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Trump Rhetoric; Trump's Comments Create Firestorm; Clinton E- Mails Raise Questions. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 10, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 1:00 a.m. Thursday in Manila in the Philippines. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, Donald Trump right now at the center of yet another political firestorm blasting suggestions he tried to incite violence against Hillary Clinton.

And Clinton herself now facing new questions in the never ending e- mail saga. This time the Clinton Foundation is under the microscope.

Out there on the campaign trail, both candidates are targeting key battleground states today. Clinton is in Iowa. Trump campaigns in Virginia and Florida. And his running mate, Mike Pence, is out on the road in Ohio.

Clinton's tour of the Raygun Printing and Design Company in Des Moines is set to begin this hour. Next hour, she holds a rally in Des Moines. And the following hour, Trump gives a speech in Abingdon, Virginia.

So, what exactly did Donald Trump say to set off this latest uproar and what did he mean? Listen to the comment he made at a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina that started all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment. By the way, and if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know. But I'll tell you what, that will be a horrible day if Hillary gets to put her judges --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: A lot of people interpreted that remark as a threat against Hillary Clinton but in a Fox interview, Trump agreed with host Sean Hannity's interpretation that the remark referred to political action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nobody in that room thought anything other than what you just said. This is a political movement. This is a strong, powerful movement, the Second Amendment. You know, Hillary wants to take your guns away. She wants to leave you unprotected in your home. This is a tremendous political movement. There can be no other interpretation. Even reporters have told me. I mean, give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger. Gloria, will this affect Trump supporters, this uproar that has developed?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I think probably not, Wolf. And I -- but I do think the problem for Trump, politically, is that he has to get more than Trump supporters that he currently has in order to win the presidency. He needs independent voters. Many of whom are making up their minds right now.

And there is a Bloomberg poll out today which shows that he's gone down seven points with independents. "The New York Times" poll shows he's down 13 points with Republican, college educated white women. These are Republican women that Mitt Romney did so well with. And overall, he's down 23 points with women. These are people he needs to kind of persuade into the yes column.

And saying things like this, whether it's a joke or not a joke, if you take his interpretation or you don't, doesn't give people the confidence that he will choose his words wisely if he is the commander in chief. And that question is very big out there, if you look at the polling.

BLITZER: Well, he's asking voters to give him the benefit of the doubt.

BORGER: Yes, he is. And, you know, the problem is, sure, they might give him the benefit of the doubt, if this were six months ago. But the problem is we've seen the movie before, Wolf. You know, he comes out and he says something that starts a category five hurricane, right? Then the campaign and the candidate walk it back. There's a shovel brigade that goes on.

Then, some Republicans, as we've been seeing and independents say, OK, this is it. I can't take it anymore. I'm not going to support Donald Trump. His supporters remain where they are.

But, again, it goes to this temperament question. Six out 10 voters believe he does not have the temperament to be president. This does not help him persuade any of those voters at all. And it's a gift to Hillary Clinton who, as you know, and you're going to talk about it later in the show, has her own problems percolating on her e-mails and the trust issue, right?

BLITZER: Yes, we're going to get to that soon as well. When he says that Hillary Clinton would effectively end --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: -- the Second Amendment --

BORGER: Right.

BLITZER: -- to the Constitution, changing the Constitution is not an easy procedure.

BORGER: Right. You know, she can't do that. As you know, it takes super majorities of the Congress and super majority of the states to approve any changes to the Constitution whatsoever.

What he means, I believe, is that -- is that if there is an assault weapons ban, for example, she would open the door towards some kind of major gun control which, by the way, she actually wants. But can she repeal, single handedly, the Second Amendment of the -- of the Constitution? Absolutely not. It's a lot of work.

[13:05:04] And, again, super majorities of both Houses of Congress and super majority of state legislature. So, it's a long, long process. It doesn't happen automatically.

BLITZER: All right, Gloria, thanks. Don't go too far away. We've got more to discuss.

I'm joined now by a gun owner, a Second Amendment supporter for whom the issue of gun violence is deeply personal. Mark Kelly is a former Navy combat pilot and NASA astronaut. He's the husband of the former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was almost killed by a deranged gunman five and a half years ago.

Mark, thanks very much for joining us.

MARK KELLY, FORMER COMBAT PILOT, U.S. NAVY: I know you and Gabby founded the gun violence prevention group called Americans for Responsible Solutions. Let's talk about Trump's latest words. Usually -- you know, he's often said stuff that's unusual, blowing up political boundaries, if you will. But you believe this is different this time. Tell us why.

