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FBI Director: Ferguson Had "Chilling Effect"; Tony Blair Apologizes for Iraq War "Mistakes"; Interview with Jan Brewer; Processed Meats Can Cause Cancer; Shrinking Profits Could Ruin Rally. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 26, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:29:48] EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: 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 out of the fear that they'll end up on YouTube, you know, because of some incident that people believe might be racially charged.

And so what Comey did was simply say that he believes that might be part of the reason why we're seeing a surge in murders in some cities around the country. Places like Dallas and Tampa, Minneapolis and Cleveland are seeing some huge spikes in murders. And that is very concerning to the FBI director. He says it's not, perhaps, the whole story but he believes that is certainly happening.

We should note that we spoke -- we saw the FBI director on Sunday, yesterday here in Chicago. And he said after some critical news coverage of his remarks from Friday, he said he thought that, perhaps, people weren't getting the nuance of his comments. He's simply saying he wants to start a conversation because he believes that while some of the scrutiny on police is very good to have, he also believes that police officers are doing their best.

I should note, Carol, that not all police chiefs believe that there is this Ferguson effect. Some people say that maybe there's just a rise in synthetic drugs on the streets that is causing this. So we'll hear some more from him in the next hour here in Chicago. We'll see how it goes.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK. We'll check back. Even Perez, reporting live for us -- thank you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he's sorry for, quote, "mistakes made in the Iraq war". But he stopped short of a full apology for 2003's invasion.

In an exclusive interview with CNN, the most high-profile foreign ally of President George W. Bush in the invasion apologized for mistakes in intelligence and planning. But told Fareed Zakaria he doesn't regret bringing down dictator, Saddam Hussein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: Given, however that Saddam Hussein did not prove to have weapons of mass destruction, was the decision to enter Iraq and topple his regime a mistake?

TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You know, whenever I'm asked this, I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong, because even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought. So, I can apologize for that.

I can also apologize, by the way, for some of the mistakes in planning and certainly our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you remove the regime.

But I find it hard to apologize for removing Saddam. I think even from today in 2015, it's better that he's not there than he is there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Fareed Zakaria joins me now. Fareed do you think an American politician would say it as succinctly as Tony Blair?

ZAKARIA: Well, very few politicians in America or anywhere else are as articulate as Tony Blair. But Carol, you raise an interesting point. You know, it's very refreshing that he is, on reflection, willing to apologize and to take responsibility in a way that very few politicians do anymore.

I mean in politics nowadays, every decision you make, you are stuck with for the rest of your life. The reason it matters is you need to learn from your mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes -- big mistakes, small mistakes. We have a culture where to admit that you made a mistake is to unravel your legacy or something. So I'm glad that Blair is willing to have an honest conversation about this, finally.

COSTELLO: Did he blame it at all on faulty U.S. intelligence or American intelligence for why he decided to help us out in Iraq?

ZAKARIA: He didn't but he did very pointedly talk about the intelligence we received. And of course, the United States does the lion's share of this kind of intelligence collection. It's really -- it is a massive U.S. intelligence failure, and I get into that. But it was an intelligence failure partly because that was what the United States was looking for.

There were several people high up in the administration, Vice President Cheney being the most important one who had made it clear that they wanted to find -- they wanted intelligence to show that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destructions. And since this is all murky and a gray area, I think it's not unreasonable to say that people shaded the intelligence a little bit in the direction of what the primary consumer of that intelligence, that is, the White House wanted to see.

COSTELLO: In another stunning admission, Tony Blair also admitted partial responsibility for the rise of ISIS. What did he say?

[10:35:03] ZAKARIA: That was really, to my mind, as important. I asked him, I said look, wouldn't you say that getting rid of Saddam Hussein is the fundamental cause behind ISIS because after all it let the society unravel? It's what produced al Qaeda in Iraq which is the forebear of ISIS.

He says there's many elements of truth to that analysis. And again, took responsibility. But he made a good point which is he said, look, we got rid of the regime in Iraq and you ended up with chaos and Islamic terrorism. We didn't get rid of the regime in Syria and you've ended up with chaos and Islamic terrorism.

I think the implication is there are errors of commission and errors of omission involved here.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Fareed Zakaria -- thank you for joining me this morning.

And I want to remind you Fareed's special "LONG ROAD TO HELL: AMERICA IN IRAQ" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. And it's fascinating. So please watch. It airs only on CNN.

