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Trump Remains at Top of Polls; Mark Curry Helps Breaks Up Fight on Plane; "Star Wars" Ticket Sales Crash Sites. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired October 20, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:33:48] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Debates and controversies come and go, but Donald Trump remains on top. It's one of the unexpected truths of the presidential campaign thus far. A new CNN poll finds Trump leading the Republican field with 27 percent, followed by fellow outsider Ben Carson with 22 percent. No one else is even close. Single digits. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio tied at 8 percent. And Carly Fiorina has fallen 11 points in the last month down to just 4 percent.

Let me bring in CNN political commentator, S.E. Cupp; and Eliana Johnson, the Washington editor for "National Review."

Ladies, welcome.

Eliana, you wrote this column essentially quoting Republican strategist coming to grips with Donald Trump winning the nomination.

ELIANA JOHNSON, WASHINGTON EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: You know, it's astonishing. When Donald Trump jumped into this race four months ago, the narrative among Republicans and the concern was that he would tarnish the Republican brand through his incendiary statements on the way to dropping out, now the predominant. Concern among Republicans is that Trump will forever transform the Republican brand when he becomes the nominee. So in four months, we have seen a dramatic change in the thinking of establishment Republicans.

[14:35:19] BALDWIN: Transform the brand, S.E. Cupp. I want to hear your reaction.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I hope that doesn't happen. Ever since the 2012 autopsy came out, many of us in the party have been excited to sort of restart the Republican outreach to include more women, more young people, more minorities. We have done a really good job in the past few years of doing that. It seems that Trump's campaign is more of subtraction than addition. It's really just not where a lot of Republicans want to be going into the future. Trump and Carson can talk glowingly about their great poll numbers, and they should, their numbers are good. But if Trump or Carson thinks they can go into the general with only 25 percent of Republican voters behind them and actually compete in a general election, I think that's really short sided. The only way that Trump and Carson are going to be able to compete in a general is if they get in new voters and they are not really saying anything to attract new kinds of voters. They are really targeting a very narrow group of people on the right and in a field of more than 10 people, you can win a primary with 25 percent of the vote.

BALDWIN: You are still putting your money on Jeb Bush, correct?

CUPP: I have not picked a favorite or anything.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You wrote a CNN opinion piece. Based on all that, you're still saying Jeb Bush.

CUPP: Yeah, because for better or worse, safe money is still on the establishment pick. Much to the chagrin of a lot of conservatives, but this is what the party generally does. They pick a guy four years in advance and put all their money and resources behind them. They never take the temperature of the electorate again, whether they like that candidate or not. We saw that in 2008. We saw that in 2012. So the safe money is still on Jeb Bush getting there. That's not an endorsement, but hi historically that's what the party has done. Donald Trump may completely up end that tradition and prove that even safe money, even establishment, even all that infrastructure is not enough to keep him out of the nomination.

BALDWIN: Do you think, Eliana, because you write about not only the worry of hurting the brand, but the fear he will become the standard barrier or the face of the party. I was listening to the radio this morning. And they were saying in a couple months the establishment Republicans may wage this unofficial campaign to take down Donald Trump. Do you think that's possible? And what would that look like?

JOHNSON: It's absolutely possible, but up to this point, we haven't seen the Republican establishment unite behind any single idea or any single candidate. That's a real challenge. In past elections, the Republican establishment has united behind a candidate and it's the anti-establishment that's been splintered. In 2012 we saw the establishment unite behind Mitt Romney and splinter between Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, for a time Rick Perry. This time the anti-establishment is united behind Trump. And so if the establishment decides to unite to take down Trump, there would be a lot of nasty attack ads. The question would be who would they unite behind? That, at this point, is still completely undetermined.

BALDWIN: S.E., you mentioned a second ago talking about Trump and Carson. They were polling in the double digits. What about the idea of them merging on one ticket? This is Donald Trump talking about that this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION (voice-over): I like him. He likes me. Stranger things have happened, that I can tell you. It's too early to think about that. It certainly is interesting. So many people have suggested it because we seem to be doing awfully well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: S.E. Cupp, can you marinate on that for me, the Trump and Carson ticket?

