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New Day

Trump on the Attack; New Questions Regarding Clinton Foundation. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 24, 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] JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- once again slamming the Clinton Foundation, this time as a business that profits from public office. Trump also stood on the stage with two mothers whose children were killed by illegal immigrants, but there are some still questions today about his immigration stance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is impossible to figure out where the Clinton Foundation ends and the state department begins.

SCHNEIDER: Donald Trump honing his rally cry, attacking Hillary Clinton and her families' name sake foundation.

TRUMP: The Clintons set up a business to profit from public office.

SCNHEIDER: Trump seizing on a new report by the associated press that claims more than 50 percent of the private citizens Hillary Clinton met with during her tenure as secretary of state were donors to the Clinton Foundation.

TRUMP: This is corruption. And this is why I have called for a special prosecutor.

SCHNEIDER: The Clinton campaign mincing no words in denouncing the AP's report, disputing the findings in a statement, saying "This story relies on utterly flawed data. It cherry-picked a limited subset of Secretary Clinton's schedule to give a distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation. The data does not account for more than half of her tenure as secretary, and it omits more than 1700 meetings she took with world leaders."

The state department also releasing a statement saying it's entirely with in the law, that "Individuals including those who have donated to political campaigns make contact ...

(AUDIO GAP)

SCHNEIDER: ... hard line stance on immigration, allowing some law- abiding undocumented immigrants to remain in the U.S.

TRUMP: They're certainly can be a softening because we're not looking to hurt people. We want people -- we have some great people in this country. SCHNEIDER: This is a major reversal from his key campaign proposal to round up and deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

TRUMP: They got go out. They got to ...

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But how do you do it in a practical way? You really think you can ...

TRUMP: You know what, at some point, we're going to try getting them back, the good ones.

11 million people in this country that came in illegally, they will go out.

SCHNEIDER: At a rally in Texas, the billionaire did not back off from another campaign promise, that wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

TRUMP: We are going to build the wall. And who's going to pay for the wall?

TRUMP SUPPORTERS: Mexico.

SCHNEIDER: Trump planning to meet with Latino and African-American activists on Thursday as he also continues his pitch to minority voters.

TRUMP: I say this to the African-American community, give Donald Trump a chance. We will turn it around. We will make your streets safe so when you walk down the street, you don't get shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: And Donald Trump repeating some of those same lines about inner city crime that have raised eyebrows, but his campaign pledging he will continue that outreach. RNC Chair Reince Priebus saying yesterday Trump wants to go after every minority vote in this country. Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Jessica, thanks so much. Let's discuss all this. Joining us now is CNN Political Commentator and vice chair of the New York state Democratic Party, Christine Quinn, and CNN Political Commentator and former Donald Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Important to note, he is still receiving severance from the Trump campaign. Welcome to both of you.

CHRISTINE QUINN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's start with this both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are responding to this associate press report that half of the people outside of government that Hillary Clinton met with when she was secretary of state were donors to the Clinton Foundation. There were 85 people that she met. They were donors and they contributed together 156 million to the Clinton Foundation. Christine, how is this OK?

QUINN: Well, first of all, I think we've heard widely, not just from the Clinton campaign but from lots of people that the methodology, the way the associated press did this story really is very much cherry- picking has been said and is not an accurate way to report to say this is a -- draw a conclusion, when you look at half of her schedule as secretary of state. So one, we really have to understand this is not an accurate reporting.

But beyond that, I actually don't find it so surprising. If you think about who gives to the Clinton Foundation or foundations like that, folks who are international folks, folks who care about the state of the world, care about international issues humanitarians, folks who want to address the HIV crisis, malaria, et cetera, the exact same kind of people who would meet with the secretary of state. And I bet if you analyzed schedules of prior secretaries of state, you'd see a lot of people, maybe the same people, people in the same positions meeting with secretary of states.

CAMEROTA: Corey, how is that explanation? Nothing to see here.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's what the explanation always is with Hillary Clinton on the e-mails. And look, "The Boston Globe" "The Huffington Post", clearly not right-wing institutions have said close the foundation. That's very clear. Major mainstream publications are now saying there's such a conflict here, it's time to close the foundation.

