Return to Transcripts main page

Wolf

Sanders In California And Clinton In New Jersey; Clinton Calls Trump University A Scam; Clinton Retweets Mitt Romney Slam On Trump; Clinton Gives Foreign Policy Speech Tomorrow; Clinton Talks About Unifying The Party; Aggressive Sales Tactics In Trump University Playbook; Ex-Student Claims He Maxed Out Credit Cards At Trump University; Former Employee Calls Trump University A Scam; Black Box Signals Detected; UCLA Campus Shooting. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 01, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: -- to try to defeat Hillary Clinton in California. Clinton makes a campaign stop in Newark, New Jersey later this hour. Tuesday New Jersey primary could, potentially, give her enough delegates to clinch the nomination. But she's also hoping to fend off Sanders in California. We're watching both events. We'll keep you updated.

Hillary Clinton is also keeping her eye out on Donald Trump. She took to Twitter to slam him over the Trump University lawsuit. She tweeted this. Quote, "New documents confirm Trump University was a scam that preyed on families to make money. Caution-may cause nausea."

Then, she retweeted this from Mitt Romney. He first tweeted this back in March, quote, "Here is what I know. Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University." That tweet from Mitt Romney in March. Hillary Clinton just retweeted it.

Let's bring in CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's over at the Clinton event in Newark, New Jersey. Jeff, Hillary Clinton is pushing back hard against Trump with this flurry of tweets, retweets. Is she taking a page from his own play book?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, in a sense she is. She definitely is getting herself involved more in the back and forth than we've ever seen her throughout the course of this campaign so far. But it's with good reason. This is a different moment of the campaign. She's facing a very different rival than she's faced, up until this point.

So, she is definitely trying to engage him, trying to find her way, I would say, as Donald Trump acts. Of course, she's not Donald Trump, in terms of his mastery of this communication, if you will.

But she definitely is fighting hard after him, really responding to nearly everything he says. And I expect her to do the same thing here today in Newark, Wolf, to respond to some of those claims of Trump University that she's been tweeting about and talk about. BLITZER: Yes, they both have millions of Twitter followers out

there. As you know, Secretary Clinton is also planning to give what's billed as a major foreign policy speech tomorrow. How does this fit into her strategy for taking on Donald Trump?

ZELENY: She is really trying to build this case against him. We've heard her say, again and again, that Donald Trump, she believes, is a loose cannon who's not prepared or ready to be commander in chief. She will continue that theme in a speech tomorrow in San Diego, really, you know, trying to get voters to pay attention to the specifics of this.

Now, often lost are the specific policy proposals in all of this loud back and forth. She is trying to refocus this campaign on that. Aides tell me that she will say that, you know, it's time to rebuke the fear and bigotry that he has brought into this campaign. But really trying to after him with policy specifics, from ISIS to all other challenges around the globe here.

So, that will come tomorrow, Wolf, in California where, of course, she's engaged in a very rigorous primary fight with Bernie Sanders.

BLITZER: She also says, as you know, she's trying to reach out to the Sanders' campaign in an effort to unify the Democratic Party, as she plans to step up that effort after next Tuesday. Listen to what she told our Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Once the primaries are over, as of next Tuesday, we will begin talking in more detail about what we can do to unify the party. Because as I've said many times, and as Senator Sanders has said, we both are going to do everything we can to prevent Donald Trump from getting anywhere near the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: As you know, Jeff, it seems unlikely Sanders will be ready to talk unity if he's vowing to go all the way to the convention in Philadelphia in July. What are you hearing from his supporters?

ZELENY: Wolf, I can tell you the supporters of Senator Sanders want to see him go through the finish line. They want to see him compete here in California as well. The Sanders' campaign has been all in in California, really traveling across the state there as though they were running for a local office not necessarily the presidency.

Because Sanders' supporters, I've been talking to them here and across the country, they simply want him to stay in. They want him to stay and fight. This Bernie or bust movement we've heard so much about is a real movement.

Now, the question is, how big is that movement? How many of these voters actually may not vote for her when she becomes the party's nominee? Now, the -- you know, Senator Sanders will have a decision to make next week if he is going to slowly come around to her side or not.

As of now, he doesn't want to think about it. But, Wolf, in about six days, he will have a choice to make and we'll see if his supporters will follow him.

