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Trump Disputes "New York Times" Article; Romney Trying To Recruit New Candidate; Trump Responds To British Prime Minister David Cameron; RNC Says Third-Party Run Would Be Suicide Mission; John Kasich Interview Tonight on AC360; Obama States "Ignorance Is Not A Virtue"; Hillary Clinton On Husband's Role In White House; Voters In Kentucky, Oregon Head To Polls Tomorrow. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired May 16, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Donald Trump now playing defense a little bit, responding to a series of rather unflattering articles and comments from world leaders. This morning, he was asked about British prime minister David Cameron, calling him stupid and wrong for proposing a ban on Muslims. Here is Trump's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't care. It doesn't matter. I mean, it's fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're president and he's the British prime minister.

TRUMP: It looks like we're not going to have a good relationship. Who knows. I hope to have a good relationship with him but it sounds like he's not willing to address the problem either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Trump is still facing questions from Friday's "Washington Post" article that he pretended to be his own public relations' representative back in the 1991. He denies the claim. And now, there's a "New York Times" article detailing his history with women for promoting them in business to allegedly belittling and degrading them everywhere from the board room to backstage at beauty pageants.

Trump tweeted this response. The media's really on a witch hunt against me. False reporting and plenty of it. But we will prevail.

Then, there's the talk of a third-party run. Former presidential contender Mitt Romney is behind efforts to recruit someone to run but has -- have no success so far. Republican National Committee chairman, Reince Priebus, tried to put an end to all the speculation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: It's a suicide mission because you're not only changing and throwing out eight years of the White House, but you're also throwing out, potentially, generations in the Supreme Court. Look, we could have up to three justices change over in the next eight years and this is a suicide mission. It is -- it is not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And, finally, there's the vice presidential discussion. Dr. Carson has been helping sort out the so-called short list. He made waves when he said that Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, along with Governor John Kasich were on that so-called shortlist. He now says he wasn't being serious.

And he said this to our Chris Cuomo earlier today on CNN's "NEW DAY" when asked if he was interested in being Donald Trump's running mate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is something that is extremely undesirable to me. As is any government post, quite frankly. I believe that citizen statesmen can work from outside the government and at a capacity where they can contribute to the well- being of the country.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": So, are you done running for office?

CARSON: I have no intention of running for office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Dr. Carson also talked about the "New York Times" article on Trump's dealings with women and called it a, quote, "hit piece." Earlier on CNN, one of the women quoted in the article said she thinks the "Times" reporters lied to her and she says they owe her an apology. We also heard from those same "New York Times" reporters. Here's some of all of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWANNE BREWER LANE: I was never offended by anything that he had said. He was never anything more than a gentleman. A very, very good guy. We had good times together. We had -- you know, he was very genuine. He was very gentlemanly. And if you were to read that article, you would think that I felt otherwise. And I don't think it's fair to me and I don't think it's fair to him, honestly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is some key context of Miss Brewer Lane went on to date Donald Trump for several months which is something we explain in the story. But the big picture here is that we're talking about a pattern of behavior, way -- the way Donald Trump interacts privately with women. The world knows how Donald Trump talks to women or about a woman from a stage or a podium or Twitter or the "Howard Stern Show". Our goal was to pull back and say, how does he interact in the office with someone who he's dating or trying to date?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The authors also said they stand by their story in the "New York Times".

Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us. Jim, what is Trump saying about all of this?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, as you might imagine, Donald Trump is trying foul and hitting back at the "New York Times" over that article over the weekend that seized on his relationship with Rowanne Brewer Lane in the 1990s, as an example of his dealings with women, some of the sound you just played there.

And as you just heard, she is now telling CNN and other news outlets that her comments were misrepresented in the article. We can put it up on the screen. It says, with the coming forward today of the women central to the failing "New York Times" hit piece on me, we have exposed the article as a fraud.

And, Wolf, knowing what we know about Donald Trump, this plays right into his attacks on the press out on the campaign trail. I've heard him countless times when he rails against the, quote, unquote, "dishonest media." His supporters will likely see this story as he sees it as an attempt to bring him down.

BLITZER: What are they saying in the Trump campaign about Dr. Ben Carson's comments about the vice presidential -- vice presidential search?

ACOSTA: Well, as you know, Wolf, and you just mentioned this over the weekend, "The Washington Post" reported that Ben Carson had floated out some names being considered as Trump's vice president, including Sarah Palin, which it seems very unlikely, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Ted Cruz.

[13:05:10] This morning, Dr. Carson told CNN's "NEW DAY" that those were names he was just tossing out. But in talking to sources at the Trump campaign today, Wolf, I can tell you that top advisors were telling me that Carson was just guessing as to who is on Trump's short list, that he does not speak for the campaign. According to one advisor and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told me earlier today, quote, unquote, "Mr. Trump speaks for Mr. Trump" -- Wolf.

