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Jeb Bush Blames Hillary Clinton for ISIS Rise; What's Behind Popularity of Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump; China's Growing Problem With Orphaned Special-Needs Kids. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 12, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:31:31] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Jeb Bush blames Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration for the rise of ISIS and he outlines his strategy for defeating the terrorist group. He called for establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, defeating the regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, and embedding U.S. troops with Iraqi forces. He says pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq gave ISIS an opening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: That premature withdrawal was the fatal error, creating the void that ISIS moved in to fill and that Iran has exploited to the full as well. ISIS grew while the United States disengaged from the Middle East and ignored the threat. And where was the secretary of state? Where was secretary of state Clinton in all of this? Like the president himself, she had opposed the surge then joined in claiming credit for its success. Then stood by as that hard-won victory by American and allied forces was thrown away. In all of her record-setting travels, she stopped by Iraq exactly once.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen; and CNN political commentator and Bush supporter, Ana Navarro.

So, David, this was a big speech. Jeb Bush's first major foreign policy speech of his campaign. How effective was it?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's getting lost in the stories, but I think it's an important speech. It's being seen through a political lens ultimately. We'll look at it more substantive purposes. But politically there are two things that were smart about it. One, he picked a fight Hillary Clinton and not Donald Trump. There have been arguing that people on the Republican side ought to go after Trump. This was much smarter because you go after Trump -- it doesn't work for anybody -- you keep him in the center of the story. This puts Bush back in the center of the story.

Secondly, the Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine Hillary Clinton's chief claim to the White House and that is her time as secretary of state and, of course, the e-mail server story is playing right into the Republicans' hands on that.

That being said, there's a considerable question among a lot of voters about -- excuse me? You're going to take on the Iraq war and only blame President Obama for how he got out of it? I think there are -- among foreign policy experts there is a lot of thinking that Jeb Bush is basically right on holding Obama partly to blame but should not then give a free pass to his brother who actually got us into the war. And that's I think -- that's where I think he's playing with fire.

KEILAR: Ana, both the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign reject this idea that they're responsible for the rise of is. Not surprisingly you have Clinton's top policy advisor who says, "This is a pretty bold attempt to rewrite history and reassign responsibility." And in a briefing back in May, Josh Earnest said, "We know ISIL was an outgrowth of al Qaeda in Iraq that did not exist prior to the fateful decision made by the previous administration to launch an invasion of that country and that is also a relevant fact." How tricky is this if Jeb Bush given his brother's decision to invade Iraq, and what you just heard David say there?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I think it's tricky for Jeb Bush but I also think it's tricky for Hillary Clinton. The bottom line is that while Jeb Bush was governor of the state of Florida and dealing with things like manatees and citrus canker, she was a U.S. Senator who had access and saw the intelligence and heard classified reports on this issue and who voted for the war in Iraq. So it's a tricky issue for both. It's smart for Jeb to lead and be proactive bringing it up because it's going to come up. It's going to be part of this campaign. We've already seen it play a big role in some interviews.

I think it makes sense for what was an important line in that speech which said rushing out of danger is just as bad as rushing into danger. I think that was an acknowledgment that both things were bad. But what's getting lost in this blame game is the fact that he laid out specific proposals for how to deal with is, how to deal with Syria sand thank god for that. Thank god that somebody is talking about the serious issues affecting the United States and our national security and we're not talking about the daily episode of the political melodrama telenovella going on, As the Trump Turns.

[13:36:13] KEILAR: As the Trump Turns.

(LAUGHTER)

OK, David, some of those specific policies that he outlined for defeating is, some of them are things the Obama administration is already doing. Do you think Jeb Bush drew enough distinction here between him and President Obama/Hillary Clinton?

