>> dickerson: with the election one year from today one republican front runner basks in the spotlight. the other feels the heat. donald trump spent last night hamming it up on "saturday night live." we'll talk to him this morning. >> used to call me on the cell phone. >> dickerson: clearly not losing any sleep over challenge to his front runner status. now it's ben carson's turn to feel the pressure of being at the top of the polls. >> there is a desperation on behalf trying to find way to tarnish me because we have been looking through everything. they have been talking to everybody i've ever known. >> dickerson: we'll ask him about the controversy surrounding his campaign. new york democratic senator kiir tin gillibrand will also be with us as likelihood grows that it

was bomb that brought down that russian jetliner, we'll talk about what that could mean for the war on terror. plus we'll have analysis on all the news. it's all ahead on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs good morning welcome to "face the nation" i'm john dickerson. we're joined now by donald trump on the phone fresh off his appearance on "saturday night live." mr. trump i want to start with some of the stories about ben carson, your rival in the republican race. you suggested the stories about his autobiography are important. why are they important? >> well, first of all i hope it works out well for ben. i am not looking to see anything bad happen to him. i've gotten to know him and like him. but tough stories. i guess he wrote a book before he was thinking to be politics we all have done that, perhaps. pretty tough things come out. when you talk about hitting your moreover the head with a a hammer i'm sure you never said that. i never said that or thought

that. hitting friend in the face with a lock. with a padlock. stabbing somebody and, you know -- saying you have -- when you have pathological disease which he said. now the whole thing comes out about west point where he was talking about scholarships at west point and i know a lot about west point. they don't do the scholarship thing. lot of questions are being raised and the pyramid situation is a little bit different because frankly if you know anything about the pyramid, they are pretty solid structures, they don't have -- didn't have steel within the span to create big vacuum. those are solid structures. talk about storing grains in the pyramids. they have very little space. space for small rooms where the pharaohs had their coffins and where they were buried essentially. lot of things are going on. i don't know. i just don't know what to think. i hope it works out fine for ben. i just doane know what to think.

>> dickerson: working out fine means beating you i can't imagine -- >> not that fine. that's too fine. other than that i hope it works out fine, you're right. >> dickerson: he of course has responses to all of those questions that have been brought up. aren't they all really quite secondary to his story which is he grew up in poverty, became a famous neurosurgeon this other stuff kind of pretty much on the side, isn't it? for somebody who is also had some issues with the press, why not be on ben carson's side here about stories that really don't go to the heart of this job you're trying to get. >> when you say that you stabbed someone, was saved by a belt buckle that's unlikely because a belt buckle will turn. a belt buckle is not going to stop a knife. the built buckle will turn. you hit your mother over the head with a hammer or tried to, those are pretty -- when you write in book that you have pathological disease, path logical disease is not cured.

you know, you had dinner with wes motherland. may not have been in the area where the dinner took place at that time according to his schedule. i don't know about that. maybe it's right. maybe it's wrong. but those are pretty tough charges. they were written by him himself. pathological stuff was written, that's very serious, pathological disease. i just don't know what to think. all i can say is i hope it works out for him, i don't know what to think about it. >> dickerson: let me ask you about polls on the republican side. you are in the poll position on the next debate, fox news, that means you're number one in those polls. but ahead in lot of the states but ben carson -- >> all of the states. dickerson: definitely graining on you. i think in iowa there might be be -- he might be ahead in some polls. but clearly in the other stacey you are well ahead. but give us your sense as a student of the polls that you are about carson's threat to your candidacy. how real is it. what do you make of his rise in

the polls and his gaining on you? >> i think everybody is real. you have a lot of people, have lot of talented people that are running. people -- some of the people i like, i like ben. but some of the people that i like very much i think everybody is a threat. i've never done this before. i've built a great company, made a lot of money, i want to put that thinking for the people of the united states and we're just being ripped off by everybody. ripped off by every single country that we deal with. we're being ripped off in purchase of military equipment. i look at the kind of prices that we're taking, it's absolutely ridiculous, we can get better equipment for less money. so many different things. i view everybody as a very good competitor. even the people that are much lower in the polls than myself or that ben or anybody else. everybody is a competitor. >> dickerson: i want to ask you question about your tax plan, we'll play clip from "saturday night live" last night. then i want to ask you coming out of that. >> jimmy, how is the economy? >> amazing, sir.

