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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Shifts on Immigration; Clinton Defends Clinton Foundation; Death Toll Climbs in Italy's Earthquake; Hope Solo Suspended Six Months. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 25, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:00] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's so tough message, I mean that great, great people come up to me. And they said, "Mr. Trump, I love you." But to take a person that's been here for 15 or 20 years and throw them and the family out, it is so tough message. I mean I have -- I have it all the time. It's a very, very hard thing.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: This new policy seems they're like the ones laid out by a Jeb Bush and John Kasich in the primaries who Trump beats by the way and ridiculed. Trump's new positions are hard to pin down and he was not pressed last night about exactly what this new immigration decision looks like. He does give an immigration speech next week. That speech was initially planned for today but he need more time. Now in addition to all that, Donald Trump held a rally in Red state of Mississippi last night and hurled a surprising new charge at Hillary Clinton.

CNN's Jim Acosta has the latest.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Donald Trump has come up with a new super charged line of attack for Hillary Clinton at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi. Trump called Clinton, "bigot". That goes much further than where he spent over the last several days during which he said that Clinton did not care about the concerns of African-American and Hispanic voters.

Here is more of what he had to say at this rally.

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TRUMP: Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes not as human beings worthy of a better future. She's going to do nothing for African-Americans. She's going to do nothing for the Hispanics. She's only going to take care of herself, her husband, her consultants, her donors. These are the people she cares about. She doesn't care what her policies have done to your communities.

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ACOSTA: Trump also previewed this upcoming shift on issue of immigration reform telling the crowd at this rally that his upcoming immigration policy will not adversely effect American jobs. But he did tell Fox News in an interview that he will allow the undocumented to stay in the country if they have not broken the law. John and Christine.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, that is Jim Acosta for us. Let us bring in Josh Rogin CNN political analyst and a columnist for the Washington post. Josh, it is great to see you this morning.

ROMANS: Hi Josh.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Likewise, good morning.

BERMAN: So we had something big happen at CNN last night. Hillary Clinton called in Anderson Cooper for an inclusive interview. There's a lot to talk about right now. This is the first time Hillary Clinton had a chance to address on new questions about the Clinton Foundation, new e-mails that have come to light having to do with potential overlap between the Clinton Foundation and the state department. Listen to what Hillary Clinton told Anderson on this subject.

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HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So what Trump has said is ridiculous. My work as secretary of state was not influenced by any outside forces. I made policy decisions based on what I thought was right to keep Americans safe and protect the U.S. interests abroad. No wild political attack by Donald Trump is going to change that. But I know there's a lot of smoke and there's no fire. This AP report put it in context. It excludes nearly 2000 meetings I had with world leaders plus countless other meetings with U.S. government officials when I was secretary of state. It looked at a small portion of my time and it drove the conclusion and made the suggestion that my meetings with people like late great Elie Wiesel or Melinda Gates or the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus were somehow due to connections with the foundation instead of their status as highly respected global leaders. That is absurd.

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BERMAN: So Josh, what she is talking about, there's an AP report responding of the private meetings on this as foreign leaders, U.S. government leaders of the private meetings more than half were people who donated to the Clinton foundation. Does this response to Anderson? Does that address those questions and concerns?

ROGIN: I think it does. I mean it doesn't solve the problem, right. But on the facts, Clinton is right. We are talking about a small fraction of the meetings that she had. The numbers of the AP story kind of took that out of context. So it definitely taken out of context by a lot of people on the right who are analyzing that AP story. So she is basically right on the facts, the problem is that she is wrong on the politics. And the Clinton Foundation scandal has just ballooned for a very simple reason. That nobody can be sure where the conflict of interest may or may not have ultimately resided. I mean, yes, it is true a lot of the people probably would have gotten meetings any way but there is no real way to know. So through a lack of transparency and disclosure which is now being sort of made clear by the release of these e-mails, she is losing the political battle even though she is basically got a tax on H.R.(ph).

