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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Clinton to Hit Trump in Speech; Trump Flip-Flops on Nuclear Arms. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 02, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:28] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We're going to begin with some live pictures coming to us in Colorado Springs, where the president is about to deliver the graduation speech at the Air Force Academy. This comes a day after the president's candid town hall meeting in Indiana where he made his sharpest comments yet on the 2016 presidential race. So we're going to keep an ear to the live mikes here and just circle back if there's some remarks that start to echo what we were starting to hear yesterday. But some great pictures coming out of Colorado Springs of that commencement.

Staying out west right now, a clash in California is about to get underway. Hillary Clinton looking to land a major blow against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. And the issue is national security. I know you're probably going to say that we were going to talk primary politics, but it looks more like general election politics.

So, joining us with a preview of Clinton's speech is CNN's Phil Mattingly.

So I fully thought that during this week and up until Tuesday we'd be hearing a lot of sort of California-based speeches.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BANFIELD: Maybe Governor Jerry Brown would be out on the stump. But, instead, this is one of those national security, foreign policy, big picture speeches and it seems like the zeroing in is Donald Trump, not Bernie Sanders.

MATTINGLY: It's all about Donald Trump. And I think if you look at the Clinton campaign in general, it's now all about Donald Trump. In this speech today, if you talk to advisers, is expected to be a broad rebuke of Donald Trump on foreign policy, but it's also targeted at two very specific subsets of the electorate, independents, where polling has shown are growing increasingly uncomfortable with Trump's temperament, but also Republicans, Republicans who put national security and terrorism at the top tier of the reasons why they vote.

Now, Hillary Clinton is going to try and make three points today. First, experience. She made, quote, "tough calls" as secretary of state. Top among those, saying she was for the bin Laden raid when that occurred. Also, she wants to go after Trump on that temperament issue, saying he's "unfit," "unqualified." But more than anything else, Clinton will take Trump's comments, most notably about NATO, and talk about how Trump's presidency would weaken U.S. alliances. Now, it's worth noting, Ashleigh, when Donald Trump talks about NATO, he talks about countries not being willing to put in what they owe essentially for our protection, for these alliances. And on some level, he's not wrong. NATO, 28 countries, only five of those countries actually met the 2 percent spending per GDP guidelines on defense. So there's something there. But Clinton's going to attack him on general - in general about weakening those alliances.

BANFIELD: All right, Phil, thank you for that.

We're keeping a live eye, of course, on all of those issues.

Not one to lay down and take a hit, Donald Trump made a preemptive strike on Clinton's speech expected today, and the strike was on Secretary Clinton's record and on Hillary Clinton personally, as well. Dig in and listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary is not a talented person. In fact, she's a person with absolutely no natural talent. She's one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country. She's not qualified because she has bad judgment. The Libya invasion was disgusting. She went to sleep when her ambassador was murdered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Want to talk more about these comments with New York Congressman and Hillary Clinton supporter Steve Israel, joining me live.

Thanks so much, congressman.

REP. STEVE ISRAEL, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: I guess the first question I have off the bat is, Donald Trump takes the oxygen out of the room and around the outside, too, even when he's doing an outdoor event. And I'm wondering if his headlines with his preemptive strike will make bigger headlines than Hillary Clinton's headlines today.

ISRAEL: Well, that might be his intent, but I don't think that plays out. Look, Donald Trump engages in these personal attacks for two reasons. Number one, because that's who Donald Trump is. Number two, he has a strategy. His strategy is to engage in these personal attacks, to maintain, sustain and rev up his base. His long term problem is this, he may get some headlines today, but over the long term, he's got to go beyond his base. He's got to begin appealing to moderate and independent voters. And those voters reject those personal attacks. They want to know, how are you going to strengthen my paycheck, how are you going to build infrastructure, how are you going to keep me safe, which is what Hillary Clinton is talking about today, and how are you going to make college more affordable. Donald Trump can't talk about those issues because he has no plans. All he's got is personal attacks.

