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Latest from the Campaign Trail; Trump Hammers Clinton over Emails; Discussion of the Campaigns; Clinton Economic Plan Examined. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:01] SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning Brianna. Well, after a couple days of dealing with the fallout of his latest political firestorm, Donald Trump is looking to change the conversation. He leveled some heated attacks against President Obama and Hillary Clinton last night, including hammering Clinton over her e-mails.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Donald Trump trying to shift the spotlight to Hillary Clinton's missing e-mails after a newly uncovered batch of messages raises questions about ties between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This is called pay for play. And some of these were really, really bad and illegal. If it's true, it's illegal. You're paying and you're getting things.

MURRAY: But the firestorm Trump ignited with his own words isn't going away.

TRUMP: Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although, the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know. But ...

MURRAY: Trump digging in and continuing to blame the press for twisting his remarks.

TRUMP: The biggest rigger of the system is the media. The media is rigged. It's rigged. It's crooked as hell.

MURRAY: The bombastic billionaire insisting he wasn't advocating violence.

TRUMP: There's tremendous political power to save the Second Amendment. Tremendous. And you look at, you know, you look at the power they have in terms of votes, and that's what I was referring to. Obviously that's what I was referring to.

MURRAY: A secret service official tells CNN, they had more than one conversation with Trump's campaign on the topic. But Trump disputes this, tweeting no such meeting or conversation ever happened.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Words matter, my friends.

MURRAY: All as Clinton fires back on the stump.

CLINTON: We witnessed the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that cross the line.

MURRAY: Amid the uproar, Trump is ramping up his attacks.

TRUMP: ISIS is honoring President Obama.

MURRAY: Labeling the President the founder of a terrorist group.

TRUMP: He is the founder of ISIS. He's the founder of ISIS, OK? He's the founder. He founded ISIS. And, I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton. Co-founder.

MURRAY: The man who once demanded the President's birth certificate to prove his citizenship now emphasizing Obama's full name.

TRUMP: ... the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.

MURRAY: Sitting behind Trump at the rally as it all happened, disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley who resigned in 2006 amid allegations he sent sexual e-mails and messages to teenage boys.

TRUMP: How many of you people know me? A lot of you people know me. When you get those seats, you sort of know the campaign.

MURRAY: As Trump pounced on Clinton for having a terrorist father sitting behind her this week.

TURMP: Wasn't it terrible when the father of the animal that killed the wonderful people in Orlando was sitting with a big smile on his face right behind Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, as Donald Trump looks to get back on track, he'll be campaigning across the sunshine state today, beginning right here in Miami. The latest battleground state poll show him running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton here in Florida. Back to you guys.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, Sara. I want to bring in now CNN's Political Commentator Andre Bauer, he's a former lieutenant governor of South Carolina, he's also a Donald Trump supporter. As well as Richard Socarides, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bill Clinton. And CNN Political Commentator Margaret Hoover, Republican consultant who does not support Donald Trump.

All right, to you first, Andre. Because I want to ask you about what we heard Donald Trump say there. He's referring to Barack Hussein Obama. And that conjures up rhetoric that we have heard birthers, Donald Trump among them, using the past, this idea -- yes, that is his name, but this idea that he's sort of not American. Why is he doing that? ANDRE BAUER, FORMER LT. GOVERNOR, SOUTH CAROLINA: You know, I don't know why he's doing it. I guess it gets some of the folks at the rally worked up. And, you know, it does revisit the birther issue and there are ...

KEILAR: Is that smart? I mean, what kind of service does that do Donald Trump as he's trying to broaden his appeal? Or as he should be trying to broaden his appeal.

BAUER: You know, I question some of it from time to time. You know, he got this far and I haven't. So -- but some of it I would think we'd start moving towards a different crowd (inaudible) the votes for.

