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Trump Leads Clinton on the Economy; Trump Struggles to Fund Raise; FBI Release Full Transcript of Killer's 911 Call. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired June 21, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump boots his campaign manager and reboots his campaign. Corey Lewandowski is out and a sagging campaign looks for new traction. You won't find much grip if you take a look at a new set of CNN-ORC polls. They're just out this morning and they show Hillary Clinton is holding on to her lead, 47 percent of registered voters back her compared to 42 percent for Trump.

Trump keeps the advantage, though, on two hot-button issues among voters. And next hour Clinton goes on the attack to seize ownership of one of them. The topic, the economy. Her speech warning that Trump is unfit to make those decisions and that he'd be a disaster for America's working families.

Our reporters and experts are assembled to break it all down but let's begin with CNN's Brianna Keilar. She's in Columbus, Ohio, where Clinton will deliver her economic speech.

Good morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Hillary Clinton here in Ohio trying to confront something that is a bit of a weakness for her against Donald Trump. Right now when you look at the overall polls, she's leading by five points, four when you factor in third party candidates, but the big issue is how voters think she does on the economy.

You ask them who do you think would do a better job on the economy? They say Donald Trump. He gets 51 percent of that opinion. She gets 43 percent. It's an eight-point margin that she's trying to deal with today in this speech about the economy, taking specific aim at Donald Trump, and also her campaign has rolled out a Web site, ArtoftheSteal.biz, a negative take on his -- on the name of his best- seller, and they've also put out an online video. Here is part of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: Have you ever heard of Trump steaks? Have you ever heard of Trump Vodka?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know what? You know what? Take a look at Trump Steaks.

RUBIO: All of these companies that he's ruined.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Whatever happened to Trump Airlines?

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Trump Games, Trump Travel, Trump Ice.

JOHN OLIVER, HOST, "LAST WEEK TONIGHT": Trump Magazine which folded. Trump World Magazine which also folded.

ROMNEY: And Trump Mortgage.

TRUMP: It's a great time to start a mortgage company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Hillary Clinton will try to make the case here today in Ohio that Donald Trump is unfit to handle the economy, that he would be an enemy of the middle class, that he would plunge the U.S. economy into a recession, and this is an area where, of course, Hillary Clinton has a bit of a weakness that she's trying to make up for, Carol, but it was a few weeks ago when she took on Donald Trump on foreign policy. It was almost a roast. So if that's any indication, we can be hearing some very strong words from Hillary Clinton today.

COSTELLO: All right. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

Also next hour, Donald Trump goes behind closed doors to meet with evangelical leaders. They include the powerful and influential like mega church prosperity preachers and some media personalities.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond is out the Marriott Marquee in New York where that meeting will be taking place.

Good morning, Jeremy.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump's campaign today is adjusting to a bit of a new reality. Donald Trump yesterday fired his longtime campaign manager Corey Lewandowski amid internal power struggles within the campaign including between Corey Lewandowski and Donald Trump's own children including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, her husband.

Donald Trump this morning talked a little bit about what -- how he's adjusting himself and what will change, if anything, with Corey Lewandowski out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT LAUER, MSNBC: Does this signal with him out that you're not going do the let "Trump be Trump" any more, that you're going to change your tone for the general election?

TRUMP: I don't think so, Matt. I think I have to be who I am. I don't want to be a phony, like Hillary Clinton, where she reads stuff that's written up by high-priced talent. I don't want to be that. I want to be what I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: So that's Donald Trump talking a little bit about the new reality with Corey Lewandowski suggesting that, you know, even if Corey is gone, somebody who a lot of aides suggested was feeding Donald Trump's worst instincts, Donald Trump is not going to change. He's not going to modulate his tone, but Donald Trump is starting to adjust to some other realities.

Yesterday he had some pretty bad fundraising numbers. He only raised about $3.1 million in May and today he sent out a fundraising e-mail just a few minutes ago in which he said that he is going to, quote, personally matching -- he's going to be, quote, "personally matching every dollar that comes in within the next 48 hours up to $2 million."

So that's Donald Trump saying that, listen, he wants -- he needs to raise a lot more money. This is a new way of making a fundraising appeal saying that if you give to the campaign, then he too will give his part as he has throughout the campaign. Again, he has contributed -- loans his campaign actually $55 million throughout the primary and he's saying that he's willing to continue to chip in, in order to win in the general election -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeremy Diamond reporting live. Thanks so much.

So let's talk about all of this. Mark Preston is the executive editor for CNN Politics. He's here with me as is Jason Johnson, politics editor for TheRoot.com, Sirius XM contributor and political science professor.

[10:05:07] Also with me Tom Bevan, co-founder and executive editor of Real Clear Politics.

Welcome to all of you.

