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Email Scandal Threatens Democratic Party Unity; Democratic National Convention Kicks Off Today; Outgoing DNC Chief Speaks Amid Email Controversy; Mass Shooting Kills Two At Club On "Teen Night" Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 25, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:25] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, we're live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for joining me. My name is Carol Costello.

We're at the site of the Democratic National Convention. Thank you so much. It is another e-mail scandal, rocking the Democratic Party. Any minute, outgoing Democratic chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, speaks for the first time since abruptly resigning as the leader of her party. She's brought down by leaked e-mail showing her DNC staffers favored Hillary Clinton over upstart Bernie Sanders.

But there may be a sinister subplot unfolding. Clinton's camp says Russia is meddling with American politics and unleashed attackers to help Donald Trump win the White House. That move would be historic but there's something even more jarring. U.S. officials briefed on the investigations say it appears part of a larger wave of Russian cyber attacks.

CNN's Jill Daugherty is live in Moscow for us this morning, but first let's head to Washington, actually you're in Philadelphia, justice reporting Evan Perez is here.

What have you found out, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Carol. Well, there's strong evidence indicating that the hack of the DNC was the work of hackers working for Russian intelligence. Now officials tell me that the FBI is now investigating this hack, and that so far the evidence does point to at least one group of hackers that is familiar to U.S. counter intelligence.

This is the same group that was involved in hacking into non- classified e-mail systems at the State Department and at the White House, as well as other federal agencies. And investigators believe that Russian intelligence is behind a wave of other cyber attacks on political organizations and even think tanks here in Washington.

Now the release of the e-mails by WikiLeaks over the weekend does add another wrinkle to this. We don't know where WikiLeaks got the e- mails that it is releasing, and they're not saying. What we can't say that the Russians did this to help Donald Trump. What we know is a different type of activity that foreign spies, including the Russians and the United States always try to carry out.

They did similar cyber attacks in the United States around the 2012 election cycle. The issue this time is that whoever is behind the release of the e-mails over the weekend is already having a tremendous impact on the U.S. presidential elections obviously with the ouster of Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Evan Perez, do stick around. Let's head to -- let's head to Jill Daugherty now. What does Russia -- what does Putin say about all of this?

JILL DAUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, he is not saying anything about it, Carol. I mean, this is not I think anything that Vladimir Putin would want to talk about right now. And again, it's still allegations. There may be indications that that is the case, but certainly, we're waiting for proof whether or not it indeed is the case.

I think you'd have to say to what purpose would Russia want to meddle in the election. Now there -- I can see a purpose initially where they would want to get information about Donald Trump because for quite a long time Donald Trump, although he was praised as kind of an interesting flashy person by Vladimir Putin, they wanted to get more information. He was not well-known at all, and I think still to this point, Russians don't really know a whole lot about him.

And I could see, this is my surmisal, that they would want to get as much information behind the scenes as they possibly could. Now would they want to support Donald Trump? You know, early, Carol, there was this idea that Russians do support Donald Trump. And indeed, many people and the media seem to support him. But there's also a countervailing idea that some in the Kremlin consider him unpredictable. They are not quite sure what they would get if he were in the office as compared to Hillary Clinton, who's pretty much predictable, even though they don't like her particularly. So, you know, that's I think the question you'd have to ask. Why.

COSTELLO: Well, Jill, the other thing that's coming up is Donald Trump's -- you know, you know, he intimated that he wanted to dump NATO and he wouldn't protect the Baltic States against Russia. Wouldn't that be a reason that Vladimir Putin might want to get involved in the American election?

DAUGHERTY: Yes, there -- now there are those things. NATO is a very good example because he says -- Donald Trump says that it is obsolete, maybe we shouldn't protect our partners unless they pay up. And Vladimir Putin believes that NATO is a threat to Russia, it's on the doorstep. So anything that would damage NATO or even indicate that the U.S. wouldn't come to the aid of its allies would be useful to Vladimir Putin.

[09:05:03] Also I'd have to say that some of the warnings that Vladimir Putin has about the United States as a very violent place that the system is rigged against people and others have made this point. It is not just Donald Trump. Especially on that rigged part. But the violence is very similar to what you see on the Russian media. State-controlled media. The United States is a violent place, where people have very few rights, the government really doesn't come and protect them.

