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New Day

Greek Government Passes Bailout; Impact of Currency Troubles in China; Impact of Biden Run on Clinton and Sanders Candidacy; Presidential Candidates Hit the Soapbox at Iowa State Fair. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 14, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:05] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Hooray, the Iowa State Fair is underway. But with it can come some real gush done, done (ph) indigestion, from the politics that is. At least 20 presidential contenders descending on the critical state. Everyone needs a boost except Trump probably, but perhaps no one more than former Governor Jeb Bush. Too early to know who is going to win this thing, but never too early for someone to flame out.

And Bush is taking hits on the polls and now on the stump for saying, Saddam Hussein, taking him out turn out to be a good deal.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Capital punishment now completely off the table in Connecticut. The state's Supreme Court ruling it would be cruel, unusual and unconstitutional to execute any of the 11 inmates still on death row. Connecticut abolished capitol punishment back in 2012, but people who were already condemned for their crimes will face execution.

CUOMO: Deadly roller coaster accident to tell you about. This one in Cedar Point, Ohio. A 45-year-old schoolteacher James Young of East Canton killed Thursday evening just after he exited the Raptor roller coaster. Here's why.

Friend's say he lost his cell phone during the ride. And once it stopped, he hopped a fence into a restricted area to find the phone. That's when one of the cars from the roller coaster hit him in the head and killed him.

PEREIRA: Tragic mistake.

DNA testing proved that President Warren Harding fathered a child with his mistress Nan Britton.

CUOMO: What?

PEREIRA: Britain sparked the scandal way back in 1927 when she rode a best-selling memoir about her romance with the president. Historians challenged her claims and Harding's supporters vilified her for decades. But, now, DNA testing on Harding's descendants prove with 99.9 percent certainty, Harding was indeed the father of Britton's daughter.

Next hour, Abigail Harding, the grand niece of former president Warren Harding joins us. My goodness.

CUOMO: Where was Maury then?

PEREIRA: It predated Maury by a little bit.

CUOMO: Big news for Greece this weekend. We got Greek lawmakers approving the country's third bailout after this marathon night of debates. So it's time for "CNN Money" now, chief business correspondent Christine Romans in the money center.

[06:35:17] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh this clears the way, Chris, for the $95 billion agreement to keep Greece out of default and to keep it in the EU. It includes six spending cuts and tax increases. The prime minister of Greece called it a necessary choice. Euro zone finance minister still need to approve this loan.

Oil prices folks are falling even further right now. Crude oil, six- year low. 42 bucks a barrel. Why? Well, worries about China's economy after it's valued its currency this week. Plus, producers in the U.S. and abroad are pumping like there's no tomorrow. What does it mean for you? Right now, well, it means, gas prices are going to continue to fall. I expect $2 gas in the next few weeks. Back to school time by Halloween is the latest $2 gas.

Wait, I need to get a car.

PEREIRA: I know.

ROMANS: Can I just borrow yours and fill it up. I'll feel good about myself.

CUOMO: Let's go in on barrels of oil and just stockpile them.

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PEREIRA: Stock things wise. I think we should.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Go to Christine's house.

PEREIRA: There you go. All right, Christine, thanks so much for that.

Well, the White House -- the race rather for the White House could get a lot more interesting if President -- Vice President Joe Biden, I just gave him a bit of a promotion there, if he decides to run for the office. Insiders say that he is indeed seriously considering it.

How would all of that impact the Democrats chances in 2016? We'll take a closer look with the party insider next.

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[06:40:55] CUOMO: Let's build the case, shall we? It's not unusual for a vice president to run for president. The current VP has run twice before. "Riding with Biden" is a hashtag that only grows in popularity. Amid new reports that maybe Joe Biden, while on vacation is seeking advice from close allies in South Carolina. But does he have more to lose with a potential run than to gain? It's an interesting question.

Let's bring in Brady Garvan. Who's he? He's the chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party in South Carolina. A key early primary state.

Now, Mr. Garvan, your job is to remain neutral. My job is to push your neutrality. Let the games begin. Put up the numbers that we have currently with Hillary, Bernie, Biden, not in the race at 12 percent.

How do you reckon his 12 percent? What does it mean to you?