[07:05:05] But this is raw Donald Trump. I mean, you know, he is a guy that speaks from the cuff, and sometimes it's very invigorating and exciting, and it does get people excited that usually don't engage in politics. But also sometimes puts you in a pickle like we've seen in the last few days.

RICHARD SOCARIDES, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO BILL CLINTON: Brianna, if I can -- I mean, that is a remarkably candid answer from Governor Bauer here. I mean, this is a show he is putting on. He's putting on a show. His narcissism is being fed by the reactions from the crowd. You can see it in that video.

But, what I worry about is the effect it's having on our politics, on our election. I mean, we're having an election now just a couple months away in which we will decide the future of our country. We want to be talking about the issues that matter to people. This is the greatest democracy in the world.

And here we have a candidate of a major party talking like this and making fun of people, scaring people, calling our President, the person who has been responsible for our war against terrorism and for the most part very effectively run it with military, calling him the founder of ISIS. It doesn't make any sense.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLTICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, this is where I absolutely -- I beg to disagree with you, and you. And by the way, you won't like what I have to say here. Because if Donald Trump is going to sort of speak of off the cuff, at least he should litigate lines of argument that actually Republicans can get behind and make a strong policy argument for. Which is that when President Obama left Iraq expeditiously, it did create a vacuum and it did create an opening for ISIS. There's a real argument there that foreign policy experts would like to argue. And you and I can argue that here.

SOCARIDES: That would be great if he was doing that.

HOOVER: This is something -- so here's what Donald Trump sort of lacks. You know, he gets up there, he likes the attention, he says things for entertainment value. But it would be great is if he used the platform to prosecute real policy disagreements between himself and Hillary Clinton.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: That winds up hamstringing himself because ISIS is a problem. They're very straight lines of attacks against with the administration has done with regards to ISIS. When you say that the president and Clinton are founders of ISIS, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot.

BAUER: Well and it's a lost opportunity. Because if he gets to issues, he wins this race. If he gets to jobs and the economy and where we are as a nation and security, he'll beat Hillary Clinton, but he's got to stay on that message.

CUOMO: But he's a little bit of a blessing for her right now because of the Second Amendment stuff, because of how he's dancing about different facts, and owning what he says. He's distracting from some real issues that came up with Clinton. These new e-mails that came out -- I'm not talking about the classified information e-mails.

But I'm happy to talk about them because I don't understanding where the confidence is coming from, from your team on this. In 2009, Clinton said, I'm not going to have the foundation do anything with the State Department anymore, I get the semblance of impropriety. We have to be better than that. And then it kept happening.

SOCARIDES: Look, I mean, first of all, there's a lot where, you know, that we're conflating a lot of ...

CUOMO: I'm not. I'm just talking about these 44 e-mails from the State Department.

SOCARIDES: All right, first of all, these are e-mails that have been released by the State Department in response to this litigation from judicial watch, a right-wing organization that ...

(CROSSTALK)

SOCARIDES: ... a right-wing organization that's been after Hillary Clinton.

KEILAR: So you didn't create the e-mails though, they exist. Even if that's how they're being revealed, even ...

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: These e-mails are created by people very close, as close as possible to Hillary Clinton.

SOCARIDES: Of course but let's talk about what's in these e-mails right. So, first of all, you have two e-mails now that we're spending a lot of time talking about, neither of which is to or from Hillary Clinton, neither of which resulted in anything ...

KEILAR: Some might argue that an e-mail from Huma Abedin is pretty close to Hillary Clinton.

SOCARIDES: But it's not the same thing all right. Let me say this, so, one e-mail is recommending someone for a job. I mean, I have to say that happens in politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't make it right.

(CROSSTALK)

SOCARIDES: And the other one is requesting a meeting for somebody who has been very active in the nonprofit sector, who wants to share information ...

CUOMO: Who's a big donor.

SOCARIDES: ... who is not asking anything ...

KEILAR: Very active.

SOCARIDES: ... who happens also to be a big donor. I mean, listen ...

CUOMO: That's why they're asking.

