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December Jobs Report; Obama Takes on Critics at Gun Control Town Hall; GOP Presidential Candidates Ramp Up Attacks. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 8, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:56] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we do have breaking news. The Labor Department releasing its December jobs report moments ago, hot off the presses. Christine Romans has it.

Good news?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's good news. It's a strong number.

PEREIRA: Great.

ROMANS: A very strong number for the end of the year. You saw 292,000 net new jobs added. That is a strong performance. And look at this. This number was actually revised higher. It's actually 307,000 net new jobs in October. So a strong end of the year for hiring.

And we had been seeing it across the board. Construction's strong. Professional business services, those are office jobs, those are lawyers, those are accountants, those are tech support folks. So those are the kind of jobs that you want to see really adding a lot of - a lot of jobs here.

When you look at the year - well, let me show you unemployment first. Unemployment, right down here, 5 percent, right where we've seen the lowest we've seen in several years. Sectors really good. You know, most of the sectors are really good. And for the year then you've got a pretty decent average jobs growth for the year. About 200 - 217,000 on average last year. That means last year 2.3 million, 2.4 million jobs created last year. So all this worry about China, you guys, all this worry about what's happening around the rest of the world, we see strong hiring in the U.S. at the end of last year, guys.

PEREIRA: Really glad to see that. Christine, thanks for bring that to us.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

PEREIRA: All right, time for the five things you need to know for your new day.

At number one, President Obama insisting he does not want to take guns away from people during CNN's town hall last night on gun violence. He says he just wants to close loopholes that allow firearms to get into the wrong hands.

South Korea cranking up the volume on Kim Jong-un today, resuming its loud speaker propaganda broadcast across the border with North Korea. This in response to the alleged testing of a hydrogen bomb by the North this week.

Belgian authorities say they have found a fingerprint belonging to fugitive Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam in an apartment in Brussels. They also say they've found bomb making materials and three suicide belts there.

Two Iraqi refugees arrested on terror charges. One suspect picked up in Texas, the other in California. Officials say it doesn't appear they were plotting an attack here in the U.S.

[08:35:05] All right, tomorrow night's Powerball drawing soaring to a record-breaking $700 million. The jackpot is expected to climb. Your odds, they're going down, one in 292 million. You've still got a chance.

For more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Michaela.

Want to go on a deep water adventure? I know you do. But forget about standard submarines. How about something a little more high-tech? Take a look at the future of adventure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM HAWKES, FOUNDER, DEEPFLIGHT SUB HANDEL GRAY HAWK: Think of it as a quad copter. You know these drones that fly around? But this is a big manned one that goes under water.

For the last fifty years we've gone under water in machines called submersibles. Initially, the Holy Grail was to get to the bottom of the planet. And now you realize that the real goal, just get everybody else down there who wants to go. We just try to make them so they're usable by most people.

You can't tell the future, but our kids will have access to the ocean in a way that we never did. Our kids are going to go, wait a minute, there's an even bigger planet down here. I'm going to explore this place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: All right, ahead, the president taking on critics in gun control town hall on CNN last night with Anderson Cooper. Did he effectively make his case for tighter restrictions on firearms? We'll discuss that with CNN's senior political commentator David Axelrod.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:40:27] PEREIRA: President Obama blasting the NRA for misleading Americans about his stance on guns in last night's CNN town hall. The president says he is open to talking with the gun rights group, but it comes with a caveat. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our position is consistently mischaracterized. And, by the way, there's a reason why the NRA is not here. They're just down the street. And since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think that they'd be prepared to have a debate with the president -

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Would you be willing - you - they haven't been to the White House for three years. They've (INAUDIBLE) about it.

OBAMA: Oh, no, no, we've invited them. We've - we've invited them.

COOPER: So, right now, tonight, you're saying, you would be (INAUDIBLE) -

OBAMA: We - we have invited them repeatedly. But if you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top and so overheated and, most importantly, is not acknowledging the fact that there's no other consumer item that we purchase -

COOPER: So is that an open invitation that you would -

OBAMA: Hold - hold - hold on a second. Let me - let me - let me finish this point, Cooper. There is nothing else in our lives that we purchase where we don't try to make it a little safer if we can.

COOPER: So just so I'm clear, tonight you are saying you would welcome to meet with the NRA?

OBAMA: I'm happy - Anderson, I've said this repeatedly, I'm - I'm happy to meet with them. I'm happy to talk to them. But the conversation has to be based on facts and truth and what we're actually proposing, not some, you know -

COOPER: Let's -

OBAMA: Imaginary fiction in which Obama is trying to take away your guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Here to discuss all of this is CNN's senior political commentator and former top adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod.

