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Clinton Speaks At Planned Parenthood Event. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 10, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- in dollars in growth in our economy.

And here's another fact that doesn't get enough attention. Unintended pregnancy, teen pregnancy and abortion rates are at all-time record lows. That reality and studies confirm what Planned Parenthood knew all along. Accurate sex education and effective affordable contraception work.

And, you know, it wasn't so long ago that Republicans and Democrats actually stood together on these issues. Back in the 1990s when I helped create the national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy, I worked with Republicans to get it done.

Now, things feel quite different now, don't they? Instead of working to continue the progress we've made, Republicans, led now by Donald Trump, are working to reverse it.

When Donald Trump says, let's make America great again, that is code for let's take America backward. Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all. Back to the days when abortion was illegal, women had far fewer options and life for too many women and girls was limited. Well, Donald, those days are over.

We are not going -- we are not going to let Donald Trump or anyone else turn back the clock, and that means we've got to get to work. Because as you know better than anyone, right now, across the country, rights that women should be able to take for granted are under attack.

Any day now, the Supreme Court will rule on the Texas law that imposes burdensome and medically unnecessary requirements on abortion providers. If these restrictions are allowed to stand, 5.4 million women of reproductive age will be left with about 10 health centers that provide abortion in a state size of France. It is the biggest challenge to Roe V. Wade in a generation. It's also yet another reminder of what's at stake on the Supreme Court.

President Obama has done his job and nominated Merritt Garland to be the ninth justice. It's time for the Senate Republicans to do their job. The Senate should give Judge Garland the hearing he deserves.

Now, meanwhile, in just the first three months of 2016, states across the country introduced more than 400 restrictions on abortion, 11 states have defunded Planned Parenthood in the last year, cutting some women off from their only health care provider. And, of course, on a national level, Republicans in Congress have been willing to shut down the entire federal government over Planned Parenthood funding. Have you ever noticed that the same politicians who are against sex education, birth control, and safe and legal abortion are also against policies that would make it easier to raise a child like paid family leave? They are for limited government everywhere except when it comes to interfering with women's choices and rights.

Well, I'm here today to tell you we need to be just as determined as they are. We need to defend Planned Parenthood against partisan attacks. If right wing politicians actually cared as much about protecting women's health as they say they do, they'd join me in calling for more federal funding for Planned Parenthood.

[13:05:19] We also need to fight back against the erosion of reproductive rights at the federal, state and local levels, ensure that patients and staff can safely walk into health centers without harassment or violence. We need to stand up for access to affordable contraception without interference from politicians or employers.

And let's invest in long-acting reversible contraceptives so every woman can choose the method that is best for her. Let's strengthen and improve the Affordable Care Act which covers 20 million Americans and saves women millions of dollars through no co-pay preventative care. And let's take action to top the spread of the Zika virus which threatens the health of children and pregnant women.

Let's repeal laws like the Hyde Amendment that make it nearly impossible -- make it nearly impossible for low-income women, disproportionately women of color to exercise their full reproductive rights. And it is worth saying, again, defending women's health means defending access to abortion, not just in theory but in reality.

We know -- we know that restricting access doesn't make women less likely to end a pregnancy. It just makes abortion less safe and that then threatens women's lives. For too long, issues like these have been dismissed by many as women's issues. As though that somehow makes them less worthy, secondary.

Well, yes, these are women's issues. They're also family issues. They're economic issues. They're justice issues. They're fundamental to our country and our future.

And beyond these specific issues, we need to keep working to support women and families in other ways by getting incomes rising, including the minimum wage which disproportionally affects women. We need to finally guarantee equal pay for women's work. We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a pass to citizenship that keeps families together. And we need to break down all the barriers of discrimination and systemic racism that hold too many Americans back.

And we need to come together to stop the epidemic of gun violence that is stalking our country. No parent should live in fear that their child will be hurt or killed by gun violence. Thirty-three thousand Americans are killed every year. I've met so many mothers on this campaign who have lost their own children. We owe it to them to protect our kids no matter what zip code they live in and that is going to require standing up to the gun lobby and making this a voting issue.

You know, all the issues that we're talking about today are connected. They intersect and that's why I'm grateful to the reproductive justice leaders in this room and across America.

[13:10:01] Because you know -- you know that all these issues go straight to that fundamental question, whether we believe women and families of all races and backgrounds and income levels deserve an equal shot in life. Now, that's what I believe.

