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Trump Touts "Unbelievable Night" Raising $6 Million For Vets; Cruz And Rubio On Immigration; Clinton Vs. Sanders; Sanders Campaign Weighs In On GOP Debate; W.H.O.: 3-4 Million Zika Cases Expected In Americas In 2016; Women In Central & S. America Told Not To Get Pregnant. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired January 29, 2016 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: -- out the most? We'll debate the big winners and losers next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I kind of miss Donald Trump. He was a little teddy bear to me. We always had such a loving relationship in these debates and in between and the tweets, I kind of miss him, I wish he was here. Everybody else was in the witness protection program when I went after him on behalf of what the Republican cause should be.
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CAMEROTA: All right. Three days away from the Iowa caucuses with Donald Trump boycotting last night's debate. Which of the Republican candidates did best in getting their message out to voters? Let's bring in CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza and senior editor of "The Atlantic", David Frum. Gentlemen, great to have you in the studio. Before we get to who won the debate, Ryan, who won, Donald Trump or the other Republicans?
[07:34:56] RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well look, I think if you look at Donald Trump's goals with his argument with Fox News, he had two goals, right? He wanted to get Megyn Kelly out of that moderator's chair and at the last minute, he tried to shake down Fox, allegedly, according to Fox, for $5 million. Neither goal was successful, right? He didn't reach either goal. So the famed great negotiator, the author of "The Art of the Deal", failed in his deal making with Fox News. So I would say that is clearly a loss.
CAMEROTA: But he may have won the war. He might have had more viewers, he might get more voters --
LIZZA: We'll see. That will be an important metric. We don't know how this is going to play in Iowa. So, I wouldn't call him a winner. The second thing is, imagine if Hillary Clinton ducked a debate with Bernie Sanders, and she said, no, I'm not going to the debate because I want to raise money for veterans, and then all the money she raised went to the Clinton Foundation. That's essentially what has happened here, right? He ducked and said --
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Except for the Clinton Foundation part.
LIZZA: No, it's going to the Trump Foundation.
CUOMO: He will then dispense it to veterans groups.
LIZZA: Right, but imagine if she said, it's going to go to the Clinton Foundation and then don't worry, we'll take care of it and give it to veterans.
CAMEROTA: Interesting.
LIZZA: I'm just saying imagine if it were the other side.
CAMEROTA: We will have to follow the money because there is a discrepancy. He said he raised almost $6 million. His website today says more than $570,000.
CUOMO: Again, let's leave that part to the side. We'll see what it is. You wrote a great piece in "The Atlantic" where you used a metaphor, the Aesop Fable, about the boy who reaches his hand, wants to get all the nuts out, and they say -- we all know the story. How does that play out on the stage last night?
DAVID FRUM, SENIOR EDITOR, THE ATLANTIC: Perfect example. What the Republican party is contending with is a rebellion by its rank and file over the immigration issue. The rank and file are saying, we want immigration, it has become the most important issue, and we want a decisive answer. And the hand in the nuts, that the Republican leadership is just determined to have a gang of eight style comprehensive immigration reform and they will not let go. They will not meet the aspirations and needs of the economically anxious Republican middleclass.
CAMEROTA: So who won the point on immigration last night? There were lots of different squabbles about it.
FRUM: Trump, this was a brilliant night for Trump. What Fox did was it took the two leading people to replace him, the people who had Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, everyone was expecting, this is going to turn into a Cruz Rubio faceoff -- on this issue that is so central, neither can be trusted. So who emerges as successful from that? The other thing, to Ryan's point about, well what if Hillary Clinton tried this? Republicans are different from Democrats. They think differently. What they are looking for is a tough guy, a leader.
Who emerges from this whole event looking like the dominant personality? Everyone says Jeb Bush had a great night. He was warm and amusing but he did not assert that kind of commander in chief stature that Republicans want to see and neither did Ted Cruz and neither did Marco Rubio. Meanwhile, Donald Trump had Fox News, the most fearsome entity in the conservative universe, kissing his hand.
CUOMO: The veterans groups look pretty tough too, though, because they say, you want to give us money, that's fine, but what we really need is some answers to these problems that you guys talk about and say you love us but don't solve. Ted Cruz, this was his moment to shine. He was in the middle seat. How did he do in taking on all comers and showing he rises above the rest?
