Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

GOP Scrambles to Save Majorities; Ryan May Face Rebellion; ISIS Using Families as Shields. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 21, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for watching. The news continues next on CNN.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. It is Friday. Thanks for being here.

No time to waste for these presidential candidates with the debates behind them. The only faceoff now, the finish line, November 8th, Election Day, just two weeks and four days away. The Trump and the Clinton campaigns, they are blitzing these battleground states to get out the vote.

You see the surrogates are in those key states, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire. And in just a little bit, we'll see Hillary Clinton in Ohio.

Now, Donald Trump spoke just a little while ago in North Carolina. He did not mention the wave of polls showing his campaign losing ground, but Trump did mention the possibility of losing on November 8th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will be happy with myself because I always say, I don't want to think back, if only I did won more rally I would have won North Carolina by 500 votes instead of losing it by 200 votes, right? What a waste of time if we don't pull this off. You know these guys have said, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, there's never been a movement like this in the history of this country. I say, it matters to me whether we win or lose because - so - so I'll have over $100 million of my own money in this campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And it's the campaign's focus on of top of the ballot. Trump's fellow Republicans are now trying to figure out what to do with the races that follow. We'll call it the down-ballot dilemma. How do they save the Republican majorities of both the House and the Senate in the midst of sort of Trump's turmoil?

Let me go straight to Dana Bash, our CNN chief political correspondent.

Eighteen days, not that anyone is counting, but what - what can the party do at this point? DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the message all

along, and more importantly the money all along that has been going from conservative groups that aren't really enamored with Trump, they've been going - the money and the message has been all focused on keeping a majority in Congress. Most importantly, the Senate, because that's the one that is in most question as far as Republicans go.

The big change as of this morning is a new group of the Chamber of Commerce, which is a traditionally GOP group, part of the establishment wing of the party, has a new ad on television in New Hampshire, not just focusing on the Senate incumbent Republican, Kelly Ayotte, but the message specifically is to voters, hey, guy, it's pretty like that Hillary Clinton is going to be in the White House. You've got to elect Kelly Ayotte as a check and balance. Let's watch part of the add.

BALDWIN: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): America's future is far from certain, but no matter who the next president is, New Hampshire needs a strong voice in the U.S. Senate. That senator? Kelly Ayotte. She works across the aisle to get things done. Maggie Hassan's record? Hassan voted over 100 times for more tax and fees. Just imagine what she'd do unchecked in Washington with a new president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, let me just show you the focus - still focused on New Hampshire, where things stand right now in terms of public polling. A WMUR poll came out yesterday showing Maggie Hassan, the state's governor and the Democratic challenger, at 46 percent, Kelly Ayotte at 38 percent, an eight-point deficit for the incumbent Republican. That is why the Chamber of Commerce decided to start there because they think that is the most dire. It's also a presidential battleground state where Donald Trump has been many times and he has even a bigger deficit in that same poll.

But much bigger - there you see the presidential poll.

But at a much broader level -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BASH: The hope at the Chamber of Commerce, Brooke, is that other Republican groups, even candidates themselves, see this as a signal it is time to really pull the plug on any notion that Donald Trump is going to win the White House. Make it very clear to voters, who historically have been OK with, even liking, divided government as a check and balance notion.

Now, Democrats who I've gotten e-mails from saying that they don't think that this is a message that really works with voters. You know, who knows? If there's a wave election, they're probably right. But at least at this point, just 18 days left, Republicans feel like they've got to try their best to save who they can and at this point it is the Republican majority in the Senate that they're most focused on, even as - I mean, let's just face it, they're throwing Donald Trump under the bus or they would say facing reality.

[14:05:01] BALDWIN: Let's see how our Trump surrogate friend here feels about that with that note. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

Let's expand the conversation. With us I have Bill Press is here, CNN political commentator, supports Hillary Clinton, and former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, who supports Donald Trump. So, Andre, out of the gate, I mean the ad doesn't explicitly say Trump's going to lose, but they're kind of saying, Trump's going to lose.

