Senate Candidate Under Fire for Controversial Rape Remarks
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now: an interview with President Obama that none of us were meant to see. It goes public. It includes some revealing remarks about his opponents and his plans for a second term. Also, Mitt Romney's sidetracked by some controversial remarks about rape and abortion by a Senate candidate he endorsed. And newly revealed e-mail, they're raising new questions right now about what the White House knew in the hours following that deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Just 13 days until the presidential election and the Obama and Romney campaigns, they are kicking into overdrive as the candidates make their final push to win the White House. CNN correspondents are following their every move. They're reporting from coast to coast and from all the most crucial states, any one of which has the potential to decide who the next president of the United States will be. Let's begin this hour's coverage in Iowa where President Obama kicked off a two-day coast-to-coast swing through eight states. He's calling it a campaign marathon extravaganza, likening it to an all-nighter. And no surprise, his itinerary consisting almost entirely of battleground states. CNN's chief White House correspondent, Jessica Yellin, is traveling with the president.</s>JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, President Obama is hopping around the nation stumping for early votes and undecided voters. It's the kind of whirlwind tour you usually see in the last 48 hours before Election Day. The fact they're doing it 13 days before the ballots are cast is a sign just how important the early vote is to this campaign. Now, from Davenport, Iowa, the president heads to Denver, Colorado, then he has stops in Florida, Virginia, again in Ohio. He's going to Las Vegas, Nevada, overnight. He also stops in Las Vegas -- in Los Angeles where he will be taping with Jay Leno, and in Chicago, Illinois, where he will be casting his own early ballot. He had a bit of a new message when he spoke to voters here in Iowa telling them this is where it all started, but also making the case that he is the same person he has been all along. They know him better than anyone. And drawing a contrast with Mitt Romney, his values haven't changed. Take a listen.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There are some folks in this crowd who probably have been following me since I was running for the United States Senate. And, you know what, you can -- like this guy right here, who I served with in the United States Senate, George Shadid. And, you know, you could take a videotape of things I said 10 years ago, 12 years ago, and you would say, man, this is the same guy, has the same values, cares about the same people. Doesn't forget where he came from. Knows who he's fighting for. And you know what? I haven't finished all the work that we set out to do back in 2008. But I have fought for you every single day that I have held this office.</s>YELLIN: And, Wolf, also a bit of news. In an interview with "The Des Moines Register" that was supposed to be off the record but then was put on, the president revealed a bit of his second term agenda if reelected. He said he believes he could get immigration reform done in the first year and turn this sequester crisis into something like the grand bargain, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Jessica Yellin, thanks very much. That interview by the way with "The Des Moines Register" was supposed to be off the record. But after the newspaper protested, the Obama campaign agreed to have it published in full. Not only did the president say he's confident he can get immigration reform passed if reelected, Jessica just reported that, he went onto say this -- and I'm quoting -- "And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community" -- a direct quote from the president in that interview. Meanwhile, Republican challenger Mitt Romney is facing another distraction over the issue of abortion rights for women. CNN's national political correspondent, Jim Acosta, is with the Romney campaign in Reno, Nevada.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In what's now a horse race to the finish, Mitt Romney was rounding up votes in Nevada and trying to stay on message on the economy.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president doesn't understand what it takes to get this economy going. He doesn't have a plan to get jobs for Americans. I do. And that's why I'm going to win.</s>ACOSTA: Romney's in the midst of a swing state blitz, flying from Colorado to Nevada to Iowa to Ohio, then back to Iowa, back to Ohio and then onto Florida and Virginia. But a new distraction cropped up in Indiana, where Richard Mourdock, the Republican candidate for Senate, made jaws drop with his comments on why abortion should be outlawed in the case of rape.</s>RICHARD MOURDOCK (R), INDIANA SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I came to realize life is that gift from God. And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.</s>ROMNEY: This fall, I'm supporting Richard Mourdock for Senate.</s>ACOSTA: The problem for Romney, he'd already taped this endorsement ad for Mourdock. A Democratic super PAC pounced, churning out its own Web video, tying Romney's appearance in the spot to other controversial statements made by Mourdock.</s>MOURDOCK: It's by partisanship that's taken us to the brink of bankruptcy. We don't need bipartisanship.</s>ROMNEY: I hope you will join me in supporting Richard Mourdock. Senator Kelly Ayotte. Senator.</s>ACOSTA: It didn't take long for some top Republicans to start distancing themselves from Mourdock's comments. Romney surrogate and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte canceled an appearance with Mourdock.</s>MOURDOCK: The comments were made. The comments have been misunderstood.</s>ACOSTA: Soon after that, Mourdock held a news conference to apologize.</s>MOURDOCK: I don't think God wants rape. I don't think he wants that at all because rape is evil. I abhor evil.</s>ACOSTA: Despite the controversy, the Romney campaign said it's not calling on Mourdock to pull the endorsement ad. The Romney campaign released a statement saying he disagrees with Mr. Mourdock and Mr. Mourdock's comments do not reflect Governor Romney's views. "We disagree on the policy regarding exceptions for rape and incest, but still support him." On a conference call with supporters, a Democratic Party official said that's not far enough.