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Trump Escalates War with GOP Over Trade; Heightened Security at U.S. Airports for Holiday Weekend. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 01, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): It's almost, in some ways, like I'm running against two parties.

[05:58:34] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump's big theme for his whole campaign is, "Let's build walls."

TRUMP (on camera): That could be a Mexican plane up there. They're getting ready to attack.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Donald Trump was not my second choice. He was not my third choice.

TRUMP: We don't play the game the way they play the game.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three bombers came to Turkey a month ago from the ISIS stronghold city of Raqqa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are people who were committed to seeing this attack out to its completion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A strong chemical smell emanating from the flat rented by the attackers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Security is being ramped up at U.S. airports. Concerned at public events and public places across the nation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as I left the plane, everything was going good. When it was time to open the parachute, I deployed it, and it came out just spinning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And that's why I'll never go skydiving, because of that. So we'll play you the outcome of that story shortly, but good morning, everyone.

Welcome to your NEW DAY. it's Friday, July 1. It's 6 a.m. in the east. Chris is off today. Jim Sciutto joins me this morning.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: It's nice to be back. And a lot to talk about this morning, with July 4 coming up.

CAMEROTA: We sure do. So up first, Donald Trump continuing his rift with the GOP over trade policy. The presumptive Republican nominee says he feels like he's running against two parties.

SCIUTTO: This as we learn more about who Trump is vetting to be his running mate. When will Trump make his big announcement, and will his choice help unite his party?

Let's begin our complete coverage today with CNN's Jason Carroll.

Jason, a lot to watch today coming from Trump.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot to watch today and a lot of questions there. Good morning to you, Jim.

You could say Trump is looking in his own backyard for one of his potential running mates, someone who has been loyal early on, unlike some others in the GOP, who are still not on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP (via phone): It was a rough primary. They got beat up. But they went after me, too. And you know, we beat them up, and now, they don't want to endorse. And, you know, it's almost, in some ways, like I'm running against two parties.

CARROLL (voice-over): Donald Trump at war with his own party and defending his protectionist trade agenda.

TRUMP (on camera): Why are people upset that with free trade, that I like, that I want to make better deals? I said, "I want to make better deals with Mexico. I want to make better deals with China."

They say, "Oh, Trump is messing with free trade." No, I'm messing with bad deals that we can make good. I can make good deals. Why would somebody fight that?

CARROLL: Trump calling out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for the second day in a row.

TRUMP: The U.S. Chamber fights. They said, "Oh, Trump wants to stop free trade." I don't want to stop free trade. I love free trade. But I want to make great deals.

CARROLL: At his rally in New Hampshire, Trump criticized for his latest off-the-cuff comment, making an awkward joke at the expense of Mexico while discussing NAFTA, which he says takes manufacturing jobs away from the U.S.

TRUMP: Their leaders are so much smarter, so much sharper, and it's incredible. In fact, that could be a Mexican plane up there. They're getting ready to attack.

CARROLL: Trump drawing more criticism for this exchange with a woman who asked him about using veterans to replace Muslim TSA workers wearing head scarves, or hijabs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get rid of all these hibby-jabbies they wear at TSA. I've seen them myself. We need the veterans back in there to take it. They fought for this country and defended it; they'll still do it. Thank you.

TRUMP: You know, and we are looking at that.

CARROLL: Trump did not miss an opportunity to slam Hillary Clinton on jobs, highlighting Clinton's vulnerability among white blue-collar voters. Trump referring to a statement Clinton made at a CNN town hall while talking about her clean energy Bill.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

TRUMP: She said, "I want to put the miners and the mines out of business." Who would vote for her? We want to put our people back to work.

CARROLL: Clinton later apologizing to coal workers for what she called a misstatement.

TRUMP: Our people should have more pride in buying made in the USA. Remember the old days?

CARROLL: Clinton quick to point out that Trump benefits from the foreign labor he now scorns.

CLINTON: Trump ties are made in China. Trump suits in Mexico.

CARROLL: All this as sources tell CNN that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are being vetted to be Trump's running mate. Trump intends to be announce his pick at the Republican National Convention just weeks away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And the timing of the convention could be key for some of the GOP, who are still on the fence about getting behind Trump. Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine says she's waiting to see who Trump will pick as a running mate before she will finally endorse him -- Jim, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jason, thanks so much for that. Let's discuss everything with our CNN political panelists. We have our political analyst and presidential campaign anchor for "The New York Times," Maggie Haberman; and CNN political commentator of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis. Great to have you guys.