BERMAN: And Josh, just to be clear. That was the concern at the beginning back in 2009 when she was being confirmed. Forget, you know, pay to play or legalities here. The word was appearance of conflict to avoid Conflict. It is in a legal word here. This is a political word. They didn't want this to be politically sketchy.

[05:05:11] ROGIN: Right, you shouldn't just do the bear minimum. You shouldn't just follow the law and rules. You should go above and beyond. That's the responsibility of people who are entrusted with public service. OK, so, you know, the Clinton Foundation sort of made an error by taking that half step. And said, oh we're going to cut off the foreign donations after the election which raises the immediate question. OK, if it is wrong after the election, why isn't wrong now?

BERMAN: Yeah.

ROGIN: So I think they really stumbled there, but also may gave them just enough to go with this idea that there is some perception of impropriety. Once that Clinton succeeded that ground, it's really a slippery slope. And then it makes a really hard for them to defend any of this stuff, right. If it is a little bit shady, then it is a lot shady. And so now that they have admitted that it is a little bit shady, it is tough.

ROMANS: And let's talk about it. So Hillary Clinton also last night on Anderson talking about Donald Trump that Donald Trump apparently shifting position on an immigration, you know, well I really eager to hear what Donald Trump says in his immigration speech next week about what exactly is his thought on deporting 11 million people. I mean he basically got the nomination on the back of this pillar of his policy. This is what Hillary Clinton said about it.

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CLINTON: He is trying to do now of kind of a shuffle here. But I think we need to look at the entire context. We need to believe him when he bullies and threatens to throw out every immigrant in the country and certainly changes his position three times in one day, it sends a message that it is just a desperate effort to try to land somewhere that isn't as, you know, devastating through his campaign as his comments and his positions have been up until now.

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ROMANS: So with the e-mails and back drop and Clinton Foundation, the back drop and the lack of a press conference and a criticism in the media about the lack of Hillary Clinton press conference and transparency questions. Does Donald Trump shift on immigration? Do they lost some of their potency for chasing (ph)?

ROGIN: Yeah, well this is the shift that we would have been expecting for all of these months, right, the basic plan for 11 million peoples unworkable on its face, right. Everyone was expecting that when Donald Trump would get to the general election. He would switch it to something a little more plausible, you know, plausible.

BERMAN: And ...

ROGIN: Wishing, he just didn't do it. But now he done it. So he's sort of removing that from the list of his problems and shifting the focus back to Clinton, that's all to his benefit, right. This is the -- should we say pivot? We say pivot. I don't know if we say just more pivot.

ROMANS: Soften, pivot, shift, what do we want to say.

ROGIN: Right.

BERMAN: It's the right word. This is a flip flop pure and simple. Now you can say it is a flip flop. Some people, they get a good flip flop in term of the policy. Some people, they get good flip flop in terms of the politics, but then you say, reversal ...

ROMANS: Well.

BERMAN: ... on something he ran on and was central to his campaign. And actually, Josh, as we are sign infuriates me right now is no one is been to them, now one is asked him outright.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: Donald Trump, yes or no?

ROMANS: What do you think?

BERMAN: Should some of the 11 million people be able to stay here legally?

ROGIN: Yes, that's true, but he's ambiguity is intentional, right?

BERMAN: Sure.

ROGIN: He wants to tell the people that who are forming in the beginning, who'd like the deportation plan. Don't worry. I really meant it. Don't listen to what I'm saying now. And he wants to tell people, we just trying to get now, don't worry about what I said before. This is going to be okay. So that whole sort of scheme whereby he doesn't really actually give us a real policy. That's designed to give cover to anybody who wants to support him. And that's why he's not telling exactly what he would do.

ROMANS: Interesting.

BERMAN: I mean Steve King, others call this, it's a little word but others call it amnesty, right.

ROGIN: And ...

BERMAN: If you're allow, you need to stay in the country with amnesty now.

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: You're thought -- do you think that's good?

BERMAN: I did.

ROMANS: And he did not condemn the shift really.

BERMAN: Well that was before Donald Trump, what I said more things last night. What Steve King told me is that, if Trump allows anyone to stay in the country, that would be amnesty. So presumably now Steve King now would think it is a mistake.

