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Obama & Putin Agree to Continue Syria Talks; 2016 Race Enters Home Stretch; Hermine Pounds Northeast Coast; Trump Surrogate Struggles to Tell His Own Story. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired September 05, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Obama is taking in the final moments of his last G-20 summit.

[05:58:31] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The basic argument is simple. If we're not setting the rules out there, somebody else is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This moment we've all been waiting for. A meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. President Obama speaking live this hour.

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Donald Trump would find it very, very difficult to throw out a family.

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R-IN), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He's been completely consistent on this point. There are people in different circumstances.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: If they're criminals, they're going immediately.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think we're the only hope. Hillary Clinton has no clue.

SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA), VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump openly encouraged cyber hacking. A president was impeached and had to resign in 1972.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All eyes on Hermine this Labor Day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're very concerned about some of the effects of this storm. A system that is not moving can be big trouble.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY and happy Labor Day to all of you. Hope you have the day off and you're watching us from bed. It is Monday, September 5, 6 a.m. in the east. Chris is off. John Berman joins me.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you here. We begin with breaking news for you, because President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin continuing to negotiate to end Syria's civil war. The two leaders meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in hopes of ending that bloodshed.

BERMAN: Yes, they continue to negotiate, but the headline might be that there's no deal yet. A lot of people thought there might be. This could be seen as a failure so far.

President Obama will hold a press conference in just a few minutes. He'll no doubt talk about Syria but also weigh in on the presidential election here. The race a bit closer than it was a few weeks ago. We will bring you the president's comments live when they happen.

There's one more twist going on: the G-20 summit coming to an end just as North Korea fires three ballistic missiles without warning.

A lot going on. We want to begin with Michelle Kosinski live in China.

Good morning, Michelle.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

Yes, a lot of what the president is trying to do here is manage relationships, deal with relationships that are, in some cases, extremely difficult, including the relationship with China itself.

And the president sat down with the president of China for four hours during this trip. Keep in mind: this is likely the president's last trip to Asia, the last time he'll get the chance to have these conversations, which are difficult.

The president said that, you know, some of what he's going to be discussing will be areas in which he and these other countries are don't agree, including human rights.

He also sat down with the leader of Turkey. That relationship has also been strained lately. But what's really causing a buzz is the meeting that the president just came out of with Russian President Vladimir Putin. These face-to-face meetings almost never happen. And part of that is because of the relationship itself, how difficult it's been.

I mean, just a few days ago, President Putin called the relationship between the U.S. and Russia frozen. But they talked about the situation in Syria, in Ukraine, as well as cyber issues. I mean, look at what's been going on in this relationship: Russia's suspected hacking of the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign, the possibility that Russia has been trying to influence the U.S. election; that's a big issue here.

However, in this meeting, which was just an aside, not a formal bilateral meeting, but it lasted an hour and a half, U.S. officials say that they didn't go into a lot of detail on that, partially because it is such a sensitive issue. But that's one of those areas where there needs to be more discussion, as well as trying to hammer out that agreement with Russia to finally reach a cease-fire in Syria.

More to come definitely. So the president will be asked a lot about this Russian meeting, likely, but also about his legacy in Asia. Keep in mind that both U.S. presidential candidates oppose the big trade deal, the Transpacific Partnership, that is supposed to be considered the crowning glory of President Obama's rebalance to Asia. I mean, something that he's been working on for many years. But obviously, there's still a lot of question marks associated with that and other issues.

Back to you guys.

BERMAN: A question Mark if the Asian pivot the president talks about ever even really happened.

All right, Michelle Kosinski for us in China.

We will bring you the president's press conference live when it begins. That's scheduled to begin in just a few minutes.

CAMEROTA: OK, turning now to the 2016 race. With only 64 days left until election day, the election -- general election fight enters the home stretch. Donald Trump's top advisers trying again to clarify his immigration plan, this as the Clinton campaign finds itself battling the one issue that will not go away.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us with more. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, 64 days. Not that anybody's counting.

BERMAN: Except us.

MATTINGLY: No, look, today is traditionally the starting gun to that final sprint towards election day. Labor Day, this is when voters are supposed to start paying attention. But this has been not quite a traditional campaign. People have been paying attention for a long time. That said, both campaigns expecting to ramp up their campaigning and their attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump's campaign still struggling to explain his immigration policy...

