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Clinton Returns to Campaign Trail; Trump Economic Proposals. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired September 15, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Aleppo, Syria. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with breaking news. Donald Trump outlines his plan to try to boost the U.S. economy, as Hillary Clinton returns to the campaign trail. In a speech before the Economic Club of New York this morning, Trump made some bold promises about growing the economy other the next 10 years. But critics say his goal of 3.5 percent growth doesn't add up.

Meantime, Hillary Clinton campaigns today for the first time since she was side lined by pneumonia. Her first stop will be in Greensboro, North Carolina, where she'll give a speech focusing in on children and families. Clinton released a letter from her doctor saying she is recovering well from her bout with pneumonia. The doctor said Clinton remains, quote, "healthy and fit to serve as president."

Trump also released a two-page medical letter after discussing the results on the "Dr. Oz Show".

Let's get more on Trump's economic speech which was just delivered, whether the numbers add up. Our Political Reporter Sara Murray is covering the Trump campaign for us. Sara, Trump painted a rather really gloomy picture of the U.S. economy right now. What does he plan to do to turn that around?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Wolf, he laid out a lot the policies he's previously proposed. You know, very deep tax cuts not only for businesses but also for families, his childcare policy that he unveiled earlier this week. He talked a bit about trade.

But all of these lumped together, he and his campaign, the economists they have consulted with, they say will amount to big growth. Donald Trump pegged it at 3.5 percent to four percent annually. And they said that under that kind of growth rate, you would create 25 million jobs over the course of a decade.

Now, we haven't seen growth near 3.5 percent since about 2004, 2005. But, of course, as we know, it's no secret that politicians like to aim high when they put out their economic proposals. And so, we shouldn't necessarily be surprised to see a very sunny, optimistic idea for how much Donald Trump could spark economic growth.

But I do think he's going to face some criticism for the deficit reduction side of this. He put forward a plan that would essentially cut nondefense discretionary spending and it would not cut entitlements at all. And this is one of the things that Republicans have been concerned about, the notion that you're going to be able to do any kind of credible deficit cutting without dealing with entitlements.

So, I think that, at least from a Republican perspective, when they look at this plan, they're going to see a lot of things they like, in terms of tax cuts, in terms of wanting to streamline regulation. But I think that they're still going to be wary about the trade policies included in this as well as the attempted deficit reduction -- Wolf.

BLITZER: How was he received over there at the New York Economic Club?

MURRAY: It was interesting, as we were kind of fighting our way to get back out of here in time for this live shot, a number of people were chatting about Donald Trump's speech. And they actually seemed fairly impressed with it. Some women were chatting about how he seeped calm in his delivery and that he has sort of a way of commanding attention and respect when he takes the stage.

But I think people were also interested to see him lay out a plan where he did run through a number of the policies he laid out. And that actually he did have -- you know, they were calling them facts. And certainly the kinds of facts his campaign and his economists are putting out. Obviously, other economists will dispute those but that's a broader debate I'm sure we'll have over the next few days -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I'm sure we will. Sara Murray, thank you.

Joining us now to talk about whether the numbers from Trump's economic plan add up, our Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans. Christine, Trump made these bold promises about growing the U.S. economy. Let me play this little clip.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Under our plan, the economy will average 3.5 percent growth and create a total of 25 million new jobs. You can visit our Web site. Just look at the math, it works. It will be accomplished through a complete overhaul of our tax regulatory, energy and trade policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We're also showing our viewers, Christine. These are live pictures coming in from White Plains, New York. The first -- former first lady of the United States, the former secretary of the state, now the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, getting ready to leave White Plains. Not far from her home up there in Westchester, outside of New York City.

There she is. She's walking out of that van. She's going to be boarding the stairs to head off to North Carolina. This is the first time we've seen her since that incident Sunday morning. Let's just listen in a little bit.

[13:05:10] All right, she's smiling. She's waving. She's going inside her plane to fly to North Carolina. First time she's been on the campaign trail since she was -- had that incident Sunday morning right at that 911 memorial ceremony in New York City. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, as we all know, on Friday. Her doctor told her rest. She didn't rest over the weekend. She had that incident. She nearly collapsed Sunday morning. But she has been resting since then.

Now, no more rest. She's out on the campaign trail. She'll be in North Carolina this afternoon delivering a speech, and then later tonight here in Washington for another speech.

Christine, we were talking about Donald Trump's economic plan. We'll have more on Hillary Clinton's situation. That's come up in a little bit. But let's talk about the numbers. We just heard him make that bold claim. Do the numbers, based on everything you're hearing from economic experts, add up?

