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14th Anniversary of Afghanistan War, Medical Charity Asks Obama for International Investigation of Air Strike; Bernie Sanders' Campaign Challenges; Hillary Clinton Vows Executive Action on Gun Control; Biden Blasts Republicans on Immigration; Trump Leads in Polls, Comes to Defense of Carson. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired October 07, 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] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And, Nic, this is taking place on the exact 14th anniversary, and today is the 14th year exactly to the day when the U.S. launched those air strikes from the USS Enterprise and the war started on 9/11. But the U.S. started the war against the Taliban and al Qaeda. Is anybody in Kabul paying attention to the fact that this is the 14th anniversary of the start of the war?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: You know, Wolf, it has gone, by and large, by the vast majority of the people here completely unnoticed. I remember that we had a team in Kandahar when those strikes were coming in, and the first around Kandahar Airport, and we were getting some of the first reports in that as it was happening. It was a huge momentous occasion, and such an important beginning to driving out the Taliban, and driving out al Qaeda. And for people here, they have lived with 14 years of what they have seen as another foreign force in the country. But the Afghans that I spoke to yesterday still believe that the government needs the help now of the U.S. forces, because, despite the fact that over a period of time there the Taliban were pushed out, and al Qaeda were pushed back, and they are back, and back in serious number. And people here recognize that this government, this army is not up to the job to defending them, and they need help. But the date of, 14 years on, I think it has really largely passed the Afghans by -- Wolf?
BLITZER: Thank you, Nic Robertson, at the Afghan capital for us.
Nic, thanks very much.
And coming up, Bernie Sanders is attracting huge crowds, but they are not translating to huge poll numbers in the key battleground states. We will talk campaign strategy with one of the Sanders' senior campaign advisers, Tad Devine, standing by live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:11] BLITZER: The first Democratic presidential debate here on CNN just six days away here for the Democratic debate. New numbers show Hillary Clinton leading in three key battleground states. In the Quinnipiac University poll, Clinton is at 43 percent of Florida, ahead of Vice President Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders who are both at 19 percent. And in Ohio, Clinton is at 40 percent compared to 20 percent for Biden and 19 percent for Sanders. And in Pennsylvania, it is 36 percent for Clinton, and 25 percent for Biden, and 19 percent for Biden.
Let's talk about the Democratic race for the White House. Tad Devine is a senior media advisor for Senator Bernie Sanders and his campaign.
Tad, thanks for coming in.
TED DEVINE, SENIOR MEDIA ADVISOR FOR BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN: Good to be with you.
BLITZER: And so, if he does well in New Hampshire in the polls, and as she would point out, the neighboring state to Vermont, understandably, she points out he is doing well in New Hampshire, but he is behind in Ohio, and in the three battleground polls in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. How does Bernie Sanders overcome that?
DEVINE: Well, by doing well at the front end of the campaign. It starts in Ohio and goes to Florida and Pennsylvania. And so, we need the resources to file the campaign, and when we filed the third quarter campaign, Sanders will be able to run a national campaign and have almost as much cash on hand as Hillary Clinton.
BLITZER: You've raised almost $30 million.
DEVINE: Yes. We didn't spend it all. And the cash on hand numbers are close to hers, so we will have a chance to run full-fledged campaigns in early states.
BLITZER: And he has generated huge crowds out there, but the arguments, the critics say, it is curious, and he is not taken all that seriously, they find him interesting, and intriguing. What do you say to that?
DEVINE: We will say, come to one of his events, and see if Bernie is serious or not. He had generated tremendous excitement across this country. People want to talk about issues that are mattering to them. And Bernie Sanders, better than anybody in American politics, has diagnosed the problem, that the middle-class of America is destroyed by an economic system rigged to send all of the wealth to the top.
BLITZER: If Joe Biden jumps in, does he take votes away in Democratic caucuses and primaries from Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders?
DEVINE: Well, when you look at the polls there, and with the vice president out, Hillary Clinton's numbers go up, and when he is in, her numbers go down. That's the immediate impact.
BLITZER: So what I am hearing you say is that Bernie Sanders wants him in?
DEVINE: No. If Joe Biden gets in, he is someone who can win the nomination of the party. He's a serious, formidable candidate. The challenge becomes greater in many way ways if he comes in.
BLITZER: And take us inside of Bernie Sanders' mind as he is preparing for the first Democratic presidential debate six days away in Las Vegas. How is he preparing?
DEVINE: Well, last Friday, I was in New Hampshire to talk to Bernie about what he would like to prepare and he said he wanted briefing materials on some issues, the access to certain experts to talk about certain issues, and when we got to Nevada we would talk about questions and answers, and that type of thing. That's how he's preparing.
BLITZER: Dress rehearsals?
