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New Day
North Korean Claims Nuke Warhead Test; Trump Stands by Praise of Vladimir Putin; Interview with Kellyanne Conway; Interview with Rep. Xavier Becerra. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired September 09, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00] BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: But this time, it's difficult to say, intelligence community officials believe, because North Koreans are making steady progress. Right now they don't care if the world even sees their failures. They are putting the message out there. We are going to keep testing, we are going to have a nuclear missile that can attack the United States some day.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Really troubling stuff. Thank you for the update and we'll look forward to more of your reporting.
Barbara, thank you.
STARR: Thanks.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Clear indication of why national security is so important and it's certainly playing out in the race for the White House right now. Donald Trump standing by his praise for Vladimir Putin. Even did it on Russian state TV.
His comments, of course, coming under fire from Hillary Clinton, but also within his own party. Clinton now backing more -- getting more members of the military to back her as a result.
CNN senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, is following all the developments for us -- Jeff.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Chris, good morning. The praise Donald Trump is showering upon Vladimir Putin is a remarkable break from the traditional boundaries of American politics. It's outraging Democrats and even making many Republicans uneasy about the blurred lines of country versus party.
Now Hillary Clinton says this is the latest sign Trump is not fit for the presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is really very much of a leader.
ZELENY (voice-over): Amid ongoing criticism of his praise for Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
TRUMP: He's been a leader far more than our president has been a leader.
ZELENY: Donald Trump, in an interview that aired on a television station funded by the Kremlin, telling Larry King, he thinks it's unlikely the Russian government is meddling in the 2016 election through hacking.
TRUMP: I think it's probably unlikely. I think maybe -- maybe the Democrats are putting that out. If they are doing something, I hope that somebody is going to be able to find out, so they can end it because that would not be appropriate at all.
ZELENY: Trump's team telling CNN they did the interview as a favor, claiming they had no idea it would end up on Russia today.
His running mate, Governor Mike Pence, defending Trump's comments about Putin in a CNN interview with Dana Bash earlier in the day.
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's inarguable that Vladimir Putin has been a stronger leader in his country than Barack Obama has been in this country. And that's going to change the day that Donald Trump becomes president.
ZELENY: Hillary Clinton, highlighting Trump's continued praise of Putin. She says it's the latest example of how her opponent is unfit to be president.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is not just unpatriotic. It's not just insulting to the office and the man who holds the office. It is scary. It is dangerous. We have never been threatened as much by a single candidate running for president as we have been in this election.
ZELENY: And Clinton also casting Trump as a divider in this new ad, hitting the airwaves in swing states this morning.
CLINTON: Donald Trump says he alone can fix the problems we face. Well, I don't believe that's how we get things done in our country. It takes Democrats and Republicans working together.
ZELENY: This, as both candidates continue trying to paint themselves as the better commander-in-chief.
TRUMP: I oppose going in, and I did oppose it. Despite the media saying no, yes, no.
ZELENY: Trump, sticking by his false claim that he opposed the Iraq war early on, despite evidence from 2002 that proves otherwise.
HOWARD STERN, RADIO HOST: Are you for invading Iraq?
TRUMP: Yes, I guess so.
ZELENY: As Clinton qualifies the language around her pledge to never put troops back on the ground in Iraq.
CLINTON: We are not putting ground troops into Iraq ever again. And we're not putting ground troops into Syria.
ZELENY (on camera): Isn't, A, that ignoring some ground forces who are there, and B, boxing yourself in.
CLINTON: There is no -- in my opinion -- path forward to ground troops that would be in our interest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZELENY: And Clinton is showcasing her commander-in-chief credentials by rolling out the endorsements now of 110 retired generals and admirals. She is also convening a bipartisan meeting of homeland security experts later today here in New York, including former CIA director David Petraeus and former Bush administration Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Jeff, thank you for all of that.
There's a heated debate raging again over Donald Trump's birther conspiracy theory. Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani saying that Trump now does believe that President Obama was born in the U.S., despite Trump's years of ginning up this conspiracy.
So CNN's Jason Carroll is here with more. Jason, what's the latest?
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, as you know, Donald Trump has said repeatedly that he does not want to talk about the birther issue, his running mate, Mike Pence, has said he believes the president was born in the United States.
[08:05:01] Former New York City mayor and Trump surrogate, Rudy Giuliani, says he also believes Obama was born here in the states. But so far still nothing from Trump.
For years, Trump was one of the most outspoken backers of the birther movement. One that supported the false claim that President Obama was not born in the United States. Giuliani now says Trump does believe he and the birthers were wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: I want to know whether you believe that your candidate for president believes he would succeed --
RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yes.
