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Clinton Foundation Donations Limited if Clinton is Elected; Trump's Backup Plan; Social Media Lights Up. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired August 19, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:34:00] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: You are looking at pictures from just moments ago. Mike Pence arriving in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Donald Trump expected to join him there. We don't know exactly what their itinerary is as they arrive to take a look at the devastating flooding that has hit that area of the state, but we will keep an eye on it for you throughout the morning.
Hillary Clinton told FBI investigators Colin Powell had advised her to use her own personal e-mail account while serving as secretary of state. "The New York Times" reporting that revelation was included in the notes the FBI handed over to Congress earlier this week from their interview with Clinton in July. Powell's office says he doesn't recall a conversation with her about that, though he had described his own experience in an e-mail to Clinton. Powell has also written about his use of personal e-mail for unclassified messages and how he believes it improved technology at the State Department. "The Times" reports, unlike Clinton, Powell did not have a private server at his home, nor used outside contractors.
The Clinton Foundation is announcing major changes to the way it operates. If Hillary Clinton becomes president, among them, Bill Clinton will no longer give paid speeches, and the foundation will be much more scrupulous about just who it accepts donations from.
[09:35:14] CNN Money correspondent Cristina Alesci is following all of this for us.
So, all of this, of course, Cristina, comes amid this intense scrutiny as well of the foundation, of what people are paid for speeches, of who is sending in that money. What would actually change?
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's get into the details of what would change. But first it's important to point out that this criticism not - is not just coming from the critics of the Clintons, but also supporters, who say that the appearance alone of a conflict warrants the foundation to shut down.
Now, to get more specific about what's going on, the Clinton Foundation, if Hillary Clinton is elected, will no longer take donations from corporate and foreign donors. And it's going to effectively shut down the most controversial part of the program, the Clinton Global Initiative. That's the - that - those are the events which members pay essentially $20,000 in membership fees to essentially get access to the Clintons, right? So effectively no more Clinton Global Initiative and Bill Clinton will no longer be making paid speeches.
Now, all of this throws into question, how does the foundation continue to operate -
HILL: Right.
ALESCI: Without these sources of funding? Now, listen, the foundation and the campaign were well aware that these - that these things were going to become an issue. That's why when Hillary Clinton announced her presidency, her bid for running for president, the Clinton Foundation limited the number of countries it accepted donations from. It was only going to accept donations from Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the U.K. And, in fact, I just checked before coming on set, an Australia, in the form of a government grant, gave the Clinton Foundation - granted the Clinton Foundation between $10 million and $25 million just a few months ago. So critics are saying, why wait, right?
HILL: Right. Why not do it now?
ALESCI: Why did you wait this long? Right. Exactly. Why not - why not do it now? And then you have the RNC coming out saying, listen, this actually looks worse, right? If you had the RNC saying that if everything was above board, why change a thing? And that's the point of this. It seems like the Clintons on the Clinton Foundation just can't win at this point.
HILL: As you talk about a lot, sometimes it's really the optics that matter the most.
ALESCI: Exactly.
HILL: It will be interesting to see how that plays out and what changes we may see next or how soon.
Cristina, thank you.
ALESCI: Absolutely.
HILL: We are learning some new details about the Obama administration's $400 million payment to Iran in January. The State Department now saying it held up the plane full of cash to ensure that four American prisoners were released by Iran first, but insists it was not a ransom payment, saying that the State Department was simply leveraging money that was already Iran's. Donald Trump has used the latest revelation to attack his Democratic opponent. Trump claiming Hillary Clinton owns President Obama's Iran policy, and saying this is proof she's unfit to be president.
Still to come, Trump knows all about showbiz, so why are some now beginning to think that the presidency isn't the real prize for Donald Trump after all. Could it be more about some bright lights? That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:42:27] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK, AUTHOR, "LIARS": I believe Donald Trump is going to lose. I believe he's going to start his own network. I believe it's going to be run by Bannon. I don't think Roger Ailes will be involved because of his non-compete. But Roger Stone will be involved. And what's going to happen is Roger - I mean Donald Trump is going to make this look like it was a stolen election. He will divide us even more.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Conservative radio host Glenn Beck raising the possibility that Donald Trump is already looking past the White House and on to building a media empire. And he's not the only one. "The Los Angeles Time" posting an op-ed that reads, "one possible conclusion is that Trump, who recently acknowledged that he might end up taking a 'nice long vacation' after November, has realized he is going to lose. He has therefore recruited Ailes and Bannon to lay the groundwork for his backup plan, a new career as a right-wing media personality."
