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Trump to Counterpunch Clinton's Attacks on the Economy; Clinton Meets with House Dems on Capitol Hill; Interview with Representative Brad Sherman; Terror in Orlando: Shooter Visited Club Hours Before Attack; 20 Percent of Trump Campaign Spending Goes to His Empire. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 22, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00] CUOMO: Kids with special needs. Ramps, handgrips, equipment that will allow these kids to spin, maneuver and play on the playground like everybody else. Nobody does this. They're doing it. It's awesome.

CAMEROTA: That's a life changer. Thanks so much for that. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

Hi, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Hi. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Just like he shouldn't have his finger on the button, he shouldn't have his hands on our economy.

COSTELLO: Clinton unleashes, now it's Trump's turn.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Let's face it, she is crooked Hillary. Her record is a disaster.

COSTELLO: Trump gearing up for a major counter punch this morning.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Donald Trump ready to turn up the heat as Hillary Clinton heads to Capitol Hill. Next hour, Trump fires off a rebuttal after Clinton's scathing attack on why he is dangerous for the U.S. economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Trump would take us back to where we were before the crisis. He'd rig the economy for Wall Street again. Well, that will not happen on my watch. We can't let him bankrupt America like we are one of his failed casinos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A source telling CNN Trump will tear into Mrs. Clinton on issues like her e-mail scandal and immigration. It's all part of a strategy to reboot Trump's campaign and reset the narrative. And as Trump gets ready to counter punch, Hillary Clinton will meet behind closed doors with House Democrats.

We're following all of this with our team of political reporters. But let's begin with CNN's Sara Murray. She's in New York where Trump is expected to speak next hour.

Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, there is no doubt that Donald Trump is coming off of a rough couple of days. He fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, he posted some fundraising numbers that are far lower than we would expect to see from the presumptive Republican nominee, but today he is looking to change all of that and put the focus on Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: So many of the things she said were outright lies.

MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump is aiming to put Hillary Clinton on defense.

TRUMP: She is crooked Hillary. Let's face it. She is crooked Hillary, she always has been. And nothing is going to change.

MURRAY: The presumptive GOP nominee preparing to deliver a speech in New York City today, targeting everything from immigration to Clinton's e-mail scandal and even accusing the former first couple of improper dealings when Clinton was secretary of state.

TRUMP: Her record is a disaster. In addition to taking in tens and tens of millions of dollars from people for lots of different things and lots of different ways, and countries that should not be giving her money or her husband money.

MURRAY: On Tuesday, he fired off preliminary shots, even questioning Clinton's faith at a gathering of religious leaders.

TRUMP: She has been in the public eye for years and years. And yet there is no -- there's nothing out there.

MURRAY: Trump's focus on Clinton coming as he tries to pivot from days of staff shakeups and dismal fundraising. Trump ended last month with $1.3 million in the bank, compared to Clinton's $42 million. But the real estate mogul argues her dollars come with a price.

TRUMP: All of the money she's raising, that's blood money. That's blood money.

MURRAY: The billionaire businessman still dangling the idea of self- funding in the general.

TRUMP: I'll be honest, you know, I've never raised money for this because I've never done it before. I think I'd be very good at it. As far as I'm concerned, I'd be very happy to continue to self-fund, you know.

MURRAY: Even though he spent Tuesday evening looking to shore up his campaign coffers at a New York City fundraiser.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Reince, how are you feeling about the campaign?

MURRAY: As Trump and his top GOP allies put on a happy face and downplay concerns about the candidate's campaign war chest going into a head-to-head battle against Clinton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now Donald Trump has continued to face skepticism from members of his own party but a number of Republicans say the best way to unify other Republicans behind him is to rally against a common enemy, in this case that would be Hillary Clinton. So today Donald Trump will get a chance to prove to Republicans just how well he can prosecute this case against Hillary Clinton -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray reporting live from New York.

Also happening next hour, Hillary Clinton huddles with lawmakers on Capitol Hill including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and California Congressman Xavier Becerra. Becerra's name by the way has been floated as a potential VP pick.

Let's right to CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju. He has more on this. Good morning, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Now when Hillary Clinton comes here, we're expecting more of a pep rally atmosphere here, really not a very contentious group that she's meeting with because, I mean, when you look at the primary, during the primary season, only nine House Democrats actually backed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. So this party is mostly in lockstep behind her.

Now one of the things that will be interesting to see is the kind of questions that she hears from the audience, we're hearing that she probably will take questions from House Democrats, so what do they ask her and any of those actually put her on the spot?

