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New Day

CNN Poll: Dead Heat In New Hampshire Senate Race; Senator Paul to Stake Out His Foreign Policy; Sergeant-At-Arms Takes Down Ottawa Shooter; Ebola-Free NBC Cameraman Speaks Out

Aired October 23, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Let's get over to John Berman who is in for Michaela today with headlines.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Alisyn. Canada's prime minister says the deadly attack on a soldier and a shooting at the parliament building were acts of terror. The suspected shooter, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, was killed by the sergeant at arms in the House of Commons there.

The lockdown in downtown Ottawa was lifted after more than ten hours. The U.S. Embassy there remains on lockdown. But security in and around the U.S. Capitol has not been altered from its heightened post- 9/11 levels.

The man who jumped the White House fence last night is currently in custody. The 23-year-old Dominick Adesanya has been charged with assaulting a police canine team among other crimes.

When he climbed over the fence the Secret Service, unleashed the dogs, he punched and kicked the dogs. Before he was subdued and taken to a hospital. The dogs were treated by a vet for bruises, but they now have been cleared to return to duty.

The federal government is now expanding the Takata air bag recall to 7.8 million cars. The U.S. Auto Safety Agency says faulty devices are an immediate threat since the air bags can rupture prompting metal supply out when the bag are deployed.

The recall includes cars from ten automakers that date back to 2008. At least two people have died because of this defect. There's particular concern when it comes into contact with humidity. Florida and the Gulf States are the particular areas of concern.

CAMEROTA: It's scary. They need to look at that. All right, John, thanks so much. So have you heard, there's an election around the corner? Let's get to "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with John King. Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Hello, Alisyn. Just around the corner, 12 days to the mid-term election, eight, 10, maybe even 12 Senate races still within play, a lot to talk about as we go inside politics this morning. With me to share their reporting and their insights, Manu Raju with "Politico" and CNN's Peter Hamby.

And let's start with our brand-new CNN/ORC poll in the state of New Hampshire, a marque Senate race here facing two candidates, the current Democratic incumbent senator and a former Republican senator from neighboring Massachusetts, Scott Brown, look at this, a dead heat.

Jean Shaheen, the incumbent at 49 and Scott Brown at 47 percent. That essentially unchanged from a poll we had about a month ago so this race tight to the end. Here's one of the most dramatic factors, let's get rid of that and take a peek at this.

Democrats are trying to stretch the gender gap, well, Jean Shaheen succeeding, 54 percent among women to 44 percent for Scott Brown, but almost an exact flip side among men, the Venus/Mars election you might call this one, 51-44.

Manu, let me start with you. This is the number she would want, the big gender gap, yet still the dead heat.

MANU RAJU, "POLITICO": She needs to drive up that gender gap even more. That's been the problem not just for in New Hampshire, but just nationally. Obama has been shedding support among women voters nationally.

That's hurting Democrats in a lot of the key races because Democrats are getting wiped out across the map by men. They need to run up the score with women.

If they lose New Hampshire, John, there's virtually no scenario in which they keep the Senate and lose New Hampshire. That's a must-win come Election Day.

PETER HAMBY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: There's two numbers keeping Shaheen afloat. One is that gender number. Scott Brown wants that number among men to be higher than it actually is.

Two, Scott Brown's unfavorable ratings have been steadily under water throughout this campaign while Shaheen's have been just above 50. So that dynamic has really kept Shaheen just above Scott Brown over the last month or so.

KING: And so let's get to why these races matter, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, three blue states, the president carried. Let's look at ths first then I'll get to the map, this is where we currently stand, 55 Democrats, 45 Republicans in the United States Senate.

I'm going to give you a scenario here. This is Republican Plan A, now some Democrats watching say whoa, you can't do that. But the Republican Plan A from day one has been win Alaska, win Montana, win South Dakota, win Arkansas and Louisiana and win West Virginia.

