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Donald Trump Releases First Ad in Early States; Chris Christie Bets Big on New Hampshire; U.S. Stocks Fall Sharply Amid Global Sell- off; Relations Deteriorating in the Middle East; Armed Protesters Take Over Federal Building; Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired January 04, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:02] WIRE: You're welcome.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: And the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Deborah Feyerick in for Carol Costello. Thanks for joining me.
And we're just 28 days from the critical Iowa caucuses. And after months of bickering and battling on the trail, candidates are doing their best to seal the deal. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio spending multiple days in the state.
Just some of the more than two dozen campaign events planned by both Republicans and Democrats today.
For Donald Trump, the week begins in Massachusetts. His first stop in a multi-state tour. But before he hits the road, Trump spoke to CNN about his harsh criticism of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: During of the course of the debate and many other times, he was talking about -- he used the word sexist. I'm sexist. And he was using very derogatory terms. I said, how the hell can she do that when she's got one of the great women abusers of all time sitting at her house, waiting for her to come home?
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Why do you call him one of the great women abusers of all time when in the past you've said that the impeachment process against him didn't make sense.
TRUMP: I have because I was on --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: You said Monica Lewinsky didn't make sense.
TRUMP: Chris, as a businessman, I got along with everybody. So it was always important to defend people when I was -- it was important for me to get along with the Clintons.
CUOMO: But it sounds to people --
TRUMP: Whether she was a senator or whether she was a secretary of state.
BERMAN: But it sounds to people -- right. But it sounds like your morality shifts based on your motivation to people.
TRUMP: No, no. As one of the magazines recently said, Trump was a world and indeed is -- well, I guess I'm not now because I'm supposed to be a politician, but it's a bad name. You know, being a politician is a little bit of a bad name to me, frankly, but I guess that's what I am. But when I was a businessman, they said, I was a great businessman, a world-class businessman. I got along with Clinton. I got along with everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And CNN's Athena Jones is in New Hampshire where Trump will head later this week.
Athena, good morning. Interesting there, Donald Trump admitting to a marriage of convenience, effectively, with the Clintons when it suited him back then. But what do we expect to see where you are?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Deb. It is really interesting to hear him have to explain his change of heart, his change of tune, when it comes to the importance or lack of importance of Bill Clinton's past indiscretions. The question is, you know, will voters hear that and think he's sounding more like a politician? He's touted always the fact that he's not a politician.
But I would expect to hear more of the same criticisms of Hillary Clinton when he comes here to New Hampshire tomorrow night. Just one of several candidates, as you mentioned, who are spending a lot of time here and in Iowa as this race ramps up with a few weeks to go. But an interesting thing to note today is that Donald Trump will be putting out his first television ad. It will start airing tomorrow here in New Hampshire and in Iowa.
Let's go ahead and play that and then talk about it on the other side. Go ahead and play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm Trump and I approve this message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The politicians can pretend it's something else, but Donald Trump calls it radical Islamic terrorism. That's why he's calling for a temporary shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until we can figure out what's going on.
He'll quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil. And he'll stop the illegal immigration by building a wall in our southern border that Mexico will pay for.
TRUMP: We will make America great again. (END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: So there you see it. A short ad but it's kind of a greatest hits of some of the stances and statements that Donald Trump has become famous for. Of course, this idea of banning Muslims from entering the country, building the wall along the Mexican border.
Trump has said he'll spend at least $2 million a week airing that ad in a statement his campaign put out. It will be about a million -- $1.1 million in Iowa and nearly $1 million here in New Hampshire.
And you know this is interesting because Trump has spent a lot of time boasting about how he hasn't had to spend very much money. How his campaign is underbudget. But he says, look, I don't know if I need to do this ad but better to be safe than sorry basically. He's hoping to give himself an additional boost, even though he's leading in national polls. We've seen him slipping a little bit in Iowa. So interesting to see that ad hitting the air waves starting tomorrow -- Deb.
FEYERICK: Yes. Shifting strategy Donald Trump certainly owning his statement and his positions.
Athena Jones for us, thank you.
And Chris Christie is back in New Hampshire where he's betting big on his hopes for the White House. He's speaking today in Manchester.
Take a look at the latest CNN/WMUR poll. Christie is fighting Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. All of them lagging way behind Donald Trump.
CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us live from New Hampshire. And Phil, Christie has now branched out into Iowa. Still, though, very focused on New Hampshire.
[10:05:07] PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. There's no question New Hampshire is really do or die for his campaign. In just a little under two hours the room behind me will likely be packed for Chris Christie's favorite platform, the town hall. He did more than 40 in 2015. This will be the third of his nine events over the course of four days in New Hampshire.
And it's largely credited with momentum. It has really gained over the last three or four weeks that has sent him into that second tier of candidates that are battling, at least right now, for second place.
