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Sanders Campaign Suspended from DNC Database; Obama to Speak Before Heading to San Bernardino. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired December 18, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] SEN. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, (D), CALIFORNIA & CHAIRWOMAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: -- Jeff, I guess in trying to make sure that you are throwing enough stuff up here on the wall said something about a previous time in which they made us aware that there was an opening of that same window. When the analysis was done at that time, and that is also not in dispute, there was a period of time that this occurred one other time for a different reason. No -- unlike this time, no one's information was accessed and the window was closed and there was no breach of the integrity of the voter file, and no campaign accessed. The NGP van has the ability to analyze each individual users' account and see specifically what they access and what actions they have taken and at that time, no actions were taken. In this case, as the Sanders' campaign has admitted, multiple stuffers have on their campaign not only viewed proprietary information of another campaign, but exported it, and downloaded it.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I want to give you information to respond to accusations of the DNC by supporters of Bernie Sanders' campaign that the DNC is not so subtly trying to help Hillary Clinton's campaign and trying to hurt his campaign by doing these kinds of things that you have heard earlier accusations by hosting Democratic presidential debates on Saturday night when most people are not home, and trying to help Hillary Clinton's campaign. But go ahead and respond that this is another example of what the DNC is trying to do to promote Hillary Clinton.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: What this is an example of is the DNC trying to make sure that we can credibly manage our voter file. We have an incident in which a campaign inappropriately accessed another campaign's pro pry tear information. That is just like if you walked into someone's home when the door was unlocked and took things that don't belong to you in order to use them for your own benefit. That is inappropriate and inaccessible to and to get to the bottom of it, what we are going to do is to ask and we have asked the Sanders' campaign to participate in the independent audit. I am hopeful they will agree to and that it is good that they stated that they want that to happen as well, and we want to have access to the data file, and so as soon as we can get access to the audit file, the quicker we will have access. I don't have another remedy that I am aware of to prevent the campaign from using or continuing to or being able to manipulate information that they should haven't had access to in the first place other than to suspend, the agreement that we have with them the access to the voter file.

BLITZER: They say they are going to federal court this afternoon if they don't do what they want, and we will see what happens on that front. I assume that the DNC has very good lawyers as well.

Thank you, Debbie Wassermann Schultz, for joining us.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And the Sanders campaign staffer, by the way, the individual who was fired insists there was no malicious intent, and telling CNN by phone, that "We knew that there was a security breach in the data and we were just trying to understand it, and what was happening. To the best of my knowledge, nobody took anything that would have given the campaign any benefit."

Let's bring in CNN senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson; and CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger.

It is a huge fight between the Sanders campaign and the DNC. The Clinton campaign, from watching from the sidelines.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, the Sanders' campaign is accusing the DNC of route -- of routing for them, and keeping the data which is the lifeblood of the campaign and the donor base is the life blood of the campaign or the people who are your potential voters and supporters are the lifeblood of your campaign. And what they are saying is, look, we admit that we screwed up, and our guys accessed the information that was there because the vendors screwed up. But they are saying we are going to take you court, because we need it to mount an effective campaign. It is dicey, Wolf, I mean --

BLITZER: And it comes, what, the day before a Democratic presidential debate. Saturday night, there's a Democratic presidential debate, and I assume that this is going to be further sparking some excitement between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Who knows if it is going to be coming up on the debate stage, because it is sparking what had been a simmering fight for as long as this campaign has been going on, and that is the assertion of a lot of the Bernie Sanders' supporters that the DNC had the thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton. I also understand that this vendor, which is NGP van, a lot of the complaints have come in about this vendor even in prior campaigns. And they are talking to the folks who are familiar with the DNC is thinking, and they are saying that they want to get it under wraps and taken care of. So that the narrative doesn't sort of become the Sanders and the DNC fight.

