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Trump Brushes Up on Foreign Policy, Feuds with Bush over 9/11; Interview with Bobby Jindal; Russia/U.S. Reach Agreement on Syria Air Space; Hackers Explain Hacking CIA, Homeland Security E-mails. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 20, 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 HOST: And, Dana, the uproar developed between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush about whether or not the former President George W. Bush could have done more to prevent 9/11.

These are the latest Jeb Bush comments on this going after Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I think that Clinton administration made a mistake thinking that bin Laden had to be viewed from the law enforcement perspective and similarly the Obama policies are focused on that as we. This is a war against the Western civilian, and without the United States leadership, this will be a problem for generations to come.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What is the fallout for Republicans in the latest exchange between Donald Trump and Jeb Bush?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, fortunately, for Jeb Bush, he missed a president in there when he talked about Clinton and Obama, and that is his brother, and of course, when 9/111 happened and this is what we talked about on your show yesterday the fact of the matter is that there is evidence that George w. Bush was warned about this. He got a briefing on -- he got a briefing on the desk that Osama bin Laden was planning to attack on U.S. Soil. So the Bush campaign, they insist that this is an area where, you know, separate from pretty much all of the other issues, they have more conservatives on their side. We will see if it bears out, because to your point, it has not certainly happened on a host of other issues with regard to Donald Trump.

BLITZER: No, he is the leader and the frontrunner, and has been for the last few months, and he is still the frontrunner right now as the numbers in our poll are showing him going up a little bit.

All right. We will stay on top of this.

Guys, thanks very much.

Governor Bobby Jindal has appealed to the Republicans with his conservative credentials. Up next, I will speak live to the Louisiana governor and the state of his campaign and the fight for the GOP nomination.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:36:10] BLITZER: The new CNN/ORC poll offered grim news for many candidates of the 15 major Republican candidates. Over 15 candidates still in the race, nine of them are polling at less than 10 percent, and Governor Jindal from Louisiana is polling less than 1 percent.

Governor Jindal is joining us live.

His new book just out this week entitled "American Will." You see the book jacket there.

Governor, thank you for joining us.

BOBBY JINDAL, (R), LOUISIANA GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wolf, thank you for having me.

BLITZER: And congratulations on the book and I will talk about it in a little while.

Let's talk politic, because you a politician. The national polls are pretty bleak among the Republicans, and in all of the CNN/ORC polls, you have never nationally done better than 2 percent, so what is going on? Why has the campaign not generated major excitement among Republicans nationwide?

JINDAL: Wolf, we have been very focused on the early states, and we have great poll news in Iowa and the new polls are moving up, and in fifth place, and tied for fifth place in Iowa, and look, we are focused on where the voter vote first. Our nominees have always won Iowa and New Hampshire, and the whole race will change, and nationally, folks have gone up and down, and Scott Walker up and down, and Rubio up and down, and Carly up and down. We are steadily increasing the support in Iowa and 50 counties and early state strategy. What we hear on the ground, what we are hearing is that the voters are tired of Republicans doing one thing and doing another when they are elected. That are tired of the surrender caucus, and they want result. I am a proven conservative, and running up the polls there in Iowa. We've been moving up in the polls there.

BLITZER: I have a latest poll in Iowa that shows that Trump and Dr. Ben Carson are way above, at 24 percent to 19 percent, and you tied for fifth place with only 6 percent in Iowa. That is a major struggle that you have right there going against the Ben Carson and Donald Trump, and not only one and two in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina and all of the other states, but one and two clearly by a lot nationwide. How do you break through?

JINDAL: Well, Wolf, if it of all, you have two-thirds, 90 percent of the voters say they have not made up their minds yet and looking at the candidates. Look, Donald Trump is going to fade, he is not a conservative and he is an egomaniac, and he wants government the pay for everybody's health care, and so he is not conservative. His numbers are already starting to fall in Iowa, and everybody talks about cutting the spending, but I am the only one to do it, and the only state to cut Planned Parenthood to get them out of Medicaid and we are fighting them in court. I've done statewide pro choice. We are the most pro-life state in six years in a row, and one of the toughest fighters of the Second Amendment. A lot of the candidates are talking a good game, but we have proven results. It is paying off in Iowa. We're getting bigger crowds. It is easier to make outrageous statements and get national attention, but we are doing the work on the ground in these early states.

BLITZER: Let's talk about the money, because it's important in politics. 11 of the 15 Republican candidates raised more money than you have. Your campaign is spending all that it's raising, according to the latest numbers on the screen there. You have raised $574,000, but spent $832,000. That is according to the campaign finance report released last Thursday. So how much longer can you go on, if you are spending more than you are raising?

