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Emirates Flight Catches Fire on Runway; Questions Surround Donald Trump's Campaign. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 03, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

MANU RAJU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The tipping point, Trump openly challenging the parents of slain Muslim soldier, Captain Humayun Khan.

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF FALLEN MUSLIM SOLDIER: This person is not fit for the office he is seeking.

RAJU: Trump refusing to drop his fight with the gold star family despite the urging of senior staff, and failing to stay on message and attacking Hillary Clinton.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was hit very hard from the stage, and, you know, it is just one of those things. But no, I don't regret anything.

RAJU: This, as Trump refuses to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan, telling the "Washington Post," I'm just not quite there yet. I'm not quite there yet." Trump, thumbing his nose at Ryan's delayed decision to endorse him back in May.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now.

RAJU: Trump also declining to back former GOP nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain, who is in a tough reelection battle. "I've always felt he should have done a better job for the vets." Trump's tension with McCain has been brewing ever since Trump criticized the war hero for being captured in Vietnam. McCain telling me back in May he wants Trump to apologize to POWs.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: When he said I don't like people who were captured, then there is a great body of American heroes that I would like to see him retract that statement.

RAJU: The avalanche of Trump's controversial statements prompting several prominent Republicans to break from their party and back Hillary Clinton. President Obama using the weight of the office to slam Trump at a news conference with a foreign leader at the White House.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Republican nominee is unfit to serve as president.

RAJU: And blasting Republicans for standing by their nominee.

OBAMA: If you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him? This isn't a situation where you have an episodic gaffe. This is daily and weekly where they're distancing themselves from statements he is making.

RAJU: Trump, firing back --

TRUMP: Well, he is terrible president. He'll probably go down as the worst president in the history of our country. He has been a total disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, earlier this morning, Trump tweeted there is, quote, "great unity inside his campaign, perhaps more than ever before." But his refusal to endorse Paul Ryan in particular has prompted turmoil internally. House and Senate Republicans tell us they believe Trump is simply acting vindictive in such remarks will only make it harder to stop more Republicans from defecting and refusing to support Trump this fall, John and Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring in CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter Bakari Sellers, and Trump campaign spokesperson Katrina Pierson. Thanks to both of you for being here. Katrina, I'll just start with you and everything that Manu has just raised. Is there concern within the Trump campaign that Mr. Trump is not staying enough on message and keeps sort of being diverted with these other issues?

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: No, Alisyn. Look, it has been over a year, and we are still hearing CNN report, quote, "turmoil in the Trump campaign." It is simply not true. These are still anonymous sources that CNN continues to use and all the individuals mentioned have said it is not true. I will say it again, it is not true.

The Trump campaign is very excited moving towards the debate simply because there is going to be a clear contrast drawn between what a Trump administration would look like versus the status quo with Hillary Clinton.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Katrina, just because they're anonymous sources doesn't mean they don't exist. These are people who are talking to CNN who don't want to be named because they want to protect their current jobs there. These are people telling us overnight that they're very concerned with the way this campaign is going, in particular some of the statements that he has made about the Khan family over the last five days, also some of the things happening now with Speaker Paul Ryan, refusing to endorse Paul Ryan in his primary. Do you want to see, Katrina, Paul Ryan reelection to Congress from Wisconsin?

PIERSON: Well, Mr. Trump has already said earlier, John, that he wasn't interested in involving himself in primaries. This is a primary. So there is nothing new here. What he didn't say is he wouldn't endorse Paul Ryan. He just said he wasn't ready yet. CAMEROTA: Bakari, what do you think of Donald Trump not -- I mean,

Paul Ryan and John McCain did come around to endorsing Donald Trump. What do you think about him breaking with protocol and not endorsing them?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there has been absolutely nothing normal about this Donald Trump campaign. We can say that as being a fact. But Donald Trump has not just unendorsed or not endorsed John McCain. He has blatantly disrespected John McCain, his disrespected and POWs. He has actually gone so far, and Paul Ryan's race is just next week, to kind of give him a slap in the face as well.

[08:05:02] The only person Donald Trump has truly endorsed throughout this entire campaign season is Vladimir Putin. And I think that the fact that he won't stand beside his own colleagues show that he will be an infective president of the United States. He will not be able to govern if he won't stand beside Paul Ryan, he won't stand beside John McCain if you are the president of the United States.

BERMAN: Katrina, I want to give you a chance to --

PIERSON: Let me thank my friend, Bakari, for acknowledging that Donald Trump is not your typical go along to get along politician and follows protocol. He is doing what he thinks is best. We keep forgetting that these individuals severely attacked Donald Trump. It wasn't like Donald Trump just came out and said some things. They were in response to what was said about him.

