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CNN NEWSROOM

Top GOP Lawmakers to Skip Trump's Wisconsin Event; Trump Makes Rare Reversal of Iran Video Claim; Ex-CIA Acting Director Says Trump is Dangerous; North Carolina Church to Host Trump Event Sunday; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 5, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:01] JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stands by the probable cause that there was none to arrest them, says she is not anti-police, she is anti-police brutality.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Jean Casarez, many thanks to you. Appreciate it.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What is going on? $400 million in cash being flown in an airplane to Iran. The tape was made, the airplane coming in, the money coming off, I guess, right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians.

COSTELLO: Trump takes it back. It wasn't a plane full of money, so what was it?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If they want to be president, they've got to start acting like president.

COSTELLO: As Obama becomes attacker-in-chief.

OBAMA: Of course the elections will not be rigged. What does that mean?

COSTELLO: As Clinton faces down her own protesters.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Apparently these people are here to protest Trump because Trump and his kids have killed a lot of animals.

COSTELLO: Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The presidential campaign rolls into Wisconsin today with Democrat Tim Kaine stumping in Milwaukee this afternoon. and Republicans Donald Trump and Mike Pence will hold a nighttime rally in Green Bay. But also making news, who will not be with the GOP ticket. Notably absent prominent Wisconsin Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan, Governor Scott Walker, Senator Ron Johnson and RNC chair and Wisconsin native Reince Priebus.

Publicly all have said they're just too busy to appear with Mr. Trump. Privately, the uneasiness with Trump seems apparent. Today a possible sign Trump is moderating a bit. He now says he did not see secret video of the U.S. delivering $400 million to Iran in what Trump has called a ransom payment to free Americans. Trump tweeting this morning, quote, "The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran."

A simple acknowledgement that's causing big ripples this morning. Let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Big ripples because it's just not something we've seen a lot, not from Donald Trump, not from his campaign. But also a recognition that on this, the story that he told twice, one time even after his campaign acknowledged it wasn't accurate, he was wrong. And this is an effort to move on. To move forward. It's what we've heard from his advisers over the last couple of days that while it's been a rough week and it's been a week where Donald Trump has often been off message, that he has an opportunity to get back on message.

Now one of the issues he needs to deal with and his advisers acknowledge he's trying to before he can really kind of fully move forward, disruptions within the Republican Party. And you mentioned, Carol, Wisconsin right now where obviously Paul Ryan in the middle of his own primary race with -- against somebody who is a big Donald Trump backer and Donald Trump has actually given a nod to a couple of times, also deciding not to endorse Paul Ryan.

And this has outraged a lot of Republicans behind closed doors. It's also made Paul Ryan a little bit wary on his endorsement of Donald Trump. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: None of these things are ever blank checks. That goes with any situation. In any kind of race. But right now, I just think it's important that the voters -- you know, he won the delegates, he won the thing fair and square, it's just that simple.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Obviously walking a very thin line there kind of opening up the possibility that maybe there's something Donald Trump can do that would cause him to rescind the endorsement but making it very clear Donald Trump won the election fair and square -- won the primary fair and square, he is the nominee. And it really underscores the problem Paul Ryan and senior Republican officials have had over the last couple of weeks and months, but especially over the last couple of days, trying to figure out how to deal with their Republican nominee when he strays far away from the issues that they want him to talk about.

Carol, you mentioned in Wisconsin, a swing state that Republicans want to play in and also a state where Republicans have a lot of the top Republican officials. Those officials not showing up today. The state assembly speaker saying we in Wisconsin are the party of Paul Ryan Republicans, not the party of Trump Republicans so clearly, Carol, some issues to deal with in Wisconsin.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live for us, thanks so much.

As Trump walks back false claims about that secret Iran video, President Obama is questioning whether Trump can be trusted with nuclear codes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: What is your assessment today as you stand here about whether Donald Trump can be trusted with America's nuclear weapons?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just listen to what Mr. Trump has to say and make your own judgment with respect to how confident you feel about his ability to manage things like our nuclear triad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: President Obama is not alone. The former acting director of the CIA now unleashing a scathing assessment of a potential Trump presidency in a "New York Times" op-ed. Quote, "Donald J. Trump is not only unqualified for the job, but he may well pose a threat to our national security. In sharp contrast to Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump has no experience on national security, even more important, the character traits he has exhibited during the primary season suggest he would be a poor, even dangerous commander-in-chief." That's Michael Morrell.

[10:05:13] So let's talk about this. Let's bring in CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto and CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer, he's also a former CIA operative.

