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Obama: If Clinton Elected, Ambition Will be Questioned; Iraqi Forces Battling the Elements as Turkish Military Mobilizes Tanks, Bulldozers Near Mosul; Rick Santorum Talks Race, Trump's Blue State Strategy. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired November 01, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00] SAMANTHA BEE, COMEDIAN: There's just something about her?
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's something about her.
When men are ambitious, it's taken for granted. Well, of course, they should be ambitious. When women are ambitious, why? That theme, I think, will continue throughout her presidency and it's contributed to this notion that somehow she is hiding something.
BEE: What a nasty woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk this over with CNN political commentators right now. We have Symone Sanders, a Democratic strategist; and Ana Navarro, a strategist for the Republican Party.
Neither of you loved Donald Trump. Symone Sanders supporting Hillary Clinton, Ana Navarro writing in her mother on the ballot. So we're all clear.
Ana Navarro, what did you make of the president's response to that question?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR; You know, to tell you the truth I thought it was a little dated, this idea that people still think that if a woman is ambitious there's something wrong with that woman, I'm not sure I agree with that.
You're a little bit younger than I am.
Symone is younger than I am. But anybody that tells us that a woman being ambitious is a wrong thing. I have feel pity for those people. I grew up raised by sacred heart nuns I an all girls' school. I grew up in a family where not having ambition was considered a defect so I don't agree with him. I think women today have no calms, no shame, no embarrassment, no problem being ambitious. Ambitious and proud.
BALDWIN: Amen, sister, to that, first of all.
But let me also say he wasn't just I think talking about women in this country, he was answering the question of what the equivalent of "you weren't born here" would be for Hillary Clinton in America.
Symone, what did you think?
SYMONE SANDERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I thought it was absolutely true. I, like Ana, believe ambition is the way to go. And I was raised by Sacred Heart nuns. Shout out to Sacred Heart School in Omaha, Nebraska.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
SYMONE: But I think the way the veil was pulled off and folks thought we lived in a post-racial America after we elected President Obama, if we have the chance -- which I think we will -- to elect secretary Clinton as the 45th president of the United States, the veil will be pulled off and we will have to confront our issues of misogyny and country. Everybody wants an ambitious woman until they get one, then once they have her there's issues so I think this is a thing President Obama touched on and something that we'll see a lot more of.
BALDWIN: Ana, if you didn't like the answer, what would you say? Just be honest, what would be the, you know, "you weren't born here" issue that if and when Hillary Clinton wins she will deal with?
NAVARRO: If and when she wins, I think it's the same themes you've seen in this campaign -- untrustworthy, crooked, all of those things. But I think the scrutiny is going to be about, that any money -- outside money her brothers make or Bill Clinton's brother makes or Chelsea makes or her son-in-law makes or Bill makes or anybody associated with them makes is going to be under enormous scrutiny because of what we've seen in this campaign.
But I just don't think ambition is going to be one of them. We're not going to be able to criticize her for playing too much golf. I think she might be the only president since Ronald Reagan that doesn't play golf. So I guess if we need to get creative. We can criticize her for doing too much downward dog, doing too much yoga, but we'll have to get creative on Hillary Clinton.
BALDWIN: Spending too much time with her grandkids. You never know what people will say.
Last question, on the stump, in these final weeks, Symone, President Obama -- he's out four different places this is week for Hillary Clinton. And we remember back to four years ago where Bill Clinton, he was out supporting President Obama and his re-election four stops in one day, that mega DNC speech. He's got huge ratings. Will it work?
SANDERS: I'm not sure, actually, Brooke. And it remains to be seen. We know young people like myself we love President Obama. President Obama was the first presidential candidate I cast my vote for. So, you know, young people, like myself, they want to see him out here. They love him and Michelle. But the fact is President Obama is not on the ballot. But his progress is, and that is the case you'll see President Obama on the stump making. The numbers with black millennial voters are not where they should be across the country. And this is an opportunity to put a jolt to those numbers and encourage those young folks to come out, because it's not about secretary Clinton. It's about our progress, it's about the issues young people say we love and we want to see advanced. And if we really care about those issues, we have to go to the ballot box and vote, from the top of the ballot down to the county comptroller.
[14:35:05] BALDWIN: Symone, thank you.
Ana, thank you.
And thank you to Sacred Heart, as well.
NAVARRO: Be ambitious, ladies. Be ambitious. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
BALDWIN: Every day. (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).
Thank you so much.
Coming up next, let's turn the page and talk about what's happening overseas, snipers, land mines, now a sandstorm. CNN takes you to the fight against ISIS as Iraqi troops are just hundreds of yards away from retaking a key city. We'll take you there.
