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New Day
Trump Trending Up in New National Poll; Chinese Markets Close Up; Husband of Shooting Survivor Speaks Out. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired August 27, 2015 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00] MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I'll leave you with one final observation from the poll, and that is that Joe Biden in a general election would perform better than Hillary Clinton against some of the top Republican contenders including Trump, Bush and Rubio.
So another thing to sort of see that with the Joe Biden speculation heading into the rest of the week.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: M.J., you have given us a lot of good stuff to analyze, so let's do that right now.
Joining us now is our CNN political commentator and political anchor for New York 1, Errol Louis. And CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for "The National Journal", Ron Brownstein.
Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
CAMEROTA: Errol, let's start with the headlines. Donald Trump is at the highest point that he's been thus far in the race. He's at 28 percent. Can he do no wrong?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't know if that's the right question. I mean, the real question, Alisyn, is what is going on with the rest of the candidates when they're talking to their donors?
To the extent of a horse race, this is what it looks like at the track, you're coming into the first turn pretty early so forth, but the donors are thinking, look, I wrote a big check. What's happening, Mr. Cruz? What's happening, Mr. Rubio? When are you going to start to show up if you're out there with this compelling message?
CAMEROTA: Ron, let's talk about what's happening with Mr. Carson and Mr. Bush, because they have switched positions. Ben Carson has leapfrogged over Jeb Bush. Ben Carson is now at 12 percent. Jeb Bush is at 7 percent.
Just last month, they were in different positions when Jeb Bush had 10 percent. He's now going down, while Ben Carson has doubled his support.
What do you see here?
BROWNSTEIN: You know, Alisyn, this poll could be a house ad for the next CNN debate in September, the Republican debate. Because it tells you that specially this early in the race with 25 million people watching the debate, you get a lot of movement based on performance. And Jeb Bush and Scott Walker who lost a lot of ground previously thought about in the top tier put in very I thought lackluster and pretty lifeless performances. And Ben Carson and Donald Trump were the best reviewed along with Carly Fiorina in their earlier debate, and you see a lot of movement.
So, on one hand, we're too early, especially in national polling, when you're not even in Iowa or New Hampshire, people are more directly exposed to what's happening. So, there's a lot of fluidity here. But it does show that people are paying attention and things move based on performances in these debates.
CAMEROTA: Yes, these debates do move the numbers.
Here's a curious finding, Errol, which candidate would you not support, will you never support as a GOP nominee? Number one, Donald Trump.
LOUIS: No, it's very interesting.
CAMEROTA: Explain this schizophrenic findings.
LOUIS: Well, I think some of what this means is that when you when we talk about polarization, we're normally talking about Democrats versus Republicans, even within the parties, there's a certain amount of polarization, where people feel that their wing of the party is the right wing and this other wing is no good and so forth.
So, Trump elicits strong emotions, as we know. The people who support him support him enormously, no matter what facts or whatever kind of negative performance you show to them, they said, we still like the guy and his detractors feel the same way.
CAMEROTA: Ron, he does elicit strong feelings but let's look at those. These are how Republicans feel about Trump versus Bush, OK?
And as you can see, let's see, Trump is purple. He actually loses in terms of how they perceive him. On every single -- in terms of his temperament, if he cares about you, how honest he is, how he feels about women. The one place that Trump wins is who is a better leader, 84 percent to 68 percent? What do you think?
BROWNSTEIN: Look, I think this is very significant. I mean, that, you know, Donald Trump has a strong floor, as Errol said, he has touched a nerve. And it is possible that he will be the candidate in the end that conservatives in the party coalesced go around. But when you look at the assessments in the personal characteristics, it's another piece of evidence that this big challenge will be moving from beyond that floor to a broad enough coalition that truly can have the nomination.
