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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield
Trump on Immigration; Trump Continues to Court Minority Voters; Clinton Campaign Downplays Foundation Questions. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired August 24, 2016 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[12:30:27] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Were counting down. 76 days now before Americans go to the polls. And Donald Trump is today in Tampa, Florida or at least soon is going to be, because there is a rally due to start in about an hour there.
We're going to listen in live, especially for the candidate's latest views of that articulates on immigration, because it's a big buzz word this week.
Last night Donald Trump gave the strongest signals yet that he no longer is proposing rounding up each and every one of those 11 million undocumented men, women and children in the United States to get them out of here as he has said over and over again from the beginning. Get them out of here, they got to go. The good ones will come back but they've got to go.
Now here is how he is describes his position in a Fox News forum.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And there certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people. We want people. We have some great people in this country. We have some great, great people in this country, so but we're going to follow the laws of this country.
(OFF-MIC)
TRUMP: What people don't realize, we have very, very strong laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: I want to talk more about this softening and other campaign news of the day. With my CNN colleague Sara Murray, who is live in Tampa outside, actually inside now, that forum. Bob Cusack is the Editor in Chief of the Hill and he's in Washington D.C. along with Washington Post columnist and CNN Political Analyst Josh Rogin.
First and foremost Anderson Cooper last night face-to-face with the brand-new head of the campaign, the Trump campaign, Kellyanne Conway, pushing her. What? Does this mean the deportation force is gone and we're not going to round these people all up and kick them out? Here is what it looks like and I'm going ask you about it in a second, Sara.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You say it is exactly the same. But you're not -- but he is no longer saying 11 million people got to leave. The good ones can come back. And essentially you're saying, you know, the people who committed crimes, and not, you know, the crossing the border people are convicted of actual crimes, they are the ones who are the focus. But 11 million people are no longer deported under Donald Trump.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: I am saying that he said there which is there could be a way to figure out how to do it, so that's we're not here to harm people and I think that's a very important phrase ...
COOPER: So deportation force. We're not going to be hearing Donald Trump talking about deportation force for 11 million undocumented ...
CONWAY: He has not said that for a while.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BANFIELD: He has not said that for awhile and now he is saying, that may not happen at all. Sara Murray, the people who are behind you in these Trump rallies love the deportation force. They love the idea of getting rid of illegal immigrants no matter where they are or who they are. How are they responding to this new tack?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, it's interesting, Ashleigh. Because it seem that new tone from Donald Trump and interviewed him from his campaign manager and interviews but on the campaign trail, you're absolutely right. Donald Trump still calls for building a wall, that's still one of the biggest surprise (ph) line when he was campaigning as early as this week. But we asked some folks here in Tampa what they though about this latest language and they don't see it as softening, Ashleigh.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think he is, he's probably just rewording, you know, trying to, like he said, soften his way of making people look at his, not that he is being mean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've heard a little bit about it. I'd like to hear more, today I hopefully so. But I don't think he should ease up too much, you know, when it comes to building a wall and thing, I don't think that's ever going to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is trying to be equal, you know, and trying to do a fair job. You know, abide by the law. You know, be respectful with the law and the traditions of the incoming people. Things aren't like it used to be where people could just come in. We've got to be cautious with the new people come in that we don't get ISIS moving in.
(END VIDEO CLIP) MURRAY: Now I think two things happen, Ashleigh, when you talk to voters about Donald Trump's immigration policies, one, like that guy you heard, that he doesn't think Donald Trump will actually build a wall, they don't necessarily believe he's going to do everything he says he will do but they like his tough tone. Other is we hear people who sort listen to the parts of Donald Trump's speech on immigration that they like and they sort of weed out the parts that they don't really like and ignore those parts and that's why it can be particularly interesting to see how he addresses this issue if he talks about it at all in Tampa today, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: All right Sara, stand by about two fact that we're just getting word that Donald Trump has big plans tomorrow for a meeting being billed as a bit of a roundtable format in New York with the fellows from the RNC's Republican leadership initiative.
[12:35:08] But specific fellows African-American and Hispanic fellows, so yet another minority outreach effort tomorrow in New York at Trump Tower. My question is this. Maybe those folks that Sara interviewed weren't opened arms about this slight shift or softening as it is being called. But will Donald Trump be able to curry enough favor with these minority groups so as not to suffer from the backlash of those he's alienating and those who will not stand for a change in this hard line stance against immigration?
BOB CUSACK, EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE HILL: Ashley, I think it is a tough task for Donald Trump. Is it doable? Yeah I think it's doable. I think the Trump supports I mean they are adamant about a lot of things, bu most specifically the wall and Trump is not changing his position on building a wall and a wall was built that Congress passed a wall in 2006 on legislation and it was subsequently built but not completely.
So, over all I think he -- this is Kellyanne Conway, new campaign manager. She is a polster, remember. She's looked at the numbers and I think she realized, listen we can't get there with mostly white vote. We have to do better. Much better among minorities, specifically among Latinos and what you're seeing is Trump meeting with these groups. He wasn't doing that before and I think he's got to do it a lot more in coming weeks.
