Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Bernie Sanders is Questioning the Results in that Kentucky Primary; Battle Against ISIS Heats Up in Fallujah; Facebook Making Changes to Address Concerns of Bias Against Conservatives. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired May 24, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:06] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe under federal investigation for questionable campaign contribution. Moments ago, the democrat said he was shocked to learn of the investigation. Denies any wrongdoing. The FBI and the department of justice want to know whether a 120,000 donation by a Chinese businessman to the campaign violated election laws.

Let's go to justice correspondent Evan Perez who story.

So, the governor say there has been no wrongdoing. Denying. What more is Governor McAuliffe said?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well Brooke, he is trying to make this about one donation in particular, the 122,000 donation from a Chinese businessman, a billionaire by the name (INAUDIBLE). He is a person who has donated to many causes including to the governor's campaign.

But what we're told and what we reported on CNN is that this is a wider investigation. It goes beyond this. We don't know everything about it but we know that it began or at least one of the things that sparked the interest of investigators was a donation and then it looks further into his tens of millions of dollars that he raised for his 2013 campaign. But Governor McAuliffe spoke to reporters a while ago and here's how he defended himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TERRY MCAULIFFE (D), VIRGINIA: All I can do is rely on two firms who did the betting on this check. I can't live a live. I mean, I personally didn't get the check. I rely on the people who did the vetting for it. They said he had a green card from 2007. So the contribution came in and they have unequivocally said that he was entitled to write a check.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREZ: And, Brooke, what he is referring is the green card that is -- that his representatives of Mr. Wang told us that he has would make his campaign donation legal. We do know that it's an active ongoing investigation and we'll see where it goes from here. BALDWIN: OK. Evan Perez, thank you so much on the Virginia governor.

Meantime, if Bernie Sanders is now questioning the results in that Kentucky primary predicting a messy, his word, Democratic convention, when's the senator's end game here? We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:38:32] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I remember way, way back in the 1990s as my husband might say -- I mean, we did have 23 million new jobs. We did have incomes rising for everybody, not just those at the top. We did lift more people out of poverty than in any time in our recent history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Hillary Clinton there on the stage, Commerce, California. The big California primary June 7th. So, speaking there, talking about the '90s but in a different form and fashion as her presumed opponent Donald Trump has. We'll get to that in a second.

But first on Senator Sanders here just in to CNN. Kentucky secretary of state has just agreed to re-canvas the state's democratic primary. Bernie Sanders pushed for it after coming in less than one percentage point of Hillary Clinton's total. Officials have agreed to reveal electronic voting machine and absentee ballots in every one of the state's 120 counties. So that's happening.

Meantime, senator Sanders is also getting more of a say when it comes to the Democratic platform. The DNC is allowing him to select five of the people who will govern the party's direction. So joining me now CNN chief political analyst Miss Gloria Borger.

Gloria, always a pleasure.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: How are you?

BALDWIN: I'm well.

[15:40:02] BORGER: I love that Hillary impersonating Bill Clinton.

BALDWIN: Bill Clinton, right. It was like Donald Trump last week impersonation and now her husband now.

BORGER: Pretty good.

BALDWIN: First of all, before talking about the five seats here and the six seats here for -- can you just explain the Democratic Party platform binding, nonbinding? What it hopes to accomplish?

BORGER: Well, the Democratic Party platform is kind of an outline that is nonbinding, that you approve at a convention and usually it is kind of noncontroversial. It is a lot of things the Democrats or the Republicans at their convention might agree to in the Republican Party things like abortion have been controversial in the past, for example. And here I think what Sanders is saying and what his people who I talk to are saying is, look, now that we have representation on the committee, we want to make sure that the party stands for those millions of voters who supported us. And that the platform, you know, reflects that. I think in talking to the Hillary Clinton people they're -- I think they're kind of fine with that. I think they are fine with it.

BALDWIN: We have so he has five spots. On this -- including a pro- Palestinian activist, you have American activist, environmental activist, someone when's been, you know, a surrogate for him these many months for now, West. What is the significance of those five spots in the greeter scheme of things, the fact that he has these five people?

