Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Overhauls Campaign From Very Top; Trump: Dems Have "Betrayed" Black Communities. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 17, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00] CAMEROTA: That was the first person that they happen upon. That is so great.

CUOMO: Good stuff. Good stuff.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for bringing us that.

CUOMO: You know.

CAMEROTA: Just what we do here. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You guys are ridiculous, but I like it.

CUOMO: Speak for yourself.

COSTELLO: I know, thanks so much. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump, announces a major shakeup overnight, a move to bolster his sagging campaign and shrug off recent calls for restraint. Paul Manafort keeps his title, but the team at the top is growing. Kellyanne Conway, a familiar face here on CNN is promoted to campaign manager. She will be the conventional voice and new CEO Steven Bannon will be the flame thrower. Bannon runs Breitbart News, adored by many conservatives for his combative and uncompromising values.

There is a lot to break down again this morning. Let's begin with CNN's Jessica Schneider. She's outside Trump Tower in New York. Good morning.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump releasing a statement this morning, saying he will do whatever it takes to win. And his touting his two new appointments, Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, as highly qualified people who love to win and who know how to win.

Now also in addition to that, we also know that this shakeup was all set in motion by Donald Trump's son-in-law, Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner. We know that Kushner raced back here from a vacation yesterday afternoon, convening an emergency meeting right here at Trump Tower. Putting into place those changes that have now significantly affected the balance of power here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Donald Trump shaking up his campaign leadership team again, for the second time in two months.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER/NEW TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: People want to criticize Donald Trump --

SCHNEIDER: Senior adviser Kellyanne Conway confirming that she has been promoted to campaign manager and the executive chairman of Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, is now the campaign's chief executive. The campaign's embattled chairman, Paul Manafort, will stay on, despite his relationship with Trump going sour in recent weeks.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united.

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Trump is very plugged in. He's very connected. The campaign is working, contrary to what the media is saying.

SCHNEIDER: Manafort is under investigation by Ukrainian authorities for allegedly receiving millions in illegal payments from the country's former pro-Russian ruling party.

This is the second major shakeup for Trump's team. Back in June, he fired Corey Lewandowski weeks before the Republican convention.

TRUMP: He's a good man. We've had great success. He's a friend of mine. But I think it's time now for a different kind of a campaign.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR/FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: I had a nice conversation with Mr. Trump, and I said to him, "It's been an honor and a privilege to be part of this."

SCHNEIDER: The news comes as Trump tries to appeal to black voters in Wisconsin, but the audience was mostly white.

TRUMP: I'm asking for the vote of every African-American citizen struggling in our country today who wants a different and much better future.

SCHNEIDER: Trump addressing the violent protests in Milwaukee after police shot and killed a black man Saturday.

TRUMP: Those pedaling the narrative of cops as a racist force in our society, a narrative supported with a nod by my opponent, share directly in the responsibility for the unrest in Milwaukee and many other places within our country.

SCHNEIDER: He's placing the blame for inner city unrest squarely on what he calls failed Democratic policies.

TRUMP: The African-American community has been taken for granted for decades by the Democratic Party. It's time for rule by the people, not rule for the special interests.

Hillary Clinton-backed policies are responsible for the problems in the inner cities today and a vote for her is a vote for another generation of poverty, high crime, and lost opportunities.

SCHNEIDER: With only 83 days until the election, Trump is digging in on his combative style, in hopes of turning around his slide in the polls.

TRUMP: I am who I am. It's me. You have to be you. If you start pivoting, you're not being honest with people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And on the heels of that law and order speech, news of this latest shakeup, potentially another distraction for the Trump campaign, but the Trump team actually touting this as an expansion, not a shakeup.

And in addition, Carol, Donald Trump will be receiving his first national security briefing today. The first time he'll be receiving classified information -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Jessica Schneider, reporting live outside of Trump Tower in New York City. Thanks so much.

Bloomberg once described Trump's new chief executive as the most dangerous political operative in America. Steve Bannon runs Breitbart News, a conservative Web site that often features partisan click baits like this, take a look.

[09:05:04] Now the headlines read, "Bizarre Behavior, Seizure Allegations, Raise Doubts About Clinton's Health," intriguing perhaps, but certainly not true.

