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Controversies Facing Trump & Clinton; Trump Says Donation Not Connected To Fraud Case; Scrutiny Of Clinton's Emails Continues After FBI Report; Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Live On New Day; Trump's Immigration Plan Alienates Some Latino Supporters. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 06, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:32:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She is a fine person. Never spoke to her about it. Never. Many of the attorney generals turned that case down because I'll win that case in court.

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CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump gave $25,000 to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi during her race back in 2013. That is a fact. Why he gave it to her and how he got the money to her -- those are tough questions for his campaign. Now, this is just one of the many controversies dogging both candidates. So what's real and what's bunk -- I love that word -- let's discuss.

Here to walk us through the latest and these others are -- we have national political reporter for "The Washington Post", Philip Rucker. And CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

So, Jeff, let's start with this and we'll start off with Trump. Now, we have like three of the main things. You know, I know we're going to get a lot of heat. You could list eight, nine, 10 --

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Sure.

CUOMO: -- different things if you want to call them controversies, but these are main ones. So we have this first one with the money with Pam Bondi. This wound up being about timing, right, and about the mechanism. It went through a charity that wasn't supposed to give political donations. The IRS found out about it -- fined them. There's a question about disclosure there.

The other question is about why he gave her the money. She said she was going to look at Trump University. Shortly after she said that she got the money. Shortly after that she decided not to investigate Trump University. What's the deal?

ZELENY: Right. I mean, so it doesn't look very good and this is one of several examples of attorney generals across the country that were on the verge of looking into something and then stopped, but "The Washington Post" first reported this. And Donald Trump has been saying look, I didn't talk to her, I didn't know anything about this.

But this is really -- we've heard a lot of pay-for-play allegations about the Clinton Foundation. This is actually an example of there was a contribution and the IRS actually fined him. So this, if we're ranking things, there actually was an action here. Now, Donald Trump said he wasn't involved in it, didn't know about it, but I think there's a little bit more smoke here than on many of the other controversies that have been going on.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Also, because the Trump Foundation misrepresented this donation --

ZELENY: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- to the IRS.

ZELENY: Right.

CAMEROTA: They said it was a completely different organization, non- political, and then the IRS figured out, no, it was to Pam Bondi. When we just talked to Katrina Pierson she said that was a clerical error and they had to pay 10 percent of the contribution as a fine for that clerical error.

ZELENY: OK, maybe it was a clerical error but, again, it's more smoke here than on many of the other controversies. Again, do any voters care about this? Not necessarily, but this is one where there actually -- again, "The Washington Post" reported this. This is one I think there actually is an issue there. It does not look good and there is a bit of a trail there.

[07:35:00] CUOMO: And by the way, Bondi's not the only one.

ZELENY: Right.

CUOMO: In Texas, a state regulator says he was ordered, in 2010, to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons. You can go online and look at that.

CAMEROTA: And there was a $35,000 donation to --

CUOMO: The governor of Texas.

CAMEROTA: -- the now-governor of Texas --

CUOMO: Right.

CAMEROTA: -- that may have been connected to that.

CUOMO: The donations came after, you know, the suggestion, so connecting the two may be difficult. But, again, it's there. And that's what Trump University -- how do I get rid of this? Let's see, let's move this over here.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I'm so glad you're driving the board.

CUOMO: Move it over there.

CAMEROTA: I sometimes --

CUOMO: It will never leave. It will never leave, it will always dog him. All right, so Trump University. The school shut down in 2010. It's not a school. It shouldn't be called a school. It should never be identified as a school. It's not a school. Ongoing litigation in New York and California. How real is this if these lawsuits for fraud continue -- Philip Rucker?

PHILIP RUCKER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, you know, this has been an issue dogging Donald Trump's campaign for a few months now -- the Trump University case. You're right, it's not a school. It's basically a for-profit business that takes advantage of Trump's name and brand to try to entice people to pay a lot of money to get a so-called degree.

You know, this is a problem. What you have in these lawsuits are a lot of people who feel they were duped, who say they didn't get any benefit out of attending Trump University. And it feeds a broader narrative about Trump that he's sort of an untrustworthy businessman who takes advantage of poorer people.

CAMEROTA: And so, Phil, going forward -- I mean, before we get to the taxes -- with the Trump University, is that going to dog him for the next eight weeks?

