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Obama, Sanders Meet Today at the White House; Elizabeth Warren to Rip Trump's Racism in Speech; Terror Attack in Tel Aviv; Inside the Trump Campaign. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 09, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:01] CUOMO: One kid, one idea. Change.

CAMEROTA: So great. People are generous when you ask for it.

Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hi, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: They are generous when you ask about it. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

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

A major meeting at the White House as pressure builds for Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders to drop out of the race. In a little more than two hours, the senator will pow-wow with the president, and in an interview with Jimmy Fallon on the "Tonight Show," President Obama talked about that meeting and so much more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": This past week Hillary is now the presumptive nominee for the Democrats. And you talked to Hillary the other day.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did.

FALLON: Yes. Did you talk to her during -- as she's running? Did they ask you for advice?

OBAMA: Yes, I've actually spoken to Hillary and Bernie at certain point during the campaign, and you know, I don't know if they ask me for but, I'd give it anyway. And --

(CROSSTALK)

OBAMA: But you know what, it was a healthy thing for the Democratic Party to have a contested primary. I thought that Bernie Sanders brought enormous energy and new ideas, and he pushed the party and challenged them. I thought it made Hillary a better candidate. I think she is whip smart. She is tough. And she deeply cares about working people and putting kids through school and making sure we're growing our economy. And so my hope is that over the next couple of weeks, we're able to

pull things together, and what happens during primaries, you get a little ouchy. Everyone does. You know, when Hillary and I ran in 2008, you know, your staff and, you know, supporters, they're popping off, and somebody is reading, did you see that -- and they start spinning stuff up.

FALLON: Sure.

OBAMA: So there is a natural process of everybody recognizing that this is not about any individual, but this is about the country and the direction we're going to take it, and I think we're going to have a great convention and we'll do well.

FALLON: Is Bernie going to endorse Hillary?

OBAMA: Well, I'm sure they're going to have a conversation.

FALLON: Is he ever going to drop out?

(LAUGHTER)

FALLON: Or he's going to stay in?

OBAMA: Yes, I'm going to be talking to him tomorrow. He's going to be coming to the White House. And the main role I'm going to be playing in this process is to remind the American people that this is a serious job. You know, this is not reality TV. I've seen the decisions that have to be made and the work that has to be done. And I have a lot of confidence that if the American people are reminded of what's at stake and all the incredibly important issues that we've got to get right, that they're going to make a good choice. That's what they usually do.

FALLON: Speaking of reality TV, I don't know if you saw "Celebrity apprentice."

OBAMA: I didn't.

FALLON: It's a great show. Yes. Has Donald Trump called you for advice or talked to you at all? And first of all, you've given him some pretty good advice so far if you have.

OBAMA: Yes .

FALLON: But has he called and talked to you? I would call if I was --

OBAMA: No.

FALLON: No?

OBAMA: No, he hasn't. No.

FALLON: No.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: Not that I know of.

FALLON: Do you think the Republicans are happy with their choice?

OBAMA: We are, but I don't know how that --

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: I don't know how they feel. I -- you know what, that --

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: That was too easy. But the truth is, actually I am worried about the Republican Party. And I know that sounds, you know.

FALLON: Yes.

OBAMA: You know what it sounds like but --

FALLON: Yes.

OBAMA: But democracy works. This country works when you have two parties that are serious and trying to solve problems and they have philosophical differences and they have fierce debates and they argue and they contest elections, but at the end of the day, what you want is a healthy two-party system. And you know, you want the Republican nominee to be somebody who could do the job if they win.

And you want folks who understand the issues, and where you can sit across the table from them and you have principled argument, and ultimately can still move the country forward. So I actually am not enjoying, and I haven't been enjoying over the last seven years watching some of the things that have happened in the Republican Party, because there are some good people in the Republican Party.

There are wonderful Republicans out in the country, who want what's best for the country and may disagree with me on some things, but are good, decent people. But what's happened in that party culminating in this current nomination I think is not actually good for the country as a whole.

[09:05:07] It's not something the Democrats should wish for and my hope is that maybe once we get through the cycle, there is some corrective action and they get back to being a center right party and the Democratic Party being a center left party and we start figuring out how to work together.

FALLON: Was that -- was that harder for you going in as president and realizing, well, people are going to go, like, not work with me? Republicans aren't going to work with me?

