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Trump Solidifies Top Position In GOP Field; Hillary Clinton's Answers To Black Lives Matter; Army
Rangers' School; Thailand Bombing. Dean Graziosi is a NY Times Best Selling Author in addition to
one of the leading motivation and real estate fitness instructors around the world.
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Aired August 18, 2015 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:00:06] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m.
in London, midnight in Bangkok. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very
much for joining us.
Up first, trumping the competition. Donald Trump solidifying his position as leader of the pack in the
race for the Republican presidential nomination. In a brand new CNN-ORC poll, Trump is firmly in
first place at 24 percent among Republican registered voters. Jeb Bush is trailing at 13 percent,
followed by retired neurosurgeon, Dr. Ben Carson, at nine percent. Senator Marco Rubio and
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin are both at eight percent. The New Jersey governor, Chris
Christie, he's fallen out of the top tier. He's at three percent. He's behind Mike Huckabee. He's
ahead of Rick Perry.
Let's bring in our Senior Political Reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, our Political Director David
Chalian and our Political Reporter Sara Murray. Nia, you've been looking at these numbers, behind
these numbers. Can he stay this way? He seems to be doing better and better and better.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. As we sit up, almost
daily, and say, well, something is going to trip him up. Hasn't happened yet.
I think the conventional wisdom about presidential politics is that at some point the empire strikes
back. And by the empire, it's the party. And if you look at the past few presidential campaigns, there
obvious -- there are upstarts that did -- that tend to do well and they make some noise in the
campaign. But then, more moderate candidates tend to break through. We saw that last time with
Gingrich and Santorum and then, of course, Mitt Romney eventually broke through.
But the thing is, if you look at Jeb Bush's numbers, they're kind of flat. And in some places, actually
declining. And Donald Trump seems to be on the upswing almost permanently. We'll see how long
that lasts. We've got until January to see actually how voters respond in the voting booth, not
necessarily how they respond to pollsters. BLITZER: Looks like people did not necessarily respond
all that favorably to Jeb Bush's performance in that first Republican presidential debate. He seemed
a little hesitant at times, he wasn't outspoken, if you will.
David, take a look at the polls because we're going inside the numbers. Republicans clearly trust
Donald Trump more than they do any other Republican candidates on key issues. On the economy,
45 percent trust Donald Trump more, up from 20 percent in June; 44 percent trust him more on
illegal immigration, that's up from 14 percent in June; 32 percent say he's the only one they trust to
handle ISIS, 32 percent. What do you make of these numbers?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, the first thing that pops to me is how
dramatically he's improved since June. You were just saying those comparisons. He's made leaps and
bounds of support on these issues just from a couple months ago when he got in.
So, I think what we're seeing here is him moving from fast -- from a fascination to a serious
contender. And I think people -- obviously, he has been dominating the airwaves. He is the one that
is getting the most coverage talking about these issues. And I think, now, he's getting the response
from voters that they see him out there. They think he's competent and confident in what he's
talking about and that's why he has these huge leads over his opponents.
BLITZER: And look at this, Sara, because, as we know, after that first debate, he was being
criticized. Maybe he was too tough on Megyn Kelly, one of the Fox News anchors who was doing the
questions. But look at this, 60 percent favorable rating among female Republican voters. That's even
higher, 57 percent have a favorable rating among male Republican voters. What does that suggest?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: The interesting thing is when I have talked to women
who are out at these political events, they say, look, the fight with Megyn Kelly was a political fight.
She's a journalist. She asked some tough questions. That's her job. And Donald Trump punches back
and that's what he does. But they didn't look at that as a reflection of how he would treat women if
he were president. And they mostly said that they thought he would be fine. And so, these are pretty
remarkable numbers in favorability.
One thing to point out, though, is, in terms of the people who say they would vote for him, he is
drawing more male support than female support.
BLITZER: He's -- but he's doing pretty well among -MURRAY: But he's doing very well.
BLITZER: -- republic -- registered Republican women, 60 percent of whom, in our poll -- his is a
national poll. It's not just not just Iowa or New Hampshire. This is national poll. They have a
favorable rating.
MURRAY: Right. But of those who say they are going to vote for him, it's still more men than more
women but he's not trailing that much.
BLITZER: What do you make of that that the women -- the Republican women seem to like him even
more than Republican men?
HENDERSON: Well, I think women want sort of the same things that men want in the Republican
field. They want somebody who's going to talk tough on ISIS. They want somebody that is going to
talk tough on immigration reform. And that's certainly what he's doing. He's appealing to a segment
of the Republican Party that are more -- whiter and they're working class. And that sort of shows in
the numbers as well. People without a college degree more likely to support him than folks with a
college degree.
