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CNN NEWSROOM

Hillary Clinton to Give Foreign Policy Speech; Trump Launches Preemptive Strike on Clinton; Gorilla Death Investigation Now Goes to Prosecutor; Texas Storms Could Drop Two Inches of Rain Per Hour. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired June 2, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:01] MOOS: OK. We'll try to remember.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Scum, scum, scum.

MOOS: Maybe the Donald needs to write up some new press guidelines. I'm here to take your compliments, might be a good one. But it was Jimmy Fallon as Trump who pronounced the Donald's golden rule of media management --

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": The only one qualified to interview me is me.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Hillary Clinton, who lies -- I mean, she lies.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump himself is a fraud.

TRUMP: She has no natural talents to be president.

CLINTON: He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.

TRUMP: Crooked people, we don't need another four years of Clinton.

CLINTON: We see someone who is unqualified and unfit to be president of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Hillary Clinton set to deliver a major speech on foreign policy today and unleash a major attack on Donald Trump saying he's unfit to be president. The former secretary of state targeting Trump's world view. Today she'll unleash a theme that will drive her campaign to November, the world would be less safe with President Trump in the White House.

We have a lot to cover this morning. Our correspondents and guests are here to break it all down for you, but let's begin with CNN's Chris Frates. He's in Washington.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Hillary Clinton is set to slam Donald Trump again today, what her campaign is billing as a major foreign policy speech, and it's designed to cast Trump as both a lightweight and a security risk.

Clinton's campaign says she'll paint Trump as unqualified to be commander-in-chief arguing that his policies, things like banning Muslims and questioning NATO, are dangerous. Now Clinton adviser Jake Sullivan says, "You'll hear in her speech a confidence in America and our capacity to overcome the challenges we face while staying true to our values. A strong contrast to Donald Trump's incessant trash talking of America."

Now Sullivan says Clinton will highlight her experience on the world stage and talk at length about why Trump is not qualified to run the country. He says Clinton will emphasize that the choice in this election goes beyond partisanship.

Donald Trump is unlike any presidential nominee we've seen in modern times, and he is fundamentally unfit for the job. Now yesterday on the campaign trail Hillary Clinton herself gave us a little preview of what to expect.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Donald Trump has disqualified himself completely. He has attacked our closest allies. He has said let's pull out of NATO. He has praised the dictator of North Korea. He's advocated more countries getting nuclear weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: This will be Clinton's first important policy speech since Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee and politically the speech is aimed at several key audiences. She's trying to win over never Trump Republicans who are part of the national security elite and GOP women who question Trump's temperament. And she's also trying to eat into Trump's lead among white men.

And she's going to deliver this speech in California where she needs to project strength and not just against Donald Trump but also against Bernie Sanders. A new poll shows Sanders and Clinton are neck-and- neck in California ahead of that state's primary on Tuesday, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chris Frates reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Donald Trump, the counter puncher, has already unleashed a preemptive

strike calling Clinton crooked and unqualified. She fired back calling him a fraud.

Jason Carroll has that part of the story. He's in Los Angeles this morning.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good to you, Carol. A bit of familiar name-calling. We've heard some of these names before. Expect more attacks as both of those candidates speak today in California. Foreign policy is going to be key. Clinton going after Trump for those comments he made about arming South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, she lies.

CARROLL (voice-over): After a day of intense scrutiny over his controversy-ridden Trump University, Donald Trump hurling a barrage of assaults against Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: Hillary is not a talented person. One of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country. She's not qualified because she has bad judgment.

CARROLL: Trump trying to get ahead of a Clinton speech today, where she criticizes his foreign policy proposals, including one where Trump suggests arming South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons.

TRUMP: They sent me a copy of the speech and it was such lies about my foreign policy that they said, I want Japan to nuke.

[10:05:08] I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break.

CARROLL: That policy one he's actually called for multiple times.

TRUMP: North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with it. Maybe they would be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea. Maybe we would be better off --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With nukes?

TRUMP: Including with nukes. Yes.

CARROLL: But Clinton unleashing her sharpest attacks yet against the presumptive nominee, relentlessly slamming him as a fraud.

CLINTON: He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.

CARROLL: The Democratic frontrunner capitalizing on newly-released testimony from ex-staffers, accusing Trump University of unethical, misleading and dishonest conduct, "a fraudulent scheme," that, "preyed on the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money."

CLINTON: Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. Donald Trump himself is a fraud.

CARROLL: President Obama also bringing the heat against Trump.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He just says, "I'm going to negotiate a better deal." Well, how -- what -- how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is he doesn't have an answer.

CARROLL: Trump, unsurprisingly, vowing to hit back.

