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At This Hour

Donald Trump Expected to Announce Plans to Run for Presidency. Aired 11:00-11:30a ET.

Aired June 16, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: And I'm Kate Bolduan. We could be moments away from seeing a 12th Republican candidate enter the race for the White House. Donald Trump, everyone, is expected to announce his plans from the New York Building that bears his name.

BERMAN: Because often it is all about his name. So the question is, is he serious this time or just selling something? Trump's flirtations with running have been a quadrennial exercise in the theater of the absurd and have earned him a fair amount of ridicule.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Donald Trump has been saying that he will run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:00:03] BERMAN: That was four years ago, but it is possible that Trump 2016 is no joke or at least a different kind of joke.

Our Joe Johns is at the Trump Tower waiting for the announcement. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Trump is going to run is the big question here, and it looks like the stage is set, doesn't it? He is being introduced right now by his daughter Ivanka. He is expected to go out to Iowa and later to New Hampshire after an appearance here. He's expected to release a statement suggesting that he is essentially worth $9 billion. That statement will be immediately scrutinized.

His big problem though is his favorability ratings. Out in Iowa there are some suggestions in a recent poll that 58 percent of Republican respondents said they would never vote for Donald Trump. Still, a lot of people would like to see him in the race if only for the entertainment value portion. That itself is a big issue, because of his franchise on NBC celebrity apprentice.

If he does announce that he is getting into the race, that could be a big trouble for him. Some suggestions he would not be able to continue hosting that show as long as he's running for president. Talking to people with Trump today, they say if he gets in the race as expected, look for his kids, his five children, to try host the show. BERMAN: All right. Joe Johns, thanks so much. We'll get back to the

announcement as soon as Donald Trump takes the stage.

KATA BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We'll take a look at that. Will be followed.

BERMAN: All right. Just minutes ago we learned that Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker allegedly involved with two convicted killers and charged with helping them bust out. She had a jail house visit from her husband, Lyle this morning.

BOLDUAN: Sources have told CNN that the fugitives, Richard Matt and David Sweat they had planned to kill Lyle Mitchell but at some point abandoned that plan. Meantime, we've also learned that the trail for those two fugitives has gone cold.

Alexandra Field is in West Plattsburgh, New York, with all of the very latest. What are you picking up?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Kate. Joyce Mitchell behind bars at the Clinton County Jail we're told that she can have two hours' worth of visitation every week. And this morning her husband Lyle showed up to visit her. No word on how long he stayed one can only imagine what they discussed. Investigators have, said that they are talking to Lyle Mitchell, trying to determine if he had any kind of role in the escape or if he had any knowledge of the escape. Of course, his wife is facing up to eight years behind bars based on allegations that she helped these fugitives planned their escape by providing tools.

Law enforcement sources have told CNN that Mitchell had a relationship with both of these man, a sexual relationship with Richard Matt some kind of inappropriate, relationship with David Sweat and sources now saying that the two men had some type of plan to kill Lyle Mitchell but that it isn't clear how much Joyce may have known about that plan.

At this point, Lyle Mitchell has spoken with investigators, but, John, Kate, he has not been charged with anything.

BOLDUAN: Now, also at this point, Alexandra, how much cooperation is Joyce Mitchell offering investigators. I mean, today, they have said, she had been cooperative. Now, she is charged, now she is behind bars. Is that all will stop now?

FIELD: Right. All along they said that she was very much willing to participate that she had you know, voluntarily come forward day after day. She speak to investigator's to offer whatever she did know. We aren't hearing that she has decided to stop cooperating entirely. Certainly, you would imagine that investigators have hope to keep some form of communication open and open line with her to see if there was anything else she knows but you've got to put this in a broader perspective.

Maybe she is hanging to a piece of information she knows but really, John and Kate these guys have been on the run for 11 days. So it's possible that if she knew the details of the plan originally, that plan could have certainly changed after she did not make the stop in the getaway car you know, these fugitives to any plans at this point though. There is a question of how valuable she is to investigators right now.

BERMAN: All right. Alexandra Field, for us in West Plattsburgh. Let's put a picture again from Trump Tower right now where Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka is introducing the real estate model reality television show "Star" and soon enough perhaps as soon as right now, Donald Trump will take the stage and tell us what his plans are for 2016. Will he run for president.

BOLDUAN: Let's take a moment and bring in S.E. Cupp, conservative commentator for CNN as we're waiting for Trump to take the stage. S.E. you've been getting a little word on what we could be hearing from that man. What are you picking up?

