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Saudi Prosecutor Heads to Turkey; President Trump's Leadership; Eleven Days Till Elections. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 26, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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


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[06:34:02] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New developments this morning in the investigation into the murder of "Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The top Saudi prosecutor now says that Khashoggi's death was premeditated, which is about the fifth version the Saudis have put forth and a direct contradiction to their earlier assertions. Also, CIA Director Gina Haspel has heard the tapes, we believe, of the murder. She went and visited Turkey and she's come back and she has now briefed the president.

Our Nic Robertson live in Istanbul with the very latest.

Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Good morning, John.

New developments here. President Erdogan, in a speech today, says that the chief prosecutor of Saudi Arabia is going to come here to Istanbul on Sunday and meet with his counterparts. Perhaps that's going to try to tidy up some of the discrepancies in the Saudi narrative, the continually evolving Saudi narrative of what they say happened.

We've also heard President Erdogan really put himself out in front of this today saying that it's up to Saudi Arabia now to say where the body is, who the collaborator was that helped this Saudi hit team, as the Turkish officials call them, in murdering and then disposing of the body, who that collaborator is. And also, very importantly, who ordered this 15-man team to come to Saudi Arabia -- to come to Turkey for the hit. What we have heard from Saudi officials so far is to imply that it doesn't involve the crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman.

[06:35:31] But now we're hearing from President Erdogan threatening it appears that he's got more evidence. He says, don't think that we don't have other documents. Tomorrow is another day. Seeming to imply that if the Saudis don't get their story straight once and for all, then he is going to make this evidence available. It's in keeping with what we've seen in the past, this drip, drip, drip of information from Turkish officials, but now the Turkish president getting out in front of this, putting himself out there and issuing essentially this threat to the Saudis.

Alisyn. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Nic, thank you very much for staying on top of this story for us.

So, President Trump is lashing out amid criticism over his handling of the mail bombs this week. Retired General Stanley McChrystal has some thoughts of the type of leadership we all need now. How does he rate President Trump's? The general joins us, next.

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[06:40:19] CAMEROTA: President Trump lashing out on Twitter again and insulting the media and its coverage of his handling of the mail bombs. What about his call to unite the country?

Joining us now is retired Army General Stanley McChrystal. His new book is called "Leaders, Myths and Reality."

General, it's great to have you here.

GEN. STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, AUTHOR, "LEADERS, MYTHS, AND REALITY": Thanks for having me, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about leadership.

MCCHRYSTAL: Let's do.

CAMEROTA: What makes a great leader in your mind?

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, let me sort of take back -- I think first we need to talk about leadership because we have a crisis of leadership in America and I think there needs to be a national conversation about it. And when we talk about leadership, we tend to look for people. And I really think what we need to do now is look in the mirror and decide what we want from leaders.

CAMEROTA: But let's talk about that specifically, OK?

So, President Trump, do you think that he's handling -- there's a serial bomber on the loose there who is targeting people that President Trump has gone after? Do you see leadership from the president at this moment?

MCCHRYSTAL: I think what we need to decide is what we want from leaders. I personally don't see the leadership that I'm looking for. What I'm looking for in all leaders, it's someone who makes me better than I will be otherwise. Someone who inspires me. Someone who teaches me. Someone who's an example. When I'm weak, they're strong. When I'm angry, they're calm. That's what I look for. But we need, as a nation, to decide what we want leaders to be for us.

CAMEROTA: What do you wish President Trump would say during this moment?

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think I personally wish that he would say, what we need to be is a united nation, not all in agreement, but all united on certain ideas and commitments to each other. CAMEROTA: Well, he did say that for a second. I mean he did say that.

In those written remarks where he read them off teleprompter at the White House he said that. And then that night he had a political rally and he went after the media and blamed the media for the toxic tone. I mean is that leadership.

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, he had a full political rally and he's had 30 plus of them since his -- he entered.

When we wrote this book and we looked at leaders, we went back at 13 leaders in history. And what we discovered is leadership isn't what we think it is and it never has been. It's not an objective thing, it's an emotional connection with followers. And so --

CAMEROTA: Well, he has that.

MCCHRYSTAL: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: President Trump has that. He has an emotional connection with his base and with his followers. So does that make him a good leader?

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, let's separate good from effective. They're not the same word. If -- you and I might say good is virtue of values, effective is, do they get things done? If you look at someone who is affective, look at Coco Chanel. We profiled her. And here's a lady who creates a brand by being something and people want to be her.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

MCCHRYSTAL: She was very effective. She was hard to work for. She made people stand for hours like human mannequins and so on. But they wanted to work for her because she's effective.

So we have this funny relationship and we are drawn to leaders, like President Trump, because there's a magnetism.

