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Terror Plot Foiled; NYPD Readies for Holiday; Missouri Flooding; Soon: Trump to Hold Rally in South Carolina; Trump's "Secret Weapon": His Daughter Ivanka. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 30, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:02] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Authorities say the pack was, quote, "ready for use." That's why they acted so quickly.

Meanwhile, Belgium still on edge after two men were arrested for allegedly planning attacks on New Year's Eve celebrations in major, major areas, like Brussels' Grand Palace -- or Grand Palace Square. The pair of members -- the pair -- these two people were members of a Muslim biker gang called the Kamikazi Riders. A government official tells CNN authorities are not excluding a possible link to ISIS in that potential threat.

Let's bring in CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank. He is also co- author of the book "Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda."

And, Paul, before we get to these foiled plots, I know you have just gotten off the phone with your sources. You're learning new details about the Paris terror attack, some of the evidence recovered there. What do you know?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: That's right, Poppy. This comes from a senior Belgian counterterrorism official. And the information is, the Paris attackers, the night of the attacks in Paris, were in touch with phones that were located in Belgium that night, suggesting possible real time coordination from suspects or a suspect in Belgium for those attacks in Paris. Notably, they found a Samsung smartphone outside the Bataclan concert hall in a rubbish bin that the attackers had left it there. And inside the phone investigators have found 25 messages going back to one of these phones in Belgium. The last message, just before the attack, said, "we are about to get started." These messages sent over a period of about one day to this phone in Belgium, Poppy. So this possibility of real time coordination from here in Belgium where we are right now.

HARLOW: Absolutely. And it shows the porous borders, Paul, that you and I talked about so much during our coverage in Paris, just flowing in and out of Belgium into Paris, back and forth, how wide this web was.

Let's talk specifically about this threat in Belgium right now. You've got this so-called -- the name of it, Kamikaze Riders. A Muslim biker gang linked to this and also linked to terror investigations in the past. Do we know anything about that organization?

CRUICKSHANK: Yes, well it's quite an extraordinary titled group, the Kamikaze Riders. They're a biker gang, erected (ph) here in the Brussels area. And they've been in the cross-hairs of counterterrorism investigators before here in Belgium, notably in 2013 when one of the leaders of the group was on the phone to his brother allegedly in Syria talking about an attack plan against the law (ph) courts here in Brussels.

Well, fast forward, two years later, another two members of this same biker gang under arrest. They, were told, were discussing plans to launch attacks in Brussels during the New Year celebration, including right here in this central square in Brussels, the Grand Place, during those celebrations. A lot of concern from Belgian authorities. They felt they had to act. These two individuals were involved in criminality, involved in this biker gang. They feared that they would have easy access to weapons, so they had to move in. They hope that they have neutralized this threat.

HARLOW: All right, Paul Cruickshank reporting for us live in Brussels with that new information tied to the Paris terror attack. Thank you, Paul, very much.

Back here on American soil, you're getting ready for New Year's Eve. We all are. The countdown is on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Five, four, three, two, one. Happy New Year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Now that 2016 is right around the corner, New York City police out in full force gearing up for tomorrow's huge celebration in Times Square. City officials now beefing up security to keep the streets safe. And, of course, this all comes amid terror fear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER WILLIAM BRATTON, NYPD: There's no police department in America that can match what we can put out on the street. Those 6,000 officers that will be here, that's larger than just about three or four police departments in the United States. And they're going to be within this multiple square block area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I want to go straight to Miguel Marquez. He is out in the city.

We've been there, both you and I, Miguel, have been there on New Year's Eve. The security is unbelievable tight in Times Square. But is it tighter than ever this year?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is tighter than ever. The police saying, look, the first thing is, there is no credible threat that they are aware of at the moment, but they are preparing like there are. That this is the cross-roads of the world in about 36 hours now when that ball drops, this place will be transformed into the most secure streets in the world. Six thousand police officers here says the police commissioner. Across this city, though, thousands of different venues, thousands of different parties. What used to be called just a good time are now soft targets after Paris and San Bernardino.