Welcome to both of you. I think that many Americans are wondering what exactly are in these secret briefings that will be turned over to these presidential candidates.

Jim, can you help us sort that out?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Carol. I've spoken to the director of National Intelligence, Clapper, about these and he's spoken in public as well. This is, by tradition, goes back to the Truman days where once the candidates are nominated by their conventions they are given one or possibly more briefings. There is classified material in those briefings. It doesn't go so far to the highest levels of classification, what intelligence people refer to as sources and methods, the most secret means of obtaining material, but it does contain classified information on major threats to U.S. national security.

Director Clapper says that he's already lined up the team to do these and that they will be nonpolitical folks. They will be career members of the intelligence committee who will brief the candidates. Basically when their schedules allow. And -- to our knowledge, it hasn't happened yet but it should be happening soon.

COSTELLO: So, Bob, doe the CIA director gathers these briefings? Is that how it works?

ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: They have a briefing staff, Carol, that will go through intelligence of the day and by the time it gets to the candidate, it would be highly sanitized. You know, they can make comments after reading these briefings, and with Trump or even Clinton, you don't know what they're going to say. It's very unlikely they're going to put any sensitive secrets in these briefings.

As Jim said, sources and methods or, you know, highly classified intercepts, SCIs, special compartment intelligence, so they are -- they will be fairly benign. They will be useful to the candidates, make them feel like they're, you know, on the inside but at the end of the day there's not a whole lot of damage they can do with this intelligence.

COSTELLO: So President Obama, Jim, says he's -- I mean, he intimated he's a little worried that Donald Trump will be a part of these security briefings. And I think one of the things he's talking about, you know, Mr. Trump was bragging about seeing that top secret plane, right, in Iran with all the money on it? So I would suspect that the president would say how can voters trust Donald Trump not to brag about the real thing when he brags about this plane that never was?

SCIUTTO: Well, it was interesting to hear the president yesterday because he makes the point both about the intelligence briefings but really about the bigger picture. Can he if he were elected be trusted with these big national security decisions? And yesterday, he didn't even go as far as he had in other interviews where he said straight out that he believe he's unfit to be president.

But what's interesting now is that -- that I've heard and I imagine Bob as well, longtime career CIA officer, I've heard from lower level intelligence officials who are not authorized to speak publicly, who in private will say they're concerned, they're concerned not just about sharing intelligence but also about the bigger picture of national security situation based on some of Donald Trump's public comments.

What you're seeing now is more senior people coming out and saying it. Like a Mike Morrell, for instance, writing about this in public. And what was interesting in that op-ed, Carol, which stood out to me beyond saying he didn't believe he was fit to be president, he said that he -- that Donald Trump is, in effect, in his words, an unwitting agent for the Russian federation. I mean, this is a remarkable -- I mean, in an unprecedented election on so many levels, it's remarkable to hear the former acting director of the CIA in effect accuse a presidential candidate of unwittingly working for a U.S. adversary. It's just remarkable.

COSTELLO: Yes, and Bob, I think that Mike Morrell went on to say that Mr. Putin kind of planted the seed for Mr. Trump to say exactly the things he's saying. Do you believe that?

BAER: You know, I don't know, but the fact that Trump wasn't aware that Russian invaded the Crimea and eastern Ukraine is very troubling. It's also very troubling that an ex-CIA director felt compelled to come out in public. Normally CIA officials just keep their politics to themselves and don't pick a candidate. Especially a professional like Morrell. And that just tells you how nasty this election is getting and man oh man, I have no idea where this is going but as Jim said this is unprecedented.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to bring up Hillary Clinton's -- you know, the FBI director said she mishandled classified information. Trump supporters would say why are we not talking more about that. Jim, is that fair?

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, and CNN has done its own fact checking as we did on Donald Trump's claims about the video and other statements about Hillary Clinton's now repeated claim that the FBI director affirmed that her public statements about her e-mails were accurate.

[10:10:14] In fact what James Comey said was that she did not lie, did not commit perjury in her depositions with the FBI. He did not endorse her public statements about her e-mail use because, in fact, in public, as we've reported, Carol, her statements have changed and the earlier statements turned out, based on the FBI investigation, to be false. For instance, she had said early on that she didn't send or receive any classified information.

We know that not to be true at this point. She had said that the information was not classified at the time that the e-mails were sent. It was classified kind of retroactively. We know that not to be true now. So to say that Comey endorsed Republican statements is just -- is just false.

COSTELLO: So how concerned should voters be about Hillary Clinton and classified information, Bob?

