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5 Democratic Candidates Square Off in 1st Debate; More Clashes Break Out Between Israelis, Palestinians; Russia, Iran Sharing Airbase in Syria; Fact Checking the Debate; Confirmed MH17 Brought Down by Missile; Israel Approves New Security Measures Due to Violence; Republicans Send Out Fiery Tweets During Democratic Debate. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired October 14, 2015 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:00:01] LINCOLN CHAFEE, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we need somebody who has the best and ethical standards as our next president. That's how I feel.
ANDERSON COOPER, DEBATE MODERATOR: Secretary Clinton, do you want to respond?
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE : No.
COOPER: Governor -- Governor --
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Wild applause for Hillary Clinton at the first Democratic debate as she refuses to talk any more about her e- mail scandal.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is rushing to the Middle East as more clashes break out between Israelis and Palestinians.
CHURCH: And new bedfellows in Syria. The Russians and the Iranians are sharing an air base.
BARNETT: A big welcome to our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Errol Barnett.
CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
And we begin in Las Vegas where CNN hosted the first Democratic presidential debate of the 2016 race. Five candidates took to the stage. Front-runner Hillary Clinton fought to expand her lead in the polls. Bernie Sanders was trying to close the gap.
BARNETT: And then you had the three others, Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb, all of them trying to make names for themselves here. The candidates are all seasoned politicians with plenty of debate experience, but you could see it was evident there was mutual respect among them. There were also plenty of fireworks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: But tonight, I want to talk not about my e-mails, but about what the American people want from the next president of the United States.
(APPLAUSE)
(CROSSTALK)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say this. Let me say something that may not be great politics, but I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: Thank you. Me, too. Me, too.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: You don't consider yourself a capitalist?
SANDERS: Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little, by which Wall Street's greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don't. I believe in a society where all people do well, not just a handful of billionaires.
(APPLAUSE)
COOPER: To be clear, is there anybody else on the stage who is not a capitalist?
CLINTON: Let me just follow-up on that, Anderson, because when I think about capitalism, I think about all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And I don't think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself. And I think what Senator Sanders is saying certainly makes sense in the terms of the inequality that we have.
COOPER: Secretary Clinton, is Bernie Sanders tough enough on guns?
CLINTON: No, not at all. I think that we have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too long and it's time the entire country stood up against the NRA. COOPER: Governor O'Malley, you passed gun legislation as Governor of
Maryland, but you had a Democratic-controlled legislature. President Obama couldn't convince Congress to pass gun legislation after the massacres in Aurora, in Newtown and Charleston. How can you?
MARTIN O'MALLEY, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Anderson, I also had to overcome a lot of opposition in the leadership of my own party to get this done. But it's fine to talk about all of these things and I'm glad we're talking about these things, but I've actually done them. We passed comprehensive gun safety legislation, not by looking at what the pollings or looking at what the polls said, we actually did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: Let's go live to Las Vegas where our own John Vause has been looking at the debate and speaking with experts. He's joined by a few of them now.
John, from all accounts, this was a good night for Democrats.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it has been a pretty good debate, Errol. We've been talking about this for a while.
Nothing goes right, but it's all good.
Rana Foroohar, our global economics analyst; Jackie Kucinich, who is the political editor for the website "The Daily Beast."
Errol was just saying it was a pretty good night for Democrats. Jackie, what's your take?
JACKIE KUCINICH, POLITICAL EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: It was a pretty good night for Democrats, particularly a Democrat named Hillary Clinton. She really -- this is her format. She really shines at debates, and tonight was no exception. She really showed why she was on top of the polls and that she's a force to be reckoned with. And she's not going anywhere, despite the fact that she's had trouble with her e-mails and trouble with her polling, whether voters trust her or not. But tonight was a different story. She really did a great job.
VAUSE: And this is interesting because, from my perspective, she was always going to do OK in the debates. It's not her first rodeo. In some ways, not much was going to change after this debate. Sanders may have gone up in the polls a little bit, but she was always still going to be the one to beat. She's got all the cash. She's still running this campaign.
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMICS ANALYST: Yeah. One of the things that fascinates me, given what a force she is, how strong she is on so many topics, the fact that there was ever any question really that she was going to dominate as she did, I think comes down to her likability factor and her trustworthiness.
KUCINICH: Yeah.
FOROOHAR: I think she scored some points this time around on that score. We saw a little bit of warmth, we saw her being funny, being likeable. I think she nailed it.
