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Trump and Cruz Battle for the Lead in Iowa; Clinton and Sanders Neck and Neck in Iowa; new Details About Capture of "El Chapo"; Sean Penn's Interview Raises Legal Questions; Three NFL Teams Vying to Move to L.A.; China's Wanda Group Buys Hollywood Film Studio; Joe Biden Talks Presidential Race; L.A. Deals with Natural Gas Leak; David Bowie's Hometown Reacts to His Death. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 12, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:19] ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, the dramatic video as Mexican Marines made their move on the world's most wanted drug lord.
SESAY: New polls show the race is tightening for both Republican and Democratic presidential nominations. Where the first votes now just weeks away.
VAUSE: And the celebration is on in Alabama as the Crimson Tide win their fourth National Football Championship in just the past seven seasons.
SESAY: Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause. NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.
Despite all the hours of coverage on television, online and in print, all the campaign rallies, debates and analysis, we are still three weeks away from anyone casting an actual vote in this presidential election. That will happen in Iowa three weeks from now. And the race there might just be too close to call.
SESAY: The latest poll from Quinnipiac University shows Donald Trump with a slight lead over Ted Cruz 31 percent to 29 percent as you see there. That's within the margin of error.
CNN's Sara Murray has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump not letting up on Ted Cruz's citizenship.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But Ted Cruz has a problem because the question is, is he a natural born citizen? And the question was asked on "Meet the Press." It was asked to me by Chris Wallace this weekend. And I said, I don't know. I mean, nobody knows.
MURRAY: After months of playing nice --
TRUMP: Ted Cruz, Senator Cruz has been so nice to me, I can't hit him. I may have to if he starts getting like really close. I may have to.
MURRAY: Trump's truth is over.
TRUMP: I'm a counterpuncher.
MURRAY: And he's waiting on Cruz to fire first. Trying to raise doubts about whether the Texas senator a Southern Baptist, is a true evangelical.
TRUMP: In all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, OK? Just remember that.
MURRAY: And today in New Hampshire, Trump is hoping his latest line of attack questioning whether Cruz's Canadian roots disqualify him for the presidency might widen his lead.
TRUMP: You can't have a nominee who is going to be subject to being thrown out as a nominee. You just can't do it. So you're going to make that decision, folks. I mean, it's one of those little decisions. I'm sure Ted is thrilled that I'm helping him out, but I am.
MURRAY: Some voters aren't buying it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he's eligible. I think he would have checked that out and had it all cleared before he even ran.
MURRAY: Meanwhile, Cruz has insisted the question is already settled.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The substance of the issue is clear and straightforward. As a legal matter, the Constitution and federal law are clear that the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen.
MURRAY: And so far isn't taking the bait to go to battle against Trump.
CRUZ: I like Donald Trump. I respect Donald Trump. He's welcome to toss whatever attacks he wants.
MURRAY: But Trump keeps on hammering Cruz anywhere he can. In the Hawkeye State, it's his position on ethanol. A key issue for Iowa's farming economy.
TRUMP: My primary opponent was totally opposed to ethanol and the ethanol industry because he's with the oil industry. You know, he's from Texas. I guess it makes sense. But -- and all of a sudden, he was getting clobbered and all of a sudden he said, I'm for ethanol. You can't do that.
MURRAY (on camera): Now there's a reason that Donald Trump thinks all these attacks of Ted Cruz could help him. And that's because there are a lot of voters that are still undecided. New polling from Iowa shows us about half of Republican primary voters there have not made up their minds yet. Polling out of New Hampshire shows just 1 in 3 Republican primary voters are locked in on who they plan to support. So still lots of votes to move there.
Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Well, U.S. presidential candidate Rand Paul says he will not take part in the next Republican debate Thursday in South Carolina.
VAUSE: The main event will feature Ohio governor John Kasich, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, businessman Donald Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
SESAY: While Senator Paul along with Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum have been invited to the undercard debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We do not think that anyone should really be able to characterize our campaign as anything less than first tier. We've raised $25 million. We have -- we're going to be on the ballot in every state, and we just announced that today we have 1,000 precinct chairs in Iowa.
