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Report: NBC Exec Says Matt Lauer Forum Performance a Disaster; Trump Defends Tweet on Sexual Assault in the Military; Attempted U.S. Rescue of Hostages Fails; Obama Talk Race, Memories to Essence Magazine. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 08, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:43] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me. Critics today, everyone from journalists, social media, just folks who were watching, blasting NBC "today" show host Matt Lauer for how he handled the commander in chief forum with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

You can take a look at the headlines today. "Lauer Cowers" from "Huffington Post", "New York Times", "Matt Lauer Fueled Storm of Criticism Over Clinton/Trump Forum." And "The Washington Post", "Trump Repeated False Claim He Was Totally Against the War in Iraq, Matt Lauer Didn't Press Him."

What did Trump actually say? Here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I happened to hear Hillary Clinton say that I was not against the war in Iraq. I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from '04. You can look at before that and I was against the war in Iraq --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, Jonathan Chait, a columnist with the "New York" magazine, Douglas Brinkley CNN presidential historian and Rice University history professor, and CNN's senior media correspondent, Brian Stelter. Gentlemen, well, Brian Stelter, to you first. You went straight to NBC to get their response. What did an executive or executives tell you?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: The ratings just came in about 15 million viewers last night which shows there is a lot of interest in hearing from these candidates. Some people at NBC think there is a pile-on going on, there is too much criticism. But the reality is most folks there have told me they agree with the critics. They know this event did not go very well. They feel like Lauer came across as unprepared. One executive even said to me this was a disaster, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jonathan, you wrote in your column calling the interview pathetic and the scariest thing you have seen in this campaign. Why so scary?

JONATHAN CHAIT, COLUMNIST, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Because a lot of low- information voters are not following the race as closely as a professional journalist would or a lot of people who really pay close attention to politics. And if the Matt Lauers of the world are giving them the sense of the race, what they're learning is these are two relatively particular candidates with relatively similar levels of prowess. Lauer didn't point out any of the bizarre or completely false things that Trump said while treating the e-mail issue as a complete disqualification for office on Clinton's end.

BALDWIN: Insofar as when I read your piece I kept thinking, OK.

[15:35:00] If you're -- I think the way you put it is a low- information voter. If you're coming in from mars and watched that last night, what do you think the veer take-away would have been?

CHAIT: The viewer take-away would have been emails which is what they are chanting at their conventions and which is what a lot of voters seem to be getting out of this story. Trump claimed, as Brian Stelter said, he claimed to have been against the Iraq war which is so easily verifiable, so easy to falsify, because he said he had opposed the war initially, then he pointed to something in 2004 when the war started in 2003. That should have been such an obvious lie and response from Lauer and there was nothing.

STELTER: Tough questioning is a good thing, tough questioning of Clinton is a good thing. We need more tough questioning, not less. But compared to Clinton, it felt like Trump was getting some soft balls. This all goes to a broader sense that journalists are having a struggle of a time challenging and handling a Donald Trump. He's a unique challenge. That's really I think what this is about.

BALDWIN: Doug Brinkley, looking ahead to these debates, right, and you have some moderators saying I'm not live fact checking. You have when you think of NBC, Lester Holt is moderating. What's the lesson for him after this forum?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: That he's going to have to be a lot tougher in questioning both, and Donald Trump seems to be able to get away with putting his finger up and saying, wait, wait, wait, and people seem to back off. It's something he has learned. It is a great acting ploy. But I think people that are going to have to drill down on what Donald Trump says are going to have to do more preparation than Matt Lauer did. Matt's had an incredible career of interviewing people.

He was really off his game last night. You don't want the story to be today how awful the questioner was. He was much harder on Hillary Clinton than on Donald Trump. Let's call it a dress rehearsal. Last night. A bad one. Incidentally, I don't think anyone came out of it very well last evening. Let's hope there is a little more courage on Lester Holt's part than we saw with Matt Lauer going after Donald Trump's sea of falsehoods.

BALDWIN: Looking ahead to the first presidential debate, September 26th, if they're not going to fact check the candidates, then is it the candidates' job to jump in and stop or fact check one another?

STELTER: It is. That is the job. I would argue the moderator also has to be forceful. These are really unusual times. Donald Trump, love him or hate him, he is an unusual candidate. He needs to be held accountable for the things out of his mouth, the same way Clinton does. But we know that Trump has a tendency to need more fact checking. Look at PolitiFact. All of the pants on fire lies Trump has said. It requires an unusually forceful behavior from a journalist.

BALDWIN: Doug, same question to you.