BRADY QUIRK-GARVAN, CHAIRMAN, CHARLESTON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Well, Chris, thanks for having me on. I think the 12 percent number really shows how powerful the position of vice president is. That, you know, he's got probably the only person that can rival Hillary Clinton on name ID across the country, but particularly here in South Carolina.

He's someone who people know. He's a popular individual within the Democratic Party. And so to me, it is no surprise that the sitting vice president would poll this whether or not he decides to get into the race.

CUOMO: Your job, despite the ground work laid, is to find the best candidate to bring this home in the general election. Let's look at specific areas of need in the polls.

First one, which candidate best understands the problems facing people like you? Clinton 40, Sanders, statistically even, 39, Biden, again, at 12. That is not promising for your lead candidate when she has someone who declares himself as a Democratic socialist right on her heels about understanding people.

Do you see this as a vulnerability that must be address, sir?

GARVAN: Well, I think it's something that we have to recognize that's still very early. You know, we are six months away from voting in primaries and over a year away from the general election.

And one of the things that, you know, we need to keep in mind is that whoever the nominee is, has quite a bit of time to make their case to the American public. And so, I think, you know, the fact that Hillary Clinton is already polling at 40 percent is great. And then she gets to meet more Americans and make her case to the public. You know, that will grow. And whoever the nominee is, they will have a few months to spread their message and see how things go.

CUOMO: The problem is with time, the numbers are not going the right way for Hillary right now, which takes us to the next category.

All right. Which democratic candidate is most honest and trustworthy? Sanders, 35, Clinton 28, Biden, 23, O'Malley and Webb, statistically down there at the bottom.

Now what does this mean? Do people really know who Bernie Sanders is? Not so much. This is a vote of no confidence for Hillary Clinton.

Fair?

GARVAN: Well, I think, it might be more of a recognition not about Hillary Clinton, specifically, but more just about the public's general trust of elected officials in general.

CUOMO: Why Brady? Why it's specific to her?

(CROSSTALK)

GARVAN: I think, you know, one of the thing that we are seeing --

CUOMO: This e-mail stuff is ugly stuff. No matter how much there, there, there is, it is not good when you have a federal investigation going on in your campaign.

GARVAN: No. Certainly it's not good. But I think, also to the general American public, the e-mails are still considered very much insider baseball. You know, it's something that is talked about, you know, in papers and, you know, on national TV.

But when you are talking with activists or regular voters, that doesn't seem to be something on their mind. And I think what they are more concerned about is the economy. Are they able to get a stable job? Are they able to put more in their pocket than they were last year? I think those are the things that matter more to voters than what some Republican investigation may or may not be doing with e- mails.

CUOMO: Well, there's some clever terms of phrase in there, Brady, that I got to, you know -- it's not a Republican investigation, it's a federal investigation.

And you are right, they worry about their pockets, as they should, voters, but they have to trust the person who is going to put the money in their pocket and that's why this is a lingering concern. I'm sure you know that.

[06:45:13] Last number. Which democratic candidate would best handle foreign policy? Clinton, prohibited favorite, 66 percent, well-known as a secretary of state who ran all over the place. Biden, 18, Sanders, 9.

This one probably makes the most conventional sense given what people like about Hillary Clinton. But it takes us to the final analysis. Can you make the case at this point, Mr. Garvan, that Hillary Clinton is a stronger candidate than Joe Biden, if he comes into the race? GARVAN: Well, I don't know that I can make the case that she's a stronger candidate if they were evenly started. I think one of the big questions is Hillary Clinton has had months and months to build an operation. She has gathered donors. She has put staff on the ground. She's had staff on the ground here in South Carolina for many months and they've built an impressive operation, as is Bernie Sanders.

So to me, the real question is, at this stage in the game, can Joe Biden put together a team that would be able to compete? And if he can't, you know, I think there's no shame in saying, wow, I've had an amazing run in the Senate. Eight great years as vice president. And, you know, that is sort of how I want to end the run in politics. If he does choose to run, I think the question is, how quickly can you put together a team that will compete with Hillary Clinton?

CUOMO: Well, as you said, there's a lot of time left. Six months, only, until primary voting, let alone to the general. Money will be a big problem for him. But if the Donald Trump phenomenon, the force of nature that is the Trump bump says anything it's that time can work in your favor and things can happen very quickly in this business.