That would give them the net six pick-ups they need. Then you see these yellow states. These are the states who are in play. This is why New Hampshire and Iowa are so important and Colorado.

Again, three blue states, won by President Obama, they are all in play for Republicans. Republicans actually think they could take two of these three. Get a late wave, maybe three of these three.

Before we dig deeper, let's look at a brand new ad in Iowa, Joni Ernst made her name in the Republican primary with provocative ads. She's the Republican nominee against Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONI ERNST (R), IOWA SENATE CANDIDATE: It's a mess, dirty, noisy and it stinks. Not this lot, I'm talking about the one in Washington. Too many typical politicians, hogging, wasting and full of -- I approved this message because cleaning up the mess in Washington is going to take a whole lot of Iowa common sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So let's start there. Peter Hamby at the moment Republicans pretty confident about Iowa, right?

HAMBY: Yes, they are and that ad is actually very good one. And she was able to cut through the clutter in that Republican primary by running a similar ad. Braley has run a great campaign.

But the data we have. Look at the early vote numbers in that state, Democrats in the last two or three cycles have really done well by running up the early vote number, by getting people who don't traditionally vote, getting their votes in the bank.

Usually they are way ahead by the time you get to Election Day, when Republicans traditionally do well, but if you look at the return ballot numbers, in that early vote, Republicans are at parity with Democrats right now, which has never happened before.

Braley really wants that number to be higher. Again it's not a complete picture, those are the only return ballots, not requested ballots, but still Republicans are feeling very good.

KING: Again, it's a hypothetical. If you see what I'm doing, you don't like it because of your own views, remember we're just playing along. If Republicans take Iowa and if Republicans take Colorado, right there, we've got them at 50 in the math.

Then the question becomes what about North Carolina. That's a very competitive race right now. I'm going to leave that one out for now. The question comes can A, New Hampshire, this one will be tight to the very end.

Republicans trying to put more people on the ground, more resources, that was Maine, I didn't hit New Hampshire, big debate there tonight, by the way, moderated by Wolf Blitzer.

Then can Republicans hold their own, Kansas, Kentucky and Georgia, I want to get to Kansas right now, Hillary Clinton going back in. Alison Grimes is saying, this one is still close. Republicans pulled out there, Democrats pulled out their money and decided to go back in.

RAJU: They believe there's a chance in Kentucky. I think it's a pretty slim chance to beat Mitch McConnell. Most of the polls have him holding a steady lead. It's a very tough state. Obama is incredibly unpopular there, conservative state.

But the polls have shown that there is some tightening, at least in the democratic internal polling and the belief is that if you put some money in there, late, maybe you pull off an upset. Maybe you put Republicans on the defensive because Democrats are on the defensive across the country.

And it's also maybe to show the donors that they are going after Mitch McConnell because liberal donors they're going after Mitch McConnell.

HAMBY: When the headline accurate or not popped. That the DSEC was pulling out of Kentucky, you can bet that there was some angry phone calls from some donors like Jeffrey Katzenberg who put in a lot of money, wanting to take out Mitch McConnell. So that's definitely --

KING: What's fascinating 12 days out is I can give a scenario where Democrats barely hold on, unlikely, but you can still see a possibility of them really holding on to the Senate. You can see if there's a little bit of a wind, not a wave though.

But if a wind behind Republicans, they get 53, maybe even as high as if they win them all, 55. That's why we're going to have a lot of fun over the next 12 days. As we play this out, we're also watching the 2016 curtain start to rise.

We'll say 2016 starts the day after 2014. Today, Rand Paul gives a very important speech about foreign policy. The knock on him from the establishment has been that he worries too much like his dad.

The libertarian Ron Paul, isolationist disputes. Rand Paul will give a speech saying he's not an isolationist, but I'm not an interventionist. Define the difference.

RAJU: Yes, he's trying to show that he straddles the line between both his father's view of the world and the John McCain view of the world. He is someone who can push a less aggressive foreign policy, but not be an isolationist.

