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Trump Campaigns in Maine; Paul Ryan Strikes Back. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 04, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Speaker Ryan did not rule out that he may revoke his endorsement of the Republican nominee.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If I see as a situation where our conservative principles are being distorted, I'm going to stand up for those conservative principles.

If I see and hear things that I think are wrong, I'm not going to sit by and say nothing, because I think I have a duty as the Republican leader to defend Republican principles and our party's brand if I think they're being distorted.

And so that's what I said I would do back then, when I supported him, and that's what I am continuing to do if and when I see these situations arise.

QUESTION: Is there -- would there ever be a bridge too far?

(CROSSTALK)

RYAN: I have always said, of course, there are moments in that. And I'm not going to get into speculation or hypotheticals. None of these things are ever blank checks. That goes with any situation in any kind of race.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, let's begin in Portland, Maine, ahead of that Trump event.

Jason Carroll is standing by live.

Do we think Trump will stay on message?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think that's what the hope is among many in the GOP, that Donald Trump does stay on message.

He certainly did yesterday in Daytona Beach for a while when he had his rally there. He really went after Clinton on a number of issues, that $400 million payment to Iran, her ability to handle economy, her trustworthiness. He really hammered her hard on a number of issues.

And, Brooke, this what those within the GOP want to see more of, more focus on Hillary Clinton, less distractions. Yesterday at his speech in Daytona Beach, again, he did stay on topic for most of it, but he did deter after that and then he started talking about some things he's been down the road before, his issues with Megyn Kelly, the issue about perhaps making fun of a disabled reporter.

These are the things that those within the GOP say, OK, we have litigated this before. Enough. Move beyond that, focus on the issues, focus on Hillary Clinton, stay focused on what she can and cannot do. And that's much of what he did yesterday.

In terms of if he will take on Paul Ryan here today in Portland, I doubt it. I doubt he will do that. But I can tell you one thing, when you talk to people who come out to these rallies, as I did yesterday in Daytona and here again today, this whole issue between Trump and Paul Ryan isn't resonating with his base.

They say Paul Ryan is part of the establishment. Donald Trump is the outsider. He's the anti-establishment. So why wouldn't there be sort of tension between those who are in and those who are out?

That's what they expect. They look at this man and they say, we are behind him 100 percent. Doesn't matter if he endorses or does not endorse Paul Ryan. So, as for the Ryan issue, doubt he will bring it up here. But once again the hope is that he stays focused on one name, and that's Hillary Clinton.

BALDWIN: All right, Jason, thank you. We will take Trump live. We will dip in, in a couple of minutes. Thank you.

Hillary Clinton also about to take to her own stage. She's holding a rally in Las Vegas fresh off some new poll numbers which have her leading in three critical states. You see them there, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

Joining me now from her rally, Joe Johns, CNN senior Washington correspondent.

Joe Johns, set the stage for me there in Vegas and obviously they have to be thrilled in Brooklyn today over those poll numbers.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think you're right. This is the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, obviously organized labor here in Las Vegas.

I have to tell you, when you talk about the polls, numerous polls showing good news for Hillary Clinton, you look at some of the energy on the campaign trail last night, I was in Commerce City in Colorado. A lot of energy in that room for Hillary Clinton. And then you look at some of the other intangibles, for example, right now, she's doing a tour of Mohave Electric here in Las Vegas.

Now, normally, when a candidate of this caliber goes to a business on a campaign stop, it's usually run by, owned by a loyal member of her own party. Well, in this instance, she's touring Mohave Electric, which was founded by what they call a supportive Republican, meaning a Republican who supports Hillary Clinton.

And that plays into their narrative of trying to get more and more Republicans on Hillary Clinton's side. She also talked just a little bit ago there at Mohave Electric about Donald Trump and the things she's been pushing about so much here on campaign trail very recently, and that would be Donald Trump outsourcing jobs when he makes things in other countries. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump says the reason that he makes so many of his products overseas is because of the market, because it is just too expensive to do it here right now, and that he would change that market as president.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, when you run for president, you need to be judged by what you have done. And I think the evidence is pretty clear. Everything he's made, he's made somewhere else. He's not put Americans to work.

