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Facebook Controversy Discussed; NTSB Completes Report on Amtrak Northeast Corridor Derailment Last Year in Philadelphia; Trump: Hillary Clinton Says Bill Clinton Would Work to Revitalize Economy; Refugees Will Plan Next 9/11 Attack; Obama: Court Vacancy Led To Contraception Punt. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 16, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

STELTER: -- make sure in this case he wanted the New York Times on the defensive instead of him on the defensive.

BALDWIN: Swamping, a new Stelter term for Presidential elections 2016.

Dylan, let me pivot and ask you about this Facebook story. We know, you know, the controversy over whether it's kept conservative news articles away from its site. We now know that its senior political advisor to Trump's campaign will be among several prominent conservatives, you know, attending this Facebook meeting. Tell me more about that.

BYERS: Yes, sure. Well, look this controversy which blew up last week and, of course, you know there's a controversy that's not based on an on the record source; it's actually based on anonymous sources, but it raised serious concerns about Facebook's influence in terms of news consumption in this country and a question as to whether or not they were tamping down or down right excluding conservative sources.

And look, if you're Mark Zuckerberg, you're sitting at the head of a very powerful influential company that is very much involved in what the future of news looks like in this country and around the world. You have to take this, address this head on and that's what he's doing. And so, he'll be meeting with conservative leaders, a member of the Trump campaign also, of course, Glen Beck and others.

And that's going to be a very interesting meeting and I think being able to sort of convince those conservative figures that Facebook is acting fairly and is not acting against their interest is going to be key in terms of Facebook's reputation going forward.

BALDWIN: It's important, you have to be fair. Dylan Byers, Brian Steltzer, thank you. We'll talk after that meeting, I'm sure. Meantime, coming up next, this is breaking news involving a deadly Amtrak crash that killed eight people in Philadelphia last year. So investigators now are revealing what the train's engineer was doing just before the crash. Those details when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Breaking news here. Investigators are now revealing what the engineer was doing moments before last year's Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia. That was a crash that killed eight people and injured more than 200. So let's get straight to Washington to our CNN Aviation and Government Regulation Correspondent Rene Marsh. Rene, what was the engineer doing?

MARSH: Well Brook, we have just learned that the NTSB has completed its investigation into what was the deadliest derailment along the northeast corridor in decades. Investigators have concluded that the Engineer of Amtrak 188 was distracted prior to that derailment. Specifically, he was distracted by radio conversations between other trains and dispatchers. They were all discussing other trains being hit by projectiles.

Now we know that NTSB will make this announcement tomorrow. I am also told that investigators found no evidence that the engineer used alcohol, used drugs, or that he was using his cell phone. This is strictly because he was distracted by that radio chatter. We know that the trip from the Philadelphia train station to the site of the derailment was about 11 minutes and I am told that for seven to nine of those minutes this engineer was listening in or even participating in that radio communications about these other trains who had reported being hit by something, possibly a rock.

So, you know, we have been following this story. Of course, this happened about a year ago. We're talking about eight people who were killed, more than 200 sent to the hospital. But this announcement that comes tomorrow, why it's so important is that it finalizes this investigation. This is the NTSB buttoning up all that they've been looking into for the last year and assigning a probable cause to that deadly derailment there in Philadelphia, Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Rene Marsh, thank you.

MARSH: Sure.

BALDWIN: If, if Hillary Clinton becomes the next President of the United States her husband may also get a big new job of his own. At a campaign stop in Kentucky, Secretary Clinton telling voters that if elected she would put the former President in charge of fixing the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON: "My husband who I'm going to put in charge of revitalizing the economy because you know he knows how to do it and especially in places like coal country and inner cities and other parts of our country that have really been left out"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: CNN actually just asked if Bill Clinton would get a cabinet post. Secretary Clinton shook her head and said no, but Bill Clinton out on the trail clearly already thinking about this potential new job.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILL CLINTON: "Hillary said the other day so I can say it in public; she said if I get elected what do you want to do and I said I want to go to the places that have been left out and left behind. I want to go to coal country; I want to go to Indian; I want to go to the Mississippi Delta. I want to go to places where people think every tomorrow is going to be like yesterday and say, no it's not, you can go along for the ride and that's what we're going to do."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So let's talk about this possibility. Here with me now CNN Presidential Historian, Doug Brinkley and Economist Diane Swonk, Founder and CEO of D.S. Economics. Awesome having you both on. And Doug Brinkley, just turning to you, it's like you think about this potential presidency if in fact Secretary Clinton is elected, the notion of even having a former President as the first man/gentleman; I forget how President Clinton wants to be referred to as but that he would be working in some sort of economic sector. Does that surprise you?

