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Delta Resumes Flights After System-Wide Outage; Trump to Deliver Major Economic Speech; Trump: "I Don't Think She's All There"; Trump To Discuss Jobs, Trade, Tax Reforms; Trump Economic Team Comes Under Scrutiny. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 08, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:02] BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: He's tapped into something, though. You're happier when you do things for other people.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Right?

KEILAR: For yourself.

CUOMO: The best gift is giving. There you have it.

KEILAR: And let's give it now over to Carol Costello. It's time for "NEWSROOM" with her -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That is so generous of you, guys. Thank you. That's ridiculous. You guys have a great day. Muah, back.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, sharper attacks.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She is a totally unhinged person. She's unbalanced. She took a little short-circuit in the brain.

COSTELLO: And today a chance to sharpen his message. Donald Trump laying out his plan to fix the economy. While Hillary Clinton pushes a fix of her own, making her own jobs pitch to Florida voters.

Plus, it is taller than Niagara Falls and drops riders at speed of 65 miles per hour. Now a 10-year-old boy is dead and the world's tallest water slide shut down. What happened?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

Delta Airlines now scrambling to get thousands of passengers back on schedule as it works with law enforcement to figure out what caused a big computer glitch in the system. And I mean, the entire system shut down. It delayed flights all over the world for several hours this morning. The airline now warning passengers to expect large scale cancelations all day today.

CNN correspondent Martin Savidge is live in Atlanta where Delta is based, but we begin with CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh. She's live at Reagan National with more on what happened.

Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. You said it. Large scale cancelations. That is what Delta Airlines is telling passengers to expect today. The airline blaming the mess for travelers on a power outage that started around 2:30 this morning in Atlanta. And we are truly seeing the ripple effect. This is a global situation here in New York. They're saying that they're unable to check in passengers. We also saw long lines in Rome, delays also at London's Heathrow Airport.

I just spoke to a pilot. He was supposed to fly out almost two hours ago. That is to Salt Lake City. He's just hanging out here at Reagan National Airport. I can tell you, we also know that as a result of this computer glitch, a lot of the information that passengers were seeing on those flight boards wasn't even correct. So they couldn't even rely on that. And they are urging people to call their airline.

We do know that Delta operates obviously thousands of flights, so we're talking about tens of thousands of passengers impacted here. But some good news, just a short time ago, the ground stop was lifted and Delta flights slowly, emphasis on the word slowly, resuming departures. although things look like they're slowly getting back to normal, Carol, it will be days before they can fully clear that backlog. So passengers should continue to expect those delays and cancelations.

COSTELLO: Big Monday to all those poor passengers. My heart goes out to them.

MARSH: Yes, Carol.

COSTELLO: Rene Marsh, thanks so much.

Let's head to Atlanta now to check with Martin Savidge. So a computer glitch in Atlanta causes problems everywhere in the world for Delta?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, because of course Atlanta is the home for Delta Airlines so their main computer system here that was affected, when it all trickles out around the world it comes from here.

Let's me show what's weird here in Atlanta. This. It looks pretty normal. In fact it doesn't even look normal for a Monday. It looks oddly out of place. And that's the first thing that strikes you when you come inside this terminal. Monday morning, this place should be slammed. It is not. That's the first indication there's a problem. Then you take a look up here. This is the flight schedule board. Given everything we already know about the problems that Delta has, there should be red in so many columns that would be cancelations.

Now a lot of these flights are showing delays, but given the computer problems that Delta has had, that board is clearly not telling people accurately what is going on. And Delta has admitted that. They also say they've got the same problem with their app.

Jess Devlin joins me now. You're headed --

JESS DEVLIN, PASSENGER: How are you doing?

SAVIDGE: Where are going?

DEVLIN: So I'm heading over to Orlando, Florida, and I guess I'm just waiting to see what happens today.

SAVIDGE: And how are you doing? And what are you hearing?

DEVLIN: So I woke up this morning with a notification on my phone saying that there was some global, you know, system shutdown with Delta, so I was kind of concerned to see what's going to happen. And, you know, so far, what they're telling me is that my flight is at -- originally at 10:50, now at 11:27. I'm kind of skeptical.

SAVIDGE: So that doesn't sound that bad. I mean, you actually sounded you're -- just a subtle delay.