MATTHEWS: -- a legitimate president or not?
GIULIANI: He believes --
MATTHEWS: Does he believe he would succeed a legitimate president?
GIULIANI: Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States. But that issue was raised originally --
(CROSSTALK) MATTHEWS: When is he going to say it?
GIULIANI: That issue was raised originally --
MATTHEWS: When is he going to say that this president is legitimate? This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not?
GIULIANI: He believes --
MATTHEW: Do you believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it?
GIULIANI: I believe it, he believes it. We all believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: Again still no word from Trump admitting he was wrong or what he believes. Many in the African-American community view the birther movement as racist. Trump, as you know, has been trying to court the African-American vote.
Hillary Clinton, putting pressure on Trump to admit his mistake. She addressed the issue at a Baptist convention last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: We are facing a candidate with a long history of racial discrimination in his business.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Who traffics in toxic conspiracy theories like the lie that President Obama is not a true American.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: If he doesn't even respect all Americans, how can he serve all Americans?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: And Chris, Clinton also taking aim at Trump for another false claim. Trump continues to say he was against the war in Iraq before it started, despite that interview Trump did with Howard Stern back in 2002, where he said he was in favor of it -- Chris.
CUOMO: All right. Jason, so there are two challenges put to the Trump campaign this morning. Own some things in the past and explain some things going on in the present. Let's see if we can do that right now with Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway.
Kellyanne, thanks for joining us, as always.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Good morning, Chris.
CUOMO: These will be familiar questions to you. Let's see if we can make progress on them, though.
The birther comment that we were just talking about here. Rudy Giuliani goes on and he says, Donald Trump now will say that he believes that President Obama was born in Hawaii. He doesn't say it himself. Why not?
CONWAY: You have to ask him. But I find the entire topic really amazing, I guess it's because the new CNN poll shows us beating her by three points and winning by 20 points among independents.
CUOMO: And why would you want to jeopardize that lead by going at the exact issue that you used against Clinton, which is transparency and honesty? You say ask him. You are his campaign manager. That's why I'm asking you. You speak for him.
CONWAY: Yes, he believes --
CUOMO: Why won't he come out and just own that position? That, yes, President Obama was born here. I was wrong to go with the birthers.
CONWAY: So he believes President Obama was born here. I was born in Camden, by the way, New Jersey. He was born in Hawaii. But the point is, what kind of president has he been? Yes, so he's born in the United States. No question, he was born in the United States. But he's not be a particularly successful president. And that's what this campaign is about on our side.
CUOMO: Right.
CONWAY: This campaign -- and if you look at -- if you look at your own CNN polling, Chris.
CUOMO: Yes.
CONWAY: Show me where birtherism is as a top, burning issue. I saw economy and jobs, terrorism, health care, education, energy and immigration in the CNN polling, ethics certainly.
CUOMO: The highest negative numbers that he has are on trust and honesty, just like Clinton. That's why it goes to that. That's why it also brings up the Iraq war. He doesn't want to own that he wasn't against it before it started. Why not? Why not just own it, and as you like to say, he was a private citizen. Say, yes, I was for it, then I was against it, but I was a private citizen. It's different. Why not say that?
CONWAY: Because he knows how he felt and he was against the Iraq war. He thinks it was a disaster and he's willing to say it now. He's willing to say that as a private citizen -- you're playing the clip, your network keeps playing this clip on the Howard Stern interview where he's asked, hey, do you want to invade Iraq? He said, yes, I guess so, literally.
Whereas Hillary Clinton, as United States senator, from your state of New York, went into the well of the Senate and proudly cast her vote in favor of the war in Iraq. So the comparison to the American people is ridiculous. There is no equivalence between United States senator and then later running for -- unsuccessfully running for president and becoming secretary of state, being in favor of the Iraq war. She owns that vote. And that's why people want to blame that --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: She does own it. That's the right way to say it.
CONWAY: People want to blame Matt Lauer for the Commander-in-Chief Forum the other night, Chris. I think that's a disgrace. I think he did a fabulous job because he didn't cast her vote. He didn't put her e-mail server -- he didn't build a private e-mail server for her.
[08:10:05] It's her who is left explaining these votes.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: But don't you apply the same standard --
CONWAY: And if you look at her dishonest and trustworthy number it's for a different reason.
CUOMO: Why don't you apply the same standard to Trump? I mean, we both know there is no different standard for telling the truth when you're a private citizen than when you're a public official. That's absurd.
