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Report: Trump Plans New Immigration Policy; More Than 50 Killed at Turkish Wedding, ISIS Blamed; Governor: We Really Need Help, Donations, Volunteers; Clinton Camp Grilled on Lack of Press Conferences; Profiling Steve Bannon; Uber to Unveil Fleet of Driverless Cars; Trump Supporters Focus on Different "Swing State". Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 21, 2016 - 18:00   ET

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


POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Univision tonight is reporting that multiple sources say that Trump may be changing his tune on immigration. They quoted an immigration attorney from Texas in the meeting who said that Trump acknowledged that deporting 11 million undocumented workers in this country is, quote, "neither possible or humane."

[18:00:04] If that's true, it would be a major departure from the "build the wall" Donald Trump.

Trump's campaign tonight pushing back hard, saying their candidate said nothing in the meeting that he hasn't said before. And a separate supporter of Trump tells CNN -- and they were at the roundtable -- tells CNN he did nor get that impression that Trump was open to legalizing undocumented workers in this country.

Here's what Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said this morning on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, let me play something from what Mr. Trump has said previously. Listen to what he said back in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You're going to have a deportation force and you're going to do it humanely and inexpensively.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What, they're going to be ripped out of their homes? How?

TRUMP: They're going back where they came. If they came from certain country, they're going to be brought back to their country. That's the way it's supposed to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, does Donald Trump still support that? A deportation force of removing 11 million or so undocumented immigrants?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: What he supports, and if you go back to his contention speech a month ago, Dana, what he supports is to make sure that we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for well-paying jobs, and that we are fair and humane for those who live among us in this country. And as the weeks unfold, as the weeks unfold, he will lay out the specifics of that plan that he would implement as president of the United States.

BASH: Will that plan include a deportation force, the kind that you just heard in that sound bite and that he talked about in the Republican primaries?

CONWAY: To be determined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, will Trump's immigration stance be determined this week? Will we hear more?

He is certainly going to be out on the campaign trail in a major way. He is said to hold rallies in the key battleground state of Ohio. He will also be in Nevada.

But why is he going to Texas and Mississippi? Those are states that should be frankly in the bag for the Republican candidates because they have not been blue since 1976.

Let's talk about all of this. Joining me now, CNN political commentator and "Daily Beast" columnist. Sally supports Hillary Clinton. Also with us again, Amy Kremer, she supports Donald Trump and is a co-chair of Women Vote Trump.

Thank you, ladies, for being here. Sally, I'm going to begin with you. We just got this statement from the Clinton camp, and they said that they do not believe Donald Trump has changed his position on deporting all of the illegal undocumented workers in this country at all. They say we believe that has not changed.

But let me posit this. Let me ask you this. If it has changed, as multiple accounts according to Univision say from that meeting yesterday, does that complicate things for Clinton? Does that make it harder if he changes his hard line stance on that?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm going to be honest. I don't really care what it does for Hillary Clinton. That would be good for the country if Donald Trump changed his stance on that. You know, it is deeply problematic when he plays into the, you know, harsh crackdown, anti-immigrant, you know, demonization of human beings who came here to fulfill the American Dreams, just like my ancestors, just like many of our ancestors, and suggest that there should be a deportation force that goes into homes, goes into churches, goes into schools, summarily rounds people up and kicks them out of the country.

So, you know, forget the politics in this. I sincerely hope he changes what is a very immoral and un-American position. I welcome it.

HARLOW: So, Sally, to be fair, he has said when he said before, we have to follow the laws and we have to deport them, he has talked about doing it in a humane way. But, Amy, to you, do you think that perhaps given the struggles that Donald Trump has with the minority voters -- in the latest FOX poll, he's down 46 percent among Hispanic voters and he is pulling at 1 percent with African-American voters in the latest NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll, would it behoove him to change his hard-line stance on deporting those 11 million undocumented workers?

AMY KREMER, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Poppy, I'm sorry, but I don't think there is anything hard line about upholding the Constitution and following the rule of law. And that's what we want. That's what Americans want, and that is what Donald Trump is proposing.

He's not saying stop all immigration. What he wants is people to come here legally.

These people that come here and cross the border and don't follow the law, they're breaking our laws, and it's not fair to the ones that have come here and done it the proper way. It's expensive. They pay attorneys. They wait in line for many years to come here legally.

