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: Bernie Sanders Closes in on Hillary Clinton for Early Votes; Joe Biden Weighs in on Presidential Race; Paul: I'm Skipping the Next GOP Debate; Turkey: Suicide Bomber Kills At Least 9; Mexico: Penn "Essential" to Drug Lord's Arrest. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired January 12, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:11] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Twelve hours from now President Obama delivers his final State of the Union. He says this one won't be like any of the others. We'll have more on the State of the Union later on in the NEWSROOM.
But first the race for President Obama's successor. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton finds herself locked in a virtual tie with Sanders in the first two voting states. With the Iowa caucus is now less than three weeks away, Sanders has chipped away at Clinton's once commanding lead.
And no surprise here, the Republican frontrunner Donald Trump is quick to needle on her stalling momentum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I think she's having a tough time. She's got some guy who -- I mean, he should be easy to beat. I mean, how can you lose like this? He really isn't even a Democrat. Well, he said he's a socialist and I think he may be a step beyond a socialist, and she's not doing well. She's about tied in Iowa. She's losing New Hampshire, which is sort of amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: One White House veteran bristles at the socials label, though, and says Sanders has struck a nerve with Americans feeling left behind. As the rich get richer.
In a candid interview with CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger the vice president, Joe Biden, raises some eyebrows by praising Sanders seemingly at the expense of Hillary Clinton. Biden says Sanders is connecting on the campaign trail because of his deep concerns over Americans squeezed by income inequality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There used to be a basic bargain. If you contributed to the profitability of the enterprise you got to share in the profit. That's been broken. Productivity is up. Wages are stagnant. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: But Hillary is talking
about that as well.
BIDEN: Well, it is relatively new for Hillary to talk about that. Hillary's focus has been on other things up to now. And that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: More on the Biden interview in just a minute. But first the Clinton-Sanders showdown.
Brianna Keilar is our senior political correspondent. She joins us live from Ames, Iowa.
Good morning.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Bernie Sanders pretty happy about the race tightening here in Iowa. Of course not so happy about the race tightening in New Hampshire. And Hillary Clinton clearly concerned. You can tell just by the significant increase that we've seen in attacks from her and her campaign. But at the same time I've hearing from sources that the campaign is confident in their ground game here in Iowa. That their volunteers and their organizers are going to help deliver the Iowa caucuses for Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR (voice-over): In a head-to-head Clinton-Sanders matchup over two battleground states the latest polls say it's either candidate's race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dear Next President, help us keep families together and protect religious freedom.
KEILAR: Last night in Des Moines the virtually tied Democrats were pressed on hot button multi-cultural issues at Iowa's Brown and Black Forum.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you promise that you won't deport children --
KEILAR: Secretary Clinton taking a new stance against DHS raids, not ruling out the deportation of children.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I don't like are the mass round-ups and the raids and that should end.
KEILAR: The neck and neck candidates spent Monday facing off in the Hawkeye State.
CLINTON: Think hard about the people who are presenting themselves to you. And particularly for those of us who are Democrats, their electability.
KEILAR: Sanders unfazed by Clinton's jabs, pointing to recent Iowa and New Hampshire polls showing him outperforming against Clinton against Trump and Cruz.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are doing a lot better than Hillary Clinton does. So I think in terms of electability in the general election, I think Democrats might want to look at Bernie Sanders as a candidate.
KEILAR: And boasting Monday night that the Clinton camp is running scared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you noticed lately that she's been getting more aggressive with you?
SANDERS: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is that?
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: I don't know. It could be -- you tell me. It could be that the inevitable candidate for the Democratic nomination may not be so inevitable to date.
KEILAR: Secretary Clinton admitting the 2016 election so far has been chock full of surprises.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say categorically tonight that Senator Bernie Sanders cannot win the presidency?
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: I don't -- anybody can win. I mean, this is a -- who would have thought Donald Trump would be leading in national polls? I mean, for those of you who ever thought about running for president, take heart. I mean --
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And Carol, both candidates picking up some key endorsements today. Hillary Clinton with the Brady Group to prevent gun violence. And we just learned that Moveon.org, liberal advocacy group, has just endorsed Bernie Sanders.
COSTELLO: All right. Brianna Keilar reporting live from Iowa this morning.
Also tonight, "NEW DAY's" Alisyn Camerota sits down with Hillary Clinton. You can see that complete interview starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
[09:05:09] During CNN's one-on-one interview with Vice President Joe Biden, he just didn't talk about the Democratic race but the GOP campaigns as well. Including Donald Trump's bid for the White House. Biden says the real estate mogul is not only incredibly divisive but lacks foreign policy experience. Here's more from Gloria Borger's interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORGER: Donald Trump right now is the Republican frontrunner. No doubt about it. Let me ask you, is he qualified to be president of the United States and a leader on the world stage?
