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Trump Makes Remarks at Iowa Rally; Discussion of Trump Message; NFL's Colin Kaepernick Refuses to Stand for National Anthem at Pre- Season Game in Protest over Treatment of Minorities in America. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 27, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto, in today for Poppy Harlow.
Donald Trump just took the stage at rally in Iowa. The big question for him today, will the Republican presidential candidate mention his controversial tweet on the fatal shooting of NBA superstar Dwyane Wade's cousin?
Trump has been courting African-American voters all week. Now he faces a big social media backlash amid suggestions that his comment politicized the death of a young mother.
Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade's first cousin, Nikea Aldridge, was pushing her baby in a stroller down a Chicago street Friday when several men started shooting at each other. Aldridge was caught in that crossfire, a bullet striking her in her head. Police say she was not the intended target.
Early this morning Trump tweeted: "Dwayne (sic) Wade's cousin was just shot and killed walking her baby in Chicago. Just what I have been saying. African-Americans will vote for Trump!"
Now he later deleted that initial tweet, reposted it with the correct spelling of Wade's first name, first time he got it wrong, Twitter erupted regardless, about five hours tweeted this follow up: "My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family on the loss of Nikea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers."
I want to bring in Sunlen Serfaty in Des Moines, Iowa, where Trump has just started speaking. You can see him there behind her there at the podium.
So, Sunlen, what are we expecting his main message to be today?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Jim. We have really watched Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump really go after each other in this bare-knuckle fight this week over race. And it appears that Donald Trump stands ready to really elevate that line of attack against Hillary Clinton here today.
He did just start speaking. But according to the Trump campaign, he does plan to bring up this decades-old video of Hillary Clinton, her speaking in the 1990s, defending her husband's crime bill in which she specifically uses the term "super predators" to describe young African-Americans in inner cities.
She has recently -- earlier this year, in February apologized for that comment, said she regrets that comment. But Donald Trump here today is going to bring that up again -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Sunlen Serfaty, stay there, I know you are going to be there all afternoon. We are going to listen in to Trump's speech right now. Please have a listen as we see what his message is today.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's all just too much. We're going to have a great victory on November 8th, I can tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are going to have a great victory. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
How much more can voters take? Not much more. Thank you. Hillary Clinton thinks she's entitled to be president. By the way, she has got very bad judgment. Got very bad judgment. Even if she thinks that, she has got bad judgment.
She thinks she's above the law. So far, she has proven that. But the truth is, it's the opposite. Her criminal conduct at home, and her failed interventions overseas simply make her unfit. She is unfit to serve in the Oval Office.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I believe that America is ready to turn the page on this very sordid past. We don't want another four years of Obama or Clinton controversies. They are not only dangerous, but frankly, they are exhausting our people.
How do you even keep up with it all? How do you do that? The Clintons have had their time on the stage. But now it's time to close that chapter in the history book and open a brand-new, beautiful chapter.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: That -- thank you. Thank you very much.
That is why this is such an exciting year to be a Republican and to vote Republican. We're going to do a great job. This year, the GOP is offering the voters a chance to break up the corrupt establishment and create a new American future.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: In my opinion, this is our last chance. I really believe that. This chance will never come again. And remember, justices of the Supreme Court. Remember that. It will never ever come again. It will never happen again. I really believe you are not going to have this opportunity again. The big banks and Wall Street donors who want nothing to change are
throwing millions and millions of dollars at my opponent. These are the same people who paid Bill and Hillary Clinton $150 million for speeches and I guess some other things.
Hillary Clinton's campaign is all about protecting the powerful. And I understand that very well. I think nobody knows the system better than I do. Our campaign is about protecting those who have no power.
They don't have power, but they are great, great people. They are great people without power. We're going to change that. They will be great people with power. Together, we are going to work.
We are going to give working people a voice for the first time in many, many decades. They haven't had a voice in a long time. Let's talk about what it all means.
For our veterans, it means a guarantee that they can seek medical care at either a VA facility or at a private medical doctor with us paying the cost.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And thank you, because we've had such incredible veteran support, this uniform all across the land. Never again will we allow a veteran to die waiting for the care they need from a doctor who is a fine doctor but you can't get to ever see your doctor.
