Return to Transcripts main page

Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Trump and Palin Court Evangelicals; Sanders Up In Polls; Dow Falls; University Attack. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired January 20, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:32] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield and welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

Not only are we now just 12 days away from the Iowa caucus, today marks one year until the next inauguration. If you haven't paid attention to the presidential race thus far, it is time to jump right in, folks. Donald Trump's first event since his flashy endorsement yesterday from Sarah Palin was unexpectedly Palin-free. No explanation from the campaign, but supposedly the former Alaska governor and one- time Republican vice presidential nominee will appear with Trump next hour at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma. And speaking of the vice president, Trump said months ago he would love to have Sarah Palin in his cabinet. But on the phone this morning with the "Today" show, he didn't want to talk about a running mate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's somebody I really like and I respect and certainly she could play a position if she wanted to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You wouldn't rule her out as V.P.?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think she'd want to do it. I mean I don't think she'd want to do it. And, you know, I really don't get into it right now because I - and that question's always asked of me, who do you have as - in mind? And I didn't even think about V.P. right now and I just want to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, we've got a brand-new Monmouth poll and Trump's lead among GOP voters nationwide remains, to borrow his favorite adjective, "huge." Nineteen points ahead of his nearest rival, Ted Cruz. But just last month, Trump was 27 points ahead. In Iowa, of course, it is a horse race with Cruz ever so narrowly in the lead there. We're going to find out soon enough whether that changes with Palin on team Trump.

I want to bring in, in the meantime, my CNN colleague Jim Acosta, who is awaiting Trump's Oral Roberts event in Tulsa, and then from Los Angeles Ron Brownstein, a CNN senior political analyst and editorial director of "The National Journal" joins us as well. All right, so the big question, obviously, Jim Acosta, is Sarah Palin going to show up at this next one. There were a lot of disappointed people at the last one who didn't see her.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. My colleague, Sara Murray, reported earlier this morning that the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, was not at Donald Trump's first rally of the day in Iowa. I am told by a senior campaign official that Sarah Palin will be at this event, will be at this even here at Oral Roberts University here in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That's happening in about an hour from now. That is what the campaign said would be happening yesterday in their statement announcing Sarah Palin's endorsement, that she would be on the road campaigning with the GOP frontrunner.

And what you're seeing from Donald Trump, he is checking some very big boxes en route to these Iowa caucuses. He was campaigning at Liberty University, courting Christian conservatives. He's doing the same here today at Oral Roberts University and other universities founded by evangelicals. And having Sarah Palin at his side is really just sort - going to sort of magnify the effect. And so Donald Trump is really, you know, having probably one of the best weeks of this campaign so far and it comes at a crucial time.

Now, yes, Sarah Palin was not on the campaign trail with Donald Trump earlier in the morning, but he went right back to his lines of attack on Ted Cruz, questioning his eligibility to be president, saying that Ted Cruz's eligibility to be president will be tested if he get - if he becomes the nominee, and also going after Ted Cruz saying that he wants to be like Robin Hood while he's also taking campaign loans from Goldman Sachs. Of course that happened back in 2012.

And so, you know, Donald Trump is sharpening his knives for Ted Cruz and it's - it is all the more effective, Ashleigh, because he has Sarah Palin at his side. Sarah Palin was an enthusiastic supporter of Donald - of Ted Cruz when Ted Cruz was running for the Senate in Texas. And for Donald Trump to have that endorsement on his side, Ted Cruz can say, well, it doesn't really bother me that much. She can support whoever she wants. That is one of those major momentum shifting things that can happen at the - at the latter stages of a campaign like this heading into the Iowa caucus. That could really make the difference.

And when you see that poll that just came out, you talked about it a few moments ago, showing Donald Trump with this sizable national lead, you also have to wonder what is going to take place in these statewide polls at the end of this week in Iowa, and New Hampshire, to sort of see what the Palin effect is, because she does fire up Christian conservatives, she does fire up the Tea Party base of the Republican Party, and that is where Donald Trump is right now. They both appeal to this section of the Republican Party that feels disenfranchised, that is dissatisfied with the Republican establishment in Washington. You hear both Donald Trump and Sarah Palin tearing into Republicans in Congress for cutting deals with the Obama administration to avoid a fiscal cliff or to avoid a government shutdown.

[12:05:28] BANFIELD: Sure. Sure. ACOSTA: They are definitely speaking to the same crowds when they get out here on the stage.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Yes, she sure does help him with the anti-establishment crowd. And then, of course, with the establishment crowd, the governor of Iowa did that for Trump yesterday by suggesting, don't vote for Cruz. It was a pretty remarkable day.

