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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

President Obama Speaks to Veterans; Trump at South Carolina Rally. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 21, 2015 - 12:00   ET

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


[12:00:00] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is the right thing to do.

(APPLAUSE)

And since today marks five years since I signed historic Wall Street reform into law, let me say, I will not accept any efforts to roll back this law, or its strong protections for our economy and the American people, including our military families.

And we're going to keep helping our newest veterans transition to civilian life. All 50 states have now taken steps to recognize the skills of our veterans when issuing civilian credentials and licenses. So, we've got to make sure those laws are working so our veterans actually get those credentials.

We'll keep helping our veterans and their families choose the school that's right for them under the post 9/11 G.I. Bill, and that now includes the surviving spouses of our fallen heroes.

(APPLAUSE)

In 43 states, veterans now pay in-state tuition; we're working to make sure that happens in all 50 states. I don't know what the other seven states think they're doing. We've got to go ahead and make that happen.

We'll keep partnering with communities to step up and welcome our veterans home with jobs and opportunities that are worthy of their skills. And as long as I'm president, I'm going to keep telling every business in America, if you want somebody to get the job done, hire a vet.

(APPLAUSE)

Hire a veteran, because they know what sacrifice means, and what duty means, and responsibility means.

Let's do more nation-building here at home. That's part of our strength, part of our American leadership.

You know, VFW, as I look around this auditorium, I see that the love of country and the devotion of duty, spans the generations. And that spirit endures in those who wear the uniform today. We saw that once again last week in Chattanooga. Back in Massachusetts, Tom Sullivan (ph) cheered for his Boston

teams. In battle, said a comrade, Sully (ph) was just everything that a Marine should be. In two tours in Iraq, he earned a Combat Action Ribbon; for his wounds, two Purple Hearts. When he was warned that a gunman was there in Chattanooga, he ran in, so that others could live.

Today, we echo the words of his community, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas J. Sullivan was our hero, and he will never be forgotten. Thank you for protecting us.

(APPLAUSE)

Growing up in Georgia, Skip Wells was a true, serving leader. Devoted to God and to his friends. Quick to lend a hand or put you on his prayer list. During his hometown's 4th of July parade, he was so proud to be a Marine, he went in his dress uniform. Just 21 years old, a year out of boot camp. Easy-going, always smiling, even during the hardest drills.

A friend said, "Skip is the kind of kid you want on your team." As Americans, we are forever grateful that Lance Corporal Squire K. Wells was on our team.

OBAMA: As an Eagle Scout in Arkansas, David Wyatt would race up a mountain to be the first on top. He was determined to do his part for our country, found his calling in the Marines. He led with courage in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with compassion, as a mentor to comrades with post-traumatic stress. It's said he was a gentleman and a gentle man. No one knew that better than his wife Laurie and their two young children.

Today we see as they did why a friend would say that Staff Sergeant David A. Wyatt was the kind of man this country needs more of.

Back home, Carson Holmquist was an embodiment of the spirit of Grantsburg, Wisconsin, population 1,300. Loved country music, loved to fish, to hunt, to play football. And he loved the Marines, showing up at his old high school in his dress blues. He's too served in Afghanistan, was devoted to his family. His wife Jasmine, their two year old son. Said his old coach, "Carson always did the best he could."

Today, our nation is stronger because America saw the best of Sergeant Carson A. Holmquist.

And in his hometown in Ohio, Randall Smith is remembered as the high school baseball star with a fierce pitch.

[12:05:00] He was a fun and outgoing guy, and a guy they said you just wanted to be around. His buddies in the Navy knew it. He had just reenlisted. And his family knew it too. His wife Angie would call -- who he'd like to call the most beautiful woman in the world. Their young daughters, who he called his little princesses. Today, we join the people of Paulding, Ohio, including VFW Post 587, with five flags flying, in honor of Navy Petty Officer Second Class Randall S. Smith.

