Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Clinton Surges in Latest Polls, Erases Trump Bounce; Trump Ramps Up Feud with Gold Star Parents; Billionaires Backing Clinton Take On Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 2, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:00] CAMEROTA: Captain Khan paid the ultimate sacrifice protecting his fellow soldiers from a suicide bomber for which he was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Thanks so much for joining us on NEW DAY. We'll see you tomorrow. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Hillary Clinton rides a big bounce out of her party's convention and recaptures the lead over Donald Trump. Clinton surging in our latest poll, erasing Trump's lead before her convention and now ahead by nine percentage points. But the most important number is on the economy. Clinton jumps ahead of Trump by two points. Less than two weeks ago Trump led on that issue by 11 points.

And on trade, Clinton now enjoys a comfortable lead of 10 points. And both candidates are in a dead heat, though, when it comes to terrorism. 48 percent of voters choose Clinton, 48 percent pick Trump. And it's worth noting our surveys took place before Trump's latest scorched earth sound bites over the last 24 hours.

We have a lot to cover and Phil Mattingly is here to walk us through all of it.

Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A lot to unpack, no question about it. And it's important to note at the top line that these numbers are coming in the wake of the Democratic National Convention. Obviously Hillary Clinton seeing a bump kind of across the board. But when you dig down into specific issues, Carol, you hit on one of the biggest ones, obviously, the economy.

But also look at key kind of flash points of this campaign. On immigration, Hillary Clinton starting to open up a bigger lead there with a 55-43 lead over who would better handle the issue in this poll. But worth noting, and Carol, you mentioned terrorism. Who would handle ISIS better? Now this is another key issue of this campaign an issue where Donald Trump has made very clear, based on his posture, his continual push of strength and power, he believes he can ride this issue to a lot of success in the campaign. Hillary Clinton at 48 percent, Donald Trump at 47 percent. When it

comes to terrorism, when it comes to ISIS. This is an issue where there's not a lot of separation between the two of them. And Carol, we've seen how voters throughout this campaign have been very uneasy by what's been happening in the Middle East, by what's been happening in Europe, by the inspired attacks that have happened here in the United States. This is an issue to keep a very close eye on.

And while there's been a clear bump for Hillary Clinton in the wake of the convention, still very close on this issue specifically.

COSTELLO: And I'm sure Mr. Donald Trump noticed these polls because he came out swinging yesterday.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Absolutely. And I think it's one of the things that Donald Trump, when he feels like the pressure is on him, he's going to swing back. And it hasn't necessarily been something Republican official have always appreciated, most notably in the issue that's still being talked about today. The attack that the -- Donald Trump has felt like he's been attacked by Khizr Khan.

No question about it by what happened at the Democratic National Convention yesterday and Republican officials have made very clear, they wish he would leave this alone both publicly and behind closed doors. Donald Trump making clear that's not going to happen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He made a deal with the devil. She's the devil. He made a deal with the devil.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump ramping up his personal attacks on Hillary Clinton while criticizing Bernie Sanders for supporting the Democratic nominee.

TRUMP: She picked a vice presidential candidate who is like the opposite of him.

MATTINGLY: And suggesting that if he loses in November, it's because --

TRUMP: I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged.

MATTINGLY: All as the ongoing feud between Trump and the parents of a slain Muslim U.S. soldier, Captain Humayun Khan, escalates.

TRUMP: I have great honor and great feeling for his son, Mr. Khan's son. But -- and, you know, as far as I'm concerned, he's a hero.

KHIZR KHAN, FATHER OF DECEASED MUSLIM U.S. SOLDIER: You can attack Muslims, you can attack judges and nobody can question your caliber? Your lack of empathy? And you want to be commander-in-chief?

TRUMP: I was very viciously attacked as you know. When you have radical Islamic terrorists probably all over the place, we're allowing them to come in by the thousands and thousands. And I think that's what bothered Mr. Khan more than anything else.

KHAN: He says, oh, I am being severely attacked, harshly attacked. Well, this is political season. You're a candidate for an office. And I have same rights as you do.

MATTINGLY: The dispute rocking the GOP. Dozens of Republican leaders forced to come out in support of the Khans.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We want to honor the families of those who have served and those who have sacrificed, all of us.