[02:05:24] VAUSE: And to that point, a lot of her problems over the summer and the last couple of weeks, all self-inflicted, right?
KUCINICH: Absolutely. And it's not over for Hillary Clinton. She has a testimony in front of the House Benghazi Committee next week. And everyone's going to be watching that. She's going to be judged on how she answers those questions. So she's not necessarily out of the woods. It's not smooth sailing for Hillary Clinton. But tonight, should really helped her, because if she had not done as well as she did, we'd be talking about, oh, my gosh, what are the Democrats going to do now?
FOROOHAR: Yeah, where's Joe Biden?
KUCINICH: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: So Joe Biden seems to be thinking I'm happy to be the world's greatest vice president?
FOROOHAR: I think so. I think tonight was a pivotal moment. Never say never. And this is a guy who loves being a politician, but if it was a case of he's going to come in if Hillary looks weak, she didn't look weak.
VAUSE: If Joe Biden had been up there on the stage, would things have been different for Hillary Clinton?
KUCINICH: I wonder. I really do. It would depend on what Joe Biden showed up. Would it be happy Joe Biden, determined Joe Biden, sad Joe Biden? Really, it's --
VAUSE: Crazy Uncle Joe Biden?
KUCINICH: Right. Right. All the Bidens. It really would have depended on -- it would have been such a big moment if he had declared and shown up for this debate. So it's a hard hypothetical. But she does draw support, Hillary Clinton, rather than Bernie Sanders, rather than I guess against the asterisks.
(LAUGHTER)
The other candidates.
VAUSE: And let's talk about the three other guys. We talked about what a good night Hillary Clinton had. Bernie Sanders did not have a bad night either. But Lincoln Chafee? I mean, he's got no money in the bank, hasn't got any policies out. It was a pretty bad debate.
KUCINICH: Yeah, you have to wonder how much longer this is going to continue and whether we've seen the last stand of Lincoln Chafee and whether people remember he was there. FOROOHAR: And his donors --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: Does he have any donors?
FOROOHAR: Well --
(LAUGHTER)
FOROOHAR: Whoever he had is thinking about who else to donate to.
KUCINICH: Right. Right.
VAUSE: It won't be Jim Webb because he -- also not a good night for him.
KUCINICH: He talked about how he killed a guy. I mean --
(LAUGHTER)
You know? I know --
FOROOHAR: He made a point on foreign policy, though. I thought he had smart things to say about --
VAUSE: About China.
FOROOHAR: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
VAUSE: But no one else brought it up.
FOROOHAR: No --
VAUSE: And no one ran with it either.
FOROOHAR: Nobody ran with it, but I think, strategically, it was a smart point. I'm not saying it will get him higher in the polls.
KUCINICH: And the only person that needed a big moment tonight was Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, and that didn't really happen for him. He wasn't able to shine like he needed to. He is someone with donors. He is someone with some supporters. And they've got to be --
(CROSSTALK)
FOROOHAR: No charisma.
KUCINICH: No charisma. And they have to be looking at him and saying, OK, how long are you going to draw this out?
VAUSE: He's got three million bucks in the bank, he's got support there, and he's actually put out policies and everything, which I read in the lead-up to this, was how he was preparing, how he was rehearsing. Isn't that his big problem, he's too prepared, he's too rehearsed, there's no spontaneity there?
KUCINICH: It's one of the problems. I think he has -- he doesn't have whatever that is, that some politicians have. And it doesn't read well. He has changed a lot of his policies. I'm old enough to remember when Martin O'Malley was a centrist.
(LAUGHTER)
Yeah, right, good times.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: What was the highlight for you? If you look at the debate, we think the e-mail moment with Bernie Sanders was pretty good. Was there anything else that really stuck out?
FOROOHAR: Oh, boy.
VAUSE: Besides Jim Webb on the South China Sea --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: -- because that seems to be a big moment for you.
FOROOHAR: It was a big moment for me. I think China's important. I just think Hillary showing us her personality, finally, coming out of that plastic bubble was big.
KUCINICH: Bernie Sanders on guns. I really think -- they really went after him. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people who support Bernie Sanders didn't know how, because of where he's from, how pro- gun he's been in the past, and I wonder if that erodes his support a little bit.
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: So a bad moment really for Bernie Sanders?
KUCINICH: It was really a bad -- it wasn't a good moment for Bernie Sanders.
