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Trump Blasts Obama; Democrats Prepare for First Debate. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 12, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: You control the shots. We don't. But we offer every single...

(CROSSTALK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: How do we do that?

MOODY: Every time. If you look right, you will see a candidate who is sitting on the right. You look left -- because We have multiple cameras looking up, down, left, right, and center. And you will be able to have a fully immersive experience. You will be able to look at the person next to you and see who is to the right of the camera.

BALDWIN: I'm going to make you put those on later. I don't want to mess up the microphone and have the production guys yell at us, but I want to see how that looks on you. Chris Moody, thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

MOODY: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Now this. We continue on, hour two. We are live here in Las Vegas. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Thank you so much for starting your week with us here on CNN. This is a big day for us. This is special coverage of CNN's Democratic presidential debate. You see the ticktock on your screen, 29 hours, 29 minutes, 20 seconds away here. This is obviously -- we're in Vegas, baby. This is a city known for big bets. And four presidential candidates, they're hoping to defy the odds by taking down the front-runner, by taking down Hillary Clinton.

Yes, you may be surprised to know there are five podiums set up for tomorrow night's debate because Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have really thus far dominated Democratic headlines and fund-raising and polling. But let me show you some new numbers, because these are just-released CNN/ORC polls.

You can see for yourself here Hillary Clinton solidly ahead of Bernie Sanders and really the rest of the pack both here in the state of Nevada and in South Carolina. They're among the first, these two states, the first to hold primary elections both set for February. We will dig into the poll results here with my panel in just a moment.

But, first, let me go to our CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson not too far from me here in Las Vegas.

And, listen, this may be a city for fun and betting, but let's talk rules as well, rules ahead of tomorrow night. What do these candidates need to abide by?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They have a pretty strict set of rules here.

You can better believe that they are practicing this. When they get a question from the moderator, they have a minute to respond. Then they will have 30 seconds for follow-up. They also will have 30 seconds if another candidate says their name. If they are getting a little long- winded, they will see a flashing light instead of a buzzer.

It's a little I guess not as sort of jarring to see the light rather than a buzzer. And they will also have a situation where the moderator if they want to give a candidate more time, the moderator has that discretion. You better believe they are practicing succinct answers, because a minute isn't a long time to answer some of these questions.

BALDWIN: Flies by, especially on live TV.

Let me also ask you just about some of your own reporting. I know you filed a piece for CNN Politics about how Bernie Sanders has really become a serious contender. He just raised $26 million in the last quarter with an average donation of just $25, Nia?

HENDERSON: That's right.

BALDWIN: Wow.

HENDERSON: And he has gotten a million individual donations. He reached that sort of marker much earlier than Barack Obama did in 2008.

He's a real grassroots campaign here. I think the test for him tonight -- or tomorrow on the stage is whether or not he can turn those crowds, turn that grassroots energy into a performance that makes him look like a credible president, somebody who can sit behind that desk in the Oval Office and be the leader of the free world.

I talked to some of his folks and they know he's still got to answer that electability question and they also know that part of that electability question goes to his own self-identified label as a Democratic socialist. It's going to be interesting to have him on stage tomorrow next to Hillary Clinton. This is something he's been waiting really 40 years to do.

He's been in politics for a long, long time. In some ways, people don't understand that he's had a lot of experience in these kinds of forms debating folks. But we will have to see how he does tomorrow night.

BALDWIN: Nia-Malika Henderson, thank you so much here in Las Vegas looking ahead to tomorrow night's debate. I want to take a closer look back at the new CNN/ORC polls just released today in Nevada. Clinton is at 50 percent. This is if Vice President Joe Biden decides to run. And if Biden chooses not to, her lead grows to 58 percent. Remember, these aren't just voters. The people polled say they will likely participate in the Nevada caucuses come February 20.

One more for you, South Carolina, similar trend. Clinton is 25 points ahead of her closest competitor, again, Joe Biden. Again, he's not in the race yet. But if he stays out, she will win a whopping 70 percent of likely voters. That's a 50-point lead over her closest rival, Bernie Sanders.

