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Mexico Helpful In Fighting Illegal Immigration; Obama Rejects GOP Vision Of Violence And Chaos; GOP Fears Don't Match The Facts; Donald Trump States We're Going To Build A Great Border Wall; One Dead And 10 Wounded In Germany; Rampage At Munich Shopping Center; Deadly Shooting at Munich Shopping Mall; Clinton to Pick V.P. Soon. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired July 22, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (live): I want everybody to be very clear, Mexico has been a consistent, strong partner with us on these issues. And if they had not been, we would have had much bigger problems on our borders.

And the benefit of a cooperative Mexico -- and, by the way, a Mexico that has a healthy economy, a Mexico that can help us build stability and security in central America, that's going to do a lot more to solve any migration crisis or drug trafficking problem than a wall. And it'll be much more reflective of the kind of relationship that we should have with our neighbors.

Mr. President, thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. (INAUDIBLE.)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There's the president of the United States and the president of Mexico wrapping up a one-hour news conference. The president challenging the vision of America, laid out last night by Donald Trump and the Republicans.

At this news conference, with the Mexican president, President Obama was forceful in insisting the U.S. today is in much better shape than it was a few years ago, unlike what we heard last night from Donald Trump. He said what we heard from Donald Trump at the Republican convention simply does not jive with the facts. And he cited Crime as one example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The violent crime rate in America has been lower during my presidency and any time in the last three, four decades. And although it is true that we've seen an uptick in murders and violent crime in some cities this year, the fact of the matter is that the murder rate today, the violence rate today is far lower than it was when Ronald Reagan was president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's get more on the president's important remarks today. I want to bring in our White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski who's over at the White House.

Michelle, the president said he didn't listen to Donald Trump's speech last night, his acceptance speech of the Republican presidential nomination. But he read about it, read some of the transcripts, and he simply suggested that Trump was way wrong on several important issues. What did he say about that?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, the president wanted to launch right into this and wanted to counter that rhetoric that we've been hearing at the convention all week. Really, as soon as the president came out here, I mean, the first thing he started talking about was the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico. But he wanted to mention the rhetoric that we've been hearing right off the bat.

And in talking specifically about the speech last night, I mean, he wanted to pick it apart for some of the fears that he said have no basis, in fact some of what we've heard. In fact, he used pieces of -- you know, he mentioned crime and violence, that in the president's view, don't jive with most people's experiences. He cited some statistics.

And this is stuff that we've been hearing from the White House lately, that overall, even though we have seen an uptick in murders and violent crime in certain cities recently, that overall the violent crime rate in America has been down. And it is at its lowest rate than what we've seen in the last couple of decades.

Also, the number of border crossers has been down. And he wanted to be careful to compare today's numbers on both of those counts with prior Republican administrations. The White House likes to do that as much as possible.

So, as far as countering the rhetoric to the point that people are listening to what the president says versus what listening to what Donald Trump says last night, that remains to be seen. And we'll see in the Democratic convention next week.

But you know that the president wanted to get this out there, even though he, himself, did not see hit -- see it last night -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Michelle, stand by over at the White House.

I want to bring in our panel to discuss what we just heard from United States. Our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger is with us. Our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and CNN Chief National Correspondent John King, the anchor of "INSIDE POLITICS."

John, the president was very blunt, not only saying that Donald Trump was wrong when he comes to his crime statistics. The U.S. is in much better shape, the president said, today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. But also on the whole issue of illegal immigration, he insists that Trump was wrong.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He says border crossings are down. They're down from the 1908s, down from the 1990s, down from when George Bush was president, the president is saying.

Now, the president using pre-measured tones there. He's in the White House. He's at an official event with a visiting head of state. But he consistently, boom, boom, boom, Donald Trump, you're wrong about the wall. You're wrong about the crime rate. You're wrong about the border crossings.

[13:05:06] And they also, both leaders, did say that they think Donald Trump is wrong on trade, making the case for NAFTA which has been in effect since the Bill Clinton administration and the proposed Trans- Pacific partnership which has become an issue in the presidential campaign and something Hillary Clinton has backed away from. They're both going through the fact that, no, maybe we need to tweak some things. Maybe we need to study these things. But trade is good for all the economies, all the players involved.

