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Families Honor Military Loved Ones at Arlington; Trump Courts Military Vets at D.C. Rally; Interview with William Weld; Iraqi Forces Aim to Retake Fallujah; Texas Floods Claim at Least Six Lives; The Clintons Travel to Chappaqua, New York; Trump Slams Judge in University Case. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:03] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I bet you did. I'm so glad it at least turned out well in the end, but, you know, when you step back and look at what happened.

JOSEPH KANE, U.S. MILITARY VETERAN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And, you know, it also happened to thousands of other --

KANE: Well, it's scary because you can also lose Social Security benefits and everything else once somebody claims you're dead. So --

COSTELLO: Well, we're glad you got that mistake all cleared up, and we're glad you're still with us, Joseph, and thank you for your service. We sure appreciate it.

KANE: Well, thank you, Carol. Thank you for your support.

COSTELLO: Thank you.

KANE: Bye.

COSTELLO: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

This Memorial Day we pause to remember those who never made it home and never got the thank you they deserved. Today we pay tribute to our nation's fallen heroes. Ceremonies already unfolding across the country.

These are live pictures from the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. Next hour President Obama will lay a wreath there along with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

And this, a somber scene at the National Air Force Memorial, a ceremony there just wrapping up and perhaps the most difficult but important images to see are these images. A reminder of the aftermath of war. Families, children, battle buddies all spending today by the gravesites of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

CNN's Barbara Starr live at Arlington National Cemetery. Hi, Barbara. BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You

know, for over 150 years the nation's military fallen have been laid to rest here at Arlington, but here in this one corner of our Arlington called Section 60 we find, as we do every year, the families, the friends, the battle buddies of so many American servicemen and women who fell on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's a beautiful morning out here. You know, people are going to head to the beach, head to the mall, head to the swimming pool, but here what you find are Americans coming out as they are across the country paying their respects to the fallen.

I want to pan the camera over a little bit and show you people have been coming here all morning. They will be here all day to visit their loved ones here at Arlington. This is really the history, if you will, of the last 15 years of war. Those who have fallen on the battlefields, the names now so familiar, Fallujah, Ramadi, Baghdad in Iraq. In Afghanistan, the Korangal Valley, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Kabul, all the places back in the news years later, but here those who gave that final full measure of devotion to the country, their families, their friends are here on Memorial Day 2016.

When we first started coming to Section 60, much of this was an open, green meadow, and now all these years later you see how many are laid to rest here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr reporting live from Arlington National Cemetery.

On to politics now. Donald Trump marking this Memorial Day weekend by reaching out to military veterans. The Republicans' presumptive nominee appearing at a Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The group says it invented Trump to speak but not Democrats Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. And Trump returned their embrace by vowing to fix the VA hospital system and the delays that had been blamed for dozens of deaths.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thousands of people are dying. Hard to believe even, of our vets, our most cherished people. Thousands of people are dying waiting in line to see a doctor. That is not going to happen anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Sara Murray live in Washington with more. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. While Donald Trump courted veterans, on the Democratic side Bernie Sanders is stubbornly sticking in the race and he's doing that in part by making the argument that he is the candidate who can take down Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But if we get the Democratic nomination, Donald Trump is toast. And the message that we're going to take to the Democratic convention is that if the Democrats want a candidate who will beat Trump and beat him badly, our campaign is the campaign to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now this is a key argument that Bernie Sanders is using as a reason for him staying in the race. It's also the kind of argument that could make it a little tougher for Donald Trump to win over potential independent Bernie Sanders' supporters if Hillary Clinton does win the nomination, the Democratic nomination, as we do expect her to based on how the math is going so far, but meanwhile Donald Trump could be facing even more challengers than he expected.

"Weekly Standard" editor Bill Kristol took to Twitter to say, "Just a heads up over this holiday weekend. There will be an independent candidate, an impressive one with a strong team and a real chance."

[10:05:04] So far no signal as to who that candidate might be, and obviously they would face a very steep climb in terms of pulling together a campaign operation, pulling together the kind of money you would need to mount competition against these other well-funded candidates.

