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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Police in California Brace for Protests; Clinton E-mails Back in Spotlight. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired May 25, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: I know I have to stop. Thank you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator Barbara Boxer, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Senator - thank you, senator.

BOXER: (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: Thank you all for joining us @ THIS HOUR.

BERMAN: LEGAL VIEW with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

Could a messy situation in New Mexico lead to chaos in California? Donald Trump set to hold a rally in Anaheim, where protests are, again, expected. The police are hoping there won't be a repeat of the melee that was last night. And this is what I'm talking about. The pictures on your screen tell the story. Anti-Trump demonstrators in New Mexico lighting fires, throwing rocks, breaking through metal barriers, menacing police. This is the latest scuffle to follow the presumptive GOP nominee's campaign. Trump has responded to the incident with this tweet. "The protesters in New Mexico were thugs who were flying the Mexican flag. The rally inside was big and beautiful, but outside, criminals."

As tempers flare, Donald Trump continues his march towards that magic number of 1,237 delegates. He scooped up more delegates in Washington state. Trump now just standing eight delegates away from clinching that nomination.

CNN's Paul Vercammen has more for us now.

Paul, I watched you live as you were trying to navigate what was going on last night. And now you're in the quieter confines of Anaheim, and it looks very nice and quiet, but do we expect it to stay that way?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, just in case, they have made all preparations here in Orange County, California. If you look behind me, Anaheim Police calling in a lot of what's called mutual aid. Those are Orange County sheriff's deputies. And if you look closely, you can see just above the right knee, those are flexible handcuffs just in case anything gets out of control.

And the Anaheim Police Department, I've been talking to them this morning, and they're saying if anybody demonstrates with some sort of violence or blocks traffic, they are going to respond with force and it could lead to possible arrest. They're well prepared. And don't forget last month, also in Orange County, in Costa Mesa, there were about 17 arrests when that demonstration, anti-Trump demonstration, got completely out of control and there were some throwing of debris, they were stomping on police cars and this sort of thing.

Let's give you also a look now live again at some of the other preparations. Just to come into this event, the ticket holders, you can see them right now, it's three hours before the start, but they are walking a gauntlet, or a maize if you will. And then off in the distance, more yellow police tape. We have not seen a lot of anti- Trump demonstrators so far.

What we have seen, though, is people getting ready to go inside. We're going to make a big wheel over here to the right from Jordan. Nice move. And there you can see, these are people who are going inside the event. They expect it to be filled to the brim. All tickets sold, 7,500 people, I should say, inside the Anaheim Convention Center rallying for Donald Trump. And you, as I said, you can see them getting their signs ready and they're going to celebrate their candidate. So far, so good though, Ashleigh, here. Fairly calm, but it is very early. Only 9:00 here on the West Coast.

Back to you.

BANFIELD: Which means that there's lots of preparation time for the people holding the fundraiser that Donald Trump is holding tonight and he's had a pretty good run so far in California. I think he released figures of about $6 million that he's been able to raise jointly with the RNC. But tonight it's a biggie at a pretty fancy space with a big expensive guy and apparently 120 a-listers or so. What more do we know about the fundraiser tonight?

VERCAMMEN: Well, what we do is that Donald Trump, obviously, has hit the campaign trail - the campaign money raising trail. And California, despite what anybody might think in terms of the way it votes, is an important cash cow for anybody running for office in the GOP. And, believe it or not, there are a-listers in Hollywood who are Republican. You know, that's countervailing to what a lot of people say. So Trump has started this campaign, this push to go ahead and get more money as we are, you know, seeing a duel for dollars, if you will, between the Clinton and the trump camp. So you can expect to see a lot of fire power there tonight and a lot of influential Republicans. It remains to be seen if there will be any demonstrations, though, outside that event, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right, Paul Vercammen for us live in Anaheim, California. Thank you for that.

I want to talk more about all of this with a senior advisor for the Trump campaign, Tana Goertz. First, Tana, if I can, I just want to look into those protests from last night and the tweet that Donald Trump actually sent out today, which we just played about the protesters in Albuquerque, suggesting that they were thugs with Mexican flags. He's got an issue with, you know, Hispanic voters. He's got an issue with women. And there are a lot of issues with New Mexico when it comes to women, with a female GOP governor as well. But this tweet here, is this helpful to try to rally that demographic behind him if he needs that state?