You wait six days, seven days, nine days. People are dying on line. That's not going to happen. We will protect those who protect us. These are our great people. We are going to protect them. It's our turn now.
At the center of our change -- and this is a change agenda, is also a plan to fix our rigged economy. It's rigged. The government just revised the growth numbers. You probably saw yesterday there was a big story. We had horrible growth numbers. They were announced last month.
They made a mistake. They just announced that the number that was announced that was so bad was too high, and it had to be readjusted downward, down to 1.1 percent. Just so you understand, if China drops down to 8 percent GDP or 9 percent GDP, it's a major catastrophe. And the same with other countries.
And they do things that you don't want to know about. But they make it impossible for your businesses to compete. But they consider it a catastrophe.
Here we are with no growth, 1.1 percent, which is no growth. And we have the same leaders that are incompetent and don't know what they are doing. But we're going to make a change.
SCIUTTO: We have been hearing Donald Trump there at a speech in Des Moines, Iowa. A few headlines from his comments so far taking aim at Hillary Clinton, accusing her of criminal conduct. Also saying that he wants to turn the page on this administration,
tying Hillary Clinton to Obama, and telling voters there that it is their last chance to do so.
I want to bring in now our panel, Hillary Clinton supporter A. Scott Bolden, he is former chairman of the Washington, D.C., Democratic Party; and Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord, former Reagan White House political director.
Jeffrey, listening to the speech there, and I noticed, I was of watching him, he was looking at the prompter. They set up a prompter before he started speaking. He was looking at the prompter for these lines.
A. SCOTT BOLDEN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: He needs it.
(LAUGHTER)
SCIUTTO: Well, it has been part of the advice, right, to keep him on message.
BOLDEN: Absolutely.
SCIUTTO: For these lines, turn the page, close that chapter, tying Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. Is that an essential part of his message here?
JEFFREY LORD, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes. And I was with him a few weeks ago right here in central Pennsylvania. And it's -- he's doing exactly what so many people kept urging him to do, which is staying on message. That's part of his message.
And one thing I should just say, when you run for president of the United States, for that matter, when you run for city council, when you do this over and over and over again, of course you get better and better at it.
And he is, as a first-time candidate, getting -- he has made so much progress here, it is amazing, he has really become very good at this.
SCIUTTO: Well, let's be fair, Jeff, earlier today, in fact much of the discussion today on social media has been about him going off- message with the Dwyane Wade tweet.
Scott, your thoughts?
BOLDEN: Well, I think after 18 months and this is -- he has essentially been a public figure, I think it's about time. He has gone through two or three different management changes.
But this is a solid speech for him because he is staying on message. And this group that he is speaking to, they can eat up this red meat speech.
That being said, you have got a lot of other issues and challenges. One, can he stay on message for the rest of the next 70 days? One. And two, can he grow this base? Can he get African-Americans, Hispanics, and intelligent white voters to vote for him?
That's really the key for him. And he's still not doing a very good job at that.
SCIUTTO: Well, that is a vulnerability for Hillary Clinton, isn't it? And I want both your thoughts on this, is that -- and this has been shown historically in the numbers that after two terms of one party's president, there is a natural tendency to want to turn the page. That's in the numbers.
BOLDEN: That's true.
SCIUTTO: I wonder how vulnerable Democrats feel to that tendency.
BOLDEN: Well, we are aware of that, that's for sure. But given that this is a unique political year, given that Donald Trump is such a scary candidate for not just Democrats but the country, then Hillary has money, she is out-organized him on the ground in the purple states as well as in the blue states.
In the red states, she is ahead in Georgia. And so that's an offset to that natural tendency, quite frankly.
SCIUTTO: Jeffrey Lord...
BOLDEN: And as long as she continues to push her message, those numbers aren't going to change between Hillary and Trump and what the polling is showing.
SCIUTTO: Jeffrey, you heard Scott call Trump a scary candidate. I imagine you have thoughts on that.
LORD: Yes, I think the scary candidate here is Hillary Clinton. And I think she does scare a lot of people. And, Jim, you are absolutely right about this, with the third-term problem. Ronald Reagan managed to turn that trick for George H.W. Bush.
