Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

GOP Debate; John Kasich Interview; Kevin Spacey on "Race for the White House." Aired 8:30-8:9a ET

Aired March 04, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:03] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The Republicans were very, very busy going after each other at last night's debate. It seemed almost for a while that they had shifted away from Hillary Clinton entirely. But that wasn't the case. The e-mail issue came up. Benghazi came up, although it did take a couple hours into the debate.

Let's talk about what's going on with the Hillary campaign with former White House press secretary Jay Carney.

Jay, good to see you.

JAY CARNEY, FMR. WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Good to see you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, so let's play what Senator Rubio said last night. It is the most concentrated attack of Hillary Clinton that she should deal with. Here we go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The other one is under FBI investigation. And not only is she under FBI investigation, she lied to the families of the victims of Benghazi. And anyone who lies to the families of victims who lost their lives in the service of our countries can never be a commander in chief of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Did Hillary Clinton lie to the families of the victims of Benghazi?

CARNEY: Absolutely not. You know, as somebody who worked at the White House through a lot of the Benghazi discussion, you know, I can tell you that the conservative - or Republican conspiracy theories about what happened have all failed to pan out. And the fact is that it was a tragedy. And what we did learn is that we need to provide better security around our embassies and around our diplomatic personnel. And we have to recognize that these men and women who serve in our installations overseas are taking risks, just like our military are, men and women are around the world.

CUOMO: How do you refute the premise though, which is the two stories theory, you know, not a conspiracy, a fact, that Hillary Clinton did give two different versions as secretary of state about why it had happened? How do you explain that?

CARNEY: Because, Chris, at the time, and, again, I lived through this, we - you know, it was incredibly unclear, you know, what sparked the violence at the facilities in Benghazi. There were waves of protests across the Middle East, outside of embassies, U.S. embassies in the region, including some breaches of embassy facilities in the region over the incredibly provocative anti-Islamic video that had surfed in the region and there was also, you know, an unbelievable amount of unrest in general and lack of political control in general in Benghazi.

What we knew is that it was an assault that had taken the lives of four Americans, including our ambassador, and we knew that there was also a great deal of unrest and anti-American activity across the region. So I think that the repeated investigations led by Republican committee chairman have demonstrated that the conspiracy theories around Benghazi have all failed to pan out and, you know, I think, you know, for them to be true, you would be impugning the reputation and credibility of a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served under President George W. Bush, Admiral Mullen, you'd be impugning the reputation and credibility of one of our greatest diplomats, Tom Pickering, who served under democratic and Republican presidents in the past. So - as well as the reputations and credibility of Republican committee -- Republican-led committees in the House and Senate.

[08:35:26] CUOMO: The explanation aside, though, you know the questions remain. You're seeing it in the exit polls. If we put up Oklahoma, that's where Bernie sanders won. You know that, obviously. Massachusetts, that was a hotly contested state. Hillary Clinton won there. But in both of them, trustworthiness, Hillary Clinton, lucky to get over 50 percent in her own party. Fueling that is what she calls the drip, drip, drip with the e-mails. Now you have one of her guys having to plead the fifth before he would talk to the feds. And now the logs being brought into the investigation. It suggests there is their there. Your response?

CARNEY: Look, there's no question that the Clintons have been on the political stage, the national political stage for a long time and they've been the subject of a barrage of criticism and investigation and accusations. That - and that's -

CUOMO: This is the FBI, though, not Trey Gowdy, Jay.

CARNEY: No, I hear you. And, look, this is - this is a challenge for her. I think it's much more of a challenge for her in the general election when she's the nominee, which I think we all expect she will be. But, you know, that - that's an issue for her that she's going to have to contest. And the way you contest it is you - you deal with the issue. You realize that you don't have total control over it because an investigation is not something you can spin or control, and then you focus on your campaign message about, you know, sound governance and helping the middle class and see where that takes you. You can't - you can't spend a lot of time worrying about things out of your control. CUOMO: Jay Carney, the questions are out there. Thank you for

providing answers for us this morning. It's good to see you on NEW DAY.

CARNEY: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going to have their moment in the spotlight now. The next one, the debate Sunday night in Flint, Michigan. Anderson Cooper moderates Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Chris.

