Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

"Des Moines Register" Calling for Trump to Drop Out of Race; John Kasich Enters Race Today; Ashley Madison Hack Raises Cyber Security Concerns. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 21, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:02] JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": We'll talk about it as we go Inside Politics this morning with me. To share the reporting in our inside, "The Atlantic's" Molly Ball, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson.

Donald Trump, what position would he play in baseball? Never mind. Let's hold it right there.

Some tough words this morning. We're laughing. But it's really -- Well, it's interesting moment, where a lot of people think Donald Trump has crossed the line, he looks to polling data, not so sure, he's actually doing quite well.

Let's look at the Des Moines Register this morning. Donald Trump is running as anti-establishment candidate. So I'm not sure if this helps or hurts.

But the Des Moines Register Editorial, "He has become the distraction with traction," that's pretty clever, "A feckless blowhard who can generate headlines, name recognition and polling numbers not by provoking thought, but by provoking outrage. In just five weeks, he has polluted the political waters to such an extent that serious candidates who actually have the credentials to serve as president can't get their message across to voters."

That's the Des Moines Register reacting over the weekend to where Donald Trump several times said John McCain was not a war hero. And then when prated, repeatedly said, "Perhaps, he's a war hero."

Before I get your insights, one of those candidates who thinks he should be getting more attention is Lindsey Graham who just happens to be a very close friend of John McCain. Here's what he told Erin Burnett. He's view on Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What he said about John, I think, was offensive. He's becoming a jackass at a time when we need to have a serious debate about the future of the party in the country. And this is the beginning of the end of Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: "Beginning of the end," he told Kate there, filling in for Erin Burnett last night.

Is it the beginning of the end? Is the Des Moines Register Editorial matter in Iowa does that, in some ways, maybe helped?

MOLLY BALL, THE ATLANTIC: Well, this is what we starting to see. You know, there is this poll that shows Donald Trump on top now, but that poll was all taken before the comments about McCain. And the report on the poll said that in the last day of the polling, Trump, after the comments, Trump did start to drop.

So, I think there is a lot of sort of establishment Republicans looking very nervously for the next wave of polling to come out. This could go one in two ways. It could be that, that portion of the party that is attracted to Trump's outsider status and blustery luster, is not going to be feed (ph) off by this.

But I think what we're going to see is that, you know, insulting the military, insulting religion, insulting Christianity, is going to cross the line for at least some people, and we'll see him start to drop.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah. I dug into the comment section of the Des Moines Register Editorial and a lot of folks there we're saying, A, it's not the Des Moines Register's business to be talking about who should run for president. Let the voters decide. And a lot of folks just rallying behind Trump, saying that he was the truth teller, saying that he is scaring away the Democrats because he'd be such a tough challenger to whoever comes out in the Democratic side.

So, you know, I think it sort of fuels this idea of this anti- establishment person. I think I never thought Trump would necessarily do well and Iowa to begin with because there are so many conservatives and homeschoolers. But he is certainly may have the damage his chances with some of his comments he made about his own fate and talking that crackers in terms of communion, but we'll see.

KING: He is second in Iowa according to a poll. And you're right to say so that was taken before the weekend. The Monmout University Poll put him in second in Iowa behind Scott Walker.

The poll you mentioned is the ABC News National Poll, which shows Donald Trump on top, with 24 percent. That's a big number, especially when you look at 15, 16, 17 candidate republican field. That means three quarters of the voters aren't for you, but in a crowded race, that's a big number nationally.

But to Molly's point, what ABC News says in this analysis is that he was at 28 percent in the first couple of days of the poll. In the last day of sampling, he fell to single digits.

The question is, is that sample side is that telling you something was changing or not. We have to wait to see that.

Donald Trump though may think, may think that something might be changing. Because listen to him on Bill O'Reilly last night for several days he was asked, "Do you want to apologize? Will you apologize?" He said, "No." He doubled down, he tripled down, he quadrupled down on John McCain, but here, he seems to back off a little.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have respect for Senator McCain. I used to like him a lot. I supported him. I raise 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. And certainly, shortly thereafter, I said it correctly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I just, you know? For Donald Trump, that's I'm sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

KING: That is close as you get. But then he got there after refusing and saying, you know, the media was taking him out of context then blah, blah, blah, blah. Is that a sign that he, you know -- it certainly if there was a misunderstanding, I would take it back.

