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Trump: I'm Not to Blame if GOP Loses House; Cruz and O'Rourke Clash in 2nd Texas Senate Debate; 2018 Campaign Already the Costliest Midterm Ever; Michael Bloomberg Eyes 2020 Presidential Run; Heitkamp's Ad Apology. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 17, 2018 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00] JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: But the question is, he says, you know, it feels like '16. He's not going to the Philadelphia suburbs and he's not going to places where he is toxic.

TARINI PARTI, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BUZZFEED NEWS: But there's already evidence that even in the states that he did win in 2016, for example, Pennsylvania, Ohio, where there are big Senate races and where people like Lou Barletta, who's very close to the president and the president himself encouraged him to run, he is down by double digits.

So there is some evidence already that the sort of Trumpism and, you know, voting for Trump even though he's not on the ballot, voters don't seem convinced in some of these states that the president, you know, ran just two years ago.

KING: And remember, this is the president himself campaigning. In this interview he says no, don't blame me, blame yourselves if you didn't do it. But he did say just the other day, I am on the ballot sort of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not on the ticket, but I am on the ticket because this is also a referendum about me. Get out and vote, I want you to vote, pretend I'm on the ballot. And don't worry, we'll be on the ballot in two years and we will do a landslide like you haven't -- like you wouldn't believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Two things there, number one, midterm elections are always a referendum on the president, so his in a way on the ballot. His presidency is on the ballot. But number two is, he cannot wait for 2020 to start. He keeps talking about it. He keeps talking about it.

I want to just go through a little bit more from the interview with the AP yesterday. If the Democrats take back the House, we made this point and we've made it several times, you're going to have a lot of aggressive oversight. You're going to have investigations not just of the Russia investigation or looking at the special counsel investigations, but of the Environmental Protection Agency, of deregulation, or just about everything the administration does healthcare, and sunrise and sunset will be under investigation by a Democratic House.

The president says, quote, how you handle investigations, impeachment prospects. I think I'll handle it very well. I'm handling already.

What if they go after your tax returns? Is that something that would? They have to do whatever they do, and I'll do whatever I do. But I've had the most successful two years.

Was -- is he that let's say fair about it or is that just filling space until he knows what the reality is?

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I think he want to project strength. I mean, going into the midterms, going into the next two years. (INAUDIBLE) to your point about politics, he is looking to 2020. He wants to talk about the Democrats who might run against him. He has a lot of enthusiasm about some of the people (INAUDIBLE). He is not fazed by any of them. He wants to be on the campaign trail more.

So I think he wants to -- he does not wan to suggest any anxiety or weakness.

KING: And to the point we're making about the president's confidence and his political instincts. Again, people are telling him, this midterm is about you, we're probably going to lose the House. We're going to lose a lot of governorships, the Senate probably will hold. But the president thinks, you know what, you're the same people who told me in 2016 I was going to lose.

This is from our Jeremy Diamond at the White House. The president says he's been invigorated by his media blitz in recent weeks. Two White House officials telling Jeremy, and the White House is working its way o sit down the list of outlets the president plans to sit down with some more media interviews before the midterm elections. Both friendly and traditional media outlets according to Jeremy's reporting.

How much -- you know, as much as we can fit in they say.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sure. He's flooding the zone in all of this because -- I mean, he continues to be his best spokesman and he's right on that. No question about it. And he's going rallies as well.

The question is, he's going to Arizona at the end of this week as well. And there are some Republicans who are involved in these Senate races who just wish he would stay in places like Montana and other places. Because I think of all the places he's traveling, the Arizona Senate race is probably the most interesting. I was talking to a Republican there yesterday who says we're afraid he's going to awaken the Hispanic electorate.

There hasn't been an excitement on the Democratic side so he's motivating people no question on what side is the -- he's the issue here. But he is -- he is in the thick of these races, I'm told he's being briefed on House races and other things. He likes politics, he's a student of it, and he's very into this at the moment. We'll see how much ownership he takes afterward I think (INAUDIBLE) yesterday, very little.

KING: No (INAUDIBLE). No, I'm (INAUDIBLE).

