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New Day Sunday
Trump: Clinton is Unhinged, Unbalanced; In Rio Today: Women's Gymnastics and Basketball; Trump Trails Hillary Clinton in New Poll; Interview with Dr. Jill Stein. Aired 7-8a ET
Aired August 07, 2016 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:00:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a fight to the death, and only one person was going to walk away from that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was a busy opening day here in Rio with the 31st Olympiad going under way, with the first of the day went to the United States. Nineteen-year-old Ginny Thrasher in the 10-meter air rifle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to Sunday, 7:00 on the dot. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning.
Donald Trump back on message, going after Hillary Clinton. This was at a rally yesterday. Now questioning her mental health and saying that he has a winning temperament.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced. I've always had a great temperament. And, you know, I win. I have a winning temperament.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: The latest polls show he's not winning among voters. A new "Washington Post"/ABC poll released just a short Clinton and Kaine with an eight-point lead over Trump and Pence.
CNN's Kristen Holmes has all the details for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN PRODUCER: Christi and Victor, following what has been described as his worst week yet, Donald Trump stuck largely to his talking points in New Hampshire where a recent poll down 15 points to Hillary Clinton in this crucial battleground state. He did what Republicans were hoping he would do last week, go after Hillary Clinton, hit Obama and focus on the things that are important to his supporters, including immigration and fighting terrorism.
Trump also used Hillary Clinton's own word against her. During an interview last week, she said that she had short-circuited when asked about her e-mails. Let's listen to what he had to say.
TRUMP: In front of some friendly reporters, they asked her a very easy question and she short circuited. She used the term, short circuited.
She took a little short circuit in the brain, and she's got problems. I mean, if we had real people, this would be a real problem for her. But I think that the people of this country don't want somebody that's going to short circuit up here.
HOLMES: Now, whether or not this is the pivot the Republican Party was hoping for remains to be seen. During the rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump praised GOP Chairman Reince Priebus, even posting photo of the two of them on Instagram as he aims to promote their relationship while trying to bring the party together.
Now, noticeably missing from the rally was New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte who Donald Trump endorsed on Friday -- Victor and Christi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Kristen, thank you so much.
Let's bring in Rudy Giuliani, former New York City mayor and Donald Trump supporter and Angela Rye, CNN political commentator and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Good to have both of you this morning.
ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.
RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: So, Mayor Giuliani, I want to start with you. Being back on message -- we know that earlier in the week, you took issue with this term intervention with Donald Trump that you thought was inappropriate. But he seems to be focusing on Hillary Clinton now even in a scripted way. Would you say he is back on message and this is the appropriate message questioning her mental health?
GIULIANI: My point about intervention was that's a word we usually use for someone who's a drug addict or an alcoholic, and Donald Trump doesn't drink and he's quite a normal human being. Did he need a refocusing of his campaign? Absolutely.
Does that happen all the time in every campaign? It certainly does. George Bush, the first one, began the campaign 17 points behind Michael Dukakis, 17 points behind, and that was in September or late August.
So, the position he's in right now even with the latest poll being behind by only 8 percent given the week that he had, I think is actually a good one.
Also, the other part that I find optimistic about it is he's doing so well among independents.
BLACKWELL: But he's doing very poorly among women, 23 points behind Hillary Clinton.
GIULIANI: He's going to have to improve that.
BLACKWELL: How?
GIULIANI: Well, he has to speak to the issues of education in which he's in favor of choice in charter schools, and Hillary Clinton is a complete -- fully dominated by the teacher's union and has no options there. She's not going to embrace vouchers. She's not going to embrace choice. She's not going to embrace the expansion of charter schools. The things that you're going to need if you want children to be educated better in the next generation, in the way the public schools are serving today.
BLACKWELL: All right. Angela?
GIULIANI: I think safety is a big issue to women. And the fact is the world isn't safe. There's an article in "The Times" today saying Russia has basically won in Syria. Well, President Obama and Hillary Clinton handed Russia Syria, just gave it to them.
