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Clinton Keeps Cool In Marathon Benghazi Grilling; Clinton Sway Public On Character And Trustworthiness; Strongest Hurricane In History To Slam Mexico; Neil Degrass Tyson On "Startalk"; Jeb Bush: Supergirl Is "Pretty Hot. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 23, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

CARL BERNSTEIN, AUTHOR, "A WOMAN IN CHARGE, THE LIFE OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON": She was competent. She knew the terrain. That's what we would see in a Clinton presidency.

But the issue of how she bends facts and whether you call that bending or sometimes veering too far from the literal truth that's going to be an issue in this campaign and continue to be. But she really bought herself an awful lot of room yesterday. It was really impressive.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Matt Lewis, you come to this from the conservative side. You don't know this, but I stalk you on Twitter. You have some interesting stuff yesterday. In some ways you go further than Carl.

You said not only did she come out on top in this hearing. You went as far as to say Hillary Clinton has her groove back. You compared it to a karma shift in a playoff game where all of a sudden one team starts to run away with it. You say that's what's happening with Hillary Clinton right now.

MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "THE DAILY CALLER": It seems like it. Wow. She was struggling so bad this summer and she seemed very unlikable. She just did not seem to be rising to the occasion. I think the turning point was actually Kevin McCarthy's Benghazi gaffe.

If you look at that as a turning point, ever since then, you have the great debate performance that Hillary had. You had the Joe Biden dropping out and now this Benghazi -- I'll call it a performance.

I mean, look, I think Republicans have some valid points. They just didn't make them very well yesterday. Maybe there's some legal possibilities that, you know, going back, did Hillary perjure herself yesterday?

I mean, that's always a potential possibility. But if you look at this from a political optic standpoint, I think she had a homerun yesterday.

BERMAN: Let me just reiterate. Matt is a conservative commentator. He's coming at this from that side.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Carl, you've studied Hillary Clinton, written the definitive biography on her. These past two weeks have been a charmed time in her life.

BERNSTEIN: It comes from real work and it also comes from the real destructiveness of the Republican approach to dealing with Hillary Clinton. This hearing yesterday was a travesty.

You'd have to go back in old history to the days of Joe McCarthy and the House on American Activities Committee to find the kind of demagoguery, badgering, and hectoring that she underwent as a result of the excess of the members of that committee.

It was ugly. It was disgraceful in terms of what the Congress of the United States ought to be. She rose above it. You heard me say to you. Actually, I said she was going to make monkeys out of them.

It was predictable and she did, and she managed in doing of it to take the facts, bend them, just how she wanted them to be interpreted. Are they always literally what we would call the best obtainable version of the truth? Perhaps not.

CAMEROTA: Isn't another way of saying that a lie?

BERNSTEIN: No. David Gergen, our colleague here gave my colleague, Bob Woodward a great answer. When Bob asked him the other day in a symposium, do you trust her? And Gergen says, well, I don't think that she lies. She's careful with the truth.

I think that's -- there's a kind of parsing that goes on, but what we saw in the hearing was context. Her enemies have never understood context. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton do.

And unless the Republicans come to understand context, she's going to be the president of the United States if things keep going like they are.

BERMAN: Well, Matt, if you buy Carl's argument, in fact your argument about how well she's doing right now this week and maybe through the primaries with be that gets you, I suppose, through the nomination.

I do think that there are Republicans out there, there are voters out there who have been looking at Benghazi for a long time and watch these hearings yesterday and saw material that they think supports their side of the argument.

What can you see in terms of useable substance that rains, whoever the nominee is, would use against her in a general election when that time comes?

LEWIS: Look, I think there were some very legitimate -- I think the hearing was legitimate. There were legitimate concerns raised. For example, Ambassador Stevens, why did Hillary Clinton not even know about his requests for help? Why did she argue this was a video responsible for what happened in Benghazi, not a spontaneous terrorist uprising?

There are some discrepancies there. I don't think that Republicans were able -- there was no sound bite. I mean, 11 hours of Hillary Clinton talking, you didn't have a single time when there's a sound bite of her saying something like, what difference does it make?

Instead the sound bite you have is her talking about her losing sleep over what happened there. So I think that the average person watching comes away thinking that this is a nonissue and that Hillary has in fact passed the test.

CAMEROTA: We had that moment because it was one of the more solemn moments. She had to play it emotionally right. Watch her talking about losing sleep. Sorry. We don't have it.

[07:35:07] Basically my point is that -- whoever helped counsel her on this, she had to figure out what the line was, if she was being overly emotional, seeming overly angry, seeming disgusted, seeming yet poignant and she had to hit the right note.