Up next for us, the serious travel incident that prompted this light hearted apology from the first lady.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sorry for a little delay. But it's good to be with all of you today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:38:39] KING: Topping our political radar today, some news just made by the president. He says he'll instruct every member of his cabinet to cut their department budget by five percent next year. The president has not said whether that includes the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

The first lady Melania Trump on board a plane that made an emergency landing today. Her plane left for Philadelphia then forced back to Joint Base Andrews when smoke began filling the cabin shortly after takeoff. Reporters on board were given wet towels and told to cover their faces if the smoke got to thick. No word on exactly what caused it but the first lady did go on to that hospital visit on a different plane.

A new migrant caravan on its way toward the United States and President Trump is warning them not to go any farther. The group includes children and was in Guatemala by Monday after forming in Honduras over the weekend. It's still heading north despite a stern warning from the president who says he will cut off aid to the migrants' home countries. And says those who make it to the border will be arrested and deported if they cross.

And Republican Senator Ted Cruz locking horns with his Democratic challenger in Texas, Tuesday night. Congressman Beto O'Rourke noticeably more aggressive in their second and most likely final debate. Among the flash points, tariffs, immigration, impeachment, and government-funded healthcare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: Congressman O'Rourke is imposing socialized medicine.

REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D), TEXAS SENATE CANDIDATE: It's the same person who shut down the government of the United States of America for 16 days perhaps because he thought too many people had too much healthcare.

[12:40:03] CRUZ: I'm against tariffs. I'm against the trade war. I had made the case repeatedly to President Trump that in trade we should be expanding our access to foreign market. O'ROURKE: Our junior senator will not stand up to President Trump.

CRUZ: There's no race in the country with a starker divide on immigration than this race here in the state of Texas.

O'ROURKE: He's dishonest, that's why the president called him lying Ted and it's why the nickname stuck.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Feisty. We always like good feisty debates, and they -- the substance, it wasn't all just personal attacks, a lot of substance in there. One of the things a lot of Democrats are groaning about today is that the congressman didn't have a good answer when he talked about -- when he was asked about border security.

RACHAEL BADE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Yes. No, the general consensus coming out of that seems to be that Cruz won. And, you know, it's interesting because Beto obviously a lot of people feel perhaps that he peaked too early. He was really close in the polls with Cruz and seems to be falling behind and didn't get a really good shot at Cruz last night just as we're heading three weeks into the election so.

ZELENY: And Ted Cruz has done a lot of debates. He has a lot of debates under his belt from running for presidency. I'm not surprised that he had a strong performance. But on the question of immigration, that's a problem for Democrats overall. They really have not had as strong of an answer on immigration.

PARTI: Well, especially in a state like Texas. I mean, at the end of the day, this is Texas. And for someone like Beto who's been running too far to the left, it is hard to sort of come up with an answer that's going to appease the voters of Texas when you're up against someone like Ted Cruz.

LUCEY: And we're seeing Republicans trying to duplicate Trump's campaign tactics but here you see Beto O'Rourke using some of Trump's language against Cruz. I don't know how well that received if that's going to -- if that was considered an effective (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Our poll yesterday had Cruz up seven. That's a healthy lead. Above 50 which is the important part but we'll keep an eye on that one. It's a big race, we'll watch it to the very end. It could affect some House races down ballot as well (INAUDIBLE) at least competitive.

Up next, you could call it the battle of the billionaires midterm edition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:46:09] KING: Welcome back. It's not over yet, and this campaign, you're already the most costliest midterm election ever. The Center for Responsible Politics put the figure, get this, $3.96 billion, with a b. We still have 20 days to go. Much of that campaign cash comes from a few hundred major donors. Some of the richest people in the country. Let's introduce you to a few of them. Let's call this the billionaire's club.

On the Republican side, Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate is the biggest donor to the Republican Party, $90 million. Ninety million dollars he has committed to spend to help defend the House and Senate majorities. A lot of money going into the campaign.