What is wrong with following the law? There is nothing wrong with that. That's not inhumane. I'm sorry, Sally, but it's just not.

KOHN: I'm sorry, can I just say, clarify a couple of things. First of all, when my ancestors came, there weren't immigration laws. We didn't have a line. We didn't actually have any caps, any quotas, number one. That's true of a lot of Americans. So, that's number one.

Number two, a lot of Americans, a lot of immigrants come to this country because they're being actively lured here and recruited by American businesses.

[18:05:03] But we aren't talking about rounding them up and deporting them.

And third, let's be very clear -- if you want to have military or police forces that go into churches and schools and homes and workplaces and round people up and deport 11 million people, you are talking about interment camps, and there is nothing humane about that.

And, by the way, it's not just people of color who are horrified by this, a lot of white voters, women voters, male voters, black voters that are horrified.

KREMER: Can I just say --

HARLOW: I want your response to it, but, Amy, the question I was asking before is not whether or not you agree with it or not, whether or not it would behoove Donald Trump in the polls, whether it would help him gain the voter groups that he needs if he were to change his stance on this? KREMER: I think one of the things we've seen in this election is that the American public are sick and tired of Washington, D.C. and politicians that change their position according to which way the political wind is blowing. And the reason Donald Trump got over or around 14 million votes during the primary is because he stood firm on what he believed in, and I think he needs to do that now.

At the same time, I will say that immigration is not an easy issue. If there were, you know, something easy to fix this problem, it would have been done long ago. The president could have done it during his first two years of his administration when he had the Congress and the Senate.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Under the Obama administration, a number of undocumented workers have been deported, so much so that human rights groups have called him deporter in chief.

KREMER: This is not an easy thing to figure out. So, you know, when you talk about figuring out what the right thing to do is, it's going to take some time. And I'm glad he's putting together a team of people to work on that, and I look forward to, if the reports are right, that he's going to put out his immigration policies later this week. I look forward to hearing about that.

HARLOW: Let's move forward. Sally, I want you to weigh in on this.

It has been certainly a different style of a week for the Trump campaign. A number of people are saying it has been the best week he's had in a while. Kellyanne Conway is in charge now, whether you agree with her politics or not, she has been credited for a lot of success in the Republican field.

Now, our Dana Bash is reporting tonight that Sean Spicer, chief communications officer for the RNC, is going to be working out of the Trump Tower with the Trump team, part time at least. Is this a campaign getting on track more of a threat to Clinton?

KOHN: You know, the bar continues to be set lower and lower for Donald Trump. This is his best week yet, only because it's his least disastrous week yet. But, you know, that's like, I don't know, you know, praising someone who usually gets in a fight every week in school for suddenly, like, hey, you didn't hit anybody this week. Good job, kid.

Listen, the bar needs to be set a little bit higher both for his campaign and for his candidacy. Again, this is someone who is running to be able to have the leadership, the authority over the entire federal government, our armed services, our armed forces, not to mention singular control over our nuclear arsenal, and he can't even get his campaign in order. That's how disorganized he is and leader he is. So, people should be really discouraged --

KREMER: Sally, he isn't a politician. He's never run for office before. And actually, I think it's a good thing when something is not working.

A real leader steps in and says, this is not working, we've got to change things, and that's exactly what he's done. I think to continue to do the same thing over and over has gotten different results, we all know --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Amy, on that front, on that front, he's going -- we know he's going to Ohio this week. That makes a lot of sense. Big battleground states, going to Nevada, I get that.

What I don't understand is, you know, going to Mississippi and going to Texas, two states that haven't voted Democrat since 1976. Can you take us into the thinking there, why spend time, money and resources in those solidly red states?

KREMER: Well, Poppy, I can't, because I'm not on the inside of the campaign and I don't communicate with the campaign. But to me, if he wants to be out there, if his supporters want him to come there and to meet with voters there, then he should do it. He should be everywhere that he can be.

And we've talked about before, Hillary Clinton is not out there on the campaign trail as much as he is, so how many days are there left in the month of August? There is a week left now. He should be out there every single day and go into as many states as he possibly can.

HARLOW: And, Sally, to you. 260 days since Hillary Clinton gave a press conference. And that frustrates a lot of journalists, and it frustrates, I would assume, others in the American public not to hear questions thrown at her and answers.

