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House to Come Up New Bipartisan Budget Deal; President Obama Considers Troops on Front Lines; On the Front Lines in Syria; House GOP Leadership on Budget Deal; Carson Seizes National Lead Over Trump; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 27, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:02] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The Royals have only won the World Series one time in team history. And that was way, way, way back in 1985. The Mets are looking to win the franchise's third world title. This should be a great series with tons of great pitching. Vegas has the two as dead even.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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

At any moment now House speaker John Boehner likely weighs into his final battle with conservative critics. Boehner will discuss a new bipartisan budget deal. It would prevent a government shutdown but made deep in his party's bitter divide and the toxic in-fighting that awaits for his replacement to lead House Republicans.

Boehner will face the cameras for the last time in his weekly House leadership news conference. We'll bring that to you when it begins, of course.

But let's start with CNN's Manu Raju, he's live on Capitol Hill with this big budget battle brewing. Good morning, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, Republicans just met behind closed doors to talk about this budget deal. And what they came out, and the response was pretty muted inside. Not -- people were not rushing to support this deal. They had just dropped this deal on their lap right before midnight last night.

Now they're trying to jam this through before Boehner leaves office. This is something that they're trying to pass by -- as early as Wednesday. And Paul Ryan is going to assume the speakership on Thursday. So this is moving very, very fast through Capitol Hill. And a lot of conservatives are concerned about not only the process but also the policy, raising the national debt limit to March of 2017, increasing defense and domestic spending by the tune of about $80 billion.

And they're looking at some of the details and how some of the cuts are also employed in this plan. Now we had a chance to talk to Paul Ryan right before he went into this meeting. And he's trying to distance himself from it totally. And he said that this process stinks. Here's more of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: Let me say this. I'm reserving judgment on this agreement because I, quite frankly, haven't seen it yet. I want to see what it looks like on paper. But about the process, I can say this. I think this process stinks. This is not the way to do the people's business. And under new management, we are not going to do the people's business this way.

We are against a deadline. That's unfortunate. But going forward, we can't do the people's business. As a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, clearly, of course, he does not want to show conservatives that he's going to employ a similar type of strategy when he becomes House speaker. He wants to try to be a more inclusive speaker, begin the legislative process, fire up the committees the way so-called regular order.

Now we've seen these processes -- these promises being made time and time again. We'll see if Mr. Ryan is actually able to keep that promise. Now I asked a lot of these conservative members who are leaving this meeting just now if they were going to take out their anger at Mr. Ryan during this vote on Wednesday. Right now it does not seem like they're blaming him for this. They do blame Speaker Boehner here on his final day.

But it wasn't just all anger in this room, just to my left. Actually they gave John Boehner a parting gift in this room. A golf cart with the license plate that said, "Mr. Speaker" on there. So John Boehner's enjoying his last days here in office, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, well, it's good they gave him that gift. Now they're going to maybe use him as a punching bag. Such is life on Capitol Hill, though.

We'll get back to you, Manu. Thank you so much.

President Obama may be considering what would be a significant and controversial military escalation in the war on ISIS. "The Washington Post" reports that he may, for the first time, move U.S. troops closer to the front lines in Iraq in Syria. This comes as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs chair Joseph Dunford testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee about their strategy to take down the terror organization.

CNN's Barbara Starr joins us now with more. Does this mean boots on the ground in Syria?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, perhaps not just yet. May be considering are the operative words. The Pentagon acknowledging it has given the president a series of options, a series of ideas about what to do to gain some momentum in this campaign. But putting troops on the ground, U.S. boots on the ground, outside of the protected areas, the bases where they now largely operate, of course, raises the risk. We saw that last week with the death of Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler in a raid in northern Iraq.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter laying out just a bit in a very interesting way some of his priorities now. Have a quick listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The changes we're pursuing can be described what I -- by what I call the three R's, Raqqa, Ramadi and raids.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: Of course, the self-declared capital of ISIS, a major target for the U.S. and coalition forces, to go after Ramadi, a large city, of course, in Iraq that the Iraqis lost control of several months ago. The U.S. wants to get the Iraqis back in control of Ramadi. Raids like we saw last week. Carter making it clear he expects to see more U.S. participation in more raids, so-called outside the wire, outside of the bases where U.S. forces are largely located.

Whether it will mean at some point U.S. troops on the ground, outside of these bases in Iraq, perhaps even in Syria, U.S. officials are saying that's a long way off but it is being discussed -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live from the Pentagon, thanks.

