Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Trump: "We Have to Bring Back Our Jobs"; Trump, Bush Trade Shots in New Hampshire; North and South Korea Exchange Artillery Fire. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 20, 2015 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:02] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We have much more of our interview with what he says he'll do about those companies ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: OK. So, the main reason a growing number of you say Trump could be your president when it comes to policy, anyway, is the economy. Now, he has two big ideas. One is how to get jobs back from Mexico. The other is who should be in charge of America's relationships with countries like China and Japan.

Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'll be the greatest jobs president that God ever created. I'll take them back from China, from Japan, from Mexico, which is doing an incredible job. Their leaders are much smarter than our leaders. They're taking tremendous industry.

Look, Nabisco just announced they're building a big plant. They're leaving Chicago.

[06:35:00] Nabisco -- I mean, how American can you get? Nabisco is building a big plant in Mexico. Ford is building a $2.5 billion factory car plant -- manufacturing plant for cars trucks and parts in Mexico.

CUOMO: How do you keep them?

TRUMP: You keep them by --

CUOMO: Because their labors cheap that's why they go.

TRUMP: -- well, first -- for one thing, you keep them by talking to them.

But I would say, you keep them -- if they go there, you know, they'll make cars and they'll sell them to the United States. No tax, no nothing. Just come right across the border. The next thing you know they have the illegals driving right across the border, take them in, drive them in, it's cheaper that way, OK?

I mean you have to talk to these people. You have to go and see the head of Ford. And you have to talk --

CUOMO: And they say the labors cheaper over there.

TRUMP: And you know what, we'll say, "That's fine the labors cheaper over there that's good but, you know what, you're going to have to pay a tax to get the cars back in. You got to have to pay a penalty."

And if you a penalty on it, a tariff, or whatever you call it. And believe me, China's doing it to us. China dumps all their stuff with us -- and I'm not complaining about that but you -- I have friends in the manufactures, they cannot get their product into China. So if they're going to do it to us, we have to do it to them.

CUOMO: And they'll say, "But then, my cars are going to cost more for your people."

TRUMP: No, you know what? They're going to make cars here and maybe a person will buy fewer cars over a course of a lifetime. Who cares? We have to have? We have to bring back our jobs, Chris. We have to do it. We have no choice.

CUOMO: I hear you but of course here comes how. You know, on this scenario, you just have Ford saying it's cheaper over there. You're going to punish the consumer.

TRUMP: I will tell you. You're not punishing the consumer and you're strengthening our country. We owe $18 trillion. It's going to be -- very soon it's going to be $20 trillion that we owe.

CUOMO: True. Big day.

TRUMP: We have to start creating jobs. We have to start creating wealth.

Look, we all go to good schools. I go to great schools, you go to great -- you don't have to be even a smart -- you don't have to be the greatest student to know when Ford builds this massive plant to build cars and they bring them back into our country, no tax, we get nothing. We get nothing.

They leave Michigan -- I was just in Michigan the other night. Unbelievable people. We have an unbelievable crowd. They leave Michigan. They take them out of Detroit and all over the place. And they go to Mexico.

There's no way that helps us. And you're going to have to do something with the tariff at the border.

If they're going to make cars over there, if they're going to leave the United States give great jobs for Mexico and not the United States, you know what? It's fine. But they have to pay some kind of a price.

We are getting killed on trade.

CUOMO: All right. Let me go back --

TRUMP: And interestingly, Carl Icahn agrees with me. And Carl Icahn, you know, is a great negotiator and I have many other great negotiators and they are dying to get involved.

CUOMO: But you wouldn't really put him in-charge of China?

TRUMP: I would absolutely.

CUOMO: In-charge of China?

TRUMP: Can I tell you what --

CUOMO: Please, because you know what makes people think -- it's like --

TRUMP: -- in-charge of China.

CUOMO: -- this is not a business, it's a whole political governmental thing.

TRUMP: No, no, no. It's a business, too.

Hey, you can come up with me in this building you'll see the largest bank in the world from China is in this -- I have a great relationship with China just like I do with Mexico.

CUOMO: Right. But don't we need diplomacy in all of the policy --

TRUMP: No. We have diplomacy now. They're killing us and they don't even like us. OK?