KELLY: Well, I mean, it's very incendiary comment that could promote unstable individuals, you know, to take action. And, you know, I don't expect that he -- that he wants Hillary Clinton or a justice to be shot.

But using this language could prompt the wrong person with a -- with a serious problem with their state of mind to doing something -- you know, something horrific.

I mean, the assassination of an elected leader or a judge. I mean, we've seen, you know, in our history. And it's not too difficult to push somebody over the edge.

BLITZER: Your organization issued a statement along those lines, saying responsible stable individuals won't take Trump's rhetoric to its literal end, but his words may provide inspiration or permission for those bent on bloodshed. In this particular case, do you give Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, the benefit of the doubt that he really wasn't suggesting that violence be used against Hillary Clinton?

KELLY: I mean, he's running for president of the United States. I mean, when you think ahead to if Donald Trump was elected to be president and said these kind of comments, you know, week after week. I mean, it's not only, you know, folks having to decide, you know, if they're going to vote for him.

I mean, we've had adversaries and allies out there, other nations that are going to have to try to figure out exactly what he meant. I mean, if he -- if he meant that this was a political movement, then he should have been using the words poll or going to the polls or vote. Not say something that would prompt an unstable person to pick up a gun and shoot somebody.

BLITZER: I know that you and your wife, Gabby Giffords, are both strong supporters of Hillary Clinton right now. Do you worry, though, that Republicans who support gun rights might be swayed by Trump's arguments here about her possible Supreme Court nominees who could change the law, if you will? Not necessarily end -- change the Second Amendment to the Constitution but go forward with more gun control initiatives?

KELLY: Well, I don't think from these comments, certainly. I mean, these comments are -- you know, most people would find are very objectionable. You know, Hillary Clinton says she supports a Second Amendment. Gabby and I support the Second Amendment. We're gun owners. I mean, she talks about strengthening our gun laws to keep guns out of the hands of unstable people, felons, domestic abusers, terrorists.

And it doesn't even seem that Mr. Trump understands that it's not even in the president's Constitutional powers to change an amendment to our Constitution. I mean, that is with Congress.

You know, so, I mean, this is just, you know, one thing after the next that makes it very clear that if we want to elect a president, you know, serious about, you know, protecting communities and families from gun violence and will stand up to the gun lobby, then it's very clear that that person is Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Mark Kelly, thanks very much for joining us.

KELLY: You're welcome. Thank you.

BLITZER: Amidst all of this, Hillary Clinton is also being put on the defensive today as newly released e-mails from her time as secretary of state are raising new questions over possible ties between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation. These never before seen e-mails were released by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group. There are 296 pages in all, including dozens that judicial watch claims were never turned over by Clinton to the State Department for an investigation. Our Senior Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin has been poring through these e-mails. So, Drew, what is the evidence here that there could be possible influence, if you will, by the Clinton Foundation over the State Department?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the new batch of e-mails being released shows what we've been seeing over and over again. And it's intermingling of interests and donations and favors being done between Hillary Clinton's State Department, the Clinton Foundation and the donors, who apparently have easy access to both when they need help. These are e-mails from 2009.

[13:10:06] And case in point is one involved Gilbert Chagoury. He's the guy in the baseball cap. He's a Nigeria Lebanese billionaire. He and his brother, the brother on the other side of this picture, are deeply involved in a Clinton global initiative real estate project in Nigeria for which Bill Clinton took part in opening ceremonies.

Gilbert is also listed as giving between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. So enter this newly released e-mail chain. It's an e-mail from Doug Band. He is the guy who, essentially, was running the Clinton Foundation at the time, now running another Clinton connected firm called Teneo Consulting. Band is telling two of Hillary Clinton's closest aides at the State Department, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin, that they need to put Clinton donor, Gilbert Chagoury, in touch with the State Department's substance person on Lebanon.

And Doug Band reminds both Mills and Abedin that Chagoury is a key guy there in Lebanon and to us. And he is asking that Abedin call the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, so they can connect with each other.

Other e-mails show cozy relationships between Morgan Stanley executives and Hillary Clinton. Morgan Stanley a big donor to both Hillary Clinton's campaigns and the Clinton foundation. There's requests for favors, finding people jobs, intermingling of e-mails between state, the Clinton foundation and others.

