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Trump Says Second Amendment People Could Stop Clinton; Emails Reveal Clinton Foundation Ties to State Department. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 10, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] ARTHUR THOMAS, HEART TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT: Than walking the daughter of a man who's given his heart to him.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Jenny and Arthur met on the eve of her wedding. He walked her down the aisle, so a piece of her father could be there on her big day.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: That is gorgeous.

CUOMO: Right?

KEILAR: Amazing.

CUOMO: A beautiful gesture by him and an amazing connection for her.

KEILAR: It sure is. So important.

Time for the "NEWSROOM" now, with Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That was really nice. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

CUOMO: Gets you right here.

KEILAR: So good.

COSTELLO: Yes, it does. Thanks, Chris. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She gets to pick her judges. Nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really, frankly, couldn't believe he said it.

TRUMP: I think it's a good thing for me because it's going to tell people more about me with respect to the Second Amendment because Hillary Clinton wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

Donald Trump thrives on the outrageous, but today there's a grave new seriousness and the often question, has he finally gone too far? At best, he has forced his fellow Republicans to mop up another PR debacle. At worst, he has plunged to a new low, suggesting violence as a way to stop Hillary Clinton and her perceived threat to gun rights.

CNN's Jason Carroll has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump on the defensive again.

TRUMP: There can be no other interpretation. I mean, give me a break.

CARROLL: Blaming media bias for the firestorm over this quip at his campaign rally.

TRUMP: Hillary wants to abolish -- essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know. But --

CARROLL: Trump doing damage control, claiming he was calling on the political powers of Second Amendment voters to make their voices heard, not advocating violence toward his rival.

TRUMP: This is a political movement. This is a strong powerful movement, the Second Amendment. You know, Hillary wants to take your guns away, she wants to leave you unprotected in your home.

CARROLL: Clinton's campaign quickly denouncing Trump, saying he is dangerous and a presidential candidate should not suggest violence in any way. Other Democrats echoing the same sharp rebuke. Senator Chris Murphy, calling it an assassination threat. Elizabeth Warren slamming him as a pathetic coward, who can't handle losing to a girl. And Gabby Giffords who survived being shot in the head says, "Americans must draw a bright red line between political speech and suggestions of violence." Republicans blasting Trump as well.

GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN, FORMER CIA AND NSA DIRECTOR: That's actually a very arresting comment. If someone else had said that outside the hall, he would be in the back of a police wagon now with the Secret Service questioning him.

CARROLL: Trump, blaming the desperate media for trying to distract for what he calls Clinton's anti-Second Amendment stance even though Clinton has never called for abolishing gun rights. The NRA and running mate Mike Pence, coming to Trump's defense. GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is

urging people around this country to act in a manner consistent with their convictions in the course of the election. And people who cherish the Second Amendment have a very clear choice in this election.

CARROLL: Trump has taken heat for violent rhetoric on the stump before.

TRUMP: I'd like to punch him in the face. Knock the crap out of him.

CARROLL: Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, once again, issuing a tepid defense of Trump.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: It sounds like just a joke gone bad. I hope he clears it up very quickly. You should never joke about something like that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And, Carol, Trump's critics say this is starting to become somewhat of a pattern. Trump comes out, he makes some sort of off- color or controversial statement, and then everyone has to come out and explain it or try to justify it, and his critics are now saying enough is enough -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll, reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

What we do know, Trump's comments led to a tidal wave of tweets. Conservative columnist John Podhoretz lambasted Trump, writing, quote, "He not only implied assassination, he implied that Second Amendment supporters are all potential assassins." A lawmaker from California, Eric Swalwell, wrote, quote, "Donald Trump suggested someone kill Secretary Clinton. We must take people at their word. The Secret Service must investigate."

