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North Korea Claims Successful Nuclear Warhead Test; Pence: "Inarguable" Putin Stronger than Obama; Giuliani: Trump Now Believes Obama Born in U.S.. Aired 9-9:30a ET.
Aired September 09, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO: Thanks so much. NEWSROOM starts now.
Happening on the, North Korea hits the button and carries out what could be its most powerful nuclear test ever. World leaders outraged. How the U.S. is responding.
Plus praising Putin. Controversial comments from Donald Trump and his running mate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton calling it scary. And standing up by taking a knee. A Denver Broncos linebacker becomes the latest to protest during the national anthem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRANDON MARSHALL, LINEBACKER, DENVER BRONCOS: Well, I'm just against social injustice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM. And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
North Korea says it has carried out its most powerful nuclear test yet, the explosion registering the force of a 5.3 earthquake. Kim Jong-un's government now claiming it can make nuclear war heads small enough to fit on to missiles.
President Obama and other world leaders strongly condemning this apparent test. We have our team covering all angles of this story. We begin in Tokyo, though, with CNN's Will Ripley. Hi, Will.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Just within the last hour, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke with reporters here in Tokyo saying that this test has taken the threat from North Korea to a new level and that sentiment was reiterated by the president in South Korea, President Park, who said the actions of Kim Jong-un's regime are fanatically reckless. This, as we're learning now about the size of this explosion which triggered that 5.3 magnitude earthquake, stronger than the 5.1 magnitude quake that the last nuclear test back in January triggered.
It is believed that this explosion was, and this is coming from South Korean intelligence, 10 kilotons, which would make it roughly twice as powerful as that previous nuclear test in January.
And here in this part of the world, it is the evening hours, and the South Korean government is saying that they believe North Korea could have already in place what is needed for a sixth and seventh nuclear test because this test, once it is confirmed officially by the United States will be North Korea's fifth nuclear test just in the last 10 years, growing concerned that North Korea is rapidly advancing in its goal to make a nuclear war head small enough to fit on a missile that can be launched from either the ground or from a submarine.
It was just two weeks ago, the North Korea successfully launched a submarine-based ballistic missile. And then just last week, Carol, they launched three additional missiles that they say will be capable of carrying nuclear warheads like the one that they claim to have tested.
COSTELLO: All right. Will Ripley reporting live from Tokyo. So what is the United States saying about all of this? Barbara Starr is here to tell us that part of the story. Good morning.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. If in fact this is a war head test by North Korea, this takes everything to a new level. As Will is saying, it gives them the ability to have a miniaturized war head to put on a missile that could someday potentially attack South Korea, Japan and even the United States.
The White House, very concerned about this this morning. The White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest issuing a statement saying -- and let me read it to everybody -- saying, the President has reiterated the unbreakable U.S. commitment to the security of our allies in Asia and around the world. The President indicated he would continue to consult our allies and partners in the days ahead to ensure provocative actions from North Korea are met with serious consequences.
But, of course, the question, Carol, is what would those consequences really be? There is going to be a United Nations meeting within the hour here in New York. There will be discussions, of course, of sanctions as there always is, but nothing seems to be deterring Kim Jong-un right now. More and more tests. More missile tests, more nuclear tests, and a greater record of success by the North Koreans in those tests. They're not failing. They are succeeding. It is a huge concern right now without a clear answer what to do next.
COSTELLO: Barbara Starr, and thanks so much.
STARR: Sure.
COSTELLO: Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart also responding to this test.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: China and Russia and the United States, everybody shares concerns about it. We're trying still to monitor to find out precisely what took place. I am confident President Obama will address this. And we will certainly be discussing this in the context of the United Nations, I'm sure.
SERGEI LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We're very much concerned and the resolutions of the Security Council must be implemented, and we will send this message very strongly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:05:00] COSTELLO: Kerry is in Geneva this morning meeting for the third time in the last two weeks with Russia's Foreign Minister about peace talks. The pair are trying to negotiate a ceasefire even, so humanitarian aid can reach Syrians in Aleppo.
