Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Civilians Killed in Jakarta Terror Attacks; Istanbul Bomber Entered Turkey as Syrian Refugee; Winning Powerball Tickets in California, Florida & Tennessee; Breaking Down the Trump, Cruz Battle. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 14, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:58:44] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. We do have two breaking stories for you this morning. The first one is good news. There are three Powerball winning tickets. We have all the details about how much money is to be shared and by whom and from where.

But first, we have a much bigger story. There have been a series of deadly coordinated attacks in Indonesia. It was once again a team of terrorists setting off simultaneous explosions at a police station and a Starbucks cafe. The attackers hurling grenades and exchanging gunfire with police in a very busy shopping area.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Workers in office buildings watching the horror as the Paris-style attacks unfolded. Amateur video like this one on your screen right now capturing one of the explosions outside that Starbucks and bodies on the street. The attacks rocking the capital there. And they come after several warnings that Islamic militants were planning something big.

So let's get right to CNN's Kathy Quiano. She is live in Jakarta with all of the breaking details.

What do we know at this hour, Kathy?

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know from police officials here is that five attackers were killed and two civilians in this attack, this horrific attack that happened in central Jakarta that shocked the city.

Certainly, even more horrific details are coming out from the police. They said that the first explosion happened at the Starbucks cafe inside an office building inside a commercial establishment. Two other attackers, two foreign nationals, one Dutch national and then another Algerian and shot them in the parking lot. The Dutch national did survive that.

And the police responded. There's police outposts across the street. They responded, and the attackers fought back with grenades. That's why you also saw reports of police being injured here.

An armed suspect finally fled there, and it seems now, that there were several of them, that they blew themselves up inside a commercial establishment just behind the Starbucks coffee shop. Again, very, very shocking details that are coming out today. But it looks very clear that the attacks, the targets of these attacks, were westerners -- Alisyn.

CUOMO: All right. So we are learning more details. Thank you very much, Kathy, for the reporting so far.

We are hearing that there were foreigners involved in this, westerners, at least as victims. You have to remember, Indonesia is the most Muslim populous country in the world. There are some 250 million people there, moving living on the island of Java, in and around the capital there. So now, we also have an eyewitness to the actual attack, Christian Hubel. Luckily survived, witnessed. There were many witnesses.

Christian, what can you tell us about what you saw?

CHRISTIAN HUBEL, EYEWITNESS: Yes, this morning around 11 o'clock, we saw from our office here the whole scene, because we are located at level 20. We are at a marketing agency in the most central office in Jakarta. And from here, we have a clear view over whole Jakarta, and we saw that there was a big explosion. And we saw some huge smoke.

And there were, like, several explosions or shots or something like that, within 30 minutes, and people were running away. And it was like completely messed up. In the beginning, nobody knew what was going on, what the explosion was.

After, we saw several reports, we thought, there must have been something going on like an attack or something. And we discussed with our friends and chatted with our friends while on Skype and so on. And asked -- if everybody's OK. And there were rumors about multiple explosions in other places in the city. So nobody knew what's really going on. But it was really like a huge -- a huge locked-down area this morning.

CUOMO: How long did it last, from your point of observation? How quickly did it seem that there was a response?

HUBEL: The police was there pretty -- pretty fast. Also the military police. They locked down the whole area, because the incident was on a main road here in central Jakarta.

So, there was no traffic suddenly. And this is a very rare situation in Jakarta, where the traffic is so huge normally. And they locked down the area where nobody was -- nobody was approaching the whole scene.

So it looks like there's something going on. Maybe a man with a gun or something like that. It looks like nobody is approaching them. So I think this takes -- this took at least two hours until the whole scene was over.

CUOMO: Now, people are likening it to what happened in Paris recently, because it seemed to be a team of attackers using different types of weapons. But this is a very different place, Indonesia. I mean, this is the largest Muslim population in the world. What is the feeling there about what's going on, and who's being attacked and why?