Ailes, of course, being ousted Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, and, Bannon, being the Breitbart News boss, turned Trump chief campaign executive.
Let's talk more about this with historian and professor at Princeton University, and also co-author of that "L.A. Times" op-ed, Julian Zelizer, and CNN media analyst and author of "The War for Late Night," Bill Carter.
Good to have both of you here.
JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN & PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Thank you.
HILL: So, you know, from the beginning, there's been some speculation that Donald Trump was maybe never really in this to try to get to the White House. That that was never the end goal. But yet here we are, right? He's the GOP nominee.
ZELIZER: Yes.
HILL: And yet, Julian, you're sort of making the case that maybe this is all part of a different end game. That it's a ploy for a media empire. So do you really see that as the end game for Donald Trump?
ZELIZER: Well, our argument wasn't that he set out to do this from the beginning, and we both believe that this campaign became pretty serious. It is still serious. But right now the polling is not positive for Donald Trump, any polling really at this point. And we imagine he is thinking of what comes next. And he's also someone who I think has enjoyed this - being part of the political game. So the media is a natural outpost for him. He came from "The Apprentice," not from real estate. And it's easy to imagine this is the next step.
HILL: He consistently makes the case for himself as to why he's a good candidate in that he's a good businessman. He likes to make deals and he's good at it.
BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes.
HILL: That he recognizes opportunity. From a business perspective, though, Bill, this is already a very crowded media landscape.
CARTER: Exactly.
HILL: Is there really a viable path for him if this were -
CARTER: Well, you can see that it's taking shape in a way that people are speculating that Fox News may be changing because of the Murdoch sons taking over. But you can't start a cable network very easily now. It's very difficult to get distribution. They would almost have to buy an existing channel that had distribution if they were going to try to launch this. They may see an avenue there because, I mean, the whole Breitbart phenomenon proves that there is an audience to the right of Fox, all the way to the right of Fox, that you might be able to play to, and that certainly seems to have been the base for Trump. So he would have a built-in audience if they could create it. But I think it would be very difficult and take a lot of capital investment.
[09:45:28] HILL: It's interesting, and you referenced this "Vanity Fair" article in your piece, "Vanity Fair" pointing out there was this tweet from June 15th and Donald Trump all of a sudden said - a guy who does things pretty spontaneously, that, you know, maybe - here, I'm going to read it right here, that he wants to bring his message directly to the people.
CARTER: Yes.
HILL: And it almost made it seem like, you know, was he testing the waters. Being this kind of spontaneous person that we've seen on the trail, when there isn't a teleprompter, is there really a chance that he was thinking that far forward two months ago, thinking, let me sort of throw this out there, see what sticks?
ZELIZER: Well, it's hard to know what Trump was thinking or is thinking. So he is a bit of an enigma -
HILL: Fair point.
ZELIZER: And he's pretty mysterious. But the media has been central to him, again, before the campaign he came in with this audience because of his reality show. And during the campaign, it hasn't been a traditional campaign. It has been about creating and developing this media persona and trying to say, that's the way to win political power. So it's been on his mind and I think he's very good at that part of the campaign, and so it's easy to see him transferring that to a world where there's already space for former politicians to go on the air and to continue with their ideas.
CARTER: My experience with Trump, and I dealt with him a lot when I used to write for "The New York Times" and I interviewed him a lot, and he - when "The Apprentice" started, he wasn't committed to that. He tried to distance himself for that. But he opportunity. As soon as that started to hit, he saw, well, look what I can build from this and, you know, make clothes and everything else. So he - he does react to opportunity. So I could see that. I don't think it was strategy going in.
HILL: Right.
CARTER: But as this is taking shape and he thinks the press is unfair to him and there's opportunity in - on the right, I can see him maybe thinking this way now.
