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Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Take Questions Regarding Military and Foreign Policy; Obama on Trump: "I Don't Think The Guy is Qualified." Aired 8-8:30 a ET

Aired September 08, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]: DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have a substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a serious business. You actually have to know what you're talking about.

TRUMP: I think I would have a very, very good relationship with Putin. He has been a leader far more than our president has been a leader.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Email exchange between Secretary Clinton and her predecessor Colin Powell's has been released.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have the utmost respect for Secretary Powell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Colin Powell used a personal computer hooked up to a private phone line.

CLINTON: As I have said repeatedly, it was a mistake to have a personal account.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, September 8th, 8:00 in the east. Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump facing tough questions from veterans, active duty troops, and their families. Clinton saying her steadiness makes her the best choice. Trump tried to take Clinton and the rest of the current administration's judgment to task.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: President Obama, meanwhile, striking back at Donald Trump, speaking from Laos this morning. The president repeated his feeling that Trump is not qualified to be president. We begin our coverage with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. Sunlen give us all the latest headlines.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. It was so fascinating to see both of these candidates appearing back to back at this national security forum. And what really turned into a small preview of how they could potentially handle themselves in their first real faceoff which will come later this month. Both trying to gain the upper hand on the big question, who is ready to be commander in chief.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: Donald Trump drumming up more controversy.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The man very has strong control over a country.

SERFATY: Praising Russian President Vladimir Putin while trashing President Obama.

TRUMP: He has been a leader far more than our president has been a leader.

SERFATY: In attacking the performance of U.S. military generals, standing by his statement claiming he knows more about ISIS than the generals do.

TRUMP: Under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble. They have been reduced to a point where it is embarrassing for our country.

SERFATY: But giving no details on his plan to defeat ISIS.

TRUMP: I have a substantial chance of winning. If I win, I don't want to broadcast to the enemy exactly what my plan is.

SERFATY: Hillary Clinton making clear her plan to fight ISIS will not include ground troops.

CLINTON: We've got to do it with air power. We've got to do it with much more support for the Arabs and Kurds who will fight on the ground against ISIS. We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again, and we're not putting ground troops into Syria. I view force as a last resort, not a first choice.

SERFATY: Clinton getting grilled over her use of a private e-mail server while serving as secretary of state and her vote to go to war with Iraq.

CLINTON: Classified material has a header which says "top secret," "secret," "confidential." Nothing, and I would -- I will repeat this and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice. None of the e-mails sent or received by me had such a header.

I think that the decision to go to war in Iraq was a mistake. We must lea what led us down that path so that it never happens again. I think I'm in the best possible position to be able to understand that and prevent it. I'm asking to be judged on the totality of my record.

SERFATY: Later Trump repeating his false claim that he opposed the Iraq war from the start.

TRUMP: I've always said shouldn't be there.

HOWARD STERN, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Are you for invading Iraq?

TRUMP: Yes, I guess so. You know, I wish it was -- I wish the first time it was done correct leave.

SERFATY: And declaring the U.S. should have stolen oil from Iraq.

TRUMP: But if we're going to get out, take the oil. If we would have taken the oil, you wouldn't have ISIS. It used to be to the victor belong the spoils.

SERFATY: And sparking outrage for defending his controversial 2013 tweet that suggests sexual assault in the military is a result of women serving alongside men.

TRUMP: It is a correct tweet. There are many people that think that that's absolutely correct. You have reported, and the gentlemen can tell you, you have the report of rape and nobody gets prosecuted. There are no consequence.

SERFATY: Also drawing criticism, NBC News Anchor Matt Lauer being accused of aggressively questioning Clinton.

CLINTON: Wait, let me -- this is an important issue. I know we're in on TV. We don't have a lot of time.

MATT LAUER, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: I want to get to a lot of requests.

CLINTON: I will talk quickly.

SERFATY: And not fact-checking Trump's claims throughout the event.

