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Rampage Deepens Divide in Jewish Community over Trump; Trump Repeats Racially-Charged Rhetoric Against Gillum; Trump Claims He Can Defy Constitution, End U.S. Birthright; Trump Sends More U.S. Troops to Border than Iraq, Syria. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 30, 2018 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And the shooter did say he thought that President Trump had too many Jews around him.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right, right.

BLITZER: He also said the president was a globalist.

GREGORY: Right. There's another piece, too. There's a rush to politically demonize on both sides within the Jewish community, and I wish within the community that conservative supporters of Trump would not demonize the progressive Jews who want to uphold the value of immigrants. Just as they should -- whether it's Sheldon Adelson or Soros, neither one should be demonized, villainized by political opponents for their activities.

BLITZER: We will see how the visit by the president, the first lady, his daughter and son-in-law goes, how that visit goes later today.

Thanks very much, David Gregory --

GREGORY: Thank you.

BLITZER: -- for that

Even though the president is in charge of upholding the Constitution, he said he is going to go against one key element, one key amendment and end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States whose parents were undocumented immigrants who are here illegally. We will find out if he can.

Plus, more on the breaking news involving the notorious gangster, Whitey Bulger. We are hearing he has been killed inside a federal prison in West Virginia, 89 years old. More information coming in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:46] BLITZER: We're just one week away from the midterm elections. The Florida governor's race is one of the more heated contests, with escalating racially charged rhetoric going on. President Trump is doubling down on his attacks on the Democratic candidate, Andrew Gillum, calling him a stone-cold thief, with no evidence whatsoever. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have Ron DeSantis who is a Harvard/Yale guy. He's had a very terrific -- you know, he's a very good person. He is going to be a very good, a great governor.

This other guy is a stone cold -- in my opinion -- he's a thief. How can you have a guy like this? You look at his record. Also, look at the job he's done as the mayor of Tallahassee, he's a total disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our senior political reporter, Nia Malika Henderson, who has been following this race very, very closely.

"Stone cold thief." Has he ever been arrested? Has he ever been convicted of a crime at all?

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: No evidence whatsoever, the president is making this charge, and the critics are saying it's a racially charged attack.

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: If you look at this race, in many ways, it started out with these charges of racism with the candidate, Ron DeSantis, making a comment about "don't monkey this up" by electing Andrew Gillum. There have been racist robocalls in the race as well. And you have Andrew Gillum basically saying he doesn't think that Ron DeSantis is a racist, but the racists think he's a racist. Now you have Donald Trump injecting himself into the race. It's a very important race for him. He very much helped Ron DeSantis make his way through the primary and he's the reason he is in this race to begin with. There you have the president inserting himself in the last days as people are already going to the polls and it's so contagious.

BLITZER: If Gillum wins, he would be the state's first African- American governor.

HENDERSON: Exactly.

BLITZER: Here's his response to the president, quote, "I heard Donald Trump ran home to FOX News to lie about me. But as my grandmother told me, never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it. So ignore him and vote, Florida.

What do you think the impact of this a week before the midterms, and it's going to be a close race?

HENDERSON: It's going to be a close race. It has been close so far in the polls. Donald Trump trying to rally his voters there. He won that state in 2016 by about a point. If you are Andrew Gillum, you think this insertion of Donald Trump and his comments can rally your base. He is looking at the changing demographics in the state. It's about 17 percent black, about 24 percent Latino. He is looking for those voters and moderate whites to carry him to the finish line. We'll see how it goes. A week to go. People are already going to the polls. And we'll expect at some point Donald Trump will continue to comment on this race because it's such a battle.

BLITZER: He's going to visit I think.

HENDERSON: He's going to visit the area down there.

BLITZER: Pensacola, is that right?

HENDERSON: Yes. He's going to go down there. He has been down there before in this race. Very much watching it. We will see how it ends up playing out for these two candidates.

BLITZER: Yes.

Thank you very much. A week from today.

HENDERSON: Yes, indeed.

BLITZER: You heard about it.

HENDERSON: I heard about that. We'll be watching.

BLITZER: We'll be covering it.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BLITZER: A new midterm ploy. The president saying he can defy the U.S. Constitution and end birthright citizenship. Details when we come back.

[13:39:07] Plus, we'll hear from one couple who went to the courtroom to stare down the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre. You will hear what they say as President Trump gets ready to depart Washington for Pittsburgh.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: President Trump said he is preparing to defy the U.S Constitution and end U.S. birthright citizenship through an executive order. In an interview, the president said he will end the right to citizenship for the children of noncitizens even if the children were born here in the United States. Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution through the 14th Amendment to the Constitution 150 years ago.