BIDEN: Anyone in the American public says they want to be president is qualified to be president. I know that sounds like I'm avoiding the question. And that's not my style.
BORGER: You are. You are.
BIDEN: No. No.
BORGER: OK.
BIDEN: I want to make that clear at the front end. I think, though, he's an incredibly divisive figure. The country has never done well when the leader of the country appeals to people's fears as opposed to their hopes. That is what worries me about Donald Trump. If Donald Trump gets the nomination and wins the election, if he's as smart as I think he -- he's going to regret having said the things he said and done.
The whole idea as we were talking before about how to pull the country together, for god sake, pull the politics together down here. How does Donald Trump do that?
BORGER: You deal an awful lot with foreign leaders. How would you see Trump on the world stage?
BIDEN: I would -- I would hope he'd have an extremely qualified staff with him. And --
BORGER: You're saying he's not substantive?
BIDEN: No, he's not. So far. Now that doesn't mean he can't be. But he has no background in foreign policy. I mean, I don't know. Maybe he's keeping it all secret but he hasn't spoken to any of the substance so far. None of the substance. So I think he would be -- most world leaders would hope that he had a couple of crash graduate courses before he started to try to exercise the role of president.
BORGER: Now we see that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are actually running neck and neck in Iowa and in New Hampshire. Why do you think Hillary Clinton is struggling?
BIDEN: Well, first of all, I've been in the "View," and I don't know that you and I talked about it. I don't want to say that for certain, but we may have. I thought for the last six months they were neck and neck. But --
BORGER: But why is she having trouble?
BIDEN: Well, I think that Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real and he has credibility on it. And that is the absolute enormous concentration of wealth in a small group of people with the middle class now being able to be shown being left out. There used to be a basic bargain.
If you contributed to the profitability of the enterprise you got to share in the profit. That's been broken. Productivity is up. Wages are stagnant.
BORGER: But Hillary is talking about that.
BIDEN: Well, it is relatively new for Hillary to talk about that. Hillary's focus has been on other things up to now. And that's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues.
BORGER: And they questions her do you think?
BIDEN: No, I think they question everybody who hasn't been talking about it all along. But I think she's come forward with some really thoughtful approaches to deal with the issue. But I just think -- and look, you know, everybody, you know, it's the old thing. No one -- everybody wants to be the favorite. No one wants to be the prohibitive favorite. And so it's an awful high bar for her to meet as she was the absolutely prohibitive favorite. I never thought she was a prohibitive favorite. I don't think she ever thought she was the prohibitive favorite. So I think it's -- I think that, you know, everything is sort of coming down to earth and settle in. But it's not over.
BORGER: So if Hillary Clinton should lose Iowa and New Hampshire, is there any way that you would possibly take another look at that race.
BIDEN: No. Look, I --
BORGER: The door's shut.
BIDEN: First of all, even if Hillary loses both -- I haven't thought this through, it's a long way to go to the nomination. And, you know, so it's one thing theoretically to win both of those. South Carolina is going to be pretty rough sledding down there for Bernie and for another guy who's in it, O'Malley, he's a qualified guy. This guy is a serious governor.
BORGER: So you're closing the door.
BIDEN: No, I don't think. I don't think there is any door to open.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger joins me now. I'm also joined by CNN senior political analyst and former presidential adviser David Gergen.
Welcome to you both.
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you. [09:10:00] COSTELLO: So, Gloria, I was curious. He didn't exactly.
Mr. Biden, that is, he didn't exactly give Hillary Clinton a ringing endorsement or am I reading that wrong?
BORGER: No, look, I think that -- look, he thought about running against Hillary Clinton. Remember? He didn't do that, and as you just said the door is shut on that. But I do believe that there is something about Bernie Sanders' populism that appeals to Joe Biden. He did go out of his way to say, however, that Hillary Clinton was doing other things and I think what he means his foreign policy, obviously she was secretary of state. And that these are not issues that have been on their docket for quite some time whereas this is something that Bernie Sanders has spent a lifetime doing.
Did he mean to kind of diss Hillary Clinton? I doubt it. Will the Hillary Clinton be thrilled about this? I doubt that, too.
COSTELLO: So is it possible, David, that Hillary Clinton could lose both Iowa and New Hampshire?
GERGEN: One would not have thought so, say, three weeks, five weeks ago that she might lose both. And you must think -- and Gloria, I'm so curious that Joe Biden gave you any sense that every day he must wake up and think, you know, if I had just gotten into this, started the line right.