BORGER: Well look. First of all, the fact he has e representation is important. I would also argue that Hillary Clinton has hers and Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC have theirs. And so, you know, everybody is represented.

Those people are progressive to say the least. A lot of them are really not Hillary Clinton fans. And they're also very vocal. And what we heard one Sanders adviser sort of say in passing is that, look, if we don't get what we want in the platform committee, that is if they're outvoted on the platform committee, we could take it to a vote on the floor of the convention which is something I do not believe the Clinton people would look forward to and would try to avoid at all costs. So I think we have to watch that platform committee pretty closely.

I think this is a moment for Bernie Sanders to say to his supporters, you know what? We didn't go through this year for nothing. We stand for something. And we reflect a large amount of the Democratic Party and that's going to be reflected in the Democratic Party platform. And again, you know, in talking to Clinton people, they're sort of, OK, this has to play out can't really decide anything until you finish California.

BALDWIN: Final thought, just quickly, the fact that we know. I want to say it was 250,000 of the Sanders camp going to Debbie Wasserman Schultz's opponent. I think we all know sort of how some of the Sanders folks feel about the DNC and about Debbie Wasserman Schultz. How unprecedented is that?

BORGER: I think it is completely unprecedented. And what it says is that Bernie Sanders believes and continues to believe that the system I rigged against him. And that Debbie Wasserman Schultz in cahoots he believes with the Clinton campaign rigged it. And that they, you know, the system keeps independents from voting. The debates were hidden before holidays and on Saturday nights and there weren't enough of them. And so, you know, it's unprecedented for someone to say, you know, I'm going to support the person who is running against the chairman of the party. I am -- I am a member of. But it just shows you the complete disdain and utter lack of regard that he has for her leadership of the Democratic Party.

BALDWIN: Gloria Borger, thank you so much.

BORGER: Sure.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, as the battle against ISIS heats up in Fallujah, CNN gets exclusive access to the green zone. We will talk to our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. She was the only TV journalist with the top U.S. commander making a secret visit to Iraq me live safety of our American men and women in uniform.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:11] BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We here at CNN were are just now getting our first few pictures inside the battle raging right now to drive ISIS out of Fallujah. These images just in to CNN showing Iraqi troops attacking the ISIS stronghold just 40 miles from Baghdad. U.S.-led coalition forces pounding these ISIS targets, 21 targets with airstrikes just in the last week. So far, Iraqi forces are just circling the city where the U.N. now believes 10,000 families are trapped.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has exclusive access with the head of the U.S. central command as Iraqi forces scramble to protect Baghdad's highly secure green zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protesters invade Baghdad's green zone for the second time. Violence rising as opposition to the Iraqi government grows. The top U.S. commander running the war against ISIS is watching carefully for the stress mounting on the Iraqi military even now as it tries to recapture the key city of Fallujah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're having to make decisions in terms of where their forces is going, where their priorities are.

STARR: But in Baghdad with the U.S. embassy and military headquarters inside the heavily fortified green zone, does the U.S. have enough security on hand?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do think we have the right security forces on ground, on the ground from a U.S. perspective to take care of ourselves there.

STARR: CNN was the only network with General Joseph Votel, the U.S. commander in charge of the war against ISIS as he traveled in Iraq, getting the latest assessments on security and the readiness of Iraqi forces. This base about one hour north of Baghdad is one of the front lines in the effort to

But they have at least temporarily seen some Iraqi forces called back to Baghdad for a few weeks to deal with security situation there in the wake of the rising attacks by ISIS. Votel is trying to convince Iraq's military to make certain to station

enough troops around the country and not flood Baghdad with security forces as the government tries to confront the latest violence in the capital.

[15:50:27] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are attempting to create chaos in the capital. They are attempting to divert attention away from other areas where they are where coalition forces and Iraqis are having success.

STARR: This military warehouse, to the south in Kuwait, brimming with more than 25,000 weapons for Iraqi forces. All are being shipped out as more Iraqis show up for U.S.-led training.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: You know, this is one of the challenges, as you look at the map, Brooke, all of these towns and villages where fighting is happening are interconnected, strategically, various, religious and ethnic groups living there. So what the U.S. is looking for is to try and help Iraq make progress on a lot of different fronts all at the same time -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Barbara, amazing reporting, both in Syria and now Iraq. Thank you so much for that.