OBAMA: It exceeded my expectations because when I came in we were in the middle of crisis, and usually your hope is, is that all right, we can play political games, but when stuff is serious, when we're losing 800,000 jobs a month, when we've got 180,000 troops in Afghanistan, and Iraq that we're going to buckle down here for a second, put the politics aside and just get stuff done. And that did not happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The full interview with the president airs tonight on NBC.

Let's get right to CNN's Athena Jones. She's outside the White House on what else we can expect today.

Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, we expect this meeting between the president and Senator Sanders to last about an hour, and this is the second sit down the two have had during this -- will have had during this primary season and the fourth time the two will have spoken just in the last month.

The White House says it will be a continuation of the conversation they've had, talking about, quote, the significant issues at stake in this election, that matter most to America's working families.

We expect the president to hear Senator Sanders out. To hear what he has to say, hear what his plans are. The White House and the Clinton campaign are very sensitive about looking like they're trying to push Senator Sanders out of the race.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the president feels that Sanders has more than earned the right to make this decision on his own. They do not want to alienate the millions and millions of enthusiastic Sanders supporters that they're going to need to help ensure that Clinton wins the White House in the fall.

So we expect the president to try to begin to prod Sanders toward accepting Clinton as the Democratic Party's nominee. That's of course a key step on the road to party unity. That's what this is all about. Many folks say it is a necessary stop. You've got to have Sanders and all of his supporters on board.

What we don't expect, Carol, is we don't expect for the president to directly ask Sanders to step out of the race simply because they don't want to upset all of those supporters -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Athena Jones, reporting live from the White House.

And as the Democrats look to unify, they're also keeping up the pressure on Donald Trump. Senator Elizabeth Warren set to ramp up her attacks on Trump in a big speech today but will reportedly take aim at the presumptive nominee's, quote, "racism."

Warren will also slam Paul Ryan, the House speaker, and Senator Mitch McConnell, saying Trump's words are just part of a larger Republican plan to influence the nation's courts. Senator McConnell tells CNN that Trump needs to act more like a presidential candidate with fewer off-the-cuff comments and perhaps more teleprompters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MAJORITY LEADER: I've ran into him at the NRA convention in my hometown of Louisville a couple of weeks ago. And I said, hey, Donald, you got a script. He pulled out of his pocket, and said, I hate a script. It's boring. I said put me down in favor of boring. He is now one of the two people that are going to be president of the United States of America, and he needs it to begin to act like a presidential candidate. It's not inappropriate to have thoughtful remarks and nothing wrong with reading them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Chris Frates tracking all the developments, too, today.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Many Republicans have long feared that Donald Trump's divisive rhetoric would in fact derail his campaign, and now with some Republicans calling his recent comments about a federal judge downright racist, they're sounding the alarm that if he doesn't tone it down, he is helping to put Hillary Clinton in the White House.

And while Republicans scramble to respond to their new party leader, Democrats, well, they're pouncing. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who's really kind of carved out a role as a leading Trump opponent, plans to try to light up the billionaire in a speech later today. She plans to call Trump out for suggesting that the judge hearing a lawsuit against him has a conflict of interest because of his Mexican decent.

Here is what she is going to say according to her prepared remarks. Quote, "Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anyone, and serves nobody but himself. And that is just one of the many reasons why he will never be president of the United States. Judge Curiel has survived far worse than Donald Trump. He survived actual assassination attempts. He'll have no problem surviving Donald Trump's nasty temper tantrums."

Now Warren is also going to argue that while Trump's weapon of choice is racism, his goal is the same as the Republican Party, to appoint judges who bend to the will of rich and powerful interests.

[09:10:08] And while will also trying to judge bashing to congressional Republicans' efforts to block President Obama's Supreme Court pick. So she's essentially going to try to paint Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell with the same broad brush, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Chris Frates, reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

With me now, Patricia Murphy, columnist for the "Daily Beast" and "Roll Call," David Gergen will also be with me. He's CNN's senior political analyst and former presidential adviser to presidents Reagan, Ford, Clinton and Nixon. I understand David is still getting seated. So I'm going to pose the first question to you, Patricia. Elizabeth Warren will go after Mr. Trump in a big speech tonight and

she's expected to say that, quote, "Donald Trump chose racism as his weapon but his aim is exactly the same as the rest of the Republicans. Pound the courts into submission to the rich and powerful."

Those are harsh words, Patricia. But if powerful Republicans, who do call Trump's remarks racist yet continue to -- continue to endorse him or say they'll vote for him, rather, how can they separate themselves from Elizabeth Warren's attack?

