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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Clinton & Trump Squaring Off On Security; Obama Speaks Out Against Congress; Cardinals' Home Runs Spark Rally. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired September 07, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Sara Murray traveling with the Trump campaign brings us the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[05:00:04] SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine.

Well, Donald Trump stuck to his message of national security as he was campaigning yesterday in Virginia and in North Carolina. And in a fiery speech here in Greenville, he went after Hillary Clinton over her use of her e-mail server, saying this was disqualifying behavior for the presidential candidate. And he specifically talked about the way she destroyed communications devices, about wiping her emails. He called this shady activity, even suggesting it was criminal.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If she applied for a low- level job at the State Department today, just a low-level job, she couldn't even get a security clearance based on what she's done. Her conduct is disqualifying. And by the way, who uses 13 different iPhones in four years? Who?

The only people who use that many phones are usually involved in very, very -- and I mean very shady activity.

MURRAY: Now, well, there was another change in Donald Trump's speech and that was him behaving more like a traditional candidate and almost laying out a plan for the first 100 days as president. In addition to saying he would appeal Obamacare and saying he would build a wall around the southern border, he also said he would convene his generals in just 30 days and come up with a plan for how to defeat ISIS.

Now, Trump is back on the trail for nontraditional stops for Republican candidates, he'll be in Philadelphia and New York.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. After his national security speech, Donald Trump heads to New York City for a national security town hall. One-hour Commander-in-Chief forum, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will answer questions in front of an audience made up mostly of veterans and active duty troops.

Now, with a new CNN national poll showing the race very, very close, in fact Donald Trump with a slight lead, Hillary Clinton is escalating her attacks on Donald Trump, speaking with reporters on her plane for the second day in a row after voiding them for the better part of a year.

CNN's Joe Johns has the latest from Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Hillary Clinton making changes, taking questions on her plane for the second time in two days, using the opportunity to both defend herself and to launch some fresh attacks on Donald Trump particularly on his business practices and his business relationships, trying to turn around the narrative on honesty and trustworthiness that had been dogging her throughout her run for president.

She focused once again on the fact that Donald Trump has not released his income tax return.

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'm going to continue to raise this, because I think it is a fundamental issue about him, in this campaign. That we're going to talk about in one way or another, for the next 62 days because he clearly has something to hide.

JOHNS: Here at a public event in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton once again zeroing in on national security and veterans issues, something that's expected to continue in the forefront as we approach the September 11th anniversary. Neither candidate is expected to be on the trail on that day -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Joe Johns for us in Tampa this morning.

Both Clinton and Trump at tonight's commander in chief forum.

Helping to sort out the national security debate this morning, CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner up very early for us live in Washington.

Eric, let's talk about -- I want to listen to Donald Trump himself talk about his plan to defeat ISIS. And for sometime it's been -- he has said --

BERMAN: It's a secret plan. He wouldn't tell us.

ROMANS: -- generals, for a long time, he wouldn't say, he didn't want to say what his plan was, because that would be tipping off ISIS as to how he was going to defeat them. And then there's this. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, I'm going to convene my top generals and give them a simple instruction. They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating is. We have no choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So, that is the secret plan to defeat ISIS is to tap the generals, to come with plan in 30 days to defeat ISIS. How does that burnish his national security credentials here?

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, his plan being to make a plan is not really a plan. That sounds very good, right? But what Donald Trump was trying to do yesterday, he rolled out a list of 88 retired top military brass who are endorsing his campaign.

He's trying to send the message that his leadership style is to surround himself with the best people and empower them, right? Because he's never going to match Hillary Clinton's foreign policy credentials. He's not been a secretary of state. He hasn't been in Congress. He doesn't have that background.

So, he's sort of doing the best he can in surrounding himself with as many experienced military hands as he can. His core campaign proposal throughout this entire race has been competency, right? The idea that he's a manager who can get things done and bring a fresh outside perspective who can lead the right people. Whereas, Hillary Clinton can't.

So, that's sort of what he's offering here but it is a little bazaar to hear.

BERMAN: Well, it actually contradicts his earlier statements, right? He said he had a secret plan to defeat ISIS. Now he said he wants the generals to come up with a plan. So, it's basically laying out that maybe he never had a plan to begin with.

We'll press Trump adviser on that today, because I think it is an interesting point to make. There's also some interesting distinctions in our latest CNN/ORC polling on these issues.

