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Campaigns Spar Over Debate Green Rooms; Prince Harry Visits Washington; Hillary Clinton Will Let Big Banks Fail?; Chaffetz Moving to Impeach IRS Chief; House GOP to Vote for New Speaker; FBI and Justice Department to Investigate Arrest in the Classroom; Florida Newspaper Blasts Rubio Record; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 28, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, thank you, Chris Hadfield, for joining me this morning. It was awesome.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, oh, the GOP frontrunners.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am a great Christian. But the evangelicals left me down a little bit this last month. I don't know what I did.

Iowa, will you get your numbers up, please?

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is the right color. That way if you get blood on it you can't tell.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": In response to his drop to second in the polls, Donald Trump said today that he will run until the very end and does not mind running from behind. Trump says he knows what it's like to be the underdog because he wears one on his head.

COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Oh, what a strange political season. Right? Good morning to you. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Talk about a different side of Donald Trump, on the defensive. For the first time in months the Republican presidential hopeful scaled back his assault on his GOP rivals. Instead, Trump is begging for voter support in Iowa after slipping behind Ben Carson in the polls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Iowa, will you get these numbers up, please? Will you get these numbers up? I promise you, I will do such a good job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: In the meantime, there's already campaign drama over the green rooms at tonight's debate. Thanks to Politico for flagging this, we now know that not all of the candidates were happy with their pre-debate digs, so judge for yourself.

You can see Donald Trump's swanky setup on the left. On the right, those are the digs for Senator Rand Paul.

Here's another example. Marco Rubio will be in a theater on site. So he gets to kick back in some pretty plush seating.

(LAUGHTER)

Not so with some other candidates. So let's bring in CNN national correspondent Sunlen Serfaty.

I didn't know they argued over such things.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Campaigns, Carol, really not saving the drama for tonight's debate stage. There's certainly, it sounds like, a lot of behind-the-scenes wrangling here over the size and the accommodations at each of the candidates' green room. This area where they hang out behind the scenes waiting for the debate to start, really a place where they can focus and prep for tonight's debate.

According to Politico, it was a tense meeting last night when a lot of the campaigns walked through these green rooms last night. Many of the campaigns says are not too happy with those sort of accommodations.

An aide to Senator Rand Paul tweeting out a few of those photos, comparing the green rooms. This first one comparing Carly Fiorina's green room equipped with a Jacuzzi to Rand Paul's, which, as you see there, has just a toilet, a singular fan, not too plush accommodations for him. And then again tweeting probably sarcastically, quote, "Thanks to the GOP for bending over backwards to acquire great working conditions for team Paul."

Now the Republican National Committee communications director was asked about this, this morning on "NEW DAY." Here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN SPICER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, RNC: We're here at the Coors Events Center in Boulder. It's an absolutely unbelievable facility. But obviously it's used for sporting events. We've got 14 amazing candidates who are going to take the stage tonight. And so when you have 14 people, you have to utilize every piece of real estate that's here.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK.

SPICER: That's changing rooms, training rooms, locker rooms, referee rooms. And so they're not -- this is not like going to a facility where you can have identical rooms. And some of them didn't like the size or whatever. We worked through the night.

CAMEROTA: Right.

SPICER: The team at the RNC found new rooms, got everybody happy, and so we're good to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: There was a little "let's move on from the uproar over this green room controversy" and potentially save those fireworks for tonight -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live from Boulder, Colorado, thank you.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's latest campaign stop took her to New York and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Clinton dishing on everything from her favorite shows to binge watching and how she would handle the big banks if she were elected president.

Joining me now, Mark Preston who's the executive editor of CNN Politics. Tell us more, Mark.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, Carol, she certainly made some news last night on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." She's considered to be too close to Wall Street by some liberals in her party. However, she probably turned some heads when she said that she would let the banks fail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": If you're president --

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes.

COLBERT: And the banks -- and the banks are failing, do we let them fail this time?

CLINTON: Yes, yes.

COLBERT: We let them fail this time.

CLINTON: Yes, yes, yes, yes.

COLBERT: Wow.

CLINTON: Yes. First of all, under Dodd-Frank, that is what will happen because we now have stress tests, and I'm going to impose a risk fee on the big bank if they engage in risky behavior.

[10:05:02] But they have to know, their shareholders have to know, that yes, they will fail. And if they're too big to fail, then under my plan and others that have been proposed, they may have to be broken up because if you can't manage it, then it's more likely to fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: And there you have Hillary Clinton last night talking about what she would do if some of the big banks were to fail like we saw back during the financial crisis of 2008.

