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Trump's Abortion Comment Ignites Firestorm; Trump Gives Three Abortion Positions; Trump's Abortion Clarifications; Kasich States Trump Is Not Prepared To Be President; Opinion Of Women's View On Trump; White House Responds To Trump Campaign Manager Troubles; Trump's Rough Week; Combatting Nuclear Terrorism; Interview with Katrina Pierson; Dems Fight for New York. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired March 31, 2016 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Milwaukee, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 10:00 p.m. in Lahore, Pakistan. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.
We begin this hour with the political firestorm over Donald Trump's controversial comments on abortion. Today, a rare admission from the Trump campaign that he misspoke when he said women who had abortions should be punished if the procedure were made illegal here in the United States. We're going to hear from the Trump campaign live in just a minute.
But first, a closer look at how all of this unfolded. Trump made the initial remarks in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, ANCHOR, MSNBC: Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.
MATTHEWS: For the woman?
TRUMP: Yes. There has to be some form.
MATTHEWS: 10 cents, 10 years, what?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: That I don't know. That I don't know.
MATTHEWS: Well, why not?
TRUMP: I don't know. Because I --
MATTHEWS: You take positions on everything else.
TRUMP: Frankly, I do take positions on everything else. It's a very complicated position.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Then, a little while later came this statement from Donald Trump, quote, "This issue is unclear and should be put back into the states for determination. Like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions which I have outlined numerous times."
Finally, a little bit after that. This clarification. If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman, would be held legally responsible not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb. He goes on to say, my position has not changed, like Ronald Reagan, I am pro-life with exceptions.
Katrina Pierson is the national spokesperson for the Trump campaign. She's joining us once again from Dallas. Katrina, thanks very much for joining us. I want to try to clear up as much of the confusion that's still out there. This is a chance for you, speaking on behalf of the campaign, to do so. Let's go through some specific questions that are still out there. As you just heard, --
KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: -- Donald Trump says that the doctors, the nurses, those who would perform the abortion, if it were made illegal here in the United States, should be punished. Should be held legally responsible, I think that was the phrase he used. What kind of punishment is he talking about?
PIERSON: Well, since this is a hypothetical question, abortion is legal in this country, and Mr. Trump was just talking about simple legalities. If something is against the law, if someone breaks the law, should they be punished? The answer is yes. Now, how that is enforced will be up to the states.
BLITZER: The exceptions that he says he supports, I want you to go through what exceptions. He says he's anti-abortion but there are exceptions. What are the exceptions?
PIERSON: Yes, Mr. Trump's position is fully that he is pro-life, with the exceptions of rape and incest. And this is -- this is what's interesting about this. This was a liberal journalist who uses the same old tactics that try to trap pro-life politicians, particularly Republicans, down this line. Because there is still the life of -- personhood. There is a personhood discussion when it comes to abortion.
The public is becoming more and more pro-life on this issue and so they try to make it difficult for politicians to handle these questions. Mr. Trump was giving his answers and put out a full clarification afterwards.
BLITZER: And he -- and you say he misspoke in his initial statement during that interview, right?
PIERSON: Well, simply because he said, should women be punished? And Mr. Trump said yes which is why he put out a clarification. The answer is no, women would not be punished. Women would be the victim. The person actually breaking the law, in this case, performing an illegal procedure, if it were illegal, should then be punished.
BLITZER: Now, you say the exceptions are rape and incest. What about the life of the mother?
PIERSON: Yes, and life of the mother. Those are the three exceptions. You -- yes, sire.
BLITZER: And he -- does he support or oppose a late term abortion to save the life of a mother?
PIERSON: Mr. Trump does not support late term abortions. However, again, that is one of the exceptions if the doctor and the mother, the family, come to that decision. Mr. Trump is pro-life with those particular exceptions.
Again -- and Mr. Trump also said in his statement that his position has not changed. His policies have not changed. He just issued a clarification to make sure that everyone understood that he does not support punishing the mother, a woman, if she has an illegal abortion.
BLITZER: In that same conversation with Chris Matthews, he said that the man who impregnating the woman getting the abortion, if it were to be an illegal abortion, shouldn't be punished. Is that still his position?
[13:05:09] PIERSON: Could you repeat that, Wolf? I can't hear you.
BLITZER: The man who impregnated the woman getting the illegal abortion, if it were illegal -- if it were made illegal here in the United States, the man who impregnated the woman shouldn't be punished. That's what he said in the interview with Chris Matthews. I'm just wondering, is that still his position? Because he's clarified his earlier position.
PIERSON: Well, this is Mr. Trump's position, OK? Mr. Trump is pro- life with the three exceptions. What we're talking about now is a hypothetical context which is completely irrelevant in today's society as it is. So, the bottom line here is Mr. Trump does not support punishment of a woman if an abortion is illegal and we'll leave it at that.
