Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Shocking Video of Sauds Using Body Double to Cover Up Murder; Poll: Trump Approval Reaches New High. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 22, 2018 - 06:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:59:01] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, October 22, 6 a.m. here in New York. And we do have major breaking news this morning. A jaw-dropping exclusive on the murder of "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi. New footage that is flat-out shocking.

Now, the official Saudi explanation that Khashoggi's death was the result of a fist fight gone bac has been deemed "laughable" by people around the world, not to mention Democrats and Republicans alike. For the first time, even President Trump admits there's been deception and lies, even as he still does not question the Saudi claim that the crown prince had no knowledge of the killings.

This new footage, which you will see in just a moment, shows the incredible extent to which the Saudis tried to cover up the killing and add to the already-existing mountain of evidence that it was all premedicated.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Before we get to that new footage, back here in the U.S., there's news, of course. We are in the final stretch of the campaigns for the mid-term elections. They're just 15 days away, and a new CNN poll reveals a major advantage for Democrats in key races in one battleground state. While another new poll gives Dems the edge in November, and new polling shows that President Trump's approval rating has hit a new high. What does that mean? So what does all of that mean? Who will control Congress? We have it all covered for you.

But let's begin with CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, with our exclusive. Clarissa, what you have learned?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this really is an extraordinary story that we just heard yesterday in an interview with FOX News. The Saudi foreign minister saying this is all a terrible mistake.

But let me tell you: Turkish officials here are convinced that the killing of Jamal Khashoggi was a premedicated murder, and they're now telling CNN that they even believe the Saudis went to the extent of sending a body double here to pose as Khashoggi leaving the consulate in an attempt to cover up the killing. CNN has obtained exclusive surveillance footage. It is part of the

government -- the government investigation, and it appears to show, Alisyn, just that. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): At first glance, this man could almost pass for Jamal Khashoggi, and that's the idea. These are the last known images of Khashoggi alive moments before he entered the Saudi consulate. Take a look. Same clothes, same glasses and beard, everything except the shoes.

But a senior Turkish official tells CNN that the man on the left is body double, one of 15 Saudi operatives sent to kill Khashoggi and then cover it up.

His name is Mustafa al-Madani. Surveillance cameras capture him arriving at the consulate in a plaid shirt and jeans at 11:03 with an accomplice. Two hours later, Khashoggi arrives. He was killed inside shortly afterwards.

(on camera): While Khashoggi's fiancee waited in front of the consulate, we're told al-Madani came out through this back exit. Disturbingly, he appears to have been wearing the actual clothing of the murdered journalist. The intent, Turkish investigators say, was to perpetuate the lie that Jamal Khashoggi left the double left the consulate unharmed.

(voice-over): The apparent double and his companion take a taxi to Sultan Ahmed Mosque. It's Istanbul's main tourist attractions and an easy place to get lost in a crowd.

The men head to the bathroom. The accomplice carries a plastic bag. When they emerge, al-Madani is wearing his own clothes again.

(on camera): And just like that, Jamal Khashoggi has disappeared forever, or so the Saudis would have had the world believe. Little did they know Turkish authorities would quickly uncover the cover-up.

(voice-over): From their next stop at a nearby restaurant, where al- Madani appears to have ditched his fake beard, to a Dumpster, where the men finally dump the plastic bag. The senior official says investigators believe it likely contained Khashoggi's clothes.

As they head back to their hotel, the pair appear visibly relaxed. Their mission is complete.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: Of course the question everyone is asking themselves is, if the Saudis went to so much trouble to set up this decoy, why didn't they release the footage at the very beginning?

The answer, our Turkish official posits, may be that they understood quite quickly that Turkish authorities were already onto them and that nobody was going to buy that story. And just a couple of other updates for you guys, John and Alisyn. We know today there are more employees of the consulate being interviewed by the Turkish prosecutor's office, and we also expect to hear from Turkish President Erdogan tomorrow. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say -- John and Alisyn.

BERMAN: All right, Clarissa Ward. Remarkable reporting. Thank you very much. Stay with us.

