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GOP Battle Brewing Ahead of CNN Debate; Deadly Storms Slam East Coast; Black Lives Matter Activist Heckles Hillary Clinton; Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired February 25, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:03] CAMEROTA: Cherish them, I think. That's the lesson. Other items in the wallet, family photos, a pocket calendar from 1944 and ration stamps from the war.

Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Alisyn, you have a great day.

CAMEROTA: You too.

COSTELLO: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just like not even real.

COSTELLO: A rare and deadly February tornado outbreak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were standing in the middle of the house when it came through and it just demolished everything.

COSTELLO: The danger not confined to land. Winds so bruising a fishing boat hit shore prompting this daring rescue.

Plus targeting Trump.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There has never been a candidate like Donald Trump.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has actually alluded to the fact that he thinks parts of Obamacare are pretty good.

COSTELLO: Five candidates, one debate stage and the frontrunner says, game on.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're looking forward to a good week next week.

COSTELLO: And Clinton interrupted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a super predator, can you --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: OK. Fine. We'll talk about it --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you apologize to black people for mass incarcerations?

COSTELLO: Black Lives Matter protesters crashed a private South Carolina fundraiser as Clinton and Sanders battle for minority voters.

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Tonight's CNN Republican debate may be the nastiest yet. Senator Marco Rubio appears to have changed his tactics. Attacking Donald Trump by name and accusing him of not being an honest broker. Trump, though, says he's ready for rival attacks at tonight's debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What do you see as Senator Rubio's biggest vulnerability?

TRUMP: Well, I think I'll save that for tomorrow night. So we have to keep some good action for tomorrow night. But we'll be -- you know, we'll be totally prepared. And you know, people have not done very well against me. So far everybody that's attacked me has gone down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The candidates now gearing up for their last chance to try to slow Trump's momentum before Super Tuesday and the stakes are high. 595. That is how many delegates will be up for grabs. A quarter of what's needed to win the nomination.

Let's get -- let's get more now from CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She's live this morning in Houston. Good morning.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. And you can see the debate here in Houston is set. The stage is all set up for the candidates and this really does come at such a pivotal time in this race. And already there are big indications that it could get heated very quickly, very fast here tonight. Both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio dropping big hints that tonight they're preparing to take the other on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We'll be totally prepared. You know, people have not done very well against me.

SERFATY (voice-over): The GOP frontrunner is set to face off with his four remaining rivals tonight in the last debate before Super Tuesday.

TRUMP: So far everybody that's attacked me has gone down.

SERFATY: Donald Trump already has more than double the number of delegates than his closest competitors, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, combined.

CRUZ: There has never been a candidate like Donald Trump, in a whole lot of ways.

SERFATY: Trump notably absent from last night's FOX News town hall hosted by Megyn Kelly, where the freshman senators continued to argue that it's only a matter of time before his ballooning lead pops.

CRUZ: We're the only campaign in a position to beat him on Super Tuesday, to win the nomination.

RUBIO: A majority of Republican voters are not supporting Donald Trump, and obviously, once this race begins to narrow a little bit, you'll -- you'll see more of that support consolidating.

SERFATY: This as 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney warns about a bombshell to come in Trump's tax records, asking all of the candidates to release them.

TRUMP: Tax returns are very complicated. I have many, many companies. I have, you know, tremendously -- I have a very complex system of taxes. But we'll make a determination over the next couple of months.

CRUZ: I'll release the remainder of what we have this week. I've released already, I think, five years' worth, but I -- look, the nice thing is I haven't made enough money that my tax returns are not that interesting.

RUBIO: I'll release them. They're not very complicated.

SERFATY: Up for grabs on Super Tuesday, Cruz's home state of Texas, the senator of the delegate-rich state securing the endorsement of its governor.

CRUZ: We can't be fooled by P.T. Barnum. The time for the clowns and the acrobats or the dancing bears has passed.

