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Democrats Make Final Pitch Before Iowa Caucus; Trump Opens Biggest Lead in New CNN Poll. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 26, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: You have very loyal supporters.

[07:00:06] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do. They're tired of seeing our country being pushed around and led by people that are stupid people. I built a great, great company. But I'm going to use that talent now to do it for the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A grand jury clears Planned Parenthood and indicts its accusers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charged with tampering with a governmental record.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people who exposed this did a service to our country by exposing the true nature of Planned Parenthood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Alisyn Camerota and John Berman are in New York City. I'm in Des Moines, Iowa.

We had the three Democrats last night running for the White House, taking shots at the Republicans and each other in their final appeal directly to the Iowa voters. Just a week away from the caucus now.

Hillary Clinton used last night's CNN town hall to sell her toughness, readiness to occupy the White House. Bernie Sanders countered several times as he tried to pull off a move last night that would help him in an upset. Martin O'Malley trying to stage a last-minute miracle, saying stay strong to his followers.

So who did the best job just six days out? Let's discuss. CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar joins us now.

I am so tired I forget what happened last night. Can you give us the high points?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I certainly will. There was so much energy I thought in this town hall. We frequently say candidates are making an argument. But very truly, this was an argument that these candidates were making. Hillary Clinton for experience, Bernie Sanders for judgment, just one week before Iowans go to the caucuses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. We are live.

KEILAR (voice-over): Less than a week away from the Iowa caucuses.

SANDERS: This calls for a standing up response. Hold on.

KEILAR: The Democratic candidates are out of their chairs.

MARTIN O'MALLEY (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not capable of doing Q and A in Iowa from a seat.

CUOMO: Yes, please.

KEILAR: And throwing soft punches in a final pitch to voters.

SANDERS: Experience is important, but judgment is also important.

KEILAR: Bernie Sanders kicking off CNN's town hall, going record to record with Hillary Clinton.

SANDERS: I voted against the war in Iraq. Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq. I led the effort against Wall Street deregulation. See where Hillary Clinton was on this issue. On day one, I said the Keystone Pipeline is a dumb idea. Why did it take Hillary Clinton such a long time before she came into opposition?

KEILAR: Clinton says one bad vote on the Iraq War is just a scratch, not a dent.

CLINTON: I have a much longer history than one vote, which I've said was a mistake, because of the way that that was done and how the Bush administration handled it. But I think the American public has seen me exercising judgement in a lot of other ways.

KEILAR: Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley once again fighting for his place in this race.

O'MALLEY: I am the only one of the three who has a track record, not of being a divider but of bringing people together to get meaningful things done.

KEILAR: Voters challenging the candidates on key issues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you planning to ensure racial equality?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you going to fight for women's rights?

KEILAR: The Vermont senator clearing up his stance on gun control.

SANDERS: If a gun shop owner should know, why should somebody be buying 1,000 guns? Somebody should be thinking that does not make a lot of sense. In that case, that gun shop owner or the gun manufacturer should be held liable.

KEILAR: The former secretary of state leaning on nearly a million miles of travel to prove she's the foreign policy frontrunner.

CLINTON: I flew from Cambodia, where I was with the president, to Israel middle of the night, go see the Israeli cabinet, work with them on what they would accept as an offer, go see the Palestinian president, work with him to make sure he'd back it up, go back to Jerusalem, finalize the deal, fly to Cairo, meet with President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, president of Egypt, hammer out the agreement.

KEILAR: Clinton not only highlighting her record but defending her character.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard from quite a few people my age that they think you're dishonest.

CLINTON: I've been on the front lines of change and progress since I was your age. I have been fighting to give kids and women and the people who are left out and left behind a chance to make the most out of their own lives.

KEILAR: Throughout the night, one message was clear. Dump Trump.

O'MALLEY: We are far better than the sort of fascist rhetoric that you hear spewed out by Donald Trump.

KEILAR: Clinton taking it a step further.

CLINTON: We need a coalition that includes Muslim nations to defeat ISIS. And it's pretty hard to figure out how you're going to make a coalition with the very nations you need if you spend your time insulting their religion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss who used last night best. We have Brianna Keilar with us, as you know.

Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for "The National Journal," Ron Brownstein; and CNN Politics executive editor Mr. Mark Preston.

So last night, Preston had a big hand in the event. He's part of the CNN politics team. It's seen now people are saying, oh, this was helpful. They liked it. They have a lot of criticisms for each other's team and us, as well. But what do you think in terms of who used that opportunity best?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, if you try to pick who's a loser last night, nobody necessarily lost. Right? Because nobody is...

