Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Five Way Tie for GOP Frontrunners; Carly Fiorina in Hillary's Shadow?; Will the Duggars Stay on TV? Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired May 28, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

PAMELA GELLER, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FREEDOM DEFENSIVE INITIATIVE: Because we see that Europe. When they want you girls to wear longer skirts, are you going to draw it there?

[08:30:04] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I understand that you see it as a slippery slope.

GELLER: Well, I'm asking you. Where are you going to draw the line? You are saying no cartoons. That to me is so much more destructive to a free society than alcohol or -- I mean, it's free speech.

CUOMO: Understood.

GELLER: It's a cartoon, Chris. Snap out of it.

CUOMO: I understand where you're coming from it on it, but obviously there are -- there's certainly two schools are thought on this. We got to leave the discussion here, but I appreciate you coming in to discuss it.

GELLER: Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: I really do.

Mick, to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the Republican frontrunner for the White House is very much unclear at this point. A five-way tie at the top of a new poll, in fact, as a new candidate jumps in the race. We have that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: All right, here we go with the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY.

At number one, damage control at the Defense Department after a military lab in Utah shipped live anthrax samples to nine states and a military base in South Korea. 26 people are now getting treated for possible exposure.

The FBI is scrambling to keep track of all the ISIS sympathizers in the United States. They're asking the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies across the country for help. [08:35:02] Officials in Texas warning anyone who lives near the Colorado and Brassos (ph) River to evacuate. The forecast calls for six more inches of rain in parts of the flood-ravaged state by the end of the weekend.

The pilot of a twin-engine plane that clipped a shed at Florida's Melbourne Airport Wednesday before takeoff reportedly was drunk. Air traffic controllers did not clear Christopher Hall for takeoff. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: OK, 32 Mike. Where are you going, sir?

Skymaster 32 Mike, is everything all right, sir?

32 Mike, turn your engines off.

Twin Cessna 32 Mike, turn your engines off, sir. Kill your -- kill your engines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Hall and his son in the plane was arrested in charges of reckless operation of a vehicle and child abuse. Pardon me, both are OK.

Well, prepare to be spel1bound. The county's best young spellers facing off tonight in the finals of the 2015 Scripp's National Spelling Bee. No doubt, Chris and Alisyn, there will be some major D- R-A-M-A.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wait a minute, let me write that down.

CUOMO: Drayma (ph).

PEREIRA: Got it? Drayma, yes, that's exactly it.

For more of the five things, be sure to visit newday.cnn.com for the latest. Guys?

CAMEROTA: OK, thanks Michaela.

Well, Hillary Clinton was in South Carolina not speaking with reporters. Carly Fiorina was there, too. She did speak with reporters but she didn't like some of their questions. We'll show you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE PATAKI, FMR. NEW YORK GOVERNOR: We need to recapture that spirit, that sense we are one people. When we do, we will stop empowering politicians and empower ourselves with the opportunities to have an unlimited, bright future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right, well, that was former New York governor, George Pataki, announcing his plans to join the presidential race this morning. He's joining a very crowded GOP field as a new Quinnipiac University poll shows that is all tied up. Look at this, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker each getting 10 percent of the vote.

CUOMO: Boy, and they're all so similar. I still think Governor Pataki announced here on this show to us.

CAMEROTA: I do, too.

CUOMO: I still think he did it here first.

All right, let's bring in some people whose opinions actually matter though. CNN political commentators, Republican strategist and Jeb Bush supporter Ana Navarro, and Democratic strategist Donna Brazile.

Your take on the poll? Men so different, yet all gathered together at 10 percent. Ana?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Chris, what can I tell you? There is no frontrunner. There is no establishment candidate in the Republican Party. There's only one establishment candidate running in 2016 and her name is Hillary Clinton.

I think that it's going to be a very tough primary, a very vigorous debate, a tough competition, and it's going to have to take a lot of smarts, a lot of money, a lot of resources, and frankly, a lot of political retailing by these candidates to step ahead. I think the debates are going to be a good chance for them to somehow distinguish themselves.

But our field is big and it's going to keep getting bigger. So, you know, it's all about how do we distinguish one from the other? And that's I think the case they have to make in the next few months.

CAMEROTA: It is a challenge. Donna, are you surprised that Jeb Bush, with all of his familial name recognition, is polling in exactly the same place that Ben Carson, who's new to this game, is?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I am not surprised. Look, the Republicans have an open race. We have an open race on the Democratic side. Yes, Hillary Clinton is a proven leader and a champion for just about every major issue that the American people care about. But the Republicans are going to continue this shopping spree probably throughout the summer and into the early fall, until the winnowing out that occurs sometime during the debate. These Republicans are going to have to honestly get down in all of those 99 counties, meet the voters, greet them, and see if they can break away from the pack.

CUOMO: Donna, I hear what you're saying. But you cannot look at the Republican field and Democratic field and saying that you're both having open fields right now. I mean, there's an obvious study in contrast going on here, isn't there?