RUCKER: It might. You know, this was a big issue in the primaries. It's something that Trump's opponents, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, others, tried to make an issue out of. We've not heard a lot about it since then but I expect that's something, probably, the Clinton campaign's going to try to revive. It may come up in the debates starting later this month.

ZELENY: The one thing with this, there are real victims here.

CUOMO: Yes.

RUCKER: That's right.

ZELENY: So that is one thing the Clinton campaign has tried to do is put some of these victims forward in advertisements. I think that's what we'll see coming up here in the next --

CUOMO: Yet, not washing (ph) in the polls when it comes to character. This tax return thing, also -- we ask them all the time. He's not going to release the taxes. Why? That's up for every individual to decide for themselves. Is this going to actually matter because it doesn't seem like it's killing him in the polls?

ZELENY: As of now, it does not -- it's compiled with many other things. I think voters, if they question Donald Trump, they're probably not voting for him anyway. But among his supporters, they don't care about this. It is odd, though, that Mike Pence is releasing his this week because that just highlights the fact that he has difference here.

CUOMO: So, Clinton -- everybody can identify these now. If you're going to know anything about controversies, this email and the Foundation is going to pop up to the top of people's list. Now, just the punch points. No criminal charges. OK, was it wrong? Yes, she's admitted it was wrong. Was it illegal, no. Extremely careless is what the language that the FBI director used.

And then there's this one. This last one, I think, is the one that's having the most resonance. Fifteen thousand additional emails to be released. The idea that she tried to hide what she had, fair?

ZELENY: It is fair in some respect, but we do not yet know exactly how many of these a) are emails and how many are other documents, and how many of them we haven't seen or we have seen. But these all came up during the FBI's investigation. They said they'd turned everything over. Now we know that she was not even involved in this sorting process. Her lawyers were doing it but she was not involved in this.

So, the -- if you talk to Democrats, one of their biggest frustrations is that they still have not resolved all of this. This could have been something that they dealt with and it still is existing in the final 63 days here. So all of those will come out later this month before the election, so we still don't know if anything in that batch of emails is going to hurt her.

CAMEROTA: Phil, let's talk about the Clinton Foundation. That continues to dog her in terms of whether or not there was impropriety between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department. Bill Clinton has said he will resign his post from CGI if she wins. Does that put this issue to bed or will there will be lingering questions about the Clinton Foundation for the next eight weeks?

RUCKER: Well, I think there will be questions for a while here. I mean this is an issue that's been hurting her campaign the entire time. And the issue with the Clinton Foundation is that there's nothing criminally wrong right now but it just feeds a perception that there are so many people -- hundreds of people, thousands of people -- to whom the Clintons owe favors when she gets into the White House.

There's a sense that people gave money to this foundation in order to ingratiate themselves with the former president and with the current Secretary of State and future president. And so it just feeds the sense of corruption around the Clintons that they really are having a hard time addressing directly.

CUOMO: The irony that you have one candidate going after the other one. He's saying this stuff about the foundation and it turns out his own charity sent this illegal contribution to a politician who is reviewing him at the same time. I mean, it's just -- you can't make it up.

[07:40:00] CAMEROTA: Gentlemen, thank you very much. All right, moving on, does the president of Turkey still think the U.S. played a role in the recent attempt to overthrow him? We will ask the deputy prime minister of Turkey about that, as well as his country's growing role in the fight against ISIS.

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CUOMO: The United States and Russia failed to reach a ceasefire agreement for Syria. President Obama and Russian president Putin, they vow to continue the talks at the G20 Summit. But with Syria just torn up by a brutal five-year civil war and many countries involved in the war against ISIS, Turkey looms large as a main player and a potential solution to keeping people safe, but it is a very difficult situation.

Let's discuss with Numan Kurtulmus. He is Turkey's deputy prime minister. He joins us now. It is a pleasure, sir.

NUMAN KURTULMUS, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, TURKEY: Thank you, my pleasure.

CUOMO: I know that it is heavy concerns that bring you to this country. At the top of the list, the belief that there was a coup attempt in your country in July and you believe that its roots may have found its way here to the United States. How so?

[07:45:00] KURTULMUS: Well, actually, we just not believe. Actually, it was very clear. We have very clear evidences that coup d'etat attempt on 15th of July has strong links with Gulen, who is here in Poconos, Pennsylvania, and a group of people in the military service. They intended to make a military coup d'etat but because of the courage of people, people showed their resistance against the coup and people managed to save the Turkish democracy.

