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Trump Insists Campaign 'United' Despite Backlash; CNN Poll: Obama Gets Convention Bounce. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 04, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Every time he talks, it's clearly a mistake.

[05:58:29] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: By the way, those people that knocked down the World Trade Center under the Trump policy wouldn't have been here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has crossed so many red lines.

TRUMP: The campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united.

PAUL MANAFORT, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The Clinton machine may not like it, but we're prepared for the fight.

TRUMP: Anyone who can be provoked by a tweet should not be near nuclear weapons.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now what comes to my mind is a screw loose.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: President Obama spent $400 million to the Iranian regime at the same time as four American hostages were released.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: It is not a ransom payment. It is against the policy of the United States to pay ransom for hostages.

TRUMP: Two more have been kidnapped since then. Where is it going to end?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, August 4, 6 a.m. in the east. Chris Cuomo is off this morning. Thank goodness John Berman is filling in.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I thought you were saying, "Thank goodness Chris Cuomo is off this morning." He may be watching. You've got to be careful.

CAMEROTA: Sure is. We miss you, Chris. John's here instead. BERMAN: Thank goodness.

CAMEROTA: Up first, Donald Trump says his campaign is more united than ever. This despite reports that party leaders and even senior members of his team were frustrated with his behavior and a series of missteps.

BERMAN: Trump was back on the campaign trail last night, touting a genuinely big fundraising haul in July. He is now closing that big gap with Hillary Clinton's fundraising machine, crediting small donors for fueling this surge.

All this as a new national poll shows Hillary Clinton expanding her lead over Trump. Now ten points in a two-way match-up.

Let me begin our coverage with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He joins us here in New York.

Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Solid fundraising numbers. A series of top national security stories about Hillary Clinton that Trump advisers feel like they can absolutely take advantage of. Now if only they can just keep their candidate on message.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: The campaign is doing really well. It's never been so well united.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump pledging unprecedented unity within his campaign after days of turmoil.

TRUMP: I would say right now it's the best in terms of being united that it's been since we began.

MATTINGLY: It's a message echoed by his top advisers, at least publicly, who tell CNN Trump's team is under control.

MANAFORT: The campaign is focused. The campaign is moving forward in a positive way.

MATTINGLY: Though sources insist there is frustration within his staff with the candidate. Getting back on message, Trump putting Hillary Clinton directly in his crosshairs, attacking her record as secretary of state.

TRUMP: It was Hillary Clinton that she should get an award from them as the founder of ISIS. That's what it was.

MATTINGLY: And touting his latest fundraising haul.

TRUMP: And we just took in this month, I think it's 80 or $82 million. MATTINGLY: Despite closing the gap with Clinton, it's proving

difficult for Trump to collect checks from the country's top donors. His campaign war chest trails Clinton's by $20 million.

TRUMP: We're raising a lot of money for the Republican Party, and the money is coming in. We're just doing great.

But small contributions -- I think it was $61 each. And few Republicans can do that. Maybe no Republican can do that.

MATTINGLY: And with several Republicans now saying publicly they won't support Trump, including rising GOP star Adam Kinzinger, there's still great cause for concern within the party.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), ILLINOIS: Donald Trump, for me, is beginning to cross a lot of red lines of the unforgivable in politics, and so I'm not going to support Hillary. But you know, in America, we have the right to write somebody in or skip the vote, vote for Mark Kirk in Illinois, for instance, and that's what it's looking like for me today. I just don't see how I get to Donald Trump any more.

MATTINGLY: Trump's decision not to endorse House Speaker Paul Ryan in his primary battle, infuriating RNC chair Reince Priebus, Trump's most stalwart establishment backer. Even Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, splitting with him over Ryan, giving a full-throated endorsement.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IL), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm strongly supporting Paul Ryan, strongly endorse his re-election. He's a long- time friend. He's a strong conservative leader.

MATTINGLY: And the controversy is leading some top supporters to question Trump's perceived self-sabotage. Newt Gingrich, a finalist to be Trump's running mate, telling "The Washington Post" Trump is helping Hillary Clinton win by proving he is more unacceptable than she is.

GINGRICH: In the last couple weeks, he has been remarkably underperforming.

MATTINGLY: Gingrich later backtracking, telling politico he's, quote, "100 percent for Trump."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And guys, Newt Gingrich, at least according to one Trump advisor, actually calling the Trump campaign yesterday to congratulate them on two, as he said, very good rallies for Donald Trump down in Florida. So backtracking a little more but really underscoring the idea here that Republican officials right now are very concerned that, while Donald Trump has never been the most on-message candidate at all, that he has completely gone off track.

