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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Makes First Appearance Since CNN Debate; Trump Fields Anti-Muslim Question at N.H. Town Hall; The View From Iowa; Jeb Bush Campaign Speaks Out; The "Vaccine" Debate; Muslim Teen Arrested Over Clock; G.M/ To Pay $900 Million Fine; 1 Million People Evacuated After Deadly Chile Quake; Fed Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged; Stunning New Images of Pluto
Aired September 17, 2015 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... an incredible time. We had a little thing called the debate at the Reagan Library and it was sort of an amazing thing. We had an incredible time. Thank you.
That was some evening. I got such great remark. Look at this, we just wrote this down. Time Magazine, they did votes as to who won the debate last night, right? So Time Magazine, 114,000 votes as of 6:00 P.M., Trump 56, Carly Fiorina 19, Rubio 7, Ben Carson 4, the rest not doing too good.
Then, DRUDGE. We love DRUDGE. We love DRUDGE. Donald Trump 51 percent. We have a total of 668,000 votes cast. Trump 668,000 think of it -- 51 percent. Second, Fiorina, much less like a lot. Then Rubio, then Cruz, then I'm not going to mention the next name because I don't like him very much.
Then Newsmax. Way up ahead. You like Newsmax, I like it too. The great Chris Ruddy. I like it too. Donald Trump first place by a lot.
The Street -- Donald Trump, 52 percent. That's a lot when you have all of these guys. That's a lot. You know, it's not against two people. It's against -- Donald Trump 52 percent, first place.
Then you had Slate. And that's also Donald Trump. So we had a great time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, from there he opened the floor to questions from the audience and this is the first question he got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This man. I like this guy.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: (inaudible) Amen. OK? We (inaudible) problem in this country it's called Muslims. We know our current president is one.
TRUMP: Right.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: You know, he's not even an American.
TRUMP: We need this question. This is the first question.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: But anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That's my question. When can we get rid of them?
TRUMP: We're going to be looking at a lot of different things and, you know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening out there. We're going to be looking to that and plenty of other things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, now that moment sounds familiar. You're right. First of the same thing happened to John McCain during the 2008 campaign. Here's how he handled that then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not -- he's an Arab. He is not...
JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE 2008: No ma'am. No ma'am. He's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: In a moment, our political panel's going to weigh in. But I want to find out what the reaction was like in the hall. CNN's Sara Murray is there. She joins us now.
So we heard that question again with the guy who said we have a problem in this country referring to Muslims not Muslim radicals but Muslims. How did the crowd react?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: You know it's interesting because Donald Trump didn't react. And so, the crowd kind of followed his (inaudible). I mean Trump was a little taken back and like, "This is the first question?" But he didn't refute the premise of it all and he just kind of moved on and there was kind of no visible reaction from the crowd, no kind of pushback to this premise.
Now, we tried to catch up with Donald Trump after the event sort of ask him to elaborate on this, ask him if he really agreed with the premise of that question, and he did not answer CNN's question. But he's going to be back on the campaign trail tomorrow and over the weekend. And I cannot imagine that this is the last time that he's going to get asked to sort of expand on what he thought with that question and whether he agrees with that premise. COOPER: Yeah. I would be very surprised if he doesn't come out quickly in Twitter something and say, "Look, you know, American Muslims are you know afraid. The problem's radical Muslims." What else did the voters wanted to know from Trump tonight.
MURRAY: You know, these are things Donald Trump doesn't do on events like this very often where he fields questions from sort of regular voters. We see a lot of big flashy rallies from him. And such nice people really press him on the issues. They cared about whether it was wet. The U.S. rule should be in the Syrian refugee crisis or how we should handle social security.
And you got a much better sense of the issues that Donald Trump is comfortable with. He was very clearly in his element talking about immigration, talking about trade, not so much when people ask about some of the, you know, more unique things they ask about in New Hampshire like agricultural things or for instance speeding up the process in Family Core. They really got a sense of where Donald Trump is practiced on certain issues and where he was sort of taken off guard when quite sure how to field those question.
[21:05:01]
COOPER: Sara Murray, appreciate you being there. Thank you.
Coming up, reaction right now from CNN Political Commentator and GOP Strategist Kevin Madden, also with us our old friend and colleague Paul Steinhouser, who is currently political director and anchor at New Hampshire One News this days, pretty good place to be.
Paul, let me start with you. You were there at the Trump event tonight. This question about Muslims again, from your vantage point, what was the crowd's reaction?
