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GOP Rivals Take Aim at Cruz, Rubio in New Hampshire; Clinton, Sanders to Square off in New Hampshire Town Hall; Tornadoes Carve Trail of Destruction. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 03, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

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

[07:00:12] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. As the Republican candidates shift to New Hampshire, the political winds are shifting, as well. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio looking to build on their performances in Iowa, fending off attacks just six days before New Hampshire voters head to the polls.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And Donald Trump doing some post-vote analysis about why he did not win. He admits skipping the last debate may have cost him in Iowa but says he'd make that same decision again.

As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders getting ready for their second town hall tonight on CNN.

So let's begin the 2016 coverage with CNN's Sara Murray. She's live in Manchester for us. Good morning, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Of course, Ted Cruz wants another victory here in New Hampshire to make it a winning streak. But Donald Trump needs a victory in New Hampshire to show he is a winner. And Marco Rubio, he needs to do well to bring some momentum into some of these later states. Lots of high stakes and not a lot of time left.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These are truly dishonest people.

MURRAY (voice-over): Less than a week from the New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump is blasting Iowa winner Ted Cruz.

TRUMP: "Ben Carson quit, and let me have your vote." What kind of crap is this?

MURRAY: Trump slamming the senator after his team falsely told Iowa caucus goers Ben Carson planned to quit the race.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I apologize to Ben for that. They should have forwarded that subsequent story. That was a mistake.

MURRAY: And continuing to bring up his Canadian birth.

TRUMP: He gets the nomination, they're going to sue his ass off.

CRUZ: I hardly think it is news that Donald Trump is insulting me.

MURRAY: Cruz, riding high from the Hawkeye State win, now preparing for battle in New Hampshire. And even looking ahead to South Carolina, hoping for a boost from the southern evangelical vote.

CRUZ: We're going to continue doing what we did in Iowa here on the ground in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

MURRAY: While Trump, banking on his popularity in New Hampshire, hopes to avoid the same mistakes he made in Iowa.

TRUMP: Had I known I was going to be liked as much as I am in Iowa, and people did like me, you would understand that, I would have maybe spent a little bit more, and I would have been there a little bit more, and maybe I would have won it.

MURRAY: Both top-tier candidates perplexed over Marco Rubio's highly- publicized third-place showing in Iowa.

CRUZ: We've been joking that, in media world, bronze is the new gold.

TRUMP: The headline is, "Winner of the night, Marco Rubio. Trump, humiliated."

MURRAY: Rubio capitalizing on his momentum in this small New England state, asserting his electability.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know who does not want to run against me? Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. They know that if I'm their nominee, they lose and we win. It's why they attack me more than any other Republican in this race. They don't want to run against me. But I can't wait to run against them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, in his press conference last night, Donald Trump was loath to admit that he had many any mistakes in Iowa. But later, in an interview with FOX News, he said they would have done better in Iowa, had they spent more time and more money on building a ground game there. That is a tough thing to turn around in just seven days. We'll see if Donald Trump can do it, Chris.

CUOMO: And look, and Sara, as we know, he knew he had a fight on his hands in Iowa. New Hampshire, a very different story for Donald Trump. The polls showing that, just about by every metric, the man is very strong in that state and across the country. However, Iowa does raise the question should he start doing anything differently?

Let's bring in somebody who wants to make the case. Arizona state treasurer and Trump surrogate Jeff DeWitt. Good to have you on NEW DAY, sir.

JEFF DEWITT, ARIZONA STATE TREASURER: Chris, it's great to be here.

CUOMO: So this morning, the candidate, Trump, is benefiting from open mike on another morning show and doing a lot of the same things he usually does. When untested, he just goes after his opponents the whole time.

Is Iowa a little bit of a wake-up call that maybe he should try some things differently in New Hampshire and going forward?

DEWITT: No, not at all. I think Iowa is a very, very positive event for the campaign.

So here we have our opponents basically depleting their accounts. You had Senator Cruz going all out. That campaign pulled out all the stops for the win. They did that obviously dirty trick to win Ben Carson voters. They did that mailer that showed their campaign knows more information than the NSA does and scared a lot of people.

And then I don't know if you saw that e-mail the Cruz campaign sent out that night, the same night of the victory, that said that, in order to secure the win, they had all but depleted their political accounts. They threw everything they had at it.

