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Trump Contradicts Running Mate on Syria Policy; Feud Developing Between Trump and Speaker Ryan; Trump Threatens to Jail Clinton for E- mails; Poll: Clinton Leads Trump by 11 Points; Pence Blasts Clinton over WikiLeaks Release of Wall Street Transcripts; Trump: Syria, Russia, Iran "Killing" ISIS. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 10, 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] ED O'KEEFE, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: The fact the 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 quickly jumped at him and said, no, no, no, they've talked. And, in fact, Kellyanne Conway, the campaign manager, tweeted earlier in the day a photo reportedly showing Trump speaking with Pence on the plane on his way to St. Louis. Pence has said, you know, we've talked about these things and claimed this morning there wasn't disagreement. But clearly different things said, and I think Pence made clear last week in his debate that there were differences with Trump on this. And, look, even the way he was talking about it just now, he is talking much more aggressively about taking on Iran and the economic sanctions that should be in place and the deal cut with the U.S. and the European countries and Iran. Last night, Trump was essentially crediting Iran for working with Russia and the Assad regime to take on ISIS and not talking necessarily. You would think there would be some editorial --

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Pence much more hard-line on the Russians than Trump clearly is.

But now we're getting the first response, Juana, from Donald Trump to Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House. And I'll read it. He just tweeted, his favorite venue, shall we say, "Paul Ryan should spend more time on balancing the budget, jobs and illegal immigration and not waste his time on fighting Republican nominee." There you see the tweet from Donald Trump.

There's a feud now that openly surfaced between the top Republican in Congress and the Republican nominee.

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: Absolutely. I think if anything could be predictable, this election cycle, it would be that Donald Trump would respond and something like that pointing out that he is of the people, he is not a creature of establishment Washington, which I think is what he and HIS advisers tried to assert of folks in the party, like House Speaker Paul Ryan. So not surprised at all at his response.

The question is, will there continue to be a back and form between top Republicans like Paul Ryan and Donald Trump?

One thing that struck me watching the debate WAS, if Donald Trump was campaigning for the nomination, that would have been a great debate performance. He hit all the red meat that works for the conservative base. But at the end of the day, he needs to bring new people into the fold. We've seen that stunning 11-point margin in the NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll and I don't think the way to do that is going back and forth with Speaker of House on Twitter over what issues he's on the wrong side of.

BLITZER: If we thought -- and a lot of his did -- Trump's performance in the debate at least stopped the bleeding within that Republican base. What the speaker did today, Carol, in telling other members and Republican members of the House of Representatives, you know what, I'm not going to go out there and work for this guy. I'm not going to go out there support this guy. You guys do whatever you think is going to help you get elected, re-elected, if you will. But that bleeding continues.

CAROL LEE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, WALL STREET JOURNAL: It clearly with the speaker of the House, and what we're seeing here is kind of the rounding out of the Paul Ryan/Donald Trump relationship. Remember how it started? Which is, you know, Donald Trump not -- criticizing Paul Ryan, and Paul Ryan was playing footsie and wasn't sure whoa support him and now tried to make it work a while, and clearly it's not working and there's a very, a distinct separation.

BLITZER: Will we see, Ed, more Republicans, for example, in the House of Representatives and the Senate for that matter, walk away from Donald Trump?

O'KEEFE: What we'll have to see. I think, if you're a vulnerable Senator, Republican Senator, who hasn't weighed in by now, it's questionable. Most of them have in one way or the other. You saw John McCain and Kelly Ayotte say, thanks, no thanks. No longer supporting.

BLITZER: Jason Chaffetz.

O'KEEFE: Jason Chaffetz, from Utah, said he's no longer supporting him.

I think through the rest of today and tomorrow, we'll probably hear again from those more vulnerable members who are in sort of races on the bubble. Elise Stefanik, from the young freshman congressman from the Adirondacks in New York, who tried to hug the line in the middle there, she may break one way or the other. There's other races across New York state, frankly, that are, you might think of. There are probably some members down in Florida. Out in the Midwest as well that will probably have to think about this, and think hard about what exactly they should be doing and saying. As Ryan and Greg Walden, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said today, do your polling, figure it out for yourselves, and we understand that you're got to dot what you've got to do.

BLITZER: But they're going to look, a lot of these vulnerable Republicans, look at these national polls, including the "Wall Street Journal"/NBC poll that just came out within the past hour, showing 11- point lead nationally right now for Donald Trump, and they're going to say, you know what, maybe I should think about myself and run away from this train?