BLITZER: We'll watch that closely. Jeff, thanks very much.

Focusing in on making money as quickly and as easily as possible, preyed upon the elderly and uneducated using unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's right hand people. Some of the bombshell testimony contained in documents just released in the case against Trump University. The release was ordered by a judge that Donald Trump has taken to attacking, calling him unfair and a hater. He also has taken some swipes at the judge's ethnicity.

[13:05:06] Our Senior Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin has been going through these documents. Lots of documents have just been released, Drew. What's standing out to you? Are there -- there are some common threads in the documents.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we've done a lot of reporting on Trump University and the various allegations of fraud. But what's damning about these documents, these declarations, Wolf, is that they are coming from Trump University employees who are literally disgusted with the work they are doing or being asked to perform at Trump University while that was still a real estate seminar business.

And one stuck out, in particular. A fellow by the name of Ronald Schnackenberg who was sales manager with Trump University from October 2006 through May 2007. This is what he said. I resigned from my position in May of 2007, because I believe Trump University was engaging in misleading fraudulent and dishonest conduct. In my experience, virtually all students who purchased a Trump University seminar were dissatisfied with the program they purchased.

And then this, it preyed on the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money. He goes on to say, I never saw Donald Trump at Trump University. In the seven months I worked at the university, I did not see him once.

In my experience, the primary goal was not to educate students regarding real estate investing. The primary focus seemed to make money as quickly, as easily as possible.

There's another declaration from a Jason Nicolas who was a sales executive who goes on to say that said the Trump University instructors and mentors were a joke. Most of them were not experts in real estate. And he also adds, the whole focus of Trump University was on selling not on teaching information.

Of course, this information goes right along with the three lawsuits that Trump University is facing, all alleging fraud and all alleging these various motivational schemes to separate people from their money.

I want you to listen to Bob Guillo. Wolf, he was a student who put up $35,000 of his own money. He says now, he was suckered into it by his real estate expert that turned out to be a motivational speaker. And he said, even in the way they were able to get access to his money was sleazy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB GUILLO, STUDENT, TRUMP UNIVERSITY: And one of the things that James Harris told us to do was to use our cell phones, if we had them, or go down to the lobby in the hotel and call up our credit card companies to increase our credit limits because we might be able to buy some property that might be available during this three-day workshop.

Well, that was for so that we could increase our credit limits to pay $34,995 for the Trump gold elite membership that was a 12-month membership program with retreats in various hotels throughout Manhattan. And at every one of these retreats, they tried to upsell us for more and more money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Trump's organization's response to all this. They believe they have declarations that actually dispute a lot of what is written and released in these court documents, though they will not release those yet.

And they also fall back, as Donald Trump has on the campaign trail, touting the approval that many, many, many of the students, he says more than 98 percent of the students, gave these seminars while they were taking place.

But, again, these cases are moving towards trial at the same time that Donald Trump is on the campaign trail. And we're going to expect to see more and more releases just like this as this campaign continues -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Three separate cases, right? Three separate trials?

GRIFFIN: That's absolutely right. This release came from one of the two that are in California. Those are class-action lawsuits. The other case is a case brought on by New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, who filed his lawsuit, a $40 million lawsuit here in the state of New York.

BLITZER: All right. Drew Griffin will be watching all of that closely. Thank you.

Let's talk a little bit more about the controversy surrounding Trump University, as well as some of the other political headlines involving Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders for that matter. Joining us now, Scottie Nell Hughes. She's a Trump supporter. Also joining us, a CNN Political Commentator Donna Brazile who's a Democratic National Committee vice chair.

Ladies, thanks very much for joining us. Donna, as I mentioned earlier, Hillary Clinton released a flurry of tweets and retweets on Trump University. There's this from the Clinton campaign's Jennifer Palmieri. Confident that voters don't know enough about Trump U yet, so expect to hear quite a bit from us on this topic. Donna, the Clinton camp retweeting Mitt Romney's tweets about Donald. Did you ever expect Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney to get united on an issue like this?

[13:10:05] DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there is no question that when Mitt Romney delivered his speech back in March, I thought it was a very good analysis of Donald Trump, his failures, and so many of his business enterprises, the casino, the steaks, the vodka, et cetera, et cetera.

