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Joe Biden: I Would Have Been Best President; Trump Not Releasing Tax Returns before Election; London's Muslim Mayor Has Harsh Words for Trump. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired May 11, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:33:47] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: There is just one person Vice President Joe Biden thinks would make a better president than Hillary Clinton and that is Joe Biden himself.
Here he was on "Good Morning, America."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think I would have been the best president but it was the right thing, not just for my family, for me. No one should ever seek the presidency unless they're able to devote their whole heart and soul and passion into just doing that. And Beau was my soul.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The vice president, as you well know, decided against a bid for the White House as he mentioned, Beau, the death of his son.
As for the Republicans here, this is all about, today, Trump and his taxes. The presumptive Republican nominee slamming the door on releasing his tax returns, telling the Associated Press he said he has no plans to release them before the election because he's being audited.
Let me bring in our panel. Ben Stein is back, actor, lawyer, economist, and served as a conservative speech writer for Richard Nixon; Healy Baumgardner is with us, senior press representative of the Trump campaign; Tim Miller is back, former communications director for the Jeb Bush political campaign.
Welcome to all of you.
And, Mr. Stein, I'd like to begin with you.
Just looking at you, and thinking of President Nixon. It was President Nixon that kicked off the tradition of releasing his tax forms. His was under audit back in 1973. Do you think Trump's refusal to release them is significant or is this, you know, this is a different presidency, a different race, the rules are out the window?
[14:35:27] BILL STEIN, ACTOR, LAWYER, ECONOMIST & FORMER CONSERVATIVE SPEECH WRITER FOR RICHARD NIXON: Well, it's interesting you ask me this question, because I was assigned the task, as a Nixon speech writer and lawyer, of going through President Nixon's income tax returns and found he had done a lot of extremely questionable things.
BALDWIN: There you go.
STEIN: They were gigantic bomb shells in the media over his taking a tax deduction for deducting his presidential papers that were found to be the property of the taxpayers not him. We definitely want these tax returns released for all candidates. Why? It's not a law. It's not required. And people are allowed to pay as little taxes as they can get away with. But it says about a person if he brags about having $10 billion and it turns out he's paying very little in the way of tax. It tells us something questionable about that person. We consider paying taxes not only a law but a civic duty.
BALDWIN: You say it brings up the question of questioning the person.
Healy, I have to put you in the spotlight in a second but let me just key up some sound. First, we'll hear from Hillary Clinton speaking at an event in New Jersey moments ago, followed by Mitt Romney talking about this as well from February of this year. Roll it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: That is no way to create good jobs with rising incomes with the vast majority of Americas, is it?
(SHOUTING)
CLINTON: And the gentleman who called out what about his tax plan, I hope you'll keep asking that. And what about his taxes? So we'll get around to that, too, because when you run for president, especially when you become the nominee that's kind of expected. My husband and I have released 33 years of tax returns. We got eight years on our website right now. So you got to ask yourself, why doesn't he want to release them? Yeah, well, we're going to find out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think there's something that he's not anywhere near as wealthy as he said he is or hasn't been paying the kind of taxes we would expect him to pay or perhaps he hasn't been giving money to the vets or to the disabled like he's been telling us he's been doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Healy, why not?
HEALY BAUMGARDNER, SENIOR PRESS REPRESENTATIVE, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Well, I want to address this on several fronts. Number one, let's consider the source. Hillary Clinton, who is responsible for Benghazi and who has not taken responsibility for that, number one. Number two, Mitt Romney, who ran for president multiple times, lost, and tried to reenter the race and stir up this race, and is a total loser. So let's consider those two sources right there. Mr. Trump --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: OK --
(CROSSTALK)
BAUMGARDNER: -- has made it abundantly clear --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I don't think it's fair to call him the loser. He was the governor of Massachusetts.
(CROSSTALK)
BAUMGARDNER: Please allow me to finish --
(CROSSTALK)
BAUMGARDNER: Please, please, afford me a second to finish, please. Please, afford me a second to finish, please.
Mr. Trump has made it abundantly clear he's undergoing a routine audit. And upon conclusion of that audit, he will release the tax returns. But per the advice of counsel --
(CROSSTALK)
TIM MILLER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, FORMER JEB BUSH PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Brooke, that's not right --
(CROSSTALK)
BAUMGARDNER: That's available on the website.
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: That's crazy.
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: A presidential candidate on the advice of counsel will not release his taxes? That sounds like he's on trial for tax fraud. He's got dozens of accountants. He can do the audit and release the taxes at the same time.
(CROSSTALK)
MILLER: And Healy isn't answering the question. She must not be up to speed on what's happening in the Trump campaign because he said today --
(CROSSTALK)
MILLER: -- he was never going to release them. And she's not answering the question. She's resorting to childish attacks, because it's indefensible.
And here's the thing, Brooke, Donald Trump is a noted conspiracy theorist who has demanded the president release his birth certificate based on wild conspiracy theories. The question is, what does he have to hide? He probably has debts to the Russians and foreign countries. He isn't worth as much as he says. He gives nothing to charity. This is why he's not doing it. And Healy has no defense of this so she just attacks Mitt Romney, which is not relevant at all to the conversation.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Healy, Healy, Healy, you can understand all of Tim's points. You could put all of this to bed by releasing them.
