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Trump Contradicts Running Mate on Syrian Policy; Candidates Making Post-Debate Pushes in Key States; Speaker Ryan Says He Won't Defend Trump; Trump Says Crude Comments Locker Room Talk.. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired October 10, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We are clearly now in the home stretch.

A new NBC News, a "Wall Street Journal" poll just out, conducted this weekend, shows Hillary Clinton up 11 points nationally over Donald Trump. This poll was done after the release of the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape that captures Trump speaking explicitly about women but it was done before last night's presidential debate.

And if last night's second presidential debate is any indication, it's going to be a rocky and nasty final few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello. Hello, hello.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- that this was locker room talk. I'm not proud of it. I apologized to my family. I apologized to the American people. Certainly, I'm not proud of it. But this is locker room talk.

CLINTON: Yes, this is who Donald Trump is.

TRUMP: But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies, so much deception --

CLINTON: It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

TRUMP: Because you'd be in jail.

CLINTON: Secretary Clinton --

OK, Donald. I know you're into big diversion tonight, anything to avoid talking about your campaign and the way it's exploding and the way Republicans are leaving you.

TRUMP: Honestly, I've never lied. That's the good thing. That's the big difference between Abraham Lincoln and you.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Right now, we're watching the stage in Charlotte, North Carolina. That's a key battleground state where Republican vice presidential candidate, Mike Pence, is scheduled to appear any minute now. While there have been some rumors out there that Governor Pence was considering dropping off the ticket, he clarified his stance this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's absolutely false, to suggest that at any point in time we considered dropping off this ticket. It's the greatest honor of my life to have been nominated by my party to be the next vice the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And coming up next hour, Hillary Clinton will make her first post-debate appearance in Detroit, Michigan, while Donald Trump hits the campaign trail later today in Pennsylvania.

After days of defections by Republican lawmakers, did Donald Trump's performance in last night's debate stop the bleeding? Several prominent members of Congress dropped their support over lewd comments from the party's presidential candidate. And just a little while ago, a conference call between Republican House members wrapped up, led by the House speaker Paul Ryan.

Our Senior Political Reporter Manu Raju is joining us now from St. Louis. Manu, what are you hearing about this conference call with the speaker of the House? Clearly, this is breaking news?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It really is. Paul Ryan, of course, as you know, agonized over Donald Trump, initially not endorsing Donald Trump when he became the presumptive nominee. Later, coming to terms with Trump and having to either criticize Trump for some of his statements and later defending Trump.

Actually, in recent weeks, he had been more on the Trump bandwagon, calling for a unified Republican Congress, saying that, you know, there's a binary choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and we should get behind Donald Trump.

Well, he's not going to defend Donald Trump any more. Today on a private conference call, Paul Ryan told a House Republican he's done defending Paul -- defending Donald Trump. He said he will not campaign with Donald Trump.

And he told his members, he said, you all need to do what's best for your district. What Paul Ryan is going to focus on for the next month is exclusively on keeping Congress in control of the Republicans, saying they need to be a check on a possible Hillary Clinton presidency.

Now, this message, which was delivered to his members, was not received particularly well, a lot of pushback on this call, I am told, from members, particularly supporters of Donald Trump and who come from districts who have a lot of Trump supporters. Saying that you're helping Hillary Clinton by taking this stance. You know, giving the Supreme Court, potentially, to Hillary Clinton.

And we need to do more to help Donald Trump. One member, I'm told, said that the better Donald Trump does, the better House Republicans do. And it's, quote, "not rocket science."

Now, the House speaker didn't really push back on these members, I'm told. But he did say that he was not going to unendorse Donald Trump, at least not at this moment.

So, it sounds like he's probably going to still vote for Donald Trump, but he's not going to do anything to defend him. He's not going to campaign with him. And, clearly, that's a very -- it just shows, Wolf, how difficult of a position Republican leaders find themselves in as Donald Trump continues to make controversial comments, and particularly in the aftermath of that rather lewd tape that was leaked over the weekend -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, and, Manu, the statement put out by Paul Ryan's spokeswoman, Ashlee Strong, and I'll read it to our viewers. The speaker is going to spend the next month focused entirely on protecting our congressional majorities.