[07:05:08] What Bill Clinton is saying is, hey, here's the easy path to Hillary Clinton. We will step aside if you're elected president. But until that time, keep pouring the money in as quickly as you can. This is your easy pass to get to the Democratic nominee. This is insane. You've got 40 people who have donated at least $100,000, you've got 20 people who donated at least a million dollars according to the associated press. Again, this is not a right-wing institution.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

LEWANDOWSKI: And what the associated press said was we've excluded any foreign leaders who were meeting with the secretary of state on the official business who of those gave about $170 million.

CAMEROTA: Christine, here's the problem.

QUINN: And one of those $100,000 donors was also Donald Trump in the history of the Clinton Foundation.

LEWANDOWSKI: Donald Trump never met with Hillary Clinton.

QUINN: I didn't say he did, I said but one of those $100,000 donors, we need to note, is Donald Trump. And when ...

CAMEROTA: And why does that make it OK?

QUINN: I'm not saying it makes it OK, but it really raises back to what we hear a lot from the Trump campaign which is a level of hypocrisy. They're claiming Secretary Clinton engaged in behavior that was not ethical and when that -- and by implication, they're saying their candidate did too. Look, we're seeing here ...

LEWANDOWSKI: But what Donald trump has said -- what he said was, if I want access to the Clintons, I have access. You know why, when I wanted them to come to my wedding, they show up in my wedding. You know why, because I gave them money.

CAMEROTA: That is so bizarre.

LEWANDOWSKI: That's what he said. And this is exactly what the issue is here. This is a pay for play for. I give enough money, I can get in. And we saw this with the crown prince. He tried to get a meeting through the proper Diplomatic channels and could not get it to the proper diplomatic ...

CAMEROTA: How do you know that he didn't get it through with the proper diplomatic channels?

LEWANDOWSKI: Because CNN reported this last night. And what he said was, I'm going to with the Foundation. And then we saw the lead of the foundation reach out to the chief of staff to the secretary and said he's a friend of ours, and 24 hours later ...

QUINN: If you look at the e-mails, there was a reach out, a heads up this person is coming. The meeting was already moving forward through proper channels and this is, again, that speaking to hypocrisy, the crown prince of Bahrain, one of our major non-NATO allies, exactly the kind of person a second ago, Corey said would've been removed from these kind of accusation accusations.

And again, one of our non-NATO major allies and our fifth fleet that protects the Middle East is based in Bahrain. Why shouldn't the secretary of state be meeting with that person? He or she absolutely should, and it was through proper channels.

CAMEROTA: Got it. I want to move on to immigration. Because, Corey, Donald Trump has flip-flopped on this. He had talked during the entire primary about how every single one of the 11-plus undocumented immigrants is going to be deported. He said it time and again, they have to go out, they have to leave. Now he is admittedly softening, as he says, his stance on this. How can voters trust where he really stands on whether or not they should be deported?

LEWANDOWSKI: If you look, you know, the customs and border agents, the unions have endorsed Donald Trump. First time they've made an endorsement in the history of their establishment. So, they want somebody who's going to be strong on the border. What Donald Trump has said, I'm going to continue to build out wall, I'm going to control who comes into the country. Next, what we're going to do is that if you're a convicted felon and you're an illegal immigrant, you're on the country, you're going back.

CAMEROTA: That's different on what you're originally said about deporting every single one.

LEWANDOWSKI: Here's what you have to remember. Our federal government today cannot tell us how many illegal immigrants are in the country. Are there 11 million, are there 30 million, so what we need is a leader who's going to actually go in, understand this. And then he said, we're going to do this humanely. We're going to put Americans first. But that means, first we have to find how many people are even ...

CAMEROTA: Why then was he so unequivocal during the primary? Why does he say things like, they've got to go out, you're going to have a deportation force, 11 million in this country, they came in illegally, they will go out. Why was he so unequivocal on that?

LEWANDOWSKI: Because the issue was, as we looked at this problem, we looked at this how many people are here, it's almost impossible. INS and CBP right now don't even know who this people are.

CAMEROTA: So he now realizes that was impractical. The promise he made during the primary.

QUINN: You know what I think ...

KELLY: What he said was I have to get a handle this with. When I put someone in charge with CBP and INS who can actually -- who wants to prioritize. And he's also giving credit to this president for increasing deportations. He said that very clearly. But he's going to make sure that first we're going to protect the borders, first and foremost, so we know who's coming in.

