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GOP Presidential Field Analyzed; Interview with Sen. Angus King. Aired 7:30-08:00a ET.

Aired July 23, 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] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you are president of the United States, you are going to be hit by half the country.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's true. That's true.

COOPER: Are you going to call them dumb?

TRUMP: No. I think it's a little bit different. Right now I'm trying to do something to make the country great again. Politicians will never make this country great again. Now...

COOPER: As president, you would change your tone?

TRUMP: I think so. I'll deal very differently.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So two theories here is that to be believed or is he saying, yes, sure to get through the interview, I'll change my tone to be differently. Or he almost apologize to John McCain. Again, for Donald Trump, in a Bill O'Reilly Interview, he did say, OK, if I take it back, maybe. Is he learning to adapt as a politician?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No - no, absolutely not.

KING: OK. Thank you.

RESTON: That is not even remotely close to an apology, right? And he's just - seems to be careening his way from one gaffe to another as we go along. And it's amazing because we haven't yet seen in the polls what the actual effect of his remarks is going to be. We haven't had a way to measure that about the John McCain thing this weekend or, you know, really the illegal immigration remarks.

RON FOURNIER, NATIONAL JOURNAL: How many women have been told by a man once we get married, I'm going to change my tone. He's not going to change. He is who he is.

KING: Well, one big test to that is today, he's going to the border. A big piece of his appeal is this tough tone on immigration to many offensive tones on immigration saying, some of them are good people but Mexico is sending us the murderers and the rapists. He's going to be there today, it's a traditional stop now in American politics if you're running for president for national office or big office. He's going to be in Laredo, Texas. If I were president

this will stop. How important is tone there, especially when we are two weeks from today waiting for the first presidential debate. And Donald Trump is guaranteed a spot there.

RESTON: Absolutely. And I mean, I think what will be interesting to see on the border today is, what is his message when he's there? Can we actually fact-check that message? Does he say thing that is are actually true? About the problems at the border - it's interesting because he's going to be shepherded around by a group that obviously has an agenda. And we'll have to see whether or not he can actually resonate with voters down there and clean up his remark, which have outraged many people.

KING: Outraged many people but also got support of Gary Langer, the ABC Washington Post pollster, former app guy, a smart guy, said the native part of the Republican party. There were some republicans who don't want more immigration and think immigration period is bad. And Donald Trump has those people on his side. Listen to Rick Perry, that was Rick Perry stating, the three-term governor of Texas, he's proven he knows how to handle the border. Listen to what he says about Donald Trump.

RICK PERRY, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let no one be mistaken, Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservativism and it must be clearly diagnosed, excited and discarded. I will not go quiet. When this cancer on conservativism moves into a movement of mean spirited politics to send the republican party to the same place it sent the wig party in 1854, the graveyard.

KING: How much of this do we take as Rick Perry from the heart? And how much, forgive me, do we take the Rick Perry's on the bubble that may not take the first Fox debate. The one to get attention right now in a Republican race is to take Donald Trump.

FOURNIER: It's Rick Perry on the bubble, it's Rick Perry from the heart, it's Rick Perry being exactly right. But it's not even the whole story. This is really not about Donald Trump. But really we are asking the wrong question of how this affects Trump and how this affects the Republican party. What he is - is a clear reflection of the supermajority of the country's discuss justified, anger, disgust and disconnect with the American political system. That disgust...

KING: He says I'll break everything which has appeal because nothing is getting done.

FOURNIER: That disgust is going too far outweigh Donald Trump. In a huge age of connectivity, a man like Donald Trump is using this to his disconnect to do some amazing disruptively positive things to the country and majorly destructive things to the country.

RESTON: That was Rick Perry at his best. Right. I mean, that - we did not see that Rick Perry back in 2012.

CUOMO: Rick Perry taking him on. Another person reacting to Donald Trump, I want your take on this one because this one I think is putting too many eggs in

the same basket. Here's Marco Rubio also trying to take on Donald Trump. Rubio is likely the debate as well. Follow this one for me.

[07:35:00] MARCO RUBIO, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think the way he's behaved over the next few weeks is worthy of the office he seeks. We already have a president now that has no class. And we have a president now that does selfie stick videos that invites YouTube stars there and people that eat cereal out of a bathtub that accuses his - you

just saw the interview where he goes on comedy shows to talk about something as serious as Iran. The list goes on and on.

FOURNIER: He's trying to play exactly to what we're talking about. But he's doubling down. You don't call the president of the United States classless. You don't call him classless for things that you know, Rubio will do when he becomes president. The selfie stick and the YouTube interview is to reach the media the way they are doing it.