KOHN: Yes.

HARLOW: I know you're a Clinton supporter, but is it time for her to give a press conference?

KOHN: Yes. I mean, look, just -- one can be a Clinton supporter and also a critic. Frankly, I'd like to hear more of that Trump as well, because in some circles they trip over themselves trying to defend everything he does.

[18:10:08] It's pretty preposterous.

But, look, I would -- I think it's probably true of the Hillary Clinton campaign, as well -- love to see us go to a more conventional presidential campaign in so far as we actually start to discuss and debate the policy issues, how these two people hope to make the lives of the American people better. Instead of the bathroom, high school bathroom trash talk --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Quickly, Sally, as a Clinton supporter and also as someone who you said I can be a critic to, when she holds this next press conference, what would be question number one you would ask?

KOHN: Me? It would be let's talk about immigration reform, let's talk about economic policy, let's talk about the differences between what you would propose in terms of tax reform and what Trump has proposed. Again, it's going to end being, what do you think about what Trump said? What do you think about this? What do you think about that? And Trump said this, the FBI (INAUDIBLE).

And I just -- that's great and that's important, no doubt, and it gets ratings. But again, we're losing to the actual substance of how this election is going to affect people's real lives.

HARLOW: Amy, Sally, stay with me. We're going to have more on the substance ahead. Thank you, ladies, so much.

KREMER: Thank you.

HARLOW: We've got a quick break in.

We have a lot ahead this hour.

Horrible news out of Turkey, a wedding celebration turning extraordinarily deadly. A suicide bomber believed to be as young as 12 years old interrupts a wedding, blows himself up and kills more than 50 people.

Also, in Louisiana, families there beginning to return home to see what the floodwaters have left behind. We'll take you there live.

And later, what would you think if the next time you ordered an Uber, a driverless car showed up? We're not talking hypotheticals here, folks. This is happening.

We're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:08] HARLOW: Overnight in Southern Turkey, right by the Syrian border, a wedding celebration turned deadly. A boy believed to be as young as 12 years old detonated a suicide bomb. At least 51 people were killed. Turkish president tonight pointing the figure at ISIS.

Our Ben Wedeman has more on that this evening -- Ben.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, an absolutely awful attack took place here Saturday. It was a wedding party in the street, basically a block party.

People telling us that there were 400 or 500 people there when just before 11:00 local time, this bomb went off right in front of where the band was playing. People, a lot of women and children, were dancing there. The death toll, at least 50.

And one of the most horrifying aspects of this, according to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is they believe the bomber was a young boy between 12 and 14 years old. Turkish investigators have found pieces of the suicide vest on the scene. Now, they don't know whether the bomber blew himself up or was remotely detonated.

What there's no doubt about, however, is just how awful this event was. I spoke to a man who lived just around the corner from where the bomb went off. He said he came out and saw the dead and dying, body parts, blood everywhere in the street, people screaming for help.

Now, we attended the funeral of one of the victims, 14-year-old Mergan Gorbos (ph). She's a student. Her mother was watching as her body was lowered into the grave in tears, saying she died too young.

Other stories of people who had to search throughout the night. One boy, another 14-year-old, relatives searching from police station to police station, going to hospitals, to morgues. They couldn't find him until 5:30 in the morning. They got the call to come identify the body.

Another woman who has lost four out of her five children in the blast and her husband is in critical condition. Now, the Turkish government believes ISIS was behind this attack. This is a city just 25 miles north of the Syrian border where it is believe there are ISIS cells operating -- Poppy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Ben Wedeman for us this evening, thank you very much, Ben

Coming up next, historic flooding just devastating Louisiana.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't need to get that. I felt bad the next day because I didn't want it destroyed. I said, I'm going back. I don't care how deep it is, to get her things that she wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he put it on the boat.

UIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to go back and get your mama's things, as I said, even though it's high, because I said, people saying it might be eight foot or so and that's what got to me, just the little things her mom gave to her and I said it wasn't important to bring it because it's never going to get that high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We'll take you live to Louisiana which has suffered the worst national disaster in this country since Superstorm Sandy. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:22:09] HARLOW: Louisiana's governor tonight calling on more people to help as his state grapples with historic flooding. Consider these numbers. Louisiana has seen nearly 7 trillion gallons of rainfall in just a week. We know 13 people have died in the fast- moving floodwater and more than 60,000 homes have been damaged, some of them wiped away completely.

