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U.K. Votes to Leave European Union; David Cameron to Step Down as U.K. Prime Minister; Economic Consequences of U.K. Leaving European Union Assessed; Trump on Brexit: "It's A Great Thing". Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 24, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning everyone. Welcome to you NEW DAY. It is Friday, June 24th. It's 8:00 in the east. There's a lot of breaking news this morning. The U.K.'s historic vote to split from the European Union, it is a stunning decision. It's already having an impact starting with Prime Minister David Cameron's swift announcement that he will resign.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The unity of the U.K. now very much in doubt. The reaction, the immediate one is that the markets are plunging. Even Wall Street is bracing for the same, the futures not looking promising. The question is how long will this continue and why.

Speaking this morning from Scotland, Donald Trump suggests that the hot button topics that pushed the U.K. to leave could help him over the top in November. We've got the big Brexit vote covered the way only CNN can. Let's start with senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward live at 10 Downing Street in London, a busy place to be, my friend.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris. Walking around the streets of London this morning, the words you heard over and over again, "astonishing, historical, momentous, stunning." This certainly woke up this morning to the realization that this is a deeply divided country and also now a country that is facing the very real question of what comes next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: A shocking and historic decision, the United Kingdom voting to the European Union.

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I love this country and I feel honored to have served it. And I will do everything I can in future to help this great country succeed.

WARD: British Prime Minister David Cameron, who opposed the exit, is showing some stunning news of his own, pledging to step down.

CAMERON: The negotiation with the European Union will need to begin under a new prime minister.

WARD: The Brexit causing major ripple effects around the world, rattling markets and raising complicated questions about trade, travel, and immigration in the EU's 28 country block. The U.K. split in its decision. Scottish voters overwhelmingly voted to remain, and English voters who mostly supported the exit, apart from London, the capital of the U.K.

AARON BANKS, CO-FOUNDER OF LEAVE.EU: I guess this is maybe the same in America, the Trump style, the haves and haves not. and I think that's what is playing out now. It is a huge political result.

WARD: A key motivation behind the leave movement, immigration.

RAY FINCH, BRITISH MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, UKIP: What we want is immigrants who will come to our country and who will be able to contribute.

WARD: The leave campaign railing against the influx of migrants from other EU countries, pledging to control their own borders.

FINCH: We don't want open door migration. What happens is big business actually suppresses the wages and the aspirations of ordinary people by bringing in an unlimited number of cheap labor.

WARD: Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration UKIP party and one of the most vocal campaigners to leave, says it is time for Britain to cut itself from the EU's complicated bureaucracy.

NIGEL FARAGE, LEADER, U.K. INDEPENDENCE PARTY: It's independence day. Ordinary, decent people in this country have overturned the establishment, the big banks and the big businesses.

WARD: What's next is a long period of negotiations as the world's fifth largest economy tries to disentangle itself from the European Union.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: The concern for many other European countries in the union now is will this spread, will other countries try to leave the union. And we have already seen, Chris, leaders of anti-immigration parties on the right in France and the Netherlands coming out and demanding their own referenda, Chris.

CUOMO: That is a little bit of the concern, right, is there will there be a domino effect here. We'll be watching that happens as the days go by, although this situation of divorcing the U.K. from EU could take two years.

So Donald Trump sees a much more immediate benefit to the Brexit vote. He is actually in Scotland. He was there for business. It wasn't politics that brought him there, but its politics that has him in the spotlight right now. CNN's Sara Murray is traveling with Trump in Scotland where he just reopened one of his golf courses to much attention, unintended perhaps.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there certainly was a lot of attention, Chris. And while Donald Trump spoke about his golf course, as you can imagine, the questions were mainly focus on the Brexit. And Trump admitted he does see a lot of parallels between this vote and also what has been fueling the success of his campaign in the U.S. He said he believes this was a good move for the U.K.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really do see a parallel between what's happening in the United States and what is happening here. People want to see borders. They don't want necessarily want people pouring into their country that they don't know who they are and where they come from, they have no idea. And I think, you know, not only did it win, but it won by a much bigger margin than people thought it would have. It is the will of the people. It is not a question of approaching it. It is the will of the people. It is always the will of the people. Ultimately that wins out.

[08:05:04] I don't know, first call or second call, there will be a very powerful call. It is going to a great relationship, they'll be great allies. They always have been. And I think zero will change on that score.

David Cameron is a good man. He was wrong on this. He didn't get the mood of his country right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: You saw Trump there say he believes zero will change when it comes to the U.K.'s relationship with the United States. He also said if he were president, he would immediately move to renegotiate these trade deals with the U.K. After a split from what we've heard from President Obama in the past who said they would have to move to the end of the line, we also saw Trump essentially dismiss questions about how this might impact the American economy. We heard from many economic leaders worried that this could have a negative impact. And of course we've already seen markets roiled by this.