And in about 90 minutes at noon Eastern, Fareed will take part in a Facebook Q&A about Iraq.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM Donald Trump wants to build a wall to deal with immigration. Marco Rubio calls that absurd. Maybe they should both ask my next guest what she thinks. I'll talk to former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:31] COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton turns 68 years old today but her best birthday gifts may be coming from squabbling Republicans. Ben Carson takes the lead in Iowa and takes heat from Donald Trump. He's now simmering in second place and ready to draw blood. And here's the Donald a couple hours ago.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bush is very embarrassed, Carson is very embarrassed by what happened to him in New Hampshire because he's getting killed in New Hampshire and plenty of other places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Marco Rubio scoffs and flashes (ph) in a CNN exclusive. Listen to him dismiss Trump and the immigration plan that electrifies Trump's supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His rhetoric is a little louder but if you think about where he was six months ago, 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. He's going to deport all these people and then he's going to allow back in the ones that are good. His plan makes no sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: My next guest has also faced criticism for taking a hard line on illegal immigration. She was on the front lines of the issue as the governor of a border state -- that would be Arizona.

Jan Brewer joins me now in Washington. Good morning.

JAN BREWER (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, you know, some conservatives wanted you to run for president in 2016. Why didn't you?

BREWER: I have no desire to do that. I certainly was flattered but I think that we have a great bench out there, ready to take on that job.

COSTELLO: I know. But when you sit back and you watch the Republicans squabbling amongst themselves, are you concerned?

BREWER: Well, I think that all of America is concerned. I think we have a wonderful group of men and women running on my side of the aisle and there's interesting people on the other side of the aisle. Certainly I believe that the candidates that we put forth -- have put themselves forth that they have built an intense interest in the election for 2016.

And that's a good thing, Carol, because people are paying attention and they're listening. You know, I'd like to see them basically get a little deeper in regards to some of the issues that are out there. I think that it's important that we know exactly what their plan is for the Middle East.

Certainly I got involved in education -- in politics because of education. I'd like to see what they would like to do with education and I believe that it belongs to the states but I think we need high standards and that's so important to the moms and dads out there and for the future of the United States.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. We tend to be talking a lot about the immigration crisis in this country. Donald Trump's idea, those 11 million undocumented immigrants that are in the United States, he wants to send them out of the country, deport them and then allow only the good ones back in. That's what Marco Rubio was talking about. Is that a good policy?

BREWER: Well, you know, I don't know how that's going to happen. I think we need to take it a step at a time. I always and will continue to say that we need to get our borders secured. There's no reason why -- in my position from Arizona, they got California secured. They've got the Yuma section secured in Arizona. Texas is pretty well secured. But we are the gateway so we bear the brunt of a lot of that illegal immigration. But we have to have --

COSTELLO: What should we do? What should we do with the undocumented immigrants in this country?

BREWER: Well, it's a difficult situation. We have talked about that. I don't think that you're going to be able to round them all up. They're not all going to come forward but I think that before -- that discussion really starts that we need to get our borders secured because we have promised that our border would be secured. And then it wasn't, by Republicans and Democrats both.

So first, we have to get to the root of the problem. That is securing our border, one way or the other. And then deal with all those other issues.

COSTELLO: Are you for this wall idea? Are you for Donald Trump's wall idea?

BREWER: His wall idea? No, I believe that we need a fence. Of course, Arizona -- Mexico is Arizona's largest trading partner. We are concerned about terrorism and we are concerned about commerce. But we can do that if they would secure the border and that entails a fence.

There's no reason why anybody can't get across our border in Arizona in the Tucson section. It's open. It's open. Anybody can walk across there for all different kinds of reasons. Not only to come to work, but the drug cartels, and we, we bear the brunt of it all in Arizona. And then they filter out throughout the United States.

[10:45:04] COSTELLO: I want to center, before you have to go, on women in politics because, of course, Hillary Clinton is running very much, you know, on her female candidacy. Carly Fiorina is also running on her female candidacy. Do you think it's still difficult for women in politics?

BREWER: Well, I do. I think we're judged at a different standard, and we get critics out there picking us apart for a lot of things. If we're strong and bold, you know, we're a little bit witchy. And if we're mild, we're not interesting. So we get judged on our hair. We get judged on our makeup. Men don't get judged on those kinds of things.

