Interview With Former Georgia Congressman Jack Kingston; Trump Calls President Obama Founder of ISIS; Clinton: Trump Plans "Trillions in Tax Cuts" for the Rich; Clinton Staffers Among Targets in "Electronic Watergate"
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Will officials heed their warning? Electronic Watergate. A new report says Russian hackers targeted personal e-mail accounts of Democratic Party officials, including members of the Clinton campaign. Congress' top Democrat is comparing it to infamous Watergate burglary. Will more damaging material be released before Election Day? And we need action. A desperate plea to President Obama from doctors in Syria, warning they could be wiped out in a month, leaving hundreds of thousands of civilians living in jeopardy. Their message to the president, we don't need tears or sympathy. We need action. Will the U.S. respond? We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Donald Trump is not backing down tonight from his latest controversial attack. He's repeatedly claimed over the past 24 hours that President Obama founded ISIS along with Hillary Clinton. He's gone onto say they are two of the terror group's most valuable players. Trump's cascading controversies have prompted a group of leading Republicans to draft a new letter to the party chairman urging him to stop spending money on Trump's campaign. They say he's increasingly unlikely to win. And they're warning of -- quote -- "catastrophic impact" on other Republican candidates. Also tonight, the personal e-mail accounts of Clinton campaign and Democratic Party officials are now believed to have been among the targets of that massive cyber-attack on the DNC. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi calls it an electronic Watergate which is widely blamed on Russia. We're covering all of that, much more of that this hour, with our guests, including Trump campaign senior adviser former Congressman Jack Kingston. Our correspondents and expert analysts are also standing by. Let's begin with the Trump campaign. CNN's Jessica Schneider is over at Trump Tower in New York City. Jessica, Donald Trump keeps repeating his claim that President Obama and Hillary Clinton founded ISIS. What is the latest?</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, Donald Trump has repeated those claims in five different settings over just the past 24 hours, most recently this afternoon in Orlando, Florida. When Trump was given the opportunity to clarify or explain exactly what he meant by founders of ISIS, he said it wasn't a metaphor. He meant exactly what he said.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I call President Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of ISIS. They're the founders.</s>SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Donald Trump refusing to back down from his incorrect claim that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton literally created</s>ISIS. TRUMP: I think we will give Hillary Clinton the -- if you're a sports team, most valuable player, MVP. You get the MVP award. ISIS will hand her the most valuable player award. Her only competition is Barack Obama.</s>SCHNEIDER: Trump first made the claim at a rally in Sunrise, Florida, Wednesday night. And when give the chance to clarify on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt's show, Trump took it a step farther.</s>HUGH HEWITT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I know what you meant. You meant that he created the vacuum, he lost the peace.</s>TRUMP: No, I think he's the founder of ISIS. I do. He's the most valuable player. I give him the most valuable player award. I give her too, by the way.</s>HEWITT: But he is not sympathetic to them. He hates them. He is trying to kill them.</s>TRUMP: I don't care. He was the founder. The way he got out of Iraq, that was the founding of</s>ISIS. SCHNEIDER: But the GOP nominee did call for the U.S. to get out of Iraq in a 2007 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.</s>TRUMP: How do they get out? You know how they get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare victory and leave.</s>SCHNEIDER: Hillary Clinton rebuked Trump's charge today, tweeting: "No, Barack Obama is not the founder of ISIS," adding, "Anyone willing to sink so low so often should never be allowed to serve as our commander in chief." Wednesday night, Trump shamed the Clinton campaign for having the father of the Pulse nightclub terrorist seated just behind her at a Florida rally earlier this week. But Trump made those comments with disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley in prime position behind him. Foley, a former representative from Florida, resigned in 2006 amid allegations he sent sexually explicit e-mails and messages scandal to underage teenage boys working at the Capitol.</s>TRUMP: How many of you people know me? A lot of you people know me. When you get those seats, you sort of know the campaign.