KEILAR: I think we need to be clear here, the meeting is with the then-sitting U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. This is not ...

SOCARIDES: Well, Brianna, you wouldn't want someone who had information about Lebanon to meet with the sitting ambassador to Lebanon. I mean, if an American working and -- and very well versed in Lebanese politics and history and culture wanted to meet with the Lebanese ambassador to help our country -- help advance our foreign ...

KEILAR: I think it's what's unseemly about this, that he's a key guy there and ...

SOCARIDES: So, I will admit certainly that in this context and with all this other stuff about e-mails, that it's not great that these are coming out now. But if you look at them and if you look at them fairly, you will see that there is not much here. You have -- so you want to recommend a campaign staffer for a job and you have someone who's asking for a ...

CUOMO: Margaret Hoover what's your point?

[07:10:01] HOOVER: Here's what happens. And this is why Republicans, many Republicans, even Republicans who don't like Donald Trump, will never, ever, ever be comfortable with Hillary Clinton. It is the appearance of impropriety, of taking her position that she is in from the people of this country and trading on it, trading that influence for favors for people who have written seven-figure checks to her husband and her foundation. That is incredibly, at very, very worst, at very, very best, it is deeply impossible.

SOCARIDES: I would venture to say that if the Russians hacked your e- mail or if judicial watch sued you for your e-mails, that you, too, would have e-mails recommending former staffers for jobs and suggesting that people meet with other people ...

HOOVER: Nobody has given me a million dollars to five million dollars to recommend somebody for a job. CUOMO: Look, there's no -- hold on for a second, let's just make a bigger point that everybody at home knows and very often insiders tend to forget. This happens. There is an uncomfortably incestuous habit in politics where you help the people who help you.

KEILAR: So transactional.

CUOMO: It happens. but this is a 40-year pattern.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: There was no meeting.

HOOVER: There was a telephone call.

CUOMO: The ambassador says there was no meeting. OK, I don't have any better information.

SOCARIDES: But even if there was a meeting.

CUOMO: But -- OK let's

KEILAR: He said, I have never meet nor spoke ...

CUOMO: I'm just saying that's sometimes you go deeply into details to ignore an obvious point. Which is, you're supposed to be the best of us. That's what a president is supposed to be. What is bothersome about Donald Trump is that he's catering to our worst instincts, not our best.

It's not a partisan treatment, it's just the truth, governor, and you know it. That's what he does. He's catering to it, it work sometimes. Same thing with Hillary Clinton. If you are doing things that represent the worst of the process, how are you supposed to represent the best of us?

SOCARIDES: Chris, there's a false equivalence baked into your point.

CUOMO: No there's none. I'm saying that each has their issues, each has their issues.

SOCARIDES: That is that you have a guy out here saying all kinds of crazy stuff who is so obviously temperamentally unfit to be president ...

BAUER: For him, it's just words, for her, she's got a pattern.

CUOMO: Twenty-seven people -- 27 percent who think she's telling the truth about e-mails.

SOCARIDES: Listen, I don't know -- I mean, she's had a lot of people come after her for a lot of things.

CUOMO: Twenty-seven percent Richard.

SOCARIDES: We'll see what the voters say. I have not ... CUOMO: They just said it. 27 percent.

SOCARIDES: They have not voted with it. The elections are always a contest between two people or three people.

CUOMO: Well, that's what Biden says. Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative. I'm just saying it's unfortunate that this is the basis of comparison.

SOCARIDES: I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. And I think she's fundamentally a very honest person. And I think all this stuff is, you know, you have a long record, you've been in public service for a long time, I think she is very honest. And I think that if you look at the specifics here, it will not bother voters.

KEILAR: Let's talk about some -- on a different topic, the optics of the campaign audience that is just eye popping. We saw Donald Trump go after Hillary Clinton because the father of the Orlando shooting was behind her. You see, he was wearing a red hat in that earlier shot.

