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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
GOP Debate: Candidates on the Attack; NORAD Radar Blimp Goes Rogue; House Passes Budget Deal; Royals Take 2-0 Lead in World Series. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired October 29, 2015 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Fireworks fly at the Republican presidential debate. Candidates lash out at each other and debate moderators. A night filled with explosive moments. Party leaders fuming this morning.
Good morning, and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. It is Thursday, October 29th, 4:00 a.m. in the East.
And this morning, the accusations are flying. The umbrage still being taken, a prickly squirm in your seat Republican debate, wow! Yes, the candidates went after each other. Some in Boulder, Colorado. But the main target, by far, was the media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Just resign and let someone else take the job.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only reason you are doing this now is because we are running for the same position. Someone convinced you it is appropriate to attack me.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was so nice. He was such a nice guy. And he said, oh, I'm never going to attack. But then his poll numbers tanked. He's got very -- that's why he's on the end.
DEBATE MODERATOR: The leading Republican candidate when you look at the average of national polls right now is Donald Trump. When you look at him, do you see someone with the moral authority to unite the country?
(BOOS)
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, there's few questions I got, the last thing I need to do is give him some more time. I love Donald Trump. He is a good man. I'm wearing a Trump tie tonight. Get over that one.
DEBATE MODERATOR: To be fair, you were on the home page of their web site with the logo over your shoulder.
BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If somebody put me on their home page, they did it without my permission.
DEBATE MODERATOR: Does that not speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way?
CARSON: No, it speaks to the fact --
(BOOS)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had $19 trillion in debt. We have people out of work. We have ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us and we're talking about fantasy football?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Chris Christie did not want to talk about fantasy football. That was just the beginning.
For the latest, let's bring in CNN's Sara Murray in Boulder.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.
The stakes were high for a number of the candidates on the stage here in Boulder, Colorado, last night. It was the third Republican debate and they wasted no time. They came out swinging early on.
Perhaps the most memorable moment, though, was Jeb Bush, going on the attack against the man he calls his friend, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, for missing votes to run for president.
BUSH: But, Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six- year term. And you should be showing up to work. I mean, literally, the Senate, what is it, like a French work week? You get like three days where you have to show up. You can campaign or just resign and let someone else take the job.
RUBIO: Over the last few weeks, I've listened to Jeb as you walked around the country and said you're modeling your campaign after John McCain, that you're going to launch a furious comeback the way he did, by fighting hard in New Hampshire and places like that, carrying your own bag at the airport. You know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying that furious comeback that you're now modeling under?
(CROSSTALK)
RUBIO: Jeb, I don't remember you ever complaining about John McCain's vote record. The only reason why you're doing it now is because we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.
MURRAY: And the immediate reaction from the moment is attack may have back fired on Jeb Bush. Marco Rubio may have best capitalized on that moment.
Now, even though Donald Trump and Ben Carson are the frontrunners in the Republican field right now, the fireworks did not come from them. You had to look further out on the debate stage to candidates like Senator Ted Cruz. He is running in a very conservative land at the party and looking for support from Trump and Carson. He did that by going after the media.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match.
And you look at the questions, Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why are your numbers fallen?
How about talking about the substantive issue people care about?
(APPLAUSE)
MURRAY: Cruz wasn't the only candidate unhappy with the debate last night. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus came to the spin room immediately after saying he is disappointed with CNBC.
Back to you, John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Sara Murray, thank you for that.
Joining us this morning, bright and early to break down the debate, the winners and the losers, CNN politics reporter Jeremy Diamond, live in our Washington bureau.
Good morning, Jeremy. A late night for you.
I know you wrote a great piece on CNN.com last night about winners and losers. And your winners, clearly, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Your loser, Jeb Bush.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS DIGITAL REPORTER: Yes, without a doubt. Marco Rubio had his moment in the spotlight last night. He came out swinging right from the outset. It started off when he had that exchange with Jeb Bush that you just saw in Sara Murray's piece.
And it was very clear that he just kept on attacking every person. He went after Democrats.
[04:05:01] He went after the Republican establishments. It all came across strong. Every time he was able to tilt to policy which was a strong move for him.
Jeb Bush on the other hand, his former mentor, not doing so well last night. I'm forgetting last night or today. What day is it anymore?
Jeb Bush certainly was struggling last night. He just didn't have his moment. This comes as the campaign is struggling. They had some financial woes. They've had to cut back on staff payments and so, he really needed something last night to propel him forward and to kind of give him the momentum to continue.
So, we're going to have to see what the road ahead looks like for Jeb Bush. But it certainly wasn't made easier by his performance last night.