PAUL STEINHOUSER, POLITICAL DIRECTOR AND ANCHOR, NEW HAMPSHIRE ONE NEWS: You know, Sarah said I think since Donald Trump didn't react, it was pretty quiet in the room at the time, he kind of glossed over it and moved on. And so there wasn't really any reaction. He wanted to move quickly to the next question. And so the crowd didn't have a chance to react, Anderson.
COOPER: Kevin what do you make of Trump's response to the question of Muslims because, I mean, not to put too fine a point on that there are some who might claim this is an over exaggeration that Trump was in fact trying to -- kind of be sarcastic and say look, like we really need this and try to just move on from it. Should he have actually though confronted the premise?
KEVIN MADDEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Anderson, I think what -- yeah, I think that kind of confrontation probably would have served him well but Donald Trump is not a very, you know, polished politician in that sense. I think the, you know, a lot of the energy and that he has and a lot of his crowds he doesn't necessarily try to confront that or stop that instead he tries to engage with it.
But I think -- look one of the really important things that we've seen from the last night's debate was that we have a whole host of candidates that are really skilled, really good on policy, are focused on the issues. Those are the type of crowds that they want to engage and right now this is an opportunity for all those other candidates to start drawing a contrast with Donald Trump in a way that helps consolidate some support among state larger part of the electric inside the Republican Party that really wants to see somebody who is going to be able to bring people together in November...
COOPER: And Paul...
MADDEN: ... of 2016.
COOPER: And Paul, how big a crowd was this tonight because Donald Trump likes to talk about, I'm sure of the size of his crowds a lot and what were the other kind of issues that were really important to them?
STEINHOUSER: Biggest crowd yet for Donald Trump here in New Hampshire, Anderson. He had some crowds about 2,000 before. Fire marshals here telling me they had 3,000. So for New Hampshire that is pretty large, I mean we're not going to get those 15,000 to 20,000 people rallies you've seen Trump and Bernie Sanders have elsewhere. But for New Hampshire, that's pretty sizable.
His crowds, Anderson, that they are getting bigger throughout the summer and now into the fall and energetic, you know, at first I think people were showing up just to see Trump more of a spectacle just to see if he was really real. Now these are very, very strong supporters of Donald Trump. More maybe -- there going to be a little more working class, blue collar than white collar crowds but they truly are believers, Anderson.
COOPER: Paul, it's great to have you on the program Paul Steinhouser, Kevin Madden as well.
Coming up next, how a potential great influential group of Republicans saw the debate undecided voters in Iowa tell us which candidates impressed them most whether anything they heard last night won them over.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:11:42]
COOPER: For tonight the big debate to a candidate the idea of reaching 23 million potential voters in a single event must be like winning the publicity lottery. The pay off though will come from a much smaller number of eyes and ears, in fact since the first contest will be the caucuses in Iowa where politics is often done neighbor to neighbor one on one just a few thousand viewers last night could be pivotal, which is why 360's Randi Kaye spent debate night talking to a group of Iowans at Drake College in Des Moines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 32 undecided Iowa Republicans, all hoping the CNN debate would help them choose a candidate. Is there anyone here who Trump scored points with tonight? No? For our focus group, Donald Trump was not at the top of their list.
KATIE USSERY, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: Women across the country are very unpleased about the laundry of list of horrible comments he's made about women.
JOHN PAUL STRON, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: I'm really concerned about him being that a president that he would maybe start a war with a nuclear bomb or something like that.
KAYE: Some in our group thought he should have played nice when Jeb Bush pressed him about bringing Bush's wife who is Mexican-American into the immigration conversation.
TRUMP: Good.
BUSH: Why don't you apologize for her?
TRUMP: You know, I won't do that because I said nothing wrong.
KAYE: In fact, Trump didn't even score when this group was asked who did the best job during the debate. Carly Fiorina rated highest with 22 of our 32 voters in her corner.
There's a lot of testosterone in that stage and she is holding her own.
SUE MERSEREAU, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: Yeah, she is and you have to give her a lot of credit and I think over the last six months, she is coming to our own and she's isn't afraid of anybody or anything.
JEFF JOCHIMS, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: I was surprised by her knowledge of the facts, especially the size of certain areas in the military and her heart just comes off as genuine, you know, I think this is one place we can combine toughness and the softness of a woman in one package. I was really impressed tonight.
KAYE: This moment when Fiorina pushed to define planned parenthood really struck our group.
FIORINA: This is about the character of our nation and if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us.
HEATHER STANCIL, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: It really hit me as a woman that we're even discussing this, this is even a political issue, because to me it's a humanity issue.
KAYE: Is it important to you to have a woman in the White House?