[13:35:19] BLITZER: And it is extraordinary development -- Jeff Zeleny is with us as well -- that a Democratic presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders, and the DNC having a bitter public fight, and Bernie Sanders' campaign is threatening to go to federal court later this afternoon.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right. That is where it is looking like it is going, because we just heard the chairwoman say she is not backing down. What was a civil affair, at least by this year's standards of politic politics, is suddenly exploding into something far more on the Democratic side. This has consequences, because the supporters of Bernie Sanders believe he is right. They won't be swayed by what the chairwoman of the committee says. We are seeing the online petitions out there from moveon.org and other liberal groups here. But we don't know the substance of the matter here, and how this works is important. I have been talking to the Senate Democratic campaigns who work on other organizations who use this information all of the time, and the campaign information is behind a firewall. What they believe is that the Sanders' campaign was inappropriately looking at thing, and in copying things, and so this is a serious matter. And the chairwoman is right, if it were reverse, people would be going crazy here about the Clinton campaign. And it is not Watergate, but it may be the electronic version of it, because there are electronic fingerprints in here. This one of the reasons that the Obama campaign operated outside of this whole system in 2012.

BORGER: Right. But didn't the Sanders' campaign claim that the Clinton campaign got a peek at their information?

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: They say it is possible. But this is a 45-minute window. The letter the chairwoman said that for 45 minutes they accessed, allegedly, this information there, and so it is a lot of time.

Let's stop and ask what this information is? It is specific as a specific voter in Iowa who had been approached by a volunteer who likes Hillary Clinton but is open to Bernie Sanders, and so these are real voters, and all of this information is such the lifeblood of the campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: It is people, and everything you need to particularly like in an early state like Iowa getting people out to the caucuses.

HENDERSON: It is incredibly valuable.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And your analysis is that it is a new version of -- a high- tech version of Watergate in back 1972 when there was a break-in of the Democratic National Committee head quarters at the Watergate Complex here. We know what resulted then. This is obviously not Watergate --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- but it is sensitive information that apparently one campaign got, maybe inadvertently, or the result of young staffers or overly zealous, but it could explode into a big issue.

ZELENY: That is why it is a big deal, because, as Nia said, that the tensions are raw between campaigns. Many Sanders and Martin O'Malley people believe the DNC has been quietly pulling the levers for the Clinton campaign. They believe this reinforces that. But it is important to remember what happened here. The Sanders' campaign did acknowledge firing someone.

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: And it seems to be --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Look, we have to --

BORGER: And Jeff Weaver called them irresponsible, and that is why they were fired.

BLITZER: In Watergate, it was Republican operative trying to steal Democratic information, and in this case, it is Democratic campaign versus another Democratic campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: An electronic version perhaps a little bit that.

Much more on this breaking story. Stand by for that.

Important note to our viewers. The Democratic presidential candidates will meet for another debate tomorrow night. I will anchor the post- debate special on CNN, our special coverage, and we will begin at 10:00 p.m. to midnight.

And just in case you missed Tuesday night's Republican president debate, later night, it is going to be re-aired tomorrow at 10:30 p.m.

And stay with us. I'll anchor CNN's special live coverage of President Obama's news conference, which starts right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:43:23] BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

This is CNN special live coverage of President Obama's final news conference of the year. It comes in the volatile presidential race, and as the world is reacting to terror attacks around the globe, including in Paris and San Bernardino, California.

Let's go to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta, who is over there at the White House right now.

You are in the briefing room, and the president is about to walk out. Jim, tell us what is going on, and then answer a whole bunch of questions.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is right. And if you are wondering if it is a full house, I can say, definitely, yes, here more the president's end of the year news conference, and going into the final year in office, Wolf, the president is typically in cruise control, but instead, President Obama is in the hot seat right now. If you are looking at the polls, and it is resounding, the public is deeply worried about his handling of the war on ISIS, and they are very worried about his capability of protecting the U.S. homeland right now. If you are looking at the latest polls, there are deep doubts if the U.S. government could stop a lone-wolf attack after what happened in San Bernardino, California, a few weeks ago. So I expect that the president is going to be reassuring the American people to enjoy the holiday season, despite the threat hanging in the air that Americans feel all too deeply.