BANFIELD: But Donald Trump makes his point very loud and it resonates and echoes and reverberates and every other verb you can think of. But the interesting thing is, and Jeff Greenfield (ph) made a great point when he wrote in a recent piece that Hillary Clinton is uniquely vulnerable to a guy like Donald Trump. And he points to a couple of reasons. Her vote in Iraq. She was the only one who made the allegation that Saddam Hussein was somehow involved with al Qaeda and 9/11, that she changed her mind on gay marriage only when it worked, and that she - that she actually has to deal with the fact that disgruntled voters feel very emboldened with a guy like Trump. That they could actually see change - he - they could actually see change with a Donald Trump and that when Hillary Clinton speaks, it sounds like everyone else. Do you think that that's - there's an element of truth to that? As - even as a supporter of Secretary Clinton, you have to see that there's an element of truth to this notion that she may be uniquely vulnerable to him.

[12:05:33] ISRAEL: Well, Ashleigh, you know, some voters may believe that Donald Trump represents change, but nobody wants dangerous change. Look, let's just talk about national security, which I believe, Ashleigh, is going to be one of the defining issues of this election. You know, you have a guy who has said that he wants to completely change our alliances with NATO and Israel, who said that it's a good idea for Saudi Arabia and South Korea to have more nuclear weapons, who has said that it's OK for us to torture people on the battlefield. Now, again, people who are a part of his base may like that kind of language, but most moderate, independent and virtually all Democratic voters, they just don't - they think that's reckless. They think that's dangerous change. And they're going to want a commander in chief who is fit to lead us through these complexities, not somebody whose policy prescriptions are just so reckless.

BANFIELD: All right, well, interesting how voters see it. I'm going to put up a couple of polls, if I can, congressman. I want to get you to react to these.

ISRAEL: Sure.

BANFIELD: These are recent Quinnipiac polls. The first one is about the international crisis. What do voters trust more when it comes to the international crisis. And among registered voters, she definitely has the edge, 53 percent to 40 percent over Donald Trump. But then if you break down a little bit more and you go into what international crisis might mean, who's more effective against ISIS, the numbers flip and Trump is considered among registered voters to have an eight point lead over - over Clinton with regard to that. But then when you dig even further and you talk about nukes and you ask voters, who do you trust more regarding nuclear weapons, she trounces him, 55 percent to 33 percent. So what do you make of voters who sort of see things in different ways? Overall, they think, you know, Hillary Clinton has the edge, but ISIS, without question, Donald Trump does. Isn't that just straight up messaging? He is messaging on ISIS and it's being received.

ISRAEL: Yes. Well, you know, you just - you just hit the nail on the head. So he is messaging about ISIS, but as soon as voters really engage and listen to what he has said, this is what they're going to learn. Two weeks ago Donald Trump said, I will - I would not go into Iraq, I would not go into Syria, but I will bomb ISIS. Hello, ISIS is in Iraq and Syria. So as this election plays out, and as people become more engaged in these critical national security issues, they're going to realize that Donald Trump is at best uniformed and at worst recklessly dangerous.

BANFIELD: Congressman Israel, always good to have you. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us today.

ISRAEL: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Appreciate it.

We're also going to bring Hillary Clinton's address to you live when she gets underway. It's about 2:30 Eastern Time, so we're watching the clock. We'll have that for you. And straight ahead, more fallout from the Trump University case. A former employee says she was fired for being in the military. And, yes, that does violate federal law. And, yes, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee talks a lot about how he loves the troops and the vets, but if what she's saying is true, well, there's a problem here.

And, don't forget, you can always watch LEGAL VIEW anytime, cnn.com/go. And you can also find me on Twitter @cnnashleigh. You can also weigh in on FaceBook. We're back in a moment.

