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Trump Holds Meeting with Hispanic Leaders; President Obama Golfs As Louisiana Endures Floods; Op-Ed: Maybe Trump Wants Trump TV, Not White House; Prepping for the Presidential Debates; Photograph of Syrian Boy Moves the World. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 20, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:26] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. So glad you're with us right now. Crowd in Virginia waiting to hear from Donald Trump. Which Trump will they get? That remains to be seen. Because in the past few days we seen a makeover of the Trump campaign from a change in staff at the top to a candidate going to stick to the teleprompter, for the most part, and make a play for voters some thought he had written off as unwinnable.

Today Trump held a round table with his Hispanic supporters at Trump Tower here in New York. This is a recent FOX News poll shows Trump is trailing Clinton by 46 points among Latino voters. His support even lower among African-Americans, just one percent according to an NBC News "Wall Street Journal" poll. Last night Trump made a major play for those voters. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I say it again, what do you have to lose? Look, what do you have to lose? You're living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have you no jobs. Fifty eight percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell you have to lose?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Fact checking that for just a moment. According to the Labor Department, in July the actual unemployment rate for African-Americans ages 16 to 24 was 20.6 percent. About a third of what Trump claimed last night. After Trump's speech last night in Michigan, Hillary Clinton tweeted that her opponent's comments were quote, "So ignorant, it is staggering."

Let's get straight to senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes. She's at that rally. People are already starting to gather, Kristen. Trump is going to make this play in Virginia, a battleground state. But he is trailing by 12 points in the most recent polling. What is he going to say tonight?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, we're going to be listening for several different things here in Virginia tonight. First of all we know Trump has already landed and he is meeting with the staff county sheriff department right now. Now, it's the third time he has met with law enforcement officials just this week right now, he is saying that hot because he has deemed himself the law and order candidate. And when we look at this, we are going to expect to hear from him on that tonight.

This is something that he has brought up before in the past. Now, in addition to that, political analysts say that he has to continue courting those minority groups as you've mentioned as he had one of his biggest outreaches -- outreached attempt to Hispanics today, meeting with the Republican National Committee as well as the house on National Hispanic Advisory Council for Trump. So, we are expecting, we are listening to hear anything else about that as you mentioned.

He is down in those polls with Hispanic, with African-Americans who won't be -- on that tonight. But I think in part most importantly is whether or not he will stay on message, if you look behind me, there are teleprompters here tonight. We will see if he can keep it on message here in this important battleground states for he is losing as you mentioned by 12 points.

HARLOW: Listen, thank you very much. We will bring you Trump's mark live as soon as soon as he begins speaking. We appreciate it. Trump is making a major push for African-American voters struggling in this economy saying that he would help them more, help the poor more than Hillary Clinton. Well, just last week, the "New York Times" criticized both of them for not focusing a lot on the issue. Here's what the "Time's" wrote.

"The United States, the wealthiest nation on earth also abides the deepest poverty of any developed nation, but you wouldn't know it by listening to Hillary Clinton or Donald J. Trump, the major parties' presidential nominees."

So, when it comes to helping the poorest in this country, who would do more as president? Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?

Let's hash it out with our panel. Princeton University historian, Julian Zelizer is with me. CNN Money senior writer, Tami Luhby is with me. She covers poverty issues very closely. And Ryan Mack is with me, mid-Atlantic market president for Operation Hope, that is a non-profit, it works with poor families across this country and their finances. Thank you all for being with us.

Ryan Mack, to you. So nice to have you on. I haven't seen you in a long time, my friend, it's good to have you on. You know, what do you think? Well, look, listen what we heard from Donald Trump last night. Do you think that his message will resonate with the low income communities that you work with day in, day out?

RYAN MACK, RUNS NONPROFIT THAT HELPS WORKING POOR WITH FINANCES: Well, bottom-line is we're in a country right now where 33 percent of children live in poverty. We've got about half of America is living, check to Tuesday and the rest of the week, that many of them have to go to payday loans just to sustain themselves. So again, we have to have more than rhetoric and quite frankly, personally, I don't see from either candidate in terms of their rhetoric something that really focuses on those every day issues. If you actually drill down into actual issues, you know, all the various websites and actual policies --

HARLOW: Yes.

