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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Carson, Rubio and Cruz Face Voters During CNN Town Hall; Apple Versus FBI Over Terrorist's iPhone; Aired 05-05:30a ET

Aired February 18, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Holding a commanding lead in the next two states of course Nevada and South Carolina. Scene of these back-to-back town halls.

Chief political analyst Gloria Borger is there. She has the latest.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Christine and Miguel, Republican presidential candidates tried to take a break from the heat of their campaign last night here in Greenville, South Carolina. And some of them, like Marco Rubio, actually succeeded when he tried to present himself as the unifier in the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But my promise to you if I'm the nominee is I'm not just going to unify the Republican Party. I'm going to grow it. We're going to take our message to people that haven't voted for Republicans in a long time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: But it wasn't all sweetness and light. Rubio doubled down on his charges against Cruz as being a liar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: I said he's been lying because if you say something that isn't true and you say it over and over again and you know that it's not true, there is no other word for it. And when it's about your record, you have to clear it up because if you don't then people say, well, then, it must be true. He didn't dispute it. And he's done that a number of times.

We saw what he did to Dr. Carson in Iowa, which is wrong. We saw yesterday, Trey Gowdy, somebody came up with a fake Facebook post saying Trey Gowdy was no longer endorsing me, a very popular congressman here in South Carolina. So these things are disturbing and they need to be addressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: And Cruz couldn't resist taking on Donald Trump one more time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is quite literally the most ridiculous theory I've ever heard that telling the voters what Donald Trump's actual record is, is deceitful and lying. And listen, when I said this morning -- I held a press conference where I read his letter to everyone, and I invited Mr. Trump. I said, please, Donald, file this lawsuit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: And then there was the lighter side of the candidates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: What do you do to relax?

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Play pool.

COOPER: Play pool?

CARSON: I love to play pool.

COOPER: Are you competitive when you play pool?

CARSON: I like to win.

(LAUGHTER)

RUBIO: I actually grew up listening to '90s hip hop music, especially the West Coast stuff and I really like it. But in the last few years, what's happening with EDM, you've got this electronic disc jockeys or these deejays that are taking electronic music and overlaying it with tracks from country music and all sorts of things. And so the lyrics are clean, the beats, the music is fun, I've gotten into it. It's a lot of fun.

CRUZ: I actually don't sing music.

COOPER: OK.

CRUZ: I mean, I will sing things like, "oh, my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling, Heidi-tine."

COOPER: OK. All right.

CRUZ: Which is really corny. But, you know, I used to do it when she put it on speaker phone in her office and embarrass her. You know, I kind of do -- you know, I just called to say I love you, I just called to say I care. I cannot not sing to save my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: Tonight, Jeb Bush, Donald Trump and John Kasich take the stage with Anderson Cooper.

Back to you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Gloria Borger, thank you.

We learned Marco Rubio is color blind. A little tidbit we didn't know.

MARQUEZ: Well, Rubio likes EDM and rap. And Cruz sings "oh, my darling." Now that's -- you know, if you have any problems choosing the two --

ROMANS: Oh my.

MARQUEZ: That's -- there it is.

ROMANS: But I can assure you there was some -- you know, some real policy substance last night. That's the beauty of these GOP town halls. Two nights of them.

We're joined this morning by CNN political analyst Josh Rogin. He's in our Washington bureau this morning.

I want to start with Ted Cruz and sort of this NBC News poll. The first poll of this entire season that puts him ahead of Donald Trump. And Miguel keeps making this point. When you look at the leap, it's not just the two points we're talking about here. But it's the leap since January. Since actually a combative --

MARQUEZ: Thirteen points since January.

