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Stage Is Set For Democrat Showdown In Vegas; Politics Part Of Clinton E-mail Dispute; Fire Staffer States Benghazi Panel Turned Partisan; Las Vegas And The Debate; Rezaian Verdict Comes In. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired October 12, 2015 - 13:00   ET

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

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[13:00:00] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a people's campaign and you, brothers and sisters, are part of a political revolution.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This say big deal, people, a really big deal about this election. We have to win. We don't have any alternative.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think there's any politician at a national level that has not thought about being the president.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: And, of course, the X factor coming up on Tuesday night is going to be vice president Joe Biden. Does vice president Biden somehow join this debate at the last minute?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON 360": The level of intensity on that stage always is -- I don't know if it comes through necessarily all the time through the television when you're watching at home, but there's really nothing like it.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 10:00 a.m. here in Las Vegas. It's 1:00 p.m. in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:30 p.m. in Tehran. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, is the Democratic nomination in the cards for Hillary Clinton? Will any of her rivals hit the jackpot? Here in Las Vegas, we're just a day away from the first Democratic debate of this, the 2016 presidential primary.

Our new polls out today show Hillary Clinton firmly in first place. Here in Nevada, the new CNN-ORC poll shows Clinton at 50 percent among likely caucus-goers ahead of her closest rival, Bernie Sanders. He's at 34 percent.

Clinton also leads in another early voting state, South Carolina. She holds an even larger edge against Bernie Sanders there, 49 percent to 24 percent. Hillary Clinton will be front and center on the debate stage tomorrow night here in Las Vegas.

Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is inside the debate hall here at the Wynn Hotel. Jim, walk us through the debate setup.

ACOSTA: You got it, Wolf. And to continue the gambling parlance, you would say Hillary Clinton is holding the best cards right now, if you're looking at the poll numbers and that explains why. And I'll show you what the debate stage looks like right now. She has the center position.

And as you can see, right now, those aren't the candidates up on the stage. Those are some fill-ins standing at those podiums as our CNN crews go through the motions here of getting this debate stage ready for Tuesday night.

But you can see it from my right to left, Lincoln Chafee on the end there, Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, then Hillary Clinton, she's in the center position, of course. She's the front- runner. But to her right will be Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, the self-described socialist. He's been really capturing the imagination of the Democratic Party right now. That liberal base of the Democratic Party, he's doing very well. And then, the former Virginia senator, Jim Webb, he'll be on the other end.

But, Wolf, you know, I've been here for the last 24 hours off and on. This room is really starting to fill in. All of the chairs are in place. The crews remain in their camera positions, the jib cameras, the sound technicians, the lighting technicians, they've all been very hard at work over these last 24 to 48 hours getting this debate ready for Tuesday night.

But in terms of the candidates and what we'll be seeing, I think tomorrow night, Wolf, it's going to be very interesting to watch. This is Hillary Clinton's first debate since the 2008 campaign when she was tangling with Barack Obama. And already, there are echoes of that debate starting to play out. Over the last 24 hours, Bernie Sanders has been talking about, to his supporters, how Hillary Clinton, she was in favor of the Iraq War back in 2002. Senator Sanders reminding his supporters he was against the Iraq War. Sounds a lot like how Barack Obama campaigned for that vote back in 2008.

And then, on the issue of trade, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, supported the transpacific trade deal, the deal that the president is trying to get through Congress right now. Now, she's against it. Bernie Sanders will obviously call attention to that. On gun control, even though Bernie Sanders is seen as a big- time progressive, he is more moderate on gun control than some of these candidates on stage. So, perhaps a Martin O'Malley, looking for a breakthrough moment, might go after Bernie Sanders on the issue of gun control. Martin O'Malley much more in favor of gun control than Bernie Sanders.

So, Wolf, a lot of potential battle lines, flash points that we might see coming up on Tuesday night. And it's going to be fascinating political television to watch. You know, vice president Joe Biden, we should mention, he has not definitively said one way or another whether he will be here Tuesday night. So, that's one more shoe to drop as well. We haven't got that detail, in terms of Tuesday night, completely nailed down yet.

But for now, we have five podiums on stage and it should be fascinating political television to watch -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks very much.

