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Trump Set to Reveal Plan to Fight ISIS; Trump Blames Campaign Woes on Media Coverage; WSJ Editorial to Trump: "Stop Blaming Everyone Else"; Protests Turn Violent Again in Milwaukee; Five Dead, 20,000 Rescued in Historic Louisiana Floods. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 15, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Trump is expected to lay out his plan to fight and defeat ISIS.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Today's speech comes as Trump intensifies his attacks on us, the U.S. media, maintaining, we're not treating him fairly. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Jessica Schneider, Jessica.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris and Alisyn, Donald Trump railed against the media at his rally in Connecticut this weekend. But this afternoon, he'll look to get back on message with a pointed policy speech in Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: A campaign official says he'll outline a three-pronged approach to combat ISI, painting the fight as an ideological struggle on par with the cold war.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's going to lay out his vision and his strategy for defeating radical Islamic terrorism.

SCHNEIDER: Donald Trump turning his ISIS centric foreign policy ideals --

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to get ISIS. We will defeat ISIS.

SCHNEIDER: -- into a three-pillar policy proposal to defeat them.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: He's going to talk about how you target your enemies and work with your friends. You don't overreach and destabilize countries like the Obama/Clinton administration has done.

SCHNEIDER: A senior campaign official says Trump will unveil several proposals today. He'll declare an end to nation building and consider any country willing to help defeat ISIS an ally. A call that could include Russia, a country he originally wanted to back in the fight.

TRUMP: Russia wants to get rid of ISIS. We want to get rid of ISIS. Maybe let Russia do it. Let them get rid of ISIS. What the hell do we care?

SCHNEIDER: Two, Trump will propose suspending visas from any country with heavy terrorist activity and raise the bar for entry into the U.S. The officials suggesting Trump's camp will formulate an ideological test for entry, including stances on issues like religious freedom but no specific mention was made of the Muslim ban he called for just nine months ago.

TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

SCHNEIDER: And finally, Trump will promise to make a clear statement to the world that the U.S. is fighting a battle not just militarily and financially but ideologically, a point far from Trump's bombastic rhetoric of the past.

TRUMP: I would bomb the [ bleep ] out of them. We have to knock the hell out of them. You have to take out their families. When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families.

SCHNEIDER: The speech comes after Trump repeatedly used a false claim on the campaign trail.

TRUMP: I call president Obama and Hillary Clinton the founders of the ISIS.

SCHNEIDER: And paraded his self-proclaimed expertise on the terrorist group.

TRUMP: I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: And Trump will make clear in his speech that the U.S. won't be "remaking the Middle East" one - into one democracy after another point of the gun, and he'll continue to hammer on his criticism of the Iraq war. Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Jessica. Let's discuss what's going to be different and better in this plan with Trump campaign senior adviser and pollster, Kellyanne Conway. It is great to see you, old friend.

So, different and better, that's the standard, right? When we look at these three prongs that Jessica just laid out in the piece, build alliances based on willingness to fight terror. How is that different or better than what we have right now?

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: Well one message that Mr. Trump is sending today is that he is willing to work with moderate Muslim reformers in that region who also want to make sure that the targeting of gays, of Christians, of Jews, of women ceases as well. And I think what's different, Chris, is the Obama/Clinton administration has early been about regime change. They made that very clear. That's created a vacuum in places like Libya, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, for ISIS to flourish. So ISIS and its predecessors have killed about 33,000 people since 2002 with 80% of those have happened just in 2013 really the found of ISIS.

CUOMO: So, what's the message in that? Because a big part of the Democratic imperative that the United States puts out there in the name of freedom is if there is an oppressive regime, we will help those who want freedom, who want democracy. Is America out of the freedom business?

CONWAY: No, America is not out of the freedom business. And we're the most generous country for those who want to come here, whether they're facing religious persecution or they like to come here legally as an immigrant. We're still the most welcoming country. That won't change.

