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Trump Doesn't Back Down on Carson Criticism as GOP Establishment Worries; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Today's Double Bombings; U.S. Military Targets Jihadi John as Kurds Push ISIS Out of Sinjar. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 13, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The programming note for viewers. Tomorrow night, after that Democratic debate at 11:00, we will have CNN special report, a full analysis of what the Democrats had to say. That is tomorrow night the Democratic debate special, 11:00 eastern.

While Trump and Carson continue their rants and rise in the polls, a new report shows just how worried the GOP establishment. We will have more on the when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Donald Trump is not backing down clearly of the criticism of Dr. Carson during a rally in Iowa last night. Today, Trump is out with a new Instagram video questioning Carson's personal narrative of the violent past as a teenager. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

DR. BEN CARSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON: I had a large camping knife and I tried to stab him in the abdomen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Does it fit with the guy that you knew?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:35:07] BLITZER: Let's bring in the CNN political commentators, S.E. Cupp and Amanda Carpenter.

Amanda, that 90-minute speech by Donald Trump was by all indications, I guess, over to the top shall we say.

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, what is striking me more about Donald Trump recently is a that he is so specific in the attacks against the other candidates, he is so specific, but when it comes to his policy, it appears he should be more specific about policies. And that ad is so dark. I don't know how much it will last but at some point he has to at least balance out the positives and negatives.

BLITZER: Carson is his the main challenger in Iowa, according to the polls in Iowa, does that kind of attack work?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. Trump has not been able to find the strike zone against Ben Carson.

BLITZER: It worked with Jeb Bush.

CUPP: Yes, and with Ben Carson, nothing is sticking. He went after the temperament, and low energy, called him an OK-doctor, and challenged the Seventh Day Adventist in Iowa where people are familiar, and nothing is sticking. And now, going after his biography, and other people are as well, especially some of us in the media, but it is not working. And what Trump doesn't understand is that the people coming to see Trump are not there because they don't like Ben Carson, they are there because they don't trust the establishment candidates. So you can see that the eyes were glazed over through the performance of the belt buckle. They were not into it, and they didn't know where it was going. They are not with him on this anti-Ben Carson train.

CARPENTER: And the point when Donald Trump attacked Ben Carson's autobiography, that is almost like attacking his faith. This is a catalyst for him becoming a man of God, and so when Donald Trump questions that story, he is questioning Ben Carson's faith, and that not going to be playing well in Iowa.

BLITZER: He says that he doesn't know anything about Seventh Day Adventist, and he is not challenging it, but he just raised the point that Carson is a Seventh Day Adventist and he doesn't know much about that religion.

CUPP: Well, it is a religion of 18 million people, and it is not a couple of guys in the church basement. And in Iowa, plenty of people are aware of what a Seventh Day Adventist is. And so Trump has not read Ben Carson and he has not figured it out yet, and not to say he won't, but he has not figured it out yet.

BLITZER: Listen to what he said. This is Trump at his rally last night on how he would defeat ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Someone on one of the shows, and I said, look, ISIS is making a tremendous amount of money, because they have certain oil cap, and certain areas of oil they took away, and some in Syria, and some in Iraq. I would bomb the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) out of them.

(LAUGHER)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That is the major source of ISIS's cash, the money, the oilfields they have taken over.

CARPENTER: And set aside this is not presidential talk, and not looking good coming from the White House, but what works for Donald Trump is that he has a clear direct way of communicating to people's feelings, and that played well in the audience and they clap and cheered. Presidential? No, but does it speak to the feeling that people have, yes.

BLITZER: And how does that play in New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and Florida and Nevada?

CUPP: When Trump says he is going to the bomb the "S" out of them, or when Ben Carson says that we are going to be shooting a Russian plane out of the sky, that is going to sell to not just a segment of the population, but certain segments of the country at large. It is not substantive and not the whole story, and very complicated situation over there, and I think that if you started to, you know, scratch Beneath is surface with Trump or Carson with their foreign policy plans, you would find out quickly they don't have enough knowledge to make the calls, but certainly that no-nonsense, and straight talk is working. It is why they have so much support.

CARPENTER: And also, this is why the Trump likes the rallies, because he can say the bombastic things unchallenged. But in a debate where he is pressed on the substance, he is quiet.

[13:39:24]BLITZER: And, yes, Secretary of State John Kerry said at the Institute of Peace that ISIS is selling some of the oil to the regime of Bashar al Assad, and so that oil is a important issue. We'll watch it.

Guys, thanks very much.

And up next, ISIS is claiming responsibility for two separate deadly suicide bombings. We will have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ISIS is claiming responsibility for a suicide bomb attack earlier today in Baghdad. At least 17 people were killed and dozens more injured. It happened during the funeral procession of a pro government Shiite Muslim fighter. And they say that the Shiite Muslims are against several military operations in Iraq. And meanwhile, ISIS is claiming responsibility for two deadly suicide bombings in Beirut. More than 200 people were injured and 40 people killed.

We are joined by our senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, in Beirut.

What is it like today, Clarissa, to the reaction of the horrendous double bombings yesterday?

