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Trump Tops New CNN Poll In Iowa; Only 28 Percent Of Iowa Democrats Say Clinton Trustworthy; Mississippi Couple Facing Terrorism Charges; China Devalues Currency For Third Straight Day; Hillary Clinton's Emoji Tweet Sparks Backlash. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 13, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: John King on "Inside Politics" on NEW DAY. Another thing you never thought you would see, Roger Stone, gets thrown off the team or says he quits, and yet he's still a big supporter of Trump and comes on to boost his campaign. What next?

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": That's a great question. What next? Let's just say there's something in the water this year, we'll leave it there. We'll see how this one plays out.

And Mr. Trump leading the polls that's where we start this morning as we go "Inside Politics." With me to share their reporting their insights, Julie Pace of "The Associated Press" and Ron Fournier of "National Journal."

Again, we've this conversation before, a lot of people watched the debate and Donald Trump's controversial confrontations with Megyn Kelly, what he said about women and what the viewers were reminded he had said in the past about women is going to hurt him, right.

Our brand new poll out in Iowa, Donald Trump is leading the pack with 22 percent, Ben Carson, non-politician, strong closing statement in that primetime debate moves to second place.

Scott walker is in third place, a little trouble sign for Scott Walker here. Iowa has been his state that he wants and you see Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, a big breakthrough performance in the non-primetime debate. She moves up as well.

And you look at the rest of the field, if you are Jeb Bush, I know you can say, we were never heavily invested in Iowa, being down at 5 percent is not a good thing. Why do they love Trump? This is important.

They believe -- next to his closest Republican rival, he has a 35- point advantage over who will most change Washington, a 27-point advantage on the economy, 23 percent advantage on immigration. He leads on terrorism.

And despite every poll showing Hillary Clinton would clean his clock in a one-on-one match up in a general election, more Iowa Republicans now believe Donald Trump is the strongest candidate in the general election. So there is something in the water and it's not going away.

JULIE PACE, "THE ASSOCIATED PRESS": I don't think it's going away. I mean, the change in Washington number is so interesting. It is clear that if you elected somebody like Donald Trump, you probably would change Washington.

And there is a hunger out there among Americans for something different in this town. Republicans, in particular, have watched the party have leadership roles on Capitol Hill.

[07:35:02] They think the party has squandered those opportunities and think that electing a senator or even a governor just wouldn't get things done any differently.

RON FOURNIER, "THE NATIONAL JOURNAL": This is bigger than Trump and the Republican Party. You remember Tim Russert who used to say Florida, Florida, Florida. This is all about disruption, disruption, disruption.

You look at some of these numbers, on the horse race poll, 51 percent of the vote, the top 51 percent of the vote went to outsiders, Trump, Carson, Cruz and Fiorina. A majority of Iowa voters wants somebody who has nothing to do with Washington.

When asked who reflects the GOP values, the top four were all outsider, Carson, Trump, Huckabee and Cruz. They are sick and tired of politics in both parties and are looking for something new.

KING: It also tell you that the Iowa electorate is much more conservative than the New Hampshire electorate. If you look to people on top in Iowa, John Kasich had a strong debate performance, talked about gay rights. It helped him in New Hampshire. He didn't move a bit in Iowa.

FOURNIER: You know from Iowa voters that they decide late.

KING: Right. Only 15 percent of people in Iowa said they have made up their minds. Rand Paul is going down. Scott Walker is starting to be critical of Trump because he's going down.

Let's listen to Rand Paul here and on the other side, here's my question, have we reached a point where everybody thought Trump was going to flame out?

Have we reached a point where not only are we going to hear more criticism in speeches, but somebody is going to start spending some real money on TV ads?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have now people up there who say such profound things as, you're stupid. You're fired. You're a pig. You look terrible. But my favorite is, the reason I tell women they are ugly is because I'm so good looking.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Rand Paul's criticizing him more and more. He likes this fight. He was one of the early ones going after Hillary Clinton, but he's going this way right now. He is also looking at it in Iowa, Tea Party supporters, Trump, Carson, Walker, Cruz. Rand Paul has disappeared.

PACE: I think one of those questions and a lot of these questions the campaigns have right now is how do you go after Trump? There's a sense he'll be in this for a while so you do have to start to take him seriously and start criticizing his policies and things he's saying.

At the same time, there's a risk that reflects poorly on you because people who have done that have either gone down in the polls or faced criticism.

