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New Day

Donald Trump Announces Child Care Policy; President Obama Campaigns for Hillary Clinton; Hillary Clinton's Negative Comments on Donald Trump Supporters Examined; Interview with RNC's Sean Spicer; Interview with Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired September 14, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:05:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell tearing into Donald Trump in a series of leaked e-mails.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is far bigger than Watergate ever was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you calling him a liar?

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I really, really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We won't even know who it is after a while. They'll think it's you saying it's me.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Good morning.

CUOMO: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Good morning. We're both so excited. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Up first, Donald Trump's unveiling his child care plan in an effort to close the gap with female voters. Trump's daughter Ivanka once again the face of his outreach to women helping to craft and sell this proposal.

CUOMO: All right, so President Obama is out on the trail and he's making the case for Clinton and against Donald Trump. We also have a new reveal from hackers. This time it was former secretary of state Colin Powell, he got hacked. And in part of his e-mail cache we have him calling Donald Trump a national disgrace.

Hillary Clinton is set to be back on the trail tomorrow. And she has to get there because there's only 55 days left in this election. And a lot of people are going to vote even sooner than that just nine days from now in some states. We have the state of play covered for you. Let's begin with senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns. He has more on Trump's child plan. What do we know?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Well, this is clearly a play for the women's vote. And unveiling it in a critical state like Pennsylvania is a political calculation. A bit unusual for a Republican candidate, especially the idea of six weeks of paid maternity leave in the form of unemployment benefits for new mothers whose employers don't offer maternity leave. The critique on that is that this doesn't address leave for fathers.

There are also some subsidies here, otherwise known as tax breaks, allowing parents to deduct the average cost of child care in their state based on the age of the child. And that would be available for up to four children or elderly dependents. And the plan would also provide tax deductions for stay at home parents who have a working spouse.

Donald Trump speaking last night explaining his proposal, but in the midst of it also mischaracterizing the work Hillary Clinton has done on the very same issue. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: For many families in our country, child care is now the single largest expense. Who would think that? Even more so than housing. Yet very little meaningful policy work has been done in this area, and my opponent has no child care plan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: What Trump got wrong there is the last part about Hillary Clinton. In fact she has had a child care plan up on her website for a year. Her plan calls for 12 weeks of paid family leave, also essentially would put a cap on the cost of childcare at no more than 10 percent of a family's income, and providing free pre-K for all four-year-olds. The Clinton campaign says the Trump proposal doesn't go far enough. They put out a statement last night. It says "After spending his entire career and this entire campaign demeaning women, dismissing the need to support working families, Donald Trump released a regressive and insufficient maternity leave policy that's out of touch, half-baked, and ignores the way Americans live and work today." So back to you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK Joe, thank you very much for all that reporting.

Former secretary of state Colin Powell tearing into Donald Trump in a series of leaked e-mails exposing how Powell really feels about the Republican nominee. Meanwhile, President Obama slamming Trump with some brand-new economic ammunition. CNN's correspondent Phil Mattingly has all of that. He's live for us in Flint, Michigan, this morning with more. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Yes, Colin Powell has some thoughts, you could say, on Donald Trump, "National disgrace, international pariah," among the words Powell in those private e-mails used to describe the Republican nominee. Now, Powell hasn't publicly stated any of these things, but as you noted his e-mails were hacked and those were some of the ways he described Trump. These e-mails were confirmed authentic by a spokesperson for Powell.

Now, President Obama, he's not keeping anything private. These are his feelings on Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Really, really want to elect Hillary Clinton.

MATTINGLY: Dubbed Hillary Clinton's surrogate in chief, President Obama blasting Donald Trump's qualifications to replace him.

OBAMA: One candidate who's travelled to more countries than any secretary of state ever has, and the other who isn't fit in any way, shape, or form to represent this country abroad and be its commander in chief. One candidate's family foundation has saved countless lives around the world. The other candidate's foundation took money other people gave to his charity and then bought a six-foot-tall painting of himself.

[08:05:04] MATTINGLY: Obama rejecting Trump's claim he is fighting for the working class.

OBAMA: This guy who spent 70 years on this earth showing no concern for working people, this guy is suddenly going to be your champion?

MATTINGLY: And discrediting Trump's portrayal of the economy.

TRUMP: We have a false economy. We have a bad economy.

OBAMA: By so many measures America is stronger and more prosperous than when we started out on this journey together.

