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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Trump Admits Obama Was Born in the U.S. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired September 16, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

Fifty-three days before the election, 2,796 days after President Obama first took his oath of office, and that's when Donald Trump has decided to admit that Mr. Obama is, in fact, an American citizen. Just minutes ago, in what he billed as a, quote, "major announcement," the GOP presidential nominee sought to put to rest a controversy that he personally energetically has fueled with gasoline for five full years. And you heard it all happen here. Check out the power and the length of this statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary Clinton, and her campaign of 2008, started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period. Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That was approximately 28 seconds. My CNN colleague Sara Murray was there for all 28 seconds of that, and more. She's at the Trump event in the newly opened hotel of Donald Trump's in Washington, D.C. Brianna Keilar is standing by live. She's covering the Hillary Clinton campaign. Hillary Clinton also spoke on this very matter just this very morning in that very city, Washington, D.C.

I know there's some movement behind you, Sara. I can see that you're looking around. But I do need to ask you about the breaking element of the story that you're on right now. As you scramble into place - I think I'm right, at about 27 seconds, but what I want to know is what happened right after those 27 seconds? Take me there and tell me what you just saw.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Ashleigh, it became very clear that Donald Trump was not interested in taking questions from the press, despite this being originally billed as a press conference. He made that very short statement in which he retracted his birtherism. Said he's over it. Says he believes Obama was born in the U.S. And then he left the room as reporters were yelling questions about what made him change his mind. And he proceed to go on a tour. And this was supposed to be a pooled event, which means there were supposed to be an editorial producer from television, there was supposed to be a print reporter. There's usually a wires reporter that can accompany the candidate on a tour like this.

Well, in this case, the pool producer for television was physically restrained from going on the tour. There was essentially not going to be any editorial presence. Donald Trump just wanted to get a lot of beautiful pictures of his hotel and go on a tour of his hotel, but he very clearly did not want to answer questions about the statement that he had just made.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: You just repeat what you said. You said the - the pool producer was physically, what, restrained? Can you just clear that up? What happened?

MURRAY: So usually, in a situation like this, you would have a group of these reporters who would accompany the candidate for television. There is an editorial producer who's there to print, for instance, ask Donald Trump why he changed his mind on the birther issue or collect any of the other comments he might make. And, of course, there is a television camera that also goes to shoot this. But in this case, our producer - the producer who was - who was there to represent the television pool was saying that she was physically restrained. So someone physically blocked her from being able to go on this tour with Donald Trump and instead it was just cameras who were allowed to go with him.

Now, obviously, this breaks with the normal tradition of the pool, and this is the kind of thing that we've been seeing happen with both these campaigns, but also with Donald Trump's campaign, is breaking with tradition of how you deal with the press when it comes to becoming a nominee for a major president's party. For instance, last night Donald Trump left his press behind and went on and held an entire political rally in which the press just saw the last three minutes. So this is the kind of issue that has been happening repeatedly with this campaign, but it's particularly interesting today in light of the fact that Trump very clearly did not want to take questions about this birther issue.

BANFIELD: Nor did he want to go on longer than about 27 seconds. And, by the way, I'm going to ask our producers if they could actually time it out because I just had to do it on the fly, not expecting it was going to be such a short comment. Fully expecting he was going to wax a little more on it, maybe even say I was wr-wr - like Fonzie or maybe say I'm s-s-s-sor - maybe say I'm sorry. We didn't get any of that. We didn't get any of that. We got 27 seconds of, the guy was born in the U.S. Well, thanks. Eight years of being a president. It's nice to know he was a citizen and that h actually allied with the Constitution.

Real quickly, other than that 27 seconds, can you just give me the last 24 hours of this birther crap?

MURRAY: Yes, absolutely. This was supposed to be a veterans event. So it wouldn't have been surprising if Donald Trump had just come out and done that, except for last night, and that is when a "Washington Post" story came out in which Donald Trump, once again, refused to disavow his belief that President Obama was not born in the U.S. Of course, he propagated this birther controversy for years before he was running for president. After that, his campaign put out a statement not in Donald Trump's name but in the name of one of the communication staffers saying that Donald Trump was the one who convinced President Obama, insured that President Obama's long form birth certificate was released and saying that Donald Trump does now believe that the president was born in the U.S.

