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Donald Trump's Claims of Possible Election Cheating in Pennsylvania Examined; Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Release Tax Returns, Call for Donald Trump to Release Tax Returns; America Nears 1,000 Olympic Gold Medal Milestone; Flooding Hits Parts of Louisiana; Brazilian Wins Gold Medal in Judo. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired August 13, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


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[10:00:15] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only way week lose, in my opinion, I really mean this, Pennsylvania, is if cheating goes on.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: This is the biggest load of bull I ever heard.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He refuses to do what every other presidential candidate in decades has done and release his tax returns.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lots of the folks out here say they did not expect it to happen this way. They thought they'd get a rain and some flooding maybe up to their front porches. Terrifying scene out here in Saint Helena Parish, and at this point more rain to come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael Phelps making Olympics history again. Breakout star Simone Manuel also making history, becoming the first African-American woman to ever win an individual swimming event.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, and welcome to Saturday. We're so grateful for your company as always. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. CNN Newsroom begins right now.

PAUL: And we want to begin with the 2016 campaign. New polls from battleground states across the nation showing a potential uphill climb for Donald Trump now. Hillary Clinton holding leads in Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. That's according to NBC, "The Wall Street Journal," and Marist. Trump's poll problems do not end there. CNN's Chris Frates digging into the numbers. Chris, I know that you are focusing, as they are, on Pennsylvania with this report.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, but first let's take a look at the rough couple of weeks Donald Trump's had. They seem to be playing out in all the polls. In the recent NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll it shows Clinton leading in those four key battleground states. In Florida she's up five, North Carolina up nine, Virginia, Clinton's leading by 13, and in Colorado, she's riding a little bit of a rocky mountain high, leading Trump by 14 points.

Now, Trump, who you all know is a huge fan of polls when he's leading in them, has taken to arguing the system is rigged when he's behind. Last night in Pennsylvania Trump again argued that the only way he could lose the state is if there's funny business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only way we can lose in my opinion, I really mean this, Pennsylvania, is if cheating goes on. The only way they can beat it, in my opinion and I mean this 100 percent, if in certain sections of the state they cheat, OK? So I hope you people can sort of not just vote on the 8th. Go around and look and watch other polling places and make sure that it's 100 percent fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Trump provided no evidence that there's any cheating going on in Pennsylvania. In fact the accusation comes as Trump is badly lagging in the polls there against Hillary Clinton. And that's a state that's critical if Trump's going to win the White House.

A recent Quinnipiac poll of likely Pennsylvania voters shows Clinton beating Trump by 10 points, as you can see there, 52 percent to 42 percent. And today, Trump's campaigning in Connecticut, which like Pennsylvania hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since, wait for it, 1988. But unlike the keystone state where Trump is hoping to win by appealing to working class white voters, Connecticut is a pretty solidly blue state. So with Trump lagging Clinton in those key battleground states we just talked about, the decision for his campaign to go to Connecticut today raised a lot of eye brows. But Trump's campaign guys, really insisting that they think Connecticut is in play.

PAUL: All right, Chris Frates, good to see you, thank you, sir.

FRATES: You're welcome.

BLACKWELL: For more now, let's bring in Donald Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson. Katrina, good morning to you.

KATRINA PIERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESPERSON: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: So Donald Trump says, you heard there, the only way he loses Pennsylvania is if there is cheating. I've had two other Trump supporters on, I think you know them well, Amy Kremer and Scottie Hughes, and neither was able to decisively say whether he was being sarcastic with that comment or if he was being sincere. Which is it?

PIERSON: I think he was at a rally, again, talking to his supporters. And he meant it. He was feeling like there has been voter fraud in the past. There have been election board members in Pennsylvania that have been arrested. And just on Monday -- and we haven't seen this reported yet -- but ABC reported there is a potential problem with the electronic voting machines. And they cited a document released by the Brennan Justice Center. And there could be a problem there.

BLACKWELL: So Donald Trump was sincere in this statement that the only way they can beat him is if Democrats cheat?

PIERSON: He did say "I feel." So this was a moment --

BLACKWELL: But he always said "and I mean this 100 percent." So if a man, any man whether he's running for president or sitting across the table says "I mean this 100 percent" should we not assume that he's being sincere?