So we have so many evidences that those people who are inside the group of the -- group inside the military services and they have strong links with Fethullah.

CUOMO: Now, just to be clear, Fethullah Gulen is a man of Turkish descent. He is here in the United States. But Turkey doesn't believe the United States government had anything to do with the coup attempt, does it?

KURTULMUS: No, no, it is just Fethullah Gulen. Our expectation from the United States government either to extradite him or detain him until the case ends. So --

CUOMO: So you want the U.S. government to --

KURTULMUS: No, we don't see any linkage --

CUOMO: Right.

KURTULMUS: -- between the United States government officials with coup attempt. But our intention -- major intention -- major expectation from the U.S. government to extradite him --

CUOMO: To extradite him, detain him so that he can stand trial in Turkey. And what are you hearing from U.S. officials on that? KURTULMUS: Actually, we have good improvements. We have, as you know -- we have a commission -- a bilateral commission between Turkey and the U.S. officials -- judicial officials, so they are working on the files. We have sent so many evidences to the U.S. officials so it is now in the hands of the U.S. judicial system.

I know it will take some time but our major intention is not the duration of time. It is actually the problem of intention. So the United States policymakers show -- must show their intention that they are -- they don't have any prejudice against Gulen or the attempt -- the coup d'etat attempt.

CUOMO: So, we will continue to follow that. We covered it when it happened.

KURTULMUS: OK.

CUOMO: We'll stay on that story. Another thing that brings you here is that it is surprising for people to learn in this process, as we learn more about that part of the world, Turkey has the largest standing army in the area of conflict that we're dealing with right now in the world. And the question is, is Turkey doing enough to help fight ISIS in Syria? It's a very simple question, but from the Turkish perspective it's a complicated answer. How so?

KURTULMUS: Well, as you know, Turkey is the number one country to fight against Daesh. Also, the --

CUOMO: Daesh, which is ISIS.

KURTULMUS: -- and ISIS -- whatever it is. So, we have so many different terrorist organizations. They aim to disturb Turkey. Daesh, PKK, the branch of PKK, PYD in the northern part of Syria, and also some of the extremist Marxist organizations inside Turkey, and also FETA (ph) (INAUDIBLE) terrorist organization.

Starting from last year's July, three major organizations attempted simultaneously to fight against Turkey. So they have disturbed us -- so many suicide bombs or car bombings and whatever they use. They use everything against Turkey.

They also make some kind of threat to the border of Turkey. Now, Turkey's intended to completely secure the border of Turkey from all other terrorist organizations, including Daesh. And we are fighting Daesh in Syria. Actually we are giving logistics to the Syrian police -- Syrian army, which is a moderate opposition group in Syria. And because of -- by the shields of Euphrates operation.

CUOMO: Let me ask you one question that they're struggling with -- that we're struggling with here in America. There have been so many refugees who have flooded into Turkey trying to save their lives and you are dealing with how to have these people come in and assimilate them into Turkish culture or how to get them back home.

In America, there is a big push to not have Syrian refugees in this country because we can't definitively know who is a good person and who might be a terrorist. What do you say to Americans who are worried about welcoming these people into this country?

KURTULMUS: Well, actually it's a very tough situation for Turkey during the last five years, starting from the March 2011. They are under the pressure of the refugees from Syria. We have accepted already more than three million refugees, which is probably equivalent of the total refugees the United States accepted during the last 50 years.

[07:50:00] CUOMO: Right.

KURTULMUS: So it is a really huge burden on Turkey, but it is because of our ties with the Syrian people we accepted them. They provide them safe guarding in the lands of Turkey. We already spent more than $15 billion U.S. dollars for the refugees.

It is really very important problem but we don't have any solution for Syrian peace. We cannot stop the refugees coming to Turkey, coming to European continent, and also the refugee crisis became a kind of global crisis for all of the nations. So it is really very tough to select refugees but we don't have chance to make a kind of selection. But we have proper some -- proper evaluation processes for the refugees. So we have refugee camps --

CUOMO: Right.

KURTULMUS: -- and also we have some kind of procedures to accept them. We have all of the more than three million.