QUINN: I think this is bizarre, honestly, even by Trump standards. He was beyond hard line than on unequivocal during the primaries. And now we're certainly seeing a softening of the language. But I think what's really hard to understand in all sincerity is what is the policy now? The language is softening, OK. But what's the policy and it's either Corey or Kellyanne Conway or any of the other Trump staff or surrogates can answer that question.

CAMEROTA: Can you answer that, Corey? What's the policy ...on deportation.

QUINN: Is it different. It sounds different, but is it different? And I think that raises a clear picture of a candidate in free fall.

CAMEROTA: OK. Let him answer. What's the policy in ...

LEWANDOWSKI: So what he has said is he's going to address this in further detail.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. But what's the policy now? I mean don't voters deserve to know before they vote for president what the policy would be?

LEWANDOWSKI: Absolutely they do. And the election is 76 days away and he says he's going to do a detailed speech on what his immigration plan is moving forward. So, I think we should give him the opportunity to outline what that policy exactly looks like. So we don't question it.

[07:10:05] QUINN: That outline speech was supposed to be tomorrow. And it's been canceled. In the midst of that, we can't get a straight answer on what the policy is. And I think that again speaks to a candidate who's failing because his poll numbers are plummeting. And it also speaks to a candidate who has been racist repeatedly during the primary. And you can't walk that back.

Those statements speak to, I think, who Donald Trump is, what he'll say, and Americans aren't going to forget that. And beyond that, this stance isn't a change to try to get Latino and Hispanic voters. He's not going to get them.

LEWONDOWSKI: That just isn't true.

QUINN: This is a chance to try to get the white-college educated men who for the first time in history the Republican Party is losing.

CAMEROTA: Lots of a story.

LEWANDOWSKI: And the bottom line is Donald Trump in the last week has done an enormous outreach to the African-American community. A week ago you were reporting ...

(CROSSTALK)

LEWANDOWSKI: A week ago you were reporting he was at 1 percent. Today he's at 8 percent, which is 50 percent more than McCain got.

CAMEROTA: Which poll?

LEWANDOWSKI: NBC's poll has him at 8 percent in the African-American community.

CAMEROTA: Corey, Christine, thank you very much. Great to have both of you. Chris, let's get over to you.

CUOMO: All right. The big story we're following this morning is what's happening in Italy. The death toll rising overnight from a powerful earthquake that measured 6.2, which struck in the mountains of central Italy.

At least 38 people now dead. Let's go live to Barbie Nadeau, she is a CNN contributor and the Rome bureau chief for the "Daily Beast". She's in Salento, that's a small town, a mile and a half from the epicenter. But very emblematic of what's going on in the entire region. What's the situation now, Barbie? Earlier you told us that access for heavy equipment was still blocked that people had to dig with hand tools. How about now?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well now, that situation hasn't gotten any better. We were watching all morning long, this rescue operation going on behind me. People using their bare hands to dig for a neighbor that they thought they knew was, you know, alive inside that building. Sadly, a short time ago they pulled the body out. You know, just one more casualty in this devastating earthquake.

We've seen one heavy truck go by in the last -- I think we've been here three, four hours now. You know, there's just no access up that road. The road is closed. And what you see around me, all of these piles of rubble used to be homes, multifamily homes. Just repeats itself all the way up the road for miles and miles as people are just searching with whatever they have, garden tools, pick axes, whatever they have to try to find survivors under that rubble.

The focus right now is the living. You know, not so much counting the dead. We've heard some really, really horrifying reports about what the number could be at the final analysis. But right now, people are just focused on the living.

CAMEROTA: Trying to get that out. Barbie, please keep us posted as to what happens there. Thank you very much. We are following more breaking news for you right now about another earthquake. Myanmar rocked by a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake. Officials there say tremors were felt as far away as Bangkok. At this point, we don't know any numbers of injuries or deaths. So we'll bring you all the details on that one as soon as we get them.

CUOMO: The Clinton campaign is pushing back hard against this new report from the A.P. and Donald Trump's pay for play allegations. We're going to hear from Clinton's chief campaign strategist next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:17:22] TRUMP: America can never elect a candidate who like Hillary Clinton, did government favors for those giving her family and her foundation massive amounts of cash. The new revelations about Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal make clear we have only seen the tip of the iceberg.