CUOMO: I think my jacket lost.

PRESTON: All over social media, by the way. We'll have to revisit that. However...

CUOMO: It's my favorite jacket.

PRESTON: I liked it, Chris.

CUOMO: Thank you. You may use it now for your dogs.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Want the jacket back?

CUOMO: Go ahead.

PRESTON: So yes. So no losers, right? Because there was no major flubs. A couple things: one, I thought Hillary Clinton brought energy that I haven't seen from her in a very long time. If you compare it to her last debate, where she seemed to be very angry and very withdrawn, she seemed very outward in this one. Bernie Sanders showed his personality. He certainly showed us personality. He almost made him cry, onstage when you start to...

CUOMO: It may have been the jacket, once again. It might have been the jacket.

PRESTON: But you know, when you talk about his parents, he actually stopped, and he thought about it for a moment. And, you know, you said what would they think about you now, that you made it so far? I thought that was -- it was really a compelling moment. You show as Bernie Sanders said, know, somebody who is just dictating policy drivers. It was interesting.

BROWNSTEIN: I thought Hillary Clinton was very good. And she got to really encapsulate her case, which is essentially I am part of the world. And in the arena I get more done for Democrats.

CUOMO: That's what it was last night, by the way. Fair criticism is I wasn't pushing back on them as much as I normally would. Yes, by design. It was about them giving their best sell.

BROWNSTEIN: Even thought I thought she really encapsulated her case well. I thought -- I would think Bernie Sanders got the most out of the night. Because I mean, he got to do three things in a cogent, cohesive way that he hadn't been able to do before.

One is, as Mark said, he showed more of his personality. It wasn't just kind of an ambulatory walking series of policy papers. Second, he made his case against her in a very coherent way. And third, I think he gave a good feel of the totality of his agenda.

For a Democrat, there are lots of elements on that agenda. Could be problematic in a general election. The cost, the scale, the reach of government. But for a Democratic audience to hear the breadth of what he wants to do in one kind of clump, I thought was very effective.

CUOMO: Now, we did get involved in the mix enough last night to give people a look at how they deal with pushback. And I thought that that was an interesting contrast also from how when I would ask Bernie things about his policy plans and when I would ask Hillary about her policy plans. Their different in how they dealt with it, and the voters we had up here at the same time.

KEILAR: I thought that was interesting, because there's a difference between how a candidate responds to a voter and how a candidate responds to a reporter. We're expecting them to sort of scoot right, scoot left. Right? Like sort of try to completely turn something around. It's way more apparent when you're doing it to just this person who is just a normal everyday person who's asking you a question.

And I actually thought -- yes, and I thought there was energy. But if I could say, I actually found Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton almost to kind of push the envelope a little bit on being strident at times.

The question that -- Hillary was asked a very tough question by that young man who talked about the dishonesty. And talking to young people who are gravitating towards Bernie Sanders, this is a very real concern by them.

And I thought -- you know, I thought that when she kind of redirected it, that she didn't exactly...

CUOMO: Yes.

KEILAR: ... talk specifically to his concern. Now, it's a hard question to answer. Because if someone comes at you and they're saying, "We think you're dishonest," that's rough, right? But politicians have to find a way to sort of take that down a notch, sort of maybe give -- I don't want to say credence, but not just to avoid the point that has been made.

PRESTON: We're spending a lot of time here talking about Bernie Sanders, as we should be, because they are -- the two frontrunners, they're locked in a pitched battle.

But one question last night that was really pointed, that really hit home with Martin O'Malley. When you went to Martin O'Malley and said, listen, basically you're not going to win. But you could be the most powerful man right now, because you do have a level of support that could push the envelope one way or the other.

CUOMO: Explain why that is, by the way.

PRESTON: How that works here in Iowa with the caucuses, they have what they call preferencing basically, where you go into a room. And it's not a private ballot. And if you are for Hillary Clinton, you go into one corner. If you're for Bernie Sanders, you go in another. If you're for Martin O'Malley, you go into another.

If you don't get 15 percent of the totality of that room, then one of those corners goes away, and they need to realign themselves and go for the candidate who they're going to support. So to your question last night, I think it caught him off guard. I

think he was very surprised. He had a great answer. But I think he was surprised that you said this. Listen, you can look at the polls. You're not going to win, but you still could tell your supporters who to go to. And he wouldn't take the bait, but it was an interesting point.