So, on terrorism, for instance, Donald Trump leads 51 percent to 45 percent over Clinton who would better handle terrorism. But on foreign policy Hillary Clinton leads 56 percent to 40 percent. So, what you see here is how each campaign is going at this somewhat differently, right?

BRADNER: Right.

BERMAN: Donald Trump saying I'm strong enough to battle ISIS. Hillary Clinton saying I actually know how to do this kind of work. I imagine that's what we'll hear from them today.

BRADNER: Yes, absolutely, John. And that's a great point. It's interesting to see that both candidates decided on their own to

focus on national security coming out of the Labor Day weekend, right? This is when Americans tend to tune into politics, and they've both identified this issue as a top priority for them. For Hillary Clinton, there are several advantages here.

One, active duty military will actually begin voting early. Later this month, some of those ballots will go out. So, that's one reason to focus on this.

But Hillary Clinton is just more comfortable talk about this. It's something she likes to hit Donald Trump on, and she's also going for this group of voters that we know as security moms, right? These are middle class women living in places like the Philadelphia suburbs, where Clinton is outpolling Trump, who had a really significant impact on the outcome of the election.

They're focused on terrorism, especially after Orlando. That sort of thing. So, it's a really commander poll of voters for both candidates.

ROMANS: At the same time, you know, trustworthiness is something that certainly her opponent is pushing about Hillary Clinton. And he's talked about the e-mail, e-mail, e-mail, it just never goes away. An Hillary Clinton address that sort of the gaggle on the plane yesterday. Let's listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On 39 separate occasions, 39 she said she couldn't recall details about her mishandling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: OK. So that was Donald Trump talking about the mishandling of that. She was on a plane yesterday saying -- do we have that sound bite on the plane? OK.

She basically said the FBI resolved all of this. The report answers all the questions, the findings, including debunking all of his latest conspiracy theory. She said she has created all these jobs in the conspiracy theory lands, and the conspiracy theory machine factory.

And she said, you know, they're choosing to focus on her trustworthiness instead of coming up with policy. That was her response.

BRADNER: Right, right. So, I mean, juxtapose his talk about Hillary Clinton's e-mails with Clinton's claims about Trump and his taxes and him having something to hides, and it's a great demonstration.

This is going to be the most negative campaign in recent memory, right? These candidates have both sort of given up on improving their own trustworthy numbers. So, it's all about being more trustworthy than the other person, right? So, driving the other person's numbers into the ground. And Trump is

not going to drop the e-mail criticism. Nothing that Hillary Clinton can say about, you know, a conspiracy machine factory is ever going to get him to drop this. Nor is Hillary Clinton going to drop the tax issue.

So, this is something that they're just going to be beating each up over for the next two months.

BERMAN: Eric Bradner, great to see you this morning -- thank you very much.

BRADNER: Thank you.

ROMANS: Get a cup of coffee. We'll see you soon.

Time for an early start on your money. Most Americans think the job markets in worst shape than it really is. A new survey believes 57 percent of Americans believe the unemployment rate is higher than the current rate of 4.9 percent, about 40 percent say yeah it's about 4.9.

Donald Trump has repeatedly blasted the unemployment rate on the campaign trail. He called it a joke. He said it's a hoax.

[05:10:00] Some of the feelings may be tied to what Americans are hearing on the presidential race. It certainly ties right into the Donald Trump message, nearly a quarter say job prospects for the next generation may be weaker than they are today.

Here's an interesting twist. When researchers asked, how would you rate your personal financial situation, 52 percent say good or excellent. About a third say fair shape. Just 14 percent say they're doing poorly.

BERMAN: So, that's 86 percent fair or better. I have to believe that's a lot better than it was, you know, eight or nine years ago.

ROMANS: I think people are concerned about wages. I think people are concerned about the job hopping they see around, it's harder, part- time employment. But when you look at the core of the labor market over the past seven years, people who are full-time employed, you know, they are seeing raises and they are getting more job offers. It's the left-behinds I think that are sort of nagging in confidence.

BERMAN: Two Americas as John Edwards once said.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. President Obama with some harsh words for Congress. This is during a town hall overseas. Part of his historic overseas trip. We will tell what you he said. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:14] BERMAN: All right. President Obama is in Laos this morning. He just spent more than an hour taking questions at a town hall for young Southeast Asian leaders. And he took the U.S. Congress to task for failing to act on one of his key priorities.

