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Inside Iraq; President Obama in Louisiana. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 23, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

MIGUELINA PERDIGON, CON ED EMPLOYEE: It supports me where I need to be supported, and it actually reminds me to bend properly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After years of seeing people like my father go through these struggles and come out beat up at the end of the day, we just thought that, why doesn't someone do something a little bit different?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we continue on. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for being with me here.

We continue our special coverage of President Barack Obama and his response to one of the country's worst natural disasters in recent history. The president speaking just a bit ago in flood-ravaged after touring some of the devastation there, hugging some of the folks hardest hit and saying really thank you to the National Guard and those first-responders.

He spoke just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The prayers of the entire nation are with everybody who lost loved ones. We are heartbroken by the loss of life.

There are also people who are still desperately trying to track down friends and family. We're going to keep on helping them every way that we can. Sometimes, when these kinds of things happen, it can seem a little too much to bear. But what I want the people of Louisiana to know is, is that you are not alone on this.

Even after TV cameras leave, the whole country is going to continue to support you and help you until we get folks back in their homes and lives are rebuilt.

I was just speaking to a young woman whose husband died shortly after the birth of her second child. And she was talking about how her daughter was trying to gather all the keepsakes that she had in her bedroom that reminded her of her father.

And that gives you some sense that this is not just about property damage. This is about people's roots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: But his visit -- let me try that again -- but his visit may be too late for some, as one role comes to mind, optics. On the left side of your screen, the president golfing while on vacation over the weekend, on the right, the catastrophic flood devastating Louisiana at the very same time.

Meantime, Donald Trump, he hopped in a plane with his running mate, visited the area Friday. There he was. They were handing those items out of the back of that 18-wheeler all donated by Mr. Trump. That certainly deserves credit, the fact that he brought cameras and spotlights to an issue much needed here, comparing to the absence of a president to the presence of a presidential hopeful.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're glad you're not playing golf in Martha's Vineyard. That's all we can say. We're glad you're not playing golf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely means a lot, you showing up here, buddy.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Somebody is. Somebody is that shouldn't be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump told FOX News the president's visit was too late and even Louisiana's largest daily paper penned a blistering op- ed calling for the president to cut his vacation short, pleading with President Obama not to let the historic crisis go unattended.

But now he is there and the paper says it welcomes the "powerful symbolism of a presidential visit." We will speak to the editor of "The Advocate" here in just a moment.

But first let's go to Polo Sandoval with us here at CNN.

You are down there. Talk to me just a little bit about what the president, who the president visited with, what exactly he saw today.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, several individuals that he met with, Brooke, particularly there in that East Baton Rouge neighborhood.

What's interesting here is that while he did not actually travel some of the -- what many officials here on the ground consider to be the worst hit-areas, including here in Denham Springs, Louisiana, what he saw is very similar to the images that we have seen and the scenes that are playing out all throughout Southern Louisiana.

You have mothers and fathers with their children and even elderly people who are all coming together to begin that very long and painful process of gutting the inside of their homes. And over a week after those floodwaters began to rise, the devastation is still everywhere.

According to some of the reports that we're hearing on the ground, and the officials that we are speaking to, Brooke, it is going to be some time before all of this debris is cleared out. And, of course, let's not forget the fact that this is not just debris and construction material.

Inside those piles, there are memories. A little while ago, I saw an oil painting sitting on top of a pile of debris and children's pictures. That is the picture, those are the images of the residents here in Louisiana wanted the commander in chief to see. He did get to preview that before heads back to the capital later today.

BALDWIN: His message to Louisiana -- and I quote -- "You are not alone."

Polo Sandoval, thank you in Baton Rouge.

Let me bring in Peter Kovacs, editor of "The Advocate."

Peter, thank you so much for coming on today. And we will get to your op-ed and we will get to the president's visit in just a month.

[15:05:07]

But, first, I just want to get to Louisiana and I want to throw up some pictures of you and your fellow journalists from the paper literally ripping down flood-damaged walls and removing debris. Here you go from victims' homes.

You have been a huge part of this ground effort, the army of just regular folks trying to help out. Can you just -- what has that been like?

PETER KOVACS, EDITOR, "THE ADVOCATE": Well, it's messy work and it's hot.

I would say at "The Advocate," someone between a fifth and a sixth of our people endured flooding, and we formed groups and we went out and tried to help them gut their houses, those who didn't have family members to do that. And that was what occurred over the weekend. That's what I would guess the pictures you showed are of.