CUOMO: So you embrace the people, but until there's a solution to Syrian peace the problem will continue. Deputy, sir --

KURTULMUS: OK, thank you so much.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for taking the time here on your trip to the United States.

KURTULMUS: Thank you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Donald Trump pivoting again. First, saying no amnesty for undocumented immigrants, now saying he's not ruling out amnesty. He'll decide later. Up next, a Hispanic leader who jumped off the Trump train after Trump's immigration speech. Will the possibility of amnesty make him reconsider supporting Trump?

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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 reentry like everybody else. There will be no amnesty.

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CAMEROTA: Well, that was the moment that prompted our next guest to step down from Donald Trump's National Hispanic Advisory Council. But now that Trump says he's not ruling out legal status or amnesty for the millions of undocumented immigrants, how does our next guest feel?

Joining us is Alfonso Aguilar. He is president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and a former Donald Trump supporter. Alfonso, thanks so much for being here. Why was that moment -- that moment last week in Arizona -- why was that the tipping point for you?

ALFONSO AGUILAR, PRESIDENT, LATINO PARTNERSHIP FOR CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES, FORMER TRUMP SUPPORTER: Let me first say I was never a member of Trump's advisory board for Hispanic affairs. I'm just a Latino leader who supported Donald Trump and I was forcefully advocating for his candidacy.

But, you know, like many Latino leaders who've had contact with the campaign and advisers to Mr. Trump, we really thought that he was going to embrace some form of legalization. He said he wanted to deal with undocumented immigrants in a compassionate and humane way. He even went as far as saying that he was going to soften his stance.

And then he gives his speech and we just saw him basically say that if you're here illegally you're going to have to leave. That's your only option and we're going to encourage that by making life here very difficult. You're basically going to self-deport and there's no guarantee that you're going to be able to reenter.

You know, initially, he kept saying, when he started talking about immigration, that the good people would leave and that they would reenter quickly. Now, even that is off the table. You have to leave and there's just simply no guarantee that you're going to come back.

Think about it -- good, hardworking people who have been here for many, many years whose children are citizens would have to leave and they don't know if they can come back.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Well, I mean, not exactly. It sounds as though yesterday he actually changed his position on this. He was on his campaign plane. He was asked, again, by a reporter for clarification -- asked about if he would ever be open to legal status or amnesty, and here was Mr. Trump's response yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you rule out that one possibility in that determination is --

TRUMP: I'm not ruling out anything. No, no. We're going to make that decision into the future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

TRUMP: A good question. I'm glad you asked it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so, Mr. Aguilar, I'm not ruling out anything, Donald Trump says. We're going to make that determination in the future. What do you make of that?

AGUILAR: You know, that kind of spin doesn't work anymore. I think before the speech, when his statements were kind of ambiguous, there was room for spin, but now we have a speech. We have a speech that you can read -- it's in black and white -- so there's no room for that.

I mean, he has said that after those 10 steps are implemented then he'll figure out what to do with those people that are remaining. But, mind you, what those steps are intended to do is to encourage self-deportation. So after those 10 steps are implemented he's expecting the undocumented community to be very, very small, and then, he says, we'll figure out what to do. But that's after the 10 steps.

The majority -- and he said that clearly in his speech -- have to leave and there's just no guarantee that they will reenter. So when he says that, frankly, it seems that he's trying to confuse or manipulate and that's just not fair.

CAMEROTA: But how do you know that he's trying to confuse and that he isn't just, within himself, trying to work out what the best policy is? What if it turned out that he really did just want to deport the sort of worst criminals and then he was open to amnesty for the rest? Would that make you become a Trump supporter again?

AGUILAR: Well, that would be wonderful. You know, I heard Mayor Giuliani make that case this weekend. But again, we have to go the speech and that speech was a nativist speech. I'm sure it was written by people close to Sen. Sessions, and that's not what the speech said. Now, if he's willing to somehow renounce that speech and say let's start all over again, then perhaps. But, you know, it would be a major flip-flop.

Again, I think the speech was a defining moment because it articulated in no uncertain -- in very clear terms what his policy is. And maybe at the end of the road some would be allowed to stay, but just a few because the majority, as he clearly said, have to leave and things are going to be made so difficult for you that you won't be able to stay here.

CAMEROTA: Alfonso Aguilar, thank you for your perspective.

AGUILAR: Thank you so much.