PATRICIA MURPHY, COLUMNIST, THE DAILY BEAST: Well, you can see Republican leadership trying to separate themselves from the words of Donald Trump, if not from Donald Trump's candidacy. I think that right now there's a window, a relatively short window to convince Republican leaders and senators and congressmen in Washington that he can be presidential, that he can lead the party, that he won't be a catastrophe for their own party up and down the ticket.

But I think that window is closing. But whether they are trying to do to separate themselves it's a very awkward conversation that they're trying to have publicly to say, I disavow those comments. Even Paul Ryan said that what Trump said about the judge was textbook racism, but within the same sentence, he also said, but am I going to support Hillary Clinton, no, I'm not. She is not the solution.

So it's a very awkward, difficult position for these leaders. The Republicans don't want to embrace this language, but they also don't want to reject and defend the 13 million Trump supporters whose voted for him. He did get the most Republican votes of any candidate in history. They vote -- Republican voters were not unambiguous. It wasn't a close call. It wasn't a squeaker. He crushed the rest of the field so they have this nominee who the voters love and they have a party that they're very, very worried about their own jobs, and I think they're worried about their own jobs as well and they probably should be.

COSTELLO: OK. So, David, you would expect Mr. Trump to hit back at Senator Warren's attacks on him, and usually he hits back by calling her Pocahontas. Do you think it's smart to continue to lose that -- to use that kind of language? t

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, no. I thought in the beginning, there was something funny about it as a kid so it shouldn't rise spontaneously on a phone call with a reporter. But since then, I think it's become offensive. And it's just part of a series of things that give offense to people, to voters. So I think the Republicans basically would like him to tone everything down and the hard part is, how do you remain Donald Trump, if you're toned down?

You know, he himself warned that if you put me on teleprompter, I'm just going to become boring like everybody else. Well, they put him on a teleprompter a couple of nights ago, and you know, he was good, but there were times, when indeed he seemed to be just a little boring.

(LAUGHTER) COSTELLO: Stepping back and taking a look at the bigger picture, Patricia, Elizabeth Warren is going to give this speech tonight and she's going to go on the attack against Donald Trump. What is she really doing? Is she really positioning herself to become Hillary Clinton's running mate?

MURPHY: I don't know. I'm not really sure if she's angling for that. I do think, though, she is -- I believe that she is personally offended by Donald Trump. I don't think you could have two people more diametrically opposed in their politics or in their approach to public life. I think this is genuine for her. I think she and other Democrats also see a huge opportunity. When you look at how George Bush won in 2000, he did that with states in the America west, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. He actually just barely lost New Mexico to Al Gore.

Those are huge, growing Latino populations that Republicans used to win in those states. I think Democrats see a gigantic electoral advantage to hammering Donald Trump on these comments and any other comments that he makes in the future. They think they're going to be able to win those states with Trump at the top of the ticket.

COSTELLO: We'll see. So, David, President Obama -- go ahead. Go ahead, David.

GERGEN: Let me just come back to Elizabeth Warren. The Boston papers here, where I am, are full of Elizabeth Warren stories today. And there are sources close to her saying she is weighing, whether she were asked, she would do it. It would make sense. In the meantime, what she's delicately trying do is to move toward endorsing Hillary Clinton, while also bringing the Sanders voters with her. She does not want to walk away from them. You know, that's part of her base, too. Whether it's in this election or future elections, she wants them very much.

[09:15:02] But I think the critical thing is that she can fire up the base and if she endorses Hillary Clinton in a very full some, enthusiastic way -- not tonight. I think it's going to be a few days before she does it. But she is going to do it and I do think that will help Mrs. Clinton. She's going to have some strong surrogates out there.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Patricia Murphy and David Gergen, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM surveillance video capturing chaos in a busy Tel Aviv cafe after two attackers opened fire. What happened next and how Israeli authorities are responding today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: ISIS is claiming responsibility for two suicide bombings that have killed at least 22 people and injured dozens in the Iraqi capital. Iraq's Interior Ministry says 19 of the victims died when a suicide car bomb exploded near a movie theater in eastern Baghdad. The other attack happened at the main gate of a military camp. A man wearing a suicide vest blew himself up there killing three Iraqi shoulders.

[09:20:05] Israeli authorities are banning thousands of Palestinians from traveling into Israel. The move coming just hours after two Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a packed market in Tel Aviv killing four people. Chilling surveillance video shows the suspects firing automatic weapons at terrified diners who scrambled to get out of the way. Police shot and injured one suspect. They say the other surrendered.

