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GOP Candidates Trading Barbs Before Next Debate; One Killed in Delta State University Shooting; Professor Shot And Killed At University In Mississippi; Shooter Remains At Large At Delta State University; Trump And Carson Top Latest New Hampshire Poll; Republican Hopefuls Warming Up For Second Debate; Politics Of Kim Davis. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired September 14, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer. It is 10:00 a.m. in Simi Valley, California. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington and 7:00 p.m. in Berlin. Wherever you are watching from around the world, thanks so much for watching us.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: And we are beginning this hour with breaking news coming to us out of Mississippi where we're following an active shooter situation on the campus of Delta State University. We just learned that a male professor was shot and killed. This is according to the coroner there Bolivar County. The University just tweeted this out moments ago. It says, the university has confirmed one fatality. Campus remains under lockdown. Please stay inside and away from windows.

Let's go now to Alina Machado. She is in Miami. She is following all of the latest details there for us. Alina, what are we learning here?

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Briana, this is still a very active scene. It's a developing situation, as you mentioned. We learned about the situation a little bit over an hour ago, about an hour ago, of a lockdown situation at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi and as a result of an active shooter situation.

And just a little -- a few moments ago, we heard from the coroner's office in this area. And they told us -- they confirmed that a male professor was shot and killed at Delta State. The victim was in his office at the time of the shooting. No gun was found in the office. No gun was found at the scene, but the deputy coroner says that two empty shell casings were found which suggests that it was not a suicide, but, in fact, that somebody killed this professor. Authorities do believe that the shooter is still at large -- Briana.

KEILAR: All right. Alina Machado following these details as this develops. Thanks so much for that.

Joining me now on the phone, we have former New York City police detective, Harry Houck. Harry, it's still, obviously, very early in this process here, but we do know that the victim was a male professor. Give us the law enforcement perspective here of where authorities there are going as they try to search for this active shooter.

HARRY HOUCK, FORMER POLICE DETECTIVE, NEW YORK CITY: Yes, well, you know, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that only one person was shot, so, therefore, this was probably a personal vendetta against that professor. No weapons found so we know it wasn't a suicide. There were two shots fired. Whether or not, when the police responded, did they still smell gun powder in the air, so we don't know exactly when this shooting occurred. It could've happened an hour ago. It could've been it happened two hours ago. I don't know.

They're probably trying -- they're conducting the search, probably looking and going over video that might be in the -- in the school there. They will find out if they can identify this shooter. And they're probably going to find that there's video all over these schools. They're going to be able to find out who this shooter is and, hopefully, identify him soon. Usually, in instances like that, a lot of times, these shooters do kill themselves after they've done something like that. So, we might find that, you know, that might occur in the future when we finally find this this guy.

KEILAR: All right, Harry, thanks for your insight there. And I do just want to bring an update here, because Delta University there, in Cleveland, Mississippi, has just tweeted out more information saying that emergency management is now involved, that the governor's office is offering assistance, and also that the school currently remains on lockdown. You can see that tweet right there on your screen, campus remaining on lockdown, students there sheltering in place away from the windows. This is a developing story. We'll continue to monitor these details and bring them to you.

And now, to breaking news in the race for the White House. New poll numbers show Donald Trump maintaining his lead in New Hampshire with Ben Carson surging to a solid second place. The new numbers coming just two days ahead of the next Republican primary debate hosted by CNN. Trump is going to center stage. Literally, he'll be there in the center of the stage flanked by Carson, by Jeb Bush when 11 candidates square off in the main debate on Wednesday.

And Correspondent Athena Jones joining us live now from the debate site in Simi, California. Walk us through this -- Athena, this new Monmouth University poll that has come out. Where does the race stand in New Hampshire?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Briana. Well, the race in New Hampshire stands about where it stands nationally in the polls we've seen recently and also in states like Iowa. As you mentioned, Donald Trump is still in the lead, and now Ben Cason is in a solid second place. As I said, we've seen this in recent national polls. We saw it in a recent Monmouth poll in Iowa. He has jumped 12 points, I believe you have that up on your screen, to 17 percent support. That is a big job since July.

Now, one thing that's different about this New Hampshire poll is that the third place finisher, as of right now, is Ohio Governor John Kasich. He's the only other candidate at double-digits there at 11 percent. But he's not an outsider. Trump and Carson have been riding this wave of interest in the GOP votership (ph) in outsider of candidates. Kasich, of course, was a former member of Congress and is now a governor, so he is someone who has actually held elected office.