But the big one was Trump University. So, I'm sure that the Clinton campaign, the Democratic Party and every other interested party, perhaps even some of the never Trump people will use some of these salacious allegations. I haven't read all 400 pages. What I've read, of course, is already out there in the open public. It's disgusting.

It's disgusting to hear that these customers felt betrayed. They felt that the instructors were not qualified to teach the course and that they felt exploited. So, there's no question that this is going to become a topic of conversation. How long? We don't know. But it's probably going to be as long as these allegations continue to spill out from the -- from the court.

BLITZER: How damning, Scottie, are the sworn testimony that these individuals have put forward and now released in these documents?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES: Well, at face value right now. They seem pretty damning but we're only hearing one side of the story, Wolf. And I think we have to realize, it's not Trump University as what we think of the great institutions of higher education that we have. It's more like a Trump seminar.

And these folks were not forced to have to take classes. These people were not told they had to do it. It was not a life or death situation, as we find with many of the issues that plague the Clinton campaign and the Sanders campaign right now. These people had a choice and they were sold.

And, yes, if they were preyed upon, then we definitely need to investigate that. But until you sit there and say that Donald Trump told these people that this was the sales techniques that needed to be used. I think it's real interesting that we're holding him accountable for things that were definitely downstream of the more than 300 businesses that Mr. Trump started. We're going to hold him accountable for everything that happened in every single business. I don't think that's necessarily fair.

And we're not telling the success stories. It's amazing. We know there's -- court documents exist. So, what's going to happen when those are unsealed unlike -- like everything else we've heard this year. Does there necessarily -- will there ever be an apology from all of these people who said that Mr. -- who demonized Mr. Trump based on one side of the story that they continuously are being told, at this point?

BLITZER: But, Scottie, --

BRAZILE: Well, clearly, --

BLITZER: -- hold on, Donna, for a second. Scottie, you know when you're running for president, everything is investigated. No more secrets. All aspects of your life are going to be reviewed. You know that?

HUGHES: Absolutely, and that is A-OK. The only thing that Mr. Trump -- I don't think Mr. Trump has a problem with the media asking questions of his record or things that have happened. Where he's finally taking issue is how the media is reporting it. How they're sitting there making their headlines off of it. How they're turning the one side, which might be more negative about him, into the story without highlighting the positive side. And it's the other side facing the same scrutiny. I think that's all yesterday's press conference --

BLITZER: All right.

HUGHES: -- and everything that we're dealing with right now has to do with --

BLITZER: Let me let Donna -- I know Donna is anxious to weigh in. Go ahead.

BRAZILE: Well, as a veteran of several presidential campaigns, Scottie, and you and I have talked many of times where there's a great amount of error (ph). Everything is open. There's no such thing as a victorious secret. It is out there. It is out there.

And if it's in the public domain, the media will go through it. They will analyze it. They will feed it to us. That's why it's important to read the 400 pages. Because what you're reading is directly from some of the clients, some of the customers, the stake holders.

But I think the most interesting part of these -- some of these reports, of course, is it comes from people who were employed by Trump University. These are people who've said that they felt guilty scamming individuals. They felt guilty charging them. That's the damning part of all of this.

And whether Mr. Trump will respond to it or some of his aides, we'll see. But, right now, it's out there in the -- in the public and you can download it and read it for yourself. That's what I'm doing.

BLITZER: And, Donna, just to be precise --

HUGHES: Well, one point about that is -- BLITZER: -- hold on one second, Scottie. Just to be precise,

you want the news media to review all of Hillary Clinton's experiences, whether as secretary of state, as a senator, when she was a first lady, what she did with the private e-mail server. All of that should be carefully reviewed as well, right?

BRAZILE: You know, Wolf, I've happened to read all of her e- mails. I know what she likes, in terms of television shows. I know a little bit about her shopping habits. I mean, we've seen a lot. And I'm sure we're going to see a lot more. But that comes when you're a public official.

This is Donald Trump's first run. He didn't run for city council. He didn't run for the United States Senate. He is running for the presidency of the United States.

And I got to tell you, the scrutiny, the bar, ask my former boss, Al Gore. Just ask about the scrutiny. And wait until we start reading about Donald Trump military records. His service, his decision not to go into -- you know,

[13:15:00] Not to be drafted. I mean there is so much out there. This is just the beginning. Scottie, this is what happens when you run for president. This is just why most people say, hell no.