MATTINGLY: Obama's case bolstered by new U.S. census numbers showing the middle class wages rising for the first time since the recession and poverty rates dropping sharply. The president also slamming Trump for his praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

OBAMA: Their nominee is out there praising a guy, saying he's a strong leader because he invades smaller countries, jails his opponents, controls the press, and drives his economy into a long recession.

MATTINGLY: Trump fighting back on social media, tweeting, "Why isn't Obama working?" And "Russia took Crimea during the so-called Obama years. Why does Obama get a free pass?" Obama pressing the media to do more to hold Trump accountable.

OBAMA: Donald Trump says stuff every day that used to be considered as disqualifying for being president. And yet because he says it over and over and over again, the press just gives up and they just say well, yes, you know, OK.

We cannot afford suddenly to treat this like a reality show.

(APPLAUSE) MATTINGLY: Trump keeping up his attack on Clinton for calling half of his supporters deplorable.

TRUMP: While my opponent slanders you as deplorable and irredeemable, I call you hard-working American patriots.

MATTINGLY: And continuing to go after his rival over her one-time use of a private e-mail server.

TRUMP: This is far bigger, and a far bigger scandal, than Watergate ever was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Chris you can expect those attacks to continue today. One of his stops today is here in Flint, Michigan. That's interesting for a couple different reasons, most notably Flint in the water crisis that's still going on here was a huge issue in the Democratic primary. Not so much at all in the Republican primary, Trump more or less avoided weighing in on this issue. But his campaign is coming here. There are plans for him to stop by and tour a water treatment plant. Of note, this city is the second largest majority black city in the state of Michigan. So Trump continuing that outreach to minorities and working through at least publicly address and arrive at a crisis that, as you know, Chris, has been ongoing for now almost a year.

CUOMO: And very interesting, also a place that people will soon learn it's not a place where you go and just say what's wrong. These are a people who are desperate for answers. So we'll stay on that. Phil, thank you very much.

Let's discuss. We have the Republican National Committee's chief strategist and communications director, Mr. Sean Spicer. Good to have you on the show as always.

SEAN SPICER, CHIEF STRATEGIST AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTION, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Good Morning.

CUOMO: Let's start with Trump's child care proposal.

SPICER: Sure.

CUOMO: A quick note, but to put to the side, Trump goes out and says Hillary Clinton has no plan. Untrue. She's had a plan for over a year. But that's politics, OK. He's wrong. We'll put it to the side.

The plan itself, not typical GOP thinking on this issue. We had Steve King on. He was being diplomatic but he was saying well there's a couple of these things I've got to drill down on before we get to it, and I've never seen a plan paid for by finding waste and fraud. Problems?

SPICER: No, I think this is absolutely bold. As Ivanka and Mr. Trump noted last night, the way that our tax code was set up to deal with child care is almost 60 years old, right? The modern workforce isn't dad goes to work and mom sits home. You now have two working parents in most cases, and a lot of times the wife being the breadwinner. Child care is one of the biggest expenses that families have to deal with.

And I think what was outlined last night was a really bold, fresh plan that recognizes the modern world that we live in now that allows middle class and low-income family to address one of the biggest problems that families face, how to pay for child care.

But one of the things that was really interesting about it was that it wasn't just about child care. It talked about dependent care and elder care, as well, and recognized that the world that we live in now, sometimes it's a sick individual or a family member, but it's also mom and dad now potentially moving back in because they need to be cared for in a lot of cases. So the tax code doesn't recognize that aspect of how we live our lives now. And it ensures that we have the ability to care for our elder parents or family members that need care.

CUOMO: Democrats say that's what we've been telling you guys for 10 years. Can Trump get his own party --

SPICER: No, no. But I think the difference is the Democrats talk about government providing everything. I think what you saw last night was a really bold, fresh, innovative way of ensuring that it's paid for, and that -- and that it recognizes the different facets of how --

[08:10:05] CUOMO: What's innovative about how it's paid for? He said I'll pay for it by finding waste and fraud and abuse.

SPICER: But again, looking at that unemployment aspect of it, that is -- the Democrats just want to add up new spending. I think the difference is what Trump did last night was made sure that he had a mechanism to address how to pay for it.

CUOMO: He said I'll find waste, fraud and abuse.

SPICER: Right.

CUOMO: Steve King said he's never seen that work in all this time --

SPICER: Again, but I think that's the problem. What Trump is talking about overall is saying we're not going to have business as usual. We're going to go to Washington, we're going to make change, we're going to shake things up, and we're not going to settle for the status quo.

