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Poll: Trump & Carson Surge, Clinton Losing Ground; Embattled Kentucky Clerk Returns to Work; Vice President Biden Running for President? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 14, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:07] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump and Ben Carson pulling away from the rest of the Republican field in the latest "Washington Post"/ABC News poll. Check out the numbers. Trump holding a commanding lead with 33 percent of the vote, 13 points ahead of Carson.

Meanwhile on the Democratic slide, Hillary Clinton keeps slipping, below 50 percent.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The president of Mexico is demanding an investigation this morning after Egyptian forces mistakenly killed 12 tourists and injured 10 others. Why? Well, several of them were from Mexico. They were apparently mistaken for terrorists and fired on as they traveled through an area that Egypt says is normally off limits to tourists.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Kentucky County clerk Kim Davis returns to work this morning. What will happen is anyone's guess. Will she risk more jail time by refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses?

CNN's Martin Savidge is live in Morehead, Kentucky, outside Davis' office with more.

How is it looking at this hour, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn.

We are waiting for America's most famous county clerk to show up for work. We're talking, of course, about Kim Davis.

And as you point out, even her attorneys say they do not know what she is going to do when she gets here. Last week, of course, she was freed from jail after contempt. She was put in jail by a judge when she had refused to issue same-sex marriages in this county the licenses, I should say, because she says she was religiously opposed to it. She's become a hero of conservative Christians who believe that she is standing up for her religious freedom, despite the fact that the Supreme Court says same-sex marriages are legal.

So, that sets up the dynamic for this morning. She comes in the door about an hour and a half from now. Already, you can see, people are beginning to gather. She's expected to draw a large crowd of supporters and there are expected to be a large number of detractors as well. Security is going to be very heavy.

[06:35:01] And though I'm not a betting man, I think it is safe to say that before this day is out, a couple is likely to show up and walk in those doors and challenge her authority to see exactly what will Kim Davis do? And we'll be here watching. .

PEREIRA: That's the big question today. What will she do?

All right. Martin, thanks so much. We'll be watching with you.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

PEREIRA: To something entirely different. If there's any question that surfer Kelly Slater is legendary, check out his latest epic ride, incredibly though. Judges were not impressed.

Watch that. Yes, doing a fly way backside air reversal landing atop his board. Play by play announcers praised his freakish abilities, but judges at the California event gave it a 4.17 out of 10!

CAMEROTA: What?

PEREIRA: Mick Fanning won the heat. The same guy that won the shark attack. Remember him? That guy, he won. Can we show that video again, though?

CAMEROTA: What do judges want?

PEREIRA: I don't know.

CAMEROTA: He's doing a flip and landing back on the board.

PEREIRA: Bam. Nailed it.

CUOMO: Well, the Mario meter, my 9-year-old surfer extraordinaire, he says Kelly came off the board.

PEREIRA: He did, but he landed back on it.

CUOMO: He didn't get full credit and it wasn't as clean. He didn't have as many clean rides.

PEREIRA: All right. Well, I'd like to see the judges do it.

CAMEROTA: I don't know, I think the fact that he came off the board and something happens in the turbulence and he's back on the board. It's like a magic trick.

CUOMO: I must say, I respect the fact that neither of you went to the fact that he is also gorgeous as to why he should have won.

PEREIRA: We're not looking at his face.

CUOMO: I know, but --

CAMEROTA: Please, Chris, we're not that superficial.

CUOMO: Oh, but you are.

CAMEROTA: We also can't see his face from there.

CUOMO: All right. So, guess what? This week on Wall Street, all eyes are on the Fed Reserve, once again.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans, she's in the money center. There are things going on behind her.

What do you know about the Fed?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, this is much more exciting than your surfer story, what's happening to Fed this week. I assure you, it's a monumental week for your money, folks.

The Federal Reserve could raise interest rates for the first time in nine years. That's something that would shift the foundation under all of us. Fed chief Janet Yellen must decide if the economy is strong enough to take away the stimulus that's been propping up the economy and stocks for the past six years.

Drivers, listen up, gas prices have dropped an astonishing 27 cents in just three weeks. That's according to the Lundberg Survey. They're down more than a dollar from this time last year. Gas is now cheaper than bottled water. Gas is cheaper than milk.