[09:05:04] Now this of course comes before Hillary Clinton heads to Raleigh, North Carolina, this afternoon to talk about the economy, trying to shy away from Donald Trump, and Donald Trump of course taking it to Hillary Clinton, as Sara just reported.

Now Donald Trump has been slated also to come to Capitol Hill but next month, July 7th, he's expected to meet with House Republicans, and he has some work to do to get his party behind him because as we know this House Republican conference is not necessarily behind him. It is much different than Democrats who are behind Hillary Clinton, and it's one reason why the Clinton campaign believes they have an advantage heading to the general election. The party is largely united behind her here in Washington -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Manu Raju, we'll back to you. Thanks so much.

So let's talk about this and more. I want to bring in Congressman Brad Sherman. He's a Democrat from California and a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a Clinton supporter.

Welcome, sir.

REP. BRAD SHERMAN (D), CALIFORNIA: Good to be with you.

COSTELLO: Will you meet with Secretary Clinton today?

SHERMAN: Absolutely. Just as soon as we're done with this interview.

COSTELLO: And what will -- what will that be like? What you guys talk about?

SHERMAN: Well, this is going to be a pep rally, as your reporter said. Almost all of us have been with Hillary from the beginning, and those who were with Bernie are now with Hillary. And this is going to be a chance for us to be fired up and ready to go. And also to talk about some of the finer points of the campaign. And especially how the presidential campaign can also help us take back the House of Representatives. Donald Trump is doing so poorly that's a possibility.

COSTELLO: Will you be watching Mr. Trump's speech?

SHERMAN: I will actually be in the room with Chairman Yellen of the Federal Reserve Board, and that will be a little bit more policy oriented than what Mr. Trump has to say.

COSTELLO: So you'll be busy working in other words. Mr. Trump's speech, though, it's expected to be no holds barred. Mr. Trump has already responded to Clinton's claims that he profited from debt at the expense of working people. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton is only right about one thing, I understand debt, and how to handle it. I've made a fortune with debt. But debt for this country is a disaster and Obama has piled it on and she has been there watching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump told ABC he was simply using the laws on the books as any good businessman would. What's wrong with that?

SHERMAN: Well, what's wrong with it is when he refuses to pay the small businesses that helped build his buildings. When he stiffs plumbers, when he stiffs painters, and then hides behind the fact that I'm rich, I've got a lot of lawyers, you can't sue me, you don't have a legal counsel.

So I think that that's not the way most people do business, and it is certainly not the way the United States can do business. He has talked about putting our full faith and credit on the line, and -- and not honoring U.S. debt. That would be such an incredible disaster for the world economy because while hundreds of years ago, gold was the standard, now the standard is U.S. government bonds.

And the entire world economy is dependent upon the full faith and credit of the United States, which should never be put at risk.

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump will also likely hammer Mrs. Clinton and her husband and how much money they made in speaking fees, allegedly fueled by Clinton's time in the State Department. CNN found between 2001 and 2015, the Clintons earned more than $153 million for 729 separate speeches. Some of those speeches were delivered to groups with ties to foreign countries.

Mr. Trump will likely charge Clinton turn the State Department into what he calls a private hedge fund. Why is he wrong?

SHERMAN: Presidents have been giving speeches after they've left office, certainly since Ronald Reagan, who received a much bigger speaking fee when he went to Japan than anything that I think any presidents has earned since.

Now it's true that President Clinton has given probably and Secretary Clinton has probably given more speeches. They've work hard at it. But in terms of what people are willing to pay to bring to their audience, a former president of the United States, there are groups that are willing to pay a lot.

COSTELLO: But sir --

SHERMAN: And they certainly paid Ronald Reagan a lot more than what they paid Hillary or Bill.

COSTELLO: But, sir, $153 million? Isn't it time that Hillary Clinton release the transcripts of those Wall Street speeches? Wouldn't that put this matter to rest?

SHERMAN: I'm sure that would doing nothing to put the matter to rest just because Trump will never rest. His negatives are so extreme, he is called by Speaker Ryan a textbook racist. He will do nothing but attack, attack, attack. The Clintons have been under attack for 25 years. And of course Trump will try to continue that. The problem he has is --

COSTELLO: Won't it put to rest --

SHERMAN: It's all on the table.

COSTELLO: Won't it put voters' minds to rest if Hillary Clinton releases the transcripts of those speeches? After all, Bernie Sanders called for her to do that.

