Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Icahn Warns of Market "Bloodbath"; U.S. Losing Fight to Keep Americans from Joining ISIS; U.S. Has New Weapon Against ISIS; Make- or-Break Time for Jeb Bush; Kevin Spacey Weighs in on Trump Campaign; Georgia Woman on Death Row Denied Clemency. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired September 29, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] NICK HANAUER, VENTURE CAPITALIST & AUTHOR: Even our former speaker, John Boehner, who often would say if you raise the price of employment, you get less of it. This is just idiotic nonsense and is divorced from what actually happens when you raise wages for workers.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Going back, to be fair, there are mega donors on the Democrat side, but I hear the point you're throwing down.

Back to Mr. Icahn, we know he is backing Donald Trump. You saw the tax plan that Trump put out yesterday. He says, listen, this is a guy to bring about change to Washington, someone who isn't connected to other interests. I don't know how plugged in you have been, but is that what the country needs? Do you think Donald Trump, a fellow zillionaire, is the guy for the job?

HANAUER: Well, I do not because I think while there are populist elements to Trump's tax plan, which is a huge step in the right direction for the Republican Party, I actually don't think that he would make a very good president. I don't think that in general business people make very good political leaders because we business people habituate ourselves to this really much simpler and narrower challenge of running a business in which anyone who doesn't do what we want, we can, as Donald Trump loves to say, fire them. But unfortunately, it makes running a business easy. But running a country, you can't fire the citizens, and it makes it much, much harder to get people to do what you want them to do.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You can't necessarily fire people who are elected who sit in the halls of Capitol Hill. But at the same time, Americans disagree with you. They see him as this successful billionaire who has tremendously run a number of companies, and why not sit in the Oval Office?

HANAUER: Yeah, but to be clear, not very many Americans disagree with me. A small double-digit percentage of voters prefer him over the other 12 or 20 Republican candidates. That is nothing close to or approaching a majority of Americans.

(CROSSTALK) BALDWIN: I hear you. I hear you. You're a great voice from this sliver of the population. Come back. Come back, Nick Hanauer. Thank you so much for joining me. Venture capitalist there in Seattle, Washington. Thank you, sir.

HANAUER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Next, a disturbing new report suggests the United States is losing the fight to keep Americans from joining ISIS. Hear how many women are running to jihad.

In the meantime, the U.S. has a new weapon against ISIS. They are hoping Hollywood producers and writers are helping the State Department fight back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:26] BALDWIN: Breaking now into CNN. We're learning that Kelly Gissendaner, her clemency has been denied. The parole board has been meeting for the last couple hours. So clemency denied. She's set to be executed at 7:00 eastern tonight. There's been a number of people coming out in the last couple days fighting for clemency. Most importantly, we know there was a letter from Pope Francis himself essentially imploring this parole board to consider clemency for her. That was denied. When you hear from the family of the man who she had killed, they would argue he never was granted e clemency before his life was taken years ago. The execution set for 7:00 eastern tonight.

News in from the war on ISIS. New report by Congressional task force finding the U.S. is losing the recruiting battle to stop Americans from traveling abroad to fight alongside ISIS. It's believed that 25,000 foreign fighters have joined in Syria and Iraq since 2011. 250 of those Americans, including 30 women. So what will it take to stem the flow of foreign fighters? The State Department thinks fighting fire with fire might work. I'm talking about the war off the battlefield. The recruiting success of high-production propaganda videos, like this one, prompting the U.S. to turn to Hollywood's best producers, even the brains behind the film "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty."

Joining me, Asawin Suebsaeng, the deputy social media editor at "The Daily Beast."

Asawin, welcome.

Thank you so much for having me.

BALDWIN: The Hollywood attendees at this Palm Springs Summit with the State Department was Mark Bowl, a screen writer of "Zero Dark Thirty." Who else was there and what are they being asked to do?

