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Report: Boston Globe Says End Clinton Foundation if She Wins; Trump Gets First Classified Intel Briefing; L.A. Couple Loses Second Home in 5 Months to Flooding; New Questions Raised in Lochte Case. Aired 3-3:30p ET
Aired August 17, 2016 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: "The Boston Globe" today has a harsh message for Hillary Clinton. Stop accepting all donations for the Clinton Foundation right now. A strongly worded opinion piece, the "Globe" editorial board insists if Clinton wins the White House, the foundation must be shut down.
In part, they write, "The inherent conflict of interest was obvious when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009. If the Clinton Foundation continues to cash checks from foreign governments and other individuals seeking to ingratiate themselves, with a President Hillary Clinton it would be unacceptable. Critics have slammed the Clinton Foundation for accepting money from nations with troubling human rights records.
[15:35:00] Let's talk all of this over with our chief Washington correspondent and host of "The Lead", Jake Tapper. What have the Clintons said? If Hillary Clinton were to win in November, what will they do?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST OF 'THE LEAD": It is a big question. This was an issue of course when then-president elect Obama offered then- senator Clinton the position of secretary of state. And there was a lot of legal wrangling about what kind of firewall would need to be put up between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. But now obviously this is an even bigger job than secretary of state, becoming the president. Bill Clinton at a CGI Clinton Global Initiative event, just a few weeks ago was asked about it. Here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: There will clearly be some changes in what the Clinton Foundation does and how we do it. And we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: But it is not just "The Boston Globe" editorial page raising concern. Just this week "The Washington Post" editorial page did the same saying, among other things, "As secretary of state, Clinton pledged to keep her official word and her -- I'm sorry, her official world and her family's foundation separate, and she failed to keep them separate enough such sloppiness would not be acceptable in the White House."
In addition, you have Clinton ally, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, saying that they might have to consider shutting it down if she does win the White House.
BALDWIN: So there is that. Number two, the big -- let me ask you about the Green Party town hall on CNN tonight. For folks who have never heard these two names, who are they?
BALDWIN: Jill Stein obviously is a doctor. She is the nominee. She ran four years ago and got .36% of the vote. What she really needs to do in the next week or so is get her poll numbers up to where Gary Johnson has managed to get them, which is within spitting distance of 15%.
Because the key for any of these so-called third party candidates, whether Evan McMullin, or Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, the key is to get into those presidential debates, to get into that 15% poll threshold. That's what she needs to do. She's hoping that some of that will happen tonight.
BALDWIN: All right. If you'd like to learn more about Jill Stein, tune in. Green Party debate happening this evening. Mr. Tapper, thank you. Again, Green Party town hall tonight, 9:00 eastern here on CNN.
We are 82 days, folks. Count them with me. 82. Until election day. Donald Trump is getting his very first intelligence briefing today. What will he learn and what happens if either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton accidentally leaks any of that information? We'll talk live with a former CIA officer coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[15:40:00] PAUL RYAN, (r) HOUSE SPEAKER: I think the DNI, Clapper should deny Hillary Clinton access to classified information during this campaign given how she so recklessly handled classified information.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They have been told these are classified briefings. And if they want to be president, they got to start acting like a president. And that means being able to receive these briefings and not spread them around.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Here's what I can tell you today. This afternoon in New York somewhere Donald Trump is set to receive information he has never before been privy to. The Republican nominee will receive his very first classified national security briefing. As you just heard, top obviously leaders, President and speaker Ryan, have raised concerns over whether the rival party's nominee should even be given these kinds of classified briefings. Let me bring in former CIA counterterrorism analyst and CNN political
commentator, Buck Sexton. Hello. You briefed President Bush once upon a time in your role at the White House. You never briefed a nominee. What kind of information, where would this be?
BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They're going to be giving strategic sort of 30,000-foot assessments of a whole bunch of different issues. It is not going to be particularly granular because that's not really where they are going to be taking the candidates right now.
They are going to be giving an overview of major topics. Quite honestly these sorts of overview briefings which are given to policymakers, not even just in this capacity when running for president but across the board. A lot of people sort of need to get up to speed, need a background briefing on any given issue.
It tends to be at a very high level meaning in terms of it being 30,000 feet up. You don't get into the details, certainly not into sources and methods and some of the more sensitive issues that the intelligence community deals with. I don't think this will be in any way be surprising to Hillary Clinton.
I think that she'll be very aware of some of what we call the analytic lines, this sort of broad conclusions and judgment of the intel community on major issues. I think they may be a little more surprising to candidate Trump but we'll have to see. Of course I don't know what's in the briefings but my sense is that he has more catch-up to do on this than the former secretary of state does.
BALDWIN: We have learned today that Governor Chris Christie will be with him, retired General Michael Flynn. They're sitting in this briefing room, wherever this is in New York. Will they then have had to be vetted before they go in to get the briefing as well?
SEXTON: Absolutely. Anybody else who's in the room has to have an active security clearance. The exception to this -- this also becomes very political because of some of Hillary's problems with the e-mails, the exception to having an active clearance that's something given based on investigation is if the American people elect you.
