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Trump Ramps Up Feud with Gold Star Parents; Interview with Representative Ruben Gallego; Trump Blasts Fire Marshal for Restricting Crowd. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired August 02, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:12] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Hillary Clinton rides a big bounce out of her party's convention and knocks Donald Trump out of the lead. Clinton surges in our latest CNN-ORC poll, erasing Trump's lead before her convention. She's now ahead by nine percentage points.
Clinton and Trump are locked in a dead heat on the issue of fighting ISIS, but that only tells part of the story. Trump once held a commanding lead, 13 percentage points, less than two weeks ago when the Republican convention wrapped up.
In the meantime, Trump escalates his feud with the parents of a Muslim U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan. And Trump's running mate has to answer for it when confronted by a military mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time and time again Trump has disrespected our nation's armed forces and veterans, and his disrespect for Mr. Khan and his family is just an example of that.
(CROWD BOOING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will there ever be a point when you're able to look at Mr. Trump in the eye and tell him enough is enough? You have a son in the military. How do you tolerate his disrespect?
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I thank you for the question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What difference does it make?
PENCE: It's all right. It's all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't politicize the military.
PENCE: Folks, that's what -- that's what freedom looks like and that's what freedom sounds like. OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: All right. CNN's Phil Mattingly is here with more. Hi, Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. That right there is just a prime example that this is an issue that has started to resonate on the campaign trail, and more than one Republican official sent me an e-mail about that very interaction and saying, if Donald Trump can handle this like Mike Pence handled that, very deftly, we would be in a much better place.
And here is the issue right now. This is still an issue. Republicans would like Donald Trump to move on. And for a period yesterday, it seemed like he might. He didn't bring this up in either of his rallies, but he did in a local interview with the Columbus, Ohio, television station, describing very specific ulterior motives of Khizr Khan and the reason why he spoke at the Democratic National Convention. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Border security is very big and when you have radical Islamic terrorists probably all over the place, we're allowing them to come in by the thousands and thousands. And I think that's what bothered Mr. Khan more than anything else. And you know, I'm not going to change my views on that. We have radical Islamic terrorists coming in that have to be stopped.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: And at the heart of this issue for the Trump campaign and really for Donald Trump has been what we've seen over the course of the last 14 months, Carol. If Donald Trump feels like he's being attacked, he's going to swing back. He always says he's a counter puncher. And that means there won't be any apology in the works. It's something his son was asked about this morning. Take a listen to what Eric Trump had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They want an apology. Would your father be willing to apologize and move on?
ERIC TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: That I think is a great question for him. And I think he has by calling them a hero. You know, in terms of the one question whether he'd made a sacrifice, I think my father has. Now that's certainly not the ultimate sacrifice. The ultimate sacrifice is a soldier dying for this nation and dying to protect the three of us, there's no question about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it difficult for him to apologize, Eric, on anything? You know -- you know him probably better than anybody.
E. TRUMP: My father is a fighter. You know, my father is a fighter. And I think this country needs a fighter. And I think he was attacked the other day and he was attacked viciously. And by the way, that's politics, you're going to get attacked. (END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: So Eric Trump really underscoring a central theme of the Trump campaign and a central theme of what's been happening over the course of the last few days related specifically to this incident.
Now, Carol, this is something, again, Republican officials just wish they could move on from. This isn't a public fight they want to have and privately I'm told Republican officials have repeatedly reached out to the Trump campaign and said just move on.
A lot of Republican officials also publicly making comments. Among them, House Speaker Paul Ryan. While not directly mentioning Donald Trump saying that he is opposed to Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban and really kind of criticizing the idea of anybody critiquing Gold Star mothers. One of the interesting responses of that, Donald Trump yesterday thanking Paul Ryan's primary opponent, Paul Nehlen, on Twitter for his kind words. Paul Nehlen has been repeatedly attacking Paul Ryan. Their primary is a week away, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
Three veterans who are freshman Democratic congressmen are urging the House Speaker Paul Ryan to un-endorse Donald Trump because of his attacks on the Khan family, writing in part, quote, "As veterans who previously served on active duty, we are horrified by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's slander of parents whose son died serving our country. Mr. Trump has already made a series of racist and sexist statements, but the profound disrespect Mr. Trump has shown toward Gold Star parents is a new low."