Also, former Republican candidate, Rick Santorum, will join us live. His take of the state of the race one week out, and Trump's blue state strategy coming down the stretch, especially in his home state of Pennsylvania.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:40:06] BALDWIN: "Surrender or die," that's the message from Iraq's prime minister to the remaining ISIS terrorists holed up in the city of Mosul. Iraqi forces are right now battling the elements, wave after wave of sandstorms here, plus the threat of roof top snipers, remotely detonated car bombs, and a road blocked by boulders. ISIS fighters trying a slew of tactics to stop Iraqi troops from entering the city of Mosul but it hasn't worked. Iraqi soldiers have sealed off the last village they have to clear before breaking into the city of Mosul.
Meantime something is puzzling happening on the border between Turkey and Iraq. You have to Turkish military officers saying it's mobilizing tanks and bulldozers in the two cities closest to Mosul, but they won't say why.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, is there on the outskirts.
Arwa?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A sandstorm has just swept in, adding another layer of difficulty and challenges to the current push around this town. This is the closest that Iraqi forces have been to Mosul since ISIS swept through and took it over more than two years ago. And throughout the course of the day they have been coming across artillery fire, exchanging it, mortar fire, rocket fire, and small arms fire exchanges as well.
They don't know exactly how many ISIS fighters are here because the commander says ISIS is moving assets between the town and the city of Mosul itself. We are less than a kilometer away from its outskirts.
but what is has been doing and what we saw them do on this day is seemingly send small groups of fighters to try to circle around and attack the more fixed positions that the Iraqis have been setting up.
(GUNFIRE)
DAMON: ISIS does regularly sneak up on forces. And this particular position did not receive any incoming fire all morning. But then a few rounds came in. And they believe they spotted three fighters just around that house right there.
(GUNFIRE)
DAMON: A rocket strike was then called in to take out what was believed to be the ISIS fighters' positions. Now the commanders here say they are going through, compared to other areas, very slowly, very methodically. And that is most by because there are around 25,000 civilians believed to be inside the town which makes things like calling in an air strike or using artillery or rocket fire that much more difficult because it has to be precise, otherwise, they risk causing significant civilian casualties.
Arwa Damon, CNN, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Arwa, thank you.
It may be a slow push to retake Mosul but the military assessment right now is that Iraqi troops are gaining ground and flushing out ISIS militant.
But if you ask Donald Trump, this is what he'll tell you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The resistance is much greater now because they knew about the attack. Why can't they win first and talk later? Why do they have to say three months before the attack, we're going in? So you can tell your military expert that I'll sit down and teach him a couple things.
Even Mosul, we're trying to retake Mosul a second time because we essentially gave it up. So now we're going in. And we gave them -- did we give them enough advanced notice? Four months is enough time, right?
General, did we give Mosul enough advance notice? I think so.
Four months. And I keep saying whatever happened to the element of surprise? The element of surprise.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Joining me now, a former rival of Donald Trump's during the primary season, and now a supporter, former Senator Rick Santorum, of the great state of Pennsylvania.
Great to have you on. Welcome back.
RICK SANTORUM, (R), FORMER SENATOR & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & TRUMP SUPPORTER: Thanks, Brooke. Good to be on.
BALDWIN: Since we heard from Arwa in Iraq, I wanted to begin there Donald Trump, you can give the man credit when it comes to how he talks about the economy and business but, Senator, when it comes to Iraq and Syria and war, he has no personal experience. He has no credibility so my question is, are you comfortable with him using that language?
SANTORUM: I'm comfortable with the language saying we gave away Mosul, we did that, that's a fact. We had control of Mosul and had we developed a status of forces agreement we would have kept forces the place and we couldn't have had ISIS and we wouldn't be now. I embrace that comment. As far as giving warning, look, there's always a school of thought as to how you organize an attack and when you launch and how much "warning" you give. And there are generals who have been critical of the way this has been conducted. So I don't think it's an outrageous thing for him to say. I'm not sure it's his strongest point but there's credible evidence to suggest that planning and foreshadowing the attack that far ahead was not the smartest thing to do.
[14:45:25] BALDWIN: Back at home, this campaign, you know, you and I haven't spoken since that "Access Hollywood" tape came out. I met your daughter here on set one time. And you are a man of faith and family and honor. When it comes to Donald Trump's character, are you 100 percent comfortable with him?
SANTORUM: No, I'm not comfortable with some of the things he says and some of the things he's done. Look, I find it disgusting and I'm not going to do anything publicly or otherwise to try to make excuses for him. When I look at this race, I see candidates both from a character point of view of who have some serious problems. Hillary Clinton has serious problems telling the truth and secrecy and Pay-for-Play and all the other things that come from being an insider and Washington, D.C., and making, by the way, hundreds of millions of dollars doing it. And I look at Donald Trump and I see, just as you mentioned, a man whose character is not exactly what I want to recommend to my kids to emulate. So I have problems both --
(CROSSTALK) SANTORUM: -- with both on character.