And he'll make the case in the speech that the country should not rush to war. We should not go to war when there's no clear outcome and no clear chance for success.

That's going to be one of his biggest liabilities in 2016. He thinks if he can preempt these attacks now, maybe he'll be on a stronger footing one day.

KING: The establishment is more hawkish. Rand Paul believes people on the grassroots are becoming more skeptical of military intervention. So he's trying to walk a fine balance between the establishment people who control the money in the fundraising and the grassroots people in the speech.

So you quote in the article he wrote for "Politico," he talks about the barnacles, enablers of war. That would be you, John McCain, he's talking about. You might not like that, but he used the word barnacle in occasion.

HAMBY: Yes. I mean, traditionally the sort of the Republican lanes in the foreign policy world kind of broken down in sort of familiar categories. He's trying to invent a space for himself. He's calling himself a conservative, realist.

The speech at the center for the national interest, which is a realist think tank, that's power politics, a pessimistic world. He's not that, but he's not a neocon. He's trying to create his own space. So give him credit for that. My only question is, why is he doing it right now?

Obviously the 2016 stuff has been happening for months and months, years honestly, but like this two-week window is about getting Republicans elected to the Senate, governor's house --

RAJU: There is a new poll that will come out.

KING: It's a great point, but I'll also give you a why now here as we close. Peter, Manu, thanks for coming in.

As we close, Chris Christie, gave a speech the other night to the Chamber of Commerce. Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, we think pretty sure, he's leaning in for 2016. He made a very big impression on this group.

I can tell you, they were impressed as he went through the policy issues. Listen here, you could read this as a criticism of Barack Obama and when we're done with it, a little more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I am convinced that the next president of the United States is going to be a governor and it needs to be. We have had the experiment of a legislator who has never run anything, getting on-the-job training in the White House. It has not been pretty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So as we get back to Chris Cuomo. Chris, you could take that as a criticism of a senator turned President Obama or you could take that as wait for the debate stage when he turns to Senator Rubio, Senator Paul, Senator Cruz, and says, nice guys, not ready, can't wait for those debates.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We know one thing, my friend, it is easy to criticize. It is much tougher to do the job. Thank you for bringing us "Inside Politics," we'll definitely be with you again tomorrow, my friend. And now I'll tell you, back here in Ottawa, what is very clear is that whoever becomes president, they're going to have to deal with some significant new threats to American safety and even here, Canadian safety.

Behind us is a National War Memorial. Right now, it's blocked. All these police vehicles are still coming in and out. The situation is still on lockdown. It is where the situation began, the shooting yesterday.

But we are told here, don't focus on who started it, focus on who stopped it, and that is Kevin Vickers, the sergeant at arms who stopped the gunman in his tracks possibly preventing even more bloodshed.

What we know about Mr. Vickers and how it happened, and what this all means for safety going forward, coming up.

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CUOMO: Welcome back. We are live in Ottawa, Canada, where it is cold, but there's an even more cold reality setting in among the people here because of the deadly attack that killed a soldier at the National War Memorial.

The shooter made his way from there to the parliament building, but fortunately, no one there was killed except him. And that is at least partly because for every villain. There is always a hero and one emerged to take down the shooter here before the rampage could claim any more lives.

That hero's name is Kevin Vickers. He was not alone. There were many people there fighting back, but this sergeant at arms of Canada's House of Commons is now a man of new distinction.

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CUOMO (voice-over): After almost three decades in law enforcement, it is believed yesterday was the first time that 58-year-old Sergeant-at- Arms Kevin Vickers ever exchanged gunfire with anyone and he made the shot count.

JOHN VICKERS, SERGEANT-AT-ARMS KEVIN VICKERS' BROTHER: As far as the call to duty, he's the type of guy, when the country needed him, he would be there full force and dependable.