But this is - this is a very important demarcation. I think when people say I don't see what's different about the two candidates or the two parties, they need look no further than today's speech and this actual policy because we can't contain them. We can't have secretary Clinton referring to ISIS as, "our determined enemies" at her convention speech two weeks ago. Our determined enemies are not opposing team in a rugby match. They're killing - they're killing people all over the world, including here in the United States.

So, somebody has to take a firmer stand, not just call them the JV team. We've got them on their heels, they've been contained, and Americans don't believe that. Look at the CNN polling, we feel less safe.

CUOMO: So, let's talk about how he's going to show that it's stronger. One is defining efforts as a struggle against radical Islamic terrorism. This is a debate of what do you call them that you're referring to. What's interesting is what's not in there.

There's no Muslim ban in his new definition of who the enemy is. Why? Did somebody talk some sense to Trump about how to define what the problem is?

CONWAY: Well, this is - this is definitely a speech and a policy that's of his own making along with his advisers. But, what you do see in there is that you're still going to ban people from countries that have a history of exporting terror, where we don't have the right checks in place to make sure that no longer happens. Other candidates talk about that.

CUOMO: I get it. That sounds right here. But, look, you know government so well. I don't have to tell you this.

How do you put that into? Like, what states would qualify? It seems like France would qualify right now and the - and the test that you have for suspending visas, for individuals who don't share America's pluralistic value. How? How would you do these things?

CONWAY: I mean France is not on the list, but here's the thing -

CUOMO: But it could be. I mean, you - if you don't - you know, defining export terror. I mean, you know, we may wind up in that list. You and I, you know, take our families on vacation, all of the sudden, oh, you're in the United States, you've got a problem in all 50 states.

CONWAY: If we do, Chris, it's because the government and the bureaucracy that currently exists misses the wrong people - misses the right people and targets the wrong people.

CUOMO: So you think it can be done is what I'm saying?

CONWAY: I think we need something better than we have now. Because people really do - people are on edge by and large.

I mean, what's happening now is you could just be standing in a candy line after the best field day fireworks with your 10-year-old child and your life is over. You can be recreating the wrong parks, standing in the wrong coffee line here at home. People do feel like the combination of lone-wolf terrorism here, the cracks in the FBI system obviously, and obviously what's going on abroad. This is relatively new. the birth and growth of ISIS is relatively new.

Remember, ISIS really the growth and - the birth and growth of ISIS is relatively new, it's three or four years. It did have predecessor groups, no doubt, but 80% of those 33,000 people killed by ISIS and its predecessors have happened just in the last three years. And I appreciate you covering this speech.

I mean, this is really the whole point of the Trump campaign and some of our grievances, Chris, which is, please cover the substance that we put out there. He did a great economic speech, very policy leading, very specific, solution-centric last Monday. It got a little bit of coverage and then the rest of the week is, what did he say when, where did he say it. Where was Hillary Clinton last week?

I mean, where is the - I think it's not just biased coverage sometimes, it's unequal coverage. It's like there's two candidates in the race, shouldn't we be talking about her? I know scarcity benefits her. The less we see of her, the better she seems to do, no doubt, but she can't hide forever. And --

CUOMO: Well, look, she -- there's no question that they have very different strategies. And just for full disclosure --

CONWAY: Well, and she's dull. So she's not click bait and she doesn't get ratings. She's very dull and -

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: That's your opinion. What gets Trump his ratings is also something that is debatable. Look, we've been trying to get Clinton on the show for the last week. We've been trying to get her surrogates on. The team is not putting them out.

As you know very well, all I can do, all we can do is ask. She doesn't want to give press conferences. She doesn't want to come on the show. Her surrogates aren't here. That's her decision. People should know that, they should judge it.

This idea that Donald Trump is a victim of the media is almost impossible for me to understand. Now, you and I have known each other a long time. I'm not the deepest thinker in the world, but help me get this.

He's getting ready to run. We hype it like crazy. Trump's getting in, Trump's getting in. He gets into the race. Good friends of mine like you say, when are you going to start checking what comes out of this guy's mouth, the media was loving it, people were loving it. He was being celebrated. He flies up the polls with the media's help. Good, bad, right, wrong, that's for people to debate. He spends no money on commercials because of us, and now he's a victim?