HUGEL: Yes, that's a good question, because to be honest, the last two weeks and months, it feels pretty safe and OK here because, in all of the big hotels and shopping malls, there's always a security check in front of the building. And they check the luggage. They check the cars.

And also when you walk on the street, it feels OK. So I was not -- were not threatened here. But it is -- and also the scenery where it happened, it's not just -- it's not just the western -- western locations. It's also like locals are there. A lot of office people are there. A lot of international travelers there are. So, it's like -- like multiple -- multiple types of team. And not only westerners.

CUOMO: Absolutely. It's a very diverse community there. But again, it is the largest Muslim population. Luckily, so far, from what we understand, those injured, those killed, not as big as it could have been, given how densely populated the area is.

Christian, we're glad you're OK. Thank you very much for telling us what happened this morning. Be safe.

HUGEL: Welcome.

CUOMO: OK.

HUGEL: Thank you.

PEREIRA: Those attacks there in Jakarta come only two days after ten German tourists were killed in a terror attack in Istanbul, officials in Turkey now say the ISIS suicide bomber who carried out that attack entered the area as a Syrian refugee. They say the Syrian was fingerprinted last week while registering as a refugee, but he was not on any watch list.

[06:05:11] Turkish officials have detained at least seven other suspects in connection with that bombing.

CUOMO: Back here, the FBI director says it is investigating the ambush shooting of a Philadelphia police officer last week as an act of terrorism. Police have already said the shooter told them he was inspired by ISIS. But any actual ties to the group are still unclear.

The officer miraculously survived. He was actually able to subdue the shooter, despite being hit three times -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So is this the work of ISIS that we're seeing in Jakarta and what will the world community do about it?

Joining us now is CNN contributor Michael Weiss. He's also the co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Michael, thanks so much for being here. This seems to have all the hallmarks of ISIS. It was people wearing suicide vests. They also fired at crowds of people. They threw grenades at police. This happened at a Starbucks in a busy tourist area. Why would anyone think it's not ISIS?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it could be al Qaeda. It could be any other number of Jihadi groups. ISIS, an affiliate of ISIS is claiming credit for this. And the Indonesian police were actually very quick in coming out and saying, "We know this is ISIS." This is a country with very good security services. They had been thought to be pretty secure from ISIS attacks. Although it's true that ISIS does have a small franchise in southeast Asia.

One of the things that got my sort of spidey senses up yesterday was, at the same time this was going on, there was a sweep of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. And Australia, Indonesia and East Timor, sort of a triangle of geopolitical linkages. Both al Qaeda, meaning Osama bin Laden, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of what we now call ISIS, had a real beef about these three countries in 2002. You remember the Bali bombings? Holiday makers, Australian holiday makers. That was because, according to bin Laden, Australia had helped East Timor gain its independence from Indonesia.

When Zarqawi bombed the United Nations in Baghdad in 2003 before he was officially a member of al Qaeda, he said this was also in retaliation to that. So they always seem to come back to this area, or these countries in southeast Asia.

CAMEROTA: What do you make of the -- the reason people are saying it's a Paris-style attack is that there were multiple locations that seemed to be coordinated?

WEISS: Sure. Well, I mean, that can also be al Qaeda. Right? I mean, I think we are beginning to see a new modus operandi emerge with respect to ISIS. You have guys on motor bikes. As you say, it happened in multiple locations at once, close to a U.N. installation, close to an area that western terrorists are bound to aggregate. And a combination of suicide bombing attacks and also -- it seems in some cases, though, that these guys are trying to get away with their own lives. They're not all on martyrdom operations, right? Throwing grenades and sort of fleeing the scene, that's interesting to me, too.

Because, you know, remember in Paris, you know, most of them were supposed to go off to their death. And then you had Abdeslam, who just kind of chickened out and tried to flee and possibly even head back to Syria or whatever.

CAMEROTA: No, I believe five of the attackers in this Jakarta thing killed themselves and were blown up.

WEISS: They were. Yes, they were. But I mean, we're talking about between 10 and 14, right? So what happened to the other guys? Were they meant to -- to kind of leave the scene and then put up a propaganda video or something of that sort?