CAMEROTA: How did Paul Ryan severely attack Donald Trump?

PIERSON: When he didn't want to endorse Donald Trump after it was already known that he was going to win the nomination, saying that his policies were bad even though the Republican voting primary supported him over8elmingly. These are criticisms of Donald Trump. And Donald Trump hasn't criticized Paul Ryan. He just said I wasn't ready to endorse him yet because he already said early on that he didn't want to get involved in primaries. These are primaries, not general election races.

BERMAN: So what goes around comes around, Katrina?

PIERSON: No. What I'm saying these are primaries. I don't understand why we can't distinguish the difference between a primary race, because there are a lot of Trump supporters who are supporting other candidates. Most politicians --

SELLERS: That's not --

PIERSON: -- stay out of primary races for that reason, and he already said he didn't want to get involved.

BERMAN: Kelly Ayotte is not in a primary in New Hampshire, Katrina. Kelly Ayotte is running for reelection against the Democratic governor. Donald Trump has been very critical of her. PIERSON: Well, absolutely. He has been critical of those who have

been critical about him. Again, this is nothing new. And for some reason, why Donald Trump has to toe the line, particularly for Republican whose have scored less than 30 percent on the Heritage action scorecard, is beyond belief. These are Republican whose actually support Hillary Clinton in many ways.

CAMEROTA: Katrina, we want to give you a chance to clarify something that you said on CNN yesterday. You seemed to be blaming President Obama and secretary of state then Hillary Clinton for Captain Humayun Khan's death. You had said it was under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to change the rules of engage that probably cost his life. And of course, he was killed in 2004, that was when President George W. Bush was president. Last night, Captain Khan's father Khizr Khan, responded to your comments. Let us play those for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHIZR KHAN: Do I need to say anything? Lack of understanding, lack of factual correctness. I would, again, appeal to his surrogates that, please show some decency, refrain from what you attempted out of anger and out of this ugly partisan-ness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Katrina, do you want to apologize to Mr. Kahn?

PIERSON: Apologize for the timeline. What I was talking about is the fact that Donald Trump has no connection to anything having to do with Captain Khan, who was a brave war hero. The timeline is very simple and true, Alisyn. Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq. She did not support the surge. Barack Obama made things worse by invading more countries than President Bush did.

CAMEROTA: But he was killed in 2004.

PIERSON: And got tens of thousands of soldiers that were killed.

CAMEROTA: But he was killed in 2004, when George W. Bush was president.

SELLERS: Alisyn, may I comment, please.

PIERSON: But Donald Trump wasn't there. That is the only point. That's the only point. Donald Trump is being blamed for something he had nothing to do with, and he did not attack this family.

CAMEROTA: But you are blaming President Obama.

BERMAN: Katrina, the words you used, "probably cost his life." President Obama and Hillary Clinton changed the rules of engagement that probably cost his life. You do acknowledge now that there you were just wrong?

PIERSON: Well, absolutely. That's why I used "probably," because I was just going through the timeline, because since then we have had tens of thousands of soldiers that have been lost, 1 million wounded, $6 trillion later. How can we put the onerous on Donald Trump? It is absolutely absurd. And that's why you see all this confusion surrounding this issue, because Donald Trump had absolutely nothing to do with it.

CAMEROTA: No one was blaming Donald Trump for Captain Khan's death. You were blaming President Obama and he wasn't president yet.

PIERSON: No, I was talking about Hillary Clinton specifically voting for the war. That was during that time period.

BERMAN: You said change the rules of engage that cost his life. That's what you specifically said.

PIERSON: In the chronological order, absolutely.

[08:10:00] SELLERS: Alisyn, John, if I may, just briefly. This is the type of fact free environment that we're living in. Not only do people to realize, or Katrina fails to realize or fails to articulate that Donald Trump actually supported the Iraq war before he was against, and to actually blame a sitting state senator in Illinois for changing the rules of engagement in 2004 and causing the death of this great war hero is the height of irresponsibility.

But further, you get down to the bones of the Trump campaign, and the fact that Katrina Pierson won't even apologize this morning is indicative not just of her, but it's indicative of the top of this campaign. It is exactly what Captain Khan's father was talking about. It is about decency and respect. And until we can get back to that playing field, all else is moot.

CAMEROTA: Katrina, you acknowledge you got it wrong?

PIERSON: Donald Trump did not vote for that war, period.

BERMAN: He said he was supportive of the war before the invasion.

PIERSON: He did not vote for the war.

BERMAN: He absolutely said he was --

CAMEROTA: He couldn't have voted. He was a private person.

