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GOP Presidential Candidates' Campaigns Meet to Discuss Future Debates; Interview with Chris Christie; Russian Passenger Jet Broke Apart in Mid-Air. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 02, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to take care of ISIS but we're afraid to have a tough question.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The more information we're receiving from different officials the less we actually know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of questions about the airworthiness of this plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a number of issues that could have affected this plane, and terrorism has not been ruled out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Royals, 2015 world champions! The world champions for the first time since 1985.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, November 2nd, 8:00 in the east. More about us, less about you -- that's what the Republican presidential candidates are saying. But are they talking about the media or the voters in their comments in changing the debates? Advisers from just about all of the GOP campaigns were meeting Sunday in Virginia coming up with a set of format demands for future debates. But they will not apply to the next debate run by FOX Business.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The candidates are trying to wrestle control from the Republican National Committee and the network moderators. So what happens now? CNN's Athena Jones is live in Tampa with the details. What came out of this huddle, Athena?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. This is remarkable seeing the campaigns come together in what some are calling a revolt against the TV networks and against the Republican National Committee. The RNC was not invited to last night's meeting, but Ben Ginsberg, a prominent Republican lawyer and debate negotiator, was there to help facilitate the discussion. Listen to how he summed up some of the main concerns the campaigns have with these debates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEN GINSBERG, PARTNER, JONES DAY: Campaigns have been able --

should be able to get information about the details of the debate far sooner than they have so far this cycle. So if you have that transparency and accountability, you can talk to the sponsors about formats and opening and closing statements and the way they put up graphics on the screen, and even who the moderators are and the types of questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So there's some of the demands of the changes the campaigns want to see. Here are a few others. They want to see a two-hour time limit for these debates, a chance for all of the candidates to make opening and closing remarks, a minimum of 30 seconds each. They want equal speaking time for each candidate. And they want editorial control of the graphics that are put up on the screen while these candidates are speaking.

Now, the campaigns agreed they'd hold a group conference call with the debate sponsors before each debate to discuss the format, terms, and decide if they want to take part. As you mentioned, this new plan will not affect the next debate, which is on FOX Business Channel, just over a week from now. They will come into place before the next CNN debate though in December. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: We will be asking the candidates all about that. Thanks so much, Athena.

There are new questions and new information this morning about President Obama's decision to deploy U.S. ground troops in Syria. Here with all the latest is our CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. What have you learned, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. President Obama making it clear he will now deploy less than 50 special operations forces to northern Syria to work with anti-ISIL forces, to work with Syrian Arabs and Kurds to fight ISIS. But this is really the beginning. Right now every military official I've talked to says this is not going to be a game-changer, very limited. This is to advice, assist, coordinate with anti-ISIS forces on the ground.

Clearly, the special ops troop will be in a position for the first time to gather intelligence on the ground. But already, we are hearing details about what comes next. What does come next? Well, the Pentagon already talking now about additional special operations forces into Syria and Iraq to conduct ground raids when they find high-value targets, more Apache helicopters. That will give them the ability to fire very close to the ground. And maybe even forward air controllers -- U.S. troops on the ground able to help pick out targets for aircraft overhead.

By all accounts, it looks like this mission will continue to grow in numbers, in the numbers of troops on the ground. Right now, just over 3,000 U.S. troops. No indication where it will end, not at this point. Alisyn, Chris? CUOMO: I'll take it, Barbara. Thank you very much.

Let's talk about this with Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. It's good to have you here, Gov. We have some policy on the agenda to talk about today. We have what's going on with policing in America. We have the politics of the debate. But let's bounce off of what Barbara was saying, putting troops on the ground in Syria, 50 advisers. They're not going to be in harm's way, but it shows the U.S. is doing something. Do you buy this?

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. Why bother? Sending 50 people there, I mean, you're going to go in and you're going to fight ISIS and you're going to put American ground troops in to fight ISIS, or you shouldn't. And the president doing these kind of half measures are kind of typical of his and Hillary Clinton's foreign policy approach all along.

[08:05:06] CUOMO: The defense is, well, you have some progress being made with these disparate rebel groups that are hard to define, but there is military accountability. There is progress. We're going to put advisers on so they have people to interface with we'll help them help themselves.

