Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

2013 Elections; Christie Crushes Competition; Kidnapping Victim Details Years of Abuse

Aired November 06, 2013 - 09:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

This morning we're covering some bellwether elections and the ripple they're sending across the political landscape. A decisive big victory for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a top Republican Party hopeful for president in 2016. He won big in a blue state, but distanced himself from the Tea Party and set himself up very nicely for 2016. In Virginia, the bust Obamacare rollout may have hurt Democrat Terry McAuliffe in his race for governor, but not badly enough to spell defeat for him. He survives a nasty slugfest with Tea Party Republican Ken Cuccinelli by three percentage points. And fresh off a crushing victory in the New York City mayor's race, Bill de Blasio walked out to the cheers of an adoring crowd playing a song that observers say sums up his populist themed (ph) campaign nicely. Oh, I know you could barely hear it, but for those of you not in the loop, that was the chart-top hit "Royals," which slams materialism and excess. Fitting for a man who's promised to close the gap between rich and poor in his city.

Joining me now to talk about this and more, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, and Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor for "New York One."

Welcome to both of you.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to see you.

COSTELLO: Good to see you both.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, So, Errol, let's start with you. De Blasio called himself, quote, "unapologetically progressive." But it seems he doesn't much care for rich people. He sounds sort of like Robin Hood. But will he actually be able to govern New York City that way, Errol?

LOUIS: Well, yes, certainly. I mean, look, it's not that he hates rich people. In fact, a lot of them donated much of the money that he used to run his campaign. He's realistic. He's a pragmatic progressive you might want to call him. I would compare it, Carol, to what the Vatican used to call the "preferential option for the poor." The notion that, look, when you've got a choice about policies to make, make sure you are including the very poorest. So he's going to push for real estate development, but he's going to make sure some of that housing is low enough priced that poor people can live in it. He's going to push for jobs, but he's going to make sure that the jobs that the city government does help to bring about will actually pay a living wage. It's no more and no less.

I mean more than three-quarters of the New York City budget is determined by mandates from Washington or from the state capital or from courts or from some other very basic, practical need like public safety. It's really that small preferential sort of discretionary fund and policies that he has said he's going to push in a different direction because there's just a lot of poor people here. There's 1.7 million people living in poverty in New York City.

COSTELLO: And I think the wage gap is the largest in Manhattan between rich and poor as well. So --

LOUIS: The largest in the - the largest in the country for sure, maybe the western world.

COSTELLO: I think you're probably right about that.

Larry, a question for you. A Democrat also won in the state of Virginia, but Terry McAuliffe ran as an economic moderate and, of course, he almost lost because of Obamacare's problems. So what's the - what's the major difference between the two, because some Americans might say, yes, he ran as an economic moderate, but he's exactly the same as Bill de Blasio.

SABATO: Well, look, New York City, even though for 20 years it hadn't had a Democratic mayor, there's no question New York City is much more liberal than Virginia. But Virginia isn't your grandfather's Virginia. Virginia is a moderate, mid-Atlantic state. It's no longer of the south. I would call it bluish tinged purple. That is Democratic leaning competitive state. So that's what you saw last night. In fact, as I went through the returns, I thought I was looking at the 2012 race in Virginia between Obama and Romney. McAuliffe carried almost the very same localities by about the same margins.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So Obamacare came very much into play, Larry, at the end of the Virginia race and it almost cost the Democrat the election. So you have to ask yourself, how will that play into 2014, into 2016?

SABATO: Well, I wish I knew, Carol, because we don't know how soon the website will be fixed, and we don't know whether people will be satisfied once it is fixed. But I can tell you one thing, had the Tea Party House caucus and the U.S. House of Representatives not shut down the government for 17 days, there would have been an additional several weeks' worth of focus on Obamacare. And, look, it is not impossible that Cuccinelli could have won with a longer focus on this unpopular rollout. So in a way, ironically, the Tea Party caucus in the U.S. House took their first political victim, the Tea Party candidate for governor of Virginia.

COSTELLO: OK, well let's talk about the Tea Party and Obamacare as it applies to the liberal city of New York City, Errol. So I'm just wondering, what do people in New York City say about Obamacare?

LOUIS: Well, New York is one of the states that set up its own health care exchange, number one. So we actually have a fairly workable front end for people who are trying to figure out how to access Obamacare.

Secondly, New York City is unusual in that no other major city comes close to this. We have 11 municipally owned hospitals. So, you know, walking in off the street is available to anybody and getting some fairly impressive health care, thanks in part to Mayor Bloomberg who has been a big fan and supporter of our public health care system here. So New York is not going to be one of these places where there's a lot of resentment about Obamacare. A lot of people already had coverage. And even the very poorest had, again, 11 hospitals that they could walk into right off the street without any -- you don't even have to be a citizen and you can get some level of care here.

