Bill Clinton Offers Harsh Critique of Obamacare
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As you mentioned, a lot of new polls out in the last couple of days, three in Nevada showing it's Hillary Clinton who is ahead out in Nevada, Colorado, 11-point lead for Clinton in two polls, Florida, a narrow Clinton lead in the new polling, several of them. North Carolina, a couple of new polls, Clinton is leading there. Now, this doesn't mean she is going to win them. Doesn't mean the momentum can't swing back, but look, Jake, at Donald Trump's challenge. Now you are looking at a map that looks very much like the Obama/Romney map. Donald Trump lost the momentum. He needs very much Mike Pence to do him a favor tonight and then Donald Trump on Sunday night to grab the momentum and pull it back,because it gets hard when you get inside the last 30 days to change one state. If Donald Trump -- Donald Trump, excuse me, has to change three or four states, it gets very difficult.</s>TAPPER: Even with a bad week for Trump, though, John, there are states where he is still holding onto a lead, battleground states.</s>KING: Right. If you are Trump, you're studying this one, because Ohio has stayed consistently for Trump, even as Hillary Clinton has made gains in other places. So, if you're Donald Trump, you are looking at this state and thinking, why is it? It's demographics. It's his trade message. It's older white voters. If you're Donald Trump and you're saying, OK, we're falling in Colorado, we're falling in Virginia, we're struggling in Florida, I think you will see the Trump campaign look back to the Rust Belt again, because that's where they're doing the best. Now, Pennsylvania has moved Clinton's way. Michigan has moved a little bit back more in Clinton's favor. But if you're Trump and you look at the most recent data, Jake, this is still your area of strength. The problem is, Ohio is not enough, though. He has to flip some others.</s>TAPPER: All right, John King, thank you so much. Joining me now, the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton, Robby Mook. Robby, thanks so much for joining us. I assume Senator Kaine has an answer if the moderator or Governor Pence raises the fact that former President Bill Clinton just offered a harsh critique of Obamacare. Take a listen.</s>BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You have got this crazy system where, all of a sudden, 25 million more people have health care and then the people are out there busting it, sometimes 60 hours a week, wind up with their premiums doubled and their coverage cut in half. It's the craziest thing in the world.</s>TAPPER: Robby, Obamacare is the craziest thing in the world?</s>ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, I think that's taking a little bit out of context. First and foremost, over 20 million people now have health insurance today in our country because of Obamacare. We have got to improve it, but we have got to protect it. Donald Trump wants to completely rip it up, take away health insurance from those 20 million people, from the young people under 26 who get it through their parents, take away, you know, basic care, preventative care for every single American. So, we have got to protect Obamacare. But what he was touching on, to your question, was that premiums are going up too high in some places, and we need to do more to help small businesses in particular afford health insurance. And that's why Hillary wants to create better tax incentives and tax credits for small businesses, so that they can afford the health care, and create pools, so that they have better bargaining power with the insurance companies.</s>TAPPER: Now, just to note, the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, today said -- quote -- "It's not exactly clear what argument Bill Clinton was making." And, of course, he wishes Bill Clinton used different language.</s>MOOK: Well, again, I think that what Bill Clinton was trying to hit on is that a lot of small businesses are struggling to afford health insurance. They can't form big enough bargaining pools. That's why we have got to get them better tax credits, allow them to pool together. Look, we also -- one thing he didn't mention is the cost of prescription drugs, which is also going up too high. We have got to allow Medicare to negotiate for lower prescription drug costs and make sure that we're doing more to lower the out-of-pocket expenses for everyday Americans. So, there's a lot of work to do here. I just rattled off a lot of specific ideas that Hillary Clinton has. Donald Trump hasn't named a specific idea on health care, except that he wants to repeal Obamacare altogether. And everybody agrees that would be a disaster.</s>TAPPER: I would just point out, I wasn't quoting Donald Trump. I was quoting former President Bill Clinton. But let me move on. The RNC has launched a new digital ad called "America Deserves Better" criticizing Senator Tim Kaine's record when it comes to the death penalty because of his work not only as a defense attorney, but also his work as governor. Here is a little clip.</s>NARRATOR: Richard Lee Whitley sexually assaulted and murdered his elderly neighbor. Tim Kaine defended him. Outside Whitley's execution, Tim Kaine said, "Something personal in me will die with Whitley." Percy Walton brutally murdered three people. As governor, Tim Kaine commuted his sentence, citing concerns disproved by the courts.</s>TAPPER: It's a tough Web ad, Robby. Your response?</s>MOOK: You know, Donald Trump's campaign has had a very hard week. They are desperate to try to change the narrative here. And they have said themselves they're going to go on the attack, they're going to throw a bunch of mud around. The attacks that are in that ad have been launched at Senator Kaine for some time now, when he ran for governor, when he ran for Senate. They have been answered. What we want to talk about in this debate are the issues, about how we help people afford health care, afford college, how we create more jobs, how we get wages rising. So, that's what Senate Kaine is going to be focused on in this debate. We hope that Governor Pence wants to engage on those issues as well.</s>TAPPER: Robby, just a quick question. Do you think it's Senator Kaine's job tonight more to attack Donald Trump and Mike Pence or to vouch and build up Hillary Clinton? And please don't say both.</s>MOOK: No, actually, Jake, I think the work that both Secretary Clinton and Senator Kaine want to do in their respective debates is make sure that people understand the real plans and proposals they have that are going to make a difference in their life, how they're going to create jobs, how they're going to get wages rising. That's what we'd like to focus on. That's when our campaign has always done best, is when they have the opportunity to talk about those proposals. I think what is going to be tricky in this debate for Governor Pence is, how is he going to answer all these questions about whether he will stand with Donald Trump? Is he going to back him up when he says that he may not have paid taxes for two decades? Is he going to back up his attacks on the former Miss Universe? Is he going to back up his attacks on a Gold Star family? This is a very tricky situation for him. And we will just have to see how he navigates that.</s>TAPPER: All right, Robby Mook, campaign manager for the Hillary Clinton campaign, thank you so much. Appreciate it.</s>MOOK: Thank you, Jake.</s>TAPPER: Coming up, Hillary Clinton expected to take questions from reporters at a rally. And we're also standing by for Donald Trump in Arizona. He is expected to speak to supporters just hours ahead of tonight's V.P. debate. Plus, the hospital at the center of the VA scandal, how is it possible that conditions for veterans there are getting even worse? We will have a report. Stay with us.