And you won't be surprised to hear Donald Trump believes something very different. He actually thinks guaranteeing paid family leave would leave America less competitive. He says if women want equal pay, we should just, and this is a quote, "do as good a job as men." As if we weren't already. He wants to appoint justices who would overturn Roe V. Wade.

He, of course, wants to defund Planned Parenthood. And he wants to go after so many of the fundamental rights we have, including safe and legal abortions. And he actually said women should be punished for having abortions. Now, once he said that, there was an outcry as there should have been. He's trying to walk back his comments. He's doing that a lot lately.

But anyone who would so casually agree to the idea of punishing women, like it was nothing to him, the most obvious thing in the world, that's someone who doesn't hold women in high regard. Because if he did, he would trust women to make the right decisions for ourselves.

But don't worry, Donald assures us as president, he'll be, and I quote again, "the best for women." Anyone who wants to defund Planned Parenthood and wipe out safe, legal abortion has no idea what's best for women. And after all, this is a man who has called women pigs, dogs and disgusting animals.

Kind of hard to imagine counting on him to respect our fundamental rights when he says pregnant women are an inconvenience to their employer. What does that say about how he values women, our work, our contributions? We're in the middle of a concerted, persistent assault on women's health across our country.

And we have to ask ourselves and you have to ask everyone you come in contact with, do we want to put our health, our lives, our futures in Donald Trump's hands? Now, these questions are not hypothetical. Every woman and everyone who cares about women will answer them when they vote in November.

Now, when I talk like this, Donald Trump likes to say I'm playing the woman card. And I like to say, if fighting for equal pay, Planned Parenthood and the ability to make our own health decisions is playing the woman card, then deal me in. Now, my friends, I come to this issue of course as a woman, a mother and a grandmother now. But I also come to it as a former first lady, senator and secretary of state. And in those roles -- in those roles, I traveled to parts of the world where girls are married off as soon as they are old enough to bear children, places where the denial of family planning consigns women to lives of hardship.

I visited countries where governments have strictly regulated women's reproduction, either forcing women to have abortions or forcing women to get pregnant and give birth. Everything I have seen has convinced me that life is freer, fairer, healthier, safer, and far more humane when women are empowered to make their own reproductive health decisions.

And everything I've heard from Donald Trump often seems to echo other leaders who have a very different view of women.

[13:15:09] The late great Maya Angelou said, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. Donald Trump has shown us who he is and we sure should believe him.

And it's not just on reproductive rights. Donald Trump would take us in the wrong direction on so many issues we care about, economic justice, workers' rights, civil rights, human rights, the environment. All of that is on the line in this election.

When Donald Trump says a distinguished judge born in Indiana can't do his job because of his Mexican heritage, or mocks a reporter with disabilities, or denigrates Muslims and immigrants, it goes against everything we stand for. He does not see all Americans as Americans.

So this election isn't about the same old fights between Democrats and Republicans. They'll be there, don't worry. But this election is profoundly different. It is about who we are as a nation. It's about millions of Americans coming together to say, we are better than this.

So here's my promise to you today. I will be your partner in this election and over the long haul. Together, we're taking on the attacks and together we will come out stronger, just like Planned Parenthood has time and again. And together we're going to unify our country, stop Donald Trump and fight for an America where we lift each other up instead of tearing each other down. We're not going to just break that highest and hardest glass ceiling, we're going to break down all the barriers that hold women and families back because you know we do believe we're stronger when every family in every community knows they're not on their own. We are stronger together and we're going to make history together in November.

Thank you all so much.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Jim Acosta. Wolf Blitzer is on assignment. We are following breaking news, including Hillary Clinton there, who just wrapped up her speech at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event in Washington. It's her first speech since getting the endorsement of President Obama. We're also watching for Donald Trump, who is headlining the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority Conference in Washington. He is going to be speaking in just a few moments from now.

And here to discuss some of these fast-moving developments and a pretty feisty speech from Hillary Clinton, CNN political director David Chalian, Julie Pace is the White House correspondent for the Associated Press and CNN "Inside Politics" contributor, and Fredreka Schouten, a campaign finance reporter for "USA Today."

And we heard Hillary Clinton time and again rip Donald Trump, David Chalian, right at the very end of that speech. You know, basically she even went after him on Judge Curiel, saying that he does not see all Americans as Americans. I mean the general election campaign has begun. Here it is.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Oh, no doubt about it. Listen, this is her detail message now. This is -- this is the message that she is running on is making him an unacceptable alternative. I thought what was really noteworthy though is just what this event was. This is her first out of the gate since claiming and embracing the role as presumptive Democratic nominee and she goes to a pro-abortion rights group, part of the progressive, liberal, Democratic coalition. She didn't go to some suburb somewhere and try to pivot to the center as you go to the general election. I think it's very clear as she lays down this marker that she went to go start getting the base really excited as she tries to heal the party.

