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Trump & Cruz 5 Points Apart in New National Poll; Obama to Review ISIS Strategy at the Pentagon. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last Republican debate of 2015.

[05:58:26] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump is center stage once again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ted Cruz is suddenly soaring in Iowa.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think he's qualified to be president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: National security will be the focus here on Tuesday night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happening today, President Obama dropping by the Pentagon. Of course, the focus will be the continuing battle in the war against ISIS.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to hunt down these terrorists wherever they try to hide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After three days of searching a murky lake in San Bernardino, the FBI has recovered no items.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Social media postings talking about her support for violent jihad. Those background checks missed it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: That's majestic.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This is. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, December 14, 6 a.m. in the east. And that, my friends, is as close as you can get to Venice in Vegas. That's the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Obviously, that's where the Republican debate's going to be. The stakes have never been higher for the last GOP debate of the year. And it comes just as the polls show a new order.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Right. So there's this new national poll. And it shows Donald Trump and Senator Ted Cruz just five points apart. Two other polls out of Iowa have Cruz surging past Donald Trump.

And the gloves are off between the two, with Trump referring to the Texas senator as, quote, "a little bit of a maniac." We've got this story covered from every angle the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Athena Jones. She's live in Las Vegas for us.

Athena, give us all the latest.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, well, the countdown has begun here in the Venetian Theater. You can see the stage is all set up right here behind me. Frontrunner Donald Trump is smack dab in the middle once again.

But he won't be the only target as these candidates battle to stand out here tomorrow night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Only one day away from the last GOP debate of the year in Las Vegas. And for these 13 candidates, one last chance to make an impression, heading into the holiday season.

The main debate lineup: seeing most of the same players as last time. And no surprise here: frontrunner Donald Trump again taking center stage. Chris Christie moving up to the main stage. Trump will be flanked by Dr. Ben Carson and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who's now surging in Iowa, according to this FOX News poll released Sunday.

On Saturday, "The Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg Politics releasing their own poll, showing Cruz ahead of Trump by 10 percentage points in the state.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm very glad Donald Trump is in this election.

TRUMP: That is a little bit of a romance. I like him.

JONES: Their bromance beginning to wane after audio from a private fundraiser captured Cruz questioning Trump's judgment.

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you what: my judgment's great. I built a multi, multi, multibillion dollar company. Some of the greatest assets in the world. I have good judgment. I have great judgment. I would say I have far better judgment than Ted.

JONES: Trump later tweeting, "I was disappointed that Ted Cruz would speak behind my back, get caught and then deny it."

And after Trump said this about Cruz's temperament.

TRUMP: You look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there like a -- frankly, like a little bit of a maniac, you're never going to get things done that way.

JONES: Cruz tweeting, "In honor of my friend, Donald Trump," with a link to "Flashdance's" popular song, "Maniac." UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): She's a maniac, maniac I sure know.

JONES: Carson, once Trump's nearest rival, now dropping in the polls.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Poll numbers go up and down. I wasn't excited when they were up. I'm not excited when they're down. People will make the correct choice.

JONES: Heightened fears of terrorism around the world and right here at home could make for fireworks on stage tomorrow night.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: This is a new environment inside the campaign right now. And so that -- this will be the first time that the candidates take the stage in that new landscape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Now, several candidates are hoping to have breakout performances here tomorrow night to give their campaigns a boost.

And for anyone wondering whether Donald Trump is ready to attack his new top rival, Ted Cruz, here on this stage, he all but assured us those hits would be coming, telling Jake Tapper on "STATE OF THE UNION," "I expect to get it on" -- Chris, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Athena. Thanks so much for setting all that up for us.

Let's bring in senior contributor for "The Daily Caller" and conservative commentator Matt Lewis; and CNN political commentator and political anchor at Time Warner cable news, Errol Louis. Great to see both of you, gentlemen. We have a lot to talk about in terms of what the debate holds.

But first, let's talk about these new national polls. There is an NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll out yesterday, and it shows the state of the race. Trump is still on top, 27 percent. He's gone up since October when he had 23 percent.

Look at what has happened with Ted Cruz's numbers. He's more than doubled them, from 10 percent in October to now 22 percent. Also of note, look what's happened to Ben Carson who's fallen off a cliff there from October at 29 percent, now down to 11 percent.

Before I let you guys talk, one more interesting thing of note. Look at these head-to-head matchups. When you put any of them against Hillary Clinton, she beats Trump 50-40. She beats Rubio -- no, she doesn't beat Rubio. She beats Cruz 48 percent...

CUOMO: You just saved yourself a flurry of Twitter pain.

