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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Accuses Clinton of "Pay-to-Play" After New Emails; Police News Conference on Man Who Scaled Trump Tower. Aired 7:30-8p ET

Aired August 10, 2016 - 19:30   ET

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

[19:30:00] MICHAEL COHEN, DONALD TRUMP'S LAWYER: Somebody is giving money for a favor? I mean, that's exactly the problem.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: There are serious questions about the, mail, but in the case the one we are talking about. It appears no favor was ever rendered. So --

COHEN: It appears.

BURNETT: We will leave it there for now. But we're going to keep talking about this, I mean, as it --

COHEN: But we should because the American people are sick and tired of what's going on with Washington. They're sick and tired of the status quo of these professional politicians that are coming in and what are they doing? They are stealing our future. They're stealing our children's future.

BURNETT: OK.

COHEN: We need to talk about jobs, economy, national security.

BURNETT: So I wanted to get this teed up and ready -- so, thank you, Michael, because let's more about these e-mails. There have been some emails raising questions about Clinton Foundation ties to the State Department under Hillary Clinton.

Now, Michael and I have been talking in detail about one of them and you're going to hear more about that one right now. What these e- mails include are direct conversations between a top Clinton aide and a top official with foundation about a big donor, OK? That's the one we're talking about here. The Lebanon situation.

The RNC is calling on the State Department to publish thousands of unreleased e-mails, how damaging could this be to Hillary Clinton?

So, now, our report with Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Old e- mails causing new trouble tonight for Hillary Clinton. As she campaigns in Iowa, a new batch of messages from her time as secretary of state is raising fresh questions about the influence and access donors to the Clinton family's charitable foundation had on the State Department.

The e-mails released Tuesday after conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch filed suit, is adding new fuel to a controversy hanging over her campaign.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I know people have raised questions about my e-mail use as secretary of state, and I understand why.

ZELENY: In one exchange, a longtime aide to President Clinton, Dough Band, lobbied Secretary Clinton's aides to find a job at the State Department for someone who was important to take care of. The name of the person Band is trying to help is redacted. He made the request to Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills, two top Hillary Clinton's aides who remain among her closest advisers.

Abedin reassures Band personnel has been sending him options.

There was no indication he was a donor.

It's the latest chapter in a long saga over the Clinton Foundation and her e-mails, particular her decision to uses a private server as a secretary of state.

The FBI did not file charges, but it's taking a toll on her credibility.

CLINTON: And I want to be as transparent as possible.

ZELENY: In another e-mail, Band tries to connect a Clinton Foundation donor, a Lebanese Nigerian billionaire, with the State Department's substance person on Lebanon. "As you know, he's a key guy there and to us is loved in Lebanon. Very important," Band wrote.

Donald Trump is seizing on the disclosure, calling it an example of a cozy and corrupt relationship between Clinton donors and the State Department.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's called pay for play, and some of these were really, really bad and illegal.

ZELENY: A Clinton campaign spokesman brushed aside the criticism saying, "Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because of donations to the Clinton Foundation."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now campaigning in Iowa today, Erin, Hillary Clinton was talking for the first time about those comments from Donald Trump and the Second Amendment. She also was confronted with a protester.

Take a look at this video here. An animal rights protester, a 26- year-old woman from Chicago, rushed the stage here, the Secret Service had to intervene and haul her away, but Secretary Clinton did not flinch during any of this and she did say shortly after that Donald Trump's words have not been precise here.

The Clinton campaign trying to make an issue over those words, but, Erin, they are eager to do anything to not have this focus on these e- mails newly released tonight -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

And we are now going to continue focusing on these e-mails because there are some very serious questions here.

Basil Smikle is a Hillary Clinton supporter, Jeffrey Lord, Donald Trump supporter, David Brock is founder of Correct the Record, a pro- Hillary Clinton super PAC, and Boris Epshteyn is senior adviser for the Trump campaign.

Basil, let me start with you. You just heard Jeff's report. You heard Michael and I having a pretty heated dispute here over one specific e-mail.

