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Clinton, Sanders to Face off in Debate Tonight; GOP Candidates Descend on South Carolina. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours from now, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton face off in a key debate.

[05:57:56] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This country is supposed to be a nation of fairness.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the president has signaled, while still remaining neutral, that he supports Secretary Clinton's candidacy.

SANDERS: Go your own way. The revolution is possible. You are the revolution.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would go home if I didn't think I could compete. Of course I think I can compete.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only candidate who can beat Donald Trump is me.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Jeb has no foreign policy experience. None.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The last thing we need is another Bush. That I can tell you. He's a low-energy person.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're looking at the guy that should be president of the United States. Because they've written me off in this campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ISIL's leaders are determined to strike the U.S. homeland.

Additional attacks in Europe and attempted direct attacks on the U.S. homeland in 2016.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: John Berman pondering his notes at the last second.

Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, February 11, 6 a.m. in the East. Alisyn was hurt in a bar fight but fine, so John Berman joins us this morning.

And there's a major moment upon us, the debate tonight, critical for Hillary Clinton if she plans to take back the momentum from Bernie Sanders. What will this rumored tone shift be?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, the Republican candidates hitting a new battleground in South Carolina, bracing for a hard fight. The GOP field narrowing down now to seven. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina both ending their bids. How the upcoming contest change the race?

We begin with our coverage with senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns, here with us with a look at the high-stakes Democratic race.

Good morning, John [SIC].

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

All eyes on Milwaukee this morning as the Democratic candidates prepare to go head-to-head for the first time after the first-in-the- nation primary.

Bernie Sanders will be looking to maintain his momentum and show he's not just a one-state wonder. And for Hillary Clinton, it will be a chance to try to change the narrative.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): Bernie Sanders raising over $6 million in the 24 hours after polls closed in New Hampshire, gaining momentum before tonight's crucial PBS Democratic presidential debate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

JOHNS: Descending on New York City in a victory lap, celebrating his sweeping win in Tuesday's primary; bringing his 24 hours after polls closed in New Hampshire. Gaining momentum before tonight's crucial PBS Democratic presidential debate. Descending on New York City in a victory lap celebrating his sweeping win in Tuesday's primary bringing his anti-establishment message to "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

SANDERS: Our campaign finance system, our election system, and our economy is essentially owned and controlled by a relatively small number of people whose greed, in my view, is really wreaking havoc with the middle class of this country.

JOHNS: And to daytime talker, "The View."

SANDERS: This country is supposed to be a nation of fairness. And we're not seeing that fairness. JOHNS: Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton laying comparatively low after her

crushing defeat. No longer the undisputed Democratic front-runner, tonight's critical debate could help get her campaign back on track.

The former secretary of state already making changes, promising a more aggressive edge.

The challenge for Sanders going forward will be capturing the African- American vote, a key piece of the Democratic electorate and the pivotal South Carolina primary later this month.

Courting the African-American vote, Sanders took his campaign to Harlem Tuesday, meeting with civil rights leader Al Sharpton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: And important to say, the former secretary of state continues to poll very well with minorities. And underscoring that, almost immediately after the debate in Milwaukee tonight, she's expected to turn her attention back to the Palmetto State and the issue of schooling in some of South Carolina's poorest communities. So a lot of reasons tonight's debate is a potential turning point for both of the candidates -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much.

Let's discuss, shall we? We have David Gregory of "Meet the Press" fame; CNN political commentator and anchor for Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; and CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for no less than "The New York Times," Maggie Haberman.

OK. So is John Berman guilty of over-hyping the significance of this debate tonight, David Gregory? I will take a pass on that, but it does seem it is a big moment for Hillary Clinton. Your take?

DAVID GREGORY, FORMER HOST, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Yes. There's an argument to be made. No.

I actually think this is an important moment. First of all, debates in general are such important moments in the course of this campaign. They are significant moments, because they can change the dynamic of the race. We've seen that with Marco Rubio.

And look, Hillary Clinton's got to begin the rest of the race now. I mean, her whole argument is that, well, you know, Iowa and New Hampshire, they are whiter states, more liberal states. The electorate becomes literally more colorful. It opens up for the Democratic Party.