And the other interesting thing is even though this was not a political trip, Donald Trump definitely delved into politics. Traditionally when a presidential candidate travels abroad, they take pains not to criticize the sitting president. Donald Trump blew that all up today going after President Obama as well as Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, she has always misread everything. She has misread this. And I was surprised she was so bold to say -- the only reason she did it is because Obama wanted it. I was actually very surprised that President Obama would have come over there and he would have been so bold as to tell the people over here what to do.

And I think that a lot of people don't like him. A lot of people voted -- I think if he had not said it, I think your result might have been different. But when he said it, people were not happy about it. And I thought it was totally inappropriate.

And when I said what I said, I told people, I said don't do what I'm saying necessarily. Do whatever you think. But this was just my opinion. He came in and really tried to convince people to stay. And I thought it was inappropriate. And then she doubled down and she did the same thing. And obviously for the 219th time, they were wrong. They're always wrong. And that's the problem with them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, Trump has made it clear throughout the campaign that he has no problem bucking convention. Clearly that came to criticizing the president, but it also comes to the rest of this trip. While presidential candidates have meetings with foreign leaders while their traveling abroad, Donald Trump has none of that on his public schedule. He is in his golf course in Turnberry tomorrow. He'll be stopping at another one of his Trump properties in Aberdeen tomorrow. Back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: Unconventional on every level, Sara, as you point out. Thanks so much for all of that reporting.

President Obama not in favor of the Brexit decision. CNN Suzanne Malveaux is live from the White House with that reaction. Suzanne?

SUZANNA MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, this really is an extraordinary development overnight. The president obviously aware of what's going on. He is on the west coast today in Silicon Valley. He will reach out to the prime minister later today. We won't hear from him until about 1:30 eastern time, so we expect that he probably talk about this in some way.

But the White House being very cautious in its tone as to not be alarmist about this, but clearly disappointed. We did hear from the vice president who is in Dublin, Ireland. He said earlier today, we preferred a different outcome, but the United States has a long- standing friendship with the United Kingdom and we fully respect the decision they have made. America's special bond runs deep and will endure.

But Alisyn, this is something that the president personally put his political capital on the line when he went to London. This was back in April for two days, making the case here that the United Kingdom should not get out of the European Union, that we have interests that are tied, diplomatic interests, economic interests, national security interests, and trade interests. He even said that the United Kingdom would be put in the back of the line, would not be as forceful or as strong, aligned with the United States, if it pulled out of the EU. Here is how he made his case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our focus is in negotiating with a big block, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And the U.K. is going to be in the back of the cue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And the case he is making there is that as the U.K. is diminished, as it is seen as a country that is now going it alone when it comes to such critical issues with the military influence and economic influence, that the U.S. too will be diminished, that these two, these alliances are so critically important, intertwined. And that is why it is such a huge disappointment. The president is going to have to establish another relationship, a different relationship with the new leader as well. Chris, Alisyn?

CUOMO: You know, we're focusing on what this will mean now going forward, but history matters here as well. The European Union of course was created in the spirit of what it created two world wars, that there was a need for unity, there was a concern about isolationism and and hyper nationalism. And now those concerns are renewed. That is, are we going to go that way again with Europe into silos?

[08:10:02] So let's bring back Clarissa Ward along with CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson and Ryan heath, senior EU correspondent at "Politico." Nic, you've covered this so closely for so many years. The immediate impact seems to be clear. The markets are shattering because of this. We don't know how long that will last, but it is a negative instinct. Why?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It is a negative instinct because it raises fairs and concerns about Britain's ability to trade, Britain's ability to develop the kind of income that it has been used to. It is about concerns and fears over its position in the world. Britain is, you know, is on the permanent fiber of the U.N. Security Council. It is on the G7. It holds leading positions in the world. It is boxed above its weight, if you will. The concern is it may no longer do that.

I spoke with a friend this morning who heads one of the exchanges in the financial market center of London here. He told me, these were his words, and this is a man of many, many, many decades experience of working at the top end of financial services sector here in the U.K. and across the world. He described the markets right now as going bonkers. He told me that he thought it would last for several weeks, that the markets after that hopefully settle out, settle out at a place in sterling at a lower value than it was prior to the referendum, that is, Britain's economic heft in the world will be diminished.

This is why we heard from Boris Johnson, one of the leave campaigners saying there is no place for David Cameron to leave. We've also heard obviously there is a need for change of leadership. But the essence of the moment is for the political leaders here to coalesce around Cameron at least to try to project some stability towards the markets, the hope that the market can hold stable and stabilize quickly. But again, this is early days and we're really waiting for the rest of the world to fully react.

