Crane Collapses in New York City; Clinton, Sanders Clash During New Hampshire Town Hall
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. I do want to start with breaking news. I want to take you back now to Lower Manhattan where a crane collapse has killed at least one person and injured two other seriously. Mayor Bill de Blasio on his way to the scene. It's 40 Worth Street and TriBeCa where that crane stretches across what appears to be a city block. CNN's Miguel Marquez joins me now with more. Miguel, take it away.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, the mayor has arrived here on scene. He got here about 20 minutes ago. And we expect a briefing from him here shortly. The whole of downtown or this area of downtown New York is completely blocked off. This was a crane -- a drive-in crane, a very large crane that was driven into the block and parked in the middle of the block for about a week, say people who live in the neighborhood. They also say that it was -- they noticed in the last couple of days that one of the cables on top of that crane appeared to have snapped and they actually avoided this street because they were concerned. The crane was working on an existing building and adding some sort of a top to that building. It wasn't a new building under construction. This wasn't the sort of crane that you see construction bring you see attached to the side of the building. I have seen photos of the crane and the damage that it caused. It literally went lengthwise all the way down the block, a full city block, landing on some cars along the way. It is not clear where the person was killed, where they were in relation to that crane or those that were injured. But clearly a massive, massive failure with this crane. People who were in the neighborhood said they could not only hear it, they could feel it. It sounded like an earthquake they said and felt like an earthquake. Just very, very I think jarring morning for downtown Manhattan. Now dozens and dozens of police and fire officials here trying to deal with this and figure out if there are any other structural issues. But the good news is that it wasn't attached to anything. It's not like you have a building that may be structurally compromised. This is a crane that was -- it sounds like on its own that's been driven in, in the last week or two -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: We understand the New York Law School has been closed and evacuated? Is that true, Miguel?</s>MARQUEZ: Well, there are -- the New York Law School is closed in large part because of you have so many emergency vehicles down here right now. It's very difficult for anybody to access the surrounding buildings. So they've closed off probably one, two, three, four, five -- about eight blocks around this building, around this collapse so that the emergency vehicles can get in. People who live in these buildings are still able to access their buildings if they are not immediately affected. But that block of Worth Street between West Broadway and Church is now blocked off and they are trying to figure out how they're going to move this crane to make sure that there's nobody else injured in this accident -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. I hope not. We'll get back to you, Miguel. Thanks so much. Miguel Marquez, reporting live. On to politics now. Two candidates, a fiery debate and less than a week to go until the New Hampshire primary. Right now Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is on the campaign trail in Manchester, New Hampshire. He's getting ready to speak at a Politics and Eggs event. This just one day after a heated debate hosted by MSNBC. Rival Hillary Clinton unleashing a series of stinging one-liners as she tried to defend her ties to Wall Street and her speaking fees. For Sanders, it was all about owning what it means to be a progressive.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not making promises that I cannot keep.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Experience is not the only point. Judgment is, and once again, back in 2002 when we both looked at the same evidence about the wisdom of the war in Iraq, one of us voted the right way and one of us didn't.</s>CLINTON: We did differ. A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS. We have to look at the threats that we face right now. And we have to be prepared to take them on and defeat them.</s>SANDERS: Secretary Clinton does represent the establishment. I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans and by the way, who are not all that enamored with the establishment.</s>CLINTON: Senator Sanders is the only person who I think would characterize me a woman running to be the first woman president as exemplifying the establishment.</s>SANDERS: What being part of the establishment is, is in the last quarter having a super PAC that raised $15 million from Wall Street.</s>CLINTON: And enough is enough. If you've got something to say, say it directly. But you will not find that I ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation that I ever received. So I think it's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out in recent weeks and let's talk -- let's talk about the issues.</s>SANDERS: On our worst days, I think it is fair to say, we are 100 times better than any Republican candidate.</s>CLINTON: I am the strongest candidate to take it to the Republicans in November.</s>COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about this. Let's bring in CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny and CNN Politics executive director Mark Preston. Welcome to both of you. So, Jeff, Bernie Sanders appeared surprised that Hillary Clinton went on the attack. Was he?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Carol, I'm not sure he was surprised. I mean, this has been escalating privately really for weeks. And it's a sign that the Clinton campaign is, A, taking Bernie Sanders very seriously, but B, a sign that he has gotten under her skin. No question about it. They've been having conversations internally about how seriously they should treat him really for several weeks and months, but last night when you heard those two words, artful smear, it's clear that the Clinton campaign has reached a realization that she has to take him on directly. She has to call him out directly. Otherwise voters simply won't pay attention to this contrast they've been trying to subtly draw. Carol, there is no subtlety last night at all. I mean, it was clear that Secretary Clinton wanted to directly engage him on some of these issues. And it started with the definition of what is a true progressive. Let's listen to this.</s>CLINTON: I am a progressive who gets things done, and the root of that word, progressive is progress, but I've heard Senator Sanders' comments and it's really caused me to wonder. Who's left in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party? I don't think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady Bill five times. I don't think it was progressive to vote against gun makers and seller immunity. I don't think it was progressive to vote against Ted Kennedy's immigration reform.</s>SANDERS: The reality is that there has been trillions of dollars of wealth going from the middle class in the last 30 years to the top one tenth of 1 percent. The reality is that we have a corrupt campaign finance system which separates the American people's needs and desires from what Congress is doing. So to my mind, what we have got to do is wage a political revolution where millions of people have given up on the political process, stand up and fight back, demand a government that represents us and not just a handful of campaign contributions -- contributors.