Donald Trump and Mike Pence toured the flood damage in Baton Rouge on Friday. They met with victims and faith leaders.

On "STATE OF THE UNION" today, Governor Bel Edwards said that visit helped draw attention to the worst natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D), LOUISIANA: Because it helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here that it was helpful. And I will tell you that I also appreciated the good phone call, the conversation that I had with Governor Pence who was sincere and genuine when he called and we spoke for a long time on Friday morning about their desire to be helpful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Our national correspondent Polo Sandoval is in Gonzales, Louisiana, tonight.

And, you know, it's interesting because the governor had said, Polo, before Donald Trump and Mike Pence went down, don't let this be a photo op, we want you to help. And clearly we saw that they did, and they gave out all of the supplies. The president is going to go on Tuesday.

But the governor said today, we need more help. We need you to donate to the Red Cross.

What are the families there saying to you?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They want to share their story. As you mentioned, yes, they are in absolute need of help here, because we happen to be one of the few neighborhoods where most residents actually had flood insurance. So, sure, perhaps maybe rebuilding their homes may not as great an issue as it would be in other parts of Louisiana, but actually replacing the content is extremely difficult, Poppy.

And when you look down the street, you will see piles after piles of people's belongings, damaged goods from appliances to furniture in some cases, what is difficult to replace. This is where we see neighbors helping neighbors, family members also coming together for their loved ones, because they know this is going to be a very long and difficult road to recover. Some new numbers as you mentioned, they're now suggesting 60,000, if not more, homes were actually heavily damaged here.

And this is just preliminary, what the state calls windshield assessments, where you have officials basically making their way to the streets and tallying up what they see. It won't be until FEMA numbers Poppy that we'll have an actual official number. But back to the -- I'll tell you where I am right now. I'm outside

the LaBlanc family home, all of these families, all of these people who are now trying to recover and rebuild, and it's interesting, I had an opportunity to speak to both mom, dad and the two children, and what really stands out is what was a mad scramble to save those irreplaceable memories, especially -- and I want you to hear some of the heartbreaking take from their daughter, Amber, 20 years old and witnessed massive devastation already.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:10] AMBER LABLANC, GONZALES RESIDENT: It's sad, but you do what you got to do. We saved a lot thanks to him and my brother. They put everything as high as they could and just coming in here after to clean it up, you don't even have time. I guess that's why it's so emotional.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: There is absolutely no shortage of hope, though, in these communities, Poppy. What's interesting is we continue to see both family, friends, relatives, even strangers, drive by, open up their doors and drop off cleaning supplies, construction supplies.

This is really the best of humanity after what we saw the last several days. The situation here on the ground, as you see from behind me, is far from over.

HARLOW: The worst of Mother Nature followed by, as you said, Paulo, the best of humanity. Thank you so much, live for us tonight in Gonzales, Louisiana.

If you want to help, just go to CNN.com/impact. You have a whole list of way that you can donate to the Red Cross, and many other foundations to try to help the folks there in Louisiana.

Coming up next, to politics we go. Hillary Clinton, she's not held a formal news conference with reporters in more than eight months. Coming up, her campaign manager is pressed on why, and we'll debate it here live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Right now, Hillary Clinton is hosting a campaign fundraiser in Provincetown, Massachusetts. She's hosting it with Oscar-winning actress and pop diva Cher.

This week, the Clinton campaign faced more tough questions on the lack of her press conferences. Clinton's last press conference where she actually took questions from reporters was on December 4th, 2015. That's 260 days ago.

[18:30:01] Her campaign manager, Robby Mook, was pressed on this today on CBS' "Face The Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been 260 days since a press conference, and somebody I was talking to who've been in the White House said if a candidate can't have press conferences and deal with that cotton thrust of a press conferences, that weakens them when they become president because they're going to need that as a way to communicate with the American people. So why not have a press conference?

ROBBY MOOK, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, the real question here is whether Secretary Clinton has been taking questions from reporters which she absolutely has. We went and counted, and she has been in more than 300 interviews with reporters this year alone. I know she's been on your show and we're going to continue to do that. And there are a lot of different formats --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So Sally Kohn is back with me. She is a CNN political commentator, a Hillary Clinton supporter, and a writer for "The Daily Beast." Also with me again, Donald Trump supporter, Amy Kremer, is back. She is co-chair of the group Women Vote Trump.