JINDAL: We are in this to win it, Wolf. We will be here through the entire contest, but the reality is low overhead, and no debt, and unlike the candidates that have dropped out, we don't have any problem, and continuing to raise money, and we are in this to win it. And we are building a movement in Iowa and seeing it in, not only the response, but look, folks tell us all of the time it is easier for the Republicans to get the red-meat applause lines, and we are a do-er and not a talker. It's not about rhetoric. We've got the proven results. After seven years of a first-term Senator who needed on the job training, that is not what the voters are looking for, but a proven conservative reformer.

[13:40:18] BLITZER: The next Republican presidential debate is next Wednesday. CNBC is going to have a two-tier debate. If you are in the second tier, will you participate?

JINDAL: We haven't made a decision on that yet. We're pushing them to look at the early polls of the early states. At one point, they thought about doing that, and we would encourage them to do that. If they did that, we would be in the main debate. This makes more sense, and instead of ignoring the voters. The establishment would love to clear the field and they think it is messy, but democracy is messy. Let's let the voters decide. And this in Louisiana, we go hunting where the ducks are. The first votes are in Iowa, and so we are going there and let the criteria fit there.

BLITZER: There's a lot of political buzz in Louisiana. If the presidential thing does not work out, would you consider running for the Senate in Louisiana. There could be an open seat there, as you know?

JINDAL: I'm not interested in the Senate. I was in Congress before. I am interested in serving the country by being president, and we are on track to do that. All of us thought that it was a marathon and, Wolf, I'm the only one with a real plan to get rid of Obamacare and not replace it with a entitlement program, came up with a bold tax plan a couple of weeks ago, got detailed plans on education, and energy and defense. And my tax plan, everybody should pay a little bit while we lower the rates across the board. We are in it to win the presidential nomination.

BLITZER: And you once said that the Republican Party needs to stop being the stupid party. Do you still believe that the Republican Party today is the stupid party?

JINDAL: Well, we are making progress, and I meant by that, not only stop saying dumb thing, but we have to be the party of ideas and solutions. I challenge the other Republicans running for president that they should come up with their own idea ideas. Why are we the only ones with a real plan to get rid of Obamacare? Jeb has offered a plan, but it is creating a new government obligation to pay for everybody's health care. At least others should say where they stand. These Senators running for president, Cruz and Rubio and Paul and others, why don't they get things done, not just talk about things. We've made progress. But for us to be where we need to be, we need to be the party of ideas and solutions, like school choice and a lower and flatter tax code and the replacement of getting rid of all of Obamacare, and how do we shrink government and balance the budget without raising taxes? We're getting there but we need to be the party of solutions. Folks are frustrated with the administration. I believe we will win this election. Hillary is gift wrapping the election for us. But we can't be against things. We have to be for thing. We're getting there. As a candidate, I have put out some detailed policies.

BLITZER: I know that you have to run, but quickly, you say that you are still deciding whether to be in the next Republican debate if they put you in the second tier, lower level, if you will, but isn't it better to be in the second tier debate than to be invisible that night?

JINDAL: Well, Wolf, we have not made the decision yet. Based on the opportunity to do the right thing, they have an opportunity to look at the early state polls. I'm sure that you guys at CNN would love to have me there otherwise and we could do some counter programming here. But they have the right time to do the right thing to look at the early states and that is where the nominees are picked. These voters have kicked the tires. Let's go to where we do the three-hour town halls and stay until the last question is asked. These are good, touch questions from voters. That is who should be deciding the nominee, and not the donors or the establishment.

BLITZER: Thank you, Governor Bobby Jindal, for joining us?

JINDAL: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: The new book by the way is called "American Will," coming out today, and there you can see the book cover.

For the latest in politics, head over to CNNpolitics.com.

We will take a quick break. Much more news after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:48:26] BLITZER: We have breaking news, and the Pentagon here in Washington has announced that the United States and Russia have reached the agreement on rules for flying in Syrian air space, and a very sensitive agreement, indeed.

Let's bring in CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto.

And we know, Jim, they have U.S. jet fighters flying over Syria and Russian jet fighters flying over Syria, and there could be a close call or blunder.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: And they have been working on it for week, and there is finally an agreement as Syrian air space has been picked up. They have an MOU, a memorandum of understanding. And it is professional airships which is something that the U.S. pilots have asked the Russian pilots to communicate on certain frequencies, and also establishing a communication line on the ground, and multiple levels to avoid them coming into conflict. One thing they made clear, it is not an intelligence agreement, and they are noting agreeing upon themselves, you bomb this place or I will bomb this place, but it is to avoid collisions in the air.

BLITZER: De-confliction, the word that they use.

And Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent, is there in the briefing, and she asked whether the U.S. can trust Russia to honor this agreement, and this is what was said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER COOK, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Yes, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: While the Russians were agreeing, they flew within 500 feet on one occasion and within 1,500 feet of U.S. fighter jets over Syria, and so if they are -- if they want to have flight safety and yet they're flying within 500 feet of U.S. aircraft, what makes you believe that you can trust them?

[13:50:10] COOK: Well, Barbara, I think you just highlighted why we need this kind of agreement in place. Our air crews continue to fly in a professional fashion and this agreement now, this understanding obligates the Russians to do the same and we, again, call on them to abide by the protocols that they have now agreed to. And what you just described would not reflect the professional airmanship that this understanding now calls for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That's the Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook. Obviously, it's a very sensitive issue.

You heard Barbara ask if they can trust the Russians. They have to work out the details to make sure they don't go into a Russian fighter jet and those pilots be put in danger.

SCIUTTO: There have been worries and precedence not just in the skies over Syria but elsewhere. You have had close encounters over Europe over the Alaskan coast and coming to the east coast of the U.S., which the U.S. believes is intentional. We have seen these numbers rise dramatically in the last year or so when you had conflicts. You have this agreement, you hope that both sides abide by it. There have been some dangerous precedence. It's something we'll only know as we see it play out.

BLITZER: The skies over Syria will be busy because you have the Russian planes and other allied planes coming in. The Israelis occasionally fly over there if they see something suspicious that could undermine potentially their security. They are going to be busy over there.

SCIUTTO: The Syrian air force as well.

BLITZER: Yeah.

Thank you very much, Jim Sciutto.

Of all the people, you wouldn't expect the heads of the CIA and Homeland Security's e-mails to be hacked. Apparently, it happened. CNN speaks exclusively with the self-proclaimed hackers to found out why they did it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:04] BLITZER: The very disturbing issue of the hacking of the CIA director's personal e-mail was just raised at the White House press briefing. Here's what the press secretary, Josh Earnest, said just a few moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This underscores the importance of government officials, as it sounds like Director Brennan did, using their official e-mail address for official government work. But it does highlight the risk that all of us face when it comes to the security of even our private e-mail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're also hearing from two of the people who say they broke into the personal e-mails of John Brennan, the CIA director, and the Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. They say they were motivated by U.S. support of Israel, among other things.

These self-proclaimed hackers explained their agenda in an exclusive phone interview with CNN.

Laurie Segall is joining us live from London.

Laurie, you spoke to them. Tell us more about the motivation behind this hacking.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: It was very interesting. I was able to go through Twitter and get them to finally call. They disguised their voice so they sound different, but they spoke further about that motivation. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: Anything you can tell me about yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I'm about the age of 20 years old. I smoke pot. And I live in America.

SEGALL: You smoke pot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day.

SEGALL: You might have hacked the director of the CIA while you were high?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably.

SEGALL: Are you sophisticated hackers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would kind of put us like in the middle maybe. We're not like stupid, but we're not really smart. There's a lot of really, really smart people.

SEGALL: Do you guys worry about retribution?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to go to Russia and get with Snowden because I know the government are pretty mad about this. I'm probably going to get tortured. I'm actually a pretty fast runner.

SEGALL: You plan to leak more information. Is there any specific target?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, the government and the police, the White House people. They're losers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEGALL: Now, Wolf, sources confirmed that both accounts were hacked. We can't independently verify the leaked documents. I will say this. Right before I came on air, I was in contact with one of the hackers on Twitter. He said he has not been contacted by the fed's and he also said he has plans to release more private information about the CIA director, John Brennan -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Since these self-proclaimed hackers are speaking to you and other members of the news media, I assume it could be not that difficult for the U.S. government to try to track them down, right?

SEGALL: I said that to a security guy today. They said they must be able to find them. They are talking to everyone and posting these leaks. Hackers are getting better and more sophisticated about hiding their I.P. addresses. And even when they called me, they disguised their voices.

That being said, they said they weren't that sophisticated of hackers. I have a feeling they will be traceable. Even when they spoke to me, Wolf, what they said was we're going to keep doing this until we get raided -- Wolf?

BLITZER: The voices were distorted by them, not by CNN, right?

SEGALL: Yeah, they took a lot of care. It was very difficult to actually get them on the phone. When I finally did, I was shocked when I heard the voice manipulation, but I understand that's a how a lot of folks will communicate. They do it through a voice modulator to protect their identity. I can imagine they have a lot at stake. This was very embarrassing to the CIA -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Yeah, the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA have now referred all of this for further investigation. We'll see what they come up with. Clearly, awkward and disturbing.

Thanks very much, Laurie Segall, for that report.

That's it for me. Thank you for watching. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. Eastern

[14:00:00] in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "Amanpour" is next.

For our viewers in North America, NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts now.