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New Poll: Carson Trumps Trump in Iowa; Lawmakers to Grill Clinton on Benghazi Attack; 70% of Freedom Caucus Backs Ryan for Speaker; WikiLeaks Posts CIA Director's Hacked E-mail Documents; Man Confesses to Killing a 4-Year-Old in Road Rage Incident. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired October 22, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN: Good morning, everyone. In just hours, Hillary Clinton will testify before the House Select Committee on Benghazi. There's plenty of criticism to go around on both sides, including the politically-charged atmosphere after several Republicans indicated that it was purely focused on bringing Clinton's numbers down during her White House bid.

[07:00:18] We will have much more on what we can expect, ahead.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN: But first, there is breaking news on the campaign trail. A brand-new poll released just minutes ago shows -- look at that -- Dr. Ben Carson beating Donald Trump in Iowa. Key state, 28/20. Why? And what does it mean going forward? Is this a vulnerability or is it specific for the population of that state? We have team coverage.

Let's begin with CNN's Athena Jones, live in Washington with the numbers -- Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A big deal. We've been talking about how Trump has been leading in national polls for 100 days. Well, this is a poll, of course, in Iowa, the first state to make a choice in the Republican race next year. So it's significant. This is showing Ben Carson out on top, not Trump.

You can see there that Carson has gained seven points in the last month, and Trump has lost the exact same number of points in the last month. This is Carson's best showing in Iowa so far. We know he's drawing a lot of support from women and from white evangelical voters.

Another interesting point here is that, when people were asked which candidates they definitely would not support, Trump is there on top, at 30 percent. But you can see there that Jeb Bush isn't too far behind him, at 21 percent. And that may be worse news for Bush, because he, in this poll, is tied at sixth place at just 5 percent.

Trump also doesn't do well when it comes to favorability numbers. You can see there in the next poll graphic, Carson is up on top, 84 percent of Republican caucus-goers, likely caucus-goers, have a favorable review of him. Just 10 percent have an unfavorable view.

Trump is all the way near the bottom, 53 percent favorable and 43 percent unfavorable. So that is not a good comparison there comparing Trump and Carson.

There's one more set of numbers I want to highlight here. Take a look at the candidates' standing with white evangelical voters. We know they are a key group when it comes to Republican caucus-goers in Iowa. You can see Carson there has a 19-point lead over Trump with those very important voters. And it's because of the importance of white evangelical voters that we're hearing Trump make statements like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I'm a good Christian. OK? Remember that. And I told you about Christmas. And I guarantee, if I become president, we're going to be saying "merry Christmas" at every store. The "happy holiday," you can leave that over in the corner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: That was Trump campaigning in Burlington, Iowa, yesterday. A clear attempt to appeal to those folks, religious voters who have been talking for several years now about a so-called war on the word "Christmas" -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Athena. Thank you very much. We're going to have more on the new poll numbers coming up.

But first, our other top story this morning is that Hillary Clinton is facing eight to ten hours of grilling from the House Select Committee on Benghazi this morning. And we have polling on this, as well, showing that Americans are fed up with the committee. But also somewhat fed up with how this situation was handled by Clinton in the first place.

CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar has more. Brianna, what do you see in the numbers?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning there, Chris.

They're pretty interesting. Let me first tell you how today is going to go. You mentioned eight to ten hours of testimony. We're expecting four two-hour blocks, roughly, where Hillary Clinton will be answering questions. So she's been preparing for what we would expect to be a grueling and possibly dramatic day.

But you have Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the committee, saying that this is part of the definitive and final accounting for Benghazi. Democrats who support Hillary Clinton say this is a political hatchet job. And these new poll numbers show that most Americans believe politics are at play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really don't know what to expect.

KEILAR (voice-over): This morning, just hours away from Hillary Clinton's highly anticipated Benghazi hearing...

CLINTON: They ended up becoming a partisan arm of the Republican National Committee.

KEILAR: A new CNN/ORC poll reveals the public agrees with the Democratic frontrunner. Seventy-two percent believe the investigation is being used for political gain.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), MAJORITY LEADER: We put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.

KEILAR: Two numbers of the GOP admitting as much.

REP. RICHARD HANNA (R), NEW YORK (via phone): This may not be politically correct, but I -- I think that there was a big part of this investigation that was designed to go after people.

KEILAR: But committee chair, Republican Trey Gowdy, strongly denies he's playing politics.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R-SC), CHAIRMAN, SELECT COMMITTEE ON BENGHAZI: I have told my own Republican colleagues and friends, shut up talking about things that you don't know anything about.

