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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Kasich Bypassed Ohio's Legislature To Expand Medicaid; Both Engines On Airbus Flight Shut Down; "Playboy" Magazine Getting A Revamp. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired May 27, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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


[16:30:03] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: U.S. officials speak of thousands here in the U.S. who show interest. But that could be as simple as someone following someone on Twitter or Facebook. That, of course, doesn't make you a terrorist. But the trouble is, it's very difficult to judge the step from that to someone going out and buying a gun and carrying out a shooting like we saw in Texas there.

And that's the real challenge, not only for law enforcement here in the U.S., but in Europe and elsewhere.

TAPPER: Yes, terrifying.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

In our politics lead today, she took a swipe at Hillary Clinton in her campaign launch video and she regularly brings her name up on the campaign trail. But this time, Carly Fiorina has taken it one step further, holding a press conference in South Carolina right outside Clinton's campaign event -- that story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

It's time now for the politics lead.

A judge today potentially making things a wee bit tougher on presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. In a ruling, a federal court ordered the U.S. State Department to release monthly installments of those e-mails from Clinton's time leading the State Department, e- mails that will continue to shine a light on her use of a private e- mail server that Clinton has since had wiped clean, e-mails that could continue to prompt questions from pesky reporters and accusations from Republican rivals, such as, say, former Hewlett-Packard CEO and now presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina who, for at least one day, is shadowing Secretary Clinton in South Carolina.

[16:35:35]

Let's go to Columbia, South Carolina, and our friend Jeff Zeleny, who's trailing both Secretary and Carly Fiorina today. Jeff, so I assume Fiorina is trying to make a point here with this

dueling banjos act. What's the point?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jake, she is.

The point is, if the spotlight doesn't come to you, you go to the spotlight. That's exactly what Carly Fiorina did today.

She's been trying to make a name for herself in that crowded Republican field, trying to break out of it. But today, on Secretary Clinton's first visit to South Carolina in seven years, Carly Fiorina arrived right outside her doorstep.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): As Hillary Clinton swept into South Carolina today, she had company on the campaign trail.

CARLY FIORINA (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People running for present gave a lot of speeches.

ZELENY: Carly Fiorina stepped directly into her spotlight.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am running to live again at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

ZELENY: It wasn't exactly a shoot-out at high noon, but the latest episode in what has become a game of follow the leader. Fiorina, more than most Republicans, is fighting to be seen as Clinton's rival. She hopes it elevates her from the crowded GOP pack. It started when Fiorina's own announcement video featured Clinton.

CLINTON: I'm running for president.

ZELENY: And continued to the campaign trail, from Iowa.

FIORINA: I'm criticizing Hillary Clinton because I come from a world where a title is just a title. And talk is just talk.

ZELENY: To New Hampshire

FIORINA: Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States.

ZELENY: To South Carolina.

FIORINA: Unlike Mrs. Clinton, I never did photo-ops. I had real meetings.

ZELENY: Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard and one-time California Senate candidate, is hoping to make a name for herself, at Clinton's expense. She says Clinton is too secretive.

FIORINA: Anyone who runs for president, anyone, regardless of their party, needs to answer basic questions about their record, about their positions, about their finances.

ZELENY: Secretary Clinton didn't mention Fiorina, but accused Republicans of standing in the way of equal pay laws.

CLINTON: What century are they living in?

ZELENY: Across town, Fiorina painted a different picture as she spoke to a crowd of Republican women. She's trying to make the uphill climb through her own Republican primary so she could one day take on Hillary Clinton.

(on camera): Would you relish the idea of being on a debate stage with her?

FIORINA: I would relish the idea of being on a debate stage with her. Hillary Clinton really wants to run as the first woman president. So, she wouldn't be able to do that.

ZELENY (voice-over): But Clinton gave a different reason to elect a woman, to end the streak of presidents who turn gray.