ROMANS: Look, he is talking about robust growth. I mean, he's shooting for the moon here on his growth - his growth forecast. And I want to show you some context here. We haven't had four percent growth consistently since Bill Clinton was the president the United States. You haven't had it, as Sara said, since 2004.

And when he said 3.5 percent growth on average for a decade. That is a very, very bullish, as they say, forecast here. And how he would do it, he would have would have every one of his policies in place. Draw in your mind, everybody, an imaginary big green line at that four percent mark, and you can see what his looked like in the past decades here.

One thing he did say that is absolutely true, a fact check that's true, is that this is the weakest job recovery since the Great Depression. And that is true, in part because it was almost another great depression. When you look at average job growth over the past years, you've got 9 million or 10 million jobs created under the Obama administration. If you look at the very worst part of the recession, it's 14 million jobs have been created.

So, of lately, job growth has been doing better. But the credit and the blame probably doesn't lie with the president and those economic policies, it's probably more the fed. What the fed has been doing to bring the economy back to life there. So, that claim of 25 million jobs over a decade, again, another very, very optimistic claim -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Here's what he said, Christine, Donald Trump, about the economic recovery. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Right now, under the Obama-Clinton policies, the economy grew only 1.1 percent last quarter, a number that was shocking to people that do this professionally and for life. It translates into millions of lost jobs and certainly millions of lost good jobs, because we don't have good jobs anymore. Those jobs are gone and going. This is the weakest so-called recovery since the Great Depression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you make of that comment, Christine?

ROMANS: It is the weakest recovery since the Great Depression, that is true. The question now here, though, is why? Is that the fault of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the president and the - and the former secretary of state or is that the fault of just how severe, severe, the recession was?

And the fact that some people claim that there wasn't enough concerted effort by Congress on the fiscal side in recent years to get it done, to fix some of the things that are wrong with the American economy structurally. And the Federal Reserve has been the only one who has been doing it.

So, what if Donald Trump's policies would change that? That is the question here. He's right on the fact that it is the weakest recovery since the Great Depression. The question is, would he make it any better? Would he have done any better than President Obama?

BLITZER: He also said this, Christine, about household income.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Our manufacturing base has crumbled, communities have been hollowed out, wages have declined and households are making less today than they were in the year 2000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Is that accurate?

ROMANS: Wolf, we have brand-new numbers from the census that are really clear on this. You have household income coming back. For several years, the stump speech that, you know, Americans have lost $4,000 in income since Obama was -- President Obama was in office, that was true until the year 2015. These wages are coming back here. $56,516 was the median household income last year. Brand-new numbers. And that is pretty much equal to where we were, you know, in 1999. That was the record, $57,909. So, just below record-high median household income.

[13:10:05] BLITZER: But the numbers have improved lately -

ROMANS: They have. BLITZER: -- and that's encouraging. Christine, thank you very much.

Also today, Hillary Clinton getting back on to the campaign trail after following doctor's orders to take it easy, at least for a few days. We just saw her board that flight, taking her to North Carolina. She'll be delivering a speech later this afternoon.

Mark Preston, our Politics Executive Editor, is with us. So, talk a little bit about the momentum that's going on right now. Because if you look at all the polls, the national polls right now, Mark, if you take a look at the polls and in the key battleground states, it looks like Trump has the momentum. Hillary Clinton doesn't.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: No question about that. Trending lines right now, as you say, as Hillary Clinton is returning to the campaign trail, as we've seen Donald Trump really trying to, you know, benefit from that, from her absence. Of course, she just acknowledged that she contracted pneumonia.

Now, Clinton is going to head to Greensboro, North Carolina. As you noted, she'll talk about women and families, children and families. She'll also, this evening, head to Washington, D.C. where she's going to join President Obama at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute awards dinner.

Now, Clinton's return comes one day after she released that doctor's note, outlining that she is fit to serve as president. And as national state polls show that this race is tightening over the past few weeks for the White House. And if the Clinton campaign is flooding one of these very important battleground states, that being Ohio, with key surrogates trying to convince younger voters to support the former secretary of state.

Today, we're going to see Chelsea Clinton appear at two stops in Ohio. And then, this weekend, Bernie Sanders will be in Ohio for several stops as will Elizabeth Warren. So, what we're seeing, Wolf, is an all-on press from the Clinton campaign as they are trying to deal with these plunging poll numbers, specifically in the key state of Ohio -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We're showing our viewers, Mark, live pictures from aboard the Hillary Clinton aircraft that's going to take her from White Plains, New York, outside of New York city, over to North Carolina for her speech that she's going to be delivering in a few hours there. We've got cameras onboard this flight.