[07:05:03] CLINTON: Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans?

KEILAR: That anger and frustration palpable in Hillary Clinton's last testimony before Congress more than two years ago.

CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make?

KEILAR: A moment likely still fresh in the minds of the Republican- led committee members.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Madam Secretary, you let the consulate become a death trap.

KEILAR: Yet after three years of accusations, seven investigations, thousands of pages of e-mails and hours of testimony, Republicans say they still have unanswered questions.

On September 11, 2012, Islamic extremists overran the U.S. mission in Benghazi, setting it ablaze and then storming the nearby CIA annex, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, as well as an information officer and two former Navy SEALs. But is Clinton ultimately to blame for the terror attack and deadly security lapse? That's what some Republicans say is still unknown.

CLINTON: With specific security requests, they didn't come to me. I had no knowledge of them.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KEILAR: This Benghazi Select Committee that Hillary Clinton will testify before today is responsible for uncovering that she used a private e-mail address solely. And that those e-mails were housed on a personal server in her house in New York.

But even with that and even with the FBI investigating the security of this server, even with thousands and thousands of e-mails being released by the State Department, Clinton's e-mails, there still at this point is no smoking gun. That Clinton denied requests for security in the lead-up to the Benghazi attack.

Or that she was participating or even if there was a cover-up by the Obama administration in the wake of this attack. A cover-up that some Republicans have suggested where they were trying to say that this wasn't actually terrorism -- Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Brianna. Thanks for laying all of that out for us.

Let's bring in now California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez. She's a Democrat on the Benghazi committee. Congresswoman, thanks so much for taking time for us this morning. We know you have a busy day. As Brianna just laid out, at least eight hours of testimony is expected from Hillary Clinton.

There are 12 of you members, five Democrats. I believe you all get to split your time evenly, in terms of asking your questions, how do you plan to use your time?

REP. LINDA SANCHEZ (D), CALIFORNIA: Well, I plan to use my time in a way that allows the secretary to respond to many of the smear tactics and half-truths and outright lies that have been perpetuated by the Republican majority in charge of this committee. Giving her an opportunity to, once and for all, clear the air, set the record straight and push back on many of the fantastical conspiracy theories that they've been peddling over the 17 months of this investigation.

CAMEROTA: And yet, Congresswoman, there are still questions that remain. Our own Elise Labott of CNN has a great piece on CNN.com about the five sort of overarching questions that Americans still have. I'll just read you one of them. Why did the U.S. remain in Benghazi, despite the escalation of violence and even as other consulates were being closed? Has that been sufficiently answered? What's the answer?

SANCHEZ: Well, it's been answered over and over and over again. There are eight separate reports that investigated the events of September 11, 2012.

CAMEROTA: But what is the answer, Congresswoman, as to why the U.S. was still in Benghazi when the security situation was escalating?

SANCHEZ: Because Ambassador Stevens believed very strongly that there was great intelligence to be -- to be had from that part -- region of Libya. And even though Tripoli was the de facto capital, that there were people in Benghazi that were providing intelligence and that the power structure, really, of the new government was in Benghazi. And we needed to have a presence there in order to understand what was happening in that country.

As I -- as I said, the eight different reports all laid this out. And either the Republicans on that committee aren't reading those reports. Or they're asking the same questions over and over again that have already been answered multiple times. There's nothing new that they, in 17 months -- there's nothing new that they've uncovered that changes the narrative of what happened that evening.

CAMEROTA: Well, Congresswoman, you say that there's nothing new. However, people like John Boehner and the Republicans say that they're getting new information all the time. For instance, John Boehner -- let me tell you this specifically. John Boehner this week said that it wasn't until Monday, this past Monday, that they got 1,300 pages of Ambassador Chris Stevens' e-mails. So...

SANCHEZ: That's simply not true.

CAMEROTA: They say they were just delivered on Monday. So he's wrong?

SANCHEZ: Well -- well, they've been -- they've been in existence. And they've been seen prior to Monday.

I mean, sure, there might be a few, because they've requested hundreds of thousands of documents. but those e-mails are nothing new. They knew that Chris Stevens had sent those e-mails. They knew that he had requested additional security.

[07:10:02] Again, they're peddling this narrative that there's all this new information. Any information that they've -- that they've gotten still fits into what the eight prior reports have reported.

And the conclusion in those reports, which is that the events that evening were unexpected. That the folks that responded, not only responded adequately but heroically. That tragically, four Americans lost their lives, but that there were -- that none of these fantastical conspiracy theories are borne out by any of the evidence.

