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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Trump Economic Platform. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 08, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

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[12:00:19] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hello on this Monday. I'm Ana Cabrera, in for Ashleigh today. Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We are now 92 days away from choosing the next president and mere minutes away from an event that one candidate hopes will help his odds. Donald Trump is about to address the Detroit Economic Club with his most detailed and formal economic ideas to date. Now, Hillary Clinton will also speak here on Thursday.

For Trump, politically, the most pressing deficit perhaps is this one, the GOP nominee is ten points behind Clinton in the latest CNN polls of polls. And that gap persists in a four-way battle with Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein in the mix.

Now, while we wait for Trump to start talking, I want to bring in CNN's national correspondent Jason Carroll traveling with Trump in Detroit. And here with me in New York, Cristina Alesci of CNN Money.

To you first, Jason. Set the scene for us. What's the format going to be? What's Trump's message today?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first in terms of the format. Donald Trump expected to take the stage just any moment from now. Mike Pence will do the introduction, we're told. He's probably going to speak for about five minutes or so before Trump eventually takes the stage. Ivanka Trump is here as well. So perhaps at some point we'll hear from her. We know there will be a brief Q&A session following Trump's speech.

In terms of his speech, as you know, we've got an advanced copy of some of the points that he plans to talk about. Before he goes into regulatory reform and trade reform, he's going to be talking about tax reform. Some of the points that we talked about, he'll talk about reducing the income tax, a tax credit for childcare payments, as well as ending the death tax.

But as you say, he's really got to turn a corner here, turn a page after that disastrous week that he had last week. You know, those poll numbers showing that he's training in some of the major polls that are out there. He really has to turn the page here. One GOP adviser telling me that the polls come Labor Day still show Donald Trump training Hillary Clinton by five points or more, this is going to be a hard deficit for him to dig himself out of.

Ana.

CABRERA: Real quickly, Jason, do we know if he's going to use a teleprompter? There's been so much said about how he doesn't use teleprompters and Hillary Clinton does.

CARROLL: Well, these are prepared texts, a prepare speeches that we have gotten an advanced copy of. So that would suggest that, at the very least, he's going to be reading from a prepared text. Teleprompter, that's anyone's guess at this point.

CABRERA: And in the live picture, it does look like there are teleprompters in the room, so we'll wait and see on that one as well.

Thanks, Jason.

I want to bring in Cristina now.

I know you've had a chance to really dig into at least the outline that his campaign has put out there ahead of this speech. What are you finding?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Very broadly speaking, based on the outline points that we have, and he might get into specifics in the actual speech, but very broadly speaking, it does seem like this is a plan really focused on making it easier for businesses, both large and small, to operate. Yes, there's a focus on reducing taxes for everyone, but there is a highlight under reducing corporate taxes, reducing regulation. He wants to put a moratorium on all regulation. He wants to scrap some of these trade deals, like TPP. He wants to renegotiate NAFTA. Not totally scrap it, as we've heard him say before.

Now, on this last point about these trade deals, this is a very complicated issue. And in the outline, he brings up a very specific anecdote. He says TPP does not help American car manufacturers sell their cars into Japan, which has been an issue for a lot of American companies.

CABRERA: And he's talking in Detroit, so that all ties together.

ALESCI: But there are plenty of anecdotes that show that TPP will actually help American businesses. For example, I was in Indiana, Mike Pence's home state, talking to an industrial producer of big engines. And it - it's exactly as you were telling me, that TPP would actually help their business. They manufacture their highest tech engines here in the U.S. and they ship them all around the world and the executive there was telling me, look, we would actually get a boost from revenue. And what is interesting here is, we're going to have to see Trump talk a little bit more about kitchen table economics, right? What do people really care about? And Jason Carroll just referenced one thing, which was the child care credit or deduction. We're not sure how it's going to work.

CABRERA: Which stood out a lot to me as a parent because I pay as much for childcare as I do a mortgage. So it's a huge expense. ALESCI: Exactly. It's a very big expense for a lot of people. So we're

going to see him try and pivot a little bit and cast this speech as helping the average person, when a lot of it is actually focused on business and driving economic activity.

CABRERA: Well, Hillary Clinton's campaign -

ALESCI: Which is going to be good for the average person, by the way.

