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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Ryan Mulls Speaker Run; Obama En Route to Roseburg; Democratic Debate. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired October 09, 2015 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: LEGAL VIEW with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to the show. Happy Friday.

The people who want it, can't get it. And the guy who can get it, doesn't want it, but is thinking about it, pretty hard actually, which is a far cry from yesterday when he was absolutely ruling it out. The guy I'm talking about is Paul Ryan and the "it" is the speakership of the House of the United States Representatives. It's up for grabs with the surprise pullout of the presumed favorite to succeed the outgoing speaker, John Boehner.

So that man, current House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, spoke out to his - to his - to the reporters this morning, ever so briefly though, after a closed door GOP huddle on The Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), MAJORITY LEADER: We had a very good conference, working together, trying to work together. I know a lot of speculation about who should run and others. Paul is looking at it, but it's his decision. If he decides to do it, he'd be an amazing speaker, but he's got to decide on his own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: As would anyone. So why Paul Ryan? He's certainly a name that people know, for one thing, having been the party's vice presidential candidate just in 2012. And he has a powerful post already. He's the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. And most important of all, he is thought to be one of the very few House Republicans, maybe, just maybe the only one with any hope of bridging that massive chasm between the parties, main stream folks and the party's Tea Party folks.

So I turn now to my colleague, CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash and CNN senior political reporter Manu Raja. All right, Dana, first to you. I don't think you've actually slept, I'm not sure you've actually left Capitol Hill since all of this sort of unraveled yesterday, but things have really changed from yesterday to today with regard to Paul Ryan. So walk me through what he's saying and what others are saying.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, it's hard to believe it was 24 hours ago that we were reporting the shocking news that McCarthy is not going to run for speaker. And now it's still unclear who will be. But the answer to your question is, Paul Ryan was very much, absolutely not, he's not going to run, no way, no how, and that has changed in a pretty big way when we talk to sources who have spoken to him privately. Ryan's not speaking out publicly at all, didn't even speak inside, behind closed doors, meeting with fellow Republicans today.

But listen to what one of his colleagues, Darrell Issa, said about his conversations with Ryan and why he thinks Ryan is the only guy to do it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: I think he's gone from a hard "no" to, he knows he has to consider it. And I know he's going home to have the kind of real meeting with his family that would allow him to weigh that. All of us are trying now to make sure he understands that the support will be behind him. If he chooses to do it, one of our commitments has to be that we will not put him back in the box that John Boehner has felt - found himself in. We have to be governable if we choose broadly a consensus candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And, Ashleigh, that last part that House Republicans have to be governable, that really is the key because right now they're just not and it's hard to see what would and could change to make Paul Ryan or anybody else able to really rein everybody in and be able to find consensus because you still have the fundamental problem with a lot of these Republicans who really believe that the answer is not negotiating, the answer is not bipartisan compromise, the answer is standing up for principle at whatever cost. And so that really has to change and it's hard to see it changing.

And the other thing to keep in mind is that we're already hearing exactly the kind of thing Paul Ryan expected if he were ever to get in here, some talk radio hosts calling him Paul rhino (ph), meaning Republican in name only, and reminding reporters and others about the fact that he isn't always on the side of the staunch conservatives when it comes to immigration and other issues. So that is something he's going to have to deal with if he does decide to get in and nobody knows that better than Paul Ryan.

BANFIELD: Right, a guy who said I have three kids, age 10, 12 and 13, or something along those lines, and, you know, the speaker has to be on the road 100 days a year. I think it was only a couple of weeks ago, Dana, he said this, that he doesn't want the job. So, consensus candidate. All right, that's the new Merriam-Webster word for 2015.

[12:05:01] Dana Bash, thank you.

I want to bring in Manu Raju as well.

This is kind of like a game of Frogger, what you guys are doing on The Hill these last 24 hours, trying to grab people as they go by to get comments from, you know, potential candidates or those who may or may not support potential candidates. Who did you find today, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, we talked to a lot of members. And really what the interesting thing that we heard was that there's nobody who can really unite the party the way Paul Ryan can. I think there's a fear among some that if Paul Ryan does not do it, where does this leave this badly divided Republican Party?

