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Conclusion of Hillary Clinton Interview; Discussion of Interview. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 19, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Party, however you want to see it. I ask this because Senator Sanders has said to me in the past and to many others, it's not my job to get my supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton. Clinton has to make the case to these supporters. And given what you're seeing with this increase in hostility and antagonism towards the process within the primaries on the Democratic side, should you reach out to Bernie Sanders and say, let's - let's start doing this the right way. Let me start talking to the supporters. From your perspective, have you done that? Have you thought of doing that?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I certainly - I've said many times what I've just said to everyone, including his supporters. And I am absolutely committed to doing my part. More than my part. But Senator Sanders has to do his part. That's why the lesson of 2008, which was a hard-fought primary, as you remember, is so pertinent here because I did my part, but so did Senator Obama. He made it clear he welcomed people who had supported me. He made it very clear. We went to Unity, New Hampshire, together, appeared together, spoke together and made it absolutely obvious that I was supporting him, he was grateful for that support, I was reaching out to my supporters, he was telling his to -

CUOMO: You nominated Senator Obama at the convention.

CLINTON: I did and -

CUOMO: Bernie Sanders is saying, he's going to fight all the way through the convention. It's different.

CLINTON: Well, he has to do his part to unify. He said the other day that he will do everything possible to defeat Donald Trump. He said he'd work seven days a week. I take him at his word. I think the threat that Donald Trump poses is so dramatic to our country, to our democracy and our economy that I certainly expect Senator Sanders to do what he said he would.

CUOMO: Any thought to your making the first move and reaching out to make that process happen now as opposed to months from now?

CLINTON: Well, I have - we have - we've had lots of conversations between people who know me well and support him.

CUOMO: But not directly?

CLINTON: Well, he knows exactly what I'm saying. He hears it all the time because I have said the same thing. I respect him. I understand the very passionate advocacy he feels for the issues he's been really pounding away at for years. And -

CUOMO: You know what would bring you two together very quickly? If Bernie Sanders became your vice president. Is there any chance of that?

CLINTON: Well, I'm not going to get into that. That's right - that's something down the road.

CUOMO: Where better, here in your hometown, make some news, make them (ph) a historic place.

CLINTON: I think - I think what brings us together is Donald Trump. I think that's what brings us together.

CUOMO: But is he even in consideration? Is he even on the list?

CLINTON: I'm not going to answer that question. Good try, though, Chris. I'm not going to answer that question.

CUOMO: Well - but I'm just saying it in the context of things that would bring you two together.

CLINTON: Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: Who knows if he'd even say yes.

CLINTON: Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: But, all right, so we'll hold that for another day.

This is the easy part, theoretically -

CLINTON: Yes. Right.

CUOMO: Is getting the nomination. The harder part will be the general. If you are the nominee, and I know you have full confidence you will be, you know where Donald Trump is going. He has started early and he has adopted the go ugly early mentality. Heavily personal about you and your husband. Your response has been, I'm not going there.

CLINTON: Right.

CUOMO: I'm going to stay above it.

CLINTON: Right.

CLINTON: The risk is that that's what Jeb Bush said. That's what others said. And the stink wound up sticking to them. Are you concerned that by ignoring the attacks, they become more powerful?

CLINTON: No, I'm not, because I think people can judge his campaign for what it is. I'm going to run my campaign. I'm not so much running against him, as I am running for the kind of future that I think America deserves to have and that I believe I'm the best candidate to deliver. So that's why I talk a lot about what I will do economically, what I will do on education, on healthcare, how we are going to bring the country together. I have a lot of experience working across the aisle with Republicans. I did it as first lady, as senator, as secretary of state. I'm very confident that we're going to lay out my record of accomplishments, my ideas, my vision for the future. He can say whatever he wants to say, but I think in every election people want to know, what are you going to do tomorrow? What's the future going to look like if I entrust you with this most solemn responsibility? And that's exactly the kind of campaign I am running and I intend to keep running.

CUOMO: But his way is working for him.

CLINTON: No, it's -

CUOMO: He took out an entire field.

CLINTON: Well, but, you know -

CUOMO: He keeps winning. He's gotten more votes than any Republican ever in a primary before.

