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Trump's Speech Fact Check; Protesters Interrupt Trump; Zika and Abortions; Anti-Trump Independent Bid; Roger Ailes Spying. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired August 08, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: In "The Situation Room."

Up next, the news continues right here on CNN.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. Happy Monday. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Despite more than a dozen interruptions, Donald Trump, today, got specific on what is considered to be his greatest strength as a candidate, the U.S. economy. There he was from motor city this afternoon. Mr. Trump just laid out his business - his plans to drive business revenue up, bring tax revenue down.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton, too, is choosing Detroit to talk about the economy. That speech happens Thursday. But in just the next hour, she will be doing a jobs event down in Florida and we should be hearing her response to Trump's plans.

Now, the Republican nominee wants to shrink the number of tax brackets, he wants to cut business taxes by double digits, put a moratorium on government regulations, renegotiate trade agreements and perhaps really the biggest talker, eliminate taxes on child care costs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I am going to cut regulations massively, massively.

Under my plan, no American company will pay more than 15 percent of their business income in taxes. In other words, we're reducing new taxes from 35 percent to 15 percent.

My plan will also help reduce by cost of childcare by allowing parents to fully deduct the average cost of child care spending from their taxes. No family will have to pay the death tax. American workers - American workers have paid taxes their whole lives and they should not be taxed again at death.

One of my first acts as president will be to repeal and replace disastrous Obamacare, saving another two million American jobs.

American workers who are hired to do the job, American workers, Americanism, not globalism, will be our new credo. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so those were pieces of Mr. Trump from earlier today. Here he is, Tom Foreman, doing a reality check on the speech today.

What did you find, Tom?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he repeated many themes, Brooke, that we've heard many times before about things that he says are holding back the economy and ultimately costing jobs. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The United States also has the highest business tax rate among the major industrialized nations of the world at 35 percent. It's almost 40 percent. It's almost 40 percent when you add in taxes at the state level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Big numbers. Big numbers. And they're pretty much correct. If you look at the overall numbers out there, the federal tax rate is around 35 percent. You add in most state and local taxes, they come in about 6 percent. So his math is on.

But here is the catch. Companies generally don't pay that thanks to tax credits, exemptions and offshore tax havens. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office found that large, profitable companies actually paid about 12.6 percent. And two-thirds of American corporations have no federal tax liability. So in terms of what is actually paid, the U.S. is 16th in the world. So what Trump said is overall, according to our verdict here, true but by leaving out all those details it is misleading.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: All right, Tom Foreman, thank you for that. We'll be checking in with you as we continue to go through the speech in specifics. We'll also, of course, do the same for Hillary Clinton's economic speech this coming Thursday, also in Detroit.

Now, Donald Trump, he's had a tough time getting out his speech because, as you just heard a moment ago, protester after protester peppering his speech, interrupting him. If you were, you know, playing along and counting, it happened a total of 14 times. The group, the Michigan People's Campaign, sent out a press release actually saying its people were the ones who were challenging Trump on his stance on sexual harassment and auto factory jobs. Here they were.

[14:05:04] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The American people -

(INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE) prosperity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, so among those protesters to his points made. Let's talk this over with CNN political commentators Bill Press and Scottie Nell Hughes. She is a Donald Trump supporter, who's also political editor at rightalerts.com. And we have Ali Velshi, global affairs and economic analyst and author of "How to Speak Money."

So awesome talking to all of you. Ali, it has been forever, so nice to have you on the show.

ALI VELSHI, GLOBAL AFFAIRS & ECONOMIC ANALYST: Yes. Thanks, Ashleigh.

BALDWIN: But, Bill, let me just turn to you quickly because I kind of stopped counting with the protesters at 12. It was a lot. You laugh, but, I mean, and it may be difficult for you to do this, but give the man a little credit for - he kept cool the whole time.

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's the pivot, right? He's pivoting from -

BALDWIN: Staying on message.

PRESS: From insults to issues. He's pivoting from just ad-lib to using the teleprompter, and he's pivoting from saying, "punch them out. I wish I could punch them out." You know, boom, boom, boom, and just letting them do their thing and let the police take care of it, which is a smart thing to do. Does that mean that everything he said today makes any sense? No way. Does that mean he's successfully going to be able to pivot, reset his campaign? I think it's too late for that as well.

BALDWIN: OK, hang on, hang on.