[10:05:06] PIERSON: Well, yes, Mr. Trump feels like he absolutely has the edge in Pennsylvania regardless of the polls have come out. And you did mention the polls earlier. We have seen CNBC leave out the weighting of the political affiliation in the parties. And we've seen that in this poll as well.

BLACKWELL: So what's the evidence he has that if he loses it's because they cheated?

PIERSON: There is no evidence because the election hasn't occurred yet.

BLACKWELL: Well, then why make the comment? If Donald Trump has no evidence, why make the claim?

PIERSON: Because it is a concern that there is election fraud, particularly with the electronic voting machines. Like I said ABC reported this just on Monday. And it's a concern we should all be worried about as Americans.

BLACKWELL: But that's what Donald Trump said. Donald Trump didn't say that I'm concerned that there will be something awry in November. What he said the only way -- let me directly quote him because I don't want to paraphrase. "The only way we can lose in my opinion, I really mean this, Pennsylvania, is if cheating goes on." He says "The only way they can beat it, in my opinion, and I mean this 100 percent, is in certain sections of the state they cheat." He's not just concerned. He's saying this is the only route to a loss for him. There's a difference there.

PIERSON: He also said, and you just quoted him, "in my opinion" because there is a concern with the electronic voting machines. And I just told you that there have been election board officials of the state of Pennsylvania that were arrested for tampering with voter machines. This is not far-fetched. Election fraud in this country has been a concern for a very long time which has not properly been addressed. And I think we should address it.

BLACKWELL: But it isn't something that's widespread. You know that. The statistics show that. But let's move on to another topic. PIERSON: If one county can determine an election, then that will be a

problem.

BLACKWELL: Let's move on to another topic. I want to go to Mr. Trump's discussion of Barack Obama as the founder of ISIS yesterday and his sarcasm. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So I said they're the founder of ISIS. Obviously I'm being sarcastic. Then, then -- but not that sarcastic, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Sarcastic but not that sarcastic, again, which is it? Was he being sarcastic or was he not being sarcastic?

PIERSON: I guess it depends on interpreter. Of course it was sarcasm because he obviously didn't mean that Barack or Hillary Clinton founded ISIS in the literal sense. In other words, they didn't file the paperwork of incorporation. But he does mean that their polices, and if you play out that entire discussion, he talks about those policies that absolutely gave rise to the formation of ISIS. This is something that General Flynn had reported in August, 2012. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ignored the DIA report which told them, if you arm the resistance, you will feed ISIS and an Islamic state was formed. He said this wasn't a blind eye. This was willful ignoring of the intelligence.

BLACKWELL: You know that ISIS actually started in 2004 with AQI, Al Qaeda in Iraq, and then morphed in 2006 the Islamic State in Iraq. This is not something that started during the Obama administration. There is an argument to be made and I think in these conversations on television many people have said there is a path there for Donald Trump. But he's saying that he was sarcastic but not that sarcastic about something that happened in 2004.

PIERSON: If you're moving into -- if you want to go way back, we can look at the troop surge. And after 2007, Al Qaeda was essential in ashes. It was Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who then destroyed the entire rollout by wanting to pull out early, announcing their plans, ignoring intelligence. And that is the reason why ISIS is a global issue and not a --

BLACKWELL: I'm sorry, Barack Obama in 2004, is that what you said?

PIERSON: No, I said afterwards. After the surge when Al Qaeda was in ashes, entering Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- remember we weren't even in Afghanistan by this time. Barack Obama went into Afghanistan creating another problem. It was Hillary Clinton and her incidents in Libya which was also a reckless decision to create that vacuum. They armed the rebels and are even funding them now.

BLACKWELL: OK, so you're saying Barack Obama took the country into Afghanistan post-2009, is that what you're saying? PIERSON: What I'm saying is, the policy --

BLACKWELL: You just said we weren't in Afghanistan.

PIERSON: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- that was Obama's war, yes.

BLACKWELL: OK.

PIERSON: Mr. Trump is saying --

BLACKWELL: We've got --

PIERSON: -- the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ignoring intelligence created the hotbed for global terrorists to travel the world under the name of ISIS.

BLACKWELL: All right, Katrina, thank you. Stay with us. We've got more questions here. We're going to do this for another block.