Now, the spiraling costs is another question. And there were, in fact, I think over 1 million New Yorkers who were mostly self-employed. We had a lot of freelancers here in the city. They were the ones who were left out. And they are the ones who are flocking to our state-run portal where many of them are finding some pretty good deals. You know, it's $200, $300, $400 if you're talking about a bronze or a silver plan you can get coverage. And that wasn't available to a lot of people until fairly recently. So it's not necessarily identified with Obama. It's, frankly, more identified with our governor, Andrew Cuomo, who got the health exchange up and running. But no animosity here about Obama.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Errol Louis, Larry Sabato, thanks for your insights. I appreciate it.

LOUIS: Thank you.

SABATO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Come up tonight at - actually this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, on "The Lead with Jake Tapper," a one on one interview with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, or should I say soon to be former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. That comes your way at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie crushed - and I mean crushed his competition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: If we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey, maybe the folks in Washington, D.C., should tune in their TVs right now, see how it's done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now hear what he says about accusation that he's a bully.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: It is four more years of Governor Chris Christie in New Jersey, unless, of course, he decides to run for president. The Republican may do just that after winning 60 percent of the vote in New Jersey, a traditionally blue state. CNN's Jake Tapper got exclusive access to ride along with Christie on his campaign tour bus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, HOST, CNN'S "THE LEAD": One part of your style, and I thought this was interesting, is that there was a poll of New Jersey residents that suggested that I think like 75 percent thought of you as a fighter versus 25 percent who thought you were a bully. That seems to think that - that seems to suggest that people agree with your take on your style. But there are incidents where -- there was a teacher that you had some words with the other day, where I wonder if you ever have second thoughts about how you handle something, because even at the end of the day, even if you believe, hey, I'm standing up against the teachers unions, I'm fighting for the students and I'm fighting for the teachers themselves, the photograph of this big, strong governor berating a poor little teacher as some might see it -- I know you don't see it that way -

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: Yes. Yes.

TAPPER: Could be counterproductive to what you want to achieve.

CHRISTIE: Well, two things. First is, you know, the whole incident as an incident was mischaracterized and overdramatized by the teacher who belongs to a portion of the teachers union.

TAPPER: A bad ass teacher.

CHRISTIE: Yes. I'm glad you said it. If I said it, then it would be part of my style.

TAPPER: Right.

CHRISTIE: But - but the other thing is, listen, are there times when I wished that I wouldn't have said something? I said, sure. And I don't think there's anybody in life, especially someone who's in public life and on camera most of the time who ever says, oh, I've said everything perfectly and just the way I wanted to say it.

But what I think people see in me is that I'm genuine. I am who I am and that sometimes is going to include things that I wish I could take back. And I've apologized at times to folks for things that I've said that I thought went over the line and I'm - and I'm sure that will happen again in the future. But they never have to wonder what I'm thinking, and they don't have to wonder whether I'm really being myself or whether I'm being, you know, focus group tested. I don't think anybody wonders about that.

TAPPER: Two more questions.

CHRISTIE: OK.

TAPPER: Two more questions. Are you a Tea Partier? Are you a Tea Party Republican?

CHRISTIE: I think there's elements of the Tea Party that are Republicans at their best. You know limited government, in favor of individual liberty and freedom, tough on government spending, questioning taxes and whether you need to expand them or grow them.

So I think there's a core of the Tea Party Movement as I understand it. I think it's very consistent with good conservative Republicanism. Now what happens is when some folks use that movement, use that theory just to try to enhance themselves politically, sometimes that movement can then get perverted.

And so listen, there's a lot of principles about the Tea Party that I agree with and have governed in New Jersey in a way that's consistent with a lot of that, but you know, some of the stuff that's happened of late down in Washington I think is not even consistent with what a lot of the real folks who started the Tea Party Movement would agree with.

TAPPER: But I don't know what you're talking about, you mean --

CHRISTIE: No it's just the idea that you don't try to, you know, for instance on the sequester we're actually succeeding as a movement and reducing government spending on the domestic side pretty significantly.

But there is no acknowledgment of that by some folks in the Washington establishment. I think we should have been talking more about this, it's a real accomplishment by our party to try to reduce spending in that way and what we should do is now move to the entitlement side to start to work on that side as well. Then we can really look towards tax reform and other things that are consistent with what a lot of folks who call themselves members of the Tea Party want to see happen in Washington.

TAPPER: A lot of Tea Partiers I've heard from think that you're what they call a RINO, Republican In Name Only.

CHRISTIE: Listen, you know that's -- that's some folks who will say if you ever say anything nice about a Democrat, you're a RINO. They can call me whatever they want. I don't really care. My view is let people judge me by my record.

Yes I'm a guy who cut taxes $2.3 billion in the state, our budget in fiscal 2014 spends less than Jon Corzine in 2008. We've reformed teacher tenure, we reformed pension and benefits to make folks pay more for their pensions and to lose their cost of living adjustments. I mean you know if they did that stuff in Washington they'd be having a parade for the Washington Republicans.