SUMMERS: Absolutely. That same poll showed Democrats with a seven- point edge on the question which party voters prefer to control Congress, which is according hat their story the largest gap in four Democrats, large advantage for rather, 2009. Polls will come out to tell what the races look like. Is control of the House, perhaps, at stake or are there more vulnerable Senators than we expected?

BLITZER: And Donald Trump said something extraordinary last night as well, when he said that if he is elected president of the United States, he will have his Justice Department name a special prosecutor to revive potential charges against Hillary Clinton. And at one point was going back and forth, and said if he was president, she would be in jail. I mean, the notion of, I mean -- the former attorney general, Eric Holder, he tweeted this, the attorney general, supporter of Hillary Clinton, said this, "In the USA, we do not threaten to jail political opponents. Donald Trump said he would. He is promising to abuse the power of the office."

[15:35:30] LEE: It was a really extraordinary moment. It was -- you have not heard anything like that from a Republican or Democratic nominee for president. And you -- you know, you know this, because you cover the White House, at different times. And the White House, the president of the United States is, his role is to maintain a bit of a distance. You would not order something like that scenario. And so it's something that I think will probably get paid more attention to once we move a little past the "Access Hollywood" tape. And it's really significant and says a lot about how Donald Trump thinks and sees his opponents.

BLITZER: I don't any ever a case, Ed, in American history --

O'KEEFE: No

BLITZER: -- where a presidential candidate of one party said, if I'm elected, the other candidate is going to jail.

O'KEEFE: No. Absolutely not. It's uncharted territory. A lot of people saying, you know, this is the definition of fascism. This is what has happened in other countries where the guy wins and puts his opponents in jail or guy organizing the coup is flown jail by the dictator. It is stunning. And it is unprecedented.

And yet again, from a crass political perspective, what he did and said last night is exactly what so many real dyed in the wool, ultra conservative Republican types have wanted a presidential candidate to do and say to the face of a Clinton for more than 20 years. And they got it last night. That's great. But it will do nothing most likely to help him win the election.

BLITZER: It plays to that base, that very conservative base of the Republican party that he's trying to consolidate but he needs more than that, Juana, if he's going to be elected president. He's got to go beyond that base?

SUMMERS: He absolutely does. It's important to look at the areas Trump is losing in terms of polls poorly with women. Hillary Clinton is beginning to catch him among men. I saw a recent poll putting them with a one-point difference among white men, I believe it was. It's huge if you look past electoral results. That's one of the things Republicans have to look at moving forward, is how to broaden the base, bring in independents, undecideds, bring them into the fold. And that language that Ed described, I don't think that does the trick with many of the groups that Donald Trump needs to win over.

BLITZER: The other set of issue, a sensitive issue that came up, our own Anderson Cooper pressed Donald Trump on that $916 billion tax loss that he took in one year in the 1990s. And the suggestion that "The New York Times" reported, that for maybe 18 years, he wouldn't have to pay any federal income tax. Listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, DEBATE MODERATOR: Did you use that $916 million avoid paying personal federal income taxes --

TRUMP: Of course I do. Of course I do.

COOPER: Can you say how many years you avoided paying personal income taxes?

TRUMP: No. But I pay tax and I pay federal tax, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It was sort of unclear whether he paid any federal income tax as a result of that $916 billion loss.

LEE: Right, but again he said, of course, I do, of course, I did that. So that feeds this perception the way that most Americans would like the president of the president of the country to contribute. And I think that the polls show that this is an issue that matters. That people care about this issue. and if you step back and look broadly, it's hard to see one thing that Donald Trump said or did last night that moved people who already weren't in his camp, and that is what he needed to do and needs to do if he wins the election. This is just another example of that.

BLITZER: It was an extremely rough, tough and occasional a very ugly debate last night. Except for the last question that came up in that debate when someone stood up and asked both of these presidential candidates to say something nice about the competition. Let me play the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted. And I think that says a lot about Donald.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I consider that a compliment.

I will say this about Hillary, she doesn't quit. She doesn't give up. I respect that. I tell it like it is. She's a fighter. I disagree with much of what she's fighting for. I do disagree with her judgment in many cases, but she does fight hard, and she doesn't quit, and she doesn't give up. And I consider that to be a very good trait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And at the end, they wound up shaking hands, which is something they pointedly did not do 90 minutes earlier when the debate started.

LEE: Right. And John Podesta told your Brianna Keilar that was the intention to send a message she was not pleased with the tone of things. You could almost hear and audible, like, "Ah," when that question was asked. So tense in there. Even watching, you could sense how tense it was, and one of the only light moments of the evening.

