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Military Rescue Operation In Iraq; One American Soldier Dead; Mexico Braces For Strongest Ever Recorded Hurricane; Hillary Clinton's Long Day; Clinton Camp Responds To Benghazi Hearing; Discussions About Clinton's Hearing; Bush Campaign Cutbacks; Race for the White House. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 23, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And at any moment now, the defense secretary of the United States, Ash Carter, will address the military rescue operation in Iraq that left one American soldier dead. We're going to have both stories coming up ahead this hour.

ANNOUNCER: This CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: But first, let's get to the breaking news. Mexico now bracing for the strongest hurricane ever recorded by the U.S. National Hurricane Center. With 200-mile-an-hour sustained winds, Hurricane Patricia has the potential to cause massive death and destruction. It is moving fast, landfall now expected in southwestern Mexico later today.

For more on all of this, let's go to our Meteorologist Jennifer Gray. She's at the Severe Weather Center at the CNN center. Jennifer, what has the National Hurricane Center said in this very latest advisory?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I can tell you one thing, Wolf, this is the first time the National Hurricane Center has ever put winds as high as 200 miles per hour on an advisory and it happened with Patricia. Right now, winds 200 miles per hour, gusts of 245. It's moving quickly to the north at 10 miles per hour. It's going to continue that track over the next couple of hours and is expected to make landfall a little bit later this afternoon.

I'm going to have my producers to help advance my map because the button isn't quite working. But, Wolf, it is going to continue on that northward track as we go through the next few hours. It is going to make landfall between Puerto Vallarta as well as Manzanillo as we go through time. And it's also going to dump a lot of rainfall. We're talking about incredible winds. We're also talking about storm surge.

And, hopefully, folks right along the coast have either evacuated or found the most sturdy structure they could find. Gusts of 245. It could make the landfall as a strong category four or possible category five. And then, continue that track inland. It is going to weaken considerably once it makes landfall. A lot of the reason for that is because of the terrain. It's very mountainous.

Here are those wind -- that wind forecast. We'll be getting up to 60 to 100-per-hour winds, even when we go forward in about the next 24 hours. And that forecast of rain, we're also looking at anywhere from 10 to 20 inches across places along the coast. And because that terrain is mountainous, we're going to be looking at the possibility of landslides and mudslides, Wolf.

BLITZER: Will any of this have any effect on the U.S. mainland?

GRAY: Well, we are going to be possibly -- we are going to see moisture from this storm. It's not going to be -- it's not going to be tropical anymore. We're not going to see those tropical storm or even hurricane-force winds. But because we are going to get moisture from this, it is going to increase the rainfall amount in Texas. We're already seeing flooding rains there. And as all of this moisture gets pumped up into Texas, we are going to see additional rainfall.

So, here are the rainfall totals. We could see 20-plus inches of rain right around the Houston area as well as Dallas could be hit pretty hard with this. Already seeing flood -- flash flood warnings in that area. So, in the next couple of days, we are going to see a lot more additional rainfall, Wolf.

BLITZER: And just give, for some perspective, Jennifer, Katrina did not have anything close to 200 miles-per-hour winds, right?

GRAY: Yes, this storm is stronger than Katrina. It's stronger than Andrew. It's stronger than Camille. If you lived through those storms, you have to imagine, this a stronger storm than that. There have only been three storms to make landfall as a category five in the U.S. And, of course, this going to be stronger than that.

And the other thing, Wolf, these people had not a lot of time before. This a tropical storm. And within 24 hours, it is a category five. And so, not a lot of time. If you were maybe to be out hiking, out camping, and you were away from your television set or social media, there's not a lot of time to prepare when a storm intensifies that rapidly. This could be the most a storm has intensified this quickly ever. And so, that's one other thing we are looking at.

BLITZER: And we will stay, obviously, on top of this horrendous, horrendous hurricane. Our best wishes to all of our friends in Mexico right now. They've got a lot of work ahead of them. Thanks very much, Jennifer.

