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GOP Senators Threaten to not Hold Hearings; Texas Voters Weigh in on the CNN GOP Debate; Hollywood's Big Night This Sunday. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:53] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: One last full day of campaigning before South Carolina Democrats head to the polls for their primary. All polls point to a big win for Hillary Clinton there, but the Super Tuesday contests are much closer.

So joining us now is Minnesota Senator Al Franken. He's a member of the Judiciary Committee that he supports Hillary Clinton.

Good morning, Senator Franken.

SEN. AL FRANKEN (D), MINNESOTA: Good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's assume that Hillary Clinton wins South Carolina, since all of the polls suggest that she will, and let's, you and I, talk about what might happen on Super Tuesday because the polling is much, much closer there. They are neck and neck we're told in five states and too close to call in two states, Colorado and your home state, Minnesota. So what do many of your fellow Minnesotans not know about Hillary Clinton? Why would they not be supporting her?

FRANKEN: Well, you know, I'm - I've been a friend of Hillary's for 22 years. I know her very well. I actually cut an ad for her talking about her and she's the smartest, hardest working, most experienced, toughest person I know, and she - she'll be a great president.

CAMEROTA: Here's what your fellow - a fellow Clinton supporter and fellow Minnesotan, the chairman of the democratic Former (ph) Labor Party, says about what he thinks is going to happen in Minnesota. He says, "I think it's too close to tell. I've work and a lot of presidential campaigns over the years. What will happen here in Minnesota will be dictated by what happens in these early states." That's Ken Morton. And I think he's referring to what happens in South Carolina. So is he suggesting that the caucus goers in Minnesota will be swayed by what happens this weekend?

FRANKEN: I don't know. That's all a lot of inside baseball. So what - it will happen - what will happen will happen. I'm for Hillary.

CAMEROTA: What do you think will happen in Minnesota?

FRANKEN: I'm not a prognosticator. That's not my job. I'm on the Judiciary Committee and I'd like to talk, if I could, about what's going on after the death of Antonin Scalia and how we know what we're supposed to do in the Constitution, the president is supposed to - shall nominate a supreme court nominee.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

FRANKEN: And we, in the Senate, are supposed to give our advice and consent. And that's what we should be doing. And I think this is - this is unprecedented, what's going on right now, and I would call on Chairman Grassley to have hearings for whoever the president puts forward.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk more about that because you've obviously criticized the Republicans for being road blocks on the path to nominating someone. But yesterday, or Tuesday I should say, Mitch McConnell, on the Senate floor, said that actually it's his prerogative that they don't have to. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: Presidents have a right to nominate just as the Senate has its constitutional right to provide or withhold consent. In this case, the Senate will withhold it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What's your response to that, senator?

FRANKEN: Well, that hasn't been the case in the past. That is unprecedented. And since 1916, when we started having, in the Senate, hearings, every, I think over 100 Supreme Court justice nominees have all had hearings except for 11 - for nine. And all of those nine were confirmed within 11 days. So this would set a dangerous precedent, which is saying the Senate just gets to arbitrarily set a date.

The president has a term of four years. That's also in the Constitution. This sets a very dangerous precedent, and we - it sets up a court that could be - have a lot of 4-4 ties. Business relies on the Supreme Court. Everyone relies on the Supreme Court in the United States of America. This is a very, very, very dangerous precedent.

[08:35:10] CAMEROTA: If the president nominated a Republican, would you vote for that person?

FRANKEN: I assume that the president is going to nominate someone who's qualified to be a Supreme Court justice. Someone with a judicial temperament. Someone who understands the role of the courts. So I'll - I would look at anybody he offers. And we - this is the reason we have hearings.

CAMEROTA: Senator, as we've said, you support Hillary Clinton. And yesterday her campaign posted a video to YouTube of you reading some mean tweets about you and your support of Hillary Clinton.

FRANKEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Let's play a little clip of that. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Franken is plugged into the establishment matrix. OK. That - that sounds painful. And it was. It was. That was part of the enhanced interrogation techniques they did during the Bush administration. Thank God we stopped doing - plugging people into the establishment matrix.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's funny, senator.

FRANKEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Are there times during this 2016 race that you wish you were back on "SNL"?

FRANKEN: No. I watch the show. I enjoy it. But I enjoy being in the United States Senate even more.

CAMEROTA: Wow. That is newsworthy.

All right, Senator Al Franken, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

FRANKEN: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK.

