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13 Dead in Historic Louisiana Floods; Historic Day for Team USA; Who Is Steve Bannon; Who Are the Green Party Candidates? Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 18, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:31] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The death toll keeps rising in southern Louisiana. Thirteen people dead, but the catastrophic flood waters are starting to recede. The American Red Cross calls this the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since Superstorm Sandy. The costs could exceed $1 billion, and critics say this disaster is not getting enough attention.

CNN's Rosa Flores is live in Livingston Parish with more.

What's the situation there, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, good morning. You can see the mound of stuff behind me.

This is what rebuilding looks like here in southern Louisiana, as people begin to take all of the soaked stuff outside their home in their front lawns. You can see furniture, mattresses, housewares, you name it.

But imagine this: communities like this one were a giant soup, where all of this stuff was inside homes, outside, cars, and just stuff that people have just a giant soup that's four, five feet high. Multiply that times 30,000, 40,000 homes. That's the situation that you have here in southern Louisiana with thousands of people who are now homeless, living in shelters or living with family and friends.

And, Alisyn, like you mentioned, the death toll now at 13. And the search and recovery continues here in southern Louisiana. We're just hoping that number doesn't continue to go up.

CAMEROTA: Rosa, that mound behind you are people's belongings. You know, they were in their homes last week, and it's just so telling loss there.

Rosa, thank you for the reporting.

And if you want to help the victims of the Louisiana floods, you can go to CNN.com. We have ways for you to do it there, because again, the people there sure need help, and they don't think they've gotten enough attention. It's impact for information. We'll remind you throughout the show. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And also remember, this is just the

beginning. Standing water can be there for weeks.

All right. Let's get to the good news. The Olympic Games, another historic day for Team USA. Brianna Rollins this time, she led the women's track and field team to victory. Usain Bolt got another shot today at winning his third gold medal. He'll be in the 200 this time.

CNN sports anchor Coy Wire live in Rio with more.

Coy, I love that picture of the three American members of the hurdles team, the women, jumping in the air with their American flags after taking one, two, and three.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: What a day. That's what it's all about, Chris. I love that picture too. Team USA, they added nine more medals yesterday and three of them came when history was made in the women's 100-meter hurdles.

Brianna Rollins, as you mentioned, Nia Ali, Kristi Castlin, taking gold, silver, and bronze respectively. This is the first Olympic podium sweep ever in women's sprint hurdles. And the best part is they're all best of friends off the track.

How about this breakout? The U.S. men's basketball team scorched Argentina like a big, juicy steak. Burned them by 27 points. They'd had three really close games, but the U.S. rolls in this one, extending their Olympic win streak to 23 straight game, dating all the way back to 2004. Next up for them, tough team from Spain. It's the semifinals on Friday.

Usain Bolt going for his second Rio gold today in the 200-meter final. He cruised through a semifinal yesterday. American Justin Gatlin didn't even advance. He won't even be in the final. This is likely Bolt's last individual event of his Olympic career.

So, I'm thinking epic moment. We'll see if anybody can even come close to him today.

New day, new medal count. Team USA leads the way, 93 overall medals. China is in second with 54. Great Britain in third with 50. On tap today, American Ashton Eaton continuing his quest to repeat as the world's greatest athlete.

Alisyn, he has a shot at back-to-back Olympic golds today.

CAMEROTA: All right. Coy, thanks so much for the update from Rio for us.

All right. Back to politics. He's been called the most dangerous political operative in America. Now, he's Donald Trump's chief executive. So, who is Steve Bannon? We take a closer look next on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:38:35] CAMEROTA: All right. As you probably heard, there are two new people at the top of Donald Trump's campaign. In just minutes, we'll interview his new campaign manager. She'll be joining us live.

But the other new face is the campaign chief executive. And he is Breitbart's Steve Bannon. He has been called the most dangerous political operative in America. Why is that?

Let's bring in Brian Stelter. He's CNN's senior media correspondent and the host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", Bill Carter is our CNN media analyst and author of "The War for Late Night."