One of the questions I'm asking and really interested in is where is the Jeb Bush super PAC that has so much money? They are one organization that could be spending money on the air and going after Trump and we have seen nothing from them.

KING: His strategy with his brother calling him the tortoise, there's always a Pat Buchanan. John McCain was the disrupter against his brother in 2000. You had Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, it has happened in the past. There's no guarantee it will happen this time.

FOURNIER: These are weird and unpredictable times. The candidates actually have the same problem that I realize we have as journalists. I was watching that debate the other night and realized I need to be real careful how I write this.

I really want to attack Donald Trump and point out that this guy is as liberal as any Bush and as slippery as any Clinton. They really isn't capable of being president of this country.

But I want to do it in a way that doesn't dismiss or disrespect his voters because they have real and justified reasons to be angry and deceit Trump now anyhow as a vessel. If it is hard for me to do it, it's really got to be hard for Rand Paul to do it.

KING: Let's move to the Democratic race and on that point, being respectful to the voters, I was reminded with the sad news about President Carter. Sometimes there's something in the water and the administration lapses and lapses and the outsider comes on to become president of the United States.

The post-Watergate, pre-Twitter, all that, but sometimes voters want something different and they get it and want it. We'll look at the Democratic horse race in Iowa. Clinton is losing to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire.

But she's winning in Iowa, 50 percent to 31 percent, and Joe Biden at 12 percent. In 2007 at this point, Hillary Clinton was above Barack Obama by 20 points, 44-24. So she's ahead of Bernie Sanders by 19 so she should be happy. She shouldn't be popping any champagne just yet.

And there are some warning signs for Hillary Clinton in this poll, only 28 percent of Iowa Democrats, these are the Democrats, fewer than three in ten say she's honest and trustworthy. On the empathy question, which who best understands the problems facing me. She breaks even and just barely beats Bernie Sanders. So she's winning but --

PACE: It shows there's room for either a Democrat to take her on in a serious way or there's room for Republicans in a general election to defeat her. She is a strong candidate in the sense that people think that she -- if you look at the latest polls, she's qualified to be president.

She's a weak candidate in the sense that they don't trust her and don't think she understands her problems. Those kinds of factors really can be damaging throughout a long campaign.

KING: They respect her, but they don't love her. But if you're Joe Biden and this is your summer vacation and you're looking at the numbers, we know he's making phone calls and asking people what he should do, 9 percent in New Hampshire, 12 percent in Iowa.

At a time when Democrats know if you have been watching and covering politics, and they do in those states, people have been saying he's thinking about this. There's no message to Joe Biden at least from the poll numbers to jump in.

[07:40:01] FOURNIER: When you describe Hillary's problems with three words, trust, trust, trust, if you are Joe Biden who's biggest problem is you're too authentic, you take a serious look at this, you have to give pause.

Yesterday we had Hillary Clinton's chief spokesperson, Jennifer Palmeri, actually argue that the central core of her argument and the spin document she put out is Hillary Clinton is not a target in the investigation. When you are arguing that technically your candidate is not the target of the investigation, you're losing.

KING: I remember some -- never mind. I have some days of arguing with Clinton people on the grand juries and the definition of is and things like that.

PACE: We should do a memory lane thing.

KING: No, we should not. We could think about that. Julie and Ron Fournier, thanks for coming in. Ana, sometimes it does depend on the definition of "is," I guess is the way to say it.

But luckily, you are too young to remember most of that or have lived through it anyway as a journalist so God bless you and good luck.

ANA CABRERA, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: God bless you, too, this morning, John. All right, thank you so much.

We are learning some disturbing details now about the young Mississippi newlyweds who allegedly wanted to link up with ISIS. Now we're going to talk with the family friend of the husband to learn more about this recent college grad turned alleged terrorist supporter.

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[07:45:19]

CABRERA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We are learning more about that young couple arrested at the Mississippi airport for allegedly travel to Syria to join ISIS. This is Jaelyn Young and her husband, Muhammad Dakhlalla.

Now they were denied bond on charges that they attempted to join the terror group and conspire to provide material support. The charges coming as a shock to the town of Starkville, Mississippi, where this couple lived especially to those who knew them.

Dennis Harmon is an attorney and a long-time friend of the Dakhlalla family. Dennis, thanks so much for spending time with us. I know you are not representing Muhammad Dakhlalla in this case, but you have known the family for over 15 years, what is their reaction to Muhammad's arrest?

