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Trump Says Can Make U.S. Proud Like Reagan Did; State Department: Clinton E-Mails Considered Classified Referred to Investigative Agencies; Indonesian's Trigana Airline Safety Record Not Good; "Straight Outta Compton" Taking Hollywood by Storm. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired August 17, 2015 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:33:53] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You see the slogan and you hear him say it all the time on trail, Donald Trump wants to, quote, "Make America great again." So when was the last time America was great, according to Trump? Here's what the Republican front-runner told NBC's "Meet the Press."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I would say during the Reagan administration, you felt proud to be an American. You felt really proud. I don't think since then to any great extent. People have felt proud. That was an excellent tone for this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: And Trump's admiration for Ronald Reagan apparently runs deep. The slogan itself is a slight variation from one that Reagan himself used in 1980, "Let's make America great again."

Joining me now, CNN political commentator, Dan Pfeiffer, who used to be a senior adviser to President Obama; also with us, conservative commentator, Matt Lewis, from "The Daily Caller."

Really, Donald Trump has to go back more than 25 years? He's really thrived since 1989.

[14:35:00] MATT LEWIS, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, THE DAILY CALLER: There are a lot of Americans who would say that America has that swagger and sense that Reagan comes in and turns the country around. To a lot of folks what is happening right now is reminiscent of the late 1970s.

But I think there's a danger in getting too bogged down in nostalgia. Reagan had that slogan, but I don't remember him implying American wasn't great in 1978 or 1979. I don't remember Reagan harkening back to the 1950s that much. The demographics of America are very different than the 1980s and the challenges that we face, economically and internationally, are very different. It's great to say let's make America great, the part about "again" is a little more doubling.

CABRERA: Dan, what do you think about this lionization of Ronald Reagan? DAN PFEIFFER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It's a very unsettled subtext in what Donald Trump says. It's one thing to say America wasn't great when Bill Clinton was president or Barack Obama was president if you're running for the Republican nomination. But he's skipping over 12 years of Republican presidents.

CABRERA: Right.

PFEIFFER: With the last name of Bush.

CABRERA: Of Bush. And now Jeb Bush. He's a competitor.

PFEIFFER: Right. That's exactly right. I think Matt is right. Nostalgia campaigns don't go very far. Trump is in danger of seeming too nostalgic, and he's going to have to do more if he wants to hold on the momentum that he has in the nomination.

CABRERA: And to that point, Dan -- I mean, Matt, do you think that that is exactly why he didn't bring up the Bush years, because right now George W. Bush, his foreign policy has been under scrutiny?

LEWIS: Look. I think conservatives and Republicans, George W. Bush, maybe history will remember him more kindly. But I think Ronald Reagan, still, is who you harken back to if you want to harken back. But nostalgia is not the place you want to be. I wonder how it translates and for a younger generation, I don't remember Ronald Reagan even, as amazing as that sounds.

CABRERA: Let's focus in, then.

Matt, in this interview on "Meet the Press," Donald Trump said that he watches the shows, like the Sunday shows for military advice. I assume he means the news program. I watch them to get research on what is happening in the world. But if you're going to be the president and commander-in-chief, is that enough?

LEWIS: Oh, my heavens. It's so fun to talk about Donald Trump.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

LEWIS: In fairness, he talked about Ambassador Bolton. Donald Trump is not running for primetime. I'm not saying you have to be a career politician to be president, but having gotten elected to something, having served in public service, I think helps. It's not even an issue like the military. Conservatives have a very good reason to be concerned about this. He recently said he wouldn't fund Planned Parenthood, and one of his defenders, Ann Coulter, dismissed this faux pas explaining, he's not a politician. It helps if you're a politician. You know how the world works.

CABRERA: Dan, should voters be concerned of Trump presidential position that relies on the news program and what did you hear from the military experts to form his foreign policy? PFEIFFER: Absolutely. I think voters should be troubled by the

entire Donald Trump thing. It is ridiculous to the extreme. But he has found a way to consolidate a quarter and he turns out that he's better at politics than anyone else running for the nomination. And he makes stumbles here and there, like saying an absurd thing that he gets his military advice from Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper. But somehow he's able to turn these gaffes into proof. And the problem for answering this question for Republicans is what Jeb Bush has seen, which is, you don't want to be associated with the Iraq war and all of the advisers, like Paul Wolfowitz.