Moments ago, Vice President Mike Pence said ultimately this would have to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all know what the 14th Amendment says. We all cherish the language of the 14th Amendment. But the Supreme Court of the United States has never ruled on whether or not the language of the 14th Amendment, "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," applies specifically to people who are in the country illegally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The announcement comes just a week before the midterm elections and it ratchets up President Trump's hardline immigration rhetoric.

Carrie Cordero is joining us now. She's a former counsel to a U.S. attorney general. And our senior White House correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is with us as well.

Let me read the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, the first sentence, Carrie, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

Can the president sign an executive order saying that what has been the rule of the land for so many years, he is going to change it?

[13:45:13] CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: The short answer, according to most legal scholars, is no. The president cannot unilaterally issue an executive order and overrule what is in the Constitution. The 14th Amendment, having been in place since 1868, and we are talking about going back to a Supreme Court case from 1898 that reaffirmed in a particular case that provision. The president cannot just issue an executive order and make the Constitution go away. What would have to happen, if this was going to be legally changed, would be either an act of Congress or the Supreme Court would have to overrule its jurisprudence from the late 19th century.

BLITZER: You are getting word that even some Republican leaders are saying the president can't do this.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. Speaker Paul Ryan was doing an interview with a Lexington, Kentucky, radio station a short time ago and we're told he said the president doesn't have the authority for this. And never mind the authority, but there's also not the appetite for this. If Democrats win control of the House next week, this won't be the conversation. What this is about is the president trying to fire up his base and change the subject to immigration. Yesterday it was adding troops on the border. Today, it's this. The reality is there's no appetite for this and no precedent. And there's no plan for this. I was talking to White House advisers this morning and there was no plan to rally the state legislatures. To change the Constitution would require a vote of two- thirds of the House and Senate or two-thirds of the state legislatures. That is not going to happen when you look at the makeup of both of those. It's a non-starter. It injects this in the blood stream and makes, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It riles up the base weeks before the election.

ZELENY: Right. CORDERO: I want to add, I think there's something other than the politics to this. Immigration and issues of citizenship have been an issue that the president talked about consistently. Even if an order like this would not be upheld if it were litigated, which it immediately would be if the president signed this, that doesn't mean it couldn't create chaos in the meantime. He could issue an order even if most think it's invalid. That would have to be litigated. And just like the original travel ban, which also had illegal limitations on what permanent resident aliens could do, it could have the same type of short-term chaos, which is not uncharacteristic of this president.

BLITZER: The vice president said ultimately -- even if the president were to sign an executive order saying no more children born in the United States whose parents are not here legally, they are not U.S. citizens simply by birthright, that birthright provision, if he signed that executive order, as Carrie Says, it would be immediately challenged in the courts. And the vice president said it would wind up in the hands of the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, five conservatives, four liberals.

ZELENY: Certainly. But there's no guarantee how any of these justices would vote. The reality is, even some of the people -- I'm sure that's the last thing that Judge Kavanaugh wants or Judge Gorsuch wants, or anything else, because it would seem to me, they would have to rule against the president in this case. I think Carrie is right. It doesn't matter the outcome. The president is not focused on the outcome. He's focused on the here and now. This reminds me of the Muslim ban he proposed at the end of the 2015 cycle. He rallied people behind him. Everyone said it wasn't going to happen. It was one of the first effects in the first week of office. It was changed three of four times. But it still had the effect of rallying the base and causing tons of confusion and chaos. I'm told this is the last thing the people at the Homeland Security Department want as well to deal with something like this.

BLITZER: I'm sure it's not something that Chief Justice Roberts would want before the Supreme Court either.

CORDERO: No. I would emphasize that, in terms of folks in the legal community, across the wide spectrum, from conservative lawyers to who might fall more on the liberal side, but in the legal establishment, there's wide consensus that the president can't do this.

BLITZER: We'll see if he signs that executive order of if he is simply just talking now a week before the election to try to get the Republican base out to vote in the midterm elections. Lots of politics going on. We shouldn't be surprised.

Guys, thank you very much.