PIERSON: That's my point, Alisyn. That's my point. That's why this is a ridiculous conversation. Donald Trump had nothing to do with sending troops like Captain Khan, into Iraq to begin with.

CAMEROTA: Nor did he have anything to do with opposing it until after the war had begun and wasn't going well.

PIERSON: But it doesn't matter. He had nothing to do with this war that sent Captain Khan over there. That's the whole point here. Mr. Trump had nothing to do with this. But somehow for the last few days this has been revolving around a war and Donald Trump, something that he had nothing to do with it.

CAMEROTA: Well, it is surrounding the rhetoric between Donald Trump and Khizr Khan. That's what this war of words is.

PIERSON: Well, CNN has been talking about an attack on the families. So what exactly was the attack?

BERMAN: He said he --

CAMEROTA: We can clear that up.

BERMAN: He questioned why the grieving mother of this soldier who was killed in battle in 2004, questioned why she chose not to speak at the Democratic convention. That specifically I think what people are talking about, Katrina.

PIERSON: Well, if that's what we're talking about, then go back and check the tape, because he was specifically talking about reports that the father, not the son, and I think it is very important to separate those two, because Donald Trump did say that the son was a hero. He was speaking specifically to the reports that the father, who is a strong proponent of sharia law and actually writing about it and how the constitution should be subordinate to Sharia law.

CAMEROTA: That's not true, Katrina. That's not true. The father has addressed that. I'll just read to you, unless we have it on tape. He said that -- we have it on tape? All right, let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHAN: Sharia law as we have titled it, there is no such thing as Shia law. These are laws of various Muslim countries, which are hodgepodge of Finnish laws, French laws, Portuguese laws. In there, there is tremendous discrimination of genders which disqualifies them under the constitution of United States, cannot be implemented, cannot be brought. How can I be a person that has read this, I preach that, that I do not stand for any sharia law because there is no such thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Katrina, he doesn't stand for, he never has stood for it. He carries around the U.S. constitution --

PIERSON: Alisyn, you're right. You're right. That's what he said. But I'm just telling you the reports, and the documents that he wrote were put out there for all to see, which says the exact opposite. That's what Mr. Trump was referring to. There was no attack. It was an observation.

SELLERS: But Alisyn --

BERMAN: We're going to have -- we have to go to break. But Mr. Trump was talking about the mother and why she didn't speak at the convention. That's exactly what he said when he said it.

CAMEROTA: Bakari, Katrina.

PIERSON: Right, and he said reading the reports. Go back and check the tape. CAMEROTA: Thank you. We will put on our own Twitter accounts the

account as we know it.

A quick programming note for you. Join us tonight for a live CNN town hall with the libertarian ticket. Anderson Cooper is going to speak with Gary Johnson and William Weld about the alternative they present to this race. It's tonight at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news. An Emirates jumbo jet crashed after landing at Dubai International Airport. You see that right there. You see the fireball on the runway. We're going to get details of what happened here. CNN's Isa Soares joins us live with the details. Isa, what can you tell us.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, John. It was a terrifying moment for passengers flying from southern India to Dubai International Airport. The plane skidded on the runway, and then we see dramatic images you're seeing there on our air, basically a plume of smoke. The plane catches fire, then you see a plume of smoke billowing from the aircraft. We then see the plane crumbled on its belly. On board, 282 passengers and 18 crew, and, John, miraculously, all of which are safe and accounted for.

[08:15:01] Emirates in the last few minutes have given us a list of those passengers. Six of those passengers are U.S. nationals. Everyone is safe.

Theories now starting to advance to what exactly happened. One aviation expert that I spoke to believes the incident may have happened after landing. Perhaps there was an obstacle in the runway or the landing gear didn't work. These are all working theories. Emirates is trying to investigate. But of course, with the plane still on the runway, John, of course, Dubai International Air has suspended all flights, they're saying pretty much an eight hour delay, which is really a small price for what could have been a very grave incident. John and Alisyn.

BERMAN: A delay is not the issue. It's the lives that were not lost, which is a miracle.

CAMEROTA: A miracle. Isa, thank you for that reporting.

Well, President Obama calling on GOP leaders to drop their endorsements of Donald Trump. How's that going to go over with the GOP? We're going to talk to former advisor of the president, David Axelrod, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: President Obama, who is a Democrat, you might have heard, calling out Republicans for supporting Donald Trump, saying -- the president did -- that Donald Trump is unfit to lead this nation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the question I think that they have to ask themselves is, if you are repeatedly having to say in very strong terms that what he has said is unacceptable, why are you still endorsing him?

