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Pence's NFL Trip; Pence Exits Game; Pence Exit Planned; Trump Versus Corker. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired October 9, 2017 - 13:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

An extraordinary review. A sitting Republican senator suggests the president of the United States is a national security risk. And the White House has become an adult daycare center. Why Senator Bob Corker so worried about what he calls World War III.

NFL walkout. President Trump accused of using the vice president in a major P.R. stunt that cost American taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. The backlash escalating right now.

And new insight into the mind of a killer. Hear from the Las Vegas shooter in his own words, this is a CNN exclusive. That's coming up just ahead.

But we begin with the damning indictment of the president from a senator in his own party. In an extraordinary interview, Senator Bob Corker says President Trump's reckless threats could set America, quote, "on the path to World War III." Tensions were rising between the two men for weeks and intensified with these remarks from Senator Corker last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: I think Secretary Tillerson, Secretary Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos, and I support them very much. They work very well together to make sure that the policies we put forth around the world are, you know, sound and coherent.

There are other people within the administration, in my belief, that don't. OK, I'm sorry. I mean, I hope -- you know, I hope they stay because they're valuable to the national security of our nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: President Trump escalated the war of words on Sunday, launching a Twitter tirade with claims that the retiring U.S. senator begged him for an endorsement and didn't have the, quote, "guts to run for re-election." Corker shot back tweeting the White House has become a, quote, "adult daycare center and someone missed their shift." A corker spokesman tells CNN the president's claims are simply not true. That, in fact, the president urged Corker to run again, offering his endorsement.

Our White House Correspondent Sara Murray is joining us now live. Sara, Today, President Trump hasn't commented, yet at least, on the back and forth exchange. But a White House official does say this is far from the end. What are you hearing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, an administration official actually told my colleague, Jeff Zeleny, that the president is not finished with Bob Corker.

Now, this is news that will create a little anxiety from folks here in this White House. There are plenty of people working in this administration and people close to the president who do not believe this is a productive fight to pick.

Yes, Corker has now been very publicly critical of President Trump. But he also still holds a very important policymaking role here in Washington. He's the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but he is also a Republican vote at time when the president needs those. He has a very slim margin for victory in the Senate at a time when he is looking at big policy proposals, for instance, tax reform.

And when he hasn't been able to, frankly, been able to get much done on Hill. And so, there are worries, among those close to the president, that if you are going toe to toe with Corker, if you are fighting with a senator, you may anger the other senators who are friends with him on Capitol Hill.

You may maybe be, sort of, cutting off your nose to spite your face, at this point. That's the concern from some administration officials. But they realize that when President Trump is on the warpath, he is not likely to let a grudge drop easily -- Wolf.

BLITZER: How worried are they, Sara, over at the White House that what Senator Corker said publicly, sort of, reflects what a lot of other Republican senators are at least thinking privately. Not saying it publicly, but that's their view as well.

MURRAY: Well, I think we certainly heard from our colleagues on the Hill that plenty of other Republican senators have shared similar concerns privately. But from the White House's perspective, I don't think they believe there's going to be a deluge of other senators who are following in Corker's footsteps.

He's, obviously, in a unique position. He's a very high-ranking senator here in Washington. And he's retiring so he doesn't have much to lose by coming out and being critical of the president. He no longer has to worry about re-election. He no longer has to worry about angering the base of supporters who have elected Trump.

That puts him in a very different category than many other Republican senators. You know, some have offered up a little bit of criticism of the president. Obviously, John McCain has been a notable critic of the president.

But this White House doesn't believe there is, all of a sudden, going to be a flood of Republican senators coming out and saying the same kinds of things that we've seen Bob Corker say.

[13:05:05] BLITZER: Sara Murray at the White House. Thanks very much.

Let's discuss with our panel. Joining us, our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger, our CNN Political Analyst, executive editor of "The Sentinel Newspaper" is Brian Karem, and CNN Political Analyst, congressional reporter for "The Washington Post," Karoun Demirjian. Guys, thanks very for joining us.

I should say Karoun. Karoun.

KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: I keep saying it wrong. Karoun. Thank you.

BRIAN KAREM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: Yes. Gloria, I can say that.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: How significant are Corker's remarks?

BORGER: They're very significant. This is somebody who supported the president during the campaign. He -- you know, he didn't hug him. Didn't give him a bear hug. But he told senators to, kind of, calm down about Donald Trump.

And he is somebody who is, of course, important on lots of issues, including foreign policy. As chairman of that committee, tax reform, as Sara was just saying.

I don't expect senators to line up and say we're with Corker versus we're with Trump. But I think that what you have now is senators who if they see that Trump continues to take on Corker, are going to be a little afraid of it, depending on where they come from.

Because in their states, and they are running for re-election, many of them, they can't afford to take on the president the way Corker did, who was unbound, of course, because he doesn't have a race coming up now.

