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Clinton On Tax Returns; Trump on Immigration; Trump Town Hall. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 06, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up right here on CNN. That's it for me. Thanks very much for watching. The news continues right now on CNN.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go. Top of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Breaking news here. We have now some tape showing Hillary Clinton on board her plane slamming Donald Trump for saying no one cares that he's not releasing his tax returns. This happened on board her brand new 737. The one that now also transported her own press pool.

So let's go straight to Joe Johns, actually, first up here. He is standing by in Tampa, Florida, where Secretary Clinton is set to start her campaign moment there any minute from now.

But let's backtrack to this gaggle, right, that's what we call it, on board this plane. She had a lot to say, beginning with those tax returns, those elusive tax returns from Trump. Talk to me.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, she just had a lot to say period. She talked about scams, frauds, questionable relationships. And I think a lot of this is about the language. But, frankly, Brooke, I think when you look at this, this is an attempt by Hillary Clinton and her campaign once again to start flipping the narrative on the issue of honesty and trustworthiness, which has been a problem for her since before the campaign. Now we're seeing polling numbers that suggest some voters see Trump as more honest, more trustworthy than Hillary Clinton. So really digging down on some of the issues where they see vulnerabilities with Donald Trump, including his tax returns. So, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He said that the American people don't care about his tax returns. And, in fact, he's also said that it's none of our business. I just think he's dead wrong. I mean the reason that presidential candidates, going back decades, have released their tax returns is because the American people want to know.

He clearly has something to hide. We don't know exactly what it is, but we're getting better guesses about what it probably is. And if he's going to pursue this campaign, he owes it to the American people to come clean and release those tax returns. Well, the FBI resolved all of this. Their report answered all the

questions. The findings included debunking his latest conspiracy theories. I believe I have created so many jobs in the sort of conspiracy theory machine factory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Reference there also to Hillary Clinton's e-mail controversy that's been going on for so long.

She also talked about the recent reports that the Trump Foundation has been fined for illegal activity when it made a political contribution to the attorney general of Florida. That is the state we're in right now at the University of South Florida, where she's expected to come out and address the crowd in just a little while.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: We'll be talking to him about that fine. We'll talk to someone from a Tampa newspaper about the $2,500 "The Washington Post" is reporting penalty because the Trump Foundation couldn't be giving money to her re-election campaign.

But let's stay on this conversation, Joe, thank you, on this press gaggle on board Hillary Clinton's plane. Let me bring in someone who's been covering her for a long while, our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny, who's here with me in New York. And I also have David Chalian, our CNN political director, who will join us here momentarily.

But, first to you. You know, as I was - that's like the third time I've been, you know, writing notes down -

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BALDWIN: And lines that I've heard before, Hillary Clinton, "something to hide," "reality TV star," and, again, answering to the e-mails. Flipping the narrative.

ZELENY: Sure.

BALDWIN: Is that what she's doing here?

ZELENY: Absolutely. I mean there's been so much criticism for her for not taking questions. Her campaign sort of allowed the, you know, the fact that she was not taking questions for the whole month of August and longer to kind of get away from it here. But she is using this opportunity to turn it back on Donald Trump.

And there is no one who can draw attention to the race as the principals can themselves. They could have the spokes people out there all day long. But when a candidate gets out there to speak, we listen. And she clearly said, he has something to hide in those tax returns. We don't know what. But she sees the same poll numbers that we see. They may not agree with all the specific numbers, but they know that this race is tighter than they had hoped. BALDWIN: Especially this CNN poll coming out today.

ZELENY: No doubt. And - exactly. And a couple of interesting things we've not heard her say before. Our own MJ Lee was on board the plane and she said is -- she asked if Trump's personal life is fair game. And Secretary Clinton said she intends to focus on things that make a difference as president. Exact words here, "I'm going to concentrate on what will affect the American people if he were to ever get anywhere near the White House." So it seems to close the door on any of his personal life there. Of course, he has raised many questions about the Clintons overall. So in these questions we get some nuance and some new information. That's the whole point.