GERGEN: Well, I do. And I think he ought to avoid trying to make extreme changes in policy that will only give -- I think this was a more muscular speech than we have seen and a more muscular set of policies than we've seen from the Obama administration about how to handle is. And to integrate our special forces much more into the Iraqi forces, take the fight to the enemy, no-fly zone in Syria would be new. There are several things here that would go beyond where the administration has been and some of them -- Hillary Clinton was on the side as secretary of state of really beefing up our effort in Syria and here's Jeb Bush coming along saying "well, we want to go beyond where Obama has been."

But I want to go back to the central political problem. There is such a thing -- there's a saying in leadership, when you have a problem, put a lantern on your problem. And what that means is knowing that you have a problem as he done with Iraq and his brother, fit a light on it, try to take a liability and turn it into an asset. On that point I think Ana's got -- he's trying to take what could be a serious liability and turn it against Hillary Clinton if he can. We'll have to see if he gets away with it. I will tell you, the initial reaction of most people is going to be, OK, it's fair to go after Clinton but, if you'll be honest, you have to acknowledge your brother made mistakes.

KEILAR: David Gergen, Ana Navarro, thanks so much for that conversation.

And for the latest in politics and all the presidential contenders, check out CNNpolitics.com.

Coming up, what's behind the massive appeal of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump? Will huge crowds and strong polls actually translate into votes? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:42:54] KEILAR: They are on opposite ends of the political spectrum but Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are defying expectations in the polls. Sanders leads Hillary Clinton in a new poll from New Hampshire. Trump is at the top of the Republican field in national polls. Not surprisingly, he took aim after a Sanders rally was taken over by activists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I would never give up my microphone. I thought that was disgusting. That showed such weakness. The way he was taken away by two young women. The microphone -- they just took the whole place over. That will never happen with me. I don't know if I'll do the fighting myself or if other people will. But that was a disgrace. They way they -- I felt badly for him. But it showed he's weak. He's getting these big crowds and I'm getting the biggest crowds. We're the two getting the crowds. Believe me, that won't happen to Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, let's bring in CNN politics senior reporter, Stephen Collinson; and senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson.

Nia, I mean, what do you make of these comments.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It's hilarious. I don't know if I believe Donald Trump that he felt badly for Bernie Sanders when that Black Lives Matter crowd -- protest movement took over his rally but Sanders is attracting these huge crowds. Over the last seven days it's been something like 100,000 people have shown up for these rallies. A lot of the attention and vibrancy of the Democratic Party is with Bernie Sanders. He's very much a movement candidate. He talks about taking out the billionaire class. It's sort of ironic, or maybe not, that you have this billionaire populous in Donald Trump and the populous on the other hand who wants to take down the billionaire class and that would be Sanders.

KEILAR: It's interesting. Let's look at these poll numbers, they are fascinating, out of New Hampshire. This is a Franklin Pierce University/"Boston Herald" poll and look at that, 44 percent Sanders, 37 percent Clinton and the margin of error is 4.7 points. So he's according to this poll beating her in New Hampshire. This is huge.

[13:45:06] STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right. This is very interesting. New Hampshire, of course, has always been a good place for the Clintons. It was a firewall for them. Bill Clinton was the comeback kid there in '92. It was the place where Hillary Clinton won after she lost Iowa to Barack Obama.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Both unexpected, kind of, yeah.

COLLINSON: Right. Having said that, if there was a place where Bernie Sanders could challenge Hillary Clinton it would be New Hampshire. It's very close to Vermont. He's known throughout the state. The Burlington, Vermont, media market bleeds over to New Hampshire so he's well known. Look at the demographics of New Hampshire.

He's -- it's on the Democratic side it's an elderly perhaps older electorate, almost exclusively white. There are a lot of senior progressives there. That's exactly Bernie Sanders' demographic. That's why he can compete in New Hampshire and may not be as much of a threat to Hillary Clinton in a bigger state where the electorate is more diverse. You need much more money to compete in multiple media markets. This is a sweet spot for him.

HENDERSON: That's right. If people expect that Bernie Sanders will win states, maybe New Hampshire, maybe Iowa. It would not make sense if Hillary Clinton was to run the board and win all of these states but Democratic candidates haven't been able to do that.

