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CNN NEWSROOM

Bush Appeals to Hispanics in New Campaign Ad; Foreign Policy Could Take Center Stage; How Debates Became Must-See Political TV. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 15, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:29:50] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: So, you see, Jeb Bush was speaking Spanish, something Donald Trump has criticized, but his wife was speaking English. And she was the one born in Mexico. She's now an American citizen, by the way.

Here to talk about all of this is Justin Sayfie, he's the former chief speechwriter and former senior policy adviser to then-governor Jeb Bush, and president and CEO of the U.S.-Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Welcome -- welcome to both of you Justin and Javier Palomarez -- he's the president -- did I say your name, Javier? I don't even remember. I don't think I did.

JAVIER PALOMAREZ, U.S.-HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: You did -- Carol. Good enough.

COSTELLO: I did. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

I'll start with you, Justin.

JUSTIN SAYFIE, FORMER ADVISER FOR JEB BUSH: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I thought it was a very touching ad, but -- but Jeb Bush's reaching out to the Hispanic community doesn't seem to be resonating, at least outside of his Hispanic circles. Tell me if I'm wrong.

SAYFIE: Well, look, this is a brand-new ad. This is the beginning of Governor Bush's campaign. It's just getting started. And Governor Bush's ability to be bilingual in an ad like that is going to give Hillary Clinton and liberal Democrats a lot of sleepless nights. Because he is going to campaign inclusively and he is campaigning inclusively from the beginning and his ability to do that. His own personal experience is going to be very effective over time with all Americans, including Hispanic voters.

COSTELLO: But, Javier, Governor Bush's poll numbers just seem to keep going down.

PALOMAREZ: Well, I think, Carol -- first of all, I think it's the right thing to do. I think in telling his personal story, Jeb Bush tells the story of a broader Hispanic community, a community that is centered around faith and family and hope and collaboration. So, I think first and foremost, it's the right thing to do. It's his story and it's very genuine.

Secondly, as it relates to the polls, let's keep in mind that at this time in 2012, Rick Perry was about 38 percent of the polls. By December in 2012, Gingrich was about 40-41 percent. So it's a bit early to start talking about that right now.

I think as it relates to his story, I think it connects not only with the Hispanic community, but with a broader narrative around bringing people together and illustrating that the Republican Party is a party that, frankly, can engage all people in America.

COSTELLO: But, Justin, isn't it true that it's imperative for Governor Bush to deliver a fine debate performance because a lot of people felt he didn't do so well the first time. If he has two consecutive appearances where he doesn't do well, that won't bode well for him, will it?

SAYFIE: Well, I think you're going to see a very strong performance from Governor Bush tomorrow night in the debate. He's the most prepared to be president of the United States. He's got a conservative record. I think you'll see him talk about that. I think you'll see him contrast that with some of his opponents who may not have such a strong record of conservative performance. So, I think -- I think you're going to see him do very, very well tomorrow night.

COSTELLO: And, Javier, just a -- go ahead, Javier, finish the thought.

PALOMAREZ: I agree. I think -- what I'm looking for, what my constituency of 3.2 million Hispanic business owners that represent a contribution to this economy, somewhere around $490 billion on an annual basis, what we're looking for is somebody that's going to get beyond the spectacle and get down to the substance. We want to hear about a proven track record. We want to get past the rhetoric and get down to the record and see and hear from individuals that have got a plan and that can point to substantive accomplishments when they were in office.

COSTELLO: Javier, I just wanted to ask you one question about Donald Trump. He had that big rally in Dallas last night, right?

PALOMAREZ: My hometown.

COSTELLO: Your hometown. 1,500 protesters turned out -- most of them Hispanics. And they were carrying signs like Trump is a racist, He's like Hitler, they had a Trump pinata. Is he splitting the country? Has that happened, Javier?

PALOMAREZ: It definitely has. You know, I think rightly so, the Hispanic community is outraged. What Donald Trump has done and unfortunately continues to do. It's a rhetoric of hatred and divisiveness. And it was the Dallas Chapter of the League of United Latin American citizens that felt strongly enough that they boycotted and got out in front of the stadium and tried to call attention to the fact that, you know, hate speak has no place in the Presidential debate. And that it's time that we start talking again about the substance and what these individuals, all of them, have to offer in terms of making America greater country and keeping us together.

COSTELLO: So, with that said, Justin, will Governor Bush come out and say, you know what, stop it with the hate speech, Mr. Trump?

SAYFIE: Well, I think Governor Bush has been very, very -- from the very beginning, since he announced his campaign. I was there on June 15th when he had his announcement and he's been very inclusive from the beginning. He has been critical of some of the rhetoric. And I think that his inclusive message is going to be a stark contrast to what we're hearing.