Sally, you're a Clinton supporter, but I know you want to see her hold a -- I know you want to see her hold a press conference, and this is the response that we hear over and over again from the Clinton camp. Well, she's on 300 odd interviews, et cetera, et cetera. But why not, then, just hold a press conference so that people stop asking the question?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, I don't know. I mean, I'm not inside Hillary Clinton or Robbie Mook or the campaign's head, so I don't know. My suspicion here is twofold. One, she's not great at press conferences. And in a campaign where every little not actual policy detail or substantive point is critiqued but every little wink and blink and movement and word choice, whatever, you know, it's an abundance of caution. And in this context I understand that. I sympathize with that even though it might not be the choice I would make.

And the other thing is frankly, again, she's not going to be, you know, in a situation where she's in a conversation one-on-one with one reporter who asks one question then moves on to another topic and they go back and forth, as she has done 300 times. But we all know how this is all going to play out. It's going to devolve into this about the e-mails and that about donations, and issues she has addressed.

HARLOW: Yes, but why shouldn't -- but why shouldn't reporters ask those questions? I mean, here's the thing, Sally. When she is pressing Donald Trump, when she is pressing Donald Trump to be fully transparent and release his tax returns, then doesn't it sort of hurt that argument to not really just open yourself up to the press corps?

KOHN: OK. So that's -- this is what's driving me crazy about this election. Although there are many things that are, which is this false equivalence. She has released her tax returns, he hasn't.

HARLOW: Right. And I'm not saying he has. KOHN: One has behaved in a transparent way -- no, I know you're not,

Poppy, of course. But let's clarify. One has behaved in a transparent way where it actually counts in terms of releasing information that every presidential candidate has and one has not. And some would say, but she's not transparent because she's called into interviews and appeared in interviews, or have done press interviews as opposed to holding an open presser, it's a false equivalence. And again, it's just a sort of desire of all of us to find little things to nitpick at and kind of keep it focused on these personal critique instead of us focusing on the election.

HARLOW: And so, Amy, to you. I mean, Donald Trump's last press conference we were checking, I believe, was in late July so he's had one much more recently, but at the same time he hasn't been on CNN in, you know, months to do an interview. So when you talk about transparency, and if you're going to hate Clinton for not having these press conferences, should we be seeing more interviews from Donald Trump with all the networks?

AMY KREMER, CO-CHAIR, WOMEN VOTE TRUMP: Well, Poppy, I mean, he's put himself out there, and I believe actually at the end of July he did three press conferences in one day in three different states. He is definitely available and put himself out there. I can't speak to his schedule and what networks he's going on, so I can't comment on that. But I do think that there is a clear difference here.

The last time that -- that a presidential candidate waited this long to hold a press conference has been 44 years. Al Gore, I believe, the longest he went was 61 days. But to go 260 days, it's just unheard of. And it's not just the press that has questions, the American people have questions. They want to hear these candidates talk to them and answer questions, and so I think that she definitely should have a press conference.

HARLOW: So let's get to some of the substance of one of the announcements that came this week, Sally. At the end of the week, we learned that the Clinton Foundation will stop taking foreign donations, corporate donations if Hillary Clinton wins the election. Bill Clinton has already stopped giving paid speeches.

But Dana Bash did a fascinating interview with Robby Mook, the campaign manager, this morning impressed him on why wait to stop taking those donations until you see if she wins? You know, if there is an issue with them, why not stop while she was secretary of state? Why not stop now? What do you think, Sally?

KOHN: I mean, look, this is one of -- I'm not sure we can cover this in a short segment, but some of the donations make me very uncomfortable, for instance the donations from Saudi Arabia, then again the United States' relationship with Saudi Arabia makes me uncomfortable.

[18:35:12] The flipside of the argument and look, I've worked in philanthropy, I've worked in non-profits, I've fundraised from donors and from organizations whose personal and professional beliefs I've found odious and used that money to do good things. And my understanding is that I think that's right, that's the Clinton Foundation's argument. They're taking what we consider bad money and they're using it to help poor kids who are dying from disease and famine.