You can see this very much on RT, which is their English language broadcast. And then also you have a couple of people on the campaign, senior people, Paul Manafort, and certainly Carter Paige, who have been involved in business or let's say lobbying here in Russia and the former Soviet Union. And I can give you some details on that if you want to get into it.

COSTELLO: All right. No -- you gave us plenty of information, Jill. You stick around, too. Jill Daugherty, reporting live from Moscow.

Again there's absolutely no evidence to indicate that Vladimir Putin had anything to do with the hacking of the DNC e-mails. But whether the Russian angle is a conspiracy theory or not, Democrats are all in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA BRAZILE, DNC VICE CHAIRWOMAN: From what I've heard, I have not received the full briefing, but there is some degree of culpability by Russian hackers and initially everyone thought that they were just stealing all of the research information pertaining to Donald Trump, but now we found out that they were stirring up a little bit more.

ROBBY MOOK, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Other experts are now saying that they are -- the Russians are releasing these e-mails for the purpose of actually helping Donald Trump. I don't think it's coincidental that these e-mails were released on the eve of our convention here. And that's disturbing. And I think we need to be concerned about that. I think we need to be concerned that we also saw last week at the Republican convention that Trump and his allies made changes to the Republican platform to make it more pro-Russian.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Why it is so farfetched to blame the Russians and say that the motive was to help you?

PAUL MANAFORT, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: I mean, it's just absurd. I don't know anything about what you just said. You may know it. Then if you do, then you ought to expose it. I want to say you know, I don't know what you're talking about. It's crazy. The fact that we're having this conversation is the wrong conversation.

The conversation we should be having is, what does Russia have from Hillary Clinton's server? That's the bigger issue. Not what -- what anybody got from the DNC server.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right, that's Paul Manafort, who is of course Trump's top aide.

With me now to talk about all of this, CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter, Sally Kohn, Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter Robert Zimmerman, and CNN political commentator Carl Bernstein. Jill Daugherty and Evan Perez are sticking around to help us with our

fact-check so thanks to all of you.

Robert, really?

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Carol.

COSTELLO: Robert, really? Vladimir Putin behind --

ZIMMERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

COSTELLO: I thought it was going to be boring, but I was wrong. You're right about that. But really, Putin behind this?

ZIMMERMAN: You know something? Let the FBI do their investigation. I'm not prepared to go there. The fact the FBI is investigating I think does give it some -- does make it relevant. It makes it of it interest. The bigger concern to me, though, is the fact that Donald Trump is taking positions that are so in sync with Vladimir Putin, and as a matter of public policy, we should all be concerned. When you have a presidential candidate advocating basically dismantling NATO. We're saying that Donald Trump that he'd be neutral between Palestine and Israel. Certainly we've never had a Republican candidate or any presidential candidate be as supportive of the Russian leadership as Donald Trump has.

COSTELLO: OK. OK. So, Democrats, Sally, always accuse Republicans of conspiracy theories. There are some who might think, isn't this just another conspiracy theory by the Democrats because the Democratic convention is starting off in chaos?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I don't think -- I mean, I've been inside, I've been talking to -- I don't think the Democratic convention is starting off in chaos. And let's be clear that -- you know, those of us who like to talk inside baseball are fascinated by these e-mails. But the American people are more interested in the policies that are going to be talked about at the convention and how they affect their lives. You know --

COSTELLO: I would say they're interested right now in this notion that the Russians hacked into the DNC.

KOHN: Well, I think this is profoundly important not only because -- and Tim Kaine said it very well. Donald Trump has criticized everybody, except Vladimir Putin. It is really disturbing. We remember when Putin invaded Ukraine. I remember Republicans crowing about how it was because Obama was weak. Well, now we have Donald Trump, Mister "I'm going to be strong," saying, I'll back out of NATO. Come right into the Baltics, no problem, Mr. Trump. I admire your leadership.

That is incredibly disturbing, and you're right, Democrats -- I'm tired of hearing about the conspiracies on the right, buy boy, they have a lot that they're feeding us and this one actually seems -- has some credible evidence.