Hi, David.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, how are you? Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: You too. Let's start with the NRA. Now the NRA has probably lost some of their

right to complain about the president's rhetoric given they decided not to come to CNN's town hall last night, but, still, I believe their point is that they never felt that the president was truly open to anything that they had to say, so they decided not to have a conversation. Is that fair?

AXELROD: You know, I'd like to say yes, but I don't really think this is on the square. The truth is, the NRA has profited greatly from fileting the president, from portraying him as a guy who wants to confiscate guns. And, you know, it's helped them. It's helped them organize. It's helped their membership. It's helped the gun industry, which is flourishing because of this propagation of a notion that this president wants to confiscate guns.

You know, I've known him for a very long time, obviously. I've worked with him in the White House. And, you know, it just doesn't sync up with the facts. There's no doubt that he wants to do, you know, he wants common sense things like universal background checks. But so do the American people according to your poll. But I don't think it's in the marketing interest of the NRA to find accommodations with the president. Their basic - their basic modus operandi is, we're against all regulation because that's a camel nose under the tent toward confiscation of guns.

CAMEROTA: We've had several people on this morning who were part of the town hall and who are gun owners, including Sheriff Paul Babu (ph), as well as Taya Kyle, she's Chris Kyle's widow, and they say that they were not swayed really by anything that the president said last night. However, we have heard that Americans were moved by the president getting emotional in talking about Sandy Hook and the tragedy there at Newtown. So is there something to the argument that facts are really never going to move the needle here. It's emotion and appealing to people's emotion that will.

AXELROD: There's no doubt about it, emotion is - you know, the back of the brain stuff is really what moves people in this - in these - on these kinds of issues in particular. The question is, can you take that and channel it into effective action. I thought the president was pretty effective last night in his presentation, but I didn't expect that it was going to sway many opinions because people are so locked in on this question. And so, you know, when you heard the discussion last night, I didn't get the sense that people on the one side were changing their point of view or people on the other side were changing their point of view. It was a healthy dialogue, but not one that I thought would change many opinions.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but, you know, as an advisor, David, I mean you've heard Donald Trump on the campaign trail. He says, I love the Second Amendment. Nobody loves the Second Amendment more than me. I'm a huge advocate of the Second Amendment.

[08:45:03] AXELROD: Yes.

CAMEROTA: I mean should -

AXELROD: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Should the president take a page, believe it or not, from Donald Trump and just say that more, reiterate that message more so that people don't - don't mistrust him on this?

AXELROD: Maybe so. I doubt it would have that great an impact. I just think this is so baked in. I mean, he's talked more about the Second Amendment than any Democratic president that I've seen. But I don't -- you know, I think even before he took office there was this up tick in the purchase of guns and there was this up tick in rhetoric from the gun lobby about how he was a confiscator. Based on what? I don't know.

So, Alisyn, I'd like to believe that we can rationally sit down and work out these issues, but I think everyone, you know, at least in the opposition, these are very deeply held views, and probably on the side of gun safety laws as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

AXELROD: Very tough issue to move.

CAMEROTA: Yes. David, stick around because we do want to talk to you about the campaign trail. So, when we come right back we will discuss Donald Trump's latest attacks on Hillary Clinton and his effort to draw huge crowds.

David Axelrod, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00] CAMEROTA: The Iowa caucuses just 24 days away and the Republican race is get nastier and the ad wars are heating up. So, let's bring back in CNN senior political commentator and a former senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod.

David, thanks for sticking around. Let's talk about this new Donald Trump...

AXELROD: Finally somebody - finally somebody's going to start voting which is kind of a relief after all this.

CAMEROTA: You know, that's so funny, David, because we've been saying oh, it's two years away, it's two years away. It's 24 days now. Somehow, like, time sped up over the holidays

AXELROD: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But let's talk about this new...

AXELROD: Yes, which is why you have all of this combat out there.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Exactly. And I'm going play some examples of it. Let's just start with the most sort of jaw dropping, and that is Donald Trump and the Instagram ad that he has put out about Hillary Clinton. Now, earlier this week, on Tuesday, Donald Trump said that he was giving any sort of insinuations about Bill Clinton and his past a rest. Nap time over because he has come out with this ad. So, let me play this for you because the visuals really are what speak to this. So watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights once and for all.

