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Clinton Speaks to Media in New York; Powell-Clinton E-mails Released. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 8, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


[09:30:00] DAVID CATANESE, SENIOR POLITICS WRITER, "U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT": Of being a commander in chief. But then she later went on and said, you know, force as a last resort. And I think going back to the Iraq answer, a lot of liberals feel like she is only apologized for that vote because she had to and she was politically published for it. And I think just in recent weeks, every week you see her speaking to Republicans, courting Republican military figures, releasing a general here that supports her and a general there. So I think if you talk to progressives, they don't feel like she is talking to them any more particularly on foreign policy, and that concerns them.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And then, last question about what Mr. Trump said and I'll pose this question to you, Barbara. Mr. Trump said he would have ordered his generals to seize oil from the enemies. Isn't that against the Geneva Convention or is that a good idea?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm no military lawyer, but I think that people can look at the definition of war crimes and come to their own conclusion. He also fell back on, you know, a generations old cliche, if not centuries old. He spoke about that notion to the victor go the spoils. He said that a couple of times.

Look, there is nothing further from that, that the U.S. military is all about. The U.S. military does not go into sovereign countries and seize their natural resources. It does not happen. It is against the law. It is not going to happen. People need to look up the definition of a war crime.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Barbara Starr, Nathan Gonzales (ph), David Catanese, thanks to all of you.

I want to head back out to Westchester because at any moment Hillary Clinton will make a few remarks before she boards her campaign plane for North Carolina.

Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Hillary Clinton is going to address reporters here in just a few moments before she travels to Charlotte, North Carolina. And, again, matters of national security are dominating the presidential campaign discussion this week. Carol, it is all about judgment. Secretary Clinton trying to make the case that Donald Trump simply does not have the judgment. So she is going to reiterate some of her comments from the forum last night.

But we're also getting new information from an interview that Hillary Clinton has done with Channel 2 in Israel. She is saying this. She said that the Islamic State is rooting for Donald Trump's victory. So I also expect her to be asked and elaborate more on that, Carol.

But this is all the coming on the heels of a very much closer race here heading into the final 60 some days of this campaign. But Secretary Clinton trying to make the case to voters that Donald Trump simply does not have the plan, the credibility, and the judgment to be commander in chief.

Of course, some of his supporters and generals would disagree here, but by just the notion of Hillary Clinton holding what is going to be her third news conference this week alone makes clear that this is a different phase of the campaign, and she's eager to respond to what some of Donald Trump's comments were last night at that forum in New York.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, so, Jeff, stand by. I've got to take a break. We'll rejoin you on the other side. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:24] COSTELLO: All right, we are still awaiting Hillary Clinton to take her place behind that podium at the Westchester Airport. We hear she's going to take some questions from reporters. Of course when she makes her appearance, we'll take you back to Westchester.

Also minutes from now, House Republicans on the Oversight Committee are expected to hammer the Clinton e-mail controversy once again, this time challenging the State Department to release more information. The top Democratic on that committee dropping a major bombshell last night, releasing the e-mails between Clinton and her Republican predecessor, Colin Powell. Powell in one telling -- Powell, in one e- mail, telling Clinton exactly how he was able to get privacy while serving as secretary of state.

CNN's Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill with more on that.

Good morning.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol.

Now, Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat, obtained that e-mail exchange through a unique statutory provision that allows members of the Oversight Committee to obtain records, certain federal records. And he released those e-mails on the eve of more hearings about Clinton's e-mail use in order to give her some political cover.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not going to re- litigate in public my private conversations with him. RAJU (voice-over): Private conversations no more. The ranking

Democratic in the House Oversight Committee releasing a surprising 2009 e-mail exchange between former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Hillary Clinton. Two days after Clinton was sworn in as secretary of state she wrote to Powell asking what the restrictions on his Blackberry were, hoping to bring hers to the State Department. Powell, who used an older version of a smartphone during his tenure, responding, "what I did do was have a personal computer that was hooked up to a private phone line so I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers."

Powell said the State Department "gave me all kinds of nonsense about how they gave us signals and could be read by spies, et cetera." Adding, "the real danger" is that if it goes public, "government or not, to do business. It may become an official record and subject to the law. Be very careful. I got around it all by not saying much and not using systems that capture the data."

CLINTON: I have the upmost respect for Secretary Powell. I appreciated the time he took when I was preparing to become secretary, and I valued his advice.

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: There is evidence that they were extremely careless.