CUOMO: All right, so let's talk about the state of play. Hillary Clinton says 50 percent of Trump supporters are in the "basket of deplorables."

SPICER: Right. And the other 50 percent are desperate. I mean let's not forget that. It's not just that 50 percent are deplorable. It's that if you're not deplorable, then you've got to be desperate. CUOMO: So Trump plays to advantage and says look at the way she talks

about you hardworking American. You can't be president when you talk like that. When he says that Hillary Clinton has a hate-filled campaign, a hypocrisy flag pops up and starts waving back and forth. Who is Donald Trump to say that anybody has a hate-filled campaign with all that he has said?

SPICER: Look, first of all, every time that Donald Trump opens his mouth Hillary Clinton and every other Democratic supporter and commentator goes off on Donald Trump. So he can't say this. When Hillary Clinton does it, it's almost like in a lot of cases she gets a pass and everyone tries to explain what she really meant. The reality is, this was an insight into what she thinks not about one candidate or another. It's one thing for candidates to go back and forth. You and I have seen that in politics over the years. Candidates always go at each other. It's one thing to describe the entire degree of support, that you're either this or you're that.

CUOMO: No, but she didn't --

SPICER: No, no, she didn't.

CUOMO: She said 50 percent, she then said that was a mistake, and she was talking about a small number of the alt-right people who have --

SPICER: No, no, stop.

CUOMO: That's what she said just to be fair to her.

SPICER: Let's talk what she literally said. She said "deplorable," half of which are racist, sexist --

CUOMO: She said half was too much.

SPICER: Hold on. And then she said the other half and the other half were desperate. OK. And then she came back the next day and she says I regret using the word "half" when speaking about deplorable, meaning she stands by the fact that some, a good whatever majority are still that, but she never addressed the other half.

CUOMO: So --

SPICER: She never addressed that saying that the other half are desperate.

CUOMO: Understood and that's a point for criticism for her. But how do you set that up against this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.

If you look at his wife she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. A total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You call women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals.

TRUMP: Oh, I don't know what I said. Oh, I don't remember!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Just a taste because how much do you really want to see? How does your candidate then become the man who is going to speak out against hate-filled campaigns?

SPICER: And again, I think, one, Donald Trump's taken a ton of criticism from Hillary Clinton and others on some of those comments. Two, he's expressed regret for saying that he believes that when he caused --

CUOMO: Never apologized for a single statement.

SPICER: My God, he literally got out and said I regret the comments that I've made that have caused personal pain to other individuals. I've chosen words that were incorrect. I don't know how much more he could have said. And everyone says, well, he should have said more. He did express regret for the way he said certain things and addressed certain people. So he did do that.

Number two is, in a lot of those cases he's talking about other countries or foreigners. What this was, what makes this thing that Hillary Clinton did very, very different, is she basically said that if you don't support me, Hillary Clinton, and you're an American citizen, then you're either deplorable or you're desperate, and there's nothing in between. That's 20 million, 40 million people that fit into that category. That's a vastly different thing than singling out sometimes incorrectly so, an individual.

CUOMO: If it's a numbers game, and I don't think it is by the way, but just to give you the, you know, the benefit of your own premise, there are over a billion Muslims in this world and he had said he didn't want any of them in. And now he's changed, right, because we're not like that in America and he's been learning that slowly. So if it's a numbers game he still loses.

SPICER: No. There's a difference between addressing the safety of the United States and who we're going to let in and why, and --

CUOMO: He wasn't addressing the safety --

SPICER: -- 20 million American citizens --

CUOMO: He's saying that faith is nefarious. That there's something wrong with it and we need to keep them out. That's what he was saying. He's changed, but you got to own what you say. That's your point.

SPICER: What I'm talking about in that context he was talking about how to protect American citizens. What Hillary Clinton said was she was describing American citizens. That is a vastly different thing.

CUOMO: Except she said that she overreached with the 50 percent. And you're now doing what you accused them of, which is explaining what he meant instead of what he said.

[08:15:01] SPICER: I'm --

CUOMO: And you're doing very well at it.

SPICER: I appreciate that.

CUOMO: You have those two titles.

SPICER: But I also think that there is a big difference between -- anyway, we'll go round and round. There's a big difference, what she said described a huge, magnificent swath of American citizens that are voters in this country and it goes to her state of mind. Which is if you're not with me, if you don't believe in Hillary Clinton, something's wrong with you. And I think --

CUOMO: State of mind, what, did you go to law school all of a sudden? Let me ask you about something else.

