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Obama: Trump's Rigged Election Claim is 'Ridiculous'; Trump Repeats False Claim of Iran Cash Transfer Video. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 05, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What is going on? Four hundred million in cash being flown to Iran. I wonder where that money really goes?

[05:59:09] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We did not pay ransom. We didn't here, and we won't in the future.

TRUMP: A tape was made. You saw them. That was given to us by the Iranians.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Trump is not qualified to be president.

TRUMP: We're running against a rigged system.

She is the queen of Karachi.

OBAMA: Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All eyes on Rio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ten thousand athletes from 206 countries ready to compete.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're a part of the legacy. Now we just need to do everything we can to continue that legacy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight's opening ceremony just hours away.

MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: This has to be one of the coolest things I've ever done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, August 5, 6 a.m. in the East. Chris and Alisyn are off this morning, so I'm John Berman here, along with Poppy Harlow. Good morning, one and all.

Up first, President Obama unloading on Donald Trump anew. Donald Trump, he believes, is unfit to hold the nation's highest office. The president dismissed Trump's claim that the November election will be rigged. The president called that ridiculous.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: The president also facing tough questions about whether or not that $400 million payment to Iran was indeed ransom in exchange for those four U.S. prisoners.

This as Trump repeats and repeats a false claim about actually seeing a video of that cash transfer in Tehran without any evidence of it actually existing.

We begin our coverage this morning with Phil Mattingly. He is doubling down, tripling down on that video.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it. But first and foremost, this has really been the week that Barack Obama, the president of the United States, has dropped all pretense about his true feelings when it comes to Donald Trump. And that was on clear display Thursday during a news conference, where he warned, he scolded, and he criticized Trump in harsh terms.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OBAMA: Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?

MATTINGLY (voice-over): President Obama outright ridiculing Donald Trump's warning to supporters that the presidential election could be rigged.

OBAMA: If Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated across the country, that's ridiculous. That doesn't make any sense. I've never heard of somebody complaining about being cheated before the game was over. If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on election day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions. That doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.

MATTINGLY: Trump firing back on Twitter, saying, "President Obama should ask the DNC about how they rigged the election against Bernie."

But Obama didn't stop there, the president doubling down on his charges that Trump is unfit to be commander in chief, questioning whether he can be trusted with the nuclear codes.

OBAMA: Just listen to what Mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.

MATTINGLY: The president conceding that, no matter what happens in November, he will help his replacement.

OBAMA: If somebody wins the election and they are president, then my constitutional responsibility is to peacefully transfer power to that individual.

MATTINGLY: On the campaign trail, Trump insists it's Hillary Clinton who lacks the judgment after her previous e-mail controversy.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, furthermore, can never be trusted with national security.

MATTINGLY: Despite the nasty campaign rhetoric, President Obama says Trump should receive national security briefings afforded to nominees but warned him to watch his words.

OBAMA: If they want to be president, they've got to start acting like president, and that means being able to receive these briefings and not -- not spread them around.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And in talking to Democrats familiar with the president's thinking, there are really two issues last -- yesterday that he was trying to hit on. First, the political, obviously, falling right in line with the Clinton campaign, trying to paint Donald Trump as temperamentally unfit for office.

But there was also a personal. Advisers saying very clearly the president thinks Donald Trump is not only dangerous but simply not able to carry out the duties of president. We'll see how people in the campaign trail actually receive that.

BERMAN: Yes. Almost mocking Donald Trump, saying, "He's up 10 or 15 points on election day and then loses, you know, call me then," when in fact, the president knows the contrary is the case. Two new national polls show Hillary Clinton building on her lead over Donald Trump. This new NBC News/"Wall Street Journal" poll has Clinton nine points ahead. And there's a McClatchy-Marist poll. This one fell like a ton of bricks in the world: a 15-point lead for Hillary Clinton.

Let's discuss now with CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich; and Phil Mattingly, still here...

MATTINGLY: Can't get rid of me.

BERMAN: ... 90 seconds after his piece is over.