She's got to change her argument about not only taking down Sanders and his policies, but also the rationale for her connect to a wider part of the electorate, younger voters. She's got to change the way she's making her pitch. It's not working so well so far.

BERMAN: And I think we got a tell from the Clinton campaign, Maggie, that she will change her pitch, or at least come out with something very directed. She was off the trail yesterday, which is unusual in this calendar, you know, with everything so closely tied. What do you think she's going to do differently tonight?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that she's prepping extensively, which is why she wasn't out on the trail yesterday.

I think you're going to see her focus a lot on issues like the Flint, Michigan, crisis, lead poisoning. You are going to see her position herself as a champion for people who don't have a voice. She started doing that in her concession speech in New Hampshire, and I think that was a rea preview of what you're going to see.

She is going to be mindful, I think, of how she criticizes Sanders. She got very heavily criticized for sort of the tone of her voice in the first hour. And she and her supporters said it is sexist to talk about a woman in the form of shouting, but a lot of her supporters privately said, you know, she didn't sound great in that first hour, basically. She was fine for the first 15 minutes, and then Sanders dominated.

So I think you're going to see her try to methodically make the case, not sound like she is condescending to Sanders, which was been a real problem from her and her campaign; sound like she's taking him seriously, but say that "He will undo the progress that President Obama has made, and here is why I won't." That's what you're going to see.

CUOMO: Sanders has the equal and opposite challenge, right? And he goes through this basic rite of passage, if a controversial one, to sit down with Sharpton. How does that conversation go, Errol Louis?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the conversation, I'm sure, was Sharpton talking about "Here are some issues that I care about. Here are some issues that the black community, sort of by extension, is going to care about. And you need to be right on these issues." And I doubt he went much further than that.

And because I think it's really sort of a larger question. You have this question of what happens when the first black president becomes the first black ex-president. Right? They get on Air Force One; they fly away for the last time. And the black vote that is so essential to Democratic victory in the fall, where do they go? What do they do? And it really is very much up for grabs.

It's not -- I think it's a complete -- I think it's very highly misleading to imagine that people are going to say, "Oh, I remember 1996. Let's go vote for the Clintons."

GREGORY: Do they come out in the same numbers? Is it the same kind of enthusiasm as there was for Obama? We keep talking about...

[06:05:08] CUOMO: Why would there be the same -- what would be the basis for that enthusiasm?

GREGORY: Right. They're not the same kind of inspiration or even some of the anger that there was in 2012. And so I think that's a question.

I think to Maggie's point, you know, Hillary Clinton talks a lot about herself and where she is in this campaign. I think Sanders talks a lot about the movement that he leads.

HABERMAN: Yes. That's absolutely true.

GREGORY: It's about them; it's not about him. That's what she's got to find her voice in.

BERMAN: But does that movement include African-Americans? That's what he's trying to convince Al Sharpton of, and others.

And all of your points, you're all right. Look at the math here.

CUOMO: He curries favor.

BERMAN: If you're 18 years old, you were born in 1998? I'm not good at math, but I think that's pretty close to true.

CUOMO: I second that.

BERMAN: You were barely alive during the Clinton presidency.

GREGORY: Right.

BERMAN: Which means, you know, if you're an 18-year-old, a 20-year- old African-American kid, what do you care what the Clintons did? You don't remember any of that. What have you done for me lately?

HABERMAN: And the difference is, though, can Sanders make the argument, "I've been doing things for you lately"? And I think there is a difference between -- this is something that Clinton's folks have tried to make an argument on, sometimes ineffectively.

But their point is, coming out of Iowa in 2008 when Barack Obama won, people were looking for a reason to see him as a winner. People were looking for a reason to get behind him. It was after that that you saw his support among black voters change substantially heading into South Carolina.

There isn't the same rational, per se, for Sanders. But I do think there is a risk for the Clintons, to your point and to your point, to keep saying, you know, "I have long-standing ties. I have long- standing ties. He does not." People don't like to be told who to vote for, no matter what demographic.