Brady Garvan, thank you very much. Good luck to you down there in South Carolina. Let me know what you hear about Biden on vacation. He's usually near me out in Long Island. So I don't know what I'm going to do this weekend. I was going to hide in the bushes.

GARVAN: Sounds good. Well, thanks for having me on, Chris.

CUOMO: Absolutely. All right, so what is your take? Tweet us. You think Joe should run or not? NewDayCNN, that's the hashtag. Or you can always go to Facebook.com/NewDay.

Mich?

PEREIRA: You mean, a straw big enough to hide you. I'm sorry.

All right, ahead, we know that China is facing double trouble. We know that at least 50 were killed in that fiery, horrifying blast, one of its largest for its city. This happening as the economy is struggling to stay afloat.

What impact is this going to have around the globe? We'll take a look after the break.

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[06:51:32] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa!

EXPLOSION

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PEREIRA: Some new video there from the fiery blast that rip up one of China's largest port cities. At least 50 had been killed, 700 hurt, several of them are in critical condition in those explosions in Tang Jing.

The government is also struggling at the same time to respond to an economic mess, trying to reassure the world about its economy after days of currency devaluation. A streak that's finally coming to a stop it would appear.

We bring in Bobby Ghosh at times like this. He's a CNN global affairs analyst and managing editor of "Quartz."

Let's start with the Tang Jing explosions. I mean, horrifying to say the least especially when you see how the weather forecast could further make the air and water toxic in that area. But it speaks to the question of whether these explosions and who was responsible and the accountability point back to the government.

Do you think it's shaking faith in leadership in China?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, it probably does. There will be a lot of anger in Tang Jing. There will be a lot of questions asked about how such a thing was allowed to happen.

PEREIRA: But what is that next?

GHOSH: We know that some of the executives in the company that was, whose goods blew up were -- have been arrested. But I suspect that part will be localized. There will be local anger. There will be -- and we have seen this pattern happened in China before. Some officials will be held responsible. There will be a scapegoat. Somebody will be a big-show trial. And that part will eventually go away. The economic cause of this will take much longer to pay off.

PEREIRA: And thousands are going to be affected, not even just the injured, but even the destruction. I mean, this is just one of the scenes we see behind us. It's almost immeasurable.

GHOSH: One of the biggest ports in the world. The damage and the ecological damage. They've done things like they've block the drain so that they can't empty out into the sea because they are worried about the pollution. When China is worried about pollution, you know, that is really, really serious.

PEREIRA: Well, and there's the rug, right? Because this is having this -- this is happening as this turmoil is going on in the Chinese markets.

First of all, let's talk about the currency. We have seen it devalued repeatedly. They raised the value today, though. What do you make of all of that?

GHOSH: Well, it's an ironic thing that actually what China was doing with devaluation was responding to pressures from the United States and around the world to make their currency more free floating rather than manipulating their currency. So they actually let the market decide earlier this week what the currency should -- the value of that currency should be. The market decided the currency should be lower than it was. And so, that kind of freaked the government out a little bit because it gave the impression people in this country and others were accusing the government of lowering the currency. That was not what happened. The market decided that. This is basically the government --

PEREIRA: Bobby, you think they are being sort of unfairly --

(CROSSTALK)

GHOSH: Absolutely. They were being accused of doing this deliberately because China's exports are suffering a little bit. They were being told that you lower your currency in order to make your exports more attractive.

Certainly, they are attractive -- the exports became more attractive as a result. But the reason they devalued or they kind of let that currency float a little bit was actually because of the pressures that we, the U.S. and many other countries were placing on them. This is China trying to do the right thing and getting a little hurtful.

PEREIRA: So to that end, so that now that the sort of the hemorrhaging has stopped, if you will, what is going to be the reaction from those global partners?

[06:55:03] GHOSH: Well, look, even at its worse, the currency declined very little, 3 percent or 4 percent, which in the largest scale of things is not a lot. The people who worry more about Chinese devaluation is not the United States but other countries that competes with China. So India, Brazil.

Countries that are very -- whose exports compete the Chinese exports. They are the one who will be most worried about the devaluation. There's a lot of hot air in this country about it.

