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CNN NEWSROOM

Top GOP Candidates Face First Debate; Obama Ramps Up Sales Campaign of Iran Deal; Al Qaeda Calls for Attacks on America; Outrage Over Video of Handcuffed 8-Year-Old Boy; Trump and Rivals Set to Face Off in First Debate in Ohio. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 5, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:02] SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But officials insist newer water samples show no health risks for athletes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not an issue for the games. It's not an issue for sailors that will come to Rio. I mean, that's a lie when people say that. The area where sailing competitions are going to be held, it's a good, it's a safe area.

DARLINGTON: And it certainly hasn't slowed down these rowers warming up for yet another Olympic rowing event.

Shasta Darlington, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The stage is set. Ten Republicans will take the primetime stage and they are Trump, Bush, Walker, Huckabee, Carson, Cruz, Rubio, Paul, Christie and Kasich. I'm always out of breath after I list those names. And yes, Donald Trump is talking big already. He vows not to go on the attack during the debate but he did say this on "Good Morning America."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS: Jeb Bush calls you the frontrunner. Does that mean you're the target tomorrow night and what are you going to do about it?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I probably am the target. And I was very honored to see that two men that really did attack me very viciously, actually, and I only attacked back after they started but they went down very substantially. In fact Lindsey Graham went down to zero. So the voters were fantastic as far as I'm concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: There you have it. One of Trump's top aides, Michael Cohen, also paved the way for his candidate saying Donald Trump is simply the best in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: He's not a politician. All right. He's an uber successful billionaire businessman. And what he is, he is a problem-solver. And that's why he's leading the polls. He's an amazing negotiator, maybe the best ever in the history of this world. What he'll do is he'll deal with trade, he'll deal with issues.

We don't really know what all the facts are. Clearly nobody in this country believes that the information that we're receiving is probably accurate anyway. So what do they do? They go ahead and they look to a guy who's proven to be successful, who's proven to be a doer and gets things done. That's why Trump is leading.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. With me now to talk about this, senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny and Michael Warren with "The Weekly Standard."

Welcome to both of you.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol.

MICHAEL WARREN, STAFF WRITER, THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Jeff, when we hear that line from Donald Trump, I'm the absolute best negotiator in the entire world?

ZELENY: And terrific and fabulous. I mean, Carol, we're going to have to keep track of the superlatives, I think, that are used in the debate tomorrow night. But look, I would think that Donald Trump now -- we're seeing a couple of different things. One, we saw Michael Cohen there try and build him up, he said he's the best. But Donald Trump has been, you know, trying to manage expectations and such, and say, look, I don't debate a lot. These guys debate every day. I'm just going to go out there and be me.

But I think we're going to see Donald Trump, CEO, boardroom Donald Trump, a more serious side of him tomorrow because that's sort of the size of the phase of the campaign that we're entering in. The question, though, Carol, is, is that going to be attractive to the people who have liked what they heard by him taking on Lindsey Graham and taking on Jeb Bush? So that is sort of the conundrum here for Donald Trump and his fans, which side of him are they going to like and which side are we going to see?

COSTELLO: Well, it's interesting. And I hope Donald Trump talks about actual issues, Michael, right? But if you look at the Web sites of these candidates and Politico did, issues aren't first and foremost on their Web sites. In fact, the top tier candidates don't even explain how they feel on things like foreign policy and the economy. Why is that? WARREN: Well, they haven't had any reason to. Look, this is still

early. This is the first debate of the whole process. So I think we're actually going to start hearing some of those details and answers to those questions. It actually kind of tells you maybe we should have had debates earlier in the season here so we could have more information about where Jeb Bush and Scott Walker and Rand Paul and Marco Rubio stand on a lot of these issues.

I think you're going to hear a lot of the top tier candidates actually not engage with Donald Trump if they can help it. You know, try not to get involved with him because then they can sort of talk about exactly what they want to talk about. But if they do get pulled into a sort of back-and-forth with Trump, it's really dangerous territory. They've got to be sort of thinking, all right, how do we deal with this if he starts engaging.

Some folks like Scott Walker I expect will sort of stay even keel. That's sort of the way that they've been talking about it with me off the record. So we'll see how they react.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about the happy hour debate, Jeff, as Lindsey Graham terms it, where the lower tier candidates will be on the debate stage at 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Thursday. Is that a huge negative for them or will somebody say something and really stand out? There's Lindsey Graham's emojis describing the happy hour debate.

ZELENY: I mean, I don't know about you, Carol, but the happy hour debate sounds pretty good to me. I mean, let's -- you know, I'll see you there. But look --

(LAUGHTER)

[10:05:02] COSTELLO: I'm going drive off and be drinking a cold one during the debates, I know that.