(CROSSTALK)

[13:40:25] O'KEEFE: Probably, the only one. We needed it. Good that they did it.

BLITZER: And I was expecting when that question was asked, I was expecting her to say I don't have anything nice to say about him, and for him to say, I don't have anything nice to say -- but they stepped up --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- and they ended it on a more positive note and finally shook hands.

Guys, thank you very, very much.

Coming up, reaction pouring into Trump's threat to jail Hillary Clinton if elected president. I'll speak with a Congressman and Clinton supporter, Adam Schiff, about that and more when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:17] BLITZER: We expect to hear from Hillary Clinton next hour in Detroit, Michigan. That will be her first campaign appearance after last night's very contentious presidential debate. After the face-off, in her plane leaving St. Louis, Hillary Clinton said she was happy and felt great. Maybe one reason why, a new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll conducted this weekend shows Hillary Clinton up 11 points nationally over Donald Trump. Hillary Clinton with 46 percent, Trump 35 percent, the brand new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll.

Joining us to talk more about the Clinton side of the post-debate conversation, Congressman Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Thanks very much, Congressman, for joining us.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF, (D), CALIFORNIA: Pleasure.

BLITZER: What's your confidence level right now following the debate last night and taking a look at the new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll?

SCHIFF: Well, I feel very optimistic but nothing to be complacent about. We've seen a very volatile campaign season and we've seen Trump come back time after time. So the effort is really going to be to get out those voters.

But I was particularly struck by several things during the debate last night, not the least of which Donald Trump all evidence to the contrary saying we still don't know that Russia's involved with hacking our institutions. This after the director of National Intelligence as well as the Secretary of Homeland Security came out with such a strong statement implicating the Kremlin. A lot of jarring --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You have no doubt -- and you're the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee. You have no doubt that Russia, high- ranking Russian government officials, at the highest levels, are involved in these hacking operations?

SCHIFF: I think the intelligence leadership said it very clearly. Yes, we know the Russians are hacking us. And those kinds of decisions are not made at a low level. They're very significant in terms of the relations between our two countries, and Putin has a small circle of people. This is not the kind of decision that's going to get delegated to a low-level person.

BLITZER: So it couldn't happen without Putin's authorization?

SCHIFF: I don't think that's possible. This is such a deliberate interference, such a ham-handed interference, this hacking of institutions, dumping of our documents. It goes to very senior levels and there aren't many people at those senior levels besides Putin.

BLITZER: What was your reaction when you heard Donald Trump look at Hillary Clinton and say, if he's elected president, he will ask to name a special prosecutor to go after her once again. And he also suggested if he were president she'd be in jail?

SCHIFF: Well, I was an assistant district attorney for six years, and I was appalled to hear that. It was so antithetical to how the Justice Department is supposed to work.

But more than that, I remember countless times that I was part of a bipartisan congressional delegation meeting with representatives of new fledgling democracies and talking about the importance of not threatening to jail opposition if you win the election. That's what third-world countries do. And to hear the Republican nominee for the presidency say that's what we ought to do was just a shocking ignorance in terms of how our democracy works.

BLITZER: I want to play a clip. Mike Pence, the vice presidential running mate, moments ago, blasted Hillary Clinton for the transcripts that WikiLeaks released of her Wall Street speeches for which she earned hundreds of thousands of dollars. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, (R), INDIANA GOVERNOR & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's another excerpt speaking to a Brazilian bank. Did you hear this? Speaking to a Brazilian bank. This is an excerpt from her speech. Her dream was, quote, "a hemisphere common market with open trade and open borders."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. She's getting a lot of grief for that. I assume you've read those transcripts. What was your take?

SCHIFF: You know, I haven't read the transcripts. I've seen the excerpts published. I don't know what to make of that, frankly. Except that this is Mike Pence trying to distract from all the problems his running mate has. And I know Mike very well. We came into Congress together. And I have to say, it's sad to see him continue to embrace Donald Trump, even after this past week. I think it can't help but injure his reputation, but he's being a dutiful soldier. And the best I think the Trump campaign can do is point at these transcripts and say, look there, not here.

BLITZER: Those transcripts also have her saying, look, it's one thing, you have to have a public position but you have to have a private position as well, which could be different, and that seemed to suggest, according to her critics, she was being two-faced.

