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New Day

Powerball Frenzy Grips the Nation; Sanders Surges Past Clinton in Iowa & N.H.; Interview with Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired January 13, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:57] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We are about 16 hours away from the biggest event in lottery history. The jackpot for tonight's Powerball drawing, a whopping $1.5 billion and it is still rising. The ticket buying frenzy has many people going to great lengths in their quest for that golden ticket.

We go first to CNN Polo Sandoval in Georgia. He's in Georgia, right near the Alabama border.

Polo, explain why you were there at that site.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have to ask yourself, too, Michaela, what do you do if you can't play Powerball in your own state? You get in your car and you drive. That's what we've seen really in the last several days, including this region, in this part of the country here. People are driving over the Georgia/Alabama state line which is only five miles from where we are this morning. This is one of the first stops for many people hoping to win big later tonight.

And I have to tell you, when we arrived here a couple hours ago, there were plenty of people in line, many of those individuals were cut off early this morning at 1:00 a.m., when they stopped selling those tickets. They decided instead of driving back home, they simply would just stand in line throughout the night, waiting to be the first to get their tickets purchased early this morning.

Today, it's interesting, because it really is a night and day difference, the line, only three people at this hour here. But the owner of this shop telling us they expect a massive crowd later today. In fact, the store has essentially reshuffled some of the shelving to accommodate what's expected to be plenty of people that are hoping to win big later today -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Yes, we're hearing about gas stations who people can buy gas because the lineup to get tickets is so long.

Polo, our thanks to you in Tallapoosa, Georgia.

Meanwhile, Powerball fever is also running rampant here in New York City. CNN's Phil Mattingly is live at New York's busiest lottery location, which is about to open at New York's Penn Station.

Phil, I understand people from all socioeconomic backgrounds are buying these tickets, too.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All -- from all over the place, Michaela. This Carlton cards behind me in the bowels of Penn Station is expected to be packed, even before it opens. We've had milling about travelers about to miss trains, still trying to see come tap on the glass.

We asked a few of the people here what their strategies were to win this $1.5 billion jackpot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERESA DEVEREUX, FROM NEW YORK CITY: It only takes one ticket. I've bought $10 worth. But it only takes one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a ton of tickets at home, over $200 worth of Powerball tickets. The first thing I'm going to do is retire and I'm going to look to move some place warm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: So, Michaela, not only strategies but also plans, too, if they end up winning. One thing to keep in mind, while the odds are really stacked against you, 1 in 292 million to win this jackpot, this store is a pretty good place to try. As you noted, more people buy tickets here than anywhere else in the state of New York. And more people win here as well.

Multiple million dollar winners over the last couple of years. And last year, in March, a $58 million Powerball winner, the winners -- 16 employees of a store just two floors up, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Love that.

MATTINGLY: So, if you're in New York and you want luck, this might be an OK place to try.

PEREIRA: I would say so.

And, Phil, since you're new to CNN, welcome, first of all, to NEW DAY. You don't know what we do here. We make the reporter out in the field buy the tickets for the pool back in the station. So, you're in charge of that fellow, OK. NEW DAY needs what, about 60 tickets?

MATTINGLY: You finance that, though?

PEREIRA: No, no, no, that's on you. That's on you being the new guy.

MATTINGLY: On me, on me? OK, got it.

(LAUGHTER)

PEREIRA: Welcome to CNN and to NEW DAY, Phil. Good to have you.

MATTINGLY: Sounds great, Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. Folks at home, what would you do if you won this historically huge jackpot? Part of the fun is his dreaming, right? Tweet us at NEW DAY or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay. We'll read some of those responses later in the show.

Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I'll look forward to that.

All right. Hillary Clinton shrugging off her sagging poll numbers, though she's now trailing Bernie Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire. Our politicos are here next with what this means.

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[06:38:08] CAMEROTA: Hillary Clinton may be downplaying Bernie Sanders, taking the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire. But is that the right tact?

Here this morning, "TIME" political reporter, Zeke Miller, and CNN political analyst and editor in chief for "The Daily Beast", John Avlon, as I mumble through your introduction.

John, let me start with you.

I sat down with Hillary Clinton. In person, she seems confident. She seems comfortable. But her campaign must be nervous that Bernie Sanders in polls is now winning New Hampshire, maybe they expected that. But also Iowa, look at that the latest numbers compared to just last month. He had 40. He now has 49. She had 51, she now has 44.