[13:05:04] But it's interesting to see all these numbers kind -- all these polls backing each other up with the same top two candidates -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. And, Athena, you have Ben Carson. He's really way out away from the pack when it comes to favorable views of candidates. How do his numbers compare?

JONES: This is so interesting because, again, we've seen this in more than one poll. GOP voters really seem to like the retired brain surgeon, Ben Carson. He stands in this poll at 73 percent favorable reviews. Behind him is Carly Fiorina at 58 percent. She's another outsider candidate but she's pretty far behind there. Now, go on down there and you see that Trump is just at 54 percent, tied with Governor Kasich. But, yes, Ben Carson a clear leader when it comes to favorability -- Brianna.

KEILAR: And you are there, Athena. Give us a sense of what the scene is like as we look ahead a couple days to this debate?

JONES: Well, you can see behind me, all of the activity. This is really, really remarkable. Over here, you see folks working. There are going to be 13 cameras on this site. You can also see, though, that it's a fairly intimate setting. We're talking about, at the most, 500 people. These are going to be --

KEILAR: Oh, no. OK, unfortunately, we lost our signal. But Athena is there, and we will hopefully go back to her, if not this hour, next hour, to give you a little preview there of the scene there in Simi Valley.

But for more on what we can expect on Wednesday night's debate, I want to bring in CNN Political Commentator and Democratic Strategist, Donna Brazile, and Katy Packer, she's the former campaign manager of Romney for president.

So, Katy, here we are. We're just two days ahead of this second debate. What are you looking for?

KATIE PACKER, FORMER MITT ROMNEY DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, I think that you're going to see a lot more sparks flying at this debate than we've seen in the past. You know, I like to say campaigns matter. You know, in the early stages, it's just all about these candidates. What do people know about the candidates from what they see on the news? They know a lot about Donald Trump. They don't know much about any of the other candidates.

But we're now getting to the point where the campaigns are going to start to kick in. And I think you are going to see candidates really test Donald Trump on his record, really trying to -- try to find that sort of Achilles' heel that's going to force him to react in a way that maybe he doesn't want to react. And I think we're going to see more of that on Wednesday night. KEILAR: And I would imagine part of that, Donna, is going to be

Republicans who are going to try to pin him down on policy positions. They feel like so much of this has to do with personality politics. What are you looking -- what are you looking for and what are you expecting?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I'm excited about this debate because this is an opportunity for those seven candidates who are not getting a lot of oxygen to try to take some of this, what I call, media pull, personality pull away from Donald Trump. He's the candidate in the center of the stage, but he's pulling from the fringes.

So, it'll be interesting to see if some of the candidates, who are now polling, and I'm shocked, in single digits. Jeb Bush, where's the exclamation point? I mean, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, he's about to slip off of the stage. Governor Christie. So, I'm looking to see if any of those candidates will be able to take some of the oxygen from Trump and make this campaign more than about a personality.

KEILAR: Yes, those poll numbers are pretty amazing. Specifically because of where Donald Trump stands in them. He said, Katie, that he didn't prepare for the first debate. He was asked about his preparing this time around, whether he expects to be attacked. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My whole life is preparation for a debate. You know, if you think about it, what's preparing for a debate? There are a million different things. My whole life is preparation for a debate.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I'll be attacked. I guess I'm going into a lions' den. I don't know if they're -- some people say I will be. Some people say I won't. Somebody will attack. You know, somebody like a Rand Paul who's down at two percent. He'll maybe attack. He's been very nasty lately. He's been very nice, very nice, and, all of a sudden, about a week ago, he started attacked because his poll numbers are down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: I imagine a lot of Republicans are frustrated, Katie, because there's no place where they can kind of get a toehold in this. I wonder if they do attack as we expect, and you're saying that they will, is that going to pay off for them? Is that going to really hurt Donald Trump?

PACKER: Well, I think what they have to do is they have to actually find something where he's truly vulnerable that will cause him to react. I don't think, you know, small petty things -- I don't even really think just challenging him on not being a conservative is going to affect him much, because he's got this, you know, 25 percent that don't seem to care what he stands for in the fact that he's not a conservative. They just like his personality.

But there are things where he's very sensitive. You know, this Trump University story that came out that talks about how he's really a scam artist, that, you know, scammed, you know, middle class people, and elderly people, and, you know, took money from them. You know, I think that's something that he's going to be really sensitive about. So, I think looking for things where he might actually respond in a way that's sort of against type for Donald Trump is what they need to do, you know, to try to expose some of his vulnerabilities.