ROMANS: Combative performance in the last GOP debate last weekend. A big 13 points. Listen to what Ted Cruz said about this new poll.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: You mentioned before the new poll today that has us in first place nationwide. It's the first time Donald Trump has not been in first place in many, many months. And I think this is an important reason why. That people were looking at that stage and saying, who do I know beyond a shadow of a doubt would nominate and fight to confirm principled conservative jurists who will defend the Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So when Trump falters, does that mean his supporters go to true Cruz or is Cruz gaining tier on his own merit and strategy here? What do you see in that poll?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure. I think what we're seeing here is that while the polls were largely based on, you know, really unclear data for a long time, now the voters are seeing the momentum that Trump -- that Cruz, rather, has built. He won in Iowa. He beat expectations in New Hampshire. He still looks to be behind Trump in South Carolina. But what we're seeing really is a realization amongst the Republican electorate that the Cruz campaign is for real. They've got an extensive ground game. They've got money. They've got operations in lots of different states.

And over time that has been Cruz's strategy all along. That that strategy would eventually result in the sort of national support you're seeing. Whether or not that leads to a win in South Carolina is less certain. But what you have in the Trump polls is volatility.

ROMANS: Right.

[05:05:09] ROGIN: Right. Trump goes up. He goes down. Some states he's very popular. Some states not so much. Cruz has really pursued a slow and steady wins the race kind of strategy here. And if that poll is any indication and the trends are any indication, that strategy is starting to really pay off.

MARQUEZ: Yes. Cruz really going after Trump on his conservative credentials. Carson also in that NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll bests Trump for voters' preference for president. It was Rubio, Cruz and Carson over Trump as to who they would vote for president.

Here was Mr. Carson last night talking about the number of attacks going on in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARSON: The key is not so much the volume with which you speak, but it's the content of what you say. That's what's going to make the difference. And I think the American people are smart enough to be able to understand bluster and rhetoric versus truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Which is always a nice sentiment, but in South Carolina, that doesn't go down so well. Cruz has really tough ads taking on Donald Trump. They appear to be working.

ROGIN: Right. I would say here that South Carolina, unlike Iowa and New Hampshire before it, is a state where door-to-door retail politics is less significant and TV media, public media, earned media is more significant. Right? This is a state where the ads make a difference. And I think all of the campaigns are responding to that.

Ben Carson, because he is not winning on that plane, tries to make the argument that that's not really important. But I think what we're seeing here is that the Carson numbers are going down and the Trump -- I'm sorry, the Cruz numbers are going up. So that sort of speaks to the success of Cruz's strategy and sort of challenges with that Carson's assumptions here a little bit.

ROMANS: Let's talk a little bit about, you know, these accusations about being a liar. So I can't even -- I have to make sort of a spread sheet or a flow chart for who accuses whom of being a liar. I mean, the liar name has been flying all around. Donald Trump uses it against Ted Cruz. You know, argued about their immigration strategy, their support for Planned Parenthood. You name it. Let's listen to what Ted Cruz said about the liar, liar pants on fire campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: This is a strange election season. In many ways. Both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are following this pattern that whenever anyone points to their actual record to what they've said, to what they've voted on, to what they've done, they start screaming liar, liar, liar. I mean, it is the oddest thing. I can't think of any precedent in any previous Republican presidential election.

Now from my end, I have not and will not respond in kind. If they want to engage in personal insults, if they want to go to the mud, I'm not going to say the same thing about them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: What do you make of this? I mean, do you think that it's working? Just telling voters someone is lying? Or is it hurting Donald Trump?

ROGIN: Well, right now it seems to be hurting Donald Trump. I think that Ted Cruz has done well in responding to Trump's cease and desist letter. It ultimately -- truth is the ultimate defense for a charge of slander. And Donald Trump was pro-choice before he was pro-life. Donald Trump has expressed support for some programs in Planned Parenthood. And Donald Trump did say, even still says, that George W. Bush was partially responsible for the attacks of 9/11.

And so on the facts, Cruz has kind of got him. What the Trump and Rubio campaigns are trying to do is they're trying to sort of change the narrative by painting Cruz as a liar and pointing to some of his more controversial tactics. But this is really something that I think Cruz has Trump on the merits. And I think amongst the Republican primary electorate, accusing George W. Bush of being responsible for 9/11 is not really a popular way to go. It's probably what Trump believes, but it's not scoring him a lot of points, especially in South Carolina.