[12:05:33] And, of course, everyone was essentially waiting to hear that from Donald Trump's own mouth, because having his senior advisers, having his staffers say that is not the same as hearing the candidate say that himself, especially since this is something that he has been going on and on about for years. So he did come out. He did say today that he believes President Obama was born in the U.S., but he did not take any questions about what has caused him to change his mind on this, or why he sort of propagated this falsehood for so long, even after the president has released - had released his birth certificate.

BALDWIN: Five minutes and 56 seconds into the controversy of me saying that this took 27 seconds, I am going to admit publicly on national television that I was wrong. I was wrong and I am sorry. Because if you include the pauses, it was 33 seconds. I am sorry for having said something wrong on national television about what someone said about someone else not being a citizen, yet serving as president.

The joke is over. Sara, I'm going to jump for a minute - stand by if you will - Brianna Keilar, clearly the Clinton campaign watched every one of those 33 seconds, pauses included, and I'm glad I was able to bring an end to that controversy of those pauses adding the additional six seconds. But I'm sure that the Hillary Clinton campaign is not laughing. They're crafting their response.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No. And they're not laughing, but I would also say that they look at Donald Trump talking about birtherism and it's something that gives them some material, because Donald Trump has been trying to make an appeal to African-American voters, he says. Many people look at what he's been saying rhetorically and they say actually he's just trying to make white voters who are uncomfortable with the fact that he hasn't reached out at all to black voters more comfortable with voting for him. So - so that's sort of where they are.

But I will say, we heard Hillary Clinton mention this last unite after Donald Trump's comments to "The Washington Post" where he said this wasn't the right time to address it, which sort of set the birther issue with him alight yet again. And Hillary Clinton set the bar. She set it at Donald Trump needs to - or she did today. She said, she set the bar that Donald Trump needs to apologize, which politically, you know, obviously, she has a point there because Donald Trump has never specifically apologized for anything. Here is what Hillary Clinton said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: For five years he has led the birther movement to de-legitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing

it in history. Just yesterday Trump again refused to say with his own words that the president was born in the United States. Now Donald's advisors had the temerity to say he's doing the country a service by pushing these lies. No, he isn't. He is feeding in to the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And the Clinton campaign really not wanting to let him get away with this and sort of stepping away from this issue, Ashleigh, and just moving forward. Brian Fallon, spokesman for the campaign tweeting, "Trump doubled down on lie-filled statements from his campaign last night and took no responsibility for his bigoted attacks on our president," because, of course, Hillary Clinton had said that an apology was owed.

Of course, you have many voters who are very upset about the birther controversy and people trafficking in that conspiracy theory. But just again, to dissect what Donald Trump said. Three things really in those few seconds that we can fact check. He said, Hillary Clinton started birtherism. Not true. He said, he ended birtherism. Not true. He said, Barack Obama was born in the U.S. That is true. So one-third of what he said does fact check, but it's important to note that two of the other things that he said in that sentence are patently false.

BANFIELD: Brianna, hold on for a moment, if you will. Sara, I'd like to come back to you because, you know, people dip in and out of cable news all the time and this is a big, important story. It started in 2011. It was how Donald Trump launched his political identity. In the dark corners of the interwebs, he found somebody who was questioning whether Barack Obama was actually born in the United States and he ran with it big time. Big league. He ran with it. He promulgated it everywhere he could. He went on the TV over and over again. On radio shows. H said it in tweets. He said it everywhere. That's usually the kind of thing when you're wrong you have to deal with it and you have to be open and honest about it. And we got 27 seconds of copy and 33 seconds with pauses. Then I want you to repeat to our audience what happened afterwards.

[12:10:47] MURRAY: Well, right, it wasn't exactly a huge show of transparency today in that short statement. Afterwards, this was originally billed as a press conference. It became clear Donald Trump was not going to stop and take questions. So the press started shouting them from the back of the room, trying to bet a better sense of why he had changed his mind, of what had changed between the last time he said that he didn't believe President Obama was born in the U.S., which was even after the birth certificate had been released, and now - but Donald Trump instead moved on.

He was prepared to give a tour of this hotel. It's his new hotel here in Washington where the event is at. To a small number of reporters that's what you call a pool. So, traditionally, there would be a member of the print media, there would be a member of the wire, such as the Associated Press or Reuters. There would be, of course, a television camera and also a television produce who was there to ask Donald Trump questions or collect any remarks he would make along the way. Obviously the big issue today is questioning why he has reversed course now on birtherism.