It's very interesting, though, as the president made his case against Donald Trump, the president of Mexico, President Enrique Pena Nieto, backed off. He compared Donald Trump a few couple of months ago to Hitler and Mussolini.

Mexico has changed the ambassador since then. The new ambassador worked in a number of U.S. cities and the consulates before he came to Washington. He has told the government back home, Donald Trump might win. Donald Trump might win.

And so, President Pena Nieto said, I have the greatest respect to both of them. And he did make the case on trade. But he just pulled back completely from comparing Trump to Hitler, to Mussolini, being much more diplomatic and saying he would work with whoever wins the election.

BLITZER: Yes, he said the U.S.-Mexican relationship, Dana, transcends political leaders in Mexico or the United States. It is firm. It is strong. And it's going to remain that way irrespective whoever is elected president of the United States.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and to John's point, what choice does he have? You know, he's got to -- if he is antagonistic toward Donald Trump, at this point who, you know, certainly, as John said, may actually win, it gets him nowhere with his ultimate goal which is to keep relations the way they are, to keep the trade going. Never mind the whole discussion about the wall. This was just the basic nuts and bolts economics which are so vital to the country of Mexico.

BLITZER: Gloria, listen to what Donald Trump said about the wall last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration. To stop the gangs and the violence and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: You were there. We were all there inside the Q, as they call it, the Quicken Loans Arena. The crowd really loved what they heard from them on that point.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He didn't say, by the way, Mexico would pay for it, last night. He just said, we're going to build a wall.

Look, last night's speech very much played to the base one of the most popular issues he had. The one that started this entire campaign, of course, was immigration, and was building a wall, the other one trade which he also spoke about. And, you know, redoing NAFTA. If -- and if he couldn't work it out, withdrawing from NAFTA, against the TPP.

And so, these are sort of the two basic tenants of the Trump campaign. And he's going to continue talking about it. And, you know, there is, obviously, no backing down from that. It's very simple. People get it. And it works for him. The only problem is, if you want to broaden your base and get Hispanic voters, it' not going to help.

BASH: And can I -- can I just add to that? It's not just -- it's not just doubling down on his base, it's the corner of the Republican base that he has really made come alive which is -- these are the populous, the people who think that the party leadership abandoned them a long time ago, and that he's finally somebody who speaks to them.

But he really didn't do anything to unify people beyond that room and beyond people who were willing to come to that room. I'm talking about within the Republican Party. Never mind independents. He might not need them.

KING: Although the conversation is very interesting this morning about this because a lot of people said, Trump was too mad. Trump was too angry. Trump was too dour. Trump was too dark. The bed he's making is that he's actually --

BLITZER: All right.

KING: -- in tune with the American people right now who want change and who are frightened.

BLITZER: Hold on, we're going to talk about what Trump said this morning. He was very, very forceful, once again, this morning, speaking about Ted Cruz.

But there's breaking news out of Munich I want to get to right now. Munich, Germany where police say there's been a shooting spree at a major shopping center. Police say the shooting is over but they're offering few other details at this time. A CNN affiliate in Germany is reporting that at least one person is dead. Ten others are injured. It's unknown if the shooter or shooters is among them.

Our Will Ripley is monitoring the situation from London right now. Will, what can you tell us?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know, Wolf, that the police in Munich are urging people to stay away from the Olympia Shopping Center, one of the largest shopping centers in Munich. They do not believe that they have the situation contained or under control, at this moment. But they did say, as you mentioned, that the shooting, itself, is over. And our CNN affiliate NTV is reporting at least one person dead, 10 people injured.

Now, this is obviously a very frightening time for many people here in Europe. It was just three days ago that an Afghan refugee teenager started swinging an ax on a train in Wurzburg, Germany. Four people were hurt before police shot that teenager and killed him. They later found an ISIS flag and ISIS propaganda videos suspected of featuring the teenager.

[13:10:00] And while it's certainly too soon to say what the motive is in this particular mall shooting, weapons are very difficult to obtain in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. And so, those who are able to get their hands on them have to go through an extensive amount of effort to obtain them.