[09:35:10] Tens of thousands of law enforcement across the city. They will rely heavily on bomb sniffing dogs, on chemical and nuclear detectors. They will be protecting the city, they say, from the ground, from the air, from the sea, the rivers around New York, and even underground in the subways. The mayor saying since Paris and San Bernardino, it is a new world security order.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: There's a new world because of what's happened with ISIS. I had the occasion back in January to go to Paris after the first attacks there. The difference now is, we have a much better trained force. And, again, a dedicated force. These 500 plus members of the NYPD, full time, this is what they do. They are trained. They are armed specifically to prevent terror. And God forbid there were an incident, to respond very, very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now, that special response force that the mayor talked about, they -- he says that they can respond to dozens of incidents at a time. The fact that those small bore incidents, like in San Bernardino or Paris, that has caused them to look at security a different way. Another thing that's different about the New York Police Department is that they -- they have officers from 14 different countries. So the amount of information that flows into this police department is different than anywhere in the world and they feel they are ready for anything that anyone may bring.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Our thanks to all of them who keep all of us safe there on New Year's Eve.

Miguel, thank you, my friend.

Up next, we showed you that stunning video of the water rescue in Missouri happening live at the top of the hour. Well, that man was safely rescued off the truck. It looks like they're pulling the truck out of the flood waters as well. We will show you exactly how it played out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:16] HARLOW: All right, here is video that we just got of an extraordinary water rescue in Eureka, Missouri. Take a look at this. This truck was completely submerged in water. The driver was on the hood when we last showed it to you. They have been able to rescue him. He went back in the truck. They were able to pull the truck out of the submerged flood waters safely. The driver inside rescued by first responders and emergency crews there. You can see the water dumping out of that pickup truck. Again, the mayor there, the governor rather, Jay Nixon of Missouri, warning everyone to stay off the roads, be incredibly careful. Many of the deaths in this flooding have come from people driving into these flood waters. So glad that he is all right.

With me now on the phone, Don Smith, he is mayor of Rockaway Beach, that is near the popular town, the tourist town, of Branson, Missouri.

Thank you for being with me, mayor. I know you said it is hard to put into words what your community is going through right now.

MAYOR DON SMITH, ROCKAWAY BEACH, MISSOURI (via telephone): Yes. And I just -- I appreciate you guys for giving us the opportunity to explain to people what it is that our community is going through right now. It is just absolutely devastating. And we're -- we're begging for help.

HARLOW: Can you explain how high the flood waters are where with are? We've heard places where they're two feet, three feet above that historic '93 flood.

SMITH: Well, some of our businesses here -- you know, Rockaway Beach is a resort community that was built right on the bank of the White River.

HARLOW: Right.

SMITH: You know, which is now known Taneycomo Lake. And our -- our businesses that are right down on the water, we have trucks that we can't even see because they're completely under -- under water. I mean they're above. And it's just -- I don't even know how we're going to deal with the cleanup process of this. I mean there -- there are condominium units that are completely under water.

HARLOW: What --

SMITH: (INAUDIBLE)

HARLOW: As you look at your residents, have you had any deaths as a result of the flooding? And also, have the evacuations been continuing as well as possible? Or are there people who are stuck in their homes?

SMITH: Well, no -- nobody is stuck in the -- in the home. We had -- we had one lady during the flood had either a heart attack or a seizure or something like that. We had one death. I don't think that was directly caused by the flood. But we did -- we did do a water rescue of a lady and her child, myself and the police department here. And our evacuations were real successful. We -- me and the police department went door to door everywhere that we knew was going to be affected by this --

HARLOW: Yes.

SMITH: And got people out, you know, and to safety. So we -- we had some success with that.

HARLOW: How can people help?

SMITH: But this is just how devastating the, you know, the businesses.

HARLOW: Yes.

SMITH: One of the business owners who has an antique shop where he sells antiques, he had water coming in. There were minnows swimming around inside of his store.

HARLOW: Before I let you go, mayor, how can people help who are watching? What do you need?

SMITH: We have a very unique situation here in Rockaway Beach where some of the construction upstream, which is Branches (ph) Landing (ph) and Table Rock Dam, that construction caused mud and debris to built up in our lake. And our lake needs to be dredged bad. We don't have the capability to hold this water that keeps getting dumped on us by these heavy rains. And we are desperately begging the corps -- the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge our lake and make it where we can handle these 100-year floods like this.

HARLOW: OK.

SMITH: This is the main thing right there is, we need our lake dredged.

HARLOW: Got it.

SMITH: We need somebody to come in here and help us with this issue.

HARLOW: All right, mayor, good luck to you, Mayor Don Smith there, and all of your -- all or your residents. Our hearts are with you. Thank you so much.