But popular presidents like Bill Clinton, Dwight Eisenhower just couldn't get it done. And they are not alone. And I suspect that this is a problem.
And one of the things that happens here, as we saw with this tragic event today, events that are in theory unrelated to the campaign happen, whether they are terrorist attacks or this terrible situation in Chicago or what have you.
Then they get fed into the narrative of the campaign and each candidate's narrative here. So we have no idea what is going to happen one hour from now let alone in the next 70-some-odd days.
SCIUTTO: Well, let's not wish that on either party, to be fair.
BOLDEN: Absolutely.
LORD: No, no, no. I'm just saying that's part of it. BOLDEN: But Donald Trump has missed his mark even on the Chicago
piece and Dwyane Wade's family tragedy because he immediately politicized it until his campaign corrected it and sent out the condolences afterwards.
He continues to talk at black people, past black people, as opposed to talking to those communities. If in this speech he brings up bringing more Hispanics and African-Americans into the Republican fold, it's still a message to an all-white audience and stuff. And he is really trying reach educated white voters.
LORD: All Americans.
BOLDEN: Sure, all of America hears it. But is all of America listening? And given that he is at 1 percent to 3 percent with these different demographics, African-Americans and Hispanics.
And remember this, Hillary is beating him by 20 percent on white educated voting women. And she is at tie or 1 percent ahead on white educated men. There is no pathway forward to the political end zone, that is the presidency, until he changes those numbers.
And he has got to do something drastic. And every opportunity he has to do that, he has failed.
SCIUTTO: All right, folks, Scott and Jeffrey, we are going to be able to continue this conversation. So do stay with me. But before we get back to that we are going to have to take a short break. And we will be talking more about the politics today, Trump and Clinton and more, You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto. Donald Trump is speaking live at an event in Iowa right now. Let's have a listen again.
TRUMP: I'm going to be the most presidential president you have ever had. And then I thought about Abraham Lincoln and I said, well, I don't know, he is pretty tough to beat, right? Abraham Lincoln, he was pretty good.
But that is a great Republican, which brings me to a subject that is so important and very personal for me. Nothing means more to me than working to make our party the home of the African-American vote once again. Used to be.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: There are millions and millions of African-Americans in this country who have succeeded so greatly and who deserve a government that protects and honors their incredible contribution. So many have been so successful.
(APPLAUSE) TRUMP: Very nice. But we also have to talk about the millions of
African-Americans who remain trapped in poverty and in failing schools. They are trapped. I have spoken to a lot in recent days, a lot of people. And I have spoken a lot about the deplorable conditions in many of our inner cities. Just about all of them.
As a father, as a builder, as an American, it offends my sense of right and wrong to see anyone living in such conditions. They are living in terrible, terrible conditions. Beyond belief conditions. Bad.
Almost 40 percent of African-American children are living in poverty, abject poverty, including 45 percent of children under the age of 6.
In Detroit, half of its residents do not work. In Milwaukee, almost four in 10 African-American men between the age of 24 and 54 are not employed and have no prospect of employment.
More than 6,000 African-Americans are the victims of murder, of murder every single year. Just yesterday, the cousin of NBA star Dwyane Wade -- a great guy, Dwyane Wade, was the victim of a tragic shooting in Chicago.
She was the mother of four, and was killed while pushing her infant child in a stroller just walking down the street. Shot. It breaks all of our hearts to see it. It's horrible. It's horrible. And it's only getting worse.
This shouldn't happen in our country. This shouldn't happen in America.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So we send our thoughts and prayers to the family, and we also promise to fight for a much, much better tomorrow. Across...
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Thank you.
Across Chicago, more than 2,700 have been shooting victims since January of this year. Think of it, 2,700 people have been shot since January. We cannot, as a society, tolerate this level of violence and suffering in our cities.
Those who would deny that -- and you know there are many that do. And they have their own reasons. Many of them are not good reasons. But this is a national crisis. This is a crisis that requires urgent action, have no business, none of these people have any business that support what has been going on running for elected office. None of these people should be even allowed to run. They're a disgrace.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: For decades and decades and decades, failed Democratic policies, the policy of Hillary Clinton, have created this high crime and crushing poverty, absolutely crushing poverty.
