Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Poll: Carson Ties Trump in Iowa; New Clinton Emails Released; Deflategate Ruling Expected Soon; Desperate Migrants Flooding into Europe. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 01, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:45] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Here is a big headline from the political world. Trump facing a challenge in Iowa for the first time. And it comes from another political outsider.

There's a new Monmouth University poll and it shows neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson tying Trump at 23 percent. This is the first time in more than a month a poll in one of the early votes does not find Trump far ahead of all the other candidates. Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, and Scott Walker round out the top five, but at least 13 points behind.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new batch of Hillary Clinton e-mails released by the State Department overnight. Some 7,000 pages, 125 of the messages were retroactively deemed classified and redacted along with portions of unclassified e-mails. Clinton has been criticized for using a private server while conducting government business when she was secretary of state.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a county clerk in Kentucky to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses immediately. Kim Davis has been refusing to process the licenses because of religious beliefs. But her emergency application with the justices has been rejected without comment. Davis's lawyer says his client is praying over what to do next and plans to report for work this morning.

CAMEROTA: The funeral for slain Virginia photojournalist Adam Ward will be held later this morning. About 1,000 mourners joined his family and friends at his old high school to say good-bye.

[06:35:04] The memorial described as a celebration of life. Ward and reporter Alison Parker were gunned down last week by a former co-worker.

BERMAN: After eight long months, we could finally have a decision on Tom Brady's Deflategate punishment. It could happen today.

CNN Sports Andy Scholes joins us with more -- Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, John.

You know, the hearing yesterday lasted all four minutes before Judge Richard Berman dismissed both parties saying he would make a ruling by the end of the week, possibly by today. And at this point, there are likely three outcomes to Deflategate. One, Brady wins and his suspension is overturns. Two, the NFL wins and the Brady suspension is upheld. Now, both of those rulings would likely result in a losing side, appealing to the second circuit court.

If Brady is on the losing side. He would ask the judge to stay his suspension while he continues to appeal. If granted, Brady would be able to play in the season opener.

Now, the other possible outcome is, Judge Berman rules for Brady, but sends this case back to arbitration, with stipulation that in an independent arbitrator rule on the case, not Roger Goodell.

All right. The other story coming out of yesterday's hearing was what would Tom Brady's look like in Jen Rosenberg's courtroom sketch. The first one went viral because Brady didn't look like Brady. As you can see on the left, much better this time around.

Rosenberg called actually doing this sketch a nightmare, which you could really Brady, who's been on the second row. She did this one mostly from memory. She said it's a little better. Brady was in the second row. She says he still looks too much like Lurch from "The Addams Family."

Michaela, what do you think? Do you think she did a better job this time around?

PEREIRA: Can I see him again? I think it's better, much better, but he is lifting his chin instead of looking downtrodden.

SCHOLES: That's the old one.

PEREIRA: The cheeks are still there.

CAMEROTA: She's making his hair look like he has horns.

BERMAN: Can I give you a programming note? I think I am talking to the sketch hour later today at 11:00.

PEREIRA: Fantastic.

BERMAN: We will ask her how she can make the most handsome man on the planet look like he does in that. And I'm going to ask her what can she do for me? You know, if she can make Tom Brady look that different --

PEREIRA: Can she sketch an interview with you at the same time? That would be genius.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Andy Scholes, stand by. We appreciate you.

SCHOLES: Have a good one.

PEREIRA: All right. A group of Republican donors are planning to knock Donald Trump from the top of the polls. How do they plan to do that? We'll explore when NEW DAY continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:24] BERMAN: A new poll shows neurosurgeon Ben Carson neck in neck with Republican front runner Donald Trump among voters in the key state of Iowa. Both Carson and Trump at 23 percent.

Now, CNN has learned, our Maeve Reston reporting, that some Republican donors could be cooking up the notion of putting some ads together to go after Donald Trump to knock him from the top of the polls before the primary season begins.

