Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Countdown to Tomorrow's CNN GOP Debate; Trump Renews Attack on Illegal Immigration; Eight Dead, Five Missing in Utah Flash Floods. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 15, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:17] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We are in the final countdown to tomorrow's night's big high stakes GOP debate right here on CNN. Donald Trump seemingly foregoing debate preparations, instead campaigning in Dallas, whipping up the crowd with calls to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep immigrants out. Hundreds of Latinos gathered outside where Trump appeared, taking part in what they called a "Dump the Trump" rally.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, at least eight people dead and several missing after heavy rains pound Hildale, Utah. Flash flooding sweeping away cars. The dramatic rescues caught on tape, crews rushing to pull people from this car here. It was nearly submerged in water. You can see a woman climbing out the window of her car. A young boy also rescued.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The latest in the migrant crisis in Europe. At least 22 people died after their boat sank off the coast of Turkey. Yes, this happened again. Hundreds of others were luckily rescued. This is a series of tough new laws take effect in Hungary this morning and what the Hungarian prime minister calls a policy of zero tolerance towards migrants. It's now a criminal offense to breach or damage the fence spanning the Hungarian-Serbian border. Hungarian police announced 9,300 migrants were detained Monday while trying to cross the border.

PEREIRA: Running back Adrian Peterson returns to the field for the first time in nearly a year as the Vikings took on the Niners in Monday night football. Andy Scholes has the highlight in this morning's bleacher report.

How're you doing, Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Michaela.

Yes, week one of the NFL season wrapping up with a Monday night football doubleheader. Tired eyes in the office this morning with if you stayed up for these.

Adrian Peterson back at action for the Vikings, and his return, well, it didn't go too well. Peterson rushed for only 31 yards on ten carries.

[06:35:00] His fantasy owners not very happy about that this morning.

49ers running back Carlos Hyde on the other hand, he had an amazing night. Check out this spin move as he runs it in for a ten- yard touchdown. He had two TDs to go along with 168 yards rushing. 49ers won this one easily, 20-3.

This move paying dividends early, Alonso with the amazing one- handed interception in the first quarter. Take another look. Shades of Odell Beckham Jr. The Eagles would have one last chance to win this game but Sam Bradford threw a pick. The Falcons win this game, 26-24.

Alisyn, we only have to wait two more days to get some NFL action. Broncos will be taking on the Chiefs in Thursday night football. It should be a good one.

CAMEROTA: Oh, yes, I know that. Thanks so much, Andy.

SCHOLES: All right.

CAMEROTA: So, we're counting down to tomorrow night's GOP debate. Can Ben Carson close the gap? What do Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina need to do? We break it all down when NEW DAY returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:31] PEREIRA: All right. We are less than 36 hours to tomorrow night's CNN Republican debate.

As the candidates prepare, what do they need to do and what do they need to avoid in order to succeed?

For that we bring in Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor for New York 1. Also with us, CNN political analyst and editor in chief at "The Daily Beast", Mr. John Avlon.

Gentlemen, let's see if we can get through 11 candidates. We have a few to start with.

Let's just do quick takes here. We're going to start with Donald Trump. The man in the middle of the stage tomorrow night.

Errol, what does he need to do and what should he avoid?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He's going to have to stick to what has worked. The petty putdowns, the insults, the avoiding of any kind of discussion of policy. In fact, he really can't get into policy because either what he has to say is going to be very, very much against what the Republican core wants to hear or it's going to be inconsistent.

PEREIRA: All right. Next up, John Avlon -- Jeb Bush, obviously performance for him tomorrow night is critical.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Look, he's got to show fire in the belly. He's got to stand up for his vision of the Republican Party and draw a clear contrast.

PEREIRA: All right. Errol, Scott Walker is next in our lineup. We've seen his numbers drop significantly since the last debate. What is he going to have to do to keep this campaign alive?

LOUIS: He's got to go back, he should really go back and look at the speech in which he announced, in which he was really sort of a credible conservative who has fought a lot battles for the conservative cause and won them. He's got to go back and make clear that the can do that. He can't appear desperate.

He has been sinking in the polls. If he starts going after Trump in a crazy kind of a way, it will completely blow up in his face.

PEREIRA: Different kind of situation for Ben Carson, John, his numbers have been going up. What does he got to do to keep that momentum going.