He's imported foreign workers, instead of hiring Americans at his country clubs and his resorts. He has cheated contractors. I take that personally. My father was a small businessman. And he got contracts. And if he had showed up after having done all the work, printed the fabrics for the draperies that were going to be made and told, as Trump told countless small businesses, "I'm not going to pay you," I don't know what would have happened to our family.

But I have met people who were destroyed by Donald Trump. So take a look at what he's done, not what he says.

Thank you all.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So that's been the theme. It's been billed as something to talk about the economy, jobs, business, but she's also been taking a lot of shots at Donald Trump -- back to you.

BALDWIN: Joe Johns, thank you in Vegas.

And just to get into those poll numbers that Joe just mentioned that bode well for Hillary Clinton today, in the Rust Belt state of Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton now leads Trump by 13 points. Michigan, she is up by nine. There you see the numbers. And her biggest lead is in New Hampshire. She is ahead double digits, 15 points.

So, with me now, A.B. Stoddard, associate editor and columnist for RealClearPolitics, Andre Bauer, who used to serve as lieutenant governor in South Carolina and now supports Donald Trump. And the author of "Buyer's Remorse: How Obama Let Progressives Down," he is CNN political commentator Bill Press. So, great to have you all with me.

A.B., let me just begin with you on the polls, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and how Hillary Clinton is doing so well. My question to you is, how is then affecting then down ballot, and specifically the Senate race in New Hampshire?

A.B. STODDARD, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Well, it's terrifying news for Senator Ayotte, who's running in a very tight race against the governor of New Hampshire.

And when Donald Trump was doing well there and she was sort of trying to stand by him, she has endorsed him and not revoked it. Things were looking better. But if Hillary really is surging there and is going to hold a solid lead there, that imperils her there.

If you look at Senator Rob Portman in Ohio, on the other hand, where those numbers have been tied a lot between Clinton and Trump, Rob Portman is doing better than Trump is doing in that state. There are different scenarios for different individual Republicans who are running in cycle this year in states Obama won. They have their different challenges. Of course, in the last couple days, Donald Trump has made it more challenging for them.

BALDWIN: Andre, on Donald Trump, who you are supporting, listen, you can say maybe poll numbers don't matter, although we agree that those states definitely matter if you want to win the White House.

You also have Paul Ryan, right, the highest ranking Republican at all of that end of Pennsylvania Avenue down on Capitol Hill, and he essentially has told this radio reporter this morning that he would consider revoking his endorsement of Mr. Trump, that his endorsement -- and I'm paraphrasing -- wasn't a blank check.

Do you care?

ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I care because I want him to be able to get something done in Washington and it works a lot better if you can get along with the speaker of the House. Newt Gingrich proved that even working across the aisle with Bill Clinton.

I would say on poll numbers, Donald Trump's poll numbers haven't been true. Most of the time, they favored him even when the polls said he wasn't going to do well because so many of the people that he's inspiring to come out and vote aren't showing up on polls.

I don't know about you, but I have never actually been polled. And so I think a lot of folks that come out that are not historical voters are going to come out and vote for Donald Trump. So he has a huge segment of folks that have come out that did it in the Republican primaries that didn't show up on the radar.

BALDWIN: What about this, Bill Press, on also news today that Trump posting -- he is getting closer to Hillary Clinton when it comes to money, posting $80 million last month, closing the gap with her, interestingly, like your favorite Bernie Sanders and how he collected his money with these small-dollar donations?

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know that the extent of the small-dollar donations. But, yes, he had a good month.

BALDWIN: From a lot of small...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: A lot of them, but I doubt that he's in the Bernie Sanders exclusive $27 category.

But he got a lot of money. It was an $80 million month. He has a lot to catch up on. Hillary Clinton has been at the $50 million, $68 million mark for months, and has been running ads like all summer, even before the conventions, where Donald Trump...

BALDWIN: She's already spent money on stuff he has yet to...

PRESS: Donald Trump was not even on the air.

But I have to say something about these polls, because I did write a book about buyer's remorse about President Obama.

BALDWIN: Please do.

PRESS: I think the shoe is on the other foot right now.

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

PRESS: Meaning Republicans are having buyer's remorse almost...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Over supporting Donald Trump?

PRESS: Just barely two weeks after the convention when they nominated him, they see his convention lead has disappeared, his convention bounce has disappeared. They see him behind in these swing states.