With me now is one of those congressmen who wrote that letter, Ruben Gallego. Welcome, sir.
REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D), ARIZONA: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
COSTELLO: Where did you serve?
[10:05:02] GALLEGO: I served in Iraq with Lima 325 based out of Columbus, Ohio.
COSTELLO: So, just as you step back, not as a Democrat or a Republican and you watch all of this unfold on the political stage, what goes through your mind as a veteran?
GALLEGO: Well, as a veteran and friends of a lot of Gold Star families, really it's just disgusting for someone to call themselves a national leader, for not having the temperament or understanding of what the word sacrifice means to a Gold Star family, and then when pushed up against the wall, just turning out and lashing out in a very idiotic and irresponsible manner, really tells me one thing, is this person is not ready to be president.
And for any politician that considers themselves a sane and responsible politician to still be endorsing someone like Donald Trump really makes me question whether or not they are really looking after the welfare of this country.
COSTELLO: Paul Ryan probably will receive your letter and say, well, he's a Democrat, he wants to keep this going for obvious purposes.
GALLEGO: Well, more importantly I want to keep this country safe. And somebody like Donald Trump is unstable. He doesn't understand the military, he doesn't understand our veteran and veteran families, and clearly doesn't have the temperament to be president of the United States.
And time and time again, Paul Ryan rebukes the things that Donald Trump says without ever mentioning his name. But yet turns around and continues to support him. And how is Donald Trump ever going to learn to constrain himself, to actually comport himself like an actual leader when all these Republican leaders are turning around, still giving him the backing and encouraging him to continue to run for office.
COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing. You know, Senator John McCain came out with a very strong letter renouncing --
GALLEGO: Right.
COSTELLO: Denouncing Donald Trump's comments about the Khan family.
GALLEGO: But still endorsing him.
COSTELLO: But -- but Senator McCain would say, you know what, the voters have spoken. Who am I as a politician to disavow what they want?
GALLEGO: But it's important to be a leader sometimes and not a politician. And I think Senator McCain is missing that point. So is Speaker Ryan. This man is unstable, he's unfit to be a presidential candidate.
COSTELLO: You think he's unstable?
GALLEGO: I absolutely believe he's unstable.
COSTELLO: Like mentally unstable?
GALLEGO: I do believe he's mentally unstable. I believe he is very -- he's very -- who in their right mind would attack a Gold Star family? And not only that, once they've actually done that, then turn around and double and then accusing a Gold Star mother of not being able to speak because of some weird religious bias that he believes that she had.
This is not normal. And for politicians like Paul Ryan and Senator McCain to basically continue to endorse this person, you're only encouraging that behavior, and not only that you're encouraging other people within society, a lot of people that are supporting Trump, to actually support this kind of viewpoint.
COSTELLO: The parents who lost their kids in Benghazi when the consulate came under attack, they have a far different view of this than Democrats do. Do you understand where they're coming from?
GALLEGO: Well, absolutely. And I think, you know, their sacrifice is just as important as the sacrifice of the Khan family. And I think it's also important for us to remember that there is no reason why they should be attacked or the Khan family should be attacked. It doesn't mean that just because one family was attacked that it's somehow equal. Either way they --
COSTELLO: They would say that Hillary Clinton owes them an apology.
GALLEGO: Well, I think Hillary Clinton has stated very clearly what occurred and how she feels that she did not, you know, do anything wrong in regards to that family. And I think Trump could have also done the same thing. Trump could have actually attacked and talked about the issues, not necessarily attack them personally. And I think what a lot of people are having, this is why the Gold Star Family Association by the VFW who tends to be non-partisan jumped in and said that this is unacceptable, this is a new low.
There's something to be said when all these organizations that tends to stay out of politics are coming in and saying that Trump really has just jumped the shark when it comes to attacking families.
COSTELLO: Congressman Gallego, thank you for stopping.
GALLEGO: Thank you.
COSTELLO: And thank you for your service.