Donald Trump says the system is rigged. President Barack Obama scoffed at the notion, Errol. Why does Donald Trump keep bringing this up?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think, in some ways, he's got nowhere else to go. Because he's got to explain why he's 15 points down in this poll.

Obviously if the numbers were reversed, the system would not be rigged. He'd be saying that, you know, "Very strong numbers, and it shows that we've got a lot of support." So he's got to give some explanation to his supporters. So I think that's at least part of it. Also, it's part of his -- sort of his core argument, is that, you

know, "The system can't be trusted. The system can't be fair. And this is partly why -- you know, part of the outrageous situation that requires you all to support me." This is something he's been saying to his supporters really pretty much from the beginning.

So it's really all of a piece. You know, it doesn't advance him, I think, one bit toward actual victory, but I think it's something we've heard from him before.

BERMAN: Well, "rigged" is a word that has worked in 2016. I mean, "rigged" is a word that Elizabeth Warren uses. "Rigged" is a word that Bernie Sanders used. "Rigged" is the word that Donald Trump, in a way, used to dig himself out of that hole during the primaries he found himself in after Wisconsin.

He said the Republican primary caucus system was rigged against him. And that did rally support. So maybe he's dipping back into that well.

JOHNS: Well, you know, in his -- in Trump vocabulary, when things aren't going well for him, it means it's unfair. He says that consistently. He says it about journalists. He says it about his opponent. He says it about the world at large. Right? He says, "So and so has been very unfair to me. The judge has been very unfair to me." No, actually, the judge just ruled against you. So I think we're going to hear a lot more of what is unfair in the world, according to Donald Trump.

Once you understand how to sort of translate it, though, all it means is he's had sort of a bad couple of news cycles.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And he's falling into a trap that we actually saw Mitt Romney fall into. He's looking at his rallies and seeing these rallies overflowing with people...

HARLOW: Right.

KUCINICH: ... and thinking that's going to translate into votes. It doesn't. When Mitt Romney was in Pennsylvania those, what, last two weeks of the campaign, me looked outside, and he saw these people hanging out of kind of a parking garage and said, "Wow, I think I can win this thing." And that's what -- Donald Trump is falling into that trap a little bit.

HARLOW: And we know from the data, right, that people that think things are going badly are less motivated to get to the polls than those that think that things are going well. So that could be troublesome for him.

But I think when you look at these, battleground states, it's fascinating, Phil. Look at Michigan, for example. Not only did you see this big divide: Clinton 41, Trump 32, but also one of the pollsters there said that in Michigan, they saw a shocking amount of Republicans supporting Clinton in very traditionally Republican areas there. MATTINGLY: Yes, no question about it. And look, I think there's a

couple things, when you look at Michigan and Pennsylvania, that are severely problematic for the Trump campaign.

KUCINICH: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And that's that these are the two states that fit the so- called voter profile of older white, maybe labor-oriented, blue- collar, former Democrats who could come over in a big way and help him swing states that Republicans haven't won in a number of cycles into his category.

These polls not only looking like that's not going to happen, or at least not happening in a big enough way to make a substantial difference, but also going even further where you're noting: Republicans in suburban areas starting to move towards Hillary Clinton. That's a problem if it's happening in Michigan and it's happening in Pennsylvania and something that could start happening in places like Ohio and areas like Columbus or Cincinnati. And that becomes severely problematic for any chance.

HARLOW: But you heard Sam Clovis say on the show -- I think it was yesterday with you guys, like, "It's still early; come back and talk to me after Labor Day."

BERMAN: It is early. I mean, there are a lot of days. Look, the problem is, when you see 15 points in a poll, Republicans get nervous. Senators get nervous. Congressmen get nervous. And then they start spending money running away from Donald Trump, like Mike Hoffman did yesterday. Congressman ran an ad, Republican congressman saying, "I don't like Donald Trump." That's hurtful to him.

Hillary Clinton, you know, you look at the polls, she's having a good week. Some things that are not getting so much attention is the language she keeps on using about her e-mail.

