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New Day
Houston Mosque Fire; Trump Goes After Bill Clinton Over "Sexism"; "Star Wars" Tops $1 Billion Globally; Beatles Music a Hit on Streaming Services. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired December 28, 2015 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:31:20] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Investigators now say a fire at a Houston mosque was intentionally set. The council on American Islamic Relations wants to know if the motives stem from anti-Muslim sentiment following weeks of heated rhetoric about Muslims in the U.S. Joining me now from Houston is the president of the Islamic Society of Houston, MJ Khan. His organization runs a group of mosques in the Houston area, including the mosque that caught fire.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
First of all, you've sent us some pictures that show the damage to the facility. Walk me through what happened. Thankfully, it was after prayers. There wasn't anybody in the building. But show us what these pictures - what kind of damage there was.
MJ KHAN, PRESIDENT, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF HOUSTON: Well, first of all, thank you so much for giving this opportunity. All praise be to the Lord, the Almighty, the most compassionate, the most merciful.
What happened Friday, on Christmas Day, we had our Friday congregation prayers at around - between 1:30 to 2:00 in the afternoon. After that, almost everybody left the premises, went about their businesses. And around 2:45, people in the shopping area, shopping center, noticed the smoke coming out and they called the 911. Houston Fire Department promptly responded. It was a huge fire. It was - they call it two alarm fire. There were about 80 firemen involved in there. So it basically destroyed the facility, but we are very optimistic that, first of all, the investigation will be thorough and complete, and then we will be committed to reopen that facility as soon as possible.
ROMANS: And you're saying you are praying this was accidental. It was being treated now though as something suspicious. Why are you praying that this was accidental?
KHAN: Well, because we hope and pray that it is accidental because we don't want to get into a situation where people are attacking places of worship. These places are where people come for worship to find tranquillity and peace and we want everybody fell welcome there. And we still hope that it is - it was accidental, but we'll wait to see what the authorities determine.
ROMANS: You mentioned that it - the people in the mall smelled the smoke. It is a facility that is adjacent to or in a mall in the area. Two alarms, some 80 firefighters. Had you had any threats? Had there been any negative rhetoric to your people in - who gather there or to you or the facility?
KHAN: Well, if you know about Houston, Houston is a city which is - which has the best inter community relationship inter - inter faith relationship, inter ethnicity relationship. So, no, we do not have any history of any threats or any kind of potential threats against any community. And we enjoy harmony in the community. And that's what we are hoping for -
ROMANS: Right.
KHAN: That this thing will be over soon and we'll reopen our mosque and start prayers again, welcome everybody again.
ROMANS: The Council on American Islamic Relations says there's been an uptick in violence targeting Muslims in the U.S., blaming the political environment. This is what the group said. "Because of the recent spike in hate incidents targeting mosques nationwide, we urge law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for this fire."
Are you concerned about the rhetoric nationwide on the political - on the campaign trail? Are you concerned about an anti-Muslim bias in the country now?
[08:35:07] KHAN: Well, first of all, we, as Muslims, we are required not to get into rumor mongering or speculation. Let authorities take care of whatever the investigation they do. And once the investigation is complete, we can assure you that if it was not accidental, the Muslim community will have the compassion in their heart to forgive the people who are behind even the attack on the mosque.
ROMANS: So even if this was arson -
KHAN: (INAUDIBLE) the (INAUDIBLE) about -
ROMANS: Even if this was arson, you would - your - your message would be to forgive the arsonists?
KHAN: Yes, because we don't hold any grudges. And if you look at the teachings of Prophet Mohammed, Allah be pleased with him, and his life history, he has taught us that if - even if somebody attacks you or treats you with negativity, the only proper response is with kindness and mercy. And that's what the Muslim community intends to do, plans to do. And we hope, like I said, it is accidental. But if it is not, I think the Muslim community will find compassion in their heart to forgive the person and welcome that person to come and find tranquillity and peace in the place of worship.
ROMANS: All right, we'll keep tabs on the investigation. Thank you so much, MJ Khan, for joining us from Houston.
Don.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Christine.
Donald Trump going after Hillary Clinton by pointing out her husband's indiscretions, but is it wise for Trump to take on Bill Clinton given the former president's popularity? That debate next right here on NEW DAY.
