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Trump Leads GOP with 39 Percent in New CNN/ORC Poll; Ted Cruz: It's a Two-Man Race; Iraqi Forces Advancing into Ramadi; Amnesty International Report: Russia Responsible for Growing Number of Civilian Deaths; Interview with James Jeffrey; Security Breach at JFK Airport. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 23, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Beats of the jungle drum can only mean one thing -- poll time!

Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, December 23rd, 6:00 in the East. Mick is off and we do have new CNN polling out just this morning.

[06:00:00] And that makes one point loud and clear, Santa is only going to be nice to Donald Trump. Everyone else in the Republican field gets coal. Trump leads in the national poll with 39 percent. The next three in the field -- Cruz, Carson, Rubio -- they don't reach him combined.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton responding to Trump's vulgar language about he, but Trump has a new explanation of what his words mean. CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe John is with us this morning. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. The new CNN/ORC polls very much about Donald Trump's huge lead as the choice of Republicans for the presidential nomination.

If you look at the numbers, we've got Trump at 39 percent. Then if you look at the next three candidates, Ted Cruz now firmly in second place at 18 percent, Ben Carson at 10 percent, Marco Rubio at 10. That's right, Donald Trump's number is bigger than the number two, three, and four candidates combined. And there's real consistency here at the top for Trump over the last seven months. His largest margin.

But if you look inside the poll, there is a little bit of contradiction as there always is on the favorability ratings. Ted Cruz actually on top followed by Rubio and Trump's in third place. Interesting, what it always tends to say about how Republicans view their choice of Trump.

So let's also take a look at some of the issues voters care about. Trump is running strong there. Well over half of Republican voters say Trump is best at handling the economy and illegal immigration, and 47 percent say he would be best at handling ISIS. And finally the Republican voters are more optimistic about their chances in 2016 with Trump in the picture. That number has jumped since August by about 8 percentage points.

Meanwhile, there's more about the rhetoric on the campaign trail this morning after Trump's latest blast against Hillary Clinton. The Democratic front runner talked about Trump in an interview with "The Des Moines Register" though she refused to address his comments directly. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really deplore the tone of his campaign and the inflammatory rhetoric that he is using to divide people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Now, Trump for his part tweeting overnight, quote, "When I said that Hillary Clinton got shlonged by Obama, it meant got beaten badly. The media knows this. Often used word in politics!" So not so sure how to fact -check that assertion at this point. Chris.

CUOMO: Well, maybe it's more common if you give it a different accent, like in French or something like that. Schlonge, something like that. Maybe then it's more common.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Whatever. People probably believe it, Joe.

CAMEROTA: OK, we are joining now by CNN political director David Chalian, and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller", Matt Lewis. He's also the author of the new book "Too Dumb To Fail: How the GOP Betrayed the Reagan Revolution to Win Elections."

Gentlemen, great to have you this morning to help us dissect these hot-off-the-presses new numbers. Let's just put it up again one more time to see what's happened since November. Its always interesting to see the progress or lack thereof that the candidates have made. Donald Trump far and away, again, the leader. He is up since, hmm, this is not exactly what I was imagining.

CUOMO: This is unhelpful. This is the favorable ratings of each.

CAMEROTA: I was imagining the P2.

CUOMO: Here you go.

CAMEROTA: There we go. All right, so Donald Trump is 39 percent. He had been at 36 percent in November. He is more than twice his closest competitor, David, Ted Cruz. So what do you think is the most notable thing in these new numbers?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, listen, notable is just the size of his lead. You can't look at these numbers and just not say that Donald Trump closes out 2015 in the most dominant position he's been in for the entire campaign and probably in a more dominant position than any of us ever expected when we got to the place where we would be just about a month away from the voting.

But the other thing that is astounding in these numbers, Alisyn, is that you can't find a bad number for Donald Trump here. Across the issues, he does better than his overall support, which means that there are Republicans who are choosing other candidates to vote for in this poll who still believe Donald Trump would be the best on economy, the best on immigration, the best on ISIS. He has real strength underneath his horse race number.