MACK: -- you will see Hillary Clinton has various advancements in computer education for schools, which helps individuals to get back into labor himself. We see the labor participation rate which is under 63, another 10 million, more than 12 million actually the past seven years have left the labor markets. People want to get more trainings. So like computer science, science technology in demand. Those types of jobs.

[17:05:30] They have a higher skilled labor market. That's going to help poverty rates to decline if we invest in those. I haven't seen a lot of terms of reality from what Donald Trump is saying outside of building a wall. That might put a few hundred folks to work and build that wall in the southern border. But of course (INAUDIBLE) but I would like to see a little bit -- and more rhetoric from both sides, actually.

HARLOW: You know, it's interesting, I mean, beyond the rhetoric what is actually done by the next president, next Congress. It's what's so important. And Tami, I mean, you cover these issues, when you look at the numbers, Trump's supporters will say, look the poverty rate has gone up under President Obama. And it has. I mean, let's look at the numbers, 2008, 13 percent of Americans in poverty.

Now, 15 percent in poverty, 15 percent is down a little bit. That's the wrong number. Fifteen percent is down a little bit from where it was at the height of the Obama presidency during the great recession. But what policy prescriptions does it appear what help the poorest most?

TAMI LUHBY, CNN MONEY SENIOR WRITER: I mean certainly creating jobs are going to have the poor and both of the candidates are talking about that. But it's interesting because Arthur Brooks who's head of the very conservative American Enterprise Institute came out with a book last year talking about how Republicans really need to rethink and revamp their prescriptions for the poor.

One of the things that they really want to do is focus on helping young single men rise out of poverty. You know, a lot of the poverty programs that we have today are focused on women taking care of children. But we don't really have a lot on helping people return to the labor force. It's not just the matter of creating jobs, they need assistance and extra assistance to return.

HARLOW: It's very interesting. Because both of these candidates talk so much about bringing manufacturing jobs back. And it's important. And they go along the rust belts and they talked about that. But when you look at the numbers, manufacturing jobs account for less than 10 percent of jobs in this economy. So are they talking about the wrong things in terms of helping the masses?

LUHBY: Certainly, I mean, and a lot of experts say that you will never going to bring manufacturing jobs back. And, you know, those are both candidates, particularly Donald Trump's prescription for helping the working class.

HARLOW: Uh-hm.

LUHBY: You know, but many of the poor were never working in manufacturing to begin with.

HARLOW: Right.

LUHBY: There was a slide that we saw earlier that only 32 percent or so of the poor work at all --

HARLOW: All right. We can pull that up just so people get a sense of the numbers?

LUHBY: Yes. And fewer than 10 percent work full time. So just bringing jobs back is not going to necessarily help the poor.

HARLOW: Julian Zelizer, over to you. Let's talk about the politics of all of these in terms of getting the votes. Right? There is also a reason why candidates, not just these presidential candidates, but many presidential candidates talk more to the middle class than to the poor in terms of who comes out to vote?

JULIAN ZELIZER, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: Yes. Democrats are often leery of talking about poverty programs directly because they fear being tagged as too left center. The poor don't vote in the same numbers as the middle class. As to often as disincentive to directly talk about it, I would say, that the Democrats do have more policies usually and a campaign that addressed poverty. So affordable housing has been a part of the Clinton campaign, early childhood development, the Affordable Care Act is a program that deals with the poor. For Republicans, there has been some more talk in recent years with Paul Ryan trying to introduce some plans but generally it's not at the core of the Republicans --

HARLOW: I mean, Paul Ryan came out and he talked about going into the poorest neighborhoods in America and he said, I realized I was wrong when he talked about sort of makers and takers. And he said, takers wasn't how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap just trying to take care of her family. Most people don't want to be dependents. So, I think there has been an evolution among the language used and the outlook Tami for politician on both sides.

LUHBY: Certainly. And I think there was an effort to be this more conservative, compassionate conservative. But unfortunately, you know, the political season if you are not focusing on major policies or, you know, any of the rhetoric.

ZELIZER: Ryan's party is at odds that the policies that are necessary to deal with --

HARLOW: Is it really fair to see the entire Republican Party that ads with policy to help the poorest Americans?