And while the United States is struggling to negotiate with Russia over its role in Syria, Donald Trump appeared on Russian funded TV and criticized American policy. His campaign says he didn't realize his interview would air in Russia, since Larry King asked the questions, but it did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, we should have never gone into Iraq, OK, period. We should have never gone in.
LARRY KING, RUSSIA TODAY HOST: And that was Bush.
TRUMP: But once we went in, Larry, we shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out, and the way they got out really caused ISIS, the war we shouldn't have been in, and -- number one, and it is a war that when we got out, we got out the wrong way. That was Obama.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Trump is talking about America's invasion of Iraq, something Russia was strongly opposed to back in the day. Let's bring in CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny for more on this. Good morning.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is all a remarkable break from the traditional boundaries of American politics. It is outraging Democrats and even making many Republicans uneasy about these blurred lines of country versus party.
Now, Donald Trump is embracing Vladimir Putin. And in that interview airing on Russian TV we just saw there, he poured cold water on the suggestion that Russia is meddling in U.S. elections, as many intelligence officials believe, by hacking into computer networks of the DNC and elsewhere.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe, maybe, the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows? But I think that it is pretty unlikely. But, you know, who knows. I hope that if they are doing something, I hope that somebody is going to be able to find out so they can end it because that would not be appropriate at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Now, Hillary Clinton says this praise for Putin is the latest example of what she calls Trump's lack of judgment. She says all Americans should be alarmed by his embrace of a hostile leader.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is not just unpatriotic. It is not just insulting to the Office and the man who holds the Office. It is scary. It is dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Now, Trump is standing by his embrace of Putin as a stronger leader, better, he says, than Obama. Now, GOP running mate, Mike Pence, agrees. He told our own Dana Bash yesterday it's inarguable Putin has been stronger than Obama.
But the Trump campaign is pushing back on that Russia TV appearance this morning in this statement. Let's take a look at this. It says Mr. Trump recorded a short interview with Larry King for a podcast as a favor to Mr. King. What Larry King does with the interview content is up to him. We have nothing to do with it, says, Hope Hicks, his spokeswoman.
But, Carol, that is unlikely to be the last word on this. With so many Republicans alarmed, Senator Lindsey Graham, who had been slowly warming to Trump said, his embrace of Putin unnerves me to my core. Carol.
COSTELLO: Wow. Jeff Zeleny reporting live, thanks so much. So let's talk about this. Joining me now to discuss, Nia-Malika Henderson, CNN's senior political reporter; Ron Brownstein, senior editor for The Atlantic; and Errol Louis, political anchor for New York 1 News and a CNN political contributor. Thanks to all of you.
Errol, I want to start with you. Mr. Trump said he did not know his interview would be on Russian TV, yet his love affair with Putin goes on. Here's Mike Pence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PENCE: I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that's going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes President of the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: OK. So Vladimir Putin is President today, but during the Cold War, he was KGB. He was an enemy of the United States and he's no friend today. So Errol, why keep going there?
ERROL LOUIS, HOST, NEW YORK 1 NEWS: Yes, it is remarkable. I think both Pence and Trump are relying on people's lack of memory or knowledge of who and what Vladimir Putin represents and where he comes from.
I mean, one of his first acts in his own memoirs, Putin talks about, you know, burning the files of the Communist Party as the wall comes down in Berlin. I mean, there is a remarkable history here of somebody who has personally participated in some very sketchy behavior.
You know, this notion that strength is all that matters, you could go halfway around the world and name one dictator after another that can act with greater force and without any checks and balances than any American president. I think we should all understand that up front.
What they're getting at is really completely unclear, and for Pence to say, well, this is all going to change. The minute we get into the White House, we'll start acting more like a Russian dictator, I'm not sure that's a great calling card for somebody running for office.
