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NEW DAY

Children's Booster Seat Ratings Revealed; Essay Pleads: "Stop Hillary"; Jon Stewart Apologizes for No Vote Joke

Aired November 6, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Half past the hour here, let's give you a look at your headlines.

President Obama is insisting he is willing to work with Republicans after Democrats absorbed an epic midterm election beating. The president says he will not abandon his agenda, though. He is vowing to bypass Congress and take executive action by the end of the year to get immigration reform passed.

A Guantanamo Bay prisoner with alleged ties to al Qaeda has been released to the government of Kuwait. Fawzi al-Odah was held at the military prison for 12 years. Court documents show he traveled to Afghanistan in 2001, he says it was to do charity work and teach the Koran. But the U.S. government says he went there to join the Taliban.

Stunning allegations against the drummer for legendary rock band AC/DC. Phil Rudd has been charged with attempting to have two men killed. Rudd entered a no plea during a New Zealand court appearance. The names of the men he allegedly wanted killed and the alleged potential hit man were not released. Rudd is out on bail until his next court date November 27th.

Country music honoring its own at the CMA Awards in Nashville. Luke Bryan won the big prize, Entertainer of the Year, I support that. Miranda Lambert won four awards, including Best Female Vocalist. Her husband Blake Shelton won for best female vocalist. I'll admit he's a little a dreamy, Alisyn.

The host of the show, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, opened the show with a bit of a musical message for Maine nurse Kaci Hickox, who, of course, defied Ebola quarantined efforts.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

PEREIRA: The CMA is getting into news headlines a little bit.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Anytime you can work in the Dolly Parton, I'm happy --

PEREIRA: A lot of times you can get quarantine to lyrics, you know? It's tough to do. It's tough.

CAMEROTA: You're right. If we've tried and that is tough.

PEREIRA: All this time.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We've got new information for you overnight. All booster seats not created equal. Safety ratings for children's booster seats were released, a record number of models received the highest possible ratings. But there are others to avoid all together.

We've got Rene Marsh live in Washington, D.C. with more.

You know, Rene, people aren't always sure what they have, but they're going to go and check and see where it seizes up on these ratings. What do we know?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Chris, we know the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, they tested 41 models. So, the good news is, as you mentioned, there are more booster seats on the market this year that perform well. But the bad news this morning, there are some on store shelves that the safety group says puts your child at greater risk for injury in the event of a crash.

So, you're looking at video there of how different types of booster seats are supposed to work. Because seat belts as we know, they're made for adults, a good child seat really is supposed to insure that the seat belt fits properly. If it doesn't, it may rest too much on the child's neck or it may not fit properly over the lap and, of course, that leaves the child vulnerable.

So, three seats that failed the test. Here they are Diano Olympia high back, Diano Pacifica high back, and Kids Embrace Batman backless booster. Those are the ones that the safety group says they do not recommend.

So if you want to get the full list, they also have their Web site, IIHS.org. You can go and see a full list there.

So -- but the headline, if you have one of those three seats, you do not want to use them -- Chris.

All right. Important information. I'm sure we'll put it on the Web site to check what they have in their cars and make sure they have the right thing for their kids, the whole reason we have the booster seat in the first place.

Rene, thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: All right. Check that Web site.

All right. Following Tuesday's mid-term elections, more than a third of all voters said they would vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 if she were to run for president, a new article in the national magazine is calling on Americans to, quote, "stop Hillary." The author will join us to tell us why he believes the former secretary of state is the wrong choice for the job. CUOMO: And Jon Stewart fan, how do you feel about his laughing at the

idea of voting? Was he just joking? Or was he right to apologize? We're going to show you what happened when "The Daily Show" host sat down with CNN's Christiane Amanpour and who got more that he bargained for.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

2014's election is in the books, time to turn to the next major election. That's just how it is.

The national exit polls on Tuesday show a very interesting story. Look at this -- 34 percent of everyone asked said a vote for Hillary Clinton, no matter the challenger, no matter who.

