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New Day Saturday
Sanders, Trump Top Latest New Hampshire Polls; New Poll: Sanders Tops Clinton 61 Percent To 31 Percent In New Hampshire; New Guidelines for Zika Virus; Killers Plotted Lovell's Death; Super Bowl 50. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired February 06, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:03] ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Guys, do you notice how similar those two guys look to one another?
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we were talking about that.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: We picked that up.
SCHOLES: They're twins.
PAUL: No. Andy Scholes, thank you so much.
The next hour of your NEW DAY starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God blest the state of New Hampshire.
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's some talent running for president for sure.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My total focus now is on New Hampshire.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the Bernie Sanders free tuition plate. I want you go into my pocket. Now give that to him.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This really is a campaign of the people, by the people, and for the people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We think we're in second place.
TRUMP: I don't think I did come in second. I think I came in first.
CRUZ: The first thing I intend to do is rescind every single illegal and unconstitutional executive legal action taken by President Obama.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm fighting for people who can't wait. I won't make promises I can't keep.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This generation of leadership in this country right now is the most selfish generation of leaders we've ever had in Washington, D.C.
BUSH: We've got to rebuild confidence by restoring democracy in Washington, D.C. because it's completely broken.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: It is 8:01 on Saturday morning, and we are so grateful to be sharing it with you. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good morning to you. John Berman is leading our coverage from Manchester, New Hampshire. Just three days away from the primary. Things are heating up although I understand it's freezing there right now -- John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think we may have achieved 20 degrees, which is a breakthrough here in Manchester this morning, guys. We're excited about that.
What a big weekend here. The candidates scrambling for last-minute votes before the first in the nation primary, for Hillary Clinton, that's a big job. She's trailing far, far behind Bernie Sanders on the latest CNN/WMUR poll. But she says she is not ready to give up here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Some people have looked at the polls that show Senator Sanders with a big lead here and suggested -- yes. -- I should just look past New Hampshire and focus on the next state. Well, New Hampshire's never quit on me and I'm not going to quit on you!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: On the Republican side, Donald Trump out in front. He's at 28 percent in our new poll, Marco Rubio, 17 percent. You see Ted Cruz and John Kasich tied at 13 percent, Jeb Bush at 9.
Senator Marco Rubio, the target of a lot of candidates right now including Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor called his friend, Senator Rubio, a gifted politician. More by our special correspondent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: Means he can give a great speech. He can connect well with people. He's charismatic, and I admire that. I'm not saying that as a negative, but he's not a leader. A leader has to make a tough decision. A leader can't cut and run. A leader runs to the fire to put it out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So that's Jeb Bush on Marco Rubio. Another former governor came out and endorsed Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, the former Louisiana governor, former presidential candidate, he put his backing behind Rubio and his bid for the White House. The second former candidate to back Senator Rubio in the last week, Rick Santorum, did also. A lot to talk about this morning. Joining me now is CNN senior political reporter, Manu Raju. Good morning, Manu, just three days away.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Just three days away and Jeb Bush, really, it's not a do or die moment for him, John, but it is incredibly critical for a good performance on Tuesday.
Yesterday, I talked to Lindsey Graham, who is one of Jeb Bush's leading surrogates. He said, look, Jeb Bush needs to do very well here. He needs to do better than the other governors in the race, specifically Chris Christie and John Kasich, and be close enough to Marco Rubio.
He cannot get trounced by Marco Rubio. He sort of walked back comments that he made, Lindsey Graham did, to the "New York Times" earlier this week when he said that Jeb Bush would be toast if he were not close to Marco Rubio.
But clearly a key moment, a key fight for the middle of the pack, second, third, and fourth place is really what we're going to be looking at given that Trump seems to be holding pretty steady at the top and Marco Rubio seems to have surged after that win in the -- the third place finish in the Iowa caucuses.
Clearly these folks, these guys in the middle of the pack are gunning for those undecided voters about 30 percent of whom still said they have not made their mind up in a candidate.
John, I was struck yesterday at some of these events that there are a lot of Rand Paul supporters sort of looking for a home. At a Jeb Bush event they said there were Rand Paul supporters who could maybe support Jeb Bush.
[08:05:05]So potentially there is some room to grow particularly for those governors including John Kasich, too, who is also vying for that third, fourth place finish. We'll see how well these guys do and whether or not they can see some momentum coming out of New Hampshire.
