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Wolf

Hillary Clinton Speaks Live in Michigan on the Economy. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 11, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:30:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Take a look at this. Live pictures coming in from Warren, Michigan, where Hillary Clinton will soon deliver remarks on jobs, the economy and, of course, on Donald Trump. We'll have live coverage of that once it happens. She's touring a factory there in the meantime.

But let's get to some new breaking news we're following. A U.S. official telling CNN today that several months ago the FBI and top Justice Department officials met to discuss opening a public corruption case into the Clinton Foundation.

Our justice correspondent, Pamela Brown, has been getting new information.

Pamela, what are you learning?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: We learned that what initially grabbed the FBI's attention into this, Wolf, was the fact that a bank notified the FBI saying there was suspicious activity surrounding a foreign donor to the Clinton Foundation. What the FBI wanted to do earlier this year is open up a case and investigate whether there was a conflict of interest at the time that that donor was making contributions to the Clinton Foundation during Clinton's tenure at the State Department. There were three DOJ field offices in agreement that a public corruption investigation should be launched.

Top DOJ officials, we've learned, met with FBI officials earlier this year to discuss whether a case should be brought. We're told that there was some disagreement during that meeting, that a split, that some top DOJ officials felt like a case should not be brought. The DOJ, Department of Justice, looked into allegations against the Clinton Foundation a year prior after that controversial book "Clinton Cash" was released, found those allegations were unsubstantiated and felt there was not sufficient evidence to open a case this year, until ultimately a case was never opened on the Clinton Foundation. But again, there was this disagreement. Some top DOJ officials felt like there wasn't sufficient evidence. Others felt there was and a case should be opened.

BLITZER: Bottom line, no case open right now?

BROWN: Bottom line, no case open right now. These discussions happened earlier this year and they felt like there wasn't a case. But we do know during this meeting, Wolf, that this investigation,

that CNN first reported, into Terry McAuliffe and a donor to the Clinton Foundation can continue. That had already been ongoing. So essentially these top DOJ officials said you can continue focusing on that investigation, but we don't think there's enough evidence to open up an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.

[13:35:15] BLITZER: Terry McAuliffe, a good friend of the Clintons, also the governor of Virginia.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: All right, Pamela, thank you very much.

Pamela Brown reporting for us.

Coming up, "electronic Watergate." That's how a top Democrat is characterizing a massive hack that targeted Democratic politicians in Washington. Why officials now believe the hack is bigger than they initially thought.

Also, once again, Hillary Clinton set to deliver a speech on the economy. Looking at live pictures from Warren, Michigan. Aides tell us it will be a direct response to what we heard from Donald Trump on the economy on Monday in Detroit. We'll have live coverage of Hillary Clinton's speech. That's coming up, we're told, momentarily.

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BLITZER: Hillary Clinton now at the microphone in Warren, Michigan, about to deliver her economic speech. We have live coverage. Let's go there right now.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Thank you. Thank you so much. I have to tell you, I am thrilled to be here for a number of reasons. First, back in Michigan - it's wonderful to be back in Michigan. You can really feel the energy and dynamism that is driving this state to come back.

And in Detroit, we've got new businesses opening. Neighborhoods like Midtown and Eastern Market are coming back. The auto industry just had it's best year ever.

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Over in Ann Arbor, high tech firms are thriving.

The next generation of engineers are getting trained up in Houghton. And here at Futuramic, so well named, you are on the front lines of what I believe will be a true manufacturing renaissance in America.

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[13:40:02] I just was give a short but exciting tour by Mark Jurcak and John Couch, who were telling me about how this company was started as and for most of its early history, was an auto supply company. And then in 2000, as the market began to change and some of the auto companies began to realign, they were faced with a choice. We all face choices in life, don't we?

And this company could have just said, hey, you know, our business is not going to be what it was; we've got to just fold up. Let's, you know, just kind of quit. But that's not what happened here. And what happened here is what can happen across America.

You are in now what is largely an aerospace company. And...

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... because of the workforce and the work ethic and the commitment of Futuramic, you are seeing the future unfold. So I got to see what's happening here to help build the SLS rocket that is going to go from Macomb to Mars.

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I saw the two halves of an F-35 nose cone waiting to be put together. I talked with some of the workers about the absolute perfection that is required to do this work. And what I believe with all my heart is that what's happening here can happen in so many places if we put our minds to it, if we support advanced manufacturing, if we are the kind of country that once again understands how important it is to build things. We are builders and we need to get back to building.

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So, we're making progress. None of us can be satisfied until the economic revitalization we're seeing in some parts of Michigan reaches every community. But it is inspiring to see this combination of old- fashioned hard work and cutting edge innovation. And I know my opponent in this election was here in Michigan about a week ago and it was like he was in a different place. When he visited Detroit on Monday, he talked only of failure, poverty and crime. He is missing so much about what makes Michigan great.

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And the same is true when it comes to our country. He describes America as an embarrassment. He said, and I quote, "We're becoming a third-world country." Look around you, my friends. Go visit with the workers building rockets. That doesn't happen in third-world countries.

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Now, we have a lot of urgent and important work to do, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Because all the people that I have met throughout this campaign really prove how wrong this negative, pessimistic view is. America's best days are still ahead of us if we make up our minds to actually go out and make that happen.

(APPLAUSE) Just consider our assets. We have the most dynamic, productive workforce in the world, bar none.

