Return to Transcripts main page
New Day
Ryan Lochte Charged With Filing False Police Report; Bloodshed Non-Stop in Fight Against ISIS; Clinton, Trump Attack Each Other on Race. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired August 26, 2016 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:02] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have all the latest details next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a vehicle rigged with explosives blowing up at a police check point in southeastern Turkey. Eleven people were killed, some 70 more were wounded. There's been no official claim of responsibility. But state-run media is blaming the militant Kurdish workers party, known as the PKK.
Now, it's notable that the attack happened two days after Turkey launched an incursion against ISIS and Kurdish militia fighters in Syria. Turkish tanks crossed the border into Syria on Wednesday, continuing their advance.
CAMEROTA: The death toll from Central Italy's devastating earthquake now at 267 people. The hard-hit town of Amatrice still getting hammered with aftershocks as rescue workers continue to look for survivors. There was some encouraging news. This 8-year-old girl whose rescue was caught on camera, she has undergone surgery, and she is doing well. Sadly, Italian media reports that her 10-year-old sister was killed.
CUOMO: Ryan Lochte now facing charges in Brazil over his claim that he was robbed during the Rio Olympics.
[06:35:02] But the Olympic gold medalist probably won't see the inside of a courtroom.
Coy Wire has more in this morning's bleacher report. Tell us about it.
Tell us about it, Coy turned lawyer.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: All right, Cuomo. Lochte charged by police in Brazil with falsely reporting a crime. He will be summoned to Brazil, according to officials in Rio, to answer questions about that gas station incident, but Lochte doesn't have to be present. A lawyer can go represent him instead.
If convicted, he could face between one to six months in jail, or the judge could simply order him to pay a fine instead. You'd think that would be the case because remember, Lochte's teammate Jimmy Feigen was ordered to pay almost 11 grand to a charity there in Rio just to get his passport back to return to the country. Now, Lochte's attorney told CNN Sports that he hasn't heard from anyone in Brazil about it.
But listen to this. Lochte, the 12-time Olympic medalist, just picked up a new endorsement deal. Pine Brothers Throat Drops will have Lochte appear in commercial and print ads for their company. As far as his career in the pool, guys, U.S. Swimming and the U.S. Olympic Committee have not yet said whether or not they'll suspend Lochte.
But that will be, you'd think that some form of punishment will be coming from both of those governing bodies.
CAMEROTA: OK, Coy. Keep us posted on all of that. Thanks so much for the report.
Well, American volunteers a world away risking their lives trying to save others in the fight against ISIS. We'll take you to the front lines for their story, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:40:34] CAMEROTA: The bloodshed near Mosul continues as Iraqi forces try to wipe out ISIS terrorists. Two Americans are putting their lives on the line, providing medical care in the heart of the war zone.
CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon has more from Erbil, Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. War zones do tend to attract all sorts of people, each with their different motivations. The war against ISIS is no exception.
On the Kurdish Peshmerga front lines, we found two Americans trying to help out the best that they can.
(voice-over): It's early morning and the Kurdish Peshmerga are launching a major push into ISIS-controlled villages.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for a place to set up our medical triage area.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had five dead, ten wounded.
DAMON: John Reith (ph) and Pete Reed are two Americans on the medical front line.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two casualties! Let's treat them appropriately. Stop laying with leverage. Get him on.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black box! Black box!
DAMON: It's a chaotic, frantic effort on this day, compound by a language barrier, different culture, and significant lack of resources.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need more plastic. (EXPLETIVE DELETED) plastic.
DAMON: John is a trained emergency medical technician from Syracuse, New York, and is volunteering. Pete of Bordentown, New Jersey, is a former marine turned medic who works with a nonprofit providing medical training and assistance.
There is no advanced warning when a casualty is coming in. No time to prep before the next one arrives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The toughest thing about being out here as a combat medic is when your patients don't live.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, man. Stay with us. Come back to us, man. Come on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes, you know, we can't fix everything. So I think that's the hardest part for me personally. You want to save everybody, but you can't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a break down in coalition forces, Peshmerga. It's difficult when you're trying your best to work on someone, but the rest of the system isn't there. Or it's not working properly.
DAMON: They both say they had comfortable, happy lives at home.
(on camera): Was it guilt?
PETER REED, MEDIC: Guilt or sense of purpose. Sometimes those overlap. Somewhere in the middle.
JOHN REITH, MEDIC: I can help people at home for sure, and I do. I feel good for what I do there, but here that feeling is much greater.
The Peshmerga need significant help. They need training. They need an actual combat medical unit. People are throwing ammunition and guns at this place all day long. That's not saving lives.
REED: When I think of ISIS, I think of Khmer Rouge, and Nazis. I mean, there are very few times in history there's such a black and white, good versus evil situation. They've been carrying this war and this region on their backs with not nearly enough support.
People back home are upset about shootings and things like that. ISIS is involved there. They don't have a clue what it's like a day here or a day in Baghdad or Syria. It's pretty horrible.
