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Joe Biden Talks About Son, Beau Biden; ISIS Suicide Bomber in Istanbul Kills Germans; Interview with Spencer Stone on Terror Threat. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 12, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:30:54] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Gloria Borger sat down with Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the State of the Union address by the president. In a very candid, straight forward, really remarkable interview, Biden is talking about the relationship with the president as well as the struggles he and his family have faced, included the wrenching death of his son, Beau, just last May.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I just want to ask how you're doing.

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're doing well. Look, anybody who has been through this kind of thing, and millions of people have, know the -- and I know from losing my wife and daughter years ago, that you got to get through the season. Thanksgiving was hard. For the same, for 40 years, we all together went the same place and did the same thing. We're kind of a traditional family. Christmas, where everybody moves in to my house for the last 20 years four days ahead of Christmas, they literally move in. Leave their homes, move in. And, you know, the idea of an empty chair and -- was something no one looked forward to, but everybody, they're tough. And we're focusing on the inspiration of Beau rather than loss of Beau. But it's -- we're as a family, sticking together, getting through it. And, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: How are you?

BIDEN: I'm good. Look, I miss him every day. This was -- he was my soul. Hunter is my heart. He was my soul. And my daughter is my comfort. It's interesting, you have more than one child, you love them all equally. They all have a slightly different relationship. And Beau was -- Beau was my soul. Beau was my conscience. Beau was my -- Beau was like, he was the little boy who when he was 6 years old, he was 30 years old. And Hunter is my heart with his passion and -- but -- so it's, I think about him all the time, but I try to focus on what we have. And, by the way, his -- my two grandchildren, his two children, are beautiful and smart. And you'd expect a grand pop to say that. But I see them all the time. And so everybody is -- everybody -- his wife is incredible. Halle is like my daughter. So we're just focusing on, you know, Beau's -- anyway. We're -- I'm talking too much about that. I apologize.

BORGER: No, that's all right.

BIDEN: But thank god. And, you know, you said you all mourn with me. The truth of the matter is a lot of you did. I knew it was sincere. And it mattered. It really matters.

BORGER: Let me ask you about your next big thing, which is the moon shot for cancer as you call it. What did you learn as the parent of a cancer patient about how realistic and achievable this moon shot really is?

BIDEN: I learned two things. First of all, when you have a son or daughter, husband, wife, someone you adore, you become as educated as you can as quickly as you can, particularly when you know it's a very serious form. So I learned a lot about, for lack of a better phrase, the mechanics of cancer and the delivery systems. And there's so many -- so many changes that are just on the cusp. Then as I got into it more deeply after Beau passed, I realized a lot of this is siloed. I've now met with over 200 oncologists and cancer research centers and philanthropists involved, and what everyone acknowledges privately, what I hope I can do, they think I may be the convener. I may be able to bring them all together --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: What's do you want to do?

BIDEN: Break down the silos. Have immediate access to information, all the researchers have, one another's research as well. Being able to have a conduit to get out to places not just the great cancer hospitals, the centers of study to get to oncologists out in the field the information we already have that they don't have access to.

[13:35:22] BORGER: Let me ask you, as we head into the State of the Union, is there a moment you're going to remember with the president?

BIDEN: Well, yeah, there is one. He may be embarrassed. We were having lunch, and it was pretty clear Beau was having trouble with his speech. And he still had three months to go four months to go as attorney general. And my son, Beau Biden was the most fastidious, honorable, straight guy. I knew if my son thought he was losing his cognitive capability, he wouldn't stay on as attorney general. He'd resign. Thank god he took all these tests and there was no cognitive, but it was affecting his speech.

And so I was having lunch with the president. He was the only guy other than my family I confided all along in everything going on with Beau because I felt responsibility to do that so that he knew where I was, my thinking. And I said, you know, my concern is, I said if Beau resigns, he has no -- there's no -- nothing to fall back on, his salary. And I worked it out. But Jill and I will sell the House. We'll be in good shape. He said, don't sell that house. Promise me you won't sell the House. He's going to be mad at me saying this. He said, I'll give you the money, whatever you need. Don't, Joe. Promise me. Promise me. I said, I don't think we're going to have to anyway.

