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Interview with Sen. Lindsey Graham; Technical Problems for American Airlines Flights; Jake Tapper Talks Moderating Debate; Hillary Clinton Tweets about Debate, Appears on "Tonight Show". Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 17, 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] SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This whole construct of knocking people out early on based on polling I think undercuts the early primary process. It's not good for democracy.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, those are the rules that the RNC --

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: And they're dumb rules.

BLITZER: -- obviously came up with --

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: I'm a Republican and they're --

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: Yeah, they're dumb.

BLITZER: All right, well, that's your opinion obviously.

GRAHAM: That's right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The highlights we just played, we heard some of those highlights.

You also suggested Donald Trump gets his foreign policy from watching the Cartoon Network. Here's a question. You obviously don't like Donald Trump. You don't think he's qualified to be commander-in- chief. You said you'd hold your nose and vote for him if you had to if he were the Republican nominee. But what about some of these other outsiders, Washington outsiders, like Carson or Fiorina, do you think they are qualified to be commander-in-chief?

GRAHAM: Yes, more than Mr. Trump, absolutely. I don't know Dr. Carson's foreign policy. He's got to explain it to me. Carly says she's not reached the point where she could say that we need boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria. I don't know what point we got to reach. It is obvious to me we're well past the point where we need to deal with ISIL on the ground in Iraq and Syria because the air campaign is not working. But I will support the Republican nominee. All I said about Mr. Trump was he said he got his foreign policy from watching television, and I've never seen a show that would suggest you go into Iraq and Syria and invade the country, take their oil to pay our wounded warriors, that that would destroy ISIL. I have no idea what show said that.

BLITZER: Three of the Republican presidential candidates basically said very boldly last night they oppose the war in Iraq in 2003. They thought it was a major blunder. Donald Trump did, certainly Dr. Ben Carson, Rand Paul. You've been critical of Rand Paul, as a lot of our viewers know. Based on the fact they thought the war was a blunder, and so many of the problems the U.S. has in the region right now are a result of what they call that blunder, you were an ardent supporter of President Bush in going into Iraq and going after Saddam Hussein, even though he had nothing to do with 9/11.

GRAHAM: Well, everybody in the world believed that he was involved in making weapons of mass destruction. He had gassed his own people. He was shooting at American airplanes patrolling the skies of Iraq under U.N. Security Council resolution. He was denying access to suspected weapon sites. He was in violation of every revolution we passed. I have not shed a tear for Saddam Hussein leaving. If I know then what I know now, I wouldn't have had 100,000-person ground invasion but I'd still try to push him out because he was a disruptive influence to the region.

But to everybody involved in this race, it's not about what Bush did. It's about what are you going to do. What are you going to do to destroy ISIL in Iraq and Syria? Do you believe this air campaign is working? If you're not willing to put American boots on the ground, where does the ground component come from? If I hear one more time about the Kurds being able to go from Kurdistan into Syria to destroy ISIL, that is not a viable option.

So here's what I say to my colleagues, come up with a plan of your own. I've given you very detailed plans. We need a ground component. Part of it has to be an American ground component or we're going to get hit here at home. That's my view of what we have to do going forward as commander-in-chief.

BLITZER: Obviously, your Republican colleagues disagree. Last night, you were asked about whether you could be effective as the nominee after calling Hillary Clinton a, quote, "great choice for secretary of state." Here's what you said in your response. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: I introduced her in a conference about Africa. I thought Secretary Clinton did a good job when it came to dealing with our problems in Africa, particularly among women. George W. Bush set $40 billion aside and Rick Santorum helped him, and President Bush wiped out an entire -- wiped out AIDS in malaria for an entire generation of young African children. (APPLAUSE)

Secretary Clinton -- Secretary Clinton did a good job -- here's my problem with Secretary Clinton. Where the hell were you on the night of the Benghazi attack?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: So was it a mistake for you to say those nice things about Hillary Clinton?

GRAHAM: If the test of conservative is you've got to say bad things about everybody to be conservative or liberal, god help us all. Secretary Clinton has got to be held accountable for her leadership during Benghazi, her resetting Russia. She's got a lot of things to be accountable for. But she did some good things too. I don't want to live in an America where the only way you can advance yourself is to have to always run somebody else down. Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan were able to avoid that dynamic. I made a joke, but I was really being serious. These are two people on the opposite ends of the political spectrum. They respected each other. They fought like dogs. But at the end of the day, they came together to save Social Security from bankruptcy. I'm not going to be led down the road of defining conservativism as saying something bad about somebody else. I can be conservative and be nice at the same time.

[13:35:14] BLITZER: Senator Graham, thanks very much for joining us.

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BLITZER: And congratulations on what --

GRAHAM: Thank you.

BLITZER: -- a lot of people think was a very impressive performance yesterday here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. You didn't waste any time getting back to Washington. Thank you.