In so many communities under Democratic control, we have bad schools, no jobs, high crime, and no hope. It can't get any worse.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: To those suffering, I say vote for Donald Trump. I will fix it. African-American, Hispanics, vote for Donald Trump. I will fix it. It will get fixed.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And I add -- and I add it in all sincerity, what do you have to lose? It can't get any worse. What do you have to lose?
Let me also tell you what you have to gain. Millions of jobs, far better schools, safe communities where you can, in fact, walk outside and walk down the street with your child, with your wife or your husband, by yourself, and not be killed and not be shot, not be mugged.
We are going to have safe communities again. And the African-American voter has seen what has been happening over the last two weeks and three weeks with me. And I'll tell you, I think we have a lot of support out there. They are very, very tired of what has been going on. And the Hispanic community likewise.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They are very sick and tired of what's going on. And it has been going on for decades and decades and decades.
By the way, how quickly people have forgotten that Hillary Clinton called black youth super predators, remember that? Super predators. And they were very, very insulted. But now people have forgot.
I'm running to offer a better future to the citizens of Detroit, of Baltimore, of Chicago, all across this great land, inner city and outer city, all over, everybody. We are going to come together. We are going to have one great country, greater than ever before.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: And what is sad is that African-Americans have given so much to this country. They have fought and died in every war since the Revolution. They have lifted up the conscience of our nation in the civil rights movement.
They have sacrificed so much for the national good. Now is the time to put a new agenda into action that expands opportunities, ensures equality, an that protects the rights of each and every citizen, including African-American citizens.
We have to help. We have to stop the crime. We have to stop the bad education. We have to help with housing. We have to solve our inner city problems. And we will. I will fix it. (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: This includes one of the most important rights of all, the right to live in safety. I will work with communities, with police, and with federal law enforcement to make communities safe and secure for all of our people.
We are also going to end the discrimination that traps parents and kids in failing government schools. Our schools are a disaster.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The Republican Party and me is a party of school choice. You will see a big difference. Big, big difference.
There is another civil rights issue we need to talk about. And that's the issue of immigration enforcement. Every time an African-American citizen or a Hispanic citizen, or any citizen loses their job to an illegal immigrant, the rights of that American citizen have been totally violated. They are losing their jobs.
Because it really is, it's an economic question also. Equal protection under the law must include the consistent application of our immigration laws. Very simple. These laws were passed to protect American citizens and lawful residents of our country.
For instance, federal law protects the ability of American workers to seek jobs and employment. When government suspends those immigration laws in order to curry favor with special interests that give them campaign contributions, and big ones, costing Americans their jobs, they have been denied the protection of their laws.
In recent days the media, as it usually does, has missed the whole point on immigration. They have missed the point.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: All the media wants to talk about is the 11 million people or more or less. They have no idea what the number is because we have no control over our country. They have no idea what it is. That are here illegally.
But my priority, and really, it's for the well-being of everybody, but in particular, the 300 million Americans and more, and all of our Hispanic citizens, and all of our African-American citizens, legal residents who want a secure border -- and I mean secure.
They want drugs to stop flowing into their states and into their communities. And they want a great growing economy. And they want a job. My goal is to provide good jobs, and even great jobs, good schools and safety to every Hispanic community, African-American community, in the country.
But really, what it is, it's to every community, every single community. We can't do that if we don't secure our border. We can't do it. (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: On day one, I'm going to begin swiftly removing criminal illegal immigrants from this country, including removing the hundreds and thousands of criminal illegal immigrants that have been released into the United States and United States communities under the incompetent Obama-Clinton administration.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: These international gangs of thugs and drug cartels will be, I promise you, from the first day in office, the first thing I'm going to do, the first piece of paper that I'm going to sign is we are going to get rid of these people, day one, before the wall, before anything.
And our great law enforcement, they know who they are. They have been living with them for years. And they don't want to put up with it anymore. So we are going to get rid of them day one. We start day one.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The reign of terror -- and it is that, you go to some places and you will see, the reign of terror will be over, and it will be over fast.
Remember, our law enforcement, our police -- who, by the way, should get a tremendous hand because what they have to put up with.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: They are great people. They are great people. But they know these people. I have met with so many of the top police, and the people in the rank and file. They know these people. So it's not like, oh, gee, we are going to -- they know all of them.