RAJU: The e-mail coming hours after FBI Director James Comey released a staff memo following criticism of his e-mail investigation. And the decision not to recommend charges against Clinton. Comey writing that the case was "not a cliff-hanger," nor prosecutable, concluding that the critics are "full of baloney."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[09:40:19] RAJU: Now, Colin Powell has not yet commented on this e- mail exchange, Carol, so we'll see what he has to say in the coming days.

Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, Manu, I'd like you to stick around because I'm going to bring in Jeff Zeleny and Mark Preston, our executive politics editor, because we're awaiting Hillary Clinton to speak at any moment from the Westchester Airport. You see the Secret Service there. I don't know if Hillary Clinton is in that big black car, but maybe Jeff Zeleny does.

Set the scene for us, Jeff.

ZELENY (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.

Secretary Clinton is in the black van, often referred to as the Scooby van, the one she drove from New York to Iowa on her first campaign trip more than a year ago, but she will be addressing some of these comments that Donald Trump made last night at the commander-in-chief forum. She will be addressing some of these national security issues, wanting to draw attention to some specific points Donald Trump made. You could call it a bit of a rebuttal since she spoke first last night, which was decided by a coin toss. She will be making some of those comments. And we can see her walking up toward the podium now. After she answers questions here, she'll be flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, to continue pressing her national security argument against Donald Trump.

Carol, we'll send it back to you and take a listen to Secretary Clinton.

COSTELLO: OK. We see Hillary Clinton walking to the podium right now. And it's interesting because she was sort of radio silent in August, right, but she's been right out front and center during this month of September. As young as it is, she's spoken to reporters many times. Well, actually, a couple of times. And she also got a bigger plane so reporters could travel with her on campaign stops. Let's listen.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, everyone.

Last night I was very glad to be able to begin a conversation with the American people and offer some of my thoughts about ISIS, Iran and how we reform the VA system to provide better care for our vets. And I'm honored that in the last 24 hours, more retired generals and admirals have decided to endorse my campaign.

To focus more on these crucial challenges, tomorrow I'm convening a meeting of bipartisan national security leaders and experts, including former secretaries of homeland security, Michael Chertoff and Janet Napolitano; General John Allen; former acting director of the CIA Michael Morell; and former NATO supreme allied commander James Stavridis, and others.

We will discuss how to intensify our efforts to defeat ISIS and keep our country safe. To that end, I want to underscore something that I mentioned last night. We should make it a top priority to hunt down the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and bring him to justice just as we did with Osama bin Laden. As with that operation, getting al-Baghdadi will require a focused effort driven at the highest levels. But I believe it will send a resounding message that nobody directs or inspires attacks against the United States and gets away with it.

Let me be clear: Last night was yet another test, and Donald Trump failed yet again. We saw more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.

He trash-talks American generals, saying they've been, quote, "reduced to rubble." He suggested he would fire them and replace them with his hand-picked generals. He attacked dozens of former flag officers by saying that, quote, "We've (sic) been losing for us for a long time."

That's how he talks about distinguished men and women who have spent their lives serving our country, sacrificing for us. That's how he would act as commander in chief.

Meanwhile, bizarrely once again, he praised Russia's strongman Vladimir Putin, even taking the astonishing step of suggesting that he prefers the Russian president to our American president. Now, that is not just unpatriotic and insulting to the people of our country, as well as to our commander in chief. It is scary because it suggests he will let Putin do whatever Putin wants to do, and then make excuses for him.

CLINTON: I was just thinking about all of the presidents that would just be looking at one another in total astonishment. What would Ronald Reagan say about a Republican nominee who attacks America's generals and heaps praise on Russia's president? I think we know the answer.

And when asked how he would stop the spread of global terrorism, Trump's answer was simply "take the oil." The United States of America does not invade other countries to plunder and pillage. We don't send our brave men and women around the world to steal oil. And that's not even getting into the absurdity of what it would involve: massive infrastructure, large numbers of troops, many years on the ground. Of course, Trump hasn't thought through any of that.

Every Republican holding or seeking office in this country should be asked if they agree with Donald Trump about these statements.

Now, one thing you didn't hear from Trump last night is any plan to take on ISIS, one of the biggest threats facing our country. He says his plan is still a secret, but the truth is he simply doesn't have one. And that's not only dangerous. It should be disqualifying.

So I have a very different vision for how we keep our country safe and strong. I respect the men and women who put their lives on the line to serve America. I will work with our allies to defeat ISIS. And I will hold true to our country's most cherished values.

