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Anti-Trump Protesters Turn on Police; Senator Warren Joins Clinton's Attacks on Trump; Taliban Reveals New Leader; TSA Open Experimental Screening Lanes. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired May 25, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: New Mexico were thugs and were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful but outside criminals. As tension cede, the political drama fades. Overnight Trump scoops up more delegates in Washington state and he now stands just inches from clinching the nomination.
Jason Carroll is here with the very latest -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And it wasn't just outside. Some of those protesters, as you know, got inside that rally as well. Last night, before all the unrest, Donald Trump said his rallies are some of the safest places to be in the country. That did not prove to be the case last night. As we saw demonstrators clash with police like we've seen at previous Trump rallies, while inside Trump promised to win over women and Hispanics. He also took a personal shot at Hillary Clinton referring to her at one point as a low life and criticizing her for the way that she speaks. He also defended himself against attacks from Clinton who criticized him for comments he made about profiting from the housing market collapse back in 2006.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They've got some clip of me from many years ago where I'm saying, yes, if it goes down, I'm going to buy -- I'm a businessman, that's what I'm supposed to do. I will never say this, but she screams it drives me crazy.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a bully pulpit in the White House. But that doesn't mean we want a bully in the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Again Trump saying that he's going to win over women, African-Americans, Hispanics as well. He has yet to get the endorsement of New Mexico's Republican governor, Susanna Martinez. Martinez is Hispanic. She is also a rising star within the GOP. She did not attend Trump's rally saying that she was busy. Trump made a point of criticizing her last night as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Since 2000, the number of people on food stamps in New Mexico has tripled. We have to get your governor to get going. She's got to do a better job, OK. Your governor has got to do a better job. She's not doing the job.
Hey, maybe I'll run for governor of New Mexico. I'll get this place going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Trump also took a moment to take on Senator Elizabeth Warren who called him a small insecure money grubber again in part for his comments about that housing market back in 2006. Trump last night referred to Warren as Pocahontas, a reference to Trump's claim that she faked her Native American heritage, a claim she denies. Lots of name calling going on. The general election still months away.
Also want to bring up another point, Pamela. This coming to us this morning, this from the Anaheim police chief who sent out the following statement. I want to read it very quickly. It says, "While we recognize and respect the First Amendment rights of all individuals to express their viewpoints and protest peacefully, we will not tolerate violence or disobedience of the law during the upcoming rally in Anaheim." That rally is scheduled for noon Pacific Time today.
BROWN: Yes. Gearing up in the wake of what happened in Albuquerque. Thank you so much, Jason Carroll. We do appreciate it.
In the meantime Hillary Clinton getting some tag team help in her brawl with Donald Trump. The senator and fellow Democrat Elizabeth Warren also joining in, accusing Trump of cashing in on the housing crisis as we just heard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Donald Trump was drooling over the idea of a housing meltdown because it meant he could buy up more property on the cheap. What kind of a man does that?
I'll tell you exactly what kind of a man does that. It is a man who cares about no one but himself. A small --
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
WARREN: A small, insecure money-grubber who doesn't care who gets hurt so long as he makes a profit off it. What kind of a man does that? A man who will never be president of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Joe Johns is in Washington with the very latest.
It seems like this feud between Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump is heating up -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I think so. And this is, Pamela, what could be a preview of the general election race. Nasty, bitter on both sides, Hillary Clinton and her surrogates apparently now testing out multiple lines of attack against Donald Trump. Currently hitting his business record with Senator Elizabeth Warren front and center.
Donald Trump, for his part, issuing all of the insults he can muster in response. They've gone after each other repeatedly on social media and once again really what we're seeing here is part personal, part political attack. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton has somebody -- did you ever hear of Pocahontas? Huh? It's Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren. She was going out -- she is probably the senator that's doing just about the least in the United States Senate.
[10:05:01] She's a total failure. She said she was an Indian. She said because her cheekbones were high she was an Indian, that she was Native American, and you know we have these surrogates, people like her total failures.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: And Trump did not stop there on Twitter. He wrote, "Goofy Elizabeth Warren, sometimes known as Pocahontas, bought foreclosed housing and made a killing, total hypocrite."
This is an apparent reference to an issue that came up in Senator Warren's 2012 campaign with reporting from the "Boston Herald" that she and her husband made money in the 1990s flipping about a dozen houses. So this is going to go back and forth in all likelihood, Warren and Trump, neither one seems to be backing down -- Pamela.
BROWN: Yes. I have a feeling this is just the beginning, Joe Johns. Thank you so much.
