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Remembering 9/11; Trump, Carson Lead GOP Field in Iowa; Biden Unsure If He's "There" for White House Run. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired September 11, 2015 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:07] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.
And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is a day to remember, September 11th, 2001. How could we ever forget?
An American flag unfurled over the Pentagon to honor the 184 people who died when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the building. You see it there. President Obama and the first lady pausing to remember one of America's darkest days. In all, nearly 3,000 people died, thousands of others still living with the scars. Right now the relatives are reading their names.
Since those attacks, almost 4,000 survivors and first responders have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of ash and debris. That terrible day still colors every political decision from how we fight ISIS terrorists to how we negotiate with Iran to airport security.
CNN national correspondent Deborah Feyerick is in Lower Manhattan, at Battery Park, near ground zero.
Good morning, Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, Carol. Yes, we are just south of ground zero where this very powerful ceremony is taking place. You think about 14 years, Carol. I just want to show you, just behind, you see the tower, One World Trade Center, that has risen from the ashes over the last 14 years. It will never replace the two buildings that fell. It will never replace anything that was lost on that day. But what it does show, what it does represent, is that there is something there to remind people and to bring people together.
Now I did speak to the police commissioner of the NYPD. And he said we're sort of at a crossroad right now. A number of people don't remember 9/11 and they need to. We cannot grow complacent. Listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BRATTON, NYPD COMMISSIONER: If you are 20 years old today, you're 6 years old at that time. It has no relevance to you. So I am concerned with that because this needs to serve as a constant reminder and inspiration that they're out there trying to kill us, the terrorists, al Qaeda, ISIS, Islamic radicals. And we need to, as the NYPD constantly is, be mindful of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: So that's exactly what the police commissioner continued to say. And that is that al Qaeda still has the United States in its crosshairs. That it still looks at the ground zero area, as an area that is potentially still vulnerable.
You think about the number of counterterrorism officers that are in this city on any given day, a thousand of them, and you realized that what happened here 14 years ago didn't only change that day. It changed everything up to that moment. And that's why the families who are gathering and reading those names will pause as we reflect on the second plane that hit the second tower.
COSTELLO: All right. And that moment of silence coming up in just a few seconds. This is the time the South Tower was struck.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: David Reed Gamboa Brandhorst.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michelle Renee Bratton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Patrice Braut.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lydia Estelle Bravo.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ronald Michael Breitweiser.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Edward A. Brennan III.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Frank H. Brennan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael E. Brennan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Peter Brennan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thomas More Brennan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daniel J. Brethel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gary Lee Bright.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jonathan Eric Briley.
[09:05:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark A. Brisman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paul Gary Bristow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Marion R. Britton.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I'd like to dedicate this short poem to my brother. Do not stand on my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight, and white and green. I am gentle autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush. Plenty of birds encircled flight. I am the stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die. My brother Michael Angel Trinidad.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And my cousin Melissa Candida Doi. We are so blessed to have you as an angel. And we're just empty without you. We love you very much.
COSTELLO: So touching. My next guest survived the 9/11 attacks. He was working in the South Tower when that second plane hit. His office was on the 84th floor. That's above where Flight 175 went into that tower. Only four people above that impact zone survived. And Brian Clarke was one of those survivors.
Brian, thank you so much for being here.
BRIAN CLARKE, 9/11 SURVIVOR: It's good to be here.
COSTELLO: It's been 14 years. How should we keep remembering that terrible day?
CLARKE: Well, the process is underway right now today. And you just need to -- if each individual remembers or takes in that life is precious, then the remembrance goes on all year. If you know that you're alive for a reason or somebody has passed for some other reason, we can't answer those unanswerable questions as to why they died. I've been lucky enough to be able to let those sorts of things go and move on. And I just hope -- everybody has a different story. Everybody was affected differently. I just hope those who are struggling still can move on.
COSTELLO: Well, you heard what the commissioner said. I mean, even my production assistant who was helping me, you know, compile my list of facts this morning, he was in third grade when those planes hit.