in the word of our new national anthem, it's huge. after your tough negotiations with china you are killing them on trade. they're now borrowing money from us. i have no idea how you did it, sir. >> you know what, i don't have to get specific. with me it's just works. it's magic. it's just -- always been that way my whole life. >> dickerson: you were kidding there. but when you announce your tax plan in september you said that these two would be specifics about what you would cut in order to make the numbers add up. when are those -- when are we going to see those specifics about the tremendous cuts. >> you'll be seeing them soon. very easy thing to do, because you look at the fat and the waste and the fraud and the abuse that we have. it's incredible. the other thing i'm going to do bring back jobs. i'm going to bring back great numbers of jobs from china, from japan from, india. from brazil. from so many countries that have been just absolutely stealing our jobs. and, john, it's going on to a

level this you've never seen before. we now have corporate things that companies are moving out of the united states, they will be moving out. big numbers if we don't do something quickly and my plan stops all of that. and it will stop it. you have to be smart to stop it. used to be when people would leave new york for florida because of taxes or leave new jersey for texas or something. now, they leave the united states for ireland and europe and different -- and asia where they get better deals. >> dickerson: you want to close the loopholes. >> and bring back trillions of dollars that is stuck in other countries that we won't let back in because we don't have intelligent people running our country. >> dickerson: what about other loopholes, charitable giving. >> mortgage interest deduction would stay, absolutely. charitable interest would not stay that was the one of the ways that the hedge fund guys who make a lot of money pay very little tax. they carry interest defix. hung fund folks are not exactly happy with me that i can tell

you. >> dickerson: any other big cuts you can preview for us. you have a lot of math to cover up there. >> you have a lot of math but we start making our country strong the numbers become incredible, what happens. john, when the country starts kick can in, we have dynamic economy again, the numbers are unbelievable what happens. right now, you want to unleash the genius that is america. that's our country. and you just unleash it. that's what is going to happen under my plan. much more so than any other plan. one thing i will say, you talk about polls, every poll said that when it comes to the economy when it comes to finance and the economy, i'm many times higher than my next highest rival. that's a pretty important thing, i think. >> dickerson: okay. donald trump, we'll look forward to having you back on to talk about those spes i have, thanks for boo with us. >> thanks very much, john. dickerson: earlier we spoke to former neurosurgeon dr. ben carson from san juan, puerto

rico. some back and forth that took place about passing note in your autobiography by being offered spot at west point. here is something this you said at proceedings conference on friday. >> i never said i received a full scholarship. i never -- wait a minute. don't lie. i never said that i received a full scholarship. no way did i say that. >> dickerson: full scholarship how they refer to the tuition program. but you told charlie rose about a full scholarship back on october 9th, let's listen to this. >> i was offered a full scholarship to west point, congressional medal of honor, but the fact really my pathway would be medicine. >> dickerson: straighten all this out for us. >> you notice i said, was offered. i didn't say i received it. it was in the process of some kind of banquet where lot of military officials there. they were very impressed with my incredible rise to sitting

executive officer faster than anyone had ever done that before. said that we would be able to get you a full scholarship to west point. and i said, that's wonderful. i was very flattered by that. but i had already determined that i was going to go to -- on to college and on to medical school. that's what happened. i was offered that. but that was not something i wanted to take. i had tremendous admiration obviously for west point which is why i included that story. rand tremendous admiration for the people who served in-country for people to try to take this and twist it and make it seem like something dishonest seems like dishonesty itself. also i said, within the book very close to that, that i only applied to one college. i said only had enough money to apply to one college i told the story behind that. how could i have applied to west

