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RNC Chief Introduces Trump Amid Reports of Tension; Trump Speaks in PA Amid Sliding Poll Numbers and ISIS Comments Flap; Patrick Kennedy: Don't Call Trump "Crazy". Aired 2:20-3p ET

Aired August 12, 2016 - 14:32   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Take a look at this. This is a surprise appearance on this Friday afternoon. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in Erie, Pennsylvania on stage at a Trump rally introducing the candidate.

Why this is significant is become -- because this comes amid so much talk about the divide or a reported "Come to Jesus" meeting between the RNC and the Trump campaign in Orlando today. Clearly here, you see the Republican National Committee chairman coming out, showing his support for Donald Trump, introducing him here, just moments ago saying, this man will win.

We'll monitor this and bring you Trump when he comes live to the stage. Meantime, Donald Trump is struggling in Utah. It is a state that is about as rock-solid Republican as any state can be in this nation. Mitt Romney won Utah with more than 70 percent of the vote back in 2012.

Donald Trump brought up his Utah struggles with a group of evangelical voters in Florida yesterday. Listen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You got to get your people out to vote and especially in those states where we're represented -- having a tremendous problem in Utah. Now, Utah is a different place and I don't know if -- is anybody here from Utah?

I mean it's -- I didn't think so. We're having a problem, I mean, because, you know, look, it could cost us the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, let's listen in to Donald Trump as he takes the stage here in Pennsylvania. The context of this is important because Pennsylvania in the Trump campaign calculus is really as close to a must-win state as you can get.

He's going after those white blue-collar workers that have lost their manufacturing jobs in that state and along the rustbelt. These are the people he needs to win.

And as you'll remember, the latest polling shows him pretty significantly behind Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania as he embraces Reince Priebus, the RNC chairman there, showing the two of them are one together, but are fighting against the reporting saying there is a divide. So let's listen in to Donald Trump as he -- as he soaks in those who are cheering for him there, Jim Acosta is live there as well. So let's listen.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Unbelievable. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a great honor.

Thank you. Amazing, amazing. What great people. We're going to bring back our jobs to Pennsylvania. We're going to bring back our jobs to the United States.

We're going to bring back our jobs, folks. I've looked at the numbers and I see what's happening in Pennsylvania. I see what's happening all over our country.

You look at New York State. You look at New England. You look anywhere in the country, we want to go to all over, it's the same -- manufacturing way down, jobs way down.

You go to other countries, they are taking our companies. They're taking our jobs. People are right now working harder than they've ever worked.

Eighteen years ago, they made more money in real wages. Eighteen years -- think of it -- 18 years ago, many of the people in this incredibly big room -- and thank you for being here, you know, it's 93 degrees out.

(APPLAUSE)

Amazing (ph). And they still have a lot of people trying to get in. I don't know if they can get them in. Should we let them in? Just let them in.

But -- but 18 years ago, people were making more money in real wages than they make today. And today, they're working two jobs. Some people are working three jobs.

So they're older and they're working harder. And they're making less money, all right? A friend of mine -- I've been telling this story over the last month because it's better than going to Wharton or better than going to Harvard and asking them to do a study because you'll learn it in three minutes.

But let me just tell you, right now, Mexico and other countries are building facilities, plants, the likes of which you've never seen.

UNKNOWN MALE: Build a wall.

TRUMP: We're going to build a wall. Don't worry, we're going to build a wall. We're going to build a wall. We're going to build a wall.

(APPLAUSE) But a friend of mine and actually, a supporter -- big supporter, great

guy -- he builds plants, that's what he does. He builds plants. He doesn't want to build apartments.

He doesn't want to build office buildings. He wants to build plants. And he's just about the biggest there is. And I said, how are things going?

He said, very well. How are you doing in the U.S.? Not good. How you doing in Mexico? He said, Donald, you want to see? It's the eighth wonder of the world.

They are building plants, the likes of which I've never seen. He's building some of the greatest plants, big. You look at Ford moving vast operations to Mexico, the plants.

You look at -- look at - take a look. By the way, millions of jobs, thousands of companies over the years, they've left us. And we have a few things. We have unemployment.

We have empty plants. I saw it up in New York State. I saw it in Pennsylvania. You were great to me, you voted a big victory for Donald Trump. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

That was a big victory. I mean, I assumed I was going -- if I don't win Pennsylvania -- and by the way, I was talking to our great congressman -- and where is he? He's here someplace.

Where is he?

(APPLAUSE)

He loves the people, and I have to say, of all of the Pennsylvania. He wants to see this state do well. Thank you. But just talking back to a few of my friends that live here, we have a few other friends.

