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CNN Poll: 2016 GOP Surprise?; UVA President Vows to Change Culture; Synthetics: New Drug Threat to Teens

Aired December 02, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Three letters: G-Y-M. After all those cookies.

Let's go. We got a lot of talk about Inside Politics this morning. Let's go there after they eat their cookies. With me to share their reporting and their insights, Jackie Kucinich, Ed O'Keefe of "The Washington Post".

Let's talk about our brand new CNN/ORC poll today, which has a bit of a surprise when you look at 2016 and the Republican contenders. First, if Mitt Romney runs, here we go, he would be the overwhelming frontrunner, but at just 20 percent. Look at the guy at number two, Dr. Ben Carson, a nonpolitician at number two then Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee.

Below that is a pretty impressive field actually of a number of other Republican candidates. Here's what happens if Romney does not run. Jeb Bush 14 percent, Ben Carson hangs in there at 11 percent, and then Huckabee, Christie, Ryan, known names.

Jackie, what this tells me, number one, there is no frontrunner. The Republican Party is normally, you know, who the guy is we don't know who the guy is. Unless Romney runs, but he says he's not. The other thing that's interesting is Dr. Ben Carson. Not a politician.

After this mid-term election, after the last few years of Washington dysfunction, it's clear that even Republicans are looking, trying at least to think outside the box.

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE WASHINGTON POST": One of the interesting things about Romney is in January of 2011 he also was at 20 percent in several polls. So there is a sweet spot for Romney, I think, within the Republican Party.

But when you're talking about Ben Carson, he seems to be speaking to the activist class in the Republican Party. And they are the ones rallying behind him. They have been looking for someone to sort of carry their banner and right now, they really seem to like Ben Carson.

KING: An African-American Republican, a conservative, and if you travel the country you're going to evangelical book stores, his books are popular. Obviously he had his post. He left his post at Fox News because he's exploring running for president. Is he an interesting candidate or is he a potential presidential nominee? ED O'KEEFE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think he's an interesting candidate and who Republicans conservatives have been buzzing about for more than a year. I remember being at an event in Iowa about 14 months ago, there were "Run Ben Run" bumper stickers and people who had travelled from other parts of the country come to Towa to tell Republicans, look at this guy seriously.

What this poll suggests however is that the field is just as volatile as it was this time four years ago for Republicans. For example, where's Rand Paul? Suddenly he's fallen out of the top tier after being in it for much of the last several months.

And now Ben Carson jumps upped and others slide down and even Paul Ryan comes up. This is exactly what we saw last time. It's still very volatile. Lots of potential for people to move up and it also suggests at least for now that there's a little bit of the flavor of the month stuff going on.

KING: And the big names, the known names, name identification matters a lot this early out. Romney, Bush, Christie, Huckabee, nationally- known names. That's what makes Carson so interesting. He leapfrogs as you mentioned. Some impressive guys, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Senator Cruz, Governor Walker, Governor Perry, Senator Rubio.

They're all down in the 4's, 5's and 6s, and a lot of that I think will change once we get decisions. We're going to get decisions early in the New Year.

The big decision people are waiting for in the Republican Party, the biggest question is the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, son of one president, brother of another president. Listen to Jeb Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I don't know if I'd be a good candidate or bad one. I kind of know how Republican can win whether it's me or somebody else. And it has to be much more uplifting, much more positive. Much more willing to you know, to be practical now in Washington world, lose the primary to win the general without violating your principles. It's not an easy task, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What's he trying to tell us? Here's a guy who would be at odds with the base of the party on immigration, at odds with the base of the party or a significant slice of it on common core education standards. What's Jeb Bush saying about the general, I know what it's like to win?

KUCINICH: You know, I was speaking to someone last week who told me that he was leaning toward running and this reiterates that. I think it's going with the message from the establishment of the Republican Party.

That in order to win the general, you have to buck the base, there hasn't been anyone yet willing to do that and came out OK on the other side.

