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Don Lemon Tonight

Trump Addresses African-Americans; Trump Attacks The Press. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired August 16, 2016 - 23:00   ET

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


[23:00:02] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: What people are --

KELLYANNE CONWAY, SENIOR ADVISER TO TRUMP CAMPAIGN: You missed the first 10 minutes of your show then.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Don, what Kellyanne is talking about is you're -- your initial question was --

LEMON: Please stand by. I just have to reset. It's the top of the hour. Excuse me.

It's the top of the hour. This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon. We're starting with Donald Trump's speech. You heard Donald Trump giving a live speech in Wisconsin just moments ago, speaking on law and order in the wake of the weekend of unrest in Milwaukee.

He also made a speech for African-American voters saying that Democrats taking for granted and he also took a shot at Hillary Clinton. I'm joined now by my panel here and we're going to continue on. Go ahead, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: First thing is, you know, immediately coming out the Donald Trump's speech the question was did he deliver this in the right community. That's the first response. Not let's talk about what he did, which was outreach to African-Americans, not talk about the fact that he said, look, our country is at a perilous point, we have to protect our police, let's make sure our community is safe, let's make sure people have a good education --

LEMON: Corey, we don't even talk about that.

LEWANDOWSKI: I understand. But the first point --

LEMON: Other people's opinions are valid. The first person we went to was a reporter --

LEWANDOWSKI: I understand.

LEMON: -- who brought up the point.

LEWANDOWSKI: The question where the speech was being done. That's not objective. Look, Hillary Clinton was in Scranton, Pennsylvania with Joe Biden, yes, no one said to her. That's not an African- American community because Joe Biden talked about African-Americans. What's the African-American population in Scranton, Pennsylvania? I didn't see the report he's talking about that. So that speech was done. Where's the equity? Where's the fairness? I don't see it. That's the problem.

LEMON: She wasn't giving a speech on African-Americans.

LEWANDOWSKI: But Donald Trump wasn't just giving that speech. He's also talking about security, he's talking about violence against police officers of which if we go and look at the facts.

LEMON: Corey, what was the bulk of his speech?

LEWANDOWSKI: 80 percent increase in gun violence against police officers this year over last year.

LEMON: Corey, I'm not disagreeing with that. But what was the bulk of his speech about?

LEWANDOWSKI: It was a broad speech, it was about charter schools, it was about homeland security domestically which is protecting police, it was about economic safety, it was about changes in Washington, D.C. and the --

LEMON: It was. But it he spoke a lot about African-American.

LEWANDOWSKI: But it wasn't just about that. That's what you've --

LEMON: No, no, we're not saying -- no one said it's just about African-Americans. But he spoke a lot of about it.

LEWANDOWSKI: But is that mean he has to give a speech in Washington D.C., let's say D.C. is broken and Hillary Clinton that can give, of course not.

LEMON: Nobody said that. We're analyzing the speech, Corey. And everything can be analyzed.

Go ahead, Van.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Corey, I thought that the most remarkable thing about the speech, he said a lot of divisive stuff and law and order stuff in the past, the most remarkable thing about the speech was he did address the African-American community, and he said the word African-American people almost two dozen times. So I don't think you can sit up here and say that this was -- that he's -- he was not aiming the speech in some important way and a new constituency.

In general that's a good thing. We have wanted him to reach out. He's doing that. Unfortunately, he did it in an arena that made it look somewhat laughable and with rhetoric that was very, very I think disrespectful. The African-American community has other things going o than just crime. The only thing that he's saying about us is we're the victims of crime or we're committing crime and I think that's adds to stereotypes.

LEWANDOWSKI: What he also said was the Democratic Party has taken advantage in taken for granted the African-American population that has done so from multiple election cycles and he is not reaching out to show that under a Republican administration, under Trump administration what that would look like is better schools, better jobs, stop illegal immigration, which disproportionally hurts the African-American communities. He talked all about that. Because it is true that the Democrat have taken advantage and taken for granted the African-American community. And this is Donald Trump reaching out to say there is a second choice.

JONES: Corey, I think what he is trying to aim at, which is I think you are correct, there is a section of the black community that is frustrated that the Democrats have not delivered. He is smart enough politically to try go after that.

But in the execution of it, the way that he went about it I thought was despicable. First of all, he tried to divide us from our Latino sisters and brothers. If you have know anything about what's going on in our communities --

LEMON: Van, how did he do that? I missed that.

JONES: He said that the undocumented community, I think he said illegal community is in here taking jobs --

LEMON: But you said Hispanic. He didn't say that.

JONES: Correct. Correct. And I'm making an interpretation.

LEMON: So let's correct that.

JONES: I'm going to make an assumption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. So don't try to say that. He's playing (ph) Hispanic --

LEMON: One at a time, please. One at a time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get it right.

JONES: Duly corrected. I'm going to make the assumption --

LEMON: OK.

JONES: -- that most people didn't think he was talking about Canadians, most didn't think he was talking about Swedish models. Most people thought it was on Latinos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, Van.

JONES: And so since that's probably --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Van.

JONES: Let me finish. So people -- that's what most people heard. One of the greatest things that's happening in the country is there's been a big healing at the grass roots level between Latinos and blacks. There used to be a lot of violence and anger. And for him to go and try to rip that back over for political purposes is wrong.

