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The Donald Trump Interview; Trump On Being Consoler-In-Chief During A Crisis; Trump Trending Up In New National Poll. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 27, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:03] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): This was a very sick man and it's just too bad that we can't figure these things out beforehand. I mean, everybody sees the signals, but nobody thinks a thing like this could happen. It's all over the place.

They see people and they think they are disturbed, but what are you going to do, put them in jail for the rest of their life? Put him in jail for the rest of his life because he looks a little bit off? And he turned out to be very off.

There was tremendous hatred and animosity. I guess there were lawsuits and litigation on all sorts of things with him and he just blew up. He knew he was going to blow up, too, based on his -- based on his memos and notes.

He was saying that he's going to blow up. Unfortunately, nobody saw that. And even if they did, what would you do? You would say, oh, he's going to blow up. You probably hear that all the time but in this case it happened. Too bad we can't figure it out beforehand but it's a pretty tough thing to do.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That's where you come in and others like you who want to be president. The questions are familiar as to why the issues wind up getting us stuck? What do you do about mental illness? What do we do about guns? What are your positions?

TRUMP: Well, mental illness is just a massive problem. As you know, because of the cutbacks, and you can see it in New York State, you know very well in New York State and so many other places, they have released a lot of the people that are pretty ill that really should be hospitalized because they don't have the money to take care of them.

And so they walk the streets and they are on the streets and sometimes they are in the workplace and you know, in the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was definitely borderline and would have been and should have been institutionalized at some point somebody should have seen that.

I wish people closest to him would have seen it, but so many people are being released now because they don't have any money. So they are walking the streets. And of all our cities and all of our places, it's becoming a very dangerous situation. And it's another problem. It's one of many problems our country has, as you know covering this every day, Chris, but it's one of the problems that we have.

CUOMO: Solutions winds up becoming the call from people who are so sick and tired of what they see. Do you think it is time to do something else about guns? Nobody likes to talk about it. People say that this is inappropriate time and for those who experience it say it is the most appropriate time. Would you do something different with gun policy?

TRUMP: Well, I don't think I would because this is really a sick person. This isn't a gun problem. This is a mental problem and you know, you have cases where we have had guys shot recently, had they had weapons, they might have been able to save themselves. They would have been able to. They were all heroes and tremendous military men and they had absolutely no defense.

And frankly, you know, a case like this, he snuck up on them, whether it was a gun or a knife or whatever it would have been, it would have been something. But you're not going to get rid of all guns. So I know one thing, if you try to do it, the bad guys would have them.

You would abide by the law and it would be a hopeless situation for them. And I'm a very much second amendment person, Chris, and I know the arguments both ways very well, but I'm very much into the second amendment. You need protection.

Now, you also have entertainment and you have all sorts of activities and all of that, but taking that out of the picture, most -- guns are used for recreational purposes, like people play golf and like people play other things, and hunting.

But beyond that, in terms of safety, if you're sitting there in the cabin some place and somebody walks in with a gun, I tell you what, I would rather be in the place with the gun and not the gun, I can tell you that. It's a very complex situation. I'm a strong second amendment person.

CUOMO: I guess what we're struggling with is what that means, you're a second amendment man and strong on that, should it be easier for people to get guns? It sounds counter intuitive to so many people, but is that what you're suggesting?

TRUMP: I think right now in theory if you go right now it is not that easy for a lot of people. A lot of people have to go through the process. I don't think you should make it hard for sane people. If you look at Chicago where they have a tremendous gun problem, they have the gangs.

Many of them are illegal immigrants to get onto another subject, but in Chicago you have a tremendous amount of shootings. In Baltimore, you have a tremendous amount of shootings.

Tough is what we need in the United States, yet people are getting killed all the time. Certain areas of Chicago are phenomenal places, but in certain areas of Chicago you have people killed all the time with guns.

[07:35:08] And they have, by far, the toughest gun laws in the country. So it's not just a question of the laws, it's really the people.

CUOMO: If you are going to deal with the people that takes us back to the issue of mental health and what we do about it, how we empower families like you were mentioning earlier, who know that they have someone in their lives with a problem and can't do anything about it.

You have Representative Tim Murphy who has a bill to address that. It's getting a hard time getting traction in Congress. Is that something that you would take on and push for change so we don't keep repeating a cycle with the same questions and no answers?

TRUMP: I do like that if it's talking about mental health because and I don't know the specific bill, but Tim is a good man. I have seen him numerous times talking about this. The mental health aspect of it, and you know, the one that really understands mental health are the families.