Jim, hold that thought for a minute. I want to get Ron in on this, because, Ron, you wrote something pretty poignant for "The National Journal," this new term, the blue collar cultural conservative. I hearken back to all of the other voting blocs that have emerged during crucial elections -

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BANFIELD: Like the soccer moms, et cetera. But is this truly the critical voting bloc that you see, that we are going to have this in our common parlance this time around?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think it's a critical bloc in this particular Republican race, Ashleigh, because it's where the Venn diagram of Donald Trump's strength and Ted Cruz's strength overlap. Trump has been strong across the Republican Party. He wouldn't be the frontrunner without that. But he's in such a strong position because he's been absolutely dominant among ((INAUDIBLE) often the most disaffected voters, as Jim was talking about.

Ted Cruz's strength is prime - is greatest among evangelical Christians, and that he as assiduously organized them in the way we have seen before. He's organized pastors in states like Iowa and South Carolina. He's gotten a lot of big name national endorsements.

But Trump is proving surprisingly completive for those evangelical votes but his blue collar strength is extending across that religious border. He is competing well for those blue collar evangelicals in particular who may be drawn to him, less on social issues than on the same other kind of economic and cultural concerns, like immigration and trade, in which he's attracting more secular blue collar voters. And, look, Sarah Palin, I think her star has faded in the Republican Party. She's not the force that she used to be, but that is precisely where she can be of help to him, among those voters.

BANFIELD: I want to ask you exactly about that because, I'll tell you what, she sure does electrify a crowd and she was all over ever TV screen yesterday.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BANFIELD: That endorsement was very energizing, no matter what you say.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. BANFIELD: But there is that waning influence. I mean she was a Fox News contributor, and that went away. She had a reality TV show, and that went away. And then she tried an Internet subscription channel, and it didn't even last a year. And I think now her voice is sort of FaceBook, and maybe some social media. So I actually do want to know, aside from all the excitement of seeing her sort of for the national - on the national stage again for the first time, how much influence could a Sarah Palin endorsement actually have?

BROWNSTEIN: My view is, look, all endorsements have limited influence, first of all. I mean and especially at the presidential level. Second, I think, as I say, her moment of maximum influence is past. She may benefit as much from this association with Trump as vice versa. But having said that, I do think it is a signal for the kind of voters that are, I think, at such a pivot point between in particular Trump and Cruz. You know, the Trump constituency is exactly the constituency that she targeted in 2008.

And by the way, from the Palin career, you see the exact price that Trump will pay for this targeting potentially if he becomes the nominee, which is that she is deeply unpopular among many of the more cosmopolitan and secular groups at the core of the Democratic coalition, and he risks engendering the same backlash by making the same kind of appeal and relying on the same kind of arguments that we saw Palin use in 2008 and beyond.

BANFIELD: Ron Brownstein, always great to have your perspective. A great piece that you wrote as well. And, Jim Acosta, as always, we're looking forward to your coverage. You'll have to let us know if Ms. Palin arrives. Thank you to you both.

On the Democratic side, team Clinton is airing a brand new TV ad telling viewers in Iowa and in New Hampshire that Hillary has, and I quote, "everything it takes to be president."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, TELEVISION AD: She'll never let anyone privatize Social Security and Medicare or shut down Planned Parenthood. He'll take on the gun lobby, finally get equal pay for women, and stop the Republicans from ripping all our progress away. So on February 1st, stand up for Hillary, because if you want a president who knows how to keep America safe and build a stronger economy, Hillary's the choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So Hillary does remain the choice of at least 52 percent of Democratic voters right across the country. This is according to the latest Monmouth survey. But the Democratic socialist from Vermont is now just 15 points behind her. And that's less than half of the gap that existed a month ago. And then there's New Hampshire, folks. Wow! Don't blink. You're really seeing the numbers that have just come in from CNN/WMUR poll. It's all Bernie Sanders, 60 percent to Clinton's 33 percent. A month ago Sanders led by just 10 points. So that's significant to say the least.

[12:10:21] CNN's Jeff Zeleny joins me from Des Moines right now.

I know you had a chance to talk to Bernie Sanders last night. I'm not sure if that poll had actually come out beforehand or if he was able to react to that. Some people are saying, this sounds like an outlier poll. But what's he saying?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, we don't look at one poll, you look at sort of a series of polls, but there's no doubt that Bernie Sanders is leading by a lot in New Hampshire. The Clinton campaign acknowledges this. So whether it's 27 percent or 20 percent or 15 percent, it's a - it's a big irrelevant. He is leading without a question.

