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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Trump to Reveal Plan to Defeat ISIS; Trump's Tweet on Freedom of Press Examined; Baton Rouge Flooding Discussed. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 15, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:32:15] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In less than two hours, Donald Trump will unveil his plans to defeat ISIS. And his campaign says, he's going to lay out a three-pillar strategy. Number one, he said, he's going to declare an end to nation building and consider any country willing to help defeat ISIS one of our allies. Says he's going to suspend visas from any country with "Heavy terrorist activity" and says he will call the efforts an idealogical fight. Donald Trump says he's going to be direct and unvarnished and in fact so says Senator Jeff Sessions, who's the chairman of Trump's National Security Advisory Committee and he spoke with CNN earlier today.

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SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) CHAIRMAN OF TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE: He's going to layout the threat that we have from ISIS which is a group that wants to hold territory, plan a flag and actually have a nation state. They want to expand worldwide and take over the whole world. They've got to be confronted, they have to be defeated. There's no doubt about that but it's going to be a long term, idealogical battle.

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BANFIELD: A long time, idealogical battle, that's why these next two guests are critical. James Woolsey is former CIA director, and CNN military analyst, Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona is the former defense intelligence agency officer who lived in Syria for three years in the '90s and knows a lot about that very difficult region.

First to you Director Woolsey, if I can, is it overly simplistic to suggest that anyone who helps in the fight against ISIS should be declared an ally, especially considering the fact that I can just name off the top of my head Syria and Iran are not friends of ISIS and yet few would consider them friends of the United States.

JAMES WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Well, you don't have to be a friend of the United States to be an ally. We were a close ally for three years and eight months during World War II with the man who at that point was history's greatest murder. Joseph Stalin have killed more people than anyone. And by end of World War II, Maul later pasting.

But the point is we needed Stalin. We needed to win World War II against the Nazis, and we have a war here. It's not one that we recognized officially, at least the U.S. Government doesn't. I think it was Trotsky who once said the war -- you may not be interested in war, but war may be interested in you. And ISIS is coming after us. We need to work with the number of people and organizations and groups and countries that are not folks that we really want to help. And we didn't want to help, as I said we didn't want to help Stalin but he rolled into Eastern Europe in 1945 on wheels that made in Detroit and that was a real shame that we had to work that way but we won World War II and we've got to win against ISIS.

[12:30:11] BANFIELD: So, Colonel Francona, I'll ask the question in opposite to you. I notice that when Donald Trump says we're going to suspend the issuance of visas to countries that have demonstrated they can't appropriately be vetted or at least that they're considered, I think you used the words terror countries in the past. You know, it wasn't more than, I think a month and a half ago we put together the list of the most recent terror attacks and those responsible for them. And here they are, these are the attacks and I'll just summarize it for you.

The perpetrators were French. They were British. They were American. They were Belgian. It's a little hard again, isn't it, to be so simplistic in suggesting that those who are responsible for yielding terrorists should thus not be issued visas? How do you cut these people out of the fray?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yeah, that's going to be a real problem. I don't see how that works. And it will be interesting to see what his plan is going to be.

Now, first we had this ban on all Muslims. We know that's not going to work out, it's not constitutional and there's no way to enforce that. And how he's going to come up with this list of countries, and of course we know the two countries he's going to put on the list are going to be Syria and Libya. You can't vet people from that and that's understandable.

But as you say, those aren't the big problems. The big problems we have are the people that come from these European countries, go to Syria and Iraq, get involved in ISIS and then return. Fortunately that has not been a big problem for the United States yet although it might be. It'd be interesting to hear what his thoughts on that are. Because our European allies are having a real trouble with this, Belgium in particular and of course we see this in France.

And just to followup on, you know, what the director says, this a problem we have in Syria. You know in Iraq we kind of know where the roadmap is going. Go to Mosul, get rid of them. Kick ISIS out of there. But the problem in as he says is in Syria. You know, we are right now opposed to the outside government. The people that Trump would allied with are trying to and are keeping us in power. So this is a real puzzle and I would really like to hear how Mr. Trump is going to solve that.

BANFIELD: It is very complicated to say the very least and it certainly deserves more time than I'm giving you. But I'm going to move on because Donald Trump is coming up and we do want to hear what he has to say. Director Woolsey, thank you. Colonel Francona, thank you. I appreciate both of you and your insight.

Coming up as we lay the ground for Donald Trump's live press conference, we're also looking at the stuff that he's done live on the twitter. One of the latest tweets he sent out was about the definition of the freedom of the press. And it's certainly raising a lot of eyebrows among constitutional experts and just mere mortals like me.