CHRISTIE: And 50 people is going to make the difference in the fight against ISIS, which the president's own counterterrorism director said is the greatest threat to the United States today -- it's ridiculous on its face, Chris.

CUOMO: Would you go with 50,000?

CHRISTIE: No. What I said all along is set up a no-fly zone in Syria to protect the rebels who are fighting Assad, and secondly to arm, train and unite our allies in the region against ISIS, the Jordanians, the Emiratis, the Saudis, and the Egyptians. And then if that does not work, then you have to consider ground troops from America. But 50 ground troops now sends a bad signal and will not be effective.

CUOMO: Training takes a long time. They are unwilling participants, many of the allies. So during that time, President Christie is getting beat my Chris Cuomo and dozens like me every day, saying what are you doing about ISIS? Look what they're doing. Look what they're doing. That's what creates pressure to act.

CHRISTIE: If you have a good plan, then a leader doesn't worry about what Chris Cuomo is saying. You just do your job.

And that's the problem with the president. He spends too much time reading polls and figuring out who likes what he's doing and who doesn't. Sit with your leaders, execute a plan. And if there's static between, believe me, I'm from New Jersey. I've taken static for a long time. It doesn't matter, won't bother me.

CUOMO: Taking static is part of the job, no question about that, and you have to learn how to deal with it. So that takes to a little politics here and what's going on with changing the debate rules. What came out of the meetings seems reasonable. But guaranteeing equal time, come on.

CHRISTIE: It's --

CUOMO: You guys are the ones who over go all the rules about equal time.

CHRISTIE: By the way, do not count me in the group that's doing this moaning and complaining about this. We went to the meeting yesterday to listen. I support the RNC continuing to make these decisions. And I'm not one of these guys that will sit there moan and complain about it.

CUOMO: Although, a couple of mama Cuomo's good for him moments with Governor Christie in the debate was, "That's rude by jersey standards," and smacking the fan dual question out of the way, both of which seemed to fuel the fire against the structure of the debate.

CHRISTIE: That's fine, though. I certainly have the right to act the way I want to act on the stage as candidate for president, and I have the right to comment about whether I felt the moderators were fair or unfair. You didn't hear me say anything after the CNN debate. I didn't complain about the moderators or how the questions --

CUOMO: CNN, it's the gold standard. Can't hold everybody to that level.

CHRISTIE: And to be fair, I didn't complain about the FOX one either.

This was different. The sense I have from these moderators, especially from John Harwood, was that he thought he was interviewing us. This wasn't an interview. You are to ask a question, and I give a 60 second response. And after me response, if you want to follow up, it's at you discretion to do it. He's interrupting me in the middle of it and I can't get my answer out.

So I will comment of those things. But that doesn't mean that I want us, the candidates, controlling the debate, the format, and having everybody negotiate. We'll never agree. The RNC has done a good job. They took steps against NBC when they thought they got out of line. I think we should let the RNC continue to do what they're doing.

CUOMO: Do you worry that you're going to wind up doing Carson's work for him if you make the debates more mild because they play at strengths of a former litigator and somebody who likes to mix it up and has that level of passion with someone who apparently doesn't?

CHRISTIE: I'm not looking to do anybody's work for them except to do my work for me. And that's my point. The RNC is the absolutely, you know, arbiter of what should be going on here because they don't have a dog in this hunt. They want the best Republican candidate to run against Hillary Clinton. And so let the RNC handle this. I trust Chairman Priebus to

make the right decisions. The first debates went really well. And by the way, the third debate wasn't awful. A lot of the questions were bad, but you know what? You learned a lot about the candidates on the stage. How you can handle going back and forth.

CUOMO: Adversity. It's not always going to be easy. It's almost never easy.

CHRISTIE: The presidency is almost never scripted. So we shouldn't have these debates scripted either.

CUOMO: The recommendations that came out of this meeting are not extreme. They're not being put into place immediately in the next debate. People say it's no coincidence that FOX Business is running the next debate. This is about Roger Ailes and an affinity to that organization. Fair criticism?

CHRISTIE: No, I don't think so. This meeting yesterday was the first meeting amongst a disparate group of folks who all are competing to be president. I don't want that disparate group of folks to be making these decisions because we'll never make a decision. No committee gets to makes a decision. Let the chairman of the RNC negotiate with the networks on its behalf. I trust him to do it. He's a fair arbiter and that's the way it should go.

