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CNN NEWSROOM

Tornado Outbreak Kills 8, Injures Dozens; TSA Imposes Mandatory Body Scanning; Clinton Dominates Latest Poll, Sanders Edges Up; Life and Death Fight to Retake Ramadi; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 24, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:01:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is a massive mark tornado.

COSTELLO: Deadly storms rip across the south and Midwest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It cut trees in half. And I don't know why I'm still standing here talking to you.

COSTELLO: Tornadoes, giant hail, whipping winds. Even this tractor- trailer can't stay upright.

Plus, terror fears up. Now the TSA is beefing up airport security. Why not everyone can opt out of those body scans?

Also, the NBA's powerful push to stop gun violence.

JOAKIM NOAH, CHICAGO BULLS: I've been blessed to play for the Chicago Bulls for nine years now and Chicago's been like a second home to me. As much as I love it, the biggest issue is this gun violence. The access to the guns is out of control.

COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The death toll rising moments ago in a deadly tornado outbreak. Eight people have been killed across three states. Just last hour, our first look at the devastation. A 7-year-old boy killed here in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Unbelievable video, a twister striking this busy highway, it flipped over cars as it crossed the road.

Chad Myers is in the weather center in Atlanta with more for us. Good morning.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. We had hail, we had wind and we had tornadoes. Officially 24 reports of tornadoes yesterday. Now that number will change. Weather Services has to go out and look at these because this one tornado you talked about that was Holly Springs was actually on the ground for possibly 140 miles. From -- just west of Mississippi all the way through, in Holly Springs and then even on up into Tennessee. And I know you're going to talk to someone from Tennessee coming up right after this.

It is not unusual to get tornadoes on the ground in December. 24 the average. The irony is yesterday the number is 24. That number will change, though, as the weather service goes out and takes a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

MYERS (voice-over): This Christmas Eve morning hundreds of people are waking up to utter devastation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy Malcolm.

MYERS: The destruction caused by a deadly tornado outbreak cutting across the south and Midwest. This tornado claimed multiple lives including a 7-year-old boy as residents desperately tried to hide in their cars and homes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By the time I got out of my car, I had a tree that was in my windshield.

MYERS: In northern Mississippi, this tornado tore through a busy highway. Watch as the massive twister tosses this tractor-trailer as it barrels through traffic. Watch from this angle from what appears to be the same semi. This driver just feet away.

The winds in southwestern Tennessee roared up to 75 miles per hour as officials declared a state of emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The houses just exploded. And they were buried in the rubble.

MYERS: Two people were killed east of Memphis, their bodies found under debris.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were in the house, we heard the wind picking up. We had 45 seconds and it just hit. We walked out to the storm shelter and everything was gone.

MYERS: And in Arkansas an 18-year-old woman died when a tree fell through her house, toppled by the high winds and heavy rain.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Christmas is all about love. And we're going to love through this.

MYERS: Some residents in Mississippi clinging on to what they say matters most, after losing nearly everything this holiday season.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't about the house. It was about my family and those the most important thing to me.

(END VIDEOTAPE) MYERS: Christmas eve tornadoes, quite a rare thing, quite a devastating thing for so many people yesterday. There may be a few reports of severe weather today. It's not out of the question that we still get a few reports. Give you an idea the numbers are about 10 times less important today. The severe indexes, about 10 times less high today than yesterday. So yes, there will be something but there won't be what we saw yesterday.

[10:05:03] In fact, there could be some severe weather all the way up to New York, all the way up to Philadelphia. And there will be certainly this record warmth. It feels like spring. And the atmosphere thinks it's spring as well. That's why we had, Carol, that's why we had the spring-like weather yesterday.

COSTELLO: It's just so crazy.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: I went outside this morning to go to work and I had to take off my winter coat.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Really strange. Chad Myers, thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: With me on the phone now is Dean Flener. He's the -- part of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Welcome, sir.

DEAN FLENER, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, TENNESSEE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Can you tell us how things are this morning in Tennessee?

FLENER: Well, we're just -- we're heartbroken that we've got a report that we've had three fatalities in the state. We had two last night, in Perry County, a male and a female, and then overnight we had another male fatality in Ray County. So our thoughts just go out to the families and friends of those folks, and we're out today with local officials, emergency management agencies, doing storm damage surveys. Of course, we have the national weather service out -- actually National Weather Service out seeing, you know, confirming tornadoes passed and intensity. So we're still got a lot of work ahead of us today.

COSTELLO: Do you have any idea how these people died?