Great to have you here.

Why, Brian, is the most dangerous political operative in America?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: He's figured out how to use media megaphones time and time again to make provocative and incendiary political points, whether that's conservative films supporting Sarah Palin or tearing down Barack Obama, or more recently with Breitbart, fostering some of the far-right impulses that we see on Breitbart News. This is a man who knows how to use television and the web in new ways.

CUOMO: So, he's got a very interesting background, right? He's worn a lot of hats. He was a naval officer. He worked at Goldman Sachs. That let him into Hollywood.

He wound up by his own reckoning getting lucky, cutting a deal, where instead of taking a fee, he took some residuals from then a young show in its third season called "Seinfeld." made him very wealthy. Reagan got him into politics. Since then, he started to form this new machine of using the media, which is always seen as being left to cater to the right's message by giving them good information.

[06:40:04] At his best, at his best, what is he capable of?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I think he's capable of being a great provocateur. I think he's able to harness an awful lot of anger that's out there in that part of the political universe and carry a message that resonates with that audience, that sort of white, nativist audience that's part of Trump's really strong base.

STELTER: In some ways, you could call Breitbart "resentment news" or "grievance news". In some ways, the website is anti-media, even though it's obviously a media company. It's anti-media. It presents itself as the alternative to everything else out there, even to the right of FOX.

CAMEROTA: At its worst, it is fact challenged as well.

STELTER: Challenged is actually kind of generous.

CAMEROTA: It is, because they have made .

CUOMO: They make up narratives. They'll say we do the same thing. They make up narratives to take people down in the media who are working narratives they don't like.

CAMEROTA: I don't mind an enterprising story. I mind when it's erroneous. And they have done that. They notoriously will not apologize.

For instance, case in point, one of their reporters misidentified the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, used a picture and identified them as having been the Loretta Lynch who represented the Clintons during Whitewater. That was false.

When the embarrassed reporter -- because reporters don't want to get facts wrong, as we all know, went to Steve Bannon and said we have to issue a correction, here's the quote Steve Bannon told the reporter. The embarrassed reporter asked for time off.

Bannon allergic to any hint of concession refused. Quote, "I told him no. In fact, you're going to write a story every day this week." He shrugs, "We're honey badgers", he explains. "We don't give a blank."

CARTER: That's part of the, I think, selling point, is that they back up. They don't apologize.

STELTER: Sounds a lot like a presidential candidate I know.

CARTER: Exactly like the presidential candidate, who has never apologized and never backs off.

CUOMO: Except they have very different takes on this. Bannon, I keep saying at his best. Anybody who follows the media knows. I understand Breitbart well. I'm often a victim of it and going back and forth them. That's part of the game.

But at its best, he's a deep diver. For instance, another poll out from that piece, he sits at the nexus of what Hillary Clinton once dubbed the vast right-wing conspiracy. But this has mutated into something different. It's as eager to go off establishment Republicans such as John Boehner or Jeb Bush as Democrats like Clinton.

STELTER: That's one of the under-covered parts of this story. By bringing in Steve Bannon, it's also a knock against the Paul Ryans of the world.

CARTER: Exactly.

CUOMO: We used in Italian gesture yesterday on the show. That's what bringing Bannon is saying. That's why Erick Eriksson and even the conservatives, the hard core guys don't like the move.

STELTER: Reading this morning's "Journal," Trump hits reset button. How many dozens of times have we seen this headline, reset button?

CUOMO: It's like that button from Staples.

STELTER: It really is. But knowing Steve Bannon, knowing what he brings to the table, and

he's only one of the new advisers. Kellyanne Conway, who's about to be on, is another. But knowing Steve Bannon, we're going to be even more rigorous about fact checking. You know, depending on what Trump says at these debates, we're going to even more thorough, checking what he's saying, because as you all are a point, it's not just about news on this site, it's about narratives. It's about narratives that actually are very that view any close to the facts.