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[08:40:28] LEMON: That music means it's time for politics, right? So let's talk about it. Is it smart for Donald Trump to go after one of the most popular politicians in America? It seems - well, he seems to think so. And he is now targeting Bill Clinton's personal life after Hillary Clinton said Trump had a penchant for sexism. Here's what he tweeted. He tweeted this in response, when he asked if he thinks Bill Clinton is fair game at all, he said this. There it is. "Hillary Clinton has announced that she is -
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): I think he is fair game because his presidency was really considered to be very troubled, to put it mildly, because of all of the things that she's talking to me about. I mean she's mentioning sexism. I actually turned to her exact words. I don't know if you saw the - the following tweet. But I turned her exact words against her from that standpoint.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right, and you saw the tweet and we put the tweet up earlier. So, let's discuss this now with CNN political commentator, former Reagan White House political director and - Jeffrey Lord. He is a Trump supporter. And Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to Bill Clinton is Mr. Richard Socarides.
OK, so, Jeffrey Lord, the stories about Bill Clinton's infidelity have been, you know, harshed -- hashed and rehashed over and over again, personal problems, you know, the whole thing where - the impeachment, all of that.
JEFFREY LORD, FORMER REAGAN W.H. POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right.
LEMON: So -
LORD: I do remember it.
LEMON: Why would he even want to go there?
LORD: Well, he wants to go there because Hillary Clinton is out there talking about sexism and bullying women, et cetera. And there are women out there who are targeted by Bill Clinton, who are saying that they themselves were bullied by Hillary Clinton. And, notably, that would be Juanita Broaddrick, who was quite outspoken about this. So, yes, in fact, the issue is really Hillary Clinton and her treatment of women.
So, you know, one of the things, Don, that happens in politicians is people will think that a certain candidate has a lot of strengths. Mitt Romney and his business record, et cetera. Or Michael Dukakis, to go back a ways, and his environmental record. Sometimes your strength can be your weakness. It turned out that one of Mitt Romney's companies had denied health insurance to a steel worker's wife. The Democrats picked up on that and used it against him. The Bush campaign in 1988 ran a boat with a television camera into Boston Harbor to see how polluted it was, and it backfired. So it is something and I think the Clinton campaign needs to be very, very careful about here.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: So - so, Richard, be careful about or do they respond? You've worked closely with Bill Clinton. What do you - how do you think he'll react or will he at all?
RICHARD SOCARIDES, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, listen, I think, first of all, the American public realizes that Hillary Clinton is running for president, not Bill Clinton, and that they are different people and she's not running for - she's not running for a third Bill Clinton term, nor is she running for a second Obama - a third Obama term, right? She's running. She's her own person. She'll have her own presidency. She - she's got a great record to run on that we're all proud of.
But - but I think, you know, with respect to this particular episode, I mean Bill Clinton is probably one of the most respected and most popular public figures in America, if not the world. And so if - if the Republicans, if Mr. Trump wants to make this campaign a referendum on the Bill Clinton presidency, and eight years of almost unparalleled peace and prosperity, I think that this will work pretty well for Democrats.
LEMON: Yes, the question is though, I guess, is it appropriate? And should they be talking about these particular issues? Listen, everything is fair game. Everything is fair game in a presidential campaign, but does it really behoove Donald Trump to go there, especially when 50 percent of the country sees Bill Clinton as a positive, views him positively. He is known for his political prowess. I mean do you think he's setting himself up for a takedown by going after Bill Clinton?
SOCARIDES: I do think he's setting himself up, but I think he's, right know, appealing to a very narrow sector of the Republican electorate. That crazy sector of people - of the electorate that supports him now. I mean I think he's really becoming a little unhinged, Donald Trump, and I think you saw it a little bit in the last debate when he was - he was going back and forth with Jeb Bush. I think that the Republican establishment right now are hoping that he becomes unhinged. I mean, to me, he seems a little bit like a Howard Beal (ph) like figure in that movie "Network," right?
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE).
SOCARIDES: But at some moments. But I think it's crazy. I mean let's remember that it was Megyn Kelly on Fox News who first accused him of sexism and he went right after her. And that created quite a stir. And - and now -
LEMON: But it helped him.
[08:45:00] SOCARIDES: Well, it helped him with a very narrow portion of the Republican primary electorate. I think in the general election, and the - with the general electorate, this will hurt him a lot.