BRINKLEY: It doesn't surprise me but it's a brilliant idea and it was a good rollout I think today. You know, she said this in Kentucky. She's been getting people in coal country feeling that they're for Trump not her, so she's saying I'm going to bring Bill Clinton back to Ohio and Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, all those working class white communities that matter in Appalachia and we're going to zero Bill Clinton right in on your problems.

I think that's a perfect role for him to play in addition to being in the inner city and he mentioned Indian Reservations and Native American homesteads and the like so it's the first really smart use of Bill Clinton on the campaign so far.

BALDWIN: Diane, just on economics and we of course remember Bill Clinton and the campaign likes to remind everyone, you know creating 20 million plus jobs during his tenure in Washington, you know in terms of the economies in the '90's versus 2016 and beyond, how different are they?

SWONK: They're like night and day, that's the hard part. If there was a silver bullet to be shot it would've already been shot. And we are actually, as bad as it is, we're doing better than most countries coming out of this crisis which doesn't say a lot. But unfortunately, that's where we're at.

That said, I think the one thing critical about bringing in a voice of economic issues, this has been a campaign of insults not issues. We've missed the issue of deficit. The 'D Word' has not been discussed. That's something that the Clinton Administration did campaign on and also we effectively saw deficits disappear. Now some of that was because of gridlock; that was back when gridlock was good, not bad, which it is today.

So I think there is a combination of factors. He certainly had a serendipitous time to be President, but there was also some policies that had really been absent in the debate and I think are much needed to bring back into the equation if we want to move forward and have a sustainable economy going forward and more inclusive going forward.

BALDWIN: If, to your point and staying with you Diane, if you know it is sort of night and day then how could Bill Clinton help?

SWONK: That's a really good question. I mean first of all, most economic policy is done by Congress not by the President. That said, he is a President that has a history of reaching across party aisles, of cutting deals, and if that can possibly be done in this environment that's a role he could play in terms of moving forward on economic policy instead of backward.

We've heard a lot of backlash to the post-World War II economic integration, backlash to free trade. And it's understandable people feel that way but making the economy smaller and closing it down won't cure what ails us. We failed to train a whole generation of people more than one with the human capital they need and the skills they need to work in a global economy.

I think having those economic issues with some kind of a shepherd would be a positive thing. It's just refreshing to hear someone talking about policy for a change instead of other things.

BALDWIN: Yes, instead of other things like the insults. So on that, Doug Brinkley, we do know that Secretary Clinton was on the trail today in Kentucky. You know she essentially was saying to Mr. Trump I can't wait to see you on the debate stage, bring it, and then she did this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON: "Let's just imagine I'm on a debate stage with Donald Trump. Now personally, I am really looking forward to it. And so, let's suppose here's the question. So what is your plan to create jobs? His answer is, I'm going to create them. They're going to be great. I know how to do it but I'm not telling you what it is I'm going to do. And I'm going to say here's the ...here's what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do. Here's how we're going to change the tax code. Here's how we're going to incentivize people to do it. Now some people might say, oh you know all anybody wants to hear is just I'm going to do it but I'm not telling you what I'm going to do. See I don't believe that. Maybe in the preliminaries like the Republican primary that's all they wanted to hear, but Americans take their vote for President seriously and they're going to be looking at the TV screen and saying, he still doesn't have anything to tell us."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So I guess that is Hillary Clinton's impersonation of Donald Trump. But that aside, what do you think this debate will look like?

BRINKLEY: Well, I think she needs to make it funny whenever she can. I mean, when we look how candidates do well in debates come the fall, it's when Ronald Reagan makes a joke at a debate; it's when you say something funny.

So I think she's on target by trying to imitate Donald Trump; although, as impersonators go it's marginally good but we're running the clip on CNN now, we're showing her being light-hearted and fun. I mean, Hillary Clinton's biggest problem is there hasn't been a lot of fun around her campaign so she has to make every day a little bit exciting and starting to mock Trump in a good-natured way like this I think benefits her.

BALDWIN: OK. Doug Brinkley, thank you and Diane Swonk, thank you as well. We'll move on. Coming up next here on CNN, Donald Trump warning of a major terror attack if the U.S. doesn't block Syrian refugees but how many are really already on American soil.