And what did they walk away with? Senator Cruz walked away with eight delegates, and Mr. Trump walked away with seven delegates. And they're treating it, you know, like this huge win.

And so I think it's a very, very positive event for us. In put that in perspective, in Iowa, there were 30 total delegates up for grabs. When you come here later on, when they'll be in Arizona, there are 58 delegates up for grabs. In a winner-take-all state, where Mr. Trump has a double-digit lead, similar to the double-digit lead he has in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

[07:05:22] And so this is really going to start to be a runaway victory for the Trump campaign, because for that campaign, for Senator -- Senator Cruz's campaign to throw everything they had and walk away with only one extra delegate, they have to be having a Hawkeye hangover right now.

CUOMO: So let's look at -- Hawkeye hangover. That's -- that's a good phrase you've got there.

So let's look at this point by point. First of all, let me just be clear about this. I've heard it from Donald Trump. Now I'm hearing it for you. You believe that the Cruz campaign intentionally used deceptive and dirty tactics where Cruz -- where Carson was involved and in multiple mailers and suggestions to voters.

Do you think that this is something that Ted Cruz was fully aware of and engineering on all counts?

DEWITT: Well, it's dirty politics 101. I can't tell for sure if Senator Cruz knew or not. But it's dirty politics, where you know, with a lot of campaigns it's over in one night. When you look at, say, a senator primary, that would be over in one night. And so if you drop all these things on somebody and you say things about your opponent; and then the next day you come out and apologize, well, the race is over.

And I think where the miscalculation is you can't do that in this kind of race where that is only the first state. And there's the whole rest of the country to go. And to do that now, I mean, obviously the campaign already had to come out and apologize. Senator Cruz apologized himself. That tells you right there that something had gone on.

But look at what was said about -- about Ben Carson. So I -- if I were the Carson campaign, quite frankly, I'd be livid about that. So yes, I was -- like I said, dirty politics 101. And now they're paying the price, obviously, for it from a public perception standpoint. And it's not good.

CUOMO: In terms of playing politics and what the plus/minus is on it, last week you called Trump's decision not to participate in the debate an amazing show of leadership. Now even he has come up and said, "I think that may have hurt me in Iowa." Do you see it differently now?

DEWITT: No, not at all. I think it was. It shows -- you know, that -- that debate had turned out to be just a bad deal. And we always wish that our leaders had the strength to back out of bad deals. Like, let's say, the Iran deal.

CUOMO: How is it a bad deal? How is it a bad deal? The voters expect to hear from the candidates. That was his obligation to them. He didn't fulfill it. And it seemed that it mattered in the polls. Because momentum shifted. And when you look at the numbers, people who decided in the last few days slanted away from Trump.

DEWITT: Well, look what he did in the meantime. You know, one of his passions is, obviously, taking care of our vets, which is a group that the government keeps overlooking. And he raised $6 million for the vets. And he said -- don't forget what he also just said was that he wouldn't do it -- doing it over again, he would do the same thing. He would rather raise $6 million to help the vets than show up on that debate stage.

CUOMO: He could do that today.

DEWITT: I think that shows true character.

CUOMO: But he could raise $5 million tonight for vets. He could have every one of his events that he does from now until the end of his campaign be for vets. Right? I mean, he could do that any day he wants to do it. He didn't have to do it that day.

DEWITT: Well, and certainly that won't be the last time. So it's his passion. And when he's president, I think you're going to see our vets taken obviously care of in much better fashion than they have been previously. CUOMO: So what do you make the case on Marco Rubio? Marco Rubio gets

very tight to Donald Trump in Iowa. Same number of delegates. Close in overall votes. Now being called the man to unify the party, at least for the moment. We'll see what happens in New Hampshire. What is the Trump advantage over Rubio, in your opinion?

DEWITT: Well, the American people have already made it clear that they're looking for something different. They're looking for a conservative political outsider and somebody that's not part of the establishment.

The problem that Senator Rubio is going to have is his entire life, basically, his entire working life has been a lawyer/politician. And he is as entrenched with the establishment as you can get.