VAUSE: He almost seemed flustered, too, when he was getting hit by all sides of him.
KUCINICH: Yeah, it was like a get-him mentality when that was happening.
FOROOHAR: And I think that the gun, the discussion came early, too, threw him off his game on other things, like income inequality and like fighting capitalism.
KUCINICH: Yeah, I would agree with that. And I think that's something that will return to haunt him because the gun conversation in the United States is not going away anytime soon.
VAUSE: OK, well, Jackie Kucinich, thank you for being with us. Rana, we know you've been here for a very long time, and you'll continue to be here for a very, very long time.
For now, we'll hand it back to Errol and Rosemary in Atlanta.
I don't know if you guys got to see the debate from the beginning all the way to the end, but it was so different in so many ways to the Republican debate. You know, there was substantive issues being talked about. They were nice to each other. There were no insults. I've seen a couple of Republicans - here, they all said they had debate envy.
[02:10:11] CHURCH: Yes, we saw that. And rightly so, because there was distinct differences in the style of the debating. And maybe we'll see some changes in the future for Republicans. Who knows?
John, we'll check back in with you --
VAUSE: Who knows?
CHURCH: -- a little later this hour. Thank you.
BARNETT: Thanks, John.
CHURCH: Strong reporting there, too.
Well, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he'll head to the Middle East soon as clashes continue between Israelis and Palestinians. On Tuesday, at least, three Israelis were killed.
BARNETT: In one attack, surveillance footage captured images of a man driving into a bus stop in Jerusalem. Israeli police released the footage in full, I should say, and that aired on Israeli TV.
CNN has edited out some the material due to its graphic nature, but we have to give you this warning, images may be difficult to watch.
Our Ben Wedeman has the story
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chilling surveillance video catches the attack and all its graphic details. The car plows into a group of people. The driver jumps out and immediately starts hacking away with a meat cleaver before a man shoots him repeatedly with a handgun before he eventually dies. One 59-year-old man was killed and three people were wounded, one critically. The attacker, a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem.
This was just one of five attacks in Israel Tuesday in a wave of what appear to be lone-wolf attacks now well into its second week and which has left at least five dead.
Under mounting pressure to take decisive action to bring it all to an end, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent most of Tuesday in meetings with senior security officials. BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translation):
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WEDEMAN: Israel will settle its account with the murders," he vowed, "with all those who attempt murder and with all those who assist them."
The attacks are taking place against a background of spreading violence in the West Bank where Palestinian parties declared yet another day of rage.
(GUNFIRE)
WEDEMAN: In Bethlehem, one Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire Tuesday. According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 30 Palestinians have been killed, including several of the attackers since October 1st.
(GUNFIRE)
WEDEMAN: Israeli forces fired hundreds of tear gas canisters, sprayed hundreds of gallons so-called skunk water at a crowd of Palestinian youths.
(on camera): Israeli troops have been dealing with this kind of clash for decades. Israel installed the Iron Dome system to stop missiles from Gaza. It built the separation barrier to keep out suicide bombers. But this latest wave of attacks --
(GUNFIRE)
WEDEMAN: -- Israel seems at a loss as to how to deal with it.
(voice-over): Harsh measures are under consideration, including sealing off Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and accelerated demolitions of the homes of attackers --
(GUNFIRE)
WEDEMAN: -- measures that might bring the wave of attacks to an end, or might spark even more unrest.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Bethlehem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A new sign of cooperation between Russia and Iran. We will look into a new report that the two countries are sharing an airbase in Syria. We'll have that story and a whole lot more. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[02:15:58] ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Meteorologist Allison Chinchar. You're watching CNN "Weather Watch."
(WEATHER REPORT)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BARNETT: We want to focus on Syria at this moment, because we're learning the Iranian military is now sharing an airport with Russian air forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the two nations are working out of an airport in Latakia in northern Syria.
CHURCH: The airport is already being used by Russian warplanes to conduct air strikes. Iran is using a portion to transport personnel to support the Syrian regime.
The war in Syria was a hot topic at the U.S. Democratic presidential debate. Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley disagreed on the idea of a no-fly zone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We are already flying in Syria, just as we are flying in Iraq. The president has made a very tough decision. What I believe and why I have advocated that the no-fly zone, which, of course, would be in a coalition, be put on the table is because I'm trying to figure out what leverage we have to get Russia to the table. You know, diplomacy is not about getting to the perfect solution, it's about how you balance the risks.