JASON JOHNSON, POLITICS EDITOR, THEROOT.COM: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: What should we get to first? Let's get to the new fundraising news from Donald Trump, Tom. So it sounds sort of like a telethon. Donald Trump is going to personally match every dollar that comes in up to $2 million. Will this do it for him?

TOM BEVAN, CO-FOUNDER, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: Well, we'll see. I mean, one of the things obviously that Trump's folks are saying -- Republicans are panicked about this clearly, the fact that Hillary Clinton has $42 million cash on hand and he's only got 1.5 million bucks. But Trump is also saying, look, you know, Jeb Bush and the other Republicans spend hundreds of millions of dollars against him in the primary, and it didn't have any effect. And so I think Trump's plan is certainly he wants to raise money, but I think their thinking is, you know, money is not the end all and be all of this campaign.

COSTELLO: But, Jason, don't you still have to pay people like campaign workers who are supposedly spread out across the country?

JOHNSON: Exactly. Carol, look, it's Donald Trump does great with getting free media and his rallies get a lot of people's attention, but the nuts and bolts of a campaign require having paid people on the ground. There was a story last week. It suggested Trump may only have 30 people on his actual payroll not including his family that are actually out there working in the campaigns. He has got to raise his fundraising. Not only to hire staff in Ohio, in Virginia, in Florida, in California, but also to bring in more money. It takes money to raise money, and if he's not raising money he's going to be in a real hole against Hillary Clinton by the summer.

COSTELLO: Well, and, Mark, you know, he's talking about fundraising. He's not talking about the economy but Hillary Clinton will later this afternoon and that's got to be a concern.

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, right. And what we're having here now is Hillary Clinton has a consolidated Democratic Party behind her right now as they're still trying to bring the Republican Party behind Donald Trump. You know, we've seen the likes of Speaker Paul Ryan going out and saying, Carol, listen, I can't tell people how to vote. I know that I'm supporting Donald Trump, but, you know, people have to do it on their own.

Now that's pretty stark language from really the highest ranking Republican in the United States, that being Paul Ryan. Not being able to rally around behind Donald Trump. But, yes, we know that he's going to give a speech tomorrow on the election. We don't know what it is about. They have just told us before he heads overseas to Scotland, Donald Trump will be doing a public speech. So we'll see what he has to say. But when you are focusing on internal strife that's happening in your campaign such as firing your campaign manager, what you're not doing is talking about issues such as the economy.

COSTELLO: And, Tom, this new CNN-ORC poll was released at 6:00 a.m. Eastern this morning and some interesting numbers in there. Some devastating for Donald Trump, some devastating for Hillary Clinton like this one. Trump tops Hillary Clinton when voters are asked who was more honest and trustworthy. That's a reversal from March when Clinton had a five-point lead. So why the flip?

BEVAN: It's a good question. I was actually shocked by this poll because the last CNN poll, it came out, you know, about eight weeks ago had Hillary Clinton up 13. So it's actually Donald Trump has closed the margin which given the media coverage that he's gotten over the last four weeks which has been so bad, so consistently bad, I was actually shocked by some of these internal numbers, the one you mentioned as well.

Hillary Clinton's unfavorables have gone up over the same period of time. So I think both of these candidates, it just goes to show how flawed both of these candidates are in the eyes of the public and why they're having -- why they're struggling I think not only consolidating their own bases but also reaching out to independents.

COSTELLO: So, Jason, is it the crooked Hillary thing and the e-mail controversy?

JOHNSON: No, I don't think anyone likes either one of them, and that's been pretty clear from the beginning. Nobody trusts Hillary Clinton. And there's 25 years' worth of reasons to not trust her and almost every other thing that Donald Trump has said from giving money to veterans to his support for this issue or that has turned out to be a lie.

I think both of their numbers on trustworthiness are going to be low and I have to say this, even though I think Hillary Clinton probably has a slight lead until someone is hitting 49 percent, 51 percent of likely voters and registered voters, I think this race is still in flux even though Donald Trump probably has -- he's probably behind her quite a bit in the electoral college if not the actual popular vote.

COSTELLO: Mark, you wanted to say something.

PRESTON: Well, yes, I mean, look, I think that this is a perfect example of marrying the poll numbers that we've seen today in CNN-ORC, our newest survey, and the messaging we're hearing from both candidates. First thing is that Donald Trump has been time and time again calling her Crooked Hillary, trying to suggest that she's not honest and trustworthy and in our poll it seems to be working.

On the other side we've seen Hillary Clinton and all her surrogates out there describing Donald Trump as reckless. Before the economy speech that we're going to hear today, they did it on foreign policy. We're going to hear it again today. Over and over again, you use the word reckless, then that is going to start to seep into the voters' minds and I think that's what you're seeing.

COSTELLO: Yes. And Mark, I just want to point out -- I'm sorry, I'm going to pose this question to Tom.