And so it is. I think it's tougher. You know, I have a record of 24-0 in elections so I've been out there for a long time. But it is more difficult.

COSTELLO: Well, something really awful happened to you. On the web there were these terrible and they used your face as an ad for plastic surgery and they made you look really bad. And you noticed them and became angry and filed a lawsuit. First of all, when you saw those ads appear, what went through your mind?

BREWER: I said, wow, you know, that is really mean. I said, well, that won't last. It will go away. But unfortunately, it didn't go away and it continued to be the topic of conversation everywhere that I went. I mean I would never be on for my beauty but that was just a horrible situation for me.

It got to be everywhere I went, everywhere I landed, they wanted to talk about my revenge makeover. And they were so sorry my husband divorced me. You know, it was -- it was very irritating and hurtful -- very, very hurtful.

And then we contacted the ad agencies. They claim that they didn't know who it was and said, what do they do, put "ugly" in Google and I came up? To use my face -- and everybody knew that it was me and to make profit off it was misjustice.

COSTELLO: And you weren't divorcing your husband, by the way.

BREWER: No, no. Not after 50 years. I've got him trained.

COSTELLO: As I do my husband. So, why do you think that they targeted you?

BREWER: Well, you know, I have no idea other than maybe it's because I'm old but we know that those pictures are very unflattering and they have been Photoshopped, or I learned a new word, ground. You know, click bait is a new word that I learned. So they evidently got a lot of clicks on it. There you go.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm glad you fought back. And Governor Jan Brewer, I'm glad you were here with me this morning. Thank you.

BREWER: Thank you so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM -- bacon, sausage, red meat, might be great for breakfast but a new warning says they could cause cancer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:22] COSTELLO: Bacon lovers, listen up. A new warning this morning from the World Health Organization: your extra helping of hotdogs, ham and sausage can cause cancer. And it's not just processed meats, red meat may pose a problem, too.

Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is now here with more. Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol.

Carol, when it comes to those processed meats that you mentioned, the World Health Organization was plain and clear. They are a carcinogen, using the same word they would use, for example, for cigarettes. They're not as risky as cigarettes, but in the same category. Let's take a look at exactly what they found. They looked at

more than 800 studies, some of them lasting more than 20 years. They found that at a serving of these processed meats weighing about 1.7 ounces increased the risk of colon cancer by 18 percent They say when you look worldwide, they think the processed meat is responsible for 34,000 cancer deaths every year.

We reached out to the meat industry and here's what they had to say. They said cancer is a complex disease that even the best and brightest minds don't fully understand. No single food has ever been proven to cause or cure cancer. The available scientific evidence simply does not support a causal relationship between red or processed meat and any type of cancer.

COSTELLO: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, reporting live. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:19] COSTELLO: Some of the biggest names in technology have been posting healthy profits, which is welcome news on Wall Street, but that could be the exception to this earnings season, not the rule.

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here for some insight. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol. Well, let me tell you those shares of Amazon, and Google and Microsoft, if you have them in your portfolio and you probably do, they're widely held stocks, they're doing very well. Microsoft at a 15-year high, Amazon, Google -- those are at record highs even right now.

But the bigger picture, Carol, is this worry about an industrial slowdown in growth, this worry about maybe earnings being a little more difficult to achieve for the rest of the marketplace into the end of the year. And that was one reason you saw that correction in stocks this summer.

But can I show you the stock market since then? Carol, the stock market has done very well. You have the S&P 500, those are the 500 stocks that are most likely representative of the stocks in your 401(k), they're up just slightly for the year. They bounced 8 percent in October. This has turned out to be a pretty good month for investors.

For other consumers, people who are buying homes, you have interest rates are low. The housing market remains pretty strong. Gas prices are low. So anything the consumer touches, still doing well. I think tomorrow you're going to hear very good news from car companies about their sales and earnings.

So, you kind of have this two-speed approach here, Carol. You have companies worried about how hard it is going to be for them to make profits into the end of the year and you have consumers who are still, I guess, holding up the whole show at the moment.

So Carol -- that's where we stand right now, stocks up at the moment.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll check back with you tomorrow. Christine Romans -- thanks.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: The Donald Trump story. His struggles from the streets with nothing but a million dollar loan from his father. How will the new comment play to the Republican crowd?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: And a disturbing new warning about some of America's --