And as he's complaining about this or criticizing her about this, behind him is Mark Foley, who sent inappropriate communications to underage boys who were former congressional pages. And -- really, just got out of Congress in a very scandalous way. This is -- I don't even quite know what to say about it. It's almost unreal.

HOOVER: Yeah, I was a staff person on an incumbent president's campaign. And there was absolutely not a possibility that every single person who appeared in the shot with the president wasn't thoroughly vetted, that they hadn't paid their parking tickets and hadn't paid their speeding tickets. They were not ...

SOCARIDES: That's because he was president at the time. It's totally different.

HOOVER: You're right, there is a lower threshold when you're running for president. But everybody -- and by the way, Corey Lewandowski was on set with us the other night and said this would never happen in the Trump campaign. Look, it does happen. Because it isn't true ...

CUOMO: Maybe they did want Foley there. Do you know, that the campaign didn't want Foley here?

HOOVER: Well, this is the thing. He was a congressman representing (inaudible) for many, many years.

KEILAR: But he said he wanted to see and got there early and he would ...

HOOVER: But here's the symbolism that nobody is talking about right? One of the reasons that was given for the massive slaughter of the Republicans in 2006, it wasn't just Iraq, it wasn't just hurricane Katrina, it was Mark F Foley's scandal. The irony. The dramatic irony as Donald Trump what marches the Republican Party to its most recent waterloo, is it Mark Foley is sitting in the background of Donald Trump's rally.

CUOMO: Political. But also -- just another reflection of why more and more people are saying that this is just a daunting proposition when you head into the voting booth in November about who is less bad about what's going on.

SOCARIDES: I really think that it's going to be an incredible election. I mean, well I think we have seen nothing yet. And I'm very worried that with the rhetoric and the volume and the back and forth tit for tat that we haven't seen anything yet. It's just going to get worse.

[07:15:06] CUOMO: Well, if we haven't seen anything yet, we're going to need more than 24 hours in a day. Because I don't know how much more we can handle. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Margaret, as always.

So, Hillary Clinton speaking about policy, which should matter. There was a big economic speech from Trump earlier in the week in Detroit. Now we're going to hear from Clinton in Detroit.

One of the things that her economic plan calls for is almost $300 billion in new spending on infrastructure, and that's going to come in part from higher taxes on the rich. And also aims to raise the minimum wage. So, to figure out how this plan will be pitched, let's get to CNN's Jeff Zeleny live in Detroit with more. What are we expecting, my friend?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. We're in McComb County, Michigan. That is home of all those Reagan Democrats. Of course the Democrats who voted for John F. Kennedy back in his election. And then they voted for Ronald Reagan when he run in 1980 and '84.

Now, those voters once again central to this election as they have been in other recent elections. Hillary Clinton going after these blue-collar workers here, trying to make her case on the economy specifically. As you said, she will be calling for the biggest increase in infrastructure and investment jobs, good paying jobs since World War II.

She will be drawing a contrast with Donald Trump's plan that he proposed in Detroit earlier this week. Specifically calling him out for what she's going to be calling the Trump loophole, going right after some of his proposals that specifically benefit him and other wealthy Americans here. She's also, I'm told, going to be calling his plans wildly unrealistic.

So, this is going to be an economic speech in two parts. Part her proposals, but just as much what she's saying his plan will not work for the economy. And Brianna, this is the reason here. The economy so central to this campaign.

About three weeks ago or so, Donald Trump had an advantage on the economy. After the conventions, as you can see here from this poll, she is now slightly overtaking him, but it's all about the economy as normal. That's why she's giving this speech here in McComb County, Michigan today. Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff Zeleny for us there outside Detroit, thank you. And turning to the Olympic Games now, Katie Ledecky dominating in the pool, earning another goal medal for the women's swim team.