[15:45:06] We're going to check numbers for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A bold new warning from Donald Trump. The presumptive Republican nominee predicts Syrian refugees will be behind a 9/11-type terror attack. Telling the National Border Patrol Council it would take a terror strike to quote, wake up border security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bad things will happen. A lot of bad things will happen. There will be attacks that you wouldn't believe. There will be attacks by the people that are right now coming into our country because I have no doubt in my mind -- I mean, you look at it, they have cell phones, so they don't have money, they don't have anything -- they have cell phones? Who pays their monthly charges, right? They have cell phones with the flags, the ISIS flags on them, and then we are supposed to say, isn't this wonderful that we're taking them in?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:09] BALDWIN: Meantime, Hillary Clinton has a much different approach to the refugee crisis. This is what Secretary Clinton had to say when she laid out her foreign policy agenda.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course, we have to have a lot of vigilance and we have to vet people and I would depend upon our defense and intelligence professionals to guide us in doing that. But we can't act as though we're shutting the doors to people in need without undermining who we are as Americans and the values we have stood for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto is with me, and can we, let's just first talk numbers in terms of Syrian refugees. How many are here on U.S. soil as it is?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: It's tiny. Certainly a fraction of what Europe has taken in. If you look at countries such as Germany, for instance, they've taken 400,000 people. The countries surrounding Iraq and Syria, such as Jordan and Turkey, 178,000. The U.S. pledged to take in 10,000 this year but so far this year they've only taken in about a fifth of that, just a little more than 2,000. So Germany, for instance, is taking 20 times the number that the U.S. has taken in so far. And what does that mean? One, there is better vetting here because when you look in Europe, they really can't stop that flow. Just physically, it's so many folks coming across, boats, et cetera. The U.S., you have an ocean in between us, but I have to be fair, Brooke, I've spoken to counterterrorism officials, intelligence officials, they say they do all of the homework they can. They say the only way to ensure you have no bad actors in that group of refugees is to not take any refugees, right, because you don't know for sure. A lot of these folks don't have track records. Our intelligence on the ground there is not great. The paperwork is not great, so they admit they can do a lot but they can't give 100 percent certainty and that's just a fact of whether as a country you want to take in some refugees or not, but what is very clear is it is a fraction of what others are taking in.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about how (inaudible) overseas, the British Prime Minister David Cameron saying Trump's views are divisive, stupid, and wrong. Here is what he said in London.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't care. It doesn't matter. It's fine.

QUESTION: If you're president and he's the British prime minister --

TRUMP: It looks like we're not going to have a very good relationship. Who knows? I hope to have a good relationship with him, but it sounds like he's not willing to address the problem either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Trump in London. How is David Cameron responding to that?

SCIUTTO: He is saying that he might take a phone call from him, but Cameron is sticking to his guns on this and not just Cameron. You have the recently elected mayor of London, the first Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, who almost repeated those exact words just a short time ago saying, calling Donald Trump's words divisive, ignorant, and dangerous, and that is the point that they make, is that those kinds of views actually incite anger and division and that kind of thing and to make you less safe. Listen, if he's president, a country like the U.K., a leader like a country like the U.K. is going to have to talk to Donald Trump. How will that relationship be? Brooke, you and I will only have to see.

BALDWIN: Jim Sciutto, thank you.

Next, the U.S. Supreme Court decides not to decide on a controversial case about Obamacare and birth control. President Obama weighing in on this moments ago. We'll have that for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:57:48] BALDWIN: A short-staffed Supreme Court just punted on a case that pits religious liberty and a key tenet of Obamacare. The eight justices decided not to give an opinion about the controversial contraception mandate. Instead, they kicked the case back down to the lower courts and moments ago, President Obama weighed in. I have with me the man, CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Jeffrey Toobin, and on the word of punting, this is actually coming from the President himself to Buzzfeed live, he said quote, I won't speculate as to why they punted, but my suspicion is, if we have nine Supreme Court justices instead of eight, we might have had a different outcome.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I think that's certainly true because this punting, kicking it back to the lower courts, almost guarantees that the case will be back before them later. But presumably it will be before them later when they have nine justices. So it really is the Supreme Court not doing its job. They are supposed to decide cases. Basically, what they did today was, please compromise, please don't make us decide this. This is about whether religious institutions -- they don't have to pay for birth control, but the question is, how do they opt out? They don't want to even sign a piece of paper that says, we opt out. They view that as enabling birth control. The Obama administration says no, that's just opting out, so you are not violating any religious obligations you had simply by opting out. That's what the controversy is about. But for the moment, women who are covered by Obamacare, which is basically everyone, continue to receive birth control at no cost to them.

BALDWIN: It's just so interesting covering this presidential race back to sort of the four and four split on the court, how some of these conservatives now are coming forward and thinking, well if there is a Hillary Clinton presidency, where that justice could sit on the spectrum versus say, Judge Merrick Garland, and some of them are saying, get them in, get them in, but the senate is saying otherwise, it sounds like.

TOOBIN: That is true. And they are taking a risk that the 63-year- old they get now versus the 45-year-old Hillary Clinton might appoint, to say nothing of who Donald Trump might appoint. There you go.

BALDWIN: You never know. Jeff Toobin, thank you very much, and thank you so much for watching here. I'm Brooke Baldwin on this Monday Afternoon. Keep it right here.