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Trump Refines His Message As GOP Unrest Grows; GOP Congressman Stars In Anti-Trump Ad; Ryan Not Ready To Pull Trump Endorsement; Newt Gingrich Says Media Misinterpreted Critique; Athletes Banned From Olympics; Olympic Doping Testing; New Battleground State Polls. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 04, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.

There are just under 96 days left until the presidential election, even fewer if you live in an early voting state.

Today, Hillary Clinton hits the campaign trail in Las Vegas. And in just two hours or so, Donald Trump will deliver his message to supporters in Portland, Maine. It's that message that is being scrutinized by those inside the Republican Party. In Florida, Trump responded to claims that his campaign is in chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just want to tell you, the campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united. I would say right now, it's the best, in terms of being united that it's been since we began. We're doing incredibly well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Trump has been under fire by members of his own party for distracting voters by straying off the preferred anti-Hillary Clinton message and for seemingly picking fights with other Republican leaders, like the House speaker, Paul Ryan, who says he's distressed that Trump is not focusing all his attacks on Hillary Clinton.

But this morning, Donald Trump's campaign chief said they've righted the ship and the message is clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL MANAFORT, CHAIRMAN, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The campaign messages are worked out. The themes of this campaign are settled. We know --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, will he follow them, is the question?

MANAFORT: Well, I think he is trying messages out on the campaign trail. You know, he's been very successful in the primaries. He draws his strength and his messages from the interaction he has with the public and he's doing that right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, we'll see today in Portland, Maine if Donald Trump stays on message or whether he strays.

Our Jason Carroll, our National Correspondent, is there in Portland for us. Jason, you were with him in Florida yesterday. Does he seem like he's getting more focused?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it did yesterday in Daytona, at least for part of his speech, that's for sure. At one point, he was hammering Clinton on that $400 million payment to Iran, question about that, hammering her on her trustworthiness and talking about that. So, certainly, these are some of the things that the GOP says this is what we want to see you doing, not focusing on some of the other things.

And the reason why I say part of his speech, Wolf, is because yesterday in Daytona, he focused on Clinton. And then, he started to re-litigate some of the things we've heard before. You know, in talking about Megyn Kelly and whether or not he made fun of the disabled reporter. These are the types of things the GOP says you need, to sort, of move beyond that.

But you heard what Trump said. He says, look, despite what critics are saying, whether it's GOP or otherwise, he says that this campaign is on track. He says that they're more united than ever.

But, really, the reality bears something much different than that. You look at what's happening with the GOP, clearly there are some problems here that the campaign needs to address. They say that his rhetoric is a problem. His inability to stay on message is a problem.

They look at what happened with Paul Ryan, for example, the House Speaker, Paul Ryan. They say, this is something you didn't need to do by not endorsing him. In fact, Paul Ryan spoke out about this for the first time. And the question was put to him, is there anything that Trump could do to make Ryan pull back his endorsement of Trump?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL RYAN, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: None of these things are ever blank checks. That goes with any kind of situation, in any kind of race. But right now, I think it's important that the voters -- you know, he won the delegates. He won the thing fair and square. It's just that simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Ryan also making it clear in that radio interview that following the RNC convention, Wolf, he felt as though what Trump has done has been, quote, "strange and distressing." He really wants Trump to stay focused on Clinton. That is the best way he and many others in the GOP feels he should be moving forward now in the general election -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jason, as you know, the Trump campaign is quick to point out the crowds as an illustration of Donald Trump's success. They say 10,000, 15,000 people at those two events in Florida yesterday. But how many new people, based on everything you're seeing, are actually coming under that tent, voters that he's trying to sway, new voters to support him, as opposed to the fervent base of his support?

CARROLL: Well, that's a good question. And first, let's point out, look, it is very clear when you come out to these rallies, whether you're in Pennsylvania or Ohio or yesterday we were in Daytona, Wolf, the crowds are huge. There's no question that he has strong support from his base.

I spoke to a man yesterday in Daytona. You know what this man told me, Wolf? He said, look, there is nothing that Trump can say that would -- that would make me not vote for this man.