[09:05:03] DEVLIN: Yes. But I feel like it's going to be a situation where they might -- they're going to keep delaying it and delaying it until it gets canceled. So I'm not sure if I should maybe, you know, stay on or try to find a new flight. So who knows?

SAVIDGE: What did the app tell you?

DEVLIN: So the app right now is not even updating.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

DEVLIN: It's not -- you can't even get on.

SAVIDGE: All right. Good luck you.

So that's the problem, Carol. What information the passengers are getting, at least from computers or getting from their phones, does not appear to jive with everything that they have heard about the situation with the airline.

Now the good news, as it's already been said, the ground has -- or the ground stop has been lifted. So it could mean that some planes are starting to go. But the other thing is, we're being told the reason you don't see a lot of people here, they're all at the gates. Because at 6:30 this morning, it was pandemonium. Then about 7:15 they got the kiosk going again, but there's a lot of people now sitting out in the terminals.

COSTELLO: All right.

SAVIDGE: And one last thing, flights delayed on the ground, including one in Hawaii, Delta went to the extra step of ordering pizzas and getting them delivered to the plane, so at least while people sat on the ground, they had something to eat.

Carol, it's going to be a miserable day if you're flying Delta today. Just come with a lot of patience.

COSTELLO: Yes. I'm just trying to think if the pizza would make a difference to me.

SAVIDGE: No.

COSTELLO: I won't answer that. Martin Savidge, thanks so much.

All right, let's turn now to politics. Just a few hours from now, Donald Trump will unveil his plans to reinvigorate the economy while also trying to bolster his own sagging campaign. A new CNN Poll of Polls shows Trump now falling a full 10 points behind Hillary Clinton. The survey combines the results of six major polls, all conducted after the two conventions wrapped up last month.

So after a week of bad PR and questionable comments, Trump will try to reset his message and turn the public's attention to a perceived strength of the billionaire businessman.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Detroit, where Trump is to due to deliver a noon speech.

Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. An economic speech, he's planning to give that speech a little later here in Detroit, a little later this afternoon. This is familiar territory for Trump. It is a subject matter that he is good at, that he excels at, one he's comfortable with.

We'll see what sort of specifics that he ends up giving out. We did get an advance copy of his speech. Some of the points that he plans to hit on in terms of taxes. Lower taxes for everyone, simplifying taxes for everyone, reducing the income tax, getting rid of the death tax. Also, a tax credit for those making child care payments. All this, in an effort to get his campaign back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: She is a totally unhinged person. She is unbalanced. And all you have to do is watch her.

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump stepping up his blistering attacks on Hillary Clinton, suggesting the former secretary of state is mentally unfit to be president.

TRUMP: The people of this country don't want somebody that is going to short-circuit up here. CARROLL: Trump using Clinton's own words against her, she continues

to repeat a debunked claim that the FBI director said she was truthful about her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I may have short circuited, and for that I, you know, will try to clarify.

CARROLL: Clinton's running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, coming to her defense.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She said other and over, I made a mistake and I've learned from it, and I'm going to fix it and we're going to be real transparent, absolutely.

CARROLL: Trump's ramped up rhetoric against Clinton coming ahead of his speech on economic policy in Detroit where he is expected to unveil his agenda for revitalizing the American economy. All this as the Republican nominee is coming off one of the worst weeks of his campaign that saw Trump repeatedly engage in controversies instead of focusing on Clinton, and battling slumping poll numbers in a number of key battleground states.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: He is going to win parts of Ohio where people are really hurting. But I still think it's difficult if you are dividing to be able to win in Ohio. I think it is really, really difficult.

CARROLL: And this morning, a new CNN poll of polls shows Hillary Clinton with a 10 percentage point lead nationally, leaving some in the party to say it's time for Trump to pivot his campaign.

SEN. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: You have to see Donald Trump change positions, he needs to change, and particularly, change the tone and tenor of the debate sufficient to win the election in November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Carol, as you know, Trump did what he could to get back on track and make amends with the GOP with those last-minute endorsements of people like Senator Paul Ryan and John McCain, Senator Kelly Ayotte. But one GOP operative told me that last week sent him just so way off track, he said if Trump is still down by five points come Labor Day, he says it is going to be very, very hard for him to recover -- Carol.

[09:10:01] COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll, reporting live from Detroit. Thanks so much.

So let's talk about this. Joining me now, CNN political analyst and editor-in-chief of the "Daily Beast," John Avlon, Jeffrey Lord, a Trump supporter and CNN political commentator, and CNN political reporter and Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen.

