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New Day

Clinton & Trump Trade Shots on Foreign Policy; Democrats Weigh How to Nudge Sanders Out; Soldiers' Truck Swept Away by Fast-Moving Flood Waters. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired June 03, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Five soldiers found dead in floodwaters at Fort Hood, Texas.

[07:00:04] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The water was all the way up to the windows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing families and farms being destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a tremendous disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A former military commander accused of some of the worst atrocities is living in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How dare anyone call him a war criminal?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He tortured people personally. He oversaw torture. He should be in jail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Ana Cabrera is with again this morning. Good morning. Great to have you here, Ana.

All right, the political punches continue between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Trump contends that Clinton should be in jail because of her use of a private e-mail server. That coming in response to Clinton's foreign policy speech belittling the presumptive GOP nominee as dangerous and temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Trump also once again targeting a judge overseeing lawsuits against Trump University, saying his Mexican heritage presents a conflict of interest, because Trump says he's building a wall. This as more violence erupts at a Trump rally.

We have complete coverage of the 2016 race, starting with Phil Mattingly -- Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, much of the last couple weeks, if you looked at this like a heavyweight battle, it's been like the first round. A couple jabs here or there, testing out some attack lines. No more. Thursday marked a noticeable shift in this campaign, full-frontal attacks from here on out, escalating rhetoric and the consistent, really, the consistent reality that violence and protests will be part of this picture going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I watched Hillary today. It was pathetic. It was so sad to watch.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump coming back swinging.

TRUMP: Lyin', Crooked Hillary.

MATTINGLY: After Hillary Clinton's scathing foreign policy speech, eviscerating the Republican nominee with her toughest lines yet.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will leave it to the psychiatrist to explain his affection for tyrants.

MATTINGLY: Trump calling for the former secretary of state to be imprisoned over the use of a private email server.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. OK? She has to go to jail. She's guilty as hell.

MATTINGLY: The pair trading stinging one-liners.

CLINTON: He says he has foreign policy experience, because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia.

The tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets.

TRUMP: To watch her is like Sominex. You ever hear of Sominex? Sleep all night. It's hard to stay awake.

MATTINGLY: Over the issue of trust.

CLINTON: It's not hard to see Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary said, "Oh, Donald Trump, his finger on the button." She's the one that stupidly raised her hand to go into Iraq and destabilized the entire Middle East, OK? Because that's what she did.

MATTINGLY: And the question of temperament.

CLINTON: Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different, they are dangerously incoherent.

He is not just unprepared. He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.

TRUMP: My temperament is so much tougher and so much better than her temperament. And by the way, we need a tough temperament.

MATTINGLY: Outside Trump's rally in San Jose, even more tense confrontations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)! (CHANTING)

MATTINGLY: Mostly peaceful protestors but some going fisticuffs with supporters, throwing eggs, water and surrounding their cars as they exited, some anti-Trump demonstrators waving the Mexican flag.

Just hours early Trump claimed District Judge Gonzalo Curiel has a, quote, "absolute conflict" presiding over the civil fraud lawsuits against Trump University. In an interview with the "Wall Street Journal," Trump saying the judge's Mexican heritage is an inherent conflict of interest, because he's building a wall.

TRUMP: The judge, which happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great.

MATTINGLY: Curiel, an American citizen, was born in Indiana, the son of Mexican immigrants.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: The idea that is a judge, simply because of his heritage, has to recuse himself has never been part of the American system. I don't see any explanation for this, other than, I'm sorry to say, bigotry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: On top on all of that one other piece of news from yesterday, Paul Ryan, the House speaker, the highest ranking Republican who had not endorsed Donald Trump. Well, now he has, coming out in his hometown newspaper, saying conversations with Trump over the last couple of weeks have gotten him for comfortable.

Now, there wasn't any concessions, no deals made according to Ryan's aide, for his endorsement but Ryan in that op-ed saying that he feels like Donald Trump is committed to helping House Republicans move forward their agenda -- Alisyn.

[07:05:11] CAMEROTA: OK. Phil, thanks so much for the background. Let's talk more about Trump's claim that Judge Curiel has an inherent conflict of interest because of his Mexican heritage.

