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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Donald Trump Shifting Into General Election Mode;; Trump: Clinton An "Enabler Of Husband's Infidelity"; Trump Meets With House Speaker Ryan, Others Thursday; Can Trump Win Democratic And Independent Voters?; Trump On GOP Unity: Yes, But "Not In The Traditional Sense"; At Least 2 Dead In Oklahoma Tornadoes; 10% of City Destroyed By Wildfire. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 09, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:15] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Good evening. And thanks for joining us. We are following tornadoes in Oklahoma that have already taken a life, part of a dangerous weather system that could do more damage tonight, already in some places destruction is heavy. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, there are houses through here that are just completely gone right now. All of the walls are down. The trees have been stripped bare through here. This is not a good thing. The houses through here, there are several from memory, and yes, they are all just -- they're just gone right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We will have more on the tornadoes coming up later, that's ahead.
We begin though with Donald Trump shifting into general election mode like really no candidate has. Seemingly shifting positions as he does, unnerving global markets with one statement and confusing people as he walks it back, setting conservatives with a flip flop, potentially alienating women with accusations Hillary Clinton enabled her husband's infidelity and downplaying their marks that would be stating them on all single interview.
Now, at the same time, he is scoring new endorsements and even naming someone to manage his transition from candidate Trump to president Trump.
Sarah Murray has the latest on a general election pivot that's generally making some heads spin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you very much.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER (voice-over): Donald Trump may be the GOP nominee, but he is already giving Republicans anxiety. TRUMP: I know more about debt than practically anybody. I love debt.
MURRAY: Professing his love of debt, and making policy proclamations like this one when asked how he would manage debt payments, telling CNBC I would borrow knowing if the economy crashed, you could make a deal.
Today, Trump is trying to moderate that stance, telling CNN he would try to buy back debt at a discount, adding the country won't default because America can always print more money.
TRUMP: First of all, you never have to default, you print the money. I hate to tell you, OK. So there's never a default.
MURRAY: Suggestions economists say isn't feasible could raise America's credit or could lean to massive inflation. Trump also changing his tune on the minimum wage after saying wages were too high during the GOP primary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not raise the minimum wage?
TRUMP: I would not raise the minimum.
MURRAY: Now he says he is open to an increase.
TRUMP: I don't know how people make it on 7.25 an hour. Now, with that being said, I would like to see an increase of some magnitude, but I would rather leave it to the states.
MURRAY: And then the shift on taxes, Trump saying he is willing to negotiate the steep tax cuts he has proposed for the wealthy, insists rich Americans won't pay more than they do now.
TRUMP: They go then and talked about like I'm giving a tax increase for the wealthy, I'm not. I said they may have to pay somewhat more than my proposal. My proposal is much less than people are paying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I understand.
MURRAY: A claim that top the square with Trump's own suggestion that he would pay more under his tax plan.
TRUMP: It reduces or eliminates most of the deductions and loopholes available to special interest and to the very rich. In other words, it will cost me a fortune.
MURRAY: All of this as Trump is still struggling to unite the party, passing today on the chance to echo Sarah Palin's comments about house speaker Paul Ryan.
SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Paul Ryan is soon to be cantored, as inner Eric Cantor. His political career is over but for a miracle.
TRUMP: I always liked him. MURRAY: Whether that sentiment extends both ways remains to be seen.
The two will meet Thursday on Capitol Hill to hash out their difference
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Our Sarah Murray joins us now.
Economists that you have been talking to, what are they saying about Trump's comments about fiscal issues?
MURRAY: Well, they have been a little baffled watching this play out over the last couple of days. And they say it is clear that Donald Trump wants to approach the U.S. government like a private sector business, but you can't exactly treat them the same way. They are also saying essentially what markets want is stability. They want predictability. And you are not getting this in this variety of statements that we have heard from Trump on issues like the debt, on issues like taxes. So they are still trying to parse whether he is just throwing things out there in every interview as he asks questions or if there's a more solid fiscal plan and he is just not being very articulate in how he explains it. So still an open question, Anderson.
COOPER: All right, Sara Murray. Sara, thanks.
A lot to talk about tonight certainly. Joining us is chief national correspondent and "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor John King, "New Yorker'" Ryan Lizza, former congressional black caucus executive director Angela Rye, Clinton super PAC adviser Paul Begala, also Mary Katherine Ham, senior writer at the "Federalist," Doug Holt-Eakin, former McCain campaign and economic adviser and former head of nonpartisan congressional budget office, and senior Trump campaign adviser Barry Bennett.
John, let's start out with you. I mean, a lot of potential problems for Donald Trump politically and in terms of policy. How do you see where the next couple days go?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Next couple days, we have 180 days until general election. I think the interesting part is every day we are having a conversation about will the real Donald Trump or which Donald Trump please stand up.
It is fascinating. He just gave a statement to "The New York Times" where he says he is happy that London just elected a Muslim mayor. He thinks it is a great thing.
COOPER: And the Muslim mayor would be allowed.
