Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Bernie Sanders To Endorse Hillary Clinton Today; House GOP Asks DOJ To Investigate Clinton Over Emails; Trump: "I Am The Law And Order Candidate"; Trump To Make VP Announcement By End of Week; Rapper Q-Tip On Deadly Shootings & Race. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 12, 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] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: So, is Bernie Sanders going to finally endorse Hillary Clinton? Is it going to happen today and how big is that for the campaign? And, is the email scandal really over? You've got these top leaders in the GOP saying Hillary Clinton lied to Congress and they want that investigated as a crime for lying under oath.

Let's discuss with press secretary for "Hillary for America", Brian Fallon. Brian, thanks for being on NEW DAY. Is today the day that Bernie Sanders says I endorse Hillary Clinton?

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Well, I don't want to preempt what Sen. Sanders may say on a stage in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this morning, so I'll let him speak his own words. But look, I think it will make a powerful statement that Sen. Sanders and Sec. Clinton are going to appear on a stage for the first time.

It will be a tremendous statement about the unity that is happening right now in our party. We are already seeing signs of the coalescing even before today. Just yesterday, for instance, Chris, we saw the Communications Workers of America, the biggest labor union that had supported Sen. Sanders during the primary, come out and endorse Sec. Clinton.

You also saw the Progressive Caucus in Congress, which Sen. Sanders helped establish in Congress, came out and endorsed her yesterday. So I think all signs point to the fact that we're going to have a very united party going into Philadelphia and when you compare it to the Republicans we're going to be miles ahead of them.

In fact, by many measures, they're actually going backwards in terms of consolidating their party based on the offensive statements you've seen from Donald Trump.

CUOMO: All right, so that's the positive. On the negative side, the email scandal not going away. You've got GOP leadership that want your candidate investigated for lying to them when she was under oath testifying about the email scandal. Is there anything that Hillary Clinton would want to retract or say differently to Congress now?

FALLON: Chris, this is pure partisan overreach. Let me just begin by stressing, once again, that obviously Hillary Clinton recognizes that this was an error. This was a mistake to set up her email arrangement this way. But the FBI conducted a several months' long independent investigation to see whether that mistake, at all, rose to the level of criminality and they said absolutely not.

Republicans didn't like that outcome so now they're trying to keep this issue alive and continue attacking Hillary Clinton over this even though FBI Dir. Comey, a former Bush Justice Department official, testified last week that no reasonable prosecutor would have brought a case here.

So you saw last week, in the first action that they took, Paul Ryan wrote a letter to the director of National Intelligence and suggested that Hillary Clinton should not receive briefings as the Democratic Party's nominee. And just yesterday, Dir. Clapper ruled that out. Said it was complete politics and said he wouldn't have any of it. And now --

[07:35:00] CUOMO: Well, but Brian --

FALLON: -- I think that this effort by Jason Chaffetz to suggest that the FBI reopen its investigation is going to, similarly, fall flat.

CUOMO: Some of it is obviously politics but some of it is also consensus. If the look at "The Washington Post" poll out about this you see that people feel that not having action to charge Clinton, they disapprove of that, 56-35. And there is a theory that sure, Hillary Clinton, when she sat with the FBI, didn't lie to them because she knew it would be a felony. Eighteen USC 1001, you can't lie to federal officials, you know that.

But that doesn't exist unless you get caught when she was talking to Congress and now the investigation that's being called for says well, when she said to us before Congress that she asked for permission, she didn't ask for permission. There's no record of her asking for permission. That's a lie. Are you worried about the implication of that kind of deduction?

FALLON: What she said to the interviewers from the Justice Department is consistent with what she's said all along. And as you mentioned, Dir. Comey said that there's no evidence that she was anything other than truthful in all of her comments to the interviewers a week ago.

Look, I think that there's no question that in reaction to the press conference that Dir. Comey held a week ago today that some questions were raised. There seemed to be some apparent contradictions between what Dir. Comey laid out on Tuesday and what Sec. Clinton has long said.

The thing you have to account for is what he said at his hearing on Thursday where he expanded and contextualized a lot of his comments. And that poll that you referenced actually was taken -- began prior to his more extended comments on Thursday.

And so, for instance, only if you listen to the director on Thursday did you learn that the three emails that he initially said were marked classified were actually improperly marked, and anybody that was looking at them could quite reasonably conclude that they were unclassified.