Let's get to presidential politics right now here in the United States. And Hillary Clinton, she's out there. She's back on the campaign trail today, a day after going through a marathon session of questions in front of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Benghazi. She's in Virginia, northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. right now for a campaign event. Earlier, she spoke to the Democratic National Committee's Women's Leadership Forum. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am absolutely delighted to be here. As some of you may know, I had a pretty long day yesterday. But I finally got to answer questions. Something I have been pushing for literally a year.

[13:05:10] After my experience yesterday, I am just amazed that they are even talking about setting up another special investigative committee. This time to investigate Planned Parenthood. And I think we all know, by now, that's just code for a partisan witch hunt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Most observers said Hillary Clinton escaped yesterday's 11- hour grilling largely unscathed. Though, there was a lot of questioning on the Libya policy, obviously, her e-mails, her home address, her friends. She was still able to make a major political statement during the course of this. Here's a little snippet from late in the hearing during the final hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: The answers have changed not at all since I appeared two years ago before the House and the Senate. And I recognize that there are many currents at work in this committee, but I can only hope that the statesmanship overcomes the partisanship. At some point, we have to do this. It is deeply unfortunate that something as serious as what happened in Benghazi could ever be used for partisan political purposes. And I'm hoping that we can move forward together. We can start working together. We can start listening to each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's get some more now on what's going on inside of the Clinton campaign, the fallout from the Benghazi hearing. Joining us now is Jennifer Palmieri. She is the communications director for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. She's out there on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton right now. Jennifer, thanks very much for joining us. I assume you've had a chance to speak to Secretary Clinton today. What was her mood after those 11 hours of questioning?

JENNIFER PALMIERI, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, HILLARY CLINTON FOR AMERICA: She was pretty tired but she was in fine spirits. I think, as you saw, she demonstrated in the clip that you just showed, Wolf, she was -- she was a little bit disappointed that -- didn't feel that enough of the hearing was focused on preventing future tragedies like Benghazi or what more could we do to protect the diplomats that do go into the dangerous place. That it's important that we be able to have diplomats in the really hot zones, places like Afghanistan and Iraq. And that is why she wanted to testify yesterday to honor the memory of the four Americans that we did lose and to support the efforts that America has to protect our diplomats across the globe.

But that's really, unfortunately, not what happened, as you saw. I thought she had managed the situations really well. And I think that people were able to see the depth of commitment that she brought to the job as secretary of state and the kind of -- the strong character in the person that she is. And so, that was a useful thing for people to see.

BLITZER: Did she --

PALMIERI: But it was unfortunate, as she noted, that it didn't focus enough on what more we can do to help prevent this in the future.

BLITZER: -- did she feel the questions were appropriate by some of the Republican members? Because there was a lot of interruptions. There was a lot of anger. There was some screaming, stuff like that. Did she feel she was disrespected?

PALMIERI: No, I don't think she felt that. She was happy to go. She was secretary of state when this very tragic situation happened. She was happy to go before Congress and answer the questions. And, you know, she's a -- she's a big girl. She's pretty tough. She can -- she can handle a grilling whether it's -- whether the line of questioning is legitimate or not.

So, it's not up to her to decide what questions the Republicans choose to ask of her. It's her job to answer them to the best of her ability. And we felt that she did that. I think when she was sitting there herself going through the experience, it was -- it was difficult. It wasn't -- when you're not sure -- when you're her sitting there exactly how it's all being but felt that she did what she set out to do which is sit there, answer every question they have as long as it took, be as open and try to paint as compelling and complete a picture as what it was like at that moment. And handling Benghazi and what it was like as secretary of state for -- you know, and the colleagues that she was trying to support and dealing with their problems.

[13:10:00] BLITZER: There was some new information that was released by the Republican majority, including that e-mail that Hillary Clinton sent her daughter, Chelsea, on the night of the attack, September 11, 2012. And the text was released. Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Qaeda-like group. The ambassador whom I -- whom I handpicked and a young communications officer on temporary duty with a wife and two young children. Very hard day. I fear more of the same tomorrow.

So, on that same night that it all occurred, she was blaming an Al Qaeda-like group. Yet, word went out in the days ahead, the next day and a few days later, that this was some sort of video-inspired protest that was responsible for this. Why the confusion if she knew that night that it was an Al Qaeda terror attack?

