Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Trump Fights Back Against Criticism from Clinton; Syrian Government Amassing Fire Power; Rehashing of Bill Clinton's Sex Scandal; Interview with Wife of a Man Killed in Deepwater Horizon Explosion. Aired 10:30-11a ET.

Aired September 30, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:30:00] SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, DONALD TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: He's just responding to an attack. Look, Hillary Clinton brought this issue up because her record is so dismal. It's full of failure. She's spent 30 years in government. She has nothing to show for it.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: OK, so why doesn't he talk about that.

SANDERS: So she wants to use these things as distraction. We have been talking about that, but unfortunately the media would rather talk about this. I'd love for you and I to be sitting here talking about the economy, talking about national security, talking about things that are going to make our country better, but instead every time I come on the air these are the types of topics that we talk about. We don't talk about the issues. We don't talk about the difference of these two candidates; one that represents change; one that represents the status quo.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Your candidate has been Tweeting out these things, these false allegations against this woman. So he's the one keeping this in the news. And I just want to ask you about something else. I interviewed Ms. Wisconsin. She loves Donald Trump. She says he's helped her through her illness. She has a terminal illness. She gave an emotional, wonderful interview about Mr. Trump. Why doesn't he point that out? Instead of attacking Alicia Machado, why not say, "You know what? Melissa Young, look at her. She loves me. She admires me"? Why not point to her instead of maligning another woman's character?

SANDERS: Look, and I think we should be highlighting her. She's got an incredible story. You can tell she's somebody who knows Donald Trump very well.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

SANDERS: Another women who he has helped, who he has empowered, but at the same time he's been attacked, he's going to respond to that. Hillary Clinton wants to constantly use these sad distractions, so that she doesn't have to talk about her own record. She has nothing to show for it and she's going to constantly use these distractions. The media allows her to do that by continuing to talk about it and that's where we are. And I think it's really sad that we aren't talking about people like Ms. Wisconsin and that we aren't talking about the economy, we aren't talking about (--)

COSTELLO: Well, I absolutely agree with you, but again your candidate Tweeted all morning long at Alicia Machado, said she was a con artist, intimated that she only got U.S. citizenship to help Hillary Clinton and then he brings up the notion of this sex tape that's out there. That's kind of vile, isn't it?

SANDERS: Donald Trump is simply responding to attacks that have been made against him. He's made it very clear when he's attacked he is going to respond, and that's what he's doing today. But again, I think the media can easily change the narrative of this race. Let's talk about the things that Americans care about. Look, I'm a working mom of a four-year-old.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's talk about (--)

SANDERS: I have a three-year-old.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about something else right now.

SANDERS: A one-year-old that knows (--)

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the Iraq war. Let's talk about the Iraq war, right? So Donald Trump has maintained that he was always against the Iraq war, despite the fact that there was this interview from 2002 on the Howard Stern show. Yesterday, Howard Stern himself came out and talked about this interview and said, "Yes, Donald Trump did support the Iraq war." Let's listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HOWARD STERN, HOST OF THE HOWARD STERN SHOW: Trump was on our show years ago and said, "Yeah, you know, he was kind of for the Iraq war, us going into Iraq. He was saying he really wasn't for it and - so they were forced to mention my name. It's cool. Good promotion.

COSTELLO: OK. So will Donald Trump finally admit that he said on the Howard Stern Show that he was kind of for the Iraq war?

SANDERS: Donald Trump's been one of the most outspoken critics of the Iraq war. I think that he's been extremely clear in that for several years.

COSTELLO: That's not what I asked you.

SANDES: he's been consistently attacking that.

COSTELLO: That's not what I asked you, because he keeps saying everyone is lying about what he said even though he's on tape saying it. And this is just weird to me.

SANDERS: Look, I know that Donald Trump has been one of the most outspoken - we need more republicans that are willing to come out and say it was a mistake. He's done that, he's pushed that issue, and I think we need to move forward and figure out how we can fix those things. COSTELLO: OK, so just one more issue I want to bring up. And you know Howard Stern said that terrible thing about Mr. Trump, you know possibly being a cocaine user because he was sniffing during the debate. That was completely wrong. Howard Dean, I'm sorry. He was on MSNBC and kind of sort of apologized. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD DEAN, FORMER DNC CHAIR: I apologize for using innuendo. I don't think it's a good thing to do. I don't think it's the right thing to do. This entire campaign has been debased by innuendo, where was the mainstream media calling out innuendo 15 months ago when Donald Trump started running for president of the United States? That's what I want to know. Do your job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Even the democrats don't like the mainstream media, right? But is that apology good enough?

SANDERS: I don't know why. They've been on their team this whole election cycle.

COSTELLO: I knew you were going to say that. Is that enough of an apology for your comfort level from Howard Dean?