CABRERA: Hillary Clinton's campaign has put out a rebuttal of sorts ahead of this speech and they have their talking points, put out a memo, put out a video, and their biggest criticism of Donald Trump's plan is that it's going to help the biggest business and the super wealthy more than the average American. Is there - and they're also saying big job losses would be a result as well. Any merit to what they're saying?

[12:05:15] ALESCI: Well, for sure, we've had independent economists come out and say that Donald Trump's plan would cause drop losses in the millions. Predominantly because what he does is he reduces taxes and he increases spending. So when you have that kind of dynamic, businesses get very uneasy about spending more and more and that could slow down, you know, private investment and what not.

But on the whole, Ana, you know, there is some credence to the fact that this benefits the wealthiest Americans because those tax reductions will go to the wealthiest Americans. Under Hillary's plan, the tax increases that she's proposing really fall on the shoulders of the wealthiest Americans. So the average person benefits under Hillary's plan it would seem to most economists, while the average person wouldn't benefit as much when you're talking about tax specifically under Donald Trump's plan.

CABRERA: OK, thanks for bringing us those numbers and the facts of the matter as we know them at the moment. I appreciate that, Cristina.

While we, you know, continue to watch and wait, we're keeping an eye on the press conference and a big speech that's expected, but let's talk about the politics behind all of this with CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash, CNN's senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis.

Dana, I'll start with you. You know, Trump's strong point in this election has been the economy. He's the big business guy, right? How might what he says today impact the race? Could it be a game changer for him?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Could this speech be a game changer? No. One speech will - one speech cannot be a game changer, and it's - and it's not particular to him. I think that's true for any politician, but especially a politician who is where he is in this campaign. But it's a first step and he's got to take a step, one foot in front of the other, to get back to basics. And that's really what this is. What are we talking about? We're talking about Donald Trump and the

economy. We're talking about - you just did a, you know, five minute segment talking about the substance of his plan. When was the last time we had an in-depth conversation coverage about the substance of any Donald Trump plan? Not recently because he hasn't been giving - that hasn't been kind of the news that he's been driving. It's been, obviously, a lot of missteps, but other issues as well.

So I think that, number one, you're right, that he is a business guy who did extremely well in the Republican primary season talking about his populous message and the fact that he can deliver because he's been there, but also appealing to the more traditional Republicans talking about those tax breaks. I mean those are the Republicans, many of them, that he is losing, that don't want to have anything to do with him. If he can reminder them, remember, Hillary Clinton's going to raise your taxes, I'm going to keep them low, that could be a carrot to a lot of people who are very nervous about Donald Trump on the Republican side.

CABRERA: Nia, one interesting things, as we discussed with Cristina, about Trump's plan today is that child care portion. He wants families to be able to deduct the entire cost of child care. He has struggled with women we know in this election. Do you think that's a direct appeal to that voter group?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Definitely so. And I understand that Ivanka Trump is traveling with him. She, of course, gave that speech at the convention where she talked directly to women, directly to working women in talking about family leave. I mean she, at some point, I think, sounded like Hillary Clinton and a Democrat in terms of talking about women and the government helping women who were having problems with leave, paid family leave and vacation time and child care and all those sorts of things. So, yes, I mean he is having massive problems with women. He's having massive problems with college-educated white women. And that's new for a Republican candidate. Typically Republican candidates win college- educated white women. He is down double digits.

And he's also struggling, if you look at the polls over the last couple of weeks, his convention and then through the Khan controversy, he's also losing support just among Republican women. He's down with those women. So he's got a lot of work to do. I think Dana's exactly right, this is one speech, it's one step in trying to reboot his candidacy, in trying to get - get it back on track. And we'll see what he does today.

Ivanka Trump, again, people talk about her as a kind of secret weapon on the campaign trail. I think so far she's been more of a campaign curiosity and not much of a motivator in terms of attracting the kind of voters that Donald Trump is going to need in terms of women voters to close this gap. So we'll see what comes out of today.

CABRERA: Errol, it would seem that there's a bit of a hole Trump needs to dig out of. Let's take a look at the new poll of polls we mentioned. It's the average of at least six big national polls that are all post-conventions. And here you see Clinton is leading by 10 points. That's both in the head to head as well as when you incorporate those third party candidates. Historically, Errol, we know the candidate who has the lead after the conventions has gone on to win the election with the exception of Al Gore. So how much weight should we give this poll? It is still only August, after all.