And the challenge for him, though, is bring over that support into Iowa. He's doing very well here. The race is essentially deadlocked. And I can tell you, he had a bounce in his step yesterday as he was going from town to town to town making the case for why he's electable. He was focused on his polls, why he's doing so well, and he was trying to convince Iowa Democrats that he can actually win. He can go the distance here.

But I asked him to respond to some criticism from his rival, Secretary Clinton, about how he's overpromising some things to liberals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Are you overpromising some of the things that you can deliver?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. No, I am not overpromising. Virtually every proposal that we have brought forth has the support of the vast majority of the American people. People want to raise the minimum wage. People want pay equity for women. These are not radical ideas. And if we rally the American people to stand up and demand the government that represents all of us and not a handful of billionaires, we can implement that program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So what Senator Sanders is trying to do is say, look, we can rally the people behind us on this. But what the Clinton campaign is trying to argue, and Secretary Clinton is doing it herself is, look, this is not possible with a divided Congress in Washington. And, Ashleigh, it breaks down to revolution on Sanders' sides, and results on Clinton's side. And we'll see which side voters here actually side with.

BANFIELD: And then it also comes down to the last headlines that people are reading as they go into those caucuses -

ZELENY: Sure.

BANFIELD: And into those primaries. And - and to that end, there's more news on Hillary Clinton's e-mail server. And the problem certainly not going away. Now the inspector general for the intelligence community is saying that some of those e-mails on her private server were actually considered above top secret. So what does the Clinton campaign say about that?

ZELENY: Well, Ashleigh, this is certainly something that's been playing out in real time all year long and there is another sort of group of e-mails that will be released from her time as secretary of state the day before the Iowa caucuses. The State Department is releasing these on January 31st, which is actually a Sunday. So they could come out a couple days before or perhaps on caucus day.

But, look, the Clinton campaign says there is no new information in any of this. They believe that these e-mails were classified after the fact. That this e-mail specifically is actually a "New York Times" article that she was passing along. So this is just something that is going to be one of the many things that voters consider here. But she has not put the e-mail scandal behind her, at least for the next few weeks or so, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Jeff Zeleny, keep warm, my friend. You and Bernie Sanders looked like you were in a blizzard. And I'm from Canada, so I can say, I know cold. Thank you, Jeff.

ZELENY: It's just a little snowstorm. It's fine. But -

BANFIELD: That's what I used to say. Appreciate it.

By the way, I want to let all our viewers know about something that's very special. An event that's coming next Monday night in Iowa. It's only going to be seen here on CNN. So we're pretty excited about it. Exactly one week before the Iowa caucuses, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley are going to get together and face-to-face they will actually appear before the voters in Iowa in a CNN Democratic presidential town hall. It's live from Des Moines. Chris Cuomo, my colleague from "New Day," is going to moderate this. It is the final pitch that they get to make, all those candidates, before the first votes are actually cast. It's also a really unique opportunity for Iowans to be able to ask those candidates questions directly, right there, face to face. That's Monday night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, live right here only on CNN.

Up next, this has been the worst year ever. Just the worst start to a year for Wall Street. And things are getting even uglier. After the opening bell, if you've been watching the right-hand side of your screen most of the day, these are the numbers that have been ticking by. We've been dancing around minus 500. So we're going to explaining a little bit what this means, what it means for you, what you should or shouldn't be doing about it and where we might go from here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:18:56] BANFIELD: Traders and investors hoping for some calm in the markets today. Well, I think the numbers pretty much tell you how they're doing today. The Dow taking another stomach-churning tumble today following oil prices pretty much heading down that same road. This is already the worst start to a new year ever, in history, for the stock market. And trading today is doing nothing to help, but I keep watching to see if it's going to hit minus 500. It has not yet.

Alison Kosik is watching, too, from the center of it all. She's at the New York Stock Exchange.

So, first of all, look, we've been talking China a lot. We've been talking energy a lot. Oil prices dumping, you know, through the barrel - bottom of the barrel, pardon the pun. But China wasn't doing so bad yesterday. So is this mess we're seeing right now all because of oil prices?

ALISON KOSIK: I think you can certainly pin it on oil prices, and the worries that these lower oil prices are causing, yes. So what we have been seeing is this pattern since the beginning of the year, since we've been seeing these red arrows almost on a daily basis. We're seeing stocks, Ashleigh, moving lock step with oil. Meaning as oil plunges, stocks are plunging. So, yes, the focus remaining on oil and the kind of impact that these really bottom-basement low oil prices have on economies, not just here in the U.S. but around the world.

[12:20:13] And analysts are saying that these low oil prices, which, by the way, these are levels, Ashleigh, we haven't seen in more than a decade, that they're an indicator of how economies around the world are doing. And you know how they're doing, they're not doing well. They're slowing down. So then that begs the question and the worry becomes, well, how long can the U.S. stay strong in that kind of environment? That is the worry that can we see this really affect the broader economy of the U.S.?