KING: And he could probably get an exception to the Trump ban, Mr. Trump said. So that makes perfect sense. London is a major global city. The United States has relations, obviously, with the U.K., but it seems inconsistent with we have to ban them until we figure it out. I leave the economics to Doug, this is not my bailiwick by any means, but I have covered a lot of presidential elections. When you have a Republican candidate who says I will cut taxes but I
will probably negotiate a tax increase on the wealthy with the Democrats, I will raise minimum wage or at least I encourage the states please go do that, and it seems to treating the U.S. long term structural debt like going to bankruptcy court. I am dying to watch the Republican party of Paul Ryan and platform committee in Cleveland try to figure out how to put it in writing. Now, Donald Trump won the primaries. This is his party. He won fair and square. But that doesn't fit with the Republican Party the last 25, 30 years I have been doing this.
[20:05:57] COOPER: Even, Ryan, the position on minimum wage is certainly, I mean, if he is actually saying he would like to see higher minimum wage, although he would like to leave it up to the states. I mean, does it seems at odds to what he said earlier during the primary.
RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is definitely an odd to what he has said. But there has always been a strain, obviously, of economic populism with a lot of Trump's policies. And you know, if there were one or two policies that a Republican could sort of move to the middle on that would help in general election to win the White House, would probably be upper income tax cuts and something on wages, right? I mean, there are a lot of Republican policy wonks who think those are concessions that a smart Republican presidential candidate might want to make. Doesn't have to look exactly like the Democratic plan, but to do something on middle class wages, that would be exactly what you want to do against Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately where the problem for Trump is he doesn't have a united Republican party. He has conservatives who don't support him. So he can't be like Nixon to China, right. He can't go to the base and say look. I'm going to make a couple concessions here to win the general election because he hasn't united the party yet.
COOPER: I want to skip the Democrats for just a second.
Doug, I mean, from an economic standpoint, when you heard Trump talking about we are printing more money in order to avoid default, does that worry you?
DOUG HOLT-EAKIN, FORMER DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: Yes. I mean, there are two strikes on that. Strike number one is printing the money is asking for inflation, the average American who bought treasury bills and tucked them away for retirement, just get dollars not worth much, doesn't allow them to maintain their life-style.
And secondly, it is the only way to print the money is to say Janet Yellen, print the money and buy the debt. And the independence of the fed then is gone. That's been a cornerstone of our success in economy for decades.
COOPER: Barry, as a Trump supporter, do you see these as inconsistencies, as him sort of evolving, how do you see it?
BARRY BENNETT, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I don't think minimum wage is that big a deal. I mean, I think states, different states, 7.25 is good some places, and it is not very good other places. Washington, D.C. is no way you could live with it.
COOPER: It is different than what he said in the primary.
BENNETT: Well, you said the federal government couldn't raise it, the states have the right to it and he will support the state rights to do that.
COOPER: And in terms of printing more money.
BENNETT: We have been printing money a long time. We have been stimulating the economy. We have been buying the debt for quite a while.
COOPER: So you don't see his statements as inconsistent.
BENNETT: No. I think he was talking about what's going on today. What would happen if our interest rates went up 700 basis points?
HOLT-EAKIN: (INAUDIBLE). The question is why did they go 700 basis points? And the answer is if you don't take care of the underlying problem which is how much you tax, how much you spend and get them to line up. So all of these suggestions don't make economic sense and they won't work in those circumstances.
BENNETT: Well, he is talking about reducing the debt the whole campaign.
COOPER: Mary Katherine? Sorry, didn't he talk about getting rid of the entire debt? Am I mistaken on that?
HOLT-EAKIN: No, he said, just for the record, he said I'm going to cut taxes by 12 trillion. I'm not going touch social security, Medicare. I'm going to increase military spending, and then going to get rid of 19 trillion of national debt. You can't do all three.
MARY KATHERINE HAM, SENIOR WRITER, THE FEDERALIST: I think to the extent there's a common thread with Trump throughout the primary, it is economic populism and love of Trump that goes without saying. But then there is also this problem. This is the problem I think many conservatives see with supporting him is that he is consistently inconsistent from day to day. He is just saying something off the cuff that's his gut feeling at that moment, genuinely believes that's what's happening. This is not a pivot. I don't think it is nuance. I don't think it is strategy. And you saw it in this particular CNBC interview when the reporter mentioned renegotiating debt, he just took it and ran with it. And had some, you know, exuberating his thoughts about it. And I think that is how he runs his campaign because he hasn't had a lot of thoughts about these philosophies in the past.
COOPER: I have noticed in interviews with him, to those who have done some interviews - I mean, I have noticed in interviews with him that if an idea is suggested that maybe he doesn't have a firm, you know, handle on, he does to, to Mary Katherine's point, kind of grab it. Just Chris Matthews --.
[20:10:05] HOLT-EAKIN: That's how he got to punishing women. COOPER: Right. Because Chris Matthews said to him, well, you can
punish women or the doctor. I think he would have gone for the doctor, because he would have seem to be known that's a better answer. But it does seem to be a recurring theme, doesn't it?