CAMEROTA: So this is the third thing -- let's talk big picture.

WEISS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: This is the third thing that we've seen in a week.

WEISS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: There was Jakarta. There's Turkey.

WEISS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Where the suicide bomber in the middle of this tourist area killed ten. Philadelphia police, or counterterrorism officials now say they believe that what happened in Philadelphia, where a police officer was ambushed...

WEISS: Sure.

CAMEROTA: ... they link that to terrorism. So, is this the new normal?

WEISS: Yes. I've been saying for months, you know, look, these guys, it's not a new strategy. Going back to the early 2000s, al Qaeda in Iraq. Look, they blew up hotels in Amman, Jordan. That was the biggest spectacular that the Zarqawists had had outside of the zone of Iraq.

But these guys are now saying, "As we're losing terrain in Syria, and as our caliphate is being somewhat constricted" in the two countries that they have declared it, "now let's reamplify or refocus on foreign operations."

An ISIS spy that I interviewed several months ago told me this. He said, "Look, we're training up people to send them abroad and to conduct these attacks. And it's not just the guys that we're training up you have to worry about. It's what I would call the phenomenon of the invisible armies."

The guy in Philadelphia, I guarantee you, had no direct ties to an ISIS cell or the ISIS network in Syria and Iraq. He was inspired. He could have been a nut job. You know, I mean, a lot of the people that tend to be attracted to these movements are sociopaths and mentally ill people who -- you know, they want to commit some act of ultra-violence. And they turn on the television, and they say, "Hey, ISIS is giving me some sense of purpose. And this is a vanguard movement in the world right now." So they're drawn to it.

CAMEROTA: Chilling stuff, Michael Weiss. We always appreciate your expertise.

WEISS: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for being on.

[06:10:04] Let's get over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Now to the big good news, depending on your perspective. Many of you are millionaires this morning. Three winning tickets in the record $1.6 billion Powerball drawing.

Now, there will be a lot of sharing, but sharing is caring, especially when it comes to the world's largest prize. Winning tickets were sold in California, Florida, Tennessee. Dozens of other people across the country, again, millionaires overnight, thanks to the smaller prizes. It's not just one slice. It's a big pie.

CNN's Sara Sidner live outside one of the winning locations, a 7- Eleven, Chino Hills, California. I've didn't there. Does that count?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does, but if you didn't play a ticket at this particular 7-Eleven, then you're probably out of luck. But still check those tickets, because you mentioned, there are a lot of millionaires out there who won a million dollars, who got five of the numbers.

But you know what? There are tons of people who never check, because they're like, "Oh, I didn't win the big jackpot." And they never go check. So that money just kind of sits there, and they never claim it. You only have six months to do so.

That being said, when this community found out that it was their store, their 7-Eleven that sold one of the winning tickets, this place went crazy. There were dozens and dozens and dozens of people who showed up, cheering just because. But they were also cheering the man who runs the store. He's been here 24 years, and they clearly like him. We talked to him a little bit, because he's also a winner, winning $1 million just for selling the ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALBIR ATWAL, STORE OWNER: I'm very, very happy. Whoever got some from here. And I'm so thankful to my team of people that support me all year long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And do you know what? He's still here. He was planning on leaving. He was getting very tired. But he's cleaning up the store as people still were coming and going. It's incredible. Everybody here, you can see why they love him.

PEREIRA: Great pride, too, in what he's done. Well, congratulations to him. I love that you're there. I love that nobody is sleeping in Chino Hills right now.

Joining us right now is the chair of the Powerball group and the executive director of the Texas Lottery, Gary Grief, a.k.a. the dream maker.

Gary, my goodness. We have some excitement this morning. And I have to thank you for the absolute lunacy you created in the NEW DAY offices yesterday. So we now know there were three Powerball winning tickets. We don't know who bought them. Do you have any more information for us on the winners in California, Tennessee and Florida? GARY GRIEF, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TEXAS LOTTERY: No, now, we've

got to play the waiting game. They've got, like you said, six months in order to come forward and claim that prize.