Now one of the key things he's been hitting on in his messages in these town halls, a key thing for everybody in the Republican Party. Going against political correctness. Take a listen to his attack on President Obama.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been called a lot of things over time. Politically correct is never one of them.
(LAUGHTER) CHRISTIE: Right? I mean, and so here's the thing. The only way to change that attitude is for the president to change that attitude.
This is a president who is absolutely marinated in political correctness. It's part of his being. It's part of who he can't change. Everything is about political correctness.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now before this event, Chris Christie is actually giving a speech on American leadership where he's not only using the very apparent anger in the Republican electorate but also trying to bounce off it a little bit. Differentiating himself with other candidates saying that voters don't just need to be angry. They also need to vote with somebody -- for somebody with experience and results. Preferably experience outside of Washington, D.C. Just so happens the governor of New Jersey thinks that he's that guy, Deb.
FEYERICK: All right. Marinated in political correctness. I'm going to think about that.
Phil Mattingly, thank you.
And U.S. stocks are falling sharply, dropping hundreds of points in the first half hour. This all in reaction to a global selloff.
Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange this morning.
Alison, they dipped, they went back up, now they are back down. What's happening?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are seeing the losses accelerate, Deb. The Dow down 402 points at the moment. This is mostly a reaction to China. Overnight China got some news showing that its manufacturing is contracting. And that set off a blood bath in the markets there. Their markets tumbling at least 7 percent. Falling so fast and falling so much that at one point they stopped trading, continued it, and then ended trading for the day.
So that -- those worries are spilling over to other world markets, to Europe, here in the U.S. as you see the red on the screen. The biggest worry here is that China's problems will become our problems. China is one of our biggest trading partners. Also a lot of companies here are household names like Wal-Mart, Apple and others, Yum! Brands, which actually owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
The worry is that those companies with their exposure to China, China's issues will reflect on how earnings are for companies here in the U.S. and that's why you're seeing valuations in stocks here changing, going down, actually, because of worries about China's slowing economy, Deb.
FEYERICK: All right. Keeping an eye on that for us, Alison Kosik, thank you.
And switching back to politics, Bill Clinton's not staying away from the campaign trail. He's making his first solo appearance this cycle, appearing in New Hampshire later today. Bill Clinton, of course, no stranger to the granite state. A second-place finish in the state's primary back in 1992 gave Clinton a major boost, labeling himself the comeback kid.
Hillary is not just taking hits from Trump. The Democratic frontrunner pushing back at a heckler who interrupted one of her campaign events, taking shots at her husband's sex scandals. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just -- just -- well, I'm going to call on people. I'm -- wait a minute, I -- I'm not going to take your question because other people have been -- yes, go right there. This man right there in -- here we go. Right there. You are very rude and I'm not going to ever call on you. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Well, let's bring in CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar and tell us more about this woman and why she was so angry at Hillary Clinton.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Katherine Prudhomme O'Brien, Deb, is someone who actually -- this isn't the first that we've heard of her when it comes to this issue. She actually called out Al Gore on this very same issue all the way back in 1999. She is known to go and confront candidates. She confronted Rudy Giuliani back in 2007.
I've actually been messaging with her to ask her about -- since all of this comes in the midst of Donald Trump calling out Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton over Bill Clinton's past indiscretions, I asked her if the reason that she called out Hillary Clinton and had this exchange with her in Derry, New Hampshire, yesterday, if it had anything to do with Donald Trump.
[10:10:01] She said, no, she would have gone anyway. This was her plan before Donald Trump got into this sort of mostly online fight that you're seeing between him, aimed at Bill Clinton. She said that didn't influence her but she also says that she agrees with Donald Trump. That she feels that this should be an issue that Hillary Clinton, that Bill Clinton should answer for.
But at the same time, the Clinton campaign, they feel that Bill Clinton it very much an asset to Hillary Clinton. When you look at his polls nationally, he's at about 60 percent approval. That's an enviable position certainly for Hillary Clinton. And so she's calling him out here onto the campaign trail to give her some help, especially here in New Hampshire, where she is neck and neck with Bernie Sanders and has been that way really since the summer. So Bill Clinton is going to be here. This is his first event today at the Nashua Community College, and then later he'll be going about an hour or so to Exeter New Hampshire, where he'll be talking to organizers and to volunteers who he's hoping will really secure New Hampshire when voters -- when voters participate in the primary here in about a month.
FEYERICK: And Brianna, hard to mind read, but you've covered the Clintons for many years. Do you think Bill Clinton addresses the issues or do you think he stays on message and what his wife's campaign is trying to do?