The fact of the matter is that people responded appropriately. They did all that they could this evening. And yes, it's a tragedy that four Americans lost their lives, but I think it's also a tragedy that we're spending millions of taxpayer dollars to chase these conspiracy theories that, once we put them to bed, because there's no evidence, they keep repeating the same things over and over again, in the hopes that somehow that convinces the American people that something different happened, even when it didn't.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the American people, because there are some new CNN polls about Benghazi out just this morning. And it has a finger on the pulse of how the Americans are feeling about this.

Let me just show you a couple. Have the Republicans gone too far with the Benghazi hearings, was the question? And 40 percent say yes. But handled appropriately is more, 51 percent. And that's up, by the way, since May and June. So while Americans do believe that there is certainly a political

thread to all of this, it sounds as though they do think that the Republicans are trying to really investigate and get to the bottom of this.

SANCHEZ: Well, it's -- it's been admitted by top Republican leadership that the purpose for this committee was to go after Hillary Clinton and drive down her poll numbers. So the credibility of the committee is in question. And $5 million of taxpayer monies have been spent over the course of 17 months to try to discredit Hillary Clinton, to try to smear her with half-truths, with information that's taken out of context that they've been leaking to the press over 17 months.

It just goes to show you, by those poll numbers, that the American people have been influenced by the amount of time, money, attention that they've spent attacking her credibility.

As Kevin McCarthy himself stated, they've been able to drive her polls numbers down. That's not accidental. That was their intention all along. So you can argue that, yes, they've been very successful at convincing the American people that something nefarious has happened. But they've not been true to the mission of the select committee, which is to provide answers and closure to the families. They have promised that to the families, and they haven't done that.

CAMEROTA: And we'll see if that happens today. Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, thanks so much for taking time for NEW DAY this morning. We'll be watching with great interest.

SANCHEZ: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: Another big political story, who is going to be the speaker of the House? Paul Ryan has three demands. The trickiest one looks like it got met -- almost.

CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju live in Washington. Manu, do me a favor. Explain the catch here with the Freedom Caucus. That's this faction that we're talking about. The leadership comes out and says, "We will support Ryan." He gets a super majority but doesn't get an endorsement. How does it work and what does it mean?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Chris, this is a group of hardline conservatives who effectively drove out John Boehner and scuttled Kevin McCarthy's bid to be speaker.

They had previously voted to endorse a longshot candidate for the speaker. That's Daniel Webster of Florida. But Paul Ryan said clearly that if he did not win the endorsement of the House Freedom Caucus and two other factions in the House GOP conference, he would drop out.

Now, yesterday, about 70 percent of the House Freedom Caucus members voted to support him. Which is not high enough for the group's internal rules to actually issue an official endorsement.

Now one reason why Ryan did not get that endorsement. His demand to change House rules to make it harder to eject -- eject a speaker in the middle of his term. But there were others in that Freedom Caucus, Chris, who are OK with Ryan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We met with him for an hour and a half today. I think he satisfied many of us that he was willing to change business as usual in Washington, D.C. We said from the very beginning we didn't care who the person was. And of all of our folks in our conference, Paul has the credibility to change the place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, because of that support that was released, that 70 percent threshold, Paul Ryan is moving forward with the speakership, even though he did not get the official endorsement.

We expect that two other caucus conferences within that Republican -- the House Republican conference to come out with their endorsement today. There's the moderate Tuesday Group in the conservative Republican Study Committee.

But -- but Chris and Alisyn, the bigger problem remains for Paul Ryan. All these big fiscal fights remain in the fall, he's probably going to anger those same conservatives he just won over.

[07:15:05] CAMEROTA: Boy, fascinating to see how this all plays out this week.

Thank you, Manu.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks releasing information stolen by hackers from CIA director John Brennan's private e-mail account. They said it's just the beginning. They plan to release more stolen data today.

CNN's Evan Perez is live in Washington with more. Tell us what they're saying, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, expect several more days of this. WikiLeaks saying that it has more personal documents stolen from CIA Director John Brennan's private e-mails. And the alleged hackers say they have other officials they're targeting.

So far, there's nothing classified among the documents that we've seen, all of them from before 2009, before Brennan joined the White House and then moved to the CIA. There's the government form that Brennan filled out in order to get him security clearance. That has personal information about his medical health, information about his wife and his friends. And there's a few papers he wrote, including ones about intelligence policy in Iran.

The CIA says in a statement, quote, "The hacking of the Brennan family account is a crime. And the Brennan family is the victim. This attack is something that could happen to anyone and should be condemned, not promoted."