[10:10:03] Katrina Pierson, spokeswoman for the Trump campaign staying with us. We'll be right back.

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BLACKWELL: Katrina Pierson, spokeswoman for the Donald Trump campaign is back with us. Now, Katrina, I just want to, for factual sake, for the sake of just correct information, when you said that Barack Obama took the country into Afghanistan, it was not during, of course, as you know during the Obama administration when we first went into Afghanistan.

PIERSON: No.

BLACKWELL: It was shortly after --

PIERSON: We're talking about ISIS specifically.

BLACKWELL: OK, but your statement was that Barack Obama took us into Afghanistan and it was his war. It was President Bush who took the country into Afghanistan shortly after 9/11. But I want to get to --

PIERSON: I thought we were talking about the founding of ISIS. ISIS came out of the Obama side of the war. Is that not a fact?

BLACKWELL: No, it is not a fact, because in 2004 as I stated in the last segment that AQI, Al Qaeda in Iraq was started by al Zarqawi, and then in 2006 it morphed into the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

PIERSON: Absolutely. And after the surge -- but, also, Victor --

BLACKWELL: But in 2004, we weren't --

PIERSON: This was also Obama saying that they were the jayvee team. Again, the incompetence of even recognizing the threat while he was in office and then to make it worse, going into Libya and creating a vacuum, leaving all of those weapons behind, essentially arming the enemy?

BLACKWELL: I hear that argument, but that's not the argument that Donald Trump has been making. He has made over the last several days that Barack Obama was the founder of ISIS and then said it was sarcastic. He's put his supporters and his surrogates, as we saw this morning, in a really difficult place, not knowing when he's being sincere, when he's being sarcastic. I want you to watch over the last two weeks some of the acrobats some supporters have had to go through on CNN. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:15:02] TRUMP: ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS. He's the founder of ISIS

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The point that he's trying to make is the contrast that exists --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan, who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the constitution, which is false, and say many other inaccurate things." The First Amendment to the constitution allows Mr. Khan the right to stand on stage and say whatever he wants. Why would Mr. Trump say he doesn't have that right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not what Mr. Trump is saying at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what the statement said.

TRUMP: If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know.

RUDY GIULIANI, (R) FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is," could mean you can vote against her. That is exactly what he meant.

TRUMP: The tape is of the people, taking the money of the plane, right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes.

ANDRE BAUER, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I would think if he makes that claim, surely he's got a tape to back it up. But again, I have no idea.

TRUMP: He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine. You can mark it down. You can put it down.

CARL HIGBEE, TRUMP SUPPORTER: He doesn't always say things perfectly. He speaks from the heart, he speaks from the gut emotion that he has right there. But I think what we saw here was the fact that Trump says when I'm president. He cleared it up in a tweet. He's done this before.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLACKWELL: So you see there, and that's just the last two weeks that we've gone through where Donald Trump has said something that was either unclear or just flat out untrue in the case of a $400 million on a pallet going to Iran, and he's leaving his supporters to figure that out. But is that not dangerous for a president to not be clear, to be concise. Sarcasm, does it have rightly place in the Oval Office?

PIERSON: Well, it depends if you're the media interpreting a Republican or a Democrat. When Hillary Clinton was asked about wiping her server clean, she asked what, with a cloth? And I didn't see any follow up questions on that. And Mr. Trump, when he says these things, he says "I feel," and he sometimes he is being sarcastic because at some of these rallies and events that just him and his supporters and they are having a good time. You don't see that kind of discussion when Mr. Trump is giving an actual policy discussion like he'll be giving on Monday. And again, this was the media taking little things he says to try to fit the agenda and the narrative to paint Mr. Trump --

BLACKWELL: Those weren't reporters who were having difficulty understanding and conveying what Donald Trump was saying. Those were his own supporters.

PIERSON: They were trying to defend against what the media had created for them. You know, it was quite interesting this week when Mr. Trump initially made that statement and the CNN banner says --

BLACKWELL: Which one?