[10:34:57] Governor Bush has a record of substance. It doesn't help the Republican Party, it doesn't help us win. We have to win by addition. We have to win by becoming the majority party. That video that you showed earlier of Governor Bush speaking to Hispanic voters, speaking to Latin voters in Spanish is going to be something that I think you're going to hear Governor Bush continue to talk about. That's the way Republicans are going to win.

We can be a minority party and lose the presidency or we can be a majority party, grow, take our conservative message and be a winning party. We can win the presidency and avoid eight more years of liberal Democratic policies in the White House.

COSTELLO: All right.

PALOMAREZ: And by the way, Carol -- Carol, if I might, that's why we are very excited to be hosting Governor Bush in, I believe, six days. He has a proven track record. When he was in office, you know, 1.5 million jobs were created while he was in office. 80,000 brand- new businesses were created while he was in office.

He left the state of Florida with a $10 billion, you know, robust budget. He balanced the budget eight years in a row. He cut taxes to the tune of about $19 billion while he was in office. These are the kinds of substantive records and accomplishments that my community wants to hear from individuals that have done things of this nature. That's why we're very excited to have the governor with us in a couple of days.

COSTELLO: All right. All right. We'll see if he can communicate that tomorrow night. Justin Sayfie, Javier Palomarez -- thank you both. I appreciate it.

PALOMAREZ: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, some of the GOP presidential hopefuls not mincing words when it comes to the refugee crisis. That could also be a factor in tomorrow's debate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:05] COSTELLO: All right. I have some updated information to share with you in the school bus tragedy in southeast Houston. You see, the bus rolled a few times before coming to rest. Well, authorities now tell us that two high school students have died as a result of this accident. There were just a few students on board the bus. The bus was bound for a high school apparently, that's a charter school in southeast Houston. The other students and the driver are in the hospital. All of them suffered serious injuries.

We don't know what caused this bus to crash yet. But as you can see, it was very serious. We had one report that the bus actually fell from an overpass onto this road below called 610 Loop and telephone road. Of course, when we get more information, we'll pass it along.

In other news this morning, foreign policy will likely be one of the many hot topics at the debate tomorrow night, but is Mike Huckabee going to take heat for some recent comments about Europe's worsening refugee crisis? According to the "Washington Post", Huckabee recently raised some eyebrows by asking this question, quote, "Are they really escaping tyranny? Are they escaping poverty? Or are they just coming because we've got cable TV? I don't mean to be trite. I'm just saying, we don't know."

Now, for months, thousands of families have been trying to escape war-torn places like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. These images show just how dire the situation is. For many, this is truly a matter of life and death. These are the kinds of conditions people are running away from.

This drone video shows the aftermath in the Syrian city of Kobani after Kurdish forces tried to retake the city from ISIS. The streets unrecognizable and littered with debris.

So how will this crisis -- so how will this crisis play on the debate stage?

Joining me now to talk about that is CNN political reporter M.J. Lee. Good morning.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So how might this crisis play on the debate stage?

LEE: Well -- Carol, that was probably not Mike Huckabee's finest moment, talking about a crisis in Europe -- migrant and refugee crisis in the flippant way that he did. But look , I think that there's a level of wariness among all of the presidential candidates, Democrats and Republicans, about the fact that within the American public there's a bit of wariness and concern about the United States getting involved in anything overseas.

There was a new CNN poll that came out this week that shows that the majority of Americans do believe that Americans have -- or the country, rather, has some responsibility when it comes to this crisis, but there's an ideological divide as well. Republicans tend to be a little more concerned, you know, back away a little bit from the idea of the United States taking in more refugees. So I think for someone like Mike Huckabee, he's clearly aware of that.

I think going into Wednesday night, it will be interesting to see the candidates who are less practiced when it comes to foreign policy, try to talk about this issue. Someone like Ben Carson or Donald Trump. Whether they will end up making comments that raises eyebrows like Mike Huckabee's comments or whether they're able to talk about the issue in a knowledgeable and sort of practiced and fluent way.

COSTELLO: Reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, from basic stages to elaborate must-see TV productions. It's the changing face of presidential debates, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:49:00] COSTELLO: Tomorrow night's debate, must-see TV to steal a phrase. It has everything -- passion, star power and oh yes, substance. The debate stage is spectacular. It's in the Reagan Presidential Library with awesome lighting and Air Force One as the backdrop. Quite the contrast with debates past like this one between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon nearly 55 years ago when the contest took place on a dark stage. Look at that. I think there was a curtain behind the -- oh, no, it's a brick wall. Even more lovely.

With me now is a man who has witnessed more than one debate, David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst, and former presidential adviser to Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. Wow.

David before we start, let's take a walk back through memory lane, why don't we?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please turn Mr. Reagan's mike off --

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am paying for this microphone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is funneling money to his wife's law firm for state business. That's number one.

[10:50:01] BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't care what you say about me but you ought to be ashamed of yourself for jumping on my wife. You're not worthy of the same platform as my wife.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll I tell you something, Mr. Clinton -- don't try to escape.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is an attack piece.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: That is not by my campaign.