So we think it's a rotten thing to do to try to designate which candidates have a chance and don't, and so we will not participate in anything that's not first tier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:05:07] SESAY: Well, on the other side of things, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is gaining ground on the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in Iowa.
VAUSE: And he's holding on to his lead in New Hampshire. Another key early voting state.
CNN's Brianna Keilar has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton dancing on "Ellen," seemingly without a care in the world. But there is some alarm insider her campaign, as Bernie Sanders gains on her in Iowa.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Clearly they began this race believing that their victory was virtually inevitable. I don't think they believe that today. All right?
KEILAR: A new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll puts Bernie Sanders within striking distance. Just three points shy of Hillary Clinton in Iowa, within the margin of error.
(On camera): And you feel that's a real three points that you're that close?
SANDERS: Yeah, I do.
KEILAR (voice-over): Sanders, meanwhile, is holding on to a narrow lead in New Hampshire. Clinton is hoping to persuade Democratic voters that she's more electable than Sanders, even as a new Fox News national poll shows her trailing Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio in hypothetical match-ups.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Think hard about the people who are presenting themselves to you, their experience, their qualifications, their positions, and particularly for those of us who are Democrats, their electability.
KEILAR: And Sanders is trying to counter Clinton's argument by pointing to polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, both battleground states in the general election that show him outperforming his rival against Trump and Cruz.
SANDERS: The reason was New Hampshire and Iowa, face to face with Donald Trump and the other Republican candidates, we're 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: But Sanders' moderate stance on gun laws have left him vulnerable in these final weeks before the early contests. Now Clinton is hitting Sanders' record, including a 2005 vote that gave gun manufacturers and gun store owners immunity from prosecution if guns they sold were used in a crime.
CLINTON: I think that the excuses and efforts by Senator Sanders to avoid responsibility for this vote, which the NRA hailed as the most important in 20 years, points up a clear difference.
KEILAR: Facing pressure, Sanders has since signaled he is open to changing his position.
SANDERS: I have cast 10,000 votes in my life. And it was a vote that I cast which is a complicated vote. Yes, my only response to that, I certainly am willing to reconsider it.
KEILAR (on camera): I asked Bernie Sanders if he thought President Barack Obama had put his finger on the scale for Hillary Clinton and the gun issue, he said no. He was very quick to say no, in fact not wanting for there to be any daylight with the president on the issue but he did question Hillary Clinton's authenticity and her record on guns.
Brianna Keilar, CNN Pleasantville, Iowa.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is preparing for the final State of the Union address of his presidency. Mr. Obama's speech will likely include issues such as gun control and his plans for fighting ISIS. The White House released this video statement on Monday. A preview of his address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want us to be able when we walk out this door to say we couldn't think of anything else that we didn't try to do, that we didn't shy away from a challenge because it was hard. That we weren't timid or got tired or somehow we're thinking about the next thing because there is no next thing. This is it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: CNN will have live coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address beginning at 9:00 Tuesday night in Washington. That is 6:00 p.m. here on the West Coast and 10:00 Wednesday morning if you are in Hong Kong.
VAUSE: New video from Mexico shows the intense shootout as forces closed in -- closed in on Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.
SESAY: The drug cartel leader had escaped from prison back in July and his men were willing to put up quite a fight.
VAUSE: Five of El Chapo's men died in the gunfight. Guzman escaped into a storm drain but was caught 90 minutes later.
We get more details now from Martin Savidge.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Isha, that video is quite remarkable that was released by the Mexican military. It's clearly helmet cam video and it's obviously coming from one of the commanders that was taking part in that raid. You are really there. Part of the entry team as they move in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Tonight, dramatic new video of the deadly raid that led to the capture of one of the world's most wanted fugitives. Five people killed in a shootout at the safe house of Joaquin Guzman, better known as "El Chapo."
(On camera): This may have been the next stop in this incredible drama. Look down here. That appears to be some kind of storm drain, sewer, but as you can see, large enough for a person to get through.
[01:10:06] And according to the authorities, El Chapo and an associate managed to escape from the home through a sewer. (Voice-over): But they didn't get far and El Chapo was captured soon
after. This as new details were emerging about a "Rolling Stone" interview published over the weekend, revealing the notorious Mexican drug lord met with a Hollywood A-lister, Sean Penn, and Mexican actress Kate Del Castillo while still on the run.
