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Ben Carson Versus the Media; Fourth Republican Debate Tonight; Colorado High School Sexting Scandal Wake Up Call to Parents; Late Night Comedians Target GOP; A Sinkhole at IHOP. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 10, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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


ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, on to politics. Ben Carson does not like the questions that journalists have been asking him and he claims the media has been tougher on him than other candidates.

[07:30:02] Is that the case I ask you? I also ask our next guests, CNN political commentator and political strategist Bob Beckel, and Matt Lewis, conservative writer and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller". Gentlemen, great to have you here.

Matt, I want to start with you. Has the field of journalism, has the media, been tougher on Ben Carson than on other candidates?

MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, THE DAILY CALLER: I don't think so. I do think that there's liberal media bias in the world. I think most of our friends and colleagues in the mainstream media tend to be more liberal. But I think that what Ben Carson has faced is entirely appropriate and fair. And I think it's good for the republic. It's good for the Republicans, even, to have a candidate who is properly vetted before going up against Hillary Clinton.

I think, at this point now, it looks like Ben Carson, I think as we've seen things develop, it looks like he has embellished -- his memoir was embellished. But we're not seeing any smoking gun as of now. I think at the end of the day, he might be better off having gone through this process.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But let me ask you this then, why are there those, ironically on the right side of the media, defending Ben Carson so zealously against routine vetting? And planting all these seeds about they didn't talk about Obama that way. What is this, a black comparison now? Why is so much of that going on if the vetting is acceptable?

LEWIS: Well, look, I think that there is, as I said earlier, I do think that there is some bias. I do not think President Obama before he came president was really properly vetted. And, by the way, I think some of this is a matter of -- it's like pornography. You know it when you see it.

The thing with bias is, a lot of times it's insidious, a lot of times it's the tone that a reporter takes when they talk about a Republican versus a liberal. But I also think that Republicans are a little bit defensive about this. You know, there have been decades and decades where we've seen liberal media bias impact elections. And so, frankly, I think there's an overreaction. I think there's a circling of the wagons. Whenever it's perceived that a Republican is being attacked, rather than ask whether or not it's fair, a lot of times conservatives reflectively push back. And I think that's sometimes that's counterproductive.

CAMEROTA: Hey, Bob, I want to play for you something that Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC, has said that really reflects what Matt Lewis just told us. And that is that yes, journalists do ask Hillary Clinton some questions, but they use kid gloves in a way that they don't with Ben Carson. So listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: In regard to Hillary Clinton, the media sort of, yes, they cover it but they cover it with a laugh and a wink and a nod. And isn't that horrible that she had to sit in the chair for 11 hours? I mean, that's the tone of the coverage of Hillary Clinton. It's a tone of this is silly, let's move on. Whereas with the Republicans, it's, hey, can you believe that 40 years ago this happened? Or that, hey, this credit card over here --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Bob, is there some merit to that argument?

BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: None. By the way, Matt, that was a good try.

The -- Look, this is not new. Republicans have been using this tactic to turn around and attack reporters for as long as I've been in the -- it was in the political business a long time. Now, they, because their base likes that kind of thing. They all think that you all are just a bunch of corrupt liberal wine and cheese-eating, Volvo-driving, lesbian-loving people. So when they take off like this --

CUOMO: Does it say that in your bio on Twitter?

CAMEROTA: A little bit, go on.

BECKEL: I got that, yes. Now the other thing about Carson is, look, Alisyn, you got your share of this the other morning. You did a great job. You were just telling what he said. I mean, it wasn't as if you were giving him a question that was about something that you heard. This is what he wrote, and he still couldn't handle it. Well, welcome to the big leagues, Dr. Carson. I mean, he said he's not sure who he stabbed. I've been stabbed. I remember who stabbed me. And I remember being stabbed.

CUOMO: Was not Ben Carson, just to be accurate, right, Bob?

BECKEL: I'm not sure.

CUOMO: Because you've been trying to find that guy.

BECKEL: No, no, it wasn't Ben. But he's got to realize -- forget all this other stuff. On issues, the guy can't explain his tax position. He can't explain his Middle Eastern position. He can't explain his defense position. And now he's taken some of the world's great monuments like the pyramids and turn them into grain bins. I mean --

CAMEROTA: But Bob, doesn't that just prove the point? Which is shouldn't journalists -- I mean what Ben Carson would say is that journalists should just be focusing on those things, those things of substance, and do away with his personal childhood stories that may have some discrepancies?

