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Republicans Prep for Last Face-Off of 2015; Ted Cruz Soars in Latest Polls; President Obama Makes Rare Visit to Pentagon; Man Rams Car Into Crowd at Jerusalem Bus Stop; Paris Ringleader Orchestrated Plan by Phone?; Female Killer's Visa Process Under Scrutiny. Aired 9- 9:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:16] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The subject of national security on stage in Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. Let's go there live now, shall we? A gorgeous stage and a debate that will set the tone for the Iowa caucuses 50 days from now. Center stage, Donald Trump. But perhaps not for long. As the "Des Moines Register" puts it, Ted Cruz is crushing it in Iowa.

And that's not all. In a new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll, Cruz is up 12 points while Ben Carson has faded to fourth place. Donald Trump has noticed, calling Cruz a bit of a maniac. Cruz ran with that, tweeting a link to the 1980 classic from "Flashdance."

Mm-hmm. CNN's Athena Jones is in Las Vegas. I'm dancing. Are you?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We're all going to have that song in our heads all day. But the countdown has begun here at the Venetian Theater. Tomorrow night, about 1400 guests will be filling this theater. The stage, of course, is set. And as you mentioned, national frontrunner Donald Trump will be smack dab in the middle yet again. But he's not going to be the only target tomorrow night, as these candidates battle it out to stand out tomorrow night on the stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Only one day away from the last GOP debate of the year in Las Vegas. And for these 13 candidates, one last chance to make an impression heading into the holiday season.

The main debate lineup seeing most of the same players as last time. And no surprise here, frontrunner Donald Trump again taking center stage. Chris Christie moving up to the main stage. Trump will be flanked by Dr. Ben Carson and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who is now surging in Iowa according to this FOX News poll released Sunday.

On Saturday, the "Des Moines Register" and Bloomberg Politics releasing their own poll, showing Cruz ahead of Trump by 10 percentage points in the state.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm very glad. Donald Trump is in this election.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it is a little bit of a romance. I like him.

JONES: Their bromance beginning to wane after audio from a private fundraiser questioned Cruz questioning Trump's judgment.

TRUMP: Well, I'll tell you what. My judgment is great. I built a multi, multi, multi-billion dollar company. Some of the greatest assets in the world. I have good judgment, I have great judgment. I would say I have far better judgment than Ted.

JONES: Trump later tweeting, "I was disappointed that Ted Cruz would speak behind my back, get caught and then deny it." And after Trump said this about Cruz's temperament --

TRUMP: When you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate where he goes in there like a -- you know, frankly like a little bit of a maniac, you're never going to get things done that way.

JONES: Cruz tweeting, in honor of my friend, Donald Trump, with a link to "Flashdance's" popular song, "Maniac."

Carson, once Trump's nearest rival, now dropping in the polls.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Poll numbers go up and down. I wasn't excited when they were up. I'm not excited when they're down. People will make the correct choice.

JONES: Heightened fears of terrorism around the world and right here at home could make for fireworks on stage tomorrow night.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a new environment inside the campaign right now. And so that -- this will be the first time that the candidates take the stage in that new landscape.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Now several candidates are hoping to have a breakout performance here to give their campaigns a boost. And for anyone wondering whether Trump is ready to attack his now new top rival Ted Cruz on this stage tomorrow night, he all but assured us those hits would be coming. Telling Jake Tapper on "STATE OF THE UNION," I expect to get it on -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones reporting live from Las Vegas this morning.

As you saw Ted Cruz's surge to the top of the Iowa polls means that the gloves are off for rivals like Donald Trump. But in the fight for hearts and minds of voters, Cruz is turning to a usual weapon in the world of politics. That would be Humor. Cruz responding to Trump's jab that he is, in Trump's word, a maniac, with a tweet linking to the video of the song by the same name from the movie "Flashdance."

This isn't the first time Cruz has tried to score votes by scoring a few laughs. Here's how he reacted upon learning that a voice actor from one of his favorite shows, "The Simpsons," is leaving the program.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Hi, I'm Ted. With Harry Shear retiring, I'm auditioning for any part I can get in the "Simpsons." Smithers, release the hounds. Excellent. Hi-diddly-ho, neighbor. Okely dokely, neighborino. One of the great exchanges between Homer and Lisa.

[09:05:04] But Dad, I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat animals. But, Lisa, animals are so delicious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Pretty funny, right? Joining me now to talk about this and more substantive issues, Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and editorial director for the "National Journal," and Douglas Brinkley, CNN presidential historian.