The meeting, along with a short on-camera interview, was conducted in the Mexican jungle back in October. In it, the drug kingpin talks candidly about his business.
JOAQUIN GUZMAN, DRUG KINGPIN, MEXICO (Through Translator): Well, it is a reality that drugs destroy. Unfortunately as I said, where I grew up, there is no other way, and there still isn't, a way to survive; no other way to work.
SAVIDGE: Penn's written article describes a seven-hour face-to-face meeting with El Chapo, that began with a hug, and notes the drug lord is, quote, "remarkably well groomed," unquote. As he sips tequila and bragged about his fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats.
Penn says the interview was set up by Castillo. El Chapo wanted her help to create a biopic about his life. The American actor was asked by the Associate Press about images published in the Mexican news media today, which appear to show officials watching he and Castillo before the meeting with El Chapo.
Penn's response? Quote, "I've got nothing to hide," unquote. Authorities want to question Penn, but it's not clear if he broke any laws.
El Chapo, meanwhile, is back in the same prison he escaped from. Officials have started the process of extraditing El Chapo to the U.S., where he faces several drug trafficking charges.
DENIS MCDONOUGH, CHIEF OF STAFF, WHITE HOUSE: This braggadocio action about how much heroin he sends around the world, including the United States is maddening. We see heroin epidemic, opioid addiction epidemic in this country. So we're going to stay on top of this, with our Mexican counterparts.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE (on camera): There is still going to be a lot of debate as to whether that interview by Sean Penn or whether the Mexican actress or any number of intel inputs were what led to the eventual recapture of "El Chapo." But the truth is it's really El Chapo that led to it. He was the one that granted the interview. He was the one who apparently wanted to get his name out there in the public and have the article done. And it was apparently his downfall -- John and Isha.
VAUSE: Martin Savidge, thank you.
Let's turn now to Steve Zeitchik, a reporter with the "Los Angeles Times." He's covered world affairs as well as Hollywood which is interesting enough we now have that confluence of events here.
SESAY: Yes.
VAUSE: You've written about what Sean Penn did and clearly by reading some of the stuff you've written out there you think that maybe Sean Penn has crossed some kind of line here from actor into activist.
STEVE ZEITCHIK, REPORTER, LOS ANGELES TIMES: Absolutely. I think what's happening here, John, is the sort of end point, if you will, or the next phase of a transition that really began about five years ago. There was a time when he was making a movie about once every year, every 12 to 18 months. It's really pretty much dried up. He's been in three movies in four years. Most of them haven't really been gone anywhere or even been leading roles.
And I think what he's really started to do is self-appointedly say, I'm an activist. I'm a journalist. I'm a figure on the world stage who is going to matter. And that means Raul Castro, that means Hugo Chavez and now apparently it means El Chapo.
SESAY: Let's pick up on this "I'm a journalist" point, shall we? Because it would seem that he wants to be seen as a journalist but a journalist who doesn't abide by the right ethical journalistic rules, standards.
ZEITCHIK: Right. I think that's something that bothered a lot of people. You know, the question was whether this is legal or not, or did he lead to El Chapo's capture or not? The bigger question is, can you claim to be a journalist and still skirt the rules and basically play off your clout as a Hollywood figure? I mean, first of all, he never would have gotten the interview if he was just a regular journalist.
Went to have gotten it, he didn't say he was sympathetic to El Chapo's cause. And on top of all that, he agreed to let the source read the story which to me and most of us in journalism is saying, cardinal sin, even if no editing happened.
SESAY: Absolutely.
ZEITCHIK: You're not supposed to show that to a source.
VAUSE: A lot of people say that that is inexcusable but let's face it, you know, this was a big interview, it was a big get. You know, maybe he would have negotiated those rules a little differently. But we -- I think a vast majority of people in our industry presented with this interview would have kind of agreed to some conditions.
ZEITCHIK: Correct.
VAUSE: Having said all that, do you think it was a good story? Because I'm -- I don't think I learned a whole lot after spending, gosh, an hour and a half -- I'm a slow reader, but it was, oh golly, lethargic.
