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McCarthy Under Fire For Benghazi Comments; Bush Talks Trump, Taxes And Boehner; "The Donald" Dominating Late-Night Shows. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 01, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), CALIFORNIA: Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she's untrustable, but no one would have known any of that had had happened had we not --

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman Kevin McCarthy and Sean Hannity there. McCarthy could become the next House speaker suggesting that the House Benghazi Committee lowered Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.

Did he just give an inside look into why that committee was formed in the first place? You know who thinks the answer is yes to that? Hillary Clinton. Here's her response.

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HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I hear a statement like that which demonstrates unequivocally, that this was always meant to be a partisan political exercise, I feel like it does a great disservice and dishonors, not just the memory of the four that we lost, but in everybody who has served our country.

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CUOMO: Hillary Clinton taking the high ground there. Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan and senior adviser to the pro- Hillary group, "Correct the Record," joins us now.

The response I believe from the McCarthy team will be, no, no, not the formation of the committee. It was what the committee revealed that wound up lowering her numbers, do you accept that justification?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM (D), FORMER GOVERNOR OF MICHIGAN: Absolutely not. I heard somebody yesterday describe this as Toto pulling back the fake curtain on the Wizard of Oz. We all knew this was, yes, the committee investigating this with nobody having found there was wrongdoing, so this committee is formed. And it has now been the longest special investigative committee in the history of the United States. I think taxpayers should be really ticked off that they've spent $4.5 million and spent more time than they did looking at Pearl Harbor than they did looking at Watergate.

And we know the purpose of it. And Kevin McCarthy revealed what everybody knows. And I would encourage you to talk to the Democrats who are on that committee who have known it all along as well.

This was a political sham. This was out to get Hillary Clinton because they don't want to run against her and now it's just been revealed.

CUOMO: What about the allegations that we still don't know what exactly went wrong in Benghazi from an accountability standpoint?

GRANHOLM: But how many committees do we have to have that show this? The special committee that was a bipartisan group looking at this who said very clearly that there was nothing nefarious happening there, sometimes, just can't get there in time.

She has made -- whatever, there were technical fixes that need to be made. She's taken responsibility. She took action. She appointed a group to fix that. John Kerry has taken that on. This has been reviewed, reviewed, reviewed.

Talk about a waste of government resources and talk about an insult to the people who were actually killed in that terrible tragedy, because they have been used politically. And that's what Kevin McCarthy revealed.

CUOMO: What about the e-mails that just were released by the State Department, about 3,850 documents mostly from 2010, 2011. You got the chief-of-staff then, Cheryl Mills, openly addressing the concerns about having private e-mail and what could have.

[07:35:05] You have portions of 250 documents upgraded to classified status retroactively. It won't be made available publicly for that reason. Does this show any responsibility on part of the Clinton team?

GRANHOLM: She has taken responsibility for that too. She said it was not a wise move to have a private server. However, I must say that these 200 e-mails that were retroactively classified -- just to be clear again, for your viewers, there was a separate system that was used to view classified information.

You cannot physically send it on a private e-mail so totally separate. But I would encourage people to take a look at these e-mails because they really do give an interesting view of what goes on inside of government.

And that e-mail that you referred to by Cheryl Mills, which she expressed some concern, and indeed coming from Samantha Powers, that the antiquated Department of State e-mails were really not the belt because we needed to upgrade the system. Now, we know that the federal government's system has been hacked and continues to be hacked, multiple, multiple times. There's been no evidence of a successful hack on equipment servers. So, you know, hopefully, that continues, obviously. But the bottom line is there was no transmission of classified information at the time.

CUOMO: So let's put up the money also, Hillary put up $28 million on the last reporting period. Bernie put up $25 million. Of course, the spin is Bernie doing better than Hillary because the rate of increase of his money is such more dramatic. How do you see it?

GRANHOLM: Well, she's raised $75 million in the primary race. She's on track to raise 100. She has raised more than any candidate in the history of the United States in this particular quarter.

And if you put actually Bernie Sanders money and Hillary Clinton's money together, they outraised the entire Republican field. So there's a lot of excitement on the Democratic side.

So she raised more money. She's on track to meet her goal. I think she's really happy about how things have turned out in the third quarter.