BAUMGARDNER: Mr. Trump --
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: You can't release them. They're not going to look nice --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: One voice.
Go ahead, Healy.
BAUMGARDNER: That's incorrect. He's undergoing a routine audit upon the conclusion of the audit he said he's willing to release the returns. Until that's completed, however, he's not able to do that. So --
(CROSSTALK)
MILLER: He didn't say that. He said today -- he said today --
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: What? That's not what he said.
MILLER: And number two --
BALDWIN: Hang on --
(CROSSTALK)
[14:40:11] MILLER: There's no proof he's been audited, so that's not right.
BALDWIN: Ben Stein -- STEIN: And anyway, even if he is being audited, that doesn't stop him from releasing the tax returns. This is a guy, who is bragging, bragging about how rich he is, bragging about how patriotic he is, bragging about how charitable he is. Let's see how much of a good citizen he is and whether he's avoiding taxes or telling the truth about how rich he is or how much he gives to charity. It goes to character. It goes to character. Not necessarily lawbreaking, I don't think he's breaking any laws, but let's see what he's like in terms of character.
BALDWIN: OK. Let's --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I don't want to talk Trump and taxes anymore for now.
Let me focus on you, Tim.
MILLER: Sure.
BALDWIN: At question is the Republican pledge, right, where all the candidates, you know, once upon a time, agreed to ultimately support the nominee the party would choose. You tweeted something out last night. Talk to me about the, what, Dunkin' Donuts napkin picture.
MILLER: First, on the taxes, I think delegates should demand Trump releases his taxes. They have the leverage.
On the pledge, that was a tongue-in-cheek tweet I think Jeb sent over this whole ridiculous pledge black when it happened. Look, he's a Republican. That's what matters. And I think that using that as an out, right now, to make a determination about whether someone is qualified to be president of the United States is pretty silly. Because --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You were attacking Trump for not doing this last August over and over.
MILLER: I don't know that I was attacking Trump for not doing it. Frankly, I don't think Donald Trump --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Tim, come on.
MILLER: Donald Trump is full of it. I never thought it mattered whether Donald Trump would sign the pledge because he would back out on the pledge just like he's backing out on releasing his taxes. In April of last year, he said he'd release his taxes. Trump is not trustworthy.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Don't you remember the first debate in August when that was asked, he didn't raise his hand, and everybody else did on signing the pledge, and everybody jump, on him --
(CROSSTALK)
MILLER: Well, look, I think he was attacked rightly at that debate back in August over the fact that he wasn't loyal to conservative principles and to Republicans. I think that's fair.
But, look, I think that the point I was making, Brooke, the pledge that matters here is the next president is going to have to put their hand on the Bible and pledge to uphold the Constitution. If you do not believe that Donald Trump is capable or willing or interested in upholding the Constitution, then you shouldn't support him. And that is the pledge that matters. And so I'd encourage Republicans, who don't trust him -- and there's a great number of us -- to just go ahead and say that clearly.
BALDWIN: Ben Stein, I started with you, I'd love to end with you.
We heard Trump say he's going to go hard against -- attacking Bill Clinton moving ahead. You have been around politics for a long, long time. How nasty --
(CROSSTALK)
STEIN: A long time.
BALDWIN: How nasty might this get before we have a next president?
STEIN: It's going to get very, very nasty. I've been writing for years for a magazine called "The American Spectator" that's been publishing chapter and verse about Mrs. Clinton suppressing the complaints about Bill Clinton's sex antics. And I think the fact that Mrs. Clinton helped in that does not make her the woman's candidate. I'm not a woman. It's not for me to say. But I say let's look and see how she treated the women who say there were abused by her husband. It's well worth looking into. Again, not a legal matter, a question of character.
BALDWIN: I think the Clinton camp would take issue with you saying "helped" in that.
STEIN: Of course, they would.
BALDWIN: That's a note for another discussion. But it could go there in the coming month.
Thank you to all of you, Ben Stein, Healy Baumgardner, Tim Miller.
STEIN: Thank you.
MILLER: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Thank you.
Coming up next, a search warrant offers new clues into Prince's death. We now know the name of the doctor who was treating the star days before he died. But for what exactly? Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will join me next.
Later, the tourist selfie that destroyed a piece of 16th century history. You heard about this? That's coming up.
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[14:48:28] BALDWIN: We now know who was treating music icon, Prince, in the days leading up to his death. This police warrant used to search his Paisley Park home was inadvertently unsealed. Within this, it revealed a local physician specializing in family medicine saw Prince the day before he died, and another time, two weeks prior. His name is Dr. Michael Todd -- OK -- Schulenberg. Sorry about that. You see him in this video, not related to the death investigation. The warrant said he prescribed medication to Prince. It also says he was on his way to Paisley Park to give the singer test results when Prince was found dead. Investigators seized Prince's medical records from his clinic. CNN has learned the doctor no longer works there.
