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CNN NEWSROOM

A Look at Tonight's GOP Primary Debate; Assad Blames West for Syrian Refugee Crisis; The Poll Numbers that Put Trump on Top; CNN Encouraging Split Screen Debate. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 16, 2015 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, but couldn't you argue that Carly Fiorina was largely unknown by the American public and that's really why she stood out and really voter were kind of familiar with those other candidates?

MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CNN POLITICS: Well, Carol, you know, I think the reason why Carly Fiorina did so well back in August and really caught people's attention is, one, a, she was a woman in a field that was totally dominated by men. But she was really, really sharp on the issue of leadership. And I think a lot of people gave her a second look for that. In addition to that, she took on Donald Trump and she did so effectively and I think that's what helped catapult her into the polls.

COSTELLO: OK. So here's the -- here -- here's the thing. You know, I mentioned Rick Perry at the top. He says that being on the small stage really killed his chances of moving forward. Let's listen to what he has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK PERRY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to be on the main debate stage on August the 6th. We missed it by just a few percentages of one point. And it had a very negative impact on our fundraising through the summer. And it's kind of like flying an aircraft when you run into unexpected head winds, you better find a safe place to land, and that's exactly what we did last Friday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So another candidate trying to find some head wind is Bobby Jindal. And he's doing that by aggressively attacking Donald Trump. And he sort of -- it was -- it's going to be sort of difficult for him to do that from the small stage. He's not even on the same stage as Donald Trump, so how can he do that?

PRESTON: Right. And, you know, and we've seen that certainly in the past week. He has -- he did a speech, he held a speech attacking Donald Trump. He's written some op-eds, including one on cnn.com. But Bobby Jindal, what he's trying to do is, in essence, is take a play -- a page from the playbook of Carly Fiorina and go right at Donald Trump. What Bobby Jindal is trying to say is that Donald Trump is not really the standard bearer of conservative values and someone like himself is. And I've got to tell you, Bobby Jindal and other conservatives are so frustrated, Carol, that all the oxygen has been sucked up by Donald Trump and they're trying to gasp for any air that's left. And I think what you'll see tonight, certainly between the hours of 6:00 and 8:00, is that these four candidates are really going to be training all of their fire at the 8:00 debate where Donald Trump's going to be in, hoping that they can catch fire.

COSTELLO: All right, Mark Preston, thanks so much. I appreciate you being with me this morning.

So, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad sharpening his rhetoric toward the United States this morning. He's accusing the U.S., along with Turkey and Europe, of supplying arms to ISIS and supporting terrorism in his country. Assad says his forces are not communicating with the U.S.-led coalition that's carrying out attacks against the Islamic state. And he also blames western nations for fueling the refugee crisis in Europe. CNN's Becky Anderson is in Abu Dhabi with more on that.

Good morning, Becky.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A very good morning.

Well, as you can see, a very wide ranging interview. It was conducted in Damascus, Carol, with a number of Russian media outlets. And for the first time, as you rightly pointed out, President Bashar al-Assad addressed the refugee crisis facing Europe. And this is important because he said -- Assad insists that the issue is less about Europe's response and more about the reasons why hundreds of thousands of people are leaving their homes in Syria heading to Europe.

Now, nobody's going to disagree with him that the focus should be on the root causes. But in Assad's view, in this interview, the prime cause is European, U.S. and Turkish support for what he terms terrorists. One assumes he is talking about the Syrian moderates being trained by the west and not, say, his government's ongoing barrel bombing of civilian areas.

Now, Assad clearly wanted to project an air of confidence in this interview. He presented himself as the only viable option on the ground that can defeat groups like ISIS, his enemy, as well as that of the west, suggesting that he's willing to work with the likes of Saudi Arabia in a global coalition against terrorism. And when the discussion turned to his future, he was very clear. He says, only the Syrian people can decide whether or not he should be their president, which, to all intents and purposes, pours cold water on any thoughts that he might step aside.

And as we well know, Geneva wanted to see (ph) the plans about what to do so far as a solution to Syria is concerned, always suggested that Assad had to step aside. There may be other solutions being forwarded in the future. And those may, going forward, include certainly his regime, if not him. But at this point, that's what he said talking to Russia media in Damascus, in Syria overnight.

COSTELLO: All right, Becky Anderson, thanks so much. [09:34:50] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's not all about trading

jabs and talking policy, can a sense of humor send one of these candidates soaring?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: New national poll numbers show Dr. Ben Carson has pulled within four points of front runner Donald Trump. And I'm sure it's not the first time Trump has been closely pursued by a brain surgeon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: I read that Jeb Bush has seen a drop in campaign donations lately. He's been forced to take commercial flights to campaign events. It got weird when the airline said they lost Jeb's baggage, and he was like, you lost my brother? Oh, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was a good one. When it comes to scoring political points, does humor go a long way in luring voters? It looks like some of this year's presidential candidates are hoping so.