So they can call me whatever they want to call me. You look at my record I think most people objectively look at my record, as we were talking about before when we were outside it's a solid conservative record. And I guess we're going to say that almost everybody's being called a RINO now. If you weren't in favor of the government shutdown you're a RINO. And I don't -- I don't pay any attention to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coming up in the next hour of NEWSROOM what Christie would advise the President to do about the Obamacare mess and plans for Christie's second term.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Michele Knight was held captive in a house of horrors for more than decade when she was just 21. She was kidnapped, the first of three women taken by Ariel Castro. Now Knight is speaking out to Dr. Phil about the years of brutal abuse she suffered at the hands of Castro. It includes savage beatings she endured when she -- when he realized she was pregnant. Martin Savidge has for more you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The interview is so powerful, it's uncomfortable. Michele Knight's words don't just tell us they take us inside the torture rooms of a Cleveland home.

MICHELE KNIGHT, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: I hated him.

SAVIDGE: Knight is the first victim to talk in detail in the aftermath of a multiple kidnapping case that has horrified and spellbound the nation. Speaking to TV psychologist Dr. Phil --

KNIGHT: He already had it set up to where he could tie me to the -- I think it's like a clothes line.

SAVIDGE: Knight was kidnapped by Ariel Castro in August of 2002 and wouldn't go free for 11 years.

KNIGHT: He ties me up to a pole with chains wrapped around it. The chains were so big. And he wraps it around my neck. He sits me down on the floor. And he says, this is where you're going to stay until I can trust you. Now, if I do it too tight and you don't make it, that means you wasn't meant to stay here. That means God wanted to take you.

SAVIDGE: She was chained, starved and left naked in a frigid, dark basement for days. Then came the sexual abuse. When she eventually became pregnant, Knight described how Castro beat her into a miscarriage.

KNIGHT: I was standing up and he punched me with a barbell. He took the round part and he went like this. And he made it go up so it would hit the lower area of my stomach. I fell to the floor.

SAVIDGE: Knight says Castro would show leniency once giving her a puppy, a comfort that ended when the dog snapped at him and he killed it before her very eyes.

KNIGHT: He picked him up and turned his neck. All I heard was a yelp and he was gone.

SAVIDGE: The torture went on and on. Then one day Knight says she realized she was no longer alone, meeting a girl who had gone missing whom she recognized from the news, Amanda Berry.

KNIGHT: Sometimes she would cry and I would tell her everything would be ok. And that one day we'll get home. We just have to, you know, wait it out.

SAVIDGE: It was just the beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's just so difficult to hear.

SAVIDGE: It is. It is. I mean I sat through that and I have to say, I know most of the details in this case. I found it really uncomfortable. I really, really found it difficult to listen to her recounting and retelling all of that.

COSTELLO: As I said yesterday, you know I'm just struggling to understand the value in knowing every single detail. I mean if it helps Michele Knight, that's great.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

COSTELLO: But I'm just not sure that it's the right way to go.

SAVIDGE: Right and of course that's a huge debate you always have in a circumstance like this. I will say you know as a person who follows this story you look for any new insights and any new details. Michele does bring out the fact that Castro seems to insinuate at least to her that there may have been another girl previous and he said at one point to her but I won't tell you how that turns out.

Another time he takes her to the basement and you see something she says in the wall, a sign, that says "Rest in Peace" but the name is scratched out again, implying he somehow murdered that other woman.

Authorities have always speculated on another, perhaps, kidnapping. It has never been proven.

COSTELLO: Martin Savidge thanks so much. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Northwestern football team will wear special uniforms this weekend to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project. That sounds great, right? Maybe not. Andy Scholes is here with "Bleacher Report". It's always something.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes it is always something. Carol you know Northwestern they usually wear the purple and black, and the purple and white but they're going to wear the red, white and blue later on this month to help raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project, now that's a nonprofit organization that helped Wound Warriors that were wounded in battle. Now they've been doing this for a few years, but this year the jersey is getting some backlash and the negative feedback because it looks like there are blood spatters throughout the helmets, jerseys and pants. As you can see right there it's got the blue stars and then there stars and stripes with some blood -- it's not blood spatters is what they say.

A spokesperson for the university said this is a distress apparent on both the stars and stripes that was inspired by the appearance of a flag that has flown proudly over a long period of time.

Now after the mission game all these jerseys are going to be auctioned off 100 percent of the proceeds going to the Wounded Warrior Project. So definitely a good thought behind it. I don't know it was represented in the right way.

All right the eighth wonder of the world and my favorite stadium of all-time Carol, the Houston Astrodome is now probably going to be demolished. Texas voters on Tuesday rejected a referendum that would have authorized as much as $217 million in bonds to turn the astrodome into a convention and event center. The Astrodome which was the first ever air conditioned enclosed stadium opened back in 1965.