And, of course, as Donald Trump is wont to do he shot back on Twitter against Bill Kristol, saying, "If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an independent, say good-bye to the Supreme Court." You see there Trump holding out this threat that if there is a third-party candidate, that could doom Republicans to a loss and therefore hand a Supreme Court pick over to Democrats, so we will see how this all plays out -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, we will. Sara Murray reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

The Libertarian Party has said its ticket for the presidential election and two former Republican governors will be running mates. Gary Johnson will head the ticket and William Weld will be the vice presidential candidate. The party could play a pivotal role this year. An NBC News-"Wall Street Journal" poll shows nearly half of Americans would consider a third-party candidate. Johnson, who governed the border state of New Mexico, says American voters need to reject Donald Trump and his tacks on immigration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're taking him on on the fact that he wants to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, taking him on on wanting to build a fence across the border. That's nuts. Taking him on when he says that Mexicans are murderers and rapists when -- and it's incendiary. As a border state governor it's incendiary to 50 percent of the population of New Mexico that he's talking about Hispanics, Mexicans, in this way when the absolute opposite is true. Call him out on what is really racist. It's just racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk to the other half of the party's ticket, William Weld is the former Republican governor of Massachusetts and now the Libertarian's vice presidential nominee.

Welcome, sir.

WILLIAM WELD, LIBERTARIAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. You say this election is the perfect storm for Libertarians. Why?

WELD: Well, we don't agree with either national party. You know, we're socially tolerant and economically conservative. Gary Johnson and I, when we were in office together, were ranked the most -- two most conservative economically and fiscally governors in the United States. So I think of it not so much as a third party as a third way. You know, we're the Democratic Party without the overspending and the anti-free trade. We're the Republican Party without the anti- abortion, anti-gay.

You know, the election of Bill Clinton in '92 in a way was a third way. He and Al Frum and the Democratic Leadership Council had taken the Democratic Party to the center where they needed to be after the McGovern election. Tony Blair in Britain ran on a platform called the third way, and he squeezed in between two parties that were similarly situated as the R's and the D's today.

COSTELLO: So you guys seem to be focusing more on Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. Why is that?

WELD: Well, Mr. Trump has made some proposals that have caught Gary Johnson's and my eye. I really do think that building the wall evokes the most famous wall of the 20th century, the Berlin Wall, which is a symbol of everything that is wrong about foreign policy, exclusion, hatred, the divisiveness. So, you know, we're -- part of our job is going to be to speak truth to power, and if we see something that we think is off, we're going to say so. That's one reason why we would like to be included in the national dialogue in the fall, and we will be on the ballot in all 50 states. So the question is really, why not?

COSTELLO: Well, you're on the ballot now in, what, 32 states? Will you be on the ballot in all 50 states?

WELD: Right. Traditionally in all 50 states, right.

COSTELLO: Let's go back to the -- you said that Mr. Trump's wall is like the Berlin Wall. You've also called Mr. Trump a fascist, is that correct?

WELD: No, no, I didn't. No, no, I didn't.

COSTELLO: OK. You did not?

WELD: I said I thought his deportation was troubling and I was asked, are you calling him a fascist or a Nazi, and I said no. I think Mr. Trump deserves a lot of credit for a lot of things he's done this year, and I did not join the never-Trump crew in Massachusetts despite many invitations to do so.

COSTELLO: Well, he believes -- he believes that you did call him a fascist. His camp actually told "The New York Times," quote, and this is about you, "I don't talk about his alcoholism, so why would he talk about my foolishly perceived fascism? There's nobody less of a fascist than Donald Trump." Your response?

WELD: Well, show me the clip if you say I called him a fascist.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, then he said, I don't talk about his alcoholism. I don't know what that's about. What is that about?

WELD: We're not going to do the exchange of insults that characterize the Republican primary. I've said I'm just going to let that ride.

COSTELLO: OK. All right. Well, let's talk about taking part in the debates because right now I think that you have to be polling at 15 percent in major polls to qualify.

[10:10:06] Right now you guys aren't doing that. How do you achieve that in time?

WELD: Well, Gary Johnson has had his name in three polls fairly recently, and he polled by himself 10 percent in each of those polls. The 15 percent is sort of an arbitrary convention I think set down by the Presidential Commission on Debates, and if we're a national party on the ballot in every state with a platform that is different from the two other parties' platforms, I would think it would be good for the country to have us in those debates. So that's the case that we will try to make to the pollsters and thereafter to the public.

COSTELLO: Will the Libertarian Party consider suing the Commission on Presidential Debates to make it easier for the Libertarians to participate?

WELD: Oh, I think they already are. I think there's a lawsuit pending long before my time.