Joining us to do so, president of the Hispanic National Bar Association and a Trump critic, Robert Maldonado; and former member of the New Mexico House of Representatives and a Trump supporter, David Chavez. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Mr. Maldonado, let me start with you. Why does it bother you that Trump pointed out this judge's Mexican heritage?

ROBERT MALDONADO, PRESIDENT, HISPANIC NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION: Well, it's outrageous to criticize a federal judge simply for his Hispanic heritage. Judges are vetted by the Senate. They're vetted by a bipartisan Senate. They're public servants. They do their job.

CAMEROTA: Not exactly criticizing him. We had a conflict of interest, because Donald Trump has been so public about wanting to build a wall between Mexico and the U.S. and because the judge seems to be so proud of his Mexican heritage, that's a conflict of interest.

MALDONADO: That's not an inherent conflict of interest. It's making assumptions of prejudice. It's making assumptions about a person because of their heritage, presuming that he is against Donald Trump's stance on building a wall without any facts or any basis. It's making assumptions about judge that should not be tolerated.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Chavez, you are a Trump supporter, and you are Hispanic. Why aren't you bothered by what Mr. Maldonado has just said about those statements?

DAVID CHAVEZ, FORMER MEMBER, NEW MEXICO HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Well, good morning, Alisyn. Buenos dias from New Mexico.

Any personal -- any judge is not immune from critique. Also, you don't want to have any appearance of improprietorship [SIC].

CAMEROTA: But what has the judge done that is -- that has been some impropriety?

CHAVEZ: Well, I'm not saying he's done anything, but you don't want to have an appearance. So, again, every judge has the opportunity to recuse himself, and if he had a certain dissent that may cause this to be raised as an issue, and you've got the presidential presumptive nominee involved in this lawsuit that's before him, I think you take a second look at him.

My father was a district judge in New Mexico, tried many, many cases. I've tried many, many cases to verdict. I've had issues come -- come before the courts, as well. And so that's a decision that the court has to make.

CAMEROTA: I just want to be clear on what you're saying. You're saying that you and your father could never have tried a case that involved Hispanics?

CHAVEZ: Oh, absolutely no. We tried them all the time. All the time.

CAMEROTA: So what's the difference between this judge of Hispanic background and this case? Why are you saying that's an inherent conflict of interest?

CHAVEZ: No, no, no. It's not an inherent conflict of interest.

No. 1, there's an issue, a threshold question. Is there an appearance of impropriety? That was raised through the release of these documents to the public. So when you have internal documents released to the public, that, then, becomes an issue.

CAMEROTA: OK, OK. Let me just be clear. So you're saying that, because he released those internal documents, that is the conflict of interest? He says that he did it, because there's national interest in all of this. You're saying because the judge released the documents, not because he's Hispanic? CHAVEZ: No, no, no. Not at all. I'm saying that, when certain

actions are taken by a judge, then his actions are scrutinized, and then he comes under critique by Trump, and that's what's happened here.

In other words, there was other ways that this court could have handled the case. He could have had a sequestered hearing on these documents. He could have sealed these documents.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CHAVEZ: He could have had an in-camera review of these documents. So there's procedures that could have been in place that would have allowed this case to move forward...

CAMEROTA: OK.

CHAVEZ: ... in the sanctity of the courtroom and not for public opinion.

CAMEROTA: OK. Mr. Maldonado...

CHAVEZ: That's the problem with the case.

CAMEROTA: ... do you understand that argument?

MALDONADO: Not at all. and the critique on this judge is not at all based upon anything that he's done in the courtroom. It's based solely on his Hispanic heritage. And Mr. Trump says he should be disqualified, solely based on his Hispanic heritage, not because of any decision he made but the decision is what propels the racism. And that's what's going on here, and that should not be tolerated.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you both about Mr. Trump's seeming squabble with Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico. That's your governor, Mr. Chavez, of course. You know, Mr. Trump had criticized her, and that got a lot of attention. So yesterday, Susana Martinez came out and said why she is not endorsing Donald Trump yet. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SUSANA MARTINEZ (R), NEW MEXICO: He needs to address his plans for us, and New Mexico people deserve to get that answer. He's not addressed it yet. I will tell you I'm not going to be voting for Hillary Clinton. I am waiting to hear from him as to addressing the issues facing New Mexico. Once I hear that, we will see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: She says, "Once I hear that, then we'll see what happens."