BLACKWELL: All right.
[07:05:00] Let me bring Angela Rye in this conversation.
Those issues -- you think those close the gap between Clinton and Trump with women?
RYE: Well, with all due respect with Giuliani, as a woman, I would also say that wages are important to me and eliminating those wage disparities. That's why I'm grateful that President Obama's first act was signing the Lily Ledbetter Act into law. I am anxious to say what else Donald Trump has to say about wage disparities and also the minimum wage.
I know that Donald Trump and his surrogates continue to bash the state of the economy. Yet and still as president, Trump says that he would not eliminate or he would not increase the minimum wage. So I think therein lies a problem as well.
So, It's not just safety I'm concerned about. Although if we were going to talk about safety and the threat of terrorism to this country, we know this poll also has Hillary Clinton ahead.
BLACKWELL: Let me ask you, Mr. Mayor, about the economy. We know the economic advisors have been announced. There will be an economic speech in Detroit coming up early in the week.
Earlier on in the show, we had Scottie Nell Hughes, who is a Trump supporter, who said that the way that Trump will win women is by doubling down on what Ivanka Trump said during the convention when she said that Donald Trump would, quote, "focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all and he will fight for equal pay for equal work. And she will fight alongside him.
Are there policies coming to support those affirmations?
GIULIANI: Sure. Absolutely. I think the way he's going to approach it and the issue is a very good one. First of all, Donald Trump has made it clear that he would consider an increase in the minimum wage. He'd like it to be done state by state. But he'd also consider an increase in the minimum wage from the point of view of the federal government.
He also pointed out, as did Ivanka, that he was one of the first to appoint a woman CEO for basically a construction business. He has --
(CROSSTALK)
BLACKWELL: Where is the policy to support these?
GIULIANI: He also has made the point that he has a disproportionate number of women working for him at the same wage as men. There is no wage disparity --
RYE: What about on the campaign? On the Trump organization, what about on the campaign? What about the fact there's not a single woman named to the economic advisors list, Mayor Giuliani?
GIULIANI: The reality is you have to take the people supporting you, the people that agree with you --
BLACKWELL: And he couldn't find any woman to agree with you?
(LAUGHTER)
GIULIANI: Excuse me. I think a much better indication is what he's done over his whole lifetime which is to appoint women where other people haven't, to give women the same wages as men, to be a leader in the forefront in giving women the ability to take time off when they have children.
This is what he's done in the multibillion dollar corporation that he runs. So I'm sure that's precisely what he's going to do as president of the United States.
BLACKWELL: Angela, let me give you another number from this ABC News/"Washington Post" poll. Still, after the four days at the DNC -- and there was a significant bump that came out of that convention. Hillary Clinton still sits at 66 percent of the respondents who say she is too willing to bend the rules. I mean, that is still has to be an uphill battle for her.
What is the campaign doing? What should the campaign be doing to over turn those numbers?
RYE: Well, one of the things she said recently is that she knows that trust has to be earned. And I think that is exactly the right message. She has to demonstrate over time, that she is a better, more qualified, more trustworthy candidate. The best way for her to do that is to prevent saying things like I short circuited.
The good thing for her is that she's running up against a candidate who always short circuits, who said they will become Trump 2.0 and everyone is waiting for that to happen. Instead he's calling her unhinged. That's laughable because the candidate that you think about when you hear the term unhinged is not Hillary Clinton, but actually Trump. She's got to stay on message.
BLACKWELL: Let's look at this video that was released by the Trump campaign, speaking of that short-circuited moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, DONALD TRUMP)
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)
BLACKWELL: Yes. Smoke there apparently coming from her head that's been super-imposed.
Let me ask you, Mr. Mayor, is it appropriate as Donald Trump did yesterday to question the mental health of his opponent?
GIULIANI: I'm not sure he did that.
BLACKWELL: Quote, "honestly I don't think she's all there" and pointed at his head.