CUOMO: This morning, the top law enforcement officer of Canada's House of Commons is being hailed a hero. Vickers applauded for his bravery in shooting and killing the assailant in Ottawa's deadly rampage Wednesday, stopping the gunman before more blood were shed.

His actions come as no surprise to his family. His brother telling CNN's Don Lemon, he always puts his country first.

VICKERS: He did what he had to do for the country today and for the safety of all of those folks here in Ottawa, we're just very, very proud of him.

CUOMO: Authorities haven't officially confirmed Vickers' actions in stopping the gunman, but eyewitnesses praise him with ending the ordeal at the nation's capital. The prime minister even inside at the time and on social media, many credit him with saving lives.

Profoundly grateful to Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers and our security forces for selfless act of keeping us safe, posts Veterans Affair Minister Julian Fantenno.

MPs and Hill staff owe their safety even lives to Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers tweets Parliament Member Craig Scott.

A 28-year veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Vickers became the sergeant at arms in 2006. While it carries many ceremonial duties, from touting a special sword to escorting world leaders, responsibilities of the sergeant at arms are much like that of a police chief.

His family and the country were thankful that along with the ceremony, he brought true bravery and heroism.

VICKERS: To think that sergeant at arms for the nation and parliament of all places, to have to be involved in something like that, as we say is quite surreal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: We focus on him because of what he did and we try to ignore the man who did the shooting because of what he did. However ignoring who did this terrible thing yesterday, Alisyn, we do not want to ignore the threat that this man represents, the threat that the man on Monday represented in Canada.

Because the U.S., every bit and more so, vulnerable to these types of attacks going forward. So the key is to analyze and understand. To keep people who are deranged enough to think violence is some key to honor, keeping them from overcoming the safety of the rest of us.

But Vickers is a special guy and everyone here this morning is very grateful he's the sergeant-at-arms. We're just trying to find out whether or not he'll be back at work this very morning.

CAMEROTA: He really is such a profile in courage. I've enjoyed reading so much about him. It was the first time in his long career that he engaged in gun fire and that he had the wherewithal to do that.

Chris, we'll be talking with you throughout the show obviously. Meanwhile, we do have some other subjects that we want to get to including the CDC, which is issuing some strict new guidelines for people coming to the U.S. from West Africa. So we'll tell you the new plan and how it could keep Ebola out of the U.S.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Now to the latest in the fight against Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control now stepping up containment efforts saying every airline passenger who arrives in the U.S. from one of the three hardest-hit West African countries will be monitored by state and local health officials for 21 days.

And an encouraging update to tell you about, Dallas Nurse Amber Vinson's family says she is now Ebola free, but Atlanta's Emory University Hospital has not officially confirmed that.

Let's get to our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. She joins us live with the latest. Elizabeth, what is the latest?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, good morning. The Vinson family says that they can't detect Ebola in Amber Vinson's blood and they say that she's been approved to move out of isolation and that she is regaining her strength.

Also good news for Ashoka Mukpo, he is the NBC cameraman who also had Ebola is also Ebola free. He's been discharged from the hospital and he also went on "NBC Nightly News" and said that having this disease allowed him to better connect with the people he was covering.

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ASHOKA MUKPO, NBC FREELANCE CAMERAMAN: You know your life is hanging by a thread. It makes me remember a lot of these people that I filmed, a lot of these people that I talked to, and to kind of connect with the kind of fear that they must have felt, and you know, there's almost no words for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now travelers coming back from Ebola-affected countries to the U.S. will get much more screening than I had when I came back from Liberia last month. They will be given thermometers, told to take their temperature twice a day for 21 days and given a list of symptoms to watch out for -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That seems like progress, to monitor them for 21 days so we don't see a repeat of what happened in Dallas. Elizabeth, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Well, Canada's prime minister declaring the country will not be intimidated by terrorism. Less than 24 hours after the brazen parliament shooting spree, what do we know about that gunman? We will go back to Chris in Canada and he'll be joined by a senator who was at parliament when this attack happened.

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