(END VIDOE CLIP)

CUOMO: Donald Trump pouncing on a new report raising more questions about the relationship between Hillary Clinton's state department and the Clinton Foundation. According to state department calendars obtained by the AP, the Associated Press, a majority of private citizens who met with Secretary Clinton donated to the Clinton Foundation. The Clinton campaign is slamming the report as relying on utterly flawed data

Joining us now to discuss Joel Benenson, chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Joel, thank you for being here.

JOEL BENENSON, CHIEF STRATEGIST, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Hi Chris.

CUOMO: The calendar, how is the calendar utterly flawed data?

BENENSON: Well, because they've took a small sliver of her tenure as secretary of state. Less than half the time, less than a fraction of the meetings, fewer than I think 3 percent, the number that they've looked at of all the meeting she met with. This is a woman who met with over 17,000 world leaders, countless other government officials, public officials in the United States. And they've looked at 185 meetings and tried to draw a conclusion from that. I think it's one of the most massive misrepresentations you could see from the data.

And then they're trying to malign and implicate that there was something nefarious going on when, in fact, there wasn't. She met with noted people like a noble economist. That's who's on the A.P. list, somebody who got the presidential medal of freedom, who was unanimously given the congressional gold medal by Democrats and Republicans. How many unanimous things did you have in a ...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: But you weren't cherry-picking also now. Look, you know the game very well. You know politics. You know journalism very well. The idea that this many people on the private citizen side as opposed to all officials were connected to the foundation and meeting with her at the state department smells bad. You say nefarious. I'm not saying it's illegal. I'm not saying it's a felony. That shouldn't be the bar for wrongdoing either. It seems wrong and inappropriate. Isn't that enough to draw criticism?

BENEBSON: Well, no, I don't think it does seem wrong and inappropriate. These are people who are supporting causes, some of which the state department supports. Melinda Gates, who's a donor to the foundation and works with the Clinton Foundation on saving people from AIDS and malaria across the developing world.

Think about what we're talking about here. A foundation that is gotten AIDS drugs to 11 million men, women, and children in the developing world, keeping those people alive.

CUOMO: So you got a Melinda Gates ...

BENENSON: People support ...

CUOMO: ... you got a Nobel Laureate ...

[07:20:11] BENENSON: People support this foundation because of the good work it's done, just like they support a thousand points of light, just like they'd support other foundations. And we shouldn't forget that that's what's going on in the world.

CUOMO: But, you know, what the standard is, semblance of impropriety. If there's an outward appearance that there is a conflict between what someone does for the foundation and what they get out of the state department, it's wrong. Congress raised their eyebrows at this. Hillary Clinton herself said, you know what, you're right. Let's draw a bright line. I'll keep the state department out of what the foundation does. It didn't happen.

BENENSON: Let's be clear, Chris. I'm not sure if it was on your show or somebody else's, Donald Trump's new campaign manager was asked specifically, Donald Trump gave $100,000 to the foundation. That's a big donation for Donald Trump because we haven't seen his tax returns and what other donations he gave. It's a big donation.

Was he paying for play? Kellyanne Conway said no. People give donations to this foundation because they believe in the work in this foundation. And to say that meeting with 84 people out of 3,000 people you've meet with over the span of your tenure says something, you know, even inappropriate is going on I think is a completely flawed premise. And that's the problem with the A.P. report that's looking at this data, lumping together 85 people out of 3,000 that she met with including people like a Nobel prize winner who's been awarded by the President and Congress for his work in the developing world, helping entrepreneurs start businesses and improve their lives. If that's wrong, then Donald Trump's living on another planet, which he may be anyway.

CUOMO: Well, look, there are a couple things. The first is that using Donald Trump as an example of what's right and what's wrong here, he has openly said, the system is pay for play. I know because I played it. I give money, I get access. So the idea of whether or not Trump is the right change agent for a system that he says he abused himself ...

BENENSON: But he claims he is.

CUOMO: But I'm saying -- but that's part, of this ...

BENENSON: But then he goes out and says, I alone ...

CUOMO: That's part of the dilemma of this election.

BENENSON: But let's talk about Donald Trump, Chris.

CUOMO: Hold on, hold on. I will. But let's do it in the right context.

The A.P. says the calendars that we could get access to we analyzed. So, when you say, well, they're only taking a little bit, they only had access -- they didn't have access to everything. So they only could analyze what they had. So I don't know that it's a great push back on this that, hey, they only took this small amount and they're using -- that's all they could get. Who knows what they would find if they had all the calendars and all the appointments.