FLENER: I don't have any details on those specific fatalities. It's hard to lose people any time of the year, but at the holiday, it's just -- it's really, really sad and we're thinking about our neighbors down in Mississippi and Alabama because Mississippi got hit really, really hard and they were right on our border. So our thoughts go out to them, too. COSTELLO: Yes. We're looking at live -- we're looking at aerial

pictures of the damage in Holly Springs, Mississippi, as we speak. But tell me about damage to physical buildings in Tennessee. Was it extensive?

FLENER: Well, we have one county that had about 12 to 15 homes damaged. Overall we had from last night it looks about 13 counties in west and middle Tennessee, including a little over into East Tennessee in our Cumberland plateau area, with, you know, homes here and there, reports of debris. Nothing widespread, no widespread power outages or anything like that, but the system did what the weather service said it was going to do, we were going to have heavy rain, straight-line winds and tornado damage. And that's exactly what happened.

COSTELLO: All right. Dean Flener, I'll let you get back to work. Thank you so much for joining me this morning.

FLENER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Severe weather isn't the only concern for holiday travelers. Terrorism is always a constant worry, especially at this time of year. The TSA will be relying more on body scanners this season as more than five million passengers travel on airplanes this holiday. That's because body scanners are better at detecting hidden threats than a physical pat-down. Even if a passenger requests a pat- down, the TSA will require a body scan anyway.

Sara Sidner is at LaGuardia Airport in New York to tell us more. Good morning.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, you know, a lot of people don't know about this new rule. Basically what it says is you can't completely opt out of having to go through the body scanner. And this will affect some passengers, not all. So you can still ask to be patted down as opposed to going through this machine but the TSA is now saying that it is not necessarily that it will be granted, your request will be granted.

And so they are warning passengers. But most people hadn't heard of it. It is coming at a time when huge numbers of people are coming to the airport to travel on Christmas eve. For New Year's this will still be in effect. And so TSA trying to get the word out there.

There is some confusion I guess you could call it where critics are saying, wait a minute. Some people will be told that they have to go through the scanner and other people will be told that they can get a pat-down. What is the message here? The TSA saying, look, we are doing this in response to heightened fear of terrorism, heightened security here in the airport. And this is going to be the way it is. Passengers need to know that if they refuse to go through the body scanners when they're told that they absolutely have to do that, that they won't be able to get on their planes -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sara Sidner reporting live from LaGuardia this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, houses rigged to explode and terrified civilians with nowhere to go. We'll take you inside the battle against ISIS, next.

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[10:12:50] COSTELLO: To politics now and the Democratic race for the White House, a race that Hillary Clinton continues to dominate. New CNN poll showing the Democratic frontrunner at 50 percent, compared to 34 percent for Bernie Sanders. Martin O'Malley in third place with just 3 percent.

Sanders spoke out on the numbers this morning to CNN saying that even with that wide gap with Clinton, his campaign is in a good place.

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When we began this campaign, as you will recall, we were 3 percent, 5 percent in the polls. I think all of the pundits considered us a fringe candidacy. Today we -- perhaps we're in the lead in New Hampshire where I think closing in here in Iowa and your poll seems to indicate that we have national momentum. So I think we have come a really long way in 7 1/2 months and we're feeling really good.

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COSTELLO: CNN's Joe Johns is in Washington with more on the numbers. Good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. One of the interesting things about this poll is that part of it was done before the last debate when Bernie Sanders was running close to Clinton but the polling that was done after the debate showed Clinton's support growing substantially.

On the key issue points that we asked questions about, Hillary Clinton still holds a commanding lead when it comes to foreign policy, handling ISIS and even gun policy. But speaking of the economy which Bernie Sanders has been hammering away on, he has gained some ground about eight points. Still, he is trailing Clinton by roughly the same margin.

What our show -- poll shows is despite the fact that Hillary continues to dominate the race for the Democratic nomination as well, she's only leading in terms of favorability by a very narrow margin ahead of Bernie Sanders, in terms of like 77 percent to 74 percent, which is well within the margin of error. It was the two top Democratic candidates especially a parody this goes back to what we've known Mrs. Clinton for a long time among Democratic respondents, she has higher unfavorable than Bernie Sanders, about seven points according to our poll -- Carol.

[10:15:02] COSTELLO: Interesting. Joe Johns reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

It's not just the state of his own campaign that Bernie Sanders is talking about. He also talked to CNN about the rise of Donald Trump. It's a phenomenon -- it's a phenomenon Sanders attributes, in part, to lots of airtime but also to Trump's focus on the concerns Americans are feeling about terror, the economy, and other issues.

