this week and Sanders touted the fact he says the campaign has received 2.3 million individual contributions. He says that's more than President Obama had at the same time in the 2008, 2012 campaigns. I should note CNN can't independently confirm that until the Federal Election Commission's reports come out, and those are going to come out not too long, a few weeks.

But given that, you look at the number, 2.3 million individual donors, it's a big number.

SANDERS: Two-point-three contributions. So, our donor numbers ain't that high, but we have 2.3 million contributions.

HARLOW: Two-point-three million contributions, thank you for the correction.

But when you compare to the numbers, the total amount raised. You got $40 million for Sanders and $77 million for Clinton. Are you arguing that the number of contributions is more important fundamentally than the overall total number?

SANDERS: I mean, Poppy, I think the number of contributions goes to how many people think enough of a candidate to pull their hard earned money out of their pocket and put it towards his campaign. Look, we don't have a super PAC. We don't want a super PAC. Our average contribution is $23, and I think we're doing well.

Over 2.3 million contributions to our campaign mean that Americans all across the country have decided to dig into their pockets and help fund the political revolution. Only -- I think the number is less than 170 of our donors have maxed out, so, we still have a long way to go with folks that can continue giving to our campaign, and this is going to help us be strong all the way through the convention.

So, I do think it's important the number of contributions to a campaign, because this is a movement. This is individual people -- these are people standing up and saying, enough is enough, I want to join the political revolution and I want to donate my money to the Sanders campaign.

So, we're very excited about our contributions. We're very excited that we are galvanizing support all across the country, and we're going to continue to do the work necessary to reach out to voters all across the country.

HARLOW: All right, we will be watching. As you know, following every step of all of the campaign. Symone Sanders, happy holidays and thank you for being with me.

SANDERS: Happy holidays, Poppy. Talk to you soon. HARLOW: All right. We'll talk to you soon.

We just spoke about it, that brand new CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton still holding a commanding lead in the days after the last Democratic debate. But when you compare her to some of her potential Republican rivals, it is a very different story. We'll show you how the numbers match up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:42] HARLOW: You know what that music means, time for politics and the 2016 election. You can expect a fresh round of political theater and a new cast of characters in the coming year. Thirty-four Senate seats will be up for grabs on Election Day, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be on the line, and in the race for the White House, less than 40 days remain before the first voters speak out in the all-important Iowa caucuses.

CNN senior political analyst David Gergen with me now. He served as presidential adviser to four presidents.

And as we head into the New Year, I would love your take, David, on what you think, what role you think, President Obama will play in the 2016 campaign. Do you think he serves as an easy GOP target, or does he help Hillary Clinton if she makes it to the general?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you again, Poppy.

If you look at the overall numbers, you have to say that President Obama currently would be a drag on Hillary Clinton. Normally, when a party holds a White House and there's somebody fresh from that party running from the office, you need the incumbent to be about 50 percent or higher to give you any help, and President Obama has been mired in the mid-40s for a long time now. You know, his disapproval rate is 8 points higher than his approval rate. So, if you look at the overall, Poppy, you'd have to say he's going to be a drag.

But the Obama team is very smart in how they use him. They will be able to take him into certain states where he can rally the faithful because there is a question of whether there's going to be this enthusiasm gap for Hillary Clinton.

HARLOW: Right.

GERGEN: Well, she had people coming out and vote. He can rally people. He can rally the young and minorities and help get those numbers up. He is a superb fundraiser, as we all know, and he has so much at stake in this election personally. His whole legacy is on the line.

So, you have to believe he's going to throw his heart and soul into this, because if she loses, Obamacare is in trouble, the Iran agreement is in trouble, the climate efforts are in trouble. You can look down the line, there are a lot of things that would change. That's what Republicans want to do, that's what they are pledging to do.

So, he has a lot at stake and I think he'll throw himself into this.

HARLOW: Do you think there is, David, a lesson to be learned from? I mean, you worked in the Clinton White House, a la sort of gore of separating himself from President Clinton amid the scandal, et cetera, and then criticism afterwards that actually hurt him, is there a lesson in that for Hillary Clinton?

GERGEN: I -- there is certainly a lesson about being -- supporting the president on those areas which are popular to have support beyond the Democratic Party. You know, she's got to be careful about this one.

