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Trump Playing Birther Card; Trump on Fallon; Beyond the Call of Duty. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 16, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Trump says he wants to keep the suspense going. He wants to have a big announcement about it. Here's what he said this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Well, I'm going to make a big announcement on it today, probably during my first speech at my new hotel. And it's going to be great.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FBN ANCHOR: I just don't remember Hillary bringing it up. When did she bring it up? During the campaign?

TRUMP: Hillary brought it up during her campaign. It was 2008. And it was brought up to a fair thee well. And she brought it up. And I was the one that was successful in getting him to release his birth certificate. I'm going to have a big statement made today at the hotel.

But, no, she is the one that started it. And she was unable and - or incapable of finishing it. That's the way it worked out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: OK, so two things, one we know, one we don't know. The first thing we know -

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

CUOMO: What he says about Hillary Clinton is false.

BROWNSTEIN: Not true.

CUOMO: She never front run the -

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

CUOMO: Front-ran the birther movement. She denied it whenever it was brought to her as an allegation. She said it was silly and stupid. Now, what we don't know is, why is he playing with such a damaging concept as this and playing it for an event? What's the advantage?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, I mean, I - you know, I think they understand that the voters, between where they are and where they need to be ultimately, are college educated white voters primarily who 60 percent of whom in polls consistently say they consider him a bigot, or appealing to bigotry, depending on how the question is phrased. I mean this is - I don't think he has much room to change perceptions of him on the birther issue, certainly in the African-American community. I don't think whatever he says is going to be hugely consequential. The fact is that not only did he press this issue for years, even after the birth certificate was released he continued to question its authenticity in tweets. There was an interview unearthed today by BuzzFeed in 2014 with Irish television where he continued to question the authenticity of the birth certificate.

So I don't think what he says is going to have a big impact one way or the other, but it is part of an ongoing effort to soften one of these two key perceptions that are in his way among college educated swing white voters and that is one that he's unqualified, two that he's bigoted.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So then - but then why hasn't he done it sooner? I mean if he's trying to win over those other demographics -

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Then why are we waiting for the suspense of the big reveal?

BROWNSTEIN: Because - well, I mean, look, the challenge for Donald Trump always has been keeping the energy alive in the core of his base, and expanding beyond that base. I mean in the Republican primary, he drew on the forces, the portions of the Republican coalition, that are the most uneasy about racial and demographic change. I mean whether it's a basket of deplorables, there's no question in polling, you know, as Hillary Clinton phrased it, there's no question in polling that a lot of Donald Trump's core coalition expresses the greatest unease about immigration, are more likely to say the discrimination against whites is a bigger - is as big a problem as discrimination against minorities, more likely to say Islam is inherently violent. And I think he has always navigated, you know, going - how far he can go without alienating those voters.

The problem he's got is that even as the polls have tightened, they have tightened mostly, not entirely, but mostly because of Hillary Clinton coming down. That coalition is somewhere around 40 percent of the electorate. And, ultimately, he has to appeal beyond it and he is - I think they are calibrating how far they can go in kind of repositioning without alienating those voters who took him to this point to begin with.

CUOMO: Hmm. All right, so Bernie Sanders dropped the hammer on Trump about this.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CUOMO: And he was very clear what - about he believes this birther thing is about for him, for African-Americans, and for people who are still deciding what to do in this election. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, this is - this is pathetic. And this goes to the root of what Trump's campaign is about. And let's be clear, it's about bigotry. You remember, let's all remember, that a few years ago, Donald Trump was the leader of the so-called birther movement. And what the birther movement was about, Chris, was not being critical of Obama. This is a democracy. We can criticize Obama. He was delegitimizing the first African-American president in the history of our country. And the reason for that was clear. There are racists in this country who could never accept the fact that we had a black president. And that's what Trump was trying to do, delegitimize the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Ron, your thoughts?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. And, look, I think that's exactly what Trump was trying to do, delegitimize the president, not criticize him but delegitimize him. And it is - you know, it is evidence - as I said, in polls consistently, month after month, ABC/"Washington Post," Quinnipiac again this week, roughly 60 percent of Americans, depending on how the question is phrased, say that he is biased against women and minorities or he appeals to racial bigotry. That is a deeply engraved impression and one that is going to be very difficult for Donald Trump to change. And I don't think, you know, half - kind of a qualified half renunciation of birtherism is going to do it.