GIULIANI: Well, the reality is she said she's going to raise taxes on the middle class. The way I'd approach it is, she's finally telling the truth.
[07:10:03] This is the first time in the campaign that she's told the truth.
This is a woman who has been found to be extremely careless in the handling of national security of the nation by the director of the FBI. She could not pass an FBI background check to get top secret clearance.
(CROSSTALK)
BLACKWELL: But let me bring back to the question, Mr. Mayor, is it appropriate to question the mental health of one's opponent?
GIULIANI: I don't think he was questioning her mental health. He was using a figure, of speech. I mean, either she was telling the truth that she is going to raise the minimum wage or she made some kind of a mistake. And using the term short circuit would certainly suggest kidding around a little bit about the fact that maybe she's not completely focused.
So, I don't think he questioned her mental health. I think that's what you do in the media. You take some of these things that tend to be somewhat humorous, maybe somewhat sarcastic and you drive it into this -- he certainly different question her mental health. He said that she seemed a little unhinged.
And in fact in a campaign, to say that you're going to raise taxes on the middle class is kind of unhinged, if that's not what you meant.
BLACKWELL: I'll say the transcript that was released after that said she said aren't. But we all heard the recording is there.
Angela, I'll give it you if you want to respond and we got to go to break.
RYE: Just quick quickly, I would just say the short circuit comment was actually about the e-mails. It wasn't about the middle class. That's what they mashed up for that particular ad. So, that isn't exactly on point either. So, for someone who just lied about seeing a video of cash being dropped into Iran, I think he should probably watch it with the short circuit language.
BLACKWELL: All right. Angela Rye, Rudy Giuliani, we'll continue with this.
I want to pick up with the video released making a questionable connection about Trump and Russia after we take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:15:03] BLACKWELL: All right. We're back with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Angela Rye, CNN political commentator and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus.
And I want to start this block, Angela, with this video. We know that Hillary Clinton doesn't have any rallies or events planned today. But her campaign released a new video overnight discussing Donald Trump and Russia. Here's a portion of that video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, HILLARY CLINTON)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's perhaps one more reason why we're not seeing his tax returns, because he is deeply involved in dealing with Russian oligarchs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he getting money from Russia? Is his business built on Russian loans?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: That's about 25 seconds of maybe a minute and 20 second ad. It ends with we'll let you guess.
I wonder, Angela, is this not the same tone, the same innuendo that the Clinton campaign complained about from the Sanders camp in the discussion of Wall Street speeches without drawing a direct connection? They're not doing this against Donald Trump. If there is some accusation that Trump is carrying Putin's water or something like that, why not simply make it instead of just throwing it out there and saying we'll let you guess?
RYE: I think it's clear in the ad they're not in a position to make any affirmative statements right now about Trump's dealings with Putin. They don't have the evidence of that. What they do have this DNC e-mail hack. They do have the fact that when Robby Mook went on TV and said that this is something that we can attribute to Russia, there was this out cry of how dare you and then of course these hacks were attributed to Russia.
So, there are some challenges here in trying to understand what is Russia's interest in this election if not to destroy the Democratic party or to try to tear it apart and they were unsuccessful. But they haven't done the same thing with the RNC.
So, it is highly questionable. What is their interest here? There also seems to be this love affair with Putin and Trump. They're constantly complimenting one another. I think that a reasonable person would ask questions. That's what they did in the ad. It's a good ad.
BLACKWELL: Should there be more charity from Donald Trump about his connections to Russia, Mr. Mayor?
GIULIANI: First of all, I think the last person who would talk about Russia is Hillary Clinton. She reset the relationship with Russia. And since she did that, Putin has been pushing it all over the globe, Ukraine, Crimea. There's an article in "The Times" today saying that Russia now has the upper hand in Syria. Russia wasn't in Syria before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state.
BLACKWELL: But just a week ago it also appeared that Donald Trump didn't know that Russia was in Crimea
GIULIANI: Excuse me. Russia hasn't been in the Middle East for the last four decades. It's Obama setting 12 red lines and saying if Assad crossed those lines, he would do something. Assad did. He used chemical weapons and Obama backed down. He brought Putin in.
