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Hillary's Press Secretary Talks Debate; Foreign Policy at the Debate. Aired 1-1:30p ET
Aired September 27, 2016 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in New York, 6:00 p.m. in London and 8:00 p.m. in Baghdad. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.
We start with the fallout from last night's first presidential debate. The Duke (ph) candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, squaring off face to face, trying out their campaign attacks in person.
Today, they're both back on the campaign trail looking to carry out -- carry the momentum from the debate. We're looking at live pictures from Raleigh, North Carolina. Hillary Clinton is about to address a crowd there. She's expected, in fact, to speak my moment. And tonight, Donald Trump gets back on stage from Melbourne, Florida.
So, we heard a lot from both candidates last night. This morning, we heard a lot from both campaigns, talking about how well they think they did and how they think their opponents missed the mark.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think his demeanor, his temperament, his behavior on the stage could be seen by everybody and people can draw their own conclusions. And I thought, on several occasions, he was making charges and claims that were demonstrably untrue.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Ted Cruz was tough. I think that Marco was actually very tough. He had a break down, a little breakdown, once with somebody but he was a good debater. Marco is a very good debater. I thought those two were really tough. And she'll be tough. I think she'll be tough. And I thought she was -- I thought she was very bad in the first half when they were asking normal questions. And when they were asking unfair questions, she got better.
SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary showed she was ready for the debate and she's ready to be president, and Donald Trump showed that he was running out of gas before the debate was won through. She did a magnificent job. And I think she shows what these next six weeks is going to be like.
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first off, let me say, I think it was a good debate. And I think Donald Trump had a great night. I think the American people saw in Donald Trump the kind of leadership and the kind of clarity and candor that's created the tremendous momentum in this campaign.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She is well prepared. She's got the right temperament for the job. She is well respected around the world. She's serious. She does her homework. And she's got a vision to put people back to work and make sure that the economy is working for everybody and not just a few. And I would say the other guy doesn't have the preparation, the temperament or, you know, the core values of inclusion in making everybody, you know, have opportunity that would take our country forward.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: President Obama weighing in there. And while the candidates covered a lot of ground last night, there were some controversies left on the table on both sides, the Clinton Foundation, Trump University, Benghazi, the wall that Trump wants to build along the Mexican border. Two more presidential debates upcoming.
Another attack line that's gaining some ground today is Donald Trump's comments about a former Miss Universe contestant, Alicia Machado, claims Trump called her miss piggy. Here is what Clinton said last night about that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman miss piggy, then he called her miss housekeeping because she was Latino. Donald, she has a name.
TRUMP: Where did you find this? Where did you find this?
CLINTON: Her name is Machado.
TRUMP: Where did you find this?
CLINTON: And she has become a U.S. citizen, and you can bet --
TRUMP: Oh, really?
CLINTON: -- she's going to vote this November.
TRUMP: OK. OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And Trump explained some of those comments earlier this morning on Fox. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP (via telephone): -- said that person was a Miss Universe person, and she was the worst we ever had, the worst, the absolute worst. She was (INAUDIBLE.) STEVE DOOCY, CO-HOST, "FOX AND FRIENDS": Did not know that story.
BRIAN KILMEADE, CO-HOST, "FOX AND FRIENDS": Well, I didn't know either.
TRUMP: She was -- she was the winner and, you know, she gained a massive amount of weight and it was -- it was a real problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Alicia Machado is doing a conference call for the Clinton campaign right now. By the way, she'll be a guest on "A.C. 360," Anderson Cooper, later tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Let's bring in Sarah Huckabee Sanders right now. She's a senior advisor for Donald Trump. I want you to react to that. It sounds pretty ugly, the name calling of this woman from this Miss Universe from Venezuela.
SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Look, I don't like the name calling but, frankly, I'm far more offended, as a woman and a Donald Trump supporter, about what Hillary Clinton said when she called me deplorable and irredeemable. I think those are far worse attacks. And I think that is certainly an issue that should've come up in the debate last night.