But the pool producer in this case was physically restrained from joining him on this tour. The campaign really decided to exclude any editorial presence from going with him. It was very clear that they just wanted visuals of Donald Trump touring his new hotel. Obviously, that's not the way that a media pool works. We're not here to create infomercials for Donald Trump's new hotel. We're here to cover a presidential campaign. But it was very clear that they had no interest in allowing any editorial reporters accompany him, and to the - to the extent that they were willing to physically restrain one of them from going along with him, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I mean, the big question I would have asked is, why just this morning did you tell Maria Bartiromo that you, quote, "needed to keep the suspense going"? And then minutes later, you come out and the say, I finished it, because it sounds to reporters, you and me and everybody else watching all of this, that the only thing he finished was his own nonsense. It was nobody else's nonsense by this morning but his own nonsense.

All right, Sara, keep us posted on what happens next in the location where you are. Me thinks it's going to be yet another wild ride. Every 24 hours seems to be. Sara Murray live on the Trump campaign. Brianna Keilar live with the Hillary Clinton campaign. We're going to talk more about this right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:16:54] BANFIELD: I'm going to honest with you, so, believe me, there's probably not enough time in this newscast to replay all of Donald Trump's past comments casting spurious doubt on the president of the United States, Barack Obama's citizenship and/or birthplace. But I do have 33 seconds worth of it, so I'll give you that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Why doesn't he show his birth certificate? And you know what, I wish he would, because I think it's a terrible pale that's hanging over him.

Perhaps it's going to say Hawaii. Perhaps it's going to say Kenya.

There are many people that don't agree with that birth certificate. They don't think it's authentic, Wolf. Last week somebody came out with a very strong statement saying that he stated himself that he was born in Kenya, and raised in Indonesia.

Do you know who questioned his birth certificate? One of the first? Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: How about that last thing that he just said there, and then just said again. Tom Foreman, I see you standing by the reality check wall. So can I just read the very first line of the 33-second statement Donald Trump just delivered us? "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy." Could you, please, reality fact check that?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in that half minute roughly of talking, Ashleigh, he said two things, neither one of which really survives the smell test. This is the basic claim. The birther issue was first raised by the Hillary Clinton campaign in the '08 campaign. The birther issue was raised in the '08 campaign around the similar issue of whether or not Barack Obama was a Muslim, which he is not. He is Christian. That was raised by some supporters of Hillary Clinton, quickly embraced by Republicans, but, and this is the key part about this, there is no evidence that Hillary Clinton or her team ever pushed the birther story. They we aware of it, but they said, no, we're keeping our hands away from it. We have nothing to do with this. That is not the case.

What about the second claim that he made there? In 2001, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to a conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. That's what the campaign said Thursday. We heard what he said today about finishing the issue in 2011. But here's the problem, President Obama himself released his certification of live birth in 2008. And, when we get to 2011 and the long form birth certificate is released, was that the end of it? No. Not even for Donald Trump.

You played some of the comments there, but this is from this year he was talking to our Wolf Blitzer and he said, "oh, who knows about Obama. Who knows. Who knows. Who cares right now? I have my own theory on Obama. Some day I'll write a book. I'll do another book and it will be very successful." So this is what he was saying this year when asked about the birther controversy. The bottom line is, for all of his effort today for half minute to set the record straight, what he said was still false.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: How about just yesterday? I'll answer that question at the right time. I just don't want to answer it yet. And then how about just this morning? I want to keep the suspense going. As if this were another episode of whatever that show was that he had. That reality show.

[12:20:16] FOREMAN: Sure.

BANFIELD: "The Apprentice."

FOREMAN: Sure. It - the problem is, on this issue, he has been on the wrong side of the facts. For years now he has stayed on the wrong side of the facts. And even in trying to get on the right side today, he still stayed on the wrong side on substantial parts of it.

BANFIELD: Yes, you got that right. But did you hear an "I'm sorry"? Did you hear, "I was wrong"?

FOREMAN: No. No. No. BANFIELD: No, I didn't either. I'll check the tape again.

Tom Foreman, thank you. Appreciate it.

FOREMAN: You're welcome.