CUOMO: Governor Granholm, appreciate you being on NEW DAY to correct the record. We'll be back with more questions for you soon I'm sure.

GRANHOLM: All right, thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: So, mark your calendars. The first big Democratic debate is going to be hosted by us and Facebook and it's going to be on Tuesday, October 13th, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Let the battles begin -- Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We're very much looking forward to that. All right, Jeb Bush tweeted that he was flattered by similarities between Donald Trump's tax plan and his own. Where does Trump's plan fall short? We're going to pose that question to Jeb Bush.

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PEREIRA: Jeb Bush actually giving Donald Trump credit for releasing a tax plan. He says, though, that his plan is better. He sat down with CNN to talk about it as well as the future of the Republican Party.

CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, is the one who sat down with Jeb Bush. She joins us live from Manchester, New Hampshire with more on that one-on-one conversation she had.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, there has been so much talk about personality in this race. This week, we actually had some substance and some policy to chew on. Donald Trump introduced his tax plan.

Of course, Jeb Bush had released his own a few weeks ago. So I asked about the comparisons and similarities.

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BASH: Donald trump released a tax plan this week. You tweeted out that it looked familiar to you because you thought that there were some similarities. But you've also said that he's not a real conservative, that he's almost a Democrat in disguise. So how does he have those characteristics if not a real Republican but still have a similar tax plan?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, he's had two views on taxes. One the largest tax increase since the beginning of mankind, literally 14.5 percent tax on assets that would have devastated the economy. It would have been a tax increase in the tens of trillions of dollars.

And now he's come up with a proposal that will create, according to the Tax Foundation, on a static basis, $10 trillion deficits over ten years. Now, there will be some dynamic effect on it, but that hole won't be resolved. It's not as serious of a plan as it should be.

But the fact that he's actually proposing something is encouraging. Every time he talks about policy, he's not insulting somebody. That's a good sign for the Republican primary.

BASH: Does this convince you more that maybe he is serious about being a Republican the fact that he proposes something that is not similar to what you propose?

BUSH: Well, it's dramatic different as it relates to I think our plan of simplifying the code and reducing corporate rates, and simplifying it for personal rates without blowing a gigantic hole in the deficit is a much better plan for high sustained economic growth. But, look, we're going to have a chance to focus on this. I can't wait to hear, see what his plans are on all of other things but up to now it's been bluster.

BASH: You're a very good friend of John Boehner.

BUSH: Yes.

BASH: Obviously, he's leaving. I've talked to some Republicans who say it's a bad omen for Jeb Bush. Not just because the two of you are good friends, but because you're both perceived as kind of out of touch with today's grassroots. How do you counter that?

BUSH: So John Boehner passed through his body repeal of Obamacare, reform of the FDA, passed a budget that limited spending. In fact, spending has been limited under his leadership and it's smaller today than it was four or five years ago, as it relates to the post stimulus era.

BASH: Why isn't that enough?

BUSH: Because you have a small number of members of the Republican caucus that want more and they're willing to disrupt the whole process to be able to get what they want.

[07:45:07] But they're not going to get what they want. The irony of this is the next leader is going to have the exact same problem.

BASH: But are you concerned that that small portion of the Republican caucus in the House is going to be looked at by Republican voters who might be looking at it the other way?

BASH: Well, if you look at it from that perspective then 90 percent of the Republican caucus who wants conservative principles put into law is a better place to be than the 10 percent.

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PEREIRA: Dana joins now as is David Axelrod, CNN senior political commentator and former senior adviser to President Obama. I know you had had a chance to listen to that sound bite, the conversation between our Dana Bash and Jeb Bush, what are your thoughts?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's his bet. His bet is that the governing conservative block in the Republican Party is larger than the anti-government right block that Trump is currently leading and some of the other candidates are thriving on.

And that when the field narrows down, someone is going to come up that lane of the center right establishment, governing conservative Republicans, and that he'll be the survivor. He has what I call the Mr. Magoo strategy.

He's going to drive slowly through the chaos and arrive on the other side. He has resources. He has resources. And the fact is that this is a gauntlet. It is a long, long test and your ability to withstand that test over a long period of time is ultimately what determines who survives the race.

PEREIRA: Now, Dana, he kept talking about the fact he doesn't see it as a marathon, he sees it as a triathlon, you mentioned that it could be in the swimming phase of this. He really does seem confident that he can overcome the vocal minority within his party. He seems that think that he can blow right pass that.