[13:05:12] And I think it showed Hillary's -- frankly, her utter contempt for any American woman that doesn't support her.
BLITZER: But why didn't Donald Trump bring up any of those? He seemed to be, almost always, on the defensive not on the attack.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Well, I think some of that was due to the questions. And he got asked a lot of pointed questions, frankly straight out of the Clinton playbook. And I would have liked to have seen some of those same type of questions come from the moderator to Hillary Clinton, on the Clinton Foundation, --
BLITZER: Should ---
HUCKABEE SANDERS: -- on Benghazi. And I think that we're going to see that in the next debate.
BLITZER: -- he apologize to this woman?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: If those comments are accurate, I think an apology would probably be appropriate.
BLITZER: Yes, but you -- do you have any indication he would do that? Because he doesn't like to apologize.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: You know, I haven't had a conversation with him about this specific issue.
BLITZER: But this is a sensitive issue. HUCKABEE SANDERS: But I'd like Hillary Clinton to apologize to me and
all of the other Americans out there supporting Donald Trump when she called us deplorable and irredeemable. Again, I think that that is far more offensive and, frankly, disqualifying to be president of the United States, when you have that type of opinion about that many Americans in our country.
BLITZER: But when she said half, she later said, the next morning, I didn't mean half. Then she --
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Oh, I didn't hear that.
BLITZER: -- walked that back.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Well, yes, she always gets to walk everything back. It's Hillary Clinton. She gets to play by different rules than the rest of us.
BLITZER: All right, let's go through some of the other issues, Sarah, that came up last night. On the whole issue of climate change. He denied, last night, that he believes that climate change is a hoax. He had that exchange with her.
But back in 2012, he tweeted this, the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing noncompetitive. Then in 2014, he tweeted, NBC News just called it the great freeze, colder weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the global warming hoax? His word, he used, hoax. Does he still believe global warming is a hoax?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: No, I think he believes it is occurring naturally and something that we should address. But I think the bigger point is that he doesn't think it's the greatest threat that we face as Americans. He thinks that that's radical Islam and that that's what we should be focused on.
And, frankly, I think that's a huge point of contrast between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that he thinks ISIS is a greater threat and she thinks global warming is a greater threat.
BLITZER: So, he's changed his mind since 2014. He no longer believes climate change or global warming is a hoax.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I think he's evolved on that issue.
BLITZER: Does he believe that a man, or woman for that matter, has a role for climate change?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I think, you know, scientists still -- the jury is still out on that. There are many scientists that are --
BLITZER: Most scientists --
HUCKABEE SANDERS: -- on both sides of that.
BLITZER: -- most scientists believe that we play a role in climate change.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Again, I think the jury is still out on that and there isn't definitive science. And I think there's something to be supported on both sides of that issue.
BLITZER: All right, but he no longer believes it's a hoax.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Correct.
BLITZER: The question he is -- he wants to know if men and women play in the role in that.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Yes, I'm certainly no scientist so I'm not going to weigh in on that.
BLITZER: All right, let's talk a little bit about another issue that she raised with Donald Trump last night, his refusal to release any of his tax returns. I'll play the clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Maybe he doesn't want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he's paid nothing in federal taxes. Because the only years that anybody has ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn it over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license and they showed he didn't pay any federal income tax. So, if he's paid --
TRUMP: That makes me smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounds like you admitted that you hadn't paid federal taxes and that that was smart. Is that what you meant to say?
TRUMP: No, I didn't say that at all. I mean, if they say I didn't, I mean, it doesn't matter. I will say this. I hate the way our government spends our taxes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: It certainly sounded, like when he said, that was smart, that he agreed with this notion that he didn't pay any federal income tax.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, he follows the letter of the law. I don't see anybody else out there volunteering to pay extra taxes that are outside the realm of what they're required to pay. He pays every penny by law that he's required to pay and not a penny more. And I do think --
BLITZER: -- but he --
HUCKABEE SANDERS: -- that's smart. Wolf, are you volunteering to pay extra taxes?