[12:05:18] TANA GOERTZ, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, it's not - it's not harmful, Ashleigh. Mr. Trump just speaks honestly. And most of the American people who have voted for them realizes that everything he's saying is true. These people who are disruptive at his rallies, they - and if they act criminally, they should be charged and they should be arrested. And they will be. And trust me, today here in Anaheim, if they act up, they will be arrested. And Mr. Trump is 100 percent -

BANFIELD: I hear you. I do hear you, Tana, but I guess that the point -

GOERTZ: No, so he - it's not unhelpful.

BANFIELD: The point I'm trying to make is that that's a state with 48 percent Hispanic residents. That's huge. And to put in the tweet, the Mexican flag, sort of - it just gives that - that couched feel that its - that the criminals were somehow perhaps of Mexican origin. That's what he's suggesting in the tweet.

GOERTZ: I - I can understand -

BANFIELD: Why not just say, what terrible behavior of these people who are menacing police? Why not just leave it at that if you still want to curry the favor of Latinos?

GOERTZ: I understand what you're saying, Ashleigh. I think it's just - we're here in America and we're wanting people who are in America to vote for Mr. Trump. And we're Americans. We should be flying the American flag. And I think that's just the messages. We are all Americans. We are getting ready to vote for Mr. Trump. And we should be flying the American flag.

BANFIELD: OK, well, fair enough. And I fly an American flag at my house and I am an immigrant and a proud American at that.

I want to talk about that Republican governor, Suzanna Martinez, that I was just referring to. She used to be Democrat. Now she's a Republican. And she's a big old Republican too. She's the chair of the Republican Governor's Conference. So she's important. She's important for the women's vote. She's important for the Hispanic vote. And there she is being dissed it seems by Donald Trump on the stage last night. Let's listen to what he had to say and I want to ask you about it after.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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)

BANFIELD: Now, it's painfully clear that the governor was not in that hall to hear that, but she sure did hear it because she responded. And this is the statement that she released. "The governor will not be bullied into supporting a candidate until she's convinced that candidate will fight for New Mexicans. Governor Martinez doesn't care about what Donald Trump says about her. She cares about what he says he will do to help New Mexicans. She is disappointed that she didn't hear anything about that last night."

Tana, I'm not sure I understand why that attack came out when she said she was busy, couldn't be at the rally. She'd been somewhat critical of him in some speeches prior to that, but that was a - I mean you're really risking women and Latinos, people you need most in that state.

GOERTZ: Well, and I understand that we do need women and Hispanics, but we are getting women - the woman and the Hispanic vote. I was with Mr. Trump in Arizona, and we won for Hispanics. I was with him in Nevada. We won the Hispanic vote there. He's winning the women vote in many, many locations. So I understand the tweet and what Mr. Trump is all about is results. He is a results-driven businessman, now politician. And he was just simply saying she's not doing a good job as the governor. And you heard the crowd erupt in favor of his comment. And that's just more or less like, come on, she can do better as a governor. And he's 100 percent behind doing good things for the state, as she knows, but it was just sort of, she hasn't been very kind to Mr. Trump, and you know that he will not back down to anyone, whether it's a male or a female. If you go after him, well, then he'll pull out your resume and say, you're not doing that good of a job.

BANFIELD: You know what, I think you're spot on. That's what we've seen play over and over again, certainly for those opponents in the primary as well. And then the most recent example of that, we've actually got them ready to go. Elizabeth Warren saying some not too kind things about your candidate and then your candidate responding. I'm going to play those one after the other. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: 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.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's Pocahontas Elizabeth Warren. She was going on. She is probably the senator that's doing just about the least in the United States Senate. She's a total failure.

(END VIDEO CLIP) [12:10:05] BANFIELD: I get it. I get what you said, if you're going to hit him, he's going to hit back. But does Donald Trump also realize some of the collateral damage that might be going on here because to use the term Pocahontas to be sort of derogatory about that, 10 percent of the population in New Mexico is Native American Indian. That can be a big problem for him. Does he even know that when he speaks off the cuff like you say?

GOERTZ: Yes, he does, Ashleigh. Mr. Trump is one of the most brilliant men I've ever met.

BANFIELD: Does he care?