DENNIS HARMON, FAMILY FRIEND OF MUHAMMAD ODA DAKHLALLA: It's like being hit between the eyes with a two-by-four and you're still blinking, you're still shaking your head and the pain hasn't set in yet.

CABRERA: So they didn't see this coming at all?

HARMON: No. They found out about it when the FBI agents knocked on their door.

CABRERA: How would you describe Muhammad or Mo as you know him?

HARMON: Mo is one of the sweetest, nicest kids I ever knew, much nicer of a kid than I ever was. He comes in the room, I have never seen him mad, never seen him angry, never seen him react negatively to his parents when they ask him to do anything. He is just a sweet guy. That's all.

CABRERA: I understand he comes from a fairly religious family. His father is an imam at the Islamic Center of Mississippi there. In retrospect, does the family think that they may have seen some signs that he was developing radical beliefs in any way?

HARMON: None. And I'm not even sure he developed radical beliefs. None of us are sure exactly where this came from. Other than the Internet and whoever the -- his wife was talking to. Oda and the people of that mosque teach Islam as a religion of peace.

Oda teaches Christian groups about Islam and he tells them that Christians and Jews are people of the world just as much as Muslims and that's based on the Koran and they are to be respected and protected.

Anything to do with ISIL is just amazingly foreign to them and has nothing to do with how Mo was raised. CABRERA: That being said, we understand he recently got married, at least in the religious tradition. His documents were not necessarily filed with the court, but do you know much about the relationship between this woman, Jaelyn Young and Muhammad?

HARMON: No, I have never met her. This is fairly recent, so I have not had a chance to meet her.

CABRERA: What does the family want everybody to know?

HARMON: They want them to know that Mo is completely nonviolent. This is not something that has anything to do with the way Mo was raised, the way -- that this news is disturbing to them, disturbing to most Americans and parents.

How could a child get on the Internet and be taken in by this? And that's -- that's what everybody is trying to wrap their head around, including the Dakhlallas.

CABRERA: Well, that is the big question that's why we do these segments to try to find out if there were any clues that were missed. And again, looking back in retrospect, it sounds like there were no clues. But thank you so much, Dennis Harmon, for joining us this morning. We do appreciate your time and will be following the case certainly -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Ana, a new CNN poll showing Donald Trump leading the GOP in Iowa. We're going to take a look at it, break it down, why do voters trust him? Can he hold the lead? Stay tuned.

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[07:53:23]

PEREIRA: Money, money, money, money. It's time for CNN Money now. Chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, in the Money Center, what's going on today?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, stocks, Michaela, expected to go higher after China devalued its currency for three straight days, a surprising move, of course, that sent global markets into turmoil earlier this week. Now China says that devaluation is coming to an end and markets around the world are snapping back.

Hillary Clinton trying to reach millennials and facing a Twitter backlash, she tweeted, "How does your student loan debt make you feel, tell us in three emojis or less."

Critics found that tweet an insensitive attempt to reach a younger generation. One user tweeted, "You know what people who went to college can use? Words."

Of course, student loan reform is meant to be a cornerstone of her domestic policy. By that a little attempt from her campaign at least is a bit flat. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Christine. Appreciate it. So Donald Trump dominating again in Iowa, but the real story is who is shaking out at the top of this poll. They share things in common. And the people at the bottom share things in common as well. The takeaways from this new poll when we come back.

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[07:58:37]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The shock wave just blew through our apartment.

ROMANS: Dozens dead, hundreds injured in a series of huge explosions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The results from a new CNN/ORC poll.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now I'm number one by quite a margin.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Hillary Clinton will probably face a challenge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are they underestimating Bernie Sanders.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sound like a Democrat sometimes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'll tell you something.

CUOMO: The one and only Gloria Gaynor sitting across from me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've always believed that the backlash on disco was overstated. If they hated disco music, why did have all those records to burn?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Mich and I are joined by Ana Cabrera. It's good to have you with us.

We have breaking news in China, massive explosions destroying people and things miles away from the blast site. The death toll from a series of violent eruptions in China now rising to 50. That number expected to go up, more than 700 injured. The explosions so violent they registered as earthquakes.

PEREIRA: The blasts are having a broad impact on Tianjin, a city of about 15 million people. Emotions are running high, relatives of the dead and injured waiting for word of their loved ones.

CNN's Will Ripley is in Tianjin, China where the damage is clear even though Will is more than a mile away from the center of where those explosions occurred -- Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, I need to show you this. We've moved a little closer to some of these apartment buildings.