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Monday Is Marco Rubio's Turn; GOP 2016ers Hit Back On Hillary's Announcement; Obama Faces Congressional Backlash On Iran Deal; Apple Watch Sales Near 1 Million In First Day; Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 13, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The Boston bomber has been dammed by his conviction. The question now is how long will he live? Jurors will consider whether to kill the convicted terrorist murderer starting next Tuesday.

That will be the penalty phase of the trial. Now for what it's worth, the mother of the two Boston bombers doesn't agree with the verdict and says Americans are the true terrorists.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, jurors in the Aaron Hernandez trial resuming deliberations this morning. This is the fifth day the panel will meet after spending nearly 20 hours talking last week. The ex-football star charged with gunning down his friend, Odin Lloyd, in 2013. Hernandez faces life without parole if convicted.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he can't read yet, but this little guy can drop the beat. Take a look. This is for A.J. when he is deejaying. He apparently took interest in his dad's iPad. There was a deejaying app on there and he began doing what he learned spinning on the real ones and twos. These videos of him have gone viral -- I will not say it.

CUOMO: Mich, what was his first words?

PEREIRA: I don't know.

CUOMO: Wiki-wiki-pause.

PEREIRA: See, can you say it.

CUOMO: I thought I was saying it.

CAMEROTA: He is so cute!

CUOMO: Two years old.

CAMEROTA: Is he available for our NEW DAY party next month?

CUOMO: All right, it's time for "Inside Politics," on NEW DAY with John King. John, a deejay in his spare time known as Dj Funky Fresh. JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": You have that one extra juice

box this morning, Mr. Cuomo? One too many juice boxes I think, I don't know.

CAMEROTA: He's cut off.

KING: It's busy Monday "Inside Politics," back to you guys in a minute. With me to share their reporting and their insights are Jackie Kucinich of "The Daily Beast" and Jonathan Martin of the "New York Times."

Hillary Clinton wasn't the only one. We will get to her highly produced video in a moment. Another candidate for president put out a video last night. His name is Marco Rubio. He is the senator from Florida. He's going to announce this evening in Miami and here's how he told people, get ready.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: We're excited about the announcement tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time watch live on marcorubio.com.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now again, we are going to show something that's more highly produced in a minute. This is Marco Rubio's way of building up support. What do we make of this? I'm fascinated by Marco Rubio in the sense that a lot of Republicans when Jeb Bush got tears about running.

Marco Rubio was his under study, if you would, if he will step back. He's a freshman senator. The first three Republicans aren't freshman senators. If you look at our polling right now, our most recent national poll Marco Rubio at 7 percent.

Not a great place to start, but in a wide open Republican race, not a horrible place either. We've seen these polls jump all over the place, but for me it's interesting because of his potential.

He is going to make a generational play today not only to Democrats. He's in his 40s. He is not only going to say to Democrats, Hillary Clinton is the past, we need the future.

Isn't that his message to Republicans including his mentor, Jeb Bush, as well, that love you, respect your service, but it's time for the next generation?

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE DAILY BEAST": Absolutely. But it's going to have to -- it's going to be a trick. He can't insult Jeb Bush. Right now, Jeb Bush is polling better than he is in Florida. So he is a beloved figure still in that state. So he has to make that turn and you know, pick himself as the younger generation without being insulting to Jeb Bush.

JONATHAN MARTIN, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": He is very experienced to be the sort of Goldilocks candidate, right. He wants to be not too hot, but not too cold candidate. Somebody who is both the electable and safe for the donor class ala Jeb Bush, but at the same time, somebody who for the grassroots reflects, you know, a true conservative who is not going to be apologetic about his principle.

I think that's the path he is going to try to take appealing to both parts of the party. The challenge in doing so is he who winds up turning off both sides. So it's not an easy thing to thread, John, but I think Rubio's calculation is wide opened campaign, 2015 is not 1999.

Jeb Bush is not selling out of the gates immediately with the grassroots, both like his brother did. It could happen, give it a shot, and if not, life is long. I'm young, plenty of options ahead.

[07:35:13] KUCINICH: One of the interesting contrast of this and Tim Mack, a reporter out in Miami wrote this today, when Rubio first announced in 2009, he's filed the paperwork. It took a month or something to find out that he was actually running so -- and that wasn't that long ago. So to see this person grow as fast as he did is fascinating.

MARTIN: Keep in mind, when he ran for that Senate race in 2010, he did so in the face of a sitting governor, Charlie Crist, he was told it's not going to happen. Charlie Christ has all the establishment support, wait your turn. Life obviously turned out differently. I think that kind of a president is shaping for him.

KING: He doesn't get as much attention as Rand Paul and Ted Cruz who did the same thing, got in against the establishment Republican candidate and sort of forgotten because Rubio has become more main stream in Washington.

He tried to work with the leadership, was the speaker of the Florida house, we saw a total outsider. So it is a part of his resume that if he can catch fire, he does have a bit of the Tea Party appeal.

My big question is remember he came to Washington and said let's do an immigration reform, let's have a path to status for citizenship and he pulled back in a conservative backlash. It's going to be interesting for me to see how he navigates that one. Whether he can grow as a candidate --

MARTIN: It speaks to what I said about kind of please both sides and winding up angering both too.

