Trump Calling Obama ISIS Founder was Sarcasm; Clinton Leads Trump in Key Swing States; Interview with Representative Michael Burgess; Republican Party Chief Attends Trump Rally; Donald Trump Refuses to Release His Tax Returns
TAPPER: Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort as well as a Bush administration cabinet who's now supporting Hillary Clinton. It all starts at 9:00 a.m. That is it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Turning it over now to Jim Sciutto in for Wolf in "</s>THE SITUATION ROOM." JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, the art of sarcasm. After repeatedly calling President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS and insisting he meant exactly what he said, Donald Trump claims he was just being sarcastic. But today he adds not that sarcastic. Can he have it both ways? Clinton surges. New polls show Hillary Clinton widening her lead in critical battleground states. As the electoral map seems to shift to Clinton's favor, Donald Trump does need to shift his strategy? And is a surprise appearance by Republican chairman Reince Priebus a sign that Trump can patch things up with his party? Plus Trump's taxes. Clinton releases hers, putting more pressure on Trump to release his. Do his many excuses including a claim that he's under an audit really add up? Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Jim Sciutto. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. According to Donald Trump, he says what he means and means what he says, except when he doesn't. Trump has repeatedly called President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS and stood by that label when questioned. After sleeping on it, Trump walked the -- the accusation calling it sarcasm, but in a rally just now Trump doubled down again, saying, quote, "I'm being sarcastic, but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you." A new poll shows Hillary Clinton with growing leads over Donald Trump in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. Other surveys put her ahead in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell warns that his party's chances of keeping control of the Senate are, quote, "very dicey." But does a surprise announcement at a Trump rally by party chairman Reince Priebus mean a fresh start for GOP? Hillary Clinton put more pressure on Donald Trump today by releasing her 2015 tax return. It shows that she and her husband earned more than $10 million last year, paying about a third of that in federal income taxes. Clinton has repeatedly called on Trump to release his returns but breaking with 40 years of tradition for nominees, Trump insists that he is under audit and will not go public until that audit is complete. I'm going to speak with Republican Congress Michael Burgess, he is a Trump supporter. And all our correspondents and analysts and guests have full coverage of the day's top stories. We begin, though, with Donald Trump on the campaign trail today, and leaving a trail of confusing statements about President Obama and ISIS. CNN correspondent Jessica Schneider is live from Pennsylvania. So, Jessica, there, what is Trump saying today?</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it's fair to say that Donald Trump focused the bulk of his speech this afternoon on straightforward messaging -- job creation, strengthening the military and law and order, but he still insisted on referencing those ISIS comments that have made such a splash over the past 48 hours.</s>SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Donald Trump is still criticizing President Obama for his handling of</s>ISIS. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He let this happen. They had eight states and eight countries, they're now in 28 countries. They're expanding.</s>SCHNEIDER: But the GOP nominee is now saying he was kidding about his charge that the president created ISIS and blamed the media for its coverage of his remarks.</s>TRUMP: I said, the founder of ISIS. Obviously I'm being sarcastic. Then, then -- but not that sarcastic to be honest with you. So I said the founder of ISIS, and in fact, very soon he is going over to pick up most valuable player award. Did I say that? I say it all the time. So they knew I was being sarcastic.</s>SCHNEIDER: That after Trump repeatedly insisted Thursday that the president was the founder of the terrorist organization.</s>TRUMP: I call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of</s>ISIS. HUGH HEWITT, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.</s>TRUMP: No. I mean, he's the founder of ISIS. I do.</s>HEWITT: He's not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He's trying to kill them.</s>TRUMP: I don't care. He was the founder.</s>SCHNEIDER: Trump's attacks on the president comes as more evidence surfaces that Trump also wanted to rapidly pull troops out of Iraq including in this 2011 interview on</s>CNN. TRUMP: We should not have been there and I'd get them out real fast.</s>SCHNEIDER: It's not the first time Trump has claimed sarcasm to get out of a jam when he said this back in late July.</s>TRUMP: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.</s>SCHNEIDER: He later dismissed the uproar.</s>TRUMP: I obviously was being sarcastic. In fact the people in the room were laughing. They found it very funny. Everybody knew that.</s>SCHNEIDER: Trump supporter Newt Gingrich this morning encouraging the straight talking businessman to be more careful with his words.</s>NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: One of the things that's frustrating about his candidacy is the imprecise language. He sometimes uses three words when he needs 10. He has got to learn to use language that has been thought through and that is clear to everybody.</s>SCHNEIDER: In an interview with the "Miami Herald," Trump took a stunning stance saying he would support trying U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism in military tribunals at Guantanamo. A proposal that would almost certainly be challenged as unconstitutional.</s>TRUMP: I know that they want to try them in the regular court systems and I don't like that at all. I don't like that at all. I would say they could be tried there. That'll be fine.