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Delta Airlines System Outage Causes Massive Flight Delays; Donald Trump to Give Speech on Economic Policy; Jeb Bush's Son Endorses Donald Trump for President; Interview with Trump Campaign Adviser Jack Kingston; Poll Of Polls: Clinton Leads Trump By 10 Points; Trump To Deliver Major Economic Speech In Detroit Today. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 08, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at the last few days, I think he's gotten the messages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is day three of the Olympic Games.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Katie Ledecky took her first gold of the game, breaking her own world record.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The women's U.S. gymnastics team dominating the competition.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is Michael Phelps' 19th gold medal

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Team USA breaking records in Rio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, August 8th, 8:00 in the east. Alisyn is off. Brianna Keilar is here. Thank you very much for joining us.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Of course.

CUOMO: We have breaking news and we have new details on this story, this massive system-wide outage affecting Delta Airlines. Tens of thousands of frustrated travelers at airports, not just here in the U.S., all around the world.

KEILAR: And Delta is now telling us what may have caused this large scale cancellation all day today. CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh is live now in Reagan National Airport with the breaking details. So we're figuring you are out the why here, Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we do know that there was a power outage, Brianna, in Atlanta around 2:30 this morning and that is what Delta airlines is blaming for this computer glitch that's causing widespread problems. We're talking about a global ground stop for Delta Airlines. The airline says that passengers should expect large scale cancelations today. Again, they're blaming that on a power outage in Atlanta.

We should tell you that Delta operates thousands of flights every day, so we're talking about tens of thousands of passengers impacted here. We're already hearing from airports in New York City, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark saying that their computers are down and they're unable to check passengers in.

We're also hearing reports of pilots unable to file flight plans, things of that sort. So operationally there is an issue, also, with passengers trying to get checked in.

We also know that passengers may be seeing on the screens that their flights are on time or still set to take off. But I am hearing from an official that even that information that's being displayed on the screen is not accurate. So lots of computer problems. What Delta is trying to do now is figure out what caused this power outage. We know that was the cause but we don't know what's behind it. Was it a hack? That question has been posed to the airline. They said they are not ready to say at this point exactly what caused the power outage.

But we could tell you this. We expect even once the systems are back up and running, the problems will linger for days. They will have to clear the backlog of passengers. Back to you, Chris.

CUOMO: The system outage was so big they couldn't get people on other planes. You're right. It is going to take a long time. Rene, we'll stay with you for that story, appreciate it.

Other big news this morning, Donald Trump dropping in the polls and stepping up personal attacks on Hillary Clinton. He's now using her own words to question whether she is mentally fit to be president. Now, he is not all style. He is also going to try to some substance. He is in Detroit today to make what he says is a major speech about his economic plan. Let's begin our 2016 coverage with CNN's Jason Carroll. Big day for Trump to put some meat on the bones.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meat on the bone, much needed meat on the bone. We'll see about those specifics and the substance when Trump gives his speech a little later on here this afternoon. It is one of the biggest issues of the campaign, the economy one of the biggest issues in the country. And we're getting some idea of some of the key points that Trump will hit on when he gives his speech here later today. Some of the proposals include lowering taxes for everyone, reducing the income tax, tax credit for child care payments, and ending the death tax. All this in an effort to get his campaign back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is a totally unhinged person. She is unbalanced. And all you have to do is watch her.

CARROLL: Donald Trump stepping up his blistering attacks on Hillary Clinton, suggesting the former secretary of state is mentally unfit to be president.

TRUMP: The people of this country don't want somebody that is going to short circuit up here.

CARROLL: Trump using Clinton's own words against her, she continues to repeat a debunked claim that the FBI director said she was truthful about her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So I may have short circuited, and for that I will try to clarify.

CARROLL: Clinton's running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, coming to her defense.

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She said other and over, I made a mistake and I've learned from it and I'm going to fix it and we're going to be real transparent, absolutely.

CARROLL: Trump's ramped up rhetoric against Clinton coming ahead of his speech on economic policy in Detroit where he is expected to unveil his agenda for revitalizing the American economy. All this as the Republican nominee is coming off one of the worst weeks of his campaign that saw Trump repeatedly engage in controversies instead of focusing on Clinton, and battling slumping poll numbers in a number of key battleground states.

[08:05:09] GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R) OHIO: He is going to win parts of Ohio where people are really hurting. But I still think it is difficult if you are dividing to be able to win in Ohio. I think it is really, really difficult.

