Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Obama Departs for Baton Rouge; Questions of Favors for Donations Arise Surrounding Clinton Foundation; Iraqis Battle to Regain Qayyarah from ISIS; More Legal Problems for Fox News; Stanford University Introduces New Policy Regarding Alcohol on Campus; Pennsylvania Man Ends Up Wedged Between Two Buildings; Ryan Lochte Loses Multiple Endorsement Contracts Following Scandal in Rio. Aired 10:30-11:00a
Aired August 23, 2016 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00]
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN HOST, "NEWSROOM": ...13 people have lost their lives. Many people are displaced with nowhere to go and no vehicles. So I would say public officials and the public in Louisiana looking forward to seeing President Obama land shortly in Baton Rouge a little later this morning. We'll keep you posted.
In other news, the Clinton Foundation has become one of the biggest political footballs (ph) in the 2016 race. The non-profit organization says it's doing everything from helping farmers in Africa, to reducing prescription drug abuse in the United States, to improving women's health in Peru. But Donald Trump calls the foundation a corrupt enterprise that needs to shut down and return the donations.
He also accuses Hillary Clinton of granting foundation donors favors when she was Secretary of State. CNN's Drew Griffin has been looking into who the donors are and where the money's going. Good morning, Drew.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The money comes from all over, and I think that's part of the problem. Last year alone, $170million came into the Clinton Foundation, it's big money. But if you're looking for any smoking gun pay to play, that's very hard to find.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): This is a map of the world and these are the specific countries in this world that have given millions to the Clinton Foundation over the years. $10 million to $25 million from Australia, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. $5 million to $10 million from the Netherlands and Kuwait. Between $1 million and $5 million from Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Bernai (ph).
And it's not just countries. Individual foreign donors and foreign groups make up a huge share of donations to the Clinton Foundation. The campaign now says if Hillary Clinton becomes President, any foreign donations like these will no longer be accepted. CNN's Dana Bash asked Hillary Clinton's Campaign Manager, "why wait?"
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: 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, CLINTON CAMPAIGN MANAGER: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): At the heart of the issue is conflict of interest. Or even the appearance of one. Namely, would a President Clinton give favorable treatment to a country, or a company, or a person who donated millions of dollars to the Foundation? That's how Donald Trump sees it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They've made hundreds of millions of dollars selling access, selling favors, selling government contracts. And I mean hundreds of millions of dollars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Despite that claim, there are no definitive examples of what Trump says. But that doesn't mean there aren't questions. Like long-time Bill Clinton pal, and mining magnate, Frank Giustra. Giustra's foundations have given more than $50million to the Clinton foundation. He's allowed Bill Clinton use of his private jet. And when a company he founded merged with another that became part of a Russian business deal that needed government approval, that deal got the OK from the State Department run by Hillary Clinton.
Giustra says he sold his stakes in the company years before the Russian deal. So anything wrong? No. All above board says the State Department. Other government agencies approved the deal. All the rules were followed. As they were in all cases involving Monsanto.
The food giant has donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. And it has had multiple partnership projects with the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2009, when Hillary Clinton took office as Secretary of State, Monsanto was actively lobbying the State Department for helping promote an open market for its bioagricultural projects across the globe.
And it all coincided with Secretary Clinton's global policy to promote agricultural biotechnology. According to Clinton, she was promoting U.S. agriculture, and especially the U.S. farmer. Much like her Republican predecessor did. But there is no doubt, one of the big winners was the big agricultural giant, and Clinton Foundation donor, Monsanto. Hoping to put the potential pay-to-play allegations, especially with foreign donations, to an end, it was Bill Clinton who tweeted this afternoon. "If Hillary becomes President, the Foundation will only take in money from U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and U.S.-based independent foundations." And the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation will change its name to just the Clinton Foundation. In other words, no Hillary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And Carol, if his wife is elected, Bill Clinton says he's also going to step down from the board of the Clinton Foundation. And he will not personally fundraise for it. Carol?
COSTELLO: All right, Drew Griffin reporting, thanks so much for that. Hang in there a few more minutes. I want to bring in the Executive Editor of CNN Politics, Mark Preston. Welcome, Mark. So you just listened to Drew Griffin's very great report, right? There's no smoking gun here, nothing to prove there's any pay-to-play involved with the Clinton Foundation. Does that matter?
[10:35:20]
MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CNN POLITICS: Well it certainly matters in the sense that the Clintons have been very secretive in many ways about the foundation and the work that they've done.
Now the foundation, as we've noted, has done a lot of good work. I mean there's no question about it. So the question is, how did they get their funding? And as Drew had said, from the $170 million, there's no pay-to-play, but it does raise questions about how they went about raising the money.