On top of that, Wolf, the president is going to be coming out here to talk about accomplishments or the accomplishments that he feels like he's racked up, the climate change deal in Paris, the Iran nuclear deal. And, Wolf, you have heard about the Friday news dump. We just got the end-of-the-year news dump. The White House announced in the last couple of minutes that the president is commuting the sentences of nearly 100 non-violent drug offenders, which is, of course, part of the president's push for a criminal justice reform, and a push that he going to be taking into the coming new year. And that is one of the president's top priorities in addition to gun control. And we are expecting an executive order on that after the holidays, and the president is determined to tear down that terror detention facility in Guantanamo, and that is something that he has wanted to do, and he has not been able to do it. He has been thwarted by Republicans in Congress. And in fact, there were roadblocks passed by the recent omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and the president will sign. But he is expected after the first of the year to go back to Congress and ask again for some kind of road ahead to tear down that terror detention facility. So I expect the president will talk about that as well -- Wolf?

[13:45:53] BLITZER: Yes, it is a campaign commitment he promised to do so in 2008, and promised to do it in the first term, but it has not happened. And we will see if he can achieve that in the final year of office.

Stand by.

I want to bring in our chief Washington correspondent, the anchor of "The Lead," our own Jake Tapper; and our own CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger; and also our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, as we await the president.

Once he finishes this news conference, he is headed out to San Bernardino to meet with the families of the terror attack there, and then he is going on the vacation in Hawaii. But he has spent the last week or so event after event after event to reassure the American public that he is on top of the ISIS threat.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT & CNN ANCHOR, THE LEAD: Indeed, he spoke with a number of columnists in an off-the- record conversation, and "The New York Times'" Peter Baker did an excellent job of getting that information and putting it on the record. And one of the things is that the president told the columnist was he was not aware of was how anxious the American people were about terrorism after the San Bernardino attacks and the Paris attacks and he attributed that because he does not watch cable news, and perhaps he should change the diet when it comes to the media. But moving beyond that, this is a reflection of when the president looks back at the year, it is a year in which he has had very little control over the major events. A "Wall Street Journal"/NBC News poll said that the horrific shooting in the South Carolina church were the major news stories of the year, and what they said was the big events were not the big events that President Obama hoped, the deal with Iran, the deal with Cuba, the climate change agreement. All of these issues that the president wishes were what the American people considered to be the big news of the year instead of these anxiety-inducing the terrorist attacks.

BLITZER: He will open up, Gloria, with a statement, and I assume it is going the focus in on what Jake is talking about, the focusing of the historic events he wants to promote, but get into the fear of the American public of a terrorist attack.

BORGER: And he going to be talking about the executive actions of immigration that are challenged in court, and short-term budget deal, and the other things that Jake mentioned, which are part of the legacy, I think that he sees the Iranian nuclear deal as a large portion of the legacy. But when you talk to people at the White House -- and I spoke with somebody the other day, I think that there is a frustration there that the Republican campaign is playing out, and they believe that it is stirring the anxiety of the American public about ISIS, and at the same time the president made a mistake in coming out to say that the ISIS was contained and underestimated the level of public fear and anxiety about ISIS. If you are looking at the same "Wall Street Journal" poll, only 37 percent of the people in the country believe that the president is handling the foreign policy and even less 34 percent approve of his handling of ISIS. So they underestimated that the president needed to talk directly to the mile an hour people. That is why we have seen him come out lately, and we have seen him touring the Counter Terrorism Center, and all of the rest, because they want the American public to have a sense that there is a robust response in this administration even though the president has not been out there detailing it.

BLITZER: Very interesting. And Jake mentioned it, "The New York Times" story detailing this off-the-record two-hour conversation.

BORGER: So-called off-the-record.

BLITZER: That the president had with the columnists in which he outlined the concern of sending the ground troops to the Syria and Iraq. And according to "The New York Times," there would be 100 military personnel would die every month, and 500 coming back wounded, and it would cost $10 billion to the launch this attack, and the threat, while significant, it does not justify this cause.

[13:49:53] JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: He revealed the thinking behind the policy, and really, the stubbornness on this point. That is really, what defined the campaign, right? End ending what he thought was a dumb war that cost money and blood in American lives ash and that has decisions about responding to the threat from is. We know this has been his thing. He revealed a deeper layer. If I were to send those troops, this is what would happen and he's reminding people of that. In addition to that as well, his steadfast feeling that actually war is what ISIS wants. Putting those ground troops in not only would have great costs, but wouldn't accomplish what the American people want to accomplish here. That's his thinking. People disagree with that, but that's his thinking. The other point is him trying to strike this very difficult balance of saying to the American people don't lose sleep. Enjoy your holidays. There is this threat, but we're on top of it. I met with my team. My team is good. You have been to the Pentagon. My team is good. We're fighting them on the ground and protecting the homeland. While at the same time, getting across this thing he hasn't been able to get across which is empathy with the American people saying I know you have fear, I can feel that, but that's a difficult balance to strike.

