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Chris Rock Takes on Diversity at Academy Awards; Interview with GOP Presidential Candidate John Kasich. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired February 29, 2016 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:32:11] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, time now for the five things to know for your NEW DAY.
Number one, a brand new CNN/ORC poll, Donald Trump at 49 percent in the Republican race. More than all of his rivals combined.
The Democratic race also looking somewhat lopsided. Hillary Clinton widening her lead over Bernie Sanders 17 points now in that latest new poll. Clinton is polling ahead of Sanders in most Super Tuesday states as well.
An Army staff sergeant now charged with killing his wife and a police officer on her first day on the job. Ronald Hamilton is due in court today.
CNN's Barbara Starr has learned the Army's elite Delta Force unit is preparing to capture or kill ISIS leaders in Iraq after several weeks of covert preparations, including setting up safe houses and establishing informant networks.
And Chris Rock keeping a focus on Hollywood's diversity or lack thereof at last night's Academy Awards. He said African-American actors want the same opportunities as their white colleagues. As for the awards themselves, "Spotlight" the surprise winner for best picture.
For more on the five things to know, go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.
Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, it's time for "CNN Money Now." Chief business correspondent Christine Romans is in our Money Center.
How are the markets looking today, Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, it is the last day of February. Stocks do have a chance to snap a two month losing streak. For the year now, the Dow is down 4.5 percent. Had been down 10 percent earlier this month.
Legendary investor Warren Buffett says candidates are wrong to bash the U.S. economy. In his annual investor letter, Buffett writes that because of all the incorrect gloom, quote, "many Americans now believe that their children will not live as well as they themselves do. That view is dead wrong. The babies being born in America today are the luckiest crop in history." For the record, you guys, he has pledged his support to Hillary Clinton. And he is a billionaire. He does acknowledge that there is income inequality in this country but he says the economy is still good, don't bet against it.
BERMAN: All right, Christine, thanks so much.
Oscar host Chris Rock facing Hollywood diversity or lack thereof head- on following weeks of controversy. We're going to break down all the big moments from the Academy Awards live from the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:38:28] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS ROCK, HOST, 88TH ACADEMY AWARDS: Is Hollywood racist? You're damn right Hollywood's racist. But not racist you - that you've grown accustomed to. Hollywood is sorority racist. It's like we like you, Rhonda, but you're not a Kappa. That's how Hollywood is, yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: That was Chris Rock skewering Hollywood's lack of diversity at the Academy Awards last night in Hollywood. Here to discuss the big moments, the history and, of course, the fashion, Nischelle Turner, Entertainment Tonight host and CNN contributor. Joseph Katz is with us. He is the in-house fashion stylist for the Montage Hotel, where we are live from this morning.
NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Absolutely.
PEREIRA: You guys both look like you are just so wide-eyed and ready to go.
JOSEPH KATZ, MONTAGE HOTEL IN-HOUSE FASHION STYLIST: Oh, yes. It's makeup. It's hair and makeup and hair spray -
PEREIRA: It's makeup. It's caffeine. Exactly.
KATZ: And a full - and a full coffee.
PEREIRA: It's full coffee.
TURNER: It's not even light outside yet.
PEREIRA: I know. It's still dark in Hollywood.
Last night, we've got to talk about it, the overall jest of the - feel of the show for you, big surprises? Was it what you expected?
TURNER: Well, you know, what I usually expect from the Academy Awards is - is the night we celebrate Hollywood. So you do want it to be a bit of the pageantry coming to life. And it was a heavy show last night. You went into it and you really got some life lessons, you got preached to a little bit -
PEREIRA: Yes, you did. Yes.
TURNER: You're made to feel uncomfortable a little bit, which are all those things that I like. When I come out feeling a little awkward, I'm like, this is good.
PEREIRA: This is good. It's a good night.
TURNER: That's a good night. So, yes, I thought that Chris Rock was very good. I think from the beginning he set the tone.
PEREIRA: Right.
TURNER: I think he went at everyone. We knew he was going to do that. So for people who are saying, oh, God, come on, I mean you knew Chris Rock was going to go there and keep going there.
[08:40:05] PEREIRA: But he -
TURNER: That's the comic that he is.
PEREIRA: He didn't go there alone.
TURNER: No.
PEREIRA: There were other speeches that brought in political statements. There were other speeches that brought in the question of diversity. My question for you is, is this going to move the needle now? Because we've been having this conversation for many, many years.
