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CNN Poll: Trump Running Away From GOP Field; What Is Huckabee's Plan To Gain Traction?; Growing Questions In Search For "Affluenza" Teen; Florida Radio Host Has Concerns About Muslim Deputy. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired December 23, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:33] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN/ORC poll released in the last hour shows Donald Trump way ahead of the GOP pack with 39 percent support among Republican voters. The poll not looking promising for Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, a 2008 Iowa caucus who is winner stuck at just 2 percent.

Let's talk about all of this as Governor Huckabee joins us now to weigh in on those numbers and his place in the race. Good morning, Governor.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning, Alisyn. Good to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Before we get to your numbers, let's talk about Donald Trump for a moment and his continued dominance. Right now the numbers in the latest CNN poll, he has more than his closest three rivals combined. How do you explain what we're seeing with Trump?

HUCKABEE: Voters are really, really angry and frankly, I don't blame them. I'm angry, too. I think we're all frustrated. Government is completely out of touch with us. They have ruined or economy. They haven't protected us.

I think people are disgusted and frustrated with the insider dealing that goes on. What I call the Washington to Wall Street axis of power where the politicians do the dance of the donor class.

Usually it's at the expense of the working class and people are sick of it. So do you do see this incredible frustration and anger out there. I see it everywhere I go. I hear it. It's visceral, it's visible, and it's very vocal this year.

CAMEROTA: And Governor, Donald Trump, does seem to be tapping into that and resonating with voters who feel that way. On Monday at a campaign stop, he made what can only be described as some vulgar comments about Hillary Clinton and how she lost in 2008. What do you think of his language?

HUCKABEE: Well, it's earthy. Let's just be blunt. That's the best way to put it. He is tapping into a sense of which people just want someone to say publicly at the podium what they might say at the coffee shop with three or four close friends as they huddle together.

And I think to some people that is incredibly appealing. So this, look, election, I know polls are all that people talk about, but nobody has voted yet. And I just keep reminding people that until voters go on February 1 and actually start voting, we don't know what will happen.

And the polls have been incredibly wrong. It was wrong in the Kentucky governor race. It was wrong in the Eric Cantor/Dave Bratt race. Polls have been incredibly off key in many, many key races across the country over the last couple of years.

And I think we might be surprised at what happens February 1st when the Iowa caucuses actually happen and people are voting and not just answering a phone.

CAMEROTA: Now I do want get to those polls in a second, but, Governor, I think you're being charitable to Donald Trump. Look, you and I have known each other for a long time. We used to work together in different TV gigs where we saw each other every weekend.

Our offices were right next to each other and never once, Governor, have I ever heard you utter a profane word. Never. I mean, if you're really worked up, you might call somebody like a rascal.

[07:35:03]So you can't be happy with the language that Donald Trump is using and do you think he's hurting the GOP brand?

HUCKABEE: Well, he uses language that as you know and you just stated I don't use and maybe that's to my detriment this year, maybe it would be better if I did, but that's not who I am. I can't be some I'm not.

A lot of people can run for office and they can decide what the polls say. They can reflect it, but I believe that real leaders are not thermometers just reflecting the mood of vote voters.

They're thermostats. They seek to adjust the temperature for what it ought to be, rather than just simply reflect for what it is.

If we want a leadership election, that will be a different kind of vote that we will have if we have a -- what I call a thermostat election rather than a thermometer election where all we do is simply reflect the mood of voters, sometimes very angrily.

CAMEROTA: OK, Governor, so let's talk about those poll numbers. I know that you say that national poll numbers are not that significant, nobody has voted yet and you make a good point.

But let's talk about what is going on in Iowa. You were the winner in 2008. Here is the latest Iowa polling. This is from the "Des Moines Register." This is from last week.

Ted Cruz is winning there at 31 percent. Donald Trump at 21 percent. Towards the middle of the pack, you find Governor Mike Huckabee at 3 percent. So, Governor, what is the path? I mean, how do you think you can possibly leap frog all of those people ahead of you to get some traction in Iowa?

HUCKABEE: Well, Alisyn, we did a survey last week of 5,000 voters in Iowa, 5,000. Not a few hundred, 5,000, 75 percent of those voters said they haven't made up their mind, 58 percent of those voters said they haven't even really come to any conclusion yet. They are not even leaning one way or the other.

