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New Day

Trump and First Lady to Visit Florida; Prince Harry and Meghan Are Expecting; Elizabeth Warren Releases DNA and Video; New Polls on Election; Bight Night for Boston Sports Fans. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 15, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:00] CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Bipartisan people in Congress will be asking very tough questions of the White House and its very cozy relationship with the kingdom.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Clarissa, Becky, thank you very, very much. We're waiting to hear from the Saudis officially. We're also waiting to hear much more from the Trump administration today.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. All right, on a much lighter note, we do have some breaking news. I know you've been waiting all morning for this.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, they have an exciting announcement. What could it be?

BERMAN: I have no idea.

CAMEROTA: That's next. You'll have to stick around, John.

BERMAN: Humans procreate? Does that happen?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: In just a few hours, the president and first lady will travel to Florida's hurricane-ravaged panhandle. At least 18 people have been killed by Hurricane Michael. And the search continues for dozens more that are still unaccounted for.

Our Scott McLean is live in Panama City in Florida with the very latest.

Scott.

[06:35:03] SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John.

We don't have many specifics on the president's trip to Florida, but whatever he ends up, he will see widespread catastrophic damage.

Case in point, this is a local middle school. This is the gymnasium. Obviously, students are not going to be going back to this anytime soon. And most of the schools in this district were damaged. We're talking about 20,000 out of the 26,000 students in this district will not have a school to go to. We spoke to one man, Chad Frazier (ph). His son goes here. Obviously

he'll be displaced. Now, Chad's home is OK, thankfully, but his auto paint shot was -- his business was flattened. His church was damaged as well. He told us that help has arrived. FEMA, they're obviously on the ground passing out food and water. They're also going to start taking applications for transitional housing to try to get people out of shelters.

But Frazier told me that in the initial days after the hurricane, it wasn't FEMA but it was ordinary people who showed up to his neighborhood to pass out food and water. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS FRAZIER, SON ATTENDS SCHOOL DESTROYED BY HURRICANE: The people who came, like -- the people who came, man, it was -- I mean that was the biggest blessing to us. I didn't -- I didn't see nobody in panic mode. Nobody was, you know, in tears about being hungry. I mean they was here like the next day. You've got to believe in the Lord. You've got to keep going. Don't stop (INAUDIBLE). I mean my shop is down. I'm not in bad spirits. This just makes my faith grow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCLEAN: And he will need that positive attitude for some time. There is still a curfew in this area, 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. And, of course, those power outages, they are widespread. There are a quarter million people still across the affected area without power. Most of those are in Florida. And based on what we've seen on the ground here, John, it will be a very, very slow process to get everybody reconnected.

BERMAN: So, Scott, today is the deadline for schools to decide what they're going to do with their students. What are some of the options they're dealing with?

MCLEAN: They don't have many, John. In fact, the school board member that I spoke to said that there's not really a real good recent playbook for what to do in this situation to draw on for answers. We're talking 25 of 38 schools have been badly damaged. That's obviously most of the students.

And the neighboring districts, well, they've had damage to their schools as well. So they're not really in a position to take on students. So the solution here will likely be that the schools that were not damaged will have two sessions of classes per day, one in the morning and one in the evening in order to make sure that all of these students graduate on time. It is obviously not ideal, but at this point they don't really have a good plan b, John.

BERMAN: All right, Scott McLean for us in Panama City. Scott, thanks so much for your reporting down there.

CAMEROTA: OK, we have breaking news on a much lighter note. Your favorite story of the day, John.

BERMAN: I don't know why you think it's so light. CAMEROTA: Oh, it's happy news.

BERMAN: I find this very serious.

CAMEROTA: All right, well, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the duke and duchess of Suxxex, are expecting a royal baby.

CNN's Max Foster is live at Buckingham Palace with the big announcement.

How did this happen, Max?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: How did it happen? Is that a questioner you're really asking me?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes. I know you -- I know you have all the insights.

BERMAN: Things are different over there. Things are different.

CAMEROTA: You know everything about what goes on in there. So, explain it.

FOSTER: Not that much detail, thankfully.

But I can confirm that this baby is due in the spring. We won't know the sex until the baby's born. That's tradition on these matters. So the baby was conceived over the summer after the wedding, so true to form, very traditional format here. You can see here the couple arriving in Australia where the announcement was made. And I suspect this has something to do with the fact Australia has much better weather at this time of the year than the U.K. She's been wearing coats here in the U.K. She's not going to be able to hide that baby bump over there in Australia.

I'm told that the royal family were able to congratulate the couple on Friday at Harry's cousin's wedding. Prince Eugenie got married on Friday. There's been some speculation that they announced the pregnancy at Eugenie's wedding, which you might think is controversial. I'm also told that the tour in Australia and New Zealand will continue as planned, all 70 engagements, and despite some concern about Zika on a stop-off in Fiji. But we're firmly into royal baby watch season, guys.

CAMEROTA: Fantastic. Max, thank you.

See, Max did know more about the conception than you expected.

BERMAN: He knew -- he knew a lot.

CAMEROTA: Yes, than he led on. Very good, Max. That's what we're looking for.