</s>SCHNEIDER: As the latest NBC News/"Wall Street Journal"/Marist poll shows Trump lagging in key states, trailing Clinton by 14 points in Colorado, 13 points in Virginia, nine points in North Carolina and five points in Florida, Trump yesterday even acknowledging he's having trouble in traditionally red Utah.</s>TRUMP: I have a tremendous problem in Utah. Utah is a different place and I don't know if -- is anybody here from Utah? I mean, it's -- I didn't think so. We're having a problem.</s>SCHNEIDER: And Donald Trump did stress that we need to win Pennsylvania at his last event in Eerie. He is now here to Altoona. Hundreds of people waiting outside in the sweltering heat to get inside. And interestingly Donald Trump actually tamped down on the chance of his supporters at the last event. They were shouting "lock her up," referring to Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump asked them to chant, "let's beat her in November" instead -- Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: That's a change. Jessica Schneider, thanks very much. Let's turn now to CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash. Dana, you look at these polls. I mean, these are big leads in critical battleground states. So why is Trump going to Connecticut this weekend?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a very good question that has a lot of people scratching their heads looking for the answer. But it actually underscores a lot of questions being asked about the Trump strategy, whether it's the ground game or more. Let me just give you a little bit of perspective about why Connecticut is so perplexing. The last time Connecticut went to the Republican on a presidential level, people were listening to cassettes in their cars and they --</s>SCIUTTO: And I remember that time.</s>BASH: Well, yes. Well, you're not old enough, but -- and they were also using cell phones that are the size of shoe boxes. It was a long time ago. 1988. The answer according to the Trump campaign is that they believe that it is one of the states that Donald Trump can turn from blue to red. But it's not only that, he also spent time last week in Maine, which is also been blue. It's been blue since 1992. The Trump campaign argues that they do -- the way that they proportion their electoral votes, it is possible for him to get one, maybe two. But still, we are, you know, less than 100 days out from the -- from the election, and so the question a lot of people are asking is, why go to any blue states like that? Why not focus on the battlegrounds like, in fairness to Trump, he did today in Pennsylvania. And he is spending a fair amount of time in other states like that.</s>SCIUTTO: And that's because if you hear from, to be clear, GOP strategists, this is not --</s>BASH: Exactly.</s>SCIUTTO: Not the chattery classes. So you know well, you've done a lot of reporting on this. The campaigns often lost or won on the ground. The ground game. Staffers in key -- particularly key states. Is he addressing any of the weaknesses there?</s>BASH: Well, they say that they are, but I think the big question, and I know the big question according to reporting I've been doing is, why isn't he spending money? You know, at the beginning of the general election, when he became the presumptive nominee, he was nowhere when it came to fundraising because he was a self-funder during the primaries. And it looked like he had a real trouble at the beginning. He doesn't any more. Last month his campaign boasted -- raising, you know, $60 million in conjunction with the RNC, but they haven't spent a dime on advertising. Nothing. And Hillary Clinton has spent, just so you know, $42.9 million. That's just since the general election started. So what the Trump campaign says is that they do have a plan. They have a strategy, they're not going to share it with us because they don't want to divulge that strategy. But a lot of people I'm talking to are saying, what are you waiting for?</s>SCIUTTO: Yes.</s>BASH: The Clinton campaign is defining her -- defining him, and they're just kind of getting pummeled on the air in a lot of these states without any kind of retort and the concern is that they have a candidate who's not exactly disciplined in message.</s>SCIUTTO: Right.</s>BASH: Now I will say that the field -- the Trump campaign, Jim, is that this is a strategy that worked in the primaries. He won without spending a lot of money. He won with what we call earned media speeches and interviews and things like that and so he feels probably that they can still do that. It's a different ballgame now. We'll see who wins there.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, the irony is, right, he has the money. He had a good fundraising month last month. It's just not going anywhere now. Dana Bash, thanks very much. You can watch more of Dana's reporting on CNN.com on the Trump ground game. I want to bring in now Republican Congressman Mike Burgess of Texas. He's a Donald Trump supporter. Congressman Burgess, thanks for joining us tonight.</s>REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), TRUMP SUPPORTER: Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.</s>SCIUTTO: You heard Dana's reporting just there now about Hillary Clinton, $42.9 million spent in ads just in the last month. Donald Trump raised last month, he hasn't spent money. There are weaknesses acknowledged within his own party in the ground game, why isn't that changing?</s>BURGESS: Well, this is an unconventional candidacy. I think we both stipulate that. And every prediction that I have made about this race for the past 18 months has been wrong so I'm not going to do that. But, look, you -- as a first time candidate, I learned you spend your money from election day backwards. You don't exhaust your resources right up front. You save something back for the -- for the big fight, the big fight obviously is going to be September and October.</s>SCIUTTO: So he's raised, though -- so let's look at this. $82 million just in the last month. What then is he going to spend that money on?</s>BURGESS: But look, we're talking about him today, aren't we? And that's the -- the thing about this unconventional candidacy is that it doesn't run on the same fuel that we have seen other candidacies run upon. And quite honestly sometimes it seems bumpy. But at other times, look what he has been able to accomplish. No one -- no one would have believed when he rode down that escalator 14 months ago.