BRAZILE: No, it is open. Look, I understand that everyone has already coronated the Democratic nominee, but we haven't had one vote. And as you know, it takes a long time to accumulate delegates, both on the Republican side as well as the Democratic side. This is not about popularity in polls; it's about being able to go out there and identify, recruit people to run as delegates and to get them on the ballot so you can win the nomination. So it is an open race in many ways.

CAMEORTA: Hey, Ana, I want to ask you about Carly Fiorina. Because she was in South Carolina yesterday and she tries to distinguish herself obviously from Hillary Clinton and present the other alternative. If you want to vote for a woman, there's another one in this upcoming presidential race. But she keeps being asked, of course, about Hillary Clinton. So let's listen to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's also true last year we didn't know all the things that we now know about the Clinton Foundation, because they had not disclosed that.

REPORTER: Would you not speak at it again, if you -- knowing what you know now, what you --

FIORINA: Well, that's a hypothetical. My guess is they won't invite me again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so she was asked there about her visit to the Clinton Foundation Global Initiative. I believe she might even have spoken, so she's saying she doesn't think they'll ever extend an invitation again.

But I guess the point is, is she just always in Hillary's shadow?

(LAUGHTER)

NAVARRO: I'm not sure she is always in Hillary's shadow, but she's always trying to step into Hillary's spotlight, which I think is actually a very smart thing for Carly to be doing. She is in single digits in the polls. She's never been in elected office. She's got very little name ID. So instead of, you know, Mohammed going to the mountain, the mountain goes to Mohammed. She's showing up where the press is, and they are following Hillary Clinton. So I think she is piggy backing on what are already built-in press events, and we are talking about her, which we wouldn't --

CUOMO: That's true.

NAVARRO: -- ordinarily be doing, had she not done that. CUOMO: That's true. At the end of the day, it has to be working, because she's just a big part of this segment that we're doing right now and probably would not have been otherwise.

Now, another study in contrast, Donna --

BRAZILE: That's such a --

[08:45:02] CUOMO: Hillary's holding all these events. People are going, the media especially, and she's not answering questions. I know that this got a little tired so we stopped talking about it, but isn't it a nagging problem with how she is addressing the situation that like she's too good to talk to us? That's the spin.

BRAZILE: Oh my god, Chris. Are you -- What kind of withdrawal symptoms are you having this morning? All we have been doing since Obama was re-elected in 2012 is talking about Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: About her, not to her.

BRAZILE: Well, look, there will come a time when she will have all the sit downs with everybody -

CUOMO: But why isn't it now? That's the only part I don't get. Aren't you supposed to take questions when they are asked?

BRAZILE: You know what? Last time she received over 18 million votes but came up short on delegates. I think she is doing the right thing right now and that is making sure that she is touching people where they live, where they work, where they play and they pray so that she is able to win the delegates. There will come a time when she will hold interviews and come on shows like this to speak about her views and her values.

But I want to say something about Carly Fiorina. Look, I applaud her for going to Denver last year and attending a global initiative. I'm a big supporter of the Clinton Foundation. I am glad that the money I gave went to relief down in Haiti and there is no reason why Mitt Romney, Carly Fiorina and all the other Republicans who attended those initiatives and those foundation meetings, they should go back because some of these problems that we are facing in the world, we need all hands on deck.

CAMEROTA: OK, there you go. Ana Navarro, Donna Brazile, thanks so much, ladies. Nice to see you.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

NAVARRO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's go over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: Alright, Alisyn. Will '19 Kids and Counting' ever return to TV following the sex abuse scandal? Episodes have been pulled now, advertisers are fleeing. What is going to happen to the program? We'll talk about it. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:14] PEREIRA: The controversy surrounding the popular TLC show '19 Kids and Counting' growing. The network pulled episodes off the air, not officially canceling the series after one of the stars, Josh Duggar, admitted he molested underage girls when he was a teenager. Advertisers are jumping, but will the show stay on the air?

Here with us, Jenny Kutner, she's assistant editor for "Salon." Larry Hackett is also here, former managing editor of "People."

So many things to talk about. I think right off the bat, do you buy this idea that TLC or Discovery did not know about the molestation, Larry, to begin with?

LARRY HACKETT, FORMER MANAGING EDITOR, PEOPLE: I don't know. It seems, perhaps, difficult to believe because the people at Oprah knew that the people at Oprah then called state services. I would have to imagine there was some basic vetting going on about the show years later at TLC so it came up and they made the decision that I guess it took place as a teenager, if they knew, and decided to press ahead.

I think what you're seeing here is what we've seen before with other kinds of shows and other kinds of controversies. I think the people at TLC, you know, are out there on the terrace holding on to the railing, waiting to see how long the wind blows and if it dies down, they'll move on.

PEREIRA: This is a bad one, though. This leaves a bad taste in many peoples' mouths when you involve underage children. So we also know that advertisers are pulling out, we have seen that. But they get 3.3 million people in ratings that the viewership is very high for this network.

HACKETT: And they will wait and see if another shoe drops. This took place when he was 14. I don't want to excuse it or get into the details of what happened. It was a long time ago, they looked at it, or somebody looked at it and decided to move on. There are all kinds of details about how that went on. I think they're going to wait and see if another shoe drops. If not, they have a lot of viewerships.

