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Democratic Contenders to Face Off in Last Vegas; RNC Hits Clinton E-Mails in New Ad; Gun Control To take Center Stage at Debate; Obama: We Haven't Changed Dynamic in Syria. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 12, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] PEREIRA: Isn't that amazing?

CAMEROTA: Yes. That's really great.

PEREIRA: Do you think Chris is going to start practicing on us?

CAMEROTA: I hope not.

PEREIRA: Yes, I don't think so.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hi.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I like when you said, that's a Rapunzel hair.

(LAUGHTER)

Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. The stage is set and the countdown is on. We're just one day away from the first Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas.

Hours from now frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders go head-to-head for the very first time. They'll be joined by rivals Martin O'Malley, Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb in what could be a major breakout moment. All of this as new polls show Clinton with a commanding lead in Nevada and in South Carolina.

Let's bring in CNN's Jim Acosta. He's in Las Vegas where final preparations are now underway.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I'm inside the Wynn Hotel on the Las Vegas strip, where the debate set is almost ready to go. You can see the podiums behind me, five podiums, five candidates. Of course Hillary Clinton, she's the obvious frontrunner, she's got the middle podium. To her right will be Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. He has been the insurgent candidate on the Democratic side, firing up that liberal base of the Democratic Party.

But these new polls show, as you mentioned, Carol, that Clinton has a pretty comfortable lead in some of these battleground states, including the state of Nevada. We'll put that up on screen. According to this new CNN-ORC poll, Hillary Clinton has 50 percent of the vote, followed by Bernie Sanders with 34 percent, and the undeclared Joe Biden at 12 percent. If you take Biden out of the equation, that helps Hillary Clinton. She then rises to an even bigger lead, 38 -- excuse me, 58 percent for Hillary Clinton, 36 percent for Bernie Sanders.

And then we want to throw this one in as well because South Carolina is a very interesting state if Joe Biden decides to jump into this race. He has a lot of support down in South Carolina. And he vaults ahead of Bernie Sanders in that poll. Hillary Clinton with 49 percent. Joe Biden, 24 percent. Sanders, 18 percent. And so that is the X factor in this race.

What will Vice President Joe Biden do? Well, the chair of the Democratic Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, she was on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" yesterday. She was asked that question. Well, what if Joe Biden decides he wants to show up at the last minute at this Democratic debate on Tuesday night? And here's what she had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, CHAIRMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: We do know that he has been carefully considering whether he wants to run for president of the United States. And of course, in the Democratic primary, we would always have room and welcome the sitting vice president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now the indications at this point is that we won't be seeing Vice President Biden joining us on Tuesday night. He's been in Delaware all weekend. Was scheduled to be in Delaware there today, huddled with his advisers to try to make this decision. But he's also spending time with his family as well.

But getting back to the candidates who are definitely going to be on the stage Tuesday night, Carol, some potential flash points, I think, to look forward to. On the Iraq war, Bernie Sanders in just the last 24 hours has been reminding voters that he voted against the Iraq war back in 2002 and that Hillary Clinton voted in favor of it. Those are echoes of 2008 between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama used that as a cajole to really go after Hillary Clinton, made some major gains inside that liberal base of the Democratic Party because of that key vote.

We'll be looking for some other flash points as well. Bernie Sanders is a bit more moderate on gun control. Martin O'Malley who's looking for a breakout moment, he could go after Bernie Sanders on that issue. So a lot to watch for coming up on Tuesday night -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. We'll get back to you. Jim Acosta reporting live from Las Vegas this morning.

The Republicans are not just sitting back to enjoy the show. The Republican National Committee is pre-plotting the debate with an ad attacking Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail account when she was secretary of state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A federal government watchdog has determined there was classified information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did, in fact, contain classified information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Total lack of accountability. It's like, my problems have nothing to do with me. They have to do with the Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're playing it up as if it was a partisan witch hunt.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, MSNBC HOST: Now you have the FBI, the "New York Times" chasing this story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those are not partisan organizations.

MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC HOST: You think the American public is that stupid?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: It's something President Obama addressed on "60 Minutes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She made a mistake. She's acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up is, in part, because of politics, and I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly.

STEVE KROFT, CBS' "60 MINUTES": What's your reaction when you found out about it?

OBAMA: You know, this is one of those issues that, I think, is legitimate, but the fact that for the last three months, this is all that's been spoken about, is an indication that we're in a presidential political season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:04] COSTELLO: But those e-mails are not only causing problems for Secretary Clinton, but oddly for Republicans, too. There are explosive allegations that Clinton and her e-mails have become the primary focus of the Republican-led Benghazi hearings. As you know, those hearings are supposed to be investigating why Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed at the American consulate in Libya.