STANCIL: I don't really care. I'm not about parts and man parts, girl parts, I really don't care.
KAYE: This group is most concerned about jobs and the economy and they think an outsider can deliver. ERNIE RUDOLPH, UNDEDICED IOWA VOTER: I think the traditional candidates represent the establishment of the Republican Party and it's failed. It's failed us and failed Americans.
KAYE: Which may be why most of our group was turned off by Jeb Bush, even though they thought he showed more spark.
MERSEREAU: I like him, I really do but three Bush's, I'm not sure and I think he's probably a little more liberal than George and his father.
KAYE: One establishment candidate that did breakthrough was the governor from New Jersey.
CHRISTIE: You're both successful people, congratulations. You know, who's not successful, the middle class in this country who's getting plowed over.
ANGELA GLASGOW, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: The one I had written off was Chris Christie and I'm interested in what he's saying. I'm definitely going to be paying more attention there.
[21:15:04] He's probably listed out more specifics tonight than most of the others.
KAYE: Some others weren't as impressed.
MICHELE CRYSTAL, UNDECIDED IOWA VOTER: Chris Christie is great for jersey, keep him there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Randi, did anyone on this in this group of voters decide on a candidate after they watched the debate or still undecided?
KAYE: After all three hours, Anderson, not a single one these voters said they can choose a candidate just yet. They've narrowed it down, some of them who got four or five but they need to hear more specifics. They are, though, as you heard in the piece learning towards an outsider, although there was one woman in the group who said hey to her fellow Republicans, remember Obama was once an outsider she said and we don't know like how things have turned out.
All of them, Anderson, think that the country is moving in the wrong direction. One guy told me last night that he says the federal government is like -- they're like living in the Land of Oz, they're completely out of touch with the rest of the America.
But here's one last -- one final thought, Anderson. When I meet these groups and I go around the country talking to these voters, I always ask them, if Donald Trump, if he is the nominee, would you vote for him, could you vote for him? Every time they've always said yes, in this group, Anderson, they said no. They said they would write in a candidate of their choosing, they would not support the Republican nominee just because he is a nominee, they would pick their own candidate, Anderson. COOPER: All right Randi, appreciate you doing that. Thank you very much.
Joining us now CNN political commentators Amanda Carpenter and Van Jones, she's a former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz, he's a former adviser to President Obama.
So we just saw Van, Trump was not at the top of the list for these voters. Do you think we're going to actually see some of his support start to wink (ph) because some people are talking about that lot -- to the last night so they punned it saying, maybe they start saw -- see sort of some jinx in the armor but as you heard, I mean Trump hit this town hall tonight touting a lot of online polls, you know, which we're based on probably clicks that he according to supporters won the debate.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, so internet trolls like Trump, OK congratulations but the actually polling data has still not come in. We have to wait and see here.
COOPER: But there's more than internet trolls, I mean come on just be fair.
JONES: I'm giving him a little bit of a hard time. He's so proud of those numbers I just can't help...
COOPER: OK.
JONES: ... I take a little bit of poke at numbers. But sure, listen, is he wildly popular, sure. Are there are a lot of people who will -- they probably they didn't even watch the debate they just like him so much, that's true.
But here's what got to look at. About half of the Republican voters are looking for somebody whose not an establishment candidate and I think Carly Fiorina put herself in a position as you start maybe getting some Trump fatigue or some second glances for her to start picking up from him, but much more importantly I thought that because Ben Carson just really didn't shine at all, she may pick up support from him.
It's going to take a couple of days to digest this vote and to digest this entire debate that we just went through but I think that we may be finally getting towards some kind of ceiling for Donald Trump.
COOPER: Amanda, do you think that's the case both for Donald Trump and for Dr. Carson?
AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I like the way that Van put it about Trump's fatigue perhaps setting in. Donald Trump did not come away from that to be looking good largely because he couldn't rise the occasion talk about the issues. The first chance he really had to talk about something in the early minutes of the debate, I thought was really notable. He's asked a question and then oddly went out of his way to attack Rand Paul. Seemingly out of nowhere where Rand Paul isn't anywhere near to him in the polls and I think that kind of spoke to his attitude to the whole debate where he just going to continue to attack other people and to heck with the economy or anything maybe besides immigration.
So I think at this point, Trump supporters aren't going to abandon him. Carson supporters aren't going to abandon him yet but I think their support is softening and maybe be ready to look for an alternative and that's month or so and that certainly something a candidate like Ted Cruz is been counting on.