BENENSON: Yeah, sure. And who knows what we would find if Donald Trump would live up. This is a man who a week ago said I will always tell you the truth. The man who said, I will release my tax returns if I run for president. Who knows what we'll find if he releases those tax returns. I think if you want to be hammering somebody in this race day in and day out about disclosure. It's a man who put out a two- paragraph letter from a doctor whose own credentials appear bogus on his own letter head. A man who has refused to release his returns to first presidential candidate in four decades who has just slammed voters in their face on this tradition by not releasing his tax returns.

I think before Donald Trump says anything about anybody else, he owes it to the American people. And I think every journalist, you and every other one needs to hammer him and his campaign every day for the next 76 days to produce those tax returns, meet the minimum standard for disclosure that Hillary Clinton has met and gone beyond.

CUOMO: Joel, we mentioned his refusal to release his tax returns every damn day on this show. It's his choice. Voters will weigh it. But I don't get -- and both campaigns do this by the way. How does what you do that raises questions go away because the other side does things ...

BENENSON: Because you're raising questions about appearance and impropriety. Let's talk about the letter from his doctor. He has spent two weeks ginning up news about Hillary Clinton and her health.

CUOMO: Yeah, we are ...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Stick around. What I'm saying is ...

BENENSON: Well, tune in later.

CUMO: It doesn't make her problems go away is all I'm saying. Whether or not she had the right line between the state department and foundation doesn't go away because he is a mess. They don't balance out.

BENENSON: Here's the problem I'm seeing here. The Clinton Foundation's work, saving 11 million people who are getting AIDS drugs because the foundation, the Clinton Foundation and the Gates Foundation went and negotiated with drug companies to drive down the price of generic AIDS drugs so we could keep people alive. I don't think it's a problem that he Clinton Foundation has kept people in the developing world alive from a disease that was wiping out millions of people.

CUOMO: But who's alleging that? Who's saying that what the foundation does ...

BENENSON: You're impugning her and the foundation all in one lump sum by painting this broad picture of appearances.

CUOMO: No, I'm asking a question about the report which suggests that people who gave money to the foundation got meetings with the state department.

BENENSON: Eighty-four people out of more than 3,000 people that she met with as far as the A.P. knows met with her. So that's less than 3 percent of the people she met with during her four-year tenure.

[07:25:09] I don't know. I have no evidence how diligent the A.P. was about obtaining the calendars. I think there have been others who have questioned this use of the data, not just us. But I think it's a fair question they ask. When you're talking about 84 people out of more than 3,000 people she has met with, I don't think that's a fair portrait. I think it's a misrepresentation of the data. I think it's a massive misrepresentation of what they know. And in journalism, what you ought to do is not report a glimmer of information. You ought to be as dogged as you can and do things that produce the full body of ...

CUOMO: You report what you have. You report what you have access to. If you get the calendars and you make this decision about what is in it, that's what you go with. BENESON: You don't report in journalism the appearance of truth. You work, see ...

CUOMO: No, no. you get the best obtainable version of the truth. Whatever we can get from the calendars, we analyze. As we get more information, we get more analysis.

BENESON: In appointments, would you analyze it out of 3,000, out of 4,000, is that what you do would do?

CUOMO: You would ask for more. And by the way, you would argue one is too many. One is too many, because she has said there'd be bright line distinction between the two.

BENENSON: So then you're saying that someone like Melinda Gates, who's been a philanthropist saving lives all over the world should ...

CUOMO: You're using -- that's a great example for you. But what about if it's just somebody who with gave a lot of money?

BENENSON: I don't know all the other 85 people, Chris, who are on that list. But what I know is that people donated to this foundation because of the work the foundation was doing around the world. No one is contesting that. So, is it wrong for a secretary of state to meet with people who are committed to causes of saving lives around the world when the department of state is doing that same work? I don't think so.

CUOMO: I give you the last word. Joel Benenson, thank you for making the case on "New Day" as always. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK. Chris, the first presidential debate is one month away. Clinton, of course, and Trump will be there. But Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson hopes to be on that stage as well. But first, he'll be on the "New Day" stage.

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, and great to be here.

CAMEROTA: Are you ready for that?

JOHNSON: Very much. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Great. See --