With me now, I have our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, and our CNN political commentator, Michael Smerconish, who also is host of CNN's "SMERCONISH."

So wonderful to see you in Vegas. Hello.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Great to be here.

BALDWIN: All right. Gloria, to you first, because we were talking earlier, and, yes, we're talking South Carolina and Nevada. Also important to remember she's losing to Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, virtually tied in Iowa. And you were saying, aha, this is the Hillary Clinton strategy, the strategy that is the South.

[15:05:08]

BORGER: Right.

They would be silly if they didn't have a Southern strategy, because they know they are not doing really well in New Hampshire and, as you point out, in Iowa. So she's got popularity with African-Americans. She's been strong on immigration policy in Nevada. She won the Iowa caucuses last time she ran.

She's a known quantity here. This is comfortable territory for her. They are hoping they don't have to go to a Southern firewall, but if they have to, it looks pretty good for them.

BALDWIN: One more for you. You talked to your sources within the Bernie Sanders campaign on strategy.

BORGER: They are ready. They are ready. They are ready.

BALDWIN: Spill it.

Look, they are not going to attack her unless she attacks him. And she's not going to attack him. Right? But he's going to emphasize something he calls the rigged economy, which plays to her weaknesses to a certain degree about all the super PAC money being raised in a corrupt way.

As Nia just pointed out, he's raised an awful lot of money through small donations. He's going to say to her, you know, this is the way political campaigns ought to be run, not through the huge super PACs, such as Hillary Clinton has. He's going to talk about the consistency of his own views as a way to point out not so subtly the inconsistency of Hillary Clinton's views.

But he doesn't expect to kind of start attacking her unless she goes after him as being unrealistic. Then he will say, you know what? I want to change the world. You're just part of the establishment. Don't call me unrealistic.

BALDWIN: We he has said he won't attack her on the e-mails.

I turn to you because we have to talk about Benghazi. We know that our colleague, Jake Tapper, has just talked to the whistle-blower who was fired off the Benghazi committee. He just spoke to him about why he's now coming forward and saying what he's saying. Here's part of that interview.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: What do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an axe to grind, that you're only talking because you were fired?

BRADLEY PODLISKA, FIRED BENGHAZI COMMITTEE STAFFER: Just say, really, I have a conscience. There's wrongdoing here, and I think it needs to stop. And I don't want the investigation to end. I want it to be refocused back to its original purpose.

The victims' family 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 and in some cases drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Obviously, it's significant that he's coming forward and you have two different camps saying two different things about that.

But my question to you is about how this affects Hillary Clinton. We know she will be asked about it tomorrow night and also how all of that will affect her as far as this has to. But what he's said to Tapper, what Kevin McCarthy said by, so many people are saying, by telling the truth, will help her. Do you agree?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm sure each of her opponents looks forward to this being raised tomorrow night, but none wants to be the one that brings it up.

They will look to Anderson Cooper or they will look to Dana Bash to be the individual to bring it up. They will be sitting back and hoping that it harms her. But I think the perception is such that it's a partisan issue, it's a Republican issue. I can't imagine -- I agree with Gloria, I cannot imagine Bernie Sanders bringing up any of what I regard as the trust issues, but probably secretly fingers crossed hoping that they will be raised. BALDWIN: What about also tomorrow night? Let's not forget the other

three that are on the stage.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: Jim Webb might bring it up.

BALDWIN: Jim Webb might bring it up, absolutely.

SMERCONISH: I think he's an intangible. Who is this guy? He's ill- defined on a national stage, but very interesting background, Vietnam veteran, Navy secretary, Marine, an independent streak, an acclaimed author.

You remember well when he wrote those novels. And it became an issue in the gubernatorial race. I don't know what we get with him, but I'm looking for him to be a wild card on that stage.

BORGER: You don't know what Lincoln Chafee is going to do.

