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Why Trump Says He's Not Going Anywhere; House GOP Grills Planned Parenthood President. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 30, 2015 - 07:30   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: After exhausting all appeals and despite a plea from the pope, a Georgia woman was executed overnight for the 1997 murder of her husband. Kelly Gissendaner was put to death after the Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to step in. Witnesses say that she sang "Amazing Grace" in her final moments. She's the first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. has done nothing to prevent Americans from joining ISIS. That is according to a new bipartisan report. It also says there is no plan to prevent those Americans from returning stateside once they have been radicalized by ISIS. Seven thousand foreign fighters joined ISIS over the past nine months, more than 250 of them Americans.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The Palestinian flag set to be raised at the U.N. for the first time today. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will preside over a ceremony this afternoon. Abbas is calling the historic event a beacon of hope in trying to achieve independent state.

PEREIRA: Fashion icon, Ralph Lauren, stepping down as CEO of the company that bears his name. He turns 76 next month. The company announced that this man, Stefan Larson -- I don't think we have a picture of him -- former president of Old Navy will take over in November. Ralph Lauren says he will stay on as executive chairman and chief creative officer. He expects his relationship with the new CEO to be a partnership -- Chris.

CUOMO: There is a new profile of Donald Trump and it's pulling no punches. If Mario Cuomo said a politician campaign in poetry and governs in prose, we can shove that notion aside in the case of Donald Trump. He campaigns in poetry in much the same way a wild hog sips chardonnay.

The author of that piece joins us now, Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent at the "New York Times" magazine. How are you doing? Good to see you. You quoted my pop. I don't know if he would have agreed to Donald Trump in the context you did it, but what's your main point? Can't you read, Mark, he's at the top of all the polls?

MARK LEIBOVICH, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, "NEW YORK TIMES": I think the going -- I think what do the headlines say, Donald Trump is not going anywhere. You can look at it as he's not going anywhere, or he's not going anywhere and here to stay. Because we're so clever at "The New York Times" magazine, we did that to readers to impose their own views on whatever that means.

CUOMO: Now, what's your take on it. You avoided writing about him. Tell us why. Tell us why you think it's now important to do it and what do you think the future holds?

LEIBOVICH: Well, I avoided writing about him because I didn't think he was serious, both in my business and out of my business, I thought, one, he wasn't going to do this. He flirted with this notion for many, many campaign cycles now.

I thought it was a publicity play for him. And then even when he announced, I thought that he was touching a lot of third rails, going after undocumented immigrants and wounded veterans and so forth or POWS and so forth, this wasn't going to end well or end quickly.

Eventually, look, you just have to, you know, see where these things are going. And he was clearly getting a lot of traction very quickly and it became impossible to ignore. As a journalist, you have to go where the story is. He's been the story for almost three solid months.

CUOMO: Why is he slipping in the polls? His team will debate that, by the way. They'll say he's holding, not slipping. If the numbers are what they appear to be, and there is attrition, do you think it's a Francis effect? Do you think it's the wash of the second debate where everyone seemed to raise their game? What do you think it is?

[07:35:06] LEIBOVICH: I think it's gravity in some ways. In some ways it's impossible for him to sustain the momentum he was. I think he would even say the race to time. Again, he's still in the lead in virtually every poll.

I think it will be more interesting is if this continues and he actually has to campaign from behind a little bit. And, you know, he can seem a bit reckless in going after gratuitously his fellow candidates. It will be interesting when he needs to do this to take the lead and regain momentum.

CUOMO: Another choice is the media likes to build you up to tear you down. His tone catapulted him but now it seems he's getting it from all quarters. Even Fox saying he shouldn't be saying the things he's saying. What does that mean in terms of going forward?

LEIBOVICH: First of all, the fact he has so many enemies and taken on so many sacred cows. Certainly, fox news and the Republican Party is not someone anyone has gone after if they're running for office nationally is frankly exhilarating.

This is someone who has absolutely no interest in catering to the money interests, to the donors, to the lobbyists, to Wall Street, to the rules of political correctness. Within the Republican Party, especially, you know, especially around an issue like immigration. This is an incredibly thrilling and refreshing thing to see. In some ways I think he's been very deftly -- very deft in turning around these fights he's picked and sort of used it as a badge of honor he's going after these people who have gotten into the status quo situation that created him.

CUOMO: What do you make of this new piece where his wife is talking for the first time? She's been intentionally kept out of the fray. She's saying, I'm going to pick my spots. I'm going to go forward. What's your take on that?