COOPER: Thank you.
CLINTON: And I think we have an opportunity here.
O'MALLEY: I believe that, as president, I would not be so quick to pull for a military tool. I believe that a no-fly zone in Syria at this time, actually, Secretary, would be a mistake. You have to enforce no-fly zones. And I believe especially with the Russian air force in the air, it could lead to an escalation because of an accident that we would deeply regret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BARNETT: So a number of views there on what to do in the skies over Syria.
Let's bring in our Ian Lee from Cairo this morning.
Ian, do you have any more information on this possibility that Iran is sharing an airbase with Russian forces?
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Errol, we're just hearing this from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, this airbase in Latakia that is being used. It is an older section of the airbase. We're hearing that Iran is flying in personnel and equipment to this section of the base and that is being used in the fight in the western part of the country where Iranian forces are working with the Syrian regime forces, as well as their Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, to take on anti- regime forces. And they have been somewhat successful in the past weeks under the support of Russian air strikes. Really, when you do look at the conflict in Syria that has been a key factor in all this fighting are the air strikes. We saw this with the Kurds under -- with the U.S. air strikes able to push against ISIS. Now we're seeing it in the western part with Iran, with Russia, and with the Syrian regime forces and their allies being able to take on anti-regime fighters very effectively and making ground.
[02:20:31] BARNETT: And, Ian, what about the discussion we saw from the Democratic debate between Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley and others, of the possibility of a no-fly zone over Syria? Already, we've seen Russian forces violate Turkish airspace, coming within 20 nautical miles of U.S. aircraft. Where is the discussion of a no-fly zone as it surrounds Syria?
LEE: Well, this has been something that has been discussed for quite some time. And originally, it was regarding the Syrian regime forces using these barrel bombs to hit civilian areas and hitting other targets. That was really the original purpose for this no-fly zone, is to prevent the Syrian regime from flying over these areas. But with Russia involved, it makes it a lot trickier. The United States and Russia have been talking, they've been meeting, discussing safety in the air. They don't want to have any close calls. They don't want to any mishaps where a plane -- two planes may crash or something else may happen where pilots are lost or they have to jettison over Syria. So they have been discussing this. Other things they're talking about is what language they'll be using and what kind of zones they will allow. There's a lot of -- there's a lot of specific talk about safety over the sky. So throwing in a no-fly zone would be very difficult because with that includes airspace that the Russians are operating in, and would the Russians listen?
BARNETT: Certainly, no clear fixes to a very complicated situation.
Ian Lee, live for us in Cairo this morning. Just past 8:20 in the morning there. Ian, thank you.
CHURCH: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he will head to the Middle East soon as clashes continue between Israelis and Palestinians. On Tuesday, at least three Israelis were killed and the violence is prompting the prime minister to search for ways to improve security. In one attack, surveillance footage captured images of a man driving into a bus stop in Jerusalem.
BARNETT: Meanwhile, Israeli's public security minister said the country is mulling over several options to boost safety, including closing off Palestinian suburbs east of Jerusalem. Some have also talked about loosening the country's gun restrictions.
CHURCH: And CNN's Erin McLaughlin joins us now from Jerusalem to talk more about this.
Explain, first, to us where you are exactly, Erin, and also what impact the security measures might have on the situation. Could they possibly inflame it or could they help? What's being said about that?
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosemary. I think that very much remains to be seen. Some of the measures that were announced out of the Israeli security cabinet meeting yesterday are controversial. Let me take you through some of them. They announced they will be closing off, quote, "centers of friction and incitement" in Jerusalem. We were driving around different predominantly Arab neighborhoods. We haven't seen any evidence of that so far. We haven't seen police checking identifications, and no one stopping cars and searching, although it was quite early in the morning. They also announced a series of other measures, including increasing security guard positions, public transportation areas, public transportation networks, as well as demolishing alleged attackers' homes, as well as revoking their permanent residency permits of some of these Palestinian attackers from east Jerusalem. And they've also announced that they are going to be increasing military units, reinforcing Israeli police units with military units. We got an SMS message from the Israeli military saying that it's preparing to deploy six companies to reinforce the Israeli police, and saying the additional forces are expected to join police forces later today.
So in total, some of these measures are controversial, some considered to be extreme.
