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Trump Calls Obama Founder Of ISIS; Clinton Campaign Swarms Pennsylvania; Candidates Vie for Rust Belt Voters. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 11, 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, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, it's the economy. With less than 89 days and counting until the election, pocketbook issues are front and center in the U.S. presidential campaign today.

We're expecting Hillary Clinton to deliver a major speech this hour, trying to contrast her economic plan with the one Donald Trump outlined on Monday. Clinton will be speaking at a manufacturing plant in Warren, Michigan, outside Detroit. You're looking at live pictures right now.

Her running mate, Tim Kaine, meanwhile, campaigns in Louisiana. Donald Trump is out on the campaign trail in Florida today while his running mate mike pence stumps for votes in Wisconsin. At a stop this morning, Trump doubled down on calling President Obama and Hillary Clinton the co-founders of ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And our government has unleashed ISIS. I call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS. They're the founders. In fact, I think we'll give Hillary Clinton the -- you know, if you're a sports team, most valuable player, MVP. You get the MVP Award. ISIS will hand her the most valuable player award. Her only competition is Barack Obama. Between the two of them.

So, Iraq has some of the greatest oil reserves in the world, and we handed them Iraq. We handed it to Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our Political Reporter Sara Murray was at that speech. She's joining us live from Miami Beach right now. Sara, Donald Trump has not backed away from those comments, calling President Obama, calling Hillary Clinton the co-founders of ISIS. He said it several times over the past 24 hours. So, how are Democrats, first of all, responding?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, the Clinton campaign is seizing on this comment and hitting back hard as a sign that Donald Trump just doesn't take foreign policy seriously.

Let me read you just a portion of the statement that they put out today, saying Donald Trump should apologize for his outrageous, unhinged and patently false suggestion on the founding of ISIS. This is yet another out-of-control statement by a candidate who is unraveling before our very eyes. Combating terrorist threats like ISIS is a deadly, serious undertaking.

Wolf, you can see them sort of setting up the juxtaposition here, the idea that Hillary Clinton is a sort of steady hand when it comes to being the commander-in-chief, being in charge of the nuclear codes. And that Donald Trump is sort of out of his depth when it comes to dealing with issues like terrorist threats.

BLITZER: He's also facing other questions today, Sara, as you know, about the relationship he has with the Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus. What's the latest that we know about that?

MURRAY: That's right. This, of course, all comes in the wake of this "Time" magazine article that shows the cover of Donald Trump melting down. And it gets to this very frank conversation between Reince Priebus, the RNC Chair, and Donald Trump in which Priebus sort of set out the lay of the land for Trump. Pointed out that he is falling behind and that when Trump makes comments that set off political fire storms, it has ramifications not just for the man at the top of the ticket but for any member of Congress who's in a tough re-election battle.

Now, we know that there has been tensions simmering between Reince Priebus and Donald Trump in these last couple of weeks. Those were particularly heightened during those -- that few-day span where Donald Trump would not endorse Paul Ryan.

But this is a difficult relationship. Trump has been very reliant on the RNC in key battleground states to essentially build a ground game for him where he has none. So, these two camps are going to have to find a way to work together going forward, if they want a shot at defeating Hillary Clinton in November -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Sara, thank you. Sara's in beautiful Miami Beach for us today.

In her economic speech that's coming up this hour, Hillary Clinton will portray Donald Trump's plans as wildly unrealistic. Aides say she'll cast herself as the candidate who will help working families in the middle class while portraying Donald Trump as catering to millionaires and billionaires.

Our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny, he's joining us now from Warren, Michigan with a preview. Jeff, you're there. I assume she's got a big crowd waiting for this speech. What are some of the areas that Clinton plans to focus on?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Hillary Clinton is going to be giving an economic speech basically in two parts. One, she will be putting forth her proposals, really renewing the proposals that she has had throughout the course of the campaign. She has, you know, been one of the candidates who actually has been giving policy speeches. So, that is not news. It's something that she has done. Donald Trump, of course, has done far fewer of those.

But in this address today, she is going to talk about how she would at least plan or propose to create more jobs, a bigger investment in jobs than in any other point since World War II. Mainly through infrastructure spending, fixing roads, fixing bridges, bike paths, green energy jobs across the country here.