BERMAN: Manu, I was at a Ted Cruz event last night and the whole focus at the beginning of the event was Rand Paul, talking about how Ted Cruz wanted Rand Paul's support and supporters behind him and he had someone who would endorse Rand Paul out there speaking saying how is now backing Ted Cruz. That's absolutely right. That's a big part for some of these candidates right now. Manu Raju, thanks so much.
I want to bring in my friend, Ron Brownstein. He's CNN's senior political analyst standing out here in the cold with me. I want to start with Donald Trump. Holding relatively steady, 28 percent. Maybe down a very slight amount from where he was before Iowa.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
BERMAN: Why is New Hampshire a different, maybe better state for Donald Trump? BROWNSTEIN: Two words, fewer Evangelicals. Ted Cruz won Iowa the same way Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee did in '12 and '08. He won Evangelical voters, but he lost those that were not Evangelical, which means he still has that hurdle to prove.
That he can expand beyond the base as we go forward. New Hampshire is a state that is much more secular, it is divided between the blue collar and the white collar.
The fact is Donald Trump even in Iowa, in his disappointing performance, won those blue collar voters who are not Evangelicals. He is leading among them again today in New Hampshire. If he can consolidate that base, that's a big, strong foundation to go forward.
BERMAN: Because he has that link more or less on his own, more on his own than the other links are.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
BERMAN: If we put up a poll on the race in general right now, Donald Trump at 28 percent, Marco Rubio, 17 percent. That bunching of Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Jeb Bush right there.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
BERMAN: That group, 17, 13, 13, 9.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, right.
BERMAN: Who are they fighting for? What are they going after?
BROWNSTEIN: That is probably the most important thing that is going to happen in New Hampshire. What they are all going for is pretty much -- obviously everybody appeals across the board. Their core strength are the voters that are not Evangelical but are white collar, kind of the opposite side from Donald Trump.
BERMAN: Particularly Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and Christie.
BROWNSTEIN: And the biggest question, I think, John, in New Hampshire, two questions here, one, does Trump, you know, get his feet back on here, but even more important perhaps is can Marco Rubio begin to separate from the others and consolidate that link?
That is the group, those white collar, more secular voters who are the core of the support for the last two nominees, John McCain and Mitt Romney. They in essence picked the nominee.
They have not had a horse in this race. I think the question is whether New Hampshire provides that consolidating push.
BERMAN: The debate tonight will be interesting to see because Rubio has to peel away Kasich people, Jeb Bush people, if he wants a comfortable margin.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. BERMAN: They'll do the same thing, fighting in the same pool.
BROWNSTEIN: Right, and look if Rubio can establish that separation and you see kind of an establishment, broadly speaking, push --
BERMAN: You get a sense that the establishment wants him to.
BROWNSTEIN: Right. If he can establish that then you have a fascinating three-way race in South Carolina that could pre-figure a three-way race of a lasting time, which Republicans have never had in the modern primary with Cruz among Evangelicals, Trump at the blue collar, non-Evangelical side, and Rubio on the white collar.
BERMAN: Equally interesting if Kasich or Bush or Christie can make a showing and really --
BROWNSTEIN: (Inaudible) totally.
BERMAN: All right, I want to shift to the Democrats right now because we've seen something really interesting here over the last couple of days. You know, Hillary Clinton announced she's going to Flint, Michigan, on Sunday.
Obviously very important issues right there, but also an important minority community, African-American voters, been affected disproportionately by the water crisis there.
Bernie Sanders picking up the support of former NAACP head, Ben Gelis. Hillary Clinton running an ad in Spanish in Nevada right now. That's the first time she's done that.
I know New Hampshire, you do, one thing there aren't a lot of minority voters. This isn't about New Hampshire, is it?
BROWNSTEIN: No, but it's coming fast. The Republican race is coming into focus. You can see the lanes developing. Same thing on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders started as a pretty limited classic, what I call, line track candidate, depending on young people and socially liberal upper middle class whites.
He is still checking those boxes and doing well, but in Iowa and here he expanded beyond that. He's competitive among blue collar whites as well, which allows him to compete for Midwestern states that other line track candidates like Gary Hart and Paul (inaudible) could not do.
The last big question for Bernie Sanders is can he cut into the minority community? There will be 1/3 to 40 percent of all Democratic voters. There's an enormous generational advantage among people -- across the racial line.
Can he cut into that African-American and Hispanic populations? We'll begin to get answers in South Carolina and Nevada. I think that's why you see Hillary Clinton in Flint and on Spanish language radio respectively.
BERMAN: Those are not New Hampshire moves?
