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Clinton & Sanders Face-Off in Iowa; The Race for President: Will Trump Boycott the Next Debate?; Planned Parenthood Video Creators Indicted; Curry, Warriors Dominate Spurs 120-90. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired January 26, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:12] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The Democrats running for president face-off. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders making their cases just six days until the Iowa caucuses. Who came out on top?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And will Donald Trump boycott the next Republican presidential debate? What he told CNN.

ROMANS: And the anti-abortion activists who secretly taped Planned Parenthood employees and created a political fire storm now indicted.

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

SANCHEZ: And I'm Boris Sanchez. Christine, happy to be here with you this Tuesday, January 26th, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast.

And there were just six days left until the Iowa caucuses. The Democrat candidates battled late into the day at a CNN town hall in Des Moines, drawing sharp distinctions on policy.

Bernie Sanders offering perhaps his harshest criticism yet of Hillary Clinton, repeatedly casting doubt on her judgment, and bringing her vote to authorize the war in Iraq center stage.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny was there. He has the story for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Boris, with less than one week now remaining until the Iowa caucuses, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley made their cases directly to Iowa voters and took questions from many undecided voters. What stood out to me last night here in Des Moines at Drake University was subjects and questions about judgment, presidential judgment. Bernie Sanders directly answered the question if he has the judgment to be president.

Of course, this follows on the heels of President Obama slightly tipping the scales toward Hillary Clinton, raising the question if Senator Sanders has the experience and judgment. This is what he said.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Obama's obviously right. Being president is an enormously difficult job. It's a job that entails dealing with a million issues. I think I have the background, I think I have the judgment to do that. I would remind you and remind the viewers that in 2002 when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney said we should go to war in Iraq, Bernie Sanders listened carefully and I said, no, I think that war is a dumb idea. I helped lead the opposition to that war.

ZELENY: Now, on that Iraq war vote, Secretary Clinton has, of course, responded to this for more than eight years. She said her judgment was validated by President Obama selecting her as his secretary of state.

Listen to her answer.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, I have a longer history than one vote which I said was a mistake because of the way that was done and how the Bush administration handled it. But I think the American people have seen me exercising judgment in a lot of other ways and, in fact, when that hard primary campaign was over and I worked for President Obama and he asked me to work as secretary of state, it was because he trusted my judgment. And we worked side by side over those four years.

ZELENY: Now, Martin O'Malley also made the case to his supporters here. He said that he is a new generation of leader. He urged all of these Iowa supporters to hold fast next Monday night at the Iowa caucuses.

Now, of course, with just six days remaining until the first votes of the 2016 campaign, the candidates are now back out campaigning across the state. They have six more days to make their final arguments to voters -- Christine and Boris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Jeff Zeleny, great work there for us, Jeff.

Here to break down the candidates' town hall performances and the rest of the day in politics is "Daily Beast" editor at large, Goldie Taylor, back with us again this morning.

Nice to see you this morning. A late night for all of us.

GOLDIE TAYLOR, EDITOR-AT-LARGE, THE DAILY BEAST: Good to see you. Late night, absolutely.

ROMANS: So, give me your assessment of the performances of those three candidates last night.

TAYLOR: You know, nobody really won. I say that because no one walked away with one more voter than they walked into the forum last night. But they did hold their own. They did not do harm to themselves by and large. They didn't distance themselves from their base, but they didn't grow it either.

SANCHEZ: I have a question for you about Hillary Clinton. One of the very first questions she was asked from a young voter who basically said that a lot of people don't trust her. We've seen a gap in trust with her and some of the other candidates. How much Bernie Sanders support has to do with that perceived lack of honesty from Hillary Clinton?

TAYLOR: It has a great deal to do with it. If you were to do a sort of a word test around Hillary Clinton, first word that comes to mind, you're going to find a good many people for whatever reason to come up with a word of distrust or not always telling the truth. Whether or not that's true or not, that's the perception that many people have if you look at public opinion polling.