[13:10:15] KEILAR: Ben Carson is so fascinating where he is in the polls. And he's really been this surprise. He's firmly in second place in the polls. Even Donald Trump has started to attack Carson and here's Carson responded on ABC's, "This Week."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have plenty of energy. You know, operating on people for 10, 12, sometimes for greater than 20 hours at a time, making critical decisions after many hours of intense work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, HOST, "THIS WEEK", ABC: But Dr. Carson --

CARSON: Have unexpected situations come up.

FEMALE: -- you actually apologized --

CARSON: You don't have to be loud to be energetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: OK, this is a -- and can we sort of -- can we get down to what this really means? You hear Donald Trump attacking Ben Carson who he says is just an OK surgeon, has low energy. Jeb Bush has low energy. It's sort of -- this is sort of, like, -- he's really insulting their, like, manliness. That's what it is, the strength, right?

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: If we picked presidents based on looks, we would have passed up a lot of people, trust me. And besides, whenever they did the movies on Lincoln, you notice it's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney.

So -- but, look, I think -- this is -- this debate is being held at a library. You should keep it quiet, whatever. This is a good form for Ben Carson to show that he's slow, he's steady, he's substantive. And his campaign is really about word of mouth. People like him because they've met him, because they've read his books and they understand what he stands for. So, I think Carson will have a unique advantage in this setting versus some of the other candidates.

KEILAR: We'll see. We'll see if they're quiet in the library. I'm just not so sure, guys. Donna Brazile, Katie Packer, thank you, guys, so much. I really appreciate it.

And coming up, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, they're all trading jabs. Are we seeing the warmup before Wednesday night's debate? We'll be discussing that.

Plus, Kentucky clerk, Kim Davis, is back at work. Her case has become a really hot topic for Republican presidential candidates. We'll be taking a closer look at can be gained on both sides of this debate.

[13:12:26]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:44] KEILAR: The gloves are definitely off when it comes to the Republican presidential candidates, and it seems that all roads as well as all insults and putdowns go through Donald Trump. The frontrunner is busy keeping up with these -- keeping these barbs going as we get closer to the second GOP debate on Wednesday here on CNN.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus spoke with our Jake Tapper about what to expect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: You know what, every candidate in all of these campaigns are going to do whatever they need to do in order to benefit their own campaigns and there will probably be more elbows thrown at that debate and you're going to have your hands full.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He certainly will. All right, here with me we have CNN political commentators Ana Navarro and Kevin Madden.

And I really want to start, guys with the top two here, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson. And since Carson jumped up in the polls, you see that Trump has really been taking shots at him. Sunday it was Trump putting down Carson's deal making ability. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a dealmaker. I will make great deals for this country. Ben can't do that. Ben is not a dealmaker at all and I don't think that's his natural ability at all.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is ridiculous to think that the only thing that I can do is neurosurgery. I find it quite humorous when people say he's an idiot savant, he only knows neurosurgery. Just the fact that they would say something like that, they don't know what it takes to become a neurosurgeon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Carson's rise has been really at the expense of other established candidates, not so much Donald Trump. But I wonder what you think there, Ana. Does Trump's attack show that he is getting nervous about Ben Carson?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, Trump's attacks show that he is being Donald Trump. That is what he does. He attacks anybody who attacks him and he attacks anybody who gets close to him in the polls.

What he doesn't do, which I think is a very smart thing to do is, he does not attack those who are barely registering in the polls. So we saw, for example, earlier this week that George Pataki and Bobby Jindal tried to take shots at him and he kind of shrugged his shoulders and he didn't acknowledge it.

But here is the problem, though, it's very hard to criticize Ben Carson. We all know the saying, it is not brain surgery. Well, it turns out the guy is a brain surgeon, so good luck trying to say that he is not talented or smart enough or has the energy.

KEILAR: And it is not just that, Kevin - I think Trump called him an OK surgeon. He is beyond that. I think everyone can agree on that. What do you think about Donald Trump really attacking Ben Carson? Why is he doing that? Is there really any strategy behind it, do you think?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't try and equate anything to a real strategy with Donald Trump. I think Ana made the best point: Trump does one thing really well, it's punch. If he does something even better than that, it's he counterpunches. He plays with a reckless abandon when it comes to politics, and I think that is his main M.O. here which is to talk about Donald Trump, and if anybody in any way gives a semblance of criticism towards Donald Trump, it is to attack them back.

[13:19:56] I think what has happened though is that this campaign has broken off into these two camps. It's the establishment lane and the anti-establishment lane, and clearly the Carson camp and Trump camp see each other as their biggest rivals in that anti-establishment camp. So you're going to see a lot more of this as the campaign progresses.