We want to bring in congressional reporter for "The Washington Post," Karoun Demirjian; and CNN senior political analyst John Avlon. And let's just throw up on the scene, so people can see, the split screen here.

They brought in a body double, one of the 15 people. They brought in a body double, and then it appears they dressed him in Khashoggi's clothes to fool the world, John. Saudi Arabia for three weeks has been trying to fool the world here, and now they're trying to have us believe a version of events where it was a fistfight all gone bad.

This is just remarkable visual proof of the extent to which they went -- and remember, up until very recently, the United States and the Trump administration was willing to parrot those statements.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's exactly right. And look, I mean, the fact that this is so clearly premedicated, that they put out the body double -- didn't change the shoes, didn't change the hair but apparently had him wear Khashoggi's own clothing -- speaks to the absurdity of the argument they put out on Friday. This was a fist fight gone wrong. You don't bring a bone saw to a fist fight. You don't bring 15 folks to a fistfight, and you don't have a body double ready and waiting to create an alternative version of events.

[06:05:06] CAMEROTA: And Karoun, you have reporting on this, as well. It doesn't take three weeks to come up with an excuse that this was an excuse that this was a fist fight gone wrong. I mean, it's just remarkable. Obviously, this is the smoking gun. We've been waiting for a smoking gun of the premeditation. I think bringing a body double and dressing them in the victims' clothing is possibly as good of a smoking gun as you're ever going to get.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, it suggests that there certainly was -- you know, that somebody was -- somebody was on hand to be him. Then yes, that doesn't look very good for the explanation that this all just happened on the fly.

And you're right. I mean, it's very implausible that this all happened in a fist fight, given that the Saudis had an alternate explanation that they've trotted out for the first few weeks of all the scrutiny over this.

I mean, if it had just been, "OK, we're investigating this," then maybe, OK, but that nobody really believes this version of events. Nobody said that they do, at least except for the president. And this is going to be additional evidence that -- that the Saudi explanation is incredibly suspect and put the administration in a very tight spot to have to respond in some way, which pretty much everybody else in the political apparatus of the country wants -- wants the president to do.

BERMAN: And Clarissa Ward, once again, first of all, phenomenal reporting here. And the visual here just proves how laughable -- it's beyond laughable. I keep using that word, because it's so shocking. It's not laughable at all. It's shocking and offensive what the Saudis have tried to perpetrate on the world for the last few weeks.

And again, you see it right there. That man on the right dressed as Jamal Khashoggi, leaving the consulate after we now know Khashoggi was killed; and they knew that Khashoggi was killed at that point.

Let me play you what the Saudi foreign minister is saying because we have another wave of the Saudis trying to spin this as something maybe not as damning as it so obviously is. Listen.

The individuals who did this, obviously there was a tremendous mistake and what compounded the mistake it was tried to cover-up and that is unacceptable, and these things happened and we want to make sure those responsible are punished and we want procedures in place to prevent it from happening again.

Let me play you what the Saudi foreign minister is now saying, because we have yet another wave of the Saudis trying to spin this as something maybe not as damning as it so obviously is. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER: The individuals who did this outside the authority, obviously, was a tremendous mistake made. And what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover-up. That is unacceptable in any government. These things unfortunately happen. We want to make sure that those who are responsible are punished, and that we have procedures in place that prevent it from happening again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. So the Saudi foreign minister there saying there was a cover-up, but he is denying any role in it, that the government had any role, even though the body double was one of the 15 people sent in, and a bone saw was part of that group, as well.

WARD: Well, and also, John, I think we have to take into consideration here, you know, you could argue, or maybe the Saudis will try to argue, this was improvised. He was suddenly killed. They didn't know what to do.

But al-Madani is 57 years old. All those other operatives, for the most part, were in their 20s and 30s. He's the same height, the same build. Doesn't have the same hairstyle. The interesting thing you pointed out, that the shoes were different, well, that's one thing that you can't just pretend, right? You can't just squeeze into somebody else's shoes. If the shoes don't fit, the shoes don't fit. So we obviously had to go with his own pair of shoes. But quite clearly bringing in a 57-year-old who, broadly speaking,

matches the physical description of the person that you are attempting to either interrogate, render or kill, depending on what their version of events is on any given day.