[11:05:00] S.E. CUPP, CNN CORRESPONDENT : Yes. I talked to folks on the Trump team just earlier, just moments ago and they said to expect Trump on themes of anti-establishment outside Washington. He's going to talk about being a New Yorker. His record in business, his positions on foreign policy and trade. He's apparently going to mention something to the effects of you know, you can't change Washington from the inside and unless you bring in an outsider.

We should expect over the course of his campaign to talk about some of the government projects that he has overtaken, Walman Rink, Ferry Point Gulf Course and point out how quickly to the private sector he was able to turn those projects around. So all indications are, he's looking to amounts of fairly serious campaign, now that remains to be seen if he gets in you know, Ted Cruz' birth certificate or things like that. I'm not sure will take him very seriously but from what I have heard and what I have read from his speech. He is sitting on some fairly serious topics and some serious issues.

BERMAN: S.E. he's going down the escalator right now in the Trump hour not far from Gucci store which he has declared as more than Mitt Romney. Just to be clear if he approaches his microphone will he unambiguously say that, he is running for President right now?

CUPP: Yes. According to the highlights I've gotten and what I have read, he officially announced he's running for president, yes.

BOLDUAN: And do you take him seriously as a conservative, as a Republican, do you take him seriously as a candidate right off the bat?

CUPP: Yes. Again, it really does depend on what - how he runs this campaign. He is not an unserious person. He is incredibly successful. He has a lot of experiences that would inform a good campaign and a potential presidency. If he shows up and it's, you know, more of the Donald Trump that we know from television and Fox News, kind of just, you know, saying preposterous of things -

BOLDUAN: Right, pontificating.

CUPP: - so I don't think we should - yes. I don't think we should take him seriously and I think that will be evident and obvious fairly quickly but again and you can see him walking up to the stage, he wants talk about some serious issues.

BERMAN: Let's take this in. Let us watch Donald Trump declare his candidacy for president.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is some group of people. Thousands. So nice. Thank you very much. That's really nice. Thank you. It's great to be at Trump Tower. It's great to be in a wonderful city, New York. And it's an honor to have everybody here. This is beyond anybody's expectations. There's been no crowd like this.

And, I can tell, you some of the candidates, they went in. They didn't know the air-conditioner didn't work. They sweated like dogs.

They didn't know the room was too big, because they didn't have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS? I don't think it's going to happen.

Our country is in serious trouble. We don't have victories anymore. We used to have victories, but we don't have them. When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time.

When did we beat Japan at anything? They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

When do we beat Mexico at the border? They're laughing at us, at our stupidity. And now they are beating us economically. They are not our friend, believe me. But they're killing us economically.

The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else's problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need you.

TRUMP: Thank you. It's true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we're getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They're sending us not the right people.

It's coming from more than Mexico. It's coming from all over South and Latin America, and it's coming probably - probably - from the Middle East. But we don't know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don't know what's happening. And it's got to stop and it's got to stop fast.

[11:10:00] Islamic terrorism is eating up large portions of the Middle East. They've become rich. I'm in competition with them.

They just built a hotel in Syria. Can you believe this? They built a hotel. When I have to build a hotel, I pay interest. They don't have to pay interest, because they took the oil that, when we left Iraq, I said we should've taken.

So now ISIS has the oil, and what they don't have, Iran has. And in 19 - and I will tell you this, and I said it very strongly, years ago, I said - and I love the military, and I want to have the strongest military that we've ever had, and we need it more now than ever. But I said, "Don't hit Iraq," because you're going to totally destabilize the Middle East. Iran is going to take over the Middle East, Iran and somebody else will get the oil, and it turned out that Iran is now taking over Iraq. Think of it. Iran is taking over Iraq, and they're taking it over big league.

We spent $2 trillion in Iraq, $2 trillion. We lost thousands of lives, thousands in Iraq. We have wounded soldiers, who I love, I love - they're great - all over the place, thousands and thousands of wounded soldiers.

And we have nothing. We can't even go there. We have nothing. And every time we give Iraq equipment, the first time a bullet goes off in the air, they leave it.

Last week, I read 2,300 Humvees - these are big vehicles - were left behind for the enemy. 2,000? You would say maybe two, maybe four? 2,300 sophisticated vehicles, they ran, and the enemy took them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need Trump. Yes.

TRUMP: You're right. Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product - a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It's never below zero.

Our labor participation rate was the worst since 1978. But think of it, GDP below zero, horrible labor participation rate.

And our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don't believe the 5.6. Don't believe it.

That's right. A lot of people up there can't get jobs. They can't get jobs, because there are no jobs, because China has our jobs and Mexico has our jobs. They all have our jobs.

But the real number, the real number is anywhere from 18 to 19 and maybe even 21 percent, and nobody talks about it, because it's a statistic that's full of nonsense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want Trump now.

