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Florida, the "Swingiest" Swing State; Clinton Campaign Expanding Operations in Georgia, Arizona; Ryan Battles for Seat Days after Trump's Endorsement; Putin's Meeting with Turkish President Unnerves West. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 9, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:31:11] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton is in Florida today. She's expected to visit a health care facility in the next hour. Once again, Florida is a key battleground state in this very important election. You might remember the infamous recount in the 2000 Bush v Gore election. Just a handful of Florida voter, 537 to be precise, decided who would become the country's president. 16 years later, the makeup of the state's voters may have changed, but the fight for the ballots is as fierce as ever.

Martin Savidge brings us the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With 20 electoral votes, Florida is one of the biggest prizes of the battleground states, but the difference between winning and losing is often really small.

SUSAN MACMANUS, FSU POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR: In 2012, Obama just won Florida over Romney by 0.9 percent. This is a fiercely fought-for state.

SAVIDGE: There are currently roughly 4.4 million registered Republicans and close to 4.6 million Democrats. But the Florida voters both campaigns want are the nearly three million Independents. Who are they? They're young, part of the new influx of new residents drawn to work rather than retire.

MACMANUS: If you take the Millennials, which are the 18 to 34- year-olds, plus the Gen Xers, they make up around 47 percent of Florida's registered voters.

SAVIDGE: Gone are the days a candidate could only talk Social Security. Younger voters have other concerns, jobs, the environment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say the issue of student loans.

SAVIDGE: These swing voters include Hispanics, not traditional right leaning Cuban-Americans, but Puerto Ricans with different politics. Their numbers growing fast.

(on camera): 67,000 --

JORGE ARVEO, BUSINESSMAN: Thousand.

SAVIDGE: Every month.

ARVEO: Every month.

SAVIDGE: Coming to Florida?

ARVEO: I have to look for opportunities or see what is happening.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Republican organizers say they have been paying close attention to these new arrivals.

SOFIA HOZA, DEPUTY HISPANIC MEDIA PRESS SECRETARY, RNC: And the Republican Party, we're focused on the economy and really how we can help them really achieve that American dream that most Puerto Ricans are looking for.

SAVIDGE: Hillary Clinton's campaign also is making a big push for Hispanic voters in the state, relying on Hispanic volunteers, and selecting a running mate, Tim Kaine, who is fluent in Spanish.

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D), VIRGINIA & VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(CHEERING)

SAVIDGE: The Democratic ticket holding its first appearance together last month in Miami.

(on camera): One last thing about these critical voters. They all love in roughly the same area, going from Tampa to Orlando and Daytona, the I-4 corridor. It's the battleground of the battleground state.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: What a crowd. Florida, we love Florida.

(CHEERING)

SAVIDGE: Donald Trump was there just last week. Clinton was there Monday with appearances in St. Petersburg. But she seems to be there every day on TV.

(SINGING)

SAVIDGE: Since early June, more money has been spent on TV ads in Florida than any other state. With Clinton forces outspending Trump and his allies 12:1, that is 20 million versus 1.6 million.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.

SAVIDGE: But Republicans say the key to Florida isn't going big with TV, it's going small, identifying what they call "turfs," pockets of 6,000 to 7,000 voters where they focus hundreds of local volunteers. It's grass roots politics 101, straight out of the Obama Florida playbook.

The Clinton campaign is also trying to rewrite the playbook going after Republican voters.

SCOTT ARCENEAUX, SENIOR ADVISOR, HILLARY CLINTON FOR AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: We had a lot of Republicans particularly in south Florida who are not happy with their nominee who we're having conversations with.

SAVIDGE: Wooing voters is one thing, but it takes organization to turn out the vote. The RNC says it currently has over 70 paid staffers with plans for at least 20 offices statewide. Democrats say they're aiming for at least 100 offices. They already ever over 200 paid staffers on the ground.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[13:35:29] BLITZER: Thanks to Martin Savidge for that report.

I want to talk more about the battle for Florida and other key states. Our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is joining us.