Of course, we're also just on the heels of that horrific terror attack in Nice. I just arrived from there yesterday where 84 people were killed and more than 200 injured in an ISIS-inspired attack. The fear on the ground here in Europe, Wolf, is that we're going to see a ramped up number of these attacks all over Europe, as ISIS jihadists, whether they were trained or just inspired, are determined to attack as many people and take as many lives as possible.

BLITZER: But you're -- what you're hearing, Will, is that the police say this incident is not yet over with? They're still -- they're still on the scene? They're still concerned?

RIPLEY: It's a very large police operation under way right now. We've seen videos coming in over social media of people running away from the mall area. There's a very large police presence but, at this point, we do not believe that a shooter is in custody. That is the -- that is the information that we're getting.

So, at this moment, police are telling people, stay away from the mall area. This is an active, ongoing situation that hasn't been resolved yet.

BLITZER: I want to bring in our Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Tom Fuentes. He's joining us on the phone. He's a former assistant director of the FBI. So, Tom, the shooting incident at a major shopping mall in Munich, the Olympia mall which is a very important mall in the Munich area. You can see the video coming in. People running away. Police have told everybody, this is an ongoing incident right now. What do you do if someone shows up at a mall, a shooter or shooters, with a weapon and starts shooting?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Well, the problem, Wolf, is that malls are very soft targets and they're going to continue to be. It's really difficult, especially many of these malls have more than a dozen entrances and exits. They can't easily block them or set up security to them. So, someone can go in there and start shooting and it's very difficult to stop it. Most of the malls that I go in here in the U.S., the security that are walking around aren't even armed. So, if you have someone come in with firearms or hatchets or machetes or anything like that, it's a very difficult situation and the public is vulnerable if that happens.

BLITZER: I know at some malls in Europe, I know at malls in Israel, for example, you go through metal detectors before you go into those malls, precisely because they see those malls as very, very vulnerable, soft targets, if you will. I know there's been a concern here in the United States of that as well, but, so far, we haven't seen anything along those lines.

FUENTES: Well, we haven't. And if you stop and think of how many malls we have, how many strip malls, how many movie theaters, that the cost of doing something like that, the companies that make magnetometers could not possibly fill the orders if we started doing that. They couldn't keep up with the demand in the next, you know, few years.

So, it's easier said than done. You need several people to man the equipment. You have to maintain the equipment. You have to train the individuals that watch it. And what that would do, essentially, is put malls, as we know them, out of business. They wouldn't be able to sustain that level of security and at the current level of convenience that most people want to jump in their cars, go to the mall, spend a half hour shopping, get back in the car, go home. If you start putting that kind of security, that's really going to really put a damper on business.

BLITZER: And I'm sure the people in Germany must be alarmed right now, given the incident the other day where a young Afghan who's living in Germany gets out there with a hatchet and starts whacking away, going after people before he is stopped, claiming, apparently, responsibility from ISIS, ISIS-inspired material. We do not know if this incident at this mall in Munich, the Olympia mall, it's a shopping mall in Munich, if there's any connection at all to ISIS or any other terror organization. But it does cause a lot of alarm doesn't it, Tom?

FUENTES: It sure does and especially given that no country in Europe has let as many refugees come in as Germany. You know, they've really opened their doors. And they've had some incidents where there's been public backlash which has created an increasingly strong right-wing faction, politically in Germany, to reject immigration, refugees and all of that. Going back to the attack on women on New Year's Eve and now this most recent attack on the train this week.

So, many people have been wondering why all the attacks have been centered in France and Belgium, even Spain, but not so much in Germany. But maybe now that trend is going to change with two attacks in a week.

[13:15:00] BLITZER: I think we have our CNN Military Analyst Lieutenant General retired Mark Hertling joining us right now. General, can you hear me?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I can, Wolf.

BLITZER: You -- I assume you know -- you used to be in charge of U.S. forces over there in Europe, in Germany. You know Munich. You know this area. I don't know if you're familiar with the Olympia -- it's called the Einkaufs-Centrum Shopping Mall in Munich.

It's a major mall. You hear about a report like this, and the U.S. as you know, you still have about 50,000, 60,000 troops in Germany.

