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New Day

Growing Backlash to Trump's Feud with Muslim Family. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired August 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)

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

[05:58:19] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I've made a lot of sacrifices. I've worked very, very hard.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Trump poses a serious threat to our democracy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is a black soul, and this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country.

TRUMP: Did Hillary's scriptwriters write it?

JULIAN ASSANGE, WIKILEAKS FOUNDER: The DNC and the RNC have been Swiss cheese.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was this just to stir up trouble or to influence an election?

ASSANGE: We have more material related to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

We have clear proof of sabotage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out. Get out.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR; Deadly flooding in parts of Maryland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It has never been close to being this bad. It looks like a war zone, like a set from a disaster movie.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

BERMAN: All right. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, August 1, 6 a.m. in the east. Chris and Alisyn are off, so Poppy Harlow and John Berman here. We are in charge this morning.

This morning, Donald Trump smack in the middle of a new political firestorm on the first week of the general election campaign. Trump's feud with the Muslim-American family who lost their son in the Iraq War dominating all the talk this morning on the campaign trail.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: No question about that. Politicians on both side of the aisle denouncing Trump for attacking this Gold-Star family. The mother and father of this decorated American war hero firing back, saying Trump lacks the empathy and the moral compass to be the commander in chief of this country.

We begin our coverage this morning with our Phil Mattingly. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.

The reality is this. Republican officials are waking up this morning with their nominee in an escalating battle with the parents of a slain U.S. soldier. It's not necessarily something they wanted to start the week with, but it's still something that's happening, and it's causing a growing rift in the party, one that's even caused Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, to go on the defensive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KHAN: Have you even read the United States Constitution? I will -- I will gladly lend you my copy. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): A defining moment at the Democratic National Convention, now sending shock waves through Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

TRUMP: I think I made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs.

MATTINGLY: Trump criticizing this Muslim mother and father of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.

TRUMP: His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably -- maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.

MATTINGLY: Khizr Khan, whose son, Captain Humayun Khan, was killed in 2004, firing back at Trump.

KHAN: For this candidate for presidency to not be aware of the respect of a Gold-Star mother standing there, and he had to take that shot at her, this is height of ignorance.

He is a black soul, and this is totally unfit for the leadership of this beautiful country.

MATTINGLY: His wife, Ghazala, also speaking out in a "Washington Post" op-ed saying, quote, "Walking on to the convention stage with a huge picture of my son behind me, I could hardly control myself. What mother could? Donald Trump has children whom he loves. Does he really need to wonder why I did not speak?"

Trump attempting to clarify his remarks in a statement, calling Khan's son a, quote, "hero" but also stating that Khan had "no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false)."

Khan defending his scathing rebuke of Trump, saying he wrote his own speech.

KHAN: There is no Clinton campaign here. There is no prompter here. I am articulate person.

MATTINGLY: Adding that Trump is missing two qualities required in a president.

KHAN: That is moral compass and second is empathy. This candidate is void of both traits that are necessary for the stewardship of this country. I do not believe his whole year-long rhetoric -- division, excluding people, talking about them derogatorily -- has prepared him.

MATTINGLY: Late Sunday, Trump's running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, issuing his own statement. Quote, "The family, like all Gold- Star families, should be cherished by every American," all as top Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump's remarks and praising Captain Khan as an American hero.

This firestorm comes after Trump earlier in his campaign questioned whether Senator John McCain was a hero after being captured in Vietnam. McCain's daughter tweeting this over the weekend: "I would ask what kind of barbarian would attack the parents of a fallen soldier, but oh, yes, it's the same person who attacks POWs."

CLINTON: He has, throughout the course of his campaign, consistently insulted and demeaned individuals, groups of Americans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: There were disavowals; there were condemnations throughout the day yesterday. One thing there was not: people pulling their endorsement from Donald Trump. It's something Democrats have seized on, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid calling Republicans, including Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, quote, "spineless."