Also from the right, Charles Koch. You know about the Koch Network, made his fortune in energy. Regulation and taxes is what he cares most about. The Koch Network has possessed $400 million to go into protect the GOP majorities. All the money if you say.

On the other side, if you watch television, you've probably seen Tom Steyer, his ads, he's a California billionaire, made it hedge funds. Climate change and impeachment, impeachment, impeachment if you watch his T.V. ads. He says he's spending a $110 million to help Democratic candidates and to push his impeachment message.

Interesting this year, Michael Bloomberg. The former New York City mayor is back in a big way, now a registered Democrat. He was a Republican, he's also been an independent. Made his fortune in the Bloomberg Financial Services Company. Climate change, guns, immigration, what Mayor Bloomberg likes to talk about.

He says and he's starting to write the check, a $100 million to help the Democrats win Congress. He says that spending is about 2018. But he and his team also made clear, he's thinking about running for president in 2020.

Again, former Republican, former independent, now a Democrat, thinks -- actually Democrats aren't as liberal as many people say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: I don't know that it's moved further left. I think that is conventional wisdom among some people, but there are an awful lot of other people that say if you talk to Democrats, they're much more centralist than people understand. They want sensible laws.

Right now I'm focused on November 6th, plain and simple. That's the most important thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Centralist.

ZELENY: Centralist. I mean --

KING: Are the Democratic primaries telling us that the Democrats are looking for a centrist or centralist?

ZELENY: Most are not. No question about it. But look, I mean, there is going to be a lane for a lot of people. And he has a lot of money and that will buy him, you know, a space for sure. But, you know, the question is, I still find it hard to sort of get my mind around how he can win a Democratic primary. But, you know, we learned in 2016, that we should keep our mind open to every possibility and especially a possibility, someone who can write a very big check.

KING: Rule out nothing in a very crowded field, if you are self- funded, last man standing, it's not implausible. It's not the message.

You were in this interview with the president yesterday (INAUDIBLE) he talked about 2020. He wants it to start, it will start the morning after 2018. Our apologies to the American people.

Here's the president with Trish Regan on Fox Business talking about the possibility of running against Michael Bloomberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRISH REGAN, FOX BUSINESS: Michael Bloomberg might be running.

TRUMP: That's good.

REGAN: Yes?

TRUMP: Yes, sure. I think it would be easy. I think he'd be easy. I think he'd be so easy.

REGAN: How do you think --

TRUMP: Well, if he get through the Democrats.

REGAN: And he wouldn't be able to do anything in the primaries because of where the party's going?

TRUMP: I think the Democrats will eat him up. You know, you have a lot of people running.

I don't think he'll do well. He may do it or he may not but I don't think he'll do well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUCEY: If you go to a Trump rally. Any of these rallies before the midterms, he devotes a big segment most nights to election night 2016, the way -- the results came out, the surprise element. This remains the highlight of his life as far as we can tell in politics and vanquishing all of these Republican foes is a huge part of it.

So I think this potentially giant line of Democrat, he's just salivating to get -- to do the nicknames, to do the combat, to go after all of them. He is -- he cannot wait.

[12:50:02] PARTI: I think there is some truth to what Trump is saying in that interview that Democrats will eat him up because I think money can only get you so far is what we learned in 2016 and what we're seeing so far in 2018 with Democrats raising these huge amounts of money, not through a billionaire necessarily but through the energy, you know, from grassroots donors. And a lot of those -- a lot of the Democrats that might be running in 2020, we're already hearing them say they're not going to take corporate money, they really don't want, you know, these big billionaires funding their campaigns. So I think, you know, Bloomberg in that sense might not be quite what the base is looking for at this point of time.

KING: And yet, again, I'll stick with Mr. Zeleny's 2016 comparison, just rule nothing out. I think you're absolutely right, that we live in this volatile age and you see it, incumbents are in trouble across the country in this year. It's not just about Trump, people are looking for change, they don't trust politicians.

Who knows what's going to happen by 2020. The climate can change pretty quickly.

This -- I just want to read this piece of an Atlantic article. It's about Michael Bloomberg because, ouch, ouch. "The response from Democratic operatives and officials around the country is laughter. And when they're not laughing, they're just confused. One compared imaging the way Bloomberg would be greeted in a primary field to the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan."

