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Biden Stumps with Clinton; Trump's Plan Against ISIS. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired August 15, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00]

BIDEN: ... and say, Hillary hasn't forgotten more about American foreign policies than Trump and his entire team will ever understand.

Ladies and gentlemen Hillary has been there, she has been tested. I have been in the room with her as we jointly have with the president's leadership, sent some of these killers to the gates of hell. At our weekly breakfast on the international stage; she is strong, she's respected, she's admired. There is nothing that she does not understand about America's place in the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, because she knows one thing, that Donald trump does not know -- it has never been a good bet to bet against the United States of America. Give it a fair shot. Give it a fair chance. Americans have never, never never ever let their country down. Never.

Ladies and gentlemen of Scranton, we never allow, we never bend, we never kneel, we never yield, we own the finish line. That's who we are. We are America.

(APPLAUSE)

And she gets it. We are second to none. And Hillary Clinton is going to write the next chapter in American history.

(APPLAUSE)

[14:02:23] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here you have it. We haven't seen these two on the same stage since the Democratic National Convention a couple weeks ago in Philadelphia. Huge, huge applause. Listen, this is a hometown crowd, not just for the vice president, Joe Biden, but as she pointed out earlier on, her dad's family, roots in Scranton. So the Clintons - or rather the Rodhams and the Bidens growing up blocks away from one another, talking about their roots there in this - in this special town in Pennsylvania. Hillary Clinton saying what is unique is - in this country, where both of these stories were written, no matter what Donald Trump says, America is great.

We heard a lot today first with Hillary Clinton talking about - once again calling on Donald Trump to release his tax returns. We also heard a pre-buttal to Donald Trump's speech there in the battleground state of Ohio, which we'll take momentarily. That's the small box on your screen where he will talk terrorism and his plans to safeguard the United States. And then, of course, the big moment, the vice president up to bat, really getting the crowds on their feet talking about why Hillary Clinton is the pick to be the next president of the United States and why Donald Trump - what he said, quoting him, Trump has no clue what it takes to lead this country.

With that, let me bring in a couple of voices. David Chalian is with me from Washington, Brianna Keilar is there in Washington, Ryan Lizza, CNN political analyst and also with "The New Yorker" based in D.C., and Ed O'Keefe with "The Washington Post."

So I've got all of you at a table far away from me but we'll work with it.

David Chalian, to you first. I mean we were in Philadelphia. You know, it was - obviously he was speaking to a hometown team in Philadelphia with everyone in that arena in the - in the - in the throes of support for him. And then, of course, there in Scranton. I mean talk about a man who has a pretty stellar approval rating beyond the president of the United States for Hillary Clinton. You can't get a better advocate than that.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, and, in fact, I think we went into this event, Brooke, looking for that white working class Joe Biden appeal in this place where you heard the vice president himself sort of tout the success of the Obama/Biden ticket in 2008 and 2012 in this area and trying to parlay some of that on to Hillary Clinton. But what we walked away from was a total Trump takedown. And, again, I stand here and say, this is a sitting vice president. Obviously everyone will say, of course, he's a Democrat, he's supporting Hillary Clinton. He's going to take down Donald Trump. But that doesn't quite get at - and we've seen this from the president now and now we're seeing it from the sitting vice president about how rare it is, even in these partisan days, for a sitting vice president to say things like, "without hesitation I can say no major party nominee in history has known less or been less prepared to deal with national security." And that what amazes him, that he doesn't seem to want to learn about it. These are just complete gutting of Donald Trump obviously to a hometown crowd, obviously red meat. But again, from somebody who's sitting - you know, who goes to work every day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

[14:05:28] BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. And some of the same things, Brianna, that we heard in Philadelphia at the DNC, the line about, that's a bunch of malarkey, you know, referring to the line in which Donald Trump has become famous, you're fired.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. No, that's exactly right. And I think he was certainly playing to this crowd. One of the lines I will tell you that sort of stuck with me was something that I thought was very much in tandem with what we've seen in this Hillary Clinton ad that is out, which is, "there's a guy behind me who has the nuclear codes." That's what he said. So you're picturing this person with the nuclear football with Joe Biden in case, you know, he has to take control and there's some sort of issue and he's creating the - what really was the conclusion of this two-minute ad that the Hillary Clinton campaign is out with, which ends with Michael Hayden, the former CIA director under George W. Bush, talking about how quickly you can move when you decide that you want to take action when it comes to a nuclear weapon and then to execute that. He said it's basically built for speed.