CUOMO: I still don't get -- honestly, I'm not being facetious. I still don't get the rationale that's presented to us. Because the Clintons have long-standing ties, because Bill Clinton was president, and they have a big machine, the blacks like them. I don't get it. I mean, don't people vote in the moment?

Well, who's offering a message more solicitous of middle income and socioeconomic brackets that include huge numbers of Latinos and blacks than Bernie Sanders? LOUIS: Well, that's right. And the Clintons -- I think the Clintons,

they do have a case to make that, you know, the economic management in the 1990s was -- was phenomenal. Some of that was luck; some of that was the markets. But they've got to tell that story.

CUOMO: But to Maggie's point, Errol, that was a long time ago.

LOUIS: Absolutely. They've got to -- they've got to educate people about what happened and claim -- make a plausible claim that they can get us somewhere near the same level of progress.

CUOMO: Is the party apparatus enough to get it done for Clinton? Because remember something we've been neglecting. John was telling me it the other day. The super delegates, how she has all these people pledged for her. And he was like, "Don't forget that. Don't forget that."

GREGORY: And that is the point. What Barack Obama did so well in 2008, first of all, he was a kind of movement candidate in his own right. He inspired hope and idealism, which was a big piece of this.

I don't think anybody's looking to fall in love in 2016. I don't think there's a lot of idealism, except in that Sanders camp, which is to give voice to the anxiety, to the anger, to the populism. They're not about -- can he get this thing passed? It's like stand for something.

By the way, a lot of that populism on the right, as well. But don't forget: I think that Hillary Clinton is prepared to play the long game in a way that she was not in 2008. I think that does matter.

BERMAN: The CBC, the Congressional Black Caucus, endorses today at 11 a.m. We'll have it in my 11 a.m. show, a little tease right there.

Jim Clyburn, who you're talking to a little bit later today, not officially endorsing. You know, he's the most powerful politician -- Democratic politician, probably, in South Carolina. Errol, I wonder if Hillary Clinton would trade Jim Clyburn this morning, you know, for the CBC.

LOUIS: The whole rest of them. Absolutely. He's worth all of them put together, frankly. I mean, 60 percent of

the vote in the primary is going to be black. And Clyburn is, you know, sort of a legend down there.

And they've got -- it's a real operation, too. It's not -- he's not just some figurehead.

So -- and he has very pointedly said not that long ago, he said, "Look, if she loses the first two primaries, she loses Iowa, she loses New Hampshire, all bets are off." He was very clear about that. He's come under a lot of pressure, of course, now to sort of change that around. We'll see if she actually does.

HABERMAN: She didn't lose the first one, just to be fair. She did win Iowa. So it is different. It was a narrow win, but she won. GREGORY: But to your point, she's got to go out and earn something.

This is not a set piece of this is what you're entitled to. She's really -- and that's where she's falling short.

HABERMAN: This is the problem...

CUOMO: Final word.

HABERMAN: For the first -- here I am. For the first -- for the first nine months of this race, she basically did not run a campaign against Bernie Sanders. A lot of people were urging her to find a way to contrast with him. You don't have to attack him, but just contrast with him. They basically pretended he didn't exist until it was too late and then suddenly, sort of in the same way you've seen the Republican Party pretend Donald Trump didn't exist until it was too late.

CUOMO: Now he's a human hashtag, Bernie Sanders, #feelthebern. Clyburn is right to hold his endorsement. Why do it? You know, any moment too soon, before you really have the case made.

And guess what? Here's the good news as we thank Maggie, Errol and brother Gregory. We get to see the big moment tonight. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders face off for the "PBS News Hour" Democratic presidential debate. You can watch the simulcast right here on CNN or on your local PBS station, 9 p.m. Eastern.

Mick, party at your house.

PEREIRA: Party at my house.

All right. With two more candidates dropping out after New Hampshire, Donald Trump's remaining rivals digging in, hoping to stay alive straight through the Super Tuesday primaries.

CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta live in Greenville, South Carolina, with more. Good morning to you, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

The GOP race for the White House is changing in this first full day of campaigning ahead of next week's South Carolina primary. Donald Trump is now firmly in through the Super Tuesday primaries. CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta live in Greenville with more.

[06:10:06] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

The GOP race for the White House is changing in this first full day of campaigning ahead of next week's South Carolina primary. Donald Trump is now firmly in place as the front-runner, but the rest of the GOP field is as determined as ever to bring him down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: When you have victory, you don't need sleep. Right?

ACOSTA (voice-over): Only one candidate is clearly leading a shrinking field of GOP contenders.

KASICH: I'm your guy.

ACOSTA: Marching on to South Carolina.

CRUZ: Now it's up to South Carolina to pick a president.

ACOSTA: Donald Trump ,riding high after his huge New Hampshire win, seemed to switch his campaign tactics Wednesday night, choosing not to go after most of his GOP rivals.

TRUMP: This wacky socialist guy, Bernie.

ACOSTA: This time hitting his Democratic opponents hard, Trump sounding more like a general election candidate.

TRUMP: This guy Sanders is up ranting and raving like a lunatic. Do you think Hillary Clinton's -- who's terrible. Do you think Hillary -- look at what she did. Look at the damage she did.

ACOSTA: But the front-runner couldn't resist taking a jab at his most vocal GOP attacker, Jeb Bush.

TRUMP: He's a low-energy person. I said -- no, I said he's a stiff, and I said that if he was in the private sector, he wouldn't be able to get a job.

ACOSTA: What's left of the GOP field now has a target squarely on the brash billionaire's back.

BUSH: Can you imagine Donald Trump as president of the United States? We will be worse off than we are now.

RUBIO: Hard thing about Donald in the short term is he doesn't have any policy positions.

CRUZ: The only way to beat Donald Trump is to highlight the simple truth of his record. It is not conservative.

ACOSTA: Senator Marco Rubio is taking the high road, addressing Chris Christie's decision to drop out of the race less than a week after their debate spat.

RUBIO: I think Chris was someone who somehow concluded that attacking me would help him in his campaign. Obviously, it didn't work. I think he's very talented, very likable. And I think he has a future in public service beyond what he's doing now in New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now I'm told by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski that they aren't changing their strategy one bit. They will continue to jump ahead to states looming on the campaign calendar to build on the 20 states right now where they say they have staff and volunteers driven to see Trump go the distance. He will be in Louisiana later today and Florida tomorrow.

John, they feel like they are very well-positioned at this point to start running the table in this race.

BERMAN: We'll see. Jim Acosta for us in Greenville, South Carolina. Thanks so much, Jim.

Breaking overnight, the standoff in that remote Oregon wildlife refuge, it may finally be coming to an end. The four remaining occupiers say they are prepared to surrender to the FBI this morning. Federal agents already have them surrounded.

All of this -- as all of this was unfolding, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, whose sons Ammon and Ryan, led the Oregon siege, he was arrested overnight at the airport. The Bundy patriarch taken into custody at the Portland International Airport. He reportedly planned to meet the remaining occupiers. His sons are already in custody.

CUOMO: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan ordering flags flown at half- staff to honor two sheriff's deputies gunned down in the line of duty. Officials say a gunman shot one of the officers in the head inside a Panera restaurant Wednesday north of Baltimore. His shooter then fled, leading to a shoot-out with police. He and another deputy were killed in the gunfire. Authorities believe the suspect was targeting police.

PEREIRA: There are calls this morning for an investigation into why a cruise ship headed right into a ferocious storm that was apparently forecast for days.

The storm-battered ship, Royal Caribbean's "Anthem of the Seas," is back in the port in New Jersey after being forced to turn around when it hit those powerful hurricane-force winds and 30-foot waves on its way to the Bahamas. Look at this!

Four people were injured and the ship sustained some damage. The cruise line has since apologized to passengers. We have a firsthand account from two passengers that were aboard that. They'll be joining us in the 8 a.m. hour so you can hear how they felt.

I mean, that's terrifying to look at, but to live through it? Goodness.

BERMAN: How it felt? I'm going with bad.

