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Massive Earthquake Strikes South Asia; Carson Leads in New Iowa Poll, Sends Trump on the Attack; Ben Carson Compares Abortion to Slavery; Gov. Chris Christie Booted from Amtrak; Whale-Watching Boat Capsized in Canadian Coast; Oklahoma State Homecoming Parade Crash Suspect Faces Multiple Murder Charges; FBI Director Says Ferguson Had Chilling Effect on Law Enforcement; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 26, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:03] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The water is so high entire highways forced to shut down. The torrential rain is thanks in parts to remnants of Hurricane Patricia. For some up to 20 inches of rain has already fallen over the last few days.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump throwing jabs at the new Iowa frontrunner.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ben Carson is lower energy than Jeb, if you want to know the truth.

COSTELLO: But he's taking as many punches as he throws.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His position on immigration six months ago is nothing like what he's saying now. And even what he's saying now borders on the absurd.

COSTELLO: Can Trump fight the up and comers?

Also, a deadly day at sea. A whale watching boat capsizing off the Canadian coast, killing four people. How did it happen?

And is crime up because police are easing up? The FBI think so.

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: The chill wind has blown through law enforcement over the last year.

COSTELLO: Are we less safe?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with breaking news. A widespread disaster after a massive 7.5 earthquake strikes South Asia. Homes and businesses across Afghanistan and Pakistan, now piles of rubbles. Men, women and children, hundreds of them injured. There are also reports of dozens of fatalities. According to one Pakistani official, at least 71 people died in a single province. Twelve school girls also lost their lives, killed in a stampede as they tried to exit their Afghanistan school. They were crushed in a stairwell.

The quake's epicenter was in northern Afghanistan but panic and tremor spread for hundreds of miles.

CNN's India bureau chief Ravi Agrawal felt the powerful earthquake in New Delhi. How did that feel, Ravi?

RAVI AGRAWAL, CNN INDIA BUREAU CHIEF: Carol, they were pretty strong and intense tremors in New Delhi. And to put that in context for you, New Delhi is about 750 miles south of the epicenter of today's quake, where we were in this bureau. We were on the seventh floor of a hotel. And the walls began to shake. We could feel that the lamps were shaking a little bit, the TVs on the walls were shaking. You look out of the window and you see people actually running out of office buildings, trying to get to a place that is, you know, not near any other buildings.

So there was a fair bit of panic here in New Delhi. And these tremors were not only intense but they also lasted for quite a while, between a minute and two minutes. And so that was just here in New Delhi. Further to the north, closer to the epicenter in Kabul, we spoke to our producer there, and he said this was the worst quake he had felt in 30 years. Walls were shaking, people were panicking. Everyone poured out onto the streets. And that was in Kabul, which is also about 150 miles south of the epicenter.

And then we've got reports coming in closer to the epicenter. With each passing hour it seems like the death toll is rising of people who have been either trapped in stampedes. There was a report that you mentioned of 12 girls who were killed at a school after they rushed out of their building. Twelve of them died in a stampede. And we're also hearing reports of many people dying. Dozens in Pakistan.

So the news continues to roll in of devastation across Afghanistan and Pakistan. India here has promised to help out, as it can. And of course, Pakistan and Afghanistan's armies have already been mobilized -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ravi Agrawal, reporting live from New Delhi this morning, thank you.

In presidential politics, Donald Trump may want to reconsider his gleeful jabs that rival Ben Carson is too meek and mild-mannered. The retired neurosurgeon says despite his soft-spoken persona, he used to have a quick temper. It would trigger violent and dangerous outbursts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a teenager I would go after people with rocks and bricks and baseball bats and hammers. And of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. And, you know, fortunately, you know, my life has been changed. And I'm a very different person now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mark Preston is the executive editor of CNN Politics. He joins me now live from Washington for everything Carson.

Good morning.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Hey, good morning, Carol. Now you know Ben Carson certainly is doing very well in the polls. He has really confounded many people. He has also said many controversial things on the campaign trail. He has compared homosexuality to being a choice. He has said that a Muslim should not be elected president. He said Obamacare is the worst thing that has happened in this country since slavery. And again this weekend he invoked the word slavery, comparing it to abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:07] CARSON: We've allowed the purveyors of division to make mothers think that that baby is their enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is? During slavery, and I know that's one of the words you're not supposed to say, but I'm saying it. During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do. And you know, what if the abolitionists had said, you know, I don't believe in slavery, I think it's wrong, but you guys do whatever you want to do. Where would we be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: And there you have Ben Carson yesterday on "Meet the Press" explaining what he thinks about abortion when it comes to slavery.