MATTINGLY: Trump's campaign bombarding their supporters on Capitol Hill with e-mails, urging them to back his position, but instead getting the cold shoulder.

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: Our Gold Star families deserve our full and total support.

MATTINGLY: Emotions running high at a rally for Trump's running mate Mike Pence, a woman whose son is in the Air Force booed for bringing up the issue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump has disrespected our nation's armed forces and veterans and has disrespect for Mr. Khan and his family is just an example of that.

(CROWD BOOING)

[09:05:04] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will there ever be -- will there ever be a point in time when you're able to look at Trump in the eye and tell him enough is enough?

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's all right.

Folks, that's what freedom looks like and that's what freedom sound like. OK. I want to honor your son's service to the country and your family's service to the country. I truly do, ma'am.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And Carol, obviously deft handling a very sensitive issue there from Governor Mike Pence but that's really kind of an example. This is starting to resonate on the campaign trail. That's something that concerns Republicans again who have said repeatedly, we wish they would just leave this alone and move on. They don't want this to be the issue. They want the economy, they want jobs.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing, though.

MATTINGLY: To be the things people are talking about.

COSTELLO: Like A Republican congressman just came out this morning and said, you know what, I'm going to vote for Hillary Clinton. What can you tell us about Congressman Richard Hannah?

MATTINGLY: And this is a first. And I think when you talk to Clinton campaign officials, they're waiting for this to happen. Maybe the levy starts to break.

There's -- a couple important caveats here. Richard Hannah is an upstate New York congressman, a Republican, no question about it. He is retiring. He is from a swing district. So this is not a dyed in the wool conservative who's barking Trump, but he in an opinion piece said that Donald Trump is endlessly flawed. That's a quote. And that he will be supporting Hillary Clinton.

But again it's worth noting here, he's retiring. There's not a lot of politics that he has to deal with here. But still it's something. No question about it, the first Republican congressman now officially saying he will vote for Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

So let's talk about all of this with our panel. With me now, CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, and CNN political commentator and Hillary Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen.

So, Kayleigh, I'll start with you. This Republican congressman, with all the caveats that Phil Mattingly spoke about, does this concern you?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I'm not concerned by this. I mean, I fully expect leaders and Congress to not support Donald Trump because he ran against the Washington way. He ran against Congress essentially. He ran against Washington insiders. So I'm never surprised when I see criticism from congressmen or even support for Hillary Clinton. And I went -- I would really challenge the notion that this is a true Republicans because I think Republicans know that Hillary Clinton and the Obama way, that the American people cannot afford four more years of that.

COSTELLO: True Republicans. So, Hilary, you're a Clinton supporter. I would suppose that you would say, you know, what else do you expect?

HILARITY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, here's, I think, the real problem, which is that every time Donald Trump makes a big mistake, whether it's the Mexican judge, whether it's the Jewish star slur, whether it's, you know, Humayun Khan, he has a three point response. The first is to demonstrate dramatic insensitivity to the diversity of America. The second is to insult Hillary Clinton. And the third is to say that he's being cheated.

And we've seen this time and time again. And I think what we have is a broad swath of Americans, including thoughtful Republicans, are just sick of it. They think that this demonstrates sort of a lack of preparation for leadership to be commander-in-chief. And so, you know, it's not just any one incident. It's about his character. And I think over and over again we are now seeing this be about his character.

COSTELLO: So, Ron, put this into perspective, this Republican congressman who says he's now going to vote for Hillary Clinton but he's going to retire. There are no political consequences for him. Does it matter?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it does to a point. As Kayleigh says, I mean, you know, one is not a flood. But what you have is a series of voices creating what the -- the phrase I heard the most at the Democratic convention from Clinton strategist was permission structure. And the idea is essentially creating a permission structure not so much for hard core Republicans, but for conservative leaning independents who usually vote Republican to feel that it's OK to vote for Hillary Clinton.

And that ranges from Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser for president -- the first President Bush, to Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of -- the former mayor of New York, to Mark Cuban, you know, the billionaire. All of whom are saying to these voters, particularly these white collar white voters, that it is OK to depart from their usual leanings to vote for Hillary Clinton.