So what does the First Amendment really say? And how much rate does the press really have? Is Donald Trump really right? Does he know the constitution? That's next.

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[12:42:07] BANFIELD: Donald Trump is not only campaigning aggressively against Hillary Clinton, he's also taking on the media. Here is just one of his recent tweets, "It is not the freedom of the press when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want, even if it's completely false." Let that digest.

That comment is really raising some eyebrows especially since the First Amendment actually says this, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise there of or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." It doesn't say the dumb press or the wrong press, just the press. And these two guys know a lot about it. Floyd Abrams is a constitution expert, First Amendment expert and a lawyer, and is a lot of us have our cues from him. Also with us is CNN Senior media correspondent and host of "Reliable Sources" Brian Stelter.

First to you, Professor Abrams. Freedom of the press is exactly that, it doesn't matter if you're wrong. You have the right to be wrong. You would be sued, you may win, you may lose. But as I understand it, you have that right.

FLOYD ABRAMS, CONSTITUTION AND FIRST AMENDMENT ATTORNEY: You're right.

BANFIELD: Thank you.

ABRAMS: And look, the very notion that the press can't say what it wants or what it thinks is right about a candidate for president, is at war with the First Amendment. I mean, of course it's not a debatable point, that the press is free in this country to report and to make its own decisions about what to report about a campaign, a candidate or the like. Yes, he could bring a liable case in certain situations and would have to prove they really knew it was false but the general proposition, the real core of the First Amendment is that the government has got to leave the press alone.

BANFIELD: OK. Brian Stelter, I want to read another tweet that came out in this whole barrage against the media.

BRIAN STELTER, "RELIABLE SOURCES" HOST: Yeah, yeah. BANFIELD: It said -- Donald Trump said, "If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20 percent." I'm not sure where he gets the math from ...

STELTER: Not possible.

BANFIELD: ... but I want to go to that first part.

STELTER: Yeah.

BANFIELD: That we put false meaning into the words he said. I'm just looking at a couple quotes in front of me. I'm not sure how they can be misconstrued. He said these words. He used his own name, Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shut down of Muslims entering United States.

STELTER: That was a Muslim ban. Yeah.

BANFIELD: That's clear. The other thing with terrorists is you have to take out their families.

STELTER: That's a war crime, yes.

BANFIELD: That's really clear. One of those things I'm going to do if I win, I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.

STELTER: That scares people like the best (inaudible).

BANFIELD: It's an opinion, but it is not fact. But again, it's clear.

[12:45:02]ABRAMS: Yeah.

BANFIELD: He makes very clear and stride and statements and often makes big mistakes but why is it he's able to get away with saying that we are putting a meaning to the word?

STELTER: Well, let me take, I miss that perspective for a moment. I can imagine what it's like for him down in the polls hating everything he's reading and watching right now. And he's benefitted from free media attention for 14 months of his campaign. But right now a lot of the coverage is very negative because he is doing very poorly in key swing states.

You can imagine, when he turns on the T.V. he hates what he sees. He wants to turn it off. So he runs on twitter. But of course the same First Amendment protections that you and I, the three of us have, also apply to him. He can say whatever he wants but we need to come on the air and correct him and clarify what press freedom is all about.

BANFIELD: Well, the "Wall Street Journal's" editorial board can write this. Bear with me. This is what they put out in print. "Mr. Trump is right that most of the media want him to lose, but then that was also true, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. The difference is that Mr. Trump has made it so easy for the media and his opponent. He needs to stop blaming everyone else and decide if he wants to behave like someone who wants to be president or turn the nomination over to Mike Pence." I guess, you know what, editorial boards can say what they like, as well, but it is fascinating that words are being attributed to us when we are simply just -- it's a giant shoot of material that keeps coming down on us.

STELTER: That is true, isn't it?

BANFIELD: It is.

ABRAMS: And he should be especially, especially protective of the First Amendment. He could be in jail in Europe for some of the things about Muslims where they ban hate speech ...

BANFIELD: Yeah.

ABRAMS: ... and put politicians in jail or fine them for some of the very things he has said.

STELTER: And I thought of that.

BANFIELD: I remember I was reporting in Baghdad and my driver was driving us pass Saddam Hussein's palace before Saddam Hussein was out of that palace and I was fascinated by the size and scope of that palace. And the driver said to me, take your eyes off that palace and look straight ahead on the road. And I said what are you talking about? He said shhh. We were in a car.