ROGIN: Yeah. And it's also what Mike Pence proposed so many years ago. And he was accused of calling of being for amnesty then. So that word amnesty is really in the eye of the beholder.

ROMANS: All right, Josh Rogin, excuse me, we'll take around, go get a cup of coffee and come back in a few minutes. Thank you.

ROGIN: Sure, we'll do.

BERMAN: Just a cup of coffee.

HILLARY: Yeah.

BERMAN: All right, the death toll from the earthquake in central Italy, it nearly doubled overnight. We have new developments on the rescue efforts. That's ahead.

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BERMAN: New developments in the rising death tolls in the earthquake in Italy. At least 247 people have now died. That number just doubling overnight. Aftershocks still being felt in Central Italy, the magnitude 6.2 quake struck very early in the morning. The collapse buildings have left small mountain towns in ruins. Rescuers, right now, you can see the pictures, they're frantically searching for signs of life in that ruble. I haven't found much so much of these grim, but there remarkable stories of survival. I want to bring in CNN Italy Barbie Nadeau who was live in Saletto, Italy, right now. You know, Barbie, right behind you, we can see that pile of ruble with that cranes still digging through right now. What's the latest?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, sadly, the reason of that big piece of equipment is in there right now is because everyone in this little area has been accounted for that includes 22 people who died in this little compound of houses alone. You know, rescuers are still calling this a search operation. And, you know, that's fueled by a few little bright moments of happiness. Overnight, they found a young girl who had been under the rubble for 17 hours in relatively good shape. You know, those are the types of things that keep this search and rescue operation not just the recovery operations.

[05:15:04] ]But, you know, it's getting later and later, the hour is the people might be able to stay alive under the ruble obviously, that's changing situation and the narrative quite a bit. But this big heavy equipment started to move in overnight. And then the areas that were cleared as much as they could by hand, they were able to move the big rubble aside.

And that's why we had that rapid increase in the death count, because they were actually able to move the collapsed buildings and find those victims underneath. They're telling us though that, that 247 number is sure to change. Primarily, because they don't yet have a fixed number of people they're searching for. There is just not enough of a census gathering of information of who is here, who is not? How many people are residents? How many people were here on holiday? How many people may have gone on somewhere else for the holidays?

So until they can figure all of that out, they really don't know how many people they are missing yet. 247 dead at the last count, but even, you know, a couple of hours ago, we saw them pull out yet, and the last of the dead bodies here. So, you know, the numbers are going to change, John.

BERMAN: That's right, those numbers will rise, and yet again no doubt, Barbie Nadeau for us, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

ROMANS: Right. Also a breaking overnight, a historic peace deal in South America after five decades. 50 years of warfare. The Colombian Government and the FARC rebels have a peace accord. The two sides announced the deal in Cuba where talks began four years ago. The lead government negotiator declared the war is over. The Colombian public will have it's say on the FARC peace deal in a national referendum that take place October 2nd.

BERMAN: The U.S. Navy slamming Iran, saying four Iranian vessels violated international law and maritime standards when they conducted a high speed intercept of the U.S. missile destroyer. The navy official says two vessels slowed and turned away only after coming within 300 yards of the USS Nitze, that is really close. The face- offs inlay is been a series of too close encounters with Iran since December including Iranian rockets launches, drones flying over U.S. vessels and the capture of U.S. sailors in January.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton blasting the price hike in EpiPens. This is what she said, "EpiPens can be the difference between life and death. There's no justification for these price hike."

In a Facebook post, she calls the price hike outrageous and demands that Mylan, the maker of the "EpiPen", immediately cut the cost. It's wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients. She writes, "Raising prices without justifying the value behind them." If elected, she said she would require drug companies to explain big price hikes. So far, Mylan has not explained this one. All that scarring "Wall Street" by the way, Mylan stock fell 5 percent yesterday, down almost 12 percent over the past five trading days.

