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Trump to Unveil Anti-ISIS Plan; Violence in Milwaukee Protests; Biden Makes Campaign Debut with Clinton; Possible Suspect Held in Killing of Imam; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 15, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:08] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump set to lay out his strategy to fight ISIS.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ISIS has developed like wildfire under our incompetent President Obama.

COSTELLO: And aiming to reset again.

TRUMP: I said the founder of ISIS. Obviously I'm being sarcastic.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he was being serious. And he was making a point.

COSTELLO: Also, Milwaukee on edge. Protesters throwing bricks, rocks and bottles after police shoot an armed black man.

And a state of emergency in Louisiana. Tens of thousands of people rescued from flood waters including this woman. Grabbed as her car went under.

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Donald Trump heads to the battleground state of Ohio today but it's his combat plan against ISIS that will take center stage. Trump desperately trying to get back on message and stem the bleeding from recent polls and controversies. Today he will deliver a big speech on how, as president, he will oversee the defeat of ISIS. And this time, his tough talk will be dressed up with something new, actual details.

CNN's Jessica Schneider is here with a preview.

Good morning, Jessica.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol. Those details coming in the form of a three-pronged policy speech. Donald Trump will lay out his plan to combat ISIS this afternoon. First a Trump campaign official says the Republican candidate will

make clear that any nation that fights ISIS is an ally. Also noting that the U.S. will no longer be in the business of nation building. Secondly, Trump is promising to raise the bar on standards for entry into the United States, suspending visas from countries with ties to terrorism and potentially even questioning eligible applicants about their support of U.S. values. And thirdly, Trump wants to make a clear statement to the world that this fight will be waged militarily, financially and ideologically, likening it to the Cold War.

And Hillary Clinton is already getting out in front of Trump's speech, releasing a YouTube video clip, questioning Trump's temperament and fitness to be commander-in-chief.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MURPHY, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: He is a stunning ignoramus on foreign policy issues and national security.

TRUMP: They said, what do you think of NATO? Now, you know, it's like it was my primary subject in all fairness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And Donald Trump's speech is slated for 2:00 this afternoon. He'll be using the speech to get back on message after last week's controversial comments and a weekend where he spent it bashing the media, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jessica Schneider, thanks so much.

So today will be Donald Trump's latest attempt as a reset as members of his party reportedly grow more concerned that time is running out for a presidential pivot.

Here to talk about that and more, Bakari Seller, who's a Clinton supporter, Ron Brownstein, who is the senior editor for the "Atlantic," and Scottie Nell Hughes, who is a Trump supporter.

Welcome to all of you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

BAKARI SELLER, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Scottie, "The Wall Street Journal" this morning, it's a Murdoch owned paper, it's out with a harsh editorial of your guy, saying if he can't be more presidential by Labor Day, the GOP should write him off and Mike Pence should run as the Republican presidential candidate. Your reaction to that?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, they have their right to -- we have freedom of the press, they can say whatever they wish. But they can't ignore the thousands of people that continue to show up at Donald Trump rallies. The thousands of exposures on social media. People passing around. And most importantly they can't actually ignore the candidate himself that has defied odds from the very beginning. And it's interesting that the more people say that he's down, the stronger that he becomes. And in the end, it's all going to be about who gets their people and motivates their folks to the polls in November. And right now the motivation and the movement sides with Mr. Trump.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing, Ron. "The Wall Street Journal" went on to say, its editorial board went on to say that Mr. Trump should stop blaming the media and place the blame for his campaign, his faltering campaign, squarely on Donald J. Trump. Is Donald Trump capable of doing that?

BROWNSTEIN: No, I think not. I mean, no candidate is going to look in the mirror and say, I am the problem. The problem Republicans have is this has been an apparent, Carol, from really the beginning. I mean, I wrote a piece in January, January 6th, called the "Trump Gap," which said at that point Trump's favorable ratings were rising among Republicans but were stagnant or deteriorating on the groups outside the Republican coalition, particularly those that had been the key to President Obama's two victories, which were minorities, millennials and college-educated white voters, especially women.