BRINKLEY: I think Donald Trump's art is that he goes for the jugular, he seems in control over the situation, but he's throwing out a lot of falsehoods and really sloppy language, to be honest. But he very well may be able to win the day. Then 24 hours later there are all these Pinocchio's but the news cycle's moved on and they forget about it because there is a new problem. It is going to be very interesting to see how they're drilled down on in the coming debate which is going to have historic record numbers of people watching.

BALDWIN: September 26. We will all be watching. Doug, Jonathan, Brian, thank you so much. Next here, Donald Trump defends a controversial tweet that he made about two years ago on sexual assault in the military. He was asked about that at that forum. We'll talk to a veteran and Trump supporter who was in the room. Let's see what she thought of his answer.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. This is CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. At the big national security forum, Donald Trump addressed some comments he has made in the past, controversial comments specifically about sexual assault in the military. It was a tweet actually from 2013 in which he tweeted. "26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military. Only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men and women together?" When he was asked last night at this forum to clarify, here was his response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Trump: Well, it is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that that's absolutely correct. And we need to have a strength and we --

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST OF THE TODAY SHOW: So this is to be expected and does that mean the only way to fix it is take women out of the military? Trump: it's happening, and by the way, since then it has gotten worse. No, not to take them out but something has to happen. Right now part of the problem is nobody gets prosecuted. You have reported and the gentlemen can tell you, you have the report of rape and nobody gets prosecuted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Amber Smith served as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army. She's also author of "Danger Close." and she is voting for Donald Trump in November. Also with me, CNN political commentator Hilary Rosen who is supporting Hillary Clinton. So, ladies, welcome. Amber, thank you, thank you for your service to this great country.

AMBER SMITH, EX-ARMY HELICOPTER PILOT AND AUTHOR: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Hilary Rosen, to you first. We just played the sound from Trump last night.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think his tweet was dumb and I don't think he meant it as a moment of empathy with women. On the other hand, I agree with him that it is outrageous the level of convictions and prosecutions that we have in the military for sexual assault, and I know Hillary Clinton is disturbed by it. And so it is absolutely something that needs to be addressed.

And you may know that congress went to start to address it this year and the generals really pushed back and I think congress backed off in a way that they shouldn't have. So if all of a sudden Donald Trump cares about the issue of sexual assault against women, I am not going to criticize him for it.

BALDWIN: OK. Hilary says that the tweet is dumb. Amber, do you take issue with his tweet?

SMITH: No, I'm not offended by his tweet at all and I don't have any issue with it. I think what I interpreted his tweet to mean was that if you have 26,000 people coming and reporting some form of unwanted sexual contact and there's less than 300 people being prosecuted, that ratio is off balance. Why are more people not getting prosecuted if the numbers are that high in terms of some of those reports.

[15:45:00] And the reason is because the military has two ways of reporting any form of sexual assault. One is called restricted, and the other is unrestricted. And so in one form, if a victim goes and reports a sexual assault, if they do it in a restricted form, that means the command is never to know about it because they don't want -- they basically want the trauma to be over. They don't want any form of -- anyone to be prosecuted.

BALDWIN: Forgive me for jumping in. I'm with you on the prosecuting and they should be. But it is the beat before it when Trump tweeted what did these geniuses expect when they put men with women. Do you think men and women should be serving together?

SMITH: Absolutely. I served --

BALDWIN: Do you agree with the tweet then?

SMITH: No, no, no. I don't take offense to the tweet. I think we've all seen Donald Trump now in the public eye. He says things sort of to get -- get it out there in the media and it works. I served alongside a male dominated environment for over 7 1/2 years. And he even said --

BALDWIN: Did they treat you respectfully?

SMITH: Oh, absolutely. I worked with the most professional men. I was in an aviation unit in the 101st Airborne. I was lucky to serve with those guys. They taught me, you know, how to fly the aircraft in combat and how to stay safe and keep the guys safe on the ground. I am grateful for all of the guys that I served with. And women. I served with other female pilots as well. You learn to do your job the best that you can. The guys are going to respect you for that.

ROSEN: Trump clearly meant in the tweet he was digging at the military for being as integrated as it is with men and women.

BALDWIN: That's what I'm getting at.

ROSEN: Last night he backtracked. More power to him for backtracking. But the thing about him is he absolutely never acknowledges that he backtracks. That's maddening.

BALDWIN: Amber, does that irk you? Does that worry you? As someone who's support him and he needs more votes to win?

