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Trump: Unacceptable if Kavanaugh Lied in Testimony; Trump: "Very Scary Time" for Young Men in America; Lindsey graham: Trump Should Re-Nominate Kavanaugh if Confirmation Fails; Letters to Defense Department & Navy Chiefs Test Positive for Ricin; Interview with Sen. Mike Rounds; Chinese War Ship in Close Encounter with U.S. Navy Destroyer in South China Sea; Desperation Grows in Indonesia as Death Toll Climbs. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 02, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:30:00] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was abnormal. It was totally normal. Everybody was drinking. They used to drink a lot of beer. There nothing wrong -- I just didn't choose to do that. But almost everybody else did. I don't see anything wrong.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: No, I never tried anything else either

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The president of the United States moments ago, speaking to reporters, answering several questions on the South Lawn of the White House as he got ready to board Marine One to make that short flight to Joint Base Andrews and fly to Philadelphia on Air Force One.

Let's get reaction to what we just heard.

Gloria Borger, several significant statements the president made, including, "I don't think he should lie to Congress. A lot of people have lied to Congress. To me, that would not be acceptable."

At the same time, he offered extremely strong support for his Supreme Court Nominee.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Very much supportive. Trying to stay out of the way of the process, trying to put himself aside. And what's interesting to me, politically, was he made the case, and I think he's 100 percent right, which is that the confirmation of Kavanaugh has become what he called a rallying cry for the Republicans. I mean, I think he's saying that out there on the campaign trail. I think there's some polling showing that this could be energizing for the Republican base. It's also clear he doesn't want to talk to Rod Rosenstein right now about his future in the middle of the whole Kavanaugh controversy. But I think his notion that you can't lie to Congress is going to be something the Democrats are clearly going to pick up on.

BLITZER: Kaitlan Collins is our White House correspondent. She was listening carefully as well.

What did you think, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORREPONDENT: Wolf, I think President Trump finally answered the question that I posed to him yesterday, which is that if Brett Kavanaugh did mislead or lie to Congress about his drinking habits back in college, which he has been accused of by someone who went to school with him, President Trump said that would be unacceptable for him. He said, "I don't think he should lie to Congress." And there are a lot of people over the past year who he says have lied to Congress. But Trump said, and I quote, "For me, that would not be acceptable." That's what we've seen this conversation turn to from these sexual assault allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and, too, whether he was honest and forthcoming when he testified during that hearing last week, Wolf. That is an answer from the President. There does seem to be another question about whether or not whether the FBI is even looking at that, whether or not his misled Congress about that or if they're simply focusing on the sexual assault allegations, which is what it seems to be. From the scope of the White House and the Senate Republicans told the FBI to look at last week. That's a big question there. Maybe that will change what the FBI is looking at. That's the question going forward.

But, Wolf, another headline out of that was President Trump voicing sympath6y for men in America in this period of time in the "Me Too" movement. He said it's a "very scary time" for young men in America, saying essentially now you are guilty until you're proven innocent and that allegations from decades ago, like the ones made against Brett Kavanaugh, can derail your life and your career.

Now, those are interesting comments because of two reasons. One, President Trump himself has been accused of sexual assault by more than a dozen women, allegations which he has denied. But also because President Trump has privately voiced suspicion about the "Me Too" movement. And he said, when asked if he had a message for young women in America, and he said that it's a great time for women in America. Interesting comments there.

One other thing I want to point out, he was asked about Senator Lindsey Graham's statement earlier today that, if for some reason, Judge Kavanaugh's nomination fails, Lindsey Graham said he believe President Trump should re-nominated him to be a Supreme Court nominee. When President Trump was asked about that, he said he thought it was an interesting idea. He cited his friendship with Lindsey Graham, but didn't answer whether or not he would consider that. Instead, Wolf, he said he wants to wait and see what the FBI investigation about - into Brett Kavanaugh's background, that additional investigation, what that's going to reveal. But he does believe there should be a vote this week on Brett Kavanaugh.

BLITZER: That's what the Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said once again today, there will be a vote this week. Those were his words.

Kaitlan, stand by.

Carrie Cordero, what did you think of what you heard from the president?

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: He is being measured in his assessment of what is going to happen with Judge Kavanaugh's nomination. Uncharacteristically measured.

With respect to the prospects for Judge Kavanaugh are, when I look back at the hearing from last week, as someone who has participated in prepping nominees for positions where they are going to be confirmed, prepping senior government executives for testimony before Congress, and having testified before Congress myself, what Judge Kavanaugh did was basically the professional equivalent of pouring gasoline on himself and lighting himself on fire. As a Washington lawyer, it was crazy to watch his anger, assertiveness, combativeness with the members of Congress. I think, separate and apart from the allegations and what the FBI investigation revealed this week as to whether or not the allegations can be supported by additional factual investigation, his testimony itself raises a new set of questions as to his temperament and his overall fitness for the court.

