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Trump Targets Bill Clinton's Past To Bring Down Hillary; Trump Angered By Attacks From Pro-Clinton Super Pac; TSA Chief In The Hot Seat On Capitol Hill; Kenneth Starr Talks Clinton Scandal Regrets And Redemption. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired May 25, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:33:00] ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: It's the old story dominating the current political climate. Donald Trump hoping his constant reminders of past troubles for the Clintons will essentially scare away voters from Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. But is this is a good strategy?

CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is political guerilla warfare.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton's husband abused women more than any man that we know of in the history of politics, right?

BASH: A source familiar with Donald Trump's campaign strategy tells CNN that Trump dredging up tawdry, unproven allegations about Bill Clinton's past is not based on data or focus groups from his new pollster or his new partner, the Republican National Committee.

TRUMP: She's married to a man who hurt many women.

BASH: Instead, CNN is told this is vintage Trump, going with his gut and shooting from the hip. Seething, after seeing attacks about his own past statements about women, like this ad from a pro-Clinton super Pac.

TRUMP: Does she have a good body, no. Does she have a fat ass, absolutely.

MICHAEL COHEN, SPECIAL COUNSEL TO DONALD TRUMP: She attacked Mr. Trump as being a sexist misogynist and that's inaccurate. Donald Trump's not any of those things.

BASH: A challenge for Trump and attacking Bill Clinton as anti-woman and attacking Hillary as an enabler, his own past statements of support. Like in 1998, in the midst of Bill Clinton's scandal with Monica Lewinsky.

TRUMP: Can you imagine how controversial that would be? You think about him with the women. How about me with the women?

BASH: Even 10 years later in 2008.

TRUMP: Look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense.

BASH: Here's how a long-time Trump confidant explained his 180.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: He was all B.S.

COHEN: He was a private citizen who was friendly with the Clintons and he was trying to protect a friend, all right? Now, it's a different game.

BASH: And then there are conspiracy theories like the false charge that Bill Clinton's White House counsel, Vince Foster, was murdered despite multiple investigations ruling it a suicide. Trump told "The Washington Post" Foster's death was "very fishy" but said, "I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don't do that because I don't think it's fair."

[07:35:00] Even that feeds the 2016 campaign conversation which Bill Clinton, himself, clearly saw coming, saying this just last week.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You think the stuff they said about her is bad? They accused me of murder. I mean, our memories are short. It's what they do.

BASH: Some sources close to Clinton are urging her not to take what they call Trump's bait.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that that's exactly what he is fishing for and you know, I'm not going to be responding.

BASH: Dana Bash, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so let's discuss all of this with our CNN political commentator and Republican consultant, Margaret Hoover. And, CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast", John Avlon.

OK, guys, here's the argument that we've heard from Trump supporters. This may be old news, the Clinton sex scandals. We may have lived through it in the 90's, however, there's a whole crop of millennials that are voters that may not know about this and they may be somehow poisoned against the Clintons by hearing about his now. John, go.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, look -- I mean, there is a generation that was not politically aware or alive that can vote now when all these scandals first got resuscitated. But going to the garbage dump and bringing out all the old conspiracy theorist's paperbacks and VHS's and airing them --

CAMEROTA: Seriously, the sex scandals were real.

AVLON: Let's make a distinction, actually --

CAMEROTA: Let's make a distinction.

AVLON: -- because that's an incredibly important distinction. The self-inflicted sex scandals of the Clinton years, absolutely credible. Some of the other scandals, totally credible. The conspiracy theories -- but we need to separate out the Vince Foster stuff --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

AVLON: -- because that's where all of the sudden you are trolling the American people. You know, your typical bully, pretending they're a victim, and it really is indulging all the conspiracy theorists that are totally discredited and we need to call that stuff out.

The sex scandals is a matter of public record and they need to own it. And I think it's a part deflection on Donald Trump's part to protect himself from any accusations on this front.

CAMEROTA: And so, Margaret, is it going to be effective with voters?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, look, here's what's really interesting to me. If Donald Trump, who is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, who is running a Republican opposition playbook from the 1990's -- from two decades ago.

There is plenty of opposition research on Hillary Clinton from one decade ago and from this decade, let alone her tenure as Secretary of State. This email scandal -- there are real substantive and I think policy position contrasts that one could draw with Hillary Clinton, and real moral arguments you could make about some of her choices as Secretary of State.