Welcome to all of you.

JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Happy Monday, Carol. COSTELLO: I don't think that's possible, Jeffrey. But happy Monday

any way. I'll take it.

Jeffrey, I will start with you. Mr. Trump needs to reboot. It's clear he needs to do that because a CNN poll of polls, which is an average of all the credible polls out there, shows Secretary Clinton with a 10-point lead.

So, Jeffrey, is calling Clinton unbalanced and unhinged going to close that gap?

LORD: Well, I think, number one, about the poll, let me just remind everybody that at this stage in 1988 Governor Dukakis was ahead of Vice President Bush 17 points in the Gallup poll, and Vice President Bush won that election in a landslide. Similarly, they had polls like this for Ronald Reagan. He was supposed to be about 22 points behind Jimmy Carter.

COSTELLO: So this has to be a concern for Mr. Trump.

LORD: So sure. But it's August, Carol. It's August. He is going to present his economic plan today. It's a real meat on the bones kind of speech with lots of detail. That's exactly what he needs to be doing, and so you know, on with the campaign here.

And as to the mentally unfit thing, I mean, I've been reading stories all week with all sorts of people on the Clinton side calling Donald Trump mentally unfit to serve, you know, and Hillary Clinton, I made a list of -- a quick list of adjectives from a number of biographies of her describes her as throwing a vase, yelling, hollers, she has a volcanic eruption, she screams, she's paranoid, she unleashes obscenity filled tirades.

COSTELLO: So --

LORD: I mean, that's --

COSTELLO: So you're saying she's unhinged as well, Jeffrey?

LORD: I'm saying that other people writing books about her are quoting people who know her, and say that she behaves like this. That's what I'm saying.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Hilary, I mean, Hillary Clinton brought it on herself, right, when she said she short-circuited on a question about her e-mails. I mean, who says that kind of stuff?

HILARY ROSEN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Yes, I think she meant she gave short shrift to the answer, and then, of course, Donald Trump, because he's looking for sort of the name-call of the day, just goes off crazy. But, you know, it seems to me that when he does things like that, people just look at him, and say, no, actually, Donald Trump, you look like you are unhinged. So I think the last thing that people think Hillary Clinton is erratic.

The interesting thing about today is Donald Trump will get back to talking about the economy, talking about message. But this isn't just a sort of a one week turnaround. He has done this before. If I had a dollar for every time my friend Jeffrey said well, this week we're really going to be on message, I would be rich because he starts there, and then he just can't stay there.

And I think we'll see in Hillary Clinton just sort of a much more consistently focused on the issues, not talking about herself the way Trump does all the time, talking about himself, but really talking to the American people about what they care about.

COSTELLO: Well, going back to the unbalanced thing, John, can you remember an election in recent memory where both candidates are calling the other mentally unhinged or crazy or unbalanced or --

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Oh, Carol, we went through the looking glass a long time ago in this race. There is nothing normal about this year. And I mean, you know, the short circuit attack, while it is low, because it indicates trying to raise questions about her health as well as mental instability, and Jeffrey is right, there have been plenty of Democrats saying that Donald Trump isn't mentally fit to hold office but, you know, these attacks are all a form of projection.

Where it gets a little sinister is appearing to cheerlead health concerns on the part of individual candidates. But everything in this race --

COSTELLO: What do you mean -- what do you mean by that, channel health concerns? What do you mean by that?

AVLON: Well, one of the rifts on the far right has been that Hillary Clinton has secret health concerns. And it has been -- and Donald Trump has been doing dog whistle or louder than dog whistle on this for a long time. And that's one of the reasons he's reached for this right now. And it's just one of the tone of the times particularly within the context of this campaign and anti-Clinton conspiracy theories.

But just reality check for a second that Donald Trump giving an economic speech, which is something that candidates do and should have done for a long time is news because it's a departure from the crazy. It's different for a candidate to be laying out an economic vision, which is one of his core arguments for why he should be president, as a successful businessman. It's just yet another reminder that this entire election has been through the looking glass.

COSTELLO: We're going to get into Mr. Trump's economic plans in the next block after a break. But I want to go back to something you said about Hillary Clinton's supposed health concerns. Because I did notice, Jeffrey, that that was the headline on the "Drudge Report" all weekend long. Will Donald Trump go there?