Your case is made and heard.

SPICER: By the way, the one thing that I think is really important to note, we've talked about this ad hominem, but Trump is starting -- his message continues to catch on. I've talked about it before that it wasn't just the national polls we saw on Ohio poll this morning from Bloomberg up five. These polls in Florida and Ohio and Nevada and Iowa, are starting to mirror the national polls. They're all trending in the direction of Donald Trump.

We saw a poll in Maine that he's tied. He continues to press forward even states like Pennsylvania we were down 10 and 12. We're now down three and four.

CUOMO: True the polls are tightening.

SPICER: All of them. When you see his message, whether it's child care, national security, immigration, it's catching on. People are hungry for change in this country. They're either tired of the status quo. They're tired of a Clinton that continues to tell you that I can live by one set of rules and you can live by another and they're ready --

CUOMO: And he's also fanning a lot of flames of what make people angry, which he had an entire field of Republicans point out about him ad nauseam. It just wasn't effective because the mood was more important than their message.

Let me ask you this, though, there is a chance that this man will be president of the United States. The polls are contracting. We're seeing that. What do you really know about him?

This "Newsweek" piece, I'm not going to go through it point for point with you, but it is odd. That your party's nominee is the first we've ever seen with this kind of business. We've never had a guy with this success in the modern era running for president.

Do you know anything about who holds the debt that he has about what his foreign relationships are and what they might mean? Do you know anything about --

SPICER: Sure, look. He filed a 50-plus page financial disclosure form --

CUOMO: Almost nothing in it about the nature of foreign partnerships.

SPICER: But what it does is it must by law require someone to list all of the assets that they have, and all of the debts that they are incurring. So everything is out there for folks to see. This --

CUOMO: No, we don't know who holds his debt, Sean. We don't know.

SPICER: The piece that you're referring to is a hit piece and a recycled hit piece from "The Wall Street Journal" that they did the other day. Now, "Newsweek" went out and recycled it.

But the fact of the matter is they never contacted the campaign, they never talked to anybody. What we have is a series of hit pieces instead of a substantive discussion as far as what the Trump Organization --

CUOMO: I'm asking you what you know -- I'm saying I can't have a substantive discussion about something where I don't have any of the facts.

SPICER: Like I said, all of his debts and assets are outlined for anyone to go look at online through the Federal Election Commission.

CUOMO: That's not true.

SPICER: Yes, it is!

CUOMO: Here's what he did. He put out a list of assets, as he wants, unvetted.

SPICER: No, no, as required by law. As required by law.

CUOMO: But it doesn't -- but it didn't punish over reporting. So, he listed lots of assets, lots of money, lots of net worth that's what he wanted to do with that statement. We understand that.

We don't know who holds his debt. We don't know who he does business with overseas. We do not know. It's not in that disclosure. I bet your lunch on it. People can look for themselves.

Do you think we should know?

SPICER: I think he is a -- from the number of people that have run for president in terms of elected and unelected he's probably one of the most scrutinized people in the world when it comes to what's been written about him, who's been interviewed with him and I think he will continue to have that conversation with America.

CUOMO: But it's a private organization.

SPICER: Sure.

CUOMO: Only he can release the information. He has released none of it.

SPICER: But he has released what is single candidate. And I mean --

CUOMO: But there is no candidate like him.

SPICER: OK, but that's fine. But you can't turn around and say well he should be held to a different standard --

CUOMO: Why. He's the only this applies to --

SPICER: The law was written to apply to all candidates. You can't turn around say okay because you have a successful businessman that's not a Washington politician, he should now be held to a different standard.

The reality is, is that he is running, because he's a successful businessman. He has met the requirements and the legal obligations of every politician. Those politicians wrote the rules for what you had to disclose. And now what you want to do is say we want to hold him to a different standard. I don't think that's fair.

CUOMO: Sean Spicer, appreciate you being on here to make the case, as always.

SPICER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump's campaigning while Hillary Clinton recovers from pneumonia. Is the Clinton campaign concerned about questions about her health moving forward? We'll ask them, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:22:35] KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: In other words, we can talk about that but let's talk about stamina and energy. Let's talk about who's actually taking the case directly to voters and who's not. I mean, the idea that that she did not have the worst 48 hours of her -- of her campaign and people would cover up for her I think is frankly astonishing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Donald Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway saying Donald Trump has more stamina than Hillary Clinton. So what happens when Clinton returns to the campaign trail from her pneumonia bout tomorrow?

