Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Militants Kill 21 in Pakistan University; Trump Looks for Boost in Iowa after Palin Endorsement; Report: Clinton Server Contained Highly Classified Intel. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired January 20, 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.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do begin with breaking news. At least 21 students are dead, dozens more injured. Armed militants attacked a university at northwest Pakistan. They scaled walls around the campus, opening fire, setting off explosions.

[05:59:10] Now, there are conflicts reports about whether this is the work of Pakistan's Taliban military wing.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: If so, this would be the same group behind that horrific massacre 13 months ago at a nearby army-run grade school that killed 132 children.

So let's get right to CNN's senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh. He's live in Beirut with all of the breaking details -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing from Pakistani security officials that this clearance operation to flush out what they believe are now four dead attackers from the campus of that university is now over.

Now, the Death toll is rising and some students and policemen who were there, as well. But the clearance operation had been hampered by low visibility and tense sparks (ph) surrounding that particular university ground. It is an exposed area of farmland, too.

They had thought, potentially, they had kept the attackers in two main blocks of that area, but it's taken a long time to clear them out. And of course, now the devastating toll of this attack will slowly become apparent. There could be as many as 3,000 students there and perhaps 300 staff.

So this is only 40 kilometers, 25 miles away from the Army public school in Peshawa, where over 130 children were killed by a faction of the Pakistani Taliban in December 2014.

As you say, it isn't precisely clear who's behind this. One part of the Pakistani Taliban, the TTP, have denied responsibility, saying an attack like this would not be, quote, "according to Sharia." But there are reports of another Pakistani Taliban commander claiming responsibility for it. That will be clear in the days, perhaps, ahead.

What is also clear is how Pakistan's been cracking down on militants in this area. That is potentially a reason for this attack. And after Peshawar, so much Pakistani public opinion uniting against the Taliban threat inside Pakistan -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Nick. Thanks so much for all of that background.

Let's bring now in our counterterrorism expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross.

Daveed, thanks so much for being here. What do we know about this group and what have you learned about their claims of responsibility?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Well, TTP was cracked down on significantly as your correspondent said, following the Peshawar massacre. That ended up significantly damaging the group. It was very strong at the start of 2015. Just after it had carried out that attack.

But Pakistani public opinion united against it. It ended up fragmenting in a number of ways. Entering this year was considered to be a shell of its former self. That is not indicative of the overall state of militant fundamentalist groups in Pakistan, which are quite strong.

But that organization was damaged by that attack. The one significant thing is that, as your correspondent said, there are conflicting claims of responsibility, with one statement in which the TTP is denying it. One commander, Umar Mansoor, does claim the attack.

Now, the resemblance to the grisly Peshawar attack, in which 132 students were killed at the end of 2014, is significant, because Umar Mansoor, who claimed this responsibility, was also the architect of the Peshawar school attack.

CAMEROTA: That attack 13 months ago was so sickening and so heinous. What are they trying to accomplish?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: That's an excellent question. If you look at it through an ethical or a strategic lens, it's somewhat hard to make sense of this.

If you go back to the Peshawar attack, to the school attack, one of the significant things about that school is the children of a lot of military commanders went there. And at the time, Umar Mansoor talked about how, if our women and children die has martyrs, then we're going to make yours die, as well. So part of it was inherently personal. It's not clear if it was just a revenge attack.

But part of it was a symbol that, for members of Pakistan's military establishment, they were saying we can get at you personally.

As for this attack, it's not clear yet. It is noteworthy that the university, Bacha Khan, is named after the founder of an anti- Taliban party, someone who's a known liberal. So there is some symbolic significance. And obviously, unfortunately, it's not the first attack on a university in the, unfortunately, in the past year.

If you look at the Garissa attack that occurred in Kenya, you had over 100 students slaughtered in that attack by an al Qaeda affiliate group, by al Shabaab.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, as you know, we talk a lot about ISIS. The global community is focused on how to fight ISIS. But we don't talk as much about the Taliban. Should we be focused more on the Taliban if this is, in fact, their doing?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Yes, so, the way Pakistan divides it up, this is a bit of an artificial distinction, but they divide up the Afghan Taliban from the Pakistani Taliban.

There, in fact, are a number of different Taliban groups. In Afghanistan right now, where ISIS has very loudly burst onto the scene, the Taliban has been engaged in a crackdown on ISIS. One of the things about TTP is that No. 1, it's a Taliban group that actually has attempted attacks on U.S. soil.

