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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Soon: Trump Law & Order Speech; Trump To Begin General Election Ads In 5 States This Weekend; Clinton Campaigns In Pennsylvania; FBI Gives Congress Secret Clinton E-mail Report; Clinton Riding High In Key Battlegrounds; Trump Adviser: Florida, Texas Dealing With Sharia Law. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired August 16, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:01:02] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. In this hour, we're told Donald Trump will again step up to a podium and read from a teleprompter. He's speaking just outside Milwaukee, talking, we are told tonight, about law and order. Again, like yesterday's address in fighting ISIS, this one is expected to be scripted on message. And another sign perhaps the candidate is acting less off the cuff and more presidential, you might say, a sign in campaign insider speak that the candidate is pivoting away from the primary and toward the general election.
At the same time, though, Donald Trump is once again saying himself he doesn't want to pivot or to change. So what are we going to see tonight? What we see may not be such a pivot after tonight. CNN's Jason Carroll is at the event, he joins us again with the very latest.
So what is the latest in terms of expectations there at the event tonight? What are you hearing from the campaign?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple of things. I mean, I know you mentioned the teleprompter, certainly a number of people who support Donald Trump are hoping that he has a clear message, a simple message, and that he sticks, if you will, to the script and to the message. The message being airs and that once again, we've heard him say this before that he is the law and order candidate. We expect him to review that theme again tonight.
We expect him also to paint a very distinct difference between himself and Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton, who he will tell the crowd here, Hillary Clinton is weak on terrorism, weak on crime.
You know, a little earlier today, he was asked in an interview. He was asked what he would do to solve some of the problems plaguing urban communities like what we saw in Milwaukee. And he mentioned two things. He said first, bringing economic development back to these areas. And two, he talked about this need for law and order. So again, these are themes we expect him to address tonight when he eventually ends up taking the stage. Anderson?
COOPER: We're also told that the campaign is going to begin to air their first T.V. ads of the general election. I think starting this weekend, correct?
CARROLL: Right. Those ads supposed to roll out this weekend in five key battleground states, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia. As you know, the Trump campaign has been waiting really to release these ads, to spend money. A lot of people have been impatiently waiting saying, "When are you going to do this, when are you going to do this."
Hillary Clinton is spending some $105 million so far in terms of the ads that have been out there on T.V. and basically been put out there by super PACs and the NRA. So finally, Trump getting into this game. Certainly, a number of people in those states are going to be happy to see him going after Hillary Clinton on T.V.
Trump was asked about this sometime ago. You know, why wait? Why wait so long to do something like this? And he said, "I don't want to go too fast. It's like an old horse race." He said, "Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Time will tell." Anderson?
COOPER: And you can hear the chants of lock her up behind you. Jason Carroll, thanks very much. They're waiting for their candidate. As we wait for Donald Trump, let's bring in the panel.
Joining this hour by conservative Trump critic also, Tara Setmayer. I appreciate you all being with us.
Phil, it really is interesting to watch Donald Trump, I don't know if struggle is the right word, but trying to figure out or calibrate. Should he pivot ...
PHILIP BUMP, WASHINGTON POST POLITICAL REPORTER: Right.
COOPER: ... is what got him here? What's going to get him across the finish line to the presidency? Is it enough? Clearly, you know, he is more comfortable talking off the cuff. A lot of the -- his supporters like that about him and yet, there is also this need to reach new voters.
BUMP: Right. Yeah. I mean, that's exactly the distinction that his campaign has failed to see so far. He did a great job during the primaries. He's running it to a lot of people. He built up a core base of support that was not a majority. He only got a plurality of votes in the primary, but it was enough that he built up just being himself to get through that. And what he took in months to figure out is that wasn't a successful strategy to reach out to a general election audience.
And I think the interesting thing about these T.V. ads too is, we're looking at someone who just now starting a general election campaign whereas Mitt Romney had already spent millions of dollars and had already field offices in a bunch of states in June of 2012.
And so, it's fascinating that as we talk about what he's doing with this pivot, he's already months behind in terms of what his campaign should be doing anyway.
[21:05:04] And so, it's going to be fascinating to see if this actually makes a distinctive difference.
COOPER: How concerned are you guys who are supporters about the ground game, about his lack of offices, his lack of ...
JOHN JAY LAVALLE, TRUMP SURROGATE: It's -- he is working in partnership with the RNC and the ground game is going to be awesome. It already is. They're out there. They are moving. They have joined a fundraising ...
COOPER: What does that mean though? But just in terms of actual offices, in terms of people on the ground, Hillary Clinton certainly has a much more organized effort under way.
LAVALLE: There will be more people on the ground in 2016 than there were in 2012. Hillary Clinton has also spent, like we just said, $105 million where he's virtually spent nothing. Donald Trump is in very good shape.
This concept that he's pivoting because he's speaking, you know, conducting a speech with a teleprompter is ridiculous. There are two kinds of speeches in our business. There's a rally speech where we have a lot of rhetoric involved then we go off the cuff, where he speak from the heart. And then there is a policy speech where we use a teleprompter because we're conveying our thoughts ...
COOPER: So in your idea, everything is going great?
LAVALLE: Everything is going according to plan. His plan, and you see ...
COOPER: But the poll numbers in battleground states ...
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right, based on what metric?
LAVALLE: Who's spending money in battleground states? He is not spending money, she is.