I thought Bernie Sanders, though, incidentally, was much less effective on a much more important question that Chris asked him, which was about millennials. You know, in polling, the share of millennials who say that Donald Trump is racially bigoted is 75 percent. The share that says he's unqualified is 75 percent. And yet Hillary Clinton is polling in a four-way race among them, 45 percent on a - in a good poll. Sometimes in the 30s. And I didn't think Bernie Sanders' answer was very well thought out or persuasive on making the case to them, because that is a significant problem at this point for Hillary Clinton. She is not nearly consolidating the anti-Trump vote among millennials. That is where Johnson and Stein are the strongest. And Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and others need to figure out an answer to that because it's part of the reason why the polls are so close.

[08:35:20] CAMEROTA: Hmm. Let's look at another interesting piece of the poll. This is "The New York Times" poll just out. It's about - you know, we had Maureen Dowd on yesterday and she's written this book called "The Year of Voting Dangerously," and I think that this plays upon that about how voters think that both candidates are risky.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump much more so, 67 percent believe that he is a risky choice for the country.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Fifty-one percent believe Hillary Clinton is. Where are we right now, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Well, look, we are two candidates with the highest negatives of general election nominees we've ever seen. As I've said to you before, I think it's entirely possible on Election Day a majority of those who vote in an exit poll will say they have an unfavorable opinion about each of them. But I also think, you know, in Donald Trump's case, it's less of an unambiguous - it's less of a clear negative to be risky because I think for many of his voters there's a sense that conventional politicians have failed to arrest the trends in American life that they don't like, whether it is economic stagnation, or for some of them demographic transformation. One Republican pollster put it to me very well earlier this year talking about the Trump success. She said, you don't go to Mexico for the avocado based cure unless you've tried all the conventional cures and they haven't worked.

CUOMO: I don't even know what that means.

CAMEROTA: I like it. I do. Oh, I do.

CUOMO: What does that mean?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: It's a guacamole metaphor and I get those.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes. Yes, it's - well, it's more - it's more like - it's - you know, it's drug treatment. It's like basically you don't go - you don't go off the grid looking for something that isn't kind of in the conventional arsenal of weapons against disease unless everything else has failed and I think for a lot of voters they feel that way.

CUOMO: Bernie says different - Bernie says different is not always better.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

CUOMO: And in terms of how you bridge his criticism of Hillary and turn it into a positive for Hillary, he says because it's who's going to be better for you in the available choices. It smacks of Joe Biden, don't compare me to the almighty -

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

CUOMO: Compare me to the alternative. And he says Trump is unacceptable. Is that enough?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, well look, he - well, look, he has left quite a tattoo on Hillary Clinton among younger voters. I mean there's no question. I mean the share of younger voters who say that Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy is extraordinarily high. The share that says she say what is convenient rather than what she believes is extraordinarily high. The portrait that he painted of her in the primary as kind of a calculating, establishment politician who kind of bends with the wind has lasted and it is a significant challenge. I mean, as I've said to you before, if you look across the Obama coalition, it is young people where she is most conspicuously falling off from the president's performance in 2008 and 2012. So they have a lot of work to do there and in part because of the message that Bernie Sanders delivered so effectively during the primaries.

CUOMO: Bernie did put a tattoo on her. Not unlike that no fear tattoo you have on your left shoulder.

CAMEROTA: My bicep.

Ron Brownstein, thank you very much. Have a good weekend.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, everyone take a look at your screen. You're not seeing things. Yes, that is a giant balloon rolling through the streets.