There is the potential Times Square bombing several years ago, orchestrated by TTP. And the second thing is that in Pakistan, where, quite obviously, al Qaeda had its major base of operations for some time and Ayman al Zawahiri is probably still there today. You've had TTP working very closely in concert with al Qaeda.

So I would say overall, we've paid too little attention, and not just to the Taliban but to al Qaeda. And the Taliban is significant as a part of that for a variety of reasons, including operational cooperation but also the fact that all of the major al Qaeda leaders have pledged fiat to the leader of the Afghan Taliban. That's not necessarily -- that doesn't really mean that the Taliban is running the show. But to them, it is rife with significance.

[06:05:10] CAMEROTA: Yes. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, thank you for helping us understand all of the breaking news this morning. We appreciate it.

All right. Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. Now, to our other top story, potential turning point in the 2016 race. Only 12 days to the Iowa caucuses, Donald Trump hoping that an endorsement from former vice- presidential candidate Sarah Palin will give him the edge over Ted Cruz. Will it help him win over more evangelical and Tea Party supporters?

Political reporter Sara Murray is live in Norwalk, Iowa, where Trump and Palin begin their day. Some interesting covers on some of the New York papers this morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's definitely true, Michaela. And look, Sarah Palin is a figure who certainly knows how to stir things up. It's not clear if she's going to change a lot of people's minds, move a lot of people to Trump's favor, but she could motivate those voters, actually show up and turn out at the polls, especially in a cold place like Iowa. And when the race is this close, Donald Trump does not want to take any chances.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA PALIN, FORMER VICE-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you ready to stump for Trump?

MURRAY (voice-over): Sarah Palin is back. Center stage and throwing her support behind Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to give them hell.

MURRAY: Nearly a decade after the conservative firebrand rallied raucous crowds as John McCain's 2008 running mate, Palin is taking on a new mission, shoring up Trump against some of his rival's most potent attacks. And Sara Barracuda came out swinging...

PALIN: Are you ready for a commander in chief who will let our military do their job and go kick ISIS ass? No more pussyfooting around.

MURRAY: ... slamming GOP leaders...

PALIN: We've been wearing just political correctness kind of like a suicide vest.

MURRAY: ... and reassuring Iowa voters that Trump, a former Democrat, is a true conservative.

PALIN: Oh, my goodness gracious. What the heck would the establishment know about conservativism?

MURRAY: Palin even casting the businessman as a populist who just happens to be a billionaire.

PALIN: Yes, our leader is a little bit different. He's a multibillionaire, not that there's anything wrong with that. But it's amazing. He is not elitist at all.

MURRAY: Yesterday, Trump pressing pause on his primary battles.

TRUMP: I'm going to be non-confrontational today for a change.

MURRAY: to relish his celebrity endorsement.

TRUMP: This is a woman that, from day one, I said, "If I ever do this, I have to get her support."

MURRAY: As Cruz ended a tough day on the trail with a double whammy, losing Palin.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Regardless of what Sarah decides to do in 2016, I will always remain a big, big fan of Sarah Palin.

MURRAY: And facing new attacks in Iowa as Governor Terry Branstad, a Republican heavyweight, said Cruz needs to be defeated.

GOV. TERRY BRANSTAD (R), IOWA: He hasn't supported renewable fuels, and I believe that would be a big mistake for Iowa to support him.

MURRAY: It's a jab Cruz says was to be expected.

CRUZ: Look, it is no surprise that the establishment is in full panic mode.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now Sarah Palin has sort of faded from the limelight in recent years, but she will be back on stage. We're expecting her today in Iowa with Donald Trump and, again, later today with him in Tulsa. We'll have a much better sense of how Republicans feel about her now.

Alisyn and Chris, back to you.

CUOMO: Good question, Sara. Stay with us.

Let's bring in CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times," who just happened to break this story, Maggie Haberman; and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis, who should be shaking his head furiously this morning.

Maggie, it's not about how you learned about this but what is the significance of this? And is there a surprise to it?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, there's two schools of thought. One is that Sarah Palin helps him enormously, that she maximizes the media attention on him. She makes it harder for Ted Cruz to get attention. That she still has a lot of appeal in Iowa. That there are conservatives there who she has tended to over the years in terms of building relationships with who will find this to be a valuable endorsement and for the reasons Sara said, that she combats the questions about his fidelity to conservative principles.