And that prompted Donald Trump to put this out: "I like -- I'd like to have Governor Susana Martinez's support. I respect her. I have always liked her."

[07:10:13] Mr. Chavez, that is a completely different tone than the one he took last week, where he was critical of her, and that she had not done a good job for your state. He has this whole litany against her. What -- why the change?

CHAVEZ: Well, No. 1, I was -- I was at the event. The governor had the opportunity to appear. I know the governor. She's a very good friend of mine. I supported the governor, served with the governor when I was in the legislature. She works very, very hard. She's very good for New Mexico.

You also have to remember, in New Mexico, we have a Democratic- controlled Senate, and so there was a lot of conflict between the executive...

CAMEROTA: But were you comfortable with Mr. Trump's -- given that your long history with the governor, were you comfortable with his criticism that Mr. Trump leveled against her?

CHAVEZ: I have no problem with the comments that he made. I think...

CAMEROTA: That she hasn't done a good job for your state?

CHAVEZ: Well, those are his opinions. She's done very good for New Mexico. And she had the opportunity to visit with Trump and Bill Bridges, and she chose not to, and she'll make her decisions in due time.

But she had an opportunity to, when he came to New Mexico, to visit with him, talk to him, discuss their differences. And she'll do it on her own time.

CAMEROTA: OK.

CHAVEZ: And as she determines appropriate for New Mexico.

Look, we look forward to having Donald Trump back to New Mexico in the near future. He said he was going to be coming back to New Mexico as we look forward to welcoming him back in New Mexico.

CAMEROTA: Got it. OK, very good. Maldonado, do any of these comments, do you think, hurt him in the Hispanic commute?

MALDONADO: Absolutely. Absolutely. There's lack of trust. There is this talk of hate that needs to end. It's offensive to the Latino community. He needs to apologize to Judge Curiel. He needs to apologize to the Latino community. He needs to apologize to all the federal judges who serve this country. His remarks are an offense to the judiciary. They're an offense to our system.

CAMEROTA: Mr. Maldonado, Mr. Chavez, thank you very much for being on NEW DAY with both perspectives. Over to Ana.

CABRERA: Thanks, Alisyn.

Well, Hillary Clinton may be laser-focused on Donald Trump right now, but her party and her supporters, in particular, are wrestling with what to do about Bernie Sanders. How do they nudge him out of the race without alienating millions of supporters? CNN's Manu Raju joins us live in Washington with the details -- Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Ana.

Now, the last thing that Democrats want is to look like they're strong-arming Bernie Sanders out of the race, because they fear that it will end up alienating Sanders and his supporters, who they will need in November.

But they want to make it very clear that he cannot win, and his agenda will be better served by uniting behind Hillary Clinton. Now I'm told that Harry Reid, the minority leader, privately made that case to Sanders in a phone call last month.

And you'll hear a lot more Democrats make that case publically after Tuesday's primaries. Now, there are several things the Democrats are discussing about what they could offer Sanders. That includes reforms over super delegates, dumping the controversial head of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, gives Sanders a primetime speaking slot at the July convention and even pushing Clinton to make a vice-presidential pick that would satisfy Sanders's supporters.

So increasingly, there is chatter among some House Democrats about Elizabeth Warren as Clinton's running mate, especially if Warren has emerged as a surrogate, attacking Trump and given the fact that she has those same supporters as Bernie Sanders.

I'm told that Harry Reid is actually open to the idea of Warren as a V.P. And a source close to Warren tells me that Warren and Clinton camps have been talking much more as of late and herself, the Massachusetts Democrats believe she could help unite this party, post- primary.

These are all discussions, Chris, that are only bound to intensify starting Wednesday, assuming Clinton clinches the nomination next week.