And then I'll never forget the eulogy he delivered for Beau. And when Beau had his stroke, when they had a stroke, and it turned out it was the beginning of the blastoma, and he came running down the hallway in his shirtsleeves and said, Joe, Joe, is he OK? His love of family and my family and my love of his family, you know, his two grand -- his two children and my granddaughters are best friends. His number-two daughter, my number-three granddaughter, they vacation together, they play on teams together. They sleep at each other's homes all the time. It's really personal. It's family.

BORGER: Do you have any idea what you're going to be doing your first day out of public office? Let's say, January 21st, 2017.

BIDEN: I know I'm in the process of trying to work that out right now. Look, here's the thing. You have known me a long time. Since I've been 27 years old, every morning, I get up, I've focused on an issue, focused on a public policy. This will be the first time. Then I decided I don't have to stop focusing on that. What forum I'll use to continue that focus -- my dad used to say, no man or woman should retire unless they know exactly what they are going to do the next morning they wake up. I'm working on that right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: And let's talk about the interview with chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

So, like Joe Biden, always so straight forward and personal. Just on the personal side there, and I wonder as you see him reeling from the loss of his son.

BORGER: Sure.

SCIUTTO: And you are across from him there, and do you think that is the key thing that kept him from running for president? The personal wounds?

BORGER: Yes. I think that there is a huge personal side of it that he was not ready and his family was not ready. I also think that he took a cold, calculated look at the race, and it would be an uphill struggle for him and he said in the interview that he never thought that Hillary Clinton was the prohibitive favorite and clearly she has a lot of support in the south, and I think that he thought that perhaps it would be a very difficult slog for him. And if you put the personal and the political pieces together, he made that decision.

SCIUTTO: And you say that he says in the interview, no door, and no backdoor into the race.

BORGER: No front door or backdoor, yeah.

SCIUTTO: And in the interview, he injects himself into the race, does he not, not as a candidate, but taking a swipe --

(CROSSTALK) SCIUTTO: -- on Hillary Clinton on what this is the defining issue of the Democratic Party wealth disparity.

[13:39:40] BORGER: Right. Now, he said that he did not intend for it to be a swipe, and he even said to me in the interview that Hillary Clinton has done a lot of good things but I think that it is clear that Joe Biden thinks like a candidate and still thinks like the candidate who might have ran against Hillary Clinton, and he is a populist, and so Bernie Sanders appeals to Joe Biden at his very core. And Joe Biden in his entire career as he will tell you has been about representing the middle-class. That is where sort of where he comes from. He said in the follow-up, that he meant to say that she has been involved in foreign policy obviously, and so he said that he going to be out there campaigning for the candidate, whoever it is.

SCIUTTO: They will wait until then for their endorsement?

BORGER: There will not be an endorsement. I don't think he or the president would want to get involved in that right now.

SCIUTTO: Thank you, Gloria Borger.

BORGER: Sure. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Really fascinating to watch.

Coming up, we'll go live to Turkey for the latest on the deadly suicide bombing there now linked to ISIS and it targeted tourists there, foreign tourists. Stay with us.

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[13:44:58] SCIUTTO: Turkey's largest city was rocked today at the heart of an ISIS suicide bomber, and at least eight Germans were among the 10 people killed at the blast at a popular tourist area in Istanbul. The Turkish government says that the attacker was from Syria.

A few moments ago, the White House released a statement saying, in part, quote, "The heinous attack occurred in Istanbul's historic heart and struck Turks and foreign tourists alike. We stand together with Turkey, a NATO ally, a strong partner, and a valued member of the counter-ISIL coalition."

Our Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul.

And so, Arwa, at this point, do we know the direct link to ISIS of the Obama, inspired, directed, but also came across the border from Syria into Turkey?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what we know at this stage according to the senior government officials here, Jim, and that is that this individual was, as you were saying there, of Syrian origin born in 1988 and according to Turkish officials came across the border from Syria into Turkey only recently. This is not someone that the Turks had been tracking for a while, because they do have quite a number of individuals that they keep under constant surveillance. Many are saying that this points to, first of all, how difficult it is to control that border, and how difficult it is to keep track of everyone who is coming across, bearing in mind, that this is a country home to almost two million refugees, and also, the more internal security challenges that the country is facing.