Meantime tonight, Michael Phelps and gymnast Simone Biles are back in the spotlight. CNN's Sports Anchor Coy Wire in the spotlight for us from Rio. Coy, what's going on?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Brianna, a lot is going on. No doubt a lights-out performance to come from Simone Biles tonight. Phelps can claim gold in the 200 I.M. for a fourth straight Olympics. Let's check the medal count here.

USA racking them up, six medals yesterday bringing the total to 32, 21 of them coming in the pool guys. China in second with 23, Japan in third with 18. But it's the pool where the U.S. is dominating here in Rio. And young Katie Ledecky's neck wear game so banging she's making Flavor Flave jealous. Swim team's youngest member, just 19 years old tearing up the pool.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Katie Ledecky strikes gold again. Her teammates cheering| her on as she overpowers the Australians in the last leg of the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. The 19 year old superstar claiming her fourth medal, third gold, at these Rio games. Ledecky is a favorite to dominate the 800 meter freestyle, which gets under way today.

But, the win overshadowed by the modern day cold war playing out in the pool. American gold medalist Lilly King makes waves after openly criticizing Russian rival Yulia Efimova for being allowed to compete despite two suspensions for doping. King telling CNN, "I'm glad to be a poster child for clean sport." But king fails to qualify to compete tonight in the 200-meter breaststroke final while her Russian rival earns a spot. But, the two are expected to face off once more in the medley relay later this week.

Michael Phelps aiming for his 26th Olympic medal tonight going head to head with teammate and world record holder Ryan Lochte in the 200- meter individual medley. Lochte, a 12-time Olympic medalist is the second most decorated male swimmer after Phelps.

MICHAEL PHELPS, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: You know, I think for me, he brings the best out of me. We're racers. So, you know, it's meets like these that I love the most where him and I get to go in and kind of duke it out.

RYAN LOCHTE, U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMER: Any time I get up and race him, it's the best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, Phelps and Lochte are roommates here in the Olympic Village in Rio, so an interesting dynamic to add to that story line. Also, must see tonight Simone Biles, Aly Raisman competing in the gymnastics all around competition. See if they can add to their team gold -- 21 gold medals on the line today across 11 sports, guys.

KEILAR: All right, Coy, thank you. He's still on fleek, I will say, for Coy Wire. So that's very important. Thank you Coy.

CUOMO: He's impressive.

KEILAR: He is.

[07:20:07] CUOMO: So, we'll take a little break. When we come back, Hillary Clinton's poll numbers are on the way up. That's a concern for Republicans, but it's not just at the top of the ticket. The concern is about all the other races, what we call down ballot. The implications of Trump on those races. A closer look, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Donald Trump isn't apologizing. Full stop. This time in context, he says he's not going to apologize for anything that he said about Second Amendment supporters and the implication to any ears that he was calling for them to take action against her. Let's discuss the state of play in this election with somebody who understands politics, very, very well, John Podhoretz as he joins us now. He's the editor of "Commentary" magazine, a long-time journalist, deep in the game. Thanks for being on "New Day." Good to have you here.

JOHN PODHORETZ, EDITOR, COMMENTARY MAGAZINE: Thank you.

CUOMO: how do you make sense of this dynamic on the Trump side of the ball? We've got entrenched problems on both sides of the ball here with Clinton and Trump. No question about it. You hear the same thing that I do from people, which is, wow, this is like a decision for who is less bad.

[07:25:11] But this cycle of he says something, maybe casually, maybe he's aware of how it affects the crowd and is unaware or doesn't care about its broader application, and then no apology and blames the media. How do you explain this cycle?

JOHN PODHORETZ: Well, I think there are two things. One is a psychological question about Donald Trump and a lot of people in politics don't know Trump and have had very little experience with him. So, it's all guessing.

CUOMO: But you know him. You've dealt with him.

PODHORETZ: I've dealt with him, but I don't know him. But -- I mean, what I do know about him is that he was schooled in the art of public persuasion by a famous, notorious lawyer in New York named Roy Cohn, who, you know, cut his teeth on the McCarthy hearings as an aide to McCarthy and then became a real fixer of power broker in New York City. And he -- Trump was a kid and Cohn was his mentor.