BANFIELD: I want to bring my panel in, CNN political commentator and "New Yorker" writer Ryan Lizza's here, "Washington Post" political reporter Philip Bump, who has written real scathingly on this today and it's great fresh reading, CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable Errol Louis is here, and in Washington our chief political correspondent Dana Bash is also here, who also, I'm sure, Dana, you did not hear and "I'm wrong" or an "I'm sorry." And, once again, what you did here was that he finished it. He finished this controversy. But all I heard was that he finished his own nonsense, that that there wasn't a controversy, that he didn't first bring up and then somehow stop and then take credit for?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, you didn't miss anything. I didn't miss anything. It was so quick that if anybody was, you know, getting up to go get a drink, they missed it, after they waited for 40 minutes as Donald Trump had people that we should and do respect greatly because of the sacrifices and the dedication they have brought to this country, talk about why they believe that he should be the commander in chief. A very, very political goal-oriented speech trying to get veterans to continue to support him.

So the big question is, what now? It is hard to imagine that - never mind in any interview that he does, if he does an interview with a reporter or an anchor or somebody who's going to ask, you know, legitimate questions. Monday night, next Monday night is the first debate. Hard to imagine that Lester Holt won't bring this up because now it is front and center in a way that wasn't the case 24 hours ago when they tried to put this to rest. But it's front and center without a lot of questions being answered.

And never mind Lester Holt. Hillary Clinton. It's the easiest thing in the world, I'm sure they don't even have to practice it in their debate prep, for her to turn to him and say, OK, where's your apology? Where is your apology? When did you - I mean she can do it probably in her sleep because this is what she's been pushing on the campaign trail. It is what they believe is a perfect example of something that plays into really, do you want this guy as your commander in chief? You know, somebody who pushes conspiracy theories and made his name in the modern times in the political sphere by doing this back in 2011?

So, look, I think at the end of the day, I said it in the last hour, I'll say it now, in this particular instance, we were all waiting for a moment, and we got played. Instead, we had a very brief promo for his new hotel. A very political event, which he is entitled to do, but we were all expecting something different. And then a very brief statement that raised a lot more questions than answers. He thinks it's done.

BANFIELD: Yes.

BASH: And it will be very hard to see that happening.

BANFIELD: Here's why it's not done. And - and I would - I - you know, I'm just going to defer to the great Philip Bump on this one and what he wrote in "The Washington Post." Bear with me here. "Terming the incident ugly and saying he's resolved it is a bit like a person intentionally running someone over, dumping them outside a hospital, and then asking for a letter of commendation for wrapping things up so neatly." And I just so happened to have Philip Bump here.

I'm only going to criticize you with one thing you left out.

PHILIP BUMP, POLITICAL REPORTER, "WASHINGTON POST": What's that?

BANFIELD: Having your assistant dump them at the hospital -

BUMP: Right. Yes, that's right.

BANFIELD: Because that was when you read this - or when you wrote this, he had only put out a statement via his spokesperson.

BUMP: That's right.

BANFIELD: Are you any more satisfied that it's no longer an assistant dumping someone at the hospital -

BUMP: Right.

BANFIELD: But it's actually the perpetrator -

BUMP: Right.

BANFIELD: Of the great controversy -

BUMP: Yes.

BANFIELD: Who's admitted to it.

BUMP: Yes, I mean, the statement that was released last night had all of the same errors that we just discussed. And the only thing that basically got cleared up today -

BANFIELD: Errors or lies?

BUMP: Falsehoods, lies, yes, yes. It had all of those things. The only thing that he cleared up today was that, yes, it was actually Donald Trump saying it, which is something of a novelty. But to the point you were making earlier, it - I don't know what electoral good this does him. Like, I don't know why he did this. There was a - Josh Green from "Business Week" talked to someone from the Trump campaign. They said, yes, we did this because we realize that this is an important issue for African-American voters. I don't know what African-American voters are going to hear that today and feel as though that was an appropriate response because he didn't say, here's why I did this thing. Here's why I trafficked these conspiracy theories. And, in fact, all he did was try and make it look like it was Hillary Clinton's fault, which is wasn't. [12:25:13] BANFIELD: Errol Louis, and the issue of the African-

American voters, I don't know if they are already energized, because I think he just said yesterday, among the many things that he said, I'm skyrocketing in my numbers with minorities. And I'm wondering if this getting back in the headlines, because he was the one who said this to "The Washington Post" yesterday. It wasn't because we decided to pick it out of thin air. Is this going to energize minority voters in a way that maybe two, three days ago they might not have been, to go to the polls?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We it - it will certainly give the Clinton campaign something to work with, and to sort of re-ignite some lingering resentment that was already there. And let's keep in mind, when Donald Trump says he's skyrocketing with black voters, he's skyrocketing from like 1 percent to maybe 3 percent, right, which is far, far below even where Mitt Romney was four years ago. And let's keep in mind again, that's not a trivial or insignificant fact. The reality is that Obama won seven states thanks to the black vote. And those seven states include Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida, Maryland, Virginia.