In the meantime, Kurdish fighters are already on the front lines in Syria trying to reclaim territory overrun by ISIS. The goal, to move from defense to offense. But the challenges are enormous. Many soldiers don't have the necessary equipment. And after months of fierce fighting, the battle is taking a toll.

CNN's senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward joins us now live from Iraq. She got an up-close look at what Kurdish fighters are up against. Good morning.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, it was just a few weeks ago that the U.S. air dropped 50 tons of ammunition to a newly formed coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters fighting against ISIS on the ground in Syria. And we spent time with the main group in that coalition, the Kurdish YPG. And they told us they would be needing a lot more than that from the Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): These men are at the core of America's latest strategy to defeat ISIS. Manning positions along a vast and desolate front line with ISIS entrenched in villages just through the haze. They're fighters with the YPG, a force of roughly 30,000 Syrian-Kurds which backed by coalition air power has dealt decisive blows to Islamic State militants across northern Syria.

Commander Bahus (PH) is in charge of this front line positioned in the city of Hasaka, which the YPG took from ISIS in August after months of fierce clashes.

COMMANDER BAHUS, YPG COMMANDER (Through Translator): They tried to attack us again 10 days ago. We were prepared so they didn't reach their target.

WARD: But they keep trying.

(On camera): ISIS has control of the next village along which is just over a mile in that direction. But the men at this base tell us that ISIS fighters often go at night to that building just over there so that they can launch attacks on these positions.

(Voice-over): The U.S. hopes that the YPG will soon move from defense to offense, taking the fight to ISIS' stronghold in Raqqa, but at makeshift bases across frontline, the fighters we saw were lightly armed, poorly equipped, and exhausted by months of fighting.

And Senior Commander Lawand knows the battles ahead will be even tougher.

(On camera): Can you take Raqqa without heavier weapons from the coalition?

COMMANDER LAWAND, YPG (Through Translator): The weapons we have are not high quality. For this campaign we'll need new heavy weapons.

WARD (voice-over): The most important weapon they do have but don't want to talk to about is this device, which helps the YPG get exact coordinates for enemy positions. Those coordinates are sent to a joint U.S.-Kurdish operations room and minutes later fighter jets come screaming in.

Rezwan told us he was given a week of training before using the device.

(On camera): Who trained you how to use this?

REZWAN, YPG FIGHTER (Through Translator): Believe me, I can't say. When you finish the training, it's a secret, but they weren't speaking Kurdish.

WARD (voice-over): A mystery as is so much of the unfolding U.S. strategy in this critical corner of Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: The main reason the U.S. is being so circumspect about its support of the YPG is because the YPG works very closely with its Turkish counterpart, the PKK. And the PKK has been designated a terrorist organization and Turkey has said that it views the PKK as its primary domestic threat. So really a difficult balancing act diplomatically for the U.S. here -- Carol. COSTELLO: All right. Clarissa Ward, thanks so much.

As I told you, we want to go back to Capitol Hill and check out that podium. John Boehner is not behind it as of yet. We expect to hear from the speaker at any moment now. And hopefully he will outline a budget deal, a bipartisan budget deal that will avert a financial crisis for the United States.

[10:10:08] Will it happen? We'll take you to Capitol Hill live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, as promised, the House Speaker John Boehner popped out of that closed-door meetings over the budget, the national budget, and he took his place behind that podium probably for the last time for his weekly House Leadership press conference and he's talking about this bipartisan budget deal and whether he can get it passed. Let's listen.

[10:15:08] REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE SPEAKER: I mean, listen to our members and listen to the American people, we have a budget agreement. This agreement will protect our economy and reduces the deficit. It secures more long-term entitlement reforms, it strengthens our national security and brings more certainty to next year's appropriations process, and protects more Americans from Obamacare and rejects all of the tax increases as proposed by the administration.

Now the agreement isn't perfect by any means, but the alternative was a clean debt ceiling increase without any additional support for our troops and without any entitlement reforms. So this is a good deal for our troops, for our taxpayers and for the American people.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Before I talk about this bipartisan budget agreement, I want to thank the speaker. I want to thank the speaker for his career. I want to highlight a few parts. We put a little video together inside conference and they put this poster up with the Gang of Seven. We're in the minority and he's the last man standing. But what was the Gang of Seven?