BASH: Well, because, traditionally, in the Republican Party, that's how it works. There's a lot of noise. There's a lot of anger, a lot of power given to some of the more conservative parts of the Republican electorate.

Particularly in the first caucus state of Iowa and maybe less so where I am here in New Hampshire, but then going down to South Carolina, which is the first of the south primary contest.

But then usually what happens is the kind of establishment candidate ends up winning the day. The question is, is this year going to be the year that changes that?

Jeb Bush is clearly sure that that's not the case. But you have Donald Trump in the race. Never mind him. You have Ted Cruz and others who have been riding that anger wave, which is a lot bigger and stronger than we've seen it in the past.

PEREIRA: David, last night at midnight when we were all asleep. At least I hope we were, was the end of the fundraising quarter. Do you think the Bush people are able to match the strong numbers that they saw the last time around?

AXELROD: I think the summer is a very hard time to raise money, so I doubt it. Look, I think the bigger -- I mean, I think he'll have resources. And that's the big question. If the establishment Republicans have been supporting him walk away, then he's got a big problem.

But his bigger problem I think is one of temperament. He's a thoughtful guy, but he has a little bit of the problem that his father had. We all remember -- or those of us who are old enough to remember in '87, the "Newsweek" covered said the wimp factor about George H.W. Bush even though had about a fighter pilot when he was 18 years old.

Jeb Bush has some of the same temperament. He's not bombastic. He doesn't feed the beast. In a very angry time in the Republican Party the question is whether or not he has enough oomph. And Donald Trump has obviously identified this as a vulnerability whether thoughtful wins the day and you know, that's I think his greatest challenge.

PEREIRA: I'm flattered that you think I'm not old enough to remember that, but I do remember '87 terrible well. Dana Bash, David Axelrod, terrific sit down interview. Thanks so much for joining us and for your perspective as well -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Michaela, how about a little levity, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert taking jabs at the Donald. The Republican frontrunner still a huge source of laughs. We'll have the best of late night for you.

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CAMEROTA: Donald Trump feeding the late night comics with huge laughs.

CUOMO: There we go.

PEREIRA: Is that better?

CUOMO: Much.

CAMEROTA: I'm working on it. Here's what you missed last night.

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JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: Trump's lead seems to be slipping. In fact Tom Brady not endorsing Donald Trump, in fact he doesn't follow politics at all. Of course, Trump took the news in stride by calling Gizzele a five. She's lower than Heidi Klum.

STEPHEN COLBERT, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: He's been offensive. Yes, he would be a terrible president. But I do want to say this. Don't leave me Donald. Don't you understand If you go away I'm going to have to talk about those other boring people. I'm going to have to learn their names.

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PEREIRA: He has a point. He is not boring. You cannot say that he puts you to sleep and he's boring.

CAMEROTA: And his whole point is that he does provide a lot of fodder. Not only for comics, for the media. There is truth in that joke.

CUOMO: I would say there is joke in that truth.

PEREIRA: Good point.

CUOMO: Colbert wins. All right, Hurricane Joaquin is the real deal. It is rapidly intensifying and it is making progress this way. What does that mean though? Is it going to hit the U.S.? How good is the chance? How good is the chance it will turn out to sea? We have a new Hurricane Center forecast right after the break.

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[07:58:52]

CAMEROTA: Eighty million people up and down the east coast on high alert this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forecast models are not agreeing right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think ahead, have a plan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Russia launching air strikes in Syria.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The Russians are not attacking ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This approach is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When Russia said it was helping Assad. It really meant helping Assad.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have one of the great scalpels in history. It's different from Ben Carson's. He's an excellent doctor. I have a scalpel for business. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, October 1st, 8:00 in the east. And Hurricane Joaquin is gaining strength barreling north. The storm now, a Category 3 hurricane, that means sustained winds up to 120 miles an hour. It is closing in on the Bahamas for sure.

CAMEROTA: Eighty million people along the east coast should feel an impact. Some states already dealing with major flooding from heavy rains. So where is Joaquin heading? CNN has complete coverage this morning for you beginning with meteorologist, Chad Myers at the CNN Center. What are the models say now?