LIZZA: I think I disagree with David a little bit in the Cruz Rubio battle. I do think at the end of the day, you had two senators and the central fight of 2013 on the issue that you're talking about, the issue that's animating the Republican primaries, immigration -- you had Marco Rubio on that gang of eight bill, the person who negotiated it, and it's now the central issue of this campaign, and you had Cruz, despite some kind of legislative maneuvering, opposing that. And I think in that debate in the long run with the conservative Republican electorate, Cruz wins that battle.
CAMEROTA: I mean but the question was, did he legitimately oppose it? That's what came up. Was he authentic?
CUOMO: He didn't have the role that Rubio did.
LIZZA: He wasn't negotiating it so he was playing games legislatively to try and kill it but if you look at the leading anti- immigration reform Republicans in the senate and the house, they side with Cruz on this issue, not Rubio.
FRUM: On this issue. But if you are on immigration restrictions, you're going to find Cruz as untrustworthy as Rubio. Because although, whatever you think of his role on the narrow question of a path to legalization, he came to the senate, he was in favor of expanding all kinds of other categories of immigration. Ted Cruz, vintage, his pre-presidential run, was an immigration expander, more than Rubio, not so much about amnesty, but about more immigration, new immigration in the future, and if you're a Republican who is nervous about that, that's the point about the Aesop Fable that Chris cited. The Republican party has an operating commitment on immigration that is different from the commitment its membership wants and it won't change.
LIZZA: But on that stage last night, Cruz was closer to your position than anyone else, don't you think?
CAMEROTA: All right. We'll see what voters in Iowa think on Monday. Guys, thanks so much for being here some studio. It's nice to see you. Who do you think won last night? You can tweet us @NewDay or post your comment on facebook.com/newday.
[07:40:03] CUOMO: The battle on the Democratic side is down to the wire as well. No matter what poll you look at, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, locked in a virtual tie. So what is the strategy three days to go? We have Bernie Sanders' campaign manager here next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What is not acceptable is people like Donald Trump using racism and bigotry and xenophobia against people from Mexico or elsewhere. That is not acceptable.
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CUOMO: Strong Senator Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign rally in Fairfield, Iowa last night, the caucuses just three days away. Sanders and Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, you know the names, neck and neck no matter which poll you look at. We have Sanders Campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, joining us now. There is a new poll popping up, Jeff. First of all, macho points for you not having a coat on out there. You are certainly tiger tough. I'll respect it. If you look at the Iowa Democrat's choice poll that just came out in the CNN poll of polls, it's a dead heat.
[07:44:57] I mean that's the only way to look at it. The only man's fate that seems clear is O'Malley. The word on the street is that the campaign felt energized after the town hall and that you're hearing that reflected out on the hustings. People saying they saw something different, a little bit more personal depth -- tell me if that's not true? Because clearly, we're not trying to be self-serving in the analysis. What are you seeing?
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: No, no, Chris, Chris, in these final days, there's a tremendous amount of momentum. I mean, that event you just showed from Fairfield, Iowa, we expected 200 people there, there was 900 people there. So a phenomenal turnout. Everywhere Bernie is going, people are coming out in large numbers. 1,100 people in Mason City the other night, which is a small city here. So we're seeing a lot of energy on the ground. And I do think, I have to say -- not to put a too fine a point on it, but your town hall, I think, was a really great experience for voters here. They really got a chance to see the candidates in a way they might not have seen them in a different format.
CUOMO: And I'll tell you something else we saw that is unique. I've seen it in the past. As you know, the senator has been on NEW DAY probably more than any other of these cable morning shows.
WEAVER: Sure.
CUOMO: But your followers have gotten protective. After that town hall, they did like a question count from whether or not, Hillary's questions versus Bernie's questions, and they have been all over me like ugly on a gorilla. They are very protective of him going into this. What does that speak to, in your opinion, in terms of the intensity and the passion of the base that Bernie has built?
WEAVER: Sure. Listen, Bernie Sanders speaks to the issues that people are facing this their real lives. His message of dealing with a rigged economy, held up by a corrupt political system is resonating with voters here in Iowa and frankly, if you look at national polls, the tightening polls all across the country, so people do feel very protective of Bernie. He has come under a lot of attacks from the Clinton Super PAC in recent days but we're standing tall and we're fighting all the way to the end here in Iowa.