But in a new essay in "Harper's Magazine," the essay -- the writer, we have him here -- he says there are reasons you may not want to vote for Hillary. It's called "Stop Hillary" -- not subtle, and neither the points made in it.

It slams Clinton for her politics and her history. It comes as members of the Republican Party point to her for failing to help candidates get elected.

The author's name is Doug Henwood and he is here with us. He's a contributor to "Harper's Magazine." We also have Elise Viebeck. She's a staff writer for the hell -- "The Hill". The hell, what I am saying? I love "The Hill".

All right. So, it's good to have you both here. I want to get deeply into the piece.

But let's deal with the headline this morning. This poll comes out, Elise, 34 percent says I'm going to vote for Hillary. 40 percent says I'll vote for any GOP candidate basically.

Do you think that the numbers that this is really not about the party any more. It's just about Hillary?

ELISE VIEBECK, STAFF WRITER, THE HILL: It is. I think her brand is extremely strong at that point. If I were working in her camp, I would be happy to see those numbers.

Listen, we talk about Hillary in the media like she's inevitable, and that's because in large part she is. We do expect her to run and likely win the White House. I think it will be hard for Republicans to mount a candidate who will be as competitive as she will, because let's face it, the Clintons are a known quantity. At this stage in American politics, I think voters are looking for someone who like as not, they can understand, that's battle-tested and that's ready to go and that's Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: All right. So, now there's a completely opposite take you could have on this, Elise, which is she's at 34, Doug, and she's stuck there, because she can't get through likeability and charisma to that next level. That's what her opponents will say.

What's that take on these numbers?

DOUG HENWOOD, CONTRIBUTOR, HARPER'S MAGAZINE: Well, also, she's not, I think people are not in the mood for the status quo, she very much represents the kind of politic that's been dominant in this country for 30 years. And I think people are tired of it. We flail from election result to election result and it's just one party replaces the other and there's no --

CUOMO: Very interesting thing here, you see Reagan, you see Bush, you see Clinton, you see Obama, you see different names but same games.

HENWOOD: Pretty much. We've seen the market-friendly, you know, tough kind of politics that have presided over intense polarization of American society, between rich and poor. Mass alienation from politics we see. And I think she's the wrong person to deal with that. She's very much the status quo and I think people are tired of the status quo, even if they can't figure out what they're tired of or why. They just don't want more of the same.

CUOMO: It's a counter-narrative that Doug lays out in the piece. And it's obviously a lot of thought. He does a lot of digging into her past, Elise.

I don't know if you've seen it, but the basic premise is, she ain't different. Yes, she's a woman, but she ain't different. She does the same kinds of things that have got us into the politician situation that we're in right now.

VIEBECK: That's exactly right and I understand Doug's point that there are a lot of American vote who are alienated. We see the inertia in American politics. We don't typically see people going for a totally different candidate.

Particularly with the number of crises we're seeing around the world, a lot of people are going to shrug their shoulders and say, listen, I don't really like Hillary Clinton, I have problems with the Clintons, they're almost pathologically ambitious, extremely opportunistic, everyone in Washington and around the country knows that.

But at the same time, I think they're going to get the votes because in maybe a twisted way, they do have people's confidence.

CUOMO: Votes, but enough votes? If you read this article, you're going to think about it twice. One of the things you put in here about how she is more of the same is about how the Clintons have somewhat of an empire have gotten rich off their situation. Those numbers are right, $2 billion to $3 billion?

HENWOOD: Yes.

CUOMO: Are you including donations to the Clinton Global Initiative?

HENWOOD: Yes, yes, the foundation --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Not just personal money.

HENWOOD: But that's part of the family business, the family business is politics.

CUOMO: But that's charity, that's not money in their pockets.

HENWOOD: Yes, but it's also a way to buy connection, influence, exposure. It doesn't hurt for a rich person or a corporation to be associated with the Clintons, they have a lot of star power, and they can open doors in Washington. It's a good investment from a corporate point of view, and a small amount of money for them.

