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Trump Surges to Big Lead in GOP Field; John Kasich to Announce Presidential Bid; David Sweat Details How He Escaped Prison; Friend: Gunman Called ISIS 'A Stupid Group'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 21, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was very unfair the way the media played.

I have respect for Senator McCain. I used to like him a lot.

[05:58:49] JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: John McCain is a legitimate hero. Mr. Trump ought to reappraise what his thoughts are on this subject.

SEN LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's offensive. He's becoming a jackass.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump's worst enemy is Donald Trump's mouth.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Last month's prison escape in upstate New York was far more elaborate than anyone imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The complacency on the part of the guards is just unbelievable to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there anybody inside the prison working with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you've ever used this website to hook up, you might have some explaining to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hackers threatening to expose millions of cheating spouses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only people that aren't freaking out are probably divorce court lawyers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, July 21, 6 a.m. in the East. We have a new national poll that says Trump is right; he is the man for the GOP right now. Trump has a double-digit lead over his closest rival, but there

is some new information about the impact of this POW low blow and how he does against Hillary Clinton.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And this morning, Iowa's largest newspaper calling on Trump to end his bid for the White House. His GOP rivals, except for Ted Cruz, now unleashing on Trump.

CNN's chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is traveling with the Trump campaign, and she has a lot to tell us this morning.

Good morning, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's always the case when we're talking about Donald Trump. Look, so far, his campaign philosophy has been that his politically incorrect rhetoric really taps into a sector of the GOP that the Republican establishment doesn't understand and the media don't understand. And so far, the polls appear to be backing him up. The question is, how long it's going to last?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice-over): In a brutal editorial, Iowa's biggest newspaper, "The Des Moines Register," is demanding Donald Trump pull the plug on his bloviating sideshow, calling him a "feckless blow hard," who can generate headlines, name recognition, and polling numbers, not by provoking thought, but by provoking outrage. His Republican competitors agree.

GRAHAM: He's becoming a jackass.

TRUMP: I have respect for Senator McCain.

BASH: Trumps is still not apologizing for criticizing John McCain's war service but did come closer than before.

TRUMP: I supported him. I raised a lot of money for his campaign against President Obama. And certainly, if there was a misunderstanding, I would totally take that back. But hopefully, I said it correctly.

BASH: Even for the bombastic Trump, who appears to crave controversy, the bipartisan backlash from his weekend remarks about McCain's five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was intense.

TRUMP: He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured. OK?

Perhaps he's a war hero, but right now, he said some very bad things about a lot of people.

BASH: Still, a new national poll shows Trump isn't just leading the crowded GOP presidential field, but leading big at 24 percent with second place Scott Walker and third, Jeb Bush, trailing by double digits. But that same survey may signal trouble for Trump. He got 28

percent on three consecutive nights. But on Sunday, after his controversial comments, his support dipped.

McCain himself is determined to take the high road. But McCain's son Jack, a fourth generation McCain naval officer currently on active duty, didn't hold back about what he thinks.

JACK MCCAIN, JOHN MCCAIN'S SON: My father, he's a public figure; he's a politician. He's open to attack. But prisoners of war, in general, Donald Trump has to understand that he's running for -- to be the commander in chief of the United States military. If an individual gets rolled up, becomes a prisoner of war, then is he going to abandon them simply because he doesn't like people that are captured?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Later this morning, Donald Trump is going to have his first campaign event here in South Carolina, which of course is the first in the south, a primary state for Republicans. And it is going to be very interesting to see how he's received here, Chris. This state hosts eight military bases. And over the past two election cycles, about a quarter of the electorate consider themselves either veterans or at least maybe active duty military -- Chris.

CUOMO: Also a very big religious community down there. We haven't heard a lot of reverberation of what he said in Iowa about religion, which may play to a lot of ears today.

Dana, thank you very much. We'll check back with you in a little bit.