And it's worth noting that in your new poll, Hillary Clinton is leading among college educated white voters by 10 points over Donald Trump. No Democrat in the history of polling, going back to 1952, has ever won most college educated white voters. And I think that is the kind of permission structure, to use their phrase, that they are trying to create with these kinds of endorsements and defections from Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh, let's just talk -- I just want to ask Kayleigh this question because Mr. Trump has doubled down on Hillary Clinton. He's called her the devil, right? He called her the devil yesterday. He said the election will be rigged.

So, Kayleigh, those attacks might appeal to a certain demographic, but I suspect it won't to educated whites.

MCENANY: Well, you know, about the devil comment, he -- that was a metaphor.

[09:10:01] He said Bernie Sanders made a deal with the devil, and I think he clarified this metaphor by saying by deal with the devil, meaning Hillary Clinton --

COSTELLO: No. He said she is the devil.

MCENANY: After he said that she made a deal with -- he made a deal, rather, with the devil. So I think he was clarifying his metaphor. That's certainly how I took it.

You know, these little things that happen on the side, I think most voters care about their family, I think they care about slow growth, abysmal economic report in the second quarter, 1.2 percent, low wages, ISIS terrorist attacks, every other day it seems like in Europe --

COSTELLO: So why isn't Donald Trump talking about that?

MCENANY: Well, this is where it's really important. And Newt Gingrich has said this. Donald Trump in order to win needs to bring up the same three or four issues every single day that Americans care about. I think that's really important to stick to the issues. We shouldn't be talking about Khan this week, we shouldn't be, you know, mired in this kind of controversy. And to get out of that, it's going to take Donald Trump really sticking to the issues.

BROWNSTEIN: Carol --

ROSEN: Donald Trump has to care about actually those issues to be willing to talk about them. What we see over and over again --

MCENANY: He does care about them.

ROSEN: No. What we see over and over again is that Donald Trump cares about, you know, his thin skin and attacking back when he feels attacked. And so that's not leadership. That's not rising above. And it is critically important that we -- that we realize that Americans do want progress on the economy, they do want change in Washington. But they really also want to feel pride. They want to feel pride in their leaders, pride in how they manage their families.

We saw Sally Bradshaw, another prominent Republican in the important state of Florida yesterday saying, I could not look my children in the eye if I voted for Donald Trump.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

ROSEN: The message he sends is not the message I want to deliver.

BROWNSTEIN: And Carol?

COSTELLO: Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: That's an important point. I mean, I think, look, for Hillary Clinton to be even on terror and ISIS and the economy after her own convention which is always a high point for candidates really isn't a great result. It is possible that she will drift back behind among -- to Donald Trump on some of these issues as the -- as the kind of the afterglow of the convention fades away. But this may be a campaign, to Hilary's point, where these kinds of issue assessments are less important than a broader view about the candidate's character and values.

I mean, the biggest problem Donald Trump faces in this race, I think is that, you know, 60 percent of voters going in said -- going to the convention said he was not qualified to be president. In your poll 64 percent of college white men and 80 percent of college white women say he does not have the right experience to be president. And the other big hurdle he faces is that people -- many people see him as racially divisive and not reflecting the values of a kind of a modern, tolerant America that has room at the table for all racial and ethnic groups and for women as well as men.

So it is entirely possible that on Election Day he may lead on the economy, may lead on terrorism narrowly and may still be facing a significant deficit with the coalition of minorities and college whites who simply view him as both unprepared and not reflecting the values of contemporary America. COSTELLO: OK. So I'm going to --

BROWNSTEIN: So that's challenge.

COSTELLO: I'm going to pause the conversation right here. I want you all to stay with me because you're going to join me in the next block and thanks so much.

Still to come, it's the battle of the billionaires. Hillary Clinton lining up supporters to help her take on Donald Trump. Will it work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:18] COSTELLO: All right. I want to take you right now to the south lawn of the White House.

You see President Obama. He's holding bilateral meetings with the prime minister of Singapore later today. This is the welcoming ceremony. President Obama and the prime minister of Singapore will join their wives, Michelle Obama and Mrs. Loong.

Is that Michelle Obama? No, it couldn't be. Yes, it is Michelle Obama. There you go.