And the overall effect as that as one Congressional investigator told us, Wolf, it's really hard to tell where any lines are drawn between the Clinton State Department, the foundation and, later even, this Teneo Consulting company. The Clinton campaign has tried explain e- mails like this in the past, saying there's no direct evidence, any favors were done. But to many watchdog groups, that's just not a good enough answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT AMEY, GENERAL COUNSEL, PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT: Government employees have rules that apply. They're supposed to avoid actual conflicts of interest. But they're also supposed to avoid appearances of conflicts of interest. And here, you have some companies and some lobbying shops that are very close to the Clinton administration. And, at that point, Hillary Clinton was working in the State Department. And so, you do wonder if there was some kind of impartiality or preferential treatment given to these companies and these lobbyists that didn't go to everyone. And that's not the way our -- this -- our government is supposed to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Very blurred lines that these e-mails kind of show, Wolf. But, again, a lot, a lot of smoke. No real fire. And the Clinton campaign trying to just sluff it off as just being that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, some of Hillary Clinton supporters are saying, Drew, that these e-mails, these nearly 300 pages of e-mails, they were from Clinton Foundation individuals and Hillary Clinton aides at the State Department. But she, herself, was not in these e-mail chains. She wasn't cc'd. She wasn't actually sending or receiving these specific e-mails. Is that right?

GRIFFIN: That is what they are saying and trying to draw a very strict line between Hillary Clinton, herself, and what we know to be her very two closest aides, Huma Abedin and Cheryl Mills. But, again, you know, a lot of -- certainly a lot of Republicans who have been investigating this in Congress are not buying those excuses.

BLITZER: All right, Drew, thanks very much. Drew Griffin reporting for us.

We're going to continue to follow both of these developments involving the Hillary Clinton campaign as well as the Donald Trump campaign. Let's take a quick break. Much more right after this.

[13:13:26]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:15] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump is dealing with the fallout over what many perceived as a threat of violence against Hillary Clinton. Trump says he was simply referring to a political movement by Second Amendment supporters, not threatening violence. But as we know, Trump has a history of making some inflammatory remarks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her - wherever.

Written by a nice reporter. Now the poor guy, you've got to see this guy, oh, I don't know what I said. Ah, I don't remember.

Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK.

Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e- mails that are missing.

If you look at his wife, she was standing there. She had nothing to say. She probably - maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. You tell me. But plenty of people have written that.

Don't worry about that baby. I love babies. I love babies. I hear that baby crying. I like it.

Actually, I was only kidding. You can get the baby out of here. That's all right. Don't worry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, let's bring in our - let's bring back our chief political analyst Gloria Borger. Also joining us, our senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN political analyst, the Washington bureau chief for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich.

It seems, Gloria, every time there's a new controversy, people say, well, this time Trump has crossed the line -

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BLITZER: But he still keeps on going and going and going.

BORGER: You know it's like - it's like - it's like the world record in the Olympics. You know, the line keeps moving, right?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

BORGER: This is a different context though. I mean we went through this. As I was saying before, we've seen the movie. We went through this, you know, pretty much during the primaries quite often. And it doesn't affect Trump supporters. His supporters are solid.

The difference that we're seeing now is the people who are saying I've had enough are people who were thinking about Trump. And that's his problem because it's those independent voters who were thinking about Trump. It's Republican women who were thinking about Trump. And it's some Republicans who - Republican men who were thinking about Trump. It's the national security letter.

So this thing keeps piling on. I - I - I think at some point he's got to get above his threshold and attract a wider base so he can start winning in those battleground states. And as we know, those polls are looking dicey in some of those states for him.

BLITZER: (INAUDIBLE) if he's going to win those battleground states, he needs to not only maintain that solid Republican conservative base -

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes.

BLITZER: He's got to bring in undecided voters, independents and maybe some Democrats.

HENDERSON: He does. And I was actually at a focus group last night of Wal-Mart moms from Ohio and Arizona and they have significant problems with Donald Trump, even the ones who are inclined to support him. The Republican women that Gloria was talking about, they talk about his lack of a filter. They say his mouth always gets him in trouble. They say he just says whatever comes into his mind. And this is a problem. And we can see already in these polls, in Pennsylvania, in Florida, in Ohio, these are states he's going to need to win. He can't just rely on these southern states that he's obviously going to win, red states. He's going to need to expand. And so far, this was supposed to be the week where he reset, right? We heard - had the economic speech on Monday and, again, he's step on his own message.

[13:20:30] BLITZER: Jackie, how much of a problem does Hillary Clinton and her campaign have as a result of these latest e-mails that have just surfaced? You heard Drew Griffin's report.