ANDRE BAUER (R), FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Well, it looks like she's hedging her bet and trying to cover all bases, which is smart as an elected official to try to pull a vote from wherever you can and -

BALDWIN: Wait, who's the "she" here?

BAUER: The senator, Ayotte.

BALDWIN: But this is the Chamber of Commerce who's put the ad out there. This is a, you know, long time reporter - supporter of Republicans, establishment wing, saying, well, he's probably not going to win, so we need to think down ballot.

BAUER: Well, I think more than anything they know what they've got with a senator that's been there, somebody they've worked with, and they're going to protect, first and foremost, their friends and people that they're comfortable in working with. The Chamber of Commerce in South Carolina supported me before and they knew what they had. And so a lot of times these different groups, when they find friends that are easy to work with, or at least will listen to their causes, are the people they go back and first and foremost try to help. They probably don't have any relationship with Donald Trump, so that's not as important to them immediately as a United States senator who they know what they've got.

BALDWIN: Even though he is the man at the top of the ticket.

I'm looking at you. What are you thinking, Bill? What's that face mean?

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I'm thinking about Ross Perot. Remember, he used to say that giant sucking sound were the jobs going south to Mexico. I think the giant sucking sound today are Senate Republican, Senate candidates, Republican House candidates who are going south from Donald Trump. I mean I think the reality as they see it - by the way, I think this is a smart strategy on their part because I think the reality is -

BALDWIN: But you would, because you think, and would like to think that Hillary is going to win? PRESS: No. No, no. I mean, if I were a Republican, that's what I'd be

doing. It's smart for them to focus on the Senate and the House because they're not going to win the White House. I mean the question is, is Hillary going to get 350 or 400 electoral votes? The White House is gone. So all they can do is save their Senate. So you - you'll see North - I mean New Hampshire there with Kelly Ayotte, Pennsylvania with Pat Toomey, Richard Burr in North Carolina, Joe Heck in Nevada. I mean they are - they want to save themselves right now. The hell with Donald Trump.

BALDWIN: On that, and you mentioned a couple of the states, because we have this new data that this data company, Catalyst, working with CNN on early voting. More and more people are early voting. So we have actually 3.3 million people have early voted. If you - if you didn't realize that, it shows Arizona, Utah, North Carolina and Nevada, these battleground states, hints of good news for the Hillary Clinton camp.

So I'm worried, Bill, just back to you, are you worried at all that, you know, Hillary Clinton supporters, and maybe some who are kind of, ah, I think I'm going to vote for Hillary, are thinking, she's got it, I'm not voting? Does that worry you?

PRESS: Yes, absolutely. I'm always worried, first of all, about low voter turnout. It's one of the biggest scandals in this country, the few number - I'm sure we'd agree on that, the few people who actually get out and vote. So I'm always looking for higher, higher turnout. And, yes, some people may say, hey, this is in the bag, we're not that excited about Hillary anyhow, so let's not vote. But I'll tell you one thing that turned that around, Tuesday night, "such a nasty woman." I think that has mobilized a lot of women who said, I might not have voted before. I'm going to go out there now, damn it, and get even.

BALDWIN: Are you worried at all, with the rigged election claims too though, that Republicans would think, OK, well, if my vote doesn't count, I shouldn't vote?

BAUER: Absolutely not. I think if you look at the rallies Donald Trump's having, his voters are energized. They're so fed up with Washington, they want change and they are to come out in droves. And I think that there will be a Brexit. You won't see - you know, I don't - I don't know what the numbers are, but I think there's a big group of folks that don't usually come out and vote, they're coming out and they're going to vote and they're going to make their voice heard. And I do think the minority vote will be down. The turnout's not going to be like it was for - for Barack Obama. They're going to have less turnout and she's got a little bit of an issue with that.