BALL: Well, Trump is trying to create the impression among his followers that he is sort of gotten a bad wrap from this whole thing. We've heard him attack the media a lot, saying he was taken out of context, saying he got to play the full tape, which is actually even worst, and here's the whole thing.

But so I think if he can convince people that this is all unjust, and that he is getting piled on by the establishment and ask that way insiders, you and me, and that the reason they're attacking him is because he is a truth teller, he is an outside, he is dangerous, that he is a threat to us, that helps him.

[07:35:04] So the more he can divert attention from the subscenes (ph) of what he said and put it on the people who are attacking him, that is something that could actually built him up

KING: So your point earlier about the people commenting on the Des Moines Register, if you're going to comment about these things, and if you're looking at Mr. Trump is a possibility that your guy, and that's your comment that he is the strongest against the Democrats, you're not reading the polls. Maybe you don't trust the polls. But if you look at the polls, he runs much weaker than most of the other leading Republican candidate against Hillary Clinton.

And interestingly, in the ABC poll, they tested him as a third party candidate and he guarantees a democratic election because he draws way disproportionately from the Republican Party if he runs as a third party candidate at this point in July of 2015. We'll play this out.

One thing I want to get on the record, Jeb Bush was among those very early to come out and condemn Donald Trump, saying he went way over the line and attacking John McCain in Veterans. A little bit of history. In 2004, when George W. Bush was in a close election against John Kerry, an organization called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran a bunch of ads that 15 years later or 11 years later, excuse me, have yet to meet the truth. Those ads were reprehensible on their attacks on John Kerry.

And Jeb Bush back then wrote a letter to one of the leaders of the group praising them. He wrote to Colonel Bud Day, "As someone who truly understands the risk of standing up for something, I simply cannot express in words how much I value their willingness to stand up against John Kerry. Their efforts, like their service to their country, speak volumes about what matters most." That was then. This is now. But important for the record.

Hopefully, Jeb Bush has learned a lesson. Hopefully, maybe he regrets that.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

KING: But he did that then and we want to put that on the record.

HENDERSON: He did in a little (ph). Some hypocrisy there, I think, to Miller, Bush's spokesman came out and said, "Well, he was really just thanking for their service. What's wrong with that?"

But you know, when it's helpful to you, you're sort of OK with that. I think that's the game in politics, when it's not, then you're condemning it, so, yeah.

BALL: We'll get another example of how bad Trump is for the Republican Party, and how the collateral damage, even when and if he is completely disappears from the team, the collateral damage to the party will have been things like this, all the cans of worms that he opens. He's like a can opener.

HENDERSON: And Hillary Clinton is trying to figure out how to tie Donald Trump to the Republican Party forever.

KING: Now, we just spent all of this time talking about Trump and the fall out of the reaction and then the collateral damage as you put it.

There's a significant player a two-term governor of Ohio is actually getting in to the presidential race today. This is what Trump has done to the conversation. "John Kasich enters the race officially today."

If you look -- if you put up the CNN Poll of Polls, the big question is we'll he make the first debate. Fox makes that cutoff on August 4th.

You see the first nine in this screen, and then if you go to the next, seven. You see in the seven, John Kasich, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry, kind of on the cast on the bubble (ph), if you will.

Two-term governor of Ohio, if you look behind him there, two guys have run before, Santorum and Perry. It's a fascinating decision that Fox has to got to make it about 10 days. And we'll see several polls between now and then.

BALL: Well, if there's anything that Trump tells us it's that the constituency right now in the party is for an outsider, someone outside of the politics, someone outside of the system.

So when Kasich is running as someone with a long resume in politics, a political life first, someone who has a governing experience, that may not be what the party is looking for right now.

HENDERSON: Yeah. And you see people, like Carson, steadily there in the six percent. Looks like he'll make the stage people, like Kasich was. And also Jeb Bush gave a big speech yesterday, but none of us are really talking about that because there's all of this kind of heat surrounding Donald Trump at this point.

KING: Heat is a good word to put it. He is dominating the conversation.

Michaela, as we go again this July, but it does matter a lot because it's in such a crowd race, those early debates, first on Fox then on CNN, those early debates are going to matter. It's going to set the phase of the field a little bit. And so fun, fun, fun.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good times for us all, right, John? All right. Still, ahead here. Hackers targeting the Ashley Madison Cheating Website, leaving 10s of millions of users in danger of being expose. Will they be exposed or is this some veiled threat? We're going to take a look at that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:42:44] PEREIRA: The website, ashleymadison.com, which connects people who want to cheat on their spouses, is reeling this morning. Hackers are threatening to expose the names and personal information and more of the sites 37 million users, unless it shut down.

