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Rep. Steve King Not Ready to Endorse Trump; Does Vice Presidential Choice Make a Difference at Ballot Box; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Iraq Terror Attacks, New Strategy. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 17, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] REP. STEVE KING, (R), IOWA: And, B, like, under a Trump presidency and with that, then, he can plug in some of the pieces along the way, such as what his intentions would be on appointments to the federal Bench and I would suggest he would bring into his council some of the solid, especially Constitutional conservatives here in Congress as John McCain offered to do that.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: He said he opposes abortion rights except for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Is that good enough?

KING: Well, no. And it's not good enough because you get into the definition, then when those kind of things are reported, we have a bill that came to the floor of the House sometime within the last year that would address that and I would like to know specifically where he stands but basically, what's the Constitution mean to Donald Trump, how closely would he be constrained by it, what is his respect for the separation of powers and Barack Obama has significantly disrespected and within that is the discussion about rape, incest, life of the mother and the abortion. But when you're asking judges, vetting judges for the bench, a lot is outside of the perception skill sets of a presidential candidate and I would want to put that in the hands of the solid conservatives here that I'm confident with my own judgment but I would recommend people like Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, and Chuck Grassley and on the House side, people like Franks, Smith, and others that have been leading on these issues to vet these justices. And I'd like to suggest that Donald Trump bring that kind of a committee together and seek their council on appointments. Presidency look like there's a level of unease but they could make for a lot of concerns.

BLITZER: On the issue of LGBT rights, you've said you want to call a hearing on President Obama's new guidelines for public schools to allow students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender.

I want to play something for you, one of your Republican colleagues, Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a woman you know well. You know her well --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- and what she said on this issue. She has a transgender child. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, (D), : Republicans, Democrats, let's forget about the party labels and move ahead in the political dialogue and accept people for who they are and what qualities they bring to their job rather than artificial barriers like gender identity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: That's her transgender son standing behind her. What do you say to Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen?

KING: She is my neighbor, just across the hall in the Rayburn Building and a terrific friend. And I would be very reticent to say anything that might sound critical. She's a terrific lady and I would be willing to have that private conversation with her, but generally speaking, as I said, we've gotten along fine with boys or girls on the label on the restrooms for a couple hundred years now. And I didn't see the urgency for that to change. I don't believe the president of the United States has that authority or that power to do so. I think it's an over exuberant president trying to put his mark on society before he leaves office and I expect there'll be many other things in this fashion but this is just not the bathroom, it's the showers, it's the entire United States of America, our civilization and culture and are we willing to let a president on his way out the door change the labels on all of that and change the social order that has evolved throughout millennia? That's what's really at stake here and the president has overreached and I expect we will have testimony on that topic next week, on Tuesday, at our hearing on the executive overreach before the task force that I chair.

BLITZER: Congressman Steve King, thanks for joining us.

KING: Thank you, Wolf. I appreciate it.

BLITZER: Coming up, Trump and Clinton campaigns narrow down with a number two on their tickets. They're beginning to look seriously at various candidates but will their choice help them win in November? Stand by.

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[13:38:21] BLITZER: Voting underway today in Oregon and Kentucky. These are live pictures from Louisville, Kentucky, where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are locked in a tight race. We bring the winners as they are called. That's right here on CNN.

Former Republican presidential rivals, Marco Rubio and John Kasich, are the latest to address vice presidential rumors. Governor Kasich telling our Anderson Cooper he's not interested in the job while Senator Rubio took to Twitter to call out a "Washington Post" article about possible V.P. choices for Trump, and also said he's not interested in becoming Trump's number two.

Speculating about a vice presidential pick is part of the political theater, of course, but does the choice actually make a significant difference at the ballot box? Ron Brownstein is in Washington. He's a CNN senior political analyst,

senior editor at "The Atlantic." Here with me is Doug Brinkley. He's the CNN presidential historian.

Doug, give us some context here. When has a vice presidential, a presidential candidate get elected?

DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Times. I think about John F. Kennedy in 1960 having to pick Lyndon Johnson even though he didn't like him at all but wanted to make sure, as a Massachusetts Catholic, he kept the solid and Johnson was a Protestant and meant all the difference in the world. That's just one of many.

BLITZER: When does it hurt?

[13:40:50] BRINKLEY: It hurts, I think, when you pick somebody, like Dan Quayle hurt George Herbert Walker Bush. There was a feeling you got to dump him and gore seemed smarter. I think that was a mistake. Obviously, John McCain picking Sarah Palin was a disaster. She wasn't vetted. And John Kerry picking John Edwards. If he picked John Glen, Kerry could have been president. That may have tilted in Ohio his way and history would have been different.