Back in 2000 when Al Gore ran, and he ran away from Bill Clinton's record, been his vice president, but he essentially didn't play up the economic dynamism of the Clinton years, and I think he lost the election because of that in part, significant part. So, I think Hillary Clinton has to separate herself out on those issues where she feels he's gotten in trouble, especially on foreign policy.

HARLOW: Yes.

GERGEN: Because Trump if he is the nominee is going to run as a strong person in the race who's going to defend America, and she has to be seen as stronger and tougher, which I think she is in her heart, in her own belief system, that President Obama. And at the same time President Obama's people have to give her room to separate out.

HARLOW: Right.

GERGEN: And they are sophisticated people, I think they'll do that.

HARLOW: Look, she points out, I told the president to honor the Syrian rebels long ago, he opted not to. She's calling for no fly zone.

GERGEN: Right.

HARLOW: So, she has differentiated herself.

But let's look at these numbers. I think they are so telling from the CNN/ORC poll that came out this week. What it shows is how Hillary Clinton fairs in a hypothetical general election matchup, really, against the three GOP frontrunners.

She is 49 to 47 versus Trump. She is 46 to 48 versus Cruz. And Rubio she is at 49 percent. So, she's actually not ahead of Rubio or ahead of Cruz.

GERGEN: Well, yes, that's true. You must find this, Poppy, as I do, if you talk to people, the so-called chattering classes, as the British like to call them, up and down the East Coast.

[16:20:01] You run into very few people who say they know anybody who's going to vote for Trump, and I think that really illustrates how much of a gap there between a lot of us on the chattering class and the forces behind Trump. I don't think we understand them as well as we should. We're not connected to them as Americans as well as we should be.

And I think -- so, within the chattering clashes there's a given, oh, she'll walk all over Trump. She would walk all over Rubio. She'll walk over Cruz.

HARLOW: Not in those numbers.

GERGEN: She's going to have those commanding leads. And you look at those numbers and you say, wait a minute, guys, this is a lot closer than it looks at this stage. Don't count her in. Don't -- just as you shoo-in in 2008, didn't quite work out that way, did it? Don't count your blessings here too early.

HARLOW: Yes, sage advice from someone who's given it to a lot of former presidents. David Gergen, thank you. David will be with us a little bit more later this hour.

Coming up next, though, the desperate fight against the fire in California. Crews struggling to put out huge flames, shutting down major highways forcing mandatory evacuations on Christmas Day. The extra challenge now being posed by Mother Nature next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: There is no rest in sight for firefighters right now in California. They are struggling to contain a wildfire that has already torched 1,200 acres and has shut down parts of two major highways. Making matters worse, high winds fuelling the flames. Not looking like they are going to let up any time soon, forcing mandatory evacuations.

CNN's Sara Sidner is here with me in New York.

You're usually on the West Coast. You know the region incredibly well. Looking at the photos, you can actually hear the wind whipping in the video.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that is one of the big problems that firefighters are dealing with, is trying to get in front of the fire and try to stop it and contain it, and then start tamping it down. They've got a lot of air power that's flying over dumping water, but this fire is going fast and furious, and they still haven't been able to contain it, which is the first thing they usually try to do. They build these fire lines and then you can see that's one of them there, and then they start going forward to put out the fire.

They have, the good news is, the rail lines were closed for a while, they have reopened the railway line.

[16:25:01] But 101 and Pacific Coast Highway still shut down in a portion of those highways, and those are really important highways.

HARLOW: How rare is that, Sara, for parts of those highways to be shut down?

SIDNER: They are unusual, but this year there was a fire that was so fast and came on so quickly that people had to run for their lives on the 5.

HARLOW: Wow.

SIDNER: Yes -- as fire swept through and burned cars, it burned through semis, so that is how scary it is. These fires can quickly turn into something deadly, and that's what they are trying to avoid. I know they have been able to know the fire and save several homes that are right there sort of overlooking the water, and so their real work right now is dealing with the wind and whether that wind is going to shift.

HARLOW: Absolutely, and this just one of the many sort of weather patterns we're seeing across the United States right now.

Sara Sidner, thank you very much, as always.

SIDNER: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Coming up, breaking down the brands of the 2016 presidential candidates. Who needs a retooling heading into the New Year? We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Hillary Clinton posting a throwback photo showing herself and former President Bill Clinton back in their White House days in front of a huge Christmas tree. The Democratic presidential front-runner hoping to celebrate future Christmases back in the White House. But polls show even if she holds on to the nomination, it will be a tough general election fight.

