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Thrilling Finish: Royals Win World Series; Ryan Rejects Expanding Paid Family Leave. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired November 02, 2015 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:01] PEREIRA: I'm going to leave it there. Time for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello on this Monday. Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I wish I hadn't heard that, Alisyn.
PEREIRA: I can't. I can't.
COSTELLO: OK. We got to go. NEWSROOM starts now.
CUOMO: Please.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, what brought down a Russian passenger jet? This morning, airline officials not ruling out terrorism as loved ones pile flowers at an airport memorial.
Plus --
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The debate was a really weird debate.
COSTELLO: GOP candidates lay out their debate demands.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Harry Truman couldn't get elected president with explaining the United States of America's health care plan in 30 seconds.
COSTELLO: But should the candidates be running the show?
And the Kansas City Royals crowned. 12 innings at a rally from behind win brings Royals fans to their feet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All these young fans get a chance to see a win after all these years. Thirty years.
COSTELLO: This is what the World Series champs look like.
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. This morning, mystery surrounds a Russian airliner crash that killed all 224 people on board. While officials initially dismiss claims of responsibility by ISIS-linked militants, the Kremlin now says it cannot rule out terrorism. And airline officials say only an external influence could have caused the plane to virtually disintegrate in the midair.
CNN's Arwa Damon is in Cairo.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, a medical source who has been dealing with processing the bodies tells us that of the 175 that he saw, around 60 percent to 70 percent of them were still intact. And none of them had any sort of burn injuries or burn scars. But the more information that's coming out from the various different individuals and government parties that are involved, the more convoluted and mysterious the reasons behind the downing of the aircraft become.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON (voice-over): This morning, new photos emerging of the black box from Russian passenger jet flight 9268. Metro Airlines holding a press conference in Moscow, claiming the airliner could not have broken apart in midair by itself.
Metrojet Airlines holding a press conference this morning in Moscow, saying Russian passenger jet flight 9628 could not have broken apart in midair by itself. This amid new reports the passenger jet broke into pieces as it flew over the remote Egyptian countryside. The fuselage disintegrating around 20 minutes into the flight, from an Egyptian resort town to St. Petersburg Saturday, according to Russian aviation officials. The airline company says the only explanation would be an external influence.
Overnight, nearly 150 of the 224 passengers killed on board arriving in Russia. Mourners of the mostly Russian victims gathering at St. Petersburg Airport, where the air jet was supposed to end its journey. Aerials of the crash site show mangled wreckage strewn across nearly eight square miles. But Egypt's prime minister says there are no indications that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen on this aircraft.
Egypt's civil aviation minister adding, there are no reports that the airplane had faults. Checks done before takeoff did not reveal anything, and no one received any SOS calls. Still, questions linger as to why Flight 9628 hurled to the ground in a remote part of Egypt, in clear weather, an area plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency.
PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You can certainly see whether there were any sign of a bomb or a missile striking the aircraft. They leave very distinctive markings. And that should be able to be eliminated very quickly.
DAMON: The co-pilot's ex-wife telling Russian state-run news, he complained before the flight to their daughter, wishing for a better technical condition of the plane.
Most passengers were found with their seat belts on, according to Egypt's military, suggesting the pilot asked them to buckle up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DAMON: The two black boxes containing vital data were recovered fairly quickly on Saturday, the same day that the plane went down. We're going to have to wait and see how long extracting that information is going to take. Amidst the Egyptians coming out and saying that they do not believe that any of the militant groups who operate in the area have the capability to bring down an aircraft pummeling at that altitude -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Arwa Damon reporting for us this morning.
With me now, David Soucie, CNN safety analyst and former FAA safety inspector, and author of "Malaysia Airlines Flight 370."
[09:05:04] Welcome, David. So just such a terrible thing. And terrorism has not been ruled out now. But let's look at the debris field from this latest crash and the debris field from MH-17, an aircraft that was shot down over Ukraine. Do you see any similarities here?
DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Well, there are some obvious similarities, as far as the damage goes. One of the things that's dissimilar about it is if you look at MH-17 accident, the skin of the aircraft was perforated. It had a bunch of small holes in it, which told us with that that it was probably a Buk missile, which breaks into small diamond-shaped particles that goes through the aircraft and that missile is designed to disable aircraft, not to explode it in one piece, like you're seeing in this particular accident.
