GOP Candidates to Face Off in Vegas Debate; Trump on Debate: 'They're All Coming After Me'; L.A. School System Shut Down After Threat.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, debate night. GOP candidates are getting ready for a showdown here in Las Vegas. Our CNN debate is it, the last of the year for the Republicans, the last look before families gather for Christmas and Festivus or whatever and talk. And for some of the White House hopefuls, this may be their last chance.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Taking down Trump. He is the runaway frontrunner in national polls, and his rivals need to find a way to try to cut into Donald Trump's lead. Can they? Donald Trump says they will be coming after him tonight. Everyone knows he can certainly dish it out. We'll see what happens on that stage tonight.</s>CUOMO: And terror scare. The nation's second-largest school system shut down. The fear in America is real after the bloodiest attack since 9/11. National security is the theme tonight. There will be a lot of talk about strength. But who will do something really different that makes a difference to your safety? Our team captain, Wolf Blitzer, is preparing to moderate tonight's Republican debate. I'm Chris Cuomo, alongside the one and only Anderson Cooper, and you are in THE SITUATION ROOM. We are live here in Vegas, the Venetian Hotel. This is the place to be. Just a short while from now, the GOP candidates will get after it on national security. Who do you think will keep you safe?</s>COOPER: The focus of the CNN debate, as we said, is national security. It is the first time the GOP candidates will debate since the slaughter in Paris, as well as the massacre in San Bernardino, California, the worst terror attack on American soil since 9/11. And the debate comes as Los Angeles school system, the nation's second largest, with 650,000 students, is completely shut down by an e-mail threat. Officials in New York received and discounted a similar threat. CNN obtained a copy of the message which warns of pressure cooker bombs concealed in backpacks, as well as the use of nerve gas.</s>CUOMO: All of this in context for tonight here in Vegas. The Iowa caucuses, seven weeks away. The latest polls show what we've seen to date: Donald Trump out in front, bigger than ever: 4 out of 10 Republicans say Trump is the man right now. That lead has grown since his proposal to ban Muslims from the United States sparking outrage but a boost in the polls. And in Iowa, Trump is neck and neck with Senator Ted Cruz. Some polls actually show Cruz leading.</s>COOPER: And for many other candidates, of course, in this crowded field, if they are to make any kind of mark, it is now or never. Tonight is the night the frontrunner, Trump, knows he will be the target tonight. "They'll all be coming after me," he said last night. The stage here is set for some high drama. Our correspondents, analysts and guests are standing by with full coverage. The candidates, they have been checking out the stage behind us, getting a last-minute look before their showdown. We begin tonight with CNN's John Berman. John, what can we expect tonight?</s>JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Anderson, I am backstage at the Venetian theater. Behind me right there is the door that the candidates will walk in in just a few minutes as they emerge from their dressing rooms. And they will walk in right there and walk across that stage. You can even see here five lecterns. They will be added after the first debate, which begins in just a few minutes. They will be added to make nine lecterns for the prime time debate. As you have noted, this is the final debate of 2015. And there are some new factors which could have a major impact. No. 1, Ted Cruz moving close to center. He will be right next to Donald Trump. That is a position that has been fraught with peril. Some of the people who have stood there, Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, remember him? No. 2, Chris Christie, back on the main stage after a one-night engagement in the undercard debate. He could be a big factor tonight. He knows how to control this type of event. No. 3, they will get 75 seconds. The candidates will get 75 seconds to answer the questions. They will get 30 seconds to respond if they are named by someone else, a rebuttal, if you will, 30 seconds. They will both get opening and closing statements, as well. So the candidates could get a chance to set the tone early on. Finally, this space, this is the Venetian Theater. This is a theater that was built for "Phantom of the Opera" to come to Las Vegas. It seats 1,400 people. "Phantom" ran for six years here. So this is a space that knows drama, maybe nothing like tonight, unless they start singing -- Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, John. Let us know if there's any prefight trash talking that we need to know about as the candidates take the stage. Ted Cruz is certainly not going to like hearing himself being described as moving to the center. He very much says he is the man on the right lane, and he's going to stay there. Donald Trump is liking what he's hearing, two national polls have him higher than ever. People were wondering, what would it mean that he offered to ban Muslims from the U.S.? Well, it's helped him. And there's no question that he is going to be a target tonight. He is the man in the middle. So let's turn to CNN political reporter, Sara Murray. The other candidates are going to be coming after him. This is the way he sets it up. He doesn't want to start it, but he'll finish it.