This would indicate very strongly that this was premedicated. And that is what is making Turkish officials here angry. That is what they want to hear, the Saudis step up to the plate and take some responsibility for it.

It could be, John, it could be that the attempt was to rendition him back to Saudi Arabia, and then they would deny it and that the body double would try to sort of provide some kind of plausible deniability if that was their story.

But as I said before, Turkish officials here telling CNN they have no doubt this was premeditated murder.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, Clarissa, your -- again, your reporting is stunning and we have to figure out what the U.S. will do when they see this, when they see your exclusive film there that is the smoking gun. I mean, I'm not sure that you also bring an autopsy expert if you're planning to just abduct somebody back.

But Karoun, that -- that leaves us to the point of what next? So when the administration officials and the president wake up this morning and see the exclusive video that Clarissa has gotten, now what? What will that -- well, let me just read to everybody what the president said over the weekend about Khashoggi's murder.

He said, "'Obviously, there has been some deception, and there's been lies,' Mr. Trump said in an interview with 'The Washington Post,' when pressed on the many discrepancies in the changing accounts from the Saudis. 'Their stories are all over the place,' he said. He did not call for the ouster of Mohammad, the crown prince, and instead praised his leadership, calling the prince," quote, "'a strong person; has very good control.'"

Well, if he has very good control, obviously, he would know if 15 people flew in on a private jet to do this kind of killing.

DEMIRJIAN: Right. It was very unlikely nobody knew about it higher up. And I think you heard that being said by a lot of members of Trump's own party yesterday.

Basically, there's nobody else, definitely nobody in Congress, at least, speaking up to say that they find this to be at all credible. You have people of both parties saying, "We should, you know, send back the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.," that we should say we can't work with Mohammad bin Salman to get a new crown prince.

I mean, this kind of an unprecedented pushback against the president's foreign policy, even though people have been critical about it before. So there's enormous pressure on him to do something, but -- but the only thing that has been invoked so far is the Global Magnitsky Act. That gives him four months to actually make up his mind. That takes us into next year, which is a new Congress with new leaders. No Bob Corker to push this.

And then the question is, you know, will the Congress do anything to cut off arms sales as a result of punishing Saudi Arabia if the president does nothing?

Well, you need the White House to actually alert a new one for that to happen. So this is all kind of riding on President Trump right now, and I think everybody is very, very impatient with him for not doing more. But he technically has more time, and so we'll see if this shifts his view.

BERMAN: I have to say, you asked what is the administration going to do? I think the answer is nothing. We know. I think there's every reason to believe that the Trump administration, or at least the intelligence community within the United States already knew that this video or something close to it existed.

The president went out over the weekend and called "The Washington Post" and said, yes, there's been deception and lies. But you know what? The crown prince, he's a good guy. He's a strong guy and, by the way, he's an an attractive young man like my son-in-law, Jared Kushner and their likeness.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. No, and look. The president and the Saudis have been trying to get away with the minimum viable explanation for this. Four weeks now. And it's because the president and the administration don't want to confront the crown prince, because their plans for the region are too wrapped up in Saudi Arabia and the crown prince.

So even if they have to confront it with a deal like this, they're going to find a way to try to minimize it, delay it and move forward with the relationship, because that's their strategic comparative. But it is an abdication of America's moral leadership to say the president's the only person who's unwilling to confront this directly, what he's seeing. We're seeing now with our own eyes, evidence of premedicated murder.

BERMAN: All right. Clarissa Ward, once again, thank you for that reporting. It is remarkable to see. Not only did you get the footage of him leaving, the body double, but then to see him change out of those clothes and then walking around with a smile on his face, even more chilling. So Clarissa, terrific reporting.

That's CNN exclusive will be a major subject around the world today.

