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Details of Trump's Taxes; Hotel Workers Face Hardship; Trump's Re-election Threat. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 28, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00]

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Self was designed to minimize the amount of tax paid like many real estate families have such steams (ph).

But what Trump had done, he said, is something else again, that he had used that structure as a means of promoting his own dishonesty. And one of the reasons that this person was no longer in the Trump Organization was because he had exceeded all normal behavior.

And that's what we have seen from Donald Trump in every aspect of his presidency. There are no norms. There is no law. He is a rogue, lawless president. And the great danger, and this also helps explain again his relationships with oligarchs, his relationships with foreign leaders, especially in countries where he has done business, Turkey, Azerbaijan, others. And we now have a national emergency again, not just in Covid, where he has neglected the people of the United States and their health, criminal negligence of their health, but we now have a national emergency where the president of the United States is seen to do personal business at the expense of the American people and his policies are related to his fatal inability to keep this financial ship afloat.

He is underwater. And an underwater president cannot govern, except from under water and trying to get to the surface.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's just --

BERNSTEIN: And that's what he and his presidency have been about.

BERMAN: "The Times" points out his lenders could be placed in the unprecedented position of weighing whether to foreclose on a sitting president. These are the lenders to whom he owes $421 million.

And, David Cay Johnston, just to you, because I think you have a better understanding, I think, of some of the accounting specifics of this than many of us. One of the allegation here is that he has involved his children in a scheme to increase the level of deductions, maybe beyond legality. Mr. Trump reported receiving payments from a consulting company -- Ms. Trump, he's talking about Ivanka Trump, Ms. Trump reported receiving payments from a consulting company she co- owned totaling more than $700,000. That exactly matched consulting fees claimed as tax deductions by the Trump Organization for hotel projects in Vancouver and Hawaii.

In other words, Donald Trump was writing off as consultant payments to Ivanka Trump, when Ivanka Trump was actually working for the Trump Organization. It's almost double dipping in a way in tax write-offs here. That's just one example.

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, that's exactly what that is. This is what's called in the law disguised gift. And once Donald Trump used up his free gifts, we all get $11 million of those, then he has to pay gift tax. And this appears to be a scheme to turn what should be a tax bill of several hundred thousand dollars into a tax deduction worth several hundred thousand dollars. And this is something Donald has done in the past. It's been well documented. And Donald has forged the documents in the past. He's a forger that's been proven in court. And I think this explains why the Manhattan prosecutors are so eager to get at the papers. They know what his tax situation is. What they don't have is the documentation of the instructions to the accountants and whether, as Donald has done in the past, he said, no, that's too much money, find a way to make it less, and insisting they fabricate things.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Carl, as you point out, all of this affects every American because it affects his choices in office. It affects the policies. Even so much as affecting, I think you could make the argument, about what he's done with coronavirus.

He had to downplay it in order to keep some of his businesses, the hotel industry, the leisure industry, the travel industry, airline, golf clubs, to keep them afloat because it turns out, in all these tax documents, he's made horrible business decisions. He's suffered tremendous losses from lousy business deals. And so he downplaying coronavirus to the American public only could help his failing businesses.

BERNSTEIN: The fundamental bottom line of Donald Trump is his own interests at the expense of the national interests. People who have been around him for years and years have made no secret that he ran for the presidency, expecting to lose, but hoping to build his business and bring it from being underwater. And what has happened is that all his decisions have to be looked at in relationship to these tax returns.

We now have a new template over which we have to, especially as reporters, but also as voters and ordinary citizens, we have to take that template and put it over every decision that we see Donald Trump has made in the presidency.

[08:35:09]

And what "The New York Times" reporting suggests in that lengthy story is that so many, if not all of his decisions are colored by his financial ruin and the reality of that, and his family, and bailing out once again that term, this grifter and his grifter family. And that is the significance of this. And what we now have is the real road map to Donald Trump's presidency, which is including and especially about his and his family's self-enrichment. Now we know. CAMEROTA: Carl Bernstein and David Cay Johnston, thank you for all of

your reporting over the years on all of this and sharing it with us.

BERMAN: Yes, a whole lot of journalism right there.

CAMEROTA: There is. Packed into there.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: You don't have a graphic for that.

BERMAN: I know.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, both, gentlemen.

JOHNSTON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, football legend Joe Montana and his wife stopping a would-be kidnaper from taking their grandchild. Wait until you hear about this incredible story.

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[08:40:10]

CAMEROTA: The pandemic has paralyzed travel and left hotel workers devastated. In Philadelphia, where occupancy now hovers around just 30 percent, one furloughed, single mother says her only goal is to keep a roof over her kids' heads.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now with more.