KING: We saw what happened with Romney last time. A lot of people thought if Romney had a chance against President Obama he needed to make your point, maybe buck the base or at least not get dragged right and he did on immigration and other issues. Jeb Bush is at least saying there, I won't do that right?

O'KEEFE: And you wonder how well he'll do in Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire and elsewhere because of that. I think what he's trying to say here is, yes, I know I could do it.

Clearly as a governor I was successful. What I really don't want to do is have to do is spend time in Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, pandering to these different blocs of Republicans.

I just want to run in the general election because if you look at the numbers there, it suggests I could do quite well.

KING: You've got to earn it. I think most signals are that Huckabee is thinking about it it's an impressive field on paper. If you look at terms of experience, these could be fun debates.

KUCINICH: You have to wonder if he was encouraged also by the results of the 2014 election. Because the establishment really did get their candidates out there and they won and you know, the proof is in the results.

KING: Jeb Bush would have a little bit, they would get a little, the establishment would rally around him and the pressure would turn to Governor Christie. On the Democrats, you saw no front-runner there, right, nobody could you claim front-runner status on the Republican side.

It's a little different for the Democrats. Let's show you the numbers, some woman named Hillary Clinton at 65 percent, 65 percent, Elizabeth Warren at 10, Jill Biden at 9, Bernie Sanders at 5, and Governor Andrew Cuomo at 1 percent among the top Democrats.

So look what happens, if Hillary Clinton decided, we all expect she is running a bit of loyalty there, rallying around the vice president. If Hillary Clinton did not run, Joe Biden is your front-runner at 41, Elizabeth warren up to 20.

You see Governor Cuomo, Bernie Sanders and Governor O'Malley at the bottom of the pack. If you're Secretary Clinton and you're reading these numbers, I mean, again, the fleet is in your port and you decide what to do here, right?

KUCINICH: It's very true, but we're old enough to remember the last time Hillary Clinton was an unbeatable candidate. I think these are very early polls, a lot of it as you said are good for Hillary early. We've seen when Hillary gets out there and starts running, things can get more complicated.

KING: But who? You still need, somebody, somebody -- well somebody has to beat you, which means somebody has to present a real challenge, who is that? Is it former Senator Jim Webb? Is it Bernie Sanders?

O'KEEFE: Those guys will run, there's no indication they're inspiring Democrats the way that Elizabeth Warren is the numbers for her continue to be impressive.

This far out that's where you want to be, not in first place, but in second place, but enough Democrats say we would like to see someone like that run. Is that Bernie Sanders, Jim Webb, Elizabeth Warren?

She insists she's not getting it. It says something that she got a minor little leadership role up in the Senate when Harry Reid tapped her for this policy position.

And I heard from so many Democrats that were excited that she was finally in the mix. The job she got is incredibly insignificant, but it was a demonstration that liberal Democrats are eager to see people like her at the table.

Helping steer the party into the future and it's something that Clinton will have to contend with.

KING: It's interesting. A lot of people saying why do we care about the 2016 numbers so early? They will change, but they matter what all the candidates are looks, should I run, who-day talk to? When do I decide?

That's the dominant effect we'll see in the first quarter of next year. Jackie, Ed, thanks for coming and Alisyn. I want to show you something. We've known it's happening for some time.

The White House gives us a picture on technology's impact on the president's daily briefing. There he is reading it on a tablet.

We think of it in a manila folder that's stamped "top secret." There's the president, that's a tough read every day for any president.

But interesting use of technology and a big question for me is -- how secure they feel about that, given all these hacking stories.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That's a great question, if only we knew a political reporter who could pose it in Washington, D.C. to the White House, let us know if you find someone -- John.

KING: I bet that happens today.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

All right, the University of Virginia taking steps to protect women on campus after a reported gang rape at a fraternity party. We're talking to the student council president, about what's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: University Of Virginia President Theresa Sullivan finally front and center after a week of criticism at her school. She canceled an appearance in Washington, D.C. instead choosing to address UVA students about growing allegations of rape and the culture surrounding it in at university.