SERFATY: Meanwhile, at a rally in Houston, Marco Rubio is now targeting Trump by name.

RUBIO: Donald Trump has actually alluded to the fact that he thinks parts of Obamacare are pretty good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And that was a small but important shift there from Marco Rubio who typically avoids taking on Trump directly. Now Trump telling CNN that he is saving his fire for Marco Rubio for the debate tonight, Carol. Trump predicting that will be a night of good action -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

[09:05:03] COSTELLO: All right. We'll see. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live from the debate stage in Houston.

So as Senator Marco Rubio takes on Trump there is another fight brewing. Mitt Romney now the latest Republican to take on Trump. He's warning that there is, quote, a bombshell in the frontrunner's tax returns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think there is something there. Either he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he says he is or he hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or the disabled like he's been telling us he's been doing and I think that's the -- the reason that I think there is a bombshell is in there is because every time he's asked about his taxes he dodges and delays and says well, we're working on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All rather ironic. Right? Because remember back in the day Mitt Romney dragged his feet on releasing his own tax returns because they did contain a bombshell. Romney paid percentagewise far fewer taxes than middle class Americans so why put yourself out there, Mr. Romney?

With me now to talk about this, Scottie Nell Hughes. She's the chief political correspondent for USA Today Radio Networks and a Trump supporter. I'm also joined by former chief of staff for the RNC, Mike Shields. He's also the president of the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Welcome to both of you.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY RADIO NETWORKS: Good morning.

MIKE SHIELDS, PRESIDENT, CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP FUND: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Mike, Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president back in 2012. Here are the pictures. You can see it right here. Of course Trump tweeted this morning calling -- I remember how awkward and goofy it was. And it really was. Trump tweeted that this morning. But I digress. So why is Mitt Romney attacking Trump now, Mike?

SHIELDS: Well, I think it's a legitimate question, first of all. I mean, I think when you're going to run for president of the United States, eventually people are going to start asking about your taxes. And I think there are a lot of Republicans that are looking at the general election, looking for who's viable. They know these types of questions are going to come up. I don't know if it's going to stick to Donald Trump. Nothing has so far. He's sort of -- he's like a science fiction monster that gets bigger when you attack him as opposed to actually working against him.

But it's a legitimate question. Of course it is. He's a wealthy man. He's running on his business record. He's running on what he's done in the private sector. All of that is reflected in his taxes and the way he's conducted himself. And it's always going to come up. Certainly the Democrats are going to bring it up in the fall and I think all the candidates are sort of talking about how they are going to have to release their taxes if they are going to be a general election candidate.

COSTELLO: So, Scottie, why doesn't Mr. Trump just release his tax returns and be done with it?

HUGHES: Well, let's first go back to Benedict Romney because when Senator Harry Reid was going against Mitt Romney to release his taxes, Donald Trump went to his defense so I think it's kind of ironic right now. What about a loyal friend here. Other people could have sat here and pulled this out and could have actually said release your taxes but I think it's interesting that Mitt Romney is being called in to do this.

So -- now as for releasing your taxes, he's going to do it. He said he has. But once again we're seeing Donald Trump being held to different standards that others are not. Where are the records? Where are the paperwork from everyone else? You don't see it. They're not asking for it.

COSTELLO: Well, you just heard -- Scottie, you just heard the candidates in Sunlen Serfaty's story say they are perfectly willing to turn over their tax records. So that's not much to see. Take a look. Be free to take a look. So that's not true.

HUGHES: But it's not just tax records. What about applications to college? What about grade transcripts? Even, you know, birth certificates? Other things. It's always Mr. Trump that's been asked and been held accountable to release things when other candidates are let -- given basically scotch guard and are able to get away with just saying oh, I've got them. I'll give them to you later. And we never see them.

COSTELLO: OK so --

HUGHES: It's not just tax records.