[13:44:57] CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, today, the Lebanese prime minister said that today is a day of mourn, and the tensions are very high in Lebanon. It has been more than a year sips a large attack of this nature, and people are concerned that we will see more of the same. We spent most of the day at the scene of that blast. We saw still the roads covered in broken glass and in blood. And ISIS is claiming responsibility for this attack saying that it happened in a southern suburb of Beirut, and it is a Shiite Hezbollah limb enclave. People there are very much loyal to Hezbollah, and you will see the yellow flags, which is the Hezbollah flag, and of course, Hezbollah has been fighting alongside the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad. So they are saying that they are fighting alongside the Bashar al Assad regime. But, Wolf, this is a cafes and shops and many of those who were killed were indeed civilians.

BLITZER: How concerned are the Lebanese that the war next door in Syria is going to be spilling over now in a major way in Lebanon?

WARD: Well, Wolf, is a real concern, because this is the first time that ISIS is striding forward to claim attack on an attack of this nature. It is not just here in Lebanon, but across the region to sow the seeds of discord among the sectarian parties and fan the flame of that hatred.

BLITZER: And more than 11 million Syrian refugees have come into Lebanon in the past few years.

Clarissa, thanks very much. Be careful over there, Clarissa.

We'll talk about what's going on. It's a tumultuous time, right now, in the war against ISIS. Our experts are standing by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:51:20] BLITZER: Let's return to the developments we're following in the war against ISIS. The masked man who became the face of ISIS may now be dead. The Pentagon is still trying to determine if a drone strike took Jihadi John out. They're reasonably certain, they say, it did.

In Iraq, a victory for Kurdish forces backed by U.S. air power. They say they forced militants out of Sinjar.

Joining us to discuss this is our military analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona; and former California Democratic Congresswoman and president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Jane Harman.

The killing of Jihadi John, assuming he's dead, Jane, the victory in Sinjar, those are significant developments, but I don't think we have to go overboard and say it's turning the tide.

JANE HARMAN, PRESIDENT, WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS & FORMER CONGRESSWOMAN: I agree, it's too early to put the banner that says mission accomplished on top of the aircraft carrier. And in Sinjar they have to hold it. They represent the dominant fighters. It was the Peshmerga that won the battle with our air cover.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: They're the Peshmerga fighters.

HARMAN: Yeah. I don't know where this goes. We still have to get Raqqa, Ramadi, and continue the raids, to quote Ash Carter.

BLITZER: There's a lot of other stuff going on.

Colonel, Sinjar is important because it's on that road from Raqqa, the so-called capital of the Islamic State. Which they still control the second largest city in Iraq. They have now controlled it for a couple years. No indications of the Iraqi military stepping up to the plate to retake that city. There's still a long battle ahead, right?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think so. This would probably be one of the first steps. It's very important. And I think this was important that they cut the supply line. Now as the Congresswoman says, is will probably try to retake Sinjar because that route 47 that runs all the way from Raqqa into Mosul is their key supply line. Replicating that is going to be difficult. We're going to see more fighting there. The city is not clear yet. Although ISIS has pulled back, there's still a lot of clearing they will have to do. The city suffered tremendous damage from the allied air bombing.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: We'll see if they can hold on to Sinjar. They are getting no support from the Iraqi military at all. They got other issues with them as well.

How significant, Jane, is the current killing of Jihadi John seen in the videos beheading Americans and hostages?

HARMAN: Big deal. It's not confirmed. I think the CIA wants to make sure we don't know what the sources and methods were of finding him, so they are reluctant to put out proof. But I don't think they would be advertising this if it weren't fairly certain.

(CROSSTALK)

HARMAN: It's a big deal because he killed Americans and could kill more. So stopping him personally matters, but it sends a signal we're out looking for these guys. It was probably the worst, as a Westerner.

BLITZER: There were plenty of others out there, Rick Francona, beyond Mohammed Emwazi, Jihadi John. He spoke English well and had a flare, but there are a lot of others who could come in and fill that gap.

FRANCONA: Absolutely. He wasn't really in the power structure of ISIS. He was the face of ISIS. He was that brutal face we saw in the videos. He wasn't that important. So taking him out won't really change the battle on the ground, but it sure sends a message. It brings justice to the families and does put a lot of the ISIS leaders on notice that we will not only have the capability to come get you, but we have the willingness to do so.

[13:55:10] BLITZER: Do you see a more assertive U.S. military posture, Jane, unfolding now, including more boots on the ground?

HARMAN: You bet, and I love it. But we're not going to win this militarily. We're going to win it diplomatically. What I like even better is the meeting in Vienna of the relevant parties, including the Iranians, Egyptians, Saudis and others, will continue this weekend. There has to be a diplomatic solution. And I'm betting even though there are some arguments against it that Russia and Egypt will redouble efforts after their huge embarrassment in Sinai.

BLITZER: 224 people were aboard that plane as well.

HARMAN: Yeah.

BLITZER: Jane Harman, thank you very much.

Rick Francona, thanks to you as well.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room."

The news will continue on CNN, right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:12] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go.