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Mitt Romney Will Skip GOP Convention; Clinton Softens Tone on Sanders; Video of Firefight Where Navy Seal Was Killed; Polls Show Americans More Positive About ISIS Fight; CNN Gets Rare Access to U.S. Nuclear Attack Sub. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 05, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, WOLF: While Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's campaigns may be worlds apart, their messages for the general election are very much the same, bring it on. In sit down interviews with CNN, the front-runners offer a glimpse of what a November showdown could look like.

With me now to discuss just what's in store, political editor at RightAlerts.com, Scottie Nell Hughes. She's a major Donald Trump surrogate supporter. And CNN political commentator and Clinton supporter, Bakari Sellers.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

Scottie, first of all to you. The decision by Mitt Romney earlier, John McCain, both Presidents Bush to avoid attending the Republican Convention in Cleveland in July, it sounds like a statement against, in effect, for all practical purposes, the Republican presidential nominee.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, POLITICAL EDITOR, RIGHTALERTS.COM: Well, that's very sad, and I would hope that they would reconsider and join the Party, which I think ultimately they will. Because I think that they're more mature than to act like children and stay home. And you're also -- again, Senator McCain right now in Arizona up for a tough election battle in large part because of his own track record in Arizona.

So I think these gentlemen right now need to real what's better for the Party, but put egos down. You've had 48 hours to get over the sour grapes, that your words are not as strong as you think they are amongst the American people. And the American people have spoken.

It was time. You know what? It's time to take a side. You can either choose a Democrat, or you can choose the Republican. These Never Trump folks are basically helping Hillary Clinton. And I think it's time that they grow up and actually decide whether or not they're going to part of this party or not.

BLITZER: Bakari, Anderson Cooper asked Hillary Clinton about her thoughts on Senator Sanders vowing to stay in the race. Listen to what she said. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Having been in his shoes, what do you say to him?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I know what he said last week, which I really welcome. He said that he will do everything he can to prevent Donald Trump from being President of the United States. He will work seven days a week.

I'm going to really count on that, because I want to unify the party. I'm certainly going to be reaching out to his supporters, who have far more in common with me and my supporters than they do with Donald Trump and his campaign.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Bakari, you're a Hillary supporter. You think Senator Sanders should use the platform he has right now to go after Donald Trump, especially since Trump is making it clear he eventually wants to seek some of Senator Sanders' supporters?

BAKARI SELLERS, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, CNN: I think he will do that, Wolf. And one thing that we do understand is that Bernie has every right to stay in this race as long as possible.

Hillary Clinton didn't get out of the race until June 7th of 2008. And Bernie Sanders can keep plugging along, uplifting the populous message that he has been doing, rallying the thousands. But yes, turning his sights and his targets on Donald Trump.

You know, I anticipate this being a coalescing of our party, unlike what you see on the Republican side. And the main reason you already started to see Elizabeth Warren coming out attacking Trump. You'll see Bernie Sanders and his wife Jane Sanders on that same stage, along with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Our party's ready for war in November. We truly are.

BLITZER: What about that, Scottie? Because Republicans right now divided. You even have, as you well know, some prominent Republicans saying they can't vote for Trump, they can't vote for Hillary Clinton. They want a third party.

HUGHES: Well, and I'll give Bakari this. He is right. The Democrats are ready for war. Hence why the Republicans need to get their act together.

And I think Chairman Priebus is doing a great job the last 48 hours of talking about unity. And you have to sit and wonder, these Republicans that are saying -- you know, talking out a third party, which by the way, would guarantee a defeat of the Republicans. And those that are sitting there saying they're not going to be a part of the movement or they cannot support Donald Trump, what is your real intentions? It's obvious. Because if you look at it, the American people, the

Republicans have spoken and they picked Trump. The primary season is over. Seventeen options out there, folks.