LEMON: Bruce, you want to respond?

BRUCE, LEVELL, FORMER GOP CHAIRMAN OF GWINNETT COUNTY: I disagree wit that, you know. It's -- what he said in the speech, he said, Van, he said, you know, Hillary is using, you know, her motives to gain other people of illegal immigrants and not -- that does affect African- American jobs. And that's true, Van. I mean, really. There's nothing, you know --

JONES: Guys, I'm sorry --

LEMON: Speaking of guys, guy has not said one thing the entire time. So Guy Cecil, go ahead, I've heard you. I've seen you reacting couple of times.

[23:05:06] GUY CECIL, FORMER EXEC DIR., DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE: Sometimes silence is the better part of valor. I think this is probably a good example of that.

LEMON: Yeah.

CECIL: Look, I think context is important here. You had a Republican candidate who has brought in 1,100 workers from overseas to staff his businesses, complain about workers coming in to take African-American jobs. He could have easily hired them in his workplace. You have someone lecturing us about crime. You have someone that's trying to speak about the African-American community but left out the fact that his own company was marking applications for apartments, noting which ones were African-American before outright rejecting them.

Yes, words are great. Whether you like the speech, you dislike the speech, the fact of that matter is that Donald Trump has had an entire career of dividing people, of attacking African-Americans. Just yesterday or a couple of days ago he talked about how some communities, some communities in Pennsylvania were going to engage in massive voter fraud.

Now, you don't have to be a genius to know what communities he was talking about. So whether it's been by inference, whether it's been intentionally dividing African-Americans and Hispanics, whether it's been a career of discriminated against them, or whether it's just been outright bigoted words the fact of the matter is Donald Trump doesn't have a grasp on temperament or tone or facts or figures and that's why he shouldn't be president of the United States.

LEMON: I want Kellyanne to get in because I know that you're pained by some of the conversation going on here. Go ahead Kellyanne.

CONWAY: What do you want me to answer? I can speak the way did?

LEMON: Yeah.

CONWAY: OK, great. That's terrific. So let's contrast the last couple of days by Hillary Clinton and by Donald Trump. Yesterday he gave a very muscular foreign policy speech, he talked to the American people who feel like we've been at war against terror for 15 years and he said here's the problem, here are the solutions, here's my plan. You may not like it. People may not like it but at least they can read it, they can hear it. He talked about how ISIS is on the rise, how ISIS and its predecessor groups have killed 32,000 people and since the birth in the growth of ISIS in 2013, they've killed 80 percent of those 33,000 people. We left a vacuum in Libya, in Iraq, in Syria, in Egypt that has allowed them to flourish. And he gave a speech about ISIS. Today he followed up with another speech.

So people who want to talk about his style and his business that that don't want to give him his due. I think he just learned that tonight. People who are against him are not going to change their minds. They're going to continue to insult him, lie about him if they want to, but there are people out there listening to his speeches that he's bringing the messages directly through them, through all the noise and through all the silence. And they will hear him because this electorate done he's going to want everybody to pivot from this stupid constant (ph) speech (ph) for companies --

LEMON: Let me ask you a question.

CONWAY: -- into the issues that affect them.

LEMON: You see that people -- I didn't hear anyone insult Donald Trump tonight. What I heard was criticism. How has criticism become an insult?

CONWAY: You didn't hear insulting words? OK. But then the minute that somebody says something about Hillary Clinton, they're being sexist, or they're mean, or they're being -- they have a bad temperament, they're being intemperate.

So, why is there a double standard for that? Why she, and her, and people like Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden yesterday, the Vice President of the United States playing political pundit? He spent 95 percent of his speech instead of propping her up like so many do on Donald Trump, he did --

LEMON: Kellyanne.

CONWAY: -- what Democrats always do. He's been asked to talk about Hillary Clinton, he talked about Donald Trump.

LEMON: Yeah.

CONWAY: That's not --

LEMON: I was talking about in this particular panel tonight. You said that people continue to insult, my thought, you made it with this panel. I didn't hear anyone say anything insulting about Donald Trump.

CONWAY: About Donald Trump?

JONES: Yeah, I have a question for Kellyanne. So, you know, I -- ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Actually, Don, I think, I will tell you something. I will take credit for insulting him. And I will take credit for insulting him because he's been insulting communities since the first day he launched this campaign when he started talking about Mexican rapists.

The reason I can call Donald Trump names and I can insult him back is because I am the sister of a disabled man, and he mocked that disabled man, because I am the friend of a POW and he mocked that POW, because I'm an immigrant, and he has insulted immigrants, because I'm a Hispanic, and he has insulted Hispanic, because I'm a woman, and he has insulted women.

So, yeah, we're at the point where there is insult and name calling but I would just say that he threw that rock first.

LEMON: Van?

NAVARRO: He's the one that has lowered the debate to the level that it's at.

JONES: Well, amen, sister.

JONES: Are we at a speech topic?

LEMON: We were responding to what Kellyanne said but go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

JONES: Well, first of all, I do want to acknowledge Kellyanne has done great work on charter schools and I wasn't -- I didn't mean you in particular. You've earned your stripes and I apologize that you thought I was taking that away from you.