I was talking to somebody who actually used to work for Lincoln Chafee and he said, I have no idea what Lincoln Chafee is going to do or he's going to do or how he's going to behave. We know O'Malley, Governor O'Malley is going to use the consistency issue.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Right. Yes, exactly.

But these two wild cards on the stage have us all scratching our heads and they could provide for some interesting moments, because if Sanders won't attack Sanders and Hillary won't attack Bernie Sanders, you have got...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: These guys on the end, right, they want us talking about them and they want to jump in the headlines.

SMERCONISH: There's no Trump. There's no Trump here.

BORGER: They have nothing to lose.

BALDWIN: His hotel is right there, though.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: I see him, yes. You don't have any of that sniping that predated the GOP debate at the Reagan Library.

BORGER: Right.

BALDWIN: OK. Thank you so much, Michael and Gloria. I appreciate it.

As we watch and wait, tomorrow night, of course, the big debate, next, as we talked about the intangibles with these two, but the X-factors to look for in this Democratic presidential debate. Will any of the candidates also have a breakout moment like Carly Fiorina did at the Reagan Presidential Library in California some weeks ago?

[15:10:00]

Also ahead, Donald Trump rips President Obama's contentious interview on "60 Minutes" from last night, calling him sad, calling him terrible. The president's former communications director, a senior adviser, joins me live.

And I'll speak live with a Vegas bookie who says Americans should be allowed to gamble on U.S. politics and elections. Hear which candidates he says are the front-runners.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. This is CNN's special live coverage from Vegas.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with us on this Monday, one day ahead of the big and first Democratic presidential debate here in Las Vegas.

[15:15:05]

Thus far, it is the Republican candidates who have been firing back and forth at one another. The Democrats have, for the most part, been playing, well, pretty nice, emphasis on pretty.

But up until now, the Democratic candidates have not had to go head to head. Tomorrow night, they will for the very first time. So will the candidates turn into attacks, savage one another?

Let's ask our experts here.

Here with me now, I have Van Jones and Hilary Rosen, Van Jones, CNN political commentator, Hilary Rosen, Democratic strategist and CNN political commentator. Her firms consults for the Democratic National Committee.

So here we are ahead of tomorrow night. I have been so fascinated because we have been talking about some of the more obvious issues, but we asked you all to figure out your three X-factors, what really you will be looking for tomorrow night. I want you to begin with your point about Bernie Sanders.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Bernie Sanders, he has got some challenges.

He's been speaking for 90 minutes to 20,000 screaming fans. Now he has got to answer in 90 seconds while he's being opposed by four other people. That's a big shift for anybody. He has got a seasoned record. But this is a very different reality to be in to go off the road. He hasn't been doing the town hall meetings.

BALDWIN: He has been packing those arenas. JONES: He has been packing the arenas. But the difference is he's

not back and forth with those guys.

So, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, she has been doing that. I think he may find a little bit of seasickness trying to make that turn.

BALDWIN: OK.

Potential seasickness, we will see.

What's one of your X-factors?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Bernie Sanders, also X- factor, he has a tendency in those big rallies to come across as a grumpy old man encouraging all the kids to believe in him.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ROSEN: I'm not sure that in a more staid environment where you're really going heavy on policy that that ends up looking very presidential.

So part of that is, will Bernie Sanders rise up and look presidential?

BALDWIN: But, on the flip side, couldn't he say I have been the person who has been in the room the very longest, all these years in public service, vs. anyone else on stage?

ROSEN: Yes, he could, and, by the way, he's actually a pretty good debater. I have been watching some old tapes of his.

I think -- and Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley have been watching old tapes of his as well. And he is going to be a pretty good debater. The other one factor I have is you have got Lincoln Chafee, you have got Martin O'Malley, you have got Jim Webb. Most people don't know who they are.

BALDWIN: They don't. Let's be honest.

ROSEN: Their choice, the thing to look for is do they spend time trying to get on the stage by criticizing Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton? Or do they talk mostly about themselves and what -- their positive vision?

BALDWIN: What's your guess?