So we have diplomacy. So, we're diplomatic. They don't like us and they're beating us. With me, they'll like us and we'll beat them. OK?

CUOMO: The --

TRUMP: You know, how do I have the biggest bank as my tenant? I mean they're tenants and I have them in order -- China -- I sell tremendous numbers of units, apartments to people from China. They love me.

"Businessweek" story, "What are the 10 things that the Chinese most want?" One of the 10 things was anything Trump. And I say, "Really is that right?"

They respect the truth. They understand they're ripping us off.

I take a guy like Carl Icahn, you take Henry Kravis, you take so many of the guys that I know, and you say, "You know what? I'd like you to watch over the deals that are being made with China because we're getting killed on trade."

Believe me, we will be so good. You should get a guy like Carl on, very smart, great negotiator. We will be so good.

CUOMO: Do you think he'll take a job like that?

TRUMP: He'll do it in two seconds. He's already told me he'd love to do it.

CUOMO: To oversee China?

TRUMP: Oversee the trade deals in China.

CUOMO: Right.

TRUMP: In fact, I'd give him China, I'd give him Japan. He can handle both of them believe me. But I have others.

These are the greatest -- we have the smartest, the greatest negotiators in the world. We have the greatest business people in the world. We don't use them.

We use people like -- I mean she's a very nice person -- my daughter likes her -- Ivanka loves her a lot so she has to do wonderful -- Caroline Kennedy. OK? In Japan.

She didn't even know how she got the job. I watched in "60 Minutes", she said -- I asked her the job. "They gave me the job." They said, would you like to be ambassador to Japan? I said, "Really? Really?"

CUOMO: Sure.

TRUMP: And you know, the ambassador to Japan has a big role in trade.

CUOMO: Sure.

TRUMP: I would rather much have Henry Kravis. I would much rather have Carl Icahn. I would much rather have other people doing it. And you know what? We'll come out great.

Hey, Chris, I was in Los Angeles. And I saw ships coming in from Japan -- the biggest ships I've ever seen, loaded up with cars, OK? Thousands of cars. They're pouring off the ships.

CUOMO: Because they're cheaper.

TRUMP: Wait a minute. They're pouring off the ships.

[06:40:00] You know, we send them? Beef. And they don't want it because they say, "We don't want it." And we send them wheat, they don't want it.

And you know, what the imbalance is between these over the years millions of cars and the little stuff we send them? It's massive. We've got to equalize it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Fascinating. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: I just had a thought. It's going to

make for very interesting press conferences from the White House.

CAMEROTA: You think?

PEREIRA: You know, I was just sort of trying to juxtapose that image with, you know, the press corps in front in the White House briefing room. It's fascinating --

CAMEROTA: Is it time to talk to Carl Icahn about whether he wants to be ambassador or --

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: He invokes Carl Icahn so often. Interesting, we have Jon Huntsman, who was ambassador to China, to talk about what he thinks about Trump's plan.

CUOMO: He says Icahn wants the job and has talked to him. It's worthy Google to see the history of the relationship between Trump and Carl Icahn. It would let you know a little bit about what Mr. Trump considers a friend.

We have more on the interview and will talk about his plans to take on ISIS and how he feels about women in the military and how he feels about his own family, coming up.

PEREIRA: Meanwhile, we have breaking news out of Egypt. A car bomb in Cairo so powerful that it was felt throughout the city. ISIS is claiming responsibility but why is the terror group targeting Egypt? And could more attacks be on the way?

We'll take a look at that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:25] PEREIRA: Good to have you back here with us on NEW DAY.

A tale of two town halls, both Donald Trump and Jeb Bush on attack at dueling events in New Hampshire Wednesday. Bush playing the conservative card, saying Donald Trump has been a Democrat longer in the past decade that he's been a Republican. And Trump calling Bush unelectable and offering a critique of his opponents performance in New Hampshire, saying Bush is, quote, "going down like a rock."

Some breaking news for you from overseas, the South Korean military firing a round of shells at North Korea this morning. Officials say they took action after North Korea launched a rocket towards them. Tensions have spiked in recent weeks after land mines wounded two South Korean soldiers. Also the North has threatened to blow up South Korean propaganda and speakers at the border.

