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CNN NEWSROOM

Obama Says World Leaders Baffled by Trump; Trump Hits Clinton on E-mails; Discussion Of Trump's Policies And Tweets; Iraqi Government Takes Center Of City At Garma; Massive Tornado In Kansas Is Not The End Of Severe Weather; Donald Trump Hurls Verbal Attacks At Two Female Politicians. Aired 9-9:30a

Aired May 26, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:01] CUOMO: It's not right just because you're 50 years younger than we are that we didn't have --

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: That makes you feel old today?

CUOMO: Here's a picture of you back then. There she is.

CAMEROTA: Look at that.

CABRERA: That's my real hair, by the way.

CUOMO: Wearing a wig -- I mean, what is that about?

CABRERA: That's my --

CUOMO: There you go.

CABRERA: Check out the leopard -- the leopard print pants there.

CAMEROTA: And look at your hair.

CUOMO: Now we're talking.

CAMEROTA: That is so good, Ana.

CABRERA: I was a trendsetter then. What happened, I don't know.

CUOMO: That look is back, by the way.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for that. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Pamela Brown in for Carol Costello. Hi, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. That was so fun. I'm so envious of your hair when you're a little girl, Ana, my goodness.

CABRERA: I'm always trying to keep it off my face.

BROWN: You're doing a good job of it.

CUOMO: Me too. Because it's falling out of my head.

BROWN: Chris, I don't wanted to hear it. Come on now. All right. You guys have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

CAMEROTA: You too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The world pays attention to the U.S. elections.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to run against Hillary, not me, I just want to run against her. It could be we're going to run against crazy Bernie.

OBAMA: Let voters make up their minds and during primaries people get a little grumpy with each other.

TRUMP: Let me tell you something, if she wins, and I hope she doesn't, you'll have nothing but four more years of Obama and you can't take that.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have turned over all of my e-mails. No one else can say that. It's not an issue that is going to affect either the campaign or my presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Well, good morning to you. I'm Pamela Brown in for Carol Costello on this Thursday. Thanks for being here with us.

President Obama has a message for Donald Trump. World leaders are watching you. The commander in chief blasting the presumptive Republican nominee, accusing him of being, quote, "ignorant" when it comes to global affairs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: They're rattled by him. And for good reason. He does a lot of the proposals that he's has made display either ignorance of world affairs or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines, instead of actually thinking through what it is that is required to keep America safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And the president's blistering remarks coming during a news conference in Japan, where world leaders are meeting for the G-7 Summit.

Let's get right to CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns with more on this -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Pamela. The president's remarks, tracking with polls that suggest voter uncertainty about Donald Trump's ability to handle foreign and military policy issues. And this, by the way, is one of those areas where voters have suggested former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, might have an edge over Trump should she become the Democratic Party's nominee.

So it is a vulnerability for Trump, particularly blighting, as the president's suggestion, that Trump's more unusual proposals were more about getting tweets and headlines than thinking things through. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Even those countries that complain or question particular policy decisions that we make know that ultimately things don't hold together so well if the United States is not making good decisions.

They are paying very close attention to this election. I think it's fair to say that they are surprised by the Republican nominee. They are not sure how seriously to take some of his pronouncements.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So far no response this morning from Donald Trump himself. Trump supporters already taking issue and pushing back on the president's comments, including Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions on CNN this morning, suggesting Donald Trump's sometimes unorthodox views on certain policy issues are either potential negotiating points or things that could breathe new life into international relations with some countries -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, we will wait and see if and when Donald Trump responds to this, Joe Johns. We do appreciate it.

And meantime, tensions and scuffles, both inside Donald Trump's campaign and outside his latest rally.