PALMIERI: Well, I think that she also spoke pretty eloquently to the fog of war, and not just that night but in the ensuing days. And I was with President Obama at the time. I know that there was a lot of people and she was putting forth the best information that was available at the time. And I think what we've ended up finding is that it was a -- you know, there wasn't any one source or any one reason for why this happened. It was a number of factors. And then, in those days, all you can do is deal with the information as it's coming in and deal with the best intelligence you have at the time. And that's what her public and private statements reflected. BLITZER: Jennifer Palmieri with the Clinton campaign. Thanks very

much.

PALMIERI: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: By almost all accounts, it's been a very good 10 days for Hillary Clinton. She didn't lose her cool up on Capitol Hill yesterday during those 11 hours of testimony. She did well in last week's Democratic debate. You saw it live here on CNN. The vice president, Joe Biden, decided not to challenge her for the Democratic presidential nomination. Today, she can add the endorsement from the largest trade union of public employees here in the United States, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. It has 1.6 million members. All good news for Hillary Clinton.

Let's bring in our CNN Political Commentators Tara Setmayer and Donna Brazile. I guess, Donna, this was a great week for Hillary Clinton. She did have a couple little issues that we just talked about in that hearing. But by and large, I think she came out pretty well, a lot better than a lot of people who support her might have feared.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, Wolf, she had a very difficult summer. I mean, given all of the negative news that we saw during the summer, the poll numbers, this what if Joe Biden will run? But, look, yesterday, what I saw, and I think most Americans, is someone who not only was somber, she was stoic, she was very stately, meaning presidential.

But she requested this hearing so that she could answer any other remaining questions. For the four Americans who died and their families now, the loved ones who are still grieving, they may not have heard all of the answers that they need to know. But I think for the 300 million plus Americans, we need to know that our country is now to protect our public servants and that Hillary Clinton, yesterday, showed that she is committed to following through on all of the recommendations.

BLITZER: Tara, how did she do?

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think, given the circumstances, she did hold up pretty well. I mean, there -- I think -- I don't think anyone would argue that, given the length of time that the -- that the hearing took place that she remained very calm, cool, collected. Completely different from the last time where she lost it and said, what difference does it make and pounded the desk. And there were -- so, there was nothing there, no presidential add, snippets that the Republicans could use. So, she maintained her cool.

Now, there were some very interesting exchanges that I think we cannot gloss over, considering the circumstances. And the fact that she is still steadfastly holding to that she still believes that that video had anything to do with this is insulting. I mean, it's very clear to the American people, based on the intelligence reports, the e-mails we found. Jim Jordan did an excellent breakdown of what she said in private compared to what was told publicly to the American people. And it was very divergently different because we are 56 days from an election and there was a political narrative they needed to make sure stayed consistent. And that was that Al Qaeda was dead, G.M. was alive and we could not admit that this was an Al Qaeda-inspired terrorist attack. And that still -- it was pretty clear.

BLITZER: I don't think she believes that video was responsible today. But during that week that followed, she says --

BRAZILE: Right.

BLITZER: -- there was that fog. There was that confusion. And as a result, there was conflicting information.

(CROSSTALK)

SETMAYER: There were intel documents that were very clear. She was very clear in her -- in her --

BRAZILE: This is why the Republicans lost yesterday.

SETMAYER: No, it's not. It's her parsing words --

BRAZILE: This is why --

SETMAYER: -- and Hillary is good at that.

BRAZILE: -- it looked a -- it looked like a charade. No, she wasn't.

SETMAYER: Yes, she was.

BRAZILE: This is -- this is -- the Republicans continue to play it back the old tapes of yesterday as if tomorrow matters on that score. This is the --

SETMAYER: Words matter though, Donna.

BRAZILE: No, she --

SETMAYER: I used her own words. She stood in front of the family on September 15th and said --

BRAZILE: Tara, I'm going to re-litigate. Look, I don't want to sit, again, in front of my T.V. and look at 10 hours of that kind of hearing unless it's Empire, Scandal and Murder, or, How to Get Away with Murder or a good football game.

