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Jeb Bush's Huge Fundraising Haul; Bernie Sanders Complains About Campaign Cash; Jeb Bush: "People Need To Work Longer Hours"; South Carolina Confederate Flag Coming Down; Family Of Slain Pastor Reacts To Flag Coming Down; Schwarzenegger Silent On Controversial Commutation. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 10, 2015 - 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": Hillary Clinton's number, $45 million for her campaign, about 24 million, we are waiting for the final numbers from the superpac. One thing that is interesting is does the money become an issue.

Bernie Sanders raised an OK amount of money himself, about $15 million. Go back ten years, that's a pretty good number. In the post Citizens United world, but listen to Bernie Sanders, he say, especially when it comes to Jeb Bush, there's a problem here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bush, people like Sheldon, Adelson and most significantly the Koch brothers. Their efforts are undermining the foundations of American democracy, which means to me that we must overturn this disastrous Citizens United --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I don't remember right after Watergate, but in recent years, people complain about the money. Does the debate about the money influence elections or come down to taxes and spending? What do you do about ISIS and can you be trusted?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: It seems not to because you saw Democrats try to make the argument in 2014 about the Koch brothers and Harry Reid talking about the influence of the Koch brothers. You saw Obama speak out against Citizens United.

But also say listen, sort of give in to this new reality where all the money, where superpacs are dominant. That's going to be the interesting thing. You have seen in past elections even with Bush srt of outsourced to these superpacs and in 2012, superpacs had the best ads for Obama.

So it will be interesting to see how that plays out. But my goodness, I think the thought was that all of this money would scare people away. It ain't happening. You are going to get Scott Walker in here as well.

KING: All right, 17 counting Governor Gilmore, I guess, in the Republican side. I don't forget anybody. Even if you are getting 1 percent, it is 17 candidate field that 1 percent is coming from somebody. I don't discount anybody at this point in the Republican race.

Let's move on to some of the economic substance. Jeb Bush speaking to the "Union Leader" newspaper in New Hampshire, he wants economic growth. He says elect Jeb Bush as president and we will soon have economic growth in the 4 percent rate. So the newspaper asked, how do you get there, governor?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to be a lot more productive. Work force participation has to rise from the all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours and through productivity gain, more income for their families. That's the only way we are going to get out of this rut that we are in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: People need to work longer hours. At the Democratic National Committee, at the Clinton campaign, that was the ding, ding, ding. They thought they had the new 47 percent. They had a Republican candidate who sounded insensitive to American workers or is insulting American workers saying workers aren't out there working hard enough.

Look at the tweet from the Hillary Clinton campaign. Anyone who believes Americans aren't working hard enough hasn't met American workers. Here is the issue. Governor Bush said, wait a minute, it's not what I was talking about if you look at the full context.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Keep us from taking it out of context. What you meant to say was -- when you meant more hours you mean, full time work? Not that somebody working two jobs needs more. Their income needs to grow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: See the shake of the head there. He says his point was it was clear. A lot of people in this recovery are working part time jobs or two part time jobs because they can't get a 40-hour a week full time job with benefits and that's what he meant. You need to get more people into the 40 hours. Are the Democrats taken this out of context, fair or unfair?

JACKIE KUCINICH, "THE DAILY BEAST": They are taking it out of context. They are looking so hard for that one sound bite that is going to knock out Jeb Bush. I don't think this one is it.

HENDERSON: Yes, I mean, they'll keep looking, as you said. But you have to be more careful if you are Jeb Bush with how you are talking around this issue, particularly after we saw 2012. He's a Bush, from a wealthy family.

So, yes, he's got to be a little more careful. I think this whole idea about talking to workers automatically goes to the question of wages and minimum wage. That's something where I think Democrats have something of an edge. They are the ones pushing for a higher minimum wage.

KING: They are going to make a case, if you have an investment, a hedge fund or have a 401(k), you have done pretty well, what about the worker? One more point about Jeb Bush, he was on Fox News last night. He was asked, what do you think? Let's suppose you are in a match up against Hillary Clinton come next year in the general election, what is her biggest weakness?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: It's her, just, this protective shield she wants to create around her candidacy. I don't think it's going to work. The fact she can't be trusted.

[07:35:02] There's never a straight answer, whether it's the server, the e-mails, Benghazi, just constantly, you know, validates this notion that there are two sets of rules.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Long way to go before we know if there will be a Clinton/Bush race. We have a preview there.

KUCINICH: I wouldn't set the DVR. You are going to hear that so many times.

HENDERSON: Yes, I mean, what's interesting. It's not really working. Clinton leads Bush by 13, 14 points. It's still early. We'll see.

KING: We'll see if it is her and he has money left, he starts spending money on that. That's a theme to look for when we get to the spending bet money, which ends up being TV ads mostly.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That's why they got the money, John. They want to use it to bash the other side. That's how it goes. While I have you, let me ask you a question.