STELTER: Right.

BANFIELD: I was looking at Saddam Hussein's palace. Talk about freedom of the press being up raged when you're terrified to even look somewhere. Both of you, thank you. I think this isn't the last ...

STELTER: Thanks.

BANFIELD: ... conversation on this floor.

ABRAMS: Thanks.

BANFIELD: Ever since, always at the pleasure. Great reporting, thank you.

Coming up next, we're going to take you to some unbelievable pictures. Flooding, devastating parts of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This is a live picture of one area that is struggling through this latest crisis. It's sending regular people like one particular man out into the floods to do this unbelievable live rescue. The cameras catching it all, pulling that woman out of a car that's submerged, you're going to see the whole thing next.

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[12:51:48] BANFIELD: I want to show you a piece of video just before we get to the Hillary Clinton event. We're looking at some live pictures and she's going to take the stage in a few moments. But this is a good opportunity for those who are not able to watch television at this point because they are deluged with terrible flooding in Louisiana. And if you need evidence of that, check out these area shots, entire neighborhoods under water. This is Robert, Louisiana. But I'm going to take you right down to water level, where one young man did something so death-defying. He rescued a woman whose car plunged under water. Just watch this rescue of the woman and her dog. It's unbelievable.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get my dog. Get my dog.

DAVID PHUNG, RESCUED WOMAN AND DOG: I can't get your dog. She's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she better not be. I'll be having ...

PHUNG: I've got your dog. Go, get to the boat. Get to the boat. As open -- I busted open the back, the first instinct was to get a hold of her and pull her out and couldn't do it from the boat so I just jumped in and had to do what I had to do.

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BANFIELD: Wow. Unbelievable. Just an unbelievable rescue. The mayor of the city of Baton Rouge is live with me now on the phone, Melvin Kipp Holden. Mayor Holden, I think you're at the emergency operations center in Baton Rouge. If you can just give me a read on your community and tell me what the circumstances are now, what's the status of the flooding there?

MELVIN KIPP HOLDEN, BATON ROUGE MAYOR: Well, we have a lot of different things going on at once, but right now, you have to do everything from monitoring road and weather conditions and just now we had a briefing primarily where we have some homes. Where water's up to the roof and we have people going in a search and rescue operations to see whether or not people may be trapped in those homes and have not gotten out because of problems with the phone systems that we've had throughout Baton Rouge during these tough, tough times.

Added to that, we've done over 8,000 swift water rescues, sandbags. I cannot even tell you the sandbags. But it's not just Baton Rouge and is that was carried. It's just the surrounding terraces as well. So all of us have been inundated, and so we find ourselves using the buddy system, making sure that if we need anything we not only takes care of the people in Baton Rouge, but surrounding terraces, as well.

BANFIELD: Can I ask you about all of the people who I'm assuming are no longer in those homes we're seeing on so many of these pictures. They're displaced but where are they displaced to? How are you looking after them?

HOLDEN: Well, many of those are at shelter, but we've opened our City Hall piece. We have what we call river center and that's normally for concerts and those things, so. Last night in conjunction with the Governor's Office, we opened that facility up. You can get an extra, you know, welcome 2,500 to 5,000 people there.

[12:55:07] We have a movie studio here that opened up about six or seven sound stages, and so those people are there but I can tell you people have been very generous in trying to help us out and also trying to take care of people, but in some cases we've had evacuation places that we had to evacuate people from those places. So it's a lot of things that's moving around right now, but we are not giving up and we're going to fight it until the very end.

BANFIELD: And just quickly, is it correct to say more than 24 inches of rain has fallen? Because that would seem like an extraordinary rare figure?

HOLDEN: Yes, ma'am. When I tell you, this is unbelievable. The amount of rain that has fallen here and I can tell you it is still very, very dangerous. We are still have waters rising in a number of areas. So I can tell you that all of our people are still on high alert because of how swift this could change and how quick you may be dry now and the next day you're in water and that water is rising in some areas still very quickly.

BANFIELD: Mayor Holden, thank you and our best to you and your community as you try to get through this crisis, thank you for being with us at this time.

HOLDEN: Yes, ma'am and thank you all so much for letting the people know we're fine but we've got a lot of things to do and we will prepare but thank you all for everything you do as well, ma'am.

BANFIELD: Best to you and yours. I just want to remind our viewers, as well that we've got our live cameras ready in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where Hillary Clinton is about stage with Vice President Joe Biden.

We're watching. We're going to bring it to you live, we're back right after this.

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