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Trump Campaign Manager: Deportation Force is TBD; 60,000 Plus Homes Damaged by Flood Waters; ISIS Blamed For Deadly Bombing in Turkey; Trump Doubles Down on Outreach to Black Voters; Virus Fears Prompt Pregnant Woman to Stay Indoors. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired August 21, 2016 - 19:00   ET

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

[18:59:46] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 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)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: 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. It's that we need a, quote, "fair" and quote, "humane way" of dealing with what is expected to be about 11 million illegal immigrants in this country." Nothing was said yesterday that differs from what Mr. Trump has said previously.

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

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We'll have a deportation force. And you'll have to do it humanely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will they get ripped out of their homes? How?

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

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

CONWAY: What he supports and if he go back to his convention 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'll 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 him in that sound bite and that he talked about during the Republican primaries.

CONWAY: To be determined.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. While Trump's future support of a deportation force remained TBD, we did learn more about his campaign war chest. Brand-new documents filed with the Federal Election Committee found that Trump ended July with $38 million on hand for his campaign compared to Hillary Clinton's $58 million. Today Trump has spent $89 million on this run for the White House. That's a fraction of the 268 million that's been spent by Clinton. A lot to dissect this hour.

Joining me is our panel, Amy Kremer is the co-chair of Women Vote Trump. And A. Scott Bolden is the former chairman of The Washington, D.C. Democratic Party and a Hillary Clinton supporter. Thank you both for being here.

A. SCOTT BOLDEN, FORMER CHAIRMAN, WASHINGTON, D.C. DEMOCRATIC PARTY: Good evening.

HARLOW: Good evening to you both. Amy, TBD, that's what Kellyanne Conway said but also the Trump camp is saying he didn't say anything new in the meeting with Hispanic supporters that he hasn't said before. Either way it's confusing. Does Donald Trump needs to do a better job of explaining exactly where he stands on this issue?

AMY KREMER, CO-CHAIR, WOMEN VOTE TRUMP: Well, Poppy, I believe he's going to come out with an immigration policy from the reports I've heard this weekend, that he expects to come out with something later this week. And so I would wait and decide what I think about it until, you know, he puts out what his plan is. And that's exactly what he needs to do. He needs to talk to the American people about it.

HARLOW: So he's lagging in the polls among minorities, right? Whether the FOX News poll that chosen 46 points behind Clinton when it comes to Latino voters in this country, whether it is the NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll that shows him at one percent support among African-Americans. Would it behoove him to alter his deportation policy a bit to say, I am going to work on a way or a path towards legalization for some of these 11 million undocumented workers in this country, even if it's not something you agree with, would it help him in the polls?

KREMER: I'm not sure about that, Poppy. I think that the important thing is that Donald Trump stands firm on his positions. One of the things that, you know, galvanized people across the country is that they're concerned about our illegal immigration situation. And they want it to be dealt with. And this administration has not dealt with it in the way that people want it to be dealt with. We want our borders secure. It's essential to our national security.

HARLOW: To be clear, fact checking, the Obama administration has seen the deportation of a number of undocumented workers in this country so much so that the civil rights committee has dubbed President Obama deporter-in-chief. But Scott, to you, jump in here. Because if we do see a softening of Trump's stance on, you know, how to handle the 11 million plus undocumented workers in this country, does that make Hillary Clinton more vulnerable on this issue? Because this is something she's been hammering at him over. If he changes his tune, does it make her, you know, does it make it more difficult for her?

BOLDEN: Well, just because he changes his tune doesn't mean he's going to do it. It means, it's impossible to understand exactly what he believes in and what he doesn't. I will say this, it is huge that his campaign manager, huge, was given two or three opportunities to say he's going to do forced deportation and build this Mexican wall and she refused to do it. She said TBD. This was crucial, essential part of --

HARLOW: Just to be clear, the question wasn't about the wall. I mean, he's always said he's going to build a wall.

