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Candidates Looking Breakout Moment in Debate; Rules, How Stage is Set Plays into Debate Performance; How Candidates Prepare for the Debate; A Tour of Reagan's Air Force One; U.S. Alarmed Over Russian Military Activity in Syria. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 15, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00] DAN PFEIFFER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And political professionals like us on the stage, we tend to laugh at Donald Trump as a joke, but the truth is that the moves here are savvy, and of all of the candidates, he is the best at pivoting back at the message. And giving that foreign policy speech, whether he reads it or not, today, tonight, it is smart, because when he get on stage, he can say, as I said last night in the speech, and that gets him a crutch to get through what will be a hard set of questioning from the others.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And his theory is, one of the other candidates, it is 10 other Republican candidates on the stage with him, and if any of them hits him, he is going to hit him or her even harder.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. That's right. And one of the things that is one of the attributes that he shares is that Ronald Reagan was always underestimated, always. And Donald Trump, and they didn't think that he would run, and on and on and on. And here we are in the middle of this, and it is because, A, he is a smart guy --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You like the Donald?

LORD: Yeah, I do like him.

BLITZER: You think that he is ready to be president of the United States?

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: Absolutely. Sure.

BLITZER: You think he can be commander-in-chief, have his finger on the --

LORD: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BLITZER: Because some of these Republicans --

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: And with no offense to my friend, Dan over here, after a couple of years in the U.S. Senate, if we can do, I think we can do --

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: -- and go in another direction.

ALEX CASTELLANOS, FOUNDER, NEWREPUBLICAN.ORG & CHAIRMAN, PURPLE STRATEGIES: Oh, I think not. Some people are underestimated, and rightly so.

(LAUGHTER)

And should be. Any man that's telling you all of the time how big he is, it is because he is actually very small. And I think that, that is not the guy that you want near the nuclear missiles, if you understand.

(LAUGHTER)

The world -- the world is --

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: Oh, Alex, Alex, Alex.

CASTELLANOS: And the world is spinning apart, and the Republicans are afraid we will lose our country, and we want a strong leader, but who is a bigger risk than Donald Trump?

BLITZER: What's going to unite, Dan, all of these candidates tonight? The undercard and the main event, if you will, is the president of the United States, and presumably all of them, going to make a point of going after President Obama.

PFEIFFER: I am sure that is the case, and true in every Republican debate and discussion meeting in the last eight years, and the mistake for them to do that, and it is going to be the good lines to use, and that will appeal to the base. But the challenge for the Republican Party is what Alex points out that it has been largely a pessimistic view of the country, and very backwards looking. And the candidates that win, Reagan, for example, their optimistic and forward looking. And it's incumbent on the Republicans to do that.

BLITZER: They will link President Obama to Hillary Clinton.

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: I was going to say, let's not forget Hillary Clinton.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And what about Bernie Sanders beating her now in the polls in New Hampshire and Iowa?

LORD: There may be a line or two about Bernie Sanders, but Hillary, better or worse, she is the leading candidate, and managed to keep herself in the news, for not the best of reasons, and particularly for Carly Fiorina, they won't let it slide.

BLITZER: Guys, don't go too far.

We are here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, getting ready for the debate tomorrow night. And up next, we will look at the strategies of the candidates as they prepare for the big stage tomorrow night. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:41] BLITZER: Getting ready for the round two of the Republican presidential debates tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. eastern, and the first debate followed by the main event at 8:00 p.m. eastern.

And one of the big factors in how the debate plays out could be the rules and how the stage is set.

So CNN's Tom Foreman takes a closer look at what to expect when the bell rings for the main event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The same 10 candidates we saw last time around will be on stage with the addition of Carly Fiorina, who was in the earlier so-called happy hour debate, who's now jumped up to the bigger group.

What are they going to have to work with in this contest? They can't bring any phones with them, no tablets, no notes, no props. Each candidate will have a pad of paper and a pen and a glass of water.

And what will they be facing? Well, our panel will be comprised of our moderator, Jake Tapper, also CNN's Dana Bash, and Hugh Hewitt from radio. They will be posing questions, along with some confess that will be taken from social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so forth.

The subject matters are going to be foreign policy, domestic policy and politics. Big, broad topics.

With so many people on stage, they will have narrow windows in which to answer. One minute per answer, 30 seconds if it's a rebuttal to something else that was said about you. And we will use timing lights to show the candidates if they are running out of time.

Lest you think the people in the earlier debate are at a huge disadvantage, yes, they may very well have a smaller audience, but they'll have a whole lot more time to express their ideas. And under the rules, if one of them says something that's particularly sharp or interesting, that video clip can be played in the larger debate, and those candidates will have to answer to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And, Tom Foreman, excellent explanation.

