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Thursday GOP Debate Preview; Seven People Dead In Legionnaires' Outbreak; Chilean Miners' Rescue: Five Years Later. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 4, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Some intriguing new polls out today so let's get right to "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY with John King. Good morning, John.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": Good morning. Thursday is debate day, today is cut off day, Alisyn. Fox News tonight will decide who gets into the first Republican presidential debate, the prime time debate.

Let's go to inside politics and talk about the stakes including an interesting, I think, forum last night in New Hampshire. Nia Malika Henderson of CNN is with us this morning and Ron Fournier of the "National Journal."

Let's show the pictures to begin with. Most of the Republican presidential candidates were there. The Virginia governor was not and the three senators were not, Rubio, Cruz and Paul because they had to stay back to votes.

They lined up on the stage then they took questions. The one thing we learned is when you have so many people, it's hard to get a lot of time to distinguish yourself. Let's listen to the flavor. Jeb Bush, Scott Walker, Chris Christie trying to convince people give me a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My dad is the most perfect man alive. It's hard to be critical of him. In fact, I have a t-shirt that says the Jeb swag store that says I'm the -- I'm -- my dad is the greatest guy alive. If you don't like it, I'll take it outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a new fresh face versus a name from the past. I'm someone from outside of Washington with a proven track record.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people say that your best time to run may have come and gone.

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you saying I'm washed up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

CHRISTIE: No one should run for president of the United States to look in the mirror and say I am ready. When folks approached me I looked in the mirror and said I'm not ready.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: They appeared one at a time even though we had the class photo there, but because there were so many of them, time was short. Did we learn anything that carries over? Obviously, they are not next to each other so they are not -- you know, but number one, I think the premium is, you have so little time. If you have something to say, make sure you say it.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: You have to work on the clever line about your dad and the t-shirt. I think for Scott Walker has to be more lively. I think he has a mid-western laid back appeal on TV that's hard to sort of make out. So, I think they have some work to do. They have to work on their lines and kick off the rust.

RON FOURNIER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL" SENIOR POLITICAL COLUMNIST: It was a parade of talking points. It is a part of a bigger problem. New Hampshire voters didn't learn anything about the candidates there. They are not going to learn much more on Thursday.

What's happened to both Iowa and New Hampshire, the places where the voters traditionally really dug down on the character of the men and women running and the issues that are involved, right now it's about the polls and the big national debates, and it's kind of nationalized what really need to be a localized deep campaign.

KING: It's the reason that event was held. Some of the forces in New Hampshire including the "Union Leader" newspaper saying, wait a minute, we don't want the national party running the debates. We'll see the impact going forward.

Let's listen to a little bit about -- again, as we look to the debate, we know Trump will be center stage. We know he is leading in the polls. We'll get to some of those numbers in a minute.

One of the big questions is, will people try to attack him? Will they just try to stay away from him? Will they try to make their own points? One of the big issues always in Republican politics and Trump has put this even higher is immigration. Listen to this little exchange of differences of opinion at last night's forum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Those that have overstayed their visas, find them, pick them up, and you send them back wherever they are from.

GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If they are law- abiding, God fearing folks, they have to pay a penalty towards legalization. They will have to wait. If they violate the law, they are going to have to be deported or put in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: This is an area where the leading candidates have some disagreement. We talked a little bit about this last week. Trump said round them up, throw them out, but then let them back in on an expedited basis, which I don't really think makes a lot of sense.

If you're going to round them up and throw them out, if you want to defend that position, defend that position. But to have mass deportations, and then say, well, we took the time, effort and money to do that.

And now because you didn't commit a crime, you get the front of the line, it seems a little backwards. Is this going to be one of the flash points?

HENDERSON: I think it will be one of the flash points and I think one of the ways that you distinguish these candidates is in terms of rhetoric. Trump has been out front with bombastic rhetoric talking about Mexican illegal immigrants as rapists.

And other folks, like Jeb Bush, who are much the kinder, gentler approach to immigration and then you saw Kasich somewhat on that spectrum too with Bush. Perry, obviously, isn't going to be there it looks like according to these polls, but we know that that got him in trouble last go round.

FOURNIER: Unfortunately because there are so many leaders in the Republican Party who are playing to the voters' worst instincts, it's hard to take a reasonable decision in the Republican field. It's an issue that if you look at where the country is going, the Republican Party is stampeding towards irrelevancy if they don't figure out how to handle this issue.

KING: The Latino voters that you can't win a national election with just white votes. It doesn't work.

FOURNIER: You can't get the Hispanic vote by saying, we don't like you. They are not going to listen to the rest of your policies.

KING: So who is in is the big decision or who is out maybe is the big decision depending on your perspective or depending on where you stand Republican race or who you support.