As funerals are under way for the victims of the synagogue massacre, President Trump getting ready to leave the White House to head off to Pittsburgh in the next hour. But a growing list of elected officials, including Republicans, say they won't be joining him. [13:49:50] And we will have more on the breaking news involving the

notorious gangster, Whitey Bulger. We are hearing he has been killed inside a federal prison in West Virginia. New details are coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: One week before the midterm elections here, President Trump is ordering more than 5,000 U.S. troops to the border with Mexico. That's in addition to the roughly 2,000 troops already there. The move is aimed at sending a message as a caravan of migrants works its way through Mexico, moving toward the U.S. border, although they're at least a thousand miles away right now. The deployment of U.S. military personnel to the border means the U.S. will have more troops along the border with Mexico than fighting ISIS in Iraq, and far more than the roughly 2000 troops currently deployed in Syria.

Meanwhile, Mexico has permitted almost 3,000 of the migrants to seek asylum in Mexico, offering education to children. They're now say some could be eligible for employment, provided they stay in the southern part of the country.

Joining us now, Geronimo Gutierrez. He's Mexico's ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Ambassador, thanks so much for coming in.

[13:54:38] GERONIMO GUTIERREZ, MEXICAN AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: What's the latest with this so-called caravan? How many people there are, how many people are dropping out, how many are accepting Mexico's proposals to get asylum in Mexico and not be forced to go back to the violence in Honduras?

GUTIERREZ: The Mexican government took a very important step and decided to offer refugee status for these people. We have a humanitarian crisis and we did to call it for what it is. Around 2,153 people have requested refugee status in Mexico, and they're in permanent contact with --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: They'll all stay in Mexico.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: They're not going to continuing on toward the -- how many are continuing on supposedly now?

GUTIERREZ: There's another group of around 3,000 now in the state of Oaxaca that are basic -- we're trying to get them exactly through the same process. They're presently ion the state of Oaxaca. And this was a very important --

BLITZER: So you assume a lot of them will accept Mexico's offer for political asylum? They'll have a new life in Mexico? GUTIERREZ: The intent of the Mexican government is precisely that.

We're working towards that goal. The United States and Mexico have an interest in making sure that immigration is safe and that it's legal and it's orderly. And that --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Is this the first time Mexico is doing this, offering asylum to these --

GUTIERREZ: We do have already a refugee program, but it'll certainly be increased with the new developments.

BLITZER: And it's the result of the U.S. position, the U.S. leaning on Mexico or Mexico

GUTIERREZ: No --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- to do so or simply Mexico doing the humanitarian right thing?

GUTIERREZ: We believe we're doing the right thing. It is in the interest of Mexico to make sure immigration is legal, safe and orderly. And we do that according to our own objectives and policies. But we do share with the United States the view that the whole country, the whole region would benefit if migration took place in this way.

BLITZER: Have you seen any evidence at all that there are Middle Easterners in these caravans as President Trump has alleged?

GUTIERREZ: Well, that information has not been confirmed by Mexican authorities.

BLITZER: Have you seen any evidence at all --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- of any Middle Easterners?

GUTIERREZ: The Mexican government does not have that information. Nevertheless, what I can say is we work very closely with the Central American countries and the United States to make sure we share information on any security threats.

BLITZER: There was a man in one of the caravans who died following the clash with Mexican police forces along the border with Guatemala. There's some concern that this individual was inappropriately killed by the Mexican police authorities.

GUTIERREZ: That's certainly not the case. Mexican police forces who were at the border were not armed in any way. The fact they're there is to uphold the law. Unfortunately, on many occasions, these groups put women and children in front. And it is the government's objective to assure above all the safety of any human being. But nevertheless, there are specific protocols being followed by our police forces there.

BLITZER: The notion that the president is deploying 5,000, or 7,000 military forces to the border with Mexico, what's your reaction to that?

GUTIERREZ: As I mentioned, both countries have an interest in making sure that our shared border is secure, it's safe, and the migration is legal, safe and orderly. We don't always see eyeball to eyeball in how to achieve that, but that is why it's important that we keep our dialogue and corroboration going.

BLITZER: But the notion that there are more U.S. troops on the border with a friendly country like Mexico, a neighbor of the United States, than are in Syria or Iraq right now, that looks rather nasty.

GUTIERREZ: A few weeks ago, here in D.C., the United States and Mexican governments co-convened a conference along with the northern triangular countries to address these issues. The conclusions are very clear and they're basically three: number one, we need to work to foster more development in those regions to ensure migration is not a necessity. And we're doing so. Number two, we certainly need to enforce the laws in a humane way. And that's what we're doing. And, number three, and that's where we have a lot of work together to make sure that human trafficking and smuggling organizations are addressed by our shared efforts.

[14:00:02] BLITZER: Good luck to you.

GUTIERREZ: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: And good luck to everyone involved. Not easy issues.

Ambassador Gutierrez, thanks so much for joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.