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Trump Rally Protests; Clinton E-mails; Warren Blasts Trump; Trump Rally. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 25, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Stay on top of all of that for you. I'll be back, 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "The Situation Room." In the meantime, the news continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there. I'm Brianna Keilar, in today for Brooke Baldwin.

Soon Donald Trump will be speaking live in Anaheim, California. You can see the scene right now outside of the convention center. Just a few protesters there. And as his supporters anticipate his arrival, so are police, who are fully aware of how Trump's last rally went just hours ago.

(VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Those were anti-Trump protesters in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though broke through barricades. They lit fires, smashed a door. They threw rocks outside of the venue where Trump was speaking. And police responded with pepper spray, but they did not make any arrests.

Now law enforcement in Anaheim are warning demonstrators not to repeat that behavior. I want to go live now to CNN's Sara Murray. She is inside the Anaheim Convention Center.

And tell us, Sara, what is Trump saying about how this all went down last night?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, as usual, Donald Trump is not mincing any words. He took to Twitter to talk about it, saying, "the protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals."

Brianna, right now, here in Anaheim, it seems a little bit more tame outside. There are a couple of protesters. But, of course, as we know, these things can build as the day goes on. This might be a little bit calmer because it is the middle of the afternoon in Anaheim versus an evening event. But, clearly, tensions were running high, as they usually are when Donald Trump goes to a very populated city center and especially, you know, a place like southern California where there is a very high Latino population.

KEILAR: All right, Sara Murray, thanks so much. We'll continue to watch that there in Anaheim along with you.

There is a new headache today for the Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. She's holding her own rally right now in Buena Park, California. It's just a few miles away from the Trump event. A just- released audit shows Clinton violated federal rules by using a private e-mail server to conduct state business while she was secretary of state. The inspector general report says, quote, "at a minimum, Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all e-mails dealing with department business before leaving government service. And because she did not do so, she did not comply with the department's policies that were implemented in accordance with the Federal Records Act."

CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez is joining me live on this.

This was a pretty long report. What are we learning?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Brianna, one of the more interesting findings in this report actually is the fact that the inspector general says that they could find no - nobody in the legal staff at the State Department or anywhere else who was consulted by the Clinton - by Mrs. Clinton or her staff before she set up this private server and decided to use this private server in her home in Chappaqua, New York, as her only e-mail and her only computer system while she was secretary of state. They said that they - there were a couple of people, lower level staff, who raised some concerns about this back in 2010. And when they raised questions, they were told that it was completely fine, that it had been approved and that they should never bring it up again.

The other - another interesting finding is that the inspector general asked for cooperation from Mrs. Clinton and her staff and they declined to cooperate. Now, it should be said that Mrs. Clinton and her staff did do interviews with the House committee that's been investigating Benghazi, and, of course, they're now cooperating with the FBI's ongoing inquiry, which is still ongoing.

We do have a statement from Brian Fallon, the campaign press secretary, and we can read part of it. It says in part, "the inspector general documents just - show how consistent her e-mail practices were with those of other secretaries and senior officials at the State Department and who also used personal e-mail. The report shows the problems with the State Department's electronics record system were long-standing and there were no precedent for someone in her position having a State Department e-mail account until after the arrival of her successor. Contrary to false theories advanced for some time now, the report notes that her use of personal e-mail was known to officials within the department during her tenure and that there's no evidence of a successful breach of the server." And that's an important point because the report - the inspector general's report does say that their - that by the fact that she used this private server did essentially expose government secrets, sensitive government information, by using this server.

[14:05:03] KEILAR: Yes, security one of the biggest concerns here. All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much for that.

Well, Hillary Clinton getting some tag team help in her brawl with Donald Trump. Senator and fellow Democrat, Elizabeth Warren, slamming Trump for his comments a decade ago about predictions of a forthcoming housing market crash. Here he was in an audio book produced for Trump University.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy, you know, if you're in a good cash position, which I'm in a good cash position today. Then people like me would go in and buy like crazy. If there is a bubble burst, as they call it, you know, you can make a lot of money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, Warren is accusing him of cashing in on the housing crisis. Here's what she said.

(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 - a small, insecure, money grubber who doesn't care who gets hurt so long as he makes a profit off it. What - what kind of a man does that? A man who will never be president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Trump fired back. Listen to this. He had a Pocahontas comparison with Warren. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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. She's a total failure. She said she was an Indian. She said because her cheek bones 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)

KEILAR: Well, let's talk about this now with Austan Goolsbee. He's a Hillary Clinton supporter and economic adviser to the candidate, and Barry Bennett, he's the senior adviser for the Trump campaign. He's also the former campaign manager for Dr. Ben Carson.

