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Amazon Under Fire; Trump's Immigration Plan; Blast Rocks Thailand. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 17, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. Thanks for rolling into the 3:00 Eastern hour with me. I'm Ana Cabrera.

And we do begin with breaking news out of Bangkok, Thailand, where a deadly bomb tore through a crowded popular tourist area, an intersection described as the Times Square of Thailand. We have some new video of the blast as it happened. Take a look. You can see the flash of that blast, the sparks flying, caught on camera from inside a car that was stuck in traffic there.

Fortunately, the person inside that car was not injured. And now this video from a surveillance camera at a sidewalk level capturing that same explosion, different angle there. Police say at least 18 people were killed, including three Chinese tourists, and at least 117 others are injured, those numbers still rising.

Now, this all happened in the heart of Bangkok near a popular Hindu shrine during rush hour.

Let's bring in CNN's Saima Mohsin.

And, Saima, again the timing and the location are key here. What's the latest on the investigation?

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Ana, striking, as you say, at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand capital.

This location incredibly popular with tourists from right around the world, people coming from the United States, Chinese tourists making up the majority of foreign tourists coming there. This is a central location. It's a shrine that is dedicated to a Hindu God, but visited by the Sikh community, Hindu community, and Buddhist communities as well.

They have traditional dances there, so it's a major attraction. And that's why, of course, Thailand's military-run government will be focusing on why this had been targeted. Of course, one of the reasons is just simply that it is an incredibly popular area. This is a high- profile target.

But before -- Ana, I live in Bangkok and I have covered this area a lot during the anti-government protests last year. Thousands of people had this area on lockdown, but never before has this shrine been located. This is really striking the heart of Thailand's security issues, which have been calm since that military coup in May last time, Thailand's military-run government a lot to think about now, Ana.

CABRERA: Saima Mohsin, thanks to you in Bangkok, Thailand.

We have more breaking just news into CNN. It involves Hillary Clinton's State Department e-mails that were turned over to the CNN. Let's go live to Washington and CNN's justice correspondent, Pamela Brown.

Fill us in.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, we have learned from the court filings from the State Department that 305 documents sent through Hillary Clinton's private server have been referred to various intelligence agencies for consultation basically to determine whether the contents are classified.

This comes after intelligence community reviewers from five different agencies joined the review process at the State Department of Clinton's e-mails. Here's what the court filing says. It says, "As of a sample of approximately 20 percent of Clinton's e-mails, the intelligence community reviewers have only recommended 305 documents, approximately 5.1 percent for referral for their agencies for consultation."

So this filing is an update for a federal judge on review efforts in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. Hillary Clinton has repeatedly denied sending or receiving information marked as classified through her personal server and here is what she said over the weekend in response to the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you know what? It's not about e-mails or servers either. It's about politics. I will do my part to provide transparency to Americans.

That's why I have insisted 55,000 pages of my e-mails be published as soon as possible. I have even offered to answer questions for months before Congress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Important to point out here it's unknown at this point if any of these flagged e-mails, these 305 e-mails contain classified information, but, Ana, it comes at a time when the FBI is investigating the security of Hillary Clinton's private server she kept at her home in New York after the intelligence community inspector general identified two e-mails among a sample of 40 work- related e-mails that should have been marked top secret -- Ana.

CABRERA: We don't know the content of these 305 e-mails, but what would make them flaggable?

BROWN: Well, it depends. There's certain criteria as far as what is classified and what is not.

It really depends on the agency, depending on what they consider classified and what their rules and regulations are in terms of that. So what will happen now is, these 305 e-mails will go back to certain intelligence agencies. They will review the e-mails to see, if, in fact, it does meet the threshold of being classified sensitive information or not.

So that is what is happening right now, according to this court filing -- Ana.

CABRERA: Thanks for the clarification, Pamela Brown. We appreciate it.

And with me to discuss further, CNN political director David Chalian and CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston.

[15:05:05]

David, I want to start with you.

Clinton's e-mails just a preliminary screening we're talking about right now. We don't know for sure that these 305 e-mails are in violation of any of the rules. The Clinton campaign has been fighting any assumption that she had any classified information on her private server. But, clearly, this is something that is not going away for Clinton.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That's right.

What she says now as often as she's asked is that she didn't knowingly receive or send any classified information at the time that was marked classified. Now, there's nothing in these to suggest that that is not the case yet. We have seen no evidence that that's not the case, even if these 305 e-mails are now being looked at.

But you raise the larger point, Ana, which is that Secretary Clinton was at the United Nations before she launched her campaign and had an entire press conference, this is back in March, about her e-mails. We are five months later and just this weekend I was in Iowa with her and she held a press availability, still answering questions about her e- mails.

