Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Trump Trailing Clinton in New Hampshire; Meeting the Donors Behind Political Campaigns; New Questions Around Melania Trump's Immigration; The Power of Third Party Tickets; Obama Criticizes Trump as Unfit for Presidency; Interview with Kevin Plank. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 06, 2016 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: That Trump is trailing by a pretty wide margin -- Hillary Clinton in the Granite State, 15 points behind her. That's a new survey done by WBUR. This, as national polls show that Trump is as much as 15 points behind Clinton.
CNN White House producer, Kristen Holmes, is at a rally in New Hampshire where Trump will speak in just about an hour's time.
Look, he's going to take the stage and he does this in the context of coming behind Kelly Ayotte who's losing in the polls in that state right now. And this comes after quite a week for Donald Trump. What is he going to say? Do we have any indication from the camp?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, Poppy, as one campaign source told me, Donald Trump does what Donald Trump wants to do, and that applies to his speeches as well. But I can tell you that Republicans are hopeful that the presidential candidate will stay on message, that he will be focused on hitting Hillary Clinton after, as you mentioned, such a tumultuous week.
And if his social media is any indication, he's going to do just that. He tweeted out that he would be discussing Hillary Clinton, saying that she had short-circuited just this week. He said he would talk about that tonight, as well as the campaign released a following video on Facebook today. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I hope you will compare what I'm proposing to what my opponent is talking about. I'm telling you right now, we are going to raise taxes on the middle class. So I may have short-circuited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So, clearly there is a new message, it is, Hillary Clinton seems to be a robot in this one but they are playing off the comments that she herself said, that she had short-circuited during an interview when she was asked about her e-mails.
Now, this is what Republicans had been hoping that he would be doing all of last week, but instead he spent it cleaning up after a days- long feud with a gold star family, ended in criticism from those leaders, you mentioned, Senator McCain, Speaker Ryan, and Senator Ayotte. You know, and that led to him saying he might not endorse. After Friday, though, it is clear that he has.
But one thing is, if he's going to speak about unity, we have been told by Senator Ayotte's office that she will not be on the stage with him tonight. She did issue a statement saying she appreciated the endorsement but she will not be here in her home state with him tonight. Poppy?
HARLOW: Right, actions speak loudly, sometimes. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Kristen Holmes for us in New Hampshire.
All right, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the last 24 hours, both walking back their words. Hillary Clinton says she may have, "short- circuited" with a recent explanation she gave in an interview this week about the use of her private e-mail server while she was Secretary of State.
Meantime, Donald Trump withdrew his claim that he saw a video of $400 million in cash being unloaded from a U.S. jet in Iran. He later said he did not see that video.
Let's bring in our panel. Democratic Strategist Maria Cardona, Hillary Clinton supporter. Former Reagan White House Political Director Jeffrey Lord, a Donald Trump supporter. And Ryan Lizza, Washington Correspondent for "The New Yorker." Thank you all for being here.
RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks, Poppy.
HARLOW: Let me begin with this. It's not just New Hampshire, Jeffrey Lord, where Trump needs some help in the polls. It is all the battleground states where he's losing by a pretty big margin in the recent polls this week. Whether you talk about Pennsylvania, whether you talk about Michigan, whether you talk about New Hampshire, even Florida, even Georgia, a traditionally red state, he's trailing Clinton by four points. It's also the national polls. What does he say onstage tonight to try to start to turn thing around?
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When he talks about Hillary Clinton, for one thing, I mean, he needs to have -- and I think he's doing this, a laser-like focus on Hillary Clinton, on her temperament, on her judgment, on everything Hillary. She is the opposition candidate here. She is the person who would be appointing Supreme Court justices and all the rest.
So, I think that that's what he's going to be doing. And that he did some of that when he was here in Pennsylvania. And I think he'll be doing more of it. And he should.
HARLOW: Let's see, Ryan Lizza, he's done that. That's what he's been doing.
LIZZA: I was just -- exactly
HARLOW: I mean ...
LIZZA: Yeah.
HARLOW: And look at these number.
LIZZA: Look, I think it is very hard to give the public new information about Hillary Clinton that will change their mind about her. She is a known quantity. She's been around a long time. She's very well-established negatives. And she probably has a relatively low ceiling but also a high floor.
And so, you know, look, I'm not a political consultant, but I don't think it's enough just to remind voters of the things that they don't like about her. And that's she's -- her -- because everything is sort of baked into the cake when it comes to her.
[19:05:01] What you -- what I would want to hear a little bit more from Donald Trump is very specific plans about how he plans on getting the economy moving. What does he view as the core problems in this economy, keeping back median wages and keeping back growth from being what it was in the '80s and '90s, and actually coming out with some specifics.