BALDWIN: David Chalian, I mean, Jeff Zeleny is exactly right in the sense that hearing from the principals, from the candidates themselves, right, they have the power to steer the narrative a different way. I mean when you think about the last, what, one or two weeks, yes, we've been talking a lot about Trump and immigration, but we've also been talking a lot about the Clinton Foundation and we've been talking about the notes from the FBI and the hammers that were used. I mean - and she, obviously, wants to turn the page.

[14:05:21] DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Without a doubt. And one way to do it is to get in front of cameras and start steering the conversation, as she's clearly trying to do. And, remember, it's also - we shouldn't lose sight of the voters here. I mean this - not that voters care that much about press having access, because, you know, we rate lower in the polls than most politicians do. But what they do care is about getting as much information about these two candidates running for president as possible, and this is one clear way of doing that. When we have access and are able to poke and prod them, even let them have their opportunity to sort of steer the conversation where they want to steer, that's information for the voters to help unpack with nine weeks left to go where this election is going and how they feel about these candidates.

BALDWIN: I want both of you two to stand by. We have more to talk about, about polls and also that Biden - I mean you talked to Joe Biden, Jeff Zeleny, and his advice to Hillary Clinton about opening her heart is fascinating. We'll go there.

But on Donald Trump, he, too, is about to start a campaign event any moment now. So let's, for that, go to Jason Carroll. He's following the campaign for us today in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

You know, we know Trump plans to talk about veterans affairs at the event, but he has just added to the ongoing confusion about his immigration reforms, Jason. Tell me about that.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look. Let me just first say that the Trump campaign will tell you that Donald Trump has always been consistent and clear on one point. He has always said, no path to citizenship, no amnesty, of course, in reference to these millions upon millions undocumented people living in the United States who have not been convicted of a crime. Many of them may have families. So the Trump campaign will say, look, he's always been consistent on

that end. His critics will tell you that he's flip-flopped on this issue, that he's been vague or at the very least he's been unclear about it. Well, Donald Trump was asked about it again yesterday. And, Brooke, well, once again, his critics saying he's left the door open in terms of what happens to some of these undocumented people once again who have not been convicted of crimes living in the U.S. What would happen to them? Trump weighed in on this issue again yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you rule out that one possibility in that determination does include a path -

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm not ruling out anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Including a pathway to legal status?

TRUMP: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Rudy Giuliani also weighed in on this particular issue, Brooke, as you know, basically saying it would be very, very difficult to quote/unquote "toss out" some of these families of, you know, undocumented people living in the United States. Some of them who have been paying taxes and who may have children. So, once again, the question is, was Giuliani also leaving the door open as well?

So, again, critics have been saying that - and been saying all along that he's been unclear about this issue. One issue, though, that he - they say he has been clear about, that's veterans' issues. As you know, he'll be speaking about that when he takes the stage here in just a few moments from now. Even his supporters will tell you that this is one of his strong suits, speaking on this particular issue. To that point, the Trump campaign releasing the names of 88 retired generals and admirals who have come out endorsing Donald Trump in terms of being the better candidate to handle veterans' affairs.

We expect him, once again, to take the stage just a few moments from now. Again, the focus here today in Virginia will be veterans' affairs, national security.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: We are post Labor Day. The dash to the finish is on. Nine weeks. The zigzag continues. Jason, thank you.

Let me bring David Chalian and Jeff Zeleny back with me here. And I think what's also so fascinating and perhaps also leads to maybe more transparency or more discussions with the press from these candidates, you now have these fascinating CNN poll numbers, David Chalian, showing - well, I want you to walk us through all of them. But, bottom line, looking at these numbers, the - it's a tight race. CHALIAN: Without a doubt. We're in a margin of error race, Brooke. We

- as you said, we've turned past that Labor Day moment and so now we look at likely voters. So you see in the four-way horse race that Donald Trump's got this two-point edge, 45 percent to 43 percent, against Clinton. And then Johnson and Stein far lower down. But what is key here is that if you look among registered voters, a broader universe of voters, Hillary Clinton's got a three-point edge. Every - the take-away here is, this is a margin of error race. It has tightened. It is close. The post-convention bounce for Hillary Clinton is gone. The spiraling controversies in early August for Donald Trump are gone. And this race is now stabilizing in a new place.