So there's no question that Trump is getting some attention. But we have some news for you. Someone who could be one of the strongest candidates just entered the race this morning, Ohio Governor John Kasich. He is the 16th Republican candidate to join the race. Let's get to CNN correspondent Athena Jones, live in Columbus, Ohio. Big swing state. He has a lot of aspects to him that put him right in the center of the GOP.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, Chris. This is very interesting. Governor Kasich is going to be jumping into this already crowded field here just a few hours from now. Here he is on Snapchat making the case for why he should be president. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No one running for president has helped balance the federal budget, saved a state from near bankruptcy or served on the defense committee for 18 years. Maybe I ought to run.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JONES: We're going to turn that maybe around to "I am running."

If you look at his credentials, this is very interesting about Governor Kasich. If you look at his credentials, at least on paper, he looks like someone that governors -- that voters should give a close look. He served in Congress for 18 years. He worked (UNINTELLIGIBLE), helping balance the federal budget. He was on the Arm Services Committee. He was later a commentator on FOX News, and now he's serving his second term as governor of this crucial swing state. He won reelection with nearly two-thirds of the vote, winning 7 in 10 independents, about a quarter of black voters, a quarter of Democrats.

And so he looks like someone who could be maybe one of the most qualified and yet least known candidates. And so the question for him is, can he break through in this jam-packed field? Right now, he's pulling in the low single digits. We're talking 2 percent, 3 percent. And so will voters give him a boost after his announcement -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, we'll see what happens today, Athena. Thanks so much for all that.

We have a lot of talk about. So let's bring back Dana Bash, along with CNN politics reporter M.J. Lee and political correspondent for "The New York Times," Patrick Healy.

[06:05:09] Patrick, let me start with you. Donald Trump is now at 24 percent in the latest ABC/"Washington Post" poll. Is it time for the pundits and the media and the GOP establishment to start taking him seriously?

PATRICK HEALY, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think so. I mean, he's someone who's got real traction, it seems like, in Iowa, in New Hampshire. But even more so, he's going to be a big factor in the debates. You know, going into that first debate, he's going to be the person that Jeb Bush is preparing for, that some of the others are sort of preparing for. The question is, though, is he really going to be talking about policy?

When we say take him seriously, I don't think it's so much that he's putting forward new ideas about dealing with the Islamic State.

CAMEROTA: But you believe he's a real candidate? He isn't just a vanity project? He's a real candidate?

HEALY: He's not going away, and he's a one-man show. And the challenge of dealing with one-man shows is you never know what he's going to say. It's all about sort of self-interests or getting his message further along. It's not necessarily about going into a Republican field and saying, "This is how we make the country better?" It's "How can I get my message out and how can I talk about myself?"

CUOMO: Then Dana and M.J., let's take one more beat on this poll and what it says about Trump, and then let's get to what we put together here with CNN, which is this poll of polls; which is this -- this kind of cumulative index that they will use to get and pick for the debates. That's key. But let's take another look inside the ABC poll. Dana, how he

does after the McCain -- it was Gary Langer put it out there, the pollster for ABC put it out there. It was the smallest sample. It was the fourth day. But it was so negative with those 200 they polled that it actually brought his number down. What does that mean?

And then M.J., for you, what does it mean when you look at the head-to-head against Hillary Clinton?

Let's start with you, Dana.

BASH: You're exactly right. And that's why I mentioned it. It is very telling, I think, that ABC made a point of putting out exactly how they did their survey, what days they did it and the fact that it did come down pretty significantly on that last day.

But you made another important point, Chris. They said that it was a small sample. So it's really hard to tell.

But there was another poll, not a national one, but in the state of Iowa, where he made those remarks, that was taken over the same period of time. So it included Sunday, the day after he said those things about McCain, and it didn't change the way people felt. So, it's a little bit too early to tell. One quick thing that I do want to say, Chris, because you said

something very important that we haven't been talking a lot about.