But all too often, Republicans only talk about what's going on in Chicago or other places as a talking point, as a sound bite to either push back on protest or push back on Democrats. And to me that is -- that's not in the spirit of people like Jack Kemp, who used to actually go to the community as Republicans and really be a part of the community and try to help.

[23:10:12] And I'm just tired of seeing the pain that we're suffering being used for political football points by any party and especially by someone like Donald Trump, who, as best I can tell has never shown up, unlike you, has never shown up in these communities on the hard days but he's happy to go to a white community and that was a part of the optics here and talk about us and not talk to us.

CONWAY: Well, I appreciate that, Van.

NAVARRO: Van, I want to ask you.

LEMON: Let Kellyanne respond to him. He was speaking directly to Kellyanne --

NAVARRO: OK. LEMON: -- Ana, and then I let you go.

CONWAY: No, no, but I also think it's really unfair to judge somebody who is running for office for their first time and just presume they've never gone to these communities. I mean, he employs thousands and thousands and thousands of people from all walks of life, from many different countries, from all races, both genders obviously.

And I think that we should take a step back and look at the full measure of the man, the charity work he's done, the donations he's made, the people he's helped over time. It's difficult when somebody doesn't have a political resume to necessary look at all the speeches they've given, the promises they've made.

I mean, Van, ladies -- lady, gentlemen, I think the question is very fair to ask. Since Hillary Clinton has been in public office for decades and none of us can deny some of these very haunting facts, what is she going to do that's so different? Why should some of these communities have hope? Why shouldn't they just at least listen to Donald Trump's speech tonight and entertain it?

And by the way, I assume that everybody has T.Vs like we do. It doesn't matter who the audience was, only I hope he does go to other audiences. I would encourage him to --

LEMON: Let me get in, I think that was one of the first things that one of the panelists, I think it was Van, that we were trying to make, and the panelists were trying to make is if you're going to deliver a message you should make sure that message, people receive that message instead of it bouncing off.

CONWAY: Could you look at it as a start?

LEMON: But, you took umbrage to it, Corey took umbrage to it, and there are probably people who took umbrage to it when I think the panelists was simply trying to have a conversation and have you and Trump supporters understand that optics do matter.

CONWAY: They do.

LEMON: The words do matter. Go ahead, go ahead.

LEWANDOWSKI: But the substance there --

LEMON: Absolutely. We're not saying this audience does not matter but go ahead, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: This was a national speech. This was to a national audience. This wasn't to the audience in that room. You can't put a room big enough.

And so what you do is, look --

LEMON: But Corey --

LEWANDOWSKI: -- you know what, Donald Trump has had multiple meetings at Trump Tower with African-American leaders from across the country. You know, and if you look at who's --

LEMON: But it's not part of the problem that those meetings were at Trump Towers, they're not in African-American (inaudible). I'm sure you saw the "New York Times" stories about him going into Detroit --

LEWANDOWSKI: Pastor Darrell Scott.

LEMON: -- and other areas and not --

LEWANDOWSKI: Pastor Mark Burns, Bruce LeVell.

LEMON: -- going into Trump Tower.

LEWANDOWSKI: How many times has Hillary Clinton done that and pandered, literally pandered to the African-American community and said, yes, I've got hot sauce in my pocket. Wasn't that a comment that she made?

LEMON: No, no.

LEWANDOWSKI: It was egregious.

LEMON: Corey, no.

LEWANDOWSKI: It was egregious.

LEMON: No.

LEWANDOWSKI: Donald Trump didn't pander to anybody. Where did this come out?

LEMON: That's a good question for one of the Democrats on the panel.

LEWANDOWSKI: You know what he did tonight? He gave a very specific message. He said I want to help. I want to show that there is a difference to the Democrats who've taken you for granted African- American population. And the speech is much broader than that, it's initial for a -- that'll reach (ph).

LEMON: Van?

JONES: Corey, you know, one of the ironies here is that I was one of the people who in when you were out there working for Donald Trump back in September, back in October, back in November, December, I was saying the African-American community could be open to a Donald Trump message. I was the one -- and I got a lot of grief from it but I said that there have been failures on the parts of Democrats. There is an opening there for someone to come with a new message.

The milk curdled in the black community, because of the way he talked about Muslims, the way he talked about Latinos, the way he talked about disabled people, the whole list that Ana just went through, curdled the milk. African Americans are very sensitive to people who come across in a bigoted way or who speak in generalities about groups. And we look and see what you talk bad about them, and you talk bad about them, you're going to talk bad about me. And the great tragedy for both parties is that Donald Trump took a bad situation, too many African Americans in one party, which is bad for both parties and made it worse because of his conduct. Now, and then tonight he had a chance to fix it.

LEVELL: I disagree.

LEWANDOWSKI: Yeah, but, Van --

JONES: And he made it worse.

LEVELL: I disagree. Van, come on.

LEWANDOWSKI: Here's the thing, you've had an African American president who's had the opportunity to go and do something very special for the last eight years, which is to take African-Americans who have a disproportionately high rate of unemployment in their communities and do something for them, empowerment zones, help people back to work and he hasn't done it. The African-American population today is not better off than they were eight years ago. We're not.

LEMON: Oh, we're never going to get to a commercial break tonight.