BLITZER: Cecile Richards, the President of Planned Parenthood, issued this statement and I'll read it to you. This is a man who genuinely does not care about the health and safety of women only about his political ambitions. I want to give you a chance to respond.
PIERSON: Well, this is Planned Parenthood, the organization that has been chopping up baby's body parts so they can go out and buy new Lamborghinis. So, I really don't think they have any moral relevance in the discussion of saving women's lives. BLITZER: Mr. Trump says he --
PIERSON: We do believe that --
BLITZER: -- Katrina, Mr. Trump --
PIERSON: -- we do believe --
BLITZER: -- says he supports --
PIERSON: We do believe --
BLITZER: Planned Parenthood --
PIERSON: I'm almost there, Wolf. I'm almost there, Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, he, himself, has said he supports Planned Parenthood.
PIERSON: I'm almost there, Wolf.
BLITZER: He doesn't support funding Planned Parenthood to do abortions, but he says they do very important work.
PIERSON: Yes. I'm almost there, Wolf. We do support the idea of life saving procedures like cervical cancer screenings. But this organization, to this day, continues to do abortions. So, they have no moral authority to weigh in when it comes to particularly the life of the child.
We believe these are human beings. That's why we're pro-life. And a lot more people in this country are pro-life, too, as science and technology advances, particularly with late-term abortions. Hillary Clinton is the extremist when it comes to abortion, Wolf.
BLITZER: Where is there any evidence that they're purchasing Lamborghinis?
PIERSON: Well, in the case that came out. She wanted a new Lamborghini. So, they were talking about harvesting body organs from babies.
BLITZER: You know, it's a -- it's a -- it's an amazing situation that we're even talking about this.
PIERSON: It is an amazing situation.
BLITZER: But I want -- I want to move on and talk a little bit more because you're getting criticized not just from the pro-abortion rights' people, but from the anti-abortion rights' people. Even March for Life which is a pro-life movement said Trump's comments were, quote, "completely out of touch with the pro-life movement and even more with women who have chosen such a sad thing as abortion." They're suggesting he's basically, as other critics from the right are suggesting from the pro-life movement, that he is tone deaf, if you will. He really doesn't have a good understanding of his own position. And I'll give you a chance to respond to that criticism. PIERSON: Well, that is simply because of the original statements.
However, the clarified statement was out shortly thereafter which shows that his position has not changed.
And, you know, I have to say, it's been -- I don't even think I have ever seen this type of scrutiny when a candidate says something and then corrects the record. Particularly like when Barack Obama back in 2008 when he was a candidate and was talking about his Muslim faith. We didn't see headlines that said Barack Obama has changed his religion in an interview. We didn't see that because he didn't mean to say that, supposedly, because the anchor corrected him along the way.
Mr. Trump has made it very clear that he is pro-life with exceptions and does not support punishing a woman for having an abortion whether it's legal or not.
BLITZER: Does he want the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe V. Wade which ruled the unconstitutional state law banning abortions -- does he want that overturned?
PIERSON: Mr. Trump, in that statement, also said because this would be an act of Congress, this is not something that a president can do, that these issues are left to the states. If that were to be overturned, that's exactly what would happen. We live in a republic. The states should be deciding these issues.
BLITZER: Does -- but does he believe Roe V. Wade should be overturned?
PIERSON: Mr. Trump has said he does support the states making these issues. If Roe V. Wade is overturned, that is exactly what would happen.
BLITZER: Would he insist that any Supreme Court nominee he'd put forward if he were elected president that would have to pass a litmus test insisting that he did not support abortion rights for women.
PIERSON: Well every candidate wants a judge that believes the way that they do, whether it's being in their faith or their position on life. I mean, we live in a country that is supposed to protect and preserve life at all levels. And that's the missing point here. There are over 55 million people who are not participating in the world today because of abortion. That is a bigger problem we are facing here, Wolf.
[13:10:10] BLITZER: Ted Cruz said this about Donald Trump. He said, once again, Donald Trump has demonstrated that he hasn't seriously thought through the issues and will say anything just to get attention. Hillary Clinton tweeted something similar, just when you thought it couldn't get worse, horrific and telling. And I want to play for you right now what Governor John Kasich had to say this morning because he really came out swinging against Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It appears as though when he does these events and people press him, he becomes unmoored and then has to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to correct all the mistakes that he made. And I have to tell you that as commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do overs. You need to be able to get it right the first time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. Go ahead and respond to governor Kasich.
PIERSON: Look, Mr. Trump is the only candidate on the Republican side that's not receiving a government paycheck because he's not a scripted politician and that was a conversion. And for Hillary Clinton to weigh in on the disgust, this is a woman that supports a 12 and 13 year old having an abortion without parental consent. Those are the types of disgusting things that the left stands for, not simply misstating something and correcting it immediately after. This is not the end of the world. Mr. Trump has corrected the record and we're going to move forward accordingly.