Let's talk about this and more. Joining me now, brand expert, CEO of DemandWerks, Martha Pease, and CNN senior political analyst, former adviser to four presidents, David Gergen, back with me also.

David, let's begin with you. For those who say that Donald Trump may be the biggest Christmas present possible for Hillary Clinton if they both make it to a general election, they should look at the numbers you and I just talked about -- how she matches up against the top three front-runners, right, David?

[16:30:05] GERGEN: Be careful what you ask for from Santa Claus. It may be a surprise you don't particularly like.

I can remember so well when Jimmy Carter ran against Ronald Reagan back in 1980. The common view especially up and down the East Coast was that Carter's so much smarter, he's got this experience and Reagan is this cowboy from the California, you know, washed up movie actor, so forth and so on, and Carter will crush him, he'll crush him.

And lo and behold, Reagan actually beat him in a debate and won the election pretty handedly. HARLOW: Yes, it's a good point. Take nothing for granted, that's for

sure.

Your assessment, Martha, as we look at the frontrunners heading in 2016. What do you make?

MARTHA PEASE, BRAND EXPERT: Well, I'd definitely be suspicious of that box under my tree if I were Hillary Clinton. I think Trump is behaving like a very determined, take no prisoners CEO. I think he's approaching this race from the perspective of an executive that has a vision, setting it out for people who want to join in his vision. It's a broad vision from some people's perspective.

That's very CEO like. He's absolutely willing to go after his competition and find ways to crush them, and to use language and aggression to really position people and to push people off the stage, almost literally, but not quite, and he's really intent, I think, ultimately on bringing talent to the proposition. He emphasizes over and over and over again that we need smart people to execute a vision for America to make the brand great again, and I think that's a challenge for a politician to come up for a CEO executing a strategy.

HARLOW: What about specifically, David, the brands? You've got the exclamation point behind the Jeb slogan, there's Hillary Clintons, you have Donald Trump in the hat, "Make America great again", you have Bernie Sanders, "Feel the Bern". Which has been most effective?

GERGEN: I think Martha is right about Trump and playing the CEO card, and I think that is his brand. I think that's what he's running on, and it can work. What he's got to be careful about is sullying the brand. And that is two things, using language that demeans the office and demeans others, such as women, and I think he has to be very careful he's not seen as reckless.

As CEO gets a 3:00 call in the morning, and wants to say, bomb them, let the missiles go, and Hillary can use that all day, how do you feel about Donald Trump answering a phone call at 3:00 in the morning? That's when real judgment is called upon, restraint, and caution, and thoughtfulness, as well as, yes, a decisive blow from time to time. But you have to be careful about how you use force.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Let's pull up the brands again. Martha, this is your business, this is what you do. You know, who has succeeded in these brands, who has not?

PEASE: Well, I think the poll numbers to some degree shows who succeeded with the brands. Trump is the only brand that I see there that actually has something that reaches out to the universe of voters and brings them in under a brand umbrella of making something like America great again.

HARLOW: What about a Bernie Sanders titling it -- this is the revolution and touting 2.3 individual donations, which is a staggering number.

PEASE: Right, I think Bernie Sanders has clearly been able to put a stake in the ground and own the position and territory with a loyal following. I mean, that's self evident from the polls.

It's very difficult for a niche brand proposition. The revolution is not a widely embraced proposition for a brand. It's very difficult to break out and push a niche brand into a widely popular position when you stake out that kind of territory.

So, I think Bernie Sanders while he's made a strong brand play, has made it almost in some ways more difficult for him to break out.

HARLOW: That's an interesting assessment. All right. Martha, see you, thank you very much. David Gergen, thank you very much. Happy almost 2016.

GERGEN: Thank you.

PEASE: Thank you.

HARLOW: We'll have a lot more about all of these candidates to talk about in the new year, no question.

Coming up, we're going to introduce you to the man behind the only Republican woman running for president. Our Dana Bash's candid interview with Carly Fiorina's husband Frank. What the would-be first gentleman is revealing about her campaign next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SONYA ROMERO, TEACHER: It's important for me to give up, because this is my purpose, if I'm going to be a good teacher, and it doesn't just mean walking into my classroom and leaving at the end of the day. It means really caring about these kids.

[16:35:00] I am a kindergarten teacher in Lew Wallace Elementary in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. We have a 75 percent free and reduced lunch rate.