Now, I was talking to Republican officials throughout the day yesterday. A couple of whom said the basic goal here, weather the storm, hope this position doesn't become increasingly more untenable as the week goes on. As one pointed out, John, "This is something we've dealt with before on some level over and over throughout this campaign. We seem to move on from it."

The question now, is this a bridge too far?

BERMAN All right, Phil Mattingly, how many days indeed. Let's discuss the firestorm right now.

Joining me, the National Diversity Coalition chairman of Muslim- Americans for Trump, Sajid Tarar; Haroon Moghul -- he's a senior fellow and director of development for the Center on Global Policy.

Gentlemen, let me read you a statement that we just got in from some Gold-Star family members who just wrote a letter to Donald Trump expressing their concern with his words. Listen to this: "We are all Gold-Star families who have lost those we love the most in war. Ours is a sacrifice you will never know. Ours is a sacrifice we would never want you to know. Your recent comments regarding the Khan family were repugnant and personally offensive to us. When you question a mother's pain by implying that her religion, not her grief, kept her from addressing an arena of people, you're attacking us. When you say your job building buildings is akin to our sacrifice, you're attacking our sacrifice."

Sajid, your response?

SAJID TARAR, CHAIRMAN, MUSLIM-AMERICANS FOR TRUMP: My response to this is, from the beginning, no question about the supreme sacrifice of Captain Khan and the Donald Trump has said several times, you know, in interviews and at other places that he acknowledges sacrifice.

But criticizing somebody's death, that was -- that was not appropriate, and this is not a class. And his father looked like a politician. And attacking him in front of the millions of people that he has -- he hasn't read the Constitution, it was unnecessary. It was brutal. This was done by the DNC, and they put political capital on it. I think it's not fair to the gold families at the same time. And a lot of sacrifice of sons and daughters of America, those have fought and gave their life.

And I believe Donald Trump is fighting for the same cause that Captain Khan has lost his life, fighting terrorism, fighting ISIS, and that's what it is.

BERMAN: The Khan family says, you know, they were not speaking the words of Hillary Clinton. They were not speaking the words of the DNC. They were speaking the words from their heart. Should they not be allowed to express their opinion?

TARAR: His father was on the DNC standing and bashing and taking the copy of the Constitution like a politician. I think either he has a political motivation in the future or something, but it was not fair.

BERMAN: Haroon.

HAROON MOGHUL, SENIOR FELLOW/DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, CENTER ON GLOBAL POLICY: Well, I think there's different responses to when people are bullied. Some people try to appease the bully. Other people stand in solidarity with the bully.

This has nothing to do with Muslims, with radical Islam, with national security. This is just classic Trump. Because if it -- if it really was about the things Trump is saying it is, then what do we do with Trump's comments on LGBT communities, on Native Americans, African- Americans, Jews, women, veterans, even in the last week, our allies abroad? I mean, if we follow this logic, then we're saying that it's legitimate when Trump goes after a judge of Mexican origin, by saying that, by virtue of his origin, he can't be impartial. Or when he says, for example -- and he said this last year, that Mexicans in the United States, they're mostly drug dealers, rapists, murderers. This is classic Trump. He behaves in the manner of a 5-year-old when

he's presented with any kind of criticism. And he's running for president, so he has to know how to deal with criticism. Right? He's a grown-up, ostensibly. He immediately creates a personal attack and makes it a personal attack.

Now, a Gold-Star family has every right to speak to politics, because I mean, what just happened? They put their own family member on the line. They lost a son. How can you possibly say that they're not allowed to talk about politics or policy? They're allowed to sacrifice a family member but not to comment on that sacrifice? That makes absolutely no sense to me.

BERMAN: Sajid, a lot of people are saying that, even if Donald Trump had an issue with the politics of this, even if Donald Trump felt attacked from the DNC stage by this family, the way he dealt with it, the empathy or lack of empathy, critics say he showed, is revealing.

In particular they say that he should not have brought up the wife, who during the DNC speech did not speak. Is she fair game to attack as Donald Trump -- or question as Donald Trump did?