Now Monday, he's going to do some of that with an economic speech. But, I think, and Jeffrey echoed this, I think that, you know, just attacking Hillary Clinton is not a way to win the nomination especially when you were down. I think I counted like the last, I don't know, 15 or 20 public polls Donald Trump is losing, and in some of them losing quite heavily.
I think, look, if you were just an analyst that hadn't watched the primaries this year and just came into this race right now, you looked at the numbers, you looked at the these two candidates, you look at groups, that their strengths and weaknesses, you would probably say this isn't a close call, that Hillary Clinton's going to win this thing. But I think most analysts are so spooked by not predicting Donald Trump's win in the primaries, that he's getting a little bit more of the benefit of the doubt than usual.
HARLOW: I think also, Ryan, you have the trustworthiness and honesty numbers which don't play in Clinton's favor at all.
LIZZA: Not at all.
HARLOW: And you only got, Maria Cardona, 34 percent of the electorate right now who believes that Hillary Clinton is trustworthy or honest. And this e-mail issue keeps bogging her down. She cannot seem to get past it or she's unwilling to say what it would take for voters to allow her to get past it. She does this interview at the end of this week, she says, well, perhaps my answer on whether or not my, you know, what I said to the FBI and to the American people was all trustworthy, I may have, "short-circuited."
Why not be more direct with the American people? Because Comey said himself in his testimony that it was not true that everything she said to the American people was true, and that "Washington Post" said, "Look, she's cherry picking words here." They gave it four Pinocchios. Why not be more direct, just get -- try to get past it?
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC SUPERDELEGATE: She should be more direct. And what she should use are Comey's own words, which were that there's absolutely no evidence that she said anything misleading to the FBI. So, in essence, he did say that she was truthful to the FBI. That's what she should focus on.
In addition to that, he also said, in congressional testimony, when asked by Democratic members of Congress, that the three e-mails that were marked classified were actually improperly marked and that it was absolutely, you know, possible that even somebody with specific knowledge about classification could have overlooked that and would not have known that they were classified. So, that's what she would focus on.
But then, Poppy, what she should do is just move on and say, "Look, I apologized for this. I have taken responsibility for it," and then move on to the message. Because Ryan is right ...
HARLOW: What about a total ...
CARDONA: ... this is cooked into the Clinton cake. And if you like her, this is not going to change that. If you don't like her, they're going to keep using this because it's all that they have to use against her.
HARLOW: I just wonder -- and so, Maria Cardona, that's what she's been doing. That she's been saying, "It's a mistake. I wouldn't do it again." She's been trying to move on, but the public isn't moving on, the press isn't moving on. So, Ryan Lizza, do you ...
CARDONA: Well, well ...
HARLOW: ... I wonder if you think a complete mea culpa, complete strategy shift here, maybe using some of Comey's words.
CARDONA: She has said mea culpa though, Poppy.
HARLOW: I'm saying if she came out and said, you know what, Comey was right, I was "extremely careless." If she came out and said, I should have known better. If she came out and really did a complete mea culpa, does that actually help her more, Ryan?
LIZZA: Well, I think their strategy is to look at the Comey testimony and say, "All right, here's where Comey has us dead to rights, so we're not going to challenge that."
HARLOW: Right.
LIZZA: But we do not have to accept Comey's characterization, his subjective characterizations. And we can fight that. In other words, yes, he says -- used the world "reckless," well, that is not necessarily a, you know ...
HARLOW: That's his opinion. LIZZA: Exactly. So, I think, their strategy has been like, OK, Comey had us -- it was -- Comey was pretty bad for us, but we don't have, you know, Comey doesn't have to be god in all of this.
HARLOW: And the bottom line is that there were no charges. No charges were filed.
LIZZA: Yeah.
HARLOW: Right? So, move on.
LIZZA: But she said a ...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: ... question of her judgment, of course.
LIZZA: Yeah. And I do think she made a very serious mistake.
LORD: And that, you know, just ...
LIZZA: And it wasn't just a short circuit.
CARDONA: And she has admitted that. And that's the important thing. And then you compare it to ...
LIZZA: Well, but this was a new thing. This was new, right? So, she has admitted, she has apologized, but -- new -- in this interview, she did misspeak about Comey's testimony. And I think ...
CARDONA: And she admit that on Friday as well.
LIZZA: ... Poppy is asking about that, whether she should ...
CARDONA: She admitted that on Friday. She absolutely ...
HARLOW: Right, I'm talking about that, the Chris Wallace interview.
CARDONA: Right.
