First GOP Debate Lineup Announced
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news announced just moments ago, the lineup for the first republican presidential debate. Who is in, who is out and who will take on Donald Trump? Plus, Jeb Bush falling behind Trump in the polls getting hammered tonight for a whole new misstep. What's going on with his campaign? And a third greater handcuff behind his back after acting out in class. Is there ever any justification for handcuffing an eight-year- old child? Let's go OUTFRONT. Good evening, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan in for Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news, the stage is finally set, the ten candidate who will face-off in Thursday's highly anticipated GOP presidential debate have just been announced. Donald Trump will be front and center with Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on either side of him, joining them, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, John Kasich and Chris Christie. The seven remaining candidates who didn't make the cut, you see them right there, Rick Perry, Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, Carley Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, George Pataki and Jim Gilmore. Our Dana Bash is OUTFRONT with the news tonight. So, Dana, we now know who's on stage, the big question for all of them, how will they handle Donald Trump?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right Kate. And Republican sources in most of the campaigns so I speak will say, their candidate's goal is really to try to promote their own message, make their own brand as you can imagine. It's not easy to do and the crowded debate stage that you just put up there, especially the first one. Never mind because the fact that the candidates are facing a front runner who is a reality TV star who is very comfortable in front of the camera.</s>BASH (voice-over): Overnight in New Hampshire, this sneak preview of sorts of what the crowded republican debate stage will look like with one glaring exception, Donald Trump who is now leading the GOP presidential pact in multiple polls by double digits.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've had great success and they, you know, just, and people see that and I would put all of that energy and whatever that brain power is, whatever that type of brain -- into making our country.</s>BASH: Tonight, the key question ahead of the first presidential debate Thursday is how everyone else will navigate the Trump dynamic. Sources close to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker say he plans to pivot as much as possible to his own record of fighting for conservative principles.</s>GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What will make the difference in how we win the nomination is people realize, they don't just want a fighter, they want someone who can fight and win.</s>BASH: Jeb Bush was asked if he ever imagined being in a debate with a reality TV star.</s>JEB BUS (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I was growing up we didn't have reality TV, either.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.</s>BASH: Then there is Ohio Governor John Kasich's unorthodox approach.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe I'll give him a hug, I don't know.</s>BASH: Kasich may have only gotten into the race two weeks ago but it was announced tonight he will edge out the candidate who has been itching to go head-to-head with Trump. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry.</s>RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism.</s>BASH: Though there are 17 GOP candidates, debate rules say only the ten with the highest national poll numbers will be on the stage together. It puts Trump on the main stage with former Governor Jeb Bush, Governor Scott Walker, former Governor Mike Huckabee, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, along with senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Rand Paul and Governors Chris Christie and John Kasich. That leaves seven other candidates hunting for attention in other ways. Lindsey Graham found creative ways to destroy his cell phone after Trump famously out his number on live</s>TV. TRUMP: I don't know if it's the right number, let's try it, 202 --</s>BASH: On that note, Trump got a taste of his own medicine. The website "Gawker" published one of the billionaire's numbers and Trump quickly changed the voice mail.</s>TRUMP: Hi, this is Donald trump and I'm running for the presidency of the United States of America.</s>BASH: And even those in the top ten are looking for buzz. Ted Cruz cooked bacon by heating up his weapon.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Machine gun bacon.</s>BASH: Apparently that actually works, Kate. A top aid to one of the ten who will be on that main stage said something to me very interesting, his aide said, historically you didn't win one of these early debates but you sure can lose and that's really been a driving force behind a lot of the prep do no harm -- Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes. And do no harm. One thing about Ted Cruz, notice he didn't say the machine gun may bacon tastes good. He just said it happened. Understand. Dana, great to see you. Thanks so much.</s>BASH: You too.</s>BOLDUAN: OUTFRONT tonight. Jeffrey Lord who served as political director in the Reagan White House. Doug Heye is a former communications director for the Republican National Committee. And David Chalian, he's CNN's political director. Gentlemen, it's great to see you.</s>DOUG HEYE, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: So, Doug, Dana lays this out really perfectly but we have heard vastly different theories on how the other candidates should deal with the Trump factor. Do they ignore him or do they engage? If it is one or the other, which is it?</s>HEYE: Well, every candidate is going to do something different and I think what you'll see is candidates look for opportunities. Donald Trump is leading and he's done so well so far because the conversation has always been on his terms and as long as it's on his terms, he'll win the debate. The way to the make it not be on his terms is whether this is candidates or whether it's the moderators for the debate to pin him down on specifics. Immigration is a great issue. Make him explain to the voters exactly step by step what he's going to do about the millions of people who are here illegally. He'll have trouble doing so and that's how we'll begin to see that the emperor not only doesn't have any clothes but he doesn't have any answers.