Good morning, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Nearly half of all U.S. hotel worker are still out of a job six months after this pandemic started and this is happening just as U.S. hotels are warning of more layoffs if they don't get more federal aid.

So we traveled to Philadelphia to speak to two single moms who are also hotel workers in a city where nearly 70 percent of all hotel workers there are people of color.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAT PAYNE, FURLOUGHED HOTEL WORKER: I'm at the top of the roller coaster with no harness and they're telling me keep the ride going.

YURKEVICH (voice over): There's no hiding Kat Payne's reality. Mornings are very different with her daughter Kapati (ph) and son Atrayu (ph).

PAYNE: So, you know, we always go over our finances and stuff in the morning. We're going into our fourth month of not paying our mortgage.

YURKEVICH: Payne, a veteran housekeeper at the Marriott Downtown Philadelphia has been furloughed since March.

PAYNE: We are extending your layoff --

YURKEVICH: She's out of work at not one but two jobs. Her part-time job as a bartender is also on hold. As a single parent, unemployment is not enough to cover her bills. She's nearly drained her retirement account.

PAYNE: This isn't just a death sentence economically. This is a death sentence physically because if one of us gets the coronavirus, either one of us can die. And as the breadwinner, I'm nervous.

YURKEVICH: Hotel occupancy is nearly 50 percent nationwide. In Philadelphia, it's only 27 percent. Last April, Philadelphia County had 77,000 hospitality jobs. More than half were lost during the pandemic. And recovery is slow.

MICHAEL ROBERTS, GENERAL MANAGER, POD HOTEL AND WINDSOR SUITES: It's just a bleak scenario.

YURKEVICH: Michael Roberts is the general manager at Pod Hotel, temporarily closed, and Windsor Suites, which furloughed half its staff.

ROBERTS: I have had to have those conversations. And those are the things that stick with you.

YURKEVICH: In Philadelphia, the slow winter months at hotels are kept afloat by conventions. This year, all are canceled. Seventy-four percent of U.S. hotels say more layoffs are coming if they don't get additional federal aid.

YURKEVICH (on camera): Is there an opportunity for you to return to work?

LISA PALMER, FURLOUGHED HOTEL WORKER: I absolutely have no idea. And I wish that I did.

YURKEVICH: (voice over): Lisa Palmer's hotel is shuttered indefinitely. She fed hotel guests as a cook for five years as a single mom, working long hours to provide for her five-year-old daughter. She was just months away from getting her pension when she got furloughed.

PALMER: That got ripped from me. And I have no idea of if I'll be able to get that time back to be able to secure my pension.

YURKEVICH: More than 70 percent of hotel workers in Philadelphia are people of color. Nationally, black unemployment is nearly twice as high as white workers.

PALMER: The government throwing in there that unemployment or assistance is keeping people from going out or going back to work or getting a job, how about there are no jobs. How about every job in my field is shut down or restricted.

PAYNE: We're going to have to rough it. That's where we at right now.

YURKEVICH: The Paynes have roughed it once before when the family has homeless for two years. A roof over their heads means everything.

PAYNE: My biggest worry right now is securing home, securing shelter. And if we have to be cold or no water, I can deal with that. I've been through that. But we need a house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: Now, this is a situation where both the hotel workers and the hotels are looking to the federal government for some assistance. Hotels are looking to keep the employees they have and looking for loans in order to help bring more employees back. And those hotel workers, those women who you heard from, they're not getting by on unemployment. They're looking for additional unemployment assistance and stimulus checks.

But, John, as we know, these talks over the next round of federal funding have been stalled. Not a lot of progress has been made. And it is coming especially at a time when the economic recovery has also stalled.

John.

BERMAN: Look, this is going to take action from Washington. It's going to take creativity. And right now, as we sit here this morning, there is neither.

Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for shining a light on this. Really appreciate it.

So we're learning this morning of a bizarre and frightening incident at the home of football legend Joe Montana. Montana and his wife confronted a home intruder who police say was trying to kidnap their grandchild. Authorities say the woman entered Montana's Malibu home and removed the nine-month-old from a playpen.

[08:45:04]

Police say there was a tussle and Montana's wife was able to pry the child from the suspect's arms. The would-be kidnaper then fled and was later arrested and charged with kidnapping and burglary.

Montana tweeted on Sunday, thank you to everyone who has reached out. Scary situation, but thankful that everybody is doing well.

CAMEROTA: OK, that's terrifying.