Breitbart was in the news earlier this year, following an exodus of staff angered after the site and its leader did not stand up for reporter Michelle Fields after she was allegedly grabbed by then campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Editor-at-large Ben Shapiro explained his departure this way. Quote, "Steve Bannon is a bully. He has shaped the company into Trump's personal Pravda to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter in order to protect Trump's bully campaign manager who allegedly assaulted her."

Lewandowski as you know was later cleared of assaulting Fields, but the Trump campaign eventually fired him. Mr. Lewandowski is currently a contributor here at CNN.

So let's talk about all of this. I'm joined by my panel, CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany, the director for the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Larry Sabato, CNN political analyst and the national political reporter for Real Clear Politics, Rebecca Berg, and CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter, Sally Kohn. Welcome to all of you. All right. Kayleigh, I start with you. Word

is Mr. Bannon wants Trump to be Trump. He wants a no holds barred campaign. What will we see?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What we're going to see is the perfect balance between Trump being Trump, but also staying on message. You can look at Kellyanne Conway, who's phenomenal, you know, adding a woman at the top spot on the ticket. Along with Steve Bannon as kind of the two ends of a scale. You've got Steve Bannon to say Trump be authentic, be yourself. We don't want a mannequin candidate like what we see with Hillary Clinton. Then you have Kellyanne Conway, yes, be yourself, but be on message. Talk about populism, talk about the economy, talk about terrorism. So I think this is the perfect team, along with Paul Manafort, to usher in and bring home the win.

COSTELLO: OK. Also added to the team is the disgraced FOX News chief, Roger Ailes, and also Roger Stone, who is a political operative.

So, Sally, I want to ask you about the team that Trump has now assembled. Roger Ailes, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, they play rough. How do you see this evolving for your candidate?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think Hillary Clinton and her campaign are doing just fine. They're putting actual substantive policy issues out. They're talking about what the American people care about. They're not resorting to smears and outright lies.

Let's not forget, I think Donald Trump's current rating for the number of times he's actually managed to tell the truth according to PolitiFact is still below one in five. But you know the larger issue here that people should be paying attention to is, you know, Donald Trump, his whole campaign is based on trust, you know. Trust me, I know more than the generals about ISIS. Trust me, I'll surround myself with the brightest and the best.

The guy can't run a campaign. How do we think he's going to run a country?

COSTELLO: Larry, do you think this new team will make a difference for Mr. Trump in the polls?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Not really. And that's not a cut, for example, Kellyanne Conway. Very able political consultant and pollster. I've known her for years and I'm sure she will add real substance to the campaign. However, in the end, it's the candidate, Carol, the candidate is what matters, and one thing I have learned over four decades of presidential campaigns, when you have shakeup like this, it is because the candidate is losing.

It's not going well for the candidate and you cannot fix a campaign with a shakeup at the headquarters because there are fundamentals involved, fundamentals involving the candidate and fundamentals involving the basic issues. So I don't expect a big reaction, at least in the polls.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about the polls and kind of like, you know, I want to isolate women voters because Mr. Trump is having a problem in particular with women. In fact, I think that "Washington Post"/ABC News poll, the most recent poll, shows he is losing among educated white women by 23 points to Hillary Clinton.

So now, Rebecca, he kind of like has taken on Mr. Ailes, who left FOX after the sexual harassment controversy, right, where 20 women have come forward and accused Roger Ailes of sexually harassing them.

So how does this help Mr. Trump with women voters who already suspect of him?

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, well, Carol, the problem that Trump has now with women voters is mostly about his message. And this is a message that to me, this news of him bringing on Steve Bannon and promoting Kellyanne, that says to me that he wants to keep on the track that he is currently on, wants to stay on the message he has been on which has been very tough rhetoric. And this is turning off a lot of women, actually, who might otherwise support him.

[09:10:04] There was a really striking Monmouth University poll that came out, a national poll this month, that showed only 20 percent of women think Donald Trump has the temperament to be president. And that's why we hear Hillary Clinton and her allies continuing to push that message, that he doesn't have the temperament to be president, because this is a major concern right now among voters, and particularly among women voters for him, his rhetoric really isn't resonating.

