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U.S. Ramps Up Security; Carson's Story. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 06, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:19] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

News just into us here. U.S. airport security overseas is about to get a massive shakeup as the TSA is reacting to growing suspicion that someone may have planted a bomb on board that Russian passenger plane that broke up over the Sinai Peninsula over Egypt killing all 224 people on board. This is coming into us today as Moscow is making a surprise move suspending its flights from Russia to Egypt. And when I say flights, I mean all flights, not just to the resort city here of Sharm el Sheikh where this ill-fated flight departed, all flights into Egypt.

This is despite insistence though from the Kremlin that bomb theories are mere speculation. The kremlin now has said to be working on a plan to bring 50,000 Russian vacationers home, a process now underway on a smaller scale with the Brits.

So I have Richard Quest with me, CNN aviation correspondent and host on CNN International. Also Rene Marsh is with us as well. Yes, she is. Rene is joining us.

So, Rene, let me just first begin with you on the reporting. Talk to me about, this is inbound flights into the United States from certain airports overseas, yes?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Right. And they're - they're being very vague, I must say. They don't list out which airports will be impacted and, of course, that's for security reasons. But this is the first time we're hearing from the Department of Homeland Security since that Russian jetliner went down. And so here's the headline.

We know that according to the statement from Secretary Jeh Johnson, they plan on expanding screening of items going on to the aircraft. They also will be working with foreign governments to assess the security structures at their airports.

They also go on to say, Brooke, that they plan - they plan on putting forward other measures seen and unseen, which is a line we hear quite a bit from the Department of Homeland Security. And, you know, oftentimes even when you push back on that, well, what does that mean? They don't want to give up that information because, as they say, they don't want the bad actors to know everything that they plan on doing. So on the surface it doesn't look overly dramatic. What it looks like

is an enhancement of measures that are currently in place. You can expect to see those stepped up even more. Travelers, what would you expect to see? Perhaps you'll see even more random checks, more canines, more officers, more swabbing of the hands, more random checking of luggage. Those are the sort of things that travelers traveling from overseas airports with direct flights to the United States will see.

And we must also point out, one last point, Brooke. The reason why this is so important, whenever you're a foreign airport and you have direct flights to the United States, you do have to abide by TSA rules. And so they are going to be working specifically with those airports to make sure that their structure, their security structure, is up to task.

BALDWIN: OK. Rene Marsh, thank you so much.

As I mentioned, I have Richard Quest with me. Also Kimberly Dozier, CNN global affairs analyst.

And I'm looking at you, Richard Quest, I want to begin with you, out of the corner of my eye. And, I mean, Rene makes a point that a lot of this is very vague. You know, you see our reporting. No - no specifics anywhere, of course, are named.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, and - and you had - it's a very tricky area for the U.S. because effectively what the U.S. is saying to these foreign airports is, if you want flights, direct flights, to the United States, you're going to have to follow certain rules. But it is extra territorial in that sense. They can't enforce it. They can't demand it. They can't insist upon it. All they can say is, if you want those direct flights, this is what we require you to do. And, of course, most foreign airports will go along with it.

BALDWIN: OK.

QUEST: I'm not so sure many passengers will notice much difference. We're talk -

BALDWIN: You don't think so?

QUEST: No, I really don't. Look at some - offers of assistance to foreign airports relating to aviation security, airport assessments in conjunction with international partners.

BALDWIN: Translate that please.

QUEST: Well, that's what the British have just been doing down in Sharm el Sheikh. The British went to Sharm. They've done an assessment, what needs to happen there, and now with other countries they will put it in place. And certain expanded screening. I think you're going to look at more screening of cargo. You're going to look at more screening of luggage. You're going to have much more information correlated to the various passengers coming together. BALDWIN: On cargo, let me move away from security and get to this.

This is what we're getting from the BBC. You know where I'm going. Reaction from the TSA and Russia. We're hearing reports that the U.K. suspects a bomb was placed in the cargo hold, possibly by a worker, as has been a possibly. So an inside job. If there is the possibility that there is some, you know, nefarious individual on the inside working at the Sharm Airport, why is the airport not totally shut down? They have to - what are they doing behind the scenes that we clearly don't know about?

[14:05:15] QUEST: Well, the airport is not shut down.

BALDWIN: No.

QUEST: But there are the most dramatic and draconian restrictions on flights going in and out.

BALDWIN: On flights, but what about those working at the airport?

QUEST: Well, they're checking all those, we believe. But that is clearly - the people - the people working in the airport have always been the weakest link versus the passengers. Every passenger comes in the front door with their bags and you can check them up to a certain point.

BALDWIN: We talk about this state side as well.

QUEST: Right. But the people who are working there in the thousands, often much lower lax security areas. It's always been the weak point. And the other weak point is cargo.

BALDWIN: Why?