So there are differences. There are similarities, in that it's spread across a long distance. So that would tell you the commonality would be that there is a breakup of the aircraft at high altitude.
COSTELLO: I would suppose that it's possible a bomb could have been on board the plane. Your thoughts?
SOUCIE: At this point, Carol, anything is possible. I'm very surprised that the airline coming out and ruling out things, like mechanical failure. You know, they said that there was no indication there's anything wrong with the aircraft beforehand. But almost every accident I've been on, there is not that much notice when there's some kind of catastrophic failure like this.
So that wouldn't be -- that really doesn't tell us anything about the mechanical condition of the aircraft or anything else, really, about what happened, so although it's too far, too early to make conclusions or -- especially to rule things out like the airline is doing, there are some -- there's definitely something about the external cause. What they're talking about is either a bomb or a missile, something from an external, outside the routine operation.
COSTELLO: And just going back to the mechanics of the plane because the Russian authorities say the plane was inspected, it was cleared for takeoff. But the plane was damaged in 2001. The plane's tail section was damaged when it landed in Egypt. The plane had been fixed and it was flying since then just fine.
SOUCIE: Yes. It had, Carol. There's a structural repair manual with Airbus so when there is any kind of a tail strike or any damage to the aircraft, before it's returned to service, it has to be -- it has to meet all of those manufacturer's requirements for the repair itself, and then there's a second set of eyes and even a third set of inspections that go on, to make sure that those repairs are done properly. So I think we're going down the wrong path, thinking about that relationship, honestly.
COSTELLO: All right. David Soucie, thanks for joining me.
In the world of politics this morning, Jeb Bush 2.0, campaign staffers for the struggling one-time GOP presidential frontrunner are promising a shaper, more nimble and aggressive candidate. So will that be the case when he speaks next hour in Florida?
CNN's Athena Jones live in Tampa with more. Good morning.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Look, it's not lost on anyone that Jeb Bush has been struggling. Struggling in the polls. Struggling on the debate stage. And really struggling to get his message across. His message so far doesn't seem to be resonating with Republican primary voters. And so today, in what his campaign is calling an important speech, he's trying to re-jigger and repackage that message with a new slogan, "Jeb can fix it."
The central point of his message is that he can fix what's ailing in Washington. He has a proven record to do so.
We have some excerpts from the speech. I'll read two of them for you. Slight digs, subtle digs, at his opponents. He says that America is facing a testing time at home and abroad and that, quote, "The challenges we face as a nation are too great to roll the dice on another presidential experiment. To trust the rhetoric of reform over a record of reform."
Now that comment sounds like a subtle dig at folks like Marco Rubio, the senator who was Jeb Bush's protege and is now kind of pulling ahead of him in this race. So a subtle dig there.
Here's another quote we'll hear from him today. "This election is not about a set of personalities, it's about a set of principles. It is about leadership." That comment also sounds like a dig against folks like Donald Trump. We know, of course, Trump and Ben Carson, personalities with not a lot of political experience, or really no political experience, have dominated the campaign so far.
And so Bush is trying to distinguish himself from Trump, from Carson and also from folks like Rubio. So that's a sampling of what we'll hear in this speech next hour -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. We'll get back to you next hour. Athena Jones reporting live from Tampa.
GOP presidential rivals are revolting. The campaigns now banding together against the press and the Republican National Committee, demanding changes be made to future debates. The backlash comes after angry candidates complained about so-called gotcha questions by moderators at the CNBC debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[09:10:11] BUSH: The debate was a really weird debate, you know, just because you didn't get a chance to continue on. I literally got cut off by three of the -- all three of them, saying, you know, next question. Next question.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have too many people on one stage and too few on the other. I don't mind being asked hard questions and challenging questions. I think some of the questions have been downright silly. And this thing has gone on too long.
KASICH: Harry Truman couldn't get elected president with explaining the United States of America's health care plan in 30 seconds.
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should have moderators who are interested in disseminating the information about the candidates, as opposed to, you know, gotcha.
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There has to be consequence when the debate process is abused in the way that CNBC did it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Among the proposals on the table, a two-hour time limit, equal speaking time for each candidate, all 14 of them, and a 30- second limit on opening and closing statements.
Let's bring in CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston for more. Good morning, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Good morning, Carol. Yes, we saw the 14 candidates -- campaigns meet last night in Old Town, Alexandria, right outside of Washington, D.C. to try to get some common cause for the changing of the debate process. Now as you're right, they are angry at the media, but they're also angry at the Republican National Committee, which they claim has not been able to meet their demands and to watch their backs.