Something else happens Sunday night. The new CNN original series "Race for the White House" premieres that night. I sat down with executive producer Kevin Spacey to talk about the history of crazy presidential elections and how he thinks Frank Underwood would deal with Donald Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:41:23] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, our breaking news is really good information coming out. The jobs report just coming in from the Labor department. Two hundred and forty-two thousand jobs were created in February. This is far exceeding expectations. The unemployment rate, it holds steady at 4.9 percent. Stick with CNN. We'll have much more coverage of this throughout the day.

Chris.

CUOMO: All right, let's get back to politics. Last night's Republican debate. It's all about the players and the impact. And we have another one for you right now.

On the phone, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich.

Governor, are you with us?

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): I am, Chris.

CUOMO: Good morning to you. You are being somewhat celebrated this morning for being the only person who stayed above the fray. How did you take what was going on around you last night?

KASICH: Well, I don't get too much distracted by it, Chris. You know, there's things that I want to tell people and, you know, now that the field is really narrowed, it gives me a little bit more opportunity. I don't have to fight as much to get time. I mean it's just been the wackiest process.

But, look, I thought last night was very good for me. You know, being able to lay out not only the expertise I have in terms of domestic policy, but also foreign policy, and then show a little bit of my heart. You know, that's been the hardest - the hardest thing, Chris, in the debates, is that you - they can't get the full picture of who you are. And - but I - I was very, very pleased, and, you know, we're just going to - just going to campaign like crazy all day all the way up through Ohio and I'm going to win Ohio.

CUOMO: Right. I want to ask you about that, where the confidence is coming from. We see in the polls that there's strength there. Some strength in Michigan also. But, you know, as you have said many times, you know who somebody is by what they do. Last night you had people going at it in a level that really speaks to what seems to be a crisis within your party. Did you ever think the GOP would be in the situation it is right now with all these people coming out and trying to sabotage the frontrunner?

KASICH: You know, it's just pretty crazy. But, listen, we're - when I win Ohio, and I'll be doing better in other northern states as well, this thing's going to go to the convention. I mean that's what I think is going to happen. It's going to be a very exciting time. And why not? In this crazy, crazy year, of all the things that have been said, all the fighting that's gone on, you know, whatever crazy can happen seems to. And I just - I kind of chuckle. I wake up every day and it's - it's - I mean, frankly, a lot of us just walk around and we laugh. We burst out laughing when we hear some of the things that are happening. You know the fact -

CUOMO: Is it - is it a laugh or cry kind of situation for you? I mean you've always been a guy who have - you know, if you have to knuckle up, you'll knuckle up, but you've never been about cheap shots. And now that's like the main dialogue last night.

KASICH: Yes.

CUOMO: You know, it's not hyperbolic. I've got a 13-year-old who's in civics class. I couldn't have her watch last night.

KASICH: Well, I didn't get - I didn't get into it. In fact, at one point I said I'm not biting, you know?

It's just - it's not a - it's not, I don't think, the way to conduct yourself in politics. I actually thought last night it was not as bad as it was the debate before. And I think it's fair to talk about the record. I think it's fair to talk about the business dealings.

CUOMO: Sure.

KASICH: But, you know, at some point you've got to kind of let it go and not just back and forth. But, look, if that's what they want to do, they can do it. I'm not getting into that.

CUOMO: Are you -

KASICH: And, you know, somebody sent me an e-mail - somebody important sent me an e-mail - well, everybody's important, sent me an e-mail saying, well, because you don't attack Trump, are you secretly working with him? I mean it was the most outrageous e-mail. So I wrote an e- mail back, and here's what I wrote. So you're not going to beat Trump by smearing him. You're going to beat him by having a bigger vision and a record of accomplishment.

[08:45:04] These people really don't care, frankly, what Mitt Romney has to say about Donald Trump. They just don't care. And, you know, they keep pounding him and pounding him. His voters are different. They are frustrated, they are fed up and anybody connected to the establishment that attacks him gets nowhere.

The way you get to his voters, and I've picked up - it was a focus group last night. There were three people who switched their position. Guess what? From Trump to Kasich. I mean, and this will be all public. This is going to be on the air. Three of them, and I just kind of chuckled when I saw it, but you know, the reason is paint a bigger vision. Give them a record of accomplishment. Stop banging on the guy, that's what I'm going to do.