BADE: Yes. I mean, we were sort of just bring about it. Here among the panel during the break, right. I mean, this is the year of Democratic women, young women and minorities, old male is not going to cut it. The base is not going to be excited.

KING: Not going to cut it. If you go to the David Axelrod theory, that we got Trump because he's this -- the pendulum swing as far away he could possibly get from Obama. Could Bloomberg stand up and say I'm not really partisan, I'm very efficient, I'm about results. I'm not going to tweet 37 times before sun up everyday. I'm just going to do stuff in a quite calm managed confidence way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not --

ZELENY: Sure he could but I mean, in the world of like Michael Avenatti, I mean, if a Democratic Party wants him like red meat, I think that's hard. But I think, you know, we'll see what happens after 2018.

You know, the investigation by the House Democrats, if they win, if they try impeachment, we don't know what's going to happen. There is going to be a course correction or perhaps a calmer voice. There will be more appealable -- or appealing to some people. I don't know.

PARTI: I think there's a distribution between calm and boring. And I think that will be interesting to see.

KING: But I do think the 50 or more Democrats thinking about it at the moment, and why not? But you're right, the election in three weeks will reset the calculus. Then we'll move on from there.

Up next, this election, 2018, three weeks away. Senator Heidi Heitkamp's apology, a crucial misstep for an already vulnerable Senate Democrat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:57:13] KING: North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp is apologizing today after her campaign identified some women as abuse survivors in an ad without getting their consent. Heitkamp's campaign says other women whose names appear in the ad we're not survivors.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. HEIDI HEITKAMP (D), NORTH DAKOTA: The only thing I can do is say I am so sorry. I'm not going to ask for forgiveness but I want to know what we can do to fix this.

I think that this is horrible. And I look at this the way I would if I were someone whose name was in the paper who didn't authorize it. And I think that that is a colossal and huge mistake.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KING: A colossal and huge mistake for a Trump stake Democrat already in late campaign trouble. The latest public poll taken a bit earlier this month had Heitkamp trailing Republican Kevin Cramer by 12 points among likely voters.

An unforced error on an incredibly sensitive issue that has angered some of these survivors who said they didn't give consent, other women who said I'm not. How can you -- she says I want to know how can you fix this? But both personable to the substance of this offense and to the politics.

BADE: Well, she can't and she can't have these sorts of slipups right now, three weeks away from election being so far down in the polls in North Dakota.

Listen, she was already in a tough position because she voted against Brett Kavanaugh and a lot of her constituents wanted her to vote for Brett Kavanaugh. She found a way to sort of get back at Cramer, her Republican challenger by grabbing onto some comments he made to the New York Times where he said the Me Too movement was a movement about victimization. And those comments were very controversial, she seized on them and that's why she put out this letter sort of criticizing him and showing that a hundred women were criticizing him.

But it turns out you got to check with those people and make sure those names are real. Her team should have done that. Silly mistake and she's going to pay for it at a bad time right now.

KING: This letter from three of the women. "Heidi Heitkamp's political agenda has interfered with her down right ruined our lives. Survivors of assault who had taken care to avoid the subject were suddenly bombarded by questions asking them to explain to their loved ones why their name appeared on this list. Women who have never been assaulted spent the day reassuring loved ones of their safety."

Again, we're -- the substance of this is horrible and painful and we are three weeks from the election (INAUDIBLE) Heitkamp issues an apology. That's not the headline you want in the newspaper as you're trying to make up ground.

LUCEY: No. I mean, it's a grave on forced error and she says that. And -- I'm not sure what she can -- there's nothing she can really do to put it back in the box. She may have been on a path to losing this seat anyway, but with so little time now -- between now and Election Day, (INAUDIBLE).

KING: Thanks for joining us in the INSIDE POLITICS. We'll keep an eye on that race. Please check out our podcast as well.

Stay with us. More news ahead. Wolf starts right now. Have a great day.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1 p.m. here in Washington. Thanks very much for joining us.