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New Developments in Bangkok Bombing; New Poll Numbers Shed Light on Presidential Race; U.S. Navy Seals to Allow Women. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 19, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:39] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to our viewers and the United States around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

A number of new develops today in the hunt for the Bangkok bombing suspect. Here's what we know right now. Police questioned the motorbike taxi driver who believes he picked up the suspect shortly after the blast. The driver said the man handed him a note in English telling women will to go. The driver added the suspect spoke on his phone but was not speaking Thai or English. A Thai court issued and arrest warrant for the calling him "an unnamed male foreigner." Police say they have zeroed in on two accomplices in the attack.

Let's bring in our international correspondent, Saima Mohsin, joining us live from Bangkok.

Saima, what do we know about these alleged accomplices?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I spoke to the Bangkok police spokesman earlier this evening and he told me they have identified two men from the CCTV footage where they identified the main suspect. That man in the yellow T-shirt. We see him going in with the backpack, we see him leaving it underneath the bench. Right in front are two other men, one in a red shirt, one in a white shirt. You see them standing up and coming together in front of that man and police believe that they are there positioned strategically to hide him while they're placing the bomb. They can't say 100 percent they are accomplices. They want to speak to them. They say their movements are suspicious. They left the shrine at the same time as the bomber and now as we know -- as the alleged bomber, Wolf. CNN has spoken to the motorbike taxi driver you mentioned there. That that man in the yellow shirt took that motorbike taxi to the central park in Bangkok shortly afterwards -- Wolf?

BLITZER: You're speaking to the police there, Saima, do they believe these men belong to some sort of terrorist cell?

MOHSIN: That's exactly what they're trying to configure right now, Wolf. It looked like this could be a potential lone warrior attack on the Erawan Shrine. Now it's looking like there were more people involved. Of course there was that second bombing on the Tuesday. They are still investigating. Luckily that pipe bomb missed the pier that it was trying to target.

A crucial indication, Wolf, as to whether hay might be part of a bigger network is what Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said speaking to local media. He said he advises these men to come forward and turn themselves in because their lives may be at risk. He said if there are others behind this bombing they may try to kill them to silence them. Incredibly, sinister consideration, Wolf. But so far no claims of responsibility, as you know, Wolf, they are quick to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks like this. They want the glory, they want the power and authority, but so far no claims -- Wolf?

[13:34:52] BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this with you, Saima. Saima Mohsin on the scene in Bangkok.

Coming up, Hillary Clinton versus the GOP. We'll dig deeper into how she matches up against her Republican rivals.

Plus this, how the Biden factor could impact the race for the White House. Stay with us.

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BLITZER: New poll numbers are shedding light on how the presidential race in the United States is shaping up. Donald Trump is gaining ground on Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election matchup. In our CNN/ORC poll, she leads Trump and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker by a six-point margin. She's 10 points ahead of the only other woman in the race, Carly Fiorina.

Let's bring in Alex Castellanos, the founder of newRepublican.org, and chairman of Purple Strategies. Also joining us, Donna Brazile, our CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist.

Guys, thanks for joining us.

You're a good Republican, Alex. She's struggling, Hillary Clinton, a bit with the e-mail controversy, but still significantly ahead of all the other Republican candidates, at least so far it hasn't seemed had a huge debt on the hypothetical head-to-head matchup.

[13:40:28] ALEX CASTELLANOS, FOUNDER, NEWREPUBLICAN.ORG & CHAIRMAN, PURPLE STRATEGIES: That's pretty true, Wolf, because Republicans are struggling, too. We still have a brand that people aren't very proud to put on the Republican Jersey overall in a general election. Our negatives are high as a party and our candidates need to grow. All of them are undeveloped. Right now, their promise and potential, but no certainty. Hillary should be doing better. In fact, she has problems in the own party. He's kind of the Washington general in politics. Everything she touches just seems to go wrong for her.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know what he's looking at.

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BRAZILE: No, let me just say this. I've looked at the polls. (CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: Absolutely. But as a friend of Hillary and Bernie's, and all the other candidates, 74 percent of Democrats in this new poll consider her for their first or second choice. That's significant. 83 percent of Democrats are happy with the fact that she is, quote/unquote, "the Democratic front-runner." So there's not a lot of malaise, not a lot of second guessing --

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: -- not a lot of bed-wetting. It's just a lot of talkers inside the Beltway that's not on CNN and can't get their views out.