And I think if you look underneath the hood of the horse race, you see where the problems are for each candidate. You see that Hillary Clinton has work to do among independents. She's losing them by 20 points to Donald Trump. And you see Donald Trump has significant work to do with women, with white college educated voters, which has traditionally been a Republican leaning electorate. And this time Hillary Clinton is winning white college educated voters by double digits. So I think their tasks are clear for the next nine weeks of where they need to go and find the votes that they need. And they also need to turn up the enthusiasm, especially on the Hillary Clinton side.

[14:10:33] BALDWIN: Thank you for my segue, because on that, and I think on that same vein you have the question in the poll about who's more honest and trustworthy. And Trump at 50 percent, Clinton at 35.

Jeff Zeleny, let me bring you in on that, because you had quite the chat with the vice president, Joe Biden, as he has said essentially - I'm paraphrasing and we'll get to the sound bite, you know, she needs to open her heart more. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Why do people have this suspicion about her though? She's been in public life so long. Is it that she hasn't opened up or is it because of some of her own doing?

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITES STATES: Look, I have a bad habit of saying what I believe and sometimes saying all that I mean here. The truth is, Hillary knows it's a problem. And she's trying to figure out how to remedy it. And my advice to her, the best way to remedy it is, talk about what you care about and talk about it with some passion. And people will see through it. And - but this is going to be - and you know it better than I do, Jeff, you've covered Bush (ph) - this could be the most negative campaign in the history of modern politics, I think. And so my question is, is anybody going to be able to break through what is just, you know, sort of a notion of pox on both your houses. And that's why you hear her talking more about explicitly what it is she's going to do, how she's going to change things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I am - this is beyond fascinating to me to have the vice president, a good friend of Hillary Clinton's, you know, telling her to open her heart more.

ZELENY: Offering a little bit of blunt advice, I would say. I was a little struck when he said that.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ZELENY: He said, look, she knows it's a problem. And he's right, she does. I mean she's studied -

BALDWIN: It's not a new problem when you look at '08 as well.

ZELENY: Right. She studies these poll numbers, if they're good or bad. But I think what he was saying there in the plain-spoken Joe Biden way is that, you know, show a little bit more of yourself. Don't be so bottled up and locked up. And I think we are seeing that this week. I mean since that interview happened, really just about 24 hours ago -

BALDWIN: Yes.

ZELENY: She's had two press conferences in the air. She is talking more. But I think that Joe Biden, the vice president, hit the nail on the head there. He said voters don't like what they're hearing from either side. A pox on both of their houses. And it is a nasty, negative election here. Can things break through? We don't know if things can break through or if either of their image will improve by November.

BALDWIN: But just quickly, I think a piece of the trustworthiness that everyone keeps banging on about with Hillary Clinton and the - I mean I was watching our documentary. I sat for the two hours last night watching our documentary on Hillary Clinton. I kept hearing this word humanize. And they were even referencing her in 2008. And this is still dogging her in 2016 because, from what I understand, when you see her in person, it's almost like a different person.

ZELENY: It is in many respects. She is very funny. You talk to people who have known her a long time. She's funny. She's engaging, outgoing. But she's very, you know, restrictive around the glare. She doesn't like this, you know, introspection here. But it's a challenge.

But she does not need to have high favorable approval ratings to win the election. Another President Clinton won re-election in '96 and voters - more than half the voters thought he was not honest either. So not a criteria.

BALDWIN: OK.

ZELENY: But once whoever wins, how do they run the government. That's another question here. But we have 63 days before we get to that.

BALDWIN: Sixty-three days and counting. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

ZELENY: Sure.

