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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Hillary Clinton Set to Meet With Panel of National Security Experts; North Korea Tests Fifth and Possibly Most Powerful Warhead. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 09, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:02] DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: ... out there talking about an issue that he refuses to talk about. So this is what -- this is the divide inside the campaign that I don't understand, because Donald Trump says, "I don't talk about that anymore."

He was pressed again just this week on his campaign plan. I don't talk about that. And yet his surrogates are out there talking about it, so either they're off the reservation by talking about it in trying to get on the record with the place that they think would be more palatable to general election voters or Donald Trump has -- as you're suggesting said, "OK, go out there and speak about this. I'm still going to keep my position of not talking about it." But that's a disjointed campaign right there. So that doesn't make sense.

The one thing that clear is and we should of course state to everyone, there's never been a shred of evidence that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. There has never been any foundation to this claim whatsoever.

What there is, as Nia suggested, was Donald Trump found political currency in this and he went so far with it that he finds himself in a position thus far where he thinks he's incapable of walking back from it.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Nia-Malika, let me ask you something real quick as we look at the key battleground match ups because these are recent Quinnipiac University poll numbers that have come out and they are tight.

I mean, if you total the math, you can see they're just, you know, I think Pennsylvania's got Hillary Clinton up by five, North Carolina is up by four. But Ohio, Trump is up by 1 and in Florida there's a virtual tie within the margins there.

This has all been happening and the overall match ups have had her, you know, ahead by nine points and now he's ahead by one just in the last three weeks that that window has closed. They all seem to coincide with the last three weeks, Kellyanne Conway came on board, Steve Bannon came on board and Donald Trump started to read a teleprompter and stopped talking about top of mind, whatever comes top of mind.

Is that a coincidence and if so, what is the say? Is just hiring two people within three weeks of reading a teleprompter can help you to beat Hillary Clinton?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, maybe its coincidence. Maybe this was going to happen all along because we do -- if it's abided (ph) country and typically you do see kind of coalescing around a candidate in terms of the partisanship lining up.

So Republicans are coming home. I think, to Donald Trump in some of these polls that show and Hillary Clinton had already done that work, right? And she had this tremendous bounce out of that convention and now we see that I think had been away. So in a lot of ways I think this is kind of the typical way of a campaign cycle that you see these polls tightening up.

I think for the Hillary Clinton campaign, these North Carolina numbers are really interesting. I talked to some Democrats down in North Carolina who say they think she might have a better chance in North Carolina because of the Democratic -- demographic makeup of that state, a better chance down there than she does in Ohio. And that state, North Carolina has 15 electoral votes and Ohio has 18.

So I think we're seeing in some ways the split between those Sun Belt states, North Carolina and Virginia, and those Rust Belt states, like Ohio for instance, which does look very competitive.

BANFIELD: Right.

HENDERSON: And it looks like at least now that Trump has something of an edge.

BANFIELD: I got to leave it there guys. Thank you, Nia-Malika Henderson. Thank you, David Chalian.

HENDERSON: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Thank you and have a great weekend, both of you. Appreciate it.

CHALIAN: You, too.

BANFIELD: Coming up, a lot more to talk about from the campaign trail with North Korea testing nukes, again, not to mention brand new fierce of the 9/11 related attack on the anniversary. ISIS, Iraq, Syria, Putin, all of it in the mix and that's just in the last 24 hours. Clinton and Trump both making the case for why they would be the better commander-in-chief. You're going to hear from both sides, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:05] BANFIELD: Just a couple of hours, Hillary Clinton is set to meet with a panel of national security experts. The meeting comes as we learn that North Korea has tested its fifth and possibly it's most powerful warhead.

Also comes just days before the 9/11 anniversary and that all of this is just a reminder that in four short months, the United States is going to have a brand new commander-in-chief, one of those two on your screen. So how would Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump respond to all of these very complicated issues?