Reality check is Mr. Trump was number one across the board from the very day he announced. Don't insult his supporters and sit there and say that they don't count, that their voice doesn't matter and that yours as a politician is more important than theirs. I'm really hoping that the Republicans really honestly grow up and get on the Trump train.

BLITZER: And you agree, Bakari, that Hillary Clinton or whoever the Democratic nominee is, let's say it's even Bernie Sander, whoever -- it looks like it's going to be Hillary Clinton, though. You can't -- you can't underestimate Donald Trump. The other Republican candidates did, and look what that got them.

SELLERS: Well, I think what you're starting to see already is our ground game is unfolding. Hillary Clinton already has general election staff in states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Colorado. She's already spent -- and the DNC's already given $200,000 to Virginia and Ohio and in Florida state Democratic parties to help strengthen that operation.

We have a ground game in place. We're preparing for the general election. No one is taking Donald Trump lightly.

And the fact remains that, you know, Hillary Clinton is beginning to define Donald Trump as well. I mean, we all know he's a loose cannon, whether or not you heard my choice for V.P., Thomas Perez, earlier talking about his flip-flop on minimum wage, or whether or not you hear about on March 21st, Donald Trump thought that NATO was a good thing, on 26th, he said it was obsolete. So which is it?

I mean, Donald Trump is a loose cannon. We're prepared on the ground. We're prepared for the air war. You know, we're looking forward to taking him seriously.

BLITZER: Scottie, hold your thoughts, because we're going to continue these conversation, as you well know, down the road. We've got to go right now. Thanks to both of you.

Coming up, we're getting some new video right now showing the very intense fire fight that killed a U.S. Navy SEAL. What it reveals about his heroic final moments battling ISIS.

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BLITZER: It was fierce 12-hour fire fight in Iraq that led to the death of a U.S. Navy SEAL. Now "The Guardian" newspaper has exclusively obtained this cell phone video of the battle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(gunfire)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (foreign language)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Head count 44 total.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: The Pentagon says 31-year-old Navy SEAL, Charles Keating, IV, was killed while helping rescue U.S. military advisors in that attack.

Our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto has been following this story for us.

Jim, tell us what happened here. Was it a surprise attack?

JIM SCIUTTO, CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Defense Secretary Ash Carter has told CNN that yes, it was a surprise attack. But we're also told that it was a sophisticated attack. They broke through these ISIS fighters through the Kurdish forces' lines using truck bombs, multiple truck bombs, bulldozers, which is, you know, often used to break through physical barriers, berms, barbed wire, et cetera, and then multiple ISIS fighters broke through.

And this battle, it really is an incredible view from right inside that firefight. This took place a good two miles then inside those Kurdish lines. So they were able not only to penetrate the lines but get then bet further in to get to this town where this took place.

I mean, it shows the danger, shows their ability, even under all this pressure they're feeling from the anti-ISIS coalition.

BLITZER: Has the Pentagon commented on this incident? Because they're supposed to be there, these Navy SEALS, for assistance, but this certainly does look like combat.

SCIUTTO: Well, we've seen those lines get blurred for months and months now. I spoke with Steve Warren yesterday. Asked him this very question. He's the spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition in Baghdad.

And I said, listen, they're advise/assist, but they are a couple miles from the front lines, which invariably puts them close to combat. I asked him, I said, there are 4,000 troops now in Iraq. How many American troops are that close to the front lines in these roles?

He said a few hundred. But the fact is as that advise and assist role brings them closer to combat, that means U.S. forces are going to be closer to combat.

One thing we've already reported, Wolf, as you know, is that as this advance on Mosul begins to set up, they're going to be forward deployed U.S. advisors close to the front lines in what promises to be a very fierce battle. When that happens, they may not be called combat ground troops, but they do end up in combat, as we saw here.

BLITZER: All right, Jim, stand by, because you're going to come back. Jim has a CNN exclusive for us as well on the new arms race under sea. You're going to watch as he goes on board a U.S. nuclear submarine on patrol, as tensions with the Russians simmer beneath the surface.