PIERSON: -- "Trump says Obama is responsible for ISIS," in parentheses, "He's not," parentheses. I had to double check to make sure it said "CNN" instead of "ONN." That's the kind of cover CNN that particularly CNN has been giving Hillary Clinton because we're talking about what Donald Trump may or may not have said sarcastically. But we just found out that three FBI field offices wanted to investigate the Clinton Foundation. She leaves the campaign trail, and we're still talking about sarcasm. Nobody is forcing Hillary Clinton or the campaign to address the problems of the Clinton Foundation.

BLACKWELL: Katrina, we have had that conversation all morning. But I think it's important in the conversation about that banner across the bottom of the screen, that at that point Donald Trump was given the opportunity to say that this is a figure of speech, that I'm saying he enabled ISIS. But he on the Hugh Hewitt show, and you know the recoding well, I watched you listen to it on cable news, pushed back against that and said, "Yes, I mean that he is the founder." So in the interest of accuracy, we say --

PIERSON: Figuratively, not literally.

BLACKWELL: Nobody knew that until he --

PIERSON: Like I said, this is figuratively, not literally. I really don't think anybody outside the media or the pundit class really thought, like I said, Barack Obama went and papers of incorporation for ISIS. That's not what anybody else thought.

But again, this is something that CNN specifically wants to focus on because they don't want to as much time talking to real threats to national security like Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal or the corruption that has gone on with the Clinton Foundation receiving millions of dollars from hostile nations to this country. Let's look at the time spent on each, and we can discuss.

BLACKWELL: You know what, you bring up an important point. You talked about the money coming into the Clinton Foundation. And this week, we saw Donald Trump, he said he's a chart person, he held up a chart at an event, I believe it was in Florida. Guys, do we have that picture of Donald Trump holding up this chart? Yes, this -- we have the video of Donald Trump holding up a chart here. Can you tell us where this chart came from, and if the campaign created this themselves?

[10:20:02] PIERSON: I can't see the chart that you're referring to. But, again, I will say that when you start focusing on both candidates evenly, then we can have a proper discussion instead of constantly picking out pieces of words that Mr. Trump says at a rally and creating a headline around it and a false outrage, because this election is not being treated fairly. Mr. Trump is not being treated fairly. And I think that's why we're seeing the ratings drop.

BLACKWELL: Katrina, you are the spokeswoman for the Donald Trump campaign. Clearly I'm going to ask you questions about Donald Trump when you're on with me, right? I expected you --

PIERSON: Absolutely, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Anytime you've asked me come on I've come on and answered every single question. Hillary Clinton's campaign cannot say the same.

BLACKWELL: I don't want to go forward with this question about this sign because I understand you don't have a monitor there, do you?

PIERSON: No, I don't.

BLACKWELL: OK, so I don't want to continue with that because that would be unfair to have her answer questions about that. But I do want you to listen to something that Donald Trump said this week about judges. He said this in Fayetteville.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We are going to appoint justices. You know, I named 11 people that are highly, highly vetted, highly vetted for Heritage and different people and gone tough different people that I respect, conservative people, smart people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump said highly, highly vetted, Heritage, different people. His Heritage part of the qualifications that Donald Trump -- he implied, that he will use to pick justices. PIERSON: I think it's one of many organizations that have vetted a

lot of these judges that Mr. Trump personally went through and chose. It is a foundation that is highly respected among conservatives because we do want to make sure we have conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.

BLACKWELL: OK, so he's talking about the Heritage Foundation there.

PIERSON: Yes.

BLACKWELL: OK. All right, Katrina Pierson, spokeswoman for the Donald Trump campaign, thanks so much.

PIERSON: Great to be here. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Sure.

PAUL: All right, let's talk Olympics here. Michael Phelps set to make his final splash tonight. Coy Wire is live in Rio for us. Hi, Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Today is the last day we'll see the great Michael Phelps in an Olympic pool, And that's where the U.S. has been dominating. And 29 of 51 American medals right there. Coming up we'll talk about that and more on new day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:35] PAUL: Guess what, the U.S. is leading in the medal count so far ahead of rival China by a dozen medals at this point. Tonight Michael Phelps brings his Olympic career to a close in Rio as Katie Ledecky shows us what the next generation of U.S. swimming dominance could look like. Cory Wire watching all the action joining us live from Copacabana Beach. Wait a minute, I'm getting a number, I'm being told a number of 997 gold medals. That's what the U.S. has secured?