ZELIZER: Well, I think in general the party has moved very rightward in the last few decades, and especially since 2010. And while there might be rhetorical sympathy right now for the poor, we haven't seen a lot on the table in terms of how you get there. And one of the key elements again is opposition of the Affordable Care Act which if you look at the last years has been very central with Medicaid expansion to deal with poverty.

LUHBY: And now you've seen any more Republican governors, you know, who initially said, oh not in my state. But now they're coming in. So we still need more people.

HARLOW: Ryan Mack, final thought to you, politics aside the people that you work with every day the poorest Americans, what is the number one thing they need out of the next administration?

MACK: Bottom-line is 70 percent of consumer spending of GDP is consumer spending. And so, we have to have individuals to help them how to create their own jobs, it's time for us as America to stop waiting for a ship to come in. We have learn how to swim out, learn how to create our own ships, small business development, entrepreneurship, individuals learning how to get back and become more competitive.

I'm in Detroit right now, they have a lot of individuals out here who've been fired from jobs that are no longer available on the line. Now that those jobs in engineering that create the robots that replace him on how to manage. An engineer on the employment rate is almost zero percent.

HARLOW: Yes.

MACK: So, those are the types of things we focus on in the future.

[17:10:50] HARLOW: Yes. So, the skill revamping. I mean, the fact is that there are 5.5 million open jobs in this country that have not been filled largely because of the education system is not preparing our workers.

Ryan Mack, Tami, Julian, thank all you very much.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

LUHBY: Thank you.

HARLOW: We will continue this discussion on this show. It is critically important.

All right. Coming up, flooded parts of Louisiana becoming a political battlegrounds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Honestly, Obama ought to get off the golf course and get down there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: Donald Trump attacking the President for being on vacation instead of being with flood victims. The President though does go on Tuesday to Louisiana. Also, it is tantalizing idea, Trump television. Could the presidential candidate launch a 24 hour network if he doesn't win the presidency? All that and more live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:04] HARLOW: Optics, you hear the word a lot in politics and for good reason, take a look at this. On the left side of your screen is the President golfing while on vacation. On the right is the catastrophic flooding, devastating Louisiana. As Donald Trump visited the area, his supporters seized the opportunity to compare the absence of a president to the presence of a presidential hopeful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are not playing golf in Martha's Vineyard, that's all we can say. You are not playing golf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody is. Definitely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Even Louisiana's biggest paper "The Advocate" called for the President to cut his vacation short and to come down to Baton Rouge pleading with the President not to let his historic crisis go unattended. Now, the President is going, we are hearing, from the White House on Tuesday down to the flood zone. Let's talk about all those optics.

Let's bring in Bill Briggs, a campaign consultant, also a former advanced coordinator, meaning, he gets his head around stuff like this and make sure that optics don't happen. He did this for a number of campaigns. Also with us is Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent for us, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Let me start with you, Bill. We heard from our Michelle Kosinski in the last hour about this talking about sort of the over/under for the White House on this. They don't want to get in the way. The Governor by the way, said, basically, the President hold off from coming, it takes a lot of resources and security away from the effort to clean up and to help people when you have the President come. And he is going on Tuesday. What's your take?

BILL BRIGGS, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: I think the President missed a big opportunity here. He knows the lesson here. He was -- he called out President Bush in 2005 when President Bush did the fly by and didn't visit because of the same concerns. And then three days after Sandy, he was in New Jersey hugging Chris Christie. I think the concern is that the White House and the team didn't decide to go until Donald Trump had already been there. They announced that yesterday after Trump had visited. And so, yes, it does tie up resources, but it's not a perfect situation. But you still can you make it and go. And I think it brings a lot of attention to what's going on in Louisiana right now.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I would just say, the counter argument here without taking anything away from the victims of the flooding in and around Baton Rouge is that it is not comparable to what happened during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There were so many managerial failures before during and after Katrina and more than 2,000 people died during an unprecedented hurricane. And largely because of what happened with the levies. It is not comparable, despite the tragedy in Louisiana today.

HARLOW: And I think that's an important point, Bill because the President has still been sort of leading and coordinating a federal response and there actually has not been criticism of the federal response to the flooding in Louisiana in terms of resources and the rapid response, right? That's not what's being criticized. I spoke to the head of FEMA this week who was down there with the team, he said, he was on the phone with the President on Wednesday. Does that matter in the court of public opinion?