SMITH: No. Look, the way that I look at it as someone who has served, I learned to develop thick skin long a ago. If that's Donald Trump's opinion and he thinks that -- you know, I just think it was something to make the tweet more controversial. Like honestly, I think that's what it was. Look at us now, we are talking about it now. But I think it sort of re-brought up sexual assault conversation into the public eye again because just as Hilary mentioned, it sort of dropped in recent time. And so I think it is actually good that we're talking about it again because it is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

BALDWIN: Amber Smith, thank you. Hilary Rosen, thank you. Very much. Ladies, appreciate it. Coming up next, the Obamas. Have you seen this cover of "Essence" talking about their legacy, what's next, what it means for African-American youth cross this country who have now seen their very first black president. We'll talk to an "Essence" editor who was in the room for the interview with the first family.

[15:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Breaking news out of Afghanistan. CNN confirmed it was a mission by U.S. special forces to rescue the two professors that were kidnapped from American University in Kabul. Barbara Starr, how did the mission go?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CHIEF PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: They did not succeed in getting them back. This mission happened after the two men were kidnapped from the university last month. U.S. Special Operations, SEAL team 6, went on this mission. We have had the information for several days and withheld it on request of the Pentagon. Today the Pentagon put out a public statement about all of this, it says, "unfortunately the hostages were not at the location we suspected." By the time SEAL team 6 got there either the two men had never been there or they were moved.

[15:55:00] That is not clear, you can expect to hear a lot of chatter about was there a delay in getting seal team 6 in for some reason and where they moved then. We are told by several sources that the navy seal team moved in very, very quickly. They developed all of the intelligence they could possibly. This is the location they went to thinking the men were there and they were not.

A fire fight ensued. U.S. Navy SEALS killing seven suspected insurgents. No U.S. personnel wounded or killed. Hostage rescue some of the toughest most dangerous jobs for U.S. special operations forces. They go to these locations, the intelligence is never perfect, they do the best they can. There have been failed rescue attempts in past. People get moved around, this time they have not gotten them back. We want to add in that we are told the FBI kept the families informed of all of the efforts. And the families are well aware of all of this information, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you, at the Pentagon for the status of these two professors still missing. In the last couple minutes here I really wanted to get to this story. Only a couple months left in the White House, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, they give Essence magazine an exclusive interview sharing their favorite memories from the white house and their plans once his second term is over.

It's a cover story for the October issue focusing on the legacy. This is the seventh time one, both, or all members of the family have graced the cover of "Essence." Lauren joins me now from Essence. Before we get to the meat of the interview, you were there for the photo shoot, what was that like?

LAUREN WILLIAMS, FEATURE EDITOR, ESSENCE MAGAZINE: It was amazing. The energy was so great. The first lady requested Beyonce and Rihanna when they walked into the room. The energy was so high, they were joking and laughing. I think everyone was just really, really happy to sort of culminate their eight years. The last time we photographed them together was September 2008. So it was a great way to round out their presidency.

BALDWIN: In reading it, Michelle Obama said to you all, "I think when it comes to black kids, it means something for them to see a black family in the White House, it matters." You talked to folks from across the country, you have the readership, what are they saying to you for why it matters?

WILLIAMS: What we don't realize is there is six, seven, eight, and 10- year-olds who nothing other than a black family in the White House, and what the first lady was saying, the issue is that it is one thing that the sky is the limit, and anything is possible. But actually I see it is I think it is so powerful and impactful. I think it is really just great for the Obama generation as we call them to have that memory of the White House.

BALDWIN: When they were being interviewed, I know they talked about favorite memories of the last eight years, can you give me some of those?

WILLIAMS: One of my favorites is when the first lady was talking about their first international trip as a family, they went to the kremlin, and Sasha was seven or eight years old, and she had a little trench coat, and they remember her walking around looking like a little agent, like who are you what is happening here, you're literally just playing around the kremlin.

But also there are family memories, playing on the lawn with food trays in the winter, and having prom there, their girls really spent their childhoods there and those are some of their fondest memories.

BALDWIN: Did you get any sense of them being wistful, or are they ready to roll? Williams: I think it is a little bit of both. She said I'm really looking forward to date night without 100 people in tow without a sniper, ambulance, and a press pool. So I think they are really longing --

BALDWIN: That's not fun? Extra company on a date?

WILLIAMS: So they're really looking forward to the things that we take for granted as ordinary citizens, but still definitely looking forward to pushing "let girls learn" and "my brother's keeper". They're looking forward to some down time.

BALDWIN: Quickly, 20 seconds, the African-American Museum, tell me about that.

WILLIAMS: The African-American Museum at the Smithsonian is opening on the 24th. The president and the first lady will be there at the opening. And it was really important for them to have this open during their tenure, there will be amazing items like Harriet Tubman's hymnal, and it is boon to their legacy. The first lady joked that she would call the director and say please let it be open before we leave. So I think it is really just a great way to round out their time in the white house.

BALDWIN: It is the October issue, hits newsstands next Friday, Lauren Williams with Essence, thank you so much.