And we see what's happened with General Electric, where they're cutting way back -- not going to happen. And you know why they're cutting back -- one reason. Because we don't take care of our miners, and we're not producing coal.

And they don't need to make those big, big beautiful -- you could call them locomotives, I guess, right? Whatever the hell they are, they're big and they're powerful.

And they don't need them like they used to because we don't make our government work for us. They're not working for us. They're working for others.

They're not working for us. So when General Electric goes out and you see the numbers -- I see the numbers and it's about coal, so I just left parts of Virginia and West Virginia, and the coal industry's decimated. The miners are out of work. They're totally out of work. I mean, there's -- there will be no such

thing as coal in this country pretty soon. And we're talking clean coal. We're talking clean coal.

So I was with the miners. We have such tremendous support -- West Virginia, the mining parts of Virginia -- all over, Ohio -- because Hillary Clinton made the statement not so long ago -- number of months ago. She said we're going to put the mines and the miners out of business, right?

We're going to put the mines and the miners (ph) -- so -- so we're not going to let that happen. We're not going to let that happen.

And we're not going to let it happen in Pennsylvania because you know what, a lot of your miners have already lost their jobs. But you have a lot of other jobs that are very reliant on the mines like, as an example, General Electric.

And what we're going to do, folks, is going to be so special. We're going to bring it back. We're going to bring back our jobs.

We're going to bring back our companies.

(APPLAUSE)

When a company wants to leave our country to go to another country, and think they're going to make their product, and because our politicians are weak, stupid, taken care of by lobbyists, special interests -- they're taken care of by lobbyists. They're taken care of by donors and special interests.

That's why -- you know, a friend of mine, very smart guy, said, I can't believe it, we're talking about a deal that took place about a month ago. He said, I can't believe they could have gotten that through.

I said, why can't you believe it? Well, it's so bad for the country. He said, yes, but it's good for the politician because they're taken care of by their lobbyists and their donors and the special interests.

So even though you say we want, as an example, General Electric to produce more, if they don't want to, or if for some reason one of the donors of crooked Hillary Clinton doesn't want that to happen, even though it's great for Erie, even though it's great for you, even though it's great for the state of Pennsylvania, then it's not going to happen, folks. It's not going to happen.

And by the way, and I have to tell you this, so when they think they're going to take our companies and rip them out of, as an example, this area or this state, or any other state, and go to Mexico and build massive new plants and employ people other than you, and you're going to lose your job so you're going to now get two part-time jobs that don't add up to half of what you used to make, that stuff isn't happening anymore. So here is what happens.

They're going to build that plant. Now, if I were here five years ago, and if President Obama put me and made me secretary of keeping business in the United States, OK, that's my title...

(APPLAUSE)

...secretary of keeping business in the United States. I mean, I like the sound of secretary of defense better or by the way, we're going to build up our military. We're going to be very strong. Believe me.

(APPLAUSE)

Believe me. And we're going to take care of our vets. We're going to take care of our vets. Believe me. But I like the sound -- I like the sound of secretary of defense.

I like the sound of secretary of the treasury. I like the sound of secretary of state. But I'll tell you, would I be good at keeping jobs over here. Would I be good (ph)?

(APPLAUSE)

I'll tell you this, I just have to say. The Bernie Sanders protesters were much, much stronger. They had much more passion, I have to say.

All right, you know, it's interesting, if I could speak to them for like five minutes, we want a strong military, we want to take care of our people, we want good education, we want good housing, we want good health care, what do we want? We're all in for the same thing.

Really amazing, really amazing. So I'll be your secretary of keeping -- keeping companies in the United States, right? So I would go to a company like Carrier Air Conditioning, which decided to leave Indianapolis, Indiana.

And I would say, here's the story. We think it's wonderful that you're negotiating with Mexico. I'm sure you're going to he a wonderful plant. But here is what's going to happen.

If you build that plant and you fire all of these people -- 1,400 people, who were so great to me -- Indiana, I won that in a landslide.

(APPLAUSE)

Actually, the timing was good. I won it in a landslide because i know what to do. Hillary doesn't know what to do. Did you see her yesterday?

She has no clue about what we're talking about. Folks, she has no clue. She has no clue.

(APPLAUSE)

Crooked Hillary. She doesn't know anything about it. And by the way, if she did, she couldn't do it anyway because her donors don't want to do it. There's reasons.

But look, look, I would go to them and I would say, this is to keep them. This is to keep them. And I wouldn't even care that much. I'll tell you know why. You ready? I'd say, here's the story. If

you leave, in this case Indianapolis, you're going to go to Mexico, you're going to make your air conditioning units, every single unit that you make that crosses our now very, very strong border, we're going to charge you 35 percent of the cost of that unit (ph), OK?