</s>BRAD WOODHOUSE, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: He should go further and demand that the ad featuring him speaking directly to camera on Mourdock's behalf be taken off the air.</s>ACOSTA: Democrats say the controversy should serve as an election warning to women voters who were upset by Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin's comments on abortion over the summer.</s>REP. TODD AKIN (R), MISSOURI: If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.</s>BLITZER: That report from Jim Acosta, who's traveling with Romney in Reno, Nevada. Let's go inside the race right now for the White House with our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. Gloria, seven of the battleground states, they're now voting early. What if anything does that mean big picture?</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's very important. You just heard Jessica Yellin say the president's doing this whirlwind tour and that's because of early voting in some of the swing states. We know what happened in 2008, Wolf. And that is one-third of all votes across the country were cast by early and absentee ballots. And in swing states, Wolf, there were nearly 16 million votes cast before Election Day. That is so important. Take a look at some of these key battleground states, the number of early votes cast. You see here Iowa, Ohio, Florida. Florida, almost a million early ballots already cast. And there's still almost two weeks left to go. And in 2008, Wolf, almost half of the entire Florida electorate voted early. So what this does, it allows campaigns to stretch out their mobilization efforts. And right now, they have the luxury of targeting unlikely voters. So they can get those people to the poll. They have identified their likely voters. They know how to get them to the polls on Election Day. But this allows them to identify a whole new group of people that they would hope to bring in. And Democrats had a real advantage in 2008. Republicans say they have learned a lot of lessons from the Democrats and they're catching up.</s>BLITZER: So with 13 days to go, what factors are you seeing that could determine the outcome?</s>BORGER: Above all else, enthusiasm and intensity of voters. Take a look at this Gallup poll here. In June, you will see that the Republicans were at 32 percent, now 45 percent, up 13 points intensity. Democrats up more, Wolf, up 16 points. Gallup says that may be because of women who focus in late on the election and they are turning towards Democrats, getting more enthusiastic. But Republicans still remain as you see overall with a more enthusiastic base than the Democrats. So we see a country that is getting increasingly interested in this election. And we see Republicans and Democrats almost at parity now, which is good news for President Obama, because he was worried about those disaffected Democrats not coming out to vote.</s>BLITZER: Now, interesting that the Karl Rove-backed Republican super PAC American Crossroads, they have a new ad featuring Clint Eastwood, the star, the movie star. I'll play a little clip.</s>CLINT EASTWOOD, ACTOR: Obama's second term would be a rerun of the first and our country just couldn't survive that. We need someone who can turn it around fast. And that man is Mitt Romney. There's not much time left and the future of our country is at stake.</s>BLITZER: Here's the question. He was widely ridiculed...</s>BORGER: Right.</s>BLITZER: ... as a result of talking to the chair, the empty chair at the Republican Convention.</s>BORGER: There was no chair in that ad.</s>BLITZER: No chair. I didn't see any chair there. But he was widely panned. A lot of Republicans themselves thought it was inappropriate especially coming after that excellent film portraying Mitt Romney, getting the stage set for Mitt Romney and then all of a sudden he starts rambling in front of a chair for 12 or 13 or 14...</s>BORGER: Right.</s>BLITZER: Why did they use him?</s>BORGER: Well, of course, this Republican group focus-grouped Clint Eastwood. And what they came out saying is, by the way, all of us in the media were completely obsessive about Clint Eastwood. They focus- grouped it and tested off the charts Clint Eastwood and this particular ad in important states, Florida and Ohio, did very well for them. They believe he's not your run-of-the-mill celebrity. They believe Clint Eastwood is iconic, that he will appeal to Republican voters in swing states and forget about what happened at the convention. That was just a bunch of media elite panning Clint Eastwood.</s>BLITZER: All right. But I suspect some that undecided voters in Florida and Ohio and Virginia may not necessarily be thrilled by that.</s>BORGER: That's why there wasn't an empty chair in the ad.</s>BLITZER: You know, I'm just getting this information. Our sister publication "TIME" magazine has a brand-new poll that just came out and it shows Obama leading Romney by five in Ohio. Obama holds a 49 percent, 44 percent lead over Romney in a survey taken Monday and Tuesday night. The poll's margin of error, plus or minus 3 percentage points. Well, 49 percent, 44 percent, if you're president of the United States in the key battleground state of Ohio, that's decent. That's pretty good.</s>BORGER: Yes. Did it say -- who's in the lead? Obama's in the lead or Romney?</s>BLITZER: It says, yes, Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney by five points in Ohio according to a new "TIME" poll, Obama 49 percent, Romney 44 percent.</s>BORGER: It's almost within the margin of error, Wolf. I spoke to a senior Romney adviser today who said to me they believe it's an absolute dead heat in the state of Ohio. So there you have Obama up. Don't forget, the president has a road to an Electoral College victory without the state of Ohio, but it is very difficult if not impossible for Mitt Romney to get there, because if he loses Ohio, he has to run the table on a lot of states that right now he's not ahead in.</s>BLITZER: No Republican has won the White House without Ohio.</s>BORGER: Right. That's right.</s>BLITZER: So with 13 days to go according to this "TIME" magazine poll, Obama's up by five in Ohio, 3 percentage point margin of error.</s>BORGER: Good news for the White House.</s>BLITZER: Yes. An October surprise, not quite, but Donald Trump is proposing a $5 million deal to President Obama. You want the details? We will share them with you when we come back.