CUOMO: Now Jeff, we've known each other a long time. You are somebody who usually sees a very clear path when you're making decisions -- is there truth to this, we don't know what to do, to go negative or positive in this last week, this speculation about this vacillating?
WEAVER: No, absolutely not. It was a completely, what you would call in the media, overwritten story. It's absolutely not the case. I think anybody who objectively looks at our advertising will tell you it's completely fair, not negative. Bernie Sanders has never run a negative TV ad in his life, and he doesn't intend to start now. So, there was a little bit of a tempest in a teapot, that really was nothing.
CUOMO: All right, and let's leave it at that. There's a big stick, though, that we saw in the debate last night. The word "socialist" is a dirty word in politics. I know the legitimate reality is that many programs in government today have a socialist dynamic. We understand that. But in politics, it's a dirty word. Rubio, last night, was using the big stick saying, what comes next for this country after seven disastrous years of Barack Obama? Better not be Bernie Sanders. I don't want to be Sweden. How do you deal with that overarching criticism?
WEAVER: Look, Chris, the fact that Senator Sanders calls himself a Democratic Socialist is not a secret. It is in every single story that you read in the newspaper, almost every television interview, everybody knows it, and yet still in head to heads against Republicans, he beats them all, right, including in battle ground states like Iowa and New Hampshire. So Rubio can say whatever he wants to say but it doesn't mean it's going to have any effect, Chris. I know there's a lot of chatter about this in the media, but among real people out in the world, not so much.
CUOMO: Bernie Sanders giving a personal side to himself. Got obviously emotional when he was thinking about his parents. Sanders doesn't like to talk about his personal life as much. He doesn't like to talk about it. He thinks there's too much urgency to the policy side of this. But the personal matters to voters, as you know. We brought up his age, you released his medical records, there are no reportedly issues in the medical records. We then saw him posing a boxing position against Andrea Mitchell. He looked like he knew what he was doing, there. Does he have any training when it comes to the fight game?
WEAVER: Well, I'm not sure but he was raised in Brooklyn, so, we'll leave it at that.
CUOMO: He framed up. I'm glad he didn't come at me at the town hall. I don't know what would have happened to me. I paid a lot of money for this face. I don't want it to get broken up. Jeff Weaver, good luck to you going forward. We will see you in Iowa and we will be there when the people decide. Thank you, sir.
WEAVER: You got it. See you then.
CUOMO: Alisyn --
CAMEROTA: OK. Now to this medical story. The Zika virus sparking fear around the globe. Health officials saying that it is quote, spreading explosively. How worried should we be? Dr. Sanjay Gupta and the NIH here with answers, next.
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[07:53:04] CAMEROTA: Global concern about the Zika virus growing this morning. The World Health Organization says it will hold an emergency meeting next week to discuss ways to confront the virus, which they say is quote, spreading explosively. Joining us is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci. He's the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the NIH. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here. Dr. Fauci, let me start with you because when we hear something is spreading explosively, it sounds terrifying. And I know you want to clarify something that the World Health Organization put out yesterday about the scope of this virus.
DOCTOR ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIONS DISEASES: Yes, I think when people hear someone saying that it's spreading explosively throughout the Americas, they think about the United States of America, but that's not the case. What we're seeing is truly an explosive spread in South America and in parts of the Caribbean. We are having cases that are imported cases in the United States. That's expected, and we'll probably see many more, namely, people in the United States who travel for a variety of reasons to the Caribbean, and to South America, and then come back to the United States. That's happening, and it will continue to happen. The concern is, and we're very much aware of it, and on the alert for it, is what's called locally transmitted cases, namely, someone who goes down or visits the United States and is infected, gets bitten by a mosquito, and locally transmits it within the United States. We have not seen that yet in the continental United States. When you're dealing with similar viruses like dengue and chikungunya, which are clearly very prevalent in South America and in the Caribbean, we have seen little pockets of local spread within the United States, particularly in Florida and Texas, and they have been able to be contained by things like good mosquito control.
So although we're prepared for a big outbreak, we don't think that that is a likely scenario that we will see an explosive outbreak in the United States, similar to what, for example, they're seeing in Brazil.
CAMEROTA: OK, well that --
[07:55:08] FAUCI: We're not being cavalier about it, but we don't think that's going to happen.