PEREIRA: Yes, kind of terrible.

BERMAN: Bad for a long time.

CUOMO: Long time is also...

PEREIRA: Do you ever get on a cruise again after something like that?

CUOMO: You know, look, I think you've got to live your life and do what you love. But ten hours.

PEREIRA: Hours, I know.

CUOMO: They didn't know which way it was going to go on that ship.

BERMAN: No thank you.

All right. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, how will their feud play out in South Carolina, a state known for some pretty nasty political brawls? Who has the upper hand heading into March 1 with so many states voting? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:41] BERMAN: This morning the Republican candidates taking their battle to South Carolina for the next primary contest. But the field is smaller this morning. Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie, light a candle for them. They are the latest Republican candidates to drop out of the race. That leaves seven candidates remaining, including Jim Gilmore, who's gone from 15th place to 7th place.

CUOMO: He will not be denied!

BERMAN: In the course of two weeks. But let's move on and talk about the people who might actually become president. Back with us, Errol Louis, David Gregory, Maggie Haberman.

You know, David, I was listening to Ted Cruz overnight say this is now a two-man race in South Carolina. That's his fantasy. But it is not the reality there. There are five candidates there campaigning, and there is some crossover. I mean, I've been listening to Ted Cruz go after Donald Trump, Jeb Bush go after Donald Trump. For the first time Marco Rubio is starting to talk a little about Donald Trump.

GREGORY: Give Cruz credit in this regard. He's right to an extent, which is this mash-up in the middle that we talk about, the primary within the primary, I think the "Times" called it, has a long way to go to work out. And I'm not sure who the establishment figure is who actually breaks out who can take him on.

The thing that Cruz did in Iowa, despite what went on with the Carson voters, is he took an ideological fight to Donald Trump. I think he's going to do that in South Carolina again: 58,000 military veterans. A lot of bases down there. And we covered the Bush campaign 100 years ago in 2000. A strong, hard-right ideological campaign is what won it for him down there.

And that's what you see Cruz starting to do. He takes him on on temperament, on leadership, on national security and pure rock-ribbed Republican conservatism.

[06:20:10] CUOMO: All right. So let's take a look at the factors.

On the Democratic side, we are looking at a little bit of institutional memory. Does that count on the GOP side? South Carolina, never had a Bush lose. President George W. Bush will be out there working for his brother, Jeb. How big a deal is this for Jeb Bush? Does it really give him an advantage?

LOUIS: It absolutely must. But it will complicate things in a way for Cruz. It will complicate things for Trump. That these polls, you know? I mean, a lot of those military veterans are seniors. They do remember those Bush days. They do sort of have an affiliation and a tie.

I mean, if you served under this particular commander in chief and your commander in chief comes into town and says, "I want you to vote for my brother," that means something. That's not -- you know, that's not nothing.

On the other hand, there is this underlying race that's been the theme of these first few states. And it's real, and it's live in South Carolina. And people feel like the Republican establishment has sold us out, Wall Street has sold us out, Washington has sold us out. Let's get rid of all of them. And that sentiment is known to exist in states like Virginia, in states like North Carolina, in the Deep South. Then you get something really anarchic. And that's -- that's the environment that Donald Trump thrives in. And that's partly why he's leading.

BERMAN: You covered Donald Trump. Do they have a plan in South Carolina? He's not going to be there today. He's not going to be there tomorrow. He's got three RVs and eight paid staffers. Are we making too much of, you know, his operation there?

HABERMAN: Two things. Just to go back to the point about George W. Bush, where George W. Bush also helps is with evangelical voters. And that is -- that is a real thing, where he can sort of peel people away possibly a little bit more toward his brother. So it's not just the military piece. He's hugely popular there, No. 1.

No. 2, Trump really actually does have a decent operation in South Carolina. This has been -- constantly, we've heard the Trump people say for months, "I have a great operation here. I have a great operation there." They didn't have much of an operation in Iowa. And in New Hampshire, while I understand that Trump claims that they caught up in a week on the ground game T.M., it was a lot of momentum and media buzz and other things that contributed to it and his message, basically, which was very tailor-made there.