[14:40:00] CABRERA: I want to ask, before we go, Dan, there's been a lot of speculation and rumors floating around about a potential Joe Biden presidential run and now we're hearing from a Democratic Party source here at CNN that there's concern in the White House about the vice president possibly running for president because maybe there's concern about a campaign and things that go with it. Is that what you're hearing from your folks?

PFEIFFER: No. What I'm hearing is that the vice president has more than earned the right to run if he decides he wants to do that. I think people have tremendous affection and loyalty from the president on down. They want what is best for him but he's got to make his personal decision and the White House would take the role as a White House does in a divided primary, which is they don't endorse. So obviously, it puts people in the White House in a challenging position because a lot of people are close and friendly with Secretary Clinton --

CABRERA: Right.

PFEIFFER: -- and a lot of people are close and friendly with Joe Biden. But this wouldn't be the first time in history that this has happened.

CABRERA: But is there a risk to his legacy?

(CROSSTALK)

PFEIFFER: Oh, there is always risk and it may not turn out well. If he had a campaign and it didn't go well, it would affect that. That's not a reason to get in or not get in. He's got to decide what he wants to do and what he thinks is in the best interest of himself and his country.

CABRERA: As advisers have said, October 1st should be the cutoff to make that decision.

Dan Pfeiffer, Matt Lewis, out thanks to both of you for your time today.

PFEIFFER: Thank you.

CABRERA: Appreciate it.

LEWIS: Thank you. CABRERA: We have some breaking news just into CNN and it has to do with Hillary Clinton's State Department e-mails.

I want to go live right to Washington. CNN's justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, is gathering information for us.

Pamela, what can you tell us?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: On review of Hillary Clinton's e-mails from her private server, identified 305 documents that had been referred to as various intelligence agencies for consultation to determine whether the contents in those documents are, in fact, classified. This is in a court filing today by the State Department and it says, out of a sample of 20 percent of e-mails, the intelligence community reviewers have only recommended 305 documents, approximately 5.1 percent, for referral for their agency for consultation.

So it's unclear at this point, Ana, if any of these 305 e-mails contained classified information. And this comes at a time when the FBI is investigating the security of Hillary Clinton's private security. 30,000-plus e-mail work e-mails were sent through that server. And the FBI is really focused right now on determining whether any potentially classified information may have been compromised. And you'll recall the Intelligence Committee found two classified e-mails among the work-related e-mails that should have been marked top secret. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly said that she did not send or receive classified information through her personal server. In fact, over the weekend, Ana, she defended herself and said, look, this is not about the e-mails. This is about politics -- Ana?

CABRERA: Pamela Brown, in Washington for us, thank you.

Coming up, "Straight Outta Compton," number-one at the box office? Why is this film about a rapper who came to fame in the 1980s resonating so much today. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:04] CABRERA: The search for a missing passenger jet in Indonesia has been called off for the day as crews spotted debris from the plane just before bad weather forced them to abandon the search. The Trigana Air flight crashed, and for this airline, Trigana, before yesterday's crash, it had 19 serious safety incidents in just the last 23 years. It's a small airline.

To talk more about this, CNN aviation correspondent, Richard Quest.

Thank you so much, Richard. Good to have you here.

Fill us in on the investigation to this crash.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Very early on they spotted the first wreckage but this is mountainous territory. The weather is currently bad. The one thing you don't want is to make a bad situation worse by endangering those who have got to be part of the search and recovery. They are going to take their time but they have seen the wreckage. We're a long way from finding out what the cause may be. There's a variety of possibilities. Mechanical failure leading to loss of control and then crashing into the ground. Possibly weather played a part of it. Possibly simply the pilots dealing with too much at the time and suddenly they hit the mountain.

CABRERA: We talked about 19 serious safety incidents since 1992 for this particular airline. Why is this airline still operating?

QUEST: A very good question. One that the Indonesian regulators will have to answer. This airline was banned from flying to the European Union. It was a small airline. It only had just over a dozen planes and it had 19 incidents. Serious incidents. And those incidents, if you delve into them, they were to do with bad maintenance, poor pilot errors of judgment. They were to do with complete incompetence in many ways. So when asked the question, why was this airline still being allowed to operate by the Indonesian regulators, to put this in perspective, they have the same number of incidents as you would get from one of the major U.S. carriers, and they have hundreds upon hundreds of planes and tens of millions of passengers.

[14:50:32] CABRERA: And thousands and thousands of flights.

QUEST: No, Hundreds and hundreds of flights in the same period.