SETMAYER: But he's losing. I don't understand this argument.
LAVELLE: And by the way, we spoke a little earlier in the program on the other side of the aisle, they said we're a little concerned. You know, we're not going to take this for granted because he hasn't even started yet.
COOPER: Well Tara, you're not a Trump supporter.
SETMAYER: No.
COOPER: He's saying, you know, Trump hasn't even started yet. There's little bit more than 80 days left to go.
SETMAYER: Well, he hasn't really started yet in a lot of areas. I mean, we've been hearing this. We haven't started yet since he basically clinched the nomination back in May. They're just now starting to hire a couple of campaign, like normal campaign positions that should have been filled a long time ago. They don't have state directors in a lot of crucial states. There's zero outreach, you know, for, especially for minority communities, there's zero outreach going on.
COOPER: Have you just seen Omarosa?
SETMAYER: Yes, but yeah, I'm actually. I would love to see what Omarosa has done. She claims that she has 76 page outreach effort a month ago that no one's ever seen. It's not posted on their website. He haven't even contacted some of the more prominent black Republicans like Joe Watkins of Philadelphia, which is a crucial area. Pennsylvania is a crucial state. They made no contact with him. He said it even today on air.
Their state director in North Carolina pulled a gun on people and is being sued for it, for goodness sake. So, I mean, this is still being an amateur hour operation. They don't have people on the ground like they're supposed to be. The RNC can't see the campaign's arm.
COOPER: All right. Tara paints a pretty bleak picture and you don't seem that concern?
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, the nice thing is we have a history of the same statements being said a few months ago, except with regards to the primary, he'll never win ...
COOPER: I want to talk about Ted Cruz's ground game, he's ...
MCENANY: For sure and it didn't matter. And here's where Donald Trump can change this election. This electorate is suffering economically. This electorate looks around the world and there's an ISIS terrorist attack every 84 hours. They look at home and cities are burning.
This is an electorate that it's prime to hear Donald Trump's primary message. And I know my liberal friends will try to paint in as racist and divisive and xenophobic. But the idea of vetting the people who come in here, the idea of bringing peace back to the streets, the idea of bringing back economic prosperity, that is a winning message. It's been clouded over the last two week by some of the side stories. If he can deliver that on the debate stage, he will win this election and he will be the next president.
COOPER: So Paul, I mean, is or Christine, is there this much to do about nothing about this ground game, about the need for offices and ...
PAUL BEGALA, PRO-CLINTON SUPER PAC ADVISER: Well, John makes a good point.
COOPER: Paul, is that an old way of thinking?
BEGALA: No. It depends on which party you're in and which voters you're reaching. In my party, there's no chance to win without it. None, because the coalition President Obama put together that Hillary is trying to inherit is built on young people, people of color and unmarried women. There's more of them in secular voters frankly. There are more of them than there are of Trump voters, but we have to reach them.
Something like 25 percent of voters under 30 moved every two to four years. OK. Now, his base, I criticize old folks in the last hour. Let me tell you, his base, they vote. Older, angry, high school educated, white men, that's all they do -- well, they complain about their prostate and they vote. That's the only thing they do. And so they're going to come out no matter what.
SETMAYER: I just want to disavow myself from Paul.
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: I have no comment.
BEGALA: That's all they do. I'm defending them. They're great patriot.
COOPER: Paul, what's your Twitter ...
(OFF-MIC)
BUMP: A very quick point on that.
SETMAYER: Yeah.
BUMP: Actually, one of the things we're seeing in polling is that Trump's core base, which is this non-college educated white men, they are actually less committed to voting than are college educated women.
CHRISTINE QUINN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: That's right.
BUMP: And that's a big problem for him because he actually does need to turn them out. And if they're relying on the RNC, the RNC, we know, is talking about pulling funding. And that's a big problem.
COOPER: But to Christine, what about to Kayleigh's point, which is they are motivated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
COOPER: They're showing up at the rallies, people are standing in line for hours and hours, have been for months. He made $80 million in donations in many small donations people made, to your point last night, people made a big deal, you know ...
QUINN: Right.
COOPER: ... when that was on the Democratic side, but, you know, for Trump, small donations, $80 million ...
[21:10:03] QUINN: I have no doubt that the Trump supporters that Trump has, he has.
BUMP: Right. QUINN: And I think there's going to be no effort on the Clinton campaign to try to get them. It would be a waste of money and waste of time. Whether they turn out to be less prime voters than others they'll see. But he has those voters. There's no question. The question now for him, as it would be for most campaigns in this moment, is how do you reach out, how do you get other voters? And, you know, Kayleigh talked before about a bridge. And look, honestly, even though I'm a Democrat, I'd love to see all candidates trying to build bridges.
But the thing about bridges is they start on a foundation and they go to a foundation and they connect. And what's missing in whether it's a teleprompter or off the cuff, and I agree with John. You know, who cares what he talks from. But what's missing in both of those and the lack of the foundation is any real plans that will help Americans.
If you look at his economic plan, he talked a lot about a childcare tax credit. There's great benefits in that for people making 30, 40 cents on the dollar to save on their nannies. There's nothing built in there to help people who don't have childcare, lower income New Yorkers -- Americans, pardon me, and middle income Americans get childcare that they don't have
There's nothing really there to help people. There's trillions of dollars worth of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, but there really isn't anything to create jobs. Nonetheless, to make up for the jobs that's gone overseas.