COSTELLO: Yes. I want to turn to Carl Bernstein because you know a thing or two about cracking into things. Right?

(CROSSTALK)

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The biography of Hillary Clinton, she called the woman in charge of the life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. She's relevant.

COSTELLO: This is about credulity to you or could this be a thing?

[09:10:01] BERNSTEIN: It's -- look, it does seem that the Russians have something to do with the hacking. This is a question that reminds voters of why both these candidates are held in such disregard by most Americans because, one, it reminds them about Hillary Clinton and her server, and the possibility of it being hacked because what she did with her server is indefensible, it was reckless, it probably endangered the national security. There is no explaining it away, particularly after what Comey, the FBI director, said.

COSTELLO: But just to be clear --

BERNSTEIN: But let's now go to the question of Trump, who is the real issue in this campaign. And particularly his lack of experience in foreign policy. What he has said about NATO. Look, the immutable concept of no moveable borders in Europe is what has kept the West alive since the end of World War II. And what Putin is determined to do and has done already is to move the borders in Europe. And Donald Trump is someone who has no understanding, comprehension or ability to conduct foreign policy.

And the real issue in this election is Donald Trump's suitability, temperament, stability. And whether he can be president of the United States. Hillary Clinton, you've got these terrible things that such as the server, yes, and questions about her honesty, but that --

COSTELLO: OK.

BERNSTEIN: She also has a record going over 40 years in public life of making real contributions. Believing in good things. You don't see that with Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: OK, I want to bring back in Evan Perez for just a second. And I just want to be clear that Hillary Clinton's e-mail server is separate from the DNC e-mail.

BERNSTEIN: Totally. But the point is still, both, both are subject to possible hacking and what I'm saying --

(CROSSTALK)

ZIMMERMAN: However, the FBI did point out that in fact there is no evidence that Hillary Clinton's server was hacked.

PEREZ: Carol, I think you're right.

ZIMMERMAN: I think that's worth noting here.

COSTELLO: Yes. I just want -- I just want our viewers to be clear on that. That's all. But --

BERNSTEIN: That's just a terrible thing the Democrats keep doing, trying to defend Hillary's conduct in this. Stop doing it.

ZIMMERMAN: I'm just pushing --

KOHN: That's stupid.

BERNSTEIN: Pushing back like that is a great mistake. What Comey said --

ZIMMERMAN: Carl, no, it's not. Having a defense is never a mistake.

BERNSTEIN: No. And the facts are that Comey said it is very -- he indicated it's very possible, it was hacked. The FBI did not know.

COSTELLO: But --

BERNSTEIN: You ought to stay with the facts on this and quit trying to --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Right. OK. Let's bring in Evan Perez because he has done a lot of great reporting on this.

Evan, you were saying?

PEREZ: Carol, I think one last thing I think that perhaps be our political panel needs to address is the content of the e-mails that WikiLeaks has released here. I mean, beyond the fact that this is -- this might be and appears to be, everybody here in Washington and the FBI and everybody who's looked at this including private cyber security firms, believe that this hack was the work of Russian intelligence, it doesn't really negate what was contained in these documents that have been released. That it really does call into question the impartiality of the DNC and that is the larger question, that perhaps still has to be addressed by the Clinton campaign and by the DNC.

COSTELLO: Yes. Yes. We're going to turn the corner and talk about that now. The question I have for you at the moment, though, Evan, how long might it take to figure out if Vladimir Putin really was behind this or is that an impossibility?

PEREZ: It's going to take a while actually, Carol. These are very -- notoriously very difficult and long investigations to do. We do know that the -- that the hackers were in the system for over a year. So that really tells you that they had access to all kinds of stuff. Not only the opposition research on Donald Trump, but all kinds of other stuff that we are yet to see. So you expect that we're going to see more documents released between now and November. And it will probably take the FBI longer than that to figure this all out.

COSTELLO: OK, so let's turn the corner now and talk about the scandal itself, because it is quite damaging. Evan is right about that. I'm just going to show you one example of a leaked e-mail. This is from the DNC's chief financial officer, and it talks about targeting Sanders on his religion, on his faith, quote, "I think I read he's an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps, my Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist."

Sally, the Democrats tout themselves as, you know, the party that accepts people of all religions. That's really awful.

