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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Republicans Face Off Tonight On CNN; Trump In The Lead, Carson Closing; "Valley Fire" Destroys Nearly 600 Homes; Migrant Crisis In Europe Deepens. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 16, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: In just hours, Republicans running for president will face off against each other. Who will come out on top? What could you expect? How will they break through? Our special complete live coverage begins right now.

Welcome back to EARLY START this special edition. I'm Christine Romans in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman at the Reagan Presidential Library, in Simi Valley, California. It's 30 minutes past the hour. We are in the countdown to the showdown, under 13 hours now to the CNN Republican debate right here on CNN.

The main contest kicks offer at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The other candidates taking the stage at 6:00 p.m. in what a beautiful stage it is. This is a pivotal moment in a race that is getting more tense by the second.

Now the very latest polls have Donald Trump on top. Ben Carson has rocketed into second place. All the remaining candidates, they are in single digits. Some of them have fallen pretty far, pretty fast. They need this debate to turn things around. They all say they are ready. Donald Trump does, too, in his own way.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you feeling? What are you going to be doing all day?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel good about it, really good about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any special preparation?

TRUMP: I have been doing this for 30 years. A lot of preparation, but I feel really good about the debate.

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: I don't think that my strategy is going to change at all. It will be to tell the truth and to talk about my vision for America, which I think it's something that a lot of people resonate with. You know the polls are not particularly surprising, given the fact that I'm out there amongst the people a lot. And I have been seeing the love of enthusiasm and the size of the crowds for quite some time. It hasn't really been reported on, but we've seen it. So there is not very surprising.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I read up on current issues to make sure I understand what's going on and I think very carefully, I guess, about what I want to convey in 30 second clunks or a minute chunks because the thing about a debate that's a little bit different than campaigning out there every day is you have a very prescribed time frame.

MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In the end, this is not a game show. It's not a production event. It is, in fact, deciding the most important political office in the world and a very unique one at that. You are deciding the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military country on the planet. That's a serious endeavor. That's how we take it. That's how we prepare for it.

RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will mix it up. I like to rumble. I want to make sure people know the differences between the candidates.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Joining me to talk about the candidates, the debate, the stakes, what to expect, Mark Preston, executive editor of CNN Politics. Mark, good morning.

Donald Trump out in front in all the polls. What will he do? What guy will we see? Our Sara Murray caught up with him last night and asked him if he might be a little nicer this time around. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have no idea. We'll see how everyone else behaves.

SARA MURRAY: Do you think you will be in their sights, their targets?

TRUMP: That's what everyone says. We'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Well, he said he is going to see what happens. I will tell you what is going to happen. They will go after him. I get the sense a lot of these people are going to go right after Donald Trump.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Imagine if they don't go after him, what will Donald Trump do? He is somebody who doesn't necessarily deliver the first punch. He's a counterpuncher. Can you imagine if they sat being on tear hands? Donald Trump wouldn't know how to react with it.

BERMAN: It will be interesting. It will be interesting to see what he does do with that. Now everyone talks about, you know, which candidates have a lot to lose. You correct me, Donald Trump has a lot to lose here. The stakes are pretty high for him.

PRESTON: Look, whenever you are at the top of the mountain, when you're leading in the polls and he is on a trajectory that continues to go up. If he were to have a terrible performance tonight and suddenly we were to see some kind of breakout star. That would be, there is no doubt that would hurt the Trump campaign and a lot of people would call it into question.

BERMAN: Dr. Ben Carson, number two, rising in a lot of polls. You know, people haven't seen a ton of him out there. What should viewers expect from Ben Carson?

PRESTON: Pretty much what we saw in that clip right there, John, I mean, the bottom line with Ben Carson is what -- the way he talks. His modulation always stays the same. What is interesting about him is that he embraces the fact that he doesn't know everything about government.

