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Benghazi Committee A Political Witch Hunt?; Will Trump Be The Republican Nominee?; Police: Lamar Odom Had Been Using Cocaine. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired October 15, 2015 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:32:02] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: New York Congressman Richard Hanna, a Republican, says the Benghazi committee was created to target her. Take a listen for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RICHARD HANNA (R), NEW YORK (via telephone): Sometimes, the biggest thing you can commit in D.C. is to tell the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.
HANNA: You know, I -- this may not be politically correct, but I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people, an individual, Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: I think that the phrase "politically correct" is starting to become code for "true." This may be too true what I'm about to say, but that's the question, is it?
Let's bring in CNN political commentator and former Reagan White House, Jeffrey Lord and Mr. Bob Beckel, Democratic strategist and the author of "I Should Be Dead, My Life Survived Politics, TV, and Addiction." Gentlemen, thank you.
Let's deal with the issue before us. Brother Beckel, you begin, make the case for what we're hearing from the Republican congressman is what it sounds like to some which is this is a witch hunt?
BOB BECKEL, AUTHOR, "I SHOULD BE DEAD": You know, it's just staggering to hear that. I was taken back and forth and I felt terrible about it when I heard it. Who are we kidding? I mean, from the second they put this committee together, the idea was to go after Hillary Clinton.
There are a lot of other things about the war and wars in the Middle East that could be covered. But in this case, she was the principal target. It was clear from the beginning that was -- that is what it was about. Look, there have been 20 or 30 hearings on Benghazi.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Bob, I just want to interrupt you for a second. Have we ever gotten the answer -- I mean, have we ever gotten the answer as to why Ambassador Chris Stevens was left vulnerable?
BECKEL: Yes, we've gotten the answer. Yes, was left vulnerable because there were not enough security procedures in place.
CAMEROTA: Who is responsible for that? Doesn't the American public deserve the answer of who was responsible for not putting enough security measures in place?
BECKEL: Well, somebody is already -- someone at the State Department, the embassy security has already taken responsibility for that. You say can you say ultimately it was Hillary Clinton's responsibility?
Yes, and she has said that, that ultimately it is. Look, that was about around the time that every embassy around in the world since 9/11 was screaming for more security.
The other question is, what was the ambassador doing up there that day? We don't know. This is like the Kennedy assassination, you can go on and on with this one and you're not going to get a complete answer.
CAMEROTA: OK, so Jeffrey, what does this now do that the second congressman has come forward and said that this was about partisanship, now what does it do to the investigation?
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it does much. I listen to him, he says he thinks. Does he know? Where's his proof? He doesn't have any. I mean, I want to know what Congressman Gowdy and company have or don't have. We will find out.
CUOMO: You will find out all the time, Jeffrey, that thing is leaking like a sieve.
LORD: No, not in Washington, D.C.
[07:35:04] CUOMO: Look, I think that the confusion we have here is that there's a little bit of empowerment of the unknown, right, fellas? Are you going to learn anything about this?
No, you don't learn a lot about any situation that has a lot of different components to it. It's how you decide to deal with the unknown.
Does it fueled by the skepticism this is something kept from us or more normalizing the unknown? What do you think about it, Bob Beckel? What do you think at the end of the day comes about from all of this?
BECKEL: I think much ado about nothing. You made a point. There's not a thing I know that the Gowdy committee has gotten that's not been made public. It's been leaked to public if they have something that's very big. If they have a smoking gun, believe me, it would have been out by now.
If they wanted to try to halt Hillary Clinton in her tracks, they would have come out in this earlier. Look from her standpoint, she's got one more appearance. She doesn't have to do it. She is doing it. It's the right thing to do and they're not going to come out with a single thing that's going to change the trajectory of her campaign.
CAMEROTA: OK, so then where does that leave us, Jeffrey? Where do they wrap up this Benghazi investigation in that case?
LORD: We find out what they have or what they don't have. It will either go on or go off.
CUOMO: What about the committee reports that have come out? We don't know what happened. We don't know why it happened. What about the committee reports that came out with recommendations that were either approved or not approved?
LORD: You know as well as I do, there's a difference between congressional operations when you're investigating things, and select committees like this, like Watergate, like the Iran contra committee that are zeroing in only on that topic. That's what's going on here and we will find out.
CAMEROTA: All right, Bob, let's talk about the latest polls. This is on the other side of the aisle in terms of the Republicans. Let's see where they are today. The early voting states, Nevada and South Carolina, look at where Donald Trump is. He is at 38 percent. He is still dominating the race.
His closest competitor, Ben Carson is at 22 percent in Nevada and South Carolina. Trump doubles him 36 percent to 18 percent. Bob, is it time to begin saying that Donald Trump may be in this for the long haul and may be the party's nominee?
