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Mitt Romney Ready to Rumble in Holyfield Fight; Bush Clarifies Iraq Answer for 5th Time; Stephanopoulos: Donations a "Mistake"; Female Soldier on a Rock 'n' Roll Mission; Blues Icon B.B. King Dies. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 15, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK )

[10:29:56] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Mitt Romney -- throwing his hat into a very different ring tomorrow night preparing for the fight of his life and knocking down his critics along the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hi. I'm Mitt Romney. And you may recognize me from television or the news or just around town. You've heard my critics say that I'm out of touch, that I'm stiff, that I just don't relate to people.

For years I have been listening to garbage like that and I decided to fight back. How do you do that? By taking on the former heavyweight champion of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You think he's kidding but he's not. He's looking trim. Not very muscular but very trim compared to Holyfield who could look muscular. But Mitt Romney is just hours away from that boxing match against Holyfield. The pair, dueling it out tonight in Salt Lake City, all to raise money for charity.

Looks like a lot of fun -- right? So let's talk about this with CNN political reporter Sara Murray; and Republican consultant and CNN political commentator, Margaret Hoover; and Tara Setmayer, she's a CNN political commentator and contributor to "The Blaze". Welcome to all of you.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Thanks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sara, I'm so disappointed that you're not at the weigh in. I thought you were going to be there live.

MURRAY: Carol, I'm also very disappointed to not be there. Unfortunately the scheduling did not work out. But I can tell you it sounds like it's going to be a pretty exciting event tonight. I talked to Ann Romney a little bit about this yesterday. And she said she's a little bit worried for Mitt. Like you said, he's in pretty good shape but it's hard to stack up against Evander Holyfield. Every summer the Romney family does this thing called the Romney Olympics. It has lots of events -- swimming, running, hammering nails into a board. She said she's been watching Mitt's performance in the Romney Olympics and you know, these days he's not only losing to the boys but he's losing to the girls, too. That makes her a little nervous about his upcoming performance tonight.

COSTELLO: I'm ready for them to head butt. They don't do that.

You know, in watching this, Tara, it kind of makes me wonder where was that Mitt Romney when he was running for president, you know?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It makes a lot of us wonder that because if people had been able to see that side of Mitt Romney we would not have a second disastrous term of the Barack Obama presidency.

But, you know, unfortunately for Mitt Romney, I think that he was too busy worrying about being controlled and not offending. And I knew he was in trouble once he started to apologize for his success, for what he's done for his wealth, for his story. He should have doubled down on that instead of turning around and apologizing for being successful and for the jobs that were created through Bain and what they actually do.

They never really -- the campaign -- they never really allowed him to be who he was and that was the result -- he came across as stiff. At least he can make fun of himself.

COSTELLO: Do political consultants allow any candidate to be who they are?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's not -- look, there is this mythology that political consultants actually control the races. This all comes from the candidate. I mean these structures are top down candidates. Consultants take their cues from the candidate. I think Mitt Romney just took himself seriously, took the presidency seriously and now that he's not running for president, you get to see that side of him.

Certainly, it would have helped and every single candidate should take note now. This kind of authenticity is what people want to see on the trail and that's how you connect to ordinary folks who vote every four years and not just Republican primary voters but the real folks out there that you need to win over.

By the way, just seeing a likable side of Mitt Romney, I don't know it would have taken care of some of the Republican Party's real challenges in terms of the demographic issues we face. Would this have cut into the zero percent of African-Americans we won? I'm not so sure.

But take note, folks, we got to win it this time or we're not going to win at all.

COSTELLO: Well, I think that Jeb Bush is trying to be very authentic -- right. I know he stumbled along the way. I'll pose this question to you, Sara. I think it must be tough for him because you know, would you want to overly criticize your brother and demonize him because you had to win, you know, the office of the President? I don't know that I could.

MURRAY: Yes. Carol, I think this is really tough for Jeb Bush because we are talking about his brother here. And even though they aren't particularly close, I think he does respect what his brother did while he was in office. He respects that he served his country in this manner and was president.