CAMEROTA: ... 45 percent. She does not beat Marco Rubio or, interestingly, Ben Carson. Errol Louis, what do you see in these numbers? ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What I see in these

numbers, Alisyn, is that a lot of the conservative support that Ben Carson had really sort of relied on and kind of rode to the top of the pack, just a few weeks ago, seems to be shifting to Cruz.

If you listen to the talk radio chitchat, there are a lot of conservative hosts who really seem to like Cruz. And it's because he's part of a movement. We've had a lot of discussion about whether or not Donald Trump represents or is leading or is pulling together some kind of a new movement.

Well, Ted Cruz is part of a much older movement, a conservative movement. He comes out of it. He's been a part of it, and it's starting to make itself felt. I mean, and he is a very plausible choice for arch conservatives, especially evangelicals in Iowa and beyond.

CUOMO: Well, look, there are moments in time, right, Matt? I mean, you know, you do see the move that Errol is talking about. Clinton has been somewhat static, and you know, that could be part of the reason she's slipping ground.

But we also see, in this new Trump/Cruz dynamic, Cruz being deftly non-confrontational. I wouldn't call an attack what he did in that private fundraising meeting. I think he was, you know, talking to private fundraisers. Not Trump-esque in the attack.

[06:05:09] And then the maniac tweet, which is -- I can't look at it enough. Not just because it brings me back to the '80s, but what a different approach to conflict. What do you see in the strategy? The stratergery [SIC]?

MATT LEWIS, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: Well, I think at this point, he doesn't want to fight. He's being funny and humorous. And he's -- he's...

CUOMO: Yes.

LEWIS: He's trying to avoid it. But look, Ted Cruz is very smart, very Machiavellian. And he's using very sophisticated methods to get where he is. One of them is called Hotellings model of spatial competition.

CUOMO: Ah, yes.

LEWIS: Have you ever noticed -- have you ever noticed when a Walgreen's opens up, they open up right next to a CVS. That's what Ted Cruz is doing with Donald Trump.

Another one is called expanding the Overton window. Ted Cruz has succeeded, because Donald Trump has expanded the Overton window, meaning Ted Cruz, in comparison, looks moderate and experienced next to Donald Trump.

And then the last thing would be if you're familiar with the movie "Talladega Nights"... CUOMO: Now we're talking.

LEWIS: It's called drafting.

CAMEROTA: Bring it down to our level.

LEWIS: It's called drafting. Basically, Ted Cruz has allowed Donald Trump to take the slings and arrows and be ahead of the race for almost all of the race, and now he's doing the shake and bake model, which is at the last minute coming from behind.

CUOMO: Wow.

CAMEROTA: There are so many references there, Errol, I don't even know where to begin. But we applaud Matt for bringing us in all of those pop culture...

CUOMO: You better raise your game.

CAMEROTA: But Errol, the -- I mean, they seem to have had, Cruz and Trump, this sort of gentleman's agreement until now. And it does look as if the gloves have come off. So what are we expecting to see tomorrow night between these two?

LOUIS: Well, I would expect that Donald Trump would do what he does, which is to try to sort of put it into the framework of a reality show kind of -- a bit of a carnival: you know, personal insults, that kind of thing. He's made remarks about people's personal appearance at debates in order to try to grab a headline, maybe get inside their head a little bit, shake them a little bit.

Ted Cruz, I don't think is going to have any of that. I mean, this is somebody who, like I said, is part of a real movement. Has deeply held convictions, has a team around him who believes in what they believe. You know, and they're not going to necessarily go around changing his style or changing his opinions just to sort of fend off a personal or a petty attack. They are playing for sort of higher stakes in a lot of ways.

So I would expect them to sort of continue marching right down the same path that they have. I mean, the polls, if you dig down into them, they show that conservatives think that Cruz is the one who's most likely to completely outlaw all abortion. I mean, that's his politics. That's where he's coming from. That's what he's going to fight for. And I don't think, you know, sort of having a back and forth with Donald Trump is really going to be his aim at all.

CUOMO: But it's smart to avoid it, not always easy to do. And let's pay attention to something else that these polls showed. You hear that? That's the sound of Carson's and Bush's momentum.

What is going on there, Matt? What happened to Carson? And once again, all the money, all the ads, all the promises. Another poll shows Bush static at best.

LEWIS: It doesn't -- money doesn't matter that much in this case. The old Yogi Berra line that says if nobody wants to come to a ball game, there's nothing you can do to stop them. If nobody wants to vote for Jeb Bush, it doesn't matter how much money he spends.