WIRE: That's right. We're getting close to a milestone. We'll talk about that, Christi. But Katie Ledecky, we have to talk about her first. A once in a lifetime talent, and I met with her before she came to Rio. And I was so impressed with her vision. She wouldn't reveal her goals, but after winning her fourth Rio gold last night she said that in the lights leading up to the event she would lie in bed thinking about the last four years, the sacrifice, the fun she's had and she'd start to cry.

Last night she shattered her own world record of 800 meter freestyle, finishing over 11 seconds ahead of the silver medal swimmer. Guys she could have hopped out of the pool, Usain Bolt could have ran a 100 meter dash, and the others swimmers still wouldn't have been finished. Katie Ledecky now with six Olympic golds, 13 world records smashed in her young career, outstanding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE LEDECKY, SWIMMER: It was my last swim here, and I had to leave it all in the pool. I just wanted to have a lot of fun with it, soaking up my last Olympic race. To be in front of a crowd like this and at the Olympics, it's the pinnacle of our sport. And I have to wait another four years to have the moment again. So I'm so happy with how the whole week has gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, let's talk Michael Phelps. Take a look at this photo. That's Joseph Schooling of Singapore eight years ago smiling with his idol Michael Phelps. Last night it was Schooling who beat his idol in the final individual race of Phelps's illustrious Olympic career, Phelps finishing in a three way tie for silver while Joseph Schooling won Singapore their first ever gold medal. Phelps can still end his career with gold, though, in the men's 100 meter medley relay. That is tonight. But how about that story for Schooling?

Anthony Ervin, he's a 35 year old man and he has now become the oldest individual gold medalist in Olympic swimming history. Last night he wins his second gold in the men's 50 meter freestyle. He can be called the world's fastest man in the pool again. But talk about longevity. He won his first gold in this even 16 years ago at the 2000 summer games in Sydney. And listen to this. Anthony doesn't even have that first gold medal anymore. He auctioned it off for $17,000 several years ago, donating the money to a tsunami relief fund.

Finally that fun fact we're talking about for you. The United States just three gold medals shy of reaching the 1,000 mark. See Christi, Victor, we could witness that historic landmark being achieved here in Rio, a millennial of gold medals for the United States.

PAUL: Awesome. Coy Wire, thank you so much. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Christi, thank you, Coy.

Still to coming, Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine released their taxes, tell Donald Trump now it's your turn. But so far he is not releasing any information about his personal tax returns.

PAUL: All right, Democrats hacked again, this time personal information is released.

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[10:32:43] PAUL: Welcome back. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

PAUL: Democrats are reeling from another hack we've learned. This time a trove of personal information is released. It's affecting Democratic House members and their staffers. Apparently, they have seen their cellphone numbers, private e-mail addresses, even online account logins released. Claiming credit, a hacker who goes by the name of Guccifer 2.0. That's apparently the same hacker that uploaded 20,000 DNC e-mails to WikiLeaks.

BLACKWELL: The Clinton-Kaine team is taking aim at Donald Trump over taxes. The Democratic candidates released tax returns on Friday as they hope to force Donald Trump's hand on the issue. Kaine even jabbed Trump on Twitter, saying this, "Just released my tax returns, @RealDonaldTrump. Where are yours?" CNN's Pamela Brown has more.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christi and Victor. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine released their tax returns on Friday, making the case they have nothing to hide, unlike Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Christi Hillary Clinton is keeping the pressure on onald Trump d| release his tax returns.

CLINTON: He refuses to do what every other presidential candidate in decades has done and release his tax returns.

BROWN: Clinton and her husband Bill released their 2015 tax returns which showed he raked in $10.6 million last year when she was running for president, much less than the nearly $28 million they made in 2014. They paid roughly a third of their income to Uncle Sam, $3.2 million, making their effective take rate, 30.6 percent, on par with their 32 percent effect rate in 2014. At the same time the campaign disclosed 10 years of returns from running mate, Tim Kaine, and his wife Ann Holton. They reported about $313,000 in income and paid nearly $63,000 in federal taxes for an effect rate of 20 percent. The Clinton campaign says now it's Trump's turn.

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will only really know if he's a real deal or a phony if he releases his returns.

BROWN: It's part of a coordinated effort by the campaign that includes a new web video featuring prominent Republicans calling on Trump to release his campaigns.

MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: For the last 30 or 40 years every candidate for president has released their tax returns, and I think Donald Trump should as well.

[10:35:04] SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He doesn't want to do it because presumably there's something in there that is bad.

BROWN: Trump says he'll release his returns once an IRS audit is complete.

TRUMP: Well, look, I'm in a routine audit, and every lawyer tells you, including Greta, who is a lawyer, but she said when you're under a routine audit you don't give your tax returns.

BROWN: As Clinton urges transparency on tax returns she is still not releasing transcripts from her paid speeches, a point that Bernie Sanders seized on during the Democrat primary and Trump could revive.

BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am going to release all of the transcripts of the speeches that I gave on Wall Street behind closed doors. Not for $225,000, not $2,000, for two cents. There were no speeches. (APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Clinton has said she'll release her speech transcripts when Donald Trump does. Meantime, the returns out Friday showed 10 percent of the Clinton's income went to charitable contributions and most of that, $1 million, was donated to the private Clinton Family Foundation. Christi and Victor?

PAUL: All right, Pam, thank you so much.

Peter Navarro, economist and Trump policy advisor with us now as well as Bernard Whitman, a former Clinton pollster and author of "52 Reasons to Vote for Hillary." Gentleman, thank you both for being here.

PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP POLICY ADVISER: Good morning.

PAUL: Good morning. So Peter, I'd like to start with you, if I could. Trump we know could release charitable contributions, he could release his income, he could release his tax rate, he could release something that might tamp down some of these questions. Wouldn't that put it to rest without having to release the full IRS -- the full tax rate form?

NAVARRO: Let me ask you a question, give me an honest answer to this h. Do you think Tim and Hillary released their tax returns on Friday to divert attention from corruption from the Clinton Foundation and their failed economic plan?

PAUL: I don't know. I'm not in their head. I don't work for their campaign.

NAVARRO: You don't know? Here's the thing, this election is becoming a battle over who controls the news cycle rather than a discussion over the serious issues --

PAUL: But this is a tradition --

NAVARRO: Is that not a fair point?

PAUL: I'm sorry?

NAVARRO: Well, here's the difference between Donald Trump and all the other presidential candidates that have run in the last 50 years. He's self-funding his campaign. That's very different. What does that mean? It means a couple things. It means that he's not beholden to special interests that are paying Bill Clinton $10,000 --

PAUL: But that's fine. Then why not release some numbers, release anything?

NAVARRO: Hear me out. Hear me out. The second part of is -- I know this from personal political experience -- what the Kaine and Clinton are trying to do is have him release his tax returns so they find out how much money he has and thereby strategically understand how much money he can spend through November. That's what's going on here besides all of the bad press you want to give him for all of this.

But I would plead with the journalists here, that let's talk about the economy. We've got over 20 million people that can't find a good job and a decent wage. We haven't seen our income rise for 15 years. We've got the worst recovery since the World War II, and all the news cycle is doing talking about things the American people don't care about --

PAUL: Peter --

NAVARRO: Here's the most important thing about the tax plan. We have the tax plan of the two candidates released this week. That's more important than tax returns being released. And what do we know? We know Hillary Clinton wants to raise taxes. And increase government spending to stimulate the economy. We know Donald Trump wants to cut taxes and increase business investigation and trade to stimulate the economy.

PAUL: Peter, OK, Peter --

NAVARRO: There's an interesting conversation to have there.

PAUL: Go ahead, Bernard.

NAVARRO: Who is the --

BERNARD WHITMAN, AUTHOR, "52 REASONS TO VOTE FOR HILLARY": Peter, please. Let's call a spade a spade. This is beyond obvious.

NAVARRO: Who is this talking?

WHITMAN: The American people, two-thirds of the American people, 67 percent, want the presidential candidates to release their tax returns, 80 percent of voters say if someone does not release their tax returns it's likely to have something significant to hide. Half of Donald Trump supporters want him to release their tax returns. So why isn't he?

The answer is obvious. He's obviously hiding something. What could he possibly be hiding? Perhaps he's not as rich as he actually claims to be. Perhaps he actually pays little or even no taxes. Actually he didn't pay any taxes for a number of years back in the 70s and 80s. Perhaps his charitable contributions are low or maybe zero. Or is perhaps he gets a lot of income or is terribly indebted to Russian businesses and Russian oligarchs.