And Cohn said, never apologize, never stop attacking, always attack, always attack, always attack. And we also know that he has said that he learned something very big when in the early '80s there was a famous sports better guy named "Jimmy the Greek" who was on CBS who said something very offensive about women, and "Jimmy the Greek" apologized. And "Jimmy the Greek" lost his job. And Donald Trump said, OK, well, if you apologize, you lose your job. That's the story, of "Jimmy the Greek", never apologize.

So, that's one. And the second is, that he thinks that what worked for him in the primaries is going to work for him in the general. So, he did all this, never got in trouble in the Republican race, and in fact benefitted from it. But we're talking about in a matter of scale. He got 13 million votes in the Republican primary. He needs five times that number of votes to win. If you scale that by five and he's running the race, first election he's ever run, he's running the race that won him the nomination but it's a difference race.

CUOMO: When he said yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama -- that's the President's name, but we know why he uses it that way. We saw him using it that way during the birther days, is the founder of ISIS. There so many legitimate angles of attack on the state of play with how we're dealing with ISIS as a country.

When you call him the founder, when you say ISIS is honoring Obama -- I don't even know what that would mean, by the way. But he shoots himself in the foot because now, he's lost the ability to argue against ISIS.

PODHORETZ: Right. There's a serious argument that Obama pulls out of Iraq, creates a single pool, it's filled right?

CUOMO: That's right.

PODHORETZ: But the problem here again is that everybody on earth who is jazzed by hearing Obama called Barack Hussein Obama is already voting for him. Everybody for whom the idea that Obama's a Muslim or he wasn't born in the United States is already voting for him. He's at -- realistically, he's at 40 percent in the polls. He needs a whole bunch of people who aren't voting for him yet to vote for him. And if he falls back on the greatest hits of 2011 and doesn't create new material for them to listen to, then he is, you know, he's a nostalgia act.

CUOMO: Another thing I want to get your read on this morning is the debate. We just -- we heard -- we have Rudy Giuliani coming on later this morning. We just heard out of Donald Trump's mouth that Rudy Giuliani is going to be involved with the negotiating.

I would have thought that Donald Trump would want a thousand debates with Hillary Clinton, that this is the moment he's been telling everybody he wants. Now, it seems like he's trying to find ways to duck it. What's your take on it?

PODHORETZ: People among the 17 people who ran for office, who were debating against him, and their teams have said, he didn't really like the debates. He did well in the debates. He won the Republican primary debates. He didn't like them. If you watched him in it, he got tired. He got annoyed. He would get angry. He doesn't like being attacked. Nobody does. But he in particular didn't like being attacked, though he doesn't mind counterattacking. And so there may be something in him that doesn't like them. Second thing is, the jujitsu possibilities here for Hillary are endless. Like if he's going to walk around saying, I need this and I need that, I need the other thing, she doesn't need the debates. The debates are arguably more dangerous for her than for him. She's got all these questions she finds really difficult to answer, about James Comey and her e-mails and now this new story about Huma Abedin and her aide, an e-mail that she exchanged about possibly representing conflict of interest within the state department and the Clinton Foundation.

And she is -- so she could say, look, if he doesn't want them, I don't want them. Yeah, he should be debating her every three days. That's his only hope. It's like that you end up as one of the debate moderators and you hammered her and she doesn't answer well.

CUOMO: Right.

PODHORETZ: He's six to eight points behind. He's acting like he's in the lead. He's acting like he was when he canceled debates in the Republican primaries. It's -- I would call it nuts, but it's not. This is who he is and he's obviously, as we all say, he's never going to change.

And the problem is that what he's doing, it's not a problem if you think he shouldn't be president. But what he's doing is not working. And so -- and he's doubling down on things that are not working.

CUOMO: John --