CLINTON: And I've gotten 2 million more than he has. So, I mean, look, yes, he took out a field that couldn't really criticize him on issues because they fundamentally agreed with him. They don't want to raise the minimum wage either. They all want to criminalize abortion. So when he would say these outrageous things, more dramatically perhaps than his Republican counterparts were saying, they were stymied. And then when it got to the personal piece of it, they just tried to respond tit for tat. Well, you know, if you pick a fight with, you know, a bully, you know, you're going to be pulled down to their level.

[14:05:10] CUOMO: But at some point you have to stand up to a bully, as well, right? That's what we teach our kids.

CLINTON: And I think that's exactly - I think that's exactly what I am doing, what this campaign will be doing, because it's not so much for me, Chris, what he says about me. I am really used to it. I have very thick skin. It's what he says about other people. It's demeaning comments about all kinds of women. His offensive comments about immigrants. His mocking someone with a disability. The way he talks about Muslims. How really unmoored he is when he talks about foreign policy and the loose cannon that he has turned out to be when it comes to our national security.

So I'm going after him. I'm going after him exactly on those issues and statements that are divisive and dangerous. And I actually think that's what the American people want to see, not an argument between two people, but what is it you think you're bringing to the table asking for our vote for president and contrast it with the other guys.

CUOMO: Do you ever feel compelled to defend your honor, the honor of your husband -

CLINTON: No. CUOMO: With statements that he's making that go to the core of the

relationship?

CLINTON: I - no, not at all. I - I know that that's exactly what he is phishing for and, you know, I'm not going to be responding.

CUOMO: So, as you head forward in this, where do you believe the path forward is from here? What do you think happens within the Democratic Party going forward? Because it does seem to be somewhat of an unknown right now. Not the math about the nomination.

CLINTON: Right.

CUOMO: That's, frankly, the easy part.

CLINTON: Right, it is.

CUOMO: It's about where does the party wind up -

CLINTON: Right.

CUOMO: And how.

CLINTON: Right.

CUOMO: And then what do you bring against Donald Trump? Because you know what he's bringing against you.

CLINTON: Well, I think that we are going to come together. We will unify. That doesn't mean we won't have some vigorous discussion and debate about issues, about the platform, about all of the process of a convention. I welcome that. I think that's healthy. I think bringing people into the party, giving them a voice at the end is going to help us in the fall. I think, as I said, I will certainly do my part and more to reach out and bring in Senator Sanders' supporters and I have every reason to expect he will do the same.

I think we'll have a great convention in Philadelphia. And then we will go out and carry on the campaign against Donald Trump and the Republicans. And I really believe that we're going to have a strong, compelling case to make about the choice that the American people will be facing. And I feel, you know, very optimistic about how the election will come out. And I also feel optimistic about the country. I mean most of what Trump says is pretty negative about America. It's pretty much fearmongering, criticizing.

You know, we are well positioned if we do our part, if we show leadership, if we bring people together. I think the three big tests any of us have to meet who is running for president, can you produce positive results in peoples' lives? I have a track record of doing that. Can you protect America? Can you be commander in chief? Can you lead the world toward safety and prosperity? And, number three, can you unify our country? I think on all three of those, I'm able to go to the American public and say, can meet that test. And I believe on all three of those, Donald Trump cannot. CUOMO: Last question. I don't want to keep you from your hometown, but

I do have to ask you this. When you started this campaign, you talked about your grandkids and you talked about your mother.

CLINTON: Right.

CUOMO: Nobody saw what is happening in this election coming down the road. What do you think when you think about your mother and the inspiration about how you get up? You've never faced an opponent like Donald Trump before and the way he's coming after you, whether it's the foundation or your marriage or whatever. What do you think the advice would be about what to do to win?