I think there's four people to watch at this point. I really do. I think it's Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Chris Christie. I think Ben Carson is basically...

CUOMO: Back on the stage, Chris Christie.

LEWIS: I think that's where the action is. Ben Carson, I do not think -- and maybe I'll be proven wrong, but since the Paris attacks, I think that he's become much, much less relevant. I think those four are the ones to watch.

CAMEROTA: Matt Lewis ate his Wheaties this morning.

CUOMO: He did.

He correctly identified some of your strategies. I always believe that you are expanding the Overton window. And you have positioned yourself, oddly, right next to me, which gives you a tactical advantage.

CAMEROTA: And you do have a lot of Talladega nights in you.

CUOMO: I do. I feel it.

CAMEROTA: Matt, Errol, thank you. We'll look forward to you guys guiding us through the next 48 hours. Thanks so much.

LEWIS: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Take a look at this time-lapsed video. This is from inside the Venetian Las Vegas. Wow.

CUOMO: Wow.

CAMEROTA: They're busy. These are the final preparations to get the debate stage ready.

CUOMO: I hope that's for Cirque du Soleil show that you and I have booked. Are you getting the sweaty palms as you get closer to the crap tables?

CAMEROTA: Yes. Itchy.

CUOMO: Tomorrow night's debate's going to focus on national security and terrorism, but as we all know, they go where they want to go. We have a good, good man at the helm, CNN team captain Wolf Blitzer moderating. Coverage starts 6 p.m. Eastern. That's the undercard. And then you have the main debate at 8:30. And of course, we, as Alisyn aptly named us, "SAME DAY," will be live tomorrow and Wednesday morning from the Venetian in Las Vegas.

CAMEROTA: No sleep necessary, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Shake and bake. He was full of -- I thought that was awesome.

CUOMO: You know what he missed?

PEREIRA: Fantastic.

[06:10:03] CUOMO: Rubbin' is racin'. What movie is that from? Rubbin' is racin'. Tweet Michaela.

PEREIRA: Yes. Tweet me.

Carrying on with the news here, 10 minutes after the hour...

CUOMO: Rubbin' is racin'.

CAMEROTA: I heard you.

PEREIRA: President Obama is reviewing the U.S. strategy against ISIS with his national security advisers at the Pentagon today. It is his first visit since the terror attack in San Bernardino and Paris. Could a change in strategy be brewing?

Chris Frates is live for us in Washington with the very latest.

Hey, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Michaela.

So the president is meeting with his national security team on ISIS strategy at the Pentagon today. And later in the week, the president is headed to the National Counterterrorism Center, where he'll preview efforts to prevent attacks on America.

But I'll tell you, these public appearances are also designed to show a very nervous American public, frankly, a majority of which disapprove of how he's handling terrorism, that the president and his team are hard at work destroying ISIS.

Here's how the president talked about his administration's efforts in his weekly media address.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our airstrikes are hitting ISIL harder than ever in Iraq and Syria. We're taking out more of their fighters and leaders, their weapons, their oil tankers. Our Special Operations forces are on the ground, because we're going to hunt down these terrorists wherever they try to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Obama went on to say that, in recent weeks, U.S. strikes have killed two ISIS leaders. And when Obama speaks at the Pentagon later this morning, there's no indication there will be a major shift of his ISIS strategy. But the president has ordered his team to constantly assess the performance of the strategy and turn up the heat if there's an opportunity to.

In the past, for instance, that's meant increasing assistance to Syrian opposition fighters or putting Special Forces on the ground in Iraq and Syria. So we might hear news about similar moves to intensify the fight against ISIS, but the White House says there's no major changes expected to be announced.

Chris, back to you.

CUOMO: Chris Frates. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

CUOMO: We also have word of new developments in the San Bernardino terror investigation this morning. The FBI dive teams that scoured the bottom of a murky lake in search of evidence came up empty.

A startling report by "The New York Times" reveals several background checks on the female terrorist failed to uncover her social media posts, openly expressing her desire to wage jihad.

For more on this, let's go to CNN correspondent Paul Vercammen, live in San Bernardino with more. What do we know?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, we do know that the FBI has said they have concluded their search of the lake here in San Bernardino. Of course, they were looking for a hard drive, and they were working off reports that the couple might have ditched something in that lake.

The FBI playing it very close to the vest here in California, basically saying that the items found in a lake, they don't know if they were case related. They point out that lots of things can be found in a public lake. But so far, it seems that nothing has turned up, and as a possible indicator, there is no press conference scheduled.