KEILAR: Because if he took the bait, it was an admission, which the polls bear out. He's not going to hit the threshold. Right? But if he did take the bait, then it's sort of this admission. You know, it's like Candidates 101. You don't sort of admit to Plan B. Right?

BROWNSTEIN: It's seldom you see the choice defined so clearly, you know, between them,. And when you see Clinton basically saying, "Look, the things you care about, I can advance, because I am in the real world." Bernie Sanders is saying we have to change the world as we know it. And Democrats really face that bet.

Which way do they want to put their chips? Especially at a moment where, you know, holding the White House for a third consecutive election is tough.

One thing that's really striking in the polls, Hillary Clinton, even in your poll yesterday that showed her, you know, somewhat erring (ph), she's ahead 67 to 26 amongst self-identified Democrats.

Sanders is still relying heavily on independents. It's a pattern we saw early in 2000 when John McCain was doing well. Even in the states that he won, he often lost self-identified Republicans. In the end, you can't win a party's nomination without winning the voters from the party. So there's still a hurdle along with the hurdle among minority voters that Sanders has to get over, even though he's gaining in strength.

CUOMO: What was the biggest vulnerability you saw exposed last night?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think the questions about Clinton's, you know, person -- kind of the ethics questions I think for her. I think -- look, I think Sanders does face this fundamental question, of yes, we agree with all of this. As Rahm Emanuel famously said, we're not trying to pass it in the faculty lounge of the Brookings Institution.

Can you get this -- can you get elected, and even if you get elected in a Congress that's likely to be controlled by Republicans, what does it mean at this point to say you want a single-payer healthcare system?

CUOMO: Ron, Mark, Brianna, thank you very much.

Alisyn, back to you in New York.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Donald Trump breaking a new ceiling in the race for the Republican nomination and ready to take on a potential new challenger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We used to be friends. I guess we're not friends anymore. I don't know. I don't think we are. But I beat him. And I would love him to do it actually. I love the competition. I love the competition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:12] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump has his widest lead in the race for the GOP nod. CNN/ORC national poll out in just the last hour shows the billionaire at 41 percent. His closest rival, Ted Cruz, trails him at 19 percent. This is a brand-new Quinnipiac poll shows Trump holding a tight lead in Iowa less than a week before the caucuses.

Now Trump setting the record straight on a number of controversial issues, telling our Wolf Blitzer he is not concerned about a third- party challenger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: You have very loyal supporters.

TRUMP: I do.

BLITZER: In fact, you -- I think you were joking, but you said -- it's getting a lot of buzz. You said you could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody. That wouldn't affect the support you're getting from your supporters.

TRUMP: Well, you don't think I was joking. You know I was joking. Of course I was joking. The whole room was laughing, and I was laughing when I said it.

BLITZER: Because it got -- you know, you got some criticism.

TRUMP: Well, no, from dishonest press. They said, "Oh, he said something." When they show me, I'm laughing; they're laughing. Everybody is laughing. Everybody is having a good time. Of course I'm joking. I mean, you know that.

But -- and the purpose of that is to say that people love me. You know, they want to stay with me; they're loyal. They're tired of seeing our country being pushed around and led by people that are stupid people. They're tired of it, Wolf.

I mean, we're tired of the Iran deals. We're tired of the Sergeant Bergdahl deals, where we get a traitor and they get five of their killers that they've wanted for years. They're tired of feeling like this.

We're just -- we can't take it anymore. And people are looking at it, and they're looking at me. And they have confidence in me. You know, I built a great, great company, and I'm going to use that talent now to do it for the United States. BLITZER: Another New Yorker who's built a great company is Michael

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City. He's now toying with the idea of running as a third-party independent. If he were to do so, could you beat him?

TRUMP: I'd beat him, and I would love him to do it, actually. I love the competition. I love the competition. I would love for Michael to do it. You know, we used to be friends. I guess we're not friends anymore. I don't think we are. But we used to be friends, good friends.

When I had a problem -- he had a big problem in the Bronx, I cleared up the problem. It was a big project that was -- they were unable to get it built. It was under construction for, like, 25 years. Way, way over budget. I took it over. I got it knocked out in one year, and now it's a tremendous success. Michael asked me if I'd get involved in it, and I'm the one that got it done and did a great job.

BLITZER: If he says he's ready to spend a billion dollars of his own money to be elected president, are you ready to match him dollar for dollar?

TRUMP: I don't know.

BLITZER: If you're the Republican nominee.

TRUMP: I don't think he's going to do that. I don't think he's going to run, actually. But I may be wrong. But I don't think he's going to run.