Let's see if she walks back in the course of this, speaks with reporters before takeoff. Of course we'll have coverage of that. But these are live pictures coming in from aboard the plane. Mark, as you know, in recent days, before she was diagnosed with pneumonia, she allowed reporters to sit on her plane, to accompany her on her flights. And she also has been a little bit more available to those reporters to answer some questions. Let's see if she comes back.

But this is sort a new step. We all want to see how she's feeling, how she's doing, following the diagnosis of pneumonia. PRESTON: No doubt, Wolf. Certainly in the past week or so, we've

seen Hillary Clinton, her campaign being more open, holding a couple of press availabilities inside the plane, as we're seeing that picture right now. But also, she held a news conference after coming under very harsh criticism from the media as well as Republicans, saying that she was hiding.

Now, we're not sure if Hillary Clinton, as you said, is going to come back and speak. But we have seen her come out and talk about her health. She did call in to Anderson Cooper, our colleague, to discuss the incident that happened on September 11th that forced her to leave the ceremony early. That really disturbing video that we saw - Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Hold on, hold on, she's coming back to speak with reporters. Let's listen in.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hi, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

CROWD: Hi.

CLINTON: Welcome back to stronger together.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How are you doing? How are you feeling?

CLINTON: I am doing -- I'm doing great. Thank you so much. And I think Jan and Nick have suggested we do an actual avail on the next flight that we take. So, we'll get to North Carolina. We'll do the speech. And then, we'll get back on and, you know, then we can answer questions and go from there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) last few days?

CLINTON: I'll talk about that later, too. I'll talk about that later.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But that will be tonight after the news cast. Could you just give us --

CLINTON: It's done. I am so sad.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.

CLINTON: I know, I really am. (INAUDIBLE.) Madam secretary, however, is coming back. So, that's something to look forward to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that odd to watch that?

CLINTON: No, I actually get a big kick out of that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) they play you.

CLINTON: Well, I watched it with - yes, I watched it with a little bit of skepticism at first but I got so into it and really liked the story lines. They had some good, quasi-realistic story lines. So, anyway.

UNIDENTIFIED: (INAUDIBLE) North Carolina (INAUDIBLE.)

CLINTON: I'm excited to get to North Carolina.

BLITZER: All right, you just heard Hillary Clinton say she's going to give avail or an availability, a little news conference and she'll answer some questions after her speech in North Carolina aboard the aircraft on her way here to Washington, D.C. We'll, of course, have coverage of that.

Mark Preston, she looked pretty good. She sounded pretty good. She had been resting over these past several days, following that - the diagnosis of pneumonia.

PRESTON: She certainly does. Again, going back to that really disturbing video where it appeared that she had tripped and then slumped down and needed help to get into the van.

[13:15:07] What we've been told by the campaign, though, is that while she was resting at home, she had been working on debate prep.

Now, we all know that, that all-important debate that's going to be coming up shortly here is really going to be the big showdown now that is going to show us right now where the real state of the race is, as we're seeing this race go up and down and up and down and as you said at the top, has tightened not only nationally but in the key states that are going to decide the election.

Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Jeff Zeleny is aboard the aircraft with the Democratic nominee.

Jeff, you're there. Tell us what it's like on that plane.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Wolf, you certainly saw Secretary Clinton come back, you know, say hello and show everyone that her health is better and she's eager to get back on the campaign trail. And you heard her also say that she will take questions later in the day, but not at this point.

Wolf, the campaign is desperate to get back to business, get back to their fight again Donald Trump, get back to prosecuting the argument and not talk about pneumonia. You can see the smile there on - on her face and, you know, she's just eager to get to work.

But, Wolf, she's entering a far different landscape now than one week ago when she made her last visit to a battleground state in North Carolina as well. And just the fact that she is taking her first trip to North Carolina, certainly indicative of how important that state is. And several other battlegrounds, so much tighter than the Clinton campaign expected at this point.

But, Wolf, the - you know, what's really transpired over the last week or so has also been a window into how she may serve in the Oval Office if she's elected, what her presidency could be. She did not disclose all of the information that she ended up doing. It's been a - a test run of sorts for some of her campaign aides. She didn't necessarily pass that test in some regards. She acknowledged that her staff could have done better. So now she, you know, clearly has some ground to make up, but on this point, Wolf, I can - I'm at the back of the plane. I can see her at the front of the plane. We'll be taking off on - just shortly here in West Chester County, White Plaines, New York. She'll be flying to Greensboro, North Carolina, for her first trip back to a battleground state in a week.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Jeff, have a safe flight. We'll talk to you once you land.