BROWNSTEIN: Those are not New Hampshire moves. It is what comes next. The diversity of the Democratic Party weighs in in a big way. Democrats in Nevada and then South Carolina. Those first two weeks of March you have a lot of southern states and a lot of Midwestern states and that is where Bernie Sanders is going to be make or break for him.
Can he break into the African-American, and also don't forget as we talked about, he is winning here and he did well in Iowa partly because he did so well among independents. He lost self-identified Democrats in Iowa and that is another hurdle he's got to get over. He's doing better among them here.
[08:10:06]BERMAN: We often say that national polls don't matter right now. It's really the state by state polls, but one thing they can give you is the demographic -- have you seen any indication in the nation polls that minority voters that Bernie Sanders is making inroads?
BROWNSTEIN: There's that one national poll from Quinnipiac that had them basically even, right, and you can't do that without having some presence, but that just one. We are going to have to see.
I think New Hampshire will show us that -- I was at a Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton speaking at a Democratic dinner last night, and the passion on his side.
And the resistance the Clinton -- a congresswoman got shouted down at a Democratic dinner for saying that she was voting for Hillary Clinton.
BERMAN: I have one more question before they pull the plug on us. Decibel level at the Republican debate tonight. Do you think it goes to 11 or stays at 10?
BROWNSTEIN: It stays at 10, but I think Donald Trump, he has to come out swinging.
BERMAN: Swinging? We've seen a nicer, kinder, gentler Donald Trump.
BROWNSTEIN: This is important for him. Obviously it's critical for him. If Marco Rubio could have that Gary Hart moment from 1984 where you slingshot all the way into the lead, I think Trump would have trouble recovering from that.
But if Trump wins, Rubio finishes second and consolidates more of that white collar block, and you could have a three-way sustained three-way race, Cruz, Trump, Rubio. They have not had that in a modern era.
BERMAN: A lot of overtime wages for political analysts.
BROWNSTEIN: That's exactly right.
BROWNSTEIN: Ron Brownstein, great to have you with us. Thanks so much. All right. When we come back the latest polls we've been talking about it. Bernie Sanders, very far ahead of Hillary Clinton here in the state of New Hampshire. What does this mean for her? What does this mean for him? Hillary Clinton says he's not letting the polls get her down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Thank you. New Hampshire's never quit on me and I'm not going to quit on you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:15:13]
BERMAN: You are looking at Manchester, New Hampshire, 8:00 a.m. here in the granite state. Just three days before the first in the nation primary here. This is a state that takes its voting so, so seriously. So many undecided voters.
So many voters that will stay that way until the moment they walk into that voting booth. At an event last night, I was listening to voters going to see Ted Cruz. They weren't Cruz supporters. They were there because they needed to be convinced to be ted Cruz supporters.
On the Democratic side, Senator Bernie Sanders has a pretty big lead right now in the latest CNN/WMUR poll ahead of Hillary Clinton by a margin of about 2 to 1, 30 points.
But again, with 64 percent of voters saying they are locked into their candidate, well, there may not be too many voters up for grabs.
Let's discuss. We are joined by Raymond Buckley. He is the chair of the Democratic Party in the state of New Hampshire. Raymond, thanks so much for being with us. Great to see you here.
You have seen a lot of races over the years here. Compare this, this two-person race right now between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, have you seen anything like this before?
RAYMOND BUCKLEY, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: It's to me reminiscent of the Al Gore, Bill Bradley race in 2000, which once again had large amounts of independents who wanted to vote but were undecided between the Democratic side or the Republican side.
As you know, 43 percent of the electorate here can vote in either primary when they wake up and we have same day registration. People wake up that morning, decide to go register --
BERMAN: A lot of voters there actually went and voted for John McCain. The Democratic primary became sort of a Democratic battle. How do you win independent voters? Who are the independent undeclared voters here? BUCKLEY: Well, this is what I've been told over the years. Roughly 1/3 are Republicans that don't want to say they're Republicans and 1/3 say they're Democrats that don't want to say they're Democrats. The middle third are people that aren't somebody -- that are people that don't pay attention to politics every single day.
They are truly undecided, truly just people that do their responsibility of voting, but it's not somebody that watches political news 24/7.
BERMAN: That's a mistake. You should be watching political news 24/7.
BUCKLEY: They are the people that really don't like the negative stuff. That's what's really interesting about the bashing that's going on with the attack ads the Republicans are running. I think that's a mistake for the Republicans.
BERMAN: Now the wrap on New Hampshire, particularly in the Democratic side, it's not representative of the rest of the country. It's a whiter state, right? Well, there's snow, I think it means something different when people say it's a white state. Defend New Hampshire as being representative of the Democratic Party nationwide.