As we talked about before in the mornings here, ultimately, to win the nomination in the big states as the race winnows next spring, you're going to have to get to 45 percent of the vote. That I think is going to be the challenge for Donald Trump in my many more kind of politically blue leading states like Illinois, California and New York, that still have a big impact on the Republican nomination. So, these personal characteristics are kind of a warning sign that despite the intensity of the support, the breath may still be a challenge in the end.
CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the Democratic side of this in the Quinnipiac poll finds Hillary Clinton still in the lead. However, the margin is narrowing. She's now at 45 percent. A month ago she was at 55 percent. Bernie Sanders has gone from 17 percent to 22 percent.
LOUIS: Clinton clearly has closed the deal. There's a number of Democratic voters, frankly more than not, who are not comfortable with her. The question is, this is key. When the question is asked if the election were held today, would you vote for Hillary Clinton? And most Democrats are saying no. And that doesn't mean never but it means not right now. So she's got work to do.
CAMEROTA: Ron, quickly, we'll look at people's feelings about Hillary Clinton versus Joe Biden who is considering getting into the race.
[06:35:00] Hillary Clinton is in purple. She wins every category with leaders and who cares most about you, who has a bad temperament, except for honesty with Joe Biden wins.
BROWNSTEIN: And you saw a different tone from Hillary Clinton on the e-mail controversy, where she basically said it was a mistake in judgment.
You know, sometimes, Alisyn, in a tug of war the leverage goes with the person who drops the rope. And I think they are hoping that by acknowledging a mistake in judgment, they basically put this in a different context, that this is not the career, it was a mistake. She's saying it's not the totality of who I am and the sole career defining move.
Which is if you look at numbers, even among Democrats, only 64 percent of Democrats say she's honest. Clearly, what they have been doing hasn't been working and they need to put this in a different frame and I thought her remarks were important in pointing her in how to do that.
CAMEROTA: Yes, that was a different tone. Ron, Errol, thanks so much for all the analysis.
Coming up next half hour, we'll speak live to Donald Trump. That will happen at 7:30 eastern.
In the meantime, let's get back to Chris who is live for us in Roanoke.
Hi, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: You know, being president of the United States is not just about politics, many jobs. One of them is unfolding on the ground right here. What would the man who wants to be president do in a situation like this? We'll talk to Mr. Trump about it.
And up next, not everybody was taken yesterday. There's a survivor of the Roanoke shooting. Her name is Vicki Gardner. She was being interviewed on live television when the bullets started flying. She was hit in the back and rushed into surgery and she made it.
Her husband joins us live today when NEW DAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:40:49] CAMEROTA: Tributes pouring in this morning for the two journalists shot and killed during a live report in Roanoke, Virginia. Alison Parker and Adam Ward both shot by a former coworker. The gunman claims it was the Charleston church massacre in Charleston that sent him over the edge. He killed himself after this week.
Adam Ward's fiancee was the station's morning producer and Alison Parker was engaged to an anchor at the station.
Well, a Louisiana police officer is dead after responding to reports of a stabbing in Sunset. That's west of Baton Rouge. Harrison Riley is accused of stabbing three women, one of them fatally, before gunning down Officer Henry Nelson. He then took off in his car and barricaded himself inside a convenient store.
Riley was arrested after authorities forced him out with tear gas. This is the second law enforcement death in Louisiana in less than a week.
Well, here's some good financial global news for you. Shanghai composite index rebounding this morning. It closed up 5.3 percent from the biggest one-day gain in eight weeks. Chinese stocks have been collapsing for months sending global markets into panic mode. European stocks also pointing north.
And here in the U.S., stock futures climbing. We could see Wednesday's rally continue today.
Well, tropical storm Erika is churning out in the Atlantic and bearing down on the Caribbean. Could it strengthen to a hurricane with its sights set on Florida this weekend?
Let's get right to meteorologist Chad Myers for a look at the forecast.