CAMEROTA: Here to discuss all of that and more, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Kevin Madden, along with CNN commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala. Paul is also a senior adviser to a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's put up the stunning numbers, again, because this is the first time it happened again. Ben Carson is died with Donald Trump. Look what happened since July. Ben Carson, a month ago, well, a month and a half, has 8.5 percent. He's had a meteoric rise to 23 percent. Look at Carly Fiorina. She also up from 3 percent to 10 percent.

Paul, what did you see happening here?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the first thing, the obvious thing is, of course, these are three outsiders. The stylistic differences are pretty interesting. Dr. Carson, you know, he said some eccentric things, he's not bombastic. He's got bedside manner. He's one of the world's premier pediatric neurosurgeons. I mean, this is one of the greatest doctors ever.

And I think it's interesting. It might be that Iowa Republicans are trying to figure out, do they want the bombastic Trump or do they want the more sort of soft-spoken Dr. Carson. What they don't want anybody from this zip code where I'm sitting. They want to capture the building, but they don't anybody who's ever been to Washington before.

BERMAN: Not job experience, at least not political job experience.

Kevin, I want to put the numbers back up, because 56 percent, as poll was saying, if you look right at Iowa, 23 plus 23 plus 10, I think that equals 56 percent, of Iowa Republican voters who say they don't want anyone with job experience. So, you hear Maeve Reston's reporting that some establishment types, some Republican donors might want to go after Donald Trump with some ads. Isn't there a risk to that given that there is this antiestablishment sentiment ad out there?

MADDEN: Well, I think many donors see the bigger risk, that we nominate somebody or somebody like Donald Trump takes over the nominating process in a way that ultimately makes the nominee, who is unelectable or pulls our eventual nominee so far to the right they can't win in a general election.

Look, that is what many wealthy donor who fund these outside groups put a premium on. Can somebody win? I've got to say, they're probably not too happy, either, about Donald Trump's position on things like immigration reform and saying he wants to tax hedge fund managers, he wants to tax the wealthiest. Those are two policies that add to a lot of the class inside the Republican Party.

So, the bigger risk, though, is, once that outside group is left to do the dirty work for the other campaigns, the campaigns then cede a great deal of their message to an outside group they don't have control on. So, it will be interesting how it affects the strategies and decisions made inside the other campaigns like Jeb Bush, or Marco Rubio or Scott Walker.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Paul, one of the things we like to do during the show is check Donald Trump's tweets because they are always interesting nuggets there. And he is not going after his fellow GOP opponents today, but rather President Obama because of the name change from Mt. McKinley to Denali that President Obama talked about.

[06:45:08] So, here is what Donald Trump says, "President Obama wants to change the name of Mt. McKinley to Denali after more than 100 years. Great insult to Ohio. I will change it back."

So, it's interesting he is taking on the president, I mean, as though we are in the general election.

BEGALA: Right. If there's one thing, there's an old saying that nothing unites the people of earth like a threat from March. The Republicans are divided. They're all over the map. But what unites them is they all hate the president. So, now, the president has done something.

In this case, he did something that all the Republicans in Alaska wanted him to do. The independent governor, two Republican senators, there's consensus up there. I'm the father of an Alaskan fishing guide up there. Believe me, everyone calls it Denali, they hated the name McKinley.

But The Donald knows, he knows two things, Republicans hate the president, so he's going to be against anything Obama does. But he also knows Ohio has got a lot more electoral votes than Alaska, so maybe he's thinking ahead to the November general election and sucking up to the good people of the Buckeye State.

BERMAN: Apparently. He can, he did got to Wharton, as he's told us about.

BEGALA: Nobody can ever accuse Trump of being dumb.

BERMAN: Kevin, let's talk about e-mails now, shall we? Because overnight, 7,000 new page of Hillary Clinton e-mails were released. They talk about Gefilte fish. There's a lot of communication with Sidney Blumenthal, also, by the way, general awareness of the notion of things being classified or not classified.

