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Senator Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Debate in New Hampshire Town Hall; Interview with Bernie Sanders Spokesperson Symone Sanders; Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Criticize Each Other; President to Address the National Prayer Breakfast; Trump Accuses Cruz of Stealing Iowa Caucuses. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 04, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's green tea. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, February 4th, 8:00 in the east. Five days to New Hampshire, and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going blow for blow every second before the primary. The pair sparring over what it means to be a progressive at last night's CNN presidential town hall. Sanders putting Clinton on the defensive over her record and ties to Wall Street.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: On the Republican side an escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz with Trump accusing Cruz of voter fraud and demanding a new Iowa caucus. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. She has the highlights of the town hall last night. Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. This really was a battle for progressive credentials as we saw Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders appearing jointly for the first time since she got a win in Iowa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course we're an underdog. We are taking on the most powerful political organization in the country, and that is, you know, the Clinton organization.

KEILAR: Only five days away from the New Hampshire primary, Senator Bernie Sanders taking off the gloves during last night's Democratic town hall, jabbing Secretary Clinton over which candidate can claim to be progressive.

SANDERS: You can't go and say you are a moderate on one day and be a progressive on the other day. Some of my best friends are moderates. I love moderates. But you can't be a moderate and a progressive. They are different.

KEILAR: Clinton pushed back at his assertion when she took the stage. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said I'm a

progressive who likes to get things done. And I was somewhat mused today that Senator Sanders has set himself up to be the gatekeeper on who's a progressive, because under the definition that was flying around on twitter and statements by the campaign, Barack Obama would not be a progressive. Joe Biden would not be a progressive.

KEILAR: Sanders forcing Clinton to defend her relationship with Wall Street.

SANDERS: I do not know any progressive who has a super PAC and takes $15 million from Wall Street. That is just not progressive.

KEILAR: The former senator from New York stumbling a bit when Anderson Cooper asked about her paid speeches from investigation giant Goldman Sachs.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: But did you have to be paid $675,000?

CLINTON: Well, I don't know. That's what they offered.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: You know, so every secretary of state that I know has done that.

COOPER: But once you are in office and not running for an office --

CLINTON: Well I didn't -- to be honest, I wasn't committed to running. I didn't know whether I would or not.

COOPER: You didn't think you were going to run for president?

CLINTON: I didn't.

KEILAR: Clinton tackling another tough subject when an audience member asked about her vote for the war in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What have you learned that could give me confidence that you wouldn't make a mistake of that magnitude again?

CLINTON: Oh, I think that is a very fair question. You know, I did make a mistake, and I admitted that I made a mistake.

KEILAR: That mistake, one that Senator Sanders has repeatedly gone after.

SANDERS: The key foreign policy vote of modern American history was the war in Iraq. The progressive community was pretty united in saying don't listen to Bush. Don't go war. Secretary Clinton voted to go to war.

KEILAR: But Clinton standing firm. CLINTON: All I can do is to just get up every day and work to do

what I believe our country needs, find ways to help people, whether it is on mental health or addiction or autism or student loans, whatever it might be. And I trust the American people. I trust the people of New Hampshire to see my lifetime of work and service and to sort out all of the static and to know that I will work my heart out for you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: On a personal note, the candidates also spoke about their spirituality. Bernie Sanders, who has made it clear he's not really into organized religion, talked about how he sees spirituality being that everyone is connected, that they are in this together and that they should care if, for instance, their neighbor isn't doing well. Hillary Clinton talked about how she has long been a Methodist. She said she practices gratitude, and she says she's leaned on her faith in really tough political and also personal times. Guys?

CUOMO: Brianna, thank you very much.

Let's discuss a little deeper. Bernie Sanders has enjoyed a healthy lead in New Hampshire for a long time. What will this mean for the state of the race? What will happen in the final push? Let's discuss with the press secretary for Bernie Sanders campaign, Ms. Symone Sanders. Symone, good to have you on the show this morning.

SYMONE SANDERS, NATIONAL PRESS SECRETARY, BERNIE 2016: Nice to be here Chris, thank you.

CUOMO: Help me negotiate the understanding of this word "progressive."

[08:05:00] Senator Sanders is new to the Democratic Party for the purposes of the running for president. What is he saying by saying he's the most progressive? What does that mean? He's the most left?

