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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Interview With Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings; White House Now Acknowledges Ebola Risks; Tide Turning In Syrian Border Town?; South Dakota Senate Race Has It All

Aired October 16, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Joining me now live is Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, who just came from an emergency meeting of individuals and officials in the Dallas area.

Mr. Mayor, thanks for joining us.

At that meeting, Dallas County commissioners are considering a disaster declaration saying that Dallas County, quote, "has the potential to suffer widespread or severe damage, injury, loss, or threat of life resulting from the Ebola virus."

What kind of widespread damages are you anticipating?

MAYOR MIKE RAWLINGS, DALLAS: Well, look, I am cautiously hopeful but I'm planning that we may have another case or two of this. And yesterday was not a good day. We -- having that second nurse was a great disappointment to everybody and we have decided to ramp it up significantly.

I testified in front of our commissioners. We've got the Dallas City and we got our county. I testified amongst the county that moving to a disaster level is not the right thing to do, but we have to make sure we focus on those 78 hospital workers and make sure that they are monitored and quarantined away from the public.

TAPPER: Mr. Mayor --

RAWLINGS: We've got to make --

TAPPER: -- with the understanding that we don't know of any confirmed cases beyond these two nurses, when you say you're expecting another case or two, what is that based on? Is that based on people who are under observation right now and it might turn out that they have Ebola, it might not turn out or --

RAWLINGS: No. To be effective at this point, you have to expect the worst. And I'm planning for that. I'm hoping that that's not the case. But let's plan for that.

And that's what I think we are aligned as a team and we've got to isolate these health care workers. I've been working with the state and federal government to put together a plan that makes sure those people stay away from public areas, stay off of planes, make sure they stay out of the restaurants that they are in, they monitor with someone taking their temperature twice a day. We've got a new protocol that hopefully this afternoon we'll be releasing and we've been working on it for the last 24 hours.

TAPPER: Mr. Mayor, what was your response to the nurses at Texas Presbyterian Hospital who many of them say they are afraid to work there because of what has happened with their fellow workers contracting Ebola and they have issued a statement through nurses union saying they, quote, "strongly feel unsupported, unprepared, lied to, and deserted by hospital administrators." That sounds horrific.

What was your response when you heard that?

RAWLINGS: My response was to take this action I just articulated. We have got to get more aggressive in this. It's my job to - for the safety of the citizens of Dallas to make sure the state, federal government and the county work together to nip this further in the bud. It's OK to be empathetic. People want action, though. I've had enough and we need to take this action.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: You've met, sir, with the families of Thomas Duncan who died from this disease and Nina Pham who was just transported east. Can you tell us how they are dealing with all of this?

RAWLINGS: This is very difficult. First of all, the family of Mr. Duncan, we've got in an isolated area and hopefully by the end of this week they will have gotten through the biggest crisis.

That's not true with Miss Pham. They are of great faith-oriented individuals and this is a challenge and we lift them up. They are the heroes. They are heroes, all of these folks. This was not their fault. This was something that we as a system were not prepared for.

TAPPER: Those first responders are heroes, nurses, doctors, the EMTs, et cetera. Mayor Rawlings, thank you so much. Hope you come on again.

Still ahead, the White House insists the president is always on the job, even when he's on the golf course, but suddenly the president is clearing his schedule to deal with the Ebola crisis. What is behind this new Obama strategy?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Turning now to the Politics Lead, just in to CNN, President Obama has now signed the executive order authorizing the deployment of the National Guard and reservist to support Ebola operations in West Africa.

For years, the White House has insisted that the president is always on duty whether he's at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, aboard Air Force One or even on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. That's pretty much been the position of the White House, until yesterday.

President Obama canceled a fundraising trip to discuss Ebola. He cleared his schedule again for today. Joining me to discuss the optics of this and presidential leadership at this time of something of a crisis are Bill Kristol, editor of "The Weekly Standard" and Stephanie Cutter, CNN contributor and Obama's deputy campaign manager in 2012.

Stephanie, first to you, you've heard that President Obama, after the Benghazi attack went to Las Vegas. He can do more he can walk and chew gum at the same time. He can be president wherever he goes.