BLITZER: Are you worried that this discussion we're having now about abortion rights for women, other issues involving women, could further undermine the support he has among women? Take a look at this poll. Among all women, these are Democrats, Republicans, independents, his favorability number is only 24 percent. 74 percent of women in the United States have an unfavorable image of Donald Trump. Among women registered to vote, 26 percent favorable, 73 percent unfavorable. And among Republican women voters, 59 percent favorable, 39 percent unfavorable. He has a problem out there, didn't he?
PIERSON: Well, if you look at the polling, yes. But I will say, he did start out under water on the Republican side in polling for women, too, and we see that they are voting for him. We have eight months to seal the deal with the rest of the country. And as soon as we lock up the nomination, we're going to focus on that.
BLITZER: Another issue that came up, the campaign manager, Core Lewandowski. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, he weighed in on Lewandowski's arrest on Tuesday. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, PRESS SECRETARY, U.S. WHITE HOUSE: I am confident that neither President Obama nor President Bush would tolerate someone on their staff being accused of physically assaulting a reporter, lying about it and then blaming the victim. That is completely unacceptable behavior.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, do you want to respond to the White House?
PIERSON: Well, sure. I would like to know why they stood behind Hillary Clinton as Americans were killed in Benghazi. But nobody really wants to talk about that. This is a man who is innocent until proven guilty. A man with four small children who is being accused of a crime that he did not commit. Mr. Lewandowski will be fully exonerated and we're very confident of that.
BLITZER: We know that Mr. Trump has been meeting today in Washington, his aides say, with national security advisors. Who's in the meeting?
PIERSON: I do not have that list. I've been doing T.V. all day today, but I'll be happy to get that to you.
BLITZER: Is it a meeting that's going to go on for a while or is it over with already? Any details at all you can share with us?
PIERSON: I think it actually it might be over yet. I'm not quite sure but I'll definitely get that information to you.
BLITZER: We've love to get a list of his foreign policy advisors, national security advisors he's been meeting with.
PIERSON: Absolutely.
BLITZER: All right, Katrina Pierson, thanks very much for joining us.
PIERSON: Great to be with you, thank you.
BLITZER: Coming up, we'll have more on Donald Trump's abortion comments and the latest in the controversies. But a rather rough week for his campaign. Our political panel standing by to break it all down. We'll take a closer look also at that critical primary in Wisconsin that's coming up next Tuesday.
And soft targets are scary enough, now imagine what ISIS could do with nuclear weapons. How world leaders are working right now to prevent that from ever happening.
[13:14:20]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:18:09] BLITZER: Donald Trump coming under fire for his comments about punishing women who have abortions. He's since backed away from that remark. But that's not the only comment from Trump this week that has stirred up controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no emphasis on terror with NATO. And, frankly, if there is, you need different countries because it involves different countries. It's -- NATO is -- is very obsolete.
I told him, I said, you should never settle this case. You should go all the way. I think they've really hurt a very good person. And I know it would be very easy for me to discard people. I don't discard people.
Well, the greatest function of all by far is security for our nation. I would also say health care. I would also say education. I mean there are many, many things. But I would say the top three are security, security, security. We have to have security for our country.
At some point we have to say, you know what, we're better off if Japan protects itself against this maniac in North Korea, we're better off, frankly, if south Korea is going to start to protect itself.
ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "AC 360": Saudi Arabia with a nuclear weapon?
TRUMP: We have to -- Saudi Arabia, absolutely. And making --
COOPER: You would be fine with them having nuclear weapons?
TRUMP: No, not nuclear weapons --
COOPER: No? OK.
TRUMP: But they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, let's get some reaction now to the fallout from some of these comments. Joining us right now, CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston, and our chief political correspondent Dana Bash.
Mark, it's not often we hear the Trump campaign say something like -- along the lines we heard from Katrina Pierson, he misspoke, it was a mistake, he didn't really mean to say what he said about punishing women who have abortions, if it were to be illegal here in the United States, in that interview. It's pretty unusual.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: It is pretty unusual. What was it, 48 hours earlier when he had a tough time telling our own Anderson Cooper that he couldn't remembers the last time that he said he was sorry or apologized and he had to harken back to the time of his mother.
But here's the issue right now for Donald Trump. And if he doesn't think it's an issue, it's an even bigger issue then. Right now let's talk about right track, wrong track. If you were to look at a CNN poll back in December, he had a 59 percent disapproval rating overall, OK, with the electorate. If you look at it now, 73 percent. And if you go even deeper into that, he has lost 20 points among Republican women. So that's a problem, even before he made these comments.
[13:20:20] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.
BLITZER: Even before -- this latest poll was taken before this.