CONWAY: I think he spent no money on commercials because of him also. His message has been very -- he's got a very different message from a conventional Republican also in that. He certainly has the Reaganomics, of his - of his speech. He certainly has the peace through strength toughness on terrorism and protect American interest and allies here and abroad, Chris. But at the same time, he also has a very populist message where he's the first guy really to reach out to a lot of folks who feel like they're struggling, or they're getting screwed by the policies in Washington.

No. I think now it's the coverage is -- I think if you have a panel where there are five people on a panel and four of them are anti- Trump, it's sort of - it's --

CUOMO: That's wrong. That's wrong.

CONWAY: But it's constant and -

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: That's wrong, but we won't do -- look, all --

CONWAY: It suggests that 80% of America is for Hillary, 20% is for Donald Trump.

CUOMO: Right. That's wrong to do that. My suggestion is don't generalize. Go with the outlets, go with the individuals' shows, go with the individual anchors and reporters, because we don't do that here.

And I'm, as you know, media is not monolith, but the idea that the coverage is unequal, if that's true, it's in his favor. He gets more attention than anybody. What gets him in trouble is what comes out of his mouth. We're not looking for reasons to give him a hard time. He presents them.

CONWAY: If he gives a 45-minute speech at a rally with 10 or 15,000 people, he's breaking all these records everywhere he goes --

CUOMO: He's a huge celebrity.

CONWAY: -- he gives a 45-minute speech. I've been to them, okay? Here's what happens.

People are just -- you know, the people in the rally were excited, the press are kind of covering it, going along, plodding along, and then all of a sudden he says something and they start typing, like, there it is, that's going to be the story today. Where the heck is the other 44 minutes?

CUOMO: Well, it depends what it is that's comes out of his mouth.

CONWAY: But he's not up there riffing for 45 minutes. He's talking about policies. And this is the only thing I would ask of you.

CUOMO: Sometimes, sometimes.

CONWAY: I would ask of you.

The idea that what this coverage -- the way this election is covered is what Americans are talking about around the kitchen tables and over the cappuccino counters is just wrong. Another, it's in the CNN polling when you do the issues polling, what are you asking? You're legitimately asking, how concerned are you about healthcare, national security, jobs and the economy, ethics? You're not asking how concerned are you about what somebody said today. So why don't we have coverage, why is Obamacare, why is the fact that 16 of the 23 state co-ops have already failed not covered? Why did the networks spend 18 seconds, 18 seconds, on -- in the financial meltdown of Obama?

CUOMO: "The Wall Street Journal," which is a Murdoch paper, which means it is not set up by design to be against Donald Trump, says, he has to start thinking about what comes out of his mouth, his behavior as presidential, and if not, as you know, they conclude he should turn it over to Pence. The idea of divorcing Donald Trump from responsibility for how he's covered just doesn't make sense to me --

I take your argument. The people can hear --

CONWAY: Not divorcing. Not divorcing it.

CUOMO: -- but I do not get it.

CONWAY: Not divorcing it. There's a lot of substance there, including this radical Islamic speech today and I appreciate CNN covering the substance.

CUOMO: And if he sticks to message, that's what gets covered. Kellyanne, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris. It's the second straight night of violence in Milwaukee. One person shot and an officer injured during bottle and rock throwing standoffs with police. The chaos erupting over the shooting death of an armed black man one day earlier. Protesters took to the streets immediately after that shooting, burning down several buildings, as you can see on your screen.

CNN's Ana Cabrera is live in Milwaukee with more. What have you learned, Ana?

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Quiet and calm here now, Alisyn, but this community remains shaken. We know the National Guard is still on standby. It's been activated but not deployed, even though it's been difficult for the local authorities to keep crowds under control.

We're hearing from protesters that their unrest is all about the years of oppression and racism they say that's plagued their community. And there's been a tipping point now reached with this weekend shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Protests and violence erupting again in Milwaukee. Demonstrators firing shots.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of shots. A lot of shots right now.