BANFIELD: OK, Josh, I want to switch gears to the rent. There was this great politician who ran once in New York on the promise that the rent was too damn high. And that may just be the slogan now for Donald Trump's campaign headquarters, rent. He has boosted the rent that he is asking from his campaign and he's renting his own tower to his campaign. Back in march it was $35,458. I'm presuming that's per month I'll double check on that. But he has a 197 employees.
So, by July employees went down by 20. But the rent went up by a multiple of more than four times. And the only thing that changed so to speak in that time was that he stopped self-funding the campaign and he had donors funding the campaign. A lot of people would be outraged by that. They would be angry that Donald Trump could actually be making good on his quote back from Forbe's magazine in 2000. I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. But then have you those people who said, I don't believe that to be true.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, now I think the people who are the most outraged have got to be the donors, can you imagine, he gives a discount to himself, but then when other people start giving money he jacks the prices up. What does that say to donors, if you are a donor, especially a small donor would you want to give your hard-earned cash to Trump, so that he could pay himself to red offices for himself.
I mean it boggles the mind. And the second big issue is here is OK, they're bragging about how the staff went down but is that good thing? They're spending more money on less staff first of all? That doesn't seem that efficient. And also the campaign is supposed to be expanding. They've got states where they've got, you know, a 12-year- old running to state office in Colorado by himself.
This is a problem, OK, they should be adding staff. They're just not spending money the way that A, they should be if they knew what they were doing and B, if they were being responsible to the people who were giving it to them.
BANFIELD: Now to be completely fair, that 12-year-old is co-chair. He is actually Co-chairing with his mom. He is adorable.
(OFF-MIC)
BANFIELD: I'd had that kid in a second by the way, 12-years-old, and he is able do that. Hey Sara Murray, thank you. I know you got to get back to work, you're going to continue our coverage throughout the day, Josh Rogin, Bob Cusack, thank you. Appreciate it. See you guys soon. Appreciate it.
Coming up next, the Clinton foundation back in the headlines in a big, big way. Hillary Clinton is now fighting off new pay-to-play allegations after the revelation of a brand-new list of big donors to the family charity.
[12:38:48] And the access they got to her when she was secretary of state. We're going to break it down for you, next.
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BANFIELD: While Hillary Clinton is in California for private fundraising events, rubbing elbows with the likes of Justin Timberlake, et cetera, those pay-to-play allegations while she was secretary of state are heating up thanks to an explosive new report by the associated press. The A.P. as its known reported yesterday that more than half of the private citizens who met with Hillary Clinton or talked with her on the phone during part of her tenure as secretary of state were donors to the Clinton foundation.
So let that sink in for a minute. They were donors. They got to meet with her. They got to have access with her. But they weren't in government of any kind meeting with secretary of state. You think about that that is at least 85 of the 154 people outside of the government. And combined the A.P. says they contributed as much as $156 million to that charity.
Now that's prompted to Donald Trump and a host of other Republicans to seize on the opportunity to go on the attack. Trump is calling the Clinton foundation "The most corrupt enterprise in political history" going on to say "The foundation must be shut down immediately."
Here is the problem. If you know anything about the Clinton foundation, it helps more than 430 million people around the world. That's half a billion. That's more people than the entire United States population of 318.9 million people. To break it down even further, the political casualty of all of this ugly talk to shut that foundation down, to name a few, would be the 800,000 children all around the world who through no faults of their own are suffering from HIV or AIDS and who get their medication at a 90 percent reduced cost through foundation.
[12:45:05] Eighteen million students in the United States. Yes, right here in the United States. Eighteen million kids benefit from the foundation's school programs. Teachers do as well. Food programs, health programs in American school.
CNN Investigations Correspondent Chris Frates joins me now.
Here is the difficult part of all of this. When you hear the picture of the Clinton Foundation, it is a shining light and it has been rated by nonpartisan organizations as such. But it is the optics of what went on in terms of those who gave to the charity while Clinton was secretary of state. What are the Clinton folks saying regarding this optics now?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Ashleigh, well look, the Clinton campaign is not mincing any words when it comes to the reaction to this A.P. story. The campaign accused the associated press of cherry-picking data from a small slice of Clinton's schedule giving what they said was readers a distorted sense of how often she met with foundation donors.
In fact here is how Clinton's Chief Strategist Joel Benenson explained it on "New Day" this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOEL BENENSON, CHIEF STRATEGIST, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: They took a small sliver of her tenure as secretary of state, less than half of the time, less than a fraction of the meetings, she will then I think 3 percent the number that they've looked at of all the meetings she met with this the woman who met with over 17,000 world leaders. Countless other government officials, public officials in the United States and they've looked at 185 meeting and try to draw a conclusion from that. I think it's one of the most massive misrepresentations you could see from the data.