[07:35:03] Let's look at the latest right now again. This is a CNN poll. Fox News has their own criteria, but essentially they are going to take their last five credible polls, the top ten make the prime time debate.

As of this morning, a CBS poll we factored in. It's Trump, Bush, Walker, Carson, Cruz, Huckabee, Paul, Rubio, Kasich, and Christie. Just missing the cut, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, Jim Gilmore.

Two of those candidates, Perry and Santorum ran last time. The only woman running in the Republican race doesn't make this debate. If you are in the second tier, you are hoping to slingshot out later. Who has the most to lose? Never mind who has the most to win, who has the most to lose in the top tier? HENDERSON: I think Trump has most to lose in some ways because he is going to be center stage and you got to figure out what he is going to do. Is he going to go after people or people are going to after him? I think people are looking to see if he's a serious candidate. He's got to figure out how he approaches that and maintain this momentum that he has. It's been a surprise.

FOURNIER: What gets me about this field is how deep it is. There are four ex-governors in it. What surprises me is how deep this field is, big time names, how small they are all acting.

KING: Because it is, if you look from experience, Democrats are out there saying I don't like any of them. This is a very impressive field, eight or nine of former governors, a handful of senators, business executives, one of the world's top neurosurgeon. This is an interesting group of --

FOURNIER: And one of those former governors has accused the president of the United States of marching Jews towards the oven. It's ridiculous some of the things they are doing. They are really demeaning the whole process and their party.

KING: I would Scott Walker has the most to lose. I get your point about Trump, but for Trump, is he a performer or president? If he holds, he's fine. If he grows, the Republican Party has a problem. They think do we spend money against this guy if he grows.

But if you are Walker and you were the candidate of the summer, leading in Iowa and coming out of New Hampshire. If the establishment of Trump rises, we are going to pick one horse, that horse will be Jeb Bush.

FOURNIER: Because he's the known to the establishment. Walker would be a flyer for them.

KING: Here is another interesting one, a new WWR poll. These are the Republicans in New Hampshire. Nobody votes for six months. Reaffirmation, Trump at 24, Bush at 12, Walker, Christie, Paul there, but it tells you, Trump is the driving force right now.

But let's switch to the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll because as we end the conversation, one of the conversations in Washington is, does Joe Biden give this a serious look?

Hillary Clinton has, you know, the money, infrastructure and the party support. NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, you have a positive or negative view of Hillary Clinton?

If you look, the positive view is down from June, a couple months, to 37 percent, negative view 48 percent now. Is that enough? Is that enough to get Joe Biden to think? She clearly has some weaknesses, but she's got a lot of strengths.

HENDERSON: I think the key is use of the conversation in Washington. It is not in Iowa. It is not in South Carolina or New Hampshire in terms of wanting Joe Biden to get into this. FOURNIER: I don't know the answer to the question because I can't predict the future, but I can tell you, if she hasn't messed up as badly as she has, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

KING: So we are going to focus, Michaela, on the Republicans most of the week, but the sitting vice president of the United States, is he still thinking about it? We'll just keep watching.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: We will be watching that. All right, John, thanks so much for that.

Concerns are arising here in New York City as an outbreak of legionnaires disease is expanding. Dozens of cases reported. The death toll is rising. We are going to tell you what you need to know, next.

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[07:42:38]

PEREIRA: A deadly outbreak of legionnaires' disease in New York City is raising the alarm. At least 80 reported cases of the disease, including seven people killed are linked to five buildings in the Bronx where the cooling systems have tested positive for the legionella bacteria. What is the disease and who is at risk?

Joining us now is Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

We go right to the source to get the answers to the questions. Good to see you, Dr. Fauci. So remind us, what exactly is legionnaires' disease?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Legionnaires' disease is a disease caused by a bacteria called legionella pneumophila. It is a disease that is spread through a very interesting way of watery mist.

It is related to a contamination of water in water cooling towers on the top of buildings in this case. Historically, some people may remember back in 1976, there was an outbreak in Philadelphia associated with an American Legion Convention at the Belleview Stratford Hotel, which made many people ill and many people actually died until we figured out, the CDC figured out what this disease is.

As it turned out, it's caused by a bacteria. It is not spread from person to person. It's environmentally spread. That's a reason you don't have to worry about one person giving it to another. When it's in the environment it can spread as we are seeing right now in New York City particularly South Bronx.

PEREIRA: OK, so why are we seeing the uptick and you talk about the numbers, 81 reported cases, seven deaths. I understand it's more common in high poverty neighborhoods. FAUCI: Right. It is because what you have is you have towers, water towers that are not particularly well kept. The bacteria likes to live in warm water that is actually dirty with some sludge in it, as you might see in water towers.

The reason we are seeing and might even see more cases is that the incubation period from the time you get exposed until the time you get sick is anywhere from 2 to 14 days.

PEREIRA: Wow.