HARLOW: All right. Guys ...
CARDONA: And she admitted that on Friday.
HARLOW: Thank you. You can keep battling it out in the commercial break.
LIZZA: Thank you, Poppy.
HARLOW: Ryan Lizza ...
CARDONA: Thanks, Poppy.
HARLOW: ... Maria Cardona, Jeffrey Lord, thank you very much.
Ahead this hour, live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Behind every campaign, Democratic or Republican, is a mountain of the stuff that makes the political world go round, money.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDRA PELOSI, "MEET THE DONORS" DIRECTOR: So how much money you think you'd given to political candidates over the years?
[19:10:03] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given and raised? Probably $100 million.
PELOSI: $100 million, Democrats and Republicans?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
PELOSI: How much do you think you're going to contribute in 2016?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, maybe a few million.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Oh, just a few million. This man and lots of others like him turning out billions of dollars for these candidates and others. They are the megadonors.
I will speak -- well, that was Alexandra Pelosi. She just has a new film, a documentary on HBO all about where this money comes from. You won't want to miss it.
Also, I sat down with the man behind Under Armour, the behemoth brand that is betting millions on Baltimore. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Do you have an opinion as to whether a Clinton or Trump presidency would be better for bringing those jobs back to this country?
KEVIN PLANK, UNDER ARMOUR FOUNDER: Zero.
HARLOW: Zero.
PLANK: I think everybody want jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Kevin Plank saying his company will bring thousands of jobs to Baltimore if his vision pans out. My one on one with him, straight ahead, all live, this hour, in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right, so this might be the biggest no-brainer question in politics. Does money talk? Let me think about that one. Of course, it does, especially in the weeks before a presidential election, like, right now.
Therefore, you will want to see a new HBO documentary. It takes you behind the scene to the billionaires, the people who pump money into the race for the White House. They don't call it spending. They call it investing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here, the price tag of the presidency will be almost $6 billion. So, who are the megadonors bank rolling this election and what are they getting for their investments?
PELOSI: How much money have you given to candidate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's in a millions, certainly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Given and raised? Probably $100 million.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to know the truth? I don't remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Obama and my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton.
PELOSI: You have some serious art in this place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Me kissing Bill, that was ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a picture of me, Hillary Clinton, and my old cat to my Facebook page.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't use the word "spending," I'll say that I'm investing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want the government doing things for you but this is about trying to make sure the government don't do anything to you.
PELOSI: You spend your whole life writing checks for Republicans, you wanted to get some law passed, and they all voted against it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I have, maybe, not that much influence but a huge line of access. This is not a liberal issue or a conservative issue but it's at the core of what America is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:15:02] HARLOW: It is a fascinating new film called "Meet the Donors." It is on demand. It is on HBO, airs, again, HBO tomorrow, 11:45 a.m. eastern and many more times after that. Here's the woman who made it, Alexandra Pelosi. Thank you for being with me.
PELOSI: Thank you for having me.
HARLOW: It's a great, great film. And I saw it yesterday and it's fun. I mean, as you said, there's no smoking gun but it takes us into the big, big money behind politics. Why did you want to make it?
PELOSI: Well, just because it has become clear to all of us over the years, there've been these articles in the paper ...
HARLOW: Right.
PELOSI: ... about how there are these hundred families in America that are funding our elections, and you're always wondering, who are these people and why do they write these big checks?
HARLOW: Yeah.
PELOSI: And so from meeting these donors over and over, I just wanted to put a face to some of the names that you see.
HARLOW: So, what's interesting, you see to the film a lot of people tell you, "I'm doing this for the benefit of my country. This is all about being patriotic." But, some admitted to you that, "No, I'm doing this for personal interest and for business gain."
PELOSI: Right. Well, there's a clear distinction between what the ideological donors, the people that say I'm doing this because I love America ...
HARLOW: Right.
PELOSI: ... and it's my patriotic duty, and I'm a billionaire with so too dollars, $10 million to make. And the transactional donors ...
HARLOW: Yes.
PELOSI: ... who are the ones that are specifically putting money in to get a certain law passed or to get something done but which is in their own self interest.
HARLOW: So, Boone Pickens, for example, big oil guy.
PELOSI: Right, tried to get a law passed to get his gas to be used in all trucks. OK, you could say he was a -- it was good for the environment if we changed to this gas.
HARLOW: He wanted a natural gas, and he was up against like the Koch brothers.
PELOSI: Right, so he got outspent. So, there's always this question, "Are you doing it because that's what's good for America or that's what's good for your bottom line?"