And so, you know, I think it will work. If it doesn't work, you know, Chris, that's the ball game, right?

CUOMO: Well, look it, I get your outlook at it. You had it since the beginning. Certainly when you're going at Trump, it seems a lot of his supporters are telling him that they're stupid, so that's something that is at risk in this current strategy.

Are you concerned that if it goes to the convention you may get boxed out? What was going on on that stage last night with Cruz and Rubio, it did seem like some kind of concerted action, whether because they have common purpose or common coordinated activity. What's your take on it?

KASICH: Well, I'm not worried about getting boxed out. What I'm worried about is just, you know, getting enough rest, getting some exercise, having some food and keeping, you know -- keeping myself energized. And you think -- you take things one day at a time in this business. If you start thinking too far ahead, you know, you can't predict the future, and most of the things that you think might happen in the future usually don't happen.

So my deal is - is that I want people to believe that you can get elected by raising the bar. I want people to believe that ideas, vision, accomplishments matter, and look, and then we'll see. But I'm going to tell you this, once I win Ohio, it's a whole new ball game.

CUOMO: And you're confident that you're going to win Ohio?

KASICH: Oh, I am. I mean, look, we have to work, no question about it. We've got to put the time in, we're going to put the time in. We've got a great organization, a tremendous grass roots, and, you know, I'm very -- I feel very, very confident about it. Yes, I have no doubt in my mind.

CUOMO: There is a path, the numbers are soft, but obviously as you're saying, it's one day at a time. I will make you - or we will make you the promise we're making everybody who's still in the race, you have an invitation to come on to the show at least every week to talk about what matters in this race, Governor.

KASICH: Well, we'll come on very week, we'll come on every day if you want.

CUOMO: Done.

KASICH: I'll come on every single day. Why don't we - why don't we - why don't we do something. I mean, my press guy is sitting right here. I love to do the show, you know? And we'll do it as often as you'll take us. We love it.

CUOMO: Done. The governor - Governor, the invites are coming. You know that. We want to keep this above board and be fair to everybody and talk about what matters. You know you have a place here at NEW DAY. Thank you for being with us.

KASICH: And best to the whole family.

CUOMO: Appreciate it. Thank you very much, gov. Take care.

KASICH: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: I think he means your NEW DAY family and we accept that.

CUOMO: He does.

CAMEROTA: That's great. We hope that he will come on every day. He's always interesting to talk to.

CUOMO: He is, and if he wants to talk about what actually matters to people, amen. Bring it on.

CAMEROTA: There we go.

All right. Meanwhile, there's a new CNN series and it dives into the drama of past elections. Up next, my interview with the executive producer of "Race for the White House," Kevin Spacey.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:02] CAMEROTA: Here's a question, how would the ruthless President Frank Underwood in "House of Cards" fare in this 2016 presidential race?

PEREIRA: That is a fascinating question.

CUOMO: He's looking more and more normal these days.

CAMEROTA: Good point. I asked the man behind the character, Kevin Spacey, when we sat down at New York City's Nomad Hotel. The Academy Award winner is also the executive producer of CNN's new original series, "Race for the White House."

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) CAMEROTA: How do you think the media has changed since the dawn of this country?

KEVIN SPACEY, CNN'S "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE" EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: I think Edward R. Murrow was right. I think in 1964 when he spoke to his colleagues at that journalism dinner and he shot an arrow across the bough and said, when the news divisions decide that news has to compete with entertainment, when they decide that it has to be about ratings, it will no longer be news. It will be entertainment. So I think the media today is complicit in what we get, because of ratings and because of money.

CAMEROTA: But don't ratings tell you what viewers are interested in?

SPACEY: That depends on if you believe the Nielsen's. I don't. Antiquated, old, almost on its way out. I think there will come a time when we have televisions, and this will obviously be up to people to opt in on it, that will actually be able to register what you're watching on your set and when you're watching. And that will be very telling to see how that changes advertising rates, when we really know and we're not looking at a box and saying, well that box represents 500,000 people. It doesn't.

CAMEROTA: JFK-Nixon, you've talked about that. What was most compelling, do you think, about that race?