Now why this is newsy, Carol, is because her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, wants to break up the big banks. Hillary Clinton doesn't want to do that. She wants to put more regulations on them, but that's where her and Sanders have a big dividing line.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Mark Preston, thanks so much.

Everybody hates the IRS, but maybe not as much as Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz. He is on a mission. Impeach the IRS chief, John Koskinen. It is the latest salvo in what conservatives say is an attempt to protect Tea Party groups from being unfairly targeted by the tax agency.

CNN's Chris Frates is covering this story for us this morning. Good morning.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. So as you point out, this is just the latest shot fired in a running battle between IRS Commissioner Koskinen and House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz.

Yesterday Chaffetz and 18 other members of his House Oversight Committee introduced a resolution to impeach the IRS commissioner. They argued that Koskinen misled the public during the investigation into whether IRS targeted Tea Party groups applying for nonprofit status.

Now, remember, that probe centered on an IRS employee named Lois Lerner. Congress requested Lerner's e-mails. And agency officials told lawmakers, well, hey, an unknown number of those have been lost. Her computer crashed. We don't know what happened. But an IRS watchdog later found that as many as 24,000 e-mails were lost, and the inspector general was able to recover more than 1,000 of those e-mails that the IRS did not turn over to Congress.

So on Tuesday, Chaffetz blamed Koskinen for those lost e-mails, arguing that he failed to comply with a subpoena to preserve them. He also said Koskinen provided false and misleading information to Congress and failed to notify Congress that key evidence was missing.

Now Chaffetz did not say whether his impeachment push has the backing of Paul Ryan. Ryan, of course, is the man expected to be the next speaker of the house.

So it's unclear, Carol, if this effort will get off the ground. But it comes after Chaffetz and 51 other lawmakers called on President Obama to remove Koskinen back in July. The White House never responded to that request. The IRS has responded. In fact, in an e- mail to CNN, they said the IRS vigorously disputes the allegations in the resolution. We have fully cooperated with all of the investigations.

And the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Carol, Elijah Cummings, blasted the move saying, quote, "Calling this resolution a stunt or a joke would be insulting to stunts and jokes" -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Chris Frates reporting live, thanks so much.

It is a busy day for Republicans. There's the move to impeach the head of the IRS. We just mentioned that. Tonight's debate, and in just a few hours, the GOP will vote on their choice for House speaker.

Right now Republicans are meeting behind closed doors listening to Paul Ryan and Daniel Webster make their pitches for the job.

CNN's Manu Raju is live on Capitol Hill. He's following this drama. Good morning.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Now Paul Ryan just concluded his pitch to House Republicans. And what he spoke about in large part was changing the way the House does business. Now House Republicans, a lot of them are very upset at this budget deal that's moving very quickly through the House that John Boehner has cut in his final days in office with the White House. That deal was essentially dropped on their laps on Monday. We're looking at it passing the House this afternoon, and it will pass the Senate likely next week.

But what Paul Ryan is telling these guys is that, look, I will change things. I'm going to fire up the committee process. We're going to do a more bottom-up approach. We're going to pass spending bills, bill by bill instead of cutting deals in a backroom. But really that will be put to a test as early as December, Carol, when Paul Ryan will have a huge task in order to fund the government past December 11.

Now this budget deal that is moving right now will help probably decrease the chances of a shutdown because both parties will have agreed to top-line spending numbers, but those program-by-program decisions on how much to spend and what not to spend money on such as Planned Parenthood which has been a big fight among Republicans will still come back to -- for Paul Ryan to deal with later this fall.

Now after this meeting this morning which Paul Ryan made his pitch to his members, Republicans will gather privately this afternoon at 1:30 in which they will actually vote to nominate the next speaker. Paul Ryan is widely expected to win that vote. Daniel Webster is his only opposition. Webster's probably going to get a very small number of votes.

[10:10:07] And then afterwards, the House will vote on that budget agreement and it will probably pass the House with a majority of Democratic votes and a minority of Republicans.

So this is all the drama that's unfolding on Capitol Hill, and really it's just emblematic of the torch being passed from John Boehner to Paul Ryan. And the question is, will things change?

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see. Manu Raju reporting live, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, very soon we may learn the fate of a South Carolina officer who was involved in a violent arrest of a high school student.

We have new details on when police will address the allegations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:19] COSTELLO: All right. This just into CNN. And excuse me, I'm going to look at my e-mail so I can get this exactly right. The former speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, has pleaded guilty. He was in a Chicago courtroom this morning. He pleaded guilty this morning in a hush-money case.