We're just trying to encourage anyone who might be holding that winning ticket. Go get the best lawyer, the best financial planner you can find...

PEREIRA: Yes.

GRIEF: ... before you come in and claim that one-third of that almost $1.6 billion prize.

PEREIRA: That is savvy advice. Typically, how long is it before big jackpot winners come forward?

GRIEF: I've seen them show up the week after they've won. And I've seen them wait almost the entire six months.

PEREIRA: Wow.

GRIEF: Typically, with this type of prize, we'll probably start hearing from winners, if not later this week, perhaps early next week.

PEREIRA: A lot of long faces from the folks who didn't win the jackpot, going back to work today, back to their regular day. But the fact is it wasn't just the three winning jackpot tickets. There are dozens of millionaires waking up across the country, not just the store owners that sold the winning ticket.

GRIEF: Michaela, we had 81 people across the country who won $1 million, and of that 81, eight of those actually won $2 million.

PEREIRA: Wow.

GRIEF: And let's not forget, through this Powerball roll, more than $1.2 billion was raised for good causes...

PEREIRA: Right.

GRIEF: ... like public education, scholarships and the environment. What a roll it's been.

PEREIRA: Hey, you know what? We were really concerned. Alisyn was concerned that we haven't checked our numbers, because we could be sitting on at least, you know, $1,000 or something. But you say that there's some $2 billion in unclaimed prize money annually?

GRIEF: That's right. And we encourage players, just because you didn't win the big one, don't throw that ticket away. Check that ticket. You can go to any retailer and check that ticket, as well. We want to pay those prizes, Michaela. Don't let them go unclaimed.

PEREIRA: What happens if they don't? What happens if the six months goes by? What happens to the money? GRIEF: It depends on the state. Here in Texas, all unclaimed

prizes go back to public education. It depends on what state in which you purchased the ticket.

PEREIRA: OK. So now just to be because we are a news organization, on the flip side of this, a lot has been made about this being nearly $1.6 billion. A lot of changes were made this past October to make it a little harder, to up the size of the jackpot. Is this sustainable, though?

GRIEF: I believe that you saw the players vote as to whether or not they liked these changes to the matrix with their dollars. We've never seen excitement. We've never seen sales like this. We don't anticipate making any changes in the near future.

[06:15:06] Now, we're back to starting at just a paltry $40 million.

PEREIRA: That's nothing to sneeze at, Gary.

GRIEF: so we'll see what the next roll takes us.

PEREIRA: We will see what the next roll takes us. Well, we hopefully will hear when we know -- when you know about the jackpot winners. Please let us know if you do hear anything. And we'll be in touch with you very soon.

GRIEF: We will, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Gary Grief, as I've renamed him the dream maker, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Check those numbers, Michaela.

PEREIRA: I will.

CAMEROTA: For me.

All right. Meanwhile, the citizenship issue not the only issue facing Ted Cruz. We're learning that he failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans while he was running for the Senate. The potential fall-out of that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: You can look at the battle between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump a lot of different ways. On the surface, it's about, well, you know, is he eligible or not, Cruz? And Trump saying, "This isn't about me. The media brought it to me." And that's obviously not what you see online from Donald Trump.

But it also means different things. These two guys represent something in different parties. They're trying to get to the same thing in different ways. Who will win?

[06:20:02] Let's bring in CNN political reporter, Sara Murray; and CNN political commentator and political anchor at Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis.

In terms of absolute impact, let's put up the numbers of "Does it bother you that Ted Cruz was born outside the United States," in Iowa, OK, because that's the context. Is this helping or hurting in Iowa? Look, it's not a big factor, Errol.

But it means something else in the narrative, right? The narrative matters just as much. What is at stake here, and what's the play?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think what Donald Trump is trying to do, and I've been saying this all along, is sort of distract from real issues, push everybody else off the stage and get into a one-on-one with his main attacker. That has kind of been what his strategy has been throughout.