Trump supporters and his critics clash with each other and sometimes with police. A handful of people are arrested.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Don't hurt them. I say that for the television cameras. Do not hurt him. Even though he is a bad person, folks. Bad person.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And as you saw there, inside that rally, Trump calling for calm, as one protester is booted. But that's not the departure people are buzzing about today. Trump's political director, Rick Wiley, abruptly leaves after only six weeks on the job. As power struggles percolate through the campaign, Trump remains on -- on topic, bashing Hillary Clinton and seizing on the State Department reports that her private e-mails broke the rules.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:07] TRUMP: Crooked Hillary. Crooked Hillary. She is as crooked as they come. She had a little bad news today, as you know, from some reports came down that weren't so good. But not so good. Inspector general's report, not good. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Jason Carroll is here with more. Good morning to you, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Pamela. You know, that report from the State Department's inspector general was a gift for Donald Trump, who used it as more ammunition as you heard there to go after Hillary Clinton at his rally yesterday in Anaheim. Once again you heard him use the term crooked Hillary, citing the report, which was very critical of Clinton, using her personal e-mail account for government business.

Trump told the crowd that Clinton is not equipped to be president, doesn't have the temperament nor the judgment. He pointed out that Bernie Sanders was the one who initially questioned Clinton's judgment.

And you know, Pamela, Trump has had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Sanders. He has said several times during campaign speeches that he felt that the delegate system was rigged not only against him, but Sanders as well. But in the same breath, he calls Sanders Crazy Bernie. Just last night, though, Trump said on "Jimmy Kimmel," he would be open to debating Sanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE: Are you prepared to debate the major issues facing our largest state and the country before the California primary, yes or no? He wants to know if you will debate him.

TRUMP: Yes, I am. How much is he going to pay me?

KIMMEL: You would do it for a price? Would the price be?

TRUMP: Yes. Because if I debated him, we would have such high ratings and I think I should give -- take that money and give it to some worthy charity, OK.

KIMMEL: So if it was done for charity, you would agree to do that?

TRUMP: If he paid a nice sum, I -- if it were a charity, I would put to love to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Well, it certainly didn't take Sanders long to reply. He tweeted, "Game on. I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7th primary." We'll have to see if that actually happens. What won't be happening is a debate between Clinton and Sanders. Sanders wants to debate Clinton ahead of the California primary. She has declined -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Jason Carroll, thanks so much for bringing the latest there. And as Trump sharpens his attacks against Hillary Clinton, his top

aide, Paul Manafort, tells the "Huffington Post" that voters can expect a softer tone when it comes to issues like his proposed ban on Muslims.

With me now, CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill, co-chair of Donald Trump's New York campaign, Councilman Joseph Borelli, and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato.

Welcome to the three of you. Great to see you, gentlemen. I want to jump in to Trump's strategy for the general. But first I want to talk about this news, Joseph, about Trump's political director, Joseph Wiley -- Rick Wiley, rather, leaving after only six weeks. Did this happen because of infighting within the campaign?

JOSEPH BORELLI, TRUMP SUPPORTER: It might have. I'm not going to speculate on exactly what happened between the people in the various campaigns. But every presidential campaign, you see sort of, you know, a team of rivals emerge with, you know, in attempts to try to get access to the candidate, to try to be more influential in the race. It's not something unique to the Trump campaign. It's something that happens in most. And if Mr. Wiley ran out of things to do on the campaign, then I'm not surprised that he was asked to leave or whether he resigned on his own, whatever happened.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Six weeks, though, and in a moment where he is about to enter the general election, and where he is winning and actually beginning to consolidate the party suggests to me a very strong internal power struggle, largely over what kind of Donald Trump we're going to have. Are we going to have the Donald Trump from the primary season, who has, you know, really galvanized a group of voters who otherwise don't come to the polls or is he going to look more presidential and softer?

That's the question. I think that's part of the internal tension we're seeing right now.

BROWN: Yes, because, you know, some people would argue, Larry, that the tact that Donald Trump continues to take right now is only, you know, galvanizing his supporters, but it's not necessarily broadening out his base. And lately he's really been on a tail going after Governor Susana Martinez, going after Elizabeth Warren, among others, not just Hillary Clinton.