Come up next, changes to your Facebook feed. The social media giant says it did not find any evidence that conservative views were censored from the trending topics on the page. But the second is apparently still getting overhaul. We will get reaction from S.E. Cupp who attended that meeting among conservatives and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Brian Stelter joining us on the reporting today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:56] BALDWIN: Facebook. Facebook announcing today it is making changes to address concern of the social media site is bias against conservative. This announcement comes even though Facebook says an internal investigations didn't find any evidence that its trending topics feature is politically biased to avoid concerns. Facebook invited several prominent conservatives to a meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently. Facebook now says it will train online news curators to avoid making content decisions on the basis of politics or ideology.

So let me bring in Brian Stelter, who follows all things social media, CNN's senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" and S.E. Cupp, one of those important conservatives invited to that meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, another CNN political commentator. She shuffled but she is that important.

But Brian Stelter to you, first, just on the news front. I mean, Facebook said nothing funky was happening. And why are they changing anything?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Certainly from a perception stand point, they are trying to recover some lost ground and convince everybody, liberals, conservatives, and everybody that the site is fair to all points of review. They say their review found no evidence of wrongdoing. But it is possible individual employees sometimes would remove stories black list stories that were interest to conservative readers. They say they can't definitively rule that out so trying to take steps in the future to make sure it doesn't happen ever.

BALDWIN: OK.

So with these steps, S.E. Cupp, you know, what that case closed, done, punctuation mark over or not so much?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. We - at least I made it very clear to Facebook at the time during that meeting on Wednesday, that this could not be a one-night stand. This was not a love them and leave them. I wanted to hear more from them, you know, over the course of the next few weeks, months, years.

I have a long-term interest here in marrying conservatives and Silicon Valley with long-term partnerships. To do that we need trust. And these steps that Brian just outlined that Facebook announced yesterday are a good step in the right direction. But you know, I want to make sure that we are partners for a long time, conservatives need Silicon Valley. And Silicon Valley needs conservatives to advance them of legislation and policies on the hill. So I hope this is a first step, first among many, to get conversations going about our two, you know, communities.

BALDWIN: But I read your piece - hang on, Stelter. I read your piece S.E., and I thought you made a great point sort of questioning whether or not it's a PR ploy.

CUPP: Yes. Well, certainly there is a PR problem and Facebook knows that. But there's also an actual problem, and that speaks to some of the changes that Facebook has decided to make. While they say there wasn't any systemic or intentional bias, driving some of the problems with the trending topics, they're acknowledging, I think very bravely, that there's a possibility for bias to come in. And so, they're taking steps to make that bias as impossible as they can.

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Brian.

STELTER: The story illustrates how powerful Facebook is, you know, how much time they spend on the site. Tells the story perfectly. Think about how much time you spent on Facebook, scrolling to the news feed, look at friends' profile and looking at the trending topics. We need to make sure all Facebook users understands how the site does what it does, how it pops up stories in your news feed. I think more than anything else, we need to make sure that if you're seeing all liberal stories or all conservative stories you need to see the other side. You need to see all sides online otherwise we're going to live in our own bubbles, our own online neighborhoods. And that's not good for political discourse in general.

BALDWIN: Thirty seconds, S.E., do you see a Facebook/Silicon, you know, Valley conservative Kumbaya in the future?

CUPP: No. I mean, there's a lot of conservatives who are very skeptical of Facebook and think anyone who went to the meeting was sort of selling out. I fundamentally believe that if there's a problem if you're invited to be a part of the solution, you go and you make that effort.

BALDWIN: You say yes.

CUPP: Now, we will see where it goes. But I feel pretty good about hearing them out.

BALDWIN: Good on you. S.E. Cupp, thank you very much. And Brian Stelter, thank you, sir. We watch you on Sunday mornings here on "Reliable Sources." So thank you, my friend.

And we are just about out of time here. I'm Brooke Baldwin in New York. Thank you so much for being with me here Tuesday afternoon. A lot to talk about. We are going to send it to Washington here.

"The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.