You know, you look at how oil prices are doing and you are hey, they're great for consumers, and they are, because when we pull up to the gas tank, it's cheap to fill up your car now. But the problem is, there's a tipping point when you see oil prices get to a certain price. Don't know if we're there yet, but there's a tipping point where they start to affect the economy negatively, where you see hundreds of thousands of job losses, like we've seen in the energy sector. We're seeing some of these smaller companies in the energy industry go bankrupt. We're seeing foreclosures in states like Texas and Oklahoma, where people worked in the energy industry, they've lost their jobs and have foreclosed on their homes. We're seeing the negative effect of oil price. Who knew?

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Oh, we just hit 500. There you go. Just as you were wrapping up, we just hit that 500 point. Alison, I actually want to ask you about that. Look, I know it's just a - a number, but is there some psychology to this? Is there some number particularly in the lower one, Dow at 15,500, that really starts to shake people, apart from what we're seeing in China, apart from those oil prices?

KOSIK: Oh, most definitely. I mean these are psychological milestones. When you see the Dow down over 500 points, yes, that makes you shake. That makes you - that makes you worry. But, of course, everybody says, don't panic. This is how one trader put it. I called him up and I said, listen, make it stop. What's going to make it stop? And he says, you know what, there's not a whole lot that's going to make this sell- off stop. He says this market is going to continue to grind lower until what he calls capitulation. And that's where you're going to see the volume of the selling pick up, a little bit as we're seeing now. You're going to see the buyers just disappear and you're going to see a big drop lower and you're going to see that drop happen quickly. And then, he says, then you'll know the market has hit bottom and then you'll see the market move higher with conviction. But until then, he tells me, there's no earnings report, there's no economic data that's going to take away the negative sentiment that is throughout the market right now, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Yes, and you know what, a lot of people say, stomach for it, are you kidding me? This is the greatest fail ever. There a lot of people who are out there buying and jamming stuff into their - what they should consider retirement funds because this is a good place to buy when you're this low down, as long as you don't need it right away.

Alison, keep an eye for us and jump back in if things gets crazier, OK?

KOSIK: Right. OK.

BANFIELD: Thank you for that.

KOSIK: You got it.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, terrorist attacking a college campus, killing at least 19 people at a university in northwest Pakistan. And this happened just miles from where the Taliban massacred more than 130 schoolchildren just over a year ago. What exactly is the message here? And who are they sending it to? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:27:30] BANFIELD: All right, so some breaking news we want to continue covering for you here. A couple of numbers of significance here. First and foremost, that plunging number on the - on the top right-hand side, 540 points down, the Dow. And it just keeps dropping, folks. It just hit 500 as I was speaking with Alison Kosik live moments ago before the commercial break. We're now down 500 and a half. Maybe more significant, the number over to the left, because that means the Dow is down 3.46 percent for the day.

The two other major indices aren't doing that well either. The S&P and the Nasdaq are also really suffering today. Much of this, as Alison reported earlier, the reverberations from oil and that Iran deal because the Iran deal and the lifting of sanctions means that Iran can start pumping those spigots. And they talked about upping their production to 500 barrels a day. And not only that, heading to - excuse me 500,000 barrels a day, but also a 1 million perhaps by the end of the year.

So glut on the oil market means prices for oil dropping. I think they dropped below $27 or $29, I've got to just double-check that. But, you know, a significant milestone for the drop in oil today. And the reverberations you can see right there on your screen. The China economy is still messing around in the back as well, but we're watching to see and we're going to continue covering this if it gets any worse. But we've also got big breaking news overseas today. A small group of

gunmen bursting into a university campus in Pakistan and then just opening fire. I want to take you to northern Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, and the pictures that we're getting into CNN. As we know right now, about 19 people at that college campus are dead. We're still waiting on a change in that count, though, because we're expecting it to go up since many other people were terribly, terribly hurt in this attack. And also dead, four of the killers, the murders. They were shot by Pakistan's security forces who surrounded that school property.

It appears as though some thought went into the timing of this massacre. A ceremony was going on at the time, attracting a big crowd of students and staff. The attack is now over. The army and the police trying to figure out who exactly is responsible for this.

Our Nick Paton Walsh is in Beirut covering this story for us.

So the strange part of this, Nick, is that there had been a claim of responsibility, the Pakistani Taliban, but it's unusual that there are different spokespeople saying different things and we're not exactly sure if it's true. So walk me through why that's happening and also the connection to that terrible school massacre from last year.

[12:30:12] NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it starts with your reference to the massacre in