CUOMO: Yawn, yawn, yawn.

HOOVER: Precisely. But what you're doing is you're seeing a candidate who is running to the right trying to lock up the conservative base of his non-party who didn't vote for him in this nominating process. But, he's running for a general election now and people who are going to vote in a general election don't care about that.

CUOMO: He is doing what got him here. During the primaries he said horse, let me beat you down and then wait until I get ahold of Hillary. OK, this is what he told you he was going to do. His guy was on the show yesterday saying just wait, this is only the beginning. And the answer to Alisyn's question is a very simple one- word answer, yes. Does it work? Yes, it works.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It has always worked for him.

AVLON: This is the -- this is the --

HOOVER: What happened? Her ratings went up.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: It will work. Whether it's right or not --

CAMEROTA: The last time we looked at all of this --

AVLON: I have actively pulled back on this one.

HOOVER: Bill Clinton --

CAMEROTA: Their ratings went up.

HOOVER: Let me say -- hold on.

CUOMO: That, I believe, is a little bit of a myth, by the way.

HOOVER: Who does -- when we run --

CUOMO: We don't know why her numbers went up. We just know that the attacks were going on at the same time, but there are a lot of other factors. I'm unimpressed by what you've said so far.

HOOVER: As a Republican -- guess what happened in the 1990's when we ran that playbook? Hillary Clinton ended up being the sympathetic figure of that entire era, OK? Her husband's transgressions were her husband's transgressions. He's not running for president, she's running for president. If you pull this out again who ends up looking like the victim and the sympathetic figure? Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: Sam Clovis is going to come on this show today and he's going to say this. How can Hillary Clinton help women when she couldn't control the predation against women in her own house?

AVLON: You know what?

HOOVER: That is a new narrative.

AVLON: And that is a good narrative but Sam Clovis probably isn't the right guy to make it. What they should do is get, actually, a woman to make that point because she did not stand up for people who were being accused or victims of sexual harassment.

CAMEROTA: They'll have this --

CUOMO: What was she supposed to do? Embrace the people that were fooling around with her husband?

AVLON: Right, right. You know, that's -- you know, it's the --

CUOMO: That's what he's going to say.

HOOVER: You know what? One of the key demographics he has to win over are independent-minded women. Single women who are independent, deciding who to vote for. You make that argument to independent women and, frankly, Republican women, saying it was your fault someone that your husband has a sexual proclivity and is cheating on you? You don't blame women. You don't blame the victim in that situation. That's not how you get the female vote.

AVLON: Chris, you asked --

CUOMO: This is not a dumb guy, Sam Clovis. Not a dumb guy.

[07:40:00] AVLON: Look, Chris -- Chris, you asked who does it work for and your answer to your own question was it works for Trump. This is the problem because in the Trump-centric universe that may make a ton of sense. In the world of actually trying to win an election you need to pivot from winning a Republican primary.

And the arguments that work for a Republican base in a populous moment are totally different than the arguments that work for a general election, which involves reaching out, winning over the to the reasonable edge of the opposition, and not insulting (INAUDIBLE).

The reason she's tied is because Hillary Clinton is currently fighting a two-front war and there's a certain superficiality of the fact they're tied right now. Because the fact is that if you dig into the numbers he's got a much deeper climb with key demographics and she's suffering, in part, from Sanders supporters right now who are furious because they feel the election was stolen from her.

But the idea that 100 percent of them won't return to rally around the Democrats to keep Trump out probably isn't rooted in reality.

CAMEROTA: Now do you want to answer your own question?

CUOMO: What do you want me to do, just let the Hoovalons just run around with their own theories? I'm not here to rubber-stamp these people.

CAMEROTA: With that said, Chris, move along. Thank you, great to have you.

CUOMO: A married couple coming in here and telling me what's what.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Ana.

CABRERA: All right, thanks guys. The head of the TSA is in the hot seat today on Capitol Hill. At issue here are those aggravating long lines at airport security checkpoints. So, is the TSA doing enough to fix things? Are we really safer right now? We'll talk to the agency's former administrator next.

[07:41:25]

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[07:45:00] CABRERA: The head of the TSA is expected to get a Capitol Hill grilling this morning when he appears before House Homeland Security Committee. It comes in a new scrutiny over the long, long lines at airport security checkpoints that effectively cost the agency's security chief his job this week.