OK. So Donald Trump says that he feels like he's running against two parties. You can understand why. With everything he's said about trade, Maggie, some Republicans are not comfortable with his policy on that among other things.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He's made a massive departure from Republican orthodoxy on business and on trade n two speeches this week, one in New Hampshire, one in Pennsylvania.

The problem for Trump has been he does need party unity here. So he's basically making a gamble that it's not going to get that much better. When he makes statements like, "I feel like I'm at war with my own party" on the one hand, and on the other hand, you have someone like Mitch McConnell saying, you know, we need to see more from you in terms of growth, that does not help. You're right. It is true.

He essential is running against the leadership of his own party. He's running against several members of his own party. He continues to keep talking about the Republican primary and his vanquished opponents. None of this helps him bring together the voters that he needs. And ultimately, that needs to be his goal.

SCIUTTO: You often wonder. It sounds like a dangerous strategy, but the fact is that voters on both sides are frustrated with their party leadership. And that's why on both sides you saw outsiders, in effect, Trump and Sanders do so well. Isn't there an argument this is a smart strategy?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, there is an argument. And this is what I think the strategists, and the political scientists and eventually the historians are going to be chewing over, which is that Donald Trump appears to be continuing and extending his Republican primary strategy, that anything against the establishment will get you votes, will get you the base excited about you. And it worked to perfection in a way during the primary season.

However, you know, there are another hundred million people who are going to weigh in now. And many of them don't really care for those talking points, don't -- were not sitting to wait and hear somebody bash Mitch McConnell. That's not really what it's about for a lot of independent voters a lot of the swing state voters. We'll see whether or not that works.

CAMEROTA: Exhibit A, let me submit a new FOX News poll out just two days ago. It finds that his support among Republican voters has dropped. In May it was 82 percent. Mitt Romney got more, of course. But now, in June, 74 percent. So maybe this strategy is not working, Maggie.

HABERMAN: Right. I mean, this is my argument for why I think that this ongoing war with your own party is problematic. And I think people within his party and leadership are waiting for him to stop doing that. But he is sort of like a football player, you know, who won a great prize in the last round and keeps talking about that great game. It feels comfortable to him. It's what he knows.

His aides have been trying to sort of recalibrate him. Remember, the big strategy during the primary was let Trump be Trump. That gets you to a point. There are limitations to that. And we're seeing it.

To Errol's point about how there are people to whom the anti- establishment message appeals, that's not really the problem for Trump as much as it is. The things he's saying that is turning off -- are turning off large blocs of voters: Hispanic voters, black voters, women voters. It's very hard to win. He can run up a certain margin with white men, but he needs his numbers among basically everybody else to be better than they are.

SCIUTTO: So let me ask a question. If you're going on this trade strategy, you're clearly going, that's his core message here, is he basically giving up the states like a Florida where, for instance, Hispanic voters hold a lot of sway and going full bore after those Midwestern trade-focused states, where you can get white working-class voters, who've been the victims of free trade, or at least think that they have been the victims? Is that what you're seeing here, just in terms of the electoral map?

LOUIS: Right, if you wanted to put a template over it, right. This is going to play better in what's the so-called Rust Belt, where there are manufacturing jobs that have gone missing or have gone overseas and so forth and making an argument there.

On the other hand, you have to sort of not just say it on television and not just put it out there as a position. You've got to make the thing work. And that's where this next level of conversation comes in, which is where is the Trump organization? Where are they in Pennsylvania?

There's some reporting saying that they haven't really done what they need to do to make good on the message that he's trying to bring. And to answer your question, yes, he's giving up in some ways on Nevada, Colorado, Florida. That's not really where strategically he's going to try and make his biggest inroads. We'll see how that works out. You start looking at the numbers and you start looking at the time that's left and the organization that's required to drive these messages home, it's a very steep uphill climb for Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, let's talk about some news "that The New York Times" is breaking this morning about Attorney General Loretta Lynch and this ill-conceived meeting that she had privately on the plane with Bill Clinton. What is the decision that may be announced today in terms of Loretta Lynch?

HABERMAN: She's expected to say she will not get involved in the ultimate decision in the e-mail case, that she'll rely on the career prosecutors and the FBI to make that final ruling. It seemed to be heading that way anyway. It does seem to have been accelerated by this meeting on Monday that she has been and Bill Clinton has been pretty roundly criticized for, including by some Democrats.