CUOMO: A good test of how someone deals with adversity, you had it with the "New York Times." love them, hate them, they have insurance. They say, it's time for Governor Christie to drop out. You didn't see the editorial. This happened last week. You say, a great quote in response, "I know I'm going to be the next president of the United States because if they're so worried telling me to get out of the race, they must know I'm going to beat Hillary."

[08:10:05] What's your take on anybody saying when you have to make a decision on what you're doing here?

CHRISTIE: First of all, no Republican primary voters give a damn what the "New York Times" editorial page thinks. So let's start off with that.

And secondly, the editorial is interesting, right, because on the one hand, it says, I'm not competent to be a presidential candidate, but on the other hand it says, he's competent enough to go back and fix New Jersey, which is what he should be doing. You can't have it both ways, but they get to have it both ways. You know why? Because no one gets to question them. You don't come and sit with you and you ask them about the inconsistencies in what they're doing.

Here's what I know. I'm out there working hard, getting great response from people around the country, and I've work very hard and continue to work very as governor of New Jersey. So, you know what, I don't care what the "New York Times" thinks. I take a bow, actually, for it.

CUOMO: The one percent number, you've been plagued like that, like other legit guys. Governor of New Jersey is legit. Governor of Ohio is legit. Both of you are being mired by low numbers. What do you tell yourself to get out of bed, forget about the Mets game, but eveyry day got out there are fight the fight?

CHRISTIE: Tougher today after the Mets lost.

CUOMO: I know.

CHRISTIE: But what I would tell you, the way you do it is you say, you know you're making progress on the ground. Sometimes it's not reflected in polls right away. The other thing is, no one is voting until February 1st.

CUOMO: Right.

CHRISTIE: So we all need to just say, campaigns matter. If they didn't matter, we'd have a student council election. We'd announce the election on Monday. We'd have it on Friday. Whoever has the most friends wins. That's not the way this works. Campaigns matter. How you conduct yourself on the debate stage and out on the grounds, and interviews like this matter. And people will make their judgments when they get ready to vote.

CUOMO: All right, you want to talk about policy. What's going on with policing in this country matters. It matters culturally. It matters in terms of our safety. Do you believe you can you make the case that there is connection between the optics of how our police are doing their job and the spikes of crime, because I feel like that's something I picked up in some of your comments and I don't see that borne out by any statistical analysis.

CHRISTIE: What do we see here in New York? We see the murder rate up 11 percent.

CUOMO: You know Bratton takes issue with your reckoning of the New York numbers. He says homicides aren't up. It's how you measure it.

CHRISTIE: No, no. Homicides are up, and that's the way Bratton measured it when he was under Giuliani. But now that it's not good news, under de Blasio he is measuring it differently. Whatever. His problem is the mayor he's working for, not Bill Bratton. Bill Bratton is a good law enforcement guy, but he works for a mayor who has tied one hand behind their back.

The same thing is going on in Chicago, murder rate is up 19 percent. Murders are going up all over this country. You know where they're not going up? They're not going up in New Jersey. The crime rate is down 20 percent since I've been governor and the incarceration rate is down 10 percent, Chris. I'm going to Camden this afternoon, where the murder rate is down 58 percent in the last three years.

CUOMO: What's the difference there than other cities?

CHRISTIE: We fired the entire police force, which was loaded down by absenteeism and a bloated union contract, brought in a whole new force, community policing, interacting with the community, making the community part of the process. They trust these police officers. Murder rate down 58 percent in Camden in the last three years. It can be done. The other thing the police officers know is that the governor supports them. And this president has not supported law enforcement in this country.

CUOMO: And you're saying that that combination of efforts is what made a difference. This is part of the dialogue we want to have going forward on this issue and many others. Governor Christie, good luck to you and thank you for being here. The invitation is open.

CHRISTIE: Great.

CUOMO: Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, questions surround the crash of a Russian passenger plane in the Sinai Peninsula that killed all 224 aboard. Investigators say the plane broke into pieces at over 30,000 feet and they are blaming an external factor. So is terrorism or mechanical failure to blame? Arwa Damon is monitoring the investigation for us live from Cairo this morning. What are we learning, Arwa?