Ali Velshi, to you here.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: And let's begin with the substance of this. Specifically, I know a lot of people watching have kids, so I really wanted to begin with that and how he says he wants to have child care be fully tax deductible. Talk to me about that -

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: And the difference between that and what we -

VELSHI: It's a good start. It's a good start. Hillary Clinton has talked about family medical leave, expanding leave. You know, in western democracies in modern states, America sort of lags almost everyone else in terms of child care, in terms of maternal and, in some cases, paternal leave. It's just kind of weird that America is as far behind everyone as it is.

It is interesting to see Donald Trump get out ahead possibly of Hillary Clinton on this one. It's actually a bigger program than some of what Hillary Clinton offers. He's also doing that on the - on the infrastructure front. He's talking about infrastructure in a way that's bigger than Hillary Clinton is. But at the same time, there were some very typically conservative, orthodox things in here about getting rid of the estate tax, in terms of lowering the corporate tax.

Now, again, Brooke, Canada has lowered the corporate tax to 15 percent. And for small businesses, it's even lower. That is something that's generally welcome. I'm not sure Detroit or Michigan is the place to put that out. So even his choice of venue was interesting because the strongest argument he has for people in Michigan and the Midwest and the rust belt is his opposition to TPP.

BALDWIN: OK. Before we get into the multiple other points you're making, quickly, though, on the case, and, Scottie, I'm turning to you, because when I heard Mr. Trump talking about this and child care being fully tax deductible, I'm thinking of Ivanka, I'm thinking of Ivanka in Cleveland, when we stood there in the hall and heard, you know, the cacophonous applause and I know, you know, critics the next day were saying, well, hang on, it sounds like we're at the DNC and not the RNC. I mean is this about - liven, we all know he's hurting when it comes to female voters and when he says that the ladies listen.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And I think this is a little bit of a clue in into some of the conversations the Trump campaign and House Republicans and even the Senate Republican leadership have been having. One thing we heard was about this, this is very much an issue that we hear about on the Democrats that we don't hear very much about childcare credits coming from the Republicans.

But what we didn't hear about was reducing entitlements, something that Paul Ryan and the House Republicans hold dear. Was this possibly a compromise, saying, OK, you help me in this area, this is something I believe in, I can see how much it would benefit my own family and my own business structure, the women that work there, will you let me sit here and say about the entitlements, maybe push those off into possibly down the line reforming some of those entitlements that the House Republicans so want to have a part of their plan and proposal?

So I think this might show a bit of compromise and how this - we'd actually be able to get something done going forward in a Trump administration. Something that we've not seen happen within Congress and the Obama administration yet.

BALDWIN: Ali, let me bounce back to you on tax brackets. Currently we're at seven different tax brackets. He wants to take it to three.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: He wants to reduce rates across the board. He threw out a bunch of different numbers. How big of a deal is that?

VELSHI: It's impractical. I remind you of a word, "sequester," that we've all tried really, really hard to forget. (INAUDIBLE) thing. BALDWIN: Ah! Ah!

PRESS: No!

BANFIELD: But you can't do it. It's a terrific - it's a terrific thought. I mean I would love the idea. I want to - I want to vote for the guy right now just for the idea that he'll drop my tax bracket to 25 percent. He wants to drop corporate taxes, interesting, worth - worthy of debate. He wants to drop personal taxes, which is not only worthy of debate, it's worthy of a big hug.

[14:10:14] But he also wants to spend more than Hillary Clinton on infrastructure. He wants to spend a lot of money. He wants to lower taxes. And somehow he thinks that high growth will make up for it in the middle. That's very, very risky. Growth is not up to the U.S. president. It's up to some federal policies and it's up to the whims of the world in many cases and things we don't know about. So to suggest that you're going to increase expenditures, decrease taxes and hope somehow that everybody's just in such a fascinating mood about the whole operation that everybody just goes out and spends and buys and makes and sells, it's a little bit of wishful thinking. You know, I don't enough to say it's impossible, but it's wishful.

BALDWIN: It -

PRESS: Yes, I -

BALDWIN: In a fascinating mood and I - Bill, I can feel you. I know you want to jump in. But jump in but also folding in, I'm wondering, when we hear the "t" word come off of, you know, Mr. Trump's tongue so much being taxes, you know, I know it's also making some people think, well, what about yours?

PRESS: Yes. Well, look, first of all, I want to be as positive as I can. I love the fact that he's talking about issues and not just insulting and fire marshals or whatever. That's good.

BALDWIN: Yes, indeed.

VELSHI: Agreed.

PRESS: And there are some good things in here. For example, I would agree, the childcare tax credit is a good move. His talk about trade deals, I agree with him 100 percent. I mean I agree with him generally on that issue.