CUOMO: Manu Raju getting his scoop on. Thank you very much for bringing us the reporting, as always. Appreciate it.

Also breaking overnight: two more soldiers found dead. An Army truck overturned in flood waters at Fort Hood, Texas, base. This brings the death toll to five now. Four other soldiers still missing.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live at Fort Hood with the latest. What do we know, my friend?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, a group of 12 soldiers, riding in a large kind of pickup-style military vehicle, if you will, helping during the flood. Twelve of those soldiers driving through a low-lying area prone to flash flooding, and that is exactly what happened. That truck became stuck, overturned. Those 12 soldiers falling into the water. Three of them were recovered safely, but the search is still on for several more, four in all. Five of them, the bodies of five have been recovered so far. But the

search-and-rescue operations continue throughout much of the day yesterday and will resume here again this morning inside of Fort Hood.

Obviously, this will be a very difficult situation later on in the day, Chris. It's expected that perhaps more rain will be falling on this area, but those search-and-rescue teams back up here at work here now that the sun is coming up again, to continue the search for those four remaining missing soldiers -- Alisyn.

[07:15:17] CAMEROTA: What a tragedy, Ed. Thank you for that reporting.

Another tragedy to tell you about, the U.S. military mourning the loss of a Blue Angels pilot after his fighter jet crashed during practice for a weekend air show in Tennessee. Five colleagues in matching aircraft not injured.

In Colorado, a pilot managed to safely eject from his Thunderbird F-16 before it crashed near the U.S. Air Force Academy. That flyover was part of a graduation exercise which President Obama was attending.

CABRERA: OK, if you're grabbing your coffee, come look at your television, because you've got to see this next video. Drama in a Cleveland courtroom as the father of a murder victim tries to attack the man being sentenced for the crime. Watch.

So that was Van Terry, father of one of three women killed by Michael Madison. Terry was addressing the court when he suddenly lunges, jumps, right at his daughter's killer. He is eventually restrained by the deputies. Madison was sentenced to death for killing three women back in 2013. You don't see that every day.

CAMEROTA: No, but I understand the temptations. I mean, surprising you don't see that every day.

CUOMO: Great job by the bailiffs, the court officers there, but you've got to understand. There's another story like this here in New York, where a man wound up going after the assailant who attacked his wife, and he wound up being arrested initially and then released.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, those emotions...

CABRERA: So high.

CAMEROTA: Amazing you don't see that more often.

CUOMO: All right. Very different kind of temperament in play also in the election right now. Who has the right temperament to be commander in chief? Hillary Clinton says not Donald Trump. They have no slight differences of opinions on this issue. They're very, very far apart.

Carl Bernstein understands what this issue means in a president as well as anyone. He'll give us his reaction, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:20:59] CUOMO: All right. It's ugly. It's inaccurate, and it just keeps getting worse. That's what's going on between Clinton and Trump, just unloading. The new issue, though, is something worth examining, temperament. Temperament. Here's something to listen to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: My temperament is so much tougher and so much better than her temperament. And by the way, we need a tough temperament. All of these countries that are our allies, she talks about our allies. Our allies think we're very stupid people.

Somebody said, do you have thick skin? And I said, I really do. When I do things wrong, and the press writes badly about me, I can handle that. In fact, I congratulate them.

CLINTON: Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal. Do we want him making those calls?

TRUMP: Now she's saying, "Donald Trump, do you trust him with the nukes?" Let me tell you, my temperament is so much tougher and so much better than her temperament, and...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right.

CAMEROTA: I didn't know if he was repeating himself or if we were repeating himself?

CUOMO: So nice we'll play it twice. All right. So let's discuss this with CNN political commentator and author of "The Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton," Carl Bernstein.

Carl, thank you for joining us this morning. Temperament. It's a word I've heard you use before. What does it really mean in the context of being president? What matters in this analysis?

CARL BERNSTEIN, AUTHOR, "THE WOMAN IN CHARGE": Stability. Knowing there are a majority of Americans that need calmness, that need firmness, yes, but also an understanding of what's going on in the world, which Trump has demonstrated none of.