[09:10:01] SHERMAN: Yes, in a primary many things happen. But the fact is that the -- she has given thousands of speeches that are on the record. We know what she has to say. We know what her positions are. Of course her Web page lays out her positions for the future. You go to the Trump Web page and all you see is attacks. All you see is vile. We need a positive prescription for the future of the -- for the future of this country.

COSTELLO: Right.

SHERMAN: And you'll see that in Hillary's program.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this. Mark Zandi, the well-respected economist, determined Mr. Trump's economic plan would be disastrous for the country. But he donated money to Mrs. Clinton and to Republican John McCain, and he was a guest speaker for the Clinton Global Initiative. Mr. Trump will surely bring this up. How should voters take the Zandi report?

SHERMAN: They should say that Mr. Zandi knows something about economics, but so do thousands of other economists in this country and they've all reached the same conclusion. And that is that we better not let Trump's hands on to this economy. She could take us --

COSTELLO: But should voters worry about these donations from Mr. Zandi and to Mrs. Clinton, and to John McCain who's no huge fun of Donald Trump?

SHERMAN: It's clear that Mr. Zandi has put a little bit of money where his mouth is. I don't think that he is -- that the amounts of the contributions are significant. You can't say that Zandi controls the Clinton campaign because he's donated $1,000 or $2,000. But it does show that he is so motivated that he is willing to put his money where his mouth is and he speaks not -- he is a centrist economist. The vast majority of economists in this country, they may quibble with Hillary's plan, but they all agree, Trump is a complete disaster and I'm glad that Zandi is enough of a patriot to try to do just a little something with his own money to prevent that disaster.

COSTELLO: All right. Congressman Brad Sherman, thanks for joining me this morning.

And just a reminder, tonight's Libertarian town hall Gary Johnson and William Weld will be moderated by Chris Cuomo. That starts 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the day before he carried a deadly attack at an Orlando nightclub, Omar Mateen apparently made travel plans. A surprising development. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:16:36] COSTELLO: Hours before he carried out an attack that would leave 49 people dead, Omar Mateen visited the site of that tragedy, the Pulse nightclub. Officials tell CNN the shooter paid the entry fee. He obtained a wristband and entered the club in an effort to check out security. That news coming, as a friend of the shooter is speaking out about why he warned federal officials about the gunman some two years ago.

CNN's Boris Sanchez, live in Orlando with more.

Good morning, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, investigators are expanding the timeline of everything that happened the early morning of the shooting and the night before as well. Interesting note, the day before the shooting, apparently the gunman bought tickets for him and his family to go on vacation from West Palm Beach to San Francisco. So, that's something investigators are looking at right now.

Sources also tell CNN that the wife of the shooter told investigators that the night before the shooting, he was visibly agitated, he was angry, and that he left their home in Port St. Lucie carrying a bag. We later found out the bag was full of firearms. She said that she tried to stop him but didn't know exactly what he was bound to do.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch was here in Orlando yesterday, and she dodged the question of whether or night the wife would be facing charges. We should also tell you, we heard from a former friend of the shooter last night as well. Mohammed Malik, and he told us that he heard the shooter make comments in 2014 that alarmed him, specific references to radical Islamic material online that alerted him, and forced him to contact authorities. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED MALIK, REPORTED ORLANDO SHOOTER TO FBI IN 2014: Omar Mateen brought the name Anwar al-Awlaki, who's the radical cleric that radicalized several people, including Nidal Hasan, who's the Fort Hood shooter, and mentioned that he had also seen videos of Anwar al- Awlaki, and my reaction to him was what he thought about the videos. And he told me they were powerful. Both of those raised a red flag for me and prompted me to speak with the FBI.

Even at that point, you know, having known Omar, he had just started, you know, he had gotten married for a second time, had a son, and was starting a family. I didn't think that he fit the profile, but as a precaution, to prevent anything bad from happening again, to prevent any more innocent people from getting hurt, I thought the FBI should be notified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And, Carol, you heard him say he didn't think he fit the profile, the shooter didn't fit the profile, but alarmed him because at the same mosque, another member of the mosque had recently traveled to Syria and took part in a suicide bombing there. This was a red flag, one sadly the FBI investigated but did not lead to an arrest, Carol.

COSTELLO: I was curious about when the friend went to the FBI about the shooter, he went there in 2014, and like, can you explain to us what more happened?