South Carolina is the state where you could see some of Trump's vulgarity, for lack of a better term, catching up to him. You could see some of the things that he has said -- he said something very controversial at his rally the other day in Manchester, where he repeated something a woman said about Ted Cruz. He then said -- and this is, I think, my favorite quote of the campaign, "That was a retweet." But you know, "I didn't say it; she said it."

But -- but that kind of -- there are a lot of conservatives in South Carolina who don't like that kind of thing. And I think if you are going to see any kind of erosion, it will be there.

In terms of him not being in the state, that has been part of their plan the whole time. They learned in Iowa, and Corey Lewandowski has been pretty clear about this the whole time, they're looking ahead on the calendar. That is smart for Trump. In Iowa, he spent -- he hunkered down the final weekend. He had several, several events. He looked exhausted by the end. He did not do very well by the end in Iowa. He did well by other metrics, but he came in second.

In New Hampshire he was basically off the trail the final weekend. He again sounded very tired on that Sunday. He rested during the Super Bowl. A lot of events the final day, but they're doing the same thing here so far.

CUOMO: Brother Gregory has been making an interesting point as we watch the machinations, and it plays to Errol's point about being anarchic, which is a very cold place, by the way.

When we're talking about Marco Rubio, he's not part of this discussion right now. You raised this, you know, big question, which is, "When does he win? When does he win?"

Is he just waiting? Is his theory of the case, "I won't win any of these until much later down the line, when everybody else drops out, and they get behind me, and then I am the guy and I take all their wins with me"?

GREGORY: His people rather hopefully say that, "Well, as long as we have consolidation by March 15, then he's still in a good position."

But again, you know, there's a lot of push behind Marco Rubio and the establishment, and frankly, even in the media as a guy who makes sense: young, Hispanic and unite the party. He came in third, and then he came in fifth. Where does he win? Where does he show up? And he had a bad debate.

Now, the ability for the debates to create a surge up or a burnout is real. We've already talked about that. So he can find, I think, his lane, but he has to actually win somewhere. And he's got to really turn things around in South Carolina.

I want to add this point about George W. Bush. I think this is a big moment. This is the president of the United States, who's a controversial figure, but popular in South Carolina. Does he take on Donald Trump?

HABERMAN: Yes.

GREGORY: Does he make a statement about where the party is and where it needs to go? And if he does that, does it help his brother? If he does that, does he get into a fight with Trump that he may not want to get into? That's really what I'm looking for, because he could have an impact.

BERMAN: and this is the first time we've seen him as a campaigner in a long time.

GREGORY: Absolutely. A much better campaigner than his brother, it should be said.

BERMAN: Yes, yes.

HABERMAN: But hasn't done it in a while, to your point.

BERMAN: What does Trump do? If George W. Bush, Errol, does say something -- I can't imagine he'll say something direct. But even an allusion there, does Trump fight back?

LOUIS: You know, it depends on who he thinks his base is. Again, if there's this rage there, including at the Iraq war. There were a lot of people who didn't like the gulf wars. Right? And so they may outweigh the veterans in Trump's calculation, in which case he can just sort of attack the whole thing.

[06:25:11] I mean, he has said repeatedly, "I told everybody, you know, long in advance that we should never go into Iraq." And if he wants to revive that, it's a little risky, but this is a guy who's been taking risks from day one.

CUOMO: David Gregory, Errol Louis, Maggie Haberman, thank you very much -- Mick.

PEREIRA: All right. More news here. Dire warnings from U.S. intelligence officials claiming that ISIS will attempt an attack on U.S. soil this year. We're going to take a look at the concern level. A live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Top security officials are warning that ISIS may attempt to carry out an attack on U.S. soil this year. This as we learn that Russian airstrikes in Syria are directly enabling the terror group.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr live in Washington with the latest for us -- Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter this morning at NATO in Brussels, asking the allies to do more in the war against ISIS. But as Carter is making that plea to diplomats and security officials, ISIS adapting on its own, as you say, now very much focusing on external attacks, trying to attack in Europe, even --