SYMONE SANDERS: Well Chris, Senator Sanders I do want to know that he has caucused with the Democrats since he first took office way back when he was in the House. He has been put into leadership by Democratic leadership. He is the ranking member on the Senate budget committee. He was chair to the Veterans Affairs Committee. So to say he is, quote-unquote, new to the Democratic Party I don't think is correct.

When Senator Sanders says he's a progressive, though, what he's saying is he has long fought for values such as, and he upholds things such as climate change, advocating for hardworking American people, standing up to Wall Street, things of that nature. So when he's talking about being a progressive, I think it is great that now progressivism is where the Democratic Party is. It is not too long ago it wasn't necessarily cool to be a progressive. So I think it is great that this is where the Democratic Party is and this is definitely where Senator Sanders has always been.

CUOMO: I'm just bringing up the fairness point that he's saying I'm the real article but he was running as the Democrat when he was always identified as an independent all of these years. I'm just saying it adds to the nature of the dialogue between the two of them.

Another big point for him last night was you voted for Iraq, Hillary Clinton, and that is all that matters when it comes to foreign policy. Is it fair to limit it to that one vote and to ignore the reality that the basis of that vote was bad information from the Bush administration that many relied on including now Secretary of State John Kerry and a lot of other Democrats?

SYMONE SANDERS: Well, Chris, I think it is important to note that yes, experience is important, but judgment is also extremely important. And sometimes judgment is all you have. And so the fact that Secretary Clinton did vote to go to war in 2002 is an important note that is not -- Senator Sanders is not saying that is all that matters, but judgment is a very good indicator of what one would do when they are a president. So, yes, judgment definitely matters, and that is a point that the American people deserve to know about and that deserves to be discussed.

CUOMO: What are you seeing on the ground in New Hampshire? He has always had a big lead there. There are different reasons for that. Being a Vermont senator is helpful. The makeup in New Hampshire is helpful in certain ways through Sanders' message. What are you seeing in terms of momentum towards the primary?

SYMONE SANDERS: Well, I think the momentum is definitely on our side Chris, the enthusiasm is on our side. But we also have a really good ground game. We're not taking anything in New Hampshire for granted. We are on the ground meeting people where they are. We're holding town halls. We're holding rallies because it is very important to the senator that he speak with the folks of New Hampshire, that he gets who know who they are, that they get to know who he is so when it comes to Election Day they can make the best decision, which we think is voting for Senator Sanders.

And so we'll be holding a series of town halls and rallies throughout the weekend all through primary day, and we're just looking forward to, again, meeting as many people as we can and having a dialogue, and folks really getting questions to ask the senator any questions they haven't gotten to ask him on any of his other many trips to New Hampshire.

CUOMO: Coming off the town hall last night, are you starting to get more questions about Senator Sanders' involvement with the V.A.? As you will remember, some of our earlier interactions with NEW DAY with Senator Sanders were about the investigation into the V.A., him cautioning to go slowly, that some of the information may not be right, and of course it all turned out to be more than right in terms of the lapses in that system. Are you hearing more about that, and are we going to hear more from the senator justifying his position on the V.A.?

SYMONE SANDERS: Well, you know, we definitely talk about veterans on the campaign trail. And Senator Sanders has stood with veterans. He's fought for veterans, again, as he was chairman of the veterans affairs committee. So I definitely think in the coming days we are going to talk a lot more about our vets. I hope we talk more about healthcare and providing universal healthcare, because there are still 29 million Americans uninsured, and he's definitely ready to have that dialogue.

CUOMO: What are you seeing in terms of, can you predict at this point the spread between Sanders and Clinton? What is your bet Symone?

SYMONE SANDERS: Chris, I don't want to jinx it now. We are -- again -- I don't want to jinx it. We are out here working for every single vote in New Hampshire. We are not taking anything for granted. So yes, the polls right now say the spread is large, but come Election Day it might be a little smaller. Secretary Clinton has won in New Hampshire.

CUOMO: True.

SYMONE SANDERS: She's not a stranger to the people in the state. And so we cannot forget that point.

[08:10:00] So we think if we go out there, momentum is on our side. Enthusiasm on our side, and we do have a good ground game. We think we will do extremely well. We do think it is going to be a fight, but we're ready to have it.

CUOMO: Do you see any shift in South Carolina, Nevada, and moving into the south of minority voters starting to be more responsive to Senator Sanders? It has been interesting he hasn't made great inroads to Clinton at this point there.