KEILAR: There's another outsider, of course, Carly Fiorina, and she has recently come into Trump's crosshairs. Last week "Rolling Stone" reported that Trump derided her looks, specifically her face, and it's really interesting because now she's running with this sentiment. She has a new campaign ad. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ladies, look at this face --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

-- and look at all of your faces. The face of leadership. The face of leadership in our party, the party of women's suffrage. The face of leadership --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: This is intriguing, Ana, because it is not an ad against Trump, even though he said those things about her, it's an ad that slams Democrats. What is the strategy here?

NAVARRO: You know, Carly has also proven to be a very effective counterpunch person, and she does it with great class. Of course, you know, Brianna, you and I, we all understand that since Donald Trump is the standard of male beauty, he can, of course, you know, give himself the luxury of criticizing Carly's looks, and I think really, he went beyond what is acceptable there, even for those who like him, because Carly Fiorina is a woman who did not inherit her daddy's real estate fortune, is a woman who has gone through ups and downs in life, like most of us have, is a 61-year-old woman who shows it, is a woman who survived cancer, who lost a stepdaughter to the ravages of addiction. So you know, I'm not sure that going after her looks is a very smart tactic for the very, very wealthy and very, very smart Donald Trump.

KEILAR: She is on the main stage, Kevin, for this debate. This was a huge development for her, she really was able to shine in that secondary stage in the last debate. What does she need to do on Wednesday?

MADDEN: Well, this is a fantastic opportunity for Carly Fiorina to build on the momentum that she has in this campaign right now. One of the very interesting things is that if you look at the numbers, inside the numbers of all these polls that we're seeing is Carly Fiorina, while she is polling ahead of a lot of folks like Scott Walker and Marco Rubio and even Jeb Bush, her name identification is very far below them. So in a debate like this where we're going to have tens of millions of people watching, this is a great opportunity for Carly Fiorina to build on that momentum and for people that are just learning about her, to learn more and possibly register some support for her.

So, you know -- The other thing that is interesting about Carly Fiorina is she is not lowering expectations. In many ways, every time she goes out there, she is looking to meet expectations. That's very different from other campaigns that, you know, try to manage expectations and say, oh, you know, my candidate is not the best debater - Carly Fiorina is seizing this as a chance to really introduce herself to a lot of voters.

KEILAR: And we will be looking to see if she does. Guys, thanks so much. Ana, Kevin, really appreciate it. And you can catch --

NAVARRO: Thank you, Brianna.

MADDEN: Great to be with you.

KEILAR: -- along with us, all of these -- Yes, thank you, guys -- there's going to be a lot of drama, right, and you can catch all those moments of this second Republican face-off. We'll have it right here on CNN, it will be on Wednesday night, two back-to-back debates, 6:00 and then 8:00 p.m. Eastern. We are getting some new pictures into CNN from an active shooter

situation at Delta State University in Mississippi. This is in Cleveland, Mississippi. A professor has been shot and killed there. We will have details for you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:09] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KEILAR: We are following breaking news now out of Cleveland, Mississippi. Delta State University is on lockdown after a male professor was shot and killed inside of his office. That is according to the deputy coroner there in Boulevard County. The coroner also says the shooter is still at large.

The university at this point in time urging students to remain inside. They are sending out tweets and telling them to stay inside and away from windows. We are also learning that all of the schools in the Cleveland School District are in lockdown because of the shooting.

I want to bring in Therese Apel. She is a breaking news reporter with the Clarion-Ledger. She's joining me now on the phone.

Therese, you're really our eyes and ears there on the ground. What can you tell us as we look at some aerial pictures of officers there on the scene there at the university?

THERESE APEL, NEWS REPORTER, THE CLARION-LEDGER (on the phone): What we know at this point is that some time after 10:00 a.m., this professor was shot and that the suspect is on the loose. I know they've got the entire campus, as you said, on lockdown and they do continue to put out notifications that the campus is still on lockdown.

Students have reported seeing a S.W.A.T. Team on campus. I got a message from a student who said that they were moved to an entire other store during the search for the shooter. So there is an active search going on right now for the shooter there on campus.

KEILAR: Do they think, Therese -- Do they have any idea where on campus this shooter may be or are they just kind of going building to building without really any clue about the location of the shooter?

APEL: It is my understanding that they have an idea of where the shooter is, but there is a building that they are particularly keyed in on at this point. At this point, I can't get anybody to confirm the actual building, but I do believe that there is a place where they have really concentrated their efforts.

KEILAR: Okay. That is really interesting that they have an area on campus that they suspect the shooter may be hiding out.