And now that he's risen up to the number third spot, he's going to be asked a lot of tougher questions that he hasn't had to deal with. I think, you know, there was the whole mess in Florida with the credit card scandal that he was a part of, where he had a Republican Party credit card that he was going around and spending on. And there were personal expenses that were showing up on there. And so that's going to come up now and be a big question.

So some of these things where he wasn't really paid attention to now is going to be an issue. As we saw with Senator Cruz in terms of his Canadian birth. That wasn't too big an issue a long time ago, when he was low. But as he rose up in the polls, now those questions have to be asked. And the same thing with Senator Rubio. Some of the previous things are going to now surface and really give voters pause.

[07:10:09] CUOMO: All right. Jeff DeWitt, appreciate you being on NEW DAY, making the case for Donald Trump.

DEWITT: Thank you, Chris. Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: All right. Mick.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and her rival also taking their fight to New Hampshire. The duo getting ready to make their final pitch to voters in tonight's CNN town hall.

Our senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, is live in Manchester, New Hampshire, with the latest ahead of that. Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

While Bernie Sanders has been leading in the polls here for months, this is all about expectation. He'll be seeking to expand on what is essentially a home-field advantage. Well, Hillary Clinton tonight will be trying to appear competitive in a state where the polls appear to be against her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I feel really great being back in New Hampshire after winning in Iowa and having a chance to come here.

JOHNS (voice-over): Riding high on the narrowest victory in Iowa caucus history, Hillary Clinton taking the showdown over votes to New Hampshire.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We fought Secretary Clinton to a virtual tie. And I don't even know yet. We have not even seen all of the breakdowns of the election results.

JOHNS: Bernie Sanders feeling good about his odds in the Granite State, where he's been polling ahead for months. His double-digit lead fueling the campaign's confidence.

SANDERS: If we can win here in New Hampshire -- all right. Let me rephrase it. When we win here in New Hampshire...

JOHNS: While Clinton won the New Hampshire primary in 2008...

CLINTON: Thank you.

JOHNS: The state has often supported neighboring politicians, possibly giving Vermonter Sanders an edge.

After narrowly beating Hillary Clinton in Iowa, the self-proclaimed democratic socialist says he raised a staggering sum, $3 million, online in 24 hours, commanding a huge base of support among younger, newer voters.

Secretary Clinton vying for the chance to take back some of that support.

CLINTON: I'm going to have some work to do to reach out to young voters, and I intend to do that.

JOHNS: The stage is set for both candidates to make their final case before the New Hampshire primaries, facing tough questions from voters at tonight's CNN town hall in Derry.

CLINTON: I'm looking forward to every opportunity, because I know that people here have a choice.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: And a busy day for these candidates today. Hillary Clinton has three campaign appearances today, and Bernie Sanders has both a press conference as well as rally, all in advance of the CNN town hall. So a very busy day, Michaela. Back to you.

PEREIRA: That's right, Joe. Let me point people to it. In fact, grab your snacks, grab your drinks. Tonight Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going to answer questions directly from New Hampshire voters. It's a presidential town hall in Derry, New Hampshire, moderated. It will be Anderson Cooper, is what I was going to say.

CAMEROTA: That is it. Right here. (CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Don't you think it should? It may already be.

CAMEROTA: It was already Cuomoed.

CUOMO: But this is a huge upgrade. When it's Cooper, it's much better.

PEREIRA: Better hair.

CUOMO: I may give him the jacket.

PEREIRA: No, we can't do that anymore, the jacket. Carry on.

CAMEROTA: All right. Another important story to tell you about, because there's a severe weather system that has brought blizzard conditions, as you've heard, throughout the Midwest. But it's also spawning tornadoes in the Deep South. So there are reports of at least six twisters carving trails of destruction through Alabama and Mississippi.

CNN's meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now with more. This is scary stuff, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, last night, boy, it sure popped up, and it did rather quickly. Tornados on the ground, Mississippi and Alabama. That damage there looks like an EF-3, maybe EF-4 damage.

Officially, nine reports of damage. Probably not all of the storm reports will hold up, because they will be from the same tornado. So like you said, likely more like six.

Today we're talking about rush-hour problems and travel problems through Atlanta and Hartsfield. Big storms through the city right now. And I know you're saying, OK, that's Atlanta. What about for me in the northeast? Yes, it's coming. But it's coming for your evening rush hour. How about that? About 5 or 6 p.m. tonight, the northeast, it starts to rain just as you're trying to get home for dinner. It will be a late night and a late start for a lot of folks up there in the northeast.