I want to get both sides to weigh in. We take (ph) CNN Political Commentators, Kayleigh McEnany and Maria Cardona. Thanks to both of you. I want to begin with you if I can, Kayleigh.

January, there was the first significant nuclear test and at that time Donald Trump said that he think -- he thought that China should handle North Korea. But if you talk to the experts, Gordon Chang, just earlier on CNN saying, "China is actually really a concerned player here."

The nuclear envoy, the top nuclear envoy from North Korea was just in China on Tuesday, going kidding (ph), who knows. A lot of these people say that the gear that North Korea is using for its testing is remarkably similar to Chinese gear. China has ramp up its pre- sanctions trade. China may not be our friend here and yet Donald Trump thinks they should handle North Korea?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They might not be our friend and that's why Donald Trump is going to find out what's going on and we're going to regain respect as a country. It's no accident that Iranian warships are encircling.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: And it's no coincidence that North Korea launched its first missile at the beginning of the year. It's because -- this is why. No one respects our leader. Barack Obama has not been a commander-in- chief. He has exhibited weakness so that is why Iranian warship ...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: No, but Trump saying that (inaudible) that he's going to buckle over.

MCENANY: No, he's going to push China to straighten out their act and to go in and to straighten out their ally. This commander-in-chief has been weak. Hillary Clinton, Obama foreign policy has caused American warships to be imperiled, have caused North Korea to now launch nuclear missiles. And by the way, it's important here to determine where this blame came.

[12:40:05] North Korea only got nuclear missiles because of Bill Clinton, who negotiated the North Korean agreement that paved the way for North Korea to even have the capability to do what they did starting this January.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, the big difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is that Hillary Clinton doesn't have to go and find out what's going on. She knows very well what's going on.

MCENANY: No, she doesn't. CARDONA: She understands exactly what -- who the players are, what needs to happen. She just talked about working with our allies, working with Japan, working with South Korea, understanding that we have to tighten the screws on China because you're absolutely right, Ashleigh, we can't just trust that China is going to take of it.

BANFIELD: So that all sounds great. That all sounds great. It sounds like it should be on a bank (ph) of secret, so great. But, isn't that sort of already what the policy of the White House is? And it's not working.

CARDONA: Well -- but here's the issue. Somebody like Hillary Clinton who understands exactly who the players are and what needs to happen, can take it a step further, which is what we have to look at. And then, you have somebody like Donald Trump who has actually praised ...

BANFIELD: So people are saying something (inaudible) different.

CARDONA: He has praised Kim Jong-un. Do we really want a commander- in-chief who has said, "Oh, you've got to give him credit?" Do we really want a commander-in-chief who has said -- hang on a second, who have said if Japan and North Korea go to war ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: Hillary Clinton has been ...

CARDONA: That is dangerous.

MCENANY: Hillary Clinton has been wrong on every single ...

CARDONA: Donald Trump will be a danger to ...

BANFIELD: All right, I'm going to move on ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: Hillary Clinton has been wrong in every single major foreign policy.

CARDONA: Absolutely not.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: To make this fact, she's wrong, I'm going into Iraq was wrong and not allowing ...

CARDONA: And Donald Trump support ...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: OK, I'm going to reclaim this desk for a moment. I want to move on to another area and that is Iraq since you brought it up.

Donald Trump had a very strident talking point in that forum the other night on NBC regarding what we should have done with Iraq's oil. I'm going to let him say it, so that I don't misconstrue or misquote him. Here he was from NBC the other night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've always said shouldn't be there but if we're going to get, take the oil. If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS, because ISIS formed with the power and the wealth of that oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are we going to take the oil? How are we going to do that?

TRUMP: Just, you know, would leave a certain group behind and you would take various sections where they have the oil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Leave a certain group behind, which I presume means boots on the ground although Donald Trump has said often get everybody out of there. But more specifically, just takes the oil, that is looting. That is pillaging and that is against the law, not just our law, everybody's law.