BECKEL: Well, if there's enough discrepancies, no, the answer to that is no. But I'll tell you, the CNBC, those people sat around. They must have had a bad night or they got in trouble with their husbands and wives. But man, I'll tell you, that was ridiculous.

Now, Fox people are going to come out and they're going to ask very serious policy questions. They're not going to do any gotcha stuff so Republicans can't pull that off again, or at least going to try to do that. So I think that, from here on out, people ought to ask substantive questions. I mean, somebody's got to ask Donald Trump, if he's going to build a 12-foot fence, which by the way I'm the person to invest in 13-foot ladders, and he's going to make the Mexicans pay for it.

[07:35:04] What's he going to do if they don't pay for it? Is he going to invade? I mean, nobody asked him that follow-up question and he gets away with it.

CUOMO: No, but that's not true. See, and this is an interesting thing. You're right that we want the answer to it. It doesn't mean we don't ask about it. It's a very -- a division between those things.

And, Matt, and that's what takes us to the central point here. Ben Carson is his personal narrative. That is what is fueling his popularity. Yes, the more people learn, the more they like. I don't need a poll to tell me that. I hear it at home. But what I'm saying is it is not an unfair question to ask somebody about what is central to their existence in a race, right? And if you fuel it as this antagonism between the media and the politicians, is that a really healthy thing for the process?

LEWIS: I think, look, I think you're right. I think that Ben Carson's never been elected to anything ever. He has no governing experience. So we can't look at that, we can't look at his past votes or time in government. So you look at his biography, which he has put out there and which is part of his rationale for his candidacy. It's his legacy.

And if there are questions, if there are embellishments or even fabrications, that raises real questions about him. I think it's entirely fair. And I would say the answer to the problem of media bias isn't to give Ben Carson a free ride or a pass, it's to go harder against all politicians. I actually think that journalists and media should just do a better job of vetting all the politicians running for office.

BECKEL: Well, Matt, Matt --

LEWIS: And I think it's the last refuge of a failing campaign when you do nothing but whine about bias.

BECKEL: You know, Matt, the Democrats -- Hillary Clinton has been before -- there have been over 20, over 20 hearings from Benghazi. This woman has, from the first day she got into the public eye back in Arkansas, has been playing defense because she's been hit from every direction.

I mean, the Democrats get this a lot, too. And we don't whine about it; we just expect it, you know? But you guys have been a policy issue out of it. That's fine. But it's not going to get you very far. And to suggest the Democrats are somehow being treated with kid gloves, what is your chairman talking about? Do you think he could sit for 11 hours and do that? I doubt it.

CAMEROTA: But Matt, about that point, Hillary Clinton, do you think she's been vetted thoroughly over the course of her career in politics?

LEWIS: I actually do think that Hillary Clinton, compared to Barack Obama, I think there's a stark contrast there. I think that Hillary Clinton has been vetted much more thoroughly and that the press -- never mind the hard news media. Just consider the way that the comedians cover them. Remember, Barack Obama, it was very hard for late night shows, "Saturday Night Live", to parody Barack Obama. With Hillary, you've seen them go out of their way to kind of mimic her and make her -- and raise questions about her being really ambitious. So I think there's a big contrast by the way that Hillary has been vetted versus Obama.

CAMEROTA: Well, you raise such an interesting point, Matt, because that's the problem with calling it "the media". Because the media is SNL, the media is "Glamour" magazine. The media -- but when you talk about journalists, you talk about obviously the journalists at CNN and elsewhere, and that's a different category. But I do think that we lump it all together.

But that's a question for another day. Matt Lewis, Bob Beckle, thanks so much. Great to talk to you guys both.

BECKEL: Thanks.

LEWIS: Pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here's a story parents really need to pay attention to. A sexting scandal rocking a Colorado high school. How did so many students -- we're talking hundred -- exchange so many lewd pictures without parents or teachers knowing? You will get information you need to know, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:42:47] PEREIRA: This morning, the fallout of a sexting scandal involving as many as 100 kids and hundreds of photos, naked photos of them, it continues to rock a small community in Colorado. What do parents need to know? Apparently there's a secretive app kids are using. How do we keep our children safe if this kind of technology exists?

