[Brian Stelter, Cnn Senior Media Correspondent:] Absolutely. We're going to see, you know, some people have said this is Trump versus the 10 other candidates. Trump is going to be, I'm sure, a focal point of the debate. But maybe we're going to learn a lot about other candidates based on their conversations with each other.
[Carol Costello, Cnn Anchor:] All right. Brian Stelter, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate it. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now. And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The clock is ticking down and the curtain is about to go up. Just eight hours from now, CNN launches its first Republican debate of this presidential season. That's Air Force One of the Ronald Reagan era looming over the main stage. First up, the undercard, the four lowest polling candidates go head to head. They'll face a smaller audience. But on the plus side, they'll have more time to sell themselves. Right? Then at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, the main event, 11 candidates, crowding on to the stage and at the center, frontrunner Donald Trump, he knows he's wearing the bull's eye tonight. Mark Preston is the executive editor of CNN Politics. He joins us live from the site of the debate, the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. Good morning.
[Mark Preston, Cnn Politics Executive Director:] Good morning, Carol. What a setting to have this Republican presidential debate. You know, there are many in the Republican Party who think it was Ronald Reagan who really reinvigorated it with his win back in 1980. So in just a few hours, as you said, we will see not one but two debates. Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham will be on the so-called undercard debate. A lot on the line for those four as they try to re-ignite their campaigns. But the main event will be at 8:00 tonight. And there are certain moments we need to look for tonight, Carol. The first moment is, will Donald Trump moderate his tone? He has been very critical of his opponents in the past debate and certainly on the campaign trail. Another moment we'll look for, will Jeb Bush go on the attack of Donald Trump? He has been under this withering criticism of Trump. Carly Fiorina, who was not on the main debate stage back in August, will she go directly at Donald Trump? Those two have been attacking one another. They both have business backgrounds. That will be a key moment to watch for tonight. And there are several of these candidates who need to break out. The likes of Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, all need to have moments. And the reason why is they need to reinvigorate their campaigns. Their poll numbers are low. And they need to convince donors to continue to give to them to fuel their campaign as we move forward, Carol.
[Costello:] All right. Mark Preston, thanks for joining us. I appreciate it. By this point in the campaign, no one can question that Donald Trump is a master at marketing Donald Trump. But his policies, not so much. That's because his vision has been short on specifics. And that was the case again last night when an expected foreign policy address offered more heat than illumination.
[Donald Trump , Presidential Candidate:] It is one of the dumbest deals and one of the weakest contracts I've ever seen of any kind. They're taking $150 billion. They're getting a deal that's going to need it's going to right into nuclear weapons.
[Costello:] CNN's Athena Jones joins us. She's also at the Reagan Presidential Library. Good morning.
[Athena Jones, Cnn Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. You're right about that. You just heard Donald Trump talking about his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Yes, in general, he has been more he's had more of a focus on showmanship, on stagecraft, on selling Donald Trump as a brand. He has been short on policy specifics. That speech last night, that foreign policy national security speech, was just 15 minutes long, and there weren't really any policy specifics in that either. He often talks about wanting to make the U.S. military stronger so that no one even wants to try to mess with America. But he didn't get into further specifics than that. He talked about the Iran nuclear deal. He talked about wanting to improve health care for veterans without saying exactly how he'd do it. But he also talked, I should tell you, about illegal immigration. That's of course the big topic that he's been focusing on since the very beginning. He said at one point there are illegal immigrants who are treated far better than our veterans. Listen to how Vice President Joe Biden responded to Trump's talk about illegal immigration at an event at his own house. This event was to mark the Hispanic Heritage Month. Take a listen.
[Joe Biden, Vice President Of The United States:] I want you to remember, notwithstanding the fact that there's one guy absolutely denigrating an entire group of people, appealing to the baser side of human nature, working on this notion of xenophobia in a way that hasn't occurred in a long time. The American people agree with us.
[Jones:] So there you heard Vice President Biden responding to Trump's rhetoric. And there have been protests outside several of the last couple of events. The one last night and also on Monday night in Dallas. You had a lot of Latinos and others out protesting some of Trump's tough rhetoric. We'll see if he repeats that same rhetoric tonight, Carol.
[Costello:] All right. Athena Jones, I can't help notice the backdrop. So the podiums are set up. There are are there pictures on the front of can we go back to Athena's shot for just a second? I'm just fascinated by the stage. Can you show us around just a little bit, Athena? Can you move or are you wired in?
[Jones:] Absolutely. I'll back up a little bit. I'm wired in but I've got some room. This is the podiums that are set out. You can see here Donald Trump is going to be in the middle there. They are only a few inches apart, Carol. About 20 inches apart. So once they're filled with the candidates, it's going to feel very, very intimate. I should note here that the backdrop is this Air Force One. This is the Air Force One that President Ronald Reagan flew on. CNN has spent weeks building this stage. We are three levels up, building this stage so that it could be right next to that airplane. And you could have that airplane be the backdrop. And if we move the camera just a little bit more over here, you can see the rest of the setup. It's a rather intimate setting. Look how close the podiums are to the rest of the audience. Only about 500 people can fit here. They are guests of the Reagan Library, guests of the Republican National Committee. And a few of the folks in the audience will have been invited by the campaign. But a much more intimate setting than the last debate which was in a basketball arena. You can also see some of the cameras. There are going to be 13 cameras tonight. So a big production but in a very intimate setting. We'll see if that affects how the candidates interact with one another, how much they're willing to really bash each other tonight, Carol.