LEWANDOWSKI: We're not better off eight years ago because --

LEMON: Let Guy, let Guy. Go ahead, Guy.

CECIL: I think if Corey thinks that the way that Donald Trump is going to appeal to the African-American community is by attacking President Obama and attacking Obamacare, it reflects a good reason why he's sitting on this panel and not in Trump Tower right now. It's just a fundamental misunderstanding of the electorate and talking about hot sauce on the panel, attacking Hillary Clinton's --

LEWANDOWSKI: Your opponent has an --

(CROSSTALK)

[23:15] 10] LEMON: Corey, stand by for me. Kellyanne, just stand by. Everyone, I need to get to a break. We're going to continue this on the other side of this break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: That's what makes the big speech in Wisconsin tonight but did voters like what they heard from him? Back with me now former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, also with the CNN senior media correspondent Mr. Brian Stelter, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. Ana Navarro is back with us as well. Also Trump supporter Kayleigh Mcenany and Van Jones back with me as well.

OK, so, Brian, there were lots of attacks on special interests, not to mention the media is that the right tactic, you think?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Many, many new criticisms to the press. So we've seen this from Donald Trump for several days now complaining about the media covered against him. And he's presenting the press now is part of a rigged system. I think it is logical for him to make this argument, certainly his based supports it. As we've said before, I don't know why undecided voters would be more likely to support him because he says the press is out to get him. But every time he criticizes the media, it helps inoculate him against criticism and against scrutiny, I think that's what he's doing here.

LEMON: Is there some irony in hearing Donald Trump talk about the noise on televisions when he has --

STELTER: It's beyond the irony. After all, he was live on all the cable channels. His speech will be heard by millions of people on morning T.V and all across Twitter and Facebook. In some ways, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton all are the noise of this year. So yes, I think it's beyond ironic.

[23:20:05] LEMON: Do you think his criticism of the media is fair, Corey?

LEWANDOWSKI: Look I think what you have -- I think if you want to talk about it as supposed to talking about the substance of the speech, we're talking about the venue. Yes, I think that's an unfair criticism. Let's talk about the substance, let's talk about what the messaging was, not about what the venue was. I don't think that that is a fair criticism of the media. I think if Hillary Clinton were to deliver a speech on the problems of Washington D.C. and she decides to do that outside of the beltway, and no one would criticize her for doing that.

So I think he does get unfairly treated because no one wants to look messaging which is very on point tonight. Just like it was -- yes when he talked about ISIS. He didn't have to be a war zone to deliver that speech. The message is goes too much broader audience so I think it's unfair of the media to question the venue of the speech like that tonight.

LEMON: He mentioned -- go ahead, Van.

JONES: Well, look, I think if she went to give a speech about women and there were only men in the audience, I think it would just be weird. I mean I just, in other words, I mean Donald -- you guys think it's really, you know, badly and you feel like you're being prosecuted. I just think that optics matter in politics. And if you got to give a speech about a -- it's very, very -- maybe guys you don't understand this, on the Trump campaign, maybe that's why you're at 1 percent with the black community. We don't like people talking about us when they could be talking to us. And I think that's true pretty much. Anybody, it's a dignity question. We don't like people to be talking about us if they could talk to us.

LEMON: Go ahead, Kayleigh.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Van, you're talking about optics but you know what matters a lot more than optics is outcomes. Wherever the Democratic Party has said we are the party for the African-Americans community, all this time for the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton to tell the African-American community why in the words of the U.S. civil rights commissioner Peter Kirsanow, they are disproportionally affected by immigration policies put forward by this Democratic administration.

You talked about putting Hispanics and blacks against each other which is crazy because Hispanics were never mentioned in the speech. What is true though according to the same U.S. civil rights commissioner, it sends Obama took office. There are two million more eligible working black men. Despite that, two million fewer African-Americans in the labor force and yet 4.4 million foreign-born individuals have jobs. Those are facts. Those are numbers and it's time for the Democratic Party to explain why they have failed the African-American community, crime, education and the economy.

JONES: OK, so good, if you want to have this conversation-- I'm sorry, go ahead, Ana. With that Ana try again?

LEMON: Go ahead.

NAVARRO: Yeah, it is. And let me just say it all matters folks. Optics matter, words matter, actions matter, records matter. And let's just look at how actually Donald Trump first got on to the political scene recently. It was by questioning president Obama's birth. Where was President Obama born? A lot of African-Americans, a lot of Americans period saw that as a dog whistle because it was an African-American president. Let us not deny that he has been the flag bearer, you know, since we're in Olympics seasons are on where was the first black president of the United States born?

Let's also take a look at the republican convention or actually I should call it the Trump convention because so many Republicans I know were not even anywhere near the place and in that Trump convention there was something like 18 African-American delegates. There were more African-Americans in the choir that opened up the Democratic convention than there were in the entire Republican convention and speak with the entire convention.

So those things do matter. The fact that it is now September, it is -- I have good news for America. We only have three months to go before the election. I have bad news for America. These three months are going to be like dog years. They are going to be expensive and last and they're going to kill us, and I recommend that you resort to alcohol to meditation, to prayer, to internet shopping, sex, whatever it takes to get you through these next through months.