And then, as you pointed out, background checks on Tashfeen Malik, the wife in this case, in this slaughter, well, the officials saying that they basically found, according to "The New York Times," that not only did she support violent jihad, but she wanted to be a part of it, and now the Obama administration is going to have to take a much closer look -- they have said as much to this K-1 visa program that allows for someone to be on the path to citizenship by marrying an American citizen.

And then behind me, this memorial. Last night in rained here in San Bernardino. So we don't see the flickering of candles, but certainly, this is still a community with a huge hole in its heart. And today, they will mourn the loss of yet another of the 14 victims. That's Bennetta Betbadal. That will be in Rancho Cucamonga, California, starting at 10:30 a.m. local time.

Back to you now, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Paul. Thank you for that report.

Also breaking overnight, a kindergarten teacher in Paris stabbed in the throat by a masked attacker in the name of ISIS. Police say he was preparing for one of his classes when a masked man armed with a box cutter and scissors lunged at him, screaming about ISIS and adding, quote, "This is only the beginning." The suspect escaped. A recent article in an ISIS magazine called on followers to kill French teachers, referring to them as enemies of Allah. The 40-year-old teacher is expected to recover.

PEREIRA: Back here stateside, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office is releasing more details about a fatal police shooting Saturday outside a gas station. Two deputies fired more than 30 shots at Nicholas Robertson and kept shooting as he crawled away.

Authorities say images from the scene prove that the suspect had a gun. Reports say that Robertson had been behaving erratically, pointed his weapon at deputies, and refused to drop it, even when he was down on the ground. The district attorney's office plans to investigate.

CUOMO: Planned Parenthood has filed a federal lawsuit to keep state officials in Ohio from interfering with services. Now, last week Ohio's attorney general claimed Planned Parenthood, or the biomedical companies it works with, improperly dumped aborted fetal parts in landfills. He threatened legal action against the organization. There's been no proof of illegality offered yet, and Planned Parenthood officials say the allegations are false.

[06:15:09] CAMEROTA: OK. Back to politics. We've got a horse race in the Hawkeye State. Ted Cruz surging into the lead over Donald Trump in Iowa. The Texas senator also closing the gap nationally. Is he building momentum or is he peaking too soon? We'll take a look inside the numbers when NEW DAY continues.

We'll be right back.

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CUOMO: Look at that. The Venetian Hotel ready for the clash of titans.

Tomorrow's big CNN debate comes just as we see a big shift in the polls. Senator Ted Cruz taking the lead in a recent poll in Iowa and moving up at least in every poll that you see. You have two separate ones that show him in front of Donald Trump in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, Iowa very important for practical as well as optical reasons.

We have Iowa Republican Congressman Steve King. He endorsed Ted Cruz for president. He joins us now.

[06:20:06] And again, an early Christmas wish to you and the family.

REP. STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Thank you. CUOMO: Congressman, always good to have you on.

Ted Cruz making a move in the polls. You, of course, can't be surprised. You're a supporter. Do to what do we attribute this acceleration now?

KING: As we work through this and watch Ted Cruz, I've long been calling for a full-spectrum constitutional conservative, one who checks all the boxes on all the lists. And the caucus goers are looking for something like that, too. They have been disappointed time after time. So they're skeptical.

They were holding back while Ted Cruz laid the groundwork on his campaign, and he took position on issue after issue. He laid -- he put a team ago. And along about -- let's see -- something in November, about the 16th of November, I made that endorsement. And from that time on, we saw Ted Cruz's numbers grow.

CUOMO: You're saying this is the King effect?

KING: I'm saying that it didn't hurt him. And -- and -- but he laid that groundwork to make it possible. He is the candidate, and he's a candidate that, I say, checks all the boxes.

So the caucus goers who were sitting back, finally it was like somebody fired the starting pistol: "OK, make up your mind." And they were going to start making up their mind anyway. I think they did it more abruptly than they would have otherwise. And they will continue to make these decisions between now through new year's. But come January -- that's this year, I believe, is going to be the month for reconsideration, if there is any.

CUOMO: You think January is a big month, coming out of the box, the new year. Let me give you an early Christmas present, a softball. The speculation that senator Cruz may be peaking too soon. What do you make of that, Congressman?

KING: I know it's been an object of concern inside the Cruz campaign, as well. Looking back at history, they know that. And we had six different leaders last time.

But in this race, he's so solid. And no one has had this kind of a jump in the history of the Iowa caucus.

So what I say to them and to anybody that might find themselves in this position: when you find yourself on the ascent, give it more fuel, because you've got to keep climbing.

I think he can do that. I'm comfortable with this, but they're going to have to -- they're going to have to really put the pedal to the metal now and sprint on through Iowa.