Whoever gets close to him in the polls, he kind of goes after that person, and the substance of it doesn't mean very much.

As to the poll and what this all might mean, there's been a lot of immigrant bashing. I'm not sure how else you could describe it. And you start nudging Cruz into that direction.

CUOMO: He's the other. He's other.

LOUIS: Yes, he's -- right. What's his story? He's sort of Cuban. He's sort of Canadian. Where was he born? Is there some question? And so you throw up a lot of smoke. I don't think voters are going to go for it. But here again, I think this is partly a media strategy to talk about something other than the real substance of the campaign.

CAMEROTA: But, Sara, maybe it is having a bit of an impact. I mean, 15 percent isn't huge. But it does -- it might erode some support from Ted Cruz. There is this Des Moines, Iowa -- yes, "Des Moines Register" poll out of Iowa that shows that his numbers are down from last month. He had 31 percent support. Now Ted Cruz has 25 percent.

Can we blame the eligibility issue there?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what we're seeing when we see these Iowa poll numbers is a lot of fluctuation. I think we're going to keep seeing this up until the caucuses. Because a lot of voters still haven't made up their mind. And so I think it's going to be normal to see the poll sort of tightening and widening, tightening and widening.

But I will say the one way this attack could be affected is if Donald Trump convinces voters that they should think about Ted Cruz as someone who is unelectable, someone who could not go head to head against, say, Hillary Clinton and win.

When you talk to voters in Iowa, they're really focused on choosing a candidate that they feel can actually win in a general election. And that's part of the reason they've been sort of torn between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, trying to decide who they think would be stronger and more formidable against Hillary Clinton.

And I also think that's why we've seen, as the Cruz campaign sort of ratchets up their attacks on Trump, that's one of the issues they went straight for. Cruz saying in a head-to-head match-up, he would do better against Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: But he doesn't have as easy an angle as Donald Trump does. Donald Trump making him an "other" works right now in his overall narrative. In politics, perception is often reality. And if I get people thinking that you may not be like that in some way that all of a sudden matters and get sneaky.

So then Ted Cruz has to figure out how to come back. He comes back with the law. The law's clear. Nobody really cares about the law. Now he's got this sound bite about who Donald Trump is, trying to make him an "other" in terms of who matters. Listen to what Cruz just said about Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he may shift in his new rallies to playing "New York, New York." Because you know, Donald comes from New York, and he embodies New York values. And listen, the Donald seems to be a little bit rattled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Ouch. A New Yorker. Perish the thought.

LOUIS: He got four "New Yorks" in, in about five seconds there. And that is his version of doing the same thing, sort of. You know, New York, for the conservative base, especially in rural areas of the Midwest, all you have to do is say, "New York," and you can let people conjure up whatever demon they want. That it's those people over there. It's specifically why we created this whole state, to get away from those big cities back East and all of their density and all of their diversity, and all of their problems in crime and everything else.

And so yes, you lump Donald Trump in with that, and that's where Donald -- that's where Ted Cruz tries to make a comeback.

But also, let's keep in mind, Cruz has been the subject of attacks from the ethanol industry.

CUOMO: Sure.

LOUIS: Because he has not supported their subsidies. He's been under attack from a number of different sources, including, by the way, Ben Carson's people, Mike Huckabee, the people that have been fighting for the evangelical vote. He's been taking a lot of flak.

So I don't know if it's just Donald Trump who maybe nudged him down a couple of points.

CUOMO: Trump's genius, Sara Murray. MURRAY: Chris, the other thing -- the other thing that -- yes.

I would just say that, you know, there aren't a lot of voters in Iowa who run around telling you that they're worried about Canadian immigrants. So when you talk about the "other" here, we have to remember voters have a much different perception of Syrian refugees, of Muslims, of Mexicans coming in over the southern border than they do of Canadians. It's just not really the same thing.

CUOMO: Right, right, right. But he also threw the Cuban thing in there. You know, I mean, look, Donald Trump is very, very smart. People make such a mistake when they say, "Did you hear what he said? He's not I smart guy." Yes, he is. He knows what to say that matters.