CARROLL: And this morning, a new CNN poll of polls shows Hillary Clinton with a 10 percentage point nationally, leaving some in the party to say it's time for Trump to pivot his campaign.

SEN. JEFF FLAKE, (R) ARIZONA: You have to see Donald Trump change positions, he needs to change, and particularly, change the tone and tenor of the debate sufficient to win the election in November.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And Brianna, in addition to tax reform, Trump will also be talking regulatory reform and trade reform. And this is sort of the sweet spot that Trump's critics within his own party want him at. They want him talking more policy, less rhetoric, more focus on Hillary Clinton. Clinton, for her part, she will be delivering an economic reform speech here in Detroit on Thursday. Brianna?

KEILAR: Jason Carroll, thank you.

Jeb Bush's oldest son is actually breaking with his father to back Donald Trump. In a meeting with Texas GOP activists, he acknowledges Trump is, quote, "a bitter pill to swallow," but he said it is time to unite the party. CNN's Jessica Schneider is joining us now with more. This is quite a schism in the family.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Brianna, a bitter pill to swallow and a major flip from his father, Jeb's, stance. George P. Bush is the Texas land commissioner and the fourth generation of the Bush political dynasty, but he's bucking the family's never-Trump movement, telling Texans to set aside the bad blood from the primaries.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE P. BUSH, JEB BUSH'S SON: From team Bush, it's a bitter pill to swallow. But you know what? You get back up and you help the man that won and you make sure that we stop Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: It is a remarkable rallying call from the son of Jeb Bush. Jeb, of course, battled in a bruising primary with Donald Trump and he has adamantly stated he will not be voting for Trump in November. And it's no wonder. Trump unleashed a barrage of bashes against Jeb Bush, most memorably calling him low energy and a stiff, weak and ineffective, a pathetic figure, desperate and sad, and a total embarrassment to his family. Last month Jeb Bush predicted Trump's campaign supporters would feel betrayed by empty promises if Trump was elected. Presidents George W. and George H. W. Bush have also refrained from backing Trump, making George P. the first in the family to call for party unity to defeat Hillary Clinton. Chris?

CUOMO: Tough call for Donald Trump now. He has used this strategy of attacking his opponents with great success, but now it seems like it may be working against him. A recent slip in the polls tied to what has been coming out of his mouth.

Let's discuss with senior adviser to the Trump campaign and former Republican congressman from Georgia, Jack Kingston. It's good to have you with us, sir. Appreciate it as always.

JACK KINGSTON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Good to be with you, Chris.

CUOMO: What did you make out of the numbers out of your home state this weekend that had Trump down four to Clinton, and for the audience's sake, that is a state that usually goes red?

KINGSTON: Well, I tell you, I've run statewide, I've seen these polls before. I've seen the same polling company saying that Jason Carter with would be our governor and Michelle Nunn would be our senator. And typically, it skews to the Democrats. So if Hillary Clinton wants to spend money in Georgia, I would love her to because that would mean that she would not have that money to spend in Florida and Ohio and Pennsylvania.

I would say come on down. But Georgia is going to support Trump because we do not want a third term of a Barack Obama. If you look at right now what we have in terms of unemployment and 43 million people on food stamps and household income, falling from 57,000 in the year 2000 to 53,000 today, people want change. And they want a strong economy, and we're not getting it under Barack Obama. And Hillary Clinton has embraced all of the current policies. So Georgians and I think the rest of the country want change, and what we're going to hear from Donald Trump today is a discussion on the economy. CUOMO: Right.

KINGSTON: And that's what, frankly, we need to be talking about.

CUOMO: Absolutely. We were very excited to hear he is going to give a policy speech. It's certainly a nice break from the constant verbal attacks. But, you know, you are going to hear when you're making the pitch for Trump to your conservative brothers and sisters, they're going to say this guy is not one of us. His fiscal plans up to this point haven't been what we want out of government. He is seen as more middle of the road, even a little bit too the left by a lot of people in your party. So what do you tell them going into this speech today?

KINGSTON: We need to change the current system. We need something like Uber, you know. Uber totally changed transportation, frankly, for the better, and I think we need that in Washington, D.C.

[08:10:01] and some of the conservative critics of Donald Trump really are protecting the status quo. And he is not a guy who is controlled by the usual special interest suspects. So I think the idea that he's going to go in there and shake things around has gotten people on the left and on the right a little bit nervous, but I believe that's what the middle class want.