I spoke to one member, Chris Stewart, and he talked about his own personal conversations with Paul Ryan. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHRIS STEWART (R), UTAH: Well, I think he's closer than he was before understanding the nuances before because he's saying rather than flat-out no, he's telling me - telling us that, you know, it's something he's thinking of. And now I'm praying (ph) about it and many of us, you know, sincerely hope that he will. But them we're in a - we're in a harder situation because Paul has such respect among the conference, and he held this national presence. He's, obviously, well- known among, you know, among almost everyone (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Ys, and when I asked Mr. Stewart, I said, look, well, what would you do if he doesn't run? He said, well, we're really going to start at the drawing board. You know, there really is not the kind of candidate who could bring people together. And that is the reason why Mr. Ryan is going to face such heavy, heavy pressure to get in and he's resisting the temptation at all urges right now. He put out a statement from his spokesman saying that he's still not running for speaker. So he's clearly not a candidate yet. We'll see if that changes, though, when he goes back to Wisconsin and deliberates over the weekend, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: OK, Manu Raju, than you for that. And also, Dana Bash, thank you for your reporting. And for more you can visit cnnpolitics.com, because the story seems to change by the minute.

From politics to crime and, actually, how about this, crime that's being politicized. This story fits that headline. One man is dead, three other people are in the hospital with gunshot wounds after yet another campus shooting. I am not talking about last weeks. I'm talking about last night's. So this one happened pretty much in those early morning hours and it was at the dorms near Northern Arizona University. Police say an 18-year-old, believed to be a freshman at this school, fired shots after an argument between two groups in a parking lot. That suspect is now in custody. Other students, just look at their faces. We see this a lot, don't we, visibly shaken. A Flagstaff chief of police detailed at least what we know at this point happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF GREGORY FOWLER, FLAGSTAFF POLICE DEPARTMENT: Two separate student groups got into a confrontation. The confrontation turned physical and one of our students, Steven Jones, 18 years old, produced a handgun and he shot four of our other students. One of our students is deceased. The other three are being treated at the Flagstaff Medical Center. A great many people are involved and need to be interviewed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The school's chapter of the Delta Chi Fraternity has released a statement confirming some of their members were, in fact, involved in the shooting, but said the incident was not chapter- related.

The news of this latest shooting comes just as the president, himself, is off to Roseburg, Oregon. That community, of course, still grieving the deaths of nine people in a mass shooting at a college last week. The president is planning to meet with the families of the victims who were involved in that shooting an Umpqua Community College, but not everybody wants the president there. At least two protests had been planned by groups who were furious with the president's call for gun safety laws immediately after the tragedy.

Our Ryan Young is following the story from Roseburg. He's live with me now.

So, tell me how things have been shaking out as the president makes his way westward.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, you talk about those two groups that are getting ready to protest, and we've been told over 8,000 people have said they're going to show up here to protest. We've seen people actually show up to our live shot locations and ask us where the protest location will be. So far we're told there are going to be two separate protests somewhere nearby the college.

But, Ashleigh, look, you've been in this community before. You reported on this story. You know how tight knit this community is. Well, we've been just struck by the generosity of the people in this area as they talk about their loved ones who were involved in this. Look, it's a city of about 22,000 people and it seems like everyone here knows someone who was involved in this tragic incident. And they're going through really large lengths to make sure the shooter's name is not said throughout this community.

But, yes, the president is coming. Some people have stood up and said they didn't like the idea the president started talking about politics shortly after the shooting. Other people have said, look, he's coming here, he's going to show support, he's going to meet with these victims privately, so everybody's sort of waiting to see what happens next.

[12:10:02] BANFIELD: All right, Ryan Young reporting live for us from Roseburg. Keep us posted. Do appreciate that reporting, thank you.

Coming up next, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, playing real nice with each other on the campaign trail, but is that going to be the way it is when they meet face-to-face, four days and counting now? Here on CNN, can these two remain friends, or at least appear so, in a fight this big and this important? That's next.

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BANFIELD: Just four days before they face off at the Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are busy on the campaign trail. And today, Senator Clinton is in Washington where she's meeting with the Black Lives Matter group. Bernie Sanders, for his part, en route to Arizona for a rally, a big one, where he's also expected to receive his first officially congressional endorsement.

And, you know, if you've been watching, I'm sure it hasn't escaped you, things have been pretty civil between those two. They are refusing to attack one another on the trail. That's the trial. The debate is coming and will the gloves come off when they get up on that stage on Tuesday. Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.

[12:15:18] (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a relationship that's hard to define.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know Bernie. I respect his enthusiastic and intense advocacy of his ideas.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe I shouldn't say this, I like Hillary Clinton. I respect Hillary Clinton.

KAYE: Some call it a modest friendship. Others, a mutual accommodation. But whatever is going on between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, their politeness hardly goes unnoticed.