JONES: And I thought it was very, very telling, when you look at though either Iowa voters and their undecided voters. What's happen is you got some people that may have locked themselves into Trump that's fine. But now where's he going to grow, if those are Iowa voters and they uniformly said not only were they not for Trump, they would write in their best friend or something not only, where they not for Trump they couldn't vote they would write in their best friend or something, that's not a good sign. That's one focus group but that's not a good sign about his ability to grow especially when you have a Carly who can be to get the anti establishment vote and frankly there are some establishment people now who are saying good things about Carly Fiorina.
COOPER: But Amanda, you know, we have seen what happened to Carly Fiorina when she ran in the senate I mean the Democrats attacked her on the thing which many people like her for her business record, I mean Donald Trump is also attacked her on her business record but, you know, Barbara Boxer putting on commercial types and the number of employees that were fired under her reign at Hewlett-Packard and the money that she walked away from, I mean is the commercial writes itself for the Democrats.
CARPENTER: Yeah, listen, Carly certainly had the breakout performance again last night between her answers answering Donald Trump and the planned parenthood answer. Put that aside, we're starting to see the scrutiny set in and she's certainly has some Romney as like vulnerabilities that I know the Democrats are very excited about and that Donald Trump would be sure to exploit.
[21:20:10] And that's kind of why I think the focus groups was impressed with Chris Christie because they while we're battling each other about whether they did bankruptcy or how much money they made, he took that as an opportunity to put the focus back on the economy and there was a lot to talk about foreign policy and personality in last night's debate but because of that, not a lot of talk about the economy. So I think that's why the voters in that focus group found Christie appealing on the front.
COOPER: Amanda, it's good to have you on tonight, Van Jones as well.
Up next, Jeb Bush takes his message to rally in Vegas at the campaign tries to capitalize in a key moment from last night's debate. I'll speak with the Bush campaign's communications director next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Jeb Bush's campaign is wasting no time promoting one of his memorable moment from last night's debate after Donald Trump called Jeb's brother George W. Bush's administration is disaster. Jeb Bush said there's one thing I'll tell you about my brother, "He kept us safe." There was a big applause. Today the campaign is promoting that clip online and in key states.
[21:25:02] Bush meanwhile spoke at a rally in Las Vegas -- in Vegas just a short time ago taking a jab at Trump saying on "I meet the press" the he gets his foreign policy from watching T.V. shows.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not going to get my foreign policy based on watching the shows or say don't worry about it, I'll figure it out later. You need a president with a steady hand because this is a dangerous world. You need a president that will have men and women that they understand what the world looks like that love this country and understand its power. It is not to be the world's policeman. It's to lead the world. A country like ours needs to lead the world to take care of the persecuted Christians in the Middle East.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Joining me is now is Tim Miller, communications director for the Jeb Bush campaign. Tim, thanks very much for being with us.
TIM MILLER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, JEB BUSH CAMPAIGN: Hey, thanks Anderson.
COOPER: Where do you see your candidate getting into double digits? I mean, what does he need to do and do you think the last night was perhaps the first signs of some sort of weakness of Donald Trump as some observers were saying the last night although certainly his supporters said he did great.
MILLER: Well, I think for sure it was a sign of weakness for Donald Trump. I thought Jeb had a great night and the moment that you mentioned I thought it was the moment of debate where he looked at Donald Trump and he said "You can disparage my brother if you want but one thing is for sure is when this country was attack he kept us safe." And six weeks ago in the Reagan Library, Jeb laid out a plan to defeat ISIS and he said, I'm going to do the same exact thing.
And so while Donald Trump let to put Hillary Clinton would be a good negotiator with Iran which is what he said, Jeb Bush is going to have the strong foreign policy. He's going to make sure America is the leader in the world again and that's going to be a message that resonates with primary voters. I think when he takes that to the early states in combine with this conservative record of reform in Florida, we feel really good that that's going to resonate with voters.
COOPER: But resonating is one thing but, I mean how do you actually start to move up in the polls? I mean that's ultimately -- it's ultimately about getting people who are going to come out and caucus for Jeb Bush and be enthusiastic about Jeb Bush and right now, you know, the enthusiasm seems to be for Trump and Dr. Ben Carson. Do you -- are you -- do you see this is a long game that you're just kind of hoping that Donald -- that kind of Donald Trump starts to fade?
MILLER: Yeah, I think both, Anderson. For starters, look I think that we're putting together the best organization in all of their early states in Iowa, in New Hampshire for sure and Nevada where Governor Bush was today. You know, we've got the support of all the major elected leaders and county official in every county. You know, this is a state by state race and, you know, we just began advertising last week, this is the second debate.