ZEITCHIK: Well, somebody made the point. I think this is valid. I think he spent the first 25 paragraphs talking about how he got there.
VAUSE: Yes.
ZEITCHIK: The 26th paragraph I think was a reference to his own anatomy.
VAUSE: Yes.
ZEITCHIK: And then by the 27th paragraph he's actually talking about the subject, which of course for those of us in the journalism you know you really are not supposed to be the story.
SESAY: Yes.
VAUSE: Yes.
ZEITCHIK: You're supposed to be telling the story. And he wasn't doing that.
VAUSE: So -- sorry. The questions were softball questions. I mean, do you dream? Do you get along with your mom? Are you a violent person?
[01:15:04] SESAY: No. I mean, I think, you know, again, all of that, as John lays out the questions, ask the question, what was his agenda here?
ZEITCHIK: Right. Right. Well, I think to both of those questions you can really look at this and say, why didn't he ever introduce -- OK, I understand he wants to start with some softballs. Why didn't he ever introduce the idea that he could be a pawn in El Chapo's agenda? That he's there, he said he had some misgivings, given El Chapo's past, but he never said, you know what, I'm here because El Chapo gets legitimacy by my being here. And in not doing that, I think he lost a lot of credibility.
VAUSE: How does he differ in his activism from a George Clooney, from an Angelina Jolie? If there are any issues, you go out and campaign and also make movies.
ZEITCHIK: Yes. Look, there's long no doubt that there's a growing and there's long been a tradition of this, but a growing tradition now of actors who are also activists. I think Penn is qualitatively different from all of them. I think if you look at someone like Clooney or Jolie, they're still making movies. You know, Angelina Jolie just directed a movie with Brad Pitt. George Clooney is in one to two movies a year. He's producing a ton of stuff.
So his activism he's definitely trading office celebrity but I don't think he's ever really stopped being a movie star or a filmmaker. Sean Penn has pretty much left that behind. He's still using that Hollywood sort of calling card to get some of these interviews but I don't think he really, you know, sees himself day-to-day as a filmmaker, in fact, or a star. If you look at the interview, he'd referenced himself multiple times, he referenced being a journalist or being an activist. I think he used celebrity star or actor once in a 10,000-word piece which tells you a lot.
SESAY: Yes. But like we said, he would have only got the piece because he's a star.
ZEITCHIK: That's the paradox.
VAUSE: Exactly. Steve, thanks for coming in.
SESAY: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
ZEITCHIK: Great. Thanks.
VAUSE: Appreciate it.
SESAY: Thank you.
All right then. Well, some local news that could be some NFL teams on the move. We'll tell you who might be playing their next home game right here in Los Angeles.
VAUSE: Also after the break, the tired role in college football's national championship game. We'll have the details just head on NEWSROOM L.A.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(SPORTS)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:53] SESAY: Hello, everyone. The Alabama Crimson Tide are the new College Football National champions. They beat the number one ranked, undefeated Clemson Tigers by a final score of 45-40.
VAUSE: Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry scored three touchdowns to lead Alabama to victory. It's the Crimson Tide's 14th national championship. The fourth in the past seven years.
SESAY: Wow.
Well, the NFL could be in for a major shake-up. Three teams, the St. Louis Rams, the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers are all vying to make L.A. their new home.
VAUSE: Only a vote from the 32 NFL owners can make a move final. And that decision could be coming in days.
Here's Dan Simon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Oakland Raiders superfan Gorilla Rilla. He hasn't missed a home game in 20 years. So the idea of his team moving to Los Angeles makes him go a little bananas.
GORILLA RILLA, OAKLAND RAIDERS FAN: Stay in Oakland. Build a stadium in Oakland.
SIMON (on camera): Why do the Raiders do you think belong in Oakland?
GORILLA RILLA: It's the mystique. It's the legends.
SIMON: If the Oakland Raiders had a temple it might just be this place. Ricky's Sports Bar in San Leandro, California, not far from the stadium itself. Just looking at the stuff on the walls and you can pretty much deduce that it has one of the most passionate fan bases in the NFL.
Would it be a betrayal to the fans if they left?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people could take it that way.