BERNSTEIN: I don't doubt for a minute that she did lose sleep over this. Any person in her position who cares about the human beings involved would lose sleep over it. And again by going on the attack the way the Republicans have, they tried to dehumanize her.

It doesn't work when you go like that. What's been wrong about the whole Benghazi approach is that this has been a murder trial of Hillary Clinton from the beginning by the right wing of the Republican Party instead of a really serious debate over the policies of the Obama presidency, of her as secretary of state. They've tried to hang her.

LEWIS: Yes.

BERNSTEIN: It's not very smart.

CAMEROTA: Matt?

LEWIS: I think one of the real problems, honestly, is optics. You have a southern white man like Trey Gowdy who's essentially asking, interrogating Hillary Clinton.

I felt when it was Martha Roby or some of the female Republicans asking her questions, it was much more effective. I think that the optics were not good for Republicans.

BERMAN: And Tammy Duckworth, by the way in the Democratic side, I thought they were asking strong questions. All right, Matt, Carl, great to have you here with us. Thanks so much.

LEWIS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Coming up on NEW DAY, we will speak with presidential candidate, Rand Paul, about how he thought the hearings went as well as Democratic Congressman Luis Gutierrez. Stick around for that.

BERMAN: All right, Hurricane Patricia, this is an incredible storm, folks, the strongest hurricane we believe in recorded history. Maximum sustained winds reaching 200 miles per hour. So serious, such a threat right now. What could this mean for Mexico? We're joined by an astrophysicist, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back. I'm Christine Romans with "CNN Money Now." U.S. stock futures much higher right now thanks to big winners in tech. Google's parent, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, all with earnings that wowed Wall Street and shares are surging before the opening bell. Expect a record for Google and Amazon this morning.

A big win for McDonald's, U.S. sales growing for the first time since 2013, Americans gobbled up its new chicken sandwich and its revamped Egg McMuffin. That's before the added boost from all-day breakfast, which didn't launch until this month. The stock soared 8 percent on the news. That turnaround looks like it's working for now. More NEW DAY right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:49]

BERMAN: All right. Happening right now, we have our eye on a monster hurricane, Category 5 storm. The strongest ever in record history bearing down on the Mexican coast right now, 200 mile-per-hour winds and forecasters rightly warning of potential catastrophe.

Want to bring in Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted astrophysicist, the host of "Nat Geo Startalk." There's a real problem with 200 mile-per-hour winds. If it hits the coast like that --

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, HOST, "STARTALK" ON NATGEO CHANNEL: Yes, 200 -- you can read the damage, the damage appropriate for each one of these rankings, you know, Category 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. There's a nice Google page on this. It's like a dissent to hell. Category 5 is there's essentially nothing standing in its path.

BERMAN: That's starting at 150 miles per hour. This is 200.

TYSON: Yes. It's sustained winds, not even like a tornado where, yes, it will wipe out anything in its narrow path. Here you look at the sizes of hurricanes. They can wipe out entire cities.

CAMEROTA: They think this will be the strongest hurricane in history. What are we to make of that? Why are things getting stronger? Is this a blip?

TYSON: You can look globally and see weather misbehaving. That's not good. You can't look at one storm and claim larger consequences from it. What will happen is, you know, the atmosphere, the oceans, the air temperature, all of this is part of the system of climate that's going on, on earth. We're not really helping those matters.

BERMAN: And in fact, we're just getting measurements recently, this is looking to be the hottest year on record.

TYSON: Yes, yes, I just saw those data. Also consider that when you measure the strength of a hurricane not only by the winds, but by how low the atmospheric pressure is in the center. That's what clouds want to do.

They see a low pressure and they all want to go to the low pressure center. That's why low pressures are mats of rain and clouds and destructive forces. It all gathers to that central point.

CAMEROTA: And so I mean, are these connected, 2015 being the hottest year on record, this being the strongest hurricane?

TYSON: Well, so just for disclosure, since I was going to be in this interview before you knew this hurricane was going to show up, I'm happy to field what I know. Really you should bring in a meteorologist to give you the full depth of what's going on around the world. It's cosmic assets that are bringing you these images.

BERMAN: We are seeing these pictures from space.

CAMEROTA: We will have a meteorologist on, just rest assured.

TYSON: I'm happy to say this, our space assets inform the meteorologists what the past, present and future of these storms will be.

BERMAN: Just to tie you into the other news we've been talking about today about the Clintons. You have a Clinton on the premiere of your Nat Geo show "Startalk." It's bill Clinton. You booked a Clinton in the news right now.

[07:45:07] TYSON: I've got a Clinton. I've got a Clinton.