There is another school of thought which is that Sarah Palin has faded in recent years. She has let her brand go. And this is more helpful for her. Both things might be true. I certainly think this is an endorsement that Ted Cruz would have rather have had than not had.

CAMEROTA: Matt, which school of thought do you fall into?

MATT LEWIS, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATOR: I think that this matters. I think if you look, Palin has faded in recent years, but her endorsements really still seem to matter. She endorsed Ted Cruz. She endorsed Joni Ernst in Iowa. In a time when endorsements don't matter that much, this one could. And I think it actually, it's not so much that it helps Trump as that it hurts Ted Cruz.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

LEWIS: What a bad day he had yesterday.

[06:10:04] CAMEROTA: Why didn't, Matt, just to stick with you for a second, why didn't she endorse Ted Cruz, since she endorsed his Senate campaign? And he said that helped put him over the top for the win.

LEWIS: Well, I think that Maggie alluded to Palin wanting to generate buzz and attention. I think the best way to do that is to endorse Trump.

But I also think that, ideologically and stylistically, she's actually much more similar to Trump than Cruz. You know, Cruz and Trump are both populist conservatives. But I think Palin is more populist than conservative.

CUOMO: Sara, Trump is not known for being understated in terms of running the campaign. They were very quiet about this, though, which was somewhat uncharacteristic. The Cruz campaign seemed to be putting out very obvious signals all day long that they didn't want this to happen. What were you picking up as the state of play there?

MURRAY: Well, I think the Cruz campaign wanted to get ahead of it. And, look, the Trump folks, they are -- they like to control their own message. They like to be able to stage a big event, and they knew how they wanted to roll this out. They wanted Sarah Palin that evening during prime time on the big stage with him.

And Donald Trump isn't a guy who likes to share the stage. And he essentially handed the microphone over to her after he got through, you know, an abbreviated version of his stump speech and let her do her thing.

The interesting thing was, it was at a college. And so the crowd that we saw there, there were a lot of younger voters and a lot of people heard Sarah Palin's one liners. And this is the first time they're hearing them. They didn't hear her in 2008. And so they kind of just sailed over the crowd's head. It will be interesting to see how she does here in Norwalk, Iowa, and how she does later today in Tulsa.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Maggie, the speech was filled with a lot of Palinisms. You know, she was back with a vengeance. She had all sorts of energy. And one of the most interesting things, watching the endorsement, was Donald Trump's facial expressions and body language. He -- I couldn't tell if he likes handing over the limelight, if he was enjoying it or if he was not enjoying it.

HABERMAN: I was reminded, sort of, of 2012, when Trump endorsed Mitt Romney. And Mitt Romney stood there with a very similar look on his face during some of the speech. So it was very -- it was very familiar. But I agree with everything Matt said. I agree with everything

Sara said, including that there was a group of voters for whom this will not mean a lot. And I do think that this was not a great day for Ted Cruz. You had his spokesman here yesterday morning, essentially take a little bit of a swipe at Palin. I don't think he intended to do that. But that was how it was taken. Cruz later had to clarify that.

Any day that you are contending with someone else's media message like that, it's not a great day.

CUOMO: It does remind me, though, of when McCain picked Palin, and there was this initial flush of enthusiasm, of which he meant. And then it went straight up and came straight down for equal -- equally obvious additional reasons. So let's see what happens here.

And one of the things that was more clear, though, Matt, is your take on this. The governor in Iowa is a player, full stop. He comes out and comes after Ted Cruz almost without introduction. That seemed to be a big blow. What is your take on why the governor came out so strongly and what the impact will be so close to the caucus?

LEWIS: Terry Branstad is a long-serving governor in Iowa, you know, potentially the most important politician in the state. And ethanol is, I guess you would consider the third rail of Iowa politics. You know, the -- you know, Iowa is littered with the corpses of people who have not bowed down to ethanol. And this is going to be a real test.

Ted Cruz is taking, I think, a more free market conservative approach on that issue of renewable fuels. The establishment -- the Iowa Republican establishment do not like that. And if I want to see if Cruz can overcome that, because if so, it's a game-changing moment. Remember, John McCain famously, you know, went against ethanol. And then later he had to backtrack, and he said -- I think he said he was eating his cereal with ethanol in the morning or something like that.