PENCE: I think Donald Trump's been completely consistent.

MATTINGLY: ... giving little clarification on their nominee's conflicting statements on how to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

CONWAY: We don't know who will be left. We don't know where they live, who they are. GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R-NJ), HEAD OF TRUMP TRANSITION TEAM: After the

2 to 3 million get put out of the country because they're committing crimes, hurting Americans, selling drugs, doing things that are illegal, once those people get dealt with first, and I think everyone agrees on that issue, then we can deal with the remaining 8 million people.

MATTINGLY: Another top supporter of Trump says he no longer wants mass deportations.

GIULIANI: Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very difficult to throw out a family that's been here for, you know, 15 years and they have three children, two of whom are citizens; and that is not the kind of America he wants.

MATTINGLY: A comment that runs contrary to Trump's own words when he laid out his immigration plan after a visit to Mexico.

TRUMP: For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only, to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else.

MATTINGLY: And new criticism following Trump in Detroit this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Trump! No Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Trump! No Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Trump! No Trump!

MATTINGLY: Trump reaching out to African-American voters at a predominantly black church. Some critics question the sincerity of the visit.

[06:05:10] TRUMP: For centuries, the African-American church has been the conscience of our country. So true.

MATTINGLY: All this as Hillary Clinton is losing ground to Trump in the latest national polls, dogged by the FBI publicly releasing its report on her use of a private e-mail server as secretary of state.

KAINE: She's apologized for that. She said it was a mistake, and she's learned from it.

MATTINGLY: Clinton's running mate now slamming Trump with a new attack, referencing Watergate, drawing a parallel with Trump's seeming invitation for Russia to hack and release Clinton's e-mails.

KAINE: Contrast the Hillary situation, where the FBI said there's no need for legal proceedings, with an attack that is being encouraged by Donald Trump on the DNC by Russia similar to what led to the resignation of a president 30 years ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: So guys, clearly a few issues both candidates really need to clear up as they hit this home stretch.

But one thing we know for sure in the days and weeks ahead, a renewed focus on battleground states. Both Clinton and Trump will be in northeast Ohio today, just like they were last week. Gone will be the long fundraising swings and the rallies in places like Connecticut and Washington. From here on out, it's places like Ohio, like Florida, like Pennsylvania. That's the road to the White House -- Alisyn and John.

CAMEROTA: OK. Makes sense, Phil. Thank you very much for all that background.

Here to discuss which campaign won the weekend, we have CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; and CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast, Jackie Kucinich. Great to have both of you here on this Labor Day holiday with us.

OK. Let's talk about -- there were missteps on both sides this weekend. So let's start with Donald Trump, where his surrogates and campaign officials tried once again to clarify where he is on mass deportations, whether or not there will be a deportation force for the 11 million undocumented immigrants here.

So let's listen to some of the people connected to his campaign trying to make sense of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: He's been completely consistent on this point.

CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS: On this, no, he's not.

PENCE: He put illegal immigration at the very center of the national debate.

TODD: But he's not been consistent on this issue, of what to do with the 11 to 15 million.

PENCE: Well, but there are -- there are people in different circumstances in that category.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But if they aren't criminals, do they have to go?

CONWAY: He has said that you should stand in line and immigrate legally.

GIULIANI: Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very difficult to throw out a family that's been here for, you know, 15 years and they have three children, two of whom are citizens. And that is not the kind of America he wants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So Errol, I mean, Rudy there was the most explicit, sounding like that they will not be deported if they're not criminals.

LOUIS: Yes, yes, he was. But when it comes to consistency, you know, there are a lot of inconsistencies here. You know, Rudy Giuliani ran a sanctuary city. Donald Trump always says we're going to get rid of sanctuary cities. So we're not going to get a lot of consistency out of the Trump camp here, I think.

I mean, listen, when he says there's one path and there's one path only, the rest is just details. And I think when they -- when you hear Mike Pence saying, "Oh, he's been perfectly consistent," I think, really, all they're talking about are the details of what is essentially an unworkable plan.

If what they're saying is "We're going to find and deport 11 million people, but we're going to take the criminals first," or "We're going to take certain categories of people who are already in the system first," that doesn't answer any of the real questions.