BLITZER: He certainly does. All right, thanks very much for that, Jim Acosta.

Let's get back to that Trump interview on British television today. The presumptive Republican nominee said he doesn't care about comments from the British prime minister, David Cameron, who criticized this proposed temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States, calling it stupid and divisive.

Joining us now is our own Nic Robertson, our CNN International Diplomatic Editor. He's joining us live from London. Nic, Trump was also asked about comments from the new mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. What's the latest on the back and forth, first of all, between Trump and Khan?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, what we've heard coming back -- what we've heard from Sadiq Khan in the past about Donald Trump is that he feels that Donald Trump is ignorant about Muslims. That he -- what he said about banning Muslims from the United States is shortsighted and wrong. And this is what has drawn the reaction from Donald Trump. This is what Donald Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, when he won, I wished him well. Now, I don't care about him. I mean, it doesn't make any difference to me about him. Let's see how he does. I mean, let's see if he's a good mayor.

ROBERTSON: Are you offended by what he said?

TRUMP: Yes, I am because he doesn't know me, never met me, doesn't know what I'm all about. I think they're very rude statements and, frankly, tell him I will remember those statements. They're very nasty statements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: Well, Sadiq Khan commented about what Donald Trump had to say this morning to the British public on this issue. He said, look, I don't want to get into a fistfight with this guy but he is wrong. He is ignorant about Muslim issues. That he is being divisive. He is being dangerous he says. He's playing into the hands of the extremists by sort of creating this atmosphere of fear around the Muslim community.

And he said, look, you know, Donald Trump says I can come to the United States but what about --- what about my family? What about Muslim businessmen? What about Muslim families from Britain who just want to go on holidays at Disneyland and such like?

So, you know, he is -- Sadiq Khan, the mayor, is really not backing down from his position. Interestingly, the prime minister's office today also didn't back down from what David Cameron had said, divisive, stupid and wrong. They said he still holds those views and when the prime minister's office was asked, well, how are you going to deal with this? Would there be a phone call between the two men? They said, look, there's nothing planned. It's not ruled out. You know, it's something that we would consider in the future -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Nic Robertson in London for us. Nic, thanks very much.

Let's talk about all of these Trump controversies. Joining us, David Chalian, our CNN Political Director; Nia-Malika Henderson, our Senior Political Reporter; Mark Preston, CNN Politics Executive Editor.

Nia, all these stories, do they have a long shelf life, if you will, or are people going to forget about "The Washington Post" story the other day, the "New York Times" story over the weekend, the interview now with the British television?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, I think in the aggregate, they probably matter more than they do sort of as discreet stories. Of course, you saw Donald Trump come out and bat away some of those things that were surfaced in the "New York Times" story as is his way. I mean, he's very aggressive, as he says, at counterpunching.

But I think they underscore part of the narrative that has developed so far about Donald Trump that you hear from some Republicans, which is that he's erratic but he's not ready for prime time. You hear Republicans talk about him being sexist.

In that "New York Times" article, I think that sort of underscores some of the criticisms. So, I think that's the problem. Will people remember some of the comments from these "New York Times" stories, particularly in November? Probably not. But you will certainly see Democrats make this case around Trump and women and Trump and sort of international relations and how they feel like he's unpredictable.

BLITZER: The feud he's having with the new mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who's Muslim of course, the British prime minister, David Cameron, that's obviously a story. It's an important story. But in terms of political impact here in the United States, how does that play?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: It probably doesn't have much impact on the race itself. And, in fact, I would imagine for some of Trump's core supporters, it sort of emboldens them of what they've been looking for in a candidate to sort of take it on the world stage, that whole telling it like it is thing that they have been attracted to. To do that globally, I think, is attractive to them as well.

But in terms of domestic politics, I just don't think many American voters vote based on how world leaders are responding to a specific candidate. Although I do think, to me, his point about just sort of the pieces of the Republican establishment who continue to have reluctance to embrace Trump, it's moments like this that is -- that speak to why they have been unable to do that.

[13:10:07] Because just as he is trying to bring more people on board and tell the party, this is going to be great. Come with me. I brought all these people into the process. We're going to have a great victory here. Then, he gets into a distracting scuffle on the world stage and they think that that distracts from the core mission of going after Hillary Clinton.

So, I think there will continue to be a moment of as he continues to consolidate the party, these things bubble up and he has to readdress with exactly the folks he's trying to bring on board, all of these issues.