BOLDEN: OK. The forced deportation. It's huge. It was essential to his message in the primary. This wouldn't be a pivot. This would be a reversal. And then he has to face credibility issues. Does he have credibility now if he doesn't go forward with the forced deportation with the 14 million people that supported him or does he have the credibility to try to get back or get at blacks and browns and white educated voters? I think the message has been clear. I think that the die has been cast. I think it's too late to get African-Americans and Hispanics and educated whites back into the fold. The die has been cast.

HARLOW: Well, all right --

BOLDEN: So it doesn't matter what he says. It doesn't matter if he softens his position.

[19:05:28] HARLOW: You're saying the die has been cast when your candidate is way up in the polls in the battleground states. But what we know is, we've got 80 days to go. And what we also know is that we'll see a lot more Americans paying very close attention to this election after Labor Day. So Amy, to you, though, on those numbers, I mean, it is clear that Donald Trump has to win over more minority voters and has to get more women on board if he wants to win the White House.

KREMER: Right.

HARLOW: As he prepares for the debate this weekend, we know he started that prep this weekend, what do you want to hear him say on the debate stage September 26th to do that?

KREMER: I want him to talk about the policies and his solutions that he's going to implement in order to get our economy going again, to create jobs and to secure our borders and make sure that we're safe as a nation. So that --

HARLOW: But he's been doing that, Amy. What different things do you want to hear? KREMER: I mean, immigration policy is a big thing. That is about our

national security and securing the borders. That's another thing that I want to hear. I want him to reach out and appeal to these people and talk about why he is going to be a better president than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton would be because Hillary Clinton will be four more years of the same of this administration that we've had the past eight years. And that's what Donald Trump needs to articulate. And I think that's what he's trying to do out on the campaign trail. He is out there, he's held 24 events already this month. And he's continuing to meet with people. As we talked about before, he's down in Mississippi and Texas reaching out to people. Those are not battleground states.

HARLOW: Why is he there? Why is he there? Because I think, you know, people scratched their heads when he went to Connecticut last week because it's so solidly blue. So, why spend money down in, you know, in Texas and Mississippi?

KREMER: Well, first of all, because number one, there's a large Hispanic and Latino population in Texas. Why not reach out to them? Second of all, because it's no secret that there's been a problem with the Republican Party as well as the Democratic Party. He's trying to bring the Republican base together, reach out probably to some of those Ted Cruz supporters, the never-Trumpers out there.

And they are, I mean, look, I think Ted Cruz -- did exactly what he didn't intend to do is, he unified people at the convention when he got up on that convention stage and didn't endorse Donald Trump. But Trump is going to Texas and I'm sure he's trying to reach out to those people. There's no place that these candidates show not go -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Switching gears here. Scott, I got to ask you about this.

BOLDEN: OK.

HARLOW: Because this week we learned at the end of the week that the Clinton Foundation will stop taking money from foreign governments and from corporations if Hillary Clinton is elected president and that Bill Clinton will not give paid speeches. He hasn't done so since 2015. But today on "State of the Union" our Dana Bash pressed Clinton's Campaign Manager Robby Mook on this point, on the decision to not stop that donation from foreign governments now or while she was secretary of state. Why wait until she's president if she wins. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But if this is the right policy now, why not do it now? Why wait until the idea of her being president? Why not do it when she is running for president?

ROBBY MOOK, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Well, the foundation is doing an enormous amount of work and it takes time when you're in a number of countries around the world to retool, refocus the mission and adapt. As you said, they receive a great deal of funding through the streams and it will just take some time for them to readjust.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. So, Scott to you, first. I mean --

BOLDEN: Yes. I don't disagree. I don't disagree. And there is an optics issue, but having referenced it as several non-profits and forget me for putting my legal hat on. But there's nothing illegal or inappropriate about what the Clinton Foundation or the initiative has done. They've done incredible work. It does take time if you're going to retool or withdraw that because of perception purposes. But let's be real clear.

HARLOW: All right. So, the actual argument would be why not start now? Why not start stopping this now?

BOLDEN: Well, I don't think that the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton said they weren't going to do that. He just said, it took time. But again this is above and beyond what the 501-c3 rules require. We're on unchartered ground here. There's never been a wife of a former president who they all have foundation, a presidential line for it and now she has a good shot at being a president and he's going to be the first man. This is uncharted ground.