SIMON (voice-over): But it's not just Oakland fans who would be devastated. The St. Louis Rams and the San Diego Chargers are all vying to move to the city of angels. All three teams unhappy with their aging stadiums. But the decision isn't about the fans. Plain and simple, it's about business. Los Angeles, after all, is the second biggest TV market in the country. And it hasn't had an NFL team in 21 years. Both the Rams and the Raiders had their teams in L.A. but moved in 1995.
Now the NFL and the city are eager for another franchise.
You don't usually see this at a city council meeting but this is what it looked like in L.A. suburb of Englewood when Rams supporters showed up in force in support of a proposed stadium here and bringing back that team. The Raiders and Chargers would share a stadium in nearby Carson. L.A. with its size can easily support two teams but the NFL will only support one stadium.
ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: We have three teams that are interested that have been struggling to get stadiums built in their own communities. There's a recognition that has to get resolved in the long term.
SIMON: How it gets resolved is with the owners. 24 of 32 owners must approve of a deal. That means just nine owners can block one.
(On camera): The name, the Los Angeles Raiders just doesn't sound good.
GORILLA RILLA: Nothing against L.A. We love L.A. But it just don't sound right. Oakland Raiders.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oakland, California.
SIMON (voice-over): But if it happens to be the Raiders that move to L.A., the team will most certainly retain their most diehard fans.
GORILLA RILLA: I was a fan when they were in Oakland. I was a fan when they left. And I'm a fan now. So whether they leave or stay, I'm still a fan.
SIMON: Dan Simon, CNN, Oakland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: A very disturbing gorilla suit.
China's richest man -- and moving on -- is buying the Hollywood film studio behind blockbusters like "Jurassic World" for about $3.5 billion. The chairman of the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group just confirmed the deal.
CNN's Matt Rivers joins me now with details from Beijing.
Matt, I've got to ask you, why they would make this move, put this deal in context for us.
MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a historic deal, frankly. You just said, $3.5 billion which makes it significant in and of itself based on the dollar amounts here. But perhaps more so than that this is the largest kind of cultural acquisition that a Chinese firm has made of a U.S. firm with the Wanda Group purchasing Legendary Pictures.
[01:25:07] And I think there's a couple of things at play in terms of the motivation behind this deal. I mean, obviously Wanda sees this as a profit-making endeavor. They also -- its chairman, Wang Jianlin, has shown a tendency in his dealings over the past couple of years to really expand his company's footprint into international audiences.
And you can see this by picking up Legendary Pictures, I think you will see more Chinese influences on the kind of movies that are made and in terms of getting those movies into Chinese theaters here. But then I think also you're seeing perhaps what could become a broader outlet for domestically made Chinese films. Films that are produced here in China. Many industry executives trying to get Chinese films to be seen in other outlets around the world.
The chairman of Wanda Group has asked about that and how that could possibly succeed at the event today. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANG JIANLIN, CHAIRMAN, DALIAN WANDA GROUP (Through Translator): If American companies want to tap into China's fast-growing movie market, they have to cater to the interests of Chinese audiences. If not, they won't succeed. There have been movies that have done this already. For example, the latest "Mission Impossible" movie. If you want to make money, you need to make people like your movies.
Right now, Chinese-made films don't generate enough interest in America to be shown there. For that to happen, Chinese movies will have to find ways to entertain American audiences. It's just how this process works.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIVERS: And so that's, you know, the big question here. Will pictures produced by Legendary Pictures moving forward make their way into the Chinese markets more so than they have before? And then also will this deal help facilitate Chinese movies being seen in American theaters? That's something that hasn't happened yet. But it is a very lofty goal for the film industry here in China.
SESAY: Very lofty goal indeed. Matt Rivers joining us there from Beijing. Always appreciate it. Thank you.
VAUSE: A short break here on CNN NEWSROOM. When we come back, a damaged storage facility is spilling natural gas at an alarming rate into the air of a Los Angeles suburb. We'll have the very latest on the problems it's causing for thousands of residents nearby.
SESAY: Plus he's been relatively quiet until now. Coming up, Joe Biden talks about the presidential campaign, including his own decision about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: As we all know, you were thinking long and hard yourself about running for the presidency, and you decided it was a no-go. And you've said you regret it every day. Tell me why.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:14] SESAY: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. Just gone 10:31 on a Monday night.