[12:10:25] ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, but when you get near the 90-day mark, you start to lose opportunities to really turn things around. And, of course, the numbers look even more dire when you lay it against the electoral map and start looking at - specifically at the deficit that Trump is facing in swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida even. And so he's got - he's got some work to do here.

The reality is that, you know, you go behind some of the numbers and his economic plan is appealing to, among other things, not just Trump maybe trying to get women back, like Nia-Malika points to, but also try to get back some of the upper middle class. He's proposing tax cuts for single people making $150,000 a year and for married couples making $300,000 a year. Well, why does he need to do that? Well, it's not just for the substance of the plan. It's in part to attract back some of these upper middle class voters who have been defecting to the Democratic ticket according to the polls. I mean and that's new. That's something new. It's normally solidly Republican constituency in that mid-range of the 100-plus thousand club and Trump has lost them. They don't think he's qualified to be president. So he's really got to restore their confidence in him.

CABRERA: Which is why his advisers have been saying, get back on message, get back on message. And Trump has been trying to do that. We see him fighting back, now using Clinton's own words against her. You know, when she said on Friday that she short-circuited her answers on the e-mail controversy. Well, here's how the Trump team jumped on that. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: In front of some friendly reporters they asked her a very easy question, and she short- circuited. She used that term short-circuited. She took a literally (ph) short circuit in the brain.

She is really pretty close to unhinged. She's like an unbalanced person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So we have heard Clinton use Trump's own words against him. Dana, what do you make of this new Trump strategy?

BASH: He's trying to, you know, to turn Hillary Clinton's strategy around on her. I think it's pretty obvious. I don't think you need to be a political expert to get that. The open question is, is it going to work? I mean her - her biggest - one of her biggest selling points, she clearly believes, because it was the whole thread through the entire Democratic convention, is that Donald Trump is not ready to be president. That he doesn't have the temperament to be president. And, unfortunately, for the Trump campaign - and they will tell you this privately, he played into that with the way that he reacted on many issues last week.

But the other thing that the Trump advisers and Republicans outside the Trump campaign say over and over is that he has not been seizing on Hillary Clinton's weaknesses enough. He is doing that. That's what he's trying to do. And he's doing it Trump style. But, you know, the open question is whether or not people are going to buy that she just doesn't have the ability or that she's kind of, you know, as she said, unfortunately for her, she did give him the phrase short-circuited. The question is whether or not people are going to - are going to buy that. But you know what, we saw it through the primaries, Donald Trump has a knack for seizing on a personality trait, hitting it home over and over again with a, you know, a two or three-word term and it's sticking. So we'll see.

CABRERA: All right, thanks to Dana, Errol and Nia-Malika Henderson. We appreciate all of you.

We are standing by as we show those live pictures there as we anticipate Donald Trump will be speaking any moment here at the Detroit Auto Club, addressing his economic plans. You can see his VP choice and selection candidate there, Mike Pence, saying a few words. We're going to watch for Donald Trump to step out and we will bring it to you live when that happens. Stay with us.

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[12:16:23] CABRERA: Taking you back live now to the Detroit Economic Club. We see Donald Trump now addressing the crowd there, expected to lay out his economic policy plan. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Such a crowd, beautiful. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Please. Thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. It is wonderful to be in Detroit. Been here many times.

(APPLAUSE)

We now begin a great national conversation about economic renewal for America. It is a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone, especially -- and I say especially for those who have at the very least.

(APPLAUSE)

The city of Detroit is where our city begins. Detroit was once the economic envy of the world. The people of Detroit help to power America to its position of global dominance in the 20th century.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you very much. When we were governed by the America First policy, Detroit was absolutely booming. Engineers, builders, laborers, shippers and countless others went to work each day, provided for their families and lived out -- totally lived out the American dream.

But for many living in this city, that dream has long ago vanished. When we abandon the policy of America First, we started rebuilding other countries instead of our own. The skyscrapers went up in Beijing and many other cities around the world, while factories and neighborhoods crumbled right here in Detroit.

Our roads and bridges fell into disrepair, yet we found the money to resettle millions of refugees at taxpayer expense. Today, Detroit has a per capita income of under $15,000, about half of the national average; 40 percent of the city's resident live in poverty, over 2.5 times the national average. The unemployment rate is more than twice the national average. Half of all Detroit residents do not work. Detroit tops the list of the most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[12:20:00]Detroit tops the list of most dangerous cities in terms of violent crime. These are silent victims whose stories are never told by Hillary Clinton, but victims whose suffering is no less real or permanent.

