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Emily Ratajkowski: Women Don't Have to Vote for Hillary; U.S. Intelligence Community Warns of ISIS Threat this Year; Record Turn out Expected for N.H. Primary; Do Governors or Senators Make Better Presidents. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired February 09, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:30:35] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Let me remind you again, primary day here in America. In New Hampshire, voters making their choices, first-in-the-nation primary.
One person who visited the state, actress and "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit model, Emily Ratajkowski. She is stumping for Senator Bernie Sanders. Here's some pictures. You probably recognize her, from the whole Robin Thick "Blurred Lines" video. She was also in the movie "Gone Girl."
While critics of -- Gloria Steinem has been saying women have a duty to vote for Hillary Clinton, and Madeleine Albright saying that, for one, Ratajkowski could not disagree more.
Political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, was at that Bernie Sanders event, and talked to Emily Ratajkowski.
We talked about women in the wake of what Madeleine Albright, Gloria Steinem said. You have been on the trail, covering Hillary Clinton for two years. You've been talking to young women. What do you make of all this?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's one of the reasons I spoke to Emily Ratajkowski because she said something we're hearing a lot of women say since this weekend when Gloria Steinem she said, "Where are the boys, the boys are with Bernie."
BALDWIN: Meaning that's where the girls will go.
KEILAR: That's right. And that really ticked off a lot of young women. You saw that from this. What she said to this crowd is -- in the beginning, she was one of the surrogates who was sort of riling up the crowd ahead of time and she said, why am I here, it's not for the boys. And because of that, we thought, wow, that was quite a little bit of "here's what's up" to Gloria Steinem.
BALDWIN: Yeah. Yeah.
KEILAR: We talked to her and here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EMILY RATAJKOWSKI, ACTRESS & SUPERMODEL: I understand the urge to want to support, you know, a Democratic female candidate who has completely earned her stripes, you know, I think that my initial response to Hillary was a positive one. But, you know, depending on your politics, if you don't agree with some of the things that, you know, I think are pretty extreme and very, very, you know, to the right of where I'd like to see the party head,, it's really that simple to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So this is really I think what we're keeping an eye on here after tonight in New Hampshire, compared to Iowa, do you see even more of a break between young women who seem to be gravitating towards Bernie Sanders and towards, you know, older women who are much more dependable supporters of Hillary Clinton?
BALDWIN: Something to watch for tonight. Then into looking ahead, the next primary for the Dems is Nevada, and we know that is where Hillary Clinton will be heading. Do we think that -- how much of a challenge will she face?
KEILAR: I think the campaign is a lot more confident about South Carolina than they are about Nevada. One, they'll say it's caucuses, so it could be a little more wonky, it's harder to game out. Then they'll also say Nevada is a state that is a lot more white, for instance, than South Carolina. They think with the demographics in their corner they could get a little challenge there. But it should be much easier state for Hillary Clinton than Iowa and New Hampshire, which are much more white than Nevada.
BALDWIN: Good luck tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: You, too.
BALDWIN: Brianna, thank you very much.
Just a reminder, this Thursday, February 11th, CNN will be simulcasting the PBS News Hour Democratic presidential debate live from Milwaukee, 9:00 p.m. eastern, here on CNN and your local PBS station.
One of the folks in charge of Donald Trump's ground game here in New Hampshire, he will join me live in New Hampshire to talk about what they're seeing right now and whether Donald Trump is at all concerned about his ground game in other states, looking ahead.
Also, chilling developments today in the war on ISIS. One of America's top intelligence officials saying that terrorists are infiltrating refugees and revealing when ISIS will try to attack the United States. We have those details also for you next.
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[14:38:59] BALDWIN: We'll continue coverage of the New Hampshire primary.
But first, a disturbing appraisal today from top intelligence officials on the danger ISIS poses to the United States. The Defense Intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart, appeared before the Armed Services Committee just this morning, warning that ISIS is likely to attempt direct attacks on the United States this year. And the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, says ISIS is using the refugee crisis in the Middle East in order to reach other countries.
Let me bring in CNN's chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.
Jim, Clapper told lawmakers this is the worst risk he's seen in his 50 years in Intelligence.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He's been around a long time, Brooke, and he gave a very stark and sobering and blunt assessment, you know, in saying it's the worst he's ever seen. He's talking about the threats, Russia, China, cyber threats and definitely terrorism. I've heard him speak a lot. I've interviewed him before. This is very stark testimony because he's describing in specific terms the expanding ISIS threats. He says they're now in eight countries and counting and taking advantage of more terror safe havens in the world.
You think about Syria, Libya, Yemen, parts even of Afghanistan, failed states or failed areas of states that give them places to operate. And then send fighters out into the West to carry out attacks. We saw that in Paris. And he was saying, as you highlighted, they're hiding in that refugee stream. And then, the big target remains here in the U.S. And a very stark warning to hear that they have the U.S. homeland in their sights this year.