CONWAY: What does it mean, Chris?
CUOMO: Why doesn't he own --
CONWAY: That means --
CUOMO: Why doesn't he own what he said in the past? Why doesn't he own what he said?
CONWAY: Why don't you look at -- he owns it plenty. Why don't you look at the full complement of what he said about the Iraq war over time? And look at the "Esquire" magazine interview. Look at his other statements. He is telling that he was against it. Why when then Senator Obama said had he been in the United States Senate during the Iraq war vote, he would have been against it. Everybody just took him at his word.
CUOMO: No, they didn't take him at his word, Kellyanne. You can't see this because you're on the cheat monitor. But I have a speech from 2002 when he was a state rep. He gave a speech saying he was against the war. That's what people do when they're against something. --
CONWAY: And Mr. Donald Trump -- he was an elected official. He was an elected official. But look I want to go back to the original point. If CNN and anybody else think that this campaign is going to come down to what Donald Trump said in 10 words or less to Howard Stern 14 years ago, you're mistaken.
CUOMO: No, it's about the truth-telling.
CONWAY: I know -- look, I know everybody is getting very nervous, the polls are tightening, we see these stories last night that Hillary Clinton is going to shift her strategy, find her voice yet again, 30 years of this -- she sort of stop talking about Donald Trump, start talking more about herself. Really? You just played clips where she's just obsessed with talking about Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Kellyanne --
CONWAY: They can't help themselves.
CUOMO: Let me --
CONWAY: They have no campaign message.
CUOMO: Let me ask you something just so that we're clear. Are you suggesting that I'm asking you hard questions about Trump because I'm worried that Hillary Clinton is going to lose?
CONWAY: No.
CUOMO: You're not suggesting that?
CONWAY: No, not you. Not you. I just -- no. No.
CUOMO: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
CONWAY: Not -- no, I didn't say that. I didn't say that but I think --
CUOMO: Because given what the campaign has done in the past where it takes me out of context, I want to make sure that we're clear about where you're coming from.
CONWAY: No, Chris.
CUOMO: OK.
CONWAY: Chris, no, not at all. But I think -- I think everybody descending on Matt Lauer, like he did something wrong by asking her questions that are vexing the American people, if people didn't have questions about her e-mail server, her vote in Iraq, the disastrous Russia reset, her failures in Libya, in Syria, in Benghazi, with Boko Haram, if they didn't have these questions, this woman would be at 65 percent of the vote. She's had everybody helping her, all the king's horse, all the king's men, all their money, all their data.
A lot of the mainstream media, and she just can't do it. She can't put them away. And now the polls are tightening and they're shifting their strategy again.
CUOMO: Let me ask you something that has come up about the forum. There is an idea that one of the reasons that Donald Trump is seen as a commander-in-chief is because he is a man. That one of the reasons that Hillary Clinton held -- her feet held to the tire disproportionately in that forum is because she is a woman, that some of the resistance to her is to her being a woman.
Does that resonate with you at all as a professional, who has worked so hard to make it in a man's world of polling, and risen to the top as you have, good for you? Does that issue resonate with you? Do you see that at play here?
CONWAY: No, it does not. Especially because she runs on her D.C. political resume, having been the first lady, United States senator and secretary of state. She is using those achievements, Chris, to show that she -- to say that she is qualified to be commander-in- chief. So you can't have it both ways. You can't run basically for eight years now, for president of the United States, on those credentials and then turn around and say everybody is being unfair to me, they're picking on me because of my gender.
I mean, I actually think if they go there and I saw another comment just this morning in another news -- in a different newspaper, Chris, suggesting that Matt Lauer's questions were sexist to her, I mean, this is -- what are they doing over there? Why not just continue saying, look, I've got the credentials, I've got the classic D.C. resume, it doesn't seem like that's what Americans want. They actually want change. And they see a big choice election here.
But, you know, screaming about sexism when you're running as the first female president of the United States with two months to go seems to me a bit desperate.
CUOMO: Well, both can be true. She could be running as the first one and still feel that it plays, which is why she is the first one. But let's move onto the present. He goes on Russia TV with Larry King, and he talks again about the U.S. in an unflattering way to a Russian audience. I want to play some of what he said about the U.S. foreign policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We should have never gone into Iraq, OK, period. We should have never gotten in.
LARRY KING, HOST: And that was Bush.
TRUMP: But once we went in, Larry, we shouldn't have gotten out the way we got out. And the way they got out really caused ISIS, if you think about it.