The truth of the matter is, that Clintons have had over the years a very intimate relationship with voters. The way to get in the middle of that is to say you can't trust her. And so, it's a very potent, very viable way to sort of disaffect her from her base.

ROMANS: One of the images last night and answers from Hillary Clinton last night, she was asked by a veteran, Muslim-American veteran mother of three, who said, how do I make sure the best place -- the United States is the best place to raise my children given the climate in this political debate?

[05:05:11] And this is what Hillary Clinton said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: One of the most distressing aspects of this campaign has been the language of Republican candidates, particularly their frontrunner, that insults, demeans, denigrates different people. He has cast a wide net. He started with Mexicans. He's currently on Muslims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: She went on to say impassioned that parents are telling her kids don't want to go to school because of the climate. What do you make of that moment?

TAYLOR: Well, she is right. We are in a very distressing moment in our nation's history in terms of how, you know, we manage this public discourse around this president. You know, there are candidates in this race who have said and done things over recent months that we didn't think would be the kind of thing that would leave a candidate viable moving forward. But at least in one or two cases, those candidates have grown really in stature.

And, you know, so that's what Hillary Clinton was taking on last night. She'll have to continue to sharpen that argument. She'll have to continue to advance that --

ROMANS: That was a primary argument.

TAYLOR: That was a primary argument, but she'll have to make it, I think, come general time, you know, if we see someone like Donald Trump victorious over the GOP nomination. SANCHEZ: Let's talk Bernie Sanders. At the beginning of this

campaign, Democrats mostly played nice. First debate, he said nobody cares about Hillary's e-mails. Last night, a bit of a sharp contrast. Obviously, Jeff was talking about him going her for the Iraq war vote. He also talked about the Keystone pipeline. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: On day one, I said the Keystone pipeline is a dumb idea.

(APPLAUSE)

CHRIS CUOMO, MODERATOR: Senator, OK.

SANDERS: I think the Bakken pipeline, and pipelines in Vermont and New Hampshire are dumb. We've got to break independence on fossil fuel. Why did it take -- why did it take Hillary Clinton such a long time before she came into opposition to the Keystone pipeline?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So, it's not exactly an aggressive attack, but he is going after her. Do you expect to see more of this if the campaign gets deeper and deeper on the Democratic side?

TAYLOR: In fact, I do. Maybe not as -- once we get on the other side of Iowa and New Hampshire, when things meet the open road of South Carolina and New Hampshire -- I'm sorry, Nevada, we're going to see Senator Sanders take on the attack with greater fervor. I was there when you weren't.

And he's going to continue to double down on that. And that's not necessarily negative campaigning, but that's really sort of drawing a contrast.

Hillary Clinton is going to have to fire back on that. She's going to make sure that she is appropriately insulated and show her record, you know, how she has supported, you know, women's equality and certainly she's been there. She's going to have to show where she's made the appropriate judgments on war votes and such.

And so, she's going to have to really fight back with her own record. But no one is really better at doing that than she.

ROMANS: We also had a really interesting interview yesterday. Wolf Blitzer and Donald Trump, Trump talking extensively about the next debate. And, you know, he talked about Megyn Kelly, the co-host, and said, you know, he didn't like her. He doesn't think she likes him. That spat coming to the fore again.

And he didn't say he would absolutely commit to this debate. Listen to what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You haven't 100 percent decided you will be on this debate?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, nothing to 100 percent.

BLITZER: Why not?

TRUMP: I just -- I'm not 100 percent. I'll see. If I think I'm going to be treated unfairly, I'll do something else. But I don't think she can treat me fairly actually. I think she's very biased and I don't think she can treat me fairly. But that doesn't mean I don't do the debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I had trouble diagramming that sentence. However, what do you think he's going for there?

TAYLOR: This is lovers. I mean, you can go after a couple of people in this world and really get away with it, used car salesmen and journalists. So, he spends an awful lot of time attacking the media because frankly that resonates with the GOP base, it resonates with his, you know, collection of voters that he strung together.