What did voters make of the relentless barrage of attacks and maybe even some of the actual policies discussed at last night's debate? We'll ask some Republican voters in Texas, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:46] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Politics, my friends, is often a beautiful example of cause and effect. Last night we had the cause. Massive disagreements in the form of a GOP debate of presidential candidates. Jabs thrown throughout. Certainly among and between Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. So, what about the effect on the voters, especially in this all-important state of Texas? Let's bring back our panel of voters. Kelly Horsley, Ted Cruz supporter. Roseanne Rodriguez, Marco Rubio supporter. Randy Powell, Donald Trump supporter.

First question, did anything that happened last night change any minds on this panel?

RANDY POWELL, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: No.

CUOMO: No. No. No.

ROSEANNE RODRIGUEZ, MARCO RUBIO SUPPORTER: No, not at all.

KELLY HORSLEY, TED CRUZ SUPPORTER: No.

CUOMO: OK, so we're all resolved. Whom do we think won and why? Does anyone here think their person did not win last night?

No, no and no.

POWELL: Yes.

CUOMO: So why did Trump do well?

POWELL: He had two people attacking the whole night from both sides. It took two of them to try and bring him down. They were not successful.

CUOMO: You remember on "Happy Days" the Malachi Crunch?

POWELL: Uh-huh.

CUOMO: The demolition derby. Did you think that's what was going on last night?

POWELL: It looks like a man standing there with two children pulling at his pants legs, trying to pull him down in a playground. It was - it was terrible.

CUOMO: An ugly image. Neither of you can like it on many levels. Let's start with you, Roseanne. What do you think was going on first with your chosen candidate, and the impact on the whole panel?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, I think Marco really tried to press Trump on the issues, getting him to saying what he really believes.

CUOMO: Did you like the Marco? That attacking Marco? Because he's usually different in debates?

RODRIGUEZ: He is usually.

CUOMO: He usually says, I don't want to get into this dirt - dirty fighting thing. Let's talk about positive. Let's talk about who we are at our best. Not last night.

RODRIGUEZ: He wasn't like that last night. I won't say I agree with it, but it hasn't worked, right? I mean he's sat back. He's been nice. He's stated his position. He stayed on message. But I think it's time for the American people to hear where Trump really stands on issues.

CUOMO: The argument could be that because Rubio was so aggressive last night, kind of boxed out Ted Cruz a little bit, though he did get to prosecute a case in his own way against Donald Trump. Your take?

HORSLEY: I actually - again, I think Ted Cruz won last night. I think that Marco did do some favors for - for himself and for Ted Cruz actually. I think he was the one that kind of opened the door and started swinging, you know, came out swinging on Trump. And I think that that was good. I - I actually thought that this was probably the best debate of the whole entire cycle because of that -

CUOMO: You know -

HORSLEY: Because of the jabs that were thrown and the - and the punches that were thrown.

CUOMO: Anybody like Kasich last night? He was purely on the positive, all about solutions, showing what it is to be a governor and have executive experience and how that works, you know, at the federal level. Did that matter to you at all?

POWELL: No.

CUOMO: Nothing?

POWELL: Nothing.

CUOMO: To you?

RODRIGUEZ: I really respect Kasich and I think he's very qualified. But with the candidates that are up there, you have a huge personality, like Trump, he's just not able to get his message across to the American people. So - but I respect him.

CUOMO: Same?

HORSLEY: I agree with - I agree with her and I - and I feel the same about - about Carson as well. I mean I think that they're both very thoughtful and I think they both have experience and qualifications that would, you know, lead them to that position. But I think that there's - you know, we're living in a sound bite society and there's just not enough of the, of the sound bite or the excitement for those two candidates to - to propel them in the campaign.

CUOMO: You ever worry about getting caught up in what's being done there? It's so negative, what's going on. It's so personal. We often say this in each successive cycle, this is the worst I've ever seen. But I've really never seen anything like what happened on that stage last night where literally you had Trump at one point look on one side and say, this guy's a choke artist and this guy's a liar. And it's working. You look - I look at my social media feed and people who support things and literally it's negative, negative, negative, I'm for Rubio, I hate this guy, I hate that guy, I hate this one, I hate the - and then there's a radio person who's being nasty, and that's like redundant because everybody's so mean on the radio right now. That negativity, does that work for you?

POWELL: Not at all. Not at all. The winner -

CUOMO: But your guy's the champion of it.