BLACKWELL: But what about the clarity from Donald Trump, Mr. Mayor, about any connections to Russia? Should he be cleared?
GIULIANI: Donald Trump has no substantial connections to Russia that I know of.
RYE: No substantial.
GIULIANI: I don't know his business in great detail, but I know it fairly well. He has no substantial connections to Russia. BLACKWELL: Releasing his taxes would offer that clarity, would it
not?
GIULIANI: Pardon me?
BLACKWELL: Releasing his taxes would offer that clarity, would it not?
GIULIANI: First of all, the reality is the taxes wouldn't tell you whether or not you have investments in Russia. To do that, you'd have to do quite an examination of books and records. There's also this whole issue of -- there are a lot of people, a lot of Russians who are anti-Putin who have invested in the United States. I happen to represent some of them, by the way.
So, the fact is if you've got Russian money, doesn't necessarily mean you're aligned with Putin. In fact, Putin is very much against money leaving Russia. If you're telling me money is coming out of Russia, I would tell you probably two out of three times, you're talking about money coming from anti-Putin people who are trying to protect their assets against Putin possibly taking it away from them.
BLACKWELL: All right.
GIULIANI: That's why it's a ridiculous ad that it shows a complete lack of knowledge of how Russia operates. After all, it's this administration that has allowed Russia to push us around the world.
BLACKWELL: Mr. Mayor, we're running low on time.
Angela, you got 10 seconds here, but I want to get something else, Angela.
RYE: Quicker than that, Victor, this is a perfect example of why this is a great ad. If it takes you this long to explain it, you've got a challenge on your hands.
BLACKWELL: All right. Also out of this new "Washington Post" poll, 74 percent of respondents disapprove of the handling of Trump's handling of the family of Captain Humayun Khan who was killed by a car bomb back in 2004, spoke at the DNC. When Donald Trump was asked about his really bad week this bad week this passed a couple of days ago, this is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Someone who touts poll numbers so much, I mean, are you worried about that? Following some of these issues, with your poll numbers dropping, would you have changed anything?
TRUMP: Well, I guess maybe I would have. But as an example, we had so much fun that day. Oftentimes we'll have something that's so great and they'll write about it badly or report it badly, which is, you know, unfortunate. It's really very dishonest. Yes, I guess, you do things a little bit differently or what differently.
REPORTER: Like what?
TRUMP: Maybe -- well, maybe I would have done a little bit less. We were doing a lot of work and working very hard, drawing tremendous crowds, having a lot of fun, putting out a good word. And maybe I would have done less of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: When asked how he would have changed anything last week, he said that he would have done less work, held fewer rallies. You've spoken with Donald Trump, I'm sure, do you know if he now regrets that exchange with the Khan family?
GIULIANI: I think that's what he said, right? He said he wished he had done less of it. But the reality is --
BLACKWELL: He said he wish he'd done less of the rallies, of the work. That's what his answer was.
GIULIANI: Well, what he meant was, he would have stayed off the issue as much as he stayed on the issue. But, I mean, the simple fact is that the media doesn't treat the two candidates the same.
I mean, Hillary Clinton lied to the two women who lost their sons in Benghazi directly to their face and gave them a false story inconsistent with the one she gave her daughter on tape. A false story about why their sons were dead and used the Muslim video as the reason when she knew that it was an actually terrorist attack by al Qaeda.
So, now why not spend as much time on how she insulted grieving widows, I'm sorry, grieving mothers, grieving Gold Star mothers as they did on Donald Trump?
BLACKWELL: I think on this network we have. But that does not --
GIULIANI: No, you haven't. You have not.
RYE: That's not true.
GIULIANI: You have not spent as much time on it.
BLACKWELL: That does not also preclude our responsibility to question if Donald Trump insulted a grieving mother of a Gold Star family as well. The question was does he regret it.