KING: So we'll see if he can do. Growth is the question. Can Rubio grow in this campaign? He announces at 6:00 tonight. Someone else announced yesterday, she happens to be the overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination.

A little sample of the Hillary Clinton video, which just the way this was done, showing a lot of voters took us a minute to actually see the candidate, took some people by surprise. You see this play out here.

I view this as the Obama coalition plus. Hillary Clinton trying to say it's not about me. Remember, 2007 was I'm in it to win it. There was this air of inevitably. Some will call it smartly or more political. What was your biggest take on how she did this?

KUCINICH: Well, now she's heading across the country in a car so yes it was interesting. It really did, as you said, it broke down the new Democratic coalition. It's not just the people that she was trying to court. You had gay people that sent that message. It's not about me. It's about you all and I want to meet you.

KING: You want make a point. No union members, at least not identifiable union member. She is trying to pick through the coalition -- and she was very clear, I want to be your champion.

If the people will start their clamor for Elizabeth Warren, I think Hillary Clinton was clearly saying I'm going to fight for economics at a time when a lot of Republicans wants to talk about foreign policy. I'm your champion, populist but.

MARTIN: Yes, the center piece of the campaign is clearly going to be economic. I was struck that there was nobody there from organized labor, at least explicitly, but certainly it speaks to the new Democratic coalition and frankly how the country looks in 2015 as well.

But John, I was also struck by just how infused with Bill Clinton this was. Think about his maxims. It's about the future not the past. Elections are, that have also voters care more about themselves and their future than they do about you and your past.

KING: That was his trademark line during Monica Lewinsky, during the draft controversy, during Jennifer Flowers in the 1992 campaign, I'm fighting for you. This is about you. Don't have to make it about me, smart.

MARTIN: And you saw that once again, they were trying to make it about the voters. This is not about me. That's why you have the first minute-and-a-half until you saw her. I think that the smart play, it will be tested. She's the most famous woman in the world. Of course, the GOPs will make it about her than about the issues.

KING: They go from Pennsylvania to Iowa. The staff insists this was her idea. This family we joked about, that baby's 16th birthday party, we will see whether that was a President Clinton or this play out. A campaign controls the rollout.

We will see if she will be in Iowa meeting with voters. We'll see what she's like back on the stage. One thing we do know, we knew what she was going to do. We're waiting for the official announcement.

And look at the reaction from Republicans, Jeb Bush sends out a tweet, "We must do better than Hillary. If you are concerned, committed to stopping her, add your name," and there is always a please send money when it comes to these things.

Scott Walker, "Hillary Clinton has the same Washington knows best mentality. People around the country are looking to move beyond." Ted Cruz will give a speech today to say the world got more dangerous when she was secretary of state.

That's a case Ted Cruz will make today in North Carolina. Rand Paul has a new anti-Hillary ad up. The first anti-Hillary says send me money to keep this ad on the air. We have a rallying cry. All the Republicans knew. Expect that she would be the Democratic nominee. They wasted not a second.

KUCINICH: Well, you didn't see anything on national security in her video yesterday, but Republicans will make it about secretary of state and they are going to make it about trust. You hear that lot from Rand Paul in particular that I don't know, if you can trust the Clintons, they're secretive. I think that will be a rallying cry and the walk association over and over and over again as we go forward.

[05:40:07] MARTIN: Think about how politics have changed. In 2012, Mitt Romney runs against Barack Obama. John Boehner, the speaker of the House spends years saying where are the jobs? You look now at the message from them, it has shifted to national security foreign policy. A part is because of her tenure as Obama secretary of state.

The facts on the ground have changed. The world looks different. The economy is improving at home. Overseas events are much more tumultuous. It goes to show these things have change on a dime.

KING: It can change on a dime, Alisyn. As Hillary Clinton is on the road again, you control your rollout. Republicans might be grumbling about coverage or about this. Every campaign gets a rollout. We will watch Senator Rubio tonight. It's going to be a crowded Republican field. Now we wait tomorrow we get to actually see Hillary Clinton interacting with the voters in Iowa. That should be fun.

CAMEROTA: I think we are off to the races in Ernest, John King. You had better clear your calendar for the next year-and-a-half.

KING: I'm going to get a juice box and go on vacation. Good way to start. That's a good idea. All right, John, thanks so much.

Well, Congress is back in town. President Obama trying to tell you what makers on the nuclear deal with Iran and a new relationship with Cuba, can he get them to buy it? What's he selling anyway? All that next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are going to give the Cubans just about everything they want, then you should have gotten something significant in return and we got nothing in terms of the people of Cuba.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Senator Bob Menendez criticizing President Obama's thawing of relations with Cuba. Lawmakers are backing Congress this morning and many not pleased with the deal, the president is making on Cuba and Iran.

Aaron David Miller is the author of "The End of Greatness, Why America Can't, Have, and Doesn't Want Another Great President." He is also vice president for New Initiatives and a distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. All around impressive, Aaron. Great to see you on NEW DAY this morning.