COOPER: John? John? John?
LAVALLE: That's not true.
COOPER: John?
LAVALLE: I mean, Donald Trump was very specific. He talked about tax reform, trade reform, regulatory reform. He talks about energy independence. He's talking about putting Americans back to work. That is what's going to change America. That is what's causing the social unrest in this country right now.
People are not working. 14 million less Americans are working today than seven years ago. But Barrack Obama's failed domestic policy that Hillary Clinton has embraced is not going to be embraced by the American people. He is coming from a very different direction. He is talking about restoring pride in America, putting the focus on America, rebuilding America, economically, militarily, and our reputation around this world.
COOPER: Tara, I mean, for somebody who still could vote for Donald Trump, I mean, you are a conservative ...
SETMAYER: I'm not. But if you know right now, I will never vote for Donald Trump.
COOPER: But has he given enough specifics? SETMAYER: No. I mean, look, that economic speech last Monday was a decent economic speech. I didn't agree with the protection side of some things, but some other things were really good in there and some of the things that John named. But how much did we hear about that after that? We didn't hear about it at all.
He went to Twitter and he started bashing the media. And then he went off on the Second Amendment stuff. There were all those things. He keeps stepping on his own message. That should be the message he hammers home every single day if he really wants to win, but he has not been doing that consistently.
COOPER: Well which is why, again ...
SETMAYER: It's all over the place.
COOPER: ... tonight, it is so ...
SETMAYER: The question whether he really want to win.
COOPER: ... it is why tonight is interesting because it's two speeches back-to-back which have been very directed and we'll see. Tonight, we are waiting for Donald Trump's remarks tonight. A lot more ahead as we wait for what is billed as a law and order address just outside in Milwaukee.
Coming up next, we'll explore Donald Trump's -- it means the other side cheated. He got a lot of attention. The question is, though, does it actually have basis in fact? We'll look at that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:17:09] COOPER: Welcome back. We're waiting for a speech from Donald Trump tonight. We want to quickly revisit one of his less scripted moments on Friday in Altoona, Pennsylvania which made a quite a few headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The only way we can lose, in my opinion, I really mean this, Pennsylvania, is if cheating goes on. I really believe it. If we get cheated out of a win in Pennsylvania, which is such a vital state, especially when I know what's happening here, folks, I know she can't beat what's happening here. The only way they can beat it, in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, if in certain sections of the state, they cheat. OK?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the day he said that, he was trailing significantly in polls in Pennsylvania. He still is tonight which has not kept Trump's cheating allegation from resonating with some voters from Pittsburgh.
Gary Tuchman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uncovering the truth with undeterred tenacity. Unbowed. Unbroken. It's Rose Unplugged.
ROSE TENNENT, HOST, ROSE UNPLUGGED ON AM1250 THE ANSWER: That's right it is. Welcome to the show. This is Rose Unplugged.
GARY TUCHMAN: Here in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump has sparked quite the controversy after declaring the only way he could lose here is if cheating happens.
TENNENT: The moment I said we're going to talk about voter fraud, the phone lines just lit up. So, we'll going to take your phone calls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rose Unplugged.
TUCHMAN: And here on AM1250 in Pittsburgh, conservative talk show host, Rose Tennent, agrees with Trump. And so do her listeners.
TENNENT: Good morning. Lauren, how are you?
TUCHMAN: Caller Lauren explains what she says happened when her mother tried to vote for Mitt Romney in 2012.
LAUREN: We have the touchscreens, the electronic screens. She went in there in the booth. She hadn't even touched the screen at all. She looked down, and all the boxes were checked with Democrats and she got all flustered. She called the person over and they go "Oh, that just happens sometimes," and they cleared the screen for her.
She got so flustered that she didn't even know then when she got in the car if she voted for president or not. She started crying.
TENNENT: Diane is calling from Kennedy Township. Good morning, Diane.
TUCHMAN: Diane says she overheard a woman on the phone talked about how she was not registered and how easy it would be to intimidate a poll worker. And that she ended up getting the provisional ballot.
DIANE: And I just like lost it. And I just said, "Look, I heard you outside on the phone." I said, "You're doing voter fraud." She turned around and she mf'd me, and she left the poll.
TUCHMAN: And then ...
TENNENT: This is Ken calling from Peters Township. Good morning, Ken. How are you?
KEN: Good morning, Rose. When you mentioned voter fraud, you touched a hot button for me.
TENNENT: Did I?
KEN: Yeah.
TENNENT: What's going on? KEN: I think we've been cheated out of a couple elections in recent years.
TUCHMAN: And how is that? Ken says a friend of his who works in a shop told him that a few years ago ...
KEN: He was approached by a Democratic precinct worker and said, "It's fairly easy to get registered twice.
[21:20:01] You register once, you know, using your full name and home address. Then he said you register again using your shop address and a nickname. You can vote twice then."
TUCHMAN: Allegations and complaints about voter fraud are nothing new. However, there is widespread disagreement about how serious and significant the issue is. And who might be most affected.
If you're concerned about cheating, why would it be just Hillary Clinton voters cheating and not Donald Trump voters cheating?
ROSE TENNENT: And as I said, if there's a concern about cheating, then it should be everyone's concern.
TUCHMAN: It is it fair to say though that anybody can cheat though?
TENNENT: I would say so. Yes, of course.