SANDERS: I've never run a negative political ad in my life.

KAYE: In fact, when Sanders does criticize Mrs. Clinton, he doesn't even mention her name. Listen to what he told NPR.

SANDERS: If you think established politics and establishment economics is the answer to our problems, fine, there are good candidates out there.

KAYE: Meanwhile, Clinton told NBC that having Sander in the race is a good.

CLINTON: Look, I really believe this is great for the Democratic Party and the this election because we want to turn out as many people as possible.

KAYE: She even declined to go after him.

CLINTON: Well, let me talk about myself. I'll let Senator Sanders talk about himself.

KAYE: Sanders' strategy seems to be pointing out what he has done. A subtle way of saying his opponent did something different.

SANDERS: You are looking at a former member of Congress who voted against the war in Iraq.

KAYE: Remember, Mrs. Clinton voted to authorize the Iraq War, which cost her dearly in the 2008 election.

CLINTON: Any vote that might lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction.

KAYE: Barack Obama, as senator, voted against it. Sanders is quietly borrowing from Obama's playbook.

KAYE (on camera): Sanders and Clinton have a long history together. Their relationship goes back 25 years. When Sanders got to the Senate back in 2007, the two co-authored The Green Jobs Act and served on various committees. They also worked together to make primary care medicine more available.

KAYE (voice-over): But just because Hillary Clinton isn't criticizing Sanders, a super PAC supporting her is, connecting Sanders to the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, all because of a heating oil deal between Chavez and Vermont. Sanders, in a rare move, hit back in an e- mail to supporters, connecting Clinton to dirty tactics, calling the attack "preposterous." In the end, Sanders raised $1 million in support. Meanwhile, on PBS this week, Mrs. Clinton distanced herself from the PAC.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you approve of this, going after Senator Sanders by this super PAC? We know there's coordination.

CLINTON: Well, I don't know anything about what you're saying. I have no knowledge of what they are doing.

KAYE: Sanders was quick to point out he won't be a spoiler for Clinton's campaign if he doesn't win the nomination, though he's not jumping at being her VP either.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you be interested in being her vice president?

SANDERS: Would she be interested in being my vice president? We will be outspent, but I think we've got a good shot to win this thing.

KAYE: Thirteen months till the election, and just five days away from the first Democratic debate, this could still get ugly.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BANFIELD: You know, it's pretty hard to imagine making it through any political campaign without getting bruised and battered, at least somewhat, especially a presidential campaign. So how much longer can these two continue to say pretty nice stuff about each other, or at least refrain from saying the mean stuff? What exactly will the strategy be when they take to the stage in four days? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:23:08] BANFIELD: We have this big bug that we keep putting up that tells you how long it's going to be until the next debate, and it's four days from now. There you have it. The next Democratic presidential debate taking place on Tuesday. It's the first one, folks, so it's going to be a barn burner. I just - I'm just calling it. Hillary Clinton may be starting to feel the burn, though, as Bernie Sanders' supporters like to say. Clinton's Democratic challenger is closing the fundraising gap and competing and even beating her in some of the poll numbers, too. Sanders, Clinton, and the others face off Tuesday night at the CNN debate in Las Vegas.

And joining me to discuss the tactics and the strategy that they're going to have to employ, Tad Devine is a senior media advisor to Bernie Sanders. He's also a former senior advisor to the John Kerry campaign. And Also with me, Democratic strategist Robert Zimmerman.

All right, I'm going to start with you, if I can, Tad. How long can these two continue to be polite and civil and keep it friendly and nice and not actually take the turn and go after each other's records or flip-flops or policy stance or controversies or anything else that's in the press?

TAD DEVINE, SENIOR MEDIA ADVISER, SANDERS CAMPAIGN: Well, Ashleigh, I think it can go on for a long time. I mean I can't speak for what Hillary's going to do, but I do know what Bernie's going to do, he's going to behave in this campaign as he has in every campaign he's ever run. He does not launch negative, personal attack. He does not run negative campaign ads. He does talk about issues.

There are differences in their records on issues and they're fair game to talk about. But what Bernie wants to talk about is where he would lead this nation as president. And I think that will be his focus in the debate.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You know, it's important to remember that in this - in this debate, both of them, both Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton have a long, cordial, cooperative relationship or friendship that goes back some years. And I think that's important. But I think, as Tad pointed out, you can have a very collegial debate., you can have an intelligent discussion on how to build the middle class, how to strengthen America's economy without having to result in having the kind of name calling and anger management therapy you saw amongst the Republicans.

