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Courting Working Class Voters; Historic Louisiana Flooding; Russian Swimmer Controversy. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 16, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:33:20] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Eighty-three days until voters hit the polls and the battleground states are looking less like a battle for Hillary Clinton. Right now the University Center for Politics has all eight battleground states leaning or likely Democratic. That includes my home state of Ohio, where the working class vote is crucial. But many are still finding hope in Donald Trump. CNN's Jake Tapper took a trip to the rust belt.

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In places such as Middletown, Ohio, Donald Trump's motto seems more than a slogan.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going to make America great again.

TAPPER: Here, where businesses and families are struggling, it's almost as if Trump is talking directly to them.

TRUMP: I want jobs and I want wealth to stay in America.

TAPPER: The majority of residents here are white working-class voters, such as Lori Henning.

LORI HENNING, MIDDLETOWN, OHIO, RESIDENT: The steel mills are not doings as well as they used to. The paper mills have gone. So Middletown is a struggling community. But it's a great community. It really is. It has great people here.

TAPPER: And Orie Baker, who's originally from Kentucky. A truck driver at the local steel mill, which is still standing, though its best days are in its rear view mirror. Orie Baker is a Trump man all the way.

ORIE BAKER, TRUCK DRIVER: He ain't never went downhill at nothing. He's went up at everything he's done. Put him in as president, and he'll go up. He'll take us up. If Hillary gets in, we're gone.

TAPPER: These are the families that too many politicians ignore. Hillbillies, according to J.D. Vance, author of the new acclaimed book "Hillbilly Elegy."

J.D. VANCE, AUTHOR, "HILLBILLY ELEGY": Well, my grandma always said that we can call ourselves hillbillies, but nobody else can call us hillbillies. And there's a sense that it is for us to use and it's an insiders term.

[09:35:04] TAPPER: Vance grew up here in Middletown, in the middle, between Cincinnati and Dayton. His Kentucky-born grandparents helped raise him after his mother fell into a life of drugs, like far too many people in these communities. For Vance's part, he credits the Marines and later Yale Law School for steering him on the proper path, though that was far from certain.

VANCE: When you grow up in an area where a lot of other people are doing drugs, where in some -- in my family, a lot of my own family was doing drugs, and, frankly, where I was very -- I was very frustrated with my own life. I was really unhappy and a resentful kid. It just seemed like the natural thing to do.

TAPPER: Vance does not support Donald Trump, but he understands why so many in these struggling communities seem drawn to him.

VANCE: Even though they recognize, I think in a lot of ways, that Trump is imperfect, they say, well, at least he's trying. At least he's diagnosing the problems. At least he recognizes the pain that we're feeling.

TAPPER (on camera): There have been cursory attempts by both parties to, you know, a stop at a mine here or whatever. But generally speaking, they kind of -- they're kind of -- when they say they feel ignored, they're kind of right.

VANCE: Yes, that's definitely true. People feel neglected. But eventually that frustration catches up to the political moment, and that's exactly what's happened, I think, in this cycle.

TRUMP: How stupid our politicians are.

TAPPER (voice-over): According to Vance, Trump's brash, sometimes offensive approach to politics is pivotal to his appeal.

TAPPER (on camera): Is there something about the fact that Trump pisses off so many people in Washington, D.C., and New York that people in Middletown like?

VANCE: Absolutely. If you're from Middletown, you feel like you don't have a voice, right? What Trump does is take the people who you wish you could say something to, you wish you could insult, you wish you could go after them, and he does it for you. That's something very, very liberating in his rallies and, frankly, even I'm attracted to.

TAPPER: Well, a lot of Americans are very uncomfortable with a lot of the rage that they discern at these rallies, the minority of people that are expressing jubilation at offensive ideas, but -- but they're still there.

VANCE: Absolutely they're still there. And I think we have to recognize that they're still there and be very aware of it. But he's also leading people with his rhetoric in a very dark place, and that's ultimately what happens when you ignore people for a very long time. But I also think the extraordinarily optimistic, upbeat message of the Democratic Party just doesn't match the lives of Trump voters.

TAPPER (voice-over): The one constant here in Middletown is they need help.

HENNING: I wish we could have better job security. I don't know how the election can work with that. But, I don't know, it's a tough -- tough thing.