ACOSTA: And, Julie, you know, she went after Donald Trump and reminded people out there of that huge gaffe that he had during the Wisconsin primary when he said that women should be punished if they undergo an abortion. And so, I mean, this was not a safe speech as David Chalian was putting it there.

JULIE PACE, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, ASSOCIATED PRESS: This was not her pivot speech, basically.

ACOSTA: No.

PACE: This was Hillary Clinton coming out and saying two things. One, that this is going to be a base election. That this is going to be about getting the Obama coalition to turn out again. Women, were a huge part of that coalition. And, two, it's about showing that she's not going to let her foot off the gas when it comes to Donald Trump. She's going to make this a centerpiece of her campaign. Yes, she does at some point need to find a proactive message about herself that can rise up as well, but she knows that so much of this election is going to be about Donald Trump, his temperament, his character and she's going to play right into that.

[13:20:04] ACOSTA: And we should point out, on the other side of the screen, you're watching Ralph Reid, who is the leader of the Christian Coalition, has been for many, many years in this country, the head of Faith and Freedom, they're in Washington, where Donald Trump will be speaking in just a few moments. He's introducing Donald Trump from what we understand. And, Fredreka, as you listened to Hillary Clinton there, I mean, what else does she really need to sew up in terms of getting the Democratic Party behind her? I guess at this point its Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders.

SCHOUTEN: Exactly. And --

ACOSTA: She met with Elizabeth Warren this morning, met with the president --

SCHOUTEN: Right.

ACOSTA: Got the president's endorsement, I should say, earlier this week.

SCHOUTEN: Yes.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SCHOUTEN: Yes. Absolutely. I mean it -- as Julie said, it's about the progressives, but it's also about young women. That's one of the things that has been striking is how many millennial women really supported Bernie Sanders. And as I listened to her speech, she was talking about all the difficulty that women of her generation had to go through in the ways in which Planned Parenthood helped them at a time when abortion was not illegal and that she also talked about the ways in which abortion is under threat today. And I think she was really trying to speak to a younger generation as well and thread it all together, stitch it together.

ACOSTA: Yes. And so, David, I think we figured out how Hillary Clinton is going to approach this general election campaign. I mean, it took -- it took the Clinton campaign a while to go to this point. For a while, the porridge was too hot, then it was too cold. But she -- it seems she has decided, and the campaign has decided, that they're going to methodically, every step of the way, every chance they get, go after Donald Trump on specific policy issues. But at the same time, in very stark terms.

CHALIAN: Right. I think that piece of the campaign, the we must take down Donald Trump every day, define him right now, I think that's the newer piece of this. I think the commitment to the Obama coalition has been their strategy since she got in the race a year ago, to get out African-American, Latinos, women, young people. That coalition and get them to turn out in numbers that they did.

This is why President Obama and his endorsement and getting out on the campaign trail with her is so critical because they really want to start, President Obama, Michelle Obama, other people who can help awaken that coalition for her. They want to put all those pieces together now because they see that -- that base as their path to 270.

PACE: And you can almost --

ACOSTA: And, Julie, are we -- are we to believe it's this orchestrated? PACE: Yes, we are.

ACOSTA: I mean the president's endorsement comes out. The video is there. It's ready to go. It had the text on screen.

PACE: You know this, Jim. You know how this works.

ACOSTA: She -- she drives over to -- or Elizabeth Warren drives over to Hillary Clinton's house this morning and then she comes over.

PACE: It is absolutely coordinated. And you can basically --

ACOSTA: Why didn't we know about this? We didn't hear about this?

PACE: Well, I think they kept it quiet because they want to roll it out in a way that was a bit surprising. I think -- I don't think many of us expected the Democrats to come together with the exception of Bernie Sanders, who still is going to campaign for a few more days it seems like to come together this quickly. I mean just Tuesday was the California and New Jersey primaries and now we're talking about Democratic unity.

But if you take what we've seen in the last couple of days and project this forward into October, think about the battleground states, you can imagine having five or six high profile Democratic surrogates, including two presidents and former presidents, out there sending this message every day. That is something that Donald Trump, at this point, cannot match. And it's -- he's going to have to work very hard to be able to have that kind of presence across all of the battleground states.