I want you to take a listen to what the Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to say yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translation): They will not achieve their goals today. We are united to fight the terrorists and murderers and I'm sure those steps will bring an understanding that terrorism will pay a heavy price.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[02:25:09] MCLAUGHLIN: Human Rights Watch putting out a statement, reacting very strongly to some of the security measures announced last night, calling the demolition of houses belonging to some of these alleged attackers a punitive policy that's unlawful, also saying the locking-down of neighborhoods is a recipe for, quote, "harassment and abuse."
I've also spoken to some Palestinian officials who tell me the only way to stop the violence is to end oppression and that Israel needs a leader that understands that.
CHURCH: All this as the cycle of violence continues.
Erin McLaughlin reporting live from Jerusalem. Thanks for that.
BARNETT: Now it's one of the most controversial issues politicians in the U.S. have to deal with, gun violence. Bernie Sanders talked tough about it during the Democratic debate. Next, we'll fact-check what he said, plus a look at comments from some of the other candidates.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:29:29] CHURCH: And a warm welcome back to our viewers all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.
BARNETT: And I'm Errol Barnett.
The candidates hit on some hot-button topics, gun control, unemployment and the economy to just name a few. Of course, we're referring to the Democratic presidential debate. Along the way, they made some provocative assertions.
CNN's Tom Foreman checked into their claims.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the hottest issues for Democrats out there is gun violence. And Hillary Clinton went right after it.
[02:30:00] CLINTON: We have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence. This has gone on too long, and it's time the entire country stood up against the NRA.
FOREMAN: If you listen to the Centers for Disease Control, in the year 2013, which is the last time they have complete numbers, they say that's about right. It's a big number like this. However, this also includes all suicides and accidental shootings, and shootings where we don't really know what happened. If you look only at homicides and intentional, if legal, shootings, you get a much smaller number. Those details do not diminish the importance of the issue, but without those details in her statement, we have to say that it's true, but it is somewhat misleading.
The economy also a big issue for Republicans and Democrats alike, and that's something that Bernie Sanders wants to talk about, specifically in struggling communities.
SANDERS: African-American youth unemployment is 51 percent. Hispanic youth unemployment is 36 percent.
FOREMAN: Wow. Those are great big numbers. Here's the problem, though. He appears to be talking about the numbers that are related to under-employment. If you look at government figures for unemployment, it drops down a pretty good bit. The bottom line is his numbers are incorrect, and that makes his statement false.
And Martin O'Malley, who was the governor of the state of Maryland, wanted to talk a little bit about his economic record.
O'MALLEY: We raised the minimum wage, passed a living wage, invested more in infrastructure, went four years in a row without a penny's increase in college tuition.
FOREMAN: What's wrong with that? Well, he did not mention that in doing this, he made a lot of county level executives and Republicans angry, because they say that he raided a fund for transportation work to pay for budget shortfalls. So the bottom line, what he said was true, but it was also misleading.
You can find out a whole lot more about all the things we're reporting in our reality check by going to CNN.com/realitycheck.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And my colleague, John Vause, is in Las Vegas where the Democratic debate ended a few hours ago and he joins us, along with CNN global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar; and CNN politics reporter, Eric Bradner.
So, John, very much a shot in the arm for Hillary Clinton, not such a great story for the other candidates, it seems?
VAUSE: Yeah, very true, Rosemary. But you have to say, Bernie Sanders, not a total disaster for him. He had a pretty good night on a number of fronts.
I want to get to that point because when we first had the opening statements from the candidates, we had Bernie Sanders come out, and one of the big issues, can he connect with African-Americans, minorities, Latinos, because he'll need the support from those minority groups if he's ever to become the nominee? Came out, talked about, as we saw, unemployment among the African-American community, he got the numbers wrong, but he spoke about it. But then it died away. He didn't really get back to that, did it?
FOROOHAR: No. And I'm amazed he has this strong populist message at a time when people want to hear this about income inequality, about the high levels of unemployment. Even though he got the numbers wrong, vectorally, he is right. They are incredibly high. But it just didn't take. He didn't connect the dots in a way that resonates with people. And he also allowed Hillary Clinton to sort of pivot and take ground from him.
VAUSE: And the polling numbers that came out the day before, Hillary Clinton is liked or supported by 87 percent of African-Americans, Bernie Sanders is 7 percent. Unless he can make some head way, his campaign to be the nominee just won't get there, will it?
ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely. In Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states to vote, there are more white, liberal, college-educated voters than in many other states. So broadening his appeal beyond those two states where he's doing really well is the key challenge for him if he's going to compete nationally and get enough delegates to have a serious shot. A debate is a tough format for him because he's used to delivering these 40 and 45 minute fire-and-brimstone speeches, but he hasn't been on this kind of stage before, and breaking those speeches into one-minute segments, it's tough, especially when you're going against Hillary Clinton, who did this in 2009 a bunch of times and is really used to it and really knows how to play on this stage.
VAUSE: And we heard from Martin O'Malley in that report by Tom Foreman, looking at fact checking here his economic record. Again, on paper, there's a guy, former mayor of a black city, Baltimore, and governor of Maryland. He should be the ideal candidate for Democrats because of his record, but, yet, he's getting 4 percent. And he didn't do particularly well tonight.
FOROOHAR: Didn't do particularly well. And, again, charisma is lacking. It's one thing to be great on paper, but you have to perform. You have to be a politician. He just seemed robotic. And I think particularly at a moment when people are looking for authenticity. Even if that's sometimes raw in the case of Trump or seems a bit hostile or sort of discombobulated as Bernie Sanders did tonight. People want that. They want someone who is authentic, not preprogrammed.
[02:35:16] VAUSE: And this is what we saw tonight. Hillary Clinton authentic. She had a couple of really good moments. We saw her after the debate. Really much on a high right now?
BRADNER: Yeah. She was clearly comfortable. She was funny. She hit her moment -- her notes, she was able to interact with the other candidates on stage. Sort of gave as well as she got. This is really something she can do well. So it was almost like the low point had passed tonight. That's what it kind of felt like. It felt like she --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: The fever has broken?
FOROOHAR: Right.
VAUSE: There's a cliche saying --
(CROSSTALK)
VAUSE: This is like a moment where she rights the ship.
BRADNER: Now, you can get a bounce from a debate. You can improve. But that doesn't necessarily last. On the Republican side, you're seeing that with Carly Fiorina. She did so well and now her numbers are starting to slide a bit. So there's nothing that happened tonight that, if you're Bernie Sanders, you can't recover from. It's not over by any means.
FOROOHAR: One thing that's quite interesting though is that Hillary kept sort of putting the Democrats and how they performed in this debate in contrast with the Republicans, and saying, look, we're all talking about substantive issues, we're shaking hands, we're interacting, and I think that was quite powerful.
VAUSE: Do you think that is something -- I guess the other thing, too, is how many people will watch this debate compared to the Republican debate? Obviously, on CNN, we hoped it was as many would watch the GOP debate. But that ain't going to happen, is it?
BRADNER: No, it's not. They warned ahead of time that they were going to talk policy. There wasn't going to be the back and forth that Donald Trump provokes, and the people that want to attack Donald Trump. There just isn't that kind of personality in the race on the Democratic side. Now, if Joe Biden were to get in the race, perhaps that would change. But tonight, Hillary Clinton did well enough that that looks maybe a little less likely.
VAUSE: If you're Joe Biden sitting at home, you're waiting, you're biding your time, you're waiting for that moment, maybe you think now is not the right time?
FOROOHAR: I think not. If he was planning to get in because she looked weak tonight, that's not what happened.
VAUSE: Yeah.
As far as the Clinton campaign is concerned, I know they have a couple of events the next couple days. What are you looking for when she holds those rallies?
BRADNER: We'll be looking for her to emerge with a lot more energy. Bernie Sanders' rallies have been attended by tens of thousands of people. These big moments. Now Hillary Clinton needs to sort of pick up some of that energy. She can't just be a kind of like robotic, checking-the-boxes candidate. She needs to be able to generate more enthusiasm with her supporters who have her back. But they've been through it for the last few months with this e-mail thing, and this was perhaps an initial sign that her days are to come.
VAUSE: And we have five more of these Democrat debates to go, and a bunch more on the Republican side. So you know, a long campaign to go before we get to 2016.
Thanks, guys.
And Errol and Rosemary, we'll continue to have more from here from Las Vegas, but one thing which we will continue to look for, is essentially who's going to say in the campaign now. Who will be the one who will get out? Will it be Lincoln Chafee? Will he decide after this debate performance it's kind of all over for him? Will Jim Webb stay in? Will these candidates who haven't really had a very big role in the campaign so far, will they decide after their performance tonight -- because let's face it, there was no break-out moment for any of the three other guys -- maybe now they'll be thinking it's time to call it quits -- Rosemary, Errol?
CHURCH: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens once the analysis comes out on this.