But you don't start outreach with a community which you are at 1 or 0 percent three months before election day. In Florida, absentee ballots go out in two months. This man has nothing going on with Hispanics, African-American or any other Floridian. There is one office in Florida. And I think there might be a Mar-a-Lago.

LEMON: OK. So, I want to play what we've been talking about what he said. Let's listen to a little bit and then we can discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R), REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We reject the bigotry of Hillary Clinton which panders to and talks down to communities of color and sees them only as votes. That's all they care about. Not as individual human beings worthy of a better future. They have taken advantage.

She doesn't care at all about the hurting people of this country or the suffering she has caused them and she, meaning she and her party officials, there has been tremendous suffering because of what they have brought.

[23:25:08] The African-American community has been taken for granted for decades by the Democratic Party and look how they're doing. It's time to break with the failures of the past. I want to offer Americans a new and much better future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So he said no, this is for you, Maria, no community and I'm paraphrasing here, has been hurt more by the policies than African- American by Hillary Clinton's policies than African-Americans.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: There's so many reasons here why this speech has fallen flat. And, you know, there was a lot of complaints on the panel that we weren't talking about substance so let's talk about substance. And I will give them hints as to why this speech has completely fallen flat with African-American as well as with Latinos.

First of all, when you talk in hyperbole, which is what we just heard in terms of what Hillary Clinton and her policies has done to the African-American community, let's remember that she, as well as her husband, Bill Clinton, have been working in the African-American community for the past four decades.

One of the first things that Hillary Clinton did after she left law school was to go to work for the Children's Defense Fund and a lot of that was to do research undercover to make sure that schools were not discriminating against African-American children.

LEMON: OK that speech.

CARDONA: In the 70s she was registering Latino voters. So when in the speech you talked about how Hillary Clinton has done nothing and has been a failure to African-Americans. It completely falls flat it's that --

MCENANY: We're saying the Democratic --

CARDONA: Hang on.

MCENANY: -- policies have failed. You haven't answered that, neither has Van. Your policies have failed the African-American community.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: Kayleigh, let me finish.

JONES: I haven't spoken yet.

CARDONA: And so then when you talk about -- when this comes from somebody who, as Ana said that I was going to mentioned this, burst on to the national scene by a racist birther movement and burst on to the presidential scene calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, the Hispanic community and African-American community are not going to listen to you with open ears, especially when you have done nothing to approach them with respect, with dignity and with openness. Has he had one conversation with mothers of the movement? Has he one conversation with dreamers or with mixed status families who are afraid of their family be ripped apart?

LEMON: OK.

CARDONA: I'm sure where you deflect. You deflect them, you --

LEWANDOWSKI: We need to correct something is very important.

LEMON: Go ahead, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: Let me correct something that is very important. Donald Trump did not burst on to the scene by talking about Barack Obama's -- where he was born. If you recall back in 1984 Donald Trump was part of the Reagan team where he was raising money for incumbent U.S. President Ronald Reagan -- it's been long before this. I know Ana doesn't remember that --

STELTER: But his political stature in 2011 was built upon the premise of birtherism.

LEWANDOWSKI: I understand, but do you -- but also, what you don't want to talk about are the thousand Hispanics that he employs in Florida. No one wants to mention that fact, which is more so than Ana Navarro employs, or for that matter anyone else on this panel employs. He employs at one of his properties alone. That's a fact. It's unequivocal. No one has denied it. No one wants to point to that fact.

LEMON: Kayleigh ask a very important question.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Actually Corey, let me just go ahead and answer you, Corey.

LEWANDOWSKI: You have a lot of employees?

NAVARRO: You don't know much about me.

LEWANDOWSKI: You have a lot of employees, Ana?

NAVARRO: Actually, we do, actually we do. Actually, why don't you ask Don Lemon and Maria Cardona and Kayleigh who stay at our hotel -- at my family's hotels in Florida. How many hotels we have and how many Hispanics, how many Asians, how many Americans we employ and are proud to. So before you attack me personally, at the least, you at least --

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: You have been attacking Donald Trump all day. You don't even know the guy. You've never met the guy. Ana, you've never met him.

NAVARRO: And I will attack him until the last day of this election because he has been attacking my community.

LEWANDOWSKI: You know why? You know because you're bitter, because you're a Bush supporter to some other supporter and now you're an unhappy loser. That's what happened.

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: Corey just give me a favor. Before you have to attacking me. Let me tell you something. Let me play my little violin for you, OK?

LEWANDOWSKI: Look I support the winner. I have no problem with that. I'm the one who's happy.

NAVARRO: You know what, I wasn't happy that Jeb Bush lost and it lasted me about a week. After that I started supporting everybody other than Donald Trump.

LEWANDOWSKI: How did that work out for you?

NAVARRO: Because I think he's a racist bigot who is destructive for the Republican Party.

LEWANDOWSKI: How did that work out for you?

CARDONA: Corey, you really don't have to go after people personally. You're out of your league when you do that.

LEWANDOWSKI: No, when I said as Donald Trump employs a thousand people in Florida at one of his properties --

LEMON: That was an ad homonym attack on Ana Navarro --

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: Ana's not running for president.

NAVARRO: Listen, you're so ignorant and defensive that you don't know we own two hotels in Florida and we employ more than a thousand people.