</s>ZELENY: So, Carol, there you have it. The argument from both sides. And if you're already with Bernie Sanders, if you're a Bernie Sanders supporter, I think you agreed and his argument resonated with you. But what Hillary Clinton is trying to do is remind Democrats out there that she is the fighter for the soul of the Democratic Party. Throughout the course of the discussion of that debate it was clear that she was trying to remind people that she has been a Democrat her whole life and he of course is an independent, and what he calls himself a Democratic socialist. But, Carol, four days before the New Hampshire primary, he still has a commanding lead here. And it's a deep challenge for her campaign to try and regain some of that ground here. But this campaign will go on of course well beyond New Hampshire as will this fight that we heard last night -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. So, Mark, will we see Bernie Sanders getting more caustic, battling back harder?</s>MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, certainly he's going to have to because Hillary Clinton, what we saw last night not only were the words that she directed at him and right at the top of that debate, he said, if you have something to say, say it to me now. And she was looking directly at him. And if you were to look at the body language of Hillary Clinton, she was not staring straight out into the audience. She turned and she stared straight at him. And I think that was a little unnerving to Bernie Sanders. But as Jeff said, this is a long game. Let's look at this in terms of baseball. This is just the second inning. We've had Iowa. We're here in New Hampshire. As Jeff said, it looks like New Hampshire is a loss for Hillary Clinton. She was not speaking to New Hampshire voter per se last night. She was looking at the long game. And what she has in her back pocket are delegate votes. They're called super delegate votes. This is a game of math. And when she pulls those out, that is going to be a huge amount of support for her as she heads down into the south. Bernie Sanders needs to use his enthusiasm to generate more support for his campaign.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Mark Preston, Jeff Zeleny, thanks to both of you. So the pragmatist battle the idealist mano-y-mano, Clinton went on the attack and Sanders bit back. The thing is, there's really not a clear winner. Perhaps the actress and activist Mia Farrow put it best on Twitter. She tweeted this. "Now if they could just split the gig, Bernie would cover domestic, Hillary on foreign policy." With me now, Maria Cardona, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter, and Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. So, Maria, in your mind, who won? I know you're a Hillary supporter. So try to take it out of your mind and step back.</s>MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Sure.</s>COSTELLO: Who won?</s>CARDONA: You know what, Carol? I actually think the Democratic Party won and American voters won last night because as fierce and as passionate as it got, and I do agree that, you know, Hillary did win overall, I think she was better than ever in explaining all of the issues that Bernie Sanders had been going at her on, but overall I think they were both terrific. One of my favorite moments was when the moderators started talking about her e-mail issues, and turned to him to say if he was going to make this an issue, and he reiterated that he was not going to politicize it. And then they turned to her to see if she wanted to take 30 seconds to pile on, on some of the shenanigans that they had brought up that Bernie's campaign had been involved in. And she simply said no. And so I think that really demonstrated that the Democrats are the ones that are having a strong substantive, passionate, fierce debate about what are the issues and the solutions that this country needs from these kinds of leaders.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. But, Andy, that moment came at the end. The rest of the debate was contentious.</s>ANDY SMITH, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE SURVEY CENTER: Well, certainly the first part of the debate was very contentious. In fact, I thought I turned on the wrong channel and was watching the Republican debate for a minute. But they did get past that early on. And I think they settled into more of what we've seen in some of the earlier debates between the two of them. And I think both of them were able to reemphasize the points that they've been making through their campaign. So if you want to look for a winner or a loser this debate, I think it's probably a bit of a draw. Maybe Clinton did better than Sanders overall because she's been very effective in these debates. But she has a lot of ground to make up. Certainly more than Sanders does.</s>COSTELLO: Yes. And especially on the Wall Street issue, Maria. In fact, she had a big fundraiser for Friday. She postponed that because a big bank was part of that fundraiser. So Bernie Sanders' attacks on her seem to be working.</s>CARDONA: Well, I think that she was very good at explaining and frankly at going back at him to say what are you insinuating? I thought that was a very strong moment for her. Because I think what she needs to do and is going to continue to do --</s>COSTELLO: Yes, but she was booed at one point, Maria. She was booed when she said that Bernie Sanders was smearing her.</s>CARDONA: But I think the point is that she needs to explain to the American people that her record on Wall Street is stronger than anybody's. That whatever money she might be accepting in terms of donations from Wall Street, in no way, shape, or form, informs her votes, informs her reforms, informs her platforms which many economists and many -- and many economic analysts have said are much stronger than Bernie Sanders'. And so while I think that people continue to think that this is an issue for her, this is an opportunity for her to continue to explain that she is actually the one that not only is proposing much tougher standards for Wall Street, but she is also better poised to make sure that those platforms translate into real action for the American people.</s>COSTELLO: All right. On the subject of guns, Andy, you know, Bernie Sanders did vote against the Brady Bill, right? But there's a reason that Bernie Sanders is somewhat supportive of guns because the gun industry employs a lot of people in his part of the world, right?</s>SMITH: Well, not only does the gun industry employ a lot of people here in New Hampshire, you have manufacturers like SIG SAUER here. But you think back where Bernie Sanders is from, Vermont has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the country and it has some of the laxest laws regarding gun usage or gun carries. So Sanders in those votes was often voting in the interest of his constituents in Vermont. It certainly is an issue here in a much suburban state than Vermont, and I think Clinton is really effectively trying to get the votes of college educated women, particularly in the suburban areas of the state near the Massachusetts border who have very different views on guns than say somebody in rural Vermont.</s>COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Maria Cardona, Andy Smith, thanks to both of you.</s>CARDONA: Thank you, carol.</s>COSTELLO: You're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald trump diplomat? Why he's backing off on a feud -- on a feud with Ted Cruz.