But aggregate all of these contributions, we're talking billions of dollars. I've seen people estimate that Hillary would need $1 billion or more to run her presidential campaign, $1 billion --

CUOMO: Need versus want is a whole different discussion about money and politics. Fair point, full disclosure, you don't like Hillary Clinton as a candidate, true?

HENWOOD: True.

CUOMO: Yes, full disclosure.

Something interesting, Elise, if I had bet you that somebody of Henwood's status was writing a long piece for "Harper's" about why he doesn't like Hillary Clinton, how much money would you have laid that he would have mentioned Benghazi?

VIEBECK: No money at all because --

CUOMO: Would you say it was definitely in there, right?

VIEBECK: No, I wouldn't actually.

CUOMO: Come on!

VIEBECK: No, it's true. I would not expect him to mention Benghazi, because again, we don't see that conflict anywhere but on the right. Really Benghazi is a FOX News sort of issue. And for the wider electorate, I think it's hard to see whether that will really play.

I think Republicans will certainly try, but they can make a stronger case against Hillary Clinton by mentioning some of the things that Doug mentioned. Which are the past scandals that the Clintons have been involved with, the problems with her brand, the vast amounts of money, her alliance with corporate interests, the whole thing. That's huge case you can make against the Clintons without mentioning Benghazi.

CUOMO: You know what? You're obviously right, because Henwood did the same thing, he didn't mention Benghazi. I thought it would be in anything trying to assail Hillary Clinton.

(CROSSTALK)

HENWOOD: -- Whitewater.

CUOMO: Let's talk about that -- every time you do Whitewater, the media rolls its eyes. The media who wants to defend Hillary Clinton or her defenders in general, right?

You see, oh, no, no, the facts there mattered, she kind of got a pass. Why do you think it's worth going back?

HENWOOD: The original scandal might not have been much. It's really hard to say who did what to whom and when. But the fact is she approached the thing as it got uncovered with her traditional strategies of lying and deception and half-truths. She has a real --

CUOMO: Billing records on the --

HENWOOD: Well, the big thing, the billing records, she said she did no work for the bank involved in Whitewater, which meant that she was doing business with the state.

(CROSSTALK)

HENWOOD: Along with the conflicts of interest. The billing records were in Vince Foster's office, removed after his suicide. They disappeared for a year and a half or two years. Suddenly, they reappear one day in the White House residence in a room controlled by Hillary. It was a library of sorts.

Very mysterious that they should disappear and reappear. If that were just a regular person facing multiple federal investigations. They would be in big trouble.

CUOMO: Not a good fact.

Doug Henwood, Elise Viebeck, thank you very much. We're going to be talking about Hillary. But this is a different way of looking at her in this piece, worth reading -- thank you very much. So, thanks for coming here.

HENWOOD: Thank you.

VIEBECK: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Appreciate it very much.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris. What did Jon Stewart mean to say in his interview with CNN? Our Christiane Amanpour sat down with the daily show host during which he made a bombshell admission and now he's apologizing, Christiane is here with all the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No?

JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: No, I just moved. I don't know where my thing is now.

AMANPOUR: What do you mean?

STEWART: I moved to a different state.

AMANPOUR: Really? Where are you? You can't divulge?

STEWART: I can't disclose. We got a whole thing going on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. What Jon Stewart was actually responding to there was your question that he didn't vote, he seemed to admit during the mid- term elections he did not vote. And Christiane, you sat down with him to talk about a movie that he's involved with it came out during the interview that you asked him, did you vote? And he said no, I don't even know where my polling place is.

AMANPOUR: Yes, and, of course, Jon Stewart is what? A comedian and Jon Stewart was joking. There's no way that, OK, this is my opinion, this there's no way that somebody as public as Jon Stewart as public as he is about civil duty, would ever not vote.

And so, yes, he admitted on his show that night that he had been flip and it got him into trouble, but, of course, he voted and he knew where his thing was.

CAMEROTA: Can we play that exchange one more time? Because we clipped the top of it. It didn't sound like he was joking.

