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Analysis of Trump and Clinton Campaigns and Speeches; Donald Trump Speech. Aired 10:30-11a

Aired June 22, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:50]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: ... I think what you're going to hear in just a few minutes behind me is Donald Trump try to make the case that Hillary Clinton is somebody who can't be trusted. He's going to play into her high negatives on that issue. He's either going to use the word "corrupt," or at least suggest that she is corrupt in a whole host of issues. Again feeding into the trustworthiness question that makes people think twice about her, according to polls.

And even our poll that came out yesterday. And that is going to be up against what you've heard Hillary Clinton do yesterday in her speech on the economy. And certainly the big speech she gave on foreign policy was all about "can you really trust this guy?" Do you really want this guy to be in the White House? And so that is kind of the choice that each of these campaigns is beginning to draw for voters. Because it is going to be a choice. Yes, people who are really disgusted can go and vote for the Libertarian candidates or the Green Party candidates. But for those who want to vote for either a Democrat and Republican, these are the big themes that are being framed, I think really by the end of this week.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST: OK so I do notice a teleprompter set up there, Dana, for Donald Trump. Who wrote the speech?

BASH: You know there's usually a team of people who do. They're very careful about saying exactly who wrote it. I know that Stephen Miller, who is a policy advisor, was involved in the speech. I can't say that he actually wrote it. But you know, there's no question this is going to be a very carefully, very well-prepared speech. And it's something that he's done now several times when he wants to get his message across. And I think that no other time in his campaign is it more important than right now when he's really trying to prove it is a different kind of campaign.

And he has a message that is clear, and that is going to again, show Republicans this is -- as much as it is, as I mentioned about like sir (ph) telling persuadable voters that Hillary Clinton can't be trusted, it is also about signaling to the donor class, signaling to Republican leaders, that he's kind of got his act together now. And he's focusing where he needs to focus, which is on his political opponent.

COSTELLO: So Jeff, what does Mister Trump need to say to appeal to donors in this speech, besides attacking Hillary Clinton?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol I think it's a lot of Republican donors. And a -- Republican establishment remembers want to see a degree of seriousness from Donald Trump. They do want to see him, as Dana said earlier, change the conversation away from his own internal issues that are happening there inside his office building. To talk about how he's going to prosecute this case and remind voters that -- of all the negatives of the Clinton campaign.

But I think that, more than that, I think donors want to see Donald Trump working a little bit harder, I hear that a lot. Some wonder why he is in New York City giving this speech. Is he missing an opportunity to not be in one of those swing states. When you give a speech in the middle of a swing state, as the Clinton campaign did yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, it is wall-to-wall local news coverage. It's why she's in North Carolina again today.

So they want to see if Donald Trump is going to campaign harder than he did during the Primary in some respect to just sort of flying in and out. So I think that ...

COSTELLO: Yes but Jeff, don't you need money for that?

ZELENY: Well sure you need money, but I mean that's something that he could actually afford himself. He says he's willing to put in maybe $50 million. He can fuel up his airplane and fly to Ohio for that certainly. So I think more money will come in if they see that he is willing to a: expend the effort here, and he's willing to take a more serious tone to his campaign and sort of drop all the attacks against judges and other things. So I think we'll see once again today if Donald Trump is more serious, if he's going to give a presidential- like address or if he's not.

COSTELLO: Well Larry, do you think that Mister Trump will stick to the script, and read from the teleprompter, and no ad-lib besides?

LARRY: I would never bet on that, Carol. The fact that there's a teleprompter there tells you that there is at least a script that has been reviewed by people who have political instincts. But he usually parts at some point from the script. And that's where most of the car crashes occur. Sometimes they're fender benders and other times they have fatalities.

So we'll just have to see what actually happens. But just to add one other comment, his real problem, Trump's real problem with the donors has nothing to do with what he's saying about Hillary Clinton or himself. It has to do with the fact that even senior Republicans do not believe he's going to win. And I mean really senior Republicans that the big donors who have loads of cash listen to.