AVLON: He's got to keep the turning the energy up, man. He cannot be sort of a beta version of Donald Trump. But he's also got to be a positive, clear, energetic contrast, someone who could plausibly be president, because he'd be inclusive, unlike the arrogance of Trump.

PEREIRA: This is a name we haven't been hearing a whole lot of in the last little while. Ted Cruz. What does he have to do? What should he avoid?

LOUIS: Well, he's been making an alliance of sorts with Donald Trump and get some of the Trump voters. That's a tough call for somebody who is as socially conservative as he is. If he tries to grandstand, it doesn't work in debates or government either.

PEREIRA: All right. We're dividing up the next level. We know, John, you've been watching Marco Rubio. You think he could be a strong candidate. What are you thinking for him?

AVLON: Yes. Look, he's got to make the case that he is the Republican's strongest general election candidate against Hillary Clinton. But he's got to show passion, he's got to show clarity and make the case for generational change.

PEREIRA: We're ticking them along here. Mike Huckabee, Errol, what does he need to do?

LOUIS: He needs to remind us he was a governor once upon a time. I mean, he actually has government experience. But he's sort of recast himself as a social conservative, as a TV commentator, and he has to avoid getting into a culture war. Those issues are really important to him, but same-sex marriage, abortion, these are dead issues for this particular election.

PEREIRA: Rand Paul, John, we know that he made news with the back and forth with Christie. What will he be focusing on this time around?

LOUIS: Look, rather than simply getting in food fights with other people on the stage, he needs to own the space as the white knight of libertarianism on the stage, because this part of the party is ascendant, but he needs to be their champion, he needs to throw a clear philosophical contrast and stop getting in the mud with everybody because everybody just gets dirty.

PEREIRA: John, we're changing it up. We got Kasich. What do we have to do here? Obviously his performance in the polls hasn't been overwhelming. So, what next?

AVLON: He's got to keep the momentum. He has to be the happy warrior, the guy who can make the case for compassionate conservative, rooted in Midwest values and government experience. He can do that with a clear contrast with Donald Trump. He has to make that clear.

PEREIRA: Here's somebody who has similarities with Donald Trump in a way, Errol, Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey. What is he going to do during the debate?

LOUIS: He's got a lot to explain. He has a record that he's trying to run on that includes a disastrous public pension system, that includes a full-blown scandal that just burst into the national view in the last week. He has to get into it. He can't go around blaming everybody else. He blames the state senate, he blames the Democrats, he blames Obama, he blames everybody.

PEREIRA: I know it's killing you not to be able to rebut, John.

Last but not least, Carly Fiorina. A lot resting on her shoulders tomorrow night, Errol. What should she focused on?

LOUIS: She fought for and got the right to change the rules a little bit and get into the main debate. She's got to show now she belongs there and she can have the conversation that has been going on at the big kid's table so to speak.

PEREIRA: So, we realize she was able to improve her standings since the last debate. Let's talk about the happy hour, if you will, the lower-tiered candidates.

John, what are your thoughts about what they need to do in preshow, if you will?

[06:45:03] AVLON: Look, Lindsey Graham needs to keep being the truth teller who makes a case for sort of the McCain center right vision of the Republican Party. Bobby Jindal has been getting back to his roots, fighting with Donald Trump in ways that are honest as opposed to embodying the party of stupid when he starts pandering. So, I think Jindal and Graham have got the best shot of making a case.

LOUIS: Governor George Pataki has a splendid record to run on. He's actually lowered, not just slowed the rate of increase but actually lowered the budget in New York, saw us through the post-9/11 period, he's got record to run. It's a little bit distant. It's a little bit in the past. Voters don't remember it.

It's something he needs to remind us of that.

PEREIRA: Errol, who do you think is going to be the stand out and a surprise here tomorrow night? Who are you watching?

I think Kasich is somebody to watch. He really jumped into the race before the last debate. We didn't have a chance to see him flesh out some of his ideas. A lot of conservatives are backing him. He's an alternative to Jeb Bush. He's somebody with a lot of experience.

PEREIRA: You don't agree?

AVLON: No, I just think -- Kasich's got the big debate, but the biggest thing right now is Jeb Bush has to show that he's not Beta Bush. He has to come out, show real following and make the case he can be the leader of this party right now. If he doesn't, that momentum is going to keep going down.