CUPP: The politically smart thing for Trump or Carson to do would not to put another political neophyte on the ticket. It would be to put someone experienced. But nothing --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Do you think an experienced person would do that?

CUPP: I'm sure you could find someone. Neither of these candidates have done politically smart things. And it's worked for them. So if you're look at the polling and you see between Ben Carson and Donald Trump, 50 percent of the Republican support, you could make an argument that putting those two things together would be a smart thing to do. But I think between the two of them, their constant insensitive or ignorant comments about any host of issues would be pretty perilous for either one of them going into the general election.

[14:40:14] BALDWIN: Eliana, I want to end with this quote from strategist Mike Murphy who runs a super PAC supporting Jeb Bush. He said this in an interview. He calls Trump "a false zombie front runner." He also says, "While Trump has cut off oxygen to guys who can't survive, the Bush campaign has an oxygen tank."

S.E. was talking about money earlier. Do you think that the Bush super PAC, all the pennies, nickels and dimes can ensure he can hang around indefinitely?

JOHNSON: The Bush strategy all along has been slow and steady will win the race and they will have the financial wherewithal to be slow and steady. You want to be slow and steady going in the right direction. Right now the Bush campaign has either been not exactly -- they have either been stagnant or slow and steady in the wrong direction. And so Bush can have the most amount of money in the race, which he does right now, but if he's not actually moving in the right direction, it's not going to take him anywhere. So if donors don't see movement eventually, they will abandon Bush for someone else. Money is not everything. We have seen underfunded candidates or candidates who lack underdogs come from behind before. This is not a traditional election.

BALDWIN: Money is not everything in politics. What?

(LAUGHTER)

Eliana Johnson and S.E. Cupp -- I laugh -- thank you both so much.

CUPP: Thank you.

JOHNSON: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Thousands of Syrians fleeing one nightmare in their homeland now living another one at the European border after Hungary closed its crossings over the weekend. The massive flow of people has shifted to Slovenia. They decided to send soldiers to the border to control the situation. Let me show you this. This is what it now looks like. This is what they make it through a column of people escorted by police. Yesterday alone, 8,000 people crossed the board.

The situation Syrians are fleeing is violent. Russia stepped up airstrikes. Today, senior officials from the Pentagon and the Russian ministry of defense signed a memorandum of understanding. It doesn't mean any intelligence sharing or areas of cooperation but the hope is that the protocols will reduce the risk of incidents between Russians and coalition forces.

I know a lot of you want to reach out and help a lot of the refugees. You can do so. Go to our impact your world website at CNN.com/impact. You will find a vetted list of charities and aid organizations. That's CNN.com/impact.

Next, to recline or not to recline. This leads to a choke hold and an emergency landing. Comedian Mark Curry was on that plane. Hear what he did when he joins me after the break.

Plus "Star Wars", the brand new trailer is officially out. Ticket sites have crashed with overwhelming demand for preorders last night. And the trailer definitely had some surprises. Stay here.

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[14:48:15] BALDWIN: Picture this. You get on a flight, it takes off, you're waiting for the announcement that you can open your laptop. But a flight from L.A. to San Francisco didn't even make it that far before it had to turn around. A rapidly escalating situation broke out after a woman reclined her seat and the man sitting behind her didn't like it one bit.

The person who jumped in to help is my next guest here. If you're thinking you know this guy, it's because you do, it's Mark Curry, actor, comedian.

We love you from "Hanging with Mr. Cooper." Who would have thought you would have landed on CNN talking about this it crazy story in the skies somewhere in California.

How are you, sir?

MARK CURRY, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: I'm doing excellent. CNN is my favorite station. Who thought I would be on here talking about a plane?

BALDWIN: You're a comedian. I should have anticipated that joke, nice. Let's move on. You're on this plane. You're asleep. You're front row asleep when the commotion starts happening. What was it that woke you up?

CURRY: What woke me up was people screaming. It somebody on a plane is screaming, the first thing I saw was the flight attendants, the look on their face. I'm sitting in the front row so I saw something was going on. They put the garbage cans in front blocking the pilot. I looked back and could see a commotion in the back. It looked like somebody was laying on the l floor or something. I didn't know what was going on. I had no idea. I knew something was happening or some passengers, that's all I could hear.