Florida critically important, but now we're learning that the Clinton campaign will do advertising in two traditionally Republican presidential states, Arizona and Georgia. What is behind this?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And what is behind it is that they're trying to expand the math. And in the state of Georgia, OK, Hillary Clinton is up by four points. The state of Arizona, they believe they have an opportunity because of those Hispanic voters, don't forget Mitt Romney won the state of Arizona 53- 44. And if the Clinton campaign starts investing a lot of money in those states, don't forget there are two Senate seats that are also up. So it makes sense that they're trying to expand the math.

BLITZER: Florida is really critical.

BORGER: Absolutely. And Florida has been really important historically. Let's talk about of-first of all, Hillary Clinton is ahead with Latino voters by 21 points right now. So that's why as Martin was saying in his piece the advertising is astonishing compared to Donald Trump. But out of the 12 of the last 13 elections, Florida has voted with the winning candidates. And let me show you how tight these margins have been. 0.9 for Obama 2012. 2.8 in 2008. Bush in 2004 did very well, up five. Then, of course, as you were talking about earlier, the contested election Florida, Florida, Florida in which the difference was 537 votes. So this is the key battleground here. The state of Florida is changing dramatically. The number of Latino voters increasing. And the demographics are different. These are young Puerto Ricans who may not vote like their parents voted.

BLITZER: And the Trump campaign says they won the primary in Florida and they have a base there that they can win. BORGER: And that could be right. And Marco Rubio now running

for re-election. The question was, was he going to run for re- election and of course now he is. Will people vote for Marco Rubio? Rubio has said he will support the Republican nominee, but he's not out there campaigning for Donald Trump. This has been turmoil in the Republican Party there. And so the question is turnout and the question is will there be ticket splitting in the state history here is it's not easy to win the state of Florida. Hillary Clinton spending an awful lot more money. The Trump campaign has said, you know, what we've done pretty well without spending money. And so we'll have to see if he can turn out his base of support and if that will make the difference.

BLITZER: And a lot of us remember that 2000 election in Florida.

(LAUGHTER)

BORGER: We do.

BLITZER: Bush won by 537 votes over Al Gore. And remember, it was a third-party candidate, Ralph Nader, running as the Green Party presidential candidate who got more than 90,000 votes. And Democrats, to this day, believe a lot of those votes, if he had not run, would have gone to Gore.

BORGER: And it took 36 days and went to the Supreme Court, if you'll recall.

BLITZER: Yeah, I remember going down to Tallahassee the day after that.

BORGER: Oh, yeah. 29 electoral votes, really important.

BLITZER: Gloria, thank you.

It's primary day in Wisconsin. We have live pictures coming in from a ballot-cam. This is Janesville, hometown of Paul Ryan, who is in a heated battle for his congressional seat. Could the outcome of the race offer any clues to how voters may feel headed in to November? We'll go there live when we come back

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[13:44:18] BLITZER: Right now, the House Speaker Paul Ryan is facing off against businessman, Paul Nehlen, in the GOP primary for the Wisconsin first congressional district seat. Trump put the national spotlight on the race with his late endorsement of Paul Ryan last week. But this morning, Trump told FOX Business he had a good relationship with the speaker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I have a good relationship with Paul. No, I don't think there is -- maybe the recent reports that, but we've had a good relationship and I endorsed Paul. You have some primaries today and it will be interesting to see how it all comes out, but I would think Paul would be in good shape.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Manu Raju is joining us live from a polling station in Janesville.

Manu, a lot of concern that the GOP will lose some seats in the House and the Senate. How could this election, result tonight, affect the outcome in November?

[13:45:11] MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, we expect Paul Ryan should be OK here today. I mean, there are steady stream of voters, but no real -- not seeing any influx of voters to suggest that there will be a major upset that will happen here in this district. Paul Ryan expected to hang on pretty handedly in an area that voted pretty overwhelming there for Ted Cruz in the April primary. So notably Ted Cruz country, not Donald Trump country. Interestingly, I have spoken to a number of voters, who are just frustrated at Trump, say they won't vote for Donald Trump. One voter in particular said that he didn't like the way Donald Trump criticized Paul Ryan, criticized Ted Cruz and thinks that that is one reason why he says he's not going to vote for Donald Trump this November. So I think the race will show that the party needs to unify ahead of November. There is a lot of work to be done not just among the politicians, but rank- and-file voters still not there yet and threatening to sit out the election.