CHALIAN: Not only cannot match, but the contrast is actually astonishing because what's happening on the Republican side right now -- and, again, this is why it's so troubling for leaders -- there's no cavalry around Donald Trump --

PACE: Right.

CHALIAN: For him to call in when --- when the sea gets rough --

ACOSTA: The cavalry is running away from him right now.

CHALIAN: You -- you know, it's a very difficult position. So up against that kind of powerhouse surrogate operation that she's going to have, he's going to have to find people that can actually break though.

ACOSTA: And speaking of Donald trump, he's stepping up to the podium right now. Let's listen to what he has to say.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you, everybody. Wow, what a group. So many lights. So many lights. Thank you everybody. What an honor. We're going to have a big, big victory in November, you're going to be very happy, believe me. Thank you.

Ralph is right, this is my third time. And I think the first time, it was only -- OK, the second time I was great. And this time, we have to top it, OK? Thank you all for being here.

Before we begin, really, I want to thank Ralph Reid. He's been an amazing -- just an amazing guy, an amazing support, a terrific man. And it's a great honor to be invited and invited back so many times. And I'll be here as often as I can, believe me, because I'm with you 100 percent.

I also want to thank so many -- I've had so much support. As you know, we've done very well with the evangelicals and with religion generally speaking. If you look at what's happened with all of the races, whether it's in South Carolina, I went there and it was supposed to be very strong evangelical and I was not supposed to win and I won in a landslide and so many other places where you had the evangelicals and where you had the heavy Christian groups and it was just -- it's been an amazing -- it's been an amazing journey to have -- I think we won 37 different states and the support that I've had from you folks has been incredible and I appreciate it very much.

[13:25:11] I happen to be -- go ahead. I happen to be Presbyterian. And there's about three of you out there, I think. But it's been really something. And some of my friends that are in the room, I appreciate you being here.

I want to really thank Jerry Falwell Jr. He was right from the beginning. He's been such a tremendous supporter. Liberty -- as you know, Liberty University. The job he's done is incredible.

Pastor Paula White (ph) has been at -- right from the beginning. I've known her for so long and she's a tremendous person, tremendous woman. Pastor Mark Burns. I don't know if you've watched him on television, between him and Pastor Daryl Scott (ph), these two guys are phenomenal. They have been so incredible. Robert Jeffreys (ph), who we all know and love. He's been amazing.

And in the audience I think we have Richard Lee (ph). We have Jim Garlo (ph). And we have Father Frank Pavone (ph). Some place they are in the audience. So I appreciate you -- I appreciate you being here.

And I have to say, though, the world is such a different place, even from when I started with this. We started 12 months ago. And coming up, I just see where in France they have a massive soccer tournament, something that's so important and so big, and they're thinking about maybe postponing it or cancelling it because of threats and all the problems going on with what's happening with terrorism and it's a very, very sad thing and a very sad place and who would have ever thought our world would be in a position like this where that would happen. But you just see event after event, radical Islamic terrorism is just, you know, taking over, and we can't let that happen. We cannot let that happen.

And if we're smart, and if we're tough, we won't let it happen. Just remember that.

OK. It's an honor to speak here today and discuss our shared values. I'd like to thank all of the wonderful Christian leaders and Christian voters who have supported me. We've had tremendous support. Here we are and here are the goals. And I thought I'd put some of

these together. And I did it just the other night because of this meeting. And I wanted it to come from me, from my heart.

We want to uphold the sanctity and dignity of life. Marriage and family as the building block of happiness and success. So important. And, by the way, I know many, many very successful people, the happiest people are the people that have that great religious feel and that incredible marriage, children. It's more important than the money, folks. Believe me. I know plenty with lots of money and they're not happy people.

Religious freedom. The right of people of faith to freely practice their faith. So important. Freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color and the color of their skin. Should not be judged that way. And right now we have a very divided nation. We're going to bring our nation together. If I win, we're going to bring our nation together.

The importance of faith to the United States society, it's really the people who go to church, who work and work in religious charity, so important, and share their values. These are the foundations of our society. We must continue to forge our partnership with Israel and work to ensure Israel's security.

Keeping people of faith safe from threats like radical Islam, whether protecting them here or standi by Israel, all of us need to confront together the threat of radical Islam. We have to do it.

[13:29:47] Now, Hillary Clinton, or as I call her, crooked Hillary Clinton, she's just crooked as they come, refuses to even say the words "radical Islam." Refuses to say the words. This alone makes her unfit to be president.