TARAR: My -- my answer to this question is Donald Trump, since he started his candidacy, there's a war going on, especially from the liberal media. Everything they're twisting. They are not picking up whatever he's saying, especially like he has said that he's going to build a wall for people, but there will be doors for people coming in legally. He will ban the Muslims with exceptions. But the thing here...

BERMAN; Hang on. How is he twisting? When he talks about the wife: "If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably maybe wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. Plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet. It looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that."

I'm not twisting his words. I'm reading his words.

TARAR: Frankly speaking, what you think is an assumption. She didn't say a single thing. He's not lying. You know, it was an assumption, maybe she was not allowed.

BERMAN: He's questioning -- actually, let's play some video of this right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHAN: I will gladly lend you my copy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So when she says she did not speak because she can't speak when a photo of her son is behind her, which it was right there. She has a difficult time maintaining her emotions when talking about her son, who died 12 years ago. So again, I ask you, is it appropriate for Donald Trump to question the silence of a grieving mother? Why is it acceptable for Donald Trump to question the silence of a grieving mother?

TARAR: You know, a lot of women (ph) like to question, and that was a legitimate question. Why she didn't say a single word. She's a mother; she's one of the parents. Why not.

They said -- later on they said she had a medical condition. Why it was -- that's weird they brought her on the stage to begin with. It was just a drama. It was just like a typical DNC like they're living in a, you know, "Alice in Wonderland." It's all the fiction they wanted to create. And they are, as a matter of fact, disrespecting all the gold families and the people who have lost their lives defending this country and freedom.

BERMAN: Haroon, Sajid brought up "Alice in Wonderland." A lot of people think that, you know, "Through the Looking Glass" right now when they're talking about Donald Trump questioning this woman, who stood there in silence. Is that fair game?

MOGHUL: I'd say three things. First is you can't have your cake and eat it, too. You can't say that it's inappropriate for Gold-Star families to make political statements, as Sajid just did, and then ask why she didn't make a political statement. Right? That's deeply inconsistent on the surface of it.

The second is, why are we having this conversation? Like, why is this man a nominee? He's clearly a deeply immoral human being. I mean, he's insulted everyone. He started this a year ago by going after John McCain. What kind of person wants to be president of the United States and insults a prisoner of war and, when faced with criticism from a Gold-Star family, goes after a grieving mother? Like, that tells you everything you need to know.

And thirdly, this is about a lot more than Muslims, right? The RNC and the DNC, compare these two conventions. The DNC has Kareem Abdul- Jabbar -- and I'm a Lakers fan, so I'm happy about that -- introducing Captain Khan's family. Right? It's a vision of America as it is, and as it should be.

The RNC had fewer African-American delegates than any convention since 1912. That's insane. Right? Donald Trump is not really concerned with national security, with radical Islam. He has a vision of America that is profoundly at odds with what we believe America is supposed to be.

BERMAN: When he does criticize Trump, though, what he says he doesn't read the Constitution, doesn't that open him up to a debate or a dialogue, then, with the candidate?

MOGHUL: Sure, he does. But why go after the mother? Where is the actual dialogue and conversation? If you want to have a conversation, prove to me that a religious ban on 1.6 billion Muslims is consistent with the Constitution. Show me the connection between those two things, and I'm happy to have that conversation. Trump doesn't want to have that conversation. It's the same thing he did when he said that a judge of Mexican origin

can't be impartial. Whenever he's confronted with criticism, he goes after race. He goes after ethnicity. He goes after gender, because he behaves like a 5-year-old. He's not fit for office.

BERMAN: Haroon and Sajid, we've got to go. Thanks so much for being here. I do appreciate it.

Coming up next, we're going to speak exclusively in our next hour, we're going to speak with the Khans, Khizr Khan and Ghazala Khan. They will both join us in an interview that you do not want to miss.

HARLOW: Yes, this will be the first time we hear directly from Ghazala Khan after she wrote that op-ed in "The Washington Post" yesterday. That is in just a little under an hour.

