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Interview With Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum; Hillary Clinton Holds National Security Summit; Trump Under Fire for Russian TV Appearance. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 09, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stephen would be turning 50 in November?

FRANK SILLER, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, STEPHEN SILLER TUNNEL TO TOWERS FOUNDATION: November 15, he would have been turning 50, yes.

BERMAN: What kind of 50-year-old do you think Stephen would have made?

SILLER: I think he would have been a very young 50-year-old.

Loved being a firefighter, so he'd still definitely be a firefighter. He would have had over 20 years already. He would have been able to retire. But he -- there is no way he would have retired. He loved the challenge of being able to save people. Knowing Stephen, he probably liked the fear factor involved. He had guts. He loved that brotherhood.

BERMAN: If you could talk to Stephen one more time, what would you tell him?

SILLER: I'm proud of you. All your siblings are. Your kids are. Your wife is. The whole community is. You really did something special, Steve.

BERMAN (voice-over): John Berman, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: With that family next hour, you will hear more from 10 incredible young people, all of whom lost their fathers on that day 15 years ago.

We continue on this Friday. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

In just a couple of minutes, we will see major developments in the race for the presidency here. Soon, Donald Trump will be speaking to what's called the Values Voters Summit. RNC chief there Reince Priebus speaking now. This is in the wake of a major outcry over his appearance on Russian TV. We will explain that in a moment.

Hillary Clinton, she is gathering some top national minds, bipartisan minds, to tackle ISIS this afternoon.

Let's get straight to our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, who is following Trump at that event in Washington, but first to our senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny in New York at the Historical Society covering this national security meeting with Secretary Clinton.

I understand we just got some video from inside. You want to go ahead and tell me what's going on.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We did indeed, Brooke.

We are seeing these pictures here, as you can see, Secretary Clinton taking her seat with a bipartisan group of national security experts. Interestingly, when you look at this roll call of people on the list, some names that are very familiar in this arena, David Petraeus, of course, who was the architect of the Iraq surge back in 2007, the former homeland security chief during the Bush administration Michael Chertoff also around that table, Democrats as well.

But, Brooke, the Clinton campaign is trying to make the case here that she would be a commander in chief, she would be someone who works across the aisle, reaches across the aisle. It's been the theme of the week here, and it really is an argument again she's trying to make against Donald Trump that she is the candidate with experience and judgment here to deal in these times of crisis and moments of crisis.

And presidential campaigns, particularly in this phase of them, with 60 days to go, today, Brooke, also become a real-life moment to react to what's happening in the news, and, of course, today, North Korea is first and foremost on everyone's mind. And we have just gotten a statement from the Clinton campaign and it says this.

Let's look. It says: "North Korea's decision to conduct another nuclear test is outrageous and unacceptable," Hillary Clinton says. She says, "This is another reminder that America must elect a president who can confront the threats we face with steadiness and strength."

So, Brooke, certainly, the events of 9/11 also will be discussed in that room, the current threats facing the country here as we near the 15th anniversary on Sunday, as well as more recent threats from that nuclear test overnight in North Korea -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jeff, thank you.

And I'm sure, Jim Acosta, I'm sure Donald Trump, a New Yorker, may address the 15th anniversary of 9/11 as well. But do we anticipate him also addressing his comments on the most recent TV appearance?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, anything is possible when Donald Trump takes the stage, Brooke, as you know that.

Donald Trump was in Cleveland yesterday. It was supposed to be an event on school choice, ended up talking about and relitigating whether or not he supported the Iraq War. Jeff mentioned North Korea. The Trump campaign did put out a statement on North Korea just in the last hour saying that this latest nuclear test conducted by North Korea is just the latest example of the catastrophic failures of the Clinton administration -- or the Clinton tenure as secretary of state during the Obama administration.

So it is possible we will hear Donald Trump talk about that. National security issues have been top of mind all week. Now, you mentioned this appearance Donald Trump had on RTV. That happened last night when he appeared on that program with former CNN host Larry King.

That's something that the Trump campaign is saying that Donald Trump had no idea this was going to happen. They saying that. Kellyanne Conway said this on CNN's "NEW DAY" earlier this morning that Donald Trump was simply doing a podcast for Larry King and that the audio from that podcast was played on Larry King's program, which airs on RTV, which is a Moscow-Kremlin propaganda outlet.