And so, I know that what they're going to have to do with this foundation is treat it as a blind trust and continue to retool it and continue to consult with the lawyers and 501-3c experts to figure out what's best to do that. So there is no perception, there is no issue in regard to, if I'm giving money to the Clinton Foundation that somehow I'm trying to gain access to the White House. If those contributors want Hillary Clinton to win, then I think they should give and they have been or will give to the campaign itself --

HARLOW: Amy --

[19:10:39] BOLDEN: And so, we have a lot more discussion to do about this. But we all agree on one thing, we all want to avoid that negative perception.

HARLOW: Amy, final thought?

KREMER: No, I just think that when you have accepted money from foreign governments and foreign corporations even if you are --

BOLDEN: Foundations do that all the time.

KREMER: Yes, but they don't have somebody that is on the taxpayer dollar either working and there's not somebody that's running for president of the United States. I think there's a clear conflict of interest. And I think that actually the moneys that have already been donated ought to be returned and the foundation should be shut down just like the Boston Globe wrote this past week.

HARLOW: Scott, Amy, thank you very much.

KREMER: Thank you. HARLOW: Spirited debate, as always. You guys have a great week.

KREMER: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right.

BOLDEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: A programming note for you, an interview with my colleague Alisyn Camerota, you won't want to miss tomorrow morning. She went to the Iowa State Fair. She sat down with the vice presidential candidate Mike Pence. That exclusive interview tomorrow morning on "NEW DAY" beginning at 6:00 a.m. Eastern.

Coming up, the new reality for parts of Louisiana after absolutely devastating floods, homes filled with water, furniture heaped on lawns. Families living in shelters. Our Polo Sandoval is live in the flood zone. Polo?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Poppy, we have seen this occasional down force that are, quite frankly, adding insult to injury for families that they are simply trying to gut their homes out and get rebuilding their lives started. Coming up, you'll going to meet one of those families. Plus, also an update to the sobering statistics. Now we understand more homes have been confirmed damaged.

HARLOW: All right. Thank you, Polo. Also a wedding celebration turning deadly after a suicide bomber detonates. The person responsible is believed to be as young as 12 years old.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:14:54] HARLOW: President Obama heads to Louisiana on Tuesday in the wake of the worst natural disaster to hit this country since super storm Sandy. The number of hopes damaged in Louisiana now stands at more than 60,000. And because some areas are still dealing with that standing water from the floods, that number could rise as teams make their way into those hardest-hit flood zones. As for the residents, they are sifting through the mud and sifting through what is left of their belongings.

Let's get right to our national correspondent Polo Sandoval, he is on the ground in the middle of the flood zone. And frankly, Polo, just looking behind you, it is stunning. And yet these residents some of the luckier ones because most of them actually have flood insurance.

SANDOVAL: Right, Poppy. So they'll be at least able to rebuild some of their homes. But when it comes to their belongings that you see behind me, they still have to replace all of this. So, this is basically what seven trillion gallons of water and rain left behind. Widespread devastation. And as you're about to hear, also the heartbreak.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where the kitchen was right here. The water got up to about two-and-a-half foot in the house.

SANDOVAL (voice-over): Step through Jule LeBlanc's door in the city of Gonzales and you'll see what hundreds of homes in Southern Louisiana look like today, a bare interior stripped of any comforts of home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to gut everything totally in the house.

SANDOVAL: LeBlanc's only saved what he and his son Alec could carry out as the water approached his doorstep last Monday. Most of what was left behind had to be discarded and now sits soaked on the front lawn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It happened fast. And it's sad. 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.

SANDOVAL: LeBlanc saved his family and the small irreplaceable items including his mother-in-law's albums.

DREW LEBLANC, GONZALEZ RESIDENT: Her stuff she kept in this blue tote. This is what gets me. I said, we don't need to get that. So feel bad the next day because I didn't want to destroy it. And I said, I'm going back. I don't care how deep it is. To get her things that she wanted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a damn shame.

SANDOVAL: Alec used his cell phone to capture that return home along with his son.

