Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Trump and Clinton Shift Into High Gear on Labor Day; Sanders: Clinton Should Cut Ties with Clinton Foundation; Clinton to Travel with Media on New Plane Today; Carson Gives Alternative to Mexico Funding Wall; Trump Camp Tries to Clarify Deportation Stance; Trump Targets "Lying" Clinton On Twitter; No Deal On Syria As Obama And Putin Meet; Obama: I Don't Doubt Kaepernick's Sincerity. Aired 9-9:30a Et

Aired September 5, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:10] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will go all in on Labor's Day, both candidates now shifting into high gear as they zero in on key battleground states like Ohio.

With just 64 days until the election, Trump and Clinton are now in the home stretch and they know it. Any minute now, we are expecting Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine and Vice President Joe Bidden to make remarks in Pittsburgh while Bill Clinton tries to court union voters in Detroit.

Hillary Clinton also trading in her private jet for a bigger plane. There it is. She's debuting this plane today. It will have enough room for her traveling press core. And for the first time since July 31st, Mrs. Clinton will sit down with a reporter and answer questions face-to-face.

As for Donald Trump, his campaign, now struggling to get on the same page when it comes to immigration policy. We're covering all the angles with our team of political reporters.

We have a producer now getting ready to board that plane, Mrs. Clinton's plane. We'll check in with him in just a minute, but first, let's begin with CNN's Senior Political Correspondent Brianna Keilar. Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. You said it there, Hillary Clinton is going to be honoring Labor Day today. She'll be in Ohio and Illinois. But another thing happening today that is noteworthy is that Bernie Sanders is doing his first solo event campaigning for Hillary Clinton. He's actually got two events in New Hampshire.

And you remember, back during the primary season, he crushed Hillary Clinton there. So he's lending some of his neighborly Vermont help to her in the hopes that she can best Donald Trump in New Hampshire.

But some of his comments are getting a lot of interest because he is someone who criticized her during the primary process for her involvement with the Clinton foundation. Many of his followers felt that there was something unseemly about the influence that donors might have because they donated to the Clinton Foundation.

Bernie Sanders would not say that Hillary Clinton, if she's President, should shutter the Foundation, but he did say this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (D) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I would certainly suggest that as President of the United States, she should cease all operations, all contact with the Clinton Foundation.

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC HOST: Does that mean shutting it down or just not being involved? Can you truly have a --

SANDERS: So at the very least, she should -- yes, at the very least, she should not be involved, at the very least.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, Sanders had been very critical of the foundation and its foreign donations that were accepted while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. This is something, Carol, that has given fodder to the Trump campaign.

You had Jason Miller, the spokesman for Donald Trump saying, when Bernie Sanders and "The New York Times" say the Clinton Foundation presents an unacceptable conflict of interest, it shows just how badly compromised a Hillary Clinton presidency would be.

But it is essential, Carol, for Hillary Clinton to get some of the support from Bernie Sanders' followers, the more progressives and the young people that she really needs to come out and vote for her as you see polls tightening especially in these key battleground states.

COSTELLO: I sure do. Brianna Keilar reporting live from Washington, thank you. As I told you at the top of the hour, next hour, Clinton's new campaign jet is expected to depart for Ohio. It will mark the first time this cycle that Clinton will be traveling on the same plane as the press.

So joining me now on the phone, CNN Political Producer Dan Merica, he's at the Westchester County Airport. He's been covering Clinton for years now, so. So, Dan, just explain the set up on board that plane.

DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: So, yes, this is 17 months after Clinton launched campaign in New York City, she will begin flying with her campaign press core today. She will fly from, as you mentioned, the airport near her home in New York to headline two Labor Day events in Ohio and on the boarder of Illinois and Iowa.

The plane is a Boeing 737, about 14 years old. It had previously flown for Air Berlin. It was manufactured in the United States and modifications were made in Texas and New Mexico. The general election campaign slogan is on the side in big blue letters drawn in together.

And, yes, that's right, Clinton will be on the plane with the press core. She'll be seated in the front. There will be a section for Secret Service and then the press will be in the back. And, you know, Clinton has been, remains extremely press averse for much of her campaign. You mentioned she's doing her first interview with a national T.V. reporter, or so I've heard it first today. And it's been about over 270 days since she's held a formal press conference.