COSTELLO: Kayleigh, can you address that? Because, you know, it seems everybody respects Kellyanne, right. But the rest, they're like, I don't know. Is that really going to help him with the demographics that Donald Trump needs to capture in order to win?

MCENANY: Yes, it will. You know, Kellyanne, as you mentioned, is a woman. Donald Trump has a history of empowering strong women like his daughter, like Kellyanne. She's a mother of four. She's a wife, she's someone who can help bring his message and tailor it to female voters. But Donald Trump's problem has never been his message. His message is a winning one. And the "Washington Post" last week highlighted a very interesting poll. They said if Donald Trump wins the election, it's because of this poll. It showed 56 percent of voters think our country is in a dark and dangerous place. And just 40 percent think that it is in a good place.

The problem is that message that Donald Trump has of strength on the foreign policy stage, strengths economically, has not gotten through because some of the side stories. Kellyanne is the perfect person to ensure for every rally, bring home your economic message, bring home your terrorism message, because that is a winning one if Donald Trump break his message through some of the side stories we've seen throughout the last few weeks.

COSTELLO: Sally, your thoughts. KOHN: Well, first of all, let me just say, I also love Kellyanne

Conway. The Kellyanne Conway love fest. However, I'm going to send her the biggest bottle of Tylenol I can find because I love she signed up for a world of haze.

Let me just make two points here, number one, I love it when Kayleigh or sort of the Trump campaign in general resorts to identity politics after bashing political correctness. So we want to be the president for everyone. None of this folks on race and gender, but hey, look at how we supported and promoted and put women at the top of this campaign, in our company whatever. So let's just -- let that stand there, number one.

And number two, this blaming the side shows for Trump not being able to get his message out, but he gives the side show. He is constantly the one who's putting his own foot in his own mouth, saying things that are beyond the pale of not only a presidential candidate, but a kindergartener. I mean, his ability to discipline his own mouth and thoughts, to be just have a basic level of respect for the American people, this country, his opponents.

I mean, you know, again with the possible note of Putin, who he seems to constantly and perpetually respect. He is the side show. He is the mess.

COSTELLO: Well --

KOHN: And you can't fix mess with new staff. He is a hot mess.

COSTELLO: Well, Larry, let me pose this question to you. Paul Manafort was brought in to sort of like temper Donald Trump, to make him stay on message, to use a teleprompter, to talk about actual policy. Will those things now go away?

SABATO: Well, it sounds like it. It sounds like some of the new campaign team really does want to let Trump be Trump which was the original philosophy. But, Carol, remember, that was the philosophy for primaries. When you have essentially mainly activists voting, the hard-core, they love that kind of thing. Donald Trump's problem is, he has been unable to expand his coalition, much beyond that basic core. And you have to be able to do that, because 135 million people are voting in November.

He got 14 million votes in the primaries, and that's great. But it's not nearly enough to win a general election. Somehow they have got to crack the public perception, which is really begun to harden, that he is unqualified and he has a temperament unsuited to the Oval Office.

COSTELLO: On the other hand, Rebecca, when Donald Trump says, you know what, I have to be authentic, because people want authentic candidates, they want -- they want people to, you know, they want a candidate who speaks his mind and is truthful. And I think there a grain of truth to that.

BERG: Well, certainly. And we've seen that many voters have been disturbed that Hillary Clinton is, in their minds, inauthentic and over the course of her political career, they've not seen her be as charismatic, as genuine, as other politicians, and so that's been a concern for her, trying to prove that she's authentic. But by the same token you're speaking to a completely different audience in a general election than you are in a Republican primary. And Donald Trump hasn't adjusted his message enough and in some cases he hasn't adjusted it at all to target these other voters.

And bringing in Steve Bannon, to bring us back to this news today of his campaign shakeup, bringing in Steve Bannon, who has run Breitbart News, doesn't really send a message that you're going to be changing your message and targeting undecided voters.

[09:15:06] Steve Bannon has distinguished himself as someone who can speak to the Republican base and has been successful at that in his career, but there's no evidence based on his experience at Breitbart News that he knows how to message to undecided independent voters, and we're going to have to see what approach he takes to try to appeal to them.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. I've got to leave it there. But I want the panel to stick around. We'll be right back. I'll be back with you in a moment.

