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Trump Lays Out Foreign Policy; Clinton's Emails Still an Issue for Many; Simone Manuel Becomes First African-American in to Take Gold in Individual Swimming Event; Parts of Louisiana Remain Underwater from Historic Flooding. Aired 10:30-11:00a

Aired August 16, 2016 - 10:33   ET

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

[10:33:05]

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST, "NEWSROOM": With Donald Trump it is the question that just won't go away. And the question that Hillary Clinton is all too happy to ask. Where are his tax returns? Clinton hitting Trump hard on the issue during a rally in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's even called for a new tax loophole. Let's call it the Trump loophole. Because it would allow Trump to pay less than half the current tax rate on income for many of his companies. A pretty sweet deal.

He would end up paying a rate lower than millions of middle class families. Now that is assuming he pays any taxes at all. Because we really don't know since we haven't seen his tax returns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now by phone is Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa. Welcome, Sir.

VOICE OF REPRESENTATIVE STEVE KING (R), IOWA: Well thank you, thanks for having me on today.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Do you think it's fair that Hillary Clinton keeps on saying that Donald Trump should release his tax returns?

VOICE OF KING: Well I think it's politics. And I don't know, fair is a term that's pretty useful term to use, that's hard to define, however. And so when I hear her talking like that, I'm thinking, let's take a good look at the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Family Foundation. Let's take a good look at Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton.

And by the way, why don't we ask the FBI to release the videotape of the three-and-a-half hour interview that was conducted, presumably by James Comey, but actually by the FBI. And of course there is no tape. That tape is -- was never collected, I understand. And there's no transcript. So I think Hillary's up pretty dangerous waters here. And yet if

Donald Trump had released his tax returns four or five months ago, I would have thought that would have been a good decision. Now I think it's too close to the election. It would consume our dialogue until November. And probably distort the election.

COSTELLO: Really? You don't think he should release his tax returns at all because it's too late?

VOICE OF KING: Well yes, because I mean here we're on the -- we're at the middle of August now. We're in the downhill slide of this presidential campaign. And if you have $10 billion to poke (ph) through, you would never get poked (ph) through that all the way until November. But I do know what Hillary Clinton, and his critics would do with that.

So my advice to Donald Trump four or five months ago was, and would have been, release them. But today I say, no, that water's gone over the dam. It's too late to do so, you're just going to have to tough it out until November.

[10:35:30]

COSTELLO: Supposedly, notes from Hillary Clinton's interview with the FBI over her private email server, will be given to a House Oversight Committee. What are they -- why do they want the notes? And what do you think they'll find out?

VOICE OF KING: Well I think that, I don't know what they'll find out. There -- that really is my point. There was an BFI investigation. Hillary Clinton sat down for a three-and-a-half hour interview. If that had happened under any other scenario of law that I know of, in particular -- and I talked to, I talked to a law enforcement officer, as he was a large county sheriff.

And I said, "do you ever interview anyone related to a potential crime, let alone federal felonies of espionage, that you do not record that interview and videotape that interview.

And he said, "If I had an officer that did that, they would be up for disciplinary action. And yet there's no video, there's no audio, there's no transcript. And the notes could simply say, "well we didn't learn anything." So what we get out of this from James Comey is essentially this, we all know Hillary Clinton lied to the public multiple times. And James Comey is saying, "well she didn't lie to the FBI." But we don't have any evidence on what she specifically said back in that three-and-a-half hour interview. And the notes just say ...

COSTELLO: Do you ...

VOICE OF KING: ... we didn't discover anything interesting.

COSTELLO: Do you, do you think, Sir, that a House Oversight Committee should conduct an investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server? VOICE OF KING: Well, yes. I think they should. And I think that we

ought to be also investigating how it is that these thousands of emails that were made available to Hillary's attorneys -- and they concluded there was nothing to see there -- and then they do -- that (ph) they dumped them. And they scrubbed their hard drives so that there -- so that they can't be recovered.