BRIGGS: I think it does a little. But the reality is, is that the White House had no plans to go there until Trump was there yesterday.

HARLOW: We don't know that. They haven't said that.

BRIGGS: Well, they haven't said that, that's true. But you know, right. We didn't hear of anything until after Trump was there. I still think, though, that the attention that a presidential visit can bring, it can encourage people to donate online and bring other resources just besides what the federal government can provide and coordinate in terms of a response effort.

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: If it's on cable news and it's dominating television and the web, the President needs to acknowledge it. Even in something like a tweet or a Facebook post or a video so that he's on the record talking about it.

HARLOW: And to be fair, Brian, there was a lot of criticism of the media, national media included for the coverage of this, right? Because it didn't come on with a bang like a hurricane and a lot of local media there, you know, said, where are you guys in covering this?

STELTER: You know, I made it to this issue about flooding. This is what we call a no name storm. It didn't have a name like hurricane, like super storm Sandy or Hurricane Katrina. It was something that did catch the national news outlets off guard. Something that we cover on "RELIABLE SOURCES" tomorrow because I want to talk to an expert meteorologist about what are the reasons why it didn't get much coverage early on. But once the press did pay more attention, it would have made sense for the President to weigh in on some fashion, especially because he's been on vacation, you would think there would be extra sensitivity to the fact he is out golfing. HARLOW: Right. So, I mean, Bill, just for the perspective for our

viewers, you were on the ground with Vice President Cheney in Louisiana, you know, back with Hurricane Katrina. If are you in Hillary Clinton's camp, you have spoken to the Governor, you have said, we'll do whatever we can to help. Does Hillary Clinton now go or does that look like she is just following Trump?

BRIGGS: I think she should make a public statement somewhere. Wherever the campaign or wherever the candidate is, the campaign should have the ability for the candidate to make an immediate statement on when there is major emergencies like this that affect hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. So she should, if she doesn't go there, she should certainly get out there in front of a podium and make a statement, pledging her support, doing whatever she can to help the folks in Louisiana.

HARLOW: All right. Thank you both though, Briggs. Brian to you, Brian is going to cover a lot more of this tomorrow morning, "RELIABLE SOURCES" 11:00 a.m. right here. Also, we do want to let you know that if you want to help, and that's actually the most important here, beyond politics, CNN.com/impact. A lot of ways there that you can help the victims. Remember, 13 people have died, 40,000 homes have been damaged. Do something. Help.

Coming up. Speculation, running wild, the Donald Trump's goal, maybe not to win the White House, I'm not saying that, you should read some of the articles. Could he want to run his own television network one day? Really? We're going to debate it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:24:28] HARLOW: This week Donald Trump hired a big name, media man to oversee his presidential campaign. You've heard his name by now. Steve Bannon, he is the executive chairman of right wing news outlet, Breitbart News. That coupled with Trump's discuss with the current state of the media industry has some folks asking, is Trump television ahead? Seriously, some folks are asking that. I'm not saying it.

Here's how Princeton historian Julian Zelizer put it in an "L.A. Times" op-ed this week. "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, Roger Ailes and Bannon to lay the groundwork for his back-up plan, a new career as a right wing media personality."

With me now, the man who wrote the op-ed, Julian Zelizer, he is also the author of "The Fierce Urgency of Now."

And with us again, CNN Senior media correspondent, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter. Julian --

ZELIZER: Yes.

HARLOW: Seriously?

(LAUGHTER) ZELIZER: Absolutely. I mean my co-author and I were watching some of the shakeup that happened this week. And it's not implausible that, A, he's thinking of what happens after this election, given the poll numbers that do exist, despite what some of his supporters say. And given this other person who has made much of his life not in real estate but actually in the media. And we should remember that there is a world of political media out there. And we both believe this is a very plausible alternative for him. Not that this is all thought through from the start.

STELTER: Right.

ZELIZER: But that it's emerging.

HARLOW: God forbid, we think through things. Brian Stelter, to you. You wrote about it this week.

STELTER: Yes.

HARLOW: Another fascinating speech. And you imagine how Trump's pitch might read, quote, "The media rigs the election against us, that's why with need our own channel."

