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CNN NEWSROOM

Republican Candidates Gearing up for CNN Debate; Interview with Jan Brewer; Closing Arguments Underway for First Freddie Gray Trial; New "Star Wars" Movie Hits Theaters Friday. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 14, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:31:42] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The stage is set in Vegas. The last Republican debate of 2015 will take place at the Venetian Hotel tomorrow night. There it is. It will set up the Iowa caucuses, which are only 48 days away. Donald Trump will take center stage but Senator Ted Cruz is surging. Cruz now leads in Iowa and he is neck and neck with Trump in national polls.

Former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is on the phone to talk about this. Good morning.

JAN BREWER (R), FORMER ARIZONA GOVERNOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Are you rooting for anyone in particular?

BREWER: Well, I just am so excited about this election. It's been a phenomenal election primary as far as I'm concerned. In my lifetime I have never seen anything like it. Yes, I'm very excited. I haven't endorsed anybody yet, I'm waiting to see them. I've got a few questions to find out from all the candidates.

COSTELLO: What is the question that will gain your support?

BREWER: Well, what I've got a concern about is what got me interested in politics to begin with and that was education. I think a lot of the candidates including Donald Trump are confusing common core with federal involvement in local education decisions.

I don't want Washington -- let me be perfectly clear -- I do not want Washington involved in local education decisions any more than I want them involved in common core. You know, common core was a state- created and state-implemented voluntary set of standards in Math and English that are comparable across state lines. With the President just signing the Every Child Succeed act just recently with unanimous -- not unanimous but almost bipartisan support -- it was a good thing because it was getting rid of No Child Left Behind, getting the federal government out of it.

So, you know, common core was state-implemented and should be ran by the states. I want to find out from these candidates, do they support that?

COSTELLO: I don't know if you will tomorrow night because, of course, the subject will be national security. They'll be talking a lot about how to fight ISIS and their strategy on the war on ISIS.

BREWER: Right.

COSTELLO: They'll also be talking about how to protect our country. And as you know, Donald Trump's plan is to ban all Muslims from coming into the United States. I know that you agree with him mostly on his immigration plan, but do you agree with that part of it, to ban Muslims from coming into the country?

BREWER: Well, I think most of us in America want our security. There's so many people out there that are fearful and now with this realization of immigration, with the terrorists, we need to have better checks and balances in regards to who's emigrating into our country.

We, unfortunately, have reaped some terrible actions here in the United States, recently in San Bernardino. And whatever they need to do to keep us safe, I'm all for.

COSTELLO: Including -- including, governor, banning Muslims from coming into the United States?

BREWER: You know, I don't agree with that, you know, but I think that the standards should be extremely vigilant and that we have to be very cautious and careful who we interview and how we interview and what information that we get to assure that we're not getting terrorists into our country.

(CROSSTALK)

[10:35:11] COSTELLO: So, Governor, I just to want go back to the ban for just a second. Why do you not support that? Is it a constitutional issue in your mind?

BREWER: Well, I believe it could very well be unconstitutional to ban people. We are a country of immigrants but we have to know who's coming in. They need to come in legally. And we need to be sure that we have been able to have them satisfy the criteria that we set for them to come into our country.

COSTELLO: I also want to --

BREWER: We just can't open up our doors. We just can't open up our doors and let everybody in. They're not going to tell us they're terrorists. They're just going to come.

COSTELLO: Right.

I also want to bring up this Winthrop University poll because it's very interesting. It illustrates why Trump's South Carolina supporters love him so much. Example, according to this Winthrop University poll, 68 percent of Trump supporters say whites face the same amount or more discrimination as African-Americans.

Governor -- many Americans would disagree with that. Can you help us understand that?

BREWER: I'm sorry, Carol, I didn't hear you real clear when you read that.

COSTELLO: OK. So it shows, this Winthrop University poll shows that 68 percent -- 68 percent of Trump supporters in South Carolina say whites face the same amount or more discrimination as African- Americans. Help us make sense of that.

BREWER: That doesn't make sense to me. I can't. I don't understand that. I don't understand that. I don't. Whites face the same or more discrimination than blacks?

COSTELLO: 68 percent of Trump supporters in South Carolina believe that.

BREWER: Well, I don't know how the question was framed. I don't -- you know, I don't believe that. I don't think that's true.

COSTELLO: The poll also shows --

BREWER: I'm sorry.