COSTELLO: Do you think it will be resolved in time?

WELD: I don't know. I'm not familiar with the briefing schedule in that case. Bruce Fein is the lawyer for the party.

COSTELLO: OK. We'll give him a call.

William Weld, thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it.

WELD: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come, the battle for Fallujah. One of the bloodiest fights for U.S. forces in the Iraq war. Now Iraqi forces plan to retake their city from ISIS control.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:15] COSTELLO: Iraqi forces have retaken several towns surrounding Fallujah. Now they're right outside the city itself ready to retake the ISIS stronghold.

Still at risk inside the city as many as 50,000 civilians living there. Humanitarian groups say they could be killed in bomb blasts or executed by ISIS if they try to escape. More than 530 families already fleeing the city and aid groups fear they won't have enough food and water to take with them.

CNN's senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen is in London with more about this.

Hi, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, and certainly it's going to be a very difficult operation. It's one of the things that the Iraqi Security Forces that are, of course, also backed by the U.S. and other coalition member states as well in the air also there say it's going to be very, very hard to get into Fallujah.

Now the most recent update that we got, literally a couple of minutes ago, was that the Iraqi Security Forces are trying to get into Fallujah. However, they haven't managed to breach the actual city limits yet, but they believe once they do that's when the really tough battle is going to begin. You're going to see urban combat. You're going to see things like improvised explosive devices there in the streets, in the houses. So certainly very difficult for the Iraqi Security Forces to cut through there.

However, the fact alone that they're at this stage, that they are able to conduct this very complex operation in such a big city is something that the U.S. says is major progress. Now Colonel Steve Warren, who is the spokesman for the anti-ISIS coalition, he was on "NEW DAY" earlier today and here is what he had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. STEVE WARREN, SPOKESMAN, ANTI-ISIS COALITION IN IRAQ: A year ago here in Iraq the barbarians were at the gate. Baghdad was actually threatened, and in theory it was in direct danger of being invaded by these animals that we call ISIL. Now we've driven them back. They've lost almost 45 percent of the territory that they once held here in Iraq. They've lost 20 percent of the territory that they once held in Syria. So we are seeing the Iraqi Security Forces that in 2014, quite frankly, collapsed under the pressure that ISIL put on them. We're seeing them begin to rebuild.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: But, of course, Carol, as you said, there is that big threat to the civilian population. At this point in time it seems as though pretty much the entire population is a human shield with ISIS hiding amidst them. Of course as they prepare for this invasion, only about 900 people were able to get out of Fallujah. They are now in camps around the city but certainly the civilian population and its fate is a big concern for the U.S. and for the Iraqi Security Forces as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Frederik Pleitgen reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

At least 65 migrants have died in Mediterranean shipwrecks for the past week but the U.N. fears that toll could rise with the hundreds of people still missing.

This is video off the Italian -- this is video from the Italian Coast Guard. You see them rescuing hundreds of migrants. As many as 700, though, are unaccounted for. Three boats sank. They were trying to flee countries, including Somalia and Sudan, and they tried to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

Coming up in the NEWSROOM, severe thunderstorms bring record rainfall to Texas. Rescue teams are searching for victims as floodwaters threaten to destroy communities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just hope it doesn't rise anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:23:10] COSTELLO: Severe weather across the country on this Memorial Day. Flooding in Texas, six people have died in those floods. One of the victims, 21-year-old Darren Mitchell, a National Guardsman. He posted a picture on social media of the water against his truck window.

In the Houston suburbs well, some suburbs saw 19 inches of rain in 48 hours. The rain system has moved on but it's not over yet.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is following all of this. Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Carol. Once you get so much rainfall on land, the next rain isn't going to soak in, and that's where we are now. We're just looking ahead, when is it going to hit, where is it going to hit? 72 hours' worth of rainfall across the state of Texas. And northwest of Texas, probably the size of about four counties were purple. Purple is 10 inches of rain or more. You put 10 inches of rain over four counties in any state in the country, and you're going to get flooding, and that's what they're seeing here today.

Floodwaters still running off. That all has to get into the Gulf of Mexico. A couple different spots, one west of San Angelo. Another one here with San Antonio and one here near Dallas and also down into parts of Houston. So the rain continues for today and for tomorrow, but not as much as we're going to get on Thursday and Friday. So let some of this run off a little bit but look at some of these areas now all the way through the rest of the weekend. West of Corpus Christi, six inches of rainfall by the beginning of Saturday into Sunday. So more flooding is likely here, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chad Myers reporting live. Thanks so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. We just got word Hillary Clinton will be making an appearance today in Chappaqua, New York. Miguel Marquez is there. Hi, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, yes, indeed. Bill and Hillary Clinton expected to make an appearance here in Chappaqua. It's about to kick off.