Let's bring in former Democratic Michigan governor and senior adviser for the pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC, Correct the Record, Jennifer Granholm.

Excuse me, Governor. Great to see you this morning.

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CORRECT THE RECORD: Hope you don't have pneumonia.

CAMEROTA: I hope I don't, also. I think this is just seasonal allergies.

But, Governor, what about what Kellyanne just said there which is that this has been the worst 48 hours of Hillary Clinton's campaign? Do you agree?

GRANHOLM: Well, I'm sure for her because she feels lousy. It's not been a great 48 hours or a little bit longer.

But, you know, she had a great day yesterday in terms of surrogates. I think that President Obama being out on the stump talking about not just her comparison with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton's comparison with Donald Trump, but how the economy has data yesterday. That's great news for her. Five percent jump or more, 5.2 percent in real wages. That's really good news for her.

And when you have Bill Clinton going to California, she's got an A- plus in surrogates, who are taking care of business while she's recuperating.

CAMEROTA: I mean, what this episode represented pundits and certainly her opponent was her lack of transparency, that there were questions after she was seen falling or fainting into her van. There was a lot of concern about what was going on.

Only later, after 48 hours from Friday for saying that, you know, she everything was fine she was diagnosed but we didn't know about it. On Sunday, they said she was dehydrated. Then it calm out hours later that she had pneumonia.

Do you think she could have been more transparent?

GRANHOLM: Well, her campaign said that they could have done it better.

But, Alisyn, within the -- from the time that she was seen being put into the van, until the -- it was all in the same news cycle that the media found out what had happened. How long hast been now since Donald Trump has not turned over his tax records? I mean what's more important to this election?

He just had -- Chris just had a great conversation with Sean Spicer about that "Newsweek" article.

[08:25:00] Truly, what is more important to America? To know that your president, your potential president, has financial dealings with adversaries to the United States, with -- with -- with people who have been indicted in other countries, according to that "Newsweek" article, people should read that article. You want to put the United States in jeopardy, put someone like Donald

Trump in office, who refuses to say that he would disentangle himself from the Trump Organization, his kids would still be running it, and he's gaining profit every day from people who are doing business with countries that we have relationships with.

Is he going to pull his punches as president? Because Erdogan, from Syria, he's got business relationships in Syria, with somebody who is adversarial to Erdogan. He's got big financial stake in the United Arab Emirates, in India.

This is serious stuff. I mean the fact that she had walking pneumonia and the news -- and the -- the -- the news media found out about it within the same news cycle compare to what we're seeing in terms of a lack of transparency from Donald Trump --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GRANHOLM: -- is astonishing. What is important to the U.S. really?

CAMEROTA: Some of the things that you're saying of course were some of the same questions raised about the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative in terms of alliances. Hold on, I want you to make your point.

GRANHOLM: Yes.

CAMEROTA: In terms of alliances, there were questions about whether or not the Clinton foundation was doing some sort of deals with, let's face it, some shady characters. Now that has come up in the "Newsweek" article about the Trump Foundation or the Trump Organization I should say. So, what's the difference to you?

GRANHOLM: OK. OK. Massive difference. First of all, she and bill Clinton do not take one dime personally from the Clinton Foundation.

That foundation raises money to do good works across the globe. It is totally transparent. All of the charity organizations that review the -- the overseers who review charity organizations have given the Trump -- excuse me have given the Clinton organization the highest rating.

Unlike the Trump organization which is operating totally in the dark. You don't know who he's got financial dealings with, and by the way he's going to profit personally. His family will profit personally from whatever the United States may decide about its relations with all of these countries.

Read people who are watching, read that "Newsweek" article and tell us you don't think that he should reveal what his entanglements are across the globe. It is dangerous to the U.S. to have somebody who could potentially take office who has a financial interest in companies that do business in other countries and who may be making foreign policy decisions on your behalf the citizens. It is massively different than the Clinton Foundation.

CAMEROTA: Governor Jennifer Granholm, thank you for making the case this morning on NEW DAY.

Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. Here's what we know for sure, 100 percent. On November 8th, somebody's going to win. And somebody's going to lose.

Could certain choices alter the course of history between now and then? We're going to take a look at what the answer to that question is by those who have lost presidential campaigns. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: So you did want it?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Of course. But, it was going to cause a problem in the convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The one and only Gloria Borger who is McCain talking about with Gloria there. She's going to join us to preview her CNN special report tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)