[13:05:10] She says that she can create some 10 million jobs in the opening stretch of her administration. Now, of course, anything like that is simply an estimate because if the House and Senate are controlled by Republicans, or if one is, not all of her proposals would get through if she were to be elected.

But, Wolf, she also will hit Donald Trump hard. This is the second part of her speech. It is going to be a harsh speech, in terms of the reality, she's saying, of what he's proposing economically.

She's going to unveil a new term today, Wolf, that I think we'll hear a lot for the next three months of this campaign and that is the Trump loophole. She is going to highlight one of his tax proposals that he delivered right here in Michigan in Detroit on Monday. She's basically going to say that his proposals to lower some tax rates on pass-through entities would simply benefit him and benefit the wealthy, not benefit working class Americans here, Wolf.

So, framing the debate, more than anything here today, trying to make the case that Donald Trump, on the economy, does not have the interest of working class voters in mind as much as himself and wealthy Americans -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff, thank you. We'll stand by. We'll, of course, have live coverage of Hillary Clinton's economic speech. Earlier in the week, we had live coverage of Donald Trump's economic speech in Detroit as well.

Trump, meanwhile, is doubling down on comments he made last night calling President Obama, and I'm quoting him now, "the founder of ISIS." Here is what he said in just the last few hours.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TRUMP (via telephone): He was the founder, absolutely the founder. In fact, he gets the -- in sports, they have awards. He gets the most valuable player award, him and Hillary.

HUGH HEWITT, HOST, THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW (via telephone): Last night you said the president was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant, you meant that he created the vacuum. He lost the peace.

TRUMP: No, I meant he's the founder of ISIS. I do. And he's the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award.

(END AUDIO CLIP) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I call president Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS. They're the founders. In fact, I think we'll give Hillary Clinton the -- you know, if you're on a sports team, most valuable player, MVP. You get the MVP Award. ISIS will hand her the most valuable player award. Her only competition is Barack Obama. Between the two of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our panel. Here in Washington with me, our Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash, CNN Political Analyst Jackie Kucinich. She's the Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast." Carol Lee is with us, the White House correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal." And in New York, our Global Affairs -- Global Affairs and Economics Analyst Ali Velshi. He's in New York for us. Lots to discuss with all of you guys. Thanks very much.

So, Dana, how effective is this strategy now, doubling down, tripling down, quadrupling down that the president of the United States and the Democratic nominee are the co-founders of ISIS?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's take a step back. And I actually went old school and I looked up the actual definition of founder. And it is a person who establishes an institution or settlement. So, a founder would be, like, if I founded the Wolf Blitzer fan club which I would do because I believe in that cause.

This is suggesting that President Obama and Hillary Clinton believe in the cause of ISIS which is just not true. It's just flat out not true. But suggesting that kind of goes back to what he has done for a while which is kind of -- kind of playing to the fears and the concerns of people in this country who don't like President Obama, that he is somehow not doing what he can to help America.

BLITZER: And how do you read it?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: To me, it's kind of sounds like a branding strategy more than a --

BASH: Right.

KUCINICH: -- policy statement. You can see it on T-shirts and you can see it on stickers. But when you actually boil -- when you boil down the words, they don't make any sense. And you saw Hugh Hewitt try to kind of throw him a lifeline to actually make this more of a policy argument. And he said, no, no, no, no, no. They're MVP. That's what I said about them.

So, it just -- it seems like he's trapped in his -- in what he was saying in the primary, again, into sort of these one-liners and quips rather than actually laying down solid policy and making solid policy criticisms.

BLITZER: Carol?

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Well, this is the kind of thing that drives Republicans crazy because you have a situation where there's a legitimate case to be made about the president's policy towards Islamic state and his policy in Syria, his decision not to leave residual forces in Iraq, to pull -- to entirely withdraw.

And then, what you have is Donald Trump saying things in a way that it distracts from all of that. And takes the argument and it doesn't make an actual case when there is one to be made. And it's not clear that this is something that plays to the kind of voters that he needs to reach right now in a general election.

BLITZER: You know, Ali, I went back and looked at the interview I did with Donald Trump back on March 16, 2007. We spoke about what's going on -- what was going on at that time in Iraq. And he had some pointed words. Listen carefully to what he told me. This is back nine years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[13:10:09] TRUMP: The war is a total disaster. It's a catastrophe, nothing less. It is such a shame that this took place. In fact, I gained a lot of respect for our current president's father by the fact that he had the sense not to go in Iraq. He won the war and then said, let's not go the rest of the way and he turned out to be right.