TRUMP: He's going to start campaigning. Well, if he campaigns, that means I'm allowed to hit him just like I hit Bill Clinton, I guess, right?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL: And, Carol, he says allowed to hit the president, but we should know that at many of his rallies in the past he has repeatedly criticized President Obama. So nothing new on that front.

Police in San Diego already preparing for Trump's rally there. As you know, Carol, he's been met by protesters and demonstrators at all of his rallies here in California. As for Trump U, well, Trump's camp says those people who have been talking about Trump U and making all of these allegations, he said they're simply false. That's what the Trump camp says, and, in fact, Carol, they've released a number of people who have come out and who have said they had a positive experience at Trump U -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from Los Angeles. Thank you so much.

So let's talk about the impending Clinton-Trump showdown on foreign policy. I want to bring in David Gergen, he's a CNN senior political analyst and former presidential adviser to Reagan, Ford, Clinton, and Nixon, and Bill Nojay, he's a New York state assemblyman and co-chair of the New York state Trump for President campaign. Also Josh Galper, a Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter.

Thanks to all of you for being with me this morning. I appreciate. Before we begin, a few facts on America's war on ISIS. 26,000 ISIS terrorists have been killed by coalition forces and about 60 percent of ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria has been reclaimed. Coalition forces have conducted 12,400 air strikes. The total cost for this, $11.8 million every single day. So far the U.S. has spent $7.4 billion.

So, Bill, you're a Trump supporter. What do you make of those numbers?

BILL NOJAY, NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLYMAN: Well, what I make of it is that if it weren't for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's foreign policy, which was disastrous, we wouldn't have an ISIS. If you'll recall, in 2008 Iraq was a fledgling democracy. It was building its military. It was strengthening its borders. When they withdrew American involvement from Iraq, that's when ISIS took root and radically expanded. So we talk about ISIS and fighting ISIS. We have an ISIS because of Hillary Clinton.

That foreign policy was a massive failure and we should be talking about why we're even fighting ISIS and having to deploy these kinds of resources.

COSTELLO: So, Josh, shouldn't we be talking about that? Why we are even fighting ISIS right now when we ought not be?

JOSH GALPER, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think actually that the war on ISIS is something that's incredibly important that we do have to focus on, and what we need is a comprehensive approach to this, which is exactly what Hillary Clinton is laying out. By contrast, all we're hearing from Donald Trump is that we need carpet bombing. We don't know what that means. We have no details. He doesn't have a plan, and, you know, I think it is -- it's something we need to look forward to with a comprehensive plan, and we just don't hear one from Donald Trump. We hear one from Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: So, David, is that what we're going to hear from Hillary Clinton today, a comprehensive plan, and will she focus solely on ISIS or will she paint a bigger picture?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think she's going to paint a bigger picture, but one of the mysteries surrounding the speech is why give a foreign policy speech practically on the eve of the California primary. You know when there's --

[10:10:03] COSTELLO: In San Diego.

GERGEN: Yes. Why not be out there talking about water or climate change, and have Jerry Brown, a popular governor who just endorsed her, a major endorsement, a real breakthrough for her? Why not be out there campaign with him today because that would spread good cheer and help her in the polls.

Listen, she's -- she must have internal polling that says, if I get to foreign policy, that's where I'm most respected and I can make that a base of my complain, my rhetoric, and that sort of thing. Both candidates have problems with ISIS because, you know, we just heard -- as we just heard, the Trump people are going to argue, well, you know, we wouldn't be here if Hillary and Obama had handled this better.

The Democrats are going to come back and say, we wouldn't even be in the Middle East were -- had Bush not gone into Iraq. Now those arguments are going to go on. The real question, ISIS is going to be on the agenda of the next president. We've made progress in taking back territory. We're in a major battle now. The opposition is in a major battle in Iraq. But in the meantime ISIS has morphed and it's gone into a lot of other countries so we have these pockets and growing pockets in places like Libya. And it means it's going to be on the desk of the next president.

COSTELLO: Well, Bill, let me ask you something about Mr. Trump's policy when it comes to defeating ISIS because he says he wants to bomb the -- out of them, right? That's one of his strategies. He doesn't necessarily want to send large numbers of troops there. What exactly is Mr. Trump's plan to defeat ISIS?

NOJAY: Well, I think you start with the notion that when you get to tactical military decisions, ask the military men. This president --

COSTELLO: But he said he knows more than the generals.

NOJAY: Well, if you listen to what the generals are saying and what the troops on the ground are saying, they oppose Barack Obama's withdrawal from Iraq. In Libya, in 2008, when I was there, you had the Arab spring --

COSTELLO: Well, I'm talking about now and how to defeat ISIS.

NOJAY: Well, but ISIS --

COSTELLO: I just want to know Donald Trump's plan to defeat ISIS right now.

NOJAY: Carol, ISIS wants to create a caliphate stretching from Tunisia and Libya all across North Africa throughout the Middle East. That's what we're really dealing with here. We have --

GERGEN: What are we going to do about it?