[14:39:49] ASAWIN SUEBSAENG, DEPUTY SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: The details are sketchy, but according to our sources, people including Mark Bowl, the screen writer behind "Zero Dark Thirty" was there. So we have envoys of HBO, SnapChat and other people in social media organizations and from Hollywood. But for anyone taking stock of the propaganda war between western powers, including the United States, it's hard to say we're winning. And the Obama administration has tried efforts to sort of staunch the momentum of recruitment to ISIS. It appears one of the things they are trying out is reaching out to folks in Hollywood and entertainment and social media giants to brainstorm ways to form counter narratives to what ISIS is pushing online and elsewhere.

[14:40:44] BALDWIN: So if they are talking to folks at SnapChat and Hollywood heavy weights, are they trying to push out a counter narrative using creative geniuses in the form of film?

SUEBSAENG: That's part of it, but a big part is trying to put them in touch with regional film makers in the Middle East. Who can, among other things, help create content that emphasizes a different path for youth in the Middle East. Whether that's what they would say positive narratives, including engaging in entrepreneurial work, working in an NGO, engaging in community service. Things that may be less thrilling, but less destructive and more constructive than engaging in rape and mass murder.

BALDWIN: I think this is an important voice to point out, a former senior counterterrorism adviser who set up the anti-jihadist outreach. One of his quotes, this sort of thing usually ends up with executives high-fiving each other and throwing around cringe worthy ideas. Did he say what he meant? He was throwing cold water on this idea.

SUEBSAENG: He didn't say exactly, but one example of the State Department trying to wield social media to use against jihadists is what many would deem a cringe-worthy idea. On Twitter, you can find an account called "Think Again, Turn Away." It's run out of the State Department. The job of people running this is essentially to troll jihadis jihadists on Twitter. And tell them where they are stupid. You may find it not effective. But --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So that's one example that hasn't been working. Hopefully, something can. We have seen these videos have been effective from ISIS. They have to counter that.

Asawin, thank you so much.

SUEBSAENG: It's been real. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thanks.

Next, is it make-or-break time for Republican presidential contender, Jeb Bush? His poll numbers are half of what they were this summer, just two months ago. Can he make a comeback?

Plus, he plays -- sorry folks, spoiler alert -- the president on "House of Cards." Now Kevin Spacey weighing in on who would win a debate between Donald Trump and Francis Underwood. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:03] BALDWIN: At this very moment, Republican presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, is outlining his energy plan for a crowd there in Pennsylvania today. He's pushing for more fracking, less federal regulation, but those who are definitely keeping score here say what really needs to happen here is to see an energized campaign. The latest poll numbers from the "Wall Street Journal" have him in fifth place getting just 7 percent of Republicans. That is half of what he was polling just two months ago. Republican fundraisers have told "The Washington Post" that, right now, it's make-or-break time for Jeb Bush.

So to Gloria Borger we go.

Make or break, however you want to phrase this headline, Jeb Bush said, hang on, it's a marathon. My question, is it make or break? Is there truth to this donor panic?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, not according to a senior Jeb Bush adviser. I just got off the phone with hi him. He was saying these stories are ridiculous. But he says we're in this for the long haul. We're going to have strong cash on hand at the end of the quarter. He understands that the dynamic right now is between Carly Fiorina and Trump. But he says we are in it for the long haul. Our donors have seen this movie before. They went through it with Mitt Romney and with John McCain and you'll remember John McCain in December of 2007 was at 7 percent in the polls and he ended up winning the nomination in 2008. Giuliani was the front runner at that time.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you about the new polls that came out. These are hypothetical head to heads between had Hillary Clinton and Republican candidates. So every Republican does really well against Hillary Clinton, except Donald Trump.