But I do need to see the baby bump. I mean we need to see the coat gone.

BERMAN: We have our best people on it. We have all -- we have all of our best people on it.

And I just want to be clear, I do believe in love. I'm happy for them.

CAMEROTA: You don't seem like you do.

BERMAN: I'm just not so sure that --

CAMEROTA: Then what?

BERMAN: You know, we fought a revolution. We did fight a revolution.

CAMEROTA: That was a long time ago.

BERMAN: I know. This kid is an heir to the throne.

CAMEROTA: This is a royal baby, John. This is a royal baby. Get your arms around it and stop hating on love. This is a beautiful love story.

BERMAN: I don't believe in the Beatles (ph), I just believe in me.

[06:40:01] All right, breaking news, Senator Elizabeth Warren releasing a DNA test and a video about her family's Native American ancestry. This is basically a presidential announcement. This is huge political news. My question, why now? Why is she doing this today?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We do have some breaking news, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has been dogged for years about her claims of having Native American heritage, has released the results of a DNA test, and this video of her family's story.

We are just 21 days from the midterm elections and we may have our first presidential candidate.

Joining us now is CNN's senior politics writer and analyst, Harry Enten. There's something about Harry.

Hi, Harry.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: I'm not a presidential candidate. I just want to make that clear.

CAMEROTA: Yet.

But Elizabeth Warren, what's happened today? She's released this five minute video of her family's history. She's released her DNA test. It sounds like she's announcing her run.

ENTEN: I feel like I'm on the Maury Povich show with a DNA test going on here.

But, look, Elizabeth Warren, we've always thought that she was going to run. Chris Cillizza and I have new rankings out this morning that lists her as number one as the most likely Democratic nominee at this point. So it's not a huge surprise that she's released this.

[06:45:07] BERMAN: We have a brand-new poll, it turns out --

ENTEN: We do.

BERMAN: With actual numbers, Harry Enten, which tell us where Democratic voters think she stands.

ENTEN: Yes. So let's take a look. We have them right here. And right now Liz Warren, she is in the top four. She's not as high as Joe Biden, who's at 33 percent. But she's down here at eight. But that's not bad for someone who's not had a national run before. So she's clearly in the ball game at least in the eyes of Democratic voters.

CAMEROTA: This is two years away. Does this mean anything?

ENTEN: Well, that's the great question, right? We are still two years away and we have a midterm in 21 days. But, in fact, if you were to look historically at where the early polls were and who was leading in the early polls and whether or not they became the nominee, in fact the early polls do a pretty decent job about a little more than 50 percent of the time the people who have been leading in the early polls and then went on to win the nomination. It's all of these folks. Now, you'll notice Donald Trump isn't on this list. But if you were to tell me, you know, we're still a year and a half out from the primaries that we could more than 50 percent of the time get the correct nominee, that's a pretty good gauge in my mind.

BERMAN: Yes, it's not a bad place to be, leading the polls right now in those situations.

ENTEN: Absolutely not. So Joe Biden at 33 percent, if he's thinking of running, this is perhaps a favorable history for him.

BERMAN: So there's another number out in this poll, which is about 2020, and this is a number that I always like to look at --

ENTEN: Sure.

BERMAN: Because people like to pick winners, right? So we asked -- what did we ask here?

ENTEN: We essentially asked, will President Trump win or lose the 2020 election? And, if you notice, back in March, he was only at 40 percent. But now he's up all the way to 46 percent. So he's just a little bit -- these numbers are basically even there within, you know, statistical area of significance. So these -- this is basically just a virtual tie.

BERMAN: And people, generally speaking, when this number goes up, you begin to think that the candidate's chances also sort of increase because people have a vibe?

ENTEN: Yes, exactly. In fact, if you look back through history, people do a pretty good job of gauging, you know, oh, are your neighbors voting for Donald Trump. And if they say yes, then actually his chances historically would, in fact, go up.

CAMEROTA: But, again, if you don't know who the opponent is, how helpful is this?

ENTEN: Well, right. I mean the opponent I think is the big question mark in this situation. But I will say that if you were to model out historically, you knew the state of the economy, you knew the president's approval rating, and you know those two things, those are actually a pretty good gauge of where this election's going. And indeed with President Trump's approval rating, despite it being in the low 40s, what, with the economy bustling along as it is, you would think that it would be a pretty tight race in 2020.

BERMAN: All right, Prince Harry, you've also got some Senate numbers you're excited about today.

ENTEN: Yes. So, you know, I think a lot of people, when were to look at the Senate, you know, the -- the Senate forecast, you would see, OK, you have this and then you have a best case, you know, with Republicans at 52 seats and you might say, OK, but look at this wide margin of error, right? Democrats may get up to 53 seats or they might get as low as 43 seats. That's a pretty wide range. But why the heck is that? Why is this range so wide? And the reason is, if you look at our forecast, look at all these races that are within six percentage points right now, the victor. If all of these races go the Democratic way, they will win control. But if all of these races go the Republicans say, then they'll have a massive majority heading into the next Senate.

BERMAN: Did you hear the enthusiasm in his voice? He's as excited about this chart as you are about the baby.