[08:20:013] What does this say about your party that this is your standard-bearer?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We want to discuss with our CNN senior political commentator and former senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod.

David, you know, many of us were commenting yesterday I don't think I've ever seen a President of the United States standing next to a foreign leader in the White House saying that the nominee from another party is unfit to be president. That's one thing.

But the president also said something I thought was remarkable. He said, you know, had John McCain beaten him, had Mitt Romney beaten him, he still would've said this is our president. But Donald Trump, he seemed to indicate he wouldn't say the same thing, suggesting some kind of continuity -- drawing into question the continuity of power here. I thought that was a pretty extraordinary comment from the president.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I'm sure the president would say that, ultimately, the American people have their say and whoever wins in November will be President of the United States. So -- but I think the point he was trying to make is -- the point that, you know, Richard Hanna, the Republican Congressman from upstate New York made in an essay yesterday, and Meg Whitman made and so on.

There's a lot of concern about Donald Trump right now. I've never seen a few days like the last few days that he's had. I actually felt for poor Katrina in your last segment, trying to explain, you know, what is bizarre behavior, you know. Some of it, you know, just strange things on issues from sexual harassment to phantom letters from the NFL, but not knowing sort of the status of Ukraine was and so on. It's just crazy stuff.

And, you know, I would say this -- if Donald Trump were trying to lose this election, and I'm not saying he is, but if he were, I'm not sure he'd behave any differently than he has in the last few days. I mean, this is something I've never seen before.

CAMEROTA: But David, I mean, Hillary Clinton got a bounce obviously from the Democratic convention, so her poll numbers are higher. We need to see what happens next week when those number stabilize. What makes you think that he is losing? What makes you think that his supporters don't think that, once again, he's just being politically incorrect and he's saying what some of them think and he's brave enough to say it?

AXELROD: No, that may well be. Look, I don't doubt that he has loyal supporters who will stick with him. In fact, he's got 13 million of them we know from the primaries, Alisyn. Here's the problem. You need 65 million to win a general election.

And the question is are you growing or are you shrinking your support? Everything he's done in the last few days, from the Mr. -- the episode with the Khans, which was maybe the most egregious, through some of these other antics have done -- common sense will tell you, and I think the polls will as well in the next few days, these were devastating mistakes. And I'm just talking now as a clinical matter, as someone who has been involved in presidential campaigns.

What it suggests is a campaign that is out of control and a candidate that's out of control. No campaign would have put Donald Trump together with the "Washington Post" to do a 50 minute interview yesterday that was nothing short of bizarre. That was the interview where he said he wasn't for Ryan and McCain. And by the way, I heard Katrina say, well, he doesn't get involved in primaries. That's not what he said. He said he never -- last night on Fox, he said he never much cared for John McCain. I mean, this was more than simply saying, "I don't get involved in primaries." This was a statement about two of the major leaders of the party he's seeking to lead.

So I hear you and I'm the first to say we're 97 or whatever days out, there are going to be a lot of twists and turns in the road between now and November, but there are signs here of distress in his campaign that portend greater problems as time goes on and as the pressure ratchets up.

BERMAN: Can you tell me why it is qualitatively different than what happened in June with Judge Curiel, when people like Lindsey Graham were saying this is an off-ramp for Republicans to get off the Trump train? Why is this different than that? Because Trump recovered from that. Why do you think this is worse?

AXELROD: He did recover and he had a convention and, you know, you had the FBI director making his statements about Hillary Clinton, which helped him recover. But now we're deeper into the campaign. You're supposed to be turning to the general election. And, literally, there were nine or ten stories, you know, kicking the baby out, the Purple Heart thing, I mean, just serially, that suggest that as the pressure's ratcheting up, he is kind of losing his grip on the -- on himself, on his campaign.

[08:25:13] There was a story this morning, I don't know whether it's true or not, about a rift between him and Manafort in the leadership of the campaign. These are not the things that you want to be happening as you turn the corner after the convention and head to a general election. You don't want questions about whether you can be removed as the nominee kind of bruted about. You don't want stories about your mental health bruted about at a time like this.

I mean, these are just -- this is just an objective -- I mean, you know, partisanship aside, this -- you look at this, you just have to shake your head.

CAMEROTA: He's rewriting the playbook in front of your eyes. David Axelrod, thank you very much for all of your perspective --

AXELROD: OK, all right.

CAMEROTA: -- on this.

So reports that Donald Trump is at war with his own party, you just heard David Axelrod talk a little bit about that, well, now big name Republicans say that not only are they not supporting Donald Trump, they're going to support Hillary Clinton because of this. Former George W. Bush press secretary, Ari Fleischer, joins us next with his take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)