What do our viewers in Florida need to know, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That the model, Alisyn, has kept turning this storm back out to the ocean. So, a couple days ago this was aimed right at Miami, then Fort Lauderdale, and then maybe Daytona and now it's kind of headed offshore. There are still warnings for the Caribbean, yes, for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas going to get hit with this storm, going to get hit with a likely category 1 storm.
This will eventually move up near the Carolinas. We'll have to see. What you need to know is that overnight, this thing got a whole lot stronger. This is now a 50-mile-per-hour storm.
But the water here really isn't that warm yet. When this thing gets into the Bahamas area, when it finally gets into this warmer air and warmer water of the gold stream, that's where it could gain hurricane strength. And you could see, it's very close to Florida by the end of the weekend -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Thanks, Chad.
Let's go back to Chris.
CUOMO: All right. So, we are still here in Roanoke, Virginia. And we are monitoring a national election, a lot of the issues there talked about in the hypothetical, what we see here is the reality in America, and we'll be asking Donald Trump what he thinks we should do in situations like this.
And we also want to remember not everybody was taken in this execution yesterday on live television. Vicki Gardner is alive and she is recovering. And she was being interviewed on live television when the bullets started to fly.
We're going to have her husband talk about this, what it means to her and to him when NEW DAY continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:48:07] CUOMO: The sun is now up and an entirely new reality in Roanoke, Virginia, after the shootings that took the lives of Alison Parker and Adam Ward.
But not everyone was lost, a woman survived, Vicki Gardner, 61 years of age, Chamber of Commerce executive. She was interviewed by Alison live on air when the shooting begun. She was shot in the back, rushed to emergency surgery and is now we're happy to say in stable condition.
Her husband is Tim Gardner and he joins us now.
How are you, sir?
TIM GARDNER, HUSBAND OF VICKI GARDNER: I'm fine. Thanks.
CUOMO: And more importantly, how is your wife?
GARDNER: She is doing better this morning. They'll be going back in and doing some corrective surgeries today.
CUOMO: It's horrible to think that she's going through and you're going through that you are the lucky ones.
GARDNER: Yes, that is unfortunate that we're really (INAUDIBLE)
CUOMO: How did you hear what happened to your wife yesterday morning?
GARDNER: I watched it.
CUOMO: Oh, boy. You were watching the TV?
GARDNER: Uh-huh.
CUOMO: What did you think?
GARDNER: Well, I was rather surprised and stunned. I was able to talk to her while she was being transported to the hospital. But there was no way I could get down to where she was, so I waited and worried.
CUOMO: Did you know the extent of the injuries? Do you know what she was up against?
GARDNER: When she called me, she said she was shot in the back earn lucky to be alive.
CUOMO: She was able to talk to you.
GARDNER: Yes.
CUOMO: A strong woman.
GARDNER: Actually, she walked to the ambulance.
CUOMO: A strong woman.
When she wanted to talk to you and it's going to continues over the days to come for sure, about why did this happen, how do you make sense of it?
GARDNER: There's no making sense of it. Obviously, a very disturbed individual wanted to take out his former coworkers, just a senseless deed. And my wife happened to be there at the wrong time.
[06:50:00] CUOMO: What is she looking at going forward, have they told you?
GARDNER: She has a long recovery.
CUOMO: But the good news is she was able to walk and talk right after, that has to be promising.
GARDNER: That was very promising considering they told me the bullet grazed her spine.
CUOMO: How is she dealing with what happened?
GARDNER: I haven't been able to speak with her since she was in the operation. In the surgery yesterday, they kept her sedated.
CUOMO: What are you doing with all of this? Twenty-four hours, probably the oddest 24 hours of your life, what are you telling yourself?
GARDNER: That I'm glad she's alive.
CUOMO: And what does that mean to you? Obviously you always have an appreciation when tragedy hits you that you didn't have before. What does this bring you?
GARDNER: Well, I can't wait to go sailing with her.
CUOMO: Is that one of the things you enjoy.
GARDNER: Uh-huh.