In your view, is that a smart strategy? And is that causing some of those rank-and-file Republicans who have yet to really endorse him, kind of to hold back and not come out and rally around him yet?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR OF CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, the number of prominent Republicans who haven't endorsed Trump is dwindling, so I don't think that's significant. But I do think Trump made a mistake in attacking Susana Martinez, the first Latina ever elected governor of any state. She is a Republican. Now she's been no Trump fan, that's true. But given Trump's problems with Hispanics generally, that was an attack that he really could have done without.

BROWN: And let's talk about that, Joseph, because he still has high unfavorables among women and Hispanics. They've gone down from women from the 70s in March to the 60s now, but still, it's pretty high.

[09:10:07] And yet he is going after someone like Susana Martinez, who's very popular within the Republican Party. A Hispanic woman. What do you think about that strategy? Do you think that he should scale back those kinds of attacks?

BORELLI: Well, let's start here. Governor Martinez, as the president -- head of the Republican Governors Association, should have been a little bit more politically savvy to realize that the Republican nominee was in her state and she really shouldn't have snubbed him. That said, you're right. We do see better numbers for Trump amongst women and I think the numbers aren't moving as fast as a lot of people would like. But there is a clear trend where he is gaining support amongst women.

He's also gaining support amongst the -- probably the most important demographic of all, independents, and we're seeing that in the rise in poll numbers overall and swing states.

BROWN: And I want to ask you this, Marc, because Trump continues to say that he is not going to release his tax returns during this audit. Clinton, as we've seen has continued to use this as a line of attack against Trump.

HILL: Yes.

BROWN: Do you think it's really going to work for her?

HILL: I'm not sure that it will. The tax thing is important and he absolutely should release all tax returns and the audit excuse is somewhat flimsy. At the same time, it's hard for Hillary Clinton to make a transparency argument. She can't run a campaign on transparency because of her own e-mail scandal, which she admits was a mistake. And I'm not saying we should beat a dead horse.

But because there are so many sort of murmurs about the Clintons and transparency, I'm not sure that that's the best plan of attack. For me Hillary Clinton should very much focus on her foreign policy experience. I mean, just yesterday, when we saw the president himself talk about world leader whose have a critique against Donald Trump and really fear of Donald Trump as a global leader, that's a much better and responsible successful mode of attack.

BROWN: Do you think it will be -- is that what people want, though, you think, her talking about policy and issues? Because we've seen Donald Trump use a different tack and he's really garnered a lot of attention.

HILL: Donald Trump defies all logic, though. I mean, every strategy that traditionally would work against the candidate has not worked against Donald Trump. So I think at some point, you have to just play your strong hand. And her strong hand is that she's more experienced, that she has greater foreign policy knowledge, that she's more responsible. That she's more stable. That she's more mature. These are the sort of attacks or critiques, rather, I would make if I were Hillary Clinton campaigner.

BROWN: So you think in the long run, that's going to pay off for her.

HILL: Is it has to. It has to.

BROWN: OK. I want to just go quickly -- you mentioned that the State Department IG report that came yesterday, Donald Trump seized on it basically saying that this just bolsters his argument that she is crooked Hillary. And here's what Clinton had to say in response.

Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Well, there may be reports that come out but nothing has changed. It's the same story. Just like previous secretaries of state, I used a personal e-mail. Many people did. It was not at all unprecedented. I have turned over all of my e-mails. No one else can say that. I have been incredibly open about doing that. I will continue to be open. And it's not an issue that is going to affect either the campaign or my presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Is that true, Larry?

SABATO: Well, no, she is absolutely right, Pamela. It's the same sorry. And that's the problem. This e-mail controversy which is entirely of her own making, it is her fault that this has happened, she knew better than to do this. It is coming up again and again and again. If there is any good news for her, it is that everything we see so far suggests that Republicans are upset, but Democrats aren't.