But I do think that this is the core question of a Jeb Bush candidacy. He is going to be asked to answer for his brother's policies and he needs to be able to do that and he needs to be comfortable with whatever his answer is. There's nothing to prevent him from talking these answers over with his brother ahead of time, from practicing them and his aides say that he has been practicing these answers so to see him flub lines about how he would have handled the war in Iraq, the most predictable question he could have gotten, I think that's a real concern for people.

COSTELLO: Yes. And let's get his fifth and final answer about the Iraq war. Let's run that right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:35:02] JEB BUSH (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: Knowing what we know now, what would you have done? I would have not engaged. I would not have gone into Iraq.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It sounds so simple, right?

SETMAYER: Well, look. Jeb Bush is running into some significant problems, I think. And even the donors are starting to be concerned about this. What was the allure about Jeb Bush? He was supposed to be the adult in the room. He was supposed to be polished already and prepared.

He comes from this dynasty family and he was a governor and he's not exemplifying that right now. He's rusty. He hasn't run for anything in a decade. And this also comes at a time where Marco Rubio who was supposed to be his protege definitely is performing better than he did.

Marco Rubio gave a quality foreign policy speech this week at the Council on Foreign Relations where he showed he had command of the issues. He showed that he was serious about things. He had good -- and there you have Jeb Bush, the contrast, where it really looks like the student has now become the teacher. It was a terrible week for Jeb.

COSTELLO: It is kind of icky in a way that Marco Rubio is now attacking his mentor, Jeb Bush.

HOOVER: I think "mentor" overstates it a little bit.

COSTELLO: Really?

HOOVER: I also think "mentor" overstates it. I mean he ran the Florida house when Jeb was governor so they worked very closely together. But I mean it's not like Jeb raised him through politics.

COSTELLO: Marco Rubio describes him as his mentor.

HOOVER: Well, I mean you always -- whatever. Regardless, I mean certainly there is a relationship there that has been hurt by this run and them becoming competitors. I think the stumbles of Bush certainly show that he's rusty but it doesn't show that he's not ready to be president on day one. I mean there's an entirely different skill set for being a president running the free world and running for president. 500 and something days out he's going to get better at it. Frankly, he's gotten better already in the time he's done it.

Does this break Jeb Bush? No? Was this a predictable problem? Yes, he should have done better. But I think he's improving any way. And I just don't think it's make or break now.

By the way, I do think, you know, the Republican field still when you look at it, who is ready to be president on day one? I think people still think that Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, even though they are imminently likable, sheer political talent certainly, but who is ready and has maturity and experience to be president on day one? I still think that certainly goes in Jeb's favor.

SETMAYER: But Jeb definitely -- he does not have as much of a learning curve as everyone else because that's the reason he was touted as the front runner and like I said the adult in the room. And the polish he's supposed to have and he' snot exemplifying that at all. If he can't answer something as simple as that he should have been prepared for it.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: He's got a lot of competition.

COSTELLO: But I do agree. And Sara, please weigh in. It is very early. And by the time we really get into campaign mode and by the time voters really start to pay attention, this will probably like fade from the public memory, right?

MURRAY: And I think that's what people are telling us in the early states that they are happy to see this kind of clumsiness happening when we're still so far out from the Iowa caucuses. He does have a lot of time to recover.

The problem is if you see this sort of clumsiness, this sort of rustiness, him flubbing predictable questions as we go on as we continue and if you don't see him campaign apparatus learn how to better respond to these things. But it is a very, very long way. Just between now and Iowa, we have to remember that that most normal human beings, most normal voters, are not tuning in yet.

COSTELLO: I have to agree with that.

SETMAYER: How he handles this is indicative of his personality and how he is as a candidate. These are glimpses of what he's like. I don't think too many people are going to see that he's the likable candidate that we need.

HOOVER: If he improves, then there's market improvement.

SETMAYER: That's true.

HOOVER: You see him getting better as a candidate. So it's early is what I would say. It's early.

COSTELLO: That's true. It is early. I have to leave it there.