[10:34:54] SANDERS: Look, I think Howard Dean is irrelevant in this race right now. I think what is relevant and the apology frankly I'd like to hear is from Hillary Clinton. She offended me and millions of other Americans when she called us deplorable and irredeemable. The only apology that I think that the mainstream media and that Americans should be demanding today and every day until we get it is one from Hillary Clinton for one of the most offensive things that's ever been said in modern politics.

COSTELLO: And you're going to advise Mr. Trump to bring that up in the next debate, I'm sure.

SANDERS: Absolutely and every day until we get one.

COSTELLO: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, thanks so much for being with me this morning. Still ahead in THE NEWSROOM: An unprecedented degree of fire power said to be unleashed as thousands prepare for battle in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. What role is the U.S. taking in this fight?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00] COSTELLO: An estimated 10,000 Syrian led troops appear to be preparing for a major ground assault on Aleppo. They're standing by ready to unleash what one official describes as an unprecedented degree of fire power to take back rebel-held parts of that key city. Syrian government war planes have been bombing those areas since the regime said a week-long cease fire was over. Now Moscow says it's ready to resume talks with the United States on Syria's future, but the U.S. is still weighing what to do next. CNN Senior International Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, has more for us this morning. Good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, if you look at what's happening in eastern Aleppo that area held by rebels, the idea of diplomacy frankly sounds like a joke. The U.N. saying 96 children killed in the last week, 223 injured. Activists saying seven dead in a barrel bomb, normally fired by the regime, landing in an area that's now being heavily fought over between rebels and as you say some of those 10,000 Syrian-backed troops that seem to be according to U.S. estimates amassing to move into that area in what, frankly, could be the darkest episode yet of a war that has already struggled to find a place in peoples' imaginations. It's been quite so horrible so far. The major fear being of course for those 300,000 civilians trapped in that area here. They're under a deeply intense bombardment now. In fact, here is just the scene of one little girl being pulled from the rubble recently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH (voice over): Just one of the many deeply distressing moments you hear constantly emerging from that area of Aleppo. It will get worse. They're struggling for electricity and water. The bombardment is intense and it really brings to mind what are the U.S. options here at this moment? The level of firepower being amassed by the Syrians, Shiite militia working with them, and the Russians too suggest this has been pretty much in preparation for quite some time, cynics might say at the same time in which Moscow was talking to Washington about diplomacy. John Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state put all of his cards in the idea he and Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart, could negotiate a way out of this. That fell apart, and now it seems pretty clear that Damascus and Moscow think they have a military solution at hand. U.S. officials talking potentially about sanctions, about better armaments for rebels that might be able to target Russian and Syrian aircraft that do a lot of the bombing, but really they have a limit here. The White House doesn't want to get into a clash with Russia on the ground or commit heavy ground troops. Moscow knows that. They know there's an election coming up and that's got everyone's attention taken in Washington for the time being. This really is the darkest moment I think Syria has seen yet. Carol.

COSTELLO: Nick Paton Walsh reporting this morning, thank you. Shimon Peres, the last of Israel's founding fathers was laid to rest this morning. The country's ninth president was interred a short time ago in a cemetery on Mount Herzl. Attending the funeral service, dozens of dignitaries and world leaders including President Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, BARACK OBAMA: We gather here in the knowledge that Shimon never saw his dream of peace fulfilled. The region is going through a chaotic time. Threats are ever present. And yet, he did not stop dreaming and he did not stop working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Before the service, a poignant moment between current Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, a handshake recalling the years Shimon Peres spent working for peace. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00] COSTELLO: Donald Trump says if elected president he would bring a bright and clean future to the White House. Mr. Trump now hinting that he might bring up Bill Clinton's infidelities at the next debate. CNN's Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are names from the past that could become new again: Monika Lewinsky, Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Gennifer Flowers, and more.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much.

ZELENY (voice over): Donald Trump is urging his supporters to revive them, to fight back against suggestions he's treated women poorly.

TRUMP: The Clintons are the sordid past. We will be the very bright and clean future.

ZELENY: Campaign talking points sent to allies obtained by CNN say Mr. Trump has never treated women the way Hillary Clinton and her husband did when they actively worked to destroy Bill Clinton's accusers. Advisors to Hillary Clinton call it a mistake that will backfire and she brushed aside questions about it.

HILLARY CLINTON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He can say whatever he wants to say as we well know. We have seen it in real time over the last many months. And I'm going to keep running my campaign.

ZELENY: Yet her campaign is hardly eager to revisit those old comments.

CLINTON: I'm not sitting here as some little woman standing by my man like Tammy Wynette.

ZELENY: Defending her husband and blaming his accusers, like in this 1992 interview when she sharply dismissed Gennifer Flowers.

CLINTON: If somebody's willing to pay you $130 or $170 thousand to say something and you get your 15 minutes of fame and you get your picture on the front page of every newspaper and you're some failed cabaret singer who doesn't even have much of a resume to fall back on.

