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New Day
GOP Debate Analysis; Reality Check. Aired 6:30-7:00a ET
Aired October 29, 2015 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CO-HOST, "NEW DAY, CNN: Good to have you back with here on "New Day." A lot of bold statements and claims last night during the GOP debate. CNN's Chief Business Correspondent, Christine Romans, is here, running some of those statements through a reality check for us.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Good morning, Michaela. Let's get right to it. Jeb Bush attacked the economic recovery and specifically the President's record on jobs and employment and poverty.
GOV. JEB BUSH: (inaudible) million people working part time. Work force participation rates lower than they were in 1977. Six million more people living in poverty than the day that Barack Obama got elected President.
ROMANS: Let's talk about these numbers and whether they are true. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics do show the number of part time workers is up, no question. And work force participation is down. It is at the lowest since 1977. However, economist suggest a lot of that, some of it at least, has to do with aging baby boomers and was not that unexpected. His other claim about people living in poverty, more people living in poverty. I want to show you this. The rate, the poverty rate is higher than when President Barack Obama was elected, but it's lower than it was in the peak in 2010. All of that, 2008 to 2010 period, really skews all these numbers. So taking all of that into consideration, we say those claims from Jeb Bush are mostly true.
Now let's talk about Donald Trump. The moderator asked Trump, given his companies' bankruptcies, his company bankruptcy, why the country should trust him. His response.
DONALD TRUMP: I never filed for bankruptcy. But many, many people did. What happened with Atlantic City is very, very disgraceful. Now, hundreds of companies I've opened. I've used it three times, maybe four times. Came out great.
ROMANS: He's used it three times, maybe four times, he's said this before. He has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but four, four of his casino-based businesses filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, four times to get rid of that debt. So the CNN reality check, it is true, but misleading. There are a lot more of these reality checks at
CNN.com/realitycheck, if you want to see. There's a lot of economic claims, job claims, small business claims. We're going to be going through all of them all morning long, guys.
PEREIRA: All right. We appreciate that. It is important stuff to do, Christine. Thank you. Let's give you a look at some other things making headlines for the first time. Iran is joining international peace talks to end Syria's bloody five-year civil war, Secretary of State John Kerry arriving in Vienna this morning. Talks begin this afternoon and will continue through tomorrow. Representatives from Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran will be at the table. Iran, along with Russia, is a crucial ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
How on earth does a massive military blimp, critical to domestic air defense, essentially go AWOL for several hours? That's what investigators are trying to work out this morning. The blimp somehow became untethered from its Maryland base. It floated right over Pennsylvania, not without hours of panic and concern. CNN's Boris Sanchez live in Anthony Township, Pennsylvania, with the very latest. Quite a voyage this thing took.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Michaela, it is a mystery that is tough to wrap your head around. This blimp is supposed to remain tethered despite hurricane-force winds. Instead, it's in pieces in a field about half mile down the road behind me, there in Pennsylvania. You can see the National Guard has cut off the road as investigators work to secure a perimeter around the blimp and then collect evidence to figure out exactly how this happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeh, it's going down.
SANCHEZ: This morning it's still unclear how this military surveillance blimp broke free, ending up in this wooded area in central Pennsylvania in two deflated pieces. The blimp, called JLENS, is a highly-sophisticated defensive aircraft associated with NORAD. Nearly as long as a football field, the helium-filled balloon uses on- board radar that can track cruise missiles and aircraft from up to 340 miles away in any direction. Around 12:20 Wednesday afternoon JLENS broke free from its mooring at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, drifting out of control for miles, crash landing in Moreland Township, Pennsylvania. Two F-16 fighter jets from a National Guard station in Atlantic City, New Jersey, scrambling to track the blimp and clear the way for commercial aircraft.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We saw a blimp about two or three times the size of my house, at about 1,500 feet, coming down slow.
SANCHEZ: Neighbors on edge as the sixty-seven hundred foot cable that kept the blimp moored to its station dragged along the ground, leaving behind a trail of destruction and taking down power lines, knocking out electricity for some 30,000 residents. The debacle is putting the spot light on the controversial program, which cost a whopping $2.7 billion and took over a decade to even get off the ground.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
The other big question here is how the blimp came down. We know it's equipped with a self-deflating mechanism, though it's unclear right now whether or not that's eventually what brought it to the ground. Michaela.
PEREIRA: Well, thank goodness it happened slowly, it didn't happen sort of suddenly. That could have caused a lot more damage. All right. Thanks for tracking that for us, we appreciate it, Boris.
Marco Rubio's hitting the town calling the mainstream media a super PAC for Hillary Clinton. It didn't take long for the rest of the Republican candidates to turn on the CNBC moderators during last night's debate. Were their questions, the moderators' questions, out of line or is bashing the press just a GOP tactic?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SEN. "TED" CRUZ, (R) TEXAS: The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don't trust the media. This is not a cage match and, if you look at the questions, Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain? Ben Carson, can you do math? John Kasich, will you insult two people over here? Marco Rubio, why don't you resign? Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen? How about talking about substantive issues people care about?