Voters think they know a lot about Jeb but they really don't know about his conservative record of balancing budgets, cutting taxes, reforming education in Florida. So once we build our organization and really start telling the Jeb story, we feel very good about the position we're in and I wouldn't...
COOPER: You really...
MILLER: ... I wouldn't trade places with anybody right now.
COOPER: Really? You really would not trade places with anybody?
MILLER: Of course. Who would you trade places with? And Donald Trump is a ticking time bomb. There is no way that somebody who thought Hillary Clinton was going to negotiate, be a good negotiator with Iran once the biggest tax increase in American history, supported partial birth abortion, there's no way that person is going to be the nominee of the Republican Party.
COOPER: But you can't honestly say you're happy with the possession. You can't honestly say you're happy that your candidate is in single digits in the polls after all the name recognition he has and all the run up to this, I mean...
MILLER: Well, of course we are. Like I said and people think they know Jeb but they don't know about his record.
COOPER: You're happy he's in single digits?
MILLER: What I'm saying is that I'm happy that the position we're in looking at this state by state race. You've got to be also win this early states whether it's the Iowa caucus, New Hampshire primary, South Carolina primary and in Nevada. And I feel like Jeb is very well positioned to go into those early states and win. We're going to continue to grow our vote share. We just began advertising last week.
If you look at the online prediction market, Jeb is quite literally, the odds on favorite to be the nominee. We feel great about where we're at and we feel good about the work we're doing on the ground to make sure we get there.
COOPER: He got a big applause when he defended his brother last not saying... MILLER: No doubt.
COOPER: ... that his brother kept the country safe. Is that something we're going to be hearing more of from Jeb Bush linking himself to his brother?
MILLER: One thing that you're definitely going to be able to hear more of from Jeb is laying out a plan for defeating ISIS and if in -- no matter what you're going to say about his brother, nobody doubts his commitment and his resolved to taking on the terrorists and we don't have a president right now that's doing that and Hillary Clinton was side by side with him and they have no strategy to defeat ISIS.
Six weeks ago in the Reagan Library, President Bush -- Jeb Bush laid out the most detailed plan to take on ISIS. We feel like that's a winning message and by the way it's the right thing to do.
COOPER: You don't think it comes with some risk though, linking himself to George W. Bush?
MILLER: Well I think not having a strategy to take on ISIS would be a bigger risk Anderson.
COOPER: OK.
[21:30:00]
MILLER: And that, you know, we feel really good about that strategy that some, they resonate with Republican primary voters. You saw it last night and by way its enormous contrast to Donald Trump. It's enormous contrast with Hillary Clinton and voters are looking for somebody that's going to have a strategy to defeat Isis and make sure America is a leader in the world.
COOPER: Tim Miller, it's good to have you one Tim, thank you very much.
MILLER: Anderson, good to be with you, man.
COOPER: Up next, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson being slammed for their thoughts on vaccines in autism in last night's debate. Dr. Sanjay Gupta to talks about medical facts coming up.
Also tonight at CNN exclusive, Hillary Clinton's first live interview from the 2016 campaign trail, she talks to Wolf Blitzer between events in New Hampshire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Many medical professionals including the American Academy Pediatrics are blasting Donald Trump for what he said last night about autism and vaccines. The two MDs who share the stage with Trump and Carson and Rand Paul have also been criticized for their response to his remarks and here is some of what was said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: I only say it's not. I'm in favor of vaccines. Do them over a longer period of time, same amount but...
JAKE TAPPER, CNN DEBATE MODERATOR: Thank you.
TRUMP: ... just in little sections.
[21:35:00]
TAPPER: Dr. Carson...
TRUMP: I think and I think you're going to have -- I think you're going to see a big impact on autism.
TAPPER: Dr. Carson you just heard his medical take.
BEN CARSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's an OK doctor. But, you know, that the fact of the matter is, we have extremely well- documented prove that there is no autism associated with vaccinations but it is true that we are probably giving way to many in too short of period of time and a lot of pediatricians now recognized that and I think are cutting down on the number and the proximity in which those are done.
TRUMP: And that's all I'm saying, Jake. That's all I'm saying.
RAND PAUL, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm all for vaccines but I'm also for freedom. I'm also a little concerned how they are bunched up. My kids had all of their vaccines and even if the science doesn't say bunching them up is a problem, I ought to have the right to spread my vaccines out of little bit of the very least.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Mr. Trump has a history of linking vaccines to autism. Last night he told that a very emotional story about an employee whose child he says was diagnosed of autism after being vaccinated. He also sited a 17-year-old study that was debunked and retracted years ago and later found to be fraudulent. The British doctor who did the research lost his medical license. Our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us.
