Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Ted Cruz Talks Backlash; Making A Stir in Congress; Angela Corey Defends Re-Trying Michael Dunn; Abbott Faces Scrutiny

Aired February 20, 2014 - 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. Thanks so much for joining me.

Wall Street looking at a lower open this morning. The Dow, the S&P and the Nasdaq all likely to start the day in the red as investors worry about economic growth overseas. Up 30 points so far, though. We'll keep an eye on it for you.

He has been in Congress for less than 14 months, but Ted Cruz has stolen the Capitol Hill spotlight with very public fights against Obamacare and raising the debt ceiling. Those tactics have sparked backlash, not just from Democrats, but also from Cruz's fellow Republicans.

Cruz spoke exclusively to CNN chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash about that fallout and what he thinks is wrong with Washington today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I did not think it was possible to hear your colleagues, your Republican colleagues, angrier at you than they were after the government shutdown. But I actually think you've topped it. That they are really, really upset with you that you tried to stop the debt ceiling with a filibuster and forced your colleagues to take really, really tough votes that you knew would be tough for them.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Well, you know, it's interesting. I think last week actually is a perfect illustration of everything that's wrong with Washington. Republican leadership said is, we want this to pass. But if every senator affirmatively consents to doing it on 51 votes, then we can all cast a vote no and we can go home to our constituents and say we opposed it. And, listen, that sort of show vote, that sort of trickery to the constituents is why Congress has a 13 percent approval rating.

BASH: Now you're talking about Republican leadership?

CRUZ: Uh-huh.

BASH: One of the people that you're talking about is your senior senator in your own party from this state who happens to be the number two Republican in the Senate, John Cornyn, who voted to try to stop your filibuster. Is he trying to fool Texas voters? CRUZ: Listen, I like John Cornyn. He's a friend of mine. He and I have agreed on the vast majority of issues. I disagreed with him on this.

BASH: Part of the eyebrow raising criticism of this particular filibuster is that it wasn't the kind of filibuster that you did over the shutdown. You weren't out there for 21 hours saying green eggs and ham, reciting that. In fact, you didn't give a speech at all. I was watching you. You were sort of in the corner on the floor at your seat and just watching the chaos quietly. So wasn't -- it wasn't even sort of a real filibuster. If you wanted to really block it, why didn't you talk about it?

CRUZ: What I said at the outset was, I am not going to affirmatively consent to giving Harry Reid the authority to do this because it's irresponsible, it is selling our nation's future down the road. And, you know, you go back to those Senate lunches. I won't identify anything, but I'll tell you several people raised a question, just like you did there. Why are you trying to throw five Republicans under the bus and make them vote for raising the debt ceiling? And I'll tell you my response. My response is, I don't want to throw any Republicans under the bus. I would like to see all 45 Republicans stand together and actually do what we tell our constituents.

BASH: "The Wall Street Journal" called you the minority-maker. And the idea there is that - and this is really what this is all -- what it's all about is that you force Republicans to take votes that could hurt them in their races and could put the Republican Party in the minority again. Do you not want to be in the majority? What's more important to you, being in the majority or party purity?

CRUZ: Dana, I want to win and turn this country around. And the way we lose is not standing for anything.

BASH: On a human level, I know that you're in Washington fighting for the grassroots, but you are a human being and you are sitting with people around you who I would think that you have some respect for. They're fellow senators in your own party. But they're going to be so mad at you, so mad at you. What's that like?

CRUZ: Oh, listen, you know, it -- what I try to keep an eye on is that I don't work for the party bosses in Washington. I work for 26 million Texans.

BASH: But as a human being, you are a human being, does it sting?

CRUZ: Look, as -- as a human being, I can't control what they say, how they behave. I can control what I do. So every interaction that I have with every senator, Republican or Democrat, is consistently civil, courteous, respectful, treating them with the dignity they deserve.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Carol, this is the third time I've come down to Texas to interview Senator Cruz since he's been in the Senate, which, as you said before the piece, is a little more than a year. And each time it has really struck me how much support he has here from the grassroots, from his supporters who did send him to Texas for the kind of take no prisoners, make no compromise position that he has taken, especially even what he took last week.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Dana Bash, thanks so much.

I want to bring in Larry Sabato now. He's the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Hi, Larry.

LARRY SABATO, DIR., CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIV. OF VIRGINIA: Hey, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi. So despite what Dana says, and I know Ted Cruz has a lot of grassroots support because, you know, you just heard Dana say it, but I will add this, Thomas Sowell, who is a conservative economist and Tea Party intellectual wrote this in a recent column. Quote, "Senator Ted Cruz has not yet reached the point where he can make policy, rather than just make political trouble." Sowell goes on to say, "but there are already disquieting signs that he's looking out for Ted Cruz, even if that sets back the causes he claims to be serving." So do other Tea Party leaders feel that way and we're just not hearing it yet?