BLITZER: Let's talk, Ron, about the vice presidential picks, potentially, for Hillary Clinton. What are you hearing? What might be a good fit for her?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the fundamental choice she has to make is whether she does the conventional political pick in which case I think there's a clear front-runner or feels she has to be more conventional to energize the party and shore up the weaknesses displayed by her performance in the primaries. If you're going by conventional Electoral College kind of standards, I think Tim Cain, the former governor of Virginia, is a strong choice. If you can add Virginia to what I call the blue wall, the states they've won in every election since '92 plus Nevada and new Mexico, you are right on the brink of the electoral college majority and I think that's a strong argument for him. On the other hand, there's an argument that she needs to energize the party more and perhaps a Cain pick might do like Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren, perhaps, Corey Booker of New Jersey, and others pointed out, in each case, all of those states have Republican governors. So if you picked a Democratic Senator from that state, you would lose a seat in the Senate at a time when the Senate could be lost to 50/50 after this election and the last group, Wolf, the two Hispanics in the cabinet, and both getting a lot of conversation as well.

BLITZER: What about Donald Trump? Who would be a good fit for him and who would bring him some baggage?

BROWNSTEIN: I think Donald Trump has one overriding need in the pick that ground him in governing. If he can't find a plausible current elected official to run with him, I think it sends a damaging signal to the electorate that even his own party is ambivalent about whether he's a plausible president. If he has to go back to a former like a Newt Gingrich, I think that's the wrong way but who would take it. John Kasich might be the best choice of all as a former House committee chair and governor of a swing state. He doesn't want it. Marco Rubio doesn't want it. I could see him looking at younger Senators with one foot in like Tim from Arkansas or Joni Ernst but she's criticized his language towards women. It may be turned around a bit. Who would ground himself as he himself in governing?

BLITZER: How important, Doug, would it be for Donald Trump to pick a woman given some of the issues that have come up?

BRINKLEY: It would be great if he could find the right one. It's difficult. Many women in the Republican Party don't want to be seen on a ticket with him. I think the key thing is not to pick anybody until after the Fourth of July. And if you're Donald Trump, you may want to get a Spiro Agnew, maybe a Newt Gingrich working with Trump just hammering away at the Clinton's legacy, and personalities might end up working, but I wouldn't do anything in June. I'd wait until July.

BLITZER: You think timing is important making an announcement? Why?

BRINKLEY: I think it's everything. Because right now, we talk about it for a week and you would get lower conventions in Cleveland and Hillary doesn't have the luxury of picking one now. She's got to beat Bernie Sanders tonight in Oregon and Kentucky and still has a way to go until mid June with her primaries.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Wolf --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Go ahead, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Real quick, we mention Al Gore in '92, and he was a different kind of pick. He opened a new era in thinking about the vice presidency. He was balancing geographically and Al Gore was reinforcing. It was a bruised public image and Al Gore kind of reinforced of two baby boomers on the ticket of a new generation taking over and for both Trump and Clinton, I think that's a fundamental divide here, do they take someone who balances their weaknesses or amplifies their strength? He wants to go the amplify route. You could imagine Rick Scott, kind of a similar outsider business guy profiler and may decide he wants to balance and the same thing with Hillary Clinton. Does she find someone kind of similar in strength or someone who offsets where she's weak and I think that's in inspiring younger Democrats with the enormous deficit faced among Millennials, maybe needs someone to excite the party rather than be more conventional and focus there.

[13:44:51] BLITZER: And Donald Trump said he'll make his announcement at the convention in Cleveland in July. That's when he wants to do it.

Doug Brinkley and Ron Brownstein, thank you very much.

Coming up, ISIS now claiming responsibility for a series of yet more terror attacks in Iraq, days after declaring a state of emergency for losing territory in Syria. Does this signal a new strategy? We're going live to Baghdad. That's coming up.

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BLITZER: Triple terror attacks in Baghdad killed at least 46 people today. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosions at a market in northern Baghdad. Soon after, another bomb detonated this time in a market in the southern part of the Iraqi capitol. And then in the Sadr City area of Baghdad, a car bomb ripped through the area. But police did manage to diffuse another bomb in a booby trapped car nearby.

CNN senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon, is joining us right now from Istanbul.

Arwa, ISIS claimed responsibility for the first attack and a frightening trend. Last week, suicide bombings claimed the lives of at least 100 people in Baghdad, injuring hundreds more. Why the increase on these terror attacks on these so-called soft targets?