[13:05:07] The working assumption is that Paul Ryan is now assuming that Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States. And he doesn't want her to have a Republican majority in the House and a Republican majority in the Senate. Is that -- is that what he's assuming?

RAJU: That's what a lot of members who got off the call, several of whom I spoke with afterwards, they took that message away that Paul Ryan was essentially conceding the White House to Hillary Clinton.

But I should caution, the Ryan camp is pushing back pretty aggressively on that. They are saying there was no concession whatsoever. Paul Ryan did not try to make that -- leave members with that impression. He did not say that Donald Trump cannot win, but that the -- but he did make clear that he does need the Republicans to stay in control of Congress in order to be a check on a potential Clinton administration. Assuming if she does win that they need to have -- keep control of Congress, which is why he wants to focus the next month on keeping control of Congress.

He's bee barnstorming the country in these difficult House races. And he's doing some with Senate Republicans as well. So, that's his focus. But, obviously, does not want to be in difficult political positon with the top of his ticket -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Manu Raju doing some excellent reporting for us. Manu, thanks very much.

For more on Trump's debate performance and the turmoil inside the Republican Party, let's bring in our political panel. Carol Lee is White House reporter for "The Wall Street Journal," Ed O'Keefe, Political Reporter for "The Washington Post." CNN Politics Editor Juana Summers is with us as well.

So, Ed, let me start with you. The speaker is going to spend all of his time just trying to maintain that Republican majority in the House of Representatives, meaning, in effect, he's not going to spend any of his time trying to get Donald Trump elected.

ED O'KEEFE, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, I don't see today as that big a development, because, to me, it's a distinction without a difference, in essence. He, essentially, has spent the last six months since the spring only focused on keeping the House majority. Running around the country, raising money for House candidates, some Senate candidates and others, and hasn't really said or done much, publicly, for Donald Trump besides appearing at the convention and answering questions about what he said when asked by CNN, by the "Post," by others.

And so, the idea that he is, you know, just going to focus on the congressional majority, well, that's just what he's been doing. The idea -- he said today that he can't -- that the Republicans can't give Hillary Clinton a blank check. He's been using those words in fund- raising e-mails for months. To me, this isn't that big of a deal.

BLITZER: But he was supposed to -- remember, this past Saturday, he was going to welcome Donald Trump to Wisconsin, together with the governor and a senator. He was going to have a big deal there. But after the tape by "The Washington Post," the "Access Hollywood" tape came out, he cancelled. He disinvited him from coming to Wisconsin.

O'KEEFE: And that -- and that, there is the big deal. So, now, you know, all things being equal, they have not campaigned together. They will not campaign together. And he will not withdraw his endorsement because, you know, he takes seriously his role as, essentially, the most senior Republican in the land, and knows that if he were to rescind his endorsement, that, in essence, would be almost as if the party overall is doing that, and there are no plans, at least not right now at this hour, to do that.

BLITZER: So, what is the message, Carol, that Paul Ryan is sending to Republicans?

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": I mean, it's hard to read that any other way than that he thinks that Donald Trump has lost the race and he needs to take care of what's most important to him which is maintaining Republican control of the House.

I also think that you can't underestimate that Republicans are worried that more will come out like this. The fact that he's saying that he is not going to defend Donald Trump anymore is significant. What happened over the weekend, there is concern that what else is out there? What's it going to be next week? What's it going to be the week after that? And so, I think you're just seeing him doing what he has been doing, but actually saying it very explicitly.

BLITZER: The working assumption is they're -- and they're really afraid of this, Republicans, there could be more videotapes, audiotapes that are going to come out that will deeply embarrass them. JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: Absolutely, that's the big

concern. Now, a lot of Republicans are fearful of that especially if you look at recent polling of just how close it is. They're really thinking about the down ballot impact here. If we had had this conversation, what, three or four months ago, the idea that we could talk about Republicans losing some seats, ones thought of as safe in the House, would be absolutely outlandish.

But now, we have this new normal where you have a nominee with these kind of crude comments about women that are out there. And I think that if you're to hear more of that, you're likely to see the polls get worse and worse. We are in that critical period with less than 30 days until the election. There's just no room for error for Republicans.