Case in point, you call him angry. You think you're going to get a point on him there, because you know, we want sweet strength in this country. Harshness doesn't work. Wrong. It's not where we are right now. He knows that, so, listen to his reply.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nikki Haley, a very nice woman, she said I'm an angry person. And they said to me, they said, "You are an angry person."

[06:25:04] I thought -- I said, "I am. I'm very angry, because I hate what's happening to our country. I am angry. I'm very angry."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I mean, look, you can argue all day whether this is right, whether this is wrong. It is effective. And he knows that. And I think that the real test is going to be, Errol, what do you want to be? Who do you want to be within that GOP?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly right. But it's not confined to the GOP, by the way.

On the question of anger, in particular, Bernie Sanders out there, also making inroads in Iowa. He's a pretty angry guy. In fact, it's so over the top that you've got comedians making fun of it. He himself is in on the joke.

But in a way, it's not a joke. I mean, this is -- this is one style of politics, and it's a style of politics that says, you know, if you're fed up, if you're mad as hell, I can motivate people that way. Not every politician can do that. Nikki Haley doesn't do that. A lot of politicians who don't do that. But it is what Bernie Sanders does. It is very much what Donald Trump does.

CAMEROTA: Because voters are angry. So they like the idea that their representative is angry and reflects back how they're feeling.

But Sara, I want to ask you about an issue that's cropped up. "The New York Times" reports that Ted Cruz had taken out two personal loans from Citibank and Goldman Sachs that he pumped -- for almost $1 million that he pumped into his Senate race. Previously, according to "The New York Times," undisclosed.

Ted Cruz says, "No, no, no. I talked about this a lot. I disclosed it on various paperwork." Is this an issue?

MURRAY: I think this is interesting, because, you know, it looks bad from a disclosure standpoint. He didn't disclose it in the right places. And he pictures himself as a populist, and he took out these loans.

But I do think there's a pretty easy way for Ted Cruz to spin this and basically say, like, "Of course, I took out these loans. It helped fund my Senate campaign. We borrowed against our own assets, and we paid them back." What American family cannot relate to this notion of taking out a loan and paying it back to fund an enterprise?

And I think if he sort talks about it like that, then you can effectively neuter the issue and move on. So we'll have to see how he handles it and if he gets asked about it.

CUOMO: Well, look, he went after it early. And he does have good facts on his side, as well. He didn't never tell anyone about the loans.

CAMEROTA: Maybe not at the right time.

CUOMO: And that's a key distinction. The FEC, he may have had a filing disclosure issue.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: But there's a lot of paperwork involved with campaigns, so he may be able to show something there with that.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's pull up this Iowa poll, because it's just out this morning. It's on the Democratic side, just released half an hour ago, and it shows this razor-thin margin, where Clinton now has 42 percent of the Democrats' choice for nominee. Sanders at 40 percent. I mean, that's within the margin of error, Errol.

LOUIS: Yes, yes. I mean, Bernie Sanders has been diligent. I mean, he's picked up a piece of the Obama coalition that I think Clinton has had some problems connecting with. The millennials. And some of the university towns. There -- the ideological left, whatever's left of them. You know, the hippie generation. They like Bernie Sanders. He reminds them of their professors. He talks the way they talk. He's put out a lot of really concrete proposals.

Now, Clinton has to come back and make a much more nuanced argument that, "Yes, it's great to hear about, you know, free college tuition for everybody in the country but can you actually do it? I'm a practical politician. I know how to actually compromise and negotiate and get things done."

Bernie Sanders doesn't have any of that baggage, and I think that's why he's doing well.

CAMEROTA: Errol, Sara, thank you.

In our 8 a.m. hour we will talk with Republican candidate, Senator Rand Paul, about why he's skipping tonight's undercard debate after not qualifying for the main stage and so much more. Stick around for that -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: A Mexican soap star played a critical role, helping capture El Chapo. Her smartphone had a lot to do with it. Turns out it's not such a good idea to text and run. We've got details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)