GRAHAM: Thank you. Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Up next, we're going to have more on the breaking news we're following. Just getting word, technical issues affecting American Airlines flights at several airports here in the United States. We'll have details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:40:00] BLITZER: We're following the breaking news. I want to show you some live picture from the airport in Dallas, Texas. One of several airports where American Airlines has just announced a ground stop on all flights.

CNN's Rene Marsh is joining us from Washington.

Rene, tell us what we know. RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT:

Well, Wolf, this alert coming from the FAA. We know the American Airlines requested a ground stop for all of their traffic in and out of very specific airports. DFW and Dallas, Chicago O'Hare, as well as Miami International Airport. And that is all because of computer issues. However, the airline not giving much more detail than that. We don't know which computers have been impacted. We don't know the cause of this computer issue. So still waiting to learn more about that. But you're looking at images there. This is the big problem or headache that it's causing for travelers, long lines. We have producers in Chicago at that airport as well as in Dallas. They're saying they're seeing long lines. Although in the last few minutes, they did start to see some movement. But from the FAA that ground stop is still in place. No traffic in or out for those specific airports. Of course you remember, Wolf, it was just back in July when United Airlines had a similar incident. Where we saw for several hours they weren't having any activity because of a computer glitch. That turned out to be a hardware issue. But, again, with this case of American Airlines, we don't quite know exactly what's casing the problem. But we do know there are some very frustrated flyers as we speak right now.

BLITZER: Those are three of the biggest airports in the United States, Chicago, Miami, Dallas-Ft. Worth. Huge hubs for American Airlines right now. They really have no idea what this computer glitch is all about?

MARSH: Well, if they know, they're certainly not giving us many details. This is a statement from the airline. They're saying they're working to resolve what they're calling a technical issue, which is affecting several airports. And they're trying to get that fixed as soon as possible. But that's about it. So if they do know what the problem is, is they haven't shared that information with us just yet. Of course, everyone waiting and wondering, because in the past, we've talked a lot about the vulnerability as it relates to these airlines and their computer systems, whether it's a situation where it's a hardware failure or something more nefarious. We don't know any of those answers at this point. But we do know, as you rightly pointed out, these are some major airports here. DFW, like you said, a hub for American Airlines. MIA. Very, very busy international airport. So to have a ground stop on traffic going in or out, extremely disruptive -- Wolf?

BLITZER: The ripple affect could be enormous across the country.

Well stay on top of this story with you.

Rene Marsh reporting from Washington.

Just ahead, our own Jake Tapper talks about the challenges of his role as moderator in last night's presidential debate. Much more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:20] BLITZER: Last night's prime-time Republican presidential debate was seen by as many as 23 million people, and our own Jake Tapper, anchor of "The Lead" and "State of the Union," was right here, keeping the candidates in line, at least as much as possible.

(LAUGHTER)

Jake is with me right now.

What surprised you the most?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, THE LEADER & CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION: You should know, that's a record for CNN.

BLITZER: For CNN. The most viewers ever for an event.

TAPPER: For an event, yeah.

BLITZER: That's huge.

TAPPER: That's like I was saying, congratulations to CNN. There's so many amazing people here that nobody gets to see --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Millions of people watched it online.

TAPPER: Yeah.

BLITZER: That doesn't even include the many millions watching it on CNN International. That's only here in the United States. We had tens of millions of people internationally watching that.

TAPPER: I like that. So the question was who seemed the most comfortable on stage, is that --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What surprised you the most?

TAPPER: What surprised me the most? It surprises me when candidates don't take an opportunity to engage in a conversation that people are talking about and just instead recite talking points about their records that are completely irrelevant. That always surprises me. So any squandered opportunity surprises me.

You know, I think everybody agrees that Carly Fiorina had a good night. One opportunity I thought she didn't take was -- I cast her record at H.P. in terms of what do you say to people who say that Donald Trump might be better at creating jobs than you, and she didn't really talk about creating jobs. She talked about her record at H.P. Because I had read some criticism. But on the whole, I think people thought she had a good night.

BLITZER: The other question, who seemed the most comfortable?

TAPPER: Donald Trump seems comfortable wherever he goes. He relaxes and whatever. But, I don't know. I think Trump, Christie. Christie seemed pretty comfortable. The guys on the edges of the dais, Christie and Paul, seemed pretty comfortable. They came ready to play. They came ready to scrap and debate.

BLITZER: It was -- the difference between the early debate where there were only four candidates on the stage, and the main debate, where there were 11 candidates, from the perspective of the moderator, that's a big challenge, isn't it?

(LAUGHTER)

TAPPER: 11 candidates is a lot of candidates. I don't know if that's ever happened before. Probably it would have been better to have, you know, eight and seven or whatever. Yeah, four was much, much easier. Even though politicians always complain they didn't get enough time, I think most of them felt like they got something. You know, 11 candidates. And none of them shrinking violets either. These are very forceful people. So yeah, it was a challenge.