Time to check the headlines.
(HEADLINES)
SESAY: As the race tightens up, we decided to find out what one big name in the Democratic Party has to say about it all.
VAUSE: Joe Biden has kept fairly quiet since deciding not to run late last year but he's sharing his thoughts with CNN's chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, in this exclusive interview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Last week, the president was talking about gun control. He wrote a piece in which he introduced a litmus test for his political support of Democratic candidates. And he said either you're with us, all the way on gun reform, or I'm not going to support you.
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think he said that. What he said was unless you have a reasonable position on guns.
BORGER: Doesn't that mean either you're with us --
(CROSSTALK) BIDEN: No, it doesn't.
BORGER: Let me ask you this. Bernie Sanders, Senator Sanders has a history on this. He has in the past voted to protect gun manufacturers from liability. Is this a shot across the bow at Bernie Sanders?
BIDEN: Bernie Sanders has said he thought the president's approach is a correct approach. Bernie Sanders said he thinks there should be liability now. And so --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: He said he might reconsider his position.
BIDEN: OK. Look, one of the purposes the president has and I have, we want to affect the attitude of the nominees. We've worked too hard the last seven years to take the country and a party to a place we think it should be. And what little influence I may have and he may have on who the nominee is and what the nominee says, we're not going to be --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Does Bernie Sanders have to change his position on gun manufacturers in order to have your support --
BIDEN: No --
BORGER: -- and you out there campaigning for him? Should he be the nominee or the president --
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: No. No. All Bernie Sanders has to do is say the Second Amendment says, which he has of late, the success amendment says you can limit who can own a gun. People who are criminals shouldn't have guns. People who are schizophrenic and have mental issues shouldn't have guns. And he has said that.
BORGER: So he's OK with you?
BIDEN: Yes, he's OK. Bernie is doing a heck of a job. I think we have three great candidates out there. I really mean this. They are debating issues.
BORGER: Donald Trump right now is the Republican front-runner. 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. I want to make that clear. I think 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's 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's going to regret having said the things he's said and done. The whole idea, as we were talking before about how to pull the country together, pull the politics together down here, how does Donald Trump do that? How does Donald Trump on the tangent he's on now, trying to separate people based on their ethnicity, based on their origin, based on -- I mean, it just is divisive. It's not healthy.
[01:35:38] BORGER: Well, you know, he -- Putin has called Trump an outstanding and talented personality, and Trump has said about Putin, at least he's a leader. You deal an awful lot with foreign leaders. How would you see Trump on the foreign stage?
BIDEN: I would hope we'd have an extremely qualified staff with him.
(LAUGHTER)
I would hope he'd have people from the last administration, other Republican administrations who were substantively grounded in --
BORGER: You're saying he's not substantive?
BIDEN: No, he's not. So far. Doesn't mean he can't be. He has no background in foreign policy. It's one thing to have an assessment of Putin's personality than tell me what he does about strategic doctrine and nuclear equation with the United States and what he knows about China's Soviet -- China/Russian relations. I don't know. Maybe they're keeping it all a secret. 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 crash graduate courses before he started to try to exercise the role of the president.
BORGER: As we all know, you were thinking long and hard yourself about running for the presidency, and you decided it was a no-go. And you have said you regret it every day.
BIDEN: Yeah.
BORGER: Tell me why.
BIDEN: Well, in response to a question I did say that. Look, I made the absolute right decision for my family.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Do you regret it?
BIDEN: What I regret is, and I'm still going to be able to do it, is I care deeply about these issues. I've spent my whole adult life, since I was 29 years old, working on foreign policy and domestic policy, and I care deeply about it. I regret not having a louder voice on it, but I'm the vice president of the United States, another year in office. We have an opportunity to get a lot more done. We've done a great deal, notwithstanding the fiction on the other side. We've taken this country from chaos to recovery. We're on the verge of resurgence. We're genuinely in a better position than any nation in the world, economically and politically. There's so much we can do. And the opportunities we have in life sciences and the opportunities we have in the breakthroughs that are going to occur in the next four to six years are astounding.
BORGER: Let me ask you about the race that you aren't in.