HERTLING: We have about 30,000 U.S. army troops over there, Wolf. Yes, I know this shopping mall very well, which is in the northwestern part of the town. It's a very large shopping center, as many are throughout the German territory. And they do have -- your conversation with Tom just a few minutes ago was exactly right, they do have private security guards in most of the shopping centers that are extremely well trained. Like many of the tradesmen and craftsmen throughout Europe.

But this mall is in the northwest part of Munich. Is very well populated, the area around this particular town. You know, it's part of the central region of Munich itself. I was just over, Wolf, in Munich last month, as a matter of fact. I was down south in Garnish (ph) for a conference and came up to Munich with some of my old soldier friends there. What I noticed over some trips over the last few years too many, is they have taken in close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees over the last two years. The atmosphere has changed throughout the various cities and the towns, even the small boroughs of Germany, with a lot of new immigrants to the cities. And that's causing some backlash you were talking about. But they are very visible. A lot of women in burkas, and hajibs, and the atmosphere of the town has changed. As Tom just said, there's a lot of blowback from many of the citizens within Germany that Mrs. Merkel has taken in as many refugees as she has. So in various cities throughout Germany, you will have decisions by the local policy maker to either disperse the new immigrants and refugees into various parts of the towns, or you will see them in one specific section of each one of the towns. And depending on what happens, you'll see a lot of combined immigrants -- they are obvious because of the clothes they wear -- trying to immigrate within German society, and it's proven difficult over the last few months.

BLITZER: And NTV, the television network, one of our affiliates in Germany, reporting several people are dead.

We're going to continue to monitor the breaking news out of Munich at this shopping mall, the Olympia Central Shopping Mall in Munich. There has been a shooting incident. Several people reportedly dead. We're going to have more on this and all the day's other news right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:20] BLITZER: Once again we're following breaking news out of Munich, Germany, a shooting spree under way, we're told, according to NTV, our German affiliate, several people reportedly dead. We'll monitor that situation. No indication yet, any motive, or the shooter or shooters. We'll watch this unfold. But this is taking place at a major mall in Munich, the Olympia Central Shopping Mall in Munich. We'll watch this closely. And we'll update you when we get more information.

Right now, I want to get back to politics here in the United States. The Republican show is over. Now it's time for the Democrats to take center stage. Their convention starts on Monday. Today, the first big question to be answered, who will be Hillary Clinton's vice presidential running mate. The race seems to be coming down to two choices, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and Tom Vilsack.

Jeff Zeleny is joining us right now.

Has Hillary Clinton made her choice? When will we know when the official announcement will come forward?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: She did, Wolf. She made her choice. She's finalized her choice yesterday. But of course, this is something that she has been known in her head, I'm told, for a while. She' expected to make the announcement in a text message to her supporters. That could come as early as this afternoon. She is not going to appear on stage with her new partner until tomorrow. That is scheduled for a rally re in Miami on Saturday afternoon. Of course, they're trying to build anticipation and drama for that convention, as you said, next week. But this is all indicated by outside events, shootings, and other things like the one we're following here, Wolf. So the timing could be indicated by that as well.

We know she has made her decision. And we do believe it is down to those two leading contenders. All signs throughout the Democratic Party and the Clinton orbit point to Tim Kaine, the Senator from Virginia, the former governor from Virginia. He has been on this hot seat once before back in 2008. Of course, he was not picked at that point. He was just a governor. Now, of course, the Senator has more experience. We're told he is the certainly leading contender. Also, Tom Vilsack. I'm told not to rule out Tom Vilsack because of his loyalty and connection to Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Just reading on the tea leaves, she's doing this event in Miami, where there are a lot of Spanish-speaking Americans, of course. We know Governor Kaine is fluent in Spanish. Is that an indication he may be the vice presidential running mate?

[13:24:55] ZELENY: It certainly is one of them, Wolf. You would not seem to pick a rally in Miami at Florida International University where some 60 percent of the student body is Hispanic, if you were going to announce Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor and native of Pittsburgh, as your running mate. Of course, Florida is so important in so many ways. She is picking Florida as a battleground, really as a way to turn the page and the conversation here from the Republican convention. Democrats believe they have a big opportunity here. They're trying to rebuild the Obama coalition, if you will, but particularly Hispanic voters who are so enraged, by and large, by Donald Trump's assertions to build a wall and other things. So that is why, once again, ground zero in politics, presidential politics right here in Florida.