[15:45:00] That also therefore transfers over to people who are in this process of being the candidate. So if you are the candidate, there's no background process or anything. You get the briefings. Same thing with the president of the United States. People pointed out that there have been previous presidents who may have had a bit of trouble getting a security clearance on their own had they not been elected commander in chief. But for anybody else in the room they have to have an active clearance for the information.
There will be classified stuff that is discussed there. It is imperative for both campaigns to keep it under wraps. I think they will. It is a legal issue. There are federal statutes that govern this issue.
BALDWIN: If they don't? SEXTON: It has never happened before. The President has the ability
to real time declassify. If the president slips up on classified, then it is not a crime. If a candidate were to slip up, I don't think anybody knows what would happen there. I think we would all have to agree to forget about it.
BALDWIN: Forget about it. Interesting.
SEXTON: Yes.
BALDWIN: Buck Sexton, thank you so much.
Up next, personal side of the devastation down in Louisiana. A family with three kids has now lost their home to flooding, not once, but twice. We'll talk to them live coming up.
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[15:50:00] BALDWIN: Historic flooding is taking a catastrophic toll on the folks in Louisiana. More than 40,000 homes have been damaged and among them, the home of Dennis Perret and Christine Ford. Dennis' emotional plea for help has been shared all over social media.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS PERRET, LOUISIANA FLOOD VICTIM: I got this. I know I can do it. I did it once. I'm sure I can do it again. And I will do it again for my family. Of all of the other families out there, man, I know what you're going through. Keep your head up, keep god in your heard, understand you will get through. Try not to take it out on each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: That was Dennis Perret he is with me now from Mandeville along with Christine and their daughter, Falynne, live in Mandeville, Louisiana. My goodness, Dennis, we played that yesterday, just your tears, how are you all holding up?
DENNIS PERRET: Yes, it almost got me just there. Just staying strong, just uniting as a family. So much love and support and just doing what we have to do.
BALDWIN: When you talk about doing what you have to do, there are a lot of folks where you are and they lost their homes for the first time, this is number two for you. Can you tell me about that?
DENNIS PERRET: In March we suffered almost a similar flood and last time we only had four or five inches in our house, but it was still taxing. We didn't have insurance. We had to do a lot of work ourselves. It took us all of the way to Father's Day we actually moved back in about eight weeks ago. I still had a bunch of projects to do and then this happens.
BALDWIN: Wow, and Fallon, you're 12 years old, have you ever seen so much water? FALYNNE PERRET, FLOOD VICTIM: Well, in the ocean.
BALDWIN: Not running through your streets and your homes. Christine, have you all heard from others since Dennis put that video out on social media? What is the response and the love been like back toward you?
CHRISTINE FORD, FLOOD VICTIM: It has been a true blessing the response we have gotten, truly a blessing.
BALDWIN: What do you want people to know about your home and Baton Rouge, what you need, how folks can help?
DENNIS PERRET: There is a lot of people in Baton Rouge, and now Sorrento another city nearby, just got six feet of water yesterday. I just want people to know that I know the news coverage will be go, but there is a lot of people out there that have lost their lives and lost everything. In some cases, even their jobs. They will still be piecing this together.
I so much appreciate all the love and reach out that we have gotten. We're going to do everything we can as a family we've talked about it to try to take that reach out, pay it forward, and see if we can't reach as many people and help as many people in our community as we possibly can.
BALDWIN: And you have a GoFundMe page?
DENNIS PERRET: Yes, ma'am, we do. Our friend started it for us, and we are just simple people. We will use what we can to get back in our house, of course, as a family. Anything extra we'll pay forward. We'll take it to as many families and help as much as we can. We love our city and our community and the state of Louisiana and the resilience of the people.
There are a lot of people that need it as much as we do. If not a lot more.
BALDWIN: Absolutely. Dennis, thank you, I hope you're feeling the love all of the way from New York. We will stay in touch with you all, go to CNN.com/impact to find out how you can help.
Coming up next, a Brazilian judge orders a search warrant for Ryan Lochte after his report of an armed robbery in Rio.
[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: The case involving U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte is taking a dramatic twist. A judge ordered a search warrant for Lochte and another swimmer while authorities investigate their claim of being robbed at gunpoint in Rio.
[16:00:00] The judge says the video shows these two more making jokes as they returned to the Olympic village after the alleged robbery. The judge also points to possible inconsistencies in the swimmer's statements, so let's go to Nick Paton Walsh who is in Rio. Nick, what happened?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is extraordinary, isn't it? At the height of the Olympic games this search and seizure being issued by a Rio judge against one of the better known medalists of the current team at the head of the medals table.
He did say he was robbed with three other swimmers as he left a place called The French Club, held down with men by guns in police officer uniforms. But this video has cast some doubt in the judge's mind who issued the order about the mood there as they came home afterwards. Also, a police spokesperson said to me, many Brazilians are looking at the video too and saying why have they still got their cell phones and their valuables if they were in fact subject to an armed robbery.
