Under fire from Hillary Clinton, but also within his own part. Clinton now backing more getting more members of the military to back her as a result. Cnn washington correspondent, jeff zeleny, is following all of the developments for us. Jeff. Good morning. The praise donald trump is showering on Vladimir Putin is a traditional break from American Politics. It is outraging democrats and making republicans uneasy about the plurblurred lines of countr versus party. Hillary clinton says this is the latest sign that donald trump is not fit for the presidency. He is really very much of a leader. Amid ongoing criticism of his praise for Vladimir Putin. Donald trump in an interview on a Television Station funneled by the kremlin, telling larry king, he thinks it is unlikely the russian government is meddling through hacking. I think it is probably unlikely. Maybe the democrats are putting that out. If they are doing something, i hope that somebody will be able to find out, so they can end it. Because that would not be appropriate at all. Trumps team, telling cnn they did the interview as a favor, claiming they had no idea it would end up on russia today. His running mate, governor mike pence, defending trumps comments. In a cnn interview with dana bash earlier in the day. It is in arguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader than barack obama has been in this country. Thats going to change the day that donald trump becomes president. Hillary clinton, highlighting trumps continued praise of putin. She says it is the latest example of how her opponent is unfit to be president. That is not just unpatriotic. It is not just insulting. To the office and the man who holds the office. It is scary. It is dangerous. We have never been threatened as much by a single candidate running for president as we have been in this election. Clinton also casting trump as a divider in this new ad, hitting the airwaves in swing states this morning. Donald trump says he alone can fix the problems we face. I dont believe thats how we get things done in our country. It takes democrats and republicans working together. This, as both candidates trying to paint themselves as the better Commander In Chief. I opposed going in, and i did oppose it. Despite the media saying no, yes, no. Trump, sticking by his false claim that he opposed the iraq war early on, despite evidence from 2002 that proves otherwise. Are you for invading iraq . I guess so. As clinton qualifies the language around her pledge to never put troops back on the ground in iraq. We are not putting Ground Troops into iraq ever again. And were not putting Ground Troops into syria. Isnt a, that ignoring Ground Forces that are there, and b, boxes yourself in. There is no path forward to Ground Troops that would be in our interest. Clinton is showcasing her Commander In Chief credentials by rolling out the endorsements now of 110 retired generals and admirals. She is convening a bipartisan meeting of Homeland Security experts later in new york today. Including David Petraeus and michael cherthoff. Another heat on the birther conspiracy. Rudy giuliani saying trump now does believe that President Obama was born in the u. S. , despite trumps years of gining up this conspiracy. As you know, donald trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to talk about the birther issue. His running mate, mike pence, said he believes the president was born in the United States. Former new york city mayor and trump surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, says he also believes obama was born here in the states. But so far, still nothing from trump. For years, trump was one of the most outspoken backers of the Birther Movement. One that supported the false claim that President Obama was not born in the United States. Guiliani now says they were wrong. I want to know whether you believe your candidate for president believes he would succeed or not . Yes. Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate president . Donald trump believes now that he was born in the United States. But that issue was when he is going to say it. That issue was raised originally when he is going to say this president is legitimate . This is a fundamental question, mr. Mayor. Is it legitimate or not . If you believe it, why doesnt your candidate state it. I believe it, he believes it. We all believe it. In word from trump admitting he was wrong or what he believes. Many in the Africanamerican Community view the Birther Movement as racist. Trump, as you know, has been trying to court the africanamerican vote. Hillary clinton, putting pressure on trump to admit his mistake, addressing the issue at a Baptist Convention last night. We are facing a candidate with a long history of Racial Discrimination in his business. Who traffics in toxic Conspiracy Theories like the lie that President Obama is not a true american. If he doesnt even respect all americans, how can he serve all americans. Chris, clinton also taking aim at trump for another false claim. Trump continues to say he was against the war in iraq before it started, despite that interview, trump did with howard stern back in 2002, where he said he was in favor of it, chris. Jason, there are two challenges put to the Trump Campaign this morning. Own some things in the past, and explain some things going on in the present. Lets