But there is this "Des Moines Register" poll from earlier this week where voters were asked, how important are Hillary Clinton's e- mails? Sixty-one percent say unimportant, just 21 percent say somewhat important.

So, do people really care about this?

MADDEN: Look, I think they do. I think Hillary Clinton has suffered some permanent damage on the character issues that voters take into account when they choose their candidate. Is this somebody I can trust? Is this somebody who is -- doesn't have something to hide? The way this process has been handled by the Clinton campaign has only brought up more questions in that regard.

I expect that in that poll, you have a lot of Democratic voters that are being asked that question. You know, 21 is actually pretty high. That's the kind of concern that will lead people to start to look. Maybe I can support Bernie Sanders. Maybe he has less of an issue that Republicans are going to use to exploit and therefore maybe I should look at offering support to Bernie Sanders.

So, I think it will continue to be a question for Hillary Clinton. I can tell you, the Republicans aren't going to let it go. So, it's going to continue to be a question that distracts from her ability to get on message and offense with so many voters.

CAMEROTA: Guys, we are out of time.

Paul, I think we know how you feel about this.

BEGALA: I've got have to be able to defend my gal.

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: Nothing classified, nothing controversial. This is a story the press needs to report the e-mails exonerate and clear Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

Kevin Madden, Paul Begala, thanks so much.

MADDEN: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right. There is a migrant crisis gripping Europe. Thousands of refugees are fleeing war-ravaged nations and are pouring into Austria and Germany. Is enough being done? We're going to take a closer look when NEW DAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:52:31] BERMAN: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Emergency meeting on the agenda for E.U. leaders to discuss the growing migrant crisis. are trying to slow the surge but it's not working as planned. This morning, hundreds of migrants arriving by rail in Germany, hundreds of thousands arriving in Europe this year, with no slowdown in sight. Where are they coming from? Where are they trying to go exactly?

Bobby Ghosh is here with me to explain and much more.

And, Bobby, you know, we can stand on this map, and we're talking about a big section of the world right here, which really illustrates the crisis. So many people now going from Syria, war torn regions like Syria trying to get to Europe, also Afghanistan, the war has been raging for over a decade now, trying to get to Europe.

Why not go somewhere closer by. If you are in Syria, why not get to Jordan, why not get to the Gulf States, you're in Afghanistan, why not go to Pakistan?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, from Syria, they are going to Jordan. I mean, Jordan has over 600,000 people, refugees, Turkey has 1.6 million, Lebanon has 1.1 million.

But all of those countries are now overwhelmed. There's just too many of these refugees. From Afghanistan, if your neighborhood is Pakistan, you can understand why you don't want to go there.

They want to get to Europe because Europe has a history of taking refugees. Once they can get through all the difficulties, there's an expectation they will have opportunities to work, to live with dignity, freedom from persecution. They don't -- there's no expectation of that from their neighborhood. There's no expectation, for instance, for if you are an afghan refugee, grow to Pakistan, you have the opportune toy work and live with dignity.

A lot of countries in the Arab world just won't take them, for instance, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, all these oil-rich countries. They're willing to give some amount of money. They don't want any of the refugees.

BERMAN: Now, you're talking about Syria. There are intractable problems right there. Even if you could solve those problems, it wouldn't solve the migrant crisis, because you are seeing a flow in places like Eretria in Africa. You are seeing people flow in from Kosovo through Europe. You're also seeing a big flow of people from Nigeria as well. The numbers are pouring in.

GHOSH: Yes, the numbers are huge. Not all of them are coming from, as you pointed out, from war torn countries. I would add Libya to that list, which is a torn country.

But the thing is the vast majority are coming from war torn countries. If you can deal with those, that may not stop the flow, but greatly reduce it, and that's the challenge.