</s>SCIUTTO: The question is --</s>BURGESS: He could be in this position today.</s>SCIUTTO: The question is, does that success extend from the primaries into the general? But I want to move to Donald Trump's comments in the last 24 hours. He said today, as it started, that he was being sarcastic when he called President Obama the founder of ISIS. At his rally this afternoon, he said, quote, and I want to get this clear, "I'm being sarcastic," then he said, but not that sarcastic to be honest with you. Was he joking or not?</s>BURGESS: Well, look, here's what I do know. I was one of the last congressional delegations to go through Iraq in August of 2011 and it was astounding. I mean, the vacuum was palpable because all of the men, women, and equipment that had been there on previous trips, it was all gone and pulled down to the slabs.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, Congressman --</s>BURGESS: And you're part in the world --</s>SCIUTTO: To be fair, Congressman Burgess -- to be fair, that's a conversation --</s>BURGESS: Not tolerate a vacuum and as a consequence, there must have been some thought given as to what comes next. And they didn't.</s>SCIUTTO: But that's a different conversation to be fair.</s>BURGESS: They just simply didn't.</s>SCIUTTO: That's a different conversation -- you can and we should have the conversation about whether the president's decisions and policy, and if the withdrawal of troops laid the groundwork for ISIS to regain strength and territory. But that's not what the candidate said. The candidate said repeatedly he is the founder of ISIS. But then he said he was being sarcastic, but now again today he said well, maybe I wasn't being that sarcastic. I just want to ask you on that charge that he's the founder, not that his decisions led to --</s>SCIUTTO: Was he joking or not?</s>BURGESS: Look at how the press vilified George Bush when -- at the ending of his term, he said we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here. You didn't believe that. You know, this was a vacuum that was put in place by this administration and the secretary of state, I might add. And as a consequence, we've got the fight on our hands that we've got now. And it is no laughing matter. It's a serious situation and one that requires maximum attention from the commander-in-chief whoever they are.</s>SCIUTTO: Well, you've just said there, it is no laughing matter. Why then is it appropriate to joke about it, even to say you're being sarcastic about it?</s>BURGESS: I don't know that that is a joke. You'll have to ask Mr. Trump that. But the -- this is the -- this is the issue.</s>SCIUTTO: So you're saying it is not a -- it is not a matter of sarcasm?</s>BURGESS: The stage was set by this administration -- the stage was set by this administration and the harsh consequences that we have to deal with are because of the decisions that were made by this administration and Secretary Clinton when she was secretary of state.</s>SCIUTTO: I want to just to take the opportunity here because Donald Trump had an opportunity to clarify what he meant. And let's be clear here, he's running for president. ISIS is one of the central issues in this campaign so we want to be clear. I imagine people at home want to be clear about exactly what he's saying here. Let's listen to what he said with Hugh Hewitt when asked this charge of Obama being the founder. Let's listen now.</s>HUGH HEWITT, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: Last night you said the president was the founder of ISIS. I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum. He lost the peace.</s>TRUMP: No, I mean, he's the founder of ISIS. I do. He's the most valuable player. I give it him the most valuable player award . I give her, too, by the way.</s>HEWITT: But he's not sympathetic to them. He hates them, he is trying to kill them.</s>TRUMP: I don't care. He was the founder.</s>SCIUTTO: Help us rectify that comment with him then saying he was being sarcastic.</s>BURGESS: Look, I don't think there is any question that the conditions were created by this current administration. And look, you spent a lot of time talking about polls at the beginning of this segment. The one poll that's really striking, 80 percent of the country does not like the status quo right now. 80 percent of this country wants something different. Hillary Clinton is your candidate if you want .</s>SCIUTTO: But to be fair, that's a different question than I asked. Just the question -- because this is clearly an issue that you take very seriously as we all do. ISIS is a threat. It's not only a threat there, it's a threat here at home. I'm just asking --</s>SCIUTTO: Is it an issue that is appropriately joked about?</s>BURGESS: And I wish -- I wish that the administration had taken it seriously in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. When I asked in a briefing in 2014, what did you think was going to happen, they just hadn't thought it through. It was magical thinking. This part of the world, as dangerous as it is, everything will be OK if we just walk away. That was crazy talk then.</s>SCIUTTO: I want to ask because a few of these things he said in the last 24 to 48 hours, they're creating an environment. He called the president the founder of ISIS, not that he made decisions leading -- created conditions for ISIS. He called him the founder. He used his full name, Barack Hussein Obama with emphasis. Is this a continuation of Donald Trump's original efforts to delegitimize this presidency?</s>BURGESS: Absolutely not. Look, the -- the president is responsible for the decisions he made 2011, 2012, 2013. Now using the president's full name, I fail to see how that is an issue of any sort. And I'm rather surprised that you try to make it one. But the president is responsible for the decisions that he made. The secretary is responsible for the decisions that she made as secretary.</s>SCIUTTO: Congressman Burgess, please stay right there. A lot more questions on this topic and others. Please stay with us. We'll be right back.