VFW, our nation endures because citizens like you put on the uniform and serve to keep us free. We endure because your families served and stay strong on the homefront. We endure because the freedoms and values you protected are now defended by a new generation: Americans just like our five patriots who gave their lives in Chattanooga. As a grateful nation, we must stand up for them and honor them now and forever.

God bless these American heroes. God bless all our troops...

(APPLAUSE) ... and all of our veterans. God bless the United States of America.

Thank you VFW.

(APPLAUSE)

We're proud of what you do.

(APPLAUSE)

[12:06:45] PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: You just heard President Obama speaking to veterans in Pittsburgh at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and it - it ended on an emotional note as we heard President Obama speak about the five service members killed in that shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, last week. He honored those four Marines and the Sailor who ultimately died from his wounds in that shooting. President Obama saying, "we will not give into fear. You cannot change what makes us Americans." He also said the White House flag has been lowered to honor the victims.

Thank you so much for being here with us. I'm Pamela Brown, in for Ashleigh Banfield here on LEGAL VIEW.

I want to bring in my colleague, Gloria Borger, to talk about more from what we heard from President Obama today.

Gloria, very emotional there at the end.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think so. A very emotional, heartfelt speech, calling for the release, I might add, of four Americans held in Iran as well. Talking about the Iranian nuclear deal, how war is a last resort. Yet, at the same time, honoring veterans of foreign wars, talking about, quite bluntly, I thought, the problems that the V.A. has endured. Going through a long laundry list of things that the government has been trying to do to improve the situation. Admitting that they discovered that the books had been cooked, that waiting lines were longer than they needed to be. You know, the whole litany of the problems with the V.A. Making it clear that this is something that the administration considers a top priority now. And trying to address these issues and, at the same time, as commander in chief, Pamela, really, really talk about the debt that this nation owes to all veterans. I contrast it to the debate that seems to be going on, the political debate in the Republican Party right now, about who's a hero, who's not a hero, what you're going to do for veterans. This was a - sort of a specific list from a commander-in-chief about what went wrong, about what needs to be done and about how Americans need to - need to value our - our veterans.

BROWN: And it's especially poignant given what just happened, Gloria, in Chattanooga, Tennessee -

BORGER: Of course.

BROWN: With these five service members killed. What more did President Obama say about that specifically?

BORGER: You know, I - I think what the president did - and this is where presidents really serve as pastor in chief - is that he really tried to personalize who these fallen service members were. He tried to sort of take us into their lives. The young man who's got two young princesses whom are his daughters and the wife he calls the most beautiful woman in the world. To let us know that these folks who gave their lives unwittingly, who were gunned down are American heroes and that we need to honor them. And I think that coming from the president, it was a eulogy, a beautiful eulogy, in a way, to these service members and, you know, struck a note of, you know, we need to stop and take a moment and honor these people, as well as everybody who came before them. And when our veterans come home, we need to honor them by what we do for them and how we help them.

[12:10:28] BROWN: Gloria Borger, thank you so much.

BORGER: Sure.

BROWN: And our other big story today, the race for the White House. Republican Candidate Donald Trump is about to speak live at a rally in Bluffton, South Carolina. We will bring that to you live when it happens. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Right now, Donald Trump is speaking at a rally in Bluffton, South Carolina. He's speaking about immigration. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And people said, would you apologize, would you apologize? And then there were tremendous crimes that were being noted after my speech. And then you had magnificent Kate from San Francisco killed by an illegal immigrant who was forced to cross the border back to us - in my opinion forced by the Mexican government - back to us and that was taking place and five times back into our country and the fifth time was not good because Kate should be with us and she's not with us. She was an amazing person from everybody's standpoint and she's not with us.

[12:15:04] And then other thing happened. So many other things. And now people are looking and they're seeing what's going on. So that's become a very, very big topic, illegal immigration. And I can say in terms of setting the standard and setting the force, it would not even be discussed right now, folks, and it's going to be something I think that's going to be one of the hot buttons.