I mean, I think what all the questioners are getting at is, are you going to get sort of mass camps in place in order to hold these people? Who's going to pay for this? One estimated cost is $400 to $600 billion to do this.

CAMEROTA: Yes, what does it look like?

LOUIS: What does it look like?

BERMAN: And the reason there's this confusion is because Donald Trump simply hasn't told us.

And the other thing that's astounding, Jackie, is that on Sunday, the Trump team is still trying to explain the speech he gave on Wednesday, because they are saying that he gave a speech than he, in fact, did. I mean, they're trying to tell us that he did soften on immigration when, in fact, you had to really, like, look at it with a fine-toothed comb to see a single line where he backed off on anything.

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, that's because the speech was kind of a disaster. After he was in Mexico, had a relatively good press conference with the Mexican president, the wall aside, he went and gave this speech that resulted in several members of his Hispanic coalition resigning or saying they felt misled.

So of course, they're trying to fix this, because Donald Trump, again, got in front of a crowd and got a little carried away, and went off script and said a lot of things he said during the primary. That speech was focused solely on the people that are already voting for Donald Trump when it was meant to try to expand his base and start looking a little bit more presidential; and it didn't do that. So I mean, that's why we're still seeing this cleanup several days later. And, you know, until they solidify what they're talking about, I think we're still going to see this equivocation even going into this week. Or every time we talk about immigration.

[06:10:14] CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk about the Hillary Clinton side and what was a misstep there, or not even a misstep, just a major hiccup that has been continuing throughout the campaign. And that is the e-mails. The FBI released their report. The Republicans say they released it on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

BERMAN: They, in fact, did, release it on the Friday before a holiday weekend.

CAMEROTA: They see something in that timing that they think benefits Hillary Clinton.

But here were some of the findings. There were many in this report. But here are some of them.

Turns out Clinton did not completely understand the classification markings. Clinton relied on her staff to determine how to handle classified information. There were these archived -- archived e-mails that actually were deleted after the House Benghazi Committee requested all e-mails be sent to them and nothing be deleted. And Colin Powell had warned Clinton that e-mails could become government record.

Where are we, Errol, with all of this and these findings? What do they change?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think they change nothing, in some ways. I mean, the -- the timing of it, the release of it, I interpreted this as not so much politics as maybe the FBI wanting to not have to do a lot of follow-up work over the holiday weekend. So they were as interested in sort of burying it as anybody else.

On the other hand, you know, this is going to continue to be an issue. Every poll that we've seen suggests that people don't trust what she has said about it. There have been too many inconsistencies.

The only question becomes, is it serious enough for somebody to say, "I can't vote for her for president"? And it seems to be a very mixed bag there.

So I think she's sort of at sort of a status quo. She's created a huge problem for herself and for her surrogates, having to always explain and explain and explain. Oh, she meant this. And oh, she meant that. And we felt we turned over everything, but it turns out we didn't turn over everything.

And I don't know that it's the smoking gun that the Republicans keep hoping they're going to find. Because remember, substantively, at the end of all of this, we're not seeing anything that shows you that national security was impaired or that something clearly financially corrupt went down. You know, we're not -- we're not finding that. So what you do end up with is what Comey said all along, the FBI director, is that, you know, outrageously careless behavior.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

LOUIS: And it's up to the voters to decide whether that matters.

BERMAN: It's the type of thing, Jackie, you could clear up at a news conference or a press conference if you gave them...

KUCINICH: You'd think.

BERMAN: ... as a presidential candidate, which Hillary Clinton doesn't. And that's part of the issue here. She isn't explaining away these things, because she doesn't try in front of the press that often.

KUCINICH: Well, and her explanations tend to be, you know, "Staff told me to do this. I trusted people that told me to do this." It wasn't, you know, "The buck stops here. This is my fault."

But Errol is absolutely right. I mean, in those FBI notes, there were details of a laptop that contained e-mails that was just lost. They just lost it. And it was just this carelessness and sloppiness.

And, you know, at the end of the day, this just reminds people why they don't like Hillary Clinton, why they don't trust her. And that isn't great for the Clinton campaign. It really does. They need things like this to go away so she can start making the case of why you should trust her instead of being reminded over and over again what the problems are with her candidacy and what her problems may be as president.