Thanks to all of you. Practice makes perfect. Thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM an apology from ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos. Why he's calling donations to the Clinton Foundation a mistake -- because it was. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[104203] COSTELLO: ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos apologizes for not telling viewers he donated $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation over three years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Over the last several years I've made substantial donations to dozens of charities including the Clinton Global Foundation. Those donations were a matter of public record but I should have made additional disclosures on air when we covered the foundation. And I now believe that directing personal donations to that foundation was a mistake.

Even though I made them strictly to support work done to stop the spread of AIDS, help children and protect the environment in poor countries, I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Rand Paul questioned if the donations were payment for access because Hillary Clinton is kind of running for president.

Brian Stelter is here to talk more about this. Clearly what he did was dumb.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I think everybody in the news industry is baffled by this because he's a very smart guy. He's got a lot of friends in the industry. He's very well respected including by many Republicans. You know, Stephanopoulos has worked for 20 years to transition from

politics to journalism and he's succeeded and he's become a very big star. So folks are scratching their heads wondering why was hew willing to make these donations because he probably, you know, may have known at some point this was going to look bad.

To be fair in 2012 when he made the first donation, we didn't know that Hillary Clinton would for sure run for president. But even then there was talk about her possibly running.

COSTELLO: He's a political reporter kind of guy -- right.

STELTER: Right.

COSTELLO: You have to be really careful.

STELTER: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: So even if she wasn't running, that still made a difference.

STELTER: And even if he made these donations in 2012 and then 2013 and then 2014, he should have disclosed it when he was interviewing the author of the "Clinton Cash" book that has become so controversial and which has made the foundation even more controversial.

So even if he made the donations which was an error, then not disclosing them was another error. And what he heard in this morning's apology was an admission of both errors.

Yesterday when this first was revealed, he only said I should have disclosed it. Now he's going further -- Carol. He's saying I shouldn't have done this in the first place. I think that's probably the correct answer.

I do have one issue though with his apology. He said that he should have gone the extra mile here and avoided the conflict of interest. No. That's the first mile. Avoiding conflict of interest is the first part of the job. It's not as if he was going out of his way. It's not supposed to be the extra mile.

That said ABC now hopes this is over -- right. He's apologized on air. They are hoping now this will start to fade away. Some Republicans do not want it to fade away. There are some conservative critics who say he should not be able to cover the 2016 election. So that now becomes the issue going forward.

COSTELLO: I'm sure you'll be talking a lot about this, this weekend.

STELTER: We will.

COSTELLO: Brian Stelter, many thanks to you.

STELTER: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Straight ahead in the NEWSROOM. A talented musician on a mission for the U.S. Army -- Sergeant and Iraq war veteran Corrin Campbell says being a woman and being a soldier are not mutually exclusive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The annual work tour begins next month. For two months more than 120 performers will travel across the country showcasing a wide range of musical talents and styles among them, alternative rocker and army sergeant Corrin Campbell. This active duty Iraq war vet is not just a gifted musician she's on an official mission to change how young women view the military because only 25 percent of new army recruits are female.

I sat down with Sergeant Campbell to talk music, the military and the urgent need for more women in the military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. CORRIN CAMPBELL, U.S. ARMY: It's a common idea that maybe you don't get to be a girl or be a woman in the army because it is seen as a masculine place to be.

COSTELLO: Your mission for the army is what?

CAMPBELL: I would say that my primary mission on behalf of recruiting command is to communicate with students that maybe their perception of the military is not complete. We have jobs that cover everything that the civilian side does and I think that's a misunderstanding from a lot of people is that all of our jobs are focused on the fight.

COSTELLO: You sing to get that point across. Some people might say what?

[10:49:53] CAMPBELL: I do. If you look at young adults now, they are so passionate about music and so we found a way to kind of tap into that passion point and communicate some human parts of the army and in a language that they're used to hearing 24/7. It's shaking up, you know, the perception that if you deploy, you're just this machine that goes over there and knocks it out.

COSTELLO: I mean you were deployed yourself.