BUCKLEY: Well, I think that's part of the reason why we did the four early states where you have significantly more, majority of Democratic primary in South Carolina are actually African-American and in -- they are Latino in Nevada.
So by going Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada, it really gives a great demographic. The point really here is I don't think the ethnicity or the race, but really it's the size.
It's small enough and culturally we're so used to this. I was interviewing candidates for president when I was 11 years old.
BUCKLEY: And you want answers. You know, the difference between Iowa and New Hampshire it's so stark because in Iowa I think voters go and they listen.
Here in New Hampshire you go and talk to them, you tell them what you want from them. You force them to come over to your side of the camp. It's really, really interesting.
Now I know your job is to be neutral in this race. You're a party official. You don't want to come down one side or the other.
I want to know your thoughts on tactics. Hillary Clinton is leaving New Hampshire tomorrow. She's going to Flint, Michigan. Perfectly worthy stop to do.
But in general, in the abstract, in the days before New Hampshire, what does it signify to you if you leave the state?
BUCKLEY: Well, I think every that campaign and every candidate has to make their own choices exactly what you do. Each cycle is a little different as well. When you look back 30 years ago, there wasn't sort of media coverage --
BERMAN: Right.
BUCKLEY: -- that went into the home of every single New Hampshire voter. Now with cable TV, the internet, whether you're actually physically here or not you're sending a message.
BERMAN: One more question. One more question, sometimes you get a more honest answer when you ask a Democrat about the Republican race and vice versa.
I'm not going to ask you who you agree with the most because I don't think you agree with any of them. I want to know how think is running the most interesting, best campaign, here on the Republican side?
BUCKLEY: Well, I guess I would probably go with Kasich. That I think that he's got a lot of folks that have done very well, meaning activists that have supported winning candidates over the years in the primaries.
BERMAN: Talking just organization. You're not voting for John Kasich. You just think he has a good organization here.
BUCKLEY: That would be true.
BERMAN: All right, Raymond Buckley, great to have you here with us. Nice to see you in person.
All right, just ahead for us, we'll speak to the chair of New Hampshire's Republican Party. We'll ask her about the Democratic race and see what kind of answer we get.
[08:20:06]One programming note, "STATE OF THE UNION" you have to watch it this Sunday with Jake Tapper here in New Hampshire. What a lineup he has.
He has Donald Trump. He's got John Kasich, Chris Christie, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders. That is Sunday, which is tomorrow on my calendar, 9:00 a.m. Eastern only on CNN. Victor, Christie, back to you guys.
PAUL: All righty, thank you so much. John, appreciate it. We're going to get back to our political coverage obviously, but listen, we are just learning that North Korea is announcing a new launch window for (inaudible).
BLACKWELL: In Taiwan, rescue workers are rushing right now to pull people out of the rubble after a deadly earthquake.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: I think that might be your reaction, too, as you watch this nearly 600-foot construction crane fall. BLACKWELL: Yes. This happened yesterday morning in the middle of Manhattan. Workers were lowering the crane, but the high wind smashed it down. A man in a parked car was killed. Three others were injured by falling debris.
PAUL: Chicago police say six people found dead in their homes Thursday were likely family members. Their deaths are now being ruled homicide. The victims include a child between 10 and 12 years old, one woman was shot, the others died by blunt or sharp force. Police say the home had no signs of forced entry.
BLACKWELL: Investigators now say the murder of a Virginia teen was premeditated and the plot was conspired in a fast food restaurant.
[08:25:05]The body of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell was found in North Carolina three days after she disappeared. Now investigators say Virginia Tech students, David Eisenhower and Natalie Keeper, plotted to stab that seventh grader and planned how to get rid of the body and hide it.
The details came to light Thursday as the judge denied the Keeper's bail. Eisenhower will appear in court late next month. Now he's accused of killing her to hide their inappropriate relationship.
PAUL: North Korea is moving up its window to launch a test rocket by one day. The reclusive country is going to launch the rocket. They say it's a front for a ballistic missile test. South Korea condemns the plan saying the North will pay a grave price for this.
BLACKWELL: The rescue operations are happening now in Taiwan's oldest city of Tainan. A devastating earthquake has killed 11 people. More than 475 others have been injured.
Now rescue workers are at the site of this 17-story apartment building which collapsed. It crumbled after a 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Saturday. People were sleeping. More than 200 people have been rescued.
We're just three days away now from the New Hampshire primary, and when we come back, John Berman talks to the head of the New Hampshire Republican Party about tonight's GOP debate and how the candidates are preparing for the big day.