CAMEROTA: That is a McCainism, too.

But -- but Maggie, I mean, obviously, Ted Cruz knows that. I mean, he's going against this ethanol -- the government subsidy or whatever you want to call it, propping up ethanol. He knows how important ethanol is to Iowa. So he is making a political calculation. It's an interesting one.

HABERMAN: It is. I mean, he's been a little bit all over the place on this. It has not been that clear a path, which he's gotten called out on by other Republicans.

I agree with Matt. I think that Terry Branstad doing this is really unusual. You do not see Branstad get involved.

CUOMO: He was here on set with us, and he didn't want any part of choosing a side. He was like, "This is all good for Iowa. Let the caucuses decide. That's all I want, is for the people to make the decision." And then this. HABERMAN: We're seeing, I think, two things at play here, three

things. One relates very much to the ethanol issue. One relates to the fact that, for whatever reason, Ted Cruz creates a lot of animosity with other people. For he is disliked by a wide swath of his colleagues. We saw that - with McCain validating the birther issue that John -- that Donald Trump brought up. And you are seeing it, I think here now.

Also I think there is concern within the Iowa establishment about who wins the caucuses for preserving the future of the caucuses. And that is some of what this is. Donald Trump, they could probably write off and explain away a little better than Ted Cruz winning it. They are feeling like the future of the caucuses is threatened.

[06:15:09] CAMEROTA: All right. Maggie, Matt, Sara, thank you so much for all of that analysis.

Also, we want to let you know about a big event that's coming next Monday. This is happening in Iowa, exactly one week before the caucuses. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley will go face-to-face with voters in Iowa.

This is a CNN town hall -- it's live from Des Moines -- that Chris Cuomo will moderate. It's the final pitch for all the Democratic candidates before the first votes are cast. It's an opportunity for Iowans to ask questions directly of the three Democrats. So again, that is next Monday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, live only here on CNN.

PEREIRA: We need to spar with him to get him ready for that.

CUOMO: No, no, it's all about the people who are going to be there. I'm just there to see who will drink the most ethanol among the candidates; who will beat the McCain standard.

PEREIRA: Right. So Bernie Sanders isn't just pulling ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. He's blowing her away. How important is a win in Iowa, then, for Hillary Clinton? That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Less than three weeks now until New Hampshire's primary and Senator Bernie Sanders opening up a commanding lead over Hillary Clinton.

A new CNN/WMUR poll shows Sanders now leads Clinton by 27 percent in the Granite State. In December he had a ten-point lead.

[06:20:03] So joining us to discuss what's going on in the Democratic side is CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. And back with us, Maggie Haberman and Matt Lewis.

Maggie, let's just start there. Let's look at this new poll, just out. Sanders has 60 percent in New Hampshire over Clinton's 33. He's from the neighboring state. Is that what you attribute this to or is something else going on? HABERMAN: I think it's a little bit of both. I think that the

neighbor state factor is very real. This has always been expected with him. That's a bigger gap than we have seen in some other polls. But it does seem to be where the trend line is going. I think that Hillary Clinton is having a problem in the final two weeks of this closing.

I think that the debate was basically a draw. I think that she scored some good points. I think Sanders scored some good points. I think you were always going to see a tightening in this race toward the end, no matter who it was.

But I do think that Sanders has been able to really capture people's imaginations within the Democratic Party base. And I think that we're going to find out, especially frankly in Iowa, I think less so in New Hampshire, but I think we are going to find out if people are basically feeling like they want to be pragmatic, which is what they are being told by the Clinton people, or are they really angry? And the same type of populism that we have seen on the Republican side, we are seeing on the Democratic side. That is what I attribute that to.

CUOMO: Especially in New Hampshire, right? I mean, for those of us who have had to walk the frozen ground. It is often a passion play.

Brianna Keilar, being on the ground in New Hampshire, what are you hearing about the energy surrounding Sanders, other than just a neighboring-state senator, that might feed into these new polls?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there's something -- to add to what Maggie said, there's something about him. I mean, obviously, he is someone who they're familiar with. He's from a neighboring state. But not just New Hampshire. I was just in Alabama of all places where Bernie Sanders was.

And what sort of struck me was that, especially once you get away from New Hampshire, there's a thing about Bernie Sanders that is shiny and new, which is pretty fascinating when you're talking about someone who is 74 years ole and has actually been in Washington for a really long time.