LEBLANC: I don't even remember it was his birthday because all the trauma that was going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you.

SANDOVAL: It was time for a brief celebration amid the heartbreak, though, dad fashioned a makeshift cake out of whipped cream and a few cookies.

LEBLANC: I actually saying happy birthday to him while we were standing in the water in the house.

SANDOVAL: Like many of the families on his block, LeBlanc has help from friends, neighbors and co-workers.

LEBLANC: I'm living in my camp. And it's going to be rough for the next two months, but we, you know, all of us are safe. We're alive.

SANDOVAL: Even with those helping hands, he says, it will be weeks, perhaps months before he turns his house into a home again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: And as we expect to see a presidential visit here in the coming days, you talk to some of the people in these communities, you ask them what is it that they hope that the President gets from the visit. Not only do they hope that he actually sees this level of devastation, but that he also allows for really an expedited process for federal funding to arrive for some of these families, Poppy. Because as we mentioned at the top, sure, some families, a very small percentage may have flood insurance, but replacing their contents is going to be very difficult and very expensive.

HARLOW: And of course, all those things that are irreplaceable, no matter how much money you have.

Polo, thank you very much. Live for us tonight in Gonzales, Louisiana.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can help the flood victims in Louisiana, go to CNN.com/IMPACT. We have a number of ways there that you can help.

Coming up, a horrific suicide bombing kills dozens gathered for a wedding celebration in Turkey. The attacker believed to be as young as 12 years old. More on the influence ISIS had and what the President of Turkey is saying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:22:14] HARLOW: A wedding celebration in Turkey turning deadly overnight when a suicide bomb explodes in the middle of the festivities. More than 50 people were killed. The person responsible is believed to be a young boy as young as 12 years old. Hospital officials say that the bride and groom were also both injured. They're not in critical condition. Turkey's president right now blaming ISIS for the attacks. No group has claimed responsibility thus far, though. This as heartbroken families mourn at dozens of funerals for the victims. The White House and the State Department tonight condemning the attack.

Let's talk about all of it with former CIA operative Bob Baer. He is our intelligence and security analyst. First of all, the use of a child. This child is believed to be between the age of 12 and 14. President Erdogan of Turkey is pointing the blame squarely at ISIS. Is this typical ISIS strategy, to arm a child with a suicide vest and send them into this?

BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Well, Poppy, it's not the first time, but this magnitude of attack, yes. About a year and a half ago doctors in Raqqa told me that children were coming into the hospital traumatized because they were being told they would have to commit suicide in military operations. So the fact that they got a child to cross the border into Turkey and attack this wedding party doesn't come as much of a surprise, but it's also a huge danger because police, when a child is approaching them, it's not like they can confront them. It's -- you know, this is getting worse by the day, frankly.

HARLOW: And this was in Southern Turkey right near the Syrian border. But when you look at the totality of the situation in Turkey, it was just over a month ago that there was this failed coup attempt with more than 200 deaths. Thousands, you know, of arrests, et cetera. A few months ago, you had the major attack at Ataturk Airport where 44 people died. I mean, Turkey is a country that the United States needs to be much more stable than this because it's not only a key ally in the region, a key Muslim democracy, it's a key partner of the United States in fighting ISIS.

BAER: Poppy, I couldn't agree more. When I was assigned to Iraq in the '90s, we depended on Turkey, we depended upon Incirlik Air Force Base where the U.S. flew F-16s and they protected us. We have got nuclear weapons there. We have a government that's being destabilized by Syria and Iraq. We can complain about Erdogan all we like, but he's in a tough, tough position between military discontent and the Islamic State. That's a wide open border. This conflict in Syria is going to have a long-term effect on Turkey. I'm convinced of it.

HARLOW: So what does the United States do, right? The White House, the State Department came out tonight, condemned the attack. But I mean, how far can the United States go in terms of trying working to stabilize Turkey, to make them the most effective ally they can be in this fight?