In the mornings when the kids come, I ask if they've eaten or I do a quick assessment of needs and see if there's something I can do, I keep the clothes, socks, shoes, tooth brushes because I had more and more students coming in with less and less. I have children with speech and language needs, behavioral needs, I have kids that are homeless, I have some kids from working families, just a wide variety of needs, but it actually makes a real world environment for us.

Ready for your game next week?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom helps everybody. If somebody's in need, she's the first to be there. Like my foster sisters.

ROMERO: I got a phone call that said we have no placement anywhere in the state for these girls, can you take them? I had the girls in the class, but having a teacher relationship was one thing, having them live with me was different, so I really eased into it at their comfort level. It was only supposed to be for 45 hours, but almost a year later, we're still together.

How did I get so lucky? How did I get picked to be a part of their lives? It's the best experience. I wouldn't change it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: For the first time in U.S. history, the first spouse could be a man, depending on how next year's presidential election shakes out. And bill Clinton certainly not the only contender for that job.

Our chief political correspondent Dana Bash sat down for a fascinating and candid interview with the man who says he's proud to be called Mr. Carly Fiorina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[16:40:00] FRANK FIORINA, HUSBAND OF CARLY F. FIORINA: Morning, girls. How are we doing?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Inside Carly Fiorina's headquarters, a visit with young campaign aides and a thank you.

F. FIORINA: We really appreciate it.

BASH: This is Frank Fiorina's role these days, a supportive husband who does whatever he can to help his wife's presidential bid.

(on camera): You are Mr. Carly Fiorina.

F. FIORINA: I was always proud to be. Always proud to be.

BASH (voice-over): Taking a back seat to his wife is hardly new for him. He predicted it when he met Carly more than 30 years ago when they were both working at AT&T.

F. FIORINA: I was a higher level than her, but there was no doubt that she was going to surpass me in the ranks at AT&T, rightfully so, and she'd be chairman some day.

BASH (on camera): Did you tell her that?

F. FIORINA: I did tell her that. And I'm not even quite sure why. At the time, it was a mixture of a great line and the truth.

(LAUGHTER)

BASH (voice-over): It wasn't AT&T but Carly did eventually become a CEO of a Hewlett-Packard, and Frank decided to quit his job to support her.

(on camera): You retired at age 48 at the peak of your career to be Carly's husband.

F. FIORINA: That's true. And it was quite controversial, believe me. I knew it was the right thing to do.

BASH (voice-over): But playing the supporting role isn't always easy.

F. FIORINA: When you think about a person that's that smart and that hardworking and that focused, it's hard to keep up sometimes.

BASH: They've never had children of their own but Carly bonded with his then young daughters like none of his other daughters had.

F. FIORINA: It was just like a Disney movie. I mean, they would play havoc with my dates and when I finally got to bring Carly home, it was pretty clear to me that the three of them loved each other.

BASH: In 2009, one of Frank's daughter Lori died of a drug overdose, the same year Carly was diagnosed with breast cancer.

F. FIORINA: It was a bad year. I kept saying, this is going to end badly. She was too smart, too educated. She would never admit that she had a problem.

BASH: He wears a bracelet made from a necklace that she wore the day she died.

F. FIORINA: It was a necklace that Carly bought her. I know it looks silly but I wear it all the time.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My husband and I lost one of our daughters to addiction.

BASH: Carly often talks in the campaign trail about the loss of her stepdaughter and the need to fight addiction.

C. FIORINA: My husband frank has been here.

BASH: She also talks about how Frank started out as an AT&T technician and tow truck driver, keeps her grounded.

C. FIORINA: OK. Why would I want to be president? My husband asked me that occasionally.

BASH (on camera): Do you like politics?

F. FIORINA: Frankly, not particularly. Politics is so different than business. And, of course, I've spent my whole life in business and working.

BASH (voice-over): He's often with Carly on the trail, but mostly keeps his opinions to himself.

F. FIORINA: I'm very cautious about when I give her advice. Very cautious.

BASH (on camera): Why?

F. FIORINA: Because she has so many people giving her advice. So I really try to pick my targets. If there's something I really feel she's being misled about, I speak up.

BASH (voice-over): Like most political spouses, he takes attacks on his wife harder than she does.

(on camera): When you hear a criticism of your wife, what do you want to do?