PEREIRA: Really?

CAMEROTA: Let's play one more time the part where he says he didn't vote. Tell me if you think it sounds like a joke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Did you vote?

STEWART: No.

AMANPOUR: No?

STEWART: No, I just moved. I don't know where my thing is now.

AMANPOUR: What do you mean?

STEWART: I moved to a different state.

AMANPOUR: Really? Where are you? You can't divulge?

STEWART: I can't disclose. We got a whole thing going on here. AMANPOUR: Yes, very secret.

STEWART: So, it's very secretive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: He says no and --

CUOMO: I think he doesn't want people to know where he lived. He moved. It's hard, you know, voting and registration -- I think, it's interesting.

AMANPOUR: Did you see what he did on his own show?

CUOMO: Yes.

AMANPOUR: He said he been flip and he --

CUOMO: The irony, he kind of got Stewarted. You know what I mean? It wasn't your intention, no question about that. But this is kind of what he does to other people.

This is my take. My question for you on this -- I always say about Jon Stewart that people take him too seriously. He's a comedian. He shouldn't be pretending he's a journalist. He shouldn't be looked at as a news authority.

PEREIRA: I don't think he does pretend.

CUOMO: He walks a line.

Do you think this is an example of, hey, he's not a leader, he's a comedian, treat him like that.

AMANPOUR: I think he would say that. In fact I asked him about his influence in the real world outside the satire news desk and he just doesn't accept it.

He says that I am what I am. I'm not a real journalist. I'm a satirist, I'm a comedian.

And I think we need to understand that. I mean look, I strongly believe that he was joking, he was being flip. And I think that he wouldn't have said that he didn't vote, if he was being serious. That's simply what I feel about that. And he said as much on his own show.

But I think that one thing we haven't quite internalized is quite how serious he is, obviously as an observer of our culture and as a relentless fun-poker. I mean, we need that in culture, right? But what he's turned his hand to and the reason for my interview was this new film that he is coming out with.

PEREIRA: He feels very passionately about it.

AMANPOUR: Very passionately. The film called "Rosewater" it opens next Friday and I was stunned by how amazing this film is it's about a journalist who goes to cover the disputed election in Iran in 2009.

The big bad Ahmadinejad, the green revolution that was smashed, the hope of the Iranian people at that time. And a journalist, many journalists were jailed, including Maziar Bahari, the British-Iranian who was a friend of "The Daily Show", who had done some skits for "The Daily Show." Out of that came the book, Jon liked the book, Jon helped him get it produced and decided this was going to be his first vehicle as a first-time movie director.

And you know, I was very, very surprised by how serious, how true to life with, a little comedy, because the whole thing is absurd. It's Kafka-esque.

All of us journalists, let's face it, are in jail all over the world, not just in Iran. I mean, my colleagues in Turkey, Egypt, everywhere. And as he rightly pointed out, this administration has a lot of American journalists under huge pressure. James Risen of the "New York Times" threatened to go to jail because of refusing to divulge his sources, that's ordinary reporting.

PEREIRA: Given that --

AMANPOUR: So, Jon is everywhere on the threat.

PEREIRA: How do you think the movie is going to be received, especially because of what we expect of Jon Stewart, right?

AMANPOUR: Again I think it's amazingly counterintuitive for the general public. People who know him as a comedian, as a -- as a satirist. I think that people will be really surprised at his interest in this topic and his take on it. Plus, of course, it does have the world's most handsome heartthrob Gael Garcia Bernal.

CUOMO: My wife just sat up in bed. Now, I'm watching.

AMANPOUR: Yes, yes, he is truly amazing, and again, we all ask ourselves what would happen, how would we endure being in solitary confinement, being abused, on the verge of torture, threatened with death. You don't know whether your wife knows what's happened to you. The world knows what happened to you, as Maziar told me. You know, he was blindfolded for practically the entire four months. And the idea is to deny every single sensibility, all your senses.

CAMEROTA: But I want to get back to the interview with Jon Stewart.