[08:45:13] PEREIRA: Jeffrey, Trump also accused Clinton Clinton of using the so-called "women's card." I wasn't issued one of those, apparently. Why is mentioning the possibility of sexism on the campaign trail tantamount to Clinton using a gender card?
LORD: Well, I think she is going to play this card. It's an obvious card to play. Let's be candid.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: Is it a card? She is a woman. It's not really a card.
LORD: Right, she is a woman. So I mean, she's the one going around saying, isn't it time for a woman president? So if you put yourself out there --
PEREIRA: A lot of people would say amen to that.
LORD: Well, okay, that's the woman card right there. She's not saying, I'm the Democratic nominee for president. She's saying, I'm a woman who is a nominee for president. There is a difference.
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: Listen, I think -
(CROSSTALK)
SOCARIDES: If it was the only thing she was running on, I think it'd be one thing. But she has an amazing record of decades of accomplishment, of fighting for women, yes, but fighting for kids and fighting for working people. She's running on a campaign based upon economics and helping the middle class, lowering taxes, returning prosperity, peace and abroad. So I think to say that she's running as a woman candidate --
PEREIRA: You feel like she has a few other things going for her?
SOCARIDES: I think she has a few others things -
LEMON: But I also think that if she's saying she's going to put her husband out there, then they're going to use everything in their power to hit back.
SOCARIDES: Well listen, let's remember --
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: We have to leave it there, gentlemen. We got to leave it there. We can talk about this for days on end, and I'm sure we will.
LORD: You're right.
PEREIRA: Jeffrey Lord and Richard Socarides, great to have you.
SOCARIDES: The woman rules the roost around here. You see that.
PEREIRA: Absolutely today I do. Christine, don't you know it?
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Oh, I know. Look it -- Living up to the hype, guys. People coming out in record numbers to check out the new "Star Wars" movie. What new benchmark has been set by "The Force Awakens?" A look at the jaw-dropping numbers, folks, next on NEW DAY.
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[08:50:49] (CLIP FROM "STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS")
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: You have to see it. We can't keep the spoilers away from you forever. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" shattering another box office record. $1 billion in just 12 days, 12 days, a cool billion faster than any film in history. So why is this film all the rage? And how high could it go?
PEREIRA: Money talks with you.
ROMANS: Yes. Larry Hackett - and I also love this movie - Larry Hackett is former managing editor of "People" magazine. Look, it's a good film. I -- The theater that I saw it in was full of people who had already seen it once. So that's why these box office numbers are big.
LARRY HACKETT, FORMER MANAGING EDITOR, PEOPLE MAGAZINE: Absolutely.
PEREIRA: Oh, returns.
ROMANS: You've got people around the world seeing it for the fist time, for the second. If we look here, inflation adjusted, "Gone With the Wind" is the most successful film in American history - domestic film, Could this one be up there? Could this get up there and be one of the best --
HACKETT: It's possible. I mean, movie-going was different back then. There was a lot more cinemas back then, it was cheaper, all that kind of thing. I think it's entirely possible. If not domestically, certainly internationally. This movie has not opened in China yet. You have hundreds of millions of viewers there who clearly are thrilled and can't wait to see this. I think it's entirely possible. The numbers so far have just been staggering, really.
PEREIRA: What do you think this is about? Because I know there is a gigantic nostalgia for people like you and I . We remember 1977 vaguely. It brings us back. But they managed to get this new crowd of people, too. HACKETT: I have this feeling, you know, there's been a lot of
discussion about this, the idea, you know, when we were young, you didn't listen to your parents' music. And there's this whole idea that generationally, people don't go -- I think that's over. I think the way culture is consumed right now, whether it's with DVD or Spotify or whatever it is, people are going backwards and listening to these things. My kids were listening to the Beatles over the weekend on Spotify.
PEREIRA: Are you kidding me?
HACKETT: These divisions don't really exist anymore.
ROMANS: Another very lucrative move.
HACKETT: Yup.
ROMANS: Let me ask you about this film, though. It's delivering on all the -- you be quiet for one second.
LEMON: I haven't seen it and I haven't seen the original "Star Wars" in its entirety. I'm just not --
ROMANS: But it's delivering on the hype though, right?