COSTELLO: But what are we going to do about it?

NOJAY: Building up --

COSTELLO: What is he going to do about it? We get it. What's the plan?

NOJAY: We're going to first listen to our military commanders -- we're first going to listen to our military commanders on the ground and take their advice unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who didn't do what their commanders asked them to do, and, in fact, withdrew American troops creating the crisis that we have today.

I think Donald Trump respects military men and is going to respect their judgments, and he's going to listen to them, and unlike Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, he's going to be more inclined to follow their advice on tactical military decisions as opposed to doing exactly the opposite.

COSTELLO: With all due respect, Bill, and I'll just say this because I have talked to a lot of generals about this very topic, and they think that the strategy that's being deployed right now is a good strategy. Not -- I mean, it may not be the best strategy, but it's what we're doing right now. I don't know what you say the generals that Mr. Trump are listening to would say to do differently. Do you know? Who are they? NOJAY: Look, the facts speak for themselves. When Barack Obama and

Hillary Clinton came into the White House and the State Department respectively, we had a fledgling democracy that was building up a peaceful country, defending its borders, protecting -- or at least starting to protect human rights much better than ever before in its history. Now you've got complete chaos in Iraq. You've got ISIS expanding not only in Iraq but throughout other areas in the Middle East.

You've got -- instead of an Arab spring, you've got radical Islam establishing beachheads all across northern Africa. We have an extremely unstable situation there, and that is because Barack Obama turned a blind eye to those democracy movements, whether it be in Iran where shortly after taking office --

COSTELLO: Right, we understand.

NOJAY: And hundreds of --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: I'm just trying to get at what it would take now to defeat ISIS.

So, Josh, will you weigh in? Because I don't think --

GALPER: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: I don't think people necessarily understand President Obama's plan and Hillary Clinton's strategy either.

GALPER: Right. Well, look, I would start off by saying I think there are serious questions about whether or not Donald Trump would actually be listening to anybody around him. We haven't really seen evidence of this. We don't know really who his foreign policy advisers are or his advisers from the military. We haven't seen this comprehensive list of names of people that he says he is going to listen to about that, and I think that raises serious questions and whether or not he even has the temperament to take in advice, process, synthesize, and then come up with a strategy as you would all expect a president to do.

COSTELLO: OK, David Gergen --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: David Gergen, get a word in.

GERGEN: Carol has been asking repeatedly. We understand -- people can differ how we got here. The question is, what's the path forward? Donald Trump has said if you elect me, ISIS is going to be gone. Everybody wants to know, well, Mr. Trump, how are you going to do that?

[10:15:03] That seems pretty fundamental. You can't sort of have a secret plan to get rid of ISIS. What is your plan? Similarly there are differences between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. There are even differences within his own administration. What would she do to accelerate this and really contain ISIS and defeat it. We don't really know that either.

GALPER: Well, can I just break in to say --

COSTELLO: Just really quickly.

GALPER: I do think that he's got -- Hillary Clinton has an approach which is about strengthening alliances around the world to make sure that our allies are on board to go after ISIS in the way that it should be in a comprehensive way. I think what Donald --

GERGEN: Which is what?

GALPER: Well, it's not pulling out of NATO for starters. Not pulling out of NATO. Making sure that we are actually working with our friends and allies around the world to --

COSTELLO: But we're already doing that and ISIS still exists.

GALPER: Well, you know, what we're hearing from Donald Trump --

COSTELLO: We're spending $11 million per day.

GALPER: If he is elected, we know that we're not going to be working with allies around the world and that's going to make us --

NOJAY: No --

GALPER: -- less safe.

NOJAY: That is simply not true.

GALPER: Hinder the effort to --

NOJAY: Don't put -- please, let's not put words in Mr. Trump's mouth. He has been very clear about what his strategy would be --

GALPER: Which is pull out of NATO.

NOJAY: You were around --

GALPER: Which is to pull out NATO.

NOJAY: David Gergen, you were around -- I remember back in 1976 and 1980 when people were saying if you allow Ronald Reagan to become president of the United States, all these terrible things were going to happen, that he was not realistic, that he was going to break all these coalitions. Well, you know what? It worked out exactly the opposite. Now fast forward to Mr. Trump and they're saying almost the exact same kinds of things. You can't entrust him with being commander-in-chief and so on.

If you listen to his words as opposed to trying to put words in his mouth, what you'll find is he has tremendous respect for the U.S. military and to its commanders, and unlike Hillary Clinton who has had a terrible relationship with the military, Mr. Trump --

GERGEN: That's not true. That's simply --

(CROSSTALK)

GALPER: That's false. What are the facts? Tell us what you know about that.