But the other stuff just, as Ali says, does not add up. Look, we've been down this road before, the idea that cutting taxes on the very wealthy and, as Tom Foreman just pointed out, that's where most of his cuts go, is going to help the economy, is going to trickle down, is somehow going to help the middle-class. We tried that under George W. Bush. We went from a budget surplus to a huge deficit and now Donald Trump wants to do that and in addition spend more money on the military, more money on infrastructure. It doesn't add up.

VELSHI: Right. PRESS: That is not the problem in this country.

BALDWIN: So -

PRESS: The wealthiest don't need more tax cuts, the middle class do.

BALDWIN: So this was a significant speech Mr. Trump gave today. And we know Secretary Clinton, just a reminder to all of you, and, of course, we'll be fact check hers as well, she will be offering a sharp rebuttal, as we're hearing from a senior advisor, this coming Thursday from Detroit.

Ali Velshi, Scottie Hughes, Bill Press -

VELSHI: Hey, Brooke, hers won't be as much fun.

PRESS: All right.

VELSHI: Her proposals won't be as much fun, I guarantee you.

BALDWIN: Just as long as you don't use the sequester word again, we're all good.

PRESS: We'll have fun with them. We'll have fun.

BALDWIN: Thank you all so much. I appreciate it.

VELSHI: I know. I know.

PRESS: All right.

BALDWIN: I - yes, thanks for that. Ali, thank you, and Scottie and Bill.

Coming up next, yes, it's August, yes, the conventions are over, but Donald Trump has a new competitor in this race. Did you know? Did you hear? A former CIA covert operative launching an independent bid for the White House. Hear who he is and why he says he's doing this.

Plus, another bombshell from inside the walls of Fox News. The former CEO reportedly used company cash to hire spies to go after his enemies. Could Fox be in some serious legal trouble here?

And Iran executes a nuclear scientist accused of spying for America and now conservatives are pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton for what was said about the scientist in her e-mails. What was that all about? So much to talk about. It is not a dull August, as Bill Press pointed out.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:16] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. The mosquito-transmitted Zika virus is raising health concerns at the

Olympic in Rio and in the United States, as we've been reporting. We know several hundred cases have been discovered in Florida and now Senator Marco Rubio has made Zika a political issue as he is seeking re-election. The current Florida senator is raising some eyebrows, saying a pregnant woman who contracts the virus should not be allowed to have an abortion, even though Zika can cause serious birth defects in babies.

So joining me now, CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston.

And I know, my goodness, we've been covering so much of the health effect of Zika. Now we're talking politics and Zika. How is that falling on Floridians' ears?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, I think that this was a move by Marco Rubio to, you know, really shore up his support among conservatives in Florida. He has, you know, over the years been very conservatives on the abortion issue and clearly this is an extension of that.

But you have to wonder, you know, it's unclear, he's obviously in a very strong position in Florida, but how tight that race will end up being with the Trump effect in play and, you know, clearly this is something that the Democrats are looking forward to using against him because this is clearly an issue that women feel very anxious about and have, you know, kind of deep emotional reactions to.

BALDWIN: OK. So there's that in Florida as he's fighting to hold on to that Senate seat. Then looking at my calendar, Maeve Reston, it is August 8th. The election is 92 days away. And suddenly America woke up to a name I have a feeling many people didn't know. My next guest calls him a kamikaze candidate. Who is this?

RESTON: So, this is a really interesting - this is a really interesting story. There is now going to be an anti-Trump Republican who is running, who is - potentially has really strong ties -

BALDWIN: For president.

RESTON: For president who potentially has really strong ties in Utah and could, you know, flip that state to Hillary Clinton if he gets enough signatures. He has only about a week to get signatures on the ballot. And it's going to be a - it's another one of these really interesting scenarios where Republicans clearly have been looking for another candidate who they would feel comfortable voting for. And particularly in states like Utah, he has - Trump has not connected well with the LDS community there and so this is a chance to - for them to choose someone else.

BALDWIN: Maeve Reston, thank you so much. Perfectly teed up my next segment as we're going to hone in on exactly who he is. Evan McMullin is his name. Not very well-known, but he's a former CIA officer, part of this never Trump movement. Evan McMullin briefly worked as a chief policy officer for the House Republicans. Stepped down today to launch his third party bid. He will be running as an independent. This is McMullin's campaign website. His slogan, "it's never too late to do the right thing."

[14:20:19] So let me bring in my next guest. He is Hal Boyd, the opinion editor for "The Deseret News" in Salt Lake City.

Hal, nice to have you on. Thank you so much.

