Trump's Shocking Responses; Obama Speaks Live in Laos.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Revealing responses from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the same stage for the first time. Not exactly at the same time, though. Trump with harsh words for U.S. generals, kind words for Vladimir Putin and standing by a controversial tweet about women. We will show what he said coming up.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton at the same forum fresh on her email controversy and now, a new wrinkle, emails from Colin Powell about how to handle communications at the State Department.</s>BERMAN: So, what does President Obama think about all this? Well, we will soon find out, a live news conference. His overseas trip no doubt, facing some serious questions. We'll bring that to you live. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.</s>ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you all this morning. It is Thursday, September 8th. It is 4:00 a.m. exactly on the East Coast. Breaking overnight: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump giving some revealing and surprising answers on national security to some, frankly, surprising questions and non-questions at a national security forum here in New York. Trump defended a tweet about women in the military. He offered new compliments for Vladimir Putin, and also issued new claims about information and impressions from inside his national security briefing. Hillary Clinton faced tough questions about her e-mails and some of her foreign policy choices.</s>MATT LAUER, NBC NEWS: Do you know more about ISIS than they do?</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the generals have been reduced to rubble.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think that the decision to go to war in Iraq was a mistake. We must learn what led us down that path so that it never happens again. I'm asking to be judged on the totality of my record.</s>LAUER: When referring to a comment about Putin made of you, I think he called you a brilliant leader.</s>TRUMP: When he calls me brilliant, I'll take that compliment, OK? He is really very much of a leader. I mean, you can say, oh, isn't a terrible thing? He called -- I mean, the man has very strong control of a country. Now, it's a very different system and I don't happen to like the system. But certainly in that system, he's been a leader.</s>LAUER: Were some of the e-mails sent or received by you referring to our drone program, a covert drone program?</s>CLINTON: Yes. Every part of our government had to deal with questions and the secretary of state's office was first and foremost. So, there are ways of talking about the drone program.</s>ROMANS: CNN's Brianna Keilar following that story for us. She has the very latest.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine. Much of Clinton's part of the forum centered around her email practices while she was secretary of state. And she really parsed her words that she tried to make the case that she did not endanger national security using a private server because there weren't e-mails with classified headers transmitted, the kind of e-mails that would be on the classified system versus an unclassified system, like the official State Department system or the one that she used on her private server, a very different thing though, than sending classified content, even without a header.</s>CLINTON: You know and I know classified material is designated. It is marked. There is a header so that there is no dispute at all that what is being communicated to or from someone who has that access is marked classified. And what we have here is the use of an unclassified system by hundreds of people in our government to send information that was not marked, there were no headers, there was no statement, top secret or secret or confidential. I communicated about classified material on a wholly separate system. I took it very seriously.</s>KEILAR: It was a surprising approach considering Clinton herself said recently that when she tries to explain herself, it just sounds like she's making excuses for herself. And then there was a moment with Donald Trump who is struggling mightily in the polls with women when he doubled down on this tweet.</s>LAUER: In 2013 on this subject, you tweeted this, quote, "26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military, only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men and women together?" unquote.</s>TRUMP: Well, it is a correct tweet. There are many people who think that is correct. And we need to have strength and we need to have --</s>LAUER: So, it should have been expected and the only way to fix it is to take women out of the military?</s>TRUMP: And, by the way, since then it's gotten worse. Not to kick them out, but something has to happen. Right now, part of the problem is nobody gets prosecuted. You have reported and the gentlemen can tell you. You have the report of rape and nobody gets prosecuted. There are no consequences.</s>KEILAR: Trump also claimed that he did not support the Iraq war, which is untrue. Initially, as the nation went to war, he actually did support it and it was only later that he spoke out against the war publicly at a time when many people who had initially been in support of the war actually changed their minds -- John and Christine.</s>ROMANS: All right. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much. Now, reaction to this forum last night started burning up Twitter overnight, even with the show still on the air. Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus tweeted, "Hillary Clinton was angry and defensive the entire time. No smile. And uncomfortable, upset that she was caught wrongly sending our secrets." The Clinton campaign lashed back, "Actually, that's just what taking the office of president seriously looks like." Moderator Matt Lauer faced sharp criticism from pundits and journalists. Some of them calling his performance weak and an embarrassment, specifically Lauer was criticized for Brianna just talked about, not fact checking Donald Trump's claim that he was always against the Iraq war. That claim is simply false. In a radio interview in 2002, Trump said he supported the invasion. But once again last night, he said he always opposed it and Lauer did not correct him. A pretty major world figure will respond to all this in just a few minutes. President Obama holds a news conference in Laos. He is finishing up the summit there. So, what did he make of the candidates looking to replace him last night? Let's bring in White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski live for us in Laos. Good morning, Michelle.</s>MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We haven't heard from him yet, except to talk about the last day of the farewell tour to Asia, talking about building relationships here. But you know when he gets before this press conference in a half hour, he will be asked about what's going on in the United States, namely some of the statements that were made last night. When he is on these trips, you never know how much he will get into it. I mean, there had been times that he has gone off on these riffs or rants as he called one of them in Canada on Donald Trump. But other times, he said, you know, I have pretty much said what I was going to say. I will let the American people decide. Because this relates to national security issues, I think he's going to weigh in. I think we're going to hear a little bit more on his ideas there. But that's going to be no surprise. I think it could be interesting based on what questions are asked. I think he's going to get asked about, you know, what his interaction was with the new president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte last night. I mean, this was the guy who called president a son of a whore right before the meeting they were supposed to have. The White House then cancelled that meeting. Well, last night, these two leaders were in the same space. The White House says that they had a brief discussion and exchanged pleasantries. But that's the extent of it, that's as far as what happened. I think he's going to be asked about that. And also today, the president reaffirmed this international tribunal's ruling in July that China has no claim to islands that are disputed with the Philippines. That is a huge source of tension in this region. The U.S. has been kind of in the middle of it. So, today, President Obama brought that up. I think he's going to go into a little more detail and get asked a little bit more about how you manage that relationship between China and the other countries here that the U.S. is aligned with, that are having these disputes. Back to you, guys.</s>BERMAN: All right. Michelle Kosinski for us in Laos. Again, President Obama set to answer questions for the press, reporters like Michelle Kosinski, in just a few minutes. We are expecting him to face questions about that presidential forum last night. So, stay tuned. Thanks, Michelle.</s>ROMANS: All right. To money now. There are a record number of open jobs in the U.S. a record number of job openings, but employers not find the right workers. How many job openings? A record, 5.9 million in July, and there's this other figure, dramatic figure showing the improvement for job seekers. There is one open job for every the fewest since 2001. This number shows strength of the jobs market. The job openings come from skilled positions, business services, up 166,000. Some of those positions require years of experience. Durable goods manufacturing up 27,000 just in July. These are higher paying jobs which require technical training. The biggest decrease in jobs, health care and social assistance, jobs there include a lot of low-wage positions. The bottom line: there are good jobs open out there. Millions of them, but workers need to have experience and skills to get them. It is a very specific match and it is not happening in the labor market right now, something that economists look at the numbers and it is a mystery. It's a riddle to them.</s>BERMAN: It is really interesting. A whole new world order. All right. Nine minutes after the hour. Colin Powell in his own words. What did the former secretary of state tell Hillary Clinton over email about e-mail at the State Department? Those records finally go public. That's next.