RESTON: Right. And I will say that Rubio was late to the game in terms of conducting Trump. It took him a long time to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. And to, you know, he's got a very tricky position on immigration. And, you know, he's figuring out his message and perhaps doubling down too much. I'm not sure that that will actually work for him.

KING: If you want to say I criticize the president's media strategy, that's one thing. I understand he's trying to stick Donald Trump to Barack Obama, which somehow appeals to conservatives but seems to be beyond cynical. You started a new series this week based this week in Los Angeles #maevewest. You mentioned the great palates. Which I love there.

RESTON: Trump palates, yes. I don't know what people do with those, but there are a lot of people buying them for $150 a pop.

KING: $150 so Trump is good for the economy.

RESTON: That's right.

FOURNIER: I know what John McCain and grandma are doing right now.

KING: Let's get back to you in New York. Another poll we are not going to spend a lot of time on today, but a lot of the polls asked Hillary Clinton what if she had competition. If she would beat Bill Clinton, she would beat him and Michelle Obama.

Mr. Cuomo as we said Bernie Sanders has good numbers but she even beat Oprah. There you go.

CUOMO: That's all huff and puff. I think that much like you were just discussing about what Trump means to the GOP in that they can dismiss the man but not the mood he's tapped into, Bernie Sanders has tapped into a mood, too. He's not getting the crowds by mistake. He's offering something that the party is also hungry for.

KING: Authenticity. Even if Trump's case a fake authenticity, but people are looking anywhere for it.

CUOMO: Fake authenticity, good word. Talk to you tomorrow, my friend.

The Iran nuclear deal is being debated in congress today. The big questions, which way is it going to go and why? And can congress find a way to kill it? We have answers ahead.

[07:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Big day, the music tells you that. Members of the Obama Administration heading to Capitol Hill to sell the nuclear deal with Iran. Secretary of State John Kerry, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Energy Secretary Earnest Moniz are all headed there. And we have a good man making it back after surgery from prostate cancer. I don't care it is personal. Welcome back. I'm glad it went well, sir. Glad to have you back.

SEN. ANGUS KING, MAINE: Believe me, Chris, it's good to be here.

CUOMO: You couldn't come at a more important time. What is the state of play as you sense it from your briefings and talking to the brothers and sisters down there in D.C. as this begins?

KING: Well, I had to briefings yesterday. I've been living and breathing this for the last 10 days. And first I went over the classified intelligence briefing, which is part of this process, and then had a classified briefing with John Kerry, Ernie Moniz and Jack Lew yesterday afternoon. They are going to be at the foreign relations committee. I'm not a member of that committee but I'm going to go to sit in the audience today because I'm in homework mode, Chris.

I'm disappointed to be honest about the way this has broken down to partisan lines. A lot of the guys came out against this deal within an hour of it being announced. They had not read it and didn't know what was in it. You know, I'm an old lawyer, if they were in a jury pool to decide this case, they would have been disqualified. The term is preemptory challenge. And this is important for any votes cast here.

CUOMO: We'll let's take a listen Speaker Boehner to see how open mind as he seems.

SPEAKER JOHN BOEHNER: A ban deal threatens the security of American people and we're going to do everything possible to stop it.

CUOMO: Do you think he's written a deal?

KING: I'm not going to speculate that but you should ask him that the next time you talk to him. Ask him questions about it. I'm focusing on the deal itself, but my inquiry is starting to shift a bit, Chris, to what are the alternatives? You can pick apart a 100- page document. And I think it's pretty solid. But the real question before us is, OK, if we vote it down, what happens next? And that's the question these guys that are expressing this adamant opposition have to answer. You have the rest of the world essentially saying it is a good deal. They are ready to sign on to it.

[07:45:00] CUOMO: The U.N. security council voted right away that upset members of congress. I don't quite understand that. The U.N. clearly has its own curfew in this own situation. But let me ask you this, a big point of alternative is being offered by your brothers and sisters down there on the right side. But some of these sanctions got them to the table. That's the key. We just did this too soon. Do people understand there was very little foreign support at the table of negotiations for keeping sanctions on?

KING: Well, I think you make a point, Chris. The point is the sanctions were effective, not only because of us but because of the cooperation of people like China and Russia and Great Britain and Germany and France and the rest of the world. If they think this

is a good deal and we're the outlier, is there any reasonable expectation that they are going to jump back into the sanctions regime?