And you hear Joe Biden speaking to that as well. There's this sense of laying out the case, as Joe Biden sees it, about why Donald Trump is not fit and then tying what he thinks and what he said about things to his impulsive nature and trying to illustrate for people just, obviously, how big of a negative outcome he says there could be because of that. And this is something that we're seeing Hillary Clinton hammer home. This is something we're now seeing Joe Biden hammer home as well.

BALDWIN: In addition, spring boarding off that, Ed O'Keefe, the line that Hillary Clinton repeated today that they tweeted out today, these were Trump's words from last November when he spoke in Iowa about, "I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me," Ed.

ED O'KEEFE, POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes, it's a - it's a line that the Democrats have repeated repeatedly, frankly, and it's one that works. And I think you can see there, as she was discussing all of this, how just so offended and how - how much this really bothers her to her core. I think it's - wherever she talks about Trump in her speeches these days, that seems to be the moment where she really seems to be most genuinely disturbed and most genuinely eager to really discuss it and remind voters.

This was an important event for them. You know, they're doing very well right now in Pennsylvania. If you can run up the numbers in Scranton and do just as well as they're expected to in the Pittsburg and Philadelphia areas, you know, that puts the keystone state away. And who better than the vice president to come along for that today.

You know, this is an area she campaigned in back in 2008 and did pretty well in, given her personal connections. But to have Biden come back and essentially be a character witness in a corner of the state where, let's face it, there are a lot of whiter - white voters and white men. If she can cut into those numbers while running up the score elsewhere in the state, you know, it could - it could put this one away as well.

BALDWIN: What about the unique story, the way the vice president, you know, referred to himself as the Obama whisperer, right, when he and Hillary - when he and Hillary Clinton worked together. Ryan, you've written a lot I know about the vice president. Talk to me about the arc of their relationship.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well - I think that was one of those examples where you're trying to say something nice about the candidate, but actually it's slightly passive aggressive. I mean the way - the way I read that was, you know, me, Joe Biden, I'm so close to Barack Obama that Hillary Clinton, who, let's be honest, wasn't, she had to come to me -

BALDWIN: Needed a translator. LIZZA: To understand this inscrutable president. So it was talking about Biden and Hillary being close, but the subtext was, you know, she didn't have access to the president like I did.

That aside, the second half of the speech, just the outright blistering attack on Donald Trump, was quite something, as David pointed out. I mean essentially they are trying to disqualify Donald Trump as a legitimate candidate. As someone who, very rare in any presidential campaign in America, that is simply not qualified to be - to be president. And the subtext of it was not that he's not just qualified, that he's already a - I mean I hate to say it, but the subtext was, he's already a security threat. I mean Joe Biden basically -

CHALIAN: No, sometimes he said it specifically.

LIZZA: He did, didn't he?

CHALIAN: He called him a current threat, that he's already the -

LIZZA: He - Joe Biden basically said after the speech, he is going over to Europe to make sure that our allies understand that we are still committed to NATO, please don't listen to Donald Trump about what he says. I mean this is just historically atypical, the kind of campaign we have right now where one campaign is accusing - what one campaign is accusing the other of.

[14:10:03] BALDWIN: And we -

LIZZA: And one other point - one other point, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, yes, yes. Go ahead, Lizza.

LIZZA: He said - he said that Donald - that Donald Trump would have admired Stalin -

BALDWIN: Right.

LIZZA: Who is responsible for tens of millions of deaths of his own people. I mean you don't get much more raw than that. I mean we're this close to him saying he would admire, you know, Hitler or something. I mean I've never heard anything like that.