TUCHMAN: But these callers are concerned about the Republican candidate.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's time for the nation to have a unified simple I.D. which covers the nation.
TUCHMAN: Concern that has increased with Donald Trump's dire warning about Pennsylvania.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Gary, the radio host who you talked to is worried about the possibility of cheating. Is she worried about Trump's poll numbers in Pennsylvania at all?
TUCHMAN: Well, I did talk to "Rose Unplugged" about that Anderson and ironically she says one of the reasons she is worried about the possibility of cheating is because she is not at all worried about the polls. She thinks the polls are wrong. She thinks the race is close. She thinks that if there is cheating that Donald Trump could lose because of the cheating. And I should tell you that in the conservative talk radio universe, there are lots of listeners who feel the same way. Anderson.
COOPER: Thanks very much. It is interesting, Phil, this sort of -- this (inaudible), I mean, Brian Stelter talked about this a little bit, you know, if you read drudge, if you read -- see others, this idea of sort of the polls aren't really the polls and here's a poll that's more, you know, there's some polls which are sort of online polls which we don't really go by because they're just simply -- the methodology is not as reliable.
BUMP: Right. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the online polls, people can just go and vote and they just aren't considered reliable. This issue of cheating, there's fundamentally no evidence for it. The State of Pennsylvania itself went ahead, a Republican governor admitted in a legal filings there have been no examples of voter fraud.
There are always places where, you know, someone has a similar name to someone else and those things get buried (ph) out and usually end up being basically nothing. But we're talking about millions of votes here. And the idea that even if this were a pervasive problem that you could somehow shift millions of votes on behalf of one candidate or the other, particularly when, I mean it's sort of self-fulfilling when you have Donald Trump is down 9.7 points in the polling average in Pennsylvania, but that's wrong and therefore, if Hillary Clinton wins by 9.7 points it's because they cheated on her, it is self- fulfilling. There's no evidence for it. And frankly I think it's irresponsible for media outlets to suggest it is.
MCENANY: There absolutely is evidence. And it's not millions of votes.
BUMP: There's not. There's not.
MCENANY: If we see the election in Florida come down to hundreds of votes. So look at 1993 in Pennsylvania. You actually had a state Senate seat that was reneged by a federal judge because it was determined by cheating. And the guy lost his seat. It was given to someone else. We saw in 2012, the Black Panthers at polling facilities. We have seen this time and time again. A local CDS (inaudible) ...
BUMP: Oh, come on.
MCENANY: ... story about how hundreds of dead people are registered to vote in L.A. Acorn, do you remember Acorn, the far left group?
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: The Black Panthers, a small group of people outside a polling station? That's an example of cheating?
MCENANY: Every vote counts in this country, it is intimidation. Yes.
COOPER: So are -- when Donald Trump talks about getting his supporters to monitor polls, is that intimidation?
MCENANY: Not monitoring polls. He wants law enforcement at polls to ensure that things are being ...
COOPER: But doesn't he have a thing online on his website for people to sign up?
MCENANY: He's not advocating people to go there with their guns and intimidate voters. He's saying be on the lookout for voter fraud. It has happened. Acorn, the far left group, that was registering thousand of people.
LAVALLE,: There is no question that there is voter fraud in America. It is a joke. And it is 2016 and we do not require people, you need a license to own a gun, you need a license to drive a car. You don't even have to show I.D to vote. It is absolutely a fact that there is voter fraud out there. For anyone to insinuate otherwise is completely naive.
BEGALA: First, you don't need a license to own a gun, actually. But ...
(CROSSTALK)
LAVELLE: But you need to show your I.D., don't you?
BEGALA: ... set aside the evil Obama administration. When George W. Bush was president, the Justice Department had a five-year crackdown on voter fraud. They believed this myth. Five-year crackdown. You know what they got? 86 convictions out of hundreds of millions of votes. After the Washington state governor's race in 2004, one of the closest in history was decided by 129 votes. So they microscopically analyzed the vote in that state in that year. They found 0.0009, 9 tens thousands of a percent was cast illegitimately. It just doesn't happen. It is literally more likely that you be struck by lightning.
(CROSSTALK)
LAVELLE: What are you afraid of?
BEGALA: The Bush Justice Department.
LAVELLE: There is so much cheating going on, it happens in New York City ...
BEGALA: Why didn't the Bush Republicans catch it, John? Why didn't they catch them? They had every political incentive.
[21:25:00] LAVELLE: I am a local county chairman. My county is larger than 10 states. We see it in my county. We have people that live in New York City and vote in the Hampton ...
(CROSSTALK)
MCENANY: Warrants have been issued in Philadelphia after the primary. So this happens. If you don't believe ...
(CROSSTALK)
BUMP: The key thing here is also scale. Yes, of course there are sporadic incidences where someone goes and votes on behalf of their mother who died or is invalid or whatever, that certainly happens, but there is no way that the scale is possible. When you mentioned Florida, you would have had to have anticipated there would be that close a race in Florida, targeted Broward County for X number of -- 500 votes, found 500 people who weren't going to vote ...
MCENANY: Have you heard of Acorn? Have you ever heard of Acorn?
BUMP: Of course. I've heard Acorn ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: OK, Tara? We haven't heard from you, Tara.