TRUMP: Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the day, and we as a country are getting weaker. Even our nuclear arsenal doesn't work.

It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years old. They don't even know if it worked. And I thought it was horrible when it was broadcast on television, because boy, does that send signals to Putin and all of the other people that look at us and they say, "That is a group of people, and that is a nation that truly has no clue. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need you.

TRUMP: We have a disaster called the big lie: Obamacare. Obamacare.

Yesterday, it came out that costs are going for people up 29, 39, 49, and even 55 percent, and deductibles are through the roof. You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high, it's virtually useless. It's virtually useless. It is a disaster.

[11:15:00] And remember the $5 billion website? $5 billion we spent on a website, and to this day it doesn't work. A $5 billion website.

I have so many websites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a website. It costs me $3. $5 billion website.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need Trump. We need Trump. We want Trump. We want Trump.

TRUMP: Well, you need somebody, because politicians are all talk, no action. Nothing's going to get done. They will not bring us - believe me - to the promised land. They will not.

As an example, I've been on the circuit making speeches, and I hear my fellow Republicans. And they're wonderful people. I like them. They all want me to support them. They don't know how to bring it about. They come up to my office. I'm meeting with three of them in the next week. And they don't know - "Are you running? Are you not running? Could we have your support? What do we do? How do we do it?"

I like them. And I hear their speeches. And they don't talk jobs and they don't talk China. When was the last time you heard China is killing us? They're devaluing their currency to a level that you wouldn't believe. It makes it impossible for our companies to compete, impossible. They're killing us.

But you don't hear that from anybody else. You don't hear it from anybody else. And I watch the speeches.

Thank you.

I watch the speeches of these people, and they say the sun will rise, the moon will set, all sorts of wonderful things will happen. And people are saying, "What's going on? I just want a job. Just get me a job. I don't need the rhetoric. I want a job."

And that's what's happening. And it's going to get worse, because remember, Obamacare really kicks in in '16, 2016. Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might even be on one of my courses. I would invite him, I actually would say. I have the best courses in the world, so I'd say, you what, if he wants to - I have one right next to the White House, right on the Potomac. If he'd like to play, that's fine.

In fact, I'd love him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing.

But Obamacare kicks in in 2016. Really big league. It is going to be amazingly destructive. Doctors are quitting. I have a friend who's a doctor, and he said to me the other day, "Donald, I never saw anything like it. I have more accountants than I have nurses. It's a disaster. My patients are beside themselves. They had a plan that was good. They have no plan now."

We have to repeal Obamacare, and it can be - and - and it can be replaced with something much better for everybody. Let it be for everybody. But much better and much less expensive for people and for the government. And we can do it.

So I've watched the politicians. I've dealt with them all my life. If you can't make a good deal with a politician, then there's something wrong with you. You're certainly not very good. And that's what we have representing us. They will never make America great again. They don't even have a chance. They're controlled fully - they're controlled fully by the lobbyists, by the donors, and by the special interests, fully.

Yes, they control them. Hey, I have lobbyists. I have to tell you. I have lobbyists that can produce anything for me. They're great. But you know what? It won't happen. It won't happen. Because we have to stop doing things for some people, but for this country, it's destroying our country. We have to stop, and it has to stop now.

Now, our country needs - our country needs a truly great leader, and we need a truly great leader now. We need a leader that wrote "The Art of the Deal."

[11:20:00] We need a leader that can bring back our jobs, can bring back our manufacturing, can bring back our military, can take care of our vets. Our vets have been abandoned.

And we also need a cheerleader.

You know, when President Obama was elected, I said, "Well, the one thing, I think he'll do well. I think he'll be a great cheerleader for the country. I think he'd be a great spirit."

He was vibrant. He was young. I really thought that he would be a great cheerleader.

He's not a leader. That's true. You're right about that.

But he wasn't a cheerleader. He's actually a negative force. He's been a negative force. He wasn't a cheerleader; he was the opposite.

We need somebody that can take the brand of the United States and make it great again. It's not great again. We need - we need somebody - we need somebody that literally will take

this country and make it great again. We can do that.

And, I will tell you, I love my life. I have a wonderful family. They're saying, "Dad, you're going to do something that's going to be so tough."

You know, all of my life, I've heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person and even modestly successful cannot run for public office. Just can't happen. And yet that's the kind of mindset that you need to make this country great again.

So ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running, for president of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again.

It can happen. Our country has tremendous potential. We have tremendous people.