CLARKE: Yes.
COSTELLO: So many young people don't even remember that day. What should we teach them?
CLARKE: I have been asked to go to school. So I was at a school in Ramsey, New Jersey. Two schools in fact in Ramsey, New Jersey, yesterday telling them the story. Some of the high school students were alive. They were 4 years old, 5 years old, that sort of thing. But others were, you know, in the sixth grade, they're just -- and one of them was my grandson, by the way, they need to hear the story just like we all needed to hear the story of Pearl Harbor, what happened.
The world is different as a result of 9/11. But the world is also different in a positive way where we are more fully informed.
COSTELLO: And it's good you say that because your story has positive aspects to it. You met who came to be your very close friend. So just bring us through what happened on that day. You're on the 84th floor. And what happened?
CLARKE: At 9:03 that second plane hit and our room fell apart. I knew in that split second it was terrorism because we had been looking up nine floors to the building next door wondering what was going on. But knew something was amiss more than a small plane, that's for sure. The room fell apart. Excuse me. And I had been asked to be a volunteer fire marshal and they provide -- the World Trade Center provided me with a flashlight and a whistle and everything else.
So I had that with me at the time and led a group of six people off our floor to stairway A. We went down just three floors where we were stopped by a woman coming up and said, you can't go down. There's flames below us. So we're on 81, still above impact. And I heard a banging noise inside the 81st floor and said to the fellow beside me we should help this person, you know, not knowing who it was, a stranger.
And as the two of us went in on the 81st floor, the rest of the group were convinced by the lady to go up and they all died that day. I mean, it's tragic.
COSTELLO: But you made a different decision along with this person who was working, right.
CLARKE: Right. We went in on the floor, my coworker Ron was overcome with the smoke. He went back to the stairs. I carried on to find this stranger. Dug him out of the rubble. And he and I returned to the stairway. And I guess that was the fateful step. I pointed the flashlight down through the smoke. And I just wanted to test what was there below.
I believed the lady, but I wanted to see those flames for myself. We dug through a lot of debris and on the -- on the 74th floor we broke into fresh air, continued on down, got out of the building with about four minutes to spare.
COSTELLO: And who was that man with you?
CLARKE: A fellow -- a stranger. A fellow named Stanley Primner (ph). He called me my brother for life at that very moment when we were in on the 81st floor. And Stanley is an Asian Indian, born and raised in Galena. Nobody would take us for brothers at all. But we are brothers from that experience.
[09:10:07] COSTELLO: And you're best friends to this day?
CLARKE: We do. I talked to him last night.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: So when you talked to him last night, did you talk about what today would mean for both of you?
CLARKE: Well, he and I both do a lot of speaking. We travel all over the continent and, you know, spoke to business groups, charities, schools and so on, churches. And we share our story sometimes together. More often we're apart. But that's what we do.
COSTELLO: Well, at least something beautiful arose out of something so tragic.
CLARKE: We try to give people hope.
COSTELLO: And I so appreciate that, I do. Brian, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your story. I appreciate it.
And as we go to break, I just want to go back to the Pentagon and show you pictures here. And also from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a new memorial has just been opened up so I leave you with these images. I'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[09:15:11] STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": A new CNN poll shows Trump in first place with 32 percent, more than his two closest rivals combined. He's now towering so high in the polls, he's turned his own bar graph into luxury condos.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Stephen Colbert making light of Donald Trump's rise in the polls. But the Donald's dominance is making Republicans and others stood up and take notice, as you know.
A new Quinnipiac poll is out of Iowa caucus-goers. It shows Trump with yet another commanding lead as he and fellow outsider Ben Carson top the pack. It all just days before the next Republican debate where Trump and Carson will be joined by Carly Fiorina in a prime time face off.
CNN's Athena Jones is here to break it down.
Good morning, Athena.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Funny joke from Colbert. But you're right, Trump is still in the lead. Still out on top in this new poll.