HARLOW: I kept wondering as I was watching, why are these people going on camera? Why are they letting you in their homes? Why are they sharing these stories? Why are they showing you the pictures of them with these presidential candidates and saying, basically, I bought this access? Why?
PELOSI: Well, first of all, I think, vanity is a big part of it. And as another reason would, they've been vilified, they've been demonized. There's been a lot of stories about the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers themselves were saying that they had to do some whole P.R. campaign to put up these ads stream. (CROSSTALK)
PELOSI: No, of course not. They would -- but I did meet David Koch, he was a very nice man, but he wouldn't have anything, I mean, never on camera. But, they say that. "A lot of people said it hurts my business."
You know, you want to say I'm doing it to help my business.
HARLOW: Yeah.
PELOSI: I get your agenda. They would all say to me, you have a bad view, a perspective of it that I'm only doing it to help my company and help my bottom line. But actually, being in the business of politics, identifying yourself with a candidate, could be bad for your business.
HARLOW: There was also one donor who said to you, "It is all about not just power and access but the perception of power and access." And spoke about having pictures on the wall of him with different presidents or candidates and the perception of power is such a big driver.
PELOSI: Yeah, I think that's a big driver because, I mean, perhaps you've been around long enough to know that when you see that picture on the wall, you're not impressed. You've been in enough offices in midtown where you've seen that picture.
HARLOW: Right.
PELOSI: But, all across America, there's a rich guy in every town.
HARLOW: Yeah.
PELOSI: And he has nothing to do on a Saturday night, so he invites Hillary Clinton over, gets a picture and has his friends around. It's a big, you know, it's about establishing yourself in the community as like the big, you know, man of our town.
HARLOW: Honcho.
PELOSI: Yes.
HARLOW: So there's this one donor, near the beginning of the film, and I think he said to you, because you're in a lot of the film and you're filming and your voice is in it, and what did he say to you, a hard-headed woman with a hard-headed question?
PELOSI: You get times to bond (ph). He is a great character. He's a big Hillary donor. He's written over $10 million to Hillary. We are debating if did he say, "You're a hot-headed woman or hard-headed woman." There was actually an article in the Jewish newspaper, "The Forward," say, "He's attacking a woman for being hot-headed." And I had to fight back and say, "No, I think he said hard-headed." But with his accent you can't tell if he's called me a hot or hard-headed. But I am hot-headed and hard-headed, proudly. HARLOW: OK, OK. Biggest surprise making this film?
PELOSI: I would say that so many people did not let me -- you're surprised they did let me in. I would say, look at the top 100 families in America, they're bank rolling this election, and how many said no and slammed the door in my face, very undiplomatically. I would say, how close -- I mean, they're funding our democracy.
HARLOW: Right.
PELOSI: They're putting hundreds of million dollars this way and they wouldn't even give one answer? They wouldn't -- I think that if you were that ...
HARLOW: Why?
PELOSI: ... such a big player and ...
HARLOW: You get a why from many of the noes?
PELOSI: No. I got a lot of noes, but no, I didn't get a lot in deep, you know, I think this is a real, I mean, it is dark. It is a dark subject.
HARLOW: Yeah, yeah.
PELOSI: I mean, we're being really liked because it's Saturday night, we're having a good time, and we ...
HARLOW: And it is ...
PELOSI: ... don't want many people ...
HARLOW: There is some jest in the film.
PELOSI: Poppy, I try not to go too heavy, because that's not -- I'm not like the bomb thrower. People invite you into their house, it's not your job to burn it down on the way out.
HARLOW: Right.
PELOSI: I'm there to, you know, I just wanted to see what it's like in the 1 percent, you know, just have a good time.
HARLOW: Wait, the 1 percent and the 1 percent.
PELOSI: 1 percent and the 1 percent.
HARLOW: The 1 percent and the 1 percent.
It's a fascinating film. I thought you got extraordinary access of being and caring for many of these people, who, by the way, they're not names that everyone knows. These are -- a lot of these names are not huge names, but they got big checkbooks.
[19:20:06] Thank you so much. PELOSI: Thank you so much for having me.
HARLOW: Alexandra Pelosi, the filmmaker. You'll want to see it, all of us, the big money in politics.
All right. Coming up live, next, Trump and immigration. Probably not the story you're thinking of though. It's this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: I obeyed the law. I did it the right way. I didn't just sneak in and stay here. So, I think that's what people should do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Donald Trump's wife, Melania Trump, that is what she said when asked about her immigration status after she came to this country. But new photos of her are raising big questions about whether or not she's violated U.S. immigration law.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Donald Trump's wife, Melania, strongly defending her own immigration history. She said she followed all immigration laws to the letter when she came to the United States from Slovenia to work as model back in the 1990s. Well, this week, photos of her taken in the '90s sparked new questions about certain details of her immigration path. Our Jessica Schneider investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The photos fanned across the covers of "The New York Post," a 25-year-old Melania Trump, then known as Melania K., posing provocatively for a French magazine. But the photos that raised a few eyebrows are now raising questions about Melania's immigration history.