[09:44:33] A quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Now to the race for the White House which winds through South Carolina today. At least for Donald Trump. In just over an hour the Republican frontrunner will hold a rally in Hilton Head just hours after a trip to another critical early voting state, Iowa. Trump announcing plans to start buying ads in those two states. Also he'll make purchases for ads in New Hampshire to make sure he says that he gets his message out to his voters and keeps his rivals at bay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel I have an obligation even to myself and to the country to spend. And so we're going to be spending a minimum of two million dollars to the first and then we will see what happens. And if anybody goes after me, I will spend a lot of money against the people that go after me.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well I'm just saying if somebody attacks me I will attack them very much and very hard in terms of ads. You got to understand I'm $35 million under budget. I thought as of January 1st I would have spent 35 million on ads. I spent nothing. So I'm 35 million under budget.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: CNN's Sara Murray is with Donald Trump's campaign. She is in Hilton Head this morning. And Sara, he spoke out also about these personal attacks against him. This comes in the wake his sharp criticism against former president Bill Clinton. What did he say?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Poppy. Donald Trump has been bringing up Bill Clinton's past infidelity. He's been talking about Monica Lewinsky. And yesterday he said that means his own past indiscretions are fair game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are your own personal indiscretions fair game in this campaign?

TRUMP: Yes, they would be. And frankly Hillary brought up the whole thing was sexist. And all I did is reverse it on her because she's got a major problem, happens to be right in her ads (ph). So if she wants to do that, we're going to go right after the president, the ex- president, and we'll see how it all comes out. And I feel very confident that it will come out very well for us. I will say this, and the last person that Hillary wants to run against is me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: You can see, Poppy, we're moving into sort of a tougher phase of this campaign, and Trump is making it clear that he is willing to put everything on the table. He's here in South Carolina this afternoon. This is a state where he's leading in the most recent polls.

[09:50:02] But judging by that ad spending, you can see he knows how important momentum is going to be, who wins in Iowa, who wins in New Hampshire really matters for a state like South Carolina. And the Trump campaign does not want to take any chances.

HARLOW: All right, Sara Murray live for us there in South Carolina ahead of that rally in Hilton Head. Thank you so much, Sara.

Let's talk more about Donald Trump and who some are calling his secret weapon, his daughter, Ivanka Trump. As Donald Trump grabs more headlines with his bold statement, it is his daughter, Ivanka, who has emerged as a behind-the-scenes force in his campaign. She introduced her father when he launched his presidential bid in June. Donald Trump calls her one of his closest advisors and now a fascinating new "Town & Country" profiles her as the executive, as the mother, as the daughter and the influence that she has, writing in part, even Trump's critics can't help being charmed by his daughter. Fox News chairman and CEO a Roger Ailes who called Trump's remarks bout Megyn Kelly, quote, "unacceptable" and "disturbing" says Ivanka is the secret weapon of the entire Trump organization. Joining me now, the man who wrote the piece, Tim Teeman, also a senior editor for "The Daily Beast." First, congratulations.

TIM TEEMAN, SENIOR EDITOR AND WRITER, THE DAILY BEAST: Thank you so much. Thank you.

HARLOW: It's a fascinating profile. I was struck when I interviewed her, as I know you were. So let's roll part of what she told me specifically in October about her father and women after those controversial remarks. Let's roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVANKA TRUMP, EVP, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Look, my father is very blunt. He's very direct. He is not gender specific in his criticism of people and people that he doesn't particularly like or people that he does like, but thinks they're wrong on a particular issue. So, you know, I don't think that he's gender targeted at all.

Like I said, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be a high-level executive within his organization if he felt that way. So he's always supported and encouraged women, and truthfully, he's proven that over decades through his employment practices, through his hiring practices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: How much, Tim, does she help Donald Trump with the women's vote?

TEEMAN: I think she helps him a lot. I think she helps him a lot. I think the comments that he made about women, whether by his supporters, if you're a supporter of him or not, they're very controversial remarks, and I don't think they can be read in any other way. But I think Ivanka, extremely intelligent, I think you found her, as well, extremely poised.

HARLOW: Extraordinarily.

TEEMAN: I didn't get the sense it was an act with her either. I felt she had total loyalty to her father. I felt she would always speak to him truthfully as well. But I also feel that in that family, there are very independent set of people in that family.

HARLOW: Yes. I felt like she didn't have to speak for him.

TEEMAN: Yes. I think she's -- well, it's a very tricky balancing act she has. She's building her own brand, as you know, the Ivanka Trump Collection, which is housed within the Trump organization. She wants to support her dad. Her dad will say these things which generate controversy and generate debate. And I think her trick is to remain completely loyal to him and to voice that and to be there for him. But also in some way to remain separate. And I don't know if that's a formal arrangement they've come to, but they're clearly operating in independent units within that family whilst remaining utterly loyal and supportive of each other. It's an amazing balancing act all around.