But now this week, they are canceling these trips and President Obama is on the case. What's going on there? Is it a change in optics? Is he more on the case with this than he has been in the past? What do you think?

STEPHANIE CUTTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think there is an optics problem, but I also think that the Ebola crisis has really struck concern across this country. Many of it not based on fact, but still people are very concerned.

And I think the president made a decision that it was better to stay and run this from the White House rather than traveling and particularly it would be bad optics in the middle of this to go out and start campaigning. He's here and he's taking control and he is taking care of this.

TAPPER: Certainly no one can criticize him for that, but there's been a lot of criticism, Bill, of the Obama administration and more specifically the CDC response to this crisis. It does seem, though, that Governor Rick Perry of Texas and Republicans in that state have avoided being blamed when really at the beginning the federal government backed off and let Texas handle this.

BILL KRISTOL, EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": But who gave the visas to Thomas Eric Duncan in Liberia? It was the federal government. Other countries have shut down their visa programs from Liberia and somehow we decided, no problem, he wants to visit a girlfriend here, and let him fly into the U.S., but was that a prudent thing?

Some of us think it's quite fair to blame Texas for this. I think the president should rethink the visa policy in particular. Why are we giving tourists visas to people who -- to be fair, it's not their fault, but they may not know if they are infected, but why run the risk?

Now we have two nurses here that are infected at least and a real possibility of a spread here in the U.S., which wouldn't have been the case if Mr. Duncan had not been permitted to visit.

TAPPER: There are Democrats now, Senator Bill Nelson, the Democrat of Florida, is calling for a travel ban. The administration has shown no inclination to do that. Whether or not you can get aid into the country, stop the crisis there, it's a much worse crisis than it is here.

KRISTOL: But the visa that doesn't affect -- CUTTER: I think both of these things, banning flights and a visa

review process about we issuing visas from this country needs to be part of the solution here, but it's only a piece of the solution. It's not going to solve the Ebola crisis.

I'm not inside the administration, but I would imagine it's something that they are taking a look at and trying to understand what a nightmare that would be. You know, for instance, if somebody is flying from Liberia to Germany to Paris, where do you deny them access to the United States. Those are the types of things --

KRISTOL: But a visa to get on the plane to U.S.

TAPPER: President Obama a month ago went to CDC to convey that he was on top of the issue and he said something there that has not really stood up to scrutiny since. Let's play that sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: First and foremost, I want the American people to know that our experts here at the CDC and across our government agree that the chances of an Ebola outbreak here in the United States are extremely low.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He went on to make comments like that. That he even thought it was unlikely that Ebola would come to the U.S. shores. Obviously there hasn't been an outbreak in the traditional sense of dozens of people, but there's Ebola in the United States now and it's spreading.

What's going on? Why would he say that? Obviously he was trying to reassure people, but it seemed overly optimistic at the time, I thought.

CUTTER: Well, I think that he was trying to reassure people and there's always a danger when you say declared statements like that where something is not going to happen. I will say he did say the chances are low. He didn't say they were not existent.

TAPPER: Right.

CUTTER: But there is always a danger that something is going to happen. We've seen that in a number of different cases. Bill and I were just

talking about this. But I think it's a balance between reassuring people that they are safe, but also making sure that precautions are taken, that your words are ultimately going to be proven true.

TAPPER: Bill, right now, there's no confirmed surgeon general. There's an acting surgeon general and I've heard some liberals, some commentators say this is a perfect example of an obstructionist Republicans in the House and in the Senate blocking something that is in the public good.

His position on guns, which is one of the reasons why his confirmation has been held up, has nothing to do with Ebola. Do they have any point to make there?

KRISTOL: Last I heard, the Democrats control the Senate. They -

TAPPER: You don't need 60 votes.

KRISTOL: And Harry Reid changed the rules, didn't he? So you don't need 60 votes. If Harry Reid wants to call the Senate back tomorrow and confirm the surgeon general, if anyone think that's a serious policy, that would change the policy.

Look, there's been a combination here. I do think it's really disturbing, a bureaucratic ineptness and political correctness that I think is genuinely damaged the U.S. government response to this outbreak.