KEILAR: That was - that was one we sort of went, whoa to, you know, and - when we heard that.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.

I'm going to ask a couple of you all to stick around. Thank you so much.

From one campaign to the next, we're watching and waiting from Donald Trump. He'll take the stage in Youngtown, Ohio, to lay out his plan to defeat ISIS. Rudy Giuliani helping tee him up there in this special battleground state. We will take it. He will talk terror and beyond. Lots to talk about on this Monday. You're watching CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:17] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Here are live pictures, Youngtown, Ohio. Here is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani speaking ahead of Donald Trump, who is about to take the stage in what is sure to be one of his most important speeches of his campaign thus far. And after spending months and months refusing to reveal his plan on how he will defeat ISIS if, in fact, he's elected president, because he says he doesn't want to clue in the enemy, he is expecting today to reveal more details.

He will also lay out his strategy on how to defeat radical Islam here at home, a tenet of his plan that involves ideological testing of some sort to make sure any potential immigrants are in agreement with the American way of life on issues, making sure they're not anti-Semitic, they're not against any sort of notion of homosexuality and other issues that would be against American values.

First up, I have Sara Murray, who is on the trail with Mr. Trump today there in Youngstown, Ohio.

Sara Murray, we just heard Hillary Clinton say this about Trump's plan. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, we'll wait and see what he says today, but, you know, sometimes he says he won't tell anyone what he'll do because he wants to keep his plan, quote, "secret." And then it turns out the secret is he has no plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So we heard - that was sort of the pre-buttal, right, from Hillary Clinton. Walk me through the most key parts that we'll hear laid out by Donald Trump.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Brooke, the campaign is really framing this as a vision of philosophy by Donald Trump for how to defeat ISIS. We're expecting him to come out here and say it's time for the U.S. to abandon its aspirations to be a nation builder, to be a country that spreads democracy in the Middle East, and instead focus in on battling ISIS on all fronts. We're expecting him to come out and say that this battle against ISIS means anyone who is against ISIS is for America, needs to be one of our allies in fighting that battle.

Now, we're also expecting him to flesh out some of the more controversial immigration plans he's proposed. We've, of course, heard of the Muslim ban in the past. And then we heard his campaign sort of explain that, in fact, what they're talking about doing is banning immigrants from countries that they believe breed terrorism.

Now, they're going to take that one step further today and say that Donald Trump is going to propose this sort of test for immigrants who want to come to the U.S. It's a test to weed out anyone who is holding extremist views, anyone who, like you said, might hold anti-Semitic views, anti-gay views. Now, obviously, there could be logistical issues with how you would put something like that in place, but at least a little bit more meat on the bones behind Donald Trump's proposals today, Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, we'll be listening for it. I have a lot of voices. We'll chew through it all, as this is such a significant speech with detail we're listening for. Sarah Murray, thank you for now.

Let me just bring in my panel ahead of Mr. Trump speaking there in Ohio. I have at the Pentagon for us, Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent. I have retired General Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme allied commander. Phil Mudd, CNN counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official. And I have John Hajjar, co-chair for the American Mideast Coalition for Trump.

So, welcome to all of you here. And as we chat, before we hear Mr. Trump, General Clark, actually, before we even get to what Mr. Trump will be discussing and I definitely, John, want to hear from you, can we just take a moment to talk about what we heard from Joe Biden? I mean he did not mince words. He said, quote, Trump has no clue what it takes to lead this country, talking about how he belittles our allies. He cannot be trusted with the nuclear codes. Have you ever heard a sitting vice president speak about a potential, you know, nominee, potential president like that?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: No, I haven't. But I do believe that Vice President Biden's concerns are warranted. I've traveled abroad a lot over the last six months and everywhere I go I hear complaints about what Mr. Trump has said and fears and insecurities among our allies in Eastern Europe, among people in the Middle East and Africa. They're asking, what does America stand for? What does it mean? Can we count on America? His very rhetoric is making these countries less safe, less hospitable for American businesses and making the world a much less secure place.