But let us take a step back. It does not look good that you have top officials with the Clinton Global Initiative or Clinton Foundation e- mailing the State Department, asking for meetings, for jobs, for what- have-you. It looks bad.

BASIL SMIKLE, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: As you mentioned earlier, the initial favor that was asked was not granted and the second e-mail with respect to the job was an advanced person that was looking for a job. It was a young person looking for work.

So, look, I know the issue of these e-mails is going to come up. It's recurring. Hillary Clinton has said that it's going to -- you know, it is a recurring theme throughout the cycle and I know that it's caused some damage.

[19:35:00] But I look at the fact that she has turned a corner on this and she is focused on this campaign and talking about issues.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The problem they're going to have is, this is beyond their control. They have no idea, neither does anyone apparently except the Julian Assanges of the world and whoever else, what e-mails are out there, what's going to drop, what the content is.

This could go on all of the way through the election and every day, you've got to wake up and find a story like this and the drip, drip, drip tendency here.

One other thing -- back in 1996 during the Clinton-Dole campaign, I wrote an article for "The Wall Street Journal" about a drug dealer who got into the White House for a photo-op with president and Mrs. Clinton, and the Clinton White House said we didn't know, et cetera, et cetera.

Well, I worked in the White House and I knew you can't possibly get in there for a Christmas party unless they know who you are and they checked you out, et cetera. So there is a history of this kind of thing.

SMIKLE: No. Let's not equate some issue with a drug dealer in this instance and these, mails. Those are totally --

(CROSSTALK)

BORIS EPSHTEYN, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: The Clintons continue to deny and they continue to lie and that's what they've done throughout their career. Don't forget the Lincoln bedroom scandal in the '90s. So, the pay to play has been modus operandi for the Clintons for a long time, going back to Arkansas.

DAVID BROCK, CORRECT THE RECORD: There's been no pay to play established here, in any of the e-mails that have come out.

BURNETT: All right. I hit pause for a moment because the New York Police Department is holding a press conference on that scaler for Trump Tower today. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

CHIEF WILLIAM MORRIS, NYPD MANHATTAN SOUTH: Good evening, everybody. I'm Chief William Morris and I'm the chief of Manhattan South.

I'll just give you preliminary information about what we have at this point regarding this incident today.

At about 3:30 this afternoon, we received a 911 call for a male who was scaling the outside glass here at Trump Tower. The address here is 725 Fifth Avenue.

Responding units from midtown north came and they observed a male on the outside of the atrium which is approximately the fourth floor of this location. The responding units secured the interior of the Trump Towers working with private security here and utilizing additional resources from patrol and also the strategic response group and the critical response command and the traffic management center.

We extended our perimeter beyond the building in the outside area and the vicinity. Once we stabilized the perimeter we requested the fire department and the emergency service unit and the emergency service unit under the command of Chief Giordano responded to the scene and took tactical control of the situation and commenced operations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Upon responding to the job we got it as a jumper, someone attempting to jump from the building. Emergency service personnel responded. Our first contact was on the fifth floor above the atrium.

We were able to establish to break a window and establish some type of dialogue and we then secured three jumper air bags and numerous amount of equipment for high-angle rescue job. The individual continued to send and go vertical and horizontal at different times at which time what we tried to do was try to isolate him and contain him to a point to take him into custody. We wanted to proceed slow. We didn't want the individual to fall so we wanted to do it in the most safe manner as possible.

We got to a point where we came up with a very good plan with emergency service personnel that were on the scene. We wanted to remove some of the glass and again, try to prevent him from ascending any further up. We had some assistance from instruments that were brought to the scene and they were instrumental in removing the panes of glass and the scaffolding on the side of the building all of the way from the 55th floor down to isolate him to a point where he no longer have the advantage of ascending.

