Obama Questions GOP Leaders; Trump on Harassment in the Workplace.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go on this Tuesday afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. You're watching CNN. Just to get you caught up. Just a short time ago, President Barack Obama called out Republican leaders for their ongoing support of Donald Trump who, the president says, keeps on proving that he is, and I'm quoting him now, "woefully unprepared" to be the president of the United States.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes, I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. I said so last week, and he keeps on proving it. The notion that he would attack a gold star family that had made such extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our country, the fact at he doesn't appear to have basic knowledge around critical issues in Europe, in the Middle East, in Asia, means that he's woefully unprepared to do this job.</s>BALDWIN: This is just the latest volley in the fallout Mr. Trump is facing for his clash with the parents of the fallen Muslim-American soldier Humayun Khan. Trump said that Khan's father viciously attacked him after the father appeared on stage in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention, saying that Trump had, quote, "sacrificed nothing." Since then, Republican after Republican has decried Trump's comments, siding with the gold star family. And as the president now piles on the criticism of Donald Trump, the polls are stacking up against him as well. Here are new numbers we have here at CNN. The CNN/ORC polling showing her party's convention propelled Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump. She now has an eight-point lead over him. So let's begin this hour with our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski, on, yes, the headline, the "unfit to be president." But the second line was what the president said about Republican leadership.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he called them out, too. I mean this was much more than just kind of the latest hit in the endless back-and-forth between Donald Trump and the Obama administration. This really felt like the gloves coming off. The president feeling much more free to be much more harsh and blunt in his criticism than we've heard before. I mean he was asked a very simple question - do you feel like Donald Trump's recent statements make him unfit to be president? And you heard the president say, yes, it makes him unfit. But he didn't want to stop there. He launched this more than five-minute stinging criticism, saying that it's much more than just his recent comments, and he's much more than unfit. You heard the words that he chose there, woefully unprepared, calling into question Donald Trump's basic decency and common sense, to use more of the president's very direct language there, and questioning his knowledge of domestic and foreign affairs, the rule of law and the Constitution. And then he extended it out to not only Republican leadership, but the party as a whole. Listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think what's been interesting is the repeated denunciations of his statements by leading Republicans, including the speaker of the House, and the Senate majority leader, and prominent Republicans like John McCain. And the question I think that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say, in very strong terms, that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? There has to be a point at which you say, this is not somebody I can support for president of the United States. The fact that that has not yet happened makes some of these denunciations ring hollow. There has to come a point at which you say, enough.</s>KOSINSKI: Interesting setting there, too. I mean this is the president not at a campaign event on the road. This is him in the East Room of the White House, standing next to another world leader, answering questions, but feeling like he can speak his mind on this. Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Michelle Kosinski, thank you so much. In the very same hour where we heard President Obama, there was another news conference where Donald Trump - calling Donald Trump unfit to be president, Trump was also at a podium trashing President Obama before a crowd in Virginia, where, by the way, the Khan family is from.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Nothing's working out. Nothing's working out. Look at Libya. Look at Syria. Look at the migration. Look at Iraq. What a mess. Look at - look at Afghanistan. What a mess. Look at everything. If we didn't do anything with Iraq, if we never went to - if our presidents went to the beach, we'd be much better off. If they just went every single day to the beach and took it easy - let Obama go to the golf course. But you know what? We'd be better off. And then the way Obama got us out of the war was a disaster. We're going to get out on a certain date. The enemy sat back and just said, nobody could say that. Nobody. Actually, they thought it was a form of camouflage, right? Actually, they didn't believe it, until it happened. He actually said when they're getting out. But they laid back, and then after we left you - you see what's happening. So, look, we have people that don't know what they're doing. Hillary Clinton will be worse. She'll be worse, OK. Hillary Clinton will be worse. She has bad relationships with people, like Putin. I'll give you an example. She has terrible relationships with Putin. This is a nuclear country we're talking about, Russia. Strong nuclear country.