</s>SCHNEIDER: The Trump campaign has not responded to requests for a comment about Foley being in attendance, this as sources tell CNN that RNC chairman Reince Priebus has expressed concerns to Trump about the direction of his campaign and potential impact on down-ballot races. Trump insisted this morning he didn't have plans to change his approach, despite recent polls showing Trump trailing Clinton in battleground states.</s>TRUMP: I will just keep doing the same thing I'm doing right now. And at the end, it's either going to work or I'm going to -- you know, I'm going to have a very, very nice, long vacation.</s>SCHNEIDER: And Donald Trump may be trailing in some of those swing states, but a new poll out of Iowa shows he's neck and neck with Hillary Clinton. A Suffolk University poll has Donald Trump up 41 percent to 40 percent, with 17 percent of undecided voters. Donald Trump indicating today through Rudy Giuliani that he will be participating in all three presidential debates this fall -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Jessica, thank you. There's also breaking news tonight. CNN has learned that top Republicans are now circulating a draft letter urging the party chairman, Reince Priebus, to divert resources from Trump, warning his campaign is going down and threatening to take other Republican candidates along with it. Our chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, is working the story for us. Dana, 75 leading Republicans have so far, they have signed this draft letter. What do we know about it?</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's about a handful of former members of Congress, but also, as this letter says, people who have worked on presidential campaigns and on campaigns for House and Senate. What they are arguing, and I should say the they, most of them, it looks like, are already in the never Trump camp. But they are taking that opposition a step further and formally asking the RNC chair to move resources away from the Trump campaign into the down-ballot races, Senate and House races because they believe that's the most important right now. I will read you part of the letter -- quote -- "We believe that Donald Trump's divisiveness, recklessness, incompetence, and record-breaking unpopularity risk turning this election into a Democratic landslide and only the immediate shift of all available RNC resources to vulnerable Senate and House races will prevent the GOP from drowning with the Trump emblazoned anchor around its neck." Very strong language there. I'm told that this hasn't actually gone to Reince Priebus yet, because they are still collecting signatures. At last check, there were 75 people who signed it -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Dana, is it really plausible that the Republican National Committee would actually do something so drastic, give up on investing in the presidential nominee of their party?</s>BASH: It's an important question and the answer at this moment in time is no. I was told by a couple of sources who are familiar with Reince Priebus' plans and where he is right now on that very question. The answer is no for several reasons. One of them is the fact of the matter is that there's a lot of vulnerable senators in particular, Republican senators, who are on the ballot in battleground states. They feel that at this point they're kind of inextricably tied with Donald Trump, even though many of them are kind of going out on their own, campaigning on their own. Many of them like Rob Portman in Ohio has very strong name I.D. back home, that he feels that if you kind of cut the head off of the funding for the guy at the top of the ticket, it could backfire and there could be voter suppression or at least Republican voters who might not go to the ballot who they need for people like Rob Portman in Ohio, Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire and so forth. However, I'm also told it's early. It's still August. They're definitely watching very carefully to see where Donald Trump's polling numbers go nationally, but more importantly in the key battleground states.</s>BLITZER: All right, Dana, thanks very much. Let's get some more on all of this. The senior adviser to the Trump campaign former Congressman Jack Kingston is with us, former congressman from Georgia. Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.</s>JACK KINGSTON (R), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Well, thank you.</s>BLITZER: You heard about this letter, this draft letter to Reince Priebus, the chairman, saying, you know what? He's going down. This could be a landslide, Donald Trump. Take the money you're giving to his campaign and just move it to these vulnerable down-ballot House and Senate Republicans. Your reaction to that?</s>KINGSTON: Well, a couple of things, Wolf. Number one, you got to keep in mind that these politicians were at their political prime in the days of Beanie Babies and discos. They're seeking relevance again by being the great contrarians. You can always do that in this town. Number two, it's the height of elitism for a bunch of Washington so- called insiders to say that the nominee of the Republican Party isn't good enough for them. He fought through a very tough primary, beat 16 well-qualified candidates and they're saying he doesn't meet their muster. The American people aren't going to accept that.