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Rick Perry Interview; Chinese Markets Plunge; Walmart Disappoints, Home Depot Upbeat; CNN Special Report Looks at Charles Manson Murders. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 18, 2015 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:05] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hot off the presses, a CNN nationwide poll shows Donald Trump solidifying his position as front runner with 24 percent support. What does that mean for the candidates who are struggling towards the back of the pack? Joining us to discuss it all is former three-term governor of Texas and candidate for president, Governor Rick Perry.

Good morning, governor.

RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, Alisyn. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for being here.

It's - it's interesting to take a snapshot of where voters are today, as we just did, and it's interesting to compare and contrast that with a snapshot taken exactly four years ago. This was August 24th-25th, 2001. And here you can see that you had 27 percent of the vote - of the support, I should say. Back then you were at the top of the heap. You were in the Trump position. Today, you're at 2 percent, towards the back of the pack. What do you think is going wrong?

PERRY: Well, you look back at 2007, I think is instructive as well, and Rudy Giuliani was leading the pack. I think what's important to keep in mind is that the early stage strategy is the wise strategy, spending the time in Iowa, spending the time in New Hampshire, certainly in South Carolina. If you have done your work there, if you've created the infrastructure in those early states, not only will the money flow in for you to finish up the effort, but you'll do quite well. So you hit the nail on the head when you said this is a snapshot. This is a snapshot in time.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PERRY: And these are very fluid races and it's a long time until the primaries.

CAMEROTA: Well, it sure is. But, I mean, there is another troubling poll. And even if you do just look at the Iowa caucus goers, let me put up this one. This is troubling, I should say, for your campaign because you are the person picked by caucus goers in terms of which GOP presidential candidate do they believe will drop it first. And you are number one at 41 percent - I'm sorry, at 40 percent of caucus goers there. The thinking is that you are running out of money. Is that true?

PERRY: Well, the fact is, we've always had this early stage strategy and, you know, we can keep a pretty small footprint from the standpoint of dollars going out. So we had a good fund-raising week last week and we'll go forward with that. I'm quite comfortable that being able to operate in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina we can do on a fairly small budget relative to maybe some of these other campaigns.

This isn't about who's going to have the most money to buy the presidency. This is going to be about who's got the best ideas and who's got the record. And whether it's the job creation record or whether it's wearing the uniform of the country, or whether it's knowing how to secure the border of this country with Mexico, that's what people really care about.

CAMEROTA: Yes, of course. I mean, but you do have to pay your campaign staff at some point. Have you been able to pay your campaign staff?

[08:35:07] PERRY: Have I been able to for the last week?

CAMEROTA: Well, now? Currently? Are you currently able to?

PERRY: No. But we've got a - we've got a lot of young people that are volunteering for us. And I greatly appreciate their commitment to the cause. And as the dollars come in, we'll - we'll appropriately take care of those that are working with us on a paid status.

CAMEROTA: You know, Politico - here's the irony of all of this, and that is that Politico, that did that poll about the caucus goers, also calls you - they describe you as having a great record in office, having a superb message, having the best retail political game on the ground. So is there something wrong with the system that a guy like you who, again, is described as doing - checking all of these boxes isn't getting more traction this year?

PERRY: Well, I try to remind people that this is a marathon and not a sprint. So we're taking a lot of snapshots at this particular point in time. So you're correct in all of those. Nobody on the debate stage has the record of job creation, no one's got the 14 years of being the chief executive of the 12th largest economy in the world. And Americans have to ask themselves, as Iowans are just starting to really focus on this, do we want an individual who has a real record of running a major, major - in the case of Texas, an entity that's about the same size as Canada or Australia, or do we want to take another chance on a young, inexperienced United States senator like Barack Obama, who's got our country in, I think, off track economically and certainly foreign policy wise as well.

CAMEROTA: You know, we've been asking here at NEW DAY, we've been asking all of the candidates about their record on equity pay, men versus women, in terms of gender, and how many women they have working for them. And - from at first blush, governor, you win, because in terms of women on your staff you're - correct me if I'm wrong - your chief of staff, a woman, your deputy chief of staff, a woman, director of communications, a woman, press secretary, a woman, human resources director, a woman, head of scheduling, all women. I could go on. And yet you voted to - you vetoed, I should say, the Texas equal pay bill. Don't women deserve equal pay?

PERRY: Well, women get equal pay. I mean that's the point. This was a piece of legislation that basically duplicated what's at the federal level. In the state of Texas, we think it's kind of wise not to have too many laws on the books. And I told them early on in that process that, listen, we - this was a symbolic piece of legislation. We don't need symbol pieces of legislation jumbling up our code. And I told them, I said, I'm going to veto this piece of legislation.