Welcome to both of you.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Thank you, Carol.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Ron, so Senator Cruz is funny, he's smart, but still likability is not his strong suit. So will we see a friendly Cruz on stage or will he finally go after Trump?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, first of all, all the names I expected to hear in the lead up to the Republican debate, Jennifer Beal was not in the top 10. I do not -- I see that one -- I did not see that one coming.

Look, I think Cruz, you know, has been a wrecking ball in the Senate. He is someone who has pursued his own agenda. And for his supporters and people who believe in his causes, I mean, he is, you know, kind of a righteous warrior. For many other senators, they believe even Republican senators, that he has led them in a dangerous direction and a counterproductive directions like the government shutdown.

He is going to be front and center but I don't think it's going to be temperament that's going to be the central issue. It's going to be his views, I think, on foreign policy, whereas in his own words, he's tried to carve out a middle space between the George W. Bush approach, now championed more by Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio, and the libertarian kind of pullback approach of Rand Paul. I think he's going to get a lot of incoming on that tomorrow night and I think it'll be a critical moment for him in this campaign. How he handles that since it's going to get more attention than ever before.

COSTELLO: So, David, in a private meeting with donors, Ted Cruz called into question Donald Trump's judgment when it came to national security. Will we hear that on stage? BRINKLEY: Absolutely. I think, you know, obviously, Donald Trump's

comments about banning Muslims from the United States is going to be a major, at least a five, 10-minute back and forth during the debate. And Ted Cruz has modified that. You know, he put up his own piece of legislation and said that, you know, Trump was a little off the mark by saying that. And all the other candidates, with the exception of Rand Paul, has been -- has disagreed with Trump on that. So I think that's going to be an important part of this.

The big story here is Cruz is surging in Iowa at the right time because of the evangelical voters. And I think Ben Carson is starting to sink and those voters aren't coming to Trump, they seem to be coming to Cruz.

COSTELLO: And, Douglas, I'm sorry I called you David. I don't know where my mind was. I was still --

BRINKLEY: That happens once in a while.

COSTELLO: I was still in the moment of Ted Cruz's Homer Simpson impression. It was pretty good.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: So, Ron, a question for you. Is this a pivotal debate for Donald Trump in light of Cruz's uptick in the polls?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, I think, look, I mean, Trump has gone after every candidate who has shown any life. In a sense, Cruz is winning voters that, I think, many people myself included thought were unlikely to end up with Trump in the end. As -- you know, as Doug said, you know, we're seeing Cruz surge in Iowa largely on support of evangelical Christians. That is enough to get you in the game in the Republican primary. By itself, it's not enough to win. Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012. Both won Iowa with big numbers among evangelical Christians, did not perform well among other voters there. And that foreshadowed their difficulty in expanding beyond that beachhead and truly becoming, you know, significant threats for the nomination.

Cruz could have a broader coalition. He appeals more broadly on the right I think than Huckabee or Santorum. He certainly has more money than they did. But he has to show that he can go beyond that beach head, which is enough to win Iowa, but by itself is not enough to win the nomination.

COSTELLO: Well, Douglas, I was going to bring up that point about money because Ted Cruz has raised $65 million. I mean, who knew? He is, of course, viewed, as Ron said, is the most conservative candidate, but he's leading in Iowa. He's going into South Carolina where he'll probably do well, too. So doesn't that mean he has a pretty good shot at becoming the nominee?

BRINKLEY: Yes, he has an excellent shot at it. I'm here in Texas. That's Austin, Texas State Capital behind me. And Cruz down here is known as really quite the operator. Somebody who knows exactly what he's doing. In many ways, quite brilliant. Other people see him as diabolical. It depends where you see stand on the political spectrum. But he is to be taken very seriously. I -- so serious that I would say we know Trump and Cruz are two of the main candidates throughout all of the primary caucus season coming up.

The other question, though, on why I think the CNN debate, this one is really important is who is the third person? I think the so-called establishment has to decide, is it Jeb Bush, is it Marco Rubio, is it Chris Christie? And I feel some momentum coming with Christie. He's going to be on the so-called big stage.

[09:10:03] And he seems to have found -- hit his stride up in New Hampshire in some ways Christie. So be curious to see that part of the drama within the drama during the Las Vegas debate.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll see what happens tomorrow night. Go ahead, Ron. Button it up for us.