Let's get the latest from Laos, turning to White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski traveling with the president -- Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the president got another chance to talk up the TPP, the Trans Pacific Partnership with Asia on this trip, something he feels would be a great deal for U.S. businesses, but also for workers on both sides of the ocean, something that he sees in fact as a litmus test for the U.S. keeping its word and having long-term staying power here in Asia, which is an enormous economy.

He said some not so nice words for Congress, though, which is not taking up the TPP. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, we're in a political season now, and it's always difficult to get things done. Congress isn't doing much right now. They're all going home and talking to their constituents trying to get re-elected.

So, after the election, I think people can refocus attention on why this is so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Well, what about President Obama and 2016? White House source says he is looking forward to getting out on the trail. He sees the huge stakes. And he feels he wants to emphasize that he feels Hillary Clinton is the only one who is up to the task of being president of the United States.

So far, we've only seen him do three events. He did, remember, the event with Hillary Clinton in Charlotte. He did two fund-raisers after that. But looking at September, this trip that we're on now, as well as the U.N. coming up, really complicates his ability to get on the trail.

There's an event planned soon for Philadelphia. There will be one more fund-raiser in New York. So, that leaves October for him to pick up the pace. There have been reports out there that he's going to be on the trail virtually the whole month.

But our sources say that's going to be hard to do. But the pace will definitely get a lot more busy for him to campaign for Clinton.

Back to you guys.

BERMAN: I don't think there's any question that Hillary Clinton wants him out there as soon as possible, as much as possible.

Michelle Kosinski, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right. The St. Louis Cardinals pulled off a miracle task in Pittsburgh last night. Andy Scholes for this morning's "Bleacher Report", he is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:09] BERMAN: All right. Less than a month ago in the baseball season, that means pennant fever. And the races are heating up.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report" -- hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.

It's the time where all of these games are super important for the teams that are in the race. And last night, the Cardinals, they had one of those games. They're going to look back at if they end up making the postseason. St. Louis is down 6-9 two outs. Matt Carpenter pinch-hitting with the strike when he crushes this one to tie the game.

But the Cards were not done. Two batters later, Randal Grichuk knocked this out of the park. And then, Johnny Peralta comes to the plate. He also goes deep. Three home runs, with two outs in the ninth. Cardinals win 9-7. They've now homered in 27 games two shy of the all-time record.

All right. Novak Djokovic is moving on to the semifinals at the U.S. Open. The defending champ winning his match when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga retired due to injury in the third set. This is actually the third time that Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has retired from a match. He's going to face Gael Monfils tomorrow.

Serena Williams taking on Simona Halep in the quarterfinals. Tonight, Serena still going for her 23rd grand slam title.

The opening ceremony for this year's Paralympics games get going tonight in Rio. U.S. cyclist Allison Jones is voted as the U.S. flag bearer. Jones who was born without femur has accomplished the rare feat of winning golds in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She's also a great skier.

And here's a look at the Paralympics by the numbers, 4,350 athletes completing, and 176 countries will be represented with 528 different medal events going on over the next week and a half.

All right. Schools are back in session all over the country. I'm sure over the past month you've seen proud parents posting first day of school pics of their kids on social media. Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams decided to post his own pic for the first day of the NFL regular season. Check this out, got a chalkboard there fun facts.

He's 33 years old. Favorite colors, blue and pink. He also loves popcorn. And guy, he wants to be a fantasy football star when he grows up. I hope he grows up very quickly because I drafted DeAngelo Williams in my draft last night. So, I'd be very happy if he had a great season.

BERMAN: That's literally so funny. My kids have the same sign right there. Step they're not as tall as DeAngelo Williams. They don't make nearly as much money as him.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Andy, that was really cute. Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump taking fresh swings at each other. Not as cute as DeAngelo Williams. Both candidates trying to establish their national security credentials ahead of a forum tonight.

[05:25:01] We'll give you the latest on the 2016 race. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: National security day on the campaign trail. A big day planned with new attacks planned. Also, some new policy. We'll tell you all about it. That's coming up.

ROMANS: President Obama laying into Congress for refusing to act on a landmark trade deal. We'll bring you some of the president's remarks. CNN is live in Laos.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Very nice to see you this morning. About 30 minutes after the hour now.

New this morning with no lead in this presidential race secure, national security will be in the spotlight with new proposals and new attacks on the way as well. Aides to Donald Trump said this morning, Trump will call for a significant increase in military spending to secure military cuts part of the sequester, remember that?

Donald Trump will also go after Hillary Clinton's foreign policy vision which he says favors, quote, "military adventurism".