Now that's evidence -- and that is, by the way, that was destroying the property of the American people, and the United States government, and the State Department. Those archives are archives that belong to the State Department. They were destroyed by her lawyers after she'd made that information available to them and refused to make it available to the public or to the investigative committees.

COSTELLO: Before you go, Sir, I just want to ask you about what Florida Senator Marco Rubio said. You know he is running for reelection in Florida. He said he's standing by his description of Donald Trump as a con artist. But he says in a new interview with the Miami Herald, he still plans to support the real estate mogul for President. How can he support what he terms a con artist?

VOICE OF KING: Well it sets me up to take another shot at Hillary. And I really shouldn't do that. So I'll just say I have trouble reconciling that statement that I just heard in the last few minutes from Marco Rubio. I would think that he should find a way to mitigate that statement about Donald Trump. And it's a political statement, I would presume.

But what we have is a country that's going to have to be put back on the rails again. And for me, as National Co-Chairman for Ted Cruz for President, it's a little hard to get in this place with Donald Trump. But I will say that as I look at the policies he's laid out, I listened carefully to his speech that Thursday night in Cleveland, I've just read through the speech that he delivered on defeating the ideology of radical Islamic jihad yesterday.

And all of that sounds good to me. The policies that are coming out of Donald Trump are the right policies for America. And so ...

COSTELLO: So ...

VOICE OF KING: ... I'm supporting him for those reasons.

COSTELLO: So are you giving him a full-throated endorsement? Because over the weekend you said you couldn't. So are -- this morning are you giving Donald Trump your full-throated endorsement?

VOICE OF KING: I'll say it this way, I'm more enthusiastic after I read his speech on defeating the ideology. He's really the first candidate that's uttered those words, "defeat the ideology of radical Islamic terrorism." And he laid out a strategy to do it, and by the way, that strategy contains every component that I've argued for over the last couple of years. With the exception of defeating their educational system that transitions this hatred into the next generation. So I'm closer, but I would say that I have a few more superlatives that I've not yet deployed. COSTELLO: All right. Congressman Steve King, thanks for joining me this morning. Still to come in ...

VOICE OF KING: Thank you very much, appreciate it.

COSTELLO: You're welcome. Still to come in the more -- still to come in the Newsroom, making U.S. history by breaking color barriers. Up next I'll talk to Simone Manuel, the first African American woman never to win -- ever I would -- should say, to one individual, gold in the pool, we'll talk to her next. (ph)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:44:30]

COSTELLO: U.S. swimmer, Simone Manuel isn't just bringing home four Olympic medals from Rio. She's walking away with a new American record. Last week, Simone won the 100 meter freestyle, making her the first African American woman to take gold in an individual swimming event. The first black woman in the world, I should say.

She joins me live now. Hi, Simone.

SIMONE MANUEL, FOUR TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: Hello.

COSTELLO: Does it feel real?

MANUEL: Not yet. I mean I haven't had too much time to soak it in. But I was just so happy to represent my country.

COSTELLO: You know, I always wonder how it feels when that moment comes, that you've realized, not only did you win but you broke a record. So tell me, how did that feel?

MANUEL: It felt great. I mean, getting the gold medal is awesome. And I think also breaking the American record. But I just went out there and tried to swim as fast as I could. And just to see all my hard work pay off, I think, was more exciting than any record that I could've broken.

COSTELLO: Well it was certainly exciting to watch. You've said that your medal isn't just for you. What did you mean by that?

[10:45:50]

MANUEL: Just in a sense that coming up in swimming, I didn't always feel comfortable. Just because I was a minority in this sport. And this is just for people before me that were mentors to me. And just hopefully for a next generation of swimmers that don't feel that swimming's an option for them. And maybe they'll become involved in the sport.

COSTELLO: Why don't -- why do so few African American kids take part in swimming?

MANUEL: I think it just has to do with accessibility to pools. And, I don't know, just not seeing many -- representation matters, so not seeing many people like yourself doing the sport makes it kind of hard to actually want to join a swim team or learn how to swim. So I think that hopefully my role and what I've done will inspire some people to join the sport.

COSTELLO: What would you tell young kids about the joys of swimming and competing?