(APPLAUSE)

Thirty-five percent, right? So simple -- 35 percent the cost of that unit -- we hope you enjoy your new plant, very hot weather out there, very hot. We hope you enjoy your new plant.

But 35 percent is coming to us (ph). Now, here is what's going to happen, if they haven't moved yet. A lot of them have moved. We've lost thousands and thousands of companies.

We've lost millions of jobs -- too late. I should have been there 10 years ago. Nobody would have left.

(APPLAUSE)

Nobody would have left because you need the right messenger (ph). You know I'm your messenger in terms of this movement. But you need the right person saying it.

So here is what's going to happen. Normally, they call up whoever it is that is putting the little order down, like the new president. And they'd have one of their lobbyists call up and they'd say, Hillary, I'm sorry, you can't do that.

They gave you $2 million for your campaign. Can't do that, Hillary. OK, I won't do that. With me, I'm putting my money up, folks. I'm putting my money up, right?

(APPLAUSE)

Putting my money up (ph). We're...

BALDWIN: All right, there you have it, Donald Trump doubling down on his focus on jobs, on manufacturing in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. They are saying, at one point, I'll be your secretary of keeping companies in the United States.

He was briefly interrupted by protesters walking down the steps there carrying signs that said "tax forms," clearly calling on the candidate to release his tax returns as Secretary Clinton did today. Interesting, he was just calling for a 35 percent tariff on anything imported to this country from Mexico.

Many economists say that would throw this country into a recession, no question. The last time that this country slapped a bunch of tariffs on imports was back in the 1930s.

And it's widely believed to have lengthened the great depression, just some context here. Let's talk about all of it and more with Hal Boyd. He's opinion editor for the "Deseret News" in Salt Lake City. Hal, I want your take on his speech and also specifically on Utah

because I've just learned that Donald Trump has agreed to write an op- ed for your paper, right? Clinton has already done that.

What does he need to say to keep Utah red this time around?

HAL BOYD, OPINION EDITOR, DESERET NEWS: I think some of the comments which he made during that speech I find very interesting because they're applicable here in Utah. We have a coal industry in this state.

I think those who are involved with that industry would be interested in hearing that perspective from Donald Trump, that he wants to keep clean coal. Of course, there are also quite a few of tech and energy jobs which are coming and replacing, and solar jobs here.

So I think that's a -- it's a -- it's certainly a lively topic for Utahans as well as those in Pennsylvania, in coal country, in West Virginia and elsewhere. But I think, especially here in Utah...

BALDWIN: Yes.

BOYD: ...he made some comments that you may have seen last night, indicating that he's got a problem in this state...

BALDWIN: Yes.

BOYD: ...electoral problem, that he's not...

BALDWIN: Yes.

BOYD: ...polling in the same way that he is in red states. And I'd like to say, you know, the first -- the first part of the road to recovery is to recognize you have a problem.

And at least, he's done that so far. Now, the question is, what is he going to do to try to win Utah voters back. And he has just -- within the hour -- confirmed that he -- he is -- personally, with his team, is actually writing an op-ed for the "Deseret news" here in Salt Lake City that will be published next week.

Now, this comes in the wake of a piece that was published earlier this week on Wednesday online and will appear in the Sunday edition this week from the Hillary Clinton. So very fascinating and interesting to watch these two use the paper's forum as a place for civil dialogue and to try to present their case to the Utah voters.

BALDWIN: Yes, we'll watch -- we'll read it when it comes out. And interesting to see that the Utah -- he thinks, at least, sort of in play this time around, saying we have a problem there. We'll see if he can convince the voters in that op-ed.

Hal, thank you. Nice to have you on the program. All right, coming up next...

BOYD: Thank you. BALDWIN: ...former Congressman Patrick Kennedy says people should

stop calling Donald Trump crazy. He will join me live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. The son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy wants people to stop calling Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump "crazy." The former democratic congressman wrote in the "Washington Post" op-ed that the label is demeaning to all of those who suffer in this country from mental illness.

It's very, very important to discuss. He is a long-time mental health advocate. He is also the co-author of a book, "A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction."

Thank you being -- for being with me, sir. I know you're in -- you're in Martha's Vineyard where later tonight, you will host a community fund-raiser, talking about your own personal battle with -- with illness and addiction. So thank you for being with us today.

PATRICK KENNEDY, FORMER RHODE ISLAND CONGRESSMAN: My pleasure. Thank you.