But the question is, moving forward in the general election, can he bring in others beyond his base? Can he bring in women? Can he bring in educated whites, Latinos, African-Americans?

And you look at the poll numbers and the poll numbers suggest he needs to do more. He is slipping in the polls and some key states that he needs to win, places like Pennsylvania, for example.

[13:05:07] So, the question is, can he move beyond the crowds that we see here, the supporters that we see here? Clearly, it worked for him in the primary. The general election, a much different story. I will tell you this, you hear from the Trump camp and what they'll tell you is, look, polls are polls. They go up and down. But the real question will be what happens after Labor Day. And, by that point, they expect this campaign to be back where it used to be -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Jason Carroll, he's with -- covering the Trump campaign in Portland, Oregon -- Portland, Maine, I should say. Thank you very much.

Let's talk a little bit more about the messaging from Donald Trump, the backlash from some members -- senior members of the Republican Party. Here with us, our Senior Political Reporters Nia-Malika Henderson and Manu Raju. And Ryan Lizza, our CNN Political Commentator, the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker."

This relationship, Nia, between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan, the highest ranking Republican out there, the speaker of the House, it's tense, I assume, right now after what Donald Trump said, the response from Paul Ryan. Though he isn't yet ready to pull his endorsement.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: He isn't and it seems like it's a hard thing for him to even do. He said there, of course, that Donald Trump won this thing fair and square. He knows that the people who back -- who backed Trump in the primary are, essentially, Romney voters, right? Those are the same, sort of, run of the mill Republican voters who've been voters for Republican all the -- all the -- all the while.

So, it's hard for him, and I think it's hard for a lot of the elected officials, particularly elected officials in red states, to come out against Donald Trump and go against their word to endorse -- to endorse Donald Trump. They're in a tough position.

BLITZER: There is a Republican congressman from Colorado, you know him, Tom Kaufman. He's a Republican. He's actually putting ads out there severely distancing himself from the Republican presidential nominee. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM KAUFMAN (R), COLORADO: I'm a Marine. For me, country comes first. My duty is always to you. So, if Donald Trump is the president, I'll stand up to him, plain and simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It's pretty extraordinary, when you think about it.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It really is. You know, Mike Kaufman has a difficult re-election race in the Colorado sub -- Denver suburbs. And who comprises that district? We have college educated whites, Hispanics, suburban mothers, all voting blocks, like, where Donald Trump does not do particularly well.

So, he is working very hard to distance himself from Donald Trump. But what will be interesting to see is whether senators can do that. They're in a more difficult spot, even ones in targeted races. Because they need Donald Trump supporters to come out to the polls at the end of the day. Not just those independent voters and those swing voters who may be alienated from Donald Trump, but also the core Donald Trump supporters.

One interesting thing to point out in that New Hampshire poll today, Wolf, is that Kelly Ayotte, the New Hampshire Senator, is now down 10 points --

BLITZER: Yes.

RAJU: -- in her race, largely because of Donald Trump.

HENDERSON: Yes.

RAJU: But she's in a bind because Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary, and he has passionate supporters in that state. So, a difficult spot that a lot of these Republican senators are in, even if they distance themselves from Trump.

BLITZER: And Adam Kissinger, the Republican --

RAJU: Yes.

BLITZER: -- Congressman from Illinois, I interviewed him last night. He's an Iraq War veteran. He made it clear, he can't vote for Hillary Clinton but he also can't vote for Donald Trump.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, he was one of these Republicans that was on the fence for a long time. He said he wasn't sure, wasn't sure, very anti-Trump. And he finally decided, that's it. He's had enough. He can't vote for him.

Look, Trump is in Maine today. Susan Collins, the Senator from Maine, still has not endorsed Donald Trump. The last I heard, she's still undecided and was considering -- still actively considering supporting Hillary Clinton. So, we have to wait to see what she decides.

I think the bit of leverage Trump has right now with some of these races is not every Republican is out of their primary, right? So, if you're Paul Ryan, it looks like he's going to have an easy primary next week, he probably -- if he was ever considering un-endorsing Trump, he probably wants to wait until after that primary is over.