But, you know, flying with her press does give her a leg up over Trump in terms of press accessibility. Donald Trump famously flies on his own plane and the press is left to a smaller charter.

COSTELLO: So do you expect, Dan, that Hillary Clinton will check back, go in the back of the plane, and talk with reporters on the very first day?

[09:05:02] MERICA: Well, I'm looking at a long line of reporters who are about to get swept on the plane, and I can tell you that they certainly and we all certainly hope so. And I think it's a safe bet that she will probably do something like that today. The questions remains if it will be a continual process.

And it's important to note that, you know, getting on the same plane in September is far later than other campaigns, especially, you know, those in 2008. President Obama or then Senator Obama got on his plane with the press core far earlier than September.

COSTELLO: All right, Dan Merica. I'm sure you'll keep us posted. Thanks so much.

Donald Trump also travels to Ohio today and his campaign surrogates struggle to answer where exactly he stands on mass deportations for undocumented immigrants. For that, let's bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump gave the definitive speech of his campaign on immigration last week, answered a lot of questions that people had except for one, what do you do with the 11-plus million undocumented immigrants in the country?

Now, he laid out clearly there would be a prioritization system. Criminals would be deported first, then these overstays. That's about six or 7 million people, Carol. What about the rest? Well, it depends on who you ask.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump's campaign still struggling to explain his immigration policy.

MIKE PENCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Donald Trump's been completely consistent.

MATTINGLY: Giving little clarification on their nominee's conflicting statements on how to handle the 11 million undocumented immigrants.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We don't know who will be left. We don't know where they live, who they are.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) NEW JERSEY: After the 2 to 3 million get put out of the country because they're committing crimes, hurting Americans, selling drugs, doing things that are illegal, once those people get dealt with first -- I think everyone agrees on that issue -- then we can deal with the remaining 8 million people.

MATTINGLY: Another top supporter of Trump says he no longer wants mass deportations.

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK MAYOR: Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very difficult to throw out a family that's been here for, you know, 15 years and they have three children, two of whom are citizens. And that is not the kind of America he wants.

MATTINGLY: A comment that runs contrary to Trump's own words when he laid out his immigration plan after a visit to Mexico.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For those here illegally today who are seeking legal status, they will have one route and one route only, to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else.

MATTINGLY: And new criticism following Trump in Detroit this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No Trump, no Trump, no Trump.

MATTINGLY: Trump reaching out to African-American voters and predominantly Black church, but some critics question the sincerity of the visit.

TRUMP: For centuries, the African-American church has been the conscience of our country, so true.

MATTINGLY: All this as Hillary Clinton is losing ground to Trump in the latest national polls, dogged by the FBI publicly releasing its report on her use of a private e-mail server as Secretary of State.

SEN. TIM KAINE, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's apologized for that. She said it was a mistake, and she's learned from it.

MATTINGLY: Clinton's running mate now slamming Trump with a new attack, referencing Watergate and drawing a parallel with Trump's seeming invitation for Russia to hack and release Clinton's e-mails.

KAINE: Contrast the Hillary Clinton situation where the FBI said there's no need for legal proceedings with an attack that is being encouraged by Donald Trump on the DNC by Russia similar to what led to the resignation of a president 30 years ago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And, Carol, we are now in that unofficial home stretch of sorts for the campaign, so those attacks are only supposed to escalate coming from both sides. As you know, Hillary Clinton in Ohio and so is Donald Trump. We are now past the fundraising in Nantucket, in The Hamptons, or rallies in Everett, Washington. It's battleground states continuously over and over again starting today with the great State of Ohio.

COSTELLO: I know. Get ready battleground states because your life is about, oh, well --

MATTINGLY: Inundated.

COSTELLO: -- to be filled with T.V. commercials and phone calls and all that fun stuff.

MATTINGLY: Indeed.

COSTELLO: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. So let's talk because, again, this is why we are so confused over Mr. Trump's immigration policy. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIULIANI: Donald Trump, as he expressed in one of his interviews recently, would find it very, very difficult to throw out a family that's been here for, you know, 15 years.