AARON DAVID MILLER, V.P. FOR NEW INITIATIVES, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's not just Senator Bob Menendez who objects to any deal or any normalizing of relations with Cuba, it's also others in Congress and a large portion of the Cuban-American community here in the U.S. and here are their chief complaints about what the U.S. is now doing with Cuba.

They say that there is a whole long laundry list of offenses that Cuba never answered for. They don't like the cop killer remains in Cuba. She was granted political asylum since 1984 even though the U.S. has wanted her back for prosecution.

They say Cuba has shifted arms to North Korea and to guerrilla groups in Columbia. They say there are ongoing and recent examples of political repression and human rights abuses and until the Castros answer for these things we shouldn't be normalizing relations. What do you say?

MILLER: Yes, I think it's a compelling case, but you have an administration that's determined to pursue transformation of diplomacy. It's convinced that six out of every ten Americans are now open to some sort of change on Cuba.

You have key organizations including the American Chamber of Commerce, Catholic Church and others who are pushing this and even a generation of younger Cubans who are open to a change. So I think that's the administration's position.

The problem of course is you are going to have congressional constraints on lifting the embargo. You got a presidential campaign that's about to open, which is going to highlight all these issues and I think make the president's task much more difficult.

And a Castro regime frankly that is in no hurry to open up and wants to maintain control while taking advantage of the American initiative. So again, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Alisyn, the president's world over the next 20 months is going to be divided between migraine, headaches, and root canal operations.

He will be constrained by Congress on one hand and by the nature of these regimes the Castros, the mullahs in Iran, and of course, the situation in Iraq, which is going to be probably the most difficult to manage.

CAMEROTA: I mean, if the president doctrine is engagement. Some people who like that idea believe that this is going too far. That it's sweeping things under the rug that really need to be addressed.

MILLER: Well, I understand the case. I think the president does have this notion, this blitz to engage our enemies. Let's start a process that will take advantage of some of the openings. Let's remove the excuses from the Iranians and the Castros that they've used for too long that America is the great Satan, the great enemy and see what happens.

Now, there are a lot of people, who simply don't buy. That they look at the former Soviet Union and China and they understand that economic openings do not produce quickly or easily or at all the transformative changes that change the behavior of these regimes.

So this is going to be a difficult case to make and frankly it's going to be a process that this president is not going to see to fruition. It will be his successor and probably his successor's successor.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the Iran deal because there are many in Congress, mostly Republicans, who also believe that's a raw deal. Do you think it's a raw deal?

MILLER: Well, look, you have to figure out the balance between the real world in which Iran is accelerating its program to have enough material to make a nuclear weapon and the ideal world, which is the world everybody wants.

No enrichment, no nuclear infrastructure, a different regime in Tehran so you got to try to find the balance. I think in the end, you may actually get an agreement that produces a smaller, slower, more easily monitored and verified Iranian nuclear program.

But we should be under no illusions, A, that this is going to force the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons pretensions or, B, that it's going to change their behavior in the region in Iraq in Yemen, in Syria or their repression at home.

[07:50:05] So I think, you know, this is the no good deed goes unpunished school foreign policy. This president is determined to break some molds and he's persuaded, and he has a lot of executive discretion in order to act. I just think this is going to be a hard slog. No transformations.

A lot of give and take and a lot of transactions that are going to be imposed certainly by Congress -- by Congress, and a lot of foreign policy experts, too.

CAMEROTA: Aaron David Miller, always great to get your perspective. We should also let our viewers know that you have a great op-ed on CNN.com about Hillary Clinton's foreign policy, which of course, is so relevant today, the day after she makes her announcement. So everybody should read that. Aaron, we'll see you soon.

MILLER: Thanks so much, Alisyn, take care.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Michaela. PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn, Hillary Clinton selling herself as a champion for the American people. But she is facing an uphill battle when it comes to the economy. What's her plan? And can she get the job done? CNN money now is next.

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PEREIRA: Let's take a look at our money. It's time for "CNN Money Now." Chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, is in the money center. What is Hillary Clinton's plan for the economy? There's a big question.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're getting an early glimpse. She says the deck is stacked for the people at the top. She wants middle-class families to do more than just get by. What that means for her policies, though, remains to be seen, higher minimum wage, higher taxes on the rich or wage equality for women.

She'll have to be careful not to appear too cozy with Wall Street donors that funded her 2008. Stocks have soared since the last time she ran but wages are flat. The wage issue will be big in this election.

[07:55:11] All right, almost a million people ordered an Apple Watch on Friday. Research firm, Slice Intelligence, reports on average people ordered more than one watch and they spent about $500. The most popular model, Chris, was a sport watch that runs about $350.

CUOMO: Good to know, Christine Romans. Thank you. Always value added. Not one but two new candidates vying for the White House. Hillary, she's in. Marco Rubio is supposedly declaring tonight. What will they mean to the race? CNN's coverage continues next.

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CLINTON: I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion and I want to be that champion.

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary Clinton is just not trustworthy.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think she would be an excellent president.

SENATOR RAND PAUL: The Clintons sort of feeling like they're above the law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton is going to be the champion for American families.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Marco Rubio I think is going to get a lot of attention today.