Let's look at the record. There are over a million women that have jobs in the state of Texas while I was the governor of the state. People know that our commitment is to the people of the state of Texas. Women have the opportunity to excel. When you look at the record, the first Latina that was on the Supreme Court. I appointed the first Latina to be the secretary of state of Texas. I mean the record is unparalleled from the standpoint of supporting women in the state of Texas. And it will be that way as the president of the United States. What people really care about is, give me the opportunity to succeed, I'll take care of it after that.

CAMEROTA: So do you pay all the women on your staff the same as their male counterparts?

PERRY: Well, I would suggest to you, when you're the chief of staff, you make more money than the governor. So my chief of staff and the other folks -

CAMEROTA: Is that right? Your chief of staff makes more money than the governor?

PERRY: Oh, yes, ma'am.

CAMEROTA: Why is that?

PERRY: Indeed. Well, that's just the way that the system was set up. The governorship of the state of Texas was limited to a certain amount of money. And I wanted to go get the best and the brightest. And you need to pay the best and the brightest. And I think that's the way - that's the way you do it. It makes sense. I mean that's the way the real world works and government needs to be more like the real world.

CAMEROTA: So, governor -

PERRY: And that's one of the reasons I want to go to Washington, D.C., and reform that place because it is absolutely corrupt and broken.

CAMEROTA: So, governor, what's your plan? What's your plan now that you are at the back of the pack? How are you going to spring forward?

PERRY: Well just like anyone else who won Iowa. You look back at Mike Huckabee back in '08, you look at - or Rick Santorum in '12, they spent a lot of time here. And one of the lessons that I learned in 2011, I parachuted into this pretty late. As a matter of fact, real late, and sprang to the top and didn't have the sustainability because you must come spend the time here.

This is a long process in Iowa. You come, you talk, you listen and you build that foundation over a period of time. We've still got six months of work. People are just now starting to focus on this. And I'll suggest to you, the people of Iowa, the people of New Hampshire and South Carolina in particular, they want someone with a record, a record of success, to get this country back on track. Somebody that will secure the border with Mexico. I know how to do that.

[08:40:14] CAMEROTA: Yes.

PERRY: I've dealt with it for the last 14 years.

CAMEROTA: You know, governor, what -

PERRY: That's what people are looking for in this country.

CAMEROTA: Maybe - I mean maybe that's what people are looking for, though it also seems that there is this big wave of antiestablishment fervor at the moment. People do want success, but it seems as though they want an outsider. What do you think you would say to - where do you think Donald Trump is going wrong? What do you think - where it that your record and your experience trumps what Donald Trump has to offer?

PERRY: I - I don't know about Donald Trump. I can only talk to you about myself. I've been a Washington outsider my entire life. I've been fighting Washington for the last 14 years. We sued them over 20 times as the governor of the state of Texas. If there is an anti- Washington person with a record of being anti-Washington - I looked President Obama in the eye on that ramp last year and I told him, I said, Mr. President, if you don't secure the border, Texas will. And we deployed our National Guard, we deployed our Texas Ranger Recon teams and our Parks and Wildlife's wardens to go literally in the river in some cases to help make our state more secure because the federal government's absolute failure.

Now, I don't know how you can be any more anti-Washington than that. But also, it's not just being anti-Washington, it's also having solutions to these challenges that we have. I know how to secure the border. I know how to create jobs, because I've got a record of doing it in the 12th largest economy in the world.

CAMEROTA: Well, Governor Rick Perry, we look forward to watching you and hearing more about all this at CNN's debate on September 16th. Thanks so much for taking time for NEW DAY.

PERRY: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

PERRY: You're welcome.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Alisyn, 45 years after the Charles Manson killings, fascination with the man and his crime, it really hasn't gone away. Up ahead, we have a preview of tonight's Manson special, "FACE OF EVIL."

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[08:46:08] PEREIRA: All right. Time for CNNMoney Now. Chief business correspondent Christine Romans in the Money Center. Big moves in stocks this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Chinese stocks tumbling, dragging down global markets, you guys. Shanghai's benchmark index down more than six percent. It's a return to that selling in China stocks we've seen all summer despite Chinese government efforts to stop a bubble from popping there. Concerns about a slowing economy.

Also disappointing earnings this morning from Walmart. Pay rises and the strong dollar hurting Walmart profit and Walmart cut expectations for the rest of the year. A completely different story, though, at Home Depot. Customers are coming more often and they're spending more money at Home Depot. Low interest rates and an improving jobs market good for housing and that's good for Home Depot, guys.

PEREIRA: I think my guy spends like pretty much every other day there. So I think he's the one that upped their bottom line. All right.

ROMANS: I could use a new shuffle.

PEREIRA: Oh, OK. Well, I'll get him to pick one up for you. Thanks, Christine.