Sanjay, you heard Trump, Carson, Paul say that they are in favor of vaccines but that -- it should be done over a longer period of time. Is there any merit to actually spreading them out?
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. There is really no merit and I say no and then pause because I don't want anybody to think there is any string attached to that. It's just no. There is no merit to it and in fact, there are possibly consequences to it. I mean the whole point of vaccines, Anderson, is to prevent people from getting illnesses.
If you wait longer to give the vaccines, the children are potentially exposed or vulnerable for longer period of time to especially problematic for example for homes that have several small children in the house. Some of the children maybe vaccinated, some of them have been delayed now getting their vaccinations. They could potentially get sick when they didn't have to.
I also want to point out, the American Academy of Pediatrics they released a statement on this just after the debate last night to specifically talk about that and what they said was that "There is no alternative immunization schedule delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease for a longer period of time, it does not make it safer."
COOPER: Trump also said that he wants vaccines to be administered in smaller doses. Is there any value on that?
GUPTA: There isn't. There is not. And I think this is a really important point because, you know, a lot of people say look it just seems like it so much, it's too many vaccines that you're giving people and I think he linked it to sort of that which you give to a horse I think during...
COOPER: Right, he said there was a huge tranquilizer, basically.
GUPTA: Yeah. Well, what really matters if you're concern is that you're overwhelming the child's immune system, which is what he seems to be saying and other people have said that there real, there's just no -- really no merit to it.
I want to show you this graph, Anderson, I think is important. We used to give a lot more in the way of vaccines if you look back. For example 1980, top left, that's what we used to give in terms of the amount of vaccine, the amount of antigen we use to give 3,000 different parts. It's come way down now if you look at that. At the bottom left is the rate of autism.
When we used to give a lot of vaccine, that's when autism rates were at the lowest and as we've given less and less vaccine, autism rates have gone up. I think the graphs will speak for itself, right? There is really no correlation between vaccines and autism. Looking at the graph, one could make the argument and again I think that's true. Once could make the argument that vaccines in fact protect against autism. My point is that, it's just that you can't read into this idea that there is any relationship whatsoever between vaccines and autism.
COOPER: I want you to listen to something else Dr. Ben Carson said about vaccines and we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARSON: Vaccines are very important, certain ones, the ones that would prevent death or crippling. There are others are multitude of vaccines which probably don't fit in that category and there should be some discretion in those cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So what do you make of that? GUPTA: You know I mean first of all I should say that I know Dr. Carson, you know, he went to the same medical school and that -- he's a very well-regarded pediatric neurosurgeon. I'll be curious what vaccines he's talking about, you know, people tend to forget diseases like roto virus for example. Kids get a vaccine against roto virus.
We take that maybe is not that big a deal forgetting that it could kill half a million kids around the world every year that don't have access to this vaccination, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pneumococcal, meningitis, which vaccines would you not give your child?
I don't, I mean -- how did you start to make that argument that some just aren't that serious? Just about any of diseases that we vaccinate against routinely now can cause people to get really sick if not die. So I don't think you can start to make a list like that of things you wouldn't do.
COOPER: Well, I mean you had two doctors on that stage, doctor, you know, Rand Paul and Dr. Carson, is that politics? I mean, what do you think is going on?
[21:40:00]
GUPTA: Yeah, I think so, you know, and I think that, you know, I think Dr. Carson initially was pretty strong about saying look, there is no link between vaccines and autism but I think they -- they're just this -- I think tendency this incentive maybe to find the common middle ground. No, there's no correlation here. Yeah, but look, it's a lot of vaccines, let's just cut back on the number of vaccines do it more slowly, eliminate some. It's -- I think it's a little bit of political pandering and so unfortunate. Dr. Rand Paul, earlier this year it as saying things about some of the concerns about vaccines at that time.
Dr. Carson I think was more forceful in terms of the science last night but probably, you know, its dangerous not to just be absolutely clear on this and not equivocate at all. There's no link between the two, you should not do anything that delays the schedule, you could leave your kids vulnerable and possible other children, as well.
COOPER: All right. Sanjay, thanks very much.
GUPTA: You got it, thank you.
COOPER: Hillary Clinton's top aids were watching the debate last night, they called it a win for them. they said the GOP's opposition to planned parenthood is out of touch with many Americans views, most Americans views they say and will hurt them in the general election. But today Mrs. Clinton campaigned in New Hampshire three events and here's what she said at a substance abuse forum in a boys and girls club.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I think we have to once again recommit ourselves to doing all that we can to make sure starting with our kids, every single child has the same chance to grow up to achieve his or her dreams. And that every family is given the help and support starting at the local level but backed up by our country so that you're not out there alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: At last night Clinton appeared on NBC, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and dressed up as Donald Trump and gave her some campaign advice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Hello. Who is this?