Fast forward seven months later and these polls tell you a remarkably similar story from state to state and nationally. Donald Trump is facing divisions within the Republican coalition but his big problem is that his -- his message and persona are overwhelmingly unpopular among the growing groups that have decided the last several presidential elections. That has been clear from the beginning, and there is no easy answer to this dilemma. They need another -- their theory is that there's a hidden vote out there that they can motivate to come out because within the existing electorate, they are facing huge obstacles and headwinds among the groups that have been growing as a share of voters.

COSTELLO: Well, Mr. Trump --

HUGHES: Carol --

COSTELLO: Wait a second, Mr. Trump is going to try today, and I want to post this question to Bakari. He will outline his plan to fight ISIS. It will include details. It will be a detailed plan. He wants to reclaim that mantle on foreign policy. Will it help, Bakari?

SELLERS: Well, I think any time Donald Trump speaks from a teleprompter and stays on message it actually benefits and helps his campaign. The problem, though, with Donald Trump speaking about foreign policy is we've seen these faux pass throughout, whether or not it's his endorsement of torture, killing the families of terrorists, whether or not him not understanding the relationship between Russia and Ukraine.

And I think today when he outlines these three prongs what we're going to see again is a failure to grasp the basic tenants of foreign policy. Anyone who fights ISIS is not our ally. Russia is not our ally. What he's going to try to do is build bring this umbrella so he can bring his friend Vladimir Putin under it. When we start talking about restricting visas from states that sponsor terror, I mean, are we going to talk about -- or have a history of terror, are we going to talk about France, are we going to talk about Ireland?

I mean, how is this going to actually work? How are these nuts and bolts going to actually work? And I'm not sure Donald Trump can answer that.

What we do know, though, is when we have these debates in September, Hillary Clinton is actually very well versed in foreign policy, is going to have her way with Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: OK, so, Scottie, before we get into the minutia of the plan, I did notice in reading through the notes that the Trump campaign sent along, that Mr. Trump's plan to fight ISIS does not include a Muslim ban.

Scottie, does that mean Donald Trump is totally opposed to banning Muslims from coming into this country?

HUGHES: I think he's re-working it. I think obviously his advisers have come in and said no, we might not necessarily be able to do what you said on the campaign trail legally. And obviously Mr. Trump is going to do, unlike Barack Obama and the Democrats, he's actually going to work with Congress to make sure that everybody is in agreement with what we do with foreign policy and not just issue executive orders. So --

COSTELLO: So will Mr. Trump come out, Scottie, and say you know, I was wrong about that Muslim ban and here's why?

HUGHES: Well, I don't know if -- that he was wrong on it but I think he said let's actually -- let's actually fine-tune it a little bit more, let's get more specific exactly what we're talking about, hence where those points, possibly a test, or let's make sure that whoever is coming into this country, regardless of where they're coming from, that they're going to come in and they're going to want to promote our communities, put America first over -- over where they're coming from and make sure that they're going to promote, not necessarily hurt our community, which is what the failed policies of this administration has done to us. I would like to --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: OK, so -- I do want to get into the details of Mr. Trump's plan because I think that's what voters really want to hear so let me dive in just a little deeper. And I'll pose this question to you, Ron. Mr. Trump, he says he wants to raise the bar for entry into the United States. And you heard Scottie talk a little bit about that. Mr. Trump wants to create an ideological test that would prevent foreigners from coming into the United States if they don't uphold religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights.

How many would that work do you think, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, look, it's hard to know exactly how that would work in practice. It is a significant change from where he started. And it's worth noting that both Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan had said at various points they would not introduce legislation to implement the original Muslim ban. You know, interviewing someone is a limited -- you have limited capacity to kind of find out what they truly believe versus what they think you want to hear.