[09:10:12] COSTELLO: But, well, here is the thing, Ron. North Korea's playing around with an alleged nuclear weapon, Russia is killing civilians and propping up a dictator in Syria who uses chemical weapons against his own people. And we're talking about presidential candidate who accidentally appears on Russian funded state television.
RON BROWNSTEIN, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR FOR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS, ATLANTIC MEDIA: Yes. Well, as Errol said, whether that is an accident or not, his praise of Vladimir Putin is consistent and long- standing and far from accidental. You know, there are a couple of things that I think are noteworthy about this.
First, you know, it is not as if the American public is not paying attention. I mean, if you do look at polling, there is an interesting distinction on the question of who can handle the terror threat. Donald Trump is very competitive with Hillary Clinton. When you look -- when you ask though, who can handle foreign policy in America's relations with the world, he is not competitive. She has a big lead. People do have questions about Donald Trump's ability to kind of handle diplomacy for the country and this is one of the reasons.
And the other, I think, is very interesting about this episode is it really underscores the challenges that Donald Trump and the Republican Party would face. If he wins, I mean, how could he govern along some of the principles that he has laid out? Could he bring the Republican congress along with him?
Certainly, there are very few Republicans who are willing to embrace his portrayal of Vladimir Putin and you see similar things on his ideas, like for example, pulling out of NAFTA or earlier the mass deportation.
So, I mean, it's just a reminder how much of a departure he is on so many fronts from traditional Republican thing, and it makes you wonder how does it work in practice if he is elected.
COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about how this might work in practice, Nia, because Paul Ryan, the House Speaker, came out against Vladimir Putin. Mr. Trump putting him in this difficult position once again. Let's listen to Speaker Ryan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) HOUSE SPEAKER: And Vladimir Putin is an aggressor that does not share our interests. Vladimir Putin is violating the sovereignty of neighboring countries. It certainly appears that he is conducting state-sponsored cyber-attacks on what appears to be our political system. That is not acting in our interests and that is an adversarial stance and he is acting like an adversary. Manu?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And just to follow up on that, are you concerned though of Donald Trump praising Vladimir Putin, someone who you've said made those so-called attacks (ph)?
RYAN: I made my clear -- my points about Putin clearly there. I'll just leave it at that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Nia, he still won't go there. He still supposedly supports Mr. Trump, but if Mr. Trump does become President, how is he to work with this House Speaker?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, and that's the big question. I think Ron races a very valid point. And it also, I think, raises the issue of whether or not you will see some of these Republicans start to frame their candidacies, the ones who are running for Congress, running for the House and the Senate, essentially saying, elect me to serve as a Republican, to put a check on Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
You've seen some of them use some of that language. I think even before that, one of the problems, I think, these raises for Donald Trump politically is in some of these Rust Belt states, you do have voters who trace their roots to Eastern European countries and Central European countries that don't look kindly on Putin.
And so I think that's going to be a problem in some of these Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, whether or not Hillary Clinton can turn that to her advantage and really kind of frame this as another reason for some of these voters to look skeptically at Donald Trump who is framing himself in some way as akin to Putin. I think you can probably make that argument pretty convincingly to some of these voters.
COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Nia-Malika Henderson, Ron Brownstein, Errol Louis, thanks to all of you. Happening right now, a special ceremony just wrapping up at the Department of Justice ahead of the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The Attorney General Loretta Lynch and the FBI Director James Comey both in attendance. You see them there. They paused for a moment of silence. I'll be right back.
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[09:18:25] COSTELLO: A key Donald Trump supporter makes a surprising revelation. Rudy Giuliani says Donald Trump is no longer a birther, and no longer believes the president of the United States was born in Kenya.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for president believes he would succeed a legitimate president or not?
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: He believes --
MATTHEWS: Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate president?
GIULIANI: Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States. But that issue --
MATTHEWS: When's he going to say it?
GIULIANI: That issue was raised originally --
MATTHEWS: When is he going to say that this president is legitimate? This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not? Do you believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it?