CLINTON: I think it would be the same advice my mother always gave me, which is, that everybody gets knocked down and knocked around in life and the real test is whether you get back up, you dust yourself off and you keep going. And my mother's life, which was really so different from mine because she was abandoned and neglected by her family and was out working on her own to survive at the age of 14 in someone's home as a maid and a babysitter. She taught me resilience and courage and the power of love and kindness, because that's what kept her going. Not from her own family, but from the teachers that saw the spark in her and reached out to help her. Even from the woman whose house she worked in, who knew how desperately my mother wanted to go to high school. And so she said, Dorothy, if you can get up early and get all your chores done, I'll let you go to high school, but you have to come right back. And that might sound harsh to our ears with your beautiful children and, you know, my adorable granddaughter, but to my mother it was a gift that she could actually go to high school while she was working to support herself.

[14:10:23] So I, by osmosis, as well as example, know that if you are putting yourself in the arena, everything that just goes with life, as hard as it may be, is probably amplified, magnified, increased. I get all of that. But I am someone sitting here in the library of my hometown, in Park Ridge, Illinois, a place that I spent a lot of hours in, I am the recipient of not just my family's sacrifice, but this country's promise. And I feel, with all my heart, Chris, that's what's really on the ballot come November. Are we going to reconfirm the promise of America, which does have a place for immigrants, which does try to move people to be more unified and not divisive, that does expect leaders to bring people together, not tear them apart. Are we going to chart a course in keeping with our history? Because I think we already are great, but there's no guarantee we stay great unless we work together, leaders and citizens alike.

So coming back to this place where I went to public school, where I had my first jobs working in the park system, where I spent a lot of time both at the library and the movie theater across the street, just inspires me to do everything I can to make sure that my granddaughter has the same opportunities that my mother made sure to provide for me. That is my mission and that's what I will try to do and stand for in this campaign.

CUOMO: Secretary Clinton, I know you have a very busy day.

CLINTON: Thank you.

CUOMO: Thank you for making time.

CLINTON: Thank you.

CUOMO: The conversation continues. Good luck to you going forward.

CLINTON: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: All right.

Wolf, back to you.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, excellent interview. Thank you very much for doing that.

I want to get some important analysis, very important points the secretary just made, the former secretary. She says, I have concluded he, referring to Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is not qualified to be president of the United States. She says he represents a threat to the U.S. democracy, to the U.S. economy. She also says that her Democratic challenger, Bernie Sanders, should get over it. She says she will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. She hopes to unify that party down the road.

I want to bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, Dana Bash our chief political correspondent, Nia-Malika Henderson, our senior political reporter.

Gloria, very strong words from the secretary of state. She says Donald Trump is not qualified to be president of the United States.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. And, you know, I'm not so sure we've heard her say that in so many words flatly, he is not qualified, and then she made a list of things that she thought were disqualifying for him, whether it's his position on potentially withdrawing from NATO, praising Kim Jong-un, dissing the British prime minister and, you know, she went on and on.

And then what was actually stunning to me in terms of this primary fight that she has been in, is that she basically said, it's done, it's over, that's it. And there's a question of whether Bernie Sanders' supporters actually feel the same way. She said she was very disturbed by what had occurred in Nevada and she made reference to the fact, when she had to concede to President Obama, that she went out and campaigned her heart out for Barack Obama, and that 40 percent of her supporters said that they never could support Obama, but then they came around. She hasn't spoken to Bernie Sanders personally, it seems to me, but she was sending a clear message, you better get with the program here because this is what we really need in order to beat Donald Trump.

BLITZER: Yes, very strong words, Dana Bash, fighting words to the Bernie Sanders supporters out there when she says basically, it's over, get over it, I will be the nominee of my party.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: She had her boxing gloves on -

BORGER: Yes.

BASH: And she was using - she was using both of her hands equally hard. I mean both at Donald Trump at the beginning, as Gloria just laid out. Incredibly tough. Usually when we're talking about presidential races, one party says, well, it's not that they're not qualified, it's just that I disagree with them on the issues. No, no, no, he is not qualified to be president. And Gloria is right, she was way stronger on that than we've heard before. We did hear it from some of his Republican opponents in the primaries, but not that - not that strongly, which was incredibly noteworthy.

[14:15:06] On the other side, the other fight that she's fighting with Bernie Sanders, not only did she say like it's over, but she went into excruciating detail about what she did when she was at the end of her fight with Barack Obama.

BLITZER: In 2008.