And, of course, it's 11:38 at night there in Las Vegas. John, the fun hasn't ended yet. We'll be back to talk to you next hour.
(LAUGHTER)
VAUSE: It never ends.
CHURCH: There is that.
BARNETT: Almost there. Thanks, John.
We'll have more on the debate there in Vegas later this hour.
We'll also have some other major international stories we're following for you, including more violence in Israel, and the step the country's prime minister wants to take to improve security, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:42:19] BARNETT: Now to the mystery of Malaysia Airlines flight 17. Dutch investigators Tuesday confirmed that a missile brought down the plane last year in the middle of eastern Ukraine's war zone.
CHURCH: But they did not say who fired it.
CNN's Frederik Pleitgen has more about the plane's final moments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Pieced together over months by investigators, fragments of MH17. Incomplete but enough for the Dutch Safety Board to determine what caused it to crash in July 2014. Its findings are in line with what many believed, MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile.
TJIBBE JOUSTRA, CHAIRMAN, DUTCH SAFETY BOARD: Flight MH17 crashed because of a 9M 314M warhead detonated outside the airplane, above the left side of the cockpit. This warhead fits the kind of missile that is installed in the BUK surface-to-air missile system.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight MH17 enters Ukrainian airspace at an altitude of 33,000 feet.
PLEITGEN: Investigators released this animation of what they conclude happened to the plane. They say the BUK missile exploded less than a meter from the cockpit, causing the front of the plane to break off. Fragments carrying traces of paint linked to these missiles were in the bodies of the three crew in the cockpit and in the plane's left wing.
Investigators believe most passengers died almost instantly with no comprehension of the situation but they couldn't rule out that some were conscious during the 90 seconds it took the plane to fall to the ground.
The report is critical of Ukrainian authorities for allowing commercial flights in the area and it calls for new rules to introduced for flying over war zones.
JOUSTRA: None of the aviation parties involved recognized the risks to aviation by the arms conflicts on the ground.
PLEITGEN: Crucially, what the report did not do was say who fired the missile. Kiev and its Western allies blame Russian-backed separatists. Russia,
for its part, blamed Ukrainian forces, and all deny any wrongdoing.
The Russian state arm's producer that makes the BUK system came out with its own research.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): The results of the experiment have entirely refuted the conclusions by the Dutch commission about the type of the rocket and the place of the launch.
PLEITGEN: And Russian officials who participated in the investigation maintain it's not possible to confirm the warhead or the type of system used.
A separate Dutch criminal investigation is under way. It hopes to have answers next year. Officials say they will not rest until those who shot down MH17 are brought to justice.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[02:45:06] CHURCH: All right. We do want to return now to the Middle East and the wave of violence in Israel and the West Bank, which has prompted Israel to approve new security measures.
Joining me now to talk about this is Nabil Shaath, the General Council for Fatah International Relations and on the Palestinian Legislative and National Council.
Thank you, sir, for talking with us.
NABIL SHAATH, GENERAL COUNCIL FOR FATAH INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & MEMBER, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE AND NATIONAL COUNCIL (voice-over): Thank you.
CHURCH: So this new cycle of violence has Israel considering ways to boost security, including closing off Palestinian suburbs of east Jerusalem and also making it easier for Israelis to buy firearms. What impact might these moves have, do you think? Could they help or harm the situation?
SHAATH: This will do nothing but escalation. We have really been for 10 years without one incident out of the West Bank, but with the increasing settler incursions inside the West Bank -- there are now 675,000 settlers. There were only 80,000 when we went to group conference back in 1991. And with this number of settlers, many of them extremists, they started attacks on Palestinian villagers and on Jerusalem and Jerusalem Muslim holy sites, and that is what inflamed everything. Also, with the failure of the peace process, people have lost hope. The solution is political, not more security actions by the Israelis, not allowing people to carry arms and shoot in the streets, not targeting children. All of those killed, the people that have been killed in the last three days are children, all of them. Therefore, what is needed by intervention by the United States, international protection, it's action from Mr. Netanyahu to stop targeting children and allowing settlers to invade Palestinian territories, and instead really going back to a serious effort to reach peace, instead of escalating further targeting of children and security measures.
CHURCH: We are seeing violence of both sides of the equation here, though. We have to point that out. How likely is it that all this could trigger a third intifada? And what is the Palestinian leadership doing to try to rein in these attacks? We're seeing these stabbings. But as you've pointed out, this is happening on both sides, but someone has to step in and say enough and enough?