JIMMY FALLON, THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON, HOST: Congratulations, you're speaking to Donald Trump.
CLINTON: Hello, Donald.
FALLON: How are you, Hillary? I haven't seen you since my last wedding.
CLINTON: Well, I'm sure I'll see you at the next one. You know, I'm really curious, Donald, what is your stance on women's issues?
FALLON: Look I know a lot of women and they all have issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But today she gave the first live interview of the 2016 campaign a CNN exclusive with our Wolf Blitzer and I talked to Wolf earlier about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Wolf, what were sometime of moments from your interview with Hillary Clinton that stood out?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Anderson, I really wanted her to have an opportunity to respond to some of the fierce criticism that was leveled against her, I hear at the republican presidential debate. You and I were sitting together and these Republicans they really went after her point after point after point whether on planned parenthood or in her e-mail controversy.
Listen to a little bit of what she told me.
Let's talk about another source of criticism you received last night, this one from the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. He said at the debate you can't tell the American people the truth. Those were his words about your e-mail, the whole controversy, says you should be prosecuted for having a server in your basement he says with national security secrets running through it. He says Russians, Chinese, even 18-year-olds could have hacked into your server. You think that was possible that they hacked into your server? CLINTON: There is no evidence of that and again, this is, you know, this is over heated rhetoric baseless charges trying to somehow, you know, gain a footing in the debate and in the primary and it really doesn't deserve any comment.
BLITZER: You've dismissed Donald Trump's campaign as entertainment suggested in part it's not really serious but the top Republican candidate right now Donald Trump for that matter Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, they're all political outsiders and your main democratic opponent Senator Bernie Sanders he's pulling and some of this polls in New Hampshire, in Iowa he's running as an outsider as well. So how do you deal with that, why is Bernie Sanders for example ahead of you in these polls in New Hampshire and Iowa right now?
CLINTON: Well, I have said for a long time polls are going to go up there going to down, I'm very confident and very comfortable about our strategy. I feel that our campaign in Iowa, in New Hampshire, all the early states and now we're moving onto the states that come after are really coming together well. I'm excited by the level and intensity of the support that I have.
So I always thought this will be a competitive election I'm looking forward to it. This is an important job, this is the most important job not only in our country but in the world and people have to fight hard, they have to make their case and they have to earn the votes of the American voters.
BLITZER: You sat next to Joe Biden when you were the secretary of state for four years. He's been the vice president of the United States now for almost seven years, a heart beat away from the presidency. If he does decide to run, will you be able to tell the American people that you're more qualified to be president than he is?
[21:45:04]
CLINTON: Well, Wolf, I'm not going to comment on a hypothetical and I'm certainly not going to comment on my good friend and former colleague. He has to make up his own mind about what's best for him and his family as he wrestles with this choice.
COOPER: You also asked her, Wolf, if she's willing to add more democratic debates.
BLITZER: Yeah I did that, she said she's happy to debate. She's happy to do whatever, the Democratic National Committee authorizes if they want more debates, she's happy to go out there on the stage and participate in more debates. I pressed her I said, well will you asked Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Chair of the DNC to authorize more democratic debates as some of the other democratic candidates, what she said she basically will do whatever the DNC wants and I know you're moderating the first democratic debate in Nevada next month. She'll be there, let's see if there are a lot more than the ones already scheduled.
COOPER: Yeah, October 13th, Wolf, thanks very much.
BLITZER: Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Up next, the teenage inventor who ended up in police custody for bringing a home made clock to school. The young man happens to be Muslim, the reaction has reached all the way to White House. An update on that, when we come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:50:03]
COOPER: It's been quite a week for a 15-year-old boy in Texas, Ahmed Muhammad who happens to be Muslim was arrested in his high school on Monday after bringing in a homemade clock. And where a police and school officials called it a hoax bomb. Outrage quickly followed, Alina Machado reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Ahmed Muhammad being led away in handcuffs after being accused of creating a fake bomb and bringing it to school. That device was nothing more than his latest invention.
AHMED MUHAMMED, STUDENT: So I guess everyone knows I'm person who built a clock and got in trouble for it.
MACHADO: Authorities released this picture of the clock. Ahmed says made it using a pencil case and was excited to show it off at school.