BLITZER: And this new "Wall Street Journal" NBC News poll, Ed, an 11- point advantage right now for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. That -- there it is right now, Hillary Clinton 46 percent, Trump 35 percent. 35 percent is pretty low, as you can imagine. Gary Johnson nine percent, Jill Stein two percent.

But that's going to send a powerful message to Republicans as well.

O'KEEFE: It is and I think that's part of why you saw Ryan do what he did today. He senses that this was coming. It was pretty evident overnight Friday and into Saturday, into Sunday that this was resonating. And it was especially going to cause trouble among women voters.

[13:10:04] I think the fact that he said today, do what you need to do in your own district, is important because there are about 20 races out there where the Republican's on the bubble or is under threat, and more so today than they would have been Friday morning.

So, you will probably see those ones pretty quickly come up with some kind of answer that either says, I'm not voting for him. He should apologize again or something along those lines. There are more hard right conservative Republicans in this caucus, though, who said they're upset with this decision. That makes sense because their districts are deep red, blue -- deep red. And that's where Donald Trump enjoys big support. So, it'll cause even greater fissures within the caucus.

BLITZER: And what about the Republican National Committee? They seem to be onboard. After the debate performance last night, Reince Priebus going out and speaking enthusiastically about Donald Trump, even though he condemned, in very harsh terms, that videotape.

SUMMERS: They do, so far, seem to be onboard. That's what we're hearing publicly right now. There was those questions swirling around yesterday about as to whether or not they would remove their resources away from the Trump campaign. Instead, funnel those into down ballot races effectively and in the joint fund-raising agreement that the party has with the presidential nominee.

We're expecting to hear more out of the RNC. I believe there is a call scheduled later this evening. We'll have more answers as to what they plan to do and whether or not they plan to fully continue to back their nominee or if, perhaps, we could see that that relationship (INAUDIUBLE) a bit more.

BLITZER: How successful, Carol, was Donald Trump last night, in the presidential debate in addressing the issue of that awful 2005 videotape?

LEE: Well, that's a good question because this poll indicates, its first early sign, that this is actually really damaging.

BLITZER: I think this poll was taken before the debate last night.

LEE: Right.

BLITZER: It was -- but it was take -- it was before the debate but it was definitely taken at least after the Friday --

LEE: After the --

BLITZER: -- night release of that.

LEE: And then, what you saw Donald Trump do last night was double down on this locker room talk line. And I don't think that that -- that didn't make a lot of his people who want him to apologize more full-throatedly happy. And it's not clear that that's something that's going to play with women.

BLITZER: Let me play that exchange with Anderson Cooper. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "A.C. 360": Are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?

TRUMP: I have great respect for women. Nobody has more respect for women than I do.

COOPER: So, for the record, you're saying you never did that.

TRUMP: I'm saying I said things that, frankly -- you hear the things I said. And I was embarrassed by it, but I have tremendous respect for women.

COOPER: Have you ever done those things?

TRUMP: And women have respect for me. And I will tell you, no, I have not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What did you think of that exchange?

LEE: I thought that -- you know, he said that he had never done that. Well, you know, now everyone will be digging into whether or not that's actually true. So, there's that question. And -- but saying that this is locker room talk is not -- again, it goes back to his initial way of apologizing which was a half apology. And then, he did something a little more meaningful. And now, he's back to doing this locker room talk which tells me and everybody else that that's really how he thinks about this.

BLITZER: What was your reaction when you heard it, Juana?

SUMMERS: To me, it sounded like he was really diverting attention away from himself. He said it's locker room talk. He brought up (INAUDIBLE) and past apologies, indiscretions of former President Bill Clinton. And it, a little bit to me, honestly sounded like something that a child would say. You know, well, yes, I did this bad thing. I'm sorry about that. But look at what this person did over here. That thing is really bad, too. And it just -- it came across a little insincere.

And I think for voters who are concerned about this and for a candidate who did, I think, one of the recent Quinnipiac polls, has him at the 20-point deficit with women. I don't think it's a sufficient answer. I don't think it seems that this is going away.

BLITZER: And he, quickly -- after his apology, Ed, he went on the offensive against Bill Clinton.

O'KEEFE: Right.