This has been a story that has dogged her the entire campaign thus far and because of the drip, drip, drip nature of it, more e-mails to come out, more e-mails to investigated if they're classified, it's not going away. They are not going to be able to put to bed this story, which is why you see Hillary Clinton doing what she did in that clip that Pamela just played, which is sort of make it into a partisan brawl, instead of actually debating the substance of it.

CABRERA: Right. And, Maeve, we do know that she's suffering from this e-mail scandal of sorts when you look at the poll numbers, and when it comes to trustworthiness or honesty, Bernie Sanders does outnumber her in that area. On a larger scale, could that end up being her demise?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think we will have to wait and see.

But David and I were both out at the Iowa State Fair with her this weekend talking to a lot of voters. And what our entire team was hearing was that they just really -- voters don't like this messiness on the side. I don't know that they are digging into, you know, what percentage of the e-mails are at issue here, et cetera.

But it comes back to this perception of the Clintons that the rules don't apply to them, that they talk in legalese and that they seem to do things by a different playbook than other people. That's not what voters are looking for right now in politics. That's why someone who Bernie Sanders, who is kind of rough and raw, is coming off a lot better.

The voters are not liking sort of the slickness of politics and they are looking for someone who they feel they can connect with in that respect. I think also that's why Trump is doing well on the Republican side. So it could really end up being a problem for her for a long time because it does contribute to this larger image problem for her.

CABRERA: Sure. Well, she's still leading the polls. One other person who has been on the docket, so to speak, is Joe Biden, who is not even in the race yet. He's polling number three right now.

And now we're hearing from a source telling Jim Acosta that there appears to be little enthusiasm for a Biden candidacy in the White House. Why the hesitation, David?

CHALIAN: Well, I think that there is some concern inside the West Wing and throughout the administration that a Joe Biden presidential run will tarnish the sort of statesmanlike image that he has crafted for himself and that has quite frankly has been a boost for the administration, because he and the president clearly have grown into a very close relationship and he has a very real job inside the White House.

And I think that there's concern that when you go from, you know, a position like vice president into presidential candidate, you immediately sort of get in the mud and that may not reflect well on the administration. So I think that that is a concern that they have inside there. I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with how Joe Biden will make this decision.

CABRERA: And you don't think it has to do with being torn in terms of who they are going to support since Hillary Clinton is already in the race?

CHALIAN: No. I mean...

(CROSSTALK) CHALIAN: Go ahead, Maeve.

RESTON: That's going to get really messy.

Obviously, the White House doesn't want to be in the middle of that fight. But I think we have to remember here that, you know, Hillary Clinton went forward with Obama's stamp of approval, but Joe Biden has done a lot for President Obama over the years, and if he is taking a new look at this, as we know from our sources, he may really feel like it is his time and that this is the moment that he wants to step into the fray.

As we were just discussing with Clinton's poll numbers, she has a lot of vulnerabilities there. Joe Biden is very good at talking to those blue-collar middle class voters who seem to be attracted to Trump's message and so that could also be a really interesting dynamic in the presidential race.

CABRERA: We have lots of months to figure it all out. Maeve Reston, David Chalian, thanks to both of you.

And straight ahead, not your typical day on jury duty. Donald Trump sitting in court waiting to see if he will be picked for a jury. But it's his stance on immigration that is once again making big headlines. Trump saying he plans to throw out the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship. We will discuss that.

[15:10:15]

Also, Amazon firing back. The head of the online retail giant now responding to a scathing "New York Times" article where employees describe a soul-crushing work culture where nobody laughs and others cry at their desk -- how the company is responding.

Plus, should kids get a trophy for just participating even if they don't win? An NFL player is getting a lot of attention for saying no way. That's straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: In the race for the White House on this Monday, Donald Trump is still dominating the polls and the headlines. He's promising big changes on immigration policy.

[15:15:00]

A new nationwide poll gives Trump a commanding lead over two other anti-establishment Republicans. You can see he has 25 percent support to Ben Carson's 12 percent and Senator Ted Cruz following that with 10 percent. This is in spite of the fact that more people said Trump did the worst job in the recent GOP debate. He's also seen as the least likable of the Republican hopefuls.

Trump is also promoting new details from his immigration reform plan And he wants to build that wall we have heard so much about, plus cut federal grants to so-called sanctuary cities and deport millions of people now living in the U.S. illegally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to make a whole new set of standards. And when people come in...

(CROSSTALK)

CHUCK TODD, MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": You're going to split up families. You're going to deport children.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Chuck, no, no, we're going to keep the families together. We have to keep the families together, but they have to go.