HILL: How do you - I mean is - it's so hard to know, like you said, what he's thinking now, what he could be thinking with this move. Business issues aside, there is this audience out there, as we've all talked about. Could it be two more of him joining forces with somebody else, not just the Breitbarts of the world, but maybe something else and sort of putting together a conglomeration?
CARTER: Well, that sounds like what he's - when he puts these -
HILL: Yes.
CARTER: Pieces in place, that might be what he's doing. But I don't want to distance him too much from the election.
ZELIZER: Right.
CARTER: I think he'd still like to win.
ZELIZER: (INAUDIBLE).
HILL: Right.
CARTER: He'd still like to win. And I think he is more comfortable with these people. That's another aspect of this. That I - and I don't think you should write off the fact that he's behind in the polls now because things can happen and I think he, in his heart, wants to - he doesn't want to come out of this saying, I'm a loser. He doesn't ever want to be the loser.
HILL: If we have learned one thing in this election season, it's that none of us should try to predict what's going to happen next -
CARTER: Right.
HILL: Or write anything off. I think that's an excellent point.
CARTER: Yes.
HILL: Whether we're talking about the media or the polling alone.
Bill Carter and Julian Zelizer, good to have both of you with us. Thanks very much.
ZELIZER: Thank you.
CARTER: Thank you. HILL: Still to come, it is one of the most talked about interviews this week, says who? Social media. All of it.
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[09:52:50] HILL: You are looking at live pictures right now of Mike Pence there on the tarmac. He's at the airport in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he arrive a short time ago. Now we learned at - not a lot of notice, to be honest, in terms of the way these visits often go, that Mike Pence and Donald Trump would be going to Louisiana today. This comes on the heels of a scathing op-ed in "The Advocate" in Louisiana, which called on the president to visit, saying they'd seen the story before in Louisiana and don't want a sequel. The governor, though, of the state saying they don't want this to be a photo op for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. We'll continue to monitor that for you throughout the morning.
It began as a simple question about Donald Trump's latest pivot in his presidential bid, but very soon turned into a social media sensation. Jeanne Moos has more on how a Trump supporter's interview with one of CNN's own dominated the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a little like the old Abbott and Costello routine about the guy with the last name "who" playing first base.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's on first?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean the guy's name.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy playing first.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is on first.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you asking me for? I don't know.
MOOS: Now imagine that in slow motion. An exchange between CNN's Brianna Keilar and Trump attorney Michael Cohen has become an instant campaign classic.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You guys are down and it makes sense -
MICHAEL COHEN, TRUMP ATTORNEY: Says who?
KEILAR: That there would -
COHEN: Says who?
KEILAR: Polls. Most of them. All of them.
MOOS: That led to an awkward five seconds of silence.
COHEN: Says who?
KEILAR: Polls. I just told you. I answered your question.
COHEN: OK. Which polls?
KEILAR: All of them.
MOOS: I watched it five times. "It's hypnotic," posted one person. Her single raised eyebrow at the end deserves an Emmy on its own.
COHEN: Which polls?
KEILAR: All of them.
MOOS: That ended up on a mock "make America great again" hat. But the big takeaway seemed to be -
COHEN: Says who?
MOOS: #sayswho became a thing. The aftermath of the interview, "you're fired," "says who?" Who else says who? Either Trump's attorney was in denial about the polls -
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Or doing his best impression of an owl.
MOOS (on camera): The exchange even inspired, we kid you not, knock knock jokes.
[09:55:00] MOOS (voice-over): Knock knock.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's there?
MOOS: Says.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Says who?
MOOS: The polls. All of them. #allofthem also picked up steam, in this case with an Olympic theme.
So you're losing this race.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Says who?
MOOS: The clocks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which clocks?
MOOS: All of them.
There was even a poll pitting "says who" against "all of them." "All of them" won by a landslide.
In the wake of Brianna's interview, Trump's attorney told Yahoo! News, "I think I unraveled her." Hmm, let's take a poll on that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which polls?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you asking me for? I don't know.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos.
COHEN: Says who?
MOOS: CNN.
COHEN: Which polls?
MOOS: New York.
KEILAR: All of them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins after a short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:02] HILL: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill, in for Carol Costello this morning. Thanks for being with us.
We are following a developing story out of Louisiana. Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, is on the ground there.