Now, I watch as politicians are trying to claim that. And that's OK with me. You know they're all talk no action, so they won't do anything anyway, just so you understand. They can talk all they want. I mean I got a little dose of it. I was coming up and I see your senator. What a stiff. What a stiff. Lindsey Graham. By the way, he's registered zero in the polls. Zero. He's on television all the time.

So this morning, you know, they told me, Mr. Trump - because Bush said my tone's not nice. My tone. I said tone? We need tone. We need enthusiasm. We need tone! It's true. But they said - and actually Hillary Clinton said, I don't like his tone. We've got people having their heads cut off, Christians in the Middle East. We have people that are being dumped in cages and drowned in the Middle East.

We have border security that doesn't exist. And it's not because of our incredible border folks. I mean they can do the job and we can build a wall. And, by the way, Mexico can pay for the wall, just so you understand. You know, all of these guys says, oh, they'll never pay. Of course they'll pay. If you have the right guy negotiating that, they'll pay. They're making a fortune.

And I have a lot of respect for Mexico, by the way. A lot of people said, oh, he doesn't - I love Mexico. And I love the Mexican people. I've had thousands of Mexican working for me. I sell apartments for millions of dollars to people from Mexico. They love me. They love me.

All of a sudden I had this thing about - and, by the way, Nevada just came out with a poll and I said, I will win the Hispanic vote. I'm the only one that's going to win the Hispanic vote because I'm going to take jobs from China and Japan and Mexico and lots of other places. We're going to bring them back here and they're going to work. They're going to be legal in the country, they're going to work, it's going to - everybody's going to be happy. They're going to make money.

So I love the Mexican people. I love the Mexican people. I love Mexico. I really like Mexico. It's a great place. The problem we have is that their leaders are much smarter and sharper and more cunning than our leaders. Are you shocked to hear that, by the way? Is anybody not sharper and more cunning and smarter than our leaders? Any country in the world? Do we make any good deals anymore? Trade? When was the last time you said, oh, gee, we beat China in a trade deal? Doesn't happen. We beat Japan in a trade deal.

I see their boats. I was in Los Angeles. I see these ships come in. The biggest ships I've ever seen. Millions of cars coming into this country. Millions. Ships that are five times longer than this totally sold out building along with the amphitheaters, by the way. The press never reports that. They never report that. But that's OK. I was going to actually bring the press, have them sit over here so they see.

But totally - the biggest ships, cars, cars, cars. They just cut their yen. You know, they just cut their currency. Now it's going to be even harder. I tell the story - a friend of mine's a great excavator. That's what he does, he digs foundation. You didn't think I knew people like that. Those are my people, let me tell you. This guy's great. He's a great excavator and he was very, very upset because his order for new excavators, excavation equipment and tractors. I said, what's wrong with you? He goes, well, I didn't buy Caterpillar. All my life I've bought Caterpillar and now I went to Komatsu. I said, why did you do that? He said because Japan just cut their currency so low, Donald, that I had no choice. I had to do it. I feel so guilty. He said, but I owe it to my wife and my family and my employees and the company that I built. They couldn't compete with it. And I said, isn't that sad? I said, do you mind if I use that story? He said, use it? What do you mean use it? For what? I said, I'm going to run for president. That's a good story for me, to be honest.

But that's happening and it's happening even worse with China. They manipulate their currency better than any country in the history of the world in history. History. They're killing us. And if you want to do business with China, it's almost impossible because, believe me, they tax you. We don't tax because we have people that are stupid.

You know, free trade, I believe in it. I believe in it. Totally. I'm a free trader. The problem with free trade is you need smart people on our side, OK? We need smart people. I could take some of the people up here. I could put them in. They'd do a great job. But we need smart people. And when you don't have smart people, free trade is not a good thing because it's killing us. So I believe in free trade, but we've got to get the right people.