Iowa voters break late. I like to say this way. Iowa voters typically love to date, but they don't put a ring on it until just before the wedding.

And we saw four years ago, Rick Santorum five days out from the caucuses was in sixth place out of seven candidates. He was in low single digits and he ended up winning the caucuses.

Eight years ago, people were saying I might come in third, maybe second, but Romney would run away with it. And it would be pretty much foregone conclusion that he would win. I ended up winning.

Got more votes than anyone in the history of the Iowa caucuses. So I go into this with a little different perspective because I know how Iowa breaks late, I know that it's about the ground game.

I just was there last night. I will be there right after Christmas. We'll pretty much spend the month of January there. It may not work. I don't know. We'll see.

But I'm not willing to just throw in the towel because some poll numbers based on a few hundred people, which have been so wrong in the past, so completely misjudging where things will land when folks actually vote.

I still think when people will say we like someone in the cockpit who has flown a plane before, not somebody who makes a good speech, but somebody who has actually made tough decisions in an executive level of government and has a history of getting things done because Americans don't want any more speeches.

We've had seven years of a president who makes a lot of speeches. We want somebody who knows how to govern and that means getting both Democrats and Republicans together and true leadership follows that.

CAMEROTA: I mean, you say that, Governor, but that is not what voters seem to want this year. They don't want the insider. They want the outsider. They don't want somebody with a proven record of governing.

They want somebody who has been unsullied by Washington and by government and by politics as usual. So your pitch to them, I don't know if it is falling on deaf ears this time around.

HUCKABEE: One of things I have to remind them is that I'm not a Washington guy. I'm not an insider if insider means you've ever had a paycheck from Washington. Some of people that they seem to be liking right now they need to remember they are Washington insiders.

They may say they are not, but that's where they have had most of their adult paychecks. They live there you now, they haven't changed the system.

So if you haven't been able to do it since you've been there, it's kind of like the old biblical principle of the parable that says if you've not been faithful over little things, don't make you master over bigger things.

People need to ask, what have you done where you are? And if you've not done well there, maybe we don't really want to elevate you to give you greater responsibility when you've not shown an extraordinary ability to get the things done where you already stand.

CAMEROTA: OK, so Governor, your plan is to move to Iowa for January, basically moving your house to Iowa and you're going to do a lot of gum shoe politicking there. If it doesn't go your way in Iowa, then what?

HUCKABEE: Well, if we don't come in, in the top three in Iowa and we just don't have a good finish there, look, it's probably not going to happen for us in the states that are coming later.

[07:40:08]So we all understand that, but I just keep going back to the fact that the polls have been so wrong in the past and Iowa voters don't like to be told what they're going to do. And we'll see.

On February 1st, they will actually vote. They won't be a poll. It will be people going to a caucus. And at that point, the whole trajectory of this election could change overnight. If it does, I'll see them in South Carolina.

If it doesn't, then I've made a good stab at it. But I'm confident that there are people who when they really get down to the point where they vote, they will start thinking about somebody has to sit at that desk, they have to fly the plane.

Have they ever done that before, have they ever landed one before? And they need to remember their kids and their grandkids are aboard that plane for the future and they might want someone who has flown through the storms and safely landed the plane time and time again. We'll see if that matters this year. I hope it does.

CAMEROTA: OK, Governor, the master of the metaphor, Governor Mike Huckabee, we will see you in Iowa. Merry Christmas to you.

HUCKABEE: Merry Christmas to you, Alisyn. Great talking to you again.

CAMEROTA: All right, a quick programming note. Tomorrow we'll hear from Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders. He joins us on NEW DAY with the latest and his take on it in this race.

COUMO: We've also been following this affluenza story, the teen involved Ethan Couch and his mother, where are they? Tips are pouring in, but are the police close to finding them? We have two officials heading up the search. Stay with us.

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[07:45:34]

COUMO: Hundreds of tips, yet no actual proof of where 18-year-old Ethan Couch is at this moment. On the lam for over a week. You remember him, the teen dodging prison because he has affluenza, he was too rich to know right from wrong.