The rules now set, the stage is set, and the candidates are making their final preparations for the debate.

Let's talk about how the candidates are getting ready to talk about what is about to take place.

Joining us from Washington is Greg Craig, a former White House counsel under Obama, and he's also, by the way, played John McCain in Obama's debate preparation. He played George W. Bush for John Kerry. With us here in Simi Valley, CNN political commentator, Kevin Madden, who was a senior communications strategist for the Mitt Romney campaign.

All right, Greg, so tell us, now, what do you see going into the debate tomorrow night?

[13:40:11] GREG CRAIG, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Well, Wolf, as you know, getting ready for a presidential debate where it's two candidates versus each other, as opposed to a primary debate, where there are many, many candidates and very, very propositions. I think that when Senator Obama, when he was running in 2007, he found that getting ready for the multiple candidates debates was one of the most frustrating and difficult things in the experience, and participating was more frustrating. And you have three opportunities, and maybe a grand total of four minutes. You have no idea how it is going to go and what the flow will be. And so your preparation is largely coming into the segues of what you want to say, and selecting the three or four sentences in hoping that you will score.

BLITZER: And a key issue -- and let me bring you in, Kevin -- Kevin, is how hard do you go against the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump?

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & FORMER DEBATE MANAGER FOR MITT ROMNEY: Well, not in a way that invites Donald Trump to do what he does best which is to punch and counter punch. Greg is right, that in the prep sessions, the candidates are boning up on the issues in the way they can crystallize the argument to the voters, and this is a rare chance to talk to tens of millions of voters to send the message of the candidacy. And many of them are thinking from the 40,000-foot level, what message do I want to send, strength, leadership, vision, and that is a lot of what they are trying to do. And it is really hard to try to pack it into the four minutes that you will get to do that.

BLITZER: And they will get a little bit more than four minute --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- because it is a long, long debate, the main debate and the second-tier debate.

And, Greg, basically, your advice for the candidates, and specifically, the ones that are trying to break through right now, and for is several of the Republican candidates the last chance to make a positive impression on the Republican voters outs-- voters out there, and do they hit Donald Trump the or not?

CRAIG: They want something news worthy, and that gets attention. You can't ignore Donald Trump, and the candidate that calls Donald Trump a loser in November is going to get attention. And looking at 2007 as an example, it is not Senator the Obama's debate participation or the debate performances that made him stick out, but it was the campaign's events in Iowa and speeches around the country that made him a pull- away candidate rather than the debate performance.

BLITZER: You know, the rules are pretty strict in these kinds of debates, Kevin, as you well know, and you helped to prepare Mitt Romney for these kinds of debates four years ago. And 60-second answer, and 30-second rebuttals, but what is to stop one of the candidates from interrupting, and raising a question, and screaming, and getting into the fight, if you will, and that is presumably going to happen.

MADDEN: Well, you want to avoid some bad or awkward moments where you are interrupt org doing so in a way where, you know, you start to reinforce the attributes of being thin-skinned or something like that to be avoided. And another thing that the candidates have to be careful of is that the debates are performances, and the theatrics and the optics matter, and especially in a debate hall this small. As they do the walk-throughs, they will be looking at that and making note of it and the final preparations, of how to best take advantage of that and avoid the mistakes to turn in a bad debate moment.

BLITZER: If, Greg Craig, Donald Trump called you up -- and I know he won't -- but if he said, one piece of advice going into the debate tomorrow night, what would you say?

CRAIG: I would say do what you are doing, and the people are expecting that, and you are batting 1,000 so far in the public appearance. I would say, keep it up, and do the same thing. And the difficult thing is to take him on from the outside, these other candidates, and getting some traction with their positions. The point I would make --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And you would tell Donald Trump just be yourself, you are right.

CRAIG: And the point I would make, with the other candidates, it is very hard for them to win it. What they can do, if they don't perform correctly or adequately, they could lose it.

[13:44:48] BLITZER: Thank you, Greg Craig.

Kevin Madden, thank you.

Much more coverage of the CNN Republican debate, that's coming up.

But there's other news we're following right now. Russia is building up its military presence in Syria. The Kremlin insists it's providing support in the fight against ISIS. Why is the U.S. skeptical? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Hi, I'm Wolf Blitzer, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where the excitement is building. Everyone is getting ready for the major presidential Republican debate tomorrow night right here on CNN.

You can see Air Force One right behind me. And the candidates, what a backdrop they will have when they go at it in this, the second Republican presidential debate.

We will go back and take a look at Air Force One right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Here I am, Air Force One. And I almost feel right at home, because I spent seven years as a White House correspondent traveling on Air Force One all of the time. And here is Air Force One.