CAMEROTA: So not a recusal.

HABERMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: But she's saying that she will take whatever the career prosecutors decide to do, whether or not there are charges about the email, she will abide by.

HABERMAN: She's saying she's not getting involved, period. So she is technically not involved, so therefore, I believe the reason is -- there's no reason to recuse yourself if you're not physically involved in something or have your hands on it.

It's different than what we saw when Eric Holder was the A.G. with the David Petraeus case, where he did overrule.

SCIUTTO: You hear from Loretta Lynch's people that she was surprised by this meeting. They were talking about grandkids, et cetera, that she was surprised when he walked onto her plane. So Errol, I've got to ask you a question. What was Bill Clinton thinking? I mean, he knows the optics of this in light of his wife currently being under investigation.

What was he thinking?

LOUIS: You know, it's hard to be sure, of course. I tend to side with the group that thinks if this was going to be something illicit and secret, it probably wouldn't have happened on a public tarmac with lots and lots of witnesses and so forth.

On the other hand, you know -- look I should say, I've known Loretta Lynch for a while. She's a really, really straight shooter. I mean, a ton of public integrity cases that she prosecuted in New York when she was serving as the U.S. attorney in the eastern district. So I don't think there's any question of her actually being sort of swayed in one way or another.

Bill Clinton with the optics, you know, these politicians, they'll throw their arm around you and let everybody take a picture and sort of let the optics take care of themselves. And if what he wanted to do was send a message to people that, you know, "I'm OK with this" or, you know, wink and a nod, I've got something going on here.

[06:10:05] Yes, I think maybe he wanted to poison the well a little bit.

HABERMAN: It's the kind of unforced error the Democrats are very worried about with the Clinton campaign. You know, you talk to a lot of Democrats who say, look, the polling average overwhelmingly favors her right now. But she is still -- she's nowhere near 50. She's still stuck at a certain point. There are not massive numbers of voter registration drives going on on the Democratic side.

So there is a lingering fear of, look, there is not a huge chance of Donald Trump winning if the vote were today, but he does have room, and why sort of hand over Republicans a cudgel?

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, let's play the veep stakes game. So Donald Trump has been -- well, it's been leaked that he's vetting Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey and Newt Gingrich.

What would Chris Christie buy him?

LOUIS: You know, it's an interesting question. I think what Chris Christie buys him -- first and foremost, though, somebody who can do what a vice-presidential candidate normally do, which is really a lot of battle. Chris Christie is very good at that. Chris Christie has no

problem with executing 180s. You know, you're trying to -- right now we have only, as far as I know, one Donald Trump Republican. And that's the candidate himself.

And so trying to figure out where he's going to end up on trade or anything else on any given day can be very tough. Chris Christie has, I think, the forensic skills to go and argue and battle any side of any issue and never back down. And that's the quality that you have to have if you want to defend Donald Trump.

SCIUTTO: The forensic skills. Nicely put there.

CAMEROTA: I like that. All right, guys. Thank you very much. Happy Friday. Have a good weekend.

SCIUTTO: Well, Turkish officials tell CNN, they have strong evidence that ISIS leadership was involved in planning the Istanbul airport attack. We're learning new details this morning about who that alleged planner is and how the trio of attackers got themselves into Turkey.

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin, she is live at the Istanbul airport with the latest. Brooke, what are we learning there this morning?

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jim, good morning.

We now have a name of this Chechen, this believed to be mastermind organizer, ISIS commander here of this triple suicide bombing at the Istanbul Airport. His name, Akhmed Chatayev, nicknamed Akhmed One-arm, because he's believed to be missing a hand and a leg. The thing is, they have no idea where he is. His whereabouts are unknown.

He's believed to be part of this ISIS cell, specifically targeting both Turkish facilities and U.S. facilities. Traveled to Syria a number of times, became one of the top lieutenants, the top lieutenants for the minister of war for ISIS operations.

This is according to Congressman Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. And it's specifically believed that these attacks a couple of nights ago here at the airport were specifically coordinated to fall in the last couple of days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. So that is No. 1 this morning.

No. 2, we also have all this detail about where these three bombers holed themselves up in this Istanbul community maybe just an hour, half an hour away from the airport here. Nima Elbagir and her CNN crew, they travelled to this apartment. They located and spoke with the landlord, who has been interviewed by investigators here, who confirmed, yes, he rented this apartment the last month to these three men.