I'm going to quote for you exactly how that against the law. In a wartime, pillaging is considered a war crime. It is prohibited by Hague Regulations and the Conventions, the Geneva Convention, the International Criminal Court. It's also prohibited by our own United States Rules of Engagement for Desert Storm and they have been updated several times as well.

You can see the lists of all of those manuals that the United States base that prevent, prohibit and outlaw pillaging. Does Donald Trump not know you can't just take someone's natural resources? It's pillaging, it's an act -- it's a war crime.

MCENANY: No, Donald Trump has said that everything he is going to do will be within the bounds of the law. What Donald Trump is talking about ...

BANFIELD: What law? That is taking the oil.

MCENANY: What Donald Trump is talking about here is negotiating with people who we help in the region. We helped Iraq by dethroning Saddam Hussein. It was the wrong war, but we did help the region in regard.

So when we spend taxpayer dollars doing that, Donald Trump wants some sort of compensation in return. It's unfair that many of the countries that benefited from some of our actions in the region are the same countries that are manipulating OPEC oil prices and hurting American taxpayers.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: ... with oil companies to actually bring the oil out of the ground and they actually build the infrastructure with -- they are sovereign country as much as we may not like that.

MCENANY: Of course and Donald Trump will do ...

BANFIELD: But I don't understand how Donald Trump says we're going to surround operators with our troops and take the oil and then he has gone so far as to say I'm going to bring in American oil companies and bring those profits back to help wounded veterans. That's kicking (ph). That's not general compensations and rebuilding.

MCENANY: No. It's not taking if you have had a prior negotiation before you proceed with those actions. And I think -- I personally think that this will look more like negotiating revenues from that oil production that then comes to the United States.

BANFIELD: (Inaudible) use those words then and take the oil with military force and bring it back home ...

MCENANY: That's not what he was meaning. There's going to be a negotiation ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: There's going to be a negotiation before he removes the oil. The bottom line is American taxpayer dollars, billions of dollars, have been poured into the Middle East and what do we get? We get an ISIS-filled vacuum. ISIS Kurd (ph) of 30,000 strong under the tutelage of Hillary Clinton. The own director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, so there are more ...

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: Wait, you got let me finish because you like to talk over the fact. There are more terrorist safe havens. This is your own director of national intelligence, more terrorist safe havens in the Middle East than ever before in history because of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy.

CARDONA: So is that why more national security officials and more generals are now supporting ...

(CROSSTALK)

[12:45:05] MCENANY: Not true. He just got 32 ...

CARDONA: Is that why the majority of those -- the majority of generals and the majority of people, who have worked in this, and not just this administration but past administrations on national security who actually know their stuff are supporting Hillary Clinton? I love how you bring that up, because she's just got 32 new endorsements.

BANFIELD: He did just get 32 new ...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Here, we got the announcement while we were on the air.

CARDONA: And Hillary got 15 more, after the 95 she's gotten, after 100 ... MCENANY: A horrible performance, horrible.

CARDONA: But here's the thing.

BANFIELD: For those flag officers who are supporting either one of them.

CARDONA: But there's the thing, the way that Donald Trump is talking about this and you're absolutely right, Ashleigh, it would not only be a war crime, he's talking about Genghis Khan. He's talking like he would be Genghis Khan and that, again, is not something that ...

BANFIELD: I think that is unfair. I think Genghis Khan is unfair.

CARDONA: But you're talking about pillaging. You've talked about pillaging. That's exactly what it was.

BANFIELD: Genghis Khan also ruled so terror. That is not fair.

CARDONA: But the way that he is talking about underscores why the majority of them American people believe that he does not have the temperament to be commander-in-chief and why they believe that Hillary is the one with the knowledge and the experience to take it on.

BANFIELD: I got to leave it there, guys. But that is very spirited and you guys are really good at what you do. I'm just going to say that, right?

MCENANY: Exactly.

BANFIELD: Well, that is always spiriting (ph) with me ...

CARDONA: So are you.

BANFIELD: I need a weekend off. Have a good weekend, girls.