CAMEROTA: There are three and they're all good.

TYSON: You want a Clinton? I have a Clinton for you. "Star Talk" we inverted the model of what eye talk show would be. It's the first ever talk show based on science. I'm the host. I'm the scientist. My guests are hardly ever scientists. We're opening on Sunday night with Bill Clinton.

So the conversation goes, I asked them about the way science has touched their lives. That's how the show unfolds. So you might be a fan of whoever is the guest. I have David Crosby coming.

You'll learn maybe for the first time he was a huge science fiction buff in his early life before he pend a single note of a song he was reading science fiction. We bring people from pop culture and we reveal their geek underbelly.

CAMEROTA: Talking about science on television, can that work?

BERMAN: Asking for a friend.

TYSON: Consider that like the number one movie was "The Martian." Look at how much science is being presented to us, not only by me but by a whole stratum of entertainers with marquee directors performing in movies that are blockbuster movies. The Martian is all about science. In the Martian, science and technologies were themselves characters portrayed in the film. BERMAN: We will see if nominations come science's way. The new season of "Startalk" debuts on Sunday -- I love the harmony of science.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you.

When asked about his favorite superhero, Republican presidential hopeful, Jeb Bush's answer is super awkward. Will his comment about "Supergirl" be his political kryptonite? We'll show you that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:03]

CAMEROTA: Well, we've seen plenty of foot-in-mouth moments already in the campaign trail.

BERMAN: Thought you were talking about me.

CAMEROTA: And with John. But Jeb Bush was trying to answer a softball question seemingly about his favorite superhero and it took an awkward turn. CNN's Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just as "Supergirl's" new show is about to premier she exploded onto the stage of presidential politics.

(VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Bullets may bounce off Supergirl, but Jeb Bush shot himself in the foot answering this question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is your favorite superhero?

MOOS: Jeb should have stuck with his first answer which was Batman. But instead he brought up the young female caped crusader who can lower a crashing jetliner to a safe landing reminiscent of the miracle on the Hudson.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I saw that there is -- Supergirl is on TV. I saw that when I was working out this morning. There was an ad promoting Supergirl. She looked pretty hot.

MOOS: Now hot is a term presidential candidates usually apply to say the weather rather than a 27-year-old actress. Even Jeb didn't need x-ray vision to see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That will make news.

MOOS: One comment, "Ugh. The woman is about the same age as his children. What a creep." Versus the counter argument, "So he said that TV Supergirl was hot. What's wrong with that?"

(VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Maybe Jeb should follow the lead of Donald Trump when it comes to superheroes.

(on camera): But Supergirl and Jeb Bush do have one thing in common.

(voice-over): Both seem to have a pension for unbuttoning their shirts to reveal their true selves. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Just so I understand the parameters here, what am I allowed to say about Wonder Woman?

CAMEROTA: Well, what you have already said during commercial breaks I can tell you is over the line. I can tell you a window into the psyche, but he gave a window into his libido accidently.

BERMAN: I don't know.

CAMEROTA: You're -- this is fair game to you.

BERMAN: Yes. I didn't think it was crazy.

All right, presidential candidate, Rand Paul, who is his favorite superhero? No. We're going to talk serious issues coming up with him. He mocked Hillary Clinton's testimony on Benghazi. What does he think this morning about the state of the presidential race?

CAMEROTA: Also a quick programming note, this Sunday at 9:00 p.m. on CNN's "PARTS UNKNOWN," Anthony Bourdain heads to Ethiopia. And here's a little preview for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": This is a very misunderstood country. For instance, did you know that Christianity was in Ethiopia like before Europe? That it is not a arid desert. That it is in fact mostly green.

And there is a construction boom going on here that rivals China and Dubai. It is a country filled with great cooks, great music. Ethiopia is absolutely unique, little understood. We're looking to shed a little light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:59:08]

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Chris and Michaela are off. John Berman joins me at this hour.

We do begin with breaking news for you because the strongest hurricane in recorded history is bearing down on Mexico. Hurricane Patricia, packing unprecedented winds of 200 miles per hour.

BERMAN: Yes, this could be a huge problem. Hundreds of miles of coastline under a hurricane warning as the hurricane is scheduled to make land fall tonight. Forecasters warning of a possibly catastrophe from floods, mud slides, huge waves.

CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers in the Weather Center. Chad, frankly people have never seen anything like this before.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No. Not anything called a hurricane. There was one storm, Typhoon Tip, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, slightly stronger many, many years ago. But this is the only hurricane that's ever been this powerful, 200 miles per hour. Think about that.

Almost like an F4 or F5 tornado that can be five or six miles wide just tearing up the coast as it makes land fall.