However, instead of fighting the RNC is now trying to lock arms with the candidates themselves. And we heard Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus say so much this morning on ABC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: We're involved, we're in control, we're setting the calendar. In fact, if what happened from last night goes forward, I think it's exactly where we want to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRESTON: Now, Carol, what I should point out is that all of the campaigns have a different agenda. Some of these candidates want to see a mixing up of the candidates on stage. The lower tier candidates want a chance to take on the higher tier candidates. And some of the higher tier candidates want to limit their liability and they don't want to have to answer tough questions -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Mark Preston reporting for us this morning. Thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Royal rally. Kansas City comes back to win the World Series. Andy Scholes has all the highlights.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Hey, Carol. Yes. Another amazing comeback by the Royals as Kansas City celebrating their first World Series in 30 years. We'll take a look at why it's a sad sports morning in New York when NEWSROOM continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:16:53] COSTELLO: It may have taken 30 years, but a Kansas City Royals -- they are amazing. They're once again World Series champions. Yes, that's what the front of the Kansas City star looks like this morning.
But take a look at some of the New York tabloids. This one is particularly mean. It's "The New York Post". Look, poor Daniel Murphy is crying, as I would be, Andy Scholes, if I were Daniel Murphy. It was sad.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, you've got to feel bad for the Mets. They had the lead in many of these games, but just couldn't find a way to close them out. But that's the story of the royals this entire post season. Right when you thought they were down and out, they always found a way to make a comeback.
In game five last night, it was probably their best comeback yet, Carol. You know, Matt Harvey was pitching a masterpiece and convinced the manager Terry Collins, I'm going out there to go pitch the ninth. You're leaving me in the game. Collins said yes.
And it would end up being a mistake. Harvey gives up the RBI double, making it 2-1. They remove Harvey from the game. This next play is one Mets fans are going to talk about for a long time.
On the ground, Hosmer bolts for home. And Lucas Duda's throw is wide. That ties the game. Mets fans, everyone with hands on their head. Twelfth inning, RBI single gave the royals the lead. The flood gates opened from there, as the royals won, 7-2.
Salvador Perez is your World Series MVP. And our own CNN's Rachel Nichols, she was in the middle of that party in the club house out there, and she caught up first baseman Eric Hosmer. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS: When you're making the run from third that changes everything. What are you aware of as you're heading toward home plate?
ERIC HOSMER, ROYALS FIRST BASEMAN: I don't know. I think when I first decided to go home. I thought it was a big mistake, but couldn't turn back at that point. You have to figure out a way to get there. Day in and day out, regular season and even on to this post season, we just always found a way to get ourselves back into something. Always found a way to get the job done. Just really no other way the World Series could have ended, without us making a comeback late in the game.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: According to the live sports bureau, the royals are the first sports team ever to win three games in a World Series which they trailed in the eighth inning or later. You have to feel bad for the Mets. They had the lead and couldn't close it out. I see you have your hat on.
Baseball's post season is just an emotional ride. You know, Tiger's fan. I'm an Astros fan. It hurts. I can sympathize with the Mets fans are feeling this morning.
COSTELLO: I know, I know. But I'm hoping the Tigers learned a few lessons from the Kansas City Royals, because as you know, the Tigers made it to the World Series in 2006 and 2012 and were summarily defeated. So, here's to you, Tigers. Learn from the Royals.
SCHOLES: Hey, they are in the same division, Carol. You have to overtake the royals if you hope to get back to the World Series.
COSTELLO: So painful. Hopefully, most of the players will go to the Yankees. They're in my division. No, they're not. They're in the other division, but in the American League.
Andy Scholes, thanks so much.
SCHOLES: All right.
COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: GOP candidates debate demand -- gotcha questions have to go.
[09:20:05] But is it up to the candidates to decide what constitutes a gotcha question?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I laid every ounce of catholic guilt I could on him --
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: How did that go? Lay Catholic guilt on me. I want to know how it feels like. BOEHNER: You have no choice. It's not about what you want to do,
it's what God wants you to do. God told me he wants you to do this.
BASH: You pulled the God card, huh?
BOEHNER: Oh, I pulled it all out.
Listen, Paul was the right guy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Good strategy, John Boehner.