BALDWIN: We have them from Kathy Anderson (ph). And so just this affected everyone, including journalists trying to cover the story.

To your opinion piece in the paper, you write, in part, "Where are you, Mr. President?"

What was your response to the president's arrival today?

KOVACS: You know, we're glad to see the president. We're glad to see him here. We were glad to see Donald Trump.

We feel like the thing about this crisis that's hard to understand is that you can look at the pictures and you can't appreciate the magnitude of it. Today, they increased the number of homes that they believed were impacted to somewhere around 140,000.

BALDWIN: Wow.

KOVACS: And that's more households than there are in all of Newark, New Jersey. And I don't think that any one public official can appreciate that unless they see it.

So we would love to have the leaders Congress come down. We would love to have Hillary Clinton.

BALDWIN: Yes, Hillary Clinton essentially saying she will when it is not a political disruption. But we will get more to the politics.

But in part of your piece, you wrote about LBJ and you wrote about his shining that flashlight in New Orleans in 1965.

KOVACS: Well, that's the kind of presidential leadership I feel like we need. And it is good to see the president here with that kind of spontaneous compassion that Lyndon Johnson showed when he went to relieve -- when he went to the shelter after Hurricane Betsy and appeared in New Orleans, I think the next day or the day after the next day, and showed up in a shelter unplanned.

BALDWIN: How do you, though, as the editor of "The Advocate," you understand, first of all, first and foremost, the story itself and the flooding, and again, to repeat you, 140,000 households. Then you have the politics of this. In any given year, you would have the politics of it. And the president even today saying, this is not a photo-op issue. Mr. Trump was there last week and donated a lot of items to folks who need it.

Then you have we are in the throes of this presidential election. How do you measure all of that as someone who is there in the middle of it?

KOVACS: Well, the good thing about Katrina -- and I covered Katrina and survived Katrina -- was that ultimately you had a national consensus on the importance of repairing New Orleans and you achieved that national consensus by getting people to look at it.

There wasn't a lot of stuff that there was a national consensus about in the second half of the last decade. But repairing New Orleans was one of those things. And New Orleans and Louisiana benefited from that. And we need that consensus here for this crisis, which is really the biggest natural disaster of the second Obama term, the biggest natural disaster since Sandy.

And people look at it and say, well, someplace -- every month, someplace floods. But the difference between this and that is the number of households impacted and the footprint of the flooding.

BALDWIN: Final question. We showed the pictures of Mr. Trump and Mike Pence, his running mate, a couple of days ago on the ground, talking to folks, giving out those items out of the back of that 18- wheeler. How much credit do you give to him for doing that out of the goodness of his own heart vs. always little bit of politics at play? KOVACS: You know, I think we're -- the people who are victims of this

flood are really not interested in the politics and not interested in who showed up who and who showed up first.

The question is that what we need is a lasting commitment. And that embodies two things. One is that people who were flooded who don't have flood insurance are going to need help, as they did in Katrina. They didn't have flood insurance because they were not rated by the federal government as living in a flood zone and it wasn't required of them, so it wouldn't have occurred to them to get it.

And the second thing is, as with Katrina, this area is going to need better flood protection, better drainage of these rivers, because another thing that was a difficulty in Katrina was that until there is confidence that the area is safe, you're not going to get businesses to come here, and, more complicated, you're not going to get insurers to insure businesses or charge reasonable rates.

[15:10:15]

And that was a challenge in New Orleans for years after Katrina and was finally resolved by the Corps of Engineers putting their best people on it and investing $14 billion in a flood control structure that's almost finished. But it is still going on.

BALDWIN: Yes. That is part of the gut-wrenching piece of the story, that so many people just don't have that insurance. Peter Kovacs with the perspective as the editor at "The Advocate," thank you so much, Peter, for joining me today.

And now let's just cue on all of this. We have now Wendy Davis, a former Democratic state senator from Texas supporting Hillary Clinton, Boris Epshteyn, a senior adviser to the Donald Trump campaign. And Juana Summers is an editor for CNN Politics.

So great to have all of you on today.

Wendy Davis, if I may, I would love to just begin with you. You just heard Peter saying at the end of the day, it is not about politics, it is about getting this region help. But on Louisiana, you know politics. You also understand optics. How do you think the president's visit was handled?

WENDY DAVIS (D), FORMER TEXAS STATE SENATOR: I think it is important that he went. A lot of folks obviously believe he should have gone sooner.