SYMONE SANDERS: I have seen a shift, Chris, and I think we're going continue to see more of a shift as voters get to continue to know who Senator Sanders is. In South Carolina and other places in the south I like to say we're in the barbershops, the beauty shots, and the bible study, because we are. We're meeting people where they are.

We've had a number of state reps in South Carolina come out for the senator recently. And that is a testament to the fact that when people get to hear what Senator Sanders' message is, when they see where he stands on a $15 minimum wage, when they see his platform on addressing criminal justice reform and racial injustices in this country, when they see his plan for universal healthcare, this is the plan folks want to get behind and they want to join the political revolution.

So we have invested in South Carolina. We've invested in Nevada. We also have state directors in each of the March 1 states, and we're not waiting until -- we weren't waiting until after Iowa. We're not going to wait until after New Hampshire to make inroads in those communities. So we are looking forward to again dialoguing in New Hampshire throughout the weekend up until Election Day. Then we're looking forward to getting on the road and getting to Nevada, getting to South Carolina, and a couple of other places that we plan to visit.

But we believe that our message is one that speaks to hardworking Americans that are black, white, Latino, Native American, Asian American, or otherwise.

CUOMO: All right, and the same officer we make to the Clinton campaign we make to you. We hope to see the senator on Monday or Tuesday or both when NEW DAY is up there in New Hampshire. No better way to deal with the voters than to deal with them directly on this show. Thank you very much to the aptly named Symone Sanders for being with us this morning. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: After graciously accepting a second place finish in Iowa, Donald Trump is now demanding a do-over. He claims Ted Cruz stole the election. The Texas senator, for his part, dismissing the claim, accusing his rival of throwing a "Trumper- tantrum." Five days before the New Hampshire Republican primary the Republican race getting nastier. Five days to go of all of this. Let's see what happens now. Dana Bash live in Manchester on the GOP race for us.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Michaela. That moment of Trump humility was just that, it was a moment. Now we are seeing the Donald Trump we come to expect on the campaign trail going after Ted Cruz. But what we are seeing is something we haven't for a long time, a stepped up Ted Cruz going at Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz goes out. You talk about liars?

BASH: They went at each other late into the night.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I call it a "Trumper- tantrum."

BASH: Ted Cruz unloading on Donald Trump.

CRUZ: For his entire life for 60 years he has been advocating for full on socialized medicine.

BASH: On policy and on personality.

CRUZ: Donald has an interesting habit of when anyone actually points to his record of simply stomping his foot and yelling "liar."

BASH: Trump shot back, saying exactly that.

TRUMP: What I hate is when somebody lies.

BASH: Blaming Cruz for Obamacare, the senator who became famous for a government shutdown in his quest to repeal it.

TRUMP: Justice Roberts approved Obamacare twice --

BASH: Trump argued Cruz's earl support for Chief Justice John Roberts who ruled twice in favor of Obamacare makes Cruz culpable.

TRUMP: His vote got it over the top. Ted Cruz did that. Ted Cruz gave us Obamacare.

BASH: While Trump and Cruz bloody each other up, another Republican battle is raging among candidates appealing to more mainstream GOP voters in New Hampshire.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you vote for me and I am our nominee, I will unite the conservative movement and the Republican Party.

BASH: In a boost to his effort to prove that, Marco Rubio scored an endorsement from Rick Santorum as he exited the presidential race.

RICK SANTORUM, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We decided to support Marco Rubio.

BASH: But other Republican candidates who need a New Hampshire win to survive are going after Rubio.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco Rubio was for amnesty and for legalization. That was his position. And then when conservatives told him they didn't like it and he decided to run for president, he turned tail and ran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: We're hearing a lot of that, Michaela, candidates like Chris Christie trying to bring Marco Rubio down to earth. He did only finish third in Iowa but it was a strong third. And more importantly when it comes to politics, he defied and exceeded expectations.

[08:15:01] So that is the dynamic, I think probably the most interesting one going on the ground here right now in New Hampshire. You have Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Marco Rubio fighting for the very same voters, the mainstream voters who are looking forward to November saying those are the kind of Republican candidates they think are best to win Michaela.

PEREIRA: Certainly fascinating. Thank you so much for that.

Meanwhile, a quick programming note. Donald Trump will be Anderson Cooper's guest tonight on "AC360".