All right, I have breaking news to pass along, that's why I'm stumbling along. This is just in from Puerto Rico" 512 people are preparing to abandon a passenger cargo ship, the Caribbean Fantasy, that's due to a fire. Is this a cruise ship or is this just a boat? Let me just clarify there, passenger and cargo boat. You can see the smoke coming from that vessel.

It makes regular runs between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. As I said, you can see smoke in the distance. The fire started in the engine room, but there are no reports of injuries at this time. The U.S. Coast Guard has rushed to the scene. Of course, we'll bring you updates as we get them in.

All right. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump looking to up his support among black voters. But can the low and order candidate sell himself to a community locked in tensions with the police?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:33] COSTELLO: Donald Trump is trying to appeal to the African- American community, in an effort to bolster his dismal poll numbers among black voters. He chose to do that 40 miles away in a predominantly white community, from a predominantly black neighborhood rocked by racial tension and looting.

Trump called for more police in America's inner city neighborhoods, telling a roomful of mostly white supporters that Democratic policies have failed minority communities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's time for our society to address some honest and very, very difficult tests. The Democratic Party has failed, and betrayed the African-American community. Democratic crime policies, education policies, and economic policies have produced only more crime, more broken homes, and more poverty.

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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Mr. Trump has a lot of ground to make up. A recent NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll put Trump support at just 1 percent among African-Americans.

So, let's talk about this. I'm joined again by Kayleigh McEnany and Sally Kohn, as well as Black Lives Matter organizer and chair of Pan American studies at Cal State, Melina Abdullah, and CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes.

Welcome to all of you and thanks for sticking around with me. I appreciate it.

Melina, Mr. Trump said the problem in our poorest communities is not less police, but more police. Would that solve Milwaukee's problem?

MELINA ABDULLAH, ORGANIZER, "BLACK LIVES MATTER": Absolutely not. If we want to talk about law and order, what we really need to do is re- imagine and define what public safety is. Every academic study shows public safety comes to the floor. We bolster public safety when we invest in the things that actually make communities safe -- livable wage jobs, mental health resources, permanent housing, those sorts of things, after school programs. We do not need to invest in the police that are held completely unaccountable, and are allowed to kill black people with impunity.

COSTELLO: OK, so Tom, you're next. Mr. Trump -- well, why don't you just respond to Melina's comments? What do you think about this?

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, first of all, police are not allowed to do whatever they please with impunity, the Officer Van Dyke in Chicago that shot and killed Laquan McDonald is now charged with first degree murder. We have other police officers around the country who are also charged with first degree murder in the shooting of unarmed African-American males.

So, it's not that they can do whatever they want. I think some people want justice to happen sooner, but they do need to conducts investigations when these things happen.

But I think the problem is that as Ms. Abdullah just mentioned, there is a lack of education. There is a lack of job opportunities. There another of other factors.

But unfortunately, in the modern era, all of it comes down to OK, police, society has failed the community, whoever, Democrats, Republicans, everybody, have failed the community. Now, it's your problem. You go on the street at night with that badge, with that gun, into these neighborhoods. It's your job to keep a lid on the situation, when everything else in the system has failed.

COSTELLO: Sally, Mr. Trump also said there a racist narrative out there about police, and he blames the Democrats for that. Is that the problem in these communities?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, that's an oversimplification, number one. And number two, ironically, in a speech in which he's trying to pander to black voters, he's actually pandering to white voters.

Look, a couple of thing here. First of all, let's get our facts straight. White Americans and black Americans, poor and middle class do better under Democratic presidents, period. It has been proven in administration over administration again and again and again. Wages are --

COSTELLO: There is still many problems within black communities, especially in urban America, Sally.

KOHN: No, no, no, no, I'm not saying there aren't issues. Listen, I'm far from saying there aren't issues, and obviously, everything that was said was correct about the need for wages, for better wages, for good jobs, for improvements in public education.

But again, number one, where is Donald Trump on those issues? He is the candidate who said actually that wages are too high, number one.