Take a look here. You can see there that Trump is at 27 percent. Ben Carson is not far behind him at 21 percent. Both of them are up considerably since July. Cruz and Bush are far behind the leaders. There you have the other three candidates who are tied for fifth place, Fiorina, Kasich and Rubio.
I should mention this poll is particularly bad news for Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor. His lead has evaporated. He was in lead in Iowa back in July and he's now fallen by 15 points, all the way down to 3 percent.
Here's another important number from that poll. Take a look at how many people would definitely not support Trump or Bush, for that matter. That number is 25 percent for Trump. Bush is right behind him there at 23 percent. And you can see the other three candidates who are in the double digits on that question. And, by the way, I should mention that Ben Carson is at the bottom of
that list, only 3 percent saying they would not support him. That's very good news for Carson.
And that's the lay of the land as we approach our own prime time debate on Wednesday. Take a look at the top tier candidates who will be on the prime time debate stage and where they'll be on that stage based on their poll standings. Trump gets center stage because he is the front runner.
And Fiorina is, of course, the new addition here. She surged in the polls after her impressive performance at the first second tier debate on FOX last month. So, get excited Carol.
COSTELLO: I'm excited because Trump is surrounded by Carol and Bush so he can just go, low energy and lower energy.
JONES: It's going to be must see TV. I mean, I'm going to be turning -- I'm going to be there. So, it's going to be fun.
COSTELLO: Oh, lucky you. I will be tuning in. Athena Jones, thanks so much.
And another reminder to tune into CNN for round two of the Republican presidential debates. It all kicks off at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. That's Wednesday night with happy hour debate, followed by the main event at 8:00 Eastern Time.
In about 45 minutes, by the way, I'll talk with one of the Republican presidential hopefuls. That will be Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. That will come your way in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
While the polls continue to be dreary for Hillary Clinton, they are paving the way for Joe Biden. The vice president stopping by Stephen Colbert's new show, opening up about a potential run.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which in this case is a donkey.
(LAUGHTER)
COLBERT: Do you have anything you'd like to tell us right now about your plans?
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: I think you should run for president again and I'll be your vice president.
COLBERT: Well, sir, you said -- you said recently -- you said this weekend that you don't know if you are emotionally prepared to run for president. BIDEN: Look, I don't think any man or woman should run for president
unless, number one, they know exactly why they would want to be president. And, two, they can look at the folks out there and say, I promise you, you have my whole heart, my whole soul, my energy and my passion to do this. And -- and I'd be lying if I said that I knew I was there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about that. Amanda Carpenter, former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz, is with me. As is Marc Lamont Hill, CNN political commentator.
Welcome to both of you.
MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SEN. TED CRUZ: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
So, Marc, what do you make of Biden. He sounded like a candidate at a union rally the other day, and last night, he sounded like he'd sit on the sidelines.
HILL: I think he's trying to toe that balance right now. He's trying to feel the waters. And what he also wants to do is create a groundswell of people who say, "Please, Joe, run for president", because that kind of energy would be able to say, I didn't want to do this. America needed me.
And that's the best narrative for him right now.
[09:20:01] COSTELLO: Interesting.
You know, it was also interesting the way Joe Biden talked about his faith. He talked about it in a very comfortable way. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLBERT: How is your faith? I know you're a man of deep faith. How has your faith helped you respond so having lost your first wife and your daughter and now your son?
BIDEN: And for me, my religion is just an enormous sense of solace and some of it relates to ritual. Some of it relates to comfort of what you've done your whole life. I go to mass and I'm able to be -- it's just alone even in a crowd, you're alone. I say the rosary. I find it to be incredibly comforting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So I thought he talked about religion in such a genuine way. When you compare it to what happened out in Kentucky when Mike Huckabee went to support Kim Davis and Ted Cruz went as well and Mike Huckabee apparently blocked him from joining Mike Huckabee and Kim Davis on the stage. That seems so political to me.
And I'm asking you this question, Amanda, because you once advised Ted Cruz. So, how does this seem to you?