BERMAN: You know, it's more than not having his movement what you're hearing from Republicans out there, including supporters. It's that when he did try to take a moment, it did measure up against Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio really won that exchange where Jeb tried to go after him about his voting record.
And, Rubio, we have a sound here where he is able to deftly turn the subject where he wants to take it. So, for instance, when the voting record came up, he turned it into an attack on waht he calls the mainstream liberal media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: I read that editorial today with a great amusement. It's actually evidence of the bias that exists in the American media today.
MODERATOR: Do you hate your job?
RUBIO: Let me answer your question on the "Sun Sentinel" editorial today. Back in 2004, one of my predecessors to the Senate by the name of Bob Graham, a Democrat, ran for president, missing over 30 percent of his votes. I don't recall them calling for his resignation.
MODERATOR: Is that --
RUBIO: Later that year, in 2004, John Kerry ran for president and missed close to 60 percent of his votes. I don't recall "The Sun- Sentinel", in fact, the "Sun Sentinel" endorsed him.
In 2008, Barack Obama missed 60 percent or 70 percent of his votes. And the same newspaper endorsed him. So, this is another example of the double standards that exists in this country between the mainstream media and the conservative media.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: He hit that point hard and repeatedly Ted Cruz did also. The mainstream media a big target here, Jeremy.
DIAMOND: Yes, of course, the interesting part of that is the sun sentinel endorsed Marco Rubio when he was running for Senate. He didn't mention that point.
Yes, definitely, the media was a huge target, and CNBC moderators and the network in particular, not just from the candidates but from Reince Priebus who slammed the moderators who pushed the gotcha questions as they call them to the candidates. It always works with the conservative base. It's one the reddish pieces of red meat to bring those attacks across.
ROMANS: So, a good night for Marco Rubio. A good night for Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz breaking through a crowded field last night with his very pointed remarks.
Let's listen to the grab a beer sound byte, if we can. This is I think a telling little piece of sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy. But if you want someone to drive you home, I will get the job done and I will get you home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: He is going to get you home. He is trying to be the grown up on the crowded stage there.
DIAMOND: Yes, and you know, his campaign has been playing a really interesting long game. You know, they talked about Jeb Bush being the tortoise in the race, but Ted Cruz is kind very similar, but on the conservative side. You know, he's really paced himself. His campaign has a very professional organization. Strong ground operation not just in the early states but beyond. They are looking to the March primary in the southern states where they think that they can really capitalize. And ultimately, they are hoping to be the campaign that can coalesce the conservative base of support and kind of be the opposition to whoever the establishment candidate arises.
So, say that's Marco Rubio or maybe you see Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. But, of course, that would be the power of Donald Trump and Ben Carson and several others. So, that's not said and done yet at all.
BERMAN: You know, it's interesting. You just heard Ted Cruz he is not the guy to have a beer with, but he offered, essentially share a hash brownie with the moderators after the debate right there. That got a lot of laughs.
I want to talk about Donald Trump right now because Trump, you know, he to an extent, stayed above the fray or much of the fray last night. He sort of drifted back, willingly so. Yes, you know, he undercut John Kasich a little bit, yes, he went after the moderators a little bit, but eh sort of let everything else play out. How do you think he did?
DIAMOND: I put Donald Trump in the winners category for that reason. We saw a different Donald Trump last night. For the first time in one of the Republican debates, he was not doing personal attacks against other candidates. When he did go on the attack, it was only against John Kasich. And that was after Kasich kind of launched at him.
And when Trump actually responded, he didn't respond on, you know, your hair looks like this or your personal appearance looks like this.
He said, you know, you worked at Lehman Brothers, and he also called him out for the way that he was couching Ohio's economic success.
[04:10:07] So, I thought we saw Donald Trump who came across a bit more presidential in his restraint. That could go a long way with voters who may have been skeptical of Trump because of his brash personality. Maybe they are seeing a different side of him. If he can hold back a bit, maybe that is somebody I can move myself to support.
ROMANS: Although he did not seem to know what was in his own immigration policy paper they sent out. He seemed to have no idea he did slam H-1B visas, Mark Zuckerberg and Marco Rubio for their support of more H-1B visas. He seemed to really not even know what was in that platform that many of us reported on.
Let's talk about Ben Carson quickly. He is right there at top of the pack. He is leading in Iowa. How did he fare? A lot of folks thought that his weakest thing would be the economy and policies around the economy. How did he do?