BALDWIN: David Chalian, thank you as well. As we told you, we're keeping a close eye on this event here, this

town hall, that Donald Trump is about to hold with regard to national security. I am told he is - there he is - just sat down. Virginia Beach, Virginia. We're going to dip in, in just a moment. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:24] BALDWIN: Here we go. Dueling events happening right now. On the left side of the screen, obviously Donald Trump sitting down for that - for that town hall on national security. The right side, we're waiting for Hillary Clinton to speak momentarily. Let's go first to Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Are not even believable when you hear 22 people a day. Twenty-two people a day. These are numbers that you wouldn't even think are believable. And a lot of it is because the fact that they can't get better. They can't - they have no service whatsoever. And it's been really, really badly handled.

One of the things that I've done is, we allow, when that wait is so long and so horrible and sometimes, by the way, a simple procedure or a simple prescription, just a very simple thing can make a person's life wonderful health wise. And they can't see the doctor. They can't get to see the doctor. And we have a plan where, if you have a wait, you're going to leave, you're going to go across the street or down the road or a few miles away. You're going to see a doctor. A really good doctor. You're going to get taken care of 100 percent. Or you're going to go and you're going to go to a local hospital, whether it's public or private. You're going to get taken care of and your government is going to pay your bill and you're going to be all set. It's going to be very good. Very simple.

LT. GEN. MIKE FLYNN, U.S. ARMY (RET.): A promise. That's a promise. That's great.

TRUMP: Should have been done a long time ago.

FLYNN: Yes.

And along that line specifically - because you've talked about this with female veterans. And I think it's just - just very, very important because of the - the size of the - the scale of the number of females that we now have in our military serving as volunteers. Talk a little bit about what you have described as how you would take care of them.

TRUMP: Sure. The female veterans have been like the forgotten people. And I think it started because it was, you know, obviously, a while ago. There were far fewer. And they haven't increased that capacity. And now you have tremendous numbers of female vets. And we are going to do procedures that they've never done and we are going to help the female veteran. They have not been helped. They've really been left behind, even more so than our male veterans. They've been left behind. And it's just not going to happen. We're going to straighten it out. We're going to give them also the right, if things are not being done right, they're going to have the right to go to a local doctor or physician or a local hospital. And, again, whether it's public or private. Whichever one is most convenient and whichever one is better, frankly. And they're going to get themselves taken care of, whether it's male or female. And that's so important.

And the other issue that's so important (INAUDIBLE) is health - is mental health because the mental health problem is such a massive - it's such a massive problem in the VA. And that's something we're going to devote a tremendous amount of time to. And it's not just an amount of money. You know, the money they're spending is tremendous. It's a huge amount of money that they're currently spending. But they have people that are incompetent in the VA. Tremendous - and they have people that are stealing. You've seen that. If you look at Phoenix and what's gone on in Phoenix where they can't even fire the people. They've found people that are stealing and found people that are very dishonest, they can't even get rid of them. All of that's going to change. The VA, you're going to be so proud of what you have. I mean you - we're going to take it and you're going to be so proud of what you have. Believe me.

FLYNN: Yes. And just to highlight. One of the things that you have talked about is accountability of the people that are serving our veterans in the Veterans Administration and the Veterans Administration system, the whole system. And I think that - I think for all of us accountability is probably something, not just in the Veterans Administration, but in government as a whole.

OK, so we're going to switch topics a little bit and we're going to talk about some of the refugee policies now that we see bubbling underneath us here coming into this country. Some of the challenges that we face. What do you think of Hillary Clinton's current refugee policies and how do they differ from your own?

TRUMP: Look, she's a disaster in so many different ways, folks. Disaster. I don't even - I don't really even think she believes it herself. You know, she was brought so far left - she was brought so far left by Bernie and the group and I think we're going to get a lot of the Bernie people because of trade, if you want to know the truth. A lot of the Bernie people are coming with us because the one thing he was right about is the fact that our country's being ripped off like never before on these trade deals that are disasters. NAFTA has been a disaster for the United States. It's destroyed our country. And that's one thing he got right and a lot of people liked him because of trade, more so than anything else.