[15:05:03]

They are saying this was not a decision made by Donald Trump. But, of course, the Clinton campaign, Democrats, are saying this is just the latest example of sort of this odd bromance that Donald Trump has with Vladimir Putin.

But I will tell you, just listening to Reince Priebus right now at this Values Voters Summit here in Washington, it does seem that Donald Trump is going to be trying to tend that conservative flock here. He is going to be hitting on some of the things we the heard from Reince Priebus a few moments ago, Reince Priebus sort of indicating, I think acknowledging that there may be some Christian conservatives who are nervous about Donald Trump, but saying that there are two words that this crowd needs to keep into mind heading into the polling places in November, and that is the Supreme Court.

And I think we will hear Donald Trump make that same case as well. He's made the case to Christian conservatives throughout this election cycle. We will probably hear it again, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will listen for him and we will take it live. Jim and Jeff, thank you both so much.

We will come back to Putin and this RTV appearance. But let me get you straight to this breaking news we are just getting on the hacks in to several Democratic Party organizations and election operations.

CNN has just learned that there is renewed confidence that Russia is in fact behind these cyber-break-ins and sources say several Republican lawmakers now believe it.

To Evan Perez we go with the breaking news, our justice correspondent.

What changed, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Brooke, I think these lawmakers came back from their very long vacation, the summer vacation, and they came in for briefings from law enforcement, from intelligence officials this past week. I know that several of them have been sitting in these briefings, and they have been getting the latest information from the FBI, from Homeland Security and the intelligence community.

And the picture that they are getting is that there is near certainty that Russian intelligence was behind the fact the hacks against the Democratic Party organization, including the DNC. You know there's been a lot of activity, including against some think tanks and even against reporters for "The New York Times."

All of this tied into Russian intelligence activity. In addition, what they heard from the briefers is that those hacks that we have been reporting on against the election registration Web sites in Illinois and Arizona and some other states, they now firmly believe, the FBI, the investigators that are doing this, believe that this is also the work of Russian hackers.

And I think for a lot of lawmakers who were perhaps a little skeptical about whether or not this was the Clinton campaign and the Democrats who were pushing this line about Russian involvement, I think this changed the picture.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They're now believing it.

PEREZ: Right.

Well, now we are talking about Russians trying to mess with the U.S. election system. We are a just a couple months away from that, now weeks away from the first ballots being cast in early voting in some of the states. And I think that's what changes the concern here.

Now, behind the scenes, there is also a big debate inside the Obama administration, what to do about this. Right? Because the FBI and the Justice Department believe that they have done the investigation. They believe they know firmly that we should be able to say that the Russians are behind this. And I think they are getting some pushback. I know they are getting some pushback from some folks in the intelligence community, from the State Department.

There's other concerns going on there. You see Secretary Kerry is trying to negotiate a deal with the Russians over Syria. The intelligence community is concerned about perhaps exposing some of our own programs.

After all, our spies are doing some of the similar things against Russian Web sites and so on. So, that's part of the picture. And then the White House, the White House is very concerned about appearing to be meddling in the election.

They don't want to come out and say it's Russia, and then appearing to be tipping the scales towards Hillary Clinton. And, also, frankly, they also want to make sure that the FBI does not work to show the connection between the Russian government hackers and WikiLeaks, which is the organization that published some of those DNC files.

A lot of activity going on behind the scenes, Brooke. And we're going to hear a lot more about this in the 60 days that are left before this election.

BALDWIN: I'm sure from the nominees themselves as well. Evan, thank you for all of that here, as we are talking about Putin, we're talking about Russia in light of the news there. The latest outcry over Donald Trump may even get louder.

The Republican nominee is under fire for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin. Listen, he has done it before, but this time the nominee seemed to align, at least on some issues, with Putin. His representatives said that if they had known the Trump appearance on RTV would be seen as the Kremlin-backed network, he would not have done the interview.

Here is what Trump said about whether he believes Russia launched a covert operation to disrupt the 2016 U.S. election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe -- maybe the Democrats are putting that out. Who knows.

[15:10:02]

But I think that it's pretty unlikely. But, you know, who knows? I hope that, if they are doing something, I hope that somebody's going to be able to find out, so they can they can end it, because that would not be appropriate at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Trump has also said that he had -- quote -- "absolutely no opinion" on the FBI investigating whether Russians hacked -- I can hear you in my ear, if you don't mind getting out -- thank you -- into Democratic Party e-mails, though, as we just told you, more and more officials in Washington are now ready to say that is exactly what happened.