CARDONA: Yeah, I have been there and seen those employees.

[23:30:00] LEMON: Kayleigh, that's a very good question. And you want to respond to it Van?

JONES: Yeah. LEMON: Quickly and then we'll take the break.

JONES: Sure, and I -- well, appreciated Kayleigh's question because she's actually trying to deal with a really challenge. I'm going to assume that Kayleigh actually is concerned about African-American unemployment. And there's -- there is a myth and as you look at the numbers, you can fall into this track that the reason African-American don't have jobs is because Latinos are here. But when we actually break out the data, it turns out that we're not actually competing in the same sectors often.

CARDONA: Yeah.

JONES: You see a lot more Latinos in the agricultural sectors, we're not really there. You see a lot more African-American in some of the public service jobs, some of the public sectors jobs, Latinos aren't there. Where there is some conflict in some of the service sector jobs in some cities. And where there has been a conflict man, it is been very hot had heated. We work very hard to kind of get those tensions down. I'm concerned about Donald Trump inflaming those tensions again. But Kayleigh, you know, Kayleigh is actually trying to do a service. I think to the country to let us actually talk about, you know facts and figures and there are Democratic responses.

LEMON: Yeah.

JONES: At some point we should have this conversation.

LEMON: So, can I say this, and -- for I don't know how many of us you can put on screen. But this is how you actually have a conversation.

JONES: Yes.

LEMON: You argue, you fight, you let people talk, some people make wrong point. This is an actual conversation that's happening on television. And I sit back and I've just sort of let this, you know?

JONES: Yeah.

LEMON: Listen, I was not upset with Kayleigh and -- but I just like people to answer my questions directly, and then you can go on to make your points. But anyway, I just want to -- I'm really enjoying this. I hope the American people are enjoying this. And I hope you're sitting people sitting around and they're having a very similar conversation.

JONES: Yeah. Can I say one more thing?

LEMON: Yeah, go ahead, Van?

JONES: And, you know, also Kayleigh and Corey and Mr. Trump are trying to put the Democratic Party on trial for some of the failures in urban America. I don't have a problem with that. A lot of African-American progressives are also trying to put --

LEMON: Yeah. JONES: -- the Democratic Party on trial but the way the arguments are being stacked and the tone of it and what don't say, the positive things you don't say about the community make it hard to hear, message management, and also messenger management.

LEMON: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:36:10] LEMON: And we're back now, Corey Lewandowski, Kayleigh McEnany and Brian Stelter, Maria Cardona, Ana Navarro, and Van Jones.

OK. So he has painting himself as an outsider against status quo. Many people have told, you know, me that this would be the message that's could turn thing around for him. Did anybody agree that this is a message that turned thing around for him? I'm going to -- let's I'm going to ask a Republican first. So let's ask Kayleigh. Did this turn thing around for him?

MCENANY: Yes because when you look at polls, the media is historically low in approval ratings and politicians are also very low in their approval ratings. So this message of getting back to the idea of public service, not personal enrichments, this idea that you shouldn't go into public office and come out like the Clintons hundreds of millions of dollars richer, that's a compiling message but it's one that has to be put for it constantly without distraction, without getting of message. And it is one that resinates, this idea that we're here to serve you and we've gotten away from that.

LEMON: Yeah, he said he wants to senior officials from his, you know, people who work from him and then senior officials in the government to not take -- to not be speaking things while they're in the government and then four, what he say four? I think four --

MCENANY: Five years.

LEMON: Five years afterwards, and any group that has got -- that has lobbyist or government officer.

STELTER: Well, that was new but the message wasn't fundamentally new, was it?

LEMON: Yup.

STELTER: His talk about being an outsider was the message of the primary season. And once again, even tonight he peddled what I would describe as conspiratorial idea, talking about Hillary Clinton saying that her stamina is in question is in doubt.

LEMON: She doesn't have the strength and stamina is hard to that.

STELTER: The campaign is out -- very strong tonight fighting back with a new statement from her physician. These are the things that bubble up on the kind of fringe right wing website throughout there. But then, rich all the way to Donald Trump's ears and that is the problem for him continuing for the next three months. LEMON: You're talking about -- you're thinking this, I let you get in cord but you're thinking the strength and stamina thing has to do with this conspiracy about her health, which there is no proof that she is in ill health at all?

STELTER: That's right. There's no proof that she has some secret illness, that's the idea on some of this Blogs. Sites like the drudge report try to popularize it. Host like Sean Hannity try to popularize it. It's been irresponsible behavior by the Hannitys of the world. And when Trump uses words "stamina," he knows that his supporters have seen the stories online. So it helping to reinforces that false news.

LEMON: I was watching from my office the other night. I just appeared late in the (inaudible). He was joking with the reporter ahead and he said, something like is she having a seizure? And I was just -- I thought it was a joke at first but it was serious.

STELTER: It's been very reckless perspective and it's only August.

LEMON: Yeah.

STELTER: And I really worry about how kind of conspiracy theory, he is going to be bringing up by October.

LEMON: Yeah. Go ahead Corey?

LEWANDOWSKI: 11 percent is a magic and we can talk about say, that's the congressional approval rating right now --

LEMON: Yeah.