You know, 67 percent of the people recently polled said they do not like the track that America is on. They are uncomfortable. And he is speaking to them and he's taking responsibility and says I'm going to be a jobs president. I'm going to reduce regulations on small businesses, and I'm going to cut their taxes --

CUOMO: But Jack, the anxiety is real. The anxiety is real, there's no question about it, and Trump, to his credit, tapped into it in a way that the rest of the GOP field did not, at least not soon enough. But that anxiety is also real about Trump. In the recent poll of polls, you have 70 percent of the respondents saying I am somewhat or very anxious about the idea of a Trump presidency. How do you deal with that?

KINGSTON: Well, as you know, it was not a good week for us last week. But he is going to be talking about the economy. He's going to be talking about foreign policy. If you take a step back, here is Hillary Clinton, and the new word now for lying is "short circuit." Can you imagine going in and telling the people -- oh, I'm sorry, I was short circuited in my brain last week.

You know, when you think about Hillary Clinton and her foreign policy, what has been her crowning achievement? She says it is the nuclear deal with Iran. We saw the $400 million ransom, non-ransom payment last week. It's something that the administration is so proud about, they should put it on primetime and not do it in the dark of the night and not use cash, which is not what the deal called for anyhow. But what has Hillary Clinton established in the private sector or in foreign policy? Is she going to brag about the birth of ISIS? Is she going to talk about the stability in Iraq or Afghanistan or Libya? She has nothing to brag about in foreign policy --

CUOMO: And you can say --

KINGSTON: -- except that she has been a frequent flyer.

CUOMO: And you can say, Jack, with complete confidence, that you believe Donald Trump has the temperament to deal on the world stage and not get caught up with attacking somebody who says something that he doesn't like, like he has in every other instance we've seen in this campaign?

KINGSTON: Absolutely. He has been enormously successful in the private sector by assembling the right people to run his different enterprises and businesses. He has pulled in the right accountants, the right lawyers, the right advisors, the right business agents. That's what a leader does.

CUOMO: Right. But why did you have the week you had that you point out last week? He has got great people around him now, right. People who have helped him win an unlikely victory primary, but it still comes down to him at the end of the day, doesn't it, and especially what comes out of his mouth?

KINGSTON: You know, Chris, my dad is from Brooklyn. My mother is from Bronxville. I think that a lot of where Donald Trump has been coming from is sort of a New York toughness, kind of has that swagger where he has been in a tough city doing a tough job and achieving a lot. And I think part of his style has been you attack me, I'm going to attack you back. And I think when you're in the private sector you can do that a little bit better than you can in the public sector. And this is a private citizen who has never held an elected office and he is transitioning to the fact that in politics, there is a double standard. People are allowed to attack you and you cannot engage in it.

So I think today what we're seeing as he talks about the economy, this is where we need to drill down and keep talking about over and over again because we do not need a third term of Obama-nomics. And that's what Hillary Clinton represents to the American people.

CUOMO: Jack Kingston, it will be great for the best ideas for the American people win the election. Thank you very much for making the case on NEW DAY. Always appreciate it, always welcome.

KINGSTON: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right, so ahead we're going to hear more from you, the people who matter, specifically, Republican and independent voters. This is obviously the key group for Trump. How do they feel about what they're going to hear today and the state of the race? Brianna.

KEILAR: A new CNN poll of polls shows Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by double digits, but will the number stick as her rival hammers her on trust issues? David Axelrod joining us next to weigh in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: CNN's new poll of polls taken after both parties conventions, showing Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by ten points. But can she hold on to this double digit lead.

Here to discuss, we have CNN senior political commentator and former senior advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod. David, we look here, if we look at the poll of polls, two-way, just Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, there is still a ten point spread, 49, Hillary Clinton and 39 Donald Trump.

You add in the third party candidates here, and they go down a little, but still a ten point spread, even with Johnson and Stein in. How much stock do you put in there being a ten point gap between these two candidates right now and should we read a lot into that right now or not?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it is among the larger gaps post-convention gaps that I've ever seen. So or that I've seen from a very long time in a closely divided country. So you have to take it seriously, but the conventions were early. There are still 90-some odd days left before election.

There will a lot of twists and turns in the road. The thing you have to look at is underlying tendencies or underlying (inaudible) in these polls and what you see is that Donald Trump has huge gaps on temperament, on preparedness.

People just haven't yet concluded that he is ready to do the job. He has to solve that problem if he is going to be competitive in this race. If he doesn't solve that problem, and I think it will be hard to do, then he can't win.

[08:20:04] CUOMO: You got this confirmation of the condition that set the stage for Trump's ascendance to the pay, which is 60 plus percent of Americans in recent poll say we're on the wrong track.