For more on the debate strategy, what to expect when the five candidates square off tomorrow night, let's bring in Michael Smerconish, he's our CNN Political Commentator, the anchor of "SMERCONISH", also our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

Gloria, Hillary Clinton is doing great against Bernie Sanders in Nevada, where we are right now, --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: -- South Carolina. It's much closer in New Hampshire and Iowa, the first two contests.

[13:05:03] BORGER: Yes. I mean, she knows she's got troubles. She's behind in New Hampshire, very close in Iowa. And I think the Clinton campaign, our polls today, are very good news for them, because what they're trying to do is establish a fire wall just in case they lose Iowa and New Hampshire. That wouldn't be good news. But doing well in a state like Nevada, lots of Hispanics, she's been talking about immigration, doing well in the south. She's very popular with African-American voters.

Bernie Sanders is less of a well-known quantity, so he's got a lot of work to do with -- on his national I.D. and to present himself as somebody who is electable. And that's what he'll try and do here tomorrow night.

BLITZER: And speaking about African-American voters, Michael, 59 percent of black voters in our new poll back Clinton compared to 27 percent for vice president Biden, just four percent for Bernie Sanders. This is in South Carolina where there are a lot of Democrats who are African-American. He's not doing well among African-Americans there.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think it's necessarily that he's unpopular with African-Americans, I think that Bernie Sanders lacks a very important credential that is possessed by both secretary Clinton and vice president Biden and that is service to and a tie toward Barack Obama. She served as his secretary of state. Joe Biden has been his very loyal vice president for nearly eight years. What does Bernie Sanders have to show for that, in terms of his appeal to the African-American community? I think that's very, very important for both of them.

BLITZER: David Axelrod, one of our CNN Political Commentators, he writes this in an op-ed, he says what the candidates need to do tomorrow night, there has been a strange disconnect between Clinton and Democratic voters this year and a sense of resignation rather than excitement about her candidacy. How does she get people excited?

BORGER: Well, it's very difficult for her, because she's been in public life for decades. It's not as if she's this new candidate just coming on the scene. She excites people like Barack Obama did in 2008. She's got to get people excited in a different way about her competency. And also, she has to show a little bit of her humanity.

You know, her staff likes to say she's the most famous person you don't know. And people have seen her for decades but they have a sense they don't really know who she is and I think she needs to show a little bit of that tomorrow.

BLITZER: And Axelrod says of Bernie Sanders, he says the debate is an opportunity for Sanders to present a more empathetic side, less grumpy old man and more caring advocate.

BORGER: What's wrong with grumpy old man? I like grumpy old men. Sorry.

SMERCONISH: I think the "New York Times" teed up an issue for Bernie Sanders, Wolf, in their coverage this weekend that documented how less than 400 American families have contributed more than 50 percent of all of the donations for the 2016 presidential race so far. I wouldn't be surprised if he goes to that tomorrow.

BLITZER: All right, hold on for a moment because certainly tomorrow night Hillary Clinton is about to face serious questions about Benghazi, the latest accusations about the Select Committee, the House Select Committee investigation, add the campaign, the Clinton campaign, saying I told you so. A fired staffer says the Committee is pursuing a partisan investigation targeting Clinton. Here's what he told our Jake Tapper.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPOONDENT: What do you say to any viewers out there who think that you might have an ax to grind that you're only talking because you were fired?

MAJ. BRADLEY PODISKA, FORMER BENGHAZI STAFF INVESTIGATOR: As I said earlier, I have a conscience. I -- there's wrongdoing here and I think it needs to stop. And I do not want the investigation to end. I want the investigation to be refocused back to its original purpose. The victims' families are owed the truth. Hillary Clinton has a lot of explaining to do.

We, however, do not need to shift resources to hyper-focus on Hillary Clinton. We didn't need to de-emphasize and, in some cases, drop the investigation on different agencies, different organizations and different individuals.

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BLITZER: A spokesperson for the Committee denied the allegation saying, quote, "We are confident that the facts and evidence give no support to the wild imagination, fueling these and any future allegations. And the Committee will vigorously defend itself against such allegations. The Committee will not be blackmailed into a monetary settlement for a false allegation made by a properly terminated former employee." This employee, Podiska, does plan to sue over his termination.