Now, Carol, for all the controversial things that he does say, Ben Carson does not often apologize. In many ways, his supporters actually like that and that is why I think he's doing so well in a state like Iowa.

COSTELLO: I was just going to ask you that. His comments on abortion probably are playing quite well with evangelical voters in Iowa.

PRESTON: They are. And the interesting thing about Ben Carson, if you look at the two leaders in the poll, Ben Carson, very soft-spoken right now. On the other side you have Donald Trump, who's very bombastic, but in fact is soft-spokenness when he does say controversial things does not seem to be as cutting and certainly in a state like Iowa, which is called the Iowa nice for the political types out there, this appeals very well.

COSTELLO: See, it's all in the way you say it, Mark Preston.

PRESTON: Right.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. PRESTON: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: With me now CNN contributor and political anchor at New York 1 News, Errol Louis. I'm also joined by staff writer for "The Weekly Standard" Michael Warren.

Welcome to you both.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

MICHAEL WARREN, STAFF WRITER, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Hey, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So before we delve into Ben Carson, let's talk about one of his rivals. That would be New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the quiet car incident. As you know Christie was supposedly talking quite loudly in Amtrak's quiet car. And you do not do that because I sleep in the quiet car. You just don't talk loudly there because passengers object loudly, and they did. They complained and of course Chris Christie was ejected from the quiet car and he had to, like, go to the cafe car to finish his strawberry smoothie.

Anyway, this is a long way to get into my question about Chris Christie. This incident totally overshadowed his appearance on the CBS morning shows. And he said some interesting things. So I just wonder if Donald Trump had been ejected from the quiet car, would it have overshadowed his political message?

Errol, you want to take that?

(LAUGHTER)

LOUIS: That's a great question. No, Donald Trump, well, as we know, Donald Trump flies around in the Trump helicopter and chartered planes. Wouldn't be caught dead on something like Amtrak for a lot of different reasons. And certainly would want nothing to do with the quiet car. And you know, to be fair about it, Chris Christie apparently was chastising his own security detail for ever steering him into that car.

Some of us have stumbled into it accidentally on days when we didn't necessarily want to sleep on the way from Washington to New York. And when that happens, you've got to get up and get yourself out of there. Your phone will start ringing, people will start complaining. I think it is a measure of the struggles that Chris Christie has had that something this -- in some ways trivial can overshadow a campaign that has just not managed to sort of take root with the kind of issues that would force themselves up to the forefront and not let some trivia like this distract all of us from what Chris Christie is trying to do.

COSTELLO: Well, it's interesting because in the last debate, Chris Christie didn't do so badly, Michael. He has the same sort of brashness Donald trump has. Why isn't that resonating for Chris Christie?

WARREN: He's just not as well known as Donald Trump. I mean, Donald Trump was on TV for 12 years with "The Apprentice." He's been a sort of known quantity in not political culture, but American culture for the last 20, 25 years. So look, it's not a real mystery here of why Donald Trump's sort of brashness is elevating him in the polls.

You know, Chris Christie has got -- had a lot of problems and he's sort of in a crowded part of the Republican primary, which is a sort of somewhat establishment, northeast moderate kind of track that he's competing with against Jeb Bush and John Kasich, and in some ways, Marco Rubio and Carly Fiorina even. So there's not a lot of room there.

And he's still trying to fit in. But on this question of the quiet car, you know, I read a report from someone who was there, a liberal who was talking on Twitter who was in the quiet car, who said, look, he got on the train at the last minute, he was rushed, he was clearly rushed, didn't realize what he had done, and the reports that he was, you know, screaming on the quiet car were just not true. He realized where he was and got off into the right car and that's that. So it does seem a little much ado about nothing.

COSTELLO: Yes, I'd have to agree with you there. So let's talk about something more substantive. So Donald Trump, he said Iraq and Libya would be better off if Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi were still alive and in office. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:10:11] TRUMP: Right now Iraq is a training ground for terrorists. Right now Libya, nobody even knows Libya. Frankly there is no Iraq and there is no Libya. It's all broken up, they have no control. Nobody knows what's going on.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": So the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein.

TRUMP: Hundred percent.

TAPPER: And Gadhafi in power?

TRUMP: Hundred percent. Now as far as Assad is concerned --

TAPPER: What about the human rights abuses and --

TRUMP: Let's talk -- look, you don't think they're happening now? They're worse now than they ever were. People are getting their heads chopped off, they're being drowned. Right now they're far worse than they were ever under Saddam Hussein or Gadhafi.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Errol, will voters think Donald Trump has a point?