[09:40:09] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Question one, are you ready for the Republican debate next week?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know the truth is, I'm always ready. It's really going to be a big debate. But I'm always ready.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not just big, it's huge. Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.

JIMMY FALLON, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: Without in any way diminishing your love for your brother, in what ways do you politically differ from your brother George?

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm obviously younger.

FALLON: You're younger. Uh-huh.

BUSH: Much better looking.

FALLON: Uh-huh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: See, he handled that one well, right? Here to talk about humor, Kevin Madden, Republican strategist and CNN political commentator, and Andy Smith, a political science professor and director at the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Welcome to both of you. Thanks for being here.

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Great to be with you.

ANDY SMITH, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF NEW HAMPSHIRE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Great to have you here.

So, Kevin, I've always wondered, is there more of a boost to a candidate's campaign when they appear with actual comedians or when they appear on -- or when they appear on an actual debate stage?

MADDEN: Well, look, you know, I think that the -- when you're looking at humor as a sort of vehicle to capture some of those attributes that -- that candidates -- I'm sorry, that votes are looking for, somebody who's relatable, somebody who's likable. And when -- when candidates can sort of show that level of like, you know, self-deprecation, they can make fun of themselves or they can talk about pop culture issues in a way that's humorous or relatable, voters like to see that. They begin to have more of a connection. So I think that's -- that's a little bit harder to do on a debate stage because, you know, often times you don't want to be up there calling audibles at the last minute. But when they're able to do it in a seating -- you know, in a setting like that where they're on a late night talk show, it does help them connect better with voters.

COSTELLO: Oh, absolutely. So, Andy, there has been some moments filled with humor on the debate stage. But it's sort of a different kind of humor and humor used in a different way. And, of course, the most famous example is the moment from the Reagan/Mondale debate. So let's look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Not at all, Mr. (INAUDIBLE). And I -- and I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: See, that was awesome. So, Andy, President Reagan was using humor as a weapon, right?

SMITH: It was a great line that he used against Mondale in that debate back in 1984 and I think that is a really good example of how humor can work for a candidate. First off, it takes one of his weak points in that campaign, that he was old, he was perceived as old, and turns it into a strength. At the same time, it puts his opponent on a defensive. His opponent, Mondale, couldn't go after Reagan about his age after that. So humor does a really good thing in that it allows you to control the message and it allows you to control your image.

The problem, though, is, most politicians aren't natural comedians, as anybody who's sat through a political speech more than once or twice has really understood. MADDEN: That's right.

SMITH: And standing on that stage and delivering a comedic line can often fall flat. Reagan, as we know, was an experienced actor in lots of comedies, so he had much more experience than most people did in -- most politicians have in doing -- in delivering this sort of thing.

COSTELLO: And, you know, any --

MADDEN: And you know the interesting -- the interesting story behind that, Andy, was that it was not a spontaneous line, even though it looked spontaneous. So that was the genius in it. So many people thought it was just a, you know, a quick retort. But the Reagan folks tell the story that they had planned that line long before the debate and that they planned to bring it up. But the fact that it looked spontaneous was why it connected with so many voters.

COSTELLO: I was just going to bring that point up because --

SMITH: Well, that's why -- what made Reagan such an excellent candidate.

MADDEN: Yes, you're right.

COSTELLO: Right, exactly, but Trump --

SMITH: And another example of that is --

COSTELLO: But if I could interject here, Trump is funny too, but he's spontaneous. It doesn't appear that he sits down and thinks of his lines. He's spontaneous and that's a real talent to have these day, right?

MADDEN: Yes. I mean the power of Trump --

SMITH: Absolutely. I think Trump is interesting in that his -- Trump's humor is more biting humor and I think he -- he's got the -- it's not the self-deprecating humor that often is used by candidates. It's the -- self-aggrandizing humor which kind of puts him over the top, but it builds on to Trump's character. It reinforces people's impressions and images of Trump already.

COSTELLO: And Ben Carson has proved he also has a sense of humor, but way different than Donald Trump's, right, Kevin?

MADDEN: Yes, it's a little bit more of dry humor. I don't think -- you know, I think one of the things with Ben Carson is that he spent his career in medicine and, you know, working with the patient/doctor relationship.

[09:45:02] That's not exactly the best career to have a sense of humor in. People want to know that their neurosurgeon a pretty serious guy. When they become a presidential candidate, they do want to find a way to relate to them and humor is a way that you can do that. And in his first opportunities in the first debate, he had some success there. It will be interesting to see if we see more of that tonight. COSTELLO: True. Kevin Madden, Andy Smith. Thanks to both of you. I

appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Trump's momentum has him leading and that has him front and center in tonight's debate. We'll take a look at the poll numbers that got him there. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:50:08] COSTELLO: We are just hours away from the main event -- 11 presidential hopefuls packing the debate stage, testing their knowledge of foreign and domestic policy. Donald Trump, of course, front and center. But how did the former reality star get such a prime spot? Tom Foreman has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOME FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a difference a debate makes. Before the last debate, if you had measured the strength in the polls of all these candidates by height, this is how they would have stacked up. Yes, Donald Trump was in the lead, but not by a whole lot over Jeb Bush or Scott Walker. And everybody was kind of in the game here.