GIULIANI: I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Trump, who sent investigators to Hawaii to undercover the truth surrounding President Obama's birth, and came back with no proof at all, supposedly will no longer talk about this issue.
Let's bring in CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll.
Good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.
As you know, he's been asked about this a number of time, and Donald Trump has said repeatedly he does not want to talk about the birther issue going forward. His running mate, Mike Pence, has said he believes the president was born in the United States. We've already heard from Rudy Giuliani, saying the same thing. But still, nothing from Trump. For years, Trump was one of the most outspoken backers of the birther
movement, one which supported the false claim that President Obama was not born in the United States.
Just this morning, Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN's Chris Cuomo, Trump now believes the president was in fact born in the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[09:20:06] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Why won't he come out and just own that position? Yes, President Obama was born here, I was wrong to go with the birthers.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: So, he believes President Obama was born here. I was born in Camden, by the way, New Jersey. He was born in Hawaii.
The point is, what kind of president has he been? So, he is born in the United States. No question he was born in the United States. But he has not been a successful president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Conway went on to say the campaign does not believe the birther issue is an issue. That voters are more focused on topics such as the economy and national security. But without question, it is still a sensitive issue for many in the African-American community who view the birther movement as racist.
Trump has been trying to court the African-American vote, Hillary Clinton, putting pressure on Trump to admit to his mistake. She addressed the issue at a Baptist convention last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We are facing a candidate with a long history of racial discrimination in his business, who traffics in toxic conspiracy theories, like the lie that President Obama is not a true American. If he doesn't even respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: And Clinton also taking aim at Trump for another false claim. Trump continues to say he was against the war in Iraq before it started. Despite an interview Trump did with Howard Stern in 2002, where he said he favored it.
COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll, thanks so much.
So, let's talk about this. With me now is Kayleigh McEnany, CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter, and Michael Nutter, CNN political contributor and Hillary Clinton supporter.
Welcome to both of you. MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.
COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh, supposedly Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States. What changed his mind?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, first of all, I think we should all move on. Donald Trump has, I think this does a disservice to --
COSTELLO: No, no, no, I didn't hear the words President Obama was born in the United States come out of Donald Trump's mouth. I heard it from Rudy Giuliani. I'm just curious, what changed his mind? Because as last night, on FOX News, he said that he still wasn't sure that the president was born in the United States. So what changed his mind?
MCENANY: Look, I don't talk to Donald Trump everyday. I think Donald Trump wants to talk about issues, and I think we should too. If we want to go into the dirt and talk about the dirty Clinton tricks, let's go back to 2007.
March 19, 2007, Mark Penn, a Clinton aide, suggested they cast dispersions on Barack Obama's upbringing. Bring up his multicultural heritage as a bad thing, March 19, 2007.
COSTELLO: Did that come from Hillary Clinton.
Kayleigh, please, Donald Trump sent investigators to Hawaii to try to uncover something about Barack Obama's birth. The reason he wanted to say that Barack Obama was born in Kenya was because he wanted to tell the world that somehow President Obama was a secret Muslim and he was anti-American. That's why he did that.
MCENANY: Carol, let's talk about some of the origins of this. Let's talk about how on "60 Minutes".
COSTELLO: It did not come from Hillary Clinton.
MCENANY: Can I please give two facts? "60 Minutes" interview, she was asked, is President Obama a Muslim? She replied, as far as I know, not, casting dispersion on his faith.
Her campaign circulated a photo of Barack Obama in Kenyan dress and Barack Obama replied that this was the dirty tricks of the Clinton campaign trying to worry voters --
COSTELLO: OK, let's say what you're saying is absolutely true. It is still wrong, right?
MCENANY: It is true.
COSTELLO: You're saying it is wrong.
MCENANY: It is all true.
COSTELLO: Why don't you say your candidate is wrong, then? MCENANY: He has the right to question someone's citizenship. This
started with the Clinton campaign. He questioned --
NUTTER: It did not.