And it's not because there is or isn't a surgeon general. If the Democrats want to confirm him, they should do it tomorrow.

CUTTER: I think it's easy to find criticism from the chief seats of what's happening, but this has been --

KRISTOL: Stephanie, please speak for yourself.

CUTTER: But this is an enormous public health operation that's happening here and in several foreign countries. And I think that what we're seeing from Republicans, we also have to realize it's just a tad touch of politics in terms of trying to place blame on the administration.

You know, they should confirm the surgeon general. Republicans are part of the reason that he's being held up and while the surgeon general wouldn't solve this crisis, he is an important public person to give people information about how they can protect themselves.

KRISTOL: Well, Harry Reid should call the Senate back and have a serious debate about some of the public policy issues, like the visa policy and other things.

TAPPER: Bill Kristol and Stephanie Cutter, thank you so much, really appreciate it.

In our World Lead, as ISIS plants its black flag within miles of Baghdad and suicide bombers shake that capital. The Pentagon warns the terrorists are changing tactics to avoid U.S. airstrikes. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. In our World Lead, more fears today that Baghdad, the heart of Iraq, is vulnerable to the terrorist of ISIS. Suicide bombs there today killed at least seven people. ISIS claimed responsibility and reportedly is moving heavy weaponry and machinery to a town less than an hour from Baghdad.

There are signs of progress in the other country under siege by these ruthless Jihadis. However, Kurdish fighters inside the Syrian city of Kobani say they are finally, finally beginning to rappel ISIS' bloody assault after the U.S. struck ISIS targets 14 more times over the past two days.

CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is over at the magic wall. Jim, it's been another intense day of airstrikes in Kobani. "The Daily Beast"" is reporting that Turkey agreed today to allow U.S. drones to wage war from some of their Syrian border. Are we finally starting to see the tide turn?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're certainly seeing progress and that's only, Jake, because of a massive allocation of U.S. air power. In the last couple of days, Kobani has become the most struck target in Syria or Iraq since the start of the campaign, 122 airstrikes.

Look at how that compares to the Mosul Dam, for instance, a key piece of infrastructure in Iraq, a long campaign to take that back from ISIS or Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, the Kurdish Peshmerga, our key allies on the ground there or even Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, just 27 strikes compared to 122, almost five times as many around Kobani.

And Jake, just in the last week, there have been 85 strikes in Kobani, just one in Baghdad, and it's appearing to make a difference.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Explosions and gunfire followed by sirens. These are the sounds of Kobani fighting desperately to repel ISIS' advance. U.S. and coalition aircraft have unleashed a storm of air power striking ISIS targets a total of 122 times since the start of the campaign, more than any other location in Syria or Iraq. And the assault appears to be working, ISIS fighters now retreating from certain parts of the city.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: ISIL's advances appear to have slowed and we know that we have inflicted damage.

SCIUTTO: Defending Kobani, however, is not the administration officials have repeated, essential to defeating ISIS. Raising hard questions about where and how the campaign is making strategic progress.

(on camera): What are the strategic targets then in Iraq and Syria, and why isn't the U.S.-led coalition striking them more, particularly as you're focusing so much air power now on what has been repeatedly described as not essential to victory?

KIRBY: It matters to us for two reasons and I said this before, one, because it matters to them and they want it.

SCIUTTO: It's not just about why Kobani. It's why not more elsewhere, particularly if it's Iraq first and there are strategic targets. Why all of the air power there? Are you running out of targets?

KIRBY: Your question gets at what we would consider or call strategic patience. That needs to happen here. But I can assure you that Kobani is not the end here. There will be more strikes in more places against more targets.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): Elsewhere in Syria and Iraq, however, defense officials say ISIS is changing how it fights, travels, and communicates, making it harder to strike them from the air.

KIRBY: They are hiding more inside the population. They are making it harder for us to find them. They are also changing their communications.

SCIUTTO: And ISIS may now be opening another front in the war inside Baghdad. The militants are taking responsibility for attacks occurring almost daily in the capital, car bombs and suicide explosions, a shadow campaign to destabilize the most crucial piece of territory of the war.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: The Pentagon says there is actually a good side to the fact that ISIS is changing its tactics, the way it moves and communicates, et cetera, because the Pentagon says that means they are not able to exercise power and fight the battles that they have been carrying out as well under the pressure of the U.S. air campaign.