[12:25:09] BANFIELD: You've got to - you've got to admit, Robert, that the Republicans are delivering any script that Bernie Sanders may need to go after Clinton. What's her ammo against Bernie Sanders? ZIMMERMAN: Well, here's the deal. Any Democratic who resorts to reciting Republican talking points is going to hurt themselves amongst the grassroots of the -

BANFIELD: So you're saying you don't think he's ever going to touch the e-mail scandal - or it's not even a scandal -

ZIMMERMAN: It's not even a scandal.

BANFIELD: It's really a controversy, but scandal's the Republican's word for it.

ZIMMERMAN: Yes.

BANFIELD: So far no one has determined there's any scandal there.

ZIMMERMAN: Of course not. And I think senator sanders is too fine a person to engage in reciting Republican talking points like that. But there will be debates around issues, debates around policy, and it's going to be pretty exciting. This is going to be an historic debate because CNN's present - really bringing the Democrats to the nation for the first time.

BANFIELD: So let's bring up some numbers and, Tad, I want you to address this for me. While New Hampshire looks just fantastic for your candidate, if you pop this up it says - this is questions between September 17th and 23rd with the CNN/WMUR poll. Sanders is smoking her. I mean he's at 46 to 30 for her. But that's New Hampshire. And if you go elsewhere like Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, otherwise known as the whoppers, or, you know, insert any noun you want there, they're critical, critical states, those numbers flip significantly. Look how much higher Hillary Clinton's numbers are, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and respectively 43, 40 and 36 to his 19, 19, 19. Tad, it's hard to flip those numbers unless you go on the attack, isn't it?

DEVINE: No, it's not. I worked for Walter Mondale in 1984 and I'll tell you, after Gary Hart won New Hampshire, we had a lot of problems in Florida and a lot of those other states. And that's because if you succeed at the front end of the nominating process, beginning in Iowa and New Hampshire, on to Nevada, South Carolina, it has a huge impact on the states that follow. So we're really pleased that Bernie Sanders, someone who's new to national politics, running for the first time for president, is actually moving into the high teens, 20s, and in some cases we had a poll in California earlier this week, he was in 35 in California, the biggest state in the country.

ZIMMERMAN: But I think - but, Tad, I think it's important to remember that for Hillary Clinton to maintain that enormous lead for the Democratic nomination, despite the fact she's been under attack from 18 Republican congressional - 18 Republican presidential candidates and, of course, the entire Republican Congress going after her, I think it speaks to her strength of character. I think it speaks to her standing and incredible grass roots support. Just in the last quarter amongst fundraising, 93 percent of her donors were - gave $100 and under and 60 percent were from women. So I think it speak to her great grass roots support that I think is going to be reflected in how she goes forward in this nomination process.

DEVINE: I think it does. I agree with you. I think Hillary's very well-known and has a lot of support. And I'm glad you raised fundraising, because it's incredible to me that in the last quarter that Bernie Sanders raised almost as much money as Hillary Clinton. And we did so almost with all the donations coming in online, grassroots donation, an average donation of about $30. So the fact that we've proved to the world that we could compete almost dollar for dollar and the fact that we have almost as much cash on hand today as Hillary Clinton, I think means that we can compete all the way through this process.

ZIMMERMAN: Well, let's remember, Hillary Clinton's raised $75 million at this point. Senator Sanders has raised $40 million. I think it says a lot about her grassroots support amongst fundraising.

BANFIELD: I've got to leave it there, guys.

DEVINE: It does. It does.

ZIMMERMAN: OK. Thank you.

DEVINE: I'll just say one thing, having as much cash on hand today is the number that counts and I'm really happy where we are.

BANFIELD: I'm looking forward to Tuesday.

ZIMMERMAN: I am too.

BANFIELD: You might - you might both be talking about today. I'm looking forward to Tuesday.

ZIMMERMAN: OK.

BANFIELD: Thank you so much, Tad Devine and Robert Zimmerman.

ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And, remember, as I said before, you can watch this presidential Democratic debate Tuesday right here on CNN. Make sure you tune in. See if things change. It might get ugly, you never know.

Coming up, Bill Cosby, I'm sure he's very, very busy this morning getting ready for a meeting he would rather not be in, because he's going to face some questions about a sexual assault allegation. And it is a big one. We're going to get the scoop on today's official deposition he's been ordered to attend. We're going to hear directly from one of his accusers, just ahead.

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