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We have the most innovative businesses, the top colleges, universities, community colleges, training programs in the world, and the best science and technologies. We have enormous capacity for clean energy production. We are resilient, determined, hard-working. There is nothing America can't do if we do it together.

And I -- I know this because this is how I was raised. And I don't think Mr. Trump understands any of it.

[13:45:01] He hasn't offered any credible solutions for the very real economic challenges we face.

Now those challenges emerged long before the great recession and they have persisted through our recovery. There is too much inequality, too little upward mobility, it is just too hard to get ahead today. But there are common sense things that your government could do that would give Americans more opportunities to succeed.

Why don't we do it? Because powerful special interests and the tendency to put ideology ahead of political progress has led to gridlock in Congress. And how can you not be frustrated, and even angry, when you see nothing getting done? And a lot of people feel no one is on their side and no one has their back and that is not how it's supposed to be in America.

If I am fortunate enough to be your president, I will have your back every single day that I serve.

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And my mission in the White House will be to make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. This is personal for me, I am the product of the American middle class. I was born in Chicago, I was raised in a suburb, but my grandfather worked at the Scranton Lake Mill in Scranton, Pennsylvania for 50 years. And because he worked hard, my dad was able to go to college and eventually start his own small business.

And then send me out into the world to follow my own dreams no matter how far those dreams have taken me, I have always remembered I am the daughter of a small business owner and the granddaughter of a factory worker and proud of both.

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So here's what I want, I want every American family to be able to tell the same story. If you work hard, you do your part, you should be able to give your children all the opportunities they deserve. That is the basic bargain of America. Now whether we will be able to renew that bargain on even better terms for the 21st century, depends in large measure on the outcome of this election. So here are four questions that I hope the American people will ask of both candidates and that the answers should help make your choice in November crystal clear. First, which candidate has a real plan to create good paying jobs? Second, who will restore fairness into our economy and ensure that those at the top pay their fair share of taxes?

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Third, who will really go to bat for working families? And fourth, who can bring people together to deliver the results that will make a difference in your lives? Now...

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Now I hope that after giving a fair hearing to both sides, you will join the millions of people across our country supporting this campaign, not just Democrats, but a growing number of Republicans and Independents as well. Now when it comes to creating jobs, I would argue it's not even close. Even Conservative experts say Trump's agenda will pull our economy back into recession.

And according to an independent analysis by a former economic advisor to Senator John McCain, if you add up all of Trump's ideas from cutting taxes for the wealthy and corporations to starting a trade war with China, to deporting millions of hardworking immigrants, the result would be a loss of 3.1 million jobs.

Now, by contrast, the same analyst found that with our plan, the economy would create more than 10 million new jobs.

[13:50:05] So let me tell you how we would do that. I believe every American willing to work hard should be able to find a job that provides dignity, pride and decent pay that can support a family. So starting on day one, we will work with both parties to pass the biggest investment in new, good paying jobs since World War II.

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We will put Americans to work, building and modernizing our roads, our bridges, our tunnels, our railways, our ports, our airports.

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We are way overdue for this my friends. We are living off the investments that were made by our parents and grandparents generations. We will also help cities like Detroit and Flint connect underserved neighborhoods to opportunity expanding affordable housing, and we will repair schools and failing water systems as well.

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You know, I happen to think we should be ambitious. While we're at it, let's connect every household in America to broadband by the year 2020.

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It's astonishing to me, how many places in America, not way, way far away from cities, but in cities, and near cities that don't have access to broadband. And that disadvantages kids who are asked to do homework using the internet five million of them live in homes without access to the internet. So you talk about an achievement gap. It starts right there.

And let's build a cleaner, more resilient power grid with enough renewable energy to power every home in our country as well.

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Some country is going to be the clean energy super power of the 21st century and create millions of jobs and businesses. It's probably going to be either, China, Germany or America. I want it to be us. We invent the technology, we should make it and use it and export it, which will help to grow our economy.

And here's something that you don't always hear enough of from Democrats, a big part of our plan will be unleashing the power of the private sector to create more jobs at higher pay. And that means for us, creating an infrastructure bank to get private funds off the sidelines and compliment our private investments.

Twenty-five billion dollars in government seed funding could a lot more than $250 billion and really get our country moving on our infrastructure plans. And we're going to invest $10 billion in what we're calling Make It in America Partnerships to support American manufacturing and recommit to scientific research that can create entire new industries.

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CLINTON: When Mark and John were giving me the tour and I was talking to some of the workers along the way, and asking them where some of the precision machinery came from that is being used here at Futuramic. It, what I hear all over the country, Germany, Japan, Italy, I want to bring that precision manufacturing back to the United States. There is no reason we can't begin to make those machines ourselves and supply the rest of the world, instead of buying from somewhere else.

Let's also expand incentives, like the New Market Tax Credits that can bring businesses, government and communities together to create good jobs in places that have been left out and left behind. From neglected neighborhoods in Detroit and Flint to logging country, coal country, Native American communities, from rural areas ravaged by addiction and lost jobs, to industrial regions hollowed out when factories closed.

As President, I will also make a major push to empower small businesses and entrepreneurs, with --

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[14:00:10] With new national initiatives to cut red tape at every level and expand access to credit especially through community banks and credit unions. I will propose a new plan to dramatically simplify tax filing for small businesses.

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