BECKEL: I've said for a long time that you can't discount Trump, somebody that's got money like that and somebody that's got the chutzpah that he's got and can take the political action out of a room.
But having said, people forget their history, populists have been around since William Jennings Brian. You see it coming up in every two or three cycles where somebody like Ross Perot makes a big hit.
I think that Trump and Ben Carson and Fiorina are populist in the sense, with the definition of populism, but they have intrigued a lot of people. The question is what is going to start happening when they start answering questions.
Donald Trump's answer on Syria, for example, let's sit back and figure out what's going to happen. I've said this last night on CNN, people said, is he out of his depth -- hell, he's not even in the kiddie pool.
CUOMO: People here, Jeffrey Lord, people here have answers. They accept them. They think it called and say, yes, I will vote for him. Bob points to history, have we ever had somebody leading this long the way he is?
BECKEL: Yes. CUOMO: Who wound up just burning out?
LORD: Well, I mean, Ross Perot burned up. Ross Perot was ahead of the race at one point, you know, where that screwy business about his daughter's wedding --
CUOMO: But he didn't have numbers like this for this long?
LORD: I'm sorry?
CUOMO: He didn't have numbers like this for this long.
LORD: I believe there's something different going on with Donald Trump. People just have it. You know, when you listened to that Democratic debate, the elephant in the room, if you will or donkey in the room was, basically, we're all supposed to be socialists now.
You know, Donald Trump is out there every day with his what, 94.6 million people not in the workforce. People are upset. They want something done and he has his can do reputation for good reason. I think that's why they're attracted to him.
BECKEL: I'm sorry, go ahead.
CUOMO: Go ahead. Bob, make the point.
BECKEL: All I was going to say, he has this reputation to do what? This guy talks about he doesn't like all the deals being made in Washington. Well, this guy builds buildings in New York City. Do you think he's done a few deals in the course of that?
I mean, this guy is very good at what he does. I take nothing away from him, but when people start to think as you get closer and closer to voting in Iowa and New Hampshire, particularly.
And why is it, by the way, that trump with all of his millions of dollars has spent very little money in Iowa. He's not put on the air, except for one ad. When you have a lead like that you solidify it and why hasn't he done it?
LORD: He's got the organization on the ground, Bob, and it's a good one.
[07:40:04] BECKEL: Where? I was just out in Iowa. I could have stumbled -- I didn't stumble across one Trump organizer in the field in Iowa out there. It may be by his personality he thinks he's going to get people to come to these caucuses at night and when it's freezing.
But I don't think so. Look, let's give the guy credit. He's lasted longer than most people have and it has to do with the quality of the people on that stage with him.
LORD: There's more to come.
CAMEROTA: On that note, Jeffrey, Bob, thanks so much for your insights -- Michaela.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for that guys. Ahead here, former NBA star Lamar Odom is fighting for his life. We're learning more about the moments leading up to him being found unconscious. Could fame and endless media attention lead to him spiraling out of control? We're going to take a look at that ahead.
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PEREIRA: Former NBA player and reality TV star, Lamar Odom, is on life support this morning. He was conscious when he was found at a Nevada brothel this week. Police say they were told he had been using cocaine and a so-called herbal Viagra.
[07:45:09] Here to discuss it all, Larry Hackett, the former managing editor for "People" magazine. Christine Brennan is here as well, CNN's sports analyst and sports columnist for "USA Today." I know the three of us are struggling how to talk about this terrible situation with this great NBA player.
What is known as a good guy? He was known as a good guy, Christine. It's a tough conversation to be having. Are you sort of looking at this as a cautionary tale, perhaps?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I am, Michaela. Absolutely, when you look at Lamar Odom's life, the totality of his life, he said he was raised in the streets of queens. His dad was a heroin addict. His mother died of cancer when he was 12.
This started a life of great talent and great promise in sports, a superstar, a first round pick in the NBA, obviously two championships, NBA championships, with the Lakers, winning award as the best sixth man in the league, a beloved teammate.
But also a guy who had addictions and problems and suspensions for drugs and dui and just one thing after another, and here it looks like it's cascaded into the worst possible situation.
PEREIRA: And a terrific amount of loss. You talk about the fact that he lost his mother at 12. He lost the grandmother who essentially raised him, a cousin, his baby son to sudden infant death syndrome, I mean, a great amount of grief in his life.
But this was a guy. You see the tweets pouring in from the NBA. Kobe Bryant rushing to his side at the hospital. There is a common thread. This is a guy that was liked within the group of players and teammates. He was beloved.