The other balance is this. You can do everything in -- you can have your running 24/7, intercept phone calls, put law enforcement on the street, but the fact of this new kind of terrorism is, even with all those resources, you may not be able to predict these attacks because they are lone-wolf attacks. That's the new normal we're living with today. It's a tough balance to strike.

BLITZER: I will be curious to see if the president mentions the numbers of the potential casualties if the U.S. were to deploy ground troops to Syria and Iraq in his news conference that's coming up.

Let's take a quick break. We're awaiting the president of the United States, his year-end news conference. He will have a statement, followed by questions. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:55:00] BLITZER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world.

We're awaiting President Obama. He's minutes away from walking into the briefing room. He will make a statement and answer reporters' questions, and then he's heading out to San Bernardino, California, to meet with the families of the victims of the terror attack that occurred there. Then he and his family will go on their holiday vacation in Hawaii.

We have full analysis. Our reporters and analysts are standing by.

S.E. Cupp and Donna Brazile are with us right now as well.

S.E. Cupp, what's the most important thing you want to hear from the president?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: If there's a reason why the president has in recent weeks to go out multiple times at multiple venues to explain to the American people he's on top of the terror threat. Not that he hasn't been going out is he keeps saying the same thing. He's defending a strategy that Americans and even some allies have acknowledged as not working. Gloria Borger mentioned that no one believes that. It's less attitude and more of an acknowledgment that the strategy isn't working. ISIS is not contained. I don't expect we'll hear that, but I think if he wants to move American sentiment on this, he has to act a little less cool about it and join us in our fear and anxiety just for a little bit at least.

BLITZER: The president in that off-the-record conversation with columnists at the White House. If you read "The New York Times" today, the president thinks he wasn't sensitive enough to the deep concerns of the American public about terror, especially the aftermath of Paris and San Bernardino, and suggested he wasn't watching enough cable news to appreciate how concerned the American public is. That's a pretty strong indictment. What's your reaction?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I take it all with a grain of salt. The president gets a daily briefing every day. I'm sure that the emotional -- the United States deals with this significant threat. But I don't really get caught up in what I believe is a conversation. What the president has to do today, and I'm sure this is going to be a wide ranging interview similar to the press conference he gave at the end of last year. He's going to continue to tell us what he's doing to keep the homeland safe, what the United States is doing in their ongoing campaign to defeat and contain and destroy this very credible enemy that is not just on the ground but everywhere else. I think the president owes us an explanation about the national security issues. This has been a long year. We've dealt with gun violence at home. The interest rates just went up. So I hope to hear a comprehensive view of what's going on in addition to the threat that ISIL posed not just to the United States but to rest of the world.

BLITZER: I don't know if the president is going to be asked about it, but it's becoming a controversy.

Donna, I want you to weigh in. You're a leader in the Democratic National Committee. This extraordinary feud that has developed between the Bernie Sanders campaign and the DNC over a breach of sensitive Hillary Clinton campaign data information on DNC computer. What do you make of this? We just heard some angry words from Jeff Weaver, the Bernie Sanders' campaign manager, a strong response from Debbie Wasserman Schultz. They say they are going to federal court against the DNC this afternoon unless they get access to their own information.

BRAZILE: That tells you how serious this breach was. The fact they are willing to go to court. I was on a call earlier today. The other officers were briefed. We're well aware of the situation. We believe as offices working with the DNC that we have to do a forensic analysis to ensure that our system is safe, safe from not just the other campaigns, but also safe so that our venders and our voters that are on these files are safe. So that's number one. At the end of the day, the Sanders campaign want access because they have information on that file. We have to find a way to make sure they continue to have access, but with the appropriate safeguards. No one should violate the agreements that they make with the Democratic Party in order to use and access this data. No campaign.

And I'm speaking as neutral as I possibly can. I don't have an allegiance to anyone but the Democratic National Committee, but I hope we are able to get this done, that we're able to review all of our safeguards to ensure that no --