John McCain in Arizona, not a tough primary but something that his campaign staff was always monitoring and worried about. They start early voting right now in August in Arizona. And so, he's going to wait until Labor Day until he's clear of his primary.

So, once all of these Republican primaries clear, the elections where the Trump voters are the most important, I think if Trump is still engaged in the same kind of controversies, that's when you might see more of a -- of a -- of a larger scale movement away from him, if he hasn't -- you know, if he hasn't changed.

BLITZER: And I suspect Republican leaders, and you can confirm this, I know you've been talking to a lot of them, Nia, that they see Kaufman, the Congressman from Colorado, Kissinger, Congressman from Illinois, moving away from Donald Trump and various others are distancing themselves. They're afraid this going to encourage a bigger avalanche, if you will.

HENDERSON: Yes, and let alone, I mean, what Republican elected officials do who are on the ballot and some facing primaries, some in the tough swing states. What about actual voters?

[13:10:02] I mean, if you look at that Fox poll which has Hillary Clinton up by I think 10 points, 12 percent of Republicans are thinking that they will vote for Hillary Clinton come November. I mean, that's a troubling number. I think it's something like three or four percent for Republicans -- or Democrats who think they might want to vote for Hillary Clinton.

So, I mean, this is -- this is a problem if they start seeing this actually at the ballot box. And, I think, you know, according to these polls, a lot of actual voting Republicans are having a hard time actually voting for Donald Trump. And it looks like -- I mean, there's no sense that it's going to get better if he keeps behaving this way.

RAJU: And the Paul Ryan model is something that a lot of Republicans are following here which is to criticize Donald Trump on some key issues. And as Paul Ryan says, he a -- he views himself as a defender of Republican values and the Republican brand. But not un-endorse him because they do need Donald Trump to do well. Even if he loses, he'll do reasonably well so it doesn't wipe out the congressional majority. BLITZER: We do speak to these House Republicans all the time, Manu.

How upset were they to see that interview in "The Washington Post" where Donald Trump said he's not quite ready to endorse the speaker of the House?

RAJU: They were pretty -- very upset. I mean, the -- Paul Ryan --

BLITZER: Because he's well liked by the Republicans.

RAJU: He's well liked and he won, overwhelmingly, his speakership. And they said, why? I talked to Tom Cole, the Oklahoma Republican who's very close to Paul Ryan. He said, look, why are you picking fights with your own party? That does not make any sense right now. Focus on Hillary Clinton. That's the one thing that actually unites us. And I think that's why we're hearing the Trump campaign, sort of, doing some damage control over the last couple of days.

LIZZA: Even just from basic electoral strategy, the Trump campaign is really puzzling. He is in Maine today. He's in Portland, Maine. Republicans haven't won Maine in a presidential election since --

HENDERSON: But they had to split --

LIZZA: -- 1988.

BLITZER: It's like Nebraska.

LIZZA: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Because they split their electoral votes.

LIZZA: If you were the Trump -- I know you were fighting for every electoral vote, --

HENDERSON: Right.

LIZZA: -- there's one in Nebraska, too.

HENDERSON: Yes.

LIZZA: But, I mean, you need to be winning the industrial Midwest first --

HENDERSON: Yes.

LIZZA: -- before you can concentrate on that -- on that single -- on that single electoral vote.

BLITZER: I take it Susan Collins of Maine is not going to be at this Trump rally today in Portland, Maine?

LIZZA: No, but the governor of Maine is a big Trump fan, LePage.

HENDERSON: LePage, yes. LIZZA: He was one of his early backers.

BLITZER: I remember that.

Newt Gingrich, we seem to be getting some conflicting words from him. In "The Washington Post," he said -- the other day, he said, he, referring to Trump, cannot win the presidency operating the way he is now. She can't be bad enough to elect him if he is determined to make this many mistakes. Trump is helping her to win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.

But he later tried to clean things up, tweeting this, media has wildly misinterpreted my critique of a bad week for Trump. Trump is vastly better than Hillary as president.