CARTER: I think it's going to be so much more aggressive. It's already been aggressive, but it's going to be so much more aggressive because that's the trademark of this guy. It's going to be hostile and aggressive out there. And it really a challenge for Ryan and McConnell. Are they going to continue to sort of -- they've gone after them. Breitbart has gone after them really hard before.

CUOMO: Except those two guys are vulnerable to Breitbart as well. Sometimes they give you something that's real. And that is if they take a deep dive on these narratives on Hillary Clinton and come up with new things, you know, as you were saying earlier, Alisyn, these new documents that Citizens United.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Oh, I'm not saying they're always erroneous.

Anthony Weiner, famously, Breitbart was the first to break it.

CUOMO: Full disclosure, I worked with Andrew Breitbart on Anthony Weiner story. He came to me with the materials about it, you know, accused me of being too much of a wuss to run with it, because I'm a lefty media guy. And that, of course, enticed me to look at his stuff more.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: The true story comes out.

STELTER: You talked about being a victim. I remember a story they wrote about me that I thought was 90 percent untrue, but there was 10 percent of truth. So the challenge, of course, is to be able to figure out what is fact and what is fiction in these stories. That's also true during this campaign.

CARTER: He's going to be ratcheting it up for all of us.

CAMEROTA: It's going to be a full-time job to fact check on both sides.

Brian, Phil, thank you.

CUOMO: The 10 percent in that story was Stelter, the handsome, young rising star at CNN.

STELTER: Stelter, the bald, yes. CUOMO: All right. So if you are someone who does not like Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, if you're one of these people who says, I wish I had a third choice, the Green Party says look at us. You're going to meet a team determined to take down America's two-party system next. The Green Party ticket.

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[06:48:59] CUOMO: Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka, they were lashing out. They are coming with their own message last night. They're saying that two parties are not serving you right during the CNN Green Party town hall last night. We have the nominees joining us now.

Doctor, Mr. Baraka, it's good to have you both with us. Let me pick up my brain.

So, I know it was a short night for you, but was it a good night, Doctor? What kind of feed back did you get on how the town hall went?

JILL STEIN, GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We've been getting great feedback. And again, kudos to CNN for having us on and breaking the silence. We were trending number one on Twitter throughout the CNN town hall. I think that says something about the level of interest.

We were talking about things that are begging to be discussed in this race, really the critical things going on in the lives of most Americans. That is the crisis of race, the fact that we're at war, taking half of our discretionary budget, and that the younger generation is nowhere to be seen. They are missing in action because they have two hands tied behind their back in debt from college loans without a way to pay it back.

[06:50:08] CUOMO: Now, the political reality will be, as you gain more traction, right, from the town hall and other exposure, the idea of being a spoiler will become louder and louder. You heard it a little bit last night, you had an interesting answer. You said, I can't sleep at night if it's Trump, I can't sleep at night if it's Clinton either. The audience there are largely independents and Green Party supporters were clapping.

But the chances are, you know, if it goes the way it is right now after November, you're not going to be getting a lot of sleep because it's going to be one or the other.

Do you think at some point, you'll have a responsibility to say which of these two people do you think is less bad for the office in your opinion?

STEIN: You know, at this point what we're hearing overwhelmingly is that people are not happy with either candidate, neither the Democrat nor the Republican, and that people are really clamoring for another option. And I think right now, the focus needs to be on having this discussion, on having an open debate. We need to be in that debate if we're going to talk about and solve the issues of race, war, and a generation in crisis.

CUOMO: So, what do you do, Mr. Baraka? The committee on presidential debates is its own independent body, as you know. They've come up with a standard, 15 percent in five national polls that they pick. That's what gives you a shot to get into the debates.

In all likelihood at this point, as you see, where you're trending about 5, let' say you get the CNN bump, let's say it doubles to ten. You don't make 15, you don't get into the debates. Then what?

AJAMU BARAKA, GREEN PARTY VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We take our message to the people, as always. We're building a bottom-up movement. So, while we should be in the debate and we believe the American people will make that call, we will continue to go to the people, engage the people, talk about the future of this country.