BLITZER: Why don't you think he might run?

TRUMP: I'm the only -- so far if he comes in, he'd self-fund. I'm the only person self-funding. Everyone else -- I mean, Ted Cruz is totally, totally conditioned down to the oil companies. I mean, the oil companies control him and others.

You look at Jeb Bush, poor Jeb. I mean, here's a guy that spent 100 and some odd million dollars already, and he's almost last. What he's done to the Bush family, and he doesn't even want to use the Bush name. He's ashamed of the Bush name. What Jeb Bush has done to the Bush family is very sad.

Then he brings out his mother. I said, "Jeb, your mother can't help you with ISIS. She can't help you with China. She can't help you with these people, Jeb. You've got to do it yourself." But here's a guy who spends over $100 million, and he's nowhere. I mean, he's -- I think he's disgraced himself, to be honest with you.

But you have all these people. Whether it's Jeb or Hillary or anybody, they're all controlled by the people that give them the money. I'm putting up my own money. I'm self-funding, which is very nice.

BLITZER: You've called Bernie Sanders a total whack job. You've said you don't know if Hillary Clinton will make it legally. Who would you rather face in a general election contest?

TRUMP: I don't care, I mean, really. I don't even focus on them. I only focused on Hillary for a couple of days last week, as you saw. I don't even think about Hillary, and I don't think about Bernie Sanders.

The first thing I have to do is we had 17. Now we're down to about 12 or 13. I've got to get rid of them. I've got to win against them. A lot of them I like. They're good people. There's some very good people in that group. I mean it. Really good people. And people that have become friends of mine. You don't see that, because you won't report on that stuff. You know, the conflicts are more fun, right?

But I can't tell you, really, who I'd rather have. I give it a lot of thought, actually, believe it or not. But I don't think it matters.

I can say this: I will win. I'll bring in states that nobody ever thought of. I think I have a chance to win New York. I defended New York. Nobody else was going to defend New York -- last debate and got good credit for it. But the people in New York love that I defended them, because nobody ever defends New Yorkers, right?

I'm going to win Pennsylvania. I'm going to win West Virginia. I'm going to win Virginia. I'm going to win Michigan. Because I protect the car industry. Nobody else protects the car industry.

BLITZER: You really think you have this Republican nomination in the bag?

TRUMP: No, I think that I have a good chance. I mean, look, I'm leading in all the polls.

Iowa is very important to me. I should say to you -- I should say, "Well, I'd like to do well in Iowa." I don't want to do that. I'd love to win Iowa. If I don't win it, I don't win it. I'll go to New Hampshire, where I have a very big lead, and the people up there have been unbelievably good to me.

But Iowa is very important to me, and I have a great bond with Iowa. And I'm going to keep Iowa where it is. You know, there's a big move to move Iowa to the back of the pack in the next election cycle. I'm not going to do that; I'm not going to let that happen. I have a great bond.

You look at a guy like Cruz. He came out totally opposed to ethanol. Well, that -- you know, that affects many, many farmers and many, many jobs in the state of Iowa.

If I was in Iowa and somebody said, "I'm opposed to ethanol," I would absolutely not vote for him.

And then the governor came out and said, "You should not vote for him." I mean, they pointed. He said -- it wasn't like vote for somebody. I've never even seen that. Don't vote for this guy; he's really bad for Iowa. So I think that, you know, I'm going to do well in Iowa. I bonded

with the people. I bonded with the evangelicals. I bonded with the Tea Party and the people of Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Donald Trump's words being backed up once again by another rising poll, just out this hour.

Let's bring in CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston and bring back our dynamic duo of the morning, Mark Preston and Ron Brownstein.

So, the numbers don't lie, Maeve. He is up again. We've been putting the poll up throughout the morning, 31/29 over Cruz. Rubio at 13 percent. Then Bush and Paul trailing off. As you look, can we say that him going negative on Cruz does seem to have helped him in the short-term?

RESTON: I think it definitely has helped him in the short-term. And you feel that just talking to voters at his rallies, at Cruz's events. There have been sort of a powerful series of attacks that he's unleashed on Cruz. And I think he'd be pretty happy with these numbers, you know, heading into these last days.

It's going to be really interesting, though, to keep watching whether or not he has, in fact, expanded the universe of voters that will -- will actually come out and caucus next week. We're not seeing, you know, a huge evidence of swelling in the rolls and so forth. So he -- does he actually have the ground game to pull this out? Does it matter? Can he just tweet caucus locations.