KEILAR: It didn't save her in 2008, though. She won New Hampshire after being bested third place in Iowa.

HENDERSON: Yeah. But she has a different coalition now. She has the Obama coalition. She's this firewall of African-American voters, that firewall of Latino voters, so they're very much competing for different crowds. And I think they would look at a state like South Carolina to see how Bernie Sanders would do down there. He's supposed to go down in the next couple weeks.

KEILAR: Maybe it doesn't matter as much as someone might think looking at New Hampshire. But it would sting in you're Hillary Clinton. COLLINSON: And especially Hillary Clinton is not doing as well as

some people expected in Iowa, so if she were to lose Iowa where Bernie Sanders has been getting good crowds and move to New Hampshire, it might cause a few worries and concern.

KEILAR: You wrote a piece for CNN.com and asked a great question. Can Trump turn poll numbers into votes? I think you could ask the same question about Bernie Sanders. Can Trump turn poll numbers into votes?

COLLINSON: We'll see. Most pundits thought his campaign had imploded already. He's defied expectations again and again. So it's incumbent upon us to ask is Donald Trump for real? Can he sustain this over the long term? It's six months before voters start going to the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. Is Donald Trump -- is his machinery going to be able to build a Get Out the Vote operation, for example? Is he going to need to have -- despite his vast wealth, will he raise money to do protective advertising? Is he prepared to do the, per se, boring things that history shows you need to do to win an election? Nobody's won the presidency using the tactics that Donald Trump is using right now.

KEILAR: Organization is the key, right?

HENDERSON: That's right. And that's something that Hillary talks about, too, and that's what she's focused on and why she says, oh, don't focus on the crowds and the media buzz.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: "Don't worry, I have this in Iowa," was her message.

HENDERSON: Right. It's a boring thing you can see on the ground there. But you wonder, does Donald Trump show up to the Iowa State Fair and eat the Fried Snickers or whatever? We'll have to see. Or in New Hampshire, any of these states, or does he just run this social media living off the land campaign and draw on his own bank account?

KEILAR: We'll figure out if it works.

Nia, thanks so much.

Stephen, appreciate it.

Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich, has picked up a key supporter. Republican operative, Tom Wrath, joins the Kasich's New Hampshire campaign as senior national advisor and co-chair. He's a former GOP committeeman and state attorney general. He previously backed Mitt Romney and he served as national advisor to George W. Bush's presidential campaign.

A new poll in the first-in-the-nation primary state shows a post- debate bump in support for the Ohio governor. CNN's Dana Bash sitting down with John Kasich later today. That interview will air in "The Situation Room" at 5:00 p.m. eastern. Just ahead, China may be one of the world's biggest economies but it

has a growing problem. We'll have a live report on the thousands of special-needs children being left to fend for themselves.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:53:32] KEILAR: Six people are being treated for injuries after a U.S. Army helicopter made a hard landing off the coast of Japan. Military officials say the Black Hawk was trying to touchdown on the deck of the Navy ship when something went wrong. Video shows the chopper's tail broke off. At the time, there were 17 on board. All were rescued.

China the world's second-largest economy but it is also home to a rapidly growing population of unwanted special-needs kids. One case that attracted worldwide headlines was a baby pulled from a public toilet in Beijing. That baby is out of the hospital now.

CNN's Will Ripley joins us now live from Beijing.

Will, I believe that baby was a healthy baby, correct me if I'm wrong, but it really illuminates the issue of special-needs kids being abandoned.

[13:54:54]WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly right, Brianna. That's why we started looking into this. We wanted to know what happens next for this little baby who was left by her mother in a public toilet, rescued by police. And we were told she will be heading to a Chinese orphanage where she will join, sadly, hundreds of thousands other orphans in this country who have been cast away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (voice-over): These are the faces of China's most vulnerable, surviving in a system overwhelmed. Abandoned children, like the newborn police pulled from a public toilet last week. Her mother, gone. The little girl likely becoming yet another Chinese orphan.