CUOMO: Wow.

BASH: The evangelical vote. The evangelical -- it happens every once in a while. The evangelical vote.

Here in South Carolina, two-thirds, which is huge. Two-thirds of Republican primary voters call themselves evangelical. And it's a little bit less but almost as close to that in Iowa. Over the weekend, that same forum, he would not say whether or not -- in fact, he said he hasn't asked God for forgiveness. That is a huge, you know, red flag for a lot of evangelicals. And that might matter to them a lot more than this whole back and forth with McCain.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And Chris, you were mentioning that it's kind of fascinating that he maybe (UNINTELLIGIBLE) never having asked forgiveness from God. And it hardly got any attention, because of the McCain comments and because people were so ruffled by the fact that he said this about a former Vietnam War veteran.

When you're talking about the general election, the thing to remember about Trump is that he has always had a bit of a cap when it comes to the broader electorate. You look at every poll that has come out about the 2016 candidates, and his cap is always at around 40 percent. Six in 10 people have always said, you know, "Trump is not for me. He's not someone I'm interested in." So for him, the success rate really depends on whether or not he can max out the 30 to 40 percent of people who are willing to vote for him. And I think in a couple of weeks, we'll see whether his comments

that he made about John McCain will really hurt him. If before Trump supporters are bothered by it or if they, you know, say, "We like him and we like the fact that he says whatever he wants. So we're going to continue supporting him."

CAMEROTA: Let me just spell out exactly what he said in terms of religion and forgiveness, since we have it here. He said -- he was asked if he ever asks forgiveness from God. He said, "If I do something wrong, I try to do something right. I don't bring God into that picture." So no way to know yet what that means for Iowa.

HEALY: Right. It's going to take a few days for these comments to get reflected in polling. It always does. Whether Republican caucus-goers are going to remember these kind of comments, remember the "Des Moines Register" editorial, which a lot of Republicans in Iowa don't care about what they say, you know, months from now.

CUOMO: What did they say? Remind people.

HEALY: What did "The Des Moines Register" say? They said basically he should get out of the race.

CUOMO: Because?

HEALY: Because he's not qualified to be president. Because he's making this into a side show. Because he's, you know, being kind of the buffoon that Lindsey Graham and Rick Perry are trying to make, you know, hay on, you know, to get their own numbers up, to get some kind of attention.

[06:10:04] Remember, Iowa could be won this year with 20, 25 percent of the vote. Trump, you know, necessarily has that already. He goes into Iowa with already sort of a set of strengths. Whether he's in the race, you know, in six months, in seven months, whether he wants to be participating with these Republicans, who he doesn't seem to even take seriously, the Jeb Bushes, the Bobby Jindals, you know, it's an open question. It's all about sort of him being able to get off these, you know, tweet-like comments where he's making these hip shots. That's what he loves doing.

CAMEROTA: Dana, let's talk about John Kasich getting into the race. How do you think he moves the needle?

BASH: You know, I think that he is perhaps a dark horse in this. And you know, for months and months and months, people have been saying, "Look at John Kasich" because of what some of what was laid out. He really kind of is the full package on paper. He is a governor who has had success in Ohio, which, I've spent a lot of time in Ohio over the past few election cycles. It has been depressing. The joblessness has been pretty bad, and it's gotten better since he's been governor. And he can claim some victory on that.

He does have experience in Washington as budget chair. He did work with Bill Clinton on balancing the budget, which is pretty huge, if you're a Republican or a Democrat. And so he has that. The question is whether or not he is -- can break through this

very crowded field. He does have a little bit of Trump in him, in that he's-- you know, kind of shoots from the hip. He doesn't -- people might not know this on a national scale, but he kind of also likes to talk in sound bites, not necessarily as politically correct. So it wouldn't surprise me if he does better than people think.

CUOMO: Dana Bash coining a new Trumpism, which I like, "a little Trump in him."