How bad is the situation? Is it unique? What's going to happen going forward? We're joined by this morning by Jalen Ross. He is the student council president, University of Virginia. It's good to have you, young man.

I'm sure when you got the job you didn't think you would be thrust into the national spotlight dealing with issues at the university. But that is your appointed duty. Now so let me ask you, do you believe that your university is different in terms of how it deals with this culture, of sexual assault, than other big universities across the country?

JALEN ROSS, STUDENT COUNCIL PRESIDENT, UVA: Well, Good morning, Chris. Thanks for having me. Certainly it's not the term I expected to have, but glad to be able to hopefully contribute to the solution. I don't know if we're significantly different than other universities.

I only know this one. Right now, there are thousands of people here because of this article and because of the lot of the work being done that are committed to solving it here and hope we'll be different in that way.

CUOMO: Did the problem exist in terms of its recognition, by the institution, in your opinion, before the article?

ROSS: Well, definitely. Look, this is something that student council has been engaged on since January. So there's actually, there was a lot of good work that happened around this over the summer. We rewrote our sexual misconduct policy. We planned to do a survey in January, mandatory training, and powerful advocates in the community for a long time.

What we have now is through the fact of tragedy and mass media and press that we have a lot more people engaged on it. That would, that means we have people now that have the tools to make some serious change that I think will help solve the problem that we didn't have before.

CUOMO: You guys have grown up in a culture of political correctness that is unlike anything else. The rest of us did. And yet, you have this problem that seems to go to the most basic forms of behavior between male and female. Why do you think this happened so much at a place that supposedly culls the best and brightest?

ROSS: You know that's a great question. I think any community you've got some bad eggs. And the problem we have right now is that we've got a culture that doesn't allow people to report and expose those bad eggs so we can get them out of here.

One of the things we're worried about and we'll be working to fix, students and administration together in the next couple of weeks is figure out what we do about that culture that enables people to feel empowered to come forward and tell the stories. If you look at the numbers, the Department of Education says 95 percent of people aren't coming to tell the story of sexual assault nationwide. We have to make sure people are comfortable telling their stories so we can figure out who is creating the harm.

CUOMO: In general, every case is different. But in general, many assaults that aren't outright rape attempts are born of excess, right? That starts with drinking, specifically binge drinking. That is something that's come up in the context of the University of Virginia as well. How big of a problem do you guys have with knowing your limits when it comes to booze?

ROSS: That's a question and an issue nationwide. You think the idea students have when they're coming to college and what college means, that's influenced by stories they hear, by movies they're looking at. The issue of drinking is a serious one on grounds, here as well as everywhere else.

The good news is we've gotten really great engagement from our folks that are in a fraternity council president, to figure out what we can do to make parties safer places. When you're first coming in, new world, no rules, no parents, how to make sure you're responsibly introduced to alcohol, and continues that pattern.

We're asking ourselves about policy changes we can make and cultural changes we can make that keep people safer from alcohol and sexual assault.

ROSS: It's great to see the student body activated because the culture of how you support victims does begin with you guys. Often the institution won't find out about it unless the person wants to come forward, right?

However, you to all of your parents are still their babies, and you're supposed to be protected. By the institution and this comes down to their leadership, not yours. Do you feel that your president in the administration has gotten out of this, in front of it the way they should have, as soon as they should have?

ROSS: I think there was widespread disappointment from a lot of students I talked to about the quickness and the appropriateness of the response in the beginning. I think the good news is, we've seen much better engagement since then.

They've recovered and I've had a lot of conversations with folks in the administration doing a good job. The point I'll make though is sort of one of the core values we've got here is an ideal we call student self-governance, I disagree a little that it falls at the administration's feet to fix this.

This is a student problem. It's our culture, our issue we need to solve. If we're going to do it, change cultures, we've got to start with us, we've put together a group of students that's meeting this weekend, meeting last few weeks.