BLITZER: -- I pay my share. I'm sure you do and I do --
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I'm certainly not willing to pay extra.
BLITZER: -- pay our share. The question is, does he pay any federal income tax? Because he seemed to be suggesting here -- in the few years that we have his income tax returns, it showed he didn't pay any federal income tax.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, I haven't seen every year of his tax returns but I do know that he follows the letter of the law and pays every penny that he's required to by that law.
BLITZER: All right, there's another exchange he had with Dana Bash last night in the so-called spin room after the debate. Let me play the clip.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anything that you wish you did differently?
[13:10:01] TRUMP: No, I'm very happy that I was able to hold back on the -- you know, on the indiscretions with respect to Bill Clinton. Because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton, and I just didn't want to say what I was going to say in (INAUDIBLE.)
BASH: Which is?
TRUMP: Which is maybe I'll tell you at the next debate. We'll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Do you think he's going to raise that whole issue of Bill Clinton's marital infidelity?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I hope that's not the direction that the debate goes. Frankly, I think most Americans want to talk about the issues. And when Donald Trump was talking about issues last night, he had a very commanding presence on the stage on the economy, on national security. I think those are the two biggest issues that Americans care about. And I think he did far better Hillary Clinton on both of those issues. And I think that's one of the reasons he's going to continue to gain momentum and beat her in November.
BLITZER: Because he's vulnerable on that issue as well.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: Well, I think that if she brings that topic up, he certainly would address it. But I certainly hope that's not where the debate lands (ph).
BLITZER: I'm sure she's not going to bring it up. But if he brings it up, she could -- she could presumably respond.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: You know, look, I don't think that's the place that most Americans want our debate to be focused on. I think they care about what's happening in their own homes, and that's whether or not they're going to have jobs, whether or not their kids are going to have a good education, and whether or not they're going to be safe. And when we're talking about that, the things that people care about, Donald Trump is winning.
BLITZER: All right, very quickly, Lester Holt, did he do a good job?
HUCKABEE SANDERS: I thought, overall, he did a good job. I mean, he had a very tough job. But I also felt like he could've done better on pushing Hillary Clinton on some of the big issues like the Clinton Foundation, the play to pay scandal, the e-mails, Benghazi. We had a huge list of failures that were completely unaddressed. And I think that should've happened and hopefully it will at the next debate.
BLITZER: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, thanks very much for coming in.
HUCKABEE SANDERS: You bet, thank you.
BLITZER: Any minute now, Hillary Clinton is expecting to take the stage in Raleigh, North Carolina. You're looking at some live pictures coming in from there. A big crowd has gathered. Her campaign spokesman standing by to join us live. We'll get his thoughts on last night's debate and Trump's comments earlier this morning. That's coming up next.
Plus, the candidates presenting two competing views on race relations in America. The president of the NAACP, Cornell William Brooks, he'll join us live this hour as well. Lots going on. We'll be right back.
[13:12:19]
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[13:16:06] BLITZER: Hillary Clinton's on the campaign trail in North Carolina today, looking to capitalize on what most accounts say was a strong performance in last night's first presidential debate.
Joining us now is Brian Fallon, the press secretary for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Brian, thanks very much for joining us.
BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Thanks for having me.
BLITZER: All right, let me play a clip from Hillary Clinton last night. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He started his business with $14 million, borrowed from his father.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: My father gave me a very small loan in 1975 and I built it into a company that's worth many, many billions of dollars.
CLINTON: You wouldn't pay what the man needed to be paid, what he was charging you to do.
TRUMP: Maybe he didn't do a good job.
CLINTON: Donald supported the invasion of Iraq.
TRUMP: Wrong.
CLINTON: That is absolutely --
TRUMP: Wrong.
CLINTON: Proved over and over again.
TRUMP: Wrong.