CAMPBELL: I was. I'm a combat veteran of the First Cavalry Division. I deployed to Iraq and spent half of my time doing soldier tasks.

I think it kind of blows their mind a little bit that I'm a combat veteran but now they see me on stage at their school.

COSTELLO: There's a big push right now to recruit more women into the army. How do you tell them you can be a girl and then you can be a special ops person?

CAMPBELL: I think that you can find women who want to show strength in a way that is typically a men's world, but you can also find women to do the other jobs who maybe they don't want to do that. Maybe they want to be a nurse or be a doctor or be a pilot?

COSTELLO: I would think about upward mobility and I would think that top echelon job would not be mine no matter what a great job I did in the army. Is that true?

CAMPBELL: No. I had the pleasure of working for General Ann Dunwoody at Army Material Command. She was the first female four-star general and I saw in her a great amount of femininity and confidence and that was really encouraging to me as a young soldier because I could see what a woman in power looks like.

COSTELLO: But still, you know, I kind of want to see like a woman in charge at CentCom or I want to see one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff female. We haven't seen that.

CAMPBELL: I know. I'm waiting for that. I think that there's obviously -- there's still a glass ceiling in multiple places. We just need women to push into those jobs and desire to have them.

COSTELLO: I think it's really interesting in watching your videos online. You look a lot different than you do right now.

CAMPBELL: Right.

COSTELLO: I'm sure that's by design. Tell us about that.

CAMPBELL: The uniform is kind of supposed to make us look uniform. But I do want them all to know that they can be an individual and they can wear pink makeup and they can make their hair look crazy and still express their individuality even if they are in the service.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: She's pretty awesome -- right. You can see Sergeant Campbell perform all summer on the work tour beginning June 19th in Pomona, California. You can also read more about the singing sergeant in my op-ed at cnn.com/opinion and on my Facebook page -- Facebook.com/Carolcnn.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, remembering a legend. The incredible life of B.B. King.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just hours after the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia, a Republican-led house committee voted to slash Amtrak funds by more than $250 million. Last hour we told you the House Speaker John Boehner lashed out at a reporter over the suggestion that funding was linked to the derailment. Boehner called that connection stupid.

Now a top Democrat is firing back. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York says Amtrak's long financial problems simply cannot be ignored and safety concerns dismissed. Here's what he said minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Some like Speaker Boehner who can't seem to understand this, he said that this and other accidents are not tied to a lack of funding. That's not stupid as he said. It's the truth as we say and anyone who studies this knows. Speaker Boehner speaks with massive ignorance. Anyone who knows Amtrak knows it has been robbing Peter to pay Paul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now the engineer at the controls is due to speak to federal investigators about the crash. He has already spoken to his best friend. Next hour that best friend will be on CNN in a live interview.

President Obama has a live public event on Capitol Hill this morning to honor fallen police officers. He's expected to speak soon. The event caps off National Police Week and will commemorate those officers who have died in the line of duty.

According to the FBI an average of 64 officers are killed every year. 2013 was the lowest year during that period from 1980 to 2014 with 27 officers losing their lives on the job.

Moments ago too, the President giving a statement on the death of legendary blues artist B.B. King saying quote, "He gets stuck in your head. He gets you moving. He gets you doing the things you probably shouldn't do but will always be glad you did. B.B. King may be gone but that thrill will be with us forever and there's going to be one killer blues session in heaven tonight."

(MUSIC)

COSTELLO: B.B. King was one of the world's great guitar players reigning as king of the blues for more than six decades. His career includes epic collaborations -- Tony Bennett, Gladys Knight, Eric Clapton -- just to name a few.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC CLAPTON, MUSICIAN: I want to thank him for all the inspiration and encouragement he gave me as a player over the years and for the friendship that we enjoyed. And there are not many left to play in the pure way that B.B. did. He was a beacon for all of us who love this kind of music. And I thank him from the bottom of my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: B.B. King's hits inspiring generations of musicians as you heard. B.B. King was 89.

I know I'd rather listen to B.B. King. Thank you so much for joining me today.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.