Let's look to the future. It's been a catastrophe. The Middle East for this country has been a total catastrophe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: What is the virtue of criticizing the United States to a Russian audience? CONWAY: Well, first of all, as you know, former CNN superstar, Larry
King, has a podcast and Mr. Trump went on his podcast. Nobody said it was going to be on Russian TV. But that aside, that aside, Chris, how is that criticizing U.S.? Look at the polls. Does America not agree with Donald Trump that the Iraq war was a mistake, that we lost thousands of American lives, that we lost trillions of dollars? And I just want to honor the sacrifice of those families who will never have their loved ones back with them again.
[08:15:09] But most of America believes that did not go well for us. And then he talks about how the Middle East is a disaster.
Most of America sees that this president -- the president of the United States has been over in Asia, and he has been criticizing Donald Trump. It is bizarre. Leave American politics in America.
CUOMO: But criticizing Donald Trump is different than criticizing America. It used to be a big part of the publican playbook to go after President Obama for being too apologetic about America. Now, you have Trump --
CONWAY: He is not --
CUOMO: -- criticizing him openly and saying that the Russian president is a better leader than the president of the United States.
CONWAY: If you want to play the full clip of what he said, Chris, which I think would be great and definitely qualifies as breaking news on CNN, the full clip, he said, that's not a system I agree with, but he is a strong leader there. I mean, nobody wants to play the full clip, as if agrees with --
CUOMO: Mike Pence said --
CONWAY: But let's be very clear. What is his slogan?
CUOMO: Context of a poll, no question, that Putin has been a better leader than Obama, and that will change the day that Trump takes office, suggesting what, we're going to more like Russia?
CONWAY: No, that doesn't suggest it all, and you know it. He said he doesn't agree with that system of government but Putin has been a strong leader within his system of government.
And, look, if you think Donald Trump is the only person in this country who believes that we've had a feckless, anemic foreign policy in the last eight years, that's just not true. A lot of Americans agree with that. And if they didn't agree with that, the former secretary of state, former United States senator, former first lady, first female, the whole big resume, the whole nine yards, she would be at 65 percent among women, she'd be 58, 60 percent in the polls. The polls are going the other way.
People don't like her record. They don't like what has happened with our foreign policy. If anybody can say with a straight face, that the Russian reset, Syria, Libya, and Benghazi, the Middle East are better now, it defies -- people aren't smart enough to know this. The Americans are very engaged in this election and paying attention to policy.
That's why my candidate, Donald Trump, is out there every single day talking about policy. You can disagree with the policies, but you sure the heck can read them. She is out there talking about him. It's bizarre.
You can't run a campaign talking about your opponent and do right by the American people. They deserve and they expect a conversation on middle class tax relief, on defeating radical Islamic terrorism, calling it and then defeating it. On law enforcement, of going into communities of color.
CUOMO: Kellyanne --
CONWAY: This guy has been presidential at the forum in Louisiana, helping people going down to the Mexican president, giving his immigration speech, going into a black church in Detroit.
CUOMO: All right.
CONWAY: This is what leader does.
CUOMO: Kellyanne, as you know, Mr. Trump is invited on NEW DAY any time to discuss middle class tax relief and I'm happy to put a condition in there that he can't mention Hillary Clinton once. Let's see how long that interview goes, if it happens at all if I get off the black list.
Kellyanne, thank you for joining us to make the case for the campaign.
CONWAY: Thank you, Chris.
CUOMO: Appreciate it as always.
Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Well, we just heard from Trump's side on their campaign strategy. Next, we'll hear from a House Democratic about the Clinton strategy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:20:56] CAMEROTA: We just spoke to Trump campaign spokeswoman, Kellyanne Conway, about the state of the race and Donald Trump's latest comments about Hillary Clinton.
So, let's get some reaction from Democratic Congressman Xavier Becerra of California. He is supporting Hillary Clinton.
Good morning, Congressman.
REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D), CALIFORNIA: Good morning, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: We just heard from Kellyanne, she seems to be reading from the same playbook that Donald Trump is. They're going to continue hitting Hillary Clinton hard over her e-mails.
Let me play for you the new issues this week that Donald Trump says have cropped up with the e-mails. Here is Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She gets a subpoena from the United States Congress, and she deletes and bleaches. She also, and her staff, destroyed some of her 13 different phones, but this time, with a hammer. I've never done that. She claims she couldn't remember important events 39 times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Congressman, let's talk about that. Are these things that Hillary Clinton is going to respond to, should she respond to these? If not, how does she put the e-mail controversy to bed?