LOUIS: Well, he certainly does have a point. And I dearly hope that this comes up during the debate, the next Republican debate, because especially for your younger viewers. This is an important historical lesson that we have to sort of make our minds up about as a country. You know, I mean, a long time ago you support Batista, the Cuban dictator, and it gives rise to revolution and you get 50 years of dictatorship under Castro.

You support Mubarak in Egypt for 30 years and you added fuel to the Muslim Brotherhood. You support Saddam Hussein and keep him in place and you end up with al Qaeda? You know, you tolerate or support Gadhafi and you end up with ISIS? I mean, you know, supporting dictators I think is a proven failed strategy. You know, Iran, the revolution in 1979, after years of supporting the Shah of Iran.

We have to figure out how in a very dangerous world we make our way in a manner that does not add fuel to the enemies of the United States. And it's a perfectly legitimate debate. I'm sort of glad Donald Trump brought this up.

COSTELLO: Yes, me, too, because I'm sure it will come up in the debate, right, Michael? And hopefully some of those candidates will tell us how to go forward in some of these countries to really make a positive impact.

WARREN: Yes, I'd be interested to see if any of the other Republicans challenge Trump on this idea. I mean, you know, he can say that life would be so much better, the situation would be so much better if these dictators were in charge, but he's got to sort of wrestle with the question, take Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein were still in charge and we had this Iran deal that's just been negotiated, don't you think Saddam Hussein, the dictator and somebody who tries to be a player in that field and is really opposed to Iran, wouldn't be trying to get nuclear weapons as well?

I mean, we're seeing allies of ours in the region try to get nuclear weapons because of this Iran deal. So does Trump have an answer to that? I don't think he does. And I think this is a problem. But it really will require, I think, one of the other Republican candidates or several of them to sort of challenge and not just challenge him on this, but as you said, present a view of how to move forward on this because Gadhafi in Libya and Saddam Hussein in Iraq aren't there anymore.

And you do have to deal and understand with those changes what will happen in that part of the world in the next administration.

COSTELLO: All right. Michael Warren, Errol Louis, thanks to both of you.

Still to come --

LOUIS: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it was supposed to be a fun trip to see whales off the coast of Canada, but it turned deadly. What happened?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:17] COSTELLO: How did a large whale-watching boat full of tourists suddenly capsize in clear weather off the coast of British Columbia? That's a critical question this morning. At least five people died, one is still missing. Rescuers pulled 21 people from the frigid water, 27 people were on board when a mayday call went out about eight miles off the small coastal town of Tofino.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is covering the story for us. He has more. Good morning, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, Carol. In the past hour we learned those five people that were found dead were all British nationals. The British consulate in that area is now helping their families. Meantime, rescue crews still searching for that missing passenger as investigators work to figure out exactly what may have happened when the stress call came in about 5:00 p.m. yesterday.

Witnesses say the weather was clear. It was a beautiful day, so there's no obvious reason as to why this boat may have sunk. The boat was discovered about eight miles offshore. Two life boats had been deployed but no one was on board those.

As you said, Carol, there were 27 people on the ship. Five of them found dead. One of them still missing. One of a dozen people had to be treated at a local hospital. The mayor of Tofino actually put out a statement yesterday, thanking everyone for their support.

And in the meantime, Jamie's Whaling Station put out their own statement. This is the company that runs the tourist boat. They write, quote, "Our entire team is heartbroken over this incident and our hearts go out to the families, friends and loved ones of everyone involved. We're doing everything we can to assist our passengers and staff through this difficult time." They also say that they are fully cooperating with investigators as they try to get to the bottom of what happened.

It is important to note, Carol, this isn't the first time that this touring company has had an incident like this. In 1998, two people died aboard a small vessel that capsized in these very tumultuous waters off of western Canada -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Boris Sanchez, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

New images this morning from that horrific crash during Oklahoma State University's homecoming parade. This is the car that slammed into a crowd, killing four people. Cell phone actually capturing the moment of impact. This video will only show you the moments before the crash. And you heard it there.

The youngest victim, 2-year-old Nash Lucas. Also killed Nikita Nakal, a visiting NBA student and retired OSU professor, Marvin Stone along with his wife Bonnie. Lucas' father posting this photo over the weekend, the caption, "Miss you so much, buddy."