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SANDERS: I think that Trump is very effectively playing to the fears and the anxieties that millions of people in this country have and have legitimately so. We're all concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack against this country. We are all concerned about ISIS. We're all concerned about a disappearing middle class. You have in this country people who don't understand why it is that we've increased productivity and technology, they're working longer hours for low-wages.

They're worried to death about their kids. They're worried about the economy and Trump comes along. And he says, I've got the solution. And what the solution is Mexicans coming into this country, let's throw them all out. That'll solve all of our problems. It's Muslims. They're terrorists, we have to hate them. Well, that is not the solution to our problems. That is simply scapegoating minorities, playing one group off against another. It's what demagogues have always done.

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COSTELLO: For his part, Trump isn't letting jabs from Democrats or Republicans dampen his holiday Spirit. Trump tweeting this Christmas card out to supporters last night. You're going to see in a minute. OK. So this is what it says. I'll describes it. I wish I have something that I could draw because we don't have it right now. But it's complete with his signature phrase, "Make America Great Again." And he sends his love to everyone.

Here to talk about that and more, Amanda Carpenter, former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz and Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker." Both are also CNN political commentators.

Welcome to both of you.

RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORKER: Thank you.

AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, SEN. TED CRUZ: Hey, good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks. So let's talk about these polls for just a second. You see that Hillary Clinton has this huge lead, Ryan, but in likability she's not faring so well. And actually when you pit Hillary Clinton against some of the Republican candidates, and we have a graphic to show that, she loses to Rubio and Ted Cruz, among others.

What do you make of that, Ryan.

LIZZA: Well, a couple of things, Sanders has really, at least in the national polls, he's sort of hit this demographic wall that a lot of the more liberal presidential candidates often do in Democratic primaries where he does well with northeastern white liberals but he can't expand his base beyond that and does not do well with African- Americans or Hispanics, which are very important constituencies in the Democratic Party, especially African-Americans when you start to go into those southern primaries like South Carolina.

So, you know, I don't think it's -- you know, people are -- it seems like it's a tough race for Sanders. Hillary Clinton is still the likely Democratic nominee. He needs to upset her in one or two places to get another look by some of those other constituencies.

On the likability front on Hillary, that's a big problem for her. It's always been a major problem for her going back to when she was first lady. People know a lot about Hillary Clinton and it's very hard to give voters information that will change their mind one way or another. Either love her or hate her and that's sort of her curse and blessing.

COSTELLO: Right. But, again, Amanda, in taking a look at that graphic, when you pit Hillary Clinton against Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, it's neck and neck or she loses by a percentage point or two. So why is that happening?

CARPENTER: Well, I think to a lot of people, Democratic, independent and Republican, Clinton is a sign of the establishment. I mean, the Clintons have been in the national stage for a long, long time. It's not clear what new she's bringing to the table, but also in this poll, you know, it is fascinating. She loses to Trump by two points. Cruz beats her by two points. Rubio beats her by three points. But when you look at the independents, Cruz and Rubio beat Clinton by 12 points. I mean, I had to read it a few times. It seems like a Christmas miracle.

But this is great positioning for Republicans. And it's something Hillary Clinton really needs to be concerned about because I think they put so much emphasis on trying to appeal only to the progressive wings, you know, unmarried single women that they've forgotten about a big party's electorate. And so Republicans are ready to store in, this is great news and we'll see what happens in a head-to-head match- up but Cruz, Rubio, Trump should be feeling pretty good right now.

COSTELLO: OK. So one name not -- that we're not mentioning is Ben Carson, right? So yesterday Ben Carson, you know, "The Washington Post" reported there was a big shakeup in his campaign. Ben Carson appeared on Don Lemon's show and said, wait a minute, this is just a media creation. Let's listen to what he said.

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DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: "The Washington Post," quite frankly, had their story already written before they talked to me.

[10:20:03] And they were convinced that I was going to fire everybody and that we were going to just go in a completely different direction. And that's absolutely not true.

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COSTELLO: So, Ryan, is that absolutely not true?

LIZZA: Look, I read these reports pretty closely. And it looks like what happened is Carson certainly told "The Washington Post" that he was considering a big campaign shakeup. And "The Washington Post" went and checked that with one of his top advisers. That adviser who Carson suggested might be on the chopping block said, no, no, that's not the case, and they sort of cleaned it up. But you still have two of the advisers through the press at war with one another and Carson trying to sort of, you know, control things.

Look, he was almost the frontrunner and he has dropped in the polls precipitously and he probably has good reasons to want and shake up his campaign. It looks like this entire race is slipping away from him and he's going to, you know, leave the race down into single digits. So, you know, these process stories are never good for candidates. You never want to be in the press talking about campaign shakeups, and not talking about your issues. So he's sort of trapped in a little bit of a spiral here.