With me now, CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish, who also hosts "SMERCONISH" here on CNN on Saturday mornings.

Hello, Michael Smerconish.

Let me -- before we get to Putin, you heard Evan's reporting and now the change being Republicans or some Republicans are now buying into, you know, it might be Russia meddling.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I heard Jeff's report and I heard Evan's report. And it's hard not to put it all together and see it as causally connected, meaning that Donald Trump extends himself to a broadcast network that's controlled by the Russians, says kind things about Vladimir Putin, so as to give him encouragement with regard to Evan's story about Russian involvement in the hacks.

You remember, Brooke, at the outset of the Democratic National Convention, the whole Debbie Wasserman Schultz fiasco that cost her, her job.

BALDWIN: Yes.

SMERCONISH: And so is it really a leap of faith for Donald Trump to be hoping that they have got, meaning the Russians, something drawn from one of those 13 private devices that were dependent upon Hillary Clinton's private e-mail servers, and hoping that there will be a real October surprise in this election, where there's a Russian leak of something embarrassing that was on that server that should not have been.

I see it all potentially as fitting together.

BALDWIN: This is just when we thought it couldn't get more interesting. Right? It has.

SMERCONISH: Right.

BALDWIN: And then you have these -- Manu Raju, he's a tough working reporter. And he is our correspondent on Capitol Hill. He was chasing down these congress men and women to get their opinions on Donald Trump's sort of proverbial embrace of Putin.

And one point, the door is kind of closing on John McCain's elevator, but he says, essentially, he's a murderous thug, being Putin.

What do you think of these Republicans having to sort of answer for Donald Trump?

SMERCONISH: First of all, I thought that was great reporting. It's funny you bring that up, because my day began by watching Manu confronting all of them as they skirted into elevators and...

BALDWIN: He's so great, isn't he?

SMERCONISH: It was tremendous, behind closed doors and so forth.

But it's amazing. To me, it is almost like the equivalent of a domestic situation where two people are not getting along, but there is an outsider to the family, and if the outsider is all of a sudden an interloper, well, you train your guns on that person.

That's how I feel. Regardless of how you feel about Trump or about Clinton, the fact that Vladimir Putin would want to screw with our election, doesn't that cause us all to say, whoa, wait a minute? This is entirely inappropriate.

And yet I'm not hearing that from one side of the aisle, and I think that is a problem.

BALDWIN: Let me throw another voice into this conversation, Bill Clinton. He is out on the trail today and he just made some comments about Donald Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Comfortable in the moderators after the other night?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, even with that, she did just fine.

And the only thing that bothered me was that I thought there should have been more discussion about that Mexican trip, because he said his trip was a success because the finance minister got fired. The finance minister lost his job because he wanted (INAUDIBLE). If you're going to be president, you have to say the same thing at home and abroad.

You can't go to someplace and make it look like everything going to be nice, then come back (INAUDIBLE) because it makes people all over the world, they don't trust America.

QUESTION: Right. Right.

CLINTON: So, very important. I always favored the toughest language face to face, person, in private, and then try to avoid embarrassing people, but, by all means, tell the same story at home and abroad. If you don't, it gets you in real trouble.

QUESTION: Are you offering any advice?

CLINTON: For Hillary?

QUESTION: Yes.

CLINTON: No. I just go and listen.

And if I think they can make a point better, I will say it. But she's done well. I think she's done well (INAUDIBLE). She just knows so much. And the main thing you have to do, if you know a lot, and you got have time constraints, is practice, all of the things you know, what are the most important things to say to each question?

QUESTION: Right.

CLINTON: But it's pretty easy prep. You just have to do it over and over again, because you can never forget that you don't have five minutes. You have got either 30, 60, or 90 seconds, depending on what the format is.

[15:15:00]

QUESTION: Thank you.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so we just wanted to quickly turn that around. As I am looking at President Clinton, let's throw the pictures up.

Michael, I don't know if you have seen these photos, that these were all out because of a FOIA request, a Freedom of Information Act request.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: I hear you laughing. So, you have Donald Trump, you have Bill Clinton?

SMERCONISH: Well, who's the bunny?

BALDWIN: Stand by. Yes, the bunny.

Who do you think has more to lose by these pictures being out?