[06:55:01] The risks people are willing to take to get to Europe point to something. People will not take that and get on a rickety boat to cross the ocean, to cross the Mediterranean Sea to try and get into Europe if they didn't absolutely have to.

BERMAN: Let's look at where they are going now, because you look at a map of Europe. You can see the countries so many people are trying to get to. Germany, by far, right now, seems to be the destination of choice right there.

Why Germany?

GHOSH: Because Germany will take them. People are going where they are most welcome or least unwelcome.

A lot of them would prefer Britain. Britain doesn't want them. And also has the advantage of another water body blocking their way. They would love to come to the United States, if they could. We are too far away.

So, they will go where they are allowed to go. A lot of them wind up, if you see that map again, a lot of them wind up in northern country, in Scandinavia and Germany. These are not places, if you think about it, these are people from warm, desert countries. They don't want to be in cold climates.

BERMAN: Leave this map up, if we can for a second here, but there are also countries, you see Greece, you see Hungary, you see Spain also to a certain extent right there. They are countries economically not doing as well at some of these countries in northern Europe. Can they handle this inflow of immigrants?

GHOSH: Well, if the last few months are any indication, clearly they can't. They don't even want to -- in fact, you have countries like Hungary with 100 mile barbed wire fence, now a wooden barrier behind the fence. They don't want to.

But the trouble is, no fence is going to stop this huge tide of people. They are going to need help, these countries, in order to take these people. They should be getting more funding from international bodies. In fact, they should be getting more funding from rich Arab states that do have the money. Why shouldn't Saudi Arabia help Hungary, be helping Bulgaria, be helping all those if you like front line states that are taking all these refugees?

BERMAN: It's an interesting discussion. A meeting in the E.U. in the next couple of weeks. They have a lot to address.

Bobby Ghosh, thank you so much.

GHOSH: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: We are following a lot of new this is morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Insight into the mind of alleged cop killer, Shannon Miles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He deserves it book thrown at him, plus the death penalty.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody sure would like to know the motive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's hope that it wasn't race-related.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think anyone is promoting violence against police officers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ben Carson is now giving Trump a run for the money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The pediatric surgeon is running neck and neck. Trump in person's appeal may be their lack of experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are absolutely furious at the Republican establishment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Under scrutiny this morning, a new batch of e-mails.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton doesn't want us to know what she's doing.

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I thought it was surprising somebody would think it was OK to have a private server in your home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

For the first time in a month, Donald Trump has some competition. Numbers from Monmouth University show Ben Carson tying Trump for the top stop in the all important state of Iowa.

BERMAN: Also overnight, a new round of Hillary Clinton's e- mails released by the State Department. What is inside them? Do they include classified information? More importantly, do voters care?

CNN's senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, live now with the very latest -- Nia.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey there, John.

Good news for Ben Carson this morning. We got poll numbers out showing him tied with Donald Trump. We will look at them here. Carson is at 23 percent. Trump at 23 percent, too. You got Fiorina is on a bit of a rise to 10 percent and 9 percent, and all those other folks, really establishment figures not doing as well. Carson up from 8 percent in July.

Another poll out of the "Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg shows Trump at 23 percent. Carson well within striking distance at 18 percent. Walker on a bit of slide there with only 8 percent. And Cruz and others in single digits.

If you look back at January, you really have a trend line here, which shows those antiestablishment, a non-political figure on a rise dating back to January and up until now. And we know why. Monmouth asked Iowa GOP caucus-goers what kind of president they want to see next in the Oval Office, 23 percent say they want someone with government experience, 66 percent want someone outside of government.

So, there you go, Mick. I think that tells the story of this campaign.

PEREIRA: Surely a strong sentiment being felt on the nation right now. Nia, thanks so much for that.

Yesterday, you'll recall, we brought you the first part of Jamie Gangel's interview with former Vice President Dick Cheney, who was promoting his new book with his daughter, Liz, "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America".

The former vice president now weighing in, sort of, on Donald Trump's remarkable summer.