BAER: Well, I think we're supporting Erdogan. You know, we didn't support the coup. We had no involvement in it. You know, it becomes more unstable at this point, I would quietly pull out the nuclear weapons. We just don't know which way it will go. I talk to Turks all the time. And they're scared for their country. And short of, you know, invading Syria and stopping this civil war, you are just going to have to let the whole problem burn itself out. But we just can't predict where it's going to go next.

HARLOW: Bob Baer, thank you for very much for joining me. And as you just mentioned the civil war in Syria. The human toll. That's what we're going to talk about next right here. It was a heartbreaking picture. The picture seen around the world of a little boy, a five- year-old caught in the horror of war.

Coming up, the deputy secretary general of the United Nations is here to talk to me about the impact of Omran's story and why he believes it's proof that the entire world has failed the Syrian people.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:29:25] HARLOW: By now you have seen the image. This is five- year-old Omran Daqneesh, the home he shared with his family in Aleppo, Syria was bombed this week. Who was behind the air strike? We don't know. Activists blame the Syrian regime and Russia. You see him sitting in an ambulance bloodied and covered head to toe in dust just waiting for help. Activists tell us it took nearly an hour to dig Omran out of the rubble.

A Syrian doctor there tells us he didn't cry at all. He was in shock. And the perverse reality is that Omran is one of the lucky ones. You see him trying to recover there. The Syrian observatory for human rights says that more than 4500 children have been killed in Syria as this war rages on. Omran's brother 10-year-old Ali, he died yesterday at a field hospital because of that air strike. Omran's mother is still in that hospital in critical condition. This

is a family torn apart by this brutal war that rages on. And this is just one of the families struggling so desperately every single moment in Syria. This is incredibly important.

And tonight I'm joined by the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson. Thank you very much for being with me. I think it's no question that this is not discussed enough, and I'm glad we're here tonight and you're talking to us about it. You told my colleague Clarissa Ward this week the whole world has failed Syria. And you've said it's worse than a nightmare because you wake up from a nightmare. Why is it more being done by the United Nations, by the international community to stop this?

JAN ELIASSON, DEPUTY U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: Well, first of all, I hope these images will be serving as wake-up calls for all of us. We sometimes talk about figures, 300,000 people killed in the war, but we need to see the realities on the ground. The child in shock at his brother dying. So I hope this image will play the same role as the girl with napalm over her body in the Vietnam War and the young boy Aylan Kurdi.

HARLOW: But that's --

ELIASSON: And I think the problem is that the war has not much mobilized on all levels. This war will end not only if it's solve and discussed on the level of Security Council, U.S. and Russia in particular. And then the countries in the region, Turkey is one. Iran and Saudi are two others. And then you need of course, the people on the ground. The participants to the conflict.

HARLOW: So, you bring up the vehement that we saw months ago of Aylan Kurdi, let's show that to our viewers because everyone will also remember this image, of the little boy, the toddler, washed on the shore on the beach dead. Another victim of this atrocity trying to flee. And the perverse reality is that he was trying to flee and he died like that. And this child stayed and his brother died and this child is covered in blood and dust. And the question becomes what's it going to take for these things to happen? How many more of these children do we have to see?

ELIASSON: This is what I ask myself and also Secretary General Ban Ki-moon because the enormous human loss is there. And also the fact that the countries in the region are endangered, their security is endangered. And you see also the effects of migration, refugees on Europe. The whole political map is shifting. It can get worse. It can get worse. And that's why it's so important now that we really mobilize both on the level of Security Council in the region and on the field.

HARLOW: The U.N. special envoy for Syria said this week that the United Nations as a whole has been forced to completely halt aid deliveries inside of Syria. And he said not one single convoy in one month has reached any of the humanitarian besieged areas. Now Russia is agreeing to a 48-hour pause so that the supplies can get in. That's the minimum that is needed for humanitarian aid to get in. Are we seeing people getting the aid they need now?

ELIASSON: We have 47 days of delivering humanitarian assistance a couple of months ago. The cessation of hostilities seemed to hold. Fragile but generally it held. Now we have hope. We should definitely now go for these 48 hours humanitarian forces. One this week, and if it continues, the following week until we really get serious talks going. We have to start with a step by step approach, the humanitarian pause is introduced followed by longer cessation of hostilities and followed by serious political talks about transition. This is a chance we have. And I hope that all who can now influence the situation will follow this idea of the U.N. now running these 48 hours operations. We are getting the convoys ready. We are ready to go. We are already now preparing.