SANCHEZ: From what we've heard from the FBI, they interviewed him, I believe the second time he had been interviewed, but nothing came of it. We know the FBI scanned some of his background information, but there was nothing substantial enough to lead to an arrest, and so they basically let him off without pursuing it further.

[09:20:03] COSTELLO: All right, Boris Sanchez, reporting live from Orlando, thanks so much.

Let's talk more about this. Tom Fuentes, CNN's law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director.

Good morning, Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: What do you make of the friend going to the FBI and saying he had suspicions in 2014?

FUENTES: I think it is an important factor in this case, and I know the FBI is looking back at that, and seeing exactly what he said, and exactly what they did when he said it. I think you know, we have to verify that in fact that's what he told the FBI. We've already had a gun shop owner come out and claimed that he called the FBI when he didn't. And the FBI learned about it by accident when the FBI went to his gun shop for another investigation.

So, you know, I would like to see this verified, or you know, I know the FBI is looking at it to verify it. Even if it is true, that he reported that, the problem, there is thousands and thousands of people that are out there watching to this day, right this minute probably, on Awlaki -- things posting on the internet that went out from al Qaeda in Yemen while he was still alive and even continued after he is dead.

And merely watching this, again, they can come out and be suspicious, but they have to see something of wanting to commit violence. Apparently, Mateen had not been sufficiently radicalized in 2013, 2014, to warrant that, and then you hear from others and his wife, his widow, that just recently he started to get more agitated, more violent, more suspicious. He bought the guns he used in Orlando within the week before the attack. He was trying to get body armor apparently a week or so before that.

So, you really don't see him going over the line of committing acts in furtherance of wanting to shoot somebody, until very, very recently before the Orlando attack. COSTELLO: So, you have to like stop and try to figure out what

triggered his behavior, right? Supposedly, he bought these three plane tickets, one for himself, wife and his son the day before the shooting, and then his wife saw him leave the house with a bag full of guns, and he was very agitated. So, what do you suppose happened?

FUENTES: I don't know what happened. And what we don't know and may never know is did he really decide to do it when he left the house, was he sure that's what he was going to do. He wasn't completely positive he was going to commit an attack. So, we don't know. He had told her apparently he was going to see friends. And you know, I think in her mind, she might have been afraid that if she called the FBI or the police and they tracked him down and he was at a friend's house, he was going to come home and beat her, because she had been subjected to domestic violence from him, just like his first wife had been subjected to abuse from him.

So I think that you know, we have all of these little indications, but again, it is very difficult. I know director of the FBI, Comey, has said, looking for him was like needle in a nationwide haystack. That's exactly right. It is a needle among other needles, and you don't know which needle is the bad one. That's the problem.

The FBI is looking at hundreds and thousands of people that are expressing these bad thoughts or supportive of terrorism thoughts, hiding behind their First Amendment rights. They're watching these videos and ISIS production videos, which come out by the thousands every single day. And they can't stop that ideology from just being trumpeted on a daily, hourly basis from al Qaeda, from ISIS, and they don't know when an individual will finally decide, okay, it's my time, I'm going to commit a violent act. They don't know inside somebody's brain that final step is decided to be taken.

COSTELLO: All right. Tom Fuentes, thank you for your insight.

Hillary Clinton and Donald and transparency, is it a fight, though, either of them can win?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:32] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

When the Donald Trump campaign spends, the Donald Trump business empire smiles. That's because about $0.20 out of every dollar spent winds up with a company owned or operated by the billionaire turned politician.

CNN senior investigative reporter, Drew Griffin, takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is famously rich, famously boastful and from the very beginning of this campaign -- he made sure everyone knew. Donald Trump would be like no other candidate in the race. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Because I don't

need anybody's money. It's nice. I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money.

GRIFFIN: Donald Trump, may be using his own money, but also spending a lot of that money on Donald Trump. In one of the odder twists in an ever odder campaign, the candidate who owns jets, resorts, hotels and office buildings is apparently making sure that's the very jet, resorts, hotels, and office buildings his campaign is using.

TRUMP: Nobody is going to be taking care of me. I don't want anybody's money.

GRIFFIN: Newly released Federal Election Commission expenditures show Donald Trump, the candidate, has been spending millions on Donald Trump, the businessman, and it's all perfectly legal. Trump's campaign has paid Trump's TAG Air, $4.6 million to use the Trump jet. Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort, that's been paid $423,000. Trump's restaurants, $133,000. It goes on and on.

Tens of thousands to Trump golf courses, thousands to Trump hotels, even $3,900 to son Eric Trump's winery.