M.J., let's end on this. There is an emerging theory that there could be a Trump snapback and that someone like Kasich could benefit from that, that once you move back into the zone of rationality for the GOP overall, he starts looking better and better. Do you see any buy-in on that?

LEE: Absolutely. I think that, compared to Trump, a lot of the candidates in the Republican field that has become so crowded, I think end up looking a little more presidential.

I was speaking to former South Carolina Governor Jim Hunt yesterday, asking about the Trump comments. And his bottom line was look, it's not that people here are not going to be single-issue voters and that, you know, issues are related to -- veterans and military issues are, you know, solely what people care about and vote on.

But the fact that Trump is out there saying these things and making these bombastic comments, I think, do have an effect on the rest of the field, in that it makes everyone else maybe look a little more presidential and they seem a little more like they could be commander in chief. So yes, someone like John Kasich, who is at the bottom of the polls right now, really could be able to benefit.

CAMEROTA: Interesting. M.J., Dana, Patrick, thanks so much for all the insight. Great to talk to you guys -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, this morning, we're learning riveting new details about the prison break, that brazen prison break in upstate New York. The captured inmate telling all to investigators about how they planned and successfully executed that Hollywood-like escape.

CNN's Alexandria Field joins us now with more of these new details.

Very fascinating, Alexandria.

ALEXANDRIA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They sure are fascinating, Michaela. This morning, David Sweat is in solitary confinement under close watch at a maximum security prison. It's pretty different from the privileges he enjoyed on the honor block at Dannemora. But he is talking about the painstaking process of breaking out of that prison and also the big break that came just a few weeks before that daring escape.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): It was a plan at least six months in the making. Several people briefed on the investigation tell "The New York Times" that prison escapee David Sweat has portrayed himself as the mastermind behind the elaborate June 6 breakout.

According to the "Times," Sweat says he had long planned to escape. But it wasn't until he was moved into a cell in January near the now-deceased Richard Matt that he moved forward with his plan. The 35-year-old says he used a hacksaw blade to cut a hole in his cell, and then the back of Matt's. He says another inmate heard the commotion, but Matt, a painter, blamed the noise on his artwork.

HARRY HOUCK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: He said he used a sledgehammer on that pipe. And to be able to make that noise for a month, trying to get through that pipe with just a hacksaw, that's incredible.

FIELD: By February, Sweat says they gained access to the catwalks behind their cells. He told investigators for months, he would explore the tunnels beneath the prison for hours on end, between 11:30 at night until 5:30 in the morning, all made possible because he says the guards were asleep.

ARTHUR RODERICK, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, U.S. MARSHALS SERVICES: The complacency on the part of the guards in that honor block is just unbelievable to me.

FIELD: Sweat says he slowly began chipping away at the prison's outer wall using a sledgehammer. But on May 4, they got their big break when the prison turned off the heating system, giving the prisoners the chance to cut through a cooling steam pipe with the hacksaw.

[06:15:06] The "Times" also reports that the convicted killers relished the possible legend of their plan, even joking about it, bragging that while it took "Shawshank Redemption's" Andy Dufresne 20 years to break out, it would take them only 10.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD: Again, according to "The New York Times," a source close to the investigation believes David Sweat's account is, in fact, credible. The escape has, of course, prompted a very wide-ranging investigation of the prison, its practices and its people. As a result of that, we know that a dozen employees have already been placed on leave and that two prison employees are facing criminal charges in connection with that escape.

CUOMO: All right, Alexandra. Thank you very much. We have developments in another big story to tell you about. New details emerging this morning about the Chattanooga gunman who killed four U.S. Marines and a Navy serviceman last week.

A friend tells CNN the shooter told him that ISIS was a stupid group and completely against Islam. This, as investigators uncovered disdain for the U.S. government in writings by the gunman.

So let's go to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She is live in Chattanooga with the latest. What do you know?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good morning.