Apparently, just a little bit of color from neighbors who Nima and this crew talked to. There was a woman who said just in recent days, there was an odd smell, a chemical smell. She was concerned there was potentially a gas leak in the building.

Also from another man Nima spoke with, that apparently these guys never really left this apartment. The curtains were always closed, except for a couple of times seeing someone sort of hanging out the window and smoking.

But, you know, the question is, would they have said anything? One of the women said they did talk to the community elders. And in this culture, the notion of saying, who are you and what you could you be doing, not really accepted in this part of the world -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Brooke. Thank you for all that. It's great to have your reporting there live on the scene. Obviously, we'll check back with you.

Well, millions of Americans are headed out this July Fourth weekend, just days after the Istanbul attacks. So travelers can expect to see security beefed up at airports and as well as many of the big fireworks displays across the country.

CNN's Chris Frates is live at D.C.'s Reagan National Airport. What do you see, Chris?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

Fourth of July weekend is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. As you can see, people already arriving here at Reagan National just outside Washington to kick off that big holiday weekend.

And inside, security officials ramping up security with those terrorist attacks in Turkey fresh in their minds. They're looking to prevent a similar tragedy here and at airports across the country. U.S. security personnel are mobilizing to protect the over 40 million Americans traveling this weekend.

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: The American public should expect to see this July Fourth weekend an enhanced security presence at airports, train stations, and other transit centers.

[06:15:09] FRATES: The U.S. is home to four of the top ten busiest airports. Topping that list, Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, where hundreds of thousands of travelers will fly out this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess you're looking around for things probably more than you normally would.

FRATES: The airport is increasing its security presence, some even going undercover.

ROOSEVELT COUNCIL, ATL INTERIM AIRPORT GM: We also have people that are not necessarily dressed as officers that are actually patrolling, as well.

FRATES: And officials are also beefing up security outside the terminals and along local roads. MAYOR KASIM REED, ATLANTA: I can't discuss what we're doing to

harden the perimeter of Hartsfield-Jackson, but what I can tell you is it's substantial, and it's serious.

FRATES: The nation's other top three airports, Chicago, Los Angeles and Dallas, are also heightening their security measures.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can tell you we're focused like a laser beam. When it comes to soft targets, you can't completely, you know, insulate yourself. But there's no question we're in a heightened focus.

FRATES: Counterterrorism officials are also focusing on soft targets like the July Fourth fireworks displays in New York and in our nation's capital, where massive crowds are expected to catch the Independence Day celebrations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Precautions have been taken. Planning has been going on for months, and it is a coordinated, multiagency event.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: Now... (AUDIO GAP)

SCIUTTO: Little audio problem with my colleague, Chris Frates, there. But as you heard, we are learning more about the nationalities of the attackers and other details about what led up to this horrible attack in Istanbul just in the last couple of days.

Our panel is going to discuss this right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:41] CAMEROTA: All right. We're learning more this morning about the men behind the terror attack in Istanbul's airport. U.S. officials tell CNN the attack planner is a well-known terrorist who is a lieutenant is ISIS's war ministry.

Let's discuss what this means with our CNN contributor and co- author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," Michael Weiss; and CNN global affairs analyst and contributing writer for "The Daily Beast," Kimberly Dozier. Great to have both of you here. So what do we know about the so-called mastermind or ring leader of this attack, Michael?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, his name is Akhmed Chatayev. He's a Chechen. He's apparently been arrested by three different countries and let go, if the Russian press or the Russian newspaper, "Kommersant," is to be believed.

The Swedes got him on weapons charges. The Ukrainians apparently have got him when he was being sought for extradition back to Russia. He wasn't sent. And the Georgians had gotten him. In fact, he's called the one-armed man or One-Arm, because apparently, he was in a fire fight with Georgian security services in 2012, and that's when he lost his arm. This guy is basically the top recruiter or ring leader for ISIS

inside the Russian Federation. A few years ago, the main jihadi organization and accomplices essentially split. Some of the guys stayed loyal to their current leadership, and others pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, essentially establishing a reliath, a province of ISIS inside Russia. So he's a heavy-weight.