He has shown himself to be a kind of wild man, all over the lot. Hillary Clinton said incoherent. It's true.

CAMEROTA: OK. Yesterday Hillary Clinton ticked off a litany of things that she said prove your point that he is incoherent and unpredictable. Do you think that what we saw yesterday with Hillary Clinton signaled a shift in her approach?

BERNSTEIN: It's a very wise, tactical maneuver to go after Trump, where he is weak, and where he is who he is. But I think we're seeing a much, much bigger question that now is raised. This election is about much more than Republicans and Democrats. It's

about Donald Trump, who is a total break in American history. He is an authoritarian. The lead in the "New York Times" today, a factual story about experts in all kinds of fields across the country talking about how he doesn't believe in the First Amendment to the Constitution. The separation of powers.

We are talking about a maximum leader, an authoritarian. We've never had anything like this in our history. And the question is are we going to elect a president of the United States who is a thug-ish maximum leader, who operates in total contradiction, disrespect and disdain for our history and our constitutional traditions?

CUOMO: But Carl...

BERNSTEIN: And many Republicans have been the first to recognize this.

CUOMO: But many Republicans are also ignoring and mitigating these qualities you're pointing out as your opinion of Donald Trump because of what they believe about Hillary Clinton.

And this inspector general report, while from the left, you'll say, "Well, the inspector general said the e-mails, nothing illegal. No laws were broken."

On the other side, a lot of people who are looking for an alternative to her say it shows everything they want. Let's put up the findings in the I.G. report. That -- the idea that she asked for permission for this is sketchy, at best. That the personal server made it different, you know, than anything that had been done before.

BERNSTEIN: Let's cut to the chase. Let's cut to the chase. She's lied about this. There's no question about it, whether you quote me, you quote Chuck Todd on MSNBC or Andrea Mitchell. She has. And it's an awful thing.

And at the same time, you've got to ask about Donald Trump's lying. Who is the bigger liar here?

But the real question is about what kind of president -- do we have a president in the tradition of our constitutional principles in this country which any of the Democratic nominees, whether it's Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, represent? There are independent candidates who represent that.

But the question of Donald Trump is the underlying question in our history in this election, and that's what it's going to be decided on, I believe.

CAMEROTA: But, Carl, if you could just download (ph) that. He' picking fights with the press, yes. He's picking fights with a judge. Yes.

BERNSTEIN: Yes. It's more than picking fights. CAMEROTA: OK. What makes you think that the First Amendment is actually in jeopardy, that this is an authoritarian-type presidency that we've never seen before? I mean, at the moment...

BERNSTEIN: Well, I think he...

CAMEROTA: ... picking fights and insulting people. But go ahead.

BERNSTEIN: No, it's not about picking fights and insulting people. It's about what he said about what he's going to do to the press, about what he believes there ought to be lawsuits against the press, that we ought to change the libel system. Also, just about free speech at his own rallies. He is an authoritarian.

I keep coming back to that word, and we haven't had anything like this in our politics that's reached this level. You have to go back to the demagoguery of Huey Long. You have to look at Sinclair Lewis in our -- in our literature, talking about it can't happen here, about a kind of creeping neo-fascism in America.

That's not to say Donald Trump hasn't identified in a resonant way with voters about the fact that our institutions in this country aren't working, but his solutions are those of the maximum leader, are those of a Juan Peron, a Latin-American kind of dictator.

This is something that Republicans are addressing. That's what you're hearing from the governor of New Mexico. And the question for Republican leaders, it's very interesting what Ryan has done here, is he's saying, "OK, I'll throw in my cards with this guy."

Does the Republican Party of the United States really want to throw in their cards with somebody who is antithetical to what Lincoln stood for, Eisenhower stood for, Reagan stood for? Reagan was not an authoritarian. This is sui generis. It is one of a kind, and it is dangerous.

CAMEROTA: Carl Bernstein, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

Let's get to Ana.

CABRERA: By the way, you can see Donald Trump today later defending himself on THE LEAD with Jake Tapper at 4 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

And now to foreign policy. How Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would handle tough issues abroad. Who has better strategies? We'll break it down. A closer look at their world views for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)