Still, his campaign advisers making it very clear they think there are a lot of opportunities and a lot of time to get him back on track before November, guys.

CAMEROTA: OK, Phil. Thanks so much for all that reporting. Stay with us, if you would.

We want to bring in the rest of our panel: CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief of "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich. Great to have all of you.

So Jackie, it sounds like Trump yesterday was able to sort of right the Trump train. He had these two rallies. The first 11 minutes of which went well. I mean -- I mean, maybe all of them went well.

CAMEROTA: So you're saying there's a chance.

I'm actually not trying to be facetious. He stayed on message. Then he veered off message, but the crowd liked it. So he -- he was just sort of complying with, if we believe the reports, his top lieutenants who want him to keep hammering at Hillary.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, the crowd is Donald Trump's problem, because when he can stay on script, when he's not getting that reaction, he does -- he does fine.

But it's that fuel that the crowd, the "lock her up" chant that you hear at Trump rallies, the -- just how excited the crowd is by some of his rhetoric, just takes him off path.

I mean, I don't think we're going to see Trump ever really stick to the script all the time, because time and time again, we've seen him divert. He can't help himself. He also said Hillary Clinton created ISIS or something yesterday. So she went from the devil to the ISIS -- so maybe that's dialing it back. I don't know.

BERMAN: Look, I mean, you heard Newt Gingrich, Phil reporting that Newt Gingrich was happy about yesterday's rallies, which is absolutely true. And the Trump team was happier with how things went yesterday. Maybe they're grading on a curve. He didn't do anything to hurt his campaign as he had done the days before.

[06:05:12] But they did have genuinely good news not on a curve. Right? They brought in a ton of money. They released fundraising numbers that are eye-popping right now, $82 million brought in, in July, compared to $51 million for them in June. A lot of it in small- dollar amounts, which is key. That is important.

Phil was saying, you know, the Trump people feel like they have a lot of days left now to right the ship. Now they have a lot of money.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And it's not just the money. It's the type of money. I mean, the small-dollar donors, that $10, that $20 donation, it's not just that you've got the money, although that's nice in the aggregate, but you've also locked that person in. And you can also go back to that person again and again and again. It becomes really a voter mobilization strategy. People are really much more psychologically set.

You know, where they held the rally, I mean, Jacksonville, I've got a lot of family down in Jacksonville. And that is -- that was Bush country. You know, I remember going to a rally down there. In fact, back in 2004, he landed a chopper in the middle of the Jaguar Stadium.

You know, I mean, it's really more like the south down there than it's not tropical Florida. It's really more like Alabama, Georgia, right? And so, you know, they're doing what they're supposed to do. But I mean, I think Jackie makes a really good point, which is that we assume when people throw out words like "demagogue," and they associate Trump with that, that he's leading this crowd in some dangerous direction. And it's just the opposite.

The crowd is leading the speaker. You know, he's feeding off their fuel. He's taking their cues from them. And that's when people say, "Hey, he's getting off-track." And there again, I have to disagree.

I mean, the man is the message in this case. Trump is doing what works for him. He's doing what has worked for him. He again was in Trump country yesterday. You know, if you're talking about Tampa, if you're talking about the Panhandle, the northeast of Florida, he's raising the money. He's doing all of the things that he thinks are going to work for him.

The only question is whether, strategically, he should be going yet again to the same base over and over and over again, digging in that same well, when there's a possibility that he's making an error, because he needs to broaden the people who are supporting him.

KUCINICH: The one thing I just want to add with the fundraising, he's done a lot of that through direct mail, which is very expensive. So we don't know how much he's actually spent on that yet. And I can tell you anecdotally, just from seeing friends of mine that are Republicans, he's sent a lot of letters and fundraising asks to people that will never give him money.

BERMAN: Doug (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has stacks of who he does, does not like Trump at all. It's like five letters from Trump himself.

KUCINICH: Yes, exactly. So we'll have to see how much he actually spent, because it looks like their list might need a little bit of refining.

CAMEROTA: What do they say about that, Phil?

MATTINGLY: I think what they're -- what they're happiest about on small donors, I think Jackie is right. If you watch the Republican Party in general when it comes to direct mail, they tend to spend a ton of money and a lot of consultants make a lot of money off direct mail.

And the campaign tends to not make as much money off direct mail. Ben Carson's campaign is an example of one, A, B, C and D. I do think that they're happiest right now with their digital operation, which was almost nonexistent, fundraising-wise, before June.