DIAMON: Yes, so I put him in the unclear category there, simply because of the fact that you know, Ben Carson was Ben Carson last night. He didn't surprise anybody. He didn't do anything extraordinary. He kind of remained his calm, cool, collected self.
That, of course, may do well with his supporters. It served him well so far. And now, he is leading in Iowa, he is the frontrunner in at least one national poll. He kind of has that luxury, it seems, to be able to sit there and answer questions and not get flustered. And so, we'll see how that will play out for Carson. Certainly it doesn't seem to have hurt him and his performance last night.
BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond, great to have you with us. The winners and losers of CNN Politics right now. Worth taking a look. We will talk to you again a little bit later.
ROMANS: All right. Ben Carson called out for his involvement in Mannatech, the dietary supplement maker settled for $7 million in 2009 over claims its products could cure cancer and autism. And CNBC moderator Carl Quintanilla mentioned Carson had a 10-year connection with Mannatech even after the settlement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARSON: It is absolutely absurd to say I had any kind of a relationship with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it is a good product.
CARL QUINTANILLA, CNBC MODERATOR: To be fair, were you on the home page of the web site with the logo over your shoulder.
CARSON: If somebody put me on the home page, they did it without my permission.
QUINTANILLA: Does that speak to your vetting process or judgment in any way?
CARSON: No, it speaks to my --
(BOOS)
CARSON: See, they know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: His image appeared on the web site last year. Carson has done videos for Mannatech. He has done paid speeches for the company. He also credited the company for the cancer symptoms disappearing.
BERMAN: But you could see right there, the way that Ben Carson deals with these debates and deals with controversy, which is to say no, no. Simply not true. Despite what you see here, despite the record of me speaking to them, taking the substance, taking the drug, you know, and being paid by them, I am in no way involved with them. And the supporters seem to love it.
All right. Other news this morning, a military blimp breaks free and drifts over Pennsylvania. What a commotion this caused. We'll have the very latest, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[04:16:24] ROMANS: Military investigators are waiting for daylight this morning. They're trying to figure out how an air defense blimp came loose from its moorings in Maryland, drifting 130 miles north into Pennsylvania before crash landing in the woods. The NORAD helium blimp dragged the steel cable behind it and that blacked out power to thousands when it ran in power lines, prompting school officials to take precautions to protect children as school let out.
A NORAD blimp drifting over Pennsylvania, dragging cables. Now, officials want to know exactly how this blimp went rogue.
CNN's Boris Sanchez has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, we are in Anthony Township in Pennsylvania.
And behind me, you see that roadblock. Officials have set up a perimeter around the blimp. It's about a half mile from this roadblock. And as you can see, the conditions are getting worse here. The rain is coming. It's very dark. It's a rural area. So, there isn't much light.
Investigators are hoping to collect evidence that might lead them to answers as to how the blimp got loose and then how it went down. We don't have a straight answer on that yet. We know there is a mechanism on the blimp to help itself deflate in case it gets loose.
But it's unclear if the mechanism was activated. We know the F- 16 jets that were following this thing were armed. But according to CNN's Barbara Starr, those F-16 jets did not fire on the blimp. So, it's not clear how the blimp went down.
We're also trying to find out how it got loose in the first place. This is simply not supposed to happen. The blimp is supposed to withstand hurricane-force winds. As you can see, the weather on the East Coast isn't great, but it's not something to the magnitude of a hurricane. So, it will be interesting to see exactly how that blimp got loose -- John and Christine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: First of all, Boris Sanchez standing in the rain right there, yes.
ROMANS: Poor guy, sorry, Boris. I'm really sorry you have to do that for us.
But I was watching the developments yesterday. I thought it was a joke. I could not believe there's a NORAD blimp was loose with cables dragging in schools --
BERMAN: On Twitter yesterday and I wish I could remember who made the jokes. Some would say, well, one thing we know, at least we know it is a male blimp. I can say at 4:18, because, you know, our bosses aren't watching. That made me laugh.
All right. History this morning in the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner, he will step down officially. Paul Ryan will be formally elected to replace him.
House Republicans chose Ryan formally to be the next speaker. Of course, it has to go to a formal vote to the full House, too. Ryan has pledged to unite the Republican conference that has splintered under Boehner's leadership. Ryan says his nomination begins a new day in the House.
ROMANS: The full House has passed a compromised budget deal that will help Ryan wipe the slate clean as he takes the speaker's gavel. It removes the threat of a government default next week and aims to avoid any government shutdown through the year 2017. Conservative opponents, they hate it. They call this bill a fiscal monstrosity. It now goes to the Senate where approval is expected before the borrowing deadline runs out on Tuesday.