How secure are these sites? And can people safeguard their private information online?

Let's bring in former cyber securities, both the Bush and Obama administration, Howard Schmidt. Good to have you back on the show, Mr. Schmidt.

As I am savory as this topic may be I think it does highlight some real concerns about the changing dynamic of cyber security.

So we hear this hacker group calling themselves the Impact Team threatening to make public all of these private details and very intimate private details. Is this kind of a new cyber world order, this way of black mail by the hands of hackers?

HOWARD SCHMIDT, FORMER.CYBERSECURITY CZAR. BUSH & OBAMA ADMIN.: Now, we've seen this before, not in the sense it is now with very private and very confidential information. We've seen this happen overtime, where they don't like a particular business. They don't like a particular thought that people have. So, we've seen this happened, and we're going to see it happen again.

PEREIRA: Yes. And so funny because on the surface, it seems like they're sort of trying to make some sort of hold up some sort moral code. But you dig a little deeper. And the hacker at least says that they are taking issue with this $19 fee to delete all of the personal information that website is charging users if they sort of have a, I don't know, some sort of moral conflict and say, "Oh I got to take all my information offline." They're going to charge that user $19 to do so.

But you and I both know just because you delete something offline, it doesn't mean it's gone forever.

SCHMIDT: Well, that's a thing. And, you know, it's really interesting when you're just trying to figure out what exactly the motif is. There was the piece of it, where your charging is made about $2 million in this fees, but the data is still there, and that's was the complaint one. Then there was sort of the side track of moral issue and everything else.

But interesting enough, a couple of week -- a couple of months ago, a similar site had this happened and everybody was saying, "Well, you know, this is going to happen again and it's probably going to be Ashley Madison," and there it is.

[07:45:03] PEREIRA: And there it is. Well, the company that owns a dictating (ph) company, Avid Life Media, posted this update. They said, "At this time we have been able to secure our sites and close the unauthorized access points. We're working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act." I mean that's a very good point to point out. This is a criminal act.

SCHMIDT: Well, that's it. And whether, you know, we chuckle editor or we are gas by it, it's still a criminal act. And it's interesting though because there was a point in there where the hacker or hackers seem to of had some connection to the company and actually gave a shout out to the chief security officer by saying, "Hey, you tried all you could do but you weren't -- it just couldn't happen. We could -- we were able to get in."

PEREIRA: Yeah, that was somewhat, I don't know, ironic or laughable. I don't know, not to make light of it. But it makes you wonder. And you're the guy to ask being a former -- cyber securities are. Can a website be unhackable?

SCHMIDT: I don't think so. I mean, I know all of the things that the technology, or business processes, the confidentiality and everything else but you have to have data. Unless you have it encrypted, you have strong authentication, which makes it very, very cumbersome necessary, be cumbersome for end user. You can't secure it. And that's the thing.

Over the years as we do businesses in an open environment, we wind up half and open the aperture a little bit more, a little bit more, and therefore, you have to secure everything and it's impossible. PEREIRA: So I might doom to put my money under my mattress and only walking and buy things in a brick and water store with cold hard cash. I mean, how do we live in this new world order then, Howard?

SCHMIDT: Well, we're still establishing that because, you know, I just -- before I sat down here, I was checking an eBay order and I was thinking, "See that's store sounds really good, but I'm not sure."

So, I think we have to just to look at this with the risk management perspective sort of weigh the good with the bad and say, "Yeah, you may have to go the physical store," I prefer not. And I've been very lucky.

But the bottom line is when the end user has to do the sort to things, the security first to do is going be set for failure.

PEREIRA: I'm dying to know what Howard Schmidt will order on eBay, but I'll leave alone for now and end with this.

The 37 million users, aside from obviously need marriage counseling, what kind of legal recourse to these folks have? Do they have any?

SCHMIDT: Well, it depends on the kind -- on the wording of the contract because if the contract says, "Yeah, we guarantee it," but if the hacker hits or something, then you're on your own which would make sense. They don't have any recourse, but there's lot of things that go with this. There is not only the potential embarrassment, the potential extortion.

PEREIRA: Sure.

SCHMIDT: ...but also if it gets out in the children's world because -- it would be impossible to had 37 million people might have people in key government positions that could be compromised. And it's just really, really starts rolling down if you want to hurry.