And when it becomes to politics, we heard Jeff Sessions, who's one of Donald Trump's top surrogates, infer this morning on CNN that in fact, the foundation was extorting money from international countries, using Hillary Clinton's position as the Secretary of State. So there is certainly some questions there, but because there's smoke, we don't know if there's really any fire.
COSTELLO: So Hillary Clinton hasn't sat down and answered questions directly from reporters for quite a long time. Is it time she do that so she could answer these questions about the Clinton Global Foundation, and also her emails?
PRESTON: You know, I -- well, they're certainly two different issues that are actually combined. Strategically, Hillary Clinton probably does need to do some kind of news conference. A wide-ranging news conference on all types of issues. And take some questions on this specific issue.
But what they don't want to do, Democrats and certainly the Clinton campaign, is want to add more oxygen to this issue. Donald Trump spoke about it at length last night in Ohio. We saw Mike Pence, his Vice Presidential running mate, talking about it at length yesterday. What we're seeing from the Trump campaign is that they're trying to
direct all their attention onto the Clintons this week. Specifically the email issue, and specifically the foundation. Trying to take a little bit of the spotlight off themselves, and see if the Clinton campaign can handle it.
COSTELLO: OK so is that a smart political move on Donald Trump's part? Because he is deflecting, right? He's not -- he doesn't have to explain exactly what his immigration policy is. He doesn't exactly have to explain how he's going to make Chicago a safe city very quickly. So is this a smart political move on his part?
PRESTON: I -- well listen, I -- and some people will disagree with me on this -- I do think it's a smart political move. In the sense that we haven't seen the Trump campaign, certainly up to this point, take a step back.
And when I say that, whenever there's some negative news, or perhaps some negative news about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump would always seem, Carol, to step up and overshadow that message. We're not seeing that right now, they're focusing all on Hillary Clinton.
COSTELLO: All right, Mark Preston, many thanks. Still to come in the Newsroom, an exclusive report from the front lines. As the Iraqi army tries to kick ISIS out of Mosul by the end of this year.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:20]
COSTELLO: An Iraqi commander says ISIS is on its heels getting beaten back as troops move to retake yet another Iraqi city. This time it's Mosul, with the country's second largest metropolitan population.
Here's more from the front lines in Northern Iraq. From CNN's Senior -- from CNN's Senior International Correspondent, Arwa Damon.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're just outside of the center of the town of Qayyarah in a battle that has been going on since about 5:00 in the morning, local time. And as Iraqi forces have been advancing they have not only had to cope with that thick, black smoke that you see blanketing the sides -- that is a result of ISIS continuously burning crude oil to try to impair the visibility of coalition air strikes on the ground.
They have also had to deal with numerous IED and boobie trapped roads. They ended up especially trapped underneath an overpass, having to remotely attempt to detonate some of these explosives, some of these vehicles that have been laden with bombs.
And they've also brought in a digger. It is very, very slow, painstaking progress at this stage. But in the last few months, the Iraqi security forces have made significant gains which has allowed them to reach this far.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAMON (voice-over): Under apocalyptic skies blackened by thick smoke, is Qayyarah, the next target for Iraqi forces. ISIS used to move around 100 oil tankers of crude a day out of these fields. Now set aflame by ISIS fighters to decrease visibility from above.
We are some 65 kilometers, or 40 miles South of Mosul, lands Iraqi forces have not stepped in since ISIS took over more than two years ago. There are (ph) corpses left to rot in the sun and the commander tells us that ISIS appears to be weakening.
IRAQI COMMANDER: Before, as I told you, the majority of fighters attacking us were foreign fighters. Now they put some foreign fighters with local fighters. Now they -- I think they have lack on the foreign fighters.
DAMON (voice-over): On display, weapons troops found in residential homes. Among them, homemade mortar tubes and mortars larger than anything the Iraqis have at their disposal. Another significant gain in this area, the Qayyarah Air Base, the third largest in Iraq.
Much of it destroyed by ISIS fighters as they withdrew. Leaving, we are told, explosives under piles of dirt on the runways that need to be cleared. This will be a vital forward base for the Iraqis and potentially U.S. forces. Families wearily haul what they can, stumbling away from the fighting.
UNKNOWN WOMAN (via translator): They took half of our men, they forced them to fight for them. They killed my father.
DAMON (voice-over): Tears for all that they lost. Loved ones gone in a war that few can fully comprehend. The lives they knew and loved disintegrated years ago. To the Southeast of Mosul, the Kurdish Peshmerga have pushed their front line forward, as well.
The Peshmerga defensive berm (ph) snakes its way along the East and North. The village is controlled by ISIS visible in the distance. Here, too, they have noticed ISIS weakening. Showing us how ISIS moves within nondescript buildings like this.
DAMON: The Peshmerga fighters did initially drop down and take a few steps into what appear to be some sort of tunnel. But rather than take their chances, they decided to then withdraw and seal off the entrance.