And in another development, President Obama weighs in on politics and Hillary Clinton's use of that private e-mail server. Here's what he said on CBS' "60 MINUTES."

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OBAMA: Well, she made a mistake. She's acknowledged it. I do think that the way it's been ginned up, is, in part, because of politics. And I think she'd be the first to acknowledge that maybe she could have handled the original decision better and the disclosures more quickly. But --

STEVE KROFT, CBS HOST, "60 MINUTES": What was your reaction when you found out about it?

OBAMA: You know, I -- this is one of those issues that I think is legitimate but the fact that, for the last three months, this is all that's been spoken about is an indication that we're in presidential political season.

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[13:10:04] BLITZER: Michael, as you know, the Clinton campaign called these latest allegations, by this fired staffer, explosive. The issue is going to clearly come up tomorrow night. How does he handle it?

SMERCONISH: It comes up tomorrow night because I'm sure one of the questions from CNN will bring it up. But who goes there? Does Martin O'Malley go there? Bernie Sanders doesn't go there. I know I personally tried to ask him about this subject. Does Jim Webb go there? And if you do go there, you're running the risk of alienating the very Democrats that you need to win primaries and caucuses because this is perceived as a Republican issue.

BLITZER: Even the President, in that "60 Minutes" interview, said she made a mistake in the way she handled that e-mail server.

BORGER: Right. But he -- but he said no national security was threatened. So, he -- you know, he said, yes, it was a mistake -- which, by the way, Hillary Clinton herself has said. Look, I think the more that this Committee looks like it's imploding, you know, that it becomes crass and it becomes partisan, it's all good news for Hillary Clinton. She's already done an ad on it. This helps her as she heads before that Committee on October 22nd. It makes her look like she can go before the Committee and say, let's find out what happened in Benghazi. This isn't the about me. This is about the people who died. So, gives her an opportunity either tomorrow night or next week.

BLITZER: That was quite a gift that Kevin McCarthy, --

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: -- Majority Leader -

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: -- in the House, gave Hillary Clinton in advance of this debate.

SMERCONISH: Former speaker McCarthy.

BLITZER: Yes.

BORGER: Yes.

SMERCONISH: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Not exactly. All right, guys, thanks very much.

And remember, it's your first chance to see the Democratic presidential candidates together all on one stage. Don't miss the CNN Facebook Democratic debate tomorrow night, 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

Much more coverage coming up here on tomorrow's debate. Up next, I'll ask the mayor of Las Vegas, who is an independent, what it's like hosting the Democratic debate in her hometown.

And later this hour, finally, a verdict for Jason Rezaian. He's "The Washington Post" journalist held in Iran since July of 2014. We're going to ask Rezaian's brother, Ali, what comes next.

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[13:16:15] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN TONIGHT": Welcome to Las Vegas, everyone, and the Wynn Hotel. One of the great hotels here on the Las Vegas Strip. This is going to be home to the CNN/FaceBook Democratic debate. You know what's different and interesting about this debate is that you get to be a part of it. You get to submit your questions to the candidates. And, guess what, they will answer them on television. Well, not all of them, some of them.

So, it's going to happen here. I'm going to show you around. But let's see right now what may be on some voters' minds. Let's go.

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LEMON: What question would you ask the Democratic candidates?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How would they improve the economy?

LEMON: That's the most important issue to you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think so.

LEMON: If you had a chance to ask any of the Democratic candidates' questions, what would you ask?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary Clinton, why would she allow anything to go into her private e-mail?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to know about immigration. What are they going to do about immigration? What's their plan?

LEMON: Come on in here, this -- check this out. This was really cool. This is what we call the spin room. Look at these booths. See those booths. That's like -- it's like the Oscars when you go to some big, Hollywood event and then all the media have their own little spot and the stars come over and they talk to them. So after the debate, they'll come in here, the spin room, and they'll try to spin what happened and what they're talking about.

And up there on the stage you'll see Wolf and you'll see all of our political experts and our correspondents and anchors. And they'll be talking about what happened at the debate.