LIZZA: You know, I'm going to butcher this quote. But in one of his books he said something like the day he learned that just going with a gut instinct was as powerful as having a well thought out position was a revelation of his life. And that served him pretty well. He has gotten pretty far. Just one of the Republicans winning Republican nomination. But we are in a different phase of the campaign. And just going with gut and his instinct on every policy position can get you in a lot of trouble.
COOPER: I mean, as a Clinton supporter, are you just reveling in this or does it worry you?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It actually bothers me. I am an American first. And betting market say there is a 40 percent chance he becomes my president, OK. That's non-negligible. That's a very big deal.
COOPER: But in terms of running against --.
BEGALA: Running against him I think the argument is he is not a conservative, he is a con man. He got 10 million votes, OK. Legitimately got 10 million plus votes by saying wages are too high. He told voters that, but taxes for the rich need to come down. He told those voters that. He took positions in the primary for which he gained votes. Now he is abandoning them.
B y the way, as his business world is going on trial for fraud. This is the same thing you see in politics. You are going to hear Democrats like me say this guy is a con man. This is fraud. It is how he conducts himself in business. It is how he conducts himself as candidate. God forbid he gets in office, that's how he will conduct himself.
COOPER: But, Democrats are the kind of, you know, rubbing their hands in eager anticipation. I mean, there's a long time between now and the election, and Trump has shown himself to be a formidable candidate. And as Paul said, he got a lot of votes.
ANGELA RYE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: Well, and to Paul's point, right, the fact con man, con man Donald, I like that nickname better the dangerous (INAUDIBLE) last Monday. The point of all of this is the fact that he could say that wages are too high, or the fact that you, sir, could even say that 7.25 works in places. I don't know if you have family members like me who worked on minimum wage, it is not enough. I am not talking paycheck to paycheck. I'm talking about folks worry some day to day. And the fact that he would play into some of those emotions regardless what he think because honestly we really don't know what he truly thinks.
The other thing I want to raise to you, Anderson, is because Donald Trump loves the bible, and because most often Democrats are caught quoting it, there's a scripture in James 1:8 that says a double minded individual (INAUDIBLE) in all his ways. And what we are seeing with all of this different nicknames, they would continue to try up come up with for him, with come up with for him, is that he is not consistent.
COOPER: Barry, I want to you respond. And then we have to take a break.
BENNETT: Yes. Every taxpayer pays too much. That's what Donald Trump believes. Now, he was talking about negotiate with Congress, so he is going to have to pay more than he wants them to pay. That is still less than they are paying today. This is a distinction without a difference. I mean, this is ridiculous.
COOPER: So you say he has been. He is not flip flopping.
BENNETT: He has to negotiate with Congress on these tax rates.
COOPER: But just for the record, you do not believe he is flip flap. You don't believe he has change position at all.
RYE: But I raise minimum wage, and that we do know. There is a clear 180.
BENNETT: It is not true. He said federal government should raise the minimum wage. That's exactly what he believes. He thinks some states should.
BEGALA: He thinks there should be no federal minimum wage. He says more than once. He said that wages are too high, period, in our economy, because we can't compete with low wage countries like China.
BENNETT: We understand that.
RYE: But people have to live on that.
BENNETT: It doesn't work.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Doug, give you a thought and then we have to go to break.
HOLT-EAKIN: I think that you should stay away from minimum wage. You need to have wages to be higher but do it in the way that the market nationally makes wages higher. Have higher productivity. Have better economic growth.
I think Ryan said was exactly right which was there are places that Republicans need to go in general elections. They have not been successful. John McCain wasn't, Mitt Romney wasn't, because they didn't go there. But if you go are going to go there wages, find a policy and stick with it. If you are going to go with taxes, tell us what the policy is.
COOPER: A lot more to talk about in the next two hours including Donald Trump's allegation that Hillary Clinton enabled her husband's infidelity. Her reaction and history behind it. Trump's claims that she is paying what he calls the woman card and quote nobody respects women more than he does. All of it, will accept well with women? We will take a look at that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:17:59] COOPER: For a candidate facing record high negatives among women voters, Donald Trump is not exactly for doing what might called traditional outreach. Instead of mending fences, he has been lighting fires whether by wading into whether to punish women if abortion were to become illegal, when asked about it by Chris Matthews, or accusing Hillary Clinton of playing the woman card, or it was recently accusing her of complicity in her husband's infidelity.
She responded late today. But first how this all developed starting with this at a campaign appearance on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Nobody in this country and maybe in the history of the country politically was worse than Bill Clinton with women. He was a disaster. He was a disaster. I mean, there's never been anybody like this. And she was a total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He said much the same over the weekend. Now, this morning on "NEW DAY," Chris Cuomo asked him about it, after scolding Chris for not offering congratulations on his primary victor, Trump accused the media blowing his remarks out of proportion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Chris, I spoke very little to that compared to other things. You took a small amount of the speech and you built it up like it is the biggest thing in the world, but it is a big thing. Look, he was the worst abuser of women.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, NEW DAY: You just said I'm making too much of it. Now you say it is a big thing.