And I think this is -- this is the excitement behind their numbers. Again, they trail Hillary Clinton by a substantial amount when it comes to money. But their ability to raise small-dollar, online with an infrastructure that didn't exist two months ago, their ability to meld with the RNC and actually figure out a way digitally to raise money via e-mail, not just direct mail, is a positive for their campaign. No question about it.

CAMEROTA: Are they worried about the top donors not contributing as much as staying on the sidelines?

MATTINGLY: Look, you want those $2,700 checks, hard-dollar checks, $2,700 checks. These aren't super PACs. There are limits to what they can raise. That's important.

But I think Errol makes a very important point. What drove Bernie sanders was their ability to go back to the same donors over and over again. And so if you're getting people that are donating $10, $15, $25, that means their max is 2,700. You get to keep going back to them every single month and getting another 25, getting another 50. That's what drove Bernie to record-setting numbers. And so that's...

CAMEROTA: Twenty-seven dollars.

MATTINGLY: Twenty-seven dollars was the average that we heard. So that's an opportunity. But no question about it, you need to max-out donors. It has to happen.

BERMAN: Errol brought up the idea that there are two tracks with Donald Trump. You know, one Trump here, one Trump there. We -- I think we now know there's one Donald Trump. It's just a question of how much of the one do you hear during a time?

And last night in these rallies in Florida, he was more on message. Trump people say he was talking about the Iran deal, the $400 million and the pallets to Iran that we heard about on "The Wall Street Journal" yesterday. He did focus a lot more on that and Hillary Clinton.

But there were still the moments when he couldn't help himself, still the moments when he couldn't help but talk about perceived injustices done to him, including as Hillary Clinton. He was talking about "The New York Times" reporter who he's been criticized for, for making fun of his disability. I just want to show you what he said yesterday, compared to what he said initially back when this controversy whole started.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy, you've got to see this guy. Oh, I don't know what I said: "I don't remember." He's going like, "I don't remember. Oh, maybe that's what I said."

[06:10:08] I didn't know who he was. I didn't. And if I did and he was handicapped, he had a problem with something, and he was handicapped. Must be a nice guy, didn't speak to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It was pretty clear that Donald Trump knew exactly who he was talking about. CAMEROTA: How is it clear? How is it clear if he said, "I didn't

know reporter," how do we know that he knew that?

BERMAN: Back when he initially said it, he was sort of referred to the reporter as if he knew him, and it was someone who had covered Trump over the years.

CAMEROTA: Reporter says he knew him.

BERMAN: The issue here, though, is why is Trump bringing this up at all? Why bring this up at all in a rally?

LOUIS: That's where I think you can make the argument, OK, now you're getting off-message. I remember watching, because it was on CNN. I remember my wife and I were watching when he made that other comment about blood coming out of her wherever. We looked at each other and said, "Did he really just say that?" That was a year ago. That was in August.

CAMEROTA: He circled back to that yesterday also. He said what he meant to say was her nose or her mouth.

KUCINICH: He's seeing these comments in ads. He wants to refute them.

LOUIS: That's where he, I think, needs to resist the temptation to engage and hit back. That's one of his instincts. He says it's one of his best instincts. It worked for him in commerce. It has worked for him in politics, frankly.

But you've got to -- you've got to let some of that stuff go. When the Gold-Star parents say something about you, you got to let it go. When people are running ads against you, you've got to let it go. You have to sort of, you know, either pivot or counterstrike in some other kind of a way. Because it sounded kind of crazy.

I don't know if he fully realizes, Donald Trump, that a lot of people are tuning in for the first time. They don't remember what all of that was about. They don't really even know what the ad necessarily was about. They're really just trying to piece it together for the first time. And when you come up with these ludicrous explanations -- because what he said was false. I mean, we know what he did with Serge Kovaleski. That ad speaks for itself. That's why it's so effective. He needs to kind of just get off that and find something else to talk about.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Stick around. A lot more to discuss.

We do have some breaking political news about someone not running for office. A new national poll reveals that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are not the only ones getting a bounce in the polls after the conventions. With about five months left in office, President Obama's approval numbers are up.

CNN political director David Chalian joins us now with more on that. The Obama bounce, David. DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: John, you know nothing matters as much as the president's approval rating when it comes to a presidential election. Take a look at this: 54 percent approve, 45 percent disapprove. This is the highest approval rating of his second term.

If you asked Hillary Clinton to dream up what month she would want Barack Obama at his highest of his second term, it would be now. It would be August, September, heading into the fall, because their fates are inextricably linked.

Let's put him in context of history here. Obama is 54 percent. He's near a record. Thirty percent is where the approval was of George W. Bush at this point of his presidency. Fifty-seven percent for Bill Clinton, who was still riding that post-impeachment bounce. And 54 percent for Ronald Reagan at this point in his second term. So Barack Obama is near historic highs in the modern era.