QUEST: Because of the sheer volumes. You don't inspect cargo. They have something known as trusted programs for certain freight forward (ph). It's always been known that these are the weakest areas in the security chain.

BALDWIN: Kimberly, you want to jump in on airport security before I ask you something else here?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Absolutely. To what Richard was saying, this gives U.S. officials and other international officials a chance to do checks that they might have wanted to do but hadn't been able to do before. If you talk to either DHS officials or contractors privately, they will tell you that there are plenty of airports in the Middle East and Africa where they think the system isn't rigorous enough. Something broke down here, if this was a bomb. And even though I've also gotten a lot of U.S. officials this morning telling me again we're not sure what this was, if it was a bomb, the system on the ground didn't work and this is a - they have a responsibility and an opportunity to review every step along the way.

BALDWIN: What about Russia now? We've heard about the Brits. They're trying to get all these vacationers out of Sharm. We know that Russia has now suspended flights not only into Sharm but Egypt as general. What about Putin? When will we have a forceful response from Putin? Two hundred - what is it, forty-four people killed on the plane, majority Russians, majority middle class, salt of the earth Russians here. What does he need to say and when will he say it?

DOZIER: Well, it's Putin's engineers and accident investigators who are on the ground with the Egyptians looking at this wreckage. Apparently not sharing very much with the Americans. So the fact that he has now said, you know, just to be on the safe side, we shouldn't fly in and out of Egypt, has led other U.S. officials and international officials to believe maybe they're on to something, maybe they found something in their analysis of the black box that is a smoking gun. And because of that, you're going to see a slow cascade of actions.

You have seen Russia inside Syria step up attacks on ISIS areas. Now the Pentagon is still saying that these are token attacks. They have still mostly concentrated their fire power on the rebels. But it is just possible that they're moving their ire and focusing on ISIS because of what they suspect happened in Egypt.

BALDWIN: Since it is still a what if situation and it could be for some time, Richard Quest, what are investigators doing right now as far as looking at, you know, pieces of debris? We reported pieces obviously in some of these bodies, depending on where on the plane they were, to figure out what it was.

QUEST: OK. What they are doing is literally examining it fragment by fragment.

BALDWIN: They are.

QUEST: Absolutely. They - so you start off and you're build - you've got millions of pieces of a jigsaw and you start putting it together. I'll give you an example. The passengers got the - at the front of the plane don't have certain damage to their bodies. The passengers at the back do.

BALDWIN: Because of the forward momentum and the explosion?

QUEST: I'm just giving you an example.

BALDWIN: OK.

QUEST: So you're now knowing that whatever happened may have happened at the back because the injuries are different. So now you're looking for pieces of the wreckage from the back of the plane and now you're looking to see how the rips and the tears and the residues on that part of the aircraft might be different from the front of the aircraft. And you're looking to see what sort of strains that the air frame took and slowly - and it really is - look, unless they actually manage to find a piece of wreckage with residue on, or like with MH-17 they found tale tail pieces of shrapnel in - bow-tie (ph) shrapnel in the bodies, you are very much - this could take weeks if not months before somebody definitively has that piece of evidence that says, yes, it is definitely a bomb.

BALDWIN: Richard Quest, thank you. Kimberly Dozier, thank you so much as well, for us in Washington. I appreciate it.

Coming up here, a bunch of lies. Ben Carson responding with strong, strong words to CNN's investigative reporting about his self-described troubled past. We'll take you inside a pretty tense interview this morning with my colleague Alisyn Camerota and the Republican presidential candidate.

Also ahead, Carly Fiorina visits the ladies at "The View" today one week after the hosts joked about her looks during the last Republican debate. Did she get an apology? How did that go? We'll talk with her campaign.

[14:10:09] And one man's dying wish, to see the new "Star Wars" film. How this viral social media campaign actually made it happen. He even got a phone call from JJ Abrams himself. We'll talk to someone directly involved in his incredible story. Stay here.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me here on this Friday.

Let's get you to the latest in the Republican race for the White House. CNN's new poll shows Ben Carson has a serious chance of winning the first contest here in the nation, the Iowa caucuses February 1st. He is just two points behind the leader here, Donald Trump, and that is within the margin of error.

And while Mr. Trump has called Carson low energy, the pediatric neurosurgeon was certainly on high octane this morning with a fiery exchange with my friend and colleague Alisyn Camerota, who asked him about the violent episodes in his youth that CNN has tried to corroborate. This is all over his 1990 biography, "Gifted Hands." And in this book he describes punching a classmate with a lock in hand, going after his mother, nearly killing a friend for changing the radio station. But ten friends, classmates and neighbors who grew up with Dr. Carson told CNN they have no memory of the anger or the violence that this candidate has described. And so Carson, this morning, was defending himself.