LEIBOVICH: I think -- I just saw the cover now. At home with the Trumps on "People" magazine, which for some --

CUOMO: Coming to a TV screen near you soon.

LEIBOVICH: It actually makes me chuckle for some reason. At home with the Trumps and seems like another reality series. This is not Melania Trump's show. I think she'll pick her spots but, frankly, the spouses of the candidates except for Bill Clinton have not been part of this campaign at all.

Again, I don't think she's going to be a big part of what we see going forward, but I think this is probably part of an ongoing effort and more of a sign that Trump is really here to stay. When you get the "People" magazine cover and the wife talking, it's usually a signal that you're somebody now for real.

CUOMO: When I come to you to talk turkey near the end of November, pun intended, what do you think you'll be saying about Donald Trump? Will he be in the race? Where will he be?

LEIBOVICH: The great thing about Donald Trump is that -- have I no idea. No one has any idea. I asked him repeatedly in all the time we spent together, I said, Mr. Trump, where does this end? He would say I have no idea. He would pepper it with a profanity or two.

And, you know, at one point we were standing on one of his golf courses in Southern California before the second debate. He said, I have no idea and it was sunset and we were Palace Verdis, he said, I have no idea, but it's beautiful. I thought that was a distillation of him.

CUOMO: The artist coming out of you, the sun and the Trump and the beautiful, I love it. Mark, thank you very much.

LEIBOVICH: All unintentional. Thanks, guys.

CUOMO: Always intentional. Thank you, sir. What do you think? Did you see the piece? Read it and tweet us, #newdaycnn. Post your comment on facebook.com/newday -- Alyson.

CAMEROTA: OK, well, Planned Parenthood's president defending her organization in a heated showdown on Capitol Hill. We will talk with one of the lawmakers trying to cut funds to Planned Parenthood next.

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[07:43:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CECILE RICHARDS, PRESIDENT, PLANNED PARENTHOOD: The outrageous accusations leveled against Planned Parenthood, based on heavily doctored videos are offensive and categorically untrue. It is unacceptable that in the 21st Century women in America are routinely harassed for accessing a legal medical procedure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was the head of Planned Parenthood pushing back against Republican critics during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday.

Joining us now is one of those lawmakers at that hearing who is leading the charge to defund Planned Parenthood, Tennessee Republican Congresswoman Diane Black. Congresswoman, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

What's frustrating about watching that hearing and even talking about it today is that these arguments go around and around. Planned Parenthood says these videos are heavily doctored and edited. You say they're not. When will the congressional investigation into what happened here be complete?

REPRESENTATIVE DIANE BLACK (R), TENNESSEE: There are three different committees that have jurisdiction over this issue. Yesterday was really about funding. That was the purpose of that particular hearing yesterday. Of course, judiciary will be having their hearing as well as energy and commerce.

You will hear more about the different parts of this as time goes on. I think judiciary is looking at these films and what happened in these films, whether they are illegal activities, from the films that are out there. And there are unedited films.

If people want to see that, they can do that. What Ms. Richards was talking about in the forensic analysis that was done by the agency that they hired, which, by the way, is a Democratic polling agency or Democratic --

CAMEROTA: Sure. Everyone is hiring their own sort of self-interested agency to look at it. We need a neutral agency to see what happened and what should be done, if anything. You know --

BLACK: That's correct, Alisyn. That's what Coalfire is. It is not affiliated with any political party. It's a well-known forensic analyst company.

[07:45:03] CAMEROTA: Congresswoman, sorry to interrupt you, but Coalfire, the company you're referring to, it was funded in part by the Alliance Defending Freedom or at least the Alliance Defending Freedom sponsored part of it, and they're a conservative Christian nonprofit. I don't want to get too far in the weeds because the investigation congressional hasn't been done yet.

But yet, you are calling for defunding of Planned Parenthood. Let me put up a poll for you. A recent "USA Today" poll and it shows how the American public feels about your mission here.

Should all federal funding of Planned Parenthood be cut off? Only 29 percent say yes, 65 percent say no. They believed that Planned Parenthood should still be funded.

Furthermore "USA Today's" poll went on and asked, if the government is shut down over Planned Parenthood being defunded, whom would you blame? President Obama, 11 percent, congressional Democrats, 10 percent, congressional Republicans, 43 percent. It seems as the public as a whole is not with your mission here.

BLACK: So a couple things, Alisyn. One thing is, I don't want to shut down the government and neither do many of our colleagues. We want to shut down illegal activity at Planned Parenthood. The second thing is the American people have still not seen these films.

We find that only about 15 percent of them have actually looked at the films. I encourage people to go out and look at them. Another poll I can point to where people did see these films and prior to seeing them, they may have had the opinion that you have, or that you cite in this poll.