CAMEROTA: In less than an hour from now, President Obama will address the national prayer breakfast. This follows his first visit to a U.S. mosque as commander in chief, where he condemned anti-Muslim bigotry.

CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski is live at the White House with the latest for us.

Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.

Yes, this is expected to be something of a continuation of the president's speech yesterday in his 45-minute speech. He's expected to talk about our shared humanity, how faith can combat fear. And he's expected to get personal and touch on his own faith journey.

You might remember last year at this prayer breakfast, he raised some eyebrows when as ISIS was spreading he talked about how other faiths have also committed, in his words, terrible deeds in the anymore of God, including Christians. He mentioned the Crusade. This year, expect it to be more political. I mean, yesterday, he really took that chance to slam the anti-Muslim political rhetoric that's been out there, even touched upon the fact that he has been called a Muslim.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Please be seated.

By the way, Thomas Jefferson's opponents tried to stir things up by suggesting he was a Muslim. So I was not the first --

(APPLAUSE)

No, it's true. It's true. Look it up. I'm in good company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Remember, just in September, a CNN poll showed about a third of Americans and even more Republicans still believe that President Obama is a Muslim. But today, in about an hour expect to hear him talk about his faith in a little more depth -- Chris.

CUOMO: Good insight there. Michelle, thank you very much.

In other news this morning, a U.N. panel is expected to rule tomorrow that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being unlawfully detained, according to several sources, including the BBC. Assange has been holed up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012, avoiding extradition to Sweden over rape claims. British Prime Minister David Cameron says the U.N.'s decision would not be binding, so Assange will still be arrested if he decides to leave that embassy.

PEREIRA: Convicted killer Adnan Syed, the focus of that popular "Serial" podcast, back in court today making his case for a new trial. On the first of a three-day hearing, alibi witness Asia McLain said she was with Syed at a high school library at the time his ex- girlfriend Hae Min Lee was murdered. Lee's family says they believe justice was done when Syed was convicted.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let's lighten it up a little. Late night hosts have a lot of material to work with this election cycle, and they are really starting to nail their Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump impersonations. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, THE TONIGHT SHOW: Hillary Clinton narrowly won in Iowa with the final results showing she beat Bernie Sanders by less than 1 percent. And you thought Bernie was mad at the 1 percent before?

(LAUGHTER)

It's always the 1 percent.

SETH MEYERS, LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS: On the Republican side in the Iowa caucuses, Ted Cruz came in first. Donald Trump came in second, and Jeb Bush is still lost in a corn maize.

(LAUGHTER)

CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: Donald Trump tweeted Ted Cruz illegally stole the election. Trump said, everyone knows you are supposed to illegally buy the election. That's how it's done. That's what you do.

(APPLAUSE)

Loser.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Do you think they practice in the mirror?

CAMEROTA: They must.

PEREIRA: They must, right?

CAMEROTA: They must.

CUOMO: Who's the best?

CAMEROTA: Well, Jimmy Fallon. I don't think that Conan is exactly channeling Donald Trump there. He's channeling some sort of --

PEREIRA: He nailed Bernie for sure. But I also like New Hampshire where are --

CUOMO: They're all funny. Seth is funny. They're also smart and funny, which is I think one of the nice gifts we're getting at night.

And "Saturday Night Live", you know who's on "Saturday Night Live" this Saturday.

PEREIRA: He's back.

The role he was born for can we say?

CUOMO: The man who owns the Bernie Sanders --

CAMEROTA: Oh, my God, that's great.

All right. David, so excited.

CUOMO: The battle between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump getting uglier by the hour. How will their war of words play out heading into the New Hampshire primary? The Cruz campaign responds to claims of perfidy next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:32] CAMEROTA: The gloves are off between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump accusing Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses, as all the candidates head into New Hampshire.

Ron Nehring is the California state chairman for the Cruz campaign.

Ron, thanks so much for being with us on NEW DAY this morning.

RON NEHRING, CALIFORNIA STATE CHAIRMAN, CRUZ CAMPAIGN: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump is saying Ted Cruz exited voter fraud. Let me read to you a couple of his recent tweets on that topic.

Donald Trump says the state of Iowa should disqualify Ted Cruz from the most recent election on the basis that he cheated, a total fraud. He then wrote, "Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified."

Ron, what is your response to these calls?

NEHRING: Well I was just on an airplane yesterday flying to D.C. and watching the Twitter feed and watching Donald Trump's Kylo Ren moment on Twitter. We didn't know what he was going to do after, you know, he was kind of gracious in his initial concession.