CABRERA: Throwing objects.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- looks like the gas tank just popped.

CABRERA: And setting cars on fire. At least one person was shot and rushed to the hospital. A police officer also hospitalized after a rock smashed the windshield of a squad car. The weekend of violence began on Saturday with demonstrators torching several businesses, overturning cars, and throwing rocks at police to protest the police shooting death of 23-year-old Sylville Smith.

Smith was shot fleeing a traffic stop when police say he turned toward the officer with a gun in his hand. The officer's body camera capturing the deadly encounter. Milwaukee's mayor tried to address the festering anger about whether the shooting was justified.

TOM BARRETT (D), MILWAUKEE MAYOR: Without question, he had a gun in his hand. And I want our community to know that.

CABRERA: Governor Scott Walker activating the National Guard to assist police and declaring a state of emergency.

GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: I was worried about whether or not things would escalate.

CABRERA: Smith's family and friends holding a vigil marked by prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

CABRERA: With his sister calling for peace.

SHERELLE SMITH, SYLVILLE SMITH SISTER: Don't bring the violence here and the ignorance here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Now, Milwaukee police confirm they made multiple arrests early this morning in addition to the 17 people who were arrested on Saturday night. And now this investigation is in the hands of the Wisconsin Department of Justice as they continue to investigate. There's still a lot of uncertainty, Chris, about where this community goes from here.

CUOMO: All right, Ana, thank you very much. Appreciate that. We also want to take you to Louisiana. They have historic flooding down there. It's a horrible situation. We've been showing you this video all morning.

This volunteer who winds up plunging into the water, that's a car that's sinking, he pulls out a woman as the car is sinking, now he goes back for her dog. I don't know how he found that dog in water where you can't see. Thank God for that woman he was there.

The state's governor is going to join us, John Bel Edwards. What is the situation? The worst may still be yet to come, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: At least five people have been killed by the historic floods that are devastating parts of Louisiana. Emergency crews rescuing more than 20,000 people, including one rescue of a woman and her dog that you have to see. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live in Baton Rouge with more. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONENT: Hey, Alisyn. Yeah, though it's extremely tragic that at least five people were killed, it's really impressive that there wasn't more loss of life considering just how devastating this flooding has been. 20,000 rescues, officials tell us, that they have conducted, and the worst may not be over yet. I'll give you an example of why.

This neighborhood that we're in didn't actually get that much rain. In reality, what's happened is that because the ground is so saturated, all the flood water from across the state has to go somewhere. So rivers and wetlands end up overflowing into neighborhoods. This is actually the Manchac bayou behind us and it's submerged this neighborhood almost entirely.

Neighbors were actually coming back to their homes yesterday to try to salvage what they could. And it's a really dangerous situation to put yourself in, especially when you don't know how deep the water is. We've seen some really incredible rescues.

One of them was a woman in her car. It became submerged. She was unbelievably fortunate there were some volunteers nearby to help her. Watch this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get my dog. Get my dog. Get my dog now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't get the dog. Maybe she's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, she better not be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got your dog. Swim to the boat -- swim to the boat.

SANCHEZ: Incredibly brave and selfless actions by those volunteers. And it's something we've seen again and again across the state. People coming out with their boats, going into neighborhoods like this one to try to rescue people and get them out of harm's way.

I can tell you, again, it's supposed to keep raining here, so the situation clearly not over. There still may be more problems ahead, and here is why. Where I'm standing right now, this was dry ground at about 5:00 P.M. yesterday. This water is still rising, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Boris. Thank you very much. Be safe down there. Joining us now, Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards.

Governor, we know you're busy. Thank you for taking the time. But we're trying to get the important information out. You just gave us some new numbers.

You had 12,000 in shelters overnight. You've had 20,000, probably even more, rescues because they're ongoing, probably as I'm speaking right now. You got 40,000 without power in businesses and homes overnight. You had to evac a hospital. How are you doing in controlling the aftermath of this current wave?