BLITZER: Jeff, as soon as you get word, of course, you'll let us know.

Jeff's already in Miami for us.

Let's talk about the expected running mate announcement and the potential choice for Hillary Clinton.

Once again, CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger is with us; CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash; and chief national correspondent, John King, the anchor of "Inside Politics," in Philadelphia already ahead of next week's in Philadelphia; and "CNN Politics" executive editor, Mark Preston.

Gloria, last Friday, Donald Trump sends out a tweet just before 11:00 a.m. eastern, announcing who his vice presidential running mate is. On Saturday, he and Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, they meet together. Then they do a "60 Minutes" interview Sunday night. We could see a similar rollout on the part of Hillary Clinton.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: We could hear as early as this afternoon. And she's got events in Florida later today and also tomorrow. So it could be a similar type of rollout. The thing about Donald Trump's rollout was that once he announced it, it kind of stopped. It would seem to me that Pence went back to Indiana alone, which was kind of shocking to all of us who have covered politics for a long time, and it seems to me that the Clinton campaign will be a lot more traditional about it. I guarantee you, no matter who it is, that there's going to be a bunch of joint events with the two of them together, showing what a great team they are. And it will start in Florida and then it will continue probably to the battleground states. I think it will be a different kind of a rollout.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The Clinton campaign is as data driven as most modern traditional campaigns are. I'm not going to say with her gut or who she's comfortable with. But the reason I bring up data, if she does go with Tim Kaine, who is a more moderate Democrat, to me, it shows that they feel they that are in a better place than you would have thought, with Bernie Sanders nipping at her heels from the left, then a little while ago with the liberal base. The liberal base, some of them, are not going to be happy, because Tim Kaine is on the conservative side of the Democratic spectrum. But what Jeff was just talking about, even though he's a white guy from Virginia, he does speak fluent Spanish and they're hoping to appeal to that portion of the Democratic coalition, I think, which tells you a lot about where they think the voters are or aren't yet.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT & CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS: To that point, I was speaking to a longtime Clinton associate yesterday, to Dana's point about liberals, they feel better. After the convention last night, they were incredibly encouraged that during the convention Bernie Sanders was tweeting at Donald Trump, saying, "No, my voters are not going to be for you." Also, they do feel safe. They think Sanders is on their side. They also think Elizabeth Warren and what she has said, even though she's not going to get the pick, we're told, she is onboard with the Clinton campaign.

So the other point is, in Tim Kaine and Tom Vilsack, she has two people she's very comfortable with. You remember our days covering the Clinton White House together. I'm told that in this process, she remembers the dysfunction between Al Gore and Bill Clinton, and Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. When Hillary Clinton was the first lady, she was not a traditional first lady. She had a policy power center, and there was a great deal of rivalry and dysfunction, and some backstabbing at times between the offices and the Clinton White House. She is shaped by the idea, "I want a partner I can work with." She's comfortable with both Kaine and Vilsack.

One quick point on that, he may be a white guy from Virginia, but if you can take Virginia off the map and then take the 29 electoral votes in Florida off the map using his Spanish-language skills, you take Florida's 29, Virginia off the map, Donald Trump has almost an impossible path.

BASH: Yeah.

BORGER: They think if they win Virginia, they've got it, basically. Talking to folks in the Clinton campaign, they believe the map would be -- would give them the electoral votes they need. Virginia is key. She's ahead in Virginia, by the way, but not by enough. She needs to get further ahead. Kaine is very popular.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: By the way, he's younger, too. 57? Younger.

BLITZER: Mark Preston, you look at these polls very, very closely. Virginia, Florida, some of the other states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, so-called Rust Belt states. You know, Hillary Clinton may be slightly ahead in those polls that we've seen so far, but it's by no means a crushing lead. It's pretty competitive in all those places, isn't it?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: It is very competitive. And to John's point, 13 electoral votes on the table in Virginia. What is interesting about Tim Kaine, if she does chose him, he is not from northern Virginia.