BAER: Listen, frankly, I don't trust Trump or Clinton on classified information. There's always been an arrogance in politics the way this stuff has been treated. There are case after case after case of White Houses, candidates, leaking classified information around and the discipline inside the executive branch is terrible. I say this from a former intelligence officer's perspective. So, I mean, you know, both of them really have to tighten up and get serious about this.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there, Jim Sciutto, Bob Baer, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, an African-American church picks their candidate Donald Trump. Up next, I'm joined by an apostle from the congregation who's facing sharp criticism over his support for Mr. Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:58] COSTELLO: This Sunday, top Donald Trump surrogates are heading to church, more specifically the Antioch Road to Glory International Ministry. It's a predominantly African-American church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Why? Well, the church is hosting a day of endorsement event and the congregation has chosen their candidate, Mr. Donald Trump.

The keynote speakers include his daughter-in-law -- Trump's daughter- in-law, that is, Lara Trump, and Omarosa Manigold, Trump campaign director of African-American Outreach, and we should make clear the ministry is not tax exempt which allows them to have a political event.

So here to talk with me about this is Apostle Thomas Roberts, senior of Antioch Road to Glory International Ministries, and his daughter, Katrina, who serves as the church's secretary.

Welcome to you both.

KATRINA ROGERS, SECRETARY, ANTIOCH ROAD TO GLORY INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES: Thank you, Carol.

THOMAS ROGERS SR, APOSTLE, ANTIOCH ROAD TO GLORY INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. I want to -- I want to begin by reading a recent post from your church about this upcoming event. Quote, "Supporting Hillary is like being with an abusive ex, one that you already know left you broken and wounded. At this point, give the new guy a chance."

So, Pastor Rogers, what do you mean that Hillary Clinton is like an abusive ex?

T. ROGERS To me, I think that she is very dangerous and reckless. And her past track record is a great indication that I don't think she's fit to lead this country and no other country.

COSTELLO: Katrina, why do you think that Hillary Clinton is dangerous for the country?

Just by the policy that she has adopted. More specifically, especially endorsing the three strike crime bill of 1994 that was supported by 99 percent, pretty much all of our Democrats except one. And so we want to break away from more of the same, the politics that's gridlocked in Washington, D.C. instead let's reach out and do something new here.

COSTELLO: And, Pastor, I was curious, why isn't Mr. Trump himself coming to your event?

T. ROGERS Well, I highly recommend him and it would be a medicine to our community to see his face and his family. I think he's a very unique human being. He's strictly business. He's not a politician. And I think we're in need of that. I think we had too much Republicans and Democrats. I think we need an independent mindset such as he has. And he's an acute business man. I have no quarrel with that.

COSTELLO: Katrina, what specifically -- how specifically can Donald Trump help your community?

K. ROGERS: Well, we are endorsing Mr. Trump in hopes that he endorse us. And when I say us, I'm speaking to a demographic of people that has largely been left unrepresented in our communities and so we are looking forward to Mr. Trump endorsing pro Africa-American policies that will help garner and lead us to more job creations, entrepreneurship opportunities, especially with the international connections.

More and more of this world is going to globalization. But more African-Americans is left out of that equation. And so we are appealing to Mr. Trump to put more of these type policies intact.

COSTELLO: Pastor Rogers, some African-Americans are upset that you're having this event in support of Mr. Trump. For example, Joe Lowery wrote on your church's Facebook page, quote, "Trump is a racist misogynistic narcissist who has never and will never care about black people or any people of color or even poor white people. He only cares about himself and maybe his family. He's even indicated his desire to date his own daughter," which is a low blow, I admit.

[10:20:01] "I don't know how much he's paying you or your church for your endorsement, but whatever it is, it's equal to 30 pieces of silver."

Pastor Rogers, how would you respond to that?

T. ROGERS: Well, I respond for that now we're not looking for love. We're looking for space to have our own ambition. We believe we could be a lesson to America. We have the largest community system in the world. And most is African-Americans. We black people and we must point fingers at ourselves, not to Mr. Trump. We are the ones in the '70s and the '60s that corrupt our communities. Husbands leaving their wives, wives leaving their husband. And there's a slogan, the song by Ray Charles, "Hit the Road Jack," don't come in no more, no more, and now we're suffering catastrophically because we follow some vague policies and we're suffering today.

COSTELLO: There were many comments on your Facebook page, Katrina, from people wondering if the Trump people paid you to hold this event. Can you clear that up for them?

K. ROGERS: There was absolutely no exchange of funds, no favors given. We actually reached out to Trump's North Carolina state director Earl Philips, who even prior to him being a state director for Donald Trump, he was the Republican African-American engagement here in Charlotte, North Carolina. And so we had already established a relationship. And I assure you there was no dollars exchanged. No favors given.