But Jake, in that other key measure, gaining territory back from ISIS so far at this point, the coalition is not be ground.

TAPPER: It looks like it's going to be a long run. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

Coming up, the Senate race that truly has everything, charges of cronyism, cowboy poetry and a singing candidate. What the heck is going on in South Dakota? That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. Our Politics Lead today, apparently, we have not seen it all. The South Dakota Senate race is proving that correct. On Election Day, voters will find as many names on the ballot as there are faces on Mt. Rushmore. And that's before we tick through the cowboy poetry, the songs and the cronyism questions that are flying on the trail out there.

Our Dana Bash joins us now from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dana, recent polls show a very tight race. We are talking about this just a few days ago. This was supposed to be an easy win for the Republicans. What happened?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was. It was supposed to be a sure bet in their bid to try to retake control of the Senate in November. But much to the chagrin of National Republicans, their candidate here hasn't been able to put it away giving opportunity to his opponents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BASH (voice-over): Democrat Rick Weiland singing for his U.S. Senate seat.

(on camera): Definitely not a usual tactic?

RICK WEILAND (D), SENATE CANDIDATE: It's definitely creative, but it's also who I am.

BASH (voice-over): Hardly has the corner of creativity in the South Dakota Senate race. Independent, Larry Pressler reads cowboy poetry.

LARRY PRESSLER (I), SENATE CANDIDATE: Your friend just might have to take you on home or remind you something that you're not alone.

BASH (on camera): You are trying to send a signal about who you are in this race.

PRESSLER: Yes. Who I am? I want to work with both sides.

BASH (voice-over): Neither of these quirky candidates was supposed to stand a chance. This open Democratic seat was going to be an easy GOP pick-up.

(on camera): What happened?

MIKE ROUNDS (R), SENATE CANDIDATE: We continue to tell them the same thing. Number one, South Dakota is a purple state. You take nothing for granted.

BASH (voice-over): His message was actually like the others, change Washington.

ROUNDS: I have no intentions of going to Washington, D.C., and setting on my butt. I want to see changes.

BASH: But Republican Mike Rounds has been under fire for abuses on his watch as governor to swap green cards for business investment.

(on camera): Did you do anything wrong or illegal?

ROUNDS: No. In fact, that's been part of the challenge, refocusing the discussion.

BASH (voice-over): Not if National Democrats can help it. They are airing TV ads, which forced Republicans to do the same. But Weiland is trying to keep it local and personal.

WEILAND: I want to get there in my own terms. I don't need the president of the United States. I don't really need the Democratic Party.

BASH: Weiland is a populist and some national Democrats worry too liberal for South Dakota.

(on camera): You're left of center with your views and this is a right of center state. WEILAND: See, that's the national conventional wisdom.

BASH (voice-over): Still, Washington Democrats are hedging their bets. Independent Pressler, a former three-term GOP senator, won't say who he would caucus with, but doesn't sound Republican.

(on camera): You supported Obamacare.

WEILAND: Yes. But isn't it strange because had Romney won the election, it would have been called Romneycare and then all the Republicans would have loved it.

BASH (voice-over): His shoestring campaign tells his integrity with this ad -- a 30-year-old report from Walter Krunkite on Pressler refusing to take a bribe in the scandal made famous by the movie "American Hustle," just one more reason that this off-beat race is so influx.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: And there is a fourth candidate, a Tea Partier named Gordon Howie. He is not getting much traction, Jake, but even just a few points away from the Republican candidate rounds could hurt his chances even more and that would mean hurting GOP chances to retake the Senate in November -- Jake.

TAPPER: It's all coming down to the wire. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

This programming note as we near Election Day, CNN is your source for "Debate Night in America. Join me Tuesday night as I moderate the final debate between Florida's Governor Rick Scott and his Democratic opponent, former governor, Charlie Crist. Things are likely to get heated, to say the least. Tuesday at 7:00 Eastern on CNN.

That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer right now. He is in "THE SITUATION ROOM."