It was only on Thursday that he said that, indeed, the matter of her email set-up was a matter of convenience for her. That's why she set it up. It was only on Thursday that he said that there was no evidence that she made any untruthful statements to the FBI. So on issue after issue, point after point that the critics keep trying to harp on, Dir. Comey actually said very helpful things that boosted Sec. Clinton on Thursday. I think that the public's still absorbing that.

CUOMO: Give me your take on why you don't go to Dallas. I get the obvious reaction is well, we don't want to politicize it, but it is an inherently political event. It's about people, and it's about policy, and it's about defining who we are and what we tolerate, and what we accept and what we don't. Why not more from the secretary about what's going on down there? Why not a presence?

FALLON: Well look, out of respect for what happened in Dallas on Thursday night we pulled down our whole campaign schedule on Friday, every political event that we had planned. We had a big rally planned with the vice president in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Friday. We decided that it was in the best interest of everyone to postpone that.

We did, though, keep an event on the schedule where she made remarks at the AME convention in Philadelphia and we devoted the entirety of her comments to talking about the issues that have been raised by the events of last week and paying tribute to the fallen officers in Dallas.

Look, on a day like today where this memorial is being held,I think it's sending a powerful signal that you have President Obama, on the one hand, attending and also former president, Bush. I think that's a strong statement of unity.

To be honest, I think the idea of presidential politics descending on Dallas on a day like today is ill-considered but they'll be plenty of opportunity for Hillary Clinton to keep talking about the issues that we face. To keep talking about the need to honor the sacrifice and bravery of those that are in the line of duty, and I'm sure that she'll be in Texas before long.

CUOMO: Brian Fallon, appreciate you responding to the questions today on NEW DAY. Thank you.

FALLON: Thank you. Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Important discussion coming up next. Donald Trump declaring he is the law and order candidate. He also said he's the candidate of compassion. He's saying a lot of things that sound a lot like President Nixon. Joining me next, a man who ran for the Republican ticket twice, Steve Forbes. We'll talk about is he buying and what would it take for him to endorse Donald Trump. He hasn't done that yet. He joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:42:35] HARLOW: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Donald Trump warning that the violence spreading across the country right now may be just the beginning of what he is calling a long, dangerous summer. The presumptive Republican nominee sounding a lot like Richard Nixon in a number of ways, declaring himself the "law and order candidate". Talking about his plan to defeat ISIS but he won't tell us what it is. Is this a man that can restore the country to greatness, as he says?

Let's talk about that and potential V.P. picks -- all of it with Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of "Forbes Media". He ran for president, as a Republican, twice in '96 and 2000, but he tells me he's not going to Cleveland and he hasn't been to a convention in 20 years. You're going to go visit the grandkids instead. So before you do that let's talk about what is ahead in Cleveland and let's listen to Donald Trump speaking about being a law and order candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE: Not only am I the law and order candidate, but I'm also the candidate of compassion. Believe it, the candidate of compassion. But you can't have true compassion without providing safety. It's the job of the next president to make America safe again for everyone -- everyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: It reminds you of the mid-60's. It reminds you of Richard Nixon saying I am the law and order candidate. Is this a voice of unifying people or is this a voice of dividing people right now?

STEVE FORBES, CHAIRMAN AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "FORBES MEDIA": Well, in 1968 when Richard Nixon came up with that phrase it was a very potent issue. People felt that crime was out of control. People wanted something done about it and he seized the issue in a way that the Democrats did not.

This time,I think Americans feel, and Trump said it in that speech yesterday, that are we treating the police the way we treated Vietnam veterans back in the 1960's and early 1970's? Are we giving them the support they need? When you look at places like Chicago, where you have a huge breakdown, huge surge in shootings and people wondering what in the world is happening.

So when you get incidents like such as happened in Louisiana or Minnesota yes, those things have to be fully investigated and if wrongdoing was done the officers should be punished, but people feel that those are isolated instances. The police are under huge pressure and they're not getting the support they need to deal with the crimes.

[07:45:00] HARLOW: Well look, you haven't endorsed Donald Trump yet unless you'd like to do so right now.

FORBES: Well, I've said always I'd endorse the Republican nominee and he's about to become that so --

HARLOW: So you are?

FORBES: I'll be supporting.

HARLOW: You'll be supporting him. But when he says things like I am the law and order candidate, or when he says I have a plan to defeat ISIS, I'm just not going to tell you what it is tonight, and he hasn't told us yet what it is, he sounds a lot like Richard Nixon in a secret plan to end the Vietnam War. And a lot of people are saying is he akin to Richard Nixon? Is that the leader we need right now? These are different times than the 1960's although, yes, reflective of them in terms of the racial divide.