[12:20:20] Now, China loves me. Who's worse to China than I am? I'm constantly talking about how they're ripping us off, everything else, and yet I just signed a lease with the largest bank in the world from China. They're in one of my buildings. I sell apartments for 25, 35, 45, 12, 9 million dollars to people from China. I own a big chunk of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. I beat the people from China. I win against China. You can win against China if you're smart. But our people don't have a clue. We give state dinners to the heads of China. I said, why are you doing state dinners for them? They're ripping us left and right. Just take them to McDonald's and go back to the negotiating table. Seriously. It's true.

So then they talk about the tone. You know, Hillary and all of them. And then I - I see Rick Perry the other day and he's so - you know, he's doing very poorly in the polls. He put glasses on so people will think he's smart. And it - it just doesn't work. You know, people can see through the glasses. But he's got the glasses, the whole deal. Oh, oh, oh, Trump. I say he did a lousy job with the border.

You know the new governor, Governor Abbot, has put in things that should have been put in a long time ago. But I see him, he's so vicious. You know, he used to be really a nice guy. He used to come to see me for contributions and support. All of a sudden he's - all of a sudden he wants to show he's a tough guy with Trump. So tough. But, you know, the whole thing. And he was very nasty.

And then you have this guy, Lindsey Graham, a total lightweight. Here's a guy - in the private sector, he couldn't get a job, believe me, he couldn't get a job. He couldn't do what you people did. You're all retired as hell and rich, OK. He wouldn't be rich. He'd be poor. But Lindsey Graham, now they say, Donald, your language is inflammatory.

Now, I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I was a great student. I built a fortune. I've had many best-seller, "The Art of the Deal" is about the biggest selling business book of all time. Did a show that everybody said is going to fail called "The Apprentice" and it was a tremendous success. Tremendous. One of the most. By the way, 14, 15 copies of "The Apprentice," everyone one of them failed.

And then they renewed it, by the way. They thought I was going to do it. I said, no, you don't understand, NBC. The head people from NBC and comquest came to my - Comcast, they came to my office and they said - recently, like a few months ago, they said, please, please, don't run. We've renewed "The Apprentice." It did great and we had a good last season, even after 12 years, 14 seasons. Had a great season. And all these copies. Everybody did a copy. I won't name the names because I don't want to embarrass anybody, but, you know, important names. Not like Trump, but they're important. And they all failed. Most of them immediately. Most of them immediately.

So NBC renews "The Apprentice." Everyone says, well, I thought you were running for president. I am. Well, they don't understand it. Well, I told them I'm not doing it. They didn't believe me. Mark Burnett called me, he said, they've given you a major renewal. They did, 28 shows. Twenty-eight shows. That's a lot. You know how much money I give up by doing this?

These politicians, they run and they run and they win and sometimes they lose and they keep running. It's all they do is run. Most of them don't know what they're doing. They just run. They're like - you know, like you wind them up and they run for office. They don't do anything when they get there. I know them better than anybody. So they say they didn't like the way that, you know, the little - I'm a little loud. I'm a little too strong for - they don't like it.

And then I watch this idiot Lindsey Graham on television today and he calls me a jackass. He's a jackass. You know, I built a company. They all said I'd never run. I announced I was going to run. They all said, oh, that's (INAUDIBLE). Well, he'll never file his form papers. That was two weeks ago. I filed my form papers. Oh, well he'll never file his financials. And my financials are - well, it's like 98 pages.

By the way, a lot of these politicians haven't filed them and they're like a half page and they still haven't filed them. I'm the only one that's filed, practically. A lot of these guys haven't filed. That was one of the things you have to do to get in the debates. So everyone figured, oh, look, keep Trump out of the debates because he'll never file his financials because he doesn't want to see - he doesn't want people to see that maybe he's not as wealthy as people thought.

Well, it turned out I'm much wealthier than people thought. I built a great company. I wanted to file. If for no other reason, I'm a private company. It's like, I can't tell you how rich you are or how rich you are. You know, you've got a lot of money, I guess, but it's the - who the hell knows? Nobody knows how rich I am. So now I had to file. So it's over $10 billion, hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and I made $213 million filed (ph) certified (ph) on "The Apprentice." Can you imagine, they paid me $213 million?