COSTELLO: So I was reading the conservative blog Red State this morning, Amanda, and it sort of brought up the specter of Ben Carson only being in this race to make money. And, you know, that's probably -- I mean, it's probably not true. I don't know if it's true or not but the specter is now there in conservative circles.

CARPENTER: Yes. This is something that's been talked about for a while mainly because his fundraising operation, while it brings in a great deal of money, it doesn't have a lot of cash on hand because of consultants he's using to produce that money are very expensive. And so people have been worried about that for a long time.

But, listen, when staff is infighting in the press it's kind of a death rattle for a campaign. A lot of people say, well, Ben Carson started to decline in the polls after San Bernardino and the Paris attacks. I reject that a little bit because if you look at the weeks before, he was coming under intense scrutiny. People asking questions about his life story. He said he had produced somebody to corroborate the stabbing incident, which he talks about a lot.

He never did that. He was making allegations about China, having military presence on the ground in Syria. He said he'd produce evidence of that. He never did. They were flailing well before the terror attacks. He went abroad to try to refocus. And I think when he came back the campaign was in disarray.

COSTELLO: So, Ryan, is his last --

LIZZA: Yes.

COSTELLO: His last stand the next Republican debate in January?

LIZZA: I think so. He hasn't really -- except for one of the early debates, he hasn't really stood out recently in the debates. And look, it's very tough. When you get a close look, you shoot up in the polls. Republicans -- his opponents get excited about you in one of these open primaries. And then that's your moment to consolidate that support. Once you start to decline and the voters move on to the next hot thing, it's very hard to come back to that.

That's what happened a lot in 2012 when you had a series of candidates like Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann rise and fall. And once they fell they never roe again. So I think it's -- Carson, like -- we were talking about with Sanders, he's got to win a state. Right? Nobody has voted rate. This whole race is still very open. If he can find a state where he can win, he will get a second look. But Iowa was his best option. And it looks like a Cruz-Trump race in Iowa right now.

COSTELLO: It does. Ryan Lizza, Amanda Carpenter, I have to leave it there. Thanks to both of you.

LIZZA: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, a new threat against Westerners. Why the U.S. embassy in China is warning Americans to be extra vigilant.

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[10:27:12] COSTELLO: Warnings are going out to Americans and other Westerners in China about possible threats to their safety during Christmastime. The U.S., British, French and Australian embassies in Beijing are urging people to be extra vigilant if they're in a popular shopping area or dining area in a neighborhood called Sanlitun. That's where a man with a sword killed a Chinese woman and injured her French husband in August.

Beijing has put more police on the streets and all shopping malls. It's also issued a security alert but Beijing officials say that's because the holiday crowds -- that's because of the holiday crows not the embassy warnings.

New this morning, we're getting an inside look at the mission to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Backed by U.S. air power, Iraqi troops are just a mile away from the ISIS-held government compound in Ramadi.

These are pictures from inside Ramadi. Now it's incredibly dangerous, this battle, as soldiers make their way through the streets. A short time ago U.S. Colonel Steve Warren told CNN ISIS has rigged houses there to explode.

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COL. STEVE WARREN, SPOKESMAN, OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: This enemy has set up defensive belts so they use IEDs, the very same IEDs that we faced here in Iraq years ago but now they use them in clusters as if they were mine fields. They will rig entire houses to be -- to explode if you come near them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, Colonel Warren is in Baghdad. He's part of the team heading up the American effort in Iraq. Barbara Starr joins us now from the Pentagon to tell us more about the

battle for Ramadi.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The battle for Ramadi goes on, as you say, and very slow going at this point. Now the U.S. fields so far the months of training Iraqi forces is beginning to pay off. That the Iraqis are showing the ability to move into the city, to move through the streets, to root out fighters, get past these IEDs and obstacles. Whether they can hold the territory remains to be seen but right now they are continuing to be on the move.

As this is happening, there is a very quiet conversation inside the administration about whether or not to loosen the rules of engagement, the rules governing when the U.S. can drop bombs with airstrikes. Why is that conversation happening? Well, the U.S. wants to step up the pressure on ISIS and feels the one thing it can really do is step up the airstrikes. They want to have more airstrikes so they want to have rules that allow them to have more.

Colonel Warren talked about this. He was very clear that this is going to be a decision that will be very difficult.

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WARREN: As we apply additional pressure on the ground, as our Iraqi and in the case of Syria, some of our partner forces there in Syria, as they pressure this enemy.