(CROSSTALK)
GIULIANI: I mean, you've got to be on Mars if you think you spent as much time on that as you did on Donald Trump.
BLACKWELL: The question is, does he regret it?
GIULIANI: You're going to have to ask him that.
BLACKWELL: OK. GIULIANI: I mean, I --
BLACKWELL: We invited you here as a surrogate from the campaign.
GIULIANI: Well, surrogates from a campaign don't know every single thing that a person thinks or feels.
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: You all are on different messages.
GIULIANI: The simple fact is you treat both candidates differently.
RYE: He's the only candidate that insults the parents of a dying --
BLACKWELL: Hold on, Angela. Hold on, Angela.
Finish, Mr. Mayor.
GIULIANI: It is an insult -- it sure as hell would be an insult to me if my son died and you gave me a lie about how they died. That would be even a bigger insult to what happened with the Khan family.
RYE: When was that, Mr. Mayor?
GIULIANI: That happened when the bodies
RYE: When was that, Mr. Mayor?
GIULIANI: She went up to the two women who both have said it and they have said it actually under oath that she told them -- and it was overheard by a third person that she told them this was because of the Mohammed video. We have a tape recording of her, we all do, we've all heard it, telling her daughter two days before that it was a terrorist attack.
(CROSSTALK)
BLACKWELL: We've got to wrap it here.
GIULIANI: You spent a day on it.
(CROSSTALK)
BLACKWELL: Mr. Mayor, Angela Rye, thank you both. We've actually taken this segment much longer than scheduled. But I think it was worth it. Thank you both.
RYE: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: All right. Also later in the show, we're going to talk to with Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein. So, stay with us for that.
PAUL: We can't forget game two of the Rio Games.
Ahead, women's gymnastics, basketball, more USA swimming.
Kristen Ledlow, hey, Kristen.
KRISTEN LEDLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, yes, you're right. The 19- year-old phenom Katie Ledecky set to make a splash. She's already bringing home one medal. So, we'll tell you how many more she might be picking up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:27:59] PAUL: Coming up on day two of the Rio Games, women's gymnastics, the USA women's basketball team, the top names in USA swimming.
BLACKWELL: It's going to be a good day.
On day one, we saw the worst injury of not just the games so far because we're only a day in, but that I think that a lot of people can remember seeing on tape. A French gymnast broke his leg on a back landing after two back flips. We're not showing you the worst of the photographs.
He already says he'll be back, planning to win gold in Tokyo in 2020.
Kristen Ledlow is joining us live now. Now, I have not seen the worst of the photographs. But I keep hearing from people who are seeing it and describing it and that's enough for me.
PAUL: I heard the crowd just turned away.
BLACKWELL: On the video, yes.
LEDLOW: I love the attitude that he's ready to win gold in 2020. I guess you have to have that kind of mentality if you're going to make it to the Olympics in first place, right?
PAUL: I suppose so. And even the pictures of him there, you would think he'd be writhing in pain and you don't see that in his face.
LEDLOW: He's ready, four more years right from now.
Well, the 19-year-old Katie Ledecky actually has a shot to win five medals at the Rio Games. And she begins her quest for three individual gold medals later today.
Last night, Ledecky swam the anchor leg in the 4 X 100 free style relay, but couldn't quite catch up to the Australians, the Aussies ended up breaking the world record to win gold. Team USA settled for the silver. That was one of three second place finishes in the first four swimming finals.
Meantime, speaking of swimming, the most decorated athlete in Olympic history could hit the pool later today. Michael Phelps expected to swim in the men's 4x100 free style relay to begin his fifth Olympics. He's been part of that team in the last three games. And Team USA jumped out to a quick lead in the medal count after the first day of competition. Ginny Thrasher won the first gold in the air rifle, and the U.S. won silver in the men's archery. United States finished the day with five total medals, tying Japan and China for the most.
And after missing their first five shots, the United States men's basketball team was dominant until the final buzzer.