TRUMP: I was totally against the war in Iraq. Perhaps almost as bad was the way Barack Obama got out. That was a disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People talk about you and commander in chief and not just secretary Clinton, but some of your Republican opponents in the primary season and they wonder about your temperament.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:05:00] SERFATY: And afterwards, both sides slammed the other over their performance. The RNC chair specifically calling out Clinton for, in his words, "being angry and defensive the entire time," tweeting out that she had no smile and was uncomfortable, upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets. The Clinton campaign shooting right back, saying that's what taking the office of the president seriously looks like. So once again, Alisyn, both sides here really trying to gain advantage over this big issue of who has the right temperament.

CAMEROTA: Yes, hard to smile when talking about ISIS. Thank you very much, Sunlen.

Donald Trump praising Russian President Vladimir Putin again and getting major pushback for his comments on sexual assault in the military. What are the top generals in the country saying today? CNN's Barbara Starr is working her sources. She's live at the Pentagon with details. Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. The top generals not talking about this, but believe me, they're watching every word. Donald Trump saying he deserves to be commander in chief because he knows what's going on. One of his key points continues to be that the U.S. military should, quote, "take the oil from Iraq." He spoke about that old cliche "to the victor go the spoil." You might consider that is a war crime. That is not something the U.S. military is going to do.

He talked about sexual assault. A tweet he had made several months back that implied sexual assault in the military may be a result of women being in the service. Of course, women have been in the U.S. military for -- since the beginning of this country. That is something female service members as well as men may be looking at very closely, his view on sexual assault.

About Vladimir Putin, he praised Putin, he praised Putin's leadership. U.S. military officials will tell you that they are watching the Russian support the bombing campaign against Aleppo where hundreds of men, women and children, civilians have been killed at the behest of the Russian military and the Assad military that Putin supports. That is Putin's current military leadership.

But it is the question of rubble, U.S. generals being reduced to rubble. Not a lot of explanation by Donald Trump what he meant about that. That is something that has to be considered that he may need to explain even further. Alisyn, Chris.

CUOMO: Well, Barbara, to be true, we will hear a lot of clean up on that from his supporters this morning, probably right now. Let's discuss this with Boris Epshteyn, he's senior adviser to the Trump campaign, and David Brock, founder of the pro Hillary Clinton super PAC Correct the Record. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us.

DAVID BROCK, FOUNDER, PRO-HILLARY SUPER PAC CORRECT THE RECORD: Good morning.

CUOMO: Let me start with you. Let me get from each of you a concise statement of why you believe your candidate, in your case, Hillary Clinton, made the better case for herself as commander in chief last night?

BROCK: Well, I think because the specificity of the plans she laid out. She laid out a very specific plan for what she is going to do on ISIS. Trump claimed he had a secret plan. He wouldn't give any information about it. I think there is -- it is obvious why groups like ISIS are cheering on Donald Trump. She had a record on veterans' affairs that go back to her service in the Senate Armed Services Committee. He had nothing to offer veterans but platitudes. He never served. He compared Vietnam service to sexually transmitted diseases, trashed John McCain, wants to privatize the administration.

BORIS EPSHTEYN, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN: That's not true.

CUOMO: Wait a second.

BROCK: And finally, I mean, this issue of who could be tougher on Russia I think has now settled where we see that, we saw praise for Putin, which I think showed unpreparedness, showed ignorance. And the fact is we don't know why he is praising Putin because he won't release his tax returns, won't tell us who his foreign investors are, and we know he's trying to build more power in Moscow.

CUOMO: All right, so there's David's point for why she was better last night, positive and negative. What is your rebuttal?

EPSHTEYN: First of all, Bill Clinton made $500,000 for a 90-minute speech in Moscow. Putin called Bill Clinton and thanked him personally. There are pictures of the two of them together smiling and laughing. Hillary Clinton attempted a failed reset with Russia and she failed. Since she failed, no one else is allowed to try.

Let's go back to the whole event. Hillary Clinton was completely unlikable. She lied off the bat. Everyone knows that she ordered her staff to strip the e-mails of the headers which $make them classified. She did that. She said the e-mails weren't classified.

CUOMO: Where is there proof she ordered the staff to strip the headers off the --

EPSHTEYN: Specific emails from 2011, I'm glad to give them to you, specific emails when she said take the security e-mails, make them unsecured, take off the headers. They will be no longer secure.

CUOMO: How do you deal with that part?