But the real proof for the people in Louisiana will come from what the federal government does to help them in the situation that they currently find themselves in. And I feel confident that President Obama and his administration is going to step up and do right by that community and make sure that they provide the relief that's needed there.

BALDWIN: The homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, was on the ground last week. Craig Fugate, FEMA, he's been there from the get, and even the governor of state, Boris, has said to the president, please, our resources are so thin, wait a week before you come.

We know that Donald Trump tweeted: "President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago instead of golfing. Too little, too late."

The president today, I jotted down this one, line saying this is not a photo-op issue.

How would you respond to that, Boris?

BORIS EPSHTEYN, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Listen, Barack Obama close to do what he close to do, which is play golf with Larry David while coffins were flowing down the streets of Louisiana, of Baton Rouge.

And Donald Trump, whereas they are helping the folks there. And as you just heard from Mr. Kovacs in Louisiana, the folks of Louisiana, the people of Louisiana who were suffering so terribly wanted their president, wanted their leader there. That's one.

Two, where is Hillary Clinton? Donald Trump has gone. Now President Obama's gone. Hillary Clinton hasn't gone. She's running to be the leader of this country. And it is obvious that she just -- she just can't do it. Right? She's just not up to the job. She can't take the time out of her not-so-busy schedule -- she takes a lot of days off -- to go to Louisiana to be with the people of Louisiana who are suffering so badly, that's an absolutely horrible mistake by her not to go.

Donald Trump was the first to go. He is the real leader of this country.

BALDWIN: OK. I know Hillary Clinton has said she will get there when it is not a political disruption.

But let's talk about the Clinton Foundation and e-mails.

And, Juana, just to you, as a reporter on this, 14,000 are to be released in October. The content of what we have seen thus far, you have these high-profile Clinton donors essentially seeking access to Hillary Clinton as she was secretary of state. Can you run through a example or two of what we have found and in these cases how much was access granted vs. denied?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN APPS EDITOR: Sure.

What we're seeing from these e-mails largely is they are focusing on a top aide to Hillary Clinton, who's been with her throughout her political career, Huma Abedin, and in these e-mails, she will be getting requests, say, from folks connected with Bahrain and they will get a get a request for something about a donor's wishes.

And then most of the times in these responses that we are seeing, she will divert the response to kind of more official channels. From what we have up until this point -- and there is still a lot we don't know. And I really want to stress that. We are not seeing that there's actual evidence of wrongdoing. That's

kind of the point the Clinton campaign has made in their responses. They have kind of said that there hasn't been any wrongdoing, that there actually is no evidence of that, other than these requests simply being referred to the appropriate channels.

The big issue here politically is, though, if you look at Hillary Clinton's polling, a lot of voters say they don't view her as honest and trustworthy. Whether or not anything was actually improper here, the fact that you have these continued investigations into the e- mails, these new instances popping up continues to be a drag on that number, and it's something that is troubling both for her, as well as for Donald Trump, I should note.

BALDWIN: That's my question, Wendy, then to you. If this is the October surprise, and let's say there is, as Juana is saying, no wrongdoing, but perhaps some examples of access and not favors, I'm not sure if voters understand the difference, and therefore won't vote for her.

DAVIS: I think it will be Hillary Clinton's responsibility and the campaign's responsibility to make sure that voters do understand the difference, that they see the incredible work that this organization has done, and that make it very clear that there is no evidence that there was any trading of deals based on people who contributed to the foundation.

[15:15:15]

I think Donald Trump, though, is going to have his own questions that will need to be answered about his business dealings. And there, I think the answers are going to be far less clear. We still haven't seen anything from his taxes. We certainly don't know whether he's ever done anything charitable based on his tax returns because we haven't had an opportunity to see them.

And I think he's going to be under some increased pressure to be answering about his own business dealings, not only here in the United States, but abroad.

BALDWIN: I was going to bring it up in just a couple of minutes. But you went there, so let's also -- Boris, to Wendy's point, then you now also have this longtime friend, adviser, Roger Stone, who's jumping in and saying to Mr. Trump, release your tax returns.

EPSHTEYN: I'm sorry, Brooke, I'm not going to allow that pivot right now.

So, let's go back to what you actually originally asked about, which is the Clinton...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I know you want to jump in on the e-mails. But go with me for a second. Let me ask you about the tax returns, Boris. Then I promise you can get back in on the e-mails. But, on the tax returns, Roger Stone now is joining this chorus.