Plus, polling now shows Americans are more optimistic about the fight against ISIS. We're going to get an expert to break down the numbers.

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BLITZER: In a new CNN/ORC poll released this hour, it appears Americans are now more positive about the U.S. fight against ISIS overall. Forty-five percent say the military action against ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria is going well. That's up from 38 percent who said so in early December.

And while 57 percent say the U.S. military response to ISIS has not been aggressive enough, that sentiment is also on the decline, down from 68 percent.

Let's look closer at the results. Our global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier is with us right now.

So what do you attribute the shift in these numbers?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST, CNN: A couple different things. The way the story is being told and the incremental progress the coalition is making on the ground. The White House decided a couple of months ago, according to an administration official I spoke to, that they were going to start rolling out more generals, more U.S. officials, more briefings on what the coalition was doing on the ground, to declassify as much as possible to show the American people that some progress was being made.

Now, we've seen everything from the loss of territory. ISIS has lost some towns. They also haven't had any sort of major campaign where they gained territory, though U.S. officials still say it's holding at approximately 40 percent of their territory lost since the coalition campaign began.

BLITZER: It's interesting, though. The same poll, the CNN/ORC poll, we asked does ISIS have terrorists already now in the United States? Seventh-eight percent say that they believe ISIS does have terrorists in the United States. It was 81 percent back in December.

Frankly I'm sort of surprised it's not even higher than that, given the fear that's out there right now.

DOZIER: Well, you do also have a number of administration officials explaining the process that there are people who are getting radicalized over the Web and that the kind of attacks we've seen in Brussels and Paris could eventually happen here. But they say they think that they've caught and are watching most of the people who've traveled to Syria and come back, and since then, tightened up monitoring and tightened up access to the war zone.

BLITZER: I think this poll was taken before we learned of this U.S. Navy SEAL who was killed in this fight that's been doing on in Syria. If there are -- we hope there aren't -- more U.S. casualties, the numbers in these kinds of polls will shift dramatically. DOZIER: It could change. And you are going to see more special

operations forces, as the defense secretary announced, headed to the war zone doing this quote-unquote "advice/assist mission." But what a lot of Americans are now learning, that means that they are often in the trenches with the people doing the fighting, not taking as much of the risk but still very much in harm's way.

But that's why U.S. officials have also tried to stress some of the gains that they've made with those special operations forces. I just reported last week that the joint special operations command plus other special operations forces together have taken 40 external operations planners. Those are ISIS people planning attacks overseas in the Europe and the U.S. off the battlefield trying to show the American people that there's a reason for putting these troops in harm's way.

BLITZER: Kimberly Dozier, thanks for the explanation.

DOZIER: Thank you.

BLITZER: Coming up, on the front lines of an underwater arms race. Our Jim Sciutto gets rare access to a U.S. nuclear attack submarine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: So I'm on the bridge of the U.S.S. Missouri. It's a nuclear attack submarine. It's a rare visit. Really one of the most incredible things I've ever done as a reporter. And if you've ever wondered what it's like inside underwater, come with us. We're going to give you a view.

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BLITZER: In a new CNN/ORC poll, 61 percent consider Russia a serious threat to the United States. That's not a surprise. Relations have been strained by the crisis in Ukraine, recent military encounters in the Baltic Sea, the dramatic rise in Russian submarine activity.

But as CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto shows us in this exclusive report, the U.S. has now stepped up its game below the sea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The U.S.S. Missouri nuclear attack submarine sailing to exercises in a deep dive off Florida. The Atlantic is on the front lines of a new cold war. We joined for an exclusive embark.

The U.S.S. Missouri is an attack submarine. It can launch torpedoes at other submarines and surface vessels. It can launch missiles at ground targets. It gathers intelligence.

It could also deploy Navy SEAL units for special operations. It is the most advanced submarine in the world.