I think this issue is just incredibly revealing of where we are as the campaign because, you know, if you look at polling, Donald Trump is actually quite competitive with Hillary Clinton on responding to terror but he trails her enormously on dealing with a crisis and dealing with foreign policy in general. And I think what that tells you, Carol, is that, you know, even though President Obama's approval rating is rising there is a lot of desire for change after eight years of an administration.

There are always things that are going along. Americans don't think the fight against ISIS is going particularly well. But the problem Donald Trump faced is that despite that desire for change, the verdict on him personally, the kind verdict rendered by those 50 former Republican national security officials in their incredible letter last week which focused on his personal characteristic, his personal fitness for president rather that his issue positions, that is the huge headwind he faces, and, you know, that is what he ultimately has to change between now and November to have a shot at this race.

COSTELLO: So, Bakari, let's say Mr. Trump goes into even more detail and he talks about whether there should be ground troops in the Middle East to fight ISIS. He talks about whether air power should increase. He talks specifically about which countries are our friends and which countries we consider our enemies. Would that hurt Hillary Clinton if he did something like that?

SELLERS: No, but I also don't think he's capable of doing that. I think that we've seen -- I don't know why we keep expecting this Donald Trump pivot, to all of a sudden he's going to become some foreign policy guru. I mean, he hasn't pivoted yet, I don't expect that today. He will have three points that he'll read from a teleprompter, and go outline some plan.

[10:10:04] But I don't expect him to be able have that level of detail. Why don't I expect that? Why don't the American public expect that? Because he hasn't done it before. And we're not sure he's able to grasp that.

One of the things that was said last week in that letter that stood out to me was not that Donald Trump simply doesn't know foreign policy, is that he's unwilling to learn foreign policy. And I think that is the danger of dealing with someone who has this temperament, who's unwilling to learn, it doesn't make for a strong commander-in- chief.

COSTELLO: And, Scottie, I think some voters might be confused when Donald Trump says things like, you know, I know more than the generals, I'm going to bomb the -- out of ISIS. So when he says these things, and then he gives a more measured speech, they're confused about what exactly Donald Trump believes. HUGHES: Well, there is no confusion about the fact that we have a

problem with ISIS. Since 2002, they killed more than 33,000 people. And here's the number that people also -- 80 percent of that since 2012. And Hillary Clinton has yet to come out and say whether or not she agreed with how we pulled out Iraq that created this vacuum of this new ISIS, or if she would have done anything different. As far as we know, she would have gone exactly along with what Barack Obama and what she did and made no corrections --

COSTELLO: Well, but --

HUGHES: -- because she's not laid out any separation of what --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Here's the thing --

SELLERS: Also Carol --

COSTELLO: Wait, wait, Bakari. Is Mr. Trump in favor of putting more troops in Iraq and reversing that? Do you know his thoughts on that?

HUGHES: I think Trump is in favor of actually going in there and doing something, and not sitting here and tap dancing with --

COSTELLO: Like what?

HUGHES: With the JV squad which is how this administration has treated ISIS. ISIS should have been taken out immediately from the very beginning.

COSTELLO: No, I get that. But with what?

HUGHES: Well, whether it takes airstrikes, whether it takes special forces, whether it takes troops on the ground. We have to go in and take care of these folks on their soil as we have shown they continue to infiltrate ours. We need strength --

COSTELLO: So will Donald Trump get into those things today, Scottie, as far as, you know, the number of ground troops, increasing special forces troops on the ground, like, will he get into all of that, too?

HUGHES: And I've not read the speech yet, Carol, to be honest with you. But I guarantee you whatever -- he will do whatever it takes to keep the fight over there and to keep Americans' safety first. That is his priority. Something that we have not seen out of Hillary Clinton yet say that she wants Americans to be at home to be safe first before putting over the political correctness that she has with the rest of the world.