FORBES: Well, in terms of supporting the police I think that is a very potent issue and people feel that if you don't have community support of the police they can't do their job. That when they go make a routine arrest they're going to be accosted. They're going to have to always look over their shoulder. So I think that most Americans don't want to have happen in other cities what's happened in Baltimore, Chicago, and a handful of others. But on that issue --

HARLOW: But what I'm saying is does he remind you of Nixon?

FORBES: No, he reminds me of Donald Trump. Trump is absolutely unique. And in terms of fighting ISIS he makes the point that if you put your strategy out in the front, the enemy is going to know it. But in terms of fighting terrorismI think he's been very clear on that.

In terms of beefing up the military -- and what gives that such potency is he's also made clear -- this is very good politically -- that he's not looking for dragons to slay. He thought it was a mistake to go into Libya, he thought it was a mistake to go into Iraq. So if people don't feel that he's going to get us into unnecessary --

HARLOW: He didn't always say it -- just to be clear, he didn't always say it was a mistake to go into Iraq. He said on Howard Stern's radio show a long time ago oh, I guess I would've done it. I wish we weren't in this situation, but OK.

Let's move onto this. Ben Sasse, a first-term senator from Nebraska, a Republican, wrote a fascinating post on media last night and he wrote this. He said, "Today I don't have confidence about either of the current frontrunners. I think one of them does not even know the Constitution and what it's about, and the other one doesn't care." This, coming from a Republican who's calling upon people's conscience as they vote. What do you make about that and just the division that it shows within your party?

FORBES: Well, you've got both parties. Even though Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going to have a lovefest today, the fact of the matter is a lot of Sanders' supporters are leaning towards Donald Trump. The CWA --

HARLOW: But you don't have Democratic senators writing that about their presumptive nominee right now.

FORBES: But, he's one. How many other senators have been writing that? And so, both parties have nominees with extremely high negative rates. The challenge for Hillary Clinton is that her negatives are more frozen -- rock solid because she's been around for 20 years doing this -- than Donald Trump.

What Donald Trump has to do is assuage the doubters and this will start with his pick for V.P. He did well picking 11 potential Supreme Court Justices -- the past muster of people who could do the job. And so on the V.P. pick, if he picks somebody, if people say OK, maybe he's going to put together a good team.

HARLOW: All right, so let me get your V.P. pick for Donald Trump. Who do you think he'll go with, who do you think he should go with as we see the potential candidates right there?

FORBES: Well, I lost count at 20, but --

HARLOW: Of those men on the screen -- Newt Gingrich, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Jeff Sessions or retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Which one?

FORBES: I'm not sure it's going to be any of them. You could have Rob Portman emerge. You could have Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University, former governor of Indiana emerge. And you could have somebody like Nikki Haley emerge. He hasn't made his mind up yet so I don't know who he's going to pick.

HARLOW: Although he said he will in the next three to four days.

FORBES: He could change his mind again, that's the thing about V.P. But if it's somebody that people say hey, this is a person with experience, not on the original Trump team, hey maybe this guy can put it together. That's what you have to do now, assuage the doubters because both have very, very high negatives and both, I think, are going to have to put out positive messages on how to --

HARLOW: Right.

FORBES: -- get this economy moving.

HARLOW: We will watch. You don't think it will be anyone potentially on that list. We will see --

FORBES: I wouldn't be surprised. I'm not going to bet a penny of my 401(k) on any of those.

HARLOW: All right, spoken from the man, Steve Forbes. Thank you very much and --

FORBES: Thank you.

HARLOW: -- later on the program on NEW DAY we will have retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn to talk to us about what we might see. Will he be Trump's running mate? Stay with us for that -- Chris. CUOMO: All right. If we put some of the situations we're dealing with now in context, we have the Dallas sniper attacks, we have the ongoing conversation about race and policing. What will it take to move us past where we are right now because we never seem to get any better? We have Q-Tip here -- rapper, thinker, advocate for change, joining us live, next.

[07:49:50] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:45] CUOMO: So, what do we do? We know what the problem is, we know what the pain is, but how do move past that and come together the way everybody suggests we should?

Let's get some perspective from somebody who's been talking about this and fighting for better for a long time, hip-hop legend, Q-Tip. Thank you for coming on the show.

Q-TIP, RAP ARTIST, RECORD PRODUCER, D.J.: All right.

CUOMO: You do not do media lightly. You do not talk about his lightly.