CUOMO: So, Matt, while it is fair criticism that the media has to get out of "no one expected" mode, because this has been going on for months, and Trump only gains. And if you look at the numbers, other than Cruz, taking some of Carson's bacon, everybody else has stayed static or even dropped.

What does this mean for you and people in your party? Because there is this what seems increasingly like a fantasy that somehow there is going to be a sea change and Trump will no longer be as big a deal because of the votes. Now what?

[06:05:07] MATT LEWIS, "THE DAILY CALLER": Yes, to me, the big number, it's not that Trump is up by so much, although he is up by so much, but it's also if you add up his votes with Ted Cruz's votes, with Ben Carson's numbers, you're at like a supermajority of the Republican base right now nationally. And that's a really, really big deal, because if you were holding out hope that voters are going to come to their senses, they're sort of flirting with Donald Trump but they're going to marry Marco Rubio, let's say, those numbers make it really hard to sort of come to that conclusion.

And, again, if you add up Trump and Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, you have a combined three years of elected experience for about, what, 67 percent to 70 percent of the vote right now. You know, Ted Cruz is the guy who looks like the experienced serious guy that could win, and yet this is a guy who shut down the government and attacked the Senate majority, Republican majority leader on the floor of the Senate. So it's an amazing turn of events -- not even turn of events; it's an amazing development.

CAMEROTA: And we do want to get you the Ted Cruz-Donald Trump --

CUOMO: Marco Rubio.

CAMEROTA: -- lovefest, or head-to-head match-up, but first, just to prove your point, David, in terms of the issues. Immigration which of course is the signature issue of Donald Trump, you could say -- who would be best to handle illegal immigration was the question asked. Now, 55 percent of Republicans believe it is Trump. That's up from before the debate, which where it was still huge at 48 percent. Ted Cruz second at 15 percent. But in terms of it being a two-man race, which is how Ted Cruz is now framing what's going on and the poll numbers, let me play for you what Ted Cruz said about this on the stump yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald may well be right that this is turning more and more into a two-man race between Donald Trump and me. And I think if that's the case, the decision will be made by the voters. It will be made by the voters in terms of who has the experience, who has the record, who has been a consistent conservative, standing for the constitution, standing for our freedom, standing with the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So David, if this is a two-man race, and Ted Cruz likes to think that it is, why aren't these two, Trump and Cruz, going at each other more?

CHALIAN: Well, I'm not convince -- I'm not as convinced as Ted Cruz is yet that it is down to a two-man race. I think we still have many more lives in this battle and once the voting begins.

But I do think what you just heard there is Ted Cruz, who has done the consistent conservative message throughout the entirety of his campaign, I think is starting to prepare a contrast you can hear in that with Donald Trump. Now, interestingly, Alisyn, Jeb Bush back in the summer tried this line of attack against Donald Trump that he hasn't been a true, consistent conservative throughout his entire life. We know he gave campaign contributions to Democrats, we know he has supported policy positions that are not in line with the conservative principles, and yet it has had no effect whatsoever on his supporters. So I'm surprised that Ted Cruz thinks that that may be the best contrast down the stretch with Donald Trump.

CUOMO: He's a smart guy. Obviously he should say it's a two-man race because it's good for him. And there is no reason to waste powder right now for either of these guys. You haven't even had a vote yet. You don't even know what is resonating as you go state by state, especially as you make that first markr into South Carolina.

But the bigger question now for you, you have to be asking it, Matt, and that is are we going to do the classic bungle for the Republican Party, which is get a candidate that makes us happy on the inside then hurts us on the outside and we lose the general? When you look at this, where's the hope in the general?

LEWIS: Well, really interesting things raised right here. First, here is the caveat, as you noted, that nobody has voted yet. And it is -- if you want to hold out hope and maybe this is a desperation clinging -- it's possible if Cruz wins Iowa, somebody like Christie or Rubio wins New Hampshire, the Donald Trump facade comes crashing down that he's a winner.