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[12:12:33] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news comes to us regarding that shooting at UCLA. You probably saw the breaking news unfolding yesterday as a gunman killed a professor and then himself at UCLA. And, in fact, Professor William Klug, the victim, we're now learning, may not have been the only person who was targeted.

Remarkable pictures came to us of police closing in on campus, making sure that the all clear was given before letting anyone back on campus. Now we're learning that there may have been this hit list. Apparently the LAPD chief has said that the gunman, Mainak Sarkar, left a kill list. We also know that he has ties to Minnesota. He was recently a resident of Minnesota, but had returned to the L.A. area with two handguns and several rounds in a backpack.

So our breaking news, apparently this professor, William Klug, who was shot dead in cold blood yesterday before the gunman turned the gun on himself, may have had others in the crosshairs at one point or at least planned with a kill list. We'll continue to update you on this story as we get more information on it as well.

And we're also getting this story out of California. An Iraq War veteran claiming that she was fired from Trump University because she needed time off to serve in the Army Reserve. CNN just got our hands on an unsealed court deposition by this former employee. I want to bring in CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin, who's looking into this story, and Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University who knows a lot about whether that is legal or not.

Jonathan, to you in a moment.

First to you, Drew Griffin. What have you found?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is all according to this person who was an event planner for Trump University for a very, very short time. Just a matter of months back in 2007, who claims in her deposition in a Trump University lawsuit that she indeed was fired and it was her belief she was fired because she was in the military. I think we have a portion of that deposition that we can show you in which she basically says, you know, I - "my belief, I was fired because I was in the military. But there was also issues with me being passed over because I was in my 20s."

I think we have to have a little caution here, Ashleigh. We have tried to reach Miss Sommer. Her father has told us she is out of the country. And this is the same person who, in a declaration in this same batch, told us through her declaration that it was her belief that Trump University was selling to homeless people. Later on in this deposition she contradicts that. She was asked, at any time did you hear any presenter or sales person ask somebody that you knew was homeless to buy a Trump University program? Her answer is, "I don't know how I would know that they were homeless unless they were a bag person, but specifically no." And she goes on to admit in this same deposition that she had no evidence of any homeless people being sold. And that contradicts what she says in her - in her declaration. So I think there needs to be a little caution -

[12:15:39] BANFIELD: Yes.

GRIFFIN: And maybe this is where the Trump folks say, you know, we're going to beat this in court and we're going to prove these people are lying (ph).

BANFIELD: And they're being quiet now.

GRIFFIN: They are.

BANFIELD: And we talked to Paul Callan yesterday about why they may be quiet, and that is that they still have a case to fight. You don't always show all your hands to the media just because the media gets its hands on some preliminary evidence in a case.

GRIFFIN: I - yes.

BANFIELD: But we should mention to our viewers, why would she possibly be talk? She settled this case with Donald Trump. There is a non- disclosure element to settling the case, but she was depositions and these are the secret depositions that have just been - so these - this isn't her talking to the public. This is her talking to attorneys under oath because she's subpoenaed -

GRIFFIN: Correct.

BANFIELD: And we're now getting a look at that.

GRIFFIN: That's right. So, why is she talking now? We don't know. We haven't talked to her. So I think - I think we have - have a little caution here when we're talking about this.

BANFIELD: Well, she can't. She can't talk to us.

GRIFFIN: Right. Well, I mean, you know, --

BANFIELD: Yes.

GRIFFIN: She could potentially come forward. She's not party to the suit. She could potentially come forward. She is not - her father, again, said she's out of the country.

Speaking to the Trump Organization, I talked to Alan Garten, Trump's attorney, this morning and he said precisely what you just said. Look, these declarations, these depositions, all this stuff being played in the media, they can say whatever we want. We feel we have a winning case in California and we're going to win it in court.

BANFIELD: And they've also said that she's retracted some of her testimony, but in their filings they have not told us what details of the testimony they're saying were retracted. We don't know if it was the actual statements that we just read or something else. And again -

GRIFFIN: Nor will they, because they said we're going to do it in court.