They know the good ones, the bad ones. They know all of them. We are going to get rid of the criminals, and it's going to happen within one hour after I take office, we start, OK?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I'm going to bring them back where they came from. In this task we will always err on the side of protecting the American people. We will use immigration law to prevent crimes, and we will not wait until some innocent American has been harmed or killed before taking action.
We will move justly, but we will move fast. Believe me. And we will move tough. There won't be any games. There won't be any games. These are bad people.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Oh, wow. What a team. We're going to build a great wall on the border. And we're going to institute nationwide E-Verify, stop illegal immigrants from accessing welfare and entitlements and develop an exit-entry. And you know what that is, exit-entry system to ensure those who overstay their visas that they are quickly removed.
We don't enforce our visa expiration dates. Then we have open borders and we have nothing but crime. It's going to end.
I'm also going to cancel all unconstitutional orders, executive orders. You have been hearing about that, right. Little executive -- we have a little bit of an excessive executive order president.
And empower the rank and file ICE officers and Border Patrol officers to finally do the jobs they were meant to do.
Now, what is Hillary Clinton going to do, Governor? What is she going to do? Not much, right? She has pledged amnesty in her first 100 days, combined with her elimination of virtually all routine immigration enforcement.
In other words, totally open borders, which we will lead -- this is a massive crime wave. That's what's going to happen. It's not going to happen if I get elected, believe me.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Most alarmingly, she has pledged to keep President Obama's executive amnesty, which has been blocked by the Supreme Court, directly disregarding a Supreme Court injunction.
Beyond that she has pledged to add another executive amnesty in violation of both congressional law and the United States Constitution. These actions from Hillary Clinton will trigger a crisis greater than almost anything we've seen. This will be a constitutional crisis like we haven't seen in our country.
In effect, she is pledging to abolish the law-making powers of Congress and assume the powers of an imperial leader. She is not an imperial leader, is she? I don't think so. I don't think so. She doesn't -- she doesn't even look presidential to me.
She certainly doesn't. This executive amnesty would bypass Congress to print millions of work permits and benefit cards to those ineligible to receive them. Hillary Clinton...
SCIUTTO: You have been listening to Donald Trump there giving a speech in Des Moines, Iowa. A couple of big messages there on continuing his appeal to African-Americans, he talks about crime coming out of this shooting of Dwyane Wade's cousin, saying that we are going to have safe communities, he says.
He says vote for me, and I will fix it. He also went to his main issue of immigration there, accusing the media of getting the immigration story wrong this week, saying that he did not change his position or change it back.
And he went on to say that he is going to kick out criminals from the country, particularly the illegal immigrants who commit crimes here. We are back with our panel now. We have Tom Lobianco, he's a reporter
for CNN Politics. We have Hillary Clinton supporter A. Scott Bolden, he is former chairman of the Washington, D.C., Democratic Party. And also back with us Donald Trump supporter Jeffery Lord. He was in the Reagan White House, political director there.
Tom, if I could start with you, tough start to the day at least on this message, this appeal to African-Americans, this tweet with the misspelling Dwyane Wade's name. And then some criticizing him for trying to politicize that murder.
Here back on message to some degree, back on prompter as he makes this point about trying to make safer communities. As you heard him there, do you think it was a successful pivot back to his intended message?
TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I have got to tell you, teleprompter Trump sounds a lot better than off-prompter Trump. He does better for himself at least. It was fascinating to listen to him. He sounded like a politician there.
Instead of calling Hillary Clinton imperial, he called her in fact imperial. He was talking about, you know, trapped in poverty when he was talking about the black communities, going for the African- American vote.
I mean, these are classic Republican talking points. And it has more of the nuance that you really need when talking about something like that. I mean, we didn't hear the phrase, quote, "what the hell do you have to lose?" So that was good for him.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDEN: ... use that phrase.
LOBIANCO: Did he use that earlier today?
BOLDEN: Yes, today he used it earlier.
SCIUTTO: To be fair, though, he was on-message. He did say -- he accused the media, which is a frequent accusation, of getting the immigration story wrong. His pivot and then re-pivot back.