KAREM: Well, I think it also depends on how weak they see the president. They may well be emboldened if they see his support continue to slip away.

And as the support has slipped slightly, you've seen his rhetoric, you know, go farther and farther to the extreme to embrace a base that includes David Duke and the white supremacists and the Nazi party. BLITZER: Well, he's not embracing them.

KAREM: No, no, no. They're - that's the group. He's not embracing them but that's what's left in that group. There are a lot of people in the group that belong to those particular.

BLITZER: Yes, but that's just a small group - a part of that base.

KAREM: Well, I think you're finding that it's -- everything that the president does, those tweets, are all about -- first of all, he's going to defend what he's going to -- and he's going to deny, then he's going to deflect, and then he's going to disrupt or divide. And that's part of -- part and parcel of what all those tweets do.

And Corker coming at him just shows that there are people who are beginning to -- what everyone said privately for the last six or seventh months is now being said publicly, leaving those people who are of sound mind and sound body, who have been for the president, slowly walking away from him.

DEMIRJIAN: The significance is that corker was one of those people, when he would deliver his criticism would deliver it with this giant sugar cube of praise for whoever he was criticizing in the Trump administration. He's taken those gloves off.

Granted he's got a difficult - a different political situation than most of his colleagues. But if anybody in position that's been fairly supportive of the president willing to block for the administration does this, it makes it slightly more OK.

And the question is, who takes that as a signal that it is now OK to start speaking in public more about these things? You don't expect a deluge all at once, right?

But the next time something happens, does the next senator decide to then join the Corker fold that was only occupied by John McCain and Lindsey Graham for the longest time? Or is there a backlash that's full swing against Corker?

KAREM: It is a Corker.

BORGER: But the truth of the matter is that Donald Trump is still more popular in the Republican Party, way more popular in the Republican Party than Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans.

And so, when you look at that dynamic, you have to ask the question, how many of those people would feel safe, even if they felt the same way, in taking on the president? Because then, you give the insurrection led by Steve Bannon a lot more steam, because they're going to say, we want to elect people who support the president and put them in the United States Senate.

KAREM: It depends on how deep that support is and it depends on tax. If they can get -- all of their eggs, right now, are in the basket of tax reform right now. They've lost many of the things that they -- the initiatives that they started. So, right now, the Republicans are trying to pass tax reform.

And so, I think that the support for the president, while broad, is shallow. I think they've had a problem constructing their message. I believe that their message has been one that's been very devisive.

And if they can hold it together and pass tax reform, yes, then I think you'll see more GOP members supporting him. But if not, I think it falls apart.

DEMIRJIAN: If they could do tax reform, certainly. Although tax reform is a much more complicated puzzle than just Bob Corker being in or out. But the one thing where this actually does have an immediate impact is that, clearly, Bob Corker is not afraid to cross the Trump administration.

That means for Trump about all the various things that are under his purview, the chief which (ph) of one is foreign policy because of the chairman of that committee.

You can't fire Rex Tillerson and replace him with a yes man if Bob Corker is chairing that committee for the next 15 months because he won't let it go through. He has some sort of ability now to be able to, kind of, hold Trump in on these issues where he has a lot of oversight control which then could affect what Trump is able to do to squeeze other Republicans.

[13:10:06] So, this is, kind of, like a two-step process now of what Corker can manage versus the political impact of what Trump can do.

BORGER: And I don't think we should assume, by the way -- and I was talking to somebody close to Corker this morning. I don't think we should assume that Corker is going to automatically oppose everything Trump does.

DEMIRJIAN: Yes.

KAREM: Well, he's not a Democrat.

BORGER: That's right. And so, --

DEMIRJIAN: (INAUDIBLE.)

BORGER: -- on tax reform - on tax reform. And, you know, he is a Republican. He was not the person who shepherded the Iran deal through. In fact, he opposed it, as the president had said.

But so, I think that Corker is not going to suddenly turn around and become Nancy Pelosi here. So, he's going to - he's going to (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: When he hear from White House officials, as we just heard in Sara 's report, that the president hasn't said anything today but, wait, more is to come. What more is he going to do, you think, as far as Corker is concerned?

KAREM: He keeps saying this is the calm before the storm. And I haven't seen any calm yet. I think there will be another tirade of - I mean, last night, they released something. We had a call at 7:15, then they come out with the immigration restrictions.

So, I think they're trying very hard to hide some of the things that they're doing. And I think the Twitter tirades and this will further keep us deflected while he defends and then continues to disrupt. I think you'll see more Twitter today. I think you'll see him come out, at some point, and make a statement.

BLITZER: You know, Karoun, but there seemed to be these mixed signals coming from the president. On the one hand, he wants to work out some sort of deal on the dreamers with the - with the Democrats. And then on the other hand, they put out a series of demands which the Democrats are not going to go along with.