BLITZER: Speaking of Republicans, not Democrats, Republicans, Mark, who are still not on board that Trump train, there's still this group out there hoping against hope to come up with a third party candidate. Mitt Romney has been involved, behind the scenes apparently, in trying to get someone to run against Trump, and Hillary Clinton for that matter. What about Mitt Romney? If he's so serious about this, why doesn't he just throw his hat in the ring?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: I think Mitt Romney has had his couple of runs at the White House. Listen, I think that Reince Priebus is absolutely right. It's a suicide mission. There's no way a third party conservative is going to win. It will fracture the Republican Party.

The only reason why you would do it is to try to protect down ballot races. I mean, that's it. And say, you know what? We're going to seed the White House to Hillary Clinton, you know, for four years and we'll try to come back and we'll try to win it in 2020. That's all Mitt Romney is doing, at this point.

But here's a problem with Donald Trump, you know, to David's point as well. Donald Trump, right now, is continuing to do his own press. He's continuing to put out messages on Twitter saying, oh, I don't care about the London mayor. I don't care about this. We talk a lot about Donald Trump being presidential. This is not very presidential, at this point, to have himself being put -- you know, putting out these messages. And to fight with a big city mayor is absolutely ridiculous. When's the last time Bill De Blasio, you know, was negotiating against David Cameron on anything?

It is interesting that Donald Trump is in the situation and he is going to give pause and it is going to continue to stoke the fire about Mitt Romney or others trying to get a third party candidate. But in the end, it's a suicide mission.

BLITZER: Well, we have much more to discuss. Stand by, guys.

The Ohio governor, by the way, John Kasich will join CNN's Anderson Cooper for an exclusive interview later tonight. This will be his first since dropping out of the Republican race for the White House. The interview later tonight, "A.C. 360" 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

Coming up, President Obama unleashing a new attack against Donald Trump, signaling he may be ready to wade deeper and deeper into the complicated and controversial race for the White House.

Plus, Hillary Clinton telling voters there would definitely be a role for Bill Clinton in her White House if she wins in November. We asked her to clarify. We have an answer. Stay with us.

[13:12:48]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:58] BLITZER: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both off campaigning today. They're battling over 116 delegates in tomorrow's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky, Bernie Sanders getting more encouragement today from Donald Trump. Trump tweeting out this this morning, quote, Bernie Sanders is being treated very badly by the Dems. The system is rigged against him. He should run as an independent. Run, Bernie, run. Sanders, of course, saying he is in the race until the end but running as a Democrat. Hillary Clinton telling voters that she'll lean on Bill Clinton for his help if she's elected president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My husband, who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy, because you know, he knows how to do it, and especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton was also asked about it again just a little while ago by CNN's Dan Merica. Here is what she just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICS PRODUCER: You said Bill Clinton would (inaudible). Would he be in your cabinet?

CLINTON: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Would not be in the cabinet. (laughter) Why are you laughing?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, she thought it was so crazy to think that she'd put Bill Clinton in her candidate, so she just dismissed that. But clearly, she knows that with her comments in coal country that proved problematic for her in West Virginia, she's campaigning in Kentucky, which has been hurt similarly, economically, in certain pockets of it, a state, by the way that Bill Clinton won twice in '92 and '96. She knows that it's beneficial for her to mention and remind people about what he did for the economy when he was in office and she plans to use that. Later, Nick Meryl, the campaign spokesman put out a statement that said, there's no formal role in mind going forward. She means as an advisor.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: And it's funny. You talk to people -- every time I get into a cab and people want to talk about politics and if they're Clinton fans, they talk about Clinton, Hillary Clinton, they like her because she's experienced, but they also mention Bill Clinton. They feel like Bill Clinton, not quite necessarily a co-presidency, but they feel like Bill Clinton would be there helping, advising, in formal roles. I think in some ways, she's (inaudible), a reality, that people liked the 90's, they like the 22 million jobs that Bill Clinton created during his two terms. I think that's why she's sort of name dropping her husband.

BLITZER: But he left office after two terms, a lot of us remember. His job approval number was very high, in the upper 50's, 59 percent, something along those lines, which is very impressive for a second term president. MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: No doubt. I mean,

overall, for those eight years, it was high 50s, his final four years, 61 percent. His approval rating right now, according to the latest Bloomberg poll, is somewhere around 55 percent to 56 percent.

[13:19:57] CNN had that roughly around there back in February. Democrats like Bill Clinton and you know what? They know if they're voting for Hillary Clinton, it's a two for one deal. It's absolutely a two for one deal, and they're making no bones about that. He's great on the campaign trail, he's beloved by Democrats. He does have some issues, let's not pretend that he doesn't have issues. The question is, can they get by those issues, and if you're a Democrat, sure.