(CROSSTALK)

PAUL: Gentlemen, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We can't hear anybody over anybody else. So please let me get in here for a second.

[10:40:00] WHITMAN: Excuse me, Peter, you went on a diatribe, so let me talk. This actually started 40 years. Every single presidential candidate for 43 years has released their tax returns, starting, by the way, with Richard Nixon, who was under audit when he released his tax returns.

PAUL: All right, so Bernard and Peter, please wait just one moment because what this comes down to is transparency. CNN just recently had a poll about who is honest and trustworthy. Take a look at what it showed -- 64 percent of the people believe both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not honest or trustworthy. Donald Trump, if we can play this out, I think we have the sound bite here, Donald Trump made this in a sense, the release of tax records part of the conversation. Let's listen to what he had to say a short while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So you know if you're running, at a minimum, probably you're going to have to show your returns.

If you didn't see the tax returns you would think there's almost like something wrong, what's wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Peter, those are his own words. This is why it's important.

NAVARRO: I understand.

PAUL: It's about transparency. It's about honesty. And this is a characteristic both of these candidates are solely and wholly deficit in. So if you know that releasing something would help, why wouldn't you?

NAVARRO: I've told you -- I don't know how many times I can tell you the reason why this conversation is taking place right now is because Tim and Hillary threw chum in the water to journalists on Friday to divert their attention. And everybody jumped on to it so we're not talking about the real story of the week, which was the two economic plans.

And second of all, again from appearance experience, Donald Trump, they're trying to figure out how much money he has to spend on the election through November. Strategically it would be a bad move for him to release those returns. It's the art of the deal and he's not a stupid man. He's a smart man. Now, the --

PAUL: Bernard, we've got a minute left -- Peter, I've got a minute left and I want to give Bernard --

NAVARRO: The Clinton Foundation, the Clinton initiative and all that corruption selling pay to play --

WHITMAN: Peter, Peter --

PAUL: I want to give Bernard a chance to respond. Go ahead.

WHITMAN: Peter, calm down and stop spinning this. The answer is --

PAUL: Nobody can hear anything is everybody is talking. Bernard, go ahead. You get the last word. NAVARRO: You're being disrespectful.

WHITMAN: The fact is Richard Nixon under audit released his tax returns and famously said the people have a right to know if their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. Guess what, he actually ended owing half a million dollars in 1973 as a result of that audit which in today's would be $2.5 million. He was a crook and Donald Trump probably is too.

PAUL: All right, Peter Navarro, Bernard Whitman --

WHITMAN: Whoa, that's polite.

PAUL: Thank you so much for the very spirited conversation. We appreciate it.

WHITMAN: Thank you.

NAVARRO: Take care.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the emergency that's happening in Louisiana. The record rainfall, deadly flash floods are pummeling parishes in the southern part of the state. We're going to take you there.

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BLACKWELL: Breaking news now, rescue operations happening right now across parts of southeast Louisiana. Dangerous floodwaters are continuing to rise. In the last 24 hours dozens of people he been pulled from their homes, their cars, people have held on to tree branches for rescue. In Livingston Parish, the first responders themselves were forced to evacuate when a 911 center was flooded. They've continued taking calls at another location. Already the flooding has claimed at least three lives. One man is missing. He was washed away by the waters. And look at this video. The force of the water so strong here it swept this semi off the road. The driver did get out safely there.

CNN's Boris Sanchez is following the latest for us. Boris, get us up to date.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Victor. Yes, the rain is still coming down. It actually picked up from the last hour that we saw you. We were in this neighborhood in Louisiana, and just a few moments ago this road was almost impossible. Now the water is starting to clear out.

And if you look at that mailbox that's right there in front of the house, you see the debris line. That's how the water was. So a lot of these homes were certainly inundated. The concern now is that all of this water is heading south. And so for all the towns that are down there, all this cumulative water is headed that way.