LARRY HACKETT, FORMER MANAGING EDITOR, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: And many Americans got to see him on the television show and feel the same way about him.
PEREIRA: That's where we come to, this crazy collision of NBA fame and reality TV.
HACKETT: I think Christine spelled it out. I think none of us here wanted to be psychologist right away, but if you look at his life and what he went through, the hallmarks were there for difficulty. He experienced when he was not there, he experienced it in college, his first year in the NBA.
What makes this unusual is that we got to see it all play out in realtime. I remember when I was the editor of "People" magazine a couple years ago, he went AWOL, and they were trying to find him.
PEREIRA: I remember that.
HACKETT: It was almost a sea of mentality that people are trying to find him and paparazzi were all over Los Angeles trying to find him and Khloe was trying to find him. And it was his soap opera playing now.
PEREIRA: He couldn't get out of the spotlight.
HACKETT: He could not get out of the spotlight.
PEREIRA: Even when the season on the Kardashians or whatever spinoff he had for his reality show?
HACKETT: A couple years earlier when he was traded from the Lakers to Dallas and Christine may know more about this as well, it's when things started to fall apart. He was shocked to get traded. He had just gotten married. He didn't want to live in Dallas.
I think the kind of system built around him that was supportive up to that time began to crumble and he became a victim of it. Again, we got to see it play out in virtually realtime.
PEREIRA: And the virtual world of reality TV, Christine, that is bringing to the professional world of sports because we're seeing a little bit more of this crossover, right, the entertainment and sports colliding. This is one of the downsides of it perhaps. I think we heard even some members of the family are blaming the Kardashians for where he is now.
BRENNAN: I think he's made these choices. I'm sure they were wonderful choices at the time. I think Larry is right, as a cautionary tale, what have we learned from this? Obviously, this is a man and family deeply in trouble and distraught. We'll see how that plays out.
I think as a culture to look at what we do as athletes with the fame and all of the money and fortune, and for what? Some can handle it and some clearly have trouble. We have to understand that as a culture.
PEREIRA: There are a lot of prayers going towards this young man, towards Lamar Odom and his family, people that are struggling with this right now. Christine, Larry, a tough conversation to have. Glad you guys were here to do it with me. Thank you -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, Michaela, on a much lighter note, let's look at the CNN debate through a comic lens. The late night hosts are doing that and they're tapping the big event for big laughs, and apparently no one was safe. So we will have all the funny highlights for you coming up.
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[07:53:25]
CAMEROTA: So who won CNN's Democratic debate? Answer the late night comics. Check out all the material courtesy of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and yes, even Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many political pundits are calling Hillary Clinton the winner of last night's first Democratic presidential debate. Pundits like MSNBC's Millary Finton, CNBC's Valerie Clinton, and CNN's Clinton Hillary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know your debate was very uneventful when the banner headlined the next day is "Elderly man not interested in e- mail."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump called Ben Carson during the debate on the phone and they watched it together.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you watching the Democratic debate? It's huge. Looking Lincoln Chafee just called out Hillary on her e-mails. This is going to be good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we need somebody with the best and ethical starts as our next president. That is how I feel.
ANDERSON COOPER, DEBATE MODERATOR: Secretary Clinton, do you want to respond?
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More throws than Chris Christie at the beach.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PEREIRA: Allen does a pretty good Trump. Did you see in? He was dancing on Ellen's show behind the scenes? Yes, that is Bernie Sanders.
CAMEROTA: Cutting the rug. Wow.
PEREIRA: Keeping it close to home. I respect that.
CAMEROTA: First of all, I've never seen Bernie Sanders smile that much. So he likes dancing, I've just learned.
CUOMO: The whole time he was saying middle class, middle class.
All right, so a second Republican congressman is now saying the Benghazi committee was about Hillary all along. But does that mean it was a witch hunt all along? Both sides get tested ahead.
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[07:59:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: U.S. troops are remaining in Afghanistan longer than planned.
CAMEROTA: The president promised to get U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a tacit admission that the mission is not finished.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were designs to go after people, individuals, Hillary Clinton.
CUOMO: Now a second Republican congressman says yes the Benghazi committee was designed to go after Hillary Clinton.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This committee is basically an arm of the Republican National Committee.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Donald Trump holding a double digit lead.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary and Bernie Sanders, they just couldn't give things away fast enough.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we saw from the Democrat was a serious debate.
CLINTON: People finally got a chance to compare the Democrats to the Republicans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, October 15th now just before 8:00 in the east. And we have breaking news. President Obama will announce this morning that U.S. troops are staying in Afghanistan. This is the second day of a promised draw down.
CAMEROTA: The resurgent of the Taliban and instability of Afghan forces motivating this move.