Chris Frates is here to tell us more. Good morning.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. A former staffer with the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks says the panel's probe has become a politically motivated inquiry targeting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Now that's an explosive charge sure to resonate on the campaign trail as Clinton runs for president.

Major Bradley Podliska, an Air Force Reserve Intelligence officer, says that after news broke earlier this year that Clinton used the private e-mail server, the Republican-controlled committee set its sights almost exclusively on Clinton. Podliska says he was fired as a committee investigator because he resisted the pressure to focus on Clinton and because he took military leave.

He says he plans to file a lawsuit over his firing and ask a court to give him back his job with back pay. Podliska, a self-described conservative, tells our Jake Tapper in an exclusive television interview that what started as a broad probe into the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi became a, quote, "partisan investigation."

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER": What do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an ax to grind, that you're only talking because you were fired?

MAJ. BRADLEY PODLISKA, FORMER BENGHAZI COMMITTEE INVESTIGATOR: I have a conscience. I -- there's wrongdoing here, and I think it needs to stop. And I do not want the investigation to end. I want the investigation to refocus back to its original purpose. The victims' families are owed the truth. Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do. We however did not need to shift resources to hyper focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn't need to de-emphasize, on some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Sunday Republican committee chairman Trey Gowdy said in a statement that he never instructed Podliska to focus on Clinton. Gowdy said Podliska, quote, "has demanded money from the committee, the committee has refused to pay him, and he has now run to the press with his new salacious allegations about Secretary Clinton."

A spokesperson for the committee said in a statement that Podliska's claims are transparently false. Podliska, the statement said, was terminated for cause including for trying to put together a hit piece on administration officials including Clinton. The statement said, quote, "thus directly contrary to his brand-new assertion. The employee actually was terminated, in part, because he himself manifested improper partiality and animus in his investigative work," -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Chris Frates reporting live for us this morning.

Now keep in mind, the House-led Benghazi committee has been investigating Benghazi for 17 months now. That's a month longer than the Watergate investigation. And taxpayers have doled out more than $4.6 million and counting.

So let's talk about this and the debate. Patti Solis Doyle is a former manager of Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign and Tara Setmayer is a former communications director for Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Welcome to both of you.

TARA SETMAYER, FORMER GOP CAPITOL HILL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Thank you.

PATTI SOLIS DOYLE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here.

So, Tara, is it possible this e-mail issue and Benghazi may be neutralized because of this whistleblower's allegations?

SETMAYER: Well, I -- first let's be clear, he's not a whistleblower. A whistleblower is someone who is still employed and decides to actually have a conscience and say, wait a minute, what I see is going -- is wrong here and I'm going to stand up, get protection, so I don't get retribution so I can expose what's happening.

That's not what happened here. He is a disgruntled employee who was fired for a number of reasons and the committee has started to come out and explain what those reasons are. And he's now using the politically expedient opportunity here to say that, wait, it's all political. And so this is his way of getting back at the committee. I mean, it's -- I think we're going to find out more and more that the credibility of this employee, terminated employee, is coming more and more into question. So now with that, we squared that away.

COSTELLO: But wait a second.

SETMAYER: But unfortunately the political -- the political part of this is damaging.

COSTELLO: Wait a second. We didn't square this away.

SETMAYER: Yes.

COSTELLO: Patty, do you agree with Tara? Is this guy just a disgruntled employee like spewing nonsense?

DOYLE: No. Look, we don't need the co so-called disgruntled employee. I don't believe that's what he is. He's a major in the U.S. Air Force. We have it directly from Kevin McCarthy, who said that this committee was designed exclusively to damage Hillary Clinton's political motive or objective -- objective, sorry. So we don't need him. We know this is a political witch hunt. We know they're using taxpayers money to do it. So I really think it's time for this committee to pack up and go home.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, on the other hand, Tara, you're right, Hillary Clinton does have this trustworthiness problem. Right?

SETMAYER: Huge.

[09:10:05] COSTELLO: A third of the voters in the latest CBS poll shows that voters don't trust her. But again, you know, with Representative McCarthy saying what he did, and this -- I know you don't call him a whistleblower.

SETMAYER: He's not a whistleblower.

COSTELLO: But this former employee of the Benghazi Committee coming out and saying these things, doesn't that help Hillary Clinton?