GALLEGO: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Trump say the November system is rigged. Could this belief help him with voters? We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:13:01] COSTELLO: Donald Trump hitting the much needed battleground state of Virginia today. You're looking at live pictures from Ashburn, which is where Mr. Trump will speak next hour. Virginia as you know is the home state of the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Senator Tim Kaine.
We can expect Trumps to react to Kaine's harsh comments, calling Trump's remarks about the Khan family, quote, "the lowest of low." He's also likely to mention how the system is working against him.
Trump's new target, fire marshals. Trump blasted them in the swing state of Ohio ahead of his events there. He claims the fire marshals refused to let all of his supporters into the event for political reasons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: For political reasons they were turned away and that's too bad. So we have a thousand people in there. They won't allow anymore -- the fire marshal said he's not allowed to allow anymore, even though the building holds many thousands of people. So I just want to tell you that. That's politics at its lowest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: CNN's Jason Carroll is following all of this. He's live in Ashburn.
Good morning, Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. You know, this isn't the first time that Trump has gone after fire marshals. When we were in Colorado Springs last week, he went after the fire marshals there for the exact same reason. He felt as though the venue where he had booked was big enough to hold more people than were allowed inside.
There were thousands of people outside there in Columbus, Ohio, who could not get in. I actually spoke to the fire marshal about that yesterday. And he says, look, last Friday both the fire officials and the Trump campaign had come to an agreement that a certain number of people would be allowed in. He says the reason why anymore people were not allowed in is because some of the exits were blocked due to construction and it was a safety issue, not a political issue. He also told me that some members of the Trump camp actually called him later to apologize.
But, Carol, this once again points to what some critics have been saying of the Trump and the Trump campaign. They don't want him focused on fire marshals or Gold Star families or former New York City mayors, they want him focused on the issues and Hillary Clinton.
[10:15:03] He did that yesterday in Pennsylvania. Went after Clinton in a way that I think few expected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If he would have just not done anything, just go home, go to sleep, relax, he would have been a hero. But he made a deal with the devil. She's the devil. He made a deal with the devil. It's true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Calling her the devil I think was not the way that some folks expected him to go after Clinton. In terms of what he might do today, it's probably going to be much of what we've seen in some of his previous rallies. He will talk about the economy. He will talk about creating jobs and national security. Those will be some of the topics of discussion.
What will be interesting to see is whether or not he goes into this whole issue once again of the system being rigged. For the first time yesterday he said he feels as though the system in the general election will be rigged against him -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Jason Carroll, I do believe we have Mr. Trump actually saying that because I think that will be a continuing theme, right? So let's allow our viewers to listen to that. Here's Mr. Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest. I hear more and more that the election on November 8th -- can you believe it? We're almost there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll, thank you.
With me to talk about all of this Tara Setmayer, a CNN political commentator and a Republican. I also have with me Ed Espinoza, a Hillary Clinton supporter and former superdelegate, Scottie Nell Hughes is a Trump supporter and political commentator, and Tom Bevan is the co-founder for RealClearPolitics.com.
Scottie, Mr. Trump calls -- he's already called the November election rigged. Why?
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, because we just have -- we have thousands of e-mails from WikiLeaks proving that a lot of things were rigged in the Democratic primary. So why is it so farfetched to be able to predict this would happen again?
COSTELLO: How is that --
HUGHES: Well, we've already shown -- we didn't think it was going to happen then. Now I'm not saying that --
COSTELLO: So exactly how might --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: No, exactly how might the November election be rigged and who would rig it?
HUGHES: Well, that's the thing. I think that's why he's able to say it, is just to remind people that we saw that the Bernie versus Hillary race was rigged and those e-mails proved that. And that's just to remind, he's not necessarily saying that's what's going to happen, but it's once again just to remind the American people what happened, to remind those Bernie Sanders supporters that, yes, all of your thoughts, all of your fears were true. The Democrats were putting the system against you so that your candidate, Bernie Sanders, would not be the nominee.
COSTELLO: So, Ed, do you agree? Was the Democratic process rigged on the Democratic side? And could that spill over to the election in November?