TRUMP: Excuse me. As a politician, in the history of our country, he was impeached. He was impeached. And then he lied about it. He said nothing happened with Monica Lewinsky. And then he said sorry, folks, it actually did happen. And the guy was impeached for lying.
CUOMO: All of that can be true. What does that have to do with Hillary?
TRUMP: Listen. She can't talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump. And I'm going to take care -- I will be better for women by a big factor than Hillary Clinton who frankly I don't even think will be good to women.
(END VIDEO CLIP) [20:20:04] COOPER: That was Donald Trump this morning. Hillary Clinton was asked about all of it late today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump has really gone after your husband and even you as an enabler during the scandals of the 1990s. Is that fair? Is there anything to that? And do you think it will back fire on his campaign?
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am going to let him run his campaign however he chooses. I'm going to run my campaign which is about a positive vision for our country, with specific plans that I think will help solve problems that we are facing, knocking down those barriers that stand in the way of people. I am going to continue to really reach out to people, to listen to people, and make the case for the kind of president that I would be.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And are his claims accurate? And if not, do you feel any need to correct the record?
CLINTON: I have nothing to say about him and how he's running his campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: As for the allegations in the history and heart of all of this, as every lot of folks, we all, many here in this room lived through it, headline by tabloid headline, younger voters, though, did not. Here's a closer look now from CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): January, 1998. Bill Clinton is furiously and falsely denying a sexual relationship with a White House intern. And one day later, first lady Hillary Clinton blames not the president but his political foes.
H. CLINTON: The great story here for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it is this vast right wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president.
FOREMAN: In private conversations later, notes taken by a longtime friend say Hillary Clinton dismissed Lewinsky as a narcissistic looney tune. While she called her husband's behavior grossly inappropriate, she said the affair was consensual, hinted it was spurred by political pressure he faced. It was a lapse. To his credit, he tried to break it off, tried to pull it away, but it was beyond his control. Earlier this year campaigning at a church, Clinton appeared to talk about forgiving her husband.
H. CLINTON: It is human nature to say you're not wanted. We know what you have been doing, we know what you have been up to. You go sleep in the bed you made.
FOREMAN: But she never overtly and publicly addresses the scandal. And in her 2003 book she says she defended the president because she believed him, erupting when he finally confessed, gulping for air, I started crying and yelling at him, what do you mean? What are you saying? Why did you lie to me?
Still, her handling of the matter is complicated. For example, when she says survivors of sexual assault have a right to be believed, her critics summon the names of women who accused her husband of just that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you say that about (INAUDIBLE), and Paula Jones, should we believe them as well?
H. CLINTON: Well, I would say that everybody should be believe at first until they are disbelieve, based on evidence.
FOREMAN: It is a heroic stand for some voters and hypocrisy for others.
Tom foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: All right, back with the panel. Also joining is Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany who is joining us by satellite.
Kayleigh, I mean, is it fair for Donald Trump to bring this up given Donald Trump's own history? I mean, how do you see this playing out?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is very fair. And Donald Trump does not have a history of sexual assault. Bill Clinton does. And Hillary Clinton has a history of dragging their names through the mud.
You know, look, Anderson, 15.8 percent of sexual assault victims report the crime. Just that small number because they're afraid of being demonized. They are afraid of not being believed. Well, Juanita Broadrick (ph), Kathleen Wiley (ph), Paula Jones, all were not believed by Hillary Clinton. In fact, they were demonized by her. As a woman, I am offended. I'm offended that Hillary Clinton didn't believe these women. Didn't come to be women's rescue. Instead, she demonized these women and has the audacity as Tom Foreman just mentioned to send out a tweet on November 15th saying all victims of sexual assault deserve to be believed, unless they're the victims of Bill Clinton. It is complete hypocrisy. As a young woman, I am offended. And I think young women all across this country who are not aware of it yet, are going to become aware of it and are not going to vote for her based on this.
COOPER: Mary Katherine, how do you see this?
HAM: Yes. I think there are fair points to be made about her inconsistency when it comes to talking about sexual assault victims and accusations of this kind. There are also points to be made about the tendency of the left to give Democratic men a pass if they vote the right way on certain way on bad sexual behavior and accusations of this kind.
Do I think Donald Trump is the correct person to make the points or it is effective when he does? I mean, he is not the perfect messenger on this. And I don't think he becomes the perfect messenger on this. But he does not follow rules of normal campaign if it was a regular Republican campaign, I would say that is probably it is inadvisable. Who knows? He may throw her off her game, and make her nervous and make her mess up. Although in that particular clip she looked very composed about it.
COOPER: Paul, I mean, you are obviously a friend of the Clintons. You're pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC. I mean, the campaign must be -- are they -- I know you're not working with the campaign, but I mean, I asked her about this, is she prepared for it, she says she's prepared for whatever comes. How do you see this?