I mean, Jeffrey Lord, I have got to ask you, Trump himself used the word "softening" of his position earlier this week when he backed off deporting all 11 million undocumented immigrants from the U.S. But then the next day he said he would do it.
He accuses the media of having got the story wrong. Fact is, even Sarah Palin, a Trump supporter said that he was going wishy-washy on the issue. Is that a fair accusation, to say the media got it wrong rather than him changing his position this week?
LORD: I don't think that he is going soft, if you will. You know, in that interview...
(CROSSTALK) SCIUTTO: It was his word. Softening was his word, if you remember.
LORD: Yes, I know, with Sean Hannity, the interview that you also referred to was with Anderson Cooper in which he said that some people thought it was a hardening of his position.
I mean, his position is the same, he is going to build the wall and the people who are here illegally have got to go. And they can come back but they have got stand in line and do it in an orderly fashion here.
That's what this is all about here. The entire country, as I have said many times, is 100 percent filled with descendants of immigrants. There is not one here in America who is not related in some fashion to an immigrant.
So it's not being anti-immigrant. It is being anti-illegal immigrant, because there are people who stand in line and wait in some cases for years. And you have got these folks in essence jumping the line. And that's just not fair in addition to all the other problems with crime, et cetera.
One other thing, Jim, I should say, sort of an obvious thing in terms of the shooting in Chicago. Who is the mayor of Chicago? I mean, this is President Obama's former White House chief of staff, this is Rahm Emanuel, this is his city that's going to pieces like this.
So I think that that's -- there's a message right there.
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: I want to you give you a chance to respond to Jeff.
BOLDEN: Yes, you know, this is a core issue, this immigration issue. I don't think Donald Trump knows what he wants to do. Because a core issue for him was forced deportation. He has clearly walked away from that.
He still for some season believes he is going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. That energizes his base, but it's just really unbelievable. You know, he is the king of pronouncements but there is no premise or program behind it.
And so if you don't forcibly deport 11 million or whatever the number is, then you are essentially are looking at the same plan of Ted Cruz, of Bush, as well as what Obama is doing right now as far as focusing on illegal immigrants -- or rather the criminals, getting them out, and this kind of touchback immigration plan that he's talking about.
I don't think he is going to lose any votes because his voters -- his base doesn't have anywhere to go. Secondly, to blame Rahm Emanuel for the violence in Chicago is just awful, and just inappropriate because if we didn't have guns on the street...
LORD: He is the mayor.
BOLDEN: He may be the mayor but he can't stop 2,700 or...
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDEN: It's on his watch. It's on the Republicans' watch. It's on the Democratic watch. This is America's problem. And if you start to blame individuals like he has got a magic wand that will make people stop shooting and killing each other, as opposed to working with Democrats on equal opportunity education, jobs, job training, and entrepreneurship, that you would see a reduction in violence in Chicago and elsewhere.
And by the way, let's not make this a black problem or a Chicago problem. In our poor communities, Hispanic communities, and white communities, and rural America, you have these same challenges, of guns, violence, and drugs.
And so this is a collective problem, especially where you have Republican leadership in those communities. OK? So let's be real clear. This is a broad issue that's going to take all of us to resolve it.
SCIUTTO: OK, Scott, Jeffrey, and Tom, I want you to stay there, as you can see on the right-hand side of your screen, Donald Trump is still speaking. We are going to have a quick listen again.
TRUMP: Print it. But they will stop printing it. They have no choice eventually. But they refuse to put it down. We are doing great. They too are part of a rigged system. The media is totally dishonest. They are a rigged system trying to deny people the positive change that they are looking for and they deserve.
They take phrases and statements, chop them up, take them out of context, and then they discuss them for days and days and days, always trying to demean and belittle just whatever they can do to demean and belittle.
Our incredible movement -- because we have a movement. They all say this is one of the great movements, may be the greatest movement they have ever seen in the history of our country. And many people have said that.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: We are going to take our country back from the death spiral that it's currently in. Imagine if this much media attention was spent telling the truth about the real problems facing our country.
Imagine if the media spent this much time telling the story of Sarah Root (ph), one of the great young people, one of the truly great, outstanding young people. All of the ugly things being said by Hillary Clinton and our opponents -- and you know what they say about me. And boy, is that untrue.