EDWARD ESPINOZA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PROGRESS TEXAS: First of all, as a former employee of the Democrat National Committee, I think that people give us way too much credit for the things that we're able to pull off at the DNC. It was not rigged. There were some bad e-mails. But the point is, is that Donald Trump had talked about winning again, having Republicans win again. How are you going to win again if you're telling people that it's rigged? It's an excuse because he sees the writing on the wall and he doesn't think he can get past the finish line.
Another element of all this is that when you're working in campaigns, one part of the science of this is that voters are more enthusiastic, they're more motivated to vote if they think their vote can make a difference, if they think that they're in this game. To say that the process is rigged is actually counterintuitive to all of that and serves to suppress his own vote. He's not ready for this.
COSTELLO: Scottie, what do you make of this? Do you suppose we'll hear more of this from Donald Trump down the line? You know, this poll, the CNN-ORC poll just came out showing a big Hillary Clinton bounce and maybe that's why Mr. Trump is saying this?
HUGHES: It was a good convention bounce. I, like most of the commentators, that have been on this morning, agree, let's give it a week or two, possibly three, let's even it out. Let's continue on the campaign trail and see what their message is and how it resonates with the American voters. Both candidates experienced great bounces after their conventions expected, historical bounces that we have not seen since the '80s. And so, I think, you know, that was great for both of them. That means they accomplished what they wanted at the convention. I think give it a few weeks and we'll see how these polls actually equal out.
COSTELLO: Tom, do you see it that way?
TOM BEVAN, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, REALCLEARPOLITICS.COM: Yes, I think we've got to give it a little bit of time. Certainly Hillary Clinton got a convention bounce. But let me just say about Trump saying the election is rigged, this is his ground game. I mean, he doesn't have a conventional ground game. He's doing this by trying to motivate his supporters to get to the polls. And I'll disagree with your earlier guest, that, you know, he did this in the Republican primary, said it was rigged against him. It worked for him then. He's going to continue to use that in a general election and try and basically -- that's how he's going to try and get his folks to the polls, and say, look, if you don't come out and vote for me, we're going to lose this election because it's going to be rigged.
Now that's a dangerous game to play but that's the game that he's playing and as I said it worked for him in the primaries.
COSTELLO: Tara, is it a dangerous game to play for Mr. Trump?
TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, because this is a very left-wing tactic with all due respect to my friends on the other side of the aisle, but to go and undermine the system that you're engaging in is a typical tactic of people to try to undermine the integrity of our election process.
[10:20:11] This is really beneath the dignity of this process. Donald Trump is running for the presidency of the United States which is a very serious job, it's for the leader of the free world. And what has he done since he has secured the nomination? All he has done is continue to make personal attacks against people based on their ethnicity, based on their religion. He has not stayed on message. He has not gone after Hillary Clinton in a consistent way that is -- other than calling her names.
Hillary Clinton's record should be enough to sink her. Any other Republican nominee would be up by 20 points now. But instead Donald Trump decides to whine and complain about things when he doesn't get his way or to mask from -- hide from the fact that he does not have a real campaign, that he doesn't have a real message that will be successful in this country. He has no idea how to govern. And so instead he does things like this, all deflection. So of course, let's plant into the seeds of people's idea -- mind the idea that no matter what happens, the system is rigged.
I don't really think Donald Trump wants to win. Does he really want to win this?
COSTELLO: Well --
SETMAYER: Because he's setting himself up to be an awful martyr and then he can complain when he gets -- when there's a landslide in November, he can complain that it was because the system was rigged against him. Everything is unfair against Donald Trump.
COSTELLO: OK, so --
SETMAYER: It's embarrassing.
COSTELLO: So, Ed, I do want to ask you about this because there's more than one op-ed in today's -- in the "Washington Post," for example, that claims that Mr. Trump is unstable. I just had a Democratic congressman on saying that he thinks there's something mentally unbalanced about Mr. Trump. Why go there?
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: Well, I can --
COSTELLO: Ed. I want Ed.
SETMAYER: Sorry, I didn't hear.