See, one of the things that we also saw last night that people responded to was the crisis of democracy. They're not buying this message that we are spoilers. They understand and believe that we have to haven open process.

People want to have a voice. They want to have a -- they want to believe that they really count and their vote counts. So, we want to make sure that they have that opportunity. We're going to keep on going to the people, keep on organizing, and keep on telling people that they have agency.

CUOMO: But I understand that. I heard it. We hear it all over the country. But the reality is what it is. Is that okay with you? If at the end of the day, you build momentum, you build the party, you get more of a following, but it's not enough to win the election but it is enough to take away, as Ralph Nader did, from the Democrat and you wind up having Donald Trump as president. Are you okay with that?

STEIN: No, I'm --

CUOMO: I know that you're thinking that's not fair to put that on me. I understand. But this is the role that a third party often gets put in.

STEIN: Yes, and I think people have had it with that kind of a rigged system that says there will only be two establishment choices while people get thrown under the bus. I don't think it's like the third party candidates that people are upset about. People are really upset they don't have jobs, they don't have wages, that they are in debt, they can't afford their health care, and that be our resources are being drained into wars that are making us less secure, not more secure.

So, you know, I think people are not going to rest easy with this. We're only beginning to see people mobilize. Again, I really encourage people jill2016.com, and join our campaign for open debates. I think the discussion here has only just begun.

And hold on to your hat. I think you're really going to see a mobilization like we haven't seen in a long time. CUOMO: What would it take, Mr. Baraka, in order for some of the ideas

that you two are proposing to ever take root in Washington, D.C.? Because we see, they want to do nothing that -- right now, that is on the margins of giving advantage to either side, incremental change at best. Everything you're asking for is huge. I mean, you know, erasing all student debt, the green new deal, getting to alternative power sources by 2030, highly ambitious.

What would it ever take to make anything like that to happen?

BARAKA: The power of the people. We say that it is in our hands. When we understand that we have that kind of power and we are prepared to organize and to push, then those ambitious goals become a reality.

We believe that. We're seeing people make historic change. If when people understand that they have the ability to force the government to respond to them, when they understand that the government should, in fact, be reflective of their interests, then we all win. That's our goal.

CUOMO: Did you see any movement yet last night, into this morning, of people who are Bernie Sanders voters? Because that's obviously something that's a very keen interest to you. I saw Cornell West there in the audience. He was very big for Brother Sanders, as he called him. Now, he's with your ticket.

Did you see any traction there with Sanders people?

[06:55:01] STEIN: You know, mainly because it's been such a short night between when we finished and started this morning, but among the people who were there last night, it seemed like most of the people who were on the fence had moved over and were supporting our campaign.

CUOMO: We were seeing a lot of those people percolating on social media about what was being offered. But, look, as you said, you're building a movement from the bottom up. This is a step. CNN believes it's part of its responsibility to give the players a fair shot. So, you had it in the town hall last night.

Doctor, Mr. Baraka, good luck to you going forward.

STEIN: Thank you, Chris. Great to with you. $

CUOMO: So did you watch last night? Of course you did. But even if you just watched this segment now, what do you think? Tweet us @NewDay or post your comment on Facebook.com/NewDay.

Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Even I watched, and that's way past my bedtime. It was a great show. Thanks so much.

All right. Meanwhile, she's Donald Trump's new campaign manager, but can anyone really rein in Trump and tell him what to do? We'll put that question to Kellyanne Conway. She's live after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I will be your fighter, believe me. I will be your fighter.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: To be authentic, stick to the issues.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wants to have people around him who want to win at all cost.

CONWAY: People want change. They're tired of the corrupt system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone is underestimating Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There is no new Donald Trump. This is it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two American swimmers detained in Rio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They pulled us over. They pulled out their guns.

CAMEROTA: Ryan Lochte and three teammates say they were robbed at gunpoint.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police believe they're missing evidence or information.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.