ZELENY: And six years later, as the Lewinsky scandal was brewing, Clinton's infamous defense with those four words that still dog her.

CLINTON: The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.

The affair, of course, was true. The vast right wing conspiracy became a punchline for Clinton's critics. UNKNOWN MALE: Would you now apologize for branding people as part of a vast right wing conspiracy.

[10:49:54] CLINTON: Well, you know, Tim, that was a very - a very painful time for me, for my family, and for our country. It is something that I regret deeply that anyone had to go through. Obviously, I didn't mislead anyone. I didn't know the truth. And there's a great deal of pain associated with that and my husband has certainly acknowledged that and made it clear that he did mislead the country, as well as his family.

ZELENY: It's a risky gamble for Trump. May republicans are urging him to leave the Clinton's sex scandals in the past. She's already leading women by a wide margin. Yet the questions do still follow her, like at this campaign event last year in New Hampshire.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Secretary Clinton, you recently came out to say that all rape victims should be believed, but would you say that about Juanita Broaddrick, Kathleen Wyllie, and/or Paula Jones? Should we believe them as well?

CLINTON: Well, I would say that everybody should be believed at first until they are disbelieved based on evidence.

ZELENY: As she prepares for her second debate, she's ready for Trump or a voter to raise these questions, not to cast blame for her husband's behavior but for her reaction to it. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Chicago.

COSTELLO: And still to come in THE NEWSROOM: You might not know their names, but you do know their story. Up next: The wife of one of the Deepwater Horizon victims joins me to talk about the tragedy and the new movie hitting the Big Screen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00] COSTELLO: It's been called one of the worst disasters in U.S. history, and the images are hard to forget. In 2010, 11 men were killed when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. One of the men killed was Jason Anderson. He was a drilling supervisor and he was just 35 years old. In addition to his wife, Shelley, he left behind two children. Today, his story and the story of his fellow oil workers comes out in theaters in a new movie starring Mark Wahlberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Is there someone at your door?

UNKNOWN MALE: Are you seeing this?

UNKNOWN MALE: Everybody off (--)

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Mike, what is that?

(END VIDOE CLIP) COSTELLO: With me now, Jason Anderson's wife, Shelly. Shelley, thank you - thank you so much for being with me. I can't imagine what it's like to even see the images we just showed our viewers from that movie.

SHELLEY ANDERSON, HUSBAND KILLED ON DEEPWATER HORIZON OIL RIG: I can't see the images on my end, but I have seen the movie and I know the part that you were just at and it's - it's a really good movie, it's just very, very graphic and very emotional for us. It's so real. It's like we're reliving six and a half years ago all over again. It's just hard to hear.

COSTELLO: What emotions went through your mind as you were watching this film?

ANDERSON: I was angry. I was scared. I kind of curled up into a ball. I was squeezing Courtney's hand. I was scared to see it. It's hard to watch, but it's very, very real. They did just a super job on the actors and the talent that's there and the behind-the-scenes with the graphics and everything that went into making this movie. It is so realistic that it is scary. You feel every part of the movie when you're sitting in there. It's just hard.

COSTELLO: That's perfectly fine. I want to see this movie, because I covered that story for weeks and weeks and I think it's important that people are reminded what happened to those men on that rig. And I'm sure you feel the same way.

ANDERSON: We all feel exactly the same way. We - a lot of times we were overshadowed - we felt overshadowed by the actual oil spill instead of the death of those 11 men that we lost, the children that were left behind, the wives, the mothers, the sisters, and brothers that all lost somebody. We did feel a little overshadowed by trying to cap that well which needed to be done, but also we wanted to be recognized that, you know, somebody died. Eleven people died, and this movie does that. I really feel that Mr. Berg and the rest of the crew have really done their best to honor. And we're very proud to be as part of this movie as we could have been. It's an honor to see it on the screen. It's hard but we are glad.

COSTELLO: Your husband, Jason - your husband, Jason, he sounds like such a wonderful guy. I've read that before he left for the job, he went over his will and he taught you things like how to change batteries on your motor home and he confided to his father that the Deepwater Horizon was having problems. He knew something like this might happen and he cared enough for you to prepare you, just in case he was not there to carry on life with you.

ANDERSON: Absolutely. He did some very strange things that last hitch home that I thought was very weird that I paid attention to all of that as much as I could. And he - also, he would never have done anything - he would never have told me anything to make me worry while he was out there on that rig. He would not have ever done that. I'm sure that he did confide in his father - into Billy and Billy wouldn't have shared that with me at all. It would have been nothing. Jason would have never let me worry in that way, at all. No. COSTELLO: Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being with this morning. And I think it's important for all of us to see that movie. Shelley Anderson, thank you. And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Balduan starts now.