</s>SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's really interesting, he did say that last night. It's like he's fully prepared for it. But you also see a different Donald Trump on these debate stages than we do on the campaign trail. On the campaign trail he ripped into his rivals. He goes after pretty much everyone. So you remember, when you look at past debates, there were long stretches where Trump kind of almost seemed to disappear, where he was happy to let the other candidates go after one another. Now Trump is also interesting because he has a little bit of a different day going on than some of these other candidates. He decided to skip the walk-through that the other candidates are doing and for good reason. Instead of doing that, he's meeting with Sheldon Adelson. He's the billionaire mega GOP donor. Sort of an interesting meeting for Trump today, because he says he doesn't want any money, he doesn't want any big outside donors like this. Now, Trump also didn't have very far to travel. He tweeted earlier that he's staying at his hotel, Trump International. He's looking forward to a good debate tonight. He hopes he's treated fairly.</s>COOPER: All right. Sara, thanks very much. The focus of tonight's CNN debate, of course, is national security. With America on edge after the bloody attack in San Bernardino, there was a new scare today, as we told you about, in Los Angeles, where the school system, with more than 650,000 kids, was shut down after what officials called an electronic threat. Our justice reporter, Evan Perez, has the latest on that -- Evan.</s>EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Anderson, the reaction to this e-mail threat really does tell you a little bit about the atmosphere there in over in the West Coast in California in the aftermath of the San Bernardino attack. But you know, we have taken a look at the message. And you also kind of -- you can see why New York City got a similar message, and they reacted in a different way. We saw the message mentioned pressure cooker bombs and backpack bombs and that there were a group of attackers who were preparing to take out -- take an attack against schools in Los Angeles and in New York, and the message made a reference to a vulgar reference to a male body part. So that's one reason why New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton reacted to this by declaring it to be a hoax. Take a listen to what he said.</s>COMMISSIONER BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE: We have been in contact with the Los Angeles Police Department, a department I'm very familiar with, and a school system I'm very familiar with. It appears, as of this time, that the school system out there acted on their own, without consultation with local law enforcement authorities, and they may have shut down their schools for the day. We see no need whatsoever to take that action here in New York City. That we do believe, our preliminary investigation, that this is, in fact, a hoax; and we'll investigate it as such.</s>PEREZ: Officials in Los Angeles were quick to defend the school district superintendent who made this decision. He wanted to make sure that the kids are safe, all 650,000 school kids there. The -- Charlie Beck, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, addressed the media. And here's how he put it.</s>CHIEF CHARLIE BECK, LAPD: Any time these kind of threats are made against our campuses, given all the school shootings in America, given San Bernardino, you know, we take them seriously. You know, we gave -- we gave the school district the -- our best advice on this, and they chose a path. And you know what? As I said, everybody has to make decisions in life. Some people, the superintendent in this case, had to make a decision that affects everybody in this city's children and another 100,000 of his own employees. And you know, I think it's irresponsible to criticize the decision maker.</s>PEREZ: And now we know that the FBI is investigating this. They want to know who's sending these messages. These are not uncommon, as you know, Chris, for school districts and for universities to get these. Some of them react like Los Angeles did. Some react the way New York did, but they really just have to take it as each example comes.</s>CUOMO: There's no question they're not uncommon, Evan Perez, thank you very much. In fact, they're too common. The fear is very real. And people are erring on the side of safety. And you can't blame them right now. And that's what brings into sharp focus this debate here tonight. Donald Trump, once again the national frontrunner, but Ted Cruz is surging and not just in Iowa. Some polls do show him taking the lead there, which some expected, but not in this fashion. So let's turn to the national spokesman for the Cruz campaign, Rick Tyler. Good to have you, with Anderson and me here. So going into tonight, big part of the intrigue is, how will Senator Cruz respond to his moment when he's talked, what he'll project? What can you tell us?</s>RICK TYLER, NATIONAL SPOKESMAN, CRUZ CAMPAIGN: I think what he'll do is -- what you'll see tonight is Ted Cruz looking like a commander in chief. He'll look like he's in control. Yes, I do think people will attack. But look, he will advance and defend his positions. But I don't -- I don't see him participating in the food fight. So if the mashed potatoes start flying around, I'll expect them to pick that up. I think he'll try to stick to the substance.</s>COOPER: Marco Rubio has been painting him as an isolationist. You're obviously going to be prepared for -- for that. What's the response?</s>TYLER: Well, he's not an isolationist, and nobody believes he's an isolationist. Ted Cruz is a -- is a conservative. And the polls, "The Des Moines Register" showed that more voters in Iowa see Ted Cruz as their commander in chief. They also say he has the right temperament, and he also has the most favorability rating. So that's a lot of surprises that come out of the poll that I think have got the establishment in Washington sort of befuddled.</s>COOPER: You guys have also been playing a really -- kind of a long ground game.</s>TYLER: Yes.</s>COOPER: You've been preparing for this. And when you look at the most recent polls, for those people who are still supporting Dr. Carson, their second choice is Ted Cruz. So there's a lot of people who still could go to the Ted Cruz camp. What do you think has been working best for you? Because I mean, everyone says you've got a great ground game in Iowa, even in South Carolina and in a lot of other southern states.