The momentum is going in the wrong direction.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, look. I mean, that trend is not her friend. There's no question about it. We talked for a long time about how Bernie Sanders could win one or both of the first two contests. And that really would put the Clinton campaign back on its heels in the short term. From a news media narrative standpoint, nothing goods come out of that.

But if she looks confident, it's because those national numbers haven't moved significantly. If she looks confident, it's because she's still the person overwhelmingly likely to become the Democratic nominee. Bernie is not going to like that, but that's just the reality right now.

CAMEROTA: Zeke, did any expect? Did people see this coming? I mean, Hillary Clinton, the most arguably most famous woman in the world, against Bernie Sanders, who certainly was not a household name before this presidential race, did anyone predict he might win the first two voting states?

ZEKE MILLER, TIME POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, Alisyn, that's exactly the question. That's both working in her favor and against her. This is certainly a surprise for the Clinton campaign. They invested heavily in Iowa and New Hampshire, they figured they might have a contest in one, probably not both of the states, and now if Iowa, like New Hampshire, is really in play, if they were to lose both of them, that would set them back.

Obviously, they have the fire wall here in South Carolina where certainly among their support among African-American voters, it would be a lot harder for Bernie Sanders to make the inroads.

[06:40:07] At the same time, there's maybe another way of looking at it that, you know, she's been seen as the inevitable Democratic nominee for two, three, six years if you look at it. That maybe a little a bit, you know, a little bit of fight, having to fight for it would help peel some of the varnish off and show her as a person to improve as a primary candidate and that would strengthen her for the general.

CAMEROTA: Why are you chuckling, John Avlon?

AVLON: I'm laughing because I remember in that old joke, there must be a pony in here somewhere. I mean, the Hillary Clinton campaign is looking for silver lining, two bad states right at the giddyap.

I mean, you know, they've got to find something that is good.

Look, Bernie Sanders has captured the imagination of the Democratic populist base. The Democratic Party is beginning a process that Republicans have been through for a few years right now. But if the Democrats decide to take like a Jeremy Corbin route as labor did in England, it will have a similar outcome. That's the reality there, too.

So, the Clinton campaign is a different operation. It is making essentially an electability argument. The danger is, the flip side of that can be the inevitability argument and that did not work so well last --

CAMEROTA: Also, in terms of the electability argument, in head- to-head matchups, she's not doing as well in some polls, as Bernie Sanders against Donald Trump, and Cruz and Rubio.

AVLON: That's just silliness right now. I'm sorry. The idea that Bernie Sanders is a better general election nominee for the Democratic Party against Marco Rubio is not reality based.

CAMEROTA: I'm just quoting the polls, John Avlon.

AVLON: Yes, sometimes polls get all silly sauce. It's not, you know --

CAMEROTA: Silly sauce, I like that.

Zeke, so, when I talk to Hillary Clinton, it seems that her strategy is to go after Bernie Sanders in a more aggressive way. At the beginning of the campaign, she would barely utter his name. She wouldn't even sort of dignify it by mentioning his name.

Now, she's talking about all of his weaknesses. She talked about how he hadn't released a tax plan, she had. She talked about how basically saying he's a one-trick pony, in terms of the economy, not good on other things.

So, is that what voters respond to, that more sort of muscular attack?

MILLER: Yes, certainly, she has to show some fight, she has to show she wants this. You know, she's built a campaign apparatus, but she has to -- you know, she can't pretend that he's not there anymore. He's in her face.

You know, so that she has to be -- she can't be divorced from reality like she might have been a few years ago, that there's nobody else in the field. There's just, you know, a whole bunch of people polling in the low teens. Now, he's leading her in the first two primary states where she's -- or, you know, caucused in primary states where she's invested hundreds of staffers, tens of millions of dollars. So, she has to go on the attack.

At the same time, you know, that's forcing her to hunt her own message, and that allows her to, you know, in a way position herself to make that electability argument, that she's more palatable electorate that maybe Bernie Sanders isn't.

AVLON: She needs to do a clear contrast, absolutely. That's what candidates need to do. But Bernie's got a lot of credibility by not going negative on Hillary. And I think that's a fine line --

CAMEROTA: All really positive, I mean, some would say in the debate.

AVLON: Yes. I think that's built credibility particularly with Democrats. She has to walk that line.

CAMEROTA: So, you think, yes, point out differences in an aggressive way but not criticize.

AVLON: Yes. You know, clear contrast on policy issues, on electability without going personal because that could backfire.