SETMAYER: OK. Look, yes, voter fraud happens and yes, the scale of voter fraud is the difference here. In Philadelphia, it's well known, even Chris Matthews, for goodness sakes, who is a bleeding heart liberal admits that there's been voter fraud going on there in Philadelphia. There were election officials that were convicted last year or a couple years ago on election fraud. But we're talking about a couple ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of six vote.
SETMAYER: Right, six votes. Small numbers in state local elections it happens. In order for it to happen on the scale Donald Trump is talking about, it would be millions.
COOPER: John, do you believe if Donald Trump loses Pennsylvania it's because of cheating?
LAVELLE: No. What I'm going to say is this.
COOPER: So you don't believe that?
LAVELLE: We have a candidate about to give a ...
COOPER: I'm just saying, do you believe it? You won't say whether or not you believe if he loses ...
LAVELLE: He's going to win Pennsylvania. Her policies ...
COOPER: If he loses Pennsylvania, do you agree with him that it's because of cheating?
SETMAYER: Hypothetically.
LAVELLE: He is talking generically. When he went to this primary, he talked about how the Republican Party, the individual states had a lot of bizarre laws. Now we're on the general election ...
COOPER: So, you don't want to answer. You don't want to answer.
LAVELLE: And let me say this.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I know you well enough now. I know that smile, John.
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: This is why the voter fraud argument work. There are 1.94 million voters in the Philadelphia area and the suburbs. Out of 5.6 million in the entire state of Pennsylvania, that is overwhelmingly Democratic in the Philadelphia area. There is no way in the world Donald Trump's going to make up that difference and if he does -- if he doesn't and claim that it's a voter fraud. We're talking ...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump will win Pennsylvania.
QUINN: But this is kind of in a way a classic candidate who's losing, right? If you're a candidate who's winning and the polls are good, you kind of brush off the polls. If you're a candidate who's losing, you try to spin the polls that you're not really losing. I've been both a winner and loser, trust me. I know of what I speak.
But bigger than that, this is very classic Donald Trump. When things aren't going his way, he blames somebody else.
COOPER: Are you comparing this to what we saw in the primaries where he said, "Oh, it's rigged, you know."
QUINN: Yeah, absolutely. And even when -- I've been comparing to that, but also, even when in the case of, you know, Captain Khan's family where he clearly had made a mistake, he can never apologize and take responsibility. He's not doing well in Pennsylvania because he's running a bad campaign, he is off message, setting a message and he is not fit to be president of the United States and doesn't have real policies that help the people of Pennsylvania. That's why.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: OK. I want John to have the last word and then we got to go.
LAVELLE: Close this. What we should be talking about today, you know, we're talking about this statement, but the attorney general in Pennsylvania is convicted of perjury today, deeply involved in the Clinton campaign. We're not talking about -- we're going to talk about, "Oh, he met with Roger Ailes who is known for ...
QUINN: She's not involved in the campaign. That's not true. That's not true.
LAVALLE: We have a candidate for president that's about to give a speech about law and order, his opponent embraces the Black Lives Matter movement and they want dead cops. Donald Trump is the law and order.
QUINN: That's not -- whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. That is absolutely not true.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Christine, you now respond ...
QUINN: It is an outrageous statement to say Black Lives Matter movement wants dead cops. That is absolutely not true.
LAVALLE: They chanted in their marches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, there's chant in a Trump rallies, too, that Trump is not held accountable.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But, you know, just last night on the program, there was a Trump supporter in the crowd saying that Barack Obama is a Muslim. And everybody here was saying, and I said it as well, look you can't point out to one person in the crowd and say, well, look, that person says that, that's all Trump supporters.
(CROSSTALK)
LAVALLE: ... but she won't because she wants the African-American vote, so she's willing to give up all of her morals ...
(CROSSTALK)
QUINN: This is not -- even what you're saying now, it's not about Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. To take the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a movement you can disagree with their tactics, you can disagree with how they organize but they are a group that is trying to articulate clearly in this country that black men and women and children are not embraced and affirmed the same way as white children.
[21:30:10] And that is a fact and they're trying to address it, to reduce police brutality and I was in Don Lemon's very good town hall meeting about this and I saw a members of the movement talking to the cops afterwards. They are actually working to bring people together. And Hillary Clinton was right when she brought those mothers up on stage because people need to know their children's name and to know they're gone and they know to what happened ...
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: She should have brought the wives of some of the cops that was killed ...
QUINN: She did.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: She did do that as well, not at the same night.
QUINN: She did the next night.
COOPER: But she did that as well. Anyway, more with the panel ahead.
Coming up, Hillary Clinton campaigning Pennsylvania, one of the key states where the polling is widely in her favor for the battleground over her e-mails continues.
We're still watching the podium in Wisconsin. We'll bring you Trump's speech when it happens. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We've been talking tonight about Pennsylvania. There's breaking news tonight about involving the Keystone State. We just learned that ads from Trump campaign will start airing this weekend in five battleground states including Pennsylvania. As Paul Begala mentioned earlier, his super PAC is pulling advertising in Pennsylvania and two other states because in this words, Hillary Clinton was so far ahead in them at this point. No doubt it's welcome news to the Clinton campaign. This however is not new fallout from her e-mail issues and a big step today from the FBI. More and all of that from our Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[21:35:01] JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton campaigning today at a Philadelphia voter registration event.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When Donald Trump speaks, he speaks about fear. He speaks about such negativity and such pessimism.