BORGER: Right.
GERGEN: Actually she looked a little more vulnerable today than she did.
BORGER: He did.
GERGEN: Maybe I could have taken this.
BORGER: Right. Right.
GERGEN: He must be thinking that.
BORGER: He does, I think.
GERGEN: He does. You think he does.
BORGER: Well, he has said it both ways.
GERGEN: Yes.
BORGER: He has said he thought he could win and he thought he couldn't win. I don't think he goes there anymore to tell you the truth, David. I think --
GERGEN: Well, that's probably right.
BORGER: He tries not to --
GERGEN: It's probably to protect himself, yes, emotionally. BORGER: Right.
GERGEN: Because -- for everybody. We all know when somebody gets the fever to run for the White House, it does not go away easily.
BORGER: And he did say that he would miss the perch of the vice presidency.
GERGEN: Sure. Well, he'll miss --
BORGER: Clearly.
GERGEN: He'll definitely miss it. And --
COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about -- let's talk about how things are with Joe Biden. Joe Biden could have a powerful voice in the coming election, right? So isn't it important who exactly he gets behind? Whether it's Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?
GERGEN: I think it's important that he has a voice of reason right now. His conversation with Gloria was very calm, very direct about what he thought about Donald Trump. I think he's going to be one of the more effective witnesses for the Democratic nominee, probably still Hillary, although she's in a lot closer race than we thought she'd be in right now especially on Iowa. But I think he's going to be an effective spokesman.
If you look at the other people who will be out for her, you know, one is Bill Clinton, obviously. And he's become more a little more controversial since Donald Trump went after him. He's -- you know, he'll be really good at rallying people like young people. I think Barack Obama will be really good at rallying minorities and young people. But Joe Biden has a quality about him that makes him very popular in Democratic circles. I think he'll help with the turnout. And he'll help retell the Obama story which is critical. And that's what the State of the Union is all about tonight, it's the retelling of the Obama story and getting the legacy into a better place. I think Joe that -- I think that Joe Biden does have a place in the next few months in the conversation.
BORGER: Yes, and he --
COSTELLO: Is he excited to do that, Gloria?
BORGER: Yes, absolutely. You know, he -- we spoke about his next great projects which is going to the moon shot on cancer. And we all know he's been through terrible tragedy in his life which you're going to show in your next hour. And -- but what I think he does is put a human face, soften the president a bit in the stories that he tells and he can talk about what he and the president have accomplished on the campaign trail, which is what he wants to do.
I don't think he's going to take a candidate in the primary. There is no point in doing that. He's going wait and see who the nominee is, and then he's going to campaign like crazy for the Democratic nominee. It's very important as he pointed out to me on issues like guns, healthcare, et cetera, that they worked very hard to get certain things done and they want someone in the White House not necessarily to be the third term of Obama but to carry on some of the things that are very important to them and I think this is a man who's spent 43 years in elected office. The last seven of which have been at the White House with Obama.
And I think he's going to want to continue the work that he's put into his whole life. You know? So I think this is really important to Biden.
COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. David Gergen, Gloria Borger, thanks to both of you.
If you're planning to watch -- you're welcome. If you're planning to watch Thursday's Republican debate, expect one less candidate. Senator Rand Paul says he is skipping the event after being bumped off the main stage. FOX Business Network, who's hosting the debate, said only seven candidates qualify to the main line up.
[09:15:05] That means Paul and rival Carly Fiorina were both bumped to the undercard round.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think an artificial designation as being in the second tier is something that we don't want to accept that because it really sort of points fingers and says, well, are you really going to be a contender? We are a contender. We think we have a national campaign that can contend for victory and we can't accept sort of an artificial designation by anybody.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: So you won't attend. You won't be in the undercard. I just want to be precise --
PAUL: Absolutely. I won't participate in anything that's not first tier because we have a first tier campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Fox Business did not release which polls were under consideration for the debate. CNN reached out but has not heard back.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a popular spot is a scene of a deadly explosion in Istanbul, Turkey. We'll have the latest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: This morning's deadly blast in Istanbul, Turkey, has, quote, "Syrian roots". That is the word from Turkey's president who says at least nine were killed in the terror attack, targeting the city's most popular tourist area. Most of the victims were foreigners, possibly some of them German.
CNN's Arwa Damon is live at Istanbul. And CNN's Atika Shubert live in Berlin. But I want to take you to Turkey first and Arwa Damon.
How do they know that a Syrian is at fault here?
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we don't know the specifics of it. We do know the president came out and said that the bomber was an in fact, an individual with Syrian roots.