CAMEROTA: John, Zeke, thank you. Always great to get the analysis from you guys.

One quick programming note: Donald Trump will join Erin Burnett tonight. You can see the interview at 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right. We'll have reaction ahead to President Obama's final State of the Union. How do Republicans feel about his rebuke of the vitriolic tone of those looking to replace him?

A lot being made about who was there, especially this woman, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis. Who invited her? We'll discuss it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:30] PEREIRA: Belgian prosecutors say they have identified three apartments used by terror suspects in the Paris attacks. Investigators finding DNA traces, including from fugitive Salah Abdeslam and the ring leader later killed in a raid in France.

All of those apartments were rented in September or October. Rent was paid in cash. Search teams also recovered explosive material and waist belts but say they did not find any weapons.

Back here at home, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder activating the National Guard to assist with the drinking water crisis ongoing in Flint. They are going to staff fire stations handing out bottles of water and water filters. That will free up American Red Cross workers to handle the door-to-door distribution of water. Protesters are demanding answers from the governor alleging his office knew that the water was unsafe.

For the first time in more than a week, crude futures are up this morning. U.S. oil prices have been in freefall the past couple of weeks, amid concerns about an excess of supply coupled with a decrease in demand. Oil closing just above $30 a barrel, that's the lowest level in 13 years.

Well, after 21 years, the NFL is going back to Los Angeles. St. Louis Rams are heading back to L.A. NFL team owners voting Tuesday to approve the relocation for the start of next season.

Now, the San Diego Chargers have also been given the option to join the Rams in L.A. Those two teams would share a stadium in Englewood. If the Chargers decide not to move, that choice would then be offered to the Oakland Raiders.

So much movement, exciting times in L.A. Chris, a lot of people thought this may not happen.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But it did. It's very cool for the people of Los Angeles to be back in the game like that for the chargers as well. Of course there will be hard feelings. The question is which team will be next, Mick? I know that hits you close too home because of L.A.

PEREIRA: It means I also lose my fellow on Sundays for real now because of football. So --

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: No, I've seen you around him. He still has got the stars in his eyes.

All right. So, we're down here at the Capitol in D.C. obviously, this is the place to be. The president gave his final State of the Union last night.

There were many guests, each made a statement. One of them was Kim Davis. You'll remember her, the clerk from Kentucky. We're going to talk to the Ohio Republican whose office made that happen and get his reaction to the speech. Which way does the GOP believe pointing forward?

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[06:53:16] CUOMO: All right. We do have breaking news. This situation we've been monitoring with these ten U.S. sailors, they have now been released by Iran.

The question is, why were they there? What does it mean? There was a big range of opinion going into the president's State of the Union Address last night. He did not mention it during the speech.

So, what was the takeaway and where are we this morning?

Let's talk about it with Ohio Republican congressman, chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Congressman Jim Jordan.

Congressman, good to have you with us.

REP. JIM JORDAN (R), OHIO: Good to be with you.

CUOMO: Let's talk about the breaking news that matters most. They have been released. This situation was taken in a lot of different directions, even when we didn't have the facts, you had a lot of people saying this is another bit of proof that Iran doesn't respect President Obama, doesn't respect the United States. Even had big shot commentators Joe Scarborough saying enjoy this, Iran, in a few hundred days you won't have the president to push around.

Then, it turns out they probably went into the wrong water space. Iran not only released them quickly, and even gave them their boats back, which under international law they may not have had to.

What do you think about this situation and how it was made out?

JORDAN: I thought it was interesting that the president didn't even mention it in the speech last night when he was going through what he deemed his foreign policy success story after seven years in office. I think the best news is they are released and they're coming back.

CUOMO: But the idea of making it an active Iranian aggression. That's what seem to be the spin, and now, it doesn't seem to be that at all.

JORDAN: Well, look, here's what I do know. I do think the respect for the United States is not at the level it should be around the world. When the president went through some of his, quote, "foreign policy success" stories last night, he mentioned Benghazi, for goodness sake.

He mentioned the fact -- I mean, to bring that up as the fact that Khattala sits in jail, that's somehow success when Libya was your baby.

[06:55:02] This was supposed to be your foreign policy success story, Secretary Clinton's foreign policy success story and repeated requests for additional security, those requests denied, what took place that day, the tragedy where four Americans were killed.

And then the false information put out by the administration after the fact, somehow saying this was blamed on a video, the protests spontaneously caused by a video.

CUOMO: You don't buy there were competing theories within the intelligence committee? That's why you had two versions?