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS 9(D), LOUISIANA: Well, we're doing quite well under the circumstances, but it is a tremendous challenge. We still have record flood levels on rivers and creeks across South Louisiana. We've got multiple road closures, including Interstate 10, both east and west of Baton Rouge, remain closed. And so we've got our hands full. But I'll tell you, Chris, we have got five fatalities, which very tragic, but under the circumstances, it's -- we're fortunate that we haven't had more.

CUOMO: Certainly one is always too many, but you're right to make a relative assessment here, having covered Katrina and Rita. We know how devastating it can be.

In terms of help being on the way, the president signed the emergency order that gets you money for resources. What do you need?

EDWARDS: Well, we're still in the response phase because we are still effecting search and rescue. We are -- we're still monitoring other nursing homes and hospitals. We're going to get into the recovery phase in several days. But the president did within an hour or two of me making a request sign the major declaration for four of our parishes. We fully expect we will have close to 30 parishes that will be declared disasters before this is all over.

And the individual assistance that comes by virtue of that declaration is going to be incredibly important. But also the assistance that we need, you know, something people haven't thought about, Chris, we're going to have standing water all over South Louisiana. We're going to have more than our share of mosquitoes and with the Zika threat, we need assistance to spray for mosquitoes and for mosquito control and abatement. That is made available to us as a result of the declaration.

So that's just one small component, but it's incredibly important that we have that disaster declaration in place.

CUOMO: For people who are watching and they're seeing what many of us know from previous experiences, Louisiana, residents getting up, volunteering, working with first responders and doing incredible things to stop loss of -- property loss and saving lives. What do you need from people? What can we do to get the word out?

EDWARDS: Well, first of all, I always believe in prayer, so I ask for that around the country. But we have a lot of volunteers, hundreds of people are volunteering to go to our shelters and to assist in other ways. The volunteer effort is going to shift to the recovery phase two because we have to go into these homes, and we have to rip out dry wall and carpet and other things to make sure that mold doesn't happen. That's all going to happen down the road.

I will tell you that there's still a tremendous effort ongoing because traffic is not moving across our state. And we have other problems, as the waters move south, as they always do in Louisiana, towards the gulf, every area south of Baton Rouge now and even over in Lafayette and Iberia are seeing record flooding.

And one of the things that the weather service told us is because this flooding is so far above anything that they've ever seen, they can't really model or predict how wide the water is going to flow and how deep it's going to get. And as a result, we have thousands of homes that have never taken any water that have flooded severely and it's been difficult to get people to leave their homes because they think that they're safe. But you can throw all of the experience out whenever you break the records, as we have in Louisiana.

CUOMO: And, you know, what's unusual here for people watching this is that it didn't come because of a hurricane. You know what I mean? We're used to the hurricane being the catalyst. This is the worst that you've seen how in terms of the area affected, or is this just rain over time? How did you get into this hole?

EDWARDS: Well, between Thursday and really Saturday night, the rainfall was so intense and there was so much of it. Even though it was an unnamed storm, it was just a low-pressure system that just sat over South Louisiana and just dropped a tremendous amount of rain and the creeks, the rivers all swelled and then forced a spread across South Louisiana. It is been a tremendous challenge for us to deal with.

But I will tell you I'm extremely proud of the state agencies, the local agencies at the parish level and the municipalities. But the people that are just being neighbors to one another, I'm talking about the neighbors we're called to be in Luke 10 that is happening all over the state of Louisiana, and I'm gratified as governor to see our state coming together. Because as you know, Chris, we had an opportunity to speak in Baton Rouge just a few weeks ago, we've had more than our fair share of challenges here lately.

CUOMO: Well, you're dealing with the worst right now, and hopefully the best in people comes out of it. You know how to get us as you figure out what you need to recover from this, let us know, we'll get the word out. The best to you, Governor. You got our thoughts and prayers.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: All right. Be well, stay safe.

EDWARDS: Thank you, Chris.

CAMEROTA: All right. Another top story, Chris, Congress expected to get its hands on FBI notes from the agents who attended Hillary Clinton's interview with the bureau about her emails. So what's the potential fallout on the campaign trail? We'll discuss that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)