His mother missing, as well. The manhunt now the top priority for two people helping lead the search, U.S. Marshal for the Northern District of Texas, Mr. Richard Taylor, and Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us this morning.

Richard, I'll start with you. Where is he, what's the best sense?

RICHARD TAYLOR, U.S. MARSHAL FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS: Well, we don't know right now. We continue to work very closely with Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office. Investigators are pouring over all the leads that we have, they're developing leads.

They're pursuing those. They're closing out some of those leads. But they're also looking at all the tips that have come in and we've been getting tips from all over the country.

They're sifting through those and those that are relevant and important are pursuing them and those that are not, we're closing those out, as well.

COUMO: We have clouds in front of us because we don't know where he is. Let's take one step back, Sheriff. Was this kid be monitored the right way, do we see anything there that went wrong?

SHERIFF DEE ANDERSON, TARRANT COUNTY: Well, always in my opinion he should have never been free to be monitored. But his probation terms were not as strict as I would have liked to have seen them or anyone else.

He was just reporting to a probation officer on a schedule. There was no real close monitoring of him. So someone that had committed that kind of crime I would have certainly like to have seen different terms of probation with a closer watch put on him.

But of course that's a decision made by the court by the same people who decided he wasn't going to serve any prison time for killing four innocent people while driving three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

COUMO: Absolutely. You are not responsible for the determination of his sentence. You are just responsible now with finding the guy. What sense do you get when you talk to friends, family members, do you think anybody knows something?

ANDERSON: You always believe someone knows something. What they tell you and how much information they're willing to give you is always suspect. But we've talked to people. And as Rick said, we have so many leads coming in, it's almost like we have to triage the leads like an emergency room.

We're trying to work the best leads first. So we have so much information coming in, but we remain hopeful as the marshals do that that one call will come in or that one piece of information will come in that will lead us where we need to go.

And with the amount of people we have working on it and the amount of tips we are getting in and the amount of outrage and response that the public has given over this case.

I remain confident that someone will give us the right information or there will be a slip up somewhere by Ethan or his mother and we'll find out where they are and be able to bring them into custody.

COUMO: That's what this did, it compounded the feeling that this kid wasn't treated in the right way in the first place and sure enough it has.

Richard, do we still think at this point that it is about him being with his mom, that they're in a black Ford, what is the freshest information for us to put out there?

TAYLOR: We still believe that he is with his mother. As far as vehicles, we are still not sure. We are looking for the truck, but we're also looking for other vehicles, as well. We look for everything.

But it's our belief that they're still together. I think that if she was not with him, she would have reached out to us. Otherwise, why wouldn't she.

But we're taking all that in stride and we are confident and I'm very pleased with the progress of the investigation so far and like the sheriff said, you know, it's going to take them -- being a fugitive is not easy.

It's very difficult. Takes an emotional and physical toll on the person's body. They will make a mistake eventually and we will be there when they make that mistake.

COUMO: It is somewhat surprising. They have managed to elude this long. Sheriff, what happens to the mom when you catch her if she indeed with the son and helping him along this path of violation?

ANDERSON: We will file a criminal case or cases as serious and with as much punishment for her as we can get. We've said since day one if she's helping him, if she's helping him evade the detention, if she's helping him hide, she breaking the law.

[07:50:02]So we will file a criminal case or cases against her and we will push along with the D.A. who is cooperating with us fully in this investigation. We will push for pull prosecution of her and our hope is that they will both be locked up for some time and finally Ethan will be held accountable for what he did.

COUMO: How long could Ethan do after this?

ANDERSON: Well, the original sentence was ten years, which he's done about two years of. So he could certainly have to serve out the remainder of his probation sentence would be about eight years.

But now you also could potentially face murder charges for fleeing and evading and doing what he's doing right now. So we could see some substantial actual prison time for him when we locate him.

COUMO: Gentlemen, you have plenty on your plate already as we head into Christmas. Thank you very much for joining us. Best to your families.

CAMEROTA: Here is a controversial story. There are calls if Florida for a Muslim sheriff's deputy to step down. His critics say he would not be tough on extremists. We look at this case next.