John Heubusch is with us, the executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.

John, can you give us a tour, because this is the real Air Force One that President Reagan and other presidents flew on for so many years.

[13:50:12] JOHN HEUBUSCH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY FOUNDATION: That's right, Wolf. I'm glad to have you on board. Won't you join me?

BLITZER: Let's take a little tour.

HEUBUSCH: Wolf, this is the first place you come to. It's the command and control center for the aircraft. From here officers could reach anyone in the world at any time for President Reagan.

BLITZER: That's the --

HEUBUSCH: That's the famous football with the nuclear codes.

BLITZER: Everywhere the president went, he potentially had his finger on that button.

HEUBUSCH: Wolf, here's the flying Oval Office. The conference room to gather top aids and special guests on his flights all over the world.

BLITZER: This is where he had his conference calls, too.

This is the office basically that he used when he was traveling. Can we walk over to the Oval Office?

HEUBUSCH: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Because it's here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

HEUBUSCH: It is. I'm happy to take you there.

BLITZER: Let's go there. HEUBUSCH: OK.

BLITZER: It's really amazing to see this replica of the Oval Office. I have been in the real Oval Office. It's precise, isn't it?

HEUBUSCH: Absolutely. Right down to the square inch. Everything.

BLITZER: The square inch? The size of the room is exact. The height of the walls, everything?

HEUBUSCH: Everything. In fact, many of the artifacts you see here are actually artifacts from the president's office themselves.

BLITZER: Including the desk?

HEUBUSCH: Yeah, the famous resolute desk. This is a copy. The actual sits with Barack Obama today.

BLITZER: The Reagan Library, presidential library, is the most popular of all the presidential libraries, right?

HEUBUSCH: It's the most visited. What we're particularly proud of, President Reagan has been out of office for 15 years and, yet, the crowds keep coming and coming. That's really nice to see.

BLITZER: This is really an impressive presidential library. We have had a great tour.

So much more to see. I recommend it highly for those who have a chance to come out to California. It will be worth your while, especially if you like history, American history in particular.

Remember, tomorrow night, 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. eastern, the two Republican presidential debates, live coverage will be coming up. We'll have extensive analysis before, after. You'll want to stay with CNN throughout.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: It's exciting to be out here in California getting ready for this major Republican presidential debate. Much more coverage on that coming up.

But I want to turn to some significant international news making headlines right now. The United States raising new alarms about Russian military activity in Syria. The Pentagon says these satellite images taken earlier this month suggest Russia is trying to establish what's being described as a forward operating base in western Syria. The U.S. says satellite images show early construction on a Russian base that may be used to assistant the Syrian President Bashar al Assad in the country's ongoing civil war.

Let's go to our correspondent, Barbara Starr. She has more information on what's going on.

Barbara, do officials think this is the reason behind the build up? What's going on?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, in the latest developments U.S. officials are telling CNN now they are seeing evidence of Russian tanks, artillery pieces and nearly three dozen armored personnel carriers for the first time. This now puts an armored Russian force, mobile force on the ground inside Syria in this fashion associated with this air field right now and these developments. That gives the Russians potentially capability to move around, conduct offensive operations on the ground if they decide to do that.

If they bring in aircraft to this airfield that also gives them the ability to fly bombing runs. If it is to keep Bashar al Assad in power, that is a big problem for the United States because he, in the U.S. view, is the big problem here. He is the one that is killing his own people with his barrel bomb attacks. ISIS, of course, the additional problem.

Here's the interesting wrinkle. The U.S. is letting it be known they would be fine if Russia comes in and wants to join the fight against ISIS. But if all of this is aimed at propping up Assad, the U.S. says it has a big problem, Assad has to go, propping him up only prolongs the war and the terrible misery that so many Syrians are suffering right now -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Given the Russian military buildup around Crimea and Ukraine, do the Russian army have the resources to devote to Syria to prop up Bashar al Assad?

PENTAGON: It's a really fascinating question because Crimea is essentially in Russia's backyard. They cross the border, they go several hundred miles, perhaps, and they are there. So the Black Sea approaches so they can resupply themselves. What you're looking at here is thousands of miles of a supply chain that can be very iffy. Right now, the Russian air flights -- and there have been about 15 cargo flights coming in -- they have to take the long way around. They have to go through Iran and Iraq. Nobody is letting them have over-flight rights. So keeping this up could be a big challenge for Moscow -- Wolf?

[13:55:23] BLITZER: Huge implications for so many.

Barbara, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I will be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

Much more coverage coming up on the second Republican presidential debate.

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin -- she's here with me in California -- "Newsroom" starts right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)