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Clinton, Kaine Attack on Trump, Pence on Putin Comments; Obama Birther Conspiracy Comes Back Up in Campaign; Trump Criticizes Clinton in Statement on North Korea; Clinton Says She'll No Longer Focus on Trump; New Polls on Obama's Approval Ratings on Job Performance, Handing Terror, Economy; Russian War Games Around Crimea Despite Tensions. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 09, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine had some harsh words for his vice-presidential running mate counterpart, Mike Pence. I want you to listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D), VIRGINIA & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What is it about, running your economy into the ground, as Putin has in Russian that's leadership? What is it about invading other nations that's leadership? What is it about persecuting LGBT Russians or persecuting journalists that's leadership? When Mike Pence said that, I just had to reflect that if you don't know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, then where do I start with you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He was referring to Mike Pence's defense of Donald Trump's comments about Putin and Russia

REP. SEAN DUFFY, ($), WISCONSIN: Again, I just told you, I don't think Putin is a good guy. If you look at leadership, I agree, he is a dictator. I think the campaign is wrong on that front.

But I do think the point in the forum that was on NBC, what Trump was trying to say was that Obama hasn't been a strong leader. We also have a faltering economy where we are growing at 1 percent to 2 percent a year. We have a foreign policy that is a mess. Obama has tried to leave from behind that has left a vacuum that allowed the rise of Russia, the rise of ISIS. The Middle East is on fire. That was the greater point that Obama has failed on the leadership side. You can't transfer that and say Putin is a great leader.

BLITZER: The Birther issue has come back. Rudy Giuliani was on NBC saying Donald Trump agrees that the president of United States was born in the United States.

Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, was on CNN this morning, and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER: He believes President Obama was born here. I was born in Camden, by the way, New Jersey. He was born in Hawaii. But the point is what kind of president has he been? So he was born in the United States. No question to me he was born in the United States. He has not been a particularly successful president, and that is what this campaign is about on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: They both say that Donald Trump agrees the president was born in the United States. He hasn't said that yet. As recently as Tuesday, he didn't talk about it.

DUFFY: Frankly, I wouldn't want to talk about it either. There are so many other bigger issues --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Surely, if he believes he made a mistake, and now he's seen the birth certificate, should he come out and say, yes, the president was born in Hawaii? I apologize to the president for raising all those questions.

DUFFY: You know that's a distraction from the larger issues we face as a country --

BLITZER: There are obviously a lot more important issues.

DUFFY: There really are.

BLITZER: But this is a sensitive issue. It's been around several years.

(CROSSTALK)

DUFFY: You know where it started, Wolf?

BLITZER: We know exactly where it started.

DUFFY: It started with Hillary Clinton and her aides.

BLITZER: Not with Hillary Clinton but some of her aides.

DUFFY: And her supporters that still support her today.

BLITZER: We know that. But you know who kept it going and going? Donald Trump.

DUFFY: You are right.

BLITZER: Where do you stand? If he said to you, Congressman, what should I do? What would you say?

DUFFY: I would say, Obama's presidency. He served for eight years. This is a nonissue. Let's focus on the economy and security and the border. Let's not get distracted by side issues that can inflame a lot of people and cause us to lose votes. Let's stick on the issues Americans care about. This isn't one of them.

BLITZER: Should he apologize and move on?

DUFFY: No. Listen, I have had sufficient evidence that he was born in Hawaii. I feel comfortable with it now. Earlier, I was concerned. We are now moving on to the big issues of the day.

BLITZER: Sean Duffy, thank you very much for coming in.

DUFFY: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: The congressman from Wisconsin.

DUFFY: Thanks.

BLITZER: Up next, Hillary Clinton is changing strategy. She says the Trump attacks will no longer be her focus. I will speak with one of the Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives. We'll get his take on the new tone coming forward. There you see him, Steny Hoyer, he is standing by live on Capitol Hill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:57] BLITZER: The Donald Trump campaign has just issued a statement on North Korea. Let me read it to our viewers. This is from the Trump campaign: "North Korea's fifth nuclear test, the fourth since Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, is one more example of her catastrophic failures as secretary of state. Clinton promised to work to end North Korea's nuclear program as secretary of state, yet the program has grown in strength and sophistication. Hillary Clinton's North Korean policy is just one more calamitous diplomatic failure from a failed secretary of state." That statement from Jason Miller, senior communications adviser to Donald Trump.

Let's get reaction to that and more. The Democratic whip, Hillary Clinton supporter in the House of Representatives, Congressman Steny Hoyer, is joining us.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. STENY HOYER, (D), MARYLAND: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: You heard the statement. The first time we heard it as well. What's your reaction when you hear the Trump campaign blame Hillary Clinton for what North Korea is up to?