[14:20:12] But when it comes to immigration, first of all, she thinks that everything is, more or less, fine. She wants to allow 650 percent increase over and above what Obama's allowing to come in from Syria and the Middle East. Six hundred and fifty percent. And he's already allowing thousands and thousands of people in.

And we don't know where they're coming from. You people know because we're military people, we don't know where they're coming from. We're not - you see the damage that one person can do. You just have to look anywhere. You see the damage that - whether it's Orlando or whether it's two people that just got married or they're married and they're, you know, from San Bernardino, you see in San Bernardino they're getting thrown a party - a shower party or a baby party, and then a short while later they go and they kill 14 people in the group.

Look, we got problems, folks. We have to figure it out. And if we don't figure it out, we have to be careful and vigilant and strong. And she wants to allow a 550 percent increase. You know, I was very interesting. I was saying she wants to allow 500 percent more come in from that region. And the press said I was wrong. I said, oh, what's the real number? Five hundred and fifty. So that time -

FLYNN: It was true.

TRUMP: They said I was wrong.

FLYNN: That's right. You were close.

TRUMP: They said the number was -

FLYNN: You low-balled it.

TRUMP: As long as they can prove you wrong, they're happy. No. But 550 percent increase of people coming from Syria and that part of the world. And we can't do it. I want to build safe havens. And we'll have other people build them, by the way. We'll have other people fund them. We'll lead the charge. But, you know, Barack Obama has doubled during his fairly short period of years. He's doubled our national debt. Doubled it. It's going to be close to $20 trillion when he leaves. $20 trillion. So we have to get rid of at least a good portion of that. So we're going to have other people. We're going to have the Gulf States pay for this because we're going to build safe havens. I mean, look, we all have big hearts. We just can't allow these people into our country until we find out what's going on. We can't do it. We can't do it.

FLYNN: Very good. And I think that also, as you have said, that they also impact our health care system. They impact all the other costs. So it's very, very important.

TRUMP: By the way, you have illegal immigrants - I hate to say this in this room because you have a lot of vets in the room, but you have illegal immigrants that she wants and he wants treated better than veterans. You have these people are treated better than people that are in this room. You know it.

FLYNN: Yes.

TRUMP: They are treated better than veterans. And, let me tell you folks, they've got their priorities mixed up. That's going it change to fast, OK? It's going to change.

FLYNN: Yes.

That's good.

TRUMP: General, we have a couple of people - by the way, Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York, who - what a great man. Stand up. Stand up, Rudy. Rudy. Beautiful. Whoa. I love him.

FLYNN: That's right.

TRUMP: Do we love what he did. He took a city that was a disaster. He took New York City and he made it great. Think of it, made it great again, right? He made it great again. So, Rudy, great to be - to see you.

And Eric Trump's wife, Laura, is here, and she's done a fantastic job. Laura's been working very hard, in particular in North Carolina, but helping also with Virginia. We have some people in Virginia, Mike Rabino (ph) and the group, they have done - they have been amazing. And hopefully we can get everybody registered because we have to win. Virginia's a very important state. We have to win Virginia.

Thank you.

FLYNN: OK, so speaking of disasters, the Iran nuclear deal.

TRUMP: Oh.

FLYNN: And Iran - Iran has - I mean we're talking about putting nukes into the hands of an ayatollah that says death to America, death to Israel, and they continue to fire ballistic missiles all the time in violation of this deal. But Iran has engaged in growing hostilities, has increasingly shown and continues to have nuclear ambitions -

TRUMP: That's right.

FLYNN: And as president, what are you going to do about Iran?

TRUMP: First of all, if you look at the policies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, they have created what will be a world power. Not - you know, they're talking about a regional power. This is going to be a world power. They have become rich. They have become powerful. The deal is one of the worst negotiated deals of any kind that I've ever seen if you look at it, study it. We give them $150 billion. How about the $400 million in cash that we gave them, flown in, obviously for hostages. That was the big lie, also, just like Obamacare was a big lie. This was a big lie.