BECERRA: Well, first, let's remember that Donald Trump is very loose and slippery with his words. If you take his words at face value, you get in trouble. You should not take the words that you just showed him uttering at face value because they are inaccurate and untrue.
And so, if you take a look at the words of an investigator that's not partisan, like Donald Trump or the Republicans doing this witch hunt in the House of Representatives against Hillary Clinton, then you'll see what is true.
And the FBI, which is an impartial body, which I think most of us would agree, tries to do investigations for the American people, not for a party, came out and told us what we should know about her e- mails.
So, we will continue to see the Trump campaign talk about t e-mails, because they have nothing else to use to try to bring Hillary Clinton down and to keep Americans from voting for her. They also probably wish to distract from the fact that Donald Trump continues to lie about his own record. As he just did in the last week about his role in the Iraq war, and being supportive of it at first and now saying he is against it. He can't deny his own words. He does try, but he can't.
CAMEROTA: We should mention that Hillary Clinton is not accused of deleting the e-mails. It was an IT guy. She is not accused of taking a hammer to the BlackBerry. It was an aide and she didn't know about it any of this, didn't authorize it.
However, with all of this stuff happening on the campaign trail this week, all of the inflammatory things that Donald Trump has been saying from Vladimir Putin is strong, the birtherism, stuff has cropped up again, it was interesting to hear our reporters this morning saying Hillary Clinton is going to be trying a new strategy, a new tact, she is going to be concentrating on the positive, her positives as opposed to his negatives.
We even have an example this morning that has been released of in you campaign ad. Let me play that for everyone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Donald Trump says he alone can fix the problems we face. Well, I don't believe that's how you get things done in our country. It takes Democrats and Republicans working together. That's how we got health care for 8 million kids, rebuilt New York after 9/11, and got the treaty cutting Russia's nuclear arms.
We got to bring people together. That's how you solve problems and that's what I'll do as president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: What do you say about that strategy? Pollsters always tell us that negative is actually more effective in getting people out to vote than positive messages?
BECERRA: Sad but true. I'm glad that the secretary is going out there and talking to folks and saying that things that are positive about her record, her accomplishments, but how she'll lead this country forward. That's all important, because at the end of the day when she becomes president, people will want to know how we're going to move forward.
[08:25:04] I do find it interesting that you were gracious in trying to correct Donald Trump's record for him. It is unfortunate journalists have to help him correct his own words. But that's what we're left with. A guy who is running for president who continues to be gracious and -- continues to misspeak about his own record and lies about his opponent's record.
I'm glad Hillary Clinton is talking positively about her accomplishments, and about this country's feature. But let's not forget that all we have to do is use Donald Trump's words to show how negative he has been, and how negative the future with him would be.
CAMEROTA: Look, with 60 days look, it is incumbent upon journalists to highlight facts and call out discrepancies and hypocrisy where we see it and we try to do the same with Hillary Clinton.
So, back to the e-mail stuff. What is she going to say to put it -- look, it does keep bubbling up. Every week, we learn new information. The hammering was new information. So, what is her plan in terms of speaking about it now?
BECERRA: So, let's be clear. It was maybe new information the way Donald Trump presented it, but it wasn't new information that the FBI and others who investigated this didn't already know. It is just that Republicans have decided to sort of drib and drab out information a so they can make you believe there is new information and maybe there is something that we have not been told.
But this is all been investigated. Let's be clear about that. So there is nothing new in terms of what we'll learn. But it doesn't surprise me. We have in this House of Representatives
at a time when we're three weeks away from a government shut down by Republicans again, because they haven't passed a budget, because Republicans have failed to fund Zika virus prevention moneys, and to combat Zika virus in over 1,000 American women who are pregnant who have contracted the Zika virus, we haven't done anything for Flint, Michigan, residents who are drinking contaminated water, because of the lead poisoning that occurred by the governor and his state officials.
That's what Republicans have decided to focus on, is an investigation of the investigators, of the FBI. I get it. It is an election year. They're going to do it. That's not the way most Americans want to proceed.
So, does it surprise me Hillary Clinton is doing positive ads? No, I'm glad she is. We should go there because this email stuff is about the only thing they can hang their hats on. We'll hear about this until Election Day, I have no doubt. I hope Hillary Clinton will talk about the positive things about what she is doing and what she has done and she will become the next president.
CAMEROTA: Congressman Xavier Becerra, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.
BECERRA: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Let's go to Chris.
CUOMO: So which one of these candidates will keep you safe? That's a fundamental question in this election. You've heard a lot about it from both of them this week. Who improved their position? We asked David Axelrod, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