HENDERSON: Yes and this is a position that Newt Gingrich has been in often. He'll get out there with the criticism and then he'll sort of pull it back. He sometimes plays sort of Donald Trump's -- the explainer of Donald Trump. For instance, when the whole Russia thing came out and Donald Trump seemed to call on Russia to break into Hillary Clinton's emails, he said, oh, he was just being sarcastic.

So, this is -- this is what -- this is his role, in some ways, to come out. He seems to criticize him. Sometimes, he gets blowback from Donald Trump and then he pulls it back.

So, listen, I mean, I think the question is whether or not anyone is in the position to criticize Donald Trump and change his behavior and (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: We have much more to assess.

Also, there's breaking news we're following right now. The 2016 Olympic games, more than 100 athletes were just banned from participating in the games. We're going to update you on that and a lot more when we come back.

[13:13:34]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:22] BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. We also want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. We'll have much more on the race for the White House in just a few moments.

But right now there's breaking news out of Rio De Janeiro. The International Olympic Committee has just announced more than 100 athletes have tested positive for doping and will not be allowed to participate in the Olympic games. The 2016 games. While a decision on the Russian athletes, who have been at the center of this scandal, is not expected until later today, Russia says it believes between 265 and 270 of their athletes will be able to compete.

Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is in Rio for us. Nick, what else was announced today?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a key moment really for the future of Russia in these Olympic games. We've always known about 100 were going to get banned. It was 287 or so. The numbers are always hard to precisely track down who were having their cases reviewed by their own separate sporting federations. Now, they were supposed to announce at some point today we thought, perhaps later on, exactly how many of those 287 will get a clean record, a clean bill of health to be allowed to compete. I just heard here from a spokesperson for the Russian team here that they've received documents, information that suggests between 265 and 270 of those 287 or so are going to be OK, are going to be allowed to compete in the games.

Now, that is a quite substantial victory, you might argue, for the Russians. They even go on to suggest that the remaining 17 or so, I again say the numbers are never precise, the remaining 17 or so are still looking to appeal judgment, so may try and still compete. They also point out, obviously, it's the International Olympic Committee that make the final ruling. That's what we're actually waiting for. But at this stage, this process, launched a few weeks ago, in which it wasn't going to be the International Olympic Committee that made a judgment, it was going to be those separate sporting federations for each sport, would have to rule on each Russian athlete's bill of health. Well, that process has gone massively in Russia's favor. They're talking about at least 265 out of 287 having their cases looked at, are now going to compete in the games. So only under about an 8 percent or so are not going to be allowed to compete. That's massively gone in their favor and may perhaps leave some to be increasingly critical of the IOC's decision to devolve working out who's going to be allowed into these games to those separate sporting federations.

I should remind you, Wolf, This all came about because of substantial, muscular body of evidence from investigator, whistleblower, anti- doping agencies. And there's been a state-run industrial scale doping problem in Russian sports. And that led to this review. And we're now going to see, instead of the Russian team entirely excluded, which was something American officials had pushed for, we're going to see 100 of the track and field and other athletes banned, a lot of these were big medal hopefuls, a big, potential, shining success story Russia wanted to have. They're not going to have. But, still, the others who could have still stood a chance, well, they're going to have about a 90 percent success rate in getting through the games. This will be a very controversial verdict in sporting history.

[13:20:21] Wolf.

BLITZER: And when did you say the announcement would be made of this decision?

WALSH: Well, we're thinking in the hours ahead. That's what the International Olympic Committee is saying. As I say, Russian officials giving us information to suggest that it's going to go pretty massively in their favor. But as we get literally within 24 hours or so of the opening ceremony, imagine this, Wolf, we still don't know which of the Russian athletes that have flown here, about 290 or so I'm being told, will, in fact, be competing in the games. Imagine that, you fly halfway across the world to a country you've never been to before to compete in what should be the games of your life, and you're finding out at the very last minute if you can actually attend that sporting event. Critics of the Russian team will say well that's because you've been so heavily and repeatedly accused of doping, but it's the way this has been handled that has many raising their eyebrows.