John, Karoun, thank you very much, as well.

We have new polling out this morning on the state of the midterm elections, now just two weeks away. Some new signs about which party has the wind at its back. Our political insiders with an NEW DAY election alert. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: We have a NEW DAY election alert, the latest and freshest signs of where the midterms are headed just two weeks from now.

A new CNN poll gives Democrats an overwhelming edge in the key battleground, Florida. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum now has a 12- point advantage over Ron DeSantis among likely voters. In the Senate race, the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson, leads Florida Republican governor by five points.

But there's also a new poll from NBC News and the "Wall Street Journal." And while it shows Democrats holding a nine-point advantage over Republicans when it comes to which party likely voters would like to see in control of Congress, there are positive signs for Republicans in this poll, as well. The president's approval rating is up 47 percent. That's a new high in this poll, and Republicans are keeping things very close in battleground districts around the country, as well. That's a big development.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, so let's discuss all of this with congressional reporter for Politico, Rachel Bade; former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings, and Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who worked for President Bill Clinton. They are all CNN political commentators or analysts.

It's great to have all of you in these final couple weeks as we head into the midterms.

Paul Begala, are you nervous as a Democrat that President Trump's approval rating has ticked up in the past poll from -- from low 40s to now 47 percent?

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes is the short answer. Yes! I mean, there's only two ways to run, and I will say this to my Democratic friends. Unopposed or scared. And they had by golly better run scared.

What the president does is what he does best, which is polarize. So he polarizes, and boy, he has fired up the base of the Democratic Party; but he is also now firing up the base of the Republican Party. So this is still, I think, going to be a tight election. Democrats have got to do their job.

By the way, one slight correction of Berman, who's generally right. Voting begins in Florida in 42 minutes. It is election day two weeks away, but in Florida, you can start voting in 42 minutes. They have early voting in Florida. So the Democratic enthusiasm, which has been so high all this year, is going to be -- it's going to be a challenge now, as the president tries to push up Republican enthusiasm, which so far has been working, because he's fed them a steady diet of fabrications. You know, it's Trump respiration. He inhales oxygen; he exhales lies. And so -- but those lies work with a certain percentage of the country.

BERMAN: I will note there's a third way to run, too, Paul, which is apparently French. So you know, so live it up there on the Champs D'Elysee. Thanks for being with us. Rachel Bade, you have --

BEGALA: I'm home in Sugarland, Texas, Berman. What are you talking about? This is where I grew up. I'm here in -- they put up a new McDonald's. Actually, I'm checking out the riots in California that the president told us about. I think you can see, the rioters are climbing the famous Hollywood side behind me. It's out of control, John. I need a dead black T-shirt to cover this.

BERMAN: It's all right. All right. The croissants clearly affecting his head at this point.

CAMEROTA: I did see that.

BERMAN: Rachel, you have some reporting in Politico, which again gets to some of this issue that Paul and I think Scott is going to talk about here, which is that Republicans feel a little better, perhaps, this morning than they did a month ago.

RACHEL BADE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes, there's a good chance this sort of blue wave could turn into a nail-biter. I was going to talk to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy just a couple days ago, and he was arguing to me that, for the first time in a long time, he feels that they really have a solid shot at keeping the House, the Republicans.

And that was just reflected in these new polls you mentioned. President Trump's approval rating going up. Democrats, yes, they still have a nine-point advantage on the congressional ballot, but if you actually look at the battleground districts, that advantage has disappeared; and now Republicans and Democrats are really running even. And that's where it really matters.

[06:20:12] The question is, is it too late, and is it enough? You know, Democrats, they still have this huge cash advantage and this -- they have this expansive battleground. They're competing in 75 GOP- held districts. They only need 23 to flip the House, and both sides have told me that they think Democrats already have 12 to 15 on lock, so they are clearly more than halfway to that 23 that they need. It's, of course, looking like Democrats are favored, but this is not over yet.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Scott, just for some context, let's look -- let's compare President Trump's approval rating with President Obama's. So President Trump has now leapfrogged over where Barack Obama was for the midterms in 2010, and we remember that did not go well for his party. So do you agree with Paul Begala that it is the fabrications and the fear mongering that has allowed President Trump to have this surge?