CUOMO: Polls versus participation. Do you believe there could be a big enough disconnect to give a shock number when we see him?

PRESTON: Listen, you know, to the point, can he translate the success we have seen in the polls with the people who are going to his rallies, can he get him to go out and support him? It remains to be seen.

But there is something to be said about the polls. The polls haven't moved down for him. They continue to go up. He's said something that people find distressing or awful, and his poll numbers go up. So there is something about Donald Trump right now that is really resonating with the American people. And I've got to tell you just watching that interview, I don't think I've ever seen a politician as confident as Donald Trump.

BROWNSTEIN: At least with the Republican electorate. There is remarkable consistency in these polls. Look at the -- four polls came out this morning even as we're sitting here. Ten in the last ten days or so in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationally.

In nine of the ten, Donald Trump's support is between 31 percent and 37 percent. The CNN is a little higher polling variation at 41. In all of the polls, he's almost exactly around 30 percent of college educated Republicans or a little less, around 40 percent of non- college Republicans.

What's so striking about that, Chris, is normally you see variation from Iowa, to New Hampshire, to national. He basically is imprinting the same coalition in state after state. Now, eventually it gets down to one on one. The other rivals are saying maybe, like, two-thirds of the party, or three-fifths of the party is still resistant.

But the fact is, is that he is reproducing the same support in very different environments. And that is a sign of strength. It's suggesting he could take his campaign the a lot of different kinds of states in that Republican primary.

CUOMO: Ted Cruz's argument seems to be developing into you don't know who he is. I know you think you like this guy, and he resonates but you don't know who he is. He has a new ad doing that on an issue that is certainly going to impact here in Iowa but the faith-based community in general. It's about abortion, and it's from Ted Cruz's super PAC. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life. OK? So you know, my views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are different. Like on abortion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would President Trump ban partial-birth abortion?

TRUMP: Well, I'm pro-choice in every respect.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what does Trump think about Iowa?

TRUMP: How stupid are the people of Iowa?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right. So that is -- obviously is pointed in an obvious direction. The idea of changing your position on abortion, which is what he says: "I've evolved. I've talked to more people. I've grown up. I've gotten older. And now I'm pro-life." Is that the end of any discussion, let alone when you get on abortion?

RESTON: Well, I don't think it is. I mean, but I do think that Ted Cruz and others thought this was going to be a much more powerful attack on Donald Trump than it's ended up being.

Other candidates have also been talking about Trump's evolution on abortion for months now. It's not like they say new information. And yes, it's presented in potentially a more devastating package in that ad.

But you know, the voters' in these early states have been paying attention. They know what's going on. And for a lot of people, you know, who are supporting Trump, they are willing to accept that he has evolved over time.

CUOMO: Who is "they"? New Yorkers are they? Everybody else except you is "they"? Who is "they" in that ad?

PRESTON: You know, let me answer it this way. What we have seen with Donald Trump, just trying to take a piece out of Ted Cruz on citizenship, on whether he is -- is disingenuous with Wall Street and what have you, we're seeing the super PAC now trying to do the same thing. Right? I mean, that they are trying to call Donald Trump's credibility into question. Because Donald Trump has successfully done that so far to prove over the last 10 days or so, and that's why we have seen...

CUOMO: In support of Ted Cruz.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Evangelicals are probably going to be 60 percent of the vote in Iowa. They're about 50 percent of the total Republican vote, the majority in most of the southern states, many of the border states. And I think that argument will take a bite out of a piece of that.

But this is a big constituency. It's not monolithic. And what many people are nothing this cycle is not all of them vote primarily on social issues. Many of them are drawn to Trump on the same issues that are working for him with other Republicans, particularly blue- collar Republicans, immigration, trade. And his strength among blue- collar evangelicals is really what I think is holding Cruz down from getting the numbers that he needs.

And as we talked about before, those voters are critical in the south, states like Oklahoma, Tennessee. If Trump can maintain that beachhead, he can compete in many southern states that now the default would be to assume that they belong to Ted Cruz.

CUOMO: Interesting to hear Ted Cruz argue to a crowd, "We have to stop them in Iowa. Otherwise, he could basically run the table." Wouldn't have heard that a few months ago.

Ron, Mark, Maeve, thank you very much.

John, back to you in New York.

BERMAN: All right, Chris. So what about that statement from Ted Cruz. If Donald Trump does win Iowa, is he unstoppable? And what are his possibilities in Iowa itself? We will hear from a man on the inside of the Republican field right now. Hugh Hewitt joins us next.

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