And Saddam Hussein, whether they liked them or didn't like them, he hated terrorists. He'd shoot and kill terrorists. When terrorists came into this country, which he did control and he did dominate, he would kill terrorists. Now, it's a breeding ground for terrorists.

So, look, the war is a total catastrophe.

BLITZER: Who do you blame?

TRUMP: And they have a civil war going on.

BLITZER: Who do you blame?

TRUMP: Well, there's only one person you can blame and that's our current president. I mean, obviously, Rumsfeld was a disaster and other people that are giving him advice have been a disaster. And Condoleezza Rice who's a lovely woman but she never makes a deal. She doesn't make deals. She waves. She gets off the plane. She waves. She sits down with some dictator, 45-degree angle. They do the camera shot. She waves again. Gets back on the plane. She waves. No deal ever happens. So, I mean, it's --

BLITZER: You've got to close the deal at some point.

TRUMP: You've got to make deals. The world is dying to make deals and we don't have the right people doing it.

BLITZER: How does the United States get out of this situation? Is there a --

TRUMP: How do they get out?

BLITZER: -- is there a way out of this?

TRUMP: You know how they get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare victory and leave. Because I'll tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They're in a civil war over there, Wolf. There's nothing that we're going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: All right, those are fascinating comments when you go back --

ALI VELSHI, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS AND ECONOMICS ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: -- and hear what he's saying today, --

VELSHI: Wow.

BLITZER: -- Ali. What he said nine years ago, he blamed President Bush for the disaster of the Iraq War. He said the first President Bush was smart, liberated Kuwait, didn't go into Iraq. You heard what he said but you also heard him say the best thing the U.S. could do back in 2007 --

VELSHI: Get out.

BLITZER: -- was simply leave.

VELSHI: Right, and the getting out created a vacuum which allowed others to get in. But I think you and I know one has to be careful about discussing unintended consequences versus intent. Right? When you look at Al Qaeda, the U.S. armed the Mujha Hadime (ph) to fight against the Russians because we thought that was the greatest threat in Afghanistan. And the Russians were let out and you end up with a group that ultimately becomes Al Qaeda with the help of and funding of Osama Bin Laden.

Same thing in Iraq. There were really big tensions about getting out versus going in. Those tensions continued today. But, ultimately, we know that the situation in Iraq is much, much more complex than Donald Trump wants it to be.

And I think to Jackie's point, this is the problem because in order to defeat ISIS, which is a remarkable threat, one has to have the policy discussion about the way to do it. What do you go after? Do you go after their financing? Do you go after their structure? Do you just bomb them? And by oversimplifying it or oversimplifying it in the way that Donald Trump does, it doesn't allow Americans to sit there and weigh one strategy proposal versus another. And that's the disservice that is going on here.

Unfortunately, it's so complicated, Wolf, most Americans don't have an understanding of what these various greatest groups are. Czar Kawhi (ph) used to be Osama Bin Laden's deputy in Iraq. Al Qaeda sort of kicked him out. He's not dead. Al Baghdadi is running the operation now. And it is not clear how we actually solve this problem.

But suggesting that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are the founders, it's sort of beyond the pale.

BLITZER: When you listened to that clip, Dana, what went through your mind?

BASH: Well, I thought it was fascinating. Obviously, especially the last part where he says, declare victory and get out. Well, it sounds like President Obama took that advice.

BLITZER: In 2011.

BASH: Exactly.

BLITZER: But that date, by the way, for all troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011, that was the date that President Bush put forward back --

BASH: Yes.

BLITZER: -- while he was still president of the United States.

BASH: That is true. As you well know, Wolf, there were -- when the time came, there were a lot of people, especially the John McCains and Lindsey Grahams of the world, begging President Obama not to do that and, in fact, keep a residual force there, as Carol was talking about.

But beyond that, look, the fact of the matter is that was Donald Trump, the businessman. This is Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, running against a president, trying to make the case that the world is not safe. And that he will make it safer and trying to kind of get into the ether, as you said, the branding of president Obama and Hillary Clinton, who is running as a third term, will not be the people to make them safe. And he's using his Trumpisms to try to sell that.

BLITZER: All right, everyone, stay with me. Don't go too far away. We have a lot to assess.