I actually want to introduce you to a neighbor now. This is Ray (ph). He lives in this neighborhood. Ray, thanks so much for speaking to us. I understand you had to leave your home at midnight last night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got out of here right at midnight last night. It was about a half inch from coming into my house, my brother's house. You can tell right here, a friend of mine right here, he got about 24 to 28 inches of water in his house. He hasn't made it back yet. I've been on the phone talking with him. My daughter's house right across the street from mine, she's got the best we can tell is approximately about 30 to 36 inches in hers. The house over here on the corner right here, got 12 inches, I talked to them. One next to it, eight to ten inches.

SANCHEZ: Were you prepared for this? Did you plan for this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, nobody was prepared for it. The rain slacked off yesterday and the sun came out for a little while. And my neighbor right here called me and said, man, look out at the street. I looked out and the water was rushing in. I know you all heard this before, but it came up so fast we didn't realize it.

SANCHEZ: It's a good thing you're OK. The other question I had, I heard you say the weather is not cooperating. In 1983 there were record floods here. Have you seen anything like this before or since then?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we ain't never seen anything like this. This is our first time, first dealing with it. We have only been living here for a little over two years. And people that's told us after we built our house in here that they have saw the water up to Duncan Avenue passed us this way, but we've never experienced it, never experienced it at all. I have a weather station at my house, just put it up about two weeks ago. And we recorded in a 24 hour period yesterday 21.55 inches of rain yesterday.

SANCHEZ: Ray, thank you so much for talking to us. Glad your family is OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: So Victor, as you can tell, the rain is still coming down, it's expected to continue for at least 36 hours. So the recovery is certainly going to take a while.

BLACKWELL: Damaging and dangerous there. Meteorologists here say that the rain will continue for at least the next day and a half. Boris Sanchez, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

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[10:53:50] BLACKWELL: We want you to meet this week's CNN Hero. There are lots of organizations that help the homeless by providing food, shelter, medical supplies. But what about washing their clothes? Nicholas Marchesi could not find any group helping with that, so he and a friend turned a van into Australia's first mobile Laundromat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICHOLAS MARCHESI, CNN HERO: Most people take for granted putting on a fresh clean set of clothes on. For someone who is sleeping rough and who really doesn't have access to washing and drying their clothes, it's something that's continually overlooked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Great idea. Marchesi's group travels every day to nine cities across Australia. So what's the next stop? The United States. You can watch his story at CNNHeroes.com, and while you're there nominate someone you think should be a 2016 CNN hero.

She was raised in the city of God, a slum in Rio de Janeiro made famous by the 2002 movie showing its drugs and violence.

PAUL: Now this notorious favela is back in the spotlight for a very different reason. It's home to first Brazilian gold medalist of the Olympic Games, judo master Rafaela Silva. CNN's Shasta Darlington shares the story.

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[10:55:04] SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So how does it feel to be the first Brazilian to bring home the gold medal right here at home?

RAFAELA SILVA, BRAZILIAN GOLD MEDALIST IN JUDO (via translator): I'm very happy. This is my second Olympics, and I won a gold medal at home with all the fans hoping for me to win. My friends and family knowing everything I've gone through and how hard I fought for his and to come out with a medal.

DARLINGTON: But tell me, what did happen at London?

SILVA: I was eliminated in the second round. I suffered prejudice and racism on social media. They said that the place for a monkey was in a cage, not in the Olympics, that I wasn't better than anyone because I'm black, that I brought shame on my family, that judo wasn't for me. I even thought about abandoning judo. To those who criticized me I wanted to show that this is what sport is. Sometimes you're on top, sometimes you're on the bottom.

DARLINGTON: You're a woman, you were born in a favela, and you're gay. You faced a lot of procedure in your life.

SILVA: I'm a human being like anyone else, with two arms and two legs. Just because I'm black or I don't money or because I have a girlfriend doesn't mean I'm better or worse than anyone. I think this medal is important to show people who still don't understand that.

DARLINGTON: So when you see the headlines, the girl from the favela, does it bother you or does it make you feel proud?

SILVA: It makes me proud. They think that just because a child is born in the favela they're not going to have anything, they're not going to be anyone in life. I had an opportunity and that was judo. I think it shows kids who live in the communities they too can be a Rafaela, they can conquer the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Good for her.

Thank you so much for sharing your time with us this morning.

BLACKWELL: There's much more ahead in the next hour of CNN Newsroom. We're going to hand it off to Fredricka Whitfield right after this break.

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