[07:30:04] A 119-62 win over China. Now, that 67-point spread was the largest for the USA team since the Dream Team's opening game back in 1992 where they beat Angola by 68.
Kevin Durant led the way on Saturday with 25 points. He was 10 of 14 from the field. He was also the team's leading scorer in the London Olympics. Meanwhile, there's Carmelo Anthony. He marked a career milestone, his 24th game.
Now, he ties LeBron James and David Robinson for the most ever Olympic Games played for Team USA.
And all eyes are going to be on the U.S. women's gymnastic team as they go for the gold later today, though. Hit the floor for the team competition, the three-time world champions, Simone Biles leads Team USA. That 19-year-old is expected to win five gold medals, the overwhelming favorite to be the breakout star of the Rio Olympics.
And can you imagine that pressure at 19?
PAUL: No. One, maybe. Five, bless her is all I'm saying.
BLACKWELL: I mean, if you pull one out of the five, I think you're doing well.
PAUL: To go in having everybody think you're going to win five --
BLACKWELL: Don't take that pressure on.
PAUL: Don't think about anybody else, just do your own thing.
Kristen, thank you. Absolutely.
BLACKWELL: Thanks.
PAUL: Listen, jumping back into the political arena here. When we come back, Green Party candidate Jill Stein joining us. We're going to ask about her plan to give a job to any American who wants one.
(MUSIC)
PAUL: But, first, the Olympics are inspiring a whole new generation of athletes all over the world. Some of those athletes have their own impressive stories, like this one. The story of a gymnast who let nothing stop her from competing. Meet Kate Foster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KATE FOSTER, GYMNAST: I started gymnastics and that really clicked with me. I loved it. When I was 12 years old we discovered that I had acute myeloid leukemia. I have rounds of chemo. One of the reasons that my hospital stays were so long was because of my complications. My first hospital stay, I got a gangrene infection.
BARB FOSTER, KATE'S MOM: All of a sudden, we went from cancer patient to she was on life support for three days.
K. FOSTER: The day before my bone marrow transplant they found another infection in my knee joint. That was when they finally said, you know, we have to amputate. I knew and my family knew it was my leg or my life.
And then, my coach said something that really changed what I thought. She said, I have never taught a one-legged gymnast before, but I'm willing to try if you are.
I started working on my events again and getting my skills back. I wasn't going to let cancer change what I did and what I was going to do. I compete against able-bodied gymnasts.
LYNN FOSTER, KATE'S DAD: They do not change the rules for her, which is fine with her. She doesn't want the rules to be changed. She's the epitome of it doesn't matter what bump in the road you hit, you can still make things work.
K. FOSTER: I'm just doing what I love. I hope that everyone can look at my story and be like, if she can do it, so can I.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:37:00] BLACKWELL: Welcome back. I'm Victor Blackwell.
Christi Paul just few feet away from me, prepping to speak with the Green Party nominee Jill Stein.
But first, the big poll out this morning, Donald Trump trailing among voters across the country behind Hillary Clinton. This is from the new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll. Clinton has an eight-point lead over Trump, likely from a post convention bounce she received.
Trump has also found himself in a series of controversies in the past week to ten days, including that feud with parents of an American Muslim war hero.
PAUL: All right. Thank you, Victor.
New presidential nominee minted last night. Dr. Jill Stein accepting the Green Party's nomination of their convention in Houston. Take a look at here, making a direct appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters, while supporters chanted, "Jill, not Hill". That was actually a hashtag as well.
To talk about the policy she'd bring to the White House, Dr. Jill Stein joining us this morning.
Good morning, Doctor. Thanks for being with us.
DR. JILL STEIN, GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Great to be with you.
PAUL: Thank you.
So, I wanted to get into some of your policies here for people who may not know about them. First of all, "The Washington Post" detailed some of your positions including that the government should provide a job to anyone who can't get one in the private sector. What was interesting is they said in your vision, employment would be an enforceable right, presumably meaning workers could sue the government if it didn't provide them a job.