BLITZER: The main debate, the prime-time debate with those 11 candidates, went almost three hours. Some are saying that was too long. What do you think?

[13:50:13] TAPPER: That was a decision made by my boss, and yours, Jeff Zucker. It's not one I would second guess.

It was long, but it enabled us to get 11 candidates in on a number of issues, and still then there were a number of issues that I wanted to get to that I had questions for that we didn't get to, veterans issues, police, education, trade. There are a number of good questions that we had that because we let candidates debate we were will less rigorous a about let's move on to the next topic. We let people go back and forth if we thought it was good. So I could have gone another hour but I don't know that the viewers would have stayed with us.

BLITZER: All the candidates, they knew the format. They had been briefed, right? It was different than the first FOX debate, the format specifically.

TAPPER: I don't remember specifically what their format was. Ours was, I go to you with a question, you have a minute to respond. If your name is mentioned, you get 30 seconds. For people wondering why I would say, thank you, Senator, it's because all the candidates had lights there alerting them how much time they had. And when they would go over, we'd spot them a few questions and try to encourage them to start wrapping it up. But they didn't always stick to the rules, so I had to get in there just to keep it going.

BLITZER: Most of them, at least publicly, said nice things about you.

TAPPER: Publicly, publicly.

BLITZER: Nice things -- that's what they said publicly.

Hold your thought. You're coming up on "The Lead." You have a big show at 4:00 p.m. eastern. TAPPER: How do you think I did? You've done a lot of these things.

BLITZER: You did excellent.

TAPPER: But publicly, so --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Publicly. I'm saying publicly and privately. What did I say to you privately?

TAPPER: Privately, you said the same thing. But when I'm not around is what I want to know.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: I thought you did very well. You should be proud. Good work.

TAPPER: Thank you

BLITZER: Thanks very much. See you on "The Lead."

Last night's Republican presidential debate on CNN gave viewers insight into the candidates on a wide range of topics, but there was one presidential candidate who was a frequent target in the debate who was not on stage. We're talking about the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. In fact, her name came up repeatedly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR: This administration with President Obama and Hillary Clinton has created insecurity in the likes of which we never would have imagined. There's not a place in the world where we're better off today than six and a half years ago.

SEN. RAND PAUL, (R), KENTUCKY & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Had we bombed Assad at the time, like Hillary Clinton wanted, and like many Republicans wanted, I think ISIS would be in Damascus today.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can't wait to stand on that debate stage with Hillary Clinton and to make abundantly clear, if you vote for Hillary, you're voting for the Ayatollah to posses a nuclear weapon.

SCOTT WALKER, (R), WISCONSIN GOVERNOR & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton talks about the minimum wage. That's her answer to grow the economy. The answer is to give people the skills and education to make far more than minimum wage.

FIORINA: Mrs. Clinton going to have to defend her track record, her track record of lying about Benghazi, of lying about her e-mails, about lying about her servers. She does not have a track record of accomplishment. Like Mrs. Clinton, I, too, have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles around the globe, but unlike Mrs. Clinton, I know that flying is an activity.

(APPLAUSE)

FIORINA: Mrs. Clinton, if you want to stump a Democrat, ask them to name an accomplishment of Mrs. Clinton's.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: For her part, Hillary Clinton tweeted about the debate, saying, "Fingers crossed we're getting close to the part when they talk about things they're for instead of against." "And Donald Trump should stop complimenting women and start respecting them." That's what Hillary Clinton said about Donald Trump.

The former secretary was also a guest on "The Tonight Show" last night. She responded to Trump's recent appearance in which he made an indirect attack on her use of Teleprompters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, you know, I have used them from time to time. I learned that from watching how successful President Obama was because he knows what he wants to say and he really is intent upon delivering it. But I could go more stream of consciousness. You know, this is a huge election --

(LAUGHTER)

-- you never know what might happen.

(LAUGHTER)

Let's get rid of the people that don't e agree with us and only talk to the people who do. You can do that without a teleprompter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: She also appeared on a skit mocking Donald Trump with Jimmy Fallon playing the role of Donald Trump. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, THE TONIGHT SHOW: I haven't seen you since my last wedding.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: Well, I'm sure I'll see you at the next one.

(LAUGHTER)

I'm really curious, Donald, what is your stance on women's issues?

FALLON: Look, I know a lot of women and they all have issues.

(LAUGHTER)

If you want to win, here's what you got to do. First, yell.

(LAUGHTER)

I yell all the time. In fact, this phone isn't even plugged in.

(LAUGHTER)

Are you writing all this down?

CLINTON: Hold on, let me grab my pen.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[13:55:] BLITZER: Don't forget, in three hours, live at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room," my interview with the former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. She will join me live. We'll talk about what was said about her at the Republican debate last night.

That's it for me. Thanks very much you for watching. The news continues right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)