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Trump Courts Evangelicals at Liberty University; Trump Ban Up for Debate in U.K. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 18, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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


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[10:31:51] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for being here with me on this Monday.

Donald Trump is making his 2016 pitch directly to evangelicals this hour. Take a look here. These are some live pictures from Liberty University in Virginia -- a popular and critical stop for Republicans looking to boost their support among conservatives. Trump's appearance comes as the British parliament prepares to debate whether or not the billionaire businessman should be banned from the U.K. after more than half a million people signed a petition calling for the ban because of, quote, "hate speech".

CNN is covering all angles of this. Jim Acosta in Virginia with Donald Trump and Max Foster is live in London. Jim, our senior White House correspondent, what is the latest? It looks like a packed house there.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely is, Pam, and I'm going to do my best to hear you as well as I can right now. Donald Trump is getting the Christian rock treatment, you might say, here at Liberty University. The university founded by Christian conservatives in Virginia. And Donald Trump is essentially talking to this evangelical crowd because he wants to go after a key voting bloc for his archrival in Iowa, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Now, we should point out, yes this arena, this basketball arena, is packed for Donald Trump here. He's going to be out in just a few moments. But I was just talking to some students here, talking to officials with the university. We should point out to our viewers that the students are required to go to these events during their semesters here at Liberty University. They get one skip, a student told me, so they can skip the event, but their attendance is mandatory and it is checked by officials at the university. So that partly explains why there is such a big crowd here.

But we also know that Donald Trump can pack an auditorium. He's certainly doing that here today. And he's been talking about his faith in recent days, talking about his relationship with the evangelical community. That might sound surprising, might sound strange to some of Donald Trump's critics, but he's talking about it.

And here is what he had to say over the weekend on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a great relationship with God. I have a great relationship with the evangelicals. In fact, nationwide I'm up by a lot. I'm leading everybody.

But I like to be good. I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness, and I am good. I don't do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that's bad. I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, what will be interesting to watch for because Christian conservatives are going to be listening to his words very carefully here, is whether he goes after Ted Cruz who is a darling of the evangelical movement. Does he go after Ted Cruz and question his eligibility to be president? Does he go after Cruz and talk about the loans that Ted Cruz got for his campaign back in 2012?

We'll be watching and listening for all of that but this is sort of evangelical week for Donald Trump. He's not only speaking here at Liberty University today, he's going to be at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma later on this week. So, Donald Trump definitely wooing evangelicals all week long as we get very close to those Iowa caucuses -- Pam.

BROWN: And plus you're able to report with all that going on in the background. Jim Acosta, hang in there because we're going to be going back to you soon when Trump speaks.

[10:35:04] Max Foster, let's bring you in because there's a debate going on in the British parliament essentially to decide whether or not to ban Trump from the U.K. What's going on? What's the latest there?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's extraordinary really. I can't remember a time when a whole debate was dedicated to banning one person. Certainly questions have been raised about banning people in the past. People have been banned in the past but for a whole debate -- a three-hour debate to discuss one person is pretty extraordinary.

It doesn't have any teeth though -- Pam. There's no vote at the end of it which means he will be banned. That's really a decision for the Home Secretary. She makes that on her own. But she's made clear that she's open to that option.

So if this whole debate rises up and people rise up against Donald Trump, maybe she will reconsider. But the prime minister saying he doesn't think Donald Trump should be banned.

So it's extraordinary really, but Donald Trump's senior executive here in the U.K. has spoken in the last couple of hours saying this is absurd, absurd, ridiculous waste of time, and she's actually saying Donald Trump will withdraw a billion dollars worth of planned investment in Scotland if, indeed, he is banned.

I think really what we're talking about today isn't a ban, it's about lots of people very fed up with what Donald Trump has been saying, particularly about Muslims. They think it's outrageous that he should get away with saying these things and they have parliamentary privilege. They can say what they want in parliament without being sued in any way as a result.

I think you're just going to see a lively expression of anti- Trumpism here in the U.K.

BROWN: All right. And half a million people have signed this petition. Max Foster -- thank you so much, really appreciate it.

And CNN political commentator Ross Douthat joins me now with Michael Warren, a staff writer from the "Weekly Standard".

So Michael to you first, could next hour's debate in the U.K. have any effect on voters in the U.S.?