[15:10:00]

And then they see him just one bonkers statement after another, to the point where Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich are saying maybe we need an intervention to get the campaign back on track. I bet you there are enough Republicans, if they could do it, who would take that nomination away from him today.

BALDWIN: On that, though, let me follow up with you. Then, Andre, I will come to you. I feel like I have talked to voters, though, too, who have perhaps had that buyer's remorse on Trump. But they think, OK, got Mike Pence. Mike Pence is somebody who goes way back with Paul Ryan. He supports Paul Ryan. He comes from that establishment wing of the Republican Party. It's OK. Does that allay fears?

PRESS: No. No. No.

BALDWIN: I know you're not a Republican, but...

PRESS: No. If I were a Republican, no, it doesn't, because as Paul Manafort said yesterday, Mr. Trump is controlling his own campaign. This is the Trump campaign.

He's the one who threw the baby out of the rally. He is the one who said he would not endorse Paul Ryan or John McCain. Right? He is the one who brought up again yet Megyn Kelly. He is out of control.

And all Mike Pence, he's like the guy in the circus parade sweeping up the you-know-what after the elephants. Mike Pence alone can't save this party.

BALDWIN: Andre, on the sweeping of the you-know-what and the other points Bill made, what are you thinking?

BAUER: Well, a couple points. Number one, Bill, I like Bill a lot. He describes things very well.

PRESS: Back at you.

BAUER: The fact that Trump was actually neck and neck with Hillary all those months with being dark, we all know in politics, if one candidate's spending money and one's not, what the numbers do.

Even where she was spending tens of millions of dollars in the swing states, her numbers still weren't moving a whole bunch compared to Trump's.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: But what about his point about staying on message vs. going off on some thread?

BAUER: Well, look, I would like for Donald Trump to stay on message a little bit more. That would be me.

He's definitely not a seasoned politician. We all know that. We know with him we get a different approach to campaigning and to governing. That's part of the refreshing part. Not all of it do I agree with, nor a lot of people. But do I agree with it a whole lot more than Hillary Clinton? Absolutely.

PRESS: They keep coming back to that. That's all they have got, Brooke, is to come back to, no matter what he does, he's better than having Hillary Clinton.

BALDWIN: That's the unifier, though. I was in Cleveland. The screams in that arena...

PRESS: If that's all they have got, I would suggest that's not enough to convince the American people where you want to take this country.

BALDWIN: A.B., does he have a point?

BAUER: Well, Bill is right. I'm sorry. Go ahead. BALDWIN: No, I want to hear A.B.'s voice too.

STODDARD: I want to agree first with Andre that 40-1 outspending Donald Trump on advertising got Hillary nowhere. A week ago, she was behind Trump in the polls.

And we don't know how long -- how solid this lead is and how long it will last. But what she's doing effectively is she's making people feel that Donald Trump is too scary to take a risk on, even though he's the outsider that both parties want. That's something that she's using to great effect so far, if the polls show she's making inroads with Republicans.

PRESS: Yes. Can I just say one other thing?

BALDWIN: Sure.

PRESS: It is stunning really that the Republican speaker of the House would suggest that he would un-endorse the Republican nominee for president.

We have never seen anything like that in American politics. And you know why he's doing it? Because he is concerned about keeping control of the House, the down ballot.

BALDWIN: The down ballot, which we were just talking about to begin with.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Then, Andre, let me ask you about Paul Ryan. We have heard this phrase before, beyond the pale. Right? Some time ago when he was talking about in the wake of Trump's comments on the judge in California, beyond the pale. And then he was talking today, beyond the pale, he talked about Trump's family comments beyond the pale. How many beyond the pales is Paul Ryan going to say with regard to the Republican nominee?

BAUER: Well, I don't know how many he's going to take. Some of them, quite frankly, I agree with Donald Trump on. All of them? Not all of them. But there are instances where I think it's fair.

For the Khan family, for example, it is a tragic loss that they lost a son. But when you start connecting the dots on Mr. Khan and his relationship with the Clinton Foundation and with the Clintons, it is not like he is just an arbitrary Gold Star family. That's not the case.