BALDWIN: So this something as we have now connected the dots and are hearing more from the airline, you tell me what you know, there was the woman who reclined her seat and some people don't like that. And so the guy behind did what?

[14:50:07] CURRY: Apparently, he must have hit her. She was saying he grabbed my neck and hit me in the head. He must have hit her.

BALDWIN: For reclining her seat?

CURRY: I don't know what the reason was, I guess so. When you're on a small airline, I guess that means a lot. I don't know why he did it. Maybe snapped. I don't know what happened. I know it was a commotion on the plane. Some people were fighting. I didn't know what it was. You don't know what's going on. Is it a terrorist or some sort of situation?

BALDWIN: So your mind went there, that was what you thought?

CURRY: My mind went into tactical mode. I got to get home to my kids. What can I do to stop this? 30,000 feet. And they wanted me to restrain him. They said are you available to restrain this guy.

BALDWIN: Whoa, whoa. The flight attendant stepped in and said you, sir, you restrain him?

CURRY: Yes, they were looking to pull the restraints out. Would you help to restrain this guy? I was like, yeah, 30,000, let's do what we need to do so we can land. But I looked at the guy and said who is the guy? Show me this guy. I kind of looked back at him and he was very calm and very relaxed. I was saying I don't think e we need to put the restraints on him unless he goes ballistic. Let's just calm down and let's try to land this thing.

BALDWIN: I guess I got a big guy and need your muscle to help out.

CURRY: As you can see, I'm very buff. You can see how big I am. No, I would do anything I can on the plane just to get back. 30,000 feet, I'm Rambo, let's go, I'm big.

BALDWIN: Rambo --

(CROSSTALK)

CURRY: I'm Rambo.

BALDWIN: Mark Curry, thank you so much. I'm glad everyone is OK. I appreciate your taking the time.

CURRY: Thank you very much. BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.

Coming up next, politics. If Joe Biden does not run for president, his comments today definitely will raise some eyebrows. The vice president taking new swipes at Hillary Clinton without her clarifying what happened a couple years ago before the bin Laden raid in Pakistan.

But next, the "Star Wars" brand new trailer is out. Because of this, ticket sites have crashed overwhelming demand for preorders last night. The trailer has some pretty huge surprises.

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[14:56:47] BALDWIN: "Star Wars" fans around the globe rejoice. The trailer for the new film is out. It premiered during halftime of "Monday Night Football." The game last night, tickets went on sale crashes sites with ticket orders nearly two months before the film's release date. Take a look for yourself at "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: The Jedi, they're real.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: The force, it's calling to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: David Gonzales, he's a contributor for geek.com. He is, I'm told, a huge "Star Wars" geek.

I loved the movies in the '80s. I'm excited. I don't know if I'm freeze framing every single shot of the trailer like some people are and reading into the backgrounds. Are you doing that?

DAVID GONZALES, CONTRIBUTOR, GEEK.COM: I mean, it's definitely very exciting both for people like you where this is the continuation that you're waiting for as opposed to the last time we got a new batch of movies with the prequel series, which was a Darth Vader story, but you didn't see what happened like we will in this trailer and in the force awakens. Also for the new fans, we got cool looks at the new characters. And storm trooper and the new masked evil force who seems to have a Darth Vader obsession. It was a great introduction to where the story is going as well as seeing Solo, it's a tear jerking moment for old fans.

BALDWIN: I saw Chewy, but where is Luke?

GONZALES: That is the question. The closest we get to seeing Luke is a shot of him putting his mechanical hand on R2D2. And then a few notes of Luke's theme at the end of the teaser, what really the question is where is Luke is the question that we should be asking leading up into the movie because we all want to see what happens and what happened since the battle and blowing up of the second death star to make the dark side and the Jedi something mythical. BALDWIN: A lot of people didn't really love the movies from the '90s.

Do you think he can pull it off?

GONZALES: I think he is correctly balancing a sense of awe with a sense of call back to what made the original trilogy great. You can see a lot of echoes from the original trilogy here, be it a planet- sized weapon from the evil empire, which is now called the First Order.