Let's continue our analysis of this situation. Our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is with us, CNN politics editor Juana Summers, Matea Gold, national political reporter for "The Washington Post," and CNN political analyst Jackie Kucinich, who's also the Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast."

Gloria, she sounded pretty good. She looked pretty good. She's been resting. She's been fighting that pneumonia. Now she's back on the campaign trail.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And she looked energetic, as if she was really looking forward to what's coming up on the - on the campaign trail, saying we're going to have a press conference. I think they realized that they have to turn this ship around and that, you know, they've lost what they had after the convention. And Donald Trump gave an economic speech this morning. I'm sure she wants to respond to how his economic speech would affect the middle class. I'm sure we'll hear her talking about that.

But she has to let the American public know that she's energetic and she's ready and she had a small bout with pneumonia and move on. Move on.

BLITZER: Juana, she's got a lot of work to do because these polls in the - in the key battleground states, as well as the national polls, this - this race is really tight.

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: It absolutely is really tight. And if you look at the trends in these battleground polls, the margins by which Hillary Clinton had been ahead of Donald Trump had been much larger in the polls we saw ahead of the convention. Now all of these states, Ohio especially, we've seen a ton of polling out of there, including our own polls over the last couple of days. Florida is a neck and neck race. These are states that are critical to both candidates on that road to 270 electoral votes and so this really is going to be that final frenzy. And I think that's why you see surrogates like Elizabeth Warren, like Bernie Sanders, heading out to these states on Hillary Clinton's behalf because her team realizes they just don't have any more time to waste.

BLITZER: While she was resting at home, recovering from pneumonia, Matea, she did a couple of phone interviews, but we didn't see her. This is really the first time we've seen her since she was - since Sunday morning when she had that - that fall, if you will, when she was going into the van. But she deliberately wanted to show all of us, she's strong, she'll healthy, she's energetic, she's ready to go.

MATEA GOLD, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": And make a big point, we're going to come back and talk to you again after the speech in North Carolina. I think one thing that this episode really drove home for the Clinton campaign is that their Achilles heel is secrecy and this perception that they are not transparent. I mean this health issue really became more about the fact that, why wasn't the public told that she had pneumonia, as opposed to her - her illness, which she is on antibiotics from it, she's recovering from. So I think what we're going to see them do now in every possible way is to try to promote an image of transparency and make her accessible as much as possible.

BLITZER: You know, and, Jackie, everyone's going to be watching her so closely right now.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BLITZER: If she sneezes, if she coughs, if what - if she stumbles a little bit -

[13:20:02] KUCINICH: Right.

BLITZER: If she slips, people are going to draw all sorts of conclusions, one of the downsides of the secrecy, if you will, when they weren't forthcoming and alerting us that she has pneumonia.

KUCINICH: I think it's one of the reasons they she released her medical report yesterday to try to move on past, see what the numbers are, see what medications she is on so everybody stops talking about it and moves on and sees that she's generally a healthy person who doesn't get sick. And, again, as Matea said, this is a self-inflicted wound and they're really working really hard to move past it at this point.

BORGER: Well, and they're trying to flip it on -

KUCINICH: Totally.

BORGER: On Donald Trump and say, OK, I'm transparent, I've released more medic records, I've released my tax returns. And we're going to hear more of that too. And she's, you know, by comparison, she's going to say, yes, I look - you're OK, can I - and I'm completely transparent.

KUCINICH: She's opened the window.

BORGER: Right. She's probably opened one.

BLITZER: She's going to continue wanting to go after him on the taxes.

SUMMERS: Absolutely, she's continue to go after him. On the medical records, though, I think it is important to note that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have released significantly less than what we've seen from past presidential candidates.

BORGER: Very true.

SUMMERS: John McCain, of course, being the example that constantly comes to mind. But I do think we will see her continue to push the fact that her campaign has been open. She is giving the American people the information they have. Whereas Donald Trump continues to say, you know, my taxes are under audit, I can't release it. Of course, Eric Trump sending a completely different message about that. I'm sorry, Donald Trump Jr., sending a different message about that today.

BORGER: I think she used the Romney and Obama model because we didn't get a lot out of them either.

SUMMERS: No.

