Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Feds Create Unit for Domestic Terror Groups; Ivanka Trump Talks about Dad; NYC Restaurant Owner Getting Rid of Tipping. Aired 10:30- 11a ET

Aired October 15, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:29:50] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTIC REPORTER: There's laws to deal with international terrorism but domestic terrorism, they have to be a little more creative in how they attack that and how John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, spoke about this yesterday here in Washington. Let's hear what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CARLIN, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATIONAL SECURITY: We recognize that according to at least one study, more people have died in this country in attacks by domestic extremists than attacks associated with international terrorist groups over the last, say, five or six years. Among domestic extremist movements inside the United States -- the white supremacists are among the most violent. The Charleston shooter who had a manifesto laying out a racist world view is just one example.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And Carol -- you know, part of the concern here is that while we focus a lot on ISIS, obviously -- for obvious reasons because of the social media threat and the spectacular types of attacks that could come from international terrorism, a lot of these domestic terrorists are under the radar. People don't notice them. People don't talk about it. That's what the Justice Department is trying to raise some alert about.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: All right. Evan Perez, reporting live from Washington.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump's comments about Carly Fiorina and other women landed him in hot water. What does his daughter, Ivanka Trump, have to say about it? We'll tell you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:31] COSTELLO: He's a multibillionaire, a reality TV star and he's the number one Republican candidate running for president. His daughter Ivanka is one of his top advisers. Now she's speaking exclusively to CNN. She talks about women in the workplace, her father's controversial remarks about women and she even talks about what Trump was like as a father. She sat down with Poppy Harlow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) IVANKA TRUMP, DAUGHTER OF DONALD TRUMP: I think it's incredibly

important. And I think companies who aren't prioritizing, ensuring that women are at all levels within the organization and that this disproportion of men versus women and gender inequality, you know, anyone who is thinking in those terms and who's not being very proactive to ensure that there are company is being thoughtful about the gender mix is simply going to fall behind.

So I think it will be a self-selecting thing. I think in ten years from now, the companies that have not evolved will not be the companies that they are today. And you know, I think my father recognized this a long time ago.

I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't have the ambition, the drive, the passion, the commitment to what it is that I'm doing both for the Trump Organization and for my own brand if he hadn't encouraged me, emboldened me, given me the confidence that I could do whatever it is that I set my mind to accomplish if had the vision, the energy, the passion and the work ethic to match.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You started Women Who Work -- it's an initiative you pushed to empower women at all levels to work and to follow their dreams. But Pew found that an increasing amount of American women are staying home from 23 percent in 1999 to 29 percent in 2000. And some of that is in part due to rising child care costs. What is your message in this campaign to those women?

TRUMP: Well, so my campaign is about the fact that women are working at all aspects of their life. I really wanted to create a brand that was celebrating the fact that women are multidimensional. We're all working really hard at architecting the lives that we want to live and lives that are consistent with our personal priorities.

And I think there is this unfortunate and prevailing depiction of the working woman as, you know, wearing a black pant suit and being solely focused on her professional role. And that's just not true.

And hopefully, I can be a small part of changing the narrative around what it looks like to be a woman who works today. And that's the purpose of the campaign. It's not to tell people they should work or they shouldn't work.

HARLOW: Your father points to you telling him that he has been on the campaign trail, quote, "really misunderstood on his views about women". He has said some things about women that have shocked many people. About Carly Fiorina, he said, "look at that face, would anyone vote for that." About Megyn Kelly's questioning of him in the first Fox debate. He said "there was blood coming out of her wherever". Ivanka -- what was your reaction to that?

TRUMP: Well, I think a lot of the sensationalism around this was orchestrated largely by the media. Look, my father is very blunt. He's very direct. He's not gender-specific in his criticism of people and people that he doesn't particularly like or people that he does like but thinks they're wrong on a particular issue. So you know, I don't think that he's gender-targeted at all.

Like I said, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't be a high -- a high-level executive within his organization if he felt that way. So, he's always supported and encouraged women. And truthfully, he's proven that over decades, through his employment practices, through his hiring practices.

HARLOW: What would a President Trump do for women in this country?

TRUMP: He'd be amazing for women in this country. He would be incredible for women in this country. And he's starting to articulate his position. It's not my place to articulate those for him.

I'm not part of the campaign. And I'm very busy and he's kept me very busy working alongside my brothers and running the organization now that he's taking this step in terms of his efforts to try and make this country great again, as he says.

[10:39:50] So, you know, I'll leave policy to him, but I can speak from my vantage point as a child and also from my vantage point as a colleague and somebody who works for him.

He's been an amazing parent. He's given me every opportunity to succeed. He's been loving and supportive. He's pushed me, he's corrected me, he's disciplined me and I think as a parent now myself I appreciate how hard that is more than ever before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Poppy Harlow joins me now. So is she happy her father is running for president.