LEWANDOWSKI: -- including when you poll members of congress. 11 percent of the American people actually think congress is doing the right thing. It's the same amount of people 11 percent that think Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy, that's includes Democrats and that -- and what we saw today was Maggie Hassan, the Governor of the state of New Hampshire was asked on three separate occasions by a reporter from this network, do you think Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy on three occasions?

LEMON: She could not answer.

LEWANDOWSKI: She could not answer that question. She's not only the sitting governor of the state of New Hampshire. She is the Democratic nominee for the US Senate Candidate in that competitive race.

LEMON: Do you think it leverage?

STELTER: -- example of journalism -- it's kind of journalism that Donald Trump decries, right example of journalism to have that question to be repeat.

LEMON: Yeah.

LEWANDOWSKI: You know I love about for a change, it is putting the surrogates of the Clinton campaign on record, saying, "Do you support your person." Because we see this on the Trump side all the time, you see surrogate out there, say, do you support what she said, do you condone what she said?

LEMON: Yeah.

LEWANDOWSKI: This is the first time --

STELTER: He does even a long time.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: She did make a statement after saying she did think --

LEWANDOWSKI: That's right.

LEMON: -- she was trustworthy, but it was after the, you know --

LEWANDOWSKI: That's right.

LEMON: -- and way too late.

STELTER: So much for a rigged media though.

LEMON: Yeah.

STELTER: I mean, this is the journalism that we want to see being done. And it's happening, it's happening everyday. That's why I think it rings hollow when Trump talks about a crooked in media being out to get him.

LEMON: Yeah. He did say what -- speaking of that anchors and journalist are part of the status quote and that anchors and journalists want the status quo. I don't, you know, I can only speak for myself. I don't believe that.

[23:40:01] STELTER: There are lots of liberal journalists out there, lots of left-wing journalists out there.

LEMON: Yeah.

STELTER: But frankly, a lot of reporters would also love to write the Trump comeback story. And the bias in journalism -- and one of the bias is, is toward conflict and drama and change. So if there are signs in the polls that Trump is starting to strengthen that's going to be story that journalists are going to want to write.

LEMON: Corey, it's you bring this up. You the best person, I ask about this. Because you were in -- with in the primary, when Donald Trump was doing all kinds of media. I actually met you at Trump Tower in Donald Trump's office, doing an interview with Donald Trump. He got so much, what is it called, correct me if -- free media and now he's saying that the media is against him, when the media gave him according FOX, right? So much play, so much more air time --

MCENANY: More than anybody else.

LEMON: -- than anybody else.

LEWANDOWSKI: Yeah.

LEMON: Where he got to just sort of come on and say whatever he wanted to say. But now that it's coming down to the line, you know, he's starting to be vetted. Now he doesn't like it.

LEWANDOWSKI: No, I think what you saw in both the primary and in the general election right now, Donald Trump has made himself available to the media, which is very different thing than the Clinton campaign. What you saw on the primary is Donald Trump understood when the media called he would sit down to an interview with you, with other members of this network. He would participate in town halls. Many of his opponens in this primary chose not to do that, at their own peril clearly.

LEMON: Yeah.

LEWANDOWSKI: Now if you look at the general election, what you're seeing Hillary Clinton has continued to refuse to have a press conference in almost one full year. Donald Trump, continuously calls into TV shows, continuously does Sunday shows, continuously --

LEMON: That is true, Hillary Clinton has not given a press conference but Donald Trump does not call into every television show. He does every media --

STELTER: Yeah, right now he's mostly just appearing on Fox.

LEMON: He's mostly just appearing on Fox News, he's calling the media crooked and he's calling out CNN every day for being crooked and CNN is not treating him any differently except reading back his own words and fact checking his own words and now he doesn't like it.

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, I think, again what you have is you have a candidate who is unbelievably accessible, not just to the broadcast media but also to the print media. He has done hundreds of print interviews --

LEMON: Yeah.

LEWANDOWSKI: -- printed verbatim at length weather it was broadcast (inaudible), you know, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post. He has always made himself available. He always concerns from calls.

LEMON: Why this animus to the media lately?

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, I think what you have is when people report on Donald Trump fairly, and what fairly means is, you don't editorialize, you report what he says, that's fair. And if you look at the story that he did in New York Times with Maggie Haberman on foreign policy, she says a very fair story. It was literally the transcript of what he said to her, it wasn't editorialized at all, that's fair reporting.

LEMON: I have to take you break, but you say it's because he's not winning?

STELTER: If I were losing in the polls, I would hate the people taking the polls also, the people taking the polls or the ones in the media.

LEMON: The Democrats are not in the room. Sorry they didn't part in this conversation. But thank you all, we'll be right back, and the one Republican.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:46:43] LEMON: Big speech from Donald Trump tonight in the wake of a weekend of unrest in Milwaukee. Here to discuss, three men, who have the ears of the voters, Radio Host, Ben Ferguson, host -- I should say, Ben Ferguson, Jerry Bader, and John Fredericks.

It's good to have you here. It's been a very interesting evening here on CNN and I'm sure all across America with the conversation.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's been a little entertaining.

LEMON: It's great. I love having these conversations.

JERRY BADER, RADIO HOST: Need popcorn.

LEMON: And first, let me get all of your reactions from Donald Trump's speech tonight. First, what do you think, Ben Ferguson?