MICHAEL WARREN, "WEEKLY STANDARD": Well, if there is any effect, it will only boost Trump. I think that there's no way that a foreign country, even one as close to us culturally as the United Kingdom, talking about banning Donald Trump is going to hurt him here in the United States. It's probably a big part of his appeal is that he's being talked about as being banned in other parts of the world, but this is kind of silliness, I think, and really not a serious issue here in the United States.

BROWN: Ok. Ross Douthat, to you now, because prominent conservative, writer, and talk show host Mark Levin is scolding Trump for unleashing a furious Twitter attack on Cruz, telling the real estate mogul to quote, "either cut the crap" or he will lose lots and lots of conservatives as supporters. Is he correct?

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's not clear. I mean Levin is an interesting case study because he, like a number of conservative talk radio hosts, were very anti-Trump four or five years ago when Trump was making noises about maybe running as an Independent or something. And at that point conservative talk radio tended to point out correctly that Trump didn't have a particularly conservative record.

Now, this time around, talk radio has been much more favorable to Trump, and a lot of people think they've been favorable on the theory that they build him up, and then when he inevitably collapses, that makes a lot more room for Ted Cruz. And sure enough with Trump attacking Cruz, you see talk radio attacking Trump.

The big question here though is does it actually matter, or is this a case where sort of the Republican voters are less ideologically consistent and less conservative than a lot of talk radio wants to think and than a lot of political conservatives want to think? It's an open question. I think we'll find out in Iowa if this kind of turn against Trump

has an effect, but it could be a kind of Frankenstein monster scenario where talk radio spent so long building up Trump that it's very hard for them to tear him down at this point.

BROWN: So you have Levin's thoughts there. Michael, to bring you in, in the more immediate future though, we know that Trump is going to be speaking at Liberty University in Virginia with a crowd of evangelicals. What should he do in terms of handling Cruz considering that Cruz is well-liked among evangelicals? Do you think he's going to go after him?

WARREN: He may go after him. I don't know. It's hard to say what Trump's relationship with evangelicals is despite what he says that everything is great with them. I think there's -- I agree with Ross that there's sort of an open question, A, about how big evangelicals are within the Republican electorate this time around. I think they're certainly smaller than they were 20 or 30 years ago, but they're still significant. And it's less about sort of the personal connection that Trump may have or may not have with evangelicals.

I think what you're going to see in the next two weeks is a very hard case being made by Ted Cruz and others about Donald Trump's positions on some social issues like abortion, like gay marriage, like the Supreme Court. I think there's going to be a lot -- you're going to hear a lot about that not just from Cruz but from some of those commentators on talk radio.

[10:40:04] That could have a lot of sway I think because Trump has never really faced the music on some of his more liberal positions. The New York values question was probably not the way I would have worded it, but I think that's where Ted Cruz is headed on that.

BROWN: All right. Michael, Ross -- stick around because we have a lot more to discuss and be sure to stay with us. We're waiting for Donald Trump's event there to start at Liberty University.

Much more when we come back.

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BROWN: CNN political commentator Ross Douthat joins me now with Michael warren, a staff writer from the "Weekly Standard".

Ross I'm going to go to you now because we're awaiting Trump to speak at Liberty University as he tries to appeal to evangelicals as we near the Iowa caucuses. And then we have Ted Cruz, the other leading candidate in New Hampshire doing this bus tour going to ten counties in the state.

[10:45:01] What is each of the leading candidates -- what are they trying to accomplish as we get closer and closer to the Iowa caucuses?

DOUTHAT: Well, I think Cruz is trying to basically consolidate the evangelical vote at this point. And what you have seen with his gains in the polls, especially in Iowa over the last month or so, is that they seem to have mostly come at the expense of Ben Carson, who during his fall autumn surge was doing very well among evangelicals. So Cruz is getting a lot of those voters.

He has a pitch that's very well-targeted, especially to older evangelicals, sort of old Christian coalition moral majority voters.

And Trump, on the other hand -- Trump does well with some evangelicals, but they tend to be you might say the more secular evangelicals, if that makes sense. Evangelicals who are a little less likely to attend church, who are a little less religious or pious overall, which is again not surprising given that Trump himself is not particularly religious and doesn't have a particularly -- well, I wouldn't say strong record -- he has no record at all of being a social conservative.

So with Trump, Trump wants just enough evangelicals to sort of hold his more secular coalition at 25 or 30 or 35 percent of the vote. And Cruz wants to sort of complete the consolidation, but really for Cruz that means he's also in competition in Iowa with Marco Rubio who has about 10 percent to 15 percent of the vote and does well I think with somewhat younger evangelicals than Cruz does.