CARDONA: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, I'm going to switch gears here. There is this weekend for New Yorkers, and particularly people who were here during 9/11, this is a very difficult time for us, very difficult for people across the country.

I want you to look at some live pictures right now in New York City, the bag pipes that always get you. Pain and sadness and a lot of anger too, not to mention, fear, still with us 15 years after the towers fell, after the Pentagon was smoking, and after that field in Pennsylvania board scars of another down playing.

All of these, they come with stories of heroism and inspiration. We're going to share one of those really inspiring stories with you and it all comes down to one United States flag. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:51:02] BANFIELD: Got a couple of live pictures I want to bring to you right now from Indianapolis. That black car you should see any moment emerging, Mike Pence, vice-presidential candidate, running mate to Donald Trump.

He is about to get some pretty important information. That would be coming in the way of a CIA intelligence briefing. You have probably been hearing a lot about these briefings. Donald Trump has received two of them. Hillary Clinton has received one of them. And Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's running mate, has also received one of these intelligence briefings.

And today, it is Mike Pence's turn. What I'm not clear is if Mike Pence is going to get out of that limo car or if the CIA operatives who brief him are going to get out of the car. One thing I'm pretty sure, the cameras will not catch is the body language of those briefer and if they're going to belie anything the White House has or hasn't done with briefings that they receive from the CIA officers in the past.

That, of course, a huge headline from the commander-in-chief forum the other night at NBC. Mike Pence is going to come to the mike and address us. Let's listen.

MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you all for being here. I just came from a classified briefing as a candidate for vice- president of the United States. It is a tradition that they track from the days of Harry Truman that a candidate fully informed about national security issue and the foreign policy challenges facing the country.

And I'm truly grateful for all the national security personnel that made themselves available today for what was a thorough and informative briefing. Clearly, I have deep respect for the classified nature of the briefing. I cannot comment on the topics that were covered, but I can say that I hope the American people are looking on at this process know that Donald Trump and I will be ready day one if we have the privilege of serving the people of the United States as president and vice-president.

I also -- I hope that my many years on the Foreign Affairs Committee where I participated in a number of other classified briefings about America's place in the world will serve me should I have the great privilege of serving the people of the United States (inaudible).

I will say just as we stand here a few days short of the anniversary of 9/11, 15 years on from that dreadful day, being surrounded by men and women in our national security apparatus in this country. I am reminded of the extraordinary dedication that men and women from our Homeland Security to our intelligence community who play in protecting the people of this country.

It was to me a reminder today as we approach that 15th anniversary of 9/11 that the American people have owe a debt of gratitude, thousands of men and women each and every day get up and ensure that we have the information to insure that a day like that never happens again in America. So I would, again, I'm grateful for the opportunity to have received the classified briefing today. I hope that it gives people great confidence that that in combination with my many years in the foreign affairs committee, that means if I have the privilege of serving as vice-president, we'll be ready on day one.

But, I also hearing the professionalism and the thoroughness of people from our intelligence and national security team in this country. I just -- I left the meeting with a great sense of gratitude for the thousands of men and women who see to the safety and security of the American people every day.

[12:55:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, what's your response to North Korea's provocation?

PENCE: Thanks a lot.

BANFIELD: Nope, I don't think he's going to answer than. The vice- president now walking off, having just had his intelligence briefing and suggesting that he has emerged from that briefing with a great sense of gratitude for the men and women would have served our country in the intelligence community.

He's been on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He knows a finger two about it. What you did not see was any hand tipping us to what kind of body language came from those intel briefers, but his boss or soon to be, if he gets his way, Donald Trump, said that his briefing yielded signals, body signals that Barack Obama hasn't been taking the advice of the intel briefers.

That's got a lot of blowback from the intel community saying that that just would not have happened (inaudible) every straight (ph) folks. Thanks for watching "Legal View." My colleague, Wolf, is going to start right after this quick break. Have a great weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here on Washington, 8:00 p.m. in...