CLINTON: He even said, well, you know, if there were a nuclear war in the east Asia, well, you know, that's fine --
TRUMP: Wrong.
CLINTON: You know, have a good time, folks.
TRUMP: It's a lie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: So her strategy appeared to be, get under his skin. See if he'll -- sort of get him to take the bait. Was that her strategy going into this debate?
FALLON: Well, I think that the Donald Trump that we've seen on the campaign trail over the last 18 months is somebody who's very thin skinned, who has a very uneven temperament and probably can't be trusted with the nuclear codes as commander in chief sitting in the Situation Room. And I think last night people got to witness exactly his true personality. I think it was disqualifying, the performance he gave last night. It doesn't take much to provoke Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton was simply confronting him with his own words, his own past positions and he can't take criticisms. But I think that overall he's compounded the impact of last night's debate with his comments this morning, going after the former Miss Universe that Hillary Clinton brought up on the debate stage last night.
BLITZER: We'll get to that in a moment, but -- but that was her strategy, to try to provoke him?
FALLON: No, her strategy was to make an affirmative case to the American people about what she wants to do as president. So, for instance, in that opening exchange that you just played where she referenced Donald Trump's father providing a loan that helped seed his initial business and made him a success in real estate, her point was that she wants to create an economy that works for everybody, so that everybody has a chance to live up to their God-given potential -- BLITZER: All right.
FALLON: Not just people fortunate enough to get a loan from their father.
BLITZER: After the debate last night, he walked through the so-called spin room and our own Dana Bash had this exchange with him. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Anything that you wish you did differently?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: No, I'm very happy that I was able to hold back on the -- you know, on the indiscretions with respect to Bill Clinton, because I have a lot of respect for Chelsea Clinton and I just didn't want to say what I was going to say in front of --
BASH: Which is?
TRUMP: Which is, I'll tell you maybe at the next debate. We'll see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, so are you ready for that exchange, if it happens, at the next debate.
FALLON: That was just another window into Donald Trump's erratic temperament and personality. I think that his own advisers realized that anything like that would have been a huge mistake for him. That's probably the only reason he was able to show any restraint whatsoever when it came to that topic on the debate stage last night.
Donald can do whatever he wants. He can fling whatever insults he wants. That's what he tried to do against all his Republican primary opponents. I may have worked on them. It won't work on Hillary Clinton. I think last night the contrast was pretty clear, she was steady, she was disciplined, unflappable and Donald Trump was set off by any little questions he got from the moderator.
BLITZER: He did bring up the TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Here is the exchange he had. Listen to this.
FALLON: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You called it the gold standard.
CLINTON: I wrote about -- well, I hope --
TRUMP: You called it the gold standard of trade deals.
CLINTON: And, you know what -- TRUMP: You said it's the finest deal you've ever seen.
CLINTON: No.
TRUMP: And then you heard what I said about it, and all of a sudden you were against it.
CLINTON: Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality --
TRUMP: Oh, yes.
CLINTON: But that is not the facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, so we did a reality check and we found this statement she made back in 2012 when she was secretary of state in Australia she made this statement.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements, to open free, transparent, fair trade. The kind of environment that has the rule of law and a leveled playing field.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[13:20:09] BLITZER: All right, so she's -- she's flipped on that issue, right?
FALLON: No. I think what happened, Wolf, was at the time that she made those comments that you just played, that deal was still being worked on. And she was expressing her hope that the deal would live up to being the gold standard. It turned out --
BLITZER: I didn't see hope in that statement. She said this TPP sets the gold standard in agreement to open, free, transparent, fair trade.
FALLON: I think what happened was, the deal was finalized in the years after she left as secretary of state, and she was pretty clear, even prior to the finalization of that agreement, what her metrics would be for judging it. And then it came out and the details were scrutinized over and it came up short on every count that she had listed out months in advance, including making sure that we have good paying jobs here in the United States. She just fundamentally thinks it fails that test.