The first thing that comes to mind is, how do you place those people? How do you train those people? How would this work?
STEIN: Right. Well, fortunately, we have a good example of the New Deal which got us out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. So, it's not some newfangled of idea, this is something we've actually done and which is actually work. And the idea now is to create 20 million jobs in order to meet the emergency of the economy and actually create a productive economy which is producing stuff and at the same time, to meet the emergency of climate change so that in one fell swoop, we create jobs that focus on green energy, on a healthy and sustainable food system, and on public transportation and on restoring critical infrastructure, including ecosystems.
And the goal is to revive the economy, turn the tide on climate change and to make wars for oil obsolete.
PAUL: OK.
STEIN: Let me just say up front that there are two major efficiencies here that provide the money to pay for this.
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL: We're going to get into that in a moment.
I wanted to talk policy first. Then on the other side of the break we're going to talk about how to make this all happen financially.
I did want to talk to you about your belief that you want to bring a $15 minimum wage into effect. And guarantee a minimum income, again, this is in "The Washington Post", for all Americans, including those who cannot work because they're sick, disabled or caring for children or other loved ones.
[07:40:09] The first thing I think some people think of when they read that is that notion of give a man a fish, or teach a man to fish. How does this give -- how does this give somebody the enticement or the motivation to better themselves, to take responsibility for themselves? STEIN: So, let me just say that the goal of guaranteed minimum income
is really a visionary goal and not actually one of the practical goal posts of our agenda. That's more a long-term goal. I think that's still something about which there's a lot of discussion. There are experiments in that around the world, but it's not something that I'm really prepared --
PAUL: So, that's not a policy? OK.
STEIN: -- to move forward at this point.
That's right. That is not a specific policy position for the campaign. On the other hand, $15 minimum wage definitely is.
PAUL: OK. Free child care for all parents, I understand. We know that Hillary Clinton wants a goal of limiting expenses to 10 percent of any family's income. But when we've got free child care for all people, $15 minimum wage, jobs for all Americans, it's something that definitely is going to take some money to handle.
And so, let's get into this right now because I think we've got some time. How do you pay for all of those programs?
STEIN: So, for one thing, the green New Deal, because it transitions us quickly by 2030 to 100 percent clean renewable energy, it enables us to begin pulling back on our bloated and dangerous military budget so that we save hundreds of billions of dollars by ending these wars for oil which have actually been rather catastrophic and which are, in fact, making us less secure, not more secure, creating failed states, mass refugee migration and worse terrorist threats, in fact.
So, we call for downsizing the military and putting that money into our needs at home. We're currently spending about a trillion dollars a year, if you add up all costs and we would pull back on that, particularly bases --
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL: But, certainly, people are listening to this and thinking, surely, my taxes would go up as well.
STEIN: Actually your taxes -- it's about half of your taxes right now which are paying for the military, in fact. Few people know that, about 44 percent of your income taxes.
PAUL: We'll talk about that.
I'm sorry. We have to take a quick break here, but we're going to talk about that on the other side of the break. She's staying with us.
We'll talk more about the fact that she does want to cut the 50 percent.
And also, Julian Assange weighs in on the race for the White House as well yesterday. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS: Do I prefer Clinton or Trump? I mean, the answer is, you're asking, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: We'll ask Dr. Stein about those comments after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:46:48] PAUL: Jill Stein is the Green Party's candidate for president. We were just talking with her about her idea to slash military spending by 50 percent.
And surely as you said it would unleash more money for some of the programs and proposals that you would like to see happen. But in a time when there is such unrest in the Middle East, when we have seen lone wolf attacks that have taken people's lives here in the U.S., who claim to be associated with ISIS, how do you justify a proposal like that, cutting the military and its resources when a lot of the polls show people really want to be safe in this country?
STEIN: Exactly. And the question is how do we become safe? Because our policy of all-out military assault is not making us safe. It's very important to look at the track record of this policy, because since 9/11 we have left no resource unutilized. We have gone to the mat.