Wolf.

BLITZER: Good report for that. I'm sure the Russians are pretty happy with those numbers. Nick, we'll stay in close touch with you. Nick Paton Walsh is in Rio for us covering the Olympic games.

Come up, we'll get back to the race for the White House. Spotlight on some key swing states. New polls now show Hillary Clinton leading in three big battleground states. So what does that mean for Donald Trump and his pursuit of the White House.

Plus, President Obama's post-convention bounce. The president sees the highest approval ratings of his second term. But will the numbers for the president affect this year's presidential contest? We're going to break it all down when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:21] BLITZER: There's new polling in several key battleground states and it offers some serious encouragement for the Hillary Clinton campaign by putting her on top after the conventions. And a new CNN/ORC national poll gives President Barack Obama his highest approval rating of his second term. Fifty-four percent of those polled in this new national poll say they approve of the job the president is doing.

Our political director, David Chalian, is joining us from New York right now to break down the numbers. Also still with us, our senior political reporters Nia-Malika Henderson, Manu Raju, and our political commentator Ryan Lizza.

David, what about these new battleground state polls. What are they telling us?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, listen, these battleground states that were polled, New Hampshire, Michigan and Pennsylvania, have been blue states for the last couple of elections, but these are precisely the states that Donald Trump is trying to turn around in order to get to 270 electoral votes. Let's take a look at the results. Let's start with New Hampshire. We'll go from east to west. And you see a 15-point lead there, 47 percent for Clinton, 32 percent for Trump. That is a huge lead in a big - look, not big, it's a small battleground state, but it is an important battleground state. Look at Pennsylvania, also a double-digit lead there. Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 11 points in Pennsylvania. And if you look at Michigan, the third state that we had a new poll from today, that's Pennsylvania there, 49-38. If you look at Michigan, it's a nine-point lead, 41 percent to 32 percent.

This is the territory, especially Pennsylvania and Michigan, that Donald Trump had the most likely path to 270, try to up-end the rust belt, get those white non-college educated, working class voters to really rise up and come out and support him. And, right now, off of her very good convention, she is sitting pretty in these key battleground states, Wolf.

BLITZER: What more can you tell us about President Obama's rising job approval numbers?

CHALIAN: Well, as you mentioned, this is his best approval rating of the second term so far. And we know that there is almost nothing as important to Hillary Clinton's prospects for success than Barack Obama's approval rating. This - you know, two-thirds of the country tell us that they see Clinton policies as a continuation of Obama. So when the country sees you as potentially a third term, or a continuation of the president, and the president's at his highest mark with 54 percent approval ratings, his highest mark in the second term, that bodes well for Hillary Clinton. And you saw last week in Philadelphia, a we're going to see it on the campaign trail from now through November, she has completely tied her fortunes to President Obama. Right now that's working out for her.

BLITZER: And correct me if I'm wrong, but these job approval numbers for President Obama, very similar to the numbers that Ronald Reagan had at this point in his second term as he was getting ready to leave office, as well as President Bill Clinton. Take a look at that. You can see it right there.

CHALIAN: That's right, Wolf.

BLITZER: President Obama's at 54 percent. Bush was way down at only 30 percent. Clinton was at 57 percent. And Ronald Reagan was at 54 percent. So these are very good numbers for President Obama. And if it stays like that, it bodes well to help Hillary Clinton.

CHALIAN: It does and it bodes well for Barack Obama's legacy as well. He - as you noted, he is in historic territory, tied with Reagan, near Bill Clinton, in terms of two-term presidents in the modern era.

BLITZER: David Chalian, thanks very much.

Nia, the numbers are encouraging for Hillary Clinton. She's trying to attach herself as much as possible to the president of the United States.

[13:30:00] NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. Yes. I mean we saw that on stage, Obama in his speech saying that he was going to pass the baton to Hillary Clinton, ask his voters, or the Obama coalition, to carry Hillary Clinton in the way that they carried him. And then the embrace on stage there.