But you could imagine that the Republican Party will nominate somebody like a Donald Trump who will use rhetoric that is divisive, that will cast the Republican Party and the conservative movement not as a party of ideas, even like Ted Cruz wants it, but as a sort of white populist, nativist party. And if that happens, in the short run, it's maybe not as devastating, but in the long run, it would be very damaging I think for the Republican Party to sort of be a tribalist party that is kind of exclusively for older white rural voters. And that is a real danger, that we're going to have the parties essentially line up. It would be identity politics, which I really hate, honestly. I think that politics should be about ideas.

[06:10:01] But the Donald Trump model that we're seeing would be an identity politics model that is more cultural, more clash based, than philosophy based.

CAMEROTA: David, Matt, we have many more numbers to run through with you but we're going to have to wait until our 8:00 hour do that. We'll see you guys in a few. Thanks.

LEWIS: Thanks.

CUOMO: A Republican pollster made that point to me yesterday, that once you get into the races, Trump may win in some of these, but his numbers won't be like this. It won't be that he has three times what the next person has, and that will contract the race and that may drive confidence in other candidates.

CAMEROTA: Not a single caucus or primary has happened yet.

CUOMO: True, true.

CAMEROTA: And there's all this action still.

CUOMO: True.

Provocative question -- did Donald Trump make Hillary Clinton cry? No. But Clinton did get emotional after referencing Donald Trump Tuesday, responding to a young girl's question about bullying. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I think we are not treating each other with the respect and the --

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: -- and the care that we should show toward each other. And that's why it's important to stand up to bullies wherever they are and why we shouldn't let anybody bully his way into the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What really got you is the girl asking the question, she says she hears other people whisper about her because she has asthma. So it was good, it was good for her to have that moment. But interesting moment for Hillary Clinton, as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes. A quick programming note to tell you about. Tomorrow, we will hear from Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He's going to join us on NEW DAY with the latest he believes on the race. CUOMO: All right, we have news about the war happening right now.

Iraqi government forces backed by both U.S. air coalition air power advancing into the key city of Ramadi. This is the latest movement in a fierce fight against ISIS since the terrorists took hold of that critical region in May.

We have CNN's Robyn Kriel live with the very latest. What do we know?

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, fierce fighting ever since Iraqi forces entered parts of the city early yesterday morning in a daring raid. We understand that the United States has been helping, as well. They have been launching a number of air strikes, the U.S.- led coalition has been launching a number of air strikes outside the city, hitting weapons caches and ISIS command posts. They also helped build the bridge that was used in quite a daring move by the Iraqi forces on the ground. The bridge, a temporary bridge, because ISIS has destroyed all the bridges around the city of Ramadi.

The city of Ramadi is enclosed by a number of canals, really, from the Euphrates River. Iraqi troops crossing over that bridge early morning and entering the city of Humer (ph) district in -- of Ramadi a daring morning raid. Commandos now trying to advance on the city center. They're looking for those key government buildings in the center of the city to raise their flag and recapture the city.

Now, we understand, Chris, as well that Iraqi forces include counterterrorism forces also trained by the Americans. They include Sunni tribes, as well as some Shia forces. They're battling against ISIS fighters around 250 to 300 ISIS fighters and they also -- we also understand they have to do this slowly because ISIS has kept a number of civilians as human shields. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Robyn, keep us updated on that unfolding story.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International releasing a new report this morning calling out Russia for ignoring the growing civilian death toll while launching air strikes in Syria. Moscow says it's targeting terrorists, but others disagree.

CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is live in Moscow with the very latest for us. Matthew?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Alisyn. It's not the first time of course that Russia has been accused of killing civilians in Syria. It's been launching more than 4,000 missions, bombing missions, striking targets across that country in the past three months. They say they've had a massive impact on ISIS and other Islamist groups that they say they've been targeting.