ZELENY: Right. Exactly. I mean, look, I think that the fact that this is going to be on FOX News, which is a good audience for Republican primary voters anyway, I think it is definitely possible that we are going to look back, you know, six months from now, there'll be several debates before then, we do not know that these same 10 in the primetime debate are going to be the same 10 going forward. So there is definitely an opportunity for someone to jump out of that undercard debate, if you will, the happy hour debate if you will, and make their points.

And I think it's actually in terms of policy and getting your ideas across, that may actually be a better forum for voters who are really paying attention and trying to learn more about Rick Santorum or learn more about George Pataki or Rick Perry. It's going to be I think, you know, more of a free flowing conversation and there'll probably be fewer roadblocks in that debate.

Yes, it's not a primetime audience, but it's still a pretty decent audience for these voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina who are going to start this process off.

COSTELLO: OK, Michael, I'm going to put you on the spot. So who will be the breakout candidate of either debate?

WARREN: I think in the main debate, John Kasich has the best opportunity to sort of be a breakout. He's really hit everything at about the right time here, announcing just before the debates and getting in enough boost in these last few polls to actually get into the debate.

I'm interested to see what he has to say and what kind of impression he makes. A lot of people still don't know much about him compared to some of the other candidates. I think it's a real make-or-break moment for him and he could really go somewhere. COSTELLO: OK, Michael Warren, Jeff Zeleny, thanks to both of you, I

appreciate it.

As for how the primetime debate will actually work, well, here goes. Each candidate will get one minute to answer a question. Then 30 seconds for rebuttals. And if you do the math, and we did, each candidate will get just about 10 minutes total to talk. Maybe nine. But we think 10. Who knows? But a man who does know is with me now.

David Birdsell, professor of political science at Baruch College and co-author of "Presidential Debates: The Challenge of Creating an Informed Electorate."

Do you think they'll actually be doing that on Thursday night?

DAVID BIRDSELL, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, BARUCH COLLEGE: Well, we'll learn something.

COSTELLO: Informing the electorate?

BIRDSELL: We'll learn something. The question is, what will we learn? Will it be about candidate personality? Will it be more about strategy? Will it be about stage craft? We're going to see a little bit of all of that on Thursday night.

COSTELLO: Can you put this debate in historical perspective?

BIRDSELL: Well, this is an extraordinarily large field of contestants for a single debate stage. Of course we have the largest field of people contesting for the nomination that we've seen in modern times. Primary debates are a relatively recent feature. Primaries are a relatively recent feature. And they tend to involve more innovation, more give and play. This isn't as locked down as general election debates which feature vast amounts of negotiation over exactly how high the podiums are, where the microphones are, et cetera.

COSTELLO: So there will be none of that? Because, like, who decides what order the candidates are placed in? Like who's in the middle? Because I want to be in the middle, right?

BIRDSELL: Well, in this case FOX made the decision to put the top poll winner in the center. And then number two --

COSTELLO: So it will be Donald Trump? BIRDSELL: Right. And so he's number one. You've got Bush next to

him at number two. Then you go out to 10 on the number one side, nine on the number two side.

COSTELLO: There you have it.

BIRDSELL: It's almost like a tennis lineup in this case. But it's going to be hard for the people out on the wings to get the same kind of attention. They won't have as much camera time. And the hosts have not committed to giving equal time to all of the candidates. So they might get less speaking time in this case as well.

COSTELLO: So there are three people who are going to be asking questions. And then will there be questions from Facebook or audience members or something like that?

BIRDSELL: That hasn't been announced yet if that's the case. My guess is probably with this many people involved the answer would be no. It would just take too much time logistically to identify, tee up and get people prepared to answer those questions. Ten minutes is optimistic in this case because it really doesn't account for all of the give-and-take of answering questions, of audience responses, of applause lines. So that's really the maximum amount of time that we can expect people are going to get.

COSTELLO: Now, see, I'm beginning to feel for these people on stage. Because, number one, I mean, that debate is going to garner a huge audience and I would be nervous about that.

BIRDSELL: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: One major gaffe, it will be replayed over and over and over on the news. I'd be worried about that. And just in answering your, what, nine -- I mean, how long will each candidate get to speak then? Like one minute, one and a half minutes?

BIRDSELL: Well, everybody will undoubtedly get at least one 60-second spot somewhere in the course of the debate. But of course this isn't all one uninterrupted scheme in speech. It's interrupted by everybody else's comments and the 10 minutes is an addition throughout the course of the two hours.

COSTELLO: Wow.