And if he can ever convince them that he's for the win via the public opinion polls, then the wallets and the pocket books may open for him. Until then, no.

[10:35:10] COSTELLO: So what does he need to do that, Larry? Does he need one good poll?

LARRY: Well no, he needs a series of good polls. He needs a good convention that will give him a big bounce, that won't be completely trounced by the bounce that comes out of the Democratic convention. Because of -- the real way to test what the November election looks -- is looking like, is about two weeks after both conventions. That's when polls really start to matter. That's when donors can pony up or not.

COSTELLO: Dana, I was just interested, who's in the audience? Who's listening to this speech in person?

BASH: Well the front of the room are, it seems to be, some friends, and businessmen, and associates. I bumped into some of his sort of, political advisors coming in here. I saw at least one of his children, I'm guessing most if not all of them are going to be here today. But it's mostly reporters. It is mostly reporters here, who have come. I think as is typical for a Trump event.

COSTELLO: Well it's interesting his children are going to be there. Is that another sign that they're really taking over their father's campaign?

BASH: No I don't think so in this case. His children are -- have been present with him really along the way. Particularly, obviously, his grown sons, and his daughter, obviously. She just gave birth to her third, her third child. But especially when it's local like this, they tend to be around quite a bit.

COSTELLO: OK I hear them telling people to turn off their cell phones so we must be getting close, right Dana?

BASH: It sounds that way. That's exactly right. We don't, we don't really get the traditional two-minute warning. But I think we'll -- it'll be pretty clear when Mister Trump walks in.

COSTELLO: Yes, I'm just going to look away here so I can look closer at the picture here. So I'm going to let Dana go sit down so she can listen to Mister Trump's speech, and I'm going to address my next question to you, Jeff Zeleny. How do you think Mister Trump will open the speech? Will he come out and hit hard?

ZELENY: Well it's really, I mean we'll have to wait and see what he says, but I actually expect a little bit of a different tone from him that we have been hearing in a lot of these speeches. We see the teleprompter there, we've been talking about that. This means it is a planned speech. So I think he will start it really giving the tone of trying to change the subject here.

But you can bet that he is going to go after Hillary Clinton as hard as he does in his tweets. He'll just be sort of speaking it here. But I think the bigger question is how Republicans are going to react. Are they going to give him a second chance? A lot of polls that came out this week, some Republicans were

heartened actually, by the fact that he was only behind some five points or so. And in the fact in some battleground states like Ohio, like Pennsylvania, that he was tied, actually. That gives him the opportunity to make his case here.

But it's impossible to predict exactly what he will -- how he'll open or talk. But I think it is a different moment in his campaign. We saw yesterday, it was the most professional day I would call it, of the Trump campaign. Sending out news releases, responding to the Clinton speech and other things.

So I think today will be a presidential moment for Donald Trump. More than a prime-time speech moment for Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: Interesting. You know Larry, I was a little surprised by the poll numbers in Ohio, that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were running neck-and-neck. Because Mister Trump lost Ohio.

LARRY: Carol, I'll be very blunt with you, I don't believe those poll numbers. They make no sense. The national polling averages -- one of the averages has Clinton up six points nationally, the other average -- on some very good polls, including your own CNN poll -- had Clinton up eight points, nationally.

If Clinton is up either six or eight points nationally, there is zero, and I do mean zero chance that Ohio and Pennsylvania -- which is even more Democratic -- are tied. It's just simply not happening. It's not possible, it is not true. So there would have to be a series of polls confirming the Quinnipiac polls and I don't believe you'll see that.

COSTELLO: Well you know, and I'm asking you that because John Kasich, who is not exactly a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, is a very popular governor in the state of Ohio. And I just find it difficult to believe that John Kasich wouldn't hold some sway.

LARRY: Well he's not been very friendly to Donald Trump. And he's indicated that he's struggling with whether he should even endorse him. If he is true to his word there's almost no chance that he would be the Vice Presidential nominee. And that would be the way you could swing Ohio, if indeed there is a way for Trump to swing Ohio.