COSTELLO: No, I'm with you. I didn't understand it either. So, the poll also shows 73 percent of Trump supporters say immigrants take away jobs. Of course, some people say immigrants perform jobs Americans don't want. What do you say?

BREWER: Well, you know, I do believe that people hire immigrants, legal and illegal immigrants to do certain jobs that maybe possibly could go to American citizens and that's unfortunate. If they're here legally, I think it's OK. If they're here illegally, then they ought not be taking jobs from American citizens.

COSTELLO: And a last question about Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz is now surging, he's also quite conservative. But according to a Fox News poll, Cruz along with Rubio cannot beat Hillary Clinton as well as Trump. So how do both candidates appeal to more moderate voters, in your mind?

BREWER: Well, I think that as we go through this process and we get through Iowa and New Hampshire and south Carolina, that we will see better where these people want to lead our country and what they can do best to make us safe and to protect state rights, and that eventually it will be whittled down and some people will rise to the top and that will be the candidate. That's what's going to happen.

Right now, of course, we know Cruz is strong in Iowa and Christie is moving up in New Hampshire and Trump is really strong in South Carolina. You know, we've never, ever seen anything like this. So it's going to play out day by day. And I think that's what makes it so exciting particularly coming on tomorrow. In fact, the matter is we used to have four million, five million

people would watch. Now we've got what -- 20 million, 25 million people watching these debates because it has been varied in opinions and direction in which they're going and what people understand and the circumstances with terrorism.

And the other issues, the local issues that are facing our country are being discussed. I hope that we have a full discussion tomorrow night in regard to the issues that are on the front lines and we'll learn more. And I will make a decision who I'm going to support some time after the first of the year.

COSTELLO: OK. So we'll be calling you, Jan Brewer. Thanks so much for joining me this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Rand Paul on the attack next. We've got the first look at the Senator's new ad. Guess who he's targeting.

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[10:43:38] COSTELLO: Senator Rand Paul will, indeed, be on the debate stage tomorrow night. At the very last minute Paul qualified for the main stage after a Fox News poll showed his support up to 5 percent in Iowa.

Now the Kentucky senator is out with a new ad attacking Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz over immigration and Syrian refugees. This is the first time this ad has been played on television. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some refuse to learn from mistakes.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have welcomed refugees -- the tired, huddled masses for centuries. That's been the history of the United States. We should continue to do so.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, we've always been a country that's been willing to accept people who have been displaced. And I would be open to that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But Rand Paul sounded the alarm.

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: It is almost a certainty ISIS will infiltrate. Why should we take one of these people?

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, this is one of the reasons I opposed Rubio's bill originally on immigration because I didn't think there was enough scrutiny for those who might come and attack us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Doug Stafford joins me now. He's the senior strategist for Rand Paul's campaign. Welcome -- sir. DOUG STAFFORD, SENIOR STRATEGIST, RAND PAUL CAMPAIGN: Good

morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good.

First of all, what's it like, you're waiting for these polls to see if you qualify for the main stage. This Fox News poll comes out Sunday, at the last minute. What's that like for you and the candidate?

[10:45:00] STAFFORD: Well, we're just very pleased that Senator Paul is going to be will be on the main stage where we believe that he belongs. He was in fifth place in multiple national and Iowa polls and we're pleased he's going to be able get to present his vision to everybody tomorrow night. We're looking forward to it.

COSTELLO: What would have happened had he not made it, had that Fox News poll not come out?

STAFFORD: We believe that there were many reasons why Senator Paul should be on that stage. Again, we're pleased that he is.

COSTELLO: So, you would have fought it?

STAFFORD: We were continuing to discuss it and we would have continued to discuss it, yes.

COSTELLO: OK. So this new ad, I noticed it has no mention of the front-runner Donald Trump. Why is that?

STAFFORD: We wanted to highlight a couple things in this ad. One is Senator Paul's position on national security and border security, the vision that he's had to put these things out there years ago.

And also some of the positions that other candidates that have either been against Senator Paul, voting against his border security, and Refugee and Visa amendments, or folks who have said different things at different times over the last couple of years.

And you know, there's a longer record for some of these other folks. Senator Paul wanted to put this out there and let everybody see that he's a candidate who is very focused on national security and a very important element of national security is border security.

COSTELLO: So explain to my viewers what Senator Paul means when he says that Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are too soft on immigration. What exactly are Senator Paul's plans for refugees or immigrants coming into this country?

STAFFORD: Senator Paul has called for a pause in refugee and visa programs from countries where there is terrorist captivity -- it's 34 countries and what he has said is that says, we need to figure out how to make this system work. It doesn't right now.