COSTELLO: So, Mike, should all of the candidates turn over things like birth certificates and grade point averages and the like? What does it really mean when Scottie says that?

SHIELDS: Well, I think -- well, what I think is, they all have to look at themselves as the general election candidate. I mean, the Democrats have built a machine. Hillary Clinton's machine is going to come after whoever our candidate is. There is talk from her Super PAC this week that they are going to have to have a scorched earth approach to winning the general election because she is so mistrusted by the American people and her numbers are so terrible that the only way that Hillary Clinton is going to get the White House is by absolutely destroying the Republican candidate.

And so we're having debates, we're having a contest right now, and one of the questions on the table is, which of the Republican candidates is going to be able to withstand that. How are they going to go in the general election, take on the Democratic machine, take on Hillary Clinton. And so these are legitimate questions. What's in their background? What's going to be asked of them? How do they answer those questions?

We need to find out now. And that's what Republican primary voters are doing and it will happen probably in the debate tonight. Find out how these candidates are going to stand up in the general election to the machine that Hillary Clinton is building. So these are all fair questions.

COSTELLO: So, Scottie, again I'll ask you, then why not just get it over with right now then Donald Trump can deal with it and move on?

HUGHES: And I think he will. But he's not going to sit there and be commanded by other politicians who've lost their race to release records. He's going to do it at his own pace, at his own time. And you talk about -- I think it's kind of sad that the Republican establishment is sitting here saying, well, you know, Hillary Clinton is going to bring it out and come out against him and she's going to take down our candidate, when 17 other candidates and the establishment Republican Party have been trying to do it and have done nothing.

[09:10:12] It's all about what the people want. And obviously the people want Mr. Trump right now. So instead of sitting here and continuing to destroy him and saying well, you know, we're going to wait for the Democrats to do it. Why don't they just go on and focus on uplifting him and unifying our party? That would be a better way -- better use of their energy.

COSTELLO: So they should just -- OK, I have to leave it there. Scottie Nell Hughes, Mike Shields, thanks to both of you.

Wolf Blitzer will moderate tonight's CNN debate with the five remaining GOP candidates. It starts at 8:30 Eastern. It'll be live from Houston, only on CNN.

Right now Virginia is under a state of emergency after violent storms spawned tornados killing four people. The state's National Guard is deploying to help with the clean-up. In the meantime a dramatic rescue off the storm battered East Coast this morning. You'll see it in a minute here. Look at that. Violent waves flipping a Coast Guard rescue boat after a fishing vessel ran aground in Queens. All crew members on both vessels are now safely back on shore.

Meteorologist Chad Myers is following it all. Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. The weather we've had over the past couple of days really is more like March, April or May. Rarely would we get this type of weather, even big thunderstorms in Boston over night in February. But here it is and the fatalities are still adding up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS (voice-over): Another deadly round of storms pummeling states up and down the East Coast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He opened the front door, and when he did, he says, Mama, tornado, tornado. And he ran, and I ran.

MYERS: Two days of storms, over 50 tornados reported, seven killed and hundreds of thousands are now without power in the last 48 hours.

In Virginia, a state of emergency declared. Tornados leaving dozens injured, several critically, and four dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is tragic, man. I've never seen nothing like this before.

MYERS: Three people in a mobile home were killed, including a 2- year-old boy, powerful winds lifting their trailer almost 300 yards and slamming it into a church.

PASTOR TERRENCE L. GREEN, EMPOWERMENT TEMPLE MINISTRIES: Our prayers goes out to the three people that lost their life. And we just thank God that, you know, we went through a lot of damage but the church is still standing, and we're going to recover.

MYERS: Cars crumpled like aluminum cans on the highway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cars were tossed about. You know, I'm just so sorry that people were killed.

MYERS: The tornado tearing down power lines and splintering trees, trapping some residents in the wreckage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The glass started caving on me. I didn't know what to do. I just -- it was scary.