BEGALA: I think Mary Katherine sees right, which is, you know, that southern saying is about it hit Donald Trump. You can tell a politician is hurt, that's the point they really react. You just saw Hillary. She knows this. As somebody who lived through this with them. The people that pushed those attacks suffered politically far more than President Clinton, certainly far more than his wife who was an innocent bystander.
Who impeached Clinton? Danny Hastert? (INAUDIBLE). Tom DeLay? Got indicted. Ken Star who disappeared to Waco, Texas or something. They're on the ashy of political history. It boggles the mind as strategist aside from a friend of these people. I hate to see them attacked like that. But as a strategist, the likelihood of this working when it failed when it was current news, it seems to me is it just nil.
COOPER: But the argument is slightly different now. It is that Donald Trump's argument is that Hillary Clinton was an enabler. That she went after these women.
BEGALA: Right. That somehow her husband's misdeeds should be visited on her. I find that hard to believe.
HAM: Well, and that she had a part in running the campaign to discredit.
BEGALA: That's not true. That comment, by the way, that Foreman ran where Hillary criticized Monica Lewinsky was a private phone call with her best friend back in Arkansas. OK, Diane Glare who is a friend of mine. Diane typed up that notes from those conversations. She passed away. Those notes wound up in a public library, and folks found them. So that was not a public attack at all. It was a woman in pain, her husband committed infidelity, talking to her best friend, and you know, by the way, pointing out it was consensual. I tell you, there is a lot of (INAUDIBLE).
HAM: And here we are talking about it. COOPER: Well, you know, let's take a quick break. We are going to
have more of this to discuss when we come back, including what Donald Trump said eight years about Bill Clinton's impeachment. Had a much different take in 2008 back when he also said Hillary Clinton make a great president just like her husband.
Plus, there is breaking news in Oklahoma of few tornadoes that killed at least two people. The danger is not over. More on that ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:31:27] COOPER: Welcome back. We're talking about Donald Trump's recent attacks on Hillary Clinton, accusing her of complicity of enabling her husband's infidelity specifically President Clinton sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Now as we're reported earlier, Mr. Trump has been lasing Bill Clinton over his impeachment on two charges, stemming from Lewinsky affair. The Senate acquitted President Clinton of both the charges and back in 2008 Mr. Trump had a different take on impeachment and what led up to it. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him which was nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Unimportant to nonsense, Mr. Trump words back 2008. That was also the year he said that Hillary Clinton was very, very talented -- excuse me very talented and very smart and would make a great president. Back with the panel.
Barry, I mean clearly this is not the only time this is going to be mentioned in this campaign ...
BARRY BENNETT, SENIOR ADVISER TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Give me a second about this will, but this girl was 21 years old, had sex with the president on a couple of occasions at least in the Oval Office or offices nearby. And Mrs. Clinton is telling her friends as I'll just said that she's a narcissistic Looney Toon. I mean how is that not outrageous. I mean you can call Dennis Hastert a jail bird and everything else and Republicans ...
COOPER: Serial child predator.
BENNETT: Well, whatever.
ANGELA RYE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: What really?
BENNETT: And I'm not going to defend him. I would be the first to say Dennis Hastert should go to jail for a long, long time.
(CROSSTALK) BENNETT: You call a 21-year-old girl which had sex with the president of the United States in the Oval Office a narcissistic Looney Toon? That's -- that's disgusting.
RYE: If I find it outrageous that human beings, regardless, I know this is a political panel, but let's be human a second. How would you expect for a woman whose husband cheated on her to behave? Do you really think this should be oh, but I'm a feminist, pro-woman, I'm going to defend this woman who is saying that my husband had sexual relations with her? If you put yourself, you know, what you don't even have to go to the Monica Lewinsky incident, you can go to Beyonce's lemonade, because she I'm serious -- is she talking about infidelity for women all over the world who had experienced it and they are the victims.
I don't for the light of me -- understand how we got to a place where this woman who is running for president and did not cheat on her husband is all of a sudden the predator, is all of the sudden the person to blame. Is all of a sudden the person to blame. Who are -- you're calling her an enabler. You're saying that she should be ashamed of herself for criticizing this woman who cheated on -- who with a circle (ph) affair with her husband.
BENNETT: A 21-year-old girl.
RYE: I don't care.
BENNETT: I do care a lot.
COOPER: Kayleigh go ahead.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Is like, you know, you want to humanize this and I'm glad you do want to that. But as a young woman, are you comfortable with the fact that Hillary Clinton demonized people who were accusing her husband of sexual assault? I'm glad you humanize, because as a young woman you should be absolutely appalled by that, because ...
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: You're telling me what I should be appalled by.
COOPER: One at a time, one at a time.
MCENANY: I come across women on college campuses who are terrified to report what has happened ...
RYE: Absolutely.
MCENANY: ... because they're scared of being demonized, exactly what ...
RYE: Absolutely.
MCENANY: ... Hillary Clinton did to these three women who will -- I hope be in a campaign commercial and say this is my story, here's how I was a victim of with Hillary Clinton.
COOPER: OK, go ahead.