BORGER: Not clearly the full McCain, who released the most. But he's 71 and a cancer survivor and people were raising an awful lot of questions about it. They weren't raising a lot questions about the health of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

BLITZER: Well, Donald Trump's 70 and Hillary Clinton's 68.

BORGER: Yes.

BLITZER: Next month she'll be 69 years old. Roughly the same age that John McCain was and roughly the same age that - that, you know, that I guess if you go back in the history, there were other presidents - Ronald Reagan -

BORGER: Ronald Reagan, right.

BLITZER: Was almost 70 years old himself. So there are examples. And they both seem to be, based on the letters that we received so far, in pretty good shape, but we'll go forward and see where we - what else we learn.

Coming up, much more on Donald Trump and his outlined economic plan. Our political panel is standing by to weigh in on that and all the day's political news. We'll be right back.

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[13:26:37] BLITZER: Donald Trump outlined his economic plan just a little while ago. We saw it live here on CNN. Our panel is still with us. But I'm also joined by Marc Goldwein with the Committee for Responsible Budget.

Marc, thanks very much for joining us.

MARC GOLDWEIN, COMMITTEE FOR A RESPONSIBLE FEDERAL BUDGET: Thanks for having me, Wolf. BLITZER: All right, so he made many bold statements in his economic speech before the New York Economic Club. What was your initial reaction when you went through the numbers and his plan?

GOLDWEIN: Well, this is certainly improvement from Donald Trump's previous tax plan. His last plan cost $9 trillion. This one only cost about $4 trillion. But there's still a lot of pie in the sky here, still a lot of promises of economic growth that we can't possibly get, and still a reliance on just one-third of the budget to come up with all of the budget savings.

BLITZER: Why is it unrealistic to have 3.5 percent growth? That's what we had during parts of the Clinton administration. When he says at least 3.5 over the next ten years, why is that unrealistic?

GOLDWEIN: Yes, we did have 3.5 percent sustained growth in the '90s during our tech boom, but we also had great demographics then. That's when the baby boomers were at their prime working years. Now the baby boomers are retired. And that itself is a point off of growth. Add the fact that we're not in a tech boom, that's another half a point. That brings us down to what we think growth will be, which is 2 percent.

BLITZER: Well, 2 percent is better than 1 percent or 1.5 percent. When he says he can create all these jobs if he reduces taxes that will unleash industry, for example, does he have a point?

GOLDWEIN: He has a kernel of a point. Certainly tax reform can help promote growth. Certainly regulatory reform can help to promote growth. But we're talking about decimal points, not percentage points.

BLITZER: And when he says the U.S. has got to be much tougher with Mexico on trade, much tougher with China on trade, got to throw away NAFTA, for example, unless it's totally revised, forget about TPP, the whole trade issue, your reaction to that?

GOLDWEIN: Well, this could go either way. But if you ask most economists, repealing NAFTA and canceling TPP or not going forward would actually slow economic growth a little bit. It might improve distribution -

BLITZER: Why would it do that? Tell us why. Why would that slow economic growth?

GOLDWEIN: Well, the basic idea here is that trade makes both countries better otherwise they wouldn't do it. So when we throw up tariffs that inhabit trade, that's going to slow growth a little bit. Again, it might be good for the distribution of income, but not good necessarily for overall economic growth.

BLITZER: And what would it do for consumers who want to buy a lot of products, obviously, for the cheapest possible price?

GOLDWEIN: Well, typically, prices would go up. Of course not all prices. But part of the advantage of trade with Mexico and with China and with Japan is that we get lower prices at Walmart and actually on many of our goods. BLITZER: If it's made in China, for example, or Mexico, it would be

cheaper than if it were made in the United States. So it hurts the workers who are working at those plants if those jobs are exported, if you will. On the other hand, it helps consumers because they can get the products cheaper. Is that what you're saying?

GOLDWEIN: That's exactly right. It's not that trade is all good. There are winners and there are losers. But on net, most economists think that trade increases the size of the economy and lowers prices in that economy.

BLITZER: All right, Marc Goldwein, thanks very much. He's the vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget.

Gloria and our panel are still with us as well.

So you get a - you get an assessment from an expert like that on Trump's numbers, basically suggesting they're not realistic.

[13:30:57] BORGER: Right. First of all, I have to say, I've never met a pessimistic presidential candidate who gives an economic plan and says, this isn't going to provide "x" percent growth, this isn't going to be more money in your pocketbook. This isn't, you know - that's fine. So we have to take every candidate with a grain of salt that...