Two of the biggest losers on the value yesterday were also drug makers Merck and Pfizer even a health care stocks are feeling it. United Healthcare dropped yesterday. Futures are flat this morning. And one of the sort of reasons behind that price hike, we were told in the company is essentially the landscape has changed for health insurance. If you have a high deductible insurance plan, you are paying a lot more for everything. And so, for that is not assuaging for some of those, the angry senators.

BERMAN: You're a lot well in one of those Senators, Joe mentioned though his daughter runs ...

ROMANS: Interesting.

BERMAN: ... the companies a lot of ties right now. All right, from the pool to the pitcher's mound, but who would hold Katie Ledecky's Olympic gold medals, while she threw out the first pitch last night at the Nats game? This is awesome, right, you cannot throw a ball with so much medal around your neck.

Andy Scholes, with the bleacher report, Up next.

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BERMAN: Hope Solo has been given a red card by the U.S. Soccer Federation, suspended their star goalie for six months.

ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more this morning with the bleacher report. Hey Andy?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, good morning guys. You know, no one likes a sore loser. And that's exactly what Hope Solo was after the U.S. has bounced from the Olympic in the quarterfinal. After their lost to Sweden, Solo said, the Swedish team played like "A bunch of cowards" the U.S. soccer called her comment unacceptable, suspending Solo for six months now.

Solo released a statement on Twitter saying of course, she apologized. And also said, "I could not be the player, I am without being the person I am even when I haven't made the best choices or said the right things."

All right, Joey Bosa's holdout with the San Diego Chargers, oh it's turning ugly. The team put out a release yesterday saying, they're pulling their contract offer to be a number three overall draft pick. Now, the beef between the two sides isn't even over the amount of the contract. You know, rookie deals, they're all upset. The two sides are arguing over when Bosa will get all of his money. Now, Bosa is the only first rounder who has not signed with his team.

Our gold medal winning gymnast Simone Biles returning home to a hero's welcome yesterday. The airport in Houston was packed with fans hoping to catch the glimpse of the 4'8 Olympians. And Houston's mayor declared, August 24th is declared as "Simone Biles Day." And Biles and her final five teammates better be hitting the road on the 36-city tour across the United States starting next month.

Our final star Katie Ledecky, see threw out the first pitch at last night nationals game, but -- and there's only one problem. What's she going to do with all those medals? Well, she gave them to All-Star out to the Bryce Harper for safekeeping. Check him out. Having to hold all of Ledecky's medals and then do it, look at this, she threw a perfect strike. What can't she do? The 19-year-old set to begin her freshman year at Stanford.

BERMAN: That was right.

SCHOLES: I wish I saw many a bad first pitch.

BERMAN: Oh yeah.

SCHOLES: And then Ledecky steps right out there, fires in her strike, pretty cool.

[05:25:04] ROMANS: Meaning to say, she is a good all-around athlete.

BERMAN: He can, you know, Carl Lewis. He was pretty good, too. You know, he could do it. The key is not to bounce it, right? To get it all the way there, there's nothing wrong with throwing over the camper set anyway.

ROMANS: Have you done this before?

BERMAN: I have actually got to ...

ROMANS: How long did you work at it before?

BERMAN: ... I worked with a catcher. It was my minor league game, when I got to the game early I threw with the catcher for like an hour beforehand ...

SCHOLES: An hour.

ROMANS: He cocked and loaded the night before he get medication.

BERMAN: Well, it wasn't bounce that ball. There was no way I was going to bounce the ball. She was right.

ROMANS: All right.

BERMAN: Just saying. Katie Ledecky threw it harder than I did, but I threw it.

ROMANS: All right, thanks, nicer to meet you.

BERMANS: I would do it again.

ROMANS: All right, Donald Trump shifting on immigration again, suggesting some undocumented immigrants, they will be allowed to stay in the U.S. if they meet certain requirements.

And what did Hillary Clinton tell CNN about that? The latest on the 2016 race next

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: A big shift from Donald Trump on his immigration position. We think, he sort of squishy on this. Does he now think that some undocumented immigrants should be able to stay in the U.S.? It seems like, yes maybe. We'll have that plus the new attack on Hillary Clinton.