PEREIRA: Gentlemen, we tried something new and you did it well. I give you an A-plus grade. Tune in tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. Eastern for the CNN Republican presidential debates. The prime time event begins at 8:00 Eastern. Do not miss it.

Chris?

CUOMO: All right. Donald Trump says he cherishes women and women love him. For the first time, there will be a woman on stage with him tomorrow night. He's not been cherishing of her. Is there a Carly/Donald showdown in the cards? Tina Brown weighs in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:50:58] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have such respect for women, I cherish women. I'm going to take such good care of women's health care issues. You won't even believe it. But I'm surging with women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: You won't even believe it, he says. That was Donald Trump talking about women last night during his rally in Texas. Of course, Carly Fiorina may not feel cherished by him.

So, what happens tomorrow night when they're on the same stage during the debate?

Let's bring in Tina Brown. She's a journalist, editor, author and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media. She's also founder of the Women in the World Summit, which we should talk about in one moment.

Great to have you here.

TINA BROWN, TINA BROWN LIVE MEDIA: Thank you. It's fun to be here.

CAMEROTA: Does Donald Trump cherish women? Is that the right word?

BROWN: What a lovely word. I also love "I'm surging with women." How about that? That's a good one, too.

Look, the amazing thing about Trump, he gets to say anything and not go down. I mean, you would think he lost women by this time. People understand he's not running a political campaign. This is standup. This is a performance art. He's a comic, he's a late-night comic.

He can make any kind of outrageous comments and people laugh. They know that's his brand. Insult is his brand.

CAMEROTA: Is he a sexist?

BROWN: I think he doesn't know how to be different. I think that's who he is. When you say is he sexist? I don't think he'd consider himself sexist. He's just that guy who just behaves like that around women.

CUOMO: Can you only be sexist if you consider yourself sexist? That would be a nice out for a lot of people.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Of course, he's sexist. Of course, he's sexist. But he can get away with it because women know it's just his brand.

CUOMO: Let's take that one more step. They know it's his brand. It's OK for him because that's part of the confounding thing about covering him, is that the normal rules don't apply.

Now, his supporters will say that's because you media people are all caught up in this PC stuff that we don't care about. He's speaking the truth. He's a little rough around the edges. I'm not electing him uncle. I'm electing him as one who is going to take on the tough stuff.

BROWN: Well, I think that's right. And when he does stuff like he forgets people's name, usually, it's a kind of absolute index for a fool if you don't know a foreign leader's name or something. He gets somebody's name wrong, in fact, he doesn't know the name. People said, well, that's what I do, too. I don't know everybody, every foreign leader's name. It doesn't bother me. And it doesn't bother them.

The reason it doesn't work with the others is because they know the public knows these are the poll tested guys with their market research and their positioning themselves here, positioning there, they're co-opting these positions, so when you get called out, the phony gets called out. When Donald Trump makes grotesque off the cuff remark, he was asked about how does he feel about his birther comments about Obama? He says, I'm off that topic now.

PEREIRA: Right, like how do you follow the counting ball, the challenge, too, for the other candidates and how do you respond, it's going to be interesting to see how they do it on the debate stage tomorrow. But we've been watching this situation play out, the back and forth between Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump. Carly Fiorina has responded to that comment he made about, look at that face. She created -- her team created an ad. Let's watch it. I want you to give me your take on how you think she handled it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, YOUTUBE/CARLY FOR AMERICA)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ladies, look at this face. And look at all of your faces. The face of leadership. The face of leadership in our party, the party of women's suffrage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Take the air out of that face comment.

BROWN: That was brilliant, actually.

PEREIRA: She's smart.

BROWN: It's a huge boon when somebody insults your looks, right, because that means that you like, that's a rah-rah line for every woman when someone insults your look. I love the way she said, I owned every wrinkle except she doesn't have any, right? Because she can afford not to.

But I think she handled it extremely well. I mean, she turned herself into a Dove ad, the slowly smiling women, the little girls. You know, it was great. Great job of it.

CUOMO: Do you think she should make a point of it on the debate stage? Do you think she should look at Donald and say, are you going to apologize?