So I think Donald Trump is more than fair to call out Mr. Khan. For him to hide behind his son's death and become political and start doing TV shows...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: An arbitrary Gold Star family, I mean, they lost their son in action. (CROSSTALK)

BAUER: No question. But to allow him to now become political and be able to throw stones without responding is not right either.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: What about Pat Smith at the RNC? I talked to her a couple of days ago. Both of them -- your heart goes out to both of them. But they have...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: When you start...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: ... Gold Star families, Andre, some of them are OK and some of them are not OK, look, they all lost their sons and daughters.

(CROSSTALK)

[15:15:05]

BAUER: I'm not saying they're OK or not OK. But he has gotten...

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: Their sons and daughters made the ultimate sacrifice. They are not fair game. And this is hurting Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

PRESS: It is hurting the Republican Party. Get off it.

(CROSSTALK)

BAUER: In my opinion -- I respect yours.

PRESS: OK. But I would just say, we would not be talking about this a week later. That speech, as powerful as it was, would have been forgotten, if Donald Trump hadn't gone on the attack and attack and attack and kept it up.

BALDWIN: OK. Let's move past that.

Let me ask A.B. Stoddard about Obama's approval rating. It's at 54 percent. It's a Reagan high, a Clinton high, a four-year high here in his second term. How much do you think this helps Hillary Clinton?

STODDARD: I think it does. She's obviously running to be the third term of Obama.

She'd have to defy historical odds to keep the White House for a third term for her party. It just has not happened, with the exception of George Herbert Walker Bush, for more than 50 years or something. She's going to cling to that. She can now bring him campaigning in places he wouldn't have campaigned in 2014 when he was still unpopular.

We're going to be watching, Brooke, in the months to come if the right track/wrong track numbers are more important than his approval rating as an incumbent president. It going to be interesting to see what matters more.

BALDWIN: A.B. Stoddard, Andre Bauer, Bill Press, thank you all so much.

PRESS: Thanks, Brooke.

BAUER: Thank you.

BALDWIN: And, again, we're watching and waiting to hear from -- thank you -- Donald Trump speaking in Portland, Maine. That's the little box on your screen.

Also, a short time from now, President Obama will be holding a news conference fro the Pentagon. Certainly will face questions about that $40 million in cash the U.S. sent in that unmarked cargo plane -- $400 million to Iran in January. Critics say ransom. White House says, no, it wasn't. This is all back to an arms deal from '79. How might the president respond?

A lot coming up this afternoon. Again, a reminder, we are waiting for Trump, we're waiting for Clinton, and the president, all speaking live during the show. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:21:09]

BALDWIN: We're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

I have got some news just in here. Two senior U.S. officials telling CNN there was no -- quote, unquote -- "ultimatum" from Iran for the U.S. to send in that $400 million in cash in order to free those four American hostages.

This is coming into us as President Obama will soon be grilled about his decision to send a plane loaded with these wooden pallets stuffed with cash and different currencies to Tehran on the very same day that Iran released these four hostages.

We are also learning that senior Justice Department officials reportedly raised objections to the plan long before that cargo plane ever took off in January. President Obama and the State Department approved the plan anyway.

When you hear from the White House, they are pushing back, they're insisting the $400 million was not at all ransom money for those four hostages. Instead, it was a long overdue payment from the U.S. to Iran. It was essentially Iran's money to have for a failed arms deal dating all the way back to 1979.

Joining me now, national security analyst Juliette Kayyem, former assistant secretary of homeland security in the Obama administration, and political commentator Buck Sexton, national security editor for TheBlaze.com, former counterterrorism CIA.

So, hello to both of you.

You used to work for President Obama. Let's just begin there. We are hearing from him in about an hour. He is going to have to address this. What does he say?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I don't get it. This story is like one of those that I just don't get.

In January, the president announces three different pieces of an Iran deal, the nuclear deal, the hostages and the $400 million payment. Some reporter discovers -- a good reporter discovers the way that they actually pay for it is not with a check, because that's actually against the law, but through a payment in the movement of money.

And there were disagreements potentially within the United States government. To me, this is like -- I don't even get the story, because the truth is, there were different negotiators for all three tracks and this was disclosed in January. So, I mean, if I were the White House, I would just be like this -- yes, you now are listening to what told you in January.

BALDWIN: No big deal.

You think it is no big deal?