BALDWIN: So, John, I want you to respond, but first to you, Barbara Starr, because I know you have all these numbers, U.S. intelligence here. Let's just begin with a status update on the war, on terror, number of ISIS fighters killed. Get us - bring us up to speed.

[14:20:04] BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, a little scene setter in advance of the speech.

BALDWIN: Yes.

STARR: The U.S. now estimates that 45,000 ISIS fighters have been killed in the last two years in U.S. air strikes and military action. On the U.S. side of the equation, there are about 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, maybe 200, 300 mainly special operations across the border in Syria. A number of air strikes. They feel they've put a dent in ISIS.

And if you just walk around the map a little bit, well, let's show people where most of the military action is taking place right now that is so significant. In the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, U.S.- backed fighters have basically pushed ISIS out of that city. Very strategic. Very key. That is the city ISIS had been using to stage fighters to cross into Turkey to possibly stage attacks in Europe and other places.

Further down in Raqqa, which is an ISIS stronghold in Mosul over in Iraq, ISIS stronghold, they are beginning to try and move against ISIS in both of those places, with both Iraqi forces and U.S. backed forces in Syria. Going to be hard going. None of it's going to be easy.

How is ISIS reacting to all of this? We have seen, of course, over the last several months a number of attacks abroad in Europe, in other places, in Bangladesh, the airport in Istanbul, Turkey. ISIS very much reacting by trying to step up its overseas recruiting, inspiring people in its way through social media, to go out and attack wherever they can. That's something that military action isn't going to solve. That may be the real long-term crux of the matter, how do you kill off the ideology?

Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. Barbara, thank you for the scene setter and sort of a status update.

And, John, to you, first of all, I want to give you just an opportunity to respond to the harsh words we heard from the vice president, A, and, B, when I - when I listen to Barbara and she's talking about, you know, the information from U.S. intelligence, this is based upon countries, Iraq, Syria, Libya, you know, farther away. And it seem to me what Mr. Trump will outline is how to keep terror out of the U.S. Stark difference, yes?

JOHN HAJJAR, CO-CHAIR, AMERICAN MIDEAST COALITION FOR TRUMP: No. You see, ISIS is already in the U.S. And what the vice president has failed to mention is the ideology. And that's what's been missing for the past seven years. What Trump says doesn't create the ideology of Islamic terror. Islamic terror has a very long history and it's been existing for 14 - for 14 centuries nearly. And Donald Trump is the first president - candidate that is addressing the issue head on.

You can talk about ISIS being defeated on the battlefield, but ideologically they're growing like wildfire. It's a metastasizing cancer. And if they're destroyed, like al Qaeda before them, there will be another group to come along unless the ideology is attacked head on. As Sun Tzu said, if you want to know your enemies - if you fail to understand your enemies, they will destroy you. And that's what's been going on for the past seven years under the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton would be a continuation of that. I think you'll hear that very clearly from Donald Trump in his speech shortly.

BALDWIN: Let me follow up with you quickly, and then, Phil Mudd, I'm coming to. you know, when you say ISIS is in the United States, of course I think immediately of the ISIS-inspired attack in San Bernardino, California. But can you give me other examples?

HAJJAR: Yes, well, look, you don't have to carry a card. There's no ministry within ISIS issuing identity cards, issuing - collecting dues. You just have to ascribe to the ideology. And the ideology is growing because there's been nothing to counter it. Nothing whatever from this administration. On the contrary, they've been ignoring it. So Donald Trump's rhetoric is not creating the ideology of Islamic terrorism.

BALDWIN: How have they been ignoring it when, according to Barbara Starr's reporting, 45,000 ISIS fighters have been killed since 2014?

HAJJAR: But that's not the ideology. He's completely ignored the ideology. And, by the way, I thought he was going to end wars. It seems like we're in more wars now than we were in 2008 when he took office. He promised to pull troops out of Iraq. He's - he's clandestinely sending troops back into Iraq. We see Yemen destabilized. We see Libya destabilized. We see Nigeria, Boko Haram pledging - pledging loyalty (INAUDIBLE) to ISIS. So it's growing. East Asia, in the Philippines, all over. In western Europe it's growing like wildfire among Muslim immigrant communities and we're doing nothing.