STELTER: Yes. If he loses he can point to the media's coverage of him, treatment of him as a reason why he needs his own channel or his own Facebook live show or his own streaming service like Netflix. There's lots of ways for him to go about this. And it opens up this broader question that a lot of people are asking which is, what will Trump do if he loses? How well he mobilizes his supporters?

HARLOW: But he still has a huge company.

STELTER: He does, but you can't. I don't see a part of that company right now where he can tap into the millions of people who have felt empowered by his candidacy. You know, President Obama has his organizing for America arm, which is meant to organize his supporters even after Election Day. So if Trump loses, in particular, you have to wonder what happens about that base of support. It doesn't go away overnight. It doesn't all just go to FOX News. You know, there is an opportunity for a channel that would be to the right of FOX News.

HARLOW: Not to mention, Roger Ailes does not running FOX News anymore. He does have an un-compete cost if you make it tricky. But we know he is a good friend of Donald Trump and many people assume someone advising Donald Trump.

STELTER: That's right.

HARLOW: So, Ben Shapiro, the editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire and Breitbart's former editor-at-large, left Breitbart because of disagreements with Steve Bannon who is now the head of Trump's campaign said this on CNN Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SHAPIRO, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, THE DAILY WIRE: Steve doesn't like to enter scenarios that aren't win-wins. So, it's a win-win for him personally. If Trump wins, then Steve get to be chief of staff in the White House, you know. If Trump loses, then he still gets to be allied with his very, very powerful political figure who has increased the traffic of Breitbart to like 30 million in recent months to 200 million page recent month and has the possibility of expanding into TV, you know, having this media empire on the back of Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Julian, what does -- as a historian -- what does history tell us about presidential candidates or VP candidates going into television?

ZELIZER: Well, we've had more people from the political world like Sarah Palin who ran -- she ran as vice president and then finds this home as political pundits. Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the house has become pretty well known on FOX News over the past few years. We haven't had anything like a presidential candidate who then leaves and actually starts a network or a website.

HARLOW: All right. We've had stars like Ronald Reagan though into politics, but not vice-versa.

ZELIZER: Right. Exactly.

(CROSSTALK)

ZELIZER: Yes.

STELTER: Al Gore, many years after Al Gore lost, he made his movies, he also bought into current TV. But that may be a lesson, you know, current TV never was able to succeed.

HARLOW: Yes.

ZELIZER: Right.

STELTER: And Al Gore never appeared on the channel. My view on Trump TV is that Trump would be a host, he would be a star --

HARLOW: Right.

STELTER: -- of the channel like he was on "The Apprentice."

HARLOW: And he does have this incredibly loyal following. I mean, look, and Brian, you write about how people will want to stay attached to that and follow that, even if he isn't president. But you also point out how incredibly hard it is, no matter how big a megastar you are or how mega rich you are to actually create a network that succeeds.

STELTER: Very hard. We just mentioned current TV, with some people probably never going to heard off. It became Al Jazeera, and then Al Jazeera went off the air. Because it's very hard to launch a new cable channel. There's one called pivot that actually set down this week. So, channels are going away. They're not generally being created.

[17:29:10] HARLOW: Pivot is just the word of the week.

ZELIZER: We have to remember, this is someone who has run a presidential campaign through Twitter, without almost any commercial advertising until this point. He has won the nomination. He whatever happens is a serious candidate.

STELTER: I mean, I would pay $10 a month for Trump TV like I do for Netflix --

ZELIZER: And compared to some of the other people we discussed, Gore or Palin, he is much more astute as how the media works.

HARLOW: I'm going to let these two guys keep dreaming me about Trump television. We will going to get a break.

And Julian, Brian, thank you very much. A reminder, watch Brian tomorrow morning on his show "RELIABLE SOURCES," 11 a.m. Eastern only right here on CNN.

Coming up, the first presidential debate just over a month away, Donald Trump though starts debate prep this weekend. So what kind of tactics should Hillary Clinton expect?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But the simple fact is --

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Excuse me, one second.

BUSH: No. The simple fact is Donald, you could not take --

TRUMP: OK, more energy tonight. I like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:33:14]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We are back with some live pictures of a Donald Trump rally set to get under way in just a little bit, in Virginia. Trump's campaigning in the battleground state today, the same weekend he is set to have debate prep.