Now, this is an issue that was litigated heavily during the primaries. So I don't think it's a surprise at all where she stands on the issues of trade to voters in this general election contest, but I think --
BLITZER: Does he believe NAFTA was a mistake?
FALLON: I think that she said that we need to renegotiate NAFTA and that's something that she would do as president.
BLITZER: Because that was a deal that, of course, her husband put together.
FALLON: Absolutely. And I think even her husband has acknowledged that it has some untended consequences. And she has said she wants to renegotiate it. But she has talked broadly, more than just these individual trade deals, about what we need to do for our economy. She won the economic argument last night in the course of 15 or 20 minutes or so that opened the debate where they traded their views on the economy. Donald Trump said that it was a smart move by him to try to pay as little taxes as possible and shirk paying his fair share. He defended his comments, suggesting that he wanted to take advantage of the houses crisis and profit off of other people's misfortune. And he seemed to relish the fact that he, as a standard practice, as a businessman, stiffs his contractors, including small businesses. So I think he came across very out of touch with the plight of middle class Americans last night.
BLITZER: Brian Fallon is the press secretary for the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Brian, thanks very much for joining us.
FALLON: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, take a look at this. We're getting ready to hear from Hillary Clinton. She's at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. A big crowd has gathered there. We'll watch that. A lot more coming up. We'll be right back.
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[13:26:38] BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures in Raleigh, North Carolina, where Hillary Clinton's expected to take the stage any moment. Her first rally after last night's presidential debate. We're going to have live coverage of that. Standby.
But let's turn to the foreign policy section of the presidential debate, where both of the candidates focused on a number of international issues, from terrorism and ISIS, to Russia and hacking, along with the candidates' stance on NATO. Here's what Donald Trump had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: About four months ago I read on the front page of "The Wall Street Journal" that NATO is opening up a major terror division. And I think that's great. And I think we should get -- because we pay approximately 73 percent of the cost of NATO -- it's a lot of money to protect other people, but I'm all for NATO, but I said, they have to focus on terror also. And they're going to do that. And that was, believe me, I'm sure I'm not going to get credit for that, but that was largely because of what I was saying and my criticism of NATO.
Let's bring in our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto. He's in Washington, our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen. He's joining us live from Damascus. Jim, at the beginning of the campaign, Donald Trump calling NATO
obsolete, an obsolete relic of the Cold War. Last night he said he was fine with NATO but opposed the cost. Wanted the NATO allies to pay more -- more money. So what prompted the change, the apparent change, in his stance and how much does the U.S. contribute to NATO?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's hard to say what prompted the change or if he will stick with that change. As we know, sometimes his position can change on those issues.
On the issue of who pays for NATO, Trump has ground here. Of the 28 NATO members, by requirement, they're supposed to -- the goal is spend 2 percent of their GDP on defense. Only five or six nations, including the U.S., do that at this point. So that is a fair argument.
As to NATO only newly becoming focused on counterterror, that just doesn't match with the facts because remember -- and Secretary Clinton noted this last night -- after 9/11, the deadliest terror attack, of course, in the west's history, NATO invoked the Article V mutual defense in response to that terror attack, when then led to the NATO presence in Afghanistan to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban there. So it is true that there's a financing problem with NATO, at least in terms of spreading the burden around. But as far as the counterterror focus, that goes back more than a decade
BLITZER: Fred, you're in Damascus. I want you to listen to what both of these candidates had to say about ISIS last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Well, I think there are a number of issues that we should be addressing. I have put forth a plan to defeat ISIS. It does involved going after them online. I think we need to do much more with our tech companies to prevent ISIS and their operatives from being able to use the Internet to radicalize, even direct people in our country, in Europe and elsewhere, but we also have to intensify our air strikes against ISIS and eventually support our Arab and Kurdish partners to be able to actually take out ISIS in Raqqa, end their claim of being a caliphate.
[13:30:04] We're making progress. Our military is assisting in Iraq and we're hoping that within the year we'll be able to push ISIS out of Iraq.
