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Clinton Focuses on Trump, Sanders "In It to Win"; Joe Biden: I Would Be Best President; More Deadly Attacks in Iraq; Muslim London Mayor Responds to Trump's Muslim Ban; Sign of Life Returning to Damascus, Syria. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 11, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:34:03] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Looking at some live pictures from -- this is Hillary Clinton in Blackwood, New Jersey, before a packed crowd of supporters there. She's talking very passionately about jobs, increasing wages, and giving credit to President Obama for digging the country out of recession when he took office nearly eight years ago. We'll continue to monitor Hillary Clinton's event. Update you later this hour.

In the meantime, her challenger, Bernie Sanders, keeps insisting that he's, quote, "in it to win it." He did win the West Virginia primary rather impressively yesterday but the math clearly not in his favor right now. Sanders only picked up seven more delegates, net delegates, than Clinton from his latest win. Clinton, by the way, has 2,235 delegates, including more than 500 so-called super delegates. Sanders has 1,466 delegates, including only 41 super delegates.

Let's bring back our panel, Maeve Reston, David Gregory; and Stephen Collinson, of CNN Politics.

Maeve, Clinton leads the delegate race but does losing to Sanders, once again very decisively, I should say, yesterday, hurt her in terms of momentum and potentially enthusiasm?

[13:35:12] MAEVE RESTON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely. I mean, she's had to come off of a string of Sanders victories over the last couple of weeks and it just seems to keep driving the narrative that the party is not 100 percent ready to get behind her. Sanders does have a very difficult path ahead, but there is a scenario where he could go into some of these other states and win more and more delegates and start having a more powerful argument to those super delegates that they should flip this his favor. So I think that this race is still, you know, very much undecided and we'll have to see what Clinton can do in the coming weeks to keep his numbers down.

BLITZER: David, listen to what Bernie Sanders said about his effort to overcome Hillary Clinton. Listen to what he said.

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SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I), VERMONT & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We think we have an outside shot to actually end up with more pledged delegates than Secretary Clinton. We understand that's a steep hill to climb but we've been climbing steep hills from the first day I was in this campaign.

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BLITZER: He said, "We think we have an outside shot to actually end up with more pledged delegates." Pledged delegates.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, I mean, that's not going to happen. In all likelihood, it's not going to happen, but he has a responsibility to his supporters to keep in it and to keep fighting because there's no reason not to. He also, like Hillary Clinton back in 2008, is on track to win a number of these final contests taking it to the very end. What I keep saying is that Bernie Sanders is a movement politician. He's got a lot of support and a lot of money. There's every reason to keep advocating for his positions to pull her farther to the left and he is exposing her weaknesses, whether she thinks or others think that's good for her or the not a material to Bernie Sanders because he's got supporters who want him to keep making his case.

BLITZER: Vice President Joe Biden seems to be weighing in more assertively. He told ABC he thinks he would have been the best president. He's not running. He was thinking of running. He probably would have run before the death of his son, Beau Biden, and then he decided not to run. But he also this sort of quasi endorsement of Hillary Clinton.

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JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee and I feel confident she'll be the next president.

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BLITZER: How important will his role be going forward? And clearly, the president will have a very important role.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, SENIOR REPORTER, CNN POLITICS: I think Joe Biden's role is important. It's striking how the Democratic Party lined up behind this nominee even though it doesn't have a nominee. That's different than the Republican Party which does have a presumptive nominee. I think the White House will be important in the campaign especially if the president's approval rating remains at 51 percent. He'll be an asset for Hillary Clinton. The White House is planning to send him to swing states. He can be very effective with his coalition. That Hillary Clinton would like to assume in places like Denver, Miami, Cleveland, potentially, in all these swing states. And I think we'll see the first lady, Michelle Obama, as well on the campaign trail. She's a very effective campaigner with that particular demographic that President Obama was able to get in 2008 and 2012, and which Hillary needs to win this election.

BLITZER: Good timing for Hillary Clinton if she's the nominee. His job approval numbers above 51 percent which, at this stage of his presidency is pretty good.

Guys, thanks very much.

There's breaking news we follow right now. An explosion three years ago at a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, that killed 15 people was not, repeat, not an accident, but a case of arson. Just minutes ago, state and federal officials announced the fertilizer plant was deliberately set on fire. Some 500 homes and other buildings were destroyed, as many viewers would remember. The pictures were simply awful what was going on. The ATF -- Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms -- said the investigation is now ongoing.

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ROB ELDER, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Over $2 million has been spent on this investigation. Costs which have included rebuilding to exact specifications, portions of the West plant in order to determine exactly what happened, investigating leads, conducting interviews, and leaving no stone unturned.

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BLITZER: A reward of more than $50,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest. The crime tip hotline -- let me put it up on the screen -- 254-753-help.

[13:39:50] Up next, London's first Muslim mayor, the first Muslim to head a major European capitol city, said he is not happy with Donald Trump. Hear why he says Trump's rhetoric plays into the hands of radicals.

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BLITZER: Yet another very deadly day in Iraq where three explosions rocked the capitol of Baghdad. Suicide bombs killed 17 people. The Shiite neighborhood and 12 people in the Sunni neighborhood of al- Jamia (ph). These are the results of a massive explosion in Sadr City (ph), where at least 64 people killed in another. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is following this story for us.

There's clearly been an uptick in violence and terror in Baghdad and elsewhere, including in the so-called Green Zone, supposedly the secure area where the diplomats, a lot of American diplomats are based.