TRUMP: They will have one route and one route only, to return home and apply for re-entry like everybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. With me now is Jesse Benton. He's strategist of America's Liberty PAC and Donald Trump's supporter. Former South Carolina Regional Director for Obama in 2012 and Hillary Clinton's supporter, Tharon Johnson, and CNN Political Analyst Rebecca Berg. Welcome to all of you.

THARON JOHNSON, FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012: Good morning.

REBECCA BERG, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning, and thank you for being with me on Labor Day. I do appreciate it.

So, Jesse, I want to start with you. A simple question, will undocumented immigrants have to leave the country, re-apply and come back or will Mr. Trump allow them to stay?

[09:10:15] Jesse? Can you hear me, Jesse? Oh, my goodness. So, Rebecca, I'll go to you, my fallback. Do you understand where Mr. Trump is coming from on his immigration policy?

BERG: Well, he sounded pretty clear in his speech on immigration last week. Carol, saying that anyone who is in the country illegally would need to return to their country of origin and then come back and re- apply for legal status in the United States.

But what's confusing now about Trump's immigration stance, of course, is that you've seen his campaign surrogates over the weekend and in recent days coming out and saying that we completely misinterpreted Trump in his speech and that, actually, most people who are in the country illegally would not be subject to deportation, at least not immediately, and they would go through a process of considering a bunch of options with these people.

And so it's amazing to me that we are still having this discussion because, in advance of Trump's speech on immigration, he and his campaign were all saying that we should look to that speech for clarity, that he would clear up all of the questions we have, and it seems, in many ways, he's created more questions.

And that's probably a deliberate strategy on his part because the issue of the 11 million or so people in the country already illegally is one of the toughest questions when it comes to immigration and one of the toughest politically for him to answer. He doesn't want to upset his supporters, his core supporters, by saying, you know, we can let them stay. But then, again, most people if you look at the polling, about 70 percent of people support some sort of legalization for those people already in the country, so it's not a cut and dry answer for him.

COSTELLO: You know -- OK, Jesse, we have you back. Jesse, can you hear me?

JESSE BENTON, STRATEGIST, AMERICA'S LIBERTY PAC: I sure can.

COSTELLO: Yay, yes, I can. OK, so welcome back, Jesse. So there is confusion over who is going to pay for Mr. Trump's wall as well. Mr. Trump has often said Mexico will pay for the wall, makes no bones about it, but both Ben Carson and Laura Ingram's website say the Trump camp is looking for innovative ways to pay for the wall, example, use money confiscated from drug offenders or strip undocumented immigrants of the benefits. So, listen for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Recognize that a lot of money is going to be saved by enforcing our borders, by not, you know, giving, you know, various types of benefits to people who are here illegally. That money is money that we otherwise would not have had and that can be applied to the wall and various other things. That's, I believe, the spirit on which that comment is made. I don't think Mexico is going to write a check out and say, here, we'll pay for the wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So you heard what Ben Carson said, Jesse. He doesn't think Mexico is going to write a check out and say, here, here's $20 billion and use that for the wall. So what are we to believe? How exactly -- who is going to pay for the wall, Jesse? Do you know?

BENTON: Oh, Donald Trump's an expert on clever financing. I'm sure he'll have a lot of great ways, to use tax credits, to use sort of payback programs, things like that. It's not exactly who writes the --

COSTELLO: Tax credits?

BENTON: Sure. It's not exactly who writes the check. Instead, it's going to be done at basically no cost to the American people.

COSTELLO: So is he shifting his position on the wall, Jesse? Is that what he's doing?

BENTON: No, I don't think so. And I think there's is a lot of gotcha here. Look, I mean, one of the things we've learned about Trump's immigration program now is that, yes, people are going to have to go back to their country of origin to gain legal status, but I think most importantly we're not going to see sort of a force going and rounding up people door-to-door, which is, I think, what was most concerning to most people.

So, you know, bottom line, Donald Trump is strong on immigration and he's very, very clear that we're going to enforce the laws that were passed by Congress and the 2006 bipartisan legislation, which --

COSTELLO: But these are shifts in your mind, Jesse. Aren't these shifts?