BALDWIN: Let's listen to a little bit of Clapper's testimony.
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[14:40:36] JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY: There are now more Sunni violent extremist groups, members, and safe havens than at any time in history. The rate of foreign fighters traveling to the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq in the past few years is without precedent. At least 38,200 foreign fighters, including at least 6,900 from Western countries, have travelled to Syria from at least 120 countries since the beginning of the conflict in 2012.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Frightening numbers. He says a lot of those as you just mentioned, they're terrorists, he says, hiding among the refugee stream.
SCIUTTO: Of course, there's going to be political sensitivity to that because the vast majority of those refugees are people in need but you have terrorist groups taking advantage of it. We know some of the Paris attackers used that very route to get into Europe after their training. That's a stark warning to hear from really the nation's top spy there describing the threat and saying it's not just Europe but it's here to the homeland as well.
BALDWIN: Jim Sciutto, thank you.
Back to -- listen, that's relevant. How might that affect polls in New Hampshire, the news on ISIS?
We're live here in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is the first-in- the-nation primary. Turnout is expected to break records. We're hearing from the secretary state somewhere in the neighborhood of half a million.
And several Republicans candidates, they're hoping to break out of this pack with poll after poll showing Trump in the lead. All eyes are on who will take the next stop. Will Marco Rubio rise after his much-maligned debate performance over the weekend, or could it be one of the current or former governors in the running, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, all hoping New Hampshire will reset this race for them.
With me now, Chris Mazerall, the chair of Trump's campaign in the town of Jaffray, New Hampshire.
Nice to meet you. Welcome.
CHRIS MAZERALL, CHAIR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN, JAFFRAY, NEW HAMPSHIRE: Good to meet you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Nice to meet you. Thank you.
Listen, everything I've read about you, you're known for your cowboy state, rolling around the state. There we go. Why not? And your pet cockatoo to bring in the young kids in the grocery store where you tell them all to go for Donald Trump. You're a microbiologist.
MAZERALL: Yes, that's correct.
BALDWIN: This is the first time you've got involved in politics. What is it about Trump that resonates with you so much?
MAZERALL: What's important, particularly where I live, I live in a small town, and we're now the exception and not the rule. But we're propped up by manufacturing. We have a handful of industries in our town between Millport, Teleflex, New Hampshire Ballbearing, very big employers. There's really nothing that can keep these jobs in the country. Most of them are foreign owned by now. What will happen to my town is it will be belly up and, you know, there's towns around here -- I don't want to mention them, but there's a lot of towns where the industry's gone. We see it throughout the country in the Rust Belt. You've got this culture of despair. Parents aren't working. The kids grow up, see their parents aren't working, and that's where we have a lot of the issues that people like to talk about but they don't tie, you know, between the drug culture, the illegitimacy, the collapse of the family, all these things that politicians rant about, but they don't really address the key issue, which is --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You feel like this is what Mr. Trump did has really resonated for you.
MAZERALL: Yes.
BALDWIN: I'm curious, just day to day here, especially in this final stretch here in New Hampshire, how much guidance have you gotten directly from Mr. Trump?
MAZERALL: The guidance from Trump? I've been able to work with the field reps and things like that. I'm kind of trying to do this in a self-directed fashion. So we have a strong volunteer effort. I'm hoping after the primary we can really do a reassessment and then find out which volunteers really put forward an effort and try to -- people aren't doing as good a job replacing and what not. The guidance is I talk a lot with people like matt and they do a really good job.
BALDWIN: What do they tell you?
MAZERALL: They said campaign like we're losing.
BALDWIN: Campaign like we're losing.
MAZERALL: Yes, because you don't want to be complacent. I don't want people to think that, you know, we're doing well, we're not going to go to the polls. Another thing I really want to do is they've been able to support me, I've been able to get volunteers to help me, but the last couple weeks, I've been putting up the big posters on the highway. Lately, I've been getting outside of my region because I want to go to the more populated areas, Amherst, Medford. And I want to show to people who are leaning towards Trump this is a real movement, this isn't just something on their TV set.
[14:45:19] BALDWIN: What's fascinating, Chris, is we had this whole thing on CNN.com about vacillating between two seemingly different candidates, Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump and in a primary like here, it can go either way.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: When you pick up the phone, how do you sway folks to Trump? What's your closing argument?
MAZERALL: First, I don't want to alienate the Bernie people because there's a frustration level. And if they're desperate enough to vote for someone like Bernie, who's kind of nuts, you know --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Well, other folks would disagree.