ARWA (on camera): And given just how devastating the tragedies in the region have been, they say that they both felt a fundamental obligation to try to come out and help whichever way they can because, as we have heard time and time again from different individuals, trying to fight ISIS isn't just about trying to control ISIS within the Middle East. What happens here has an impact around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: All right, Arwa. Thank you very much for the report. Amazing reality up close for you to see.
The presidential candidates in no uncertain terms are tearing each other down. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a debate over the politics of race. Who is the bigger bigot? We're going to debate the use of this and who is doing better because of this, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:48:58] CUOMO: Race moving to the forefront of this presidential election, but not necessarily in a positive way. Hillary Clinton delivering a pointed assessment of Donald Trump as an enabler of a radical fringe, a charge Trump is countering by doubling down and calling Clinton a bigot.
Here's what Trump told Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You called last night Hillary Clinton a bigot. Previously, you called her policies bigoted. You directly called her a bigot.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She is a bigot, because when you look at what's happening to the inner cities and you look at what's happening to African-Americans and Hispanics in this country where she talks all of the time --
COOPER: How is she bigoted? Bigoted is having hatred toward a particular group.
TRUMP: She's selling them down the tubes, because she's not doing anything for those communities. She talks a good game.
COOPER: So she has hatred or dislike of black people?
TRUMP: Her policies are bigoted -- her policies are bigoted because she knows they're not going to work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss with CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for "The New York Times" Charles Blow, and Republican political commentator and Donald Trump supporter, Paris Dennard.
Paris, let's start with you. Why do you like what you're hearing from Donald Trump, assuming you do?
[06:50:03] PARIS DENNARD, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, what I like about what Donald Trump is doing and saying is that he is highlighting the issues of the black community that needs to be address. And he's also pointing out the fact that for many generations of people who have been living in our communities, we have been ill served by the Democrats who have been in leadership roles.
And when you look at the economy, joblessness, unemployment, you look at education, and crime across these major urban cities, the black community is suffering and it's about time that somebody call them out. I'm glad it's Donald Trump.
I believe that his message is going to resonate and continue to resonate with our community because we are suffering not just under the rule of the Democrats, but also we've taken a downfall under this Obama administration. It's unfortunate.
CUOMO: Charles, is that the complete argument?
CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I don't know what this argument is about. It's kind of a deflection to me. Donald Trump is trying to move the discussion away from him. There's an anti-Trump argument that I am laser focused on. I have almost taken Hillary out -- taken the partisan part of it.
Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be president of the United States, not simply because of his lack of knowledge, but also because of his temperament, because of his character, because of the things he has said out of his own mouth. It's really hard to get anybody to say somebody is bigoted or racist or whatever because you don't know --
(CROSSTALK)
BLOW: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know --
CUOMO: Hold on, Paris. One at a time.
Go ahead, Charles.
BLOW: The grown-ups are thinking.
DENNARD: Watch it, Charles.
CUOMO: Let's not bait each other. Make the point.
BLOW: But what he's trying to do is move it off of him, right. He has said this out of his own mouth. We're not putting these things into his mouth -- the anti-Muslim sentiments, the anti-immigrant sentiments, the anti-black sentiments.
We're not doing that to him. He has done that to himself. The misogyny and sexism, he has said those things out of his own mouth. The bullying, the ablism. He has done that.
So, there's a part -- we can't have these fake debates about whether or not we should shift to a partisan discussion or a party discussion or an ideology discussion and away from this man. It's him. CUOMO: All right. So, Paris, the criticism is that Donald Trump is
not a proper messenger to be talking about what's going on within African-American communities that are impoverished because of what he has said about those communities and what he hasn't said in the past. Do you accept that? Of course not, why not?
DENNARD: I don't because I don't feel that Hillary Clinton is a proper messenger for talking about or doing anything about the black community based simply on the fact she has not done what she claims to have done.
Look, the things that she has said that have come out of her mouth, talking about super predators as it relates to the black community or black men, as it relates to the crime bill, which put thousands of black men in prison, which she supported. When it comes to the racial overtures that she said about President Obama in 2008, which people were highly critical of, and so did her husband.
And so, when you look at who is qualified to talk about the black community, I don't care if you're black, if you're white, if you're Mexican, if you're Chinese. If you have a message and you have a sincerity about the community and you want to raise these issues, you have qualifications because you care.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Are they both disqualified then? I understand why you think Trump is disqualified. Is Paris compelling to you at all about why Clinton is also unqualified?
BLOW: Unqualified to do what? What's the question here?
CUOMO: To discuss these types of issues, that it's just as disingenuous coming from Clinton as it is from Trump.
BLOW: This is what you have to do, I believe. You have to make some sort of amends.
I've written quite a bit about this super predator issue. I've written a ridiculous amount about the industrial prison complex. And I have needed her to make amends on those issues.