HOYER: I think it is absurd. The Bush administration had problems with the North Koreans. We have had problems. The Chinese need to weigh in. It is dangerous to them. The North Koreans have acted irresponsibly and what is usually the case. That statement says nothing about what Donald Trump would do. What his policy would be, how he would effectively curb North Korea's dangerous behavior as we ought to do. Donald Trump says nothing about that. To blame it on Hillary Clinton is absolutely absurd. I think it is typical, however, of the Trump campaign. I have seen this ad where Hillary Clinton's economy is such and such. Hillary Clinton doesn't yet have an economy. If they are referring to the Obama economy, we took it back from the depths of recession under a Republican administration to the heights of almost full employment. Most economists think we are at full employment. A creation of 14 million jobs and an economy that has come back from the recession the Republicans delivered to us. He says things -- this is his spokesman that is saying it. Trump is not saying it, but I'm sure he believes it, and will blame Hillary Clinton for anything and everything he can think is not absolutely perfect in the world.

[13:40:26] BLITZER: Let's talk about jobs.

But he does say that he would, if he were president, force the Chinese to intervene. They have influence over North Korea. On that specific issue, that's what he has told me. He has said it several times elsewhere.

Let's talk about jobs.

(CROSSTALK)

HOYER: Wolf, can I stop you there?

BLITZER: Of course.

HOYER: Force the Chinese. How is he going to force the Chinese? How is he going to force the Mexicans to pay for the wall? Donald Trump has no idea. He thinks everybody works for him. Everybody doesn't work for him. We have been working to strongly request, urge, pressure the Chinese to act. He is right on that. When he says we are going to force them to act, they are a major nuclear power themselves, one of the -- second economy in the world. He thinks we can force people everywhere in the world to do our will. I think we ought to do everything we can. But Donald Trump has no idea how he is going to force China to do that.

BLITZER: He argues that, given the amount of trade, the amount of exports from China to the United States, the amount of exports from Mexico to the United States, they are very dependant on that U.S. market. If he threatened to shut it down, they would do whatever the United States wanted. The U.S. has leverage. He suggested he could force them to do that. Do you buy that?

HOYER: No, I don't. The Chinese have leverage. They own a lot of our debt. They sell our debt at a cheap price, we are in trouble. There is a two-way street. I think we need a forceful representation to North Korea, a forceful representation to China that this activity must stop or there will be consequences. I don't think we know it will be very specific of what the consequences should be.

But this is not a problem certainly that Hillary Clinton brought on us. The Bush administration tried to confront this. The Clinton administration tried to confront it. And the Obama administration has as well. We need to act on this however in a multilateral way. And Trump's representation, very simplistically, that we are going to force China to make North Korea do their will I think is simplistic and not possible.

BLITZER: Steny Hoyer is the Democratic whip in the House of Representatives.

Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

HOYER: OK. Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: This Sunday, CNN has an exclusive with the Democratic presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton will be on CNN's "State of the Union" at a special time, 8:30 a.m. eastern, right here on CNN.

Up next, new poll numbers on President Obama's job performance are just being released. Also, how do the Americans think the president is doing in this war against ISIS? We'll discuss the poll numbers, a lot more. Our political panel with be with us when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:47:31] BLITZER: A new CNN/ORC poll released, showing President Obama's approval rating holding steady. It's above 50 percent. 51 percent of Americans approve of the president's job performance right now. That compares to 28 percent for President George W. Bush during the same period near the end of his second term. Bill Clinton was at 61 percent. Ronald Reagan was at 53 percent, to give us a perspective.

When it comes to handling ISIS, the president's approval drops to only 37 percent. Just 44 percent approve of the way he is handling terrorism overall.

Let's discuss with our panel, our senior political reporter, Nia- Malika Henderson; and CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein, editorial director of "Atlantic Media."

Nia, what do you make of these numbers?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good news and bad news. The good news for Democrats is that Obama seems solidly, at least since February, to be at about 50 percent or over 50 percent in terms of his approval rating. When he goes out on the stump. He will be in Pennsylvania next week. He will draw big crowds and good feelings from voters that like the job he is doing. Bad news is the ISIS numbers. I think you will see Republicans exploit those and also in these numbers, you see independence when they think about who they want to back in their Congressional district. They seem to be leaning by over 50 percent to Republicans. I think that's good news for Republicans.

BLITZER: There's some other apparent good news for the president right now, for the Democrats. The polls show that 53 percent of the American public right now have a positive impression of the U.S. economy. That's the best it has been. They think the economic conditions are good, 53 percent, the highest numbers since 2007. Does that help Hillary Clinton if people think the economy is good, 53 percent? RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: To a point, it does.

But there's a lot of polarization on this. As we have seen in the election, there are big portions of America that feel left behind in this economy. To some extent, the positive views that may be most valuable in the group that has proven to be the tilt of this election, which are these college educated white voters, who are resisting Trump in greater numbers. They have supported other Republican nominees. Those are voters that tend to be the most optimistic about the economy.

On the Obama approval rating, it is critical. You go back and look at 1998, 2000, 2008, attitudes for the outgoing president had an enormous impact on the way people voted. 51 is not a slam dunk, but every point that's gained, it makes Hillary Clinton much stronger.