And also Joe Biden and his wife Jill will be part of this ceremony this morning and Joe Biden will also be part of bilateral talks later this afternoon. We'll keep you posted. It's a beautiful ceremony.

All right. Hillary Clinton's campaign announcing this morning that she's raised $90 million last month including close to $9 million in the day after she accepted the Democratic nomination. She's now lining up her billionaire supporters to hit Donald Trump where it hurts, right in his business sense.

Last night, she was out campaigning in the red state of Nebraska with native Warren Buffett. He had some harsh words for Donald Trump comparing his business skills to that of a monkey and even questioning what Donald Trump calls sacrifices.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny life in Omaha with more.

Hi, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.

That $90 million fund-raising haul the campaign just announced this morning is a sign that the general election is on. She is collecting new donations from people, significantly the most prolific fund- raising 24 hours of her whole time as a candidate came between 8:00 p.m. Thursday, right before she took the stage in Philadelphia, for the next 24 hours after that.

A lot of these, Carol, are new donors. Speaking of money, as you said, there's a string of billionaire businessmen lining up behind Hillary Clinton trying to undercut Donald Trump's argument that he has the business savvy to be president. Warren Buffett continued that trend last night here in Omaha.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARREN BUFFETT, BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR: Hillary! Hillary!

ZELENY (voice-over): Hillary Clinton arm and arm on the campaign trail with billionaire Warren Buffett. The 85-year-old Oracle of Omaha unleashing a scathing attack on Donald Trump.

BUFFETT: I've really never known another businessman that drags about his bankruptcies. Why not? It's his claim to stardom. I don't know anybody else that's had six bankruptcies. But there he is.

ZELENY: Buffett condemning Trump for refusing to release his tax turns.

BUFFETT: He said it several times. He said he can't do it, he can't release it because he's under audit. Now, I've got news for him. I'm under audit too. I would be delighted to meet him any place, any time between now and election.

[09:20:00] I'll bring my tax return. He could bring his tax return. Nobody's going to arrest us.

ZELENY: The billionaire investor forcefully rebuking Trump's attacks on the Muslim parents of a soldier slain in Iraq.

BUFFETT: How in the world can you stand up to a couple of parents who have lost a son and talk about sacrificing because you were building a bunch of buildings?

I ask, Donald Trump, have you no sense of decency, sir?

ZELENY: Buffett is the latest in a string of billionaire businessman to speak out against Trump. Part of Clinton's strategy to discredit his record.

Last week, at the Democratic convention former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg questioning Trump's competency.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: I'm a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.

ZELENY: In Saturday, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban in his hometown of Pittsburgh calling Trump crazy.

MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER: Leadership is not yelling and screaming and intimidating, right? Yes, she knows.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Besides that meeting with Warren Buffett, Hillary Clinton had another reason to be here in Nebraska, Carol. Nebraska and Maine the two states in the country that split their electoral votes. The Clinton campaign is aggressively going after the one electoral vote in this congressional district right here in Omaha.

President Obama won in 2008, Mitt Romney won it in 2012, but they believe they can win it in 2016, at least have a good shot at it. Now, Carol, the rule book basically has been thrown out in this presidential campaign, but not the one that starts with Chapter 270. That is the number of electoral votes needed to win the White House. That's why every electoral vote being taken seriously, even a single one right here in Nebraska -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Wow. Jeff Zeleny reporting live from Obama, thanks so much.

I want to bring back my panel. Hillary Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen, political analyst Ron Brownstein, and Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany.

Thanks to all of you.

So, Kayleigh, Clinton is trying to diminish business credential. She's got Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg. They're trying to get under Trump's skin.

Is it working?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think so. Most voters when they go to the polls they're not thinking about who the billionaire class supports. In fact, I think it works to Donald Trump's advantage. You know, he's an outsider both outside Washington and outside the billionaire circle. And I think Hillary Clinton cozying up to billionaires just plays into the notion that she has done, according to some people, quid pro quo corruption at the Clinton Foundation, taking cash, making $250,000 a speech from Wall Street.

So, I think it plays into this notion of Hillary Clinton being cozy with people that most Americans do not resonate with.

COSTELLO: But, Hillary, you could argue that Mr. Trump is also cozying up to billionaires. He's got billionaire friends too, Sheldon Adelson, Peter Thiel and Carl Icahn.