The Gang of Seven was the very beginning to change Washington and clean it up. I look around this room, I wasn't around at the time either. But there was a House bank and a House bank scandal. Your predecessors probably wrote about it but they would have never known about it if it wasn't for John Boehner and it never would have been shut down.

He fought and was able to be a part, and a big part in winning the first majority for Republicans in 1994. And he served in leadership to do it. Everybody has stumbles but it's the character of an individual is how you handle it. John left leadership. Never complained but continued to fight for the American people. Came back as a committee chairman. Focused on education.

You've watched it every day of his life. Just last week we passed a bill dealing with scholarships for low income. He has never forgotten why he ran and he has never stopped fighting for them. Very few people in their career could ever say they fought to win two majorities. And John has. Now, as we go to depart, John has not given up.

Yes, we've come to a bipartisan budget agreement. It probably wouldn't be the final agreement if we could write it by ourselves, but somebody different is in the White House. We have strived in this majority within our first four months to write a budget. A budget that would put us on a new path and lots of times people don't write about what we've been able to achieve. And that very first budget a lot of people criticized us. Said we went too far. If you take those budget numbers for our 2011 is where we would be today, with this budget agreement, we're below them.

We've been able to achieve even with Barack Obama in president. So we dealt with what's happening around the world with the foreign policy that's lacking what our military needs. We've got more than 100 members signing a letter. We've been able to fund the military in a much stronger position it needs to when we look at what the world holds, but we've been able to do it in a fiscal manner to keep us under the limits that we had in our original budget.

That's an accomplishment. I think history will be kind to this man because he had kept the word he's always said. Continue to do what's right and that's what he's done. So I want to thank the speaker for his service.

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away. There's Kevin McCarthy sending some love Speaker Boehner's way.

I want to bring in our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

John Boehner says they've all come to this agreement, on this bipartisan budget deal. But earlier this morning, the incoming -- the likely incoming House speaker Paul Ryan chose to differ. I want you to listen what he said and then comment after.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: Let me say this. I'm reserving judgment on this agreement because I, quite frankly, haven't seen it yet. I want to see what it looks like on paper. But about the process, I can say this. I think this process stinks. This is not the way to do the people's business. And under new management, we are not going to do the people's business this way.

We are against a deadline. That's unfortunate. But going forward, we can't do the people's business. As a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, so, Jeff, what does that all mean?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, let me translate that for you, Carol. What this whole deal is, this is the Paul Ryan protection act. This is going to make sure that Paul Ryan is voted in as speaker, first by Republicans tomorrow then by the full House on Thursday. And you might wonder well, how can Paul Ryan sort of not like this deal if he's a Republican but John Boehner is saying it's a good deal.

[10:20:13] John Boehner is going out the door here, trying to get all of this -- these tough deals done so Paul Ryan does not have to clean up after him. And just look at the details of this plan here. This is really something that, first and foremost, it would avoid a government shutdown. It would avoid the country defaulting on its -- on its debt, on its obligations. It, you know, puts all of this at rest, sort of until after this 2016 election. So what this is, is a deal that we've not seen in Washington for actually quite some time.

It's not the grand bargain that they talked about, you know, some years ago, but it does actually give some long-term planning here. For months and months and months there have been like three-month extensions for the budget. So this actually is a year and a half long plan to allow a different process. And Paul Ryan, if he's elected speaker, as we expect he will be this week, he said he does want to change things. He wants to sort of go in and actually do this in- committee hearings and actually look into some of these problems as opposed to always waiting until the last minute here.

But what John Boehner is doing on the way out the door here is trying to sort of get all the old business out of the way so Paul Ryan has a fresh start here as he becomes the new Republican speaker.

COSTELLO: So wait a minute. John Boehner is serving his country and doing the best thing for America, right?

ZELENY: I mean, I think he actually is in this case because it is something -- he's achieving something that if this goes through, working with the White House. The White House has its blessing here. Democrats are going to vote for this. It's one of those things where you sort of plug your nose and vote for it, like a lot of things here in Washington, but it is actually a bit of bipartisanship and it keeps the government from shutting down and it, you know, is about as close to legislating as we've seen here in this divided town for some time.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I'll take it, Jeff Zeleny. Thanks so much.

ZELENY: Sure.

COSTELLO: A day before the third Republican debate, Carly Fiorina goes after not Trump or Carson or Rubio, but Hillary Clinton. Fiorina penned an op-ed for the -- "Wall Street Journal," rather, slamming Clinton's economic plan. Quote, "Hillary Clinton talks a good game against crony capitalism. Large banks and income inequality. She just doesn't mention that all three have flourished during the Obama years," end quote.