Once we removed the panes of glass and he got to a point where his only way to ascend was to go pretty much probably a two-feet pane of glass between the scaffolding and the officers that were at the window on the 21st floor and we pretty much advised him that putting his suction cups and all of the weight on that window would possibly cause it to crack. That information, the glaciers was very influential in providing that information to us and once he proceed to pretty much ignore that, and tried to ascend, Detective Williams and Detective Walker found it the opportune moment to try to take advantage of that opportunity and bring that individual into safety through the window, all right?

[19:40:04]Lieutenant Lesitra (ph) was the ranking supervisor at the location, as well as Inspector Galvan (ph) and Inspector Finnegan (ph) who were actually coordinating me on the 21st floor. So again, we had real good plan between ground operations and tactical operations on the level where the individual was climbing and take that person into custody in a safe and most efficient manner as possible. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief Bill Aubry, chief of Manhattan south detectives.

This individual is a 20-year-old individual from Virginia. He came up here yesterday. He's staying at a local hotel. What he explained to us is that he wanted a personal meeting with Mr. Trump and he posted a YouTube video on Tuesday. That YouTube video explains that he's an independent researcher, and he wanted to meet with him and that's the reason why he was climbing this building.

At no time did he express that he wanted to hurt anybody. His sole intention was to meet with Mr. Trump. It took three hours to get him in custody and upon getting him into custody he explained the same thing that he wanted Mr. Trump's attention and he wanted a meeting with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any questions? We'll take some questions.

REPORTER: What was in the backpack?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the backpack were -- what we got from him were five suction cups and we have identification we recovered from him and there were various identifications. He was explaining that he previously went by one name and now he goes by a different name. We're researching that and we're looking into that. It's part of the investigation.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that?

REPORTER: Where was he taken?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was taken to Bellevue Hospital. He will be psychologically evaluated and he'll be placed under arrest and we're working with the Manhattan district attorney's office to determine the appropriate charges.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry, what?

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking into that. The suction cups could -- he could have gotten them from any mountain climbing type of facility or store. So that's part of the investigation. We'll look into all of that.

REPORTER: Where was the Secret Service during all of this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During the course of the operation, we were in consultation with the Secret Service throughout it.

REPORTER: Was the building secure? How did the guy even able to climb up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That matter is under investigation at this point.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As I said before, we were in consultation with the Secret Service throughout this operation. I would refer that question to the Secret Service.

REPORTER: Can we talk about the moment that you brought him in? What you were waiting for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The chief can speak about when the decision was made and then he'll have the two officers.

REPORTER: That would be great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Basically, the conversation that was said is he wanted to climb to the top so that he could talk to Mr. Trump. That was the basis of most of his conversation, but again, what we wanted to do was get to a point where we would have the advantage again to be in close enough proximity to safely secure him and take him into custody without endangering any of the officers and again, endangering even his life. So, when he got to the point when he was on that pane of window where

if he would have put all his weight, there was a possibility he could have cracked, all right, Chris Williams and Dave Walker felt that was an opportune moment, all right? To make that rescue and bring him into the location.

REPORTER: Could you talk about that moment and what you were waiting for and what you were looking for and took advantage of that moment?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was waiting for the perfect time to present itself, when I felt it was safe for him, myself and my crew, so that when that time came, I did talk to my crew and let me know, listen, he's at a level where I am able to grab him safely and bring him in. When he presented himself I reached out and I took hold of his hand, I said, sir, you need to come with me and I brought him inside with the help of my partner and we placed him in custody and handed him over to EMS.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He thought about it.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He didn't have much to say at that point.

REPORTER: What happened inside the building? Was there a wrestling to the ground or anything like that or did he go peacefully?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir. He went peacefully.

[19:45:00] REPORTER: Can you talk about the conversations you had with him as he was climbing up? What were you saying to him and what was he saying back to you? What were those conversations?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was lowering the safety line to him to explain to him he should lock himself in and God forbid something happen. He was climbing for a while and I could see he was getting tired. If you lock this in, you won't fall. He refused was his thing was he wanted to go to talk to Trump.

REPORTER: Who made the decision to cut the glass?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My supervisor.