PEREIRA: Boy. And it is probably a good word to use about what's rolling down hill. This is going to be bad.

SCHMIDT: Yup.

PREIRA: Because there going to be 37 million users who are going to be waking up today feeling a little like they might be seeing some trouble and beyond that. Of course, there is obviously going to be a criminal investigation.

Howard Schmidt, thank you so much for joining us and talking this through. And get back to your eBay purchase, OK?

SCHMIDT: Yeah.

PEREIRA: Thanks, Howard.

SCHMIDT: My pleasure. I'll talk to you later.

PREIRA: Chris CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That braising (ph) -- prisoner escaped make (ph) in Upstate, New York was mapped out over months. It turns out. And that details us the tip of the iceberg. The recaptured inmate is yapping, and we have it all for you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:16] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a lighter moment for your morning.

Donald Trump's controversial comment about Senator John McCain drawing the eye of "The Daily Show", Jon Stewart, the late night comic returning from a vacation and wasting no time, making clear that everything about Donald Trump is now fair game, even his hair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, ''THE DAILY SHOW'': Now, I agree making fun of someone's physical appearance is a chief blow. But that hair, that is comedy in entrapment.

People are not attacking your hair. They are defending themselves from something that appears like it's about to attack them.

I smell a new Pixar movie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I guess everything really is fair game.

PEREIRA: He must feel like this is just been -- this going away gift for him. You know, as his ending is run ...

CAMEROTA: He's a comedian.

PEREIRA: Yes, exactly.

CUOMO: He's going to do better. He's got to do better than. I think there was just ...

CAMEROTA: There was a whole bunch of grants (ph)

CUOMO: Yeah. I actually think it helps Trump with the people who like him when it seems like he's been in attack for like, you know, not at really...

PEREIRA: Oh, but do you think that someone who ...

CAMEROTA: Yeah. I agree, worst for everybody.

PEREIRA: But do you think that someone who does like such attacking is -- do you think they're even capable of feeling attacked. Do you know what I mean?

CUOMO: Oh, yeah. .

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: ... Trump like people making fun of his hair, and especially by Jon Stewart. Jon Stewart is got a little bit of thing going out in the front too that you know.

CAMEROTA: I felt like ...

CUOMO: Well. But his house is (ph)...

CAMEROTA: everybody

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: There's another clip here. Let's play this other clip by John McCain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: So you said his not a war hero. The guy next to you goes, "He's a war hero," and you go, "Well, he's a warrior because he got Catherine (ph)." So really, this calling someone a war hero count if you're doing it sarcastically.

He's not a war hero, but it's all right he's a warrior, all right. Fine. He got captured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: That is pretty good on of hold their hand just to recite to exactly what Trump did. However, ...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It's cabled ladies. There have been others who have gone at McCain about this issue in similar ways. One of them is now senator from Minnesota.

CAMEROTA: His (inaudible)

PREIRA: Al Franken's ...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Poor sarcasm comedy

PEREIRA: ... early for all of that? Isn't it a little early considering that it's what 400 on some days to be ...

CUOMO: I'm just signing it's been done before but Trump did it this time and he's going to explain it.

CAMEROTA: All right.

CUOMO: What do you think tweet Michaela and let her know, especially if you're not happy about any of this.

[07:55:00] If you like it, you can tweet her.

All right, so the controversy that we're talking about right now. This is why I'm asking you to weigh into it. Do you think it's helping him or hurting him that people come after him? We're going to tell you how he is doing in a new national poll against his own in the GOP and the other side.

Big difference, check it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He's not a war hero.

STEWART: Hey, hey, hey no way, hey. Not, why me George (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump didn't do anything. He's fine. He's perfect.

UNIDETIFIED MALE: The closest he ever got to battle was a fight with Rosie O'Donnell

GRAHAM: He is becoming a jack ass.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last month, a prison escaped in Upstate, New York. It was far more labyrinth (ph) than anyone imagined

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

UNIDETIFIED MALE: Was there anybody inside the prison working with them?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mohammad Abdulazeez expressed anti-American thought imposed the terror group ISIS.

UNIDENITIFIED MALE: It was a stupid group completely gets involved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are their co-conspirators?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To walk alive, it's a miracle really.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is a NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

COUMO: That's exactly right. Good morning. Welcome back to our NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, July 21st, now 8 o'clock in the East.