BENTON: They're not shifts away from the core fundamental principal, that we're going to honor the spirit of the law that was passed by a bipartisan Congress led by Democrats in 2006 that calls for things like 700 miles of border fence that have never been built.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Tharon, Clinton has her own problems, of course, because Donald Trump will not let up on Clinton's e-mails and neither will many voters, right? This is what Clinton -- or Mr. Trump tweeted over the weekend. He said lying Hillary Clinton told the FBI that she did not know the "C" markings on documents stood for "Classified." How can this be happening? That was his tweet.

And I just want to clarify one thing, according to the FBI Director, that "C" actually stood for "Confidential," not "Classified".

[09:15:03] But to many voters, "Confidential" is still a concern. So Hillary Clinton's now going to sit down with David Muir from ABC when she arrives in Cleveland later today. Is this her way of trying to explain finally?

THARON JOHNSON, FORMER SOUTH REGIONAL DIRECTOR, OBAMA 2012: We're in the fourth quarter of this campaign now and as you mentioned earlier before we came to the segment, she is going to be traveling with the press now.

Listen, she said that this is a mistake and she can do it all over again she would do it differently. I'm so glad that you pointed out that the clear definition of the "c" that it was confidential.

But the fact of the matter is that listen, there were a lot of e-mails exchanged. She had a private server. I think again -- COSTELLO: But still Tharon, going back to like -- I think voters

really want an explanation so she's going to travel with the press corps on the plane and reporters will think that's good, but we don't know how many times she'll go back and talk with those reporters.

And she's going to sit down with David Muir in Cleveland, but she's not going to have this big free willing press conference that so many reporters want her to have where she'll stand there and answer questions for an hour and more and exhaust all of the questions that voters have about this e-mail controversy.

JOHNSON: I think you're going to see that sooner than you think because listen, she knows -- she's a very experienced campaigner. She knows going -- 64 days left, this is the time to be totally transparent and to be honest.

Now you know, one thing we can say about Hillary Clinton that we can't say about Donald Trump particularly when it comes to releasing his tax returns is that while this may be a distraction for her campaign and most Americans want to move on from this e-mail conversation.

She has been very, very present and she's cooperated and answered all of the questions that she could recall. So I think while I think it's on the minds of many Americans, I think people want to get to the real issues like education and grow the economy and continue to work with our allies to keep this country safe. I think that's what a conversation is going on in that 64 days.

WHITFIELD: All right, I have to leave it there. Jessie Benton (ph), Tharon Johnson, Rebecca Birth (ph), thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, is Russia trying to hack the U.S. election? President Obama and Vladimir Putin talking today on the sidelines on the G20. So what did they say?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:20]

COSTELLO: As violence escalates on the ground in Syria with a series of coordinated attacks today killing at least 40 people the U.S. and Russia are unable to reach any kind of deal on a ceasefire.

President Obama calling discussions on the sidelines of the G20 Summit productive, though, but he says there are still gaps of trust between the two governments. Mr. Obama addressed his meeting with Putin just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, President Putin is less colorful, but typically the tone of our meetings are candid, blunt, business like and this one was no different.

We had a range of issues that we had to discuss, but the two most important were as have been reported discussions that have been taking place between Secretary Kerry and Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, about ways in which we can institute a meaningful, serious, verifiable cessation of hostilities in Syria.

And our capacity to provide some humanitarian relief to families, children, women who suffering enormously under the burdens of that war. As you will recall, we had initiated a cessation of hostilities a while back.

Initially it did lessen some of the violence and then slowly it unwound and we're back into a situation in which Assad's regime is bombing with impunity.

That in turn we think is actually strengthening the capacity of Nusra to recruit people who might not have initially been sympathetic to terrorism, but now view anyone who is fighting against Assad as legitimized and that is a very dangerous dynamic.

And so we have had some productive conversations about what a real cessation of hostilities would look like that would allow us both the United States and Russia to focus our attention on common enemies like ISIL.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Obama also took on the controversy surrounding the 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick. He's been sitting or taking a knee during the national anthem before his pre-season games earning him a chorus of boos from some fans. President Obama says Kaepernick is following a long tradition of sports figures exercising their constitutional rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: As a general matter, when it comes to the national anthem and the flag and the meaning that that holds for our men and women in uniform and those who fought for us, that is a tough thing for them to get past to then hear what his deeper concerns are, but I don't doubt his sincerity based on what I've heard. I think he cares about some real legitimate issues that have to be talked about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So let's talk about this. Jason Johnson joins me live from Atlanta. He's the politics editor for theroot.com and political science professor at Morgan State University. Hi, Jason.