HAL BOYD, OPINION EDITOR, "DESERET NEWS": Oh, thank you for having me. Welcome to sunny Salt Lake.

BALDWIN: I wish I were there. It's a beautiful place. But let me just begin with a beautiful piece actually you wrote, and we'll get into it in a second. But I know so many people are saying, Evan who? Who is this?

BOYD: Yes. So he's a bit of a mystery candidate. The way I've liked to describe him so far is Jason Bourne meets Karl Rove meets Mitt Romney.

BALDWIN: That's a combination.

BOYD: And while Jason Bourne is obviously showing in theaters right now - that's right, it's an odd combination and he'll certainly have an uphill battle with 92 days until people cast their ballots here, but I think it - you know, his - one reason why I think people haven't heard his name is because for the first decade of his career, he was working undercover in the clandestine services in the CIA trying to make sure people didn't know his name. He resurfaced, got some education, got some business experience and then went into politics.

He'll have an uphill battle and it will be a real challenge for him nationally. I spoke with him about two hours ago and they see a real opening here in Utah and have already received quite a bit of feedback, positive feedback in the state. But, again, he's going to have challenges getting on the ballot. He's going to face a tough contender for that never Trump vote that's right now is gravitating towards the Libertarian ticket, Governor Gary Johnson. So it will be interesting to watch. We're certainly viewing these developments -

BALDWIN: Well, let me - let me - let me - let me just jump in. You're throwing a lot of, you know, excellent information at me, but let me just stop and - stop you on Utah. And so a BYU graduate, you know, obviously very familiar with the LDS community. Utah is in play this election. I was looking at some of our reporting on Mitt Romney, you know, who had been floated as a potential person to run who said no. Dana Bash said she's talked to one of Romney's advisors. Perhaps they'll be put in touch. But is it possible Utah flips for Hillary Clinton with his entrance into the race?

BOYD: Yes, I think what you're really seeing - and then there's a Utah policy poll today that showed Trump still in the lead in the 30s, Hillary Clinton behind in the 20s, but the libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, surging, now at 16 percent. Another poll, an internal polling from Representative Mia Love's (ph) campaign here in Utah, showed a dead heat between Trump at 29, Hillary Clinton at 27, and then Gary Johnson at 26. So I think people around the nation, for maybe the first time in over a decade, are seeing that Utah is a place that's at play. And I think it speaks to the electorate. I think the electorate here in Utah cares about character quite a bit

and we see this bear out in survey polls. You know, they care about things like character. And I think on both accounts, both major party nominees are not living up to that litmus test here in Utah. So it will be interesting to watch. We're certainly watching these developments closely.

BALDWIN: Utah very in play. Fun for you as a political reporter and a columnist. I know he's got to get those thousand signatures by next week and I know he says he thinks he'll do it. Let's stay in touch. I have a feeling this is not the last time we talk about Evan McMullin. Hal Boyd, thank you very much, with "The Deseret News" there in Salt Lake City.

Coming up next, let's talk about this black room, the so-called black room. It sounds like the Nixon White House in the 21st century. This reporter who's had scoop after scoop after scoop says former Fox News boss Roger Ailes used this black room to go after his enemies and, according to his sources, says Ailes used company money to do it. We have that.

Also ahead, Iran has executed a top nuclear scientist. The government says he was a spy for the United States. Hear why conservatives are trying to involve Hillary Clinton in this one. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:52] BALDWIN: Yet another bombshell in the Roger Ailes Fox News scandal. This latest piece coming in again another "New York Magazine" report alleging the ousted Fox News chairman had a so-called black room at Fox's headquarters here in New York and that Ailes used company money to pay for private detectives and political operatives to spy on his enemies, including other journalists. This comes after one of the networks high profile female anchors, Gretchen Carlson, hit Ailes and Fox with a lawsuit claiming sexual harassment.

According to this Gabe Sherman piece again in the "New York Magazine," the Ailes-run black room was discovered when Fox executives started looking through the news division's financial records following Ailes' ousting and this is coming from, again, Gabe Sherman with scoop after scoop. He wrote the biography on Ailes called, "The Loudest Voice in the Room."

With me now, Dan Abrams. He is the founder of the popular website mediaite.com and the former general manager of MSNBC.

So great to see you again.

DAN ABRAMS, FOUNDER, MEDIAITE.COM: Good to be back with you.

BALDWIN: My goodness. The stories just keep coming and Gabe keeps - I mean I don't know who his sources are, but beginning with this latest, you know, bombshell.

ABRAMS: Yes.

[14:30:01] BALDWIN: This black room with these private detectives and political operatives with Fox's own money to spy on people.