Because they're going to understand the mental health of a person and those are the ones. Now you know, if they are having a really, really hard time with somebody in the family, and if they think he's just about the over edge, a lot of times they are not going to report to me because they always want to bring him back.

So it's very hard for a family, but at least they are the ones that would know. I guarantee you there are a couple of people that knew this man that did the killing yesterday that probably said, wow, he's really got problems and should be institutionalized.

Because this doesn't just happen, this really doesn't just happen, every time you have one of these events, whether it's the high school or movie theaters. They go into the background of these people that do the shooting.

And people that do them and were close to them, you know, 95 percent of the time they say, now, I really can understand how that happened. He was really off the edge.

Now you know, it's a very tough thing because you could say that and you probably say that about a lot of people where nothing happens and they lead productive lives, so it's a very complex situation, a very, very sad situation.

When you look at what happened here and you look at the two people that were shot at and the third woman who I think is going to be OK based on your reports, right?

CUOMO: Yes, that's what we hear. Vicki Gardner is going to make it. She was lucky in this situation where everybody was obviously unlucky. A lot of these problems are complex and that's the demand for leadership and solutions.

That's changing how we deal with mental health, is that something you commit to taking on in a different way, in a way that points us towards a better set of laws and guidelines than we have right now. Would that be a priority for you, sir?

TRUMP: I think they should be focusing on that instead of guns. They should be talking about mental health because there are so many things to be done and really detection, you have to be able to see. And you know very well as you are in New York and look at what is happening at so many of the hospitals closing up, this is not New York but all over the country.

In some places they have not done that, but in many places they closed up the mental hospitals. And people would literally be in these hospitals and yet care in one form or another and at least the public was safe.

And now what they did is in order to save costs, they closed the mental hospitals and you have people on the streets like this gentleman that are a disaster, a disaster to the public. And as long as you have that, you're always going to have these problems.

And honestly, you're probably -- it's life, it's the world and I'm sure this has been happening for thousands of years. Sometimes you can't do anything about it.

You have seen somebody go unhinged, but I have seen plenty of people that look pretty sick, frankly, but nobody is said over the years and nothing has happened with any of those people. It's a very hard thing to determine.

CUOMO: We look forward to seeing what you come up with those proposals to make this situation better. Your opportunity to do that would be as president in its full exercise. We have polls here to suggest that you have a better shot than anybody in the GOP right now to be the nominee. What do you take from the newest polls?

TRUMP: Well, I'm honored by it. You're the first one to have told me that. I see we have gone up today to South Carolina where we have phenomenal people.

And I just left New Hampshire and Iowa. I was at the state fair and beyond. We had an amazing evening there, too, and it's been incredible what is going on.

[07:40:03] The Alabama, we had 31,000 people in Alabama on a beautiful but hot evening. The crowd was incredible and the energy. These are people that say, what are they all like and what are the people like?

Because I get the standing ovations, you have seen it. They just want to make America great again, which is our theme. I mean, that's what I want to do. I want to make America great again.

And they see these incompetent politicians. They see people that have no clue other than getting elected. All they want to care about is getting elected. They don't want to make the right decision. They just want to make a decision that's not going to hurt them in their upcoming elections. And they are really leading our country down the tubes. So I see the response I get when I go and I'm still looking forward to South Carolina today, but I see the response go to Tennessee very soon where a big auto plant was taken right out of Tennessee and moving to Mexico.

A plant that was supposed to be built in Tennessee is going to now be built in Mexico, which is outrageous. I see the response that I get, Chris, you know, I'm honored by the polls, but I'm not that surprised to see it.

I also see my competition. I see people like Jeb Bush who is a nice man, but he's not bringing you to the Promised Land. I see others and I respect everybody that's running. You know, it takes courage to run.

It really does take a lot of courage even if you're a politician it takes courage to run. But I would say that -- we will get them there.

CUOMO: You are emphasizing the positive, that's an important thing to do when campaigning and you have to deal with the potential negatives. Many of the polls show six in ten women don't believe you represent them on their issues. You have 64 percent in that poll that are not sure if you could handle a crisis.

You are also at the top of the list of who Republicans say they would not vote for Republicans. How do you take those negatives?

TRUMP: I understand that if somebody else likes another candidate, they may not like what I'm saying about that candidate and understand that. The women I'll do great with because I cherish women.