He is the consummate outsider and what he tries to do is to say that he is going to represent the American people in a way that Donald Trump does it, Donald Trump, very loud, very boisterous, Ben Carson, very calm.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting, yesterday, I think was something very key in this campaign, an outside group, "Club for Growth," this conservative group announced it will spends a million dollars on anti- Trump ads in Iowa.

That's a fair amount of money on an ad in Iowa. It's almost as if to say we can't count on the candidates in the race right now to knock off Donald Trump. We got to try to do it ourselves.

[05:35:04] PRESTON: Right. Isn't it amazing that you have the Club for Growth, which is so anti-establishment, in many ways aligning themselves with the GOP establishment, which is very frustrating the fact that Donald Trump is leading in the polls? They would like to see Marco Rubio on top, but now they look at Donald Trump, somebody they can't control at all leading.

BERMAN: Now, debate prep for Donald Trump. You know, Donald Trump says he is preparing for this for 30 years. We don't have a real sense of his campaign structure. It's not a traditional campaign structure, but having talked to his campaign manager, I do believe he has done more preparation for this debate than he did for the first one.

PRESTON: But the question is, does he actually follow what he is told the night before or the week before? There is no doubt he has commanded the issues. He is extremely smart. He's a very successful businessman.

When he gets up on stage, he almost wings it. He is using hand gestures that he is giving a roast as opposed to talking tough policy issues. We saw it last night in L.A. We saw it in Dallas the night before. It's like he's up there giving a roast. He is roasting the other ten candidates that are on the stage. BERMAN: It's interesting, with a smaller audience today in the house, 500 people as opposed to thousands and thousands, he may not have them to play off as much as he is used to.

PRESTON: Right. He can't plug into the crowd of them saying, Donald, Donald, or Trump, Trump, Trump. He'll have to be careful how he plays it tonight as will the other candidates, but I still we think we are going to see a fight.

BERMAN: A quick detour to the under card the four candidates who will go on the stage at 6:00 p.m., you know, not insignificant. Even though, they are not at the main stage, they do have a chance to make a flame for themselves. For one thing, they'll have more time to talk.

PRESTON: They'll have more time to talk and look Carly Fiorina was on that under card, and now she is on the main debate stage. She had a great performance. There is the story of the tortoise and the hare. I think some of these folks are hoping that they are the tortoise and that they can just stay in long enough to perhaps come up again.

BERMAN: You know, people could say, Bobby Jindal, he is polling in under 1 percent, well, the difference between Bobby Jindal and Jeb Bush right now in the polls way smaller than between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.

PRESTON: Yes, no question and Bobby Jindal is one of these guys, who is very smart. But you know, what they're all going to do tonight, they won't disagree with each other. They are going to fire all their guns at Donald Trump.

BERMAN: If you had to bet, biggest sparks come from which candidate, that candidate is?

PRESTON: Carly Fiorina is going directly at Trump. I think she leads the charge.

BERMAN: Mark Preston, great to have you here with us. I cannot wait to watch alongside you and all of our CNN colleagues. The debate begins tonight at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. for the main stage.

Now new overnight, Vice President Joe Biden, directs the type of language used by Donald Trump. He's at a reception for Hispanic heritage month. The vice president said Donald Trump's, quote, "sick message" about Mexican immigrants plays to the worst instincts in American society.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Folks, I don't want anybody to be down right now about what's going on in the Republican Party. I mean, this sincerely now. I am being deadly earnest about this.

I want you to remember, notwithstanding the fact that there is one guy absolutely denigrating an entire group of people, appealing to the baser side of human nature, working on this notion of xenophobia in a way that hasn't occurred in a long time since the "know nothing party" back at the end of the 19th Century.

Folks, the American people are with us. I know it doesn't feel that way. But I am telling you, I am telling you, the American people agree with us. We're going to take a while to overcome this, look, you are talking about somebody who is talking about a minority within a minority party within a minority.