(END VIDEO TAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CO-HOST, "NEW DAY, CNN: The man known as a divider became the great uniter last night. Ted Cruz, but you know going at the media in politics, you know, is, is just like, you know, that's, that's (inaudible).
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CO-HOST, "NEW DAY, CNN: But he did it artfully. I mean, he had that all in his head, he couldn't have prepared that because that happened during the debate, and he called them out one by one.
CUOMO: I agree, I don't think he had it in his head. I think he took it as it laid right there...
CAMEROTA: Yeh.
CUOMO: ...and he's a brilliant debater and a very smart guy. But going after the media, that's a no-brainer for politicians. But it was used a lot last night. It was actually a main course and kind of joined all candidates in a common fight against the media. Let's discuss the impact with Dylan Byers, CNN Senior Reporter for Media and Politics, and Brian Stelter, CNN Senior Media Correspondent and, of course, host of "Reliable Sources."
Well, you are part of the suck, my friends, so how did you feel that that played last night as motivation and as moment?
BRIAN STELTER, SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, HOST "RELIABLE SOURCES," CNN: You're right, this was a uniting force for all of the candidates. Many of them came in with a plan to target the moderators. They did it devastatingly well. The moderators seemed very weak, they seemed like they were out of control. They seemed like they let the debate get out of control, and it seemed chaotic to me. Maybe it made for good TV at some moments, but there were lost opportunities for real information, real substances, and I think we're going to see changes in future debates because of this.
CAMEROTA: Look, Dylan, it's hard to moderate a debate. I think that we all acknowledge that. Though did CNBC moderators seem almost caught by surprise that the candidates so effectively turned the tables on them?
DYLAN BYERS, SENIOR MEDIA REPORT, CNN MEDIA AND CNN POLITICS: Yeh, absolutely. I say this respectfully. They seemed totally out of their league. I mean they did a very poor job in terms of actually managing the debate and, in many cases, they provided candidates with the opening to make them look bad.
STELTER: Exactly.
BYERS: I mean at one point, you know, Becky quick, one of the moderators, tried to hold Donald Trump to account for, for something that he had said, and he said, no that's not true. And of course it was true, but she backed down. I mean there were these moments throughout the two hours of the debate where the all 10 candidates were given openings to go after the moderators, either because they didn't like the questions or they didn't think the questions were fair, and that really resonated both with the audience in Boulder and with the audiences at home.
STELTER: Yeh.
CUOMO: But again I just keep going back to, you know, the media is an easy target and they -- you know, you also have to keep perspective. Nobody really cares about the moderators, I don't care about them. You care about what the candidates get the say. The question is whether or not their performance as moderators wound up not letting you get as much juice out of the debate as you could have.
STELTER: Yeh.
CUOMO: When you were looking at it, who do you think benefited most? Obviously Cruz gets the big check plus, right? Because he created the moment. Well, you know, Rubio talked about it, Christie talked about it, others did. Who do you think used it well and why?
BYERS: Well, so Rubio opened the floodgates first and Cruz, no one capitalized on it quite so well as Cruz did. But as the night wore on, when it became if you didn't get in an attack on the moderators, you sort of lost your moment. And you know, you look, we've been talking about how Jeb Bush didn't have a great debate night. He didn't really take advantage of an opportunity to go after the moderators. Chris Christie, who's sort of on the bubble and really needs to improve his standing in the polls if he wants to be around for the main stage at the next debate, you know, he took his shot. You know, asking the moderators why we were talking about Fantasy Football where there were so many other important issues. So, look, I think if you made a successful attack on the CNBC moderators on the mainstream media generally, you can mark last night down as a win.
STELTER: Yeh, it is worth saying as you're saying, Chris, yes, grandstanding happens, right? They're pandering when they go after the media. It's an easy line. However, in this case it was a legitimate grievance.
CAMEROTA: Why, were the questions unfair?
STELTER: Some of the questions were too much about the, the games of politics, and not about substance. This is a debate on CNBC, a business news channel. So there was a certain expectation for more questions about economic policy, and less about some of those other topics.
CAMEROTA: Right. We know what they're doing, they're trying to juice it. I mean they're trying to make it a little bit sexier...
STELTER: Of course. Well, I think there's two, two things I would say in CNBC's defense. One is live TV is really, really, really hard. Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Megyn Kelly prepared. They make it look easy. Moderating is really hard. Not that said, CNBC had weeks, months to prepare for this. It doesn't seem like they were prepared. That was my frustration watching the debate. There were a lot of missed opportunities because of the moderating.