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. The only thing that everyone seems to be able to agree upon is that the plane did come apart in the air. But other than that, there are all sorts of conflicting reports, contradictory information coming out, that's only adding to the frustration of the families who really just want to know why this plane came crashing down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON (voice-over): Metro airlines holding a press conference in Moscow, claiming the airliner could not have broken apart in midair by itself. Metrojet Airlines holding a press conference this morning in Moscow, saying Russian passenger jet flight 9628 could not have broken apart in midair by itself. This amid new reports the passenger jet broke into pieces as it flew over the remote Egyptian countryside, the fuselage disintegrating around 20 minutes into the flight from a Egyptian resort town to St. Petersburg Saturday according to Russian aviation officials. The airline company says the only explanation would be an external influence.

Overnight, nearly 150 of the 224 passengers killed on board arriving in Russia. Mourners of the mostly Russian victims gathering at St. Petersburg airport where the air jet was supposed to end its journey.

[08:15:04] Aerials of the crash site show mangled wreckage strewn across nearly eight square miles. But Egypt's prime minister says there are no indications that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen on this aircraft.

Egypt's civil aviation minister adding, there are no reports that the airplane had faults. Checks done before takeoff did not reveal anything, and no one received any SOS calls.

Still, questions linger as to why Flight 9268 hurled to the ground, in a remote part of Egypt, in clear weather. An area plagued by a violent Islamic insurgency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can certainly see whether there were any sign of a bomb or a missile striking the aircraft. They leave very distinctive marking. That should be able to be eliminated very quickly.

DAMON: The co-pilot's ex-wife telling Russia's state-run news, he complained before the flight to their daughter, wishing for a better technical condition of the plane. Most passengers were found with passengers on, according to Egypt's military, suggesting the pilot asked them to buckle up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: And, Chris, the two black boxes that contain vital information were recovered on Saturday fairly quickly after the plane came down. Based on what we're hearing, they didn't sustain that much damage. So, hopefully, the information that they contain will be extracted fairly quickly, resolving this issue once and for all.

Egyptian authorities are also saying that they don't believe that this plane was shot down. This part of the Sinai, they say, does not contain the Islamic militant groups that operate there don't have the capabilities to shoot down an airliner traveling at that attitude.

CUOMO: Arwa, thank you for the reporting. That is one possibility. Of course, there are others. We're going to continue looking at this story in our next segment with an expert, because there are 224 families that demand answers.

All right. Overnight, something back at home, three minor earthquakes shaking Arizona. A 3.2 magnitude quake hit Black Canyon City, about 45 miles north of Phoenix. That was followed by a 4.1 and 4.0 tremors a few hours later. Shock waves could felt in downtown Phoenix. Luckily, no injuries reported.

CAMEROTA: A tourist in Cocoa beach, Florida, recovering after getting bit by a shark. She suffered a gash to her leg. Fellow beach goers dragged her to the shore and she was taken to the hospital. The shark was believed to be three to five feet long.

PEREIRA: Really shocking video to show you of a vicious attack on an Uber driver in Costa Mesa, California. Edward Caban posted this video online to show what he says Uber drivers have to deal with.

He asked his passenger, Benjamin Golden, to leave his car for behaving erratically, but he beats him and the driver sprays him with pepper spray. The suspect Golden was arrested at the scene. He is being charged with assault and public intoxication and is banned from using Uber again.

CUOMO: Wow.

CAMEROTA: That's terrifying.

PEREIRA: He said he wanted to post this so people could understand some of the challenges that Uber drivers have. He said this is something that happens frequently.

CUOMO: It's not just Uber guys.

PEREIRA: Taxi drivers, yes.

CUOMO: A lot of guys have to deal with that. It can be a dangerous job, especially in cars where they don't have the divider.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. We think getting into an Uber -- the feeling is, oh, we'll be safe, it's a stranger. They're just at risk with a stranger getting into their car.

PEREIRA: Exactly. It's really concerning.

CUOMO: Good presence of mind with the pepper spray.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: All right. So, growing questions about what caused that Russian plane to crash this weekend. Airline officials are pointing to external factors. Could one of them be terrorism?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:27] PEREIRA: No explanation yet on what caused a Russian plane to crash in the Sinai Peninsula this weekend. It's believed to have broken up mid flight. Airline officials are pointing to external factors as a cause.

What exactly does that mean?