And Newt Gingrich's former press secretary, Rich Galen, wondered, quote, "Has the Secret Service ever arrested a protectee?" In the meantime the daughter of Martin Luther King, Bernice King, wrote, quote, "I find Trump's comments distasteful, disturbing and dangerous." Erica Smegielski, the daughter of the principal killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, tweeted, quote, "You think gun violence is a joke? Would love to tell you about mom's life and her gruesome murder."

[09:05:09] So let's talk about this. Senior adviser to Donald Trump, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, will join us in just a minute. But right now on tap we have the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, CNN commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter Bakari Sellers, along with CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes.

Welcome to all of you.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thanks, Carol.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. So, Scottie, the former CIA director, Michael Hayden, said when you are candidate, you are not only responsible for what you say, but for what people hear. Donald Trump may have spoken clumsily, but his words inspire. I'll give you an example. At the Republican National Convention, his dire warnings over the Second Amendment inspired a group of men to show up carrying semi-automatic weapons. I think we have a picture of those men. I hope so because they were there. And I talked with them.

Please put up that picture, that video now. OK, so we don't have it. But trust me, they were there. I talked with them. They meant absolutely no harm, Scottie, but police were not happy. So don't words have consequences?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Words definitely do. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in the case of this campaign season, if you wants to Mr. Trump's words and take them negatively, that's how you're going to take them. If you're going to listen and realize that that is not what he meant, then you're going to sit there and say he did not mean that.

This is what this campaign has become. You either like Mr. Trump or you don't like him. You either will believe that he meant this as a threat, or you believe that's exactly how he has stated and has many people like Rudy Giuliani and others have said, he meant this to say how powerful and how united the Second Amendment people that want to defend it are.

You know, this is the not the first time, Carol, that we've heard a president -- or presidential candidate speak wrong and not use the right words. Biden in '08. He said if Obama tries to fool with my Beretta, he's going to --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Yes, I know. But let's --

HUGHES: Hillary Clinton said it as well. This just shows how polarized we are. And if you want to sit there and continue that story that he meant to threaten Hillary Clinton then you can continue that narrative, but those that support him realized that was not what he was saying.

COSTELLO: I just want to go over his quote one more time, Scottie, before I get to the rest of my panel. This is his direct quote. "Hillary Clinton wants to abolish essentially the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know."

If he is saying, if she gets to pick her judges, that would mean after she is elected president of the United States. So did he really misspeak, Larry? SABATO: You know, Carol, I like Scottie, I know her, and whatever she

is being paid, and I hope it's something, it needs to be doubled or tripled because she so often, as many of the Trump spokes people do, have to defend the indefensible.

This is indefensible. Maybe it was a joke, but you don't joke about such things. If you joke about bombing a plane in a TSA line, you're going to be whisked away, and you're going to be lucky if you don't end up in jail. So the long and short of it is, it's just one more outrageous example of the things that Donald Trump says, and his supporters won't be affected in the slightest. We've all learned this.

But we've also learned something else. The middle voters, the mainstream voters, the leaning Republican or leaning Democratic voters, the independent voters, they've been moving away from Trump precisely because of circumstances like this.

COSTELLO: All right, I want to bring in Sarah Huckabee Sanders now. She is the senior advisor for Donald J. Trump.

Sarah, welcome to the panel. Sarah, Mr. Trump, he's --

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISER, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. And thank you for joining us. Mr. Trump says he is the law and order candidate. The law and order candidate. If he really is, shouldn't he be more careful about what he says?

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, here is the big issue. I've watched this video multiple times, and you know, the person ahead of me just said that we have to continually come out and defends the indefensible. The problem is, we're not defending Donald Trump's comments, we're pushing back against the liberal media agenda.

I watched that video probably 10 or 12 times and couldn't come up with where they got that he was trying to incite violence. He was making a point about the power of the Second Amendment movement and the people that support the Second Amendment coming out and voting in November, and making sure that they vote for somebody that will protect the Second Amendment versus somebody like Hillary Clinton who we know won't.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But, Sarah, I guess -- I guess what I'm saying is if Donald Trump is the law and order candidate, shouldn't he be ultra careful about what he says about guns?