COSTELLO: So why don't you believe the polls in Pennsylvania?

[10:40:05]

LARRY: Because Pennsylvania, since 1988, has voted consistently -- beginning in 1992 -- for Democratic presidential nominees. While it isn't the most Democratic Northeast state by a mile, it is consistently four, five, six, seven points Democratic. And it takes a lot to flip that around, especially in an election where Clinton is leading nationally in virtually every reliable poll.

COSTELLO: So in Florida there was a poll that had Clinton nine points ahead of Mister Trump. Is that poll believable? LARRY: No I think that was from Quinnipiac too, and I don't think

she's ahead by nearly that much in Florida. Florida was extremely close in 2000, it was reasonably close in 2004, it was very close in 2008 and 2012. I could see where she could have a lead of three or four, maybe even five points. But getting up to the upper single digits at this early stage? Sorry.

No, I mean I -- look, people take these numbers too seriously. They think they were carved in stone on the mount. They were not. They're small -- they're relatively small samples and they have much larger margins of error than the pollsters let on.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Jeff I want to talk a little bit about Senator Marco Rubio. Because he has decided to run for reelection. And how much of that was because of the Trump effect?

ZELENY: I think Carol, this is about Marco Rubio's future. He knows that if he wants to have a role going forward, perhaps running for President again in 2020 if that position would be available or even 2024, he has to be in the arena. I was talking to one of his top donors earlier this morning.

And they're not sure how successful he will be, actually, but it is -- will be entirely, virtually impossible for him to be a player from outside the arena. We've seen that time and time again. You sort of have to strike while the iron's hot. And for him it is cooled, but if he leaves the Senate, it'll be very difficult for him to come back.

But we talked about those Florida numbers there. That is so key for Marco Rubio. Will Donald Trump drag him down? Marco Rubio is going to have to -- if he wins this Primary in August -- he is going to have to find people who are voting for Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio. And it's a tough needle to thread there, but we are going to see more and more of this argument coming from Republicans.

Yes, Hillary Clinton may win, some people believe she -- are afraid she will, some Republicans. That's why the Senate needs to stay in Republican hands here. So that's the argument Marco Rubio's going to make if he gets to the Primary here. But I think that one of the bigger issues for him, he talks so much about how he didn't like the Senate, he's on record.

You can see these T.V. ads that are coming for him here, Carol. About how he did not show up for Intelligence Committee briefings and other things. He's going to have to take that on head-on and say look, he's going to double down and now wants to fight hard for Florida in the U.S. Senate.

COSTELLO: The problem with that, Larry, is Marco Rubio, at least to me, looks beleagured, and not exactly enthusiastic.

LARRY: I was very surprised that he decided to run again. Jeff cited some of the reasons why. But he is not the master of his own fate, at least not in whole, this November. He was slaughtered in the Primary in his own state, by Donald Trump, and that's Republicans voting. And now, ironically, he could be severely damaged by Donald Trump losing Florida in November.

And I think people are going to be surprised. There's going to be a lot more Spring ticket voting in many of these states with key Senate races, than perhaps people have been used to.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So Jeff, Hillary Clinton is with the Democratic caucus right now. It's sort of a pep rally. She was invited there by Nancy Pelosi. And we just got word from the Hill team that Clinton is stressing unity, she's promising to help down ticket in the 50 state strategy. She even says that it's possible that Democrats could flip North Carolina and win a Senate seat. There's even talk of Democrats winning back the House. Is that possible?

ZELENY: I think any talk of Democrats winning back the House is heard only inside a House Democratic meeting, Carol. That simply, the math is very difficult for that and Democrats know that. What they can do though is close the majority on all this. But the reason Hillary Clinton is in that room today, first and foremost, after she was in Ohio yesterday, she flew back here to Washington to have a fundraiser for House and Senate Democrats to show that she's fully on board.

And she wants to make sure that all of the progressive and liberal members of the House Democratic Conference are on board with her. There are some Bernie Sanders supporters out there. There are some people out there who don't think she's been quite sufficiently progressive. She wants to bring everyone together here, that's the unity message here.