FERGUSON: Look, I think if Donald Trump would have been using a teleprompter and keeping things short like he did tonight months ago, he would be doing a lot better in the polls tonight. There going to be a lot of people that can connect to what he was saying. Some people may not invite to the venue and you can criticize him for that. But what he said tonight was clear and concise and gave people something to hold on to about real problems in Milwaukee and other parts of the country.

So from that standpoint, I think Donald Trump, if he can continue to do this and that's the big question with Donald Trump is, can you keep him on script, can you keep him on a teleprompter? Can you keep him focused the way he was tonight? And can you keep it, I think, concise and small enough --

LEMON: OK.

FERGUSON: And not rambling on that he has an impact and tonight I think he did that.

LEMON: Let me get the others in. And Jerry, what did you think?

BADER: From the portion that I heard, well, sitting here, listening and I agree with the rambling party. Again, he can be concise. The other thing I noticed, I listened to the speech when last he was in Wisconsin-Green Bay and here he never seems to localize, it's always at 30,000 feet and it's almost to a national audience. You all made that a lot about him talking to the black community, the African- American community in very broad terms.

And at least, and I didn't hear the whole speech but specifically he talked to the people in Milwaukee, talked to the African-Americans in Milwaukee, talks specifically to the audience, yes understanding that a much larger audience is watching but he doesn't seems to try to connect locally.

LEMON: OK. I'm glad you understand the substance of what people were asking in that conversation.

John, what did you think?

JOHN FREDERICKS, SYNDICATED TALK RADIO HOST: Well, Don, first of all, it's always thanks for having me on. Look, what everyone is missing is this is entire episode, in this entire Trump campaign is this is a political revolution, Don. This is a movement. And we want to take a Trump speech tonight where he very clearly outlined some of his plans that represent a change from the Hillary Clinton, Obama third term status quo.

So basically, whether you're white, black, Latino, African-American, whatever you want to say you are, if you are satisfied with the direction of the country right now, then you're going to vote for Hillary Clinton. If you think that there's an opportunity for change, and that we can do things a lot better off then you we are, then you're going to vote for Trump. And Don, I believe on November 8th, he'll win.

LEMON: Yeah. He buzzed it. I don't have to play that, because I want to get your reaction real quick. If you guys can go quickly, Jerry, what was your reaction? You really hammered the media. He's been doing it throughout the campaign and tonight, what did you think?

BADER: Well again, yeah. He -- as he himself said, he's running against the media and the problem is other supported out. The media is not on the ballot. Donald Trump's problem is Donald J. Trump.

[23:50:01] He -- look, every Republican, every person that aren't abide his name have to deal with the media, if Donald Trump would stop serving them up low hanging fruit, speak in the verbal equivalent of Rorschach Inkblot that anybody can take out of it what they need want to, they wouldn't have such an easy time. That he's his issue.

LEMON: All right. I have to take a break here, everyone, thank you. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I'm back with my panel of radio hosts. This it is, I want to -- gentleman, this is another radio host, Charlie Sykes. He made a stunning assessment of conservative talk radio. And here is what he said if you can roll it up, please. He said, "We've basically eliminated any of the referees, the gatekeepers. There's nobody. Let's say that Donald Trump basically makes whatever you want to say, whatever claim he wants to make. And everybody knows it's a falsehood. The big question of my audience, it is impossible for me to say that, 'By the way, you know it's false.' And they'll say, 'Why? I say it on Allen B. West.' Or they'll say, 'I saw it on a Facebook page.' And I'll say, 'The New York Times did a fact check.' And then, they'll say, Oh, that's The New York Times. That's bullshit."

How do you guys respond to that that no one actually believes fact anymore, Ben Ferguson first?

[23:55:01] FERGUSON: Let me say, it's exhausting. When I was critic of Donald Trump in the primaries, not only did I lose listeners, I lose ratings, I lose the advertisers. Because I said, I was fact checking and being too tough on him. And so it is a tough world right now. Because if you love Donald Trump, there is nothing that he says that is not true and that is the difficult part for many conservatives like myself who are trying to be honest with their audience well, not alienate, you know, half of your base in the sense going into a general election.

LEMON: John, you're shaking your head. Why?

FREDERICKS: You know, this is Ludacris, poppycock, nonsense from childish acts. These are the people that have opposed from the beginning who cry babies and whiners because there is ideological vowel going in the Republican Party. They want the establishment, status quo, the Neil Conservatives. They got their clocks clean and now they just don't understand it. This is a political revolution, Don, that passed them by. Their incompetent is egregious.

LEMON: Yeah. OK.

FERGUSON: It's revolution that's stumbling, though. Look at the poll numbers in swing states.

LEMON: All right.

FERGUSON: And part of the reason why it's stumbling is because Donald Trump said things that are hard to back up sometimes.

LEMON: Gentlemen, I have to go. Ben Ferguson, thank you. Jerry Bader, thank you.

BADER: Thanks.

LEMON: John Fredericks, I appreciate both of you --all of you coming on this evening. Thanks.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Donald Trump makes a big speech to supporters in Wisconsin. This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

Trump speaking on law and order and the wake of the weekend of unrest in Milwaukee. He also speech for African-American voters saying that --