TRUMP: And I came to United States, to New York, in 1996.
SCHNEIDER: 1996 is the year she stands by, telling CNN's Anderson Cooper and numerous other publications that's when she came to the U.S. But these photos were snapped in New York City in 1995, according to the author of her recent biography.
So what difference does a year make? Possibly the difference between Mrs. Trump breaking immigration law or not. To understand why, listen to Melania Trump's own words.
[19:25:02] TRUMP: I came here on visa. I flew to Slovenia every few months to stamp it and came back. I applied for green card, and then, after few years for citizenship. I obeyed the law. I did it the right way. I didn't just sneak in and stay here. So, I think that's what people should do.
SCHNEIDER: Trump insists she got her visa stamped every few months. If that's accurate, it would mean she had a type of visa, possibly a tourist visa that needs to be updated periodically. But that type of visa does not allow working in the United States. The type visa that does allow work is called H-1B. And the man who discovered Melania tells CNN he didn't sponsored her for an H-1B until 1996, a year after this racy photo shoot.
But, there's a caveat, the photographer behind the camera at the shoot, Jarl Ale de Basseville, says Melania was a young model waiting for a break, so she didn't get paid, which would mean she didn't violate any immigration laws.
JARL ALE DE BASSEVILLE, FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER: ... who are making this kind of magazine to have exposure. And this exposure was being used to the next cover to our catalogue, campaign and everything.
SCHNEIDER: So Melania was not paid for this photo shoot, you say?
DE BASSEVILLE: No, no, no. Nobody's paying. Nobody is paying.
SCHNEIDER: If that non-paid photo shoot was the only work she did before getting an H-1B visa, she wouldn't have broken any laws. Melania Trump isn't directly answering whether she was first in New York in 1995 instead of 1996 like she's previously stated. But could it simply be an honest error?
She wrote this on Twitter. "Let me set the record straight. I have at all times been in full compliance with the immigration laws of this country, period. Any allegation to the contrary is simply untrue. In July 2006, I proudly became a U.S. citizen. Over the past 20 years, I have been fortunate to live, work, and raise a family in this great nation, and I share my husband's love for this country." It's a sentiment she expressed in her Cleveland convention speech.
TRUMP: I was very proud to become citizen of the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Well coming up next, when three is a crowd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RALPH NADER, ACTIVIST AND POLITICIAN: I do think that Al Gore cost me the election, especially in Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: From Ralph Nader to Ross Perot, the power of third party tickets. Ralph Nader joins us, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:30:33] HARLOW: As of now you will not see Gary Johnson or Dr. Jill Stein onstage during the presidential debate, that is because they have not reached the 15 percent threshold in the polls to be included in the debate. And just yesterday, a federal judge dismiss the lawsuit claiming that the presidential debate commission rule requiring that 15 percent threshold violated antitrust laws and the first amendment by excluding these third party candidates.
So earlier I spoke with the man who has plenty of experience in third party politics, Ralph Nader. He ran for president twice as a Green Party candidate and twice as an independent. Here is some of what he said about the election this go-round.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: You wrote a recent op-ed in "Washington Post," here's part of it. "The best thing Hillary Clinton has going for her is the self- destructive, unstable, unorganized, fact and truth-starved, egomaniacal, cheating, plutocratic Donald Trump." Given that, who are you casting your ballot for in November?
NADER: I never divulge my vote but you can -- surmise I'm not going to vote for either Clinton or Trump. There are third party candidates available for people who wan to cast the vote of conscience or who want to highlight the agenda of the third party. You can write in your vote.
And I hope some day we'll have a binding none of the above on all ballots so people can vote no to the candidates, a vote of no confidence that actually means something. And if it gets more than any of the other candidates it cancels that line on the ballot and orders new election. Binding none of the above, I think 90 percent of the people would favor that. And it keeps people from staying home.
HARLOW: I'm very interested in who you would have liked to see run for president this go-round that did not get in the race.
NADER: Well, first of all, there are a lot of good people nobody heard of. There are people, you know, in the labor community, people in universities who are accomplished people. But they're not celebrities. So I have to give you someone, you know, that you might know.
I think Senator Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, would have been good candidates. Senator Ed Markey would be a good candidate. There are some governors from time to time, ex-Jerry Brown, wanted to run, I think he would have had a good chance because he's such a winner in California and he knows how to appeal to fiscal conservatives and social liberals.