And let's dig into all of this. We're joined by Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton fundraiser Robert Zimmerman along with Carl Paladino, he is the honorary co-chair of the Donald Trump New York state campaign.
Carl, to you first, talking about Elizabeth Warren there on the heels of Joe's report. It seems like she's really getting under his skin. Of course, she's not running for anything. If he's not worried about her, why does he keep responding? Why is he so defensive about her?
I think we're having issues there.
CARL PALADINO (R), FORMER NEW YORK GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: No. We're OK. I can hear you.
BROWN: OK.
PALADINO: We have -- are we OK here?
BROWN: Yes, go ahead, Carl. PALADINO: Elizabeth Warren is a throwback to the pot-smoking
generation that hallucinates at times with absolutely off the planet type of statements. In this particular case she's being a hypocrite. She participated in the real estate market as most astute investors in America did after the fall.
The subprime crisis which she is trying to point at Donald Trump as being an opportunist for was started by the Clinton administration when they ordered or allowed Andrew Cuomo to come out and make a statement that every -- every person in America should have a home.
BROWN: Hey, Carl, just one second, I've got to push the pause button because President Obama is speaking in Japan. We want to listen in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Prime Minister, if you would also reflect on that, I would appreciate it . Could you also tell us a little bit about what you think the president's visit to Hiroshima means to the Japanese people and will you also consider a trip to Pearl Harbor, sir? Thank you.
BROWN: All right. We're going to continue to monitor this event happening in Japan. President Obama on a tour of Asia. Just earlier this week he lifted the arms embargo in Vietnam, now he is speaking in Japan. And of course we will continue to monitor for any news out of there.
Meantime, let's get back to this discussion of the ongoing feud between Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump.
Carl, we were just listening to what you said earlier basically knocking Elizabeth Warren. I want to get -- give a chance to you, Robert, to weigh in on this. Go ahead.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Absolutely. You know, it's not about just -- I think, Carl, in fairness you should disclose that you were a candidate against Andrew Cuomo and in fact lost in a record landslide in New York to Governor Cuomo because of the extreme rhetoric you're engaging in now.
To Elizabeth Warren's credit, she was talking about the fact that Donald Trump was actually cheering on the collapse of the real estate market. He was applauding it regardless of the destruction it meant to so many lives and families throughout our country. There are many people who are very successful in business who do it without exploiting the tragedy -- without exploiting the tragedies that confront families and cheering on the tragedies that confront families.
And the reason I think Elizabeth Warren was effective and the reason you see Donald Trump engage in this totally rationale response is because she nailed him. She exposed just who he is, a -- a businessman who only lives for his own agenda, a hypocrite who's been caught in one hip scam after another, in one hypocritical statement after another. And if you honestly believe he's representing mainstream America, you'll also believe he's a self-funder which he clearly now shows he's not. BROWN: But part of his appeal is being a businessman and that's what
Donald Trump used, Robert, as his defense in this case. He said, look, a businessman has to make money even during bad times. Could --
ZIMMERMAN: But there's a difference, Pamela. Most business people I know -- and we all know many successful ones, they don't cheer and applaud the destruction of the economy.
[10:10:04] They don't cheer and applaud the destruction that confronts families and children, puts people out on the street.
He was actually cheering on the collapse of the housing market. We can debate the policies around it and we should, and fortunately President Obama did a great deal as did Secretary Clinton during her tenure as senator to take on the extremes that confronted the housing market.
But here's the point. He in fact only lives with one agenda, himself, only has one agenda and that is ultimately his own personal economic agenda at the expense of America.
BROWN: And it seems like Trump really is just focused on scandals here, Carl, not the issues. Is this sort of a purposeful ploy on his part so he doesn't have to get into specifics on policy and other things? I mean, we see him just focusing on the past and other controversy surrounding Clinton from years ago.
PALADINO: Well, let's really focus on that because that's part of real history. Hillary Clinton started this thing -- well, excuse me, the Clintons started this subprime meltdown. They caused all that anguish that Robert is speaking about. Robert wants to say the people that were involved in recovering and helping America recover from that, OK, should be pointed at right now and say they didn't do right. Well, that's somewhat -- you know, a good illustration of communism versus capitalism. OK. We have a capitalistic society. Good businessman go in to opportunities. And what they do in turn is bring back the economy. OK. Robert wants to sit there and cry over the people that Hillary hurt, that Bill Clinton hurt --
(CROSSTALK)
ZIMMERMAN: No, I want to --
PALADINO: That's not the way you do it.