BIDEN: Yeah.
BORGER: And now we see 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 have been of the view -- and I don't know that you and I talked about it, but we may have. I thought for the last six months they were neck and neck in both places. I never bought the idea that there was somehow that -- remember he was up by 15 points in New Hampshire and down by 15 points. That's not the way this process works as you and I both know. I'm much older than you, but you've covered a lot of this. And so I'm not surprised that it is viewed as neck and neck. But I also will be surprised if the pundits turn out to be right. They hardly ever are in Iowa and New Hampshire.
BORGER: Why is she struggling? You say, we consider she was an overwhelming favorite and -- but --
(CROSSTALK)
BIDEN: I think that's part of the reason.
BORGER: He's a Democratic Socialist.
BIDEN: Yeah, but if Bernie Sanders never said he was a Democratic Socialist, based on what he's saying, people wouldn't be calling him that. That's how he characterizes himself in sort of European terms, the Democratic Socialist parties in Europe. But -- but --
BORGER: Why is she having trouble?
BIDEN: 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 of 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 contribute it to the profitability of enterprise, you got to share in the profit. That's been broken. Productivity is up. Wages are --
(CROSSTALK)
[01:40:17] BORGER: Hillary is talking about that as well.
BIDEN: But it's relatively new for Hillary to talk about that. Hillary's focus has been other things up until now. That's been Bernie's -- no one questions Bernie's authenticity.
BORGER: And they question hers, do you think?
BIDEN: I think they question everybody's 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. Everybody, you know, it's the old thing. No one -- everybody wants to be the favorite. Nobody wants to be the prohibitive favorite. It's an awfully high bar for her to meet. She was the prohibitive favorite. I never thought she was a prohibitive favorite. I don't think she ever thought she was a prohibitive favorite. I think it's -- everything sort of coming down to earth, just settling 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 this race?
BIDEN: No. Look, I --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: The door is 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. So it's one thing, theoretically, to win both of those. Going to South Carolina, it's going to be pretty rough sledding down there for Bernie and for the other guy in it, O'Malley. He's a qualified guy. This guy's a serious governor. But --
BORGER: So you are closing the door?
BIDEN: No, I don't think there's any door to open.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Gloria Borger there speaking with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. Next hour, Vice President Biden will talk about the death of his son, Beau Biden, and how he and his family are coping.
SESAY: Time for a quick break. Students in an L.A. suburb are returning to class Tuesday while city officials deal with an ongoing natural gas leak. We'll hear from an environmental activist and families who say they are affected by the fumes. All of that is just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:45:33] VAUSE: The world's richest terror group has taken a big hit to its finances, quite literally. U.S. defense officials say war planes bombed a building in Mosul, Iraq, where ISIS was keeping millions in cash to pay its fights are and finance its operations.
SESAY: The strike came at dawn Sunday when the fewest civilians would be in the area. Still they believe five to seven were killed. The U.S. has been expanding its list of potential ISIS targets. They started bombing the oil trucks several weeks ago.
VAUSE: Long-awaited aid has reached the Syrian city of Madaya. A convoy delivered food and supplies on Monday to the 40,000 people trapped in that besieged city since July.
SESAY: Images of starving people have brought renewed attention to the crisis. The International Red Cross says regular access is needed to civilians across Syria.
VAUSE: Fumes from a natural gas link are blanketing a Los Angeles suburb. Many say the gas is causing real headaches. The leak is coming from a damaged storage well and has been going on now for several months.
SESAY: The gas company says it's doing all it can to stop the leak.
CNN's Stephanie Elam reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Isha, upwards of 2800 households have been temporarily relocated by the gas company because of this leak, a leak that one environmental law activist equates to the BP oil spill on land.
(voice-over): It's not visible by the naked eye but some residents of the Los Angels suburb of Porter Ranch say a massive natural gas leak is causing them harm.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would have extreme headaches. I was nauseous. The kids were having headaches.
ELAM: The Katz family who is suing SoCal gas is living some 30 miles from their home.
SoCal Gas says it has relocated 2800 households so far. Since October 23rd, the Aliso Canyon storage facility owned by the Southern California Natural Gas Company has been spewing natural gas at a rate up 100,000 pounds per hour. The magnitude of the leak evident in this infrared video taken by environmental activists.