DEVINE: No, he is not interested in preparing that way. And what he is interested in is issues and talk about them, and use the debate to tell the American people about his plans and what he wants the do as president.
BLITZER: And so far, relatively cautious in going after Hillary Clinton, and is that about to change?
DEVINE: No, Bernie will never go after people, and he does not go after negative ads. He doesn't believe in negative politics. I think the defining experience he's had in electoral politics is when he was first running in the House of Representatives, he was attacked by the Republican opponent, and he chose not to respond by attack, but respond by talking to people.
BLITZER: If he's asked the biggest difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, the answer is?
DEVINE: Where he'll leading America. His path is different than hers, because it is going to be focusing on restoring the middle-class with a set of policies that are different than hers.
[13:40:15] BLITZER: Thank you so much, Tad Devine, for joining us. We look forward to the debate next week.
DEVINE: Good to be with you.
BLITZER: Appreciate it very much.
Hillary Clinton is vowing to take what she calls executive action on gun control if she is president. This is what she said last hour when she was asked about the frustration express by President Obama after a gunman killed nine people at the community college in Oregon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you keep from being sad and tired?
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I think by being angry and determined.
(APPLAUSE)
You have to have emotional energy here. And I totally, totally get where the president is coming from, because it is just the worst feeling. You are president of the United States and people are being massacred inside of your own country. And you can see the hold that the NRA has over members of Congress. My view on this is that we have to keep getting up and fighting back. You can't ever --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton's campaign unveiled new a gun control measure aimed at strengthening background checks for all gun buyers.
We are days away from the first Democratic presidential debate next Tuesday, October 13th, your chance to see all of the Democratic candidates debate the issues. And that is only here on CNN.
And up next, Vice President Biden blasting Republicans. He's now accusing them of beating Latinos with their rhetoric on immigration. We will have that video here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:46:19] BLITZER: All right. This is just coming into CNN. The families of the container ship El Faro are telling us that the Coast Guard is going to suspend search operations today. Meanwhile, the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, is beginning the first full day of investigating what happened to the ship. Key to the NTSB investigations are finding the voyage data recorder to tell them what happened in the last 12 hours before the ship vanished in Hurricane Joaquin's path last week near the Bahamas. Of the 33 people on board, no survivors have been found, and the Coast Guard only recovering some debris, and pieces of metal and a life ramp.
Other news, Vice President Joe Biden is slamming the Republicans for what he calls the beating they are giving the Latino voters. He made the remarks at a Latino voting event, and he talked about an early gathering that he hosted during Hispanic Heritage Month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I stood up, and said, welcome, and I looked out, and I could see sadness in everybody's face. People walked in like, literally, down. Because of the beating, the beating that the Hispanics are taking at the hands of the Republican caucus, and I mean, the Republican presidential race, and people are depressed, and the message for you guys, is that these guys don't speak for America. The American people are so much better and so far beyond, and so, so, so much different than these guys who are appealing to everything from homophobia to the notion of, like, a know-nothing party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: And the senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, is joining us.
It seemed like an impromptu speech. Give us the background.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is the Latino Presidential Action Committee. We were flagged by the vice president's office that Joe Biden would like to come to their fund- raiser, and they said, sure, come over to the event. And so he gave them some impassioned comments, and he is talking about what happened when he hosted a Hispanic heritage event at just last month, and how he saw the Latinos coming into the event holding their heads and hanging their heads, because of the feelings they have after comments made by Donald Trump this year, when he described the Mexican immigrants as rapists, and bringing crime into the United States. The vice president was trying to connect with the crowd last night in saying that those remarks dot no reflect where Americans are right now.
And, Wolf, I thought it was very much Vice President Joe Biden sounding like a presidential candidate courting a key constituency of the Democratic Party.
BLITZER: Certainly sounded like that. He's going to make his decision, we're told, very, very soon.
All right, Jim Acosta, thanks very much.
And when we come back, we will break down the numbers to the White House. Donald Trump is in the lead, but he also comes to the defense of one of his key Republicans rivals. Details when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:53:51] BLITZER: Donald Trump leads the race for the Republican presidential nomination in three key battleground states according to a new Quinnipiac University poll just out. In Florida, Trump is at 28 percent followed by Ben Carson at 16 percent. Marco Rubio is third at 14 percent, followed by Jeb Bush at 12 percent. The rest of the field in single digits. Trump is at 23 percent in Iowa, followed by Carson at 18 percent. Ohio Governor John Kasich is at 13 percent. And in Pennsylvania, the top three are Trump at 23 percent, Carson at 17 percent, Rubio at 12 percent.
Let's bring in our senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson; and CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.