ZIMMERMAN: I want to sit there and defend the people that Donald Trump -- who Donald Trump, cheered on destruction over. That's what I'm all about here. I want to step up --
PALADINO: He didn't cheer on --
ZIMMERMAN: If you applaud people --
PALADINO: He didn't cheer on the destruction.
ZIMMERMAN: Absolutely, he was rooting for the housing collapse, he said so publicly. And that --
PALADINO: He was rooting for the housing -- listen to yourself, Robert. You got to get a life, buddy.
ZIMMERMAN: That's what he said. Listen to Donald Trump's words, Carl.
PALADINO: You've got to get a life, man. I mean, you're on TV constantly with this nonsense you keep spewing out. It's not right. OK. You're off in another world. You got to --
ZIMMERMAN: You know what Donald Trump said? Carl, do you know what Donald Trump said? Do you know his actual words?
PALADINO: What did he say?
ZIMMERMAN: If you don't, then you shouldn't even be there. He said he was hoping for a housing collapse because he said he could come in there and make a lot of money. And that's the real tragedy behind his words. No one should be cheering on the destruction of the economy and the destruction of families. Unfortunately individuals like Hillary Clinton --
(CROSSTALK)
PALADINO: Who started the destruction, Robert?
BROWN: The bottom line is we're bickering here about, you know -- and it's important to look at the history and both candidates what they've done in the past. But there isn't a discussion here about the current policies at play and issues. I mean, isn't that concerning?
ZIMMERMAN: Pamela, I have to agree with you.
(CROSSTALK)
ZIMMERMAN: Hillary Clinton has put out many programs that are in fact debated and discussed about how to rebuild, how to protect the -- how to rebuild our housing market, how to protect the economy, continue the growth --
PALADINO: Rebuilding after they destroyed --
ZIMMERMAN: She's put that on the table. The problem is Donald Trump --
PALADINO: They destroyed the housing market, you want to talk about rebuilding it. OK. Well, the way that we rebuild it --
ZIMMERMAN: And unfortunately Donald Trump is represented by Carl --
PALADINO: Reinvest in it.
BROWN: Let me ask you this, Carl, just circling back to my last question because Donald Trump as I said has been really focused on past controversies surrounding the Clintons, calling Hillary Clinton an enabler. Are you concerned that this could back fire and make her more sympathetic to people? Years ago her approval ratings went up.
PALADINO: No.
BROWN: With that same line of attack.
PALADINO: This is all about -- this is all about a man saying what people had been thinking for ages, OK. They've been thinking about these problems with the Clintons and now all of a sudden it's coming to a head and all of those issues are starting to blend into one little --
ZIMMERMAN: You understand, Carl --
PALADINO: And Donald Trump is the blender.
ZIMMERMAN: Donald Trump was defending -- Donald Trump was defending Bill Clinton during the impeachment investigation and he actually criticized many of the women who brought their false claims against Bill Clinton. So in fact Donald Trump was a very big defender of President Clinton during the impeachment process and now of course you see the hypocrisy of his conduct and the hypocrisy of your words.
BROWN: All right, Carl Paladino, Robert Zimmerman, we're going to have to leave it there.
ZIMMERMAN: OK.
BROWN: Thank you so much to the both of you.
ZIMMERMAN: Good to be with you.
BROWN: We do appreciate it.
And by the way, as this year's campaign rhetoric seems to be running a race to the bottom, our Carol Costello wonders, in a nasty campaign, can politicians play nice? Find out why she says name calling is like verbal Oxycontin. And what one Republican is trying to do about it. Go to CNN.com/opinion.
Well, some sky high problems head to Capitol Hill. Take a look. You're going to be looking at some live pictures where any minute now the head of TSA is expected to testify front and center on the agenda. How the agency plans to fix problems like long security lines at airports across the country. This of course coming just days after the TSA security chief was removed from his post. We'll continue to monitor this and keep an eye on any new developments.
And still ahead on this Wednesday morning, the Taliban unveils a new chain of command.
[10:15:03] What we're learning about the militant group's new leader after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, the Taliban reveals a new chain of command. It announces that this man will be the militant group's new leader. The Taliban now making its first public statement that his predecessor, Mullah Mansour, was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan last weekend but hopes that a new chief could usher in peace are fading after a Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 10 people in Kabul.
Let's get right to CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh with the very latest -- Nick.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pam, Haibatullah Akhundzada hardly a public figure before he was given this post in the statement. The first official statement from the Taliban since the death of Mullah Mansour. It did confirm Mullah Mansour's death, they declared a three-day period of mourning and said that Mr. Akhundzada would be taking up the main role here.