BROCK: Last night, in the first nine questions, eight were about the e-mails. I'm not faulting him for that. Hold on. She gave very clear, I think her best answers to this email controversy because now the FBI investigation is complete and she can do that. So I understand that critics don't accept the FBI investigation as being solid, good and competent. But all of this was looked at. And no wrongdoing was found. And the case was closed.

[08:10:07] EPSHTEYN: Actually not all of it was looked at. What wasn't looked at was the 17,500 e-mails that have come out since she said she turned over all her emails. The new information now that we're getting, the State Department broke BlackBerrys with hammers.

CUOMO: So wait, those two points, one that e-mails have come out after she said she turned them all over, and two, the nature of how they destroyed devices. What's your response?

EPSHTEYN: The FBI is not investigating.

BROCK: She turned over everything she had, OK.

EPSHTEYN: What does that mean? No she didn't.

BROCK: Yes, she did.

EPSHTEYN: That's a lie. She did not.

BROCK: She turned over everything in her possession.

EPSHTEYN: You can't keep saying that. That's not true.

CUOMO: Does the 17,500 mean she didn't turn everything over that was in her possession?

BROCK: No, it doesn't. She turned over everything in her possession.

CUOMO: Then where are those e-mails from?

BROCK: Well, they weren't in her possession.

Let's not forget that 90 percent of all this e-mail, even from her personal e-mail account, because it was going to people who were using State Department e-mail addresses was archived in real time.

EPSHTEYN: That doesn't matter.

CUOMO: Hold on one second. Hold on.

BROCK: This sledgehammer issue.

CUOMO: Go to the sledgehammer, answer it, and then I want to move on.

BROCK: Sure. The FBI looked at it. This is not a new fact. They found no wrongdoing. And again, people --

EPSHTEYN: -- isn't going to jail.

BROCK: They did a very serious investigation for months. They looked at this and they found no wrongdoing.

EPSHTEYN: The benchmark to be president is not to stay out of jail. The benchmark is to follow the laws, rules, and regulations.

BROCK: And she did.

EPSHTEYN: She failed to do so. And she's even admitted failing to do so. She said I didn't do everything right. I would do it differently. She's admitted to that.

But the key here is this. Being secretary of state was her tryout. She was a terrible secretary of state. Forget the fact that she was terrible in Iran. We now know that deal had secret clauses that allowed Iran to keep Uranium. She was terrible on Russia, terrible on the Middle East. Last night she said no Americans died in Libya. Benghazi is in Libya. We had an ambassador murdered in Libya. For Hillary Clinton, for all her knowledge, was terrible on the facts last night. She was talking about Iraq. She said there were no Americans in Iraq. And 5,000 are in Iraq right now.

CUOMO: I got you. I asked you why he did a better job. EPSHTEYN: I'm about to tell you.

CUOMO: I know. But you didn't. I gave you an opportunity.

EPSHTEYN: You cut me off.

CUOMO: No, I didn't cut you off. You decided to go after his points first.

EPSHTEYN: I was countering what he was saying.

CUOMO: That was your choice. Now I'm going to ask you a little accountability question.

EPSHTEYN: OK.

CUOMO: There is zero proof, Boris, that your candidate was against the Iraq war when it was being --

EPSHTEYN: That's incorrect.

CUOMO: When it was being considered and argued or shortly thereafter. We have looked for months, we've asked the campaign. They offer nothing. Will you own that is true?

EPSHTEYN: No, absolutely not. There is an interview with Neil Cavuto?

CUOMO: When?

EPSHTEYN: Within a month or so.

CUOMO: When. I saw. And what did he say? We have the transcript.

EPSHTEYN: He is against the war.

CUOMO: He did not say that.

EPSHTEYN: There is an "Esquire" article.

CUOMO: It was in 2004. Let me tell you why the sensitivity. If you went there and covered that, if you know the stories of the men and women who died over there fighting that war, the idea of being cavalier about what you were for and what you were against during that period of time matters. Clinton screwed up, she owns it. It was a mistake. A lot of them made it. Maybe it was on bad information. There is no proof. And if you don't own it, you set a table for an evaluation of yourself.

EPSHTEYN: You're playing a clip of the Howard Stern show, which is a comedy show. You heard him say, well, you know --

CUOMO: You think he was making a joke?