KOHN: It's astonishingly awful and offensive. And look, I mean, you know, this is a problem. The Democratic Party is addressing it. There's already been people held accountable. People continue to be held accountable. I think we haven't seen -- finished seeing the repercussions of this.

I do think the problem here is, look, and this is -- I'll be honest, this is one of my frustrations with this entire election season is we keep getting caught up in this kind of catnip for the media sort of little scandals or big scandals about the people and the e-mails and the -- right, when what else seems to be incredibly relevant here is Donald Trump's policies. His policies towards Russia. His ties with Russia.

[09:15:00] The thing -- the pro-Putin things that his own senior foreign policy advisers --

COSTELLO: Yes, I get that, but --

KOHN: But we keep talking about --

COSTELLO: This plays into Donald Trump's narrative that the system is rigged.

KOHN: So it is getting addressed, and listen, we're going to have a convention where people will come together. We'll see Bernie Sanders speak tonight. He himself -- he himself said the e-mails were bad. They confirm what we knew. You know, there needs to be accountability and we need to focus on electing Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: I'm running out of time.

ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: The bottom line, it was disgraceful. People should be fired and be held accountable for --

COSTELLO: More than Debbie Wasserman Schultz?

ZIMMERMAN: Absolutely. Here's the most important point. There is absolutely no evidence has emerged, which showed any of this venting on e-mail resulted in any political action against Senator Sanders, and to his credit, he is keeping the focus on electing Hillary Clinton and defeating Donald Trump. I think that's statesmanship that I think the party should follow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be an asterisk in two weeks.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Carl Bernstein, Robert Zimmerman, Sally Kohn, thanks to all of you. I appreciate that. A raucous conversation. Hillary Clinton takes the stage, Donald Trump takes the lead.

The Republican nominee once again surprising many of the political pundits with a bigger than expected bounce from his party's convention last week. CNN's Joe Johns live in Charlotte with more on that.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Hillary Clinton appearing later this morning here at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention in Charlotte, very different from the appearance she made here earlier this month. That was with President Obama.

This time, Donald Trump will be appearing at the VFW Convention, just tomorrow morning. It comes at a time when we are looking at a six- point convention bounce for Donald Trump, coming out of the Republican National Convention.

Also, when you look closely at the most recent CNN/ORC poll, it shows once again, a huge deficit on the issue of honesty and trustworthiness for Hillary Clinton.

She talked a little bit about that convention, just last night on "60 Minutes." Her take away from what she saw from the podium and how she was characterized at the RNC. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you feel threatened by that?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I felt sad. I felt very sad, Scott. I mean, I don't know what their convention was about other than criticizing me. I seem to be the only unifying theme that they had. There was no positive agenda. It was a very dark, divisive campaign, and the people who were speaking were painting a picture of our country that I did not recognize.

SENATOR TIM KAINE (D), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She has done a good job of letting the water go off her back on this. That's not the way I feel. When I see this, you know, Crooked Hillary or see the lock her up, it is just ridiculous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Back live in Charlotte now. We're expecting to hear from Hillary Clinton around 11:00 Eastern Time, likely to talk about national security, veterans affairs, the U.S. commitment to NATO and she is expected to pick up an endorsement from General John Allen, the former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command. So a lot going on here in Charlotte today. Back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Joe Johns, thanks so much.

We want to go to the -- the Florida delegates are holding a breakfast this morning. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is speaking before them. The crowd at first cheered, and then jeered her. It was very raucous.

In fact, order had to be restored before Debbie Wasserman Schultz made her remarks. Let's listen to what's going on now. REPRESENTATIVE DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN: -- about making sure that we can have the voices across our state heard. And standing with the people who were injured and who were killed is so incredibly important. So I know that you and I, together will continue to fight to make sure that people who should not have guns cannot get access to them.

And I will continue to fight everyday with you to make sure that doesn't happen. So I can see there is a little of interest in my -- in my being here. I appreciate that interest and a little bit of interest from the press.

But that really shows you that Florida is the most significant battle ground state that will make sure that Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States of America.

We are the state that will deliver the White House to make sure that we can continue to make the progress that we have been able to make under Barack Obama for the last eight years.