PAUL: Also, Carley Fiorina, as you know, excluded from tonight's debate. She blames the media for caving in to the, quote, "establishment candidates."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:30:15] BERMAN: Look at the pristine beauty here in the state of New Hampshire -- the snow on the trees; the crisp, clean air -- it belies what's going on underneath the bare knuckle campaigning going on right now on both sides of the aisle.
Donald Trump sits atop the latest CNN polling here, CNN/WMUR poll, he is at 28 percent out in front of Marco Rubio in second place at 17 percent. But the grouping there -- you see Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, all so close to each other.
Seven candidates, including Donald Trump, they will square off tonight in a Republican debate. What will happen there? What will the tone be?
I want to bring in Jennifer Horn. She is the chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party -- not allowed to endorse, not allowed to weigh in on any candidate. Let me ask you about what you expect tonight. You're allowed to weigh in on that.
JENNIFER HORN, NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIR: Sure.
BERMAN: Do we -- you know, fireworks?
HORN: Well, I would expect there's going to be, you know, some intense exchanges tonight.
BERMAN: Intense exchanges --
HORN: Intense exchanges --
BERMAN: -- your way of saying it's going to be bonkers.
HORN: Well, it is a primary. And we're just a couple of days from election day and the candidates on the stage know that here in New Hampshire probably about a third of our voters are still undecided and they will be watching the debate. So this is their opportunity to not only, you know, make the argument for themselves but to make the argument why not someone else.
BERMAN: How does negative campaigning play in New Hampshire?
HORN: Well, it's nobody's favorite thing. It never is. Folks always say, I hate it, it's too much, I've had enough. But the bottom line is we know that cycle after cycle it works.
So you know, as chairman of the party, I don't like it. I don't like to, you know, see our candidates get too deep into going after each other.
This primary from my perspective is about making sure that one of the most dishonest politicians in the history of American politics doesn't become president in the fall. So I'd like them to focus on Hillary as much as possible. But, you know, again, as I said, it's a primary and making those distinctions is a part of it.
BERMAN: So you're the Republican Party chair. You're in charge of the Republicans here in the state. The interesting dynamic --
HORN: Nobody is in charge of the Republicans.
BERMAN: -- historically but one of the interesting dynamics are the non-declared, the Independent voters --
HORN: Right. BERMAN: -- who go and decide at the last minute. Not just which candidate they're going to support but what race they're going to weigh in on.
HORN: Right.
BERMAN: They could go anywhere.
HORN: That's right.
BERMAN: The idea that someone could choose Bernie Sanders on this side or Ted Cruz on the other just -- you know, the vast chasm on the ideological spectrum right there --
HORN: That's right.
BERMAN: -- how do you play to that voter?
HORN: Well, you're right. First of all the Independent voters can choose either ballot. And I actually kind of embrace the idea that Independents vote in our primary because it forces our candidates to really think about the entire spectrum of voters that they have to be able to win over in a general election.
But I really believe here in New Hampshire the basic values are the same for everybody. They're concerned about the national security, economic security. Is their family safe? Will their children be educated? You know, these are the issues that all Americans care about. It doesn't matter if they're Republican or Independent.
BERMAN: So we just got back from Iowa where the ground game organization matters so much. It's different here. I've been talking to strategists the last few days who have a different opinion of how much of a different ground game can make just because of those undisclosed voters --
HORN: Right.
BERMAN: -- who decide at the last minute. You can identify a voter, you can't ground game them.
HORN: That's right.
BERMAN: You can't force them to get to the polls. So how much does organization matter here?
HORN: It's very important here. In New Hampshire it's all about knocking on doors. It's having that -- what happens at doors is just as important as what happens in the town hall. It's the face-to-face conversation.
You know, it was funny here yesterday we had a big snowstorm came through a big part of the state and folks were taught -- you know, going out to town halls regardless. They didn't let the weather get in their way. One of our candidates, Chris Christie, actually had volunteers out shoveling sidewalks of undecided voters so they could get to their doors and make the case for their candidates.
BERMAN: That would make the difference for me if someone shovels my sidewalk. I'll get these people --
HORN: Very traditional New Hampshire campaigning.
BERMAN: Interesting to see that. There was one candidate who was not here yesterday. It was Donald Trump, stuck in New York. Does presence matter?
HORN: It absolutely matters. And getting here, you know, really the moment after Iowa's over, this is their chance to close the deal. And again, it goes back to all those undecided voters. They know how -- they're the ones who are going to make the decision on this next Tuesday. So being in the state and getting as close to them as you can as many times as you can.