BROWNSTEIN: Real quick. I think Doug's point is exactly right. You can see Cruz as the candidate of the evangelical right and other conservatives. Trump is dominant in most places among blue-collar Republicans. The big open question in this race, who is that center right establishment white-collar candidate? Marco Rubio leading in the polls but not definitively. Christie, Bush, Kasich, Rubio, also auditioning for that role. Tomorrow another milestone in that process tomorrow.

COSTELLO: All right. I got to leave it there. Ron Brownstein, Douglas Brinkley, thanks to both of you.

You can watch the final GOP debate of 2015 only on CNN. It starts tomorrow night 6:00 p.m. Eastern. It will be live from Las Vegas.

Also in the next hour, President Obama makes a rare visit to the Pentagon. And while he'll meet with top military officials behind closed doors, the message is very public. Calm terror fears this holiday season and reassure Americans that the strategy, the president's strategy, against ISIS is actually working.

Joe Johns is our senior Washington correspondent. He joins us from the White House to tell us more.

Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The president has done this before. He went over to the Pentagon just back in July. He's also going to the National Counterterrorism Center.

One of the reasons for this is to try to calm the nerves of jittery Americans after the attacks in San Bernardino, as well as Paris. Another reason is to talk over the military strategy against ISIS. The president discussed that a little bit in his weekly radio address over the weekend. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our airstrikes are hitting ISIL harder than ever, in Iraq and Syria. We're taking out more of their fighters and leaders, their weapons, their oil tankers. Our special operations forces are on the ground because we're going to hunt down these terrorists wherever they try to hide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So he's going to see an alphabet soup of advisers from DOD, the State Department, the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, and others. The White House likes to say that the president is always looking for new tweaks to the strategy against ISIS, but in this case, they do not expect any new big announcements -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we know the Paris attacks were carefully orchestrated. But now we're learning more about just how the ringleader made sure the massacre was carried out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:19] COSTELLO: All right. Breaking news out of Jerusalem this morning where a man has just rammed his car into a crowded bus stop.

Oren Liebermann is on the scene. He has more for us. What can you tell us, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see the chaos of the scene here behind me. This is the car that police say carried out the attack and you can see the impact to the front of this car. Not only to the front of it, but to the windshield, as well.

Police say the driver here drove very close, this is the main entrance to Jerusalem, and drove into, first, a fire hydrant, and then into a crowded bus stop, sending five people to the hospital according to emergency services. Four of those injured lightly. One injured moderately. That fire hydrant torn off created a tower of water as that simple pressure of that water fountain, in fact, the entire area here is wet.

Now you can see the chaos of the scene here. Police say the driver was 21 years old, a Palestinian from Beit Hanina, which is in east Jerusalem. This here, the entrance to Jerusalem, an uncommon place over the last two and a half months for what we've seen in this wave of attacks. This wave of violence. And that's why it's so chaotic here. Many people, in fact, surprised that this has happened.

We'll take one more look here into the vehicle. You can see as we step around these people, many people surrounding this car, the impact to the front of this car. Police say the driver, the alleged attacker in this case, was shot and killed by forces at the scene -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oren Liebermann, reporting live, we'll get back to you. Thanks so much.

A new report out this morning suggests terrorists used a striking level of coordination in last month's attack in Paris. The ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, reportedly huddled in a doorway just blocks away from the Bataclan concert hall and stayed on the phone with the killers inside until the very moment they blew themselves up. This is all so he could orchestrate every single moment of this massacre.

Paul Cruickshank is a CNN terrorism analyst and editor-in-chief of the "CTC Sentinel," where they just broke the story.

So, Paul, he was right outside the door of this concert hall?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Carol, this is really stunning new information that the ringleader in the attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, standing just outside that concert hall, the Bataclan, during the attack, according to a witness. He was speaking agitatedly on a cell phone, on a hands free cell phone, for about an hour during those attacks as if he was giving orders to the people inside.

So the idea here is of him stage-managing the attacks by phone while they're happening. And earlier in the evening, and we know this from the Paris prosecutor, he'd be in phone touch, as well, with the stadium attackers. One of the stadium attackers right until the point where the stadium attackers started blowing themselves up.

So it would appear that on the ground that night, he was really orchestrating this entire operation. And these new details just being published in the journal "CTC Sentinel." An article by Jean-Charles Brisard, a French terrorism expert, Carol.

COSTELLO: So I ask you a silly question, of course he can't -- unless he could see with his cell phone inside the concert hall because somebody inside was using a phone with -- so how exactly did that work? I mean, does that, I don't know, suggest a level of planning beforehand, that he knew every -- where everything was inside the concert hall and when to do what?