CUOMO: But also, look, it's about how you do it. You know, I mean they, they had their way last night. They got attacked by the whole field. That's going to be tough because you don't want to insert yourself too much into it. Megyn Kelly got a big smack from Donald Trump about what happened. And then, then it played the sexism went back and forth, but wasn't exactly artfully done. The you see Jake was using people's words against them. So you can't get mad at Jake Tapper for being intelligent enough to remember what you said about Bryan. And then Anderson just, you know, showed what the craft is at its best where he's like, I'm going to take you on. I'm going to take you on on what you said, and there's going to be no wiggle room for you. Not easy to do. But again, how much of it do you think last night was cherry picking for these people in order to score points.
STELTER: Some of it certainly was. You know, 10 candidates, two hours, not the right formula. I know these candidates didn't want to be up there for a third hour, but I would say there are simply too many candidates on these stages. There's no easy answer to this problem because the RNC and the candidates have a lot of leverage against the television networks. But one of the reasons why the moderators kept moving on, kept being interrupted, why it seemed so chaotic, is because there's too many people up there all wanting to have their 30 seconds of fame. CAMEROTA: Dylan, Marco Rubio turned a liability into an asset
last night when he talked about the editorial that the South Florida Sun Sentinel had against him that he should resign, basically, as U.S. Senator because he was missing votes. Watch how Marco Rubio turned it one the media.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) FLORIDA: I read that editorial today with a great amusement. It's actually the evidence of the bias that exists in the American media today. In 2004 John Kerry ran for President, missing close to 60 to 70 percent of his votes. I don't recall the Sun Sen -- in fact, the Sun Sentinel endorsed him. In 2008 Barack Obama missed 60 or 70 percent of his votes, and the same newspaper endorsed him again. So this is another example of the double standard that exists in this country between the mainstream media and the conservative movement.
CAMEROTA: And the audience ate it up, Dylan.
BYERS: Yeh, of course, they did. You know, look, to Chris' point, is this a tried and true tactic for conservatives? Yes. Is it red meat for the base? Absolutely. But part of what's going on here is that the media is giving these candidates some openings. It wasn't just the CNBC debate -- moderators last night. I mean, look, the, the Rubio's points about how the Sun Sentinel treated Kerry and treated Obama versus how it treated him, that's not necessarily wrong, right? And if you are a savvy Republican candidate, you can find those moments, you've got, you know, crack research teams, and you can exploit them. And as soon as you call out the media...
CAMEROTA: Yeh.
BYERS: ...you've immediately set up protection for yourself, you know, for any attacks from the media, whether that's, you know, the Sun Sentinel or CNBC or the moderators of the next debate.
STELTER: Yeh, it's almost like putting on body armor.
CAMEROTA: There you go. Brian, Dylan, thanks so much for the analysis. Great to talk to you this morning. Michaela.
PEREIRA: So CNN watched the debate with a group of rank and file Republicans who are largely undecided. Which candidates impressed them the most?
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a business owner and Donald Trump is a business owner. He knows the ups and downs of business. So I feel like I can resonate with him more.
PEREIRA: We'll hear from real voters next.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PEREIRA: So we watched the debate with a group of Republican
voters, most of them undecided. Which candidates made an impression on them, and what did they think of Jeb Bush's attack on Marco Rubio? CNN's Randi Kaye talking to real voters making real choices.
RANDI KAYE, ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Morning, guys. So we watched the debate with about 100 voters here in Hialeah, Florida, which is just outside Miami. A lot of them were undecided, like these two here with me, (Mimi) and (Isis), both still undecided. Did anyone impress you last night, (Mimi)?
(MIMI): You know, they all had their moments. They all had their moments, Rubio had moment. You know the one that kind of like pushed me a little was Ted Cruz, because he came out swinging, you know, with the, with the right questions to the moderators. That was nice.
KAYE: Speaking of moments, there was that one moment between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio when Jeb sort of criticized him for maybe not doing his job in Washington, as Jeb Bush said. Let's watch that moment right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BUSH: Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term. And you should be showing up to work. I mean, literally, the Senate -- what is it, like French work week. You get like three days where you have to show up. You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job.
RUBIO: Do you know how many votes John McCain missed when he was carrying out that furious comeback that you're now modeling under?
BUSH: He wasn't my (inaudible).
RUBIO: Jeb, I don't remember... Well, let me tell you. I don't remember you ever complaining about John McCain's vote record. The only reason why you're doing it now is because we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.
KAYE: So what'd you think of that? How do you think Marco Rubio handled himself?
(MIMI): He always handles things just fine. He handles himself, he gives the right answers, he, he deflected nicely. You know, he's Marco Rubio. He knows what to say.
KAYE: It was a big moment in the debate. And you're still torn too, (Isis), as to who to vote for?