[13:05:01] So, not surprising that he's doing well among women, too, who want the same kinds of
things. They feel alienated by where we are in this country right now. They certainly feel alienated,
obviously, by Democrats. But they even feel alienated from their own party. People like Mitch
McConnell and people who are the establishment candidates, like Jeb Bush.
BLITZER: Right, Jeb Bush. Speaking about Jeb Bush, David, look at this. Favorable rating for Jeb
Bush has dropped overall. Just 34 percent of registered Republicans in our brand new poll have a
favorable view of Bush. 56 percent have an unfavorable view. I guess that's not very encouraging.
CHALIAN: I think that's among everyone, not just Republicans.
BLITZER: Oh, that's among everyone.
(CROSSTALK)
He does -- he does do better among Republicans.
CHALIAN: But still, his unfavorables went up pretty significantly among Republicans. He's at, I
think, 42 percent unfavorable among Republicans. That's higher than he's been since last month.
And I think you mentioned his debate performance before. I think that lackluster performance had
something to do with that. And, of course, we should always remember, Jeb Bush, we've known since
before he got in the race was always going to have a tough time with the base of his own party
throughout this process. He, himself, said, I may have to lose the primary in order to win the
general. He, himself, calls him the tortoise in this race because he sees that he's not able to keep
pace with Donald Trump right now.
But it -- his numbers are going in the wrong direction right now. His overall support and his
favorability ratings, with his own partisans, is not where it needs to be. And that's why his super PAC
is going to on the air with ads in September.
BLITZER: And that super PAC has, what, a hundred -- together with other money, there's $100
million already that they can spend. Is that right?
MURRAY: Yes, it's pretty incredible. His super PAC and his campaign, combined, hit something like
$114 million. And the interesting thing is when you dig into our poll numbers, Jeb Bush did best
among the least enthusiastic voters. And that's why you need all that money. You need to get people
revved up and you need to make sure they turn out. Now, we're very early. So, the most enthusiastic
people, the ones who are really tuning in are the ones who are very angry. They want a significant
change.
As we get closer to the -- to Election Day, as we get closer to the caucuses, people who don't obsess
about politics as much as we do will start weighing in. Maybe that will help Jeb Bush. Maybe they'll
join team Trump.
BLITZER: $100 million, that's a lot -- money talks in politics, as we all know. But let's not forget,
Donald Trump says he's ready to spend, out of his own pockets, -HENDERSON: That's right.
BLITZER: -- a billion dollars.
HENDERSON: A billion dollars, exactly. I mean, he -- and not to mention that he's already getting so
much free airtime just being on the shows and sitting down with folks on our air, for instance. So,
you know, obviously, Jeb Bush has the strategy of being the tortoise. He wants to sort of live up to
the exclamation mark on the end of his campaign poster.
But so far, I think people are underwhelmed by him, in large part. And they thought -- they're still
waiting sort of for the real Jeb Bush to show up and hoping that his approach, so far, that he's just
kind of waiting and seeing and something else will emerge.
BLITZER: We all remember four years ago, maybe at this time, there were some Republican
candidates, you remember this, David, like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain. They were doing well.
But then, of course, they sort of slid down relatively quickly. I don't get the sense that's necessarily
going to happen to Donald Trump.
CHALIAN: No, in fact, this weekend, he said, when asked about that, they're not me. I'm not them.
And he's right about that. He is tapping into something and has more staying power. Never mind his
$1 billion which helps to have more staying power also.
But remember, there are 16 other people not named trumped in -- Trump in this race. That wide
field of the non-Trump is splitting up all the non-Trump and undecided vote. As the field windows
(ph), the dynamics of this race will shift as Donald Trump gets into a one-on- one or one-on-two
conversation with his competitors.
BLITZER: And let's not forget, if he says he's going to spend a billion dollars, he says, I make $400
million a year, what's a billion dollars? Yes, he'll spend considerably (ph).
CHALIAN: I don't know -- I don't know the answer to that.
BLITZER: That's a lot of money. David, Nia, Sara, guys, thanks very much.
Coming up, newly released video on a meeting between Hillary Clinton and Black Lives Matter
leaders. I'll speak with two of the activists who appear in the video and ask if they were satisfied
with Hillary Clinton's answers.
And later, they survived parachute jumps, obstacle courses, brutal marches, now two American
women are making history. By making it through the U.S. Army Rangers' school.
[13:09:15]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: There's a rising voice on the presidential campaign trail here in the United States right
now. It's not necessarily Donald Trump or any of the other declared Democratic or Republican
candidates, it's a movement. A movement called Black Lives Matter. They're raising their voices,
their politics obviously coming forward during several campaign events, from taking the stage at a
Bernie Sanders event to shouting out during a Jeb Bush event.