SHAATH: Yes, BeeBee should step in and stop the Israelis from escalating. Because go back to 10 years, when we protected the West Bank, when we protected the settlers and the Israeli borders at our cost and see why what happened happened. They are the occupiers. We are the occupied. And most of the action is taking place in Jerusalem where the Palestinians Authority have absolutely no presence. And in Jerusalem, the whole thing started with attacking the Holy Mosque of al Aqsa and further escalation in targeting children, allowing citizens to just shoot at children for whatever reason they thought necessary. This is really the cause. And if you don't face the cause, you are not getting exception escalation.
CHURCH: Nabil Shaath, thank you so much for talking with us. We do appreciate it.
And coming up in the next hour, we'll speak to a correspondent for the "Jerusalem Post" to get his take on the latest violence.
BARNETT: Now, while Democrats running for U.S. president were debating Tuesday night, Republican candidates were watching and sending out some fiery tweets. We'll tell you what they had to say after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:52:] BARNETT: Welcome back, everyone. America's Democratic presidential candidates faced each other for the first time just a few hours ago, and pundits are praising the polished and articulate performance by front-runner, Hillary Clinton.
CHURCH: But she's not trying to win them over. She's trying to attract enough Democratic support to win the party's nomination for the presidency, and then take on the Republican Party's eventual nominee.
We have our Jonathan Mann here, who is host of the upcoming CNN "Political Mann."
Let's talk about what the Republicans were saying.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR, POLITICAL MANN: Well, they were quiet tonight. They weren't on television. They had two debates of their own before the Democrats took to the stage. And both set ratings records for the network. This time it was their turn to watch instead of being on it, but a handful of them did weigh in. Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican race, said, "All our very
scripted and rehearsed. Two at least should not be on the stage." And then, "Sorry, there is no star on the stage tonight."
Trump has become such a fixture in the campaign that the news he was going to tweet during the debate filled up a lot of anticipation, but the truth is, he was negative, which was no surprise. But he was really a little underwhelming, which was a surprise.
Jeb Bush was tweeting as well. He said, "The Democrats on stage tonight are running for Obama's third term. Join me if you're ready to stop them."
And there was one moment when I think a lot of Democratic strategists had to be cringing, when Bernie Sanders was trying to explain why he is or isn't a capitalist, and Anderson Cooper asked the rest of the candidates if they are capitalists. That's raising the possibility that they aren't capitalists either, which is just awkward and unhelpful if you're trying to run in an American political campaign. It's like being asked, do you still beat your wife?
Well, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said, "Democrats are debating whether capitalism is a good thing, naturally." Then this from Mike Huckabee, "They believe climate change is a greater threat than Islamic extremism, that a sunburn is worse than a beheading. It's nonsense." And then, "I trust Bernie Sanders with my tax dollars like a trust a North Korea chef with my Labrador." The joke about Koreans eating dogs did not seem amusing to other Twitter users.
Probably the most interesting thing to see for Republicans, in fact, wasn't the debate at all. It's the ratings for the debate. 24 million people watched the first Republican debate, a record for any debate at this early stage of the primary campaign. How many watched the Democrats? Well, we'll wait and see that number and how it translates into support through the campaign.
[02:55:17] BARNETT: How do the Democrats, though, that we've just watched, compare to the Republicans as debaters? Because that was the point of the event.
MANN: It was. And if you watched both debates, it was very obvious, both in style and in substance. In style, first of all, at least two of the debaters -- and I'll let you pick the two -- seemed really uncomfortable. They seemed awkward and tentative. I'm thinking particularly about Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb. But the other thing that was really remarkable about them is that the Republicans really went after each other. The policy differences among the Republicans, for example, on things like immigration, are very big. And they were nasty. Donald Trump was nasty. They were nasty to Trump. This was one big love-in by comparison.
BARNETT: They didn't attack each other at all.
CHURCH: And what really stood out, when Bernie Sanders really supported Hillary Clinton on the e-mails point. It was, as he said, it wasn't particularly politically smart, but that was an incredible moment.
MANN: It was politically very unwise. That was the biggest problem she has in this campaign if people don't trust her, and the reason they quote is.
BARNETT: Jon Mann, thank you very much.
CHURCH: Thank you.
BARNETT: Thanks for joining us, everyone. I'm Errol Barnett.
CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church.
Back in a moment.
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