So, he can continue to fire that line again and again without really doing any harm to himself, but raising his own profile. Then, too, he has been able to leverage it, maybe not with this, but maybe with some network, he's been able to leverage that in a way that he sort of frames himself as, you know, people are being unfair to him.

So, when you look at how he's questioned, when he's brought on air, I think some people do, you know, play him with kid gloves because of the way that he sort of insulates himself from what he thinks are media attacks.

SANCHEZ: He certainly energizes his base every time he goes after the media. It's a sentiment that's really engrained.

ROMANS: All right. You're going to stick with us.

SANCHEZ: Goldie Taylor, thank you so much. We'll see you again at 5:30.

TAYLOR: Thank you.

ROMANS: Thanks, Goldie.

All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. It looks like an ugly day for markets around the world, folks. Asian stocks down lower. Look at Shanghai, down 6.4 percent, the lowest level since December 2014.

[05:10:04] Chinese central bank pumped cash into its markets, but that did nothing, nothing to slow the selloff.

So, you have European markets taking the lead, looking at this unease in Asia. They are lower. U.S. stock futures are also lower. Yesterday, the Dow he fell 1.3 percent. That was 208 points. The S&P

and NASDAQ fell 1.5 percent. It has been a horrible year to be invested in stock.

And once again, oil is at the heart of the volatility. The price of oil fell more than 5 percent Monday. Now, just above $30 a barrel.

Boris, that will be a big decider today, what happens with crude prices.

SANCHEZ: The worst start for Wall Street ever.

ROMANS: Ever, yes. I'm really sorry to say.

At some point, people are going to decide that it is all overblown, right? That there won't be a recession in the U.S. Let's start buying stocks. That's just not today.

SANCHEZ: We'll see.

The anti-abortion activists behind the undercover Planned Parenthood videos indicted on felony charges. Details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:06] ROMANS: A startling development this morning in the Planned Parenthood controversy. A grand jury in Houston, Texas, has cleared Planned Parenthood of accusations it profited from the sale of fetal tissue. Instead, the grand jury indicted Planned Parenthood's accusers. Two anti-abortion activists charged with using forged driver's licenses to infiltrate the organization so they could shoot videos of its officials. The reaction to the indictments came swiftly with Republican presidential candidates calling it sad and shocking.

More now from CNN's Pamela Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Christine, good morning to you.

This is truly a stunning twist. The anti-abortion activists with the Center for Medical Progress are charged with a second degree felony tampering with governmental record. And the center's director has also been indicted on a misdemeanor relating to purchasing of human organs. He posed as a bio-technician and secretly recorded Planned Parenthood officials.

The center released those videos last summer, as you may recall and they said that they showed how Planned Parenthood was trying to sell fetal tissue for profit. Those videos went viral. They have been the topic of debate on the campaign trail and the center of the grand jury investigation.

Planned Parenthood has denied the claims since the very beginning and released a statement reacting to the indictments saying these anti- abortion extremists spent three years creating a fake company and fake identities and lying and breaking the law when they couldn't find any improper or illegal activity, they made it up.

Now, one of the people who has been indicted, David Daleiden, who was the director of the center, released a statement reacting to this saying, "We respect the process of the Harris County district attorney and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well."

The Texas governor who have been pushing for this investigation also released reacted to this saying that this will not impact the state investigation that is still ongoing into this matter -- Boris and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: All right. Pam Brown, thanks for that.

President Obama moving to ban solitary confinement for juvenile and low level offenders in federal prisons. The president writing in a "Washington Post" op-ed says the practice is overused and could have devastating psychological consequences. Out of the new rules, the longest the first-time offender can be punished with solitary is 60 days rather than the current 365-day maximum. The reform affects roughly 10,000 current inmates.

ROMANS: In Southern California, the manhunt intensifies for three inmates who made an elaborate escape from an Orange County jail last week. Authorities say they cut through steel bars, making their way through plumbing pipes to the rope, and then repelling down with roof made of bed sheets before fleeing on foot. The three fugitives are considered armed and dangerous. The FBI has raised the reward for information leading to their capture to $50,000.