BANFIELD: I'm not an African-American voter, but if I were, I'd be really offended that say my first black president had been questioned and questioned and questioned.

LOUIS: Oh, you have no idea -

BANFIELD: And that there be no mea culpa. Where's the fire? I'm looking for the anger.

LOUIS: You have no idea. You have no idea how deep it runs. It's so deep that it doesn't even need to be discussed. I mean when you see the leaked e-mail from somebody like a Colin Powell, high-ranking official from a Republican - I mean two Republican administrations, and he - he just makes note of it. It's like, this has finished him with the black voters, period. That was true a long time ago. Nothing that he did today will change that.

BANFIELD: So, Ryan Lizza, the polls are close and they're getting closer and closer.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BANFIELD: And I just wonder if this is the kind of thing that say the Hillary Clinton camp is thrilled about because, as Errol says, it gives them lots of fodder to get out and energize maybe a group of voters that at one time had been excited, but maybe had waned somewhat as the polls are tightening.

LIZZA: Yes.

BANFIELD: And is this something that, say, Donald Trump ironically also thinks the polls are tight, I need to get out to those college educated white folk and make them OK with me again on this.

LIZZA: Yes, you hit the demographic that everyone is talking about, right, because over the -

BANFIELD: Which one?

LIZZA: Over the last month, college educated whites are the group of voters that Donald Trump and his campaign has just attacked with all of their messaging and to the best that they've been able to get him to sort of stay on message and be disciplined with their outraged African-Americans voters, their outraged Hispanics, which I think the general consensus view of the politics of that is he's not really targeting those non-white voters because there's just too much - there's just too much there. He's not going to break into - into those demographics.

But college educated whites who are - lean Republican and voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, they don't want to vote for someone who their friends think is a bigot, or they think is a bigot. So that's what he's been trying to fix over this last month and he's been having quite a bit of success. He's gone from a nine-point deficit to a two to four point deficit.

BANFIELD: So do you think that they -

LIZZA: And so this -

BANFIELD: With him talking to Maria this morning and saying, I need to keep the controversy alive -- let me just - actually quote, "we need to keep the suspense going."

LIZZA: Yes.

BANFIELD: I need to keep the suspense going. Is - do you think this is a strategy that he thinks is actually effective, to keep the reality show going on whether I believe Obama is really American or not?

LIZZA: I - look, he kind of blew it today, right? He invited the press to this event. Every reporter that's there is tweeting and reporting that they feel taken advantage of. That it was a bait and switch. As Sara Murray reported, he went and did this hotel tour and they didn't allow any editorial people on the tour. So I feel like it's backfired a lot - a little bit and he's re-ignite a conversation about whether his birtherism was racist or not. That's not a conversation he wants to be having given the trouble he's having both with non-white voters and college educated whites who think he is a bigot.

And I want to say one other thing about his arguments that Hillary Clinton started this in 2008. There was a debate in the Clinton campaign. There was a famous memo or series of advice that Hillary Clinton got and said, hey, maybe we need to go to a sort of darker place against this Barack Obama. Maybe we need some - to raise some questions about whether he's, you know -

BANFIELD: Culturally like us?

LIZZA: Yes. And the Clinton - the Clinton -

BANFIELD: That is - they - I think I remember words, they said culturally rooted.

LIZZA: Yes, this was - this is all - but this all came out afterwards and she rejected that advice.

BANFIELD: Yes, and somebody who e-mailed something got fired over that too, as I recall, from inside the campaign.

LIZZA: Yes, she rejected it and they were very careful never - you know, there were some inflammatory things that went on in that campaign, but as a core strategy, her campaign never went there. So it's not just that he's lying about that. Just, overall, that was a strategy they did not pursue.

[12:29:50] BANFIELD: it's kind of like, and I'm just going to go there here, guys, if you'll permit me a minute, it's kind of like saying, I wonder if there's something in those tax returns? I hear all the time on the Internet that there's stuff in those tax returns. If he just presented - I mean I wish I had $5 million to give to charity. If he would just present the tax return. But there might be some there. I'm not saying that there's there there. I don't know. Who cares?