The first presidential debate is September 26th and we're told by the campaign prep starts now. The Trump camp hoping the on stage face-offs will offer a much-needed boost in the polls. Here's what Trump's new campaign manager had to say about the debate prep.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So back to debate prep. That's interesting that you're already engaged in it. Whose playing Hillary Clinton in the debate prep?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Oh, it's actually a wonderful choice for this weekend and I think he'll be very happy with the choice. I won't say it because it's private and confidential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's bring in CNN Political Commentators, Andre Bauer and Hilary Rosen to discuss. Andre is the former Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, a Trump supporter. Hilary is a Democratic Strategist and a Clinton supporter. And surprise she's playing Clinton in the debate prep, right, Hilary?

HILLARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, that's it. God I would love to do that honestly.

ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Poor Hillary.

HARLOW: Thank you guys for being here very much. Andre, interesting they're starting this weekend. If you were in that room, if you were helping Donald Trump prepare, what is the first think that you would want him to really nail?

BAUER: I want him to be a little more presidential. What he did worked really well in the primary and he -- you know he did his thing. But I think against Hillary, she's going to have the depth of knowledge, no question. And she's going to be able to debate him on foreign policy and governmental issues because she has 40 years of practice. He's got to be concise in his message. I don't think he ought to get in the weeds too much with her. I think he needs to continue to get his message out, about ways you create jobs, ways you lower taxes, ways to get the federal economy back where it needs to be and to take home the corruption and incestuous nature of Washington, D.C. That's the messaging.

[17:35:13]

HARLOW: I think -- I think that's so interesting --

BAUER: Oh, I'm sorry.

HARLOW: I think that's so interesting, I just think it's very interesting because, you know, a lot of folks have said, look the path to 13 million plus votes in a primary is very different than the path of 70 million plus votes to win the general election. And Hillary, remember in the primary a lot of folks were saying Hillary Clinton would actually prefer to run against say a Ted Cruz or someone who she would know how to run against.

I mean Trump is this totally unknown entity, not a politician up until now. What would your advice be to her as she goes into this debate prep because Trump has brought up things like Monica Lewinsky, he's floated conspiracy theories around for example the death of Clinton's close friends, Vince Foster. I mean this is a total unknown on that debate stage.

ROSEN: Well I think actually Andre is exactly right. He is Donald Trump is sort of an asymmetric attack dog, so you never really know where it's going to come from. But I think that what Donald Trump needs to do in this debate is less about what he does to Hillary Clinton and more about what he does for himself.

Let's remember that the bar is very low for Donald Trump in this first debate, in particular, because people expect her to be a great debater, which she is.

They don't expect him to be able to hold up extremely well against her, in terms of policy and in terms of some sort of presidential outlook. And so all he has to do is just get on that stage and not throw up on himself and people are going to probably declare him the winner.

There's a much higher bar here for Hillary.

HARLOW: Andre, women, when you talk about women, look, think back to the debates, especially that first Fox News debate and Trump took a lot of heat from his treatment of women, both in the question that Megyn Kelly posed and then what he said about her after the debate. So how does he walk that line when he is debating against a woman?

BAUER: Well I think it is a tough situation, she has to be very cautious, but you are seeing Trump finally evolve. And I know people say well he's had a year to do it but she's had 40 years.

And I can tell you from somebody that went from no politics to engaging in the process, along the way you get better. He's gotten really good on his feet now. He is staying more on message and I think he is going to surprise a lot of people in this debate and he's going to be very substantive and she's going to be back on her heels trying to defend old policies that aren't working anymore.

HARLOW: So it's interesting, Hilary, because some people will point to Hillary Clinton and policy prescriptions and specifics and she's got tons of specifics. Some critics would say, it's too in the weeds. It's not relatable to the viewer. Is that a concern?

ROSEN: Well, I think it's always an issue for Hillary as candidate versus Hillary as President. You know, we had this experience with her in the primary where Bernie Sanders was much better at talking about the problems and Hillary Clinton was often much better talking about the solutions. I think we're going to see some of that in this in this -- in this debate, particularly because Donald Trump has a litany of problems he's outlined, but not very much in the way of prescriptions for change. And I think that the you know the winner in many respects is going to be somebody who feels comfortable to the American people, but also really is talking about the future.