</s>BLITZER: But which vulnerable Republicans, either running in the House or the Senate, are actually urging Donald Trump to go out there and campaign with them or even showing up when he shows up in their respective states?</s>KINGSTON: Politicians always do a two-step, depending on what their district politics looks like. And in some areas, it's better not to have Barack Obama, better not to have Newt Gingrich, better not to have Nancy Pelosi visit. This is not anything new. And politicians' very first instinct, as you know, is always survival. So, they're going to look at...</s>BLITZER: But some of these Republicans are going so far as to denounce Donald Trump.</s>KINGSTON: Well, yes, but some of them don't. It's looking pretty bleak for my friend Mark Kirk in Illinois right now. He's distancing himself. It's a political calculation. But I think it's one of self-survival. And I don't think it's really founded. But, again, here is somebody who won a 17-way primary. You have to respect the system. If you have a problem with the system, change the system. And I will say this also, Wolf. They should take a lesson from the Bernie Sanders supporters. I was in Philadelphia. I saw them walk off floor. I know how mad they were. But most of them, including Bernie himself, have now come home to their party. I wish Republicans would think in terms of party loyalty as well.</s>BLITZER: What do you say about all these reports that so many Republicans, including Reince Priebus, are urging Donald Trump to tone things down, not go off the cuff, not say some of these things he's been saying? You Donald Trump, he's Donald Trump. He does what got him to this dance so far. He's continuing to do so.</s>KINGSTON: Yes. He's an unusual candidate. And he is making that transition from the private sector and the business sector, where bravado kind of rules the day, to the public sector, where you have to be very careful with what you say. He makes Washington establishment uncomfortable. We understand that. But the reality is that when he say things, he's not talking to Washington. He talking to the guy who is out there struggling.</s>BLITZER: But do you agree with him when he says that President Obama and Hillary Clinton are the founders of ISIS?</s>KINGSTON: You know what, I think he's driving a point. He's doing it rhetorically. But the reality is...</s>BLITZER: But he says he's not doing it rhetorically. He says he's serious. You heard that exchange he had with Hugh Hewitt on the radio.</s>KINGSTON: Well, but the reality is when Barack Obama left Iraq without a statement of forces and collapsed the international coalition, it gave rise to ISIS. And I think there's an argument to say it would not have been there without the Hillary Clinton State Department and the Barack Obama White House.</s>BLITZER: This was President Bush's timetable, as you know, the end of 2011. But listen to this. Back in 2007, when I interviewed Donald Trump, he was calling for exactly the same thing that he's now accusing President Obama of doing, unilaterally pulling out of Iraq too early. Listen to what he told me back in 2007. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, 2007) TRUMP: They have a civil war going on.</s>BLITZER: Who do you blame?</s>TRUMP: Well, there's only one person you can blame, and that's our current president. Obviously, Rumsfeld was a disaster. And other people that are giving him advice have been a disaster. And Condoleezza Rice, who's a lovely woman, but she never makes a deal. She doesn't make deals. She waves. She gets off the plane. She waves. She sits down with some dictator 45-degree angle. They do the camera shot. She waves again. She gets back on the plane. She waves. No deal ever happens, so, I mean...</s>BLITZER: You got to close a deal at some point?</s>TRUMP: You got to make deals. The world is dying to make deals and we don't have the right people doing it.</s>BLITZER: The vice president, Dick Cheney.</s>TRUMP: Well, he's obviously a very hawkish guy on the war. He said the war was going fantastically just a few months ago, and, you know, it's just very sad. I don't know if they're bad people. I don't know what's going on. I just know that they got us in to a mess, the likes of which this country has probably never seen. It's one of the great catastrophes of all time.</s>BLITZER: How does the United States get out of this situation? Is there a way...</s>TRUMP: How do they get out? You know how they get out? They get out. That's how they get out. Declare victory and leave, because I will tell you, this country is just going to get further bogged down. They're in a civil war over there, Wolf. There's nothing that we're going to be able to do with a civil war. They are in a major civil war.</s>BLITZER: It was strong. That was back in 2007. And he said just get out of there and declare victory. Would that have been smart?