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, I think he --

COSTELLO: Because by saying the Second Amendment, he implies guns.

HUGHES: Implies. HUCKABEE SANDERS: Yes, I think we particularly -- all candidates have

to be careful about what we say about guns given the culture that we live in.

[09:10:03] But at the same time, when it comes to inciting violence, but that wasn't his point at all. And we can't tip toe around the issues and the fact that one candidate will protect our Second Amendment and one won't.

That's a contrast that the American people need to know and deserve to know. The Second Amendment is one of the most basic fundamental rights of being an American, and we have one candidate that wants to weaken that, we have one candidate that wants to protect it. That's something we should talk about. We shouldn't avoid it and we shouldn't hide from it.

COSTELLO: Well, the reason we're talking about this this morning is the Secret Service said it is aware of Mr. Trump's comments. I can't really remember the last time that happened with a presidential nominee -- with a presidential candidate.

And I will say, Sarah, that Mr. Trump, there's a pattern to him saying things. And then saying, oh, it was just a joke, or I was misunderstood. And I'm going to play you a few examples of that right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, and, you know, you can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. Now the poor guy, you got to see this guy, I don't know what I said. Ah, I don't remember.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no? As a principle.

TRUMP: The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.

MATTHEWS: For the woman?

TRUMP: Yes, there has to be some form.

MATTHEWS: Ten cents, 10 years, what?

TRUMP: I don't know. That, I don't know.

Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e- mails that are missing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Sarah, after all of those things, Mr. Trump says he was being misunderstood. Isn't it time he stop saying things that can be misunderstood?

HUCKABEE SANDERS: Look, I think we're talking about the issue that took place yesterday, and this is clearly a moment where the media is trying to take his words and make them into something they're not. I think there are moments where he probably wished he hadn't phrased something the way he did. But yesterday, that certainly wasn't the case. It wasn't that he was inciting violence. It was that the media was taking his words and turning them into something that absolutely were not there.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Bakari, Rudy Giuliani said as much on "GMA" this morning. He says the Clinton spin machine is responsible for making a mountain out of a molehill. Your thoughts?

SELLERS: No, I don't think that's the case at all. In fact this is a pattern for Trump supporters. Trump supporters oftentimes come out and say, we appreciate and love Donald Trump because he says what he means. Then he makes a comment like he said yesterday and then Trump supporter says that's not what he means.

I mean, it's gotten to a point where we venture down this path of absurdity and I really don't want to go down there because all I can think about is a young lady like Gabby Giffords. Because what Trump doesn't understand is, one, the power of his words and two, the power of the mantle that he holds.

So no, you can't go out and, quote-unquote, be inarticulate. You can't go out and just say it flippant off-the-cuff, off-color, quote- unquote, joke. That's threatening the life of someone else. And I have the great deal of respect for Scottie and Sarah, but this is indefensible. And to just simply say that this is some liberal media bias is not the case because Democrats and Republicans alike have come out and condoned this.

And all it takes is one nut job to come out. Just one nut job. And we're going to have an incident. And that's on the hands of Donald Trump and no one else.

COSTELLO: All right, we're going to continue the conversation after a break. I've got to end this one right here. So you guys stick around and stay with me.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new e-mails and nagging questions for Hillary Clinton. Did her Clinton Foundation ignore boundaries and possibly the law in its dealings with the State Department?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:52] COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton faces more scrutiny over a batch of newly released e-mails, specifically whether there was a too chummy of a relationship between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department when she served as the nation's top diplomat.

CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown is in Washington with more for you.

Good morning.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. Some of these heavily redacted e-mails raise questions about the Clinton Foundation's influence on the State Department during Clinton's tenure. In fact, in one instant, top Clinton foundation official Doug Band lobbied Clinton aides for a job in the State Department for someone else. And in this email, Band tells Hillary Clinton's former aide at the department, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin that it is, quote, important to take care of, and then that person's name is redacted in the e-mail.