CNN's Oren Liebermann is in Tel Aviv with the fallout. Good morning.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, as you can see behind me, the market, the Sarona Market, an open air popular market in the midst of Tel Aviv has largely returned to its normal state. Perhaps a measure of the response here to the terror attack last night. The Tel Aviv mayor said don't let terror disturb your lives, come out and enjoy the market and Tel Aviv has responded.

The two stores here behind me, the two restaurants were opened within 12 hours of that terror attack this morning, and since then people have been coming here.

As for the Israeli response, it has come swiftly. The first thing we heard this morning the IDF, which is the Israeli military, sent forces to the southern West Bank to a town called Yatta where they have been. Since then, and we're hearing they've imposed a closure on the town of Yatta. But that was just the beginning of the response. Since then, COGAT, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, has frozen 83,000 travel permits for Palestinians from the West Bank to Israel and frozen 204 permits of relatives of the two suspects in this case.

Additionally, the Israeli military has sent two extra battalions into the West Bank. Now the latest now is a statement we just got a short while ago from the Palestinian Authority which says, "We reject violence against civilians regardless of its source." A short statement, but a significant statement coming from the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. His office condemning this attack, condemning this violence.

That stands in sharp contrast to the statement released by Hamas earlier this morning which praised these terror attacks saying Wednesday night's operation in Tel Aviv is the first good news to our people and our persistent struggle in the month of Ramadan and it's the first of many surprises that will be awaiting the Israeli occupation forces this month so a very different response to this terror attack coming from Hamas.

Now moving forward, we know police, in preparation for Ramadan, in preparation for the holy month, have thousands of officers stationed in Jerusalem as Muslims come to pray in the holy city. That is just one measure of the many we have seen the IDF and the Israeli government put in place following this terror attack -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Oren Liebermann, reporting live from Tel Aviv this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump under pressure to unify his party, but does he need to start with his own campaign first?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:57] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 26 minutes past.

Evacuation underway in Arizona as a wildfire threatens homes. Right now crews from multiple fire agencies, they're attacking the blaze from the ground and air in Yarnell. That's the same city where 19 elite firefighters lost their lives in 2013. Right now the fire covers about 600 acres. It's spreading quickly. At this point, it is unclear how it started.

California's new smoking age is taking effect. As of today, you have to be 21 years old to buy tobacco products, and that includes e- cigarettes vapor devices. Another law also bans the use of e- cigarettes from public places including schools, restaurants and hospitals. California is the second state to raise the purchase age from 18 to 21, just behind Hawaii.

Attorney Jose Baes who famously won a murder acquittal for Casey Anthony will defend former NFL star Aaron Hernandez in his upcoming double murder trial. Hernandez is also serving a life sentence for a murder in 2013. The 26-year-old is charged with fatally shooting two men outside of a Boston nightclub in 2012. Baes says he hopes the public keeps an open mind and let the facts unfold in court.

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

It is the most high profile case of the six trials being held in Freddie Gray's health. Officer Caesar Goodson is facing depraved heart murder charges. He's the only officer involved in the incident to be facing murder charges. Goodson was driving the van when Freddie Gray suffered a fatal spinal injury. He's opted for a trial before a judge rather than a jury. The trial is set to begin moments ago.

Last month the same judge cleared Officer Edward Nero of all charges. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

To politics now and growing scrutiny for Donald Trump. And not just about his controversial comments on a federal judge. It's also about his campaign and whether it is prepared for a general election battle against Hillary Clinton. Reports of infighting among top aides, coupled with questions about staffing in key states, both sparking questions.

Joining me now to talk about this is Larry Sabato, director of the University of -- at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Welcome, Larry.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. So Mr. Trump is losing support among Republicans over what he said about Judge Curiel. He did not apologize. And he told Republicans to get over it. Yet he says he can be a unifier. Is that possible?

SABATO: It's very, very difficult. You know, if we had a focus group in front of us right now, Carol, I don't think the word unifier would ever come up as people would describe Donald Trump. It wouldn't be in his word cloud.

He is the most unconventional candidate really in my lifetime in either party. He doesn't follow the usual rules. It worked for him in the primaries, but the general election is a completely different situation.

[09:30:05] COSTELLO: He has two men who were in charge of his campaign. Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski and sometimes Mr. Trump listens to one of them and sometimes he listens to the other.