CAMEROTA: We appreciate that and that is comforting to Americans, but Sanjay, since Americans do travel and it is possible, as we just heard Dr. Fauci say, that they can come back with it, why wouldn't it become an epidemic here?
DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, when you look at the sort of area where this has become so widespread versus the United States, it's just very different. Urbanized -- simple things like screens on windows, air conditioned buildings, makes it less likely for these mosquitoes to propagate this viral illness as much. And we have examples of this, Alisyn, as Dr. Fauci was saying, dengue fever, for example, another mosquito-borne illness -- you get millions of people around the world get infected with this. You would think it would happen in the United States because we have some of the same mosquitoes in the United States, and yet only isolated cases or isolated clusters of cases, that's it. So this should behave the same way.
CAMEROTA: Sanjay, I want to stick with you for a second because as you know, officials in other countries have gone as far as to suggest that women not get pregnant during this time period. So I know that the CDC actually talked about this. Let me play this bite from the CDC.
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DOCTOR ANNE SCHUCHAT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CDC: You may remember during the influenza pandemic in 2009, we saw very serious complications of influenza in pregnant women. We saw pregnant women die. We saw them lose their babies. We saw them have critical illnesses. We urged people to take precautions and to get prompt treatment of influenza but we didn't advise against getting pregnant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Sanjay, how dangerous is it for pregnant women?
GUPTA: Well, it can be certainly dangerous. When you talk about this condition known at microcephaly, which is a birth defect, and that's obviously a very serious condition and it seems to be associated with this virus. I asked Dr. Schuchat that question, saying does the CDC agree with this guidance not to get married -- I mean, not to have babies, I should say, and she said, no, we do not agree with that guidance. First of all, it's just not practical guidance. How do you suggest that sort of thing? In El Salvador, they were saying, don't have a baby for two years -- it's just not practical. There's other measures where you can try and reduce the risk to pregnant women. Right now, what they are saying is if you're a pregnant woman living in the United States thinking about travel to one of these areas that's affected, if you don't have to go, don't go until we get more guidance, some more advice on what to do.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Fauci, let me also put up the CDC guidelines for travel to some of these zones. They say, wear a long sleeved shirt and pants, stay in air conditioned places with window and door screens, sleep under a mosquito net, use EPA registered insect repellent -- if you do get the virus, then what, Dr. Fauci?
FAUCI: Well, if you get infected and you're not a pregnant woman, like if I went down there and got infected, the history of Zika is that it is a relatively mild illness. It's an illness characterized by fever, joint aches, some pink eye and a rash, and it usually lasts anywhere from three to four days to up to a week and then you're done. There's almost no mortality associated with Zika. The real issue is the concern, as Sanjay mentioned, regarding women who are pregnant and who get infected while they're pregnant, because of the temporal and geographic association, and I underscore association with the development of microcephaly in the baby of a pregnant woman. We haven't definitively proven cause and effect yet, but the association is strong enough that it's prompted the CDC guidance about women who are in the United States and pregnant, about withholding travel to these regions.
CAMEROTA: Right. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for all of the real information today. It's comforting to talk to you both. Thank you. All right, we're following a lot of news this morning so let's get right to it.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Isn't that better than this debate that's going on?
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everyone on this stage is stupid, fat, and ugly.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I kind of miss Donald Trump. He was a little teddy bear to me.
TRUMP: Look at all the cameras. This is like the academy awards.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm supporting another candidate for president. That doesn't mean we can't work together when it comes to helping our veterans.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everybody's friends here except Ted Cruz. But it's a falseness.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You changed your position on immigration. Because you used to support a path to citizenship.
BUSH: So did you.
RUBIO: Well, bu you changed --
BUSH: So did you, Marco.
TRUMP: Will I get more votes, will I get less votes? Nobody knows. Who the hell knows.
CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton cannot be the president of these United States.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me tell you who's not qualified to be president of the United States. Hillary Rodham Clinton is not qualified to be president of the United States. Hillary Rodham Clinton, she is not qualified to be president of the United States.
TRUMP: It's for our vets and you're going to like it because we raised over $5 million in one day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[07:59:55] CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to your NEW DAY, this Friday, January 29th, 8:00 in the East, and by most accounts, the final Republican debate before Monday's Iowa caucus had more substance in the absence of Donald Trump. They got to distinguish themselves, they say there were less antics, several wound up squaring off on --
