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Ex Obama Aide Calls Trump Hire "Bad News" for Dems; Clinton Mocks Trump in Hypothetical Debate; Mark Cuban: If Trump Elected President Stocks Will Tank; Long Security Lines Continue at Airports. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 17, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:00] STEVE SCHALE, FLORIDA STRATEGIST AND OBAMA ADVISOR: I've come out on the losing end twigs. Looking at Rick Scott and the model I warn Democrats about. Tony took a guy who Rick Scott when he became a candidate guilty of the largest fine in history and molded him into a candidate to win statewide. Trump has massive problems. But again, I think Tony's very good to find ways to get to a win with a flawed candidate.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Your exact quote, "Tony is one out smartest dudes I know." There's that, as well.

SCHALE: Yeah, why.

BALDWIN: When talking about Trump's problems, he rolls in a pollster. What are his priorities? What does he need to do to sell Trump to the general electorate?

SCHALE: Well, I think what you're seeing it already in places like, Florida and battleground states and the national polling that the Republicans are coming together. You know? I think when it boils down to it, Republicans are going home grudgingly and we are still 6 percent or 7 percent of the electorate that always decide elections. What Tony is able to do well with the two Scott campaigns, frankly, to drive turnout down. Made the race a race to the bottom. Made it very cynical, and in a race like that, turnout became very low. And frankly, unfortunately, in races, hard-core partisan turnout races, my party doesn't do well. And the challenge on the Clinton side to keep it high energy to keep people enthusiastic. Tony will work hard to stop from that happening. Have people turn out to vote.

BALDWIN: People may be listening to us and I bet they remember that infamous Willie Horton ad that helped Bush and hurt Dukakis. This is from '88. Let's remind everyone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: -- Dukakis on crime. Bush supports the death penalty for first-time offenders. Dukakis not only allows the death penalty, he allowed first-degree murders to have weekend passes from prison. One was Willie Horton, who murdered a boy in a robbery, stabbing him 19 times. Despite a life sentence, Horton received --

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: So Fabrizio is behind that. My question is this. You know, when Tony Fabrizio does what he needs to do and comes back to Mr. Trump, saying, Mr. Trump, I have discovered, because of X, Y and Z, you have problems with -- giving a hypothetical example -- women. The question is, will Mr. Trump listen? Will something change?

SCHALE: I think that's a very fair question. Rick Scott was willing to say or do whatever he had to do to win. Tony had a blank slate and carve a candidate. With Trump, we have a guy who thinks he's his best adviser, the smartest guy, he knows, and interesting to see if he'll listen to his advice. He would be smart to listen to the advice.

BALDWIN: Steve Schale, Thank you so much. Come back. Appreciate it.

SCHALE: Enjoyed it.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Next, Hillary Clinton says she is looking forward to sharing the debate stage with Donald Trump. What are the top three strategies each candidate might deploy to capitalize in a debate? We'll talk to some experts.

Plus, have you heard what Mark Cuban has said if Donald Trump is elected president? He said the stock market will tank. Why he predicts -- quoting him -- "huge, huge losses."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:37:47] BALDWIN: The primaries aren't over but already the front runners of both parties are waging war against one another. Looking ahead to the general election, on the right, Donald Trump, on the left, Hillary Clinton. Those two dealing blow after blow, with Clinton even slamming trump's debate style yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 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.

(LAUGHTER)

I know how to do it.

(LAUGHTER)

But I'm not telling you what it is I'm going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that got us thinking, what would a debate look like between these two front-runners? Joining me, John Thomas, a Republican consultant; Todd Graham, the

director of debate at Southern Illinois University.

So, John, we'll think of you as advising Trump. Todd, we'll think of you as advising Secretary Clinton.

John, out of the gate, you say Trump needs to get Hillary Clinton off script. Why and how?

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Yeah. That's what he has to do. The fact is Hillary Clinton is good at delivering canned talking points but if you get her off script she is not comfortable many that format so that's the first thing he has to$, do. The second thing he has to do is reinforce with the electorate what they suspect to be true and Hillary is not trustworthy and then the third thing is pivot back to the message on jobs and no matter how Hillary wants to debate you, how many jobs have you actually created in your life, Hillary?

BALDWIN: OK. Let's come back to that in a second.

Todd, you say she has some bad habits she needs to fix.

TODD GRAHAM, DIRECTOR OF DEBATE, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY: She does have a couple of bad habits, Brooke. The first one is interrupting a little bit too often and other than interrupting, sometimes she talks too long. She first off has the Chuckle answering questions and then when the question begins and she begins to answer it, she rambles on and on and so I would tell her short and simple. Short answer, a simple answer is always better.