This is a lounge, the FaceBook lounge. We'll be in here before and after the debate. We'll have a bunch of monitors and computers where we can see the conversations you're talking about, what interests you, what you thought was important, what you think is important. That will happen before and after the debate.

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BLITZER: Thank you very much, Don Lemon.

We're back outside here at the beautiful Wynn Hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard, Nevada. Certainly has become an important swing state in the race for president of the United States. Back in 2012, President Obama beat Mitt Romney 52 percent to 46 percent in this state. And the state has voted for the winner in almost every presidential election going back to 1912.

I want to bring in the mayor of Las Vegas, Carolyn Goodman. She's here watching what's going on.

You're an independent.

MAYOR CAROLYN GOODMAN (I), LAS VEGAS: No, I'm a nonpartisan.

BLITZER: What is that?

GOODMAN: I'm not part of a party.

BLITZER: So -- so you're not a Democrat, you're not a Republican.

GOODMAN: Republican, nor an independent.

BLITZER: So when I say you're -- you're not an independent but -- but -- so you're a nonpartisan, like your husband, Oscar Goodman, who was the mayor for 12 years, right?

GOODMAN: Right. Correct. We want to reach across the aisle and be able to talk with both Democrats and Republicans and pull things together for the people.

BLITZER: For the people of Las Vegas, who's the best right now of these Democratic candidates who are going to be here at the debate tomorrow night?

GOODMAN: You know, I think it's premature. I mean, obviously, Hillary has a huge advantage here, but I think we're waiting to see. I think the Democrats that I've been speaking to want to hear what's going to happen with the vice president, if he's going to file. And they want to hear this whole process work its way through.

BLITZER: Do you want the vice president to run?

GOODMAN: He's a very nice man. He -- I've ridden with him. You know, the president's been out here probably seven or eight times since I first took office and, you know, he's obviously been in office, the vice president. It's very important, I think, the foreign affairs. There's so many issues with which we're dealing nationally. Obviously we've got terrible -- huge concerns about our veteran population and the backlog there, about the infrastructure in this country. I think there are so many issues. And we want to hear positives. I think the one thing I hear from the population in Las Vegas, stop bashing everybody. Let's just get out there. How are you going to reach, how, whoever it is, is going to reach across the aisle and get that pull together.

BLITZER: Whose jobs plan, so far, among the Democrats, we're not talking about Republican now, just the Democrats, do you like so far?

GOODMAN: You know, I'm not really convinced that I have a passion there because I just spent some time on the phone with one of the candidates and actually had former Governor O'Malley and met with him. And they're just -- I think what we really need to do is get the ideas where there can be action. And, most importantly, to see who they're going to pull into their cabinet, because you need brains. You need people who really have the experience and know what they're doing and know how to interface and so much of this in the economy. I mean we have water issues here and certainly in South Carolina they have water issues. So what's going to be planned for the public dollar? What are we going to do about taxes? I mean there are just so many issues that affect all of us with boots on the ground.

[13:20:34] BLITZER: Immigration is a big issue here in Las Vegas, too, right?

GOODMAN: Yes. And we want to see a positive pathway to citizenship. We don't want to see any of this -- we're all immigrants for heaven's sake. I -- your family, I don't know where you originated from.

BLITZER: Well --

GOODMAN: My -- I'm --

BLITZER: Except for the Native Americans, ware all immigrants.

GOODMAN: Yes. BLITZER: Children of immigrants.

GOODMAN: Well, right. Absolutely. And so, yes, right, we're all poaching in this land. And so for my great grandparents to be able to come into this country, everybody who wants to have a better life should have the opportunity, but there should be a presented a pathway to citizenship. And that's what we're about and really hold the employer accountable. But we want to hear the positives from these candidates and stop bashing everybody else and complaining about everybody else. Get this country back on its feet. We have so many issues here. We have -- we have 42 million tourists every single year that are coming here now. And we have concerns about safety.

BLITZER: You must know Donald Trump.

GOODMAN: Absolutely. In fact --

BLITZER: He's got a huge -- he's got a huge hotel.

GOODMAN: But I have to tell you, Oscar and Donald Trump, the three of us met in his office, in Donald's office on Central Park South, or wherever the building is --

BLITZER: Fifth Avenue.