GOERTZ: He does care and he does know what he's doing. And you heard once again the crowd erupted in boos because she hasn't done her job as well as it could have been done. Mr. Trump, he's very smart. He's very strategic. I mean look at - 16 people didn't just lay down and quit. Mr. Trump's had to defeat the 16 other candidates that ran against him in this presidential race. And somebody was just saying to me today, look, Tana, Hillary can't even take Bernie Sanders down yet. And - and I thought about that and I was like, you know, that's a great point. Mr. Trump, he's strategic, he knows what he's doing, and he would never insult someone on purpose. And this was just his - and he also has an amazing sense of humor, so to some people that was quite funny and Mr. Trump - and what she was saying was so false, he is the kindest, most generous person and does so much for charitable organizations. I've witnessed that firsthand. And that's what he's going to do tonight. You know, putting Donald Trump on any - any marketing material, you are going to make money. And they will raise a lot of money this evening.

BANFIELD: To be sure, though, it's not charity. This is - this is political fundraising. That's a big difference when you're on - Tana -

GOERTZ: Yes. Well, it is and what we did in Iowa was for charity, what he - four hours raised over $6 million for the veterans. That was just like that. And then I hear tonight we're almost at -

BANFIELD: Well, Tana, that's - that's in huge question now. He not only said he raised $6 million, but that he himself gave $1 million in both of those.

GOERTZ: He did.

BANFIELD: Now have been proven to be false by veterans themselves who say they did not get those receipts. So that's a whole other issue to say that you're charitable and give those figures out so - so quickly. It can be dangerous when they turn out not to be true.

GOERTZ: Well, I will say this, Ashleigh - well, I will say this, I was there and I know for a fact that Mr. Trump gave a million dollars and I know that we raised over $5 million and I actually had people handing me checks for tens of thousands of dollars that I turned over. So I was -

BANFIELD: So, Tana, I'm going to make sure that our team does this live because as I recall, the person - the veteran who was responsible for those receipts said that the receipt from Donald Trump was closer to $300,000. Look, to you and me, that's a lot of cash. That's a lot of money. But to say that it's three times that is one thing.

I'll fact check it. I'll get that out on the air without question. And I love having you on because you answer the questions and you're very direct about it and you're delightful. Thank you, Tana.

GOERTZ: Well, thanks. Thank you. Have a good day.

BANFIELD: You too. Have a great day.

Coming up next, Hillary Clinton's e-mail mess back in the spotlight, under the microscope and the latest criticism is not coming from the source you think it is, from Republicans or Donald Trump. This time it is coming from the State Department itself. The inspector general is now having a say and you're going to hear exactly what it is.

And you can also watch LEGAL VIEW anytime at cnn.com/go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:17:15] BANFIELD: Breaking news here at CNN. And it's not what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hoping to hear from her former organization, the State Department. We here at CNN have obtained a copy of a State Department inspector general report that's not due out until later this week and it says that Secretary Clinton, quote, "did not follow" the agency's rules on using both official e- mail and private e-mail.

Jeffrey Toobin, our senior legal analyst, is here. Evan Perez is also live with us in Washington, our justice correspondent.

The wording is going to be so critical. Right down to the letters and the articles in how this is reported because this is going to be a big part of the campaign for the next five months. So, Evan, what's the straight up reporting from the inspector general about what Hillary Clinton and her predecessors may have done wrong?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, according to this State Department inspector general report, Hillary Clinton violated the rules as they existed while she was secretary of state. Now, the rules, according to the inspector general, were pretty clear, were very clear, that she was supposed to be making sure these were - these were president - these were records - government records that were supposed to be preserved on the State Department's computer system and setting up this private server was not the proper way to do that, not only for security reasons, but also for the preservation of records, which is the federal law, the Presidential Records Act, and it says that at a minimum sort of Secretary Clinton should have surrendered all the e-mails dealing with the State Department business before leaving government service.

Now, you know she - after she was - after she had left and after the State Department was sued by journalists and by other groups seeking to get access to her e-mails, she turned over 55,000 pages of records, including 30,000 e-mails. And it was only then that everybody found out that she had been using a private server exclusively.

Now, there's a couple of other key findings, Ashleigh, that we should - we should note here, and that is that the report does say the, you know, the State Department's e-mail system is a bit of a mess. Technologically, they're a bit of a mess. But it says that state - that Hillary Clinton, when she set this up, was clearly violating the rules. And it also says that a couple of people - low-level staffers did raise questions about this and they were told that simply that the secretary had gotten all the legal permissions to be able to use this private server. The inspector general says that they found no proof that anyone anywhere, no legal staff, no computer experts at the State Department, nobody approved of this set-up.

BANFIELD: And just to be very clear, this was not a singling out necessarily of Hillary Clinton in the report, although it was spurred by the Hillary Clinton story, this is plural. This is the past, what, four or five secretary states are named in it and are - and you tell me are in the same boat?