F. FIORINA: I'm an Italian boy from Pittsburgh. So I don't need to quite explain what I'd really like to do. But it just infuriates me.

BASH (voice-over): And when Donald Trump made fun of his wife's face --

F. FIORINA: I almost thought it was humorous. I mean, out of all the people on the stage, it would be hard to say Carly -- there was anything wrong with Carly's face, I would say.

BASH (on camera): Do you think that she's treated differently because she's a woman?

F. FIORINA: Carly won't say this, but I will. I've watched for 34 years how she's been treated differently in everything she's done in life, everything.

BASH (voice-over): Still, Frank's prediction about Carly's business success came true. They are both hoping he was also prophetic about politics.

F. FIORINA: At least 18, 20 years ago, I said she was going to be president some day, but I wasn't encouraging her to do that. I was just stating the obvious. That's all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: A fascinating interview by our Dana Bash. Dana, thank you for that.

By the way, if you're wondering, Frank Fiorina told Dana if he does become the first first gentleman, he'd want to be called First Frank.

Ahead, switching gears, the heroin epidemic, part two of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's series. You'll meet the police chief who refuses to put heroin addicts in jail. He has another plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: Emmanuel Hawkins doesn't give up.

NONNIE HAWKINS, EMMANUEL'S GRANDMOTHER: High five, you shut that down, good job. Good job.

GUPTA: His mom, Tara, was 12 weeks pregnant when she was attacked by a teenager she was trying to help.

[16:45:02] She was in a coma and brain dead. Doctors kept her on life support for 16 weeks until Emmanuel was born, two months early.

HAWKINS: They told me to be prepared to bury him in 24 hours. GUPTA: He weighed less than 3 pounds. His lungs were underdeveloped, his kidneys, shutdown. Emmanuel had surgeries on his heart and his eyes before he was three weeks old. Two days after giving birth, his mother died leaving him in the care of his grandmother.

HAWKINS: I was told that he would have chronic lung disease all his life. He wouldn't be able to walk. He wouldn't be able to talk. So, I dismissed anything negative, and I worked with Emanuel around the clock. I literally have poured myself in him.

GUPTA: At age 8, he could say 10 words. Now 11-years-old, he can express himself, and tries to prevent the type of violence that killed his mom. With Nonnie's help, he wrote a comic book starring himself as a super hero who fights bullies.

EMMANUEL HAWKINS: My voice is being heard.

GUPTA: The free comic book is going to be turned into the anti- bullying public service announcements.

HAWKINS: Life happens, but you can turn it around for the good.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: It is being called a nationwide epidemic, and for voters in New Hampshire, they rank it as a greater concern than even the threat of terrorism. In part two of a CNN series "Primary Concern: Heroin," Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells the story about a Massachusetts police chief who refuses to throw addicts in jail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): It is a mystery, why exactly in this tiny fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts, has heroin addiction become an epidemic.

It could be the long and lonely winters.

[16:50:00] It could be the stigma of addiction, and lack of resources for treatment. Whatever the exact cause is unclear.

One thing Gloucester has is pills. Lots and lots of pain pills.

CHIEF LEONARD CAMPANELLO, GLOUCESTER POLICE: A lot of this addiction came from a very legal and very accepted way to deal with pain. And that's a big problem.

GUPTA: Now, chief of police, Leonard Campanello, tells me we could leave the station, walk anywhere, up the north shore and come back with heroin in just ten minutes.

CAMPANELLO: We're finding it in teenagers, all the way up to legislatures, police officers, sons, daughters, you know, family members. This has no boundary.

GUPTA: So, the chief decided on a radical approach, probably best described as the opposite of a war on drugs. He used Facebook to make an offer to the citizens of Gloucester.

CAMPANELLO: If you're a user of heroin or opiates, let us help you. We know you do not want this addiction. We have resources here in the city that can and will make a difference in your life. Do not become a static.

GUPTA: We won't arrest you. We will help you. He had no idea if it would work, if anyone would listen. He didn't even know if it was legal.

(on camera): Did you hesitate? I mean, did you have any concerns about this sort of strategy or putting it out there so boldly?

CAMPANELLO: No. I think the worst thing they could do was fire me.

GUPTA: Did you talk to your wife or anybody else before you hit "send"?

CAMPANELLO: No. This was, you know, plausible deniability for everybody sometimes.

GUPTA: I want to give you an idea of how this remarkable program works. We're here at the Gloucester Police Department.