The FBI and Secret Service are pursuing leads in this case, but so far the people who carried out this breach are outrunning investigators. And it goes to show you, Chris, how -- just how tough it is to find people hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet.

CUOMO: No question about that. Evan, we'll check back with you later in the show. Thank you.

Also breaking overnight, a man in New Mexico confesses to gunning down a 4-year-old girl. Police say the suspect opened fire on a pickup truck carrying Lilly Garcia, a little girl, in the backseat. It was all because of road rage.

CNN's Ana Cabrera is live with the very latest -- Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Police say it was an anonymous tip that led them to their suspect. They say somebody called yesterday afternoon, told them they knew who killed Lilly Garcia. That and other tips led them to 32-year-old Tony Torrez.

Now, police say he was taken in for questioning. He was cooperative, and he eventually confessed to the road rage shooting.

Now the incident all happened in a matter of minutes on Interstate 40 on Tuesday afternoon in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Police say Alan Garcia had just picked up his two young children, Lilly and her 7- year-old brother, from school. They were driving on Interstate 40 when there was an altercation with another vehicle. Some words were exchanged.

That's when they say the other vehicle pulled up alongside the family's red pickup truck and opened fire, one bullet striking Lilly in the head. Now, she was rushed to the hospital, but doctors just couldn't save her.

This morning, her family is speaking out, remembering their precious little girl.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just grabbed your heart. The first time that you met her. She would grab your heart. And she's going to -- she's going to be missed by a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: It just breaks your heart.

Lilly's alleged killer is now being held on a $650,000 cash-only bond. This is a person with an extensive criminal history. Now he's facing murder charges, along with about a half dozen others, Chris. CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much, Ana. Appreciate it. That

story is -- you know, it just reflects what can happen with unchecked violence. This is road rage. They're cutting each other off.

CAMEROTA: It's all so senseless.

CUOMO: Pull out a gun.

CAMEROTA: And heartbreaking.

CUOMO: And now you know that part of the defense is going to be "I had no intention to shoot the girl. I didn't know that the kids were there." It's too late for that.

CAMEROTA: All right. Back to politics.

Donald Trump has led the polls for three months solid now. Now, there's new poll numbers, out just this hour, to show his lead slipping somewhere significant. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt joins us to take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:31] CUOMO: Trump is in the lead overall. There's no question about it.

For the first time in months, Donald Trump is not leading in a poll in Iowa. Look at this. New Quinnipiac poll, Ben Carson ahead of the GOP frontrunner, Donald Trump in Iowa by eight points. Why? Will it last? What does it mean?

Hugh Hewitt, host of the radio program "The Hugh Hewitt Show."

Good to have you here, my friend. When you look at these numbers, what do you see in this essential flipping of Trump and Carson? If you look there at their numbers, let's put up September. And now, basically, they've traded positions in a month. Why?

HUGH HEWITT, HOST, "THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW": Well, "The Washington Post"/ABC poll shows that nationally, Donald remains very far ahead of the rest of the crowd.

CUOMO: Yes.

HEWITT: In fact, gains on it. And in the NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll, he and Carson have each gained each month. This is a state- specific poll. And Iowa is heavily evangelical. Dr. Ben Carson is coming out to the Colorado to Colorado Christian College, where I'll be broadcasting today, next week -- and they're cancelling class. Everyone is coming to see Dr. Ben Carson.

In Iowa, you have places like Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, with 1,300 undergrads. I'll bet you that's a Dr. Carson hot bed of support. So what Donald Trump has nationally may not translate so well in western Iowa, Chris. It will take a long time to see how this plays out four more months. But it is the evangelical vote which drives Iowa politics, and Dr. Carson is deeply angry in that particular constituency.

CUOMO: Give some context of these other numbers for me. And then we'll discuss what Trump can do to reverse this. Are there any candidates you would definitely not support? Now and September is the reference. Trump, 25 percent then, 30 percent now. Bush, 23 percent then, 21 percent now. What do you see in those numbers?

HEWITT: You know, I tend to discount how members support someone. Because so many different events are going to occur. There's a huge event today. Mrs. Clinton testifying before the House Select Committee on Benghazi is a huge opinion-shaping event.

And there will be many more before February, when the Iowa caucuses are held. And so when those opinion-shaping debates come on, even people who are adamant, pounding the table right now that they will never support Ben Carson, Marco Rubio or Donald Trump, they tend to rethink, depending upon how those individuals react to the opinion- shaping events.