EPSHTEYN: No, he wasn't making a joke. He was a businessman. He wasn't a politician. You asked me a question. Let me finish. What he said was he maybe wasn't as crisp as a politician. But on Cavuto and in "Esquire," all within a month of the war --

CUOMO: He was --

EPSHTEYN: you asked me a question, now let me answer.

CUOMO: That was the question.

EPSHTEYN: On Donald Trump last night --

CUOMO: That was the question you answered.

EPSHTEYN: He was more presidential. He was absolutely more likeable and more believable. He was someone that the American people can see as president. And that's why he won the polls coming out of the forum last night.

CUOMO: All right, so that's your answer on that. You should check the Cavuto, the transcript is all over online. You take a look at it. You'll see I'm right about that. There will be no mug for you, I promise you that. I'm offering a NEW DAY mug to anybody who proves he was against the war. You're not going to win it. You're not getting the mug.

CUOMO: Let me ask this about you. Colin Powell, the e-mail comes out, the campaign is celebrating the release of the Powell email because they believe it shows that Colin Powell did advise Hillary Clinton, did suggest that he used his own computer, did suggest there was a bureaucracy she needed it avoid. How does that exonerate her judgment to use the personal server and avoid transparency?

BROCK: It doesn't, and she said that was a mistake. But it does do two things. First of all, she has been accused of lying about this, the advice she got from Colin Powell for years by the Republicans. Clearly she wasn't lying. And two, I think it does go to a question of a double standard. And I think when Hillary does something, it's suspect.

[08:15:01] It's wrong. It is unethical. And the same behavior from her predecessor is just fine.

CUOMO: Well argued.

EPSHTEYN: Hold on. Colin Powell did not use a private server. She did.

CUOMO: He used a private computer. He used --

EPSHTEYN: But not a private server.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: This segment, if people want to review the record, we don't have to go through it all right now, this has been used as something that didn't happen, that she was lying about, and now the e-mail is out there and people can judge for themselves, because it obviously existed as a dialogue. EPSHTEYN: Colin Powell (INAUDIBLE) was a long time after she started

using the server.

CUOMO: I know, but we don't know that to be true.

Boris, it's good to have your argument, the point as always. David, as well.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Well, Chris, President Obama criticizing Donald Trump on the world stage, suggesting that Trump has not done his homework on foreign policy. CNN's Christiane Amanpour will weigh in, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Well, this morning, President Obama slamming Donald Trump during this news conference in Laos.

Here is what he said when asked about Trump's foreign policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I don't think the guy is qualified to be president of the United States. And every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed. I think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what he says and follow-up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright whacky ideas.

[08:20:15] There is this process that seems to take place over the course of the election season where somehow behavior that in normal times, we would consider completely unacceptable and outrageous becomes normalized. And people start thinking that we should be graded on a curve.

But I can tell you from the interactions that I've had over the last eight or nine days with foreign leaders that this is serious business. You actually have to know what you're talking about, and you actually have to have done your homework. And when you speak, it should actually reflect thought out policy that you can implement.

And I have confidence that if in fact people just listen to what he has to say and look at his track record or lack thereof, they'll make a good decision.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Why did the president take such a big international stage and make it about the election? Well, it's because it came right after we were dealing with this big forum last night, the first time the voters and in fact, the world have gotten to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump fielding the same types of questions from the same audience.

So, joining us this morning to give us the world's view of the 2016 U.S. election, a big task, but Christiane can handle it, CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

You heard what the president was saying. Put it in context for us of how people that he's dealing with in this forum, the international leadership, are viewing what's happening in our election.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think it's no secret and we've reported endlessly about this, that the rest of the world, particularly U.S. allies, to an extent some of the adversaries as well, are looking very closely at this election. They don't see sort of a match of equals, if you like. They don't see it on the one hand, on the other hand. They don't see it as a typical U.S. election cycle, where you have two equals are facing off against each other.

They see one person who they know, whether they agree with U.S. policy or not, they have seen Hillary Clinton on the international stage most lately as the secretary of state, directly dealing with foreign policy, and they know to an extent, to a great extent how she would conduct foreign policy. All they have from Donald Trump is words and actually from their perspective, a rapidly and constantly changing set of words that seem to get thrown into a tumble dryer and coming in all which way, depending on which way or what time of the week those questions are asked.