Q-TIP: No, not really.

CUOMO: I know, but for this, you say it matters. So let's start with our moment of crisis, Dallas today. The president is going down there.

Q-TIP: Yes.

CUOMO: He's going to talk about these slain officers. What do you think it is important for people to take from what happened there?

Q-TIP: I think it's -- mainly it's the loss of life, you know. When you get to the point -- I'm kind of paraphrasing, I think, Frederick Douglass, who's saying something to the degree of, you know, if we become a humanity that -- again, paraphrasing -- that has little regard for life, then what kind of humanity are we? So I think that's probably the main thing.

There's people who aren't able to return to their families. You know what I'm saying? So I think that that's probably the main thing. And you want to bring about some sort of calm so that, hopefully -- which I think the most important thing is that there really needs to be serious dialogue, obviously. And there also needs to be change within policing and how -- I think even down to how police get hired.

CUOMO: How so?

Q-TIP: I mean, I think that when you're dealing with people you have to kind of, in a way, be almost like a pseudo-psychologist. You have to understand psyche, nuance of situation. You can't let your history or your proclivities about different people or races run interference into your job. So I think there needs to be like a higher bar set for people who are allowed on the force because it's such a delicate job. You know what I'm saying? CUOMO: And very often you'll hearing from the policing perspective well, our problem is what comes our way. That's there not the respect for police. That people talk back, push back. That they don't comply and that that escalates situations and leads to a lot of the things that then winds up getting protested against.

Q-TIP: I mean, so that, like -- and I say this as, you know, a black man that grew up in New York City, you know. There is very little regard for the police because of the way we've been treated so many years, you know. How do you expect us to have like this glowing report of you overall, and then finally -- and probably, I guess, the 150th or 200th year or whatever, you know, it comes to a head with all the social media, all of our advances. You get to see it, it gets polarized, it gets played over and over, you know.

So I think there needs to be some repair between, you know, the communities and the police. I think that, on one hand, the police need to be viewed as, you know, that they have their sensitivities and, you know, trying to look on their side. Some of them don't get paid the best and some of them, you know, go through, you know, the tensions of the job.

But then on the other side, us, as citizens, we go through, you know, the constant badgering, the death, the -- you know, the unjust scrutiny.

CUOMO: And you've experienced that, as well. When you were growing up here in the city and in Queens you would have cops as part of your life and you're saying the experience was not always positive.

Q-TIP: No, it wasn't, you know. But I think that, you know, we really need to anchor onto a lot of our young organizers and our young leaders, whether it be BLM, whether it be Colors of Change, whether it be Dream Defenders. These voices out here today don't need to be shunned at and overlooked, you know.

CUOMO: But how do you bridge the hostilities, right, because you'll have the police -- they'll hold their line and say --

Q-TIP: Yes.

CUOMO: -- comply, follow the law.

Q-TIP: Right.

CUOMO: Do what I tell you to do, we don't have a problem. You then have, on the other side, and it's going to be seen as unreasonable to some because it doesn't provide any context for what happens when you're not doing what you're supposed to do.

Q-TIP: Exactly.

CUOMO: And then the other side -- you'll have certain protesters saying what you say, which is we want better.

Q-TIP: Yes. CUOMO: Then others that say we hate the police. The police need to die in the way the people that they killed and then they'll start to change. That is not going to ever create any kind of connection between the two sides, so what do we do?

Q-TIP: I think that there needs to be -- I think that the police really need to hear the voices of the citizens. I think that they need to hear the people in the neighborhood about, you know, how -- you know, every neighborhood is not the same, you know. Certain neighborhoods have certain issues and I think that police need to be cued into the nuances of the neighborhoods of people of color, you know, and understand, you know, a lot of what goes into their day.

You know, there's a lot of light people who could be working a couple of jobs, you know. Kids who could be coming home from school but doing after school stuff, trying to stay out of trouble. There's some kids that could have the talent but seem to get in the way of trouble. You know what I'm saying?

So I think police need to be more cognizant and aware of the movements of the neighborhood. And on the other hand, I think once we feel safe and secure with that then I think that we could start to understand where police stand because right now they're the ones that have all the power, you know. It's tipped all in their favor, you know, it really is, and we are really at a disadvantage.

CUOMO: And you say that the thing that brought you onto T.V. today and what you want to say -- this isn't just a first step, this just the first conversation.

Q-TIP: Yes.

CUOMO: You say -- when you say talk to police, you want to talk with a group of individuals who are concerned with Commissioner Bratton.