BERMAN: Got to bring up one thing that happened on Twitter overnight, Errol. Donald Trump used Twitter, which I guess, in itself, is not news.

CAMEROTA: Not news.

BERMAN: But he went after a sitting Republican senator in a swing state, Jeff Flake from Arizona, who happens to be a senator who has not endorsed Donald Trump yet, but he does have a lot of influence in that state and also within the Republican Party.

Trump obviously mad at Jeff Flake, and he said this. He said, "The Republican Party needs strong and committed leaders, not weak people such as Jeff Flake, if it's going to stop illegal immigration."

Donald Trump attacking Republicans is the kind of thing that drives Reince Priebus crazy. And he didn't do it for a week or so, but he's at it again.

LOUIS: One more example of why he should be kept away from his Twitter account, actually, by the team if they want to keep sort of a coherent narrative going.

Jeff Flake is essentially at this point the leader of the "never Trump" elected officials who are out there. He says it consistently. He says it without being asked. He's not up for re-election for another couple years. So he's not in the same position as, say, a John McCain, who has to walk this tight rope between the conservative voters that like Trump and the emerging majority that's coming into place. Majority is probably too strong of a word in Arizona itself. But a rising percentage of the voters there are millennials, are Latinos. He can't win. Jeff Flake cannot expect to win re-election if he takes the Trump hard

line against all of these different groups. So he's already working the politics that made him a very narrow Victor in that race in the first place. And this is what Trump is going to have to deal with.

CAMEROTA: Errol, Jackie, thank you. Stick around. We have many more questions for you.

BERMAN: We also are following some breaking news out of Israel. Two dozen people are trapped after a building collapsed in Tel Aviv. Emergency crews rushed to the scene. They have pulled 15 people from the rubble already. Their injuries are considered minor.

This building was set to be a parking structure. Authorities are calling this an accident.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel hoping to pave the way forward for her political future today. This after her party suffered a big defeat in this weekend's local elements. A right-wing anti-immigrant party defeated Merkel's in the election. Observers say the results are essentially a referendum on Merkel's open-border immigration policy. Merkel is attending the G-20 economic summit with the president in China.

CAMEROTA: Now for the panda news. And we have a lot of good news to bring you for the Giant Panda. An international conservation group is taking them off the endangered species list, saying that China's efforts to bring them back from the brink of extinction are working, but the group warns that climate change is a major threat to the panda's bamboo habitat.

Even more good news, John: the panda population increased by at least two over the weekend. Nineteen-year-old Lun Lun at the zoo in Atlanta giving birth to twins. It's her second pair of twins.

BERMAN: I support twins.

CAMEROTA: I support twin birth also. You and I have a lot in common with giant pandas.

BERMAN: Those pandas are obviously busy. I mean, these pandas have been, you know working hard. I mean, the population going up. Congratulations to all them.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Excellent. We like twins.

BERMAN: All right, 16 minutes after the hour. Hermine is churning in the Atlantic. The storm's threat is still very real. Tropical storm watches and warnings are posted for millions in the northeast. We'll tell you how this will affect your Labor Day, your beach plans. So many beach plans ruined already. We have a live report and the latest forecast next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:41] BERMAN: There's a tropical storm warning now for millions of people on this Labor Day. Hermine still packing hurricane-like winds. It is hitting the northeast with rough seas and beach erosion. A lot of beaches closed on this last day of summer, the unofficial last day of summer, we should say.

CNN's Bryn Gingras is like in Montauk, New York, the eastern tip of Long Island. What's it look like there, Bryn?

BRYN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Good morning.

You know what? This is a surfer's dream with these waves, but yes, you said it, beaches are closed. They are just simply dangerous, these waves, at this point of Hermine here on Long Island. Seven million people still under a tropical storm warning.

And let me give you a closer look at those waves. I will say we talked to a police officer who stopped by not too long ago. He says they don't seem all that impressive to him, but what we're noticing is you can see these waves crashing on the shore. Two hours ago it was low tide. And these waves are coming up pretty high from typically where they would be at this hour.

So when high tide comes around at about 11 a.m. this morning, that's going to be another concern that officials are keeping their eye on. Will those waves crash and move into the streets for a sort of coastal flooding?

So rip currents and coastal flooding. That is the issue here. And for 7 million people under that tropical storm warning.