Our Rosa Flores was inside the courthouse. The judge accepted Hastert's guilty plea and he set a sentencing date for February 29th. The government recommended a sentence of zero to six months in prison. The judge, of course, does not have to abide by it. As you heard, he'll officially sentence Hastert sometime in February, February 29th. We'll take you back to Chicago as events warrant.

In just a couple of hours we could find out if an embattled South Carolina cop will lose his job. Cell phone cameras captured this violent arrest of a teenager in her high school classroom. The FBI and Justice Department are now involved in the investigation. Local officials are expected to address the allegations against Officer Ben Fields at noon.

In the meantime, the sheriff in this case says even though the deputy's actions disturbed him, the student in this incident did bear some responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF LEON LOTT, RICHLAND COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: It actually shows the student hitting the school resource officer with her fist and striking him. Now what she does is not what I'm looking at. What I'm looking at is what our school resource officer did. What was his actions? What did he do? That's where I'll make my determination based on that.

So even though she was wrong for disturbing the class, even though she refused to abide by the directions of the teacher, the school administrator, and then also the verbal commands of our deputy, I'm looking at what our deputy did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Martin Savidge is following the story. He joins us now. Good morning, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The Richland County sheriff, by the way, was out of town when this happened on Monday. He quickly raced back. And then yesterday he said he was going to start an investigation, and he was going to move very quickly on coming up with some kind of determination as to what should happen next with that officer.

Given the fact that we've got a press conference that is slated for noon today Eastern Time, well, it sounds like he's moving fast, and that generally also sounds like a jury that has made up its mind quickly, which may not be a good thing for Ben Fields. But Naya Kenny is the other student that was apprehended in that classroom during this altercation. Here's what she would like to see happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAYA KENNY, SECOND STUDENT ARRESTED IN CASE: I was screaming in the classroom. You know, screaming and crying. I'm just, like, what's going on? You know, what the, what the -- and as he's on top of her, he turned around to me and he was, like, since you have so much to say, you're next. So then they escort her out of the classroom. And then he comes back, and he said, you got something so much -- you got something you want to say? You want some of this, too? And I was just, like, no. And I just put my hands behind my back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: She is clearly of the mindset that that officer doesn't belong in the classroom. Again, and she is not alone in that. The school board last night, there were a number of people who spoke up including school board members who believe that this officer just does not belong inside the school in that kind of an environment. Final decision, as we say, is with the sheriff, and we expect to hear that later today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll check back. Martin Savidge reporting live.

Checking some other top stories at 18 minutes past, in Baltimore, police are now wearing body cameras. This week nearly 200 officers and detectives throughout the city are being equipped with the cameras as part of a two-month pilot program. The police department plans to have all officers equipped with the devices within the next two years. The move comes six months after rioting shook the city following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody.

Philadelphia Police are looking for suspects in this brutal robbery aboard a Septa train. You can see a man and woman here stealing a bag from a sleeping passenger. As the thieves take off, the man wakes up and chases after them, and that's when the struggle ensues. One of the attackers tases the man, sending him flying on to the live tracks. Remarkably -- well, you see, oh, gosh, the victim survived. Police have not yet tracked down the suspects.

In Sacramento, another shocking attack caught on camera. This time in a high school. That man being thrown to the ground there is the principal. He was apparently trying to break up a fight when he got pulled into the middle of it. Three students were arrested. None of them more than 15 years old.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we know it was a big night for the Royals at last night's game, but it's a big day today for British royalty here in the United States. Prince Harry is here.

(LAUGHTER)

We'll tell you where he'll go in D.C. and who he'll meet just ahead.

[10:20:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Our nation's capitol will host a royal visitor today, and that would be Prince Harry. And Prince Harry has got a jam-packed day. In the coming hour he'll join First Lady Michelle Obama at Fort Belvoir Military Base to talk with wounded war veterans. And then Harry will meet with President Obama at the White House.

White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski is really psyched about the prince's visit. I can tell by your face. I only wish that Prince George was with him because, you know, that's my favorite tiny royal.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, everybody loves a cute baby.

COSTELLO: Look at him, Michelle. Look.

KOSINSKI: He is cute, definitely cute. I kind of feel sorry for him, but he's cute.

COSTELLO: What? Feel sorry for him?

KOSINSKI: He has to be a royal. He has no choice. I guess he could -- he could leave and escape later if he wanted to.

[10:25:02] COSTELLO: I don't think he's going to because they all have a duty to serve their country.

KOSINSKI: They have nice houses. They have very nice houses.