TURNER: Right. Yes, I was going to say, Chris Rock said it last night, it's the 88th Academy Awards and so there was at least 71 other years where there haven't been people of color nominated. And Whoopi Goldberg has said it as well. We've been having this conversation over and over again. It's a part of a big problem, Michaela, we both know that, in the industry and Hollywood. Maybe that the studio heads and executives will have a little bit of pressure on their neck to start green-lighting different films and seeing more and different people doing -
PEREIRA: Right.
TURNER: Doing roles. So I don't know. If I'm being honest, I just don't know.
PEREIRA: Right.
TURNER: And not that I don't hope that it happens. I just don't know.
PEREIRA: We keep hope a lot (ph).
Did you see Miss Nischelle Turner on the red carpet last night looking fly (ph).
KATZ: Oh, beautiful. Gorgeous. PEREIRA: Gorgeous. Beautiful. She was a vision. There were so many beautiful ladies on that - on the red carpet.
KATZ: Oh, my God, Michaela, there were so many people.
PEREIRA: A good night for Oscar fashion?
TURNER: Yes.
KATZ: Oh, it was really, really beautiful. I loved it. Charlize Theron, gorgeous.
PEREIRA: She's your number one pick.
KATZ: She's - oh, she's always my number one.
TURNER: Oh, by far.
PEREIRA: Stellar in red.
KATZ: She - I love it. She looks stellar in red. And that she - every year she always usually wears Harry Winston. So she did this gorgeous necklace. She was wearing about $3.7 million in diamonds.
TURNER: Sure was.
KATZ: With these cluster -
PEREIRA: The GDP of a small nation.
KATZ: Yes, gorgeous cluster earrings.
PEREIRA: You also liked Naomi Watts.
KATZ: Oh, I loved Naomi. He was so beautiful that, you know, I wanted them to bring sparkle. I knew that the sparkle was going to be there, but she really - I loved that color and I loved that bold green necklace. Again, that was really, really stunning. I always say to people -
PEREIRA: Her arm candy's not so bad either.
KATZ: He ain't so bad. So good. She looked gorgeous.
PEREIRA: He looked fantastic.
TURNER: And that family took home an Oscar last night, two for "Spotlight."
PEREIRA: They sure did.
KATZ: Not bad.
PEREIRA: Now here's one that our - our fashionistas disagree on.
KATZ: Yes. PEREIRA: Margot Robbie.
KATZ: Margot Robbie. I - I liked it. you know, Tom Ford, I'm a hug fan.
PEREIRA: Yes.
KATZ: I'm a huge fan and I just thought she just was bold in that - in that gold and I just thought she brought -
PEREIRA: She embodied an Oscar statue (ph) there (ph).
KATZ: She did. She did. I just thought it was very sexy. You know, I thought she looked very, very sexy.
PEREIRA: Another look that was a little different and a departure but we all hands down loved, Lady Gaga.
KATZ: Oh, gorgeous.
TURNER: Oh, yes.
KATZ: I absolutely loved her.
PEREIRA: That - that - those (INAUDIBLE), she shut it down.
KATZ: It was so unique. What - the thing that I loved about it, it was like a dress but then with pants.
PEREIRA: Yes.
KATZ: And she just really owned it. And I love what she did with her hair. It kind of had a retro -- a little -
PEREIRA: Yes.
TURNER: Old Hollywood.
KATZ: Old Hollywood look. And when she played the piano. And the message that she gave during the show was so touching. Like that song and everything -
TURNER: It was. It was powerful.
KATZ: Oh, it was so powerful.
PEREIRA: That was - that was one of the more powerful moments last night was her performance.
TURNER: I think the most powerful moment -
KATZ: Yes.
TURNER: Of the show, you know, because it was so in your face and you had men and women and they were there and they had the messages and every one was in tears. PEREIRA: Yes.
TURNER: It was the most powerful moment in -
PEREIRA: Standing ovation.
TURNER: Lady Gaga's come a long way from that (INAUDIBLE) dress and -
PEREIRA: She has come a long way.
KATZ: It seems like - it seems like every show that she does, she like hits it out of the park.
PEREIRA: More fine-turned.
TURNER: Yes, indeed.
PEREIRA: And then Michael Fassbender, you have - you said that you thought he looked amazing.
KATZ: I loved Michael Fassbender. He was in Tom Porter (ph) with a peak lapel. I mean I dress people all year round and he looked fabulous.
PEREIRA: I know.
KATZ: And I want to put more people like him in those suits.