Senator Paul uses an example from his hometown. This is very close to home for Senator Paul and for the people of Kentucky. There were two terrorists that had come from Iraq as refugees into Bowling Green, Kentucky. And they were caught by the FBI and prosecuted for plotting terrorist -- to help terrorists overseas and even plotting to attack an army captain in the United States.

These folks were let in, in the very same program that people were asking for Syrian refugees. Senator Paul wants us to learn from the mistakes we made and make sure that program is fixed. The government isn't doing this very well right now. And until we could figure it out there needs to be a pause to make sure our country is secure.

COSTELLO: So Senator Paul is calling it a pause. Is that terribly different from what Donald Trump is suggesting when he says we have to put a stop to Muslims coming into the United States?

STAFFORD: It is in a number of ways. Senator Paul is not targeting any particular religion. He's targeting countries where there's been a history of problems, number one. Number two is --

COSTELLO: Well, are they majority Muslim countries?

STAFFORD: Are they what?

COSTELLO: Majority Muslim countries?

STAFFORD: I'm sure most of them are -- not all hours, not all ours and it's not targeting everybody that is a Muslim. It's targeting people that have to come from areas where we would need extra, very careful about who comes here.

COSTELLO: Got you. Doug Stafford, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

STAFFORD: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

With just seven weeks until the Iowa caucuses, Ted Cruz's surprising surge in the state can be attributed partly to one core group -- that would be evangelicals.

A "Des Moines Register" poll showing 45 percent of those voters now back Cruz, and that news comes after Cruz secured the endorsement of an influential Iowa conservative.

COSTELLO: Joining me now, Maeve Reston. She's our `CNN national political reporter. She has more on this. Good morning.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: -- Good morning, Carol. Well, yes, it's been a great big month for Ted Cruz. He's obviously rising in the polls in Iowa. That has surprised some people. But he has been putting in the spade work there for months and months.

Obviously, he got this endorsement recently from Bob Vanderplatt who's a very influential evangelical in the state, And so it's been really fascinating to see the dynamic between Trump and Cruz, which we will see play out on the debate stage tomorrow night.

Cruz has got almost double the amount of support from evangelicals of anyone else in the field right now in Iowa and that poll is famously accurate. It may give us a very good indicator of where the race stands right now.

And of course, those voters so important to in turning out people out on caucus night -- they're well organized Ted Cruz is deeply rooted in that community and he really has a great shot here to surge into the lead and get a big bounce out of Iowa if he can hold on for these seven weeks that we have before the caucuses.

COSTELLO: What happened to Ben Carson? I thought he had all the evangelical support.

[10:49:54] RESTON: Well, it's so fascinating in the way the framework of the race has really changed since the Paris terrorist attacks and now San Bernardino. There are obviously a lot of voters who questioned Ben Carson's readiness on the national stage to be commander in chief.

If you look at the poll numbers you really see their confidence in Ben Carson dropping in terms of whether he can handle issues like terrorism. Trump is still very strong in that area. Cruz is as well. Obviously other contenders like Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, will be on the stage tomorrow night trying to prove that they're the ones with the national security credentials to pull the nation through at this time.

But Carson really has fallen. It's been Cruz's gain as Carson has fallen.

COSTELLO: All right. Maeve Reston reporting live for us from Las Vegas. Thank you.

Still to come in the newsroom --

Oh, finally something fun. The long wait almost over for Star Wars fans. Tonight's the world premiere of "The Force Awakens".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 54 minutes past. Baltimore police are preparing for the worst as the first of six officer trials in the death of Freddie Gray nears a verdict. The fate of Officer William Porter seen here entering court last hour could be in the jury's hands as early as today. A decision many fear could spark unrest. Jean Casarez in Baltimore this morning. Hi, Jean.

[10:55:09] JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Closing arguments have begun. The prosecution is well into them at this point. Assistant state attorney Janice Bledsoe is giving a passionate closing argument. At some point she's screaming in the courtroom as she faces the jury, saying that the defendant, William Porter, just didn't care. She is also saying his state of mind, that he knew Freddie Gray was in medical distress. She points out so, why that is so. One point being that when he told the wagon driver, Oscar Goodson, that he had asked if he needed a medic, he said yes. He also said central booking wouldn't accept Freddie Gray. That shows that he knew he had a medical issue.