MAZERALL: Well, I probably shouldn't
(CROSSTALK)
MAZERALL: -- alienate them, like I said. But it's Socialism, it sounds great in theory, you know. You look at the old clips from like the Russian Revolution, it looks like there's a whole lot of cool stuff going on. They've got the coats and the boots and they're breaking out signs. When you compare Socialism to our system, the Soviet Union could have been around for 200 years, they never would have invented an iPhone. We have a system of incentive. It seems like we operate on greed but we reward people who improve the quality of life for our people.
BALDWIN: And that's where you -- that's your close argument on why people should vote for Donald Trump?-
MAZERALL: I try to explain to them, you know, America has done more good with capitalism than all these other groups and these other ideologies combined. Some of the poorest people in America can pick up a handheld computer and look at someone on the other side of the world. You look at the poorest people in America, live better than the richest people did 200 years ago.
BALDWIN: Chris Mazerall, I'll let you get to it.
MAZERALL: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Thank you so much for swinging by, really appreciate it, just to hear all these perspectives, invaluable on this primary day.
MAZERALL: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: Coming up next, who is better to be qualified for president? Would it be Senators? Could it be governors? The debate raging on the campaign trail. We'll speak to presidential historian, Doug Brinkley, next.
Also ahead, joining me live, a group of voters all the candidates want here in New Hampshire. These are the Independent voters we've been talking about. They will join me. They will reveal their choices at how they arrived at their decisions.
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[14:51:50] BALDWIN: Governors versus Senators, the question being who would be better qualified to become president of the United States. Both sides in this race debating precisely that topic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You have no been involved in a consequential decision where you had to be held accountable. You just simply haven't.
When you talk about Hezbollah Sanctions Act that you list as one your accomplishments, you weren't even there to vote for it. That's not leadership. That's truancy.
(APPLAUSE)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Chris, Chris, your state got hit by a massive snowstorm two weeks ago. You didn't even want to go back. They had to shame you into going back.
JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: Marco doesn't have it. He's gifted. Ted Cruz doesn't have it. He's -- I'm not saying they're not talented people, but they don't have a record of accomplishment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Joining me now, CNN presidential historian, Doug Brinkley.
Doug Brinkley, nice to see you, sir.
DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Thanks for having me on, Brooke.
BALDWIN: OK, so what does history tell us? Who makes for better presidents? Is it governors or Senators?
BRINKLEY: I think American history would point to governors being better. After all, if I had to rank the top three presidents of the 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt, Reagan, all governors. You see Bill Clinton emerging as a standard bearer for the Democrat in 1992. You saw George W. Bush win two terms as a Democratic governor from Texas.
Senators don't fare anywhere near as well. And, in fact, you'll see a Senator like Ted Cruz basically saying I'm not really a Senator. I went to Washington to distance myself from it. You see Bernie Sanders saying I'm not a Democrat or Republican, I previously was an Independent, trying to somehow not seem like you're just somebody who goes to Washington, D.C. and casts votes. Congress has about a 15 percent approval rating right now. I don't think you want to hitch your kite to that institution right now.
BALDWIN: Right. On governors, you know, specifically Jeb Bush would say governors should be president, not a Senator. He was comparing himself to Marco Rubio, essentially saying he, Jeb Bush, is better for prime time as an executive of a state, he's dealt with natural disasters and economy, employees, et cetera. What do you think the strongest attribute of a governor is going into the Oval Office?
BRINKLEY: That they don't have to vote on things. Look what's killing Hillary Clinton. Her vote for the Iraq war. That's what Bernie Sanders is nailing her on that. But the idea that a governor has created his own administration. You can judge, but it would be impossible to say that governor Kasich has not been good for Ohio. The public likes him.
Even a lot of Democrats are pleased with Kasich's job. So you can be judged on how you a leadership role where when you're in the Senate you're kind of stuck with some very controversial votes that you've got to make, and then you may see Marco Rubio not even showing up for the Senate very often. Barack Obama was different and John F. Kennedy. If you can be Senator who comes in very young and seems to be a change agent. Kennedy was able to be the youngest president coming out of Senate, but he was replacing the oldest president, Dwight Eisenhower. So there are those moments when those Senators can strike, but this is a tough year for it.
[14:55:20] BALDWIN: And then I suppose presidential historian, wisdom out the window with someone like a Donald Trump as the front- runner.
We'll have to double back on that another time.
Doug Brinkley, it will be a date, I promise you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
BALDWIN: Coming up next --
BRINKLEY: Thank you, Brooke.
BALDWIN: You got it.
Some undecided voters admit they have an odd decision to make, Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders. That's where a lot of people in New Hampshire are torn. Hear why they come down to deciding on these two men.
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[15:00:09] BALDWIN: And we continue on. I'm Brooke Baldwin. So great to be here live in snowy Manchester, New Hampshire.