JORDAN: I buy the facts. I buy what Secretary Clinton told her daughter that night, we know it was an al Qaeda attack. I buy what she told the Egyptian prime minister. She said, "We know," not we speculate, not we think, she said, we know it was a terrorist attack, not anything to do with a video. That's her words.

CUOMO: Right, but I don't think the explanation for her words is the timeline of when she learned things? You don't buy that?

JORDAN: No, I buy the facts. She's told one story to the American people and an entirely different story to her family and to the Egyptian prime minister and to the president the Libya.

So, for the president to cite -- I thought this like this defies logic for him to say Benghazi is somehow a success story.

CUOMO: And that was reflected in what we didn't see last night. You didn't see both sides of the aisle standing up for the issues. One of the issues where it didn't come that's close to home for you, was when he talked about now, the country has secured the right for us to marry whom we love. A lot of quiet on his life, the right of the aisle, the GOP.

You invited Kim Davis, the clerk from Kentucky. Why? What did you want people to know about that?

JORDAN: Well, frankly, yesterday, our office was approached by the Family Research Council. I learned yesterday we were asked to provide tickets for Mrs. Davis's family. We did that and Kim Davis was the guest. So --

CUOMO: Because?

JORDAN: They asked. We had a ticket available, so we did that. Look, everyone --

CUOMO: It wasn't just about having a ticket available, though, right? I mean, obviously, you knew having Kim Davis would be a statement. What is that statement?

JORDAN: Well, we weren't trying to make a statement. We were trying to give a ticket to friends of us and the Family Research Council.

But, yes, everyone knows my position. Marriage should be what it's always been. I've never changed on that and never will. I think that has served western culture well. And Kim Davis -- but last night was not about that. Last night was about the failed policies of this president.

You know, he talked about seven years of progress. Seven years of progress, we have 94 million people who are out of work. We've got 48 million people on food stamps.

And we have a health care system that's driven up the cost of deductibles, premiums and everything they told us about health care within they marketed this to the American people six years ago has been inaccurate. Like your plan? Keep your plan. Like your doctor? Keep your doctor.

Web sites are going to work. Web sites secure. Premiums are going to go down to an average of $2,500. Emergency room visits are going to down.

Every one of those statements they use to sell this to the American people has turned out to be inaccurate.

CUOMO: But you do have 18 million more people covered. There is good data that comes out about it.

JORDAN: Most of those people are in Medicaid. They are in not some kind of insurance. If they are, it's an insurance plan that's driven up the cost of the deductible, driven up the cost of their premium.

COUMO: The problems are obvious. And you outline them well, as do many people on your side of the party and the other. The question is, what better plan do you have? When you talk about the economy --

JORDAN: Great point, Chris.

CUOMO: There's a lot of people in distress. You have to compare it to 2008 when he got in there.

JORDAN: And this year should be a year -- and Speaker Ryan has talked about this, where we lay out the difference between where Obama and Clinton want to take the country, continue to take the country, and where Republicans and conservatives want to take the country.

So, we should have our plan that says, here's how we're going to reform the tax code, throw out the tax code that everyone knows is broken. We should have our plan and say, here's how we're going to do health care that empowers you and not empowers this town, not empowers Washington and bureaucrats in that town.

And, frankly, I think it's probably the most important, we should reform the welfare system and incentivize work and focus on work. That's fair to tax-paying families and more important it's fair to those families, who will help families who were stuck in our welfare system. So, that's what we should do.

And the final thing we should do as a party is continue to hold people accountable in positions of public trust who do things wrong. The best example is John Koskinen at the IRS, where the IRS systematically targeted Americans' most series liberty, their First Amendment free speech rights, when they had their targeting of conservative groups around this country. And Mr. Koskinen was commissioner when 700 backup tapes were destroyed, 24,000 documents and they were destroyed with preservation orders in place and subpoenas in place.

CUOMO: That is an interesting issue. There's a lot of accountability to go around.

JORDAN: Heck yes, heck yes.

CUOMO: We're going to talk about Washington, D.C., and that's why we're here.

Congressman, thank you for being with us. Appreciate you taking the opportunity.

JORDAN: You bet. Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: All right. There's a lot of news coming out of the State of the Union this morning. We're going to give it to you all this morning, including the sailors and Iran.

Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Iran announcing and said it has released ten American Navy sailors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did drift certainly into Iranian waters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These are tight waters in these portions of the Persian Gulf.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get most of the attention.

I believe in change because I believe in you.