point if i only applied to yale. that doesn't make any sense it seems to me that some of these people that do these investigations are not very good at investigating. >> dickerson: the scrutiny you're receiving, senator obama received some about his autobiography, hillary clinton got things wrong in the stories she told. seems to be something that happens to candidates or do you think it's -- do you think you're getting special scrutiny with these investigations that you just referred to? >> certainly, because there are lot of people who are very threatened, they seen head to head polling against hillary and how well i do. they are worried. there is no question about it. and every single day, every other day or every week, they're going to come out with, well, you said this when you were 134 1/3rd. did you this. and the whole point is, to distract the populous, distract

me. if you got real scandal, if you got something that's really important, let's talk about that. yesterday it was the "wall street journal" that comes out says, well, he reports in his book that he took this psychology course but we went to yale. there was no such psychology course. there was no such -- what happened to investigative reporting. because we were able to find the article and it will be coming out in the next day or two showing what happened with that psychology course. why could we find it and they could not find it. why do people put that out there to make the accusation, make somebody seem dishonest then disproven, let's go to something else. give me a break. there's so many important things that need to be talked about. >> dickerson: let me ask you question about what you wrote very popular post on facebook that you wrote answering some questions that you said supporters have brought up in terms of your political

experience. you said that signers of the declaration of independence people who were not professional politicians on that list but the founder president were people who were men in public life. either commanded troops or been in the cut and thrust of public conversation for a long time. where would you point your supporters for that kind of experience in your background? >> i would say that we all have different experiences in life. that our country was designed for citizens statesmen not career politicians. i've had lots of experience in life growing up experiencing every single socioeconomic level. a whole multitude of different jobs, being appointed of neurosurgery at very young age when it wasn't even on the map. working very hard over the years to establish it as a very important program in the united states so that by 2008, u.s. news and world report ranked it number one in the nation.

experience on corporate boards, international business. as well as domestic business. starting a national scholars program which is active in all 50 states, a reading room program that have won national awards that are only given to one organization in the country. out of tens of thousands. that's a lot of experience. in terms of the two and three o'clock in the morning phone call when you have to make life and death decision i'm sure i've had lot more of that than everybody else combined. >> dickerson: an issue that has risen to the top in new hampshire and particular a pool that showed biggest problem facing the state, 25% of the people thought that drug abuse and drug addiction was the biggest problem facing voters there. as a doctor, what is your sense of human side of addiction, where does it come from. how should it best be treated.

>> there are all kinds of addictions. usually addictions occur in people who are vulnerable. who are lacking something in their lives. we have to really start asking ourselves what have we taken out of our lives in america. what are some of those values and principles that allowed us to ascend the latter of success to the very pinnacle of the world and highest pinnacle anyone else had ever reached. and why are we in a process of throwing away all of our values and principles for the sake of political correctness. now let me just specifically talk about a type of addiction that's going on that is very alarming. heroin addiction. because there is a transportation of heroin through our southern boarders that is unimaginable. i was down there with the sheriffs they were showing me the stashes and how easy it is

to get the stuff, that's why the price has gone down so low. you can purchase it so easily. this is not a good thing for us. we need to not give up on this war on drugs and certainly not to facilitate it. we can do this, but we have to have the national will to do this. >> dickerson: you've gotten secret service protection, have there been threats made against you during this campaign? >> the way it works, you don't get is service unless there are credible threats. >> dickerson: been a lot of those? >> i can't really go into the details. i've been advised not to publicly go into the details of the threats. >> dickerson: dr. ben carson in puerto rico, of course, thank you so much, doctor. >> always a pleasure. dickerson: be back in a minute.

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russian passenger jet that killed 24 people. u.s. intelligence believes it is now likely the russian plane was brought down by a bomb. joining sus cbs news senior security contributor former number two at the cia, michael morell. how can they get so likely without having access intelligence to the crash site? >> so, i think we're talking about the communications that are being intercepted of the conversations among the terrorists. early on there was just chatter, there was just individuals congratulating each other, that wasn't enough to get you to a bomb on the aircraft because it could be circular with the claim of responsibility by isis. but now getting to more senior conversation among isis, conversations among guys be in the know that they actually did this. i think that is what pushing us from a possibility to likely. >> dickerson: what does this tell us, what are implications in terms of what this tells us about isis and they shifted?