[14:39:57] OK. You both talk about getting into the mud. You know, whether it's about past, something really sensitive. But Trump is not known for staying clean, let's say.

Here's a quick mash-up of Trump in the Republican debates.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: If my hands, if they're small, something else must small. I guarantee you there's no problem. I guarantee it.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Are leaders are stupid. Our politicians are stupid. And the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning, and they send the bad ones over because they don't want to pay for them. They don't want to take care of them.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: You're the one.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Let me just tell you. (CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Excuse me. I've given my answer, Lyin' Ted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: OK. So, John, how do you take that Trump, you know, and coach him for prime time, for general election presidential debate?

THOMAS: Well, Brooke, the electorate is looking for a show at these debates and Trump knows how to deliver ratings, how to deliver a show. I think she's just -- Trump's going to be Trump here and he has to -- look. He's doubled Hillary, Crooked Hillary, and reinforcing that. Here's the problem Hillary will have if she's tempted to roll in the mud with Trump, that's not how she behaves in politics. They know brass knuckle politics but deliver the blows by surrogates and so Donald Trump has been his entire life attacking people this way. Hillary it's the first time she's done it and a challenge for her.

BALDWIN: On attacking, Todd, to you, you know, we already know that Trump apparently is going to hit her live in a debate stage coming to personal issues, specifically with her husband. Advise Hillary Clinton not at all to respond to that?

GRAHAM: Yeah. For the most part I would because I think the more -- the more rope you give Donald Trump the more chance he has to hang himself. Make the insults he wanted to and not trade insults and interrupt Donald Trump and not try to get the last word. Brooke, you might have noticed. Every single debate Donald Trump got worse with less competition and less people on stage, he did worse and worse. Why was that? It was because he had more speaking time. Donald Trump's weakness is he honestly thinks he's good at debating. Just ask him. He'll say he's won every debate and a problem when, in fact, he's not very good at debate. So if I was --

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: Todd --

(CROSSTALK)

GRAHAM: If I was -- yeah. If I was advising Hillary Clinton --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead. Finish your thought.

GRAHAM: Yeah. If I'm advising Hillary Clinton, I'd tell her to let Donald Trump speak more. Tell her to let him speak as much as he wants to speak and find out exactly how much he knows. Don't interrupt him. Let him speak more and more. He thinks he is good at debating. Let him prove it.

THOMAS: Todd's right in the sense of Donald Trump to focus on doing no harm. Donald Trump whether you want to talk about his tactics or not, he knocked off 16 well qualified candidates on the GOP side. The guy knows what he is doing. The other thing to advise Donald Trump to do is let Hillary attack him on the tax returns and what he needs to say is, Hillary, I'll release my tax returns when you release all of your wall street transcripts and use that as an issue to reinforce to the Sanders supporters that Hillary is beholden to wall street.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Get the popcorn ready now, fellows. We don't know if it's Hillary but, and then there will be two.

John Thomas and Todd Graham, thank you both so much. We'll do this again.

Next, Mark Cuban says if Donald Trump gets elected, the economy will tank with, quote, "100 percent certainty." "Time" magazine's Rana Foroohar will join me on whether or not the prediction could be true.

Plus, if you have a flight in your travel plans, you will want to get to the airport pretty early. Very early. Some airports saying passengers need to arrive three hours before domestic flight. We'll delve into that.

You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:00] BALDWIN: A fellow billionaire says if Donald Trump is president brace yourself for turmoil on Wall Street. Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, was on CNN essentially saying that the stock markets could be shaken severely given Trumps unpredictability.

Here's part of this dire picture that Cuban painted here on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER & SHARK TANK STAR: That uncertainty, you know, potentially as the president of the United States, that's the last thing Wall Street wants to hear. And I can say with 100 percent certainty that there's a really good chance we could see a huge, huge correction. It could be 20 percent. You know? Now with high frequency trading accelerating strong moves in any direction it could be worse than that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's take a closer look at the potential act with CNN global analyst, Rana Foroohar, and she is also "Time" magazine's assistant managing editor in charge of economics and business, and the book is out today -- plug -- "Makers and Takers."

(LAUGHTER)

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ANALYST: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Congrats on this.

FOROOHAR: Thank you for the plug.

BALDWIN: You're welcome.

On Mark Cuban, though, he says that the markets could plunge 20 percent if Trump is elected. Would you see it that way?

FOROOHAR: I hope not. What the markets are worried about is we don't know what a Trump economic policy would lock like. What comes out of his mouth is different than what his business record shows. I think that the markets don't like insecurity. I know when I'm abroad in particular when I'm overseas people are very worried about this because they don't know what to expect and they don't understand our politics as being very populist. I don't think the stock market will crash but I worry about the long-term implications of the trade proposals he's made and just the back and forth on everything of taxes to how investment policies work to how he regulates the stock market.