CUOMO: Two interesting plays Cruz has made lately in contrast to Donald Trump. Donald Trump comes out, gets a lot of attention. Full stop. But he gets a lot of attention saying, "Let's ban all the Muslims." Resonates with people like you and others. Ted Cruz comes out and says, "That's not my idea. We have to be

careful about the Syrian refugees. We've got to be hard line. Our vetting is not good enough. But I'm not going there. I don't want to ban all of everybody."

A little bit of a dicey thing. He could have just said Donald's right, which he said in the past. What do you make of that distinction?

KING: Well, I think it was a policy distinction, not so much a political one.

And I know where I said, is that we're going to protect the civil rights, and we're also going to protect the rights of citizenship of Muslims.

Donald's statement was really blanket enough that, if he had citizens traveling overseas that were Muslim, they couldn't come back. If he had soldiers that were Muslim, under that, at least, first definition, they couldn't come back. And I think also that Ted Cruz was speaking to legislation that he's authored and I believe introduced that would block refugees from coming from, let's say, terrorist-producing countries.

So I think he's consistent with the legislation he laid out. He was fairly -- fairly cautious in the way that he dealt with Donald Trump. But there's never been any wisdom in taking on Donald Trump and starting a fight with him.

CUOMO: So he's at a private fundraiser, and he says, "I don't think it will be Carson. I don't think it's going to be Trump." Not exactly a full-throated attack, but that was enough for Trump.

Trump comes at him. He responds with a tweet, to respond to being called a maniac by Trump, citing a movie and with a video clip. That is surprising; that is funny. Is that a part of Ted Cruz that we don't know?

KING: Yes. It is. Ted Cruz has -- how much music he knows and appreciates, I don't know. I know that he does know and appreciate music in a way like that, where he could pull that out of his head and say, "Let's do this." I know he's one that quote, and he quotes from movies continually. So he's kind of a movie junkie. I presume he picks up the list of movies also, as well as the music.

So I think that's pure Ted Cruz. I don't think it's anybody in the campaign. I think he just said, "We're doing this."

CUOMO: So what do you think Iowa is going to do, taking Ben Carson down as precipitously? How do you explain that and what do you think we see tomorrow night?

KING: Well, I think what happened with Ben Carson, was that he worked hard. He's been in Iowa working for two years. He built an organization, announced over a year ago that he had county chairs in all 99 counties. That's a long reach. And it was through the Christian evangelical network that's there. And you saw, as Ben Carson's numbers started to go down, you saw that there was criticism of his foreign policy that was fairly consistent in the national media.

I think that the voters, the caucusgoers in Iowa, were -- they were looking at the field. And they decided that Ted Cruz answered all of their concerns that caused them to move into Ben Carson's territory. And I think that -- I think a lot of the evangelicals decided foreign policy was a big component of this, too. And they moved from Cruz -- or from Carson to Cruz.

CUOMO: All right. So let's do one issue topic here before I let you go. Climate change. You go anywhere else in the world, it's a no-brainer for them, the COP-21 that's going on in Paris. There are concerns there about security, not about the climate.

[06:25:15] Back home here, still, a lot of pushback against the administration for wanting to do more about climate change. Why won't you get on board with the science and make some changes?

KING: Well, I think I am on board with science. I think the scientists that have been pushing this have collected a lot of money from donors in government and created a science that's awfully hard to -- awfully hard to sustain.

I could take you down through a lot of the reasons why I'm very skeptical of this proposal and climate change, but here's this.

CUOMO: You know it's 99 percent of the scientific community believes this.

KING: I know that that's probably about the ratio of the money that's been spent also on either side of that. But I think this: that if this is so good -- here, I've done this before, where I've looked at some of the -- I don't quite understand this. I'm going to dig down into it. When I get to where I could understand it, I'll be able to embrace it. I tried to do that, and I could not get there.

So here's my answer to President Obama. If you want to move climate change, come to Congress and make the case. If you can't convince the United States Congress, probably, it's not a good idea.

CUOMO: So he got invited for "THE STATE OF THE UNION" once again. So we'll see if he makes the case there. To you, sir, and your family, an early Christmas wish.

KING: Merry Christmas.

CUOMO: And I'll see you in Iowa, for sure.

KING: Look forward to seeing you in Iowa. Thanks very much.

CUOMO: Always good to have you, Congressman King -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris. Geneva, Switzerland, is on high alert after the arrest of two people with Syrian passports in a terror raid there. Were they planning an attack? Are more suspects lurking? A live report, ahead.

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