This is not going to be decided by debates on various websites among people who probably don't watch the show anyway. They have 3.3 million viewers, and I think a lot of those people are going to look and see what the parents did and while it may not have been what experts would suggest, they're going to say that was a reasonable solution, I might have done the same thing, and they're going to move on and watch the show.

PEREIRA: Jenny, you and "Salon" have done a lot of writing about this and obviously, you've written a piece for "Salon" about the belief structure behind what the Duggar's believe, a fundamentalist Christian branch, and it's called Quiver Fall. How do you think all of this sort of plays out in what we are seeing happen?

JENNY KUTNER, ASSISTANT EDITOR, SALON: Well, I think that there's a really important point to be made about indoctrination, the fact that these 19 children were homeschooled. And I think that regardless of what TLC does, we have a really interesting opportunity to talk about the belief system that was in place and why the family handled it the way they did, why the public might be okay with that and really, why they shouldn't be.

PEREIRA: You actually go into - In your article, you talk about their belief structure creating an environment that fostered child sex abuse.

KUTNER: Yes, definitely. I think that here we have what's really a microcosm for what's going on in society at large and this rape culture and victim-blaming culture that we talk about all the time. On a smaller scale here, we see that they had a homeschool curriculum -

PEREIRA: Not all homeschool programs are -

KUTNER: No, no, no, this specific homeschool program that the Duggar family was using and that they promoted very heavily on their blog and on the show had this victim-blaming mentality that explicitly stated that there are instances in which the abused could be at fault for a sexual assault and that opens up all of these opportunities for men to believe that they can get away with acts of violence and they can act with impunity and that victims should be the one shouldering the blame.

PEREIRA: So do you think that a lot of this conversation is going to take the focus away from what Josh Duggar did and maybe focus more on their religious beliefs? Or do you think that they will be separated?

HACKETT: Well, look, the show is called '19 Kids and Counting.' The show began because these people, to a lot of folks, were freakish. Let's be honest. I mean, 19 kids is unusual. That's why they're on television.

PEREIRA: Very unusual.

HACKETT: So the idea, there is going to be people who admire them and want to watch them, there are going to be people who don't and think it's freakish. Camps from both of those sides are going to watch the show. I think the issues you raise are very interesting, and perhaps the show should stay on so these things can be discussed. The idea of taking this show off, I mean, clearly, that may punish the Duggar family, but there seems to be something kind of, I don't know, Orwellian about the idea that we don't like this idea, so take the show off. I don't know if that's exactly the solution.

PEREIRA: Your former publication, "People," is talking about a spinoff involving the sisters may be in the works. Do you think that may be on the backburner now?

HACKETT: No, I don't think so at all. I think the idea would be to inoculate the series. Look, the family is popular. If they decide Josh is a nonstarter and should not be on the show, they take him off and have a spinoff with his sisters. That seems to make sense. I don't mean to sound so cynical about it. PEREIRA: No, no, no. You know the business.

HACKETT: But I mean, there are people out there who admire the show and they're going to try to figure out how to do this.

PEREIRA: Larry, thank you so much. We should point people, Jenny, to your article, Salon.com, they can read it in its entirety. If they have more questions and thoughts about it, they can look it up there. Thanks so much for joining us, both of you.

KUTNER: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Chris?

CUOMO: So, Mick, you ready for a little bit of "The Good Stuff?" Of course, you are. What would make a high school class give up their senior trip that they've scrimped and saved for for four years? "The Good Stuff," that's what.

[08:54:55] And it's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Time for "The Good Stuff." A high school class in New Hampshire just did an ordinarily classy thing. Here is what they did. Four years, they've been raising money for their senior class trip. Eight grand they've put together. Everyone is looking forward to it, but then they got some not-so-good good stuff in their lives. Their beloved principal was diagnosed with a rare cancer. She didn't even want to tell them about it, but she had to because she's going to be missing school. So what did the kids do about it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN BAKER, SENIOR, PROFILE JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: We decided to not go on our senior class trip this year and donate all of our class funds to your cause.

PRINCIPAL COURTNEY VASHAW, PROFILE JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: No way.

(APPLAUSE)

BAKER: She is just very caring, very selfless and we wanted to be selfless, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Just as you are about to condemn this generation of being all about themselves, Principal Courtney Vashaw says she works hard teaching her kids compassion and service and their act of kindness is just proof that they are listening. I disagree with the principal, it is proof of something else. They love her.

PEREIRA: They do.

CUOMO: She is someone special in their lives. PEREIRA: But imagine that. Like what a lesson to learn together as a group. They'll never forget this moment.

CUOMO: Never.

PEREIRA: Nor will she.

CAMEROTA: Great life lesson beyond the academics there. That's great.

PEREIRA: Well, that wraps it up for NEW DAYS. Why don't we hand it off to Carol Costello. It's time for NEWSROOM.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And now that we all don't feel worthy, right?

PEREIRA: I know, right?

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

[08:59:56] Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

A tidal wave of water crashing into homes. And more rain is on the way in Texas as the storm's victims are laid to rest, including a homecoming queen.