Here to discuss is CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, James Steyer, and Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst.

Ah, common sense, what an interesting concept when we're talking about a teenager. I was guilty of not having a whole lot of it myself. But this is a whole new ball game, James. I mean, there are going to be people that will say what do you think will happen? You give teenage kids smartphones, of course this is going to happen. A lot of people are going to say there's nothing you can do about this. Is that true?

JAMES STEYER, CEO AND FOUNDER, COMMON SENSE MEDIA: Well, you know, teens as we all know self-reveal before they self-reflect. And they do a lot of dumb things. And clearly what's happened here is teens who know a lot more about their phones than their parents do have discovered Vault and they discovered these vault apps, which have a calculator on the front but actually turn out to be a photo app. And they took a lot of nude photos.

The thing is, there is a lot we can do about it. First of all as parents, you don't have to be an expert on technology to understand that teens are going to do dumb things, and that technology enables this. So you have to have really good conversations with your kids now.

PEREIRA: But here's the thing. This technology is changing so quickly that you might be hip to Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat, but, baby, that technology left you behind like two years ago.

STEYER: That's true. But you can talk with your kids about what they're doing. And even though their teenagers, and I'm the father of four of them, you can have conversations with them about things like the fact that nothing is really private on the Internet, the fact that everything is permanent. You think you're taking a photo and it's going to disappear after five seconds but it doesn't, and that there are consequences to your behavior. So even if you're not an expert, you can certainly be a common sense parent.

PEREIRA: Yes, ask questions, being involved.

Mel, you're a parent as well and I know you have to do that. I want to talk about what we know in terms of consensual.

[07:45:00] We understand that some of the sharing was consensual between some of the kids, but I want to play a little bit of sound from one of the teenagers that gets to the point of -- you talk about education, James. Listen to what one of the students said about knowledge of how serious this was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KENDRA, STUDENT, CANON CITY HIGH SCHOOL: And it's just become something that like everybody was doing so nobody really saw something really bad about it. Like, I personally just knew morally that it was wrong, but I didn't really know legally to the extent of how wrong it was, because nobody every really told us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: So even if a kid, Mel, has a really good moral compass and gets carried away or what have you, the other kids pressure them doing it or whatever, can they face legal trouble? I mean, this could affect them going forward.

MEL ROBBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR & LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Michaela. Good morning, James. First of all, I agree with everything that James said. The answer to your question, Michaela, can they face legal trouble? Absolutely. Not only face it, these are felonies because you're talking about creating, possessing, and distributing pornography. And because so many kids are under age, it's child pornography.

One of the things I have to say is, so far, I applaud the way law enforcement has been handling this issue, because in my personal opinion these are kids that are emerging in their sexuality, their brains are not fully developed. The biggest issue for teenagers is impulse control. And you already have everybody doing it. And so based on everything we know about human behavior, this is exactly what you can expect in this day and age with kids. And the laws need to be changed. And the No. 1 thing that parents can do is they can start talking and they should start talking early.

PEREIRA: Well, that's it, James.

ROBBINS: As in 8-year-old, 9-year-old, 10-year-old.

PEREIRA: Start young so you establish that relationship.

STEYER: Correct.

PEREIRA: Because the challenge is once a kid gets to be being a teenager and the door closes to their bedroom a little more often, you don't want to drive them further underground, right? You have to walk a fine line here.

STEYER: That's right, Michaela. And I agree with Mel. I'm a former prosecutor, by the way. This is not a prosecutored case in my opinion. This is really about a teachable moment for all of us by the way. And you're right. I mean, we just released a major study, Common Sense did, that shows that the average teen spends nine hours per day with media and technology, not including time spent in school. So they live in a 24/7 media world.

As a parent, you may not know everything, but this is a teachable moment for all of us --

PEREIRA: OK. STEYER: -- in understanding that kids are prone to doing stuff like this, so you've got to be their guide and parent.

PEREIRA: James and Mel, not only a teachable moment, a wakeup call for a lot of parents, I'm going to guess. This situation in Colorado is a call to action for so many around the nation. Thanks for joining us to talk about it.

Chris?

CUOMO: It is happening everywhere, Michaela. And if parents want to blame it on somebody else, but it all starts at home. You nailed it in that segment. We got to keep talking about this as well.