JONES: Look, if I'm them, I'm going to probably go hard at Hillary Clinton.

Listen, at the end of the day, nobody knows who these people are. They have to be able to distinguish themselves. They have got to be able to take a stand, and you do have some areas where Hillary Clinton is weak with regard to the base.

Certainly, if you're going to Martin O'Malley, you're going to be able to point out that I'm the leader, Hillary is the follower. I got to gay marriage first. I got to trade first. I got to all this stuff first. How can she be the front-runner when she's chasing me? He can say something like that if he says it with good humor.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You say don't be desperate, though

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: It's so difficult, because if he seems too desperate or if he seems too...

ROSEN: Too eager, it doesn't work.

JONES: It doesn't work.

ROSEN: Think Scott Walker in the Republican...

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Out of the debate.

BALDWIN: Right.

JONES: I think he has a shot.

If I'm Martin O'Malley, I'm trying to be Marco Rubio. Become everybody's number two choice first. Then, if you can pull off a Carly Fiorina down the road, you might be able to get out of there.

ROSEN: The one other piece, though, and this is my final X-factor, is there's going to be a lot of conversation about a 13-year-old vote, this Iraq vote.

Hillary Clinton is going to be the only one on the stage who was for the original invasion in Iraq. We already know that Bernie Sanders is going to go after her for that. Lincoln Chafee said he was getting in the race because of it.

So the thing to look for is, how can Hillary Clinton pivot away from that vote, which she's already said that she regrets, to a forward- looking foreign policy and connect it to the ISIL threat, to Syria, to other things?

BALDWIN: Do you think that that will resonate if she says, listen, I'm honest, I regret it, knowing what I now know, move on?

ROSEN: She may, but the problem is she's still going to be commander in chief and you don't want commander in chief to be making mistakes. She has got to articulate how she came to that and why it would be different.

JONES: I'll tell you. If Hillary Clinton is in a situation where the main problem she has is her foreign policy experience, she's in a great place. If I'm Sanders, I want to hit that, but move over to income

inequality. Move over to Wall Street. That's where the party really is passionately. The party is not passionately relitigating Iraq. Hit that. get back over where she's weak on Wall Street and stay there if I'm Bernie Sanders.

BALDWIN: Final point from you on Hillary Clinton is, as your X- factor, Hillary Clinton showing her personal side.

JONES: It's all about expectations.

Everybody expects her to dominate on policy and be that tough Hillary Clinton who is a policy wonk. She's got to deliver there. But if she just has a couple of moments...

[15:20:10]

BALDWIN: Which she's had had recently.

JONES: ... when she just talks about her mom. When she talks about her mother, and what her mother went through to put her where she is, I well up every time.

She has got to have a couple of moments when she tells those kind of stories. Then I think she just obliterates the opposition, because if she can have the biggest head and the biggest heart, why do you need these other guys?

JONES: Van Jones, Hilary Rosen, thank you both so much on the X- factors ahead of tomorrow night.

Next, another X-factor perhaps for down the road, Donald Trump. Donald Trump blasts President Obama's interview on "60 Minutes" from last night, calling him in just a couple of words sad and terrible. The president's former communications director joins me live to respond to that.

Also ahead, President Obama makes a prediction about Donald Trump and comes to Hillary Clinton's defense over this whole e-mail controversy -- more on his interview with "60 Minutes" next.

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[15:25:20]

BALDWIN: Back here live in Las Vegas at the Wynn Hotel ahead of the CNN Democratic presidential debate tomorrow night.

And new today, President Obama today is now weighing in on the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy, the president's comments coming during a "60 Minutes" interview on CBS. He said that he thinks Clinton's use of a private e-mail server was, his word, a mistake, but not one that threatened national security. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She made a mistake. She has acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up is in part because of politics.

It is important for her to answer these questions to the satisfaction of the American public. And they can make their own judgment. I can tell you that this is not a situation in which America's national security was endangered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dan Pfeiffer is with me. He's a CNN political commentator and former senior adviser to prosecute.