EPSHTEYN: Roger Stone is not part of this campaign. Roger Stone is not part of this campaign. He's not an adviser to Mr. Trump. Roger Stone is somebody who is a private individual and that's his point. Donald Trump has released 104 pages of his financial disclosures.

He's also never lied to Congress, which is what Hillary Clinton did when she said that she released all her work related e-mail. The AP just put out a story that over half of the private individuals who met with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state were donors either to her or her foundation, the Clinton Foundation. That is pay- to-play.

Also, over 16 governments donated money. They donated $170 million. Representatives of 16 different foreign countries donated over $170 million to the Clinton Foundation while she was secretary of state. That's just the people she met with. The numbers are absolutely staggering and the amount of money that flowed into the Clinton Foundation and the people that she met with. There was an absolute overlay so.

There was absolute pay-to-play, fraudulent activity. And again let's not forget that the fact that these 15,000 e-mails are out is in itself proof that Hillary Clinton lied to Congress, lied when she said that she turned over all her work related e-mails. She did not, just like she lied when she said that when she became secretary of state that her foundation would not -- taken foreign money.

The foundation continued taking foreign money. Now they're saying that maybe it will stop when she is elected? We all know that's not the case, because the foundation said...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: They said it will stop. Bill Clinton himself has said that it won't -- stop.

And I understand. And Republicans like Reince Priebus and I'm sure you as well have said, well, hang on a second, if it was up to snuff when she was secretary of state, why wouldn't it be when she's president? I understand that concern.

But when it comes to some of these donations, I think that's sort of the key question. We were talking a little bit about the crown prince of Bahrain, is one of the examples in the e-mails, but the real question is if access was granted, that was one thing, but if favors were granted, that's another. That hasn't, at least from what I have seen, hasn't been proven, but that's still a piece of it that's hanging out there, and again this happening weeks before Election Day.

Let me ask you all to stick around, because coming up, we will talk more obviously politics. We will turn more to Donald Trump specifically, his decision or the campaign's decision to postpone his big immigration speech. It was slated for Thursday. We will talk about his new outreach to African-American and to Hispanic voters and also what we know about Donald Trump's health. We will talk to Dr. Sanjay Gupta about that.

And we will also have CNN taking you to the front lines, a rare look inside the fight from Mosul, a key Iraqi city currently in ISIS hands. Arwa Damon getting rare access here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:49]

BALDWIN: More on politics and specifically on Donald Trump. CNN has learned that a big immigration speech from Mr. Trump scheduled for this Thursday has been postponed. Would have been on heels of the roundtable over weekend of Hispanic supporters.

A campaign source says it is still being fine-tuned. But with a federal judge ordering the release of thousands of documents between Hillary Clinton and top aides when she was secretary of state, could the Trump campaign instead be seizing upon her bad fortune to keep her private server in the limelight?

My panel is back, Wendy Davis, Boris Epshteyn, Juana Summers.

Boris, let me just start with you on this immigration speech. Why isn't it happening Thursday? Or when will it happen?

EPSHTEYN: It will happen over the next few weeks. And the campaign is working to put out specifics, put out details of the immigration plan.

The key there will be to make sure that all illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this country are deported as soon as Mr. Trump becomes president. And then we handle of the illegal immigrants according to the current laws, according to the Constitution, and humanely, as he's always said.

Of course, there is also consideration into making sure we are focusing what Americans care about right now, which is the fact that the Democratic nominee should be prosecuted by a special prosecutor because then she cannot be prosecuted by the president or the attorney general because the president has endorsed her. Loretta Lynch is obviously in the bag for the Clintons.

BALDWIN: That's right what we hear from Mr. Trump. You're sorting answering my next question, which is part of the strategy. Hillary Clinton is being criticized because of this drip, drip, drip of the e- mails and with the foundation.

You are telling me that's part of the reason why you all are holding off on the speech?

EPSHTEYN: No. This isn't about process, Brooke. Right.

It is not about tactics. It's about issues. And the issue is right now that Hillary Clinton is someone who broke the law while she was secretary of state. Her boss, President Obama, has endorsed her for the president. Loretta Lynch, the attorney general, has been promised to keep that job if Hillary Clinton is elected.

Obviously, neither of them can be impartial. The only way to prosecute this case is for a special prosecutor to be appointed as soon as possible before the election.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You didn't answer my question. Is part of the reason why you are all holding off on the speech is to have the media focus on Hillary Clinton and all the points you just made?