JOHNS: But her e-mail controversy still casting a shadow over her campaign. The FBI releasing a new report to Congress detailing why it recommended no charges be filed against the former secretary of state over her use of her private e-mail server. The report also includes notes taken by the FBI during witness interviews. The report is classified but it does keep the controversy alive for Clinton while offering Trump another talking point against her.
TRUMP: Hillary Clinton lacks the judgment, as said by Bernie Sanders, stability and temperament and the moral character to lead our nation.
JOHNS: The Clinton campaign saying they prefer the report be released publicly rather than forth selectively released by someone with political motives against Clinton. Meantime, Clinton is polling very well in key battleground states like Virginia.
A new "Washington Post" poll finds Clinton ahead of Trump by eight points there, 51 percent to 43 percent among likely voters. In fact, Clinton is doing so well, her super PAC Priorities USA is pulling ads in Virginia along with crucial states Colorado and Pennsylvania for much of September.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Priorities USA action is responsible for the content of this advertising.
JOHNS: The group telling CNN Clinton's early success in those states means they can focus their attention and cash in states where it's more need. In Philadelphia today, she was working hard to turn out African-American voters in record numbers.
CLINTON: We want you all to register to vote. We have places to register because we don't want you on the sidelines come November.
JOHNS: Clinton courting the black vote a day after vying for white working class voters alongside Vice President Joe Biden in Scranton, Pennsylvania, trying to hold on to the battleground state that has gone to Democrats in every presidential election since Bill Clinton won it in 1992.
CLINTON: Friends should not let friends vote for Trump.
JOHNS: And the Clinton campaign is already putting together its transition team, announcing former Colorado senator and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will lead it.
Joe Johns, CNN, Philadelphia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And we're back with the panel. When you look at these polls in battleground states, I mean, right now Donald Trump is not doing as well as Hillary Clinton is, do you think the Democrats are getting a little cocky on this? I mean, there are more than 80 days left to go.
MCENANY: I think they are certainly, because, you know, as we'd mentioned previously in this panel is that Hillary Clinton's voting base is going to be made up of minorities, they need minorities to turn out. They also need millennial's to turn out. Those two groups are tailor-made for Trump's message because those two groups have suffered the most under this economy. They still face double digit real unemployment. They have depressed wages. In Chicago, there are have been more than 2,000 homicides ...
COOPER: I mean there was just a piece in the "Times" today, and again, you can think the "Times" is, you know, ridiculous as Trump does or not, but, you know, they look at what outreach the Trump campaign is doing to African-Americans and there were a lot of African-American conservative groups who he hasn't reached out, even pastors, who, you know, there -- they had a meeting a long time ago, got a lot of press coverage, but going to a conservative African- American church and making a speech, things like that which is a traditional kind of retail politics, he's not doing.
MCENANY: And I think that's something that he needs to break into in these next 80 days.
COOPER: You would like to see him do that?
MCENANY: Absolutely. We know that he has Mark Burns, a phenomenal African-American pastor and Darryl Scott, but he needs to go and reach out to this broader community and bring this message of the economy and safety. We know there have been more than 2000 homicides in Chicago. That is startling. His message is tailor-made ...
COOPER: But it was interesting, Tara, I mean the "Times" used the example of him going to Detroit.
SETMAYER: Right.
COOPER: Basically flew in there.
SETMAYER: Yup.
COOPER: Had a, you know, a big rally ...
SETMAYER: Yup.
COOPER: ... in a largely white area, left without kind of going to any inner city area where, you know, he could have stopped into a barbershop or something get ...
SETMAYER: Yeah. There were many blown opportunities. A year ago, Donald Trump had an opportunity, I think, to get maybe 20 percent of the black vote because people know who he is, they respect him as a businessman and I think that there hasn't been great economic growth actually, it's been horrible for black America under Barack Obama in the number of areas.
So I think they were right for it. Donald Trump blew that. And not only is he not going to get anywhere close to that, we saw the polling is 1 percent maybe up to three possibly. That's abysmal. In Detroit that would have been a perfect opportunity for him.
There are plenty of black-owned businesses, plenty of areas in Detroit, with Detroit trying to make a comeback that Donald Trump could have gone and given and used his, "business prowess" that he brags about all the time to show why his business and free enterprise and empowerment zones and things like policies like that, that could be beneficial for the black community.
Talk about school choice. He didn't do that. And not only that, he has given zero money to his National Diversity Council.
[21:40:03] He has no problem parading black faces out in front of him and pastors that want to get their faces on television, but he does -- the campaign has given no money whatsoever, no investment in that. Donald Trump had an opportunity to speak in front of the NAACP conference which is right in Cincinnati.
MCENANY: Right.
SETMAYER: When we were -- our convention was in Cleveland, he said no. He didn't go to the NABJ conference, which is the largest great gathering of black journalists in this country. They didn't even bother to get a phone call back. Not to the urban league. He's done zero media for any major black media outlet. And here we are 80 days plus before the election, you think you're going to just swoop in and convince people? It's not going to work.
COOPER: (Inaudible) just in terms of focus groups and stuff? Paul.
BEGALA: Yeah. These are public polls. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, Trump is polling zero in the Africa-American, zero, now there's a three point margin of error so it could be minus three. Like somehow we could have like white people pretending to be black just to hate on Trump.