TODD: But you're going to...

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: But they have to go.

TODD: What if they have no place to go?

TRUMP: We will work with them. They have to go. Chuck, we either have a country or we don't have a country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Beyond that, it's Trump's new plan to redefine who can and cannot be a citizen that's making real headlines. He says he wants to end birthright citizenship, and that's allowing any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status, to automatically be considered a U.S. citizen.

I want to bring in Rafael Romo. He's CNN senior Latin American affairs editor.

Rafael, this citizenship policy has been in place since 1800s, when the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution. So, basically, Trump is talking about changing the Constitution?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Yes, that's exactly right.

Let's leave politics aside for just one moment to talk about the practicality of trying to do something like that. It would require a vote of two-thirds of both the House and the Senate in addition to three-quarters of all state legislatures. Right now, we're talking about 38 states that would have to do that.

Can you imagine, Ana, the kind of political capital that a president would need to do something like that when the nation is going through so many issues, the amount of political capital that it would take to convince the entire nation to do something like that? The other thing about this is, what about comprehensive immigration reform? There have been proposals from both Democrats and Republicans that aim at tackling this problem. And most everybody I know agrees that the immigration system in this country is broken. The difference is people have had different ideas on how to fix it. But going against the Constitution, trying to change it definitely seems like a very, very difficult task, Ana.

CABRERA: And you will wonder how it's going to play with Hispanic voters and we know GOP has struggled with the minority vote over the last couple of elections.

Let's just pivot here and talk about that wall that Trump plans to build. Curious how Mexico is reacting to paying for this wall.

ROMO: Mexican officials have really not reacted in a very public way about this, but there was recently comments some made by Eduardo Sanchez. He is the spokesman for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and what he said essentially is that -- what he told Bloomberg essentially is that they are not really taking Donald Trump seriously.

And let me read to you what he said in that interview. He said: "It reflects an enormous ignorance for what Mexico represents and also an irresponsibility of the candidate who is saying it."

The other issue here is what people on the street in Mexico are saying about this. And I don't mean to make light of a very serious issue, but people say give me a 20-foot fence and I will give you a 21-foot ladder. That's what people say in Mexico about this issue, Ana.

CABRERA: They're brushing it aside, saying it's not going to make a difference.

Rafael Romo, thanks so much.

Trump is taking a break from his campaign today. Instead, he showed up at a New York courthouse for jury duty. And he arrived in Trump style in this stretch limo. Take a look at this, Donald Trump sitting in court waiting to see if he will be picked for the jury captured by a Snapchatter and then this picture tweeted, the picture now making its rounds on social media.

Trump has been summoned, by the way, for jury duty in New York five other times before, but he didn't show up. One of his advisers telling CNN this morning that those past absences were because the jury summons were sent to the wrong address. This all follows a big weekend for Trump. He was one of several candidates to make a stop at the Iowa State Fair and he got into an interesting exchange with reporters over why he's waited until now to start releasing detailed policy plans.

And here's how it went.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: A lot of voters are saying that they want to see your policies now. They're very eager to see the sort of substance behind your remarks.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, I think the press is more eager to see it than the voters, to be honest. I think the voters like me. They understand me. They know I'm going to do the job.

And when you put out policy like a 14-point plan, a lot of times, in the first hour of negotiation, that 14-point plan goes astray. But you may end up with a better deal. That's the way it works. That's the way really life works.

[15:20:05]

When I do a deal, I don't say, oh, here's 14 points. I go out and do it. I don't sit down and talk about 14 points. But I know the press wants it. I don't think the people care. I think they trust me. I think they know I'm going to make good deals for them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Let's talk more about those remarks and his analysis of American voters with the Philip Bump. He's the political reporter for "The Washington Post."

Philip, you just wrote about Trump's comments in an article on "The Post" and pretty insightful. What did you think about his comments? Is he sort of onto something?

PHILIP BUMP, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Yes. I think he's definitely on to something.

One of the things that Trump has going for him is he can say whatever he wants to say. It's been proven repeatedly. He says what he wants to say and people reward him for it. What he said there is something that politicians shouldn't say, that policies don't matter, that no one cares about the specifics of policy.

I'm exaggerating a little bit, but there's a truth to that. The voters, when they are making decisions about elected officials, they really do weigh personality a lot. They really don't spend a lot of time driving into what a policy says before they make their decisions.

CABRERA: So it's more of an emotional attachment to a candidate vs. the facts and figures?

BUMP: Yes, often.