My daughter, Evanka, and my wife say to talk more about the women issues because frankly -- you know, Bush came out against funding women's health issues and I will show you that I care to women. That's going to be a very strong point.

I actually think when it comes down to even the Hispanics, I'm going to create jobs and take jobs from China and other people stealing our lunch and stealing our jobs, and stealing everything that we have.

Just taking our money and then you see on top of it, they imploded we go down with them, you know, that's always a possibility and we have to -- I'm a big free trader, but we need smart people lined up. I have the smartest people working for me. We have a lot of things planned.

One of the things we have to do is make our country rich again so we can make it great again because look, we have to rebuild the infrastructure. China has been building roads and tunnels and bridges and airports and so has everyone else that deals with us.

And we are dying but now it is like a third world airport. You go to Dubai and China, you see airports the likes of which you have never seen. CUOMO: Well, let's combine the issue of immigration and the issue of cherishing women. They seem to take the embodiment of two journalists right now, one woman you don't seem to cherish is Megyn Kelly, and you had the situation with Jorge Ramos.

When you saw them on the show together the other night, did you think why did I create these situations again? Why did I bring up the Megyn Kelly think and go after her again? Why did I go after Jorge Ramos? Why did you do those things?

TRUMP: Well, I don't go after Jorge Ramos, first of all. I was at a news conference and he stands up and starts screaming like a madman. When they show the whole clip, you will understand. He was very rude, very loud and obnoxious, and he was standing up.

And I had picked the man from CBS, a top anchor at CBS to give a question, and this guy stands up and here -- that was not a question he was asking. I did not want to recognize him because the news conference was packed as was the speech packed. It was packed. The crowd was amazing the other night.

[07:45:06] CUOMO: It was a big crowd.

TRUMP: I don't think -- I know I did the right thing. He was rude and on obnoxious. And I did take control of it, he would have literally been there for -- you wouldn't even have a news conference, and I did take control.

Unlike Bernie Sanders who've lost his microphone with two women took the microphone away from him like he was a baby. I won't let that happen. That's not what it's about. As far as Megyn Kelly, I have nothing against her. She's fine as far as I'm concerned, I don't care.

CUOMO: But you obviously do care, Mr. Trump, you go out of your way to tweet about her.

TRUMP: Chris, I think she asked me an unfair question at the debate. But the bottom line, if you look at "Time" magazine and the different people that polled in the debate, everybody said I won the debate. So maybe they weren't as bad as I thought.

But the fact is I had very, very, I think, unfair questions and other people had very easy questions. But I guess I must have done something right because everybody said I won the debate and I guess, that's maybe judging by your poll numbers. I couldn't have done too badly.

So I have nothing against -- by the time our dialogue ended with Jorge Ramos, it was actually quite pleasant, if you noticed. It got quite pleasant, which was amazing. I let him back in the room and for 5 minutes we went back and forth, but I thought it was quite pleasant.

CUOMO: You absolutely did. You did go through it. But these situations are being highlighted about how you deal with people who come at you and whether or not that's the right mode for somebody who wants to be the president and especially with Megyn Kelly because a lot of people say she was doing her job including her boss.

And it makes us wonder, would you have dealt with it the same way if that question came from Wallace or Baier? Do you think it was something personal to Megyn Kelly?

TRUMP: Well, I did the same way with Wallace. In fact I said the same thing. I said blood pouring out of his eyes --

CUOMO: You haven't called him out that way.

TRUMP: Chris, he came at me pretty hard with another question, which was -- I was very actually happy with that question because I think I cleared it up because people had it, but he came at me with a hard and nasty question and let it be known that was a nasty question.

That was a nasty question, but people don't find that as exciting when I'm attacking Chris Wallace, who I did attack somewhat as opposed to Megyn Kelly. I have nothing against Megyn Kelly. I wish her a lot of luck. I have absolutely nothing against her. I just thought that the question was unfair.

And frankly, it turned out in my advantage. Rosie O'Donnell blew the question up in her face. I just got up there, we were not warm and literally just standing through and between that and Brent's question, in my opinion, I was being highlighted.

It is not just me, even the press said that. And most of the press said that. But I'm -- look, I have other things. I have jobs in my mind, I have making our country great in my mind again. I have lots of other things on my mind.

CUOMO: That's the point, Mr. Trump, is that you have so many big issues. I understand that and that's why I draw attention to the fact that you kept that alive, because you do have a lot of important things to talk about. That's why we have you on NEW DAY.