No significant tornados today. That was yesterday. But there's certainly the potential for flooding today -- Chris.

CUOMO: So push a couple of your buttons, make some things happen, and change the weather, pal. Come on.

MYERS: That's my job.

CUOMO: See you in a second.

All right. So South Korea and Japan on alert, condemning North Korea's plan to launch a satellite later this month. The State Department also slamming a launch, saying it would violate various Security Council resolutions. A U.S. expert saying it is likely a cover for intercontinental ballistic missile testing. All this happens on the heels of the reclusive nation's widely-condemned hydrogen bomb test.

PEREIRA: Right. Here is a story our director, John Duggard (ph), may not take kindly to. He's a bit of a drone-a-phile. It is an unusual solution to stop pesky drones from flying where they shouldn't be. It -- check out this video from the Dutch national police. They're training bald eagles -- yes -- to swoop in, snatch drones and then neatly dispose of them. They say it's a low-tech solution for this high-tech problem.

CUOMO: Is it feeding the drone to...?

PEREIRA: I don't think they can be fed. Here in the U.S., the FAA is testing anti-drone technology of their own, but they use radio signals to ground rogue drones. So that's the key point here. Rogue drones. Not, you know, nice drones used for proper purposes.

CUOMO: Old school to new school.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes.

PEREIRA: What do you think, John?

CUOMO: John likes droning and droning on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And eagles.

PEREIRA: See there. He exists. You thought we were making up his voice in our head.

CUOMO: Droning on.

CAMEROTA: I like that.

CUOMO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders getting ready for tonight's CNN town hall ahead of the New Hampshire primary. What do New Hampshire voters want to ask them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:20] CAMEROTA: The New Hampshire primary less than a week away. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders working hard to woo supporters. But could this contest stretch much longer than anyone is expecting?

CUOMO: Intriguing. Joining us to discuss, our new CNN political contributor, Bernie Sanders supporter, author of "Buyer's Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down," Bill Press; and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Hilary Rosen. Good to have you both here.

Let's seize upon what Alisyn has seized upon. How do you see this going to convention, sir? BILL PRESS, AUTHOR, "BUYER'S REMORSE": Well, if you're Bernie Sanders

and you come within 0.3 of Hillary Clinton in Iowa, you win New Hampshire and you do well in the rest of the primaries. Then you've got all of these young people for him. And you can raise as much money as he has with these millions of contributions at an average of $27. He's going to have all the money.

You know, candidates...

CUOMO: But will he have the delegates? I mean, it's not -- that is not the picture that seems pragmatic at this point.

PRESS: He'll be rolling up delegates in each state, like he did in Iowa.

You know, candidates get out for one reason. They don't get out because they're tired. They don't get out because they have to go to Florida and get a change of clothes. They get out because they run out of money. Bernie Sanders is not going to run out of money, nor ideas.

CAMEROTA: Hilary, in 2008, the primary stretched much longer than anybody ever expected. It stretched to June. Do you see a repeat happening?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: It could very well happen. And Bill is exactly right, that we -- you know, in the Democratic primary, we have this proportional delegate allocation.

So if you remember in 2008, Hillary Clinton kept amassing delegates all along the way, even though Barack Obama was slightly ahead. And that will happen for Bernie Sanders. Having this money will give him the ability to compete. And he has a smart team.

So Hillary Clinton's strategy has got to be, you know, keep him doing well in places like New Hampshire, where they have fewer delegates in New Hampshire than any of the four early primaries. So if he wins New Hampshire, not that big a deal. South Carolina, keep those numbers down. Nevada, keep those numbers down. And then just keep going into the -- into the larger states.

CUOMO: We get the math of it, but the question is why do you see such an easy analogy between a Sanders and what Barack Obama was in 2008?

PRESS: Well, they're not the same candidate, but the process is the same. And I think what we learned, really, in Iowa, at least I did, is you've got two serious candidates here.

CUOMO: Sure.

PRESS: You've got two really good teams. You know, God knows the Clinton people are the best. And then Jeff Weaver and Tad Devine...

CUOMO: Sure.