All those undecided voters probably have their list of two or three of their favorite candidates and they're going to go out of their way this week to make sure they get to a town hall, or to a diner someplace where they can see these guys face to face and ask their questions.
BERMAN: I asked Raymond Buckley, the Democratic chair to weigh in on the Republican race. I want you to weigh in on the Democratic race.
HORN: Sure.
BERMAN: Not who you're supporting, not who you --
HORN: In the Democratic --
BERMAN: -- not who you agree with --
HORN: I'm supporting Bernie Sanders in the Democratic race.
BERMAN: But in terms of organization what do you see on the ground there just in terms of nuts and bolts politics?
[08:35:02] HORN: Sure. Well, you know what it's very similar in New Hampshire. You know, no matter which party you're with, you've got to run the same game. You've got to be able to talk to folks.
I think what's been disappointing on the Democratic side is that for Hillary Clinton, her events have been so scripted and, you know, invitation only. We saw at the beginning you had to have an invitation to ask a question even to be part of it. I think what we've seen --
BERMAN: that's not the way it is now. Now she's doing events where people are asking questions.
HORN: A couple. A couple. But I think what's really interesting on that side honestly and what I think explains that huge gap in the polls between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is that when they stand on the stage next to each other, Bernie Sanders is a very sincere person.
I completely reject the idea of a socialist president of the United States but he believes today what he believed when he first ran for mayor and I think that really highlights the dishonesty and the -- you know, that kind of comes across with Hillary Clinton.
BERMAN: The neighbor stuff -- the next door neighbor stuff. That makes a bit of a difference.
HORN: It makes some difference. But I don't think -- I honestly don't think that's the whole thing here. You don't have to be from New England to win in New Hampshire.
BERMAN: It helps. It's helped of them. There have been a lot of folks from Massachusetts who have won here before, you know, between Paul Tsongas, John Kerry, you know, Mike Dukakis, Mitt Romney --
HORN: Mitt Romney -- right.
BERMAN: -- a lot of people. It does make a little bit of a difference.
So there's snow on the ground right now. It might snow on Tuesday.
HORN: Right.
BERMAN: It's in the forecast. What does that do?
HORN: Well, snow doesn't usually stop us here in New Hampshire. It would have to be a pretty significant storm to have a really great impact on the outcome. I'm not sure what the forecast is for next Tuesday yet but, you know, a couple of inches of snow won't get in the way.
BERMAN: All right. Great to have you here with us. Good luck going forward.
HORN: Thank you.
BERMAN: Enjoy the debate tonight.
HORN: Great. Looking forward to it.
BERMAN: You say an intense discussion which I translated again, a bonkers. So I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
HORN: Thank you.
BERMAN: Christi, Victor -- back to you in Atlanta.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: All right. Hey John -- thank you so much.
There is so much more to come here too. The CDC issues, for instance, issues new guidelines for the Zika virus. What you need to know.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Plus, a Virginia Tech student star athlete allegedly uses a social media app to lure a 13-year-old girl to her death.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:40:37] BLACKWELL: All right. New this morning: the CDC is issuing new guidance about the Zika virus. They're telling men who may have been exposed to the virus and have a pregnant partner to use protection or abstain from sex until the baby is born. They say it's because the link between Zika virus and the microencephaly is becoming stronger.
CNN's chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So this is the blood sucker everyone's after -- the female aedis egypti mosquito. She's the main carrier of several dangerous viruses that have spread around the world including yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya and now Zika. Zika is actively spreading in many top vacation spots such as the Caribbean, Mexico and Brazil which is also the site of this summer's Olympic Games.
Unlike other mosquito-borne diseases, Zika has become of particular concern to pregnant women because Brazil is now the epicenter of a Zika epidemic linked to babies born with microcephaly. It's a devastating neurological condition where the baby's head and brain don't develop.
Brazilian health officials say nearly 4,200 babies have been born with this condition since October. That's compared to 146 in all of 2014. 51 of those babies have died. Women living in Brazil, El Salvador, Colombia and Jamaica are now being told not to get pregnant at this time. And in the United States the CDC is also sounding the alarm.
DR. BETH BELL, NATIONAL CENTER FOR EMERGING AND ZOONOTIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Pregnant women should consider deferring travel to areas where Zika virus is currently circulating.
GUPTA: Also, if you've traveled to these destinations while pregnant, get tested, because 80 percent of those infected have no symptoms. Babies should also be screened after birth.