I think Donald Trump will lose this debate if all he does is complain about the past and get aggressive physically with Hillary. I think that will be -- if he follows his natural instincts what he's been doing on the campaign trail, he will -- he will lose, he won't gain new voters. If Hillary Clinton sort of stays above his nasty fray and talks about the future, she's going to win.

HARLOW: So Andre, is Hilary right, should your candidate, should Trump not call Hillary Clinton crooked Hillary, for example?

BAUER: I would rather him not call her crooked Hillary, I don't think he needs to pull the Bernie Sanders and say we're tired of these e- mails.

I think there are certain questions the American public want answers to that quite frankly she's gotten a pass on because she's almost disappeared or cushioned herself away from having to answer questions. So I think he needs to --

HARLOW: That's just -- I mean but this network pushes her on it in her (inaudible) on the e-mails all the time.

BAUER: Well I don't mean that she hasn't been pushed, I mean she hasn't responded for the most part. And so this will be a chance where he can do that. But he's got to be cautious how he does it and not overly aggressive. And I think he can hit this happy medium where he, is aggressive but not overly aggressive and then continue to hammer home his business ideas for really changing. We know some of these systems haven't worked, for better or worse, the reason they were put in, they haven't gotten the required -- or what was expected at the results that were desired.

HARLOW: All right. Fun question Hilary, who should play Trump, Andre, who should by Hillary Clinton? Hilary, to you first.

[17:40:05]

ROSEN: Well I actually don't know who they've picked but somebody like Joe Crawley from Queens who has a real colloquial way about him and is a great talker. My guess is that he's somebody they're looking at

HARLOW: And Andre, to you?

BAUER: Mine would be Hilary Rosen because she's as well versed on the issues as Hillary Clinton.

HARLOW: Look at that, playing nice. Thank you, guys, nice to see you. We will all be watching the first presidential debate again September 26th.

All right, coming up. Zika you've heard a lot about it for months and months, now we're talking about Miami. Pregnant women warned to stay away from parts of Miami beach as the virus spreads. A report on the all-out war against the mosquitoes there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right, the Center for Disease Control has a warning for pregnant women and their partners, do not go to parts of Miami Beach. Five new Zika cases have been traced to a mile and a half -- one-and- a-half square mile area of Miami beach. Right now there are a total of 36 locally transmitted cases of Zika in

Florida. Our Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Miami with the latest.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, I'm here in South Beach and as you can see and hear, it is popping. Tourists have not been steering away.

[17:45:02]

COHEN: But I've been talking to obstetricians who practice here and they say that their patients are scared. They're scared of what will happen if they get bit by a mosquito and they get Zika because it can cause such devastating birth defects for an unborn fetus.

So most of these moms I'm told by the doctors are staying calm but the doctors told me that some of these ladies have essentially barricaded themselves at home. They don't want to leave, they don't trust just wearing long sleeves or wearing mosquito repellent. They want to be sure. And they say a few, a very few group of patients have decided actually to move away and to live somewhere else for the duration of their pregnancy.

Now, Miami Beach is, of course, a huge tourist destination and so women who have been here recently and now want to start a family, luckily, there is a solution for that. Authorities tell me that Zika is flushed out of the system pretty quickly. So even if they did contract Zika while they were down here, if they wait about a month they can then safely get pregnant. Poppy?

HARLOW: Elizabeth, thank you very much. And our Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke with the head of the CDC about this latest travel guidance. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: These are unprecedented travel advisories recommending people not travel in this case pregnant women not travel to particular American cities. Is the CDC saying pregnant women should not travel to all of Miami Dade county now?

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PROVENTION: We are saying very specifically, there are two one-mile areas in Miami-Dade county where there is confirmed spread of Zika. Pregnant women should not travel to those two areas.

We are also providing additional information about what has happened in the rest of Miami-Dade, so people can make informed decisions. Pregnant women and sexual partners of pregnant women may want to postpone or delay travel to other parts of Miami-Dade. The issue there is that it's an area where they are looking hard for Zika, they are finding some of it. There have been other isolated instances of local spread of Zika and when Zika starts to spread, it may be two or three weeks before there's anyway to be sure it's spreading. And we're just providing that information openly, transparently so people can make an informed decision.