They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on ads that are phony ads, false ads, and disgusting. And most people know it or we wouldn't be doing so well. Believe me. (APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: She is funded by the big banks and Wall Street donors. And nothing more than a desperate attempt by a failed leader -- that's all she is. And remember, she lost badly to Barack Obama when she runs, and I think she is going to lose badly to Donald Trump when she runs.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Believe me. She is clinging in order to keep that rigged system going. There's nothing they won't say or do. No lie they won't tell. No amount of money they won't spend to try and bully voters into giving them what they want. They lie like I've infer seen anything before.
The commercials are phony commercials. They are disgusting. And even people on her side are saying, that's going too far. It's very interesting.
This November 8th, the American people are going to reject the cynicism of the past and embrace the optimism of the future.. We have a great future.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The old attacks are not going to work anymore. The Clinton- Kaine fear-mongering isn't going to resonate with anyone but the most radical factions of their far left base. And it has gotten far left.
I want to empower the people. Hillary Clinton wants to scare the people. Empowering people begins with three simple words. And you know what those words are. Our economy is going to soar. We are going to make our country so strong, and so powerful.
And we need the power because other people are not going to want to mess with the United States of America. Remember that.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Wages will rise. We will make new friends abroad. And we will achieve like we haven't achieved before. And we will achieve a lasting peace through strength. We will be a country of laws, and a country of great, great success.
Our cities will be safe, sound, and secure. Our government will be honest, ethical and responsive. Rule by special interests will be over, over, over.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: The rule of the American people will begin. So let's get out and vote on November 8th and create the future our children deserve.
Together we will make America strong again. Together, we will make America wealthy again, which we have to do. Together, we will make America united again. We will make America safe again. We will make America great again, greater than ever before.
Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you, Joni Ernst. Thank you. God bless you, everybody.
SCIUTTO: Donald Trump just finishing up that speech at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. He said just in the last few minutes that our country, in his words, is in a death spiral. He went on to say that I want to empower the people. Hillary Clinton wants to scare the people. And he also said that Hillary Clinton will lose badly in November, encouraging his supporters to get out and vote.
Let's talk with again with Tom Lobianco, Scott Bolden, Jeffrey Lord. Let's go to you first, Tom. You've covered this race for months now. Your reaction to this speech?
LOBIANCO: You know, it's interesting about what Trump has to do now. With the most recent shakeup it looks like he has gotten back on track. But what he is trying to do is so many different things, all at once, with this ever decreasing window before November 8th.
He has less time to do it in. He is trying to reach out to black voters. He's trying to repair bridges with Hispanic voters. He is trying to keep his base by talking about the wall, while trying to soften his tone on immigration.
And at the end there we saw him trying to put it back on Hillary, keep the focus on Hillary as well. And it almost seems like it's too much, it seems like there's just too much to do.
These are the kind of things where if you are a traditional candidate, you are more practiced politician, you had a little more stability all of this groundwork would have been laid at this point.
It looks like he has righted the ship. He definitely is staying on message. And clearly that's what he needs to be doing at this point. But it's not certain that there is enough time to do all of these things.
SCIUTTO: Scott Bolden, do you believe he has righted the ship?
BOLDEN: I don't think he can right the ship. We have had 18 months of a scary candidate in Donald Trump where he has offended any number of African-Americans, Hispanics, women. You name it. That's the first thing.
And so whatever message that he's on, and I do think he is trying to do a lot, really it feels like it's too little, too late and that the die has been cast.
Now even his message today to an all-white audience and his alleged outreach to African-Americans, I think we ought to stop saying that because he is talking past us and over us, because he needs those educated white voters to get in there.
He is 20 percent down with educated white women voters, and he is right at 1 percent or below Hillary with the educated male voter. And he is trying to soften his image to get them.
But one, there is not enough time. And two, the die has been cast. He knows he is not going to get the African-American vote or the Hispanic vote. And so I really think he is just going to have a struggling strategy right now until he puts together a premise or a program or something drastically changes in the electorate and goes after Donald Trump.
SCIUTTO: OK, Scott, that from a Hillary Clinton supporter. Jeffery Lord, Trump supporter, your view?