BALDWIN: I was talking to Nigel Farage (ph), who helped - he was sort of the Mr. Brexit, and he would agree with you. He says, don't believe the polls. You saw what happened in England, voting leave, despite all the vote remain polls leading into the big vote over the summer.

PRESS: But you said the early vote we didn't touch on is really, really significant. I mean more than -

BALDWIN: The 3.3 million people. PRESS: Yes, more and more people do vote early and so, with 18 days

left, you know, it's too late for both of them for a lot of people.

BALDWIN: Still, though, the closing arguments are being made. There's an ad I just want to play. This is from - this is obviously a Hillary Clinton ad with an emotional message from Captain Khan's father.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF CAPTAIN HUMAYUN KHAN: My son was Captain Humayun Khan. He was 27 years old. And he was a Muslim-American. I want to ask Mr. Trump, would my son have a place in your America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: This is a family, they lost their son in 2004 in Iraq. The parents spoke at the DNC. Mr. Trump was critical of the wife speaking, which then meant a lot of Republicans came out speaking against Trump. So this could even be appealing to Republicans who are wavering as welcome come Election Day. That could be the closing ad for her. What should his be?

[14:10:13] BAUER: To me it would be a Washington where the streets look rough. We know that Washington is deplorable. We know the D.C. cartel has controlled it. We know there's rising pay within all the zip codes around Washington. But what's your community look like? And what's Washington going to look like four years from now if Donald Trump's not your president?

BALDWIN: We saw the president of the United States speaking last night. He was in Miami. This is the latest time he has not necessarily taken Trump specifically to task, but Republicans for supporting him despite everything he would say that's been knocks against him. And last night he specifically called out Senator Marco Rubio, who's fighting to hold on to his Senate seat. Here was the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marco Rubio said this was a dangerous con artist who spent a lifetime, spent a career ticking it to working people. Now that begs the question, since we're in Florida, why does Marco Rubio still plan to vote for Donald Trump?

And there are a lot of politicians like Marco Rubio who know better, but they just look the other way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, again, he's trying to call out the Republicans. What's the strategy? And do you think it will work?

PRESS: I think his strategy is to point out that you've - they've got a very, very flawed presidential candidate and to remark the difference between - I think there are two kind of Republicans today. There are those that have some backbone, who stand up and say, you know, we believe in our country above our party and we're not going to go where this nominee has gone. We just not going to support him. Maybe they don't vote for Hillary. They won't support him. And then you have cowards, I think led by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who say all -

BALDWIN: You call them the cowards? You - you would agree -

PRESS: I - no, I think they are -

BALDWIN: Bill Kristol called them wimps a couple weeks ago, of all people.

PRESS: All right, that's - but, you know, who say all the bad things about Donald Trump. Like, I was on Monday with you and the secretary of state from -

BALDWIN: Ohio.

PRESS: Ohio was on.

BALDWIN: Yes.

PRESS: Who said the same thing.

BAUER: Jon Husted.

BALDWIN: Jon Husted.

PRESS: All (INAUDIBLE) about Jon - bad about Donald Trump and then said, but I'm still going to vote for him.

BALDWIN: That's exactly right.

PRESS: Only because he's a Republican. It's the worst possible reason to vote (INAUDIBLE).

BAUER: Well, it's not only because he's a Republican. We just saw the president say unpositive things about Donald Trump. But I can pull plenty of tapes where he said many unpositive things about his own nominee as well. And there's a lot of people that are so fed up again and Hillary is the worst of the worst to them.

BALDWIN: And so?

BAUER: And so she's going to - there are a lot of people coming out to vote against anybody but her and Donald Trump happens to be the nominee and they're going to support him even if they don't whole heartedly agree with him.

PRESS: Yes, but -

BALDWIN: Quickly, Bill.

PRESS: Yes, but there's one party that's split in half today, and it's not the Democratic Party. It's the Republican Party. A house divided -

BAUER: And you know - PRESS: Cannot win.