[Costello:] I know, I couldn't help but notice the vacuum cleaner behind you. So hopefully they'll remember to remove that when the debate begins.
[Jones:] They want it to be pristine. They're going to vacuum a bunch.
[Costello:] I love that. Athena Jones, thanks so much. All right. Back to serious stuff. Let's talk about foreign policy. Might it take center stage tonight? With me now to talk about that, Doug Hyde, former deputy chief of staff for Eric Cantor and former RNC communications director, and Mike Rogers, CNN national security commentator and former congressman and chair of the Intelligence Committee. Welcome to you both. Thank you so much for being here.
[Doug Hyde, Former Deputy Chief Of Staff For Rep. Eric Cantor:] Thank you.
[Mike Rogers, Cnn National Security Commentator:] Thanks, Carol.
[Hyde:] Thank you.
[Costello:] You're welcome. So, Mike, I want you to hear what Mr. Trump said about our military. Listen.
[Trump:] We're going to make our military so big and so strong and so great, and it will be so powerful that I don't think we're ever going to have to use it. Nobody's going to mess with us.
[Costello:] So, Mike, I was unaware that our military was weak. What was Mr. Trump trying to say?
[Rogers:] Well, there's been a lot of debate about what size our military should be. They just announced about six months ago 40,000 troop reduction. And so there is real concern out there about the right size of the United States military. So what I think Trump is doing has taken that populist tone of knowing that there's a theme of real concern about the size and shape of the United States military, meaning they've raided maintenance accounts to do operations, things that do affect what's called readiness in the military, is a unit ready to deploy, and when they get there, are they combat ready? And there are some readiness questions and other things. So he took that, and what you saw was that kind of heated rhetoric. And people can identify with that. I think that's exactly why he does it. He doesn't have to explain details. He just says I'm going to have the biggest and best military in the world, and people applaud, and he moves on to the next issue.
[Costello:] And, Doug, something else Mr. Trump said yesterday. He said that he will be able to negotiate with Russia's Vladimir Putin and also the Iranians simply because they know he's a great negotiator. Could that be true?
[Hyde:] Well, maybe they know that, maybe they don't. I think they're looking the whole world's looking at these elections right now and laughing at what's happening at the Republican Party. And in part because as your previous segment with Athena highlighted, there's a lot of rhetoric but there's not much specifics. And it's not just foreign policy. It's on every issue under the sun. If he's talking about immigration, if he's talking about veterans, there's a lot of rhetoric, not a lot of specifics. And so we'll see a lot of the candidates certainly go after Donald Trump tonight. Jeb Bush is being talked about doing it. Certainly Carly Fiorina. I'm also going to be interested to see what Hugh Hewitt has to say, what Jake Tapper has to say. And Congressman Rogers and I have both been on the receiving end of some uncomfortable questioning from Dana Bash. Lord knows she's not going to hold back tonight. And that's where we'll see real rhetoric being held to the fire. And instead of just attention to Donald Trump, we'll see some scrutiny. And that will ultimately, I think, will be his undoing if this continues.
[Costello:] So, Congressman Rogers, is there any Republican candidate out there right now that has a great foreign policy?
[Rogers:] Well, you know, there's a lot of them that have been spending time getting more thoughtful on their positions. And on foreign policy, it's OK to mature in a candidacy. This has been an unusual election in the sense that there's so much attention so far out to so many candidates. But yes, there are some great positions out there on a lot of candidates. And they're thoughtful positions. You know, it's not I'm all in or we're all out. Foreign policy, and certainly national security, is always nuanced in there somewhere. It means it's never as easy or as black and white as you think it is. And there are a lot of candidates, Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, others who have had this really thoughtful dialogue on national security. So when you look at the list, there's a lot of really good candidates out there with very solid national security positions that I think America can embrace. The problem is when you have a Donald Trump out there who says he's just going to have the biggest, baddest military in the world, all of that serious policy discussion gets shoved aside. At some point, it will turn. People will start asking specifics about what their national security positions are because it will be, if not number one in some of the early primary states, number two in importance for those early primary state voters.
[Costello:] Absolutely. And you know, what you said, Congressman, when you said, you know, thoughtful debate, I think it's easier for many Americans just to look at things in black and white and not to look at things in shades of gray because frankly, they're tired of that, and they're tired, Doug, of things not getting done. So they don't really want to be thoughtful at this moment.
[Hyde:] Well, but what we see from the voters and this is historically true is after summer, after Labor Day, that's when they really start to focus more seriously. They're paying more attention to what the candidates are saying, and that's where more specifics come in. You also have Washington in session for a good part of the rest of the year. They've been out all of August. And as Congress acts, you also see the candidates reacting whether positively or negatively to what Congress is doing. I think we'll ultimately get down to a lot more specifics. And that's where for Donald Trump the devil may be in the details.
[Costello:] All right. Doug Hyde, Mike Rogers, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it. And of course be sure to tune in tonight for the first of two debates beginning at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. The main event with the 11 candidates starts at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump wants to build a wall and send all illegal immigrants back to Mexico. Why one family I talked with say those words hurt.
[Fatima, Undocumented Immigrant:] We're not monsters. Like everyone says that we're immigrants, but no one everyone is an immigrant. No one unless you're a descendant from Native Americans. You are an immigrant because you all came from somewhere.