And it's -- you know, and he says he wants to work with Chuck and Nancy, on the other hand. It doesn't -- his base doesn't want to work with them. Mixed signals coming from them.

DEMIRJIAN: Right. Certainly, and it seems like there's a lot of test balloons coming out, too, right?

BORGER: Yes.

DEMIRJIAN: Because Trump will say his piece of what he thinks he wants to do, often on Twitter. That's the most genuine response. Then, there's a blowback. We don't want you to work with Chuck and Nancy. That's not what we put you in office for, et cetera.

So, then, there's this wish list of demands on - you know, on immigration and border security that comes out. And then, you know, it's not going to be the final say, that list that came out. It's going to be something in between, if anything happens at all, which is still a big question mark.

But, basically, this is, kind of, Trump trying to both please his base, also set the tone for his base, also be true to himself, also answer the different factions in the Republican Party that are pushing back when he decides he wants to stretch out to Democrats.

KAREM: I want to know what being true to myself is.

KEMIRJIAN: Well, --

KAREM: I haven't seen any truth. If you --

KEMIRJIAN: On that day perhaps. But the point --

KAREM: -- yes, if you don't like what you see on Tuesday, wait for Wednesday.

KEMIRJIAN: He is answering different - we know he's got a short attention span with these things, right? And he's very sensitive to how people react to what he says. And a lot of this is reacting and trying to please different factions that all have to come together. It's not being a leader to say, you will all follow my (INAUDIBLE.) KAREM: I think, at the end of the day, it's just about him being him

and him. And he wants people to -- I mean, he's trying to show now he's (INAUDIBLE.)

BLITZER: And he tweeted the other day that maybe he could even work with the Democrats on fixing Obamacare.

BORGER: This is why he didn't take the lead, for example, on the question of guns. He said to the Congress, OK, you want to change the law a little bit around the edges to prevent this from happening again, go right ahead. Let's see what you come up with.

Because his base, second amendment and he doesn't want to get in the middle of that right now. Because he's got his DACA problem. He's got his tax reform problem. He's got his health care problem.

KAREM: Russia problem, immigration problem, disaster problem.

BORGER: So, he wants to just get some wins on the board because he hasn't - because he hasn't had any. And it's -- he's going to leave it up to them to do it. And if nothing gets done, then he has someone to blame which is, of course, exactly --

KAREM: The blame game. Deflect, defend, disrupt.

BLITZER: Gloria, Brian and Karoun, guys, thanks very, very much.

The president says the vice president's early exit from an NFL game was all planned. You're going to hear why it cost tax payers and why it may have backfired.

Plus, as many Democrats and Hollywood stars are silent about Harvey Weinstein, Merrill Streep now speaking out on the sexual harassment scandal, involving the media mogul.

And the Las Vegas killer in his own words. CNN has obtained a deposition from a lawsuit in which the gunman describes his unusual habits and what he was taking.

[13:14:25]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:28] BLITZER: The vice president's abrupt exit at the Colts/49ers game this weekend rang up a big price tag for American taxpayers. Mike Pence and his wife Karen quickly left the game after several players, as expected, took a knee during the national anthem. Journalists with the vice president were not allowed in the stadium. They were actually told by staffers that, quote, there may be an early departure from the game. Now, critics are questioning whether the whole thing was simply an expensive stunt.

President Trump fired back this morning, tweeting, quote, the trip by VP Pence was long planned. He is receiving great praise for leaving game after the players showed such disrespect for country.

Here to break down the cost of Pence's trip for taxpayers, CNN's Cristina Alesci.

Cristina, walk us through exactly how much approximately this wound up costing taxpayers?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Bottom line, Wolf, this was a very expensive way to prove a point with taxpayer money.

Let's take a look at the numbers. The vice president's plane, which is essentially a modified 757, cost about $30,000 an hour to operate. Now if you look at a flight from Las Vegas to Indianapolis, the first leg of this trip, you're talking about $100,000.

Now, from Indianapolis, to the vice president's next stop in L.A., that was $142,000. For a grand total of about $242,000.

Now, that's a lot of money for basically stopping at the game for about a half an hour, where reporters were told to actually stay -- the reporters who were traveling with the vice president were told to stay in the van because it was probably going to be a short stop.

[13:20:09] So this is what we're talking about. Look, from the vice president's standpoint, his spokespeople are saying it would have been more expensive for him to fly all the way back to Washington, D.C., and back to L.A. But here's the thing, if we're going to play the hypothetical game, why didn't the vice president just stay in Las Vegas and fly directly to L.A. if we were talking about saving taxpayer money?