[19:34:44] HARLOW: Because just tell our viewers what happens when that aid doesn't get in, when these convoys can't get in.

ELIASSON: It's unbearable. I had the job as emergency coordinator once upon a time. And to see that we see these medieval methods of sieges starving people to death which is against international law. And I see generally a decay, a disrespect of international law which is astounding. And we need to have these signals coming from these images. The least we can do for Omran is to mobilize. That's the best thing we can do for him and his brother.

HARLOW: And before I let you go, let's look at Omran again and talk about the reality is, I think, many people, their heart breaks when they see this picture but they also feel detached because they feel like that is there and I am helpless and I can't do anything. What is your message to people watching at home looking with broken hearts at this young boy and thinking that it's very hard to wrap their head around the magnitude of it and what they can do?

ELIASSON: We must fight hopelessness. We must understand that we must never give up. We must stand up for humanity. And we should require our governments, we should push public opinion, we should be active, we should understand that nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. The worst thing we can do is to turn off the television, not taking it, taking the scene in, but I think we should try in some strange way -- I've been out in situations like this myself. Unbelievable. Unspeakable things that I've seen. And I've said to myself, I don't want to be provoked. I want to use this occasion, this moment to strengthen my intention to order.

HARLOW: You know, Omran's picture was on the front of many major newspapers including "The New York Times." And I cut it out and I put it on my office wall next to my computer because it is so difficult for me to look at. But we need to look at what is most difficult to help and enact change.

ELIASSON: And it's not a figure. It's a human being.

HARLOW: Yes.

ELIASSON: It's not those neutral figures that you see. But it is the reality of the war. And we need to understand that reality. And we need to mobilize humanity to stop this horror this year.

HARLOW: U.N. Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson. Thank you so much.

ELIASSON: Thank you.

HARLOW: I appreciate you being with me. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:35] HARLOW: Donald Trump this week reaching out to African- American voters in a major way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I fully recognize the outreach to the African-American community is in an area where the Republican Party must do better and it will do better. The GOP is the party of Abraham Lincoln. And I want our party to be the home of the African-American voter once again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: CNN political commentator Charles Blow is with me. He penned an op-ed this week actually before Donald Trump said that. The op-ed is titled why blacks loathe Trump. Part of it reads, "All of black America is looking askance at Donald Trump, he has no credibility with Black people other than the handful of black staffers and surrogates who routinely embarrass themselves. Trump has demonstrated through a lifetime of words and actions that he is no friend of the black community." He joins me now to talk about it. Thank you for being with me.

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

HARLOW: You wrote that before he made those remarks last night, before he spoke in Michigan on Friday.

BLOW: After he spoke in Milwaukee --

HARLOW: In Milwaukee.

BLOW: -- where he made his first outreach.

HARLOW: Right. So let's talk about this. He knows from the polling that he has to do better. He's at one percent with black voters. You know, you had McCain at four, Mitt Romney had six. Are you glad at least to hear him talking to black voters even if not in the way that you might want to see?

BLOW: I don't believe he's talking to black voters.

HARLOW: Okay.

BLOW: Right. So I believe that this is a wounded person who realizes the wound is deep and is doing anything and everything to try to salvage that. I do not believe that, you know, 70-year-old leopard can change his spots in the last 70 days of a campaign that he is probably going to lose if current trends continue in record numbers. If you wanted to speak to black voters, you'd actually be in front of black voters. He's had ample opportunities to speak to black groups. The NAACP has invited him, he has rejected them. The Urban League has invited him. He has rejected them.

HARLOW: So, just to jump in, his Attorney Michael Cohen said on our air last week, he may go speak in front of the NAACP. So, we may see more of that.

BLOW: Right. But the supposition is strong. Right. So, why did you not do it when hate and bigotry was getting you votes? I think it actually fed more hate, that he amplified it because at the base of it the man is a salesman. He realized that that was selling a brand and he was doing it well, and it worked very well for him in the primaries.