We are just outside of the police cordon where the attack took place, and this is a strike that is not only sending a message to Turkey, but because the suicide bomber went after a soft target, because foreign nationals were killed, it is sending a message that reverberates far beyond this country's borders -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Thank you, Arwa Damon, from Istanbul.

Still ahead, he is 23 years old, and he has cheated death twice, and helped to save a train full of people from a potential terrorist attack. What could top that? Spencer Stone is going to tell us, himself. That's right after this break.

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[13:51:26] SCIUTTO: It's an honor and privilege to receive and it is one of the best seats in the house. I'm talking about Michelle Obama's box at the State of the Union address tonight. Seated will be the vice president's wife, Jill Biden, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, as well 23 others, including our next guest, U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Spencer Stone. He's with me here tonight.

Spencer, you made headlines in August with this acts of heroism that stopped a potential terrorist attack on this train in France. Tonight, we know we hear that the president is going to talk about responding to the terror threat. I'm just curious as someone that has literally faced it, what would you like to hear from the president?

SPENCER STONE, U.S. AIR FORCE STAFF SERGEANT: I'd like to see where he sees our country in the next couple years and what his plans are for his last year in office. He still has a lot of time to do some things. I think he's going to get it done to the best of his ability.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you then about the moment as it happened. You're on the train. You see the attack underway. You saw his weapon. You knew what you were risking there. I'm fascinated by people in moments of acts of heroism of what they are thinking where you make that decision. What went through your mind?

STONE: The decision was made a long time ago. I always mentally prepared myself for a moment like that because I knew it's realistic. At least my family is going to know I went down trying.

SCIUTTO: You thought you were going to die?

STONE: Yes, sir.

SCIUTTO: The gun was pointed at you and the bullet didn't go off.

STONE: He tried to shoot at me. It was a bad primer. So that gave me more time to run at him before he could load another round and I was able to get to him. My other friends joined in, helped out and we subdued him.

SCIUTTO: I cover terrorism. That's my beat here at CNN. I get a lot of questions from people, how likely am I to face an attack. I get that question all the time. Should I go to Paris? There was a bombing here today. The president, we hear, has tried to balance the actual threat of terrorism to say it's a threat, but you're more likely to get struck by lightning. Not to minimize it, but go on living your life.

STONE: Exactly. That's what I keep saying to people.

SCIUTTO: You get that same message?

STONE: You can't live your life in a bubble. You can't be thinking of these things constantly. You have to keep going. If things like that happen, you have to be ready to respond. Mentally prepare myself. Say, OK, if I'm in a situation, which is what I'll do, and I did it.

SCIUTTO: I went it to Paris for the most recent attacks. I talked to witnesses who describe the look on the faces of attackers as being blank, just blank, almost, not like a Robert, but almost like expressionless. I wonder, as you were rushing the gunman, what did you see? What did you see in his eyes?

STONE: I kind of blacked out. I was expecting a gun shot to go off. In the midst of the fight, it took two minutes to get him unconscious and take everything away from him. But my friend told me when he was hitting him in the face, he was giving us a blank stare back. No emotion.

SCIUTTO: No feeling for anything?

STONE: No feeling for anything.

[13:55:12] SCIUTTO: Final question. Next steps, do you think about running for office?

(LAUGHTER)

STONE: I think I need a lot more experience and knowledge to be able to take that job on. But I'd be willing to work towards that.

SCIUTTO: You would. Good to hear. In the meantime, are we going to see you in the movies? We'll see -- I don't know, who is going to play you in the movie? Who would you like to see play you in the movie?

STONE: People always ask me that question. I don't know. Who knows? My friend, Anthony, says he wants Will Smith to play him. Alex says (AUDIO PROBLEM).

SCIUTTO: You can do worse than that.

Spencer Stone, we thank you for your service. Great to get the chance to meet you.

Our coverage of President Obama's final State of the Union address begins tonight at 7:00 eastern right here on CNN.

That's it for me today. Wolf Blitzer will be back tonight. And tomorrow, Wolf sits down with the King Abdullah of Jordan. That interview will air Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. eastern on "The Situation Room" here on CNN.

The news will continue right after this break.

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