Other than that, people pretty -- enjoying this weather. The nice cooler temperatures and actually the nice scenery. We saw a lot of people out here last night catching that sunset, Alisyn. But you know what? It's still pretty dangerous.

CAMEROTA: Yes, no, the sunsets have been very beautiful this weekend. Thanks, Brynn.

Let's see where Hermine is now and why it was a beautifully sunny weekend here in the northeast. Meteorologist Chad Myers joins us now to explain.

Chad, we had a beautiful day yesterday. Weren't we supposed to have wind and rain and everything else?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there was always that possibility. But, you know, this thing is still within the cone that the hurricane center put out on Friday. It's about 150 miles or so farther to the east.

And because of that, didn't get the pushback with the cloud cover. Obviously, there's still big waves out there. I've seen some on the buoys this morning at 17 feet. The storm is still 70 miles per hour. It's still meandering out there. Still going to be with us for a couple days.

The waves are high, right onshore. The tides are about a foot and a half to two feet above where they should be. And it's still forecast to get a little bit closer. But no, it did not stay close enough to really get back into New Jersey, to get back this water into the Hudson River, into the harbor, into Staten Island. That really didn't happen. And that's the good news. It was just far enough offshore that that didn't push all of this ugliness back toward us.

The waves, though, waves are still 5 to 14 feet. Back here toward Montauk and back even toward Block Island, waves are higher than that.

Now, the rain's going to stay offshore. I don't think we have to worry about this too much. It isn't going to affect the U.S. proper. It's going to head out to sea. It's just going to take a long time. The waves are going to be big. The rip currents are going to be strong. Please still stay out of that water. I could hear the roar in Bryn's live shot. Those waves are really crashing, guys.

BERMAN: There were a lot of people who said they canceled their weekend plans, because they were concerned about this storm, Chad. But these were people who just didn't listen to your forecast the right way. I mean, you said, it could be sunny. There may not be rain. But the ocean, that's what you have to worry about.

MYERS: We always worried about the ocean. That's it. Even my producer, Monica, said, "You know what? It's going to be sunny; and people are going to go in the water, and they're going to die."

And I said, "We hope that doesn't happen. We have to make sure that they stay out of the water." And the authorities sure did.

CAMEROTA: OK. Good reminders, Chad. Thank you very much for explaining all of that.

BERMAN: I mean, it was a very nice weekend. That said, it was gorgeous. It was really nice.

CAMEROTA: I know.

BERMAN: What hurricane?

All right. He quickly made a name for himself as a surrogate for Donald Trump, but South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns having a harder time addressing his own story.

CAMEROTA: We'll show you that.

Also, President Obama is about to hold a news conference in China. We'll take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:26] BERMAN: All right. Welcome back. John Berman here with Alisyn Camerota. We're here waiting on President Obama, scheduled to give a news conference any minute now. He is in China for the G-20. He has a lot of questions to answer on U.S. foreign policy in Syria, in Ukraine, with China, and also expected to weigh in on the contentious presidential election getting closer, it seems, by the day.

While we wait for the president, we're going to talk about other matters, namely one man, a man who delivered a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention. It made South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns one of Donald Trump's go-to surrogates.

Just last week, he apologized for a tweet showing Hillary Clinton in black face. But now it's his own story that is appearing hard to explain and raising questions.

CNN's Victor Blackwell has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PASTOR MARK BURNS, SUPPORTER OF DONALD TRUMP: We need a warrior! We need a champion! We need a winner! And that is Donald!

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's the small-town preacher who's become a major surrogate for Donald Trump's campaign for president.

BURNS: The last thing I want to do is to draw attention away from Mr. Trump's policy.

BLACKWELL: Pastor Mark Burns, a frequent cable news guest, a crowd favorite at Trump rallies, even a speaker at the Republican National Convention.

BURNS: From the great state of South Carolina...

BLACKWELL: But before the campaign, he was virtually unknown.

BURNS: I think Donald Trump is a great judge of character. You know, you would think he would just choose the greatest names, but Donald Trump values character more so than popularity or name. And I think that I fall in that category.

BLACKWELL: Pastor Burns' Harvest Praise and Worship Center in Easley, South Carolina, is a small operation. The church just a few folding chairs, tables, and cameras for his televangelism.