POWELL: I understand, but he also the - has to defend himself through all of it. But, you know, let's be clear, the winner's been the same -

CUOMO: He gives as good or better than he gets and you know it.

POWELL: He does. He does. He does.

CUOMO: But if you don't like the negativity, you like the guy who is often negative. [08:45:01] POWELL: You say that like there's a choice. The winner in

every debate's been the same. It's been the networks, not any of the candidates.

CUOMO: What, are you going with that media's the enemy thing because Trump -

POWELL: No. No, no, no, I'm not saying -

CUOMO: Nobody works the media the way Trump does.

POWELL: No. He does. But you're - you guys are the media. You're the ones that keep putting him back in, keep bringing him up.

CUOMO: Because he says yes. Their guys don't often want to come on. He wants to come on, he wants to be tested, at least when he comes on here. Let's be honest, your guy's also been picking forums. You've noticed that he spends a lot more time with media who are his buddies who give him their questions in advance than he does on a show like this where he has to stand up for himself.

POWELL: He has gotten on the media on every platform that I've seen. Not all of them, I don't watch them all, okay?

CUOMO: What does that mean, gotten on the media?

POWELL: He's talked to them on the phone, he's done interviews.

CUOMO: Oh, sure.

POWELL: Yes, yes, yes.

CUOMO: Sure, he puts himself out there.

POWELL: He does, he does.

CUOMO: No question about it. So, the negativity, he says he doesn't like it, but he's decided to embrace it, Kelly, because that's what's happening.

POWELL: I don't think it helps the candidates at all, and I don't think it really hurts them in a way. Super Tuesday, that's what's going to matter. By Super Tuesday, what happened last night is not even going to matter.

CUOMO: What do you think about, like, which way the party is being pushed by his hostility?

RODRIGUEZ: It's frightening to see the divisiveness that this cycle has brought on. Marco Rubio has tried to stay very positive. I think that he's the only candidate that can not only unite our party, but unite the country, because our country itself is divided.

You have a candidate on the Democrat side, both of them pitting, doing identity politics, they're pitting minorities against whites. And we have a candidate on our side who is pitting white Americans against minorities. I don't think it's good for our country and I think Marco Rubio is the answer to that. He really wants to unite the country, he has a positive message. He loves this country and he wants to bring us together.

CUOMO: It's interesting, then, a night like last night where everything was so fractious, you each saw a reason that your man came out on top and that is the nature of partisan politic. And we'll see what impact it has, as you said, on this all-important Tuesday coming up. Last night was a big momentum maker to be sure.

Thank you very much. I hope the next time we swing through here we get to meet again and see where you are then.

POWELL: Thank you.

CUOMO: Really, a pleasure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much, appreciate it.

CUOMO: Ladies, gentlemen, thank you very much.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Okay, Chris. A lot of entertainment news. The countdown is on for the Oscars. We'll go live to Michaela who is on the red carpet in Hollywood. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:15] CAMEROTA: Hollywood's most glamorous night of the year is this Sunday night, it's Oscar night, of course. And there's a lot of buzz about how the host, Chris Rock, will tackle the Oscar's so white controversy. And of course, everyone wants to know who will take home the coveted prizes and wear the best dresses,

Our Michaela Pereira joins us again from the red carpet in Hollywood. Mich, great to see you with all the excitement out there. So, what has Chris Rock said about how he plans to tackle this controversy?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Been pretty mum. It's really interesting, Alisyn. We do know that he has been working on some of his material around town, doing some stand-up. He's been pretty mum about the topic. We know there's going to be a whole lot of pressure on him, because, you know, it's all about ratings. We know that game, don't we, girl? It's all about ratings.

A lot of money is made from the telecast and all the rights and the broadcasting rights, and the paraphernalia that it can sell related to Oscars. So, this matters and it matters, too, because of the conversations going on in the nation. Chris Rock's African-American. The #Oscarssowhite hash tag that is circulating widely on social media. There's a lot resting on his shoulders. I would say nerve has a gig been so fraught with tension, right?

CAMEROTA: Yes, that will be fascinating to watch how he tackles it. Also, lots of eyes on Leonardo DiCaprio. PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: People want to know if he's going to win his first Academy Award. Do you get the sense that people are pulling for him out there?

PEREIRA: Yes. Don't you think, like, I just -- I think that everywhere is. People like him, first of all, right? He's - he's a great actor, he's chosen great roles. I think he's a fascinating kind of playboy actor/celebrity. But this also seems like maybe this is the time the momentum is finally here for him, right?