CUOMO: That's the moon.

CAMEROTA: How did that - how did the moon land on this street? We'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:42:16] CAMEROTA: OK, time now for the five things to know for your new day.

Number one, Donald Trump will address the birther controversy this morning at an event at his new Washington, D.C. hotel. It's something Trump has so far refused to do publicly.

CUOMO: Hillary Clinton hitting the campaign trail again, but transparency still an issue. She declined to talk specifics when asked twice whether her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, knew she had pneumonia.

CAMEROTA: New York City police shooting a man with a meat cleaver who slashed an off-duty officer's face. The suspect hospitalized in critical condition. The officer is in critical condition as well and being treated for a six inch gash on his face.

CUOMO: Oh.

The iPhone 7 hits store shelves today, but in limited supply. Apple already warning the 7-plus model is sold out. So if you're not in a rush for one, you can always order the device online.

CAMEROTA: This looks like a scene from a low budget outer space movie. That is really a giant moon balloon. You were right, Chris, it was a moon.

CUOMO: It is the moon.

CAMEROTA: It is the moon, but it's a moon balloon. This is - it's rolling through the streets in China. Strong winds from the typhoon, Meranti, there, unleashed this blob-like moon, which was inflated for a festival celebration.

CUOMO: Control room, was anybody hurt? Good, then I mock it.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: Didn't I see this movie when I was like nine years old?

CAMEROTA: What, do you mean, was it - was it a big melon or was it a planet?

CUOMO: It was the moon when the moon attacks. And I can't believe none of these good Chinese men and women had the interest to go and taste it and answer the time-told question of what flavor cheese is the moon?

CAMEROTA: You know, what you're always thinking. I like that.

CUOMO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: About food.

CUOMO: For more on the five things to know, go to newdaycnn.com for the latest.

CAMEROTA: All right, we have Donald Trump's hair raising moments for you with Jimmy Fallon. You' got to see it to believe it. We'll talk about that.

Oh, and the one and only Dave Barry will be here. Here he is.

CUOMO: Look at him.

CAMEROTA: He's funny already.

CUOMO: Be funny.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:45] CUOMO: Donald Trump on "The Tonight Show." You've never seen him do what he allows Johnny Fallen to do to him.

CAMEROTA: Or Jimmy Fallon.

CUOMO: Jimmy Fallon. What did I say, Johnny?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: I was thinking Johnny Carson.

CAMEROTA: I know.

CUOMO: So he mocks his voice, which, you know, he does, but then, then, Donald Trump let Fallon do this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JIMMY FALLON, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": When you first started running, you were very high voiced. Your voice was very high. China. You say China. And, yes, a lot of pointing, very high. And then you talk - and then you got into a stage where you were just yelling. You were yelling into the microphone! I say so! And you were yelling at everyone. And like you don't even need the mic. And now, now you're more of like a smoky, silky - can I mess your hair up?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The answer is yes, but the people in New Hampshire, where I'm going to be in about an hour from now, I hope they're going to understand, OK?

FALLON: Did you say yes?

TRUMP: Go ahead. With my hair spray.

FALLON: Yes! Donald Trump, everybody!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: It's -

CUOMO: Welcome to America!

CAMEROTA: And a -

DAVE BARRY, AUTHOR, "BEST STATE EVER": You would not be surprised if Donald Trump is elected president the first thing that happens is a missile lands on Jimmy Fallon's house, you know? Do not be -

CAMEROTA: That's - that's what you think will happen?

Dave Barry's here. He is, of course, the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and author of the new book "Best State Ever." So, could you believe the gravity defying hair that Donald Trump has?

BARRY: No. I'm not - you know, I saw it up close at one of the debates and it's an astonishing thing that - I mean because it goes -- the hair comes out and then it goes this way and then it goes that -- individual hairs do amazing -

CUOMO: But allowing Fallon -

BARRY: Some of those hairs started growing when Columbus discovered America. There's a lot of hair there.