BALDWIN: To be fair, not just a potential Republican president that wall street is nervous about. Bernie Sanders, as well.

[14:50:04] FOROOHAR: Well, exactly. I think that you are getting at something important there is that it's the populism that has the street worried. This is what my book's about. People looking at the system over 40 years and said did it serve us? What can and should we do different? The street may know there's changes coming.

BALDWIN: Someone else who could be in the White House?

FOROOHAR: Could be.

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton made news just this week saying she would her husband in charge of the economy. You said this is a terrible idea. Possibly the most tone deaf suggestion Clinton has made in the current campaign. The high tide of the late 1990s did lift a lot of boats and wreckage was left in its wake.

FOROOHAR: Yeah.

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

FOROOHAR: If you look at the 1990s, the Clinton camp and some economists will argue, look, a period of higher than average growth and jobs created.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: People say he created 21 million jobs.

FOROOHAR: Look at the Constitution of those jobs. Many lower paid jobs, many of them not in the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing sector took a big hit in part because of some policies during the Clinton administration, the free trade deals passed, certainly the deregulation of the derivatives market, which led to the subprime collapse of 2008. And I would argue the growth of the '90s build on a tech productivity boom that's over. It's flat. And a stock bubble, which created a lot of devastation after it blew up. And what I Hillary's real growth in the real economy going to be? You could say Bill Clinton has a lot of E.Q. and talk to laid off workers, sure, but the Rustbelt an area that really suffered from the loss of manufacturing jobs and from some of the very financialized policies of the last year and it's an odd choice.

BALDWIN: So the -- what President Clinton did in the '90s as that economy, Diane Swonk on with me yesterday, the economist, saying, it's night and day, Brooke, looking at the '90s and 2016 and beyond, and so my question is, do you think what he did then, that is not translatable?

FOROOHAR: You know, I think that what we were seeing in the '90s is beginning of what we feel now and wages started to flatten for all Americans. So working class Americans feeling that really since the 1970s onward but by the mid-1990s we were thinking we haven't gotten a raise in a while. So I think that the laissez-faire started and we know trickle down is broken and that's why you're seeing Sanders and Trump do so well and whether or not you believe in the policies the average American knows that the current paradigm isn't working and people aren't thinking to go back the '90s but thinking we need something new.

BALDWIN: Something different and we haven't seen.

Rana Foroohar, and the book is "Movers and Takers."

Thank you so much.

FOROOHAR: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Next, flying, have you flown lately? I was in Chicago and this is what we will talk about. Not a pretty picture in line. In some cases you have to wait three hours. Get there three hours before the flight. For some of the early arrivals, missing their flights. We're live at O'Hare Airport to figure out what's going on.

Plus, death threats for the chair of the Democratic Nevada party after chairs are tossed at the chaotic state convention there. Why she says Bernie Sanders himself needs to put a stop to this and needs to apologize.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:56] BALDWIN: Here's good news for us all. No more long lines, at least for now. This is what travelers have been dealing with. Chicago's airport saw people waiting more than three hours to catch a flight. Many ultimately missed the flights because of the wait and had to spend the night in the airport on cots.

Rosa Flores is based in Chicago for us live at O'Hare International Airport.

Of course, the day we wanted to do a live shot and the long lines it's, like, moving and grooving behind you. ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brooke, this is the

terminal that's been making headlines across the country because of the long security lines and because, like you mentioned, airport personnel rolling out cots so people could sleep, stranded here at the airport. The maximum wait time is about 15 minutes.

We asked here, Brooke, we talked to a bunch of people here and they told us, you know, the TSA recommended three hours. Forget three hours. People here have been arriving four hours-plus before their flight to make sure that they their flight.

BALDWIN: Wow.

FLORES: Here's the irony, Brooke. 15 minutes before we did the live shot, the TSA Pre-Check line was longer than the general line and the TSA is asking people, check in for the TSA Pre-Check. Do it because the line is faster. That was not the case here a little earlier.

But you know, we have got some good and bad news from the TSA saying they're hiring about 800 new agents. That's supposed to help. Here's the bad news. The union for the TSA agents say that the TSA probably needs more like 6,000.

You know, overall, Brooke, I have to say we have a lot of positive people come through. There's been a positive atmosphere.

In fact, America Airlines, Brooke, we saw them a moment ago haul about 30 pizzas for their employees because they say that they overworking their employees to make sure that these lines move quickly and that their passengers are happy -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: That's hysterical, pizza. Throw pizza at the problem.

I flew out of there Sunday. I didn't have that big of an issue. But that looks like Six Flags. I can't imagine people filling those lines.

Rosa Flores, thank you so much, at O'Hare in Chicago.