BROWN: No, I don't think she should, because actually she's a tough lady and she's really making the point, I can take the heat.

[06:55:04] That I think is appealing. I think it's appealing to say, look, I can take a heat, I'll make a joke out of this.

She's not going to suddenly get us off into that PC sort of umbridge. That's smart of her. Actually people are tired of that.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at the latest poll numbers about Donald Trump with women. This is the Republican's choice for nominated 2016. This is the latest CNN poll. He gets 33 percent of women's support. Carson 22 percent, Bush 10 percent and down from there. So --

CUOMO: Fiorina is only at 3 percent. That could be name recognition also.

BROWN: Women like authenticity. As I've said. They feel he's authentic. So they don't mind that he says these things.

I do think that his racism is going to absolutely boomerang. All we need, frankly, I think Trump could implode, not with these grotesque chauvinistic, you know, off the cuff sexist and so on. What I think could make him implode is if there's another really ugly racist incident like there was of the beating of a man because he was an immigrant, there will be an incident in which immigrants are violently treated and the name of Trump is invoked.

I think at that time, Americans who are ultimately, of course, you know, decent about these issues will say, you know what, it was fun for the summer but this guy could really create issues for us.

PEREIRA: Tina, while you're here, we're going to talk about the Women in the World Summit. Very exciting, you've been doing it since 2009. But expanding now into the world holding the first summit in London.

What are your goals, what are you hoping to achieve by taking the summit to London?

BROWN: We are now become a global woman's media brand in a sense. I mean, we're also going gone on to India after that. We made a partnership with the "New York Times" which enables us to make these expansions.

And our goal is to see the guys through that of women. That is what we do. It's our mission. We lean on, not in, we lean on unfair governments and unequal situations all over the world, women who are repressed in countries which don't any equal opportunity in any sense.

At the same time, we also celebrate women of achievement who have broken through and can tell their stories. So, to bring it to Europe which is in the middle of so much turmoil and the refugees, for instance, will be a big part of women in the world this year. We have women from Syria who are so brave and surmounted so many obstacles. So, that was our goal, bring it alive in Europe.

CAMEROTA: Sounds wonderful. Tina Brown, thanks so much. Good to have you here on NEW DAY. Pleasure.

BROWN: Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: What's your take on everything we've just talked about? Please tweet us using #NewDayCNN, or post your comment on Facebook, Facebook.com/NewDay. Also, tune in tomorrow at 6:00 Eastern for the CNN Republican presidential debate. The prime time event begins at 8:00 p.m. You don't want to miss a second.

All right. We'll following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump boasting about his lead.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm surging with women. We're really killing it.

FIORINA: Donald Trump is an entertainer. I am a leader.

CUOMO: Tomorrow is the CNN Republican presidential debate.

TRUMP: I hear they're all going after me. Whatever.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've watched Jeb Bush/Donald Trump food fight. Nobody cares.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A massive and deadly flash flood. Rescue crews racing to save a family from a car, moments from being swept away.

PEREIRA: At least eight people are dead. Several more are missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two massive wildfires burning in northern California.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As tens of thousands evacuate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As it came down, there was fire everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are really in a battle with nature.

Nature is more powerful than we are.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

We are now just one day away from the highly anticipated Republican debate right here on CNN. All eyes, of course, will be on Donald Trump and which of his rivals could give him a run for his money on stage.

CUOMO: But, first, we begin with breaking news. Deadly flash floods claiming at least eight lives near the Utah-Arizona border. There's an active search at this hour for the missing.

We have CNN's Kyung Lah live in Colorado City, Arizona, with the very latest.

Kyung, the situation?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, about a mile downstream from where those cars were swept away by very sudden flash floods. You can see that heavy machinery right over my shoulder. They're moving very, very quickly. Waht they're digging through heavy mud, rocks, broken twigs, they are looking for several that are missing. And what makes all of this so desperate and heartbreaking is that the missing are mothers and children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the front yard.

LAH (voice-over): Dramatic video this morning, showing a massive and deadly flash flood ripping through a small town on the Arizona/Utah border.

You can hear the screams from shocked residents stunned by the rushing water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's happening right now.

LAH: Heavy rain falling in the mountains above the canyon town earlier in the day caused the river to rise rapidly, catching onlookers off guard.