[12:25:25] So you know what that means? When I give up "The Apprentice" to run to help you people straighten out this mess that everybody's created, that the politicians and Obama have created? I mean it's very expensive and it's very everything and I don't care. And when I say about the $10 billion - much more than that, but that's OK, I wanted to be conservative - when I say about the $10 billion, I'm not doing that to brag. Who cares? Who cares? If you have a billion, you can live very nicely. I'm only kidding. Who cares? What I'm saying is, that's the mind-set that we need as a country. We need to take back our jobs from China and other places. We need to make great deals with other countries.

Saudi Arabia, as an - I like the Saudis. They're very nice. I make a lot of money with them. They buy all sorts of my stuff. All kinds of toys from Trump. They pay me millions and hundreds of millions. But you know what? They make a billion dollars a day, folks. And wherever they're in trouble, our military takes care. You know what we get? Nothing. South Korea - crazy is right, right? Who said that? Stand up. Stand up. He said it's crazy. It's true! It's true. It's crazy. They make a billion dollars a day and what - you know - and by the way, Yemen, the war that Obama thought he won? Remember a year ago, oh, Yemen, great, oh, it's over, it's over. Well, about two weeks later it was gone. They took all our equipment. They took all our trucks.

Think of this. We make 2,300 Humvees, armor-plated. The most incredible. Shots fired and the guys we gave them to, our allies, you know, our allies, they run. One shot goes in the air, they run. So the enemy takes over 2,300 Humvees. Now when I saw the number, I said, no, no, no, no, two or three, you mean, not 2,000. You mean they took over two or three? No, no, two thousand -

BROWN: We're listening to leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking there in Bluffton, South Carolina, reiterating a lot of the same talking points we've heard before in his stump speech, but it appears he is sharpening his attacks against two people - Rick Perry and Lindsey Graham, the senator for South Carolina.

To analyze all of this, I'm going to bring in CNN senior political correspondent Nia-Malika Henderson and CNN political director David Chalian.

Thanks for being here with us.

David, I'm going to start with you. There has been this sort of ongoing rivalry between Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump. Of course, Lindsey Graham called him a wrecking ball, a jackass, and now Donald Trump is really taking some shots back at him. What's your take on it?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, yes, I think it's a - it pretty much is a formula of how, just like you said, with Lindsey Graham and Rick Perry sort of upping the ante with their rhetoric against Trump, and they're doing so, obviously, to mix it up and get in the conversation and try to sort of ride this Trump narrative that's out there right now as a way into the overall 2016 conversation. He then turns around and goes out to an event and just takes them on with even tougher rhetoric. I think he called Lindsey Graham there an idiot and said that he couldn't get a job in the private sector and called him a lightweight. By the way, Donald Trump is speaking in Lindsey Graham's home state of South Carolina as he's saying all of this.

BROWN: Right. Exactly! And he came right out of the gate very early on and called him a stiff and then circled back around to talking about him. He didn't want to - he didn't want to let it go. And let's talk about where he is, Nia, because he's in South Carolina. This is a place that has a lot of veterans, pro-military. How do you think he is being received there in light of the comments he made about McCain recently?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think he's first being received as a celebrity, right? I mean you can see the reactions on those people's faces and they're just kind of listening to life according to Donald Trump, which is very rambling, which includes stuff about "The Apprentice," which includes stuff about selling hotels to folks in Saudi Arabia or folks in China. So, you know, that's his riff.

[12:29:43] But I do think the backdrop of this are those comments he made about John McCain, about POWs, that he's since kind of backed away from. But keep in mind, South Carolina's a very heavily military state in terms of military bases. It has eight military bases down there. A lot of folks down there work for - are in the military, are veterans, retired veterans as well. So that's what I think he's dealing with. That's the backdrop. He talks about, of course, Lindsey Graham down there as well.