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Trump: No Debate Coach Needed; 2016 Democrats Target Hillary Clinton; Race Against Clock To Find Missing Boys; School President On Search For Missing Boys. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 29, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:05] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Would love to know what you think about this. You can find me on Twitter @alisyncamerota. Meanwhile, let's go over to John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks, Alisyn. Let's talk about the other side now. Hillary Clinton's Democratic challengers now naming names, going after her directly, so, what is behind the change in tone? We'll ask John King, coming up "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back. Time now to go "Inside Politics" on "NEW DAY" with John King. Hi, John.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Mr. Berman, good morning to you. It's a busy day to go "Inside Politics." Let's get straight to it. With me to share their reporting and their insights this morning, CNN's Sara Murray and Ed O'Keefe of "The Washington Post."

Quickly before we get to some sound about Donald Trump and debate -- what did you make of what we just heard? Elizabeth Beck, this attorney in Miami coming forward saying during a deposition years ago about a real estate investment project.

Donald Trump got up and stormed out of the room because she says there was a prescheduled break and that she needed to breast pump because she was a new mother and that he said you are disgusting and stormed out of the room.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I can't imagine how uncomfortable that situation must have been as it was happening. I mean, here is this woman back to work just months after her baby, asking for a reasonable break and to have that kind of reaction.

[07:35:04] They are saying it wasn't just about the breastfeeding, there was more to it. That's what Trump's lawyer said, but I just cannot imagine going back to the room and go through that deposition and it does --

ED O'KEEFE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": It will be an opening for attacks from all sides. Questions about his sensitivity towards women, which, you know, is a tried and true method in politics and a valid one and something he's going to face more of. KING: Republicans, so far, say they have no plans to advertise against him because they think he is going to disappear. A test of whether he's going to disappear comes next week when we know he will be in the first presidential debate. That will be on Fox News.

Ten of the Republican candidates in the primetime debate, the top ten. We will get to the list in a minute, but CNN's Don Lemon talked to Donald Trump last night. You are not a politician. You've never been in this role. Don't you think you probably need a coach and some debate prep?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am what I am. I am what I am. Big debate coach. Look, Romney and Obama had a debate coach. Frankly, I thought Obama was terrible. Romney got worse and worse every time there was a debate.

By the time they had the third debate, he was catastrophic. I don't know what happened to him. I have to be myself. If it's not good enough, I will go on to other things, I will ride into the sunset and build more buildings and create more jobs. That's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A couple things there. One, that is part of his appeal. I am what I am. The last part is the change in the last week or so. His thing, if it works out, if it doesn't, I'll go make more buildings.

MURRAY: Well, it's interesting to me how he is managing expectations going into this debate. By the way, his aides are doing the same thing. Donald Trump is not a career politician. He's not debated before. This will be his first time on stage.

We think he will do well, but we can't make any promise. I think that's what we are hearing from Donald Trump as well. It's the old expectation game that politicians have been playing since the beginning of time.

O'KEEFE: I would think that the only thing he might want to work on is having sometimes walk around with him with a stopwatch. Keep his answer to a minute. He's never done that before.

KING: The question is when pressed by moderators or pressed by his rivals, will he flesh out? He's refused to give specifics on a lot of big interesting policy issues, any candidate for president, but particularly candidate issues that are important to the Republican base. Let's see what happens in the debate.

One of the questions is who will be there? Let's show you right now. This is a CNN poll. This is a Fox News decision next week. A week from yesterday, they will make the decision. They are going to do it like we do.

You average out the top national polls that have credibility. You see the top nine there, Mr. Trump is at the top, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson and Chris Christie probably makes it unless the polls change a lot in the next few days.

There is your top nine. Then you've got the rest, these are the candidates on the bubble if you say and these are not nobodies. This is the governor of Ohio, John Kasich, the long-term governor of Texas, Rick Perry, ran before. Rick Santorum won a dozen states in the last cycle and he may not make this debate.

Carly Fiorina, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Lindsey Graham, not nobody is at the bottom there. What do you expect from those guys on the bubble in the final few days?

If you know, you have to move up a point or two. Can you do, that, spending money on television, saying something provocative, or do you have just to hope?