The point is the political recruitment system of the two-party tyranny is very bad. It pushes out good people from wanting to go into politics which you see as a dirty word and a mess and they don't want to have any part of it.
When someone bad politicians drive out good politicians like Gresham's law, bad money drives out good money, the people are the losers. And if people always keep saying politics is dirty, if people make politics into a dirty word, Poppy, why should they be surprised when they get dirty politics?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Ralph Nader, thank you again for joining us. He has a new book coming out called "Breaking Through Power."
Just ahead live in the CNN NEWSROOM, President Obama this week did something that sitting presidents typically do not do during a campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes. I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. He keeps on proving it. He's woefully unprepared to do this job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:37:03] HARLOW: Right now, President Obama and his family are spending their final summer vacation on Martha's Vineyard as first family. But before leaving for that vacation, the president had some words for Donald Trump this week including calling him unfit to serve.
Trump, for his part, has not been shy about criticizing President Obama. But the president is responding to an extent not typically seen by a sitting U.S. president.
Our Michelle Kosinski has more tonight from the White House. Hi, Michelle.
MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. Right, the president is now out of here, at least for two more weeks. I mean, he's officially on vacation. We may not hear from him again while he's there. But he seemed to relish the opportunities he had in this past week at press conferences that were designed to be focused on other things, to hit Donald Trump, and hard (ph). And it felt like the gloves are now off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: The political storm growing ever fiercer. President Obama today gets away from it all, sort of, for what he hopes will be a quiet two weeks on Martha's Vineyard. But not before leaving behind some surprising zingers of his own aimed directly at Donald Trump.
OBAMA: Yes. I think the Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president. He keeps on proving it. He's woefully unprepared to do this job.
KOSINSKI: And he kept on going at a press conference alongside the Singaporean Prime Minister, extending the sentiment to Republicans.
OBAMA: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? What does this say about your party that this is your standard bearer? There has to come a point at which you say somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn't have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world.
KOSINSKI: This is a long way from early in the race when President Obama rarely uttered Donald Trump's name would make veiled references or speak broadly about all the Republican candidates, remember them?
Now, though, since his endorsement of Hillary Clinton and the conventions, President Obama seems freer, willing, and eager to speak his mind.
OBAMA: Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?
KOSINSKI: This was during a press conference at the Pentagon after a meeting on ISIS.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: What is your assessment today as you stand here about whether Donald Trump can be trusted with America's nuclear weapons?
OBAMA: I've made this point already, multiple times.
[19:40:05] Just listen to what Mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.
KOSINSKI: Referring back to his sharpest barbs, only days earlier.
OBAMA: There has to come a point at which you say enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KOSINSKI: You know, at one point in there, it almost seemed like the President was saying, "Well, I've said enough now, I've made my point, can we move on to other things." So, what can we expect from him on the campaign trail? You know he hits to get into a back and forth with Donald Trump. He doesn't want to respond to every single tweet.
But what we're seeing is that when things become highly controversial or divisive, like, those Trump comments about the parents of the fallen Muslim soldier, White House sources says he's absolutely going to be willing to weigh in, in this way, even then some, especially a political events, although the settings we saw this past week were not, Poppy.
HARLOW: Michelle at the White House for us tonight. Thank you so much.
Coming up next, our American opportunity takes us to Baltimore. City knocked down, but not out in any way. Charm City looking to its home ground company Under Armour to turn things around. This as the company has grown from a fledgling startup to a billion dollar brand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You like to quote Mike Tyson who says, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." When did you get punched in the face?
KEVIN PLANK, CEO, UNDER ARMOUR: Which time?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: CEO Kevin Plank's big bet on Baltimore, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:45:08] HARLOW: What will it take to restore America's struggling cities, from Detroit to Baltimore to Pittsburgh? The decline of American manufacturing hits home for millions of Americans missing those jobs and struggling every single day to just get by.
Case in points, Baltimore, where the unemployment rate for young black men between the ages of 20 and 24 is 28 percent, but there is a great and determination in Baltimore to bring back some of what has been lost. Last year, former president Bill Clinton spoke about a company doing just that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: Baltimore's great shining jewel of a company is now Under Armour. It's a local company with a local leader who didn't move the jobs out of Baltimore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And in this week's American Opportunity, we take you to Baltimore to meet the man behind that company, Under Armour and to find out why he is betting billions on his city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PLANK: There's a great Drake line, it says, "All I care about is money and the city that I'm from. "
(MUSIC)
HARLOW: You're the first CEO to quote Drake in an interview, ever.