Prices are expected to keep falling as refineries begin switching to the cheaper winter blend -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Gas cheaper than milk?

ROMANS: Yes.

PEREIRA: Wow. All right. I don't know what I'm going to do.

CAMEROTA: Don't put that on your drink.

PEREIRA: No, probably not.

ROMANS: Please do not drink it.

CUOMO: Very keen insight by Christine Romans. Very keen.

PEREIRA: Christine, thanks so much for that.

Keen, that's a good word. That will be the word for the day on Monday.

PEREIRA: It turns out that the New York City police officer who slammed former tennis star James Blake to the ground -- well, he has been named in four lawsuits alleging excessive force. Two men who crossed paths with the Officer James Frascatore are now here. They're now suing him. We'll have a discussion with them, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:42:17] PEREIRA: This morning, former tennis star James Blake is asking for the police officer who body slammed him to be fired. Officer James Frascatore has a number of complaints against him. "The New York Daily News" says Frascatore is facing four ongoing civil cases that charge he used excessive force during false arrest.

Two men who filed suits against Officer Frascatore, they join us live. We have Leroy Cline who filed a lawsuit against the officer in 2013, along with his attorney Michael Cserhalmi, and Warren Diggs is also here. He filed a lawsuit earlier this year. He's here with his attorney, Amy Rameau.

Thank you so much for being here all of you.

I can understand that this is probably a little nerve-racking for you to get in front of the cameras, a little bit, right?

We'll just talk about your experiences.

First of all, I start with Leroy. What did you think about when you saw and heard about what happened to James Blake?

LEROY CLINE, SUED OFFICER FRANSCATORE FOR ASSAULT IN 2013. I wasn't surprised at all. He finally met his matchmaker, somebody with a higher rank, I guess. He went overboard.

PEREIRA: Well, it's interesting you say he went overboard.

CLINE: He went overboard. Exactly what he did to me, he did the same thing to this super star tennis player.

PEREIRA: Do you think it took, Warren, a super star to sort of make this more public?

WARREN DIGGS, SUED OFFICER FRANSCATORE FOR ASSAULT IN 2015. That's usually how it goes, yes. I'm glad that something was able to happen to bring it to light, because my case is two years old. And nobody came to speak to me about anything. You know, now that it's happened, I get to let my side of the story out and let people see what's going on. It's a good thing, even though it took something bad to happen.

PEREIRA: Let's talk about what happened to each of you. Warren, we'll start with you. I understand it was 2013.

DIGGS: Yes.

PEREIRA: You were on your bike coming home from a bodega. It was dark.

DIGGS: Yes.

PEREIRA: What happened next?

DIGGS: Well, I'm riding down by driveway. I usually enter through the side door at night time. As I'm going down the driveway, I hear somebody say, where are you going? I get off my bike at the bottom of the driveway and I look up and it's Officer Frascatore and two other officers coming down -- running down towards me.

PEREIRA: They were already running at you.

DIGGS: Yes.

PEREIRA: Did they identify themselves as officers?

DIGGS: No.

PEREIRA: They were in uniform.

DIGGS: They were in uniform, so I already knew they were officers. So I was folding my bicycle while they were approaching me. They asked me what my name was and if I had any ID. I told them my name was warren and I have ID, but it's not on me. It's inside the house.

PEREIRA: You went into the house to get the ID and that's when they knocked you over and hit you?

DIGGS: It wasn't as swiftly as that but that's the gist of it.

[06:45:01] After they asked me for my name and ID and answer them, I told them my keys were in my rear pocket. I put my hands up so that, you know, they wouldn't get too jumpy or anything.

I let them know which pocket the key was in, turned towards them so they could see. They kept the light on. Nobody objected to anything I said or did. I removed the key from my pocket slowly and deliberately so they can exactly what was going on. They allowed me to put the key into the lock and off the ring, put it into the lock and open it. There's two doors to enter the side of my house.

PEREIRA: OK.

DIGGS: I opened both doors, my second foot hit the landing, Officer Frascatore grabs me to pull me out of the landing. The other officer that was there grabbed my other arm and then Frascatore punches me in the side of the head after asking me where I'm going. Telling him I'm going to get my ID. What is the problem?

PEREIRA: Right.