Also ahead here, did Donald Trump cross the line with his war of words with the Khan family? Is it a line that will cost him votes in November? That's a critical question.

Also, how did Hillary Clinton respond to another grieving mother's claim that she, Clinton, is to blame for the death of her son in Benghazi? We'll parse it all out with our political panel, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:06] HARLOW: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The fallout growing this morning over Donald Trump's attacks on the Muslim parents of a fallen U.S. soldier who spoke out against him at the Democratic convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably -- maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. But plenty of people have written that. She -- she was extremely quiet and looked like she had nothing to say. A lot of people have said that.

I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs. Built great structures. I've done -- I've had -- I've had tremendous success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: The bipartisan backlash picking up steam, and Donald Trump is digging in. He is not apologizing. Let's discuss it all with our political panel: CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis, is with us. CNN political analyst and national political reporter for "The New York Times," Alex Burns, is with us. And CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory. Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

Where do we begin? So much to go through. Errol, to you. I think the real question is, is it any different this time? Is this going to cost him votes? Because a week ago he was beating Clinton in the polls at 44 percent to 39 percent. You say yes. You say it's different this time, and this is going to hurt him with pro-military Republicans. Why is it different?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It could. First of all, it's different because after the convention speeches are done, and it's not the entire convention. It's really the speeches that really make the difference and have proven to, like, sort of move the needle...

HARLOW: Yes.

LOUIS: ... when it comes to a convention bounce. That's over. You know, we have at this point under a hundred days. Every news cycle is precious. People are tuning in now and starting to make up their minds in big, big numbers. We've got the debates. We've got only a couple of different ways that you can really start moving large numbers of people. This could be a problem.

I think also if you think back to the Philadelphia convention, the Democrats hammered on the theme of trying to pry apart the Republican Party, trying to find who is persuadable, giving them permission, giving them an opportunity and an argument to step away from their candidate.

And that's what the Michael Bloomberg speech was about. And that's what much of the convention was really aimed at. And so this feeds right into that.

BERMAN: On cue, Republican Jeb Bush, no Donald Trump fan, but nevertheless a Republican, he tweeted this yesterday in response to what Donald Trump was doing.

He said, "This is so incredibly disrespectful to the family that endured the ultimate sacrifice of our country."

David Gregory, I want to ask you something unusual. I want to try to explain to people what's different about how Donald Trump has chosen to respond to this family. You covered George W. Bush in the White House. George W. Bush faced a lot of criticism from Gold-Star families, from mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers who'd lost loved ones in Iraq. And he responded differently than Donald Trump did.

[06:20:03] DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, to never go after the families. I mean, to treat them as sacred and to understand their pain, to respect, to elevate, honor their pain, and then make a pivot.

You know, Donald Trump in his tweet said later on, after his initial comments, which is a pattern for him, "Look, their son is a hero. We're talking about radical Islam and the dangers from that." But to go after the mother in that way is what I think so many people criticized.

And it's not just the offensiveness of that particular action. And again, there's Mike Pence, the running mate, issuing a statement, distancing himself from what the top of the ticket has done.

But it's also wasted opportunity, John. If you look, you know, Republicans worry about the fact that Trump will sabotage himself. He really could have been spending the last few days talking about very slow economic growth. He could have talked about the Clinton economic policies, wanting to raise taxes on the wealthy. These kinds of things that could not only unite the Republican Party but reach out to independent, undecided voters of which there's a large chunk in this election. So there's a lack of discipline and self-sabotage that I think is really something that we'll be watching for closely.

HARLOW: So let's talk about that, gentlemen, by comparing how Trump responded with how Hillary Clinton responded when Chris Wallace pressed her on Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, who died in Benghazi, in saying, "My son died because of your actions." So let's play the two reactions of the candidates side by side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Clinton: My heart goes out to both of them. Losing a child under any circumstances, especially in this case, I understand the grief and the incredible sense of loss that can motivate that.