SPACEY: I think it's sort of remarkable to discover that there was a sort of unspoken understanding between the media and candidates back then. No one -- I mean, everyone knew about Kennedy's severe illnesses.

CAMEROTA: Did everyone know?

SPACEY: I think a lot of people knew. I think a lot of people knew about a lot of things, but there was a kind of, you know, they just kind of nodded their heads and didn't report it and didn't write about it and didn't talk about it. Boy, what a different day that was. So it's sort of interesting. You know, you discover all of this stuff and I also think some of the most interesting things that we're able to uncover all of the news footage of election nights of all of the campaigning, all the stuff. A lot of stuff that I had never seen before that they uncovered, which is really great to look at.

CAMEROTA: Frank Underwood is a ruthless character, obviously. How do you think he would fare in the 2016 race?

SPACEY: Everybody else would be dead. I think he'd fare incredibly well, I think, yes. Someone asked me, would he support Donald Trump? And I said, oh, he definitely would be behind him, to shove him.

CAMEROTA: Such a good line. Which president do you, or candidate, do you think he most resembles?

[08:55:05] SPACEY: I don't. You know, and it's interesting, because when we first started the series, there were a lot of questions about who did I model the character Frank Underwood after, and the truth is, look, we used the original British series, when the character then was named Francis Urquhart, but we didn't think that sounded like an American name. But we definitely wanted to keep the F-U as the initials for obvious reason. Send the kids to bed.

And so, we called him Frank, Francis Underwood, but we really didn't base him on anybody. You know, it was really Beau Willimon's invention, the kind of character that we thought he could be. So, I really don't compare the sort of fictional world to the real world. Although I do have to say this, there were many times when, you know, we'll shoot a sequence, we'll do a scene over a couple of days, there will be a particular story line, it'll be - he'd be kind of crazy and I'll think, wow, have we gone too far? Like, have we crossed the Rubicon? Is this realistic? Does this make any logical sense? And then I turn on the TV and I realize, we haven't gone far enough, because it's crazier out there in the real world than it is in our fictional world.

CAMEROTA: And last, yet you're still hopeful.

SPACEY: Oh absolutely. I'm a big optimist. I believe in public service, I believe it's an incredible thing to pursue. And I believe that there are people, I would be frustrated by this, but I believe that there are people, obviously, our world proves that there are people who can get out there in the political world and get things done, and have progressive ideas that help people live their lives and I think that's fantastic. I'd just be incredibly frustrated, because I like to - I really do like to have a goal and get things done. So, I'd probably be - I'd probably take on Frank Underwood tactics to - you know, which wouldn't be good.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA: So even if you fancy yourself a presidential history buff.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAMEROTA: There are things you will learn in this series...

PEREIRA: Oh, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: ... that you didn't know about these past races. Little nuggets that either people have forgotten or have been unearthed. The first one is Nixon-Kennedy and you'll learn stuff, John Berman. You will - there's stuff even you don't know.

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: ... for that.

And you'll learn things about "House of Cards" apparently from Kevin Spacey. Urquhart didn't sound American and they decided to change it to Underwood.

CAMEROTA: It's true. Fascinating.

(CROSSTALK) CUOMO: Sounds like one of the names from "Shrek." It will be interesting that this first one's coming right on the heels of the debate.

PEREIRA: Sure.

CUOMO: And it will focus on the role of the debate and how it changed there, obviously in favor of Kennedy. Then it was like the major sin was that Nixon was sweaty. Now, look at what we had last night.

PEREIRA: You made the point that if you wrote a screenplay, nobody would believe it.

CUOMO: No, they would kick that out of an office. But I...

CAMEROTA: Not believable.

CUOMO: But I do say, I think he was probably colored a little bit cynical there. You know, I don't know if you watch "House of Cards" but the guy is a homicidal sociopath.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: We're not - we're still about bad words right now. Nobody's pushing you off a subway platform.

CAMEROTA: Fair enough.

You can see "Race for the White House" this Sunday night at 10:00 Eastern. It's about the Kennedy-Nixon race and how their debate, the first to be televised, changed politics. It airs right after the CNN Democratic debate only on CNN.

Now NEWSROOM with Carol Costello picks up right after the this break. Thanks so much for watching.

PEREIRA: Happy Friday, see you Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)