COSTELLO: So you don't believe -- you don't believe Hillary Clinton wants to keep the country safe?

HUGHES: I absolutely -- you have to wonder right now with some of her immigration policies, and some of the points that she's laid out. In fact any woman that can sit there and look mothers in the eyes over their coffins and caskets, I really wonder sometimes what her motivation is in some of the actions that she has made with her foreign policy.

SELLERS: That's absurd.

COSTELLO: OK. Bakari, last word.

SELLERS: That's absurd. But I do just want to add this 30-second fact check really quick to what Scottie said because we are living in this Trump factory America.

HUGHES: No, no, we're not. It is fact, Bakari.

SELLERS: Donald Trump in 2008 actually supported the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. So when his surrogates and when he comes up here and tell us the fact that we withdrew in 2008 and created this vacuum, then he needs to understand that he also supported that. And to actually say that Hillary Clinton is not trying to keep this country safe, I mean that is the type of off message rhetoric that's very dangerous.

HUGHES: No, it's not dangerous. It's called the truth, Bakari. We have people who have come home in body bags because of her failed policy and then she lied to the mothers about it. No, that is called facts, Bakari. Sorry.

(CROSSTALK)

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Carol, real quick?

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Carol, real quick. I mean, this is kind of the challenge, right? I mean, you can certainly have a debate about the last eight years and whether America is safer and whether the right policies about ISIS were pursued and that is something that -- the longer you're debating that, whether the economy is working for everybody, that is ground to stand on for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. But when you say Hillary Clinton doesn't really want to keep America safe, you kind of veer back to speaking to that very alienated 40 percent and causing the rest of the electorate, the voters who are in between where Donald Trump isn't where he needs to be, to question whether, you know, you are truly someone operating within the boundaries that they are comfortable as president. And I think that kind of encapsulated both the opportunity and the challenge that Donald Trump has created for the Republican Party.

HUGHES: Most people do not --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: OK. So I'm just going to stop this debate right now because I think the bottom line is the American people just want to know what both candidates are going to do to fight ISIS. They want specifics. They don't want to guess. And I suspect that's what most voters want. Bakari Sellers, Ron Brownstein, Scottie Nell Hughes, thanks to all of

you.

Today, Vice President Joe Biden hits the trail with Hillary Clinton in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Biden is set to attack Trump's experience while Clinton hammers him for not releasing his tax returns, but the FBI could spoil Clinton's day as Congress awaits new information about her private e-mail server.

CNN's Athena Jones in Washington with more on all of that. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, Biden is a popular figure there in Pennsylvania, having been born in Scranton. The hope on the part of the Clinton campaign is that he can help her appeal to blue-collar voters, white working class voters. These are the types of voters that Trump has had an advantage with.

We should mention at the outset that Pennsylvania has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988.

[10:15:05] But this is one of those rust belt states that Trump has said he wants to put into play. And so you can certainly expect the Clinton campaign to campaign hard there as well.

We expect to hear Vice President Biden to argue that there has been no nominee, no major party nominee in the history of America that has been as poorly prepared as Donald Trump is. He'll also say that Trump has no clue when it comes to the needs of working class families. This is in some ways the flip side of the argument the president made for Clinton's credentials at the DNC. Clinton is going to hit Trump on taxes, on not releasing his tax returns and on his economic plans.

But as you mentioned, there is this news that could come out as soon as today, maybe tomorrow, certainly this week, these notes from the three-plus hour-long interview Clinton had with the FBI over her private e-mail server. So there's a lot to talk about as we enter this week, Carol.

COSTELLO: Reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a second night of violence in Milwaukee. After one person was shot and a police officer sent to the hospital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:24] COSTELLO: Milwaukee police say they are now regaining control of their city after a second straight night of violent protest. One person was shot. A police officer injured. As demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at police. This latest round of violence comes after half a dozen businesses were torched over the weekend. The protest triggered by the shooting death of a black man who police say was armed.