I do want to talk about what Elizabeth Warren said in a moment, but, Barry, this comment, this response from Donald Trump, where he references Pocahontas, it's very offensive to Native Americans. Do you - can you defend him saying that?

BARRY BENNETT, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I mean, it's - it was Elizabeth Warren who pretended to be a Native American, not Donald Trump. That's what he was pointing to. But, you know, let me answer the senator's question, what kind of man takes advantage of the housing crisis.

KEILAR: But he's clearly using - he's using the word "Pocahontas" in a pejorative way.

BENNETT: It was a man who follows Elizabeth Warren's lead. Elizabeth Warren flipped five houses, some of which were bought at foreclosure from people who couldn't afford to pay and she profited from it. And, I mean, that's - she did it and now she wants to blame Donald Trump for talking about it. But she did it. She put money in her own pocket from people's misfortune.

KEILAR: Austan, what do you say to that?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER & ECONOMIC ADVISOR: Look, that's totally outrageous. I -

BENNETT: It's true.

GOOLSBEE: I am personal friends with Elizabeth Warren and have been for many years. They - you heard on the tape Donald Trump not just as if he were cheering, literally cheering, saying I hope there is a housing collapse. Now, he didn't know when he said that, that there would be as big a housing collapse as happened. So, fine, we'll give him that.

But this move is just so classic Donald Trump. When he does something wrong, immoral, subject to criticism, just try to change the subject, just personally insult whoever it is that said it about you. And I don't fault him. If I had said the things that he had said, I wouldn't want to be talking about those things either. I just think it's outrageous to try to personally go after Elizabeth Warren.

KEILAR: Well, Barry, can you readdress what you didn't answer, which is the use of the phrase "Pocahontas" or the word "Pocahontas" in a pejorative way. Is that defensible?

BENNETT: Well, he's just pointing out that she fraudulently claimed to be a Native American in order to advantage herself.

KEILAR: Well, he's using a pejorative term to do that. Is that appropriate for a candidate for president?

GOOLSBEE: I mean he's obviously using a pejorative term and he's totally change the subject. Elizabeth Warren leveled a pretty serious charge, content charge, at Donald Trump, that he had cheered on the housing crisis.

BENNETT: And let me respond to that charge. Let me respond to that charge on the housing crisis.

GOOLSBEE: And all he did is start into her with his Native American bit.

BENNETT: I'm happy to respond to that charge on the housing crisis. Elizabeth Warren lined her pockets by buying houses that people couldn't afford to pay their mortgages on and flipped them for money. KEILAR: OK. We're obviously - we're going to fact check that -

[14:10:00] GOOLSBEE: Hey, Elizabeth Warren -

KEILAR: I'm going to say this, we're going to fact check that going forward. We've heard you say that, Barry.

BENNETT: Please do.

GOOLSBEE: OK.

BENNETT: Please do.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you, Austan, though, Hillary Clinton, her strategy right now is to paint Donald Trump as someone who profited off of the financial crisis, but you have her husband having signed this bill into law that deregulated Wall Street in a way that very clearly helped cause the 2008 crisis. Does she really have a leg to stand on here?

GOOLSBEE: Well, I think she has a leg to - I would make a distinction. Many things went wrong with the deregulation of Wall Street. There's no question about that. And even former President Clinton himself has identified that he would not do it the same way. But that does not, in my view, create the housing bubble because the housing bubble comes sometime after that and there were a lot of actions made by the Bush administration to allow excessive leverage that led to --

KEILAR: Well, but he signed - he signed this bill into law that allowed credit default swaps to not be regulated, derivatives and so essentially these things were in a bit of a black box to Wall Street regulators. This is something that even by his own admission Bill Clinton has said this was regrettable.

GOOLSBEE: Yes, I don't disagree with that. Now, what - it wasn't Hillary Clinton who did that.

KEILAR: No, certainly, it was her husband.

GOOLSBEE: Yes, but it was not Hillary Clinton who did that. I think it's kind of outrageous to suggest that everything that Bill Clinton did, including things that he later said I wish we hadn't gone that way, that you're going to pin to Hillary Clinton. I just think that's not appropriate.