Now, Band is reassured then by Abedin that personnel has been sending him options. And then in a 2009, Band directs Abedin and Mills to put a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire and Clinton Foundation donor in contact with the State Department's, quote, "substance person on Lebanon."

These emails were obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit that was filed, and they were not in the initial batch of e-mails Clinton's team turned over to the State Department. It is unclear why that was. The Trump campaign has seized at the new batch of e-mails, citing them as evidence of Clinton being corrupt, and as we know, Carol, there were prolonged investigations into her use of a private e-mail server while at the State Department. It didn't lead to charges, but it did fuel public distrust and has cast a shadow over her presidential bid.

The Clinton Foundation was not part of that particular investigation. A Clinton campaign spokesman says that, quote, neither of these e- mails involve the secretary or relate to the foundation's work. They are communications between her aides and the president's personal aide.

And indeed, a recommendation was for one of the secretary's former staffers, who was not employed by the foundation.

But, regardless, Carol, this continues to cast a shadow over her campaign.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Pamela Brown, reporting live from Washington.

[09:20:00] Thanks so much.

The foundation raised money for needy people around the world, that's with the global foundation does. But it also takes donations from foreign countries that some, you know, some of them don't share America's values.

The question here in a nutshell, is whether Secretary Clinton used her office as bait for her foundation money.

So, I want to bring back in the panel. Bakari, Sarah, and Larry, to talk about this.

Bakari, these emails don't prove anything, but they do make you wonder. Isn't it time that Mrs. Clinton holds a press conference, and explains these e-mails?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think you said it at the beginning, at the premise of your question there. These e- mails don't prove anything. I mean, 60 percent of the public, unless you're living under a rock, do have a problem with Hillary Clinton, her trust and e-mails. No doubt about it.

But that same 60 percent, if not slightly higher, also say that they're sick and tired of hearing about the e-mails and it is not changing the public perception. What we've done is doing --

COSTELLO: But whether voters want to hear about it or not, as a journalist, you know, I have the responsibility to find out what's up with this. The only person who can answer those questions clearly is Mrs. Clinton.

SELLERS: Well, as I a journalist, Carol, I think the premise of your question started out correctly, that these emails don't prove anything.

And here we are again, would you like to see Hillary Clinton hold a press conference? Yes. Is she going to hold a press conference? I'm not certain. I don't know. I don't make those decisions. But that's something that I'm sure they're talking about.

But the fact of the matter is, we're dealing with these emails again. To quote Bernie Sanders, I'm sick and tired about hearing about these damn e-mails.

COSTELLO: All right. Sarah, how would you characterize these emails?

SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, SENIOR ADVISER FOR DONALD TRUMP: I don't think the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the e- mails. I think they're tired of Hillary Clinton getting a free pass on everything. She has had a career that has been riddled with corruption and she should be disqualified being president. She broke the law by using the servers and lied about it.

And certainly, shouldn't be asking for a promotion, when my 4-year-old gets in trouble, they don't get to just say oops, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. There's a consequence.

Hillary Clinton should suffer consequences and there shouldn't be different rules for her than anybody else in the country. And I think this is just another reason she shouldn't be president and another disqualifier from her moving into a higher office.

COSTELLO: So, Larry, at the very least, should Hillary Clinton hold a news conference, you know, I'm going to totally remove myself from the Clinton Foundation, my husband, Bill Clinton, is going to step down. My daughter, Chelsea, won't have anything to do with it.

Would that be prudent?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Well, Carol, she certainly needs to interact with the press more than she do. She takes a question here, a few questions there. She has avoided the press like a plague. She doesn't like the press.

Well, you know what, you're going to be president. You have to deal with the press or you're going to pay a big price.

The secondary issue really ought to be the primary issue. That is, the Clinton Foundation. It was obvious for years that this foundation was presenting all sorts of conflicts of interest, and especially while Hillary Clinton was a senator and secretary of state.

