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New Day

Carson Takes Lead in New National Poll; Is High School Football Worth the Risk?; Late-Night Comics Targets G.O.P. Candidates

Aired October 27, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:10] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Kevin Madden, do you see in this a potential future nominee for your party, or continued problems of getting the establishment into the hunt?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's still too early to, you know, get to read from this poll that voters are starting to calcify their opinions for any one candidate. One of the things that I saw in the poll is that voters are beginning to move towards making up their mind, but they're not yet firmly locked in. So I think --

CUOMO: Seven out of ten Republicans say they are still undecided. That gives you a third within that indexing. Those who have made up their mind for Trump are more solid than those for Carson.

MADDEN: That's right. But it shows -- I think it shows that voters are still shopping around and they have moved from looking at Donald Trump to now looking at Ben Carson.

In many ways, Carson, he fits a better profile of the Republican voter that is maybe evangelical or more conservative, particularly in many of these earlier primary states, as we do -- we see him leading in places like Iowa.

So I think it's still a very fluid race, but Ben Carson is the one that voters are right now -- you know, that's where they're parked with.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Paul, this is big news. This new poll out half an hour ago is big news, because it is the first time in those three months that Trump has been on top of a national poll that now Ben Carson has jumped over him.

Now, the margin of error is four points and Carson is leading 26 to 22. So it's possible that they are tied. How big of a deal do you think this is?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, what's most phenomenal to me, actually, is how far the gap is between Dr. Carson and Mr. Trump, at the very top. Both in the 20s in a multi-candidate race, that's a lot of power. And then you drop all the way down to Marco Rubio is at 8 and Jeb Bush is at 7. If you combine them, they still don't equal the second-place guy. (CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: How do you feel, Kevin Madden, if you are Dr. Ben Carson and you have to feel some elation at the resonance within the polls, but then the reality hits you. Tomorrow night you have a debate coming and you have a lot of people with hunger in their bellies, and they are looking right at you as political food.

What do you think this is going to do to change the dynamic?

MADDEN: Look, I don't think many of these other candidates feel that there's a lot to gain by attacking Ben Carson. He's a very likable personality and I think there could be some backlash there. I think while Dr. Carson and his team probably have a certain level of elation as you said about these numbers, I think there's also the reality that it's only the end of October. I would much rather have these numbers as we grew closer to the end of December...

(CROSSTALK)

BEGALA: But you've got to take them when you get them.

MADDEN: When voters are starting to lock in and pick a candidate and before they go to the caucuses.

CAMEROTA: But Paul, this belies the notion that Ben Carson is only resonating with evangelicals in Iowa. In fact, also a new poll out just yesterday from Monmouth University about how well he's doing with non-evangelicals in Iowa. How well he's doing with men. How well he's done with moderate and liberal Republicans.

So here you go, this is not evangelicals. He's at 28 percent with them. He was at 18 in August. Again, Donald Trump at 19 percent now with non-evangelicals. He was at 24 percent.

Paul, what do you see?

BEGALA: Right. That shows broad appeal, but keep in mind, everybody who participates in the Iowa caucuses on the Democratic side is progressive. Everybody in the Republican side is conservative. It's an extraordinarily conservative group that goes to those caucuses. And so Dr. Carson, the base of that group is evangelicals. And that's 60 percent of caucus goers are evangelicals. He's even winning among the 40 percent who are not. But those 40 percent are not liberals. They're not like my people, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: They're probably still pretty conservative, right?

BEGALA: Yes, you bet. They are very conservative.

CUOMO: So the early read on this poll is going to be whether or not this is about Carson's strength or Trump's weakness. Whether or not he is starting to a trick and the outsider vote is moving over to Carson or what this means about Carson independently. However, to Kevin's point, tomorrow night, I think something we will hear a lot about is going to be that Hillary Clinton lied in the aftermath of Benghazi, to the American people, as did the White House, by extension, and was telling two different stories about what happened to those she knows and to the rest of us.