DIGGS: The officer that was behind me, which I believe his name was lam Lombardo or Lambardi, not specific on that at this point, he grabs by waist, picks me up and slams me on my side.

PEREIRA: You were fairly beaten up and there's an audio recording, there's an audio recording of the whole situation of what went down.

Ultimately, the charges, I'm fast forwarding because I want to make sure we get in Leroy's story. The charges were dismissed, correct?

DIGGS: Yes.

PEREIRA: But no apology for what happens.

AMY RAMEAU, ATTORNEY: None whatsoever. If I may say this, the reason these instances of excessive use of force and other deplorable acts by bad police officers continue to happen in this city is because of an institutional failure on the part of the CCRB, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the IAB, an arm of the police department, because of their failure to adequately sanction bad police officers who engage in this type of conduct.

PEREIRA: It's important you say that. It's bad police officers. There's this growing sentiment against police station in the nation.

We want to make sure we are pointing out the bad apples and not make an indictment against all police.

Let's turn to Leroy and talk about your situation. You're in Queens, you're a college student. No prior convictions. You got pulled over for a broken taillight. But things went south really quickly.

Can you quickly tell us what happened then?

CLINE: It was a routine stop. He asked me for license and registration. Where I'm from I get pulled over a lot.

PEREIRA: You do?

CLINE: Yes. This time I decided to ask, what am I being pulled over for? Frascatore, he completely ignored me. He said license and registration. I said, sir, what am I being pulled over for? Politely.

That's when he reached inside my door and unlocked my car door and opened it. He tried to grab me. I didn't know what was going on. So, I swayed back. That's when he came with three straight shots to my teeth, to my mouth area.

And at that point I was delirious because it felt like I had no front teeth at that time. I was screaming at the top of my lungs. That's when his partner came around and grabbed my legs. And they actually threw me in front of my hood, patted me down. He slammed my head to the front of my hood twice.

I guess he did a quick little pat-down, hand cuffed me. He ripped my -- I had shorts on that had like a string to hold them up. He popped that off. At this point my shorts were down to my ankles.

PEREIRA: Goodness.

CLINE: My boxers were showing.

PEREIRA: He tried to claim that you had bit him, medical records later showed that the cut on his hand was from him punching. Is that correct, Michael, from him punching him in the mouth?

MICHAEL CSERHALMI, CIVIL ATTORNEY FOR LEROY CLINE: That is absolutely correct.

PEREIRA: You both have cases now. What do you want to see lap with this officer quickly?

CLINE: At least his badge should be taken away. He should not be affiliated with NYPD anymore.

RAMEAU: He should be prosecuted for what he did. What he did was a criminal act. What he did to my client was a criminal act. What he did to this gentleman was a criminal act and what he did to the tennis star was a criminal act.

DIGGS: He lied about what happened. He added stuff to the case to make me look bad. He involved my wife, implicated my wife in the case in front of my children. He embarrassed me on my block in front of my family. That's unacceptable.

PEREIRA: I can see that --

CSERHALMI: The real problem with Frascatore is that he made up a story. He just made up facts that just didn't exist.

PEREIRA: We're going to see what happens now. Obviously this litigation and others are pending right now. We'll see how the NYPD responds. We asked them to respond to this. We so far haven't heard anything back from them on these two cases about our request for information.

Leroy, Warren, thank you so much. And, both Michael and Amy, thanks for joining us.

We have a conversation you want to get on, you can tweet us @NewDayCNN, and you post your comment on Facebook as well.

Alisyn, over to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, thanks so much.

[06:49:44] Well, new week, same question. Will Joe Biden run for president? What will it take for him to jump into the race? One of Joe Biden's advisers joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A guy in the back yells, "Major Beau Biden, Bronze Star, sir, served in Iraq" and all of a sudden, I lost it. How could you -- that's not -- I shouldn't be saying this. That, that -- you can't do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Growing questions about whether Joe Biden will get into the presidential race especially after that emotional interview that he did with Stephen Colbert there.

So, let's bring in Robert Hoopes. He's the former chief of staff for Vice President Biden at the Democratic national convention committee. He's an informal adviser to Draft Biden 2016 and he's also the president of Vox Global.