Also very small but could become so significant. The prosecution is alleging at stop number four, such an important

stop, where the defendant speaks to Freddie Gray. That Freddie Gray said, I can't breathe. The defendant is saying, I never said that at all.

And, Carol, I've never seen the defendant animated before, but as they are attacking his credibility in the closing arguments, he is talking to his attorneys, his attorneys are taking notes and the courtroom is packed to capacity -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez reporting live.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris today for high-level talks aimed at ending the Syrian civil war. Tonight he travels to Moscow where he'll sit down with Vladimir Putin in an attempt to level Russian support for a possible cease-fire.

Here in States, Adele's American fans will finally get their wish. The British singer will tour North America next year beginning in St. Paul Minnesota on July 5th. The four-months concert series will have hit 56 U.S. cities in the U.S. Canada and Mexico. Adele's last U.S. Tour was in 2011.

What we've all been waiting for. It could be the biggest movie opening of all time. Tonight the world premiere for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and then it opens in theaters everywhere this weekend. CNN Money reporter Frank Pallotta is here. Oh my Gosh. I'm excited.

FRANK PALLOTTA, CNN MONEY REPORTER: You're excited. I'm excited. Everybody's excited.

PALLOTTA: We're pathetic but excited.

PALLOTTA: The force is awakening. It's a little groggy, it's been 30 years but it's awakened.

COSTELLO: At least I remember it. You probably don't in its first run.

PALLOTTA: But I grew up on it. That's the thing. People of my age, I'm 28 -- I grew up on these films. And they in a large way kind of molded me into it -- yes.

COSTELLO: Really, you don't think they're cheesy?

PALLOTTA: No, they're not -- Carol. No.

COSTELLO: I mean they're not cheesy to me. But I was --

PALLOTTA: They're American mythology at its purest. They are good versus Evil. And right now in the kind of world we're living in, it's kind of good to see good guys back on the screen.

COSTELLO: OK. So there have been crazy people waiting in California for days for the movie's opening so they can get in.

PALLOTTA: Yes. All the way since last Saturday. 12 days before its release, people have been waiting outside with (inaudible) -- tiny theater. These are my people, Carol, waiting out the theater for the big event this weekend.

(CROSSTALK)

PALLOTTA: No, no, you're fine. Don't listen to her. It's good. It's wonderful. It's family. This is a communal event.

COSTELLO: There also been like millions of tickets already sold all over the world, right?

PALLOTTA: Yes, there's been reports that the film has already sold $50 million worth of presale tickets -- that's sight unseen. It's projected to bring in around $200 to $220 million this weekend. That would make it the biggest opening in box office history in the United States.

COSTELLO: It is unbelievable. I watched "60 Minutes" last night and they interviewed J.J. Abrams, who -- I mean he's so excited because he's a fan and he's the director. But in my mind that could be good and bad.

PALLOTTA: Yes, it could go either way. The good thing is a lot of the fans really feel that -- they feel safe with JJ at the helm because he's loved these films as much as we have. He can kind of it into the next generation for all these new fans, all these empire of fans -- no pun intended.

COSTELLO: I like how he described when the casting of the movie because he wanted the cast to reflect what the world really looks like and I found that refreshing.

PALLOTTA: Yes. I mean you have Daisy Ridley, who's a woman leading the way. You have John Boyega, who is an African-American which is much different than how it was back in the 70s and 80s where Lando Calrissian who was Billy Dee Williams, was really the only African-American in the film. And Leia, Princess Leia, who's played by Carrie Fisher, who will return in this film was really the only female character.

COSTELLO: Can't wait. Do you know what role -- she'll play Princess Leia again -- right.

PALLOTTA: She's General Leia now. If you call her Princess, she gets a little upset. That's what the reports have. But that's the thing -- that's why the premier is so important tonight. No one really knows what to expect. No one has really seen it outside of the cast and crew.

COSTELLO: Harrison Ford, I can't wait -- I love Harrison Ford. PALLOTTA: I love Harrison Ford, too.

COSTELLO: I've loved him for years. And I still love him today.

PALLOTTA: Looks better than me, and he's like 75 years old.

COSTELLO: You're very nice to say that, Frank.

PALLOTTA: I can't compare with Han Solo.

[11:00:02] COSTELLO: No one can, really -- right.

PALLOTTA: No one can.

COSTELLO: OK.

PALLOTTA: I know.

COSTELLO: Frank Pallotta -- thanks so much.

PALLOTTA: Thank you so much -- Carol.

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

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