BIRDSELL: But it's much easier the way that we cover debates, the way that we comment on debates to commit a gaffe, that's much more likely to wind up in the news than a really spectacular performance. Good performances are hard to synopsize. It's hard to show a picture and say, that's a good performance. It's great to have one sound clip of oops, and you know that there's been a disaster for that candidate.

[10:10:06] COSTELLO: All right. Well, it should be interesting. I know you'll be watching. I will be, too.

David Birdsell, thank you so much for being with me. I appreciate it.

BIRDSELL: Pleasure.

COSTELLO: From Capitol Hill to a college campus, the Iran nuclear deal goes under a microscope. Right now, skeptical lawmakers look at a key part of that agreement, lifting sanctions on Iran. In the next hour, President Obama ramps up his campaign to sell the deal. He'll be talking at American University in Washington.

Michelle Kosinski live at the White House to tell us more. Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Yes, we just found out that the president will be speaking for 45 minutes. So a pretty long speech and obviously the White House wants this to be a strong one. I mean, it's almost worked out as for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, throughout all of the debates surrounding this.

And the White House has had to operate in the face of intense, intense lobbying from the other side. We're talking millions of dollars flowing from advocacy groups, buying ads, trying to meet with every single congressman. So the White House has tried to do something similar. I mean, even today, there's another classified briefing with members of the Senate. And the president, too, has tried to have one- on-ones with undecided Democrats.

You know, on this deal, even the Vatican has weighed in, in support, in fact, of the Iran deal. But now we're seeing kind of dueling speeches today. We'll hear from the president in about an hour and then we're going to hear from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who no doubt will rip apart the president's speech.

And we also just heard from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who's been extremely vocal in opposition. I mean, listen to this Web cast he did aiming to speak to Jewish groups here in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The deal does make it harder for Iran to produce one or two nuclear weapons in the short term but it does so at a terrible price because the deal makes it far easier for Iran to build dozens, even hundreds of nuclear weapons in a little over a decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: So what the president will say today is that he feels this shouldn't be a close debate. That this is a historic opportunity that shouldn't be missed, that the deal does cut every pathway to a bomb, as we've heard the White House repeat over and over again. But we think is going sort of deeper, maybe more emotionally or philosophically saying that, you know, this is the most consequential foreign policy issue since the decision to go to war with Iraq.

And he's going to be saying that the same people who voted for war back then are the people now opposing this deal, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michelle Kosinski reporting live from the White House, thanks so much.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, a new terror threat aimed at America from one of the most feared bomb makers in the world. Why investigators are focusing again on the man behind the underwear bomber.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:17] COSTELLO: A startling new threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen. The terror group taking a page from ISIS' playbook and encouraging lone wolf attacks on the United States. In a letter purported to be from al Qaeda's top bombmaker, the terror group asks its followers to, quote, "Strike America in its home and beyond."

CNN cannot verify the authenticity of this message but it has drawn the attention of some top intelligence groups.

CNN's Brian Todd is following the story, he has more from Washington. Good morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This message from Ibrahim al-Asiri, if it's really from him, is indeed extraordinary, and although we cannot verify the authenticity, most indications are that he did write this.

It's extraordinary because of the risk to his own security that al- Asiri would be taking by issuing a public message. He's been targeted by U.S. drone strikes in Yemen and for a short time last year it was believed that he was killed. But in speaking to U.S. intelligence officials on this, I've gotten strong indications that he is still alive.

This is a man considered possibly the most dangerous terrorist to the United States. He's got a bounty on his head of up to $5 million. Al-Asiri was believed to be behind the 2009 Christmas Day underwear bomb plot targeting a Detroit bound airliner. He was behind the 2010 plot to place bombs in printer cartridges that were bound for the U.S. on planes. Both of those plots failed but they came close to succeeding.

And analysts are telling us this morning that al-Asiri has learned from his mistakes and is working on explosives that may slip past U.S. security protocols.

Now just how cold-blooded is this guy? In 2009, he placed a bomb inside the body of his own brother, Abdullah, in an attempt to kill Saudi Arabia's counterterrorism chief. That bomb killed his brother but the Saudi official survived with injuries.

Also, Carol, this morning, we have another leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a man named Khalid Batarfi, who is out with a new video, praising the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks and the Chattanooga shooter. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHALID BATARFI, AQAP LEADER (Through Translator): He penetrated the base, killing and injuring American Marines in a blessed jihadi operation. We ask Allah to accept him and raise his status among martyrs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Khalid Batarfi also calls for more lone wolf attacks against America. A U.S. intelligence official told me Batarfi has become a top spokesman for that al Qaeda branch in Yemen -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Brian Todd reporting live from Washington, thanks so much.