CAMEROTA: Yes, they have a charisma for sure.

Before we get to news of the day, I do want to just show you a couple of moments that people felt cried out for leadership and I want you to rate President Trump.

Helsinki, when the president had the meeting with Putin in Helsinki, and just to remind people, the president decided to blame America for the relationship -- let me play this moment for you.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I hold both countries responsible. I think that the United States has been foolish. I think we've all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago. A long time, frankly, before I got to office. And I think we're all to blame. I do feel that we have both made some mistakes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Standing next to Vladimir Putin, who his intelligence agencies said, you know, had interfered in the election, he said, we're both to blame. He did a similar thing in Charlottesville where he said, there's good people -- there's fine people on both sides, including the neo-Nazi side. You know, everybody's to blame.

How do you describe that?

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, take that scene and take out President Trump and put in Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of Britain. And, in your own mind, think of how she would have reacted. And what she would have done is been firm. What she would have done is represent the British people. And she would have said, these are Britain's values, these are Britain's interests, this is what we want. And the British people would have supported her for that.

And I think, in those moments, and every moment's different, that's the leadership we look for.

CAMEROTA: So since you've studied leadership, can you grade President Trump? Scale of one to ten, ten being the best, how do you consider his leadership?

[06:45:02] MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think each of us have to grade him. I don't grade it very high, except when we separate the good from effective, he's got a group of people that he's got a connection with. There's a feed that goes between the two that creates it. I think, over time, it's burning white hot like a flame, a zealot. Abu Musab al Zarqawi had a tremendous following. Maximilien Robespierre, during the French Revolution, had tremendous popularity and then they revolution cut his head off. What happens is, when a zealot burns white hot like that, people are attracted to it. And then, at a certain point, there's no oxygen in the room left for him, and so I think when I look at that kind of leadership, I think it has a shelf life.

CAMEROTA: News of the day, President Trump is planning to send, we think, 800 more troops to the border with Mexico and is going to sign -- he would like to sign some sort of executive order sort of reinforcing his zero tolerance policy, something like the Muslim ban. Do you feel that this is the best use of the military? Do you think the military's being politicized?

MCCHRYSTAL: Well, I think that the military with the Posses Comitatus limitations, got to be very careful how you use the military. It's not a police force and it should never be a police force. However, a nation must control its borders. A sovereign nation must control its borders.

What we lack here is a calm discussion on American immigration policy. We're arguing the eaches (ph) when we ought to be arguing the thematic (ph) idea of what we want our immigration policy to be, how we want it to reflect our values, balanced with the practical (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: The book again is called "Leaders." It's General Stanley McChrystal's new book.

Thanks so much for being here to talk about all of this, general.

MCCHRYSTAL: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, great discussion.

There are 11 days until the midterm elections. Where does the race stand now? Key debates in all these closely watched Senate races. There's something about Harry, next.

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[06:50:28] BERMAN: Eleven days until the midterm elections. If Democrats wanted to pick up the Senate, which seems like it's a --

CAMEROTA: They might want to.

BERMAN: They definitely want to. It seems far-fetched.

Oh, we just showed two empty chairs there for voting.

If they want to get the Senate, they need to pick up two seats to get a majority. It's not going to be easy. Not only are they defending 26 of the 35 seats up for grabs, ten of those are in states the president won, including Missouri.

Let's get the forecast from Harry Enten. There is something about Harry.

Talk to me about what's happening in Missouri with Claire McCaskill.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Good chapez (ph) to both of you.

Let's talk about Missouri, the Missouri forecast. So right now we are forecasting just a one-point win for Claire McCaskill. But I should point out that the margin of error is wide enough that obviously Josh Hawley, the Republican candidate, could easily win.

I'd also point out that this is one of those states that really hasn't been polled a lot recently and there's a lot of internal rumblings from Republican campaigns that they believe that the public polling is behind the times.

BERMAN: Yes. And this is very, very different than what political insiders are saying right now.

ENTEN: Exactly. And part of the reason why Josh Hawley looks like he's very much in the game and could beat Claire McCaskill is because, let's take a look at the political history of Missouri, right. When Claire McCaskill won her first term back in 2006, look at the nearest presidential election map. Two years later, John McCain won by 0.1 percentage points. Then when Claire McCaskill won her second term, Mitt Romney won by 9 percentage points.

Now jump ahead to 2016, Donald Trump won by 19 percentage points. I think that there's a little bit of a trend here. I would say that this is a state that's going very, very quickly to the right and the question is whether Claire McCaskill has enough umph to get over the finish line given that this move -- this rightward movement.

CAMEROTA: Why isn't there recent polling in Missouri? Wouldn't that be helpful?