He's polling nationally in Wall Street Journal Poll -- one, among African-Americans. So I guess as a strategist you got to hunt where the ducks are. And I understand and why he did it. Look what Hillary did. She went to Scranton, right, which is not her part of Pennsylvania. She's going to win Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the suburbs, right? She went to Scranton, which is the heart of blue collar, you haven't tease them, but that's the heart of blue collar older white men is from. Joe Biden with her, she's going for those votes that are at Trump's space.
QUINN: She's reaching out, literally into Biden's old home and was kind of around the kitchen with voters. And we all know that's not Hillary's best moments, but she's pushing herself.
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COOPER: If Trump doesn't like to do those traditional kind of -- I mean, its big stadium events which again, during the primary it obviously worked very well for him and he seems most comfortable in that.
BUMP: Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean he did -- he hadn't had to do them, right? He didn't really have to transition into becoming a normal politician which was good for him. I mean he's -- he doesn't want to be a normal politician. I think the core question here is can Donald Trump who's been under the media scrutiny constantly since June 16th of 2015, can he now convince people that he is something different than what they have come to understand for the past year and a half.
COOPER: Or is it -- or it is too late. Right.
BUMP: Or is it too late with 80 days left.
QUINN: But you know what else I think it speaks to is, it just kind of a lack of interest or curiosity. Doesn't Donald Trump want to go out and meet the Americans? Go to communities he hasn't been to before? Speak to the people he says he wants to help?
COOPER: Well, you can be -- I mean, you can make the same argument about, you know, any politician -- I mean, have -- does Hillary Clinton really want to go out ...
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COOPER: I mean, maybe she does, I don't know but.
BEGALA: You actually do learn things.
QUINN: Yeah.
COOPER: No, I'm not saying you don't learn things. Of course, you learn things, but do they really want to do it?
QUINN: I actually think Hillary loves ...
LAVALLE: And actually for so long, she has no -- she's not in touch with you. (CROSSTALK)
QUINN: I sat with Hillary in these events and she and those kind of 20 person roundtables, she's engaged.
COOPER: Right. That's what people ...
QUINN: She's questioning. In fact, a fact.
COOPER: We've got to take another break as we await for Donald Trump to take the podium. Apparently he's running late. There are -- one of the questions going to be looking at, are there states in this country that are dealing with -- people trying to impose Sharia Law? This is something that a Trump adviser, General Flynn, actually said on this program last night.
I was sort of surprised when he said it because I've looked into this and every time I've look into it, I couldn't really find what they were looking at. He was talking about Florida and Texas last night. We'll get a reality check on that and as we wait for Donald Trump's speech.
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COOPER: Donald Trump expected any minute now for what's billed as a law and order speech tonight outside Milwaukee. We'll be bringing you that.
In the meantime, a quick reality check on something one of his top advisers said on the program last night. In a speech yesterday, Trump called for it's what he called extreme vetting of immigrants to somehow screen out people of who think, for example, that Sharia law should be imposed in the United States. Last night, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn in this program, he's a Trump advisor, said it's already happening in some places in the country. Here's what he said.
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LT. GEN. MICHAEL FLYNN (RET.), TRUMP ADVISER: We have a couple of states in this country right now that are dealing with -- at the state and local level dealing with the imposition of Sharia law right now. So, this is a very serious issue and I think that was really the points that Donald Trump was trying to make today.
COOPER: Where do you see people seriously trying to impose Sharia law in United States right now?
FLYNN: Florida and Texas are two states.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Tom Foreman has a reality check. So Tom, how did the General's claims actually hold up?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's take a look at the claim itself. What he's saying is a couple of states are dealing with the imposition of Sharia law. We'll start with the definition. Sharia law is a legal system based on Islamic teachings. It covers crime, business, marriage, diet, etiquette and much more.
So where is this being imposed upon people in the United States? As you just heard the General say, Texas is one of those places. What has happened there is that some Muslim community leaders have formed what they call an Islamic tribunal.
This is a place where members of the community can come together if they have some dispute, some civil dispute, they can air their grievances in front of this group and they can get arbitration based upon Sharia.
Now it's important to note this kind of arbitration has existed for Christians and Jews and other people for many decades out there. And importantly as they note on their own website, look, "These proceedings must be conducted in accordance with the law of the land, local, states, and federal within the United States." Anderson?
COOPER: So just to be clear, this isn't quote Sharia law like that found in Islamic countries and it doesn't supersede any U.S. law or challenge any U.S. law?
FOREMAN: No. There is no way in which somebody under this arbitration system cannot challenge the results or go back and get justice from the courts if they wish.
COOPER: It's the same kind of system that in some communities in New York, among Orthodox Jews, they have the same sort of setup, if someone wants a religious ruling.
FOREMAN: Exactly. Same sort of thing.
COOPER: Tom, the other example that General Flynn cited was in Florida. I hadn't heard of anything happening there. What is happening?
FOREMAN: Florida is one of at least nine states that have passed what we refer to as anti-Sharia laws. What this means is they basically said the courts there cannot give too much weight to sSharia or indeed, any foreign law in making a ruling here.
[21:50:06] Now why would you have such a thing? Well, think about this, let's say you had a couple that got married in Egypt, and they had certain expectations when they got married, legal expectations. Then they immigrate to the United States and they decided to get divorced. The courts here can and do consider their expectations from back home. But not if those expectations fly in the phase of U.S. law or U.S. customs then they get pushed aside. Otherwise, they can be considered.