ESPINOZA: I think that Donald Trump has given people enough evidence to suspect that maybe there is something going on upstairs, or maybe not anything going on upstairs. But it's not just Democratic congressmen. This morning, Richard Hannah, Republican congressman from New York, wrote an op-ed saying that he will vote for Hillary Clinton. When was the last time we ever saw a sitting member of Congress who is a Republican say --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: But why call Mr. Trump unbalanced? ESPINOZA: Well, I think -- I think he's offered enough evidence to
suggest that maybe -- maybe the lights are on but no one is home. I think that he's constantly calling people names, he shows that he's not necessarily fit for this job.
COSTELLO: But that doesn't mean someone is unbalanced?
ESPINOZA: People have questions.
COSTELLO: Or crazy, right? Because that's really what they're saying.
ESPINOZA: Well, I don't know exactly what they're saying. I don't know if unbalanced means crazy, but I do think it draws questions.
COSTELLO: OK, Scottie. Go.
HUGHES: Well, I think this is an interesting step that you've got to be careful because it's not only what Mr. Trump is, it's he who represents, the 14 million voters. And if you are sitting here and trying to appeal to those voters to come and vote for Hillary Clinton, I would really caution anybody to sit there and insult them. But also I think this shows the hypocritical standard that we're seeing from the left right now, that they can sit there and they can do -- call these names. There's actually a lot stronger names being called than just unbalanced in regard to Mr. Trump's sanity.
They've actually called very -- like your previous guest, the congressman, the words that he said to him. That's -- you know, this shows the double standard. As well as like the "New York Post" putting out the naked photos -- publishing the naked photos of Melania Trump when she was 25 years before she even met Mr. Trump. And yet where are the feminists screaming about that? So it's one thing to sit there and you criticize Mr. Trump for calling names, for saying things, and then you turn around and you call him a name.
COSTELLO: Well --
HUGHES: That's why right now, I think, a lot of people are wondering why this is -- you know, it's the hypocrisy that keeps being called out.
(CROSSTALK)
SETMAYER: Look, this is all of the questions --
ESPINOZA: Suggesting that someone --
SETMAYER: This is all completely --
ESPINOZA: Suggesting that some has an unbalanced temperament --
SETMAYER: This is ridiculous that we're having these conversations now. The conversation from Donald Trump every single day should be hammering Hillary Clinton on her record, on the failed record of the Obama presidency, of the fact that we have 1.2 percent GDP growth, the worst since 1948, the economy, the economy, the economy, and Hillary Clinton's dishonesty. That's it.
All this other nonsense is just ridiculous. So people do question, does he really want to win or is it just his narcissism taking over? But either way, this is not how a presidential candidate should be running a campaign.
HUGHES: Tara, I agree with you. Hold on -- let's make history. I actually agree with Tara, what she's saying right there. She's right. And that's what Donald Trump should be focusing on what he's saying. The problem is he keeps seeing these things thrown back at him.
SETMAYER: Well, stop making excuses for him.
HUGHES: Well, the --
COSTELLO: OK.
HUGHES: He keeps being asked by journalists. Yesterday and any of the things that were brought up that were controversial. It wasn't Mr. Trump bringing it up, it is the journalists bringing it up. Other people bringing up the issue. Mr. Trump wants to focus on those policy, I guarantee the surrogates want to focus on --
COSTELLO: Mr. Trump said all of those things in his speech unprompted by journalists. I go to end it there.
Scottie Nell Hughes, Tom Bevan, Ed Espinoza, and Tara Setmayer, thanks so much.
Tomorrow night on CNN a special town hall with Libertarian -- with the Libertarian ticket Gary Johnson and William Weld. It will be hosted by Anderson Cooper tomorrow night 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:24:25] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump doubles down on his feud with the Gold Star family, putting his own party in a bind. Many Republicans now speaking out in support of the Khan family while Trump gets the cold shoulder. But those who lost loved ones in Benghazi, they're also crying foul, not at Donald Trump, but at Hillary Clinton.
Patricia Smith who's been one of Clinton's harshest critics blames Clinton for the death of her son, Sean. Over the weekend Clinton pushed back against claims she lied to the victims' families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: My heart goes out to both of them. Losing a child under any circumstances, especially in this case, to State Department employees, extraordinary men, both of them, to CIA contractors gave their lives.