CAMEROTA: And Ryan, just to follow-up on that, in fact, I just spoke to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said that is his biggest fear. What this will do to the British economy as well as them having to renegotiate all of the existing contracts with each European country and country in the world individually. Just the massive repercussions of what we're seeing today.

RYAN HEATH, SENIOR EU CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": Absolutely. And if you think about this in the short and the medium term, it's the worst of both worlds. You have all the instability, you have all the competition, as Frankfurt, as Paris try to take away financial services, and you're still locked into the same rules and the rigidity that all of those people who are passionate about voting leave were trying to escape from. Those 100,000 pages of EU regulations directives and rules, they're still sitting there tomorrow and it will take years to get out of them. The people who said it will take two years, they're actually very optimistic. I think it is more three, three and a half, to be honest.

CUOMO: We have the unwinding and then you have the settlement of all the different agreements, so certainly there will be layers of transition. You're right to point that out.

Clarissa, one of the driving issues here was control over immigration, right, and that's why Trump is trying to draw the parallels to the U.S. elections because that's certainly a theme here. But it is such a different situation. You have so much more mixing within Europe than you do have concerns of that here in the United States. Is there any reason to believe that the U.K. will change fundamentally in terms of who comes in and out of its borders?

WARD: This is something that has caused a lot of confusion, I think, Chris, but it is important for our viewers to understand that even within the EU, Britain maintained the right to control its own borders. It is not part of the so-called Schengen zone that allows for free travel between continental European countries.

Now, the issue of immigration is one that has galvanized the whole of Europe, but particularly the U.K., and I would say it has really reached a fever pitch in the last year or so where we've seen these huge waves of refugees and also economic migrants pouring into Europe, many of them ending up in continental Europe. The reality is that very few of them have ended up here in the U.K.

But this is an issue that deeply polarizes this country. If you look at the demographics of how this country voted, you see that Scotland resoundingly voted to remain in the EU, but England, with the exception of London and a few other large cities, resoundingly voting to exit the EU. And while immigration is absolutely, you know, one of the primary factors, if not the primary factor in this election, in this referendum, rather, I think it is also important for our viewers to remember that euro skeptics have been a huge part and a vocal voice inside the U.K. for decades now. This is not a new phenomenon. This goes back quite some time, and it just appears that the immigration and the refugee crisis of the last couple of years really gave them the headwind to take that frustration and turn it into a victory.

[08:15:07] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Nic, I want to ask you about something that President Obama said in the piece that we just played, and that is, he was against the Brexit decision or vote, and he said that this will mean that Britain goes to the back of the cue for dealing with the U.S. Then, Donald Trump said Britain will never be in the back of the cue

for me. They will be at the front. It is so important to preserve this alliance, as President Obama thinks it's important to preserve the alliance as well. But what does that mean?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, certainly when President Obama came here and said Britain would have to go to the back line of the line, at that moment, it seemed like a lifeline for David Cameron for his remain campaign.

But very quickly, the leave campaigners took it and went to ho said no, we wouldn't have to wait so long. So when they hear now from Donald Trump saying no, you won't have to be at the back of the line, you're going to say see, we told you so, we were right. This is going to imply they will be more implicitly more, perhaps willing to align themselves to support Donald Trump in some way.

Obviously, politics is a lot more complicated than this one issue. But I've just said that, but look what happened last night. You can boil it down to this one issue, because that is absolutely this issue of immigration is what swung the vote here, without any shadow of doubt.

So, what does it mean going forward? I think that it means really that the discourse in Britain is going to change over immigration. That there will be efforts to put tighter controls, and perhaps will be some greater political alignment, if you will, with the thinking of Donald Trump.

Look, the leave campaign is a divided one. You have real right wing on one side and you have sort of some more centrists towards the left hand, left end of the spectrum. But at the moment, you know, I think they're still finding their way. What Donald Trump has said is perhaps more beneficial to Donald Trump than to those aspiring to the new political leadership opportunities coming here in Britain. But absolutely, they're seeing, will see common cause.

CAMEROTA: Nic, Ryan, Clarissa, thank you very much for all of your expertise with this.

Coming up, we will speak with Senator Bernie Sanders about this historic day, this Brexit vote. We will also ask about the presidential race here. And why he is not yet conceding in this race. That's coming up later this hour. Stick around for that.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So, hard to argue this point. It was good timing for Donald Trump to be in Scotland, as he made the most of the opportunity, that's up to you. But he did seem more interested in selling his golf course, he says that's why I'm here, I'm here to support my family.