So I tend to discount those completely. What I look for right now is who has got county chairman, who's got precinct captains, who's got a number of people who will get up and walk in the middle of an afternoon on a Sunday to knock on doors and hand out literature and engage on one-on-one conversations, Chris.

[07:25:10] That's -- you grew up with retail politics, right? You know what retail politics is. That's what works in Iowa.

CUOMO: You know, you're so right. And it's so often neglected, because people see it as boring. We like the popularity. We don't look at the practicality.

Joe Biden just decided not to run for president, mostly because of practicality. He doesn't have the time. Not he doesn't think he's the best. Not that he doesn't think he can win. Not that he doesn't feel he has the heart and the gumption. It's "I don't have the time to get the organization."

Important point there, Hugh.

Now, let's look at this. On the issues, this somewhat furthers your point. One quick note, that last poll that you just showed that you discount, you know who wasn't on that list of people they'd never vote for? Carson. He didn't even register.

Interesting.

But anyway, on the issues -- economy, foreign policy, illegal immigration, social issues, taxes -- Trump beats Carson handily on all of them, except social issues. What does that translate into?

HEWITT: Again, Dr. Carson is best known among the electorate, the Republican electorate as being the heart and soul evangelical. His National Day of Prayer Speech still resonates, still gets lots of YouTube videos. When he appears to be perhaps the nicest man to ever seek the presidency. And his accomplishment coming from nothing in Detroit, from nowhere

and ending up being one of the country's leading neurosurgeons, is an inspiring story for people who want to be inspired, who aren't cynical.

So he does work very well in the setting of the evangelical center. And by the way, with a lot of Catholics, who are not often polled as evangelicals but who have the same sort of value set that, especially the weekly mass-attending Catholics.

CUOMO: Right. It gets a little...

HEWITT: He's not going to fall in anyone's esteem.

CUOMO: It gets a little sloppy also, right? Because Catholicism is a denomination. Evangelical is not. So sometimes there's cross-over. You're right.

And we do have evangelical numbers here on now and September. As a frame of reference, Carson had 36. Was at 27. Trump slipping 20 to 17. The reason seemed to go along with what you're saying.

Now, let's look at what you say of these -- these moments that form opinions. Certainly, Benghazi is going to be a huge one. Don't think it can even be exaggerated.

The kerfuffle about what Trump said and what he meant about Afghanistan and Iraq. What do you read into that? He says his position is, "I said Iraq was a mistake, and it was. I said getting involved over there was a mistake, and it was. But now that you're involved and you messed it up, you have to be in Afghanistan, because you have to stabilize what you destabilized"?

HEWITT: I think Trump is doing exactly what he needs to do, which is engaging people again and again. And when he makes a mistake or he doesn't hear something. I had this exchange with him on my radio show, where he simply misheard Quds, Kurds. It goes away.

What matters is, as you get closer to February, what is he saying to people in Iowa at that point?

CUOMO: He's saying merry Christmas.

HEWITT: That was a good thing to say about -- that was so practiced. That was such a beautiful moment by Donald Trump, because to a whole bunch of people, that communicates much, much more than the five- second sound bite. It communicates that he's standing with them.

And Matt Dowd, one of the great pollsters of our time, says when it comes down to voting, who believes what you believe, who understands where you're coming from? And Donald did a great reach-out yesterday, and he beat a lot of people to that punch line.

CUOMO: Does it matter that, when he gets hit with the stick of how, how do you change, you know, all of the First Amendment law on, you know, how we celebrate holidays and how we don't? Does that matter? HEWITT: No. In fact, a lot of us do a lot of time talking head

things. We tend to overlook the fact that most Americans pay very little attention to this until the day before they vote. And then they'll look up, and they'll have heard, and they'll be entertained by the whole parade.

Today's hearing, they'll be entertained by a lot of the sound bites that come out of that. But they won't decide to vote until almost the week before they go in there.

Rick Santorum showed that four years ago. Mike Huckabee showed that eight years ago. And in New Hampshire, it's legendary for changing its mind in the last four days. So a lot of this is noise that will fade and be forgotten by the time the ballots are actually cast.

CUOMO: Well, what is not going to fade, and we both bet on this with whatever is in our pockets, is that what happens today when Hillary Clinton faces down this committee, is going to last and resonate for a very long time, so I hope to speak to you about it, as soon as after as I can get you.

HEWITT: Thank you, Chris. It's going to matter. The secret server is going to matter a long time.

CUOMO: All right. We'll be into it. Thank you -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Hillary Clinton, as you just said, is set to be grilled by the House Benghazi Committee. So what is at stake for the 2016 Democratic frontrunner? Our political panel, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)