Now the Bernie Sanders supporters I'm sure would say that it is a negative one reason why they're not supporting her, but if she gets the nomination, they'll probably come on board eventually. But this is not going to be helpful for her --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: But do this go to the trust issue? You know, when you see she had said, you know, her team had said, look, we're cooperating, then you find out in this report that Hillary had denied giving an interview to the IG, things like that. Does this go to the trust issue or not? Is this -- just trying to get your sense on how damaging this might be or not.

SABATO: Well, I think it re-enforces her problems, which are twofold. People don't like her and don't trust her. Her advantage is that people also do not like or trust Donald Trump. So we have two candidates with the highest unfavorables ever recorded for major party presidential candidates. BROWN: And President Obama is weighing in on all of this. It's

pretty unusual for a commander-in-chief to come out and be this involved in an election season like this. It seems, I mean, he is really gone after Trump, though, Marc. I mean, he came out and said that Trump's remarks display ignorance and a cavalier attitude. Have you ever heard this from a --

HILL: It's a little early for that, I will say. Typically a president goes on the campaign trail for the nominee, which means post June, post July, you begin to see this type of language. You typically don't see it in May. But I think the president would argue that the stakes are very high. That a Donald Trump presidency is of such -- puts us to such extraordinary peril that he has to intervene. Not as a campaigner, not as a partisan, but as a global leader and someone whose job it is to safeguard the country.

BROWN: Joseph, your thoughts?

BORELLI: You know, the president has a right to attack the Republican nominee. And that's something, I think, as Mark said,

[09:15:20] we will expect to hear over time. But I think Trump's getting a lot of public support for many of his comments because of the failures of the Obama -- and Secretary of State Clinton's -- foreign policy failures. If he didn't have something to tweet about or talk about in terms of the government's policy in Libya and Syria, in Russia, and elsewhere, he wouldn't have the opportunity to even tweet about this and even gain support.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But that -- there are critiques of several Obama and Clinton on foreign policy, no doubt. I've been echoing, I've been saying them for eight years.

BORELLI: M-hm, right.

HILL: ... But that doesn't mean that Trump's policy is correct. And I think the fear is that his interventions -- or his proposed interventions -- are extraordinarily bad. Building a wall is a pander and it's a bad policy.

BORELLI: Keep in mind, the President right now is on an Asian trip where he's undermining our stability in our relationship with China. And he's lending his credibility to the Vietnam regime, which is horrible on human rights ...

HILL: Wait a minute ...

BORELLI: ... so what's -- let's just be fair about ...

HILL: Did you say he's undermining our relationship with China, yet Trump says we're -- they're -- we're going to suck the blood out of China in the next six years. That undermines a relationship. He says he wants to kind of, move away from (our) relationship with the U.K., one of our strongest allies, again destabilizing the region. It's impossible to imagine anything Donald Trump has said has done anything to advance our relations with another nation. PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: All right, we have to leave it there, guys.

Marc Lamont Hill, Larry Sabato, Councilman Joseph Borelli. Thanks for that really interesting discussion, good to hear all of your different viewpoints. Up next on this Thursday, the United Nations issued this stern warning about Iraq's siege on ISIS. Are the good guys endangering the lives of thousands of civilians? We're going to take a look after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:45]

BROWN: Well in Iraq, government troops are gaining ground and marching toward the ISIS-held town of Fallujah. The U.S. ally faces a ferocious fight there. But it's the civilians trapped within the city who may face the greatest risk. CNN's Ben Wedeman is here with the military challenges and humanitarian concerns that loom ahead. So what is the latest, Ben?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the latest, Pam, is that Iraqi forces have managed to reach the center of Garma. Which is a town about seven miles to the East of Fallujah, itself. That is a town that's been under ISIS control for a very long time and for many, many months, the Iraqi forces have been trying to retake it. In fact, I was just (on a) site of Garma a year ago while Iraqi forces were bombarding the town.