And last week, members had a face to face meeting with Hillary Clinton after an event in New
Hampshire. They wanted an answer from Hillary Clinton about crime legislation passed during the
Bill Clinton administration and her support for it. Black Lives Matter shot video of the meeting.
"Good" magazine obtained that video. I want you to listen to some of the back-stage exchange with
Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What in your heart has changed that's going to change the direction of this
country? And what, in you -- not your platform, not what you're supposed to say. Like, how do you
actually feel that's different than you did before? And what were the mistakes and how can those
mistakes that you made be lessons for all of America?
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There has to be a reckoning. I agree with
that. But I also think there has to be some positive vision and plan that you can move people toward.
I mean, once you say, you know, this country has still not recovered from its original sin, which is
true, once you say that, then the next question by people who are on the sidelines, which is the vast
majority of Americans, the next question is, so, what do you want know do about it? What am I
supposed to do about it?
[13:15:07] That's what I'm trying to put together in a way that I can explain it and I can sell it,
because in politics if you can't explain it and you can't sell it, it stays on the shelf.
All I'm saying is, your analysis is totally fair. It's historically fair. It's psychologically fair. It's
economically fair. But you're going to have to come together as a movement and say, here's what we
want done about it. Because you can get lip service from as many white people as you can pack into
Yankee Stadium and a million more like it who are going to say, oh, we get it, we get it, we're going
to be nicer, OK? That's not enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's -- there's not much that we can do to stop the violence against us.
CLINTON: Well, if that is -UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's the conversation that I push back.
CLINTON: OK, I understand. I understand what you're saying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And -- and there's also, respectfully, respectfully -CLINTON: Yes, well, respectfully, if that is your position, then I will talk only to white people about
how we are going to deal with the very real problems.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not what I mean. That's not what I mean. That's not what I mean.
CLINTON: Well -UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But like what I'm saying is you -- you -- what you just said was a form of
victim blaming, right, and you were saying that what the Black Lives Matter movement --
CLINTON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Needs to do to change white hearts is to come up with a policy (INAUDIBLE)
-CLINTON: No, I'm not talking about -- I -- look, I don't believe you change hearts. I believe you
change laws, you change allocations of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not
going to change every heart. You're not. But, at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change
some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to
have them, to live up to their own God-given potential, to live safely without fear of violence in their
own communities, to have a decent school, to have a decent house, to have a decent future.
So we can do it one of many ways. You know, you can keep the movement going, which you have
started, and through it you may actually change some hearts. But if that's all that happens, we'll be
back here in 10 years having this same conversation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: That was just part of a much longer exchange. And if you want to go watch the full
exchange, go to the Black Lives Matter Boston's Facebook page.
Joining us now, two of the people you saw in that video, leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Daunasia Yancey is the founder of the Boston chapter. Julius Jones, the founder of the chapter in
Worcester, Massachusetts. Thanks to both of you for joining us.
And, Julius, you asked the questions that we just saw. Did you get the answers from Hillary Clinton
you expected, you wanted?
JULIUS JONES, FOUNDER, BLACK LIVES MATTER WORCHESTER: I got the answers that I
expected but I didn't get the answer that I wanted. It felt as if she chose to focus on -- on how much
work she's done to advance the lives of children and in children in pursuit of their dreams, but didn't
want to take any personal responsibility for the danger that they put their families in by putting their
families -- putting their parents in prison and in jail and divesting from the black community. And
she wanted to focus on policy solutions and such without addressing how she personally felt and how
her personal emotions affected the lives of many black people across the United States.
BLITZER: What did you think of her answers, Daunasia?
DAUNASIA YANCEY, FOUNDER/LEAD ORGANIZER, BLACK LIVES MATTER BOSTON: I agree. I
was disappointed. We wanted to hear a personal reflection on her responsibility for advancing and
advocating for some of these policies, and that's not what we heard. It's -- her policy response, if it's
not addressing the anti-blackness inherent in some of the previous policies, we're just going to see
that threat continue. And so that's what we were looking to hear was what shifted, what's changed
for Hillary Clinton that's going to make us believe that she can take this country in a different
direction in terms of race.
BLITZER: So far neither one of you has the confidence in her. Are you hoping, Julius, to speak with
any of the other Democratic and Republican candidates one on one as you had an opportunity to
speak with Hillary Clinton?
JONES: I think that however the Black Lives Matter protesters encounter and engage and confront
and shut down these candidates, I think what's happening is that each one is being made to offer
their racial analysis. In the United States we require that presidential candidates have an
understanding of economics, of foreign policy, of domestic policy, et cetera, et cetera. And to that
list we need to strongly add racial analysis because we live in a pluralistic society.
And as we've seen, a lot of the analyses that the folks have offered have been fairly poor and
tragically trite and haven't incorporated the scientific evidence, the decades upon decades of studies
of the existence of racism and how it negatively affects people of color and the disproportionate
affect that it has on black people in particular. None of these folks have shown up with that
knowledge, with that analysis. And it's time that they do.