BUSH: Well, it says, "Paid for by John McCain".

MCCAIN: That is not by my campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That George W. Bush comeback was the best ever.

But let's talk about just the staging of the debates through the years because even in recent years past, the staging is nothing like it is today.

GERGEN: Well, we haven't had the spectacle we've had this year. We've never had 24 million people tune in to a debate before. And we're going to have a huge number tuned in to CNN tomorrow night.

But there have been times in the past when we've had a large number of people on stage. They've just been totally forgettable debts. So they're not in our memory banks. But I do remember an odd night -- I think it was New Hampshire, when one of the candidates threw a rat -- a dead rat across the stage. That got our attention.

COSTELLO: What?

GERGEN: But the -- go ahead, please.

COSTELLO: No, seriously, they threw a dead rat across the stage?

GERGEN: Yes. I remember that. It was pretty hideous. But there was a large debate, it wasn't intended that way, but the debate that really mattered in that sense, one of the early debates, was the Reagan -- you just had a piece of it, the Reagan debate against George H.W. Bush in New Hampshire in 1980, and it was supposed to be a one- on-one and then Reagan insisted on bringing a lot of other candidates in there, like Bob Dole and Howard Baker, and Bush objected. Reagan just rammed it to the moderator, Mr. Green -- he called him, Mr. Breen. I paid for this microphone.

It gave -- it was one of those almost Trump-like moments where a guy came out and just grabbed the attention and turned that debate around. But most of the debates, you're right, Carol, have been much more staid, much more one-on-one. You know, the kind of -- the forgettable backdrop we saw with Nixon and Kennedy. Certainly not Air Force One.

COSTELLO: No, certainly not Air Force One. I'm just struggling to come to grips with which is better because shouldn't the backdrop be, you know, kind of drab so we can listen to what the candidates are actually saying or does a fancy backdrop enhance what the candidates are saying?

GERGEN: Oh, at this early stage, I don't think it really matters very much. There's going to come a time when this is going to get more serious. But, you know, for the moment, this is being portrayed as a -- very largely being portrayed as a boxing match, you know, world class boxing match. I'm beginning to think it looks much more like a wrestling match, a lot of mud wrestling with smack-downs and all the rest that. And by the way, Trump knows a lot about wrestling. He comes out of that world, in part. So the candidates ought to be prepared. But I think given where

we are right now, it really doesn't make much difference what the backdrop is. There is so much interest and magnetism in terms of pure entertainment and people are drawn to this. When these candidates go on the late night talk shows, they get significant rises in the numbers. Joe Biden did, Donald Trump did, Hillary is going on here Wednesday night. Isn't it interesting Mrs. Clinton is going to go on Wednesday night after the Republican debate. We'll have to see how that all plays out.

COSTELLO: Yes, because I don't know how many people will be watching. It will be interesting to see. So just --

GERGEN: Hard to know. A lot of people will be watching this debate, there's no -- go ahead please.

COSTELLO: Yes, yes. I was just going to ask you, David, who will come out on top?

GERGEN: Oh, you know, I think we're going to be watching several different contests at one time. How does Carly Fiorina handle Donald Trump? Ben Carson very importantly now, that new CBS/New York Times poll, almost closed the lead. People will be watching intently. I think you're going to see a lot of interest. Can Jeb Bush revive himself against Donald Trump? Keep an eye on Kasich and Donald Trump.

The common denominator in all of that is Donald Trump. He's going to draw the audience because people want to see, you know, how they clash. And they're going to be looking for that.

COSTELLO: Absolutely.

GERGEN: And Jake Tapper is going to ask those kind of questions that I think will get everybody going.

COSTELLO: That's right. As will Dana Bash. David Gergen -- thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:37] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 58 minutes past. The man suspected of killing a fellow professor on a college campus is dead just as officers were closing in on Shannon Lamb at the end of a day-long manhunt. He reportedly made good on his threat never to go to jail and shot himself. Investigators also suspect Lamb killed the woman he lived with, but it's not clear what Lamb's relationship was with either of the victims. A vigil will be held at the school tonight.

A grand jury is recommending three dozen members of a New York City fraternity be charged in connection with a brutal hazing death. Five members of Pi Delta Psi at Baruch College have already been charged with third-degree murder. Some of those 32 frat members could face more serious charges for tackling Michael Deng as he was blindfolded and then failing to call 911 when he was injured.

No bail for former police officer Michael Slager, he's the North Charleston officer who shot Walter Scott in the back as Scott ran away following a traffic stop, and turning down the bond request. The judge said, releasing Slager would constitute an unreasonable danger to the community. Slager has now been charged with murder.

And an unruly female passenger forced an American Airlines flight from Miami to Chicago to make an emergency landing in Indianapolis. Cellphone video shows the woman being removed from the plane. She's accused of hitting a passenger and a flight attendant.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.