TAPPER: and they hope talk about white working class voters doesn't end on Election Day.

Jake tapper, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: All right, so let's talk. With me now, Jackie Kucinich, CNN political commentator and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," and Ryan Lizza, a CNN political commentator and Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker."

And, you know, that's the thing, Jackie, politicians talk a good game during the elections and say they care about white working class voters, and then they promptly forget about them. So what guarantee is there from either candidate that they'll remember if they get elected?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean there really is no guarantee. It just sort of is with the policies. That's why they -- that these policies that they're presenting are so important because that's something that they can be held to. It's not just their words, right? So I think that's one of the reasons you see someone like a Joe Biden out there for Hillary Clinton. That's why you see her going to some of these states like -- I mean not only those swing states, but also because of Pennsylvania, Ohio, the rust belt states, are going to be extremely important and they want to reach these voters that may not be immediately predisposed to Hillary Clinton, but they're hoping that essentially they believe them when they say that they're going to make their lives better.

COSTELLO: But here's the thing, Ryan, and back in 2008 when Barack Obama was running, and he went to Youngstown, Ohio, what, more than 14 times and I think I was there in Youngstown every time he was there. But people in those areas still don't think he did a darn thing for them. So why should they believe the Democrats?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, that's a good question. I mean, look, the white working-class has not, since the -- since the recession of 2008 and 2009 -- haven't recovered, right? We have -- it's one of -- any Republican candidate running against the Democratic Party, which has been in office now for eight years, has a very good argument to make that the recovery hasn't been as strong as it should be, that these communities, the politicians have been going to and telling the people there that things are going to get better, that they haven't really -- that they really haven't done it. And, you know, I don't think -- if you had a more gifted -- politically gifted Republican talent with a little bit more specifics, the specific policy agenda, I think, frankly, for all of the talk about how Trump is appealing to these voters, I think they could potentially be doing a lot better because if you look at the states where we all thought that Trump was going to have great appeal, he's getting killed in these states, right, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, all of these Midwest rust belt battlegrounds that were supposed to Trump bastions, it's not happening. So I think that's -- you know, that's one of the things that is not being talked about when we talk about the white working class.

[09:40:25] COSTELLO: Well, I want to -- I want to dig into that just a little bit.

LIZZA: Yes.

COSTELLO: Because Gallop put out a poll on, what August 11th and it shows a lot of interesting things about who supports Trump exactly. And, Jackie, I'll pose this question to you. This Gallup poll shows that Trump supporters are not affected by trade or immigration. They don't have lower incomes, nor are they more likely to be unemployed. Does that make sense to you?

KUCINICH: It is different than what we're hearing, right, but --

COSTELLO: Right.

KUCINICH: But that said, you know, I do -- I wonder about those numbers because when you're out there on the trail and you're talking to people, they do tend to be your more blue collar workers. So it's interesting to see what these polls are reflecting and, you know, whether they'll be right at the end of the day.

LIZZA: Yes, Carol --

COSTELLO: Well, they could be blue collar workers, but not all blue collar workers are poor or suffer job loss because of immigration or --

KUCINICH: Oh, of course not.

COSTELLO: So could it be something else, Ryan?

LIZZA: It is. Look, what you're talking about there, this Gallup study, it was actually 87 -- it's an economist at Gallup who dug into a year's worth of Gallup surveys, 87,000 Americans, and tried to figure out, what is the main characteristic of the Trump supporter. And the big finding -- I think it sort of shattered some myths and confirmed -- confirmed some beliefs about Trump supporters.

The thing that it shattered is what you just talked about, Carol, is that these voters, the most consistent Trump voters are not necessarily as poor and working class as we in the media have imagined. That they're actually more middle class. They're people who are scared about intergenerational mobility. They're people who are scared that their success is not going to be passed on to their kids. And, interestingly, they are people with deep, deep health problems. As Vance talked about in that Jake Tapper piece, they're people in communities that are having some sort of cultural disintegration, drugs, mental illness. They're not, believe it or not, necessarily people that have been impacted by foreign trade one immigration policy, at least the most consistent Trump voters.