[13:35:25] BORGER: It's about partisanship. And it's about whether he would have to recuse himself. Law Professor Lawrence Tribe (ph) writes today he can see cases coming down the pike where he has to recuse himself because of what he said about the Democrats and the Clintons, et cetera, etc. Who knows?

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: You look at the Supreme Court and there are always those calls. With the travel ban, should Neil Gorsuch have weighed in? Once he reaches the bench, I think a lot of people are going talk about his opening statement, going at the Clintons, glaring at the Democrats.

As far as the cases that would come to him, if he did make it, I'm not sure that that would really hold water, the recusal thing.

What I saw with Donald Trump, which I think is so interesting, that was once again the Donald Trump selling himself. We saw it yesterday. He was frustrated early on by the way this candidate had been handled. And today, we see him taking this past the Supreme Court. This is not just about the Supreme Court seat. It's about being proven guilty right away. It's also about young men. It's very interesting. He is taking the reins of this and going out with his own sell on it.

BORGER: He is speaking about himself. The question is Donald Trump's credibility when he speaks about sexual assault and echoing his son, Donald Trump Jr, about how awful this is for young men. I would argue -- and I'm the mother of a son -- it's awful for young women. He does not talk about the women and how awful it is for the women who have been assaulted and who are now coming out and talking about their experiences.

BLITZER: Carrie, what did thank you think of Lindsey Graham, the Republican Senator from South Carolina, and now a friend of the president's, suggesting that if for some reason the nomination fails, the president should immediately re-nominate Judge Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court and try it again.

CORDERO: As a legal matter, I will have to look and see whether or not that has ever been done. I'm not aware of it ever having been done, but I will have to go back --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Probably not

CORDERO: I'll have to go back and do the research. As a political matter, it seems awfully unlikely. Especially because it seems the reason that the president, if he were to withdraw the nomination, the reason is because this FBI investigation reveals something new, something that corroborates Dr. Ford's story. Then, in addition that, whether or not members, particularly those that are maybe on the fence and who take Dr. Ford's allegations seriously, whether or not they take a second look at Judge Kavanaugh for the reasons I described, with respect to how he handled himself in his hearing and whether or not he could be impartial in a case that is like a Bush v. Gore-type case where politics are at the center of the matter.

BLITZER: Let's see if he is confirmed this week. According to the majority leader, there will be a final vote this week. We will see when or if that happens.

Everyone, thank you very much. Important analysis.

Other breaking news we are following, including very disturbing news coming in from the Pentagon. Two pieces of mail addressed to the Defense Department and to U.S. Navy chiefs and delivered to the Pentagon have now tested positive for ricin. We have details. Stand by.

The U.S. issues a fresh threat to Russia, warning it could take out its missiles if necessary. Disturbing developments, indeed. We'll discuss when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:38] BLITZER: The following breaking news. Two pieces of mail sent to the Pentagon mail facility just tested positive for the poison ricin. The FBI is taking a closer look.

Let's bring in our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

What can you tell us, Barbara, about these two letters?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, at this hour, the FBI is conducting a secondary round of testing, are trying to determine what they are dealing with. These two envelopes came in a postal service mail bag apparently yesterday. Initial testing and initial screening at the Pentagon mail screening facility indicated that they tested positive for ricin. What we want to say is this screening facility is outside the Pentagon and these two pieces of mail never entered the building. The 20,000 people that work at the Pentagon were never at any risk. One envelope was addressed to Defense Secretary James Mattis, who is

traveling in Europe this week, and the othering to Admiral John Richardson, the head of the U.S. Navy.

There's a good deal of concern about trying to determine what exactly has occurred here, and whether, in fact, the deadly agent ricin is fully confirmed to be in these two involves. The FBI now has the lead. They are trying to test them and figure out exactly what happened here -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Very disturbing, indeed. I'm glad they do the tests before the mail is delivered to the Pentagon.

Barbara, thank you very much. Update our viewers when you get more information.

STARR: Absolutely.

[13:45:05] BLITZER: Other breaking news we're following, President Trump speaking out on his Supreme Court nominee, saying it would be unacceptable if Brett Kavanaugh did lie under oath to Congress. I will get a Republican Senator's reaction when we come back.

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BLITZER: President Trump moments ago saying this about the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination and the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:50:02] TRUMP: I don't think you should lie to Congress. And there have been a lot of people over the last year that have lied to Congress. And to me, that would not be acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Joining us from Capitol Hill, Senator Mike Rounds, Republican from South Dakota.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

The president made that declaration and he issued a strong statement of support for his Supreme Court nominee. What do you think about what the president said about lying to Congress?

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS, (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: Lying to Congress is just not acceptable. That's just all there is to it.

BLITZER: I know you support the nomination of Brett Confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. Is there any concerns now, especially as the FBI is concluding a secondary investigation?