How do you think that's going to play tomorrow night, Kevin?

MADDEN: Well, I think it certainly will come up. The issue of Benghazi, I think, is a motivating one for many partisan Republicans. And I expect partisan Republicans are the ones that many of these candidates are trying to appeal to, because they're the ones that are tuning into this debate to see which candidate can draw the strongest contrast.

Now I think the candidate that ultimately does best when they're talking about Benghazi is the one that focuses on the substance and then pivots quickly to a more advanced policy agenda on national security and foreign policy. The candidates that do that, I think, are going to win, rather than just focusing on trying to play investigator through the lens of the House Benghazi Committee.

CAMEROTA: Paul, you don't want to address Hillary's lies, do you?

BEGALA: First of all, she didn't lie, she kicked their ass -- excuse my language, she kicked their rear end.

(CROSSTALK)

[07:35:07] CUOMO: But it came out and she told two different stories about what happened and the aftermath, Paul.

BEGALA: Yes, of course, because she was getting two different sets of information. Come on, Chris. You know, I've worked in the government. The early reports are always overtaken by events.

CUOMO: So she just happened to tell people she knew that it was a terrorist attack and then changed?

CAMEROTA: She said I know.

BEGALA: Yes, because I'm sure (INAUDIBLE) took credit for it. At the same time the CIA was saying, no, it looks like there were five or six other protests going on from them including violent attacks that were spurred by that video. If you want to spend 11 hours on this the way the Republicans did, I wish you well.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I think you can take care of it in 20 minutes. There was some reason that they decided to make this more about the video and the protest for whatever optics, than what they knew to be true, which was that they had gotten caught by surprised by terrorist attacks.

BEGALA: That's baloney. They went with what the CIA told them. That's what they did. The political people weren't even involved in that. It was the CIA and the national security team trying to figure out what the hell happened in a place where frankly we didn't know what was going on at the moment, because it was the fog of war.

But people want -- if you think, I mean, and we just watched. If you think the Republicans are going to get any traction after having spent 11 hours on this and getting their rear ends kicked, you know, I wish them well. I hope --

(CROSSTALK)

MADDEN: I'll say real quick on that Paul -- just real quick --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I shouldn't have brought it up. Sorry, guys.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: I know. I know.

CUOMO: I know, but the truth sometimes gets in my way.

CAMEROTA: You injected the controversy into it. And, of course, this will come up, I'm sure in the debate tomorrow.

Paul, Kevin, thank you very much.

I saw your (INAUDIBLE)

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Well, just because they don't get traction doesn't mean it's not true. That's all.

Mich?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I will not even be the tiebreaker on this one.

CUOMO: You must.

PEREIRA: I won't. I refuse.

All right, more news ahead here. We've been watching this story from Illinois. A teenager, now the seventh high schooler to die playing football this year. What can be done to prevent future tragedies? We'll talk about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:10] PEREIRA: Is high school football worth the risk? That's the question I think some parents are asking across the nation after 17-year-old Andre Smith died from blunt force head injuries during a football game.

His tragic death is the seventh among high school football players this year.

With us this morning, Christine Brennan, CNN sports analyst, Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here, CNN chief medical correspondent.

I'm struggling with this one. We love to see our kids active and busy. We love to see them playing sports. We know what it does for young people. But when you talk about seven kids, Sanjay, already this year due to injuries, is this abnormal? It feels abnormal to me, but statistically, is this abnormal?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, first of all, you know, I think anytime you hear a tragic story like this, it feels very abnormal, it feels very wrong, and you know, like you, I have young kids who want to play sports.

PEREIRA: Sure.

GUPTA: So it's a tough, tough news to hear. There's not a specific database for high school football deaths. I mean, there's a center for catastrophic injuries, but they usually base their reporting on media reports. So it's a little bit hard sometimes to get a sense of the numbers. But to your question, there have been seven deaths this year. You can see a list of the players, their ages, what happened to them specifically. christine brennan

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: 16 and 17 years old.