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Woody Johnson hosting a fundraiser for him this week.

So, here is, I think, the issue. Ron mentioned it earlier, which is there are an awful lot of successful businessmen who are offended by Donald Trump's style of doing business, offended that at every turn he declares a bankruptcy.

COSTELLO: But these businessmen are not Hillary. These businessmen appreciate Donald Trump's acumen when it comes to business.

ROSEN: They do. But here's the point. There are successful business leaders like Warren Buffett, like Michael Bloomberg, like Mark Cuban who are saying, there is another candidate who you can trust with the economy, who you can trust in her economy, you can trust in her integrity. As Ron said earlier, that is an important permission structure for

frankly white men and others who care about sort of traditional pro- growth economic issues.

And there's another thing. Donald Trump has refused to release his taxes. Warren Buffett consistently saying release your taxes, Donald Trump. We're all under audit. That happens all the time. You have no absolute reason not to release your taxes.

Over and over again, that is a message that Donald Trump is going to hear every single day and the election. What is he hiding? His excuses don't ring true.

COSTELLO: But, Ron, won't Donald Trump just turn and attack Hillary Clinton on her Wall Street speeches and why she won't release the speeches on those?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. No, look, I think Kayleigh is right that there is a portion of the electorate particularly those white, blue collar voters who feel both culturally and economically marginalize who will look at all of those evidence of establishment figures in both parties rallying to Hillary Clinton and say, yes, this is proof that Donald Trump is someone who will truly kind of break up the club and will bring change to Washington in the way that she won't.

But that other word, those clunky two words, permission structure is really important here. If you think about a -- I don't know, a 37- year-old middle manager at Ford or GM who lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, down the block from where Mitt Romney grew up, who usually votes Republican because he thinks they're better at managing the economy, they won't raise his taxes, they'll cut regulation. What all this is about, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett, Michael Bloomberg, Hank Paulson, is telling them that it's OK this time to vote Democratic.

[09:25:02] And that, in fact, if you look at the polling that is where Donald Trump is most significantly underperforming other Republicans. He's running well behind other Republicans among those college- educated white voters, many of whom are professionals. And if Hillary Clinton can maintain that lead, there are not enough alienated blue collar workers to cover his enormous historic deficits among non- whites where he's at only 12 percent among minorities in a new poll, which is less even to Mitt Romney's meager 17 percent.

So, permission structure are keywords here.

COSTELLO: I'll try to remember that.

Kayleigh, the other poll that is concerning and we talked about it before are the numbers on the economy, because Hillary Clinton got quite a bounce out of the convention. She's now pulled ahead of Donald Trump on the economy. He had led by 11 points. He's trying to get that block of voters who are concerned about their jobs, about the economic prosperity in this country.

So, why do you suppose that happened, Kayleigh? MCENANY: Well, this is her post-convention bump. We saw Donald Trump

gain after his convention as well. You know, I want to give it a week or two to see where these numbers end up.

I think voters, when they ask themselves who's better for the economy, I think the numbers and facts don't lie. We've had eight years of Obama. We've had Hillary Clinton endorsed Obama's policies, full throttle. And what do we have, we have wages that are substantially lower. That was in "The New York Times" article. We have according to Gallup, premiums, Obama's signature piece of legislation, was Obamacare, yet premiums are still a top financial concern for voters. Abysmal growth report in the second quarter, we can go indicator by indicator, and there's a reason 73 percent of the country thinks we're heading in the wrong direction.

So, I think when voters sit down and ask themselves what's better for the economy, they'll say, certainly not four more years of what we've had last eight years.

COSTELLO: So, Hilary, last word?

ROSEN: Look, we've had years of job growth compared to the terrible recession that President Obama inherited. Hillary Clinton actually has plans for the economy. I think voters ultimately are going to say, Donald Trump, you're talking a lot but you're not offering anything specific. And she has been.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

Ron Brownstein, Hilary Rosen, Kayleigh McEnany, thanks to all of you.

Tomorrow night on CNN, a special town hall with libertarians Gary Johnson and William Weld. It will be hosted by Anderson Cooper tomorrow night 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.

Thanks, Kayleigh.

MCENANY: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)