MUHAMMED: I built the clock to impress my teacher, but when I showed it to her, she thought it was a threat to her, so, so it was really sad that she took the wrong impression of it and I got arrested for later that day.
MACHADO: The chief of the Irving, Texas, police department said officers took Ahmed into custody because of the device's "suspicious appearance." But by Wednesday police announced there would be no charges filed against the 14 year old.
LARRY BOYD, IRVING POLICE DEPARTMENT, CHIEF OFFICER: The follow-up investigation revealed the device apparently was a homemade experiment and there's no evidence to support the perception he intended to create alarm.
MACHADO: The mayor Irving defended the actions of both the school district and police releasing a statement saying in part, "I do not fault the school or the police for looking into what they saw as a potential threat." Still, the incident is fueling criticism and outrage on social media and plenty of words of encouragement for the teen.
MUHAMMED: It made me really happy to see all the people support me and support others. MACHADO: Support from high-profile names and companies, Readit and Twitter have offered him internships. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the future belongs to people like Ahmed, adding "Ahmed if you ever want to come by Facebook, I'd love to meet you, keep building. Even President Obama asked to meet him tweeting, "cool clock, Ahmed, want to bring it to the White House? The teen's story even a topic on last night's Republican debate.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE MODERATOR: ... did you ever see the discrimination part of it?
BOBBY JINDAL, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sure I don't think a 14- year-old should ever get arrested for bringing a clock to school.
MACHADO: Now Ahmed was suspended for three days, it's unclear if he's going to return to the same school. He says he wants to transfer. As for the clock, police were initially holding on to it as evidence but they tell us its ready for Ahmed to pick it up. Alina Machado, CNN Miami.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Now Amara Walker has the 360 Bulletin.
AMARA WALKER, CNN REPORTER: Anderson we begin with a 360 follow. General Motors will pay $900 million federal fine to settle criminal charges over a defective ignition switch in cars tie to at least 124 depths. G.M. has already admitted and knew about the problem nearly a decade before millions of cars were recalled.
At least 11 people have died after a magnitude 8.3 quake in Chile. The quake triggered the evacuation of 1 million people due to a tsunami alert.
The Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates near zero for now. The Central Bank cites worries over the global economy, stock market volatility and low inflation here at home.
And take a look at the new stunning images of Pluto taken by NASA's New Horizon space craft. You get a spectacular look at its arctic landscape. Anderson.
COOPER: Incredible, Amara thanks so much. Amazing.
Coming up, The RidicuList, something to make you smile the end of the day, we're be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:57:48]
COOPER: Time now for the RidicuList. And it's me now I consider Jeopardy to be one of the greatest television shows of all time. I love Jeopardy, I'm not just saying that because I have been a contestant, in fact, I've won it twice out of three times it lose to (inaudible). Anyway, it's entertaining, it's exciting, it's educational, sometimes it's even kind of funny, although it can never be as funny as the old Saturday Night Live parodies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And finally back again Bert Reynolds the commanding lead with $14.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, check out the party look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Reynolds has apparently changed his name to Turd Ferguson.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's me Turd Ferguson, it's a funny name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Burt Reynolds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not my name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Turd Ferguson?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, what do you want?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So that clip burned the way into the memories of all us Jeopardy fans, including apparently a contestant who was on the show last night, the final Jeopardy category, Oscar nominated songs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This song from a 1999 animated film about censorship had a word censored from its Oscar performance. 30 seconds, players, good luck. You came up with this as your response for final let's see, what is the love ballad of Turd Ferguson? P.S, hi, mom. No sorry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: All right, first things first. What is Blame Canada from the South Park movie that of course is the correct response but that contestant's response even though it cost her all her jeopardy money it won her legions of admirers. See it's a dream come true for a very specific subset of people who have been waiting since 1999 to hear the real Alex Trebek say word Turd Ferguson, actually two word, two words Turd Ferguson. So now a call to action for future Jeopardy contestants I think there's only one thing left to do. Somebody has to go out blazing with the Sean Connery style final Jeopardy response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Jeopardy category is just answer the question, where are you right now? Mr. Connery, where are you right now?
[22:00:00] You wrote, good lord you wrote indoors. That's phenomenal. Are we recording this? OK let's look at your wager. I heart boobs. That's beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Future contestants, this is your mission should you choose to accept it. I don't want to encourage this kind of thing. Frankly, I'm just kidding. You may not win the game. You'll certainly get the last laugh in final jeopardy and, certainly on the ridicules.
That's it for us. We'll you see again at midnight Eastern for another edition of 360. CNN Tonight with Don Lemon starts right now.