KEILAR: Yes, I don't expect -- you know, you'd always want to predict but I don't expect that he is going to talk about this. I think that the Clinton campaign feels that for him to talk about this, for Hillary Clinton to talk about this, is to give this story new life. Clearly, Donald Trump has put the Clinton campaign on notice that he plans to make an issue out of it. But you also have a lot of Republicans who say this is may not be a strategy that works.
They have tried at times, various candidates, we know Rand Paul did it before Hillary Clinton declared, bringing Bill Clinton's past indiscretions into the debate. And they feel that it doesn't work. That there may be other ways, instead, more effective ways to attack Hillary Clinton.
But we've heard Donald Trump really pushing back against this idea, Deb. He was -- it was suggested to him that maybe this isn't the way to go and he said, you know, he thinks it can work. He said actually it worked in 2008 to attack Bill Clinton. Certainly that was a different situation, Bill Clinton being a bit of a liability for Hillary Clinton in the primary battle against Barack Obama. But he believes that it's going to work and if you listen to what he says, he's going to continue to make an issue out of this.
FEYERICK: All right, Brianna Keilar for us. Thank you so much. We'll be looking a lot to see what happens there in Nashua. Thanks.
And still to come, an embassy attack and political ties severed. Stay here for breaking news on quickly deteriorating relations between some of the most powerful and volatile nations in the Middle East.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:10] FEYERICK: Relations are quickly deteriorating between Middle Eastern powerhouses. The Sudan and Bahrain just joined with Saudi Arabia to cut all diplomatic ties with Tehran, giving Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave their countries. The United Arab Emirates also downgraded their ties with Iran.
The situation quickly started broiling over after Saudi Arabia executed 47 alleged terrorists, including dissent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Then Iranians retaliated.
They quickly started retaliating. Protesters hurled Molotov cocktails and cheered as they torched and raided Saudi Arabia's embassy over the weekend.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in London with the very latest.
And Fred, this is really shaping up into a battle with multiple countries taking sides. FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it
certainly is. And if you look at them, some of them are Sunni Muslim countries. If you look, for instance, at Sudan, also Bahrain which is led by a Sunni monarchy but actually has a Shia majority, and then the United Arab Emirates. Those are all countries that are siding with Saudi Arabia.
On the other hand, you have Iran. And it really is almost scary, Deborah, to see how quickly the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are deteriorating. It was just moments ago that the Reuters News Agency reported that on top of recalling its diplomats, the Saudis are also severing all economic ties with Iran, banning flights between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and also going to still, though, allow hajj pilgrims to go from Iran to Saudi Arabia.
So certainly this is something that's escalating very, very quickly. The Iranians for their part continue to criticize the Saudis for severing those ties in the first place, but also of course for the execution of that Shia cleric. At this point in time, it really doesn't seem as though either side is willing to give way.
FEYERICK: So you've got the Saudi monarchy, which is Sunni, then you've got Iran which is Shiite, and you look at this. Why is this unraveling so quickly? It's been sort of very fragile and tenuous to begin with. But now it seems -- did Saudi Arabia take what happened as a direct insult to their monarchy and is that why it's happening so fast, even though they did execute 47 people, including this cleric?
PLEITGEN: Yes, I mean, it is -- it is certainly a situation where the storming of the embassy is what set a lot in motion for the Saudis. It's something that the Saudi Foreign minister said in a press conference late last night when he said listen, he believes that the Iranians are trying to destabilize Saudi Arabia, trying to jeopardize Saudi security there. The Iranians, for their part, of course, are very angry at the fact that this Shia cleric was executed.
But we know, Deborah, that this is a conflict that's been brewing for a very long time. You have the situation in Syria where both sides are pitted on the opposite side of that conflict there with Iranian supporting Bashar al-Assad. The Saudis supporting various rebel groups. Then you have Yemen where the Saudis have long accused the Iranians of meddling in that conflict. Meanwhile, Iranians very critical of the Saudis for their bombing campaign in Yemen.
So this is a conflict that's been going on for a very long time. And the Iranians also -- and the Saudis also were never very happy by the fact that now you have this (INAUDIBLE) between the U.S. and Iran. You have the U.S. getting Iran to the table trying to find a solution for Syria. It's not something that the Saudis have ever wanted. And certainly, this is a conflict that has been edging up, it has been brewing for quite a while.
FEYERICK: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, excellent analysis and explanation. Thank you for that.
And from Illinois -- from Illinois down to Louisiana, 6.5 million people in 15 states now on alert for deadly flooding. The Mississippi River receding in some areas but about to rise in others.
[10:20:01] In St. Francis County, Arkansas, crews are searching for a man who was swept away by floodwaters. In Missouri, the first state hit, there's a massive clean-up effort under way. A state of emergency signed over the weekend by the president after 10 inches of rain fell in just three days.