FAUCI: So if someone gets exposed now, they could actually get sick ten to 14 days later and that's the reason why health authorities in New York City are watching this very closely.

[07:45:07] PEREIRA: You have talked about the fact that we have seen cases of this before. You talked about the outbreak in the '70s. Why is this one concerning?

FAUCI: It's concerning because you don't want this to happen. These are the kind of things that you can avoid if you take proper care of environmental issues such as the towers. You don't like to see an explosion of cases where 81 people get sick and seven people die.

And the concern is it comes out of nowhere. This is what happens with legionnaires' disease. In the United States, every year we see anywhere from 8,000 to 18,000 hospitalized cases.

PEREIRA: Right.

FAUCI: And likely very many more that don't get to a hospital.

PEREIRA: OK, what are the symptoms because now, you know, people are paying attention, what are the symptoms and what we should we know about protecting ourselves?

FAUCI: Well, the classic symptoms of the lung component with classic legionella, there's a less serious type called Pontiac fever. That's not what we are dealing with right now. The major symptom and sign is lung involvement.

Pneumonia, you get a fever, malaise, systemic symptoms even some diarrhea, but the fundamental underlying lesion is a pneumonia and when people particularly people with underlying diseases that weaken them or particularly susceptible to getting serious illness.

And that is people renal disease, heart disease, people who smoke, elderly people. People who have immunosuppressed disease who are on medications, those are the ones that are more susceptible to the serious complications.

PEREIRA: Dr. Anthon Fauci, great information for us. Thank you for joining us from the NIH this morning -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, we all remember the story of those 33 Chilean miners trapped half a mile underground for 69 days. Miraculously, they all made it out alive. How did they do it? A new CNN special report examines their story and the unforgettable rescue. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:07]

CAMEROTA: It's been five years since those 33 Chilean miners were trapped more than half a mile underground in a collapsed mine. In a new CNN Special Report premiering tonight, CNN's Rosa Flores looks back at the dangerous operation that brought those men out alive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frustration is mounting. Plan B's drill is stuck just feet away from the 33 trapped miners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What in God's name are we going to do now?

FLORES: It doesn't move up or down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like did we come this far and go through all this and this thing is stuck here?

FLORES: Then, a loud pop. They can't figure it out. Then, the drill starts moving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Science, no-how and will already applied. But at the end of the day, the big guy had everything to do with this rescue.

FLORES: A short time later --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I turned around. I gave the thumb's up.

FLORES: Even Jeff Heart is celebrating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When I saw the drill bit break through, that was by the hand of God that the miracle was done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: My gosh, that's intense. Rosa Flores is here with more on a minor miracle five years after the Chilean rescue. What a story. It gripped the world. When these guys came out, they became overnight celebrities back in Chile. What's happened to them?

FLORES: You know, there's so much drama around this story and so much that we didn't know that you're going to find out in this special report that keeps you to your seat, because these guys were able to allow us into their homes, share some of those riveting stories with us and explain that what we all watched on TV was not exactly what was happening.

There was a time when it was actually on a replay. None of us knew that. We're going to reveal that in this special report. All of those details kind of give you a sense of how they're doing now. A lot of them are having a lot of trouble.

They're psychologically having a lot of trouble, financially having a lot of trouble. The world forgot them and they feel that. We're going to reveal some of those juicy details in this special report.

PEREIRA: It's interesting that you mentioned that some of them are having psychological issues being trapped that long and feared for dead. Is that PTSD kind of stuff?

FLORES: Yes. One doctor put it best he said a lot of these guys had a death wish. Just imagine being trapped, not knowing if the world even knows you're alive. For all they knew, everybody else up above stopped looking. They thought they were dead.

Imagine living in a sauna. It's dirt floor. They can't breathe. They don't have food. Some of them were sick and a lot of them just wanted to die is what the doctor said.

CAMEROTA: You're going to tell us all about these back stories. Tune in tonight for CNN's Special Report. Tonight at 9:00 Eastern. Rosa, thank you.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we've been talking about Donald Trump because he is on top of the polls.

[07:55:05] Now comes the big debate, how is he going to do? What is the right tactic for him and those who oppose him and where is his best chance to pull away and actually win? We have it ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republican presidential hopefuls at the voters' first forum.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not too late for America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to stand for the American worker.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The frontrunner was noticeably absent.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't debate. I'm not a debater.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump is still surging above the rest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All bets are off.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sickens me to see what's been going on with Planned Parenthood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Planned Parenthood provides valuable health care services.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is about the moral character of our nation. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The motion is not agreed to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The nemesis of firefighters here in California.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fire is now almost as big as it the entire city of Sacramento.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outrage over a new video.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why would that ever be OK?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, August 4th, 8:00 in the east. And we have three new national polls and all they have one common trend, Donald Trump is on top.