LORD: Yes, I thought he did very well today. And I am very pleased to see him with his comments on the African-American community.
As you know, I worked, as did Kellyanne Conway, at different periods in Jack Kemp's career, but we both worked for Jack Kemp. And he sounded in his appeal today very much like Jack.
He sounded to me, part of the gray hair here showing, like my childhood hero, Robert Kennedy, who would jab his forefinger and thumb in the air and say that the current conditions were unacceptable.
They are unacceptable. What happened in Chicago today is unacceptable. And unfortunately I think we have gotten way too used to these kinds of things. And this is the moment to have a leader who says we can stand up and we can stop these things.
And he is appealing directly to them. It's my understanding he is going to go to Detroit again at some point. He was just there. He is going to go, as I understand it, with Dr. Ben Carson.
So we will definitely be hearing more of this argument. And this is a very good thing to take this appeal right straight into the black community.
BOLDEN: Well, you need a credible messenger though, Jim, and you don't have a credible messenger here. My wife worked for Jack Kemp...
LORD: I think Ben Carson is pretty credible.
BOLDEN: I knew Jack Kemp. And I have got tell you, Donald Trump didn't sound like Jack Kemp at all in this speech. It was a better speech but it didn't cover it.
SCIUTTO: We are going to have to leave that there. I know some of you are going to back. Tom Lobianco, Scott Bolden, Jeffrey Lord, thanks very much.
And still to come on our show, an NFL quarterback takes a stand by sitting down during the playing of the national anthem. We'll tell you why, and what the NFL had to say about it, what fellow players had to say about it.
You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SCIUTTO: The most notable moment of the NFL's preseason didn't happen
while players were on the field, it came off the field. Before last night's game in Santa Clara, California, 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refusing to stand for the national anthem. A decision that led to both harsh criticism and some praise from fellow players.
Kaepernick said this: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."
Let's talk about this with CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan. She is joining me now on the phone.
So this was a powerful protest, Christine, no question. You see that from some of the reactions here. Have you seen anything like this recently in the NFL?
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Jim, no, we haven't seen anything like this in a while. In the NBA, and in college basketball, 10, 20 years ago, there were two instances, a player in the NBA and also a woman's college basketball player who were protesting either the Iraq War or other U.S. activities.
So we have seen it. It is rare. And because it's the National Football League, which is so tied to the USA in every way, shape, and form, the flag, the patriotism you see, whether it's the Super Bowl halftime show or any pregame show at any NFL stadium, I think that's -- and of course the NFL being our national pastime in so many ways, that what takes this, Jim, to a whole new level.
SCIUTTO: No question. I mean, that's the thing. Whenever I go to a game, I mean, the flag is so connected to the various professional sports, support for our service men and women, and I just wonder how that sensitivity here plays out.
Will the NFL, for instance, sanction him in any way?
BRENNAN: At this point the NFL has actually said the opposite. They have said that the players are encouraged to stand for the national anthem but they are not required to stand. That is what the NFL is saying today.
And so there is that statement. And obviously, the NFL is clearly aware of this and keeping an eye on it. It's -- to me this is so interesting because it's set against the backdrop of the Olympic Games, which I was fortunate enough to cover in Rio and just back.
And when you think about the conversations, Jim, think about Gabby Douglas and the fact that she did not put her hand on her heart and received so much criticism for that while her teammates, the other women's gymnastics teammates, all put their hand over their heart.
Gabby Douglas stood at attention, did everything else, and was criticized robustly on social media. That certainly seems like an interesting comparison now with Colin Kaepernick actually sitting down and deciding not to stand at all.
SCIUTTO: No question, he intended to make an impact here. Christine Brennan, thanks very much.
Next, we are getting back to politics. Donald Trump just gave a fiery speech blasting Hillary Clinton on immigration, poverty, the economy. We're breaking it all down with our political team. That is coming up right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: It is 5:00 Eastern time. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Sciutto in for Poppy Harlow.
We've just heard from Donald Trump. And he is not shying away from his controversial tweet about the fatal shooting of NBA superstar Dwyane Wade's cousin. He put the death of 32-year-old Nykea Aldridge front and center when he spoke at an Iowa rally just moments ago.
Trump says he can fix inner city violence.