ENTEN: I think we're actually seeing a lot of that this year where media organizations have been pulling back from doing poling because of, I think 2016. We've also seen the decline of local media in a lot of places, and they are the ones who often fund public polling. And so the fact that we don't have as many media organizations and a lot less funds going to them means less public polling.

BERMAN: There are people sort of with shady memories who will think back six years and say, wait a second, we thought Claire McCaskill was supposed to lose six years ago, but --

ENTEN: Right. If you remember six years ago, she was going up against Todd Akin, who, of course, made those regrettable remarks about rape. And by the end of the campaign, what you saw was that Todd Akin was one of the least popular politicians in the country. And the final polls, for instance, his net favorability rating, was minus 14 percentage points. That's not very good. I would say that I probably have a higher ranking among Yankees fans, for instance. So, I'm a -- I, of course, hate the New York Yankees. But the point being --

CAMEROTA: Of course.

ENTEN: That Todd Akin --

BERMAN: And everyone this.

ENTEN: As everyone knows. As you know, John.

So, Todd Akin was very, very unpopular.

Now, look at where Josh Hawley is right now. This was in the latest Fox News poll. He was at a plus 2 percentage point net factorability rating. So he's far more popular than Todd Akin was just six years ago. And the fact that he is there and given Donald Trump's standing in the state, it's a much better road for him looking at this point than it was for Todd Akin just six years ago.

CAMEROTA: All right, give us the national viewpoint. What are you seeing in the House?

ENTEN: Yes, so, in the House, we're not going to actually touch the slides.

CAMEROTA: Oh, we're not. ENTEN: We're not going to touch the slides. They're a little bit behind the times. But I'm going to talk to you as human beings and you, the audience, as well. And so what I can tell you is that right now the House, we have Democrats at 225 to Republicans at 210 seats.

CAMEROTA: That has slipped for Democrats?

ENTEN: That has -- that has slipped a little bit. I will say that we have a very interesting thing going on here where we are showing something called the median, which is the center of the forecast. The mean of the forecast is a little bit higher for Democrats at this particular time at 227 seats. And the reason for that is what we are consider -- what we are consistently seeing is that Democrats have a much sort of higher ceiling than they do have a floor, and so the mean looks better for them. And my guess is, as we get some more polling in over the weekend, we're tilting right on the edge and that Democrats might push back up to 226 or even 227.

BERMAN: It's interesting because it's -- what's today, Friday, I'm told?

CAMEROTA: I think so.

BERMAN: All right, second source saying today being Friday.

CAMEROTA: It's been a long week.

BERMAN: Earlier in the week you started to smell fear among Democrats, but it might be that that was the low point for them and they've rebounded some.

ENTEN: I think so. If you look, for instance, at "The New York Times" polls that have been coming out in the key congressional districts, Democrats are either matching their numbers from the past week or rising a little bit in a number of the key districts, especially out in California, especially in districts with high Latino populations where it does seem like Latinos may, in fact, come out to vote where a few weeks ago we felt they may not.

CAMEROTA: Nothing is more boring than your Senate forecast, I find.

ENTEN: Nothing is more boring than that. It's 52 Republicans, 48 Democrats. That's --

CAMEROTA: Every day it's that.

ENTEN: Every day it's that. Republicans have the higher ceiling. I'll be very interested to see, as we get more public polling from places like Missouri, whether Republicans climb even a little bit higher.

BERMAN: That's a good tease for next Monday, though. We'll have you back. Because we have you back every day.

[06:55:03] ENTEN: I like being back.

BERMAN: Because you're contractually obligated. But you're saying that the Latino vote may be starting to show up, what you have gone into great length hasn't been there yet. So if by Monday we see more signs, that will be an interesting discussion.

CAMEROTA: Good tease.

ENTEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you. Have a good weekend, everybody.

CAMEROTA: You too.

Harry's forecast is available each day by 9:00 a.m. at cnn.com/forecast, or you can just watch NEW DAY.

BERMAN: Right.

The manhunt for a serial bomber. There are new developments overnight. The investigation is now focused on a postal facility near Miami. This is a case of domestic terrorism the FBI says. We have new details, next.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are now at this sorting site in south Florida. They're zeroing in on this site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think they were made to be found to deliver the message of fear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are confident that all of these packages did go through the mail.

Lack of a postmark is rare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people who were targeted are frequent critics of the president. It doesn't mean the president is responsible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has been trying to blame everybody else, trying to scapegoat the media, which is extraordinary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the president was very presidential in what he said. Every time you attack the president, you're attacking the people that voted for him.

[07:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to turn off his heat machine. People want us to be more civil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: And good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.