To say that Kevin Plank is proud of his city is quite the understatement.
PLANK: We are the best doggone city not just here in America, but all over the darn planet. So welcome to Baltimore ladies and gentlemen.
HARLOW: He cringes at the idea of the world just knowing the Baltimore whose streets were filled with anger last spring.
PLANK: I know that when I was watching Anderson Cooper on CNN and he's talking about Baltimore is burning is the headline that's across the screen and I'm sitting there in the waterfront, you know, Inner Harbor office and I'm looking out and saying, "I don't see any of this."
HARLOW: There's no question that Charm City has gone through tough times, from protests that made global headlines last year to stubbornly high unemployment. But there's another Baltimore, Kevin Plank wants you to see and he's determined to build a significant part of it. He's the force behind Under Armour, the scrappy startup turned billion dollar brand.
PLANK: My passion is I love blowing people's minds. I love people saying, "Wow, I never thought that was possible. I never thought that could happen."
I love to shatter that belief that unfortunate millennials believe that the American dream is dead, that more than half of millennials believe that and if we can do anything, it's the greatest gift that I could give right now to our country would be to demonstrating that that's absolutely false.
HARLOW: That on the underdog that's been Kevin Plank's strategy from the start and it's paid off. A former walk on college football player Plank bootstrapped to start Under Armour in his grandmother's basement, creating a prototype of a sweat-wicking t-shirt he would convince after heated and nearly went broken a process. He gambled in Atlantic City to keep the company afloat.
PLANK: As I walk to the Atlantic City with out nothing and thank goodness that I filled my car up with gas and as I drove back, I realized that I was broke and I was like kind of broke, like, you know, like broke is like a hallow (ph). I don't have any money left, but I'm still, you know, paying my rent during this like not -- no change in my car.
HARLOW: You were really broke.
PLANK: Like that kind of broke.
HARLOW: You like to quote Mike Tyson who says, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face." When did you get punched in the face?
PLANK: Which time? I mean, no, like we felt it over and over.
HARLOW: Fast forward 20 years, and Under Armour has more than 13,000 employees, and is eyeing $7.5 billion in revenue by 2018. Today, Plank is going all in on Baltimore.
PLANK: What's come through recently in Ferguson, what's come through in Baltimore, is that you see the strive that's happening on both sides, that like we haven't solved the problem that we have and the one issue that comes up every day, and when you see that strives is like, it all comes back to jobs at some level.
HARLOW: He's aiming to redevelop this area, Port Covington, some 260 acres of empty industrial land. It would house Under Armour headquarters along with residential and retail development on the waterfront. What's your vision?
PLANK: Route 95, 225,000 cars a day driving through the city of Baltimore. I want to see, I want to drive through and I'm going to say, "Wow, there's something great happening in this city."
HARLOW: We spoke with Plank on opening day of the Under Armour Lighthouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please come on in, welcome to the lighthouse.
HARLOW: A mammoth 35,000 square foot workshop where the company tests high tech manufacturing and robotics, it's part of Plank's larger aim to trim overseas production and add more efficiency to the process. Ideally meaning, more jobs here at home.
PLANK: My next, you know, three or four years, we're going to effectively double the size of our company and we're going to basically create another 200,000 to 300,000 new additional jobs.
How many jobs expect to come back to America? And the answer is today is like relatively zero. Today, it's less than 5 percent of apparel consumed in America is made in America and you look at that and say, "Should we really accept that?"
[19:50:08] HARLOW: But are we really talking about a day when a majority of the Under Armour product say made in America? Is that economically possible?
PLANK: All these things come back to, you know, the plight that we see in our inner cities. It comes back to jobs and I think it's a real crime that we don't have enough of it. There's no plan.
And so we're looking and saying, if we can -- with through all of our manufacturing, what we're doing, again, the majority of which 95 percent of our manufacturing is outside the United States as well, but if we can create a facility here where we can truly understand it, we can have our own engineers, our own designers, our own innovators here in Baltimore, that are working our product line managers, that are working and saying, "There maybe a best practice for this. There maybe a better way for us to engineer with better way for us to do this." And then we can bring that to some of our manufacturing overseas.
HARLOW: How many net new jobs, full-time jobs do you expect to come here?
PLANK: Thousands to tens of thousands. So if it works, there, again, this is a long pot.
HARLOW: Do you have an opinion as to whether a Clinton or Trump presidency would be better for bringing those jobs back to this country?
PLANK: Zero.
HARLOW: Zero.
PLANK: I think everybody wants jobs. The thing that bothers me about politics is I hate seeing corporations as being painted as this awful, evil thing that just wants to exploit the worker and take from them.