The bottom line, though, is even if states are pushing these anti- Sharia laws, that does not prove that anyone is trying in an incredible, tangible big way to establish Sharia law. That's why our finding is that this statement is simply false. Anderson. COOPER: Thanks very much. Any moment now, we're told Donald Trump is expected to take the stage in West Bend, Wisconsin. When he does, we'll bring you his speech, which is expected to focus on law and order.
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COOPER: Looking at the podium there in West Bend, Wisconsin, Donald Trump, who's been running a bit late on the (inaudible) Milwaukee, we're told has arrived now. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is up on stage right now.
Our Jason Carroll is at the event, he joins us again with the very latest. So, what is the campaign saying? You know, there have been focusing on this event tonight saying this is not sort of just a typical rally.
[21:55:00] This is going to be an address by the candidate.
CARROLL: And we're seeing signs of that already. We're seeing signs that this going to be very much a speech that Rudy -- that Donald Trump gives about law and order. Rudy Giuliani, former New York City Mayor already taking the stage. Already setting the tone talking about what happened in Milwaukee, Anderson, saying this is a difficult time, not just for the city but for the country. And that the officers who was involved in this controversial shooting was himself African-American. And then he told the crowd do Black Lives Matter, I mean when it is an officer that's involved. Already setting the tone for what's to come later on when Donald Trump finally takes the stage.
He's now more than an hour late at this point. This crow really has been waiting for such a very long time. It is extremely hot in this room. A number of people saying, "Look, if you're going to be late, you better bring it when you take the stage." Donald Trump promising to do that when he does take the stage here just a few moments from now. The prompters are here.
He's expected to be on message talking about that he is the law and ordered candidate. He will paint a very strong difference between himself and Hillary Clinton, who he will tell the crowd is weak when it comes to crime, weak when it comes to terrorism, again, when he takes the stage just a few moments from now. Anderson?
COOPER: Jason, we're also bringing that live. Jason, it was interesting, though, because Trump said today he wasn't going to make a pivot at this point in his campaign. But I mean Trump is, you know, this the -- that going to be basically the second kind of controlled speech that non-impromptu address that Trump has made in the last two days.
CARROLL: Right, and he did say earlier in an interview when asked, "Look, your rhetoric is turning a lot of people off, especially in places like Wisconsin, where you are trailing Hillary Clinton in the polls here. And don't you need to do something to change your rhetoric, change your tone." And Donald Trump basically told this reporter, "Look, it's gotten me this far. It's gotten me through the primary. There's been some questions that will it work in a general election."
But then you look at that statement that he put out, Anderson, just a little earlier this evening, put out a statement on Facebook, "A pledge to America." And let me just read part of it to you, it says "We will reject bigotry and hatred and oppression in all its forms and seek a new future built on our common cultures and values as one American people." That's not the type of language we've heard from Donald Trump in the past. Some might call that a bit of a pivot, at least on paper. But when it comes to his speech here tonight, expect it to be very much about law and order. Anderson.
COOPER: Jason, thanks very much. Our panel members have been with us all evening. Let's get some quick thoughts before Trump comes out.
It's interesting because, I mean, at the convention, probably one of the strongest parts of the convention was Trump declaring himself the law and order candidate. It's not something we've heard a ton about from the candidate since the convention. But now two days in a row you have the address on defeating ISIS, on attacking ISIS yesterday and this focus on -- we're told this could be on law and order tonight. That does seem to be a certain discipline at least on message.
MCENANY: Yes and this is where Donald Trump has a big moment tonight to come off and be a commander in chief. You can tell a lot about someone in a moment of crisis. And the middle of Ferguson when Obama came out and sent the Justice Department hastily after Darren Wilson only to find out he was innocent. In the wake of Milwaukee, as the streets were burning, you had Hillary Clinton come out and say law enforcement needs to regain the trust of the community. Tonight, Donald Trump can look like a commander in chief and say let's respect our law enforcement, but let's address some the grievances that the African-American community has. He can be a president tonight. It's a big moment for him.
SETMAYER: We'll see. I mean how many times have we heard this? Every opportunity for Donald Trump when he's in front of people is an opportunity for him to present himself as someone who can be commander in chief and he has failed miserably thus far, which is why his poll numbers are tanking the way that they are.
So, if he does that tonight and he's on prompter, I'll be very surprised. But as we were listening and the report came through that people were upset that they've been waiting a long time and it's hot in the room, you know that Donald Trump's natural instinct is to entertain his crowd. So, you know, there were a couple of grumbles that said, oh, oh, where they heard that because if Donald Trump decided to be (ph) off message, that's where we get the new cycle off- message thing for the next week. So, we'll see what he does tonight.
COOPER: Just for balance, folks who support President Obama would say having the Justice Department look into racism in Ferguson, which they did find many examples of, is an example of attempted at law and order but ...
(CROSSTALK) SETMAYER: ... and Eric Holder put out a op-ed during Ferguson before the facts were even out, saying we stand with you Ferguson before he ever knew what was going on with this ...
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: There's this myth that somehow Trump is off message when he says this divisive hateful incendiary things, he needs to get back on message, that is the Trump message. That's how he won the primary and that's how he's going to lose the general.
[22:00:02] COOPER: We got to leave it there. We're out of time. Our coverage continues though.
"CNN TONIGHT with Don Lemon" starts now.