Let's keep fighting for opportunity and dignity.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA: Okay, David. All sorts of guilt by association there. You see Hillary Clinton with Bill Cosby, you see her with Anthony Weiner, you see Monica Lewinsky. How effective do you think this is?

AXELROD: Well, that remains to be seen. He's obviously concluded that there is value in making this fight that he's demonstrating somehow that he can erode her support among women and blunt her attacks for some of his comments, and it is consistent with his approach in this entire campaign.

You know, I have said often that Donald Trump wants to build walls, but he has no personal boundaries when it comes to his own rhetoric and this is a reflection of that. There is nowhere he won't go. This is obviously something that is in the background when you have the discussion about the Clintons.

I think there is going to be a potential backlash over this kind of approach if this were actually to become a meme of the Republican nominee, whether it is him or someone else. But it is consistent with the kind of campaign he's run.

CAMEROTA: Okay, let's talk about the attacks - not attacks, the exchanges that he's having with Ted Cruz, where Donald Trump is planting the seed about Ted Cruz's citizenship and whether he's a natural born citizen.

Trump tweeted some free legal advice to Ted Cruz in which he says, "Ted, free legal advice on how to preempt the dems on citizen issue. Go to court now and seek declaratory judgment. You will win," he says. So how is Ted Cruz supposed to handle this issue?

AXELROD: Well, I'm sure he was appreciative of -- for Trump's legal advice, Cruz being a constitutional lawyer. But look, I think what this really reflects is the realization on Trump's part that Ted Cruz is a real problem for him. Ted Cruz is a real threat to him. He's e leading in Iowa. Immigration and the whole nativist theme is big among voters there. And he's trying to erode Cruz's support there and slow him down elsewhere.

CAMEROTA: Right, but I mean is Cruz supposed to address it or ignore it?

AXELROD: I think - but it's more interesting, more - Well, I think that there's not - I don't think he should go to court and get a declaratory judgment. You know, I think he should do what he's doing, which is basically to shrug it off. You know, this birther argument is familiar. We've seen this play before. I don't think it is going to be as effective in the Ted Cruz case as it was with the base when it was run at Barack Obama, who after all was unpopular.

Ted Cruz is very popular with the very voters who Donald Trump is trying to influence here. And I think it's even money (ph) that they're going to just toss this aside, and Cruz is right to handle it the way he's handling it right now I think.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Very quickly, who doesn't Adele? Apparently Chris Christie does and he using this in an ad against Marco Rubio. So, let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What interested me today was Rubio attacking Christie.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Basically this is the story of lost love between Chris Christie and Marco Rubio.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA (on camera): Chris Christie is having a little fun that they used to be friends and used to support each other. It's sort of fun. I mean, does - do voters respond to this kind of thing?

AXELROD: I think what Christie is trying to do is underscore the fact that he's under attack. The truth is that the attacks are going both ways. Chris Christie is a real problem for Marco Rubio, and Marco Rubio is a real problem for Chris Christie.

[08:55:00] Whoever emerges as the center right establishment candidate, the leading candidate in New Hampshire, whether they are in whatever place they finish is likely to move on in this contest. The one who doesn't is going to have a problem.

And so, you're going to see a lot of sniping between Rubio and Christie, between Bush and those two, between Kasich and the other three from now until the New Hampshire primary.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

AXELROD: And this may be the most consequential contest that's going on within the contest right now.

CAMEROTA: Yes, as long as they keep playing Adele I think that that will be fine with everyone. David Axelrod, thanks so much for...

AXELROD: I want to reach for hanky.

CAMEROTA: Hello? AXELROD: Good to see you.

CAMEROTA: It's so true. David, thank you. The Good Stuff next.

Good stuff next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Here is your Good Stuff. Latasha Hayward was living in a homeless shelter with her three kids, she finally found a job to support them.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's 67 unites in Milwaukee for families and there's about 200 families on the waiting list today.

PEREIRA (voice-over): She gets this new job, but then Latasha and her kids are kicked out of the homeless shelter because apparently there were people more in need.

Well, that's when Karla Lehmann, a 25 year vet of the police department, steps in.

LATASHA HAYWARD, HELPED BY OFFICER KARLA LEHMANN: She just wants the best for me and my kids. My kids love her dearly, and I love her as well.

PEREIRA: That officer created a GoFundMe page for Latasha using some of her own money to launch it.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): They've raised more than $6,000, enough for them to finally rent a home.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA (on camera): Way to go officer, way to go Latasha.

CAMEROTA (on camera): Good people. Police officers doing wonderful things all the time.

PEREIRA: Love it.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hey, Carol.