All right. How about this one? Stunner. I mean, you're going to be shocked. Late-night comics using the 2016 race to find fresh material. They're actually joking about this election. What?

CAMEROTA: What?

CUOMO: Who's their favorite target this time? I'll bet you a buck you can't figure it out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:06] CAMEROTA: Ben Carson's history and Jeb Bush's poll numbers providing plenty of fodder for late night comedians. Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": I had the cutest thing happen last night. I was putting my daughter to bed and she asked me to read her a fairy tale. And I said Mother Goose? And she said, Ben Carson.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT": Bernie Sanders on Friday said his seven grandchildren are the joy of his life. And his grandchildren said the very same thing about their grandchildren.

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": At tomorrow's fourth Republican debate, all eyes will be on rising star Marco Rubio. The Florida senator looked incredibly presidential at the last debate thanks to his brilliant strategy of standing next to Jeb Bush.

CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN": Ben Carson apparently has a painting of himself with Jesus. A painting of himself with Jesus? When he heard this, Larry King said, "Big deal, I have a selfie with Jesus."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: You don't see many comedians going with the Larry King punch line lately.

CUOMO: Pretty good wide spray there. I think -- I love Colbert but I think Seth Meyers may have gotten me this time because of his look at the end of the tale. Let me try and --

CAMEROTA: You actually do that look.

CUOMO: Do I have one of those? Well, good, feel better about myself.

All right, so something opened up in an IHOP parking lot. But whatever you do, don't call it a sinkhole.

CNN's Jeanne Moos explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You pull into an IHOP thinking about this, and then all of a sudden your car ends up pancaked. This is drone footage showing a dozen or more cars that fell into a 30-foot-deep hole when IHOP's brand new parking lot collapsed in Meridian, Mississippi.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a big deal, we finally got IHOP. And then as soon as it happens, this happens.

MOOS: But what is this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to call it a sinkhole, I'm not going to call it a cave-in. I'm going to call it an accident.

MOOS: Though first called a sinkhole, it became apparent that the collapse of an underground storm drain was the likely culprit. Now this is a sinkhole. Eight vintage Corvettes fell into one at the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky.

For purists, a sinkhole is when rock is dissolved by groundwater, leading to a sudden collapse. But we tend to call anything that causes things to suddenly sink into a hole a sinkhole.

At the Meridian IHOP, no one was hurt. This Chevy was the luckiest car. The night of the collapse, three tires were left on the pavement. By the next day, only two were still on. It was the first car to be removed .

(on camera): Sinkhole or no sinkhole, for now let's just call it the International House of Holes, IHOH.

(voice-over): The drone footage was so impressive that a city official asked its operator, Jason Hardwig, to go lower to look at the pipe.

[07:55:00]

(on camera): Your drone got swallowed by the hole, did it not?

JASON HARDWIG, DRONE OPERATOR: Yes.

MOOS (voice-over): It clipped the side of the trench and ended up in it. The fire department came to the rescue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've got a big long stake with a hook on it basically. Yanked it out.

MOOS: For now IHOP is closed and I'm hungry. This non-sinkhole makes me want to sink my teeth into a stack of flapjacks -- not a stack of cars.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: I still can't get over that.

CAMEROTA: I know, that is a stunning picture. I'm glad Jeanne had some fun with it.

PEREIRA: And it all connects to pancakes.

CUOMO: It does. And I get, you know -- you know who doesn't want to call it a the sink hole? Those car owners.

PEREIRA: Yes, that's true.

All right, back to our story. Top brass resigning at the University of Missouri. Boiled over tensions concerning racial tension on the campus. Was the football team's refusal to play the straw that broke the camel's back? We're going to ask a former wide receiver for the Tigers who joins us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSHALL ALLEN, MEMBER, CONCERNED STUDENT 1950: The resignation of Tim Wolfe is a glimmer of hope.

TIM WOLFE, FORMER UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI PRESIDENT: Please use this resignation to heal. Not to hate.

[08:00:00] JONATHAN BUTLER, STUDENT ON HUNGER STRIKE: From the moment I made my announcement, people thought I was a dead man walking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I expect an actual debate about the economy, jobs, trade, taxes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All eyes are on Ben Carson. All eyes are on Donald Trump.