Six trillion dollar according to a recent Harvard study when you include the cost of our ongoing care for our wounded veterans, $6 trillion comes down to something like $75,000 on average per American household. Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers wounded or killed and over a million people killed in Iraq alone.
What do we have to show for it? Failed states, mass refugee migrations and in fact worse terrorist threats. We're calling for a different kind of offensive in the Middle East, a peace offensive that begins with a weapons embargo to the entire region and then a freeze on the funding.
PAUL: But you can't deal peacefully with ISIS.
STEIN: Pardon me?
PAUL: But you can't deal peacefully with ISIS.
STEIN: That's right. You cannot starve is. You cannot bomb ISIS either, no more than we were able to bomb al Qaeda or to bomb the Taliban, because each of them have only gotten stronger.
If you look at the strength, the numbers and the territory, our wars have actually backfired massively. It's time to deny them weapons, to deny them funding and to close the border, to close Turkey's border where so many of the militias cross over.
PAUL: OK.
STEIN: So, we can deny them the feeding and the resources that they need and we can starve them out of existence. What we're doing is bankrupting us and not working.
PAUL: I'd like to get, if I could please, to Julian Assange. He spoke at the convention there in Houston. Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS: I was asked this question, do I prefer Clinton or Trump? I mean, the answer is, you're asking, do I prefer cholera or gonorrhea? I mean, it's a very sad situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL: All right. So first of all, it seems very -- like very incendiary language for one, which a lot of people are saying they are tired of hearing the disrespect in this campaign. Secondly, and he has been holed up in Ecuadorian's embassy for three years to avoid extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.
[07:50:03] Yet you call him a hero. Please explain.
STEIN: Well, you know, his personal life in his bedroom is his business. As I understand, no charges have actually been filed against him. He has asked to have the charges stated against him, and there have been none.
So, this is clearly a political witch hunt against him because he has raised the curtain on the violations of our constitutional rights by our government and by lies and deception in our foreign policy, including in our wars. So I think he has done a service to democracy by enabling us to know what our government is doing against us. That is absolutely critical.
But I want to get back to one thing you mentioned before, which is really important. This question of how we pay for the green new deal, because there is one other source of payment, which is even bigger than cutting the military. And that is actually that we get so much healthier by eliminating pollution, and we call for zeroing out fossil fuels by 2030.
PAUL: I'm sorry --
STEIN: Detailed studies show we get so much healthier it actually pays the cost. Those savings pay the cost of the green energy transition. So, it's a win-win.
PAUL: Thank you very much for your time today. We appreciate it.
STEIN: Thank you.
PAUL: Sorry we're out of time. The nominee for the Green Party, Dr. Jill Stein, thank you. Victor?
BLACKWELL: All right. Big interview there. Christi, thank you so much.
And another big interview later this morning, Ohio Governor John Kasich will be on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper. Here is a portion of their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: I mean, I didn't go because -- I just don't -- I think it's about manners. If I wasn't prepared to go there and get up and endorse a nominee, I just thought it was inappropriate to go into that convention hall. I just believe that there are solutions. I believe that we have to recognize the problems but we have to be positive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: John Kasich there explaining why he did not go to the RNC in Cleveland. For the full interview, watch "STATE OF THE UNION" on CNN at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[07:25:35] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He escaped maximum security prison, twice.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The vision of Chapo inside his cell and disappearing like Harry Houdini will never be forgotten.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He used cash and cleverness to outwit law enforcement again and again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Looks like a bathtub, right? Check this out. A signature el Chapo tunnel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A drug lord who loved the limelight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was sending flirtatious text messages to a actress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They put more dope on the streets of the United States than any other cartel, by far.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Got Shorty: Inside the Chase for El Chapo".
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: And the special "Got Shorty: Inside the Chase for El Chapo" airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN. PAUL: We always appreciate you. Thank you for starting your morning
with us.
BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King starts right after this short break.