HACKETT: You know, you're not going to -- People like you are not going to fill the movie theater. There aren't many of you left.
LEMON: I want to go back and look at it now considering - But I was more into "Airplane," you know, the movie, than I was "Star Wars."
HACKETT: Well I think the success now goes back to the kind of like primal elements of these stories, right? It's the good side, it's the bad side, it's fathers and son, friendship, camaraderie, all that. So the new movie has all of that in there. That predates 1977. That goes back to the campfire and people sitting around with togas on.
LEMON: So nostalgia, you said, nostalgia is the thing, considering the Beatles releasing their entire soundtrack.
HACKETT: I think it's nostalgic for people like us. I think for young people, the idea that it's old and it's your parents' piece of entertainment, doesn't matter anymore. It's a good story. People listen to the Beatles or go to "Star Wars," they think ew it's old, they just think this is good stuff and I want to discover it on my own.
ROMANS: This investment by Disney, so it was in 2012 that Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion.
HACKETT: What a steal.
ROMANS: And you look now at how much money they have made, and this is just the beginning of what will be more films, more video games and merchandise. It's almost endless possibilities. HACKETT: Tom Rothman, the head of Sony, is quoted in the paper today
saying that the summer of 2017, every single summer weekend will be some studio mining their vaults for "Wolverine," "Spiderman," another "Star Wars," it's a "Batman" or "Superman" coming. All of this is -- I have a feeling this is all we're going to start seeing from these studios.
PEREIRA: But you know what? Think about it, it could have gone another way. "Star Wars" fans are so very particular. They know the story. It had to be perfect. They know the story better than anybody else. Especially now with the technology the way it is, you can make things look really great. Especially because they were taking it away from the legendary filmmaker and putting it in the hands of another. Yet, they've managed to do it.
HACKETT: Three things. Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker were going to be back in this movie.
PEREIRA: And Chewbacca. Come on, man.
HACKETT: I don't want to make it seem like it was a slam dunk and it was going to be easy. You could always ruin this thing. But that has a huge part of the story. And that, I think, is what makes it work.
LEMON: I'm getting you some -
ROMANS: Let's talk about Beatles quick, though. Let's look at the top Beatles songs on Spotify because they held out for a long time.
HACKETT: They did.
PEREIRA: They're finally online now.
HACKETT: And they held out for a long time on Apple. I mean, they're always kind of late adapters for all of this.
[08:55:01] ROMANS: Because I think that they wanted to make sure that this would - I mean, look, it had to be lucrative for them and they had to make sure that it was worthy of the music. So -
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: "Come Together," "Let It Be," "Hey Jude" --
HACKETT: What's No. 1?
ROMANS: "Love Me Do" -- "Come Together." This is on Spotfiy.
PEREIRA: And this is interesting, too, because it says a time where technology is ubiquitous for everybody, talk about crossgenerational. Everybody is using it. So original Beatles fans will listen to it on all these devices, as well.
LEMON: Watch this. Are you a Beatles fan?
PEREIRA: No, I'm not. (LAUGHTER)
HACKETT: But I'm a huge Beatles fan. So I think it's fantastic.
ROMANS: The average age of -- a big share of the people downloading it on Spotify are - streaming it on Spotify are -
PEREIRA: Much older than I am.
ROMANS: Under 34. So yes, a little older than you.
LEMON: It's always interesting to me when you look for certain artists on Spotify and you can't find them, you get like covers. And it's just -
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: This is big.
HACKETT: It's maddening.
(CROSSTALK)
PEREIRA: This is big.
LEMON: Like Zeppelin and now this. I love this.
HACKETT: Or you try to find some particular album and it's not there. It's like why isn't that one album there? I just --
PEREIRA: Times are changing -
(CROSSTALK)
HACKETT: The problems we have right now sitting on that treadmill, why can't I get that one album on Spotify?
PEREIRA: Good to have you with us. Hopefully we'll talk to you before the new year comes.
HACKETT: Good to be here.
ROMANS: Thank you.
PEREIRA: And thanks to the two of you. We're going to wrap up NEW DAY right now. "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow in for Carol Costello begins after a short break.
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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now in the "NEWSROOM," devastating storms, more than 40 people killed across seven states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear the loud roar, like a -- like a train, and within 15 to 20 seconds it's all over.