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CAMEROTA: By all accounts the Muslim sheriff's deputy in Florida is trying to do his job, but some in his community want him to step aside, they doubt his commitment to stopping Islamic terrorism. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I want do is get my questions answered. I know not every Muslim is a Jihadist, but all the Jihadists seem to be Muslims.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joyce Kaufman has been on talk radio in South Florida for more than 20 years. A hot topic these days is a man named Nezar Hanze.

[07:55:03]He is the regional director of CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations. He is also a sheriff's deputy of Broward County.

Kaufman says Deputy Hanze wasn't properly vetter given his connection to CAIR and wants him gone from the police department.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've been called everything from racist to moron to one trick pony. And I refuse to bow down.

KAYE (on camera): Are you an Islamophobe?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not at all.

KAYE: Neither Hanze nor sheriff would speak with us, but a spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff's Department told me Hanze has been with the department since 2011, a full-time deputy since 2014. The department considers him an excellent deputy and loyal American.

(voice-over): Hanze travels the state speaking out against extremism and trains Muslims in mosques how to escape an active shooter. Still, Kaufman wants him investigated and she's not alone. Activist David Rosenthal calls Deputy Hanze "Deputy Hamas."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hate Islam. Islam is evil.

KAYE: Rosenthal even held a rally protesting Hanze, but CAIR Florida's lawyer says critics have it all wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whenever we're in an electoral year, there is a spike of this Islamophobic rhetoric. When we heard people like Trump, it's definitely hate speech.

KAYE: Kaufmann supports Donald Trump's idea to surveil mosques and bans the Muslims.

(on camera): Do you think you are contributing to the fear when you bring it up on the air?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the fear is there. I don't think I do anything to stoke it. I don't have to. It's there.

KAYE (voice-over): The fact is and Kaufmann knows the numbers, only a very small fraction of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims endorse the violence of terror groups like ISIS and al Qaeda. Still, she wonders if Hanze would take action.

(on camera): As a sheriff's deputy, his job is to uphold the law and it sounds like you're concerned that maybe he would turn the other way if he heard some radical conversations taking place in a mosque.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is correct. I don't know. I can't say that is a fact, but I can't say it's not a fact.

KAYE (voice-over): Kaufmann wants to know if Hanze was ever cleared by the FBI. The lawyer for CAIR says he was fully vetted by the FBI. Randi Kaye, CNN, Fort Lauderdale.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Critics say all the time moderate Muslims need to speak out in their communities against extremism. Why aren't they doing that? Here is a guy doing that and that is not good enough for the critics.

COUMO: It's fear of the unknown. On that radio lady's wall, it says it's not the strong that survive, it's the intelligent ones. The intelligence is lacking in this fear. All Jihadist are Muslim. Yes, Jihadi is a Muslim term.

It's a perversion of a quest to truth within the faith. So, yes that's true, but that has been extended to all Muslims. We see it again and again. It is a fear of the irrational.

The sheriff's department says he's good enough for them and he was vet and he's connected to CAIR, which is another big target for people who have concerns about Muslims.

That group is seen as being connected rightly or wrongly. But this is a problem to deal with. More and more we see that Muslim equals terrorist to people in this country.

CAMEROTA: Let us know your take. You can find us both on Twitter as well as the show.

COUMO: And we have new poll numbers this morning that give a true picture of the state of play in the GOP right at this moment. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump the overwhelming favorite in the GOP.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is turning more and more into a two-man race between Donald Trump and me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people who like Cruz also like Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's playing the woman card.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We shouldn't let anyone bully his way into the presidency.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This will enhance her victimology.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the move to take back the city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a big test. They haven't passed even part one yet.

CAMEROTA: As holiday travel rush gets going, major security breach at JFK International Airport.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He climbed a fence and walked across two intersecting runways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The person was able to get away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COUMO: My Christmas list of what I want you to give me.

CAMEROTA: I'll look forward to that.

COUMO: Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, December 23rd, 8:00 in the east. Mich is off and we have new CNN polling out just this morning.

Headline, Donald Trump numero uno. New numbers show it is overwhelming, look at it, 39 percent in the nation. He's got a high floor, but a low ceiling. Whatever, 39 percent. The next three in the field don't match him combined.