RYE: So Kayleigh, do you mean to tell me I believed that you're engage right or you have a boyfriend. So you mean to tell me if your boyfriend cheats on you, you're not going to have anything bad to say about the woman who he cheated with, if she's 21 or 40? Let's be honest.
[20:35:03] MCENANY: If my boyfriend has a repeated history of sexual assault accusations, I'm going to be the first to challenge on him on that and say I'm going to listen to the women ...
RYE: Kayleigh, you didn't answer the question.
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: But let me tell you what your candidate did -- you didn't answer the question. Let me tell you with your candidate did Bill, since you want to come for sexual assault, this is a tweet from your favorite candidate. May 7th, 2013. 26,000 -- and this is a quote. 26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military, only 238 convictions, what do these geniuses expect when they put men and women together. How that for sexual assault Kayleigh, you don't have to say about that.
MCENANY: What I'm concerned is the active demonization by your candidate and you as a young woman ...
RYE: And this is not my candidate Kayleigh ...
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: ... I'm talking as a woman who has experienced infidelity, I'm speaking as a woman who has seen it happen to other people I care about. And I'm telling you I have never been other side of the other person ...
MCENANY: But will you ...
RYE: ... who was in the bed with the offender ever.
MCENANY: Angela, will you right now say that it was a wrong as Hillary Clinton to demonize these women that are innocent women. Juanita Broderick said she came up and grabbed her hand ...
RYE: Hold still.
MCENANY: ... instead Kayleigh down her spine. So much ...
RYE: Kayleigh?
MCENANY: ... she thought it was a threat the words that Hillary Clinton ...
RYE: Kayleigh.
COOPER: So when you're saying Hillary Clinton was demonizing these people, what actual evidence are you pointing to?
MCENANY: I'm pointing to the incident I just mentioned where Juanita Broderick who accuses Bill Clinton of rape -- violent rape, so much so she had marks on her upper lip.
COOPER: But ...
MCENANY: That Hillary Clinton came up ...
COOPER: ... that was never proven, correct?
MCENANY: She came out many years later. That's by the way a psychological thing with many sexual assault victims.
COOPER: I'm just asking direct -- I'm not attacking her or criticizing ...
MCENANY: Sure.
COOPER: ... now I just want Joan set the record straight, that was never proven. Ken Starr that was not -- I mean to my knowledge was that ...
MCENANY: It's an accusation.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well it's not store for.
MCENANY: It's an accusation.
COOPER: OK, it's an accusation.
MCENANY: Yes.
COOPER: So where here accusation to Hillary Clinton came up to her is just that an accusation as well, correct that's not ...
MCENANY: It's an accusation that's very much in line with many other accusations, Paula Jones, you have to ask yourself why did Bill Clinton settle that case, that's another woman who has a very detail account ...
RYE: Is that the counselor.
(CROSSTALK)
RYE: You got to be careful with the slander councilor.
COOPER: All right. Let's ...
MCENANY: It's not slander.
COOPER: ... let's move -- just in terms of John, where this goes forward, I mean obviously this discussion is very heated and it brings up a lot of emotion, understandably for people. This is something I feel like we are going to see a lot of moving forward. Donald Trump brought this up in a speech, it's not -- and to your point, it's not the main focus of the campaign, but Donald Trump even this morning said it is not a big deal but it is a big deal.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And there is Trump started this several months ago during the primaries, he brought these things up and there's no question he thinks in at least on occasion he's going to use them going forward. Paul is exactly right, but every time this play could has been tried by Republicans before against Bill Clinton, it hasn't worked but in the past.
Will it work against Hillary Clinton? Will it work this year? Will it work in the cycle we are in now? I think the answer is to the question is we don't know. We don't know Trump is an unorthodox candidate who has proven he does things, he says John McCain is not a war hero, we all say a-ha.
You know, he says all these things and we say a-ha. And so -- listen, listen you think it's out of bounds, he thinks it is out of bounds.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Trump has consistently rewritten the rules and he has proven that he is going to do this.
COOPER: Right.
KING: So we'll say ...
COOPER: But also I believed you brought it up first, and I may be wrong, but I think it may at least you brought up a time when Hillary Clinton suggested sexism on Donald Trump's part. He used this to sort of blunt that attack. And Trump had said subsequently he feels that work that is sort of silenced that attack from the Clintons.
DOUG HOLTZ-EAKIN, FMR DIRECTOR CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE: I mean look, there are the three stages of death by Donald right which is number one, I can't believe he is saying that, number two, that won't work, and number three, that's not what the election is about. Dozens of Republican primary candidates saw it happen, they're all gone, he is here.
COOPER: Right.
HOLTZ-EAKIN: And so I think, you know, the discussion, the substance is really important, but he has done this before in other areas, you know, attacking John McCain, that's a terrible idea, it's not what the election is about. It won't work. Teflon.
COOPER: Right.
BEGALA: He has only succeeded in that strategy, Douglas, in Republican primaries ...
RYE: That's right.
BEGALA: ... which are monochromatic.
HOLTZ-EAKIN: I'm just stating. BEGALA: ... they are older white men does far, when you expand that ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Mary, go.