>> i think this is very, very significant -- this will be only the third aircraft brought down by a bomb in the last quarter century. this is a very big deal. largest loss of life in a plane brought down by bomb since pan am 103 overlocker bee, scotland. it's going to add to the perception that isis is winning. that is been key strength infers of attracting followers, attracting recruit. that's one implication. another is that isis now has about 20 different affiliates around the world, militant groups. they are going to be competing for who can do something like this. then you have al qaeda which since 9/11 has worked very hard to try to bring down an airliner they have been unsuccessful this must be kind of message to them that we need to do something like this to keep our brand alive. and then the last implication i think is in russia. where there will be two dynamics. one is they will be suspending our intervention in syria

brought this one, a little bit of political blow back against putin but at the same time they're going to see putin's reaction of i'm going to get revenge here, i'm going after isis big time to make it clear that i'm not going to stand for something like this. >> dickerson: if the military operations against isis had been taking place in syria and iraq, what you describe affiliate network. and what about all these other places? >> as i said, there's been militant groups in 20 countries that always existed that have been focused on local targets that have been focused on local issues that when isis was doing exceptionally well, they decided to brand themselves as isis. they decided to go with the lead team, so to speak. the consequences that have they're no longer just focused on local issues now focused on the broader war. they're going after more international targets. this is perfect example of that. >> dickerson: what about u.s. targets? >> i think we've already seen it.

one of the isis groups in libya, several months ago went after an international hotel in tripoli frequented by international businessmen and americans were killed there. more that have kind of attack include can attacks against americans. >> dickerson: in terms of the russian response, what your sense of -- outlined couple of different responses that's your guess about what putin does? >> i think he uses this to try to rally the russian people to follow him. but i think there will be people in russia particularly in the middle class who believe that he's taking the country in the wrong direction who are going to speak up about what's happening. >> dickerson: the last 30 seconds, there was report that political report friday that hillary clinton's e-mails were not actually classified material. if it's possible, taking a politics out of it, does that surprise you. >> john, it does not. the working people in the intelligence committee whose job it is to decide whether that's

classified or not are really good people. they are really working hard. but they have a bias toward saying something is classified. why? because they only get in trouble when they look at something that is classified say, it's not. so they have a bias in favor of saying it's classified. i have personal experience with this on both sides. when i was do you tee director of cia i was adjudicator looking at a judgment somebody side, no, that's not classified. then wrote my book i was on the other side and senior people saying, that's not classified. >> dickerson: michael morell. we'll be right back with more of dumb on "saturday night live."

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can a a subconscious. mind? a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive? >> dickerson: donald trump introduced new elements to the presidential campaign. state fair. buzzing a stadium in his private

jumbo jet. and last night he became the first candidate to imagine a presidential cabinet meeting with the help of the cast of "saturday night live." exaggerations are only a little smaller than the ones he makes in his actual campaign. >> madam secretary, how is the situation in russia? >> never better. your face to face meet can putin has withdrawn from ukraine. you do not want to be called loser again. he cried for hours. >> i'm sorry i just had to do that. keep up the good work amorosa you're doing fantastic. >> mr. president, the president of mexico is here to see. >> that's great. send him in. >> donald. >> enrique. >> i brought you the check for the wall. >> that's so wonderful. [ laughter ] >> this is far too much money. >> i insist. consider it apology for doubting you. history shows us nothing brings

two countries together like a wall. >> so sorry we have big problem. >> what is it? >> the american people, sir. >> what that. >> they're just sick of winning. they're winning so much! it's just too great, sir. >> look, i know how they feel. it's exhausting. that's what really -- that is the price you have to pay. winning is tough. it's not that easy. if you think that is how it's going to be when i'm president, you're wrong. it's going to be even better. >> dickerson: we'll be right back. i history matter to you? well, because it tells us something powerful about progress: that whether times are good or bad, people and their ideas will continue to move the world forward. as long as they have someone to believe in them. citi financed the transatlantic cable that connected continents. and the panama canal, that made our world a smaller place. we backed the marshall plan that helped europe regain its strength.

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