Fiorina is eager to talk about the economy, but some wonder why she doesn't go after her perceived nemesis, Donald Trump, on foreign policy or maybe gender.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's like I saw somebody, I won't even say because it's embarrassing. We won it with the women but they don't have to wear the you know what. And then I said, well, that makes sense. That's nice. Then I saw women interviewed. They said, we want to wear it. We've worn them for a thousand years. Why would anybody tell us not to? They want to. What the hell are we getting involved for?

The fact is, it's easy. You don't have to put on makeup. Look how beautiful everyone looks. Wouldn't it be easier? Wow. Right? Wouldn't that be easy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: When I talk about women wearing burqas in Afghanistan, that's exactly what I think, Ron Brownstein.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm so sorry. I'm going to get that -- let me introduce you both. With me now, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for the "National Journal," and John Brabender, a Republican political consultant who was the senior strategist for Rick Santorum's 2012 presidential campaign.

Welcome to you both.

So, Ron, to me, Carly Fiorina had that great line during the debate. You know, the face thing, right? So why not come out and attack Trump on this issue instead of attacking Hillary Clinton?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, because I think in many ways the nomination process is an audition for the role of being the party standard bearer against the other side in November. I mean, especially at the level of polarization that we're in. It's the same reason why we saw Hillary Clinton focusing most of her fire during the Democratic debate and certainly at the Jefferson Jackson Day dinner Saturday night at -- on the Republicans rather than other Democrats.

I think Carly Fiorina, I think, correctly recognizes that her best card in this Republican race is that many Republicans are attracted to the idea of her making the case as another woman for the party against Hillary Clinton. So I don't think it's irrational. I do think in the debate you'll see her maybe target her fellow Republicans more. But this is really playing what is maybe her strongest hand in the Republican race.

COSTELLO: Gotcha. So on the other hand, John, Jeb Bush is going on the attack. His campaign people say they're going to let Jeb be Jeb. And that means many more political attacks and sharp elbows, mainly directed at the frontrunner, Donald Trump. JEFF BRABENDER, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Well, I guess that

also implies up to this point we haven't seen jabs. So I'm not sure I know what that means. But I will say this, I do believe that the debate this week, there are certain people that have more on the line than others. I think Jeb Bush certainly is one of them. Last week he had to announce on Friday that they've laid off a lot of campaign workers.

I don't think that their early advertising probably has gotten them a lot of poll increases. And so I think it is a very important debate and I think you will see a very aggressive Jeb Bush this week at the debate.

[10:25:11] COSTELLO: Absolutely. And I said that Donald Trump was the frontrunner, Ron, but in one poll that was released today, a national poll by CBS and the "New York Times," you see that Ben Carson has now pulled ahead of Trump. And this is a national poll. This is not just Iowa. This is a national poll. So what does that mean, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: So now we have three polls in Iowa and one poll nationally showing Carson ahead of Trump. I think largely it shows Carson's success at consolidating the large evangelical Christian community in the Republican electorate. They haven't put out a lot of details on the poll but one thing they said was that he was 20 points ahead among Donald Trump -- among evangelicals. That is a lane that can get you into the conversation by itself. It's not enough to win in the end. That's what Mike Huckabee found in 2008 and John's friend, Rick Santorum, in 2012.

But I think it does show that, you know, weeks in the spotlight are beginning to leave a few marks on Trump. Particularly among college- educated Republican voters who have shown much more skepticism about his fitness for the White House than the blue-collar constituency that he has mostly mobilized in these early polls.

COSTELLO: So, John, you were involved in Rick Santorum's campaign. If you were on Ben Carson's campaign, and you looked at that national poll, what would you be thinking right now?

BRABENDER: Well, first of all, I'd feel a little bit worried because what we have found in the last two election cycles for president is that the worst place to be at this point in the campaigns are generally at top. Especially if you're new because it's -- where you start to get a lot of scrutiny. So I think, number one, I would very much say, look, let's be at least a little careful. Let's not be cavalier about everything that we do.

Second of all, I think that you have to find a single message that you can repeat over and over again that is memorable. And at this point, campaigns like to throw out everything. And I think that becomes a big mistake. So I think he has to be careful at the debate this week.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Ron Brownstein, John Brabender, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, shocking video that sparked outrage. A high school student dragged from class by a school resource officer. What happened here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)