The expectation is they aren't. And that's one of the things we need to know and that's what I'm going to be asking the intelligence community and the political community. This is characterized as a deal between the Obama and the ayatollah and American and Iran. It's really a multi-national deal. We're not the only player at the table. So again, the question comes back if the sanctions aren't going to be effective, then where are we? The reality is Iran is a nuclear threshold state. They are within two or three months of a bomb if they choose to go there.

This arrangement, the temporary arrangement and now the deal that's been signed locks them out of that for something like 15 years. But they say there could be a nuclear threshold in 15 years. Well, they are one now and this would move them backwards. So I'm not fully committed to the deal and still have questions and consulting with outside experts. But people around here ought to take a big breath and get a few of the facts before they start coming out so adamantly on this. I don't know how they can do that.

CUOMO: Criticize versus scrutinize always a delicate balance in D.C. another divisive issue, what can out about planned parenthood or did not? What is your take on the video that came out? And does it substantiate that report that planned parenthood is selling baby parts for profit?

KING: I haven't seen the cuts and How it was edited and those kind Of things. But my understanding is it was edited and created an impression not necessarily accurate. I don't think there's any evidence substantial of that allegation. Planned parenthood has been around for a long time and provide all kinds of prenatal and health care screaming for women. And I think that this attack is unwarranted.

CUOMO: The video did make planned parenthood itself say that the officials were showing a wrong Type of behavior. Is it the target of scrutiny?

KING: I think it should be the Target of scrutiny. I'm all in favor of scrutiny as We just talked about with the Iran deal. We need to look into these things, to understand them, to understand what happened. But I'm not prepared to jump and say, okay, this 70-year- old, 80-year-old organization is - should be done away with because of this alleged video, which I think is somewhat ambiguous.

CUOMO: And it is hard to find a group associated with the alleged video that has not very much been against planned parenthood already. Last question for you, Senator King, for now, you are an independent, and therefore you must be umbillically tied to Donald Trump. What are your views on him? Is he the antiseptic, the antibiotic that you need in Washington, D.C. to stop your toxic ways?

KING: Come on, man. As an independent, I'm the guy that doesn't have to answer that question.

CUOMO: You'll answer it and you'll like it.

KING: People within the republican party can sort that out on their up. Let me just say, he's a terrific entertainer.

CUOMO: He says he is the answer. Do you think that he may be a positive force in this campaign going forward?

KING: No.

CUOMO: I couldn't hear you, what did you say?

KING: No.

CUOMO: Senator King, welcome back. Thank you very much, senator.

PEREIRA: The two of you are kind of entertaining, Chris. Thank you for that. Fast food workers here in New York City are getting closer to a pay raise. We'll tell you how much and when it will. Coming up.

[07:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: That means for CNN Money Now. Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans is on money center, Christine, watching two big stories.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Two big New York stories. Fast food workers one step closer to making $15 an hour. The labor commission has to approve it. The higher wage first in New York City by 2018 and then by 2021 in the rest of the state.

And Uber winning its battle for now. Mayor De Blasio drops the plan to cut the number of new licenses issued. Ashton Kutcher took to twitter to voice his disapproval of the plan. A lot of other celebrities directly tweeting the mayor. The city says it will vote on the bill later this year. Happening in New York and a lot of cities are grappling with rules and regulations around taxis and Uber comes and disrupts everything.

CUOMO: A lot of rules that business argues makes it tough to do business this is one of those things playing out.

PEREIRA: Thanks Christine.

[07:55:00] CUOMO: All right. We're following breaking news. The Hill reporting that Donald Trump says he has not ruled out a third party run. This matters. He sits down with Anderson Cooper and talks about his trip to the Mexico border. We have it for you. Here's a taste.

TRUMP: I'm going to speak to a lot of people very excited that I'm going to the border tomorrow. I may never see you again, but these are minor details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: A haunting voice message to a friend the day after her arrest.

BLAND: Having switching lanes without changing signal turned to all of this, I don't know.

ANNOUNCER: Conflicting information notes a previous suicide attempt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had a very high level of marijuana in her system. There was no significant trauma to her body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sandy was a social activist. Social activists don't take their own life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm infuriated. And everybody else should be infuriated as well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You keep saying Mexico is spending these people abroad.

TRUMP: You said it properly. I think the streetwise people know.

COOPER: You have no evidence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The case against Bill Cosby cannot proceed. The sheer volume or number of people who are saying a particular thing does not make it true.

ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day" with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your "New Day." It's Thursday, July 23rd, 8:00 in the east. Donald Trump raising the stakes higher possible? Yes. Why? Telling a Washington paper he would consider running as a third party candidate if the Republican national committee is unfair to him during primary season.