There are a lot of big problems and look forward to your solutions. We appreciate you coming on NEW DAY to discuss it. And we look forward to it again because how we fix these problems is the only thing that matters in the election. So thank you for joining us, as always.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. Great honor, Chris, thank you.

CUOMO: All right, thank you, Mr. Trump. So we're going to be breaking down the interview we just did with Donald Trump, what do you hear in his answers that resonates with you positively, negatively or neutral? CNN's John King will do that for you coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:51:31]

CUOMO: Moments ago we spoke with Donald Trump. We talked about the tragic shooting of these two journalists in Virginia and what he would do about it and how he would struggle with the issues every time this happens, as well as the ongoing feuds that he has with journalists and what they mean to him and how he feels being atop of the polls.

So let's talk about the Donald with CNN chief national correspondent, John King. John, there is a cycle to the dialogue that Donald Trump has. He has his policy points, but the task for him is to apply what he says he wants to do to the situations and prove how.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST, "INSIDE POLITICS": It's another fascinating conversation with Mr. Trump. We have to respect his position in the polls. This new Quinnipiac poll has him at 28 percent among Republican nationally. Jeb Bush now at his low point, Trump, then Ben Carson, Republican voters are looking for something different, someone who's not a politician.

Mr. Trump support runs across the party 25 percent of Tea Party voters and 24 percent of Evangelicals, 25 percent of Republicans who describes themselves as very conservative. What was fascinating to me in that conversation, Chris, is how measured his tone was.

You asked him first about tragedy. He kept his voice low and somber. But even when you went through the issues, much less of an attack on Jeb Bush because he understands he said it himself. When he attacks the others guys so viciously, he's hurting himself with the voters he wants to get.

As he gets up to 28 percent in a 17-candidate field, that's great. He's going to need to grow. His adaptability is, to me, one of the fascinating things about Mr. Trump, including on gun control. You asked him about gun control.

He said, no, it's not about guns. In 2000, he wrote a book where he was for the assault weapons ban. He said there should probably be a longer waiting period before you could buy a gun. And he criticized both parties.

He said Democrats were too beholden to the antigun factions and Republicans were too beholden to the NRA. He's being much more of a Republican on that issue now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But John, I mean, let's ask about the question that Chris asked him, about what do you do about it? You're the president, you're the leader. People are looking for answers. What do you do about violence like we see over and over in this country?

Basically he said it's a tough problem. There is no solution. It's been around for thousands of years. That's very unTrump-like that he's saying he can't do anything.

KING: Well, it is somewhat troubling. That's an interesting point, Alisyn, and he is not saying like he says I will tell the Chinese to devalue their currency and they will do it. I will tell Mexico to pay for the wall and they will do it.

Yet on this issue, you're right. Again, he's running as a Republican. And most, especially conservative base Republican voters you talk to, they don't view this as a gun problem. They don't view gun control as the answer.

Contrast that with Hillary Clinton who was quite forceful yesterday in Iowa saying she won't stop pushing for gun control. On this issue again, he was much more of a Republican. One thing he didn't do -- he did. Chris drew him out on mental health issues. He said he was open to supporting a significantly greater government role in the mental health area.

That's a significant policy di distinction to make. This is much more a community, much more a parent, much more a community and faith based issue to deal with violence and community disorder if you will.

CUOMO: You know, we always talk about what make something makes his supporters different -- and I don't know if you two have seen this as well -- is nobody gets defended against questions the way his supporters defend him.

When he is questioned, they come at you for questioning him unlike any other candidate, almost as if they feel he doesn't have to explain himself or how he'll do things. Just his intentions are enough for them, very unusual.

Thank you very much for breaking it down for us. Obviously we are here in Roanoke because of what's been done. And while we are talking about the issues surrounding it and the man who took the lives, what matters is those who were lost.

We're told that Alison Parker is the most radiant woman her boyfriend had ever met. He's going to talk to us about the memories and what he will hold close to his heart forever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Two lives were stolen by a madman, executed on live TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She lived a great life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had that it factor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's the love of my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not only was he robbed of his wife. His world was robbed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been in this business a long time. It's the worst day of my career.

CUOMO: The picture of rage and instability emerging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has tried to create a narrative that I hope everybody quickly, quickly forgets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to do something about crazy people getting guns. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, August 27th, 8:00 in the east. Alisyn is in New York and I'm live in Roanoke, Virginia.