I'm so proud to have been able to serve as the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and yesterday, yesterday, I had the great honor of speaking to both President Obama and Hillary Clinton.

[09:20:08]I thanked President Obama for the honor of serving as the chair of the Democratic National Committee, and being able to watch his back and bring him across the finish line in 2012, which we did on the shoulders of Florida's voters. Didn't we, Florida Democrats?

Yes, we sure did. We're going to do it again. I also spoke, I also had the -- I also had the privilege of speaking to Hillary Clinton and she thanked me for my service. We had a wonderful conversation.

She asked me and I committed to her that I would serve as a surrogate throughout this campaign so that we could make sure that she is able to help build on the progress that we've been able to make for the last eight years.

We have a lot of work to do. We have so much to do, and we have to make sure that we move forward together in a unified way. We know that the voices in this room that is standing up and being disruptive, would he know that that's not the Florida that we know.

The Florida that we know is united. The Florida that we know is going to make sure that we continue to create jobs, like the 14.8 million jobs that were created under Barack Obama's leadership. The 20 million people who now have health care who didn't have it before.

For me, as a breast cancer survivor, and I know there are many survivors in this room, we have to make sure that insurance companies can't drop us, or deny us coverage that they used to be able to do to kick us to the curb when it came to covering us with health care.

We have three quarters of the deficit reduced under President Obama. We have had made sure that we can continue to build our economy, and we must under President Hillary Clinton make sure, we must under President Hillary Clinton make sure that our economy works for everyone.

I look forward to continuing to represent my constituents in Florida's 23rd Congressional District, and thank all of you for your incredible support. I'm going to continue to make sure that Florida has a strong voice to speak loud and proud on our values.

And you will see me every day between now and November 8th, on the campaign trail, and we will lock arms and we will not stand down. We will make sure that people of Florida have the priorities that we know we need to accomplish. Thank you very much and on to victory. Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK, so that was a little surreal, right. The embattled DNC chair who was in essence fired speaking before the Florida delegation. We'll talk about more that. I've got to take a break first. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:40]

COSTELLO: Two dead after a mass shooting at a Florida club on teen night. The gunfire breaking out after midnight in Fort Myers, Florida. At least 14 others were hurt. The youngest, only 12 years old. Right now, three people are in custody. CNN's Boris Sanchez is live from the scene with more on this. Hi, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. Yes, we spoke to a neighbor a short while ago that told us that he was arriving home just after midnight, and when he passed by Club Blu here, he saw bodies on the ground and ambulances everywhere.

He says there have been several shootings in this area in the past few months but nothing like this. As you've said, it was "Teen Night." It was a night where young kids, 12 to 17 could get in without an I.D.

Shortly after the event ended, as they were pouring into the parking lot, many of them calling their parents to get picked up, saying by to each other, that's when the shots rang out.

I'm going to move out of the way to give you a picture of what this looks like. They are still officials on the scene. A short while ago they picked up evidence markers. There were more than two dozen of them across the ground here.

Most of them shell casings that had to be picked up by police. This is one crime scene that's being processed. Now there are two others. There is a home not far here where shots were filed at the home, and at a vehicle outside the home.

One person was hurt there. In this intersection, a short while away, where all three people were detained that you mentioned, Carol. None of them have been called suspects so far. From what we understand they're being questioned by police to find out how involved they were in this incident. And again, you mentioned two people dead, at least 14 injured. We know most of them have been released from the hospital, but there are still some in ICU right now. We're holding out hope that they make it, but obviously a very sad situation here in Fort Myers -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Boris Sanchez, reporting live from Fort Myers, Florida. With me now is Art Roderick, CNN law enforcement analyst and former assistant director of the U.S. Marshall's Office. Hi, Art. What do you make of this shooting?

ART RODERICK, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: The whole thing behind any of these shootings is motive. What is the motive here? Is this gang- related? Is this criminal activity? I mean, we don't want to go beyond that at this particular point in time. But I mean, we are a month away from the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. At 12 years old, this is really getting out of hand.

COSTELLO: There was armed security there, too, right?

RODERICK: This was not a soft target, definitely not a soft target. So really, the whole -- they've got more than one crime scene at this particular incident.