She did an interview with a local affiliate a couple days ago. And I just want to show you what she said. We don't have the sound, but I'm going to read it to you: "As the FBI said, everything that I've said publicly has been consistent and truthful with what I've told them."

So look at that closely. She's saying, "The FBI has said that everything I've said publicly has been consistent and truthful."

Look what the FBI actually did say. James Comey, what he actually did say in testimony before Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e- mail. There is no classified material.

REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Secretary Clinton said there was nothing marked classified on her e-mails, either sent or received. Was that true?

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: That's not true.

GOWDY: Secretary Clinton said, "I did not e-mail any classified material to anyone on my e-mail. There is no classified material." Was that true?

COMEY: No, there was classified material e-mailed.

CLINTON: Director Comey said that my answers were truthful, and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Now, FBI Director James Comey did say that everything she told the FBI was true.

HARLOW: But that's the important part. Cherry-picking semantics.

BERMAN: Right.

HARLOW: What she told the FBI, not what she told the American people.

BERMAN: So she said -- she used this language to Chris Wallace on Sunday, and she got criticized for it widely, four Pinocchios from "The Washington Post." But she's still using it, Errol.

LOUIS: Yes, she is. I'm not sure she's going to get very far on this particular issue. She's not running -- I mean, look, in the end -- and she won't say this out loud -- but in the end, I think the strategy suggests that she knows he's not running for most trustworthy American. She's running for president, which is sort of different.

And as we've seen, there can and is a divergence between "Is this person trustworthy to you," or -- you know, and "Are you going to vote for this person for president?" So the polls can show her with a 15- point advantage. That same poll shows people have some real serious doubts about her trustworthiness.

So as usual, I think what we're going to see her trying to do is change the subject, if she can, or distort it if she must, but really try to get people to think about something else, which is do you think she cares about you? Does she have programs that you might relate to? And are you going to vote for her for president?

[06:10;10] KUCINICH: And that's the one number that's not moving, that we're not seeing a huge jump. It's a point to -- point here and there, but we're not seeing the honest and trustworthy numbers move. And maybe you're right. Maybe she's moved on at this point from that.

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

HARLOW: A lot more ahead. All right. Doubling down. Donald Trump doubling down on this false claim -- you heard it, he said it yesterday -- that he saw a video of Iranian officials unloading pallets of cash from that plane in Iran in exchange for the U.S. prisoners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, it was interesting, because a tape was made. Right? You saw that, with the airplane coming in. Nice plane. And the airplane coming in and the money coming off, I guess, right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians. And you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. So that was yesterday in Maine, but he said the same thing a day earlier in Florida. His own campaign coming out, acknowledging, actually, that video does not exist.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, live in Washington with more this morning.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

That's right. His own campaign contradicting the candidate. Also, earlier this morning John Kerry, asked about this tape, said he won't respond to it, because it doesn't exist, as well. But Donald Trump sticking to that story.

This as the president faces very hard questions about whether there was any connection between this payment of Iranian frozen assets, which did, in fact, happen, whether there was any connection between that and the release of those Americans. The president giving a very strong response yesterday at the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OBAMA: We have a policy that we don't pay ransom.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): President Obama vehemently denying accusations that the $400 million paid to Iran was ransom, reiterating that the U.S. has never paid for the release of American prisoners.

OBAMA: The notion that we would somehow start now in this high- profile way and announce it to the world, even as we're looking into the faces of other hostage family -- families whose loved ones are being held hostage, and say to them that we don't pay ransom, defies logic.

SCIUTTO: And insisting his administration has been transparent about the cash payment that occurred on the same day that four American prisoners were released.

OBAMA: We announced these payments in January, many months ago. There wasn't a secret. This wasn't some nefarious deal.

SCIUTTO: The payout reigniting criticism of the administration's deal with Iran to stop its nuclear program. OBAMA: By all accounts, it has worked exactly the way we said it was

going to work. You will recall that there were all these horror stories about how Iran was going to cheat; and this wasn't going to work; and Iran was going to get $150 billion to finance terrorism and all these kinds of scenarios; and none of them have come to pass.