But of course the allegation that civilians have been paying the price as well has always been there. The Amnesty report on this occasion says that it focuses on six attacks specifically that they have been investigating. A mosque attack, an attack on a hospital, civilian areas as well, in which at least 200 civilians were killed as a result of Russian air strikes. The Russians haven't directly commented on this latest Amnesty report,

but they have spoken in the past about who they target. They've rejected allegations that they killed any civilians. In fact, I was in Syria with the Russians just last week and I specifically asked the defense spokesman who was with me this question. He said, look, we show you what we hit. We hit terrorist targets, we hit Islamist groups, we hit ISIS. We don't target civilians. In fact, we haven't killed any civilians. That's the Russian position on all of this.

Obviously, as you're mentioning, as Amnesty says, not everyone agrees. There are lots of critics on the ground. There are lots of independent observers on the ground -- aid workers, eyewitnesses, doctors, who Amnesty have spoken to, who contradict that Russian account. But that is what the Russians have said in the past and I expect it's what they'll say this time if they react. Back to you Chris.

[06:15:04] CUOMO: Brings up that very insensitive term of "collateral damage". Matthew, thank you very much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

We're now learning that the military's first openly gay woman is one of the six victims of Monday's Taliban suicide attack in Afghanistan. She is Air Force Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen. She spent years working to get Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal. Her wife Heather, her son Jacob, expected to be at Dover Air Force in Delaware today as Vonderbruggen and the other fallen heroes come home.

CAMEROTA: Just terrible.

Breaking overnight, two men arrested by counterterrorism teams in Sydney, Australia, as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged planning of terror attacks in that country. The arrests are based on documents seized more than a year ago. Formal charges are expected later today. Officials say there is no evidence to suggest a current or impending threat.

CUOMO: Another blow to the Secret Service. An agent's gun, badge, and flash drive among other items stolen from his car in broad daylight -- blocks from the White House. A source says the agent works in the presidential protective division. Leave a weapon and a badge unintended in a car? It's a considered a violation of basic security rules. The Secret Service, no comment.

CAMEROTA: They leave their cars unlocked?

Meanwhile the Iraq fighting -- with Iraq fighting to get that key city of Ramadi, as you've heard, back from ISIS, how involved is the U.S.? How involved should we be? We're going to get a former ambassador to Iraq with his view next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:09] CUOMO: Right now, Iraq's security forces are clashing with ISIS fighters in the city of the Ramadi. Now you may remember, Iraqi forces gave up on that town back up in May, but now they're trying to move in and force ISIS out. The U.S. is helping with limited air strikes. So what is next for this key city and what does this show us about what's going on overall in this war?

We have James Jeffrey, the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq. He's currently a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute.

Mr. Ambassador, thank you for joining us. What is different now and what do you see as the importance of this battle in Ramadi?

JAMES JEFFREY, FMR. U.S. AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY AND IRAQ: Thank you. Well, it isn't over yet, but it looks like that the Iraqi forces will seize control of the town in a matter of days.

Three things are different. First, you have a very significant increase in the types and quantity of American support, including air support, engineering support, fairly close up front advising the Iraqis on how to take down the ISIS forces. Secondly, you have local Sunni forces, Sunni Arab forces, deeply involved in this fight. That's important. Thirdly, you have really good Iraqi units, what is called the Golden Lions counterterrorism division, is this charge of this fight. They're very good; they've been trained by us for years.

So those are the three things that are different. What will happen in further battles in bigger cities where there are more ISIS troops, it's going to be a very long struggle, but the underlying point is the more the United States puts people on the ground and puts people and Air Force elements into the fight, the faster we'll be able to take down ISIS. And that is job one for this administration and for the next one.

CUOMO: But the rub is that that means the more you're going to see U.S. men and women in harm's way and the more bad things we're going to hear about happening to them, which raises the question of whose war is this to fight? At some point, do the U.S. contributions wind up being at least supplemented if not replaced by other Arab Muslim states, Arab and/or Muslim states, who get into fight their own battle?