Then the second big thing that is very important in that study is race is incredibly important. They're mostly people who live without contact with a lot of racial minorities or foreign immigrants. And one of the theories in the study is that that leads people to be more prejudiced.

So those are the two big findings of the study.

COSTELLO: Yes.

LIZZA: And I think that what's interesting to me about it is, it's not necessarily the poor working class that are the heart of the Trump movements.

COSTELLO: Yes. Right. I know it's fascinating. So, Google it. I mean it's "The Washington Post" (INAUDIBLE) --

LIZZA: Yes, I wrote about it this week at "The New Yorker."

COSTELLO: You wrote about it this week for "The New Yorker."

LIZZA: Yes, "The New Yorker."

COSTELLO: So Google Ryan's article.

Thanks to you both, Jackie Kucinich and Ryan Lizza.

Still to come --

LIZZA: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, nine people dead as Louisiana struggles to recover from catastrophic flooding.

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[09:47:33] COSTELLO: Nine people are dead and parts of Louisiana are still under water. The worst flooding has been triggered by more than two feet of rain hitting parts of Baton Rouge. Let's head there now and check in with CNN's Boris Sanchez.

Hi, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.

Six of those fatalities actually came here just east of Baton Rouge. And even further east of us, there are homes that are still under water and the flood water in those areas is rising partly because of back water flooding where bodies of water have overflowed and inundated neighborhoods. The sheriff there actually tells us that more than 100,000 people have lost everything, their homes completely destroyed. Fortunately, where we are now, in this neighborhood, the water has receded significantly in just the past few hours.

There's actually a swamp about 50 to 100 yards behind us. And as you can tell, it submerged homes in this neighborhood. One man actually gave us a tour of this neighborhood on his boat yesterday. His house was totally submerged, but he was helping his neighbors get back to their homes to try to salvage what they could, helping them save pets that had been stranded as well. Just goes to show you, the heart of the people here in Louisiana.

One more note, Carol. It is expected to continue raining today. There's a good shot that an inch of rain will fall across this area.

COSTELLO: Oh, no. Boris Sanchez reporting live for us. Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a response to the Olympic drama. For the first time we're hearing exclusively from a Russian swimmer who was called a drug cheat.

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[09:53:40] COSTELLO: We are now hearing the other side of the story of one of the biggest dramas of the Rio games. The swimming competition between Yulia Efimova and Lilly King. You might remember the Russian swimmer holding up a number one sign in the semifinal race, then American swimmer Lilly King answered the bravado with her own sign after beating Efimova to a gold medal. King also called her competitor a drug cheat. Now Efimova is telling her side of the story. She talked with Nick Paton Walsh exclusively. He joins us now to tell us what she said.

Hi, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, this is a Russian athlete unlike many of the others accused of drug cheating. She lives nearly all of the year in Los Angeles, very fond of the United States, has found the past weeks of intense scrutiny against her and her two bans for drug use extraordinary stressful and exhausting, particularly the criticism from American athletes. Here's what she said to me yesterday.

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WALSH: When you were in the pool and you did that, what did you mean by that?

YULIA EFIMOVA, RUSSIAN SWIMMER: Yes. You know, like, I was -- I just made it, like, if you win your race, you're just like -- like you're first, like, you know.

WALSH: Did you think that would cause Lilly King to do this or not?

EFIMOVA: That's why I don't understand why she meant -- I don't know. Maybe it's because the media and everything and like I'm so bad (ph). WALSH: When you hear what the Americans have been saying about you --

[09:55:01] EFIMOVA: Yes. Yes, it's like -- this upset me so much, especially from Michael Phelps that (ph) should say and girls like Lilly King and everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: Now, for her, this has been say (ph) a very traumatic time. She'll go back to the United States. She says the two bans against her were for a mistaken use of a food supplement she didn't know contained steroids and also for the drug Menbonium (ph), which is used by Russian athletes but only recently banned by the doping agency here. But, still, some say, well, I've never made mistakes at all in my career and still get to compete. A lot of controversy over this young lady, but it's been an incredibly tough time for her certainly on a simply human level, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nick Paton Walsh reporting live from Rio this morning.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

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[10:00:02] COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the fight over who's fit.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She also lacks the mental and physical stamina to take on ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has no idea what he's talking about.