Not necessarily all that encouraging in Florida and Ohio for the native sons if Trump is doing so much better.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, the outsiders, just like they are in the national polls, right? They're doing really well. I think what's really discouraging here is the results for Jeb Bush. If you look at the polling, these are three states by the way that if Mitt Romney had won in 2012 he would have been president of the United States. So these are three important swing states. If you look at Jeb Bush's numbers, in Florida he's behind Marco Rubio. Now, that's within the margin of error but still behind Marco Rubio. But in Ohio Bush is at 4 percent. That is not good for him. Rubio is at 7 percent and in Pennsylvania Bush is at 4 percent also which ties him with none other than Mike Huckabee.
So if you've invested $100 million in that campaign and you're looking at these battleground numbers you're saying there is something your candidate is not doing that he should be doing.
[13:55:34] BLITZER: I looked at Pennsylvania, by the way. The former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum is at 2 percent --
BORGER: Right.
BLITZER: -- in his home state. Trump is leading in all three states.
All of those people, Nia, were suggesting Trump is beginning to slide, slide, slide. At least in these polls he's still doing well.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And if you're somebody like Bush, your argument all along has been you're the most electable guy. That you could win states not only like Florida your home state but states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. For somebody like Kasich in Ohio he is the sitting governor. The fact he's not doing better there, very, very troubling. I think one of the things about this, these states whose primaries won't be for a while. We have early contests, Iowa and New Hampshire. So those states they're obviously focusing on. But if you're Bush and donors are already sort of quaking in their boots about what he's looking like so far, Rubio or Kasich, this is trouble.
BLITZER: It's important to note in Florida and Ohio, which are both in March, not that far away, they're both winner take all.
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: Right. Exactly.
BLITZER: So if the results were what they are now, you don't divide up the delegates. Trump would get all the delegates.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: And the Bush campaign is focusing on that and they believe -- I was talking to a senior Bush adviser yesterday. I said, what's your strategy? You're not doing too well. He said, everybody needs to sober up. In other words, go have fun with Trump and Carson right now. But in the end, you're going to sober up and you're going to end up with the guy who's got some substance. And they believe it's a long haul, a delegate battle. But with these numbers in winner-take- all states like Florida, it is a real problem for them if it sticks.
BLITZER: A lot of delegates in Ohio and Florida.
Very quickly, because Dr. Ben Carson is under some criticism for suggesting that maybe the folks in Oregon should have been more assertive, more aggressive in going after the gunman. He was asked to clarify earlier this morning and he said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BEN CARSON, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & RETIRED NEUROSURGEON: We're living in a culture now where you have a group of people who just sit there. They don't try to listen to what you're saying. They're just trying to find a defect so that they can cause more division.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: This morning he said, "I think people know exactly what I'm saying. They know exactly what the media is trying to do. And I think they're smarter than that and they're not going to be manipulated."
But it's caused a little bit of buzz out there.
GLORIA: Well, I think it has, and with good reason because he seemed to be blaming the victims yesterday.
HENDERSON: Right.
BORGER: And he's now turning his statement around, which was unfortunate, to blame the media for misreporting the meaning of what he said. He's a presidential candidate. Sorry.
HENDERSON: I think he called it silly reporters for misinterpreting. That's sort of his strategy, blame political correctness. The thing is, if you're running for president, you have to have some compassion. You can't imagine a sitting president after a tragedy saying what they would have done. It sounds like maybe you would think you're sitting in a barbershop or locker room or saying what you would do. But this strategy is odd.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: It's sort of off the cuff.
HENDERSON: Yeah.
BLITZER: Gloria, Donald Trump tweeted, he came to Dr. Carson's defense, he said "Ben Carson was speaking in general terms as to what he would do if confronted with a gunman, not criticizing the victims. Not fair."
BORGER: So nice of Donald Trump to do that because the other week he was saying, Ben Carson is a nice guy but not much.
BLITZER: Said he's an OK doctor.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
BORGER: Right. Donald Trump changes his mind every week on candidates depending on where they are in the polls, and Carson at least in the polls we've been looking at is number two. But he's --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: He's number two in all three of those states, right?
HENDERSON: But he's not close. GLORIA: But he's not close.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: But he's doing better with the exception of --
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Dr. Carson is better than --
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: He says some off-color things that we thought he would get in trouble, but he's been raising money on a lot of things he says that we feel might be out of bounds and other people feel like that. But so far --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: But Trump's voters are probably also Carson's voters to a great degree. He doesn't really want to alienate them particularly because he thinks he can get them.
BLITZER: He was a brilliant neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins, not just an OK doctor.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Not an OK doctor.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: By the way, Dr. Ben Carson will be my guest tomorrow at this time. He'll be joining us live. Looking forward to that interview.
That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."
For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is coming up next.
For our North America viewers, "NEWSROOM" with Pamela Brown starts now.
[14:00:08] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