CUOMO: When - when Trump allows Fallon to muss his hair, does it humanize him in a way that winds up -

CAMEROTA: Or hairmonnize (ph) him?

CUOMO: Helping him? You know, why did he do that, do you think?

BARRY: I - you know, I think we've reached the point with him where it doesn't matter at all. I mean I'm - watching your show today, it's like that far side cartoon where the guy's lecturing his dog and saying, bad, you know, buddy, you did a bad thing, and all the dog is hearing is buddy, buddy. But the guy's like, now we're all - America just hears Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Donald - you know, just all day long we hear his name and it doesn't matter what he does or what he says, we hear his name. And just, you know, he's the brand.

[08:50:13] CAMEROTA: Look, you're a student of this. You followed politics for a long time. What - how do you think we've gotten here?

BARRY: I don't know. I - I'm supposed to write a year-end review. I do this every year. And I'm trying to figure out, how we start out with all these highly qualified individuals and we end up with a toxic presidential race like this. I've never seen anything like it. Like - for the American public it's like ointment or suppository? You know, we're not - nobody's excited about this, you know? I - I - I don't know about you guys. You drive around neighborhoods -

CUOMO: Ointment or suppository?

BARRY: Yes, it's like -

CAMEROTA: He was about to weigh in. Don't you dare. Oh.

BARRY: I drive around neighborhoods - I don't see - usually this time of year you see lots of yard signs, you know. I'm not - and I'm not seeing any yard - nobody's enthusiastic about anybody this year.

CUOMO: I have seen more and more people cutting the Trump sign into rum signs. There's a restaurant near where I live that's called Rumba (ph) and they have rum outside, which I thought was pretty creative.

CAMEROTA: That's funny, too. Better than rump. Umm -

BARRY: So you've actually seen Trump signs, though?

CUOMO: I have seen Trump signs. Look, this is a mood election. And I don't think we've had one that was as definitely a mood election in the last few cycles. The question is, is, where -

CAMEROTA: What is the mood?

CUOMO: What - we know you don't - we know the darkness of the mood and we know the basis for it. The question is, how does this turn out? Not just the election, but where are we a year from today?

BARRY: It's - well, it's going to be a very sad, weird election because most - most people, I think, don't really like either candidate very much. I mean I think that is true of just most Americans now. And whether they're - you know, they're' - that's valid or not doesn't really matter anymore.

CUOMO: And it may come down to you.

BARRY: Yes.

CUOMO: You may decide this election. You in the best state ever. BARRY: Oh, in Florida, yes. That's my big fear because we're not good

at elections in Florida, as everybody knows.

CAMEROTA: We've heard.

BARRY: The 2000 presidential election, we lived up to our official state motto, Florida, you can't spell it without duh (ph). And we - we were unable to determine who we'd voted for. And I - I don't want that to happen this time. I don't want it to be laid at our doorstep. We should not even be allowed to vote. They should just take our electoral votes and give them to other states, divide them up and Florida can just go - we can go party that day and just say, we had nothing to do with this. Nothing to do with it.

CAMEROTA: You've proven you can't handle it.

BARRY: (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: But "Best State Ever," I have to take issue with as a girl from New Jersey. What state is weirder, New Jersey or, more fun, New Jersey or Florida?

BARRY: Florida. Florida, it's a statistical fact, Florida is 6 percent of the nation's population and produces 57 percent of the nation's weirdness. Now, a lot of weird people in Florida are from New Jersey. That's kind of my point in the book is like we're like the Ellis Island for stupid, weird people. They come to - hey, I want to get naked in a Walmart. Where should I do that? You know, Florida. They go to Florida.

CAMEROTA: Right.

BARRY: Then we get the blame for people like you, Alisyn.

CUOMO: Isn't it called the fisherman's paradise? Isn't it -

BARRY: Florida?

CUOMO: Yes.

BARRY: There's like eight fishermen down there. The rest of us are just drinking.

CAMEROTA: Right. There's also a lot of fugitives caught in Florida.