SMERCONISH: Well, I think it comports already with our perception of Trump, right? To see him in this kind of an environment, there's nothing shocking to me. What it's a reminder of is the one-time clubbiness, chummy relationship between all of them, and the fact that when he was married for the third time, the Clintons were there.

And I think that she said, meaning Hillary Clinton, I think she said, well, she thought it would be entertaining. How unbelievable that not too many years later, now they're the combatants and saying the most ugly of things about one another.

BALDWIN: Politics. That's my answer for you.

Michael Smerconish.

(CROSSTALK)

SMERCONISH: This year's politics.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. We watch you on Saturdays here on CNN, 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you so much.

SMERCONISH: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We are moments away from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both speaking live on the campaign trail today. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:48]

BALDWIN: In just a couple minutes, Donald Trump will take the podium at the Values Voters Summit there in Washington, D.C. Former mayor Of New York, Rudy Giuliani, good friend and adviser to Mr. Trump, speaking right now.

Also speaking in support of Trump at that very summit, former Pennsylvania Senator and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. Senator, always a pleasure to have you on. Welcome.

RICK SANTORUM (R), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Thank you, Brooke. Great to be back on your show.

BALDWIN: So, before the break, we were talking about Trump and his assertions that you the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is a better leader than Obama. He said that the other night at that forum.

It was something that his running mate has echoed. Let me play you some sound now from Secretary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What is it about running your economy into the ground, as Putin has in Russia, that's leadership? What is it about invading other nations that's leadership? What is it about persecuting LGBT Russians or persecuting journalists that's leadership?

What is it about a state-run doping program that gets your Olympians, even your Paralympians, banned from the Olympics that's leadership?

When Mike Pence said that, I just had to reflect that if you don't know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, then where do I start with you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Senator Santorum, do you agree with Tim Kaine or do you agree with Trump that Putin is a strong leader?

(LAUGHTER)

SANTORUM: Well, let me just say, I am no fan of it Vladimir Putin.

BALDWIN: OK.

SANTORUM: I don't know too many people who are fans of Vladimir Putin. But that doesn't mean that...

BALDWIN: But Donald Trump is.

SANTORUM: ... he hasn't had his successes on the international stage, at the expense of the United States. And I think that's really the point that Donald Trump is making.

Whether it is in Syria or whether it is in Eastern Europe, we have seen fecklessness on the part of the Clinton and Obama White Houses. They have allowed him, this weak leader that Tim Kaine aptly described, actually get the upper hand on our president.

That tells you maybe how weak our president is. As pathetic as Putin is as a leader, our leader has ceded ground to him in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: So, wait, you're putting -- hold on, hold on. So you're putting Putin's patheticness on our president?

SANTORUM: Well, the point is, Kaine makes the point that Putin is a pathetic leader on a variety of different fronts, and I'm not going to disagree with him.

But the fact of the matter is, when it comes to dealing with the United States, he has had the upper hand with the United States geopolitically, and has strengthened his position in the world at the expense of the United States.

And I think that's the point Donald Trump is making.

BALDWIN: So then why is Trump embracing him? I mean, John McCain called him a murderous thug.

SANTORUM: Look, I would not be embracing Vladimir Putin.

But I think, again, the point that I think Mike Pence is making, I think ultimately Donald Trump is making is that he is making America look bad and is making it difficult for our allies to depend on us when he continues -- Putin continues to push the Americans around.

BALDWIN: Let's pivot to North Korea. You saw the news today.

What would a President Trump do differently than a President Obama on -- we saw Obama calling North Korea a grave threat, given what happened.

SANTORUM: Yes, and they say they'd pay for this or some language like that. When have they paid for anything? The fact of the matter is, this is another example of a rogue tyrant, a dictator pushing the United States around and the president offering tough language and doing absolutely nothing.

BALDWIN: So, how would Trump make him pay, Senator?

SANTORUM: Well, I mean, look at -- let's look at the scandal that's brewing that you talked about earlier in the show. I have been watching with the attacks, the cyber-attacks. This is coming from the Russians.

This is no surprise. The Russian business network in the dark Web is gathering information not just from our political sources, our governmental entities, but from every business in America. They're hacking away. The Chinese are doing the same. And what are we doing? Nothing.

BALDWIN: But Trump has said he would let China take care of North Korea. I want to ask you, what do you think he should do? What do you think -- how would he make them pay?

SANTORUM: My point is, there are ways to make folks pay, everything from what we do in the cyberworld, what we can do economically, what we can do geopolitically.