SABATO: Well, the leaders may feel that way, Carol, but, look, to understand Ted Cruz, you have to focus on what Dana mentioned. He has that presidential glean in his eye. Just look where he's been. He's been to Iowa more than once. He's been to New Hampshire. He's been to South Carolina. Shortly he's going to Florida. What do those states have in common? They're early primary and caucus states. And, believe me, this is playing very well with the grassroots, with the base, especially in the first contest in Iowa where you have a very conservative Republican grassroots.

COSTELLO: So let's say he makes it into the primary. If - I mean if he doesn't have a wider base, he's not going to make it out.

SABATO: Well, you know, you can get a nomination with a smaller base depending on who's running and how many ways the vote is actually split. You know, Ted Cruz strikes me as somebody who is willing to endure the brick bats being thrown by his colleagues. And by the way, we finally have somebody in the Senate who's brought everybody together. Both the Democrats and the Republicans dislike him. So in that sense, he's a unifying force.

But on the whole, I think he's -- he sees himself as a short-termer in the Senate. He wants to run for president. He says, well, I will have been in the Senate for four years. That's exactly the same amount of time Barack Obama was in the Senate before he was elected president.

COSTELLO: Larry Sabato, thanks for your insight this morning. I appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you, Carol. COSTELLO: All new in the next hour of NEWSROOM, is the waters finally safe in West Virginia after last month's chemical spill? Well, that depends on who you ask. Officials gave the go-ahead last month for people to drink the water, but a lot of people say they're still getting sick. We'll talk about that ahead in the next hour of NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Florida State Attorney Angela Corey is defending her decision to retry Michael Dunn on first-degree murder charges. Dunn claims self-defense for killing Jordan Davis in a dispute over loud music. On Saturday, a jury deadlocked on that first-degree murder charge, but they did convict Dunn on three counts of attempted second- degree murder. He'll likely spend the rest of his life in jail.

Well, in an exclusive interview with "New Day's" Chris Cuomo, Corey reveals her thoughts about -- not only about Dunn, but about George Zimmerman as well. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, ANCHOR, CNN'S "NEW DAY": What was your reaction to the Dunn verdict?

ANGELA COREY, FLORIDA STATE ATTORNEY: Our reaction is, we are grateful for the four guilty verdicts and we are happy to go back into court and retry count one after we sit down with our victim's family, with Jordan Davis' family, and make sure they can withstand another trial. And the purpose of retrying count one is to make sure that if any little thing got said or done in the four-count case where we did have final verdicts of guilt, that if that case were to get reversed for a jury instruction or for something a witness said or something we did, then we would have that extra count on which to rely to make sure Michael Dunn never gets out of jail.

CUOMO: And that's why you want to retry it as quickly as possible. I understand that. Do you understand how they were able, the jury, to arrive at a conclusion that is sophisticated, which is to punish him because of the second volley of shots where he missed, but not to punish him, the shot where he killed somebody?

COREY: Well, Chris, the way I understand it, from listening to one of our jurors, is that three people did not believe they could come to a guilty verdict on any charge. Nine people did. And so that's very encouraging to us as prosecutors.

But, yes, you're right, it's a very sophisticated verdict that focused on the physical evidence as we presented it. So to the people who are acting like this is the end of the world on this case, I invite you to watch the sentencing that's coming up to see just how accountable this jury has held Michael Dunn so far.

CUOMO: When you were strategizing how to prosecutor the Dunn case, did you carry with you any lessons from the Zimmerman case? COREY: Not at all. All of our cases get prepared the same way and I'm very proud of not only of the effort we made in court but the effort all of my lawyers make. How anyone could be unhappy with these verdicts knowing we intend to retry count one is beyond me but we're going to keep going into the courtroom and fighting for justice for our victims without regard to what people are saying even though what they are saying is completely uninformed and ill-informed.

CUOMO: When you hear George Zimmerman calling himself a victim, what do you think?

COREY: Well, Chris, what I think is that there was one victim in that case and that was Trayvon Martin. He was legally the victim and he was factually the victim. So it's a little bit disconcerting to hear that anyone else would be laying claim to that title.

CUOMO: What does it say to you that George Zimmerman sees himself that way?

COREY: I think that there's been so much in the media about George Zimmerman and so many people supporting him for what I believe aren't the correct reasons. But we've never really experienced anything like the division in this country over the supporters between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. It was quite unique to our realm of prosecution experience.

CUOMO: Do you have any concerns as a public official that your job is on the line with these types of cases and Zimmerman not going the right way, Dunn not going the right way in many people's minds? Does it make you worry about your job?

COREY: Well first of all, Dunn has gone the right way. And we're four-fifths of the way there with Michael Dunn. So for the people who want to continue to criticize me they are going to do that no matter what we do. But no my job is not on the line because good people understand what we're doing here and appreciate our hard work.