BALDWIN: Did you ever --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Did you ever, though, Senator, rethink or give it a good long think, your support of Mr. Trump and conversations you might have had with your daughters on this when it broke?
SANTORUM: No, because, you know, I don't want my daughters to emulate Hillary Clinton either. This is someone who I find not just on a character deeply flawed but also on public policy. It comes down to one of them is going to be president. They won't be head of the garden club. They're going to be running the country.
BALDWIN: We're talking about the leader of the free world here.
SANTORUM: Right. So I'll look at their policies. Both have character issues that are problematic. But what I do know is that Hillary Clinton's policies are dangerous for this country. Her national security policies are incredibly dangerous. I spoke to a Jewish group a couple of nights ago, and it couldn't be more clear, Hillary Clinton is going to continue the policy of giving Iran a nuclear weapon, whether it's in a year, two years or under the agreement 10 years, which will threaten the existence of the state of Israel. That's a serious policy flaw. and Donald Trump has said we won't let that happen. That, to me, is the things that unfortunately are not being talked about on CNN, MSNBC or FOX or any networks because we're talking about character flows. And, yes, we have two deeply flawed candidates with character. That's why their unpopularity is so high.
But when it comes to the issues, I'll support the candidate I think has a better chance of putting a path forward for American workers getting a good job. And I think Trump has a better solid plan on that. Somebody I think would do a better job of keeping our country safe. That's why I'm for Trump.
BALDWIN: I was listening to Mike Pence and Donald Trump talking about Obamacare in Pennsylvania. And I also heard --
SANTORUM: Obamacare is a huge disaster in Pennsylvania.
BALDWIN: I know. And you would know. And you also would know how that resonates with a lot of Republicans. But I was also listening to Mike Pence who was saying today -- his message to Republicans standing on that stage was it's time to come home.
But here you have Governor John Kasich in Ohio who isn't voting for Donald Trump. He talks about how he was writing in John McCain. You have to most powerful Republican on Capitol Hill, Paul Ryan who says yes he voted for the Republican nominee but he couldn't bring himself to say "I Trump." Is that the best way to inspire Republicans? Your fellow Republicans in this last stretch to come home?
SANTORUM: I'm not happy with John Kasich or Paul Ryan, and the way they're conducting themselves, Particularly John Kasich.
I'm going say to John Kasich, if you're watching, John, you signed a pledge saying you would support the Republican nominee for president, you signed a pledge in order to get on the ballot in South Carolina. You promised you would follow through with that. And you knew Donald Trump had a chance because he was leading in the polls at the time to be our nominee. And you signed it any way. You can't say a man, who won't keep is word, is someone that should be paid attention to when it comes to how he will vote. John, you are better than that.
John was a great friend in Congress and I know John Kasich is better than that.
Jeb Bush, I would say the same thing to you. You signed a pledge.
I would say the thing to other candidates who have not stepped forward and said, "I'm going to support Donald Trump," because you wouldn't have been able to run for president had you not signed that pledge. And if you're out there talking about, well, he has character beneath the dignity of the office, what about that character? What about the character -- I'll tell your kids and grandkids, you signed a pledge, you gave your word to be president of the United States, to run for president of the United States, and you backed away from it. Shame on them.
[14:50:13] BALDWIN: Senator Santorum, fired up today.
Seven days, sir. You ready?
SANTORUM: It's worth it. The country is at stake here.
BALDWIN: I know. I know it is.
SANTORUM: And I hope Republicans come to grips with that and come home.
BALDWIN: Senator, thank you so much.
SANTORUM: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Senator Rick Santorum, thank you.
Back in a flash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: You know Viola Davis, a high-profile defense attorney and law professor on ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder." The award- winning actress is an advocate for the poor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIOLA DAVIS, ACTRESS: Growing up in central falls, it was a mixture of the most idyllic joyful experience mixed with the kind of horrific traumatizing experience. My mom has an eighth grade education. She's smart, she's just not
educated. She was a part of a group of working poor women who fought for kids who are underserved.
(LAUGHTER)
[14:55:07] That's what I learned from her. You don't have to have the profile of what it may look like to be an activist, but what you have is a heart to serve.
I grew up poor so there's a human face on it for me. I understand the needs of the people.
One, two, three.
I'm serving with Direct Relief, which is a humanitarian aid program. And they provide health service, medical kits to places of disaster, impoverished communities throughout the world.
Today, they're offering a free health clinic and health screening here.
What they are providing is something a lot of communities will never even see and so, hopefully, it will be kind of a beacon of hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Love her, Viola Davis.
Meantime, check this out. Just moments from now, a former Miss Universe and Trump critic will be introducing Hillary Clinton at this rally. This is Dade City, Florida.
Also just in to CNN, we have new numbers on early voting in that key battleground state.
Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