PEREIRA: We want to bring controversy. Alisyn Camerota apparently disagrees with our fashionistas and myself.
TRUMP: Wait a minute. Hold on. Hold on.
PEREIRA: There is disagreement. There is ranker.
KATZ: Who is she?
PEREIRA: Olivia Wilde, we think she looked stellar -
TURNER: Fantastic.
PEREIRA: But one of our anchors did not agree.
KATZ: Yes, really beautiful.
TURNER: Oh, Alisyn.
PEREIRA: Make your case.
CAMEROTA: Michaela, listen, she's very beautiful. There's no two ways about it. She's stunning. But I felt that the plunging neckline was possibly a little too plunging. Don't you want to leave something to the imagination?
PEREIRA: Never.
TURNER: Never.
KATZ: Oh, boy, this year -
PEREIRA: Never.
KATZ: It was all about plunging necklines. If you saw Charlize, it was all about the plunging, plunging.
PEREIRA: Plunge.
TURNER: And what you couldn't see on that - from the television, too, she had this shear netting on this dress as well that, of course, she wasn't going to have a mishap.
CAMEROTA: Oh, well, there you go.
TURNER: But - but that - that is -
PEREIRA: Fierce.
TURNER Fierce, Alisyn Camerota.
PEREIRA: Fierce.
KATZ: Yes, really, really beautiful.
TURNER: That Valentino was a work of beauty.
CAMEROTA: You're right, Nischelle. You're right.
KATZ: Yes, and the collars, yes, gorgeous.
PEREIRA: Nichelle, I'll got to end the debate. I'm going to end the debate here. We loved it. Alisyn's just wrong.
KATZ: Gorgeous.
PEREIRA: Thanks so much for joining me at the Montage. We get the last word.
And I'll pass it back to you in New York.
CAMEROTA: I mean now that I know there was shear netting for modesty purposes, now it makes all the difference.
BERMAN: Yes. and I have to go through shear netting to Super Tuesday.
PEREIRA: Look at her feigning modesty.
BERMAN: All right, from sheer netting, maybe the candidates will be wearing shear netting as they troll for votes ahead of Super Tuesday. Presidential candidate John Kasich, he says that he expects a big night for Donald Trump, but he sees an opportunity to turn things around in just a couple weeks. The Ohio governor joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:48:29] CAMEROTA: Republican presidential candidate John Kasich sticking to his campaign strategy of staying positive and believing a strong showing in his home state of Ohio in two weeks will provide the boost his campaign needs.
Governor of Ohio and presidential hopeful John Kasich joins us this morning. Good morning, Governor.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Alisyn, I want to thank the Academy, I want to thank my family --
CAMEROTA: Which category did you win?
KASICH: Well, listen, you know, I've been running into Leo here the last couple weeks and he's a really nice guy. I'm really, really happy. In fact, the last time I saw him, his mother was with him and I guess -- my wife told me that she actually did a lot to get him on the road and happy for her and him.
CAMEROTA: That is nice. He always does bring his mom as a date, though he could bring super models. So that is nice. And before we get to your campaign, Governor, I do want to ask you about the controversy that bubbled up this weekend with Donald Trump where he was asked three times by Jake Tapper yesterday about David Duke and the KKK. And three times Donald Trump refused to reject what David Duke stands for. He did later tweet out, hours later after he had been with Jake Tapper, he tweeted out, "As I stated at the press conference on Friday regarding David Duke, I disavow." Is that enough? Is case closed? Have we heard enough of this controversy?
KASICH: I think so, Alisyn. I mean, look, I don't know how you -- I don't know what is in his head. All I know is that white supremacist groups have no place in our society. And clearly not in the Republican Party. You know, it's just one controversy over another.
[08:50:14] But I have to tell you, Alisyn, I'm sort of tired of the -- of what I see, the name-calling and what I consider to be childishness when we are running for president of the United States. I mean, he obviously should have immediately condemned them. I can't tell you what the heck happened. But this is like every day. It's like a circus.
You know, like I know a guy who's writing a book about this campaign. And you know, the problem he is going to have is people are going to read it and they are not even going to believe what he writes because this is almost beyond fiction, the name-calling, it's a terrible situation.
CAMEROTA: And Governor, you pride yourself on having run a positive campaign and having not engaged in some of the mudslinging. But let me just show you our latest polls. These are just out less than three hours ago. This is CNN/ORC poll and it has Trump at 49 percent now. He has gone up since last month. He now beats all of the other rivals, yourself included, combined. So do you think that your positive campaign has worked? KASICH: Well you know, Alisyn, I always believe that when you raise
the bar, whether you're in politics, whether you're in the media or whether you're teaching school. You know, the long-term impact of having and being positive -- and I mean having the things that we all kind of admire -- is never lost.