But in terms of North Carolina, Democrats absolutely believe North Carolina is in play. And here's why, in 2008 President Obama won North Carolina. He turned it blue just very narrowly. Of course he lost it in 2012. It's one of the few states that actually flipped. The Clinton campaign wants to bring it back into Democratic hands. That's why she's flying there this afternoon to give part two of her economic speech.

And that gets back to my point of why Donald Trump is giving this speech in New York City, missing an opportunity to be in a battleground state to be giving this message. But the Democrats are a: trying to win the Senate majority, first and foremost. Trying to shrink the House majority ...

COSTELLO: OK.

ZELENY: ... But he's not, the Democrats are not going to win back the House. I cannot even fathom that ...

COSTELLO: All right, we just, we just saw Donald Trump's children entering the room. Paul Manafort, I caught a glimpse of him coming in as well, that's Donald Trump's new Campaign Manager. We expect Donald Trump of course, to get behind that podium at any moment. And he will because the crowd is standing up and clapping, let's listen.

TRUMP: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much, everyone (ph). Today, I'd like to share my thoughts about the stakes in this upcoming and very important election.

People have asked me why I'm running for president. I built an amazing business that I love, and I get to work side-by-side with my children every single day. We come to work together, and turn visions into reality. We think big, and then we make it happen. We absolutely make it happen.

I love what I do, and I am grateful beyond words to the nation that has allowed me to do it. So, when people ask me why I am running, I very quickly answer -- I'm running to give back to this country which has been so very good to me.

(APPLAUSE)

When I see the crumbling roads and bridges, or the dilapidated airports or the factories moving overseas to Mexico or to other countries for that matter, I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton. Only by me.

(APPLAUSE)

The fact is, we can come back bigger, and better and stronger than ever before. Jobs, jobs, jobs.

(APPLAUSE)

Everywhere I look, I see the possibilities of what our country could be, but we can't solve any of these problems by relying on the politicians who created the problems themselves. We'll never be able to fix a rigged system by counting on the same people who have rigged it in the first place.

(APPLAUSE)

The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and in the money. That's why we're asking Bernie Sanders voters to join our movement, so together, we can fix the system for all Americans -- so important.

(APPLAUSE)

This includes fixing all of our many disastrous trade deals -- and they are disastrous, they're destroying our country, because it's not just the political system that's rigged, it's the whole economy.

(APPLAUSE)

It's rigged by big donors who want to keep wages down. It's rigged by big businesses who want to leave our country, fire our workers and sell their products back into the United States with absolutely no consequences for them.

It's rigged by bureaucrats who are trapping kids in failing schools. It's rigged against you, the American people. Hillary Clinton, and as you know she -- most people know she's a world-class liar. Just look at her pathetic e-mail server statements or her phony landing...

(APPLAUSE)

... or her phony landing in Bosnia, where she said she was under attack, and the attack turned out to be young girls handing her flowers, a total and -- look, this was -- this was one of the beauts, a total and self-serving lie. Brian Williams' career was destroyed for saying less, remember that.

Yesterday, she even tried to attack me and my many businesses. But here -- and this is the way it is -- is the bottom line. I started off in Brooklyn, New York not so long ago with a small loan and built a business that today is worth well over $10 billion.

(APPLAUSE)

That's the kind of thinking we need in our leadership of our country. I've always had a talent for building businesses and importantly for creating jobs. That's a talent our country desperately needs. I'm running for president to end the unfairness and to put you, the American worker, first. It's about time.

(APPLAUSE)

We're going to put America first and we're going to make America great again. This election will decide whether we're ruled by the people or by the politicians.

(APPLAUSE)

Here is my promise to the American voter. If I'm elected president, I will end the special interest monopoly in Washington, D.C., very important.

(APPLAUSE)

The other candidate in this race has spent her entire life making money for special interests, and I will tell you, she's made plenty of money for them and she's been taking plenty of money out for herself. Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and even theft. She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund, doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others and really many, many others in exchange for cash. Pure and simple, folks. Pure and simple.