Everyone thought, at least many people did, that that debate would cut Trump down to size. But look what happened after that debate. He rose even higher. So much so that even though Bush, for example, did not really change position much, he fell relatively further behind.

And now as we go into this debate, look where they stand now. Trump has taken off -- 32 percent. He is towering above this field. Everyone else is stuck down here at the bottom except for Ben Carson, the only candidate who's even threatening to rise into that stratosphere.

The key issue here is one factor. Back in June, Donald Trump's favorability rating was terrible. He was down around 20 percent, and more Republican voters really disliked him. He has completely reversed that. So that now we're looking at more than half of Republican voters having a favorable view of him. Much fewer with an unfavorable view. And that is why Donald Trump will tower over this debate even more than he did the last one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Checking some other top stories at 51 minutes past. A Phoenix police officer was shot and seriously injured overnight. The shooter or shooters still on the loose. The officer is in serious condition but is expected to survive. In the meantime, police believe it's too early to tell if this shooting is related to the recent shootings on Interstate 10.

The death toll is climbing in Utah. This as dangerous flash floods claimed the lives of 16 people now. More than half of those victims died after two cars were swept away by a wall of water. In the meantime, rescue operations are set to resume at noon for four people who remain missing. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, if celebrities had their say, what

would they ask the GOP candidates tonight? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:56:48] JIMMY KIMMEL, TV HOST: Would you consider it an amazing success if one candidate were to punch another candidate tomorrow night? Yes?

(LAUGHTER)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN DEBATE MODERATOR: No.

KIMMEL: No.

TAPPER: No, I would not. But I would love them to really fight about these issues because this isn't -- I mean, this is -- they're not running for prom king.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Exactly. That was of course CNN's Jake Tapper on Jimmy Kimmel last night. He's one of the moderators for tonight's debate. CNN is hoping candidates will set aside campaign rhetoric and dig down into a conversation about actual issues. Debate moderators will be pulling questions from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can submit your questions by using the #CNNdebate.

We've already received a few from some big name celebrities, like Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban. He asks, or he would like us to ask the candidates, "Do you trust our stock markets, and if so, why? And if not, how would you fix them?"

This one from Kathy Griffin, our best bud. "For Donald Trump: I know you're against the Iran deal. I'm curious to know if you can name the negotiators who were at the table working out the deal other than John Kerry. Can you name ten? Five? Four?"

Let's bring in CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Brian Stelter. Good morning.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: That sounds like a gotcha question from Kathy Griffin.

COSTELLO: It does.

STELTER: And not the kind of question I expect actually to get asked. And the reason why is I think what the producers, what the moderators are going for tonight is that split-screen effect, what we call the two-shot in the TV business, where you see one candidate talking with, challenging, the other candidate.

But some of the questions we saw from those celebrities would work really well, if I can share them with you. From Penn Jillette on cnn.com, he asked this question about marriage equality. He wrote, "Should the government get out of the business of legally sanctions marriages and instead just enforce the contracts that people enter into with each other or with their churches?"

Now that's -- the first part of that question right there is crucial. Should the government get out of enforcing legally sanctioned marriages? Rand Paul brought that up as a possibility in the wake of the Supreme Court decision this summer. Rand Paul said maybe the government should get out of the marriage business. So that's a perfect question to ask Rand Paul and then ask another candidate and say do you disagree? If so, why? Because that will create that split-screen debate.

COSTELLO: Exactly. So I would suppose that that split-screen debate will involve Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump a lot more than the other candidates?

STELTER: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: I mean, how do you decide how much time to give two battling candidates over another two battling candidates?

STELTER: Well, we know the rules involved, a 30-second rebuttal if a candidate is directly attacked or challenged. What I've heard from Tapper and from the other two questioners, Dana Bash and Hugh Hewitt, is that they want to be somewhat lenient and allow these candidates to talk to each other, make sure that people get a chance to respond, but make sure it's about the candidates, not about the questioners.

You know, sometimes these candidates -- we saw it during the Fox debate -- try to make it about the journalists who are asking questions. But really the impetus needs to be on the candidates talking with each other. We saw that in some of the great debates CNN and other networks have had in the past. The last time CNN was at the Reagan Library, for example, had that two-shot, that split screen, was the key part of the debate. I think we're going to see that again tonight. Because what was the best part of Fox's debate? It was Rand Paul and Chris Christie talking with each other. That's the thing you can only see at a debate and I think we'll see it tonight.

COSTELLO: And it's better that way because, you know, you can't -- all 11 of them can't talk at the same time, which is always a challenge, right?

[10:00:01] STELTER: Absolutely. We're going to see, you know, some people have said this is Trump versus the ten other candidates. Trump is going to be, I'm sure, a focal point of the debate. But maybe we're going to learn about other candidates based on their conversations with each other.