BLITZER: All right, very quickly, Scottie, I'll give you the last word.

HUGHES: Not complaining about it. But let's take this this context. These are ex-employees. These are people that are not happy with the -- let's get the other side of the story, Donna. You know, just -- and I agree on looking at both sides of it.

BLITZER: All right.

HUGHES: And you have (INAUDIBLE). But have you seen the 3,000 e-mails that are now considered to be --

BLITZER: All right.

HUGHES: Secured, you know, by the FBI at this point in their investigation? I doubt that. What are in those e-mails? We'll never know.

BLITZER: We're going to get all sides of this story, as we always do. Scottie, Donna, guys, thanks very much.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

HUGHES: You too.

BLITZER: Coming up. We're awaiting -- we're watching for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to speak live this hour. We're going to bring you those events. Stand by. You'll hear what they have to say.

Plus, French investigators now say their search vessel has indeed, they believe, found underwater signals from one of the so-called black boxes from the EgyptAir Flight 804. We're live with the latest developments.

Also this, another baby with Zika-linked birth defects has been born in the United States. Dr. Anthony Fauci standing by to join us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:19] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: Disturbing breaking news coming out of California right now, Los Angeles specifically. Police are investigating what is being described as a possible shooting on the campus of UCLA. The campus is, we're told, on lockdown right now. No reports of any victims yet. You're looking at these live pictures coming in. We're keeping a very close eye on what's going on. Our Kyung Lah is out in Los Angeles, heading to the scene. We'll get more information as it comes in.

But this is a disturbing development on the campus of UCLA. Once again, a possible shooting on the campus. The associate director of media relations for UCLA tells CNN that they're watching this very, very closely, Ricardo Vasquez, watching this very closely. A possible campus shooting at the UCLA.

By the way, here's a little tweet that just came out. Bruin Alert. UCLA Bruin Alert. A shooting, engineering -- it's a shooting at engineering 4 building. To UC -- let me start again. Police investigate a possible shooter at UCLA's Boelter Hall. Observe campus wide lockdown. Observe campus wide lockdown. Chilling words coming in form right now. Once again, we're back to these live pictures coming in from the campus.

We're going to watch this closely to see what's going on and we'll update you as we get more information. But once again, disturbing developments at UCLA.

There's other major news we're follow right now, including a possible break in the search for EgyptAir Flight 804. French investigators confirming they have detected underwater signals coming from one of the plane's so-called black boxes. The plane disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea nearly two weeks ago while flying from Paris to Cairo. The signals from the black boxes are said to becoming from the seabed.

Let's go straight to CNN's Ian Lee. He's joining us live from Cairo right now.

Ian, how long will it take for investigators to narrow down the exact location and recover the black box?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, this is a big breakthrough in the investigation with the French naval ship, Laplace, locating the signal from the black boxes. They are now working to location the exact location of it. They do have a few ships in the area with submersibles to go down to that level. It is deep. They're expecting to find this at a depth of about 10,000 feet. So they do have at least one submersible that can reach down that far and look and try to verify if they do have the right area.

But also, in the meantime, another ship, a more sophisticated ship, is on its way. It's expected to arrive within a week. This is a ship that has the robotics necessary to go down to the sea floor and retrieve those black boxes and really give investigators further insight into what brought down EgyptAir Flight 804.

BLITZER: Ian, do we know which the black box the signal is coming for? Is it the flight data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder?

LEE: Right now they do not know which of the black boxes the signal is coming from. You're right, there are two of them and they're only receiving the signal from one of them. Investigators are hoping that they are able to find the other one next to it, as well as the fuselage. All crucial pieces for the investigation. As up to now, the only thing we know about the final moments of the flight is that there was detection of smoke in the lavatory and avionics, as well as a reading from the co-pilots window about possible malfunction of the heating element and that's about it. So this will be crucial for investigators to get those boxes, if they are undamaged, if they are able to read them. They'll bring them here to Cairo and then they'll keep the investigation going forward from there.

BLITZER: Ian Lee reporting for us on a -- possibly a very, very significant development. Let's hope they find both of those black boxes and find them quickly. Only a week or two left before the -- those signals from those black boxes go away.

Ian, thanks very much.

I want to get back to the breaking news out of Los Angeles, California, right now.