As for the woman behind the wheel, she's due in court later today, accused of being under the influence. 25-year-old Adacia Chambers is now facing multiple murder charges. Chambers' lawyer, though, says he doesn't believe his client was drunk but rather suffering from a, quote, "mental illness." Joining me now to clarify is Chambers' attorney, Tony Coleman.

Welcome, sir.

[10:20:12] TONY COLEMAN, ATTORNEY FOR ADACIA CHAMBERS: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So you believe Miss Chambers wasn't drunk?

COLEMAN: I'm sorry. Say again?

COSTELLO: You believe your client was not drunk?

COLEMAN: Yes. In fact, I know she wasn't drunk, under the influence of alcohol. My visit with her, although it was hours later after this occurred, I didn't detect any signs nor were there -- was there an odor of alcohol coming from her body.

I understand that in the state of Oklahoma we also have a DUI drug statute on the books that is probably where the default position is now. We won't know the results of -- or be able to confirm whether or not she was under the influence of other intoxicants until we get a toxicology report.

COSTELLO: So she agreed to something like a breathalyzer right after the accident?

COLEMAN: My understanding is not so much as a breathalyzer. I don't believe a breathalyzer or the intoxalyzer is the proper name for it. I don't believe that that was something that was offered to her and that was primarily because there wasn't a smell of alcohol that would have put the officers on notice that they believe that was the source of her impairment.

I do believe, from what I've been told during my investigation, that she was subjected to the standardized field sobriety test and her poor performance of the standardized field sobriety test is what gave officers probable cause that she, perhaps, was impaired.

COSTELLO: So you think she's suffering from some sort of mental illness. Why do you think that?

COLEMAN: Well, that is due in part to -- during my time with her, which lasted for about an hour on the night of the incident, I was not satisfied with her responses to my questions. And more specifically, I grew increasingly concerned with her inappropriate comments as it relates to information that I shared with her. Specific information about her having collided with a motorcycle, her having also collided with other individuals and that there were four fatalities.

When this information was shared with her, her inappropriate response to that, which could probably more correctly be characterized as a flat effect, I guess you would say. In other words, no show of emotion whatsoever. Zero response. That is not something that is typical of a normal, functioning individual. That immediately settled in my mind that there was some concerns about her capacity at that point. COSTELLO: We'd heard rumors that she just lost her job or something.

Is that true?

COLEMAN: Yes, that is true. She was due to be at work at 9:00 that morning. She arrived a few minutes early as she was known to do. From what I gathered, she was a very punctual person. Had been there at that particular place of employment since February of this year. She arrived moments before 9:00.

I am uncertain as to the exact time that she left but she left on her own. She advised her employers that she needed to leave. She didn't go into any detail as to why she needed to leave, but that she needed to leave.

Now there are other reports that those there with her at the time says she was acting strange or differently. Not that she was acting drunk. I don't think that anyone there said that she was behaving in a manner that was consistent with an intoxicated person. But that simply she was acting strange. That may have been the very beginning stages of an episode that she was getting ready to encounter. Whether that episode was a result of hypoglycemia or whether the episode was the result of some form of mental illness. We don't know.

I think one of the things that we are waiting on, all of us, is this toxicology report, because that clearly will rule out whether or not she had some form of intoxicant in her system. If in fact it comes back that there was nothing in her system that was causing her to be impaired, then we have to default to the others which of course are obviously medical or mental in nature.

COSTELLO: All right. Well, she's going to be in court later today. We'll see what happens.

Tony Coleman, thanks so much for joining me.

COLEMAN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, are cell phone cameras at least partly to blame for a rise in violence? Why the head of the FBI says the police feel like they are under siege.

[10:24:45]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The director of the FBI says an uptick in crime nationwide may be partly due to the so-called Ferguson effect. We all know what happened in Ferguson, Missouri, the city racked by months of unrest after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in August of 2014.

But is that impacting how police deal with criminal behavior today? The FBI director, James Comey, will share his thoughts next hour to the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Chicago.

CNN justice reporter Evan Perez is covering the story for us. And I guess he gave us a preview, Evan.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: He sure did, Carol. It's not very often that you hear the FBI director tackle these questions about race and about the effect of -- essentially of the unrest in Ferguson and the effects since then on policing. But that's exactly what he's been doing this weekend. He spoke on Friday to the University of Chicago Law School.

And that's where he really waded into this issue, giving voice to something we've been hearing from cops around the country, which is that they believe there's some cops who are holding back on doing some of the things that they normally do to -- out of the fear that they'll end up on YouTube, you know, because of some incident that people believe might be racially charged.

(END)