(APPLAUSE)

Then when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests and in less than two years, secret speeches that she does not want to reveal under any circumstances to the public. I wonder why?

Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs and foreign governments in the years since 2001. They totally own her and that will never ever change, including if she ever became president, God help us.

(APPLAUSE)

The choice in this election is a choice between taking our government back from the special interests or surrendering really the last scrap of independence to the total and complete control of people like the Clintons. Those are the stakes. Hillary Clinton wants to be president. But she doesn't have the temperament, or as Bernie Sanders said very strongly, the judgment to be president. She does not have the judgment. She believes...

(APPLAUSE)

She believes she's entitled to the office. Her campaign slogan is I'm with her. You know what my response is to that? I'm with you, the American people.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you very much.

She thinks it's all about her. I know it's all about you. I know it's all about making America great again for all Americans, all Americans. Our country lost its way when it stopped putting the American people really first. We have to go back to putting our American people first.

We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism, focusing on what's good for America's middle class to a policy of globalism, focusing on how to make money for large corporations who can move their wealth and workers to foreign countries, all to the detriment of the American worker and the American economy itself.

We reward companies for offshoring, and we punish companies for doing business in America and keeping our workers employed. They get punished. This is not a rising tide that lifts all boats. This is a wave of globalism that wipes out our middle class and our jobs along with it. We need reform, and we have to reform our economic system, so that once again, we can all succeed together and America can become rich again.

We have to make America rich again.

(APPLAUSE)

And that's what I mean by America first. Our country will be better off when we start making our own products again, bringing our once great manufacturing capabilities back to the shores. I mean, we have to bring our manufacturers back to the United States, desperately needed -- desperately we need those jobs, and we need it even from our psyche. One of the really great things, and one of the first major bills that

George Washington signed -- was amazing when I saw this for the first time -- the encouragement and protection of manufacturing in America.

Our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, warned us by saying, "The abandonment of the protective policy by the American government will produce want and ruin among our people." In other words, we have to protect our country.

I have decided (ph) and visited cities and towns across America, all across America, and seen the devastation caused by the trade policies of Bill and Hillary Clinton, and it's total devastation, all over New York, all over Pennsylvania, all over New England, all over the country. Hillary Clinton supported Bill Clinton's disastrous and totally disastrous NAFTA. Just like she supported China's entrance into the World Trade Organization.

We've lost nearly one-third of our manufacturing jobs since these two Hillary-backed agreements were signed, among the worst we've ever done, among the most destructive agreements we've ever signed.

Our trade deficit with China soared 40 percent during Hillary Clinton's time as secretary of state -- a disgraceful performance, for which she should not be congratulated, but rather scorned.

Then she left China -- so true.

(APPLAUSE)

Then she left China, and what happened is billions and billions of dollars in our intellectual property -- and China has taken it, and it's a crime which is continuously going on and it's going on right now. They are stealing billions and billions of dollars of our intellectual property.

Hillary Clinton gave China millions of jobs, and our best jobs, and effectively let China completely rebuild itself. In return, Hillary Clinton got rich.

The book, "Clinton Cash" by Peter Schweizer, documents how Bill and Hillary used the State Department to enrich their family in America's and at America's expense. She gets rich making you poor.

(APPLAUSE)

Here is a quote from the book, "At the center of U.S. policy toward China was Hillary Clinton. At this critical time for U.S.- China relations, Bill Clinton gave a number of speeches that were underwritten by the Chinese government and its supporters. These funds were paid to the Clintons' bank account directly, while Hillary was negotiating with China on behalf of the United States."

Tell me, folks, does that work? She sold out our workers and our country for Beijing. Hillary Clinton has also been the biggest promoter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will ship millions more of our jobs overseas and give up congressional power to an international foreign commission.

Now, because I have pointed out why it would be such a disastrous deal, she's pretending that she's against it. She's given and deleted, as you know, most people have heard about this, have we ever heard about her deleting anything? No, I don't think so.

[11:00:00]