BERMAN: It is.

CAMEROTA: Thank God for Mrs. Montana and her instincts. BERMAN: Yes. No, no, it just -- you know, anyone who watches kids, it makes you think, right? I mean you leave them for one second, you just want to make sure they're safe. So, good on them.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

BERMAN: All right, I do not believe we have had as serious a threat during our lives. That's a new warning on President Trump and election integrity, coming from the most unlikely of sources, the judge who presided over much of the 2000 presidential recount. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00]

CAMEROTA: The former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, who presided over the historic 2000 Gore versus Bush battle, is calling out President Trump as a danger to democracy. In an e-mail to friends, he writes, quote, I am compelled to believe that our country, and thus our children and grandchildren, face a grave threat to keeping the kind of representative democracy that we have experienced in our life. I do not believe that we have had as serious a threat during our lives.

Charles T. Wells joins me now.

Chief Justice Wells, great to have you here.

CHARLES T. WELLS, FORMER FLORIDA SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate this opportunity to -- to speak because my -- my concern is that the president, Donald Trump, has cast doubt recently on the elections, and whether he claims that the elections will be rigged or there's some kind of fraud in mail-in voting, and that's just not substantiated by fact and there is --

CAMEROTA: Well, that's really helpful. I mean, and you would know. I mean this is -- again, you were at the crux, at the helm, of the most recent contested battle that we all remember. And so it's so important in particular to hear from you, that -- that you just didn't see any evidence in your years for this level of fraud that's talking about.

WELLS: That -- that is precisely correct. We have not had any evidence of fraud. We did not have it in 2000. I made that point in my opinion in -- in the case. We have not had to -- I have been voting in Florida since 1960 in presidential elections, and served on the Florida Supreme Court for almost 15 years. We did not have fraud claimed in our presidential elections. So --

CAMEROTA: And yet, I mean because President Trump is already doing this, he's already setting the stage for this, he's already making these claims, a lot of historians and pundits who have come on our program have said that they see this going the same way, I mean being even more epic battle in some ways than -- than 2000 and going up through the court system. Is that the direction that you see this heading? WELLS: Well, I am concerned that that is the direction that it is

attempted to be taken, but that does not necessarily have to be because what -- the -- the thing that also bothers me is statements that there's not going to be, if President Trump loses the election, a peaceful transfer of power. Our Constitution is -- is a grant of power from the citizens of this country to leaders that are temporarily in their positions of leadership. And they have -- everyone has to commit to the idea that it is a temporary grant of power from citizens and that that -- and the Constitution provides that the term of the president, under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, terminates at noon on January the 20th. And we have got to have an election that everyone will cast their vote and vote -- voting is essential to our democracy.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

WELLS: And so we are depending upon people voting and those votes being counted expeditiously.

CAMEROTA: But in this e-mail that you sent to friends, you do have -- I mean many concerning passages -- and I just want to read one because, again, you're the expert in this, you say, from my work in Bush v. Gore, I learned a great deal about the laws that control the election of a president. A fundamental lesson that I learned is that the law in respect to contested elections is very confusing, outdated, and fragile.

Uh-oh, that sounds like a warning.

WELLS: Yes, that is -- that is correct, because if the count is not made on an expeditious basis after the election, and it needs to be completed in any contest and states need to be completed by December the 8th. In 2000 it was December the 12th, because there is a provision in the federal election law as to the Electoral College that says that all contests within a state are final if they are concluded six days prior to the meeting in the Electoral College. And that means they have to be completed this year by December the 8th.

CAMEROTA: Right.

WELLS: It can (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: I mean, and so do -- so, Chief Justice, do you see an epic battle unfolding? Is that what you also predict we're -- we're about to encounter?

[08:55:01]

WELLS: Well, I predict that everyone has got to make this work and that county election supervisors and states are in the pivotal position of making it work. And that's the obligation. That's the message that I really want to send is that -- and -- and any casting doubt on this process is detrimental to that.

Now, if you don't make that -- if you continue to have contests, then you go into a provision of the federal law that was adopted in 1887. And it has never been litigated.

Now, we need to -- there will not be a problem if the Democrats, if -- when the Senate, when -- and Biden wins the presidency, the problem will result if there is continued to be a divide between the House and the Senate.

CAMEROTA: Right. Yes. And that is a big concern of what we are looking at in the next few weeks.

Chief Justice Charles Wells, thank you for posing all of this and lending us your expertise. Everyone should read the email that you wrote to your close friend about your grave concerns.

Thank you very much.

WELLS: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: And CNN's coverage continues right after this.

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