[14:25:17] And 400 - think of it - $400 million in cash and they kept the hostages. Remember, it had nothing to do with the hostages, but the hostages weren't allowed to leave the airport until such time and then they came. Whoever heard of $400 million in cash - different denominations, different countries. They want all different money from different countries. Who even has the power to authorize something like this?

So what we've done is created a monster. We've created in three years, four years, if you look at - if you take a look at Iran from four, five years ago, they were dying. They had the sanctions. (INAUDIBLE) they were being choked to death. And they were absolutely dying. They weren't even going to be much of a threat. They didn't have anything going and now they're a power. We've made them a power. Overnight, we've made them a power. Number one, they're highly threatening to the state of Israel. They are so bad for Israel. Obama has been so bad for Israel, but they are a great threat and they're a threat to us. They're going to have nuclear weapons and this path, in my opinion, is going to be a quicker path to nuclear weapons. The deal is grossly incompetent.

And then I don't know if you saw the other day, we have the little boats going out and they're making all sorts of horrible gestures. You know, then learn the gestures, I guess, they studied the United States and they gave those kind of gestures to our sailor and our captain on the boats. And, oh, boy, I'll bet those guys wanted to blow them out of the water. I'll bet you. I'll bet you they wanted to blow them out.

And so you see these four little boats circling, circling, going around, you know, taunting, taunting. It's like they've been emboldened. Here we are, we made a deal that's such a great deal for them and they now feel power. They feel power. Remember the sailors, the ten sailors, who were a little bit off? They were in the water. So instead of saying, hey, you're in our water, please, you know, go over there, they humiliated our country. They humiliated those ten people. And this - and the only reason we got them back - of course you would have gotten them back very fast if I was president, that I can tell you, but the only reason - the only reason we got them back was the payment the following day was due. A lot of the money the following day was due. And stupid they're not. And they wanted to get that.

But just think of what's gone on. Here we are. We made this deal. We just - we made them a power. And we also happen to have given them Iraq, because Iraq - you know I always say, Iraq and Iran were very similar militarily and they fight, fight, fight, and then they'd rest. They'd fight, fight, fight, and then Saddam Hussein would do the gas. And somebody else would do something else. And they'd rest.

We knocked out the one. And a lot of people don't realize that Iraq has some of the greatest oil reserves anywhere in the world. And so Iran is going to get whatever ISIS doesn't already have. They'll probably take that, too, by the way. What we've done to create a major, major power through really stupid leaders - stupidity - is just shocking. It's one of the dumbest deals I've ever seen. John Kerry's a terrible negotiator. But somebody - but don't forget, this was a deal - this was a deal that crooked Hillary Clinton wanted. She wanted this deal. This was a very important deal and she wanted that deal. And most people don't even get it. You know, normally you understand a deal and you'd say, yes, I understand. We get this. We - we get nothing. This was a deal at the highest level of incompetence, the deal with Iran. It was at the highest level of incompetence. So we'll solve that problem if I get the chance, believe me. And if I get the chance, you'll be very happy. You'll be very happy.

FLYNN: That's good.

I mean (INAUDIBLE). And just to remind people, Iran - just to remind everybody, Iran is still designated by the United States State Department as the leading state sponsor of terrorism and we've put them on a path to a nuclear weapon. So pretty amazing what we've done. [14:29:37] Staying in the same region because this is something that

all of us that have served in the armed forces over the last 15 years have been a part of, and that is fighting al Qaeda in Iraq. Now fighting ISIS. And ISIS continues to expand their operations. They're - they have this caliphate that they've established in Syria, in parts of Iraq, and they have launched attacks throughout the west. I think it's - the latest count was somewhere between 22 and 25 countries that they have launched attacks in, in the last, you know, probably two to three months. And that has resulted in somewhere between 7,000 to 10,000 casualties around the world. Just a stunning display of