[10:20:07] In fact keeping the man who many have thought might ended up becoming the leader of the Taliban, Siraj Haqqani, the man who the U.S. say is the chief facilitator of al Qaeda in the Afghanistan. In fact keeping him in the role of deputy for military operations.
So who is Mr. Akhundzada? Well, we know he's in his 50s. We know that he hails from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, where a lot of the Pashtun parts of the Taliban hail from. He was more cleric, part of the judiciary when the Taliban were briefly in charge of Afghanistan rather than someone who's got their experience on the front line here.
What's he going to do? Well, it isn't clear at this stage. I have to say the White House was sort of optimistic in their messages about Mullah Mansour's death. They considered him to be an obstacle to peace talks. But whoever came after him might be more moderate.
Well, we don't know much About Mr. Akhundzada but there aren't any indications at this stage that he's necessarily a big fan of diplomacy. Of course, Mullah Mansour, when he took the helm of the Taliban tried to kind of shore up the different factions by showing battlefield prowess, which is behind the Taliban getting so much territories they have in the past few months or so. But the moment of disarray many thought could follow, with fighting has been swiftly moved away by the Taliban. They've got a successor in play now and it does appear potentially that in the months ahead we'll begin to learn more about what he expects to do but at this stage, I think peace talks still remain a bit of a distant idea -- Pam.
BROWN: Yes. It certainly does. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you very much for bringing us the latest there.
And still ahead on this Wednesday morning, Bernie Sanders battles the Democratic establishment and the head of the DNC is caught in the crosshairs. Could Debbie Wasserman Schultz be removed from her job as head of the party as a result?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:26:07] BROWN: Well, the TSA reeling from passenger outrage over long lines at the nation's airports is today making a very public attempt to solve the problem at the world's busiest airport and that experiment comes as the head of the agency is back on Capitol Hill this morning for congressional hearing.
You're looking at live pictures right now. CNN's Rene Marsh is following all of these developments. She joins us now from Washington. So what is Neffenger saying right now to address these issues, Rene?
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we expect, Pamela, is that the head of the TSA will have to answer some tough questions about what actions he's been taking to cut down on these wait times at -- airports across the nation.
Now the agency has already increased overtime for screeners and additional 768 TSA officers will be on the job by mid June. They've set up this command center to essentially monitor wait times at airports in real time so they know where to put the officers. And in Chicago, the case there where passengers reported waiting in security lines for as long as three hours, well, TSA replaced the management team there.
But those actions likely won't drastically change things at airports right now. So passengers should still be prepared to wait and that's likely going to be something that members of Congress will push the agency on, what more can they do to address the problem right now?
But this isn't just about convenience. It's not just a convenience issue. It's also a security issue. We saw what happened at the Brussels airport, terrorists targeted that soft part of the airport. High volume of people stuck in lines in the soft part of the airport is essentially a security concern. And we know that we're expecting a record number of people flying this summer, about 231 million. So this is an issue that the TSA does have to tackle, Pamela.
BROWN: And what about this new technology, Rene, that TSA is using? What is it? How do they hope it will cut down the wait times?
MARSH: So, in Atlanta, the world's busiest airport, we are seeing live and it's happening this new technology for screening luggage. Essentially, they will get rid of that conveyor belt. It will be essentially some rolls on this line where you put all your stuff inside of a bin. It goes through the scanner. If that scanner notices anything that's suspicious, it diverts it to a totally different line. That way the line continues to flow. There's no stopping and that's what they are testing out at Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport.
The key is to keep that line moving even when the screener detects something that needs further investigations. So that's happening today but again that's a long-term solution. That is not something that would necessarily solve today's wait time problems. That technology wouldn't be able to be used widespread until another five years. So short answer is it's a good move. Many people are happy that they are looking at technology that could address this situation but again, it's long term.
BROWN: Yes. Not a short-term solution. Rene Marsh, thanks so much.
Well, good morning to you. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for spending a part of your Wednesday morning with us.
In his bid for the White House, Bernie Sanders has made no secret for his desire for a political revolution and it seems his campaign wants that revolution to begin within the Democratic Party. Sanders and his top aides locked in a high-profile spat with the head of the DNC, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, someone team Sanders says that has rigged the primary process against the Vermont senator.
Here's a look back at how the discord among the Democrats reached this point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF WEAVER, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT: We can have a long conversation just about Debbie Wasserman Schultz and how she's been throwing shade on the Sanders campaign since the very beginning.
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), CHAIRWOMAN, DNC: My response to that is #smh if we're going to talk about really -- that comment about throwing shade.