To figure out what it is that can do, change things, in fraternity life, alcohol, around the university in general. I think we're going to be the ones to figure out what we can change to actually solve that problem.

CUOMO: You know what you took me on, Ross, and you won, you're right. You want to be the change that you want to see. If you guys get it right in terms of what's acceptable on campus, a lot of good things will come from that. I wish you good luck and let us know at CNN what we can do to help promote the cause.

ROSS: Appreciate your attention to this, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: New generation of designer drugs are killing our kids, This is the subject of a new CNN documentary and it premieres tonight. Have a preview for your next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to alert you to a growing threat to teenagers that parents really need to be aware of, this new type of drug, a synthetic designer drug intended to have the same effect as drugs that are already banned and there have already been deadly results.

Senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin has a very special documentary airing tonight "DEADLY HIGH." Drew is here now with more of a look at this synthetic drug business.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It's crazy, isn't it? You know the parents of two dead teens want this story to be told because Michaela, they had no idea what happened to their children. The new drugs synthetic, chemically produced designer drugs designed just to evade the law, that's what they are designed for.

Sold online, easy to get, and before anyone knew even what they were, they tore through a mid-western city, ruining dozens of lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DRIFFIN (voice-over): In the week of June 10th, 2012, law enforcement in Grand Forks were dealing with an outbreak of violent overdoses. Mystery drug on the streets had already killed two teenagers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have multiple overdoses, two young men that lost their lives. What is more serious than that?

GRIFFIN: Tim Purdon is the U.S. attorney for North Dakota.

TIMOTHY PURDON, U.S. ATTORNEY DISTRICT OF NORHT DAKOTA: That was unprecedented. I've been U.S. attorney for going on four years, this is the only time we've reached out to a school system, a university and said there's a danger on the streets right now that people need to be aware about.

GRIFFIN: As the emergency warnings were being issued, investigators were desperately trying to find out just what this drug was, more importantly, where it came from.

CHRIS MYERS, FIRST ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, DISTRICT OF NORTH DAKOTA: It took lab analysis to determine the true nature of these substances. When we learned what they were, that was new to us.

GRIFFIN: Two cimbome and 2ccmbome are synthetic designer drugs, chemicals designed to imitate the high of the banned drug LSD. These drugs are so potent a dose the size of a few grains of salt is enough to get high. North Dakota's top federal drug prosecutor had never heard of them and neither had Christian Bjerk's parents.

DEBRA BJERK, CHRISTIAN BJERK'S MOTHER: I had to go to the internet to look up information on it. I didn't understand the whole synthetic drug, I didn't know what it was, didn't know how dangerous they were.

GRIFFIN (on camera): The message we got after we went on air is that somebody had said it was OK for these drugs to be on the street and they had been tweaked, but that's all we knew.

GRIFFIN: Synthetic LSD has been blamed and parents are learning the truth about synthetic designer drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators say he overdosed on a synthetic --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Otherwise known as K2.

GRIFFIN: With deaths and overdoses reported almost daily.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: And true law enforcement that's so upsetting, they say, it's new to us. Where is this stuff coming from?

GRIFFIN: That's what will blow your mind. This is not the cartels. This is chemical laboratories mainly in china putting this stuff outline on research chemicals, sold across the world to entrepreneurial drug dealer, one of whom will talk to us tonight and it will scare the pants off of you how easily that this drug entrepreneur set up the business that led to these kids' deaths.

PEREIRA: We encourage parents with your kids tune in tonight at 9:00 Eastern, it's called "DEADLY HIGH: HOW SYNTHETIC DRUGS ARE KILLING KIDS." We also want to point to CNN.com/deadlyhigh there's more information about synthetic drugs, really, really great resources for parents as well. Drew Griffin we appreciate it. Thank you so much for that.

Ahead here, the Obama administration looking to end racial profiling, but the controversy over that "hands up" gesture by St. Louis Rams players is heating up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)