SCIUTTO: In the good news category, as this is happening, I mean, ISIS is getting squeezed in Iraq. They just lost Fallujah. They're getting squeezed in Syria, approaching Raqqa, the capital, in effect, of the state. And in Libya, we've kind of forgotten about it, but they're getting squeezed in Libya, as well. I mean, are they partly doing these attacks outside the country more, because there getting squeezed in their home base?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Absolutely. Think of what we've been watching on TV, putting on TV over the past few days. Images over and over of just a handful of attackers attacking an airport where some westerners go. We're not seeing the images of Sirte in Libya being surrounded. We're not seeing them being run out of these various villages as the Iraqi forces approach Mosul. Maybe some grainy video of a convoy getting hit outside of Fallujah, but that's about it.

These other images, they terrify. They destabilize the tourism industry in Turkey, which is exactly what ISIS wants to do. And it's masterful if that it's right before a holiday weekend here, where security is high. They've got everyone scared, and they didn't have to go beyond Turkey to do it.

CAMEROTA: And these images that we're seeing on the other side of your screen right now, these are the closed-circuit images of the shots and bombs going off and then the chaos ensuing.

We also know this morning more about the path, the route that they took to end up in Istanbul. So they traveled from Raqqa. And I believe we have a map here.

Well, first, obviously, the attackers were from Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia. They went through Raqqa, and then they traveled into Turkey from Syria. Michael, does this mean that they went through a traditional sort of checkpoint? Or how do we think they got into Turkey?

WEISS: Not necessarily. One ISIS defector I spoke to said that Abu Salama, the border crossing essentially feeds and supplies the entire caliphate from Raqqa to formerly now Fallujah.

CAMEROTA: Meaning a real border crossing?

WEISS: A real border crossing. And I said, well, why don't the Turks just shut this down? And he said, well, they tried that once, Ramadan, I think, a year or two ago, and ISIS basically threatened to turn off the lights in northern Aleppo. Just remember, they control a lot of the natural resources and the energy grid. There's actually a power station. It might have fallen out of their hands at this point, but that they actually controlled. They split the proceeds of the electricity in that power station with the Assad regime.

Remember, in the Middle East, there's no such thing as black and white. You know, state actor, non-state actor. The two are intertwined.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, getting into the "it's not all black and white" category. There have been allegations that both Russia and Turkey have let bad actors like this, jihadis, get into Syria because better there than at home. Right? Now, Turkey in particular has been cracking down on this.

Is this a little bit of the revenge? Now that you're targeting us. Because Turkey has had a horrible year of attacks like this. A deadly series of attacks last 12 months.

[06:25:07] DOZIER: They had one in October that killed more than a hundred people that was blamed on ISIS. And that was aimed at the Kurdish population inside Turkey because, of course, ISIS is under a lot of pressure from U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels inside Syria.

SCIUTTO: Is it payback?

DOZIER: Payback -- payback, but they managed to accomplish their goals of making Turkey suffer without having to claim responsibility. I don't think that it's going to head off the crackdown that we're likely going to see from country.

And also, U.S. officials have said they have tried to tighten up that border. They have had more patrols. They have built more fences. But U.S. officials concede that there are still plenty of places, little paths across the desert where people can get through.

SCIUTTO: And it took them a long time to close down that border. Because there's been criticism from the U.S. to Turkey for months and months about Turkey not acting quickly enough.

CAMEROTA: So how does Turkey respond, now that this has happened?

WEISS: This is the million-dollar question. There's been a lot of rumors. I'd establish a buffer zone or send in ground forces? I don't think they will. I think, much like Jordan when they lost their pilot, there's going to be a great show of force. You'll probably see Turkey starting to drop bombs as part of the coalition, an air campaign.

But essentially, I mean, their hands are a bit tied here. You know, ISIS relies on this manual called "The Management of Savagery," which came out a few years ago. And one of the things is within the Muslim lands that are not deemed sufficiently Islamic. It's to spread vexation and exhaustion among your enemies. Hit oil pipelines, energy resources, tourism, try to cripple and destabilize these societies with the intent of weakening the security forces and also the government.

So attacking Erdogan, who has been, let us say -- has deprioritized the fight against ISIS and over-prioritized the fight against the PKK, it's actually a very clever strategy, because what is he going to do now? He still wants to fight the Kurds, but now he's essentially facing two different enemies at once.

CAMEROTA: Michael, Kim, thank you. Great to have both of you here.

So is teaming up with Russia the answer in the war against ISIS? Defense Secretary Ash Carter weighs in on a potential alliance there. So we have a live report for you from the Pentagon next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)