GUPTA: Yes, I know. It is, again, just tough to look at that. On average in a given year, again, based on media reports, it's about 12 players who die every year, and that includes high school and college. So it does seem a little bit higher this year.

We know with Andre, it was the last play of the game, as you mentioned, blunt head force trauma. We don't know. Had he had a head injury before and this was a sort of secondary injury, or was it just a first head injury, we're not sure, but yes, it's just tough to consider what happened here.

(CROSSTALK)

Well, it's interesting, not all of them are from head trauma. Apparently, the leading cause is cardiac arrest, generally.

Christine, what do you think is happening? What's your assessment? Is this a case of increased pressure on these young players? Is it that they're playing at a higher level? Is it a lack of proper equipment or training on the sideline or care on the sideline?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS COLUMNIST: I think it's a lot of things, Michaela and it's all very sad and it's a terrible confluence of events. Five deaths last year, seven already this year. So, that's obviously the eye-opening statistic. There's also heat-related deaths that are another number. But, I think, you know, the irony here is that football probably and kids' sports have probably never been safer. We're aware of concussions in a way we never were before. The helmets in football are safer. The kids are taught how to tackle properly and yet we still have this happen. So my sense is that you could also have the issue of high school is the care. Are the doctors on a high school sideline as good as college or pro?

The answer is probably not. You might have a mom or dad there as a doctor, as opposed to maybe a team of doctors. But sometimes things just happen and it's a tragedy. The case of Evan Murray, the young boy in New Jersey, he had a ruptured spleen. Did that cause or help cause his tragic death? Each case really almost as individual, but put it together, it's a terrible epidemic at a time, of course, where these kids are just in the prime of their life.

PEREIRA: The prime of their life. I mean, that's the part that's so heartbreaking.

Sanjay, do you think that we're hearing more about this because concussions have been sort of part of the national discussion? Or is it because we're keeping better track of these things? Because as Christine says, the game is safer.

GUPTA: Yes, I think so. I think that there's certainly a lot more awareness of this, and you know, what used to be sort of mainly a local news report now is making national news, as more people are paying attention to these sorts of things.

So I think that's certainly part of it. I also think, you know, if you think about the fact that with high school, for example, just look at the numbers. You have a lot more kids playing football as compared to college or pros. You know, a million kids playing every Friday night.

So the numbers are just higher. The denominators are higher as well when it comes to high school.

[07:45:19] PEREIRA: So, Christine, real quickly, what's a parent to do? You got a 14 or 15-year-old that's saying, mom, I really want to play. How? I mean, this is the advice parents are seeking is how do they make the right decision?

BRENNAN: Yes, and I think you let the child play. I think you hope the coaching is proper, the technique, you can watch, you can go watch a practice, talk to the coaches...

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Ask questions, sure.

BRENNAN: ...talk to the administrators at the high school. The reality is in girl's sports, soccer, the headers, concussions are the highest rate other than for football or ice hockey. So boys and girls sports, there are dangers, but there's also great rewards and that's obviously what we focused on. PEREIRA: Exactly, and that's what we should be focusing on. But you have -- when a 16-year-old and 17 a-year-old are dying on a football field, boy, that gives us pause. It sure does.

All right, Christine, Dr. Gupta, always a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us. You can get in on the conversation by using #NewDayCNN. Of course, you can comment on Facebook as well.

Chris?

CUOMO: Jimmy Fallon can't seem to stay on his feet. He just tripped and his injured his right hand months after another fall almost cost him a finger. What's going on here? Don't miss Trippy Fallon, giving himself grief, next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: I threw the bottle and then I just landed on broken glass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:12] CAMEROTA: Late night comics once again using Republican candidates for their punch lines. Here's what you miss in case you were sleeping like us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FALLON: Every candidate has a signature quirk. Bernie Sanders has the tongue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Deductibles.