Robert, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

ROBERT HOOPES, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF FOR VICE PRESIDENT AT THE DNCC: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you what your impressions were, because there seem to be two impressions that came out of the emotional interview that the vice president did with Stephen Colbert. The first one was he's simply too fragile and too raw to commit himself to running for president.

[06:55:06] And the second was the best way to honor his son, Beau, is for him to get into the race. That's what Beau's spirit would want. That's what Beau's hopes were.

Which one do you believe?

HOOPES: I think there's a -- I was struck by a couple elements of the interview, the first was just as a human being to talk about family, talk about loss, talk about faith, to talk about perseverance, I think everybody should watch the interview. It was an extraordinarily interesting look into how we grapple with tragedies in our lives.

Second, more politically, is, you know, this is a guy who has been middle class his whole life, has been sincere and authentic about his public service, not like sort of some people dabbling in and out of politics, who resonates with middle-class voters, who resonates with Stephen Colbert, who wants him to run. I want him to run. I thought in that sense, it looked like a guy who was running.

The other piece of this that's equally important is the Monday before that interview, if you saw footage of the vice president at the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh and you watched him, you'd say, there's a guy running for president. There's a guy who' physically strong, physically active, loves politics, loves people. Is really out there and engaged in an exciting way with voters.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, look, we have it right here. You see him, jacket off. He's hugging kids, he's posing for pictures, he does seem energized.

So, it sounds, Robert, that you're saying, as someone who knows him, that your gut thinks he is going to get into this race.

HOOPES: My gut is he has plenty of time to get into this race. He has the skills to get into the race. I think he can build the infrastructure very quickly and frankly, the infrastructure is already being built. There's a major story in the "Wall Street Journal" today about staff in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, donors -- I mean, you know, it's really sort of starting to happen.

I think the interview with Colbert, some of these other things you're seeing the president doing, they're just really resonating with folks and I think people are being drawn to a potential campaign.

CAMEROTA: You say he has plenty of time to get in. I believe he's given himself a first week of October deadline. That's what's out in the public consciousness. When do you think he will make this decision?

HOOPES: We used to say it would be the end of the summer and I used to joke summer would go to Thanksgiving, maybe Halloween.

You know, look, I think the deadline is November 15th. That is when you have most of the filing deadlines, most of the legal deadlines that would be required to get on ballots different places. So, I don't think there's any real rush to do anything before the middle of November.

CAMEROTA: Have you spoken to him?

HOOPES: I've not talked to him since Beau's funeral.

CAMEROTA: So, you have no idea which way he's leaning. Obviously you want him to get in and you believe you might see that in the next month?

HOOPES: I do want him to get in and I do believe it.

CAMEROTA: Robert Hoopes, thanks so much. Great to talk to you. We always appreciate the insight into the vice president from you.

HOOPES: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: We're following a lot of news this morning, let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: The big Republican debate is just two days from now.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ben's a doctor. He's not a dealmaker.

BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They don't know what it takes to become a neurosurgeon. That's pretty idiotic itself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each candidate should proceed with caution.

PEREIRA: Clinton's email controversy we know it keeps taking its toll.

CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton's lead continues to erode.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Bernie Sanders is surging.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you can't run in a fair election, get another job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim Davis returns to her job for the first time since spending five days in jail.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's also obviously a person of strong conviction and strong conscience.

PEREIRA: Will she abide by a judge's order?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

The countdown is on, just two days until the Republican presidential hopefuls say the stage at the Reagan Library in California for the second GOP debate, this one hosted of course by CNN.

A new poll out this morning has Washington outsiders, Donald Trump and Ben Carson pulling away from the rest of the field.

CUOMO: And there's also great insight into why voters feel what they feel about these candidates, especially Latinos. We'll give that to you.

Now, what is going on with the GOP? Also on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton losing significant ground to Bernie Sanders and Vice President Joe Biden who isn't even in the race. Why do we have him in the polls? We'll discuss.

Let's start our team coverage with Athena Jones live at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California

That's an odd place to be. Why are you there, Athena?

(LAUGHTER)

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, this is where the big night will take place a couple nights away from now. We, of course, are all counting down here in Simi Valley.

Meanwhile, that new national poll out from the "Washington Post" and ABC News shows that Donald Trump is still in the lead and he's posting his biggest number yet.