KUCINICH: This is just a continuation of a naked narrative about Hillary Clinton and her state department tenure and also her campaign. It's secretive. They're hiding something. And when these things come to light that there may have been quid pro quo, there's no proof of that yet, but just that, you know, frankly, it's shady. And that hurts her because of the honest and trustworthy numbers because - she's finally starting to get an edge on Donald Trump and it's sort of like two steps forward, one step back as these things keep rolling out. And you have to - you have to really question why they didn't just put all these things out, you know, last year, all at once, instead of this constant drip, drip, drip that we have, you know, three months before Election Day.

BLITZER: And these aren't just aides to Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton for that matter.

BORGER: No.

BLITZER: These are their closest aides.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BORGER: These are - these are their closest aides.

KUCINICH: Yes.

BORGER: And they're acting on her behalf. She may not have known about these e-mails. She wasn't on these e-mails. But they were acting on her behalf and on the - on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.

Look, 60 percent of voters don't trust her. The good thing for Hillary Clinton is that 59 percent don't trust Donald Trump either.

HENDERSON: Right.

KUCINICH: Right.

BORGER: So it's kind of a - it's kind of a wash right now. But it does play into her narrative and Donald Trump has been handed a couple of gifts, right? The e-mail is a political, you know, is a political gift to him. The fact that the father of the Orlando shooter showed up at a Hillary Clinton rally is a gift to Donald Trump, which he did not talk about. So the question is now whether, as a presidential candidate, and his campaign can get him back on track to kind of start taking advantage of these two things that have been just set on his doorstep.

HENDERSON: (INAUDIBLE). Yes, and he's tried to talk about this before. He called the State Department Hillary's private hedge fund and he's been insinuating that there's some kind of corrupt relationship between the Clinton Foundation -

BORGER: Right.

HENDERSON: And the State Department. But can he keep hammering that home and get the entire Republican Party on the same message about these e-mails?

BLITZER: He's got a couple rallies coming up today. I suspect we're going to be hearing a lot more of Hillary Clinton's e-mail problems -

KUCINICH: Right.

BLITZER: And the father of the killer from Orlando. I suspect he's going to be talking about that considerably later today.

KUCINICH: I think you're right, but, again, can he stay on task? Does he feel slighted by the Second Amendment - by the reaction to his comments yesterday? And - because that's always been his problem, right, he keeps on going back to these old fights and addressing them ad nauseam and then he, because of that, he sort of lets Hillary Clinton go. And we've seen this a couple different times with him. And then he says something else and there's another firestorm. So whether he can keep on message and stay on task of targeting Hillary Clinton is still an open question.

BLITZER: All right, ladies, stick around. We've got more coming up.

Also coming up, Hillary Clinton calls out Congress for leaving Washington instead of handling the Zika virus issues here in the United States. The governor of Florida, Rick Scott, there he is, he's standing by to join us live. We'll talk about that and a whole lot more. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:20] BLITZER: Donald Trump travels to Florida tonight with 29 electoral votes. It is the biggest prize of the battleground states. With the latest Quinnipiac poll showing Hillary Clinton and Trump right now virtually neck and neck in Florida, it will be a tough fight for both candidates. But Trump may have one advantage. He has the endorsement, the strong endorsement, of the Florida governor, Rick Scott. Not only that, Governor Scott is also the chairman of the pro- Trump super PAC Rebuilding America Now. The group recently released this attack ad against Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We came out of the White House not only debt broke (ph) but in debt.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It didn't last long. A foundation was created and money started to roll. Speeches, connection, and donations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Governor Scott is joining us now live from Tallahassee.

Governor, thanks very much for joining us.

GOV. RICK SCOTT (R), FLORIDA: Hi, Wolf. Tell your mom we're keeping her safe in Florida.

BLITZER: All right, I'll tell her.

Let's talk about the latest uproar involving Donald Trump's claims that it was simply - he was not advocating violence against Hillary Clinton with those so-called Second Amendment comments, but did he cross a line? Was he sloppy in the way he spoke?

SCOTT: Every candidate is different. He clarified, you know, what he - what he was saying. But every candidate's different. So what I tell people, this race ultimately though is about jobs. This is about a business person that has created private sector jobs and a career politician that has never created private sector jobs in her life. That's why we have the ad up at rebuildingamerica.com - or Rebuilding America Now and it shows that, you know, these e-mails, this is just the Clintons, you know, it doesn't pass the smell test. They walked out of office broke, started the foundation, now they're worth over $100 million.

[13:30:05] BLITZER: So - but do you want him to issue another statement to go out there and say, you know what, maybe I misspoke, maybe I thought I was joking, I really wasn't...