[14:15:43] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a bunch of lies. This is what it is, it's a bunch of lies attempting, you know, to say that I'm lying about my history. I think it's pathetic.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well -

CARSON: And basically what the media does is they try to get you distracted with all of this stuff so that you don't talk about the things that are important because we have so many important things. And, you know, I'm not proud of the fact that I had these rage episodes. But I am proud of the fact that I was able to get over them.

CAMEROTA: And your story has changed. For instance, first you say that Bob was your close friend who you almost killed. And then yesterday you said, well, actually his name wasn't Bob. I changed the names.

CARSON: That's -

CAMEROTA: And that's fine. People do that all the time, Dr. Carson, in their memoirs.

CARSON: I changed - I changed names throughout all the books.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CARSON: Even of patients because -

CAMEROTA: People -

CARSON: And unless I have specific permission from them to use their names, that's an inappropriate things to do.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

CARSON: One of the tactics that is used by you guys in the media, particularly when someone is doing very well, is let's find a way to get them distracted and get all the people distracted so that we can get away from the real issues. And I'm simply not going to allow that to occur.

CAMEROTA: Look, Dr. Carson, I know you call this tactics. It's called vetting in politics. You know it well just from the short time that you've been involved in vetting - campaigns.

CARSON: Is that what was done with the current president? Is that what you guys did with him?

CAMEROTA: Yes. As a matter of fact, it -

CARSON: No, you did not. Give me a break.

CAMEROTA: President Obama's autobiography, "Dreams of My Father," was also vetted. You will recall, Dr. Carson, that people -

CARSON: Give me a break.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Carson -

CARSON: Are you kidding me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. I have with me now, Maeve Reston. She has been busy investigating Dr. Carson's past and she joins me now.

And what an exchange that was. And it went on for a little while this morning. You know, yes, Ben Carson admits to changing the names of some of these individuals in his book. Was that known before you went out - you and others went out knocking on doors trying to get more information here?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: No, and just to take a step back here for a second, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

RESTON: WE approached this story because Dr. Carson was out on the campaign trail telling a lot of these very powerful stories about his teenage years. You know, some 50 years ago.

BALDWIN: A seminal moment in his youth.

RESTON: And it - basically he came forward and talked about them and so we wanted to find the people who knew about these incidents. We went out and talked to people in Detroit. We talked to classmates at all ages of his life - who knew him at all ages of his childhood. And basically what they said, none of them challenged his story directly, as you can read in our story at cnn.com. But there were some who were skeptical. They said that this person he's described, this violent young man, was not someone who was recognizable to them. There was one of the ten people who talked to us on the record who said that he may have heard a rumor at the time about this - the attempted stabbing incident.

But I also just want to come back to the point that, you know, this is - not only is this a temperament issue, he - Dr. Carson has talked about having had a pathological temper in those days. But it also is, you know, a very important piece of how he has connected with evangelicals on the trail. To talk about these moments in his life when God reached down and, in a moment of divine intervention, helped him cure his temper through prayer. And he said he never had another violent outburst again. So that's why we were looking into this chapter of his life, as we would with any candidate, and we're looking forward to talk to more people who knew him during that period of his life.

BALDWIN: And to the point about, you know, when he was talking to Alisyn this morning and saying, well you, you know, the media, didn't vet President - or, you know, even then Senator Obama as he was running for the presidency. That is absolutely incorrect. And when you run for office and when you run for the president of the United States, you will be vetted. And that's how this works.

RESTON: Well, I mean, you know, that's the kind of - it's obviously the presidential contest is a very grueling process. But it is a period - we all complain about how long it is. But it is a period in which every aspect of your background and your personal story are examined and issues like temperament are things that voters certainly do consider.

[14:20:16] So with President Obama, I remember talking for many weeks during that campaign and writing stories about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, other aspects of President Obama's past. You know, there are countless examples of that. We also have given Hillary Clinton a very thorough vetting. So to find this kind of examination into a candidate's past unusual, I'm just a little bit puzzled by that. I mean this is someone who's running for president of the United States.

BALDWIN: Maeve Reston, keep doing your job, thank you very much. RESTON: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Appreciate it.

And as we will continue, and I know others will as well, you know, these different candidates' stories, in particular here at the moment, Ben Carson, because, listen, look at how he's doing in the polls. He's doing excellently. Another big question, will the scrutiny really impact his campaign and his momentum moving forward.

So with me now, associate editor of "The Hill," A.B. Stoddard, and CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson.

So welcome to both of you. And if - if I may, you know, listen, I know other networks are talking about our reporting and they're asking Ben Carson himself if, you know, we, the media, liberal media, that's their word, trying to, you know, are trying to end his campaign. And it's our job, especially with the candidate who, by the way, is very - a very bright man. You know, a pediatric neurosurgeon. But, listen, he doesn't have a voting record. He has no real political exposure before really this year. And a candidate's story is who we have found some inconsistencies. We have to do our job. OK.