MYERS: Three more tornados touching down in the Sunshine State, packing ferocious winds. In North Carolina, five tornadoes causing a path of mass destruction. Four people were inside this home when heavy rains and winds sent a massive tree toppling onto the roof. The residents miraculously emerging safely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our hearts just goes out to anybody that's lost their homes or, you know, their loved ones or anything in this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: Carol, we are watching these storms on radar and they were rotating through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, parts of Georgia, and the day before all the way through Louisiana. Finally now this weather is off shore moving away. But the snow is still coming down in parts of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and West Virginia. That is the cold side of the storm. Maybe it will stay cold for a while so that we don't get this type of severe weather, at least for a couple more months when we should be having severe weather season, not like yesterday which was quite unreasonable.

COSTELLO: I know. You usually see tornados in the spring. It was very strange.

Chad Myers, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton interrupted. Why a Black Lives Matter activist was kicked out of a Democrats' private event in South Carolina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:57] COSTELLO: Happening now a hearing on worldwide terror threats under way on Capitol Hill. Several top U.S. National Security leaders expected to testify before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That includes the director of National Intelligence and the heads of the CIA, FBI and NSA. Of course we will monitor this for you and bring you any developments.

On to politics now. Bernie Sanders is fighting hard to erode Hillary Clinton's support among African-American voters and he got a little help from Black Lives Matter. A protester, a member of that group, heckled Clinton at a private event in Charleston, South Carolina, last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: South Carolina became the first state with body cameras. There is more work to be done. But I'll lay down these markers. You've got to build toward commonsense. And we got somebody saying here, we have to bring them --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want you to apologize for mass incarceration --

CLINTON: OK. We'll talk about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a super predator, Hillary Clinton.

CLINTON: OK. Fine. We'll talk about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you apologize to black people for mass incarceration?

CLINTON: Well, can I talk and then maybe you can listen to what I say?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. You called black --

CLINTON: And about --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- people predators.

CLINTON: You're being rude.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Super predators.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's rude.

CLINTON: Yes. You want to hear --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that you called black --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're trespassing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- youths super predators in 1994. Please explain your record. Explain it to us. You owe black people an apology.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. That protester was talking about a speech that Hillary Clinton gave back in 1996 when she was the first lady. The speech coming two years after the passage of President Bill Clinton's crime bill which has been criticized for sparking a surge in prison population and disproportionately hurting black and Latino communities. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscience. No empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way but first we have bring them to heel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Joining me now to talk about this is CNN's Chris Frates. He is Berea, Ohio, near Cleveland where Sanders will make his first stop in a three-state swing today.

[09:20:03] And Jim Newell is a staff writer for Slate.com. Welcome to both of you. Nice to have you here.

Chris, I want to start with you. This 1994 crime bill, is it damaging to Clinton? Because Clinton was first lady then but Bernie Sanders voted for it. He was in Congress.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. So certainly Hillary Clinton has distanced herself from her husband on that. And as you point out, Bernie Sanders also voted for that. So this is not something that they really want to make an issue.

And it is interesting, Carol, as well to see Bernie Sanders here in Ohio. He's going on to Michigan and Illinois today. Just two days before the South Carolina primary. And that might seem a little strange. Except if you look at the calendar and do a little bit of math. See, the Sanders folks are looking over the next couple of weeks is about two dozen contests that will award the bulk of the delegates a candidate needs to win the nomination.

And so if you look at the math on that, all those delegates, they're given out proportionally. So Sanders has a chance to essentially fight Hillary Clinton to a draw. So in a place like Ohio here, he'll be able to fight her to a draw, put some points on the board. And that's important because if you look at South Carolina Bernie Sanders has spent a lot of time and a lot of money in that state and he's still trailing her by double digit, and that's largely because she does have huge support among the African-American community.