With what's going on in South Carolina right now, not just the issue, but the messenger, herself, Nikki Haley, she got out in front of this, did it with emotion, and represents bringing sides together as a Republican governor, immigrant family herself here, of East Asian descent, Indian descent. Do you think this moment may have catapulted her into legitimate consideration for VP?

KING: Without a doubt. It will make her part of the conversation. Does that mean she'll be the VP? We have a long way to go before we get to the days and weeks before the Republican convention next summer.

But look, Republicans expect to be running against Hillary Clinton. We'll see if that works out. So a lot of Republicans think Carly Fiorina is not going to be our nominee. We are going to have a male as our nominee. Maybe we do want to look for a woman. Republicans we know do have a problem with nonwhite voters. If you look at the African-American numbers and the Latino numbers, even the Asian numbers from the last two presidential elections, Republicans have a problem.

So no question, Nikki Haley has raised her national profile with the confederate flag stand, puts her in part of the conversation. We'll see where we go from here.

CUOMO: Thank you for the insight, my friend. I appreciate it. I wish you a good weekend. I tell you all, please, watch John King and his "INSIDE POLITICS" panel break down the best political news of the week every Sunday, 8:30 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

So, we are talking about the flag. It is going to come down today, this morning, in Charleston. What does that mean? What does it mean to the families? That's what really gave the motivation for this social change. We have them with us. We are going to talk to one of them, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:41:22]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNY HORNE (R), SOUTH CAROLINA REPRESENTATIVE: I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Jenny Horne, a local legislator there, making the case that the flag needs to come down and pointing out that she, herself, is a descendent of confederate warriors and yet it was time for change. What you are looking now, a live picture of that battle flag.

One of its final moments rising above people instead of being taken down and put in a museum. That's going to happen in just a couple hours. So, why did this begin? Because of what happened in the church most recently and what was done by those who were victims first and now heroes to all in the name of tolerance and peace.

So what does the latest mean to those families? Alana Simmons is the granddaughter of Reverend Daniel Simmons, the 74-year-old pastor, of course, among those nine who lost their lives in last month's attack.

Alana, thank you for joining us. I know that this is a situation that mixes pain and pride. Let's deal with the loss that your family has to suffer through all of this. How is everybody doing? What does today mean?

ALANA SIMMONS, GRANDDAUGHTER OF REVEREND DANIEL SIMMONS, SR.: Well, everyone is doing exceptionally well considering the circumstances. This is just a really nice gesture from the state of South Carolina, we really appreciate it. CUOMO: Gesture. Now, obviously that word means something to you. You have tried to use this as motivation. Let's put up the president's tweet, the president himself coming under the influence of something that you are helping to make or hashtag everyone should know, "So inspired by the grace shown by the Simmons family and all the victims' families in Charleston. Hate won't win."

That takes us to the pride of this. What do you want the legacy of the pastor to be?

SIMMONS: We want his legacy to be love. He lived and love and the irony of the situation is that he died of hate. So what we did was we started a campaign called "The hates won't win movement." What we are asking people to do is to go out and show an act of love to someone who is different from them.

Every day, we teach our kids and some of us say these words every day, one nation under God indivisible. Yet we let our differences divide us. So what we are trying to do is make a special effort for everyone to go out and show an act of love to someone who is different from them and post it to their social media with the #hatewontwin and then to challenge people to do the same thing.

CUOMO: Too often we are seeing people who are claiming their Christianity as a basis for trying to divide so a good reminder to God fearing people as well and -- so then you get to what is circling around with taking the flag down.

There are those who say taking this flag down won't change anything that really matters and who say, you know, it's just a flag, it means certain things to certain people and other things to other people. What do you say to the pushback?

SIMMONS: Well, I believe the flag is definitely a symbol of division, but I could agree with that. Taking down a flag or even doing more with gun control isn't enough to change the hearts of man, which is why we came up with the campaign to go out and show love to people so that people can understand and respect our differences.

[07:45:05] CUOMO: You could have gone on a take it down campaign. You could have gone on a race the rebel tradition. You didn't. This matters to you more. What do you want to see happen next? Everybody agrees taking the confederate flag down would be a first step. What should be the second step, the third step?

SIMMONS: The second step comes from the community and I would say the third step comes from the generation coming up. For us to make a special effort to love thy neighbor, no matter who thy neighbor is. That's why we started our campaign.

CUOMO: Understood, and a beautiful one at that. What have you seen so far? What have been the fruits of the effort so far?

SIMMONS: So far, we have seen some wonderful stories of people who are different starting from, like, children or young black man and police officers to maybe young black and white girls that we have seen the Muslim churches have donated to some of the churches being burnt down in the south.

We have seen a lot of differences, people with generational differences, with religious differences and with, of course, race differences coming together to show the world that it doesn't have to be the way that it is.

CUOMO: We all want to be better. That's what it's about. Let's end for today with just one memory of your grandfather. Tell me something about him that we don't know.