CABRERA: Hundreds of thousands of flights. So with this airline --

(CROSSTALK)

QUEST: This airline -- this airline was a mischief. It was a nuisance to aviation.

CABRERA: And such a tragic situation in this recent crash. 54 people presumed dead at this point.

QUEST: Yes.

CABRERA: Thank you so much, Richard Quest, for your expertise --

QUEST: Thank you.

CABRERA: -- filling us in on all that. We appreciate it.

Up next, the new film "Straight Outta Compton," number one at the box office this weekend. But does the film leave out embarrassing parts of the story?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The first major studio film about a group of hip-hop artists taking Hollywood by storm. "Straight Outta Compton," the biography about '80s west coast gangsta rape group NWA, broke box office records, breaking in more than 60 million in its opening weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hit that first beat hard. You're cruising down the street.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: All right.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Hey, that was dope, dude.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Compton's very own Ice Cube.

Eazy-E and Dr. Dre. You are witnessing history.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: They want NWA, let's give them NWA

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:55:04] CABRERA: NWA, known for provocative songs about inner city lives, two of the biggest stars, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Critics say the movie glorifies the controversial group and glaringly omits its past, particularly the treatment of women.

Joining me is political and social commentator, hip hop historian, Kevin Powell, author of "The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy's Journey into Manhood"; and also with us, "Buzz Feed" entertainment reporter, Kelley Carter.

Let's talk about the box office numbers, 60.2 million and counting, the tickets. NWA was the original face of it.

Kelley, what do you make of those numbers? What does it say about the movie's resonance?

KELLEY CARTER, ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER, BUZZ FEED: I think it's interesting. You know, the same critics who probably panned this group 27 years ago are champing their biography which speaks to their dominance in the culture. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre have become major moguls in television and music and their presence is undeniable and to see the origin story of them is interesting and audiences couldn't get enough of it.

CABRERA: Is that what you think, Kevin? Is that why people are so drawn to this movie because of its stars?

KEVIN POWELL, POLITICAL & SOCIAL COMMENTATOR & HIP HOP HISTORIAN & AUTHOR: Well, that and the hip-hop -- you have to be honest, as Americans, hip-hop is the dominant culture in this country and on this planet in the last 45 years. It's been the number one album, Dr. Dre created, about Alexander Hamilton created by a writer immersed in hip- hop culture. When I saw "Straight Outta Compton," black, white, Latino, Asian, every generation was there. That's very different than when this film came out. This culture belongs to everyone. That's why this film is so popular.

CABRERA: Critics, including you, have criticized the fact that the movie doesn't really get into some of the more I guess dark history of these groups and these people. The lyrics, treatment of women and instead, "Straight Outta Compton" glorifies its music and the stars. Why do you think that was left out?

POWELL: You know, I say it on my blog on my Facebook page. The film just very eloquently and powerfully deals with the issue of race and racial profiling correlates with the issues today. Dr. Dre and Ice Cube and the director did not see it fit to talk about the savage beating of Dee Barnes and the lyrics that depict women in very despicable way. Just like racism is alive and well in this country, so is sexism. It would have been a great film if it had the courage to deal with that but it did not.

CABRERA: I see you shaking your head, Kelley.

CARTER: I agree. I think it's important to note that the culture of gangster rap was a very comfortable space for rape culture and homophobic slurs to exist. I don't think that we really challenged the group at the time they were making this music to really -- to really address those issues. I think that, you know, as much as great things as they did with their music -- and they did a lot of great things. They shed a lot on what was happening in urban neighborhoods that people weren't acutely aware of. We didn't really take them to task, I think, in a national conversation the way we probably should have.

CABRERA: And, Kevin, "Straight Outta Compton" comes amid this Black Lives Matter movement. It bolsters the fact that policing tactics and the relationships that ignited NWA's rise, they remain emblematic today.

POWELL: Ice Cube was 19, 20 years old when he wrote the song "After the Police" and that's remained the anthem today. The Rodney King beating was 24 years ago. We now have a black president in the White House but still there are things that have not changed. There are things in the film that are relevant and powerful. I can't dispute the fact that this film wasn't important. I hope people see it as a place as a starting point about grace and gender issues and gender violence and not a film that we get caught up in the trend of and the context disappears.

CABRERA: Maybe that's resonating so much because of the key issues we're still talking about today in the news cycle and on the street.

Kelley Carter and Kevin Powell, thank you so much.

POWELL: Thank you.

CABRERA: Good to have you.