I think that the idea of painting sort of corporate America as this bad evil place, I think is such an -- it's so misplaced. It's so awful. Is that people wants to do the right thing and I believe that.
HARLOW: Plank not only bet big on Baltimore. He bet big on NBA star, Steph Curry. That has paid off many times over. In fact, this year Under Armour has four MVP athletes on its list of endorsers.
What do you look for in the athletes that you sign on to endorse Under Armour? What's the (inaudible) that's been trend?
PLANK: So first and foremost we look for athletes that are better people when they are athletes, true story.
HARLOW: Baltimore Orioles' legend and hall of famer, Cal Ripken Jr. is designing the sports field for the project. He sees that's company and this city as intertwined.
CAL RIPKEN JR., AMERICAN FORMER BASEBALL PLAYER: It's hard to look at Kevin and think he was an underdog. I mean his energy, his enthusiasm, his vision, affect the way he looks at something and blows up the scale of it immediately on what he's doing in the development for the campus down there in Port Covington, I think it's the best thing in the world that happens to Baltimore.
HARLOW: But the proposal for Under Armour's enormous Port Covington development comes with some controversy. Sagamore Development, Plank's private entity is asking the city of Baltimore for a $535 million investment in the infrastructure to make the development possible.
There's been a lot of talk about the $535 million investment that Under Armour is asking the city to make. For people from the outside that might look at it say, "That's a lot of money for a company to ask a city, especially a city in Baltimore's financial state to invest in the project overall." What do you say to them?
PLANK: So first of all, Under Armour is not asking for a cent, like I just want to be clear. This is to help build public infrastructure for, you know, a much bigger and better idea that a city like Baltimore should be able to dream for.
HARLOW: It's not a check from the city. Its tax increment financing or a TIF, a funding mechanism to pay for infrastructure and improvements to an area by drawing from expected increases and property taxes from the new project.
PLANK: If it's not right for the city, then the city shouldn't do it. But if it is right, like if you believe, and, again, one of the things that I said like, imagine if like, we do have the growth of the company. Imagine if like we can really inspire, you know, millennials and young people to really, you know, put Baltimore sort on their list to the place and the destination city they want to, move to, like what could have then?
So, I think that there's, you know, I recognize that it's a lot for people because it sounds like a lot of money and it is a lot of money, but it's something that doesn't -- that money doesn't get funded unless the company is actually move here and start paying creating that tax base.
HARLOW: The city council is weighing the proposal right now. Baltimore's mayor calls it a, "Visionary project that will attract billions of dollars of investment creating new job opportunities for all skill levels."
You've said this isn't just a Baltimore story. This is an American story.
PLANK: Yes. Imagine if we could crack this code, like imagine we get actually cracked, cracked and figure the formula out. The best way that I can think for Under Armour to be able to do that, keep growing and have more jobs, hire more people, but, again, make sure that it's a diverse work for us that actually is inclusive of the people of the city.
HARLOW: So the people who might hear that and say, "What?" This is a company where, as you said, 95 percent of their goods are made overseas. What do you say to them?
PLANK: Start with the intent. I mean there's no manufacture in this country where the pretty competitive market so this isn't like Under Armour's job just to solve the job issue in America. We're just going -- meeting (ph) with a couple of steps. Place it's beautiful.
[19:55:03] HARLOW: Yes, in a city that he's betting on one day, one shirt and one shoe at a time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: My thanks to Under Armour for that?
All right, up next proof in the president's words that you can succeed, "No matter where you are from." You want to hear this. "The Number," straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: All right. Finally tonight's number, the number is 10. That's the number of athletes on the historic first ever refugee team at the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee picked those 10 athletes choosing them based on both skill and background. President Obama tweeting about that team last night saying, "Tonight the first ever team refugees will also stand before the world and prove that you can succeed no matter where you are from." Pope Francis writing this, "I've learned about your team and read some of your interviews so that I could get closer to your lives and aspirations. I extend my greetings and wish you success at the Olympic Games in Rio that you courage and strength find expression through the Olympic Games and serve as a cry for peace and solidarity. Your experience serves as a testimony and benefits us all."
10 refugees competing against the world and inspiring all of us right now in Rio on the Olympic stage. Remember that when you tune in.
All right, next on CNN, joining us Anthony Bourdain as he travels across the globe to uncover little known destinations and diverse cultures, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Bourdain takes you to Brazil at 9:00 degree violence (ph) at 10:00 Eastern he takes us to Russia and at 11:00 to Libya.
I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thank you some much for being with us tonight. I will see you back here tomorrow night. Have a great evening.