Jaja's parents abandoned him outside a fertility clinic. He was 3 months old. Botched surgery left him paralyzed from the waist down.

RIPLEY (on camera): You lived here all your life, right?

JAJA: Yes.

RIPLEY: Long time, nine years.

(voice-over): The oldest of 23 orphans, Jaja is the big brother. No parents here.

(SINGING)

RIPLEY: Only staff and volunteers like Canadian missionary, Christina Weaver.

(SINGING) CHRISTINA WEAVER, ORPHANAGE VOLUNTEER: They don't deserve this kind of life.

RIPLEY: China's hundreds of foster homes are no longer full of healthy girls as they were at the height of the one-child policy. Today, nearly all of China's unwanted children have disabilities.

WEAVER: When I look in their eyes, I see stories, sadness and hurt.

RIPLEY: Welfare experts say it lacks a social safety net resulting in hundreds of thousands of orphans.

(on camera): How big is this problem?

MELODY ZHANG, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, CHILDREN'S HOPE INTERNATIONAL: Huge.

RIPLEY: Associate director of Children's Hope International, Melody Zhang, says many parents can't afford to care for kids with special needs.

ZHANG: It's very, very hard to find a family for Jaja. We waited for nine years. He waited nine years.

RIPLEY (voice-over): A family that promised to adopt him backed out. Many of his friends found homes and moved away. Now finally, an American family is filing paperwork to adopt Jaja.

(on camera): A mom, three sisters and grandparents.

Wow. That's a big family.

(voice-over): The Wilsons, from the Kansas City area, are trying to raise $36,000 in adoption costs.

"If I have parents," he says, "I can live, I can have a life."

Jaja's new life is still likely months away, an eternity for a young boy who has been waiting nine years for a family.

(on camera): It's OK.

(voice-over): Suddenly, no more words. Only tears.

(CRYING)

RIPLEY: Pain felt by far too many children abandoned.

(CRYING)

RIPLEY (on camera): It's OK.

(voice-over): Desperate to find parents, to have homes, to be loved.

(END VIDEOTAPE) RIPLEY: That's what really haunts me about this story is that Jaja is not unique in China. We could have done a story about every single orphan in this foster home that would have been just as compelling and just as emotional.

But I do want to tell you, since we aired his story on CNN -- this is the Go Fund Me page that his family set up after they received hundreds of e-mails from all over the world. In one day, they raised $41,041. They exceeded the amount of money to cover the adoption fees. And they say they're going to donate any excess funds to try to help some of the other children also find homes.

KEILAR: That is so wonderful to see that, Will. But he's just one child and you see so many in need.

I understand that there was this problem with abandoned children and Chinese officials in certain localities would open what they call baby hatches, places where people could turn in unwanted babies, many with these special needs. And many of them have overflowed right? There's been overcapacity?

RIPLEY: Yeah. The Chinese government started opening up these baby hatches five years ago because so many parents were leaving their children and they didn't have a place to leave them safely. So there were kids in trash bins. There was another incident in 2013 where a child was flushed down the toilet. The mother claimed it was an accident. And then kids left in the streets or hospitals or, in Jaja's case, in front of a fertility clinic. This one baby hatch that CNN profiled last year, in the first 11 days, there were 106 babies, so many they had to turn parents away. What this says is that even though China has this new-found warmth, they don't have a welfare system in place. If they were to try to care for those kids, they would be even more destitute and poverty stricken. These parents have no choice but to give their kids up. They end up in these orphanages, which is an awful situation. I'm glad that we can shine a light on it and let the world know there are a lot of children here who need help and their parents and families need help to be able to keep and support them as well.

KEILAR: It's such an important story.

Will Ripley, thank you so much for bringing it to us here on CNN.

This is it for me. I'll be back here at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

And for our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.