O'KEEFE: I mean, you'd think that what Lindsey Graham was trying to do last week might have helped him a little bit. This sort of taking advantage of Trump calling on the cell phone number, but if he still polling that low, you wonder if there is any space left.

I'm still stunned at 16 percent of Republicans say they are undecided. How many more flavors do they need at this point? I mean, it's just kind of astounding that --

KING: So many good choices. You are looking at this all the wrong way. There are so many good choices. They just need to take their time.

MURRAY: Yes, I expect some pandemonium between now and the first debate, but I also think that there are a couple of candidates who will eventually end up taking the high road and saying, look, Mitt Romney wasn't in the first debate in 2012.

And the reality is this could be an important moment to weed some candidates out of the race. At this point, it doesn't necessarily mean that whoever is not on that debate stage is definitely not going to have a chance with the nomination. It's still very early.

KING: Let's turn to the Democrats because something significant, I don't know whether it's lasting or coincidence or desperation, but something significant has happened in the tone of the Democratic race over the last 24 to 36 hours.

It started with Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland. He is polling very low, way behind Bernie Sanders, way, way behind Hillary Clinton.

But for the first time, he called her out by name saying Hillary Clinton cannot be president because she is too cozy to Wall Street and won't be tough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): My proposals go a lot further than Secretary Clinton's. Her closeness with big banks on Wall Street is sincere. It's heartfelt, long established and well known. I don't have those ties. I am independent of the big banks on Wall Street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:40:00] KING: That's Martin O'Malley. Lincoln Chafee yesterday, the former governor, a former senator from Rhode Island, a one-time Republican now running as a Democrat says a lot of Hillary Clinton's honesty and trustworthy issues are because they are self-inflicted wounds. He criticized her vote for the Iraq war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR LINCOLN CHAFEE (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To get us back into another endless quagmire with a lapse of judgment, I did my homework. I looked to see if there were weapons of mass destruction. I didn't see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Then, yesterday, Hillary Clinton, on the campaign trail in New Hampshire asked what she would do. Right now, the president for some time, whether to continue construction, complete construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Hillary Clinton was involved in that as secretary of state. She said I can't answer you now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is President Obama's decision. I am not going to second guess him because I was in a position to set this in motion and I do not think that would be the right thing to do. I want to wait and see what he and Secretary Kerry decide. If it's undecided when I become president, I will answer your question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And again, first you had O'Malley, then you had Chafee, Bernie Sanders who often says let Hillary Clinton do her thing, I'm going to do mine. He says wait a minute. He says, "It's hard for me to understand how one can be concerned about climate change, but not opposed to Keystone pipeline." Essentially saying, you are running, take a position.

MURRAY: Well, look, he's not wrong about that. This is what presidential elections are for. Therefore, asking candidates what would you stand for if you become president? And the argument that I know too much about this and so I can't take a position is a confusing one.

O'KEEFE: She's not a Supreme Court justice. She doesn't get to recuse herself from the case because she had some involvement with (inaudible). She's running for president. She shouldn't weigh in on Iran. She shouldn't have an opinion on the Affordable Care Act because she helped spin that in the 1990s. It's astounding. They see vulnerability. That's an opening for them. I bet their numbers start climbing.

KING: I don't think it's going. I think they sense that if there's a moment, this is it. As we get back to you, I have been saying over the last week or so, Donald Trump is being much more like a politician. Here is my positive proof, the smoking gun.

Last night, Don Lemon, asked Donald Trump, who is a Buffalo Bills fan who sometimes goes to New York Jets games. Sorry Mr. Cuomo is not in the chair today. What he thinks about Tom Brady.

He said, I love Tom Brady. He's a great guy. I think Roger Goodell did a mistake here. New England Patriots, New Hampshire primary.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I like them and they like me.

KING: Smart guy.

PEREIRA: John King, I like you. Thanks for that, we appreciate it.

All right, folks, it is day six and there is still no sign of the two lost boys at sea. The Coast Guard is expanding their search to several states along the coast. We are going to speak with someone who knows one of the missing boys. He will join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:46:54]

PEREIRA: There's still no sign of those two missing 14-year-old boys off the Florida Coast. Austin Stefanos and Perry Cohen were last seen alive Friday before setting sail off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. Today is the sixth day of the massive search effort under way and even bigger support on shore for the teen's families.