You know, even with all of the attention paid to the campaign, we cannot forget how important this decision is. This weekend is the 15th anniversary of 9/11. I will never forget the horror of that day, but I will never forget either the victims and survivors, and the brave first responders and emergency responders that I met with and served and worked for as senator from New York.

That's what kept me working so hard in the Senate on behalf of 9/11 families. That's who I was thinking of 10 years later in the White House situation room with President Obama when the decision was made to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. That's the kind of commander in chief I will be, someone who will bring us together in common purpose to keep our people safe and our country strong.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, the latest Real Clear Politics average has you up by an average of 2.8 percentage points over Donald Trump. Given what you say are his historic inadequacies and disqualification on the commander in chief point that you just made, shouldn't you just basically be running away with it at this point? CLINTON: Well, as I've said many, many times, I've always thought this was going to be a close election. That's why we've been putting organizations in place, gearing up for these final weeks, to mobilize and turn out our voters. That's exactly what we're going to do. And I feel we're in a strong position, but we're not taking anyplace, anyone, anything for granted. We're going to keep working as hard as we can and hopefully pull out as many voters who agree with me as we possibly can muster.

(CROSSTALK)

CLINTON: Hi, Jeff (ph).

QUESTION: You said unequivocally last night that you would not put troops into Iraq ever again. Isn't, A, that ignoring some ground forces who are there; and B, boxing yourself in should your military commanders, if elected, advise that you in fact need to do that?

CLINTON: Well, Jeff (ph), first of all, I've said that before. I've said it on numerous occasions. I believe it. I think putting a big contingent of American ground troops on the ground in Iraq and Syria would not be in the best interest of the fight against ISIS and other terrorist groups. In fact, I think it would fulfill one of their dearest wishes, which is to drag the United States back into a ground war in that region.

However, I've been very clear, and I said this again last night, I support the air campaign. I support special forces. I support enablers. I support surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance. I will absolutely be prepared to do whatever is necessary to support the Arab and Kurdish fighters on the ground to take out as much of the infrastructure of ISIS from the air; to go after Baghdadi, as I said today, with a very focused commitment to taking him off the battlefield.

CLINTON: I think the approach I've outlined intensifies what we are doing, but also recognizes that there is no, in my opinion, path forward to ground troops that would be in our interests.

QUESTION: Hi, good morning.

Secretary Clinton, you've been criticized by the RNC for your demeanor last night, that you were too serious, that you didn't smile enough.

Can you react to that? And also you suggested that there is a double standard. Do you think that you're treated differently in this race because you're a woman?

CLINTON: Well, I'm going to let all of you ponder that last question. I think there will be a lot of Ph.D. theses and popular journalism writing on that subject for years to come. I don't take my advice and I don't take anything seriously that comes from the RNC.

We were talking about serious issues last night. I know the difference between what we have to do to fix the V.A., what we have to do to take the fight to ISIS, than just making political happy talk.

And I had a very short window of time in that event last night to convey the seriousness with which I would approach the issues that concern our country. Donald Trump chose to talk about his deep admiration and support for Vladimir Putin. Maybe he did it with a smile and I guess the RNC would've liked that.

QUESTION: Thank you, Madam Secretary.

CLINTON: Like the hat.

QUESTION: Appreciate that.

CLINTON: Is this a new look?

QUESTION: No, its kind of an old look, now.

CLINTON: Oh, you're bringing it back?

QUESTION: I'm bringing it back.

CLINTON: Went shopping in your closet? QUESTION: You got it.

CLINTON: Yeah. I do a lot of that.

QUESTION: Last night, Mr. Trump suggested in some of his security briefings that briefers made a suggestion or an insinuation that they were not pleased -- the CIA was not pleased with the decisions that the administration and President Obama have made so far.

Did you get that same impression in the briefings that you got? And can you comment otherwise on that suggestion from Mr. Trump?

CLINTON: I think what he said was totally inappropriate and undisciplined. I would never comment on any aspect of an intelligence briefing that I received.

QUESTION: (inaudible) different standard? And what does that mean for you going into the debate?

CLINTON: That's a very fair question. I -- I have been somewhat heartened by the number of articles recently pointing out the quite disparate treatment of Trump and his campaign compared to ours. I don't understand the reasons for it. I find it frustrating, but its just part of the landscape that we live in and we just keep forging ahead.

Look, I -- I think this is a really important moment for everybody in our country, as you have seen by the numbers of Republicans concerned about Trump coming forward and saying, "This is not acceptable."