And the vast majority of the American people, here's what they still believe. The American people are decent. They're basically, basically decent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The vice president, of course, is weighing whether to jump into the race for the Democratic nomination. Right now, we are thinking about the Republican race.

The presidential debates begin right here on CNN, 6 p.m. Eastern Time, George Pataki, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Lindsey Graham takes the stage then.

After that, the headliner debate, the 11 top polling candidates, 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Jake Tapper moderates. Dana Bash in the panel along with conservative radio host, Hugh Hewitt. This will be fascinating. I cannot wait to see it.

ROMANS: I know. John, you are there. You get a sense right there of the physical space. These candidates are going to be close to each other, very close to each other.

BERMAN: Uncomfortably close. You can see the beautiful debate stage there. I stood behind the various podiums where Donald Trump will be standing next to Ben Carson and then Carly Fiorina a few spaces down, look, if Ben Carson wants to go after Donald Trump, he has to turn his shoulder and look at him standing one foot away saying Donald Trump, you can't handle the truth. It could be very, very tense.

[05:40:09] ROMANS: Very tense and very interesting, I can't wait. I know what you are doing in 13 hours. Thanks, John. Nice to see you.

You will hear a lot about taxes on the debate stage tonight. Here's a guide to decoding the jargon, first, carried interests. Donald Trump and Jeb Bush want to crackdown on an IRS loophole that allows hedge fund managers to list their profits as carried interest instead of income.

Right now those earnings have a top tax rate of 20 percent instead of close to 40 percent. Flat tax, will you hear that. Several candidates want to replace the tiered system with a single rate on income.

Rand Paul would institute a 14.5 percent tax rate on all income. Get rid of the payroll tax. Ben Carson says his rate will be between 10 percent and 15 percent. And Ted Cruz has not specified his plan for a flat tax yet.

Now critics say a flat tax would need to be at least 25 percent to bring in as much revenue as today's system. They say it favors the wealthiest Americans.

Finally fair tax, Mike Huckabee wants to replace income and capital gains taxes with the national sales tax. That basically needs a 30 percent sales tax t. The idea, no one including those involved in illegal activities will be able to avoid this tax.

All right, the death toll is rising this morning in devastating flooding out west, at least 16 killed. Most victims of women and children and there is more rain on the way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:45:02] ROMANS: Sixteen people have now been killed by flash flooding in Utah, 12 of the victims, women and children, swept away in their cars in the town of Hilldale. Four hikers also died when flood waters rushed through Zion National Park. Three other hikers are missing. With more storms in the forecast, officials are warning of more flooding in the days ahead.

Firefighters are struggling to contain a Northern California wildfire that has already burned 105 square miles. Nearly 600 homes destroyed, over 9,000 homes still threatened this morning.

The 2,400 firefighters battling this blaze, they got a break from the weather on Tuesday. With the winds calming down, they were able to get the fire 30 percent contained, allowing some homeowners to witness first hand their worst fears.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I always said the earthquake in San Francisco at candlestick the big earthquake was nothing compared to this. It was so chaotic. The firemen, it seemed like they didn't know what was going on. I was hearing fire captains going save that water. The trees were still burning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so much worse than I thought. Even though I expected it to be bad, I expected to see everything going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Obama administration is sending $250 million to California to help fight those wildfires. It's 46 minutes past the hour. Let's take a look what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota joins me now. Good morning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Christine. Great to see you. We are coming to you live from the Reagan Presidential Library, the scene of course of tonight's Republican debate. We will preview the big event with all the top political minds here.

We have pundits. We have former presidential candidates all explaining what we can expect tonight. What happens when Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina are face-to-face after his comments about her face?

So we will also look at some of the other expected fireworks. This is a make or break moment for many of the candidates. We will have all of that and more when we see you at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: How will they not punch back, but punch through when Donald Trump has defined all of the conversation so far? Thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: Without punching each other. That will be the goal.

ROMANS: Yes. All right, thank you, Alisyn.