BLITZER: What he did many years ago. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: If you look at Bill Clinton, far worse. Mine are words and his was action. His was what he's done to women. There's never been anybody in this nation that's been so abusive to women. So, you can say it any way you want to say it. But Bill Clinton was abusive to women. Hillary Clinton attacked those same women.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And, as you know, he -- "The Washington Post" reported, initially, that the Trump campaign wanted some of those women who made those accusations against Bill Clinton to not only sit up front but to sit what was described as the family box at that town hall debate last night. The organizers that commissioned for the presidential debate said, not happening.

O'KEEFE: Right. And it was thwarted, really, at the 11th hour there. They were on the verge of doing it and the debate expert -- or debate officials stepped in.

You know, that's an interesting argument and there's been plenty of polling done to suggest that that will not resonate well overall. Certainly, it will resonate and probably stops the bleeding for him among most ardent supporters and diehard Republicans who have waited 24 years to see a Republican go toe-to-toe, face-to-face with a Clinton and bring up this stuff.

But the rest of the country, if you look at polling, does not want to talk about it and does not care and knows the distinction between Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

[13:15:05] BLITZER: All right, we have a lot more to assess so stay with us.

Coming up, a split on Syria.

[13:15:00] ED O'KEEFE, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Does not want to talk about it and does not care and knows the distinction between Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: All right, we have a lot more to assess, so stay with us.

Coming up, a split on Syria. Trump announces he doesn't agree with his own vice presidential running mate on a key foreign policy issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He and I haven't spoken and I disagree. I disagree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You disagree with your running mate?

TRUMP: I think we have to knock out ISIS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're also standing by to hear from Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, in a town hall in North Carolina.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Donald Trump contradicts his own vice presidential running mate on a key foreign policy issue, the war on Syria. Here's what Trump said last night at the presidential debate and how Pence explained it this morning here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: OK. He and I haven't spoken and I disagree. I disagree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You disagree with your running mate?

TRUMP: I think we have to knock out ISIS. Right now Syria is fighting ISIS. We have people that want to fight both at the same time. But Syria is no longer Syria. Syria is Russia and it's Iran. I believe we have to get ISIS. We have to worry about ISIS before we can get too much more involved.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The question I had, and you can check the transcript, so can your viewers, was about the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo and what we ought to do. Donald Trump's position, our position has been that we need to establish safe zones. And you need - you need to be willing to use - you need to be willing to use resources and including military power to secure those safe zones to allow those people, including 100,000 children, to be able to evacuate. Last night she - she conflated that and referred to general provocation and involvement by the Russians in the Syrian regime, and, you know, Donald Trump's made it clear, our policy is safe zones for people suffering in Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:20:40] BLITZER: All right, let's bring back our panel. Carol Lee, the White House reporter for the "Washington Journal," Ed O'Keefe, the political reporter for "The Washington Post," and CNN politics editor Juana Summers.

I wanted, before we get to conversation on this, I want to play a clip. This is Mike Pence, just a few moments ago, speaking about Trump and the debate last night.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But I've got to tell you, I joined this campaign in a heartbeat, because you have nominated a man for president who never quits, who never backs down. He is a fighter. He is a winner. And we will make America great again when we make Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States of America.

You know, Donald Trump, I truly believe, and you saw it last night on that debate stage, he literally embodies the spirit of America. Strong, freedom-loving, independent, optimistic and willing to fight every day for what he believes in and what makes this nation great.

You saw that on the stage last night. You know it takes a big man to know when he's wrong and to admit it and to have the humility to apologize and be transparent and be vulnerable with people. And Donald Trump, last night, showed that he's a big man.

And I was on television this morning on MSNBC. I think it was that one. I was on a few. And somebody asked me about my faith though. And they asked me about the fact that I say that I'm a Christian. In the wake of the last few days, what I - what I made of everything. And I - I'll tell you what, I welcomed the opportunity. Other than - other than that woman standing next to me, my wonderful wife Karen, the most important decision in my life was when I made a decision for Christ in 1978. It's made all the difference.

And I was happy to explain on that television program that I'm a believer. And my faith informs me that we're to hold up a godly standard and we're to aspire to live godly lives, but it also informs me that we all fall short. We all fall short of the glory of God. That there's no one righteous, other than the one.