Whether it is about constantly flip flopping immigration policy, and lately, as you heard yesterday in that forum about ISIS. People are saying well hang on a second. First, he said that he had a brilliant ISIS plan to defeat this terrorist organization. And then he said he would, you know, task his generals with coming out with such a plan in 30 days.

So, the bottom line is, people don't really know, and overseas, they are alarmed, because as President Obama said, it is incredibly serious business. Particularly, what is happening with Russia right now.

CAMEROTA: And, Christiane, what about what happened today in Laos when the president spoke and the U.S. president on an international stage criticized a U.S. presidential candidate? Just historically, that often doesn't happen.

AMANPOUR: Well, look, there is traditionally the idea when you go beyond the borders, you tend to, you know, not potentially do those things. But presidents have been asked in the past for their take on an election.

And again, this is not just another election. If there's one thing we're being told over here by historians, by world leaders, by all the people for instance who I engage with on a nightly basis on my program around the world, they're saying this is not just another election and can't be treated as just another election with what they consider a false equivalence between the two candidates on the experience level, and on the public statement level.

So people are very, very concerned about, for instance, their relations with the United States, should Donald Trump be elected. And that presumably is what President Obama is referring to. He said over the past however many days, he is not only dealt with difficult and often intractable international issues, but he is over and over again from his counterparts their concerns, their questions, their worries, about what will happen.

Just for instance, yet again, Donald Trump taking about transactional relationship with long-standing allies.

[08:25:07]He mentioned again, Japan and South Korea and Saudi and Germany, implying these people do not put up their share of a financial contribution or political or military contribution to bilateral and multilateral issues, feeling that the United States should only have a relationship with these people if they contribute financially more to the U.S. purse. Of course, that is not the way bilateral or multilateral relations work.

CUOMO: Let's get your take on something that just happened here. As you probably know, Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico was on TV this morning and asked about Aleppo. Here is what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What would you do if you were elected about Aleppo?

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: About?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aleppo.

JOHNSON: And what is Aleppo?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're kidding?

JOHNSON: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aleppo is in Syria. It's the epicenter of the refugee crisis.

JOHNSON: OK, got it. Got it. With regard to Syria, I do think that it is a mess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: How do you see this for Gary Johnson? He is relevant in some polls as high as 10 percent.

AMANPOUR: Well, look, tragically, the Syria war, Aleppo, foreign policy in general not been a big part of the U.S. presidential election. To be frank, they very rarely talk about foreign policy. This I believe is to the detriment of the United States and to the presidential race and to the people of the United States, because you can see as we have that foreign policy tends to dominant most presidents agenda, whether they want it or not, whether they campaign on foreign policy or not. It just is a fact of life.

So, that kind of, I mean, look, what can you call it. He said he didn't know, he didn't know. So, he is admitting he didn't know. This is a war in its sixth year that currently the United States is trying to get a cease-fire and a total cessation of hostilities today, between Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian foreign minister, they meant to start tomorrow, they have delayed it.

But this is front and center for anybody who is paying any attention to the biggest disaster, the biggest crisis that is on the international stage right now barring international terrorism. Frankly, it emanates from this crisis as we know.

So, this is the kind of thing that gives the rest of the world great pause, and so if Gary Johnson says that, and then if Donald Trump makes all sorts of differing statements about Syria, about ISIS, about what he would and wouldn't do about Russia.

And by the way, this is crucial. Donald Trump has constantly and again, did last night, praise Vladimir Putin. Now, this is a leader of a country that currently has an adversarial, at the very least, an adversarial relationship with the United States. And you know, I spoke to Ash Carter yesterday who said that you know, he was doing the wrong thing in Syria, not the right thing. This is Vladimir Putin he was talking about.

CAMEROTA: Christiane, great to get your reporting and insight. Thanks so much.

CUOMO: All right. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, talking national security to a group of vets, active duty members and their families. What appealed most to our nation's heroes? We have a panel of veterans to talk about their reaction to the Commander-in-Chief Forum. There they are.

Thank you for your service. We'll be with you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)