BLITZER: So in this general election campaign, let's say she gets the Democratic nomination. She doesn't have it yet but let's say she does. Where is he most effective as a surrogate going out there and getting support for Hillary Clinton?

CHALIAN: Well, I think he can try to speak to some of the voters that Trump is appealing, with white, working class men. He's proven the ability, in his political life, to be able to have a conversation with that group of voters and maybe bring some of them, who had been with the Democrats, back into the fold. That may be one place, so you can imagine places like Ohio and Michigan, the Upper Midwest, where Donald Trump is really going to target his path to 270 electoral votes. Bill Clinton may be effective in those areas for Hillary Clinton, and he'll probably be effective overall.

Mark was saying how much Democrats like him. His numbers are broadly across all parties and independents with the broad electorate pretty good. He's certainly seen in terms of favorable and unfavorable more likable than she is by the electorate more broadly. A lot of that has to do, because he's an ex-president and not in the game anymore, and so he's a little bit above the fray, but our colleague, David Axelrod, said he was the most effective surrogate for Barack Obama and he may not be as effective this time around because he's also personally invested.

BLITZER: A lot of us remember that Al Gore, when he was running for president, a lot of people think he made a major blunder by not using Bill Clinton, who was then leaving eight years as president, more effectively.

HENDERSON: That's right. He sort of put a wall between himself and the Bill Clinton presidency, thinking that some of the scandals from the Bill Clinton presidency would taint him. He might have wanted to do something different. If you look at the way that Hillary Clinton is already using him, for instance, in Pennsylvania, he was there something like 18 times. She was only there 13 times. So I think in states like that, he can do her some good, and with older voters as well. Certainly, there are some problems, NAFTA, the crime bill, but in the sort of overall, I think --

BLITZER: Very quickly, he is an amazing politician, you've got to admit. PRESTON: Let's go back to 2012, what speech does everybody remember?

Bill Clinton. Could you imagine him doing that to Hillary Clinton, upstaging his wife at her convention?

HENDERSON: Probably will.

BLITZER: I'm sure he'll say something. Assuming she gets the nomination. It's not over with yet.

All right guys, coming up, President Obama weighing in on the presidential race, taking some swipes at Donald Trump without ever mentioning his name. We have details. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:08] BLITZER: It doesn't necessarily take a college degree to figure out who President Obama was talking about during a weekend commencement address. During his speech at Rutgers University, the President took several swipes at Trump. He questioned Trump's command of the issues, he ridiculed his plan to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The world is more interconnected than ever before, and it's becoming more connected every day. Building walls won't change that.

In politics, and in life, ignorance is not a virtue. It's not cool to not know what you're talking about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our panel, our CNN political commentator, Angela Rye. She's a former executive director of the congressional black caucus. Mary Katharine Ham, she's our CNN political commentator, senior writer for "The Federalist", and John Phillips, KABC talk radio host, a Donald Trump supporter. John, I'll give you a chance to respond to the president's not so veiled attacks on Donald Trump.

JOHN PHILLIPS, RADIO HOST, KABC: Sure. Well, you know you've arrived when you're called stupid because that's the line of attack the Democrats have been playing on Republicans for years. Dan Coyle was stupid. George W. Bush was stupid. Ronald Reagan was stupid. Gerald Ford was stupid. And I don't think it's ignorance, I think it's realism, because the world is in a dangerous place. The world is not the world that the president learned about in world politics 101 at Occidental college.

And because the world's a dangerous place, sometimes if you are negotiating on behalf of the world's great super power, the United States, you have to make difficult decisions and do difficult things. So I think that this will, in a strange way, play to Donald Trump's strengths because it will reinforce the fact that he is a realist and he is going to come into the government as an outsider from the perspective of a businessman, not from the perspective of a lifelong politician.

BLITZER: Angela, I will say that Donald Trump is not shy about calling people stupid either.

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Or goofy.

BLITZER: He's done that several times. Crooked Hillary, he likes to call her, but how is all of this going to play out there? The President of the United States -- I assume after the convention? What we just saw is going to be sort of modest compared to his role that's going to be out there to energize that Democratic base and make sure they vote for the Democratic nominee. Let's say it's Hillary Clinton.

RYE: Sure. I think what's been amazing so far about this particular election, Wolf, is when you compare Donald Trump's rise to President Obama's rise, there's no way on earth that President Obama would have been able to be this type of candidate. It's phenomenal to me because he's had to be a constitutional law professor and has to run circles around people on policy, on history, on national security, on so many things, and yet Donald Trump doesn't have to know any of this. So he's right. He is an outside candidate, but I just wonder if this is really going to set in. I've been surprised so far to see how this has worked with the American electorate because I believe American voters are brilliant.