But, look, Donald Trump has not been talked about for about 24 hours following the results and like a child who's kicking his sister to get attention of mom and dad, Donald Trump is going to continue to say weirder and weirder things in attempt to get the media attention back to him and that is what's been doing.

The members of the Cruz crew, the thousands of volunteers for Ted Cruz in Iowa delivered a stunning victory, a come from behind victory. The entire media reality distortion machine was coming down on Ted Cruz those final days.

[08:25:03] And no one should be able to take that victory away from Senator Cruz and the thousands and thousands of voters who cost their ballots and gave the victory not to Donald Trump who guaranteed that he would win, but to Senator Cruz.

CAMEROTA: But, Ron, do you worry that some Iowa voters may have gotten some misinformation from your campaign?

NEHRING: Well, there is no indication of that whatsoever, at all. And as a matter of fact, going into the caucuses this back and forth concerning what Ben Carson said or he was going to do or not going to do or go to Florida or change his clothes of whatever he was doing came about so late, and there is no indication that even a single Iowa caucusgoer received that bad information or that any Cruz volunteer stood up and gave that information whatsoever.

And if it did occur, then it's incumbent upon the Carson people to say, no, that was a bad report, or that report didn't come out right, or that wasn't what we intended to say or whatever, and to correct it. That's the back and forth of what happens in a political campaign.

CAMEROTA: If you did get some information, if some information did come out that people were confused about the status of Ben Carson as they went into caucus and therefore changed their minds, then what would your campaign do?

NEHRING: Well, ultimately, the results have been certified, the election was fair and square and there are now a total of 55 other states and territories that will hold votes and send delegates to the national convention, and this campaign is not over. So, there is that opportunity.

But, you know, at the end of the day, I think that in that fog of war where that situational awareness, you know, is moving back and forth in the final minutes before votes are counted, it's incumbent upon all the campaigns to share all of the information that they had. The Cruz campaign did the best job that it could share in that information. The Cruz campaign said some things it probably ultimately shouldn't have said and then we'll have another vote in New Hampshire in a couple of days.

CAMEROTA: I mean, but your co-chair, Congressman Steve King, did put out erroneous information. I mean, are you suggesting nobody in any of the caucuses was reading Twitter feeds that night? They didn't have their cell phones with them?

NEHRING: Well, I took a look at what Congressman King had tweeted out and what he said it looked like Ben Carson was out. Meaning to him, in his judgment, which -- and the judgment of a lot of other people who had taken a look at what the Carson campaign spokesman had said, which is kind of weird that he was not going to go to New Hampshire and to South Carolina --

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, I -- and, Ron --

(CROSSTALK)

NEHRING: And there were a number of other press reports that had drawn the same type of conclusion that something was perhaps going on here and that's what occurred.

CAMEROTA: Saying it is a little weird is different than saying what he did say. "It's the equivalent of suspending. Too bad this information won't get to all caucusgoers." And then next tweet, "Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz. I hope."

So, again, you're saying that you don't think that either of those tweets that they sowed any confusion among voters?

NEHRING: Look, I think when you are at a national news outlet watching this remotely and that Twitter is, you know, carries a disproportionate view of reality and what was really happening in those individual precincts around the caucus and it's not appropriate to take away the tremendous amount of work that had been done by all the campaigns and then to say well the result was just reduced to a single tweet or two. That's simply not fair and not honest reporting either.

But let me also say that Ben Carson outperformed the polls as well. We saw that Ted Cruz outperformed the polls. We saw that Ben Carson outperformed the polls. The only top tier candidate who didn't outperform the polls was Donald Trump and that is because he didn't run a good campaign in Iowa. Now, maybe things will change now.

But, you know, that shouldn't be overlooked either. That Donald Trump did not run a good campaign and he's trying to look for people to blame other than himself because he is not someone who takes responsibility. He guaranteed that he would win. He lost.

Other candidates did better than the polls. He did worse in the polls. And, you know, we saw what happens when Donald Trump doesn't get his way and he can't produce and then he throws a fit.

CAMEROTA: Ron Nehring, thanks so much for sharing your perspective on NEW DAY. Nice to talk you do.

NEHRING: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: While meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are working hard to prove more who's more of a progressive. We're going to break down last night's CNN town hall. Which candidate did best? We'll take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)