They are willing to put their names out there, people who've never endorsed a Democrat, people who've never endorsed before because they are so concerned about this man and how totally unqualified he is to be president and how totally temperamentally unfit he is to be commander in chief.

So I know that he says outrageous things on a, you know, pretty regular basis. And I know that's part of the coverage and I know that it may be difficult to feel that you know exactly how to respond to some of his behavior.

But we're on the brink of making a very critical decision for our country. And if I were not the candidate, if I were not the nominee, if I were just a concerned citizen, I'd be out here doing everything I could to sound the alarm about someone like Donald Trump getting anywhere near the White House.

And I will continue to do that.

(UNKNOWN): Thanks, guys.

CLINTON: Well, you could look on the map and find Aleppo.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary (inaudible). (LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: I love you, Andrea. You are indefatigable. You're my kind of woman, I'll tell you what. Look at this. OK. I know. Go ahead. I mean the sympathy vote, the whole thing. I love it.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

CLINTON: Yes.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

CLINTON: Matt Olsen, right? Right.

QUESTION: (inaudible) Donald Trump.

CLINTON: Right, right.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

CLINTON: No, that's not true.

QUESTION: (inaudible)

CLINTON: Well, you know, look, I mean the Republicans are just in a terrible dilemma trying to support a totally unqualified nominee. I have no sympathy for them. It's their nominee. But I am not going to tolerate them continuing to make misleading, inaccurate accusations and putting out misinformation about me.

And here's the latest example. Matt Olsen, the very distinguished and effective former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, was so disturbed by what he has seen coming from the Trump campaign that he wrote an article that I guess came online in the last 48 hours, pulling from public sources, very clear statements by ISIS leaders, essentially throwing whatever support they have to Donald Trump.

They have, as Matt Olsen pointed out, said they hoped that Allah delivers America to Trump. They have said that they hope that he is the president because it would give even more motivation to every jihadi, someone who has insulted Muslims; has insulted a Gold Star family of an incredibly heroic Captain Khan; someone who has said he doesn't want to let Muslims around the world even come to our country. That is a gift for ISIS, and that is what Matt Olsen, who knows more about this than the Republicans trying to somehow muddy the waters, very clearly stated. That's what I mean.

And look, I'm not asking for any special treatment. I -- I know the road that I'm on. I've been on it for 25 years, and I just get up every day and keep moving forward. I love this country. I will serve it with my entire heart, mind and soul. I will do everything I can to protect America.

And I will do everything I can to make sure Donald Trump is not president, for many reasons, but this latest information coming from a distinguished counterterrorism expert should put every American's mind in motion to try to figure out what everyone can do to prevent Trump from being the president.

(UNKNOWN): Thanks, everybody.

CLINTON: Thank you.

[09:58:01] COSTELLO: All right, Hillary Clinton taking questions from reporters. She imparted more about her plans to defeat ISIS. She also trashed Donald Trump during much of this press conference. And now she's going to get on board her campaign plane a make her way to North Carolina, when she will -- where she will continue to campaign.

With me now to break this down is Julian Zelizer, historian and professor of Princeton University, Manu Raju joins us again from Capitol Hill, Jeff Zeleny will be with me momentarily on the phone since he was listening to this press conference and asked Hillary Clinton a question.

Manu Raju, could you hear Hillary Clinton's press conference?

RAJU: Yes, I could, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, I just wanted to make sure. So what stood out to you? She -- what stood out to me was she said that one of her goals to defeat ISIS would be to track down, hunt down the ISIS leader, just as the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton track down Osama bin Laden. That was not said last night, was it?

RAJU: No, and it was also interesting on how she doubled down on her assertion last night about keeping troops, not sending any more ground troops into Iraq, that was posed by our colleague Jeff Zeleny. She said that she's not going to get boxed in by making that assertion, even if she were to become president she were recommended -- generals had recommended that she do send in ground troops, saying that that is not of course -- there's no pathway forward on that.

Also, Carol, really taking it to Donald Trump and not backing down on the assertion that ISIS is essentially rooting for Donald Trump to be president. At the end of that press conference, talking about how -- the thing that Donald Trump has said have been a gift, in her words, to ISIS. So, clearly, she senses an opening here, from some of the things that Donald Trump said last night, including on the issue of the intelligence briefings last -- when Donald Trump said last night that the intelligence briefers that he met with suggested that -- they believe that the negotiations over Iran were mishandled by the administration, she said that was irresponsible, that was reckless of Donald Trump.