HARLOW: It is. You also write in the article, "Ivanka stands by his side, a quiet but clear supporter, appearing consistently cool and supremely well behaved. Amazingly, the perpetual fracas that swirls around Donald bypasses her. She enhances him, but he does not damage her." Have you ever seen something like this?

TEEMAN: No, I haven't. And I - I would be very interested. The interview was conducted before his remarks about Muslims in America, for example. And I'll be very surprised and interested to see how this continues, if the level of what he says continues at that sort of highly pitched level, whether the children stay as insulated from the damage as one might imagine they would be damaged by if they weren't, right? I think the interesting thing with her is she runs her own business. She runs her own life. And she remains absolutely his No. 1 supporter, you know.

HARLOW: If we do see her on the trail, especially after she gives birth to her third child...

TEEMAN: That's right.

HARLOW: Say in a general, if he makes it to the general, what role do you think she could play? What could she do for her father?

TEEMAN: Well, I think judging from what she said to me in the interview was very, I would say it was quite hardened to. I was quite tough. I kept going back to asking her about her dad and how she supported her dad and why she did. She's on armor plated, absolutely armor plated in her loyal to him.

What would happen if he won? That's an interesting question. I think what would happen, what we would see is that she would remain absolutely independent but at his side at key moments. Like we saw in the campaign already at his side when he launched his campaign. We see her at key sort of visual moments. It's a very visual kind of presence. And it inoculates him in some degree.

[09:54:58] I would say whatever the viewers might think or whatever people who are Donald Trump detractors would say, what she said that day was absolutely honest and from the heart in terms of, you know, I said what do you feel about what he says about women? Well, he says that about lots of people, she says. You know, I mean, she has an answer for everything. And when I say that, I don't mean that unkindly. Her answers are genuine, I think. I think she has figured out a way of supporting her dad absolutely whilst having her own life and also trying to keep the Ivanka Trump brand both personally and professionally separate from the Donald Trump campaign.

HARLOW: It's a fascinating read. I'd encourage everyone - "Town & Country" profile on Ivanka Trump. Congratulations on the story.

TEEMAN: Thank you so much, Poppy.

HARLOW: Have a nice New Year's.

TEEMAN: Thank you. You, too.

HARLOW: Thank you very much.

I do want to get to some breaking news on Bill Cosby. We could find out in just moments if a district attorney in Pennsylvania will file charges against him. The investigation centers around a 2004 report to police by a woman named Andrea Constant of sexual assault by Bill Cosby. We are expecting a press conference at 10:00 a.m. Eastern at the top of the hour. We'll keep you posted. Quick break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow sitting in for Carol Costello today. Thank you for joining me. We are following breaking news on Bill Cosby. We could find out in moments if a district attorney in Pennsylvania will file charges against him. This is an investigation that centers around a 2004 report to police by a woman named Andrea Constant of sexual abuse by Bill Cosby. We are expecting a press conference at the top of the hour. We will bring you that as soon as we have it.

Also, historic deadly flooding striking the United States. More than 16 million Americans under flood warnings right now. Rescues unfolding live on our air in the city of Eureka, Missouri. You saw it last hour. Crews rescuing a stranded driver in a pickup truck, bringing him and his truck to safety. Entire neighborhoods are under floodwaters now. Floodwaters have killed at least 13 people in Missouri alone. Roads completely impassable. The water expected to rise still for days. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon issuing this warning to residents just hours ago.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GOV. JAY NIXON, (D) MISSOURI: We're very concerned about how this next 35 hours are going to go. We're going to make sure that the people are safe in that St. Louis area there. You've got Pacific. You've got Eureka. You've got Valley Park. You've got areas where the water is rising high, and these are highly populated areas. So setting up shelters in places like Francis Howell Senior High School and places like that so that folks that do have to leave their homes, we're going to make sure that they are warm and safe. We've never seen water this high. And when it goes above record, not by an inch, but by two or three feet, you really don't know exactly how far that water is going to go.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. We have live team coverage right now this morning, Jennifer Gray, Alina Machado in Missouri, along the Meramec River. Alina, let me begin with you. You're in Pacific. I know many, many people have already evacuated.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. Many people have already evacuated, and the water here in Pacific continues to rise. Just in the few hours that we've been here standing here, we have seen the water here inching closer to us. The Meramec River is what you're looking at. It is flooding these buildings. There's also homes on the other side that