Well, this could be the first real hint that investigators have at a possible motive. They're now scouring the papers. Those writings done by Abdulazeez over a year ago. They've already found that he expresses some anti-U.S. sentiments, also saying he opposes the U.S. war on terror.

Now, this comes as his friend is speaking out to CNN, telling him that they did talk broadly about the conflicts in the Middle East, but here is how his friend characterizes what Abdulazeez told him about what he thinks about ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES PETTY, FRIEND OF MOHAMMAD ABDULAZEEZ: It was a stupid group, and it was completely against Islam. And not to even think about going towards them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And we are starting to hear the first plans of funerals for those five lives lost. We know that Staff Sergeant David Wyatt, he will be laid to rest here in Chattanooga with full military honors. Now, this is important, because he was not from Chattanooga. But his family saying that they chose to bury him here, because they love this community and because of the outpouring of support they've seen in the community since his death -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sunlen, thanks so much for that.

Here's another story people are talking about, and that's the death of Texas jail inmate Sandra Bland. And it's now being treated as a murder investigation. Authorities say it's still unclear if she took her own life or was murdered. Authorities releasing this surveillance video showing the moment a jail guard found Bland's body hanging in her jail cell. Three days earlier, the 28-year-old was arrested and accused of assaulting a police officer during a traffic stop. Police dash cam footage of that arrest will be released later today.

CUOMO: All right. Overnight, take a look at Texas. This is from this morning. Heavy rain in the early hours. Hours of rain in Amarillo, Texas, stranding drivers in their cars. Severe storms there. That's the problem.

Severe heat here is the problem, as millions on the East Coast suffer through the summer's first heat wave. But that is the premise. Let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers to tell what comes next. What do you see, my friend of weather?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Chris, you know, it all goes together. If the air is hotter than normal, it can hold more moisture than normal, so it feels more muggy and you can have flash floods like we had last night there in Amarillo. An awful lot of rainfall came down; one to 3 inches came down in less than six hours. And the flooding was just everywhere. I-40 was a mess all the way up and down the Texas Panhandle.

It's still raining right now in some spots. But I think the showers will pop up again later today in this hot air.

And yes, it's hot. It's already in the 80s in New York City. It will feel like 110 south of Atlanta into Charleston, all the way up the East Coast.

Now, notice these little streamlines, we call them. That's the way the wind is blowing. The wind is blowing offshore. So even if you're at the beach, you're not going to get a lot of cool air coming in from the sea breeze, because the wind will be blowing the wrong way for you.

It will still be hot in New York City today. Ninety-one. I think you could easily get to a heat index of 97 today. But it does cool down from here. The South stays hot. But at least Boston, New York, Buffalo, a little bit cooler for the rest of the week.

Back to you.

CAMEROTA: All right. There you go. Chad, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: So you just heard those new details about the two inmates who broke out of that maximum-security prison in upstate New York. The surviving inmate claims that he left his cell every night for months to explore the tunnels, plotting their escape. We have more on that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:47] CUOMO: For all the people working the case, we still don't know exactly how those killers escaped a maximum-security prison up there in upstate New York six weeks ago. Now David Sweat -- he's the surviving convict -- he's spinning a pretty tall tale, and we have lots of new details. But can he be believed?

Joining us now with perspective is former sergeant, Jeff Dumas. He retired last year from that facility, Clinton Correctional.

It's good to have you with us, Jeff. Now, New York state officials...

JEFF DUMAS, FORMER SERGEANT, CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY: Good morning, Chris.

CUOMO: ... and the reporters of "The New York Times" are putting out Sweat's story. They're saying it's largely corroborated on the state level. Do you buy it? Let's just start there. DUMAS: Well, I don't buy all of it. You know, you have to take

what he says with a little bit of grain of salt. I mean, he was put out nationally as a snitch, you know, just a week or so ago, for providing information to the officers and sergeants who work there. So now the tale that he's going to spin is probably going to be one- sided, all his side.