But he is running to be president of the United States, at a moment of historical significance. How did what he did there play here? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:21:14] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: People want to take their country back. They want to have independence in a sense. You're going to have I think many other cases where they want to take their borders back. They want to take their monetary back. They want to take a lot of things back. They want to be able to have a country again. So, I think you're going to have this happen more and more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That's Donald Trump visiting Scotland during this major moment in history, with the U.K. voting to leave the European Union. Trump was there on personal business, though, to deal with his golf courses.

Joining us now is trial attorney and Trump surrogate, David Wohl.

David, thank you for being here. We have to talk about this --

DAVID WOHL, TRIAL ATTORNEY/TRUMP SURROGATE: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: -- highly unorthodox morning we've just had. It is historic, obviously in terms of what Britain has decided, but then Donald Trump goes to Scotland, and he holds a press conference in front of the press and does it for 15 minutes, doesn't talk about Brexit. Was that peculiar?

WOHL: I thought it was awesome. Take it from a dad who sings the praises of his kids all the time, I thought it was a wonderful break from the rigors of the political campaign. He went over there to talk about this fantastic golf course, which is seen as the pebble beach of Scotland basically and to talk about how proud he is of his kids.

You know, that's the human element of him, it makes him so incredibly attractive to so many millions who support him. I thought it was wonderful. Inevitably, he was asked about Brexit and he handled it very well. He said, you know what, yes. I mean, make America great movement maybe at this point has transcended international borders, and people in Britain are now saying, look, if Donald Trump can rise through power basically under a nationalism theme over globalism, then by gosh, why don't we do the same thing here in Europe or in England where we feel we're losing control of our borders.

That's what they did, and the ripple effect is clearly there.

CAMEROTA: So, David, you're saying that you think it started first hear, that it was that what Donald Trump is saying in making America great again, then caught fire in Britain and that's why they voted this way?

WOHL: Yes, I think it legitimatized the idea that they wanted to put a commonsense over political correctness. They were in fear to some degree, but when they see the rubber stamp they gave to Donald Trump and the GOP primary, they feel you know what, there is something to this. We can do this. We're not racist. We're not afraid of immigrants. We just want control over immigrants who come from hot beds of Islamic terror before they come into our country. We want them vetted which is Donald Trump, one of his to main themes, economics and vetting potential immigrants from the Middle East, and they're doing that now.

I thought they really handled it well. I think at this point they've sent a strong message that will come back over to America in November and I think this portends very ominous for Hillary Clinton, because it has legitimized Donald Trump's entire platform basically.

CAMEROTA: Huh. Well, we just spoke to former Prime Minister Tony Blair from Britain who says he has grave concerns about all of this, particularly what it will mean for the economy. We're seeing the markets plunge and it will be very complicated for how to sort of disentangle them from the existing deals.

Now, Donald Trump said something interesting while he was there at the press conference. He said, well, look, when the pound loses, it is good for Turnberry. That's his golf course. He was suggesting that, hey, it will be better for tourism.

Is that the right message to be sending to the people of Britain, and America today?

WOHL: Well, he is a businessman. He is always looking out for the economic aspects of any particular issue. You know, I don't know whether that will happen or not. It is a magnificent course, and he wanted to show the residents of Scotland what a wonderful thing it is.

But everybody knows he is a great businessman. He looks out for the best interest of the people that, in our case, in the United States.

[08:25:06] And I think his economic platform of having jobs for Americans over immigrants is something that rings true.

You know, I've got a lot of Hispanic friends who aren't offended by his ideas of building the wall and keeping illegal immigrants out. Bottom line, they want their families to prosper and Hispanics in most cases are Americans first, like all of us.

So, I think that Trump, everything is starting to settle in and people are starting to realize this guy is legit, this guy's ideas are going global and a lot of people who may not have voted for him before because of fears that he was a little -- you know, off the beaten path, now will vote for him.

So, I think this portends very positively for November, and I really look forward to the convention.

CAMEROTA: OK. David Wohl, thank you for sharing the perspective of an ardent Trump supporter. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.

WOHL: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let's go to Chris. CUOMO: All right. Senator Bernie Sanders, he has loomed large in

this election and he remains that way, because he hasn't been clear about what the way is forward. He said, no, no endorsement yet, working with the Clinton team, working with the platform for the party to make it as progressive. Let's try to get some answers and some finality.

Here is the senator joining us onset, like the old days here at NEW DAY. We're going to talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: In an election of great uncertainty, there are certain things we know for sure. Senator Bernie Sanders changed the race. He vowed to transform the Democratic Party and he did. He vowed to take his fight to the convention, and he has. In fact, Sanders has refused to end the campaign and officially endorsed Hillary Clinton because he says he needs to see what the platform is first.