[10:10:02] These two poll numbers are just -- I don't know, you tell me. So voters who were asked if they would be afraid of a Trump or Clinton presidency, 56 percent would be afraid of a Trump presidency, 46 percent would be afraid of a Clinton presidency. Voters were also asked would you be proud if Trump or Clinton became president, 24 percent would be proud if Trump became president, 35 percent said they would be proud if Clinton became president.

What do you make of those numbers, Tom?

BEVAN: I think Jason is right. I mean, the public really doesn't like either one of these candidates. It's the first time that we've seen that majorities on both sides say that they're going to go to the polls to vote not necessarily for their own candidate but against the other candidate. I think this is -- that number that you just cited is reflective of that feeling among the public.

JOHNSON: Right.

COSTELLO: OK. And I suppose the last question, and I know you said the race remains close because Hillary Clinton only leads by five points, right, Jason, so there are devastating numbers in here. For example, 81 percent of voters said Mr. Trump's comments about Judge Curiel were inappropriate. 71 percent of voters say Mr. Trump's banning of the press is inappropriate. Yet Hillary Clinton, Jason, only leads by five points. Why is that?

JOHNSON: Because when you're choosing between Ramsey Bolton and Joffrey, like, you're still trying to pick the devil you know. I think this is a situation where eventually voters are not going to be making a choice on who they like. They're going to be making a choice on who they think will harm the country the least and right now that looks to be Hillary Clinton. There are still weaknesses in her campaign but I think eventually her experience and the fact that she has more trusted surrogates speaking on her behalf than Donald Trump.

I mean, Donald Trump has Scott Baio. Hillary Clinton has Elizabeth Warren. I mean, that sort of thing is going to end up making the difference for this fall.

COSTELLO: All right. And I have to leave it there. Mark Preston, Jason Johnson, Tom Bevan, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, first a redaction then a major reaction. Attorney General Loretta Lynch slammed for omitting parts of the Orlando killer's conversation with police.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:55] COSTELLO: Today Attorney General Loretta Lynch is in Orlando to meet with survivors and victims' families. This after facing some major backlash. Lynch deciding initially to heavily redact the killer's 911 calls that were made public yesterday. The outcry for transparency so loud the full conversation was released just hours later.

CNN's Boris Sanchez live in Orlando with more on this. Good morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Yes, these transcripts are giving us greater clarity about communication between the shooter and authorities at the time of the shooting. They're also creating a lot of controversy as you said.

About a half hour into the shooting, the gunman called 911 and he said, quote, "I'm in Orlando, I did the shootings." He then get asked his name and he says, my name is, quote, "I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State." Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of course being the leader of ISIS. He calls himself an Islamic soldier and he says that he has explosives on him and explosives that he's going to put on some of the victims.

Of course, as the investigation unfolded, it was later found that he didn't actually have explosives but the comments about ISIS and the Islamic State are creating quite a bit of a stir party because when the FBI initially released the transcripts, they said they didn't want to offer propaganda for the group and for the leader of ISIS. They said they wanted to minimize the amount that they would publicize the terror group.

Here's FBI special agent Ron Hopper describing that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON HOPPER, FBI ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT-IN-CHARGE: Part of the redacting is meant to not give credence to individuals who have done terrorist attacks in the past. We're not going to propagate their rhetoric, their violent rhetoric, and we see no value in putting those individuals' names back out there. We're trying to prevent future acts from happening again and for cowards like this one, people like that influence them. So we're not going to continue to put their names out front.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Now many people were not happy with that approach. A lot of Republicans, prominent publicans, like House Speaker Paul Ryan coming out and saying that that approach minimizes the threat, that it kind of lessens the role that radicalization played in this attack. Hours later the FBI relented and released the transcripts in full. Today as you mentioned Attorney General Loretta Lynch is set to visit Orlando. She's not only meeting the families of survivors, she's also meeting with prosecutors to try to go over evidence in this case and she's going to be speaking to reporters at about 2:00. You can bet she's going to be asked about these redacted portions of the transcript -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you're right about that. Boris Sanchez, thanks so much.

So let's talk about those transcripts Alberto Gonzalez. He's a former U.S. attorney general and now dean at Belmont University College of Law.

Welcome, sir.

ALBERTO GONZALEZ, FORMER COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good. Thanks for being here. Why do you think the decision was made to redact some things in those transcripts?

GONZALEZ: Well, listen, it's -- I don't want to ever second guess the Department of Justice in the middle of an investigation. Their public comments were these, that they didn't want to re-victimize the victims. Also they didn't want to provide a propaganda platform and then finally they didn't want to do anything that would hurt the integrity of the investigation.