(ISIS): I am. I thought that that was a bit childish on Bush's part. You know, I'd rather hear what his position is, rather than pointing out what he thinks Rubio's done wrong or not. I think he's come pretty far for his age.
KAYE: Really?
(ISIS): But, yeh, I'm torn.
KAYE: Who are you leaning towards?
(ISIS): I'm leaning toward Fiorina, but Rubio is, is, is looking better and better.
KAYE: You may have noticed among our group watching the debate there were a few Donald Trump supporters, including one right here, (Terry). What, how do you think Trump did and what is it about him that makes you want to vote for him?
(TERRY): What I really want to say is that we need to let Donald Trump continue to do his work, because what he's already done for the country, he's changed the way they think already. If you look at the panel, the candidates, they all are acting courageous, everybody's saying what they want to say, they're actually mimicking him, so why get a fake and a copycat? Let's go for the real thing.
KAYE: And what is it about Donald Trump over Ben Carson for you? 'Cause a lot of people are kind of choosing between the two.
(TERRY): I'm a business owner and Donald Trump is a business owner. He knows the ups and downs of business. So I feel like I can resonate with him more.
KAYE: All right, there's your reasoning. But, again, a lot of people -- you know, we have a couple undecided, some decided, a lot of people telling me here that they are still trying to figure out just who to vote for. So a lot of time, as Jeb Bush likes to remind everybody, a lot of time still before this election. Back to you guys.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
PEREIRA: All right, Randi, yeh, indeed, a lot of time indeed. So we're going to have more from our real voters in our eight o'clock hour. Stick with us for that. But right now, we've got a whole lot more news coming for you. Let's get right to it.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) ARKANSAS: Donald Trump would be a better President every day of the week and twice on Sunday, rather than Hillary.
RUBIO: The Democrats have the ultimate super PAC, it's called the mainstream media.
BUSH: You find a Democrat that's for cutting taxes, cutting spending $10, I'll give them a warm kiss.
DR. BEN CARSON: If somebody put me on their home page, they did it without my permission.
GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R) OHIO: We cannot elect somebody that doesn't know how to do the job.
CARLY FIORINA, BUSINESS PERSON: After the last debate I was told that I didn't smile enough.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: The only reason I have an iPhone is 'cause I gave my number to Donald Trump. Don't do that.
RUBIO: I'm against anything that's bad for my mother.
BUSH: You can campaign. Or just resign and let someone else take the job.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: (inaudible), do you want me to answer or do you want to answer? Even in New Jersey what you're doing is called rude, so.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your "New Day." Well, the establishment strikes back. It was not the outsiders this time, but the regular politicians who stole the show in the third Republican debate. Senator Marco Rubio emerging with some of the most pointed shots of the night. Also Senator Ted Cruz got huge applause by firing at the CNBC moderators.
CUOMO: Always easy to attack the media and score points in politics, but happened here last night? There was a shift in the race. The front runners are Ben Carson and Donald Trump, period, when you look at the polls. But not last night. Not in terms of time, not in terms of content. What will it mean for the polls? Is this a real change in the nature of this race after the debate? That's a big topic this morning. We're going to speak with four of the candidates themselves who took the stage last night. There they are. How did they feel they did, what do they believe comes next, and we will put them to the test as well. Let's begin our comprehensive coverage with J.B. John Berman has the highlights of last night's debate. Johnny, what did you see?
JOHN BERMAN, CO-ANCHOR "EARLY START WITH JOHN BERMAN & CHRISTINE ROMANS," AND "@THISHOUR" WITH KATE BOLDUAN, CNN: We saw some candidates, and not the front runners, seizing the moment, seizing the stage. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, taking that spotlight at the expense of the media and also Jeb Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
One stage, 10 candidates, a world of prickly squirm-in-your-seat tension.
KASICH: Folks, we got to wake up. We cannot elect somebody that doesn't know how to do the job.
BERMAN: John Kasich swinging at Donald Trump, who swung back.
TRUMP: He has so nice, he was such a nice guy. And he said, oh, I'm never going to attack. But then his poll numbers tanked, he's got (inaudible). That's why he's on the end. BERMAN: Jeb Bush swinging, and perhaps missing, at his friend
and one-time protege, Marco Rubio, on the Senator's spotty attendance record.
BUSH: When you signed up for this, this was a six-year term. And you should be showing up to work. I mean, literally, the Senate -- what is it, like French work week? You get three days where you have to show up?
RUBIO: I don't remember you ever complaining about John McCain's vote record. The only reason why you're doing it now is because we're running for the same position and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.
BERMAN: Ben Carson against what he calls political correctness.
CARSON: They shouldn't automatically assume that, because you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, that you are a homophobe.
BERMAN: But above all, way above all, it was everyone hitting the media.
RUBIO: The Democrats have the ultimate super PAC, it's called the mainstream media.