Also coming up, Hillary Clinton, she's getting ready to speak any minute now. You're looking at live pictures from Warren, Michigan. She'll talk about the economy. How she plans to achieve a better America, better America than Donald Trump's America.

[13:15:06] Plus, Hillary Clinton has a huge ground game underway for voters in Pennsylvania, but Donald Trump just opened campaign office there this week. We'll take a closer look at where each campaign stands as they try to win key battleground states.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:09] BLITZER: The last time a Republican won the race for president in Pennsylvania it was 28 years ago when George Herbert Walker Bush won the state. But Pennsylvania is one of those so-called rust belt battleground states considered key to winning this year's presidency, as CNN's Miguel Marquez reports, although Hillary Clinton has a massive ground game compared to Donald Trump, many consider the state potentially ripe for the picking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we need all of you on the ground helping us make sure Hillary Clinton (INAUDIBLE) --

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Clinton campaign on the march, big time across the keystone state. This week, targeting female voters.

LILO BLANK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER: I'm working as much as I can, phone banking, going door to door.

MARQUEZ: Clinton coming off a huge convention bounce already has 300 staffers here, three dozen offices open, another dozen on the way.

JESSICA O'BRIEN, CLINTON CAMPAIGN VOLUNTEER: I love Hillary. I think she's an incredible candidate. She's more than qualified. And also it -- we cannot have Donald Trump as the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, well, let's get them.

MARQUEZ: Trump's ground game just getting off the ground, opening his first three offices in the state this week, only about a dozen staffers, many still to be hired. The campaign relying on the RNC and its 80 staff members and more than 400 volunteers.

ANDY REILLY, CHAIRMAN, DELAWARE COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY: If Trump can just stay on message and be disciplined, which I believe he can be, I think he can yield some votes out of here. And he doesn't need to win this county, he just needs to stay competitive here.

MARQUEZ: Competitive in those vote-rich Philly suburbs in particular. Can Donald Trump really be competitive across all Pennsylvania? Perhaps a telling sign, since early June, the Clinton camp has spent over $4 million in TV advertising. The Trump campaign? Zero.

The last time a Republican presidential contender won the state, 1988. Today, Democrats have nearly a million more votes here than Republicans, but conservatives are hopeful. Despite the Democratic advantage, 13 of 18 House members are Republican, and both houses of its state legislature are controlled by the GOP.

TERRY MADONNA, DIRECTOR, FRANKLIN AND MARSHALL COLLEGE POLL: This year, almost anything can happen.

MARQUEZ: Pollster Terry Madonna says Trump may be down for now, but this election, too unpredictable to be sure of anything.

MADONNA: We're part of this so-called rust belt theory. Win the white blue collar workers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin and you've got an Electoral College mix that could get Donald Trump to 270.

MARQUEZ: Cheesesteak in Philly attracts voters of every stripe.

MARQUEZ (on camera): How important is it to vote this year in Pennsylvania?

XAVIER ESPADA, FIRST TIME VOTER: Very important. But just make sure you don't vote for Trump.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Bill Carapucci was a Democrat until last March. The retired teacher now all in for Trump.

BILL CARAPUCCI, TRUMP SUPPORTER: And I know this for a fact, there's a lot of people that will not say they're voting for Trump because he's been so demagogued by a lot of the media.

MARQUEZ (on camera): No offense taken.

CARAPUCCI: And by Hillary the last few months that you're now considered not that intelligent if you're going to vote for Trump. So there's a hidden Trump vote.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): But the Clinton campaign is targeting conservative voters, opening offices in 12 counties won by Mitt Romney in 2012. Why? College educated white voters in Pennsylvania prefer Clinton by a whopping 30 percent.

Republicans counter. They just have to find those conservatives who sat on their hands in 2012.

REILLY: Keep in mind, the last time that Mitt Romney lost the state by five points, there were 800,000 Republicans who didn't vote.

MARQUEZ: With less than three month until Election Day, an enormous effort underway by both sides to find voters and get them to the ballot box in November.

Miguel Marquez, CNN, Philadelphia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And we're waiting for Hillary Clinton to take the stage. I want to show you some live pictures right now. She's touring this engineering and tool factory in Warren, Michigan, right now. After this tour, she's presumably going to walk over to the microphones and deliver the speech. A nice size crowd has gathered there. So we'll have live coverage of her economic speech today, just as we had live coverage on Monday of Donald Trump's economic speech in Detroit. Warren, Michigan, not that far from Detroit.