CLINTON: I have one big advantage, I have been coloring my hair for years.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: You're not going to see me turn white in the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: And Clinton made that joke to an adoring crowd of women supporters. But, Jake, she was also trying to extend something of an olive branch to these South Carolina voters who voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama just eight years ago. She lost by some 28 percent here.

And of course building that coalition of African-American voters and others is key to her chances in 2016 -- Jake.

TAPPER: Jeff Zeleny in Columbia, South Carolina, thanks.

Let's bring in another Republican who is in the Palmetto State today, Ohio Governor and potential presidential candidate John Kasich.

Sir, thanks so much for joining me. I appreciate it.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: You're welcome, Jake. Good to be with you, Jake.

TAPPER: So, I want you to listen to something that Senator Rand Paul said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: It's exactly the opposite. ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS. These hawks also wanted to bomb Assad, which would have made ISIS' job even easier.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you agree with Senator Paul that hawkish Republicans fueled the rise of ISIS?

KASICH: No, I wouldn't agree with that.

Look, Jake, this is a long and complicated issue. But, look, one of the first mistakes we made in Iraq is when we disbanded the Iraqi army. And it created a vacuum and real chaos in Iraq, as you know. A few months ago, I had said that the United States should be in a coalition with our alliance, with the Western alliance and some of our allies in the Middle East, people we share mutual interests with and that, if need be, we need to put boots on the ground, for this simple reason.

[16:40:05]

ISIS is stronger. We need to go. We need to knock them out as a group of civilized individuals, civilized nations. And then we need to come home. And we have made a series of mistakes. And we talk about Syria. Frankly, we should have armed the rebels in the beginning to push out Assad, who is supported of course by the Iranians and the Russians. We didn't do it. We put in a red line which we ignored. And that I think in some ways emboldened Putin.

So, look, I don't think we ought to be policemen of the world, but when our interests are at stake, we must act, and we must act with speed and we must act with great lethality.

TAPPER: So, Governor, when you say there need to be boots on the ground, there are 3,000 U.S. troops in Iraq right now. There are obviously other American fighter pilots there as well. What are you talking about and what number are you talking about?

KASICH: Well, Jake, that -- of course, that decision would be up to the military commanders. But I don't think we ought to be there alone.

I think over a period of time, our relationships with our friends in Europe have not been as strong as they need to be. We speak in some ways with a fractured voice, while our enemies speak clearly. And I wouldn't do this alone. I think there's great interest obviously when you look at the Saudis in terms of what's happening in regard to ISIS.

I think there's interest in Jordan, probably interest in Egypt, of having a coalition that can come together to stop this menace. And we heard over the weekend an administration official saying, well, if they get a nuclear weapon, then we'd have to go and take it away from them.

Even the thought that we would allow them to acquire something like this to me is one of the most unbelievable things I have heard in my time watching foreign affairs and being involved in public life. So we don't need to do it alone. But we can be there as a group. We can knock them out. And then we should leave.

TAPPER: You haven't declared your candidacy for president yet, although it looks as though it's going to happen some time after June. But you're clearly serious

(CROSSTALK)

KASICH: Who told you that, Jake? Where are you hearing that?

TAPPER: Advisers of yours have been chatting with plenty of reporters.

KASICH: Oh, they have been, huh?

TAPPER: But I do want to ask about your record, because, looking at your record, you voted for the assault weapons ban, you embraced Obamacare in your state, you have supported tax increases. Who in the Republican primary electorate...

KASICH: No, no, no, you have got -- Jake, you got to do the research.

TAPPER: What that I just said is wrong?

(CROSSTALK)

KASICH: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

TAPPER: Let's go through it.

KASICH: Jake, well, first of all, I don't support Obamacare. I want to repeal it. But I did expand Medicaid because I was able to bring Ohio money back home to treat the mentally ill, the drug-addicted and to help the working poor get health care. But I am opposed to Obamacare.

TAPPER: You're talking about the Medicaid expansion that was part of Obamacare.

KASICH: Yes. That's -- yes. No, no, but it's -- listen, Ronald Reagan expanded Medicaid, Jake. You might recall that. You were involved on Capitol Hill.