LORD: Well, I think Donald Trump is willing to point out things that other people have been pointing out for years here in terms of her temperament. She is the one trying to make the argument about temperament, and yet -- COSTELLO: Well, no, not temperament. What the "Drudge Report" is

saying is that Hillary Clinton tripped on the stairs and somehow that calls into question her physical health.

LORD: Yes, I honestly have no idea what -- I haven't checked the "Drudge Report" this morning. So I don't know. But certainly, I do remember that she did have some health problems. I thought she did fall and hit her head on something, and as recall, this was a reason that she had to wear a particular set of glasses, you know. There was something there, a number of months ago, yes.

COSTELLO: She has totally recovered from that, though.

LORD: OK, fine. It wasn't a health problem or not. Apparently, yes, it was.

ROSEN: Come on. She has been checked by doctors. She has recovered. Look, this woman has been on the campaign trail every day for the last, you know, year and a half. Healthy is not the problem. John is right. The Republicans are trying to make something out of this.

You know, let's go back to Donald Trump's health issues, where "The New York Times" said he was too ill to serve in the armed forces but couldn't even remember what his health deferment was about.

So I think this whole name-calling and attacks on people's physical and mental abilities are silly, and I think that, you know, if Trump continues to do this name-calling, he just looks crazy.

And he is the one who looks crazy. He can call Hillary Clinton crazy all he wants, but he is the one who ends up looking bad.

COSTELLO: See, John, don't you wish we could stop it with calling each other crazy.

AVLON: Yes, but again, this is the tenor of this entire campaign, and frankly, Donald Trump has said it throughout the context of the Republican primaries, by making it be so that candidates could only get air time if they somehow out crazy the Donald.

All these things are a degree projection, right. I mean, people project their psychology onto the world around them, which is why Donald Trump takes such delight in calling his critics and opponents liars.

You know, there is a deep level of irony to that when he has a fundamental truth telling problem, but this health thing --

LORD: As does she.

AVLON: -- far right is beneath us as a country. It is for people's fears, not reason. That has been a tone of this campaign, but this is in some ways a new low. It is a dog whistle and move on.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Jeffrey Lord, John Avalon, Hilary Rosen, thanks to all of you. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump's plan to fix the economy as he faces new scrutiny for his team of economic advisers. I'll talk to one of those economic advisers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:17]

COSTELLO: Donald Trump is taking his economic pitch to the key state of Michigan today, where he and running mate, Mike Pence will address the Detroit Economic Club. Trump's economic tools includes massive tax cuts and trade reform.

CNN's Alison Kosik joins me now to break it all down. Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We did get bullet points this morning from the Trump campaign and keep in mind, these are bullet points. Many of these points we've seen already, some we haven't.

Let me start with some of the ones we've already seen about what could be included in a Donald Trump economic plan to try to revitalize the economy.

So for one on trade, he is looking to renegotiate trade deals like NAFTA. He's been saying that outsource jobs have taken away employment opportunities for Americans. He wants to slap tariffs on goods from countries that essentially cheat.

He doesn't mention countries by name, but we can guess one of them is China because he's been saying the U.S. manufacturing base has weakened.

Now on taxes, this is where things starts to get a little different. We've heard this before. He is looking to cut the number of income tax rates to three brackets, 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent, which means the highest earners will pay only 25 percent.

Keep in mind, the highest earners in this country right now are paying 39.6 percent. He is also looking to tax all business income, even small businesses, at 15 percent.

Right now, small businesses and businesses across the country are paying 39 percent. So this is a huge tax cut for small businesses. He is looking to get rid of the death tax and looking interestingly enough to make child care costs fully tax free, tax deductible.

So that means whatever it cost you for child care, deduct it from your income, you won't have to pay taxes on it. He also makes some stunning points about regulations.

He says if he becomes president, he is going to put in a temporary moratorium on federal regulations saying you know what, no more regulations until I review the regulations that are in place and prioritize and decide which ones we keep and which ones we don't keep. Because he says excessive regulations in the United States are costing $2 trillion. Once again these are just bullet points. We'll get more information around noon.

COSTELLO: Around noon Eastern Time today. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.

So let's talk about Trump's plan to lift the middle class. With me now is Peter Navarro, a member of Mr. Trump's economic team. Welcome, Peter.

PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP POLICY ADVISER: Hey, Carol, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Thanks for being here. You are the only academic on Trump's team. The rest of them are men, and several have extensive ties to Wall Street. I'm just looking down at the members now. One is a hedge fund billionaire, one worked at Goldman Sachs, an oil guy, a real estate guy.

[09:25:04]The reason I'm asking you about this, if Mr. Trump criticizes Secretary Clinton for her ties to Wall Street, doesn't this open Mr. Trump up to similar criticism?

NAVARRO: Not at all. If you look at the Clinton team, it is basically all of the multi-national corporation executives that have been off shoring our jobs. Trump's team, brilliant individuals and really, the issue here for the American people is who would you rather have managing the economy, Trump's brilliant team or Hillary's bureaucrats that have got us into every bad trade deal we've seen. Let me --

COSTELLO: Peter, I hate to interrupt here. Blue collar workers are mistrustful of Wall Street. Many of them are. Yet there are all these Wall Street guys on Mr. Trump's team.

NAVARRO: But let me say this, Carol, I listened to the first part of the show and you all want the candidates to talk about policy. I would like the media to talk about policy. Here we are on a really as you suspicious day for America.

Donald Trump in Detroit is going to announce the most sleeping economic revolution since the Reagan era in the 1980s and it's going to look a lot like Reagan in the 21st Century. It is energy, regulatory rollbacks, taxes and tariffs. Let's talk about that, Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that right now. Let's talk about that right now.

NAVARRO: The mission of Donald Trump -- OK, let's break it down.

COSTELLO: I do. I want to break it down. So Ivanka Trump talked about how much her father cares about equal pay for women. She said that Mr. Trump will change labor laws. How would he do that?

NAVARRO: The goal of the Trump doctrine, really, is to double our historic growth rate, which has been off for 15 years, ever since China got into the world trade organization and started draining our factories and jobs to Asia.

If we double our growth rate back to 3.5 to 4 percent, what we do there is create enormous wealth for the American people. We restore our manufacturing base, generate trillions of dollars in tax revenues so we can finance Social Security, pay for new infrastructure, and provide for national defense.

That's the big picture, Carol. All of these pieces fit together, energy, regulation, taxes and trade. So if you take them one at a time, you look in contrast, his plan with Hillary's plan.

Let's look at taxes. Hillary wants a $1.3 trillion tax increase. Donald Trump will cut taxes across the board. One of the most important tax cuts, which illustrate the relationships between tax and trade policy, is cutting our corporate tax.

That's not to enrich our corporations. It is simply that we have the highest corporate tax in the world, and what that does is it pushes our corporations offshore into Mexico.

COSTELLO: OK, Peter --

NAVARRO: -- for tax breaks.

COSTELLO: I get it. I get it. Tax cuts, it sounds great. Everybody wants a tax cut. They're awesome.

NAVARRO: But they're strategic. The point of a corporate tax cut is --

COSTELLO: Peter, let me -- tax cuts are awesome, but you have to pay for them somehow. I want you to listen to what Newt Gingrich said on Fox News yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump would cut taxes $9.5 trillion over the next decade, most of it going to top earners, and adds $11.2 trillion one specified spending cuts. Mr. Speaker, his numbers don't add up.

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Of course, not. I think historically, no candidate's numbers add up, particularly in the media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're saying his numbers (inaudible) don't add up? I'm going to have to quotes you on that one.

GINGRICH: I said all candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So even Newt Gingrich thinks Donald Trump's numbers don't add up. NAVARRO: So here is the essential principle here of the Trump plan. Basically if you -- look, the Republicans and Democrats fight all the time over tax cuts, spending hikes, all sorts of things. At the end of the day, the best way to balance the budget to do what, double our growth rate. If we move from 1.8 to 1.9 percent a year --

COSTELLO: How? How are you going do that?

NAVARRO: That's what Mr. Trump will talk about in Detroit. Let' start -- let's look. He is in Detroit today. You know what, in the last two years, GM and Ford have announced billions of dollars of new investment in auto assembly plants.

Where, in Mexico, not in Michigan. Why is that happening? It is happening because of our trade policies. Bill Clinton and Hillary put NAFTA in in 1993, and NAFTA is killing us.

COSTELLO: So how -- how is Mr. Trump -- how is Mr. Trump supposed to -- Peter, please. How is Mr. Trump specifically going to stop those companies from doing business in Mexico? Is he going to penalize them in some way? They're private businesses. What is he going to do specifically?

NAVARRO: Let's run off the checklist.