REPORTER: Did you guys realize he was right below you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. It was to the side of him. We take all precautions for everyone's safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, folks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we made -- when we made the decision we initially made the decision and we took some glass, but he was in a position where it wasn't going to endanger him because he was off to the side. And once he swung over to the other side, again, the plan was developed upstairs that we couldn't do that anymore. So again, the concept was to remove the window panes and again, this would provide safety for not only him, but also the officers and anybody below that were in the rescue operations.

So that decision was subsequently made based upon where he was and our ability now to contain him and isolate him to that location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, chief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, guys.

BURNETT: The press conference from the NYPD on the man that was scaling Trump tower. He said, look, he just wanted a personal meeting with Mr. Trump. He is currently being evaluated for psychiatric reasons at a hospital in New York and they have arrested him. A 20 years old, a man from Virginia.

Boris, I want to talk more about the e-mail, but first, you were in the building this afternoon when this happened. Someone else in the building said there was a spiral notebook that he was holding up for people to see and someone who saw it told you what it said.

EPSHTEYN: I was told and I cannot verify this, but it said something to the effect that "I'm a Trump supporter and I will not hurt anybody." That's what the --

BURNETT: To try to say that he wasn't some sort of a threat.

EPSHTEYN: Right. Nevertheless, you don't want somebody scaling up buildings, right, which are supposed to be protected, with a backpack like that. So, that obviously was a safety concern and that's what I was told, that the notes, to some of the effect that "I'm a Trump supporter and I will not hurt anybody." So --

BURNETT: And quickly before we move on, Jeffrey, this just adds to the whole tenor of this campaign. They were asking about Secret Service and whether they could keep this building safe. I mean, this isn't something that they never thought could have happened and never mind foreseen how they would address it.

LORD: This is a society we live and we talked about this woman who jumped up on stage with Hillary Clinton --

BURNETT: Jeff Zeleny was reporting, yes, yes.

LORD: I mean, this is the problem here for this, and one thing I do want to -- if we go back to the Second Amendment thing. A quote from John Kerry, Senator Kerry after he lost the presidential race was doing a riff with Bill Maher about going to New Hampshire and hunting and killing birds.

And he said and I quote, "Or I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and killed the real bird with one stone," unquote. I guarantee, there was no Secret Service investigation of Senator Kerry. He is now secretary of state, you know?

EPSHTEYN: Just really quickly and coming again, directly before the campaign, that is incorrect. Unless he offers some substantive information, there have been discussions between the Secret Service and the campaign specifically about that. It is incorrect and the Secret Service through Reuters has backed that up.

BURNETT: I'm just going to make it very clear here that I'm going to stand by Jim Sciutto's reporting. He said he spoke to a certain official in the Secret Service. They said that they had a conversation with the campaign. So, we're just going to leave that there. You say what you say, we say what we say.

BROCK: There are comments --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Well, that comment is a horrific comment, if true and it should have been met with outrage.

BROCK: It is not just the one comment.

I think one comment you can say, OK, somebody misspoke. Everybody misspeaks, but it's a pattern of reckless rhetoric. It's a pattern of inciting violence. I don't have to sit here and recite it. We know what it is.

It's a pattern of threatening to take power by extra-constitutional means.

BURNETT: But on that point, before we go, when you speak of a pattern, Hillary Clinton has that problem, too, when it comes to honesty, honesty and trustworthiness. People do not see that she is. These e-mails add to that.

Sixty-four percent of voters, but she has a problem with people thinking she's honest and trustworthy. That's a pretty damning thing to say and these e-mails are part of that.

BROCK: Well, her favorability is increasing if you look at the polls in the last three weeks. People saw her on stage at the convention. I think she's turning a corner on that issue, and I think the only reason we're talking about these e-mails is Jeffrey referred to drip, drip, drip. That's true, but it's not just happening organically. There is a Republican strategy here. This is a right-wing group that has been suing the Clintons for over 20 years.