CUOMO: Angela Corey, thank you for taking the opportunity.

COREY: Thank you, Chris. We appreciate the opportunity to talk to your viewers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Michael Dunn faces at least 60 years in prison. He'll be back in court next month.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Ted Nugent hits the campaign trail in Texas and stirs up a whole lot of controversy. Ed Lavandera is following that story from Dallas. Good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Well we went on the campaign trail to ask Greg Abbott why he would campaign with someone as controversial as Ted Nugent. And then it got really tense. You don't want to miss the video coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The battle to be the next governor of Texas is shaping up to be a heated one. And not just because of Democrat Wendy Davis and Republican Greg Abbott instead it's one of Abbott's supporters -- rocker Ted Nugent who is making headlines thanks to his history of controversial comments.

Critics are blasting Abbott's position to bring Nugent on the trail. But for Sarah Palin quite a plus she endorsed Abbott on Facebook writing in part, "If he is good enough for Ted Nugent, Abbott is good enough for me."

CNN's Ed Lavandera caught up with Greg Abbott who joins me now from Dallas and I can't wait to see your report actually Ed.

LAVANDERA: Good morning Carol.

Well yes there is no question that Ted Nugent fires up a certain part of the Republican base especially here in Texas and that's why you saw Greg Abbott campaign with him here in the Texas area a couple of days ago. But when we press him on why he would do that, things got tense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA (voice over): Texas Republican Greg Abbott is in a high profile race for governor against Democrat Wendy Davis. On Wednesday Abbott found a friendly crowd inside this Tyler Texas Restaurant owned by the grandparents of college football star Johnny Manziel. But when we asked about his campaign with right winging rocker Ted Nugent things got tense.

(on camera): Mr. Abbott why did you think it was a good idea to campaign with Ted Nugent?

GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: You know it's funny how reactive the Davis campaign is to this. It shows that he's driven a wedge and exposed the fraud that they displayed on second amendment based issues. And so Ted Nugent was a way to expose Wendy Davis for her flip-flopping on gun related issues.

LAVANDERA: But this is Texas, but this is Texas --finding someone who is pro-gun is not that hard but why does that have to be Ted Nugent?

(voice over): Neither Abbott nor his campaign would answer the question, Abbott wants voters to see him as a crusader for gun rights. Abbott's credentials aren't really in question. This picture greeting voters at this campaign stop showing the candidate next to his hunting trophy says it all.

When we tried to follow up on the Ted Nugent question a campaign aide stepped in.

LAVANDERA: You could have found a lot of people to talk about gun rights.

ABBOTT: I thank you. LAVANDERA: Mr. Abbott you have gone to a lot of people to talk about gun rights.

ABBOTT: I'll be happy too.

LAVANDERA: That's not a press conference. You know that's not a press conference. One question is not a press conference.

ABE HUERTA, GREG ABBOTT'S COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Everybody got the answer to their questions.

LAVANDERA: That's not a press conference.

HUERTA: Come on Ed.

LAVANDERA: No, come on.

We told you, we said specifically what we wanted to talk about.

HUERTA: No, but you said.

LAVANDERA: We tried one more time to ask if Greg Abbott would appear again with Ted Nugent.

Mr. Abbott, will you give us a chance to clarify?

HUERTA: Security --

LAVANDERA: On Ted Nugent. Why would you associate yourself with someone who describes a sitting president as a sub-human mongrel? And described female politicians in vile ways?

Will you use him again in the campaign?

Greg Abbott didn't answer the question that time either and headed back out on the campaign trail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And that media handler there who stepped in front of the camera a little bit later on accused me of ambushing him Carol. That part where we started talking to him. I pointed out to him later that if you stepped between the camera and the candidate we're trying to interview, it's really not an ambush on our part.

COSTELLO: It was a press event. How can you ambush a press event? Come on. Get real.

So question for you about Ted Nugent; will he continue on the trail for Mr. Abbott?

LAVANDERA: Well, I mean ultimately this is the question we've had for Greg Abbott. We tried to give him that opportunity yesterday several times. And that was the question I asked as he was being driven, if he was going to continue to do this. So it's not really clear.

We gave him a chance to do that and he wouldn't answer that. So I'm not really sure where that stands at this point.

COSTELLO: Ed Lavandera -- many thanks.

Still to come: a wolf in the hallway -- and I'm not talking Blitzer. The big bad wolf spotted walking down a hall in Sochi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The problems at the Olympic village in Sochi have been well-documented. But some Olympians have bigger problems to deal with than a broken toilet. Try hiding from a wolf.

Kate Hanson, part of the U.S. Olympic luge team shot this video of what looks like a wolf -- see the wolf is just casually strolling the halls outside of her room. Hanson posted the video to her YouTube account but some commenters are saying this might not be an actual wolf but rather a large dog kind of like a Siberian Husky. Let's hope so.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.