AMANPOUR: Oh, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Because this is what took off. What took off was that his legion of followers said what? Because you were in the room. So I trust your instincts.

But watching it on the monitor, it seems like you've caught him. It seems like you've caught him, inadvertently.

CUOMO: He caught himself. CAMEROTA: It seems like he didn't know his polling place was. I want

to play his apology. We'll see how that sounds. This is what he said on his show after that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Just to set the record straight. I did vote today, I did know where my booth was. I was being flip. And it kind of took off. And I, you know, I want to apologize, because I shouldn't have been flip about that, because I think I wasn't clear enough that I was kidding and it sent a message that I didn't think voting was important or that I didn't think it was a big issue.

And I do. And I did vote and I was being flip and I shouldn't have done that, that was stupid. So, I apologize. And -- yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: I appreciate that he apologized, it didn't seem to me -- I take Jon Stewart for being a satirist.

I saw it differently than you.

CAMEROTA: I see it as his whole job is to expose hypocrisy and he was caught in a moment of hypocrisy.

AMANPOUR: Listen, look, you can say whatever you like, he said what he said, he apologized on his show, which is pretty interesting. I think that something else that he's very devoted to is the health and safety and concern for our wounded veterans. And to that end last night here in New York, the Bob Woodrough Foundation, our ABC colleague who was, as you know, of course, Chris, was blown up in Iraq, Jon Stewart headline it is, all of these amazing people give their services free. Comedy and Bruce Springsteen singing and it was tremendous.

CUOMO: And he does more than perform.

Look. I have my own issues does, with Stewart does, especially to me, but he not only goes to stand up for the wounded warriors, he gives his time and treats them with a dignity and respect this they don't get enough.

CAMEROTA: He does a great service. Don't get --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: And you should watch the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, belting out "New York, New York". You must get the video --

CUOMO: It was good, not just because he was a joint chief.

AMANPOUR: We need more time. But be sure to watch Christiane's show "Amanpour" on CNN International at 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern.

Great to have you. AMANPOUR: Thank you, Alisyn.

CUOMO: There is a lot of news going on this morning, not just politics, so let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obviously, Republicans had a good night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A rejected President Obama grimly admitting defeat to Republicans.

OBAMA: I'm eager to see what they have to offer.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: Just because you have divided government doesn't mean you don't accomplish anything.

(CHANTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In order for there to be peace, there must be justice, we want to deescalate violence, but we do not want to deescalate action.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hundred and six days and counting --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why the students? Why my daughter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's as if they just vanish and then suddenly, a glimmer of hope.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to NEW DAY, I'm Alisyn Camerota, alongside Chris Cuomo.

President Obama preparing for two long years of the Republican- controlled Congress and one angry electorate, clearly stung by a mid- term election debacle.

CUOMO: So, the president had to come out, he had to own it and he did. And he also vowed to work with the GOP for the rest of his term. He assured you, the American people, I hear you. But then -- he started messing with the leadership a little bit.

He said, hey, I will bypass Congress and take executive action on immigration reform if we can't make a deal and that kind of put him right back where he started.

CAMEROTA: Jim Acosta is standing by live at the White House for us.

So, Jim, what is the mood there?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.

So, the mood is pretty much the same as it was 48 hours ago. After those messy mid-terms, President Obama offered no apologies and no signs that a major shake-up is coming for his administration. Instead, there were plenty of indications he will be putting heads with his new main adversary up on Capitol Hill, the expected incoming Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice-over): A dejected President Obama, grimly admitting defeat to Republicans.

OBAMA: Obviously, Republicans had a good night.

ACOSTA: There was no glossing over the bitter reality for Democrats.

OBAMA: They want to us get the job done. As president, I have a unique responsibility to try to make this town work.

ACOSTA: His party stung and in the minority. The president said he he's ready to compromise with Republicans on road repairs, reforming the tax code and brokering new trade deals. But just as quickly he says he's still going it alone on immigration reform.

OBAMA: I'm eager to see what they have to offer. But what I'm not going to do is just wait.