[13:50:11] BLITZER: What he's saying basically when George W. Bush at this point in the second term had a very low job approval number that helped get Barack Obama elected president of the United States.

HENDERSON: That's right. You saw Obama really effectively running against Bush and therefore running against John McCain. George Bush was such a drag on the Republicans at that point that it made Obama's job much easier in terms of making the case that the country should turn the page. I think it will be a little bit more difficult given that people still like Obama.

BLITZER: In 1992, you remember when Bill Clinton was elected president, James Carville, Paul Begala, they had a slogan, "It's the economy, stupid." Focus on the economy, that will get you elected. Is it still the economy, stupid?

BROWNSTEIN: I think it's more than that. I think this is an election fundamentally about national identity. You look at the coalition mobilizing around Trump, it is centered around voters most uneasy with the rapid demographic and cultural change we are living through. And for Hillary Clinton, it is that coalition of minorities, Millennials and socially liberal secular and college educated whites who are the core of the Obama coalition. I think that is the biggest single fault line in this election. But having said that, the stronger the economy is, the stronger the case for continuity.

BLITZER: Quickly, this race is pretty tight right now if you look at national numbers and the key battleground states.

HENDERSON: That's right. It's closed from what we saw in August. Hillary Clinton had that pretty big bounce out of her convention and Donald Trump had a difficult August. But it looks like it's neck and neck here. You got the polls here. She's up by five in Pennsylvania, and by four in North Carolina, and Florida neck and neck.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HENDERSON: I think it was separated by something like 75,000 votes in 2012. It is going to be close in Ohio, the same thing.

BROWNSTEIN: You see -- Hillary Clinton has real problems. You can see her coming down in the polls. One thing that's not happening, if you look at the four-way polls, Donald Trump is not going up very much. He's having trouble getting above 40 percent in some of the key states.

BLITZER: Ron, Nia, thanks, guys, very much.

Coming up, Vladimir Putin is showing off his military muscle with war games right now in and around Crimea, despite heightened tensions with the U.S., NATO and Ukraine. We're going there when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:32] BLITZER: The Russian President Vladimir Putin has seemingly become a key player in the U.S. presidential election as the candidates battle over his leadership, skills and his influence. But either way, you can't deny President Putin's showmanship.

As our Fred Pleitgen is reporting, that eye for the spectacular is right now on display on the shores of Crimea.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Moscow putting on a huge show of force --

(GUNFIRE)

PLEITGEN: -- war games from land, air and sea, in Crimea, the territory Russia annexed from Ukraine a little over two years ago.

(on camera): The Russians are sending a very clear message with these large-scale and top-flight military drills. Their forces are here in Crimea and they are ready to fight any time.

(voice-over): The maneuvers take place not only in Crimea but in Russia's entire southern military district right on the border with Ukraine. The drills involve more than 12,000 soldiers, dozens of fighter jets flying mock dog-fight missions, strike aircraft hitting ground and sea targets, and land forces in an amphibious assault.

Still, the defense ministry spokesman insists it is not a provocation.

"This is not at all a provocation," he says. "I want to stress that this is a planned event. We announced these drills last November. The troops have been preparing for a long time."

But they come at a time of heightened tensions with the U.S. and NATO over the annexation of Crimea and other issues. The Russian air force intercepted a U.S. P-8 naval aircraft in the region just as the drills were getting under way. And only three weeks ago, Russia accused Ukraine of trying to smuggle operatives into Crimea for sabotage operations, a claim Kiev denies.

The military drills will likely cause more unease in Ukraine and eastern European NATO member states.

Russia's military chief of staff says the initial assessment is that they went smoothly.

"We need to fully analyze everything," he says. "But these drills were very beneficial to the southern military district and for the troops from other districts involved as well."

(GUNFIRE)

PLEITGEN: With Russia and the West at odds over Syria and Ukraine, Moscow is continuing to advance and refine its armed forces for all the world to see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Very dramatic pictures coming in.

Fred Pleitgen is joining us on the phone right now. He is in Crimea now watching this all unfold.

Fred, the Russians have been conducting these massive bombing campaign operations in Syria, even as we speak. Did that factor in to the way they've been conducting these drills in Crimea?

PLEITGEN (voice-over): Hi, Wolf. Yeah, that's actually one of the things that we asked the Russians today. We were quite interested to find that they said, yes, absolutely. It is a big thing for them. All of the things that they've been doing in Syria they say very much factored in to their exercises here today as well. They say one of the things that they found is that Crimea actually from the terrain side of things is very similar in some ways to Syria, and they say that some of the things that they conducted today is actually bombing insurgents, for instance, as they call them. They said that some of the exercises that they planned were specifically tailored towards their war that they're currently conducting in Syria. Many feel that war is going very badly, there are so many civilian casualties. But Russians do say there are valuable lessons they've already learned and also Intel that they are specifically trying to refine their effort in Syria through this exercise that we saw here today -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Fred Pleitgen, in Crimea, thanks for that report.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."