BAUER: Because -

PRESS: And your party founder, Abraham Lincoln, said that.

BAUER: The Republicans are willing to be independent enough to say Washington's broken. It's not just the Democrats, it's both parties, where the Democrats will take whatever it is and just keep taking it. The Republicans have said, I've had enough of all of them and throw all the bums out.

PRESS: No, Andre, it's because you've got such a lousy candidate. Let's face it. That's (INAUDIBLE).

BAUER: I would disagree, but I still respect you, my friend.

BALDWIN: Bill Press, Andre Bauer, thank you both so much.

PRESS: And you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up, post-election pressure. Speaking of Paul Ryan here, could the speaker of the House have a mutiny on his hands? A congressman who led the charge to oust John Boehner says the effort to remove Speaker Ryan is, quote/unquote, "picking up some steam." We'll talk about that next.

Also ahead, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton trading jabs and jokes and some boos at that charity dinner in New York City. But it's what happened backstage, actually, that's raising some eyebrows. What was said?

And, moments ago, a cameo. Oh, my gosh, look at this, in the White House Briefing Room, Bill Murray - go Cubs. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:50] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

It looks like Speaker Paul Ryan may have a mutiny on his hands. A key Republican congressman says an effort is now underway to oust the top House leader. Why? Because he will not fully embrace the party's presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The man behind the movement here, the same one who actually led the charge against former Speaker John Boehner.

Let's go straight to the guy with the scoop, Manu Raju, our senior political reporter in Washington.

Manu, this is Congressman Meadows. What is he saying?

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's saying that Paul Ryan may not be so secure. I mean Paul Ryan is in this dilemma over Donald Trump because he's saying that he can no longer defend Donald Trump, so there are a lot of folks on the conservative side that said, well, we may not be able to back you in your re-election for speaker. Before Meadows' comments, Congressman Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma had already threatened to vote against Paul Ryan and now the man who led that charge to take out John Boehner, Mark Meadows, he says, well, Ryan may not be so secure after the elections.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARK MEADOWS (R), NORTH CAROLINA: A lot of the people who believe so desperately that we need to put Donald Trump in the White House, they question the loyalty of the speaker. So I do think that there will be real discussions after November 8th on who our leadership will be and what that will look like going forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, it's unclear exactly who would challenge Paul Ryan, but a few congressmen who are buckling right now could be a problem because the margins in the House Republican majority, if the Republicans keep the majority, those will be very small next year, Brooke. So that means that Paul Ryan cannot afford to lose many votes on the floor of the House during his reelection. He'd already lost 10 votes, actually, when he ran first for speaker. And if this is a narrow majority and he loses more conservatives, that means that he'll have a very difficult time potentially getting 218 votes on the floor of the House. This is very similar to the problem that John Boehner had over the conservative wing of his party, but conservatives may have even more sway in the House Republican conference after the election because a lot of moderates could lose their reelection races, making things even more difficult for Paul Ryan.

[14:20:04] BALDWIN: But then this whole conversation could be moot if the Republicans don't hang on to the majority of the House. What - what are you hearing? You're following all of this. What is the likelihood of them keeping a Republican majority in the House of Representatives?

RAJU: Well, certainly the Senate Republican majority is in more perilous position than the House Republican majority. But the House Republican majority is not safe, and it's largely because of Donald Trump. As he continues to tank in the polls, there's a big fear that this could be a wave election. We don't know if it will be a wave election yet, but if it is, that means the Republican majority could be in jeopardy. The Democrats need to pick up 30 seats to take back the House majority. That's still very hard. A lot of folks still think that perhaps Republicans can lose anywhere from 10 to 20 seats. That's probably the betting right now. But these races tend to break late and if things get worse for Donald Trump, that means that it's very possible the momentum could be behind the Democrats, they could get those 30 seats to take back the majority. Either way, it will be a narrow majority and difficult for whoever is the leader next Congress.