After seeing them, we see this number go way up that more than 50 percent of the people say, no, you should withhold the funds until the investigation is done. I want people to take a look at these films.

The third thing I want to be sure I get here is that in my own bill it says if Planned Parenthood decides they're going to suspend abortions, they'll still get money for their other services.

As Ms. Richards said yesterday only 3 percent of their services are abortions. Why not suspend those and do their mission and that is affordable health care for women. She has that choice. She can do that.

CAMEROTA: The problem is, is if women can't go to Planned Parenthood anymore for abortions, abortion doesn't go away. Unwanted pregnancies don't go away. What goes away is access to safe, legal abortions. As we know from countries that don't allow abortion, women still resort to abortion, but they do so in a more desperate way. Is that what you want for American women?

BLACK: Alisyn, look, abortions are legal and there are abortion providers around. We're talking about Planned Parenthood and their possible and what I feel looking at those films as a nurse for more than 40 years, activities that are very close to the line of being illegal.

And we cannot allow that to happen here in this country. Look, it is our responsibility as congressional members to investigate and look into what happens, especially when taxpayer dollars are given to an organization. CAMEROTA: Sure, that's your prerogative and people do want an investigation. But you're trying to defund them before the investigation is complete. One more element, many of the private health care clinics you and other Republicans say, why don't women go to these private health care clinics?

In fact, they don't take Medicare, many of them. Poor women would not be able to get services, certainly abortion services. Half of the Planned Parenthood patients, this is interesting, are on Medicaid --

BLACK: Alisyn, I have to interrupt you because that is not so. For every one Planned Parenthood clinic there are community health care centers that do take Medicaid, required to take Medicaid if they receive federal dollars. For every one Planned Parenthood clinic, there are 20 qualified health care clinics around this country.

CAMEROTA: Yes and according to --

BLACK: So, that's not true.

CAMEROTA: There's another detail about those clinics. You're talking about the public clinics.

BLACK: That's right. I'm talking about community health care centers.

CAMEROTA: That's fine. I was talking about the private clinics that sometimes lawmakers say that women should go to. But about yours, the public clinics you talk to in those numbers, according to the HHS, most of them do not have a certified OB/GYN on staff. Are you comfortable with women going to these for reproductive services and birth control without being able to see an OB/GYN?

BLACK: Let me tell you what I am comfortable with. Back in 2009 when I was a state senator in Tennessee, we defunded Planned Parenthood. And we were able to take care of everyone in that state.

As a matter of fact, we only have four Planned Parenthood clinics in our state. We have over 280 federally community health qualified centers. I know it can be done. It was done in our state. It's been done in other states as well.

I will tell you, there is care out there for these women. We increased the number of dollars even in my bill. We give an additional $285 million so we can assure women are taking care of. Look, I'm a nurse. I've been here for a long time.

CAMEROTA: Not just nurse, OB/GYNS.

[07:50:09] BLACK: At these clinics if there's not an OB/GYN in the clinic, they will refer them out into the community to the doctors in the community.

CAMEROTA: OK, All right, Congresswoman Diane Black, thank you so much. We will watch what happens on Capitol Hill with this issue, of course. Coming up on NEW DAY, we will speak with the man who produced the controversial undercover videos. We'll be right back.

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[07:54:27]

CUOMO: Breaking news coming in to CNN. Russia is launching its first air strike in Syria. We're going to have a live report with details and what this means right ahead.

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[07:58:26]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't need federal dollars in order to do this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Planned Parenthood is so important to the women, men and families of this country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you defend the sale of baby body parts?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Letters of clemency on behalf of Pope Francis.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The notion of clemency, why do we have it if someone like this doesn't qualify.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Several presidential candidates have talked about tearing up the Iran deal.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: It is not a wise thing to try to tear it up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome back to NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, September 30th, 8:00 in the east.

Fireworks on Capitol Hill, people want to defund Planned Parenthood and they are making their case. The president of the organization is saying they are wrong, grilled for five hours, vehemently denying that Planned Parenthood profits from the sale of baby parts.

CAMEROTA: Richards claims the lawmakers are, quote, "obsessed with taking healthcare away from women." Insisting the tapes were heavily doctored. CNN's national correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, is live in Washington with all the latest. Tell us what happened there on Capitol Hill -- Suzanne. SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Republicans used multiple angles of attack to make their case that federal dollars should not go Planned Parenthood including accusations around hosting pricey pear parties, fundraising, providing exurban salaries, as well as performing abortions.