So there are a lot of moving pieces. But Trump wants just enough evangelicals to stay at the 30 percent or so that he needs to win an early state.

BROWN: And Michael, I want to get your perspective on this because Trump told our Jake Tapper that he has a great relationship with God, but also he said he has a great relationship with evangelicals. What do you think? Is that true?

WARREN: Well, you know, only Donald Trump can know what his own relationship with God is.

BROWN: In terms of the voters, not with God.

DOUTHAT: We can have some informed speculation.

BROWN: Yes. Can you get inside of his head for us, please? No.

WARREN: Right -- exactly. Well, I do think that Trump has a real problem here, which is that he's not of the evangelical stock. He's not even speaking in a language that I think appeals to evangelicals. He was talking in Iowa several months ago and talked about he doesn't really get forgiveness.

And he gets to that in a CNN interview that he goes to church to get the little wafer and the drink of wine. He's a Presbyterian but he's not part of the evangelical wing of the Presbyterian Church. He's part of the mainline branch.

He's also sort of wavered from the Presbyterian line in some of his history and he's gone to Norman Vincent Peale's church in Manhattan who preaches kind of a different kind of prosperity gospel or whatever you want to call it.

BROWN: Power of positive thinking.

WARREN: Yes, exactly.

DOUTHAT: Right.

WARREN: So he has some problems sort of speaking the language of evangelicals. And I agree with Ross, that if he's going to have a good relationship with them, it's the more secular evangelicals, the people who are more likely just to go to church on Christmas and Easter.

We don't know how big a part of the Republican coalition that is, but it could be significant or it could not be.

BROWN: Well, one thing is for sure, it's a packed house at Liberty University as the crowd awaits for Donald Trump to speak there. We're monitoring the situation -- taking a live look here right now.

Ross and Michael -- thanks so much for sharing your perspective.

Still to come on this Monday morning, could the Iran nuclear deal get you a better deal at your corner gas station? The effect it could have on prices up next.

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[10:52:48] BROWN: Plunging oil prices may be good for your wallet, but big banks are cringing. Firms on Wall Street helped bank roll America's energy boom, financing very expensive drilling projects. But with oil prices now crashing below $30 a barrel, some oil companies are going bankrupt and can no longer pay back those loans.

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup make up the three big banks setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars for potential losses.

And adding to this problem: the Iran deal. With Iran now able to sell oil, prices could plunge even more.

And checking our top story this Monday morning, a violent weather system kills two people in Florida. The National Weather Service confirming an EF-2 tornado struck Manatee County this weekend. Wind speeds estimated at 127 miles per hour obliterating this mobile home right here in this video. Seven people were inside when the tornado hit. Two adults were killed.

And crews are continuing to search off the coast of Hawaii for 12 missing marines and now a Navy ship has joined the effort as the search area expands. Two helicopters apparently collided during a training mission last Thursday near the island of Oahu.

The Coast Guard says they are still looking for survivors. And they're now asking the public to watch out for debris on the island's shoreline.

And a dramatic rescue in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend -- the Coast Guard reaching two people after their boat drifted into storms west of the Florida Keys. Their boat started taking on water after the sail was torn and the side was cracked. And as you can see right here, the Coast Guard helicopter came in and the crew pulled those boaters to safety.

Take a second to think right now, is there one person who really changed your life? One person who helped make you who you are today? CNN asked that very question and here is what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: My son helped make me change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people changed lives.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you believe we're back here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Join the familiar faces of CNN as they share their special someone with you.

[10:55:07] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN HOST: The voyage that your suggestions sent me on --

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: But I learned this from you. You have to ask important questions on the most important issues of the day.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: Without my mom, I am certain I would not be where I am.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you were to ask them how important is a mentor, and if they told you not that important, it probably means they never had a great mentor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that the letter?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the letter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You found it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From this little bag.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Very few people will tell you the truth. You do that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anderson Cooper and Michaela Pereira host "THE PERSON WHO CHANGED MY LIFE", Sunday at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Pamela Brown in for Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts after this quick break.

Have a great day.

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[11:00:06] JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Hello everybody. I'm Kate Bolduan.

We're going to show you -- right now we're going to show you live pictures. This is Liberty University, a packed house is there today --