That said, A.B., with Ben Carson, you know, perhaps if he were the nominee this would hurt him, but these outside candidates seem to have nine lives. How much do you think this will really hurt him?

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR, "THE HILL": I don't because what he's -

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it's going to hurt him very much at all.

BALDWIN: Ladies - ladies first, Mr. Ferguson.

FERGUSON: Sure, go ahead.

BALDWIN: A.B. - A.B., to you.

STODDARD: Sorry, I - I think that his response, number one, among the conservative primary electorate on the Republican side, they don't trust the media. And whenever a candidate is under the spotlight and they say things, whether it's in a debate, as we saw last week, or on the trail, about how unfair the media's questions or vetting process is or investigations into them are, it goes over well with our voters. Ben Carson supporters are besotted. They absolutely adore this man and they're totally devoted and his story of a previous violent past where he went from sinner to saved and was healed by his faith and by God is very powerful to them. And so they, whether he talks about the pyramids or how he turned from a violent youth into the, you know, zen master he is today, the calm and peaceful person that we see who is really unflappable, they love that and they think that the media obviously is being unfair.

At some point, however, as Maeve reported, questions about whether or not you live in a small community where everyone's parents knew all the kids, sometimes even disciplined other kids from other families, they were so tightly knit as a community, the idea that this man could have gone after his mother with a hammer and not be - like have a reputation for that and be known for that is truly bizarre and that's going to have to stand up over the next two months before the voting starts.

BALDWIN: Ben Ferguson, what do you say?

FERGUSON: Yes. I don't think this is going to be a big issue, especially with his supporters. In fact, I actually think it will solidify his base even more. You are talking about time when you're talking about being 12, 13, 14 years old. Can you have violent outbursts? He says he did. I don't have any reason to not believe him. Do I believe that you can turn it around and go in a different direction? Based on where he went from that point forward in his life, knowing that he wanted to be a doctor, knowing that he wanted to help people, knowing that he wanted to be in the ROTC and to stay out of trouble, in an area where he lived where there was plenty of trouble to get into, I think this is going to just solidify his story. And also it fits the narrative, which is, it is, I'm an outsider. The media is going to try to destroy me. Don't let them do it. We're going to keep moving forward. It will probably help him in the primaries.

BALDWIN: It - it is - these are talking points. Precisely what I'm thinking, especially when it comes to, you know, as we're thinking of the first state, February 1st in Iowa. I mean this is, you know -

FERGUSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: This is - this is - this is what we've heard, throw the media under the bus. Alisyn, this -

FERGUSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: That's want you want to hear. Really I want to talk about the issues. You didn't go after President Obama. This has to be awesome for his base.

STODDARD: Well, listen, I think that we saw this four - nearly four years ago when John King asked Newt Gingrich directly in a debate about his adultery and he turned it around and became this victorious debate moment for Newt Gingrich where he beat up on the media and said this is why Americans don't trust the media. And this is - this is going to be a theme that's going to continue.

Donald Trump beats up on the media when he doesn't like anything, any line in any story, even poll numbers. he beats up on them on Twitter all day. Ben Carson is going to keep this up if he thinks that these are, you know, stories are shedding light in him in a bad way when he's the frontrunner. I wouldn't be surprised next week if any debate moderator asks him about this stuff and gets the what for from him with a roar from the crowd.

[14:25:23] BALDWIN: Final question to you, Ben. I want to move off of Ben Carson. Chris Christie - I mean I think Chris Christie has had arguably one of the best weeks of his campaign, yet, you know, we now have learned he will not be at the big - the big stage for Fox Business.

FERGUSON: On the big stage.

BALDWIN: Right. So, you know, and he even, I think, made comments today saying, listen, I'll debate wherever I need to. Whether, you know, come to my front yard. But still, your reaction to that. Missed opportunity for him?

FERGUSON: It's a missed opportunity, but at the same time it depends on how you spin it. If you basically say, I'm not worried about this business channel debate, and that seems to be the way he's describing it, and I'm going to keep doing my campaign and talking to people whenever and wherever, it may actually play well the same way that Carly Fiorina being on the undercard debate and her saying, I deserve to be on the big stage, helped her rise. Now, granted, she couldn't keep it there. She didn't capitalize on that moment in the way that many thought she was going to, but Chris Christie is a pretty smart guy. And I think if he plays this well, especially spending a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina, it may play to his advantage the same way that Mike Huckabee's trying to do the same thing.

BALDWIN: Ben Ferguson and A.B. Stoddard, thanks, you two. I appreciate it.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, this is already a stunning story. This Illinois police officer staged his own suicide, carefully orchestrated. It sparked a citywide manhunt for his quote/unquote killers. Now we have new details. This officer also had plans to execute a murder for hire plot on a Fox Lake village administrator. Hear from her after the break.

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