I want to bring Dr. Jim Colman. He is in the president of Jupiter Christian School where Austin Stephanos attends. Dr. Coleman, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I'm hoping you can give us a little idea about the kiddo that Austin is.

JIM COLMAN, PRESIDENT OF AUSTIN STEPHANOS' SCHOOL: It's interesting. A lot of things about a person come out during times like this. Austin was a young man who just really loved the outdoors, loves the outdoors, and is a young man who desired to always be on the water. When he would come to school on Monday, almost every Monday, he had a story of fishing and whatever he had caught that week.

PEREIRA: That's tremendous. Does that give you sort of an indication of perhaps maybe the hope that so many people hold for those two young boys that maybe this is giving them some sort of advantage out there, an extra fight for survival?

COLMAN: I think it does help and certainly with a young man like Austin who is so outgoing and strong in spirit, I think that does give hope.

PEREIRA: Well, we know this is a tight knit community. We know as the leader of the Christian school, the kids get to know one other. It is a relatively small campus. These kids get to know one another. I know you know the family as well as an educator and know them personally. How are the families doing?

COLMAN: We had a vigil for the two boys last Sunday and we contacted the families to just make sure that it was OK that we did that event. They really were holding up well under the stress of what's happening and they are confident and hopeful. Of course, it's a difficult time. We understood that.

PEREIRA: But I'm sure they feel the support of those prayers, prayer vigils being held. We know there are other vigils being held, people coming from other communities, as a sign of support. That has got to help them not feel so alone in all of this.

COLMAN: On Sunday evening, when we had our prayer vigil, we had just about 1,000 people there to support and uphold both of the families. I know that last night there was another vigil with significant number of folks there as well. That has been an important source of strength for them.

PEREIRA: Well, I'm a person of faith. I know so many are praying for a miracle here. I know you are, too. I almost hate to bring up the worst case scenario, but let's say the boys aren't found or let's say they are found dead, you, as the president of the school, you have classes starting August 12th. What kind of preparations, sir, are you doing to prepare for a possible eventuality like that to advice these students?

COLMAN: Well, Michaela, we have to prepare for that possibility among many and we are in the process of doing that. We are gathering together grief counselors who will be able to help if that need is required and certainly will make it available to our employees and to our students and/or counting on our faith.

Because during times like these, people need help, they need hope, they need comfort and peace, and as people of faith, we know where to find that. We are very much engaged in that part.

PEREIRA: We certainly hope that provides some comfort to the families and their friends. Those 14-year-olds had plenty of friends that also enjoy the great outdoors and we hope that's providing some comfort. Dr. Jim Colman, thanks for joining us to tell us about Austin today.

COLMAN: It's a pleasure. Thank you, Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, John, over to you.

BERMAN: All right, thanks, Mich. Donald Trump says he is supported by a so-called huge silent majority so who are they? Our Don Lemon talked to the Republican frontrunner about why he thinks he is leading the pack. Don is here joining us live with more on this really interesting conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CAMEROTA: The search for those two boys missing at sea since Friday grows more dire this morning. The Coast Guard tells us they will need to make a decision soon about the search. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:59:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two teenage boys lost at sea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are having that discussion of when we should suspend the search. We want to find them desperately.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Is the RNC getting any warmer towards you?

TRUMP: They're becoming warmer since I'm leading in all the polls. They're sick and tired of watching incompetent people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The four-game suspension for NFL superstar, Tom Brady, still stands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is totally incriminating. It's a fairy tale that he destroyed this phone. I have no knowledge of anything. I didn't alter the ball in any way.

PEREIRA: An American dentist is wanted in Zimbabwe for hunting and killing a protected lion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're effectively changing what a lion is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, July 29th, 8:00 in the east. Chris is off on assignment. John Berman joins us. Great to have you with us.

That search for the two missing Florida teenagers lost at sea enters its sixth day. The search for the 14-year-olds, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, is stretching from Florida up to South Carolina.

PEREIRA: The situation grows more dire by the hour.