This is a great American story, it took a lot out of him physically and emotionally. That was a very taxing role we're told, that he really had to throw himself into. And, you know, is the fifth time a charm? Maybe. This is his fifth acting nomination. He's also been nominated as a producer. I don't know, I feel like it could be the year it pays off.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it seems like it. Also, I want to ask you about Lady Gaga. She'll...

PEREIRA: Don't you want to talk about dresses?

CAMEROTA: I do want to talk about dresses. Just very quickly, I'm interested in the Lady Gaga song, because she wrote it...

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... and sang it for "The Hunting Ground," which, of course, was the CNN special. I got to host it.

PERIERA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: It was about campus sexual assault. She admitted that she had been a victim of sexual assault. So, this will also be a really interesting performance to watch.

PEREIRA: She is such a powerful advocate. Think about it. If she has that personal experiential situation, she's going to speak passionately about it and sing passionately about it. She's going to be introduced by Vice President Joe Biden who has been instrumental in the violence against women. So, obviously, you know, that's going to be a big deal.

Look, we have to tell you, we're going to be on the red carpet, Don Lemon and I, starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. We're going to have a pre-show for you, you'll have to tune in for that. And then Monday I will be here giving you all the hits, runs and errors if you happen to miss it or go to bed early of Oscars 2016. It's going to be a big year, and yes, we'll be fabulous.

CAMEROTA: Yes, you will be fabulous. I can't wait to watch you and Don out there.

PEREIRA: Let me say (ph) we. CAMEROTA: And I will even stay up a little late for that.

PEREIRA: No pressure.

CAMEROTA: Michaela, okay, great.

PEREIRA: That's a girl.

CAMEROTA: Have a great weekend, see you Monday.

PEREIRA: You got it.

CAMEROTA: Okay.

PEREIRA: You too, baby.

[08:54:00] CAMEROTA: He went beyond the call of duty, arresting the suspect in last week's deadly shooting in Kalamazoo. Next, the hero in uniform explains his mind-set.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The accused shooter of the rampage in Kalamazoo, Michigan, was taken down by a sharp-eyed deputy. CNN's Ryan Young brings us this week's beyond the call of duty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Saturday night in Kalamazoo, a seven hour rampage left eight people shot, six of them dead. A manhunt was under way to find the person pulling the trigger. Police knew they were looking for a certain car.

SGT. JAMES HARRISON, KALAMAZOO SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: I noticed a dark colored, which appeared to be a Chevy HHR.

YOUNG: Kalamazoo deputy James Harrison started checking the license plate.

HARRISON: It was just by happenstance and God's grace as I came up to that light that I happened to look over and spot a vehicle matching the description.

YOUNG: The car turned out to be the one that every officer in the state wanted to find.

HARRISON: The vehicle wasn't driving erratically, he was obeying speed limits.

YOUNG: The deputy tailed the car for several miles, waiting for the right moment to pull the car over.

HARRISON: And right here is where I activated my lights to make a traffic stop.

YOUNG: Harrison, a 16-year veteran of the force, had already called for backup.

HARRISON: When he didn't stop right away it kind of brought my suspicions up a little bit. So, get out of the car, get our guns in low ready position, start giving verbal commands for the subject to display his hands out the window.

After the first two attempts, he has still not complied. The third time I yelled to him to please put your hands out the window, he did.

YOUNG: The officers then start to carefully approach the car.

HARRISON: At that time, he started to reach back like he was going for his seat belt. I told him not to move his hands and politely helped him out of the car.

YOUNG (on camera): And at this point did he say anything to you at all?

HARRISON: No, there was no comments ever made.

YOUNG (voice-over): The officers held his arms during a pat down.

HARRISON: While patting the person down I did observe what appeared to be a handgun in his pocket, which I did take out of his pocket, place it on the top of the vehicle.

YOUNG: Soon another officer would positively identify Jason Dalton as the shooting suspect they were looking for.

HARRISON: We were quite surprised that it went the way that it did.

YOUNG: In this community, rattled by a shocking murder spree, Deputy James Harrison takes some comfort in the fact that he and his fellow officers brought a night of horror to an end.

HARRISON: I was glad and relieved that we had found him as fast as we did. It wasn't just my efforts. Every single law enforcement officer that was working that night was actively trying to find this individual.

(END VIDEOTAPE)