BANFIELD: Best defense here - yes, best defense for the Trump attorneys is to not open up the whole case -

GRIFFIN: Correct.

BANFIELD: And start litigating it on television.

Drew, thank you for that.

But, Jonathan Turley, I'd like you to weigh in. If, in fact, this is true, there's federal laws that prohibit someone from, you know, taking action against an employee because that employee, Corinne Sommers, needs two days off a month to serve in the military. You can't do that.

PROF. JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: That's correct. It would be against the law. So if that allegation were to be upheld in court, if it was proven to be true, it would be a core violation of a federal law which requires that employers not penalize reservists for their time in the reserves. It also requires reemployment of people who have served in the military. This would be a core - an obvious violation. Now, what she has suggested is that her military service was raised

with her as a negative. That they spoke derisively towards her as sort of a weekend warrior and made it clear that this was not something that they really wanted. And it may, in fact, tipped the scales against her. All of that would be a classic violation under the federal law.

So this is one of those cases that the Trump people, obviously, could do without. It has obvious legal significance. This - these allegations would be very damaging. It also has obvious political implications. Even though Donald Trump is not being mentioned as being directly involved in any of these statements, it is, in fact, Trump University that's involved.

BANFIELD: Well, I'm going to thank you on this story. I'm going to ask you to stay around because I have other stories I need you to weigh in on. You're a terrific guest. Jonathan Turley, thank you. Stand by, if you will.

I have other breaking news now. This one coming from Cincinnati and it is about, yes, the gorilla that was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo. The zoo has just released brand new details on the plan to reopen this exhibit. It's called the Gorilla World Exhibit in the Cincinnati Zoo and now the plan is to open it next Tuesday, June 7th. But, and it's a big one, they are going to modify the public barrier. This is according to the zoo's press release. I'll quote them. The new barrier railing is 42 inches high with solid wood beams at the top and on the bottom with knotted rope netting. So if you expected the zoo to open up sooner, perhaps the delay is because they are making these modifications.

And I will remind you that this zoo has had this enclosure without any incidents for 38 years until this incident where you saw this three- year-old boy somehow making his way in there and Harambe the gorilla displaying this behavior to him, which ultimately and tragically resulted in Harambe being shot. Luckily, the little boy you're seeing is OK. Physically, at least, he is OK today.

[12:20:02] And coming up next, Donald Trump, does he have a magic wand? That's the question from the president, because he says he'll need one to do what he's proposing, which includes nuclear weapons for Japan, or maybe not. Trump has said both. A Trump supporter joins me to sort it all out right after the break.

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BANFIELD: In just a couple hours, Hillary Clinton is set to launch a barrage of attacks on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. It is a major speech that's going to target Trump's world view and argue that in her words Trump is unfit for the presidency. Last night she gave us a bit of an appetizer. Have a listen.

[12:25:05] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I've got to tell you, I think that Donald Trump has disqualified himself completely. He has attacked our closest allies. He has said let's pull out of NATO. He has praised the dictator of North Korea. He's advocated more countries getting nuclear weapons. He has advocated a return to torture. And he has said he wants to ban all Muslims from coming to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So joining us now is Donald Trump supporter and Republican strategist Boris Epshteyn.

All right, I do want to touch on what Hillary Clinton said in that appetizer from last night, that more countries are getting nuclear weapons, that he advocates for that. Now I'm not exactly sure if he does or if he doesn't, Boris, because he has said two different things about that. And I want to play the two different times that he spoke on that issue and get you to react in a moment. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE GOP NOMINEE: They said, I want Japan to nuke. I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break.

Wouldn't you rather, in a certain sense, have Japan have nuclear weapons when North Korea has nuclear weapons? And they do have them. They absolutely have them. They can't - they have no carrier system yet, but they will very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: OK, I'm not sure which - is he advocating for it or not?