DR. BELL: It's important for them to go in because we really don't know right now whether having symptoms or not having symptoms with Zika virus infection has any impact on the possibility that there will be a birth defect in the child.
GUPTA: One baby was born with microcephaly in Hawaii. His mom had traveled to Brazil during her pregnancy. Other states are also reporting confirmed cases of Zika, but officials stress they did not get the virus here. Instead all had recently traveled to countries where Zika is circulating. But if or when Zika is locally transmitted, for those who are not expecting, the virus is usually mild and not a danger to future births.
BELL: They will resolve the infection and they will have immunity. Should they plan to get pregnant in a years in the future -- in a few years or whatever, there really is absolutely no cause for concern.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: We have new details for you this morning in the Virginia Tech case. Officials are now saying the 13-year-old's death was, indeed, pre-meditated; and how an online app connected Nicole to her killers.
BLACKWELL: And changing gears, Super Bowl weekend, it is finally here. Broncos and Panthers fans, obviously in a frenzy. Some call it one of the best defense match-ups ever.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:47:23] PAUL: 47 minutes past the hour. Two Virginia Tech students sit down at a fast food restaurant not to discuss class work but allegedly to plan the killing of a 13-year-old girl.
Here's CNN's Nick Valencia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have no idea who they're talking to.
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a cautionary story for anyone with a teenager. A 13-year-old girl, her life cut short allegedly by a killer she met online. On Thursday -- one final good-bye for seventh grader Nicole Lovell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is awful. This is tragic. It all could have been prevented.
VALENCIA: She was a teenager much like any other -- someone with a heavy Internet footprint on apps like Instagram, Facebook, and the anonymous messaging Web site Kik. Her parents say they wish they would have asked more questions.
DAVID EISENHOWER, VIRGINIA TECH STUDENT: I just have this internal thing saying I want to be the best.
VALENCIA: David Eisenhower is the Virginia Tech freshman accused of her murder -- an accomplished athlete and dedicated student majoring in engineering.
Here he is in an interview with local affiliate WMAR who last year tapped him as its athlete of the week.
EISENHOWER: I make my personal goals achievable, or just out of reach of achievable, that way I'm always constantly striving to better myself. VALENCIA: It was three days after Lovell went missing that the 18-
year-old Eisenhower was taken into custody for her disappearance. He denies being involved in the murder but prosecutors say he admits he saw her the night she went missing.
Police would discover the little girl's decomposing remains tossed on the side of an interstate just on the other side of the Virginia border in North Carolina. Police say it was this college classmate of Eisenhower that helped him stash the body.
At her court appearance earlier this week Natalie Keepers was denied bail -- the Commonwealth of Virginia portraying her as an accomplice to the murder, an active participant in the planning. Even helping Eisenhower buy a shovel before Lovell is murdered. Keepers, the state says, was excited to be part of something secretive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VALENCIA: The motive for the killing, law enforcement officials say Eisenhower and Lovell had an inappropriate relationship -- one that she was planning to expose -- Victor, Christi.
PAUL: Nick -- thank you so much.
CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson has an awful lot to say about this. Joey, let's talk about that for a moment, that admission, so to speak, that she wanted to be, Natalie Keepers, part of something secret or special. How will that play into her defense?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Christi -- good morning to you.
Well, obviously it's damning because what you do is you have admissions. And in any type of criminal proceeding the question before a jury, particularly when a prosecutor is there presenting the case is why?
[08:50:08] Why on earth would you engage in this behavior and this activity? To an extent that a prosecutor knows that and can convey that to the body of people who are deciding guilt or innocence, it has a significant effect, which obviously is an effect that needs to be overcome by the defense in some way using any measure of things, whether it's her mental state, you know, whether it's issues relating to whether she was coerced or anything else, you know, by the person who was engaged in abuse, you know, of this poor 13-year-old girl, but certainly it's not helpful at all in terms of the defense.
PAUL: Well, the interesting thing is here, he has not confessed -- we need to point that out. She's the one that's talking. Are prosecutors going to try to cut, do you believe, a deal with her?
JACKSON: I think certainly that that's always the case. Whenever you have multiple defendants you're always going to use one against another. And now there's something called a confession where obviously you indicate everything chapter and verse what you did and there are other things called admissions which are not so much confessions as much as they are tidbits of information a prosecutor gleans concerning what your involvement may have been.
And so, yes, when you have someone who may be culpable for any crime, and there's another person who may be more culpable than you, that is, responsible for some activity, prosecutors often pit one against the other so that they can get to the heart of the matter and ultimately pursue and find justice in a case.