BASH: In 2008, just reminding everybody, she said, 45 percent of my supporters said that they would never support Obama, but I went to Unity, New Hampshire. I worked hard to get them behind Obama. Then basically, effectively saying, it's not just up to the supporters to say, OK, fine, we'll go with you. It's up to Bernie Sanders himself to help make that happen because she did it herself when she was on the losing end of a two-person fight for the Democratic primary. Incredibly strong.

You know, look, she - I actually thought I saw a very different Hillary Clinton here. You know, she at times has been, you know, kind of cerebral, a little bit laid back, kind of mellow. That's not the person who showed up to this interview. Chris did an excellent job in asking her sharp questions, but she came right back and very clear, very divisive words for Donald Trump and for Bernie Sanders.

BLITZER: And, Nia, she was asked if she would respond in kind to some of the very strong statement that Donald Trump has made of personal attacks against her and against her husband, reviving all of the issues of the sexual indiscretions in the - back in the 1990s. She says she's not going to get into that gutter, but she did go on to say that he has uttered, in her words, very demeaning comments on women, on immigrants, on people with disabilities, on Muslims. She's not going to respond to the allegations of the sexual indiscretions, but she is going to go after him very strongly on those kinds of issues. You heard her say that.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. Chris asked her if she wanted to defend her husband's honor, to respond in any way to some of the things that Donald Trump and his allies have been saying, personal attacks on her and personal attacks on their marriage, and she said flatly, no. And she also said - she said this idea of a bully, right, essentially casting Donald Trump as a bully. And she said, listen, if you fight with a bully, sometimes you get pulled down to their level. But at some point she also said that she has to stand up to him. But in her view it looks like standing up to him really means talking

about policy and talking about some of the statements he has made castigating others, whether it's women or Muslims or immigrants. So I - we'll see how long that lasts, her ability to essentially not engage with him on some of the more personal attacks that he's lobbed at her and her husband. We'll see if that lasts. I thought, in the end, she tried to strike - it was almost like a preview of what she might say if she is the nominee at a nominating convention. This idea of renewing America's promise. So she had some, I thought, flowery language at the end and kind of the soaring rhetoric that we hear from Obama often.

But I think Dana is right. I mean she was - you know, it - we always question whether or not she's going to be able to fight this kind of two-front war, one against Sanders and one against Donald Trump. Well, today, I think she showed that she can do that. And we'll see how effective that is, particularly on the Sanders front, because we know that he, too, is very dogged in wanting to take this thing to the convention. This doesn't seem to cool that sort of heightened tensions and temperatures down at all.

BORGER: You know, Wolf, I -

BLITZER: Gloria, you know, I just want to get your assessment because, you know, momentarily, I have no doubt, Donald Trump is going to react to this. Bernie Sanders is going to react to this. What should we be bracing for?

BORGER: Well, I think if you look at the language, if we did a word cloud of Hillary Clinton today describing Donald Trump, these are some of the words I was writing down, "offensive, "dangerous," "loose cannon," which we've heard before, "unmoored," "not qualified," and "fearmongering," OK? Those are very, very strong words against any opponent anywhere. I mean, I think this is sort of the toughest she has been. As Nia was saying, it gives us an indication of the tact she's going to take against him. She's not going to - she - as she said to Chris, she doesn't want to deal with the personal stuff because it was very clear she didn't want to get into that level. Clearly her super PAC can do that for her, right?

BASH: It is.

BORGER: And is doing it, right?

BASH: Right.

BORGER: And so what she wants to do is give people this sense that it is a risk to vote for Donald Trump, whom she calls dangerous. So when you ask how Donald Trump is going to respond, I think he's going to counter it with - and perhaps respond about her record as secretary of state and terror and on and on.

[14:20:04] BASH: And -

BLITZER: And going into the whole e-mail controversy.

BASH: Right.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: He's already said she - she should be under arrest for all practical purposes. He suggested that she broke the law. So even and before what she said when she was asked specifically by Chris, do you think Trump is qualified to be president of the United States, she immediately said, no, and later she said, I have concluded he is not qualified to be president of the United States.