ISIS claiming responsibility for attacking a security building in Cairo, with a car bomb so powerful it was felt across the city. The early morning blast left a crater in the street destroying part of the building. Twenty-nine people including six officers were hurt in the explosion. ISIS says the attack was carried out to avenge the execution of six terrorists who are convicted of carrying out an attack north of the Egyptian capital last year.

Dramatic new video showing the moment of the gas leak that caused the explosion at a Washington state motel. Surveillance video from the Motel 6 in Bremerton captured the blast from several angles as part of the building collapsed. A worker that was responding to the gas leak was critically injured. Earlier in the day, three people were believed missing but officials now say everyone is accounted for. Amazingly, no one was killed.

Tropical Storm Danny looks like it's going to become the first Atlantic hurricane of the season. It is churning towards the Caribbean. We'll turn to meteorologist Chad Myers for the latest as we track Danny and its progress.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Michaela, it is running into a lot of dry air and it's running into sheer, two things that hurricanes don't like to grow, that will kill them. And that's the good news.

So far, yesterday at this time this was forecast to be a category 2 hurricane. By tomorrow afternoon, now only a category 1 as it moves into the Caribbean. And you say why? Why does dry air matter? Well, dry air came up from Africa blowing across the Atlantic Ocean and is sitting here.

It is relatively dry, I understand, it's the Caribbean, but it's dry enough we are going to get -- as we push this storm, high pressure to the north, and as we push it into the Leeward Island area, we'll see it encounter the African Sahara dry area. There it is brown right there, and that is killing the force of the u the.

The hurricanes want humidity and heat. And there's plenty of heat in the water but not enough heat in the land. So, right now, only a cat 1 and forecast to be dying. There's a lot more time for this to move into the real Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, so don't let your guard down -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Thank you so much for that, Chad.

Well, Jeb Bush slamming Donald Trump's conservative credentials as Trump returns fire at dueling down halls last night in New Hampshire. We'll take a closer look at their face-off, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:52:50] TRUMP: Somebody's going to come and take over the leftover oil. And who did that turn out to be? ISIS. So, if you look at 2004, exactly what I said happened.

So, call it vision, I have to call it vision because I'm trying to get elected. First time in my life I'm trying to get elected, right? I'm a politician all of a sudden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Donald Trump in an interview with Chris hours before Trump and Jeb Bush slammed each other during these dueling town hall meetings in New Hampshire.

We'll discuss this with Matt Schlapp. He's a former political director for George W. Bush and currently the chairman of the American Conservative Union. And Mercedes Viana Schlapp, she's the former spokesperson for Spanish language media for George W. Bush and a co- founder of Cove Strategies.

Great to see both of you, guys.

MATT SCHLAPP, AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE UNION: Great to be here.

MERCEDES VIANA SCHLAPP, COVE STRATEGIES: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Matt, let me start with you. We'll talk about the interesting dueling town halls where they both went at each other. Right away they were 15 miles apart. There definitely was a difference in tone.

Let me play for you first what Jeb Bush said about Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I And I have a proven conservative record, consistent proven conservative record -- when no one was watching, longtime proven conservative record.

Mr. Trump doesn't have a proven conservative record. He was a Democrat longer in the last decade than he was a Republican. He has given more money to Democrats than he's given to Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Hey, Matt, what about that? Is that an effective attack for Jeb to point out?

MATT SCHLAPP: Yes, quite frankly Jeb does have a proven conservative record. I remember when we were in the White House together, you know, Jeb Bush was the leading conservative governor in a big state in the country.

And it's smart of him to highlight that record. He cut taxes every year he was governor. He abolished funding for Planned Parenthood. He stood by Terri Schiavo to the end of her life. He always stood up for the issues around the right to life. He has a conservative record.

Look, it's fair game for him to go out there to take Donald Trump on. Donald Trump is taking him on. It's on the issues and I like it.

CUOMO: Mercedes, you two are married, hence the similar last name. But you don't agree on everything when it comes to Mr. Trump. Shock, an American couple doesn't agree on everything. [06:55:00] So, when you hear Donald Trump going after his main play,

Jeb Bush on immigration, saying he's weak, he's soft, it's an act of love when it isn't -- do you think that's the winning strategy for the GOP?