Obviously all of us think, OK, how does he stand on this, how does he stand on that? But we generally look at it at in at very superficial level. Right? There was a poll that was done earlier this year by the Kaiser Family Foundation that most people still don't know what is in Obamacare. Obamacare is obviously one of the most riveting pieces of legislation in recent history.

But there's so much nuance to it, there's so much detail to it, we don't have time for that. That's why we have political parties, because we want to know at a glance where people stand relative to us. It's the entire basis of representative democracy.

CABRERA: So much has been said about Trump being unlike other candidates.

BUMP: Right.

CABRERA: Because he isn't a politician. But he's a billionaire. How is he relating to the average joe?

BUMP: He's doing a great job of it simply by being not a politician. Right?

People sort of get tired of having politicians hem and haw and say here's how I feel about this, how I feel about that, and having very, very calculated positions on things. And Trump's strategy has instead been, here's what I think about it.

The most telling thing was in the interview with Chuck Todd this weekend and Chuck Todd pressed him, should Ukraine be in NATO? And Trump was, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. He didn't really care that much, which obviously isn't great. You don't want a president who doesn't care about these things, but it's totally fair that most of us don't have an opinion on what Ukraine should be doing either, whether it should be in NATO or not.

CABRERA: And that's how he is connecting with some people, because they're like, yes, I don't care about that, for someone sitting at home.

(CROSSTALK)

BUMP: Yes.

CABRERA: What about social media and the role it is playing in this campaign? Because you mentioned how personality is so important for these candidates. And in social media's sphere, it seems like these candidates have a chance to maybe show another side of themselves and they're connecting with voters where voters are.

BUMP: Right. A lot of them do a terrible job at it. Right? If you look at the social media accounts of most of these 2016 candidates, they are little ads for what they're doing in their campaign and read my plan about X, Y, and Z. And then Trump goes out and says, my opponent is a jerk because of X. Right?

And people like those better.

CABRERA: Immediate response, throwing barbs, right?

(CROSSTALK)

BUMP: Yes. People are into that. People think that's interesting.

(CROSSTALK) CABRERA: Does it provide a sense of authenticity?

BUMP: Absolutely. It reinforces the idea that Donald Trump will say what he wants to say and his entire argument is people will trust me because I am legit. I present myself as the way that I am and I will lead the country that way.

That doesn't work with everybody. He looks like he may have plateaued with the Republican Party. Democrats look at him very negatively on the whole. I'm not sure this is a great strategy for the general election. But it's serving him well so far.

CABRERA: All right, Philip Bump, good conversation. Thanks for being on. Good to have you.

BUMP: Thank you.

CABRERA: Up next, employees crying at their desk and answering e- mails around the clock. That's what it is apparently like to work at Amazon, according to some former workers and what they told "The New York Times" -- how Amazon is now responding to the allegations next.

Plus, Obama's late-night party, talking about what he might do after being president -- straight ahead, the stories from the people who were at that party.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:00]

CABRERA: Two-hour delivery, drones and one-click free ordering buttons in your home, these are some of the things you probably love. It's been part of Amazon's great success this past year, but at what cost for its employees?

A scathing "New York Times" article has just rocked the online retailer, and in it, former employees describe themselves as Amabots working in a dystopian workplace that uses humiliation and cutthroat competitiveness, so brutal that one former employee said -- quote -- "Nearly every person I worked with I saw cry at their desk."

Now, employees were even encouraged to send in anonymous evaluations of their peers to their bosses, who would then clip the worst of the worst at the end of the year.

Joining me now, CNN Money correspondent Cristina Alesci.

All right, Cristina, that is just the beginning, what we just shared. What are some of the other allegations?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Probably one of the most egregious is the idea that Amazon pushed out workers who took time off for medical reasons like miscarriages. Right?

That is really awful and a grim picture of the company. But let's just put this into context. Amazon is known for having a tough culture. As part of its very public principles, it says frugality is a value that it really is high on the list of things that Bezos wants to instill in employees.

That's not a surprise that he operates things on a very tight margin. This is a company that really doesn't have profits. Last quarter, it reported profits. Some quarters, it doesn't report profits. This is really emblematic also of how tough it is to operate in Silicon Valley and, more specifically, e-commerce.

Retail is also very tough. So the question becomes, is this systemic or abuse or is it just a really, really tough environment with some isolated incidents that "The New York Times" kind of pulled out and made a bigger story of? There are still a lot of questions around that, but "The New York Times" says, look, we interviewed 100 current and former employees. It's not an isolated incident kind of scenario.

That's what "The New York Times" is saying.

CABRERA: There were, in all fairness, some employees who defended Amazon, though, too, within their article, who said that there is an intrinsic motivation to be the best of the best, and, to some degree, you do work so hard, but you at the end are rewarded.