Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Donald Trump Hits Ben Carson as Super Low Energy; Oklahoma State Homecoming Tragedy; New Video of Raid on ISIS Prison in Iraq. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 26, 2015 - 04:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: At least five people killed when their tour boat capsizes.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump now questioning the religion of his chief opponent. That as his numbers drop in the important state of Iowa. We'll have the very latest.
ROMANS: Joe Biden opens up about his decision not to run for president.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman. About 30 minutes after the hour right now.
We do have breaking news. Five people are dead after a whale watching boat capsized off of Canada's west coast. This happened near the town of Tofino. 27 people on board. Officials say 21 people were rescued. One person at this point remains missing.
But look at the picture right there. Wow. Search and rescue efforts are finished at this point with the case now handed over to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a missing person's case now. No word yet on the possible cause for this disaster.
ROMANS: All right. This morning, Donald Trump is on the attack. He is now running seconds to Ben Carson in Iowa polls. Over the weekend, he raised Carson's faith as an issue, criticizing his stances on immigration and trade, and bashed what he called Carson's, quote, "super low energy level." Ben Carson spent the weekend ducking the punches.
CNN's Ryan Nobles has the latest his morning for us from Washington.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, good morning. Donald Trump will be in New Hampshire this morning after a weekend of tweaking his chief rival Ben Carson. During a rally in Florida Trump touted his own Presbyterian faith and told the crowd in Florida that he didn't even know what a Seventh Day Adventist is. Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist.
Trump later said he was not attacking Carson's religion and said Sunday he would not apologize. Trump said that polls show him leading with evangelical voters. However a new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa shows Carson with more support from that key voting bloc. During an interview on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" Trump recycled an
attack he used against Jeb Bush to describe Carson.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Ben Carson is a very low energy person. Actually, I think Ben Carson is lower energy than Jeb if you want to know the truth. We need strong energy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: Now Carson had eclipsed or drawn even with Trump in two different polls of likely Iowa caucus goers.
While Trump sent attacks Carson's way, Carson attempted to avoid engaging the billionaire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really refuse to really get into the mud pit. You know, Hillary actually was right when she said, you know, that the Republicans are there, you know, trying to destroy each other. I really think that was a huge mistake in the last cycle. And I'm certainly not going to get into that no matter what anybody says.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBLES: While Carson has closed the gap in Iowa, Trump still maintains a healthy lead nationally and in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina -- John and Christine.
BERMAN: All right, Ryan, thanks so much.
Ben Carson says he is opposed to abortion even in the cases of rape and incest. In an interview on NBC, Carson compared abortion to slavery and said he wants to see "Roe versus Wade," that Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal, he wants to see that struck down. He says the only exceptions he would support are in the case where the mother's life or health are in jeopardy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Definitively, do you want to see "Roe v. Wade" overturned?
CARSON: Ultimately I would love to see it overturned.
TODD: Rape and incest?
CARSON: Rape and incest, I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Marco Rubio is defending himself against heavy criticism for all the Senate votes and Senate hearings he has missed while campaigning for president. Rubio's rivals for the Republican nomination have slammed him for having the worst attendance record in the Senate this year. Rubio has drawn charges of hypocrisy after he said on the Senate floor last week that federal workers who do not do their jobs should be fired.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Someone might say you're not showing up, you're not doing your job by voting.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not true. Not true.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You don't think --
RUBIO: Because voting is not the only part of the Senate job. I mean, the most important thing a senator does is constituent service. We're still involved in looking out for Florida's issues.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Wait a minute. Votes aren't important?
RUBIO: Of course they're important.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Intelligence committee hearings aren't important?
RUBIO: We do all the intelligence briefing. I was just there this Tuesday. I got fully briefed and caught up on everything that's happening in the world. I'm fully aware. We have a staffer that's assigned to intelligence. We get constant briefings. I think votes, of course, are important. But unfortunately, too many of them today are not meaningful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Jeb Bush is in Houston today for the second day of a high flying, high level donor conference. The Houston gathering features George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, even Barbara Bush -- it's an old picture right there. George H.W. Bush right now in a wheelchair recovering from a fall but doing well.
This all follows a surprising announcement from the Jeb Bush campaign of major cuts to staffing and salaries. The "Washington Post" reports that the super PAC supporting Bush is considering deploying its own ground staff to key states and somehow the Right to Rise super PAC has concentrated on running television ads.
[04:35:06] ROMANS: All right. New developments in the Democratic side of the race. For the first time, really, Bernie Sanders took several pretty direct swings at Hillary Clinton. This happened at the Democratic Jefferson Jackson dinner in Iowa. Sanders highlighted differences with Clinton over the Defense of Marriage Act, the Pacific free trade agreement, and Keystone Pipeline, the Iraq war.
Clinton and Sanders traded fire over what he calls her shouting on the issue of gun control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been told to stop, and I quote, "shouting about gun violence." Well, first of all, I'm not shouting. It's just when women talk some people think we're shouting.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All that I can say is I am very proud of my record on women's issues. I certainly do not have a problem with women speaking out. And I think what the secretary is doing there is taking words and misapplying them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Overnight, in his first interview since he announced he would not run for president, Joe Biden revealed the moment that he says framed his decision about a candidacy. He told "60 Minutes" that his wife Jill actually wanted him to run. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I remember about a month ago we're on the porch at home and I said, you know, maybe we should just -- I don't really get there in time. Maybe we should just say we're not going. And Jill said, what about the Supreme Court?
JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: What about education? What about community colleges? I felt like we were -- everything we've worked so hard for in this administration, you know, could all -- could just all change.
JOE BIDEN: Now that's because she's prejudiced. She thinks that I have the best chance of winning a general election. So that's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's really interesting to hear that. That you were really pushing him to go forward.
JILL BIDEN: Yes. Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will you ever run for political office again?
JOE BIDEN: No, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Biden said his late son Beau who died of cancer earlier this year believed he could run and could win. But he never -- he said Beau never pushed him to do it, said there was no Hollywood script moment like it's been depicted in the press. The vice president did say his 11-year-old granddaughter helped to make the final decision when she pleaded with him not to leave her.
ROMANS: Congressman Trey Gowdy is speaking out in defense of the Benghazi hearings. The South Carolina Republican heads up the House committee investigating the 2012 terror attack. Gowdy has been criticized for his line of questioning last week with Hillary Clinton but he insists it is the former secretary of state who needs to answer for her actions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