[15:25:00]

But the idea that this president just continues to say, oh, we're going to make them pay or we are going to be tough and we're going to stop proliferation and then do nothing, that's the problem.

BALDWIN: I hear you, Senator, putting it on President Obama.

But I haven't heard anything specifically from a potential President Trump.

SANTORUM: Well, I can't speak to exactly what Trump is going to say in response to this particular nuclear test.

But what I can say is, there is a lot of avenues available to a president that are known and unknown to the public to make it very, very difficult. And using the Chinese as leverage is a big part of that.

BALDWIN: OK.

On the economy, Senator, we just got these new numbers today, CNN poll that Americans are more positive about the nation's economy than they have been -- here's the number -- in the last nine years. So, more than half of Americans say the economic conditions are good.

So when you have Republicans and Donald Trump sort of dumping on the Obama administration and the failed economics, doesn't this very number prove them wrong?

SANTORUM: Well, I don't know polls prove wrong or right.

All I would say is that when you have 1.2 percent growth and continually slow growth, you have had zero interest rates forever and you have an economy that is burdened down by Obamacare and taxes and regulation and that Trump is proposing something that actually is going to help working Americans, and he's taking...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Senator Santorum, you point to all of that. But I know someone who likes to point to polls.

SANTORUM: Well, yes. No, Donald Trump points to polls. I agree.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I thought I would point to a poll.

SANTORUM: And I appreciate that.

And that number is not a great number for Donald Trump. But I think there is an underlying concern in America that is not going away. I think you saw it in the U.K. with the Brexit vote. I think Trump is going beyond just the mere GDP numbers. He's talking about issues that really hit home to working Americans, and that's immigration and that's trade and manufacturing policy and other policies that really have an impact on those who have been struggling in America today.

And I think that contrast is going to serve him very well in some of the key states from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, all the way through to Wisconsin and Iowa.

BALDWIN: Yes, we were looking at some of those key states just yesterday.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: You should be, because that's where this election is going to be won or lost.

BALDWIN: I know it. I know it.

On the debates -- and I know you know a thing or two about being on that debate stage, Senator Sanders.

SANTORUM: Only some of them.

BALDWIN: We're less than three weeks away from the first presidential debate. A couple of days ago, Trump said he hasn't really practiced, may or may not hold a mock debate. Do you think that's wise?

SANTORUM: Well, you are talking to someone who's never done a mock debate and never did any practices.

BALDWIN: No kidding.

SANTORUM: So, that's probably -- I'm probably the wrong person -- never.

And the reason I didn't, Brooke, is because I always thought the most important thing to do in a debate is to try to be yourself, not to be scripted, because, if you are scripted, it just -- it shows. The one- liners that people throw out there, I know it is like Pavlov's dogs to reporters. They love the one-liners.

But the fact of the matter is, I think people are looking for authenticity, and particularly given the phoniness of Hillary Clinton and the problems that she's had in honesty an integrity, I think Trump, if he tries to do so much schooling and too much preparing, could lose some of that authenticity which has made him I think as popular as he is.

BALDWIN: Do you think, had you made it farther, and perhaps you were in Trump's shoes, that you would rethink that no practice, no mock debate policy?

SANTORUM: Here's what I would say.

I did town hall meetings many, many times a day. There's just no better venue to practice for a debate than to do those town halls, to talk to reporters. I mean, I know Hillary Clinton has to practice for debates because she doesn't take questions of any real toughness.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Well, at least she took some questions this week. Let's give her a little credit.

SANTORUM: Whoa. Whoa. OK. Wow.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: She's talking to press on the plane, outside of the plane.

So, we're thrilled about that.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: Yes, that's exciting.

BALDWIN: Senator...

SANTORUM: But, no, if I were here, she needs a lot of practice. I don't think Trump does as much. He's used to those interviews. He's used to taking hardballs.

And I think he will do just fine in the debates.

BALDWIN: Senator Rick Santorum, thank you for swinging by. Good luck at the -- speaking at the summit. I appreciate your time with us here at CNN.

SANTORUM: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Any moment now, we are expecting to hear from both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. As we mentioned, Donald Trump will be speaking at this event, huge crowd of social conservatives in Washington, D.C., and Hillary Clinton is expected to make some comments after leaving that roundtable of bipartisan national security experts.

We are standing by and watching both of those events live for you on this Friday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)