If you're someone who's addicted to heroin, you would walk through these doors over here and right away, you would notice something is different. First of all, would you pick up the phone and tell them that you're here because you're a heroin addict.

And that would start the whole process of getting an angel assigned to you.

But also, take a look over here, your needles, your sharps container, your paraphernalia, your drugs, they go over here. When you start to walk through these doors now, you're not going into the police station to get arrested but to get help.

CAMPANELLO: When we first started this program, it was an end of the war on drugs. As we started thinking about it, was it really ever a war on drugs? Was it a war on addiction? And I think that we made a statement at least for our Gloucester residents that seems to have resonated in a lot of different places that we are back to working for people who need help.

So, they will come in here.

GUPTA (voice-over): And the people are showing up.

So far this year, almost 300 people have come through the doors and are now in treatment. And the patients aren't just from Gloucester.

Unable to get the help he needed in California, Steven Lesnikoski got on a plane and came knocking on the chief's door.

STEVEN LESNIKOSKI, RECOVERING HEROIN USER: I showed up here at 3:30 in the morning and the officers, they treated me with respect and dignity and like I was a normal human being, not any kind of stigma that society has attached to addicts and I got the help that I needed.

GUPTA: The story that led Steven here was all too familiar -- pills.

(on camera): Did you break your ankle?

LESNIKOSKI: No. I tore my Achilles heel.

GUPTA: It was very painful I imagine.

LESNIKOSKI: Yes, it was pretty painful. I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. I was -- I don't have a cast, but, you know, I had to prop my leg up and that just kind of persistently got worse. I was prescribed Vicodin painkillers for that.

GUPTA: How long after you first got that prescription to Vicodin before you were taking heroin?

LESNIKOSKI: Eighteen months.

GUPTA: Eighteen months?

LESNIKOSKI: Give or take a month or two, less than two years.

GUPTA: I want to make a really important point. These are FDA- approved doctor prescribed pills. This is heroin. They both virtually have the same effect on the brain.

The most typical course is someone starts with pills like this, they get caught off, they turn to heroin, which is an illegal drug but it works fast. It gets you high and it is very, very cheap.

We now know that 20 percent of heroin users started off with pills like this.

The question always arises I think with these sorts of programs, does it enable people to keep doing heroin because they think, look, I'm not going to be criminalized, I've got a safety net, I can keep doing this?

PROF. DAVID ROSENBLOOM, BOSTON UNIVERSITY: Nobody wants to keep doing it. They want to get better. They haven't had the help to get better.

This is a chronic, relapsing condition. People need help lots of times. We have, as a society, told them that if they relapse, they fail. We send all the wrong messages. So, people don't want to continue to suffer.

GUPTA (voice-over): The chief knows this because he lives this.

(on camera): You were a plains-clothed narcotics detective for sometime. You saw this people. I mean, you still see this people, but you really saw them up close, people who are addicted to heroin who were living that life.

[16:55:05] CAMPANELLO: We had a mom that was a heroin addict for years. She had a 2-year-old son in her care. We routinely did search warrants if we knew that she was selling out of her house.

We came in one night, and in the corner was a crib, and it was the 2- year-old and walked over just to check if that kid was all right. And he immediately put his arms out and grabbed me around the neck and he would not let go. And he stayed like that for three hours.

And so, here is this guy coming in, you know, back in the day when, you know, armed to the teeth, ready to go, ready to sniff out drugs with a team of law enforcement who spent the night, you know, cradling a child, and that stuck with me for a very long time in terms of, you know, where is that child now? You know, the atmosphere that they grow up in, can something be done to stop this next generation? And where do we stop?

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: An eye-opening series. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. We'll have part three coming up in the next hour.

Straight ahead, though, fresh terror threats aimed at the West. We'll tell you where and how imminent the threat is. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Five p.m. Eastern, 2:00 p.m. Pacific, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thank you for being with us.

We begin with a new terror warning about possible attacks before New Year's Eve. Those warnings have Europe on edge. Police in Vienna, Austria, today telling CNN an unnamed friendly intelligence service warns several European cities of possible attacks, including explosives or guns between now and New Year's.

The warnings listed the names of several possible attackers, but so far investigations into those names have not led to anything concrete. The warning does not list specific European cities that might be targeted. Right now, we know security is ramping up across Europe. Police in Vienna and other key cities are watching public venues, high traffic areas, incredibly closely.