Trump: He doesn't know that. I saw him. He was, you know, very emotional and probably looked like a nice guy to me. His wife, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably -- maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So David, Alex brings up this issue of the lack of discipline, right? And when you talk about whether or not you think this gives weight to Clinton's argument that Donald Trump have the temperament to be commander in chief. Does this help her on that front?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It certainly does. You saw both Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine and Bill Clinton yesterday sort of jump in really quickly to try to make this a part of a larger story about Trump. Bill Clinton raising on Saturday night how this reminds him of what Donald Trump said about John McCain all those months ago.

That's the kind of thing that bothered military families, military veterans a great deal at the time. And sort of bringing that up, you know, reopening that wound is sort of greatly politically advantageous for Clinton right now.

I would add, you know, Poppy, a big difference between the issue that Clinton is defending herself on there and the issue Trump is defending himself on, the issue of Benghazi has sort of been litigated round and round in this election to no one's obvious advantage.

Trump is being forced, really, to defend his proposal to ban Muslim immigration into the United States. He has tried to get away from that idea. It was very popular in the primaries, very unpopular with general election voters. And this just sucks him right back in to an issue where he probably cannot campaign on it for the next three months and come out ahead.

BERMAN: An issue that will undoubtedly come up in the debates, if there are debates, right? Because -- you know, because lately over the last three days, Donald Trump has been criticizing the debate commission, saying that the debates are scheduled against NFL football games. Errol Louis, what's going on here?

LOUIS: I think he's just trying to game it a little bit. You know, I mean, this always happens. Apparently this happened in 2012. I don't know, because if there's a choice between an NFL game and a political debate, I think we all know what you're watching.

HARLOW: We know what you're watching.

LOUIS: But, you know, I think he's going to push it a little bit, maybe try to create a little wiggle room. It's kind of a win-win for him. Either he gets them changed somehow, in which case he can claim to be a great negotiator, or he doesn't get them changed, and he can say the system is rigged. And so either way, he's going to try to make a little hay out of it. And while we're talking about all of that, we're not talking about Crimea. We're not talking about this flap with the Gold-Star mother.

HARLOW: Twenty seconds, Alex.

GREGORY: The risk here that he, at least, opens himself up to, he says he wants a debate that many people are going to see, the maximum exposure. What if, at some point, Hillary Clinton says, "Let's do ten debates. Let's do them right now"? Then how does he get out of it then?

The concern is I actually think it's a legitimate point. I don't know why you'd want to have a debate against football. There's also potentially a lot of his potential voters who would be watching football over the debates.

Now, you know, depending on his debate performance, he may want that. But I certainly think it's part of the gamesmanship of the system. If you're the Clinton team, you want these debates, you know, in October to really show where he has huge deficits on the issues.

BERMAN: Gentlemen, thank you all. Appreciate it.

A deadly weekend in the suburbs of Baltimore. Just incredible flooding there destroying neighborhoods, sweeping away cars. Look at this. A human chain formed there by residents in an effort to save a woman in a car there.

[06:25:00] Chad Myers joins us next with a look at whether the worst is over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking news in southern Illinois. A police officer is in serious condition after being shot by a suspect involved in a chase. Authorities say the Carbondale officer was responding to a report of shots being fired, then discovered the shooter was in a speeding car. The vehicle got away after hitting the police car. The officer has been transferred to a St. Louis area hospital. Police have not made any arrests.

HARLOW: All right. Officials in Maryland say they have never seen anything quite like the flash floods that devastated the Ellicott City, killing two people. Raging flood waters leading to dozens of water rescues just like this one. Take a look at this unbelievable video. Three men forming a human chain to rescue a woman trapped inside the raging water.

Nearly six inches of rain fell in Baltimore -- in that suburb of Baltimore in just two hours. You can see cars being washed away like toys on a road that turned into rivers. Maryland's governor declaring a state of emergency for Howard County. Wow.

BERMAN: So is there relief in sight? Stunning pictures. So much devastation.