Checking some other top stories for you at 19 minutes past the hour. We now know the identities of two special tactics airmen killed in a free fall training exercise. According to the "Air Force Times" they are Tech Sergeants Timothy Officer and Tech Sergeant Marty Bettelyoun. They were both based in Florida and they served together a combined 31 years. The Air Force says it is investigating this accident.

[10:20:04] For the first time, we're hearing from the man who allegedly helped Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer hunt and kill Zimbabwe's beloved Cecil the lion. Theo Bronkhorst appeared in court in Zimbabwe today. His trial on poaching charges has now been postponed until September 28th. Bronkhorst told CNN's David McKenzie big game hunting is an integral part of Zimbabwe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you feel about the charges laid against you and the landowner?

THEO BRONKHORST, HUNTING GUIDE: I think it's frivolous and wrong.

MCKENZIE: And you think you'll come through this?

BRONKHORST: I've got a good legal team and I hope so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Here in the United States someone has vandalized the Florida vacation home of Walter Palmer, spraying "lion killer" on the garage. Zimbabwe, as you know, wants Palmer extradited.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, e-mails aren't the only problem for Hillary Clinton. Is Bernie Sanders proving to be more of a threat than she thought? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:26] COSTELLO: A Kentucky sheriff's deputy is now facing a federal lawsuit for handcuffing two schoolchildren. Kevin Sumner is accused of putting an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl in handcuffs. Actually he did that. At one point, the boy began crying, ow, that hurts. The girl was handcuffed twice. Both of the children are said to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The ACLU says they were essentially punished for behavior related to their disabilities.

CNN's Martin Savidge has more on this.

Good morning.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, just about everybody who's seen this video and just about everybody has an opinion about it. The sheriff who's the boss of that deputy there has come out in full support of that officer and says that he not only did the right thing, he did what he was compelled to do under law.

But not everybody sees it that way. The ACLU is saying they're not sure if this officer was trying to protect, say, that student or protect other students from that child acting out or punishing him instead for what was something the child couldn't help, which was a medical condition.

The attorney spoke with CNN. This is the attorney for the mother of the 8-year-old and says, regardless, what that deputy did was wrong because he used handcuffs. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENYON MEYER, LEAD ATTORNEY FOR HANDCUFFED CHILDREN: Kentucky law is very clear that school personnel, including school resource officers, cannot use mechanical restraints like handcuffs. It's clear. What's really disturbing about what's come out in the last 24 hours is that the sheriff has not denied this activity, has not apologized for this activity but has actually endorsed it and said that this is how these officers are being trained.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And, of course, you know, this is sort of at the crux of the matter here. What is the training? And is it proper? I should tell you, Carol, the school is set to resume again August 19th. And it's still expected that that deputy will be interacting with those same students -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I think the disturbing, underlying issue here is the inability of school systems to deal with kids with special needs or learning disabilities.

SAVIDGE: Right. And that seems to be sort of the effort here in part of this lawsuit. Of course, there is monetary damages that are being sought for the families of the girl and the boy. But also change. They want to see change. And change not only in the way the rules are written as to how to handle special needs kids but also the training that's given to law enforcement to handle children like this. So that they don't end up in handcuffs when there's a problem -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Martin Savidge reporting live for us this morning, thanks so much.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

For Hillary Clinton, a fight looms in the critical state of New Hampshire. That's according to the latest WMUR Granite State poll. It shows Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by just six points. When you factor in the margin of error, the pollster says the Democratic rivals are in a statistical tie. Clinton's lead is down from double digits in the spring.

On the Republican side, the wait is almost over. After weeks of polls and punditry, 10 candidates led by frontrunner Donald Trump will hit the stage for the party's first debate. It's all taking place in Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena.

Joining me now from Cleveland is Matt Borges, he's the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party.

Good morning, thank you so much for being here.

MATT BORGES, CHAIRMAN, OHIO REPUBLICAN PARTY: Hi, Carol, good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So tell me about the excitement level in Cleveland.

BORGES: Oh, it's off the charts. There is so much excitement and enthusiasm around here around here and around this debate. We're -- we can't wait for it to get started and the preparations are well under way. They've been going on for a long time, as you can imagine. So we're really looking forward to getting this going tomorrow night.

COSTELLO: And I know there were a couple hundred tickets available for people to go watch the debate. I'm sure you managed to dispense with them quickly.

BORGES: Yes. We certainly were. We've got about 5,000 folks who are going to be there tomorrow night. And it's going to be a wonderful event, just an historic event here in Cleveland. I can't remember a primary debate that has garnered this much attention and excitement. But we did make some tickets available to the public. And in the first two days that we had that e-mail address open to the public, we got over 7,000 requests. So we shut it down right away so we didn't end up with tens of thousands of unhappy people who requested but couldn't get in.