</s>KINGSTON: Well, I think those comments were consistent with his opposition to the war to begin with. And unlike Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump was against our action in Iraq. And, number two, remember, this was in '07. He's saying cut a deal. A statement of forces, frankly, is cutting a deal with the international team to say we're going to get out, but here are the rules of engagement.</s>BLITZER: He says that whole war was -- you voted for the war.</s>KINGSTON: Yes.</s>BLITZER: So, what you did was a disaster as far as Donald Trump is concerned.</s>KINGSTON: Colin Powell famously said, if you break it, you own it. And that's the problem. We didn't really pay -- we underestimated the war.</s>BLITZER: You acknowledge now that was a blunder to go ahead and support the war back in 2003?</s>KINGSTON: I think at the time we based it on our best intelligence.</s>BLITZER: But it was a blunder?</s>KINGSTON: It's not gone the way it should have. And that's absolutely the case.</s>BLITZER: Because that war created, as you know, al Qaeda in Iraq, the precursor to ISIS. So, the question is, those who supported the war, are they the founders of al Qaeda in Iraq?</s>KINGSTON: You had the Taliban, which was very aligned with al Qaeda and al Qaeda was there in Afghanistan and operating in other places in the Middle East. And so the idea was, we have the go to war against them. But I think what Donald Trump is saying -- and, look, I was on the Armed Services Committee of appropriations -- when the president left Iraq without a statement of forces, the rules of engagement fell apart. It left a vacuum.</s>BLITZER: But Donald Trump said they should have done that in 2007.</s>KINGSTON: He was a private citizen at the time. And I would say he did not have the intel that Barack Obama had.</s>BLITZER: Does that make any difference? If he was a private citizen, he was obviously intelligent man. He studied situation closely. He said the war in Iraq is a disaster. The U.S. is losing a lot of young men and women. It's costing the U.S. taxpayer a fortune. Declare victory and just get out of there.</s>KINGSTON: I think he still was reaching back to his historic stance against the war, which Hillary Clinton and John Kerry...</s>BLITZER: And you.</s>KINGSTON: ... and Jack Kingston and other people did say we should do this. But the reality is, I was not for leaving without a statement of forces. A statement of forces would have probably headed off an ISIS kind of creation. We're fighting terrorism all the time. But as long as we're talking about this, it's important, because if you look at...</s>BLITZER: Because he's now accusing the president of the United States of founding ISIS. You don't agree with him on that?</s>KINGSTON: I would say that Barack Obama was contributory by not having a statement of forces. And I would further say Hillary Clinton was contributory if you look at the foreign policy under the two of them.</s>BLITZER: But that's a different statement than Donald Trump said yesterday, last night and today.</s>KINGSTON: Wolf, when he's speaking, he's so often speaking to the man on the street, the woman on the street who can identify with clear language. And I think he was driving a point.</s>BLITZER: But isn't this dangerous to -- when he says the president of the United States is a founder of ISIS, people hear that. And, you know, there are crazy people out there who take those kinds of statements very seriously and there's a lot of concern that that could generate some serious problems out there. You understand the concern that the Secret Service, for example, has when they hear that kind of talk?</s>KINGSTON: When Hillary Clinton in May of '08 was asked to quit the campaign, why don't you quit the campaign, she alto Senator Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, getting killed. And that to me is really scary language. But you didn't hear the hullabaloo about that. And Hillary Clinton said that in May of...</s>BLITZER: There was a lot of coverage of that in the time in 2008.</s>BLITZER: I remember that. I remember she later apologized. I remember that very vividly. But you agree, I think you agree with most people, it's time to tone down the rhetoric. This is getting pretty dangerous.</s>KINGSTON: I think the rhetoric is always going to be part of a campaign, but as somebody who did the funding for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia, where the Secret Service trained, I don't believe the Secret Service went to either campaign and advised them on their rhetoric. They tell them, hey, watch the balcony up there. Here's your escape route if there's a problem. We're going to do crowd control in certain ways. But I don't believe Secret Service has intervened with either campaign on the rhetoric. But I also think the American people understand so much of political rhetoric. And I would say thank goodness for all of us most of the rhetoric is dismissed either way.</s>BLITZER: Because it's getting heated out there, as you well know. And I know you would like to see things toned down a bit. Congressman, we have more questions for you. Let's take a quick break. Much more with Jake Kingston, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, right after this.