GUPTA: Well a lot of the informed decision comes about I think as a result of conversations they're having. If a patient came do you or a family member came to you Dr. Frieden and was pregnant and said, I was thinking about going to Miami-Dade county, should I go? What do you tell them in.

FRIEDEN: It really depends on when you are going. Anywhere, we travel anywhere we look at the risks we look at the benefits and we make a decision that's right for us.

We're saying that certainly for these two one mile areas we really urge you not to go and for women living in those one-mile areas, do everything possible to avoid mosquito bites?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Meantime the Governor of Florida has directed the State's health department to offer mosquito spraying at no costs, at hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions in the area.

All right, coming up next, this little boy in Syria, bloodied, dazed, covered with dust. Next, you will hear from the photographer who took these heart wrenching images and an update on how this five-year-old is doing today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:51:45]

HARLOW: It is heartbreaking. An image that has appear toured the world's attention.

A five year old boy bloodied, dazed, covered in dust after he was rescued from the rubble of an air strike that took out his home in Syria. He sits alone, he's too shocked to try, this is the little boy today. His physical wounds are starting to heal but he's left forever with the scar of the trauma that he's endured.

Our Nima Elbagir spoke to the man who has now brought these images to the entire world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little boy carried out of rubble into a waiting ambulance. A moment amidst the mayhem A moment like so many others here in Aleppo.

5-year-old Omran Daqneesh unable to even cry. Still unsure if his family survived.

The activist who took this video of Omran described to us over Skype how took nearly an hour to pull Omran out from beneath the chaos, all the while watching for the return of the plane that carried out the strike. MUSTAFA AL SAROUG, MEDIA ACTIVIST: (As translated) When we go to a

place that has been bombed, raging planes circle around and bomb it again to kill rescue workers that are helping civilians. They kill these people who are trying to rescue people.

ELBAGIR: This is, of course, daily reality for you in Aleppo.

SAROUG: (As translated) We live these moments every day in Aleppo. Right now, regime planes are shelling nearby as I speak. The whole world is silent to these crimes in Aleppo against women and children. There are thousands of children like Omran who are being bombed daily, killed daily. Everyone just accepts there are families being bombed. There are homes being destroyed.

ELBAGIR: This, though, is not the first time an image of a suffering child gave the world pause. Toddler Aylan Kurdi's lifeless body being carried out of the treacherous sea.

40 years ago, Kim Phuc's naked agony game emblematic of the ravaging of Vietnam. The world paused, shed tears but ultimately moved on.

Another little boy joins Omran in the ambulance as one by one, the injured and dead are retrieved. They will not be the last children to be pulled out of the wreckage of their homes tonight or in any of the many nights to come here in Aleppo.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: And a very sad update for you on this story today. We have just learned that Omran's 10-year-old brother passed away in a field hospital in Syria today from the injuries that he sustained in that same air strike. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:58:30]

HARLOW: This week CNN hero is using his love of horses for healing.

Harry Swimmer was set to retire when he met a girl with cerebral palsy and she inspired him so much, that he decided to transform his farm into a horse therapy camp for special needs children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY SWIMMER, OWNER HORSE FARM: Horses are very special animals. People just don't realize it. What do you say now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Walk on.

SWIMMER: That's my girl.

We had a child on a horse who had a seizure, and that horse stopped dead in his tracks. When nobody else noticed it, the horse caught it first.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You can watch Harry Swimmer's full story at CNNhero's.com. While you're there nominate someone you think deserves to be a CNN hero. And now before we go tonight, we want to share some very happy news with you from our executive producer on this team, Adam.

He and his wife (inaudible) proud to announce the birth of their beautiful little boy. His name is Harrison. He's a bundle of joy. He was born on Monday at 8:02:00 p.m., weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long. Father, mother, son and of course their two cats, Liam and Oreo, are all doing well. They're enjoying this time as a family. Congrats, guys. I can tell you, parenthood is an adventure. And you don't really need sleep anyway. Congrats. On your beautiful little boy.

HARLOW: All right, coming up, it is Donald Trump 3.0, minus Paul Manafort. New tone, new staff, new T.V. ads.

Will it boost his numbers in the polls? Trump speaking live in Virginia right now. We will have complete coverage at 7:00 p.m. right here.

I'm Poppy Harlow "SMERCONISH" begins right now.