Thousands of refugees and migrants stranded at the border. Shut out of Europe. This crisis deepening this morning, we are live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:51:02]

ROMANS: Now to the deepening migrant crisis in Europe. Hundreds of migrants spending the night at the closed Hungary-Serbia border. Many facing the burden of finding a new route to Northern Europe.

CNN senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman is on the Hungary- Serbia border. Tell us what you are seeing, Ben.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What we are seeing a truck just drove by. It's number of leaves of bread. I am seeing about 30 people following it, hoping to get some. One of the real problems here is there seems to be a real shortage of basic supplies, water, food, medical treatment.

We were speaking just a little while ago, Christine, with a member of an aide organization. He said there are two groups here trying to deal with what appears to be well over a thousand refugees who ended up here on the Hungarian border and more seems to be coming by the hour.

And of course the Hungarian authorities remain adamant that they're not going to open the border. Now, already we are hearing from some that they're looking at the possibility of other routes into Northern Europe.

For instance, going through from Serbia to Croatia and north from there, but there is another problem on that border. Apparently there are lots of landmines left over from the Balcan wars, which makes passage through some of the unofficial crossings into Croatia very dangerous.

So the situation extremely complicated and there is mounting frustration among the people here. Some of whom have come from as far away as Afghanistan. They say there is no way in terms of their resources, in terms of the danger going home that they'll be able to turn around and go back.

So they say they have no choice, either to wait here, possibly for the Hungarians to open the border or to make what could be a dangerous crossing into Croatia on their way to the north -- Christine.

ROMANS: The idea of landmines just terrifying for those folks. Thanks, so much for that. Ben Wedeman, we will continue to follow.

It's 53 minutes past the hour. Facebook users, are you looking for more options besides that like button? You will like Mark Zuckerberg's latest move.

And the latest on the CNN Republican presidential debate, there is the music. Hours away now, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:57:20]

ROMANS: Good morning, welcome back. I'm Christine Romans. Let's get an EARLY START on your money on this debate day. It's a huge day for your money. The Federal Reserve's two-day meeting starts today, leading up to tomorrow's announcement about interest rates.

Will the fed decide it is finally time to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade? This affects everybody. We are talking credit cards, car loans, home equity lines of credit, private students loans, all more expensive when the fed raises interest rates.

Also, breaking this morning, SAB Miller shares surging more than 20 percent in London trading. The beer giant says Anheuser-Busch is making a takeover offer. These are the two biggest beer companies in the world. Watch the space.

After years of only being able to like Facebook posts, Facebook is looking at a dislike button after users have demanded one for years. It sounds dangerous, right?

CEO Mark Zuckerberg was worried, too, at first, but now he says he realizes people want to express sympathy about unpleasant news, no details on a launch date yet. We are told they are working on it.

The CNN Republican presidential debate is just hours away. "NEW DAY" picks up the countdown now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Debate day is here.

TRUMP: I have been doing this 30 years. I feel really good about the debate.

CARSON: If my strategy is going to change at all, it's going to be to tell the truth.

FIORINA: I don't worry much about what Donald Trump says.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will make sure everybody in this country is a fake conservative.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If somebody comes at me, bam, I'll come back at them.

TRUMP: I am fighting very nice people. They will never be able to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's deciding the most important political office in the world.

BIDEN: This will pass. The Trump and that stuff you are hearing on the other team, we always, always, always, always overcome it.

BERMAN: This is a pivotal moment in a race that is getting more tense by the second.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, September 16th, 6:00 in the east. Alisyn and I are coming live to you from the place to be the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Good to see you, Mich.

Now to be clear, in 12 hours the GOP race will change. After the two CNN debates tonight, fates will change. This is the reality. However, it is not phasing the frontrunner, Donald Trump.

He says he is not doing much to prepare for tonight's debate. Instead, he delivered what he said will be a national security speech laying out his plans. He wound up not saying much about how he would make us more secure, choosing, instead, to play to the anger over illegal immigrants.