[13:15:08]

But the fact is, she went there yesterday with one goal in mind, and that was to take all the questions. They have her e-mails. They have all of the materials. They also have the reports of all of the other investigative committee. And to answering them to the best of her ability. She was sworn in. She did that. She did a good job.

Now, look, Wolf, this weekend, she's going to the JJ Dinner. She's a long way from 2,204 (INAUDIBLE). WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: JJ Dinner is the Jefferson Jackson Dinner in - in Iowa where Democrats go. And her husband, the former president, is going to go with her on this campaign trip.

BRAZILE: And Katy Perry. And Katy Perry. So there will be a little dancing. So this is her moment. I think if she can seize this moment and we still have a competitive race in the Democratic Party despite the fact that we lost two candidates this week, or they've decided not to - to continue their bid, this is going to be a very competitive season. But she's in better shape today than she was a week ago.

BLITZER: All right, ladies, don't go away. We have more to discuss. Donna and Tara are going to be with us.

So she's - we're going to continue, though, take a look at some other political news. The Democratic field for the presidency lost another member today, the former Rhode Island governor and senator, Lincoln Chafee. He's dropped out. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LINCOLN CHAFEE (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I look forward to a success 2016, and that's what I want to dedicate my efforts -

QUESTION: Why did you - why now? Why did you (INAUDIBLE)?

CHAFEE: Obviously, it's a good week for Secretary Clinton. Did well in the debates. And then Senator Webb got out. Vice President Biden declined to join the race. She did well at the Benghazi hearing and Governor Chafee got out of the race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Governor Chafee also said he actually made the decision to drop out last weekend, days after the first Democratic presidential debate. The veteran lawmaker had been polling below 1 percent among the other Democratic hopefuls. One less potential challenger for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley right now. The three of them remain in the Democratic contest.

Just ahead, another new poll showing Dr. Ben Carson pulling ahead of Donald Trump in a key early voting state. It's the second poll in two days in Iowa. So what does that mean for the Republican race?

And the first U.S. soldier killed in combat in Iraq since 2011. We've learned his identity. There is a picture of Staff Sergeant Wheeler. What we don't know about the raid that took his life. We'll get a full report when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:41] BLITZER: CNN has learned that Jeb Bush's campaign has now decided to cut salaries, downsizing staff, redistributing resources. The moves come as Bush struggles to break out of the pack in the Republican race for president. According to internal talking points, the campaign is reducing payroll costs by 40 percent this week. It's also cutting salaries across the board, downsizing its headquarters' staff, cutting travel costs and eliminating other overhead expenses.

Let's bring back our CNN political commentators Donna Brazile and Tara Setmayer.

Tara, what do you think about this message that it's sending out there that he's decided he's got to cut back?

TARA SETMAYER: Yes, and that's never a good sign. Donna and I were just talking about this. We - this is - seems to be in the works for a little while. Last weekend I was on CNN, we were just talking about this, how reports were coming out after we saw the burn rates, how much money the campaigns were spending versus what they were taking in. Jeb Bush's burn rate was about 86 percent, which is really high. So they've been spending all of this money and they were staying in five-star hotels and private jets and things like that. They've had to cut a lot of that back. And so that means that the donors are not sending the same amount of money that they were at one point.

And you can understand why. I mean Jeb's been poll in single digits. He hasn't caught fire anywhere. His debate performances have been mediocre. So the natural progression here is that the dollars don't flow in as much and now they're starting to - they're going to have to tighten their belt a little bit as they move forward. And you see people like Ben Carso and Trump continuing to surge and Bush is not.

BRAZILE: But, Tara, as you well know, at this stage of the campaign, you have to invest in these early state -

SETMAYER: Yes.

BRAZILE: If you're going to break out in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, you - it's - Wolf, this is a time that you start putting more staff resources, more television ads.

SETMAYER: Right.

BRAZILE: And if he doesn't have the hard dollars, we know he has a big super PAC, but if he doesn't have the hard dollars to compete, that's a sign that his campaign might be in trouble.

BLITZER: In Iowa he's not doing well at all.

BRAZILE: No.

SETMAYER: No.

BLITZER: He's down there in single -- mid-level, single digits.