CARPENTER: Well, on the Joe Biden element, this is a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. His genuineness is what's really appealing about him in the way that he has been part of his persona, even though he's been in public life for so long.
But as for the incident with Mike Huckabee, you know, I just got to say, Carol, I think it was so unfortunate. The issues that we're facing, Republican, Democrat, they are bigger than a politician. They are bigger than Cruz versus Huckabee.
I mean, we're talking about matters of faith. We're talking about terrorism with Iran. And, you know, look at what happened with the Iran rally the other day where Cruz rallied with his presidential rival Donald Trump. I would like to see more of people coming together on the issues they agree on rather than fighting for their stage time. And so, I hope we can learn from --
(CROSSTALK)
HILL: I don't buy it. Maybe I'm cynical too. I appreciate the sentiment.
But, you know, my thought is Ted Cruz is only standing next to Donald Trump because he's still banking on the idea that Donald Trump at some point is going to fall out and he's going to get all those supporters if he's not an enemy of Donald Trump.
I don't know if any politicians are driven as much as they are.
CARPENTER: Hey, listen, I've got to tell you with the Iran deal, this is literally a life and death matter for our friends in Israel. This isn't about politics and just picking up voters from Donald Trump. If there's issues where people can work together -- and listen, they said similar things about how to stop illegal immigration. I would like to see a united Republican field showing that we stand together on so many issues.
And so, you know, yes, is there some political benefit in the background? Whether Ted Cruz is running for president or running for another Senate seat or nothing at all, he still would have been there.
HILL: Yes, I'd like to see united front. I mean, yesterday, I saw Wolf Blitzer talked to Bobby Jindal, and I know you'd be talking to him later, and he wouldn't say that he'd even endorse or vote for Donald Trump if he got -- he did everything but answer the question. So, for me, I'm still seeing a lot of infighting among the GOP.
And I'm sure the same thing will happen with Democrats. Democrats are known to fight, too. You know, we still haven't fight yet.
COSTELLO: Right. And, you know, the big debate is coming up and I think everybody is
going to pile on Donald Trump. There's not going to be a united front on that stage as far as issues are concerned.
CARPENTER: Hey, listen, I am not a fan of the infighting that's been going on in the Republican Party. I think it's beneath people like Bobby Jindal to give a speech trying to insult their ways to the top of the polls when they're at 1 percent. You know, just because Donald Trump does it doesn't mean you should adopt those tactics.
I would rather see candidates defining their agenda, what they're going to do as president in a positive way. And actually I think Donald Trump is providing a pretty good litmus test for those candidates. We've seen what's happened to Rick Perry, Rand Paul, everyone that goes down this attack Trump hole, you know, it's kind of a disqualifier. It shows that you're going to be distracted by Donald Trump. You're probably not going to win the nomination.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Patience is a key.
HILL: Unless he wins.
COSTELLO: Yes, exactly, unless he wins, and then we're all wrong.
Marc Lamont Hill, Amanda Carpenter, thanks so much. I appreciate it.
I want to take you out to Washington for just a minute because the Pentagon is preparing to honor those who are lost. At 9:37 a.m. Eastern Time back in September 11th, 2001, that's the time a plane struck the Pentagon, of course.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:28:49] COSTELLO: All right. You're looking at a picture near the Pentagon at the 9/11 Memorial there. You see the Defense Secretary Ash Carter. He just laid a wreath at that memorial, of course honoring all of those who died aboard American Airlines Flight 77.
Let's listen.
(PLAYING OF "TAPS")
COSTELLO: All right. We see them. They're walking ahead to a crowd of people gathered at the Pentagon to honor the 184 people total that were killed that day when this plane hit the Pentagon. Inside the building, 55 military personnel were killed.
And on board that flight, Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, and Army deputy chief of staff, Rear Admiral Wilson Flagg, was onboard that plane. He was killed. And also, as you know, Barbara Olson was killed. She was on her way for a taping of the Bill Maher show, "Politically Incorrect".