BLITZER: I know you admire and like Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States as well.

BRAZILE: Absolutely.

BLITZER: We asked the question, among Democrats should Joe Biden run for president? 53 percent say yes, 45 percent say no. What do you make of that?

BRAZILE: I still believe that there's a healthy the number of Democrat, people who like Joe Biden, they would like to see Joe Biden consider running. The question is can he get into this race this late? We were talking back in the room about it might be a little late to reshape the race, to put that kind of organization together but there are more --

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BLITZER: Is it too late for Joe Biden?

CASTELLANOS: Look at Donald Trump. In a couple weeks, really, boom, he's vaulted to really the lead in the Republican party, it's not too late for a Joe Biden and Hillary is out of position. Her party has moved left of her. This is not Bill Clinton's era of bilge government is over party. This is Barack Obama, the era of big government is back. Imagine Joe Biden running as a populist working-class version of Barack Obama. I'll give Barack Obama a third term. He's in a better position to capture the soul of the Democratic Party than Hillary is.

BRAZILE: The soul and spirit of the Democratic Party is one, and I think if Joe Biden decides to run, he will have significant support within the party. That won't take away from the fact that Hillary Clinton commands a solid Democratic lead because people like her. They know her. And despite all the things -- look, Alex, you may not have --

CASTELLANOS: They like her?

BRAZILE: Come on, yes. They like her, they respect her, they know she will fight for the middle-class and she has a record of accomplishment that not one of the Republicans -- I would say all of the Republicans combined could not beat her.

BLITZER: But in this hypothetical matchup between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, he was 20 points behind a couple months ago. He's only six points behind. He's moving up, getting within that margin of error, if you will.

CASTELLANOS: Donald Trump is growing. He was just a small campaign stick your finger in Washington's eye, break Washington's China and anti-Washington elite vote. But now he's beginning to grow into the "Make America great campaign." He's not just an anti-vote for Washington, a pro-Trump vote. That's making him a serious contender. I don't think that's healthy for the Republican Party. I think at the end of the day he's not a Republican or conservative, but it looks like he's getting his feet on the ground, and those two campaigns are a very powerful thing.

BLITZER: I've spoken with some people, Donna, who are close to Joe Biden, love Joe Biden, if you will, and they say he feels upset that he's not the automatic heir apparent. He's been vice president for six and a half years. When he was president, George W. Bush was vice president for eight years, he got the nod. When Bill Clinton, Al Gore was vice president for eight years, he got the nod. And he feels upset that Democrats have not automatically said, you know what, you've been an excellent vice president, you were a great Senator, you're a great guy, you should run for president. He feels Democrats have not run to him because of Hillary Clinton. What do you say?

BRAZILE: I disagree.

BLITZER: Should he be snubbed?

BRAZILE: No! I would never snub Joe Biden.

BLITZER: Because he feels Democrats are snubbing him --

(CROSSTALK)

[13:44:56] BRAZILE: Do you think I should go over and make him gumbo and show him that love?

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: I wanted to make a cake for bunk, it's his birthday. The truth is that Joe Biden said in January that he would make -- he will consider it. That was January, that was before we knew how severely ill Beau was. Joe Biden needs the time and space in order to not just grieve but also figure out the next step. He's helping the president now in the Iran deal making sure the president finishes up this term. I want to give him the time to make the decision, he makes the decision, we'll see what happens.

BLITZER: And it will be soon, I'm told, one way or the other.

BRAZILE: I've got two. Happy birthday, Bill Clinton. And, Joe, I like you.

CASTELLANOS: I say he runs.

BRAZILE: I say he's going to think about it.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Thanks very, very much.

Other news we're following, following in the footsteps of elite U.S. Army Rangers, the U.S. Navy may now be opening up ranks to women as far as the Navy SEALs are concerned, giving them a chance to prove they're among the best of the best. That story, more news coming up.