PEREIRA: Hot air in America?

GHOSH: Yes. But the country that should really worry would be the other ones that are competing with China. There's -- look, the stock market has reacted.

PEREIRA: Yes.

GHOSH: But, will settle down.

PEREIRA: Settle, right.

GHOSH: Now that the currency has picked back up a little bit.

PEREIRA: But how troubling, though, is this if it was -- its own situation was happening, we've sort of ride through it. But when you look at what happened with the explosion, the impact it's going to have on one of its key port cities. Those two things happening in conjunction.

GHOSH: Yes. The timing couldn't be worse. I mean, it's never a good time to have a disaster like this. But this is particularly bad and the location. This is a giant port that is only an hour and a half drive from Beijing. A lot of China's exports go through Tang Jing port. So that in a sense a perfect storm. We are still trying to measure the damage this has done both locally, but also globally in terms of China's economy.

PEREIRA: Stick with CNN. We will be covering this. We have our Will Ripley on the ground there giving us the latest.

Bobby Ghosh always a pleasure. Thanks so much.

Lots of news to get to on this Friday. So let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Iowa State Fair is officially underway. Presidential candidates making their pitch.

PEREIRA: The front-runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are slated to stop by Saturday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jesse Ventura.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has an announcement of his own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would give it very serious consideration. Don't you dare back down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The potential danger in the skies. Drones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It absolutely is unnecessary risk. Potentially, it can be devastating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a hugely momentous day in Cuban and American history. The first time that flag has been flown here since January 1961.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are neighbours, now we can be friends.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the biggest scandals in U.S. presidential history now confirmed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

PEREIRA: We are down a man today. Alisyn has got the day off. We'll talk to her very soon.

Good morning, welcome back to your NEW DAY.

The Iowa fairgrounds transforming into a presidential battleground. 20 candidates heading to the state fair to make their case to conservative voters today. Jeb Bush taking center stage. He's already facing some backlash over the comments that he made about the move to remove Saddam Hussein. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump are going to swing by on Saturday. Meanwhile, Hillary is basking in a big Iowa endorsement this morning. Who? What?

Let's get right to CNN political reporter Sara Murray live in Des Moines, Iowa with the very latest. What do we know?

Good morning, Chris.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hillary Clinton notching a big endorsement like you said. Former Iowa Senator Tom Harkin. But I think all eyes today are going to be on Jeb Bush trying to move past his latest awkward comments about the war in Iraq.

Let's take a look about what to expect at today's Iowa State Fair.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And welcome to the first day of the Iowa State Fair. Let me begin with a recommendation, pork chop on a stick.

MURRAY (voice-over): Bring out the butter cow and abandon your diet. The Iowa State Fair is officially under way. 70 varieties of foods on sticks and at least 20 varieties of presidential candidates making their pitch to Iowa caucus goers and taking swipes at their rivals.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This time 17 Republicans are coming to Iowa to ask for your vote and support in the caucuses. Hillary probably is not going to come. She will e-mail in her appearances.

MURRAY: GOP front-runner Donald Trump heads to the Hawkeye state this weekend. And for second tier candidates like Martin O'Malley with just one percent support in our CNN ORC Poll in Iowa, it's a chance to lay the groundwork telling CNN's Jeff Delaney (ph) his moment will come.

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's not a doubt in my mind that people are looking for a new leader. Not a doubt in my mind. I think that's true in both parties. And after we get it done and rolling around in our summer event here, people are going to look at the candidates and evaluate which of us is actually that new perspective of the new generation that can actually govern and get things done?

MURRAY: Today, Jeb Bush takes his turn on the soap box, trying to revive his staging poll numbers and move beyond another mottled answer on the war in Iraq. This time, he defended his brother, George W. Bush's policy saying --

FMR. GOV. JEB BUSH, (R-FL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll tell you, though, that taking out Saddam Hussein turn out to be a pretty good deal.

MURRAY: Adding that, thanks to the troops surge, the mission was accomplished. A strikingly similar comment to his brother's premature mission accomplish declaration in 2003.

Last night, Bush shrug off the similarity.

BUSH: There's nothing subliminal or psychological. The surge worked.

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