And it is facing the most advanced threats to U.S. submarine forces in decades. Russia is deploying attack submarines in numbers and with aggressiveness and advances in technology not seen since the Cold War. And now China, North Korea, Vietnam, India and others are joining a new arms race under the sea.

Commodore Ollie Lewis commands a squadron of 10 Atlantic-based subs, including the Missouri.

COMMODORE OLLIE LEWIS, COMMANDER, SUBMARINE SQUADRON 12: We were operating places where we didn't have to rely on an adversary being there to challenge us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear forward.

LEWIS: Well, that's changing. We're back to the point now where we have to consider that there's an adversary ready to challenge us in the undersea domain and that undersea superiority is not guaranteed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

SCIUTTO: New threats require a new state of readiness, which we witnessed at every turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tubes five and eight, commence launch in the open window --

SCIUTTO: Missouri's 135 crew repeatedly train for anti-submarine warfare.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire, tube two!

SCIUTTO: They simulate firing torpedoes and cruise missiles from depth towards targets on sea and land.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Torpedo course 337, unit running! Wire good!

SCIUTTO: And they're constantly testing the sub's enormous speed and maneuverability.

We're in the midst of the another steep ascent. You're hearing that alarm as we approach 20 degrees. We're going to get to a 25-degree angle. Keep in mind, I'm standing up straight now, but as I'm leaning forward, that's keeping me vertical in relation to the ground as the angle ascend gets sharper.

These are just exercises, but the Missouri, the "Mighty MO" to its crew, has repeatedly come nose to nose with real-world threats. When Russia annexed Crimea and launched military action in Syria, the Missouri was deployed nearby. And when a Russian sub turned up off the coast of Florida in 2012, it was the U.S.S. Missouri called into action to track it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's just showing, hey, showing where they can go.

LEWIS: Honestly I think it's operational experience. If anything to happen, they have experience. They know those waters. I don't think it's a political statement on their part at all.

SCIUTTO: The Missouri's greatest asset may be its silence, invisible to satellites, virtually inaudible to other ships and subs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dive, dive.

SCIUTTO: Giving the U.S. the element of surprise.

LEWIS: Whether there is a submarine there or not, they don't know. A potential adversary has to take that into their calculus when they make decisions to do bad things.

SCIUTTO: And so underwater is where these boats and their crews spend 90 percent of their time deployed.

So the U.S.S. Missouri is coming into port now, May Port Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida, and that's not something, if you're a submariner, that you do very often. Their most recent deployment, they were out for 181 days. One hundred sixty-three days were at sea. That is the life of a submariner.

And that is a call to action the U.S. Navy's 70 submarines are getting more and more often.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And Jim's joining us now live. Excellent report, Jim. How do these U.S. subs compare to the Russian subs?

SCIUTTO: U.S. commanders, U.S. officials, they're confident the U.S. has an advantage. But when you dig down, they're not convinced that advantage is so great because of enormous investments by Russia.

Now there's an entirely new class of Russian submarine, which they acknowledge is harder for U.S. subs like the U.S.S. Missouri to track. So they're concerned. They're concerned that they have to invest a lot, train a lot, be alert a lot to keep that advantage. And of course, you have a lot more players now, China, North Korea, you name it.

BLITZER: Is the U.S. Navy concerned that some Russian subs have increasingly gotten very close to the U.S. coast?

SCIUTTO: The last time it's been public was during the election in 2012. U.S.S. Missouri was called to track that submarine. Whether that election timing was intentional, we don't know. Of course, we have another election coming up. But it is something they're watching for very closely.

BLITZER: I'm sure they are. All right, Jim Sciutto reporting for us. Excellent report, as I said. Good work. Thank you very, very much.

SCIUTTO: Thank you.

BLITZER: That's it for me. To all of our viewers here in the United States and around the world, thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next. Stick around for that.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.