JEFFREY: The U.S. has to play a role. It cannot play the complete role of the majority -- provide the majority of forces on the ground. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of troops, Kurdish troops, Peshmerga in Northern Iraq and Syria, Iraqi army forces, and various other forces holding the line against 20,000 to 30,000 ISIS forces. We can't replace that.

What we can do is, on offensive operations which are very hard to do, provide elite forces to take the lead, but also to show others that we're not trying to stay out of this fight. That's been part of the administration's problem all along in mobilizing Arab forces to fight with us.

CUOMO: What do you make of a lot of the GOP rhetoric coming out of the candidates that we don't have any strategy going on and that you have to do more? Do you hear anything that rings true? And do you hear any ideas that would make us better off than we are right now? JEFFREY: John McCain and Lindsey Graham have good ideas, but they're

not at the center obviously of this campaign. In the campaign itself, I think that a lot of the rhetoric about carpet bombing and that sort of thing doesn't show a lot of understanding of what's going on.

CUOMO: Now, something that does show some understanding of what's going on is when we look at this new report about the breakdown of the rebel groups in Syria from the Center on Religion and Geopolitics. You know that as Tony Blair's group.

It is a frightening revelation for many here that many of these rebel groups that want to take out Assad share fundamentalist extremist Islamist sympathies. So what does that say? If you get rid of a Assad and one of these groups come in take share the same basic kind of ideology as ISIS, is anybody better off?

JEFFREY: Absolutely. First of all, you have to get rid of Assad and you have to get rid of ISIS for any stability in this entire region. Secondly, in Ira,q we dealt all of the time with Islamic religious parties from the Shia side and from the Sunni Arab side. Much of the Middle East has, as you put it, ideologies that indicate the sharia, which is Islamic law, should be applied. And basically social values and rules that we in the west don't find compatible with our values. That's the way the Middle East is.

The question is are these people violent? Will they take up arms against us and against fellow Muslims who don't believe what they believe? And that's a different question.

CUOMO: Well, but that is the question, right? That's the whole concern. You don't want to help people who are going to turn around and attack you once they get in. There are 60 percent of these rebel groups have Islamic extremist sympathies. What does that tell you about the future?

JEFFREY: Again, much of the Middle East has Islamic extremist sympathies. The question is most of them don't take up arms. That is a small group of people around al Qaeda and around ISIS.

[06:25:04] CUOMO: Except they're taking up arms right now to try to take down Assad, right? Ninety percent of them say that's their goal.

JEFFREY: That's different. That's an insurgency against a government that has been oppressing them and killing them by the hundreds of thousands. That's pretty understandable, I think.

CUOMO: Important distinction.

Ambassador, thank you very much for giving a sense of the picture. Best for the holidays to you.

JEFFREY: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, listen to this story. There's been a major security breach at one of America's busiest airports. This of course during the busy holiday season. We give you all the details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: As the holiday travel rush gets going, police investigating a major security breach at New York's JFK International Airport. A man jumping the perimeter fence and ending up on the taxiway.

CNN's aviation correspondent Rene Marsh has more for us in D.C. What have you learned, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, investigators still aren't sure who or where this man is. He was able to get away before police even got on scene. Investigators are now going through surveillance video frame by frame. We are told there are no clear shots of the man's face. The video shows him from behind only as he scales that fence at the airport.

We do know it was a cargo airline worker who spotted and questioned the intruder who didn't have the required I.D. That's when the trespasser warned, quote, "You better not say expletive." This all happened about a week ago and it really demonstrates the holes it security post-9/11. Perimeter security, which is the situation we're talking about here, is the airport's responsibility. Chris?

[06:30:02] CAMEROTA: I'll take it, Rene, because what is the airline and airport's response to this report?

MARSH: Well, you know, Port Authority is in charge of the airport.