[13:50:00] ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Could be a number of factors involved here, Wolf. Now, the U.S. military will tend to say that this is because ISIS is coming under pressure in other parts of the country and, yes, ISIS has lost chunks of territory that it used to control in Iraq but maintains like the border crossing, Fallujah and Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul. What ISIS could be attempting to do is try to draw Iraqi security forces away from the various different front lines going after the soft targets to ignite Iraq sectarian tensions. The vast majority if not all of the targets within the predominantly Shia parts of the capitol, Baghdad.

Also going after infrastructure, the attack on Sunday was against a gas power station in Taji. So it's sending multiple messages here to the Iraqi public as well in that the Iraqi government and security forces are not capable necessarily of protecting them, not even in the capitol Baghdad that is among the most fortified of all of these cities, most heavily protected one would expect from the types of attacks that ISIS is attempting to launch. One must not forget in all of this, Wolf, that ISIS is an entity that reinvents itself at every single stage when anyone claims that it has been defeated. It is an organization that has changed and thrived and grown from as far back as 2004 when its roots really began to be established in Iraq -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Arwa Damon reporting for us. Thank you very much.

Let's discuss what's happening, the awful situation in Baghdad right now. My next guest is Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition in Iraq.

Colonel, thank you for joining us.

What more can you tell us about today's suicide attacks?

COL. STEVE WARREN, SPOKESMAN, ANTI-ISIS COALITION IN IRAQ: Wolf, this was another example of some terrible attacks. There are more than 50 killed and that many at least wounded. Those numbers are probably going to go up. There were several car bombs, all targeted at civilian populations. These were attacks in the center of Baghdad, that were really targeting innocent civilians who are trying to go about leading their daily lives.

BLITZER: Are these Sunni terrorists simply trying to kill Shiites?

WARREN: Well, these are ISIS terrorists who are trying to sew discord throughout Iraq. You know? They have lost every face to face confrontation they have had with the Iraqi army over the last several months. They haven't won a single battle, not a skirmish, nothing. They have had to adapt, they have had to establish a new tactic that they can use to keep fighting. And we all wish that they would simply roll over and die when they get beat but that's not the case here. They want to keep fighting.

BLITZER: Are these ISIS terrorists changing their tactics now? Because we have seen these horrific suicide bombings over the past week.

WARREN: They are changing their tactics. They're changing their tactics hat they can have at least some degree of success in. When they meet the Iraqi Army that's been trained and equipped we the U.S.- led coalition, they find defeat waiting for them. They have lost in every city they have battled for now in $e last several months so they have their tactics and what they have done is now target the civilians who live in Baghdad. And this is for several reasons. Right? It will create panic. It will cause strain on the government. And it will cause the government to have to make some difficult decisions about how much pressure to keep on ISIS in the field.

BLITZER: At the Pentagon briefing, the spokesman, Peter Cook, a man you know, said the U.S. top commander in Iraq has not yet requested any extra troops with the uptick in the terror attacks, the violence, especially in the so-called Green Zone where there are literally thousands of Americans, civilians, diplomats, military personnel. Is that now being reassessed?

WARREN: You're right, Wolf we have not asked for additional forces. We believe that the security around the Americans here in Baghdad and in the Green Zone is adequate to the threat that we face. And keeping in mind that our mission here really is focused on training the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi army, who are out battling ISIS. So, we think we have enough security now to keep us safe. The Iraqi counterterrorist service helps us stay safe here in the Green Zone and so the focus really remains on training the Iraqi army to fight ISIS out in the field. Once we have defeated them there, then many of these problems will go away.

BLITZER: One final question. When's the latest assessment? Will the Iraqi military liberate Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, this year?

[13:55:10] WARREN: Well, we believe that liberation of Mosul is inevitable. But putting a time line on it is tricky. This enemy changed the tactics as you said. This enemy dug in and fighting hard and we are coming up against the slow period here in Iraq where the temperatures will break 120 degrees. Ramadan is right around the corner. So there are some environmental factors to slow us down. The answer to your question, it's impossible to know but we are certainly working towards that goal.

BLITZER: Stay safe over there, Colonel.

Colonel Steve Warren in Baghdad for us. Thank you very much.

WARREN: Thank you, sir.

BLITZER: Coming up, chaos in Nevada's Democratic state convention pitting Democrats against each other. Could this carry all of the way to the convention in Philadelphia? We'll have the details right after this.

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