BUCK SEXTON, NATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR, THEBLAZE.COM: If it was no big deal, why did we wait until now to hear about it and why did they come out with a line that's just quite honestly laughable that this is coincidental? The timing of this...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: The very day.

SEXTON: The same day.

This is money that's been owed since the period of the shah, and the money all of a sudden shows up on pallets in cash which by the way is also untraceable and therefore can be used for any number of nefarious purposes without any hope of the U.S. knowing where that money is going. The White House has already said it may well in fact go to financing terrorism.

They could have told us about this right when it happened if they didn't feel somewhat shady about the process, if they didn't recognize that people would say, hold on a second, the timing matters, the optics, as we say in D.C., matter, or as they say in D.C., matters, and all of this smells. It smells funky, why is why they didn't tell us about it in the very beginning. And this is why they are holding a press conference, because when they say it is a coincidence, everybody laughs in their faces. Come on, we actually figure this one out.

BALDWIN: Wow, Buck Sexton. You guys are like this far apart.

(CROSSTALK)

SEXTON: We usually get along so well.

KAYYEM: Exactly.

BALDWIN: Wow. Wow.

KAYYEM: We're normally on the same page.

But, no, I guess I just -- I honestly do not get this. In January, there was a disclosure that all three pieces of this...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: It was public, the $400 million.

KAYYEM: Everyone is shocked about apparently the method of payment, that it was at night and it was not in U.S. dollars. The law prohibits U.S. dollars. So that's like the -- I guess that's the piece that we're outraged at.

The truth that is behind this is probably outrage, at least by politicians who don't like the Iran deal itself. That's where the faux outrage appears.

[15:25:00]

And let me just say one thing. This is not like $400 million appeared out of nowhere and we're like going to secretly pay it. This was a well-known litigation going on between two countries since 1979 that gets resolved as part of a year-long...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And it's now being thrown into the campaign trail because Trump is saying, Secretary Clinton...

SEXTON: It happens on that day. We all know why it happened on that day.

And, look, there are reasons why people in the Department of Justice thought that this also looked shady, because it looks like an inducement to do something with cash, which is a ransom payment.

BALDWIN: To your point, does this help Trump, because he is pointing fingers at the administration and he's pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton?

SEXTON: Yes. I think anything that makes the administration look dishonest, whether it's on their willingness to talk about jihadism and their willingness to tell us what the Iran deal -- this is sort of the pass the Iran deal to see what's in it version...

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Donald Trump is talking right now.

Sorry, sorry, time-out. Here we go.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What's going on. What is going on? You see it? You don't believe it, $400 million in cash. It's being flown in an airplane to Iran. I wonder where that money really goes, by the way. Right? I wonder where it really goes.

Well, it went to either in their pockets, which I actually think more so, or towards terrorism. Probably a combination of both. So $400 million in cash. Now, you would really -- who can authorize even in terms of a president, who can authorize $400,000 (sic) in cash? Different currencies. They didn't want the dollar.

They wanted different countries, different currencies. They have got a little of everything over there. I guess spread it around. Right? But how stupid are we? How stupid are we to allow this to continue to go on, to see what is happening?

You know, it was interesting because a tape was made. Right? You saw that with the airplane coming in. Nice plane. And the airplane coming in. And the money coming off, I guess. Right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians. You know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country. They want to embarrass our country.

And they want to embarrass our president, because we have a president who's incompetent. They want to embarrass -- they want to embarrass our president.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: I mean, who would ever think that they would be taking all of this money off the plane and then providing us with a tape? It's only for one reason.

And it's very, very sad. So we have a lot of problems in our country. We have border problems. People are pouring into our country. We have no idea who they are. We have people -- we're going to build a wall, folks. Don't worry about it. We will build a wall.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Up here, you have tremendous heroin problems. You have tremendous problems. Comes from the southern border. But you have tremendous problems.

And I will tell you what, we're going to get -- we're going to build a wall. You know, we have another thing. We have 16,500 -- you can do whatever you want go ahead. Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Well, you have to say, you know, a Trump rally is the safest place in our country to be. Believe me. Believe me. Right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They're safe.

But, if we keep going the way it is, our whole country's becoming different. They're shooting our police at record levels. You saw where I said in my speech 50 percent higher. And then they went out and they looked.

(BOOING)

(WHISTLE BLOWING)

TRUMP: Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?