The first two I find somewhat interesting and puzzling. The last one I think is legitimate. If, in fact, releasing information does hurt the investigation, that in my judgment is a legitimate reason to hold back information. So -- but anyway, at the end of the day I think the department ended up where it should be and that is release information that all of us know anyway. We all assume to be true in any event, so I think the department is where it should be which is to provide a full transcript to the American public. COSTELLO: Does it sort of illustrate -- I don't want to say confusion

because I don't think that's the right word. But it's sort of -- does it sort of illustrate how difficult it is to deal with a terror attack, a hate crime, and in all this what happened in Orlando entailed?

GONZALEZ: I don't know. Again, without knowing the full motivation here in terms of who was involved in making the decision and the rationale for making the decision other than what's been publicly disclosed, you know, I don't know if it's a question of difficulty or confusion.

[10:20:10] What I worry about sometimes that people take other considerations into account such as being politically correct or trying to protect a political position which, of course, in my judgment as a former law enforcement officer of the country really has no place in doing an investigation and informing the public about the progress of the investigation.

COSTELLO: Do you think political correctness entered into the equation here?

GONZALEZ: Well, I think certainly many -- there are certainly many Republicans who question whether or not that was a motivation given President Obama's reluctance to talk about Islamic extremists, to even utter those words and the fact that references to ISIS I think some people believe that that was -- that the deletion was --

COSTELLO: Do you?

GONZALEZ: Again, I'm not going to second guess the department. I'm not going to second guess the department in the middle of an investigation, but the rationales given for why the deletions should occur were somewhat puzzling, somewhat -- I thought somewhat odd other than the very legitimate reason of we want to protect the integrity of the investigation. So the fact that they reversed course in a matter of hours in the face of such criticism tells me or puts into question the public reason given by this administration for the redactions.

COSTELLO: As you know, four gun control measures went down to defeat in the Senate yesterday. Earlier this morning I interviewed the former New York City Police Commissioner Shaffer. He called -- he called the Senate's actions disgraceful. What do you think?

GONZALEZ: Well, I'm already on record saying that I support increasing the number of transactions that are subject to background checks so long as the database is accurate and complete, and so long as the information in the database cannot be used by the government for other reasons.

But I think this discussion about guns, which I think is a very legitimate discussion, an important one, and I'm happy to engage in it, I think it misses a very important point, that even with increased background checks, this tragedy would have occurred, and so I think it's also very important to not lose sight of the fact as to whether or not the administration's strategy -- the American strategy with respect to ISIS, is it successful? Because we do have an individual, an American citizen, who was radicalized here in the United States by the ideology of ISIS, and so while we may be enjoying some successes overseas with respect to ISIS they still remain a very, very serious threat as confirmed by the CIA director John Brennan in his testimony just a few days ago.

COSTELLO: And just a final question about guns in America. Why can't we have a conversation about guns in America that's rational? Why can't lawmakers agree on a compromise bill when it comes to gun control?

GONZALEZ: You know what -- this is going to seem like a harsh statement, but I think we have too many lawmakers today who care more about the next election than they do -- than they care about the next generation. We don't have statesmen in Washington these days, and I think it's a very sad commentary on where we are as a nation, but the American people are to blame for that in that we're the ones that vote these men and women into office. We need to have the right kind of people in office. Those people that are courageous to take the right stand.

COSTELLO: Alberto Gonzalez, thank you so much for being with me this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, bad business practices and unfit to lead. That's how Hillary Clinton is expected to portray Donald Trump today in what's expected to be a hard-hitting speech on the economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:28:16] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Next hour Hillary Clinton is expected to sound off on Donald Trump and his business record, and if the new Web ad put out by the Clinton campaign is any indication, expect Clinton's speech to be anything but flattering.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm really a good businessman. I'm so good at business.

GRAPHICS: Donald's businesses have been good for him. But not for everybody else. Trump bankrupted his Atlantic City casinos, but still earned million.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But according to a new CNN-ORC poll voters appear to be siding with Trump on the economy. He leads Clinton by nearly 10 points.

So let's talk about that now. With me is the columnist for the "Daily Beast," Patricia Murphy, also CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp and former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee.

Welcome to all of you.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Austan, the latest CNN-ORC poll does show Clinton behind Trump on the economy. One expert told CNN that Clinton's plan is not exactly inspiring because it involves a bunch of tax credits and voters really don't get so excited about that. Is that her problem?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Look, I don't think so. I think the only problem has been she has not yet really brought the fight to Donald Trump. They haven't been talking about that. I mean, three weeks ago she gave a pretty tough speech on foreign policy about Donald Trump. Previous to that speech, Donald Trump was ahead of her in the polls on foreign policy, but as people heard what Donald Trump actually says and what he's for, you saw him drop like a stone and I think that will happen on the economy, too.

COSTELLO: So, Austan, do you think that Hillary Clinton's speech should be along the same lines as her foreign policy speech? Mostly an attack on Donald Trump?

GOOLSBEE: At least part of it should be.