[09:25:04] And number two, look, this is an issue of this is an oversimplification of the critique offered by Black Lives Matter, which is not saying that all cops are racists. This is saying however that we have systemic injustice in this country in which the way that black people are treated by our police and by our government is systematically worst than, is repeatedly habitually worst than the way auto white people are treated.

The problem here, honestly, is that you have leader like Donald Trump, who says to his supporters, you don't have to believe that. You don't have to believe, you don't have to validate. You don't have to try to understand the experience of black Americans.

Let's dismiss that experience, and in fact, let's suggest that what they need is more law and order, more cops. It is that insensitivity --

COSTELLO: OK.

KOHN: -- dismissal of black Americans (INAUDIBLE)

COSTELLO: I want to get back to the charge that Democrats are the reason that some African-Americans have problems in this country, and Melina, and I'll get to you, Kaleigh, I promise. I just want Melina's thoughts on this.

Are Democrats to blame? I don't want it sound like all African- American people are poor, because they're certainly not. We're talking about a certain segment of the African-American community.

ABDULLAH: Right, I think we do want to acknowledge that black people tend to be poorer, we're at the bottom of every social and economic measure.

COSTELLO: Is that the Democrat's fault?

ABDULLAH: I think that it is really important that we understand that under both Democratic and Republican regimes, black people have not been treated with the dignity and respect, with the attention that we deserve. Our communities have been neglected. We've not only been dismissed, we've also been treated with disdain.

And so, I don't think it is the necessarily of just the Democrats. But I think that we need to look at the overall two-party system. I'm very eager to see the Green Party town hall, but I think it also is important that we understand that electoral politics are a piece of the puzzle. They are not all of the equation.

And so, the people really need to demand -- all people really need to demand better treatment, not just for the poorest folks, not just for black folks, but recognizing that when we uplift the bottom, when we lift from the bottom, all boats rise.

And so, we need to pay attention to the resources and/or the lack of resources given to our communities.

COSTELLO: OK.

Mr. Trump's comments have sparked this interesting conversation. But here is the rub. Critics say that why wasn't Mr. Trump giving his speech closer to, what happened to Sally Kohn?

KOHN: Sorry.

COSTELLO: I was just worried.

COSTELLO: OK, so Kaleigh, critics say that Mr. Trump should go into the black communities and actually talk to African-American citizens about their problems, and he hasn't done that. Instead, he chose to give this speech 40 miles from the neighborhood, where all of this unrest took place. Some of the tweets out there are vicious, and I'll put some of them up on screen.

"Trump tells a room full of white people in Wisconsin about his concerns for black people his answer, more police. #clueless."

And this one, "That whole Trump speech was the very definition of whitesplainig, talk at us instead of to us."

So, why not goo into a community or at least have more minorities in the audience when you're speaking to a certain community?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Donald Trump was speaking to millions and millions of people. That speech was televised. He knew that speech was televised. There were millions of African-Americans watching. Millions in the Hispanic community watching. He was speaking to a national audience.

COSTELLO: He took it for granted they would be watching?

MCENANY: No, he brought his message to everyone, to the American people, to everyone. It doesn't matter where he gave the speech. What matter is what he said.

And you hear Democrats like Sally Kohn come on the network and call hmm a racist and try to demonize my candidate. But what you don't hear them saying is explaining why Democrats have failed this community.

Look, the facts don't lie -- 58 percent more African-Americans on food stamps since the beginning of the Obama administration, 400,000 more in poverty. You have the civil rights commissioner --

COSTELLO: I think that's the thing, when African-Americans complain about politicians talking at their communities. You're portraying all African-Americans being on food stamps, or he vast majority. It's not true.

MCENANY: No, I'm not. I'm saying that economically, they have been hurt by this president. There are many African-Americans in failing school, disproportionately more than there are --

COSTELLO: Why doesn't Donald Trump go to a failing school, talk to the principal there, talk to the teachers?

MCENANY: I think he will. This is the beginning of his outreach to this community and tailoring his message in this way, and I think that the onus is on the Democrats to explain why they have failed this population that has turned out in droves to vote for Democratic politicians, and yet all of the cities failing that Democratic politicians are running, you have two million more eligible African- American workers since the Obama administration, yet you have 2 million fewer in the workforce.