BORIS EPSHTEYN, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, I think in the town hall - maybe that was at the town hall, the discussion was in, he was saying that it could be under consideration to say if North Korea does have them, it could be under consideration for Japan to have them, as well. And then it's a different - it's a different mode when you're in a speech, which is the - which was the first (INAUDIBLE), saying --

BANFIELD: But you know as well as I do, as a strategist, you can't say one thing to one group and one to another. And he said to George Stephanopoulos on ABC as well, very definitively, this was a good idea. It would save us a lot of hassle and money if they could arm themselves.

EPSHTEYN: So, not that we want them to have the nuke, right, but, strategically, if that makes sense, then that has to be considered.

BANFIELD: Does he want it or does he not want it?

EPSHTEYN: I don't think that's - it's not as if you're going to the grocery store and do you want pizza or do you not want pizza, right?

BANFIELD: OK.

EPSHTEYN: You have to look at the situation. You have to talk to your advisers. You have to look at the foreign policy arena as a whole and decide if it makes sense for Japan to have a nuclear weapon as you look around the world and countries that are getting them more and more now. And if North Korea, in that region, does have them, then it could be under consideration. So I think it's more nuance than, do you want or do you not want.

BANFIELD: So - OK. And the president - a lot of the president's advisers and those on the inside have said he's been chomping at the bit to get into this race and to be able to advocate on the nominee's behalf. Here's what he had to say last night publicly about how tough it is to solve the world's problems. Have a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Like the person you just mentioned, who I'm not going to advertise for, that he's going to bring all these jobs back. Well, how exactly are you going do that? What are you going to do? There's the - there's no answer to it. He just says, well, I'm going - I'm going to negotiate a better deal. Well, how - what - how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have, and usually the answer is, he doesn't have an answer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So, to that end, one of CNN's fantastic political reporter wrote a piece called "Donald Trump's Obsession With Himself." In effect, he outlines what the -

EPSHTEYN: That doesn't sound biased at all, right? The headline is - is unbiased.

BANFIELD: There - there's a reason to the - well, if you analyze his speeches, they are very much about his own personal attributes, and some would say braggadocio (ph), as opposed to policy. And it's not like we haven't seen big personalities before. Reagan was a big personality. He brought that personality right through not only campaigning but the administration as well, but he also brought with him a lot of heavy policy and that the argument - and I think that's what the president was saying is that you've got to have that too. It's not about a magic wand. Does that make sense?

EPSHTEYN: Well, it's funny for the president to say that because he ran only on his personality when he was running for president and some hope and change kind of thing that really didn't materialize.

Now, as far as policy -

BANFIELD: But he laid out policy on the campaign trail.

EPSHTEYN: As far as policy goes for Donald Trump, Donald Trump has been very specific on policy and Hillary Clinton is going to be hitting him on it incorrectly. I disagree with everything she's going to say. He's been very specific on NATO. That countries have to spend more than 2 percent of their GDP on defense. They can't just rely on the United States. Been very specific on immigration, right? And you hear people joke about the wall, but there's a specific proposal about how we will pay - how Mexico will pay for the wall. How? By curbing the outflow of dollars from illegal immigrants from the U.S. to Mexico. They're very specific on national security and very specific, again, on the economy. A specific tax plan that has a very much simplified tax bracket, four tax brackets, and that lowers the corporate tax rate, guess what, creating jobs, answering Barack - President Obama's question there.

BANFIELD: So I'm curious if maybe there is just so much bluster going on, on all sides of the campaign, when the discussion is about Donald Trump, that maybe some of those sub text headlines do get lost because there's just so much else to deal with like this - this vets - one quick line on the vets issue. I know we had the legal discussion somewhat earlier, but one quick comment on this vet, Corinne Sommers, who says she was fired. This is in a deposition. This is under sworn testimony - a sworn oath. She was fired because Donald Trump's supervisor at the school complained that I would have to take days off for military service as a reservist.

[12:30:13] EPSHTEYN: Well, she doesn't know why she was fired, right?