SANCHEZ: The Flint, Michigan city administrator says the city is reeling from the water contamination crisis. He says the growing number of residents are refusing to pay for water service and the city's water fund could be out of money by year's end. Michigan's attorney general says he's outraged that people in Flint are being forced to even pay for water that's harming them and he may take action to stop the billing.

ROMANS: What a mess.

All right. Day three of the dig out from the epic winter storm that has very much of the eastern U.S. in snow. In Washington, D.C., schools and federal offices will be closed again today. The mayor expects the city to be dealing with snow issues all week. Air travel is still affected, more than 1,600 U.S. flights were canceled Monday. The storm is also blamed for at least 36 deaths.

SANCHEZ: Nine of them here in New York. Many of them were just people that went out to shovel their driveways.

ROMANS: Others are people who got in their car to charge a cell phone or stay warm and tail pipe is closed with the snow and they died of carbon monoxide. SANCHEZ: Sad to see.

Well, it is billed as the best NBA regular season game ever, somehow did the showdown with the Warriors and Spurs turn into a smack down? Coy Wire has this morning's bleacher report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:29] ROMANS: All right. The Spurs and the Warriors going head- to-head last night, both off to historic starts. Only one can come out on top.

SANCHEZ: And Coy Wire has more in this morning's bleacher report.

Coy, we were expecting a showdown of epic proportions. Instead, Steph Curry sat the entire fourth quarter.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my goodness. It was ugly, Boris.

Good morning to you and to Christine.

This match up between the Spurs and Warriors game could statistically be considered the best match ever in NBA history. Both teams with the highest combined win percentage after 40 games by two teams that played each other. So, we are talking 78-10 combined.

Now, Tim Duncan sat this one out and, boy, they could have used him. He had a sore right knee. But their defense was struggling. Steph Curry out there pretty much doing what he wanted to do. He had three steals early in the game and he scored 37 points, including six three pointers in only three quarters. Boris mentioned, Spurs had no answers for the reigning NBA champs. Warriors win 120-90. It's Golden State's 39th straight win at home.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich not too happy afterwards. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGG POPOVICH, SPURS HEAD COACH: So, my game plan sucked. Maybe I didn't have them ready mentally, whatever. But again, it was men and boys in almost every facet of the game. So, nothing -- not much else I can say, but that's the truth and I'm sticking to it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Let's go to the tennis courts with the Australian Open. Serena Williams taking on her, quote/quote, "biggest rival", Maria Sharapova. And this one was a blowout. Just like the Warriors and Spurs, Serena's dominated Sharapova, sealing her 18th straight win over the Russian.

[05:25:03] And Serena is now just two wins away from her 22nd major title, which would tie her with Steffi Graf with the most ever in the open. Serena wins in two seats 6-4, 6-1, to advance to the semi. Now, Peyton Manning, he's going to be the center of the attention in the sports world in the next couple weeks, headed to a sports Super Bowl with that opportunity to win a second. This could be his last game and an opportunity to ride off into the sunset of an historic career.

We caught up with his legendary father, Archie Manning, in the tunnel, just moments after the Broncos AFC championship game on Sunday. We got his thoughts on this special time in his son's life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARCHIE MANNING, PEYTON MANNING'S FATHER: It's been a good rodeo and 18 good years. I don't know what's going to happen. I probably shouldn't have talked about it. I shouldn't have brought it up. But, you know, you savor every moment. It's a special day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: What a special time for Peyton Manning being in the locker room after the game and talking to players, their face lit up so genuinely and talking about Peyton Manning and the opportunity they have to contribute to an ending -- possible ending of an incredible career, guys.

SANCHEZ: Definitely. Archie Manning has to be incredibly proud. Three Super Bowls between his sons with a possibly of a fourth.

WIRE: He might be the coolest dad ever.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: All right. Thanks so much for that, Coy Wire.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ROMANS: Twenty-six minutes past the hour. Democrats running for president making their final case to voters in a CNN town hall. We breakdown all the action, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)