Of course, that was the former House speaker, John Boehner, opening up to Dana Bash about how he tried to sway Congressman Paul Ryan to take the speaker's job. Before taking office, Ryan made headlines for refusing to give up family time to become speaker.
[09:25:00] While some celebrated Ryan for being family focused, others criticized him because he opposes expanding paid family leave.
On Sunday, he doubled down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Sticking up for being a person with balance in your life, for wanting to spend your weekends in your home with your family, which I work with constituents and my family throughout the weekends, I don't think that's -- I don't think that means, therefore, you should sign up for some unfunded mandates.
BASH: No, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Let's bring in CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash.
What else did he say about family leave?
BASH: Well, before we get to the serious stuff, I think we should just have a little bit of fun and show what Paul Ryan does on the weekends with his family. Particularly, when a weekend falls on Halloween. Check that out.
I don't know if you can see that Mitt Romney mask. That's Paul Ryan behind there. Mitt Romney's former running mate went as Mitt Romney for Halloween. That's a fun fact and a fun moment.
But on to the serious policy issue, you sort of heard me following up with now Speaker Ryan about the question of paid family leave, because the point I was trying to make is, philosophically, he and other Republicans oppose making it a government mandate, making it mandatory for businesses to give their employees paid family time off, or paid time off when -- for a woman who has a baby or a new father. That is certainly the case in most civilized nations. The U.S. is far behind. But even putting that aside, what I was trying to get at with him is
because this is a generational change, and he even told me -- look, he's in the new generation where men are expected to change diapers, how he can move U.S. policy up to that time. He said, look, he still believes that it is up to businesses to decide and it is not up to the government -- Carol.
COSTELLO: On another topic, you spoke to Speaker Ryan about the push to defund Planned Parenthood. What did he tell you about that?
BASH: This is interesting because although there was a lot of sort of hoopla around a big budget deal last week that John Boehner did as a gift to Paul Ryan before he walked out the door, the Congress still has to fund the government by December 11th or the government will shut down. We've seen that movie before.
One of the issues still on the table for a lot of Republicans is, they don't want to fund the government that -- and pass a bill that includes continuing to fund Planned Parenthood. So, I asked how he would deal with that. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Defunding Planned Parenthood, will it happen?
RYAN: I don't think Planned Parenthood should get a red cent from the taxpayer. I've always believed that. I voted that way before these disgusting videos came out. But I believe we need to do our oversight. We're just beginning to start a committee to investigate Planned Parenthood. That's important.
So, the special committee on Planned Parenthood I think should be in the driver's seat of overseeing this process.
BASH: But what will you do about --
RYAN: Let me get you there, Dana. Hang on a second.
BASH: OK.
RYAN: Are we going to let Congress work its will and have amendments come to the process and have regular order of where we have conference committees? Yes. By not controlling the process so tightly held here, the speakership, by letting it go forward, I don't know what the outcome is going to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: He doesn't know what the outcome is going to be but, Carol, there is a big, big Republican majority in the House. It is hard to imagine they wouldn't pass at least an initial budget that defunds Planned Parenthood. So, then the question is going to be, are we going to be careening toward another crisis when we get toward December 11th?
We'll see if he'll let them pass that once and try to put a stop to it, convince them that the place for this fight is in that committee he was talking about, where they're investigating Planned Parenthood. It's going to be a huge first test, to see how he handles this differently than his predecessor.
COSTELLO: All right. Dana Bash reporting. Thank you.
BASH: Thanks.
COSTELLO: In Hollywood, he's known as the gruff district attorney Arthur Branch. In Washington, he is remembered for his common sense approach to politics.
Former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson died on Sunday following a recurrence of lymphoma. Thompson was first elected to fill Al Gore's U.S. Senate seat in 1994 before winning a full term on his own. He also briefly ran for president in 2008. Thompson appeared in several films but was best known for the TV role on "Law and Order." Thompson was 73 years old.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
The Republican presidential candidates are going head to head with the press and the Republican National Committee. They're demanding more control over future debates. It's all a part of the backlash following the CNBC debate. Candidates criticized the RNC for its part and slammed the moderators for so-called gotcha questions.
Well, those gotcha questions got me thinking, what actually constitutes a gotcha question? I decided to post that on my Facebook page, and my followers wrote back in force. This from Nancy, she says, "A gotcha question seems to be a question that the person being questioned either does not want to answer or doesn't know the answer."