[13:20:15] BLITZER: None of the candidates on the Democrat or Republican side, at least from your
perspective yet.
Daunasia, one of the controversial things that some activists of Black Lives Matter have done is
shouted down some of the candidates, like we all saw that video of Bernie Sanders, the Democratic
presidential candidate. Are you going to continue to do this? Because there has been, as you know,
some criticism that's not polite, that's not the right way to get message across.
YANCEY: Yes, we've seen a lot of backlash against the movement for calling out these folks. And just
to be clear, these are some of the most powerful people in our country vying for the most influential
and powerful seat. And so if we can't hold them accountable, what are two do, right? So I think that
people need to really look internally and think about their commitment to black lives. And so we are
committed to advancing black lives in this country and to improving the lives of black people. And so
whatever we need to do to hold these presidential candidates accountable is what we'll do and what
we've done.
BLITZER: So, Julius, we could expect more of that kind of interrupting the candidates as they try to
speak? Is that what I'm hearing?
JONES: I think what the video that Daunasia and I and others are in shows is that there is actually
more diverse tactics than just shutting down. But from the palette of things that we will do, there's a
diversity. We'll shut them down, we'll have meetings, it will -- whatever it takes to get Black Lives
Matter on the national agenda is what we're -- is what we're seeking to do. And it's important to -it's important to note that folks want to characterize and judge the Black Lives Matter movement in
myriad ways, but what no one can argue with is that this is a pressing issue.
And some people live in a world where it's just a pressing issue in politics and some people live in a
world where it's actually our kids' dying. And so if folks want to inform their own perspective on
Black Lives Matter, it's the urgency that we see in the video of Sam Dubose who got shot in the head
point blank range in a car just for diving. It's the urgency of Tamir Rice, who was 12 years old, who
was shot literally for playing. And it's the urgency of Sandra Bland, the case that everybody knows.
So temper -- I would say temper your perspective with the urgency that black lives are actively
under attack and we are in a terrible war with our own country, African-Americans are Americans
and we're not treated like that. We're not treated as if black lives matter. And when people say "all
lives matter," it's actually a violent statement because the only time that people say "all lives matter"
is in opposition to Black Lives Matter and it's the most violent statement of love that you can do. It's
like "all lives matter!" It's -- yes, we understand that, it's true, but in this country, for the long time,
the United States acts like black lives don't matter.
BLITZER: Julius Jones, Daunasia Yancey, thanks very much for joining us.
YANCEY: Thank you.
JONES: Thank you.
BLITZER: Coming up, there's still no claim of responsibility, but Thai police, they're searching for
this man. Take a look. He's believed to be connected to yesterday's bombing in Bangkok. We're
going to have the latest on the investigation. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:27:44] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
BLITZER: A tense situation right now in Thailand. Just this morning, a second bomb exploded on a
Bangkok pier. Thankfully, no one was hurt. But police are saying the device has similarities to a
bomb used yesterday in a deadly attack.
That blast ribbed through crowds of people gathered near the -- a shrine, a popular tourist area. At
least 22 people died and around 120 people were injured. The investigation is centering around a
suspect in this surveillance video. The man wearing the yellow T-shirt is seen dropping his backpack
and later walking away. Then at 7:00 p.m. local time, a bomb explodes right in the heart of
Thailand's capital city.
Our senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is joining us now. He's got more on what's
going on.
Nic, I understand there's breaking news that's developing right now. What are you learning?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we are getting
these details from the police in Thailand. Now, what they are saying is this man, who appears in the
video wearing a yellow t- shirt with a backpack, in one piece of the video he has a backpack on, the
second piece of video they have, he's taken the backpack off. They say for sure now he is the
bomber. They say that he put that backpack underneath a bench, which made it very difficult for
them to see. They're also saying that that bomb Monday, yesterday, and the bomb that was thrown
into the water or at the pier, exploded in the water injuring no one earlier today, they say they are
exactly the same devices.
There's been no claim of responsibility so far but the police are saying now that they do believe that
a Thai national was involved, but they also say were foreigners involved as well? were there more
Thai's involved. They're still working on that. They still don't know. They're saying at this stage
they're not asking for outside international help, but they do say that they have got hours, days even
of surveillance video to go through just from that first blast alone. They -- they -- the reason they say
they have so much video to go through is because they believe the bomber may have (INAUDIBLE) -been and had a look at this scene in the days leading up. So they're going to back through days and
days' worth of video, Wolf.
[13:30:00] BLITZER: What do we know, if anything, about this suspect, motives, any political
activity, anything along those lines, Nic?
ROBERTSON: You know, no claim of responsibility.
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