Meanwhile, by the way, Donald Trump has taken foreign investments from Russia and he's just used it to build golf courses and line his own pocket. So, you know, I think this sort of continues to be much ado about nothing.

HARLOW: Amy?

KREMER: Donald Trump also was not an employee of the taxpayer, and Hillary Clinton taking this foreign money through the foundation when she was secretary of state, I mean, there is a direct conflict of interest.

And Poppy, I would take it a step further and say, you know, why don't they stop accepting the donations. I think they actually should return the money to foreign governments and foreign corporations that they've already accepted. It's a clear conflict of interest and they admitted that with their statement this week.

HARLOW: Amy, Sally, it's all the time we have. Thank you very much. It's nice to have you both on.

KREMER: Thank you.

KOHN: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: A lot still ahead.

Coming up next, he has been called the most dangerous political operative in America. That in a recent article. So what will this man, Steve Bannon, cast with turning around the Trump campaign? What will he bring to the campaign? Our Brian Stelter with a fascinating look at Steve Bannon's track record.

You're live with CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:23] HARLOW: Bloomberg calls him the most dangerous political operative in America. This week Donald Trump hired chairman Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon as the new CEO of his presidential campaign.

Our senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" Brian Stelter has Bannon's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were like boys on a playground. It became a very scary situation and she actually stood up for Sarah Palin.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES" (voice-over): This violent scene sums up what Steve Bannon thinks about politics. The filmmaker and conservative media giant is not shy about his bare knuckles approach.

STEPHEN BANNON, CEO, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I come with these with a very strong point of view.

STELTER: And make no mistake. He is hungry for a battle.

BANNON: We need to have a fight in the Republican Party for the soul of the conservative movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I agree with you.

STELTER: In announcing the hire, the campaign made clear what Trump sees in Steve Bannon. Touting that the new campaign CEO has been dubbed the most dangerous political operative in America.

Bannon, former Navy officer and Goldman Sachs banker, may lack campaign experience, but he makes up for it with his media prowess. He's the chairman of the far-right Web site Breitbart and has made political films intended to sway the minds of on-the-fence voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of all the 50 governors in the United States, she was sitting at the desk as one of the most powerful and she wasn't afraid to use those powers.

STELTER: One of those films boosted Sarah Palin.

BANNON: One of the reasons I want to make it, the meme that's out there is that Governor Palin is Caribou Barbie. She's a complete and total bimbo and she is an ideologue. OK. The empirical evidence of her time in Wasilla and Alaska's governor is exactly the opposite.

STELTER: Another tried to take down President Obama before the 2012 election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're angry because you were basically lied to.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're not even half way there yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think disappointed because we thought there was going to be a change. Everyone that voted for him thought there was going to be a change.

STELTER: At the time, Bannon told CNN the film was just a way for disgruntled Obama supporters to vent their frustrations.

BANNON: When you talk to them, they feel the country is more divided than ever and in their lives they feel like the economy is not going back. I mean, this is a film of the working class and middle class in this country.

STELTER: The same kind of populist rhetoric is also a staple of Breitbart. Hillary Clinton has been the main target of the pro- Trump's site. Close behind, Republican establishment types like Paul Ryan, immigrants and the news media. BANNON: These guys come to Washington, a lot of times as country

lawyers and what they do is they stay. Their wives become lobbyists, their children, their in-laws. They build up a -- they turn the business of government into a family business.

STELTER: It's no coincidence Breitbart's site promotes the book and film "Clinton Cash." Bannon helps write the film and co-founded the group that funded it, nor is it a coincidence Trump has used "Clinton Cash" material on the campaign trail.

Now the two men's anti-Clinton alliance is official.

BANNON: You have to understand how the Clintons who proclaim that they support all your values essentially have sold you out for money.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Brian Stelter reporting there.

All right. Straight ahead, switching gears. What if the next time you called for an Uber, a driverless car showed up? That is about to become reality in one city, seriously. We'll tell you where, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:20] HARLOW: Next month, if you order an Uber in Pittsburgh, the car that shows up, well, it might be like no ride you've ever taken before.

The company is planning to unveil a fleet of driverless cars in the Steel City. This is a first for sure. Uber's fleet will include specially modified Volvo XC90 sport utility vehicles, outfitted with dozens of sensors, using cameras, lasers, radar and GPS receivers. Anyone who uses the app can be paired with a driverless car at random. Trips will be free for the time being and there will be a driver in the car supervising at all times.