Wolf, here's what it boils down to. We probably wouldn't even be talking about this if there wasn't this larger controversy kind of looming over the administration about the use of private aircraft, the use of government aircraft and possible abuses. At this point, there are about six investigations into various cabinet members and administration officials and how they use government planes and whether taxpayer money is being wasted.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Cristina, thank you very much for that analysis.

Let's discuss a little bit more. Mike Wise is joining us, he's a senior reporter and columnist for ESPN's "The Undefeated," and our senior political reporter, Nia Malika Henderson is with us as well.

There was no doubt player from the 49ers in Indianapolis, they were going to take a knee. About 20 of them at least. Going into this game everybody knew this was going to happen, right, Mike.

MIKE WISE, SENIOR WRITER AND COLUMNIST, ESPN'S "THE UNDEFEATED": Yes, this was a -- I don't want to say this was completely planned by the vice president and the president of the United States, Mike Pence's exit, but it was. I mean there's no question in my mind.

And the thing that bothers me the most is, and I would say this if Barack Obama came to a game and made a political statement. All -- the big chirping about this is that these players have used America's pastime now, which is larger than baseball, the audience for football, to show something beyond their sport.

What are you doing when you're Mike Pence and you go to the game? You're the vice president of the United States. You're making a political statement. You're turning it political. I feel like there's a lot of hypocrisy going on there.

BLITZER: Because the president himself tweeted about this, he said, I asked Vice President Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and second lady Karen.

So everyone knew these guys were going to kneel. So was it simply designed for public relations purposes to underscore the problem that a lot of people have with the NFL right now and these players kneeling?

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: It certainly seemed that way. Hard to believe that they didn't know that the San Francisco 49ers -- they've been kneeling I think for a year now. They sort of never stopped kneeling after Colin Kaepernick kicked this off when he was the quarterback for the 49ers. So difficult to sort of wrap your head around this and what was going on.

And I think the thing that they're going to get the most blowback for is the cost of it. Not only -- and we don't even really know the full cost, right? She talked about the $250,000. But what about the Secret Service? What about the local officials there? And what about the --

WISE: Hey, what about the memorabilia? He was probably buying a Colts bumper sticker or something.

HENDERSON: Yes, the sort of -- the traffic tie ups there. You know, they had to send out public safety information early to the fans that -- to show up -- you know, show up before the -- you know, show up early before the kickoff.

So, you know, I mean that's the thing here. And if you look at the polls on this, most Americans, I think it's something like six out of ten, actually didn't think that the president has acted properly in terms of talking about the players in this way, and inserting himself into this and calling for them to be fired. So they're not necessarily on firm -- firm ground on this.

BLITZER: How's it playing within the NFL right now? The president keeps saying the ratings are down. He keeps saying the fans are turning against the NFL. You cover sports.

WISE: It's, in some ways it's unfortunate because it says more about us, I think, than the NFL or the public -- or the administration that of all the things that this league has had to deal with, domestic violence recently, prescription drug addictions from players, the CTE scandal, the league lying to them about concussions, the NFL has become big tobacco in a way. It's not healthy for you. And the one thing, Wolf, that could actually take away the bottom line is players kneeling at the national anthem.

And let's not get away from the elephant in the room here. Most of the players kneeling and raising their fists are African-American players. You have an owner yesterday, Jerry Jones, and Stephen Ross, the Miami Dolphin, I believe Daniel Schneider of Washington has also told his players, you need to stand. So you're essentially -- and this is not in the collective bargaining agreement between the players and owners. You're essentially telling your employees that their constitutional guarantees are not valid in your business right now. And so that to me is the big question going forward, what's going to happen this weekend? Are these players going to bow to these owners or are these -- are these owners going to have a bigger fight on their hands?

BLITZER: Well, we'll see what happens this coming weekend.

WISE: Yes.

BLITZER: It's sort of intriguing every weekend to see what's going on.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, Steve --

WISE: Yes, at some point we'll talk about the game.

BLITZER: Yes, that's important, too. Nia and Mike, guys, thanks very much.

After a Republican -- a veteran Republican senator suggests the president is a national security risk to the United States, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee is standing by to join us live. We'll discuss that and a lot more.

[13:25:11] Plus, many liberals and Hollywood stars under fire for their silence over the Harvey Weinstein scandal. One of his accusers now speaking out about her disturbing encounter with the movie mogul. That's ahead as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tensions between President Trump and a top Senate Republican, Senator Bob Corker, has escalated into a very, very public feud. Senator Corker, once a key ally of President Trump's, is questioning his leadership, telling "The New York Times" that the president treats the office like, quote, a reality show, and that he could set the nation on the path to World War III.

This after President Trump fired off a series of tweets over the weekend saying Senator Corker begged him for an endorsement in his 2018 re-election campaign and that Corker decided not to run because he didn't, quote, have the guts.

[13:30:09] Corker responded with a tweet of his own, calling the White House an adult day care center.