And, look, expanding Medicaid is a separate issue. And John Roberts gave all the states the ability to decide that. And I'm going to bring $14 billion of Ohio money back to Ohio so we can deal with some of our vexing problems.

And when it comes to raising taxes, I have had the largest tax cuts in the country. We have got taxes in Ohio by over $3 billion. That's more than any place in the United States of America. And, of course, I was also chairman of the Budget Committee in Washington when we balanced the budget. I left with a $5 trillion surplus. We cut the capital gains tax. And as governor, we went from $8 billion in the hole to $2 billion in the black being in structural balance up 300,000 -- almost 350,000 jobs.

So, I think that is a record that appeals. And in Ohio, as you know, I won 86 out of 88 counties and almost 64 percent of the vote.

TAPPER: Only 86?

KASICH: Our philosophy is raise people, lift people.

(LAUGHTER)

KASICH: Only 86, Jake. We're still trying to find out what happened in the other two.

TAPPER: But, sir, I hear what you're saying. And it's a conservative record.

But I'm really surprised that you're actually saying that you opposed Obamacare. A lot of Republican governors who refuse the Medicaid money, who refuse Obamacare federal funding would, I'm sure, take issue with the notion that you are an opponent of Obamacare, given that you have used Obamacare dollars in your state for Ohio citizens.

KASICH: But, Jake, look, I oppose Obamacare. It's been reported by the Associated Press.

We had a little issue with them where they said one thing and they retracted it. They said, yes, the governor is opposed to Obamacare. But because you oppose Obamacare doesn't mean when you have an opportunity to bring these $14 billion of Ohio money back to Ohio, that's not Obamacare. That's Medicaid. And you know the difference between Medicaid and Obamacare.

And, you know, with Medicaid, we have cut our growth rate from 9 percent. This budget, it will be about 4 percent, 4.5 percent. And we're treating a lot of people. So, nobody ever said that -- I have never said I was against the Medicaid program. I would like it to be block-granted to me is I can be more effective in helping those who are poor and live in poverty. But I also want to hold them accountable so they get work and get out of that situation.

But I would get rid of Obamacare and we have programs in Ohio to deliver value-based medicine where we are incentivizing physicians, insurance companies to be in a position of where we deliver better health care at lower prices. That's where I think we have to go. And I think Obamacare's disrupted too much.

TAPPER: You have said that the Republican --

KASICH: How's that?

TAPPER: Well, that's clearly what you're going to say when all your opponents take you on, on the stage, and I look forward to --

KASICH: Jake, I don't worry about that. Look, the deal is with me, if you play golf, you play your game and don't worry about anybody else. Look, you know, I think I've been OK in being able to stand up and argue my position.

But look, the most important thing for Republicans is let's tell people what we're for, not what we're against. That's what I've always been about as you know and I'm going to continue to do that.

TAPPER: All right, Governor John Kasich, thank you so much. We'll have you back on THE LEAD and perhaps even on a Sunday show called "STATE OF THE UNION" coming up. Thank you so much, sir.

KASICH: All right, Jake, thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up, a brand-new plane filled with passengers loses power in both its engines at 39,000 feet in the air. Now there is real concern that it might happen again on other planes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:20]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Our World Lead today, another scare in the sky. Imagine this, both engines on an Airbus A330, a model used by more than 100 airlines, temporarily shut down while the plane is cruising at nearly 40,000 feet.

That actually happened over the weekend. Thankfully Singapore Airlines Flight 836 headed to Shanghai, China and it landed safely, but this latest incident is raising alarm bells. CNN's Rene Marsh has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Singapore Airlines Flight 836 with 194 onboard was flying over the South China Sea bound for Shanghai when both engines went out. The sudden loss of power at 39,000 feet as the jetliner passed through bad weather. Within seconds, the aircraft dropped nearly 13,000 feet.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: The pilot has to basically put the plane that's now lost power in its engines in a dive. And that wind going through those engines spins the turbines and helps the pilots get a relight. But even with a relight, getting your engines actually going again, fuel is burning. You have to be able to sustain those engines. So it's a really tricky maneuver.