In short, the city of Detroit is the living, breathing example of my opponent's failed economic agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

Every policy that has failed this city and so many others is a policy supported by Hillary Clinton. She supports the high taxes and radical regulation that forced jobs out of your community, and the crime policies have made you far, far less safe, and the immigration policies that have strained local budgets and the trade deals like NAFTA, signed by her husband, that have shipped your jobs to Mexico and other countries. And she supports the education policies that deny your students choice, freedom and opportunity.

(APPLAUSE)

She is the candidate of the past; ours is the campaign of the future.

This is a city controlled by Democratic politicians at every level, and unless we change policies, we will not change results, 100 percent.

(APPLAUSE)

Today, I will outline my economic vision. In the coming weeks, we will be offering more detail on all of these policies and the ones we have already rolled out...

(APPLAUSE) Thank you, everybody. This is what happens when you go from 35 people to close to 2,000 people, I guess.

In the coming weeks, we will be offering more detail on all of these policies, and the ones we have already rolled out can be viewed on my campaign website.

Our opposition, on the other hand, has long ago run out of ideas. All Hillary Clinton has to offer is more of the same -- more taxes, more regulation, more bureaucrats, more restrictions on American energy and more restrictions on American production. More of that.

If you are a foreign power looking to weaken America, you could not do better than Hillary Clinton's economic agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

Nothing would make a foreign adversaries happier than for our country to tax and regulate our companies and our jobs right out of existence. The one common feature of every Hillary Clinton idea is it punishes you for working and doing business in the United States.

(APPLAUSE)

Every policy she has tilts the playing field for other countries at our expense, and that is why she tries to distract us with tired political rhetoric that seeks to label us, divide us and pull us apart.

My campaign is about reaching out to everyone as Americans and returning to a government that puts the American people first.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you. Thank you. Here is what an America First economic plan looks like.

[12:25:01]First, let's talk tax reform. Taxes are one of the biggest differences in this race.

Hillary Clinton, who has spent her career voting for tax increases, plans another massive job killing -- $1.3 trillion tax increase, big increase, one of the biggest ever. Her plan would tax many small businesses by almost 50 percent.

Recently, at a campaign event, Hillary Clinton short circulate -- you know this, you've heard this one -- Hillary Clinton short circuited again, to use a -- now famous term -- when she accidentally told the truth and said she wanted to raise taxes on the middle class.

(APPLAUSE)

I am proposing an across the board income tax reduction, especially for middle income Americans. This will lead to millions of new and really good paying jobs. The rich will pay their fair share, but no one will pay so much that it destroys jobs or undermines our ability as a nation to compete.

(APPLAUSE)

As part of this reform, we will eliminate, the carried interest deduction. Thank you.

As part of this reform, we will eliminate the carried interest deduction, well known deduction and other special interest loop holes that have been so good for Wall Street investors and for people like me but unfair to American workers. Tax simplification will be a major feature of the plan.

(APPLAUSE)

Our current tax code is so burdensome and so complex that we waste nine billion hours a year in tax code alliance. My plan will reduce the current number of brackets from seven to three and dramatically streamline the process.

(APPLAUSE)

We will work with House Republicans on this plan using the same brackets they have proposed, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 33 percent. For many American workers, their tax rate will be zero.

Well, we will develop our own set of assumptions and policies agreeing in some areas but, not in all or in others. We will be focused on the same shared goals and guided by the same shared principles, jobs, growth, and opportunity. (APPLAUSE)

These reforms will look for the biggest tax revolution since the Reagan Tax Reform, which unleashed years of continued economic growth and job creation. We will make America grow again.

(APPLAUSE)

The days ahead, we will provide more details on this plan and how it will help you, and most importantly your family. It will present a night and day contrast to the job killing, tax raising, poverty inducing Obama-Clinton agenda.

(APPLAUSE)

So important, the state of New York has already lived through Hillary Clinton's failed leadership, the Washington Post just published today, a devastating article on Hillary Clinton's broken promises.

She pledged 200,000 jobs for up-state New York when she was a Senator, but what happened -- what happened?