Interesting story ahead here. Almost a half century after his brutal crimes, Charles Manson still horrifies and fascinates. Why, though? Don't miss our preview of tonight's Manson special, "FACE OF EVIL."

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[08:51:14] PEREIRA: 45 years after his trial, Charles Manson, the mastermind behind seven ruthless murders in Los Angeles, he continues to captivate. In a new CNN Special Report airing tonight, Sara Sidner looks back at Manson and those gruesome crimes that shocked the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): They found no evidence of robbery, no suggestion of motive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sent this wave of panic through Los Angeles and through the Hollywood community. If they could get to a movie star, they could get to a coffee heiress, then they could get to anybody.

BARBARA HOYT, FORMER MEMBER OF THE "MANSON FAMILY": I was just sitting there watching TV.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Then 17-years-old, Barbara Hoyt remembers the news reports about the murders. She was living on a ranch outside of L.A. with a group of friends.

HOYT: They all came in and watched the news and the first story was on about the Sharon Tate murders. Somebody said something at the time and they all laughed. I didn't see anything funny in it at all.

SIDNER: They lived here on this abandoned movie set where a charismatic self-styled guru named Charles Manson led a group of impressionable young followers.

HOYT: You know, they worshipped Charlie like a god.

SIDNER: But in the days after the murders, Charlie seemed dangerous and unhinged.

HOYT: He was almost in a frantic state, I would say. He was very worried.

SIDNER: And so was Hoyt. She knew something was very wrong, but she didn't know what and neither did police. It would be months of false leads and missed opportunities for them to unravel the mystery of the seven savage murders.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: False leads and missed opportunities. Sara Sidner is here with us in studio. But you also say that there were several missteps during the course of the investigation.

SIDNER: Yes. You had these two different crime scenes, right, and the police, at the beginning, had two different investigations going on even though there were so many similarities, things written on the wall in blood that were the same on both crime scenes and yet, they didn't put them together and other people did, people who were outside of policing did. So there was a real frustration on the part, I think, of the families when they saw that and felt like this took a lot longer than it had to.

PEREIRA: I can't even image the agony for them, I mean, having even to have lived through that scenario. You also did a fair amount of digging into the background of Manson. What did you find out?

SIDNER: He lived a very difficult life. Before he was arrested for these crimes, he was in jail most of his life. He even said that he was more comfortable, more at home behind bars. And so you can imagine how that made families feel, as well, especially when the Supreme Court said, OK, the death penalty is not going happen in this case because they put a stay on those cases during the time. So it was really, really difficult on the families. But he led a very strange life as a child. His mother clearly didn't want him and that seemed to affect him throughout his life.

PEREIRA: You're going to see more tonight on a CNN Special Report, "FACE OF EVIL: THE CHARLES MANSON MUDERS," 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Separately, Chris, having Sara and I together, people can finally realize we are not one in the same person.

SIDNER: We're sisters from another mother.

PEREIRA: Exactly.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But you're both easy on the eyes.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: And good at what you do. You both protected me from danger. You on set, Mick, and Sara around the field. So I'm grateful to both of you. It's great to have you here.

All right. So the power of reporting. Great work from one of CNN's own becomes "The Good Stuff." We'll tell you how. That's Will Ripley.

[08:54:46] He's good looking, too.

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CUOMO: "Good Stuff." CNN's Will Ripley, you know him, he's done amazing work exposing the crisis of abandoned children in China. Now one boy in particular, Jaja (ph), botched surgery left him paralyzed from the chest down. His family abandoned him. He waited nine years for adoption. But now, he waits no more. A family in Missouri saw Will's reporting and they are stepping up.

PEREIRA: Oh my goodness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have parents, he says. I can live. I can have a life.

Dad, mom, three sisters and grandparents. Wow. That's a big family.

It's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I knew that's when we would get Mick. And you see Will putting his head against him. He cares about these kids. That's why he's done the reporting. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to adopt a child from China --

PEREIRA: You can't do this to me.

CUOMO: Thanks to all of you. That's why I don't tell you.

PEREIRA: You're awful.

CUOMO: Because nobody feels it the way you do. The Wilson family raised much more than they needed on GoFundMe. They say the extra money -

PEREIRA: Can I go meet this family when they get here? CUOMO: Sure. They will go to other kids who need loving homes. So keep the money going because they're giving it to other families who want to adopt.

PEREIRA: You're a horrible human being for making me do that at the end of the show.

CUOMO: Why? I was just exposing -

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Tissues. Tissues, please.

PEREIRA: You have to tell Carol.

CUOMO: Look at these two -

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE)

CUOMO: Not on the shirt. The shirt is clean. I got to wear it again tomorrow.

PEREIRA: Save peoples' lives, oh my goodness.

CUOMO: Time for the NEWSROOM with Carol Costello. Get in on the group hug, Carol.