Puerto Rico set to default again on some of its bond payments due today. It's the second default in the island's history. The first happened in August. The U.S. territory is currently $73 billion in debt. Leaders there are hoping that the U.S. Congress will allow them to go through a managed Chapter 9 bankruptcy, much like Detroit did in 2013.
And we're seeing the first images of the final resting place of the doomed cargo ship El Faro. The vessel sank three months ago after getting caught in a category 4 hurricane near the Bahamas. All 30 crew members on board died. Federal investigators are considering launching a search of the wreckage 15,000 feet down at the bottom of the Atlantic. This in an attempt to locate the ship's data recorder.
And still to come, armed protesters in Oregon are taking on the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMMON BUNDY, SPOKESPERSON FOR PROTESTERS: They're literally taking the people's lands and resources away and putting counties and states in economic crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: The group now refusing to leave the federal building. Their message to people calling them terrorists coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEYERICK: Tensions are running high in Oregon as the face-off against the government enters day three.
[10:25:02] Armed protesters taking over a federal building, claiming to be defending ranchers' rights, patriots' rights. The group's leader speaking to CNN just hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUNDY: We're going to stay here until we have secured the land and the resources back to the people of the county and where they can get back to ranching, get back to logging, get back to using these lands without feeling fear and intimidation. And that's our goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And Sara Sidner is in Burns, Oregon, for us with the very latest. And Sara, that was Ammon Bundy, whose dad, Clive Bundy, is a rancher
who actually owes the government $1 million for grazing fees and other things. Are -- is he defending that or is he really trying to support these ranchers who say they actually don't want this man's help?
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They said this comes from a place of knowing basically. They feel like the federal government has overstepped its bounds and taken away land that they believe should belong to the people, to the ranchers, to the farmers, to the local community. They say they're against the federal government, not the local government. The local government, they say, should be able to run these lands and help the people that live here.
I want to give you the first look in daylight that we've had. I'm going to kind of move out of the way a little bit here so that you can see. You see that tower up there? You've got someone up there that is looking down and checking out the scene from this group. And you've got a couple of guys here that are right in front of the area where you would enter into that headquarters. And they've also put an American flag around the sign -- the federal government sign that says this is a wildlife refuge.
So they have sort of put their mark down. And they say that they're not going to go anywhere. You do realize that this has been talked about quite a bit on social media. They came here and took over the building on Saturday. It is now Monday. There is absolutely no police presence whatsoever. There's no federal government. There's no local government. No state government. Nothing here but those guys who have come in and taken over.
The lead of this is not from here either. A lot of the folks that are here are coming from out of town, from Arizona, from Nevada. But I do want you to listen to what Mr. Bundy said about people's accusations that they are terrorists, not patriots.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Do you know that online -- have you been looking at what people are saying online? There's a lot of social media discussion about what you all are doing out here. They've used words like the al Qaeda and Vanilla ISIS. And while they sound like funny names, they're basically calling you terrorists. How do you respond to these kind of accusations?
BUNDY: Well, I would just encourage that they -- one is I think that is the minority. But I would encourage people to look into what's really happening and to find out who is truly doing the terrorizing. Who's been taking ranches. This refuge alone, over 100 ranches have been taken and so that they can make this park, this refuge. And we're talking about hard-working families that came here and carved a living out of the land. And they just come in and took them, took them and removed them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Now you heard him talking about the people who work off the land. And he says, look, we've given several grievances to the federal government. They have not responded to our questions and to our grievances, so they've taken another tact.
How this will pan out, we don't know. We asked how long they might be here. They said, as long as it takes. That could be days, weeks, months. But they feel like they need to be here to be able to free this land, they say, to give it back to the public that lives around here.
As for the public that does live around here, we haven't heard much from them. But we've gotten a bit of a sense from those who do live in the area and some folks are supporting them. They say there is a real issue, especially with the Hammonds who are going to have to go back to prison after being sentenced, serving time and then getting out, then the government deciding that they should go back to prison again to serve out more time.
A lot of frustration and rallying around them. They're not so sure about the actions of these gentlemen who have come from out of town and taken over a federal government building.
FEYERICK: Yes. And the Hammonds going back to serve the mandatory minimum. And the Ammons taking over that building for who knows how long. We'll see what kind of provisions they have.
Sara Sidner, thank you for us.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Deborah Feyerick in for Carol Costello. Thanks for joining me.
Well, employees are going back to work this morning at Inland Regional Center. That's in San Bernardino where 14 people were killed in a terror attack last month. The actual conference center where the shooting happened will stay closed.
This is a live look outside the center. A security fence has been installed around the facility. Today a full schedule of events is planned to make the employees feel safe as they head back to work. Many of them had been working from home over the last month since the shooting.
President Obama is back from vacation and starting off the new year by making gun control a top priority.