(LAUGHTER)

Multinational state.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you going up with these numbers in Iowa and New Hampshire.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now for some people who are watching senator -

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The top Halloween costume this year is Donald Trump.

(LAUGHTER)

Yes, that makes sense. Yes, which is why the phrase trick or treat has been replaced with give me a KitKat or I'll deport you.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: He can do that all here.

CAMEROTA: But, wait, there's more.

PEREIRA: There is?

CAMEROTA: There is. Jimmy Fallon poking fun as himself. He's been injured again. This time from a fall at Harvard University.

CUOMO: Fall from grace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FALLON: Welcome to the "Tonight Show." I'm your host Trippy Fallon. Of course, you may have heard I had yet another mishap. This time I injured my other hand right after getting an award from Harvard. Even when I get into Harvard, I still embarrass my parents.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: He tripped and fell on a bottle of Jagermeister.

PEREIRA: That's not true.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: I think he did say that.

PEREIRA: Did he really?

CAMEROTA: Yes. I don't know if it was the carpet's fault this time or the Jaeger's fault.

PEREIRA: Blame it on the -- I had a while where I did that a lot, where I fell, but I don't think it was --

CUOMO: On a bottle of the Jagermeister?

PEREIRA: Not really.

CUOMO: You had a while and then you cleaned up.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: I can leave that with you to invent those stories.

CUOMO: I like the Bernie Sanders thing. Feeding my theory that if you look at the Pink Panther cartoons with the anteater and the ant? Listen to that guy's voice, too? (CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: All right, we have to continue on before our producers have a fit.

Tonight, a CNN special uncovers the people and stories behind some of the world's most popular viral videos, including exasperating kid, Tre Hart. The 7 year olds priceless reaction to becoming a big brother again made him an overnight star online.

CNN's Kyra Phillips went out on a spin with him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): You take all your girlfriends out in this car?

TRE HART, VIRAL BOY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

(voice-over): Tre Hart defines cool. So what do you talk to your girlfriends about when you take them out for a date?

T. HART: I just tell them what I want to tell them.

PHILLIPS: like what?

T. HART: I'd love them, stuff like that.

I'm not bragging, it's just that girls like me so much.

PHILLIPS: He's a first grader turned chick magnet, but it is not Tre's car that makes him so popular.

SHANEE HART, MOTHER OF TRE: I'm pregnant.

T. HART: What? What were you thinking?

PHILLIPS: It's what he does in his mom's car that drives him to viral video fame.

T. HART: Why do you have to get another baby, you just have two. This is exasperating.

PHILLIPS: Exasperating.

(on-camera): Do you have any idea where he got that word?

S. HART: He could have gotten it from his uncles, his grandpa. He is like a sponge.

PHILLIPS: OK, but can he even spell it?

T. HART: Oh, that is so easy. E -- wait, exasperating. Hold on you guys E-I-Z-P-R-D. I don't know how to spell -- nothing.

PHILLIPS: So why do all the girls like you now?

T. HART: Because I'm famous.

PHILLIPS: Oh, you are famous.

T. HART: And they heard I'm a superstar and they saw my video.

PHILLIPS: This is exasperating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: He sounded it out. He sounded it out, but he couldn't quite spell it.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: And look when he says, what were you thinking?

PEREIRA: Don't miss those CNN's special report "Videos Gone Viral 2" tonight on 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

CUOMO: Speaking of exasperating, the school resource officer in this viral video throwing a female student across the floor. Now placed on administrator leave, the video reigniting the debate over police tactics and also what's going on in our schools? We discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is hard to imagine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First thing, I don't see the beginning of the video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a teenage girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes you a little bit afraid of what is actually happening within our schools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would I have done it the same way? No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Defiance is a part of what makes teenagers teenagers.