[09:20:05] We do also know that this person was warned in 1988 and we do understand that the authorities are investigating what ties the individual may have had to various different terrorist organizations, although a lot of suspicion is pointing towards ISIS. Now, at any given time, Turkish authorities have a number of people whom they deem to be suspicious under surveillance, and they do want to fairly in regular basis conduct this massive nationwide sweeps where they detain hundreds of people with suspected ties to terrorism. This is just an indication of how vulnerable the country continues to be.
We are not far from where the attack took place a few hundred feet away right behind me. That's where it happened. Now, it's an area that's been cordoned off by police.
And, Carol, this is the very heart -- the very core, the center, of old historic Istanbul and also, a main, if not the main tourist attraction for people coming here. Transact. We know a significant number of those among the nine who died were in fact foreign nationals.
Sadly, this does not come entirely as a surprise as Turkey is facing multiple terrorist threats from many different entities, including among those ISIS -- ISIS has carried out over the last seen to eight months two significant attacks here. One of them, of course, the attack that happened in Ankara back in October where twin suicide bombers killed over a hundred people. The other, an attack in the town of Suruc, it's right along the Syria-Turkey border.
But this most certainly is so phenomenally unspeakably difficult for the loved ones of those who died, but also for the nation as a whole, because this is not just an attack on Turkey, on potentially the psyche of the Turkish population, but it's also an attack on the very soul of this country's history, and given that foreign tourists were among those who have suffered the consequences of this. There are concerns how that is going to impact the tourism industry and the economy, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Arwa Damon, thank you.
Now to Berlin and Atika Shubert.
Atika, early word was that German tourists were being targeted in Istanbul. How was Germany reacting this morning?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can imagine, there's shock and sadness here, still trying to determine the exact details of what happened and who was killed in the attack. What we know is that Turkey's prime minister, Prime Minister Davutoglu called Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and told her that that majority of the victims were German citizens. Now, we don't know exactly the number but the country is bracing
itself for the possibility that perhaps all of the victims in that attack may have been German nationals.
In a brief statement made at a press briefing, Angela Merkel did say that it appeared to be that one tour group was in the midst of this attack. It is not clear if the attacker specifically picked out this tour group or exactly what happened. But it appears that it was a German tour group that was near this area called the "German Fountain". And this as Arwa points out is right in the heart of Istanbul. It is a very popular tourist area for Germans and other nationals as well.
So, it is going to be a very difficult few days here -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Atika Shubert, reporting live from Berlin -- thank you.
Actor Sean Penn has a new message to his critics. He has nothing to hide. Penn making that statement after pictures surfaced of him arriving at a Mexican airport just before secretly meeting with Mexican fugitive and drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
The new pictures suggest that officials were closely monitoring Penn.
Nick Valencia is outside the prison while "El Chapo" remains behind bars with more.
Good morning, Nick.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Mexico's attorney general Arely Gomez saying the meeting Penn had with El Chapo's helped them gather more intelligence and begin monitoring. They were already tracking El Chapo's attorney when he met with Sean Penn and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo to arrange that meeting with El Chapo.
Of course, the raid that eventually brought the kingpin down happened early morning hours on Friday. It was just about 12 hours ago that one of our CNN crews was able to get inside that home. I was speaking last night with a senior Mexican law enforcement official who tells me that El Chapo tried to escape that raid by using a secret passage in the home that led to another tunnel that eventually led to the city's storm drains. He, of course, was captured just a little bit outside of Los Mochis, Sinaloa.
Last night, the president of Mexico addressing the nation, praising the capture of the kingpin, saying, of course, though that this capture doesn't necessarily stop the drug cartel problems in this country.
[09:25:04] Meanwhile, all of this while extradition looms for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. At least seven states across the U.S. have charges against El Chapo, everywhere from West Texas to New Hampshire. It is more likely that he will end up in a major city in a U.S. court, perhaps New York, San Diego or even Chicago, where, of course, in recent years he was said to be enemy number one there for his role in supplying drugs to the city -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Nick Valencia reporting live from Mexico this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: in my ways, it will be a farewell speech. President Obama just hours from his last State of the Union.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because there is no next thing. This is it. And never in our lives again will we have chance to do as much as we do right now. I want to make sure that --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Up next, why tonight's speech is expected to be different from all the rest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Hours from now, President Obama delivers his final State of the Union. It is expected to be in many ways nontraditional. No more laundry list request for Congress, but instead a more optimistic look towards the future.
Earlier today, President Obama told NBC he wants to speak directly to the people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: There is no doubt that politics and Washington are so much more divided than the American people are. And part of what I want to do in this last address is to remind people, you know what, we've got a lot of good things going for us and if we can get our politics right, it turns out that we're not as divided.