People warned the Clintons about it over and over again, privately, some publicly. They ignored the warnings. There is a long history of this, stretching back through Bill Clinton's presidency and even back to Arkansas.

So, again, nobody is surprised. You know, you could make a contrast that actually favors Donald Trump, believe it or not. Trump probably interacts with the press too much. My guess is his staff would love to bring -- to drag him back in when he is interacting with the press as often as he does.

Hillary Clinton is invisible to the press. Talk to any of them. They complain bitterly about how they're shut out. That is not a good sign for a presidency.

COSTELLO: OK, another controversy dogging the Clinton campaign this morning. Bakari, the father of the Orlando terrorist, showed up at a Clinton rally, sat right behind Mrs. Clinton. Of course, you remember, his son killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.

Rudy Giuliani, a Trump supporter, is questioning why Mr. Mateen is such an avid supporter of Mrs. Clinton. Listen to what he said this morning on "GMA".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NYC MAYOR: This is a guy who supported -- supports the Taliban, who is anti-American, who himself has supported terrorists organizations, who said that God is going to punish homosexuals. He is a homophobe of the worst kind. And he is a very, very radical Islamic extremist.

What is drawing him to Hillary Clinton? People should ask that question. What brings him to Hillary Clinton? I believe it is her soft stance on Islamic extremist terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So what did bring Mateen to Hillary Clinton rally, Bakari?

SELLERS: Well, first of all, Rudy Giuliani has become like the uncle that everyone has that's getting up in age and dealing with senility.

[09:25:01] So, I kind of disregard what he says flippantly on a daily basis.

But dealing with Mateen and Mateen's father in this situation, he wasn't invited by the Clinton campaign. There should have been a better job done vetting. I'm appreciative they disavowed his beliefs, they disavowed him, they don't want his support, and they handled the way it should be handled.

They have to say look, we were wrong. There's no way he should have been standing back there. Some advance person, who is probably 24, 25, 26 years old, is paying the price. The Clinton campaign made a mistake. They owned up to it.

That's part of my problem with the Donald Trump campaign and the surrogates, because when mistakes are made, you have to be able to own up to. I'm glad the Clinton campaign, they made a mistake, they acknowledged it. It wasn't any liberal media bias.

And they rectified it by saying they disavowed everything he believes and they don't want his support. It was 3,000 people. He was one of that number.

COSTELLO: Sarah, is that satisfactory to you that the Clinton campaign disavowed Mr. Mateen?

SANDERS: I think they absolutely should have, and I think they did the right thing in doing that. I think it goes back, though, to the point that Rudy Giuliani made. It is not that they disavowed his presence. It is why did he want to be at a Hillary Clinton rally supporting her in the first place?

I think that's the answer that we all know, and that's because Hillary Clinton is weak on foreign policy. She is weak on taking out Islamic terrorism, and that's why people like him are out there supporting her.

Our enemies don't fear us and our allies don't respect us any more, and that's in large part due to the failed policies of the Clinton administration. And that's why people like him are supporters and I think that's the bigger issue that we need to be looking at.

I think we certainly applaud the Clinton campaign for disavowing his beliefs, but I think they need to disavow some of the past policies of the Clinton foreign policy administration and start making some big changes there.

That's what I would like to see them do.

COSTELLO: Larry, put this Mr. Mateen thing into perspective for us.

SABATO: Well, it will have absolutely no impact on the campaign or on the election. It was a bizarre incident. And certainly, as your analyst said yesterday, Paul Begala, said yesterday some advanced person for the Clinton campaign should be fired.

Keep in mind, Mr. Mateen demonstrated at the time of his son's horrible massacre that he was simply drawn to the cameras, and has some bizarre ideas. I think his presence there had nothing to do with terrorism. It had everything to do with Mr. Mateen seeking the spotlight. COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Bakari Sellers,

Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Larry Sabato, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: racism, excessive force and unlawful strip searches. A blistering new report details the DOJ's investigation of Baltimore's Police Department.

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