GOODMAN: And it was just -- oh, my gosh, it was a ping-pong. Donald Trump ego, Oscar Goodman ego. Back to Donald Trump. I'm sitting there and I'm going oh, my gosh, I'm getting a headache from these two guys. But it was such fun. And he really is such fun.

Now whether or not he can put into action, I know he talks about his wealth and employment and everything else. Yo know, I really, and I think the people of Nevada and southern Nevada certainly want to see what exactly are you going to do. How are you going to move? How are you going to handle the infrastructure which is rated at a "d" minus in this country? They're bringing radioactive material here to Yucca Mountain out -- just outside of Las Vegas. But that radioactive material is traveling across this country with infrastructure that hasn't been fixed in decades. What are they going to do about that? What are they going to do about mental health issues? All of these gun bizarre, horrible, slaughters of people. I would assume that most of the people have mental issues. What are we doing about it? When I was a little girl, there were sanitariums where, in fact, people could go and hopefully get some treatment. Now we have so much in medication. What are they going to do about that?

BLITZER: These are a lot of issues -- you're going to be sitting in the audience tomorrow night. You'll be here, right?

GOODMAN: I will be here.

BLITZER: Oscar will be here, too?

GOODMAN: Oscar will be here, too.

BLITZER: Give him -- GOODMAN: After -- after his martinis. Now, that's the whole thing I worry about. After 5:00, he likes his Bombay Safire and so I'm not sure if I'm going to have to carry him (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: He'll be fine. You know, the former mayor, Oscar Goodman, the current mayor, Carolyn Goodman, we'll see you here tomorrow night. Thanks for your hospitality.

GOODMAN: Thanks, Wolf. You're -- I look at you and I see Oscar. I mean, you're twins of sorts.

BLITZER: Thank you.

GOODMAN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Much more ahead on the stakes for tomorrow's debate. Lots of news coming up, including a panel of campaign veterans. They're standing by to join us. We're going to talk about what Bernie Sanders needs to do to set himself apart from Hillary Clinton. Stay with us. We're in Las Vegas.

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[13:28:01] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It takes a long time to prepare because you've got to go through all the candidates, know where they stand on the various issues. It takes an enormous amount of research.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What does it take to prepare? A lot of home work.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: By the time you get to debates, it means that the campaign has been kind of up and running for a while, so there are a lot of issues and statements and the records to go through.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There's a whole team at CNN working on this.

BASH: We have an unbelievable research team here at CNN. I'll give them a plug.

COOPER: I try to know as much as I can and be armed with as many facts and as much information as possible.

KING: So that you're ready with smart questions, you're ready to fact check on your feet if necessary. But then also, don't overdo it.

BLITZER: You want to go into a debate as the moderator, basically knowing where all of these candidates stand on the most important national security issues, the most important domestic issues.

Speaking of Social Security, you've said in the past it's a Ponzi scheme. I, you know, like to take a look at some of the best moments in

previous debates, learn from my colleagues, see how they went, see how they handled it. And I think that's just a useful experience.

COOPER: And then a lot of that stuff gets changed at the last second or even during the debate. You know, the ebb and flow of it. You can never really quite predict. And that's what makes it, yes, exciting.

BLITZER: Your goal is to help make the voter out there a little bit smarter on where these candidates stand.

COOPER: Your preparations should include almost memorization of big moments.

Senator, you have said there are good earmarks and bad earmarks.

So prepare, but don't become hostage to your preparations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: It will be a full house here in Las Vegas for tomorrow night's Democratic presidential debate. Anderson Cooper will be dealing the questions on the stage to the five candidates from left to right. The former Virginia senator, Jim Webb, the Vermont senator, Bernie Sanders, the early front-runner, Hillary Clinton, the former Maryland governor, Martin O'Malley and the former Rhode Island governor and senator, Lincoln Chafee. Each will have a specific challenge ahead in the debate.

[13:30:01] Let's talk about the strategies now with our panel. Our CNN political commentators, Kevin Madden, Van Jones, Ana Navarro and Dan Pfeiffer, they're all here with us.

All right, Dan, what's the biggest challenge that Hillary Clinton faces tomorrow night?