Let's turn to Mary Schiavo. She's CNN's aviation analyst and former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation. She also represents victims and families after airplane disasters.

We have 224 families that are looking for answers, Mary.

So, we heard at a press conference this morning that the Airbus A321 broke apart midair. They say that couldn't have happened by itself, and say these external influences or external factors, as being the point to blame.

What do you hear when you hear them say external factors?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, when they say external factors, I think what they're referring to is either a missile or bomb. A bomb introduced into the plane.

Probably, the three factors that cause them to say that are: one, the pilot didn't get out any communications. It was first said he was saying they were having technical difficulties. Now, that's been discredited. He said nothing. Two, the plane was on a perfectly normal trajectory. It had the right air speed and it was climbing the right altitude. Its air speed was as smooth as steady as can be when you look at it on flight track. Three: the dispersal of the wreckage. It was a pretty wide wreckage area.

PEREIRA: Eight miles.

SCHIAVO: Though I have seen bigger wreckage areas. Pan Am 103 was larger. And those three factors point to something massive, like a bomb or fuel tank explosion, a bulkhead blowout, something like that.

PEREIRA: You say it points to it, but it's really interesting to hear the MetroJet official make the claims so soon. They got the black box. They just have begun the investigation. Is it far too soon to make this kind of statement?

SCHIAVO: Well, yes. If it was something like a missile or a bomb on board, there are telltale signs on the plane. You can see -- and, of course, it takes a while to put it together.

PEREIRA: Sure.

SCHIAVO: But you can see an entry point from the missile or bomb explosion. What they might be signaling is they have downloaded the black boxes and they're not getting much.

Remember, in TW 800, a plane that exploded off New York in July 17, 1996, and on that, it exploded to fast, there was literally nothing on the black box or the cockpit voice recorder because the explosion destroyed all of the leads to the boxes. So, they didn't get anything off the black boxes.

[08:25:00] So, maybe they're hinting.

PEREIRA: Right, that's interesting. I think we actually have the black box. We can show the condition of it. It's been recovered. It's in very good condition, considering that this airplane essentially came apart in midair. It is in really good shape.

What does that say to you as an investigator?

SCHIAVO: You know, it's really amazing. I remember one of the black boxes on the flight into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, survived that inferno. So, it's amazing what they can put up with but, yes, the black box, the download is very fast. Once they get them and they're in good condition.

So, I would assume they have downloaded the information. It takes a while though to really look at the several hundred lines of data and figure out what was going on with the plane. So, it is possible that some of the investigators have already said, we're not getting anything off the black boxes. Or someone is trying to point fingers outside of the airline.

PEREIRA: Well, we know all the geopolitical things going on in the area further complicate this. In terms of this happening in Egypt to a Russian jet, mostly Russians on board, in terms of who takes the lead, et cetera, that can get complicated.

SCHIAVO: Well, it can. The treaty -- the Montreal Treaty really does say Egypt should have the lead. Russia will participate. The French BEA and Airbus will participate, because it was a French plane.

Those lines are pretty clear. But there's often a lot of turf warfare investigation as to who controls.

PEREIRA: We've seen that before.

So, we also learned a number of airlines are now talking about or already instituting rerouting their flights around this area. How common is that? To see something like that.

SCHIAVO: Well, it's common and common sense. It's good business practice. We don't know. If it is any chance that it is a missile and, you know, this plane was about the same height as MH-17, when the Russian missile, allegedly Russian missile, everybody thinks it is, but when that got it, it was about this altitude. I think it's a cautious, sensible, prudent thing for an airline to do, is stay away.

PEREIRA: Shouldn't they have already been sort of avoiding this area to begin with? The FAA has had a travel alert for this region in place for some time.

SCHIAVO: Yes. Some were avoiding it, just like when MH -- when the Malaysia plane was shot down. Some airlines were already avoiding the area. But it is up to the carrier. They can issue guidelines and issue them advisories, but the carrier has to make a good, safe business decision. Some decided to avoid and some didn't. So, this is a scenario we've seen before.

PEREIRA: Well, we have so many families anxiously awaiting answers. Little comfort it'll bring given the fact that they've lost their loved ones. Mary, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela.

Back to our top political story, GOP candidates calling for changes to the debate format going forward. Republican presidential candidate, Senator Lindsey Graham, joins us next about what is making them so angry.

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