And to the degree, she has at least recognized there's a problem there and then try to do something about it and talk directly to the issue end say, OK, this is where I might have been wrong on this, and I'm going to try to come around on it.
What Donald Trump refuses to do is even recognize he was ever wrong. You can take out --
DENNARD: Not true.
BLOW: -- Multiple New York City newspapers calling for the death of teenagers in the Central Park Five case, but even when those citizens are vacated and the city reaches a settlement, you still cannot bring yourself to say that maybe you may have gotten this wrong. [06:55:01] Maybe you should back off a little bit. He was still being
incendiary about that. And at what point is he ever going to apologize for the birtherism of President Obama?
I think a lot of people just can't get that bad taste out of their mouth because that is -- that was so directly a race issue. That was so directly an othering cause around President Obama.
DENNARD: It's a constitutional issue.
BLOW: Who is this? Do you want him to talk or do you want me to talk?
CUOMO: I want you both to talk.
BLOW: Well, then, you tell him that when I'm talking, he doesn't talk.
CUOMO: That is a point that came out in the early phases of that, was he constitutionally qualified. Once it seemed to be satisfied by the president, that's when it seemed to slip into what we now call birtherism, which is where they just kept on it for certainly bad reasons.
BLOW: Him in particular.
CUOMO: Yes. He certainly was one of the fathers of it.
BLOW: He became the poster boy for that movement. And for a lot of people, that's huge.
CUOMO: And he doesn't want to talk about that anymore. That says something in and of itself.
Paris, let me ask you something before I have to end this segment. It seems you're ignoring a very long history of Hillary Clinton with respect to work within the African-American community, whether it's what she did with Marion Wright Edelman or she did on her own down in Arkansas with her husband, trying to fight f civil rights and equal access to legal services and financial and educational services for backs or what she did as first lady or what she did in the Senate.
Why do you ignore the record?
DENNARD: I don't -- I don't ignore the record, but what I do highlight is the fact that I believe Hillary Clinton is engaged in voter suppression as it relates to the black community because she understands that in order for her to win, she has to characterize Donald Trump as a racist, a bigot, as a misogynist and all these things that he's not in order to make sure that white people and people who are progressives and young minorities who are not 100 percent on board with her message who don't trust her, who don't feel she's honest, will not go to the message of Donald Trump.
Because let me tell you, I talk to people in my community all the time. Just yesterday, I was talking to a young woman who said she's an independent who wants to vote for Donald Trump if he gives her a reason because she doesn't trust anything that comes out of Hillary Clinton's mouth.
CUOMO: All right. Quick final word from you, Charles. There's somewhat of a generational divide when it comes to experience with the Clintons within the African-American community. Bill Clinton won 75 percent of the vote, was beloved by the community voting-wise. Hillary Clinton, to many, was introduced through her campaign with President Obama, then-Senator Obama. It was a different impression.
But what's your final word on this?
BLOW: Listen, this is why people have a problem with us in media. To let somebody like this come on and say what Hillary Clinton is doing is suppressing the white vote by pointing out what Donald Trump has said in his life. That's just patently false, ridiculous. The most ridiculous thing I've heard all morning, probably all week, maybe this whole election.
When you have actual voter suppression happening against the gutting of the Voter Rights Act and you have somebody, this guy -- I don't even know who this guy is, comes on --
DENNARD: I'm the former White House black outreach director.
BLOW: -- suppressing the white vote by pointing out this man is a bigot. This is what people look at and say this is media malpractice. We let this happen. We let that slide. And that is what media malpractice looks like.
DENNARD: You slide by calling out false allegations by people.
BLOW: This guy should not be allowed to come on television and say --
DENNARD: Charles, you do a lot and say a lot, you need to watch how you talk about somebody who's qualified to have this podium.
BLOW: I'm not picking today to let that start happening. Not today, not tomorrow. That doesn't slide.
CUOMO: Understand. That's why you're here, Charles. So we can represent these different perspectives on it.
Paris, thank you for being here. Charles, as always. Appreciate it.
There's a lot of news on the election. There's also updates from around the world. So let's get right to it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We know who Trump is. A few words on a teleprompter won't change that.
TRUMP: I want to get rid of the bad ones. There are a lot of them. There is no path to legalization.
CLINTON: There has been a steady stream of bigotry coming from him.
TRUMP: Her policies are bigoted because she knows they're not going to work.
CLINTON: Donald Trump has built his campaign on prejudice and paranoia.
TRUMP: To Hillary Clinton, I want you to remember these three words: shame on you.
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: All right. Round two. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY.
Donald Trump shifting on immigration again. Trump working to clarify his position, it seems. How millions of undocumented immigrants would fare under administration. It's not amnesty, but maybe not all have to leave, maybe they'll be work with.
We saw the next version of this in a big CNN interview. He actually says he's not softening now, he says he's hardening.
CAMEROTA: Well, Hillary Clinton is hitting back hard against Trump, slamming him for his ties to the alt-right and what she says is the emerging racist ideology.