That's something that Bernie Sanders has tried to cut into over these last few weeks. As you listen to his stump speeches, he's starting to talk about criminal justice reform. Racial inequality and that is no mistake. Because he knows that he needs to build with black voters from South Carolina going forward. Now Hillary Clinton is in South Carolina all day today. She's talking about breaking barriers. That is clearly targeting black voters. But Bernie Sanders campaign makes the point that they have been there months, they're going back tomorrow. So they have not written off South Carolina yet nor can they, Carol, because they really do need to build support among African-American voters if they are going to advance and continue to compete with Hillary Clinton going forward in the Super Tuesday and beyond, Carol.

COSTELLO: Right. That is why this 1994 crime bill that was, you know, instituted under President Bill Clinton resonates, right? So, Jim, I want to ask you. Bill Clinton told the NAACP last year that this 1994 crime bill was a mistake. What more can the Clinton say to appease Black Lives Matter?

JIM NEWELL, STAFF WRITER, SLATE.COM: Well, I think you have to look at the way the Democratic Party was in the 1990s. It was worried that there was the fear of a crime wave. There was a fear in that super predator comment, which turned out to be a myth. That there were youths who are going around committing crime without remorse, without empathy, and it set off a wave of state bills that tried juveniles as adults. So that was sort of a different era.

If you look at it right now crime has rapidly declined. Not necessarily because of that crime bill and the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party are both looking at rolling back the carceral state and getting non-violent offenders out of jail. So I think that, you know, she has explained some of her past, and she ascertained her support among black voters so it doesn't look like this is really going to hurt her that much.

COSTELLO: So Black Lives Matter. How much do black -- how much does this group resonate in places like South Carolina among, you know, just African-American voters who don't belong to any particular group, Jim? NEWELL: Right. So I think you'll see support for everything that

Black Lives Matters activists are saying and also Black Lives Matter, it should be said, they are not, you know, in league with Bernie Sanders. They have heckled both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. I think they have done a good job. And if you remember around this time last year when they started interrupting speeches there was a lot of talk about how maybe this was, you know, an inappropriate way to bring up their issues.

But if you see now, if you listen to both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders speeches they're talking a lot about the issues that Black Lives Matter has brought to the fore.

COSTELLO: And just the last question for you, Jim. Is there any way in your mind that Bernie Sanders can overcome this huge deficit he has with Hillary Clinton among African-American voters?

NEWELL: You know, it hasn't really happened yet. So it is going to be difficult. If you looked at after the New Hampshire primary there is this thought that, well, she's going to have this huge loss on her record for 11 days until the Nevada caucuses. And then another week until the South Carolina primary. And that's the time for national audiences to get to know Bernie Sanders and decide to switch. But if you look at the Nevada caucus results she won still something like by 60 percent or so among black voters and that probably gave her the difference and it looks like those margins are holding up in South Carolina and a lot of the other states with high black populations. So it doesn't look like he's able to break this firewall she has among black voters.

COSTELLO: OK. So let's head back to Berea, Ohio, and Chris Frates. It looks like a pretty good crowd on hand for Bernie Sanders. That's a good sign for him, right?

[09:25:04] FRATES: Absolutely. And they are expecting about a thousand people to gather here in Ohio, which is smaller than the events that they had in Oklahoma and Kansas City last night, which had over 7,000. So this will be a smaller event for Bernie Sanders. But certainly they are trying to build a lot of momentum here in those rustbelt states to be able to compete with Hillary Clinton going forward. It's almost a war of attrition and these aren't the places where Bernie Sanders thinks he can win. He's stronger in the New England state, places like Massachusetts. His home state of Vermont. They also think they can do well in Colorado, in Texas.

So they are looking to put some wins on the board where they can. And they also want to compete with her closely. And that is why you are seeing these kinds of gatherings today. They are hoping to maintain that momentum going forward and continue to make sure that they get people to the polls, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Chris Frates, Jim Newell, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Marco Rubio takes off the glove, calling out Donald Trump by name on the campaign trail. But is it too late?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)