Let's also look at how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are tied together. We asked folks, would Clinton's policies be a continuation, the same as Obama, or would it be different from Obama? Nearly two- thirds of the country, 64 percent, say her policies will be the same as President Obama. Thirty-three percent say different from Obama. This is after the convention where he went out there and was a huge validator for her.

Now let's look at how people feel about the direction of the country. This is an important number. Forty-six percent say well. Fifty-four percent, a majority, a slim majority say badly. But remember, how can Barack Obama be at record-high approval and a majority say it's badly?

Because some of these folks who think the country is going in the wrong direction, they're Obama fans. They're frustrated by gridlock in Washington. So they're in here, as well. And there's a big partisan divide.

Take a look at this. Things are going well in the country. The people who tell us they think things are going well, 76 percent of them are Democrats. Forty-two percent are independents; 17 percent are Republicans. So it depends on your partisan I.D. as to whether or not you think the country is headed in the right direction.

And then finally, what is this impact on how people vote? Among the very enthusiastic, the extremely enthusiastic, those people who tell us they're ready to go out and vote, 51 percent of them think the country is going well. Only 38 percent of the most enthusiastic voters tell us it's going badly.

This is a warning sign for Donald Trump, because the more motivated voters are the ones that think the country is headed in the right direction right now -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Interesting numbers, David. Thanks so much for giving us a preview and break down of all those. So we want to talk about it. Because how will President Obama's new approval ratings impact the 2016 election? We go inside those numbers next. BERMAN: The new approval...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton not the only ones with a post- convention bump. This new CNN/ORC national poll shows President Obama, he got one, too. Now enjoying his highest approval rating of his second term, 54 percent.

So what does this do for the people actually running to be the next president? Back with us to discuss it, Errol Louis, Jackie Kucinich and David Chalian.

Errol, I'll start with you, because David just talked a lot. He laid out this entire big poll right now. Fifty-four percent for President Obama is -- you know, is good. It compares to Ronald Reagan back when he was at the end of his second term. And of course, that's the last time you got a, quote/unquote, "third term." George H.W. Bush was able to be elected for three consecutive Republican terms there. You know that's what the Democrats hope is happening here.

LOUIS: Well, that's right. And let's keep in mind that second term for Ronald Reagan was mired in scandal. The Iran-Contra deal was pretty serious stuff. And it's got some interesting echoes with this new thing about, you know, $400 million in currency being shipped to Iran. But, you know, what it shows is that you can survive a scandal.

[06:20:05] In the Clinton case, you can survive impeachment, and voters won't necessarily abandon you. They may think there's a lot of stuff wrong with the country, but they can blame that on the marketplace. They can blame that on Congress. They can blame that on themselves. They don't necessarily blame it on the president.

CAMEROTA: So Jackie, how do you see the numbers? Do you think that this bodes well, the 54 percent approval for Obama bodes well for Hillary Clinton?

KUCINICH: It does, but it's not foolproof. Because remember, Al Gore didn't win in 2000, even though Clinton had had 57 percent. Yes, exactly. So it's not foolproof.

But certainly, in particular, because voters overwhelmingly think that she is going to carry on his policies. But, you know, there still -- this isn't a done deal by any stretch of the imagination. Voters are just tuning in. There's unforeseen things that could happen. So -- but yes, does this bode well for her going into the general? Absolutely.

CHALIAN: The only thing is Al Gore, of course, did everything in his power to try to remind voters he had nothing to do with Bill Clinton and he barely knew him.

KUCINICH: Who?

CHALIAN: Hillary Clinton put Barack Obama on her convention stage...

KUCINICH: Very true.

CHALIAN; ... in a very prime spot. And it was all about endorsing Hillary Clinton. So they're, I think, more attached than Gore wanted to be to Clinton. I agree, it's not foolproof. But the correlation between the approval rating, it is a very strong correlation to candidates doing well.

BERMAN: This is what David is talking about right now, part of that correlation. If you approve of President Obama, 94 percent of people who approve of President Obama are for Hillary Clinton.

Just 3 percent are for Donald Trump. The converse of that is if you disapprove of the president, 85 percent of them are for Trump, just 9 percent for Clinton. So you can see, you know, as goes President Obama's approval rating perhaps, so goes the election.

CAMEROTA: But what does that mean for who wins?