</s>BALDWIN: After that rally, Trump's campaign released a statement saying Hillary Clinton is, quote, "unfit to serve in any government office," citing her private e-mail server and decisions on the Middle East. So, let's have a bigger conversation, shall we? Kevin Sheridan is here. He's a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee. CNN political commentator Kayleigh McEnany is here, who supports Mr. Trump. And CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali, who is also clinical associate professor of history and public service at the NYU Wagner Graduate School. So, welcome, welcome to all of you.</s>KEVIN SHERIDAN, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, ROMNEY FOR PRESIDENT: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Let's bounce back for a second to the president, beyond the headline of him saying Donald Trump is unfit. I'm looking at you, because I'm coming to you first. Is unfit to be president. You know, sort of the second line being, he's saying to these Republican leaders who every week have to some sort of, you know, do verbal jujitsu to distance themselves from this man, but yet still support. He says enough should be enough. Would any of them take their endorsement back?</s>SHERIDAN: Well, let likely now that Barack Obama's has told them to do it. So behind the -</s>BALDWIN: That makes it - right.</s>SHERIDAN: Behind the lofty rhetoric I think you see - you see a president who's trying to - he's acting as a political agent here. He's trying to tie those leaders to Donald Trump, even more so than they already are. It's going to be tougher now for them to back off of Donald Trump, and I think he knows that and that's what he's doing.</s>BALDWIN: Do you agree with him that because - I mean Republicans, they don't exactly love on the president. And so now that the president has done this, if anyone was teetering on taking an endorsement back -</s>TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I hope that the issue is a lot bigger than the extent to which Republicans hate Barack Obama. You know, American parties have faced moral challenges a number of times in our history. The Whig Party, for example, fell apart over the issue of slavery. That's how the Republican Party was born. The Republican Party seems to be facing a moral crisis. And you can see that in the words, not of Barack Obama, let's leave those words aside, the words of the speaker of the House, of John McCain, of all of the Republican candidates who are walking away from Mr. Trump at this point. And the question a lot of them have is, what do we expect of a commander in chief? What kind of language do we expect that commander in chief to use, not simply with regard to gold star families - I mean that alone should be understandable - but with regard to our treaty obligations around the world. When you start not only misunderstanding the nature of the challenge to European security, but even saying we're probably not going to live up to our obligations under the NATO treaty, you're actually undermining not only the United States, but your very ability to command those forces that the Constitution gives you authority over. So this is a big deal.</s>BALDWIN: I want to have - I want to have Kayleigh respond to that.</s>KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Tim references Republicans hating Barack Obama. It has absolutely nothing to do with that. The point is that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton might have memorized their international relations textbooks, they might know all of the specific wording, but they have no judgment. A U.S. ambassador died on the watch of this president, under the tutelage of Hillary Clinton. She put national security at risk with her e-mail situation that I believe she'd be denied a security clearance if she were an ordinary citizen going further. She could have put CIA assets at risk, in addition to losing an ambassador on the job. Not only that, you look at Libya. We can go all around the world, Iraq, Syria, ISIS growing to 40,000 strong under the watch of Barack Obama. These Republicans understand that four more years of this is unacceptable. We can't take it as a country.</s>NAFTALI: May I respond? Just one - we can't go into a debate or seminar about U.S. foreign relations and we may have - disagree, and I'm certainly not here to carry water for the Obama administration. But I know something about the NATO treaty. And I know something about treaties that are not simply the product of a president or presidency, but of the United States government, all three branches. So, when you have a candidate that is undermining the nature of our treaty obligations, that's a much bigger deal than Benghazi.