It is a fascinating story. The man who broke, Max Chafkin, is here with me. He wrote an expansive article about it in "Bloomberg Businessweek."

Thank you for being with me.

MAX CHAFKIN, TECHNOLOGY WRITER, BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK": Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: Congrats on the scoop.

CHAFKIN: Thank you.

HARLOW: I reported a lot on autonomous vehicles and we've seen Google play in the major way in this space. Apple won't say if they are, but --

CHAFKIN: They are.

HARLOW: They are. Ford, GM, I mean, you name it, but now Uber is so fast coming out with this next month?

CHAFKIN: Coming out in the next couple of weeks, even. It could start as early as, you know, this week. You know, Uber is sort of legendary for moving fast and kind of, you know, just sort of letting the chips fall where they may.

HARLOW: Yes.

CHAFKIN: And that's what we're seeing with driverless cars. You know, this came as a huge shock to people who are following the space. I think people expected this to happen years from now.

HARLOW: Yes.

CHAFKIN: Not, you know, weeks from now. So it's pretty stunning.

HARLOW: I just wonder about -- I mean, the reality is you're dealing with other human operated cars on the road and humans tend to make -- the arguments for driverless cars is humans make more mistakes than computers, right?

CHAFKIN: Right.

HARLOW: But you're not dealing with just other computers, and that's the issue here, just in terms of the regulation.

CHAFKIN: And that's what we've seen with this. There were a couple of accidents with Google where we sort of blamed on the human beings because computers sort of don't act human.

HARLOW: Right. Tesla had a crash.

CHAFKIN: Of course. Yes.

HARLOW: A deadly involving their autopilot function just a few months ago.

CHAFKIN: So -- and we should say, as you said, you know, there are safety drivers, I think, for the time being. And honestly for the next few years, cars like this will come equipped with safety drivers. Uber also has co-pilots, if you will.

HARLOW: OK.

CHAFKIN: Which kind of makes the experience sort of funny. There is the guy sort of sitting there with his hands just over the wheel, kind of miming driving, and then there's another person sort of typing up the notes while you're doing it. So you sort of feel a little bit like a lab rat.

HARLOW: OK.

CHAFKIN: And I guess you kind of are, except it's for real. I mean, there's real traffic and, you know, when I did it, it was, you know, kind of doing rush hours so.

HARLOW: You did. What was your biggest takeaway from being in that car?

CHAFKIN: It's boring, if you can believe it. You just sort of quickly get used to it. And --

HARLOW: Like "The Jetsons."

CHAFKIN: It is like -- it's like being on an airplane or something.

HARLOW: Yes .

CHAFKIN: And you just sort of start to think like, oh, like here I am.

[18:50:03] And you sort of forget about the fact that it's a computer driving the car. And that is the experience that made me think it's going to happen faster than people realized.

HARLOW: The reality, though, is -- a big reality of this is what it's going to mean for jobs.

CHAFKIN: Right.

HARLOW: I mean, this is going to mean, if it is successful, the end of taxi driver jobs.

CHAFKIN: Yes.

HARLOW: Trucking jobs. This changes the economic landscape.

CHAFKIN: For sure. So a couple of things that I think are interesting. One is it's going to take a long time. I mean, we're talking before, you know, the entire fleet of cars turns over, before, you know, taxi drivers don't have jobs, we're talking like probably two decades at least.

HARLOW: OK.

CHAFKIN: The other thing is, you know, this is a bigger issue than just cars. I mean, if we're able to make a computer drive a car, there are a lot of jobs that computers are going to be able to do. I mean, we're already seeing it, you know, sort of stock brokerage type stuff. I mean obviously in the past couple of decades with, you know, travel agents. It's a big issue that we as a society, you know, nobody's really figured out how to deal with it.

HARLOW: One thing that I thought was so interesting is what the CEO of Uber told you. Obviously you got this incredible access to him in this reporting. And he said that -- you talked about that competition with Google because that's been a major competitor of theirs on this front. And he said to you that developing this autonomous driving for Uber cars was basically existential for us, meaning they would die as a company without it.