[15:25:08]

EPSHTEYN: Brooke, not necessarily.

The decision about the speech was made completely separately from the fact that we need to focus on what's key to the voters.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Let me ask Wendy Davis.

Wendy Davis, do you believe him?

DAVIS: No, not at all.

And, Brooke, this whole thing about Hillary Clinton and her e-mails is clearly a deflection by the Trump campaign from the issues at hand and the pressure that he's feeling and his failed candidacy here.

(LAUGHTER)

EPSHTEYN: OK.

DAVIS: He is pivoting from his position, or trying to pivot from his position on immigration because he is getting pressure to do that from a Republican Party that understands that he is sinking the Republican Party along with him because of his hostility to the immigrant community and...

(CROSSTALK)

EPSHTEYN: Well, Wendy has no answer on e-mails or the foundation.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: It's interesting that he's in Texas today, where he will be in Austin holding a conversation about immigration, rather than going to the border.

He's made only one trip there. He cut it very, very short while he was there. And he will be talking about something far removed from the people who are actually going to be impacted by the policies of a Trump presidency.

(CROSSTALK) EPSHTEYN: Whereas Hillary Clinton doesn't campaign at all. She is not on the trail barely, if at all.

She takes three days off at a time. Donald Trump is keeping a very rigorous schedule. And he's meeting with folks all over this country. Just this week, he is in Texas. Then he is in Florida. Then he is in Nevada, while Hillary Clinton is probably taking a bunch of naps.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: Oh, come on. Come on. That's ridiculous.

BALDWIN: Let's talk about Donald Trump in Akron, Ohio, last night.

Again, the outreach to African-Americans and Hispanics, and again using the line, what do you have to lose? But he added this. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is a disaster the way African-Americans are living in many cases, and in many cases the way Hispanics are living.

And I say it with such a deep-felt feeling. What do you have to lose? I will straighten it out. I will bring jobs back.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We will bring spirit back. We will get rid of the crime. You will be able to walk down the street without getting shot. Right now, you walk down the street, you get shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So with those last lines, Juana, let me just come to you as my neutral CNN reporter here, how are those lines specifically playing today among African-American or Hispanic voters?

SUMMERS: I think you have to listen to what he said and look at it with the polling reality.

Hispanic voters and African-American voters are for the most part in national elections reliably Democratic voting blocs. Despite this outreach that Donald Trump is making, the odds of him winning either of those groups despite his assertion that he might win 95 percent of the African-American vote is just pretty unlikely if you look at recent polling history.

That said, I think what was really interesting that you heard him say is when he talks about horrible conditions in these communities of color. He talks about poverty, talks about joblessness. He talks about getting shot in the streets. I was hearing another black commentator saying, that's not the only issues that black people and Latinos and communities of color care about in this country. Again, these are speeches that time and time again Donald Trump is

giving in places that aren't exactly home to a lot of black voters or a lot of Hispanic voters. So I think there is a concern amongst some Republicans even that he needs to actually go out and talk to these communities, rather than having these discussions in largely white parts of this country.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Boris, does he have any stops in the future at like a historically black college or at a black church?

EPSHTEYN: Listen, it's not about photo-ops or location. Akron, Ohio, is actually a very diverse community.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But it was a majority white crowd, Boris. Be fair with me. It was a majority white crowd there. It was a majority white crowd in Wisconsin. It was a majority white crowd elsewhere.

And when you have -- I have talked to African-Americans on this show who say, reach out to me, but you have to kind of come to me. Come to my church. Come to my community.

And he hasn't done that yet.

EPSHTEYN: Brooke, he is reaching out to people. Everyone is watching the speeches all over the country. They're on televisions on every network, including this one.

And we're talking about it now, because his speech was absolutely heard by people in all communities and it is about people in all communities. There's 26 percent poverty among African-Americans in this country. That's an astounding number. The unemployment...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Wendy, why are you smiling?

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: Because Donald Trump talking to people on television -- people -- talking to people on television...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: ... it will do absolutely nothing to help them. And, in fact, Hillary Clinton has a real plan to put people back to work, to provide funding for education, to make sure that our minimum wages are lifted in this country...

EPSHTEYN: Hillary Clinton has been in politics for 30 years. What has she done?

DAVIS: ... and to provide investment in infrastructure that are going to put people to work in communities across this country.

And Hillary Clinton has spent decades of her public career working --