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: Well, I don't think so. I think that it really hurts with the Latino voters. This is obviously a group of people we --

CUOMO: He says Latinos love him. That's he's going to win the vote.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: That's right because he said Latinos love him to create jobs. But as we know for the Latino community, immigration is an incredibly important issue. It affects their families. It affects those individuals who, you know, they might know who came to this country illegally.

And what Latinos are looking for is a compassionate, humane approach to immigration, which is what Jeb Bush and the other GOP candidates have offered. I think Donald Trump has taken it a bit too far when it comes to his immigration policy.

CAMEROTA: In fact, guys, let's look at the latest polling on this topic. This is a "Washington Post"/ABC News poll from last month. This is how Hispanics feel about 2016 in terms of choice. 66 percent is Clinton, Trump is 13 percent.

Matt, you know, he will need the Hispanic vote to win. There are 28 million Hispanics eligible to vote in 2016. So what does Donald Trump do about that?

MATT SCHLAPP: Yes, I want to make it very clear that I'm a pro- Hispanic, OK? Let's get that straight.

But I'm a pro-immigration Republican but I'm also a strong conservative. And my wife and I are part of this coalition that has to be pulled together for the Republicans to win. We have to do better with Hispanics. George W. Bush got up to 45 percent with Hispanics. We have to get in the zone.

At the same time, we have to make sure we hold on to the conservative base. It is not just conservatives, but independents, people less partisan, more independent really worried about the illegal immigration problem. So I think what Donald Trump is saying on the facts is actually square on right.

The language he uses is different from what Republicans are used to over the last decade, but we've got to marry this together if we're going to be successful.

CUOMO: How is he square on right about the facts when talking about immigration?

MATT SCHLAPP: Well, he's square on right about the fact there's a real economic insecurity across this country. That's not the issue. Wages have not risen. And we have the lowest labor participation rate in the economy since Jimmy Carter was president.

CUOMO: Do you buy his solution in making jobs, that he goes to Ford and Nabisco and, one, talks to them, and two, tells them, you're going to make your stuff here or I will put a huge tariff on you? Do you think that will work?

MATT SCHLAPP: I have a different approach because I think the companies are just voting against the Obama policies. I don't blame the CEOs of these companies, I blame Barack Obama and the types of treaties that were negotiated and the laws we are passing -- if we don't have lower taxes in a regulatory state that allows companies to grow here, we will continue to fail. I think that he needs to focus on the right target and the target is Barack Obama. Quite frankly, Hillary Clinton.

CAMEROTA: Mercedes, last, I want to get your take on the Hispanic vote. Barack Obama got 70 percent of it in 2012. How much can Donald Trump get?

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: I just don't think Donald Trump can crack 20 percent. I mean, he's really going to struggle if he continues to push a very strident immigration that doesn't show any way to find a legal path to -- for the individuals who are here, for these undocumented immigrants that are here.

I think that will be a very hard position for him to take. And I think at the end, it does impact the Latino vote. And to Matt's point, we're going to need that 45 percent of the Latino vote. We have to build the broader coalition in the general election in order for the GOP to win.

CAMEROTA: Matt, Mercedes Schlapp, great et to have you guys on NEW DAY. Thanks so much.

MERCEDES SCHLAPP: Thank you.

MATT SCHLAPP: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: All right. So, we are following a lot of news this morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: You know what's happening to Jeb's crowd? They are sleeping!

BUSH: Mr. Trump doesn't have a proven conservative record.

TRUMP: For him to get things done is hard.

BUSH: He was a Democrat longer in the last decade than he was a Republican.

CUOMO: Politics is hard on a candidate. Is Donald Trump worried about his family?

TRUMP: They want to be out there. They believe in what I'm saying. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I regret this is a cause

celebre.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R-WI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There was classified information in her e-mails.

BRIAN FALLON, SPOKESMAN FOR HILLARY CLINTON: It's neither classified at the time, nor it is classified.

CLINTON: It's not about e-mails or servers either. It's about politics.

CAMEROTA: North and South Korea exchanging fire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tensions have been very high. South Korea's military is on high alert at the moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

So, they did not share a stage, but Donald Trump and Jeb Bush took direct verbal at each other during competing events in New Hampshire last night. Trump called Bush unelectable, and Bush blasted Trump's lack of conservative credentials.

CUOMO: Of course, the polls show voters have embraced the Trump candidacy, but how does his family feel about him running?