[13:45:02] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. This is a way for ISIS to show that it could still exact damage. In Iraq, even as it's under pressure from the anti-ISIS military campaign -- and it's been suffering lawsuits in that campaign, loses of territory, loses of key battles. And perhaps with some bravado, they're striking inside Baghdad now because they are losing every engagement on the battlefield. But keep in mind, this is a victory of sorts for ISIS to break through that tremendous security that you have around the capitol of Baghdad right now, and three deadly attacks in one day. It's the deadliest day in months in Iraq.

BLITZER: And it's a continuation. There were several terror attacks in Baghdad over the past few weeks. Have the Iraqis asked the U.S. for more support?

SCIUTTO: I spoke to the U.S. military in Baghdad today and they say they have not asked for support here, but no one is underestimating the seriousness of the situation because what ISIS is doing, they're trying to bring back those horrible days in the mid 2000s of sectarian war. All three targets today were Shia neighborhoods, a Shia market in Sadr City (ph), and area of Baghdad, a neighborhood with a key Shia shrine. They're trying to stoke that Shia/Sunni violence we saw explode with horrible circumstances, really, a civil war about ten years ago. So these kinds of attacks have a real potential to create something even worse than what we're seeing.

BLITZER: Last week, the Pentagon announced more U.S. Marines sent to protect American diplomats at the U.S. embassy in the secure Green Zone, not necessarily all that secure.

All right.

SCIUTTO: Exactly right. You can call Baghdad, to some degree, one of the front lines of this conflict when you have people dying in those countries.

BLITZER: The situation unfolding.

Thank you.

Still ahead, remarkable scenes from inside war-ravaged Syria right now. CNN is live in the capitol of Damascus. We're going there when we come back.

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[13:50:47] BLITZER: Donald Trump is not backing down from his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States. Today he said he was thinking about setting up a commission to take a serious look at the plan, one that might be headed by the former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

But London's new mayor, who is Muslim, told our Christiane Amanpour that Trump is trying to divide America from the rest of the world.

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SADIQ KHAN, LONDON MAYOR-ELECT: I think you've got a choice in November, hope over fear. You have choice of unity over division, choice of somebody who is trying to divide not just your communities in America but divide America from the rest of the world. That's not the America that I know and love. I'll do, you know, I'll go to America because you know I love the country. But also I think you know New York and Chicago and Austin and other parts of America have a lot to teach the city how to address the issue of climate change. How do we fix air quality? How do we do integration better? How do we keep our cities safe in policing? So, of course, I'll travel to America. But I'm hoping that he's not the guy that wins.

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BLITZER: You can see Christiane Amanpour's full interview with the London mayor beginning at the top of the hour on CNN International for our international viewers.

In a war-torn country, hopes for peace are always tempered by harsh realities. As the U.S. and Russia try to work together to strengthen a fragile cease-fire in Syria, there are some signs of life coming back to places like the capitol city of Damascus.

Our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is in Damascus for it.

Fred, you've been to Syria several times over the years. You've covered the conflict. You've been talking to people on the ground in the capitol. What are they saying about life where you are?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Wolf, there's much more people on the streets these days in Syria since the cease-fire has been put into place than I've seen in the past four years that I've been coming here. The interesting thing is that it's not only the markets that are crowded, shops that are crowded, but also the fact that people are bringing their children out as well.

I was speaking to some folks earlier today and they were telling me for the better part of the last five years we've been keeping our kids basically indoors. This is the first time they can go out. They've heard the mortars, the bombs, the machine gun fire. So it's good for the kids to be able to go out without having any fear.

Now one very remarkable gentleman that we met here in Damascus is the man who by all accounts is the last registered American here in Damascus. His name is Thomas Weber. He's 71 years old. He's been living here since 1975. He says he wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Listen to some of what he said in our interview today.

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THOMAS WEBER, AMERICAN LIVING IN DAMASCUS, SYRIA: It's a bad situation that's going on. Again, let me repeat, I hope there's going to be long-lasting peace. We'll get the displaced people that are in Syria coming home again, rebuilding their home, rebuilding their lives. And the millions of people that are overseas. We hope they'll be coming back. All we hope and pray for is that the Western world and the governments of the West will help support a long-lasting peace.

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PLEITGEN: So he says he feels fairly safe here in the Syrian capitol. Since the cease-fire has gone into effect, he said Syrian authorities treat him well. But he's had close calls as well. I was in his neighborhood earlier. He said there was rocket time there and there was one time a rocket mortar landed a few feet from his house. The war here in Syria, that's something affected him as it's affected everybody else here in the capitol, Syria, and in so many other cities in Syria as well.

We always have to keep in mind that right now in the capitol city, Damascus, there is a fair amount of calm. If you look to places like Aleppo and the war out there, it is certainly much in full swing. It's unclear whether or not the international community will get the warring parties to stop the war anytime soon.

BLITZER: Have you noticed major changes in Damascus, specifically the capitol over visits there?

[13:55:07] PLEITGEN: Yeah. I mean, it's really gone through ebbs and flows. One of the things we've seen since we've been here, there are more people who are willing to come outside. It seems as though they have at least a little bit of hope that the fact that the cease- fire that you're seeing in Damascus keeps getting extended, maybe it could morph into something more positive. On the other hand, they see the diplomatic process in Geneva is very slow. But at the same time, they do have hope at this point in time that maybe this is something that could last -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Fred Pleitgen reporting from Damascus. Thank you very much. Be careful over there.

An important programming note to our viewers. Later today, on "Anderson Cooper 360," a town hall. Anderson and Dr. Sanjay Gupta talk about prescription drug abuse in America, tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern, right here on CNN.

That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

In the meantime, the news continues right after a quick break.

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