see if we can do that now with Trump Campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. Kellyanne, thank you for joining us, as always. Good morning, chris. These will be familiar questions to you. Lets see if we can make progress on them, though. The Birther Comment we were talking about, Rudy Giuliani goes on and he says donald trump now will say that he believes that President Obama was born in hawaii. He doesnt say it himself. Why not . You have to ask him. But i find the entire topic really amazing, i guess because the new cnn polls shows us beating her by three points. Why would you want to jeopardize that lead by going at the exact issue that you used against clinton, which is transparency and honesty. You say ask him. You are his campaign manager. Thats why im asking you. You speak for him. Yes, he believes why doesnt he own that position, yes, President Obama was born here. Was wrong to go with the birthers . He believes President Obama was born here. I was born in camden, new jersey. He was born in hawaii. Point is, what kind of president has he been. So he is born in the United States. No question, he was born in the United States. He has not been a particularly successful president. Thats what this campaign is about, on our side. If you look your own cnn polling, chris, show me where birtherism is a top, burning issue. I see ethics certainly. The highest negative numbers that he has are on trust and honesty, just like clinton. Thats why it goes to that. Thats why it also brings up the iraq war. He doesnt want to own that he wasnt against it before it started. Why not . Why not just own it, and as you like to say, he was a private citizen. Say, yeah, i was for it and then i was against it, but i was a private citizen. Its different. Why not say that . Because he knows how he felt and he was against the iraq war. He thinks it was a disaster. He is willing to say as a private citizen, youre playing the clip, your network keeps playing this clip on the howard stern interview, do you want to invade iraq, yeah, i guess so, literally. Where Hillary Clinton, United States senator, went to the senate and proudly cast her vote in favor of the war in iraq. So the comparison to the American People is ridiculous. There is no equivalence running unsuccessfully for the president. She owns that vote. She does own it. Thats the right way to say it. People want to blame matt lauer, i think thats a disgrace. I think he did a fabulous job, because he didnt cast her vote. He didnt put her email server, he didnt build a private email server. It is her who is left explaining these votes. Why dont you apply the same standard to trump . We both know there is no different standard for telling the truth when youre private citizen this en when youre public official. Thats absurd. That means why doesnt he own what he said in the past . Why doesnt he own what he said . He owns it plenty. Why dont you look at the full compliment what he said about the iraq war over time. And look at the Esquire Magazine interview. Look at her other statements. He said he was against it. When senator obama said he had been in the United States senate during the iraq war vote, he would have been against it. Everyone took him at his word. No, they didnt. You cant see it, because you are on the cheat monitor. I have a speech from 2002 when he was a state rep. He gave a speech saying he was against the war. Thats what people do when he was an elected official. Look, i want to go back to the original point. If cnn and anybody else thinks this campaign will come down to what donald trump said in ten words or less to howard stern 14 years ago it is about the truth telling. I know everybody is getting nervous, the polls are tightening, we see the stories Hillary Clinton will shift her strategy, fight her voice yet again, 30 years of this, stop talking about donald trump, Start Talking about herself. Really . You just played clips where she is obsessed about talking about donald trump. Kellyanne, let me ask you something. Are you suggesting im asking you hard questions because im worried that Hillary Clinton is going to lose . No. Youre not suggesting that . No, not you. No. Given what the campaign has done in the past, where it takes me out of context, i want to make sure were clear where youre coming from in. No, chris, i think Everybody Descending on matt lauer, like he did something wrong, if people didnt have questions about her email server, her vote in iraq, the russia reset, her failures in libya, syria, benghazi, if they didnt have these questions, this woman would be at 65 of the vote. She has had everybody helping her, all the kings horse, all the kings men, all the data, mainstream media, and she just cant do it. She cant put them away. Now the polls are tightening, and shifting their strategy again. Let me ask you something that has come up about the forum. There is an idea that one of the reasons that donald trump is seen as a Commander In Chief is because he is a man. One of the reasons that Hillary Clinton had her feet held to the tire disproportionately in that forum is because she is a woman, some of the resistance to her is to being a woman. Does that resonate with you at all as a professional, who has worked so hard to make it in a mans world of polling, and risen to the top as you have, good for you . Does that issue