MARY KATHARINE HAM, SENIOR WRITER THE FEDERALIST: To Kayleigh's point about what there is an issue of what sort of right and wrong here and this women would have been on the record for many, many years about this it would have been very easy probably a lot easier for them in their personal lives to shut up about it.
COOPER: Absolutely no doubt about it.
HAM: And I do think there is this issue where bringing this forward to a younger generation of women who really don't know the details of the stories ...
COOPER: Right.
HAM: ... it might have just enough impact of giving them sort of like that icky feeling that they already had about Hillary Clinton, but it's Bill.
RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT THE NEW YORKER: Let's be honest, I think the best example is 1998, the Republicans ran on this, they lost. That's what a lot of people point to as this politically not potent. It's never been tried against Hillary Clinton.
COOPER: Right.
BEGALA: She didn't have the affair.
(CROSSTALK)
LIZZA: I'm just saying clearly politically, be on uncharted territory. I was talking to someone who worked for Ted Cruz who said, do you think Donald Trump can win the general election? He said, I absolutely think he could win. I said why. What's the single thing that he does to beat Ted Cruz, he said, he's ability to control and dominate the conversation.
COOPER: No doubt.
LIZZA: 40 minutes into the show, we are talking about Donald Trump.
COOPER: Stick around, a lot more to talk about. Just ahead, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Donald Trump will meet face to face this week along with other Republican leaders to try to do what some say maybe impossible, unify their party.
[20:40:07] Question is, what will it take and what is that stake. John King breaks it down by the numbers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Welcome back. It is the room that every political reporter, probably millions of voters would love to be in this week, Donald Trump is going to meet on Thursday with Republican leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, the man he says blindsided him.
Now last week Ryan said point blank that he wasn't ready to support his party's presumptive nominee. Over the weekend, Donald Trump hit back refusing to rule out blocking Ryan from serving as the chairman of the Republican convention in July. Today though slightly softer tone for both men from distance himself in common sort Ellen made about Ryan.
Oh Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal, sense him on quote, "He is the nominee, I'll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention." Now the agenda for Thursday's meetings find a way to unify the party. The states obviously had potential hurdles as well.
John King is back to break it down for us By the Numbers. So Trump says he can win even if the party isn't unified a sense about reaching out to Democrats and Independents who he was getting some of during the primaries, is he right?
[20:45:08] KING: Could he be right, yes, is he right based on data, no. Trump's argument is I'll get crossovers Democrats, I'll get Independents to vote up for me in huge numbers make up for any Republicans to stay home. Well at the moment in our latest CNN poll, 94 percent of Democrats, Democrats say 94 percent of them say I'm going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Only 5 percent say they're going to vote for Donald Trump.
Let's put that into context, on Election Day 2012, 92 percent of Democrats in exit poll voted -- but said they voted for the president, 7 percent so they voted for Mitt Romney. Now taking into account the margin of error in this poll, you know, Trump is not doing as well as Romney, is doing about the same. Oh this should say is about a tie if you take the margin of error interested but, is Trump, are there thousands and millions of crossover Democrats ready to come to Donald Trump? This suggests he is running about normal -- or about Mitt Romney levels ...
COOPER: Right.
KING: ... and that's frankly just not good enough.
COOPER: I mean a lot of GOP leaders have -- or seems to be wrestling with what to do with Donald Trump. What about GOP voters?
KING: All right, let's walk through I shouldn't have (inaudible) let's walk through Independents as well.
COOPER: Oh OK.
KING: I get you Republican. But look here, among Independents, Donald Trump says they're going to come to me, they don't like the Clintons, that's one of the reasons for these attacks on Hillary Clinton to turn the independents away, right 51 percent for Hillary Clinton, 40 percent for Donald Trump. So an 11-point lead among independents, again compared to an Election Day where President Obama remember won an electoral call it landslide, Hillary Clinton is actually doing significantly better than Barack Obama did among Independents. And Mitt Romney won independents on Election Day. Donald Trump is not right now.
So that's another problem for Trump's argument, he says he'll get Democrats, he says he'll get Independents, and Anderson, to that last question you asked. Look at this right now in our poll there is some evidence that Republicans are drifting, not a lot, but some are drifting to Hillary Clinton, 84 percent of Republicans in our new latest poll just last week say they're going to voting Donald Trump, 12 percent of Republicans say they're voting for Hillary Clinton. And that is double the number of Republicans who voted for President Obama on his re-election day in 2012.
So there is some evidence early on. Again six months to the election. A lot can change. But Trump is not doing any better than Mitt Romney among Democrats, he's doing significantly worse than Mitt Romney among Independents, and the drift of Republicans voting for the Democrat, Romney had a small case of it. Right now, Anderson, Donald Trump has 12 percent, it's not huge, but that is very significant.
COOPER: All right, John King, John stay with us. I want bring in the rest of the panel. Ryan, I mean do you think those numbers hold? I mean because it's obviously long time between now and actual Election Day.