CRUICKSHANK: Absolutely. It suggests that the plan beforehand agreed amongst all these nine attackers was that they were going to coordinate and that he was going to be on the phone to them, telling them to do what in what order.

[09:20:06] He appears to have come all the way back from Syria to orchestrate this on the night of the attacks, but he wasn't meant to die that night. He was killed in a raid a few days later, with plans to attack a shopping district in Paris. But also it's been recently revealed, he was speaking about plans to attack Jewish targets and schools in Paris.

What did we see play out this morning, Carol, in Paris? An attack by an apparent ISIS-inspired terrorist on a kindergarten teacher at a school in Paris. A knife attack. Fortunately, she was not killed. She's recovering in the hospital. But the attacker this morning saying, this is for ISIS. This is just the beginning.

Was there a link to the plans that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was talking about before he was killed?

COSTELLO: All right. Paul Cruickshank reporting this morning, thank you.

Checking some other top stories for you at 20 minutes past. Egyptian investigators say they can find no evidence of terrorism so far in the crash of a Russian passenger jet. That puts them at odds with Russian investigators who say they believe there was indeed a bomb on board that plane. 224 people were killed when the plane went down. ISIS has claimed responsibility.

Planned Parenthood is now suing the attorney general of Ohio, saying he and other state leaders are trying to ban abortion. The organization wants an injunction to stop the state from interfering with their operations. Ohio Governor John Kasich, also a Republican presidential candidate, has said Planned Parenthood needs to be, quote, "reigned in."

The deadline for a government shutdown moved again, this time until Wednesday. Congress has until then to come up with a deal on a massive spending bill. It's the first major negotiation for new House speaker Paul Ryan.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as long as Republicans continue to face off, are Democrats better off? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:07] COSTELLO: New revelations this morning about how San Bernardino's female killer got into the United States without raising any red flags. The FBI now revealing the terrorist couple actually chatted about jihad online well before Tashfeen Malik gained access into the United States. Only problem, there was no policy in place to check an applicant's social media at that particular time.

Paul Vercammen is in San Bernardino with more on this. Good morning.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Actually, Malik passed three background checks. And as you pointed out, at that time, there were no protocols in place that allowed the government officials to scour social media. It has been suggested that perhaps had they been in place, they certainly would have turned up plenty of red flags. The "New York Times" reporting that Malik had posted on social media that not only did she support violent jihad, but she wanted to join it. And they characterized her post as zealotry.

Now how did she get into the United States? On the K-1 or fiancee or marriage visa program. And now top government officials suggesting we may need to overhaul this program in the United States. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: We have plenty of ways to vet people. We already do it. We have a huge process of examining people for visas. We know who's coming into our country for the most part. Clearly, the social media has placed a whole new burden and a whole new set of questions, but not impossible ones to resolve. And I think we need to look at this very, very carefully, which is what we're doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: And now back here live. The memorial behind me. And they will remember yet another one of the victims today. They will remember Benetta Bet-Badal, and she had fled Iran to avoid Islamic extremism. She was a Christian. She leaves behind children, 10, 12 and 15, and her husband. And they will memorialize her in Rancho Cucamonga later on this morning -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Paul Vercammen, reporting live, thank you.

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

He's back. Comedian Will Ferrell reviving his classic W. impersonation this weekend on "Saturday Night Live." He did not disappoint. Taking digs at W.'s brother and Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL FERRELL, COMEDIAN: And then you got this knucklehead.

(LAUGHTER)

FERRELL: With the hair. And a hundred-foot wall. Bring that picture back.

(LAUGHTER)

FERRELL: I'll tell you something, whenever I get in a bad mood, I just -- I just picture his big, fat, orange Oompa Loompa face. I just pissed in my pants.

Oh, Jeb. Oh boy. Poor Jeb. You've got to admit it's a pretty good plot twist that I turned out to be the smart one.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

FERRELL: Of course, I wish you would have asked me about the exclamation point on the end of his name. Look, I don't like the taste of broccoli, but it doesn't get any tastier if you call it broccoli.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So that was Will Ferrell, who was mocking Donald Trump for his much touted Mexico wall, while jabbing at his own brother Jeb Bush, well, his own fake brother Jeb Bush, for his low energy. Sounds familiar, right?

In the real world, though, the GOP's war of words found a brand new target, after Ted Cruz surged to the top of the field in the key early state of Iowa. Marco Rubio hitting Cruz for his, quote, "isolationist views," while Donald Trump called him a maniac. But is all the Republican infighting just boosting Democrats?