SETMAYER: Absolutely. I actually wrote a piece about this, that Kevin McCarthy's political blunder, it was a huge gaffe and terribly damaging to the credibility of the committee, unfortunately because despite all the work that they've done, despite the fact that it's been bipartisan, despite the fact that they've uncovered new information, they've interviewed 40 plus new individuals and witnesses that the other investigations did not have access to, despite the fact that they've been able to get documents that the Clintons and the State Department have obfuscated for all of these months, which is why it's dragged out this long.

Despite all that work, now it's been like political manna from heaven to the Democrats to say, see, we told you, it's just a political witch hunt. And all this does is distract from all the legitimate questions that this committee has been investigation that still are not answered. Why did Hillary Clinton go out and tell these families that this was a video and that it was a spontaneous demonstration that led to this attack, when they knew it was pre-planned?

They had DIA reports. They had reports from the intel community relatively quickly after the attacks have said this was premeditated.

COSTELLO: OK.

SETMAYER: With an al Qaeda-inspired organization that did this and yet this administration said it was a video --

COSTELLO: And I will only --

SETMAYER: -- which we know is not true. COSTELLO: I will only have this caveat that a Republican-led

investigation found none of that to be really true. We don't know what happened yet because the Benghazi Committee hearings aren't over yet.

So last question, Patti, do you think that any of this will be brought up by Hillary Clinton's rivals at the debate?

DOYLE: You know, the big difference between the Democratic debate and the Republican debates that have happened thus far is that the Democratic debate is going to be substantive. They're going to talk about policies. They're going to talk about issues that affect the American people. They're going to talk about college affordability, the economy, health care, education.

I don't think they're going to stoop to the level of politicizing Benghazi or the e-mails, for that matter.

COSTELLO: Yes, but doesn't Hillary Clinton have a duty to answer these questions for all voters, and shouldn't her rivals bring it up, Patti?

DOYLE: She is going to answer these questions on October 22nd in front of the Benghazi Committee. And I just want to say this, you know, prior to Kevin McCarthy's revelation that this is indeed a political witch hunt, and prior to the whistleblower, the onus really was on Hillary Clinton to be as transparent as she possibly can in that hearing, and she will be. But now the onus is on Trey Gowdy. He needs to regain his credibility on this hearing. He needs to prove that there's actually work being done and not just a political witch hunt.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to leave it there. Patti Solis Doyle and Tara Setmayer, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, gun control is a topic that's divided our nation. What will the candidates say on stage tomorrow? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:28] COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders expected to rally at the No Labels Convention today in New Hampshire. One day before he takes the stage at the Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Sure to be a hot topic, gun control.

Certainly stole the show on "Saturday Night Live."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guns are there. In the little moments and big ones. When things fall apart, or it all comes together. They unite us. Comfort us. From first loves to new beginnings. Wherever life takes you, guns, we're here to stay.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: OK. Seriously though, there are some differences between the candidates, the Democratic candidates, when it comes to gun control. In addition to closing the gun show loophole, Hillary Clinton threatened to use executive action if Congress will not act. She also wants to prohibit domestic abusers from being able to buy guns and allow victims to sue gun manufacturers.

Compare that to Bernie Sanders. He's voted to allow guns in national parks and on Amtrak trains. He's also taken hit on a controversial vote in 2005 to protect gun manufacturers from lawsuits. I should point out over the weekend, though, Sanders said he is willing to take another look at the issue.

So, let's talk about that with CNN political commentator and columnist for "The Daily Beast", Sally Kohn, and Democratic strategist Julian Epstein.

Welcome to you both.

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nice to be on with you.

JULIAN EPSTEIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: I ran into Sally in the makeup room, and she's excited about the debate. She says it's going to be awesome.

There are many people out there, Sally, who don't think that.

KOHN: Well, I mean, look, I think it's going to be, first of all, substantive, which I'm excited about, unlike the Republican debates, which have been a clown show of personal attacks and personalities. I actually think we're going to get into some of the substance on where the candidates disagree with each other and with Republicans and side with the American people. So, number one.

Number two, this is between, especially between, Bernie and Hillary, you know, they both have a lot at stake in this debate. Bernie has to introduce himself to the Americans who don't know him and don't yet love him, and Hillary has to gain ground with people she's losing.

[09:20:00] You know, it's going to be hot, guys. It's going to be hot.

COSTELLO: Julian, she's mentioning those other three people on stage that nobody really knows at all.

KOHN: They're going to try to trump it up.

COSTELLO: See, Julian is struck by your comments.

EPSTEIN: I didn't hear you. I can see from the monitor I think you're throwing it my way.

I will say, yes, I think Sally did nail it. I think it's going to be a tremendous debate. I think it's going to be very different from what we've seen on the Republican side. It'll be a high-minded debate on policy.