But compared to Hillary Clinton, there is this thing that you sense, I think at a rally for Bernie Sanders, which is very different than these events Hillary Clinton has, where he's really speaking to something that so many voters are feeling. I think they feel this in New Hampshire. I saw them feeling this in Alabama. They feel like, you know, the system is sort of stacked against them in a way. And he sort of is speaking to the wrongs that they think need to be righted.

But also one of the things that I really noticed, certainly being in the south, being in a city like Birmingham, where you have, you know, a three-quarters African-American city, Bernie Sanders is really struggling when it comes to minority support.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Matt, let's talk about the new developments in the Hillary Clinton e-mail situation.

The inspector general of the intelligence agencies has come out and said that they have found e-mails that she sent or received that were in an even higher classification than top secret. They were super-duper top secret.

She, as always, her campaign says, were not when she received or sent them. They later were classified as such.

Let me pull up another interesting poll from CNN this morning. And that is least honest Democratic candidate who was the question. Hillary Clinton far outweighs her competitors there. She gets 55 percent. As you see, the numbers have been going in the wrong direction for her.

CUOMO: Least honest is a nice way to put it, also.

CAMEROTA: That is a double negative.

CUOMO: It assumes honesty.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Very good point.

So -- so the numbers are going in the wrong direction, and she's far ahead of O'Malley and Sanders in terms of that. So do you think that the e-mail scandal is affecting this?

LEWIS: Well, look, I think first of all it's very serious. Whether or not it impacts the race, it is incredibly serious to have a potential president of the United States who had such poor judgment, top -- higher than top secret information on a private server that could have pretty easily, I think, you know, been tapped into by our enemies.

So you have to question her judgment. That's a very serious thing. I think that anybody else would have probably been in jail for doing something like this.

CUOMO: Matt, deal with the push back, because her team is going to say three things. OK? In support of her.

One, the State Department said she could use the private server, so don't talk about her discretion. It was OK.

Two, the e-mails that were classified, most of them were done after the fact, and those that were done before the fact, there were various different standards and people disagreeing about the level of the information. So it was no clear violation.

And third, they say, well, it's been vetted to death, and nothing has been found. There is no indictment. So let it go.

Rebut.

LEWIS: Well, I think that's Clintonesque obfuscation. I think that that's typical of the Clintons, right? It depends on the meaning of what "is" is.

She was the secretary of state. And so I think that the -- the burden is on her to make sure that information that is, in fact, top secret, yet has not been officially classified as top secret yet, is kept safe. So I think that this feeds into...

CUOMO: They say it was safe.

[06:25:12] CAMEROTA: No. He's saying the content. She should have known the content was hot.

CUOMO: They say there is no -- and we had Philip Mudd say the same thing, that there is no one determiner of what's top secret. There are often different levels. And they say, but it wasn't hacked, and government sites are hacked all the time. So what are you -- what are you accusing them of, because it never happened? That's their pushback.

LEWIS: I think that that's -- I think that they're playing sort of fast and loose.

Look, she was the secretary of state. The buck stops with her. And I really think that, if anybody else had done this, they would be in serious legal jeopardy right now.

So this feeds into, I think, a judgment question about her. I also think it feeds into the truthfulness question about her and the obfuscation. And her -- you know, she went before cameras not that long ago and said there was no secret information, no top-secret information on the server.

CUOMO: That's the problem.

LEWIS: OK, technically, at the time it wasn't. But she should have known that it was information that was highly, you know, important and would have been, should have been classified.

CAMEROTA: All right. More on that, obviously, throughout the program. Brianna, Maggie, Matt, thank you very much this morning. Great to see you guys.

CUOMO: Of course, the larger question is whether or not this is going to matter specifically in Iowa. There's a great way to find out. Ask Democrats from Iowa. And that's what we're going to do, only here on CNN.

One week before Iowa chooses, we're going to have everybody: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Martin O'Malley. They're going to go face to face with who matters most, the voters in Iowa. It's a Democratic presidential town hall live from Des Moines. I'm going to moderate. The final pitch for all candidates before the first votes are cast. They will get to look at people who are living problems in Iowa and who want answers. Next Monday night, 9 p.m. Eastern, live only on CNN -- Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. We're hearing for the first time from one of the Americans freed in last week's prisoner swap with Iran. What does this former Marine have to say about his years in an Iranian prison? We have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)