HARLOW: That's a great question. She spoke at this women's summit and was asked that said and she said it is complicated. That's a complicated question. She went on to say, I'm proud of him but it's a very difficult thing to do. Yes, she and her siblings have grown up in the spotlight their whole life. This is a very different spotlight. This is the first time Carol, as you know, we've heard from her since he announced -- her father introduced him when he announced his candidacy back in June.

COSTELLO: Yes. And she said some very interesting things. The most interesting thing she said, you know, "I wouldn't be running top level company right now if he didn't believe, but she's part of his family and she is his daughter.

So is that really true.

HARLOW: But I think the proof is in the numbers. Look, the Trump organization is a private company. Michael Koehn, one of the executive there said on CNN, although 57 percent of employees at Trump are men and 42 percent are men, more women are executives -- higher paid executives at the rump organization -- than men. You have to take them for their word because it's not publicly released data. But I do think I think that that's interesting. And she talked a lot about female equality. She said, my father

is blunt, people he doesn't like, he says things about.

COSTELLO: He certainly does. So will we see her on the campaign trail eventually? Will she be the only member of the Trump family that goes out and about --

HARLOW: Right. Will she be this surrogate that so many political pundits say it could be huge boon for him? I don't know. I have to tell you Carol, my gut instincts walking out of the interview was that she is focused on the business of her business. She runs, you know, a multi-hundred million dollar company, she's pregnant with her third child and she's five months pregnant. And she said a number of times I will leave politics to other members of my family. I'm not part of the campaign.

At the same time, if he continues to leaded in polls, if he makes it to a general, I can't imagine a campaign without her by her side. The different is will she be standing with him or will she be talking about policy? That would be a big shift from what I experienced yesterday.

COSTELLO: Melania Trump --

HARLOW: You're going to get the interview. No one's interviewed her.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Folks at people magazine -- I don't know. You would think she would come out and do an interview as well, but we haven't heard from her other than that one print interview. Look, we haven't heard a ton from Bill Clinton either yet, even heard a ton from Chelsea Clinton.

COSTELLO: We'll starting to hear more and more from Bill Clinton, not so much from Chelsea Clinton -- you're right -- which is interesting because -- yes they're friends -- but their last go- around, you know, when Hillary Clinton ran the first last time, Chelsea Clinton was very involved this time, not so much but not this year.

HARLOW: I know. And I don't know why. Will that change in the general like for measure mother makes it to a general. It would be interesting to keep Ivanka get more in Chelsea get more involved -- because they're really good friends. And I asked her in the interview, what does this do to a friendship especially if your parents go head to head and generalize hold their feeling right now that they very well might.

And she said to me, the politic of our parents is not relevant to our friendship. I thought is that possible. I actually think it is because these are two women who have grown up in the spotlight their entire lives and had independent identity from their parents their entire beginning.

COSTELLO: I know but once the name calling starts, and it will, right? It will.

HARLOW: Let's hope for the best.

COSTELLO: No. Well, their very smart, accomplished women. So I no doubts they'll find a way. Poppy Harlow -- thanks much.

Still to come in the Newsroom, a restaurant owner says soon you won't have to tip at his businesses -- that is, restaurants, but will that come at a price for you?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:48:27] COSTELLO: No need for that tip calculator here -- 13 New York City restaurants are now getting rid of tipping. NYC restaurateur Danny Meyer says he's joining the growing movement to allow more career advancement among all of his employees. That's great for the worker but what about me?

I'm just kidding. Let's talk about all of us. The customers, when it comes to the bill we'll we know be paying more. Christine Romans is here with me.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you won't have to do math at the checkout, that's the thing -- that little line -- the tip line where sit there and try to figure it out especially where you sit there and try to figure it out especially after a glass of chilled wine.

Look that's the client who's going to go away for -- they're going to start small. They're going to do at one of the museums -- they run the museum. The museum restaurant -- they're going to start with that and then they're going to broaden out to the rest of these restaurants.

And here is what they're going to do. This is about 1,800 workers who work for this company, who if you rely on tips, it's now going to be in their paycheck. It's not going to be something they're going to the way for the diner to give.

So this evens it out for everybody, they say -- Carol. The people that work in the back of the restaurant, in some cases by law, they can't share the tips with the front of the restaurant. The whole thing is the dining experience so they want to make sure the tips are fairly distributed. That means they'll raise prices on the menu.

The company is saying they're going to raise them a little bit but you're probably not going to pay more, significantly more in the future than do you today already.

COSTELLO: What about service, will it still be as good? Will there be that incentive to give us service from my server?