</s>MCENANY: That's true. He's setting the stakes and saying that people need to pay their fair share. NATO countries are supposed to pay 2 percent of their budget. That is the rule. Four of the 30 odd - something odd countries actually live up to that requirement. He's setting the stakes, you need to live up to you obligations. We will protect you, but that doesn't mean that you can't pay and renege on your own -</s>BALDWIN: What about - what about the overall Trump strategy? We heard through the primaries saying the system is rigged. I mean we all know he bashes the media, bashes CNN a lot. But the notion that, you know, telling these voters, the system is rigged, I'm wondering what - let me - I'm pinging back to you, Kayleigh, what is his strategy? Is he lowering expectations?</s>MCENANY: I think there are a lot of voters who don't have trust in political institutions right now. You look at the DNC, which was in the tank for Hillary, but they were purportedly unbiased. You look at voter intimidation by the black Panthers. That happened. You look at the IRS, which was used to intimidate Tea Party groups. That is supposed to be an unbiased branch of government as well. There's a lot of lack of faith in political institutions. And when I think when he mentions a rigged system and a rigged election, those events give a lot of credence to what he said.</s>BALDWIN: Kevin, what do you make of him talking about the rigged system still. And I'm also wondering, if I'm a voter, either undecided or leaning more right, is that going to make me go out and make sure my vote counts for Trump in November, or am I going to hang back and it's going to backfire?</s>SHERIDAN: Look, voter fraud is something that we should take seriously and it's something that the parties - when I was at the Republican National Committee, we took very seriously. And, you know, that's a real issue. But what I think I heard was somebody saying, well, if I lose, it's not my fault, and that's - that's what he's setting.</s>BALDWIN: That's what I'm wondering, if he's setting the low expectations in case he loses.</s>SHERIDAN: And it's a dangerous - it's a dangerous thing to be doing because now he's undermining the legitimacy of the election three months before the election.</s>BALDWIN: You're nodding. Why?</s>NAFTALI: I agree. I mean one of the reasons why we have peaceful transitions of government is that, whether you like it or not, and go back to the year 2000, a lot of folks didn't like it, especially Al Gore, you accept the outcome and you move on. He is saying, as Kevin mentioned, I may not accept that outcome. He's actually preparing his supporters to lose, which means he's saying, this is a country you can't believe in. This is a constitutional order that you cannot respect. That's very dangerous.</s>BALDWIN: Kayleigh, can you understand why people see it that way? Some people see it that way?</s>MCENANY: Well, he's never said he wouldn't accept the results of the election. I think he will do exactly that. I think he'll win the election, so we'll gladly accept those results. But I think there's a lot of lack of faith and finally we have a candidate who's willing to expose the Obama administration and the things that have happened that have undermined really America. When you are targeting Tea Party groups, then you get away with the - Lois Lerner gets away with this scot-free. So I think a lot of Americans really understand what he's saying and appreciate it.</s>BALDWIN: Directly calling Hillary Clinton the devil. Is that appropriate for someone who want to sit in the White House?</s>MCENANY: Well, there's context to that. He said that Bernie Sanders made a deal with the devil, and then he clarified what he meant by the metaphor by saying my metaphorical devil is Hillary Clinton.</s>BALDWIN: He said she was the devil.</s>MCENANY: I think that that's taken way out of proportions. We scrutinize every word of Donald Trump because he gives us a lot of access, unlike Hillary Clinton, who I think the record is 240 odd days without a press conference.</s>BALDWIN: Hey, we'd love to have a press conference with her too. You're right.</s>MCENANY: Yes, I know you would, but she won't show up.</s>BALDWIN: You're right. You make a point. All right, OK, Kevin and Kayleigh and Tim, thank you so much.</s>SHERIDAN: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: I appreciate it.</s>NAFTALI: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Just ahead here, Donald Trump and his son definitely raising some eyebrows with their comments about sexual harassment in the workplace. Have you heard about what they said. Fox News anchors today, they are weighing in. We'll have that conversation. And, we are getting new word, another high-profile Republican is announcing she will vote for Hillary Clinton. Hear who it is and who she used to work for. And, 16 people killed in a hot air balloon crash. And, just in, we are learning the operator has quite a run-in with the law. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. We'll be right back.