SCOTT JENNINGS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO GEORGE W. BUSH: No, I don't agree with Paul. I appreciate the fact that that's what Democrats are pushing right now.

But the reality is reflected in the NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll, that people like the economy. Trump's approval on the economy is great. People approve of the Republican Party on Supreme Court confirmations. People approve of what Trump has done on free trade. You can look at these issues and see why President Trump's numbers are going up, because they like the state of the country right now.

That doesn't mean Republicans are polling back to favored or even, as it relates to holding the House, I still think it's more than likely that the Democrats will take the House. But it does mean that these Democratic dreams of a 50- or 60-vote wave election are crashing into the reality that people actually think Donald Trump and the Republican Party are fulfilling their promises and doing what they said they would do as it relates to the economy and holding people accountable on free trade.

It's been quite a tragedy in my opinion that more Republican candidates haven't run more on the economy. When you look at what people say about how they feel about their job situation, this ought to be part of everybody's advertising. I know the conversation's been taking a lot of different directions this year, but The Republican Party and the economy, that's where it's at and that's where needs to be over the next two weeks.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting. You all sort of agree here on point here, which is that things aren't as bad for Republicans as they might have been. But even Scott Jennings admitting that he thinks it's more likely than not that Democrats will still take it.

Paul, Scott was saying that he thinks it's surprising that more Republicans aren't running on the economy. But no one is really running one way or the other, you note, on Donald Trump, at least not in their ads.

BEGALA: It's fascinating to me, absolutely fascinating. I remember Jennings was in the White House. George W. Bush in his first midterm was remarkably popular, and all the Republicans ran ads with Bush in them, because he was a popular president. And by the way, he had quite a good midterm his first time through.

That's not happening now, because yes, the present's up 47. Frankly, with this economy, a moderately well-trained chimp would be at 57. Not well enough trained to do Twitter, but a moderately well-trained chimpanzee would be at 57. So the guy is actually really a drag on his party, and you're seeing that.

Important sign in the debate in Florida that Jake Tapper moderated in Tampa. Andrew Gilliam, the Democrat, attacked Ron DeSantis, the Republican, for being -- and he said, quote, "a Trump stooge." So if the president was that popular in the closest swing state -- and by the way, DeSantis ran away from Trump. DeSantis, who in the primaries, he was so close to President Trump that he kicked Trump in the butt, you'd hit DeSantis in the back of the head.

But DeSantis now running away from Trump. Gillum is attacking. Might be a little bit of an early sign in a key swing state that the president is a drag.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Rachel, let's talk about Texas. Beto O'Rourke is running against Senator Ted Cruz. At the moment, Ted Cruz is up in the polls. But President Trump is going to go there tonight to campaign for Ted Cruz. That will be interesting, because people can remember that during the presidential race, these two were not exactly best buddies.

Here's a reminder of some of the things back then that they said about each other.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Donald, you're a sniveling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (via phone): His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being, you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous.

CRUZ: The man cannot tell the truth, but he combines it with being a narcissist.

TRUMP (on camera): Lyin' Ted Cruz. Lyin' Ted lies. Oh, he lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Do you think we'll hear any of that tonight, Rachel?

BADE: Absolutely not. Listen, there's been a homecoming when it comes to traditional Republicans and the president. The president has shown just over the past couple of weeks that he's willing to forgive a lot of his former adversaries, if it means doing what he loves best, which is winning, right?

He was in Nevada just a couple of days ago campaigning for Dean Keller, who wouldn't say if he would vote for president in 2016. He's obviously befriended Lindsey Graham. I mean, there's a whole bunch of adversaries that he had that he has now come to love and endorse. And that's because he wants to keep control of the Senate. He wants to keep control of the House. And by going to Florida -- or to Texas, pardon me, basically what he's doing is he's telling his voters, "Get to the polls. We need to keep the Senate, and that's all that matters right now."