resonate with you . Do you see that at lplay here . No, it does not. Especially because she runs on her d. C. Political resume, having been the first lady of the United States senator and secretary of state. She is using those achievements, chris, to show, to say that she is qualified to be Commander In Chief. So you cant have it both ways. You cant run basically for eight years now, for president of the United States, on those credentials and then turn around and say everybody is being unfair to me, theyre picking on me because of my gender. I mean, i actually think if they go there and i saw another comment just this morning in another news, different newspaper, chris, suggesting that matt lauers questions were sexist to her, i mean, this is what are they doing over there . Why not just continue saying, look, im got the credentials, classic d. C. Resume, it doesnt seem like thats what americans want. They want change. But you know, screaming about sexism when youre running as the first female president of the United States with two months to go seems desperate. Well, both can be true. She could be running as the first one and still feel it plays, which is why she is the first one. Lets move onto the present. He goes on russia tv with larry king, and he talks again about the u. S. In an unflattering way to a russian audience. I want to play somewhat of he said about the u. S. Foreign policy. We should have never gone into iraq, period. That was bush. But once we went in, larry, we shouldnt have gotten out the way we got out. The way they got out really caused isis, if you think about it. Lets look to the future. It has been a catastrophe. The middle east has been a total catastrophe. What is the virtue of criticizing the United States to a russian audience . Well, first of all, as you know, former cnn superstar, larry king, has a podcast and mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it would be on russian tv. That aside, does america not agree with donald trump that the iraq war was a mistake that we lost thousands of american lives, that we lost trillions of dollars, and i just want to honor the sacrifice of those families who will never have their loved ones back with them again. But most of america believes that did not go well for us. Then he talks about how The Middle East is a disaster. The president of the United States has been over in asia, and he has been criticizing donald trump. It is bizarre. Leave American Politics in america. Criticizing donald trump is different than criticizing america. It used to be a big part of the republican playbook to go after President Obama for being too apologetic about america. Now you have trump he is not opening saying that the russian president is a better leader than the president of the United States. If you want to play the full clip of what he said, chris, which i think would be great and definitely qualifies as Breaking News on cnn, the full clip, he said thats not a system i agree with, but he is a strong leader there. Nobody wants to play the full clip. As if he agrees with mike pence said lets be clear. What is his slogan. Context of a poll, no question, that putin has been a better leader than obama, and that will change the day that trump takes office, suggesting what, were going to more like russia . He doesnt agree with the system of government. Putin has been a strong leader within his system of government. If you think donald trump is the only person in this country who believes ha weve had a anemic Foreign Policy in the last aetd years, thats just not true. If they didnt agree with that, the former secretary of state, former United States senator, former first lady, the whole nine yards, she would be at 65 among women, 58, 60 in the polls. The polls are going the other way. They dont like her record. They dont like what has happened with her Foreign Policy. If anybody can say with a straight face, that the russian reset, syria, libya, benghazi, The Middle East are better now, it defies people arent smart enough to know this. The americans are very engaged in this election and paying attention to policy. Thats why my candidate, donald trump, is out there every single day talking about policy. You can disagree with the policies, but you sure the heck can read them. She is out there talking about him. It is bizarre. You cant run a campaign talking about your opponent and do right by the American People. They deserve and expect a conversation on defeating radical islamic terrorism. On law enforcement, ongoing into communities of color. Kellyanne. This guy has been president ial at the forum in louisiana, helping people going down to the mexican president , giving his immigration speech. All right. This is what leader does. Kellyanne, as you know, mr. Trump is invited on new day any time to discuss middle class tax relief and happy to put a condition in there that he cant mention Hillary Clinton once. Lets see how long that interview goes, if it happens at all if i get off the black list. Thank you for making the case for the campaign. Thank you. We just heard from trumps side on their campaign strategy. Next, well hear from a House Democratic about the clinton strategy. People get anxious and my office gets flooded with calls. So many things can go wrong. Its my worst nightmare. 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