BASH: Exactly. And, look, the whole interview started with where the news is today, what happened in Egypt, the plane, that she said, actually like Trump said early this morning, it does appear to be an act of terrorism. And I think she used that reminder, that horrible reminder that everybody around the world has right now about how unsafe the world is and kind of brought it back to her central thesis, which is, you don't want to trust it in the hands of a guy who, you know, used all the adjectives that Gloria just said, but also bringing it back to a specific incident where - that she was a part of that Obama has been widely praised for, for actually getting Osama bin Laden, and specifically saying she doesn't think that Donald Trump could have done that. So, you know, kind of, again, seizing on the moment of where we are in the world and the actual news and making it a - giving a real life example.

BLITZER: Yes. And she expressed, Nia, deep concern that if he were president of the United States, he wouldn't be able to deal with these kinds of major national security issues. What did you think of her answer when she - when Chris asked her, well, why do you think you can defeat Donald Trump with these 16 other Republicans, there was a lot of personal attacks going back and forth then. They were not able to do so.

HENDERSON: Well, she essentially said they weren't able to do so because they agreed with him, right? I mean that whole idea that it's the party of Trump, not the party of Lincoln, and that they are essentially in agreement on things like abortion and I think, you know, a lot of those candidates now would disagree with what she said. But I do think she is going to have some advantages here that the Republicans didn't. One of which is real stark policy disagreements, but also that she has had a preview of what they tried to do in fits and starts. And she's also going to have probably a billion dollars to do it over a sustained amount of time. So I did think, you know, that was an interesting answer. And I do think the Democrats are in a different place because they aren't trying to kind of curry favor with the same voters necessarily that Donald Trump's opponents were trying to curry favor with in the Republican Party primary.

BLITZER: And she also said, Gloria, to add some of the words you mentioned earlier, that Trump was incredibly wrong-headed and a threat to our democracy and our economy. Those are fighting words that I know Donald Trump, he's going to respond presumably in kind fairly soon.

BORGER: Right. And one other thing, Wolf, though. She did - when Chris asked her at the outset on the question of terror, which is, of course, front and center today, as Dana pointed out, she's talking about intensifying the fight against ISIS because she knows she's going to be attacked on that front. And she also said in terms of NATO, she did say we have to convince the Europeans to do much more when it comes to security, which is something Donald Trump has talked about, right? So it's clear to me, as we listen to this interview, that we see the signposts of her responses to his attacks, as well as her own attacks against him and the way - and the way she's going to handle it. And this notion of risk at a time of danger in this country I think is going to be the key point of her campaign.

BLITZER: Dana, one of the things she also said as far as the war against terror and what happened today with EgyptAir, if, in fact, it was a terror bomb that destroyed aircraft with killing 66 people on board. She also made the point that what's going on in Europe, she says, is her biggest terror concern right now, that it's getting closer and closer -

BASH: Sure.

BLITZER: Leaving the Middle East, going to Europe and her unstated fear it could wind up here in the United States.

BASH: Sure. And that's what - what everybody here fears. I do - I do think that as much as it is her strength, in many ways that she was secretary of state and that she is somebody who has the experience on the world stage, it's also potentially a negative - excuse me - because there are, as Chris pointed out in his questions, there are a lot of people asking why people feel so much less safe and why the U.S. does feel weaker since Obama has been president.

The other thing I think she might get a lot of pushback on, Wolf, and you cover this day in and day out, is her saying that at this point that there has been - that al Qaeda has been defeated in large measure. I'm not sure everybody would agree with that.

[14:25:03] BLITZER: Yes, they still have Mosul and ISIS still has Mosul, al Qaeda still is out there as well.

BASH: Exactly.

BLITZER: All right, everyone, stand by. I want to thank Gloria, Dana and Nia.

Coming up in the next hour, we're going to speak to Steven Miller from the Trump campaign about Hillary Clinton saying Donald Trump is simply not qualified, her words, not qualified to be president of the United States.

But first, the wreckage of EgyptAir Flight 804, wreckage has been found floating on the Mediterranean Sea. U.S. officials say it was likely a bomb that took down the commercial aircraft. The latest on the investigation when our breaking news coverage continues right after this quick break.

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