CUOMO: She was representing the Chamber of Commerce in the 50th anniversary of the reservoir.
Tell us about her. What does this mean to her? Why does she do it?
GARDNER: Well, she's been the executive director of the chamber for 13 to 14 years. We moved here 30 years ago and it's really her best retirement job that she's ever had. So I would say that's -- she was very lucky.
CUOMO: She is very lucky.
In the land of the unlucky, she's very lucky, obviously, what has happened to her is incredibly unfortunate. Now you have to live through this entire event in how big it is and how significant it is. What have you taken from what you have seen in the last 24 hours?
GARDNER: Well, our friends and our Smith Lake family have been supportive and have reached out in a number of ways. And the only thing I would like to say is that the community is not a community where things like this happen. And the best way to -- for all of us to heal is to get out on the lake and enjoy it.
CUOMO: Enjoy your life, live your life. That's what it is about, not the fear that one day gave you. What else do you want people to know about your life?
GARDNER: I really just want us to go back into anonymity.
CUOMO: Well, this is a horrible thing to have, but for you it will pass. Your wife will heal. And you'll get to move on together. And I guess that's what will help you through the hardest parts.
GARDNER: Sure.
CUOMO: Well, let me tell you, you have a strong wife on your hands as she walked and talked after getting shot like that in this situation. And I hope that carries her through quickly what she has to deal with going forward so she gets back on the lake. Who is the better sailor?
GARDNER: Well, me, of course.
CUOMO: I will try to edit that out. Too late, live television.
Mr. Gardner, thank you so much. I know these aren't conversations you want to have, but I hope you take solace in the fact that it's horrible she went through, but she's through it and now you're on the other side and you have your lives together.
GARDNER: Thank you.
CUOMO: Appreciate you being with us. Thank you, sir.
GARDNER: Welcome.
CUOMO: All right. Alisyn, back to you. A lot of people have been coming forward here for the community and coming up to us and saying, I want to help and do something. They can. They can go to CNN.com/Impact and figure out how to help the situation down here.
CAMEROTA: That's great. That's a great reminder, Chris. We'll go back to you momentarily.
And we also want to talk about what the 23-page suicide note revealed about this unhinged former coworker who gunned down the two TV journalists in Roanoke. CNN has obtained a copy of this note. And we will look through it for clues as to what drove him to this cold- blooded killing. Were there red flags that could have been stopped and could be stopped in the future? We'll analyze all of that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[06:58:04] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two amazing lives were extinguished yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's the love of my life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She only turned 24 a month ago, and yet she lived a great life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know he robbed with his life. This world was robbed.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If guns were not so readily available, maybe we could prevent this kind of carnage.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: It's not the guns, it's the people.
CUOMO: Presidential hopeful Donald Trump weighs in.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Alisyn is in New York. We are live here in Roanoke, Virginia.
The community rallying around its news family. CNN affiliate WDBJ, a growing memorial behind paying tribute to two journalists executed on live television.
Right now, the morning show Alison Parker and Adam Ward worked on is paying tribute to their fallen colleagues. The pair killed by a disgruntled former coworker, all of it playing out on live television. Families and friends left with the difficult task of remembering, not with sadness, as they recall the warmth that they embodied.
Why is always the question? Hear the murder's words paint a desperate and angry tale.
Here's what we know this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO (voice-over): As the sun rises in Roanoke, two faces that said good morning to Virginians -- are gone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alison Parker and Adam Ward were part of our family here at the station and many of you told us they were part of your morning as well.
CUOMO: Twenty-four-year-old Alison Parker and 27-year-old Adam Ward executed by a former employee fired two years ago. Vester Flanagan known by his TV name Bryce Williams killed the journalists while they were live on air recording video of himself carrying out the executions.
While on the run posting those videos online, going on a Twitter rant, saying, quote, "Alison made racist comments and Adam went to HR on me after working with me one time."