BERMAN: All right. If you weren't watching the debate, you may have been watching this, a baseball game. The Kansas City Royals, they are halfway home. Even as they leave Kansas City, they dominated the Mets last night in game two of the World Series. They won 7-1. Two games to zip lead right now in the series. They're actually trailing 1-0 in the fifth and they just scored four runs one after another after another after another.
But the star of the game, that man right there, pitcher Johnny Cueto, he pitched a complete game, a two hitter. It's the first complete game in a world series by an American League pitcher since Jack Morris. I think that was 1991. I think he pitched ten innings, if I'm right about that, tweet me. It would be unusual if I'm right about it.
[04:20:00] But Johnny Cueto, great game last night. Tough luck for the Mets. Mets have a big road to overcome now.
ROMANS: They sure do. I'm disturbed how much you know about sports off the top of your head. It's actually --
BERMAN: Well, I could be wrong about the Jack Morris thing. Jack Morris pitched ten innings of a game once in a World Series, and I think it was in 1991. But, you know, I have done a lot to my brain since then.
ROMANS: We'll check the files.
All right. Donald Trump butting heads with debate moderators over things he says he never said, but were they right? We are reality checking the candidates, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: All right. Among the fascinating confrontations during last night's Republican debate, there was one between Donald Trump and CNBC moderator Becky Quick. Now, she questioned Trump about his criticism of Marco Rubio's immigration plan. Trump fired back, he denied he ever criticized the Florida senator, prompting an apology from the moderator, but was quick, too quick to back off on the line of questioning.
CNN's Tom Foreman has this reality check.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What happened in the moment in the whole debate was that the Trump issued a couple of denials of statements that were made by Becky Quick, the moderator. She asked him specifically about his attacks on Marco Rubio over the special visas for immigrants to come in and work. He denied ever attacking Rubio. Not once, but twice.
Listen.
[04:25:00] BECKY QUICK, CNBC BUSINESS NEWS: You have been very critical of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook who wanted to increase the number of these H-1B --
TRUMP: I was not at all critical of him. I was not at all. In fact, frankly, he is complaining about the fact we are losing some of the most talented people. They go to Harvard, they go to Yale, they go to Princeton, they come from another country, and they're immediately sent out.
I am all in favor of keeping these talented people here so they can go to work in Silicon Valley. So, I'm nothing at all critical of him.
QUICK: Where did I read this and come up with this that you were --
TRUMP: Probably, I don't know. You people write this stuff. I don't know --
QUICK: You had talked a little bit about Marco Rubio. I think you called him Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator because he was in favor of the H-1B.
TRUMP: I never said that.
QUICK: So, this was an erroneous article the whole way around?
TRUMP: He's another gentleman in Florida who happens to be a very nice guy. But not --
QUICK: My apologies. I'm sorry.
TRUMP: I bet he's really doing some bad fact --
RUBIO: If I've been mentioned --
FOREMAN: Really doing some bad fact checking. Twice here, he is saying, no, I didn't attack Rubio. I didn't attack Mark Zuckerberg. I never said anything about this.
So, where on earth did she get this idea? Funny enough, you know where she got it? She got it from Donald Trump's Web site, where he says Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator, Marco Rubio, has a bill to triple for H-1Bs, those are the visas we're talking about, that would decimate women and minorities.
The bottom line is, Trump tried to bluff her. He tried to do it twice. She called him on the bluff. And she was right. His claim was false.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: In that position paper, it was his official position paper on immigration reform. It came out in the middle of August. It very clearly called out Mark Zuckerberg and said Marco Rubio is his personal senator, and it said that it would hurt diversity in Silicon Valley, these H-1B visas because it hurts women and minorities and we should be talking about diversity in Silicon Valley, not bringing in labor to replace Americans.
It was a very clear position paper --
BERMAN: It was on his Web site.
ROMANS: Apparently, he didn't read it, didn't write it, or didn't know about it, or has changed his position in the past month and a half.
BERMAN: Again, whether or not the words Mark Zuckerberg have ever crossed his lips, that's still open for questioning right now. Maybe that's what he was thinking if he was thinking anything at all right there.
ROMANS: And some of his immigration positions as he has gone along, he has softened or changed. For example, when he went to the wall, in the wall with Mexico, the local authorities are telling him, well, here's why really what you're saying can't work for us.
And so, it's almost as if people will say he is making some of this up as he goes along.
BERMAN: All right. We're going to talk more about this and the candidates as they sharpen their attacks on each other, but mostly frankly on the media and the moderators. This was tense, uncomfortable at times.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