And then they're trying to malign and implicate that there was something nefarious going on when, in fact there wasn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP) FRATES: Now it's important to point out here that the Associated Press has spent years trying to get a complete set of Clintons detail schedules, even suing the State Department for them, but so far they only have schedules from the first half of Clinton's tenure.
Now, Clinton could have voluntarily release her schedule but she hasn't and then a statement Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon said, A.P. story emits more than 1,700 meetings she took with world leaders that statement goes on and note that meetings with some of the individuals mentioned in that story like Philanthropist Melinda Gate and Nobel Prize Winning Economist Muhammad Yunus is squarely in the purview of America's top diplomatic. But, you know, despite the campaign is try and denial any impropriety here.
The report plays directly in one of Clinton's chief weaknesses and that's voters simply don't trust her. A recent Washington Post, ABC polls, she was at 59 percent of voters don't think is honest and trustworthy and there's a possible silver lining for Clinton here, Ashleigh. In fact that same poll show that 62 percent don't believe Trump is trustworthy either, Ashleigh.
BANFIELD: Yeah and listen it's important to notes well that despite all of the investigations, despite all of the prying eyes, media, Republicans, campaign of Donald Trump et cetera. There is no smoking gun that has been found to suggest that any of the meetings or the access or the phone or the friends who donated to the Clinton Foundation and had audience with the secretary of state received anything for it in fact the opposite has been found.
The deals that have been investigated actually amounted to nothing. Things weren't given. Deals weren't purchased, that's the only thing so far has been discovered. And we should also note Chris, that the Associated Press had to freedom of information themselves into exhaustion to get the files that they did get. So if the Clinton campaign has a problem with them being partial in their investigation, they shouldn't make it so hard to get the calendars.
Chris Frates, thank you. Appreciate it.
FRATES: You're welcome.
BANFIELD: Chris Frates is joining us from Washington.
[12:48:40] Coming up next, despite the questions about the motives of some Clinton Foundation donors, that charity still get a remarkably high grade. In fact the highest grade when it comes to helping millions of people around the world. And the grade comes from people who do not have a dog in the political fight. You're going to hear from one of them next.
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BANFIELD: In the philanthropic world the Clinton Foundation ranks about as high as you can get for a charity. GuideStar gave it a platinum rating and CharityWatch gave it an A. Daniel Borochoff is the president of CharityWatch and he joins me live now from Chicago. Daniel, thanks for being with us. So tell me how the foundation ranks compared to other nonprofits and why they get an A?
DANIEL BOROCHOFF, PRESIDENT, CHARITYWATCH: The Clinton Foundation is an excellent charity. They are able to get 88 percent of their spending to bona fide program services, and their fundraising efficiency is really low. It only costing them $2 to raise $100. They are out there with other eight charities such as Doctors Without Borders, Salvation Army, The American Red Cross. On the other hand, CharityWatch of course has F rated charities such as Feed The Children that's only able to gets about 42 percent of their cash spending to bona fide program services.
BANFIELD: So, you know, across the board, people in your business of rating these charities who are not politically motivated say it is stellar. And then you get the opinion piece in "USA Today" that written today saying "Yes, the Clinton Foundation supports many good works notably to fight against HIV AIDS. No, it is not the most corrupt enterprise in political history as Donald Trump is calling it nor is there enough evidence of potential criminality to warrant appointment of a special prosecutor Trump is seeking. But the only way to eliminate the odor surrounding the foundation is to wined it down and put it in mothballs starting today and transfer its important charitable work to another large American charity such as the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation."
The political casualties of what some called a scorched earth campaign, against the Clinton foundation, who's going to be hurt the most?
BOROCHOFF: Well, the people, that millions of people that get reduced across, you know, reduced medical pills that they for like AIDS and there's lot of kinds of programs they do that help millions of people. And, you know, people are going to die unless people get the help. Hopefully another group would take it on.
[12:55:00] But what I want to do for a second, is if you pull the election politic out of the equation here, it's a really good charity. So people need to look at it apart from their political views and it is a good charity. Like the Carter Center is a good charity as well, you know, there another former president founded.
So you got to look at it from the metrics of they have good governments and accountability, they have great financial efficiency, they have valuable important programs that help a lot of people in the world. Pull the politics out. Regardless of what you think about Hillary, you know, the Clinton Foundation is an excellent charity.
BANFIELD: And it's a gold star, Daniel Borochoff thanks for being with us I appreciate your time on this one.
BOROCHOFF: My pleasure
BANFIELD: Let's remember, it is a charity. Odor aside. A lot of people need that help. We are still watching the live pictures out of Tampa, Florida where in a few minutes Donald Trump is expected to address voters at a campaign rally there, what will he say about immigration, what I'll he say about the Clinton Foundation? Guaranteed a lot. We're going to bring it to you live when it happens.
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[01:00:10] BRIANA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there I'm Briana Keilar and for Wolf Blitzer it's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, wherever you're watching for around the world, thank you so much.