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[13:50:30] BLITZER: After news that the first females ever will graduate from the U.S. Army Ranger School, another military branch may be following suit.

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BLITZER: The U.S. Navy is now considering the possibility of allowing women into the ranks of the Navy SEAL teams. The Navy calls it the most mentally challenging, physically challenging training in the world, lasting 323 weeks. Some of the challenges include running 200 miles in five days and physically training for 20-plus hours a day.

Let's bring in our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr. And also joining us from New York, Jonathan Gilliam, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and trained as a former Army Ranger as well, a former FBI special agent.

Barbara, what prompted the U.S. Navy to even consider allowing women to become Navy SEALs?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, what's been going on at the Pentagon the last several months is a review of opening all combat jobs to women, women who volunteer obviously to serve this country and the U.S. military. The feeling for some time, first set out by the former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, was open up all the jobs, let the women compete, stop keeping that ceiling in place.

So all of the services have been looking at this, and they have been steadily opening up more and more jobs in the military to women. But now we're at the point where it is Special Operations that they are looking at, as well as some of the front-line combat jobs. Can women serve in the Army Ranger regiment? Can they serve in Navy SEALs? What is on the table right now are a series of recommendations that will go to the defense secretary by the end of the year about whether these jobs, all of these jobs, should be opened up to women -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Jonathan, as I mentioned, you went through Navy SEAL Training, U.S. Army Ranger training. How tough really is it? JONATHAN GILLIAM, FORMER NAVY SEAL & TRAINED AS ARMY RANGER & FORMER

FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, I'll tell you. There's different levels on all this stuff, Wolf. Let's start with Ranger School. You know, Barbara said something there a second ago about being in a Ranger battalion. I went through Army Ranger School. I did not go through Ranger Assessment Selection Process, the RASP Program. What these females graduated from is a leadership school. Ranger School is a leadership program.

Once you get into RASP and once you get into SEAL Training, that's a huge difference. The level of technical abilities and really just the overall physical and stress level goes up tremendously. Now, you take Ranger School where I'm hearing from my sources at Ranger School that two females that made it through, and I quote my sources, "are beasts." These females are, you know, just amazing women. However, Ranger School doesn't even hold a cookie to what SEAL training is, and to be considered a Ranger we need to look at RASP, so the reason I'm bringing all this up is social engineering in war fighting needs to be left out. There's always going to be politics in fighting wars, but creating a warrior should be void of politics, and we should look at what's effective for each gender and each team.

BLITZER: Well, let me ask you this question, Jonathan. If women can be Army Rangers, do you believe women potentially can be Navy SEALs?

GILLIAM: I don't know. You can train anybody with the skill sets that we have, how to shoot, how to enter room, blow things up, but it's the process to get to that point, to specifically know if the person on your left and the person on your right will -- will quit or won't quit, and if something happens to you, can they carry you out of the battlefield? I mean, we're creating warriors, Wolf. And this is thing that is infuriating to me. I'm sick and tired of DOD officials, these admirals and generals at the top, making political statements instead of sticking to their guns, so to speak, and saying we need to do what's effective. I would much rather see individual teams set up for females, training set up for females, so that we can develop a well-rounded, well, you know, suited warrior that's a female to their standards. There's different physical standards. Two women out of all the people that went to Ranger School, economically alone, that's not feasible to make all adjustments to get them into the teams.

BLITZER: Barbara, when is the Navy going to make a decision?

[13:54:55] STARR: Well, I have to tell you there's a multi-part effort here. The Navy may say let's have women in units, but it's going to be largely up to the recommendations of the Special Operations Command led by General Joseph Otell, the chief of all Special Operations.

And I want to underscore one of the things Jonathan is talking about. When you speak to Special Operations officials, what they will tell you is they are looking at the notion there must be a uniform standard, that if you're going to put women into these units, you cannot have lesser standards for women to join the units, lesser physical training standards, lesser performance standards in the field under fire. You know, everybody's got to basically pull their own weight and carry their own rucksack. So there's a lot to look at here. Right now, we don't see a final decision until the end of the year.

BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this story, important story for our viewers.

Barbara, Jonathan, guys, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in the "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is coming up next.

And for our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin will start right after a quick break.