MARQUEZ: Well, I was shocked when he brought that up on Saturday night. I wasn't sure what he was doing. Perhaps going for some moderate voters. But Trump in his inevitable way, ran his own town hall or own discussion on competing network last night at the same time where he talked about the name calling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: In a year from now, people will respect what I did. I had Lindsey Graham, he was at 7 percent. After I hit him, he was at nothing and he left the race. Now he is an angry person. I see him on television saying things, it's like, I mean, he's like an insane person. But --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Our country doesn't win anymore. You're so worried about being nice and being politically correct. So what would you rather have me do? Be nice to everybody and now instead of all those people getting out there still in still hammering me?

(END VIDEO CLIP) [05:10:04] MARQUEZ: Now I don't think Trump is spending a lot on -- if anything on commercials and advertisements going after the other candidates in South Carolina. What do you expect out of him tonight?

ROGIN: You know, more of the same. I mean, Trump here -- his whole strategy is earned media. When we're talking about insults and broad statements and attacks. That's Trump's wheel house. That's what he likes. That's when he plays the best.

When you get into specific policies and the details of the Libya intervention, that's where Rubio and Cruz have the advantage because they're steeped in the details here. So it's to Trump's advantage to keep this sort of war of words going. Sort of feeds into his playbook. So there's no reason for him to veer off of that. In fact, when he is pressed and he will be pressed tonight because he'll have this sort of open format where he has to answer for minutes on end about detailed issue in response to voters, that's going to be a challenge for Trump.

And when he is pushed to go past his normal talking points and really get into the specifics of his plans, that's where he often stumbles. So if you are on the Trump campaign, all of this liar, liar pants on fire back and forth is not necessarily a bad thing.

MARQUEZ: Well, you only have one more debate to go or town hall to go. That's tonight. So you only have about 24 more hours to stay up, Josh Rogin. We'll see you --

ROMANS: Go to sleep, Josh.

ROGIN: I'll sleep after the election.

ROMANS: Go to sleep.

MARQUEZ: You get two hours to sleep. That's it.

Three candidates down. Three to go. One more CNN Republican town hall live tonight from South Carolina. John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Donald Trump will answer directly to voters.

Coverage begins tonight at 8:00 p.m. only right here on CNN.

ROMANS: I like the format.

MARQUEZ: Yes.

ROMANS: I'm a fan of the format.

All right. Apple --

MARQUEZ: You get a lot more.

ROMANS: Yes, you do.

MARQUEZ: Apple refusing to help the government unlike the iPhone. Big story, folks. The iPhone of the San Bernardino terrorists. The presidential campaigns last night weighing in on this battle. So were other tech giants.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:57] MARQUEZ: Apple is fighting a court order requiring it to give the FBI access to encrypted data from the iPhone of San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook. Apple CEO Tim Cook calls it an unprecedented step that threatens the security of all Apple customers.

We get more from CNN justice reporter Evan Perez.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, the battle lines are drawn between Apple and the Justice Department in one of the most important battles over privacy and national security.

In the coming days, Apple plans to appeal a court order that would require it to help the FBI break into the iPhone that was carried by one of the terrorists who killed 14 people in San Bernardino in December.

CEO Tim Cook says the government wants the company to build a backdoor in a top-rated system. In a letter to customers, Cook says, quote, "The government is asking Apple to hack our own users and undermine decades of security advancements that protect our customers."

But the Obama administration says that the court order only applies to this one phone. And they say all Apple has to do is help the FBI get around a security feature that destroys data if someone enters the pass code incorrectly 10 times.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest defended the FBI's position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: But this case doesn't require Apple to change their -- to redesign some element of their software or to create a new backdoor. It's a very specific request that the Department of Justice has made and a judge agreed with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And you can see why the Justice Department chose this case to fight this issue. We are talking about a terrorist attack that killed 14 people. The phone is owned by his employer, the county government, which has given consent to the FBI. And the terrorist is dead.

All of this could help the government's case as this fight goes through the courts -- Christine and Miguel.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that. You know, Apple of course at the center of this fight, the fight now over your privacy versus national security. And what do the three presidential candidates say last night on CNN's town hall? All three sided with the government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Law enforcement has the better argument. This concerns the phone of one of the San Bernardino hackers. And for law enforcement to get a judicial search order, that's consistent with the Fourth Amendment.