Great to see you here.

DAN PFEIFFER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let me begin with the fact that the president said, again, yes, it was a mistake, but, no, it wasn't a threat to national security. But my question is how can he say that knowing there's an ongoing FBI investigation into this?

PFEIFFER: Well, everything he's said is true. Hillary Clinton has said essentially it was a mistake. I think it clearly was an error in judgment. And we have no evidence that national security was compromised.

There's been no evidence that she sent e-mail that was -- sent information that was classified at the time. So what he said is exactly true. He wasn't going out looking for ways to weigh in on this. He had a lot more important issues to talk about, but in any interview you give in this sort of environment, you're going to get asked about this issue.

BALDWIN: Let's move off that. I want to move on to these candidates, because it was interesting. In 2008, the Republican crop of candidates, you had a sitting Republican president at the time. They really sort of separated themselves from President Bush.

Now you have this Democratic crop of candidates and a sitting Democratic president, they're bringing him into the fold. Why do you think that is and how will they do that tomorrow night on the stage here?

PFEIFFER: I think, look, each one of these candidates is going to have issues and areas where they sincerely disagree with the president. And there are going to be things that the president has done that they will want to build on if they were president.

But in order to first win the primary and win the general election, their task is going to be to get the coalition of people that Barack Obama mobilized in 2008, mobilized in 2012 to come out for them. Those people sat out the 2010 election, sat out the 2014 election.

They have only come out when Barack Obama is on the ballot. And their task going to be bring them -- bring those people to the polls when Barack Obama is not on the ballot. So they don't have to hug the president, but they have to understand that he's incredibly popular, not just in the Democratic Party. He's also more popular than almost everyone running for president in the country writ large.

BALDWIN: Do you expect to hear his name invoked tomorrow quite a bit?

PFEIFFER: I don't think that they should go out of their way to do it. I think it will come up. I think it will come up in questions certainly around some of the issues where the candidates have disagreed with the president recently.

And I imagine the very clever moderators at CNN will look for ways to do that. But I think they have to lay out how each one of them would be president themselves building on the president's legacy, but not -- I don't think they should go out of their way to do it. But I think there will be opportunities to do.

BALDWIN: You were in on it. We talked about it in Simi Valley. We're talking about it here in Vegas, because I'm fascinated.

Lift veil for us. We're 29 hours -- looking at the clock, 29 hours away from tomorrow night's debate. What's happening? I know some of the candidates are at this No Labels event in New Hampshire this afternoon. But what's happening today, tonight, tomorrow morning?

PFEIFFER: If debate prep is going as planned, the candidates have done all of the studying, the learning the issues, the sort of understanding, memorizing the policy positions, et cetera.

And what is happening now is today and tomorrow is beginning to prepare for the debate and having the advisers talk to the candidates about what are your key strategic objectives? They're trying to do that. How are you going to answer every question, but what are you trying to achieve in this debate on a meta level?

And then what I think is very important for smart campaigns to do is that in our social media age, what gets traction are moments, whether it was in the Republican debate the moment, the exchange between Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump. These candidates have to know what moments they want to have and be prepared for those and try to find a way to work those in debates.

They should be game planning those moments and rehearsing them in this last period here.

BALDWIN: You brought up Donald Trump. So, I'm going to ask you a question on Trump. We know that...

PFEIFFER: We never would have discussed it had I not, yes.

BALDWIN: As, again, I keep pointing out, everyone is taking this picture of this big gold Trump Hotel looming over the Wynn.

I want to play some sound just quickly. This is President Obama commenting on Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: He is tapped into something that exists in the Republican party that's real. I think there is genuine anti-immigrant sentiment in the large portion of at least Republican primary voters.

I don't think it's uniform. He knows how to get attention. He is, you know, the classic reality TV character. And, at this early stages, it's not surprising that he's gotten a lot of attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What I wonder -- and we have heard this from Bill Clinton, that he thinks -- he thinks it's possible that Trump could get the nomination on the Republican side. What do you think your former boss thinks?