[10:25:04] I can hear the bagpipes already warming up. They'll come around this corner here and then down the street into the center of town. This is something they've done many times before. She's well loved here in her adopted hometown of Chappaqua in Westchester County. She won over Senator Bernie Sanders 68 percent to 32 percent.

The senator -- Secretary Clinton tweeting a short time ago, "Our fallen heroes deserve our profound gratitude for giving their lives to protect our freedom today and every day."

When we see her coming, we will let you know, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Miguel Marquez, thanks so much.

Hillary Clinton faces a fork in the road. Stick to policy or get down and dirty in a fight with Donald Trump. She's got some ammo. Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel ordered internal documents related to Trump University be released. Trump University is the subject of a fraud investigation. Mr. Trump is not happy with the judge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. The judge who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that's fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now it is unprecedented for a presidential candidate to call into question a judge's integrity by insinuating he's Mexican, and for the record Judge Curiel was born in Indiana and attended Indiana University.

With me now to talk about this and more is Republican strategist and Trump surrogate, Boris Epstein, CNN commentator and Clinton supporter Bakari Sellers, and the director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia Larry Sabato.

Welcome to all of you.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

BORIS EPSTEIN, TRUMP SURROGATE: Thanks, Carol.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Larry, what do you make of what Donald Trump said?

SABATO: Well, he knows in all probability those documents are going to be embarrassing to him. They're going to contain material that will be fodder for the Democrats.

You know, Carol, I've just got to say this, for a guy who has a terrible problem with Hispanics, virtually every survey has him with support levels in the 20s or even in the teens with Hispanics. To call this judge, quote, "Mexican," when, in fact he is a U.S. citizen born in the United States in 1953, doesn't help him at all. It's like the attack on Governor Susana Martinez in New Mexico. Totally unnecessary. Doesn't help him at all. He does it anyway.

COSTELLO: Boris -- Boris, why does he go there?

EPSTEIN: Well, I can't speak for why Donald Trump said something, but as far as the whole Trump University attack goes, it's been out there for a long time now and it doesn't work. So we already saw it fail in the primaries, right? It's been brought up since by January or February. So politically it is not necessarily fodder for the Democrats. It is something that's a civil suit --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, again then, if it's not fodder for the Democrats -- but, Boris, if it's not fodder for the Democrats and it hurts him with a certain demographic group in America, why go there?

EPSTEIN: We have to see whether it hurts or not. Right? We have to do polling on specific question to determine whether that specific statement hurt. And I would proffer that it probably does not because Donald Trump has shown to be a very strong candidate who is not hurt by certain statements that some people disagree with.

COSTELLO: Bakari, your take?

SELLERS: Well, I think that this is -- it's in a long line and pattern of Donald Trump saying things that offend minority voters. And one thing Donald Trump has to do is broaden his base. Donald Trump has been very successful in running up extremely high numbers of white voters in the Republican primary. However, if he's going to win in the southwest and in places like Arizona and Nevada, if he's going to win in the south, in places like North Carolina or Florida or even in the rustbelt in Ohio, Pennsylvania, he has to expand that base, and he has to start wooing minority voters to the Republican Party. The reason that down ballot candidates on the Republican side are

terrified of Donald Trump is because on today, a day like Memorial Day, you know, he made a statement about POWs a few months ago and now he's talking about Mexican judges. So, I mean, this is just a long pattern of what will Donald Trump say next.

COSTELLO: Well, Larry, you know, Donald Trump has this fraud case against Trump University, right? And Hillary Clinton has this e-mail controversy. Do they neutralize each other? I mean, what's more damaging to which candidate or don't voters care?

SABATO: Well, I think voters do care. The Republicans care about the fact that Hillary Clinton appears to be dishonest and untrustworthy and the Democrats care about the fact that Donald Trump appears to be dishonest and untrustworthy. That's why they both have very high, sky high, unfavorables. They've got to figure out how to use this material given the fact that neither one is very credible attacking the other's honesty and integrity. Probably they will want to leave some of that to surrogates.