PAUL: What about the company Kik? We know a spokesman says they've been working with the FBI. But is there any liability, anything that they're going to have to take on?
JACKSON: You know, I don't see that from a criminal perspective nor a civil perspective. Remember, if we're talking about any criminality of Kik or any other app, in any crime you need what's actus reus and mens rea -- that means there needs to be an act and there needs to be some mental state. The mental of Kik was to provide a software and application that has some social value, social utility. They did that.
Moving on to civil liability, the question becomes did they have a duty to keep the user safe and anyone else? I think the answer to that question is yes. They'll argue that they fulfilled it by having a mechanism where you can block users, you could report users, there's a parent guide so parents can be aware and up to date with regard to how their children are using it.
The next issue will be did they breach that duty. They'll say, Christi, to the extent that we had these various things, right like blocking applications, like parenting apps, we didn't breach.
And then finally to the issue of causation they will argue that certainly that they were not the cause of this tragedy. And also what needs to be pointed out, whenever you get to the issue of social, you know, applications, they're all over the place. And you can't even begin to imagine what's called the ruinous liability that would befall all of these applications. They would all go out of business if they were blamed for everything that each individual did that was inappropriate, unwarranted, unlawful.
So I don't think they'll have any type of there will be any civil liability. I do think it does promote the issue of awareness and allowing, you know, parents to become more involved, allowing these applications or forcing them to become as safe as possible knowing that there's so many people out there in the cyber world who mean no good and an awful lot of harm to people who just want to use applications for good purposes.
So, to the extent that it heightens awareness and it makes these companies more responsible, I think that's -- you know, that's certainly a good thing moving forward. It doesn't do anything here, of course, with regard to this 13-year-old's death.
PAUL: All right. Joey Jackson, your insight is always so helpful. Thank you.
JACKSON: Thank you, Christi. PAUL: Victor?
BLACKWELL: All right. When we come back we'll head back out to the West Coast looking ahead to Super Bowl 50 and telling you why Johnny Manziel is over shadowing a lot of the pre-game hype?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:57:37] BLACKWELL: All right. We're just one day away now from the kickoff of Super Bowl 50.
PAUL: Yes. Andy Scholes is covering the big game in San Francisco but before we get to that, Andy, what are these new developments regarding the case of NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel?
SCHOLES: Yes, good morning, guys.
Things are not going well for Johnny Football. His agent cut ties with him yesterday and his father told the "Dallas Morning News" that if Johnny doesn't get help soon he fears that his son is not going to make it to his 24th birthday in December.
Now Dallas police are investigating an incident from last Saturday where Manziel allegedly hit his ex-girlfriend Colleen Crowley multiple times. Crowley gave her account of the incident to police yesterday and has reportedly got a restraining order against Manziel. In an interview with TMZ Manziel denied ever hitting Crowley.
All right. Now let's talk about the big game.
At 39 years old Peyton Manning will become the oldest quarterback to ever play in the Super Bowl tomorrow. And speculation is, of course, that this is Peyton's final game. That's the impression I got when I talked to his dad, Archie, earlier this week.
Now, Peyton would not confirm that this week with speaking with the media but he did talk about how grateful he is to get one more chance at the Super Bowl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PEYTON MANNING, DENVER BRONCOS: If you have any appreciation for the history of the game, and certainly you've watched Super Bowls and played in Super Bowls, had a sibling that's played in Super Bowls, it does make it maybe even more special. So I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here and as I feel like our whole team is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Super Bowl week is almost just as much about the parties as it is the big game. Last night was the first Annual Bleacher Ball. I was working the red carpet trying to find out who everyone was cheering for on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Peyton Manning/Cam Newton, who's the boss?
ALYSSA MILANO, ACTOR: Yes. Peyton. I mean, Cam's amazing, don't get me wrong, but it would be really, really special to see Peyton just walk off into the sunset with a win.
CHRIS COLLINSWORTH, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I really came into it just saying there's no way that Carolina can lose this game, and the more I watch Denver's defense, the more I think this is going to be a lot closer than people think.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: And much more on the game later today right here on CNN. Be sure to tune in to "KICKOFF BY THE BAY" a CNN "BLEACHER REPORT" special. That's going to be at 2:30 Eastern hosted by Chris Cuomo and hall of fame quarterback Dan Marino. Can't wait -- guys.
PAUL: All right. Andy, thanks so much.
[09:00:00] BLACKWELL: And that's it for this hour. We'll see you back here at 10:00 Eastern to open up the "CNN NEWSROOM".
PAUL: Yes. "SMERCONISH" though starts for you now.