I do think Hillary goes into the debate as the presumptive favorite for the nomination. I think she'll walk off the stage as the presumptive favorite.

They're playing on her home turf here. She is the best debater on the stage. She's the most experienced debater on the stage. I think she's, you know -- barring some kind of body blow that she suffers or some kind of mistake, I think she comes off the stage again being the presumptive favorite here.

COSTELLO: Don't you think Martin O'Malley --

KOHN: That's a lot to predict.

COSTELLO: Don't you think O'Malley will throw bombs? He has to stand out. Sanders said he won't abuse her.

EPSTEIN: The irony is, on the Democratic side, it's the Reagan doctrine, where you don't attack the same party in the presidential primary. The Reagan doctrine.

COSTELLO: Are you holding the Democrats to those standards?

EPSTEIN: It's not popular. Democratic voters don't like that. You won't see a lot of personal attacks.

COSTELLO: What if you have one person support.

EPSTEIN: Well, I think you're going to see sharp policy difference.

KOHN: Yes, I think that's right. I think you'll see them go after each other on policy. And, by the way, they should. Hillary's strongest point with Democratic voters, progressive leaning toward Sanders is to hammer him in his positions on gun control, which is out of touch with the majority of gun owners, by the way.

But on the other hand, Bernie and the others have a lot to go after Hillary on, in terms of her coziness with Wall Street. In terms of, you know, the fact that now she's embracing all of these economic populist positions, but she's just doing it now. Who knows what she's do in office.

EPSTEIN: I disagree with that.

KOHN: So, there's a lot of substance I think they can and should nail each other on. That should make it a good debate for democracy.

EPSTEIN: I agree and disagree with Sally. I think gun control is one of the major issues that Hillary can go on the attack on with Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has often taken the NRA position on gun control. I think that's a major liability.

But I think her central theme will be that Bernie Sanders has been talking about a lot of these very leftist positions. Whether it's a leftist position on education, on minimum wage, on health care, he's still for the single payer system.

He's been talking about these issues for 30 or 40 years. He's rarely been able to deliver on any of these. I remember I served with him, he served on a committee I was a staff director on a few years ago, or in the '90s, anyway, in the government reform committee. He's seldom delivered on any of these far-left issues.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has laid out very, very specific proposals on all these matters, whether it's education, whether health care, and she has -- and the difference is, she is able -- her policies are much, much more likely to actually get passed in a Congress. She's much more likely to be able to deliver --

(CROSSTALK)

KOHN: Listen, I have to say -- Julian, where you're wrong, this isn't left versus right. It's about the people in power versus the people.

COSTELLO: I got to leave it there.

KOHN: Bernie is on that side.

COSTELLO: I suspect you're for Clinton and you're for Bernie Sanders.

KOHN: I'm on the fence, to be honest.

EPSTEIN: I'm for Hillary.

COSTELLO: OK. Sally Kohn, and Julian Epstein, thank you so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the Democrats are wooing, but is it enough to get minority backing?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:01] COSTELLO: U.S. war planes overnight dropping ammunition to anti-ISIS rebels in Syria. Fifty tons of small arms ammunition and items including grenades are now in the hands of the Syrian Arab coalition. This move coming after President Obama assured the American public Russia is not leading in Syria.

He did that during a sit down with "60 Minutes."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we've been able to do is to stall ISILl's momentum, to take away some of the key land that they were holding. To push back, particularly in Iraq, against some population centers that they threatened. But what we have not been able to do, so far, I'm the first one to acknowledge this, is to change the dynamic inside of Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIPP)

COSTELLO: And it's that dynamic in Syria that led to one of the most contentious moments of the interview, when CBS's Steve Kroft suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin was challenging President Obama's leadership.

Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns joins me with more on that.

Good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We did see flashes of the combative President Obama in that interview. He got asked a question from Steve Kroft about Putin, challenging his leadership in Syria. And he turned it around into a question about Putin's leadership.

This sort of follows on with the message the White House has been putting out for days about the notion that Putin is damaging himself and Russia's interest in Syria.

Let's listen a little bit to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Mr. Putin now is devoting his own troops, his own military, just to barely holding to, by a thread, his sole ally.

STEVE KROFT, CBS NEWS: He's challenging your leadership, Mr. President. He's challenging your leadership.

OBAMA: Steve, I got to tell you, if you think that running your economy into the ground and having to send troops in, in order to prop up your only ally is leadership, then we've got a different definition of leadership.

For the last five years, the Russians have provided arms, provided financing, as have the Iranians.