CNN's Ana Cabrera live in Milwaukee with more. Hi, Ana. ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We are right at

ground zero where these protests have erupted in the last couple of nights. Just over my shoulder here is the busy intersection. Things getting back to normal here this morning. But this is the location where protesters clashed with police last night. This is where they hurled rocks at police officers according to the police officials.

This is where gunshots rang out. This is where a lot of attention has been building in the last couple of days over my shoulder on this site. You see the burned out BP gas station. One of six buildings that were set ablaze on Saturday night when the initial round of unrest happened following that shooting you mentioned, Carol, the 23- year-old Sylville Smith was the man who was shot and killed by police just a couple of blocks from here last night. Family and friends held a candlelight vigil for him. And we heard from his sister, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMBERLY NEAL, SYLVILLE SMITH'S SISTER: My blood, my protector. Somebody else have to be there for me . You all must think we're funny. OK. Maybe ya'll at the club. I lost my brother. I can't get him back. Never. Never. That's pain. This is real hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The community here says it's hurting, too. And it's been hurting for a long time. We spoke with one woman who's lived in this neighborhood for over 40 years. She describes the root of the anger in this community. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LATOYA WHITE, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: It was wrong to burn down the place, but their feeling is that they have no opportunity. They're oppressed. So I feel like we really need some change here and it's not going to end if we don't have change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Change are what we're hearing now. Residents tell us that it was just -- the shooting was just a flash point for really the issues that have been bubbling up in this community when it comes to the economic woes, when it comes to feeling oppressed, and feeling like this community has just been sort dumped on or ignored or not listened to, not cared about by community members and state leaders. And so that's where the conversation moves going forward as the community here is calling for solutions, Carol.

COSTELLO: The initial incident where that young African-American man was shot and killed by police, do we know anymore about what exactly happened?

CABRERA: Well, what we have learned is that it all began on Saturday afternoon, a couple of police officers tried to make a traffic stop. They said it was a suspicious vehicle. The two people inside that vehicle took off on foot, including Smith. Officers pursued on foot. And what police have told us and the mayor saying he's now seen the body camera video from the officer who opened fire is that Sylville Smith was holding a gun at the time, according to police officers, and he refused to obey orders to drop that gun. That's why they say the officer opened fire.

Now this has all been turned over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice who will look at all the facts of the case but at this time police and local officials are saying it appears this shooting was justified. Important to note that because it is a different conversation than some of the other shootings that we have been talking about in recent weeks and the last couple of years, really, since Ferguson, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Ana Cabrera, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Florida deputies have arrested a fugitive. He's accused of killing a South Georgia police officer. The suspect identified as Royheem Delshawn Deeds is accused of shooting Officer Tim Smith. It happened when Smith responded to a 911 call on Saturday night. A few minutes ago, we learned from a Florida sheriff that Deeds was captured earlier today. He was found hiding in the trunk of his sister's car.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, brazen and cold-blooded. A killer guns down an imam and his assistant in broad daylight on a New York City street. Was it a hate crime? We'll have the latest next.

[10:24:50]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: New York City detectives are questioning a possible suspect in the Saturday afternoon killing of an imam and his assistant. Both men were wearing Muslim religious attire when they were shot in a crowded Queens neighborhood in broad daylight.

CNN's Sara Ganim has been following the story. She has more for you this morning. Good morning.

SARA GANIM, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. We know that NYPD is now questioning a person of interest in this case who was apprehended after bumping into a police car, an unmarked police car, that was surveilling him.

We also know that police have released this sketch, you see here on the screen, they composed based on surveillance video from nearby that shows a man with a gun walk up behind the two men as they walk down the street from Saturday prayers at their mosque towards their home nearby. He shoots both men and then runs away with the gun. We know that as we speak police are being very careful about a motive but continue to investigate involving the hate crimes unit at --