Joining us now to discuss, former TSA administrator John Pistole, now president of Anderson University in Indiana. Good morning, sir. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to ask you, having been on the inside as we see what seems to be major dysfunction with this organization, what do you think is at the root of it?

JOHN PISTOLE, FORMER TSA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, yes, it's obviously a complex situation, the context of which is obviously TSA is trying to prevent terrorists from doing bad things on planes, like which may have happened last week on the EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo.

That being said, they are trying to be as thorough, and as professional, and as efficient as possible to identify in disrupting those potential threats. That, coupled with the significant increase in passengers who are traveling this year that haven't in the past, really created some of those issues that you described.

CABRERA: There has been, we know, an increase in the number of passengers and a decrease in the number of TSA officers who are at the airport. But Iguess the bigger question is do their procedures that slow all of this down really make us safer?

PISTOLE: Well, clearly, it does. I mean, we go back to pre-9/11 with no TSA and we saw what happened on 9/11. And we see what happens around the world and it's no coincidence, I believe, and Ibelieve the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement community would back this up, that the attacks we've seen, whether at the Brussels Airport or, again, this most recent flight if it was a terrorist incident.

Or, of course, the MetroJet out of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt to St. Petersburg, Russia, terrorists are focusing on the weak links. Some of the softer targets.

And so we have no seen those attempts here in the U.S. because people view the U.S. as multiple layers of security with good intelligence on the front end that helps buy down risk. So the fact is there's been over 10 million passengers per month, in the first five months here of 2016, more than we had last year.

So, that's a significant increase. And you're right. With fewer TSA employees to screen those folks,I think we're just seeing what is the logical natural consequence of those enhanced security actions with increased passenger loads.

CABRERA: What about accountability? We did see the head of security operations with the TSA was removed from his position this week. But, way back in April there were some concerns that were brought up at a hearing, in fact, about this individual. Kelly Hoggan is his name.

And the security concerns were that he had no prior experience in the intelligence arena. He apparently had a role in reassigning some of the people who expressed concerns about the agency, essentially giving them demotions. And he received $90,000 in bonus pay. So, he's gone but this is agency that has 60,000 plus employees. What difference does it make if one individual is removed? PISTOLE: Well, you're right. One individual does not make or break that large of an organization. The fact is that Kelly Hoggan had extensive airline experience, which is critically important in knowing how to work with the airlines and how then to take that information intelligence from the intel community, law enforcement community, Homeland Security community. Take that and translate into actionable changes at airports. And I think some seeing some of that --

CABRERA: So why is he gone, then? Is it just for optics? That we're doing something?

PISTOLE: Well, I'd have to defer to TSA and DHS on that, obviously. But I think it's emblematic of the focus which is on TSA and the pressure that people feel to make sure that things are working right. And even if there's no terrorist attempts, just long lines can really be a challenge because of the inefficiencies that are real or perceived and the impact on the economy where people are missing flights.

And so, I think it's something that administrator Neffenger believed that he needed to take action to make a change to help address some of these significant wait times.

CABRERA: Very quickly, what is the solution? Could private security screeners be the answer?

PISTOLE: No, I don't think so because they still need to follow -- unless Congress changes the law they still need to follow TSA rules and regulations. San Francisco, Kansas City -- another two dozen smaller airports have privatized frontline screeners.

I think that the solution is what Sec. Johnson and administrator Neffenger are doing in terms of surging to those key largest airports that have the significant wait times, and then other resources working with Congress and the airlines to make sure that they can buy down risk in a meaningful way while not compromisingthe security of passengers.

CABRERA: Well, the federal government has now pledged $34 million to hire more screeners to help get this process moving forward. So, John Pistole, we appreciate your insight this morning. Thanks for joining us here on NEW DAY.

[07:50:00] PISTOLE: Thank you, good morning.

CABRERA: Chris.

CUOMO: All right, with all this talk about what has already happened in politics, do you remember Kenneth Starr? He led the sexual inquisition against Bill Clinton in the 1990's. Now, he's got nothing but praise for the former president. And it comes at a time when, ironically, Starr is facing a scandal of his own. What's it all about? Details next.