And Hillary Clinton's response is that we're just going to allow more Syrian, quote/unquote refugees into this country. What happened to the Yazidi who were being slaughtered? Are any of them among the refugees? I don't think so. Are there many Christians among the refugees?

BALDWIN: Phil - Phil -

HAJJAR: Very, very few.

BALDWIN: Phil Mudd, jump in please, sir.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: I think we're missing one of the key questions here, and that is whether we see a u-turn in how America thinks about democracy in the Middle East.

[14:25:01] Look, Brooke, you remember 2011, all of which we're celebrating the revolution in Tunisia. We saw a revolution in Egypt. We saw the beginnings of revolution in Yemen, in Syria. And what we've seen after that is that revolution in democracy, whether you like it or not, brings chaos because in some cases it drives people apart, as it has done in Egypt, where we have the return of dictatorship.

What I'm looking for Mr. Trump to talk about - and I think this is a fair debating point - is whether we want to side with people like the Russians to favor dictators who will fight ISIS at the expense of favoring Democrats. I think that's a big question today.

BALDWIN: Well, on the notion of democracy, we know one of his key points is the fact that he says the U.S., if there were a president Trump, the U.S. would not try to nation build, would not try to seek or spread democracy in the Middle East. He points out, you know, the failures of the Iraq War. So you would be - you would be in agreement with Mr. Trump?

MUDD: On that issue, I think he's mistaken. Look, if you ask the people I was with at the White house on 2001 whether we should have spent more time in Afghanistan before we went into Iraq, I think the question would have been, we focused too little on nation building and now we have the return in some cases of al Qaeda, the rise of ISIS and the return of Taliban. I think you would have said the same thing in Iraq. Until you provide governance, you provide space for people like ISIS to move into cities. It's not just about military power, it's about giving people in cities things like water, food, education and a sense of security.

BALDWIN: General Clark, what do you think about the not nation building, not spreading democracy?

CLARK: Brooke, I - well, I do think that you have to be careful because I think you - every case is one case in itself. Democracy isn't some magical potion you can sprinkle out. You've got to work with nations. It's a long-term problem.

But, Brooke, I want to go back to what John was saying about the United States has done nothing. I don't think the United States has done nothing to combat the spread of the ideology. I think we've done a lot. First of all, we're working with all our allies. We're sharing intelligence. We've got hundreds of thousands of imams across the world who are speaking against ISIS. We've got the Muslim American community, which is working very hard in many different communities, in many different ways, to combat the - whatever attraction ISIS might hold for its young people. They've been pretty effective.

Behind that, we have our local police, the FBI. I mean we've done a lot about ISIS. And we've got the best model in the world against it. All these people want to come to the United States. They want to live under our values. They're not coming here to subvert America. They're coming here because they like our value, they like the freedom, they like the culture, they like the rule of law. So when John says we're not doing anything, he misunderstands the whole thrust of American history, as well as what our current programs are.

BALDWIN: Gentlemen, let me ask you to stand by, here he is, Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's great to be with you this afternoon. And today we begin a conversation about how to make America safe again.

In the 20th century, the United States has defeated fascism, Nazism and communism. Now a different threat challenges our world, radical Islamic terrorism. This summer there's been an ISIS attack launched outside the war zones of the Middle East, hard to believe, every 84 hours. Here in America, we have seen one brutal attack after another. Thirteen were murdered and 38 wounded in the assault on Ft. Hood. The Boston Marathon bombing wounded and maimed 264 people and ultimately left five dead, including two of our great police officers. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, five unarmed Marines, unbelievable people, by the way, were shot and killed at a military recruiting center. Last December, 14 innocent Americans were gunned down at an office party in San Bernardino, another 22 were very gravely injured. In June, 49 Americans were executed at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, another 53 were badly injured. It was the worst mass shooting in our history and the attack by far the worst on the LGBTQ community. And I'll tell you what, we can never ever allow this to happen again.

[14:30:11] In Europe - thank you. In Europe, we have seen