DAMON (voice-over): The chokehold around Mosul is tightening. And the government's pledge to liberate the city by the end of the year is still the goal. The battle there with over a million civilians, will potentially be starkly different from the ones out here. The success will be defined, and land gained, not lives destroyed or lost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[10:46:34]
DAMON: This is not a battle that is happening in any sort of conventional formation. This is not two armies that are facing off against one another. There is a civilian population inside that town right now, according to Iraqi security forces, numbering some 10,000 families. And one cannot even begin to understand how terrifying this must be for them. The ongoing explosions, the gunfire.
And then, of course, there is the reality that ISIS tends to use the civilian population as human shields. We do not know the degree of the agony and the fear that they are going through at this point in time. And what we're seeing right here is really just a fraction of what, potentially, the battle for Mosul will end up being like.
COSTELLO: Arwa Damon reporting. Still to come in the Newsroom, more legal problems for Fox News. A new sexual harassment lawsuit just filed, just filed -- we have details. And as we go to a break, a quick check on Wall Street. The DOW up 60 points right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:51:42]
COSTELLO: A sex-fuelled, Playboy Mansion-like cult. That's how former host, Andrea Tantaros describes the Fox News channel in a new lawsuit. And she says the problem doesn't stop with ousted founder Roger Ailes. More now from CNN's Senior Media Correspondent, Brian Stelter.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol, yes that's right. Now a second former Fox News host alleging sexual harassment by Roger Ailes. But this new lawsuit goes further, naming several other defendants as well as Fox News as a whole.
And now when Gretchen Carlson filed her suit back in July, it really opened up this wider story about the culture and the conduct of Fox News officials. And of what women employees of the network experience. Both on air, and off the air. Once Carlson sued, the owners of Fox News, the Murdochs, initiated internal review done by an external law firm.
And that's when women came forward, we believe more than 20 women came forward speaking to the law firm about their experiences with Ailes. However, until now, only one person, Carlson, had been suing. Now Andrea Tantaros is joining Carlson by filing her own lawsuit alleging retaliation by Ailes after she tried to complain about harassment by Ailes, and other men at Fox News.
Now this suit has some pretty shocking allegations. Here's what the beginning of it says. It says Fox News masquerades as a defender of traditional family values, but behind the scenes, it operates like a sex-fuelled, Playboy Mansion-like cult. Steeped in intimidation, indecency, and misogyny.
The suit goes on to say that Tantaros tried to complain to several people at Fox News, several executives, about alleged harassment. And that these complaints fell on deaf ears. As a result, she says, she was retaliated against. She was demoted, and eventually benched by the network back in April. At the time, people at Fox said this was the result of a contract
dispute. That she tried to publish a book without receiving the necessary approvals from Fox News. But now Tantaros' attorney is saying that was a sham. That the real thing that was happening behind the scenes was that Fox News was trying to keep her quiet about this alleged harassment.
Now the suit goes on to say this isn't just about Ailes. That, "this complaint gives life to the saying that the fish stinks from the head." It names several other executives of Fox News. Including Bill Shine, who was recently appointed the new Co-President. In effect, taking over for Ailes.
It also singles out the Public Relations arm at Fox News. Saying the PR people were leaking negative stories about Tantaros and putting items on blogs and on Twitter feeds that were meant to disparage her and hurt her reputation.
So far, Fox has had nothing to say about this new lawsuit. But Ailes continues to deny the allegations against him. And Bill Shine, the new Co-President said couple of weeks ago that he was never told by Tantaros of harassment by Ailes.
Carol, we'll see how this story develops in the days and weeks to come.
COSTELLO: All right Brian Stelter reporting, thank you. Still to come in the Newsroom, guy meets girl, guy wants to impress girl, guy leaps from rooftop? Wait until you hear what happens next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:58:55]
COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 58 minutes past. Stanford University is announcing a brand new policy. No hard liquor or shots at campus parties open to undergrads. The students will still be allowed to have beer and wine. The new policy will also limit the size of bottles that are allowed to be stored in dorm rooms.
A man in Pittsburgh tries to impress his date and ends up needing to be rescued. Pittsburgh police say he tried to jump between two buildings to impress his lady and he ended up stuck between the buildings. Crews had to work for four hours overnight to free him. They ended up having to tear down the entire wall to pull him through. He was finally rescued with only an injured ankle.
Ryan Lochte's days as a commercial pitchman appear to be over. Speedo, Ralph Lauren, and two other major companies announcing they are ending or not renewing relationships with the disgraced American olympic swimmer. It comes after Lochte recounted a story about being robbed at gunpoint in Rio. Lochte now admitting that he, "over exaggerated."
Thanks so much for joining me today, I'm Carol Costello. AT THIS HOUR with Berman and Bolduan starts now. [11:00:00]