</s>TYLER: We've been working really hard in Iowa. We've got 3,800 volunteers. We've got 170,000 nationally. Our people really just want to be found. They want a conservative to lead, and they see that in Ted Cruz. You've got all 99 county chairs named. That's a lot of hard work in Iowa. They just announced that right after this debate we'll going to do our fly-around in the March 1 states. So we'll be visiting seven states in ten days. We've got, like, ten stops. And so we're going to -- we did a bus tour in the summer, which people sort of said, "What is Ted Cruz doing?" We're going to do that again, solidify the long game so that we are prepared to go. What we don't want to do is win Iowa, and then that's the one state strategy. It got to be a national strategy.</s>CUOMO: That's the challenge, right? Very often, the political campaign is a two-step dance. What do we do now? What do we do next? What do you do now is you capture your moment. You try to find a way to be the practical alternative to Donald Trump. That's what we're hearing more and more about why Cruz is suggestive to people. Then, your second step is you can't be a one-trick pony. It can't be just Iowa. People expected you to do well in Iowa, not this well, not this soon, perhaps. Give yourself a pat on the back. But how do you replicate? You put a lot of money, a lot of time into Iowa. You can't do it everywhere. How do you replicate the success?</s>TYLER: Well, for one thing we've got the most money on hand. And so the candidates have to decide -- they have to show that, when they go into March 1, which is a lot of state's, you're going to have to have available resources. We've had the most available resources. The other thing is our super PAC has not spent any money. That -- I don't -- participating in those strategies is kind of interesting.</s>CUOMO: Didn't he hire people for the ground in Iowa?</s>TYLER: I've read the same reports you have, but they have not started to advise on television. So -- but you know, March 1 is going to be a time when it's going to get very expensive, very fast. And we'll have the resources to do that. We've already built the ground game in those states. We've been all over those states. And remember, most of those states are just southern states. They're evangelical states. All of them are in the south. They're over 50 percent evangelical. Some, like Oklahoma and Tennessee and Alabama are 70 percent evangelical, even more so than Iowa. So we think we'll do really well there.</s>COOPER: What do you do regarding Donald Trump tonight? We've seen Donald Trump on the campaign trail. He called Ted Cruz the other day a little bit of a maniac.</s>TYLER: A little bit.</s>COOPER: You guys put out a commercial with, you know, the best movie ever, "Flashdance."</s>TYLER: 1983.</s>COOPER: I remember it all too well.</s>CUOMO: How many times have I re-enacted that scene?</s>COOPER: But I mean, tonight -- because Donald Trump has actually, you know -- he talked stuff on the campaign trail, but often on the debate stage he doesn't necessarily attack some of these candidates. Do you expect him to come face to face with...?</s>TYLER: I can't predict what he's going to do. I do know this. You know, Ted Cruz likes Donald Trump. And it appears to me that Donald Trump likes Ted Cruz. I think they have a -- they have a rapport. But they are in competition for the presidency of the United States. So they're both going to be looking at distinguishing. Many ways this could be down to a two-person race. I mean, so we'll see -- we'll see what happens.</s>CUOMO: Well, here's the trick. Is that he can't just look in front of him anymore. I thought one of the things that Anderson did so brilliantly in the Democrat debate, was that there was a balance of who each of the people were on the stage relative to their position. Not as many. But he's going to have Trump in front of him. He's going to have Rubio and Carson, not necessarily behind but next to him. They're going to come at him. How does he handle that in a way that shows him at his best? Because he can be nasty. He's smart, intellectual, pressing his points.</s>COOPER: And he's a great debater.</s>CUOMO: So how does he deal with it tonight? Because you keep saying -- and we hear from everybody -- he's not going to get into it. He's going to be good. He's going to be his best self. How do you do that when you get attacked.</s>TYLER: If it's an attack on substance, we'll participate and clarify the substance and making people clear of the policy. I think one of the things that Senator Cruz has been very, very strong is, yes, he's very -- he's very good at debates. I think he'll do extraordinarily well tonight. But he also knows his policy. He also knows how the government works. He also remains the original outsider. And that's what -- the voters seem to be looking for an outsider. They certainly -- they see that in Donald Trump. But Ted Cruz is the proven outsider. And that's what he's going to see.</s>CUOMO: Is he pumped? Is he ready for tonight?</s>TYLER: It's great to see you. Yes.</s>CUOMO: What's the word? Is he pumped? Ready to go?</s>TYLER: He's ready to go. He's excited.</s>COOPER: The word? Pumped?</s>CUOMO: This is like a prizefight. You see Anderson before the Democrat debate? He was back there punching the wall. That was something.</s>COOPER: Thanks for being with us. Good luck tonight. Coming up next, he'll be at the center stage. That means Donald Trump will be getting it from both sides. The frontrunner says his rivals will all be coming after him. Tonight, the question is can they do any damage? He's doing incredibly well in national polls right now. And Senator Marco Rubio is one of those rivals who's been gaining ground on Donald Trump. What does he need to do tonight to hold momentum and to gain momentum? We'll hear from one of his key advisers.