SCHIFF: That's the criticism they leveled, but, again, not really seeing what was involved in that conversation, it's hard to tell. During the debate last night, she talked about that in the context of Lincoln. How Lincoln would have different audiences when trying to make his point and persuade them, this is frankly not so much what you say inside and outside, but knowing, OK, this economic argument will move people who respond to the economy, this argument on the moral high ground will move other people. That's the approach legislative leadership uses quite often.

[13:50:21] BLITZER: On the conference call, House Speaker Paul Ryan told members, do what you've got to do. I'm going to spend my time exclusively trying to get Republicans elected because he doesn't want -- if Hillary Clinton becomes elected, a Democratic majority in the House or the Senate. Do you feel as a member of the House that is a possible, there could be a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives?

SCHIFF: That's a possibility. This is why Paul Ryan is throwing Donald Trump under the bus, at least away from him as far as possible, and telling his members, do what you need to do, support him, don't support him, I don't care, he's going to lose anyway. That's the basic message, save yourself, jump off the raft if you have to.

And if those polls you just, and the generic has Democrats up now 7 percent, who would you vote for in the Congressional race, who do you prefer to be majority in Congress, if those numbers hold, yes, you could have the size of a wave we would need to take back the House.

BLITZER: It would have to be a huge wave, given the majority the Republicans currently have.

Congressman, thank you for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Adam Schiff of California.

Coming up, Donald Trump says Syria, Russia and Iran are allies in the fight against ISIS, but is that true? We'll get a fact-check. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:04] BLITZER: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump getting into a heat exchange on the debate stage last night over foreign policy. When Trump was asked about his views on Syria, the fight against ISIS, he offered this assessment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS. And Iran is killing ISIS. And those three have now lined up because of our weak foreign policy.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We need 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 is Iran, who she made strong, and Kerry and Obama, made into a very powerful nation and a very rich nation very, very quickly. Very, very quickly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott, is here doing fact-checking.

Elise, Trump says the Syrian leader, Bashar al Assad, together with Russia and Iran are fighting ISIS. Are they?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: No. Listen, the U.S. really wanted Russia to be in there when they first want in there. About a year, they said they would be fighting ISIS, but since then, the U.S. says about 99 percent of Russian air strikes have been against U.S.-backed rebels. If you look at what's happening in Aleppo right now, Wolf, the U.S. -- Russia says it's targeting al Nusra and other terrorist-type organizations, but they have not been. They've been targeting civilian casualties, such as hospitals, ambulances. This is what the U.S. has been saying all along, that they would love to fight with Russia against ISIS, but right now, that's not happening. And Russia and Iran together are both fighting those opposition targets.

BLITZER: Russia and Iran's main goal, like Hezbollah, is to keep the Bashar al Assad's regime --

LABOTT: That's right.

BLITZER: -- in power in Damascus, expand that regime, if you will.

LABOTT: That's right. That's what the sole goal of the Russian intervention has been, to prop up Bashar al Assad. Over the last year, certainly, he has strengthened his position over the last year. That's what this whole fight between the U.S. and Russia has been with the U.S. ending talks with Russia, declaring this ceasefire dead because Russia, in talking about military cooperation all over, because Russia is only trying to support Bashar al Assad. Nothing about --

BLITZER: Trump strongly condemned President Obama, and Hillary Clinton, for that matter, on their stance on Syria. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You were in total contact with the White House and, perhaps, sadly Obama probably still listened. I don't think I'd be listening very much anymore. Obama draws the line in the sand. It was laughed at all over the world what happened.

Now, she talks tough. She talks really tough against Putin and against Assad. She talks in favor of the rebels. She doesn't even know who the rebels are. You know, every time we take rebel, whether it's in Iraq and anywhere else, we're arming people. And you know what happens? They end up being worse than the people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So, is that statement he made true?

LABOTT: Well, it's half true. Certainly, Hillary Clinton has called for arming some of the rebels. She disagreed with President Obama. She fought with Defense Secretary Gates, Leon Panetta, and others to arm the rebels. And there has been a lot of concern that some of these opposition groups are extremist groups and they are kind of intermixed in with the moderate rebels. There is concern about that.

But what's not true is she was not in office at the time. She had nothing to do with the red line. The idea that President Obama is consulting with Hillary Clinton and that's how the situation came to be, I think that's totally false.

BLITZER: After she left the State Department that he would call her for advice? That was the impression Trump was leaving. LABOTT: Certainly, you know, Secretary Kerry gained a lot of

notoriety for his speech talking about that red line. Secretary Clinton had nothing to do with that.

BLITZER: Elise Labott, reporting for us. Thank you for the fact- checking.

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

The news continues right now on CNN.