COSTELLO: They certainly do. OK. Back to Prince Harry and what he's going to do in Washington.

KOSINSKI: Yes, he has a lot going on. I mean, really the crux of it is the Invictus Games that he's huge supporter of. He helped get that formed after he saw the Warrior Games here in the U.S. So the Invictus Games first started last year in England, and now they're going to be here in the United States next year. Next May in Orlando.

So he's here, and this morning he's meeting with the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, he's going to meet with wounded warriors, take a tour of a facility for them. So yes, it is all for a great cause. And again, because he was a soldier and he served in Afghanistan, this is really something that's close to his heart, and he really likes to promote wherever he travels. And so then the sort of topper of the day will be him coming here to the White House where I'll be long gone at that hour to avoid the crush of girls screaming.

And he will meet with President Obama. And I did reach out to the White House. I did my duty to find out, you know, among all these serious topics today, what will the president and Prince Harry be discussing? But I haven't gotten a response. Maybe it's so secret and so huge that they don't want to give it away. So we had to keep our eye on that -- Carol. For real.

COSTELLO: I don't think Michelle Kosinski is excited about Prince Harry. So I think we should put up Prince George's picture one more time just to torture her.

KOSINSKI: Yes. Or we could have a beard or no beard contest and have the viewers weigh in. And then we could present that to the prince and, I don't know, maybe we could make some changes.

COSTELLO: That would be a great idea. Michelle Kosinski, thanks so much.

KOSINSKI: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, my goodness. That was funny. OK. Back to serious stuff. On the day Senator Marco Rubio prepares for a possible game- changing debate, a newspaper in his home state of Florida is sending the presidential candidate a stern message. Show up percentage votes or resign your Senate seat.

This is the headline in "The Sun-Sentinel" newspaper in Ft. Lauderdale. "Marco Rubio should resign, not rip us off." The editorial comes after a CNN exclusive with Rubio who explained why he neglected to show up for nearly one-third of Senate votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm running for president. I'm running for president of the United States. I'm not playing golf. I'm not on vacation. I'm campaigning for the future of America. I'm running for president so that the votes they take in the Senate are actually meaningful again. A lot of these votes won't mean anything. They're not going to pass. And even if they did, the president would veto it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: "The Sun-Sentinel's" response to that, "Sorry, Senator, but Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job. We've got serious problems." The paper goes on, "You were paid $174,000 per year to represent us, to fight for us, to solve our problems. You are ripping us off, Senator."

So let's talk about that and more. Joining me now, CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for "The New York Times," Ross Douthat. I'm also joined by Peter Beinart. He's a CNN political commentator and contributing editor for Atlantic Media.

Ross, I'll start with you because you kind of talked up Rubio in your column a couple of days ago in "The New York Times." So does "The Sun-Sentinel" -- does the "Sun-Sentinel" have a point in your mind? ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Sure, it's a case where both

sides have a point. I mean, Rubio's right that we're late in the second term of a president where Washington is totally gridlocked, and the votes that he would cast in the Senate don't mean a lot. By the same token, I think, you know, I think "The Sun-Sentinel" is right that it's probably bad form to miss these many votes even when you are running for president. There are flights back to Washington, D.C. He could probably manage to cut the rate down a little bit.

But ultimately, I think this is -- it's actually kind of a sign of Rubio's strength as a candidate overall that this is the kind of controversy we're talking about because "The Sun-Sentinel" aren't the first people to raise it. Jeb Bush's campaign has actually tried to raise this in their quest to sort of deflect Rubio's potential rise. And you know, when you're arguing about how many Senate votes a guy who's running for president has missed, you probably don't have a lot of really strong critiques of him as a candidate.

COSTELLO: So, Peter, do you agree? It's sort of, like, well, if he voted, it wouldn't matter anyway so why vote?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I agree with Ross that the fact that people are talking about this is a sign that Rubio is, I think, by far the strongest candidate in the Republican field. And generally I think these kind of attacks don't hurt candidates. I also think Rubio benefits in the fact that Barack Obama was also a guy who didn't really like being in the Senate very much, who ran for president very quickly, missed a lot of votes. So he's created a precedent.

The only thing that really bothers me is that I think a lot of these votes Rubio has missed not because he's out campaigning for votes but because he's out trying to raise money. And that I just think is a fundamentally massive problem in our political system. If he were actually going out and dealing with voters, but it's the fact that he's flying around to mansions all over the country, not him but the other candidates, too, and trying to raise money because you have to spend so much of your time doing that, that seems to me the fundamental problem.