NOJAY: Look, the U.S. military by a two to one, both active duty and veterans, support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. So to suggest that Hillary Clinton has a good relationship with the military --

COSTELLO: And where are you getting that number, Bill?

NOJAY: They respect her job over Mr. Trump's is simply not accurate.

COSTELLO: Where are you getting that number? Is there a poll that you're citing that I could look to?

NOJAY: Look at the crowds. For starters, look at the crowds.

COSTELLO: I can't look at the crowds and determine anything factual.

NOJAY: Look at the people that show up at these rallies?

COSTELLO: Are they all veterans?

NOJAY: Carol --

COSTELLO: I mean, is that what you're saying?

NOJAY: Carol, look -- whether you want to rely upon polling numbers or the people in the audiences, these people support Mr. Trump because they know that he respects them and he respects their judgment unlike Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

COSTELLO: OK.

NOJAY: Who have a very --

COSTELLO: I'm going to let our neutral party, David Gergen, have the last word and then wrap up the segment -- David?

GERGEN: Look. I think it is true that Donald Trump has a great deal of support among the military active duty, enlisted and the young officers. I think you're right about that, but to say that Hillary Clinton has a bad relationship with the military is just untrue. One of the closest relationships she had was with Secretary Gates, who was George W. Bush's appointee at the Defense Department. Went on to serve under Barack Obama and has written about her in extravagant terms as -- and others in the military who said she was wonderful to work with when she was secretary of state.

People at the top and the Joint Chiefs have said that. So there's a lot of evidence -- and she worked with the CIA. There's a lot of evidence that she's got a very good relationship with people in command, the people you want to turn to for advice and the country is still puzzled, how are we going to get out of this? This is -- you know, this threat of terrorism hangs over us and neither candidate, frankly, has won the confidence of the country yet about knowing where we're going to go.

Now we'll be waiting to hear this afternoon what Mrs. Clinton has to say. Maybe we'll get more answers today.

COSTELLO: We'll see. We're going to be carrying that speech live.

GERGEN: Yes.

COSTELLO: David Gergen, thanks so much, along with Bill Nojay and Josh Galper. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we have breaking news on the investigation into that gorilla -- the gorilla death in Cincinnati. We'll take you to Cincinnati next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:23:10] COSTELLO: New developments about the investigation into how a little boy managed to sneak into a gorilla habitat.

Jessica Schneider in Cincinnati with new information. Good morning.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. As with any investigation, this is, of course, a two-pronged approach. Cincinnati police probe and then the prosecutor reviews. Well, we have just heard from the prosecutor's office. I'll read you a little bit of the statement. They say, "The Cincinnati Police Department has finished their investigation into this matter and turned the investigation over to the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office for review.

So it's in the second stage now. They say that the prosecutor here will review the investigation and at the earliest that review will conclude tomorrow. That's the earliest. So right now the prosecutor looking things over trying to determine based on the police investigation whether any criminal culpability exists.

Now as you recall, the police department said that it would start this investigation. They told us on Tuesday. They asked for witnesses and videos. They have now wrapped, the prosecutor determining whether or not to charge the parents or any family members. We did hear from the family this morning via a statement and they say they are now cooperating as well with the prosecutor's review of this -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jessica Schneider reporting live from Cincinnati. Thank you.

Texas is bracing for more rain today. These are live pictures in Bexar County, Texas. Parts of the already soaked state under a flash flood watch until Friday morning as forecasts predict some storm cells could drop as much as two inches of rain per hour.

Chad Myers live in Sugarland, Texas, with more. Good morning, Chad. It's raining now.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol. You know, it is raining, and it's been raining all morning long since about the 9:00 hour local time. And we've already seen the water come up. And actually the sheriff's office came by and said, have you seen the water gone down? Because we think we've crested, no, it hasn't crested yet. It's still coming up.

[10:25:03] And let me get out of the way here. You can see behind me this is the river. We should be talking about a river that's about 200 feet wide. It is well over a mile to the other side. This is not a boat ramp. This is an exit ramp from the turnaround to go under the bridge and back up onto the highway the other direction. People won't be driving on this for quite some time.

The rain continues in places that have seen now up to 20 inches of rain just this month. So all this dirt that I'm standing on over here, I'm over kind of on the side, over by a fire ant hill and the fire ants aren't that happy about this rain either, but all of this is completely soggy. Nothing that rains today is going to soak in. It's just going to run back off. This whole place is like a big concrete parking lot. When it rains, it runs off and these rivers are still coming up. They will be coming up for days.

This rain doesn't start until Saturday afternoon, maybe Sunday. We're watching up stream because all that water has to run back down right here.

COSTELLO: All right. Chad Myers reporting live from Sugarland, Texas. Thank you.

Coming up next in the NEWSROOM, President Obama says the economy is getting better, so why don't Americans feel it?

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