The problem so severe, the governor of California declared a state of emergency. Local air quality officials are devising a plan to burn off some of the seeping natural gas. SoCal Gas says it is working around the clock to stop the leak but it may not be plugged until late March.
MIKE, MIZRAHL, SOCAL GAS SPOKESMAN: We're drilling a relief well. It's going down about 8500 feet. It's going to intersect with the leaking well and then pump liquids and muds down there to stop the flow of gas. And then cement to permanently abandon the well.
ELAM: On its website, the company apologizes for the unpleasant smell of the odorant in the natural gas. But they claim that the leak, quote, "does not pose an imminent threat to public safety."
ERIN BROCKOVICH, ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST & ATTORNEY: It's gas. It's dangerous, and you should not tell them otherwise.
ELAM: Environmental activist, Erin Brockovich, is taking up the cause for the people affected by the gas company's leak.
BROCKOVICH: If it can't harm you, you are going to a lot of effort to relocate thousands and thousands of people. If it can't harm you, we're going to a lot of effort to get those children and schools to a safe location.
ELAM: Some students in Porter Ranch will return to school on Tuesday and be attending two nearby schools that have set up temporary facilities.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our lifestyles are completely different. Our routines are changed.
ELAM: The Katz family is adjusting but still reeling from what happened earlier to their young daughter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She needed an inhaler. In the middle of October is when things got worse. She was in the hospital for four days. We were in and out of the pediatric office, urgent care. Nobody could figure out what was wrong.
ELAM (on camera): While it may take a month or more to cap this well and abandon it for good, there are other wells out there. Local officials are very concerned that the same thing that's happened with this one will happen with the others. So they are looking to take action now to make sure that doesn't happen.
Isha and John?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:49:38] VAUSE: Stephanie, thank you for that.
Now we'll take a short break. Fans around the world are celebrating the life of David Bowie. We'll show you how those in London are remembering a hometown hero.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. The tributes are pouring in for David Bowie from around the world.
VAUSE: It was almost 24 hours ago, we learned that David Bowie had died.
Phil Black has the reaction from his hometown of London.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tears and shock for the loss of an artist loved by so many across generations. At this mural in Brixton, south London, where David Bowie was born, fans came to honor their hero and grieve.
21-year-old Rosie Lowry was visibly heartbroken by the news but came to remember the joy Bowie brought to the world.
ROSIE LOWRY, DAVID BOWIE FAN: The important thing is to -- it's not to be sad. We have to celebrate what we lived through and that, you know, we had such a great influence on our lives.
BLACK: People here say David Bowie, his art, played a defining role in their lives.
UNIDENTIFIED DAVID BOWIE FAN: I spent my teenage life listening to Bowie. I lived just up the road on Brixton Hill. So he feels a part of our culture.
BLACK: Prime Minister David Cameron also paid tribute to a British performer who became a global icon.
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Musically, creatively, artistically, David Bowie was a genius. For someone of my age, he provided a lot of the soundtrack of our lives, from the first time I heard "Space Oddity" to watching athletes appear in those wonderful Olympics to the strains of "Heroes."
(SINGING)
[01:55:10] BLACK: That song also has special meaning to the people of Germany. In 1987, Bowie sang "Heroes" at the Berlin Wall, a performance heard by people on both sides of the divided city.
The German foreign ministry tweeted, "Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the wall."
Across the world, artists from Madonna to the Foo Fighters remembered Bowie and his influence on their work.
The Vatican spokesman honored the performer by quoting his lyrics, "May God's love be with you."
And this was shared widely on social media, a short animation cycling through the many extraordinarily varied reinventions of Bowie's image over his five decade career.
(SINGING)
BLACK: Canadian Astronaut Chris Hatfield, who recorded his own spectacular version of Bowie's "Space Oddity" on board the international space station, said, "Bowie's brilliance inspired us all," a sentiment shared by people on a crowded street in Brixton.
For all the shock and sadness here, his fans wanted to share one overwhelming emotion, gratitude. Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: We'll leave it there. I'm John Vause.
SESAY: I'm Isha Sesay.
The news continues on CNN right after this.
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