CAMEROTA: Well, first of all, how much royal blood do you have in your ancestry? Because he's calling you Prince Harry.

ENTEN: Well, I always thought that my father was the king of my household, but my mother ran it as the queen. So I guess there's some royal blood in that sense. But the idea that I would be an English royal prince up there in the mountains, up in the hill? Na, not really. I like Wendy's and Popeye's way too much.

CAMEROTA: Are you really related to Neil Sedaka?

ENTEN: I really am related to Neil Sedaka. I -- it turns out that, you know, love does keep our family together.

BERMAN: He's closer to writing "Calendar Girl" than this royal baby will be to ever being a monarch.

CAMEROTA: It's shocking.

BERMAN: It's true.

CAMEROTA: It's a royal baby. Stop.

ENTEN: What month will the royal baby be born in? CAMEROTA: Can we get back to this.

BERMAN: House forecast.

CAMEROTA: The House forecast.

ENTEN: The House forecast is pretty -- here's the current lineup, 235 to 193. If you were to look at the forecast, Democrats still look favored to take control with 229 to the Republicans 206.

I will point out that even though these numbers are pretty much the same as they were when we last spoke on Friday, if you were to present a percentage odds of what was going on, Democrats are slightly higher because they got some good, generic ballot numbers over the weekend. "The Washington Post" poll showed them up by double digits.

BERMAN: There's the trend.

CAMEROTA: Harry Enten. There's something about Harry. Thank you.

BERMAN: There is something about Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Something royal about Harry.

ENTEN: Oh, God.

CAMEROTA: Harry's forecast will be available each day by 9:00 a.m. at cnn.com/forecast. It will include the range and the certainly and the -- of the prediction, along with a daily column to break down what it means for Democrats, Republicans and you.

BERMAN: And you just heard Harry say, it changes every day. It changes every day. So it's worth checking every day.

ENTEN: Every single day, new numbers come in. "The New York Times" polling. A lot of congressional districts will update.

CAMEROTA: That's why we have you on every morning.

ENTEN: There we go.

BERMAN: Thanks. All right, Harry, excellent.

Even more excellent -- even more excellent than the royal baby -- I get my moment --

CAMEROTA: You're so happy.

BERMAN: I get my moment.

CAMEROTA: It's been quite a night for John Berman.

BERMAN: We had two wins. Boston fans had double the joy last night.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

BERMAN: The Red Sox and the Patriots both delivering. Talk about royal baby, Tom and Gisele, that's like the American royal baby.

[06:50:01] CAMEROTA: Yes, you're right.

BERMAN: All right, the "Bleacher Report" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Sunday night was a very good night to be a Boston sports fan. Why?

CAMEROTA: This has been a dream, right?

BERMAN: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are having a baby. That's why.

CAMEROTA: That's not the story.

BERMAN: That's why.

Also, there were a couple of games. Coy Wire has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

What is it with Boston? Boston College won at home. John, your Harvard beat Holy Cross. And, yes, the Red Sox and Patriots gave their fans thrilling victories. The Pats had a 24-9 lead at the half but Chief's young phenom and quarterback Patrick Mahomes fought back. When he was born, Tom Brady was already entering his freshman year at Michigan. Think about that.

Fourth quarter, three minutes to go, Patrick Mahomes hit Tyreek Hill, 75 yards on the touchdown, tying the game at 40. But Tom Brady says, three minutes, I got this. He chips away at the Chief's defense, finds Ron Gronkowski on a 39 yarder, that would set up a 28 yard field goal attempt for Stephen Gostowski. It's all good. Time expires. A 43-40 win. New England hands the Chiefs the first loss of the season in a wild, wild game.

[06:55:01] Now, just 30 miles from Foxborough, the Red Sox wanting to flex, too, hosting Houston in game three of the American League Championship series. And Jackie Bradley Junior, he's got royalty in his blood, royal heiress, if you will, related to Michael Jordan. He hits that three run double off the green monster there in the third. Back and forth the teams went. And in the ninth, with the Astros down by two, Alex Bregman (ph) launches one, a would-be two-run homer, fallen short, caught at the wall for the final out. Boston ties up the series at one game apiece.

Sunday was Boston night. Tonight, for Wisconsin night, the Brewers facing the Dodgers in game three of the NLCS and the Packers hosting the Niners. CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. First of all, you buried the lead. You didn't

tell me it was a trifecta. Harvard, the Patriots and the Red Sox? How can you be so calm.

BERMAN: I mean Harvard and sports should never be mentioned in the same sentence, first of all.

CAMEROTA: But, still, even for the Red Sox and the Patriots --

BERMAN: It's a big deal. And Meghan Markle.

CAMEROTA: I like that you keep trying to include me in this, but, no, this is your morning.

BERMAN: More than I can handle. This is more than I can handle.

CAMEROTA: All right, we are following breaking news.

Senator Elizabeth Warren's big reveal today, a DNA test and a video about her family's heritage. Is she declaring a 2020 run? That and more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[07:00:01] BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

She is running. At least that's what it looks like to me. Major breaking news in the world of politics this morning.