HARLOW: Uh-hm.

BLOW: Now that it is not working, he's doing any and every other thing.

HARLOW: So let's listen to something else that he said on Friday when he spoke in Dimondale, Michigan, which is a population of 93 percent white people and the group he spoke in front of was almost wholly white which he's been criticized for. Here's part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The inner cities of our country have been run by the Democratic Party for more than 50 years. Their policies have produced only poverty, joblessness, failing schools and broken homes. It's time to hold Democratic politicians accountable for what they have done to these communities. At what point do we say enough?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Does he have an argument there?

BLOW: You may be able to have an intellectual argument if you were not bigoted yourself. If your whole life -- if you can look at -- and what I did in that piece is look at your entire life including the year and a half that you've been running for president. What have you demonstrated in that entire period that you can point to to say, I'm an egalitarian? What can you point to in that entire period that says that I have done outreach of any sort? You're 70 years old. Somewhere in your life you should be able to say, I have done outreach in some way.

HARLOW: So, his team would say that the economic policies of this administration they would say have failed Black America and that his job creation ability will help elevate them. So much so that he said he can get 95 percent of the black vote in four years which President Obama only got 93 percent. [19:45:18] BLOW: I mean, all that's ridiculous. I mean, one of my

favorite talk is of course is that the great effect of racism is that it's a distraction and keeps you explaining things that don't need to be explained. Any lie does that. You throw something out, it makes people then starts to talk about and explain something that does not need to be explained. People know who Donald Trump is. And the idea that you could -- that he would throw out a distraction, which is all this is. In my opinion, this is nothing but distraction. If you wanted to appeal to black people, you'd actually be saying something positive in the appeals. Not a backhanded way of criticizing black people in front of white people --

HARLOW: So there's another argument to it. That Ryan Lizza made of "The New Yorker" on my show last night. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORKER": You know, there's one argument about Trump's outreach to black voters this week that he's not so much looking for the votes of African-Americans but he's trying to prove to college-educated Republicans who are turned off by this that he's not racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: What do you make of that?

BLOW: There may be something to that. I think it's worse than that, though. I do believe that it is a backhanded way of criticizing back people in front of white people.

HARLOW: And to what end? How is that benefit his campaign in the vote he needs?

BLOW: Because it cements the idea that black people are not necessarily great agents of their own faith and their futures. Right? It says that you have allowed yourself to be hoodwinked. It says that he ticks off ridiculous numbers of stereotypes and statistics that are all negative. Nothing positive about black people. He can't find that single positive thing to say about the black community. That is not an appeal to black people.

That is to reinforce negative stereotypes that white people already hold about black communities. In that way, it is basically an echo chamber of what they already feel. This is not -- and people need to stop saying that this is an appeal just because he says it's an appeal. It is a negative treatment of black people in America and black people see straight through it.

HARLOW: Eighty days to go. Is there anything he could do or say?

BLOW: There are things that he could do or say from a moral perspective that would be an apology for the thing that he has done. That should not garner him a single extra vote. There's nothing that should switch a vote. But he should do things morally because he has been so abhorrent as a human being both in the race and throughout his life.

HARLOW: Charles Blow, the op-ed is an important read. I'm sure you'll have another one this week. Thank you very much for coming in.

BLOW: Thank you.

HARLOW: Important discussion.

All right. Coming up, images spending -- imagine, I should say, spending months indoors and only seeing the outside for a few seconds at a time. We're going to take you to Miami where this woman, this pregnant mother is living that reality, next.

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HARLOW: Concerns about the Zika virus are drastically changing the lives of some families in Florida. Karla Maguire is four months pregnant and rarely now leaves the house even with a long-sleeved shirt on a long pants and mosquito repellent. She says there are too many risks that put her family in danger.

Our Elizabeth Cohen sat down with her to hear why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Carla McGuire helps her mother-in-law get her son's stroller out the door. And that's it. McGuire stays behind while grandma gets to play with little Raphael.