CHALIAN: So goes Hillary Clinton's support, I think, and potentially the election. We don't know about -- to Jackie's point, I don't think it's a clear sign to say Obama's up, so Hillary is definitely going to win. But I do think if it were the reverse, if he were at the lowest point of his second term right now, if he was down, she would be in a world of hurt right now. So this is a very good sign for her campaign.

KUCINICH: And you see her separating herself from the president more from the president than she currently is.

BERMAN: Which is to say not at all. Like separating yourself, in a way, like giving him a giant hug and holding on for dear life. That's how much she's separating herself from the president.

KUCINICH: Exactly. He certainly wouldn't have been on stage, giving one of the key-notes at her convention.

CAMEROTA: So last night was the Libertarian town hall. And the Libertarian ticket sounded off on Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and the problems with both. So let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM WELD (L), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think he's a -- you know, he's a showman. He's a pied piper. He's the -- he's the music man. But more recently, it's gotten a little bit more serious. The noun that comes to my mind is a screw loose.

GARY JOHNSON (L), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They're making money off of this. As secretary of state, Bill goes out, does a million-dollar speaking gig, and then the next day, Hillary signs an agreement with the sponsor of that speaking gig. And, you know, that's -- that's not good. That's --that's beholden, if you want to say that. It smacks of pay to play.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMEROTA: So Errol, there is so much dissatisfaction with both candidates among the electorate. Why is the Libertarian ticket only at 12 percent, not higher?

LOUIS: I think you just saw it. I think it always sounds to me a little bit fringy. I don't know any better word to use. I've interviewed Bill Weld. We've talked with -- with Governor Johnson. It always sounds a little bit like the unfounded accusations he was just making. Hey, it smacks of pay to play.

Well, you know what? Give us dates. Give us amounts. Give us accusations. Make it stick. Tell us why it's important. Tell us what it means for the future. Round the thing out.

And, you know, for all the criticism that Donald Trump has gotten about his campaign and whether or not they really have their infrastructure together, you know, multiply that by ten for a really small third-party effort where there aren't a lot of policy experts and there isn't a lot of infrastructure there to sort of make this stuff work.

And I think what it ends up smacking of is sort of a complaint rather than a real campaign. So yes, there are lots of people who have complaints with the major parties. You can find a home with the Libertarian Party. You can tell yourself you didn't vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Is that really going to get you the next leader of the free world? I'm not so sure.

KUCINICH: But if they're double digits going into election day, that could definitely affect -- if we're talking about a close race, as we expect, this could really make an impact.

LOUIS: The number is really 15. If they get to 15 percent and get themselves on the debate stage...

KUCINICH: That's the game changer, absolutely.

BERMAN: They're not there yet, though. And it's -- I don't see where it moves between now and September. Maybe it will.

You were saying that they seem kind of fringy. To me what's interesting about Gary Johnson and Bill Weld is they're trying to have it both ways, right? They want the benefits of not being part of the system by being this other, Libertarian thing.

But clearly, they're saying, "We also have a lot of experience. We were genuine politicians who led states, Massachusetts and New Mexico."

So while they're trying to attract the mainstream, they may be turning off some of the more rabid -- I use that word -- the more committed Libertarians, David.

[06:25:05] CHALIAN: That's true, because they don't -- well, Gary Johnson is more ideologically in line with them. But lots in Bill Weld's record can be pointed to that isn't exactly in line with Libertarians.

Here, John, is what I heard last night. I heard people who don't sound like the rest of the politicians we hear. They just talk differently. And so if you are a disaffected voter who really doesn't like either option and you hear somebody say, well, you know, in response to a question about Black Lives Matter, you hear somebody say, "I had my head buried in the sand on this."

BERMAN: Gary Johnson said that last night?

CHALIAN: Gary Johnson said that. Or you hear Gary Johnson also said, "I make mistakes." These are things that all of a sudden, your ears perk up, and this doesn't sound like a typical politician. Maybe I should listen a little more to them.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Thanks very much. Coming up in the next hour, we're going to speak with the Libertarian candidates, Gary Johnson and William Weld, in case you missed them last night. We'll check out their morning versions.

CAMEROTA: They'll be saying more refreshing things, perhaps.

Meanwhile, we have to tell you about this bloody night in London. A man with a knife slashing his way through a crowded shopping center, killing a woman, wounding five other people. Was this an act of terrorism? We have a live report from the scene next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, London's mayor is calling for people to remain calm and vigilant after a stabbing attack in central London. One woman was killed, five others injured. CNN's Nima Elbagir live on the scene with the latest.

Nima, what are we learning?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is, of course, at the site of one of the most gruesome terror outrages in London's history, the 77 Russell Square underground bombing. So of course., any high alert, John, here is always going to raise tensions...