We have confirmed two people are being described as down -- down in that possible shooting on the campus of UCLA. You're looking at live pictures coming in right now. The campus is on an official lockdown right now, meaning all students, faculty, everyone have to stay in place. The lockdown is continuing.

These are pictures coming from the scene. There's a chopper flying overhead. We're keeping a very, very close watch on this. Some of the tweets coming from UCLA -- from UCLA officials. The LAPD is responding to reports of two victims down and an active shooter in or near the engineering building. That according to an LAPD officer. A shooting in engineer 4. That's one of the buildings. Go to secure location. Deny entry. Now lockdown continues.

[13:25:22] Tom Fuentes is joining us right now.

Tom, you're on the phone, a former FBI assistant director, our senior law enforcement analyst. Now, it's a very disturbing development on the campus of UCLA. If there are two people down, a shooter still active, this could cause a lot, a lot of concern.

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST (via telephone): Well, apparently, Wolf, it is causing a great deal of confusion on the campus there and, as of yet, it's not been reported whether the people that are down are down inside that Bolter engineering building or outside near the building, whether a possible shooter is in the building or at large on the campus. And, of course, they've placed the campus on lockdown, so we'll -- we'll be waiting to hear from reports from the police talking to witnesses whether the person or persons may be responsible for a shooting, where they may have gone and whether the people that are down are victims of shooting from someone.

BLITZER: And, obviously, authorities are coming to the scene. I want to just tell our viewers, we're showing a video from a few moments ago. We're not showing live pictures anymore out of concern that it could undermine what police are trying to achieve right now. But you see these -- from moments ago -- you see the activity just beginning to develop on the campus of UCLA.

Normally in a situation like this, Tom, they would call in, what, all local police and bring in others as well, is that right?

FUENTES: Well, certainly, they would bring in police to, you know, to help secure the campus, secure the buildings, as well as the campus security personnel that they already have at that location. So that's a big part of it. One of the things that also comes up is, if you have plain clothes security or police officers running around, oftentimes if they're spotted holding a gun, that then the police receive calls that that might be the shooter, and that often creates a great deal of confusion. So right now we're going to have to wait and see what facts come in, what the police are able to learn. If the people that are down were the victims of being shot, are they able to talk to the police, give a description, describe what happened? Are they unconscious or worse? So that will be an important factor, whether they can get more information and quickly disseminate the information so that people know what the conditions are on the entire campus and in the neighborhoods nearby.

BLITZER: This is a huge campus, UCLA. I'm sure a lot of our viewers are familiar with Los Angeles. They're probably familiar with the area. On the campus and around the campus, a very, very normally busy area. It's about -- approaching, what, 10:30 a.m. out on the West Coast right now.

So when they say there's a lockdown on the campus, Tom, explain specifically if people on the campus are watching right now and they've been told a lockdown, they just have to stay put, right? They can't leave the buildings, leave the rooms. Explain what they -- what authorities mean by a lockdown.

FUENTES: That's correct. They would send personnel -- security personnel to the entrances of all of the building and ask people to stay inside to the extent that they can and, of course, this is in a city area, in an urban area in Los Angeles, can they prevent more people from coming on to the campus to try to limit, as well as contain people that are already in there. So it's going to be a very difficult situation to lock down a campus that's that huge with that many students and faculty in an urban area like Los Angeles. So you're talking about a monumental task. If it turns out they believe they have a shooter in one of these buildings, that just by itself is a huge task to go through a building and see if they have someone inside who may be responsible for a shooting. That would mean searching every classroom, every closet, the -- the heating plant, air-conditioning areas, janitor closets. Every part of -- like the building you're showing right now on screen, just to do a building like that in detail would take several hours just by itself, much less all of the other buildings on that campus. So getting accurate reports from witnesses is going to be critical to help the police be more efficient in doing what they need to do right now.

BLITZER: Campus police, LAPD Police. We're told, by the way, this is finals week for the semester at UCLA right now. Classes end June 10th.

Kyung Lah is in Los Angeles for us. You're a lot closer to the scene, Kyung. Tell us what you know.

[13:29:53] KYUNG LAH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We began hearing reports via Twitter. There was an alert that went out to students just before 10:00 a.m. telling students to shelter in place. Now, you can see in these aerials that we're looking at, there -- it looks like they're beginning to move some of these students out of that building. There's a man in a suit jacket there. It does not look like a student.