SIMMONS: Well, he loved football. We don't talk a lot about that on our interviews, but he really loved football and he loved the Carolina Panthers and he really loved Cam Newton.

CUOMO: Loved Cam Newton.

SIMMONS: His picture is next to all of ours, like it's a family picture.

CUOMO: Who knows, maybe you are related. That would be great. That would be great. Good luck to you with the campaign, #aliveandwell as is the legacy of your grandfather. We wish you good luck. Thank you for trying to make this pain into purpose.

SIMMONS: Thank you.

CUOMO: Take care, Alana -- Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: What is it Gandhi said, Chris? These are change you want to see in the world?

CUOMO: That's it.

PEREIRA: OK, ahead here, Arnold Schwarzenegger's final hour as governor is still haunting him. A California family is enraged after this son's killer is being allowed to leave prison early. Will Schwarzenegger respond? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:00]

PEREIRA: He has been on a publicity tour for his new "Terminator" film, but former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, won't say a peep about his act in office. He commuted a teenager's prison sentence. There is growing criticism that this was done as a political favor.

Now the father of the convicted killer is speaking out. CNN's Kyung Lah is still trying to get answers from Schwarzenegger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arnold Schwarzenegger refusing to talk about his final act as governor.

(on camera): The family is trying to go to the Supreme Court, sir. (voice-over): In the final hour in office, then Governor Schwarzenegger slashed in half the jail sentence of Esteban Nunez, the son of a political ally, who pleaded guilty in the 2008 stabbing death of Luis Santos.

FRED SANTOS, VICTIM'S FATHER: He thinking somebody being murdered, it's a news that is below his status.

LAH: Luis' parents, Fred and Kathy Santos have been fighting Schwarzenegger's commutation since 2011. How they found about it added insult to injury. No one from the governor's office called them. How they learned? The man who pleaded guilty to the stabbing death of their son was being let out of jail early is when reporters started calling their home.

Esteban Nunez's 16-year sentence was cut to just seven years amid widespread criticism that the case reeked of back door politics. Esteban's father is Fabian Nunez, once California's most powerful Democrat. He was also a known political friend to Schwarzenegger.

KATHY SANTOS, VICTIM'S MOTHER: Cowardly act that he didn't even have the nerve or the heart to contact us and tell us that he had planned to do this. I mean, come on. Be a man.

LAH: While Arnold wouldn't address the case, someone else did. After refusing repeated request for an interview, Fabian Nunez called CNN after our story first aired on Monday. He repeated statements he's made in the past.

FABIAN NUNEZ: There was a totally different standard, legal standard applied to my son.

LAH: Then went on to argue that Schwarzenegger merely righted wrongs perpetuated by a conservative judge and an overzealous district attorney. Nunez claims DA Bonnie Dumanis pushed for the plea bargain, not his son because she wanted a high profile conviction before making a run for mayor. Dumanis calls that ridiculous.

BONNIE DUMANIS, SAN DIEGO COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: I would say that if that were true, we were trying to treat him differently and go all out because it was a powerful person. We never would have plea bargained this case.

LAH: But Fabian Nunez and Arnold Schwarzenegger in his commutation letter claimed the case was never as airtight as the prosecution argued. Witnesses said co-defendant Ryan Jet, already on probation actually stabbed Luis Santos while Nunez stabbed two others who survived.

"Considering Nunez's limited role in the killing and his clean prior criminal record," Schwarzenegger wrote, "I believe his sentence is disproportionate to Jet's." Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: What is your gut? PEREIRA: My gut is that Kyung Lah does a good job tracking down and getting deeper into a story that matters, and she'll keep going and we'll keep telling the story.

PEREIRA: We'll keep following it.

CUOMO: All right, so speaking of one time presidential candidates, of course, Schwarzenegger could never run, but Bernie Sanders can and he's making gains against Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. Should Hillary be worried? Why should Bernie Sanders beat Hillary? We are going to ask the man himself. NEW DAY puts him to the test.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:58:38]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bill has been signed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This flag on the statehouse grounds must come down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These nine pens are going to each of the nine families of the Emanuel Nine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not going to cut Social Security. We are going to expand Social Security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you all think of Bernie?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He should be taken seriously.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will get more Latinos than anybody else. They're going to vote for me. And I tell you what? I will take them away from Hillary Clinton. Macy's was weak. Thousands of people are cutting up their Macy's credit card right now and I love that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, July 10th, 8:00 in the east. Alisyn is off today. It is a big day because in just under two hours the confederate battle flag will finally be taken down from the grounds of South Carolina's capital. It will go in a museum, but the debate will continue. What about other state flags and other displays?

PEREIRA: Well, Chris, a battle over the flag certainly does not end in South Carolina. Petitions are spreading across the nation. The battle is even picking up steam in Congress.

So we begin our coverage with CNN's Alina Machado. She is in Columbia, South Carolina -- Alina.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, people are already starting to gather here to see firsthand the state -- the confederate battle flag be removed from the state capitol grounds.