MARSH: Singapore Airlines said the problem started about 3-1/2 hours after departing from Singapore. They say one engine regained power while pilots worked on the second.

SCHIAVO: That is something they're trained to do. And in all cases on all planes, there is a point at which the manuals say, don't try any more diving restarts. Just look for a place to put it down and set it down.

MARSH: This is the latest of several incidents involving Asian airliners. In February, both engines on a TransAsia flight lost power. Flight 235 crashed into a river in Taiwan. In December, Air Asia Flight 8501, an Airbus 320, disappeared from radar and crashed into the Java Sea minutes after the pilot asked for clearance to climb an altitude to avoid bad weather.

And Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared without a trace more than a year ago. But as for Singapore Airlines, its safety record is one to brag about. This year, it was rated one of the top ten safest airlines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Our thanks to Rene Marsh for that report. In our Money Lead, one of America's most iconic magazines is moving away from what made it famous. But will covering up really bring in more profits for "Playboy?"

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:57:07]

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Our Money Lead, it is the magazine known for its articles -- OK, maybe not, but consider this. "Playboy" which hit newsstands in 1953 published works from notable writers and they even interviewed a soon-to-be-elected president.

Hugh Hefner reportedly said this at a reunion of playmates in 1979, "Without you, I'd have a literary magazine." True. But amidst the glut of free internet porn out there, "Playboy" has lost readers over the years and arguably relevance.

And now in an effort to get back in the game it is taking an interesting step. Alison Kosik joins us from New York. Alison, is this going to work?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Jake, if you ask them at "Playboy," they'll say it is working because it's not the only magazine struggling with declines in circulation. It's happening throughout the entire industry. But the iconic magazine isn't turning to nudity as its comeback strategy instead its revamped website is showing how less is more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK (voice-over): "Playboy" has no patience for its critics.

JIMMY JELLINEK, CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER, "PLAYBOY" ENTERPRISES: They don't have real day jobs. They're just critics.

KOSIK: That's "Playboy's" chief content officer, a man charged with revitalizing what some call a dead brand walking. Nudity was revolutionary when Hugh Hefner launched "Playboy" 62 years ago. Not anymore.

SCOTT FIANDERS, CEO, "PLAYBOY" ENTERPRISES: They're one mouse click away from anything that you can imagine. KOSIK: "Playboy's" strategy? Go digital, minus the raunchy stuff. Last year, playboy.com re-launched as a safer work site. Check this out, there's barely any skin. The girls are fully dressed.

FLANDERS: It's not provocative to see nudity. In fact, it can actually limit our audience.

KOSIK (on camera): So maybe "Playboy" is about the articles then?

FLANDERS: It has always been about the articles.

KOSIK: And the magazine isn't going anywhere even though it's money loser. "Playboy" calls it an ambassador for the brand, one that feeds its real cash cow or should I say cash bunny licensing.

JELLINEK: A pair of socks doesn't have a DNA, a t-shirt doesn't have a DNA until you're able to imbue it with a narrative and that narrative starts in the magazine.

KOSIK (voice-over): "Playboy" did more than $1 billion in retail sales last year, everything from perfume to clothing. The globally recognizable bow-tied bunny powers the brand.

FLANDERS: I would say the rabbit head logo is worth a billion dollars.

KOSIK: "Playboy" products are in 180 countries. There are 24 international editions of the magazine. But the very thing that built its business won't be what saves it.

FLANDERS: Full nudity does not need to be the bedrock of this brand. It's about lifestyle, entertainment. I say we give aspirin for the headache of people's lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: And it's Hef who still makes the final decisions on who you see in the magazine -- Jake.

TAPPER: Alison Kosik, thank you. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper turning you over to one Mr. Wolf Blitzer next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM." Thanks for watching.