And this is all part of this mass investigation to figure out what role, if anything, pain killers may have played in Prince's death. Opioid addiction and abuse was also a big topic on Capitol Hill today. House Speaker Ryan announced legislation to curb what he called a national epidemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. PAUL RYAN, (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is about saving people's lives. It is about honoring those who are taken too soon. It is about honoring those who want a second chance, who need and deserve a second chance. It's about protecting the next generation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Tonight's CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" will air a special town hall about the dilemma and issues surrounding prescription addiction. It airs tonight at 9:00.
And speaking tonight will be our own chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is here with me now.
Nice to see you.
[14:50:09] DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Brooke.
BALDWIN: We will get to your town hall in just a minute.
This physician has a clean criminal record was a family physician, had worked at a hospital. No longer works there. Do you read anything into that?
GUPTA: I think it's hard at this point. Look, this may have been Prince's doctor who was treating him for all sorts of different things. We don't know what he was giving him that day in terms of test results. He went to his house the day that Prince died --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Test results for we have no idea.
GUPTA: We don't know. We don't know what the prescriptions were that he specifically provided. What I will tell you that when we heard the D.A. was going to investigate it doesn't surprise me at all we'll hear the names of various doctors who may have treated Prince over the weeks days and months ahead of time. What exactly the role is, I think it's just too early to tell. My guess is he's been told by his hospital and even by the DEA to just lay low. They're going to ask him questions for a while. We're probably not going to hear from him until there's more conclusive things to say. We have to be careful not to indict him in the public opinion court.
BALDWIN: Right. A little bit more on the doctor, reportedly also told detectives he had given Prince a prescription that was filled at a local pharmacy. You can understand why but people are thinking of Dr. Konrad Murray and Michael Jackson.
GUPTA: The thing they have in common is they're both famous singers, with Konrad Murray you had a doctor that was treating a patient in a home with a medication that should not be a private setting. It's something that should have never been done. In this case, there are reasons people get pain medications. Even if he did get a prescription for a pain medication, it doesn't mean that somehow he was responsible or should be in legal jeopardy for here there. We just don't know. How much was he getting? Was he getting it from other doctors? Was he getting it from other people that were getting prescriptions from doctors? That's called diversion, taking other people's medications. These are I'm sure all questions the D.A. is looking into and we'll hear more about.
BALDWIN: Meantime, bigger picture, this town hall dealing with this massive issue of prescription pain killer abuse and addiction. Tell me more.
GUPTA: This has been an issue for a long time in the United States.
BALDWIN: Yeah. It's not new.
GUPTA: It's the number-one cause of preventable death in America today. More people die like this than die from car accidents. OK. And this is a totally manufactured epidemic. This is on us. And we know that the United States, in particular, is really egregious we have perverse consumption. We take 75 percent of the world's pain pills in the U.S., which is only 5 percent of the world's population. 80 percent of the world's pain pills, 5 percent of the world's population. It's ridiculous.
We talk about this a lot. People are more interested in it when a story like Prince arises. Again, we don't know for sure it's related to opioids. But there's a lot of people asking a lot of questions. A lot of people look at their own loved ones and say, hey, I'm worried about my loved one, whether my husband, wife, kid, being addicted. How would I know? What could I do about it? What is the doctor's responsibility? We're going to define the problem, talk to experts, and talk to people who are going through this currently. Hopefully, spend a lot of time talking about solutions. That's the good part. Because we made this problem, we can fix this problem.
BALDWIN: We can solve it.
We'll see you tonight in the town hall.
Again, a reminder for all of you. It's a "360" town hall special. It's "Prescription Addiction, Made in the USA." It airs tonight at 9:00 here on CNN.
Thank you, sir.
GUPTA: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Next CNN's Christiane Amanpour goes one-on-one with London's newly elected mayor, who happens to be Muslim. His message for Donald Trump, next.
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[14:58:12] BALDWIN: London's new mayor has harsh words for Donald Trump. He says some of Trump's views are ignorant, his word, and the New York billionaire would play into the hands of extremists.
CNN's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, sat down with London's first Muslim mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KHAN: I'm proud London chose unity over division. My message to Donald Trump and his team is, your views of Islam are ignorant. It's possible to be Muslim and live in the West and it's possible to live in be an America and love in America. I've got family member who are American. We've often been to America in holiday. My kids used to love Disneyland. I'm scared of the rides, but we used to love going to Disneyland. I'm not exceptional. So for Donald Trump to say only Mayor Khan can be allowed but not the rest is ridiculous. There are business people here who do business in American who happen to be Muslim. Young people who want to study in America who are Muslim. There are people who want to go on holiday who happen to be Muslim, and around the world. Now by giving the impression that Islam and the West are incompatible, you're playing into the hands of the extremists.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You've said you want to do business and go and learn from and exchange ideas with mayors of great American cities, like in New York or Chicago. Would you go under a Donald Trump presidency?
KHAN: I'm not sure he'd allow me to go. But it's not just about me. It's about the message it sends from the greatest country in the world. What's the story of America? I think Donald Trump doesn't get the history of America. My point with respect to, you look, America is, look, you know, I think, you know, you've got a choice when it comes to the elections in November, a choice of hope over fear.