ROUNDS: Not at this time, Wolf. At this point, we're doing the extra due diligence. Some of our members specifically asked for it. That's fair. Let's move our way through it and then we're going to vote. At this time, this is now the seventh time that the FBI has made a review and investigation. His files are available for any Senate member to come in and to look at. Once this new one is complete, and it's being made available to the United States Senate, it will be time for us to once again take up the process and move forward. Up or down, but to move forward.

BLITZER: What do you make of Senator Lindsey Graham's proposal today that the president should re-nominate Judge Kavanaugh for the United States Supreme Court if, for some reason, his confirmation fails this week?

ROUNDS: I haven't heard of that yet. For me, I'd rather move forward with the existing nomination in front of us. With the Supreme Court in session now, it would be good to expedite, to move forward. This has gone on longer than the average for most of the recent Supreme Court nominees. One again, we have to do our due diligence. We'll work out way through it. This has been tough on Mr. Kavanaugh and his family. At the same time, we wanted to offer the respect, and give an opportunity for those who have made the accusations to come forward and to be heard. We tried to do that in a very respectful manner. But now it's time to move forward. These are hard votes to take for some of our members. We want to give them the time but we still want to move forward with the process.

BLITZER: The Democrats see a lot of hypocrisy here that Merrick Garland, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, waited months and months and months and didn't even get a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and they're saying you guys are being hypocritical.

ROUNDS: I had a chance to have him in my office and I spoke with him. I thanked him for allowing his name to be placed in nomination, even after the majority leader, who sets the agenda, say we would not be taking it up. What it did for President Obama was allow him to fulfill his constitutional responsibility to actually nominate someone to the court. So I had a very good discussion with him. He was a gentleman. We had a visit. But nonetheless, the processes in place in the Senate were followed, the same way they should be now.

BLITZER: A couple of other questions. I know you're concerned about what's going on in China. There was another very close call in this South China Sea, a Chinese warship coming just 45 yards from the "USS Decatur," a naval destroyer. You're a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. This looks increasingly tenuous and potentially very dangerous.

ROUNDS: This occurred in the Spratly Islands. That's an area in which the Chinese are making claims. They are saying these are their islands. There are other countries that dispute that. They want to be able to move us out farther away from their homeland. They want to get us farther away. They think if they do that, they can control that area, number one, they can control the shipping lanes. For that purpose, we do freedom-of-navigation activity on a regular basis throughout the world. Our Navy makes sure that navigation continues through those areas. Where we think there are excessive claims for sovereignty in and around islands, we go in and we let them know we disagree and we send a message that we're not going to allow them to do that. This is one of those cases where China is saying we're going to expand it out, we're going to go to this area. We think we have a claim. The United States is saying, you do not. There have actually been world courts that have come back in and identified some of these islands as not being theirs. At this point, we have a case of where it's we think we should have freedom of navigation, they don't. The U.S. Navy will continue to do its work. Hopefully, diplomacy will work. We'll be able to get back in. We'll have some relations cooling off a little bit with China as opposed to heating up, but we'll continue to allow those freedom-of-navigation passages to continue forward.

BLITZER: It's a tenuous, very tenuous situation.

Senator Rounds, thank you so much for joining us.

ROUNDS: Thank you.

[13:54:54] BLITZER: The frantic search for survivors continues in Indonesia as the death toll climbs to more than 1,200. We're going to go there live. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Right now, the death toll in Indonesia from the devastating earthquake and tsunami stands at more than 1,200 people. That number is expected to climb as bodies continue to be pulled from the rubble. Rescuers and family members are still desperately searching for survivors.

CNN's international correspondent, Matt Rivers, is in the city of Palu for us.

Matt, tell our viewers what you're seeing, what you're hearing. How are people coping?

MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're doing the best they can, Wolf. But I can't stress enough how brutal the devastation here in Palu has been, for a number of different regions. The destruction behind me would have been a four-foot shopping mall and then the earthquake happens and down it goes. This is repeated across that area. As if that wasn't bad enough, the earthquake itself followed up by a devastating tsunami. Six meters high that wave was. Absolutely destructive in its power. That's why you're seeing those death tolls that keep going up by the day. Authorities are still having to get into remote areas in eastern Indonesia to just figure out how bad the problem is, to find people who might still be trapped or who are dead already that haven't been discovered. It it's a very, very stressful situation.

Here we spoke to people all day long who are very upset with the government's response. They say it's been slow, ineffective. There's a lack of electricity, water, health care hygiene. It's exacerbating the death toll. People are already going through so much, expecting more of their government. And they're saying is Indonesia's government is not responding the way they should.

BLITZER: Are they getting international support?

RIVERS: Yes, there's a little bit trickling in. Indonesia's government asked for international support. They're taking it selectively. There were international teams at the airport today. But it goes back to the same thing, where was the call for international aid on Friday evening, Saturday morning? It took the government days to even broach the subject. Now people are saying it's almost too little too late.

[13:59:50] BLITZER: Matt Rivers, on the scene for us. Thank you very much.

For ways that you, our viewers, can help the victims affected by the affect and the tsunami in Indonesia, go to CNN.com/impact.

I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

"NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.