ROMANS: Well, now the incentive lies with the manager -- right. So it used to be that with the diner, who would decide if the server did a good job. He would give a higher tip. Well now, the manager came to the side and they can give higher wages or bonuses to people who do a very good job.

[10:50:05] So the idea here is if you want to be part of a meritocracy, if you want to move up with your job or move to the front of the house, you don't have to worry about tip holding you back. They're asking for, you know, they're asking for feedback. They're going to roll this out slowly.

But a lot of restaurateurs have talked about this and they've been kind of excited about it. They say that the tips are kind of gratuity for there services in a restaurant. You expect good service. And there's so many people who go into making a great meal. Why is it the one person at the end who is going to get the tip. So Raise the wages for everybody. Raise menu prices for everybody. Then you don't have uncertainty about how much to pay, how much you're going to get paid, how much you'll take home at the end of the night.

COSTELLO: I know, Having been a server I'm sort of like --

ROMANS: Are you conflicted?

COSTELLO: I'm conflicted. I really am conflicted because it's hard work.

ROMANS: Well, they're talking about cooks $14 an hour, back of the house at least $11 an hour. That's going to be rising. New York has been raising minimum wages for some food service workers. They're going to try to keep ahead of that and move those wages left.

And part of doing that is taking away the tip line, raising the menu prizes a little bit. Also it clears things up for foreign tourists who and sometimes a server gets stiffed because they don't know that you're supposed to tipped. Or how much you're supposed to tip though. No more doubling the tax.

COSTELLO: That's OK. They can leave the country and they'll never have to be embarrassed if they don't go back.

Christine Romans -- thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, giving birth two months early can be scary but what if you had to do it flying over the middle of the Pacific Ocean?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:45] COSTELLO: A China Airlines flight lands with more than one person aboard than it had when it took off. A woman suddenly gave birth two months early while flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This China Airlines flight arrived with an extra passenger on board. Place of birth, row 49. Give the newborn baby girl a hand. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just thought it was an amazing experience.

I mean to see someone giving birth right in front of me. I mean --

MOOS: Edmund Chen didn't just see it, he shot it. The China Airlines flight took off from Taiwan headed for Los Angeles. Six hours into flight, over the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the woman informed the crew that her water had broken. The pilot diverted the flight to Anchorage, Alaska then he moved the mother in labor two months early to her own row, right in front of Edmund.

CHEN: There was a lot screaming. Poor mother.

MOOS: Is there a doctor on the plane? There was though this UCLA internist had never before delivered a baby by herself. Dr. Angelica Zen was on her way home from her honeymoon. She spoke Mandarin with the Taiwanese mother and told ABC --

DR. ANGELICA ZEN, PASSENGER: It was very difficult. We had to work under very constraining circumstances.

CHEN: It was bad like they tried to cover the whole row with blankets.

MOOS: 30 minutes outside of Anchorage, the baby arrived before the plane did. Doctor Zen said the flight attendants acted as stand- in nurses and the one holding the baby cried.

The plane landed. Mom and baby were taken to the hospital in good shape. The flight continued to Los Angeles where Edmund's dad had been waiting for four or five hours.

CHEN: I was, like, dad, someone gave birth on the plane.

MOOS: Talk about being air-born.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Congratulations.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm John Berman. Kate Bolduan is off today.

We would like to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

The breaking news: a major reversal from President Obama on what he hoped would be one of the most significant legacies of his administration -- pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

Any moment now from the Roosevelt Room, that is a live picture right there, the President is expected to announce that he will halt that withdrawal. This critical decision comes as the Taliban gained strength across Afghanistan. Authorities say insurgents have now spread through more of that country than at any time since the post- 9/11 invasion.

We will bring you the President's comments live from the White House any minute now. While we wait, let's bring in senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta; CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto; our senior international correspondent Nick Peyton Walsh; military analyst retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling and CNN's presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

Jim Acosta, first to you, the change in the timeline, the change in the numbers -- lay it out for us.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: as you said, John, this is a major policy reversal for the Obama administration, for the President. He's now planning to keep 9,800 troops, the current force level in Afghanistan, through much of 2016. They will take 5,500 troops into the early part of 2017. What does that mean? That means that there will be more than 5,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Afghanistan as President Obama turns the White House over to his successor.

That is not what the White House had in mind. That is not what practice President Obama had in mind as a matter of fact.

Earlier this year they were planning to get to just embassy protection levels by the end of 2016. So, that has changed. It's changed because he's talked to his commanders on the ground in Afghanistan. It's changed because of the security situation in Afghanistan, which is getting worse by the day.

[11:00:00] The Taliban is making gains in parts of the country that the United States was not anticipating and the White House, when you talk to senior administration officials and I talked to them last night, they said this is because the U.S., wants to leave Afghanistan in in a better place at some point.

END