We have people that aren't working. We have people that have no incentive to work. But they're going to have incentive to work, because the greatest social program is a job. And they'll be proud, and they'll love it, and they'll make much more money than they would've ever made, and they'll be - they'll be doing so well, and we're going to be thriving as a country, thriving. It can happen.

I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I tell you that.

I'll bring back our jobs from China, from Mexico, from Japan, from so many places. I'll bring back our jobs, and I'll bring back our money.

Right now, think of this: We owe China $1.3 trillion. We owe Japan more than that. So they come in, they take our jobs, they take our money, and then they loan us back the money, and we pay them in interest, and then the dollar goes up so their deal's even better.

How stupid are our leaders? How stupid are these politicians to allow this to happen? How stupid are they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want Trump. We want Trump. We want Trump.

TRUMP: I'm going to tell you - thank you. I'm going to tell you a couple of stories about trade, because I'm totally against the trade bill for a number of reasons.

Number one, the people negotiating don't have a clue. Our president doesn't have a clue. He's a bad negotiator.

He's the one that did Bergdahl. We get Bergdahl, they get five killer terrorists that everybody wanted over there.

We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That's the negotiator we have. Take a look at the deal he's making with Iran. He makes that deal,

Israel maybe won't exist very long. It's a disaster, and we have to protect Israel. But...

[11:25:00] So we need people - I'm a free trader. But the problem with free trade is you need really talented people to negotiate for you. If you don't have talented people, if you don't have great leadership, if you don't have people that know business, not just a political hack that got the job because he made a contribution to a campaign, which is the way all jobs, just about, are gotten, free trade is terrible.

Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people, but we have people that are stupid. We have people that aren't smart. And we have people that are controlled by special interests. And it's just not going to work.

So, here's a couple of stories happened recently. A friend of mine is a great manufacturer. And, you know, China comes over and they dump all their stuff, and I buy it. I buy it, because, frankly, I have an obligation to buy it, because they devalue their currency so brilliantly, they just did it recently, and nobody thought they could do it again.

But with all our problems with Russia, with all our problems with everything - everything, they got away with it again. And it's impossible for our people here to compete.

So I want to tell you this story. A friend of mine who's a great manufacturer, calls me up a few weeks ago. He's very upset. I said, "What's your problem?"

He said, "You know, I make great product."

And I said, "I know. I know that because I buy the product."

He said, "I can't get it into China. They won't accept it. I sent a boat over and they actually sent it back. They talked about environmental, they talked about all sorts of crap that had nothing to do with it."

I said, "Oh, wait a minute, that's terrible. Does anyone know this?"

He said, "Yeah, they do it all the time with other people."

I said, "They send it back?"

"Yeah. So I finally got it over there and they charged me a big tariff. They're not supposed to be doing that. I told them."

Now, they do charge you tariff on trucks, when we send trucks and other things over there.

Ask Boeing. They wanted Boeing's secrets. They wanted their patents and all their secrets before they agreed to buy planes from Boeing. Hey, I'm not saying they're stupid. I like China. I sell apartments

for - I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them? I own a big chunk of the Bank of America Building at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, that I got from China in a war. Very valuable.

I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower. I love China. People say, "Oh, you don't like China?"

No, I love them. But their leaders are much smarter than our leaders, and we can't sustain ourself with that. There's too much - it's like - it's like take the New England Patriots and Tom Brady and have them play your high school football team. That's the difference between China's leaders and our leaders.

They are ripping us. We are rebuilding China. We're rebuilding many countries. China, you go there now, roads, bridges, schools, you never saw anything like it. They have bridges that make the George Washington Bridge look like small potatoes. And they're all over the place.

We have all the cards, but we don't know how to use them. We don't even know that we have the cards, because our leaders don't understand the game. We could turn off that spigot by charging them tax until they behave properly.

Now they're going militarily. They're building a military island in the middle of the South China sea. A military island. Now, our country could never do that because we'd have to get environmental clearance, and the environmentalist wouldn't let our country - we would never build in an ocean. They built it in about one year, this massive military port.

They're building up their military to a point that is very scary. You have a problem with ISIS. You have a bigger problem with China.

And, in my opinion, the new China, believe it or not, in terms of trade, is Mexico.

So this man tells me about the manufacturing. I say, "That's a terrible story. I hate to hear it."

But I have another one, Ford.

So Mexico takes a company, a car company that was going to build in Tennessee, rips it out. Everybody thought the deal was dead. Reported it in the Wall Street Journal recently. Everybody thought it was a done deal. It's going in and that's going to be it, going into Tennessee. Great state, great people.

All of a sudden, at the last moment, this big car manufacturer, foreign, announces they're not going to Tennessee. They're going to spend their $1 billion in Mexico instead. Not good.