CUOMO: And the reason that he -- explain to us why being a snitch would be motivation to him and what that might make him say and do.

DUMAS: Well, what's going to happen from now on is he knows he is stuck in prison for the rest of his life. Now, he has to be able to get along with inmate population.

[06:25:12] Once he comes out of solitary confinement for this escape, he is going to be in general population with other inmates. And the other inmates are doing the same amount of time that he is. They're doing life. So he's going to have to get along with them. And being a snitch is not favorable for his -- for the rest of his life.

So now, for him to portray the facility in a bad light, the guards in a bad light, anything that he can do, that's going to help his cause down the road.

But then, also, he is the lone survivor of this. So he can spin this any way that he wants, because the investigators really have nothing else to check on. Matt is dead. If Matt was alive, we could separate them in two rooms and match their stories. However, with Matt dead, he's the only one; and he knows it.

CUOMO: All right. So let's get some of the details from "The New York Times." Let's put up the post they have. And we'll get your take on them. So when Sweat was trying to cut through a concrete wall, the heat from the steam pipes to the underground passage became unbearable, so he rigged a fan from his cell, using electricity from the tunnels' lights. Do you buy it?

DUMAS: I don't buy it.

CUOMO: Why?

DUMAS: Those steam pipes, those are so hot that come from the powerhouse, it heats the whole facility. Some of the buildings, where the heat pipes come in, you can feel the heat on the floors a couple stories above. So, for somebody to be down in the tunnels, it's excruciating.

And OSHA, not long ago -- and this is one detail the state hasn't put out yet -- is OSHA made us remove the inner gates in those tunnels. We used to have the big, locking bar gates every so often in the tunnels. Those were removed by OSHA because of the unbearable heat in those tunnels. They said, if anybody got locked behind those, that they would perish. So the gates had to be removed for safety reasons. So I don't -- I don't see this guy down in there for months. And

then he claims that he had a fan? The little cell fans that we give them are only about four inches because, obviously, we can't give them anything that they could use as a weapon. So the fans are little plastic, the fins are probably two inches in length, and they're very flimsy. That is not going to combat a 24-inch steam pipe or multiple steam pipes.

CUOMO: Now...

DUMAS: It's just not realistic.

CUOMO: There's one detail here that, you know, I don't know how much you can help on. But I think it may be the biggest one in terms of how much help he had.

He insists that he cut his way through all those pipes with hacksaw blades that he would kind of wrap some makeshift handle around. I can't tell you how many steam fitters and welders have told me that there's no way those steam tunnels -- those types of configurations would have been cut through that cleanly with a hacksaw blade by a guy like Sweat. What's your take on that?

DUMAS: Well, two things. I've spoken to a couple guys that have worked that, and I hear the same story.

However, there's a company in Plattsburg called Jeffords Steel, and I do know that the BCI investigators, along with the FBI, brought down pipe samples to the outfit; and they tried to cut with those same type of hacksaw blades. And they were able to make a cut; however, it did take them a long period of time. They said it took about four hours to go a few inches. So, it is possible, but it would take a lot.

So, I'm not sure if he was able to do it all with those hacksaw blades. And I don't know the count of the hacksaw blades that he got in, because those are going to wear off -- off during a period of time from use.

CUOMO: And it is interesting. The same parallel we were all using, "The Shawshank Redemption," David Sweat says that he and his co-conspirator used to joke about how they were doing the same thing as Andy Dufresne. But, you know, a lot of facts still remain to be known, because it's all about who helped these guys get out in the first place.

Jeff, thank you so much for the perspective, as always. We'll come back to you as we learn more -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. He's called a straight shooter, a truth speaker or a bloviator, depending on who you talk to. But what is it about what Donald Trump is saying that voters like most?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When do we beat Mexico at the border? They're laughing at us.

He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)