As we await Hillary Clinton's economic speech, let's take a closer look at the battle playing out right now in Pennsylvania. With us once again, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash, CNN political analyst, the Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich, and the White House correspondent for "The Wall Street Journal," Carol Lee. Pennsylvania, you know, the polls -- the most recent polls in this key

battleground state have Hillary Clinton, what, at about a 10 point advantage. I guess Donald Trump really needs Pennsylvania if he's going to win. Can he overcome that disadvantage right now? She's spending so much more money there. She has so many more staffers there.

[13:25:14] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's incredibly hard. And in this case, this is not just about Donald Trump. This is the way Pennsylvania has been going. And I want to have our Pennsylvanian here talk more about this. But this is the way it's been going and trending for many, many cycles. It used to be that Pennsylvania was a real battleground state. We used to spend a lot of time, those of us who covered politics there in what they call the collar counties around Philadelphia, because that's where the --

BLITZER: Around Philadelphia.

BASH: Around Philadelphia, forgive me, because that's where the moderate Republicans were, suburban Republicans who were sort of fiscally conservative, not so much on the social side. But the whole state has changed. The question now, as Miguel laid out so well in his piece, is whether or not the hard core conservatives in the middle of this state, like James Carvel call Alabama, whether they are going to come out and vote in a way that they haven't before. The fact of the matter is, a lot of people still think Pennsylvania is a very, very big stretch for Trump.

BLITZER: Carol, you're from Philadelphia.

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I am. I'm from outside of Philadelphia, in Levittown, which is one of those --

BASH: Collar counties.

LEE: Yes, one of those districts that swings back and forth in Congress. And, you know, I guess I would say that what Donald Trump would need to do is, as you were saying, get those voters, the conservatives, really to turn out because the Clinton campaign has the benefit of the Obama ground game, and they really know how to turn out the voters in Philadelphia. And so he would really need to do very well there, and also then try to change minds in those districts around the suburbs of Philadelphia.

BLITZER: You know, I want to get back to the Donald Trump accusation that President Obama is the founder of ISIS, that Hillary Clinton is a co-founder of ISIS. She is now tweeting, Hillary Clinton, and you can see the tweets going up there. "Anyone willing to sink so low, so often, should never be allowed to serve as our commander in chief." "No, Barack Obama is not the founder of ISIS," look at this tweet. "It can be difficult to muster outrage as frequently as Donald Trump should cause it, but his smear against President Obama requires it." So she's -- presumably we're going to hear more of this inner economic speech that's coming up now.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. This is one of the arguments you've heard the Clinton campaign make over and over again, that he's temperamentally unfit, that he doesn't -- he doesn't really have any interest in knowing these policies and just that if -- he kind of just says ridiculous things. So this just plays into the narrative that Hillary Clinton's campaign has been pushing and continues to push throughout this campaign.

BASH: But, remember, you know, President Obama is relatively -- actually pretty popular now, particularly for somebody who has been in office for two terms. I mean, historically speaking, his numbers are pretty good. But there are still a lot of people out there who don't like him. And those are the voters that Donald Trump is continuing to play to. Bottom line, Hillary Clinton has completely embraced Barack Obama, basically said that she is running as his third term. That was clear up until the convention and at the convention. But he -- so he is taking that embrace and trying to turn it on its head and find the people who don't like that.

LEE: I would say politically the Clinton campaign, the White House, they love that he's taking this argument about ISIS in this direction because it keeps away from having a serious policy conversation and they can just keep hitting him with that, you know, he's unfit for office and he's temperamentally -- it doesn't -- it's not presidential. And -- and so like the more that he continues to do this sort of thing, the happier they are with that.

BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue our analysis. There's more news coming in as well, including this. CNN has learned that the FBI and the Department of Justice met several times to discuss opening a public corruption case into the Clinton Foundation. We have new information. Stick around. We'll share that with you.

Also, any minute now, Hillary Clinton will take the stage in Michigan. There you see live pictures, Warren, Michigan, specifically. She's expected to offer a rebuttal to Donald Trump's economic speech and call for the release of his tax returns. We're going to bring you that live and a whole lot more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)