You know, as I said last weekend, I don't condone what was said and I spoke out against it. But the other part of my faith is, I believe in grace. I've received it. I believe in it. I believe in forgiveness. And we're called to forgive as we have been forgiven. And last night my running mate, he showed the American people what was

in his heart. He showed humility to the American people. And then he fought back and turned the focus to the choice that we face, and I'm proud to stand with Donald Trump.

Because I've got to tell you, everybody, this election, it's not just (INAUDIBLE) it's not just a choice between two people. It's a choice between two futures. And I want to say to all of my friend here in North Carolina, I choose a stronger America at home and abroad. I choose a more prosperous America. I choose an America that stands up for the constitutional principles that made this nation great. I choose to stand with Donald Trump and every American who believes we can make America great again.

[13:25:11] Because despite all the distractions, this election really is about bigger things. It truly is. It's about security. It's about prosperity. It's about the Supreme Court of the United States and it's about having the highest standards of integrity in the highest office in the land.

And before I get to your questions at this town hall meeting, let me - let me walk you through those big issues, because they tend to get lost in the din of whatever the media is talking about on any particular day. But they're the issues that I believe matter most to the American people. And the ones that I need you to go and talk to your neighbors and friends about here in North Carolina in the next 29 days.

First on the subject of our security. Despite traveling millions of miles as our (INAUDIBLE), the world is more dangerous today than the day that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton took over our foreign policy. Our allies less secure, our enemies are more emboldened. We cannot have four more years apologizing to our enemies and abandoning our friends.

It's so important to understand. Seven and a half years of the foreign policy of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has weakened America's place in the world, and literally resulted in the wider Middle East virtually spinning apart. Remember the number one priority that Hillary Clinton expressed when she became secretary of state was a reset with Russia. And shortly after she hit that little red button in a press conference, a newly - a newly emboldened Russia invaded Ukraine, took over Crimea. And they have a foothold now and renewed alliances in Syria, and in Iran. It truly is extraordinary to think of the failure of this administration.

But it's not just an emboldened Russia. We have China that's literally building islands in the South China Sea. We have North Korea that's firing ballistic missiles and testing nuclear weapons.

You know, history teaches us that weakness arouses evil. And Donald Trump and I know that the weak and feckless foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, of leading from behind, moving red lines, feigning a reset with Russia, the rise and rule and reign of ISIS are all a testament to this truth of history. The truth is, there's a couple of - a couple of things that are very

much on - were on her agenda and her responsibility. It was Hillary Clinton who initiated the disastrous agreement with the radical Mullahs (ph) in Iran. $150 billion to the radical Mullahs. And in my debate a week ago, her running mate was actually boasting of the agreement. You know when Mr. Hayes and I were in the Congress, we worked together to pass punishing sanctions on Iran and the objective of which was that those punishing economic sanctions would stay in place until Iran permanently abandoned its nuclear ambitions. But this administration, with Hillary Clinton's full assent, actually transferred $150 billion to the Iranians only for a delay in their ambitions. And during the period of the agreement, once it comes off, no restrictions will be in place.

And we're still - it was this administration and the deal that Hillary Clinton initiated, it resulted in delivering on the day that four Americans were released from captivity, 400 million in cash was delivered on a palette as a ransom payment to the radical Mullahs in Iran.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to continue to monitor Mike Pence. He's delivering his stump speech now. But clearly this is the first speech he has delivered publicly since that Friday night release of that videotape from "Access Hollywood." Very vile words that Donald Trump uttered on that videotape.

Let's get back to our panel right now.

You know, it's interesting. It also takes place after he said something very extraordinary, Donald Trump, last night at the presidential debate, when the whole issue - Martha Raddatz brought up the whole issue of U.S. policy towards Syria, of military force. Trump said, referring to Mike Pence, OK, he and I haven't spoken, and I disagree. I disagree.

Ed, how unusual is it for the presidential candidate to publicly tell everyone he hasn't spoken with his vice presidential running mate on such a sensitive issue and I disagree with him?

[13:29:49] O'KEEFE: Unprecedented, but then again this whole exercise has been that. And the fact that he would do it on a debate stage with about 60 million people watching I think is a sign of maybe what little regard he may have for Pence. The campaign very quickly jumped at it and said, no, no, no, you know, they talked and, in fact, Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, had tweeted earlier today a photo reportedly showing Trump speaking with Pence on the plane on his way to St. Louis.