BARRY: Yes. well, they don't really have to hide. They get elected to public office.

CUOMO: Oh. That's not nice.

BARRY: Yes.

CAMEROTA: That's awesome.

OK, again, the book, "Best State Ever." Dave Barry, thanks so much.

BARRY: Thanks for having me you guys.

CAMEROTA: Always great to get your take on -

BARRY: See you in November, huh? Wait. When it's over.

CAMEROTA: We love your humorous take on everything. That's what you have to do.

CUOMO: Ointment or suppository? That was my takeaway of this.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

All right, coming up, a Chicago police sergeant rushes to the scene of a shooting. A young boy was shot. How he came to the rescue, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:57:12] CUOMO: OK, so a Chicago police sergeant races to the call of a shooting. When he gets to the scene, he immediately jumps into action, desperately trying to save a 10-year-old boy's life. CNN's Rosa Flores has more in this week's "Beyond the Call of Duty."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Multiple gunshots ring out in Chicago for at least the fourth time in a day, and this time it's 10-year-old Tavon Tanner who was eating potato chips on his porch that gets caught in the crossfire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep the scene clear.

FLORES: Chicago Police Sergeant Bryan Topczewski was on his way back to the station from another homicide scene, but responds immediately when he hears the call.

SGT. BRYAN TOPCZEWSKI, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: I'm a parent. You know, you see - you don't like to see kids get hurt, no matter what happens to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ambulance 64 is in route.

FLORES: When Sergeant Topczewski arrives, the scene is chaotic.

TOPCZEWSKI: Mom and the aunts are crying. I looked at his face and I could see blood coming out of his nose and mouth.

FLORES: Tavon's great aunt says the boy was banging on the floor, saying I'm burning, I'm burning, while his twin sister held his hand saying, don't leave me, don't leave me

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know the condition?

TOPCZEWSKI: So I run down to the car. I grab my trauma pack and came back into the house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gunshot wound to what part of the body? TOPCZEWSKI: I ripped the pack open, took out a compression bandage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the lower back. That's the - that's the only wound that we know of right now. We know it's critical (INAUDIBLE).

TOPCZEWSKI: After everything got settled at the scene and he was taken to the hospital, he was still in intensive care, but I went up there and seen his mom and seen him, so he was sitting in the chair. So -

FLORES (on camera): What was that like?

TOPCZEWSKI: You know, it's hard.

FLORES (voice-over): Tavon's great aunt says the bullet impacted the boy's pancreas, spleen, intestines and kidney and credits Sergeant Topczewski's immediate response with saving his life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's our guardian angel. He's Tavon's guardian angel. And I tried not to cry when I - when I met him. Of course I gave him a kiss on the cheek and I - and I said, you're cute, too, you know. So - so -

FLORES (on camera): And you took a photo with him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I did. Yes, I did. He's my hero. He's my hero. I appreciate him. I appreciate Chicago Police Department.

FLORES: Some people call you a hero for helping this little boy.

TOPCZEWSKI: You know what, I'm - I'm flattered, I'm humbled. It's my job. My job is to be out here, and serve the community. Serve the city.

FLORES (voice-over): Rosa Flores, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, what a beautiful story. Of course he is a hero and, of course, he never wants to take credit for that.

CUOMO: You know, I had a guy on the job tell me that the reason they fight the idea of being a hero is that he said, the moment I start thinking that what I do is extraordinary or special, then it becomes something that I don't see as my daily routine. And it's just a good window into how intense that job is.

CAMEROTA: It is. I'm so glad we get reminders of that every Friday here.

OK. Have a great weekend. It's time for NEWSROOM with Carol Costello.

Hi, Carol.

[09:00:02] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK. A nice way to end your show. Thanks so much for bringing a smile to our faces. We needed that because it's been a crazy political day hasn't it? CAMEROTA: Indeed. And it will continue.

COSTELLO: Indeed. You're right about that, Alisyn.