But then we just got this number from the poll of polls that the idea of Trump being the change agent makes 70 percent of the respondents somewhat or very anxious. So how do you play that out?

AXELROD: Well, again, it speaks to the point I was making before. These last two weeks have been disastrous for him because of these kind of bizarre escapades where he goes off and he attacks a gold star mom or he says he saw a tape that didn't exist or whatever.

There were a series of ten miscues in a short period of time, right after the Democratic convention in which speaker after speaker said he didn't have the temperament to be president, so it was like a perfect storm for him.

I think every Republican leader is probably really, really glad that he is making a policy speech today, and hope -- and in their hope, reading it off of a teleprompter with a lot of adlibs.

They would like to see a steady diet of that for a while, to get away from the kind of antics that they saw in the last couple of weeks.

KEILAR: David, I want to see what you make of Hillary Clinton recently addressing her e-mail situation, especially really she -- I think her campaign and aides probably would have wanted her to make no headlines at all, but a week ago, and this is still percolating, she said this to Chris Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Director Comey said that my answers were truthful and what I've said is consistent with what I have told the American people. That there were decisions discussed and made to classified retroactively certain of the e-mails.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Comey said there was no basis to believe she was lying to the FBI, but he was asked specifically about different claims that she had made in public to the American people, and he disputed them. I know there is disagreement with the Clinton campaign, but she has since come out and said that she short circuited what he said.

It has been proven she did more than that. What do you make of her saying these things and getting herself into trouble and stealing some of the bad spotlight away from Donald Trump?

AXELROD: Yes, it is kind of bewildering. That's why I say 90 days, you know, a lot of twists and turns in the road, things can happen. It is very -- it is very confusing as to why she can't simply say what seems obvious, which is I did not knowingly it any classified information.

I think that's what Comey concluded. That she did transmit classified information, but she, you know, they certainly can't prove that she did it knowingly. I'm sure she told them that she didn't and that seems like the obvious explanation.

Why she can't get there, I don't know. But here is the thing, Brianna. You know the joke about the two guys who find the -- encounter a bear in the woods and the one guy drops his knapsack and says you're crazy, you can't out run the bear.

All I have to do is out run you. That's sort of the situation, that's sort of the situation that Hillary Clinton is in. Donald Trump has trust numbers, as worse than hers, in this "Washington Post" poll.

When they're asked who is more trustworthy, she wins by nine points. And so in a sense, the trust issue has been neutralized, because both candidates suffer from it.

And so that's why she can have a large lead, despite the fact that trust is an issue, because if people don't feel Donald Trump has the temperament, the experience, the bearing to be president of the United States.

They're going to set aside that issue. They may do it grudgingly, but they are going to set that issue aside.

CUOMO: That's why this is such a big week acts because they are both going to talk about what voters should have been getting a lot more up to this point, which what is their idea to make their lives better with the economics and job basis of this country. How big a week is this?

AXELROD: I think it is a big week. And Trump, for Trump, it is really interesting because his economic plan is one that will appeal to some of the conservatives in the Republican Party. It is -- he has been losing among college educated whites, which is a huge turnaround from four years ago with Mitt Romney.

He hopes that will appeal to them. He is leading with the abolition of taxes on child care. This is a candidate who's had huge problems with women that he needs to address.

So you can see the strategy behind what he is doing. The problem is and you know, you had Betsy McCoy on and she said the tax foundation said his tax plan would create $12 trillion drag on the debt, that it would add $12 trillion to the debt.

Moody's analytics said his overall economic plan would create 3.5 million lost jobs and create a recession.

[08:25:07]So he'll get blow back on the plan because apparently he is not going to offer any way to pay for it and so this will be an interesting back and forth.

KEILAR: David Axelrod, thank you so much, sir.

CUOMO: So another big issue that has come up in the election, came out of nowhere. The Zika virus, you know about what it is. A big concern about the Olympics, but Marco Rubio has now made it into a political issue.

He says that if a woman, who is pregnant, is battling the Zika virus, that woman should not be allowed to have an abortion. Where is he coming from on this? There is a debate here and we'll have it for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: You're definitely going to be hearing more about this. Florida senator, Marco Rubio, raising eyebrows, saying pregnant women who contract the Zika virus should not be allowed to have an abortion.

He said in part, quote, "When you present it in the context of Zika or any prenatal condition. It is a difficult question and a hard one. But I'm going to err on the side of life."

Zika can cause microcephaly and other birth defects. Babies born to infected mother, the effects are still fairly unknown.