CHAFKIN: Yes. Yes. Yes. They think that if Google or if Tesla were able to launch a ride-sharing service with driverless cars which is something that both Google and Tesla talked about, and actually Ford, earlier this week, that it would kill Uber. And so they view it as it's not so much a choice, just a thing that's going to happen. And I think it's going be fascinating to see the way this changes cars and the car industry which obviously that creates a lot of jobs, not just drivers but the --

HARLOW: You make the argument that this could then be cheaper to just use Uber than to own a car at all?

CHAFKIN: Exactly. And that's the big promise that instead of having to own a car, you would just rent a car by the mile or something. And what Uber CEO Travis Kalanick told me is that it could be cheaper, as you say, per mile even for rural areas, even for long distance trips. So, you know, it's going to drastically reshape the way the auto business works.

HARLOW: Yes.

CHAFKIN: Because if you think about it, your car sits in your driveway, maybe 90 percent of the time.

HARLOW: Yes.

CHAFKIN: So if you're able to just rent it, then it could reshape the economics.

HARLOW: It's a fascinating article. Congrats on the scoop. I would point everyone to this article in "Bloomberg Businessweek."

Thank you so much, Max.

CHAFKIN: Thank you.

HARLOW: We appreciate it.

All right. Still to come. The Trump campaign knows if it wants to win the White House, it needs voters like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBRA GURFI, VOTER: I think that he has Israel's best interests in hand. I think he wants the country to be at peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: But to find those swing state voters, you need to travel about 5,000 miles from the United States. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:00] HARLOW: In this election we talk about swing states all the time. Ohio, Florida, Virginia, but there is a place with 200,000 voters in this election and those voters could help decide who wins the White House. But this place is not in the United States.

Our Ian Lee met some of those voters and he explains why the Trump campaign has set their sights on American voters in Israel. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, Scott. Thank you.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By now, we all know Donald Trump's slogan.

TRUMP: We will make America great again.

LEE: But 5,000 miles away it reads a little different. At a mall in central Israel, Republicans have volunteers, balloons and a new Trump slogan, the Israeli interests.

MARK ZELL, ISRAELI TRUMP SUPPORTER: I thank you for coming out.

LEE: Mark Zell is pressing the flesh to rally support for the GOP nominee.

ZELL: The whole Middle East has gone up in flames in this administration. It entered into the worst agreement with -- that's possible with the Iranians and we are here on the front lines.

LEE: Relations have cooled during President Obama's tenure, hitting a low point last year when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went behind Obama's back to address Congress, hoping to derail president's nuclear deal with Iran.

Registered Florida voter Debra Gurfi believes Trump will heal the rift.

GURFI: I really do. I think that he has Israel's best interest in hand. I think he wants the country to be at peace.

LEE (on camera): You may be asking yourself why does Israel matter. What Republicans believe if they get enough votes, if they can tip the scales in tightly contested swing states, and remember, in 2000, Florida and the presidency were won by 537 votes.

(Voice-over): Israel has 200,000 eligible American voters, according to the nonpartisan organization I Vote Israel. Last election, Republican Mitt Romney won 85 percent of the vote here.

A poll this summer showed Israelis nearly split on which candidate would be better for them. Though Clinton was deemed more fit to be U.S. president by a 16-point margin, Zell believes it's more imperative than ever to get Americans here casting ballots.

ZELL: We do have an influence. Absolutely. Every vote that we sign up here could make a difference in the history of the world.

LEE: Still some American voters have their reservations about Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So as the saying goes, lesser of two evils. Either not vote or vote for Hillary.

LEE: Come November, we'll find out if Republicans in Israel will shape the U.S.' future.

Ian Lee, CNN, Modi'in, Israel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Top of the hour, 7:00 p.m. Eastern. So glad you're with us this Sunday evening. We begin with politics and Donald Trump. The Donald Trump campaign pushing back tonight against reports that we are about to possibly see a major shift in policy from the candidate who launched his campaign by promising to build a wall with Mexico and then deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

The rumors that Trump may backtrack and find a way to legalize many of those undocumented workers stemming from a meeting Trump held with Hispanic supporters in New York on Saturday.

Here's what his campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONWAY: So what Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting differed very little from what he has said publicly, Dana, including in his convention speech last month in Cleveland, is that we need to a, quote, "fair," end quote, humane way.