MANUEL: I don't know, I just have a lot of fun. I mean, it's what I really love to do. And my goal is not to get everybody to want to love to swim. I just think that the most important thing is water safety. And so I hope that, like I said, if people see me swimming, then hopefully they believe that they can swim too.

COSTELLO: I know you're a very competitive person. So what's next for you?

MANUEL: Well right now I think I'm just going to take a break, rest and spend some time with my family. And then I'll head back to school.

COSTELLO: Do you feel the weight of history on your shoulders?

MANUEL: No, not too much. I didn't have any expectations and I don't put too much pressure on myself. I just wanted to go out there and swim as fast as I could. And I'm really humbled by the fact that I did make history. But like I said, I'm swimming for myself, I love it. And I just -- it was the greatest honor to represent Team USA.

COSTELLO: I'd like to ask you about Gabby Douglass. Because she's been taking some abuse for not putting her hand over her heart during the National Anthem. It was very hurtful to her, her mother said it was very hurtful to her, too. What do you make of that controversy?

MANUEL: I just think that, I mean she's here, she's representing Team USA. And she's working hard and some of the backlash is just unnecessary. Because you know, we're out here competing and representing our country in the best way we know how to.

COSTELLO: So why do you think she's been taking so much abuse over that?

MANUEL: I don't know, I'm not sure at all. But I'm sure that it wasn't intentional. And I think she's also very proud to represent Team USA.

COSTELLO: Well you're both awesome. And thank you so much, Simone for joining me this morning. And congratulations. Still to come in the Newsroom ...

MANUEL: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome, you're welcome. Still to come in the Newsroom, thousands of people are stuck living in shelters as parts of Louisiana remain under water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:38]

COSTELLO: Nine people are dead and more than 10,000 are living in shelters. Parts of Louisiana still under water after several days of extreme flooding. More than two feet of rain hit some areas of Baton Rouge, causing at least 20,000 people to be rescued. CNN's Boris Sanchez live in Baton Rouge. Good morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Yeah the numbers are staggering. And in some areas, the flood waters are continuing to rise. It's not just the rain, it's also that backwater flooding that you get when the ground is saturated and bodies of water overflow into neighborhoods.

Just Southeast of here in Livingston Parish, the Sheriff there says that more than 100,000 people lost everything. Their homes completely submerged by the water. It's really surprising that there are only nine fatalities. As tragic as it is that nine people were killed in this flooding.

As you mentioned, tens of thousands of people are in shelters right now across the region. Many of them hoping that the water recedes so they can get back into their homes. I'll paint a picture for you of the neighborhood that we're in right now. In just the past few hours the water has receded here dramatically. About 50 to 100 yards behind us there is a bayou. And that's what overflowed into this neighborhood.

It's been a tough process though. Many neighbors haven't been able to access their things. There's tremendous need. Those people in shelters are hoping for food and clothing and water. Things that you may not think about. Baby formula, for example. Fortunately though, a lot of people are lending their support.

One man that lives in this neighborhood, his name is Marcel, actually gave us a tour of the neighborhood yesterday on a boat. He was helping neighbors gather anything that they could salvage from their homes -- and rescue pets as well, many pets that had been left behind.

Marcel actually -- I got a chance to ask him what he was hoping to do next. His home was submerged. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: You see your home under water, what comes next for you?

MARCEL, FLOOD VICTIM: Fixing it. It's all I can do. Wait for the water to go down and fix it. What else can I do? That's the plan, fixing it. I ain't got nothing else, so we'll wait for the water to go down and family and friends will come help. We'll get 'er done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And that shows you the spirit of these neighbors. They're out there helping each other even as their own homes are in really, really bad shape. We're expecting to see some rain in the forecast today, potentially an inch in some areas. But again, the major areas of concern are in the Southeastern part of the state where the flood water is still rising, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Boris Sanchez reporting live. And I do hope that man can salvage his home. Boris, thanks so much. Thank you for joining me today, I'm Carol Costello. AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan after a break.

[10:55:52]