(CROSSTALK)

BROCK: No, no --

(CROSSTALK)

[19:50:04] BURNETT: Hold on! Hold on! You're all talking at the same time. BROCK: Kevin McCarthy settled this months ago when he said the whole

thing -- this whole e-mail thing is a (INAUDIBLE) by Republicans to drive up Hillary's negatives.

(CROSSTALK)

EPHSTEYN: Using legal channels and the laws on the books to get information that the Clintons continue to obstruct and not put out there --

BROCK: No, the reason is because --

BURNETT: Hold on, hold on.

EPHSTEYN: She lied to Congress when she said she could turn over all of her e-mails. That was a lie and perjury. True. She's lying to the American people when she said she would turn over her e-mails.

And what's in the missing e-mails? What's in the 33,000 e-mails?

Lastly, even if there was no meeting with this specific ambassador that you talked about and there must have been other meetings, and even the fact that Doug Band -- Doug Band -- hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Let me give him the final word.

OK! Hold on! Hold on!

SMIKLE: It is beneficial for Republicans and you in particular to continue to bring up these e-mails. Your campaign depends on it. Your campaign depends on it and the fact of the matter is --

(CROSSTALK)

BURNETT: Hold on again! Nobody can hear any of you when you all talk.

SMIKLE: The voters have spoken and they will continue to speak. She got more votes than any candidate in this primary season. We are talking about states like -- we're talking about voters in states like Georgia and Arizona now in play because people believe in her message.

BURNETT: OK, and I will leave it only by saying Florida is still in a dead heat.

EPSHTEYN: Really? We'll see.

LORD: A Julian Assange is not a Republican.

BURNETT: And OUTFRONT next, Trump Second Amendment firestorm following a pattern, first the provocative remark, the outrage and then the claim he was misunderstood and exactly what we were just arguing about. Our special report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:40] BURNETT: Breaking news: Donald Trump about to speak at a rally in Sunrise, Florida. We are watching to see if he addresses the controversy that erupted after his off-the-cuff remarks that if Hillary Clinton becomes president, perhaps Second Amendment people could stop her.

As Tom Foreman reports, the Second Amendment is not the first time the Republican nominee has landed in hot water over comments he says were misunderstood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's one of the wealthiest women in politics.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even as the NRA rolls out a tough attack on Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump has stolen the spotlight with his own comment about how she might regulate guns.

TRUMP: If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know.

FOREMAN: Now, he's insisting that was no call for violence, but this is a maneuver Trump has used repeatedly, make an explosive statement, watch headlines erupt and then play defense.

Method one, declare it was a joke.

TRUMP: I will tell you this -- Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails that are missing.

FOREMAN: He did that when challenged over what appeared to be an invitation for a foreign power to hack into Clinton's e-mails.

TRUMP: Of course, I'm being sarcastic.

FOREMAN: Method two, say it was a misunderstanding. Remember his dispute with FOX News host Megyn Kelly?

TRUMP: You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes -- blood coming out of her -- wherever.

FOREMAN: Trump later tweeted he meant her nose and dismissed critics who thought otherwise as disgusting.

He took a similar attack when he wanted an American judge of Mexican descent off of a lawsuit involving Trump.

TRUMP: Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall.

FOREMAN: Once again, Trump argued his statements were misconstrued as racist.

And method three: deny any ill intent.

A new poll shows no Trump attack has troubled voters more than when he mocked a disabled reporter.

TRUMP: You have to see this poor guy, I don't know what I said! I don't remember!

FOREMAN: But Trump insists he did what many people thought they saw.

TRUMP: I didn't know he was disabled. I didn't know it. I didn't know it at all.

FOREMAN: Through it all, Trump has complained he's being hammered by a double standard. "If I say one thing that's off one way or another, it gets massive publicity. If somebody else does it, nobody cares."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: On this front, he is certainly correct. Almost every politician at one time or another uses these defenses to defend themselves. It just seems that Trump is doing it a lot more than most, and after much more incendiary comments -- Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Tom, thank you very much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: And thanks so much for joining us, as always. You can watch our show OUTFRONT any time anywhere on CNN Go.

"AC360" begins right now.