(SPEAKING SPANISH)

Ma is at home and you're here. That's because Raphael's mother is pregnant in Miami where Zika is spreading.

DR. KARLA MAGUIRE, OBSTETRICIAN: I don't want to be outside unnecessarily.

COHEN: And she knows what she's talking about.

(on camera): You're not just any other concerned pregnant lady.

MAGUIRE: Yes. I'm an OB/GYN as well.

COHEN (voice-over): She's an obstetrician and assistant professor at the University of Miami. Dr. McGuire is doing everything she can to protect Raphael's future little brother.

(on camera): So we got to go out with Raphael, with his grandma, but you had to stay home. Is that hard?

MAGUIRE: It is tough. Because one of things I like doing with him since he's so energetic is playing outside. So being inside and kind of entertaining myself inside is sad. But I'll get through it.

COHEN (voice-over): She knows one mosquito bite could potentially give her baby microcephaly, a devastating birth defect. (on camera): When things go wrong with Zika, they go really wrong.

MAGUIRE: And I think that's what people are most afraid of, and especially my pregnant ladies is that it can be pretty devastating.

COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Maguire hardly leaves the house except to go to work. And when she does, she is slathered in bug spray. So you've got one, two, three, four bottles of bug spray.

MAGUIRE: And one in each bag I carry. So, I'm prepared at all times.

COHEN: Her baby is due in February. And until then fun with her son means staying indoors.

MAGUIRE: It's hard, and they have a pretty long way to go in pregnancy. So I'm just trying to take it one day at a time. One, two, three, four, five.

COHEN: And that's what she tells her patients. One day at a time as Zika spreads in Miami.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Surfside, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Elizabeth, thank you so much for that.

Coming up, switching gears, Jeanne Moos with politics at the grassroots level. And it's all caught on tape.

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[19:57:03] HARLOW: Thieves caught on video stealing Donald Trump signs but Trump supporters are undeterred. Here's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are looking at perhaps the most endangered species of yard sign.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four signs I had up with Donald Trump were missing.

MOOS: They tend to be drive-bys. Someone makes a beeline for the Trump sign, grabs it, then jumps in a getaway car. And check out this dainty thief. The most recent theft involved a runner in Hillsdale, New Jersey. She jogged past the hour, waited for a car to leave, then came back, picked up the sign and took off. When the video went public, she turned herself in. But the sign owner declined the press charges. Meanwhile, the neighbor's Trump sign was plucked by a masked woman. It could be worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Respect my opinion to vote for who I want to.

MOOS: This artist created a giant T for a yard in Staten Island. In the middle of the night someone set it on fire. The Donald himself called to commiserate. What's an artist to do? Rebuild.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be huge!

MOOS: This house in Indianapolis lost a dozen Trump signs in three weeks. We found very few Hillary signs reported stolen. Either her supporters aren't posting them or they're being left alone. In Haverhill, Massachusetts one of Richard Early's signs was spray painted never over Trump. He had nine signs ripped out and tossed in the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to take them down. The signs are staying up.

MOOS: Some bipartisan tips for protecting your yard signs. A Pennsylvania man slathers roofing tar on the edges. Hard to get off and easy to spread to clothing and car. Another person went and bought a giant jar of Vick's vaporub and smeared it over every inch of the sign. When Hillary for Prison signs disappeared out in the Hamptons, the owner reinstalled them on 12-foot polls, with surveillance cameras and electric fencing. It may not be easy to steal an election, but an election sign?

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Jeanne Moos, thank you.

Coming up tonight, it a brand-new episode of "DECLASSIFIED," "Faith Under Fire," war breaks out in Afghanistan. And the life of a detained Christian aid worker hangs in the balance. See the moments leading up to the daring rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

You could feel in the air the volatility and the intensity and the chaos. We heard the sound of angry men running down the hallway. And these men started to bang on the door of our prison cell. These men were dressed for war. Their heads were covered with turbans that were wrapped around their faces. All you could see were their eyes. It was very clear that these mean would have no qualms with doing us harm.

"DECLASSIFIED" tonight, 10:00 p.m. Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Thanks for joining me.

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