BALDWIN: Walk me through your argument here. You say, do not use this word. No matter how much you may not like a candidate, no matter how much you might think what they say is preposterous, do not use the word crazy.

KENNEDY: Well, first, I think there's plenty of things that we can attack Donald Trump with. We can tell people about even how leading Republican economists say that his proposals will cost 3.5 million jobs and put us into a recession. That's Mark Zandi, republican adviser to John McCain.

We could talk about his demeaning rhetoric to people in this country...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Also, a donor (ph) to the Clinton camp, just -- just to be clear.

KENNEDY: ...could say all kinds of demeaning rhetoric about, you know, other people in this country simply because of sexual orientation, race, color, creed, religion. I just don't think we ought to be joining in and -- and stooping to that level by joining in this debasing of the American experience where we are now losing what it is to be Americans in this debate, where we debate issues.

We debate ideas. And instead, we become no better than the person we're attacking in Donald Trump by being schoolyard bullies and -- and calling people names. I just don't think it enhances what we want for our country, especially -- especially if what we want from our country is more than what Donald Trump is offering, why we would ever adopt his mode of attack and use it against him. I only think it reflects poorly on ourselves for those of us...

BALDWIN: You know...

KENNEDY: ...who do not want to end up becoming part of his whole, you know, spiel of demeaning other people in order to get ahead, winners and losers. That's not what America is about. And I don't know why we would want to join in that kind of attack.

And I've never heard the word "crazy" uttered with compassion. It's just a demeaning word.

BALDWIN: Well, Congressman, you...

KENNEDY: My cousin, Tim Shriver, led the effort to end the use of "retarded" for people who have intellectual and developmental disabilities.

BALDWIN: Right.

KENNEDY: My aunt Eunice Kennedy Shriver started Special Olympics on the premise that we would honor people's dignity and humanity. You don't honor people's dignity and humanity when you call them names.

Even if they're Donald Trump and even if we don't like Donald Trump, that doesn't advance what we're all about, which is our common humanity, whether you're a person who suffers, as I do, from a mental illness or addiction, or whether you're a person who is also marginalized in this country because of race, color or creed. We're all in this as Americans.

BALDWIN: And...

KENNEDY: And we shouldn't be putting one another down no matter what the difference amongst us is.

BALDWIN: And -- and Congressman, you write in your op-ed, when that language is commonplace, it becomes that much harder for those experiencing mental illness to openly seek treatment that works. You're talking about not only the partisan bickering and name-calling and finger-pointing, you're talking about a real material impact on those who need the most help.

KENNEDY: Well, it's also about insurance companies continuing to impose really onerous medical management decisions, i.e., preauthorization for someone with a mental illness or addiction, which you would never impose on someone seeking care for heart disease or for cancer or for diabetes. And you know what, insurance companies get away with it.

Other people get away with it. Why? Because we've so demeaned the person suffering from this illness that no one cares about their rights. And that's what's so wrong about the Donald Trump campaign, is he couldn't care less about real people.

And -- and yet, we end up joining that inadvertently when we attack him as being, quote-unquote, "crazy." That just does not enhance our status as Americans when we're trying to make a case not against Donald Trump but against his vision for America, which is not enhanced when we resort to this kind of name-calling that, frankly, Michelle Obama spoke so eloquently about when she said, we need to take the high road here.

Leave the schoolyard bullying to Donald Trump. That seems to be his expertise.

BALDWIN: Congressman Kennedy, I wish we have more time. But I would point people to your opinion piece in the "Washington Post." Thank you for being with me today.

KENNEDY: I -- so grateful for having me on. Thank you for having me.

BALDWIN: Of course (ph). All right, two NYPD officers being hailed as heroes. Our CNN national correspondent, ,has their story of bravery in this week's "Beyond the Call."

Reporter: NYPD Sergeant Hameed Armani was born and raised in Afghanistan and came to the United States on a calling.

ARMANI: I've seen a lot of people die in front of my eyes. I was a kid but I was helpless. I couldn't do anything for them, you know what I mean?

And I always wanted to be able to save someone's life.

Reporter: He's now raising his 12-year-old daughter in New York. Armani is a single father.

ARMANI: Because every time I leave home, she gives me a big hug and she holds my hand and looks in my eyes and say, dad, promise -- promise me you're going to come home.

Reporter: It's a promise the 10-year veteran almost couldn't keep. Armani was patrolling New York's Times Square, the crossroads of America, with Officer Peter Cybulski.

CYBULSKI: I'm sitting in the passenger seat. He's sitting in the driver's seat. And next thing I know, something hits my hand -- my right hand, and then it hits the dashboard.

And so I look over to see who just threw something at me. And I see a man giving me a really mean grin.