But let me also say we don't run a national campaign. I will beat Donald Trump in Ohio. Head to head I beat him by 18 points in the last poll. And by the way, I beat Hillary by more than any Republican candidate.
So I understand -- you know, these are -- I don't understand all that much about this poll, but it doesn't concern me because we don't run in a national election. And this is nothing more than a reflection of people basically.
Look, I ran into a guy yesterday in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and I looked at him and I listened to him and he says I'm voting for Trump because he tells it like it is. And you know what? I have become more convinced that getting down and wrestling with him in the mud is no way to overcome Trump. The way you overcome him is with your accomplishments and with your vision. And if that doesn't work, we move on.
CAMEROTA: Yeah. Governor, you say that you're beating him in Ohio, but the Quinnipiac University poll shows him beating you in Ohio. He has 31 percent to your 26 percent. I know that you are putting all of your eggs now in the Ohio basket. There are 66 delegates up for grabs there. Let's say that you do win Ohio, that's still less than the 82 delegates he currently has. How does that propel you forward?
KASICH: Yeah. Well -- because there is a lot more to go. Illinois, Pennsylvania, these are places where -- you know, we are going to be going to Michigan. Now, you know, but the key is Ohio. Ohio is a reset.
Let me predict to you, Alisyn, because everybody said you put all of your eggs in New Hampshire basket. Well, yeah, and I'm still standing here. I'm the last governor. We're down to four or five when most people thought I wouldn't get here.
But we get to Ohio, I win Ohio, it will be a reset. The Baldwin Wallace Poll puts us dead even and we haven't really made the effort there yet. I mean, we will and I will win Ohio. I have always been direct and blunt with all of you in terms of these things. We are going to win Ohio, it will be a reset and all of a sudden people are going to say let's really get to know John Kasich and then I'm comfortable.
CAMEROTA: Governor, there are some reports that some Republican leaders, including Mitt Romney, are pressuring you to get out of the race. What are they saying to you?
KASICH: Nobody is pressuring me to get out of the race. And frankly, we got some elections coming up. Marco Rubio is trailing in Florida by 17 points. You know what? Why aren't they telling him to get out and get behind me? I have a better chance of winning in Ohio than he does in Florida. I mean, this is nonsense.
Look, all this is, Alisyn, are a bunch of Washington insiders. And I don't really hang around with them. They are not comfortable with me. People say there are a lot of voters that would vote for Trump or vote for me. Why is that? Because they know that I don't take orders from the establishment. Those people on K Street and the big lobbyists, I beat them 25 years ago and they resent it.
And many of them -- you know, what are they doing? I mean that's great. They can have their opinions. I'm not even aggravated by it, but it means nothing to me. They are not out here. They are not in the arena. And just take a deep breath, folks.
CAMEROTA: So Governor, what are you expecting to happen tomorrow on Super Tuesday?
KASICH: I think Trump's going to probably win everything. Maybe Cruz will win in Texas and then he has got to figure out how to head north with his message. You know, we'll do okay, but not great. But we're not -- This was never our plan.
Look, we have a campaign plan and then we campaign our plan. And our hope now is that -- and our belief is that we will go north and you will begin to see things change.
[08:55:06] CAMEROTA: All right. Governor John Kasich, we always appreciate you being on NEW DAY. Thanks so much.
KASICH: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: "The Good Stuff." That's next. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: A Maine woman in need taking matters into her own hands in today's "Good Stuff." Linda Deming found out in December of 2014 that she needed a kidney transplant. The doctors told her it would take up to six years to find a donor and she would be on dialysis that whole time. So Linda started posting signs everywhere looking for a match and it worked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LINDA DEMING, GETTING KIDNEY TRANSPLANT: That's what we did. We went out in search of a live donor and I'm still amazed at the number of people who don't have a clue who I am but they still are willing to give me a piece of their body to save me. She has to just be a wonderful person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: All right. You are going to have to trust us on this one. It worked and she was very happy about that. Linda's surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. We wish her well. We'll bring you an update when we have it.
BERMAN: That's a great story. All right. Good luck to her. Time for "NEWSROOM" now with Carol Costello. Good morning, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. You guys have a great day. "NEWSROOM" starts now.