KEILAR: OK. So we hear you on that certainly. Barry, I do want to ask you about something that Trump said when he was in New Mexico last night. This was about New Mexico Governor Suzanna Martinez. She is a Republican. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Since 2000, the number of people on fooled 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)

KEILAR: OK, ouch, if you are the governor of New Mexico here, Barry, but I want to know what you think about this strategy or if there is a strategy because he is going after not only a member of his own party, but this is a woman. This is a Hispanic woman. These are two demographics that he really needs to make some inroads with and this doesn't exactly do this. Why is he doing this?

BENNETT: Well, I mean he's - she's been going after him now for a couple of months. So, you know, they don't support each other. We've all known that. But, you know, I mean, he comes to her state and she refuses to meet with him and, you know, that's fine. She can - she can do whatever she'd like in the general election, but, you know, he's got plenty of support in New Mexico. He's going to win New Mexico.

KEILAR: OK -

GOOLSBEE: Pardon me. Were you of the impression that he cared if women or Hispanics or other minorities were upset at him? I mean he said a series of unbelievably outrageous things about all of those groups.

BENNETT: Really? What?

KEILAR: Austan, what specifically are you referring to?

GOOLSBEE: What has Donald Trump said? He's said Mexicans were rapists and murders. He said -

BENNETT: He said this yesterday in New Mexico.

KEILAR: I guess -

GOOLSBEE: He has said that Mexican immigrants to the United States were rapists and murders. He's criticized women for their looks -

BENNETT: He said some were. And, guess what, it happens to be factually correct, some were.

KEILAR: He - he did say yesterday referring to some of these protesters, Barry, outside of - outside of the event that they were thugs.

BENNETT: Yes.

KEILAR: That they were carrying the Mexican flag and that some of them are criminals. And it sort of harkens back to some of those comments. I guess I would ask you, now that he's pivoting towards the general, is he really - is - how - how is he making inroads with these very important groups that the Republican presidential candidate needs to attract at least some support from?

BENNETT: You know, it's not political discourse to throw rocks and bottles at police doing their duty. It's not political discourse to rush a fence or shoot out a door. KEILAR: But not everyone was.

BENNETT: I mean that's thuggery and that's what happened yesterday.

KEILAR: OK, real quick to you, Austan. I do want to ask you - I want -

GOOLSBEE: Look, I agree - I agree with -

KEILAR: Austan, I got to get this in. We only have a minute and I want to ask you about Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

GOOLSBEE: OK.

KEILAR: Yes, in this report from the inspector general it says certainly that, you know, we know about some of the practices of some of the other secretaries of state and the campaign is saying, oh, she just did what they did. I know that's also debatable. But she's been trying to say, I am transparent on this and yet she, through a lawyer, declined to sit for an interview with the inspector general when other former secretaries of state did. How does she argue that's transparent?

GOOLSBEE: You know, you've - I'm an economist. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know much about the Presidential Records Act law. I - it is my impression that previous secretaries of state had personal e-mail and that they didn't turn over their e-mails when they left office, but that Hillary Clinton, here in this case, turned over tens of thousands of e-mails. But I - I don't - really don't know what the law is on those points.

[14:15:15] KEILAR: OK. It seemed like the report may have said that she was the biggest offender, but we will leave it there.

Austan Goolsbee, Barry Bennett, thanks to both of you.

And next, as Donald Trump gets ready to speak moments from now, police in Anaheim are sending a warning to protesters. I'll be speaking with that department live.

Plus, is the head of the Democratic Party too toxic? CNN reports some Democratic senators are talking privately about how to get rid of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: And here is what we are monitoring live. On the left side of your screen, Hillary Clinton speaking in California. On the right side of the screen, this is the State Department briefing where there are questions now being asked about this independent inspector general's report that showed Hillary Clinton failed to follow protocol when it came to her e-mails there while she was secretary of state. We'll be watching both of these and we'll bring it to you as news warrants.

[14:20:06] Well, tonight, Donald Trump will headline his priciest fundraiser thus far. It's an event that's $25,000 a head. But, first, as we mentioned, he is speaking at a rally in Anaheim, California, where police are bracing themselves for possible unrest.

Let's go now to CNN's Paul Vercammen. He is outside of the Anaheim Convention Center there.