CARSON: Apple needs to sit down with trustworthy members of the government and hat may have to wait until the next election. I don't know.

RUBIO: But I do know this. It will take a partnership between the technology industry and the government to confront and solve this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Now Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote several tweets last night, backing Apple. He says, quote, "Important posts by Tim Cook," he's talking about a Tim Cook post to customers and to the FBI about this saying this is unprecedented and an invasion of privacy -- a potential invasion of privacy. This is what the Google CEO said, "Forcing companies to enable hacking could compromise users' privacy."

Google's chief acknowledges that law enforcement faces big challenges to protect the public but warns against setting a trouble precedent.

The ex-NSA contractor turned whistleblower Edward Snowden also defended Apple yesterday. This is what he tweeted. "The FBI is creating a world where citizens rely on Apple to defend their rights rather than the other way around."

But when you listen to people -- you know, people who are concerned about terrorism, people who are concerned about what has been up until now they think law enforcement's inability to find people obsessed with ISIS before they do something wrong.

MARQUEZ: Right.

ROMANS: They wonder why can't Apple just help more? Why can't in this one case Apple can't help? Tim Cook says it doesn't work that way.

MARQUEZ: I don't think they even can given the way that they've designed the current Apple phones.

ROMANS: Right.

MARQUEZ: The iPhones.

Down goes Pacquiao. The former world champion boxer gets dropped by Nike after his controversial anti-gay remarks. Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report." Coming up next. There he is. See you in a second, Andy.

[05:19:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Duke and North Carolina renewing their rivalry in Chapel Hill last night. And this was a great finish. MARQUEZ: And Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher

Report." Hello there, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Yes, good morning, guys. You know, Duke and UNC, they played some epic games over the years. And hey, this was another classic. Roy Williams' Tar Heels ranked fifth in the country, coming into this one. Duke ranked 20th.

Now the Blue Devils were down by as many as eight in the second half. Grayson Allen going to get this and won. The full Duke won. Allen, no relation to Ted Cruz, even though he looks exactly like him. Now moments later Luke Kennard, the Wayne three, that gives Duke the lead. And North Carolina had one last chance. But their shot here blocked. Roy Williams said he should have called a timeout to set up a play. Duke screeched by with a win here 74-73.

[05:25:01] All right. Nike is dropping Manny Pacquiao after he made anti-gay remarks on a Filipino television station. Pacquiao said people in same-sex relationships are worse than animals. The company released a statement saying, "Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community." Pacquiao has since apologized for his remarks.

All right. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman upholding the Flames' Dennis Wideman's 20-game suspension yesterday for this hit he put on a linesman last month. Wideman has said that the hit was unintentional. And the Players' Associaiton is now appealing the ruling to a neutral arbitrator. It's the first time under the new collective bargaining agreement that a player has gone this far with the appeals process.

All right. Believe it or not, pitchers and catchers have already started reporting to spring training. And the Texas Rangers, they're offering free season tickets to fans. All you have to do is hit a homerun in the Rangers ballpark which is obviously no easy task. And there are actually stipulations to this deal. You actually have to put a deposit down for season tickets to get three swings at it. You can't be a current or former professional baseball player as well because hey, they don't want any ringers out there getting crazy with the tickets.

And guys, the NBA trade deadline is today at 3:00 Eastern. We'll have to wait and see, there could be some big names out there. Is Dwight Howard going to get traded from the Rockets? Pau Gasol with the Bulls? Could be a very busy day in the NBA.

ROMANS: I might not be able to make it through the day waiting with all the anticipation and the drama.

MARQUEZ: I'm putting out up for hitting that homerun out in Texas.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Man, I --

MARQUEZ: Amazing. ROMANS: You should see me play softball.

MARQUEZ: Not going to happen?

ROMANS: It's like Ted Cruz singing on the phone.

MARQUEZ: Well, that'll be (INAUDIBLE).

ROMANS: That's why -- all right. Thanks, Andy.

MARQUEZ: Thank you, Andy Scholes.

Republicans running for president taking questions directly from the voters in CNN's town hall. The big moments coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)