[06:25:12] BERMAN: Scott, you can respond to that, if you want. I also want to throw up on the screen the latest pictures we have from the thousands of migrants working their way up. They're in southern Mexico, and many of these people from Honduras and Guatemala want to reach the United States. The president is talking about them whenever he can. So talk about the politics of that.

JENNINGS: Well, I think Donald Trump is president because of the immigration issue. He won the Republican primary largely on two things: No. 1, his discussion of immigration and illegal immigration; No. 2, his willingness to go there with the media when Republican voters perceived that nobody else was strong enough to stand up to the media that they don't like. So immigration has been fueling him since the moment he came down the escalator. So I think it's wise for the president to talk about that, because he

wants to paint a clear line between a party that wants border security and a party that doesn't. It's worked for him before, and that's why he's going back to it.

To go back to the Texas Senate race for a moment, I think the thing about Ted Cruz is that he's learned politics is a team sport. For his first term in the United States Senate, he was a thorn in the side of the Republican leadership. He obviously got into it with Donald Trump in the Republican primary with the president. But that chastened Ted Cruz. He learned a valuable lesson: that politics is a team sport and that Republicans want Republicans to work together.

So what he's he done? After that disaster at the Republican National Convention, in which he was essentially booed off the stage, he's helped Donald Trump, he's helped the White House. He's worked with Mitch McConnell and John Cornyn to get things done. And if you learn politics is a team sport, a lot of good things will happen for you. So I think all of the old stuff with Trump is water under the bridge, and it's why he's going to win reelection in Texas.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Paul, it's interesting to hear Paul says that immigration has worked for the president, because the family separation issue was a disaster. The numbers have recently gone up of illegal border crossings on President Trump's watch. He can't be happy about that. And he has not built the wall that was his, you know, one of his signature campaign promises. So do you think that that this is a winning issue for him?

BEGALA: Well, it is with his base. I think Scott's analysis is exactly right. That kind of racist demagoguery is what got Mr. Trump the nomination and allowed him to sort of slip the goods through customs, even though he lost the popular vote, and become president.

I'm not entirely sure it works in this mid-term if the Democrats won't answer. Scott was, I think, wisely complaining that Republicans aren't running on the economy. I'm complaining that Democrats are not running on Medicare and Social Security.

Scott is exactly right. Politics is a dream sport. Mitch McConnell has revealed the playbook for the Republican Party. In an interview last week he said, "We're going to go after Social Security and Medicare to pay for our tax breaks for Wall Street." Every single Democrat in America ought to be advertising that.

Those poor children in Central America are no threat to the United States, but Mitch McConnel, Ted Cruz and the Republican playbook of cutting Medicare and Social Security is. That's the ad the Democrats ought to be running.

BERMAN: Rachel, in ten seconds or less, who do those pictures of that caravan help more, the Democrats or the Republicans?

BADE: Look, the president and Republicans think that immigration is their issue right now, and the one thing that it does is it totally changes the topic away from health care, which has really ended up hurting Republicans in a lot of these swing districts, because pre- existing conditions, protections for them, have become popular.

Trump is trying to put a tough face on right now on immigration, because it turns out his base; and that's exactly what he's leaning into right now. We'll see if it works.

BERMAN: Wow. Paul, Scott, Rachael, fascinating discussion. An inside look at where the elections stand, two weeks plus one day before the midterms. Appreciate it.

And au revoir, Paul Begala.

CAMEROTA: We'll get an answer for what he's --

BEGALA: Adios, amigo.

CAMEROTA: All right. Meanwhile, they were celebrating --

BERMAN: Do you think anybody ever told him he was embarrassed?

CAMEROTA: I don't know. I don't know. I think that Paul just wakes up from glamorous places and then just is beamed in form wherever.

So listen, they were celebrating this homecoming weekend at Clemson University. There was a fraternity party. When the floor suddenly collapsed. Dozens were hurt, but it could have been so much worse that we have all the details for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)