[07:50:40]

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[07:54:30] CAMEROTA: Ken Starr -- if you lived through the 90's you remember that name. Starr led the investigation that resulted in President Bill Clinton's impeachment. Well, here's something no one could have predicted. Ken Starr is now praising Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KENNETH STARR, PRESIDENT OF BAYLOR UNIVERSITY: President Clinton was, and perhaps still is, the most gifted politician of the baby boomer generation. Leave aside the unpleasantness, his genuine empathy for human beings is absolutely clear. It is powerful, it is palpable, and the folks of Arkansas really understood that about him -- that he genuinely cared.The "I feel your pain" is absolutely genuine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:55:00] CAMEROTA: OK, and in a further ironic twist, Ken Starr, now president of Baylor University, could lose his own job over his mishandling of sexual assault allegations on campus. Joining us now is Jeff Toobin. He's our CNN senior legal analyst. He's also a former federal prosecutor and staff writer at "The New Yorker". Jeffrey, great to see you.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Are cats living with dogs? Can pigs fly? I mean, how strange is it to hear now Ken Starr talking about Bill Clinton's genuine empathy?

TOOBIN: Well, it is a peculiar thing. I think Starr would say his empathy is a separate issue from his behavior in the context of his investigation. But I think it is indicative of how much Bill Clinton's reputation has recovered since the 90's.

And how the whole impeachment scandal, the whole Monica Lewinsky matter, looks, even to Starr, like what the hell were we -- what'd we pay that much attention to it for?

CAMEROTA: Funny you should say that because it has been revived in this campaign season.

TOOBIN: We were just discussing it moments ago, yes.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. So you say that it looks to Ken Starr, the man who led the charge, of what were we doing. He does sound regretful, frankly, in some of this. At the same time that it's being revived by Donald Trump to say for all of you who don't know what happened, let's rehash all of this.

TOOBIN: Well, let's talk about one thing just as an example. Yesterday, Donald Trump was saying well what about the death of this Vince Foster. Very mysterious, very shady. Ken Starr devoted months and months to investigating the death of Vince Foster and concluded that this was a man who had depression and committed suicide. There was no political scandal. There was nothing political about his death. Yet, here we are, decades later -- Donald Trump is reviving it as if there's something suspicious there.

CAMEROTA: The police also investigated Vince Foster's death, as did CNN. In very thorough investigations they all concluded it was, in fact, just a tragic suicide. However, the scandals about the women are different. Those really happened, as we know from the long Monica Lewinsky investigation, the Paula Jones investigation. So what do you think? Will that have traction now, all these years later?

TOOBIN: You know, I doubt it will move new voters. I think the people who really dislike Bill and Hillary Clinton will find it another reason to vote against her. But remember, as we keep pointing out, that it's Hillary Clinton who is the candidate here, not Bill Clinton.

She was not implicated in any misconduct. She was not someone who was accused, even, of doing anything untoward with regard to those women. I mean, they are her -- Donald Trump is raising the specter of misconduct, but there is just not even an allegation.

CAMEROTA: There are allegations by the women. I mean, the women say that the felt intimidated by her. There's no evidence of that. Juanita Broaddrick says that, you know, he gave her sort of a side glance and shook her hand too long, and lingered and said something in a coded way. The women --

TOOBIN: Well, Juanita Broaddrick, by the way, another matter investigated by Ken Starr. The alleged sexual misconduct of Bill Clinton with regard to Juanita Broaddrick, which he did not decide to bring any charges from. So, again, you've got to keep that in mind.

CAMEROTA: Back to the ironic twist of Ken Starr. Ken Starr now the president of Baylor University and he appears to be on the precedence of losing his job over his mishandling of sexual assault allegations by students there -- female students -- who say that they were raped or sexually assaulted by some of the sports players, some other students, and that he didn't address it with enough vigor.

TOOBIN: It is kind of bizarre and you can't make this stuff up. Right before I went on the air I was reading one of the complaints. There have been lawsuits now filed against Baylor by these women and the story, not just of how these women were assaulted by, in this case, members of the football team, but the institutional contempt for the victims.

The fact that these women got no help from the Baylor administration. That's really what Starr is on the verge of losing his job about. Obviously, he can't control football players or anyone else who commits misconduct but he can control a system that is supposed to be somewhat responsive.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, and after the exhaustive investigation into Bill Clinton's misconduct and then, you know, turning what they say is a blind eye at his own university. TOOBIN: Of all issues, he should be alert to them.

CAMEROTA: Indeed. Jeffrey Toobin, thanks so much for being here on NEW DAY. We're following a lot of news for you this morning, including some violent protests outside of a Donald Trump rally last night. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anti-Trump protesters have taken to the streets.

H. CLINTON: He actually said he was hoping for the crash.