PRESS: ... they're really -- they're really solid. They know their stuff. And they are -- I think they've shown they're in for the -- for the long haul.

ROSEN: Here's the -- here's the big difference, though, between here and 2008, which is Democratic voters really, really want to win. I mean, when you survey Democratic voters, their passion to keep the White House is fairly intense.

And the more that Bernie Sanders puts forward a vision that the majority of Democratic voters will not agree with, will not see as electable in the fall, that will put additional pressure on him.

You didn't have that in 2008. You didn't have that huge divide of approach with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. You really have just two different personalities. With Sanders and Clinton, and we'll see it tonight, we'll see it tomorrow night in the debate, you really have two different visions of the Democrats.

CAMEROTA: We keep hearing about this notion of the firewall that Hillary Clinton has in South Carolina, where there are many more African-American voters that traditionally support her and not Bernie Sanders. But why do you reject the notion of a firewall?

PRESS: I think the firewall is B.S. I think it's a big myth. I think it's the big -- as big a myth as Hillary was inevitable.

CAMEROTA: But why -- I mean, she does have more African-American voters, yes?

PRESS: Sure, she does. She's had a lot more experience. Look, no doubt about it.

CUOMO: We don't know that she has more voters. We know that she's polling stronger in those states that have different demographics (ph).

PRESS: And she's got the experience, and she's got the record working with them, which Bernie Sanders does not.

At the same time, I think on a couple of things, that the issues that he's talking about, if you're talking about expanding Social Security, talking about expanding Medicare, if you're talking about free college tuition for everybody. If you're talking about going after Wall Street and basically leveling the playing field, that has a resonance across the country not just in white Iowa.

And on community policing issues, on criminal justice reform, issues that directly touch the African-American community, Bernie has been very strong. He started out as a civil rights agitator.

ROSEN: This is what we're going to see. It's interesting. His civil rights work was mostly done in Vermont, right? Where not exactly a hotbed of...

PRESS: He did go south.

ROSEN: This is what we're going to see tonight, I think, which is can Hillary Clinton convince voters that her record, that her legislating, that her record of action on these issues does something that makes Bernie Sanders be as much of an establishment candidate?

[07:25:07] The guy has been in office for 25 years in Congress.

So I think we're going to see a lot of activity between the two of them over actually what they've done on these issues, not just what they're saying.

SANDERS: I think this is fun. Because it's sort of trying -- I believe Bernie Sanders is the one who represents change. It's hard to make the case that Hillary, as good as she is -- and I supported her over Barack Obama in 2008 -- she does not represent change.

ROSEN: I think if they...

SANDERS: She is the establishment. You can't make Bernie the establishment.

The guy has been in Congress for 25 years. That's going to be -- if Hillary Clinton can just make a little headway out of this point in particular, that in essence they're both politicians, that can be a victory.

PRESS: He's been an outsider for 25 years.

CAMEROTA: I mean, true, people are clamoring for change. I hear you. But it sounds -- she's making the case don't you want efficiency? Don't you want to get it done? Don't you want someone who knows their way around the halls? I mean, that's her argument to people. And maybe they want that.

ROSEN: That was actually great change. And he's got to show what change he has made or can make. And that's, I think, his biggest issue.

Now, his advantage is that he's got a level of enthusiasm with young voters that she has yet to capture. And that implies change, even if he doesn't have the record for change. And that's the challenge.

PRESS: I have just -- the experience, "I've got more experience, I've got more experience," that was exactly her argument in 2008, as President Barack Obama remembers.

CAMEROTA: I hear what you're saying, Bill.

Bill -- Bill and Hilary, wow.

CUOMO: Whoa!

CAMEROTA: Thank you, guys. Interesting.

CUOMO: Color coordinated as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Something is going on here.

ROSEN: A little Will and Jada going on today.

CUOMO: Will and Jada, that's what popped into my head.

PRESS: ... I'll tell you that right now.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, guys.

And remember to tune in tonight. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders take questions directly from New Hampshire voters at a presidential town hall in Derry, New Hampshire, moderated by Anderson Cooper, 9 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

CUOMO: Ben Carson says the Iowa caucus winner's campaign is playing dirty tricks. Ted Cruz's campaign has since apologized. Too little too late? The national spokesperson for Cruz joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)