But it's only today around noon local time, that they were able to take the center of the town. Although we understand there's still (wide) cleanup operations going on in the Western sector. But the troops are tweeting pictures of celebrations in the middle of Garma. Garma's important because it's only about 20 miles to the Northeast of Baghdad International Airport. And of course there's always been a lot of concern that if attacks happen on that airport, the city itself will be cut off from the rest of the world. So this is significant.

At the same time, however, we understand the humanitarian situation within Fallujah itself, is getting dire indeed. Medical sources tell us that within the last 24 hours, as a result of government bombardment and air attacks, eight people have been killed, 16 wounded. Most of them civilians, they say. Now the situation for instance, as far as food, is very difficult. There's no fuel either. They say that people are being rushed to the hospital, the wounded, on vegetable carts because they don't have any fuel for cars or ambulances. Pam?

BROWN: Just a really dire situation there. Ben Wedeman, thank you very much for bringing us the latest. And still ahead on this Thursday morning, Donald Trump taking aim yet again. His latest target, female politicians. And he isn't just limiting his criticism to the Democrats.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:10] BROWN: Well check out this massive tornado tearing through Kansas last night. It leveled homes in its path destroying at least 20 North of Wichita. Just take a look at this. Amazingly, only minor injuries have been reported. But the threat is far from over, unfortunately. More violent weather is moving in and right now, nearly 30 million people are at risk across the Plains. Meteorologist Chad Myers is in Atlanta tracking the greatest threats. I guess it is this time of year, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN SEVERE WEATHER EXPERT: It certainly is. When you get close to Memorial Day, you start to lose the threat in Texas, in Oklahoma, and it moves up toward Nebraska, Iowa, and then eventually even farther to the North. But Pamela, our threat today is Omaha, Grand Island, Lincoln, Kansas City, Wichita. And those are the towns that start to build those numbers up.

You mentioned 30 million people, and already right through there, there's 20 million people. Just in some of those bigger towns here, and all the way down through Oklahoma City and Dallas, adding up quite a few people there, as well. The big threat will be tornadoes on the ground later on this afternoon in the heat of the day.

We have some clouds and some clouds and some rain lingering from yesterday. That will burn off and the sun will come out. You think, "oh that's a great thing, the sun's out." No, that's a bad thing in the Plains. When the sun's out and there's storms coming, the storms get bigger because the heat is there. The storms get stronger, they get higher, they bubble up like a hot air balloon.

So we are going to see tornadoes today. There are going to be a lot of chasers out there today, I'm afraid. I don't want you to be one of them please. I'm standing by this tornado and my hair's not moving. If you're this close to a tornado, there will be something more than just hair moving where you are. So please stay out of the way, you're going to see cars driving back and forth chasing these tornadoes. Please don't do it. It is not safe. Pam.

BROWN: Yes, good advice there, Chad Myers. Thank you, I know you'll be keeping track of what's going on there in the Plains. Thanks so much.

Well good morning to you. I'm Pamela Brown in for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me on this Thursday morning. Well Elizabeth Warren and Susana Martinez may be on different sides of the political aisle. But in the 2016 campaign there is one thing the progressive darling and GOP rising star have in common. And that's Donald Trump. Both women on the receiving end of sharp attacks from Trump at a rally in Martinez's home state of New Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's Pocahontas, Elizabeth Warren. She was going out -- she is probably the senator that's doing just about the least in the United States Senate. She's a total failure. We have to get your governor to get going. She's got to do a better

job, OK? Your governor has got to do a better job. She's not doing the job. Hey, maybe I'll run for governor of New Mexico. I'll get this place going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right, so what does this mean for a party that said it needed to expand its outreach to women and minorities, after Mitt Romney's 2012 loss? Here to discuss, Leslie Sanchez, Republican strategist. And Sabrina Schaeffer, Executive Director of the Independent Women's forum. Thank you ladies --

[09:30:50]