SCIUTTO: The president also staunchly defending his handling of foreign affairs across the board, highlighting gains in the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

OBAMA: ISIS has not had a major successful operation in either Syria or Iraq in a full year. Even ISIL's leaders know they're going to keep losing. In their message to followers, they're increasingly acknowledging that they may lose Mosul and Raqqah. And ISIL is right: they will lose them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: On the question of why this payment was in cash, the president said that's because Iran was cut off from the international banking system; there could not be a transfer. And he said that was a sign that those sanctions, John, against Iran were working.

BERMAN: All right. Jim Sciutto, thanks so much. We're going to have much more on the president and Iran.

Plus, sex, lies, and videotape, minus the sex. The videotape that Donald Trump says exists of this cash exchange for hostages and a plane that he describes in great detail. The only thing is, there's no tape of that at all, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:18] HARLOW: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Donald Trump repeating once again a false claim that he watched top-secret video of Iranian officials unloading cash in exchange for U.S. prisoners. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And you know what was interesting, because a tape was made. Right? You saw that with the airplane coming in, nice plane. And the airplane coming in, and the money coming off, I guess, right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians. And you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. So his own campaign, also Secretary of State John Kerry, disputing that. The Trump campaign even came out yesterday, acknowledging there is no tape.

Let's talk about this. What's the strategy behind it? Errol Louis, Jackie back with us. Also Jim Sciutto, back with us.

Jackie, let me begin with you. I mean, there is no tape. That is clear. So, A, what's the strategy doubling down; but B, also, and perhaps even more significant for his campaign, when you look at the polls right now, he needs to make up a lot of ground. Isn't this a big missed opportunity for him to focus on where the actual outrage is, over the actual facts that we know that all the other Republicans are harping on, and he's talking about videotape?

KUCINICH: When does Donald Trump not double down? And we've seen this over and over and over again, where he is failing to take advantage of something, a misstep by the administration, a misstep by Hillary Clinton.

I mean, we just played the sound from the Chris Wallace interview where she mischaracterized, if not worse, what she said -- what the FBI said. He didn't -- he didn't jump on that. And I think that's why you see kind of consternation and frustration from Republicans, saying it's right there, just take it.

BERMAN: Yes. The first day you do it, it's a mistake. The second day you do it, when everyone in the world said the video doesn't exist and you go into even greater detail, it's just bizarre. I mean, it's just bizarre.

[06:20:05] But Jim Sciutto, to the actual substance of the Iran situation right now, and there's a lot going on there. I mean, Republicans are outraged. They say this shows there was a quid pro quo. This is paying ransom...

KUCINICH: Right.

BERMAN: ... to get hostages back. President Obama was completely dismissive of that entire notion yesterday.

SCIUTTO: He was. And listen, there are some things that he said that are just straight up true. One, there were two negotiation tracks, two different teams. One handling the hostages, one handling this money.

Two, this is key. This was not actually U.S. money. It was Iranian money paid for an arms deal that never went through back in the time of Shah in the '70s, basically sitting there, $400 million, and then accruing interest over time. So that goes to that point.

But the trouble is the timing. Right? Because that money released on the same day the hostages are released, even his own Department of Justice protesting internally, saying this looks bad.

And listen, Iran has a history of this, a history of taking people, imprisoning them on false charges. They're basically hostages, bargaining chips, and then using them as bargaining chips to get other concessions, whether it's Iranians freed or something else. So that connection is one that, if it's not technically true, at least it looks -- it certainly looks very bad.

But you could also make a credible argument that, had that money not been released on that day, that maybe those prisoners would not have been released. So in the spirit of the law, that it did -- it may very well have been a quid pro quo. HARLOW: So Errol, some of the words that the president used

yesterday, he said, and I'm paraphrasing here, sort of, you know, "This looks like a spy novel. This looks like something much more than it is. You're making far too much out of this."

Did you feel at all that he was writing off the legitimate concerns that -- that many of his opponents have by phrasing it in that way?

LOUIS: Well, sure, he was clearly trying to get past this, you know, because it's awkward. And you know, Jim is exactly right. I mean, the art of diplomacy in this kind of the case...