BLITZER: Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes. Both Democrats and Republicans see it as a battleground state. Are you getting a sense there on the ground from voters on how November Trump versus Clinton?

RAJU: It will be very difficult for Donald Trump. This is a state that has recently gone -- presidential election cycles gone to the Democrats. It's a state where Donald Trump $ is not very popular in the so you were part of the state. That is a big population center in the areas away Madison and Milwaukee where Donald Trump does particularly well is in the northern part in the Western part of the state. Fewer voters up there. So Donald Trump has to work on southern Wisconsin and that's where Mike pence will be on Thursday, he will be in Milwaukee trying to rally voters. They believe that they can win on the issue of trade by railing deals, something that differs with Paul Ryan, but they believe that that is something that could get voters to their side. But clearly their work cut out for them particularly in this part of the state.

BLITZER: We know Paul Ryan and you're there covering his election this primary election today, he's the most important Republican. He's the leading Republican in the House of Representatives, speaker of the House. Had been no conversation between Trump and Ryan since the convention. Based on everything you're hearing, have these two Republicans, have they spoken at all since the convention?

RAJU: It doesn't seem that way. We've heard that their staff has communicated particularly after that dust-up from last week, but Paul Ryan and this campaign view of what Donald Trump did last week is a bit of a distraction, something that they don't think was particularly helpful rig now and actually didn't hurt him politically, but distracted from his message. They hope they can get past that in the coming days and weeks -- Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Manu on the scene for us in Janesville, Wisconsin. Thanks very much.

And we're standing by to hear from Donald Trump at his own rally, coming up soon.

Also coming up, an olive branch from Vladimir Putin. Putin and his Turkish counterpart meeting for the first time since the downing of a jet near the Turkish border. Why Western allies believe there may be a darker purpose behind this so-called peace offering.

Stay with us.

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[13:52:48] BLITZER: After months of strained relations, Turkey and Russia are mending their relationship. Today, the Turkish President Erdogan and Russian President Putin met in St. Petersburg pledging to restore close economic ties.

But as senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, explains, as Turkey's relationship with Russia gets closer, its ties with NATO allies are being strained.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Is the Turkish president turning to Russia and away from the West? This highly symbolic meeting in St. Petersburg has raised concerns, as will the warm words of this key NATO ally to his Kremlin counterpart. He called Putin his "dear friend."

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translation): The relations between Russia and Turkey have entered into a really positive phase. We are both familiar with the process of setting up great goals. I am sure that steps we both take will widen our cooperation.

CHANCE: This was the moment that cooperation dramatically narrowed, when Turkish interceptors shot down a Russian airplane near the Turkish/Syrian border last November. As it plunged into a fireball, relations between Ankara and Russia inflamed. Russia's president could barely contain his anger. It called it a stab in the back.

But now, after expressions of regret from Erdogan, Putin's mood appears to have changed. Talk now is of fully restoring Russian/Turkish ties.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): Despite a very complicated internal political situation in Turkey, your visit today means that we all want a renewal of our dialogue and restoration of our relations in interests of Russian and Turkish peoples.

CHANCE: After eight months of trade sanctions and bitterness, it is a diplomatic back flip, almost worthy of the Olympics themselves.

(on camera): This meeting here in St. Petersburg is meant to cement the rekindling of Russia/Turkey relationship so badly damaged over Syria. Economic necessity on both sides is almost certainly the driving force, but it is the timing of the visit, the first by President Erdogan after a failed military coup last month, that's given the meeting extra significance.

(GUNFIRE)

[13:55:07] CHANCE (voice-over): Amid a Turkish crackdown on opponents, more than 1800 have been detained, relations between Turkey and the West are strained and the Kremlin senses an opportunity.

Putin was quick to remind his Turkish counterpart of his early backing.

PUTIN (through translation): I know that I was one of the first who called on the phone and expressed my support in overcoming the internal political crisis after the coup d'etat. I would like to say again it is our principle position that we will always categorically be against any unconstitutional deeds.

CHANCE: Amid Turkish anger and Western criticism, Putin's hand of friendship may count for a lot.

Matthew Chance, CNN, St. Petersburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

The news continues right after a quick break.

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