[12:20:12] PEREZ: No, they're not. And this - you're right, this report does go back to Secretary of State Albright under the Clinton administration and through the Bush administration's Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. But it also makes the - there's a handy chart in the report which describes through the years the timeline of the different rules that these secretary of states had to follow. In 2009, the rules that were set up for Secretary of State Clinton to follow, she was violating those rules according to this chart that the inspector general puts in his report.

Now, it is clear, also, that Secretary of State Colin Powell did use a private computer and in his office on a private system, but what happened was, at the time, they didn't have the ability to e-mail outside of the State Department. So he was abiding by the rules that existed at the time.

BANFIELD: OK, stand by, Evan, if you will. I want to bring in Jeffrey Toobin into this.

It's critical because what the - what the inspector general has discovered is effectively longstanding systemic weaknesses related to the electronic records of secretaries of state. What Evan just said singles out Secretary Clinton.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Right.

BANFIELD: And I think what the argument will become for the campaign is, did Secretary Clinton behave any differently than the others? She says it's convenience. Her critics say it's avoidance. It's all about how your communications as a public servant get into the record book so that we have full transparency.

TOOBIN: Right. I mean the whole argument that the Clinton campaign has made is that other secretaries have also skirted the rules, frankly strikes me as totally irrelevant. You know what's true about those other secretaries of state? They're not running for president. So if they may have violated rules in the past, I think it's basically irrelevant. The point is Hillary Clinton. The good news for Hillary Clinton is that this is not a criminal investigation at all.

BANFIELD: Are we sure of that because the - the inspector general has these findings. But the DOJ would have to take these findings into account and make that decision.

TOOBIN: Correct. The good news is, this is not a criminal investigation. The bad news is that the criminal investigation is continuing. And this will be part - the information -

BANFIELD: Bad news for her.

TOOBIN: Yes, the bad news for her.

BANFIELD: Great news for Donald Trump.

TOOBIN: Well, yes, since he's - since he has made a big focus on these issues. Nothing in this report suggests to me that there is criminal liability on the part of Hillary Clinton. However, this remains a major political problem for her. This report will only make the political problem worse because you have the State Department itself saying she broke the rules. But I think it's important to keep some perspective about this. This does not appear to be a criminal violation, at least based on what I've seen in the report.

BANFIELD: And that's - while Donald Trump will probably run with it, Hillary Clinton will also say, this is not me. This is the way all secretaries of state, back to Albright, including Condi Rice and Colin Powell, Republican -

TOOBIN: She certainly will say that.

BANFIELD: Yes, that will probably be part of the narrative as we go forward and most certainly will hear it. Evan Perez and Jeffrey Toobin, thank you both for that. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, President Obama chiming in on the presidential race from overseas, saying that he could see how it looks like a mess and that that may be an understatement of the year, violence and name- calling and party in-fighting. That's just in the last 24 hours too. But he did say something else very profound about where he believes we're headed. And he told these people on your screen. We're going to let you know about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:28:06] BANFIELD: Wow, what a mess. Those are actually the words of our president, President Obama, talking to young people in Vietnam, saying that that is how the American election process might actually look if you're standing overseas where they are. Here's how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, one of the great things about the United States is that even when it makes mistakes, I think it's able to adjust and recognize our mistakes and then we correct course and, you know, take different steps. So things are going to be OK. I promise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Whew. Oh, wait, I'm still here in and it really remains to be seen whether things are going to be OK. But for right now, it is still a mess. Case in point, take a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Yes, this stuff is not OK. Overwhelming these barricades. Look at these security officers. Eek. This is outside the Donald Trump event yesterday in New Mexico. Outnumbered, overwhelmed by the protesters, the security officers could basically just set up these perimeters and try to keep it all in check.

Mark Preston, CNN's chief politics editor, is with me live now. Nia- Malika Henderson, our senior political reporter.

Guys, I thought we were going to talk about the pictures and how that factors into the campaign today. And I'm not, at least not right now. I'm instead going to talk about this IG report that just came out this morning. The inspector general of the State Department saying that Hillary Clinton, in my words here, acted above the rules in how she handled her e-mails. Important to note, they used the term secretaries of state, referring many administrations back that all secretaries of state could be complicit in some of these behaviors of being above the rules in records keeping.

[12:30:00] So, Mark Preston, first to you. My guess is that it will be semantics. We will not hear plural when we have of Donald Trump speaking of this issue. We will definitely hear plural when we hear Hillary Clinton speaking of this issue.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, no doubt.