HARLOW: Right.

LOUIS: ... is to make it seem as if there is no quid pro quo, although the timing to any outside observer, you know, makes it obvious that it is.

And that is, in fact, the nature of diplomacy. If you think about, like, spy exchanges and that sort of a thing, you know, somebody has to go first. Everybody understands it's going to be choreographed. The choreography happens and everybody just kind of moves on. That's what the president is trying to do, to get everybody to just move on.

He has, in this case, I think, somebody in the form of Donald Trump, who could be the leading critic with a great platform to call attention to what's wrong with this or what's troubling about this; and of course, as we just noted, Trump is in no position to do it, because he kind of bobbled all the facts related to this. So now he's not going to be the person to fact check this, drive home a point, and call for greater consistency.

BERMAN: I like this discussion. I mean, this is an important discussion about U.S. foreign policy, about what the U.S. should and shouldn't do. This is the type of thing that should be debated in a campaign. There should be a difference of opinions here. So in that sense, you know, it's refreshing to see this discussion go on. Right?

I'm curious, Jackie, what the Clinton campaign thinks of all this. Right? Because they point out that, hey, Hillary Clinton, she wasn't actually secretary of state when this cash was exchanged. She wasn't part of the negotiation on that track, if in fact, as Jim points out, there were three different tracks of the Obama administration.

HARLOW: Right.

BERMAN: She wasn't part of that third, you know, $400 million track here. So there's a little bit of distance they're trying to create there, even as they say, you know, "We believe the president on all of this."

KUCINICH: They've pulled the president so close in his campaign, I don't know that it matters, that these details matter, particularly to voters who matter at the end of the day.

And that -- again, I think you hear a lot of other Republicans making this case and saying over and over again, "Look, this -- she is tied to this no matter what," because she is tied to the Iran deal in a lot of ways. So -- but at some point, this has to come from the Republican nominee for president.

HARLOW: Right.

KUCINICH: And he just hasn't picked up that mantle.

HARLOW: And a U.S. official came out yesterday and told Elise Labott it's, quote, "unknowable" if the prisoners would have been released if this cash hadn't come over. I mean, that's from a U.S. official saying, "All right, we don't totally know, but they were separate tracks."

Jim Sciutto, to you. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas came out, and he said, "This breaks with long-standing U.S. policy to put a price on the head of Americans, and it has led Iran to continue illegal seizures." So he's capitalizing on what many say Trump could have capitalized on: making Americans less safe.

SCIUTTO: And listen, it's a vulnerable point, right? After those Americans were released, another Iranian-American, dual national, was taken by Iran under really specious charges, just as Jason Rezaian and the others. Who knows what Iran might be holding him for down the road? We just know they have a history there.

So the fact is, there are two points of view on this, as John says. But it's a substantive argument. And it's one that deserves to be had, of course. Instead, we're talking about a video that never existed.

BERMAN: Right. Jim Sciutto, great to have you with us.

Errol, Jackie, thanks so much.

HARLOW: All right. Let the games begin. Tonight is the night. The opening ceremony for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio. Been overshadowed a little bit by politics here in the United States but the opening ceremony just hours away. Michael Phelps will lead Team USA into the Parade of Nations. What else can we expect? We'll bring you a live report from Rio next.

BERMAN: Michael Phelps again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: The opening ceremony for the 2016 Olympics in Rio just hours away. It all goes down tonight. And Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in history -- didn't know that one -- will carry the U.S. flag at the ceremony for the first time. What else can we expect?

CNN anchor Coy Wire has the plush assignment of being with that gorgeous backdrop this morning. Good morning. What are we looking ahead to tonight in Rio?

COY WIRE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Poppy.

It's really not that great here. You're not missing that much.

Now, we're talking about the opening ceremony just hours away. And the USA is going to be led by one of the greatest athletes to ever walk the planet, Michael Phelps. And when he heard that he had been selected by his peers, he said he cried. So he's walking in the opening ceremony for the first time, in these, his fifth and final Olympic games.