PRESTON: Correct.
BLITZER: Go ahead, Dana.
BASH: No, that's right. And then the general electorate, if he does become the Republican nominee, right now three-quarters of women have an unfavorable view of him. Now, obviously, that is changeable. Anything can happen. But, you know, there's -- there are lots of sort of aspects of this that cause trouble for him. One is just women. But another is the fact that he did something that is not so easy. He made the anti-abortion crowd angry and the abortion rights crowd angry. That's nearly impossible to do.
PRESTON: He's a uniter. He's a uniter.
BASH: He's a uniter. Nearly impossible to do but I --
BLITZER: He united Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton.
PRESTON: And Hillary Clinton.
BASH: You know, yes. And I say that obviously because, you know, abortion rights groups and activists and so forth they think that it should -- it should remain legal. But -- but specifically, groups that have been working very, very hard to make abortion illegal have said consistently that they believe it is the doctor or the person who is involved in doing the procedure who should be punished, not the woman, and that's why they both were so angry at him.
BLITZER: Right. I want you to listen to Dr. Ben Carson. He was a Republican presidential candidate. Listen to what he told Erin Burnett last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BEN CARSON, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: What you develop with experience is how to answer that in a way that is not definitive. You know how politicians are. He hasn't really learned that because he's not a politician. But he has now had time to come back and think about it and to talk with his people about it and come up with a more rational and informed type of answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Because the criticism, as you know, Mark, of Donald Trump is he often just speaks and later he's got to clarify.
PRESTON: Which he just did. I mean he did last night. He did it three times, actually. You know, the problem with that answer from Dr. Carson is not necessarily what Donald Trump said, but how he responded and then had to respond again, had to respond again and then had to respond again. When you're the president of the United States, you don't have three, you know, swings at the bat. You get one swing at the bat. And I think last night that Donald Trump, had he misspoken, he should have tried to clarify it as quickly as he could, instead of having to go back and try to fix it over and over and over again.
BLITZER: And you watched that news conference that John Kasich had this -- just a little while ago, about an hour or so ago. He really came out swinging. I think more so than he has at all during this campaign, swinging against Donald Trump.
BASH: Right, because he sees more of an opening, I think, than he's seen, not just because of Trump's remarks, but because of where they're going to compete in the calendar, the political calendar, ahead. Maybe not Wisconsin, but in the northeast states, in New York, in New Jersey, in Pennsylvania. But, you know, the one thing I will say about what you said -- like he kind of said something and then he thinks about it afterwards and has to clarify. And Ben Carson, kind of ironically I think, saying that Donald Trump has to be more of a politician and think more about his issues. But we'll put that aside.
The fact of the matter is that it's not about being a politician or, you know, speaking in political speak, he can do -- be Donald Trump and have well thought out policy positions. They're not mutually exclusive. And I think that's what he ran up against with this.
PRESTON: I agree 100 percent with that. Listen, if Donald Trump right now were to look at his campaign, turn it around 180 degrees, still have his brashness but be careful what he says, brings on some other political professionals, I think we would see a different campaign.
BLITZER: All right, guys, don't go too far away, much more coming up.
Also, the Democratic duel for New York. Right now both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they have roots in New York state, but who has the edge with is voters? The results of brand new polling. That's coming up.
And look at this, live pictures from here in Washington. We're expecting to see Donald Trump. He's meeting with his national security team here in the nation's capital. Later today he's going to go visit the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington. Stand by, we'll have extensive, live coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:28:40] BLITZER: All right, let's turn to the Democrats now running for president. Take a look at this. Live pictures coming in from a Hillary Clinton campaign event on the left. That's in Purchase, New York. On the right, another campaign event, this time it's in New York City, led by her husband, the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. Bernie Sanders held events in Pennsylvania this morning, but he will be back in New York, in the Bronx, later tonight.
The Clinton's are popular in New York. Hillary Clinton's a former U.S. senator from the state. But Bernie Sanders is hoping he can cut into that support and surprise Hillary Clinton on the April 19th New York state primary. This new Quinnipiac poll, by the way, in New York shows he has quite a hill to climb. Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders, 54 percent to 42 percent, at least right now.
Joining us from Purchase, New York, to talk about the race in New York and elsewhere, our senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar.
Brianna, what makes Bernie Sanders think he can actually take on Hillary Clinton in New York? How important would it be for him to do really well there?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It would be very important, Wolf. And actually Hillary Clinton making her way to the stage now here at (INAUDIBLE) Purchase.
It's so important, you just look at the math. This is a big, fat primary prize of a state. Almost 300 delegates. And Bernie Sanders is trailing Hillary Clinton by about 200 deletes. He needs to do well in New York.
[13:30:06] But at the same time, you were looking at that poll. He's down 12 points and he's trying to give Hillary Clinton a run for her money here.