</s>BOLDUAN: Jeffrey, we've talked about this in the past. I think you, me and Doug have talked about this in the past. Trump has had troubles so far when it comes to detailing its policy positions. Just as a reminder. Here is one example. Jake Tapper asked him to explain his opposition to same sex marriage. Listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you say to a lesbian who is married or a gay man who is married who says Donald Trump, what's traditional about being married three times?</s>TRUMP: Well, they have a very good point. But, you know, I've been a very hard-working person. I have a great marriage. I have a great wife now. And my two wives were very good and I don't blame them.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But what do you say to a lesbian or gay man who are married and say --</s>TRUMP: I don't say anything. I mean, I'm just, Jake, I'm for traditional marriage.</s>BOLDUAN: I mean, Jeffrey, you've got to believe that he is going to get called out and quickly if this is how he's going to explain things on the debate stage.</s>JEFFREY LORD, FORMER AIDE TO RONALD REAGAN: You know, the thing that I keep coming back to is, the reason he's successful is because of his message. People are trying to press him on policy details, you know, in a sort of wonkish style and again, I worked for Ronald Reagan. This was a complaint about Ronald Reagan not only when he was a candidate and sort of coming up through the ranks, this was a complaint about Ronald Reagan when he was actually the sitting president of the United States. That he didn't know the details. Tip O'Neill used to complain about this. This was always a complaint. It never hurt Ronald Reagan, I don't think it's going to hurt Donald Trump.</s>BOLDUAN: It's a very good point. So, David, I mean, you heard what Doug and Jeffrey say. And do people think that Trump can handle it if this debate does go deep on policy?</s>DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Kate, let's remember what the debate setup is like. You've got ten people on the stage, 90 minutes of debate time, three moderators asking questions taking up some of that time. I mean, maybe we're talking about five minutes of talk time for each candidate or it is very difficult to imagine that we're going to go deep on policy like you would in sort of 60-minute one on one interview, really hammering down there. That's why I tend to think it's not something that's all that dangerous for Donald Trump. He clearly has been boning up and reading and getting better on policy. He has answered some of the questions Doug referred to on an immigration plan. There are more questions to answer but I'm not sure the debate stage is where those answers are going to come and I'm not sure that will necessarily hurt him just because of the way the format is.</s>BOLDUAN: When you talk about that format, maybe five minutes of talk time, that to me says, you need to prep because you need to be able to get to your message whatever you're going to say and get to it quickly. When it comes to debate prep, Jeffrey, last week Trump dodged the question saying that he's just going to be Trump, he's watching news, he's reading articles. I tried to get some more specifics from his campaign manager last night and here is what he had to say.</s>COREY LEWANDOWSKI, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, here's what he said, he said he's never debated before and a number of these politicians debate every day. They stand up and they talk and they have rhetoric.</s>BOLDUAN: So, is it really possible that Trump is going to walk into this presidential debate with no formal prep at all?</s>LORD: Well, I mean, I think he's prepped in the way that Donald Trump preps for anything he does. I think he's just going to be Donald Trump. One of the interesting things that I saw today is that he put out a little short video, I believe, it was on Facebook challenging his competitors and wanting to know how they would make America great again. So, in other words, he's throwing the ball into their court. Sort of like "The Apprentice" to be perfectly candidate and I thought well, that was a very interesting way to go here.</s>BOLDUAN: So, Doug, I got to get back to the reality check of does any of this really matter in the end, because look at Donald Trump, look at the poll numbers. The good news for him just keeps on rolling in and I thought this number was pretty important in one key area. Fewer Republicans are now saying, that they will never vote for Donald Trump, which suggests to a lot of folks there is more of an opening than you've been given credit for, my friend.</s>HEYE: No, I think there is absolutely an opening. You spend time outside of New York and Washington and you really hear why people are upset and people are very, very angry at the direction Washington is taking and they don't think that either party represents them well. I've certainly heard it, recently it's two weekends ago down in North Carolina where a lot of my friends I grew up with told me exactly what they thought about Washington. And that's what Donald Trump taps into. There is no question about that. But ultimately, you're going to see again ten candidates is a lot of people and there's not a lot of time. So, if there are going to be attacks, it may not come from the candidates because they have their own branding to do. We may see questions from moderators.</s>BOLDUAN: That will be very fascinating. David, final thought here. Do you think with all of this in mind, the other candidates are to a place where they are no longer under estimating Trump or they still going to say, he has got a ceiling and I'm just going to wait it out.</s>CHALIAN: I don't anyone is under estimating him now, Kate. I think he's gone from phenomenon to formidable frontrunner in one month's time and here to stay for a little bit.</s>BOLDUAN: There we go. Phenomenon to formidable.</s>LORD: Exactly.</s>BOLDUAN: Two words I try not to say quickly together. Great to see you guys. Thanks so much.</s>HEYE: Thank you.</s>BOLDUAN: I did it though, just for the record. OUTFRONT next, a new controversy surrounding Jeb Bush tonight. Meanwhile, he's losing ground. A lot of ground to Donald Trump in the polls. So what is happening to Jeb Bush and his campaign? Also ahead, a look, take a look at this new video, a man on synthetic marijuana, why it's being blamed for a spike in overdoses wild behavior and violent crime across the country. And the word that could be Donald Trump's campaign theme.</s>TRUMP: We have losers, we have losers. A bunch of losers. They are losers, they are just losers.