BALDWIN: Manu, thank you. Manu Raju.

RAJU: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, the battle for Mosul is reaching a critical point and now ISIS forces are using drones with bombs to keep the city under control. We'll go live to Iraq next.

Also ahead, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton appearing at this charity dinner in New York City last night. Definitely turned into a roast. We have the highlights and the lowlights coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:56] BALDWIN: Let's get right to what's happening in Iraq. Right now ISIS militants are outnumbered as more than 100,000 coalition fighters close in on this last remaining ISIS stronghold in Iraq, Mosul.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So with their backs against the wall, ISIS forces are using everything at their disposal - drones strapped with bomb, roadside mines, underground tunnels, even makeshift moats filled with oil and set alight.

Let's go straight to Nick Paton Walsh. He's our senior international correspondent who is live just outside of Mosul for us.

And so my - my first concern, Nick, is, of course, for the people of Mosul. In 2014, before ISIS took over, there were some 2.5 million people there. How many have left? And now this U.N. report that families are being used as human shields. What can you tell me about that?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Long concerns of a humanitarian crisis is unprecedented even for the region here regarding the 1.2 million people we know who, according to aid agencies, are still trapped inside that area. Now a humanitarian corridors have been asked for by aid agencies. They're not really in evidence of this stage. In fact, the opposite appears to be happening. The U.N., instead, reporting that four days ago about 100, 200 or so families, potentially over a thousand people, were marched from the village they lived in near Mosul on foot to Mosul to be human shields inside that by ISIS. The U.N. pointing to their give concern of the absolute disregard for human life ISIS have been showing.

Now, we saw some of that today in evidence in a completely distant city from Mosul itself, Kirkuk, oil rich, run by the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga who are at the front of a lot of the fighting in this first wave of the assault against Mosul. Live images, designed I'm sure by ISIS to shake people up in this Kurdish-held area of the assault against security buildings there. It went on for hours. Many have died in it, 30 ISIS militants launching this attack at down. The big question, of course, is will we see other asymmetrical types of attack around the area as this onslaught against Mosul continues. It's slow, hard going. ISIS still putting up fierce resistance for some of the settlements on the outskirts of the territory that they hold that's currently under attack. One American life lost in the last 24, 48 hours. Little we know. (INAUDIBLE) seems to have been killed by a mine and died off the battlefield from his injuries. But we've seen ourselves, Wolf (ph), American special forces in their armored vehicle right at the front of some of the armored Peshmerga convoys that go into the towns held by ISIS and the White House admitting they will be in harm's way.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much, outside of Mosul.

I want to stay on this and bring in Aaron David Miller, vice president and distinguished scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for scholars and he is the author of "The End of Greatness: Why America Can't Have and Doesn't Want another Great President." He was a Middle East negotiator in Democratic and Republican administrations.

So, Aaron, appreciate your always valuable voice. Welcome back.

AARON DAVID MILLER, VICE PRESIDENT & DISTINGUISHED SCHOLAR, WILSON CENTER: A pleasure to be here, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's just springboard right off of Nick's point about the potential for these people, the 1.2 million left in Mosul, some being used as human shields according to this U.N. report. How could they get out? Do you think a humanitarian corridor could be a possibility? And why would you believe ISIS if they agreed to it?

MILLER: I mean I don't think ISIS will. You know, intercepted communications that the Iraqis are monitoring indicates that ISIS fighters are being instructed to fight to the end, fight the death. And I think that the real concern here is the humanitarian catastrophe, both in terms of the numbers of civilians that could be killed. Once the city is besieged, then at some point it's going to have to be entered. And ISIS has had two years to prepare for this. And I think there will be any number of surprises and clearly civilians are going to be caught up in what is going to be a fierce and incredibly determined struggle.

[14:30:01] Then there's the question of humanitarian flow-in and refugee migration. So I think the big losers, just as in Syria and Iraq, will be the people in Syria and Iraq.