Tell us what you're seeing there. We see some protesters, but everything looks to be peaceful.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's peaceful so far, Brianna. Right now we have a shouting match that broke out between some Trump supporters, and we also have some anti-Trump protesters. We apologize if you see any expletives on signs. We'll give you about a ten-second flavor of what this sounds like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to go back to Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go back to (INAUDIBLE). Go back to (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to go back to Mexico if you don't like America so much.

CROWD: Donald Trump has got to go. Say hey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

VERCAMMEN: That's just a little bit of a flavor of what's going on here. And we'll show you the police presence, Brianna. It's really quite overwhelming. Just off to my right, this is the Anaheim Police Department. And you can see that they have their riot helmets handy. They've set up an extensive, extensive maze of barricades. Not only the police tape, but there are these metal barriers all around the Anaheim Convention Center. We have also seen an abundance of police on horseback. We have seen motorcycle officers. And if you look, you can also see those plastic flexible handcuffs that they like to employ in an emergency if they need to make arrests.

And the warning has come down from the police department. They said if there's any destruction of property, they said if anybody is caught, you know, with a violent act or blocking traffic, they're not afraid to make arrests. But so far it's rather small here today and police and others are very happy that this is a daytime, middle of the day event, noon, because they feel that some of the protesters, demonstrators, feel confident that they can pull off more violent protests under the cover of darkness, Brianna.

KEILAR: Still very concerned there, obviously, about security. We'll continue to follow this with you, Paul. Thank you.

Let's go back now live to CNN's Sara Murray. She is actually inside of the Anaheim Convention Center there. Paul was outside.

So, Sara, we know that Trump has been fundraising on his West Coast trip, but you actually have some news about Republican donors and how they're getting along with Trump.

MURRAY: That's right, Brianna.

Donald Trump has just started to begin fundraising. And because he really didn't have a team of his own, the RNC, the party has really taken the lead on building the folks who are going to be, you know, building out this structure, building out who attends these fundraising events. And there's a small group of Trump loyalist who are not entirely comfortable with this. They still do not necessarily believe that the party is 100 percent behind Trump. One of them told me that if we come to October and Donald Trump is down seven points, the party is just going to funnel that money to help Senate candidates, to help House candidates, and essentially to leave Donald Trump out to dry.

And, Brianna, the interesting thing about this is right now Trump and the party are supposed to be working hand in hand. They're all supposed to be coming together. But what this tells you is there's still this lingering sense of mistrust amongst some of Donald Trump's most loyal backers about working this closely with the Republican Party.

KEILAR: And, Sara, can I ask you, because normally you have a candidate and donors have a lot of sway over the candidate. They're trying to make sure that donors feel comfortable with thing. Are you getting any sense that these donors have sway over Donald Trump?

MURRAY: Well, I think it - I think any - anyone can say something to Donald Trump and they feel like he listens, he takes their opinion. But, ultimately, this is a candidate who does what he wants at the end of the day and I think we've seen that in how he's handed this fundraising, saying he was going to self-finance his campaign and then switching positions and saying he's going to raise money in the general election. Everyone knows they can go to Trump with their idea and there are certain people who have his ear. Whether he listens is an entirely different story.

KEILAR: All right, Sara Murray, thank you.

And coming up, is the head of the Democratic National Committee on thin ice? At the center of a political battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, is Debbie Wasserman Schultz at risk of losing key support within her party or perhaps even her position at the DNC?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: Yes, I mean, obviously everyone's talking about, how do we land this plane, and when will the plane land and how bumpy will the landing be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:29:06] KEILAR: They may only be quiet conversations happening in the halls of Congress right now, but the repercussions could send shock waves through the Democratic Party. Senators are discussing whether DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz should be removed as the head of the party, saying that she's become too toxic in the ongoing and growing divide within the Democratic Party. Now, the DNC head is under fire specifically for comments that she made on CNN. She criticized Bernie Sanders' tepid response to chaos that was sparked by his supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention. She even compared it to a Donald Trump campaign event.

CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju is on The Hill for us.

And you actually just talked to Senator Claire McCaskill. Tell us what she said, Manu. I know this wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely not, Brianna.

[14:29:54] Actually, Claire McCaskill, as you know, is one of Hillary Clinton's earliest supporters on Capitol Hill and Senator McCaskill recognizes that there is an issue here. Bernie Sanders' camp knows that - believes that Debbie Wasserman Schultz has not been fair. They believe that she's tilted the scales in Hillary Clinton camp's favor. And Claire McCaskill, like other senators, want to head into --