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

WHITFIELD: So the president prefaced those remarks by saying, you know, I haven't really thought about this, but then he gave this remarkably thought out answer so evidently he really has been thinking about it.

[09:25:11]JASON JOHNSON: Yes, it's always interesting when the president says I just had no idea, but let me bring out this sheet here. President Obama is a sports fan, but I thought that's the closest thing to an endorsement of Colin Kaepernick's behavior as we've heard from any official both elected and some working in the NFL.

He said that his points are valid. He thought that his protest was sincere and completely in line with history. I thought most importantly the president said, look, I understand that some men and women in uniform can't look past him not standing for the pledge.

But he hoped that over time they would understand that the issues that Colin Kaepernick was bringing up were very important and had to do with all of us standing up for our patriotic dues in this country.

COSTELLO: Of course, President Obama is not running for office. Hillary Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, has weighed in on this issue. He said the quarterback was following his conscience, but he would do it differently.

Kaine said Kaepernick's rational for protesting didn't make much sense to him. So there is -- I don't know if it's completely different, but it is different.

JASON JOHNSON: It is different. I can say this, Carol, I personally, ideologically, and politically -- I have a problem with anyone lecturing people on how they should go about protesting. You know, it's one thing to say, well, you know, I don't think you should destroy property.

Of course, not. No one wants property destroyed, but how is Colin Kaepernick supposed to protest? If he protests loudly then he's disrupting the game. If he protests silently then people have a problem with it.

When at its core, it's about I think a certain amount of political (inaudible) about a young man who is exercising his rights. So, you know, I don't think that what Tim Kaine said was correct, but he's running for office right now so he's got to play the middle. They have to win those swing states.

WHITFIELD: I yearn for politicians to just say what they mean and Donald Trump certainly did that. Not that I agree with one stand or the other, but Donald Trump said, you know, maybe he should leave the country if he doesn't like it here.

JASON JOHNSON: Right. I've always thought that that is an equally offensive thing to say. So the idea that if you exercise your constitutional rights, get out of here if you don't like everything that's going on, that's sort of like saying, look, if you didn't like your dinner at a restaurant, never go out to dinner again.

No one would ever say that. He has a right to say what he wants to say, but I think it reflects a sort of overall racial dynamic in how this country operates when it comes to people protesting.

I'll give you a quick example. You have the San Francisco Police Department saying we're not going to cover the games unless Colin Kaepernick apologizes.

So government employees are not going do their jobs because a private citizen decides that he wants to exercise his constitutional rights. That's the problem that we have here that for some reason we pick and choose who is protests are legitimate and that's not a functional way for this country to operate.

COSTELLO: It's becoming more of a controversy or a debate over whether someone should stand for the national anthem at a sporting event instead of what Colin Kaepernick yearns for and that's an intelligent discussion on police brutality in this country.

JASON JOHNSON: Exactly, Carol. I wrote an article about this on The Root about the "Star Spangled Banner." There are issues with our national anthem and whether the Star Spangled Banner is the fact in the third verse sort of racist creed complaining about African- Americans and slaves seeking freedom.

So there's a lot of issues in this that I think people are in many ways intentionally ignoring because it's much easier to complain about Colin Kaepernick's hair or whether or not he's a good starter anymore.

Whether or not he stood on one knee or didn't stand on one knee rather than talking about the fact that he's saying that are people who are tax paying, law abiding American citizens who are not receiving the same justice as anyone else.

And I'll say this, if Colin Kaepernick decided he was going to sit on one knee or not stand for the pledge until America fulfil this promise to veterans and make sure they were all safe and taken care of no one would be complaining. So this is really about what he's complaining about rather than how he's doing it.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jason Johnson, thanks for stopping by on this Labor Day. Appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton is hitting the campaign trail hard and so are all of her surrogates including Bernie Sanders. We'll talk about that next.

Also tune in for two special reports tonight starting at 8 p.m. Eastern with "Unfinished Business, The Essential Hillary Clinton" followed at 10 p.m. Eastern by "All Business, The Essential Donald Trump" right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)