This is any attempt like any other attempt during any electoral. They come and visit our churches every two and four years. And so we just open up our doors and said for Mr. Trump that we could identify with certain things and we thought that our agenda could definitely grab hold to presenting ourselves and our vision to him to endorse us as well.

COSTELLO: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Katrina Rogers, and also Apostle Thomas Rogers, Sr., thanks for being with me this morning.

K. ROGERS: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Appreciate it.

K. ROGERS: I appreciate that.

COSTELLO: Yes, you're welcome.

Let's dive a little deeper. With me now John Philips, CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, and S.E. Cupp, CNN political commentator and a Republican.

Welcome to both of you.

JOHN PHILIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi.

COSTELLO: So, John, what do you think about that?

PHILIPS: Well, some of the language that you heard repeated over and over again by the pastor and his daughter was left out and that's language that Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton both used on the campaign trail as they campaigned in the Rust Belt and the rural portions of the country. People are left behind. I'm here to represent those people. The people that have been left out.

Well, Donald Trump needs to answer the question left behind by who. President Obama's been in charge for eight years. Hillary Clinton's essentially running as the third term of the president's agenda. If he is going to put together a winning coalition, it's going to come from the rust belt and the rural south. And he's going to have to target black voters in those areas with the same economic message that he's been targeting white voters.

Those industries are under attack. Those states and those regions have been lagging behind the rest of the country. And they've frankly been ignored by Washington, D.C. COSTELLO: And S.E., I just found it interesting because Donald Trump

has minimal support among African-Americans.

CUPP: Right.

COSTELLO: In some states, he has zero percent support. So --

CUPP: Right. As much as you and I have.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes. So does this come a little too late?

CUPP: Look, the pastor and his daughter made a compelling case. And John is right, you know, there's a lot of people in the African- American community who feel left out. And that some have found some hope in Trump is, I guess, not surprising. But as you point out, in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, he is polling at zero percent with African-Americans. I think nationally he's polling at around 6 percent.

So, you know, the way a Pastor Warren's endorsement might indicate that some kinds of white evangelical voters would be -- would be going in a direction for that kind of candidate, I think the endorsement of this one church in Charlotte, North Carolina might not indicate that Trump is going to do well among African-Americans. He simply is not. And it's a little late in the game to make up the grounds that he would have to with that particular group for small endorsements like this to really matter.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, and I think if you talked to a lot of African-American voters, John, they would bring up things like remember last November Trump retweeted a graphic of false crime statistics comparing percentages of blacks killed by blacks and blacks killed by police. That included an image of a dark skinned man wearing a bandana military style pants, and holding a handgun sideways.

On June 6th, Mr. Trump sought to tout his support among African- Americans by pointing out a black man in the crowd and calling him "my African-American."

[10:25:05] African-American -- you know, words matter and they linger.

PHILIPS: Yes, I hope part of the intervention that's going to go down this weekend is going to involve giving Donald Trump my Internet connection because that way he won't be able to sign on to Twitter and retweet these things. But look, I think there is room for Trump to run with here He has very acrimonious relationship with the Republican establishment. The Republican establishment has a bad relationship with black voters.

If Donald Trump were to go to black voters and say, look, I'm an honest broker here, the Republican establishment hates me just as much as the Washington, D.C. establishment, so let's go ahead and see if we can work together and work on these economic issues that have been destroying the regions that many of you live in.

CUPP: God, John, that sounds great, but the problem is -- Trump has three problems. One -- for this particular demography. One, of course, Obama is popular in general and specifically with African- Americans and many are going to vote for Hillary Clinton because President Obama endorsed her.

Two, you can't run a campaign that is acutely targeting white nationalists pretending not to know who David duke is and hope that African-Americans didn't hear that and see that. They did. But the third thing is I've talked to leaders in African-American communities and activists and they've said simply look, for many African-Americans we are hurting. We're hurting economically. We're hurting culturally, socially. For all of the reasons and the stories we've been covering in the past few years.

And to them, Donald Trump simply looks like an insensitive clown. Someone who's incompetent. Someone who's not the right temperament to deal with these kinds of very serious, very complex cultural problems that befallen many in African-American communities. So again, like everyone else, Donald Trump's temperament is really the key to his -- you know, his lack of success in the polls in various kinds of communities.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. John Philips, S.E. Cupp, thanks to both of you.

PHILIPS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

July's positive jobs report gives a boost to the stock market this morning. You see it dumped 142 points right now. Straight ahead, Christine Romans will break down the numbers. I'll be back.

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