[14:50:14] BORGER: It's his unfavorable rating. Donald Trump has a 58 percent unfavorable rating. And when you break down those numbers in a bunch of polls we have been looking at, 85 percent of Democrats view him unfavorably. A majority of independent voters view him unfavorably. Somebody like Carly Fiorina or Ben Carson, who are not as well known, have net favorable ratings so they do better in this kind of matchup. So the problem that Trump has as a general election candidate is he has to be better liked. That's why we see him kind of trying to act little bit more presidential, toning it down, telling Erin Burnett yesterday, that, yes, he might have been a little childish, but this is a presidential race. So I think he sees that problem. He's a smart man. He can read those polls. 58 unfavorable is hard to get away from.

BALDWIN: He does like those polls.

BORGER: He does.

BALDWIN: Gloria Borger, thank you very much.

BORGER: Sure. BALDWIN: Speaking of Donald Trump, the 2016 presidential race is dominated by these outsiders. Donald Trump is leading the pack, but what if another jumped into the fray, for example, Francis Underwood.

CNN's chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, cornered -- he's now president on "House of Cards."

You caught up with Kevin Spacey on the red carpet, and this whole hypothetical Trump and Underwood matchup. You tell me how you phrased the question and what he said.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me give you the context here and before we get people going after us on Twitter. We know that Francis Underwood is a fictitious character.

(LAUGHTER)

But that was kind of the point. This was in good fun. Let's look at what happened and I'll tell you more about it on the other side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So you are famous for doing your impressions among other things.

KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: Yes. Yes, thank you.

BASH: Are you working on Trump?

SPACEY: No, I haven't been working on Trump. I will say this, I was asked, if there was a debate between Donald Trump and Francis Underwood, who would win that debate. I said I wanted to make sure that the people understood there was a distinction. One is a fictional character and the other is a fictional character.

(LAUGHTER)

So I think it's important we make that distinction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Of course, Kevin Spacey is a Democrat so that's also part of this it. But it was good fun and the context of this is we were talking at an event for a very good cause.

BALDWIN: Talk a little bit about that. What brought these people together in the first place?

BASH: Kevin Spacey has the Kevin Spacey Foundation. I was asked to interview him and Cal Ripkin, who has the Cal Ripkin Senior Foundation named after his father. They do wonderful, wonderful things to help kids in sports and young actors and artists coming up. So I was asked to do kind of a fun interview with the two of them at a local arena stage here at a local theater and raise money for this wonderful cause. That was the context of this. I was very honored and flattered to be asked to do it. BALDWIN: I love it. I dig it. Any time I get to see your face pop

up on "House of Cards," I'm like yes.

(LAUGHTER)

Dana Bash, thank you so much.

BASH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

For weeks, Republicans demanding that planned parenthood answer for controversial videos. They are getting their chance to grill the woman in charge here. Hear the fiery moments and how she responds, ahead.

Plus, Paul Walker's daughter suing Porsche over the fiery crash that killed the actor. She says it's the car that is to blame and not the driver. Does she have a case? That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[14:58:33] BALDWIN: Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Breaking news. A Georgia woman on death row has been denied clemency. This after a representative from Pope Francis sent a letter to the Georgia prison board here asking them to spare Kelly Gissendaner's life. She's set to die at 7:00 eastern time this evening. She will be the first woman in 70 years to be executed in the state of Georgia. She's the mother of two. She's been on death row for just about two decades. Have to take you back here to 1997. That's when a jury found her guilty in the murder of her husband. She convinced her boyfriend at the time to actually commit the murder. He is in prison for life.

Let's go life to Martin Savidge with the news here.

Obviously, the news being we have just learned she has been denied clemency.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this is the second time this parole board has had to review this case. They are well familiar with it. They said this is the third clemency appeal for this particular woman, but the end result is the same decision.

By the way, this parole board is made up of five people, all men, all of them were appointed by Republican governors. Two of them are former lawmakers and the other three are former law enforcement or connected with law enforcement. So that's who makes it up.

We don't know how the vote went. It has to be a majority. The simple answer is that the execution is slated to go forward.

There are other appeal attempts that are being made.