SETMAYER: South Carolina either.

BLITZER: But take a look, the new "Des Moines Register"/Bloomberg poll has Dr. Ben Carson at 28 percent. Donald Trump, now for the first time in second place with 19 percent. Until now he's been ahead in all the key early state. He's been ahead nationally in all the polls. Now, for the first time, two days in a row, another poll yesterday, now this one today, has Carson ahead in Iowa, Trump second. What does that say to you?

SETMAYER: Well, I think that's interesting. I'm not as surprised in Iowa, though, per say, just given the makeup of Iowa caucus goers. They're a lot more Evangelical. Trump hasn't spent as much time in Iowa as in other places and he - you know, somebody like Ben Carson's disposition, his personality, his very strong evangelical Christian roots and his authenticity with that resonates, I think, much more with Iowa voters than maybe some of the brash talk that's come from Trump.

But you see that Trump has been cozying up to conservative leaders as of late because he recognizes that he needs those folks in his corner if he's going to continue and win in places like Iowa. So he was just at the CNP, Council for National Policy, meeting last week, which is a, you know, a tight knit conservative organization. They're auditioning all of the candidates. And he was there and, you know, doing his thing with them, trying to garner that kind of support. And then maybe we'll see if that translates into Iowa. But I can see why Ben Carso, given his background, his disposition, his wife spends a lot of time there as well. She's a good surrogate for him.

[13:25:00] BRAZILE: Retail politics. Retail - all retail politic, Wolf.

SETMAYER: It's all about that in Iowa. That's right.

BRAZILE: I was out there at the Iowa State Fair and clearly I was out there to enjoy all of the great food.

SETMAYER: It's great.

BRAZILE: And Ben Carson, small groups. He's - he's gone into those counties, small groups. He's taken a chapter from Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum page -

SETMAYER: That's right.

BRAZILE: Which is, he's meeting people where they are, going to their homes, going to the churches, going into the little small place, and that's why I think those poll numbers reflect that.

BLITZER: Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucus, the Republican caucuses, in 2008. Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucuses in 2012. Neither one of them got the Republican presidential nomination.

BRAZILE: No.

BLITZER: So - but it's nice to win the Iowa caucuses.

BRAZILE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: So, Dr. Ben Carson, I'm sure Donald Trump is hoping, well, even if he wins the Iowa caucuses -

BRAZILE: That's right.

BLITZER: Maybe he won't get the Republican presidential nomination. I'm sure Donald Trump would like to then go on to win New Hampshire -

BRAZILE: But he's preventable (ph).

BLITZER: South Carolina, Nevada, some of these other states as well. We'll see what happens.

SETMAYER: Well, losing in Iowa can also be, you know, problematic. I mean Iowa was where Hillary's demise happened in 2008. It really started to go that way. So, you know, Iowa still has its significance. So winning and losing or where you place in Iowa still matters.

BLITZER: Ask Howard Dean, too -

SETMAYER: Yes.

BLITZER: About Iowa. (INAUDIBLE).

BRAZILE: But we need to remind everyone that Ben Carson's on a book tour. And -

BLITZER: Yes, his book is doing remarkably well, too.

BRAZILE: If you go to any -

BLITZER: He's selling a lot of copies. If you go to those book signings -

BRAZILE: If you go to airport (ph) - yes.

BLITZER: I mean people lining up block after block after block. He's a very, very popular guy out there among Republicans and conservatives.

BRAZILE: I want you to get me a copy, because I know you got four. I want you to give me a copy.

BLITZER: All right, I'll - I'll get you a copy.

BRAZILE: OK. I know you have pull.

BLITZER: All right. I'll get him to sign it.

BRAZILE: All right, thank you, sir.

BLITZER: Thanks, guys, very, very much.

This weekend, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Bernie Sander, they will all join our Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" to weigh in on the polls, the tweets, Hillary's big week. That's this Sunday, 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

BLITZER: It was a direct request from the Kurdistan government, U.S. assistance in a hostage rescue operation. But the death of a serviceman during the missing is raising questions about the U.S. role in Iraq. Is it changing? Is this now a full scale combat role as opposed to training and assisting? We're going to take a closer look.

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