LIZZA: You know, before Paul Ryan drops that bomb last week, I would have said you're probably going to see some tightening of Republicans coalescing around Trump. That it's just natural for Republicans who dislike Hillary Clinton to sort of make their peace with Trump's candidacy and rally around him.
I think the fact that Ryan is holding out, that he sent a signal to Republicans in the House, the Senates, in the states that they can do the same, too, unless they get something out of Donald Trump. I think that means you go, you're going to have a divided party and you're giving the green light for Republican voters not to turn out Election Day.
COOPER: Right.
LIZZA: So until they fix that, I think there's a huge worrying time.
COOPER: Who -- I mean how do you see the rift between Paul Ryan and Donald Trump working out?
HAM: Well, that remains to be seen. I think it is fair for Paul Ryan who is a conservative and for many of us who don't see Trump as an ideal candidate to say, hey you disagree with us on a ton of things. There's no indication that you are ideologically conservative or you believe any of the things that we believe in. So maybe you should do some work to prove that to us in order to get our vote? That seems to me a pretty a reasonable proposition for somebody that has shown himself to be wildly inconsistent about what he believes. COOPER: Barry is Trump supporter, is that reasonable?
BENNETT: I think the rift is over on Thursday. And, you know, to Ryan's point, and the polling -- that poll was taken before the end of the primary. But we've already seen in our current polling major healing is already occurring. So these numbers will be drastically different.
HAM: There will be some coalescing. It will not be ...
BENNETT: Maybe not on Main Street but in America there will be.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I think he is going to have to unless he fixes that Republican number, I mean that the reality is we never elected a Republican president without that person getting 91 percent of Republicans. And Trump been substantially below that for a long time now. So that's the first test. And if that doesn't happen, he has to find a way to get to Democrats and the Independents. You know, I think he's not going to win on his -- them on his personality, I think is going to come down the policies. And so what are they going to be. And that's what people are waiting for.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break.
Up next, breaking news, it happen deadly destruction after huge tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma. Terrifying images caught on camera. Look at some of them is right there. The storms continue, the latest from the weather center, when "360" continues. And then more politics after that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:53:29] COOPER: There's breaking news tonight. Massive tornadoes hit Oklahoma, killing at least two people as we reported at the top of the broadcast tonight. Tornado emergencies were issued in several towns in the southern part of the state, warning of a life threatening situation. Look at the videos. The National Weather Service also warned of catastrophic damage. Our meteorologist Karen Maginnis joins me now from CNN Weather Center with the latest. What about the storm's path? Where is it?
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well we are seeing yeah, what are call discrete cells that they all are part of a very powerful system, this is kind of raking across the south central states. This moving across what is typically known this time of year as tornado alley and it is not over yet. We still have part of a tornado watch which goes until about another hour or so. And then another one has been issued for the Ark-la-Tex, that's Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.
There about 4 million people that are under the gun for the potential for tornadic activity. This video is amazing. What we did see where are a number of vehicles just kind of racing towards this tornado. It turns out that those were the storm chasers looking at this, what would ordinarily, we called the magnificent tornado. Now they'll get the National Weather Service folks out there to survey the damage.
We already know about the two fatalities, one in Garvin County in Oklahoma, and south then to the of that county in Johnson County, report of another fatality there. They're estimate between five and 10 homes have either been damaged or destroyed. Now couple of things that we looked at, the signature as we take a look at the radar, when we see that comma shaped echo on the Oklahoma radar, that indicates to us that a tornado has possibly on the ground or has been spotted.
[20:55:15] Strong rotation also associated with this. And if you look at that video very carefully, you can see debris flying up from the bottom of that system as well. As I mention, there is still a tornado watch. But this time it looks like some of the cells moving over into Arkansas. There is video out of Garvin County, this to the south of Paul's Valley where about 4:00 this afternoon we started to see this fire up during the afternoon as we have plenty of debris to show you.
Now they will assess the damage across this region, they'll estimate the intensity of the tornado, either an ef-0 or ef-5, if I had to guess, I would say an ef-3 or ef- 4, maybe winds up to 160 miles per hour, Anderson. But still the violent weather is not over and we'll continue to update you into the next hour. Back to you.
COOPER: Incredible see it so close. Karen Maginnis, thanks very much, we'll check back with you in our next hour.
Meanwhile, the weather is starting to cooperating in the fight against a massive fire in Canada. There's no celebrating to be had yet. Nearly 10 percent of the city of Fort McMurray has been destroyed. At least 2,400 structures burned to the ground. At least 700 firefighters are working right now with 300 more on the way.
Fire is out of control, 0 percent contained -- 0 percent contained after burning 400,000 acres. Lower temperatures have started to arrive. The chance of rain, a tiny bit of good news, coming too late of course for some 90,000 people forced to leave their homes, many of whom have nothing to return to. We got a live update on the fire in the next hour of "360", our Dan Simon went to the frontlines.
Also, more on Donald Trump's deficit among women voters, we'll take a look at the math and talk about whether although woman's card business in dredging up personal attacks about Bill Clinton's life has or infidelity has any hope of helping him bridge the gap.
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