MCENANY: He questioned Ted Cruz's citizenship. We need to move on to questions that care about. They care about the --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Michael, is it OK for any candidate to question citizenship when they're running for president of the United States?
NUTTER: First of all, Donald Trump knows he was wrong then. He is wrong now. He should just own up to it. Say the words out of his mouth. No matter how many people, respect to Kayleigh, former mayor, everyone seems to have to clean up Donald Trump's mess. He can never stand up and admit that he was wrong about something.
It was ignorant to say at the time. It was taken as a racially insensitive comment, trying to delegitimize the first African-American president of the United States of America, and the only person who can actually resolve this particular issue and controversy is Donald Trump himself. He said it out of his mouth, as you indicated.
[09:25:01] Sent investigators, kept talking about it, kept talking about it. He can clean it up and he can end it, but he has to do it and be a man himself and say the words and get it over with.
COSTELLO: So why doesn't he do that? We all agree it is wrong. Even you agree it is wrong to question President Obama's citizenship. So, why doesn't your candidate in an effort to apiece those in the African-American community who are angry about this? Because they think that his -- he was trying to delegitimize America's first black president.
So, why not come out and say, you know what? I was wrong. That was a mistake. President Obama was born in Hawaii, just like he said he was and I'm sorry.
MCENANY: Because Donald Trump did what I did, he looked at Gallup's top issue to voters and noticeably absent from that was this controversy. I understand Mayor Nutter wanting to bring this up and Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump is leading in the --
(CROSSTALK)
NUTTER: I didn't bring it up.
MCENANY: Donald Trump is leading in the CNN poll by two points.
I understand you're going to resort this to the same dirty tricks Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton resorted to when she circulated the picture of Obama in Kenyan dress. It happens. Those were dirty tricks. You're engaging in dirty tricks now. This campaign doesn't want to get to mud. NUTTER: There are no dirty tricks here. It is words out of his own
mouth. What are you talking about? Mayor Giuliani raised the issue. Just address it.
You can run down 17 things from a sheet of paper. It does not deny or refute the fact that he said it. He did it. He trafficked in it. This is what he has been talking about for years. He is now running for president of the United States of America and he needs to stand up and be a man and say, I was wrong. There was no evidence whatsoever. There was never any evidence.
Maybe he forgot that Hawaii is actually apart of the United States of America. I don't know what is in that man's mind. No one else knows.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Let me just throw in something else. Because lest we forget that Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of not being an American citizen --
NUTTER: And also about his father.
MCENANY: Instead of bringing up --
NUTTER: It is insane.
MCENANY: Mayor Nutter, you know what I care about, I don't care about something from eight years ago. I care about when Hillary Clinton's campaign took this to a dirty level and she falsely accused of being associated with the KKK with no evidence.
Donald Trump could have done the same. He could have circulated pictures of her with Robert Byrd.
(CROSSTALK)
NUTTER: It's not an accusation about the KKK?
MCENANY: Bill Clinton signed a bill to leave the confederate star in the Arkansas flag.
NUTTER: Come on. Nice try.
MCENANY: He could have talked about Bill Clinton (INAUDIBLE) at a white golf course.
NUTTER: Nice try. This is the same guy that doesn't know who David Duke is.
MCENANY: We know that people care about -- people care about the economy. You guys want to get in the dirt. We want to talk about issues.
NUTTER: Cut it out.
MCENANY: We want to talk about issues. We owe that to voters. NUTTER: Nice try. That's a nice try.
COSTELLO: I'm going to leave it there. Kayleigh --
NUTTER: He should apologize to the president of the United States of America. He should apologize to the United States of America.
COSTELLO: I got to stop it there. Kayleigh McEnany, Michael Nutter, thanks to you both.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM: dozens of ISIS fighters may be at large in Europe, and may be ratcheting up plans to carry out attacks around the world.
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